By Dan Moren

September 14, 2021 3:21 PM PT

Quick reactions to Apple’s iPhone 13 event

Note: This story has not been updated since 2021.

Sure seems like Apple’s got the whole “slickly produced video” thing down to a science, doesn’t it?

As expected, today’s event saw the wraps taken off the new iPhone 13 series, as well as the Apple Watch Series 7, a revamped iPad mini, and the ninth-generation iPad. With the presentation firmly in the rearview, it’s worth taking a quick look at what Apple showed off.

Lucky 13

Meet the new iPhone…similar to, but basically better than, the old iPhone. Every year, Apple improves the cameras and the processors in the iPhone, and this year’s no exception. But I did find it interesting that Apple chose to remark upon two less sexy features: improved battery life and better durability (or so Apple says). Both of those have real, tangible benefits to users, even if they’re not top-line marquee features. It’s always interesting to see Apple focus on things that make people’s iPhones last longer; it’s one place that seems be at odds with its business, since a functioning iPhone doesn’t necessarily need to be replaced as quickly.¹

Of course, the main attraction are the new cameras. They’re certainly the most visible bump² from year to year, and the larger sensors and trickle down of the sensor shift optical image stabilization is sure to provide a lot of benefit for low-light photography. Cinematic mode is wild to look at, but seems like a feature very much geared towards those shooting actual movies, not home videos. The engineering is amazingly impressive—it can anticipate when someone is about to enter a scene!?—but honestly, it seems more like a gimmick to me than something most people will use in day to day life.

One tidbit pointed out later by several sources: the iPhone 13 line is also the first to support dual eSIMs. As someone who’s been using eSIM for a few years now, I love the idea of being able to have two active; here’s hoping that transferring my iPhone 12 with an AT&T eSIM to an iPhone 13 is even easier than it was last year. (But I won’t hold my breath.)

But when all is said and done, I didn’t find the iPhone 13 to be the most compelling model Apple has ever rolled out. Frankly, were I not on the iPhone Upgrade Program, part of me thinks I might give the 13 a miss and wait to see what the 14 has to offer. I already feel like the iPhone 12 Pro is often more camera than I can put to good use; the 13 Pro feels like I ought to let it loose to shoot whatever it wants to—and if it can just go ahead and upload it to Instagram for me, all the better.

I do, however, really like that new Sierra Blue, even if I continue to wish Apple brought the same vibrant colors from the 13 and 13 mini to the Pro lineup.³

Seven game series

Looks like those rumors about a flat-sided redesign could not have been further from the truth. In introducing the Apple Watch Series 7, Jeff Williams emphasized that the corners were even more rounded than its predecessor, as well as incorporating a new “refractive edge”—if anything, Apple seems to be further embracing what’s become the iconic look and feel of the Apple Watch.

The Series 7 does, however, have a larger display, as rumored, which translates to slightly larger case sizes: up a millimeter each to 41mm and 45mm. The Series 7 also has a more crack-resistant crystal and better dust resistance, both of which ought to keep it ticking along pretty well.

The biggest question for me here are the colors. I love the look of the green Apple Watch, but I’ve been wearing a space gray model since the Apple Watch series 0, and I find myself trepidatious about switching to a color. What if it doesn’t complement what I’m wearing? I can switch a band; I can’t switch a watch case. Regardless, it would certainly be a bold look.

The addition of the onscreen keyboard is one Series 7 feature already provoking strong reactions. Developer Kosta Eleftheriou, who has been unflinching in his criticism of the App Store’s failures when it comes to scams, has already threatened to sue Apple for what he sees as copying his watch keyboard app, which was recently rejected from the App Store. As Jason wrote recently, you have to assume as a developer that when you add “missing” functionality to one of Apple’s devices that the company’s going to catch up eventually, and though the removal of his app from the store does seem petty, a court case probably won’t go very far.

There had been some back and forth in the weeks leading up to the event about manufacturing delays for the Apple Watch, and there appears to have been at least some truth to that: everything else Apple announced today had a concrete date associated with it; the Apple Watch is “available later this fall.” So, sometime between next week and December, presumably—which is great for me, as I’m still on the fence about replacing my Series 4.

The new iPad normal

The base-level iPad keeps getting more bang for its buck. That $329 price point is hard to beat, and with the addition of a True Tone display, doubled storage tiers, and the huge leap forward in front-facing cameras, this is an incredibly solid device, even if it isn’t breaking much new ground. The front-facing camera is particularly impressive: from a 1.2 megapixel FaceTime “HD” camera to a 12 megapixel Ultra Wide camera with Center Stage! You can bet Apple realizes how important video conferencing is on iPads.

