MacStories Weekly: Issue 295
MacStories Unwind: Apple’s Music and MacBook Pro Event, a Great Safari Extension, and Yoink’s Clever Clipboard System
Sponsored by: Due – I Made the Most Annoying App. And People Loved It.
This week on MacStories Unwind:
MacStories
- Music
- Macs
- More Event Coverage
- Other Stories
Club MacStories
- MacStories Weekly
- Federico continues his series on his Obsidan setup with a look at how he’s using templates
- John on favorite moments from Monday’s event
- A Mac widget tip
- Lots of new apps
AppStories
Unwind
- John’s Pick:
- Foundation on TV+
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A Comprehensive Guide to 250+ of Apple Music’s New Mood and Activity Playlists
On Monday, Apple announced that it was expanding the integration between Siri and Apple Music. Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s co-head of Artist Relations and radio host, explained that the company’s team of music experts had created hundreds of playlists for moods and activities. Ask Siri to play a playlist for your dinner party, to help you relax, or for hiking and Lowe said Siri will start a playlist that fits the moment.
Apple also announced Apple Music Voice Plan, a $5/month tier for Apple Music that is operated using Siri. The new playlists are perfect for the new monthly plan, but they’re available to all Apple Music subscribers.
Apple’s Zane Lowe introduced the company’s new mood and activity playlists and Apple Music Voice Plan.
The playlists have begun showing up on Apple Music, so last night, Federico and I began searching the streaming service to see what’s new. What we found was over 250 playlists each designed to fit a mood or activity that use animated cover art with simple line drawings to set them apart from Apple’s other playlist. Although they were announced as Siri playlists during the event on Monday, anyone with an Apple Music subscription can view and play the new playlists in the Music app like any other playlist in the service’s collection.
Anyone with an Apple Music subscription can play the new mood and activity playlists in the Music app.
You won’t find a directory of the new mood and activity playlists in the Music app, and there’s no filter that can be applied to see the entire collection, so we’ve complied a massive link list of all the playlists we have been able to find so far, organized into categories. Think of it as a sort of ultimate MacStories Unwind weekend pick.
To make it fast and easy to access Apple’s new playlists, Federico has also created a shortcut organized by the categories. You can grab the shortcut below or visit the MacStories Shortcuts Archive where you’ll find it along with hundreds of other shortcuts we’ve published over the years.
Apple Music Siri Playlists
View and open Apple Music’s new playlists without using Siri.
We’ll add to this list as we find new playlists, so if you find one that you don’t see here, get in touch with me or Federico on Twitter and we’ll add it to the list.
Happy
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Apple Announces 100+ Tech Talks for Developers
Apple announced today that it will be conducting over 100 live sessions and 1,500 hours of one-on-one office hours over the next eight weeks for developers. According to Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations:
Every single day, developers around the world are creating incredible apps and games for our platforms, and it’s our goal to provide them with every resource we can to help make the hard work they put in that much easier and more impactful. Our team is looking forward to connecting with even more developers around the world so we can better support the important work of this incredibly valued community, and listen to and learn from them.
The live sessions are being held online around the world from Bengaluru, Cupertino, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo, making them accessible from a wide range of time zones. Each session, which will be led by someone from Apple and followed by a Q&A session. Topics will include many subjects, including SwiftUI, App Clips, HealthKit, machine learning, AR, and accessibility. Office hours are a chance for developers to get one-on-one assistance with their apps in 30-minutes sessions.
Tech Talks 2021 are free and available to members of the Apple Developer Program and the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. To register, visit developer.apple.com/tech-talks.
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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
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AppStories, Episode 245 – Apple’s October Music and MacBook Pro Event→
This week on AppStories, we are joined by Alex Guyot live in the Club MacStories+ Discord community for a special episode recapping and breaking down everything announced by Apple at its latest online event, including the Apple Music, HomePod, and AirPods 3 announcements and the all-new MacBook Pros.
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On AppStories+, Federico considers ditching his iPad mini’s Smart Cover for a sleeve, and John provides an update on his macOS Monterey review.
