What a caper. The car was a rental, so you know they didn’t plan on leaving it behind. But ramming the car through the front of the Apple Store disabled the car. No way to come back from that.
Interestingly, Apple has already replaced the front glass. I suspect there’s a warehouse somewhere with spare parts like this.
This remarkable design brings a three level soccer pitch to an area the size of a parking lot. That’s three soccer fields, each big enough for 5-on-a-side competition, stacked one on top of the other. All of this is built into a portable solution, a temporary stack of fields that can be set up and then moved.
Follow the link, check out the picture.
Designed specifically to bring soccer to the tight confines of London, I suspect we’ll see this approach take root in other cities around the world.
[VIDEO]: This is hilarious. I really want to add Siri to this conversation.
Do you have an iPhone 6s or newer? Try this:
As you press, the force touch will reveal just a bit of the stack of apps you are running. Press with a bit more force, and that view will go full screen, as if you had double pressed the home button.
Not sure when this feature first came out, but it seems little enough known that I thought this was worth a post.
I wish Apple would let me switch over to the right side. I also wish I could assign this specific force touch to other aspects of the iOS interface.
For example, imagine if I could use that gesture to undo the last autocorrect, no matter the app. You’d be typing along and notice that iOS changed a word to, say, ducking. Not what you wanted. So you give a quick force touch and your original word is automatically put back in place, without your typing cursor being moved (so you can just keep typing).
Just an idea.
Bucket list. A fantastic piece of architecture and engineering.
[VIDEO]: A few days ago, we posted an embed of an Apple Campus 2 flyover, one that felt a bit different than the monthly updates we’re used to seeing.
Turns out there’s good reason for that feeling. Embedded in the main Loop post is Matthew Roberts’ latest drone footage. Watching them both, it’s easy to tell them apart. Enjoy.
BBC News:
Investigators have warned consumers they face potentially fatal risks after 99% of fake Apple chargers failed a basic safety test.
Trading Standards, which commissioned the checks, said counterfeit electrical goods bought online were an “unknown entity”. Of 400 counterfeit chargers, only three were found to have enough insulation to protect against electric shocks.
It comes as Apple has complained of a “flood” of fakes being sold on Amazon.
The article offers more details but, more importantly, gives some tips on how to detect a counterfeit charger. I also worry about the possibility of a bogus charger being used as a malware injection device.
Dan Moren has been doing some traveling. Currently in India, he writes about his experiences living on the road with Apple tech.
For example:
I’ve found Apple Maps to be virtually useless in India. Yes, I can get a map overview or satellite imagery, but directions and transit information are nonexistent. Building databases of all that information is challenging, to be sure, and it often means working with a lot of partners. But not being able to get simple walking directions to a nearby restaurant is kind of a nonstarter, so I’ve been using Google Maps, which works much better.
Not the first time I’ve heard this complaint. Interesting post.
First, lower your volume. Then click the link and immerse yourself in the zen of the blue ball machine. Mesmerizing.
Marco della Cava, USA Today [WARNING: AutoPlay, Grrr]
Apple CEO Tim Cook rocks in his chair as he meets the question with an unyielding gaze.
“Of course corporations should have values, because people should have values,” says the soft-spoken tech leader, who has been vocal on a range of civic issues, from gay rights to privacy rules. “And corporations are just a bunch of people.”
Cook met with USA TODAY to discuss the company’s expanded corporate partnership with (RED), the 20-person organization founded by U2 singer Bono that has had an outsized impact on those suffering from HIV/AIDS by providing life-saving medicines.
This is a pretty interesting article, digging into both RED’s impact on HIV/AIDS sufferers and Apple’s position in the emerging political reality.
Mark Gurman and Alan Levin, Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. plans to use drones and new indoor navigation features to improve its Maps service and catch longtime leader Google, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Cupertino, California-based company is assembling a team of robotics and data-collection experts that will use drones to capture and update map information faster than its existing fleet of camera-and-sensor ladened minivans, one of the people said.
Apple wants to fly drones around to do things like examine street signs, track changes to roads and monitor if areas are under construction, the person said. The data collected would be sent to Apple teams that rapidly update the Maps app to provide fresh information to users, the person added.
Apple is also developing new features for Maps, including views inside buildings and improvements to car navigation, another person familiar with the efforts said. The people asked not to be identified talking about private projects. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Fascinating. I’m imagining a sci-fi future where the air is filled with rival drones, constantly scanning for updates, tracking faces for marketing and intel value, hacking rival drones for their info, even disabling them, forcing them to land.
