Washington Post:

When eight cans of nitrate film arrived at the Library of Congress in August, a staffer began a routine inspection to see what sort of physical condition the film was in. Without even watching the footage, she quickly noticed a headline screaming out from one of the newsreels: “SENATORS WIN WORLD SERIES,” it said. “40,000 frantic fans see American Leaguers take 12-inning deciding game, 4 to 3.”

And when archivists from the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation watched the reel, they found nearly four minutes of footage from that 1924 World Series, footage that somehow had remained in nearly perfect condition for 90 years. Bucky Harris hitting a home run, Walter Johnson pitching four innings of scoreless relief, Muddy Ruel scoring the winning run, fans storming Griffith Stadium’s field: It was all there, and it was all glorious.

Fascinating to see how much, and how little, the game has changed since this was shot.

Macstories:

From a visual perspective, Tweetbot 3.5 looks and works the same, keeping the foundation that Tapbots introduced with Tweetbot 3 last year. The app hasn’t changed considerably – it has evolved in expected ways and within the limitations imposed by Twitter’s API for third-party apps.

Glad to see this update to my favourite iPhone Twitter client. Can’t wait for the updated iPad version, too.

TidBITS:

One of the most intriguing features of iOS 8 is how Apple opened it up to third-party keyboards. Google’s Android mobile operating system has allowed developers to create custom system keyboards for years, which has led to interesting experiments, like Swype, which lets you draw on the keyboard to spell out words.

Now, keyboards like Swype are available for iOS 8, but how you enable and use them isn’t always obvious. Also of concern is how these third-party keyboards, some of which connect to the Internet, impact your privacy.

I have little to no interest in third party keyboards but I know a lot of you do. TidBITS does their usual good job of how to set up and use them and what to watch out for.

The Atlantic:

Free samples help consumers learn more about products, and they make retail environments more appealing. But samples are operating on a more subconscious level as well.

“Reciprocity is a very, very strong instinct,” says Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University. “If somebody does something for you”—such as giving you a quarter of a ravioli on a piece of wax paper—“you really feel a rather surprisingly strong obligation to do something back for them.”

Am I weird because I’ve never taken a free food sample in a grocery store? I just find the whole idea strange. For those of you outside the USA or Canada, is this “free samples in grocery stores” a thing in other countries, too?

Vogue: The secret weapon of the most sought-after personal-electronics company in the world is a very nice guy from Northeast London who has a soft spot for woodworking and the sense that designers ought to keep their design talents backstage … Continued

The Guardian: The US government and police officials are in the midst of a misleading PR offensive to try to scare Americans into believing encrypted cellphones are somehow a bad thing, rather than a huge victory for everyone’s privacy and … Continued

New York Magazine: Though it has been open for less than a decade, the Apple store under the glass cube at the base GM building is already one of the best-known and most successful retail sites in the world. But … Continued

TidBITS:

The disclosure this week of a major bug in a common Unix tool set of an earthquake in the security community. Not only was nearly every version of Unix vulnerable, including Linux and OS X, but most of the initial patches are not completely effective at blocking the hole. It’s a near-worst-case scenario where we have a piece of software on nearly every non-Windows server on the Internet — and plenty of personal computers (thanks to Apple’s market growth) — that is vulnerable to multiple kinds of remote attacks, all capable of completely taking over the system, with no way to completely stop it.

Despite the severity, a combination of Apple’s design decisions and how we use Macs dramatically reduces the risk, but you still need to be careful and ready to patch.

While we got a statement from Apple earlier today, I always feel better when Rich Mogull weighs in on any matters Mac security related.

The Verge:

A few blocks away from Apple’s bustling campus in Cupertino is a rather nondescript building. Inside is absolutely the last place on earth you’d want to be if you were an iPhone. It’s here where Apple subjects its newest models to the kinds of things they might run into in the real world: drops, pressure, twisting, tapping. Basically all the things that could turn your shiny gadget into a small pile of metal and glass.

I got a tour of this part of Apple’s operation many years ago and was very surprised to see just how much stress testing Apple did in-house on everything.

Lisa Bettany:

I present an eight iPhone comparison (with) all iPhone versions taken with Camera+ including the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and the new iPhone 6 in a variety of situations to test the camera’s capabilities.

I taught a beginner digital photography seminar this past weekend and got lots of questions from students about how good the camera was in the new iPhone 6. This articles shows that, in many cases, the increase in quality is very noticeable.

Vanity Fair:

Airline pilots were once the heroes of the skies. Today, in the quest for safety, airplanes are meant to largely fly themselves. Which is why the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, which killed 228 people, remains so perplexing and significant. William Langewiesche explores how a series of small errors turned a state-of-the-art cockpit into a death trap.

I waited to post this article until after The Publisher had arrived safely in London, England.

Now that Fall has officially begun here in the Northern hemisphere, many of us are seeing or have seen the leaves changing to their beautiful Fall colours. This video explains why it happens. Share it with your kids!

Steven Levy:

How can an app displace 135 years of telephony?

The first step is by being an app and not a facsimile of a desk phone. Unlike the “dialer” on your mobile, or even the call button on your contact list, Talko presents the opportunity to begin a conversation by simply touching on the image of the person or team you want to talk to, whether they are ready to join right now or sometime in the future.

Going to be very interesting to see if this takes off in any appreciable way.

Steven Soderbergh:

I’ve removed all sound and color from the film, apart from a score designed to aid you in your quest to just study the visual staging aspect.

