Apple has added two new verses to its “Your Verse” ad campaign. The first one takes you on the road with Chinese musicians Yaoband. The second new “Your Verse” ad follows Jason Hall as he rallies thousand of his fellow Detroit bicyclists to inspire his city. Click through for the videos and links.
WTF interview with Robin Williams
If you’ve never listened to WTF with Marc Maron, this interview with Robin Williams is an excellent place to start.
Apple’s App Store curation efforts – A response to Jean-Louis Gassée
David Barnard responds to Jean-Louis Gassée’s post about the need for human curation in the App Store.
Robin Williams, 63, dead of apparent suicide
Wow. Crushing loss.
Electroluminescent motorcycle helmets
Riding at night? This kickstarter gives you everything you need to make your helmet light up so you can be seen.
Jean-Louis Gassée posts open to letter to Tim Cook seeking better curation for the App Store
In this week’s Monday Note, Jean-Louis Gassée once again pressed his case for Apple to craft a humanly curated App Store experience, rather than one based purely on algorithms.
The Bunda Cliffs in Australia
Here’s one for your bucket list. Follow the link to see the pictures. Words just cannot do this justice.
One way to deal with a telemarketer
This is simply genius.
The incredibly important Adobe Illustrator story
[VIDEO] Vimeo:
When Adobe Illustrator first shipped in 1987, it was the first software application for a young company that had, until then, focused solely on Adobe PostScript. The new product not only altered Adobe’s course, it changed drawing and graphic design forever.
Watch the Illustrator story unfold, from its beginning as Adobe’s first software product, to its role in the digital publishing revolution, to becoming an essential tool for designers worldwide. Interviews include cofounder John Warnock, his wife Marva, artists and designers Ron Chan, Bert Monroy, Dylan Roscover and Jessica Hische.
It is hard to truly appreciate the impact Adobe had on the world of computing. In the video embedded below, you’ll meet John Warnock, the co-founder of Adobe, and watch as the invention and evolution of PostScript and Adobe Illustrator unfolds.
Absolutely brilliant.
Should your driverless car kill you to save a child?
Quartz:
Consider this thought experiment: you are traveling along a single-lane mountain road in an autonomous car that is fast approaching a narrow tunnel. Just before entering the tunnel a child attempts to run across the road but trips in the centre of the lane, effectively blocking the entrance to the tunnel. The car has but two options: hit and kill the child, or swerve into the wall on either side of the tunnel, thus killing you.
This might seem a pointless exercise, but as the field of robotics matures and artificial intelligence design takes on the burdens of critical decision making, this ethical dilemma will force itself on software designers.
China said to exclude Apple products from “public money” procurement lists
Bloomberg:
Ten Apple products — including the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro — were omitted from a final government procurement list distributed in July, according to officials who read it and asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The models were on a June version of the list drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, the officials said.
Apple is the latest U.S. technology company to be excluded from Chinese government purchases amid escalating tensions between the countries over claims of hacking and cyberspying. China’s procurement agency told departments to stop buying antivirus software from Symantec Corp. (SYMC) and Kaspersky Lab, while Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) was shut out of a government purchase of energy-efficient computers.
Tycoon allowed to sue Google for defamation because of search autocomplete suggestion
Oh, what times we live in.
A Hong Kong court has ruled that a local tycoon can sue Google Inc for defamation because searches for his name on Google suggest adding the word ‘triad’, Hong Kong’s notorious organized crime groups.
iOS supports more European app developers than any other mobile OS
There’s a new report out from Vision Mobile:
Apple’s iOS operating system forms the basis 497,000 jobs in Europe – around half of all ‘app economy’ jobs on the continent – according to a new report by Vision Mobile.
Although more developers overall use Google’s Android operating system, iOS is the preferred platform for professional developers (as opposed to hobbyists and explorers), prioritised by 43 per cent of professional developers, compared to 35 per cent for Android.
Interesting economics. 497,000 jobs in Europe alone, based on an OS that was released about 7 years ago.
Russian gang amasses more than a billion internet passwords
New York Times:
A Russian crime ring has amassed the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials, including 1.2 billion user name and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses, security researchers say.
Replacing our existing ID system needs to become a priority.
Xiaomi passes Samsung in China, Micromax passes Samsung in India
Two huge markets, two big market losses for Samsung. [See the full post]
How closely is Google reading your email?
Last week, a Houston TV station reported on the arrest of a man on charges of child pornography, purely based on a tip from Google. Should Google, Apple, and others be reading your email?
The emerging threat (to Google) of modified Android phones
Android is available in two different flavors. There’s the Google-endorsed Android, which is used by companies that agree to the terms and conditions of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).
The other side is the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), a far-freer version that lets device makers tinker with all manner of elements of the software.
Amazon’s Kindles run AOSP, replacing Google’s services with their own. The AOSP market is growing quickly and is emerging as a threat to Google.
