Now that Apple has announced that its Fall 2017 event will be held at the Steve Jobs Theater on September 12th, at 10AM Pacific Time, it is time for me to make my predictions for what we will see. Even though Apple does hold other events throughout the year, its biggest has been the September event. The reason for the attention to the September event is that it has been the tradition to show off the new iPhones at the event. In years past, the September event has been used for Music. The iPhone makes up 60% of Apple's revenue, so that is where the most attention is paid, not only by the tech press, but mainstream media as well. Let us dive into my predictions.

iPhones

I think there will be three new iPhone versions unveiled at the event. The successors to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which will be named the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus. These will use the same form factor as the previous versions. The biggest changes will be from the addition of the Dual camera for the iPhone 7s, which will allow Portrait Mode on the smaller size. I think the processor will be an A11 Fusion, the next generation of processor and the two phones will have parity, in everything except for size. This is akin to the way the iPad Pros are now positioned. This will just be a continuation of that model. I think the sizes will remain the same at 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB. Alongside this, I think the colors will also remain the same as Silver, Gold, Rose Gold, and Space Gray. The prices will also remain the same at $649 for the 32GB iPhone 7s, and each increase in size is $100 more. The same will be for the iPhone 7s Plus, starting at $769 for the 32GB, and $100 more for each size above that. I give this a 95% probability of occurring.

New iPhone Form Factor

The third new phone will be an all new model. This is the rumored "Unicorn" iPhone. As an aside, the idea of naming it "Unicorn" is dumb, it will only be a "Unicorn" phone until it is released and then the next iPhone will be the "Unicorn" phone. You can absolutely call it the "Ferrari" phone, or "D22", or "iPhone 8" or even "iPhone Pro". For the sake of these predictions, I will call it the iPhone Pro. The reason I think it may be called the iPhone Pro is it allows Apple to get away from assigning a number to it, and instead just call all versions the same name.

I think the iPhone Pro will sport everything that has been rumored, as well as leaked from the HomePod firmware. The iPhone Pro will sport an "edge to edge" display, an A11 Fusion processor, and a True Tone OLED Display that supports Apple's ProMotion technology, similar to the iPad Pros. Along with all of this, there will be an improved dual camera system that will be even better at detecting objects and may even be able to have a new setting for automatically doing a "Portrait" mode of a Photo, much like you are able to do now with HDR photos. I give this aspect a 25% chance. That is not all with the camera. I'm also thinking that it will be able to do 3X optical zoom, up from the 2X optical zoom on the iPhone 7s Plus. The rationale behind this is that the 10.5-inch and 2nd Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pros both have 3x optical zoom capability. The last new feature of the phone, which may also make its way into the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus is 4K record at 60 frames per second. All of Apple's cameras have been able to do 4K at 30 frames per second, but having a "Pro" iPhone capable of 4K at 60fps would be a great feature. I know I would use it.

As the rumors have indicated, I think Touch ID will not be available on the iPhone Pro, yet there will be a replacement, BioMetric detection through Face Detection. The last new feature that I think will come to the "iPhone Pro" will be wireless charging. Apple already has some wireless charging available with the Apple Watch. The lightning port will not go away, as it is still necessary for many things. However, the ability to charge wirelessly will be built-in and a wireless charging dock will be an extra cost. My guess is $99 or even $129 for the dock. If this does come to fruition, whatever standard that Apple chooses, if they do not do their own, will ultimately become the de-facto standard since Apple ships so many phones.

The hard part to predict with an iPhone Pro is the price. The rumors indicate that it will be $1200. While I can see Apple charging that for a phone, that is most likely the top end model. There are two possibilities. Let us look at both of these.

The first possibility is that the iPhone Pro will come in three sizes; 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Again, this is similar to the iPad Pro and these are the sizes that the iPad Pros come in. In this scenario I think the iPhone Pro will also start at $899 or $949, and be $100 more for each size increase. I am speculating this because Apple likes to give surprises and pricing is the one thing that Apple can decide to change at the absolute last minute. A similar pricing surprise occurred with the introduction of the original iPad. Before it was announced, the rumors indicated it would cost $999, and it came in at $499.

The second possibility, which after thinking about it more seems the more likely course. It is entirely possible that Apple may not do a "low end" size and will only make the iPhone Pro available in two sizes; 256GB and 512GB. This would be akin to the "Jet Black" and "Product Red" iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. These do not come in 32GB versions. If Apple does truly want this to be a "Professional" phone, then only having two sizes would make sense. In this scenario, the pricing may be more inline with the rumors. The pricing could come in at $1049 or $1069 for the 256GB and $1149 or $1169 for the 512GB version.

