2022 started with… nothing. It would take until March for a new product to be released. But the occasional press release has muted it, as Apple celebrates “heart month” in the US. Something Sweden yawned. It’s not that we think it’s a bad idea for Apple to encourage physical activity, but it hasn’t set our hearts on fire.
Mars
About a week before March 8, Apple sent out invitations to an online event called Peek Performance. Rumors veered into overdrive, now damn the Mac Pro was about to launch.
Which he didn’t. But she still did it somehow, albeit under a different name. And shape. Apple launched MacStudio, which is best described as a few Mac Minis stacked on top of each other. In it, however, was an even bigger novelty, the M1 Ultra. By connecting two M1 Maxes with a technology called Ultrafusion, Apple had, for lack of other words, soldered two chips together.
The result is a monstrous chip with 114 billion transistors, 20 core processor, 64 core graphics processor and 32 core neural engine. Incidentally, Mac Studio can’t be upgraded with more memory if needed.
We also have the Studio Display, a 27-inch screen equipped with the A13 processor. Soon after reaching consumers, complaints erupted that the built-in webcam was of the Nokia 3210i class. But an update fixed the problem.
A new iPhone SE and a green iPhone also appeared. More interestingly, the iPad Air has an M1 plug and new colors. We liked it, but disagreed get save option that was offered.
June
As usual, WWDC took place in June, precisely on the 6th. Instead of a live event, we watched 3,546 videos where Apple executives compared adjectives to new levels. But we also have the M2, a preview of Mac OS Ventura and a completely new design MacBook Air with the aforementioned M2 chip. A computer that we really liked, even if it has a slower memory than the Macbook Air M1: after all, we have more screen.
June 14th
About a week after WWDC, there was a press release that the Macbook Pro 13 would be released. Even the one with the M2 chip. We tested it and were able to see to our disappointment that the universally disliked Touchbar remained, like an ugly wart on a pretty face. How unpopular is it? Even Apple did not mention it in its Press release.
We tested the computer and could only claim it was good but at the same time something of a shrug. What was really scary is that the FaceTime camera hasn’t been updated in a professional model, while the camera in the Macbook Air M2 was…
July
The only interesting thing that happened was that the Macbook Air M2 was released in stores and sold out in no time.
September
August came and went, but in September, things started happening. Certainly highly anticipated things: new iPhone 14.
And indeed it happened like this. We were there too, but there was no direct live event. Tim Apple…sorry, Cook, took the stage, said hello and disappeared in favor of more videos comparing adjectives with new ones dizzying heights.
But there were new phones. Or two new and two almost new. The iPhone 14 Pro models have the A16 Bionic, new cameras and the “dynamic island”. They also have always-on displays, which turned out to be so hot that an update appeared that put them more into an Android-like “always-on” existence.
The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus got last year’s professional processor, the A15, and had to make do with an “always off” matte screen except when it’s supposed to be “on.” And it was expensive too. War, inflation and component shortages are not a good combination. The iPhone was suddenly more expensive than ever. Something that caused an estimated 2,156 Mac reporters to go into rage mode behind the keyboard as they mourned their disappointment online before grit their teeth and order a new phone. Yup, same procedure every year.
We also have the new Airpods Pro. And they were good! Apple’s sound engineers have optimized both sound and noise reduction in a beautiful combination.
Even the clocks prayed to him. New Apple Watch Series 8, SE and Ultra. The big news about Apple Watch SE was that it had a new back. The 8 Series has a lot of interesting features, many of which make sense for women. And then we have Ultra. A solid titanium watch, with built-in depth gauge, more buttons and functions. Expensive as hell, but it costs if you want to be at the top of the Apple ecosystem. Regardless of the price, it was undeniably pretty awesome! All watches received Watch OS9 and crash detection, more on that later.
September 12th
A sharp version of IOS 16 is released. With it we have new features like scheduling emails, something Android has had since the oil was burning, a new customizable lock screen, something Android has had for years, and many other features that android users have had but not used (you know who you are).
