iPhone 15 launch day!
Happy iPhone Day
Ordering New iPhones
For the crazy folks who order iPhones for Day 1 arrival, this most recent ordering process was a bit of a mess. Typically, you can pre-enter your order details in the Apple Store app and then submit it order time. This time, that system failed for 15-20 minutes for many folks, pushing back many people’s ordered by a couple of weeks. This might have been compounded by supply constraints.
So if you’re ordering at that crunch time at 8am when sales start every year, you should try to order thought the Apple Store app, but also through the Apple website. If you have an iPad, try that too at the same time.
For people who were delayed in ordering or forgot this year, you can try to get the iPhones in the Apple store. This is a site that will show you what nearby stores have availability:
https://iphonechecker.herokuapp.com/q/22201/i15ProMax/unlocked
And of course, for all the normal people, you can just wait untill November, when iPhones should just be available.
Don’t Buy a New Computer Now
There’s a saying that the best time to buy a computer is when you need one. WIth new technology always arriving, most jumps in technology are incremental. So just buy whenever. Today, in August 2020, I suggest waiting a bit longer if you can.
Apple is leading the way to end of Intel-based computers with their announcement that they will start using “Apple Silicon” in their computers. This will be a huge jump for Apple’s computers and it portends similar changes that are surely coming to the PC.
42 years ago in 1978, Intel came out with the 8086 chip and the x86 architecture. Intel, along with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) later, made practically every computer’s central processing unit (CPU). (There were many exceptions such as Motorola 68000 chips and PowerPC CPUs, but these never achieved the scale or had the long run of Intel’s CPUs.)
ARM CPUs use a different RISC-based architecture than Intel’s CPUs, and became most ubiquitous in Apple’s iPhones and iPads, as well as most Android phones. Apple will start selling Macs this year with ARM CPUs, which Apple refers to as “Apple Silicon,” justifiably since Apple puts a great deal of effort into designing and optimizing the CPUs for their devices.
ARM is already becoming popular in servers. Therefore, we only await Microsoft Windows’ move to ARM for a full transition away from the Intel era. (Microsoft Windows does have an ARM version, but it is not 64-bit and was never made to be able to run the x86 applications.)
What does an ARM CPU mean for consumers? Due to efficiencies of the ARM CPU, we will see computers that are faster, smaller, and cheaper, while also having better battery life. This is partially because Intel has hit technical snags which have kept their CPUs stagnant the last few years. While AMD has made great improvements with their Zen chips on the same x86 architecture, ARM chips are clearly the power per watt leaders of the future.
So certainly buy a new computer if you need one now. But a big jump in computing is on the way.
Upgrading to macOS Catalina
Before you upgrade to macOS Catalina, which just came out, check to see if your apps will work. Old 32-bit apps don’t work in Catalina. So run Go64 to see what apps are still 32-bit.
It’s also a good idea to have backups. In addition to Time Machine backups, I like to have SuperDuper backups. That means I’m going to wait until SuperDuper software working in Catalina.
iPhone 11 day
It’s Christmas Day for iPhone fans.
Should you upgrade? To me and for most people, it depends on the camera. If getting the best quality pictures matters a lot to you, then yes. Otherwise, you could be on a 6S from 2015 and still get the latest iOS 13 features.
