Why you can’t find your original Photos files

Written by

Glenn Fleishman, Macworld:

Photos, like iTunes and iMovie, doesn’t have a great way for you to access the media and other items that it manages, but there are some workarounds.

Apple gradually changed its app design to rely on library “files,” which are a special kind of folder, called a package. To the Finder, and for the purposes of copying and moving items, the library is a single folder. Inside, it contains all the sausage-making ingredients used by the apps, including original media files, modified ones (in the cases of Photos), project components, and one or more databases that track what’s inside the library.

Packages have been around forever. As Glenn says, this is a change in the way iPhoto and Photos stored their media.

Part of this is due to the nature of that media. Used to be, all photos produced a single jpeg. Over time, things got complicated, with live photos, bursts, undoable image editing, etc. Hard to not wrap that sausage making in a package.

Apple’s financial results: The Charts

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As he does, Jason Snell pulled together a host of charts laying out Apple’s financial results six ways from Sunday. Lots to process here.

My favorite is the very last chart, Apple revenue by product category. Some things I see:

  • Look at the difference between iPhone and the rest of the revenue categories. Great visual snapshot showing the incredible importance of the iPhone to Apple.
  • Look how tightly clustered the iPad, Mac, and Services are. They all depend on iPhone as an anchor, but all make critical contributions to the ecosystem and bottom line. Good to see the relative contribution of the Mac there.
  • Interesting how the labels were done. Each label was placed on an outlying part of its labeled line. Works well. Wondering if this was Jason’s handwork, or a smart chart app. Either way, nice detail.

Great work, Jason. Thanks.

Steve Bartman receives 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series Championship ring

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Amazing. If this headline didn’t mean anything to you, this from the Steve Bartman incident Wikipedia page:

The incident occurred in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), with Chicago ahead 3–0 and holding a three games to two lead in the best of seven series. Moisés Alou attempted to catch a foul ball off the bat of Marlins second baseman Luis Castillo. Bartman reached for the ball, deflected it, and disrupted the potential catch.

That moment was seen as a huge turning point in the Cubs fortunes. Instead of holding on to the lead and moving on to the World Series (at the time, the Cubs had the longest World Series draught in baseball), the Cubs went on to give up 8 runs in the inning, lose the game, then lose the next game, ending their World Series hopes.

This was a huge story at the time, with Bartman’s life being turned upside down. Huge blame was heaped on him by an entire city. Remarkable and terrible.

The Cubs giving Steve Bartman a World Series ring is a terrific act of forgiveness.

Apple and Google pull hundreds of trading apps from stores over fears of financial scams

Written by

The Independent:

Apple and Google have removed hundreds of trading apps from their online stores after an intervention by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to crack down on online fraud.

In a statement on Tuesday, ASIC said it had conducted a sweeping review of mobile app stores focusing on those associated with so-called binary options trading. It said that the review highlighted over 330 apps that were offered by entities and individuals that appeared to be unlicensed.

Terrible scam, some reports of people losing their life savings.

Learning to draw icons: Marc Edwards’ excellent vector speed runs

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A few months ago, I posted a link to an article with a small series of vector speed runs, animated GIFs showing how to use a drawing program, like Adobe Illustrator, to quickly create various icons.

The author, Marc Edwards, has since significantly increased his portfolio and gathered them on a single page. If you are interested in learning how to draw in this way, or if you spend any time creating icons, bookmark this page and spend some time watching Marc’s technique.

This is a wonderful contribution to the community. Please pass it along.

More evidence that Apple is building its own cellular modem

Written by

Motley Fool:

Apple is also the only major smartphone manufacturer left that uses standalone modems. Other smartphone vendors use either integrated applications processor and baseband solutions from third parties (e.g., Qualcomm) or make their own integrated parts (e.g., Samsung and Huawei).

And:

On Apple’s job board, the company says it’s looking for a “Sr. Digital IC (PHY) Design Engineer.” Under the “job summary” section of the listing, Apple says the individual chosen for this position “will be part of a silicon design group responsible for digital baseband logic design in state-of-the-art wireless ICs.”

