This is a true story.
The AP announced last month that it would use Automated Insights’ software, called Wordsmith, to produce up to 4,440 robot-written corporate-earnings reports per quarter, more than ten times the number its human reporters currently produce.
This is just an example of what’s coming. As intelligence modeling becomes steadily more sophisticated…
[VIDEO] Tina S is a remarkable guitar player. We’ve posted some of her work before, most notably her cover of Van Halen’s Eruption.
Here’s her take on Yngwie Malmsteen’s Molto Arpeggiosa, colloquially known as Arpeggios From Hell.
Tina S is a phenomenally gifted guitarist and she is still just a teenager. Enjoy!
[VIDEO] Where’s the clever in these two new Samsung ads? Did Samsung just switch ad agencies? I think both of these ads are amateurish and dreadful.
[VIDEO] Back in January 2000, Ron Johnson joined Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail Operations with a mission to create and roll out Apple’s retail operations.
Back in May, Johnson appeared, one-on-one, on Stanford Business School’s View From the Top interview series. The video of that interview is embedded below.
LeBron James wrote an essay detailing his rationale for coming back to Cleveland, an essay that stands with some of the best sports essays I have ever read. It’s not too long, an easy read, well worth your time.
WSJ:
China’s influential state broadcaster on Friday called a location-tracking function offered by Apple Inc.’s iPhone a “national security concern,” in the latest sign of a backlash in the country against U.S. technology firms.
In its national noon broadcast, state-run China Central Television criticized the “frequent locations” function in Apple’s iOS 7 mobile operating system, which records time and location for the owner’s movements. The report quoted researchers who said that those with access to that data could gain knowledge of China’s economic situation or “even state secrets.”
Businessweek:
While teens aren’t overrunning Silicon Valley yet, talent-starved tech companies are reaching out to kids to fill spots in their internship programs. Facebook says it has just begun to recruit teens before their freshman year of college. LinkedIn (LNKD) opened its summer program to high schoolers two years ago; Airbnb has had interns as young as 16. “Talent is our No. 1 operating priority and our most important asset,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said on his company’s most recent earnings call, welcoming this summer’s crop of interns.
This same competitiveness has come to tech. Tech companies and government agencies are visiting (and sponsoring) science fairs, looking to identify and bring on board blossoming talent before their competitors.
9to5Mac:
Due to a security flaw discovered in its Flash Player software, Adobe released an update to the web plugin earlier this week. Today Apple confirmed that it had updated its plugin blacklist for OS X to stop the system from using a version of Flash Player older than 14.0.0.145 (or 13.0.0.231 on older systems).
Here’s a link to the relevant Apple support page.
What happens when a long time PC and Chrome power user moves to Mac OS X? How will Safari stack up?
Last June, Tim Cook hired Lisa Jackson, former administrator of the Environment Protection Agency, as Apple’s Vice President of Environmental Initiatives. This report is the first under her leadership.
Here’s a link to the report. And here’s a link to an FAQ that highlights some of the major environmental questions addressed by the report. Finally, here’s a link to the updated environment section of Apple’s website.
Wall Street Journal:
According to investigations by the New York-based watchdog [China Labor Watch], the Shinyang factory hires children and underage students during busy periods and when in “urgent need of labor.” Shinyang makes cellphone covers and parts for Samsung.
The alleged underage workers are usually employed for three to six months, work for 11 hours a day and are only paid for 10 of those hours, the watchdog said in a statement.
I love it when Siri exposes her wry sense of humor.
BBC:
Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company’s voice-recognition patent ruled invalid.
The verdict threatens Apple’s ability to offer its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, in the country.
Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology has sought to block Apple from selling products with the app installed, saying it infringed its rights.
Apple will appeal the verdict and had this to say:
“Apple believes deeply in protecting innovation, and we take intellectual property rights very seriously,” said a spokesman.
Android Police:
App Encryption was added to the Play Store to encode paid apps with a device-specific key, making them more difficult to crack or transplant by would-be pirates. Despite some early issues that lead Google to temporarily take App Encryption offline, it has gone mostly unnoticed since it was re-enabled. That is, until now. It seems the Android Wear install process runs into a road block with paid apps because it doesn’t know how to extract the file of the encrypted apk. Since the installer fails to recognize the payload, it assumes there is nothing to install and silently aborts. This behavior appears to match another known issue that occurs if the Wear app is compressed more than once before it is published.
