Yearly Archives: 2015

Atomic Delights:

This walkthrough is a detailed narration of what we see in Apple’s Watch Craftsmanship videos. Of course, we only get to see a mere fraction of the process; I’ve tried to provide plausible explanations for the likely steps taking place between the processes shown on film, but these are assumptions and are included only to provide a more satisfying and complete narration.

Hey Samsung. Good luck copying this.

This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

I decided to take a look on Amazon for Apple Watch and see what they had. I was shocked with all of the watches that were listed on the site. Although there were no Apple Watches, there are a few copies.

Looking back through history, beard styles often follow particular eras. In fact, you can roughly identify a historical period by its facial hair.

That’s true. I wonder what period of history I’m defining.

A great looking new book by Khoi Vinh.

Donovan is just amazing with the things he can build in CSS.

John Gruber’s takedown of the WSJ’s “people familiar with the matter.” I love the last line the most.

TidBITS:

The Intercept’s piece was mostly a condemnation of government tactics, but failed to address what matters to Apple’s customers — whether Apple’s products remain secure and safe to use. Overall, the information is quite optimistic, but the article highlights the complexities of modern security, privacy, and intelligence gathering. We are still in the early days of what is likely to be a generational issue as society continues to adjust to the digital age.

As always, Mogull has a well thought out, well written, and well reasoned piece with none of the hysteria you see in other articles about this subject.

Bloomberg:

Stanford University researchers were stunned when they awoke Tuesday to find that 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study using Apple Inc.’s ResearchKit, less than 24 hours after the iPhone tool was introduced.

“To get 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study normally, it would take a year and 50 medical centers around the country,” said Alan Yeung, medical director of Stanford Cardiovascular Health. “That’s the power of the phone.”

As the article points out, there are some concerns regarding the people who would get involved but, overall, the research community seems very excited about the present and future possibilities.

With these timeless thoughts in mind, we crafted The Luxury Pocket Stand for Apple Watch, The Luxury Travel Kit, Travel Pouch and The Roll Up Kit for Apple Watch. A gorgeous celebration of ageless craftsmanship and appreciation for the beauty found in natural resources.

They took inspiration for the Pocket Stand from Brian’s grandfather and the pocket watch he used. I’m a big fan of the quality of products this company makes.

Jim, Shawn and Dave talk through the Apple Watch Event details!

Sponsored by Squarespace (use code GUITARS for a free trial and 10% off).

Apple Watch is bringing people to their keyboards in droves, writing opinions and asking questions about Apple’s newest device. That’s a great thing—unless you represent many of the world’s larger luxury watchmakers and you write a purely negative article about Apple Watch for The Guardian. […]

Robservatory:

I am fascinated by this new business Apple’s going into; the sheer number of products and prices is pretty amazing: By my count, Apple will be shipping 38 separate models of watches. There’s a gallery page at Apple’s site where you can page through all of the watches, and get the details on each specific model. You can also view the watches in the store, where you can find pricing info.

Both of these solutions, though, require lots of paging and scrolling to get all the details. I was curious as to how all the watches compared, so I pulled data from those sources and made one massive spreadsheet

Rob Griffiths has done the work so you don’t have to.

I’ve seen some comments over the past couple of days from people wondering what the “killer app” for the Apple Watch will be. I’m pleased to tell you that it’s here—it’s called iPhone. […]

So great seeing the guys back at it.

I’ve been using Field Notes memo books for years. I have one sitting beside me right now and another in my computer bag, ready to go.

Macworld:

With the new 12-inch MacBook, Apple has gone all in for all-in-one, using USB-C to provide power, display output, and USB connections. Thunderbolt is gone. The SD card slot is gone as well.

The upside is compatibility, and thus lower costs and more options. USB-C is also a unifying and universal standard that doesn’t involve a single company acting as a licensing gatekeeper, the way Apple protects Lightning cables and adapters. USB-C would seem to have a lot to offer, but first we have to get over the hump of newness.

Typical story of “short term pain for long term gain” but it means I don’t see this particular machine as my next laptop.

About 24 hours ago I was sitting in a room with Apple executives with an Apple Watch on my wrist, flipping through the different screens and options. I was immediately more impressed with the watch than I was when the device was first introduced in September 2014. […]

Re/code:

OK, Comcast: Your move.

That’s the message HBO CEO Richard Plepler was sending yesterday to the cable giant and the other big pay-TV distributors, when he announced he was going to start selling subscriptions with Apple.

HBO’s plan to sell a standalone version of the service — HBO Now, for $15 a month — using Apple as its exclusive digital launch partner is big news. Remember, though, that it’s only half of the story: Plepler wants to use his new digital service to create a new revenue stream, and perhaps a life raft. But he also wants to use it as a lever to get more money out of his existing business with the pay-TV companies, which generated $5.4 billion last year.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. HBO exclusivity with Apple is for a rumored three month time frame.

The Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc.’s huge gravitational pull on mall traffic is distorting the market for mall rents, winning the iPhone maker sweetheart deals and putting upward pressure on other tenants’ leases.

Apple draws so many shoppers that its stores single-handedly lift sales by 10% at the malls in which they operate, according to Green Street Advisors, a real-estate research firm. That gives Apple the clout to negotiate extremely low rents for itself relative to its sales, while creating upward pressure on prices paid by mall neighbors who might not benefit from the traffic.

No surprise and a big change from the early days of Apple Retail when Apple was “forced” to sign long term leases because mall operators were worried about the company’s long term viability.

Ars Technica:

Apple has published their second major security roll-up package of the year, Security Update 2015-002, which contains fixes for multiple version of OS X stretching from Mountain Lion 10.8.5 to Yosemite 10.10.2. These updates mitigate threats from several different vulnerabilities, but the most notable is a fix that will inoculate Safari users against the so-called “FREAK” SSL/TLS exploit.

Good to see Apple extending this patch back to Mountain Lion.