Macworld UK July 2020

Apple CEO Tim Cook has released an open letter to address the current unrest due to the killing of George Floyd. A link to the letter, titled ‘Speaking up on racism’, has been added to the Apple.com home page – see fave.co/3f6Mc1y. The letter acknowledges the “senseless killing of George Floyd” but is primarily concerned with the longer history of racism and the way it is, in Cook’s words, “still present today – not only in the form of violence, but in the everyday experience of deeply rooted discrimination”. Cook’s statement comes on the heels of many such letters from corporate brands and their leaders. Compared to most of them, the statement from the CEO of the most valuable company in the US is modest (it certainly lacks the verve…

Apple has released a small but important update to all its operating systems. The notes for version iOS and iPadOS 13.5.1, watchOS 6.2.6, tvOS 13.4.6 and macOS 10.15.5 are practically non-existent: “This update provides important security updates and is recommended for all users.” The iOS update also includes 13.4.6 for HomePod. Typically, when Apple is so vague about a security patch, it is trying to make sure users have a change to update without tipping off hackers. This latest patch is probably related to a new jailbreaking tool that apparently works even on newer hardware running iOS 13.5. We can get a little more information by looking at Apple’s security updates page. The security update details for all these operating systems is exactly the same: “Arbitrary code with kernel privileges”…

Hot on the heels of the launch of the new iPad Pro and Magic keyboard, Apple is reportedly readying new iPads models at the low-end of the spectrum as well. A report by oft-accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kup of TFT Securities says Apple will be launching two new sizes of iPad later this year: a 10.8in iPad and an 8.5-to-9in iPad mini. Both of those sizes are bigger than Apple’s current line-up, which includes the 10.2in iPad, 10.5in iPad Air, and 7.9in iPad mini. Kuo says the iPads “will follow iPhone SE’s product strategy, and selling points will be the affordable price tag and the adoption of fast chips”. The iPad Air and iPad mini both use Apple’s A12 Bionic chip, while the 10.2in iPad is powered by the older A10…

Anew report from Bloomberg claims Apple is changing up its strategy for the Apple TV+ streaming service. Until now, Apple has pitched the service as only for original content you can’t find anywhere else. Now, according to the report, it will bolster its original series and movies with a bit of licensed content. On page 78, you can see a six-month check-in with the service, which launched on November 1, 2019. After watching nearly everything Apple TV+ offers, we concluded that the overall quality is fine, and the price is competitive (£4.99 per month and a year free with most new Apple device purchases), but the volume of content makes it hard to justify. Competitors, from Netflix to Amazon to Disney+, make their name on original content but add value…

Apple has been granted a patent by the USPTO for “generating synthetic group selfies”. A patent is not a product, but if the software worked as described therein, it would allow multiple users who are not physically near each other to each take a photo with their own devices and have them combined into a single group selfie. According to the patent, the group selfie would be an artificial composition of individual selfies, and the individual selfies can be “still images, stored video images, or live streaming images”. As most patents are, it is written to be slightly vague and broad – a patent needs to be specific in order to be granted, but companies want them to cover as much potential ground as possible. It describes what this group…

Price: £1,799 (inc VAT) from fave.co/2UsF7jZ We hoped that when the 16in MacBook Pro was released, an upgrade to the 13in MacBook Pro would shortly follow. But it didn’t. Then Apple upgraded the MacBook Air, and then we thought that surely a new 13in MacBook Pro was imminent. Over a month after the MacBook Air update, the much-anticipated new 13in MacBook Pro finally dropped. The new models feature new CPUs, faster RAM and new GPUs to boost its speed, and the new Magic Keyboard will bring back customers who decided to stay away from the version of the laptop with a butterfly keyboard. If you currently have a high-end 13in MacBook Pro that you bought within the past four years, you might consider sticking with that laptop a little while…