Jeremy Horwitz, in an insightful op-ed piece for 9to5mac:
Thanks to the introduction of ad-blocking technology in iOS 9, some people think Apple wants to help users get rid of ads. But that’s not Apple’s goal. Yesterday’s debut of Apple News shows that it’s actually angling to replace the ads you know, build upon them, and take a cut of their revenue…
Kirk McElhearn:
I’m reminded of the famous question that Steve Jobs asked Pepsi CEO John Sculley in the 1980s, in order to convince Sculley to join the company: >
“Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
Is Apple selling sugar water?
This is a true story.
The AP announced last month that it would use Automated Insights’ software, called Wordsmith, to produce up to 4,440 robot-written corporate-earnings reports per quarter, more than ten times the number its human reporters currently produce.
This is just an example of what’s coming. As intelligence modeling becomes steadily more sophisticated…
LeBron James wrote an essay detailing his rationale for coming back to Cleveland, an essay that stands with some of the best sports essays I have ever read. It’s not too long, an easy read, well worth your time.
[VIDEO] As of this writing, his Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $1.27 million, far in excess of his goal of $800,000. Watch the embedded video. Well worth it. Some musical giants weighing in with their opinions.
Here’s my take on why I love Apple stuff so much.
Google is trying to change the rules of login with their acquisition of the sound-based password firm SlickLogin.
A bit of background on why Gmail’s contact manager has languished for so long.
The overwhelming success of Flappy Bird has caused its developer to threaten to take down the app. Is that the right move?
Very interesting op-ed piece from the New York Times about the limits of technology and the human traits that will become valued in the coming decades.
Peter Cohen goes back in time (OK, not really!) to revisit his favorites of 30 years of Macintosh.
Where do the ethical obligations of journalism kick in? If you are a blogger, does that make you a journalist? Do you have an obligation to double-check your sources to verify the accuracy of everything you post?
Julie Strietelmeier, a self-professed “tech geek writer” got an email from a reader, telling a story that started when a friend wore his Google Glass into a movie theater (they were prescription lenses) and detailed his detainment by homeland security. Follow the headline link and read the story. It’s worth it.
I love Siri. There are so many positives, I hate to gripe. But flight status is low hanging fruit and something Siri should be able to do quite easily. Here’s an example.
Bring up a Google search and type:
united airlines flight 12
In reply, you’ll see something like this:
This is very helpful. When I press-and-hold for Siri, say, “united airlines flight 12” or “flight status united airlines flight 12”, I get a list of web searches. Even if one of those web searches led me to the exact search I was looking for, this is an unambiguous query. To me, Siri should know that I want the flight status of a specific flight and go get it.
To be fair, I can say this to Siri:
Google search united airlines flight 12
This will, indeed, give the results I seek. But Siri shouldn’t need that sort of assistance. At the very least, when I say “flight status”, Siri should know what I want and how to get it. More importantly, Siri should not have to depend on Google for this type of request.
All that said, Siri is still a marvel and does an awful lot that I find useful. Perhaps file this one under suggestion instead of complaint. But please fix it either way. I’ve got flights to track.
The iPhone 5S ships is based on the Apple’s own 64-bit ARM A7 System on a Chip (SoC). This is a major step up in raw processing power.
Biometric authentication requires a significant amount of CPU horsepower to pull off without being sluggish, as would strong end-to-end VPN encryption, both of which are likely necessary for the iPhone to continue to attract corporate attention.
The inclusion of so much horsepower is more than just a nice win for the iPhone line. It’s also a win for the next iPad, as well as a sign that iOS platforms are stepping up in class, rivaling desktop machines and game consoles. More fodder for the folks who champion the opinion that we’ll someday see a convergence of the iOS and Mac OS X platforms. Personally, I don’t see that happening any time soon. I love my MacBook Pro and can’t imagine using my iPad or iPhone in the same way. But I do see the possibility of that changing over time.
Digital calendaring helps you get better organized, but it isn’t perfect – Jason Snell looks at how it can be improved.
A company claims only one in 25 iOS 6 users is using the Maps app. I say bullshit.
[caption id="attachment_20059" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace"]
[/caption] CNET UK:
Lucasfilm has done a smashing job on Star Wars — it’s easily one of the best post-3D conversions I’ve seen. The key to this is that most of the 3D effects are relatively subtle. In other 3D post-conversions, the makers are so keen to make it clear it’s in 3D they make the effect too stark.So is it worth paying to see?
At this point, is there any point in even discussing it? If you’re a fan, you will, if you’re not, you won’t. What’s interesting is kids today won’t get to see the series the way we did (out of order) so it will be an entirely different experience and story for them.
Freakonomics: Supporters of stronger intellectual property enforcement argue online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. These numbers seem … Continued
David Smith: All Apple is doing with this restriction is saying that if you directly profit from this free tool and platform that we have created, then we deserve our cut. Which seems entirely fair to me. The range of … Continued
Joshua Topolsky at The Verge: I pressed the companies on whether or not technology manufacturers were simply producing too many gadgets, outpacing real consumer demand with iterative, insubstantial changes. “Are we creating demand where there isn’t any?” I asked. He … Continued
A thoughtful piece from Reuters Ryan McCarthy on the practice of re-publishing entire portions of articles for the sole purpose of keeping pageviews. So why does Business Insider risk undermining all that highly original, distinctive content for what appear to … Continued
ZDNet: TiVo defined the DVR category around the turn of the century, and today the product name has been turned into a verb. If you’re going to record a TV program on your cable company’s DVR, you probably just say … Continued
AllThingsD: In fact, the creation of a $20 million investment kitty that Arrington has dubbed CrunchFund is simply the formalization of a long-standing arrangement that has already been going on since he founded his popular tech blog. That is to … Continued
“These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies. “We are not scared any more. … Continued
“So, I beseech you: Fix your communities. Stop allowing and excusing destructive and pointless conversations to be the fuel for your business. Advertisers, hold sites accountable if your advertising appears next to this hateful stuff. Take accountability for this medium … Continued
Big or little, significant or silly, real or faux – doesn’t matter. It gets gated. This has been an annoying practice for years. It’s knee-jerk. It’s easy. It’s boring. Worst of all, it suggests a false equivalency. Watergate was serious … Continued
If you keep track of The Loop’s editors’ appearances on podcasts, here’s where you can find our latest appearances:
Verizon’s relationship with Apple was the subject of an interview with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg on Businessweek.com. Seidenberg’s comments give pause to the claims that Verizon spurned Apple, but in retrospect, it’s really not that important.
Macworld Expo happens at the end of the month, and I’m being asked every day by PR people to meet with companies at the show. This year, with very few exceptions, I’m restricting my meetings to exhibitors only. I thought … Continued
Those of you who listen to my Angry Mac Bastards podcast will not be surprised to read that I have little tolerance for sloppy reporting. So it’s perhaps no surprise that I’m getting increasingly irritated by a meme floating around … Continued