Random Thoughts on the New Apple Products

Today Apple announced several new products…

The New 9.7 Inch iPad

Just last week I wrote about the need for an “ePad”. The new lower priced iPad makes a lot of sense for schools and other buyers on a budget. It is $70 less, a little thicker, and probably a little more sturdy. Companies are already announcing rugged cases for the new iPad that would work great in an education setting.

We did not get updates to the iPad Pro. I still think we’ll get those this year. The current 12.9 inch iPad is now over a year and a half old and the 9.7 inch iPad Pro is a year old. I’d be surprised if we don’t get at least processor updates on them and Apple brings the hardware features into parity with fast charging and True Tone display. As to the rumored 10.5 inch iPad, your guess is as good as mine.

The Product Red iPhone

For years I felt like there should be a Product Red iPhone. The only thing that’s puzzling to me is that they waited so long into the iPhone 7 product cycle before releasing it. If things go according to the usual schedule, we are less than six months away from the next iPhone. Also, how about a Product Red iPad?

Clips App

I’m curious why they announced this when it’s not ready to ship. My favorite commentary on the new Clips app came from my children, “It’s like Snapchat, but for parents.” Ouch.

The Spring Apple Watch Bands

Very “springy”. If I was in charge, I would’ve also announced some spring-themed animations for the Messages App.

Sponsor: OmniFocus


This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniFocus from the Omni Group. Last week I just spent several days at the American Bar Association conference where I talked to a lot of lawyers using OmniFocus to hold things together. That shouldn’t surprise you though. OmniFocus is a powerful tool and people that have a lot of tasks to manage love OmniFocus. 

One of the things I love about OmniFocus in particular (and the Omni Group in general) is the way they obsess over small details to make things easier on their users. You can see this in the OmniFocus check circles. In most task management applications the check box is just that … a check box. Not true with OmniFocus.


The OmniFocus check circle shows the status of the attached task. This clever system allows you to immediately understand the status of your task and makes working with OmniFocus that much easier. If the Omni Group spent this much time thinking about how the check-circle works, how much do you think they thought about the rest of the application?
If you would like to up your productivity game, check out OmniFocus.

Intelligent Assistant Competition on iPhone

There have been a few interesting moves in the intellegent assitant space on the iPhone as of late.

Microsoft’s Cortana App got a significant update. I like the new design a lot better. It’s simpler and feels more native to iPhone than it’s prior iteration … so long as you like the color purple. (So much purple.) The feature set is similar to many of Siri’s. You can get the weather, check your calendar and set yourself reminders. The app can also give you proactive notifications, like telling you when to leave for you next appointment based on traffic.

I’ve been in Chicago for a few days speaking at a conference and tried using Cortana as a Siri replacement. It performed admirably. I didn’t experience any transcription failures and it was even able to get me directions (using Apple Maps).

Also, Amazon announced it is going to put Alexa on the iPhone. Interestingly, they’re not putting Alexa in the Alexa app but instead the Amazon app, which makes a lot of sense if you’re in the business of selling products from Amazon.com. Alexa in the Amazon app is not, however, limited to just buying stuff. You can also ask it about the weather or the time in Tokyo and it will give you an answer. Although Amazon’s announcement states Alexa in the Amazon app can work with third party skills, I had mixed results. The Angry Bard gave me Shakespearian insults but the Automatic skill couldn’t tell me anything about my car.

An interesting bit about Alexa in the Amazon app is that it doesn’t give you any screens. Just like the Echo on your kitchen counter, the interface is entirely voice based.

Neither of these services feel like Siri replacements at this time. Siri’s tight integration with the operating system make it my default. But I did learn in this experiment that having an icon in my dock to activate an intelligent assistant was not terribly inconvenient. If Apple doesn’t keep pushing forward with Siri and somebody else makes something better, I could easily switch.

Apple and Education


Future Source Consulting did a study of the most popular operating systems in education K–12. According to their report Apple is at an all-time low with Mac OS accounting for 5% and iOS at 14%. The big winner is Chrome OS, that has grown to 58%. That makes sense. Chrome OS can run on very inexpensive hardware and is very easy to deploy and manage in a school setting. This jives with a report from an education-IT friend of mine that said a thorough understanding of Chrome OS and its management is a golden ticket in that field.