That’s not the only related listing on the company’s job board. Apple also has multiple positions related to RFIC design and layout. RFIC stands for “radio frequency integrated circuit.”

In another listing — this time for a “Sr. RFIC Design Engineer” — Apple says whoever fills the position “will be at the center of a wireless SoC [system-on-a-chip] design group.”

Tricky business, but follows the pattern of Apple trying to own as much of the stack as possible.

How much will the new iPhone cost?

Written by

Horace Dediu:

The evidence suggests that Apple prefers to keep average pricing for all products constant. Individual variants are priced so that, as the category matures, the changing mix leads to consistency in price ownership.

Thus the iPhone can be seen as controlling the $650 point, the Mac $1200, the iPod $200 and the iPad $450. This pricing signals the product’s value and the value of the brand.

The signaling is not just to buyers but also to competitors. Ownership of price forces competitors to occupy adjacent brackets.

And:

The overall pattern looks like a staircase with a widening price range where the lowest price remains constant and the upper price rises every three years by $100.

The “floor” of the range is a consistent $400 while the “ceiling” has expanded from $700 to about $950.

This year’s ceiling is due for the fourth leg up and if the pattern persists, we should expect it to reach $1100.

Interesting look at Apple’s pricing models.

This afternoon’s Apple earnings call

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Apple announces their third quarter financial results, via converence call, today at 2p PT, 5p ET. You can listen live on Apple’s official earnings call page.

For your reading pleasure:

And:

Key is Apple’s forecast for the fourth quarter. From Dan Frommer’s post:

It’s the mid-year trough of the current iPhone cycle, so expectations are modest. Wall Street expects Apple to report $44.9 billion of June quarter revenue, representing 6 percent year over year growth. That’s somewhere around 40-41 million iPhone shipments for the quarter, with some analysts — notably, Above Avalon’s Neil Cybart, at 38.8 million — expecting fewer.

But the real question is how Apple will forecast its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in September — and carries some clues for this year’s iPhone launch timing.

Most years, the new iPhone launches in late September, with a nice, big launch weekend or two of shipments to end the quarter. This year, however, there’s buzz that the anticipated super-high-end flagship iPhone might not launch until October or later, and could ship in limited quantities.

Some big fourth quarter clues coming today.

HomePod firmware points to face detection, new bezel-less design in upcoming iPhones

Written by

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

Last week, Apple released the first build of the upcoming HomePod’s firmware, allowing curious developers to unpack the code and learn a few additional details about the smart speaker. Now, developer Steve Troughton-Smith has discovered code that seemingly confirms that the upcoming iPhone will support face unlock…

Smith explains that the code indicates the existence of infra-red face unlock in BiometricKit, which is the framework responsible for Touch ID. The code further suggests that Apple’s face unlock feature will be able to detect partially occluded face and faces from various angles. The codename for the project Pearl ID.

Here’s the Tweet that confirms infra-red face unlock:

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/891841607728844801

And this one shows off the bezel-less form factor:

https://twitter.com/_inside/status/891841836754644992

Very interesting. The reaction to this seems to be, the release of this specific information was not intentional. Hope this doesn’t cost someone their job. None of this is truly new information, more slightly more of a confirmation of what was already known.

Jean-Louis Gassée’s salute to Walt Mossberg

Written by

Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

Weeks ago, Walt Mossberg, arguably the most influential, most respected for his integrity (not the same thing) tech columnist announced his retirement at a young 70. Today, I salute his exemplary career, and remember the “good old days” of traditional newspapers. And I also wonder what led to his decision.

And:

Mossberg rose to the pinnacle of his profession through a deft mix of technical competence and keen understanding of business issues. His unintimidated scrutiny of tech titans and thoughtful analyses of budding entrepreneurs and their toys won him the respect (some say fear) of the technocracy…but the tech ‘players’ were never his audience. Mossberg was driven by his advocacy for the common computer user.

And:

“Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it isn’t your fault.”

That last really sums it up well. Terrific read. Miss you, Walt.

