Apple

Apple says inventory of all iPhone replacement batteries now available without delay

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Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Apple has confirmed that “service inventory of all iPhone replacement batteries is now available without delay,” in an internal memo distributed to Apple Stores and its network of Apple Authorized Service Providers on April 27. The document was obtained by MacRumors from a reliable source.

What this means is that Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers can now order iPhone replacement batteries from Apple and receive them without facing extended shipping delays, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every Apple Store or authorized repair shop will have supply available right away.

This whole thing was a mess. Glad to see availability moving along.

Apple, HyperCard, and a glimpse of how far we’ve come

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Check out the video in this tweet, a small piece of a larger project covering HyperCard:

https://twitter.com/itstheshadsy/status/993885366217330689

At the time, back in 1990, this was absolutely groundbreaking. Since the internet was still in its infancy, images and data for a project were always stored locally. And images were massive, compared to the relatively tiny hard drives of the time.

The solution? Video discs and computer controlled video disc players. Back then, paper maps were filmed on incredibly precise animation stands (like those used for special effects camera fly-throughs), then cut into frames and stored on video disc. The computer moved along the maps by stepping through frames, each one a picture of a portion of a map at a slight offset from the previous frame.

In this example, the HyperCard stack presents a picture of the heart, and clicking on various buttons or hot points tells the video disc player to jump to an appropriate image or video.

How far we’ve come. Now, all those image can be stored locally, or brought up as needed from the cloud. And using cloud-shared resources means content can be updated as needed.

Fascinating look back. HyperCard was a truly groundbreaking piece of work by Bill Atkinson, one of the members of the original Macintosh team. If you are not familiar with Bill, take a look at his Wikipedia page. We owe him a lot.

Apple confirms use of drones to improve Apple Maps, says privacy remains a priority

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Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

A report in 2016 indicated that Apple was planning to use [drones] to collect data for Apple Maps, and now the company has confirmed that initiative. The company says, however, that its stance on privacy will remain the same throughout its use of drones.

I believe the report in question was this piece from Mark Gurman for Bloomberg.

Apple, to Reuters:

“Apple is committed to protecting people’s privacy, including processing this data to blur faces and license plates prior to publication,” the company said.

Think about the statement, XXX announces plan to use drones. Now plug in Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. To me, different take for each company. Google’s drones would likely perform the best. Apple’s would look the best. But which would go to the greatest length to protect my privacy?

Watch Google Assistant make a phone call to schedule an appointment. Stunning.

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Google AI blog:

Today we announce Google Duplex, a new technology for conducting natural conversations to carry out “real world” tasks over the phone. The technology is directed towards completing specific tasks, such as scheduling certain types of appointments. For such tasks, the system makes the conversational experience as natural as possible, allowing people to speak normally, like they would to another person, without having to adapt to a machine.

You can jump to that page and click on examples of Google Assistant using Google Duplex to make phone calls, interact with real-world people.

But the best thing to do is jump to this Verge page and watch the video of Google CEO Sundar Pichai actually running those demos. It’s incredible.

I’ve encountered two waves of thinking about this. On one hand, there’s the thinking that robots are coming for our jobs, that this technology will displace human assistants, human call centers, and that we’ll have an even larger wave of junk calls to deal with.

But on the positive side, consider this tweet:

https://twitter.com/SteveStreza/status/993950092309676032

Well worth considering the good that can come from this technology.

Also worth noting that it is 26 days until WWDC.

Google adds AR object identification to its Camera app

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[VIDEO] Watch the video (embedded in the main Loop post) to get a sense of Google’s state-of-the-union in terms of augmented reality and object identification. The big move Google made is promoting this technology to the Camera app, giving up precious screen real estate to a Google Lens button.

Augmented reality is one area where Apple has held its own, perhaps even moved ahead of Google in some ways. But this exposure of the Google Lens platform at the highest level is a strategic move by Google.

26 days until WWDC.

iOS 11.4 adds USB Restricted Mode, port becomes power-only after 7 days without login

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ElcomSoft blog:

In the iOS 11.4 Beta, Apple introduced a new called USB Restricted Mode. In fact, the feature made its first appearance in the iOS 11.3 Beta, but was later removed from the final release. This is how it works:

“To improve security, for a locked iOS device to communicate with USB accessories you must connect an accessory via lightning connector to the device while unlocked – or enter your device passcode while connected – at least once a week.”

