Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/10/tuesday-morning-news301018/
Earlier this month Apple Design Chief Jony Ive talked to Wired at their 25th Anniversary event. At the time, reporting on the event focused on what Apple are doing and the extra features they’re adding to their products, all in an attempt to curb the phenomenon known as smartphone addiction. Like recent profiles of Ive have touched on, Wired’s piece now tells us the story of unpredictable innovation, or the idea that when companies upend entire industries, “change is rarely foreseeable, and seldom unambiguously good”. In an age where we’re just realising what the impact of the internet is having, it’s something worth keeping in mind and thinking about.
New iPad iconography found in iOS 12 supports rumours of a redesigned iPad Pro that we’ll probably see tomorrow. The icon describes a device exactly as the rumours claim: a tablet with slimmer bezels, no Home button, no notch, and a display that has curved edges, which seems to be the flavour of the year at Apple.
Apple source Ben Geskin has additional details on what tomorrow’s Apple Pencil refresh will look like. Although the visual changes are expected to be fairly minimal, with the overall design expected to get more minimal overall and the removal of the silver ring at the top, tap and swipe gestures will be supported along the length of the Apple Pencil, as well as being capable of being magnetically attached to the new iPad and a new charging method that hopefully doesn’t look as silly as the current one, despite being incredibly convenient and clever.
The Financial Times is claiming Apple manufacturing partner Quanta Computer employed high school students to build Apple Watch devices and required them to work overtime and night shifts with only one day off per week. In a statement, Apple has said they’ve received reports of inappropriate working conditions and will be ensuring swift action and appropriate remediation if it finds violations of its supplier codes.
While Apple continues to focus on China as an important market, The Information has details on their struggles in the region. Legal issues, fraud, competitors, and high standards have hampered Apple’s rapid expansion in Greater China, which could have seen Apple’s 50th retail location open much sooner. Instead, Apple’s current plans have faced shady business practices, rampant abuse of Apple’s policies and promotions, and strong competition from local brands such as Oppo, Vivo, or Xiaomi.
When the ECG feature of the Apple Watch Series 4 is available to the public, it’s widely expected that it will only be available in the US to start with, due to FDA clearance. You’ll probably be able to get around this limitation by setting your iPhone and Apple Watch region to the US, although The Mac Observer cautions against that. Besides getting date formats completely wrong, currency, and app compatibility may also be affected in adverse ways.
If we’re getting a Mac mini refresh tomorrow, hopefully it’ll be available in a Space Grey as one concept artist hopes, so you’ll be able to use it along with the Space Grey accessories that currently only match the iMac Pro. The silver and black colour scheme of the current Mac mini is still pretty cool, though.
Third-party tool The Time Machine Mechanic analyses Time Machine entries in macOS logs, giving you details on how your Time Machine backup is going. It’s a simple one-click operation, with a coloured traffic light that indicates whether your Time Machine backups are healthy or need attention, as well as looking good in both dark and light mode in macOS Mojave.
Gabe from MacDrifter recommends PicSew to stitch together screenshots into one long image, but I’m sure there are plenty of apps that do a similar thing. I’d love to hear if you’ve found something that works for you and doesn’t include ads, won’t steal my entire photo library or do dodgy things with it, or include any kind of creepy analytics or usage tracking.
9to5Mac remembers Apple’s Carrousel de Lourve retail location, which was France’s first Apple Store. Besides being in a very prestigious location directly opposite La Pyramid Inversée, it opened in 2009, which was a very different time for Apple as far as products go, shown by some of the promo images the store had. It’s now closed, but its replacement will open along the river of the Champs-Élysées next month.