With two quarters of Apple Watch under its belt, Apple has sold a total of 7.5 million units. Not too shabby, especially given the heavy competition and the fact that this is still an emerging category.
Scott Weiland, former Stone Temple Pilots singer, dead at 48
Sad end to a long, troubled story.
Swift is now officially open source
Apple’s primary programming language, Swift, is now open source. Big news for the dev community.
Dan Frommer: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform
Dan Frommer, writing for Quartz, thinks the Apple Watch platform is stalled. I disagree.
The Grand Unified Theory of Apple Products
Neil Cybart, writing for Above Avalon, digs into Apple’s evolving product lineup, laying out some insights from Phil Schiller to give a sense of the direction in which that lineup is moving. Great read.
Detailed look at the iPad Pro versus the Microsoft Surface
Great review from iMore’s Serenity Caldwell.
Canadian Reviewer on the iPad Pro
Amazing to me that the iPad Pro can do something an octacore Mac Pro of a few years past cannot.
Apple’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro top Consumer Reports laptop reliability survey
Consumer Reports details reliability numbers for laptop product lines. Apple wins.
United to give iPhone 6 Plus to 6,000 customer service reps
Nice get for Apple and the iPhone team.
What’s so special about podcasting?
Interested in podcasting? Watch the embedded video. Inspirational.
What’s to become of the Mac App Store?
The Mac App Store is failing developers. Another key app has left the Mac App Store. What will Apple do to fix this?
Apple Watch short-cuts, tricks you might not know
Some great Apple Watch tips, including a one tap way to put an incoming call on hold while you fish out your iPhone.
Understanding “Optimize Mac Storage” in Photos for Mac
Dan Moren, writing for Six Colors:
One of the more interesting features of Photos for Mac is its ability to not store my entire photo library on my Mac’s drive. It does this by syncing the entire library to iCloud Photo Library and then dynamically loading and unloading photos as you use it.
How do I recover if things go south?
I am your father
Fire up Siri and say:
I am your father.
Hey Siri and Ridiculously Powerful ads
Two new iPhone 6s ads, extending the “That’s what’s changed” series. The first is called “Hey Siri” and the second “Ridiculously Powerful”. Enjoy.
Vocal ranges of the world’s greatest singers
Look who has the biggest vocal range. Wow!
Driverless Formula One racing
Driverless cars, driving in excess of 100 mph, racing around a track. I can’t wait!
Backup your online life to your Mac
Do you use Twitter, Facebook, Google, eBay and/or PayPal? Read this article, learn how to backup your digital interactions with these services.
A comprehensive guide to the iTunes Affiliate Program
Few people outside of Apple know as much about the iTunes Affiliate Program as John Vorhees. An expert guide.
Use Siri to check store, restaurant business hours
Using Siri to find hours for local stores, restaurants and other businesses.
AT&T bumping price of unlimited data plans
First increase in 7 years. If the $5/month increase is a deal breaker, they’ll drop the early termination fee.
Goodbye Flash, officially
Adobe renames Flash, embraces the future (or at least what used to be the future).
Crazy anti-gravity car accident
From BoingBoing. Might take a few views of this video to get your head around what happened. Crazy.
One hidden detail that can make IMDb ratings more meaningful
IMDb ratings typically look like this:
Ratings: 7.1/10 from 44,920 users
The user count is actually a link to a detailed demographic page. Super useful info.
Why “Secure Empty Trash” is gone in El Capitan (and what to do instead)
Here’s why this option was taken away, and some alternatives. Interesting read.
App Factor holiday gift guide
Some good stuff here, though I thought the idea of paying $60 for a piece of cardboard a bit excessive.
OHHH HELL NO!!!!
Allen Pike builds iOS apps. He found his support in-box getting filled with support requests from another app, one he’d never even heard of. A fascinating story unfolds as Pike dives into the rabbit hole.
Jean-Louis Gassée: Why Apple should make a car
Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, first makes the case that the car market is not, on the surface, even worth Apple’s time. He then stands that logic on its head. Great read.
Apple May Replace 3.5mm Headphone Jack on iPhone 7 With All-in-One Lightning Connector
Apple is planning to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack on the next-generation iPhone in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector…
Similar to the move they made with the MacBook, pushing all signals through a single port.
Amazon “a few weeks” from shipping Instant Video app for Apple TV
Some thoughts on Amazon’s love/hate relationship with Apple TV.