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The Guardian:

How does this information revolution affect us personally, socially and morally?

Fascinating not just for the content but the delivery. I especially enjoyed Canadian comedian Mary Walsh’s take on “Envy”. Love her. Thanks to Rick LePage for the link.

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Pixelapse:

Apple revealed a sneak peek into Mac OS X Yosemite earlier this week. Not surprisingly, Apple updated its desktop OS to match iOS 7’s design language. The new OS X now embodies a brighter and flatter styling, coupled with icon updates, font changes, and translucent materials. Here’s a quick look at the visual design changes in Yosemite and my impressions of them.

A lot of these changes will be subjective as to whether they are good or not. I’ll wait and see for myself.

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Roads and Kingdoms:

Intrigued by the enduring mystery of carnival culture, photographer Eric Kruszewski wanted not just to shoot the carnival, but to experience it from the inside. He documented life as a “carny” in off hours. His photography blends the poeticism of the lit-up carnival with the reality of the road, where hard work and family living combine.

These shows are familiar to those of us who lived in small towns in the US and Canada (are these kinds of carnivals popular/still around in Europe?) and it’s interesting to see the story from the inside out.

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Dan Frommer:

Many of the most interesting and potentially useful features unveiled this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference rely on the company’s iCloud service or otherwise involve network-connected devices talking to each other. The masses will be able to take advantage of these additions on their Macs, iPads, and iPhones later this year.

For Apple customers and developers, this has been a long time coming. iCloud—the last product Steve Jobs announced before he died in 2011—is an incredibly important strategic piece of Apple’s future. Yet its usefulness has always seemed underwhelming, as if cloud services were Apple’s lowest priority.

But this year’s WWDC keynote carried a different tone, with a notable uptick in useful, cloud-centered announcements and more competitive pricing.

Unlike Frommer, I’m not jumping to the headline’s conclusion until I’ve seen it in action with average users.

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The Next Web:

Yahoo earlier this year announced plans to phase out Google- and Facebook-based sign-in from its services. The feature was initially removed from a sports service and now it is Flickr’s turn, after Yahoo emailed users of the photo site with notice that Google and Facebook IDs will no longer be accepted there after June 30.

Instead, Flickr users must create a Yahoo account and connect it to the photo storage site. Those with an existing Yahoo ID which is not connected to Flickr are encouraged to link it up before the end of this month.

I just went to the site to make the changes to my Flickr log in and OMG that Yahoo! page is butt ugly.

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Grantland:

With this summer’s World Cup just around the corner, it’s time for you to find out just how much you already know about how soccer is played.

Soccer is a seemingly simple game but very nuanced.

A really well done video showing how important soccer is to so many and how fanatical its fans can be. I wonder what that phone is they using in the ad?

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GQ:

What kind of person looks upon the world’s largest land animal — a beast that mourns its dead and lives to retirement age and can distinguish the voice of its enemies — and instead of saying “Wow!” says something like “Where’s my gun?”

It’s a stomach turning story but told well in an interesting way.

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Macworld:

Apple put the spotlight squarely on software—and software developers—right from the start, and gave iOS/OS X chief Craig Federighi a chance to shine. Federighi introduced a laundry list of new features and technologies that will quietly revolutionize the way the company relates to third-party apps.

Many developers I’ve spoken to are beyond excited over not just the news from WWDC but the possibility of a sea change in Apple’s relations with developers.

. New York Times:

Few images are more recognizable or more evocative. Known simply as “tank man,” it is one of the most famous photographs in recent history.

Twenty years ago, on June 5, 1989, following weeks of huge protests in Beijing and a crackdown that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, a lone man stepped in front of a column of tanks rumbling past Tiananmen Square. The moment instantly became a symbol of the protests as well as a symbol against oppression worldwide — an anonymous act of defiance seared into our collective consciousnesses.

One of the most amazing and important photos ever taken.

iWatch? Who needs an iWatch?

. Mashable:

Imagine a world where your dog could play fetch by himself. It’s not the future; it’s this lucky dog’s reality.

Instead of playing the usual game of fetch (when you get tired after 10 minutes), someone removed the human element from the game completely.

The dog is cute as all get out and congratulations to the owner for teaching the dog the trick but, come on! How lazy are you you can’t play catch with your dog for ten minutes!?

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Neural Correlate Society:

Every year, the Neural Correlate Society (which promotes scientific research into how sensory perception affects the brain) holds a contest for the best illusions of the year, and it’s announced its top 10 such brain-benders for 2014.

My brain hurts.

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LA Times:

Citing a massive increase in reports of illegal flashing of lasers toward aircraft, the FBI said Tuesday it would expand a program that offers a $10,000 reward for information leading to arrests in connection with the “dangerous and irresponsible” incidents.

Reports of people pointing lasers at aircraft have ballooned nationwide, jumping from 384 in 2006 to 3,960 in 2013, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

I honestly don’t get why someone would do this. What do they hope to accomplish – bringing the aircraft down?

I’m completely incompetent around a grill but even I could pull off Alton Brown’s “non-recipe for skirt steak”.

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CNET:

For the past year or so, I’ve been struggling to get my photo situation in more order. I’ve felt overwhelmed with the number of pictures that I and my family take. Ensuring they’re backed up and organized made me write about wanting to declare photo bankruptcy last year.