Jordan Kahn, 9to5mac:
Earlier today Apple updated its website where customers can send in an old device for recycling to include the Apple Watch. That means that customers can now send their old Apple Watch to be responsibly recycled through the company’s Apple Renew program free of charge, but it’s not offering customers a gift card or any credit in exchange like it does with iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Not sure what the secondary market is like for earlier Apple Watches, but seems to me it’d be much better to give your old Apple Watch to a friend who’s never experienced one. Reuse is a solid alternative to recycling, and living with an Apple Watch offers a better alternative to simply reading about one.
Have a USB-C based Mac? Considering a possible purchase? If so, you’ll likely want a USB-C hub, a cheaper solution than the dongles a hub will replace.
Cody Lee, writing for iDownloadBlog takes a look at a number of USB-C hubs he recommends. Take a look.
New book from Stephen Hackett. It’s an 80 page look at a critical time for Apple, a time that saw Bondi Blue, Tangerine, and Flower Power iMacs and the birth of a brand new operating system.
Aqua and Bondi is an 80-page examination of these products. In it, I look at what went so wrong inside Apple in the 90s, talk about the software strategies that came and went over the years and, of course, the iMac.
I’ve been working on this project since the fall, and am excited to say today that the book is for sale today on the iBooks Store or as a PDF. Both versions are just $3.99.
Here’s a link to the iBook store version of the book.
Here’s a link to Stephen’s site for the PDF version of the book.
Best of luck with the book, Stephen.
Over the past week or so, a wave of spam calendar invites has been hitting many iCloud calendar users.
Rene Ritchie, iMore, posted this official Apple message:
We are sorry that some of our users are receiving spam calendar invitations. We are actively working to address this issue by identifying and blocking suspicious senders and spam in the invites being sent.
The same article also offers a workaround to the problem.
[VIDEO] I’m a sucker for great design and clever marketing. Back in December of 2013, Coca Cola experimented with a so-called gift bottle. Every winter since, Coke brings back the gift bottles and slowly expands the market in which they are found.
Have you encountered any of these bottles in your neck of the woods? Keep an eye out.
In the meantime, enjoy the original ribbon bottle video, in the main Loop post.
Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:
There’s more to the Mac’s future than its current good numbers. After enjoying a good time in the sun, the Mac is on the same downward slope as the rest of the PC market.
What do you do when your business is part of a declining world? Do you decrease prices to gain market share? Bad idea, this is the PC clone makers’ race to the bottom, a game in which everyone loses as products become commoditized, undifferentiated, and, ultimately, worthless.
Jean-Louis explores the possibility of a last Mac, as the market abandons the PC and settles for good on touch screen phones and tablets. I’m a hardcore Mac user, and i don’t see such a product (even enhanced by 3rd party add-ons) that would provide an experience superior to my Mac.
That said, I would not bet against such a product eventually arriving. If I had an iOS device that had the right keyboard and pointing device (so I could keep my hands on the keyboard, with a touchpad in thumb or finger’s reach), one that ran all my biggest apps and fully supported software development, a device that allowed me to extend my desktop with add-on displays that allowed for big code listings and image editing views, that’s something that would definitely offer me a reason to make the switch.
Adam Geitgey:
I’m not here to change your mind about the MacBook Pro. Yes, it’s probably too expensive and more RAM is better than less RAM. But everyone posting complaints without actually using a MBP for a few weeks is missing out on all the clever things you can do because it is built on USB-C. Over the past week or two with a new MacBook Pro (15in, 2.9ghz, TouchBar), I’ve been constantly surprised with how USB-C makes new things possible. It’s a kind of a hacker’s dream.
Great article. Part of it focuses on the fact that the author’s phone is a Google Pixel and has a USB-C port, so he can use a single charger to charge his phone and his Mac. But there’s more to the piece than that.
For example:
If you get any of the new USB-C compatible monitors (pretty much every vendor has at least one now), you only need to plug one single cable into your MBP.
You can then plug all your other devices into your monitor and everything flows over one USB-C to your laptop — power, video, data and even sound. Your monitor is now your docking station and breakout box!
I’m wondering if USB-C to lightning cable will be all you need to plug your phone and your Mac into the same charger. Next best thing to a USB-C port on your iPhone.