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Apple’s October 2021 Event: All The Small Things
Yesterday, Apple covered a lot of ground quickly, and as usual, more details have emerged in the aftermath of the event. We’ve been combing apple.com, Twitter, and other sources to learn more about the new MacBook Pros, AirPods 3 and more, which we’ve collected below:
MacBook Pro
- According to TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino, the 14” MacBook Pro can fast charge using a Thunderbolt port, while the 16” model only fast charges via MagSafe 3.
- Jason Snell explained on Twitter that the difference is likely the result of the USB-PD charging spec.
- Battery life is a function of what you do with your laptop and The Verge’s Mitchell Clark takes a critical look at Apple’s battery life claims, putting them in perspective
- Apple’s 140W USB-C Power Adapter, which the company sells for $99, is its first GaN charger according to MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol.
- You can purchase a two-meter USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable from Apple for $49
- As MacRumors reported and screenshots in Apple’s press releases suggested, the MacBook Pro’s notch is hidden in full-screen mode by a black bar.
- Speaking of the notch, Apple’s Serenity Caldwell tweeted yesterday that there is new HIG documentation for developers looking to design for the menu bar on the new MacBook Pros.
- As MacRumors’ Juli Clover explains, the MacBook Pro’s HDMI port is HDMI 2.0, which supports a single 4K display at 60Hz, which is disappointing since HDMI 2.1 supports a 120Hz refresh rate.
- There’s a striking resemblance between the new Silver MacBook Pro and the Titanium PowerBook G4
- The M1 Max’s memory bandwidth (400GB/s) is nearyly as fast as the PS5’s (448GB/s)
AirPods 3
- Tim Hardwick at MacRumors reports that listening to spatial audio reduces the life of the battery in the AirPods 3 from 6 to 5 hours
- AirPods 3 require iOS and iPadOS 13 and later.
- As MacRumors noted, Apple has broken out AirPods on its website, giving it a tab that is separate from TV & Home
Everything Else
- The latest betas of iPadOS and macOS have brought back standard Safari tabs, relegating the compact mode to Safari’s preferences as Steve Troughton-Smith discovered
- Originally an exclusive Pro Display XDR accessory, now you too can own an Apple Polishing Cloth suitable for all of your Apple device screens for just $19. Coming soon, ‘Apple Polishing Cloth: The MacStories Review’
- macOS Monterey’s Universal Control is coming later this fall, according to Parker Ortolani
- Likewise, SharePlay and Photos Memories have also been pushed to later this fall in macOS Monterey
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Mapper Safari Extension Automatically Redirects Google Maps Links to Apple Maps
Ever since Apple rolled out the redesigned and improved Apple Maps in Italy last month, I’ve been increasingly switching my usage of maps for exploration and turn-by-turn directions from Google to Apple Maps. I prefer Apple’s overall design sensibilities, I find Look Around drastically superior to Google Street View, and the integration with Apple Maps and the Lock Screen for turn-by-turn navigation is excellent.
However, I still have to keep Google Maps installed on my iPhone for all those times when a particular point of interest (usually a shop or restaurant) isn’t showing up in Apple Maps’ search results. And because the Google Maps app is still installed on my iPhone, every time I tap a search result with an address from Google search, it automatically redirects to Google Maps. I’ve always found this annoying, but now even more so since I consider Apple Maps my primary navigation app here in Rome.1 Now, thanks to a Safari extension, that Google Maps redirect nightmare is finally over.
Access Extra Content and Perks
Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
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Yoink Brings Background Clipboard Monitoring to iOS and iPadOS 15 via Picture in Picture Workaround
In the years I’ve spent working on iPad as my primary computer, I’ve learned to appreciate the platform’s advantages over the Mac (a richer app ecosystem and superior modularity, for instance), and I’ve accepted its limitations. Despite the advances in the past 18 months with iPadOS 14, the Magic Keyboard, and iPadOS 15, there are still several areas where iPadOS falls short: I can’t record podcasts on it with the setup I like (unless I deal with some ridiculous cable shenanigans); the Files app still lacks Finder features such as smart folders or the ability to navigate into hidden folders; and, due to Apple’s restrictions, iPad utilities like clipboard managers can’t run persistently in the background like they can on a Mac.
