Turn on your volume, jump to this tweet, and click to watch.
And if this open doesn’t mean anything to you, here’s the original. Pretty well done.
2018 iPad Pro models may feature TrueDepth camera for Face ID
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
iPad Pro models set to be released in 2018 will come equipped with a TrueDepth Camera and will support Face ID, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors in a note this morning.
Kuo believes Apple will add TrueDepth cameras to the iPad Pro to introduce a user experience that’s consistent with the iPhone X and boost competitiveness. With all high-end iOS devices equipped with TrueDepth Cameras, “ecosystem development” will also benefit.
Here’s the quote from Ming-Chi Kuo:
We predict iOS devices to be equipped with TrueDepth Camera in 2018F will include iPhone X and 2018 new iPhone and iPad models. Because of this, we believe more developers will pay attention to TrueDepth Camera/ facial recognition related applications. We expect Apple’s (US) major promotion of facial recognition related applications will encourage the Android camp to also dedicate more resources to developing hardware and facial recognition applications.
Love the notch. Embrace the notch.
Deadline: Apple terminates deal for Weinstein Company Elvis series amid scandal
Nellie Andreeva, Deadline:
I have learned that Apple has pulled the plug on an Elvis Presley biopic series from The Weinstein Company in light of the controversy that has engulfed TWC since last week’s explosive exposé about its co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
The article has a gossipy tone, this falls under the category of “a little birdie told me”, but it is both interesting and believable. The Weinstein Company is doing everything they can to distance themselves from this scandal.
If this story is true, Apple is bailing early in the life of the series, and pulling the plug on something that predates their deal with Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg (the team they brought in to run the Apple video division).
Twitter working on #SaveForLater tweet saving tool
Alex Kantrowitz, BuzzFeed News:
A “save for later” option is coming to Twitter.
The company is working on a bookmarking tool that will allow you to save Tweets and return to them in a dedicated section the product, its head of product Keith Coleman said in a tweet Monday.
Here’s a tweet showing the current design in action:
https://twitter.com/jesarshah/status/917538321693261824
Tap the play button in the center of the tweet to watch this prototype video.
In a nutshell, you tap the ellipsis below a tweet to bring up a Add to Bookmarks button, saving the tweet for later.
Coming to Apple Music: Bang! The Bert Berns Story
[VIDEO] This looks to be a well crafted love letter to an unsung hero of the music industry. This could be a sweet spot for Apple Music, something I’d normally associate with HBO. A bit of a niche documentary, but foundational, something that adds value to my Apple Music subscription, something I can’t get on Spotify.
The film was produced by Bert Berns’ son and premiered at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival to great acclaim. Here’s a review.
Watch the trailer embedded in the main Loop post. Drops on October 24th. My calendar is marked.
China: Another iPhone 8 swollen battery, case opening
Reuters:
On its website on Thursday, China’s state-backed ThePaper.cn cited an iPhone buyer surnamed Liu as saying his newly purchased iPhone 8 Plus arrived cracked open on Oct. 5. There was no sign of scorching or an explosion.
Liu told ThePaper he bought the handset through online marketplace of JD.com Inc. He said he did not charge the new device and returned it to the seller.
Pictures taken by Liu and displayed on ThePaper’s website showed an iPhone 8 plus split open along the side featuring the sim card holding, with the phone’s internal parts visible.
Puzzling. Just enough cases to make this more than a one-off, but does not appear to be widespread. Should be easy enough to tell if this is an issue with a specific part of the supply chain.
Apple reveals new emoji for iPhone and iPad
Apple press release:
Hundreds of new emoji, including more emotive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters, clothing options, food types, animals, mythical creatures and more, are coming to iPhone and iPad with iOS 11.1.
The new emoji are gorgeous. To me, they harken back to the days of skeuomorphism. Jarring to see the shiny, shadowed, 3D emoji next to the intentionally flat iOS interface. Which way are we going?
No matter, head over to the Apple press release, check out the emoji for yourself. A vampire!
