Posts in news

La Roche-Posay Debuts My Skin Track UV, a Solar-Powered UV, Pollution, Pollen, and Humidity Wearable

La Roche-Posay has introduced a new wearable device today called the My Skin Track UV. As the name suggests, the device tracks ultraviolet light (UVA and UVB) exposure, but there’s more to it than that.

The company says its new device also tracks pollution levels, pollen, and humidity. That’s a combination that should provide users with a much broader set of data about their environment as they move throughout the day. The device is tiny and water resistant too at just 12mm wide, 6mm high, 17.4 grams, and with an IP67 water resistance rating (the same as the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and 8 Plus).

Another nice touch is that the My Skin Track UV is solar powered so it doesn’t need to be recharged. Clip it to your clothing or something you carry with you every day and La Roche-Posay says the device will remain powered, collecting data.

La Roche-Posay’s website describes the technology behind the device:

The light emitting diode (LED) is used as a detector to capture UV light. This energy will be read by transferring data from the sensor to your phone using Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology. Based on your UV exposure and environmental factors, the app uses an intelligent algorithm backed by over 25 scientific studies to warn you when your environmental exposure is at a level recognized to contribute to your specific skin concern.

One downside of the device’s use of NFC is that it requires users to manually scan it periodically using the companion app to transfer the collected data to the iPhone. The app, which integrates with Apple’s Health app, also offers skin health recommendations.

The My Skin Track UV is available exclusively at select Apple Stores and apple.com for $59.95. We will have a complete hands-on review of the My Skin Track UV device on MacStories soon.

Spotify Debuts on Apple Watch, Promising Advanced Features Still to Come

The latest version of Spotify for iOS has been released, and it includes the music player’s first Apple Watch app. The App Store release notes stress this is merely a “first version” of the Watch app, which is reassuring considering how limited the app is now.

Spotify’s Watch app currently serves as a way to start playback of recently played music, and control that playback via play/pause, skip, and volume controls. You can also choose a connected device to send music to, and like a song to add it to your collection. And that’s it.

As a 1.0, Spotify’s Watch app covers the basics well. I’m especially pleased that volume control via the Digital Crown is enabled here. Spotify has designed its own custom volume indicator, visualized as a vertical dotted line in the upper right corner of the screen, and it’s especially satisfying to see each area of the line fill in sync with the haptic clicks of the Series 4 Watch’s Digital Crown.

One strikingly disappointing oversight is that Spotify isn’t optimized for the new 40 and 44mm Series 4 displays, as you’ll notice in the framed images above. Launching two months after new devices debut, but without support for those devices, is not a good look. I’m hopeful we won’t have to wait long for that issue to be remedied, though. In its announcement post for the Watch app, Spotify candidly acknowledged that there’s plenty more work to be done to create the best Watch experience – “we have many exciting things coming up —including the ability to listen to your music and podcasts offline.” Surely support for modern Watch displays is one of those ‘exciting things.’

Apple’s Clips Introduces New Selfie Scenes, Filters, and More

On launch day for the new iPad Pros, which feature the iPhone’s TrueDepth camera system for the first time, Apple has upgraded its Clips video app with new features that take advantage of TrueDepth’s power. Today’s update also brings new camera filters, posters, stickers, and soundtrack options.

If you have an iPhone X, XS, or XR, or one of the new iPad Pros, the highlight of this release is a batch of six new Selfie Scenes. Last year when the iPhone X launched, Clips debuted Selfie Scenes as a fun and impressive way to utilize the new device’s TrueDepth camera system. Selfie Scenes isolate you from your environment and replace your surroundings with interesting digital backgrounds, such as the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, or an animated world. The new scenes added in today’s update are called Clouds, High Noon, Big Backyard, Monster Lab, Animal Forest, and Municiberg Mayhem, a scene from The Incredibles 2. They’re all a lot of fun, providing different moods through sound effects and music. Apple says that Selfie Scenes perform better than ever on recent devices thanks to the A12 Bionic’s Neural Engine, and in my tests I did notice that the scenes were smoother and more responsive than before.

