Design Taxi:

To promote its newly announced music service, Apple has rolled out three new ads showing its product’s ubiquity.

Its first ad—titled ‘Apple Music—Worldwide’—features music as the go-to companion for every situation in life. From the routine daily commute to moments of sadness, Apple Music never fails you. The second spot gives you a glimpse of the past with the ‘History of Sound’, presenting Apple Music as the future of the music industry.

The final commercial delves into the features of Apple Music and how it houses all your favorite sounds.

Apple Music is available to users at the end of this month—let’s see if it is able to live up to its big promises as advertised.

I always love when Apple posts new ads. I especially love all the “ad experts” pontificating about them the next day.

The Verge:

On the sidelines of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, marketing SVP Phil Schiller has spoken to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber for a live episode of his The Talk Show podcast. The full interview hasn’t been posted yet, but it’ll be worth checking out for Apple fans when it is — Gruber asked Schiller about a few things that have become hot topics among the company’s community of users and developers.

Can’t wait to see the video. If Twitter is any indication, it was quite the surprise and quite the interview. Kudos to Gruber for scoring a big one.

Billboard:

Apple Music, which launches on June 30 with an arsenal of 30 million songs, has been in the works for more than a decade, says Iovine, who first started talking to the Cupertino-based giant on the heels of the iTunes launch in 2003. Now, it’s a reality, boasting on-demand streaming (with an offline component, to help stem the decline of downloads), a 24-hour human-curated radio station (helmed by former BBC DJ Zane Lowe) and a connect function that facilitates direct-to-fan engagement.

It’s a massive undertaking whose impact is sure to be felt almost instantaneously thanks to the 800 million credit cards Apple already has on file. With a click, users can sign up for $9.99 a month — or $14.99 for the family plan, which allows up to six accounts — price points that, Cue says, took much deliberation.

These interviews are always interesting not only for what they say but what they don’t say. Notwithstanding Iovine’s “unpracticed” appearance and Eddy Cue’s dancing during WWDC, these two guys are the brains and the engine behind the new service.

Apple:

Student Winners – Elementary Minute for iPhone, jump-O for iPhone

Design Award Winners – Shadowmatic, Metamorphabet, Robinhood, Affinity Designer, Crossy Road, Fantastical 2, Does not Commute, Vainglory, Pacemaker.

I always love this list because, if nothing else, the vast majority of these award winners are gorgeous looking apps.

ZDNet:

With iOS 9 Apple is making a direct play for Android users with an app to help them migrate their data and apps to the iPhone.

The new app, called ‘Move to iOS’ will be released this fall with iOS 9 and is one of two apps targeting the Android platform, the other being Apple Music.

According to Apple, the apps will allow Android users the ability to securely transfer “contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars, wallpaper, and DRM-free songs and books” wirelessly to an iPhone.

Great move by Apple to make this process as easy, painless and efficient as possible.

Six colors:

Now that the main show is over, I’ve combed through Apple’s site and press releases to try and find more about those details that didn’t make the cut for the presentation, as well as those announcements that may have been glossed over.

Dan has a good overview of yesterday, recapping what was and wasn’t announced. He caught a bunch of little stuff I missed or that Apple didn’t even mention during the keynote.

Nieman Lab:

The big news — and pitched as one of the biggest new features in iOS 9 — is an app called News. It’s an awful lot like Flipboard — though the power of being installed on every iPhone and iPad is obviously huge.

The presentation features all the same sort of bells and whistles we’ve seen in Facebook’s Instant Articles — animations, swipe-able photo galleries, fluid movement. And it promises, like other aggregator apps, to get better with time, as it learns which sorts of articles you’re interested in.

Its importance remains to be seen. I don’t necessarily think “Apple just sherlock’ed Flipboard” but, depending on how news organizations take to this, it will be another medium to publish rich content on. I’m interested to see whether or not average people will be able to create “magazines” with these tools.

John Welch:

WEDR, and its DJs taught me things. Like what funk was. What soul was. Not the calm, whitewashed things you saw on TV when they trotted out Ray Charles for yet another rendering of “Georgia on My Mind” or “Hit The Road, Jack”. But the deep dirty funk. It’s where I first heard Prince, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and so many other artists.