Researchers: Uber’s iOS app had secret permissions that allowed it to record your iPhone screen
Kate Conger, Gizmodo:
To improve functionality between Uber’s app and the Apple Watch, Apple allowed Uber to use a powerful tool that could record a user’s iPhone screen, even if Uber’s app was only running in the background, security researchers told Gizmodo. After the researchers discovered the tool, Uber said it is no longer in use and will be removed from the app.
My head is spinning. How was this allowed to happen in the first place and how was the tool not monitored, removal tracked and forced by Apple?
More:
The entitlement isn’t common and would require Apple’s explicit permission to use, the researchers explained. Will Strafach, a security researcher and CEO of Sudo Security Group, said he couldn’t find any other apps with the entitlement live on the App Store.
I’d love an official comment by Apple on this. Was this a one time thing? Is this common practice?
A-Ha, live unplugged performance of Take On Me, last week
If the headline means nothing to you, take a moment to immerse yourself in this (at the time) groundbreaking video, listen to the musical earworm that took over the world in 1984, the year the Mac was born.
Back? OK, now fast forward to last week, when A-Ha got together to perform an unplugged version of the song, slow enough that you can actually follow the lyrics. That video is embedded in the main Loop post.
Such a voice! Want a version with the original beat and a bit more falsetto? Here ya go.
EFF: iOS 11’s misleading “off-ish” Bluetooth, Wi-Fi setting bad for user security
Electronic Frontier Foundation blog:
Turning off your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios when you’re not using them is good security practice (not to mention good for your battery usage). When you consider Bluetooth’s known vulnerabilities, it’s especially important to make sure your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi settings are doing what you want them to. The iPhone’s newest operating system, however, makes it harder for users to control these settings.
We’ve discussed the Control Center controls and icons in this Loop post.
In a nutshell, when you tap the WiFi or Bluetooth icons in Control Center, you’ll drop/restore the current connection, but without turning off the respective radio. And that’s the EFF’s complaint.
Instead, what actually happens in iOS 11 when you toggle your quick settings to “off” is that the phone will disconnect from Wi-Fi networks and some devices, but remain on for Apple services. Location Services is still enabled, Apple devices (like Apple Watch and Pencil) stay connected, and services such as Handoff and Instant Hotspot stay on.
All true.
Apple’s UI fails to even attempt to communicate these exceptions to its users.
A small point, but I disagree with this. Once you see the difference between the off icon state and the disconnected state, it’s clear what’s going on. There’s also helper text, like “Disconnected from XXX”, where XXX is your WiFi network name.
The more important issue:
It gets even worse. When you toggle these settings in the Control Center to what is best described as”off-ish,” they don’t stay that way. The Wi-Fi will turn back full-on if you drive or walk to a new location. And both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will turn back on at 5:00 AM. This is not clearly explained to users, nor left to them to choose, which makes security-aware users vulnerable as well.
The only way to turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios is to enable Airplane Mode or navigate into Settings and go to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth sections.
My two cents? Make the controls default to the safest possible behavior, then expose settings that allow me to go to a more relaxed, less secure state for a specific benefit (battery savings, better communications, etc.)
UPDATE: As pointed out by my unrelated name-sharer and Loop reader Jason Mark, Airplane Mode does not impact the WiFi or Bluetooth radios, as EFF claims. An easy mistake, but worth clarifying. Give this a try on your iOS 11 device.
Every noise at once
Pop on some headphones and take some time to explore. This is pretty much every musical genre I’ve ever encountered.
For most (but not all) genres, a click on the name will play a short snippet example. Click on the arrow to the right of the name and you’ll go to that genre’s page, with a pretty significant listing of artists in that space.
Click on an artist, you’ll hear a snippet. Click on the arrow to the right of the artist, you’ll go to that artist’s Spotify page.
From the footnote:
This is an ongoing attempt at an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space, based on data tracked and analyzed for 1536 genres by Spotify. The calibration is fuzzy, but in general down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.
And (my favorite):
Be calmly aware that this may periodically expand, contract or combust.
I absolutely loved playing with this. Was thinking, I wish Apple Music offered me a system like this for music discovery. I know there are apps that do this, but none has access to my “For You” data. I’d love to spend some time in a tree like this, personalizing and improving my “For You” model so Apple Music actually has a true sense of what I like.
