Apple

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he’s left Facebook over data collection

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Woz/USA TODAY:

“Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and … Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this,” he said in an email to USA TODAY. “The profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back.”

Wozniak said he’d rather pay for Facebook than have his personal information exploited for advertising. And he heaped praise on Apple for respecting people’s privacy.

“Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you,” Wozniak said. “As they say, with Facebook, you are the product.”

More shots fired. Is this a temporary tempest in a teapot, or will this wave of controversy cause real change?

Credit card signatures are about to become extinct in the U.S.

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Stacy Cowley, New York Times:

Credit card networks are finally ready to concede what has been obvious to shoppers and merchants for years: Signatures are not a useful way to prove someone’s identity. Later this month, four of the largest networks — American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa — will stop requiring them to complete card transactions.

Long outdated tech. Ridiculous that signature checking is still part of the system. Baffling that chip-embedded cards have only recently become a standard in the US.

Would love to see wider adoption of Apple Pay so we can get rid of the security risks that come with those pieces of plastic altogether.

Apple introduces iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition

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Pretty, pretty phone. Just take a look at the pics. I would definitely love one of these.

There’s also a new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone X Leather Folio.

From Apple’s announcement:

A portion of proceeds for all (PRODUCT)RED purchases go directly to Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants that provide testing, counseling, treatment and prevention programs with a specific focus on eliminating transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies. Since partnering with (RED) in 2006, Apple has donated more than $160 million to the Global Fund, serving as the organization’s largest corporate donor.

Order online starting tomorrow, April 10th and in stores beginning Friday, April 13.

Apple has an iOS gesture dilemma

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Tom Warren, The Verge:

For the longest time, pressing the home button on an iPad or iPhone was the fail-safe way to take you back to Apple’s grid of iOS apps. That changed with the all-screen iPhone X. A swipe up from the bottom is the new home gesture (which also unlocks the device) on Apple’s flagship phone, but that same gesture brings up the dock on the iPad. If, like me, you switch between the two devices fairly regularly throughout the day, then it takes a few minutes to adjust your muscle memory each time you switch.

An interesting issue. Same issue with Control Center.

To me, this is a migration issue, as iOS deals with the move from hardware with Home buttons to those without, the move from no Face ID to iOS devices with.

Spend a minute scrolling through the animated GIFs in Tom’s article. The confusion is clear.

Rollup of comments about rumored modular Mac Pro

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Michael Tsai doing his usual excellent job gathering comments and links relevant to the rumored 2019 Mac Pro. Two things stand out, though all are interesting:

This detailed story from TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino. From the story:

I was invited back to Apple to talk to the people most responsible for shepherding the renewed pro product strategy. John Ternus, vice president of Hardware Engineering, Tom Boger, senior director of Mac Hardware Product Marketing, Jud Coplan, director of Video Apps Product Marketing and Xander Soren, director of Music Apps Product Marketing.

The interviews and demos took place over several hours, highlighting the way that Apple is approaching upgradability, development of its pro apps and, most interestingly, how it has changed its process to help it more fully grok how professionals actually use its products.

A great read.

And this comment, at the end of Tsai’s rollup, from John Gruber’s take:

Sure, I wish the new Mac Pro were coming sooner. But overall this story is fantastic news for pro users — it shows Apple not only cares about the pro market, but that they’ve changed course and decided that the best way to serve pros is to work with them hand in hand.

That sums it up for me. I’m glad Apple has seen the light, is focused on bring us a new Mac Pro. Also glad they are taking the time to get it right, bring us something that will be worthy of the Pro moniker.

I do get the frustration of people who would prefer that Apple ship an upgradeable box (basically, an officially blessed Hackintosh), so they’d have something today. But that’s not Apple’s way.

Interesting, too, that Apple has parted the curtains enough to reveal plans for a product that may not ship until next December, 2019, 20 months from now.

How the new 9.7-inch iPad stacks up against the iPad Pro

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Chance Miller does a nice job walking through the differences between the new education iPad and the iPads Pro. I spent a few minutes on Apple’s web site to pull down some specs comparing the low-end 12.9″ iPad Pro and the low-end 9.7″ iPad:

The lowest end 12.9″ iPad Pro:

  • A10X Fusion chip
  • Retina, ProMotion, True Tone display
  • 12MP camera
  • 4K video recording
  • Smart connector, Bluetooth
  • 64GB
  • WiFi only
  • $799

The lowest end education 9.7″ iPad:

  • A10 chip
  • Retina display
  • 8MP camera
  • 1080p video recording
  • Bluetooth
  • 32GB
  • WiFi only
  • $329

Interesting to me that the iPad Mini 4 is $399, no Apple Pencil, runs an A8 chip.

