Kill it. Just kill it. Put it out of our misery.
Mark Watney is still alive! The Martian, trailer 2.
The Martian. One of my favorite reads of all time. This movie has huge expectations, impossibly big shoes to fill. Here’s hoping they can science the shit out of the movie.
How to boot your Mac in Verbose Mode
This is useful stuff. Worth bookmarking and passing along to other Mac support folks.
On Siri, other voice-assists and humor
A nice look at the difference in humor between Siri and counterparts from other tech companies. Very interesting.
The downside of being featured by Apple in the App Store
No doubt. Too many users too early in an app’s lifecycle can be bad news. Good words from M.G.
Apple to demote the iPod, but here’s one reason to get one…
The iPod touch is being demoted. But there’s an important use case that Apple is ignoring.
Dave Grohl invites crying fan onstage at Foo Fighters show
Dave Grohl loves his fans, really knows how to put on a show, even with a broken leg.
Use Siri to play sound effects
Try telling Siri:
Play the crickets sound
Lots of other sound effects available.
Man whose truck fell on him says Apple’s Siri helped save his life
When I read this story, I couldn’t help but think, “Siri, go get help, Timmy fell in the well!”
What will next month’s Apple TV bring to the living room?
Mark Gurman lays out all that’s known and speculated about the upcoming Apple TV release.
YouTube is the sleeping giant of Live-streaming
Periscope, Meerkat, Twitch and others are making their bones in live-streaming. But the big dog, YouTube, has very quietly been honing its tools in the background.
Rob Richman, in appreciation
A bit of devastating news.
Sprint’s new iPhone forever plan
Sprint announces a plan that will always keep you up to date with the latest and greatest iPhone. A solid price, though the terms are a bit confusing.
Steve Jobs’ 1996 interview with Red Herring
Historian or not, this is a great read.
Amazon painted as a “bruising workplace” by New York Times
The New York Times publicly lambastes Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos responds.
Icon crafting inspiration
This is an homage to some great icon creation efforts of yesteryear and, if you’ve got an icon to create, a great source of inspiration.
Microsoft wants you to pay $15 for DVD playback in Windows 10
What the heck is Microsoft thinking? This is truly awful.
Something is breaking in iTunes Store music links
iTunes links are breaking, something is clearly wrong in Apple Music land. Hate to see this.
Free iOS metronome, really well executed, go get it
Taptronome is a beautifully executed metronome for iOS. And it’s free. What are you waiting for? Go get it!
On Beats 1 expansion and Apple Music in the car
Some thoughts on Beats 1 taking on satellite radio.
Apple Music hooks 11 million trial members, App Store has record July
Marco della Cava, writing for USA Today:
One month after unveiling its new streaming music service, Apple has locked in 11 million trial members, company executives tell USA TODAY.
Here’s some math to go along with that.
Hackers can remotely steal fingerprints from Android phones
Zack Whittaker, writing for ZDNet:
The attack, which was confirmed on the HTC One Max and Samsung’s Galaxy S5, allows a hacker to stealthily acquire a fingerprint image from an affected device because device makers don’t fully lock down the sensor.
How to view Safari cookies
It’s easy enough to view a list of sites that have cookies in Safari, but if you want to actually see the cookie and parameters used by a particular site, you’ll need to dive a bit deeper into the interface.
Worth giving this a try.
Why am I a Mac user?
Matt Taylor nails it.
Photo of International Space Station crossing the moon
See that speck in the middle of the moon? That’s the International Space Station, in shadow against the brilliant background of the moon.
Remember the CEO who raised the minimum salary to $70K? Here’s a follow-up.
Three months ago, Dan Price, chief of Gravity Payments, raised the annual salary floor for his employees to $70,000. He knocked his own salary down to $70K as well.
This follow-up article takes a look at how this is working out for Price, for his employees, and for the company.
Jean-Louis Gassée on Apple’s ad-blocking technology
Jean-Louis Gassée gets to the heart of the matter regarding Apple’s true motivation in releasing the upcoming ad-blocking technology, now in beta with iOS 9 and El Capitan.
The hand engraved Apple Watch
Pricy, but some exquisite craftwork. Well worth a look.
Apple now sharing full replays of Beats 1 shows on Apple Music Connect
Fan of Elton John’s Rocket Hour? Can’t get enough of Julie Adenuga or Zane Lowe? Now you can listen to full replays of the latest edition of every Beats 1 show, all via Apple Connect.
Here’s how…
How to keep your Apple music library 100% rock solid safe
There’s been a lot written lately about Apple Music, iTunes Match, and the threat of one or the other deleting your music from your music library.
This issue has turned into a perfect storm of fear, uncertainty and doubt. At the end of the day, I believe an understanding of the basic mechanics at work here will make it easy to keep your music library 100% rock solid safe.
Read on for the details.