Apple removes VPN Apps from China App Store

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ExpressVPN blog:

We received notification from Apple today, July 29, 2017, at roughly 04:00 GMT, that the ExpressVPN iOS app was removed from the China App Store. Our preliminary research indicates that all major VPN apps for iOS have been removed.

Users in China accessing a different territory’s App Store (i.e. they have indicated their billing address to be outside of China) are not impacted; they can download the iOS app and continue to receive updates as before.

And:

We’re disappointed in this development, as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China’s censorship efforts. ExpressVPN strongly condemns these measures, which threaten free speech and civil liberties.

Apple’s notice to VPN developers in the China App Store says, in part:

We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China.

Ex-Google Senior VP Vic Gundotra: “If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone”

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From ex-Google Senior VP Vic Gundotra’s Facebook post:

The end of the DSLR for most people has already arrived. I left my professional camera at home and took these shots at dinner with my iPhone 7 using computational photography (portrait mode as Apple calls it). Hard not to call these results (in a restaurant, taken on a mobile phone with no flash) stunning. Great job Apple.

And:

Here is the problem: It’s Android. Android is an open source (mostly) operating system that has to be neutral to all parties. This sounds good until you get into the details. Ever wonder why a Samsung phone has a confused and bewildering array of photo options? Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera? Samsung gallery or Google Photos?

It’s because when Samsung innovates with the underlying hardware (like a better camera) they have to convince Google to allow that innovation to be surfaced to other applications via the appropriate API. That can take YEARS.

And:

Also the greatest innovation isn’t even happening at the hardware level – it’s happening at the computational photography level. (Google was crushing this 5 years ago – they had had “auto awesome” that used AI techniques to automatically remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, add vignetting, etc… but recently Google has fallen back).

Apple doesn’t have all these constraints. They innovate in the underlying hardware, and just simply update the software with their latest innovations (like portrait mode) and ship it.

And:

Bottom line: If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android.

Pandora shuts down in Australia and New Zealand after 5 years

Written by

Music Business Worldwide:

Pandora’s run in Australasia has come to an end.

The digital radio company, which launched in Australia and New Zealand in 2012, is officially closing down its app and website in the territories on Monday (July 31).

Approximately 5m registered customers in the region will be locked out of their accounts, having received a message from Pandora which tells them: “We’re honored to have connected so many listeners with the music they love these past few years. Thank you for your loyalty and the opportunity to serve you.”

The cost-cutting move will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on Pandora’s global active monthly listener count, which was last officially pegged at 76.7m in Q1.

Pandora is shifting all their resources to focus on the US market.

Everyone can code: An encounter with Swift Playgrounds

Written by

Jordan Smith:

A few days ago my wife expressed an interest in learning how to code. ‘Really..? Sure!’, I said. ‘You should check out an app called Swift Playgrounds’.

And:

I hadn’t tried the app myself, but Apple made a big deal of introducing it last year, and I had heard positive things – so it seemed like a good suggestion.

It didn’t take long to get the app installed, and as Joelle (my wife) started the first lesson, my curiosity turned to fascination. Yes, the app was fun, exciting, and engaging, but that wasn’t it. Despite a few rough edges, Swift Playgrounds made coding seem approachable, perhaps even ordinary. As if by magic, coding had become something that everyone can do.

Read on. What follows is a detailed post mortem and analysis of Joelle’s experience and Jordan’s take on what worked and what might be improved.

A powerful, yet easy to use, songwriting app

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Interested in songwriting? Check out the Chasing Sound review of an app called Tab Bank. Tab Bank uses plain text and Chord Pro formatting to make it easy to lay out lyrics, chords, and tabs.

This looks great.

Apple Glasses are inevitable

Written by

Neil Cybart:

All of the pieces are coming together for Apple to sell glasses. Using fashion and luxury lessons learned from selling Apple Watch, Apple will enter the glasses industry and in the process launch its first product category designed specifically for the augmented reality (AR) era. While ARKit has taken the world by storm, the development platform is already making it clear that new form factors are needed to take full advantage of AR. It is no longer a question of if, but when, Apple will use AR to rethink glasses.

