In this 400th episode of Apple Context Machine, John Kheit joins Bryan Chaffin to discuss rumors of iPhone 8 and Samsung Galaxy S8, Apple manufacturing, Tim Cook’s claim that Apple cares about pro users and creative pros in particular, the company’s supposed pipeline, and $AAPL’s record high valuation. Oh…and Nickleback.
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
Cling Bling Window Solar Charger: $27.99
Check out the Cling Bling Window Solar Charger. It’s a portable battery that sticks to window and recharges itself with solar power. How cool is that? The battery’s capacity is 1,800mAh, and it’s about 6-inches square. It’s available in black or green, and they’re $27.99 each, which is 68% off retail.
Build-On Brick Mug: $19.99
Pssst! Don’t tell Jeff Gamet about today’s deal, at least not until you get your own. He’s likely to buy them all, otherwise. It’s the Build-On Brick Mug. This LEGO-compatible mug has pegs and holes that fit the iconic brick design. And lookit! You can put bricks on your coffee mug! That’s way too cool for school, in my book. It comes with the mug and 16 bricks, but feel free to mix and match your own. The Build-On Brick Mug is made from a food grade BPA-free plastic, and it’s $19.99 through us.
9 New Facts about Apple Park
We learned some new factoids about Apple Park—formerly known as Apple Campus 2.0—courtesy of The San Jose Mercury News. In coverage to the South Bay Transportation Officials Association, Cupertino public works director Timm Borden and senior civil engineer David Stillman offered up nine things I didn’t know about Apple Park.
FRESHeBUDS Air Bluetooth 4.1 Earbuds
The FRESHeBUDS Pro Magnetic Bluetooth Earbuds have been updated to Bluetooth 4.1. They’re water and sweat resistant, and automatically pair to your phone when pulled apart so you don’t have to go through any setup. They fully charge in 90 minutes, and offer up to 10 hours of playback. In addition to improved Bluetooth, this new version is $5 less, at $24.95.
How to Turn Siri into a Metronome (Video)
I love this! Drummer Richy Ramirez posted a video to Instagram where he used Siri as his metronome. Really, he used her as both metronome and backing track. It’s clever and entertaining, both, and I love the beat he lays down on top. Check it out.
Stanford's 'Developing iOS 10 Apps with Swift' free on iTunes U
iTunes U pushed a version of Developing iOS 10 Apps with Swift. The free iOS tutorial series from the Stanford School of Engineering has been updated for iOS 10 and the current version of Swift. Reader Rick Allen turned me onto this release, calling it, “a great and free resource,” which seems like a great reason to pass it on. Reviews on iTunes are overwhelmingly good, too. The description says the 14-part course covers UI design, memory management, a model-view-controller paradigm, object-oriented databases, animation, power management, multi-threading, networking, and performance. And it’s free through iTunes U.
Disk Drill PRO 3 for Mac for $34.99
We have a deal today on Disk Drill PRO 3, a data recovery utility for the Mac. According to the company, you can “scan and recover data from virtually any storage device with just the click of a button.” Our deal is for a lifetime license—which includes all minor and major upgrades to the app— for $34.99. You can find more information about the software on the deal listing.
BK SPORT Bluetooth 4.0 Headphones: $16.99
Check out the BK SPORT Bluetooth 4.0 Headphones. Their wireless, but they connect to each other via a cable that keeps them together. They feature a talk time of 5 hours and music playback time of 4.5 hours. They charge in 2 hours and can be in standby mode for up to 150 hours. You can get them through our deal for $16.99, or 66% off retail.
Frolic in the Apple Park, Rumors for iPad and Apple Watch - ACM 399
Apple announced the name of what we used to call Apple Campus 2.0—now it’s Apple Park. Bryan and Jeff chew on the name for a while, and discuss what we might expect when it opens in April. They also pore over Apple Watch 3 rumors and the news that a key supplier will stop making Apple Watch displays. And somehow they segue that into some new iPad and iPhone rumors.
Get $8.62 Off Your Amazon Order (Today Only) Thanks to Harris Reputation Poll
Amazon announced Wednesday a celebratory customer discount. The company told customers they could get $8.62 off their order of $50 or more because Amazon topped the Harris Poll Reputation Quotient with a score of 86.27. This is the second year in a row Amazon took top ranking in the annual survey—Apple was #5 in this year’s results, down from #2 in 2016 and #1 in 2012. Amazon’s score of 86.27 in the survey was a record high score. But who cares, right? The important thing is you can get $8.62 off your Amazon order using coupon code BIGTHANKS at checkout. If you order precisely $50 worth of stuff, that would be 17.24% off your order, which is significant. While you’re at it, use TMO’s affiliate link when ordering.
PDFConverterOCR 4: $19.99
We have a deal today on PDFConverterOCR 4. It’s a “lifetime license,” which means you’ll get all minor and major updates to the software. PDFConverterOCR 4 converts native and scanned PDF files to almost any file format, retaining their original layouts. It features advanced character accuracy and recognizes 49 languages. You can get it through our deal for $19.99.
Apple Releases Logic Pro X 10.3.1 with Security Fix, Improved Regions and iOS GarageBand Support
Apple released Logic Pro X 10.3.1 Tuesday. The update includes a security fix for maliciously crafted GarageBand files. It also improves the way regions perform, edits, and the ability to share 44.1kHz projects to GarageBand for iOS.