I give the overall chance of an iPhone Pro at 90% with the automatic "Portrait Mode" pictures at 25%, object detection at 75%, no Touch ID at 90%, and a new biometric option at 90%. I give 4K at 60 frames per second is 50% chance of occurring and I give wireless charging a 50% chance of occurring. I give my speculation on the pricing on the iPhone Pro at 60%. Now that the iPhones have been covered let us turn to the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has slowly become a more focused product, which is the opposite of the iPhone. The Apple Watch is primarily focused on fitness, and one of the current downsides is that those who want to go and exercise usually have to bring their iPhones along with them. My guess is that this will change with the addition of an LTE version of the Apple Watch. This will be the biggest change to the Apple Watch, besides the inclusion of a new, even more power efficient S3 processor.

I also think that there will be some new Watch Bands, these will have slightly different colors and the existing bands will support the Apple Watch. I think the pricing will be the same as the existing Apple Watch, at $369 for the 38MM, and $399 for the 42MM. I think the LTE versions will be $499 and $529 for each respective size. This would be the same as what it cost to put LTE into an iPad, $130 more. With the introduction of this model, the Series 2 will become the "lower end" model, and drop to $269 for the 38MM and $299 for the 42MM.

I give the likelihood of a new Apple Watch at 90% and a separate LTE version at 90%, the Apple Watch Pricing at 80% and new Apple Watch Bands at 95%. That is all there is for the Apple Watch, let us move to the Apple TV.

Apple TV

The Apple TV is an interesting product. Apple had hoped that the new version of TV would be application based, and while they are not entirely wrong, I do not think it has exploded as Apple might have hoped. Despite that, I think there will be an updated Apple TV unveiled. I think it will have an A9 processor, and support 4K and High Dynamic Range content. It will support resolutions of 3840 by 2160, which is double the vertical resolution of the previous generation.

I think the storage sizes will be reduced from two, which were 32GB and 64GB, down to just one, a 64GB model. There will still be a 32GB Model, but that will be the 4th Generation Apple TV. The price on the 4th Generation will drop to $119, and the 5th Generation will be $149. I think this may be necessary to be able to compete with other streaming boxes. You can get a 4K Roku for $60, or an Amazon Fire TV for $90. Continuing to charge almost a $100 more, while it may make sense in terms of margins, will not get you new customers as quickly as if you have a compelling hardware offering. If Apple truly sees services as the place for continued growth, then the hardware prices should start to reflect that. Combine this with the rumored $1 Billion that Apple is putting into original Television and it could prove to be a good start to bringing more people into the Apple ecosystem.

Since Apple does not have its own catalog of content yet, it will need to be supplemented. That is why the release date for the Amazon Prime Video app will be announced on stage. It is already 100% certain that it will come, as it was announced back at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference Keynote.

I give the likelihood of a new Apple TV coming at 90%, Amazon Prime Video app at 100%, and pricing at 75%. It is entirely possible that Apple does not

HomePod

Apple's newest foray into Music and voice is the HomePod. It was unveiled at Apple's 2017 World Wide Developer Conference keynote as being available in December, I think Apple will provide a bit more information, possibly even a month in which it can pre-ordered. I give the chance of this happening at 50%.

macOS High Sierra and iOS 11

While iOS is now the primary focus not only for Apple, due to profits, but also for developers, the Mac and macOS does not get as much love. Apple will announce the availability date for macOS High Sierra. My guess is that it will be the same day as iOS 11 availability. So my guess is September 19th at the release date for both of these. It is possible that macOS High Sierra might not be released until later though. So I give this an 80% chance of occurring.

New Mac Hardware

There is a very very small chance that new Mac Hardware will be discussed, as in a 5% chance. The only Mac that has not been updated this year is the Mac Mini. If Apple mentions it on stage, it will be very brief. In all likelihood. Any Mac Mini update will simply be a press release or even just a change on the website and nothing more.

Recap

So, to recap, here is what I am thinking will happen at the September 12th Event. There is just about a week until the event, in the days after the event I will post my prediction results. There are a total of twenty two predictions, so we will see how well I do.

Apple has announced the date, as well as sending out invitations to select press members for its Fall event. It will be held on September 12th at 10AM Pacific Time. The date of September 12th was rumored. One of the aspects to the announcement that was unknown, but had been speculated was the location of the event. Apple has confirmed that it will be held in the Steve Jobs Theater on the new Apple Park Campus. This is the first public event being held at the new campus and in the new theater. It is befitting given that Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone 10 years ago in 2007.

