We thought we’d have some fun looking back at the MacBites year for 2018. Fun? It was a complete blast, so much so we’re already looking forward to next year’s review!
Originally, we wrote the review as a blog post but when we starting reminiscing about the year together we thought we’d record it and share it with the MacBiters. If you want to hear the fun we had with it check out MacBites 0116.
January
01: Apple Start Record Busting Revenue!
- Record busting revenue in iOS App Store sales in a single day – $300 million
- In the 7 days following Christmas Eve, customers spent $890 million on purchases, apps and in-app purchases
12: Throttle-gate!
- Or the “throttling” of older iPhones. While Apple was adamant it slowed down certain older iPhones for their own good unsurprisingly users weren’t all convinced
- In South Korea, 370,000 people band together for a class action lawsuit
- Apple were forced to offer cheaper battery replacements as an attempted make-good
31: Apple Trumped
- Apple praised by President Trump
- Given his public standing that might not be considered a good idea!
February
01: Apple Do It Again!
- Record breaking Q1 earnings
- Apple’s best quarter ever failed to impress investors despite totalling $88.3 billion in revenue
- The Apple’s Q1 2018 earnings were greeted with mixed reviews.
09: The Lesser Spotted HomePod Arrives
- The HomePod is launched
- A delay saw Apple miss their original shipping date of late 2017
19: From Infinite Loop to Apple Park
- Apple officially move into Apple Park
- Apple Park is the successful result of Steve Jobs presentation of his proposal for a new Apple Campus to the Cupertino City Council on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at the Cupertino Community Hall. This was his last public appearance before his death on 5 October 2011
23: The Great Shooting Incident of 2018
- Listen to the full story in MacBites 0113
March
12: Apple Buy Texture
- Apple moved into magazine distribution by buying Texture
- Texture being a digital subscription service providing unlimited access to 200 magazines for $9.99 a month
- Apple express their commitment to “quality journalism from trusted sources”
16: The Game of the Year Lands on iOS
27: Apple’s Field Trip
- The first Apple event of the year is education themed session titled: Let’s Take a Field Trip
- Apple announce a 9.7″ iPad with Apple Pencil support
- There’s even an alternative cheaper pencil, from Logitech called the Crayon, designed for smaller younger hands
- The paltry 5GB of free iCloud storage gets boosted to 200GB BUT only for students
- Smart annotations added to the iWork apps
- A new app for students called Schoolwork
28: Tim Cook Takes the Moral High Ground
- In light of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal privacy concerns reach fever pitch
- When asked what he’d do in same circumstances Tim Cook cooly retorts “I wouldn’t be in this situation“
April
09: Renewable Rules
09: Mid-cycle iPhone Release
11: All Change at Apple Music
11: MacBites 0108A Released
12: MacBites 0109 Released
24: Guest of the Don
May
01: More Money in the Apple Piggy Bank
- Best ever Q2 earnings
- $61 billion (15% increase on previous year)
01: iPhone X Defies the Critics
03: MacBites 0110
10: Hope for Apple Maps
- Apple gets permission to use drones to improve Apple Maps
- Just keep them away from the airports!
10: Irish Eyes Aren’t Smiling Any More
- Apple drops plans to build Irish data centre after three years of delays
- Permissions and approval issues
14: Legal Wrangling Rumbles On
- Apple v Samsung court case – 3rd retrial begins
- More patent problems
15: Yanny or Laurel?
- You would have to have been living under a rock not to encounter someone asking you this question
- It all started with a recording promising to demonstrate the correct pronunciation of the word laurel
- Problem with that?
- Yes, half those hearing it didn’t hear anything like the word laurel!
- Instead they heard Yanny
- Want to know what you’d hear? Check out this video at YouTube
23: Showing Facebook How It’s Done!
June
04: WWDC 2018
14: Fit for a Queen
- The Queen reveals her iPad usage
- An iPad is perfect for her equestrian pass times
15: Apple as Content Provider
July
11: Affinity Designer for iPad Arrives
- A year after Affinity Photo for iPad was released Affinity Designer for iPad joins its companion in the iOS App Store
- It boasts an amazing feature set more than comparable with its desktop version
11: MacBites 0111 Released
12: Surprise Update for MacBook Pro
- Performance improvement for the MacBook Pro line
- Coffee Lake chips and support for 32GB of memory
- About time we say!
20: A Failed design
- Designs for Melbourne Apple Store ditched after complaints
- “Toasted sandwich” design not appreciated by locals
30: MacBites 0112 released
31: Here We Go Again
- Apple post record-breaking Q3 profits
- Wall Street proved wrong yet again
August
01: Apple Loses Crown to Huawei
02: Trillionaires
- Apple becomes the first $1 Trillion US Company
- Announced as shares hit $207.05 each
16: Apple Hacked!
