By John Moltz
September 6, 2024 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: Addicted to Glowtime
AI continues to vex Microsoft, Glowtime approaches, and Apple tries to help you capture those magic moments.
Game off
Is there nothing that AI cannot ruin with its touch?
“Microsoft Rolled Out AI PCs That Can’t Play Top Games—and There’s No Quick Fix”
Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs use ARM processors, requiring that games coded for Intel processors run in a translation layer, something only about half of the ones tested appear to be able to do smoothly.
More like Copilot- amirite yeah, I’m right.
One frequent cause of problems is the software built into some games to prevent cheating—an essential feature added to titles such as “Fortnite” and “League of Legends.” Even if the game itself can be translated to run on Arm, the anti-cheating software may be incompatible.
Cheaters don’t win, winners don’t cheat, and neither uses an ARM-based Windows PC because the games won’t run on them.
So, which would you rather have, Windows users? Your games or Copilot?
Is this a trick question?
It might be tempting to think that this is an opportunity for Apple. The company has rolled out tools to help developers port games to macOS. But suggesting Apple will finally score big in games is like predicting the year of Linux on the desktop. Or the year the Mariners will go to the World Series. Instead of trying to predict it, just assume it’s never going to happen and if it does in your lifetime, you can be pleasantly surprised.
Great expectations
We are just days from experiencing Glowtime, so what’s the fuss all about? Why are all the kids obsessed with Glowtime?
(Are your kids doing Glowtime? Here are some warning signs: Talking about “The best phones Apple’s ever made”…)
We can expect to see new Apple Watches at the event on Monday. The Series 10 will reportedly be thinner but have a larger case, and the third iteration of the SE will have a plastic case that absolutely no one will complain about because everyone loves change.
New AirPods are also expected in two models at two different price points. The higher end will have active noise cancellation and the lower end — possibly named AirPods SE — will have manual noise cancellation which requires the user to tell other people to shut up.
“We think people are going to love it.”
(“Billy, what are you doing in there? It better not be Glowtime.”)
Mostly what we’ll see is that new iPhone you’ll get not because you want new features, but because your current phone is a piece of crap. According to a new study by CIRP, the biggest reason people buy new phones is simply that their old phone is “obsolete”. Of course, it’s all a matter of perspective.
The obsolete category includes some buyers whose purchase is triggered by new features on their new phone. Yet, they explain their purchase decision in terms of the condition of their old phone rather than embracing those new features.
Is the new iPhone half-exciting or is your old one half-garbage? That’s a real thinker.
Evading capture
One rumored feature of the new iPhones appears to be a capture button. Not at all Pokemon-related, the capture button would be a dedicated photograph button for those who are all thumbs and have a habit of missing the moment. I’m not naming any names. (Me.)
But as Apple giveth to the clumsy, so it also taketh away. The button is said to be capacitive and have support for multiple gestures. So, they created something complicated to fix a simple problem. Great. I look forward to taking a lot of videos when I meant to take portraits and panoramas when I wanted a selfie.
Who am I kidding? This button probably won’t trickle down to a phone I’m likely to buy for years as it seems there’s a good chance it’ll only be available on the iPhone 16 Pro models.
You know what’s great? Those point-and-shoot cameras. Those are great.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]