And:

It cannot be overstated how clearer vision is one of the most value-add items a product can provide to its user. There aren’t too many gadgets or devices that would be selected over a smartphone in terms of its importance in our lives. However, corrective lenses would certainly be at the top of the list for many people.

And:

Glasses also provide a different kind of utility than clearer vision. A growing number of people are wearing glasses despite having perfect vision. Glasses are increasingly becoming accessories for the face, a fashion item complimenting a particular outfit, haircut, or even social occasion.

That last bit is critical to the logic chain here. Apple knows how to make good looking accessories, they understand the value of design and know how to marry that design with the practicality of mass production and the necessity of the highest technology.

Apple glasses, combined with AirPods (or some combination of both) will be an interesting and, perhaps, market changing force.

Thoughtful writing from Neil Cybart, well worth your time.

Twitter fails to grow user base. Shares tumble. Do either of these matter?

Written by

Bloomberg:

Twitter Inc. failed to attract more monthly users in the second quarter, spooking investors looking for evidence that the company is on a sustainable long-term growth path. The shares tumbled the most in nine months, even as quarterly revenue topped analysts’ projections.

A long-term turnaround depends on Twitter expanding its audience. That number stands at 328 million monthly active users.

Twitter has 328 million users. That’s a huge audience, by most standards. If you are an investor, the desire for growth is understandable.

But if you are a Twitter user, does growth matter? Does revenue matter?

As long as Twitter makes enough money to keep paying their bills without completely bastardizing the user experience, neither should matter. The question is, how will Twitter management react to pressure from these spooked investors. Will advertising creep upwards? Will the basic mechanics change in a quest to make Twitter pay?

I hope not. Personally, I’m a fan of the existing model.

100+ features new to iOS 11 Beta 4

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[VIDEO] Not to be outdone by the earlier 50+ post, this video (embedded in the main Loop post) walks through the new stuff that arrived with the latest beta. Kudos to the iOS team. Some prolific work.

Man accused of smuggling king cobras in potato chip cans

Written by

You know that thing where you open a canister of peanuts and a spring loaded snake pops out, scaring the heck out of you?

Take a look at the second picture in the linked story. I will never ever open a Pringles can again without first shaking it.

Creepy.

The 50+ best features in iOS 11

Written by

Jonny Evans, writing for Computerworld, digs through iOS 11 for all the new shiny. A good list.

Though there is a lot of great stuff to choose from, my two favorites are ARKit (which I write about a lot) and Siri Translate.

If you have the iOS 11 beta installed, give Siri Translate a try. For example, tell Siri:

Translate where is the nearest train station into Italian

Siri will present the translated text, and then speak the translated text in Italian. There’s a play button, so you can play the translation over and over again. Gives you a chance to work on your pronunciation or to play with audio for a native speaker. I do a lot of traveling, and this is like magic to me.

There are still a few glitches, but this is incredibly strong work for a new feature, let alone a beta.

Hands-on with iOS 11’s new Document Scanner

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[VIDEO] Apple Insider takes you on a tour of the new document scanner, a new Notes feature that ships in iOS 11.

One thing that struck me is the connection to ARKit, the ability to recognize objects. ARKit is such a huge innovation. It’s impact will be felt far and wide. Click over to the main Loop post for the video.

Apple employee Trent Reznor, in conversation

Written by

This Vulture interview is just filled with anecdotes and personal observations. Very interesting. A few examples that struck me:

I remember the Prodigy bulletin board and being fascinated to see there was a Nine Inch Nails room. The promise of that kind of interaction with fans was exciting. The consequences of how that interaction has evolved have not been.

And:

David Bowie was a fucking alien, you know? As it happens, he was a fucking alien. I was lucky enough to be friends with him and he was even cooler than I’d thought. But demystification is a real problem. There’ve been people whose music I can’t like anymore because I’ve seen them bitching on Twitter about a waiter like a fucking asshole.

And:

The economics of music aren’t what they should be, and the culture isn’t giving the arts its fair due, but humans are always going to respond to emotion and storytelling. I believe that as much as I ever did. More, even.

