With Jony Ive focused on Apple’s product vision, Tim Cook has been playing to his strengths dedicating much of his attention to nurturing the Apple experience by focusing on six values: security and privacy, trust, equality and ethics, and environmentally responsibility.

You can get three “Twilight Zone Radio Dramas” for free by signing up and more than 150 Twilight Zone Radio Dramas (each approximately 40 minutes) are available for digital download for only $1.99 each. When I was a kid, I would lie under my covers, trying to tune in to a particular New York City radio station that, late at night, replayed old radio dramas.

I started watching this video and thought the picture quality was awful. And then I kept watching. Wow. That’s insane zoom.

The engineering of the Panama Canal would be remarkable if it occurred today. But it was an even more incredible construction project when it originally opened in 1914. I hadn’t realized it was in danger of becoming irrelevant due to the massive size of today’s cruise and container ships.

I saw this movie over the weekend and it deserves all the accolades it’s receiving. Fun, funny, visually gorgeous.

Fortune:

In an interview on Feb. 12 at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., CEO Tim Cook spoke expansively about the state of Apple, Fortune’s most admired company for nine consecutive years. He talked about how Apple behaves in a down cycle, how the company’s once-sacrosanct only-in-Cupertino mind-set is evolving, and the importance of services to Apple’s product mix. Without acknowledging its existence,

Cook also shed possibly contradictory light on Apple’s widely rumored efforts to build an iCar: He suggested that Apple ultimately may decide not to make a car at all, yet he implied that if it did, it could utilize contract manufacturers to do so, just as it does with computers and phones.

The quote everyone is pointing to in this story is Cook saying, “Yeah, I’m probably not going to do that” with regards to talking about Apple’s much-rumored car project. Cook reiterates the point the company has been making for years – they explore all kinds of technologies and possible products. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will bring them to market.

It must be killing the guys at Fortune that they didn’t do this interview after the Apple vs FBI story broke.

White House Petitions:

We petition the Obama administration to halt efforts that compel Apple and other device makers to create a “backdoor” for the Government to access citizens data.

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of its customers. The FBI, is demanding that Apple build a “backdoor” to bypass digital locks protecting consumer information on Apple’s popular iPhones.

We the undersigned, oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

I’m usually skeptical of these kinds of petitions (and there’s no doubt the administration will ignore these efforts) but it’s still one of many things you can do, including contacting your elected representatives, to voice your thoughts on this issue. I’m actually surprised there doesn’t seem to be a petition from the other point of view, supporting the FBI’s efforts.

Mashable:

Apple’s big fight with the Federal Bureau of Investigation could have been avoided if one government employee had kept his hands off the phone.

According to a senior Apple executive, the company has been working with the federal government since early January to try to provide a way to access the San Bernardino county-issued iPhone connected with Syed Farook, the gunman in the massacre.

The problem, according to Apple, is that the company was called too late.

That’s because the phone was apparently erased of any chance to access its data only an hour after the device came into government custody. An unnamed person in the San Bernardino County government — likely an information technology employee — reset the Apple ID associated with the iPhone 5C in an attempt to access the data.

This comedy of errors would be funny if the stakes weren’t so high.

Vox:

NASCAR is ridiculous. At the Daytona 500 in Florida this weekend, 40 souped-up cars will chase each other around a 2.5-mile track at speeds approaching 200 mph. They’ll do this for 200 laps, for a total distance of 500 miles.

But this is what’s truly crazy: For much of the race, the cars will be just inches apart from one another.

This amps up the drama of the sport. But the drivers do it for another reason: It helps them go faster.

Here’s why.

NASCAR gets a lot of flack (arguably justified) for simply being “roundy round” and not requiring much in the way of skill to go left for 500 miles but at least for tracks like Daytona, the abilities of the drivers are incredible considering the speeds they are traveling and the proximity of the cars.

