Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/12/monday-morning-news181217/
John Gruber’s first impressions of the iMac Pro at Apple’s hands-on event in New York City tells us about the serious, professional iMac Pro. It gives Apple a foothold into the world of pro-level appliances, kind of like the old trash can did. Over at Six Colors, Jason Snell says that most people shouldn’t buy an iMac Pro. You’ll know if you need an iMac Pro, and if you don’t know, you probably don’t.
The release of the iMac Pro gives us some interesting clues about the Mac Pro that Apple are yet to reveal or announce. You have to read between the lines and do a little bit of crystal-ball gazing, but given Apple’s acknowledgements about everything they got wrong with the trash can Mac Pro, and now everything we know about the all-in-one iMac Pro, Stephen Hackett says that the Mac Pro will likely be faster, more flexible, and even more expensive than the current iMac Pro.
The inclusion of the T2 chip on the iMac Pro means that in some cases, you may need to restore your iMac Pro just like you would an iPhone or iPad. Doing so involves using Apple Configurator 2 and another Mac, connected via a Thunderbolt, USB-A, or USB-C cable.
In an interview with the UK’s Telegraph, Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller talked about Apple’s product lineup for the year going into 2018. Schiller commented on the release strategy of competitors, saying that some preferred to release products to a targeted date, but that’s not Apple’s strategy. Schiller also didn’t seem overly concerned about Apple’s recent software issues, saying that it amounted to a bad week, and that Apple would be doing some soul-searching to prevent it from happening again.
An older interview, Apple’s VP for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson discusses the environmentally friendly design of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X. Jackson says the current iPhones are the greenest flagships ever manufactured, with Apple focusing on reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing the devices through different manufacturing processes with lower greenhouse gas emissions.
The first South Korean Apple Store is set to open on December 30. The Garosugil store located within Gangnam will be based on Apple’s newer store design, with two floors and enough space to have a Today at Apple meeting place and a Genius Grove. As noted by MacRumors, the Gangnam store will be Apple’s 500th, provided no other Apple Stores open by the end of the.
Apple’s Podcast Analytics beta is now open to all, following a reveal earlier this year at WWDC. Podcast analytics has a few neat metrics, including being able to tell the total minutes listened to in a single episode, average minutes per listener, and more. The data comes from devices running iOS 11, iTunes 12.7, or later, and if you’ve got a podcast, it might be worth taking a look at.
Speaking of podcasts, the new version of Workouts++ adds podcast playback on Apple Watch. It’s a smart way of using Apple’s health and fitness APIs to allow media playback, and the interface for transferring podcasts to your Apple Watch so you can go iPhone-free on your workout seems to work well enough.
The Verge tells us about the stuff they’re still getting used to on the iPhone X. There’s a bunch of iPhone X-specific things that are different to any other iPhone. None of them are particularly deal-breakers, because the overall experience is still so great, they’re just different.
Gabe from MacDrifter says holiday periods always have this kind of down-time where you’re not doing anything in particular, and nothing needs doing. This in-between time can be used to do useful stuff, like figuring out your phone settings for everyday usage. Not that you haven’t already.