Vector

Tom Boger is Sr. Director of Mac Product Marketing at Apple. He's worked on projects including the original iMac. Earlier this week, he took to the Apple keynote stage to introduce the new Mac mini. The following day he sat down with me to talk about that new Mac mini as well as the new MacBook Air and Apple's complete current line-up of Macs: What the design goals are, how to choose the right Mac for you, and how Apple sees the Mac now and into the future.

Links

• Mac mini at Apple
• MacBook Air at Apple

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The invitations have gone out — 370 odd unique invitations, actually, as it seems like Apple has sent custom art out to everyone invited. In a myriad of styles, from abstract to pop — and the event date is set: October 30, 2018, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House.

So, what does art and music have to do with iPads and Macs?

New iPads Pro, maybe a new iPad mini, new Mac mini, new entry-level MacBook Air replacement, maybe new AirPods and... AirPower.

It's all coming our way in just a couple days at Apple's 'There's more in the making' event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House.

And here's you last minute rumor rundown and analysis!

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iPhone XR starts at $749. That's $250 less than XS and $350 less than XS Max. And one of the biggest reasons for the difference is the 326ppi LCD display instead of the 458ppi OLED..

So, is that worth the $250 or $350 — or more, depending on the storage — price tag difference?

The bottom line for me is this: Once you dive deep into display nerdery, things like "1080p in 2018" just sound utterly uninformed. It's a factor, sure, but it's not even close to the top of the list of what makes for a first class display experience in 2018.

Don't just take my word on that either, take a bunch of words.

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LINKS:

• iPhone XR Review: Almost all the best for way, way less
• iPhone XR Screen Explainer
• iPhone XS and XS Max Review

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iPhone XR starts at $749. That's $250 less than XS and $350 less than XS Max. And one of the biggest reasons for the difference is the camera system.

The front-facing TrueDepth camera is the same but the back facing camera on iPhone XS and XS Max is a dual system with one wide angle and one telephoto. XR only has the wide angle.

So, does that worth the $250 or $350 — or more, depending on the storage — price tag difference?

I asked professional photographer and YouTuber Tyler Stalman to help me figure it out!

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• Tyler Stalman YouTube Channel
• iPhone XR Review: Almost all the best for way, way less
• iPhone XR Screen Explainer
• iPhone XS and XS Max Review

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If you want a next-as-in-X-generation iPhone but you don't want to pay a thousand or more bucks for it, you want an XR.

iPhone XR — never mind what the R means, it's just a new letter for Apple, one before S, "racing" if you're into cars, "reflex" if you're into cameras, cool-sounding either way. It's everything you need in a next-as-in-X-generation iPhone, minus some bells and whistles... and the higher price tag.

LCD instead of OLED display. Single instead of dual camera system. Haptic touch instead of 3D Touch. LTE Advanced and 2x2 MIMO instead of Gigabit and 4x4. Aluminum instead of steel bands. Back glass that's stronger than iPhone X but not quite as strong as iPhone XS.

It does come in a range of fancy new finishes though: black, white, blue, yellow, coral orange, and Product (RED). And at that lower price — $250 lower — starting at $749.

It does have the new edge-to-curved-edge design language, Face ID and the True Depth camera up front, the latest 12 megapixel, Smart HDR camera on the back, the industry-leading A12 Bionic chipset inside, wide stereo speakers on both ends, and dual SIM card support if one carrier and one number just isn't enough.

So, what are you getting with iPhone XR and what are you giving up? I've spent the last week with a black iPhone XR, and here's what I've found.

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LINKS:

• iPhone XR Review: Almost all the best for way, way less
• iPhone XR Screen Explainer
• iPhone XS and XS Max Review

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Apple's last event of the year is set for October 30, 2018, in Brooklyn New York, and one of the biggest — er, smallest! — rumors is the return of the Mac mini!

The Mac mini was the original switcher machine. It was announced back in 2005 as a small, inexpensive way for you to swap out a Windows PC for a Mac. But now the switchers have switched and the Mac mini appeals more to pros who want to rack mount it in server rooms or hook it up to media centers or production pipelines.

So, what does Apple have in store for its original entry-level Mac?

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LINKS:

• New Mac mini (2018) Preview: What will it be and why?

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I wasn't going to post a show today. I've been traveling — three cities in three days — and I'm under the weather, and I'm working on a big video for tomorrow, but then I saw Linus... And it looked like he needed help to better understand and enjoy his iPhone XS. Since helping people understand and enjoy their technology, primarily Apple technology, is literally what I do, I dove in and tried to provide the absolute best answers, and sometimes sympathy, I could to his questions and concerns.

Drones are good. Drones are great. Drones are fantastic. But they have one huge problem:

Humans. Humans that crash their drones so goddam always. Especially on YouTube.

Now, if only there was a way around that. A way to get all the good, great, and fantastic without having to worry about humans getting in the way.

Well, now there is. And all you need is a Skydio R1, an Apple Watch, and a dream.

The Skydio R1 , which the company refers to as a self-driving camera, isn't new. It's been available since February. What's new is the Apple Watch app that lets you guide it from your wrist.

I said guide rather than control because the whole point of the Skydio R1 is to let the AI — the artificial intelligence — do the flying. You don't tell it to go up or down, left or right, pitch or yaw, you just tell it to lead, follow, orbit, boomerang, and the like, and the AI figures out the details.

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• Audible: Go to http://audible.com/vector or text VECTOR to 500-500 to start your 30-day trial and get your first audiobook for free!

LINKS:

• Skydio R1: Smile, you're on an Apple Watch-controlled Ai camera!

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If you want to, you can legitimately turn the iPhone into one of the best Google phones in the world. Especially if your definition of "best" includes a heavy focus on privacy and security.

Android is all about choice and, because of that, not using Android has to be a valid choice as well. Not for everyone, of course, but for those of you who were either so disappointed in the latest Pixels or so concerned with Google's current direction that you want to explore a change.

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• Audible: Go to http://audible.com/vector or text VECTOR to 500-500 to start your 30-day trial and get your first audiobook for free!

LINKS:

• Disappointed in Pixel 3? Make iPhone XS your ultra-Google Phone!

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Shortcuts is the most important addition to iOS since Extensibility in 8. With it, you can not only set up convenient voice commands to perform any action, you can create actions that are combined into powerful workflows without sacrificing any of that convenience.

Thanks to a bunch of product launches — and some controversies — I haven't had as much time to deep dive into Shortcuts as I'd like so, for this video, I asked some friends to help me out!

• Chris Connelly, who you should subscribe to right now at https://www.youtube.com/dailytekk

• Christina Warren, follow her at https://twitter.com/film-girl

• Mikah Sargent, who you read and listen to via all the links at https://chihuahua.coffee

• Matthew Cassinelli, forming Workflow team member who just started a new, automation focused channel you should check out at https://www.youtube.com/user/MatthewJCassinelli

• And Federico Viticci, famously of https://www.macstories.net

They have some great tips on how we can get started with Shortcuts and some favorite and super useful Shortcuts of their own to share.

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LINKS:

• Shortcuts
• Sharecuts
• UpdateKit
• Shortcuts User Guide
• Reddit

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