by Jason Snell

December 3, 2020 12:16 PM PT

Apple updates accessibility site, support

Steven Aquino, writing at Forbes:

Apple on Thursday marked International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a slew of accessibility-centric announcements, spanning the company’s website and social media outposts.

First is a redesign of the company’s accessibility website, last refreshed in 2016 at the Touch Bar MacBook Pro unveiling. Visitors to this part of Apple’s site have long been able to learn about the assistive technologies across the company’s products. The site is divided into four sections representing the different developmental domains: vision, mobility, hearing, and cognitive. Anyone, whether they identify as disabled or not, can use the information as a resource for learning about Apple’s accessibility software. There also are helpful tips for users to get the most out of their device(s).

Next is an update to Apple Support materials. Apple has a popular presence on Twitter and particularly YouTube, where slickly-produced videos demonstrate how to use various features of various devices. New is a collection of accessibility-oriented videos covering Magnifier, Back Tap, and Voice Control. The Voice Control piece is a how-to, produced in collaboration with the United Spinal Association, on how to take selfies with the feature, introduced in 2019 as part of iOS 13 and macOS Catalina.

Aquino’s article includes an interview with Jordan Nicholson, a photographer who Apple is featuring on its Instagram account.

by Dan Moren

December 3, 2020 12:05 PM PT

Warner Bros. to stream all new movies on HBO Max in 2021

Zack Sharf, writing at IndieWire:

Warner Bros. Pictures Group has announced its entire 2021 film slate will open via a “distribution model in which Warner Bros. will continue to exhibit the films theatrically worldwide, while adding an exclusive one month access period on the HBO Max streaming platform in the U.S. concurrent with the film’s domestic release.”

Last month it was announced that the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984 would debut on Christmas Day both in movie theaters (where open) as well as on HBO Max, and Warner seems to think this is a winning strategy: it’s expanding the move to more than a dozen films, including big blockbusters like The Suicide Squad, Dune, and Matrix 4.

Like WW84, the movies will only be available on the streaming service for one month, before being in theaters only, and then eventually moving to the usual distribution windows (like online sales and rental).

In may ways, it feels as though we’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop with regards to Hollywood movies. A lot of studios have chosen to push big releases from this year, with occasional dangles into experiments like offering movies online for an additional fee (Mulan, Bill & Ted Face the Music), but Warner clearly wants to goose subscribers to HBO Max, and this sure seems like a compelling way to do it.

The biggest question is outside the U.S., where HBO Max doesn’t really exist: its first international launches are scheduled for next year in Latin America and some parts of Europe. But due to licensing deals outside the U.S., it will almost certainly take some time before there’s parity on programming internationally—if ever. Customers in those countries will likely have to go on a more case-by-case basis and potentially wait for the normal at-home distribution.

It will also be interesting to see how other big studios react to this news. Disney seems to have remained steadfast in holding some of its biggest titles—such as Black Widow—until theaters reopen, but it is making the next Pixar movie, Soul, available exclusively to Disney+ subscribers for free later this month.

Right now, we’re kind of back in uncharted territories, as different companies try different approaches, and as someone who probably won’t be going back to a movie theater anytime soon, I’m glad to see that even big corporations are being forced to take chances.

by Dan Moren

December 3, 2020 11:53 AM PT

Apple opens App Store Small Business Program enrollment for reduced cut

Apple:

The new App Store Small Business Program is designed to accelerate innovation and help propel your small business forward with the next generation of groundbreaking apps on the App Store. It features a reduced commission rate of 15% on paid apps and in-app purchases, so you can invest more resources into your business to continue building quality apps that customers love.

The details promised by Apple about its reduced commission program for small businesses on the App Store have rolled out, and they are largely consistent with what was announced last month. Eligible businesses—those that have made less than $1 million in 2020—can apply for a reduced commission of 15 percent in 2021. If they cross that line, they will go back up to 30 percent for the remainder of the year and the following year; businesses whose proceeds drop below $1 million in a calendar year can reapply for the subsequent year.

Further details clarify that the program takes affect by January 1 if you apply by December 18; beyond that, there’s a bit of a lag time. Apple also spells out how developers whose bank accounts aren’t in U.S. dollars can figure out if they’re eligible and details about Associated Developer Accounts. The company also notes that app transfers (i.e. transferring an app to another developer account) is not allowed while in the program, no doubt to prevent people from bouncing their app around to different developers to avoid the higher commission.

It will be interesting to see precisely how this plays out, but chances are the biggest question will be a year from now, with developers hovering right around that $1 million mark. Will they pull their app from the store to avoid crossing the line? How will that experience go for users, and will Apple want to make changes to avoid that kind of behavior?

Recent third-party numbers suggest that the Small Business Program could cover as many as 98 percent of developers on the store, which certainly seems like a net positive. But it’s clear from the way Apple has set this up, that despite the vast majority of developers the deal will cover, it’s still treating it as an exception, rather than the rule.

by Jason Snell

December 2, 2020 10:17 AM PT

Windows on M1: It’s gonna happen

When Apple announced the M1 processor, it highlighted the possibility of virtualizing Linux but remained coy about Windows. One of the great advantages of using Intel processors on the Mac is that Windows is also built for Intel processors. Even in a virtual machine, apps ran at near-native speeds.

