The Apple analyst Gene Munster, now with Loup Ventures, has provided his predictions for new and updated Apple products at WWDC—which starts June 5th. He includes a probability with each of the four items. Personally, I think the probability for a 10.5-inch iPad Pro should be a little higher, just because Apple is way behind in its iPad refresh cycle. But check out Gene’s estimates and see what you think.
Dr. Kiki Sanford is a neurophysiologist with a Ph.D from U.C. Davis. She’s a popular science communicator and creator of This Week in Science podcast and radio show. This is her second appearance on Background Mode. For those who missed her first show, Kiki explained her upbringing and early interests in ecology, conservation and animals. Her Ph.D. work was on how finches store memories and navigate. In this encore appearance, Kiki and I get geeky with science: an in-depth discussion of epigenetics, the ecology of our kitchens, brain size (and language) in animals, probiotics, how wine protects the human brain, and her favorite subject: world domination by robots. We finished with a discussion about how you can support science research. After spending 40 minutes with Kiki, you’ll want to be a scientist too!
The first season features two episodes hosted by James Corden, and we have the full lineup.
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak was interviewed on Bloomberg, where he was asked about promising moonshots. The interview took place from the floor of C2, a trade show in Montreal that “brings together Commerce and Creativity.” On Woz’s moonshot radar is artificial intelligence, especially with making them more like “a human friend,” game making, running companies, and autonomous vehicles. He cited Tesla, in particular, as the company most likely to have the next moonshot. He also talks about the value of companies building things for themselves, something Steve Jobs also believed in. It’s an interesting interview.
Apple Maps is making it easier to pretend like you’re flying your own drone over Apple Park because now it offers a 3D view of the campus. Just search for “Apple Park” in Maps and do a two-finger swipe up to switch to 3D view. Now you can swipe and twist around to see the structures and landmarks, including the giant ring-shaped main building. It’s not quite the same as actually going there, but it’s still cool to see the campus from the perspective you want.
It’s designed to teach kids the fundamental building blocks of how computers work, and it’s super cool.
Andy Rubin’s company, Essential, just set the bar for Apple’s rumored Siri voice assistant appliance.
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on courts compelling people to divulge their smartphone passcodes, plus they react to Essential’s Home voice assistant appliance.
The beta will bring new wallpapers to the 12-inch iPad Pro, along with minor bug fixes and security patches.
We have a deal today on Roxio Toast 15 Pro, a professional authoring version of the software. It includes the ability to burn Blu-ray DVDs and has all the capabilities Toast Slice included. It also includes a variety of media conversion features. Read the deal listing for more details. It’s $74.99 through us, 50% off retail.
Slow ship times ahead of Worldwide Developer Conference are a pretty good sign we’re about to get a MacBook Pro refresh.
Melissa Holt has a few pointers on how to trim down who is in your Contacts list without committing to losing those entries forever.
In honor of Memorial Day, a U.S. holiday, the staff of The Mac Observer will be taking the day off. We will resume our regular coverage of the Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch world on Tuesday, May 30th, 2017.
Thunderbolt 3 Docks, Quick PrefPane Access, the best iOS PDF viewer, splitting audio files, and finding your lyrics. THAT’s what your two favorite geeks start with this week… and then they go from there! Press play and enjoy.
Bryan Chaffin explains how Bitcoin faucets work and which faucets you can trust to pay. [Update: More confirmed faucets, new testing faucets, and other edits. – Bryan]
Such a chip could give Apple a significant leg up deploying artificial intelligence, and if it succeeds, few of its competitors could respond.
