Essential Apple Podcast 249: New Year New Stuff

Happy New Year to all, and after our Holiday Break we’re back! This time the iPhone is 15, CES (sort of) happened, Apple’s top silicon guy moved back to Intel, China fires up a Fusion Reactor, and more. Simon Nick and Jim return to pontificate over it all.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

  • Get 2 months on the Kino Premium Plan with offer code KINOWITHJOHNNEMO

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Essential Apple Podcast Extra: Simon’s event reactions

So the event has been and gone. Everyone is having their say so why shouldn’t Simon get his tuppence worth in too? After a rant about the “prognosticators” he gets straight on with his first impressions of the event

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
  • Donny’s drawing app offer _Buy the app now at the 2 category price and 1/3 off! When the third category is added the price will go up!_ App Store

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.

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Hey Babe, Take A Walk On The Dark Side

A review of the Nokia 7.1 with Android One by @RobRait

I am an old git, in my mid-60s with aged eyes that are struggling to see the tiny screen on my iPhone 5C unless I dig out my reading glasses. I had half decided I wanted one of those new-fangled phones with a big screen but couldn’t justify spending much money on a new one as the old phone still worked.

My iPhone 5c just died. As the 5C has little value (Apple would give me a fiver for in in p/x against a 10R) its not worth repairing it. So, instead of maybe wanting a new phone, I now needed a new phone.  I spent a couple of hours (actually many, many, many hours) scouring ebay, Gumtree, FB Marketplace and local phone shops looking for a lightly pre-loved  iPhone 7+ (if you’re going big, you might as well go BIG).

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Gear4 Piccadilly and Oxford iPhone Xr Cases

A review by James Ormiston (@macjim)

Initially I had no intention of buying a new iPhone as the prices were exorbitant compared to the cost of my iPhone 7 Plus. That had been an expensive purchase, but it was made easier at the time by taking advantage of the Apple finance deal paying it off over twenty months, but with these new iPhones costing well over a grand, I decided to hold off renewing.
It was obvious to me that Apple had overstretched themselves on the pricing of the new iPhones, the X, XS and XS Max, had crossed into territory that made it impossible for many to reach into, losing Apple customers… but wait, along came a ‘short term’ deal from Apple that made it possible to buy a new iPhone and downsize from the really too big iPhone 7 Plus to the Xr for as ‘little’ as £499… at the time of writing, that deal was still available in the middle of March.
As my iPhone 7 Plus was valued at the maximum allowing me to take advantage of this deal, I jumped at the chance especially as the cost was reduced even further due to birthday and Xmas money, bringing the purchase of the phone under £300. Although this was a ‘cheap’ purchase to me, I didn’t want to find myself in the same situation as I had been with my iPhone 7 Plus, where I broke the screen within the first few months, costing me £145 to have it repaired at Apple.
So what to buy to protect this phone? First of all I bought AppleCare to ease the cost of new screens if I managed to break either of them.Then I began to search online for a case but this initially proved fruitless, but a wee wander into Glasgow proved worthwhile… Thank you Carphone Warehouse!

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iPhone XR, the first few months

A review by James Ormiston (@MacJim)

Back in January, I walked into the Glasgow Apple Store to buy the iPhone Xr. I wanted to trade in my old iPhone 7 Plus, a Black 128Gb model that I had finished paying for through Apple’s finance deal, but the purchase boiled down to what they were willing to offer me to trade it in especially as the online valuation was not looking good. Initially, the ‘offer’ to have an iPhone Xr for £499 with a trade in was for a limited time (at the time of writing it is still available) hence the slight rush to buy before that ended. I was pleasantly surprised when the lady said “it’s worth £260 Sir”. My reaction was “that’ll do nicely, thank you”.

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Essential Apple Podcast 105: The Shiny Objects Edition

Well this week was of course the Apple event… 3 new iPhones and a new Apple Watch. I think many of us were a touch disappointed that was “all” there was. Does this mean another event later for some iPads and/or Macs? Who knows? I am joined once again by Donny and we talk about what we made of it… and a few other stories. Meanwhile Hurricane Florence flooded parts of the US, a Category 5 Typhoon hammered the Philippines and is bearing down on Hong Kong and China…
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Essential Apple Podcast 104: Curse you 9 to 5 Mac!

This week I am joined by regular co-host Donny Yankellow to yet again try and avoid all the rumours and leakers as we approach the big event. But of course no one can have missed the 9to5 Mac “scoop” that has revealed at least two iPhones and the look of the new Apple watch. With speculation rife we try to find some other stories to talk about. A shorter than usual show unsurprisingly as we all await the big reveals (and hope 9 to 5 Mac haven’t ruined all the fun).
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! We can now also be found on Spotify, Soundcloud and even YouTube.

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Rumours and Rumours and Rumours, Oh My!

With only a few weeks remaining until Apple reveals the new hardware it has been working on the tech press is naturally filled with rumours. The audio jack will be removed, dual cameras, OLED screen bars and countless other supposed rumours and hearsay that ‘people familiar with the matter’ or ‘unnamed sources’ seem more than willing to share.

Now I realise that these sites have to meet their daily post quotas and usually any attention grabbing headline with the word Apple in it is bound to generate some interest, be it positive or negative, but things appear to be getting out of hand this cycle.

There have not only been the usual rumours but now it seems a fresh cry has joined the chorus. That being that this year’s iPhone will be so lacklustre in new features that you’ll most probably be better off waiting until 2017 before upgrading.

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iGun The iPhone That Looks Like a Gun

iGun?

idealconceal 150x150 iGun?The world can feel a pretty scary place these days and so I guess it’s understandable that those who have laws allowing them to own and carry firearms think they are their best protection again bad guys. I am not going

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