I want one place where all my pictures are kept secure and organized. And I want the photos to be easily viewable on a variety of devices, whenever I want to see them. And if I want to tag the shots, adjust dates, geolocate them, and so on, I want to be sure all those photos will retain that information if I move elsewhere.

I see this problem in my photography seminar all the time – people overwhelmed by their own photo collection. Hopefully, the promise of Apple’s WWDC demo will come true and help users get this under control.

OMG I used to be this guy.

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Ars Technica:

The final version of the software won’t be available for a few months, but Apple developers (and, for the first time ever, one million public beta testers) can download and install the first Yosemite beta version now. Developers will be used to the process of testing new OS X versions on their hardware, but those people in the public beta may be wading into uncharted waters.

This guide is for those people, the ones who want to test the new OS X beta without wrecking their Mac—you never want to put your data at risk by installing beta software on your main partition. This way, you can play with all the shiny new features without risking the comfortable, stable, non-beta OS X installation you need to get all your work done.

You don’t want to install the Developer Preview or the beta on your main machine without doing something similar to this.

Apple:

“I think a developer would look like a geek – nerdy, plaid, unshaven, glasses, spiky hair beard…

Another typically well done video from Apple. This is the same video that played at the 2014 WWDC Keynote yesterday.

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Re/code:

This morning, Instagram is rolling out the sixth version of its mobile photo-sharing app, loading it up with 10 creative tools, including the ability to manipulate images in a variety of new ways like saturation, sharpening and highlighting.

The new version for the 200 million monthly active users of the Facebook-owned service will be available for both Apple iOS and Google Android, adding a number of tools that users pay for when using other photo apps.

Are you an “Instagrammer”? Are these new features of interest to you?

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Stacksocial:

License purchased is good for 1 year of service, upon expiration, the Backblaze service can be renewed for $5/month or $50/year.

These services (Crashplan is another) are very dependent on the amount of data you have and your upload speeds but, if you can take advantage of it, it’s a good deal even at the full price. I always tell people you need multiple backups in multiple places. Having an online backup is an option for some.

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TIME:

The story behind Robert Capa’s iconic shot of a soldier in the surf at Normandy, one of the most celebrated pictures of the Second World War, is nearly as complex as it is incredible.

The D-Day anniversary is June 6th. Watch the video on the site for more of this incredible story.

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Ole Begemann:

With the release of the beta versions of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite at WWDC 2014 yesterday, Apple has also updated the legal agreements for registered iOS and Mac developers. I am not a lawyer, but if I am reading this correctly, it means that beta version of the operating systems and SDKs are still under NDA, but Apple allows developers to discuss new APIs and features that have been introduced at WWDC in public. That should cover pretty much all the new stuff in iOS 8, Yosemite and the Developer Tools.

Apple has always had very restrictive NDAs (I’ve signed some Apple NDAs that say I can’t even say I’ve signed an NDA with them!) but they have historically ignored all the sites, rumour and otherwise, who have “broken” NDAs for the developer program. Good to see them loosening the reins a little bit to reflect reality.

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Ars Technica:

The downside of new Apple software is that it usually displaces old Apple hardware. With rare exceptions, new versions of iOS and OS X usually don’t make it to a handful of older iDevices and Macs, leaving owners of those gadgets stuck with old software or pushed into upgrading.

Luckily, most iOS and OS X users are getting off easy with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. Any Mac that can run OS X 10.8 or 10.9 can also run 10.10, a list that includes Macs from as far back as 2007. Here’s the full list.

Always happily surprised to see how far back Apple provides compatibility for the latest and greatest OS.

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Geek:

Aspiring animators, listen up! Pixar’s working on a brand new version of Renderman, the in-house software they use to render (duh) all their awesome digital creations. There are a slew of improvements coming, but the big news is that there’s a version you can download for free.

That’s a pretty amazing giveaway — Renderman is a $500 piece of software. Between Autodesk offering students a free download of Maya and the new Renderman v19 being completely free, young amateur animation enthusiasts have access to two of the tools that power some of the highest-grossing animated features in the history of cinema.

No guarantees you’ll create something amazing but at least the tools are getting cheaper for animators.

. Apple:

Recognizing apps that raise the bar in design, technology and innovation.

The list includes the usual mix of games, productivity and information apps ranging from free to $5 – but all good.

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TUAW:

Apple spent a whole lot of time talking about photos today during its WWDC 2014 keynote address. From iCloud Photo Library to smart image adjustments, there is clearly a lot to be excited about for iOS shutterbugs. But there is one feature that wasn’t mentioned on-stage, yet it has appeared on Apple’s iOS 8 teaser page: time-lapse videos.

I don’t know about “awesome” but it does go to show there’s lots of things Apple is rolling out that they didn’t have time to mention in the Keynote. Expect to see more of these little tidbits as developers get their hands dirty with the new OS.

. If you are a registered Apple developer (and not at WWDC), you might want to tune in to the WWDC “State of the Union” and get “deeper info on Xcode and OS API changes”. Thanks to Eric for the link.

Apple:

Watch streaming video from this special event and learn more about our exciting announcements.

Apple now has the downloadable version posted.