Egg Freckles

Only once in my life have I owned the undisputed best of anything. That was the original iPgone on June 29th, 2007; the first day it went on sale. Purchasing an 8 GB iPhone in 2007 bought me the best mobile phone money could buy. Android would not be released for another year. Windows Mobile required a stylus. The BlackBerry was a oversized pager. The iPhone was in a league of its own. It started a brand new era in computing.

Owning an iPhone in 2007 was more of a point of interest than a practicality. Strangers would stop me on the street to ask questions about my phone. But once you got past the novelty of pinching and zooming there was little else you could do.

Only 15 apps were included on the phone. There was no App Store. I could send a text, make a call, read an email, or schedule an appointment, but there was no copy and paste. I found myself watching the stock market for the first time because I could do it on my phone. There was no iCloud. To sync my data, I had to plug my iPhone into my computer. Using an iPhone was exciting because of how you did things, not because of the things you could do.

If the iPhone had a killer app, it was Safari. It put the whole Web in my pocket at blazingly fast 2G EDGE speeds. There were no iPhone optimized versions of popular websites back then. You had to wait for things to load. But for the first time in human history, the world’s largest library of information was always just a few taps away. Trivia night at the local pub suffered. People started to spend their free time staring into 3.5 inch screens. Conversations would never be the same again.

A lot has changed since the original iPhone first went on sale over ten years ago. Owning an iPhone is no longer a point of interest; everybody has one. Multitouch is no longer a novelty. The word App became common language. Phones have gotten smarter, faster, and their screens have gotten larger. People are talking to their iPhones and their Phones are talking back.

But even though the original iPhone is gone, it can never be forgotten. It started the mobile revolution, and popularized software as an app. The original iPhone gave us a map to new places, and lifted our limitations once we got there. It allowed us to share our experiences like never before. There is no longer a good excuse for being uninformed.

Sometimes I am sad I cannot go back to that time to 2007 when having unlimited information at my fingertips made me special When the joy of multitouch was new, and the web was unprepared. Maybe someday I will dig into my desk drawer to show my kids the iPhone that started it all. Remembering a time when 15 apps was all you wanted — well that and copy and paste.

I skipped WWDC again this year. Apple’s emphasis on iOS over the last three years removed the sparkle I once felt as a Mac user Instead of flying to California, I watched the keynote with the CocoaHeads Boston crew in a lecture hall at MIT. Daniel Jalkut was there; he does not wear his Burger King crown in person.

Despite staying in Boston again this week, I saw Apple’s 2017 WWDC keynote from a new direction. I am no longer a Mac user. For the last three years I have been a Hackintosh user at home, and a MacBook user on the job. Then I changed jobs and sold my Hackintosh. I still carry an iPhone in my pocket and wear an Apple Watch one my wrist, but I not the Apple fanatic I was a decade ago. Today I watched the keynote as an outsider.

Apple TV

• Amazon Prime content on Apple TV. Enough said.

Watch OS 4

• The new Siri watch face represents a push for powerful background artificial intelligence. Much more than the voice-activated query and reply routine we have today. I expect to see the Siri brand expand to fill more artificial intelligence foles in Apple’s future product announcements.
• I am a long distance runner. I train for several marathons throughout the year. Some days I need a little extra incentive to get out the door. Over the past year Apple’s Holiday Activity Challenges have kept me running even during inclement weather. Personalized activity challenges that include distance and speed goals would be a welcome addition to Watch OS 4.
• Some days I go swimming after a long Summer run. Watch OS 4 makes combining workouts easy. Hopefully it also lets me remove workouts from the list I am never going to perform.
• I only run indoors during the worst Winter storms, but when I do my Apple Watch never stays in sync with my treadmill. Watch OS 4 promises to keep my treadmill and watch in sync during my workout.
• Listening to music and podcasts on my Apple Watch is something I have always wanted to do, but syncing audio to my Apple Watch is a pain in the ass. I would be more excited about pairing a playlist with a specific workout if it didn’t require an Apple Music subscription.
• Watch OS 4 turns my Apple Watch into a flashlight, or a blinking safety light during night time runs. Eagerly awaiting the Ben Brooks review.

High Sierra

• The name ‘High Sierra’ sounds like it was chosen purely for the comic material Craig could deliver at the keynote.
• Autoplay Blocking and Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari are powerful privacy features that will no doubt be circumvented by online advertisers.
• Outsourcing books, websites, and other printer material from Photos.app’s projects makes sense. Apple’s only interest in the coffee table books is to showcase their own products.
• Apple File System is the new default, but will it automatically arrive on Macs with built-in RAID or custom partitions? Instant file duplication is the kind of feature computers should have had decades ago.
• It is exciting to think Apple is taking dedicated graphics hardware seriously again. Powerful discrete GPUs and external eGPUs will benefit more than just the gaming community. Apple acknowledges VR is a thing with support from major third-party players.
• The Mac OS window server now users Metal 2. It is like Quartz Extreme all over again!

