The Mac Observer's WWDC 2018 coverage sponsored by:

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The Future Was Posted to Twitter Last Friday

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Harley Turan ARKit 2 Demo

Check out this amazing demo video from developer Harley Turan. He posted it to Twitter on Friday, just a few days after Apple’s WWDC keynote. In it, he attached live data to a real-world object using ARKit 2 and iOS 12, and then moves them around. It’s like an ordinary commercial using thousands of dollars in post-production software, only it’s life. Put another way, it’s the future, posted to Twitter a few days ago. When people doubt the real-world value of augmented reality, this is the sort of thing I think about. Not games, as great I expect Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to be, but rather information attached to real world locations and objects. Especially once we get past this stone-age era of holding our iPhones in front of our faces to get our augmented reality. Oh, and remember that this was after just a couple of days with hands-on iOS 12 and ARKit 2.

Fastest Supercomputer on Earth Now at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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For several years now, Chinese supercomputers have been the fastest in the world. The list of the fastest supercomputers, at Top500.org, had been showing the U.S. falling behind. Recently the Oak RIdge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee announced that the new, IBM-built “Summit” supercomputer is capable of 200 petaflops. By comparison, a modern, fast desktop PC is in the teraflop class, making Summit about 200,000 times faster. ORNL’s release noted that uses for the machine include: “machine learning and deep learning to problems in human health, high-energy physics, [and] materials discovery. Summit allows [the Dept. of Energy] DOE and ORNL to respond to the White House Artificial Intelligence for America initiative.”

Fastest Supercomputer on Earth Now at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Scribit on Kickstarter Creates (and Erases) Art on Your Wall

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Check out Scribit on Kickstarter. It’s a device that will create art on your wall—from drawings to your recent Twitter messages to crowdsourced designs. Better yet, it will erase that art, too, turning your wall into giant reusable canvas. It can draw using four pens (red, blue, yellow, and black), and it needs two nails and a power outlet to install. The video is cool as can be, and the project has already raised more than US$400,000 with 23 days to go. Pledge levels that will get you a Scribit start at $349.

AltConf and WWDC 2018 Interview: Amanda Southworth

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San Jose – Jeff Gamet sits down with Amanda Southworth at AltConf and WWDC 2018 to talk about how her personal experiences led her to create apps to help people suffering from depression, an app to help keep the LGBTQ community safe, and her nonprofit organization Astra Labs.

Apple Music's Carpool Karaoke Teases Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner

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Apple is teasing a new episode of Carpool Karaoke on June 15th, and the trailer’s out. It features Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, and Jeremy Renner, and it looks pretty funny. The three are starring in a new comedy called TAG, which debuts the same day as this episode of Carpool Karaoke will be released, June 15th. That’s this Friday, and I can’t wait to see if season 2 of Carpool Karaoke is better than season 1. Judging by this trailer, that might be a big yes. The episode will be available on Apple Music when it’s released.

iMazing Adds iOS 12 Beta Backup Support

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Good news, iOS developers. iMazing 2.6.1 is out and it includes support for iOS 12 beta. That means you can back up the data and apps on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch test devices and restore to an earlier state if something goes wrong. It also means iMazing is already good to go when the public betas start rolling out. iMazing is priced at US$39.99 and the update is free.

iMazing Adds iOS 12 Beta Backup Support

This $2 App Brings Amazon Alexa to Your Apple Watch...Sort Of

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An Apple Watch app called Voice in a Can is seeking to satisfy the desires of those who love Apple hardware but rely on Amazon Alexa for its home automation capabilities. As a standalone app, Voice in a Can runs entirely on the Apple Watch without needing to pair with the iPhone. With just a Wi-Fi or LTE connection you ask Alexa to control your home lights, unlock the door, or set your thermostat. However, since Apple prevents third party apps from replacing Siri, you can’t use Voice in a Can to have Alexa make calls or control the audio playback on your watch. It’s by no means a perfect solution, but it’s the best Alexa users have thus far until Amazon and Apple work out an official solution. Grab it now on the App Store for $1.99.

This $2 App Brings Amazon Alexa to Your Apple Watch…Sort Of

The Awesome Insanity of Rackmounting the iMac Pro

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Do you have a powerful new iMac Pro? If so, do you want to rackmount it? No, of course you don’t, because that would be bananapants crazy. But there’s at least one company that has need for such a monstrosity: MacStadium, the Mac-based hosting provider. Spotted by Zac Cichy on Twitter, the iMac Pro rack lets MacStadium offer remote access to the powerful capabilities of Apple’s newest Mac in a way that fits their existing equipment infrastructure. Of course, this isn’t the first time that a company has laughed in the face of Apple’s mission to destroy industry standard form factors.

The Awesome Insanity of Rackmounting the iMac Pro

Want to Buy a Giant Library of Blu-rays, DVDs, and Laserdiscs?

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Apple’s planned improvements for the Apple TV make it a great streaming device for an increasingly all-digital age, but if you’re intent on sticking with physical media, you can pick up an incredible collection of more than 21,000 UHD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, DVD, Laserdisc, VHS, and even Beta films on eBay and never need to communicate with the outside world again. It will cost you $1 million but, hey, free shipping!

Want to Buy a Giant Library of Blu-rays, DVDs, and Laserdiscs?