At last week’s event, Apple announced that iOS 8.1 would be released today. The iOS 8.1 feature with the biggest potential impact is, no doubt, Apple Pay.
The evolution of Apple ads
A brilliant collection of Apple ads through the years, plus, Dave finds an old Newton pre-announce poster.
Behind the scenes on Disney’s Big Hero Six
Fantastic look at some of the technology behind Big Hero Six. For example, from about two minutes in:
One of the things that our boss, John Lassiter, encourages us to do is to try to find something that people have never seen before. So if you’re making a move with a robot, he’ll say, “Look at all the famous pop culture robots. Look at WALL-E, look at C-3PO, R2-D2, the Terminator, the whole list, and then come up with something that occupies its own air space.”
Brilliant.
A friendlier Apple Inc now invites media through its Infinite Loop front door
Daniel Eran Dilger, writing for AppleInsider, on Apple’s move to be a bit friendlier when it comes to secrecy.
Bill Murray on The Howard Stern Show
If you are at all a Bill Murray fan, this is a real treat. An hour and thirteen minutes of Bill being Bill. Delicious.
To Siri, with love
A lovely story about an autistic boy named Gus and his BFF, Siri.
How to set up and use Handoff for Yosemite and iOS 8
Handoff is a new feature that lets you edit a document on one device, then continue editing on another device. Sarah Guarino does a nice job walking through the requirements and setup, then takes Handoff through its paces.
Apple’s Swift push
Apple is serious about Swift. This consumer facing page appeared on Apple’s site yesterday. The Swift push has begun. [via iOS Dev Weekly]
Apple’s upcoming FY14 fourth quarter results conference call
Interested in listening in as Apple reports their fourth quarter results? All the details are here.
Making phone calls using Yosemite
One of the many new features you get for free with Yosemite is the ability to make and answer phone calls from your Mac. Here’s a first hand run through of that experience.
How to upgrade to Yosemite
Ready to upgrade to Yosemite? First thing to do is make sure your hardware will support the upgrade.
An iPad filled with apps weighs more than one with nothing installed
This sound like the premise of a bar trick, but not so.
Why? Because data stored on flash drives has weight. The difference is almost infinitesimally minute, but it is there. The extra weight comes from flash storage storing more data in memory. The transistors in flash memory distinguish between a 1 and a 0 by trapping electrons.
Here’s why public WiFi is a public health hazard
Maurits Martijn, writing for Medium:
In his backpack, Wouter Slotboom, 34, carries around a small black device, slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes, with an antenna on it…Wouter removes his laptop from his backpack, puts the black device on the table, and hides it under a menu. A waitress passes by and we ask for two coffees and the password for the WiFi network. Meanwhile, Wouter switches on his laptop and device, launches some programs, and soon the screen starts to fill with green text lines. It gradually becomes clear that Wouter’s device is connecting to the laptops, smartphones, and tablets of cafe visitors.
On his screen, phrases like “iPhone Joris” and “Simone’s MacBook” start to appear. The device’s antenna is intercepting the signals that are being sent from the laptops, smartphones, and tablets around us.
Part of this is an education problem, teaching people how to be careful. But it’s foolish to think that any public WiFi connection is safe. It’s just far too easy to spoof trusted networks.
Apple Store down, event day is here
I love event days.
Ireland to phase out ‘Double Irish’ tax break
This will impact a lot of companies, Google being a bit of a poster child here. note that the elimination of the “double Irish” provision will not, by itself, change the tax rates negotiated by companies like Apple. That’s a separate issue.
What a week with the Moto 360 taught me about the Apple Watch
Mike Wehner of TUAW took the Moto 360 for a spin. The upshot, Apple has a huge opportunity to do something that no other company can.
U2 responds to pushback about their massive iTunes album release
[VIDEO] U2 put together a video responding to fan questions. One fan brought up the album that was automatically added to everyone’s library, wanted or not:
Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to peoples playlists ever again? It’s really rude.