While I continue to believe Apple will have to address these issues in the next iterations of iPadOS, Matthias Gansrigler didn’t want to wait for Apple to let his clipboard manager Yoink run continuously in the background and automatically capture anything the user copies to the system clipboard. So, using a clever workaround made by possible by new APIs introduced in iOS and iPadOS 15, he figured out how to turn Yoink – already a capable and modern clipboard manager and shelf app – into a “true” clipboard manager that, like those you may have seen on macOS, can monitor everything you copy and automatically save it for you. The result is unlike anything else I’ve seen on iOS and iPadOS, and it unlocks the kind of flexibility and peace of mind I’ve long missed from macOS. It’s almost too good to be true, and I hope I won’t cause any trouble by writing about it.
Access Extra Content and Perks
Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.
Apple’s October 18, 2021 Keynote: By the Numbers
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.
AirPods 3
- Features the H1 chip
- IPX4 water resistance
- Up to 6 hours of listening time (30 hours with the case) or 4 hours of talk time (20 hours with the case) on 1 charge
- 5 minutes in the case provides 1 hour of charge
M1 Pro and M1 Max
- The M1 Pro has up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth, while the M1 Max has 400GB/s
- The M1 Pro supports up to 32GB of unified memory and has a 256-bit LPDDR5 interface
- The M1 Max supports up to 64GB of unified memory and has a 512-bit LPDDR5 interface
- The CPUs of the M1 Pro and M1 Max are built with a 5-nanometer process and have 8 high-performance cores with a 192KB instruction cache, 128KB data cache, 24MB L2 cache, and and 2 high-efficiency cores with a 128KB instruction cache, 64KB data cache, and 4MB L2 cache
- The CPU of the M1 Pro and M1 Max is 70% faster than the M1
- There are 33.7 billion transistors on the M1 Pro and 57 billion on the M1 Max CPUs
- The M1 Pro’s GPU has 16 cores with 2048 execution units, up to 49,512 concurrent threads, 5.2 teraflops, 164 gigatexels/second, and 82 gigapixels/second
- The M1 Max’s GPU is 4x faster than the M1 and has 32 cores with 4096 execution units, up to 98,304 concurrent threads, 10.4 teraflops, 327 gigatexels/second, and 164 gigapixels/second
- There are 10,000 Universal apps available on the App Store
MacBook Pro
- The 16” MacBook Pro has a screen that is 16.2” diagonally, weighs 4.7 pounds, and is 16.8 mm thick
- The 14” MacBook Pro has a screen that is 14.2” diagonally, weighs 3.5 pounds, and is 15.5 mm thick
- The MacBook Pros have 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports, 1 HDMI port, 1 SDXC card slot, and 1 3.5 mm headphone jack
- The bezel around the MacBook Pro’s screen is 3.5 mm thin, which is 24% thinner on the sides and 60% thinner on the top
- The 16” MacBook Pro has 7.7 million pixels and the 14” MacBook Pro has 5.9 million
- Both screens refresh at up to 120Hz, have a sustained brightness of 1,000 nits, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits
- The screen of both models has a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio and can display 1 billion colors
- The FaceTime HD camera has a 1080p resolution, 4-element lens, and ƒ/2.0 aperture that enables a 2x improvement in low-light performance
- The new MacBook Pros have 3 microphones with a 60% lower noise floor and 6 speakers with 80% more bass
- The MacBook Pro’s SSDs write at up to 7.4GB/s and are available in up to 8TB configurations
- The 14” MacBook Pro gets 17 hours of video playback, which is 7 hours more than before or 11 hours of web browsing on a full battery charge, while the 16” model gets 21 hours of video playback for an improvement of 10 hours or up to 14 hours of web browsing
- The batteries can be fast charged to 50% in 30 minutes
You can follow all of our October Apple event coverage through our October 2021 event hub, or subscribe to the dedicated RSS feed.
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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.
What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.
Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;
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