Jeff is the head of video content production for 9to5. He joined 9to5Mac in 2016, producing videos, walkthroughs, how-tos, written tutorials, and reviews. He takes pride in explaining things simply, clearly, and concisely. Jeff’s videos have been watched hundreds of millions of times by people seeking to learn more about today’s tech. Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube to catch Jeff’s latest videos.
iOS Decoded is Jeff’s flagship video series that breaks down what’s new in iOS betas, including behind-the-scenes deep dives into undiscovered features and exclusive details on the iOS roadmap.
Jeff also produces a weekly podcast, alongside co-host Fernando Silva, entitled 9to5Mac Overtime. A video-first podcast, 9to5Mac Overtime airs weekly on our YouTube channel, but can also be enjoyed in audio form via Apple Podcasts, or your podcast app of choice.
Have a tip or exclusive? Connect with Jeff!
Today Apple launched a brand new high-end reference-grade LCD HDR display alongside the newly redesigned Mac Pro. The new monitor, which Apple is calling the Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch LCD display with a 6016 x 3384 6K native resolution and over 20 million pixels.
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Yesterday I received a special package in the mail all the way from Shenzhen, China. Inside were three prototype cases for Apple’s upcoming 2019 iPhone lineup.
These new iPhones, possibly to be called the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max, and iPhone 11R, will feature a new camera array on the rear according to reports from multiple sources.
How do the new iPhone 11 cases compare to current-generation iPhone models like the iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR? Watch our brief hands-on video walkthrough for the details.
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Earlier this week the iPod touch received a modest upgrade, arriving with little fanfare via an Apple press release. The new 7th-generation iPod touch has little in the way of new features, but it does receive a CPU spec-bump that takes it from an iPhone 6-era Apple A8 to an iPhone 7-era A10 Fusion chip, not to mention double the RAM of the previous generation.
The new hardware upgrades make it so that iPod touch users can enjoy Augmented Reality (AR) apps along with Group FaceTime capability for the first time. There’s also a new 256 GB flash storage tier, another first for the iPod lineup. It means that in 2019, there’s finally an iPod that bests the 160GB iPod Classic in terms of storage space.
While the iPod touch isn’t the mass market item that earlier members of the product line once were, Apple believes that there continues to be a viable audience for such a device. Not only is it ideal for storing large music libraries locally, but with the upcoming launch of the new Apple Arcade subscription gaming service, Apple continues to position the iPod touch as a handheld gaming option.
All of that said, should you consider buying this new iPod touch? Watch our hands-on video review for the details.
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As we await Apple’s full-on redesign of the MacBook Pro, hopefully with a rethought keyboard in tow, Apple surprised us with another spec-bumped MacBook Pro release alongside the launch of the new 23.7-inch LG UltraFine Display.
In light of the ongoing keyboard issues, it would be all too easy to criticize Apple for releasing yet another MacBook with a slightly-modified butterfly key switch design. The criticism is well-deserved given the history of the keyboard issues, but I also think it’s worth looking at the positive aspects of this release.
Just because its brand new fully-redesigned MacBook Pro hardware with a rethought keyboard isn’t ready, doesn’t mean that Apple has left the existing MacBook Pro lineup to stagnate — something it would have had no problem allowing to happen in the past. Instead, Apple continues to issue updates as they become available from key partners.
For example, Intel’s new 9th-generation i9-9980H and i9-9980HK CPUs just launched this quarter, and Apple wasted no time updating its MacBook Pro with the new 8-core chips. This release, along with last November’s Radeon Pro Vega spec-bump update, shows that Apple is taking the idea of catering to professional Mac users seriously.
After discontinuing the smaller 21.5-inch UltraFine Display, LG has released a new larger 24-inch UltraFine-labeled monitor in its place at the same $699 price point. If the launch of the new display flew under your radar, that’s probably because much of the spotlight was centered on Apple’s new 2019 MacBook Pro models, which launched alongside LG’s new display.
