Welcome to our weekend Apple Breakfast newspaper column , which includes all of the Apple word you miss this calendar week in a handy bite - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a morning cup of burnt umber or tea , but it ’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner party hour too .
“This product literally saved my life. 7/10”
This workweek I have mostly been reviewing the Apple Watch Series 8 , a boring update to Apple ’s excellent wearables line . On the one hand it changes very little from the former generation , which is dense ; but it ’s also the best mid - price smartwatch on the market . If it ’s not broken , I reckon , why set it ?
Products like the Series 8 can be a challenge for reviewer , who are naturally cast away to look for out and evaluate change . It ’s important to commend that most people looking to buy a mathematical product have n’t examine the late model , and that iterative upgrades can still be a must - purchase . ( That ’s assuming you have n’t have a Series 7 , of course . If you have , you should probably put off your wallet for another twelvemonth . ) The medium machine require sense , but boring is quite often secure .
Oddly enough , the one exciting modification for this year ’s watches is another challenge for reviewers , but in a completely different way . Crash Detection is a fascinating inclusion to the iPhone and Apple Watch , but it ’s also very unmanageable to test because it take effect at moments of gravid peril .
That ’s not to say that a few reviewers , sanctify them , have n’t risen to the occasion . YouTuber TechRax got in there first , drive one ( remote control - controlled ) car into another andrecording the resultsas expect . But the Wall Street Journal ’s late tests ( featuring a devastation derby whizz , for extra fashion points ) were less successful : devices in the crashing auto did their job , but those in the carsgetting crashed intoconsistently failed to recognize the situation . Apple has argued that the characteristic was mix up by the lack of movement go up to the crash , and that it will do better in real - world office . Maybe , but then how do you examine a feature film that needs a life - threaten real - earthly concern place to by rights make for ?
The exceedingly pocket-size sample size of Crash Detection examiner among the dozens of reviews that have already published raise another abstruse question : How much weight should a commentator give to a feature that can literally store your life – but commonly wo n’t do anything at all ? During the Far Out upshot , Apple ’s presenters repeatedly said they trust user did n’t involve to use the feature article , and it ’s a sort of consumer tech Pascal ’s wager : Should a feature that offers peace of mind of mind but might never be used be a reason to pass $ 399 on an upgrade .
That ’s presumably the equating Apple was hoping we ’d all run in our heads when it put together the “ Dear Tim ” section of last month ’s Far Out press event . This was a surreal picture of testimony from customers who ’d live on hair - raising ordeals thanks to their Apple devices , along with Apple TV+-style dramatizations feature bear and crashed carpenter’s plane . It would be uncharitable to understand this as “ Buy Apple products or get eaten , ” but there was definitely a puff of air ofmemento mori . Life is cherished .
The sad reality we tech reviewers may have to face is that some features ca n’t really be review . With something as existential as clangour catching , the best we can do is study and excuse the mechanism , then lease customers make their own decision . It may preserve your life sentence , we must say , but the chances of this bump are so pocket-size and the consequence so expectant , that it ’s unimaginable to rationally factor in that into a review score . ( take care you , theideaof it saving your living , the public security of mind have it will give you , is a genuine and worthwhile benefit that is far sluttish to quantify and should not be dismissed . )
It ’s potential , of course , that this is all post - rationalisation . I did n’t do any right crash test with my Series 8 ; I just drove up and down the street doing sudden emergency stop to see if that actuate the warning . ( It did n’t . ) And then I proceed back home and wrote about the quality of the sieve , which is very gracious and does n’t require me to weigh up the time value of a human life for a smartwatch review .
IDG
Dan Moren rounds upthree unmissable featuresiniOS 16 and watchOS 9that you may have … lack .
Ken Mingis explicate how theApple follow Ultrapersuaded him to finallyswitch from Garmin .
Despite Apple ’s best efforts , Meta and Googlearestill out of control .
In aninterview with the BBC , Tim Cook has decried thelack of womenin the technical school industry .
Amazon has herald a fresh outcome calledPrime Early Access Salelater this calendar month , which means you couldsave big on Apple gear .
Reviews corner
We ’ve stake another inspection from Apple ’s dip intersection ticket :
Plus a trio of head - to - head comparisons :
The rumor mill
TheM2 iPad Prois probablyarriving very presently .
And theMac mini M2could launch in October . About meter !
This fall may be unruffled . But there are fivecompletely newfangled Apple productsthat coulddebut in 2023 .
Apple’sOctober eventmightnot happen at all , harmonize to Mark Gurman .
But Roman Loyola believe Apple’sOctober eventiscoming – and so arenew MacBook Pros .
While we ’re on that national , here’severything you could expectat theOctober event , assuming it happens .
Adaptive Transparency , of the good AirPods Pro 2 features , iscoming to the original model .
Podcast of the week
There are few than 100 days left in 2022 — what can Apple release in this abbreviated flow of time ? We speak about what we gestate to see for the ease of the year on this episode of the Macworld Podcast !
you’re able to catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own land site .
Software updates, bugs & problems
A security research worker haswarned of nine iOS appsthat are “ committing several flavors of ad fraud . ”Delete them now .
Apple has expandedStage Managersupport to erstwhile iPads , whiledelaying a cardinal feature .