So what happens with the M1? The major virtualization could run the Intel version of Windows in emulation, but anyone who remembers the bad days of Virtual PC on PowerPC will know that running an entire emulated system can be painfully slow.

But Microsoft also makes a version of Windows that runs on ARM processors, currently available only when preinstalled on a “Windows 10 on ARM” PC such as Microsoft’s own Surface Pro X. In theory, a standalone version of Windows 10 for ARM might actually work well inside a virtual machine on an M1 Mac—running at more or less native speeds, just like the Intel version of Windows on Intel Macs.

It was unclear if other technical roadblocks might remain that would make this less likely to happen. But things are clearing up, as 9to5Mac’s Michael Potuck reports:

Alexander Graf was the first to successfully run an ARM Windows virtualization on an M1 Mac. He used the QEMU open source machine emulator and an Insider Preview of Windows. Now, based on the work by Graf, there’s a new build of the open source ACVM launcher (by Khaos Tian and 3 others) that works with QEMU to run ARM Windows on ARM Macs.

In short, using a beta version of Windows on ARM downloaded from Microsoft, people have used the open-source QEMU emulator to get Windows running on Apple silicon. You can watch Martin Nobel’s YouTube video to see the process in action. Nobel even ran GeekBench 5 on the M1 Mac, and ended up with higher test scores than the Surface Pro X.

This might explain why Apple has shifted from being tight-lipped about Windows to Craig Federighi telling Ars Technica:

That’s really up to Microsoft… We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But that’s a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.

It seems to me that it’s only a matter of time before Windows on ARM is officially running on M1 Macs. The ball is in their court. There seem to be few technical roadblocks. It makes too much sense.

by Jason Snell

December 1, 2020 8:36 AM PT

Why the M1 is so fast

Here’s a detailed post by Erik Engheim that breaks down how Apple’s M1 chip is structured and compares it with other PC chips:

In Unified memory the GPU cores and CPU cores can access memory at the same time. Thus in this case there is no overhead in sharing memory. In addition the CPU and GPU can tell each other about where some memory is located. Previously the CPU would have to copy data from its area of the main memory to the area used by the GPU. With unified memory, it is more like saying “Hey Mr. GPU, I got 30 MB of polygon data starting at memory location 2430.” The GPU can then start using that memory without doing any copying.

That means you can significant performance gains by the fact that all the various special co-processors on the M1 can rapidly exchange information with each other by using the same memory pool.

Processors are complicated. I found this article to strike a good balance between technical and understandable.

by Jason Snell

November 30, 2020 9:26 PM PT

AWS offers Mac mini hosting

In a surprise move, Amazon has jumped into the hosted Mac world, adding Mac minis to its EC2 service. As TechCrunch reports:

The target audience here — and the only one AWS is targeting for now — is developers who want cloud-based build and testing environments for their Mac and iOS apps. But it’s worth noting that with remote access, you get a fully-featured Mac mini in the cloud, and I’m sure developers will find all kinds of other use cases for this as well.

Amazon has a lot of advantages over smaller hosting companies, but of course, the smaller hosts who have specialized in Mac hosting for a while have advantages of their own. It’s still remarkable to see Amazon actually sticking Mac hardware in racks and renting it out to customers.

The current offering is i7 based 2018 vintage Mac minis. Amazon says M1 models will be available next year.

by Jason Snell

November 24, 2020 5:14 PM PT

Rogue Amoeba’s apps updated for M1–with a catch

I love Rogue Amoeba’s audio apps and rely on them every day. Audio Hijack is the best. Loopback is a vital tool when I’m streaming video live.

This year, though, Apple made some major changes to how audio on macOS is handled, and that required major changes to ACE, the engine that enables most of Rogue Amoeba’s apps. The company managed to get versions supporting Big Sur out just before the official release of the operating system, and today it posted beta versions that work with M1 Macs.

There is one big caveat, however, and it’s all down to Apple’s increased focus on security. To install an app like ACE, which requires a system extension to function in Big Sur, you have to reboot. That’s not great—rebooting to install software feels very 1990s to me—but at least it’s palatable.

On M1 Macs, though, the situation intensifies. Before you can reboot to enable ACE, you first have to reboot into Recovery Mode in order to tell the system to allow extensions. Then you have to change a setting from “Full Security” to “Reduced Security,” and check a box allowing kernel extensions from identified developers. (ACE isn’t actually a kernel extension, but… the box must still be checked.)

The good news for Rogue Amoeba’s customers is that their stuff works, and once you do the reboot two-step, you shouldn’t need to do it again. It’s a multi-step process, but it’s over fast and then you can get on with your work.

But it really shouldn’t work this way, and that’s on Apple. One reboot is bad, but two is ridiculous. Surely there’s a way, at the very least, to pre-approve an extension before rebooting to adjust the security setting? I know that Apple is trying to protect users from bad actors, but when a list of instructions like these are required to install Mac software, something’s really gone wrong.

But at least Rogue Amoeba’s apps are now available. They’re indispensible. If I had to choose between upgrading my Mac or continuing to use Audio Hijack, I would choose Audio Hijack every time¹.