Making my way through a tidal wave of content responding to the Google voice bot demo at Google I/O. We wrote about it in this post: Watch Google Assistant make a phone call to schedule an appointment. Stunning.
If you have not yet seen the demo, click over and watch it now. It’s short.
With that demo in mind, […]
[VIDEO] This is just incredible video, shot this week (embedded in the main Loop post), a perfect example of one of the two main types of lava. This is A’a (ah-ah), which resembles smashed up Oreo cookie embedded in glowing molten rock. The other main type, pahoehoe, is smooth and billowy.
I am fascinated with volcanos, and have made several (stupidly dangerous) trips to walk the Kilauea lava flows in Hawaii. I’m just drawn to it.
Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:
To see the data Google stores on your web searches, browsing and YouTube viewing, visit the My Activity page.
You can delete individual items from this timeline by clicking on the three-dot menu top-right. You can also click the Details link in this menu to see additional information, such as other YouTube videos you watched in the same session.
Here’s a link to the My Activity page. Take a look at your options.
This is another wave of impact from the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Apple:
Aluminum giants Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminum today announced a joint venture to commercialize patented technology that eliminates direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process, a key step in aluminum production. This is a revolutionary advancement in the manufacturing of one of the world’s most widely used metals.
As part of Apple’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its products through innovation, the company helped accelerate the development of this technology. And Apple has partnered with both aluminum companies, and the Governments of Canada and Quebec, to collectively invest a combined $144 million to future research and development.
And:
[Apple Engineers] Lynch, Yurko and Sassaman learned that Alcoa had designed a completely new process that replaces that carbon with an advanced conductive material, and instead of carbon dioxide, it releases oxygen. The potential environmental impact was huge, and to help realize it quickly, Alcoa needed a partner.
Apple once again demonstrates its commitment to do what it can to minimize the environmental impact of its products.
[VIDEO] This is the full video (embedded in the main Loop post) of the Google I/O keynote. Lots to watch here, but in particular, jump to 1:25:02 to watch Aparna Chennapragada show off Google’s latest rev of Google Maps Street View.
I love the idea of being able to use my phone inside a building (or a subway station, in this case), to get a sense of the landmarks outside the building, to help give me a sense of the direction I want to go, to help plan my route, to work out which exit to take.
Add to that the concept of VPS, which uses visual cues to help orient Google Maps when GPS is not available or not working well enough at the current location.
[H/T Scott Knaster]
The Verge:
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and 32 other Democrats have submitted a new discharge petition under the Congressional Review Act, setting the stage for a full congressional vote to restore net neutrality. Because of the unique CRA process, the petition has the power to force a Senate vote on the resolution, which leaders say is expected next week.
Razor thin margin. 50 committed votes. Needs one more. Surprising to see this as even a possibility.
Of course, even if this vote does come to pass, it still has to make it through the House, then face a potential Presidential veto.
This is no replacement for a yearly eye exam but, in a pinch, this seems a fantastic resource.
Ryan Gray:
Our current Contacts apps are full data we’ve collected about other people. It’s out of date and inaccurate. It has things people wish we didn’t have. Anyone can share the data they’ve collected with anyone else. App developers can easily ask for this information (and most people will give it to them).
This is a backwards system. You should be the owner of your contact information. You should grant access to others deciding who can see what specific pieces of information. Ironically the one company that seems to best share this view is the one people trust the least to handle this kind of data: Facebook.
Ryan brings up an excellent point. As is, my Contacts database is full of outdated information. And I have no way of telling whether that information is still valid. Everything is static, a screenshot of the moment in time when I first received the contact card.
From Ryan’s proposed replacement, which he calls “People”:
Of course, you can easily share one of your cards with anyone nearby (and get theirs). But a shared card is not just sent once. It’s a subscription. If you change your phone number or if you move you’ll be able to push the updates out to anyone who is subscribed. You’ll also be able to block anyone, revoke access, or prevent someone from sharing your card.
The more I think about this the more I love the idea. I’m not sure how easy an implementation this would be, but I do think it’d be doable, at least at a very basic level. But the privacy implications would be tricky to handle properly.
That said, this is an idea I hope gets some traction and, hopefully, a look from within Apple.
[H/T Dan Murrell]
Bloomberg:
For the first time, Apple plans to begin selling subscriptions to certain video services directly via its TV app, rather than asking users to subscribe to them through apps individually downloaded from the App Store, according to people familiar with the matter.