The surprise for the iPad mini is that it indeed remains a product in Apple’s lineup. The update it got today was sizable—if you will—as it joins the ranks of the iPad Air, iPhone 12 (and later), and iPad Pro in Apple’s modern design language. I’d expect this version of the mini to last for a few years before getting another update, but with the latest and greatest A15 processor, it ought to hold out for a good long while.

The update does mean that the sixth-generation mini is now in the same awkward position that the iPad Air was in last year, when its update meant it temporarily outpaced the iPad Pro. Right now, the mini’s got a better front-facing camera, faster processor, and faster cellular than the iPad Air—plus it can fit in a (very large) pocket. One thing it’s not mini on is price: at $500, it starts at just $100 less than the Air. Remember that “small” doesn’t mean “cheap,” especially where Apple’s concerned.

The rest

Nobody really thought there would be new Macs at this event, and Apple didn’t upend those expectations. A new version of AirPods did seem like a possibility, but they didn’t materialize either. Instead we got a sizzle reel of new Apple TV+ offerings and an update to the year-old Fitness+ service.

That latter was particularly gratifying to me, since not only does it include new workout types (including Pilates and, uh, some prepping for skiers) and a geographic expansion, but also several improvements that I’d hoped to see, including a social aspect that lets you create group workouts via SharePlay (which will show up later this fall), enhanced filters, and the ability to pause a workout and resume on any device.

Overall, this event didn’t blow me away. As always, Apple gave a polished presentation and its products remain top of their field, but it perhaps lacked a little something in wow factor: that feature that everybody’s going to be talking about over the next several weeks, whispering to each other “Can you believe they did that?” Which is fine! Not every Apple event has to redefine the entire tech industry, and all of these devices are mature products, making it harder to be truly revolutionary year after year.

The good news? There’s always next year.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

September 10, 2021 2:21 PM PT

Apple bests Epic, but change is coming to the App Store

Note: This story has not been updated since 2021.

On Friday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued her judgment and counter-judgment on Epic Games’s lawsuit against Apple.

The result largely favors Apple, to the extent that Apple released a statement declaring victory:

Today the Court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: the App Store is not in violation of antitrust law. Apple faces rigorous competition in every segment in which we do business, and we believe customers and developers choose us because our products and services are the best in the world. We remain committed to ensuring the App Store is a safe and trusted marketplace.

Perhaps most notably, Epic has to pay Apple its cut of transactions that bypassed Apple’s in-app purchase system and is still banned from the App Store, and the judge has defined the market in question in the lawsuit as “digital mobile gaming transactions”—rather than what Epic preferred the market definition to be, something more along the lines of “iPhone transactions.” Apple monopolizes iPhone transactions, but the judge decided that the iPhone is not a market unto itself.

But while Apple can claim victory, there’s also the matter of a permanent injunction the judge placed on Apple, effective in 90 days:

Apple Inc. and its officers, agents, servants, employees, and any person in active concert or participation with them (“Apple”), are hereby permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from (i) including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing and (ii) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.

The real question is how to interpret the judge’s order. At the very least, it seems to be harmonious with the recent law passed in South Korea that would force Apple to allow developers to use alternate payment methods. The real question is, will the ruling allow apps to directly embed purchase options, or will it be a more of a redirection to the web for an alternate out-of-app payment program?

There will undoubtedly be appeals and conferences and plenty more to keep the lawyers busy. But it does feel even more inevitable that change is coming to the App Store, one way or another.

By Jason Snell

September 7, 2021 9:10 AM PT

Apple’s “California Streaming” next week

Note: This story has not been updated since 2021.

It’s official: Apple’s next product-launch event will come on Tuesday, September 14 at 10 a.m. Pacific. Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak announced it on Twitter and the emailed invitations followed.

As always, Six Colors will bring you coverage of the event and its aftermath. So begins the busy season of Apple product announcement news!

By Jason Snell

September 2, 2021 12:33 PM PT

Tools we used to make a “call-in” podcast

Note: This story has not been updated since 2021.

This week’s episode of Upgrade was a “call-in show,” in which we answered audio questions sent in by listeners. I’ve heard from a few people who wondered how we put the show together, so I thought I’d provide some of the details. (I use this same set-up for The Incomparable’s annual best-of-the-year clip shows and for various Game Show podcasts that require exciting sound effects.)