My predictions for what I think Apple will end up announcing at this event should be available early next week. This invitation sent out is shown below.

The original Mac was unveiled in 1984, which makes it 33 years old. One of the most iconic Macs has been the iMac. The iMac debuted 19 years ago, in 1998. While there have been a number of form factors throughout the ages, the iMacs overall design has remained unchanged. The iMac has become more svelte as it has aged. The internals have improved significantly over the time. The latest iteration of the iMac if the Mid-2017 iMac.

Given the maturity and longevity of the iMac it is difficult to review the latest hardware, but I shall give it my best shot.

My Mac History

The Mid-2017 iMac is not my first iMac. It is actually my third. My first iMac was a 20-inch 2007 iMac with a 250GB hard drive, running an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.16GHz, and 3GB of memory. My second iMac was a Mid-2011 iMac with a 1TB hard drive, running an Intel Sandy Bridge at 2.7GHz, and has 12GB of memory. Each of these purchases were done at an Apple Store. This means that they were stock models. The memory was added afterwards. The models that Apple has at the store are the stock models. These are not customized in anyway. The Apple stores generally have different tiers, and these are available at the stores, however there are no customizations at the store. For these purchases, the reason I ended up going with these comes down to price.

Each of the iMacs I bought had a larger version, the 24-inch and 27-inch models respectively. In the case of the 2007 iMac, it was my first Mac, so I did not want to spend too much on my first Mac, just in case. For the 2011 iMac, I would have liked to have purchased the 27-inch model, but I could not justify the cost.

When looking to purchase a new iMac, I did some calculations about the length of time that I have kept my Macs. This came to 6.03 years. I knew it was time to look at getting a new iMac. This information played into my consideration of which model to purchase.

The Screen

The Mid-2017 iMac that I purchased is the top of the line 27-inch model. The iMac maintains the same form-factor as the 2014 and 2015 Models. It sports a 5K Retina Monitor. The difference with this year's iMac is that it has a 500 nit display. This display is 43% brighter than the previous models. For me, the difference is easily noticeable when compared to my 2011 iMac.

One of the biggest features of this display is also available in the 2015 model and that is Display P3 color gamut. The Display P3 color gamut allows more colors to be shown. The 2017 model is slightly better in that it can do just a few more colors than the old model.

When a color is displayed on a computer, it is made up of three primary colors, Red, Green, and Blue. On most screens, each of these is capable of having one of 256 values, or 8 bits.. This results in the ability to display 16.7 Million colors.

The 2017 iMac is capable of 10-bit color, or 1024 different values for each color, Red, Green, and Blue. This means that it is capable of 1.07 Billion colors. So just a few more colors than before.

Ports

One of the biggest changes for the Mid-2017 iMac is the the ports that are on the machine. The 2017 iMac has traditional USB-A ports. These are USB 3 ports. The old Thunderbolt 2 ports have been removed in favor of the new Thunderbolt 3 ports. Thunderbolt 3 ports are compatible with USB 3.1 ports, or more commonly known as USB-C. The USB-C connector is the new standard for many computers, not just Macs. You can still use Thunderbolt 2 accessories with an adapter.

There is a standard ethernet adapter. The beloved SD Card slot and headphone jack are still present as well.

Keyboard

One of the more recent changes to the iMac line is the inclusion of the Magic Keyboard. The Magic Keyboard differs greatly from the old-style keyboard. There are a couple of major differences. The biggest is that it no longer requires batteries and instead uses a rechargeable battery. The method in which it connects is still bluetooth, but you pair via an included lightning cable.

The keyboard switches in the Magic Keyboard have less distance to travel, compared to the older style keyboards. These switches make the keyboard a little bit noisier than before. I purchased a Magic Keyboard for use with my old iPad Pro but I don't use my keyboard with my iPad as much as my iMac. I have become accustom to typing on the Magic Keyboard and now typing on an old keyboard, like that on my MacBook Pro is definitely a bit of an adjustment to go back to the old keyboard.

Remote Disc

One of the trends with modern computers is the removal of optical drives. This trend is completely understandable given the tendency to lean towards digital media purchases and streaming. Yet, there may be times when you need to use an optical drive. Apple has covered with a feature called "Remote Disc". Remote Disc will allow you to share the optical drive of another Mac with any computer that you would like. I never really had a need to use the feature, but I was working on my iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra e-books and wanted to watch a DVD while adding images. The 5K iMac does not have an optical drive, so I used Remote Disc. I put the DVD into my 2011 iMac and connected to the computer. The playback was just as if the disc was being played on the 27-inch iMac. I was only trying to play a DVD, so it was not super data intensive.

