MobileViews Podcast 330:WWDC announcements, Microsoft Stores closing

This week, I joined good friends, Todd Ogasawara and Jon Westfall for MobileViews Podcast 330. In this episode, we discuss:

1. Microsoft shutting down most Microsoft Stores (except for 4) worldwide
2. (Todd) Finally had to try Powerwash on my Acer Chromebook Spin 13
3. Microsoft Teams for personal use
4. Apple Silicon – ARM CPUs for next generation Macs
5. iOS 14 and iPadOS 14
6. watchOS 7
7. Jon’s first impressions of the 2020 MacBook Pro

Available via Google Music Podcasts and Apple iTunes.

Show notes can be found below:

MobileViews Podcast 330: Apple WWDC news, etc. – June 27, 2020

Guest panelist: Chris Spera

1. Microsoft shutting down most Microsoft Stores (except for 4) worldwide

• Victim of the Pandemic
• No layoffs – staff will be reassigned

2. Finally had to try Powerwash on my Acer Chromebook Spin 13

3. Microsoft Teams for personal use

• Exact opposite model of enterprise use
• Enterprise == most contacts inside an organization
• Personal == most contacts outside of the family
• Pandemic Perspective – Install ALL Video Meeting & Video Chat Clients
  • Skype
  • Microsoft Teams
  • WebEx
  • WebEx Teams
  • Zoom/ RingCentral

WWDC news

4. Apple Silicon – ARM CPUs for next generation Macs

• macOS Big Sur Preview
  • Big Sur enables Time Machine to use APFS formatted disks, per 9-5Mac
• Thoughts on macOS Big Sur & Apple Silicon
  • 2 Year Transition Period
  • Additional 3-5 years of hardware & OS support/ updates likely (but nothing firm on timing yet that I have seen or heard
  • No x86/ x64 Emulation PERIOD
  • No Boot Camp support
    • No Parallels Desktop = Windows XP/Vista/7/10, Intel Based version of Linux
      • This probably won’t be a problem. ARM based Macs can probably use the same Google Cloud/Parallels virtualization that will be available for Chromebooks.
      • No one has said anything yet. Not even Parallels. I chatted with Rene Ritchie about this for a very short while yesterday. No one is sharing anything publicly yet
        • Too early to worry about iMO. Just a lot of fretting by pundits
        • I resemble that… ;0)
      • No VirtualBox for x86/x64 (same as above, et all)
      • Windows Support only comes if Microsoft gets Windows on Arm (WoA) completed and running
    • Apple’s Virtualization layer *IS* a Hypervisor; but won’t do x86/x64
    • Universal 2/Rosetta 2
      • The right version (Intel or ARM) of the app gets installed from the same AppStore Version

5. iOS app compatibility

• No touch screen on Macs
• All Apple OS’ now (effectively) have the same feature set (or will within the next few iterations or years)

6. iOS 14 and iPadOS 14

iOS 14 preview

• Not looking forward to widgets on the iPhone. Screen is too small based on experience with widgets on Android phones
• JW: I can see uses for this, but in limited ways. For someone who already launches 90% of his apps through Spotlight, no real downside.

iPad OS 14 Preview

• Apple Pencil Scribble brings back Apple Newton feature from 1990s!
• With Scribble, you don’t have to put Apple Pencil away to do other things. Now you can write by hand in any text field across iPadOS, and your words automatically convert to text.
• Universal 2 insures that the exact same iPad App runs on iPads, iPhones and Macs without the need to recompile
  • Pro-Level, Desktop apps have finally come to the iPad Pro
  • The vast catalog of the iOS/ iPadOS App Store is now available for “immediate” use on the Mac
  • https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/23/widgets-in-ipados-14-limited-to-today-view/

7. watchOS

watchOS 7 Preview

• Sleep tracking
• Hand washing detection
• Universal Translator
• New Watch Faces/ Watch Face Sharing
  • Chronograph Pro watch face
  • Multiple complications
  • JW: About the closest we’re going to get to Apple allowing own faces, and a good compromise for companies: Yes, you can build your own face, but it must follow our rules by design, not by choice.
• Workouts
  • New Workouts
    • Yoga
    • Wind Down
  • On-Device Dictation
  • First Public Beta for watchOS coming later this Summer
  • JW: Force Touch Gone.

Jon’s impressions of the 2020 Macbook Pro 13’’ – Obviously a jump in tech from my 2015, but amazing how similar they are side by side.

https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/nba-coronavirus-oura-ring-orlando.html