Apple Event April 20

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I’ve got a gel case on the TV remote, but it didn’t really help much. That trackpad is demonic and has a mind of its own! Well, at least it is nearly impossible for me to hold it without touching the darn trackpad even when I’m trying to avoid it. I’m a plus 1 for not liking trackpads of any kind, but the TV remote trackpad is really bad.

I hate that remote too. Have you seen the button remote by function 101? It's not Bluetooth so it doesn't have Siri but as the name implies it's a remote with buttons for the Apple TV. Might be worth a look if Apple doesn't come out with anything new.

I ended up selling my Apple TV 4k and getting a Fire TV 4K. There's nothing I was doing on the ATV that I can't do on the Fire TV (well except properly sleep it, solved with a smart plug though) plus I get a better remote! Even has an Apple TV app for ATV+ and iTunes purchases.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I’ve got a gel case on the TV remote, but it didn’t really help much. That trackpad is demonic and has a mind of its own! Well, at least it is nearly impossible for me to hold it without touching the darn trackpad even when I’m trying to avoid it. I’m a plus 1 for not liking trackpads of any kind, but the TV remote trackpad is really bad.

I keep wishing that Apple would come up with a good remote app for the iPhone. I don't think they will though.

I still want to put together a good media server, but that's going to have to wait until Drobo is producing again, or some other 3rd party raid device that has the same capacity as the Drobo comes out.

[pwalker8]

The event is today. Usually, the rumor mill has correctly identified all the new products by now.

Some of the current rumors
- new redesigned iMac
- Podcast+ subscription server (why would I subscribe to a podcast service?)
- new iPads, entry level, mini and pro.
- new Apple TV, with new remote

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I keep wishing that Apple would come up with a good remote app for the iPhone. I don't think they will though.

I use the iPhone/iPad app for the remote occasionally, but only to type in searches. Otherwise it is too lame and too inconvenient to use. I mostly use it on my iPad because I hate typing on my iPhone XR. Fat fingers on little screen is not a good thing!

My Sony HDMI-CEC remote does a pretty good job with the TV. It doesn't do everything the TV App/Home button does though, and Apple made the remote where the Home button cannot be copied to programmable remote. Mainly the only thing my Sony remote won't do is allow me to drag App icons into another position. So I use the TV Remote to do that. I haven't tried using the iPad app for that yet, but I guess it would work as well. However, I rarely need to rearrange app icons, so it isn't that big of a deal.

Actually there are two things my Sony HDMI-CEC remote won’t do, it won't allow me to use Siri (or Alexa on my Fire TV Cube). No big deal though as I gave up on using either of those with the TV. I get tired of arguing with Alexa, and I get tired of her constantly trying to cram unwanted videos up my backside, so I turned the mic off on the cube. Siri is better behaved and doesn't seem to push too many suggestions at me, but I just don’t like using voice commands. I can usually do what I need quicker using a remote.

[binaryhermit]

When exactly is the event today?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

When exactly is the event today?

10:00am pacific time.

[binaryhermit]

Shoulda googled it.

Seems there will be a livestream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdBYVNuky1M

[OtinG]

A new TV 4K was announced with a slightly better remote. $179 and up. Uses A12 chip. Doesn’t seem like it is much of an upgrade from the current TV 4K though. The new remote has a round controller at the top similar to iPods from years ago. It looked like it was still a trackpad though, just round rather than square, but it does have right, left, up, and down arrows on the outer circle, so maybe it works with a push too.

This is a pass for me though. I don’t see a reason to upgrade from my current TV 4K.

ETA: You can use your iPhone to color calibrate the new TV 4K to your TV. Nice feature if it really works well. Other than that, the only other noticeable upgrade was to the chip making it faster. My current TV 4K seems fast enough already, but I don’t watch sports very often.

[binaryhermit]

I'm... not a fan of the podcast subscription thing unless it lets you get them in non-Apple podcatchers through a personalized RSS feed like, say, Patreon does.

But knowing Apple and how they love lock-in, they'll only let Apple users do it. Which probably makes it DoA since a plurality of smartphone users in about every country that isn't the US or Japan have Android smartphones (about 90% worldwide).

[OtinG]

A new M1 iMac too, with 4.5K display. $1299 and up.

BTW, sorry I’m being lazy and not writing down all the specs and prices this time around. I’ve been under the weather lately and just don’t have the energy to mess with it, but you can easily get the info from other websites.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I'm... not a fan of the podcast subscription thing unless it lets you get them in non-Apple podcatchers through a personalized RSS feed like, say, Patreon does.

But knowing Apple and how they love lock-in, they'll only let Apple users do it. Which probably makes it DoA since a plurality of smartphone users in about every country that isn't the US or Japan have Android smartphones (about 90% worldwide).

I kind of zoned out during the Podcasts update announcements. Are they going to charge a subscription fee to use it now? If so they can forget it. We can find plenty of free sources for podcasts.

[OtinG]

New iPad Pro with M1 chip with 8 core CPU and 8 core GPU. Added a Thunderbolt port. New liquid retina XDR display with 10,000 mini LEDs on the 12.9” model. Upto 2 terabytes of storage and up to 16GB RAM.

11” starts at $799
12.9” starts at $1099

I’m not well versed in the 2020 Pro models, but the new ones seem to be a significant upgrade.

This might be a great tool for graphic artists, photographers, videographers etc, assuming iPadOS doesn’t limit it too much.

[OtinG]

That is all. The best upgrade is the iPad Pro 12.9” which seems like a workhorse. Fully loaded it might be extremely expensive though, and I’m doubtful that iPadOS has enough features and power to take full advantage of it. Now they need to create an iPadOS Pro.

No new iPad mini and no new Apple Pencil. So those predictions were incorrect.

[OtinG]

I must say that I really like the new pandemic version of Apple Events. I hated all those idiots sitting in an auditorium applauding everything and looking like the anti-IBM commercial released in 1984 for the first Mac. The humor was pretty good, especially the guy falling into the sofa “cave”.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I kind of zoned out during the Podcasts update announcements. Are they going to charge a subscription fee to use it now?

They'll let creators charge to access their content.