I am usually vehemently against “messing with” someone else’s movie but Soderbergh’s experiment really enhances (but doesn’t replace) the classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

One of the huge advantages DSLRs and many point and shoots have over the iPhone or other smartphones is the ability to adjust, manipulate and control Shutter, ISO, White Balance, Focus and Exposure Bracketing.

Manual from Little Pixels is just such an app. It has the advantage of having a funny video to go along with it.

ACSI:

Customer satisfaction with computing devices continues to slide but desktop computers do better than laptops and tablets, according to a new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The annual measure of personal computers falls 1.3 percent to an ACSI score of 78 (on a 0-100 point scale). Laptops deteriorate the most (-4% to 76), while tablets dip slightly (-1% to 80), but desktops gain 3 percent to take the lead at 81.

Even though Apple “dropped 3% to 84” it continues to “maintain a sizable lead over its major competitors”. It would be interesting to understand the reasons for the overall increased in desktop PC satisfaction. Perhaps people who have switched to laptops and tablets have discovered they are not as powerful as they need or want.

AnandTech:

Some basic performance data and battery life, which include browser benchmarks, game-type benchmarks, and our standard web browsing battery life test. There’s definitely a lot more to talk about for this phone, but this should give an idea of what to expect in the full review.

AnandTech’s prelim results are interesting. I look forward to their full detailed review.

BusinessWeek:

Tim Cook was jubilant. It was Sept. 10, a day after the introduction of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., and Apple’s chief executive officer couldn’t have been happier about reactions from the audience and the media. Cook sat down for an hour-long chat with Bloomberg Businessweek’s Josh Tyrangiel and Brad Stone.

I love how the interview ended.

Haven’t picked up a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus yet? Apple has posted these to help you see if there are even any in your neighbourhood.

Canada iPhone 6 Availabilty page

USA iPhone 6 Availabilty page

For the USA page, you’ll have to make your choice of iPhone and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the link for “Available for pickup: Check availability”. If you know of similar links for other countries, please post them in the comments section.

Thanks to Sly Marton for the Canada link and Brian Monroe for the USA link.

Visual Supply Co:

Advanced camera controls are now available for iOS 8. New features include:
– Manual focus
– Shutter speed
– White balance
– Exposure compensation

VSCO Cam is the first app I’ve seen that takes advantage of the new capabilities of iOS 8 in letting photographers take more control over the camera in the iPhone. Even better, it’s a free app.

Today I Found Out:

Given that most have still heard of the Pony Express today, unlike so many other messaging companies long gone, you may think that the Pony Express was once an integral part of communication between the East and West in the United States. It turns out, this was never the case and the Pony Express was around only for an extremely short amount of time.

I love these stories of how things were done “in the old days”. One of my favourite non-fiction books is “American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age” about the first US government sponsored cross country trip. Future President Eisenhower was a member of the group.

Apple:

Get started with these great free books.

Ten ebooks from Apple, ranging from crime fiction to comic books to Young Adult to classics. Thanks to Rob Griffiths for the link.

Apple:

I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.

Our commitment to protecting your privacy comes from a deep respect for our customers. We know that your trust doesn’t come easy. That’s why we have and always will work as hard as we can to earn and keep it.

I await similar letters from every other company we trust with our data.

Fast Company:

The mobile version of Safari will now let you change the default search engine to DuckDuckGo, the privacy-obsessed Google alternative that has seen a sharp uptick in activity since Edward Snowden became a household name. By default, DuckDuckGo does not track its users’ search activity or even log their IP addresses.

Choice is always good and this is a pretty easy switch to make.

The Verge:

Over the last decade we all made an enormous effort to transform Macworld editorial from a magazine mentality to a web site mentality. And honestly, it worked: By the end, the magazine was essentially a curated collection of the best stories from the web site, cut down and copy edited and with nice photographs. The economics of the business just didn’t make it possible to continue.

The demise of print is a sad but understandable result of the age we live in. That being said, the demise of Macworld is sad in a completely different way.

Businessweek: Almost everything else on Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif., is different. The executive wing once radiated nervous energy, with handlers scurrying to anticipate the whims of Apple’s temperamental co-founder. Now there’s tranquility in the hallways, a reflection of the … Continued

Macworld:

If you’re upgrading to iOS 8 on Wednesday, you must resist the urge to upgrade to iCloud Drive if you want to continue to sync your phone to your Mac. Why? Well, iCloud Drive only works with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. And you all know which OS we’re still waiting on.

You can go back and upgrade at any time, but unless you want a file-syncing nightmare on your hands, you’ll wait for Yosemite’s official release.

Good advice.

Apple:

Ready to make the switch to iPhone? Here are some tips for moving your photos, music, documents, and more from your Android phone to iPhone.

Awfully helpful of the nice boys and girls at Apple to assist Android users like this. Samsung should be copying this in about 15 minutes.

Entertainment Weekly:

Thanks to the way music licensing contracts were written at the time, the show lost its rights to use the original versions of the songs it had so deeply woven into its fabric, and was forced to replace them with generic knockoffs while it was still in broadcast syndication. Later, when it moved to cable and home video it did so with the same soundalikes.

On Oct. 28, Shout! Factory will release the first complete series-spanning WKRP DVD set, with its original soundtrack gloriously restored.

As pointed out in the comments, about 98% of the original music will be included. Some of you may never have even heard about this show but for many of us, we loved and enjoyed a wonderful ensemble cast that created what I believe is the single greatest punchline in the history of television – “As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”

New York Times:

Longsword enthusiasts are resurrecting ancient sword technique as a modern, organized sport, with timed bouts and complex rules.

This isn’t LARP but a whole different aspect. I’d love to see one of these tournaments on TV or in person.