Apple no longer makes a super expensive version of its Apple Watch made out of 18-karat gold, but there are companies out there making custom Apple Watches with gold plating and intricate designs like Aurum Edition for people who just need something a little flashier than what Apple's offering.
Aurum Edition sent us one of its super fancy Monarch Counsel Apple Watches, which we went hands-on with in our latest YouTube video to see what the Apple Watch customizing business is all about.
There are multiple companies dedicated to designing high-end custom iPhone and Apple Watch models, and while such devices aren't for the average consumer, it seems creating ultra expensive hardware made from exotic materials is a lucrative business with a dedicated customer base willing to pay quite a lot of cash for a unique look.
The Apple Watch in the video is a 44mm Series 4 GPS-only model that's been overhauled with a custom-engraved gold plating with a floral pattern. It's plated in 24-karat gold that's 8 microns thick, which means it's durable and the gold isn't going to wear away.
Aurum Edition engraves each custom Apple Watch that it designs by hand, and it takes 40 hours to do each one, which explains the high price tag. It takes a skilled, steady hand to do this kind of intricate work.
In terms of functionality, the custom design doesn't cover the Apple Watch Series 4's large screen or the sensors at the back for measuring heart rate, but it does impede the pressing mechanism of the Digital Crown just a bit, making it harder to press. It still works well when scrolling, though, and the haptic feedback feature in the new models is functional.
Such a fancy Apple Watch is, of course, accompanied by a fancy band made from a dark blue shark skin leather, and it ships in a high-quality wooden box for the kind of unpackaging experience you'd expect for $2,200.
Most of us here at MacRumors are tech focused, like to upgrade regularly, and aren't going to pay so much for an Apple Watch, but there are people out there who like this kind aesthetic and the work that Aurum Edition is doing is impressive.
It can't be easy to overhaul such a small device and have it remain functional, and it's certainly interesting to get a peek behind the curtain at what these kind of custom devices look like in person and how they're made.
Would you ever shell out so much extra cash for a custom Apple Watch? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned to MacRumors, because next week we're also going to be taking a look at a custom-designed high-end uber-expensive iPhone from another company.
Apple is considering creating a lower-cost Apple TV dongle that's similar to the Amazon Fire Stick or the Google Chromecast, reports The Information.
Apple has held discussions about introducing such a product, which would be priced lower than the Apple TV and would be able to be plugged into the back of a television set.
The company is said to be contemplating such a hardware device to promote an upcoming streaming service that's in the works. A lower-cost Apple TV dongle would make the service, which will be available only on Apple devices, more accessible to potential buyers.
Right now, Apple's only television product is the Apple TV, priced at $179 for the Apple TV 4K and $149 for the non-4K version. Current TV dongles from Amazon and Google are priced much lower, at $25 to $35.
Rumors have suggested Apple is planning to roll out a streaming service next year, perhaps as early as March, and it is set to launch in more than 100 countries in 2019.
Apple may offer the streaming service on a standalone basis, or bundle it up with Apple Music and an Apple News subscription that includes Texture, the magazine service that it purchased.
Original television content created by Apple could be made available for free to iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV users through the TV app. Apple is also negotiating deals to provide access to subscription channels like HBO and STARZ.
For its streaming service, Apple has more than a dozen original television shows in the works, and it has inked deals with production companies for movies. A full list of all of the projects Apple has in the works right now can be found in our Apple TV roundup.
Other products available include accessories such as Apple Watch bands, the Apple Pencil, Beats headphones, and the Magic Mouse 2.
Prices are fairly consistent with Apple.com, but there are some discounts to be had, including $100 off a base model MacBook and $300 off the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.6GHz six-core Core i7, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD. Note that some of the products are currently out of stock or available in limited quantities.
Amazon has yet to begin selling any new iPhones directly from Apple or its network of Apple Authorized Resellers, but the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR are expected to be available soon as part of the deal. One product that won't be available is the HomePod since it is an Amazon Echo competitor.
