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Essential Apple Podcast 158: Ever so lonely…

No one is available again so “ever so lonely” Simon goes for a short solo – not a lot going on anyway as the holidays are coming (holidays are coming, holidays are coming). Even so an Apple patent relating to near eye displays, an electric plane, a springy iPhone defence and more catch Simon’s attention

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 158: Ever so lonely…

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Essential Apple Podcast 157: Simon does another solo show

Yes I’m back! And there is a slew of stuff to discuss, even if none of the stories are particularly “huge”. Just me this week so a shorter show than usual (Mark was going to come on but he had an unpleasant eye infection that left him extremely under the weather) But for what it is worth, here it is. Late posting again for “operational reasons” (i.e. I am just really really busy).

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 157: Simon does another solo show

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It’s Thanksgiving week, so there’s no show

With it being Thanksgiving the Apple and tech news is pretty much non-existent, all the US folks are suffering the after effects of turkey overindulgence and so – with nothing to talk about and no one to talk to it about the show takes a dive for the Thanksgiving holiday! Back next week folks!

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Essential Apple Podcast 156: MacJim saves the day

Yes – I know it is really really late… Work and life and stuff. Sorry. This week I feared I’d have to do another solo show as no one seemed to be available – but you were all saved by the bravery of MacJim from the Slack, who volunteered to come on his first ever podcast and spare you all from that. We talk about the up coming Apple event, Smart Battery Cases, Apple’s new campus, the Razr, Elon’s CyberTruck and lots more.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 156: MacJim saves the day

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Essential Apple Podcast 155: A dunce’s cap for Simon and the show that got away

I’s a dunce and did a show with Guy and Nick, but forgot to check it was recording. Sorry about that – instead you just get me mulling over what we discussed. Apple effectively soft launched the recently rumoured 16“ MacBook Pro, with a ”new“ scissor switch keyboard, and some pretty impressive specs. A strange story emerged alleging to reveal Apple’s AR/VR Headset and Smart Glasses roadmap. FIDO2 support is coming to iOS 13.3. Apple Pay is growing fast, but Apple News+ isn’t, Apple are fixing an Apple Mail problem that means your mail wasn’t quite as encrypted as we thought, and a few other musings.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 155: A dunce’s cap for Simon and the show that got away

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Sorry there’s no show! Fatal Hardware error!

You have probably all read this elsewhere already… but if you haven’t and have come here in search of a lovely new Essential Apple Podcast edition you are unfortunately out of luck!. Last week just after Nick and I finished recording the show my microphone suffered a fatal encounter with my wife’s foot (purely accidentally). Despite the image what actually happened was it ripped the USB cable out of the little box of tricks on the end of the cable… I ordered a replacement but Amazon/Royal Mail let me down and failed to deliver in time for Sunday and a new show. If it doesn’t appear in the next couple of days I shall be buying another and sending the last to arrive back! Either way hopefully the show will be back to normal for next week.

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Essential Apple Podcast 154: Tim, sort the Apple ID servers!

If you’ve downloaded this episode expecting a Ghostery special I am afraid Pete Knowlton has had to postpone for family reasons. He promises to come on soon.

Never mind, it has been one hell of a week, AirPods Pro soft launched and reviewers went mad for them – even at what Simon considers an eye-watering $250 US. The earnings call was more of the usual “we made a little bit of money, I think we’ll get by” stuff. Meanwhile the Apple ID servers have been playing Simon up again and he’s a bit put out about it. Apple TV+ launched and we are all a bit unsure about it. Underwhelmed seems the overall opinion. Nick and Simon discuss all these topics and more…

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 154: Tim, sort the Apple ID servers!

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Essential Apple Podcast 153: We broke the internet!

This show is dedicated to the memory of my friend Adrian who died uexpectedly on the 28th aged 64. RIP.

This week it’s Diwali (the festival of lights), there is more “not news” than news, Tim Cook talked about diversity, being gay, and more. iPod turned 18, Amiga 1200 turned 27, Google proved Quantum computing is real, and I was joined by Steve (@nibsUK) Leach from the Mac&Forth podcast to pick over these fragments… And we broke the internet… Well my internet went out for 3 HOURS in the middle of this show, so forgive me if I was a bit off my stride in the second half. Also I am a bit later than I like posting this – a family friend died unexpectedly on Monday and as you can imagine that sort of messed me up a bit.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 153: We broke the internet!

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Steps To Keep Your iPhone Secure

A guest post from Reprocity Labs

For a long time, the iPhone has boasted the title of being the most secure mass-produced smartphone. Since Apple has a team that is ever dedicated to the security of their devices, it reduces the chances of a data breach affecting multiple users. This is one of the reasons why companies have preferred using it as well as why it has warmed the hearts of some of its loyal users.

However, the fact that it has security measures in place doesn’t mean that it is impossible to hack. In fact, recent findings by Google warn that iPhone users might put their data at risk by visiting specific websites that are created for the sole purpose of hacking into iPhone systems. Since hackers love a challenge, this isn’t the only isolated attack aimed at bringing down the smartphone. If you are an iPhone user, or your business relies on it for its daily operations, you need to be careful with how you use it to protect your data.

Continue reading → Steps To Keep Your iPhone Secure

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Burnout…

An opinion piece by @MacJim

Lately, I’ve been finding myself feeling a little burned out with technology. It’s not that I hate it, far from it as I’m a real nerd, but I’ve been finding myself drifting away from it too.

