MacLife September 2019

One thing we weren’t expecting to see happen, well, ever, is the departure of Apple’s star man Jony Ive. You’ve probably already heard the news, it’s difficult not to avoid such a massive announcement really. Steve Jobs aside, Ive was instrumental in making Apple what it is today. The question is: where will Apple go from here? Sure, we haven’t seen any big innovation from Cupertino for some time, even with Ive at the helm, but surely this is the nail in the coffin? Expect to see iPhone/iPad/Mac iterations for the next twenty years, then? Though Apple is supposedly retaining Ive’s services out of his new design agency, I’m secretly hoping that Apple brings in some fresh young blood to really give us something new and exciting again. Not nearly as…

Apple has revised its entry–level MacBook Air and MacBook Pro line–up, and is aiming these models at students as part of its Back to School promotion (this promotion applies to other Macs and iPads too). The base–model MacBook Air with 13–inch Retina screen gains a True Tone display — meaning that colors are automatically adjusted for the ambient lighting — but is otherwise unchanged from its predecessor. It also gets a $100 price cut: the base configuration is now $1,099 (or $999 for students and others eligible for Apple’s education pricing). This is now the cheapest Apple laptop — Apple has quietly discontinued the 12–inch MacBook and non–Retina MacBook Air. The entry–level 13–inch MacBook Pro receives more significant updates, including the latest 8th–generation quad–core processors (with eDRAM increased from 64MB to 127MB), making…

SHIMODA WOMEN’S STRAPS The backpack maker has three new strap options for people who aren’t the same shape as men. $34.95 (bags from $259.95) from shimodadesigns.com WITHINGS MOVE TIMELESS CHIC This shows step count on a subdial and relays walk, run, swim and sleep data to your iPhone. $99.95–$149.95 from withings.com SNAPTO MAGNETIC CAR MOUNT Moshi’s discreet dashboard or vent clip adaptor grips any SnapTo case to car–mount your iPhone. $36.95, or $59.95 with wireless charging, from moshi.com…

Ever since Bitcoin captured the public’s interest with its mysterious origin story and wildly fluctuating exchange rate, blockchain–based money — cryptocurrency — has been big news. In a world where nothing attracts capital like the combination of tech jargon and free publicity, that means crypto is metaphorically a license to print money, as well as literally a way to avoid needing a license to print money. In June, Facebook announced its own crypto, Libra, operated by a subsidiary, Calibra, and governed by the Libra Association, which includes payment partners like Visa and PayPal, and potential users including Uber, Vodafone and Spotify. It promises the best of both worlds: independence from banks, but with stability and protection. For Facebook, entering the payments market could be a huge opportunity to build commerce on…

I must confess, not for the first time on this page, to underestimating Apple’s ambition. When it said it was making a new modular Mac Pro that would blow people away, I struggled to imagine what could be more modular than the old cheese grater Mac Pro given the nature of computer parts. It had not occurred to me that the mind–blowing thing might be new kinds of modules, not the connections that plug them into the computer. Or that it would still come in a cheese grater case. The new Mac Pro is just as much a wonder of engineering as the ill–fated 2013 “trash can” model, but in a less obvious way. I still remember Phil Schiller yelling, ass!” But the latest model doesn’t need anyone to shout about…

1 USB 1998’s iMac was first to ditch the old serial and parallel ports entirely. But other PCs had offered USB before this, developed at Intel with partners not including Apple. 2 The iPod Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, the name was new, but portable digital MP3 players were already common. The iPod’s innovation was its tiny hard disk — later dropped for the same flash memory everyone else used. 3 The App Store By 2008, Windows Mobile had a store with 18,000 apps; PDA maker Palm claimed 30,000. So the iPhone wasn’t first. But hitting 250,000 apps within two years was something very new. 4 Touchscreens The iPhone’s capacitive multi–touch display beat monochrome stylus screens such as the Newton MessagePad’s. Even color PDAs such as Sharp’s EM–ONE, launched months after the iPhone, had clumsy resistive…