Apple has prominent marketing banners on each of its Amazon listings that resemble the look of its product pages on Apple.com. Apple-authorized product listings contain the wording "ships from and sold by Amazon.com."
A limited selection of new and used Apple products were already available on Amazon via third-party resellers, but those product listings will be removed after January 4, 2019 under the new deal. Third-party resellers will need to apply to become Apple Authorized Resellers to continue selling on Amazon.
Beyond the United States, Apple products are also beginning to appear on Amazon in France, and the sales agreement will extend to its storefront in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India as well.
Disclosure: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.
Ahead of Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping, eBay today is offering its customers the chance to save 15 percent sitewide with the latest promo code, PICKFAST. Like previous sitewide sales, you only have one day to shop as the new code will expire later tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
There is one caveat to this code: it can only be used when shopping in eBay's iOS and Android mobile apps. If you haven't yet, you can download the eBay app from the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link], shop for eligible items today, add them to your cart, and enter the coupon code PICKFAST before it expires. Also make sure your app is updated to the latest version or the code won't work.
As usual, exclusions include warranties and protection plans, coins and paper money, gift cards and coupons, eBay motors items, and real estate categories. The code must be used within a single transaction as well, although it can include multiple items within one cart, with one code per user. No minimum purchase is required, and the code will be capped at a maximum savings of $100. Be sure to head over to eBay today and shop around before the coupon code expires tonight.
As we get closer to Black Friday, more sales have kicked off today, including one of the best deals on Apple Watch Series 3 you'll find this week. At Macy's, you can get the Apple Watch Series 3 in GPS and GPS + Cellular models for $80 off right now. With this discount, the 38mm GPS model is down to $199.00 and the 42mm GPS model is down to $229.00.
Macy's sale will match Target's upcoming Black Friday sale on Apple Watch Series 3 at $80 off, but the department store chain is slightly cheaper compared to Target's planned prices of $199.99 for 38mm GPS, $229.99 for 42mm GPS, etc. If you had the 2017 model of the Apple Watch on your shopping list, this is the perfect chance to do a little early shopping before the big event on Friday.
Of course, you can keep track of many more deals by heading to our full Black Friday Roundup, which includes detailed information on when each store will be opening (and if they open) Thanksgiving afternoon.
On November 21, 2008, Apple released iPhone OS 2.2 to users in Japan, introducing an emoji keyboard and emoji characters for the first time ever on an iPhone. At the time, the latest iPhone to be released was the iPhone 3G, which launched in June 2008 with iPhone OS 2.
The emoji keyboard in 2008 (left) vs 2018 (right), via Jeremy Burge/Emojipedia
Emojipedia has provided an in-depth look today at the first iPhone emojis, explaining that despite Apple's decision to restrict the emoji keyboard to Japan in iPhone OS 2.2, some apps unlocked the keyboard for users outside of Japan. This was the first time that third-party apps were even available on iPhone, since iPhone OS 2.2 also introduced the App Store.
The launch within iPhone OS 2.2 predated emoji support in the Unicode Standard, which now makes the characters universally interchangeable between devices and operating systems.
Apple's 2008 emoji implementation was based on the set used by Japanese carrier Softbank, and the influence on many of these designs is clear.
Even moreso—much the the chagrin of some—Apple's emoji font has gone on to dominate public expectation of what an emoji should look like.
While Apple does not dictate which emojis are approved by Unicode, it is reasonable to wonder that without Apple's strong color emoji support in these earlier years, whether we would see it as the cultural phenomenon it has become today.
Emojis then gained traction in iOS 4 and Mac OS X Lion, but these were still not widely supported across regions. Not until iOS 5 in 2011 did Apple introduce the emoji keyboard setting that allowed anyone around the world to access the characters by tapping the Globe icon on the iOS keyboard. In 2012, Apple introduced 376 new emojis with iOS 6 and switched to Unicode-compatible code points for the emojis.
iPhone OS 2.2 emojis from 2008
One of the latest updates on the emoji timeline came in 2015, when Apple introduced new emojis for the first time in three years with iOS 8.3. This was the year that Apple also enabled the emoji keyboard to all iOS users by default, whereas before each user had to go into the Settings app, find the keyboard settings, and manually add the emoji keyboard.