But here’s the thing: WEDR and the DJs were the only way I was going to hear that. My friends were all into either Zeppelin & Pink Floyd, or Disco. From them, I’d have never heard this stuff.

My friend John Welch makes a great point about Apple Music and Beats 1. Like him, I’m interested, if not excited, by what Apple and their DJs come up with. Like John, I’m of an age when DJs mattered. Maybe Apple can bring that age back.

Ars Technica:

All of the Apple Watch’s third-party applications so far have used WatchKit, a small SDK that limits apps’ functionality and UI and restricts them from using all the watch’s underlying hardware. At its WWDC keynote today, Apple announced that it would be moving beyond WatchKit and giving its third-party developers a more capable, native SDK that can take advantage of more of the Apple Watch’s features.

With WatchOS 2 and the native SDK, third-party apps will be able to do more of the things that Apple’s first-party apps can do.

This is a really big deal, akin to the launch of the App store the year after the original iPhone launch. It’s going to make the Apple Watch app ecosystem positively explode.

Macworld:

On Monday morning at WWDC, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed new enhancements to iOS 9, calling it “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.” Among the key features are a major Siri update, deep-dive transit Maps and a ton of useful user-experience improvements.

According to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering who led the iOS presentation and demo, Apple wants to add “intelligence throughout the user experience.”

Watching the keynote, I thought the same thing – Siri will not only get more “intelligence” but, for me, a lot more functionality.

Re/code:

Apple today introduced the next version of its Mac operating system, OS X El Capitan, focusing on two key areas of improvement: Experience and performance.

Mac OS X El Capitan is available to developers today, and will be released to the public in the fall as a free download.

I’ll get it just for the cool “find my cursor” feature.

Apple:

WWDC15 is the epicenter of change. Experience the keynote live today at 10 a.m. PDT.

Apple has already begun posting photos from outside the Moscone Center.

Mashable:

The day before Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), the company hosted a special orientation session for the recipients of its WWDC Scholarship Program — with a special surprise guest, CEO Tim Cook.

Cook, who surprised the scholarship winners by making an appearance at the orientation session. He looked at apps, talked to the winners and took selfies.

Good interview.

BBC:

Closely related to sharks but with long, flat bodies and wing-like pectoral fins, they are ideally suited to swooping through the water yet seem equally at home in the air, so much so that they have earned the name “flying rays”.

Mobula rays can reach heights of more than two metres (6ft 6ins), remaining airborne for several seconds, but their landings are much less graceful, creating a loud bang as they belly-flop back into the sea.

The video on this page is spectacular. I’d love to go scuba diving with this group but I’d be afraid of a 5.2 m (17 ft), 2,000 lbs ray landing on me.

The Washington Post:

PayPal users, this is for you.

The payments company is rolling out an update to its user agreement that threatens to bombard you with “autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages” — and worse, by agreeing to the updated terms, you’re immediately opted in.

PayPal can even reach you at phone numbers that you didn’t provide. Through undisclosed means, PayPal says it has the right to contact you on numbers “we have otherwise obtained.”

I don’t get how these companies continue to add clauses like this. There are far too many geeks out there reading the EULAs and taking them apart word for word for companies like PayPal to get away with such egregious abuses of the information they gather on us.

Ars Technica:

Macs older than a year are vulnerable to exploits that remotely overwrite the firmware that boots up the machine, a feat that allows attackers to control vulnerable devices from the very first instruction.

The attack, according to a blog post published Friday by well-known OS X security researcher Pedro Vilaca, affects Macs shipped prior to the middle of 2014.

The new attack doesn’t require even brief physical access as Thunderstrike did. That means attackers half-way around the world may remotely exploit it. While the attack isn’t likely to be exploited on a mass scale, it’s also not hard for people with above-average skill to carry it out.

I’ve been chatting with my favorite security expert on Twitter about this and he says, “It looks pretty serious. Not panic level, but I hope Apple patches quickly. It makes a root exploit permanent but you still need the initial exploit. Nearly impossible to remove once exploited.”