5K Screen Comparison

On the topic of DVDs, the maximum resolution possible on a 5K iMac is 5120 pixels wide by 2880 pixels tall. The 5K iMac was not my first Retina device, that was the 3rd Generation iPad in 2012. It was not my Retina Mac either, that is my 2015 MacBook Pro. But it is my first desktop Mac with Retina. The number of pixels is not easy to comprehend if you are coming from a non-retina screen. My 13-inch MacBook Pro is capable of 2560 pixels by 1600 pixels. This means that there are 3.6 times as many pixels on the 5K Retina iMac Screen as compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. To really get a good comparison, here is an image of 27-inch iMac at its full resolution with a DVD in the corner, which is 480 pixels.

Here is a picture of the maximum resolution of the 5K iMac with the maximum resolution of the 2011 iMac, which was 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels.

And just for good measure, here is a screenshot comparing all three sizes.

I have settled on using a resolution of 3200 pixels by 1800 pixels. While this may degrade some performance, as the note in display preferences states, it is a trade off I am willing to make. This is because most of the time I need more screen real estate than performance. Yet, if there is a reason why I need performance, I will have that option as well.

Geekbench Comparisons

I thought I would run some Geekbench comparisons across all of my devices. These were run with the latest version of Geekbench 4. For those who really want to know, below is what I got when I ran the tests.

Closing Thoughts

If you are in the market for a new Mac and want to get a desktop, which is not the most common type of computer purchased these days, then the Mid-2017 27-inch 5K Retina iMac may be right for you. If you know that you need a significantly, and even more, powerful workhorse of a Mac, then wait for the iMac Pro that is coming later this year. While the 2017 27-inch 5k Retina iMac may be iterative over its previous brethren, it is a speedy and powerful machine that is worth an upgrade. If you are in the market to create Virtual Reality content, but the starting price of the iMac Pro, $4,999, is a bit out of reach, then the 2017 27-inch iMac may be a good option.

One of the things that many people still pay for is traditional cable. Cable initially began with only a few channels but as appetites for more entertainment grew, more channels were added. Today, you can get upwards of 200 channels or more. The increase in channels has slowly also increased the price. The biggest issue for those with cable is that it is pricey. There are bundles, and these certainly reduce the cost, but these bundles often include items that consumers may not want. One way to reduce the cost of cable, is to cut the cord and go with other solutions. Cable is still dominate but is seeing a slow decline. By the end of 2016, almost 22% of all households did not have cable. This is certainly only going to increase as time goes on.

One of the issues with cord cutting is that while it can certainly be cheaper, subscribing to a lot of services can quickly become even more expensive than traditional cable. One aspect that has held many people back is the need for live sports. This has certainly begun changing with some services offering sports packages.

There are a wide variety of different options. These range from only using an antenna for local channels and just going with a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime or to a complete cable replacement. You can also use another streaming service. I looked into some of the alternatives to cable. This is by no means an extensive list, and is for the U.S. options may be different for other countries.

Some of these services offer additional packages, including sports, but these are not included in the table. These are only for the standard packages for each.

Here is what I have found:

As you can see, these services vary widely in what they offer versus cost. The most cost effective, overall, is the Playstation Vue service. Whether you choose the "Access" or "Core" service, the are amongst the lowest per stream, since they offer the highest number of streams at five streams. Conversely, DirectTV Now has the lowest per-channel price, but also is the most expensive "per stream" since it only provides at most two simultaneous streams.

If you are looking to reduce your monthly cost, but still want a fair number of channels, Playstation Vue may be a service to consider.

There is a whole spreadsheet that includes the channels that each service offers, available on Google Sheets. If you would like me to include a service not shown, let me know.

As I have done since 2012 I have written two e-books over the course of the summer. While the final touches are being put on the books, they are now available for pre-order. As I mention in the books, I did something a bit different this year. I kept track of the total time spent working on the books. So far, I have spent 178 hours on these two e-books. This encompasses everything from watch the Apple Development videos, writing, editing, and image gathering. All of this work has resulted in over 95,000 words between the two books. It is a huge undertaking every year. Nonetheless, the e-books are available for pre-order. They will be released as soon as their corresponding operating systems are released.

iOS 11, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4 for Users and Developers covers all of the new features for each platform. On iOS this includes history of the iPhone, iOS 10.1 to iOS 10.3, 32-bit apps, the redesigned lock screen, home screen, and new cover sheet. Other topics include the all new Files app, control center, changes to Siri, the App Store, updates to Messages, Notes, Camera, the Music app, and Photos, along with many other changes

A primary topic is the iPad, specifically multitasking, the Dock, Drag and Drop, and how iOS 11 brings a whole slew of new iPad-specific features to the forefront.

watchOS 4 covers the new User interface, watch faces, and workout types, along with the redesigned music app. tvOS 11 brings Right to left language support, changes to app sizes, and home screen sync.

