By Dan Moren

March 31, 2017 5:02 PM PT

The Back Page: Thank You for Your Surface

Dear China Development Forum,

This is Tim. I’d like to thank you for kindly providing me—and the rest of the attendees at your recent meeting—with a Microsoft Surface. It was truly a thoughtful gesture, the likes of which has probably not been seen outside of clearance racks at the Microsoft Campus Store in Redmond.

While obviously my personal preference is for iPad, I decided that perhaps the current climate—and the challenges that iPad sales have had in the past few years—made this the right time to expand my horizons and try out a new piece of hardware. I must say that though I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had both a keyboard and a touchscreen, which I think you’ll find is very very similar to iPad Pro.

I realize that in the past I have derided the Surface and devices of its ilk as “toaster fridges.” After spending some time with the Surface, I’d like to formally apologize for that remark—I can see now that my words were hasty and ill-considered and that I spoke out of turn. The Surface, as it turns out, is neither toaster nor fridge. I tested both of these features and found them lacking.

Excited as I was by the prospect of such a device, I brought with me two slices of gluten-free bread. But upon placing them on the Surface, I found that it completely and utterly failed to toast them. Not so much as a browned crumb. Perhaps I just couldn’t locate the controls in the interface? Was I supposed to use the keyboard and navigate it as if it were a PC? Or are the toast controls touch-only? The lack of discoverability makes this a frustrating feature to use. Rest assured that if toasting capability were added to the iPad—and we have nothing to announce about that today—we would ensure that controls would be easily accessible from Control Center.

Likewise, I expected some clearer indication of where to insert my bottle of iced tea for chilling. Beneath the kickstand would have seemed the logical place, but I could find no evidence of any sort of cooling features there. Perhaps it requires some sort of external accessory? Maybe attached through this legacy headphone jack? I was prepared to be impressed by the ability to fit a cooling unit in such a small device, but honestly, the external case seemed quite warm, and I was doubtful of its ability to make even a single ice cube, crushed or otherwise.

Anyway, I thought it might be helpful to discuss some of these, so that in the future when you consider handing out devices to your attendees, you can make a more informed decision. Please be assured that I have donated this particular Surface unit to a worthy cause in a local school, where it is helping stabilize a wobbly table in the computer lab. As a single-purpose device it excels in that particular use case.

Yours,
Tim Cook

[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

March 31, 2017 4:57 PM PT

What I Use: Travel prep and tech

I didn’t leave North America (a few trips to Hawaii notwithstanding) until I was nearly 30. Since then I’ve traveled quite a bit, and this weekend I’m headed to the UK and Ireland to visit friends and once again attend the Úll Conference.

As much as technology makes our lives easier, packing for a trip can be complicated by the technology you want to bring along the way. For this trip I’ll be toting an iPhone, an iPad Pro, a Kindle, a MacBook Air, and a Zoom portable audio recorder. The four devices other than the MacBook Air require some variation of USB to charge them. So I’ll need to bring a MacBook Air power cable and at least two USB chargers, along with four different power cables. (The Kindle and Zoom recorders can both be powered just as easily from my iPad’s USB charging brick as any other, so I tend to bring extra cables and rotate through the charging of the devices as necessary. So, for example, I’ll leave my iPad and Kindle charging when I walk out of the hotel room with my iPhone.)

About a decade ago I bought the Apple World Adapter Kit, and I have no regrets. It allows me to snap the U.S. plug off the end of any white Apple power brick and replace it with the plug for a different country. I’ve also bought a couple of standard plug adapters; most electronics these days are manufactured to handle power supplies from all over the world, so a simple plug adapter works great in most cases.

Most international flights offer power plugs these days, but I try to bring an external battery with me. I have an Anker external battery that I bring along. On this trip, I’m also testing an Away carry-on suitcase that includes its own battery and USB ports for quick charging. (Disclosure: Away is a podcast sponsor, and they sent me the suitcase.)

