Twitter testing ‘Original Tweeter’ tag to distinguish who started a thread

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Lucas Matney, TechCrunch:

Twitter is testing a new tag that will make it easier to parse who started a thread. The new feature, which is starting to pop up for some users, makes it easier to find posts from the original tweeter within a thread, but may also help curb (some types of) abuse on the platform, making it easier to distinguish accounts that are masquerading as other tweeters, for instance.

Follow the link, scroll through the pictures to get a sense of how this will work.

I do like the concept, but wonder if this wouldn’t be kinder on screen real-estate if they used an icon, or a special character, or even formatting (bold, for example) to make the original poster stand out.

The secret history of iPhone

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[VIDEO] Rene Ritchie:

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage for what was the most incredible keynote presentation of his life.

Great turn of phrase, Rene. This video is a terrific look back at the birth of iPhone, with some excellent weaving of elements to tell the story. Video embedded in main Loop post.

The design flaw behind MacBook Pro’s “stage light” effect

Written by

iFixit:

The issue is fairly simple: the current generation of MacBook Pro laptops (2016–present) uses flexible ribbon cables to connect the display to a display controller board beneath the Touch Bar. These cables wrap over the board, where they’re secured by a pair of spring-loaded covers—and they’re subjected to the stress of bending with every opening and closure of the laptop. Within a seemingly short time, those cables are starting to fatigue and tear. The backlight cable is generally the first to go, producing the infamous “stage light” symptoms, and eventually giving out entirely when the laptop is opened more than about 40°.

And:

Apple opted for thin, fragile flex cables as opposed to the beefier wire cables used in previous designs that could be routed through the hinge instead of wrapped around it, helping mitigate the stress of repeated openings and closings. But the bigger problem is that, in an apparent effort to make the display as thin as possible, Apple designed the cables as part of the display, so they cannot be replaced. This means that when (not if) those cables start to fail, the entire display unit needs to be replaced, as opposed to one or two little cables—effectively turning a $6 problem into a $600 disaster.

Take the article with a grain of salt. This isn’t necessarily doom for the MacBook Pro, or even that big a deal.

But, if you do experience “stage light” symptoms, this design issue is important to be aware of. If you do run into this problem, I would definitely go into your Apple Store discussion armed with a bookmark of this article.

The two sides to the debate on whether Apple should pay for ‘Shot on iPhone’ photos

Written by

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

Apple’s announcement yesterday of a contest to find the ten best shot on iPhone photos has provoked debate about the company’s policy of not paying for any of the photos, even when they are used in global advertising campaigns.

The argument that Apple should pay seems obvious enough, but not everyone agrees.

Very interesting back and forth here. Never even occurred to me that Apple should pay for these photos.

On one hand, these photos are used in a professional marketing campaign. On the other, if they offered lucrative prizes, more pros would step in and the average kelley would have less of a chance.

Google: Can you spot when you’re being phished?

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Think you can tell if you’re being phished? Take Google’s quiz, see if you get a perfect score.

Note that when they ask you to enter a name and email at the beginning, it’s fine to just make one up. They want to use the info in the quiz, not harvest the data.

Is the Macintosh a milestone? Infoworld op-ed from 1984

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Steven Sinofsky tweeted screen shots from a 1984 Infoworld article, digging into this new-fangled Macintosh and Steve Jobs comparison of the Mac to the telephone, in terms of potential ubiquity and importance.

Follow the thread, check all the images. Terrific.

Dutch surgeon wins landmark ‘right to be forgotten’ case

Written by

The Guardian:

A Dutch surgeon formally disciplined for her medical negligence has won a legal action to remove Google search results about her case in a landmark “right to be forgotten” ruling.

The doctor’s registration on the register of healthcare professionals was initially suspended by a disciplinary panel because of her postoperative care of a patient. After an appeal, this was changed to a conditional suspension under which she was allowed to continue to practise.

But the first results after entering the doctor’s name in Google continued to be links to a website containing an unofficial blacklist, which it was claimed amounted to “digital pillory”. It was heard that potential patients had found the blacklist on Google and discussed the case on a web forum.

In a nutshell, the medical community decided that the doctor was allowed to practice, but Google’s search results led to an unofficial blacklist which circumvented that ruling.

Very interesting case. Looks like that blacklist will have to come down.

[Via The Overspill]

Oscar nominations

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You know me. I’m a long time movie buff, love the Oscars. Follow the headline link for the complete list of this year’s Academy Award nominations.