Clearly Apple’s angle in all of this is iPad. Years ago Fraser Speirs guested on the Mac Power Users and he justified his preference that kids learn to make presentations with iPad Keynote over mastering Microsoft Word by explaining, “I’m training CEOs, not secretaries.”

I’m sure a lot of the reason for Chrome OS’s dominance is cost. It is a lot less expensive to purchase Chrome OS hardware and schools are (too) often underfunded. These numbers give me an excuse to take another whack at iOS software. It needs to get better for productivity-type work and I’m sure that bleeds over into school adoption.

Overall, I dont find this report super-concerning for Apple. Most of this is based on budget and Apple has never really played that game. Apple used to make an education priced Mac, the eMac, which made a lot of sense. If Apple wants to get more penetration into schools, coming up with a more rugged, less fancy (and less epensive) iPad (let’s call it “ePad”) would help out. Looking at all these kids growing up using Chrome OS raises another question … what’s going to happen to Microsoft Office?

Jonathan Zdziarski at Apple

Jonathan Zdziarski is a well respected security and privacy expert. Now he works for Apple. Jonathan’s explanation of why he took the gig pushes all my buttons.

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“This decision marks the conclusion of what I feel has been a matter of conscience for me over time. Privacy is sacred; our digital lives can reveal so much about us – our interests, our deepest thoughts, and even who we love. I am thrilled to be working with such an exceptional group of people who share a passion to protect that.”
— Jonathan Zdziarski

I think Apple is serious when they talk about protecting user privacy and hiring people like Jonathan. I don’t know if this priority gives Apple much market advantage in the world today where most consumers are pretty cavalier about their privacy but it sure makes me happy to be using Apple products.

Latest Apple Park Video

I remember the first time I visited Infinite Loop, where I expected to see something like the Wonka Chocolate Factory but instead got a series of business offices, not so unlike my own. “This is it?” I thought. 

Well that was a long time ago and now it looks as if The Apple Chocolate Factory is getting ready to open for business after all. (And it will be just secretive as its fictional equivalent.)

Sponsor: MailButler for Business




This week MacSparky is sponsored by MailButler. MailButler has just added a new Business subscription plan that includes several features to ensure complete control over email flow for your team. This includes several new features including:

Advanced Tracking

MailButler adds links to your emails so you can seen all the details about your email recipients opening your email messages. Learn when, where, how often, with what kind of device, and in which email client your messages have been viewed. Now you’ll know if your customer has actually opened the email with their invoice or if your colleague received the email with the new spreadsheet.

CRM Support

Customer relationship managers are an essential tool for business but wrangling your email into them has never been easy. MailButler now lets you connect with your CRM tool you automatically get  copies of your outgoing emails in the system through a blind carbon copy.

Correspondent Insight

MailButler Business Plan users also get additional insight on their email correspondents with detailed information, such as social media profiles and company information. 

Custom Signature Templates

MailButler Business Plan members don’t only get the cool MailButler template designer to create their own custom email signature, they can also make a unique corporate signature design and share it with their team members. Give your team a unified, professional looking email signature.

Team Features

Best of all, these team member features are easy to manage using the MailButler Business Plan Dashboard where managers can assign roles and tasks to the team members, watch their activity and usage statistics, as well as share custom signature or message templates.

MailButler’s new Business Plan is a great idea. Take control of email for your team with MailButler for Business.

iPhone 8 Speculation

Later this year we’re going to get the next iPhone. There’s been a lot of rumors about this new one with talk of an edge-to-edge (possibly OLED) screen, embedded touch IT, and even maybe wireless charging. Chance Miller at 9to5 Mac did a nice job pulling together the current rumors. Personally, I’d be surprised if the next iPhone has all of the rumored features. The iPhone is nearly the whole story when it comes to Apple revenue and for every new iPhone they have to build millions of the things reliably and quickly. Too many big changes in one generation increases the possibility of delays for specific parts or, worse yet, defects in the phone. If I had to pick just one feature I’d like in a new iPhone, it would be that edge-to-edge screen. It looks pretty great in 9to5 Mac’s mock up photos in the above linked article.