Thord D. Hedengren

ℹ️ This is an archived legacy site for link purposes only.

Tag: Apple

  • Thoughts on the iPad Air 2

    Thoughts on the iPad Air 2

    I’ve been using the iPad Air 2 for a few days now, and I’ve got some thoughts. I’m coming from using both the original iPad Air (still available), and the iPad formerly known as iPad mini with retina display, now just plain iPad mini 2.

    To me, iPad Air 2 is the perfect iPad. That’s because I create as much as I consume on my (primary) iPad. I picked up the iPad mini with retina display last year to question this, because the iPad Air felt unnecessarily big when reading. Granted, the iPad mini form factor is lovely, superior even, for reading, and I do that quite a lot. But I write a lot too, and edit texts, and although I often rely on external keyboards, there’s still a difference thanks to the screen size.

    But I digress. This piece is about the iPad Air 2. It’s also about how the device is reviewed, sort of, without turning into too much of a meta review.

    (more…)

  • Thoughts on the new Mac mini

    Macminicolo is something as odd as a web host, or datacenter rather, that only uses Mac mini computers. That actually makes a lot of sense, because these things are affordable, durable, and has a small energy footprint. It’s always nice to see what these guys has to say about new Mac mini models, and the bump Apple did on the October event is no different. They list ten things about the new Mac mini here, and if you’re even the slightest interested in this computer, then at least glance through this one.

    Not everyone’s happy about this update. Much like most of Apple’s computers, the new Mac mini isn’t easy to upgrade yourself. The RAMs not accessible at all, and it you want to swap out the harddrive you’ll void the warranty. The baseplate on the previous model, where you easily could open up your Mac mini, now features nasty screws. This is not a computer you’re supposed to open up and upgrade.

    (more…)

  • Hur bra förutspådde jag Apples oktoberevent?

    Det är alltid kul att se hur bortgjord man blir efter en förutsägelse. Jag postade mina tankar inför Apples oktoberevent, vilket gick av stapeln igår kväll, och det blev väl… Ja, hur blev det egentligen?

    • Ny iMac blev det, vilket jag trodde, men inte i flera olika färger dessvärre.
    • Det blev ingen bump av någon MacBook-modell, inte helt oväntat men jag trodde ändå det skulle bli något litet i samband med eventet. Förvisso inte för sent än, men Intel verkar vara ganska långt borta med sina nya processorer, och såväl Air som Pro har fått uppdateringar hyfsat nyligen.
    • På tal om det, ingen MacBook Air med retina-skärm, och ingen tolvtums-Air, som jag trodde.
    • Mac mini fick en bump, med smärre förändringar i portarna, vilket jag förutspådde.
    • Mac Pro nämndes inte alls. Jag trodde på en mindre bump här, inte för att det finns några nya processorer att stoppa in, men den börjar bli lite gammal.
    • Inga Thunderbolt-skärmar, som jag trodde.
    • Apple släppte OS X Yosemite, som väntat och förutspått.
    • Inga nya iPod touch-modeller, som jag trodde.
    • Apple pratade inte om HomeKit, vilket jag trodde. Däremot hade jag rätt i att det inte blev någon ball App Store-version av Apple TV. Tyvärr.
    • Nya iPad Air, kallad iPad Air 2, är tunnare och bättre, med Touch ID, som väntat.
    • Nya iPad mini heter iPad mini 3 och är en mindre uppdatering än jag trodde. Den fick Touch ID, och inte så mycket mer än det.
    • Prissänkningen på iPad-modellerna var förvånande.
    • Slutligen, ingen ny stor iPad-modell, som jag trodde.

    Hyfsat ändå, tycker jag. Klarade du dig bättre?

  • Don't hold your breath for Apple to release Thunderbolt displays

    Marco Arment explains why there’s no Thunderbolt displays on the horizon.

    Pushing this many pixels requires more bandwidth than DisplayPort 1.2 offers, which is what Thunderbolt 2 ports use for outputting video signals. (I wrote about this a few times.) Doing it right will require waiting until DisplayPort 1.3 in Thunderbolt 3 on Broadwell’s successor, Skylake, which isn’t supposed to come out for at least another year — and Intel is even worse at estimating ship dates than I am, so it’s likely to be longer.

    It may be possible to use two Thunderbolt 2 cables to power a 5K display, but only if the GPU could treat each port as its own full-bandwidth DisplayPort 1.2 channel, the sum of which represented one logical display, and had the panel using something like MST to combine the two at the other end. But the only Mac with more than one Thunderbolt bus (not port) is the current Mac Pro, and I can’t see today’s Apple shipping an external display that none of their laptops can use.

    There is no way Apple will launch proper 5K retina Thunderbolt displays, on par with the new retina iMac, anytime soon. I based my predictions on the matter on the same basis.