One thing I particularly appreciate about acting is when someone completely disappears into a role, becomes unrecognizable. Two of the best actor nods really capture this sentiment.

Christian Bale completely disappeared and became Dick Cheney in his role in the movie Vice.

And the same can be said for Rami Malek, who became Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Acting!

An iPhone dropped in a pool, and the battle for warranty coverage

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The linked Reddit post was called, provocatively, “I fought Apple and won!”

From the post:

I purchased an iPhone XS in September of last year. The first week of December I accidentally dropped it in my sisters swimming pool at the shallow end – a depth of approximately 1.10m. Immediately, I jumped in an pulled the phone out, switched it off and let it dry for a few hours (as indicated in the steps of what to do when your phone gets wet on the Apple website). A few hours later I turned the phone back on and all was good. Fantastic!

As you might guess, all was not good. Over time, the poster’s phone died a slow death, and they eventually took it into the Apple Store for a look see.

As you also might guess, the Apple Store opened up the phone, and:

Two hours later I come back and they say the Liquid Contact Indicators have been activated, which means there is internal liquid damage and they won’t cover liquid damage under warranty.

And this is where the story gets really interesting. The poster pointed Apple to the original rollout video for the iPhone XS, where Phil Schiller, talking about water protection, says these words:

So if you happen to be hanging by the pool, drop your phone in the water, don’t worry. Let it dry, you’ll be fine.

To see this for yourself, follow this link and jump to about 40:40.

Follow the headline link for all the legal details but, bottom line, the poster did eventually get their phone replaced.

Should the words in a marketing pitch establish repair policy? Interesting.

Jeremy Burge: Google’s Night Sight is the new benchmark

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Last week, we highlighted a tweet from Jeremy Burge showing pairs of low light images, taken with an iPhone and a Google Pixel using Night Sight.

Jeremy pulled together his findings in a blog post that makes the case for Google’s Night Sight as the new benchmark for low light image capture on a smartphone.

From the post:

Despite being a long-time iPhone user, I often find myself with other phones for testing purposes. Sometimes they have nice features my iPhone doesn’t have, but rarely does any single feature make me even consider changing devices.

The release of Google’s Night Sight feature for the Pixel line in 2018 is a game changing feature.

Having used it for the past month, I now carry both my iPhone and Pixel of an evening. That’s how good it is.

And:

Since posting about this on Twitter, time and time again people said “just edit the iPhone pictures!”. This misses two points:

  1. Most people don’t have the time or ability to fix their dark and/or blurry iPhone photos taken at night
  2. Some of this cannot be done by editing. That 2-5 second time used to capture more light in the Google camera app isn’t an option provided on iOS.

I couldn’t agree with Jeremy more. Like it or not, this is the new benchmark for low-light photos.

I would gladly tap a button in the camera app to turn on/off low light mode before I take a picture. And if Apple can just do this automatically, even better. I frequently find myself unsatisfied with my iPhone camera in low light situations. I would love an iPhone version of Night Sight.

And to be fair, the iPhone XS clearly has made great low-light strides. But Night Sight runs on older hardware. It’s a software fix. Feels like this sort of technique should be possible on previous generations of iPhone.

Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations

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Apple:

Target, Taco Bell, Hy-Vee supermarkets in the Midwest, Speedway convenience stores and Jack in the Box are the latest merchants to support Apple Pay, the most popular mobile contactless payment system in the world that lets customers easily and securely pay in stores using their iPhone and Apple Watch. With the addition of these national retailers, 74 of the top 100 merchants in the US and 65 percent of all retail locations across the country will support Apple Pay.

Apple Pay, coming in the next few weeks to all 1,850 Target locations, joining CVS, Costco, and 7-Eleven.

7 tips most iPhone owners won’t know

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[VIDEO] When I see a post like this, I am automatically skeptical. This one passes muster. Take a look. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.

My favorite was using Siri to jump to a specific app’s Settings page. I spent some time playing with this one and it does work well, but does not work with all apps. I suspect there’s some API the developer needs to support for this to work, and not all apps do that.

To try this for yourself, pick one of your apps, then fire up Siri and say:

Settings

Many apps jump right to their settings page. But some (looking at you Twitter app) throw Siri for a loop.

Apple shares “shot on iPhone” movie: The Lonely Palm Tree, Samoa

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[VIDEO] The video (embedded in the main Loop post) was commissioned by Apple and shot entirely on an iPhone XS.