Apple Takes Us on iPhone 7 'One Night' Tours of NYC, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Tokyo
Apple launched five new commercials through its YouTube channel Tuesday. Four of them are part of the “Shot on iPhone” series and take us on “One Night” tours of New York City, Johannesburg, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Each commercial is comprised of stills and videos from their respective cities, theoretically taken over one night.
Apple Remote Desktop Updated with Touch Bar Support
Apple updated Apple Remote Desktop to version 3.9 Tuesday. The update adds support for the Mac Book Pro’s Touch Bar. It also features the ability to export computer lists and beefs up security.
Stress Blocks: $14.99
Check out Stress Blocks, a stress-relief toy designed to help burn off stress by giving you something to play with. It has six sides, each one unique, and according to the company, “You’ll never get bored of turning, pressing or spinning.” Two of the buttons being silent for those times you need to be quiet. You can get one of these little doodads for $14.99 through our deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYW2jYjAkq8
Rumors about March Apple Event for iPhone SE and iPads Get Serious
Rumors about an Apple media event in March got serious this week with a story from Japanese site Mac Otakara. According to the story, Apple will hold a media event in March—in keeping with last year—where the company will introduce a new iPhone SE and new iPad models.
Game of Thrones 'A Dance with Dragons' iBooks Enhanced Edition on Preorder
Apple’s iBooks Store added the Enhanced Edition of George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons over the weekend. It will ship on March 30th, and includes new artwork, an expanded glossary, more information about the houses, maps, and more.
iOS 10 and Swift 3 Starter Bundle: $45
We have a deal on a training bundle for developers called the iOS 10 and Swift 3 Starter Bundle. It includes five different courses, including: The Complete iOS 10 Developer, iOS 10 Projects: Build Amazing Apps with Apple’s Newest iOS, Swift 3 Fundamentals & Essential Training, iOS 10, Swift 3 Hands On Features. and Master iOS 10 + Swift 3 & Create Apps. That hundreds of lessons and more than 81 hours of video training, all for $45. Note that coupon code “LEARN50” will allow TMO readers to get 50% of this course, making it $22.50.
Apple Answers Tweets in 4 New iPad Pro Ads
Apple launched four new iPad commercials that respond to real tweets from real folks. The first (included below) is in response to a tweet about iPad not being a real computer. The second spot addresses a tweet about poor Wi-Fi. The third answers whether Microsoft Word is on the iPad (it is), and the fourth notes that iPads aren’t subject to PC viruses. The Twitter accounts are real (Tweet 1 account, Tweet 2, Tweet 3 account, Tweet 4), and The Verge reported that Apple contacted at least one of the tweeters before using their tweets. There’s almost zero chance Apple didn’t do so with all of them. But, Apple used actors to represent the Twitter account owners. It’s an interesting campaign. Some have already noted it’s reminiscent of Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign. More interesting, though, is that this is the first time I can remember Apple addressing questions like these, especially in an ad. The company is also leveraging social media, an area that hasn’t typically been a strong suit for Apple. They’re not my favorite spots from Apple, but they’re solid. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a major campaign.
WWDC in San Jose Is Closer and Other Apple Insights
We had a good discussion about Apple moving WWDC back to San Jose on Thursday’s Daily Observations. In that discussion, we talked about how much easier it would be for Apple engineers to attend an event in San Jose because it wouldn’t necessarily suck up a whole day and hours of travel. We also talked about proximity to Apple Campus 2.0, and the reality San Jose is less expensive. Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber discussed the move with Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller, who confirmed most of what we thought. Mr. Gruber also pointed out that Apple’s WWDC is a much bigger deal to San Jose than it ever was to San Francisco. He said Apple was working with San Jose’s mayor and others to stage events throughout the week, something San Francisco never did to my knowledge. Check out his piece—it’s a good read.
ExoMount Touch Air Vent Car Mount: $16.99
We have a deal for you on the ExoMount Touch Air Vent Car Mount. The mount rotates and swivels, and the grip is rubber. You can get it through our deal for $16.99, 31% off retail.
MailButler Professional 1-Year Subscription: $14.99
Our friends at Stack Commerce said this is the last chance to get our deal on MailButler Professional, a collection of plugins for Apple’s Mail.app. With these plugins, you can mark your emails as to-do items, snooze emails, track emails to find out if recipients have actually opened them, schedule emails to be sent at specific dates and times, and more. You can get a one year subscription to MailButler Professional through us for $14.99.
Bryan Chaffin Talks about How Politics Intersects with Technology
Chuck Joiner asked me on to MacVoices to talk about Apple, the tech world, and politics. In this video podcast, I make the case that Apple is just plain too big to avoid politics. From regulations, to taxation policy, to international posturing, to the fact that Apple is worth almost US$700 billion, Apple can’t avoid politics. More importantly, the broader tech world itself that it increasingly intersects with tech. I think I spewed off about getting older and struggling to understand Millennials, too. It’s all kind of hazy, but that didn’t stop Chuck from making that part of his title…oh, and check out that key frame he picked. Why did I agree to do this show again? … Oh, right, because I luuuuurve me some Chucky J!
