Tim Cook teased Apple’s product pipeline to investors back in October 2013 by saying the company would enter new categories with releases that fall and “across 2014.” This set the expectation that the next year would include new releases in each quarter rather than staying mostly quiet until WWDC in June, then saving new iPhones, iPads, and Macs for the fall.

Perhaps that was a promise better made a year later as most new products in 2014 were once again kept for the fall, but 2015 has been one where Apple has truly released new products all across the year. So many, in fact, that it’s probably difficult to recall every single new hardware and software product without referencing the history books.

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Adobe Lightroom users now have a new way to subscribe to and install the pro software: Apple’s Mac App Store. Apple named Lightroom among the apps that were set to launch or return on the redesigned Mac App Store on macOS Mojave last summer at WWDC 2018, and today Adobe has fulfilled that promise.

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I’ve been a fan of podcasting since 2004 when I was listening to This Week in Tech, DL.TV, The MacCast and other great shows. Since then, the podcast industry has grown by leaps and bounds. When the iPhone included a built-in Apple Podcasts app, podcasts finally moved from a niche industry to something that is part of the social norm. But it’s still incredibly complicated to actually build podcasts unless you are familiar with microphones, editing software, and RSS technology. Could Apple offer an official podcast creation tool?

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The big news this week is that this fall may finally be the beginning of the end for iTunes. 9to5Mac’s Gui Rambo independently confirmed that the next major version of macOS will introduce standalone Music and Podcasts apps on the Mac. iTunes is expected to stick around for now, which suggests Apple’s new apps won’t include every legacy feature, but iPad-based versions of Music and Podcasts would actually introduce features to the Mac that aren’t available yet.

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iCloud Photos is probably one of the most impressive services that Apple is currently running. It’s built into every iOS, macOS, and tvOS device (and iCloud.com), and Apple has to be syncing billions and billions of photos and videos across its data centers. I’ve been using it since the early beta period of iOS 8, and I am happily (well unhappily) paying $10 per month for 2 TB of storage which includes my 300 GB library. By design, users are supposed to have individual iCloud accounts, but then link them in Family Sharing. Family Sharing allows families to share iCloud Storage (the 200 GB or higher plan) and Apple Music subscription (family plans). I also assume that Apple’s upcoming TV service will also be integrated into Apple’s family sharing set up as well. But for a lot of families, there is still a key section of Apple’s iOS and macOS experience that has not been integrated well into Family Sharing: iCloud Photos. It’s missing an easy way for families to keep their iCloud Photo libraries up to date with each other. expand full story

With the launch of iOS 12 this past September, Apple brought RAW editing support to the built-in iOS Photos app for the first time. The feature is a welcome addition, but iPhone users shooting RAW images will likely be dissatisfied by the rudimentary editing controls available in Photos. Today, Gentlemen Coders released RAW Power 2.0 for iOS and macOS with an impressive list of enhancements aimed at helping you get the most out of your photos.

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