And:

In other words, law enforcement will have at most 7 days from the time the device was last unlocked to perform the extraction using any known forensic techniques, be it logical acquisition or passcode recovery via GreyKey or other services.

It will be interesting to see if this mode survives through to the actual public release of 11.4. A chess move. Will the GreyKey folks have a follow-up? Or will all those $30K GreyKey devices become useless against updated phones?

Microsoft drops their cut of developer app revenue from 30% to as low as 5%

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Microsoft developer blog:

Starting later this year, consumer applications (not including games) sold in Microsoft Store will deliver to developers 95% of the revenue earned from the purchase of your application or any in-app products in your application, when a customer uses a deep link to get to and purchase your application.

That’s a huge drop from the 70/30 split they had up to this point.

When Microsoft delivers you a customer through any other method, such as in a collection on Microsoft Store or any other owned Microsoft properties, and purchases your application, you will receive 85% of the revenue earned from the purchase of your application or any in-app products in your application

Note that this structure does not include games, which stick to the 70/30 split.

Does this apply any pressure to Apple to make a similar move? Windows is not quite a direct competitor to iOS, but the Windows market is massive.

Regardless, I like this move. Anything that helps improve the lot of the indie developer.

One thing Apple can do to one-up this move that would be even better for indie devs? Create a free tier, where up to, say the first $1,000 in sales goes 100% to the developer. Just a thought.

Apple’s ‘Barbers’ iPhone 7 Plus ad wins ADC Best of Show award

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[VIDEO] Juli Clover, MacRumors:

At the 97th annual ADC Awards, which honors the best work in design, advertising, motion, and other commercial creative arts, Apple’s “Barbers” ad for the iPhone 7 Plus won a Best of Show award.

And:

“Barbers” was awarded a 2018 Motion and Film Craft Gold Cube, a Black Cube for Best of Show, and a 2018 Advertising Merit Award. Furlined, the agency that produced the spot, also won Production Company of the Year.

From the first wave of Portrait Mode ads, back in May 2017. Terrific ad. Embedded in main Loop post.

Peter Cohen: Apple, the iMac, and whimsy

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Peter Cohen:

The iMac debuted 20 years ago this week. It’s not hyperbole to say that it’s the computer that saved Apple and set the stage for Apple’s ascendance to becoming the biggest tech company in the world. All that said, Apple’s lost something in the translation – while the iMac is still a fixture in Apple’s product line, it lacks some essential qualities of that first model. Its personality has changed. The iMac has gotten harder. It’s lost the sense of whimsy, fun, and wonder that made the first iMac such a joy to use.

This is an interesting point. In my mind, it’s very difficult for a company to grow to massive size and maintain the joie de vivre of their smaller self.

I hope that Apple finds an opportunity to go full circle with the Mac yet again. It probably won’t be the iMac, but I hope that some future Apple device, whether it’s a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop machine, or some hitherto unimagined gadget, regains that sense of whimsy and wonder we’ve seen before. Something to help us emotionally connect with it and that essential Apple user experience in a way that’s different, and less invisible, than how we do today.

Part of the issue is growth but, as Peter points out, part is the focus on minimalism, ascetic design. Will that pendulum ever swing back to bright colors, skeuomorphism? I kind of miss that.

Austin Mann, an iMac Pro, and some kickass photography in Antarctica

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I’m a big fan of Austin Mann’s photography blog. He loves Apple gear and puts it to great use.

This post is about a trip he took to South America and Antarctica. The pics were taken with a range of cameras, one of which was his iPhone X. His workflow included the iPad and MacBook Pro, but all the heavy lifting was done back in the studio on the iMac Pro.

Lots of interesting comments, including some insight on traveling with an iMac Pro, buying a travel case, and checking it as luggage. And, of course, some great pictures.

Enjoy.

Apple’s official tech spec page for the original iMac

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Fascinating to look back at these specs, representing Apple’s state-of-the-art 20 years ago. Fun.

Interesting that the note’s publication date is July 26, 2017. Wonder if this was part of a mass update, or was created as part of the planned publicity push for the iMac 20th anniversary.

A terrific find by Stephen Hackett and 512 Pixels.

VIDEO: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett on Apple

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[VIDEO] Warren Buffett and Bill Gates (two of the three wealthiest people on the planet), along with Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, talking about Apple.

Short, to the point. Don’t miss that very last line. Video embedded in main Loop post.

The original iMac: 20 years since Apple changed its fate

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There was a river of stories about the iMac’s 20 year anniversary yesterday. Start off with Jim Dalrymple’s nostalgic look back.