From the description:

American Samoa – ‘Football Island’ – produces athletes that are 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than Americans from anywhere else. Photographer and Director Steven Counts presents a portrait of Eddie Siaumau, a 17 – year old athlete who has just accepted a full ride scholarship to a D1 university.

And some of the gear used:

DJI Osmo Mobile 2, FiLMiC Pro, Joby GripTight PRO Video GP Stand, NiSi Smartphones Filter Kit

More and more commercial projects and mainstream movies are being filmed with the aid of, or entirely using iPhone.

We’ve certainly long passed the day where the majority of video is shot on smartphones. But are we far from a day where the majority of “paid” content (movies, TV shows, professional ads) is shot on a smartphone?

Mis-configured clouds overtake ‘phishing’ as top source of breached data

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The linked “Notes on Security in 2019” was pulled together by former Chief Security Officer at Box and current partner at Andreessen Horowitz Joel de la Garza.

The whole read is interesting (and short), but this bit jumped out at me:

When the numbers are finally crunched for 2018 it’s likely that mis-configured cloud services will overtake phishing attacks as the number one source of breached personal records.

There have been a number of large breaches in the last year resulting from cloud service configuration errors — and there aren’t indications that this trend is changing.

I’m reminded of Willie Sutton being asked why he robs banks. “Because that’s where the money is”.

Same with the shift to the cloud. That’s where the data is.

Amazon builds “slow motion” vest to allow workers inside a robot’s space

Written by

TechCrunch:

The Amazon Robotics-designed product was created to keep workers safe when they need to enter a space in order to fix a robotic system or retrieve fallen items. Built-in sensors alert Amazon’s robotic systems to the wearer’s presence, and they slow down to avoid collision.

This seems both fascinating and inevitable.

Imagine a fast moving robot, rapidly shelving or retrieving product, or packing products into a shipping container. The robots move fast enough, their appendages flying from task to task, that a human coming near risks real injury. The slow motion vest triggers a sensor and the robot goes into a much slower, more predictable speed so the human can grab a dropped item or access a control on the robot itself. Fascinating.

As to inevitable, this seems like an idea that will spread to any space where humans and robots coexist. At least until detecting humans becomes second nature, and flawless, for robots.

“Facebook’s own employees worried they were bamboozling children”

Written by

Nathan Halverson, Reveal News (via DF):

A trove of hidden documents detailing how Facebook made money off children will be made public, a federal judge ruled late Monday in response to requests from Reveal.

A glimpse into the soon-to-be-released records shows Facebook’s own employees worried they were bamboozling children who racked up hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of dollars in game charges. And the company failed to provide an effective way for unsuspecting parents to dispute the massive charges, according to internal Facebook records.

And:

When the bill came, his mom requested Facebook refund the money, saying she never authorized any charges beyond the original $20. But the company never refunded any money, forcing the family to file a lawsuit in pursuit of a refund.

And:

In one of the unsealed documents, two Facebook employees deny a refund request from a child whom they refer to as a “whale” – a term coined by the casino industry to describe profligate spenders. The child had entered a credit card number to play a game, and in about two weeks racked up thousands of dollars in charges, according to an excerpt of messages between two employees at the social media giant.

It’s like letting a child into a Vegas casino with their parents’ credit card, then sending the parent into a maze of twisty passages if they wanted a refund. This whole thing is awful.

The secret behind the Spider-Verse look

Written by

FXGuide:

The film’s genus lies in two key choices: firstly, the film makers did not hide away from the fact that there have been so many different tellings of the Spider-Man story previously, but rather embraced it. Secondly, they designed an original comic book visual style unlike any other film. Together these elements have been perfectly combined to produce a surprisingly original film that delivers the most inventive visuals seen this year.

This is amazingly informative. Each section of the article starts with a panel that shows off a specific technique, then digs into what went into making that look so compelling.

What a great movie.

[H/T @brisance]

Next up for Apple Watch? Stroke detection.

Written by

Edward C. Baig, USA Today:

Apple and Johnson & Johnson are teaming up on a study to determine whether the latest Apple Watch, in conjunction with an app from the pharmaceutical company, can accelerate the diagnosis of a leading cause of stroke.

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that causes about 130,000 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations each year in the U.S., Johnson & Johnson said. Up to 30 percent of cases go undiagnosed until life-threatening complications occur. Worldwide, about 33 million people have the condition.

