Apple acquires New Zealand wireless charging company

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Reuters:

Apple, which recently said it was including wireless charging in its latest iPhone X and iPhone 8 smartphones, has acquired New Zealand firm PowerbyProxi that designs wireless power products for consumers and industry.

And:

Apple’s interest in PowerbyProxi may be driven by the latter’s other products, some of which can support transferring up to 150 watts through any non-metallic material, for wirelessly charging industrial machinery and medical equipment, said Jake Saunders, Asia Pacific vice president of ABI Research.

This could allow Apple to offer much larger pads that could quickly charge multiple consumer devices, including laptops and even electric scooters, he added.

Not to mention the wireless charging expertise that comes along with those products.

Try quickly typing 1 + 2 + 3 into the iOS Calculator. I bet you won’t get 6.

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I came upon this Reddit thread and thought, “Impossible. This can’t be true.”

But yes, it is. Try this yourself. When you hit the plus sign for the second time, the calculator app goes into some odd state. Not sure if this is intentional, or a bug, but either way, this is not what you’d expect.

The good news? PCalc gets it right.

UPDATE: Looks like this is an animation lag issue and goes back at least through iOS 9, possibly earlier. Also, Apple employee #8 weighed in about filing a radar.

What if the iPhone 8 Plus is better than the iPhone X?

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Provocative title, easy article to dismiss, but take the time to make your way through.

Sam Byford, The Verge:

Yes, the iPhone X has a 5.8-inch screen compared to the iPhone 8 Plus’ 5.5-inch display. It’s also true that the X’s is higher resolution. But the 8 Plus’ screen is actually bigger. The X uses a narrower aspect ratio, so while it’s longer on the diagonal, you still get more surface area on the Plus overall — and that’s before you account for the notch and the rounded corners.

And:

Apps, websites, and so on have 414 horizontal “points” — the unit of measurement that the screen is divided into for design purposes — to fill on the Plus, while the X has 375, the same as the regular iPhone 8. The X has more vertical points, of course, because of the taller screen, but a lot of that will be occupied by the notch and home button bar.

This would not be an issue if Apple had release an iPhone X Plus at the same time as the iPhone X. This is a bit like comparing Apples and bananas, but since there is no iPhone X Plus, this is a worthwhile point.

The X’s screen may well be better quality — we’ll have to see how Apple’s first attempt at an OLED phone turns out, but I have high hopes for the panel itself. Obviously, there’s also no denying that the X makes far better use of available space; the iPhone 8 Plus’ chunky bezels are pretty anachronistic for a phone at this price in 2017. But I’m too used to the Plus layouts, and the accompanying information density, to go back to what’s often going to feel like a smaller phone in actual use.

All fair points.

The other point that Sam makes that struck home for me concerned availability:

Even if you’ve read all of the above and still want an iPhone X, good luck actually getting one. Supply chain reports suggest that Apple is only able to produce the device in alarmingly low quantities, meaning that you could be waiting for several months before you’re able to pick one up.

The use of the word “alarmingly” aside, the availability question is something to consider. Of course, we won’t know for sure until at least Friday.

VIDEO: Tim Cook and Angela Ahrendts, chatting at the new Chicago Apple Store

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[VIDEO] The video, embedded in the main Loop post, is only about 6 minutes long, worth the time. The questions are interesting, there’s some terrific footage of the new Chicago riverfront Apple Store, and there’s the chance to see Time Cook and Angela Ahrendts together, get a sense of their comfortableness with each other. Not something you can see in print.

One interesting bit about 5:27 in: Tim was asked about rumors of Angela being slated as the next CEO. Perfect deflection, and good response on Tim’s part.

Deleting and reinstalling default apps in iOS 11, and the infinite loop of sadness

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This article talks you through a pretty obvious and straight-forward process. But 3 things:

  1. Important to note that you can now delete built-in apps like Weather, Stocks, etc. Delete them just as you would any other app.
  2. Finding the originals if you decide to go back is the trick. You can search the app store, but the article has a list of links to the originals. Bookmark the article. A nice resource.
  3. If you click on the App Store links on your Mac (DO NOT DO THIS), you’ll plunge down the infinite loop of sadness, as Safari tries to get iTunes to do what it is no longer programmed to do.

Apple publishes list of cars that support iPhone wireless charging

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If you are in the market for a new car, this support page is definitely worth your time. One particular thing to look out for:

Some automotive wireless chargers have physical size constraints and might not fit every phone. If you’re planning on buying a car with a wireless charger, make sure that your iPhone will fit in the charger first.

To me, this is an obvious place where car manufacturers should offer a user-replaceable shell, so when you move from one form factor to another, you don’t end up with a sad face and a phone that no longer fits snugly in place.