Another piece I really enjoyed was Jason Snell’s The original iMac: 20 years since Apple changed its fate.

It’s hard to believe today that a Steve Jobs product presentation would be met with indifference, but there was a huge amount of skepticism about Apple’s product announcements back in early 1998. Though there were definitely signs that the company was turning it around, I also recall being summoned to Apple product events where nothing much at all was announced. Regardless, only the editor in chief of Macworld, Andy Gore, even bothered to go to the announcement at the Flint Center that day.

As soon as the event ended, I got a phone call—I was working at home that day—and was told to immediately get in to the office, for an all-hands-on-deck meeting, because Apple had announced a new computer that was going to change everything. I have to give Andy credit—the moment he saw the iMac he knew it was going to be huge. We tore up our magazine issue in the matter of about a day in order to get first word about the iMac out to people in the days before instant Apple news was a thing.

And:

Apple’s bold choice to rip out all of the Mac’s traditional ports—Mac serial, Apple Desktop Bus, and SCSI—and replace it with the USB standard that was just starting to emerge in the PC world, was also helpful. It made all of us longtime Mac users cringe—you think the iPhone losing its headphone jack was tough?—but in a stroke it made the iMac compatible with a huge range of peripherals previously only designed to be used on PCs, and it made accessory manufacturers happy because with a low amount of effort the stuff they were making for PCs could now also be sold to new iMac users.

Huge move. Terrific writeup by Jason Snell.

Another great read is 20 Years of iMac: Steve Jobs iconic internet machine that courageously reinvented Apple from Apple Insider’s Daniel Eran Dilger.

Before unveiling the new iMac, Jobs outlined how it would be different. For starters, Apple was using a modern 233MHz G3 processor, the same chip it had used in its entry-level Pro Power Mac G3 just six months prior at a price $300 higher.

That new generation Power PC chip boasted a performance edge “up to twice as fast” as Intel’s Pentium II processors at similar clock speeds, a line promoted by Apple in commercials portraying Intel’s chip as a snail and its chip designers dancing in “toasted” bunny suits.

And:

Jobs at the time noted that about “ten percent of homes in Silicon Valley were already being wired up for Cat 5,” while also poking at consumer PCs, few of which had any provision for networking built in.

Interesting to see how little built-in ethernet matters now. But at the time, the Cat 5 wave was in full force.

I was briefly struck with the sinking feeling that perhaps Apple had done something too risky. A translucent, rounded computer? A one-piece design that included a monitor? Don’t people want to open up the side of their PC and plug-in expansion cards, and won’t they want to replace the PC components faster than their monitor?

This moment of “oh no Apple… this is not conventional thinking” was one of the first times in my life where I had to step out of my comfortable understanding of What Had Always Worked Before and consider that maybe instead of being afraid of this new and different future unfolding in front of me, I could freshly evaluate whether it might actually be a big improvement over the status quo. Maybe the world was indeed ready for iMac’s bright candy-colored translucency that could distinguish Apple from all of the look-alike PCs running Windows.

I love all three of these writeups, from folks who were huge Apple fans at the time, and are still around covering the beat, still passionate all these years later.

One last bit to check out. Jump to this tweet by Horace Dediu, charting “units shipped” of all the major computing devices over the years. Pinch to zoom in on the chart. Lots of interesting data there.

The iMac inflection point is highlighted, but check out the performance of the Windows PC, the overall Mac performance, Android, iPhone, iPad. Fascinating to see this overlaid over time. Nice job, Horace.

OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong

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The Verge:

In late 2005, tech visionary and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte pulled the cloth cover off a small green computer with a bright yellow crank. The device was the first working prototype for Negroponte’s new nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, dubbed “the green machine” or simply “the $100 laptop.”

And:

The $100 laptop would have all the features of an ordinary computer but require so little electricity that a child could power it with a hand crank. It would be rugged enough for children to use anywhere, instead of being limited to schools.

Rugged. Cheap. And powered by a crank. Got it.

Then, Negroponte and Annan rose for a photo-op with two OLPC laptops, and reporters urged them to demonstrate the machines’ distinctive cranks. Annan’s crank handle fell off almost immediately. As he quietly reattached it, Negroponte managed half a turn before hitting the flat surface of the table. He awkwardly raised the laptop a few inches, trying to make space for a full rotation. “Maybe afterwards…” he trailed off, before sitting back down to field questions from the crowd.