In total, the number of emojis has increased from 471 in 2008 to 2,776 in 2018, thanks to the introduction of swappable genders and skin tones. Head over to Emojipedia for more details about the emoji anniversary, and to check out a long list of changes that some of the emojis have had over the years.
Mazda today announced that CarPlay and Android Auto are now available as part of a dealer-installed upgrade in select 2014 model year and newer Mazda vehicles equipped with the Mazda Connect infotainment system in the United States.
The dealer-installed upgrade has a suggested price of $199 plus the cost of labor and includes both hardware and software components. Eligible vehicles will be equipped with a faster-charging 2.1-amp USB port, in addition to the latest version of Mazda Connect with CarPlay and Android Auto integration.
Eligible customers can schedule an appointment with a Mazda dealership to have the approximately two-hour upgrade service completed.
CarPlay and Android Auto will also be preinstalled in 2018 Mazda6 vehicles manufactured in November 2018 or later, excluding the Sport model, in the United States. Those who purchased a 2018 Mazda6 earlier in the year can opt for the dealer-installed upgrade option with the $199 fee waived.
CarPlay is Apple's in-car software that enables iPhone users to access a range of apps from a vehicle's dashboard display, such as Messages, Apple Maps, Apple Music, Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, SiriusXM Radio, Pandora, WhatsApp, Downcast, Slacker Radio, Stitcher, and as of iOS 12, Google Maps and Waze.
Mazda previously announced that CarPlay would be available as a dealer-installed upgrade for a suggested price of $443 including labor in Canada by November, but it's unclear if the option is available there yet. It's also available in the UK for £350.
Google has updated its Assistant app for iOS to support Siri Shortcuts, enabling users to invoke Google's virtual assistant using Apple's virtual assistant, without even having to launch the app.
Once the update has been installed, Assistant users are presented with an "Add to Siri" button that lets them record a phrase of their choosing to be used after saying the "Hey, Siri" command. As long as the iOS device is unlocked, users will then be able to access Assistant by combining the two commands.
The Siri Shortcuts feature also supports additional phrases that users often use with Google Assistant. As The Verge notes, this opens up possibilities for creating custom voice commands for Google actions, including smart home routines, from within Siri.
This isn't the first incidence of virtual assistant crosstalk on Apple devices. Last year, Amazon and Microsoft announced a collaboration that would allow iOS users to access Alexa via the Cortana app, with a "Hey Cortana, open Alexa" voice command.
However, in the latter case, iOS users still can't say "Hey Cortana, open Alexa" from the Home screen, or when the device is locked, because Apple only allows third-party virtual assistants to function within their apps.
Google's Assistant app is a free download for iPhone and iPad, available on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Apple includes an accessibility feature in iOS that's useful if you have a visual impairment, but can even come in handy if your eyes are simply tired or you're struggling to read something like small print, especially in poor light.
It's called the Magnifier, and has several advantages over just opening up the camera app and zooming in to get a better look at something.
Enabling it is easy: Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, navigate to General -> Accessibility -> Magnifier, and toggle on the Magnifier switch.
After that, all you need to do to use it is triple-click the Side button (or Home button, depending on your device). You can also add it to the Control Center by going to Settings -> Control Center -> Customize Controls, and tapping the green plus button next to Magnifier.
When you launch Magnifier, you'll see a camera-like interface at the bottom of the screen, but with some unique features. The slider controls the magnification of the scene in the lens frame, while the button at the bottom left turns on the flashlight so you can illuminate it. The padlock button next to that locks the focus.
Tapping the big button in the center freezes the image (a frozen image is indicated by a yellow ring around the button), allowing you to move your phone around freely and still look at the image. You can also use the magnification slider to zoom in and out of the frozen image.
Note that when you freeze an image in the Magnifier, it isn't saved to your photo album. But if you want to save the entire image, you can.
Simply tap and hold on the frozen picture and select Save Image from the contextual popup menu. You'll find a Share option in there, too.