Mac Hardware

• The push for improved graphics performance continues with brighter screens and more accurate colors on all iMacs. The entry-level 21.5-inch iMac features Intel Iris Plus Graphics, while the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs with Retina displays include the latest AMD Radeon GPUs.
• Unfortunately all 21.5-inch iMacs still ship with a 5400-rpm drive standard. The 24 GBs of Fusion Drive flash storage added to the high-end iMacs is embarrassing. Apple should give us the option to spec out a lightening fast NVMe SSD and pair it a roomy large capacity hard drive. The mounting hardware to install both varieties of storage simultaneously is already available in both size iMacs.
• Apple does USB Type-C right by including it alongside standard USB Type-A ports on the new iMacs.
• MacBooks also received a Kaby Lake update with faster integrated graphics, faster SSDs, and the latest latest AMD Radeon GPUs in the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Although these updates will only provide ~15{5c0aa5266f82096698ad0e4f36971d1f738d0642e1d5d419b3a7e2ada4819963} improvement over last years models, it is nice to see Apple taking the Mac refresh cycle seriously again.
• Apple closed the MacBook section of the keynote by offering a $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro with a 128 GB SSD, and “bump in megahertz” to the MacBook Air.j0 Don’t buy either of these computers.

iMac Pro

• The rumors were true Apple has been developing a Space Gray iMac Pro. This is the first time the iMac has been offered in an alternative color iMac in a alternative color since Indigo, Graphite, and Snow.
• With up to 18 Xeon Cores, 128 GBs of ECC RAM, 4 TBs of solid state storage, and Radeon Vega graphics featuring 16 GBs of VRAM, I am surprised Apple decided to announce there will be a new Mac Pro next year. What does a modular Mac Pro get you that a iMac Pro doesn’t, especially when you consider the expansion possibilities of 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports and external GPUs?A

iOS 11

• Apple Pay in the messages app makes peer-to-peer payments easy. As long this feature does not include a credit card processing fee, Apple Pay will become a game changer for everything from Craigslist to splitting the restaurant bill. Maybe you grandmother will even adopt it in time for your next birthday card.
• Siri will be available in new voices, in more countries, with suggestions, contextual news and more all straight from within Messages. Will Mac users get these same Messages features, and do they even want to be messaged my Siri?
• HEIF replacing JPEG for 2x better image compression on you iOS device. It would be great to see an option to recompress your existing photos using this new standard and bring it back to the Photos.app on the Mac. Sharing your photos as JPEGs remains as easy as ever.
• Editing, adjusting, and capturing a still frame from a Live Photo is a welcome change for the millions of people recording Live Photos accidentally.
• The new iOS 11 Control Center promises to be less of a waste of space; especially on iPad.
• Apple Maps now offers internal floor plans for popular malls and airports. A quicker way to find the Apple Store and get out.
• Lane guidance and speed limits makes Apple maps useful in California. Good luck driving in downtown Boston.
• The new Do Not Disturb While Driving feature uses wireless know-how to learn when you are driving and avoid distractions. Most people will turn this feature off, but it could be an important preemptive measure to avoid future cellphone regulation.
• Apple Music offers profiles and shared playlists. The return of iTunes Ping?
• A brand-new redesigned App Store makes its way to iOS while Mac users are left in the lurch.
• Games are separated into their own tab giving more space to the rest of the iOS ecosystem.
• The Today tab shows you a curated look at what’s new in the App Store.

iPad Pro

• The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro replaces the 9.7 inch model with a 20{5c0aa5266f82096698ad0e4f36971d1f738d0642e1d5d419b3a7e2ada4819963} larger display and 40{5c0aa5266f82096698ad0e4f36971d1f738d0642e1d5d419b3a7e2ada4819963} reduced borders. Apple claims 10.5 inch is the perfect screen size for the on-screen keyboard and Smart Covers.
• The 12.9-inch iPad Pro gets True Tone display, P3 color, HDR, and increased brightness.
• Both iPad Pros get 120 MHz ProMotion. At twice the refresh rate of a typical LCD, animations and video appear smoother while reducing Apple Pencil latency down to 20 ms. Refresh rate is intelligently adjusted, saving battery life on static images.
• Apple once again shows off its CPU design prowess by debuting a new A10X CPU with 6 compute cores, 12 graphic cores, and 40{5c0aa5266f82096698ad0e4f36971d1f738d0642e1d5d419b3a7e2ada4819963} faster graphic performance.

iPad Software

• New iOS Dock enables drag and drop multitasking while preserving familiarity with Mac OS.
• App Switcher is iOS version of the Mac’s Mission Control; preserving app state and pairing.
• Drag and drop images, text, and URLs make the new iPad software a multitasking powerhouse.
• Cloud-connected Files app bring some of the power behind the Mac OS Finder to iOS, but grandma is still going to find file management confusing.
• Markup anything on you can see or print with Apple Pencil and share your comments and corrections.
• Apple notes gains a built-in document scanner, in-line drawing, and searchable handwritten text.
• The iPad is starting to feel less like a larger iPhone and more like a smaller Mac, while Notes on unlock feels like a Newton feature.