As is, I suspect that manufacturers will force you to bring your car in to replace the Qi-charging shell if you switch phone types, if they even have a shell that fits.

Anyone have a car that offers Qi wireless charging? Ping me, if you know how the shell swapping works.

New York subway to embrace NFC, enable Apple Pay system-wide

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James Barron, New York Times:

On Monday, the city’s transit system took a significant step toward a more modern way for passengers to pay their fares. Starting late next year, they can do it the way Londoners already do, by waving cellphones or certain kinds of credit or debit cards at the turnstiles in the subway or the fareboxes on buses.

A committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $573 million contract for a new fare payment system adapted from the one in use for several years on the London Underground and London’s commuter railroads. New electronic readers will be installed in 500 subway turnstiles and on 600 buses in New York beginning late next year, and will reach the rest of the city’s subway stations and buses by late 2020.

And:

The system will work through apps like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay as well as “contactless cards” — credit or debit cards with embedded chips that rely on a wireless technology known as near field communication, or N.F.C.

The resistance was strong in this one, but the force beckons. In other words, it’s about time.

Create custom logos with free online tool

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This is a nice tool for playing with logo ideas, homing in on a design you might then pass along to a professional designer to refine.

To get started, click the Make a Logo link in the top bar. Fun and useful.

Apple, Spielberg, and Bond

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Steven Mallas, Seeking Alpha (free regwall) on Apple and Steve Spielberg inking a deal to bring the series of Amazing Stories to Apple TV:

The plan is for there to be 10 episodes at a cost of $5 million each. That’s nothing to Apple, a drop in the bucket.

And:

Spielberg could shift some of his slate over to streaming services that are aching to differentiate themselves from the pack, primarily the alpha Netflix. Again, here’s where Apple and its cash hoard and its enormous market cap and its platforms that need to be programmed come in – they could help Spielberg distribute concepts that might not find a place elsewhere. Netflix arguably already does this. Think the recent Stephen King adaptation Gerald’s Game. On Netflix, it stands out. In theaters, maybe it wouldn’t have. There’s no way that Cook and Spielberg don’t understand that.

The whole article is interesting, especially when Mallas chews on the possibility of Apple buying the rights to James Bond, both existing movies and the rights to new content:

Comparison was made to Disney and its purchases of Marvel/Lucasfilm; Lucasfilm was all about Star Wars, and that cost billions of dollars to consummate. If either Amazon or Apple won the rights to Bond, then those companies could release new films and episodic series on their respective platforms, as well as release movies to theaters on a worldwide basis.

And:

Bond, though, doesn’t necessarily, in my mind, lend itself to capital investment in the same way that Star Wars or Marvel do. I’m not sure about how valuable a merchandising program for Bond would be, as an example.

Interesting comparison. Not sure Netflix thinks about merchandising at all.

Apple allowing iPhone Upgrade Program customers to get a ‘Head Start’ on iPhone X upgrade

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Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Starting on Monday, October 23, iPhone Upgrade Program customers will be able to get a “head start” on the iPhone X pre-order process by getting pre-approved for an iPhone Upgrade Program loan.

If you are part of the iPhone Upgrade Program, this is worth a look, will get you through checkout that much quicker this Friday.

Paper is not dead

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[VIDEO] When Apple launched the Mac, back in 1984, Steve Jobs said, “The paperless office is about as likely as the paperless bathroom.”

You have to wonder if the creators of this commercial, embedded in the main Loop post, had that quote in mind.

Enjoy.

Apple’s gorgeous Chicago riverfront store opens today

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Follow the link, take a look at those images, especially that last one. This is an incredibly beautiful storefront, perfectly incorporated into the surroundings.

Props to whoever did the site planning. Just wow.

iOS developer sues Apple over Animoji trademark

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Mikey Campbell, Apple Insider:

In a complaint lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, plaintiffs emonster k.k. and Enrique Bonansea, a U.S. citizen living in Japan, registered for the “Animoji” mark in 2014, reports The Recorder. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office subsequently granted rights to the property in 2015.

And:

According to the complaint, Apple not only had knowledge of the Animoji app prior to September’s iPhone X launch, but attempted to purchase rights for the mark from emonster. Bonansea claims he was approached by Apple “fronts,” like The Emoji Law Group LLC., to sell the property this past summer. These entities allegedly threatened to file a cancellation proceeding if the developer failed to acquiesce to their requests.

This reads like a John Grisham novel.

Facebook and Apple can’t agree on terms, so Facebook’s subscription tool will only launch on Android phones

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Peter Kafka, Recode:

Facebook’s effort to help media companies sell subscriptions has hit a snag: Apple.

