Remembering Charles W. Moore

I am not so pleased to report that a venerable, distinguished member of the technical journalist community has left us: Charles W. Moore. The link below has the story of his work, achievements and battle with illness. I am, however, pleased to say that I had the honor of working with him at Applelinks as well as MacOpinion [both now defunct] in the late 1990s. I remember Charles as an exceptionally hard worker and an incredible champion of all things Apple. He always amazed me. And he continued to do amazing work after that. He will be missed. [Photo credit: Elizabeth Sheppard.]

Apple's iPhone XS Max is a Winner. For Now

Those who have an iPhone X have little incentive to upgrade to an iPhone XS. But the iPhone XS Max appears to be a winner. At least until pre-orders start for the iPhone XR.

Apple's 5 Minute Video Tour for Navigating iPhone XS/XS Max/XR

Apple has a five minute video tour showing you how to navigate iPhone XS/XS Max/XR (and really, iPhone X, too). It’s straight forward and easy to follow. If you have any questions about how to use an iPhone without a Home button, this video should give you answers.

Apple Watch Series 4 'Better You' Commercial Is Great

Check out Apple’s new spot called Better You for Apple Watch Series 4. It’s a fun spot pushing the idea that we can always improve ourselves, and that Apple Watch Series 4 will help you do that. Couch potato? Get up. Hanging around? Get out and go for a walk. Listen to music while you’re out, too. Take a phone call. In fact, make that walk a jog. No, wait. If you’re going to jog, step it up and make it a run. Or hey, better yet, sprint and then finish that sprint off with a swim in the ocean. I love this spot. It’s compelling, and it tells an easy-to-understand story. The product shots of Apple Watch Series 4 are good, too.

Amazon's New Alexa Devices, Appliances, Speakers, and Cars

Amazon held an event covering Alexa updates and a variety of Echo devices that proves Amazon thinks the assistant battle is far from over.

Apple Watch Series 4 Unboxing

Apple Watch Series 4 is available now with bigger displays and new ECG heart monitoring sensors. The Mac Observer’s Jeff Gamet checks out the new smartwatch in this unboxing video.

The iPhone XS Giveaway

Our friends at Stack Commerce have put together a giveaway for an iPhone XS! To enter, all you have to do is sign up for our deal newsletter, which you should do anyway. If you’re already signed up, you can simply click the “Enter to Win” button. You can get extra entries by sharing the giveaway on social media, too. This is a 512GB Space Gray model, so get on it!

How to Pair a New Apple Watch When You Also Have a New iPhone

There are a specific number of steps to take in a certain order to ensure you don’t lose any information when you pair a new Apple Watch.

Google Engineers Brainstorm About Political Search Tweaks

An email thread obtained by the Wall Street Journal shows Google engineers talking about political search tweaks related to President Trump’s 2017 travel ban. They specifically discussed using Google search to highlight pro-immigration organizations.

“To the extent of my knowledge, we’d be breaching precedent if we only gave Highlights access to organizations that support a certain view of the world in a time of political conflict,” one email said, according to WSJ.

Google said they were just brainstorming. This seems likely to me. Google might favor its own products in search results, but going so far as to interfere with political issues? I’m not so sure. But it made me wonder how easily a roque engineer could secretly alter the search algorithms.

How It's Made: Apple Watch Series 4 Faces

While not part of the official How It’s Made franchise, there is a short, one minute video that shows how the Apple Watch 4 faces were made. These are the Earth Water, Wind, and Fire faces and they are absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen videos before showing the process behind Apple’s wallpapers. There’s also one for the iPhone XS as well, with the bubble wallpaper. Alan Dye, VP of User Interface Design, said:

We probably could have done this digitally, but we actually shot all of this practically in a studio. What I love about the fact that we did this is that it’s just so indicative of how the design team works. It was really about bringing together some of our various talents to create these faces. There are of course art directors, and color experts, and graphic designers, but also model makers who helped build these structures that we would eventually, you know, set on fire.

Inside the iPhone XS Camera Technology

Lance Ulanoff has a great piece on Medium where he writes about the iPhone XS camera technology. He talked with photographer Pete Souza about the new iPhones, as well as Phil Schiller, Graham TownsendApple’s senior director of camera hardware, and Sebastien Marineau-Mes, Apple’s vice president of software.

One of the really big things we aim for is the first phone, the 1 millionth phone, and the 10 millionth phone we want that experience to be as close as we can humanly manage, and we put a lot of effort, and it’s not something we talk a lot about… but it’s really important to us that there’s no big variation in performance between any phone anywhere the world,” Townsend said.

Review: Disk Drill 3 Can Recover iOS Data

Whether it’s on your Mac hard drive, an external hard drive, or a USB stick, Disk Drill does it all. And with Disk Drill 3 you can use it to recover iOS data.

Amazon's Big Echo and Alexa Product Launch - TMO Daily Observations 2018-09-21

Kelly Guimont and Bryan Chaffin join Jeff Gamet to look at the new Echo and Alexa products Amazon announced on Thursday.

Apple TV Guide: All of the Original Video Content [Update]

The content won’t appear until 2019, with the majority of the production happening in 2018. The list will be updated continuously, so be sure to bookmark this page.

Here's How to Set Up Your New iPhone XS and Apple Watch

If you’re getting a new iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max today, and maybe an Apple Watch Series 4, you need to know how to get everything set up. TMO’s own John Martellaro has you covered. Read on to learn how to get up and running.

Want to Play with a 3D iPhone XS on your iPhone? Apple Has a Site for That

Apple has a cool mini website to show off the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. Just load it up in Safari or Chrome on your mobile phone and you can spin the new iPhone models around by tilting your display. Phone specs pop up as the iPhones twirl around so you can learn more about them, plus you can choose which model you’re looking at, and the phone color, too. It’s a pretty cool was to explore the iPhone XS and XS Max.

iFixit Teardown Reveals iPhone XS 'L' Shaped Battery

iFixit stripped down the iPhone XS and XS Max and found an L-shaped battery with improved thermal expansion protection, Apple designed chips, and more.

Chris Evans Starring in 'Defending Jacob' Series for Apple

Chris Evans, best known for playing Captain America in Marvel’s Avengers movies, has signed on to play the lead in “Defending Jacob” in Apple’s original content lineup. The 8-episode series is based on the best selling novel by Willian Landay, and it’ll be directed by Oscar-nominated Morten Ryan. Deadline says,

Defending Jacob is described as a a gripping, character-driven thriller based on Landay’s 2012 novel published by Random House. The book tells the story of a father dealing with the accusation that his son is a 14-year-old murderer.

Apple’s original content line up is steadily growing and looks to be pretty strong. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple fares against Netflix and Amazon Prime when its shows start airing.

iOS 12 Review: It's Like an iPhone Upgrade

iOS 12 is out for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and while it has several new features it’s big draw is under the hood. Apple spent a lot of time improving performance and stability, so is it time for you to upgrade? Read on to find out.

It May be Awhile Longer Before Apple Watch Can Divorce from iPhone

Many an Apple customer, and maybe even Apple itself, dreams of making the Apple Watch independent of the iPhone someday. But it won’t happen any time soon.