Over on the far right of the Magnifier interface is a button made up of three circles that provides access to additional sliders for adjusting brightness and contrast.
If you suffer from color blindness or another visual impairment, you can swipe through several color schemes in this extended menu and even invert the colors to find which combination works for you.
The App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, and other Apple services appear to be experiencing downtime right now, with multiple MacRumors readers reporting outages across multiple systems.
When attempting to access the App Store, users are receiving a message that it can't be reached, while Apple Music says "We've run into a problem" when attempting to access the For You or Browse features. As for iTunes, streaming iTunes content was interrupted and can't be reaccessed.
The outage appears to be affecting Apple customers in multiple countries, including the United States, the UK, and Germany. Given the volume of reports, most if not all users seem to be unable to access Apple's services.
Apple's System Status page is not reporting an outage at this time, and it is not known how long Apple's services will be down for. We'll update this post when the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music and other features are once again functional.
Apple has acquired Silk Labs, an AI startup that focuses on making AI software "lightweight enough" for consumer hardware like cameras and speakers, reports The Information.
Apple purchased Silk Labs, a small startup with approximately a dozen employees, earlier this year. Silk's website says that it aims to "bring next-generation visual and audio intelligence to connected products" with "state-of-the-art image and audio recognition."
Silk's site suggests its technology has a number of potential uses for home security, retail analytics, package monitoring, digital display metrics, access control, parking lot monitoring, and building surveillance with capabilities like people detection, facial recognition, audio detection, object recognition.
Silk used to have a blog where its technology was explained, but it is defunct, as is the company's Twitter account, which has not been updated since 2017. The company's website, does, however, provide insight into its technology, though there's no word on how Apple might be planning to use it. Silk, like Apple, is said to be focused on a privacy-forward AI experience.
The company did come out with a product called Sense, which debuted on Kickstarter three years ago. Sense was designed to be a "digital brain" for smart home products, communicating with them to improve interoperability and to learn a person's smart home needs over time.
The startup was founded by Andreas Gal, Chris Jones, and Michael Vines, with Gal previously serving as Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer.
Apple is holding talks with the Department of Veterans Affairs about offering electronic health records to military veterans, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Apple already provides access to electronic medical records through the Health app on iOS devices for patients of participating hospitals and medical groups.
Under the terms of the discussions, Apple would expand the feature to veterans, creating special software tools that would allow the VA's estimated nine million veterans to transfer their records to the iPhone.
According to The Wall Street Journal, top VA officials and associates from Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club discussed the project in emails that were obtained by the newspaper. The emails suggest the Trump administration "wrestled early on with the project's goals."
Simple access to health records across multiple medical providers allows patients and doctors alike to better track healthcare. Health Records displays information that includes allergies, vital signs, conditions, immunizations, medications, labs, and procedures.
Health records can be accessed in the Health app under the "Health Data" section. After choosing and authenticating with a provider, all relevant medical data is available through the Health app and is updated automatically following doctor visits.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Last week, the team behind the Luna Display adapter that's designed to turn the iPad into a second display for any Mac published an article outlining how the adapter was used to morph a current iPad Pro into a display for Apple's newest Mac mini.
The Mac mini ships sans display, which means if you have an iPad, it can be used as the Mac mini's sole display. We thought the idea was interesting, so we decided to try it out in our latest YouTube video.
The Luna Display is a little adapter that plugs into the USB-C port on your Mac (for older Macs, there's a Mini DisplayPort version). So to use the iPad Pro as a Mac mini display, you need to plug the adapter into the Mac mini and then download the appropriate software.
There's Luna software for both the iPad and the Mac, which you'll need to download to get this setup working. For setup, you're going to need a separate external display for the Mac mini so you can get the software installed, but once it's set up, the iPad Pro can be used as the only display.
Because the iPad and the adapter in the Mac mini work via WiFi, you'll need a strong connection for seamless performance and a zero lag experience.
Once the iPad Pro is set up as the Mac mini's display, it's a neat example of what it's like to use a touchscreen with a Mac machine. You can display full Mac apps on the iPad Pro, from Photoshop to Final Cut Pro.