For developers some of the topics include changes to Swift, Xcode 9 changes included the Code Editor Window, Source Control, Colors, and developing on iOS. Other topics include APFS, AirPlay 2, Metal 2, CoreML, and networking changes.

iOS 11, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4 for Users and Developers has something for all types of users, whatever your primary interest lies in iOS, watchOS, or tvOS.

It is available for pre-order from Apple in either iBooks, or ePub format. It is $3.99. You can pre-order the e-pub version from Amazon for $4.99.

macOS High Sierra for Users, Administrators, and Developers covers topics for all types of users. Some of the areas covered include new additions and changes to Photos, Safari enhancements, updates to Mail, Notes, iCloud, Siri, and the Apple File System (APFS).

maOS High Sierra for administrators covers some changes around File Sharing, Caching Service, Time Machine Server, and Xcode Server. Along side this, a layout of all of the new and changed Profile Manager payloads and options.

Lastly for developers, some of the topics covered include changes to Swift, Xcode 9 changes included the Code Editor Window, Source Control, Colors, and developing on iOS. Other topics include APFS, AirPlay 2, Metal 2, CoreML, 32-bit Apps, and external graphics.

macOS High Sierra for Users, Administrators, and Developers has something for every type of user to learn all about the new features that are within macOS.

iOS 11, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4 for Users and Developers has something for all types of users, whatever your primary interest lies in iOS, watchOS, or tvOS.

It is also available for pre-order from Apple in either iBooks, or ePub format. It is $3.99. You can pre-order the e-pub version from Amazon for $4.99.

While doing some testing I began to look at my network and was trying to figure out why my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook were all only connecting at 802.11N speeds, instead of at 802.11AC speeds, like I thought they should be doing. Let me explain my setup first.

Being the nerd that I am, I have a more complicated setup than most, but it is not super complicated. I have two Airport Extremes, one fifth-generation and one sixth-generation. The fifth generation is the flat AirPort Extreme and is capable of running at 802.11N speeds. The sixth generation is the tall model and is capable of running at 802.11AC speeds. The two Airport Extremes are connected via an ethernet cable, with the 5th generation Airport connecting to the Cable modem that I use for my internet.

My goal was to have the devices that I use the most connect to each other as fast as possible, and short of always plugging everything in via a wired connection, which is impractical for iOS devices, this was the alternative.

When I originally setup the second AirPort Extreme, I wanted to extend the network that I already had, so I had setup the sixth-generation Airport Extreme to use the same 2.4GHz and 5GHz network names that I had already established.

When I began looking into why my devices were not going as fast as they could I started by looking at which devices were connecting to each AirPort Extreme. I noticed there was no real rhyme or reason as to which device was connecting to which AirPort. I tried forcing connecting to the 802.11AC AirPort Extreme, by rebooting the fifth generation airport, but this only lasted for a little while before an 802.11N device would connect to the 802.11AC Airport again.

I then decided to change the AC Airport's 2.4GHz SSID to a different Name, on the hopes that it would allow connectivity to be at 802.11AC speeds. This did not work. After I changed the SSID, I realized that the 2.4GHz frequency does not really support 802.11AC speeds. I then tried changing the 802.11AC 5GHz SSID. I then connected to the new SSID on the 5GHz and I then saw the speeds I was expecting.

This was what I was expecting and I was glad I was able to figure out how to achieve this. Although this still has some issues.

Issues

There are still some issues with this. I have a number of devices using the same Apple ID. What this means is that all of my network connections are automatically synchronized between devices, hence any SSID that I connect to on one device will be synchronized to the others. This results in some devices connecting to the 5GHz AC network, even though I do not want them to.

I could remove the network from the device, but again that would result in it being removed for all devices, which is not the intention and counter productive. Instead, I had to result to trying some other solutions.

Limiting Access

This has resulted in taking a rather drastic approach. There is an option within the AirPort Extreme for "Timed Access". Timed Access allows you to determine when certain devices can access an AirPort Extreme.