The two companies are butting heads over Facebook’s plan for a new subscription tool in its mobile app. The tool will put paywalls around some articles in Facebook’s news feed, and then send users to publishers’ sites to buy subscriptions.

The issue: Apple wants to take as much as 30 percent of any subscription revenue Facebook helps generate. Facebook wants all of the money to go to publishers.

This is nothing new. The 30 percent model has been in place since inception. But:

People familiar with Facebook’s plans say Google won’t take a cut of subscriptions users sign up for using its Android operating system.

And there’s the rub. I don’t think there are many people who will switch platforms because of this issue. This is about the publishers.

Note that not every publisher likes Facebook’s subscription plan. Notable holdouts from the test plan the company is announcing today include the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

And you can see why. Both the NYT and WSJ have existing paywalls that work for them. This is a complex problem, one I hope gets resolved quickly.

An iPad with a smooth finish to the finger, rough finish to the Apple Pencil

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Patently Apple:

Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to displays having a substrate with a visually imperceptible texture that provides tactile sensations varying with an object contacting the surface. Apple is considering applying a new finish on displays for Macs and iDevices that acts as an added protection layer with a different texture to the glass. The glass may feel smooth to the touch but slightly rougher with a little drag when using it with an Apple Pencil.

Not clear if this difference in feel is what they were going for in the first place, or a side product of the finish. What would really be cool is if there was a way to control that texture electronically, adjust it based on context.

Fascinating.

“Maybe it’s a piece of dust”

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Over the past few days, there was a wave of discussion, back and forth across the net, about the MacBook Pro keyboard. Head to the main Loop post for all the gory detail. […]

Apple Watch cellular feature cut off in China

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Wall Street Journal:

For the first time, the Apple Watch can have an independent cellular connection, allowing people to use it to make voice calls, send and receive text and data even if the watch isn’t wirelessly connected to an iPhone.

But in China, the feature was abruptly cut off for new subscribers, without explanation, after a brief availability with one telecom company.

Industry analysts say the suspension likely stemmed from Chinese government security concerns to do with tracking users of the device, which uses different technology than standard mobile phones.

This is a stunning development. After all the approvals were in place, prototypes no doubt submitted for inspection, deals signed with all players, manufacturing process completed, product packaged and distributed, and cash laid on the table as promised product was delivered and paid for, the rug was pulled out from under.

Here’s hoping this is a temporary setback.

Netflix hides their viewing numbers, but Nielsen uses audio recognition software for a clue

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John Koblin, New York Times:

In the five years since Netflix started streaming original series like the Emmy-winning “House of Cards” and “Master of None,” the shows have had a question hanging over them: How many people are watching?

Outside of Netflix, nobody knows the answer.

But Nielsen (the people who, for decades, have been crunching data to tell us who is watching what) has worked out a scheme to tell us:

Nielsen announced the initiative on Wednesday morning, but it has been collecting Netflix viewership data over the last two months in a kind of test run.

The company said it was able to determine how many viewers were streaming Netflix content through audio recognition software in the 44,000 Nielsen-rated homes across the United States.

Yes. Audio recognition software. They are eavesdropping on Nielsen households, obviously with permission, and parsing exactly who is watching Netflix, and exactly when and for how long.

This is fascinating to me, but it also made me wonder about Amazon and Google. With the Amazon Echo and Google Home in more and more homes, this kind of data would be easy enough to gather. With permission, of course.

The Pixel 2 XL would be the best phone in the world if its screen wasn’t so weird

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There’s been a ton of controversy over the past few days as Pixel 2 XL reviews come in. Though some reviews are glowing, a number of reviews (here’s one launch point we posted yesterday) are taking the Pixel 2 XL to the woodshed.

Vlad Savov, The Verge:

Look at that New York Times icon in the image above. Stop flinching and really look at it, soak in the kaleidoscope of colors washing over it. Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, I’m seeing a haze of green in the middle of the gothic “T”, which then blooms into a red that eventually transitions into the white that the icon is supposed to be. But the fun isn’t over; when you get up real close, you’ll see the edges of the icon are all fringed by a sort of purply-red and, again, green. The neighboring heart icon, which is also supposed to be white, presents us with a crosshatch of red and green and white micropixels.

Click to Vlad’s review and really get up close and personal with that image. Hard to argue with his logic.

Nintendo Switch adds ability to move (not copy) save files

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If you own a Switch, you’ve no doubt wondered about the lack of save file portability. For example, if my Switch breaks, how do I recover my game progress? If my Switch is stolen, is there a recovery option? Or if I’m visiting a friend with a Switch, is there a way I can play my games on their Switch?

