Category: Apple Services

My daily Apple blog for Computerworld

• Alexa wins the Apple App Store as voice control takes over July 17, 2019
  We are all spending more time talking to our computers. This is a changing interaction with machines. Amazon’s meteoric climb up the Apple App Store charts should be all the proof you need that the age of voice is here.Hey Siri, speak to Alexa While most of the tech press involved itself in writing endless […]
• How to take control of Face ID (with tools you may not know exist) July 15, 2019
  If you travel frequently and use an iPhone or iPad, then you simply must familiarize yourself with these two tips – they’ll make it much easier to secure your device and its contents when you are on the move.In praise of Face ID I’ve become very used to using Face ID. It’s seamless.On the iPhone, […]
• Apple’s AR glasses may be coming sooner than we think July 12, 2019
  There’s a claim Apple has canned development of AR glasses. This makes no sense to me – I think it means they are coming sooner than we thought.Through an (augmented) glass darkly “Apple has suspended the development of head-mounted display (HMD) AR/VR headsets, and already disbanded its team for the development of AR/VR HMDs,” Digitimes claims […]
• One day you’ll wear your Mac like sunglasses July 10, 2019
  What happens if your AirPods become your primary connection with all your computing devices, accessed in the cloud?What if you could interact with remote systems using Voice Control? That’s a nice dream, I guess, but the big challenge to developing voice-based user interfaces is authorization. How does a computer know who you are?Nuance just might […]
• How Apple is improving iCloud this year July 9, 2019
  Apple quite evidently plans many interesting improvements in its iCloud service this year. So, what’s going on?What we know so far about Apple's iCloud plans Apple at WWDC made several announcements that will be reliant on iCloud – these include obvious things like new services and support for new functions, and less evident topics around […]
• How to use your iPad as a second Mac display with Sidecar July 8, 2019
  We’ve already looked at many of the multitasking features you’ll find in iPadOS, but one of the most useful may be the Mac-compatible Sidecar mode, which lets you use your Apple tablet as a secondary display.What is Sidecar? Available to Mac users who have iPads running the most current edition of the OS, Sidecar enables […]
• The big picture on Apple's vision for computer vision in iOS 13 July 3, 2019
  Apple has been firmly focused on photography since the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, and this devotion comes into its own with the on-device computer vision AI it brings in iOS 13.On-device image intelligence Apple has developed powerful image intelligence features in its devices, creating tools iOS users and developers can make use […]
• How to replace Back to My Mac now that Apple has killed it July 2, 2019
  Now that macOS Catalina public beta testing has begun, Apple today made good its promise to disable its Back to My Mac remote access feature for all versions of its Mac operating systems. What alternatives exist?What has Apple done? Back to My Mac allowed users to connect directly to one or more Macs to get […]
• The age of iApple is over July 1, 2019
  Once upon a time there was a company with a few weeks left to live in desperate search of leadership and a good idea. That’s the Apple story that got us here:Change is here The Apple that gave us the iMac reflected a time when liberal individualism was at its highest point.In this context, it […]
• Designer, find thyself: Farewell to Jony Ive June 28, 2019
  Apple surprised everybody Thursday with news of the imminent departure of its Chief Design Officer, Sir Jony Ive. And while it is certainly the end of an era, the company will prevail.Why is Ive leaving? There are hundreds of hot takes around, but it seems likely the simplest answer is the most accurate: He needed a […]