iOS 10 and some New Years fireworks

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From this tweet by Mark Gurman:

Make sure to text all of your friends running iOS 10 “happy birthday” and “happy new year.” (Seriously this should be opt-in, even opt-out).

Give it a try.

iOS 10 and removing built-in apps from the Home screen

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Apple officially allows you to remove most built-in apps from your iOS device running iOS 10. Interestingly, some of these apps allow a 3rd part app to act as a fallback. Others do not. Read on for some details.

64-bit Office 2016 for Mac is coming

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From the official Microsoft blog:

We have released the first drop of a fully 64-bit version of Office 2016 for Mac to the Insider Fast channel! The update number is 15.25 (160630). I do encourage Insider Fast users to install this update and give it a test. We want to know about any problems you encounter as soon as possible, so that we can make sure we address them before the official release.

My original take on this was amazement that a 64-bit Office was just now emerging in beta. After all, the ability to produce 64-bit apps has been around since OS X 10.4 Tiger, which shipped in 2005.

But this Office team has had to overcome some significant hurdles to bring this new product to life. So many hurdles, that it might be more appropriate to be amazed that they were able to accomplish what turned out to be a Herculean task.

Now that’s an Apple collection

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Stephen Hackett has quietly assembled an impressive collection of Apple gear, which he regularly photographs, sharing the images on 512 Pixels.

There are certainly holes in his collection. Anyone have an Apple II or Apple IIe they want to share with Stephen?

Apple Watch and Usher Syndrome

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From an extensive post on the Molly Watt Trust blog (raising awareness of Usher Syndrome):

I have Usher Syndrome, which means I was born deaf and in the last ten years I have lost most of my sight. What I see in good light is like looking through a small letterbox. The bits out to the side and above and below are a white, misty haze. In dim light, or at night: I am almost completely blind.

Fantastic post on the benefits of Apple Watch and Apple Pay. Beautifully presented, definitely worth a read.

Understanding Tesla Autopilot

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Marco Arment:

A few Tesla vehicles have had accidents with Autopilot enabled recently, and I’ve gotten countless questions about these incidents and the nature of Autopilot from people who aren’t Tesla owners. Tesla and the media haven’t clearly communicated what these features do (and don’t do) to the public, so I’ll try to help in whatever small way I can as a Model S owner for a few months so far.

This is a terrific walkthrough on Tesla’s autopilot, a glimpse into what’s coming for cars in general, as well as a reality check on where autonomous driving stands. Things are changing fast as we move towards autonomous vehicles all around us.

Marvel’s new Iron Man is a black woman

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Time:

There’s a new Iron Man. Well, Iron Man for now. She’s still working on the name. The events at the end of the comic-book event series Civil War II will result in Tony Stark stepping out of the Iron Man suit and a new character, Riri Williams, taking over, Marvel tells TIME.

Read on for my thoughts on this.

Force touch in Control Center in iOS 10

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I’ve been using iOS 10 since WWDC and have now updated all my devices to iOS 10 beta 2. My experience with this beta has been solid and marked by little pockets of discovery.

One of those discoveries, here since beta one, I believe, is the addition of Force Touch to Control Center. Read on for the details.

See the things you’ve searched for, visited, and watched on Google services

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This link will take you to a page that shows you the Google services that are tracking you, along with a history for each of those services.

It would be interesting to see a list of all the data Google has harvested from me. I’d also like to see the same thing from Facebook and Apple.

The universe is spooky

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I’m a math geek, so this might be more up my alley than most. A cool tweet showing how to use the Fibonacci sequence to convert miles to kilometers and back. Spooky!

Artificial intelligence, Apple, and Google

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This post by Benedict Evans first digs into the idea of artificial intelligence, then looks at the efforts by Apple and Google to get a sense of who is doing what.

If you have even the slightest interest in artificial intelligence, neural nets, speech recognition, etc., this is worth the read.

Everything new in iOS beta 2

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Not to be confused with yesterday’s MacRumors-linking post, this is a more extensive walk through the iOS 10 beta 2 change-log. Lots of detail.

New Mac malware in the wild

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In a nutshell, the malicious code is embedded in a Mac utility called EasyDoc Converter.app. Given that the app itself does not do what it says it will do (convert files from one format to another), this was a pretty obvious find.

But think of this example as a proof of concept. This malware could just as easily be embedded in a useful tool. If you are going to go outside the Mac App Store, be sure you are downloading a known, vetted product from a known, vetted source.

Apple Campus 2: July drone aerial footage

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We’re getting closer and closer to exterior finish, especially with the R&D facility. At some point, all the work will shift to the building interiors. I hope Matthew figures out a way to film that progression as well.

When a song in iCloud music is suddenly “no longer available”

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Kirk McElhearn:

Record labels and artists are free to choose whether to allow their music to be available on streaming services. There are still some holdouts: Garth Brooks, Bob Seger, King Crimson, the Traveling Wilburys, Pete Townshend, and others are totally averse to streaming. And some artists only stream their music on certain services, as exclusives. This includes Taylor Swifts’ 1989, Adele’s 25, Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, most of Prince’s music, and much more.

But things get complicated when music that you have added to your iCloud Music Library from Apple Music is pulled. Labels can withdraw the right to stream certain songs and albums at any time, but you won’t be notified. You may see albums and songs in your library, but their titles are a slightly lighter color (depending on the view), and their iCloud status is No Longer Available.

Interesting post.

Apple tweaks iOS Health app to encourage organ donation

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From the Associated Press:

Apple is adding the option to enroll in a national donor registry by clicking a button within the iPhone’s Health app, which can be used manage a variety of health and fitness data.

The beta cascade: Why Apple’s latest OS’s require each other

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Dan Moren, writing for Macworld:

My Apple Watch, much as I like it, is hardly an indispensable part of my everyday life. And ready I was to go ahead and install the watchOS 3 beta when I ran up against a bit of a brick wall—because in order to install the watchOS 3 beta, I also needed to install the iOS 10 beta on my iPhone.

Illinois man charged with CelebGate iCloud hacking / phishing scheme

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US Department of Justice:

An Illinois man was charged today with felony computer hacking related to a phishing scheme that gave him illegal access to over 300 Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts, including those belonging to members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.

Tim Cook appointed lead independent director of Nike board

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From the Nike press release:

The Company also announced today that Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, has been appointed lead independent director of the Board, effective immediately. Cook has been a Nike director since 2005, is chair of the Board’s Compensation Committee and serves as a member of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.

The changes to the board came as a result of Board Chairman Phil Knight’s retirement.

Apple partners with NASA to produce “Visions of Harmony”

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From this USA Today article:

The maker of the iconic iPhone has partnered with NASA on the eve of the Juno mission, which is expected to enter Jupiter’s orbit Monday, in a highly publicized July 4th orbital insertion. The mission launched five years ago.

NASA will send back sounds of space for artists to make music with, to be featured on Apple’s iTunes and the Apple Music subscription service.

Watch the video in the main post. Beautifully done.

Beats 1: Year 1

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Great fast edit through the first year of Beats 1. That music? It’s Charles Bradley, with Ain’t It a Sin. Love the video, love this entire album.