What's neat is that you can control apps on your Mac mini through the iPad using the Luna Display app and then swipe out of it to access all of your standard apps. Switching between the two is flawless.
The iPad Pro is, of course, a super expensive display for the Mac mini so this is only useful if you happen to have both of these devices. Buying an iPad Pro just to use as a Mac mini display probably isn't a good idea since you can get a bigger display at a cheaper price.
You can also use the Luna Display with other Macs to turn the iPad into a secondary display. If you want your own Luna Display, it's available for $79.
What do you think of the iPad Pro as a touch display for Mac mini? Let us know in the comments.
Apple last week introduced new upgrade options for the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro, allowing customers to add Radeon Pro Vega 16 and 20 graphics cards to the device for superior graphics performance.
Benchmarks for the 15-inch MacBook Pro models equipped with the Radeon Pro Vega 20 option have been shared by a MacRumors reader, giving us an idea of the performance improvements over 15-inch MacBook Pro models with the standard Radeon Pro 560X graphics card that was previously the highest-end option available.
The machine, which includes a 2.6GHz Core i7 Intel processor, a Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics card, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD, earned an OpenCL score of 72799. Additional benchmarks found on Geekbench with a similar machine using an upgraded Core i9 processor demonstrated OpenCL scores of 75817, 76017, and 80002.
In a separate benchmark uploaded to Geekbench, the new high-end MacBook Pro with Core i9 processor also earned a Metal score of 73953.
Comparatively, machines with similar specs and Radeon Pro 560X graphics cards on Geekbench earned maximum OpenCL scores of right around 65000 and Metal scores of approximately 57000, suggesting much higher graphics performance with the new Radeon Pro Vega 20 card.
At the current time, benchmarks are only available for the higher-end Radeon Pro Vega 20 card, with no data available for the Radeon Pro Vega 16 card. CPU benchmarks on Geekbench between machines using the new cards and the existing cards are similar because there have been no changes to the CPU.
The new Radeon Pro Vega graphics cards can only be added to the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro model, which starts at $2,799. The Radeon Pro Vega 16 costs an additional $250, while the Radeon Pro Vega 20 costs an additional $350.
Apple this afternoon shared one of its iconic holiday ads, many of which have won awards and accolades in the past. This year's video, entitled "Share Your Gifts," is a three minute animated spot featuring music by 16-year-old songwriter Billie Eilish.
The ad features music written by a girl who keeps her creations secret, until they're let out into the world by her dog and enjoyed by everyone around her. The "Share Your Gifts" theme encourages Mac and iPad users to share their creativity with others.
Apple has also shared a behind the scenes video that highlights the making of the "Share Your Gifts" ad spot.
Several additional videos from the behind the scenes of the "Share Your Gifts" ad delve into how the people who worked on the spot use their devices to create content.
Apple's ad features a new Billie Eilish song that's being debuted in the spot, called "Come Out and Play." The new song is available via iTunes and on Apple Music.
WaterField Designs is a San Francisco-based company that makes a range of different cases and bags for Apple's product lineup, from the iPhone and iPad to Macs, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.
For Apple Watch, WaterField Designs has the Time Travel Case, which is designed to organize your Apple Watch accessories into one easy place for commuting and traveling so nothing gets misplaced or lost.
Made from either black leather or "cowboy" brown leather that's soft and supple to the touch, the Time Travel Case for the Apple Watch measures in at 7.5 inches long and 4.25 inches wide, and it's slim enough to tuck into the pocket of a purse or backpack.
It zips along the top and one of the sides and opens up into a u-shape so that you can get to the contents inside. The entire inside is lined with a soft material that will ensure nothing gets scratched, and there's padding at the sides to keep expensive watch bands safe.
At the right side of the pouch, there's a wide side pocket that's designed to hold Apple Watch bands, and I found that you can fit three to four inside comfortably, which is ideal if you want to bring a few extra bands along when traveling.
