Apple have previewed a range of futuristic new technologies at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference 2022.

Among the latest releases were the upcoming new version of Apple’s flagship Mac operating system, macOS Ventura, iOS 16 for iPhone and iPad, new hardware and the new M2 Chipset.

Ventura brings a range of device-flexibility options to mac and macbook hardware – including ‘Continuity Camera’ – the impressive ability to use an attached iPhone’s special camera lenses via your laptop for some (truly next-generation) video-calling tricks.

A new productivity tool called ‘Stage Manager’ also helps users group windows into temporary groups – although perhaps the more useful feature is handoff support for facetime to iphone, allowing the user to leave their desk ‘mid-call’ without interrupting the conversation, in the style of more enterprise unified-communications apps.

2022’s powerful new MacBook Air will be the first to receive Apple’s own M2 silicon chipset, which somehow exceeds the staggering performance and power-efficiency traits of its M1 predecessor. To put those traits into perspective – Apple claim a new M2 chip can match 87% of the performance of a 12-core PC/laptop chip, while using only 25% of the power.

iOS 16 adds new abilities to iPhone – including the option to customise their lock-screens and notifications, circulate family photos in a shared album, and recall recently sent iMessages.

Apple also previewed a range of new services and Apple account features, including a new ‘Buy-Now-Pay-Later’ scheme (BNPL) in the style of popular fintech services like Klarna, passkey-based login support within Safari, and a safety feature called ‘Safety Check’ designed to help those who end up in abusive relationships.

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In yesterday’s Spring Loaded Event, Apple unveiled its 2021 offering to the world of technology: including the new iMac, iPad Pro and AirTag.

The iMac 2021, starting a $1499, arrives with Apple’s M1 chip which replaces the Intel Comet Lake processors from the previous year’s model – boasting 4 FireStorm and separate IceStorm CPU cores, 16 billion transistors and promises up to 3.9x faster video processing and 7.1x faster image processing.

Furthermore, the chassis has been completely redesigned with a 50% reduction in width at only ‘11.5 mm thin’ which comes in a spectrum of vibrant colours. The display is at an all-new generous 24 inches consisting of 11.3 million pixels on a 4.5k retina display – a 1080p camera is also included within the new chassis design.

Similarly, the iPad Pro 2021, now functions with the M1 Chip powering a Liquid Retina XDR display; exhibited on a 12.9-inch model screen. Starting at $749, the iPad Pro now has Thunderbolt and USB4 support which allows for increased manual connectivity to external storage, camera and accessories. The 2021 model also boasts a 12MP Ultra-Wide front camera with a 122-degree field of view enabling face tracking and camera panning for enhanced video calling.

The launch of the highly anticipated AirTag was an event highlight. AirTags are clip on accessories to track the items you attach them to using the Find My Network on Apple devices. These are set to be released on April 30th, 2021 and to have a price tag of £29. Apple pitch this as an expansion of the ‘Find My’ biome where the “AirTag will provide customers with another way to leverage the power of the Apple ecosystem and enhance the versatility of iPhone” – Kaiaan Drance, Vice President of Apple’s Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing.

Apple Card now allows spouses to share and merge their credit lines, have equal rights on their account and allow for over 13-year-olds to be added into the account with optional spending limits as part of the Apple Card Family. It must be noted that the Apple Card currently only operates in the US.

Apple Podcasts received a redesign of its app interface alongside a new feature: Apple Podcast Subscriptions for new podcasts, ad free listening, early access and content creator support opportunities.

The iPhone 12 and 12 Mini are now available in a purple spray colour – this is in addition to launching the MagSafe Leather Case and new Leather Sleeve in the same Deep Violet Colour Scheme.

Many Adobe Lightroom users on iOS have suffered a crippling data loss after a faulty routine update.

Users who updated to Adobe Lightroom Mobile 5.4.0 on iPhone or iPad had their photos and software presets deleted unexpectedly.

Adobe, which develops a large suite of creative apps for the media and design-sectors, has apologised and issued an update for the fault, but made clear that the lost data is irretrievable to those without backups.

The software company’s statement clarify it is only a subset of Lightroom users who have been affected – specifically those:

• Using Lightroom Mobile 5.4.0 on an iOS device (iPhone/iPad)
• Without an Adobe Cloud Subscription, or with cloud sync disabled
• Without a separate device or cloud backup (such as iCloud) in operation, independent of Lightroom itself.