Seems to me, this is a real weak point in the Android Wear testing methodology.
Apple Insider:
Apple on Monday was granted a U.S. patent covering a method of fusing glass structures together to encapsulate the internal circuitry of an iOS device, and that of larger electronics like monitors and televisions.
Not clear if this will ever make it into a real product, but certainly interesting.
Know the difference between a UI designer and a UX designer? Know what a front-end developer does? How about a product designer?
This is a fantastic write-up. Pass it along.
I was a huge Pink Floyd fan (Wish You Were Here and, of course, Dark Side of the Moon are still high on my list of all-time great albums), though my interest in the band waned after the release of The Wall. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.
Allen Pike writes on the cultural shift within Apple:
With the WWDC NDA lifted, other Apple employees, from the creator of Swift to various API maintainers, took to Twitter to gather feedback on all the goodies they’d dumped on developers. In the web community this would be expected behaviour. In the Apple community, it’s a delight.
Terrific read.
Samsung is getting it from all sides. Earnings are down for the third straight quarter. Their operating profit missed expectations by almost a billion dollars (7.2 trillion won vs expected 8.1 trillion won). Apple is rumored to be releasing competitive products (larger screen phone/iWatch) in the fall. And Chinese electronics manufacturers are eating into Samsung’s highest unit sales’ sector, the cheap smartphone.
Guardian:
Thieves haved raided a Samsung electronics factory in Brazil during the night shift, subduing workers and guards before making off with about US$6.3m worth of mobile phones and computers.
The Cleveland Clinic has developed a series of tests that measure a variety of factors identified with Multiple Sclerosis. The data is gathered on an iPad. Groundbreaking.
A news story you’ll see bouncing around the blogs this morning says you’ll need to charge your devices before you can get through security. In other words, make sure your phone can boot or you’ll have to leave it behind.
Close, but not quite right.
The Washington Post is taking steps to isolate their sources from their normal means of data collection, protecting both the Post and the source from any audits that might pick up their IP address or other identifying information.
Nearly all digital communications can leave a trail. The Washington Post’s SecureDrop is designed to minimize these digital trails using best practices, such as…
Boing Boing:
Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, Boing Boing is pleased to present the first-ever look at the original Disneyland prospectus. These extremely high-resolution scans were made from one of the three sets of pitch-documents Roy and Walt Disney used to raise the money to build Disneyland.
[VIDEO] This is really well done.
[VIDEO] Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, interviews Google founders Page and Brin for about forty minutes.
Some good stuff, some obvious stuff, but fascinating to watch them interact, hear them talk about their vision of the future.
Ever wonder what makes you fall asleep, or puts you out when you get anesthesia?
When the team zapped the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman lost consciousness. She stopped reading and stared blankly into space, she didn’t respond to auditory or visual commands and her breathing slowed.
Read the rest. Fantastic!
From Google translate:
I make a brute parquet craftsman, and Honma Noboru.
Blog to introduce handicrafts of Japan world-class “HAND”. It was visited this time, Hakone. This town is surrounded by scenic nature, it is the workshop of Honma Noboru that inherits traditional craft that follows from the late Edo period to “Hakone parquet”. Process which is said to be at least 10 years and, takes to master the technology a series of many complex. Workshop drifting incense tree, the tradition has been spun today.
[VIDEO] CNBC:
Apple has hired the sales director of luxury Swiss watch maker TAG Heuer to help with the launch of its new iWatch, as the technology group intend on using the prestigious “Swiss made” label to market its new gadget, the head of LVMH’s watch brands Jean-Claude Biver told CNBC.
Check out the video in the original post, in which Biver talks about the importance of talent. I think Biver has the right attitude here. He regrets losing a talented person, but he recognizes the value in moving on for a better opportunity.
The Guardian:
German car manufacturer BMW has turned to 3D printing to physically augment its car-plant workers, giving them stronger, augmented thumbs.