Follow Benjamin on Threads to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.
Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.
Follow @bzamayo on Twitter and follow @bzamayo on Threads.
The M1 MacBook Air debuted almost a year ago at this point, in fall 2020, to much fanfare and a great critical reception. However, it appears customers will have to wait a while for the next big update.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the new MacBook Air with upgraded Apple Silicon (M2?) is not scheduled to arrive until the third quarter of 2022 or, in other words, it’s still about a year away. Mass production will begin in late Q2 or early Q3.
Expand Expanding Close
The iPad mini 6 launched this week to much fanfare, thanks to its radically modern redesign and latest-generation A15 processor.
However, as customers receive their new iPads, a prominent issue is being spotted again and again. Colloquially referred to as ‘jelly scrolling’, it seems that one side of the iPad mini display is refreshing slower than the other side, which appears as a noticeable wobble effect down the middle of the screen when content is moving quickly — like scrolling a web page.
Expand Expanding Close
Following initial testing of iOS 15 that found many third-party apps could not exceed the standard 60Hz refresh rate of the iPhone 13 Pro’s ProMotion screen, Apple has now clarified the situation. The good news is that developers will be able to take full advantage of the 120Hz display soon.
Apple says that developers will need to add a new Info.plist key to opt-in, and documentation is coming soon. In addition, a forthcoming software update will resolve a bug where animations driven by Core Animation were not able to reach the maximum 120Hz refresh rates.
Expand Expanding Close
Update: Apple has officially responded that some of the behaviours described below are the result of an OS bug. Full support for 120Hz in third-party apps is coming soon. Original story below.
One of the biggest new features exclusive to the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max this year is the inclusion of high-refresh rate displays, or what Apple calls “ProMotion.”
That means the iPhone 13 Pro models feature new OLED displays that can refresh their screen content at up to 120 times per second, or 120Hz. However, developers receiving their phones today have discovered that, in many circumstances, their animations can only run at 60Hz — the same as the cheaper iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini, as well as prior iPhone generations.
Expand Expanding Close
As part of an exclusive deal to become the streaming home for all things Fraggle Rock, Apple TV+ began streaming the four original seasons of the show last year. Today, in celebration of Jim Henson’s posthumous 85th birthday, the service is also now streaming three classic specials.
Expand Expanding Close
The YouTube channel Mrwhosetheboss always runs strenuous battery tests when the new iPhones come out. Of course, they are highly synthetic tests, but relative scores still count for something, and this year, the entire iPhone 13 lineup excels.
In particular, the iPhone 13 Pro Max achieved 9 hours and 52 minutes of continuous usage, setting a record and beating any previous phone the channel has ever put through the tests. That’s ten hours of screen-on time while doing intensive work like playing games and watching YouTube videos …
Expand Expanding Close
Today, the highly-anticipated series Foundation premieres on Apple TV+. The series is based off the genre-defining sci-fi novels by writer Isaac Asimov and features Jared Harris as ‘Hari Seldon’ fighting against the Galactic Empire, led by Lee Pace as ‘Brother Dusk’.
Expand Expanding Close
Is your Apple TV box not responding to your Siri Remote’s button presses? The Apple TV remote connection uses Bluetooth and is usually pretty reliable, however if it does stop working, your first troubleshooting step should be to reset the remote. Here’s how to do it.
Expand Expanding Close
The European Commission has been trying to introduce legislation to standardize ports on mobile devices for almost a decade. Despite many false starts, its latest efforts are seriously making their way through the commission process.
A draft proposal was presented today that would require USB-C to become the standard port across smartphones, tablets, headphones and more devices sold in the EU. This would directly impact Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone, which continues to feature a proprietary Lightning connector.
Expand Expanding Close
tvOS 15 rolled out this week and we finally get to see the new batch of Apple’s stunning Aerial screensavers, rolling out to the Apple TV set-top box. In fact, this update brings an additional sixteen slow-mo landscapes into the screensaver rotation …
Expand Expanding Close
From today, Apple is bundling 6-month free trials of Apple Music with purchases of eligible AirPods and Beats products. The free period is available to new buyers of AirPods and Beats headphones as well as existing owners.