I’ve previously tried to move away from the Apple iPhone having bought the Punkt MP02 earlier this year (see here) but that proved to be an utter failure, not because it was a bad idea but simply due to the product being half baked, software-wise.

That was a product launched far too early as it was nowhere near ready for public use… the software being an early Beta rather than a Gold master release; that mobile phone was returned the day after it arrived. So I sold my iPhone 7 Plus and bought the Xr; not because the Xr was a great phone but simply due to the deal on offer at the time made it a no brainer choice.

Fast forward to September and I found myself looking at the Light Phone as a possible replacement for the iPhone: a minimalist mobile phone from thelightphone.com. It is a mobile phone that only allows you to text and make calls, (and listen to music too) but I decided not to buy partly because it wasn’t that long ago that I’d bought the iPhone and I felt I couldn’t justify paying the price (the iPhone Xr would have become a very expensive iPod Touch), but also due to the last experience with the MP02.

Continue reading → Burnout…

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Essential Apple Podcast 152: Looking forward to Luminar 4 with Alex Tsepko

This week Apple said iOS 13 reached 50% adoption, Apple TV appeared on Roku, iPhoto finally reached the end of the road. Google told us why the Pixel 4 isn’t 5G, Adobe say Photoshop for iPad will appear this year, and Pebble watches are still living on due to the “Rebble Alliance”. Meanwhile the US finally gave up on 8“ floppy disks…
But more important than all that stuff Simon is joined by Alex Tsepko, CEO of Skylum, to talk about what’s in store for Luminar 4 due for release November 18th.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • We had four licences for BeLight’s new vector application Amadine to give away. Names out of the hat were:
    • Alan Vickers, Dan Murphy, Bart Busschots and Guy Serle!
  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has started up a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 152: Looking forward to Luminar 4 with Alex Tsepko

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Essential Apple Podcast 151: DTP for amateurs

This week Catalina went public – kind of by night with no announcements or anything and surprisingly has bugs and traps for the unwary, who knew?. Simon moved immediately to the 15.1 beta because let’s face it Catalina is old hat to him… Apple were forced by/caved in to China over apps for Hong Kong. Some more on AR glasses and a special discussion on DTP for amateurs on a budget.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • We have four licences for BeLight’s new vector application Amadine to give away. Email the show on essentialapple@sudomail.com to put your name in the hat. Winners will be announced next week!
  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has started up a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 151: DTP for amateurs

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Essential Apple Podcast 150: Eyes and ears and hands and folding things

Aaaand… we made it to 150! Alas it’s also the 8th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing… Uncle Tim was travelling Europe drinking beer and talking about things Apple believe in. Simon was mistaken about the Loop but still wouldn’t buy one. Microsoft announced a slew of new stuff including some expensive Surface earbuds (and Will.i.am is upset about it). Nick @spligosh Riley joins Simon and they talk about all this, Apple Arcade, and more…

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • We have four licences for BeLight’s new vector application Amadine to give away. Email the show on essentialapple@sudomail.com to put your name in the hat. Winners will be announced in 2 weeks time!
  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has started up a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 150: Eyes and ears and hands and folding things

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Is the iPhone 11 Really Worth Buying?

An article by Ralf Llanasas

Apple’s new iPhone lineup has hit the market

Apple launched the new iPhone lineup on the 20th of September The iPhone 11;

  • iPhone 11 Pro and;
  • The iPhone 11 Pro Max.

The iPhone 11 lineup changes the 2018 design and revises some features. They also come with some first-seen specs, such as the coveted A13 bionic chip and Apple’s latest operating system – iOS 13.

For Apple consumers across the globe, the new iPhone simply means their current device is due for an upgrade. This seems to be the case every year since the Apple brought the first iPhone to market. There has been a staunch following, a fan base of some sort, finding it necessary to upgrade their iPhone device whenever a new lineup is launched.

According to Statista, individuals who utilise iPhones are more likely to upgrade their mobile devices than any other mobile phone user.However, whilesome consumers are simply enamored by the prospects of owning the latest iPhone,many more are becoming wary of spending hundreds– even thousands –of dollars for what often turns outto be inconsequential upgrades to their former iPhone devices.

For those wary consumers, the following question needs an answer: Is the iPhone 11 really worth buying? We can’t make a decision for you, but here’s a close look at the facts.

Continue reading → Is the iPhone 11 Really Worth Buying?

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Essential Apple Podcast 149: “Let’s Talk” … to Bart Busschots

After a couple of weeks or more of guests and not bothering to look at the news Simon is joined by Bart Busschots of the Let’s Talk podcasts, Taming the Terminal, Programming by Stealth, Nosillacast and more, to poke a stick at a few things that caught their interest over the last couple of weeks. Including the Checkm8 vulnerability, and a video from the Apple archive that is an absolute gem.
Also in case you missed it last time BeLight Software kindly gifted us four licences for Amadine to give away last week so get your entries in for your chance to win a copy!

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • We have four licences for BeLight’s new vector application Amadine to give away. Email the show on essentialapple@sudomail.com to put your name in the hat. Winners will be announced in 3 weeks time!
  • Listeners of this show can claim $10 off purchases of Luminar and/or Aurora HD 2019 use the coupon code EssentialApple at checkout for your extra discount!
  • Get Donny Yankellow’s 2FunDads iMessage stickers for FREE

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has started up a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Continue reading → Essential Apple Podcast 149: “Let’s Talk” … to Bart Busschots