John Voorhees

5429 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
@johnvoorhees@macstories.net
@johnvoorhees.macstories.net
voorhees@macstories.net

Apple Announces Release Dates for OS Updates, New iPhones, and Apple Watch

Apple announced release dates for updates to its OSes and new hardware at the keynote held in the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park today. Here are the dates for each:

iPhone XR:

  • Pre-Order Date: October 19, 2018
  • Ship Date and in stores: October 26, 2018.

iPhone XS, and XS Max:

  • Pre-Order Date: September 14, 2018
  • First Wave of Countries Ship Date and in stores:1 September 21, 2018
  • Second Wave of Countries Ship Date and in stores:2 September 28, 2018

iOS 12

  • Release Date: September 17, 2018

Apple Watch Series 4

  • Pre-Order Date: September 14, 2018
  • Ship Date and in stores: September 21, 2018

watchOS 5

  • Release Date: September 17, 2018

macOS 10.14 Mojave:

  • Release Date: September 24, 2018

You can also follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 12, 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 12, 2018 RSS feed.

  1. Shipping initially to Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UAE, UK, US, and the US Virgin Islands. ↩
  2. Shipping to Andorra, Armenia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and South Africa ↩

Is Apple Neglecting Beats’ Headphone Business in Favor of Its Own?→

The Verge has a story today by Micah Singleton in which he wonders whether Apple still cares about Beats, the company it acquired in 2014. As Singleton notes, no new products have been released under the Beats brand in 2018, and The Verge’s sources say we shouldn’t expect that to change at Apple’s keynote tomorrow.

Nonetheless, Beats continues to have marketing successes, like recently becoming the official headphones of the NBA and USA Basketball. However, the dearth of new products coupled with competition from Apple’s wireless AirPods and rumored premium over-the-ear headphones puts Beats in a tight spot, which Singleton argues is a mistake:

Apple has its eyes set on the high-end audio market to compete against the likes of Audio-Technica, Bose, and a rapidly improving headphone ecosystem. But neglecting the team that has been able to sell slightly above-average headphones at a breakneck pace for nearly a decade doesn’t seem like a smart business move for either party. If you are the official headphone company for United States Basketball, it seems wise to continue releasing new headphones. And if you are Apple — and your history with headphones and speakers has precisely one win, despite many attempts — you should lean on the company you own that hasn’t missed yet.

Beats jump-started Apple’s music streaming efforts, but other than adding the W1 chip to its wireless headphones in late 2016 and 2017, there have been few signs of Apple’s plans for Beats. I hope Singleton is wrong about Apple neglecting Beats because it would be a shame to squander the company’s valuable brand, though I suspect he may not be.

Permalink

Twitter To Livestream Apple’s Fall Keynote→

TechCrunch has confirmed that Apple is expanding how its September 12th keynote can be consumed. In years past, Apple keynotes were limited to streaming in Safari and the Apple Events app. This past summer, Apple expanded browser-based streaming to include Firefox and Chrome.

Yesterday, Apple began offering reminders of its event via Twitter, which the company has done in the past. As Sarah Perez of TechCrunch notes, however, the wording for tomorrow’s event was a little different:

Instead of saying “follow” the event on Twitter, the tweet says “…watch the #AppleEvent live on Twitter.” (Emphasis ours).

Watch implies a live stream, and the tweet itself featured an animated GIF as another hint.

That wording kicked off speculation that Twitter would stream the keynote, which TechCrunch and other media outlets have since confirmed.

Apple will hold its special event at the Steve Jobs Theater tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT. Besides the Apple Events app and Twitter livestream, the event will be available on apple.com.

You can follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 12, 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 12, 2018 RSS feed.

Permalink

How the Stanford Heart Study App Saved Jason Perlow→

Last fall, Apple launched the free Heart Study app in partnership with Stanford University. The study, which was closed to new participants in August and has begun to end for some early participants, was available to US residents over 22 years old with an Apple Watch Series 1 and newer. The app used the Apple Watch to monitor the user’s heart rate for atrial fibrillation, a leading cause of stroke.

Over the course of the Stanford study, stories have surfaced of instances where it discovered dangerous Afib conditions that were undiagnosed before. One such recent story comes from ZDNet writer Jason Perlow. A self-described Apple critic, Perlow purchased a refurbished Series 2 Nike+ Apple Watch earlier this year to test it.

Skeptical about whether the device would be something he would use much, Perlow nonetheless signed up for the Heart Study. Within a few days, Perlow received a notification asking him to contact a doctor at Stanford. The Heart Study app had detected signs of previously-undiagnosed atrial fibrillation. Perlow had the condition treated by a team of heart specialists, but as he concludes:

I owe my life to my Apple Watch. Because it started this whole machine rolling. And I was very lucky to have my Afib caught during the last three months of public enrollment in the Heart Study, which ended in early August.

I participated in the Heart Study too. Like Perlow, I forgot about it for long stretches. I’m fortunate that I didn’t receive the sort of alert Perlow did, but in September, Stanford sent me a notification that my participation in the study was ending. It turns out that over the course of 188 days, Stanford collected 1,743 heart measurements from me. Multiply that by the thousands of people in the study, and the potential the Apple Watch has for medical research is remarkable, while at the same time helping individuals like Perlow one at a time.

Permalink
AppStories - Ep. 78 - 37 minutes

Exploring Twitter Apps

FedericoJohn
AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 78 - Exploring Twitter Apps

0:00
37:16

↓

AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

This week, Federico and John explore Twitter clients, other specialized Twitter apps, and how they use them.

Read more

Apple Music Debuts Global and Country-Specific Top 100 Lists

Today, Apple Music added 116 Top 100 charts to its iOS Music app and iTunes on the Mac. The charts, consisting of a global Top 100 chart and a Top 100 chart for each country where Apple Music is offered, are part of a new Top Charts section of Apple Music’s Browse tab. Despite some reports that the charts are limited to the iOS 12 and macOS Mojave betas, I have been able to access them in iTunes on macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 too.

According to Rolling Stone, which was given a demonstration by Apple Music executives, the charts are based on Apple Music streams only and are updated every day at Midnight Pacific time.