And:

Just this morning, me and my two older boys were sitting in the hotel restaurant. Their mom has played the new EP for them a couple times. They’re like, “My favorite song is ‘Less Than’.” That’s sweet, but then I’m thinking, Don’t I say ‘fuck’ in that one? Same thing when they were at sound check: What song don’t I say ‘fuck’ in? I’ll tell you another thing I think about: I’m now thrust into adult events — school things with other parents, and just … You’re not really thinking about how lyrics that seemed cool at the time are going to register with parents at your kid’s school 20 years later.

I love the depth of the interview. Nice and long, gives Reznor a chance to ramble, to really express himself.

The drone company that fell to Earth

Written by

Wired:

Using a combination of a GPS tracking system and visual recognition, the pair designed the camera drone to follow users wherever they went—like magic, without the need for a remote control.

And:

It seemed like his company was going stratospheric. The previous year, Lily Drone had enchanted Silicon Valley and beyond. In 2016, the Wall Street Journal put it on its list of products “that will change your life.” Balaresque and Bradlow were named in Fortune’s 30 Under 30. Facebook buzzed with excitement, and people eagerly placed $499 preorders, imagining the drone on family trips and skiing adventures.

But:

Just a few months after this presentation, by January 2017, the headlines had changed. “Drone Startup Abruptly Shuts Down.” “Is Lily Robotics the Theranos of the Drone World?” Lily Drones was now “hyped,” “collapsing,” and “failed.” Preorder customers bemoaned their losses on the internet. Those who hadn’t ordered gloated. In early 2017, the company declared bankruptcy and was sued by the San Francisco District Attorney’s office for false advertising.

Fantastic read, a real cautionary tale.

Foxconn announces $10 billion investment in Wisconsin and up to 13,000 jobs

Written by

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Foxconn Technology Group announced at the White House Wednesday its plans to invest $10 billion to build a massive display panel plant in Wisconsin that could employ up to 13,000 workers but would require up to $3 billion in subsidies from state taxpayers.

And:

At 20 million square feet, the factory would be three times the size of the Pentagon, making it one of the largest manufacturing campuses in the nation. It would initially employ 3,000 workers making an average of $53,900 a year.

Interesting. Not a single mention of Apple.

Apple’s newest Apple Music commercial plays to NASCAR and country music fans

Written by

[VIDEO] Billboard:

Brantley Gilbert made the most of an opportunity on July 23, debuting a new, 60-second black-and-white Apple Music commercial during a NASCAR race that bore his name this year, the Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400.

The spot will likely appeal to fans of both country and rock, two genres that trail pop and hip-hop in the penetration of streaming services. Shot over two days near Leiper’s Fork, Tenn., the video incorporates images of a wide-open field, motorcycles on a country road, rural neighbors in a small-town diner and an American flag, backed by snippets of Gilbert’s current single, “The Ones That Like Me,” plus Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle” and Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.” Other acts whose names are visible in Gilbert’s playlist include Johnny Cash, Metallica and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Apple Music touts a three-month free trial in the spot, after Gilbert delivers a simple hook: “My country. My people. My music. Apple Music.”

The feel of the commercial is spot on. Click over to the main Loop post and watch for yourself.

How Jony Ive masterminded Apple’s new headquarters

Written by

Christina Passariello, WSJ. Magazine:

Apple Park is unlike any other product Ive has worked on. There will be only one campus—in contrast to the ubiquity of Apple’s phones and computers—and it doesn’t fit in a pocket or a hand. Yet Ive applied the same design process he brings to technological devices: prototyping to minimize any issues with the end result and to narrow what he calls the delta between the vision and the reality of a project. Apple Park is also the last major project Ive worked on with Steve Jobs, making it more personal for the man Jobs once called his “spiritual partner.”

So far, so good. But:

With Apple Park, Ive is ensconced as master of the house, which means he has also inherited the burden of proving that Apple’s best days aren’t behind it. Apple hasn’t had a breakthrough product since Jobs died. The iPhone’s sales growth has stalled, and expectations are high that a 10th-anniversary phone will arrive later this year and will be markedly more advanced than previous versions. In other technologies, from digital assistants to driverless vehicles to augmented and virtual reality, Apple seems to lag other tech giants, including Google, Amazon and Tesla. Its new voice-activated speaker, HomePod, unveiled in June, will arrive on the market in December, three years after Amazon’s Echo.

