Let take a look at Apple’s current product list that doesn’t look so good.

Monday, May 9, 2022 7:35 AM

Let take a look at Apple’s current product list that doesn’t look so good.


Apple Studio Display

It’s all about the ultra-wide lens

Apple proudly says that the Studio Display has a 12-megapixel camera, which should be enough for sharp images. After all, the iPhone and other Apple devices also have 12-megapixel front-facing cameras. But why is the Studio Display webcam so different in terms of image quality?

While most Apple devices have a regular wide front camera, Studio Display has an ultra-wide lens. This is because it has Center Stage, a feature that uses machine learning to always center the image on a person during a video call or video recording. Since this camera has no optical zoom, Center Stage digitally crops the image to center the people in the frame.

So while an iPhone is capable of taking a real 12-megapixel selfie, Center Stage cameras capture images at 12 megapixels using the ultra-wide lens and then digitally crop them to look like a regular photo or video. This process results in less-sharp images.

Is there a solution?

Unfortunately, no matter what Apple does in terms of software updates, there’s nothing that will dramatically improve the Studio Display webcam.

The only two possible solutions to solve this problem are to use a higher resolution sensor, so that the cropped image is at least 12 megapixels, or a larger sensor to capture more light – which would help reduce noise in the image.

However, as you may have guessed, both solutions require a hardware upgrade, which means that owners of the first generation Studio Display will have to deal with the webcam the way it is.



Apple Mac Studio

Some Mac Studio owners have noticed that their machines are making a high-pitched "whining" sound that appears to be coming from the fan. 


Most of the complaints are coming from ‌Mac Studio‌ owners who opted for the M1 Max ‌Mac Studio‌ rather than the Ultra version, which is not a surprise as the two machines have different thermal setups.

Users who are experiencing issues have described the noise as a high-frequency sound that is difficult to ignore, and it is in addition to the standard fan noise. From MacRumors reader sunsetblvd:

Hi, I've been following this thread and wanted to share my experience with the Mac Studio. I ordered the M1 Max version with 32 Core GPU and 64 GB Ram. After a week or two I started noticing a high pitched whining sound. The ordinary fan noise was audible but not disturbingly so. The high pitched sound was sth I couldn't ignore. I have a relatively quite working space and the sound kept being distractive. I decided to take my studio to the apple store after contacting apple support and trying a bunch of software fixes like reinstalling the os. After a day of inspection the tech guy at the apple store claimed it was just normal fan noise within the expected range of noises and said they couldn't do anything about it. Disappointed I called apple support again and they agreed to send me a replacement, which I am currently waiting for.

There are a wide range of complaints, but all of them seem to describe the same general noise. From MacRumors reader h43m:

Just unboxed my Mac Studio with M1max (64GB RAM, 32 Cores GPU, 1TB SSD). There is definitely an annoying noise at exactly 2120hz (I compared it using a sinus wave generator). I am pretty sure this comes from the fan and is not a coil whine, since the frequency changes when the fan speed changes. Definitely not acceptable for a product with this price tag...

The ‌M1 Max‌ and M1 Ultra have different heatsinks, which explains why one machine is experiencing issues while the other is not. The ‌M1 Ultra‌ is equipped with a much larger copper heatsink, that likely prevents the fan from kicking on as often, and there also appears to be a problem with the ‌M1 Max‌ setup that causes the whine.

It is worth noting that not all ‌M1 Max‌ ‌Mac Studio‌ models appear to be experiencing this problem, as some people have said that they do not hear an unusual sound beyond the standard quiet fan noise. There are also some complaints just about the level of the fan noise alone without the whine, but many of the people who are unhappy with their machines seem to be experiencing the high-pitched sound rather than the typical fan noise.

‌Mac Studio‌ buyers who are within their two week return period can get a replacement from Apple, but there are reports that replacement machines have seen the same issue. It is not clear if this is something that can be addressed in a software update or if it's a hardware issue that Apple is dealing with.


Apple iPad mini 6


Some new ‌iPad mini‌ 6 owners have noticed that text or images on one side of the screen appear to be tilted downward when scrolling through content, which affects all LCD screens but is particularly noticeable on the ‌iPad mini‌.

According to iFixit, jelly scrolling usually isn't as prominent as it is on Apple's new 8.3-inch tablet, and it's caused by the way the screen refreshes. The screen refreshes from one side to another, in a wave-like pattern, rather than all at once. On the ‌iPad mini‌, iFixit speculates that the direction the screen is scanning is related to the placement of the controller board that drives the ‌iPad mini‌ display, and that's why there's jelly scrolling when in portrait mode.

The ‌iPad mini‌ has a controller board that's located in a vertical orientation on the left hand side. The iPad Air, which does not exhibit the same issue in portrait orientation, has a controller board located at the top of the tablet.

When you scroll parallel to the direction the display is refreshing, the display still isn't refreshing all at once, but the effect of the refresh is less noticeable because it's not splitting the text.

This is why you probably don't notice this on other displays. The jelly scroll is usually masked because the display is refreshing (or scanning) parallel to whichever way the scrolling motion is taking place. So a computer monitor will refresh vertically in its landscape orientation, and a smartphone will refresh vertically in its portrait orientation.

It just so happens that this iPad mini display is refreshing horizontally when you hold it in its vertical orientation, which is the way you typically hold an iPad to scroll.

iFixit says that it's also possible that Apple is using a cheaper display panel for the ‌iPad mini‌ 6, which could have resulted in the refresh scan being more pronounced than expected.