Filters and soundtracks are Clips’ next most substantial upgrades. There are three new filters: Comic Mono, Watercolor Mono, and Aged Film. Of these, the latter is easily my favorite, as the first two are only monochrome versions of existing filters. On the soundtrack side, there are a whopping 17 new tunes to choose from for your videos.

Every major Clips update adds a host of new posters, stickers, and text labels, and today’s is no exception. Continuing Apple’s partnership with Disney, there are poster options from Coco and The Incredibles 2, as well as designs related to sports, science, and more.

Though the app’s development cycle has slowed, Apple continues to plug away making Clips a great tool for short video creation. My biggest wish for the app – non-square video – has still gone unfulfilled, but hopefully one day we’ll get that change. Until then, the Selfie Scenes are a fun demo of the newest iPhones and iPad Pros, and Clips continues to be the most enjoyable video creation tool I’ve ever used. I think Apple’s on to something here, but the square video restriction continues to hold Clips back.

Apple Updates GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, iMovie, and Keynote

As new iPad Pros are delivered worldwide today, Apple has released updates to GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, iMovie, and Keynote.

GarageBand adds support for keyboard shortcuts for the iPad Pro Smart Keyboard and other Bluetooth keyboards. The app also adds a Wah stompbox pedal and Face Control for the Smart Guitar.

Pages can now publish straight to Apple Books from both the iOS and Mac versions of the app.

iMovie adds support for mirroring and video previewing from the new iPad Pros to external displays. The video previews added to iMovie are not surprising given the press shots published by Apple last week demonstrating the feature and can handle uncompressed 4K output. The Mac version of iMovie also removes the option to publish directly to Facebook. Instead, the app can export to a Facebook-compatible format.

Finally, Numbers and Keynote also received updates, which are described merely as ‘stability and performance improvements.’

MacBook Air and Mac mini Review Roundup: Welcome Updates to Apple’s Mac Lineup

Tomorrow, Apple will begin delivering new MacBook Airs and Mac minis to customers around the world. It’s been a long time since either computer was updated; too long many would say. John Gruber of Daring Fireball asked around about the period between updates:

Behind the scenes last week in New York, I asked a few folks from Apple for any sort of hint why these two Macs — the MacBook Air and Mac Mini — went so long between updates. One thing I was told is that Apple wants to focus on “meaningful updates”. The days of “speed bump” updates are largely over. The value just isn’t there.

That may not be a message that long-time Mac users want to hear, but it’s consistent with recent history and seems to be supported by the reviews published today. Regardless of the backstory though, both new Macs are substantial updates that have received generally favorable reviews.

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iPad Pro Review Roundup: Impressive Hardware Held Back by iOS Limitations

The initial reviews of Apple’s new iPad Pros are out. There is a general consensus that the hardware is impressive, but many reviewers conclude that limitations of iOS are holding the device back. Here are highlights from some of the reviews:

Performance

Laptop Magazine sums up what many reviewers discovered about the iPad Pro’s hardware:

The iPad Pro is the quintessential tablet for power users and creative pros. It’s so fast that I imagine the likes of Qualcomm and Intel are getting nervous. This tablet wiped the floor with premium Windows laptops and 2-in-1s, in both benchmarks and real-world tests. The iPad Pro’s display, sound and battery life are also top-notch, and the improved Apple Pencil is more comfortable and easier to store.

John Gruber, writing for Daring Fireball says:

“No one buys an iPad because of CPU benchmarks”, I wrote last year. I don’t think that’s true any more. I think there are people who will and should buy the new iPad Pro because of its performance. At the hands-on area after last week’s event, Apple was showing Adobe Lightroom editing 50 megapixel RAW images from a Hasselblad camera. The photos were by Austin Mann, who was there, and helpfully demoed the software, showing what a real pro photographer would do in real life with real images. The experience was completely fluid and instantaneous.

