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iFixit’s MacBook Pro with Retina Display Teardown→

iFixit’s MacBook Pro with Retina Display Teardown

As expected, the guys at iFixit have posted their teardown of the new MacBook Pro with Retina display, announced by Apple earlier this week at WWDC. With an overall repairability score of 1 out of 10, iFixit notes how the latest iteration of the MacBook Pro makes it harder for repairers to replace internal components and disassemble the machine.

In particular, they note how Apple is using proprietary flash memory on the MacBook Pro now, and a fused display assembly without glass that, in case of anything falling inside the display, will need the user to replace the entire assembly. They also noticed a different battery layout:

The lithium-polymer battery is glued rather than screwed into the case, which increases the chances that it’ll break during disassembly. The battery also covers the trackpad cable, which tremendously increases the chance that the user will shear the cable in the battery removal process.

Check out the full teardown (with photos and technical comments) here.

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Ping To Be Removed From Next “Major Release” Of iTunes→

Ping To Be Removed From Next “Major Release” Of iTunes

According to John Paczkowski at AllThingsD, Apple’s social network for music, Ping, will be removed from the next major release of iTunes, likely coming this Fall. According to his sources, it will be replaced by integration with Twitter and Facebook, both to be supported in the next versions of iOS and OS X at a system level.

Sources close to the company say that Ping, which still exists today in iTunes 10.6.3, will be gone with the software’s next major release, likely scheduled for this fall. And at that point Apple’s social networking offerings will shift to Twitter and new partner Facebook entirely.

At the D10 conference last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said “the customers voted and said they didn’t want to put a lot of energy into Ping”. Two years ago, NPR called Ping “one of the worst ideas” of 2010.

Ping is still available in iTunes 10.6.3, released yesterday.

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Apple: “New” Mac Pro Is No Longer New→

Apple: “New” Mac Pro Is No Longer New

As noticed by @setteBIT earlier today, Apple appears to have changed its mind in regards to putting a “New” label on its online Store next to the “new” Mac Pro that was silently updated yesterday. As shown in the screenshot above, only the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines are now indicated as “New” (recently updated) to customers; yesterday, as MacRumors points out and we noticed prior to writing about the update, Apple had decided to put a New tag next to Mac Pro in spite of its minimal hardware changes.

It’s not just about the wild rumors that had been circulating ahead of WWDC – the “new” Mac Pro really isn’t much of an upgrade after two years. As Marco Arment wrote:

After two years, the Mac Pro was “updated” today, sort of: now we can choose slightly faster two-year-old CPUs at the top end, and the other two-year-old CPU options are cheaper now. That’s about it.

No Xeon E5 CPUs, no USB 3, no Thunderbolt. They’re even shipping the same two-year-old graphics cards. Same motherboard, slightly different CPU options from 2010. That’s it.

Below, a comparison image we posted yesterday to compare the “new” Mac Pro to the “old” Mac Pro.

Official Mac Pro specs are available here.

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Apple Posts WWDC 2012 Keynote Video→

Apple Posts WWDC 2012 Keynote Video

Apple has posted a video for its WWDC 2012 Keynote that took place in San Francisco earlier today. The video can be streamed here, and a higher quality version should be made available in a few hours through iTunes. The video appears to have issues with Google Chrome on OS X, returning an “available shortly” message that won’t start a streaming session; it appears to be working fine on Safari for iOS and OS X.

Streaming:

• Apple Events

Download: (Update: now available)

• Apple Keynotes 1080p
• Apple Keynotes HD
• Apple Keynotes

Also, here’s a recap of our ongoing coverage for today’s event:

• The 2012 Apple Design Award Winners
• Aperture and iPhoto Libraries Now Unified in Retina Display Update
• The Stealth Updates: New AirPort Express, New iPad Smart Case, Updated USB SuperDrive, and More!
• Apple Silently Updates The Mac Pro
• Mountain Lion is Coming Next Month: Here’s What We Know
• The Next Generation MacBook Pro: Retina Display, Thinner Design, And More
• Apple Updates MacBook Pro Lineup: Ivy Bridge, USB 3, New Kepler GT650M, and More
• Apple Announces New MacBook Airs: Ivy Bridge, USB 3, and More

We will post additional news on the site’s homepage, or tweet as @MacStoriesNet throughout the day.

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TestFlight Introduces their TestFlight Desktop App Beta for Developers→

TestFlight Introduces their TestFlight Desktop App Beta for Developers

This afternoon, Hjalti Jakobsson (@Hjalti) announced the availability of the TestFlight Desktop App private beta.

TestFlight Desktop App, now in private beta

We’re really excited to share an early version of TestFlight’s Desktop App. We think this will be a significant and much needed change in developers’ beta release workflow. Since we’re still in beta, we’d really appreciate you testing the app and providing feedback.

TestFlight’s Desktop App brings TestFlight’s powerful management features to the desktop, resulting in iOS archive detection from the menubar, the ability to set permissions for testers, automatic dSYM detection, and faster upload speeds. Developers can simply visit https://testflightapp.com/desktop/ to download the beta app and provide feedback before TestFlight’s public release.

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iOS 6 and Media Integration→

iOS 6 and Media Integration

At Applingua, Tom Klaver argues that Apple shouldn’t provide a separate “Files.app” in iOS 6:

I completely see this improved integration happen throughout iOS 6. There won’t be yet another separate app — a collection library of all possible files a user can interact with will do. Would you want yet another icon on your Homescreen? Remember one of Apple’s (Sir Jony Ive’s) undisclosed philosophies: you shouldn’t see something unless you need it.