This is a pretty solid article. Some excellent holiday gift ideas for the techie on your list.
Personally, I swear by this iFixit Tool kit. I’ve owned it for years, done tons of Mac/iPhone and non-Apple repairs with it and it’s never let me down.
Tim Hardwick, Mac Rumors:
One limitation of the Touch Bar discovered by TouchSwitcher’s developer is that only one non-system control can be displayed in the right-hand strip, meaning other Apple apps compete for the same space.
Both apps are pushing the boundaries a bit, but I applaud the Touch Bar experimentation.
Looking forward to Touch Bar becoming the standard across the entire Mac product line. How about an external Touch Bar keyboard?
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5mac:
Apple is ramping for its biggest iPhone sales success ever next year, according to KGI. Its estimates suggest that the new iPhones in 2017, expected to comprise three new models, will empower Apple growth with ‘unprecedented’ demand. KGI expects the new phones may sell between 120-150 million units in the second half of next year, eclipsing the previous sales record set by iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The new form-factor premium OLED iPhone will likely encourage high-end customers to upgrade their device and the low-end new 4.7-inch iPhone model (with wireless charging and a glass chassis) will be attractive to the lower-end of the smartphone market.
Doomed.
[VIDEO]: Interesting that this ad was not put out by Apple. Does this qualify as the very first Apple TV ad?
This has been out for quite a while, but new to me, thought you’d enjoy it. Might want to turn down your volume first.
[VIDEO]: First things first, as you can see from the video (via 9to5mac), things are getting close to completion. In a month or so, we’ll start to see employees moving into this space.
Interestingly, this video was posted by Sexton Videography, unlike all the previous flyovers we’ve been posting, which were by Matthew Roberts. Could be Matthew Roberts posting under a new name, but the feel, especially of the titles, makes me think this is a competing effort. Add in the fact that Matthew typically posts on the first of each month and this popped up a few days ago.
The more the merrier?
From Joe Steel’s review of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 2:
Amazon currently has the 2nd generation Fire TV Stick on sale for $29.99, that’s $10 off the normal price, and an unbeatable bargain.
Read the main Loop post to learn more and see why this is a real hole in the Apple TV product line.
Jason Snell, writing for iMore:
Scripting and automation have been in the conversation lately, owing to Apple’s reported disbanding of the macOS team responsible for them and the departure of scripting advocate Sal Soghoian from the company last month.
They sounds like arcane, abstract concepts. And to be sure, scripting and automation are the sort of feature that’s used by more like 5% of users rather than 50%. But in pondering Apple’s possible shift in automation strategy, I began to consider all the ways I use it in my working life.
It’s amazing how many opportunities there are to add automation to your day-to-day workflow. I use Keyboard Maestro for most of my automation, typically creating a hot key that launches an application, or wrapping a specific sequence of clicks/drags/typing into a macro I can launch with a single hot key.
Read the article, even if you don’t think about automation. The post is well written, relatively short, and does a great job conveying the value of automation.
Dave Hamilton, writing for The Mac Observer, explains the basics of WiFi Mesh Systems and compares three popular solutions.
If you manage a network (even a home network) with a lot of devices, this is worth reading.
San Francisco Examiner:
Computer systems at San Francisco’s transit system, Muni, have been restored following a malware attack on Friday afternoon.
Payment systems across the agency’s subways read “OUT OF ORDER” in large red digital letters at Powell Station, Embarcadero Station and other stations across The City following the attack.
On Friday and Saturday, computers in station agents’ booths across the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency displayed “You Hacked, ALL Data Encrypted. Contact For Key([email protected])ID:681 ,Enter.”
Sidebar: We are on the cusp of quantum computing, which will potentially make computers capable of easily solving sophisticated problems used as the basis of today’s encryption. And that will mean more hacking, but could also mean sophisticated tools to break ransomware. Depends who gets there first.
I’ve long been a fan of Marcus Conge’s work. Now he’s embedded some of his best stuff in a web site. Check it out.
And if you’ve got the need, he’s currently taking on work (see the Hire Me section at the bottom left).
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hope your travels are safe, you end up someplace warm, and your day is filled with peace, love, and plenty to eat.
Thanks for your support and for making the Loop a part of your lives.
Great review of CarPlay from John Vorhees, writing for MacStories. Good and the bad. Interesting that this is one of the few cases where Apple is forced to build a software experience on someone else’s hardware.