Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/04/friday-morning-news210417/
Apple’s plan to bring Live Photos to the web is a JavaScript API that will allow developers to embed Live Photos into websites. Following Tumblr’s implementation of Live Photos last year, the Live Photos API available on NPM provides user-based controls for the playback of Live Photos, or leaves it up to the website developer to choose how Live Photos will be played.
The good news is, this year’s iPhone refresh will keep the Lightning to headphone jack adapter in the box. That’s according to Barclays, who says that this year’s iPhone will probably be the last one to include the adapter. Two years should be enough for people to upgrade to wireless headphones, right?
Recent Apple TV rumours include the possibility of a picture-in-picture mode as well as a multi-user option that could allow for additional customisation. It’s said the Apple ID-based multi-user mode would also allow for multiple users to listen or watch their own content libraries, and 9to5Mac says that if the Apple TV is getting a multi-user mode, then iOS 11 should as well.
Apple has applied for an AR-related patent that allows for the moving and removing objects in real time. Apple’s “method and device for illustrating and a virtual object in a real environment” has real applications for visualising room layouts as depicted in the patent images, using both advanced camera tech as well as some other smarts to figure out things like 3D-positioning.
Testing an externally-housed Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card with the late-2016 MacBook Pro reveals that there’s a very real improvement in graphics performance when benchmarked, even with the overheads of the Thunderbolt connection. EGPU’s testing also revealed that the 15-inch MacBook Pro has an edge over the 13-inch model due to how the Thunderbolt bus is architected on the larger model.
Bare Feats performed similar testing, putting a GTX 1080 Ti in a Thunderbolt enclosure and hooking it up to both a 2013 Mac Pro and Late 2016, 15-inch MacBook Pro. Their testing showed marginal improvements when running pro apps such as Final Cut or Premiere Pro. While the eGPU provided major benefits to the discrete GPU on the MacBook Pro, for the Mac Pro the performance difference was less pronounced, even though the 1080 Ti doubled the FPS in Tomb Raider for the Mac Pro and quadrupled them for the MacBook Pro.
Macworld’s Kirk Elhearn wants more informative error messages in macOS. Obscure error codes are one thing, but obtuse error messages are another that don’t provide any real clues as to what the underlying issue is.
AppStories is the app discussion podcast spinoff of MacStories, and the first episode talks about apps that have changed lives. Every week, the team will be discussing new apps, updates, and the stories behind apps that we all know and love.
To celebrate Earth Day, Apple has released videos highlighting their environmental efforts. The videos answer questions about Apple’s impact on the environment, and what they’re doing to help out.