You say you want to add a photo from Hipstamatic while composing this email? No problem. Tap “Attach”, pick the Photos category, tap Hipstamatic, and you’ll see all your photos from Hipstamatic.

I don’t know if iOS 6 will feature a revamped document picker for better file management across apps, but Klaver’s proposed solution isn’t too dissimilar from what I envisioned two weeks ago. Rather than providing a separate app just to manage files, I think it’d be interesting to see Apple leveraging the existing iCloud interface (pictured above) to seamlessly let third-party access each other’s documents and data. Klaver thinks this menu could be organized by media type, such as “Photos”; as I have previously written, I believe the key point will be providing a simple, yet reliable way to work with documents across apps without creating duplicates. We’ll see at WWDC next week.

As an aside, Ole Begemann recently dug up an interesting quote by Steve Jobs from 2005:

Now, e-mail, there’s always been a better way to find stuff. You don’t keep your e-mail on your file system, right? The app manages it. And that was the breakthrough, as an example, in iTunes. You don’t keep your music in the file system, that would be crazy. You keep it in this app that knows about music and knows how to find things in lots of different ways. Same with photos: we’ve got an app that knows all about photos. And these apps manage their own file storage.

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Can a command line shell be Mac-like?→

Can a command line shell be Mac-like?

Introducing a new command line shell from Ridiculous Fish (@ridiculous_fish):

The new fish is a POSIX command line shell with delightful, intuitive features like autosuggestions, 256 color syntax highlighting, web based configuration, and lots more. Best of all, these features just work, out of the box. No arcane syntax, no twiddling obscure knobs.

It’s easy to install and integrates seamlessly into iTerm or Apple’s Terminal. Fish (fishfish) is optimized for speed and is packed with easy-to-use features that allow newbs like me to customize my environment to my liking. Setting up and using fish is simple:

Edit /etc/shells as root, and add the line (if missing): /usr/local/bin/fish
Then run: chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish

You can download fish here.

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Airlines Increasing Fuel Efficiency By Adopting The iPad As An Entertainment Device→

Airlines Increasing Fuel Efficiency By Adopting The iPad As An Entertainment Device

Bloomberg reports today that startup airline Scoot Pte (their maiden flight is today) will save fuel and have increased profits by deploying the iPad as the passenger entertainment device. By cutting out old entertainment systems weighing more than two tons, they’ve saved fuel while still flying older airplanes and even expanding traditional seating capacity by 40 per cent. Increasing profit, the post-PC way.

The tablets helped the carrier cut 7 percent off the weight of planes obtained from parent Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) even after a 40 percent increase in seating, Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson said. The savings will help Scoot, which makes its maiden flight today, cope with fuel prices that have jumped about 36 percent in two years.

Scoot Pte will rent the iPads for $17 a flight to economy-class passengers and offering them for free to those in business class. It follows moves by other airlines such as Jetstar, AirAsia and Qantas which have deployed the iPad in trials and small test runs since late last year.

Cutting costs and finding new sources of revenue will be key for Singapore-based Scoot as it seeks to make a profit flying older planes than other low-cost carriers and selling tickets as cheap as S$158 one-way to Sydney, a flight of more than seven hours. Singapore Air formed Scoot after budget operators led by Jetstar and AirAsia Bhd. won 26 percent of the city’s air-travel market.

By reducing fuel costs, parent company Singapore Airlines hopes that it can turn over a new leaf with Scoot after it tumbled 28 percent this year, exceeding the 14 percent decline for the Straits Times Index. It’s really crazy to think that something like the iPad can have such a huge impact on fuel efficiency of airplanes - today’s story is on top of  the existing trend of airlines replacing flight manuals with iPads that Tim Cook gladly shared earlier this year.

Scoot plans to increase its fleet to as many as 14 777s by the middle of the decade. The carrier will be able to pare maintenance costs by working with its parent, Wilson said.

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Instapaper’s Background Update Locations→

Instapaper’s Background Update Locations

Last night, Instapaper was updated with a major new feature: Background Update Locations. Here’s how it works:

Now, with Background Update Locations, Instapaper can automatically download new articles whenever you enter or leave locations such as your home or workplace. Visit the Settings panel to set it up. (Requires an iPhone or 3G/4G-equipped iPad.)

I have been testing the feature this afternoon, and while I couldn’t get it to work initially, I think I have figured it out. Basically, Instapaper uses iOS geofencing to determine when you enter or leave a location (you can store up to 10 locations inside Instapaper). The geofencing, however, isn’t really precise, as granularity may vary, and it could be based on a combination of cell tower strength and triangulation. Having tried geofencing with Apple’s own Reminders, I can attest that location-based alerts were already problematic in my town; so my guess is that today, when I couldn’t get Instapaper to download items in the background, the issue was with geofencing in Viterbo – definitely not with Instapaper. I have noticed that some locations in my town just won’t fire off the geofence; I have no idea why this is happening, and I hope Apple fixes it in iOS 6 (perhaps through their new fancy mapping service).

Fortunately, Instapaper’s Background Update Locations are now working with the place I care about – my house. I was able to leave, drive around town, and then I found articles waiting in my list, already downloaded. It’s a really nice option to have, and I’m glad Marco was inspired by News.me to implement it.

Get Instapaper 4.2.2 from the App Store.

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