The moment was brief, but it perfectly foreshadowed how critics would see One Laptop Per Child a few years later: as a flashy, clever, and idealistic project that shattered at its first brush with reality.

I do remember this moment of idealistic promise, the $100 laptop that would change the world. I remember a thought of how, if this dream shipped in quantity, it would disrupt the entire laptop market.

Maybe my favorite bit of the story:

A Linux-based operating system would give kids total access to the computer — OLPC had reportedly turned down an offer of free Mac OS X licenses from Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs, hedging his bets. Smart.

[H/T Robert Walker]

The glacial rollout of wireless CarPlay

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MacRumors:

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that its new MBUX infotainment system will feature support for wireless CarPlay in future vehicles.

And:

The all-new 2019 A-Class will be Mercedes-Benz’s first vehicle equipped with the MBUX system when it goes on sale later this year, according to a spokesperson for the automaker’s parent company Daimler in Germany. Wireless CarPlay will expand to other new Mercedes-Benz vehicles in 2019, the spokesperson told MacRumors.

And:

Barring announcements from other automakers, Mercedes-Benz will likely become the second to offer vehicles with wireless CarPlay functionality, after BMW rolled out the feature starting with its 2017 5 Series a few years ago. Apple first introduced wireless CarPlay in 2015 alongside iOS 9.

I find it remarkable that it has taken so long for automakers to adopt this technology. Wired CarPlay is rolling right along, but requires you (as the name implies) to plug your iOS device in using a Lightning to USB cable.

Wireless CarPlay kicks in with no cable. That’s a huge drop in friction. It has been years since I last plugged my iPhone into my car, other than to charge. I get in my car, my iPhone connects via Bluetooth. I don’t have to think about it. Why is it taking so long to adopt wireless CarPlay? Is there a cost component? A technical obstacle of some kind? Supply chain issues?

For comparison, take a minute to scroll through the list of cars that feature wired CarPlay. Might take you a while.

UPDATE: OK, the issue seems to be the WiFi requirement. From this post:

At its core, Apple CarPlay just mirrors your iPhone display onto your car’s in-dash screen. For this to work it needs to display video for the user interface as well as features like maps for navigation. While Bluetooth works for audio, it cannot handle the bandwidth that video requires. As such a Wi-Fi access point is needed to transfer the data needed for video.

That’d do it. Interesting.

25 iPad multitasking tips

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[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin has really got this video thing down. If you have an iPad, spend the time going through this (embedded in the main Loop post). Good stuff.

How critics got the iPhone X ‘Panic’ story so very wrong

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Jason Snell, writing for Tom’s Guide:

The answers to the mistaken reports of weak sales could be a fairly simple one, based on analysis of the average sales price (ASP) of an iPhone. As Apple pointed out, the ASP was higher this quarter than it was a year ago. But it’s important to keep in mind that not only does the iPhone X exist, at a base price higher than any Apple’s ever asked, but the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus released last fall also cost more than the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus did the year before. So while the iPhone X helps boost iPhone ASP, so do the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

Nice summary, read the rest. Apple has done an incredible job keeping their numbers up. Unbelievable, really, when you consider how easy it is to grow 10% when you are a tiny company, and how much harder, massively so, to keep up that growth as you become a large company. To do so when you’ve become one of the largest companies in the world is, to me, a mind boggling accomplishment.

Why BuzzFeed News premiered a show on Apple News before Facebook, YouTube, Twitter

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Tim Peterson, Digiday:

Apple has become so serious about competing with Facebook, Google/YouTube and Twitter as a distribution outlet for news publishers that it’s paying publishers to unveil shows on Apple News first.

Last month, BuzzFeed News premiered “Future History: 1968,” a documentary series that recaps major events that happened that year, such as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the race between the U.S. and Russia to land a person on the moon. BuzzFeed News released the first three episodes exclusively on Apple News, a week before uploading them to Facebook Watch, YouTube, Twitter and its own mobile app.

The Apple News launch was part of a deal in which Apple paid BuzzFeed for the first-window rights to the show’s first three episodes and cut BuzzFeed a share of the revenue from pre-roll ads that Apple sold against the episodes, said Roxanne Emadi, head of audience development at BuzzFeed.

This is a notable development in the news platform wars. Apple paying for news content jibes nicely with their steady investment in entertainment content. Not clear what form “News 2.0” will ultimately settle into. Same for Apple’s entertainment platform. This is all still forming and unfolding, both for Apple and for the rest of the players.

