Monday Morning News

Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/06/monday-morning-news060616/

Anandtech has a review of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, the smaller version of the original iPad Pro that was released late last year. Besides the minor (but somewhat curious) spec differences between the two models, both models are essentially the same thing. It’s just a shame that you can’t buy the biggest display and have the best possible specs, as Anandtech concludes that the smaller iPad Pro has the best display of any tablet.

Apple has updated their WWDC app for WWDC 2016, bringing a sweet new dark theme to the look and feel of the app. Along with cute schedule placeholder titles, the iPad version of the app also supports the Split View and Slide Over features found in iOS 9. A companion tvOS app lets you download session videos and watch them on the big screen.

There’s a good chance we’ll see a watchOS reveal at WWDC next week, and iMore has a list of what they’d like to see. More watch faces rank pretty highly on everyone’s wish-list, while other features such as Digital Touch are basically irrelevant.

Apple has updated their homepage to pay tribute to Muhammed Ali. 9to5Mac notes Ali directly represented Apple as part of their Think Different ad campaign, where Ali was a metaphor for Apple fighting against Michael Dell.

Fast Company says Apple has hired Dr Rajiv Kumar, a pediatric endocrinologist from Stanford Children’s Health hospital. Kumar previously created a “HealthKit-enabled diabetes monitoring system for young patients at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University”, and while he will be keeping a part-time position at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, his new role at Apple will undoubtedly be advancing Apple’s health programs.

Apple has also hired an expert in car-based satellite navigation. Sinisa Durekovic led the development of navigation systems used in a number of high-end car brands, and his work at Harman International Industries is now used in BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi vehicles.

Another Mac mini upgrade story from The Verge says it’s not for the faint hearted. While I can understand the harrowing nature of the upgrade that requires more than a few specialised tools and more than an ounce of patience, I can’t really sympathise with the author for deciding to upgrade one of the more difficult Macs.

Speaking of upgradeable Macs, Macworld’s Dan Moren remembers a time when the Mac was easier to upgrade. Certain models of the PowerMac G3 had a latch that you could pull down to reveal the entire contents of the machine, the G5 iMac allowed you to remove the entire back panel and access everything at once, and the PowerBook G3 even featured dual expansion bays.

9to5Mac has a guide on upgrading a MacBook to support 4K at 60Hz. The 12-inch MacBook only officially supports 4K at 30Hz, but a quick driver patch resolves that issue.

Stephen Hackett tells us about the 1999 revision of the iMac G3, featuring the iMac, iMac DV, and the iMac DV Special Edition.

Having just upgraded my 2012 Mac Mini I’m somewhat familiar with the fun that is disassembling one, but after recently talking about upgrading a newer model and reading up on the required steps it’s amazing the length Apple have gone to discourage people.

But you have to ask why?

Soldering the RAM in at least serves a practical purpose (supposedly) in making it thinner and more reliable, but why more and more security screws and harder to reach parts. The mini especially has always been more complicated to pull apart… so who are they trying to dissuade? I’d guess that most Apple users probably wouldn’t delve into the machine anyway.

The answers simple… money!

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I picked up the 9.7" Pro the other day and I concur, it’s a slick machine!