iOS and iPadOS 15 Review Extras: eBooks, Shortcuts, Making Of, Obsidian Plugins, Safari Extension Beta, and AppStories Live

By John Voorhees

Today, Federico published his iOS and iPadOS 15 review. The review has become the centerpiece of what is always a busy fall season at MacStories. It has also become a tradition that we release a wide variety of perks exclusively for Club MacStories members alongside Federico’s review.

MacStories Unwind: Apple Event Roundup, Epic Versus Apple, and Shazam

By John Voorhees

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Sponsored by: Shake – Bug, Feedback, and Crash Reporting Tool for Your Mobile App

This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

MacStories Weekly
- A collection of John’s favorite Apple event moments
- Accessorizing the new iPad mini
- AppStories will be recorded live in the Club MacStories+ Discord community next Monday, September 20th at 5:30 PM Eastern

AppStories

AppStories, Episode 240 – A Look at the HomeKit and tvOS Updates Coming Soon

Unwind

John’s Pick:
- John’s Apple Music Playlist: 2021 Mix

Apple’s September 14, 2021 Keynote: By the Numbers

By John Voorhees

As usual, Apple sprinkled facts, figures, and statistics throughout the keynote today. Here are highlights of some of those metrics from the event, which was held online from Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

iPhone 13 Lineup

iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini

28% brighter display
800 nits outdoors
1200 nits peak brightness for HDR content
The A15 Bionic has 15 billion transistors and 6 cores, 2 high-performance and 4 efficiency cores, making it 50% faster (than the competition)
4-core GPU that’s 30% faster
16-core Neural Engine that handles 15.8 trillion operations per second
The Wide camera has a 12MP sensor, 1.7 µm pixels that gather 47% more light, a ƒ/1.6 aperture, a 7-element lens, and a 26mm focal length.
The Ultra Wide lens has a 12MP, a ƒ/2.4 aperture, 13 mm focal length, 5-element lens, and 120-degree field of view
The iPhone 13 mini gets 1.5 and the iPhone 13 gets 2.5 more hours of battery life than the iPhone 12 models they replace.
Storage is available in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB

iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max

50% faster graphics
1000 nits peak outdoor brightness and 1200 nits peak brightness for HDR content
10 - 120 Hz screen refresh rate
Telephoto camera has a 77mm focal length and 3x optical zoom
Ultra Wide camera has ƒ/1.8 aperture, 6-element lens, and 92% better performance in low light
Wide camera has ƒ/1.5 aperture, 1.9 µm pixels, and up to 2.2x improvement in low light
The iPhone 13 Pro gets 1.5 and the iPhone 13 Pro Max gets 2.5 more hours of battery life than the iPhone 12 models they replace
Storage is available in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB
.25 mm thicker than the iPhone 12 Pro models and slightly heavier

iPads

iPad mini

40% faster CPU
80% faster GPU
8.3” display
500 nits of screen brightness
2x faster machine learning
10x faster data transfers with USB-C
5G delivers up to 3.5 Gbps download speeds under ideal conditions
12MP camera with ƒ/1.8 aperture
20W power adapter
.31” shorter than the mini it replaces and very slightly lighter

10.2” iPad

20% faster
3x faster than the top-selling Chromebook
6x faster than the leading Android tablet
12MP camera with 122-degree field of view

Apple Watch

40% thinner borders
Up to 70% brighter in low power mode
WR50 water resistance
33% faster charging than Series 6

You can follow all of our September Apple event coverage through our September 2021 event hub, or subscribe to the dedicated RSS feed.

Replay Apple’s September 14, 2021 Keynote and Other Videos

By John Voorhees

If you didn’t follow the live stream or announcements as they unfolded today, you can replay it on Apple’s Events site and catch the product videos on Apple’s YouTube channel.

The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the TV app. A high-quality version is also available through Apple Podcasts as a video and audio podcast. There is also an American Sign Language version of the event, which is available here.

Apple Announces New iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch Availability

By John Voorhees

Apple announced the following pre-order and availability dates for the products announced today:

iPhones

iPhone 13 mini
- Pre-order: September 17
- Availability: September 24
iPhone 13
- Pre-order: September 17
- Availability: September 24
iPhone 13 Pro
- Pre-order: September 17
- Availability: September 24
iPhone 13 Pro Max
- Pre-order: September 17
- Availability: September 24

iPads

10.2” iPad
- Pre-order: Today
- Availability: September 24
iPad mini
- Pre-order: Today
- Availability: September 24

Apple Watch 7

Pre-order: Later this fall
Availability: Later this fall

iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8

Availability: September 20

You can follow all of our September Apple event coverage through our September 2021 event hub, or subscribe to the dedicated RSS feed.

Shazam Crosses 1 Billion Songs Recognized from Control Center

By John Voorhees

Today, Shazam surpassed 1 billion songs recognized using its Music Recognition control available in iOS and iPadOS’s Control Center. That’s a huge number, especially considering that the feature was first added in iOS and iPadOS 14.2 less than a year ago.

The Music Recognition control can be added to Control Center from the Settings app. When tapped, the feature creates a digital fingerprint of the audio and sends it over the Internet for matching against Shazam’s database of songs, securely and privately making a match without sending the actual audio. In addition to recognizing songs playing around you, the feature can recognize songs played in any app and even while you’re wearing AirPods.

According to Apple, the ten most Shazamed songs from Control Center are:

“Talking To The Moon” - Bruno Mars
“Astronaut In The Ocean” - Masked Wolf
“MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” - Lil Nas X
“Beggin” - Måneskin
“Another Love” - Tom Odell
“Runaway” - AURORA
“Dick” - StarBoi3 Feat. Doja Cat
“Arcade” - Duncan Laurence
“Stay” - The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber
“drivers license” - Olivia Rodrigo

Earlier this summer, the Shazam app crossed 1 billion daily songs recognized and a lifetime total of over 50 billion. With the release of iOS and iPadOS 15, developers will be able to incorporate song recognition into their own apps using ShazamKit, which will undoubtedly accelerate the number of songs recognized even further.

Viewing recently recognized songs from Control Center.

The Music Recognition control doesn’t save songs it recognizes to the Shazam app, which I wish it did, but when iOS and iPadOS 15 are released, users will be able to touch and hold the control to reveal a list of recently-recognized songs. Selecting a song from the list opens it in the Shazam app. Alternately, you can swipe left on an entry to delete it.

I’ve used Shazam since long before it was acquired by Apple, and the Music Recognition control has become one of my most-used Control Center features since it launched. Whether I’m out somewhere and hear a song I like or watching a TV show with an interesting soundtrack, quickly swiping down to access Control Center has become an ingrained habit at this point.