Ten Safari long-press shortcuts for iPhone and iPad
Fantastic collection from 9to5Mac’s Benjamin Mayo. Even if you know every single one of these, this makes an excellent refresher.
Google puts clock on free Photos storage
Ryan Whitwam, Android Police, quoting the Pixel 2 product page fine print on the Google Store:
Free, unlimited original-quality storage for photos and videos taken with Pixel through the end of 2020, and free, unlimited high-quality storage for photos taken with Pixel afterwards.
There’s been a lot of discussion about exactly what this means. At the very least, if you want to keep taking uncompressed, original-quality pictures past the cutoff date at the end of 2020, you’ll need to start paying for storage. What is unclear is what that means for all the original-quality photos you’ve already placed on the Google Photos servers. Will they continue to be stored for free? Will you have to pay for those, too?
To be clear, I have no issue paying for the storage. Apple, after all, charges for iCloud storage already. Just looking for clarification.
Someone at Google know the details? Please let me know and I’ll update the post.
[H/T Oliver Thomas]
UPDATE: Someone at Google reached out to clarify this issue. As fair a response as I could have hoped for. Here’s the Q&A:
- Me: If I have original-quality photos stored for free, what happens to them once the end of 2020 deadline passes? Do they get deleted? Compressed? Do they stay there but I lose access to them unless I pay for enough storage so they fit?
- Google: They remain at original quality, for free. The change is only for taken photos thereafter.
As I read this, you can take all the original-quality (non-compressed) photos you want and they will always be available, non-compressed. Once the deadline passes, you’ll have a decision to make that only impacts photos taken after the deadline. Those post-deadline pics will be limited by the tier you choose after the deadline. Make sense?
Thoughts on new Google phone, PixelBuds
Lots of news from Google yesterday. Among the product announcements are a pair of new phones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, and an AirPods-like set of wireless earbuds, the PixelBuds.
A few thoughts: […]
Details on the iPhone X notch interface
A detailed post from Max Rudberg, lots of pictures, makes me feel more comfortable with the notch itself and how it might look in different situations.
A few highlights:
Regardless of your feelings for the notch, the reality is that to do a near edge-to-edge screen on a phone in 2017; you need to make place for sensors and speaker. The technology to hide them behind the screen simply is not here. We’ve seen different manufacturers choose different solutions to the problem. This is the one Apple chose, so let’s work with what we got.
That last bit is exactly right. These are the cards we’ve been dealt. Let’s work with that.
The familiar 20 pt tall status bar, the same height it’s been since the first iPhone, is now 44 pt tall on iPhone X.
That’s more than twice the height but, of course, it’s now split in two. Not our space to play with, so no reason for developers to worry through what will fit in the so-called horns.
If nothing else, just scroll through all the examples. This is the (at least short term) future.
[H/T Fabrice Dubois
The amazing story of an emerging GIF empire
Nicole Laporte, Fast Company, on GIFs and the Emmys:
Then came the night’s biggest, and most controversial, moment: Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer rolled a faux presidential podium onto the stage to deliver a send-up of his infamous “largest audience” speech he gave the day after President Trump’s inauguration. Immediately, the Giphy crew began to splice the scene into GIF form. Part of Giphy’s genius lies in not posting the obvious clip, so Spicer himself wasn’t of much interest. Rather, they surveyed the sea of shocked and bewildered faces in the audience, looking for gold. They found it in Veep‘s Anna Chlumsky, her entire body contorted into an OMG expression—eyes bulging, neck veins popping—as she craned out of her seat for a better view of the strange performance. Within minutes, the editors had the three-second clip uploaded onto Giphy. It began to trend almost immediately. A week after the show, it’d been viewed more than 13 million times.
This is one corner of the future. Keep your eye on Giphy. I predict big things in their future.
In the meantime, this is a fascinating read, all the way through.