Bono sighed, then said:
Oops, um, I’m sorry about that…This beautiful idea. Might’ve gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. Drop of megalomania. Touch of generosity. Dash of self promotion. And deep fear that these songs, that we’ve poured our lives into the last few years, mightn’t be heard. There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we, us, we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it.
On the video embedded below, the question starts at about 2:18.
Ana Yang gazillion bubble show
[VIDEO] This is mesmerizing.
Why Samsung fell
John Kirk for Tech.pinions:
Samsung has reported a 60% fall in quarterly profits. Just three years ago, Samsung rose from seemingly nowhere to dominate the global smartphone market. Today, Samsung is being pressured from above and below as Apple steals away its premium customers and Xiomi and others steal away customers from the low-end.
Why did Samsung fail? In a word, commoditization. Read the whole thing. Well worth it.
This is how McDonald’s will take Apple Pay at the drive through
Apple Pay is changing the drive-through payment game. Now, when you roll up to the drive through, the cashier will hand you the portable NFC reader, you’ll tap your phone or Apple Watch, hear the confirmation beep, then hand it back. No credit card, no signing, no pin code.
iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus heading for 36 more countries and territories
Apple’s Fastest-Ever iPhone Rollout Includes India, Mexico, South Korea & Thailand
How to read books from your local library on your iPad
Voracious reader? If so, this may change things for you. A how-to on checking out a library eBook from the comfort of your couch.
The Autocomplete Song
[VIDEO] Heh. The words to this song were written by an iPhone, using autocomplete. It’s actually pretty catchy.
Superman heirs lose copyright battle to DC Comics
The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of the heirs of the original Superman creators, trying to reclaim the Superman copyright. A complex and fascinating story.
BBEdit leaving the Mac App Store
Rich Siegel, founder of Bare Bones Software, gave a talk at the Cingleton conference about not selling future versions of BBEdit via the Mac App Store. This could be a canary in the coal mine.
Former Apple CEO John Sculley on Steve Jobs, Apple, and selling the experience
[VIDEO] From iHeartApple2, by way of ParisLemon, this video is part of a series of interviews with former CEO John Sculley. In this one, Sculley talks about the importance of marketing experiences, rather than product specs/features, along with lessons learned with and from Steve Jobs.
When we introduced the first Macintosh, we did a commercial, in the Superbowl, which was called 1984. What was remarkable about that commercial, particularly for a high tech product, was we never once showed the product.
Indeed.
What the guy from the time machine told Steve Ballmer
Last week, we posted about an article from Vanity Fair entitled, The Empire Reboots. Terrific article on Microsoft, with focus on the current relationship of Bill Gates and Satya Nadella and the longtime reign of CEO Steve Ballmer.
Matt Rosoff, from CITEworld, read the Vanity Fair piece and posted a tweet-storm based on the idea that a time traveler from today went back to 2004 and met Steve Ballmer, filling him in on ten years of tech advances. Great read.
Getting banned by the NFL is actually great for Beats
The competition between Bose and Beats cost Colin Kaepernick $10,000 this week, when he violated an NFL ban on wearing Beats by Dr. Dre headphones on television after games.
Is this a PR win for Beats? Will Apple remove all Bose products from the Apple Store?
The Birth of Pong, an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s new book
Walter Isaacson is best known as the author of the official Steve Jobs biography. His new book is called The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution.
The Birth of Pong, an excerpt from the book, tells the story of Nolan Bushnell and the birth of the arcade game.
The incredible craft of David Fincher
[VIDEO] David Fincher is a phenomenal talent. If all he ever did was direct The Social Network, that’d be enough. But he directed Se7en. And He directed the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And Fight Club. Oh, and the first two episodes of the Netflix series House of Cards.
You get the idea. The video below is an incredibly well put together, detailed look at Fincher’s craft. If you love film, this is se7en and a half minutes well spent.