eXtensions - Thursday 7 November 2024
By Graham K. Rogers
Last week was unusual for Apple, with a significant update to the operating systems on Monday, including new AI features in some regions, new Macs, and the latest financial report on Thursday. But Apple was not finished. On Friday there were reports that Apple was in the process of acquiring Pixelmator.
When I first read the news last Friday (1 Nov) that Apple is to acquire Pixelmator (pending regulator approval), I was surprised and delighted at the same time. Like others, I wondered what Apple would do with the company and its apps: Pixelmator, Pixelmator Pro and Photomator. Jonny Evans (Apple Must) seems similarly taken aback: "This is quite a thing". He notes that although Apple did mention Pixelmator at the M2 Mac mini release lst year, there was nothing last week concerning the company or apps with the M4 announcements. Like others, Evans speculates as to what Apple will do now. Many had wondered about the survival of Affinity Photo and other apps when Canva bought Serif (no change so far).
The same ideas are being aired now with regard to Pixelmator. Evans wonders about some of the features appearing in Final Cut and Logic Pro; others wonder about additions to Photos. William Gallagher (AppleInsider) is also enthusiastic, and in speculation about what Apple may do with Pixelmator (et al) he looks at what the company did with other significant applications: DarkSky (subsumed), Workflow (now shortcuts); and Primephonic that became Apple Classical. What will the future Pixelmator or Photomator look like?
As I view Photomator as the app closest to Aperture (minus some significant features, like the Light Table and Books) I would like Apple to recreate that app. Photos is a poor substitute and Photomator only goes part of the way. Chance Miller (9to5Mac) noted that the company insists that there will be no material changes to the apps at this time [my italics], adding that it is rare for Apple to publicly announce acquisitions like this. Jason Snell (Six Colors) was short and sweet, and clearly enthused by this news. He hopes that "Photos is going to get a serious infusion of new talent and functionality!"
Mark Gurman writes that he was not particularly surprised about the Pixelmator acquisition in this week's newsletter. However, he is wrong to call Aperture, Apple's one-time attempt to take on Photoshop. It was a workflow application, as is Adobe Lightroom which Aperture preceded by a few months and was never a Photoshop competitor. Aperture was released in November 2005, with Lightroom following later.
My Lightroom article was written in May 2006 although some sources say this was not released until 2007. The Aperture review was later as Aperture could not be installed on my 12-inch G4 PowerBook initially. That was revised later and I installed Aperture.
Like Lightroom which it preceded, it had editing tools, but these were not as sophisticated as those in Photoshop as the two apps were developed for different purposes. This is why I later bought Affinity Photo (recently bought by Canva) and Pixelmator, and Pixelmator Pro. When Pixelmator released the software now called Photomator for the iPad, I looked at that, and likened it to Aperture. It includes the ability to use the tools menu on left or right in the Mac version (like Aperture) which is useful for many people editing photos; and it accesses the Photos Library.
In his opening to comments on the Pixelmator acquisition, Jaron Schneider (Petapixel) commented, "It marks the first time that Apple has chosen to dip a toe into the professional editing space since it ceased development of Aperture in 2014." In another article, Jason Schneider (PetaPixel) adds an opinion on what needs to be done to make Photomator a viable Apple alternative to Lightroom. It appears that he is discussing how these apps would run on a Mac, but Photomator, for example, was initially only available on the iPad (then iPhone, then Mac), so some of the features he suggests, such as tethering, would be valuable on the tablets as well (a feature I have long wanted). He is keenly aware of the potential here particularly with Final Cut Pro which "is ridiculously fast", so perhaps there could be some feature crossover.
Last week Apple released its Q4 2024 financial report that seemed to fade into the background with the other announcements from Cupertino. The press release with its most important points is available online.
The record results were dismissed by Wall Street analysts as there is not projected to be enough growth for coming quarters. Despite several good reports from Apple, like the adoption rate of iOS 18.1, which Tim Cook claims to be twice that of 17.1 (Chance Milller, 9to5Mac); and reports of high sales of the iPhone 16, despite low figures from China (Johana Bhuiyan, Guardian.
On 9to5Mac, Ed Hardy reports that as well as higher iPhone sales, "Services revenue rose 12% year over year, iPad revenue increased 8% and Mac revenue went up 2%"; but the share price fell before and after the Q4 2024 announcements. Johanna Bhuiyan (Guardian) - in a useful article - also reports "strong demand for the iPhone 16" with lower sales in China, noting also Tim Cook's comments on the release of AI, that "the company wanted to focus on creating the best AI assistant, not the first".
