🔊 Apple's HomePod Returns!

Apple's on a Roll

Not even three weeks into the new year and Apple has released two new chips, updated their MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and resurrected the HomePod after a two-year hiatus.

If you bought one of the new MacBook Pro models from 2021 with an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip, you shouldn't feel any pressure to upgrade (I don't). The hardware design of the new Macbooks is the same with minor improvements to the HDMI port.

BUT if you're still holding on to an Intel MacBook Pro or need a powerful machine for video editing, development, or audio production, the new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are incredibly powerful and will provide the best battery life of any laptop before it (depending on the workload of course).

An even more exciting story is the M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini. For families needing a new desktop computer, production environments that need a mid-powered machine running constantly as a server, or if you're needing to upgrade your ProPresenter machine, this is the one to get.

Pricing starts at $599 and is just $499 with an education discount. Getting the power of Apple's M2 chip at $499 is insane, but you can also spec it up with an M2 Pro chip which gets you 4 Thunderbolt ports. The new Mac mini is an incredibly versatile machine and I highly recommend you consider it for any server or desktop needs.

My Favorite Speaker Returns!

If you didn't know, I'm a musician at heart and love great audio. Finding good speakers for the home can be a cumbersome process, either you look for budget options that sound meh, or you realize you can spend thousands of dollars on tons of equipment and not even know what you're buying.

Sonos is a great middle-ground that offers high-end, excellent-sounding audio at reasonable prices. Sometimes they seem pretty steep, but after owning the Sonos Arc, Beam, both subwoofers, One SL, and Move, I can confidently say they sound their cost.

Apple has always had a special relationship with music, from having U2 and other artists perform at Keynotes, Steve Jobs pioneering the iPod, "1,000 songs in your pocket," and even buying companies like Beats.

When the original HomePod was made available in 2018 (wild to think that was five years ago), it was the first time Apple delved into high-end audio for the home since the iPod H-Fi (bonus points if you send me a photo of yours). And it lived up to the hype!

It sounded incredible and adjusted the sound based on the environment, a stereo pair sounded even better, and you could even use a pair for solid home theater audio with Dolby Atmos! But in March 2021, Apple said the original HomePod has been "discontinued" in favor of the smaller and admirable-sounding HomePod mini.

But I missed the larger, original HomePod. Mostly because I didn't have to think about it! I don't want to have another voice assistant in my home, and AirPlay, for all its wonderful features, can be weird sometimes with Sonos speakers. The big HomePod provided excellent audio quality with ease of use and 100% Apple's ecosystem.

Fast-forward two years and the "discontinued" product is resurrected! The new HomePod, at least according to initial reports, sounds incredible. Plus, Apple included modern smart home features like Thread, Matter, and new capabilities from Siri but still kept the price at $299.

I'm excited about it if you can't tell, and while I don't often do straight product reviews on the YouTube channel, expect to see a thorough review of the new HomePods in early February. You can also hear my thoughts on all the Apple announcements on the latest AppleInsider podcast here:

Reminders Get an Upgrade

Speaking of the YouTube channel, a new video went up this week highlighting five tips to help you make the most of the iPhone reminders app. Check it out here!

Twitter Kills Third-Party Apps

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

Since the beginning, Twitter has been the awkward, unsure of itself social media network, but we all love it. Or love to hate it. Either way, Twitter became a staple in news reports, it's where world leaders would announce policy changes, and the tech circle of Twitter has been a lovely place for me to frequent.

One of the unique and powerful features of Twitter is the vibrant third-party app community. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat, several excellent third-party apps often provided more features than Twitter itself.

Tweetbot, Twitterific, and others were used by a very small niche of Twitter's user base, but one key difference existed between the official Twitter app and third-party alternatives: ads.

If you peruse Twitter using a third-party app, you don't see any ads. Great for users, but not the best for Twitter's bottom line. And in the Elon Musk era, with profitability as a main focus, it seems everyone is required to see ads. Therefore, Twitter has removed the ability for third-party apps to access Twitter.

This is another cut amongst the 1,000 that have occurred since Musk took over. The service and app have gotten very buggy, verification and Twitter Blue are still a mess, and people are leaving on principal with no viable alternative really catching on. Mastodon was close, but it seems the initial spike in usage was only temporary.

It's the end of an era, it seems, with third-party Twitter apps removing themselves from the App Store and posting farewell blogs this week. It's sad and leaves the future of Twitter even more uncertain.

Ironically, as all the Apple news broke this week, there was exactly one place I went to share my thoughts and excitement: Twitter. There is no other real-time, lively, engaged platform that I can find (again, Mastodon isn't it), and so I keep crawling back to the bird that seems to be diving headfirst toward the ground.

Twitter won't die anytime soon, I don't think, but if it continues to drive its most loyal and enthusiastic user base away, it may be a slow road to wherever MySpace ended up.

Movie Podcast Fun

To end on a lighter note, you should listen to my movie podcast! My friend Nate and I review a movie every other week, and you should join us. We're now posting a video version on YouTube, plus the audio podcast is about to celebrate five years 🎉New episodes drop Friday afternoon, and the next one is coming today! We review the movie Amsterdam (2022), streaming now on HBO Max. And if you support the show on Patreon or Apple Podcasts, you get a bonus episode every other week. They're routinely going 30+ minutes now, and this week we discuss drive-thru etiquette and the demise of Subway.

If you've made it this far in the email, please enjoy this week's bonus episode on the house, and if you enjoy it, consider supporting the show!