This new UltraFine Display is like a combination of the UltraFine 5K and the older UltraFine 4K Display, and for the most part that’s an okay thing. The biggest feature is the inclusion of not just one, but two Thunderbolt 3 ports. That’s an improvement over LG’s previous Apple-centric displays, as you’ll see in our hands-on video review.
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A couple of years ago I replaced my Apple AirPort Extreme router with Synology’s RT2600ac. I made this move partly because of the rumors about Apple exiting the router business — which it eventually did — and partly because I desired a more robust feature set.
This was around the same time that consumer mesh networks were really beginning to gain in popularity, but unfortunately, Synology didn’t offer a mesh networking solution at the time. The good news is that Synology now has a mesh router in its repertoire in the MR2200ac. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for more details.
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Today Samsung introduced two all-new designer finishes for the T5 SSD — Rose Gold and Metallic Red. The new colors join the existing Deep Black and Alluring Blue finishes to round out the lineup.
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Recently Apple provided long-awaited updates to its iMac lineup, and although there are no cosmetic changes to be found in the 2019 iMac, these machines feature noteworthy CPU and GPU improvements under the hood. In fact, CPU options now start at 6-core processors for the base 27-inch model, a notable boost over the strict 4-core configurations from the previous refresh. If you desire more processing power, then the new iMacs, with their updated Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs provide a substantial performance upgrade.
Given the new upgraded processor options, it’s no wonder why people are quick to compare the 8-core model to the entry-level iMac Pro. But as you’ll see in this video, there’s more than just processor performance that makes the iMac Pro the beast that it is. On this latest episode of the Back to the Mac, we discuss five takeaways from Apple’s 2019 iMac refresh.
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I went into this review of the $249 Powerbeats Pro with high expectations. Even prior to reading Zac’s review, I was pretty much convinced that these would be the best wireless earbuds ever made, and, despite not beating the AirPods in every area, I wasn’t disappointed.
To be clear, the Powerbeats Pro aren’t perfect, but they’re better than the AirPods if you’re using them for workouts. The Apple AirPods set the groundwork for Beats’ first truly wire-free earbuds, and the team at Beats took the baton and ran with it.
Watch our hands-on Powerbeats Pro video review for more details.
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In this walkthrough, we show you how to easily store Final Cut Pro X libraries on a Synology NAS with just a few configuration steps. We’ve posted a prior solution before that utilized the NFS protocol, but this solution uses SMB. Watch our hands-on video tutorial for the details.
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Arlo Technologies recently re-launched its Arlo Ultra 4K wireless security camera after experiencing issues during its initial availability. The widely reported issues, which caused the company to pull back on the launch, involved bugs and connectivity issues.
With several firmware updates under its belt that addressed the reported problems, Arlo feels that their 4K security camera is now ready for prime time. How does it stack up to the Arlo Pro 2? Should you consider upgrading? Watch our hands-on video impressions for the details.
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Today we went hands-on with Razer’s new $399 Core X Chroma eGPU enclosure. The Chroma is based closely on the original Razer Core X, but there are several new enhancements, such as RGB lighting, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB ports. Watch our full video walkthrough for the details.
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In this week’s edition of Final Cut Friday, I explain why it’s advantageous to switch to the Checkerboard Player Background from the standard black background when editing video. Watch our brief hands-on video explainer for the details.
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In this hands-on video walkthrough, I show you how to put together a dual 4K video capture enclosure for saving ProRes videos directly to a Mac. In order to do so, I utilize Sonnet’s Echo Express SEIII and the Blackmagic Design DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K. Watch the full video for the details behind the setup.
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Along with its recently launched AirPods 2, Apple also released a standalone Wireless Charging Case for the AirPods. The Wireless Charging Case is an $80 accessory that works with both the first and second-generation versions of Apple’s wireless earbuds.
If you own a set of first-gen AirPods, should you consider forking over more money for the privilege of wireless charging? Watch our brief hands-on video review for the details.
