Journalist & TMO Contributor Charlotte Henry (#2) - TMO Background Mode Interview

Charlotte is a London-based technical journalist. A self described media junkie, she writes about Apple—and now for the Mac Observer as well. She has also written for City A.M. (London’s daily business tabloid,) Computer Business Review, and the Independent on Sunday. Her new book is: Not Buying It.

In this special edition of BGM, Charlotte chats about her reactions to Apple’s September 10 iPhone event. She noted how Apple is in a new balancing act, promoting hardware to sell services—and vice versa. Charlotte told me about how pleased she is with the new iPad and plans to buy one. Then we took a closer look at the value proposition comparing the iPhone Xr to the iPhone 11. Charlotte also filled us in on her experience watching the event in the Apple London flagship store.

iPad 7, Apple Watch Series 5 Available for Preorder

News that might have gotten lost in the new of iPhone 11 is that the Apple Watch Series 5 and iPad 7 are available to preorder now, while we have to wait until tonight/tomorrow to preorder the new iPhones.

Apple Watch Series 5: Starting at 32GB of storage, Series 5 has an always-on display, a Compass app, and available in more finishes, colors, and materials, like titanium and ceramic. Preorder it here starting at US$399.

iPad 7th Gen: This is an updated version of what became known as the education iPad. It has a 10.2-inch display with thin bezels like the old 10.5-inch iPad Pro. The 10.2-inch Retina display has almost 3.5 million pixels, an A10 Fusion chip, and for the first time, an 100% recycled aluminum body. Preorder it here for US$329.

Both will be officially out on September 30.

Play the Original Diablo in a Web Browser on Your iPad

The developers at Rivsoft made it possible to play the original Diablo game using a web browser. Someone on Reddit also got it working on their iPad.

Like the newer Diablo games, the original is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler with multiple character classes, tons of loot, and hoards demons to fight. The version of Diablo on Rivsoft’s site is the Shareware build — in modern times, we’d call this a demo. You can play the first two dungeons of the game with one of the game’s three character classes.

For the past several weeks I’ve been playing Diable III on my Nintendo Switch. I should give the original a play, too.

Apple Sells Exclusive Satechi USB-C Adapter

Apple is selling a Satechi USB-C adapter exclusively in its store. It has a USB-C power port, USB-A, SD, and microSD readers, and an HDMI port.

The Multiport Pro Adapter comes in space gray and is priced at $70, the same as what Apple’s first-party USB-C adapter normally sells for (but doesn’t have SD readers like Satechi’s new adapter). Notably, Satechi’s Multiport Pro Adapter is the only third-party USB-C hub that Apple is selling.

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