To limit access you can perform the following steps:

1. Open Airport Utility.
2. Click on the AirPort Extreme that you want to restrict access on.
3. Click on the "Edit" button.
4. Click on the "Network" tab.
5. Click the checkbox next to "Enable Access Control".

6. Click on the now enabled "Timed Access Control" button. You should now see a dialog that has "Unlimited (default)" under "Wireless Clients".

7. Click on the "+" button under "Wireless Clients" to add a new device.
8. Under "Description" enter in a description for this rule.
9. Under "MAC address", enter in the Wireless MAC address for the device you want to limit time on.
10. Under "Wireless Access Times", configure the days that you want to provide access, or restrict access. Alternatively, you can select "No Access" to deny all access.
11. Once you are done adding times, Click on the "Save" button.
12. Click on the "Update" button in the lower right. This will prompt you to confirm that you want to apply changes and reboot the AirPort.
13. Click the "Continue" button to save and reboot the AirPort Extreme.

Once this is done, you can try and reconnect the device. If you attempt to connect to the Airport during times that the device you configured is not authorized to connect, you will be prompted for the SSID password. Even if you enter in the password properly, it will not connect.

The setup I have is definitely not one that many will need, but it may be something that you need to configure. It is too bad that Apple has stopped manufacturing the AirPort Extreme, it can still be a good way for parents to limit the screen time for their kids, should the need arise.

The midwest during the summer is known for a few things: Heat, Humidity, and storms. The latter being the topic of this post.

The Chicagoland area does get intense storms from time to time, including the occasional tornado. Luckily, we do not get tornadoes that often. However, we did get a rather nice storm today.

It started off like this:

As one might expect, it started to rain and continued to rain and rain. It created some hail, as one might come to expect. I just didn't expect it to be this size of hail.

And then even larger hail came by.

Here is a photo of all of the various sizes of hail that we received today.

Along side these, here are a couple of videos. mistakenly, my iPhone wasn't set to record in 4K, so these are at most, 1080p.

And to complete the entire circle of Chicagoland Summer weather, this was a half hour later. This is just how summer in Chicagoland can be.

One of the items that gets updated every year is the Emoji that are available. While the codes that define emoji are standardized, how they look on the different platforms is up to each platform vendor. This is because the look of emoji needs to fit into the overall look and feel of the platform. For Apple, an emoji update comes after the release of their new operating systems in the fall. Typically in the .1 update, so this year should be iOS 11.1 and macOS High Sierra 10.13.1. Some of the new emoji that are arriving later this year are:

[caption id="attachment51966" align="alignleft" ] Bearded Person[/caption] [caption id="attachment51968" align="alignleft" ] Coconut[/caption] [caption id="attachment51969" align="alignleft" ] Crazy Face[/caption] [caption id="attachment51970" align="alignleft" ] Elf[/caption] [caption id="attachment51971" align="alignleft" ] Exploding HEad[/caption] [caption id="attachment51978" align="alignleft" ] Face Vomiting[/caption] [caption id="attachment51972" align="alignleft" ] Genie[/caption] [caption id="attachment51974" align="alignleft" ] Lotus Position[/caption] [caption id="attachment51975" align="alignleft" ] Sandwich[/caption] [caption id="attachment51976" align="alignleft" ] Star Struck[/caption] [caption id="attachment51977" align="alignleft" ] T-Rex[/caption] [caption id="attachment51967" align="alignleft" ] Woman Breastfeeding[/caption] [caption id="attachment51973" align="alignleft" ] Woman with Headscarf[/caption] [caption id="attachment51979" align="alignleft" ] Zebra[/caption] [caption id="attachment_51980" align="alignleft" ] Zombie[/caption]

There are 69 new emoji that are in the Emoji 5.0 specification. A complete list can be found on emojipedia.org

So I have had my iPad Pro for only about two weeks now. In those two weeks, I have managed to inflict some damage on my iPad, nothing that affects the actual usage, just some damage in the top corners and some scraping on the back. However, that is not what I am going to discuss today. This one is related to Cellular Data.

The 2nd Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro have an embedded Apple SIM within the device. The devices still have another SIM tray that can be used to put an additional SIM. This is designed to be used if your preferred carrier is not useable with the embedded Apple SIM. Additionally, the tray also works if traveling internationally, so you can put a local SIM into the iPad.