In a related story, this Fast Company piece, titled Say Goodbye To The Information Age: It’s All About Reputation Now talks about the critical importance of reputation in combating fake news. And reputation is one of Apple’s strengths.

Warren Buffett: Obsessing over iPhone X sales in the near term ‘totally misses the point’ on Apple’s stock

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Warren Buffett, on CNBC’s Squawk Box:

“The idea that you’re going to spend loads of time trying to guess how many iPhone X … are going to be sold in a three-month period totally misses the point,” the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO said in a “Squawk Box” interview that aired Friday. “It’s like worrying about the number of BlackBerrys 10 years ago.”

And:

Apple has “a wide, wide gap. I mean it’s an amazing business,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick. “You can put all of their products on a dining room table.”

I’d like to see a picture of that.

I find it fascinating that one of the wealthiest people on the planet drives through McDonalds every morning for breakfast and has exact change prepped before his order is even rung up.

Follow the headline link to check out the video of this interview. Buffett is an insightful mind, a shrewd investor, and he bought 75 million shares of Apple stock during the first quarter.

Alexa, what’s 10 to the power of 308?

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[VIDEO] There’s something very Zen about watching Alexa work through this number, occasionally changing pronunciation and strategy to get through it. (Video embedded in the main Loop post)

And, as a palette cleanser, be sure to ask Siri the same question.

Another life saved by Apple Watch, the new Check Engine light

Written by

Jennifer Vazquez, NBC New York:

The 32-year-old Monzidelis was working at his family bowling alley business, Bowlerland, on April 3, when he became dizzy and went to the bathroom, where he started bleeding. He soon received an alarming notification via his smartwatch telling him to seek medical attention immediately.

And:

Doctors believe that if he hadn’t received his smartwatch notification when he did, he would have not survived his medical emergency because he wouldn’t have paid attention to his symptoms, especially since he was a healthy individual up to that point.

Monzidelis agreed: “I would have been working in my office and they would have found me dead,” he said, adding that he is “very lucky” and “feeling like a million bucks” since the life-threatening and frightening incident.

If you started bleeding, would you head right to the emergency room? Maybe I would, maybe I’d first do some research on my symptoms, or call someone seeking advice.

I think one subtle core point here is that a notification from your Apple Watch to seek medical attention immediately feels like an alarming call to action from a trusted expert. In some ways, Apple Watch is like the Check Engine light on your car. If it comes on, you pay attention (though, some folks do ignore it). If your Apple Watch tells you to seek immediate medical attention, go immediately.

I’ve never read a story about someone’s Apple Watch telling them to seek immediate medical attention that turned out to be a false alarm. That Check Engine light generally means something.

UPDATE: From the comments:

One point that I think is valuable here is to call 9-1-1 instead of taking yourself to the ER. Calling for Emergency Medical Services gets immediate treatment faster than going to an ER where one can easily lose consciousness or having worsening symptoms while en route.

Solid point.

The original iPhone and an oral history of Iron Man’s original heads-up-display

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The original Iron Man still ranks among my all-time favorite Marvel movies (especially the lead up to the in-cave creation of that first prototype suit). If you are a fan, this oral history is an enjoyable read.

But this one bit is especially interesting for Apple folk:

Kent Seki (visualisation/HUD effects supervisor): There were many rules and driving philosophies we established along the way that led us to the final product. I remember in an early discussion in post-production with Jon Favreau. He pulled out his iPhone, which was a new thing at the time. He said, ‘I don’t want to tell you a specific graphic to make for the HUD, but I want it to feel intuitive like my iPhone.’

And:

Dav Rauch (HUD design supervisor): The iPhone had just come out like literally a week or two before the meeting with Jon – and I got an iPhone and Favreau had gotten an iPhone. When I was down there we kind of geeked out on our iPhones, and we were talking about what we liked about the iPhone because he was really inspired by it. He was like, ‘What I love about this thing is it just kind of does what it should do, and it kind of does what I want it to do and it’s very intuitive and it’s very simple.’ We opened it up and I was looking at the transitions in an iPhone. I’m like, ‘These transitions are so simple and they’re just like zooming transitions, or wipe transitions. There’s nothing fancy about this phone, but what’s fancy about this phone is that it works and it works really well.’

Good design is a virus.

[Via Apple Insider]

Using the old Mac OS is pure Zen

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That last post, the look back at the long history of the iMac, goes hand-in-hand with this one, an appreciation of the black and white simplicity of the original Mac OS. If you’ve never had the original Mac experience, take a look at Mark Wilson’s post for a glimpse at what got us here.