Inspiration: Leaving your full time job to become an iOS indie
John Voorhees just celebrated a major milestone in his life. He left his full time job as a lawyer to dedicated himself to his indie empire, as a developer, podcaster, and blogger. If you’ve ever had similar thoughts, this is an inspirational read.
One tiny nugget, where John talks about that moment when his app got Federico Viticci’s attention:
As the end of 2014 approached, I made a mad dash to finish Blink. By this point, I had managed to get Federico’s attention when I’d posted a late-night teaser video on Twitter of my URL schemes in action. Five minutes later, he sent me a direct message:
And Federico’s response:
Oh man, wow. Please make this universal and let me in the beta as soon as possible! ❤
@viticci November 5, 2014
This is a wonderful read. I have to say, stories like this make me really glad to be a part of this particular community.
MLB pilot program uses iPhone and Apple Watch for contactless stadium entry
Fitz Tepper, TechCrunch:
Today the MLB announced that the Oakland Athletics are piloting a new NFC ticketing solution which lets fans enter the stadium by tapping their phone (or Apple Watch) to a ticket scanner – just like you’d do to use Apple Pay.
And:
The pilot lasted for a six-game homestand starting Sept. 22nd after iOS 11 launched, and was the first time a professional sports event supported contactless tickets in Apple Wallet.
This is big for Apple Pay, Apple Watch, and Apple Wallet. I’d expect this to roll out to more, if not all teams next season. Just a matter of time before this moves to other sports, as well.
Smart profile of Apple’s commitment to silicon
Horace Dediu, Asymco:
The Apple A11 Bionic processor has 4.3 billion transistors, six cores and an Apple custom GPU using a 10nm FinFET technology. Its performance appears to be almost double that of competitors and in some benchmarks exceeds the performance of current laptop PCs.
And:
Apple has come to the point where is dominates the processor space. But they have not stopped at processors. The effort now spans all manners of silicon including controllers for displays, storage, sensors and batteries. The S series in the Apple Watch the haptic T series in the MacBook, the wireless W series in AirPods are ongoing efforts. The GPU was conquered in the past year. Litigation with Qualcomm suggests the communications stack is next.
A name you’ll be hearing more and more of is the person who runs this silicon engineering effort for Apple, Johny Srouji. This is a great read.
Who is planning to buy which new iPhones?
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Of the 832 individuals surveyed, 28 percent said they plan to purchase iPhone X as their next smartphone. An additional 20 percent of respondents said they intend to buy iPhone 8 Plus, while 17 percent will go for iPhone 8.
Lots of intent numbers to process. Small survey size, but not hard to see this as representative.
Interesting to see how many people have their eye on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Laurene Powell Jobs buying big stake in Wizards, Capitals sports empire
Washington Post:
Laurene Powell Jobs, a billionaire philanthropist, entrepreneur and president of the Emerson Collective, is buying a significant stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a sprawling $2.5 billion complex that includes the NBA Wizards, NHL Capitals and Capital One Arena, people familiar with the deal said.
And:
Through her sizable investment, Powell Jobs instantly commands an influential position in the male-dominated ownership circles of the “Big Four” professional sports leagues. Very few women’s names stand atop the ownership list of the NBA’s 30 franchises: Jeanie Buss of the Los Angeles Lakers, Ann Walton Kroenke of the Denver Nuggets and Gail Miller of the Utah Jazz.
And:
Powell Jobs, 53, is one of the wealthiest women in the world, estimated to be worth about $20 billion. Much of that comes from her stock in Apple, the iconic company co-founded by her late husband Steve Jobs, who died in 2011. She also owns 4 percent of the Walt Disney Company.
This is a big, bold move by Laurene Powell Jobs, a follow-up to her nonprofit’s purchase of the Atlantic Magazine and bringing her that much closer to the Washington DC area and to the so-called corridors of power.
iOS 11: Secret features you’re probably not using
Not sure about the secret part, but this is an excellent list of little known and very useful features.
The “truth” about Amazon Prime Video on Apple TV
Reddit post from an account named AmazonVideoEngineer:
Wanted to make this throwaway account after yesterday’s debacle. I saw many people get upset so I wanted to issue this warning: do not expect Amazon to launch before October 26th. The app is done, and has been done for months already. However there are a lot of politics going on beyond my pay grade that are pushing the launch back. And just to clarify, October 26 is the earliest I would expect it. Launch could be pushed well into November.