Rich Mogull:

Don’t be distracted by the technical details. The model of phone, the method of encryption, the detailed description of the specific attack technique, and even the feasibility are all irrelevant.

Don’t be distracted by the legal wrangling. By the timing, the courts, or the laws in question. Nor by politicians, proposed legislation, Snowden, or speeches at think tanks or universities.

Don’t be distracted by who is involved. Apple, the FBI, dead terrorists, or common drug dealers. Everything, all of it, boils down to a single question.

Do we have a right to security?

This isn’t the government vs. some technology companies. It’s the government vs. your right to fundamental security in the digital age.

Rich expands on the points he brought up on my show this past Wednesday and, as usual, asks good questions. Keep in mind, there is no “right to privacy” embedded in the US Constitution so it is what we make of it. We can be secure from governmental intrusion or not. As Rich says, there is no middle ground.

The New York Times:

Law enforcement agencies have a legitimate need for evidence, which is all the more pressing in terrorism cases. But the Constitution and the nation’s laws limit how investigators and prosecutors can collect evidence. In a 1977 case involving the New York Telephone Company, the Supreme Court said the government could not compel a third party that is not involved in a crime to assist law enforcement if doing so would place “unreasonable burdens” on it. Judge Pym’s order requiring Apple to create software to subvert the security features of an iPhone places just such a burden on the company.

Interesting opinion piece by the Times. This story has a long way to go before it gets resolved and everyone is lining up and taking sides.

The Atlantic:

The winning entries of the 59th annual World Press Photo Contest have just been announced. The 2016 Photo of the Year is a haunting nighttime image of refugees climbing through razor wire over the the Hungarian-Serbian border, taken by photographer Warren Richardson. This year, according to organizers, 82,951 photos were submitted for judging, made by 5,775 photographers from 128 different countries.

This contest is different from others in that they are all “press photos”. By their nature, they aren’t allowed to be edited in any significant​ way. It makes them even more raw and immediate.

Macworld:

Apple really, really wants you to stop using that old iPhone and to upgrade to a new one. On Thursday, the company announced the Trade Up With Installments plan, the third purchase plan customers can opt into when buying a new iPhone.

The Trade Up With Installments plan is targeted at users of the iPhone 4, 4s, 5, 5c, 5s, 6, and 6 Plus and is only available at the Apple Store. You can bring in your old iPhone and Apple will give you credit for the device, and then you can pay off the new unlocked iPhone in monthly installments.

This sounds like a great plan to get newer iPhones in the hands of those who want the latest and greatest iPhones but just don’t have $600+ to put down upfront. I hope this program is available outside the US.

Techcrunch:

Today, Apple is issuing an updated version of iOS 9.2.1 for users that update their iPhones via iTunes only. This update will restore phones ‘bricked’ or disabled by Error 53 and will prevent future iPhones that have had their home button (or the cable) replaced by third party repair centers from being disabled.

A new support document on Apple’s site has been issued that details the causes and repair methods for Error 53.

Good move on Apple’s part to make this right.

Bloomberg:

At the center of all this is Srouji, 51, an Israeli who joined Apple after jobs at Intel and IBM. He’s compact, he’s intense, and he speaks Arabic, Hebrew, and French. His English is lightly accented and, when the subject has anything to do with Apple, nonspecific bordering on koanlike. “Hard is good. Easy is a waste of time,” he says when asked about increasingly thin iPhone designs. “The chip architects at Apple are artists, the engineers are wizards,” he answers another question. He’ll elaborate a bit when the topic is general. “When designers say, ‘This is hard,’ ” he says, “my rule of thumb is if it’s not gated by physics, that means it’s hard but doable.”

Those of us old enough to remember the anemic processors in Macs of the past can marvel at the power of the present day chips. It can’t be overstated how important Apple making their own chips is and, therefore, how important this guy is.

