Is Apple prepping a pro version of the iPhone 7 Plus? Catch the discussion on The CultCast | Cult of Mac

Is Apple prepping a pro version of the iPhone 7 Plus? Catch the discussion on The CultCast | Cult of Mac This week on The CultCast: a souped-up iPad Air 3 coming in March; iPhone 5se is a terrible name for a 4-inch iPhone; the iPhone 7 Plus PLUS is for those who demand only the best mobile camera; and why Apple is pumping the brakes on their electric car.

Enquiring minds want to know!

Production already underway for Apple's new 4-inch 'iPhone 6c' - report

Production already underway for Apple's new 4-inch 'iPhone 6c' - report Internals could include either the A8 or A9 processors and their corresponding M-series motion chips, along with anywhere from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes of RAM and the possible inclusion of Touch ID and NFC support for Apple Pay.

Seems to me they need to start including TouchID and Apple Pay support on all the devices or the iOS installed base will become hopelessly fragmented.

New MacBooks expected to arrive by June

New MacBooks expected to arrive by June Kuo does note that the new, improved notebooks should be with us by June. It is likely that Apple will include Intel’s “Skylake” processors as part of the update, bringing CPU speed increases of 10-20 percent, an improved graphics chip, and longer and more efficient battery life.

Yay Mac Yay! I don't think we're living in a Mac vs. PC world anymore.

Two years on, Dell shows going private was a smart move | Ars Technica

Two years on, Dell shows going private was a smart move | Ars Technica "We find ourselves in a world increasingly afflicted with myopia—governments that can't see beyond the next election, an education system that can't see beyond the next round of standardised tests, and public financial markets that can't see beyond the next trade," wrote Michael Dell in the Wall Street Journal in 2014.

And corporations try to build key infrastructure with JavaScript. Right. Can't wait to see how that turns out. Wait, what browser again?

This is why Docker is going to flatten the competition in the cloud: providing an insulating layer against the constant stream of marketing bullsh*t that masquerades as innovation. Stable, repeatable, reliable.

4K Blu-ray has already lost to streaming

4K Blu-ray has already lost to streaming It may seem a tad hyperbolic to say this, but 4K Blu-ray could very well be the Holy Grail of home theater technology. Finally, a disc that makes movies look almost as good as they do in theaters, where many films are projected digitally in 4K.

It is my opinion that the streaming services are not really offering HD or 4K. When the compression artifacts obliterate fine detail with a uniform "computer gradient" like surface, it's not really HD or 4K. At least not for those who care about video quality. Also, streaming services have some nasty judder. Blu-Ray is the only choice for a cinephile home movie collection.

Mac sales are on the up now, but is a downfall inevitable? | Cult of Mac

Mac sales are on the up now, but is a downfall inevitable? | Cult of Mac Apple was the only computer maker that didn’t endure a blue Christmas, with Mac sales up 3 percent year-over-year as worldwide PC shipments declined. But for how long can the Mac business continue to fight on, immune to the growing thread from other industries?

Yay! Mac! Yay!

iOS devices finally outnumber Windows PCs | Cult of Mac

iOS devices finally outnumber Windows PCs | Cult of Mac If current trends continue (and there’s no real guarantee of that), Dediu humorously predicts that Mac units shipped will overtake Windows PCs in about 12 years, so we have that to look forward to.

I got the time.

Walt Mossberg: Apple should fix its software in 2016

Walt Mossberg: Apple should fix its software in 2016 Walt Mossberg was Steve Jobs’ favorite critic, and has long been one of the most respected Apple analysts out there — with some people even arguing that he can be too forgiving when it comes to Cupertino’s mistakes.

The first change I'd make as CTO would be to move Mac OS X to a 3 year cycle and start issuing patches for the prior versions as well, like a modern OS company should/would. 20 years of Windows XP comes to mind. Sure, there were warts with XP, but it's Apple that just topped the list of software vulnerabilities, not Microsoft. I have two nieces in their teens and neither of them are excited about new versions of Mac OS X breaking their working systems. The 19 year old complained that the latest OSX had crippled her use of Pages with iCloud or some such thing.

200 floppy disks belonging to Star Trek's creator have been recovered and could offer some surprises | VentureBeat | OffBeat | by Paul Sawers

200 floppy disks belonging to Star Trek's creator have been recovered and could offer some surprises | VentureBeat | OffBeat | by Paul Sawers Thought to date from the 1980s, the 5.25-inch disks store around 160KB of data each, and DriveSaver said its engineers spent around three months working on a way to access the information contained on the floppies, which basically involved creating software that could read the disks.

Amazing they can still find engineers who understand the tech. I'm sure they are Javascript coders.

Apple to host artistic iPhone photography & iPad illustration workshops at retail stores

Apple to host artistic iPhone photography & iPad illustration workshops at retail stores Starting next month, Apple Stores will offer higher-level iPhone photography workshops covering "various accessories and techniques," including things like long exposure, timelapses, and macro imaging, the company said in a statement. Students will also be taught artistic editing approaches.

It's like 1993 all over again.