And:
Right now, the TV app aggregates content from other providers, allowing people to locate shows from a wide array of apps and channels like ABC, NBA League Pass and HBO, rather than having to hop between different apps. But then Apple sends customers outside its app to buy access to those channels or watch shows. With the pending change, subscription purchasing would move to the TV app. Apple could eventually move the streaming to its own app, instead of sending users to third parties.
Is this an indicator of Apple’s plans for packaging their own custom content? Will everything sit under the TV app? If so, will Apple build a TV app equivalent for macOS? Will subscriptions be manageable from the web?
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Apple has confirmed that “service inventory of all iPhone replacement batteries is now available without delay,” in an internal memo distributed to Apple Stores and its network of Apple Authorized Service Providers on April 27. The document was obtained by MacRumors from a reliable source.
What this means is that Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers can now order iPhone replacement batteries from Apple and receive them without facing extended shipping delays, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every Apple Store or authorized repair shop will have supply available right away.
This whole thing was a mess. Glad to see availability moving along.
Check out the video in this tweet, a small piece of a larger project covering HyperCard:
https://twitter.com/itstheshadsy/status/993885366217330689
At the time, back in 1990, this was absolutely groundbreaking. Since the internet was still in its infancy, images and data for a project were always stored locally. And images were massive, compared to the relatively tiny hard drives of the time.
The solution? Video discs and computer controlled video disc players. Back then, paper maps were filmed on incredibly precise animation stands (like those used for special effects camera fly-throughs), then cut into frames and stored on video disc. The computer moved along the maps by stepping through frames, each one a picture of a portion of a map at a slight offset from the previous frame.
In this example, the HyperCard stack presents a picture of the heart, and clicking on various buttons or hot points tells the video disc player to jump to an appropriate image or video.
How far we’ve come. Now, all those image can be stored locally, or brought up as needed from the cloud. And using cloud-shared resources means content can be updated as needed.
Fascinating look back. HyperCard was a truly groundbreaking piece of work by Bill Atkinson, one of the members of the original Macintosh team. If you are not familiar with Bill, take a look at his Wikipedia page. We owe him a lot.
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:
A report in 2016 indicated that Apple was planning to use [drones] to collect data for Apple Maps, and now the company has confirmed that initiative. The company says, however, that its stance on privacy will remain the same throughout its use of drones.
I believe the report in question was this piece from Mark Gurman for Bloomberg.
Apple, to Reuters:
“Apple is committed to protecting people’s privacy, including processing this data to blur faces and license plates prior to publication,” the company said.
Think about the statement, XXX announces plan to use drones. Now plug in Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. To me, different take for each company. Google’s drones would likely perform the best. Apple’s would look the best. But which would go to the greatest length to protect my privacy?
Google AI blog:
Today we announce Google Duplex, a new technology for conducting natural conversations to carry out “real world” tasks over the phone. The technology is directed towards completing specific tasks, such as scheduling certain types of appointments. For such tasks, the system makes the conversational experience as natural as possible, allowing people to speak normally, like they would to another person, without having to adapt to a machine.
You can jump to that page and click on examples of Google Assistant using Google Duplex to make phone calls, interact with real-world people.
But the best thing to do is jump to this Verge page and watch the video of Google CEO Sundar Pichai actually running those demos. It’s incredible.
I’ve encountered two waves of thinking about this. On one hand, there’s the thinking that robots are coming for our jobs, that this technology will displace human assistants, human call centers, and that we’ll have an even larger wave of junk calls to deal with.
But on the positive side, consider this tweet:
https://twitter.com/SteveStreza/status/993950092309676032
Well worth considering the good that can come from this technology.
Also worth noting that it is 26 days until WWDC.
[VIDEO] Watch the video (embedded in the main Loop post) to get a sense of Google’s state-of-the-union in terms of augmented reality and object identification. The big move Google made is promoting this technology to the Camera app, giving up precious screen real estate to a Google Lens button.
Augmented reality is one area where Apple has held its own, perhaps even moved ahead of Google in some ways. But this exposure of the Google Lens platform at the highest level is a strategic move by Google.
26 days until WWDC.
If you love games, follow the link and search for your favorite. If nothing else, click through to your favorite old-timey platform (the Mac OS Classic page, say), and check out the huge wave of titles. Fun.
