Now that the new Apple TV has been released into the wild, the only thing we’re still waiting on from Apple’s September event is the iPad Pro. 9to5Mac says the larger-screened iPad will be released on November 11 via its Retail and Online stores, with pre-orders likely going live a few days beforehand, or as early as later this week. Like the Apple TV before it, Australian pricing for the iPad Pro has not been announced, so you better decide now: do you take out a second mortgage, or just sell a kidney?
While the Apple Pencil will charge via the Lightning port on the iPad Pro, giving it 30 minutes of use from just 15 seconds of charging, Apple has recognised that might not be ideal scenario every time you want to charge it. Leaked iPad Pro training documents show an adapter will also be available that lets the Apple Pencil charge via a regular Lightning cable.
With the increased colour gamut in the new 4K and 5K iMacs comes support for 10-bit colour. It’s a first for OS X, even though support for 10-bit screen colour will only be useful in Apple’s own Preview and Photos apps, with professional-grade apps such as the Adobe suite or even Apple’s own Final Cut Pro not supporting the higher colour depth on screen just yet.
Apple could be doing more in the AI field, but their secrecy and privacy focus is slowing their progress in the field. That’s the word from Bloomberg, who says Apple didn’t attend the Neural Information Processing Systems conference, an annual AI technology conference traditionally attended by Google and Microsoft.
IMore tells us about the best apps for the new Apple TV. The apps have been a bit of a mixed bag, and from what I’ve seen so far, there hasn’t been anything particularly impressive.
Speaking of which, iMore also has how to improve the new Apple TV. I’ve read a number of anecdotal tweets that say the overall device and idea is sound enough, but plagued with the most minor of issues — things like Apple’s own Remote app not working with the new Apple TV on launch, for example.
Horace Deidu’s case for the Apple TV makes some smart points about how Apple is positioning itself. By introducing third-party apps now, they’re opening the gates for content producers to come up with the apps — the same kind of on-demand, all-you-can-eat, media apps that mean traditional free to air is left in the dust.
Ben Thompson writes we should stop doubting the iPhone company, especially in light of their recent financial results. “The iPhone — and, by extension, Apple — is in the strongest position it has ever been in, and I feel like far too many folks are being obtuse about that reality.”
Products being marked as vintage or obsolete this time on December 8 include late 2009 variants of the iMac, MacBook Air, and Mac Pro. The first-generation iPod touch is also being shelved, as are Beats products.
Beautiful Pixels tells us about Plaaying for Mac, a small menu bar app that controls music from wherever you’re playing it from. It supports iTunes, Spotify, and Rdio, and is $5.99 on the Australian Mac App Store.
Macworld’s Kirk McElhearn is back with more helpful iTunes advice in the form of answering questions about iTunes’ XML file, as well as how to clean up duplicated playlists in your iTunes library.
Last but not least, OS X Daily shares how to run Internet Explorer 11 on your Mac by using Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Mac app to connect to a machine running the latest version of IE for testing purposes.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2015/11/monday-morning-news021115/