A group of consumers are complaining Apple is using planned obsolescence to hobble their older devices with new operating systems. Bryan Chaffin argues Apple should instead get credit for supporting older devices better than any other company.
Bryan Chaffin
Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.
Articles by Bryan Chaffin
iOS Online Courses for Developers - Lifetime All Access Pass: $69
We have a deal on a Lifetime All Access Pass for iOS Online Courses, a company that makes developer courses With this Pass, you have access to training on iOS, Apple TV OS, Apple Watch, GameKit apps, Swift, Objective-C, and more, and that includes future releases such as iOS 10. Check out the details on the deal listing. The price through our deal is $69.
ACM 367: The Joy of iOS 10, Deleting Sideloaded Apps, and Fibonacci Fun
Jeff Gamet has been playing with iOS 10 on his iPad mini 4, and he can’t wait to get it on his iPhone. Why? It starts with the Lockscreen. Bryan and Jeff also talk about regulations in South Korea that might require smartphone makers to allow all preinstalled apps to be deleted by the user. They bookend the show having some fun with Fibonacci numbers.
FRESHeCOLOR Bluetooth Speaker with Flashing LED Color Lights: $59.95
Check out FRESHeCOLOR, a bluetooth speaker with a panel of LEDs that flash and change color with the beat. It has five lighting modes to keep the LEDs in sync with the music all the time, and the speakers are powered by 15 watts. It’s designed to be portable, too, with a built-in handle on top. You can get this device through our deal for $59.95.
TextExpander 1-Year Life Hacker Plan: $19.98
We have a deal for you today on one of our favorite utilities at TMO, TextExpander. TextExpander allows you to create snippets of text you can then expand with a simple keyboard shortcut. It’s a huge time saver. The Lifehacker subscription covers Mac, iOS, and Windows devices for one user on unlimited devices. You can share your snippets to those other devices, too. Our price is $19.98 for a year, less than half the retail price if you’re paying month-to-month.
Apple Continues to Leverage Its Supply Chain to Maximize Margins (Like Always)
Apple is putting pressure on its suppliers to cut prices to maintain its profit margins, according to a report from DigiTimes that’s been picked up by other publications. What’s missing from the piece, however, is that Apple is always pressuring its suppliers to cut costs for the sake of its own margins.
New Drone Footage of Apple Campus 2.0 Captioned with Construction Details
Matthew Roberts posted new drone footage of construction efforts on Apple Campus 2.0 to YouTube (via The Loop). It not only shows massive progress on the site, it’s also captioned with helpful details about the things you’re seeing. The footage is up close and personal, enough to wonder what new case law might be established if Apple had blasted the drone out of the air. I always enjoy these drone flyovers—it’s super awesome to be able to follow along as this soon-to-be-iconic building takes shape.
Complete iBlazr Smartphone LED Flash and Accessory Bundle: $64.99
We have a deal for you today on the iBlazr LED flash for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device that includes an accessory pack. iBlazr is designed to sync with your mobile device’s camera for lighting up a scene. This deal includes iBlazr 2 (black), USB charger, Mount clip, Key clasp, Silicon diffuser, Flexible USB Charger Mount, Cold Shoe Mount, Pack of Colored Diffusers, all for $64.99. Check out the deal listing for details.
Spotify Says Apple Unfair, Apple Says Spotify Doesn't Want to Play by the Rules
Spotify and Apple are having a public spat, and it’s not exactly going well for Spotify. Spotify has publicly accused Apple of rigging the game for streaming music, and it even rigged a situation it could hang a whinge on. The problem is that it was transparent ploy and Apple called the company on it. In Public.
Armour Loop Charging iOS Cable: $19.95
Check out the Armour Loop Charging iOS Cable, a stainless-steel-wrapped Lightning cable. Its design features a holder that always keeps the cable in a loop, a loop you can adjust as needed. That makes it tough, compact, and tangle-free. You can get this device through our deal for $19.95, more than a third off retail.
Last Chance for the World Class Mac Bundle: $24.99
It’s the last chance to grab 8 Mac apps in the World Class Mac Bundle. It includes iStat Menu 5—a utility I can’t imagine not having—Freeway Pro 7, uBar 6, Painter Essentials 5, DropZone 3, Xee 3, Data Rescue 4, and Hype 3.5. Those are solid apps, and you can get them all in this bundle for $24.99. There are detailed descriptions on each app in the deal listing, so check it out.
ACM 366: App Store Surveillance, Google's Phone, and Bryan's Rant
In this episode of The Apple Context Machine, Bryan and Jeff discuss new regulations in China that could make Apple part of that country’s surveillance and censorship apparatus. They also talk about Google’s plans to make its own Android devices, and Amazon offering a discount on two Android phones that display Amazon ads on the lock screen. Bryan somehow manages to ties that into an epic rant about Angry Birds 2.
TaskPaper Text Editor for Mac: $12.95
We have a deal for you today on TaskPaper, a text editor for the Mac designed to help you keep track of what you’ve done. It will also auto-format projects, tasks, notes, and tags. While a Mac app, it uses a file format that is supported by some third party editors on iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and three other Mac editors, too.
