Let's cut to the chase on this one -- we're putting up our 66th episode a day early because this one may have
a short shelf life. We tried, heaven knows, to
limit our "predictions" to things that are incredibly likely to happen, or if not incredibly likely, then we just indicated if we liked the idea or not. That said, you know part of our "it's complicated" relationship with Apple is that every time we think they're going to zig instead of zag, they in fact
zagnut (yes, that candy bar is still being made). So here goes the road to WWDC, littered with speculation that's going to make us look (smart? dumb?) come Monday. Show notes after the player.
01:01 -- We jump right into it by talking about the forthcoming (and expected soon, regardless of what
Ming-Chi Kuo thinks) next MacBook Pro. From
mockups and alleged part leaks (and, you know, looking at what Apple has said and done recently), we believe it will retain the unibody design, and exchange all the current ports for four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 (we talk about how these are the same and not the same thing all at once, for those of you just joining this discussion). We would also like to see -- though we don't know this to be true -- an OLED strip replacing the function-key row, and we fully expect Siri for the Mac as part of OS X 10.12 (or
macOS/MacOS 12, or just "macOS" as Mike believes, whatever), but that and the likely Maps/iTunes/iCloud revamps we will probably have to wait until fall for.
We also discuss another intriguing rumor: Apple bringing the Messages (and FaceTime?) apps to Android. We love the idea (
every message should be in a blue bubble!), but we can't see where this would advance Apple's goal of switching people, so it kinda fails our smell test. We'll see. There's also talk about the
already-announced coming changes to the App Store, and how that will and won't impact developers.
28:31 -- Not all rumors are so easy to accept or dismiss, but moving on to some other rumors, we put our foot down about the recent repeated claim that Apple will stop selling music downloads: nope. At least, not anytime soon: Charles thinks "na ga ha pen," Mike thinks about four years. It's fair to say that a lot can change in four years, but as a record/CD collector himself, Charles thinks the idea of "permanent" music sales isn't going anywhere, ironic record-buying hipsters who think $300 for a record player is normal be damned. Mike also goes on record as saying OS X and iOS will fully merge just in time for the 2020 Presidential election, which again Charles disagrees with, but the two are united on at least one thing: Apple is not
replacing Space Gray with Deep Blue. Adding blue as a color option, possibly; replacing? Nah. Hopefully we won't have robins-egg blue on our faces come Monday.
38:08 -- Time to move away from looking forward (and WWDC) and to take a look at stuff that has happened and is happening now: long story short, another website -- Gawker -- went looking for trouble
and found it. Now they are paying the price (quite literally), and demonstrated a distinct lack of grownups there. Nonetheless, this will have a chilling effect on the legitimate media, because of a combination of increasingly irresponsible reporting, and the rise of easily-offended and litigious billionaires. It's a dark day for the "good" sites and news sources in the US generally.
47:30 -- How boring would covering Apple be if the company was unable to still provide surprises? We're not even talking about the stuff they drop on us on Monday that we didn't anticipate; in this segment, we cover the not-that-surprising-but-unexpected news that Apple has filed paperwork to become
an energy reseller, and allowing themselves lots of options designed to cover future options or existing and future tax credits. Some sites think Apple is going to challenge Duke Energy or GE, and we think no -- but that's not to say that Apple isn't going to do more with energy, or make more money off it if they can.
52:42 -- A quick callout to one of our featured special content items last week -- a
three-part Pointers Special on security best practices. Look it up, read it, adapt to it (where you haven't been) as suits your own workflow, and please link to it for people you know that aren't being vigilant on this stuff. We'll let you know when the PDF version of the columns becomes available on Scribd and iBooks (free!) for easy handout-ification to your friends, clients, and loved ones.
55:36 -- William comes in to let us know about his
App of the Week. This time we're not going to spoil it, because it's a first for this audio segment of the podcast. You're just going to have to listen to it (sorry).
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The MacNN Podcast is copyright 2016 by MNM Media, with all rights reserved. Opinions expressed by the hosts or guests of the podcast may not reflect the opinions or views of MNM Media, its sites, or advertisers. Original music by Bradley McBurney. Comments and feedback are welcome at our
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