This includes many free version users who would have trialled Lightroom without a full Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

Hundreds of unlucky users took to Adobe’s Support Forums, social media and Reddit to complain that years of photos had been lost as part of the routine update. Others flagged that restoring from local device backups deleted the restore once the app was re-opened.

As noted by The Register, Adobe’s problem is especially acute given Lightroom’s specialist popularity among professional photographers, and others who have significant time or money invested in valued images.

Users are advised to update to 5.4.1 to avoid the issue, although this will not restore lost photos. As always: please, please, please maintain an independent backup of all data you can’t afford to lose.

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Online rumours about the release of iOS 13 have suggested Apple may be about to add a number of ‘Mac’ style features to their touchscreen-based operating system.

Among the improvements hinted at exclusively by 9to5Mac for release at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June, iOS 13 looks set to include system-wide dark-mode and high-contract display versions, a less intrusive volume control, new font management, desktop-version website priority and new ‘Undo’ controls.

Most importantly, iOS 13 is rumoured to include a kind of panel-based app container system, allowing users to more easily control screen space and switch between applications smoothly.

If true, the move will be seen by many as the first confirmation of a long suspected plan by Apple to begin merging their two main operating systems, iOS (for iPhone and iPad) and MacOS (for MacBook, iMac and Mac mini ranges) for a more common experience across Apple’s range of devices.

Numerous concept images of what the proposed iOS might to look like have appeared online, although Apple aficionados may note that dark-mode would display very differently on OLED devices to non-OLED ones.

Recent iPad Pro advertising, which asks ‘What’s a computer?’ suggests that much like Microsoft, Apple is preparing for more capable tablets to increasingly replace traditional laptops for work computing.

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iOS 11 users who updated their iPhones and iPads this week have been given a nasty shock, upon discovering Microsoft email services will no longer function correctly.

Apple are reported to be ‘working closely’ with Microsoft to resolve the issues – affecting compatibility with Microsoft Exchange 2016, Office 365 and Outlook.com – which display an error message informing users that their mail account “Cannot send mail. The message was rejected by the server.”

One week on from Apple’s flagship iPhone X launch, the problem leaves the tech giant with a public relations headache, as early adopters of the newest touchscreen operating system rush to complain online.

Until this recent development, Office 365 had proved hugely popular with iPhone and Mac users – allowing them to plug Microsoft cloud infrastructure, for dull company email and calendars behind the scenes, into their favoured Apple devices and applications for a a more enjoyable user experience.

Rubbing salt in the wound, Microsoft also published an official support warning on Tuesday, rather mischievously entitled: “You can’t send or reply from Outlook.com, Office 365, or Exchange 2016 in iOS 11 Mail.app”. According to MacRumors, beta testers (including engineers at Lineal) were raising the Microsoft email service problem as early as July, although it appears to be unresolved by Apple’s developers.

Users urgently needing email are advised to download the Outlook for iOS app from the App Store as a lifesaving alternative, suffer a more Microsoft branded email experience, and await rescue from Apple bug fixers.

If you let your iPhone download Apple’s iOS 10.3 update this week, you downloaded the most advanced version of iOS ever.

But you probably noticed that it took a long time to finish updating. A really…. long…………. time. Android updates appear to complete inside 5-10 minutes, so surely a quick software patch shouldn’t take this long?

Never fear, there’s nothing wrong with your iPhone (necessarily). iOS 10.3 introduced an unusually extensive, 600 MB worth of changes which don’t just tinker at the edges of what Apple’s most popular operating system can do, but pull it apart and re-build it.

First and foremost, iOS 10.3 introduces a new file structure known as APFS. It take a long time for your phone to re-write its entire file structure but those with patience will receive a phone that’s better optimised for Flash and SSD storage, offering space sharing for some data which frees up GBs of space, and theoretically provides stronger encryption security.

In practice it is the extra capacity which will be most welcomed by smartphone addicts, and may simply help extend the practical life of an iPhone user’s device.

At least 60 patches for known iPhone security exploits are also included in the iOS.10 update, including preventative measures for full-screen adverts that would once have effectively locked you into a browser session.

The update also fixes various wireless connection and Bluetooth issues, for example improving the connection to a pair of Apple AirPods. A handy ‘Find My AirPods’ feature enables you to seek out those pesky wireless earpieces, which could so easily get lost.

As always it’s sensible to let someone else take the update plunge first, and back up your files before moving: but iOS 10.3 has been a largely successful update, and it’s worth persevering with.

For Apple support and expertise, contact Lineal today.

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