  • U2's Songs of Innocence will be free forever, somewhere

    Sure, the Apple and U2 promotion of the latter’s album Songs of Innocence could’ve been executed a lot better. The biggest problem were for people with the setting to download new purchases automatically, because the album essentially was a new purchase, albeit free and unintended, and thus it’d dowbload to your device(s). It would’ve been much better to just promote the hell out of a link to the album’s page on iTunes, and just set the price to free. Not as disruptive obviously, but without the backlash and its removal tool.

    Still, I think the whole thing got a bit carried away. You got a somewhat decent rock album from one of the biggest bands in the world for free. Not everyone’ll like the music, but it’s not like it cost you anything. Except space if you have automatic downloads enabled (which I don’t, I use iTunes Match and stream instead), and you can always just remove the album from your device(s). It’s a fuckup, but not a big one, and not even remotely serious. There are more important things to worry about.

    (more…)

  • Jag förutspår Apples oktoberevent

    Den 16 oktober ska Apple övertyga oss om att köpa nya iPad-modeller, samt säkerligen Macar och annat. Jag har skrivit en essä om saken på TDH.me.

    The tagline, “It’s been way too long”, hints at a new iMac, I think. The fact that Apple’s using the rainbow colors makes me think there’ll be color variations of the new iMac yet again. All speculation of course. I’d also expect a Mac mini, but I don’t think there’ll be anything particularly interesting in terms of design there, just a bump and possibly some minor tweaks.

  • Predictions for Apple's October event

    Predictions for Apple's October event

    There’ll be an Apple event on October 16, and it’ll be livestreamed for all to see. The previous event, announcing the iPhone 6 models and showing off the Apple Watch, was a major fuckup for most viewers, so Apple’ll want to get this one right.

    The tagline, “It’s been way too long”, hints at a new iMac, I think. The fact that Apple’s using the rainbow colors makes me think there’ll be color variations of the new iMac yet again. All speculation of course. I’d also expect a Mac mini, but I don’t think there’ll be anything particularly interesting in terms of design there, just a bump and possibly some minor tweaks.

    (more…)

  • iOS 8 needs to pick up the pace

    The iOS 8 adoption rate is lagging behind iOS 7. From 9to5mac:

    iOS 8 gained only 1 point from 46% to 47% since September 21st which should have well exceeded 1% gain by the millions of new iPhone 6/Plus shipments alone – even if not one person had updated their iPhone 5/s/c. Even more confusing is that the “Earlier” category of iOS 6 and before devices actually grew in percentage from 5% to 6% over the previous two week period.

    I’m not sure if this is such a big deal just yet. There are a lot of 16 GB phones out there, and they tend to be pretty jampacked with apps, photos, and movies. That makes the iOS 8 update tough to install, since it’s requiring some 6 GB, at least in some cases. Still, if developer feels they can’t rely on iOS 8 growth similar to that of previous versions, then they won’t dare to rely on iOS 8 features exclusively. That’d be a shame, because iOS 8 is an under the hood release and it’s in all our best interest to see it widespread.

  • The importance of Dropbox

    The importance of Dropbox

    I’ve been a paying Dropbox user since forever, and I don’t intend to stop, despite some pretty serious competition. Assuming Dropbox won’t go all evil on us, it’s a resource I want to use. I’m trusting it with the bulk of my data right now, and I have for years.

    That said, I trust Apple more than I trust Dropbox. Apple entering the cloud game with iCloud Drive is great news, and my initial reaction to the announcement was, literally, ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!! That still stands, but I think Dropbox is more important than ever. The recent iCloud outages notwithstanding, I’m just not sure if Apple is ready for this. Data is important, and while an online sync and storage service isn’t a backup (seriously, backup your stuff elsewhere), the nuisance of losing data because of weird things happening is bad enough. And while I’ve yet to lose data from iCloud in any way, I have had some pretty poor syncing experiences. Granted, most of those are in third-party apps and the developers might be to blame, but still. That rarely happens with Dropbox, and when shit hits the fan, Dropbox has its versioning safety net, which I’ve been forced to use on a few occassions.

    (more…)

  • Gold iPad in October?

    Rumor has it that there’ll be a gold iPad in October, much like there are gold iPhone models. I’ve always thought it makes sense to use similar colors and types of casing across the mobile product line for Apple, and the only reason to omit gold from the iPad product line is if it looks bad on a larger device. Given that the iPhone 6 Plus is both huge and available in gold, I can’t see that as a reason not to have a gold iPad model anymore.

  • The Perfect MacBook

    Every MacBook I buy end up being the best one I’ve owned thus far. Considering this, I have absolute trust in Apple’s ability to iterate and relaunch its MacBook line at regular intervals. That said, following rumors about a retina MacBook Air, I can’t help but tell you what I think would be the perfect MacBook.

    It’s really simple. I want a 12″ retina MacBook Air that can power a 27″ retina screen. That means decent GPU, adequate CPU and RAM starting at 8 GB. I’d also want, nay need, 512 GB or more SSD for all my music and photos and whatnot, preferably without paying with one of my kidneys. None of this is science fiction, this isn’t a dream setup or anything, it’s just what I want.