It starts with a Dropbox file request. I rely on this feature of Dropbox for most of my podcasts these days! When you create a File Request within Dropbox, a folder in your Dropbox account is tied to a web page accepting file uploads. The files uploaded to the webpage appear in your Dropbox. That’s it. You take the URL for the webpage, hand it out to anyone who needs to send you files, and you’re on your way.

(I’ve taken this even further by setting up a push notification when a file is uploaded to my File Requests. To do this, I’m forwarding the notification email Dropbox sends when a file is uploaded to Pushover, which does the notification on my iPhone and Apple Watch.)

Once we got the files, Myke Hurley cut them down to size using Rogue Amoeba’s Fission (for easy edits) and Apple’s Logic Pro (for tough ones), and I processed some of them with iZotope RX to remove background noise and, in a couple of cases, echo.

Next up: Rogue Amoeba’s Farrago, my soundboard app of choice. I usually use Farrago in Grid View, where every sound effect is mapped to a keyboard shortcut—useful for when you’re re-using sounds and choosing them on the fly. For this particular episode, though, I just kept them in List View and double-clicked on an audio file when it was time for it to be played.

We use Zoom to record Upgrade, and for Myke (and the audience listening live) to hear the calls, that means I needed to find a way to send my microphone audio and the sound coming out of Farrago over Zoom simultaneously. To do this, I used yet another Rogue Amoeba utility, Loopback, which can create virtual audio inputs. In this case, I created a new input that combined my USB audio interface and the audio from Farrago—and selected that in Zoom as my audio-input source.

Finally, I needed to record everything for Myke’s later use when editing the show. For that, I used Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack, which is my favorite audio utility thanks to its remarkable flexibility. I’ve chosen to record my microphone and the output from Farrago on separate tracks so that Myke can have complete control over the final edit.

You might wonder why we didn’t use the original audio files (the ones I dropped into Farrago) for the final edit. We absolutely could—but it would require Myke to drop 24 audio files in and position them precisely. The recording of Farrago made by Audio Hijack, on the other hand, is in sync with my audio file. That means Myke can drop that one file into his Logic Pro project, sync it up with his other recordings, and the job is done in one shot.

Usually, recording a podcast is easy. This one was more complicated, but fortunately, we have the tools—yeah, most of them by Rogue Amoeba—to make it work.

By Dan Moren

September 2, 2021 6:13 AM PT

Last updated October 7, 2021

Apple to let “reader” apps link to their sites

Note: This story has not been updated since 2021.

Late Wednesday, Apple said that, prompted by an investigation from the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), developers of “reader” apps—a category that Apple has previously defined as programs that primarily let users consume previously purchased content or subscriptions—will be able to include a link to their website in the app. Despite the agreement being made in Japan, the change will apply to the App Store worldwide.

While the exact implementation details have not yet been disclosed, Apple says that the link will be for users to “set up or manage an account.” And yes, the singular is accurate here: it’s one link. The change goes into effect early next year, and Apple will update its guidelines before that point.

As always, the devil is in those details. The company has never shied away from spelling out exactly when, where, and how developers can present certain information inside their apps. It’s not at all out of the question that Apple would say, for example, that such a link could only appear on, say, a first-launch splash screen or buried deep in a settings screen.

But, even if the company does make those restrictions very specific, this is still a crack in Apple’s App Store veneer, and something developers have been clamoring for almost since the beginning. The prohibition for apps like Netflix or Kindle, which are more or less useless without an external account, to show a link to sign up for their service has always been one of the App Store’s most onerous (and most user hostile) restrictions.

The challenges to the App Store have been coming fast and furious recently. Late last week, Apple announced “changes” to the App Store as part of a settlement with developers, but after a flurry of initial reports lauding this as a big deal, the fine details ended up being a whole lot of nothing. (In short: most of the “changes” were things that Apple was already doing, though the company spun it as a huge improvement for those selling apps.)

Then, earlier this week, South Korea passed legislation that would ban platforms from requiring app developers to use the platform’s own in-app purchase systems. Apple has registered its disapproval with this decision, and it remains unclear exactly what the ultimate effect of the law will be.

Along with last week’s developer agreement, this move also demonstrates that Apple believes it can manage its way out of the many regulatory, legislative, and legal threats that are currently circling it. For example, this change clearly won’t apply to Epic’s Fortnite, which doesn’t fall into the “reader” category—a fact that will no doubt infuriate the company, with which Apple is currently embroiled in a high-profile court case.

I’m not sure this particular change will be enough to let Apple avoid antitrust scrutiny, but it’s certainly an arrow in the company’s quiver when it comes to showing politicians that change has been made.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]