On the left side, there are two smaller pouches that can hold an Apple Watch charging puck with cable and your headphones or AirPods case. The larger left side pocket is perfect for cables, while the smaller pouch is the perfect size to house AirPods.
Between the two sides of the pouch, there's a middle section that can fit additional cables or accessories, or a device up to the size of an iPhone XS Max.
If desired, you can also put the Apple Watch either in this main middle pouch or in the left side pocket in place of a band when the Apple Watch is not in use, though some bulkier bands may not fit on the left side super well. My 38mm Apple Watch band with Sport Loop or Milanese Loop fit in either location.
At the outside, there's a diagonal pocket that's also perfectly sized to hold an iPhone, and it fits an iPhone XS Max in an Apple-designed case. A thicker case probably wouldn't work, but a naked iPhone certainly fits. Smaller devices like the iPhone X will also fit without falling out thanks to the grip of the leather.
The outside pocket features a large WaterField Designs logo, which is the only negative that I see to the design of the case. I'd prefer to have no visible logo, but it might not bother some people.
I was able to fit three Apple Watch bands, AirPods, an Apple Watch charging cable, a Lightning cable, an Apple Pencil, and my iPhone XS Max inside the Time Travel, with additional room available to stick something in the outside pocket, so it can hold a good amount of gear.
When packed full, though, it does expand to be about an inch and a half wide, but when limited to accessories instead of an iPhone, it's slimmer and easier to carry.
Bottom Line
Because of its higher price tag, the Time Travel Case for Apple Watch may not be for everyone, but it neatly organizes your extra Apple Watch bands and charging cable in a logical way, plus it has space for other accessories like an iPhone.
If you're looking for a high-quality storage pouch that will keep your Apple Watch gear and other bits and bobs organized in a way that cheaper pouches will not, the Time Travel Case is potentially worth checking out, and as a bonus, it will match well with other WaterField Designs gear.
With the release of AirPlay 2 earlier this year and the follow-up addition of Dolby Atmos support for Apple TV with tvOS 12, there have been significant improvements in the home entertainment experience for Apple users.
While AirPlay 2 support initially launched for HomePod with other speaker and receiver brands to come, the rollout has taken a bit of a time, and in fact there are still only a few brands that support the standard. Sound United's Denon and Marantz brands were the first standalone receivers to gain AirPlay 2 support back in August, and I've had a chance to test out the setup using a Denon AVR-X3500H receiver.
Denon AVR-X3500H
For those unfamiliar with component home theater systems, the AV receiver acts as the center of your entire system, managing both audio and video to connect all of your various content sources to outputs like your television and speakers.
They've become increasingly packed with technology over time depending on how much you're willing to spend, offering support for such features as decoding various surround sound formats, driving an ever larger number of speakers, accepting direct wireless audio streaming via Bluetooth or AirPlay, connecting to Internet services via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and more.
I've paired the Denon receiver with Focal's Sib Evo 5.1.2 system that includes Dolby Atmos support, giving me the opportunity to check out both of the recent technological additions to the Apple ecosystem for a quick overview.
Focal Sib Evo 5.1.2 speaker system with Cub Evo subwoofer
The Sib Evo 5.1.2 includes two front loudspeakers with upward-firing Dolby Atmos speaker drivers, three satellite speakers with one intended to be turned on its side and used as a center speaker, and a Cub Evo active subwoofer.
Denon's AVR-X3500H can handle eight HDMI inputs and up to three HDMI outputs. With support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and DTS Virtual:X, all of the top surround sound formats are included. Add in AirPlay 2 and Alexa voice control, and you've got a powerful and flexible centerpiece for your home entertainment system.
AirPlay 2
If you're an Apple fan, you likely already have an Apple TV hooked up to your home entertainment system, so you can stream multi-room audio to the system via the Apple TV. But built-in support for AirPlay 2 on the AVR-X3500H and other Denon receivers gives you another option for direct delivery of audio to what in some cases may be the best speakers in your house.