    I hope Apple’ll replace both the 11″ (which is wide enough but the screen lack in physical height) and the 13″ Air with this 12″ device. Cut the bezel and you’ve got a machine that is essentially the size of the 11″ Air, just a wee bit taller, but closer to the 13″ when it comes to productivity.

    The 13″ retina MacBook Pro is the best computer I’ve ever had, and I absolutely adore the screen. But I could make do with the same retina resolution on a 12″ screen, 13″ would do with a slight bump in optimal resolution if anything. 12″ just makes more sense.

    That’s what I want, and that’s what I hope Apple’s got in store for me. That’s the computer I’d buy to replace my current one. At least for as long as I need a traditional laptop at all…

  • Stephen Fry Got It Right

    The Mac turned 30 years old a little while back, sparking not only articles and blog posts of nostalgia, but also this awesome Apple site celebrating the Mac. Among all the pieces, Stephen Fry’s post is the one I like the most. I especially like this part:

    What cannot be denied is that the first Macintosh changed my life completely. It made me want to write, I couldn’t wait to get to it every morning. If you compare computers to offices, the Mac was the equivalent of the most beautifully designed colourful space, with jazzy carpets on shiny oak floors, a pool table, wooden beams, a cappuccino machine, posters and great music playing. The rest of the world trudged into Microsoft’s operating system: a grey, soulless partitioned office, with nylon carpets, flickering fluorescent lamps and a faintly damp smell.

    Whatever tool you choose, the one that you’re happy with is the one that’ll let you perform best. I Stephen Fry’s case, back in the day, the Macintosh was empowering him, making him want to write. Today lots of writers dream of MacBook Airs because it just seems like a sexier way to churn out words than the black fat plastic Windows laptops they’re stuck with. It’s nothing special really, we all want better tools.

    (more…)

  • MFi Controllers And The iPod Touch

    With iOS 7, Apple’s mobile devices got support for controllers. That means that all those less than perfect platform games with crappy on-screen buttons can be enjoyable again, at least if the developers implement support for controllers. Which they no doubt will, this is a huge market and a big fat slap in the face of the traditional game companies, such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Welcome to the fray, Apple.

    Apple MFi Controller slide from WWDC
    Apple MFi Controller slide from WWDC

    When Apple announced and later launched both the iPhone 5c and 5s, there were no word of an iPod touch update. I found that peculiar, usually the iPod touch follow the iPhone in terms of horsepower, but not this time, at least not yet.

    It does make perfect sense though. The iPod touch update will be compatible with these new MFi, or Made for iOS (or iPhone, to be precise) controllers, they’ll fit in the nasty encasings that Logitech and numerous others no doubt will flood the market with, and they’ll make an even bigger bump in the handheld games market. I wouldn’t want to have spent tons of money on PlayStation Vita right now, if you know what I mean. The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch will continue to shake things up, more so than ever with the upcoming controllers.

    Both the iPhone and iPad have gotten great new models, for various price ranges. The iPod touch is a bit of an oddity in the lineup perhaps, but it’s selling, and I think Apple saved it for a later (minor) announcement. One that, combined with said controllers, will be another reason for Nintendo and Sony to loose sleep over their handheld business.

    It’s only progress, man.

  • The iPad Pro

    The iPad Pro

    There’s been rumors about a larger iPad for quite some time. I have no doubt that Apple have larger iPad prototypes than the 9.7″ full-sized iPad we can buy today. They have prototypes smaller than the iPad mini too. This is what product companies do, they create products, and the ones that they actually launch are ideally just a small part of all the ideas that have passed through R&D.

    With that in mind, let’s speculate a bit, dream even, about an iPad Pro, much like the e-ink typewriter I’ve written about previously.

    The iOS operating system isn’t just for content consumptions anymore, and hasn’t been for a long time. The case for the iPad Pro has gotten a lot stronger this year though, because Apple are talking about it, in strong terms (and not just this). People are doing this, people are doing that with their iPads. Creating music, writing, drawing and illustrating, doing mockups and design, and so on. Nothing new there, iPad users have been creating things using their devices since launch day. It’s just gotten a lot easier, and a lot more accessible thanks to better apps, better accessories, and better iPads too. Personally, I often rely solely on the iPad in my work, it’s a great tool.

    But it’s a bit small, isn’t it?

    (more…)

  • Apple's New iPhone Lineup

    You’ve probably heard that Apple has announced (and released, in some parts of the world) two new iPhones: the 5c and the 5s.

    The iPhone 5c is the long rumored plastic iPhone, the one analysts thought would be cheap but wasn’t. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5s is exactly what everyone expected, which means that it’s a spec bump on the original iPhone 5, with some new features (64-bit processor, motion chip, fingerprint scanner). These products have been covered immensely elsewhere, so I’ll just point you to Apple’s product pages for more information.

    (more…)