Showtime:

You will be able to watch wherever and whenever you want through the SHOWTIME app on your Apple TV®, iPad® and iPhone®, plus on your computer.

You’ll be able to stream current and classic SHOWTIME Original Series, hit movies, live sports, exclusive documentaries and comedy specials. Watch when they first premiere or catch up on old favorites – always commercial free!

All of these services are great news for cord cutters but they are going to add up to spending real money real quick.

New York Times:

Last fall, however, Koeslag set off on a very different, decidedly 21st-century project: a smartwatch. In response to Apple’s plans to introduce a high-tech watch this year, the chief executive of Frédérique Constant, Peter Stas, decided the company would produce its own. It would not be a minicomputer with a screen, like Apple’s. Instead, it would combine the functions of a Fitbit, a device that tracks physical activity, with a traditional Swiss timepiece, a $1,200 entry-level Frédérique Constant watch. A Silicon Valley company would produce the tiny sensors that count steps and measure sleep cycles, and this information would be transmitted to a phone through a Bluetooth connection. The phone would also control the watch — resetting its hands in different time zones, for example. From the outside, the watch wouldn’t look “smart” at all, but it would be packed with electronics. Koeslag’s job was to bring to life this chimera of Swiss engineering and Silicon Valley wizardry.

Koeslag faced a significant problem, though: He had never worked with chips and sensors before. He didn’t even own a soldering iron. Swiss watchmakers don’t need them; their devices are put together with screws and screwdrivers.

This proposed watch sounds very interesting. I think the Swiss watchmakers, after a period of consolidation when the big makers swallow up a few smaller ones, will be fine. People will always want high end, exquisitely made watches.

Product Hunt:

Useful Mac apps you probably aren’t using (but should).

I get the Product Hunt newsletter every day and they often have some really interesting bits. Today’s list of Mac apps are of some I use – Duet, Bartender, Spectacle – but several I’d never heard of but installed immediately because they sound so cool/useful.

Apple:

Apple has determined that, in rare cases, the battery in the Beats Pill XL Speaker may overheat and pose a fire safety risk. This product has been sold worldwide since January 2014 by Beats, Apple, and other retailers.

Product returns will only be processed via the web for this program.

I blame Dr Dre.

Techcrunch:

“I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information,” said Cook. “They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”

Cook went on to state, as he has before when talking about products like Apple Pay, that Apple ‘doesn’t want your data.’

“We don’t think you should ever have to trade it for a service you think is free but actually comes at a very high cost. This is especially true now that we’re storing data about our health, our finances and our homes on our devices,” Cook went on, getting even more explicit when talking about user privacy.

I love that Cook continues to bang this drum.

Macworld:

FireWire is emblematic of everything that’s great about Apple as well as everything that’s not, and of a particular mindset among some Apple users.

It was technically hugely sophisticated, removing much of the burden for the data interchange from the main CPU; unlike USB, which required a host computer, FireWire was essentially a peer-to-peer networking technology, and it could transfer at full speed in both directions simultaneously, unlike USB.

But it was also, ultimately, expensive to implement, and although variants were supported by other companies (notably Sony), it struggled to get traction outside of the Apple ecosystem.

I have a soft spot for FireWire (I took delivery of the very first FireWire Drive in Canada). For those of us who remember not only the days of slow USB 1 but also back to ADB and (shudder) SCSI, it was a great way to move lots of data extremely quickly. I still have a bunch of FireWire cables I don’t have the heart to throw out.

Huffington Post:

In a series of trials, the Department of Homeland Security was able to smuggle fake explosives, weapons and other contraband past airport screeners in major cities across the country, according to ABC News. Officials briefed on the Homeland Security Inspector General’s investigation told the station that the TSA failed 67 out of 70 tests conducted by the department’s Red Teams — undercover passengers tasked with identifying weaknesses in the screening process, NJ.com reports.

During the tests, DHS agents each tried to bring a banned item past TSA screeners. They succeeded 95 percent of the time.

In yet another example of the “security theater” that is the TSA, this latest in a long line of embarrassments should cause the related departments to seriously look at whether or not the TSA is even worth the effort, money and resources it takes to keep such a sad sack organization propped up.

