Soundbyte 293 – July 2019

ChristopherNews, SoundByte

Mac Pro

Welcome to Soundbyte. In this edition:

  • Details of our next meeting
  • The new Mac Pro
  • iPad OS
  • Sir Jony Ive to leave Apple

LMUG Meetings

Photo Walk – 7pm July 8, 2019

Our next meeting on July 8 will not be in the Sir John Balcombe. Instead. Please join us in Rathbone Place for a photo-walk around the west end.

Please note the special location for this meetup. We’ll start at Park Cameras, Rathborne place near the east of Oxford Streen. Bring your best camera (or buy one in store!).

Nearest Tube is Tottenham Court Road. We hope to end our walk in a pub.

News

Last month was quite momentous for Apple. It had it’s most important WWDC (worldwide developer conference) for many years. Significant improvements are coming for all Apple devices in the next system updates. Perhaps most important are changes to the software developer tools to enable the creation of apps that span from the Watch to the Mac. If you are so inclined, you can watch all of the developer videos from the conference here.

But for the rest of us, you can catch-up on everything that happened with our excellent Technical Officer Alastair. watch his presentation of the main news from WWDC, covering Mac OS Catalina, iOS 13 and other news:

The New Mac Pro

Also announced at the conference was the new Mac Pro. A super high end desktop with a price only serious professionals can afford. UK pricing is not yet announced but expect the cheapest version to be around £6,000 with another £5000 for the new display and another £1,000 (!!) for a beautiful Apple designed stand to hold up the display. Either it is far beyond what you need; beyond what you can earn from your work to pay for it, or a bargain.

How can it be a bargain? Look at these videos about the screen and the new Mac Pro to get an idea:


The new Mac Pro certainly looks curious from the front. The lattice design improves the airflow, but eager observers have noticed that these are not completely new. Something similar has appeared somewhere before… on the G4 Cube!

Those less appreciative of the genius design have noticed that it looks like a cheese grater. Through the magic of 3D printing, someone has tested it’s effectiveness at grating cheese.

iPad OS

I have used an iPad as my main computer since 2011 (yes really). In terms of the changes coming this Autumn to Apple computers, the iPad’s changes will be the most transformational. All of the complaints from people trying to use the iPad like a regular desktop computer have been addressed.

Watch this video producer from the US test out the some of the new features in an early (buggy) beta:

Sir Jonathan Ive to leave Apple

Finally, this week we have suffered a shock. Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, is stepping down after nearly 30 years at Apple. The first product he worked on was the PowerBook 140. The first he designed himself: the Apple Newton MessagePad 110. But we all know about the iMac, iPod, iPhone, Apple Watch, the stores and perhaps his final creation: Apple Park.

Jonanthan Ive changed the world. It is truly the end of an era.

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