When I got my 1st Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I was able to get T-Mobile's Mobile Data for Life plan. This deal ended in early May 2017. What this means is that you cannot move the Free Data for life from one iPad to another, since it is tied to the IMEI number on the iPad that it was first activated on. T-Mobile is unable to activate that plan on a new device, since it is not longer offered. With all of that information here is the series of events that occurred.

I wanted to see if I could move the Data for Life from my old 12.9-inch iPad Pro to my new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. This was before I found out it could not be moved. I tried to use the SIM from the first generation iPad Pro to the new one. After it did not work, I called T-Mobile's support and was told the the plan was no longer offered and it could not be moved.

After learning it could not be moved, I put the SIM back into the old iPad. When I did this, an issue began. I could no longer sign up for an account with T-Mobile on the new iPad Pro. This is because when I would try to do anything on T-Mobile it would bring up the account information from the old iPad Pro. I kept fiddling with it, trying to see if I could get it to work. Unfortunately, I could not. So I had to call T-Mobile, since it seemed to be an issue with their system.

So I called T-Mobile. I talked to a representative and I attempted to explain the situation to them. At first they thought I was talking about a phone, clearly I was not since I mentioned iPad at least four times. I had to keep reiterating that this is an iPad. They did eventually figure out that I was talking about an iPad. The representative suggested that I could just take out the SIM and they could activate it on the new iPad. I had to re-iterate to the representative that the SIM was embedded and could not be removed. Eventually they passed me off to a technical support person, who could not figure out the issue and effectively stated that their systems did not show the iPad as being in use, despite the account information being shown.

T-Mobile indicated that I needed to contact Apple. So I did call Apple. The Apple representative that I talked to understood the issue and walked me through some of the steps that they thought might fix the issue. Unfortunately, none of them worked. The only option remaining was to restore the iPad to factory default and set it up as new. I went ahead and did this, but guess what, it dd not fix the issue. I contacted T-Mobile again, went through the same rigamarole as before and they still could not help. During this time, I talked to a customer service representative, was transferred to a "technical" person, whom was not very technical. I then asked to be transferred to their manager since they kept talking over me, and would not listen to what I was saying. Upon being transferred, my call was dropped. This greatly helped my attitude towards T-Mobile.

I then called T-Mobile back again and had to talk to yet another representative. After having to explain to this representative the issue I was having, they attempted to try some more things. Again, this representative kept talking over me and did not listen. This is when I got irritated and told them that they were not listening to what I was saying. Besides not listening to me, this representative was literally breathing into the damn microphone they were using. Pro Tip: Do not breathe into a microphone.. After talking to the representative some more, they came back again and said that they could not fix the issue.

I then contacted Apple again, via chat, and the Apple chat person was having issues with their computer. I ultimately ended up setting up a Genius Bar appointment. Shockingly, there was actually an appointment for later that day. I should say, by "later that day" I mean 18 hours later, it was after midnight when I made the appointment.

After getting some sleep, I sent out this tweet:

https://twitter.com/waynedixon/status/878607490958708736

I then got a reply from T-Mobile's Twitter help account to send them a Direct Message. I did so, and began explaining the issue to them. They attempted to help, just like the customer service representatives that I talked to. I informed them that I had an appointment with Apple and would let them know what came of that appointment.

My Genius Bar appointment was late in the afternoon. So I head to my appointment. I got there early, like I do, but could not check in until 10 minutes before my appointment. So I spent some time checking out the new Macs.

Once I do checkin and get my appointment started, I explained the issue to the Genius. They begin looking at things and the genius was a bit confused by the situation too. After trying a few more things and asking more questions the genius called over a colleague who specialized in activations.

I gave a brief description of the issue to the activation person, making sure to include the fact that that I was using the embedded SIM. By now, I had repeated the details of the issue no less than a dozen times to various people.

The activation specialist emphatically stated, "iPads do not have embedded SIMs". I countered, that the latest iPads do have embedded SIMs and this was clearly stated on the website. This was corroborated by the genius that was helping me as well as the "Pit Boss", as I will call that person. After a bit of back and forth, the Activations Specialist understood that there was indeed an embedded SIM in the iPad. What really made it sink in was that there was no SIM in the tray already, yet there was still the ability to try and setup the Cellular Data. Ultimately, this led to the fix.

The Fix

So, here is the fix. Insert an unactivated T-Mobile SIM into the secondary SIM tray. This will clear the existing account information. Apple let me take the SIM with me, even though I do not need it. I was able to successfully sign up for data using the embedded SIM.

