Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2019/06/friday-morning-news140619/
Taiwan’s second Apple Store is Apple Xinyi A13, which opens this Saturday at 10am after the black boards went up a few weeks ago. The press release calls out the diverse background of the 155 staff, who come from stores across the region (where I presume Apple means Asia as a whole, as this is Taiwan’s second Apple Store), and collectively speak over 10 languages. Like many recent and revamped Apple Stores, Xinyi A13 will feature a video wall, forum space for Today at Apple learning sessions, and the somewhat unique feature of marble composite stairs to get to the lower level.
The macOS 10.15 Catalina release notes tells you about the stuff you can expect to break or not work when you upgrade. As the release notes are from Apple’s developer portal, there’s plenty of developer-centric stuff that you probably don’t care about, but if you’re running macOS Catalina before the availability of the public beta, it’s all stuff you’ll probably want to keep in mind, including the fact that Migration Assistant cannot currently handle migrating to macOS Catalina, from macOS Catalina.
The Verge talked to Google product manager Mark Risher about Apple’s new Single Sign-On method Sign In with Apple, and how it compares to Google’s SSO offering. There are some security advantages to having another company handle your personal information, but when it comes down to it, would you rather that company be Apple, or Google? While Risher clarifies that Google’s SSO does the right thing and doesn’t abuse the data that it collects, it can be hard to place your trust in a company without a proven track record of keeping your data safe and secure.
Apple’s update to Logic Pro X 10.4.5 turns the dials to 11, with support for 1,000 audio tracks, 1,000 software instruments, 1,000 aux channels, 1,000 external MIDI tracks, and 12 sends per strip, whatever that last one means. Performance improvements are the name of the game ahead of the Mac Pro’s release later this year, with increased responsiveness across the board for larger projects and sessions that include many tempo changes and edits.
New Mac laptop model numbers have been registered in an Eurasian regulatory database, with the A2141, A2147, A2158, A2159, A2179, A2182, and A2251 not correlating to any known Mac laptop currently released. MacRumors points out the seven different models could be spec bumps of the existing 12-inch MacBook, as well as the 13-inch MacBook Air, although the latter received a slight redesign in October last year. Otherwise, it’s also possible that a new Apple laptop is in the works and will be released earlier than predicted, although spec bumps are the more plausible explanation.
With watchOS 6, the Apple Watch is now a trusted device for the purpose of Apple ID two-factor authentication. Apple ID verification codes will be displayed on any Apple Watch linked to your Apple ID after you upgrade to watchOS 6, joining the existing options of having an iPhone or iPad since iOS 9, or a Mac running macOS 10.11 El Capitan.
A rumour claims the successor to the iPhone XR will have a battery with 6% larger capacity than the current. Even with the larger battery capacity, that would still make the next iPhone XR have a lower battery capacity than the iPhone XS, although that’s somewhat balanced out by the fact the iPhone XR has slightly lower overall power consumption compared to the iPhone XS.
For a lot of iPad owners, iPadOS is the culmination of everything they’ve ever wanted and more, ticking off everything on an iPad owner and power user’s wish list. It’s clear that Apple recognised the need for some more advanced features and better multitasking on the iPad, but instead of taking a direct copy of the same thing from another platform, Apple made it work in a more iPad, touch-centric way. Sure, it might take you a little to get used to some of the newer multitasking, multiple-window, multiple space features, but it’ll be worth it, in the long run.
Today’s Twitterrific update pushes the version numbers to 6, and brings a whole host of UI and usability improvements. Media now plays inline in your timeline, there’s heaps of new customisation options, and a new pricing model that might prove successful.
Today’s Genius Bar story comes from photographer Greg Benz, who turns the brightness on his laptop screen all the way down when working on an external monitor to reduce distractions. A unique set of circumstances meant that upon powering up his laptop, nothing was shown on the display, leading to over $10,000 in repairs and replacements. The problem was eventually fixed by a Genius Bar tech who solved the problem by shining a light on the display and the whole situation.