Yearly Archives: 2015

Fortune:

In an exclusive interview with Fortune, Apple’s human resources chief Denise Young Smith said the company is partnering with several non-profit organizations on a multi-year, multi-million-dollar effort to increase the pipeline of women, minorities, and veterans in the technology industry—and, of course, at Apple.

Good to see Apple doing more on this issue. There’s lots more to be done though and Apple can’t do it all alone. This has to become an industry-wide effort.

Like most people that attended Apple’s event on Monday, I was waiting for news of the Apple Watch, but I was distracted early on by another, incredibly important announcement: ResearchKit.

“iOS apps already help millions of customers track and improve their health. With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations. “ResearchKit gives the scientific community access to a diverse, global population and more ways to collect data than ever before.”

I didn’t see this one coming, but I’m really glad Tim and company decided to do it.

“Apple has reinvented the notebook with the new MacBook, and at just two pounds and 13.1 mm, it’s the thinnest and lightest Mac ever,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Every component of the MacBook reveals a new innovation. From its fanless design, ultra-thin Retina display and full-size keyboard that’s 34 percent thinner, to its all-new Force Touch trackpad, versatile USB-C port and breakthrough terraced battery design, the new MacBook is the future of the notebook.”

So Apple has the MacBook Air, MacBook, and MacBook Pro lines again. I spent some time with the new MacBook today and it is stunning. I want that gold one.

“Apple Watch begins a new chapter in the way we relate to technology and we think our customers are going to love it,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait for people to start wearing Apple Watch to easily access information that matters, to interact with the world, and to live a better day by being more aware of their daily activity than ever before.”

It was a great keynote and a very interesting product.

Finally, learning and practicing a new language is easier and more intuitive than ever before. Introducing HelloTalk, the language app where your teachers are native language speakers from around the world. You just pick the language you want to learn—there are over 100 from which to select—and almost instantaneously you’ll be in touch with native speakers of that language … and you’ll start learning and practicing immediately.

HelloTalk isn’t a course you strictly follow; rather, you learn and practice at your pace and in the manner that best meets the way you learn. Practice foreign languages with people around the world. Simultaneously speak and type the language you’re learning. Record your voice before speaking to your HelloTalk friends and compare your recording to standard pronunciations. Change your friends’ audio messages to text for better understanding, and receive help to improve your grammar. Easily translate whenever you don’t understand, and so much more.

With HelloTalk, you’ll discover learning a new language is fun … and fast. Download your copy for iPhone or Android today.

Here’s video of the first test run of #Fury325 at Carowinds from a riders point of view! The coaster was tested late Wednesday afternoon, March 4. Debuting this spring, Fury 325 will be the world’s tallest & fastest giga coaster. The thrill ride stands 325 feet tall with an 81-degree initial drop and reaches breathtaking speeds of 95 miles per hour.

Oh. My. God. I want to ride this so much.

I, Programmer:

Susan Kare is the artist responsible for many of the classic Mac icons that are universally recognized. Now her impact as a pioneering and influential computer iconographer has been recognized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Susan Kare designed all of her early icons on graph paper, with one square representing each pixel. Now this archive of sketches has been acquired by MoMA, jointly with San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, and has gone on show as part of a new exhibition, This is for Everyone: Design Experiments For The Common Good.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Kare for her lovely and elegant icon designs.

Dr. Drang:

Apple’s patent application is for a method that allows them to make 18k gold that has, on a volume basis, less gold than regular 18k gold.

How can this be? It’s because Apple’s gold is a metal matrix composite, not a standard alloy. Instead of mixing the gold with silver, copper, or other metals to make it harder, Apple is mixing it with low-density ceramic particles. The ceramic makes Apple’s gold harder and more scratch-resistant—which Tim Cook touted during the September announcement—and it also makes it less dense overall.

The media is going to have a field day with this. They’ll get it wrong but they’ll still lose their collective minds over it.

ZDNet:

For years, Oracle has tormented Windows users by bundling adware with its Java installer for Windows PCs. Now Oracle has begun including the same adware as part of a default installation of Java for the Mac, using the same deceptive techniques.

More sleazy business practices for you and yours to be made aware of. Thanks to Rob Griffiths for the heads up.

The Mac Observer:

For the purposes of Gatekeeper, Apple verifies the identity of the developer, but not their intent. It’s up to you to ensure that the applications you install and run on your Mac come from the people you think they came from, and we’ll show you how to do that.

The key words are, “it’s up to you” to not let your guard down and to always be aware of what you are downloading and installing. Apple is doing their part and it’s up to the user to do theirs.

CNN:

Apple will replace AT&T in the Dow — an exclusive club of 30 stocks that also includes tech giants Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco as well as brand-name consumer firms Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Disney.

“As the largest corporation in the world and a leader in technology. Apple is the clear choice for the Dow Jones Industrial Average,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement.

Apple will enter the Dow at the close of trading on March 18.

As tha article says, this is mostly symbolic but, for a company on the edge of bankruptcy less than 20 years ago, it’s a remarkable journey.

I was by Yerba Buena today and Apple was putting up the banners in preparation for Monday’s event, so I thought I’d share.

A street photography project to document world’s humanity in one single day. World wide participants will share their city stories through one photo per hour during 24 hours.

Sounds great.

In February 2015, I traveled far north to Norway to hunt down and photograph the Northern Lights, one of the most mesmerizing natural phenomena of this planet.

The Northern Lights are amazing.