Atlas Obscura:

In the coverage at the time, almost all the media outlets (including Sports Illustrated and World Press Photo) described the image as a physical manifestation of the breaking of the sound barrier. Gay seemed to believe that, telling one interviewer, “I clicked the same time I heard the boom, and I knew I had it.” Other coverage described the cone as a result of the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity, a phenomenon predicting that aerodynamic forces would approach infinity as aircraft neared the sound barrier.

It turns out neither of these are correct. Instead, Gay had captured an effect known as flow-induced vaporization that sometimes forms around objects flying at high speeds in the right environmental conditions.

It’s an amazing photograph that has been around for years and almost always incorrectly described as a “F/A-18 Hornet breaking the sound barrier”. The truth is a lot more complicated.

Vogue:

Apple’s lexicon of pure, pared-down forms, smooth surfaces, gleaming metallic colors, and soft contours within hard carapaces has emerged over the past 20 years under the eye of chief designer Jony Ive. Talking over coffee on the old campus about the growing synergy between the company and the fashion world, Ive points to his rose-gold Apple Watch, a precious counterpoint to the Clarks on his feet.

“Nine years ago, the iPhone didn’t exist, and the most personal product we had was too big to carry around with you,” he explains. “The technology is at last starting to enable something that was the dream of the company from the very beginning—to make technology personal. So personal that you can wear it.”

Apple’s interest in and focus on fashion is really interesting, if potentially a big pitfall. Fashion is notoriously fickle and a misstep could do irreparable harm to the brand.

Macworld:

Make no mistake: This is unprecedented, and the situation was deliberately engineered by the FBI and Department of Justice to force a showdown that could define limits our civil rights for generations to come. This is an issue with far-reaching implications well beyond a single phone, a single case, or even Apple itself.

As a career security professional, this case has chilling implications.

Mogull is my go-to guy when it comes to security and privacy issues. When he writes, I pay attention. I’ve also got an audio interview with him on tonight’s Your Mac Life show. He’ll be on right after The Loop’s Publisher, Jim Dalrymple.

Bon Appetit:

You intentionally grab a café table next to the window on overcast days and you’re a pro at tinkering with your eggy photos on VSCO, but have you ever gone on a professional photoshoot with just your iPhone?

Imagine the surprise the photographers we worked with on our March Culture Issue experienced when they got the call saying they’d have to ditch their DSLRs and tethers for the hippest pocket camera around. We spoke with the photographers who made the issue happen and found out what they think of a print magazine going full-on Instagram for an issue.

How freaked out were the photographers when they heard about this? Imagine your boss telling you that you had to use “inferior” tools to get your job done. It’s an interesting experiment.

Boredpanda:

I wanted to take a coast-to-coast journey across Canada in a way that had never been seen before. To give a fresh perspective to the journey I decided to take the train. It’s not just any train, but rather the legendary 1959 passenger train that was first to be called “The Canadian.”

When I saw the post title, I thought, “Wait – there’s no vintage train you can take across Canada…” Then I saw the pictures and realized what he was talking about. Very clever.

There’s been a lot of talk about AR and VR. I think AR will hit the market sooner and bigger than VR. This video shows a practical example of how AR can help in training pilots.

Slashfilm: Have you never experienced the wonders of seeing Humphrey Bogart on the big screen? Have you never watched a John Huston film in a movie theater either? Well, now you can do both, because Fathom Events and Turner Classic … Continued

NPR:

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody — and a bit muddled.

Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome, where men hit on women by, well, hitting them.

I love these origin stories – as a kid, I was a big fan of Roman and Greek mythology. Our present version of Valentine’s Day, regardless of your feelings about the day, is certainly better than its origin story.

The Verge:

Amazingly, the new Deadpool movie does work. That has a great deal to do with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s screenplay, but so much of what keeps the film from flying out of control is the editing. Julian Clarke had to do the heavy lifting in Adobe Premiere to strike a balance between the character’s love of gore and gleeful absurdity, making a movie that’s accessible to both fans and neophytes. It’s not easy, since Deadpool seems made for situations that fly out of control. I spoke with Clarke about the film, the challenges he faced making it, and why the sequel might be harder to pull off than anyone expects.