20: MacBites 0113 Released
29: Tim Cashes In
- Tim Cook was granted 560,000 restricted Apple stock options and he chose to cash in $58 million
- Talk about monopoly money!
30: Affinity Publisher Beta
- After promising the delivery of the first beta of the third app in the Affinity Suite before the end of August today was the day
- With an interface instantly familiar to users of either Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer Elaine was all over it within seconds of it being available
September
04: The Crowd are Smelling Blood
- While losing one executive might not be worthy of comment losing four in close succession most certainly is
- Slashing the price of your premium product at the same time means your imminent demise is all people are talking about
- The company in question is Evernote once the golden child of online services
- Even Evernote’s own forums were rife with speculation
- Within a few days there was a plethora of articles dedicated to educating users as to the alternatives to Evernote available for immediate use
05: Google Chrome Redesigned
- Google Chrome gets a redesign
- The world’s most popular browser, Google Chrome, got a complete redesign in September
- A certain crew member, for which read Elaine, was less than impressed with the changes
- While change isn’t always welcome Elaine’s dislike for Chrome grew to the extent that for the first time ever she changed her default browser to Firefox … that’s some serious dislike!
- Top of the list in her litany of complaints? The fact that the shape of the tabs makes moving the browser more difficult and even worse the depth of the tabs and URL bar is more than all the other major browsers
05: It Happens to the Best of Us!
- A profile of Eddy Cue In The Information reveals his tendency to drop off in meetings
- Leaving no room for lack of certainty as to his snoozing he is known to snore his way through said meetings
- Despite this he is generally viewed as a respected leader
12: Gather Round
- Apple’s biggest event of 2018 announces
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- Apple Watch Series 4
- Still no sign of the Apple wireless charging pad
17: iOS 12 Launches
24: macOS Mojave Arrives
- In keeping with their annual tradition of releasing a new version of macOS every year this year it was the turn of macOS 10.14 Mojave
- Another annual tradition is the video Elaine makes showing users how to make a boot disk for the new OS
27: Designed on an iPad
- David Hockney announces his latest work was created entirely on an iPad
- Now before you check it out be warned it isn’t exactly reminiscent of what comes to mind when you think of a stained glass window
- Our considered opinion? It’s hideous
- We’re not alone. The comment on the coverage on Cult of Mac had us in stitches
- A case of just because you can doesn’t mean you should?
- Wherever this was designed it wouldn’t be our idea of “art”
October
16: Bagelgate
- After introducing a new bagel emoji in early betas of iOS.1 Apple faced criticism of how unappealing it looked being bereft of content
- iOS 12.1 Beta 4 saw a more appetising rendition of a bagel replete with crème cheese
- Good to see Apple addressing the most pressing issues in our tech world … NOT!
30: There’s More in the Making
- Only 1 month after the previous Apple Event there’s another
- This time Apple announce
- 2 new iPad Pros – No headphone jack or home button
- Apple Pencil 2
- Upgrade for the Mac Mini
- Retina MacBook Air
30: Event Day Orders?
- Didn’t go well at MacBites HQ
- While adding an iPad Pro 11″ and Apple Pencil 2 to the basket the Apple Pencil went on 2 week back order
- 2 weeks? That’s a lifetime while waiting for your new Apple kit
- At this stage it looked like a walk-in on launch day was the only option
31: Apple Order Redux!
- Mike saved the day with exciting news for Elaine albeit at an alarming time of the morning
- For the full story check out MacBites 0114
November
01: Apple Order Redux Redux!
- Well ordering the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil 2 was so much fun Elaine did all again today with a new 13″ Retina MacBook Air
01: Onward and Upwards
02: It’s a Numbers Game and Apple Don’t Want to Play Anymore
- Never a company to worry about Wall Street Apple rattled the money men again by announcing they will no longer share information regarding unit sales of iPhone in their quarterly earnings calls
- It looks like when the figures were on the rise Apple didn’t mind sharing but the increasing prices and maturity of the market mean they’re preparing for the day when those numbers are in decline
04: Mike’s Dark Side
- A Surface appears at MacBites HQ … no for real it really did!
07: iPad Delivery Day Party at MacBites HQ
- New iPad Pro 11” arrived
- Apple Pencil v2
12: MacBook Air Delivery Day Party at MacBites HQ
- New MacBook Air 13” arrived
14: Bump for the MacBook Pro
- A performance boosting update for the MacBook Pro to add Radeon Pro Vega graphics
- It was an update that wasn’t without a cost being between $250 and $350
16: It’s the Beginning of Something New
- MacBites After Hours is born!