Jason Snell (Six Colors) did his usual excellent job of transcribing the conference call in which Cook paid due respect to Luca Maestri who is soon to retire from the CFO position. A question from Ben Reitzes, Melius, looked at the rumors on supply chain, noting that the Apple advice, "certainly doesn't sound like alarm bells". After commenting on Apple Intelligence and the product lineup, Cook responded, "In terms of the noise, I tune it out. Because if not, it would just be deafening." Nothing to report here. Regarding the US election and potential future tariffs, Tim Cook declined to answer: "I'm going to punt on that one". [We note that he shook hands with the future president after the results were announced.]
When iOS 18.1 appeared, Apple included the first of its AI features, and I tried some of the writing tools on an academic paper I had worked on. I was not impressed with the results, particularly the rewrite using the "Professional" rewriting option. I would not have accepted that without changes from a student. Joe Rossignol (MacRumors) highlights two humorous videos from Apple, the first of which examines the ability of AI to change the tone of a piece of writing (angry to Friendly). The other video looks at summarizing key points and certainly has some value in terms of helping readers to understand a longer text. I tried this on the last item I wrote (Macweek and it did a reasonable job on key points. I also tried the "Summarize" option which also provided credible output.
Richard Priday (Tom's Guide) has a reasonable outline of the tools currently available. I am guessing that the "Compose" option shown in some images on the Apple site, will be coming in a later update. Om Malik also wrote a comment on the ability to use transcriptions after converting a 58-minute conversation, by dropping a sound file into Notes. This may not work with all file types. Although a transcription section was added to a M4a file I dropped into Notes, I was not able to see anything other than the first couple of lines; nor could I copy the transcript. This is still work in progress.
One of the new AI features is an update to Siri. I gave this a quick test with the simple, "Hey Siri, What's the time?" As I said the initial part, "Hey Siri", the whole of the screen surround lit up as expected, but it does look good the first couple of times. The time was displayed. I whispered, Thank you (to myself) and there was an immediate text display of "You're welcome", which made me chuckle: a nice touch.
As a long time Mac user, I found early on that, rather than making things happen using the menu system (Finder or applications), it was far quicker using the key commands: combinations of keys. These are often given beside the menu item - to the right and greyed out. If a menu item does not have a key command listed, it may be possible to add one using the Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts in Settings (particularly the Services section). Adding a key comand can either be universal or for a specific application only. These commands may also be available for some apps on an iPad with an external keyboard.
I have written about this on a number of occasions in the past, but this week D. Griffin Jones (Cult of Mac) produced a useful article which explains several of the more useful key commands for the Mac. The article is broken into sections to help understanding. He also provides a link at the end that gives access to the Apple keyboard shortcut guide which is useful as a reference.
This week, in between catching up with what Apple has been up to, I took some time for television: on Apple, La Maison, Disclaimer and Before; in between MotoGP motorcycle racing from Malaysia; and on Netflix, the whole of The Diplomat. Its explosive ending in Series 1, was followed by an equally explosive (but not so percussive or violent) finale of Series 2. Fortunately, the closing credits told viewers that another season is on the way. Also on the way is the next series of Silo, coming on 15 November, and Apple has put out an extended video: the first 5 minutes.
For the future, it is reported by David Snow (Cult of Mac) that The Family Plan is to see a Part 2. This did not see rave reviews from the critics, but I saw it a couple of months ago and enjoyed it immensely, although the late family argument scenes between Mark Wahlberg and Ciarán Hinds dragged a bit. Hinds (who appeared to have put on weight) had been brilliant as Caesar in the BBC's Rome; in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast; and many other productions (TV and film). Wahlberg often appears (deceptively) lightweight, but the Family Plan saw both serious and comedic sides. He has also been in several action movies, like Planet of the Apes, Four Brothers, The Shooter, and The Departed.
On Netflix, having watched and been mightily entertained by The Diplomat (Series 2) I am waiting for new output to drop. In the meantime, I tried some movies: Time Cut (number 1 in the Thai movies list) which is best forgotten, althoguh introducing an iPhone to someone from the past as proof of time travel was cute; Mrs Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a Tim Burton movie with Asa Butterfield, Terence Stamp and a madcap Samuel L. Jackson. He seems to like movies made in Britain, like Kingsman and Formula 51 (with Robert Carlyle), where he plays a rogue chemical engineer. I also watched Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), a surprising and tender movie with Tilda Swinton and a heavily made-up Idris Elba as a djinn. It is something of a fantasy concerning the three wishes Swinton's character is granted (and how she uses them), and the stories of previous recipients of wishes: feel-good vibes here.
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. After 3 years writing a column in the Life supplement, he is now no longer associated with the Bangkok Post. He can be followed on X (@extensions_th). The RSS feed for the articles is http://www.extensions.in.th/ext_link.xml - copy and paste into your feed reader.
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