And:

Burton believes “the study has the potential to show that there is a lot more atrial fibrillation out there in the real world in older people than we ever imagined, and if you use a tool like an Apple Watch to detect and funnel people to care, you can really drive down stroke risk in those patients.

So what does AFib have to do with stroke? From this article from the National Stroke Association:

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) affects an estimated 2.2 million people in the U.S. AFib is a type of irregular heartbeat, often caused when the two upper chambers of the heart beat unpredictably and sometimes rapidly. These irregular heartbeats can cause blood to collect in the heart and potentially form a clot, which can travel to a person’s brain and cause a stroke.

I do get how the Apple Watch can detect AFib. Not clear exactly what additional role the Apple Watch will have in predicting/preventing stroke. But that’s what the study’s for.

Netflix audience numbers are staggering

Written by

Recode, summarizing a detailed letter Netflix sent out to shareholders:

At the end of December, Netflix said that 45 million people had watched Bird Box, a Netflix-owned thriller starring Sandra Bullock that came out just before Christmas.

That is a ridiculous number. Compare that to the viewing numbers for one of the most watched shows on cable, Game of Thrones. From The Telegraph:

Game of Thrones has long smashed records for HBO, the cable network it is broadcast on in its native US: it beat The Sopranos as the network’s most-watched series ever in 2015, after crossing the 18.2 million viewers-per-episode mark.

But that’s small fry in comparison to the average 31 million viewers per episode that season seven has witnessed, an 24 per cent increase on 2016’s ratings.

Think about this. Bird Box is new. It has no lead-in, no history, not much in the way of marketing. And it crushed Game of Thrones. Right out of the box. Because Netflix.

The Academy Awards, which was one of the few high-water mark audiences on network television, had 26.5 million viewers last year. At its absolute height, it hit 46 million viewers. Bird Box out of the gate numbers.

And:

Netflix says that Bird Box, which was released late last year, added another 35 million households in the first four weeks after its release, bringing its total audience to 80 million households.

And:

Netflix says that both You, a young-adultish thriller, and Sex Education, another show with a young-adult bent, should each reach 40 million households in their first four weeks on the service.

Apple has the right idea, I think. They have the distribution, already in place. Only question is, can they build compelling content? And, to me, that comes down to picking the right partners.

iPhone, Pixel night mode, and low light pictures

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Jeremy Burge did some side-by-side low light shots, showing the iPhone camera vs Android’s Night Sight. Scroll through the tweets below:

https://twitter.com/jeremyburge/status/1083676824343887879

To me, this is my iPhone camera’s biggest weakness, the one feature that tempts me to carry a Pixel 3, just for the ability to capture better low light images.

Google has a fantastic writeup on Night Sight in this blog post. Jump to the section titled “Capturing the Data” for the details.

As you make your way through the Twitter thread, don’t miss the interaction between Jeremy and Rene Ritchie. It’s not clear that my iPhone is not capable of producing similar, or even superior low light images. It may be simply that Apple chose not to ship a low-light mode that did not deliver pictures that met their standards. But as is, I’d rather have the oversaturated Night Sight images than ones that were simply dark.

iOS 13 and beyond: The future of iPhone and iPad

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Rene Ritchie lays out his vision for the future of iOS. Some great ideas here. My favorite (and I’ve been cheering for this concept for a while now):

Lock Screen Complications

Apple Watch provides rich, on-demand information, through complications. With them, not just the time, day and date, but everything from the temperature to your next appointment, stock prices to your current activity level are instantly, glance-ably available. And so are the apps behind them, both the ones made by Apple and many from the App Store.

A variety of Android phones do this as well. Some persistently through always-on displays.

Unlike notifications, which bring event-based information to you as it happens, complications are just always there, chill, hanging out, available whenever you want them. And that makes for a huge improvement in convenience.

If Apple delivers just one thing from Rene’s wish list, customizable iPhone lock screen complications would top my list.

Steve Jobs introducing the weirdest Mac of all time: the Apple Developer Transition Kit

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Even if you don’t have a single bit of developer in you, this is a fascinating look at an Apple product that never made the official catalog.

A taste, from the beginning of Stephen Hackett’s MacStories writeup:

In his keynote introducing the switch to Intel, Steve Jobs introduced the weirdest Mac of all time: the Apple Developer Transition Kit.

After announcing the change, Jobs revealed a secret. The Mac he had been using to demo software all morning actually had a 3.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor inside.