- What’s MacBites After Hours?
- Simple! It’s an even more irreverent show than MacBites!
16: Does It Bend?
- As ever when new kit is released there’s always someone willing to destroy it in the name of YouTube views
- This time it was an 11″ iPad Pro and new Apple Pencil that were completely destroyed in the name of durability testing
- It was completely eye watering check it out on YouTube now
22: Is Apple an “entirely selfish monster”?
- While many welcomed Apple’s addition of the USB-C connector on their Apple tech Brian May, guitarist with Queen, is not one of them
- In an Instagram post May vents his spleen regarding his hatred of the USB-C only Apple equipment
- We find we can’t disagree with his statement regarding the number of adaptors you now need to carry with Apple kit
23: Does Apple’s Pricing Need Defending?
- Whether it does or not Apple were in court in November under subpoena doing just that
- The case involved whether customers buy apps directly from Apple or whether Apple is acting as a middleman connecting app developers with users
- Apple prefer the middleman approach
- We’re still waiting to see whether the court agrees with Apple or not
28: Apple’s Stock Price Tumbles
- Apple’s stock price has tumbled in the 6 weeks to the end of November 2018 and they’re not alone
- Tech stocks in general are all in free fall with Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Apple losing $1 trillion between October and November 2018
28: Apple’s Best Selling iPhone
30: MacBites 0114
30: Two Shows in a Day?
- You bet!
- Only hours after MacBites 0114 was released The Crew were back live
- MacBites After Hours 0002 included:
- A whole range of new kit
- Donald Trump toilet brushes … don’t ask!
- Loopback
- The contents of Elaine’s Apple Pencil case were exposed!
December
- Don’t Apple sleep through December?
- Maybe they spend the time counting money!
04: Shares Still in Free Fall
- That money counting, of course, presupposes there’s any money left to count given the state of shares in the tech market!
- The flamboyantly named Erwan Rambourg, of HSBC, claims Apple’s halcyon days of ever increasing iPhone sales are over 😱
- However, before panic sets in do check out the Apple Death Knell Counter and consider that they may not be DOOMED after all
06: Tim’s on the Moral High Ground Again!
- In an interview with TIME magazine Tim Cook stated: “Apple’s largest contribution to mankind will be in improving people’s health and well-being,”
07: MacBites After Hours 0003
- Before The Crew knew it it was time for the 3rd MacBites After Hours show
- The show started with a demonstration of the power of CloudMounter
- Then it was on to a sneak peek at a stunning feature due to arrive in PowerPoint in January 2019 – live presentation translation
- And it wouldn’t be a MacBites After Hours without a dip into Affinity Designer would it now and here Elaine talks about features new in the 1.7 beta version!
07: Aussie Challenge to Tim’s Moral High Ground
- Australia pass a law that will impact several big tech companies
- The law means law enforcement officials are allowed to access encrypted messages when required
- National security is the given reason but that’s unlikely to move Tim
- It’s a case of watch this space during 2019 and beyond
14: MacBites After Hours 0004
- The 4th MacBites After Hours had everything!
- Running Windows on a Mac
- MacBites HQ’s new projector
- The Crew took their lives … and the MacBites website … in their hands as they risked Doing the WordPress Gutenberg move live!
- Elaine demonstrated the awesome power of the Affinity Designer Export Persona
21: MacBites After Hours 0005
- Another week another MacBites After Hours!
- The first 20 minutes of the show were spent enjoying the Crew’s visit to Dunham Massey for their Christmas Trail
- The Crew also shared the Christmas tree here at MacBites HQ
- Elaine demonstrated making a calendar in Affinity Designer
- Elaine then showed the amazing power of the export persona in Affinity Designer for iPad
24: MacBites After Hours 0006 – T’was the Night Before Christmas
- A special episode of After Hours for Christmas Eve was chock full of delight for the festive season
- Elaine demonstrated a new app that makes zipping and unzipping files on iOS a complete breeze – Zipped for iOS
- Mike delivered a hands on demonstration of how he’s implemented CarPlay on a budget
- Then it was time for Calendars in Excel
- By popular request Elaine demonstrated batch processing options in Affinity Photo
28: MacBites After Hours 0007
- The last MacBites After Hours of 2018 was a riot of fun and learning!
- Elaine showed how to extend Alfred‘s already awesome power to include the ability to find stock images straight from your desktop
- Mike had fun showing the MacBiters how he can sign contracts using PDF Expert on his iPad
- Then it was a demonstration of a powerful way to rename files
- The Affinity Adventure of the week was an edited session in Affinity Photo dedicated to enhancing concert photos