ElcomSoft blog:
In the iOS 11.4 Beta, Apple introduced a new called USB Restricted Mode. In fact, the feature made its first appearance in the iOS 11.3 Beta, but was later removed from the final release. This is how it works:
“To improve security, for a locked iOS device to communicate with USB accessories you must connect an accessory via lightning connector to the device while unlocked – or enter your device passcode while connected – at least once a week.”
And:
In other words, law enforcement will have at most 7 days from the time the device was last unlocked to perform the extraction using any known forensic techniques, be it logical acquisition or passcode recovery via GreyKey or other services.
It will be interesting to see if this mode survives through to the actual public release of 11.4. A chess move. Will the GreyKey folks have a follow-up? Or will all those $30K GreyKey devices become useless against updated phones?
Microsoft developer blog:
Starting later this year, consumer applications (not including games) sold in Microsoft Store will deliver to developers 95% of the revenue earned from the purchase of your application or any in-app products in your application, when a customer uses a deep link to get to and purchase your application.
That’s a huge drop from the 70/30 split they had up to this point.
When Microsoft delivers you a customer through any other method, such as in a collection on Microsoft Store or any other owned Microsoft properties, and purchases your application, you will receive 85% of the revenue earned from the purchase of your application or any in-app products in your application
Note that this structure does not include games, which stick to the 70/30 split.
Does this apply any pressure to Apple to make a similar move? Windows is not quite a direct competitor to iOS, but the Windows market is massive.
Regardless, I like this move. Anything that helps improve the lot of the indie developer.
One thing Apple can do to one-up this move that would be even better for indie devs? Create a free tier, where up to, say the first $1,000 in sales goes 100% to the developer. Just a thought.
[VIDEO] Juli Clover, MacRumors:
At the 97th annual ADC Awards, which honors the best work in design, advertising, motion, and other commercial creative arts, Apple’s “Barbers” ad for the iPhone 7 Plus won a Best of Show award.
And:
“Barbers” was awarded a 2018 Motion and Film Craft Gold Cube, a Black Cube for Best of Show, and a 2018 Advertising Merit Award. Furlined, the agency that produced the spot, also won Production Company of the Year.
From the first wave of Portrait Mode ads, back in May 2017. Terrific ad. Embedded in main Loop post.
If you’ve never played the guitar, this is a fun way to learn a bit about tuning. And if you play the guitar, make your way down the page and try your hand at tuning by ear.
Nice implementation.
Peter Cohen:
The iMac debuted 20 years ago this week. It’s not hyperbole to say that it’s the computer that saved Apple and set the stage for Apple’s ascendance to becoming the biggest tech company in the world. All that said, Apple’s lost something in the translation – while the iMac is still a fixture in Apple’s product line, it lacks some essential qualities of that first model. Its personality has changed. The iMac has gotten harder. It’s lost the sense of whimsy, fun, and wonder that made the first iMac such a joy to use.
This is an interesting point. In my mind, it’s very difficult for a company to grow to massive size and maintain the joie de vivre of their smaller self.
I hope that Apple finds an opportunity to go full circle with the Mac yet again. It probably won’t be the iMac, but I hope that some future Apple device, whether it’s a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop machine, or some hitherto unimagined gadget, regains that sense of whimsy and wonder we’ve seen before. Something to help us emotionally connect with it and that essential Apple user experience in a way that’s different, and less invisible, than how we do today.
Part of the issue is growth but, as Peter points out, part is the focus on minimalism, ascetic design. Will that pendulum ever swing back to bright colors, skeuomorphism? I kind of miss that.
I’m a big fan of Austin Mann’s photography blog. He loves Apple gear and puts it to great use.
This post is about a trip he took to South America and Antarctica. The pics were taken with a range of cameras, one of which was his iPhone X. His workflow included the iPad and MacBook Pro, but all the heavy lifting was done back in the studio on the iMac Pro.
Lots of interesting comments, including some insight on traveling with an iMac Pro, buying a travel case, and checking it as luggage. And, of course, some great pictures.
Enjoy.
Fascinating to look back at these specs, representing Apple’s state-of-the-art 20 years ago. Fun.
Interesting that the note’s publication date is July 26, 2017. Wonder if this was part of a mass update, or was created as part of the planned publicity push for the iMac 20th anniversary.
A terrific find by Stephen Hackett and 512 Pixels.
[VIDEO] Warren Buffett and Bill Gates (two of the three wealthiest people on the planet), along with Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, talking about Apple.
