This is a gem, for when you try to unmount a volume but can’t due to an unknown process or application running on the volume. Even if you’ve not experienced this, worth reading to expand the power user side of your brain.
Open that set top box
Jean-Louis Gassée lays out the upcoming war between the cable companies and the FCC regarding our right to attached our own set top box (say, one made by Apple) rather than being forced to rent one from our cable provider.
Alphabet passes Apple (in after hour trading) as the world’s most valuable company
If nothing else, historically interesting.
Billboard top 10 rap/hip hop, from 1989 to the present, all in real (sort of) time
No matter your musical tastes, this is just damn fun.
The case against Control Center
Stephen Hackett on why he finds Control Center just too busy. I agree and have my own suggestion for a fix.
Bloomberg: Apple working on wireless charging at-a-distance
We could see this as soon as next year. If true, seems like a bit of a game changer.
Facebook shutters Parse, pulls the rug out from under about 600,000 apps
You might not be familiar with Parse, but you no doubt make use of it every day. Facebook is shuttering the service and that means a lot of apps will either have to reinvent the wheel or shut down.
Truly erasing your Mac’s hard drive
The article walks you through the process. Tuck this one away, pass it along.
Angela Ahrendts on Apple retail’s corporate culture
Angela Ahrendts talks about retention rates and the culture of the Apple Store.
Apple set to overtake Samsung as world’s top chip buyer
Doomed.
San Francisco Chronicle finds treasure trove of legendary concert photos
This is a set of 43 photos from The Last Waltz concert from 1976. Brilliant find.
Guess how many iPhones Apple sold in 2015
Doomed.
The complete, easy guide to backing up your Mac
Macworld’s Christopher Phin walks you through the options. If nothing else, click through to the article and read each section headline, just to get a sense of all the options covered. Good stuff.
On pricing an iOS app
Tough to know the right apps to develop and to find the right pricing sweet spot at which to sell them.
Twitter vs Facebook
John Gruber captures perfectly the problem with comparing Twitter to Facebook
iPad Pro gets standalone capability normally reserved for Mac
The ability to fully support your satellite devices (like updating the Logitech keyboard’s firmware) is critical if the iPad Pro is going to serve as your full time computer.
Patent troll drops case, but now the hunter has become the hunted
The way I read this, Newegg is a hero. They could easily have paid the troll and gone on with their business. But what they did serves the entire community. Standing up to a patent troll and winning shows that it can be done.
VMware abruptly fires Fusion dev team, outsources to China
This appears to have been sudden, but I can’t imagine this was an overnight decision. That’s rough.
Designers’ favorite typefaces
Nice to scroll through these one word treatments. See if any of these typefaces grab you.
Inside the hidden world that handles your holiday returns
“You don’t know where the product went after it left your store, so you can’t put it back on your shelf.” There’s a shadow world out there that resells your returned goods.
Amazon’s customer service backdoor
Fix this!
The best rechargeable AA batteries
The Wirecutter with an up-to-date survey of AA rechargeables. Good info.
Microsoft Windows Phone VP tweets from his iPhone, solid endorsement
Joe Belfiore tweeted from his iPhone. Odd choice.
Tim continues Apple’s investment strategy
Pouring money into R&D and releasing products during such a downturn is both brave and smart. Apple has long done this and Tim is keeping that strategy in place.
How to learn to code when you have no idea where to start
I absolutely love this. Please pass this along.
Apple’s ‘Project Titan’ at crossroads, team in hiring freeze, source says
Apple Insider reporting on a hiring freeze for Apple’s rumored car project.
Interview with Apple Employee #4 (the man who introduced Jobs and Woz)
[VIDEO] This is an interview steeped in history, both in terms of the beginnings of Apple and the early days of Silicon Valley.
A link that crashes Safari and your iPhone
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Apple Watch’s killer app is already here
Tim Bajarin makes the case for Notifications being the killer app, I add in a few points of my own.
The real legacy of Steve Jobs
Digging through the recent movies and one of the better Steve Jobs biographies, Sue Halpern does an interesting job weaving together a picture of Steve Jobs’ legacy.