No way to know if this is fake or not, but it is definitely interesting. Read the whole page for back and forth questions with the alleged engineer. Fascinating. Take with a grain of salt.
UPDATE: I’ve been asked about the reference to “yesterday’s debacle”. I am still looking for a response, but I believe the reference is to last week when Amazon dropped the Apple TV from Amazon.com. As of this post, the Apple TV is still MIA on Amazon’s site.
Why Apple should buy Sony
Frederic Filloux, Monday Note:
Access to superior image sensors, a giant entertainment library and the PlayStation ecosystem… By any measure, Apple acquiring Sony makes a lot of sense.
I’ve heard this argument floated before, but without the “access to superior image sensors” logic. Camera hardware is only becoming more important to Apple and iPhone over time. Interesting post.
Two great new features found in iOS 11 search
Hat tip to Fabrice Dubois for uncovering these two gems in iOS 11’s search. To bring up the search field, as always, press the home button to return to Springboard (the iOS equivalent of the Finder), then pull down to reveal the search field.
With search open, type in a word and search results will show its definition, like so:
And, even better, the search field is now open to catching spelling errors.
To see this one for yourself, open search and start typing fadebook (note the “d” instead of the “c”) or protos instead of photos.
Not sure when typo handling and definition suggestion first shipped, but they’re both nice to see.
Thoughts on Joshua Topolsky’s “Apple is really bad at design” essay
I find it remarkable when people write with judgment, with venom. Joshua Topolsky’s “Apple is really bad at design” post is full of both.
Some thoughts on his […]
Apple TV 4K review
Solid review from Apple Insider. My concerns are about functionality and price. Read on for details. […]
Nikkei Asian Review: Apple to switch Macs from Intel to ARM
Nikkei Asian Review, first on Apple rolling their own modem chip:
Two other chip industry executives also echoed Li’s view that Apple will develop its own modem chips or at least boost its related capabilities – a view bolstered by Apple’s poaching top Qualcomm modem chip engineer Esin Terzioglu earlier this year.
But Li added it is was unlikely that Apple could quickly roll out such components within two years. Modem chips have a very high threshold to develop and need to fulfill requirements of different operators worldwide.
A veteran chip industry executive estimates that it would require more than a minimum one thousand engineers to work on such a project.
As far as Macs go:
Core processor chips for the MacBook range is another area Apple is trying to venture into.
Two industry sources say that Apple is trying to cut its dependence on Intel when it comes to notebook chips and instead build those using ARM architecture, referring to the SoftBank-controlled British chip designer.
“Notebooks are becoming thinner, while consumers are demanding better mobility and longer battery life. That gives ARM’s architecture, which is known for its power efficiency, a very good opportunity,” a chip industry executive said.
And:
Apple also aims to design its own chips that could integrate touch, fingerprint and display driver functions, sources say.
“Apple has hired engineers from Taiwan’s No. 1 display-driver chip designers Novatek and panel makers of AU Optronics as it wants to control next-generation display technology and some related key components,” said a Taiwanese chip industry manager.
Apple switching Macs to ARM chips has long been a topic of speculation. And there are significant technical hurdles to overcome. Interesting, but take with a grain of salt.
Studio Ghibli in real life
[VIDEO] If you are a fan of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki films like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howl’s Moving Castle, you will definitely recognize the style of this video (embedded in the main Loop post). Beautifully done.
How to zoom an Apple Map with one finger
I love this tip. Here’s how to do it:
- Bring up Apple Maps.
- Double-tap in the map, but on the second tap, don’t lift your finger. So tap-lift-tap-leave.
- Now slide up or down to zoom in and out.
This also works with Google Maps but, interestingly, it works the exact opposite way. On Google Maps, slide up to zoom out, down to zoom in.
Here’s an Apple Support document that contains this tip and a ton more iOS 11 chewy goodness. [H/T Fabrice Dubois]