And if you are an old-schooler (like me), follow the headline link and immerse yourself in a nice warm pool of nostalgia.

20 years of iMac: A story of relentless design iteration

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Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac:

A 20th anniversary is a milestone worthy of celebration in its own right, but even more so when describing a computer. Few technology products boast such a feat in an industry where changing customer preference and exponential technical advancement can quickly obsolete even the most well-considered plans.

This Sunday, Apple’s iMac line joins the 20-year club. Its ticket to entry is two decades of valuable lessons and ideas that tell the recent history of the personal computer industry and reveal Apple’s priorities and values. The iMac’s timeline tells many stories – some of reinvention and business strategy, others of software and hardware.

Perhaps none are more significant than the iMac’s design story. Explorations of color, form, material, and miniaturization have marked significant breakthroughs throughout the years. On this anniversary week, we’ll take a look at the design evolution of the iMac.

Really nice, long look at the evolution of the iMac. Well done.

On the report of 2016 MacBook Pro butterfly keyboards failing twice as frequently as older models

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Mike Wuerthele, Apple Insider:

Following anecdotal reports of a keyboard more prone to failure than in previous years, AppleInsider has collected service data for the first year of release of the 2014, 2015, and 2016 MacBook Pros, with an additional slightly shorter data set for the 2017 model year given that it hasn’t been available for a year yet.

Not including any Touch Bar failures, the 2016 MacBook Pro keyboard is failing twice as often in the first year of use as the 2014 or 2015 MacBook Pro models, and the 2017 is better, but not by a lot.

First things first, this is some nice, boots-on-the-ground reporting. The numbers are relatively small, but seems a good, if not precise, indicator of the problem.

Apple has a second-generation MacBook Pro keyboard. It is in the 2017 MacBook Pro, and repaired 2016 models. The repair percentages on those are up from the 2014 and 2015 keyboards as well, but not nearly as much as the 2016.

Note that all Apple Store MacBook Pro stock has the new second-generation butterfly keyboard. You can’t walk into an Apple Store and walk out with the old MacBook Pro keyboard. So the data that matters going forward is the repair data on machines with that new keyboard.

I’d like to see a bigger survey of machines with that new keyboard, to get a surer sense of the success Apple has had in solving the problem. The sense I get in talking with people at my local Apple Store is that the new keyboard design made a world of difference in terms of reliability. This just words? Is the dust problem still there?

One thing that I know is true: There’s no way for an average buyer to take their machine apart and swap out the keyboard if they do encounter this problem. As Mike says, it’s not an easy repair, requiring complete disassembly of the machine.

Overcast 4.2: The privacy update

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Marco Arment, on reducing the collection of personal data in the latest release of Overcast:

Your personal data isn’t my business — it’s a liability. I want as little as possible. I don’t even log IP addresses anymore.

If I don’t need your email address, I really don’t want it.

Well that’s refreshing.

[Via Pixel Envy]

The transition to 5G on the iPhone

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Jeff Richardson, iPhone J.D.:

Yesterday, T-Mobile and Sprint announced that they will merge. If the government approves, then we will have only three major wireless companies in the United States. In the communications that I have seen from the two companies, including a joint website that went live yesterday, one of the main themes was that this merger would promote 5G, the next generation of wireless technology. This makes me wonder, what will 5G bring us, and when can we start to use it on the iPhone?

And:

The CTIA, a trade organization for the wireless industry, says that 5G can be 100 times faster than 4G, and a chart on its website predicts a transition from 100 Mbps download speeds to 10 Gbps. 5G will also feature low latency that can make the internet five times more responsive when you initiate each request.

All very interesting, but the most interesting nugget in the piece?

To date, wireless cell technology has been based on huge towers with antennas 125 feet in the air which would provide service for several miles. But it turns out that 5G will be different. 5G is much faster, but the signal doesn’t go nearly as far. So instead of a smaller number of tall towers, 5G will work with a large number of microcells placed around 500 feet apart, often on streetlights or utility poles.

But it won’t just be that microcell on a utility pole. As reported by Allan Homes earlier this year in the New York Times, “[m]uch of the equipment will be on streetlights or utility poles,” but it will often be “accompanied by containers the size of refrigerators on the ground.”

That’s a pretty significant infrastructure requirement. Which, to me, means we’ll only see 5G in the most urban settings.

The whole article is fascinating, suggests we’ll first see 5G iPhone/iPad support in 2020.