Virtual Reality Box Headset: $18.99
We have a deal for you today on VR Box, a virtual reality viewer compatible with iOS and Android devices with 4.7-inch to 6-inch displays. It has an optical axis slider for controlling distance and a T-shaped strap designed to fit a wide variety of head shapes and sizes. This device is $18.99 through our deal.
Google Brings Higher Resolution Satellite Imagery to Google Earth and Maps
Google announced Monday the rollout of new imagery for Google Earth, and by extension Google Maps. The company said it was incorporating a new cloud-free mosaic of Earth in Google Earth utilizing higher-resolution images from Landsat 8, a satellite deployed by the USGS and NASA in 2013.
Google Bloks Will Offer Kids Hands-On, Collaborative Programming Concepts
Google announced a new “research project” called Bloks, a wonderful concept that brings programming to very young kids with real-world block-like components. It’s an ongoing project that Google is opening up to the world, but the company is starting with electronic boards and programmable pucks. Brain Boards are built from Raspberry Pi Zero boards and can be used to power anything you could power from that device, like robots or switches for real-world devices. The pucks are essentially instructions, including on-off switches, directions, or volume controls. When used in sequence, they can send instructions to the Brain Boards. And it’s all hands-on for young kids. They can collaborate in ways they never could with any programming thing based on a screen and/or keyboard. I love it. It’s an entirely different approach from Apple’s Swift Playground, and I think they’re very complementary.
PRE-SALE: The Complete iOS 10 Developer Course at $29
Our friends at Stack Commerce have been putting their collective noggins to work with this deal. It’s a pre-sale on The Complete iOS 10 Developer Course with 80 hours of content on coding for Apple’s next generation iOS. It’s discounted to $29, and you’ll be notified when the course is ready to access—but in the meanwhile you also get The Complete iOS 9 Hacker Training immediately, included for the same price. Check out the details on the deal listing.
Apple Drops 2.81% in Broad Brexit Selloff
Shares of Apple Inc. shed 2.81% Friday in a broad market downturn sparked by Brits voting to leave the European Union, or Brexit for short. The selloff was part of a general panic among investors concerned about what Brexit will do to the global economy.
G Cloud Unlimited Backup for iPhone and Android: 5-Year Subscription for $29.99
We have a deal for you today on G Cloud, a 5-year unlimited backup plan for iPhone and Android devices for $29.99. G Cloud allows you to backup and restore your device from within their dedicated app, and you’re able to view that content online, as well. It’s being stored on AWS, Amazon’s cloud service, using military-grade 256-AES encryption. You can get this 5-year subscription through us for $29.99.
Apple Adds RAW Support for 15 DSLR Cameras from Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony
Apple released Thursday Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 6.20, an update that adds support for 15 new DSLR cameras from Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony.
Ingrein 'Smartclock' Shows Important Notifications to Help You Detach from Your Screen
Check out Ingrein, a very interesting clock designed to help you detach from our devices. The clock is made of real (reclaimed) hardwood, and it has a built-in “LCD screen and light and sound sensors to interact with and display information from your smart devices and favorite apps.” The idea is that you limit what gets sent to the device to those things that are really important so that you can get your face out of your screen, especially when you’re with other people. It’s a very cool idea in theory, and I’m wondering how well it will work in practice. This product is funding through Kickstarter, where it already met its funding goals. Funding options starting at $299 are still available.
G-BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Boombox: $79.99
It’s loud, wireless, will play tunes for up to 6 hours on a charge, and it has a handle. G-BOOM is a boombox for the iPhone era. It features a protective rubber base, and has a standard headphone jack in addition to Blueooth connectivity. You can get this device through our deal for $79.99.
ACM 365: iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3.0, and Differential Privacy
Bryan and Jeff delve into some of the things they’ve learned about iOS 10, macOS Sierra, and watchOS 3.0. Spoiler, it’s all looking really good. They also talk about Differential Privacy and explain (loosely) how it works, what it means, and why it’s important.
Reason 9 Shipping, Adds Pitch Editor and New MIDI Processing
Propellerhead shipped Reason 9 on Tuesday. The newest version of the digital audio workstation and sequencer adds two main features: Players automate and process MIDI input, and Pitch Edit, a pitch editor designed for vocals (think Melodyne or Auto-Tune). There are other new features, too, including Bounce In Place, new visual themes, and reverse MIDI clips. On the content side, Reason 9 adds more than 1,000 new “cutting-edge” sounds, and Pulsar dual channel LFO, a rack extension that was previously available only as a stand-alone $49 purchase. I love Reason, especially for sequencing. It’s powerful software, and Propellerhead makes it ever-more capable with each new release. Reason 9 is priced at €405/US$449, while upgrades from any previous version are €129/$129. Propellerhead also has a stripped down version called Reason Essentials 9 priced at €120/$129. The software shipped today and is available now.