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Apple Q4 2018 Results: $62.9 Billion Revenue, 46.9 Million iPhones, 9.7 Million iPads Sold

Apple has just published its financial results for Q4 2018. The company posted revenue of $62.9 billion. Apple sold 9.7 million iPads, 46.9 million iPhones, and 5.3 million Macs during the quarter.

We’re thrilled to report Apple’s best June quarter ever, and our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our Q3 results were driven by continued strong sales of iPhone, Services and Wearables, and we are very excited about the products and services in our pipeline.

Estimates and Expectations for Q4 2018, and the Year-Ago Quarter (Q4 2017)

Apple’s revenue guidance for Q4 2018 fell between $60 billion and $62 billion, with gross margin estimated to be between 38% and 38.5%.

Going into today’s earnings call, The Motley Fool reports that:

For the fiscal fourth quarter, Apple is expecting revenue of $60 billion to $62 billion, which would represent year-over-year growth of 14% to 18%. The company is also calling for gross margin of 38% to 38.5%, and operating expenses of about $8 billion.

Analysts’ consensus estimates are calling for revenue of $61.48 billion, up 16.9% year over year and near the high end of Apple’s forecast; earnings per share are being pegged at $2.78, rising 34.3% compared to the prior-year quarter.

In the year-ago quarter (Q4 2017), Apple earned $52.58 billion in revenue. During that quarter Apple sold 46.7 million iPhones, 10.3 million iPads, and 5.4 million Macs.

Graphical Visualization

Below, we’ve compiled a graphical visualization of Apple’s Q4 2018 financial results.

After the break, more charts and commentary on Apple’s Q4 earnings on Twitter:

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October 30 Roundup: All the Little Things

Today’s Apple event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House introduced new MacBook Air, Mac mini, and iPad Pro, but there were also a lot of small details revealed outside the keynote in press releases, on product webpages, and elsewhere. Below is a roundup of some of the most interesting details you may have missed.

The Event

iPad Pros

Apple Pencil

Macs

You can also follow all of our Apple event coverage through our October 30, 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated October 30, 2018 RSS feed.

Pixelmator Photo Is Coming to the iPad Later This Year

I use Pixelmator Pro almost every day on my Mac. A lot of the time, that’s for simple edits to screenshots, but I also use it for more complex layered images and editing photos. I’ve enjoyed the iOS version a lot too, but with the introduction of Pixelmator Pro on the Mac, development of the iOS version slowed. I still use the iOS app, but it’s in need of an update, which is why I was so pleased to see Pixelmator Photo teased at today’s Apple event in New York.

Pixelmator Photo will be out later this year. The app, which was first mentioned when Pixelmator Pro launched almost a year ago, is an iPad-only photo editing app that appears to closely follow the design of the Mac app and include much of its functionality too. In addition to being highlighted during Apple’s keynote today, Pixelmator Photo was on the iPads in the hands-on area after the event where Federico had a chance to try the app for a short time and was impressed.

Pixelmator Photo's image editing UI (right) is very similar to Pixelmator Pro's on the Mac (left).

Pixelmator Photo’s image editing UI (right) is very similar to Pixelmator Pro’s on the Mac (left).

According to the Pixelmator team’s preview webpage, the app:

features a collection of nondestructive, desktop-class photo editing tools, a set of stunning, machine learning-enhanced film emulation presets, a magical Repair tool to remove unwanted objects from your photos, support for editing RAW images, and more.

Pixelmator says the app will include non-destructive color adjustments including Levels, Curves, Hue & Saturation, Selective Color, and Black & White as well as Repair and Cropping tools. The app will also support RAW image editing and the ML Fix feature recently introduced in the Mac app. Machine learning will also be used to simulate analog film with a set of presets and power cropping suggestions.

Apple showed that it’s committed to offering pro-level hardware in the iPad line with the new 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pros today. Apps are the other half of the equation, and it’s encouraging to see Pixelmator Photos announced along with Adobe’s Photoshop, and other apps that will take advantage of Apple’s new hardware.

You can also follow all of our Apple event coverage through our October 30, 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated October 30, 2018 RSS feed.