Short, to the point. Don’t miss that very last line. Video embedded in main Loop post.
[VIDEO] This is just amazing. It’s from 2009, so the video quality isn’t perfect, but no matter, it good enough and the audio is what matters.
McFerrin is talented and the audience interaction is remarkable. Well worth the watch (video embedded in main Loop post).
There was a river of stories about the iMac’s 20 year anniversary yesterday. Start off with Jim Dalrymple’s nostalgic look back.
Another piece I really enjoyed was Jason Snell’s The original iMac: 20 years since Apple changed its fate.
It’s hard to believe today that a Steve Jobs product presentation would be met with indifference, but there was a huge amount of skepticism about Apple’s product announcements back in early 1998. Though there were definitely signs that the company was turning it around, I also recall being summoned to Apple product events where nothing much at all was announced. Regardless, only the editor in chief of Macworld, Andy Gore, even bothered to go to the announcement at the Flint Center that day.
As soon as the event ended, I got a phone call—I was working at home that day—and was told to immediately get in to the office, for an all-hands-on-deck meeting, because Apple had announced a new computer that was going to change everything. I have to give Andy credit—the moment he saw the iMac he knew it was going to be huge. We tore up our magazine issue in the matter of about a day in order to get first word about the iMac out to people in the days before instant Apple news was a thing.
And:
Apple’s bold choice to rip out all of the Mac’s traditional ports—Mac serial, Apple Desktop Bus, and SCSI—and replace it with the USB standard that was just starting to emerge in the PC world, was also helpful. It made all of us longtime Mac users cringe—you think the iPhone losing its headphone jack was tough?—but in a stroke it made the iMac compatible with a huge range of peripherals previously only designed to be used on PCs, and it made accessory manufacturers happy because with a low amount of effort the stuff they were making for PCs could now also be sold to new iMac users.
Huge move. Terrific writeup by Jason Snell.
Another great read is 20 Years of iMac: Steve Jobs iconic internet machine that courageously reinvented Apple from Apple Insider’s Daniel Eran Dilger.
Before unveiling the new iMac, Jobs outlined how it would be different. For starters, Apple was using a modern 233MHz G3 processor, the same chip it had used in its entry-level Pro Power Mac G3 just six months prior at a price $300 higher.
That new generation Power PC chip boasted a performance edge “up to twice as fast” as Intel’s Pentium II processors at similar clock speeds, a line promoted by Apple in commercials portraying Intel’s chip as a snail and its chip designers dancing in “toasted” bunny suits.
And:
Jobs at the time noted that about “ten percent of homes in Silicon Valley were already being wired up for Cat 5,” while also poking at consumer PCs, few of which had any provision for networking built in.
Interesting to see how little built-in ethernet matters now. But at the time, the Cat 5 wave was in full force.
I was briefly struck with the sinking feeling that perhaps Apple had done something too risky. A translucent, rounded computer? A one-piece design that included a monitor? Don’t people want to open up the side of their PC and plug-in expansion cards, and won’t they want to replace the PC components faster than their monitor?
This moment of “oh no Apple… this is not conventional thinking” was one of the first times in my life where I had to step out of my comfortable understanding of What Had Always Worked Before and consider that maybe instead of being afraid of this new and different future unfolding in front of me, I could freshly evaluate whether it might actually be a big improvement over the status quo. Maybe the world was indeed ready for iMac’s bright candy-colored translucency that could distinguish Apple from all of the look-alike PCs running Windows.
I love all three of these writeups, from folks who were huge Apple fans at the time, and are still around covering the beat, still passionate all these years later.
One last bit to check out. Jump to this tweet by Horace Dediu, charting “units shipped” of all the major computing devices over the years. Pinch to zoom in on the chart. Lots of interesting data there.
The iMac inflection point is highlighted, but check out the performance of the Windows PC, the overall Mac performance, Android, iPhone, iPad. Fascinating to see this overlaid over time. Nice job, Horace.
The Verge:
In late 2005, tech visionary and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte pulled the cloth cover off a small green computer with a bright yellow crank. The device was the first working prototype for Negroponte’s new nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, dubbed “the green machine” or simply “the $100 laptop.”
And:
The $100 laptop would have all the features of an ordinary computer but require so little electricity that a child could power it with a hand crank. It would be rugged enough for children to use anywhere, instead of being limited to schools.
Rugged. Cheap. And powered by a crank. Got it.