HomePod

• HomePod is a 7-inch tall Homekit enabled speaker with six microphones, seven beam-forming tweeters, one upward-facing woofer, and a Apple A8 CPU.
• Available in December for $349 HomePod is just another way to bring an Apple Music subscription into your home. By offering automatic detection and balance between two HomePods, Apple thinks you will buy two of these.

So what am I most excited about?

New technologies such as the Apple File System, Metal 2, H.265 video, and HEIF photos. Apple’s return to a regular update cycle for Mac hardware. The introduction of the iMac Pro;a true all-in-one professional workstation. Apple’s increased interest in discrete graphics, VR, and the potential for Apple to support eGPU solutions in the near future.

Even though I am not an iPad user I am glad the iOS is gaining increased functionality and improved multitasking by adopting familiar features from Mac OS. I believe multitouch is the future of computing, and a stronger iOS ecosystem will deliver the future to us faster.

I would have liked to see decreased sandbox restrictions in the Mac App Store. Many of the Apps I have grown to love over the past decade are no longer eligible for the Mac App store due to these restrictions. Their absence from the App Store is hurting the Mac ecosystem, and sending the message innovation is not welcome on the Mac platform.

Steve Frank of Panic fame admits to having his company’s source code stolen:

Last week, for about three days, the macOS video transcoding app HandBrake was compromised. One of the two download servers for HandBrake was serving up a special malware-infested version of the app, that, when launched, would essentially give hackers remote control of your computer.

In a case of extraordinarily bad luck, even for a guy that has a lot of bad computer luck, I happened to download HandBrake in that three day window, and my work Mac got pwned.

Long story short, somebody, somewhere, now has quite a bit of source code to several of our apps.

I am sorry this happened to Steven, but at the same time honestly documenting this breach in a well-written blog post is just one of the reasons I love Panic so much.

Would this have happened to Steven if Handbrake, like so many other powererful Mac Apps, was restricted from the Mac App Store? If Handbrake had been in the Appe Store and protected by Apple’s review process Panic’s source code may have never been protected. I think it is unfortunate Apple is prioritizing the protection of Mac App Store users who prefer simple apps and games over the power-users and developers who require apps that push the Macintosh platform forward.

Yesterday Apple updated several of its Mac and iOS apps, making them available for free on Mac OS and iOS.

MacRumors has the story:

iMovie, Numbers, Keynote, Pages, and GarageBand for both Mac and iOS devices have been updated and are now listed in the App Store for free.

Previously, all of these apps were provided for free to customers who purchased a new Mac or iOS device, but now that purchase is not required to get the software. Many Apple customers were already likely eligible to download the software at no cost if they had made a device purchase in the last few years.

Hackintosh users will no doubt take advantage of Apple’s generosity even if using these apps on commodity PC hardware is against the terms of the license agreement. The real winners though are schools and business who won’t have to worry about managing these essential iApps using apple’s confusing Volume Purchase Program.

Yesterday NVIDIA revealed they would be releasing Mac OS drivers for their Pascal microarchitecture GPUs. “This comes despite the fact that Apple hasn’t sold a Mac Pro that can officially accept a PCIe video card in almost half a decade.”

So why is NVIDIA releasing a Mac driver to a market that, officially speaking, is essentially dead? Ryan Smith writing for AnandTech explains:

Instead it’s the off-label use that makes this announcement interesting, and indeed gives NVIDIA any reason whatsoever to make a Pascal driver release. Within the Mac community there are small but none the less vocal user groups based around both unsupported external GPUs and not-even-Apple-hardware Hackintoshes. In the case of the former, while macOS doesn’t support external GPUs (and isn’t certified as eGFX complaint by Intel), it’s possible to use Macs with Thunderbolt eGFX chassis with a bit of OS patching. Meanwhile with a bit more hacking, it’s entirely possible to get macOS running on a custom-built PC, leading to the now long-running Hackintosh space.

As a Hackintosh user I am surprised by this announcement. Hackintosh and eGPU users are a small but vocal percentage of the Mac OS user base. I honestly didn’t think NVIDIA would commit to supporting their latest GPU architecture on unsupported systems, but then again maybe my line of thinking has been clouded by an Apple state of mind.

Before NVIDIA’s announcement I was in process of selling my main Hackintosh with a Pascal-based GTX 1060 installed. Now I might consider changing my plans, unless someone makes me a decent offer first.