This “what have you done for me lately” journalism does a disservice, is incredibly shortsighted. Products like Apple Watch and AirPods aside, spend some time with ARKit to see a true breakthrough at work, a technology that will enable a generation of developers to stand on the shoulder of giants, to build things that would have been impractical, if not impossible before.

But I digress:

Like other Ive designs, Apple Park seems poised to become an icon. In an acknowledgement that the campus will attract interest beyond its employees, there will be a visitor center and a store selling items unique to Apple Park.

And:

Ive joined Apple half a lifetime ago, in his mid-20s, when the company was at the brink of death. One of his early designs, the candy-colored iMac, was rejected by executives. Ive stashed it away until Jobs returned to the company in 1997, after a 12-year hiatus; it became an instant point of connection between the two men and was put into production soon thereafter.

And:

When J.J. Abrams was working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ive mentioned that he “would love to see a lightsaber that is rougher, spitting sparks,” Abrams says. The director, who says he and Ive were already fans of each other’s work when they met at a dinner four years ago, applied Ive’s suggestion to character Kylo Ren’s weapon. “His lightsaber was as imperfect and unpredictable as the character,” says Abrams. (The inspiration is mutual: Ive told Abrams that he had the look of the original Stormtroopers in mind when he designed Apple’s earbuds.)

These quotes are just the tip of the iceberg. The article goes on to highlight many features of Apple Park intercut with quotes from Laurene Powell Jobs, Sir Jony, and Tim Cook. This is worth reading, worth the price of a Wall Street Journal subscription, or a trip to your newsstand to pick up a paper copy of the WSJ. Magazine (this is this week’s cover story).

Foxconn decision to invest in Wisconsin said to be announced Wednesday evening

Written by

Dave here. I’ve been reading the Wisconsin papers as of late. The state is going gaga over the likelihood that Foxconn will build and operate a factory somewhere in the state.

From this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article:

Foxconn Technology Group will make a midweek announcement in Milwaukee that Wisconsin is the company’s choice, or at least its leading choice, for a huge new electronics factory, a source told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.

And:

A second source separately told the Journal Sentinel that Foxconn would announce its plans for Wisconsin this week, but didn’t know where the announcement would be made.

And:

WISN radio talk show host Mark Belling said an announcement that Wisconsin has been chosen by Foxconn will be made Thursday at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

[See the second update below. Sounds like an announcement is coming tonight]

And from this article:

Foxconn Technology Group’s interest in southeastern Wisconsin, where the Asian electronics manufacturer is considering building a multibillion-dollar industrial campus, underscores an often-overlooked economic advantage for a region burdened with a Rust Belt image:

It has abundant access to water, an increasingly scarce commodity that analysts say is used in prodigious amounts in making the flat-panel displays that the new plant would likely produce.

Racine County and Kenosha County are nestled up against the Lake Michigan shoreline and boast a nearly inexhaustible supply of fresh water, at a time when parts of California, Arizona and Nevada as well as China, India, Singapore and Brazil have been forced to resort to water-use restrictions.

And from this USA Today article:

Monday evening, a private jet linked to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou flew from Santa Ana, Calif., to Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., according to the FlightAware.com tracking website. The Gulfstream 650 is the same aircraft that landed in Milwaukee and Madison this month.

UPDATE: Fantastic Bloomberg Decrypted podcast episode dedicated to discussing the details of bringing jobs (like iPhone related manufacturing) to the US, and the types of jobs that go along with that sort of move. Hint: it’s mostly robots. [H/T Robert Davey]

UPDATE 2: According to CNBC:

Apple-supplier Foxconn will announce a plant in Wisconsin on Wednesday evening, accompanied by President Donald Trump, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a source with knowledge of the announcement told CNBC.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will also be present at the announcement in Washington, a source said. No exact location for plant has been chosen — but southeast Wisconsin is under consideration, according to a source.