Customers have up to 90 days to redeem the offer, after first pairing the newly-purchased headphones to a device. Existing owners of AirPods or Beats have up to 90 days from the time that they upgraded to the latest iOS version. More info below …
Expand Expanding Close
iOS 15 launches this week and brings with it a lot of new features including Live Text, Focus modes, a new Weather app, FaceTime enhancements as well as more features like FaceTime screen sharing coming later this year. However, one of the more drastic changes is to Safari. Apple has dramatically redesigned the layout of Safari, as well as adding new features like Tab Groups. However, if you don’t like the new UI, you can go back. Here’s how.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple TV+ today released the trailer for its upcoming original feature film ‘Finch’, starring Tom Hanks. Hanks plays the eponymous ‘Finch’, the last man alive in a post-apocalyptic world, with only a dog for company.
Fearing he will soon die, Finch builds a robot to look after the dog rather than leave it on its own. The trio embarks to find a safer place to live. Watch the trailer below …
Expand Expanding Close
Ted Lasso entered the Emmys with 20 nominations, a record for a freshman comedy series. At the Primetime awards ceremony last night, the hit Apple TV+ show won big.
The show took home awards for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jason Sudeikis), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Brett Goldstein), and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Hannah Waddingham).
Expand Expanding Close
The second season of Apple’s star-studded drama series The Morning Show has launched on Apple TV+, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. Here’s what it’s all about.
Expand Expanding Close
According to The Verge’s Zoe Schiffer, Apple will begin requiring that its employees working in retail stores or offices are tested for COVID-19. The new policy will go into effect from next month.
The company is still not mandating vaccines, a decision that stands in stark contrast to most other major tech companies (although Apple has a disproportionally higher proportion of retail workers to manage). However, the required frequency of testing will apparently be higher for those who are unvaccinated.
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Store is currently down ahead of preorders for iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Customers can start preordering their new phones beginning at 5 AM Pacific Time, or about six hours from now.
Expand Expanding Close
At the Apple event on Tuesday, Apple made a big deal about battery life in the new iPhone lineup. Apple said that the iPhone 13 mini should achieve about an extra 1.5 hours of use on a single charge, and the iPhone 13 last up to 2.5 hours longer. The same increases were announced for iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, compared to the equivalent iPhone 12 models.
In a filing on the Chemtrec website, Apple has now published official battery capacities for the phones. Unsurprisingly, capacities are up across the board …
Expand Expanding Close
One of the few design changes coming as part of the iPhone 13 is that the display cutout at the top of the screen is now smaller in width, thanks to the fact that Apple redesigned the layout of the TrueDepth camera housing. The speaker now sits above the camera components.
In the presentation today, Apple said the TrueDepth components now fit in a space that is 20% smaller. It is noticeably smaller in width, however if you compare the photos of an iPhone 12 and 13 side by side, you will notice it is actually slightly taller too.
Expand Expanding Close
At its September event, Apple today announced the new iPhone lineup: iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini. iPhone 13 prices remain the same as last year, from $699 and $799 for iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13. Base storage has been bumped to 128 GB and a 512 GB storage configuration is now available.
The iPhone 13 design is mostly the same as the iPhone 12, however the display notch at the top of the screen is slightly smaller in width; Apple says about 20% smaller. The dual cameras of iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are now arranged diagonally in the rear module …
Expand Expanding Close
As is tradition, the Apple Store has gone down ahead of the Apple event later today suggesting that new hardware is on the way. The “California Streamin'” Apple event kicks off at 10 AM Pacific Time.
We are almost certainly going to see Apple unveil the new iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. A new Apple Watch is also expected featuring a chassis redesign, most likely called Apple Watch Series 7. New AirPods and iPads may also make an appearance.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple TV+ has today announced its next original movie release. ‘Swan Song’ will arrive on the service on December 17, alongside a limited theatrical run.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple-owned music recognition service Shazam today announced that users have recognized more than 1 billion songs using the Music Recognition feature from Control Center in iOS.
1 billion uses for something that was only introduced with iOS 14.2 last fall is an impressive figure. Apple said the most Shazamed track was “Talking to the Moon” by Bruno Mars, followed by “Astronaut in the Ocean” by Masked Wolf.
Expand Expanding Close
As expected, Epic Games has today filed a notice of appeal in the case against Apple over App Store policy. On Friday, the judge delivered her verdict, several months after Epic and Apple executives waged war in the court trial.
The judge found in favor of Apple in 9 out of 10 ten counts. However, Epic did successfully get the judge to agree that Apple needs to remove anti-steering provisions around In-App Purchase and allow companies to direct their users to alternative payment systems outside of the app. However, Epic is appealing as it wanted more.
Expand Expanding Close