Interesting interview with the editor of the film and the particular challenges he had in keeping the level and tone just right. I haven’t seen the movie but I’ve heard good and bad things about it. But, from the trailers, it feels like one of those movies you’re either going to immediately form an opinion about one way or the other. Personally, I loved what I saw in the trailers and during the marketing campaign leading up to this weekend’s release.

Hodinkee:

Having worn an Apple Watch almost exclusively for the last month, I feel absolutely confident that mechanical watches aren’t going anywhere for now. But the Apple Watch isn’t either.

It’s almost improbably well done, and it shows a willingness to think creatively that ought to be heeded by the luxury watch industry – and it also suggests to me that underestimating its impact, and Apple, is dangerous.

This is a long and well detailed review of the Apple Watch from the point of view of a person who loves and lives for mechanical watches. This is a guy who reviews $95,000 mechanical watches on a regular basis so his opinions regarding the Apple Watch are very interesting.

Petapixel:

Here’s a major warning to those of you who use Adobe Creative Cloud on a Mac: the latest version of Creative Cloud has a bug that deletes unrelated data from your root directory without warning.

The bug in Adobe Creative Cloud version 3.5.0.206 was discovered by the cloud backup service Backblaze, whose customers were having their data deleted by Adobe’s app.

This is yet another in a long line of issues with apps in Adobe’s Creative Cloud and it may be the most destructive one yet. I was forced to use CC but I don’t do any of the updates as they pop up. I know Adobe screws this stuff up on a regular basis so I keep myself one update behind.

Rogue Amoeba:

While the App Store has many shortcomings, it’s the onerous rules and restrictions Apple has for selling through the Mac App Store which pose the biggest problem. The type of software we make is precluded from being sold through the store, particularly now that sandboxing is a requirement, and Apple has shown no signs of relaxing those restrictions. Fortunately, unlike iOS, the Mac platform is still open. We’re able to distribute and sell direct to our customers, right from our site. We’ve got almost 15 years of experience and success doing just that, and we have no plans to stop.

I get why Apple does sandboxing and, in broad terms, it’s great for users. But we are seeing more and more developers unable to create the products they want because of sandboxing. The good news is that companies like Rogue Amoeba make products for more experienced users and those users will always be able to find and buy stuff directly from Rogue Amoeba. Buying direct is my preferred method, too. It may be less convenient but it puts more money directly in the hands of a developer in know and trust.

Fstoppers:

When I heard the iPhone 6s was coming out on September 25, I decided now was the best time to create a new video to prove once and for all that quality photography can be taken with any budget.

Instead of using a fancy studio (which was actually just my garage in the last video) I decided to do the shoot around my house and then outside at the beach. Instead of seamless paper I decided to use backgrounds that anyone could easily find. Most importantly, I limited my lighting budget to about $40 maximum per shot.

I love this post because it shows you don’t need a ton of gear to get great shots. With your iPhone, some stuff you can buy at Home Depot and a little ingenuity, you can create your very own fashion shoot. Thanks to iheartapple2 for the link.

Vox:

“The bottom line here with the industrial tomatoes is that tomatoes have been bred for yield, production, disease resistance,” Klee told me. “The growers are not paid for flavor — they are paid for yield. So the breeders have given them this stuff that produces a lot of fruit but that doesn’t have any flavor.”

“We are raising a whole generation of people who don’t know what a tomato is supposed to taste like.” That’s why you see gigantic strawberries and fist-size apples on the store shelves. Since Americans like their produce big, and big fruit is more efficient to grow, growers do everything they can to supersize their fruit, even at the expense of flavor.

Anyone else noticed this? I did especially when I was in Italy. In particular, the tomatoes tasted amazing and completely different from the blandness of what we get in supermarkets here in North America.