Then, Negroponte and Annan rose for a photo-op with two OLPC laptops, and reporters urged them to demonstrate the machines’ distinctive cranks. Annan’s crank handle fell off almost immediately. As he quietly reattached it, Negroponte managed half a turn before hitting the flat surface of the table. He awkwardly raised the laptop a few inches, trying to make space for a full rotation. “Maybe afterwards…” he trailed off, before sitting back down to field questions from the crowd.
The moment was brief, but it perfectly foreshadowed how critics would see One Laptop Per Child a few years later: as a flashy, clever, and idealistic project that shattered at its first brush with reality.
I do remember this moment of idealistic promise, the $100 laptop that would change the world. I remember a thought of how, if this dream shipped in quantity, it would disrupt the entire laptop market.
Maybe my favorite bit of the story:
A Linux-based operating system would give kids total access to the computer — OLPC had reportedly turned down an offer of free Mac OS X licenses from Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs, hedging his bets. Smart.
[H/T Robert Walker]
Tara Siegel Bernard, New York Times:
Though automated calls have long plagued consumers, the volume has skyrocketed in recent years, reaching an estimated 3.4 billion in April, according to YouMail, which collects and analyzes calls through its robocall blocking service. That’s an increase of almost 900 million a month compared with a year ago.
It’s not just your imagination. There is, indeed, a surge.
In one tactic, known as “neighborhood spoofing,” robocallers use local numbers in the hope that recipients will be more likely to pick up.
I’ve noticed this a lot. My general habit is to not pick up calls from numbers I don’t recognize. But what if the auto-shop calls to tell me my car is ready? Or any local business that doesn’t have a branded caller-id? This just plain sucks.
As Ben Bajarin noted on Twitter, “There is a special place in hell reserved for those who sell our cell phone numbers.”
MacRumors:
Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that its new MBUX infotainment system will feature support for wireless CarPlay in future vehicles.
And:
The all-new 2019 A-Class will be Mercedes-Benz’s first vehicle equipped with the MBUX system when it goes on sale later this year, according to a spokesperson for the automaker’s parent company Daimler in Germany. Wireless CarPlay will expand to other new Mercedes-Benz vehicles in 2019, the spokesperson told MacRumors.
And:
Barring announcements from other automakers, Mercedes-Benz will likely become the second to offer vehicles with wireless CarPlay functionality, after BMW rolled out the feature starting with its 2017 5 Series a few years ago. Apple first introduced wireless CarPlay in 2015 alongside iOS 9.
I find it remarkable that it has taken so long for automakers to adopt this technology. Wired CarPlay is rolling right along, but requires you (as the name implies) to plug your iOS device in using a Lightning to USB cable.
Wireless CarPlay kicks in with no cable. That’s a huge drop in friction. It has been years since I last plugged my iPhone into my car, other than to charge. I get in my car, my iPhone connects via Bluetooth. I don’t have to think about it. Why is it taking so long to adopt wireless CarPlay? Is there a cost component? A technical obstacle of some kind? Supply chain issues?
For comparison, take a minute to scroll through the list of cars that feature wired CarPlay. Might take you a while.
UPDATE: OK, the issue seems to be the WiFi requirement. From this post:
At its core, Apple CarPlay just mirrors your iPhone display onto your car’s in-dash screen. For this to work it needs to display video for the user interface as well as features like maps for navigation. While Bluetooth works for audio, it cannot handle the bandwidth that video requires. As such a Wi-Fi access point is needed to transfer the data needed for video.
That’d do it. Interesting.
[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin has really got this video thing down. If you have an iPad, spend the time going through this (embedded in the main Loop post). Good stuff.
Jason Snell, writing for Tom’s Guide:
The answers to the mistaken reports of weak sales could be a fairly simple one, based on analysis of the average sales price (ASP) of an iPhone. As Apple pointed out, the ASP was higher this quarter than it was a year ago. But it’s important to keep in mind that not only does the iPhone X exist, at a base price higher than any Apple’s ever asked, but the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus released last fall also cost more than the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus did the year before. So while the iPhone X helps boost iPhone ASP, so do the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
Nice summary, read the rest. Apple has done an incredible job keeping their numbers up. Unbelievable, really, when you consider how easy it is to grow 10% when you are a tiny company, and how much harder, massively so, to keep up that growth as you become a large company. To do so when you’ve become one of the largest companies in the world is, to me, a mind boggling accomplishment.