The Apple Watch does not display its local IP address in the settings for some reason. Here is one way to get it, if you have a second Mac on the network. Open terminal on the mac, run python -m SimpleHTTPServer. Get your Mac’s local IP address (option+click on the network icon in the toolbar). Send yourself an iMessage with text http://YOUR_MACS_IP:8000. Turn WiFi off on your iPhone. This is important because the Apple Watch can use your phone’s WiFi.

This year’s Apple WWDC keynote will be allegedly focused on “Marzipan” and new iPad functionalities of iOS 13. Here are a few predictions that do not concern any of these. Apple will tease the new Mac Pro and it will contain at least one user accessible ARM CPU. This will be usable for tasks like machine learning and iOS development. Apple will not introduce a new MacBook Pro format. Otherwise they would Osbourne the latest crop of 15” MBPs.

MKBHD’s video about blind camera comparison concluded with a baffling result. The most interesting thing is not the winner, but the phones that got to share the last place: iPhone XS, iPhone X and Pixel 3. Although their cameras are superior on technical level1, people prefer pictures from other cameras because of increased brightness and saturation. Of course there is nothing that stops iPhone and Pixel to do the same thing at the cost of losing information rendering further post-processing inflexible.

The event held on the 30th of October solidified the idea roaming the Internet since a few years: ARM Macs are coming, and they are coming soon. A-series chips have caught up to all but the best Intel mobile chips1, so why is there an Intel processor inside the new MacBook Air? I have a theory: A-series chips are not powerful enough–but in an unapparent way. In my previous article I have predicted that Apple would:

As a fun exercise I would like to make some predictions for the 2018 September Apple keynote. There are two rumored machines that should come out. The new Mac Mini According to rumors, this machine will be geared towards pro users. As usual, the statement is vague. What pro users? Developers, animators, writers? Current Mac Minis mainly serve three purposes: home media server “rich man’s raspberry pi” server in a colo Professionals do not need home media servers, and since Apple does not make a standalone screen it means that the machine will have to be usable headless.

Google has managed to herd device manufacturers and telcos to support a new standard for messaging: Rich Communication Services (RCS). In short it is “SMS, but good”, with support for images and other rich media. After gChat, Hangouts, Google+, Meet, Allo or Duo, we can be skeptical on whether it will be adopted. But I think it will. In order to understand why, let’s look at iMessage. When iMessage launched people already had means to communicate with their families, colleagues and friends: WhatsApp, Skype, Hangouts, Facebook WeChat… SMS usage varied country by country, depending on whether the service was paid per message.

I try to keep my notifications minimal. Only those which are important should get through. But when I receive notifications like this my blood boils: Spam notification from Prime Video, for an episode I have already watched. Amazon is not the sole culprit. When I received several notifications from The Fork I have confronted them on Twitter. They have promised to do something about it, and then a few days later I was spammed again… with the same notification.

The current Mac Mini has many uses and most of them are not for desktop users. So, what would you want to use a small “cheap” computer running macOS for? A media center connected to a TV A Facebook machine with iTunes music on it A build/test server for developers A server that one can put into a rack (like at Mac Mini Colo) None of these things need a x86 processor.

The rumour about Apple removing the 3.5mm jack in the future iPhone has wreaked havoc around the Internet. There are several arguments for and against it, but I think there is only one that is valid: it would make it impossible to create accessories for iPhone without going through the MFI process. Case in point, Apple has recently featured this application in their advert “Ridiculously Powerful”. This application would probably never exist without the possibility to leverage a cheap and universal interface with the device.

Here is a theory. There have been quite a lot of rumours about a new “iPhone 6C” which ought to have the 6’s internals in a brand new 4" plastic body. However, with no parts leaks this late into summer, the existence of this model is not a given. (side note: there are no leaks for the iPhone 6S plus out either) We know that Apple has already broken the pattern of older devices moving down the price range with the 5C.

Rumours about the new lower-cost plastic iPhone are so prominent that we can, rather safely, take the “iPhone 5C” for granted. Its target is purportedly the cost conscious customer, and according to many articles, Asian emerging markets (read China). On my recent trip there I came to wonder if this is really the right move to increase presence in China. Walking around, one realises that Chinese people do not necessarily seek cheap stuff; when buying phones the thing that matters most is the size.

With the iPhone 5S release approaching feature wish lists and redesigns of iOS7 are legion on the Interwebz. Undoubtedly many people find that iOS in its current state lacks features, looks old and boring, and more generally “has to catch up with the competition”. Usually the argument goes in the lines of “the home screen is just a list of icons” or “Apple must put widgets on the screen” or even “iPhone should centered around people, not apps”.