This week on AppStories, we interview developer David Smith about watchOS, widgets, what the announcements at WWDC this year mean for developers and users, and David’s apps, including a new one he’s working on for the fall.
You can also follow our 2020 Summer OS Preview Series through our dedicated hub, or subscribe to its RSS feed.
An Interview with David Smith
This week Federico and John interview developer David Smith about watchOS, widgets, what the announcements at WWDC this year mean for developers and users, and David’s apps, including a new one he’s working on for the fall.
This week on MacStories Unwind:
There is far more media I’d like to try than I have time for. Between TV shows, movies, music, books and other reading, podcasts, and videogames, the supply of content far outstrips the time I have by an order of magnitude. As a result, I’m both picky and often slow to getting around to some media, especially games, which often require a substantial time commitment. The trouble is that it’s easy to lose track of games I’ve read about, that someone has recommended, and even those that I’m in the middle of playing if I can’t play regularly.
I’ve approached the problem in a lot of different ways. Text notes are a quick and portable solution but lack detail. Apps designed to track lots of different kinds of media have the benefit of consolidating everything in one place, but often don’t accommodate features specific to one kind of media. As a result, I’ve recently gravitated to apps that focus on just a single type of media. For videogames, that solution has been GameTrack, an app that we’ve covered in our Club MacStories newsletters in the past.
Q&A Question: I’m on a vision quest to find the right reader app for me. I’ve narrowed it down to Reeder and GoodLinks, both of which I like a lot. However, it bothers me that Reeder doesn’t display bylines in its Reader View because knowing the author of a story provides helpful context. Is there a...
Our Widget Wishlist Widgets are the sort of feature where the summer beta releases of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS don’t quite provide the full picture of what will be possible when those new OS versions launch this fall and third-party apps offer new widgets of their own. So while Federico, John, and I have been enjoying the...
App Debuts Noto The elegant and dynamic note-taking app Noto received a very nice update this week that brings a variety of big and small enhancements. One new feature is the ability to use Face ID or Touch ID to lock the app, so opening it and viewing your notes requires authentication. Another fantastic addition is...
This week on AppStories, we are joined by Guilherme Rambo for the first interview of the MacStories Summer OS Preview Series to talk about Mac Catalyst, SwiftUI, Apple Silicon, the App Store and more.
You can also follow our 2020 Summer OS Preview Series through our dedicated hub, or subscribe to its RSS feed.
Today, Apple revealed an update to the 27-inch 5K Retina iMac with faster processors, updated graphics, more storage, and new display features. Although the new 27-inch iMac’s design is identical to the existing model, this is still a significant update compared to the iMac it replaces.
According to Apple’s press release:
“Now more than ever, our customers are relying on the Mac. And many of them need the most powerful and capable iMac we’ve ever made,” said Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. “With blazing performance, double the memory, SSDs across the line with quadruple the storage, an even more stunning Retina 5K display, a better camera, higher fidelity speakers, and studio-quality mics, the 27-inch iMac is loaded with new features at the same price. It’s the ultimate desktop, to work, create, and communicate.”
Last updated in March 2019, the new iMac features 6 and 8-core 10th generation Intel CPUs that can reach speeds of up to 5.0GHz with Turbo Boost. Storage is all SSD now with transfer speeds up to 3.4GB/s when launching apps and large files. There’s also an 8TB SSD option for the first time, which is four times the storage available in the previous model. Until today, the standard configurations of the 27-inch iMac came with Fusion drives.
The new iMac has been upgraded to AMD Radeon Pro Series 5000 graphics. The display of the iMac is the same resolution as before, but now, it comes with a new nano-texture option first seen in the Pro Display XDR, which provides a low-reflection, matte finish, and it supports Apple’s True Tone technology. The new all-in-one desktop also includes a T2 chip for boot and data security, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and improved speakers and microphones.
Apple’s other iMacs received smaller updates today too. SSDs are now standard in the 21.5-inch model, although a Fusion Drive is still an option. Also, a 10-core Intel Xeon processor is now standard in the iMac Pro.
Today’s updates are in line with Apple’s statements during WWDC that the company had additional updates to Macs based on Intel CPUs in the pipeline. Although Macs with ARM processors are on the way later this year, Apple has not revealed which models will be converted to ARM first. Consequently, if you need a new desktop Mac, it’s still worth considering the Intel-based models, especially the new 27-inch iMac, which is substantially improved over its last iteration.
Federico
Ryan