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Apple currently sells four tablets — the entry-level iPad, the portable iPad mini, the midrange iPad Air 3, and the powerful iPad Pro — but which iPad is right for your needs? Watch our hands-on video as we briefly break down Apple’s tablet lineup and help you decide which iPad you should buy.
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The Logitech Slim Folio Pro for the 2018 iPad Pro is a product designed for iPad users whose workflow is primarily focused on typing. It features an excellent keyboard, along with key features like highly-tactile keys and backlighting to enhance the typing experience.
Is Logitech’s latest iPad Pro accessory right for you? Learn more in our hands-on Logitech Slim Folio Pro video review.
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One of the biggest complaints about recent Mac laptops is their lack of ports. Elgato’s Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock, like other docks we’ve seen over the years, seeks to solve that issue by making it possible to connect to a wide variety of accessories via a single Thunderbolt 3 cable.
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From the outside, the new iPad mini is virtually a carbon copy of the iPad mini 4, but it’s sporting some serious upgrades under the hood. As you’ve probably heard, the 5th-generation iPad mini is basically an iPad Air 3, just in a much more compact form-factor.
Indeed, the iPad mini 5 is a powerful tablet that can almost fit in your pocket, but the size, or lack thereof, can be both a gift and a curse depending on your needs. Watch our hands-on iPad mini 5 review video for the details.
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At this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, mobile video editing gained even more cohesiveness and traction. In previous years I felt like there was a push to legitimize mobile video editing, but this year it’s not even a question as to whether such workflows make sense for many iPad users.
The central hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center featured the likes of LumaFusion, Filmic Pro, and Gnarbox — companies that are all heavily involved with mobile video editing workflows. In this post we’ll take a look at some of their current and future contributions to this space as highlighted at NAB Show 2019.
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Apple’s long-awaited refresh of the iMac lineup finally happened, and it brought about incremental, but nonetheless worthwhile, enhancements to the lineup. Along with new 6-core and 8-core Intel options for faster CPU performance, new Radeon Pro Vega GPUs provide faster graphics.
In addition to the CPU and GPU, there’s another key upgrade element that got some love this year: Memory, and lots of it. For the first time, it’s now possible to upgrade the 27-inch 5K iMac with 128GB of RAM, although you’ll need to do so using third-party memory suppliers.
The good news is that even if you’re not interested in maxing out to 128GB of RAM, it’s incredibly easy to upgrade your 5K iMac’s memory, and you can save a whole lot of money in the process of doing so. Watch our video tutorial for a step-by-step 5K iMac memory upgrade guide.
The new iPad Air 3 is the follow-up to a legendary tablet, the iPad Air 2. The second-generation iPad Air introduced a thinner profile, laminated digitizer, and Touch ID to Apple’s tablet lineup for the very first time. The iPad Air 2 was also well-regarded for its speed — sporting 2GB of RAM for the first time in any iOS device, and a new chip that put an emphasis on GPU performance.
When looking back at the iPad Air 2, it goes without saying that the third-generation model has some big shoes to fill. And as you’ll see from our iPad Air 3 review, it proves to be a worthy, if not a slightly boring follow-up, because it’s essentially an iPad Pro lite.
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Earlier this week Apple released the initial developer beta of iOS 12.3. This latest update comes right on the heels of Apple’s recent Services event, and the iOS 12.2 public release. What’s new in iOS 12.3 beta 1? Watch our brief hands-on video for the details.
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The second generation AirPods landed on my desk today, and as a big fan of the originals, I was excited to review the AirPods 2 (2019) edition. At first glance it’s immediately evident that it’s not a radical change from the original design, even the box is more or less the same outside of a few changes.
The second-generation AirPods are more like AirPods version 1.5 than they are AirPods 2, but that’s primarily a testament to how right Apple got the product on its first at bat. Watch our hands-on AirPods 2 review video as we explore top features, make comparisons with the original AirPods, and share our hands-on impressions.
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