However, what iOS 16 had that Android doesn’t have is the ability to extract the root object from an image and paste it into a message or similar. The feature is as fun as it gets. Yours truly has used it twice, but was equally happy with it both times.
Technically, the iPhone 14 Plus will be released on October 7th. The iPhone 14 Plus has the best battery life ever for an iPhone. We test and find the truthful statement. With a bang.
on October 24th
Mac OS Ventura moves from beta to final release.
October 26th
Apple launches the new Ipad Pro 11 and 12.9. New this year is that they have been equipped with M2. This news was by no means unexpected. Like the iPhone, they cost a lot of money. The 12.9-incher with one terabyte of memory costs SEK 29,245. But they are fast, so fast that an investment in one will pay off for many years, the number of apps that can use the power are few. Ipad Pro is now at a ridiculous level of “overkill”. This is the tablet’s answer to Belgian Blue.
What was launched and which was more modest was the 10th generation iPad. Which now has the same processor as the iPhone 12. And the same look and feel as the Air, mini and pro.
We finally have a unified iPad line…
“How many different iPads are there?”
“AND”
It’s easier to keep track of belly button hair accumulated over a year. The number of different Ipad models is easily confusing.
What the Ipad 10 got, however, was a sensibly placed webcam on the long edge. And so we were given a new dongle, because the Apple Pencil 2 doesn’t work with the Ipad 10. And what a dongle it is! Only works with Ipad 10 and first generation Apple Pencil.
Yes, there are reasons for that, magnets just don’t fit blah blah blah, but don’t tell me a company of Apple’s size and technical know-how couldn’t have come up with a more elegant solution.
October 18 Crashgate
A year without some sort of Apple-gate is like day without night, tonic without gin, tacos without salsa… you know what we mean. Apple’s crash detection, found in all new phones and watches, was found to alert the 911 number in the US when the wearer took a roller coaster ride.
Chuckling.
As far as we know, this has not happened in Sweden. There have been cases in the US of users falling off ski slopes – who doesn’t? – when the alarm goes off. The ski season is approaching Svedala. Remember, if you set a trap, you have ten seconds to sound the alarm. Unless a fix has been released. The undersigned has no desire to test.
November
Apple TV 4K, now with HDR10+ support. For reasons, it was equipped with a faster processor than the iPad 10. The model with ethernet was supported for threads, but not the wifi model. The big talking point for some reason became “WHY IT’S LIGHTER THAN THE PREDECESSOR”. Elementary, my dear Watson: passive cooling instead of a fan.
December
Apple will launch its self-service repair shop for Apple products on December 6. After lobbying by the Right to Repair group in the US, where the program was first launched, the opportunity has come to be able to repair your Apple gadgets yourself with original parts in the quiet corner of your home.
And it’s a confusing program that requires more steps than you thought possible, for example, to fix your phone. Rent a repair kit, consisting of several (heavy) bags, from Apple for SEK 700 (!). So you have to fill out paperwork, buy replacement parts, and more to end up paying more for a repair you do it yourself than it would have cost if you had turned in the phone.
Well thought out Apple!
In summary, 2022 was a normal Apple year. There have been many delicious products launched, some not so delicious, and some typical weird decisions that only Apple can make. And while the world raged over these decisions, Apple sat motionless in the boat with the lid closed, knowing it had weathered worse storms than this one.
What will happen in 2023?
Everyone is talking about Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset. It won’t be released in 2023. Recently, the other day, new rumors surfaced claiming so it’s late. It’s not at all impossible that Apple’s R&D is working on a headset. But you can just forget that Apple, a consumer-oriented company, will launch a headset with an entry price of around $1,500, which would be $15,000 plus VAT, i.e. over 20,000 kroner.
However, we will have new Mac computers, phones, watches and iPads. It’s not even that bad.
PS. Forget the car. That won’t happen either.