Apple’s new “Dreams” ad
[VIDEO] Dreams is the latest ad in the “You’re more powerful than you think” series. The song in the ad is When I Grow Up by Jennifer O’Connor.
As is now the norm, all the apps featured in the ad are highlighted on Apple’s web site.
The Hero Returns: Steve Jobs’ real genius
Peter Sims on Steve Jobs and collaboration:
As the three-year anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing approaches in October, complete lessons from his life and legacy are still far from written or understood. Walter Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs, published soon after Jobs’ death in 2011, provided a formidable starting point, yet we still have a great deal to learn and understand about what made Jobs such a unique innovator and leader.
In studying Jobs closely over the past several years, I’ve become convinced that the common narratives we’ve heard neglect a central aspect of Jobs’ of genius and success. And, it’s something that we can all learn from, which is this: Steve Jobs was a superb collaborator with the people who he respected and trusted.
Fascinating article.
Gruber’s prescient comments about a potential iPhone from 2006
When Dell and Blackberry scoffed at the Apple/IBM alliance announced a few weeks ago, it struck a chord for John Gruber, reminding him of something from long ago. He finally figured out what it was.
Great read.
Spielberg’s genius – The “oner”
[VIDEO] The origins of the “oner”, one scene, one shot and how Spielberg made that technique his own. This is riveting, from first scene to last.
Ethan Hawke on the Black Album and passing music along to your child
The movie Boyhood was filmed using the same cast over 12 years, so you literally see the protagonist growing up before your eyes. A great concept, said to be a great movie, can’t wait to see it.
In a scene celebrating Mason Jr.’s 15th birthday, he receives a mix CD from his father, Mason Sr., played by Ethan Hawke. Called The Black Album, it’s a compilation of the best of John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s solo work, post-Beatles.
The CD comes with a set of liner notes in the form of a letter, cribbed from liner notes Ethan Hawke originally wrote for his daughter. Great concept, great letter, especially if you are a Beatles fan.
Microsoft suing Samsung for breach of contract
From Microsoft’s blog post:
As you may have seen, on Friday Microsoft filed legal action against Samsung in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Today’s legal action is simply to enforce our contract with Samsung.
We don’t take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a company with which we’ve enjoyed a long and productive partnership. Unfortunately, even partners sometimes disagree. After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract.
Oh, Samsung. Keep behaving like this and no one’s going to want to play with you anymore.
Why your ice cream sandwich doesn’t melt
[VIDEO] There’s a buzz going around the net about ice cream sandwiches not melting. It started with a woman in Cincinnati who accidentally left a Walmart ice cream sandwich out in the sun for a bit and noticed that it was not behaving the way “real” ice cream behaved.
Was this true? Watch the embedded video, but then read on for the science.
On making a living from the App Store
David Smith:
This past week has seen an explosion of writing and discussion about the business of making software for sale on the iOS App Store. Personally I love it when these little bubbles of discussion appear. If you’ve listened to me for any period of time you’ll know that one of the things I really like is being a student of the App Store. These discussions provide the opportunity and motivation for all sorts of anecdotes which help expand my view on where things stand.
This post is a trifecta. There’s a link to the Developing Perspective podcast, where David Smith lays all this out verbally. There’s the post itself (which really clicked for me). And there’s the wealth of related links at the end of the post.
Apple’s “Stickers” ad gives MacBook sticker sellers a huge boost
An unscientific survey, but interesting nonetheless.
Microsoft releases Office for iPad update with PDF exporting, presenter view, third party fonts, more
There’s plenty here to like, but the ability to send a Word and Excel files as PDFs is a real boon for me, personally.
Game about squares
This is a fun little game, a puzzle challenge that requires you to move squares around on your screen using a simple set of rules, getting them to rest on a preset position.
What privacy settings tell you about the profound differences between Google and Apple
Quartz:
When you install an app on an Android smartphone or tablet, it asks for access to data such as your location or address book. If you say no, you can’t install the app.
Apple handles things differently. On its mobile operating system, iOS, apps don’t ask permission when they’re installed. Instead, iOS takes some permissions as a given—internet access for instance—but for more sensitive data, such as your photos or location, the app has to ask for access when you use it. That more closely relates the decision to grant access to the reason for asking for it.
That there should be a difference between Android and iOS, which between them control 96.3% of the smartphone market, isn’t surprising. They have different overarching philosophies: Android is free for any smartphone maker to use while iOS is for iPhones only. Developers can freely upload their apps to the Google Play Store while Apple has tight gatekeeping. Android is easily customized; iOS is not.
My two cents:
Hate your ISP? Maybe you need community fiber
The primary issue faced by most US consumers is a lack of competition. The pie is very large and there is little opportunity for customers to protest poor service with their wallets. There’s just nowhere to run.
Community fiber is typically run by a local power utility, one with customer service infrastructure already built in.