Techcrunch:

Apple’s HomeKit is finally starting to roll out to actual consumers, via the first crop of HomeKit-enabled accessories from third-party manufacturers. This means you’ll soon be able to get your hands on a range of products for the connected home that work with Siri on your iOS device, and that you’ll be able to do so as soon as today, since some of the new HomeKit accessories start shipping now.

The accessories in question range from sensors, to lights, to thermostats, to smart outlets, and come from a group of accessory-makers with a trusted reputation in the connected home industry. HomeKit may have taken a while to arrive, but it’s doing so in grand fashion, with a practical lineup to get your home connected to your iOS ecosystem in an essential way.

I bet we’ll see more announced and demoed at WWDC next week. It will be interesting to see the early adopters’ reaction to these and how they work right out of the box. The tech is far too new for me to invest in just yet but it is definitely the future and I’m looking forward to seeing what developers come out with.

Re/code:

To create each of the seven spots, the Apple team engaged in a little bit of benign online creepery. For instance, one of the featured videographers, Cielo de la Paz, had posted photos to Flickr, “and I hadn’t tagged them or anything. They must have been doing a search for photos shot on the iPhone, because they found me out of pure luck and asked if they could use my photo” for their iPhone 6 World Gallery campaign, which launched at the beginning of March.

For the TV spots, “they were like, ‘you have good photos — do you have good videos?” and I was like “um, maybe?”

Simple, effective, minimal…typically Apple.

Wall Street Journal:

More than a decade after it revolutionized music ownership with digital downloads through iTunes, Apple Inc. is again trying to change how consumers listen to their favorite songs with a new subscription streaming service and a renewed push into Internet radio.

At its developers’ conference next week, Apple is expected to announce a new set of music services, putting the company in competition with Spotify, the world’s leading streaming service, as well as Internet-radio player Pandora and even traditional broadcast stations.

These stories are leaking now ahead of next week’s WWDC. While the fine details may be wrong, it’s pretty common knowledge that Apple will announce their Beats (or whatever it will be called) streaming service next week. The biggest question is what will that service entail feature-wise. This WSJ article might have some of that information correct.

The Irish Examiner:

Here, deep within the walls of not only the world’s largest company but one of its most secretive too, we’re discussing the start-up spirit of a business recently valued at $1trn (€900bn) with a guy responsible for the logistics of more than a hundred international Apple retail stores in one of the few European countries in which there are none.

Not an extensive piece but still interesting to see Apple continue to open up a bit more to the press and letting us see behind the curtain more and more.

Forbes:

Chieh Huang knows something about upward mobility. After his parents emigrated from Taiwan, his mother worked as a cashier at a Baltimore restaurant. But education was always a priority, and despite his modest upbringing, he ended up at John Hopkins University and Fordham Law School, which set him on a course to become a successful entrepreneur. He sold his first company, a gaming studio, to Zynga in 2011, and he’s currently CEO of Boxed, an online retailer that sells items in bulk (think e-Costco) and has raised more than $30 million.

Now Huang wants to give all his employees at Boxed a shot a the same kind of upward mobility. To that end, he’ll pay for the college education of any children of Boxed workers, no strings attached.

Another great story of a CEO who, even while recognizing the limits of his plan, is still willing to go ahead to help his employees and their families.

FX Guide:

Hundreds of visual effects artists, led by overall visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, would spend considerable time crafting more than 2000 visual effects shots and helping to transform the exquisite photography into the final film that at times feels almost like a single car chase. Even more plate manipulation would also be carried out by colorist Eric Whipp, weaving in a distinctive graphic style for the film with detailed sky replacements and unique day for nights.

I’m a complete sucker for anything related to explaining the visual effects of movies. It fascinates me how these geniuses create onscreen reality. This is a long exposition of some of the effects for this summer’s blockbuster hit. Fair warning though – there may be some spoilers included in the text.

Amazing, beautiful, creepy and scary all at the same time.

Palau is part of the larger island group of Micronesia and Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake located on Eil Malk island. Wikipedia says, “Although both species of jellyfish living in the lake have stinging cells (nematocytes), they are not in general powerful enough to cause harm to humans.”