I always told myself I couldn’t sleep on flights, but the fact was, I could never stay asleep—I’d always end up nodding myself back awake and generally arrive at my destination with a horrible crick in my neck. I always found the huge puffy neck pillows worn by people on airplanes to be a bit perplexing, but I bought one last year and it’s amazing. I actually got a decent night’s sleep on my flight to Ireland last year, and that pillow’s coming back with me this year.

Much to my surprise, I ended up loving the AirPods, and they have replaced my beloved in-ear monitors for running and walking the dog while listening to podcasts. However, there are a few places where I just can’t use them—and airplanes are at the top of the list. It’s just too loud on the plane for the relatively open AirPods design. I may bring my AirPods with me, too, but I’ll be toting a pair of canalphones with me for use on the plane. And the accompanying lightning-to-minijack adapter, of course.

My iPhone is unlocked, so in the UK and Ireland I immediately make a point of buying a pre-paid SIM card from Three. At Heathrow, there are actually vending machines that will sell you a SIM card while you’re waiting at baggage claim. I was up and texting before my suitcase showed up last time. Just be sure your iPhone is unlocked before you go, or you will be very sad when you try to use a foreign SIM and your phone gives you the cold shoulder. This year, I’m thinking of buying an extra data SIM for my iPad, as well. Couldn’t hurt.

Talk to you when I get back!

By Dan Moren

March 31, 2017 4:55 PM PT

By Request: Wearing in its welcome

Member Brent asks, Is @dmoren an Apple Watch wearer at all?

So glad you asked, Brent. Yes! I am a devoted Apple Watch wearer, though as I look down at my wrist right now, I realize I do not have it on. (Some mornings when I wake up early and hang out in my…let’s say casual wear for a while, I don’t put it on until I get totally dressed.)

The Apple Watch has managed to become a significant part of my life over the last couple years. Not that it’s become totally indispensable, because if you asked me to part with that or any of my other devices, it would probably be the first to go. But there are things that it does that nothing else can do—even if those things are largely secondary to my everyday life.

So, let’s run down what I consider the most important features of the Apple Watch in my everyday life.

Notifications: Number one with a haptic. I still love the ability to get texts, emails, warnings of impending rain, and even—depressing as they often are these days—news alerts on my wrist. The information truly is glanceable, and I don’t get sucked in as I do when I look at my phone. It’s also much easier to take a surreptitious glance at it, or even ignore anything beyond the buzz on my wrist. I don’t usually dive deeply into a notification but I do fairly often use the built-in reply abilities to send back quick messages.

Workouts/Activity: As I’ve been training to run a 10K in a little under a month, the Watch has been helpful in my workout regimen. Not as much as I’d like, however, in large part due to the somewhat underwhelming nature of the Apple Watch’s integration with my chosen training app—Nike+ Run Club—as well as the unreliability of third-party apps on the Watch in general. (Slow performance, crashes, and so on.) I even actively switch watch bands when I go to the gym, falling back on my original black sport band instead of the newer black/gray nylon band I wear most days. But I did use the Workout app when I ran a 5K a couple weeks back, and it was handy to check on my time and distance during the run. I also have a few people I do Activity sharing with—that’s a feature I actually really like that I think Apple has undersold.

Watchface: Prior to the Apple Watch, I hadn’t regularly worn a timepiece in several years. The Apple Watch has definitely gotten me back into it, however, especially spoiling me for information on my wrist. I love having the weather, my pedometer, and my next appointment time available at a moment’s notice. And I really enjoy switching between a couple different watchfaces: I particularly enjoy the analog Activity face to keep an eye on how close I am to closing my rings.

Apple Pay: I use this every single time I go to the grocery store. Which is great, because I have definitely left my phone in the car by accident several times. (I’ve also used the Reminders app, which has my shopping list in it, on those occasions, which has been a lifesaver.) I think I’ve had Apple Pay fail maybe once, and if I recall, it was actually a bug where it just wouldn’t come up when I double-clicked the side button. A restart fixed it.

Third-party apps: Perhaps the biggest letdown of the Watch still remains third-party apps. There are a few I use—Pedometer++, for example, and sometimes the aforementioned Nike+ Run Club—but even with the addition of the Dock in watchOS 3, I find that I don’t generally stray too far from Apple’s own built-in functions. Besides Pedometer++, CARROT Weather is the only third-party app in the Dock—and really it’s just there in case I tap on the watchface complication. The Home screen on the watch has gotten if anything more unwieldy: I have a hard time finding an app when I actually want to launch it.