Denon AVR-X3500H Wi-Fi and AirPlay setup
When you set up the Denon receiver for the first time, it walks you through a network setup process that can grab your Wi-Fi network details from an iOS device, getting your receiver online so that it can directly access content and serve as an AirPlay 2 destination. As is pretty typical for electronics like this, the on-screen setup process isn't particularly pretty, but it makes each step clear and relatively easy to navigate through using the receiver's remote.
Once you have the receiver online and set up for AirPlay 2, you'll see it pop up in your list of speakers in the music widget on your iOS device. With AirPlay 2, you can send synchronized audio to multiple speakers located throughout your home and control all of it right from your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or iTunes on Mac.
Denon receiver showing up in AirPlay 2 in iTunes for Mac, iOS Music widget, and iOS Home app
Setting up the receiver in the Home app lets you assign it to a room and zone, allowing it to integrate with other speakers in various areas around the house.
When sending audio to multiple speakers via AirPlay 2, you'll see several sliders for controlling volume, allowing you to control either individual speakers or the entire set. If you have different speakers set at different volume levels, adjusting the master volume slider will change the individual speaker volume levels proportionally.
Now Playing screen displayed when audio is being sent to Denon AVR-X3500H via AirPlay
You can use AirPlay 2 to route audio directly to an Apple TV hooked up to a home audio system, so I wouldn't run out and buy a whole new receiver just for AirPlay 2 support, but it's nice to have the extra option for direct AirPlay 2 streaming to a receiver if you don't have an Apple TV on that setup or just want to cut out the middleman and stream directly to your high-quality speakers.
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos takes advantage of three-dimensional space to offer a more immersive sound experience for your home theater system, typically using either downward-firing speakers mounted in the ceiling or upward-firing speaker drivers to reflect sound off of the ceiling, and when combined with the rest of the traditional speakers in your system, you'll find sounds coming at you from all angles.
Focal's Sib Evo system uses upward-firing drivers built into the main front left and right speakers. The Atmos drivers use their own speaker wire connections and connect to their own terminals on the receiver, and the Denon manual walks you through exactly which terminals to use for which speakers, as a host of speaker configurations are supported.
Close-up of front speaker with upward-firing Dolby Atmos driver (left) and dual speaker wire connections on rear (right)
A key component of the Dolby Atmos experience is speaker calibration, which ensures that output from the receiver is properly adjusted for optimal sound quality. With different sizes and shapes of rooms, sound can bounce around in unpredictable ways, and it's important that your home audio system be configured for your unique environment. That's particularly true with the Dolby Atmos speakers, which in this setup will project sound upward and off the ceiling before hitting your ears. Everything needs to reach your ears at the proper time and in the proper balance, and calibration will make sure that happens.
Receivers like the Denon AVR-X3500H include a wired microphone to be used in the calibration process, and a setup wizard will walk you through the process of situating the microphone in as many as eight closely-spaced locations where the viewers will be sitting, and at each position the system will rotate one by one through each of the eight speakers in the Sib Evo 5.1.2 system, generating loud tones to be picked up by the microphone. Once each speaker has been assessed at each calibration location, the receiver will configure its output to optimize the sound field.
With tvOS 12, the Apple TV now supports Dolby Atmos, although content must be specifically made available in the format to support it. The number of Dolby Atmos titles on the iTunes Store is growing, but it's still a small portion of the overall library.
tvOS audio format settings
So if you've already got a Dolby Atmos system hooked up to your TV or are looking to add one (and they're getting even simpler and cheaper with more sound bar options available), make sure to keep an eye on your current titles to see if they get upgraded with Dolby Atmos and look for the Dolby Atmos icon when browsing the iTunes movie selections on your Apple TV.
Dolby Atmos icon on tvOS iTunes movie listings
For those titles that do include Dolby Atmos, you can definitely tell the difference. The soundscape is more encompassing and it really does feel like you're truly immersed in the movie.
Wrap-up
It's still early for AirPlay 2 and Dolby Atmos support in the Apple ecosystem, but they're setting the stage for making Apple's products a more important part of your home entertainment system. In this age where we have our portable devices on us at all times, it's nice to be able to directly beam audio all around our homes, including to what are in many cases the highest-quality audio systems we own hooked up to our TVs.