With other systems, I can back up my data and bring it with me. Not so with the Switch.

Until now. Sort of. Read the article. Baby steps.

Selling your MacBook Pro with Touch Bar? Apple recommends this step

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Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

If you’re selling (or generously handing down) your MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Apple recommends an extra step when erasing your data before parting ways with your machine. This step requires an obscure Terminal command that you wouldn’t assume and isn’t required on Macs without the Touch Bar.

Here’s the Apple Support document titled What to do before you sell or give away your Mac.

Check out step 6, “If you have a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, clear its data”.

Begs the question, what is specifically stored in the Touch Bar that requires cleaning? Good to know that this step is necessary, but a bit of a mystery. Anyone know the specifics? Please do ping me.

Nice find, Zac.

UPDATE: And the answer is, this script removes your Touch ID data from your Mac, as proved by Stephen Hackett, written up on this 512 Pixels post.

Goodbye Uncanny Valley

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[VIDEO] This is an amazing look at the state of the art in computer graphics, movie CGI. The video is embedded on the main Loop page.

From the Vimeo page:

It’s 2017 and computer graphics have conquered the Uncanny Valley, that strange place where things are almost real… but not quite. After decades of innovation, we’re at the point where we can conjure just about anything with software. The battle for photoreal CGI has been won, so the question is… what happens now?

I found the whole thing riveting. We are so very close to a world filled with conjured realities that are indistinguishable from real life. When that becomes our reality, what then? [H/T Kottke]

Here are Twitter’s latest rules for fighting hate and abuse

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Erin Griffith, Wired:

On Friday CEO Jack Dorsey announced plans to act more aggressively. Twitter will introduce new rules around unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence, he tweeted. To add a sense of urgency, the company is holding daily meetings on the issue.

And:

The new plans stop short of sweeping measures such as banning pornography or specific groups like Nazis. Rather, they offer expanded features such as allowing observers of unwanted sexual advances—as well as victims—to report them, and expanded definitions, such as including “creep shots” and hidden camera content under the definition of “non-consensual nudity.” The company also plans to hide hate symbols behind a “sensitive image” warning, though it has not yet defined what qualifies as a hate symbol. Twitter also says it will take unspecified enforcement actions against “organizations that use/have historically used violence as a means to advance their cause.”

Follow the link, read the email in full. I would love to see progress made here, but I’ve reluctantly filed this under “I’ll believe it when I see it”.

The mathematical genius of Auto-Tune

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Zachary Crockett, Priceonomics:

Auto-Tune — one of modern history’s most reviled inventions — was an act of mathematical genius.

The pitch correction software, which automatically calibrates out-of-tune singing to perfection, has been used on nearly every chart-topping album for the past 20 years. Along the way, it has been pilloried as the poster child of modern music’s mechanization.

And:

For inventor Andy Hildebrand, Auto-Tune was an incredibly complex product — the result of years of rigorous study, statistical computation, and the creation of algorithms previously deemed to be impossible.

And:

“The sampling synthesizers sounded like shit: if you sustained a note, it would just repeat forever,” he harps. “And the problem was that the machines didn’t hold much data.”

Hildebrand, who’d “retired” just a few months earlier, decided to take matters into his own hands. First, he created a processing algorithm that greatly condensed the audio data, allowing for a smoother, more natural-sounding sustain and timbre. Then, he packaged this algorithm into a piece of software (called Infinity), and handed it out to composers.

And:

Infinity improved digitized orchestral sounds so dramatically that it uprooted Hollywood’s music production landscape: using the software, lone composers were able to accurately recreate film scores, and directors no longer had a need to hire entire orchestras.

“I bankrupted the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” Hildebrand chuckles. “They were out of the [sample recording] business for eight years.”

Great, great read. [H/T The Overspill]

Pixel 2 reviews — disappointing screens, bad color tuning

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Rene Ritchie, iMore:

I’ve owned almost every Nexus and the original Pixel, but problems with the Pixel 2 display may force me to look elsewhere for my yearly Android fix.

I bought most of Google’s Nexus phones, starting with the Nexus One. I bought the original Pixel. I pre-ordered the Pixel 2 XL right after the event. Now I’m thinking of canceling that order. The reason? It seems like Google chose to ship bad displays on their flagship phones.

Rene follows up with a host of quotes from other reviewers, almost all from traditional Android bloggers. This was really surprising to me. I expected a best-in-class display at this price point.

Read the post, and dig into the other quoted reviews. I’m not sensing Google-bashing here, more disappointment at the screen performance from people who want to love their new Google phone.