Siri: I want to love the voice-control part of the Apple Watch, and when it works, it’s pretty handy. Unfortunately, for me it often doesn’t work as much as it does: it doesn’t hear my “Hey Siri,” or I find myself sitting around waiting for it to “tap me when it’s ready.” It’s better than it used to be, but it’s still generally less reliable than Siri on my phone.

Features I find myself using pretty often: the Timer, the ability to ping my iPhone, Heart rate (more as a curiosity; the Health app on the iPhone has a better overall look at it which is more interesting), World Clock (more when my girlfriend was in a different time zone).

Features I rarely, if ever, use: Music, Apple TV Remote, Digital Touch, Home (funny, given how much smart home stuff I have, but Alexa or the iPhone is almost always faster), Passbook (much more convenient on the phone, especially for scanning at the airport), Phone (only on rare occasions when I can’t find my iPhone and the phone is actually ringing—though I do use it to dismiss spam phone calls fairly regularly), Photos (too small to be of interest, though I do like the Photo/Photos watchfaces), Maps (it comes up automatically when I use Maps on my phone, but I still find the haptics hard to interpret).

[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 Stephen Hackett

March 31, 2017 4:53 PM PT

The Hackett File: The End of the AppleCare Road

We are all familiar with AppleCare. When we buy a new Apple product, we are presented with the option to extend the product’s one-year limited warranty to either last longer, or in the case of AppleCare+, include hardware damage as well.

There is debate to be had whether or not these extended warranties are worth it. I purchase AppleCare on my 27-inch 5K iMac because I know if it ever needs a repair, it can be pricey. Of course, I also know people — ahem, Jason — who never buy AppleCare and think I’m silly for doing so.

What most people aren’t as familiar with is what happens at the tail-end of a product’s life when it comes to being serviced by Apple.

My iMac is under AppleCare until October 11, 2019. Until that date, any in-warranty hardware repair will cost me $0.

If my machine experiences a failure after that date, it’d be up to me to pay for any parts and labor needed to repair it. Eventually, however, Apple will stop offering repair services for it.

Outlined in this support document, the normal cut-off point for hardware support is roughly five years:

Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac products may obtain service and parts from Apple or Apple service providers for 5 years after the product is no longer manufactured — or longer where required by law. Apple has discontinued support for certain technologically obsolete and vintage products.

It’s important to note that the five-year mark isn’t a hard line in time. Apple generally updates its list a couple of times a year, but once a machine is listed as “vintage,” Apple Stores can no longer repair them.

Third-party providers who buy their parts from Apple can no longer get parts at this point, but often will replace standard parts like hard drives or optical drives with third-party options.

If a vintage machine needs an expensive repair like a logic board or screen, I would consider it the end of the road unless a service provider has the part on hand already. Even then, the expense may not be worth it.

There are a few exceptions to the vintage rule, as Apple points out. Owners of vintage Mac products in Turkey, France and the state of California may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers within those regions.

After seven years, an Apple product is considered obsolete:

Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products.

In short, after five years, you may be able to have a device repaired, but after seven, it’s time to replace it if something goes wrong with the hardware.

While I’m a fan of old Apple hardware, I have no real issue with Apple’s decisions here. Five years seems reasonable to me.

However, there’s a hiccup when it comes to what machines macOS will support. Very often, the OS’ support goes back in time further than the five year mark. Currently, these vintage machines are supported by macOS Sierra:

• MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 and Early 2011)
• MacBook Air (Late 2010)
• MacBook (Late 2009)
• Mac Mini (Mid 2010)
• iMac (Late 2009 and Mid 2010)

For example, if the owner of a Mid 2010 iMac experienced a hard drive failure while upgrading to Sierra, the Genius Bar would have to turn them away. I don’t know how many users fall into this land-between-the-lists, but I have to believe that leads to some awkward and potentially confusing customer service interactions.