Needless to say, the crowd went wild.

Great read.

Be safe on the internet, an open source checklist

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This is a really well organized list of habits and resources to improve your online privacy and security. Spend a few minutes just scanning the list. Are you following these habits? If not, dig in a bit, follow the links.

And that thing about freezing your credit? Sound advice.

How charging is handled by the new iPhone Smart Battery Cases

Written by

Christine Chan, iMore:

When you charge your iPhone in the Smart Battery Case, the iPhone will usually have priority when normal or fast charging. Once the iPhone reaches about 80 percent charged, the charging is split and allocated to the Smart Battery Case instead. However, if you use a power adapter that can provide more power, such as a MacBook Pro USB-C power adapter, then it can fast charge both the iPhone and Smart Battery Case at the same time. What has priority depends on how much power is being taken in.

Good to know.

Tim Cook on data privacy

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Tim Cook, writing for Time Magazine:

That’s why I and others are calling on the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation—a landmark package of reforms that protect and empower the consumer. Last year, before a global body of privacy regulators, I laid out four principles that I believe should guide legislation:

First, the right to have personal data minimized. Companies should challenge themselves to strip identifying information from customer data or avoid collecting it in the first place. Second, the right to knowledge—to know what data is being collected and why. Third, the right to access. Companies should make it easy for you to access, correct and delete your personal data. And fourth, the right to data security, without which trust is impossible.

And:

One of the biggest challenges in protecting privacy is that many of the violations are invisible. For example, you might have bought a product from an online retailer—something most of us have done. But what the retailer doesn’t tell you is that it then turned around and sold or transferred information about your purchase to a “data broker”—a company that exists purely to collect your information, package it and sell it to yet another buyer.

The trail disappears before you even know there is a trail. Right now, all of these secondary markets for your information exist in a shadow economy that’s largely unchecked—out of sight of consumers, regulators and lawmakers.

I applaud Tim’s efforts here. But this road is a difficult one. Just think about all the efforts made to prevent spam, both in your email, and via your phone.

The national do-not-call registry was a solid idea. But it lacked teeth. Like most people, I still regularly get phone calls from spammers and scammers, some spoofing local numbers to make me think the call is from someone I know.

Ridding ourselves of the spammers and scammers takes legislation with teeth. Ridding ourselves of behind the scenes data-brokers will take the same.

Again, I applaud the effort, but it won’t be easy. As always, follow the money. If what you want to get rid of is enriching someone, they’ll use that money to hamper your efforts, via lobbying and political donations. Fortunately, in this case, Apple has deep enough pockets to make a difference here.

Go get ’em Tim.

Free music for your movie, podcast, game, etc.

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Composer, sound designer Joel Corelitz has a gift for you. It’s a collection of music he created that is free for you to use in your own projects.

Bookmark the page, as I suspect this collection will grow over time, and you never know when the need will strike.

Dates with Siri

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Pull up Siri and ask these two things:

  • How many days since December 17th?

and:

  • How many days since December 17th, 2018?

You’ll get two different responses. Now go read the linked post. Very interesting.

Save changes before quitting?

Written by

Niko Kitsakis (via Michael Tsai’s blog):

People called good Macintosh software “Mac-like” because that’s what it felt like. If an application did not adhere to those seemingly unwritten rules, you would develop an itch in the back of your head. Something was off.

This “Mac-like” feeling was at the core of the classic Mac OS era. It’s what gave the Mac its legendary status and its place in history. And while the first versions of OS X broke with some conventions, things became better as OS X progressed. That is to say, until 10.7 came out and started a trend of questionable design decisions that has been continuing ever since.

This is a short-but-sweet post that lays out a specific example of the power of a properly constructed interface. The oldest “Save changes” dialog asked a question, but populated the response buttons with Yes, No, and Cancel. A look at the button only was not helpful.

This evolved into the use of verbs in response buttons, with Save, Don’t save, and Cancel.

The Mac design language was so powerful, and so widely adopted, that any app that did not follow the rules stood out like a sore thumb. Mac applications were instantly recognizable, and apps from outsiders tended to look ugly, in comparison, as those outsiders did not know the rules to follow.

Does the modern macOS and iOS app universe still hew to a common standard? Are Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines lost in the incredible complexity of application creation? Are we better off with fewer rules and less oversight on the things we create? Or might the pendulum swing back, with apps that are recognized as following the iOS and macOS HIGs?