And for when we sit down in front of those TVs to watch movies, it's great to have the Apple ecosystem starting to support technologies like Dolby Atmos that improve the experience. Yes, support is still limited and it will take time for all studios to get on board and update much of their back catalogs, but the list of Atmos-compatible movies on the iTunes Store is getting longer and is rapidly becoming an expected feature for new releases.
There are plenty of Dolby Atmos-compatible home theater systems on the market already, whether they be component systems, theater-in-a-box systems, or sound bars, so there are lots of options if you're looking to upgrade your television experience.
AirPlay 2 support is rolling out to a number of wireless speakers, but support in separate receiver components remains rare, led by Sound United's Denon and Marantz brands.
Denon's AVR-X3500H carries an MSRP of $999, but can frequently be found discounted by as much as $200 at third-party retailers including those selling through Amazon.
Focal's Sib Evo 5.1.2 is priced at $1299 from a variety of retailers including Amazon sellers.
Note: Sound United loaned MacRumors the Denon receiver and Focal loaned MacRumors the Sib Evo 5.1.2 system to assist with this article. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.
Jony Ive speaking at The Cambridge Union via Apple/The Independent
Ive spoke about a wide range of topics, reflecting on his career at Apple, technology, and design as a whole, according to The Independent. We've rounded up some of his comments from the speech below.
How using a Mac for the first time led Ive to find out more about Apple and ultimately join the company in 1992:
With the Mac, in 1988, I think I learned two things. Firstly, I could actually use it. I loved using it and it became a very powerful tool that helped me design and create. Secondly, and I think this is in some ways a rather embarrassing admission because this was at the end of four years of studying design, I realized that what you make represents who you are.
It stands testament to your values and your preoccupations, and using the Mac I sensed a clear and direct connection with the people who actually created the Macintosh. For the first time, I remember being moved by obvious humanity and care beyond just the functional imperative.
How the idea behind Multi-Touch was conceived around 2002 to 2003 and eventually led to the App Store in 2008:
This was a project that we came to describe as multi-touch. Some of you may remember the first time you experienced the interface. Perhaps it was on one of the first iPhones or later on an iPad. But multi-touch describes the ability to directly touch and interact with your content to be able to pinch to zoom an image or flick through a list with your fingers.
Importantly, it defined an opportunity to create applications with their own unique, very specific interface. So, not being generic but being specific inherently describes the application's function. We came to see that we could make applications purposeful, compelling and intuitive to use. And so, as the potential for a vast range of apps became clear, so did the idea for an app store.
Ive on how he remains "eager to create":
I remain completely in awe, completely enchanted by the creative process. I love the unpredictability and the surprise. The whole process is fabulously terrifying and so uncertain. But I love that on Monday, there's nothing. There is no idea, there is no conversation, the room is silent, there's certainly not a drawing. Prototypes are way in the future. On Monday, there is nothing, but on Wednesday, there is. No matter how partial, how tentative. Now, the problem is: which Wednesday?"
Ive on how there is a "fundamental conflict" between "curiosity and the resolve and focus that is necessary to solve problems":
Honestly, I can't think of two ways of working, two different ways of being, that are more polar. On one hand to be constantly questioning, loving surprises, consumed with curiosity and yet on the other hand having to be utterly driven and completely focused to solve apparently insurmountable problems, even if those solutions are without precedent or reference. And so, of course, this is where it becomes sort of ironic and teeters towards the utterly absurd.
If you connect your Mac to an external display, you may find that the Mac's on-screen and keyboard volume controls are disabled. That's because HDMI, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt connections carry a fixed volume digital audio signal, so the external device (in this case, a monitor) controls the sound level.
This can be frustrating if the volume controls on your external display are concealed in the bezel or buried in a fiddly on-screen menu. Fortunately, it is possible to re-enable your Mac's native volume controls and use them to adjust the sound level coming out of your monitor's speakers. The steps below show how it's done, although you will need administrator privileges to follow them.
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