I’m glad that macOS has such a long support tail, though, so I’m generally okay with this overlap. But it’s something to be aware of if you are running the newest software on an older machine.

(As a quick aside, no iOS device falls into this bucket currently. All vintage iOS hardware is far too old to run the newest version of iOS.)

Mac hardware can last a long time if it’s properly cared for, but failures eventually strike every machine. It’s important to know your options when that day comes.

[Stephen Hackett is the author of 512 Pixels and co-founder of Relay FM.]

By Jason Snell

March 31, 2017 4:50 PM PT

Relocating a community

“Communities create themselves.” It’s something we’ve said about online communities for years now, and there’s truth to it. When I worked at IDG, we were maintainers of multiple online communities, some of which we had inherited through various acquisitions of other websites. Whenever someone made the mistake of assuming that community X was just like community Y—or that community X could be merged into community Y—we had to explain that it simply wasn’t true. Community X had organized itself a certain way, and if we treated them as an asset to be transferred or an employee to be assigned, they’d just leave—but not after leaving a big steaming mess on the lobby floor.

Big companies can create shells that can house communities, but they don’t own the people inside. The enlightened ones realize that the right way to approach those communities is to cultivate them, understand them, and accept that in exchange for the lack of control over them, you do receive great benefits from being adjacent to them and owning the shell that holds them together. It’s a trade-off, but what in life isn’t?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot with regards to WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference, which is returning to San Jose this year after a run of more than a decade in San Francisco.

Each move of WWDC—the shell that holds a bunch of Apple-related people—has caused the community to break and re-form. New things are gained, but old things are lost. When WWDC was held in San Jose the last time, one of the highlights for me was a party at the home of longtime Mac developer Rick Holzgrafe. Families were welcome, and for several years my wife and I made the drive down to hang out with all sorts of cool pepole, including Adam and Tonya Engst and their young son Tristan, Peter Lewis (then of Interarchy, now of Keyboard Maestro), and James Thomson (then of DragThing, now of PCalc). Rick had a big, beautiful house in the heart of Silicon Valley, and he threw a great party.

But when WWDC moved to San Francisco, that was pretty much the end of that party and that group.

In San Francisco, especially after the rise of iOS and the death of Macworld Expo, WWDC became the heart of the Apple community’s calendar, and new traditions appeared. John Gruber started holding live version of The Talk Show at increasingly larger venues. Jim Dalrymple held increasingly loud Beard Bash parties. Macworld did an annual party on the Macworld office’s beautiful terrace with bay and ballpark views. When tickets became hard to come by, people stopped trying to get them and just showed up for the week to hang out. Alternative conferences sprung up to serve people who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) go to WWDC proper. In the spirit of Rick Holzgrafe, I even started inviting people over to my house at the end of the week for a casual evening of food and conversation away from the hubbub of downtown.

There are people in the Apple community, lots of them, who literally don’t know anything about San Francisco that can’t be found within six blocks of Moscone Center. (You should come back and visit sometime; the Bay Area has a lot going for it, but other than AT&T Park, very little of it can be found in the South of Market area.)

But now it’s time to wipe that all way. Apple has moved the shell back to San Jose, and our old traditions will have to be replaced with new ones. (We were going to order in Puerto Rican this year for the party in my backyard. More plaintains for me, I guess…)

Downtown San Jose is not a bad place to hold an event like WWDC, though. Not only is the entire place cleaner and cheaper than San Francisco, but it’s still sleepy enough that a big conference like WWDC can take over the entire vibe of the downtown. This year there will no doubt be false starts and mistakes as we all learn the best way to do San Jose, but I have no doubt that if Apple holds WWDC 2018 in San Jose, everything will get that much better. The new community will continue to grow in the shell Apple created by staging its event there. Our old traditions will be gone and we’ll miss them, but it’s the community that makes the event. All Apple has to do is sit back and watch: A great one will grow around WWDC in San Jose, just as it did back in the 1990s.

Unfortunately, Rick Holzgrafe moved to Oregon a while back. Someone else with a nice house and a big backyard will need to plan the party.