Other Thoughts

Throughout the genius bar appointment, the woman sitting next to me, whom was getting her iPhone fixed, kept laughing because I kept having to give Apple employees more information about their own products than they had. I realize it was a relatively new product, but it seems strange for the geniuses to not know about the products that their company sells.

I did reply back to T-Mobile with a fix for the issue. I asked them to make sure that their customer services representatives are aware of the fix should the issue arise for others. I think the next step may be to send an email to Apple indicating the same, so that the geniuses can be aware of how to fix the issue. Let’s hope that T-Mobile actually informs their customer services representatives.

There are a slew of reviews for the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. With it being a new screen size, this makes sense. However, there have been a lot fewer posts about the 2nd Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro. As an owner of the first generation 12.9-inch, I thought it would be a good idea to provide my thoughts on the upgrade.

Back in 2015, I did an initial thoughts post about the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. I had intended to do a full review post, but I did not end up writing one. So this will be my review of the iPad Pro. Within the post will be some comparisons between the two models.

Commonalities

There are a number of similarities between the two models. This includes the screen size at 12.9-inches, a screen resolution of 2048x2732 pixels, the amount of memory at 4GB, the number of speakers with 4, they both work with the Apple Pencil, and they both are capable of charging with the 29 watt charger, with a USB-C to lightning cable. There have been some significant improvements with the screen.

An additional similarity that the two iPads share is that most accessories that worked with the first generation 12.9-inch iPad will work with the second generation. There are a few exceptions, but these will be covered later.

When you use Split View on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, you get two full-sized iPad apps next to each other. This is still the case on the second generation.

ProMotion

The most notable change with the 2nd Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro is the screen. In particular, the refresh rate. The new iPad Pro is capable of handling up to 120Hz. Combining this with the new A10X Fusion processor. ProMotion enables the iPad Pro to adjust the refresh rate to accommodate what is being done at that moment. For instance, if you are watching a movie that is outputting at 24 frames per second, the display can adjust to 24 frames per second. This is possible because 24 divides evenly into 120.

ProMotion provides more than just the ability to reduce the frame rate. The 120Hz refresh rate provides a smoother scrolling experience. When you first observe it, the scrolling seems strange, however it is something that you will become accustom to quite quickly. The hardest part is going back to a device that does not have ProMotion. The animations on non-ProMotion devices will begin to look choppy in comparison.

The Display

Besides the new refresh rate, there have been some major improvements to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's screen. In particular, it now supports the P3 Wide Color Gamut. What this means is that any photos that use the Wide Color Gamut will be able to display all of the colors. This could be photos taken on an iPhone 7, or 7 Plus, or created on a Mac that supports P3.

True Tone

An additional change to the iPad Pro display is the addition of True Tone. True Tone was initially released on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. True Tone is the ability for iOS to adjust the color temperature of the screen in a manner which best suits the current usage. This is done by taking in the ambient light at the time and subtly adjusting the colors so that the display will look consistent in all environments. True Tone also takes into account any Night Shift settings. If you have Night Shift on, and you have the screen set for a color, it will try to match that as well. Sometimes, when I am using the iPad and the screen adjusts without really seeing it adjust. When any iOS device adjusts its brightness you can easily watch as it adjusts. True Tone is not as easy to notice, at least not during my usage.

Cameras

One of the aspects of an iPad that most people may not think about is the camera. This is likely because when the iPad was initially released in 2010, it did not even have a camera. Alongside this, the camera in the iPads did not begin to have decent cameras until the 3rd Generation iPad, but really did not become modern until the iPad Air 2. The entire iPad Pro line has always had at least an 8 megapixel camera for the back. The 2nd Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro sports a 12MP ƒ/1.8 camera. This is the same camera that is in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, with one exception. The iPad Pro is capable of 3x optical zoom whereas the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are capable of 2x. You can absolutely notice the difference in the pictures taken between the two iPads. A couple of examples are below.

Facetime Camera

The biggest camera upgrade has come with the FaceTime camera. That has gone from a 1.2 megapixel, ƒ/2.2 aperture to a 7-megapixel photos that supports 1080p HD video recording and even has support for the Wide Color Gamut (P3).

Apple Pencil

The original Apple Pencil still works with the 2nd Generation iPad, as one would expect. The Apple Pencil can be recognized at 240Hz, even while the refresh rate for other areas on the screen may be lower. This is definitely an advantage for those using an Apple Pencil.

iOS 11

The iPad Pro works perfectly well on iOS 10, but it will absolutely shine when iOS 11 is released in fall. The addition of Drag and Drop, the Dock, and app groups will be a great upgrade for all iPad Pro owners.

Final Thoughts