Why the next Mac processor transition won’t be like the last two

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Jason Snell, Macworld:

This week’s report from Bloomberg that Apple is planning on moving the Mac to its own chips starting in 2020 is the culmination of years of growing speculation about the future of the Mac. I’ve been impressed by Apple’s use of ARM chips in new Macs while being skeptical about the prospects of a full transition.

But if we accept the Bloomberg report—and it’s from reporter Mark Gurman’s sources, which are generally excellent—it’s time to shift from speculating about whether or not Apple would do this and start to analyze why the company would make this move, and what form the transition might take.

Thoughtful piece by Jason Snell. Definitely worth reading.

Obviously, this post is based on speculation. But, as Jason says, Mark Gurman has an excellent track record. The question of why Apple would do this is an obvious one. If this is Apple’s plan, no one outside the company can answer it. But two things spring to mind for me.

First, moving the Mac to a chipset that they design and build would give them that much more control over the full stack. Less reliance on outside vendors, the ability to create a more efficient and more powerful set of devices.

Second, moving the Mac to the same chipset as the iPad would (and this is way out of my league conjecture here) make it that much easier to merge macOS and iOS, somewhere down the line.

Apple posts two new iPad how-to videos, maybe use this approach to sell Apple Pay?

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[VIDEO] Yesterday, Apple added to its long list of iPad how-to videos with the two embedded in the main Loop post.

This form has been around for a while now, and it is both simple and informative. Like the snappy Apple Pay ads we wrote about yesterday, these iPad videos are short, very focused, easy to follow, and charming.

I’d love to see Apple adopt these formats to show people real-life examples that demonstrate how easy Apple Pay is to use, how secure it is, then build a campaign to get that message in front of people, both as videos, and with still frame moments that can translate to print, web ads, and posters/billboards.

Just an idea. No matter, love the new iPad videos. Enjoy.

PS, here’s an old one from the same campaign that I also love. Shows the consistency, too.

Gruber, Apple Pay, and a dark pattern

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From this Wall Street Journal Journal article:

Users who opt not to input credit-card information for Apple Pay when setting up their phones now constantly see the red circle over their settings icon, indicating their setup is incomplete. Some users also periodically get notification reminders that go away only once they start the enrollment process.

To me, this is a dark pattern, something we happened to write about yesterday in this post, The terrible scourge of Dark Patterns.

John Gruber responds to Mickle’s WSJ article in this excellent Daring Fireball post:

Mickle has a point here. This does annoy people who, for whatever reason, don’t want to set up Apple Pay. There is a way to dismiss the red badge, but it’s not obvious how, because the button you have to tap says “Set Up Apple Pay”. (After that, you tap “Cancel” or “Set Up Later in Wallet”.) It is inscrutably counterintuitive to need to tap a button that says “Set Up Apple Pay” when your intention is to stop being nagged to set it up because you don’t want to set up Apple Pay.

A dark pattern, right? To me, if Apple is going to red dot persist you into signing up or not, better for the user to force the decision up front. In or out, your choice, thank you for your time.

Moving on, Gruber gets to the heart of the Apple Pay issue, adoption:

I do think Apple has a marketing problem with Apple Pay, though. I can tell from talking to family members that a lot of people just don’t see why they should try Apple Pay, because they have no idea how it works or why they’d want to use it. And I think they worry that because it’s new and sort of science-fiction-y it will make their credit card more likely to be hacked, when the truth is the opposite. I think Apple needs more ads that explain and demonstrate the convenience and indisputable security advantages of using Apple Pay instead of a credit card, and the extraordinary convenience of Apple Pay Cash. I can see how a lot of people think, “Eh, I’ll just keep using my credit card” when they’re paying for something in a retail store. But Apple Pay Cash could be enough to get these people to set up Apple Pay.

Coincidentally, Apple just posted a terrific series of Apple Pay ads (watch them here). I think John is spot-on here. The value of Apple Pay is wildly under-appreciated. Though Apple is pushing to brand Apple Pay as a cool shiny, it has not pushed across the message of Apple Pay’s safety, security. Possibly because safety and security is boring. It’s critically important, but it’s tough to make the point in any sort of entertaining way.

Four snappy new iPhone X Apple Pay ads

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[VIDEO] Have to say, Apple has crafted an excellent ad language here, telling a tiny story in a 10 second ad. Each one focuses on the iPhone X, Face ID verification, and Apple Pay, delivering the goods in a series of sound effect laden quick cuts.

Excellent work. See for yourself. All four ads embedded in the main Loop post.

Michael Tsai’s rollup on comments about Apple’s reported plans for an ARM-based Mac

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Lots of interesting discussion on the implications of any move Apple might make to move Macs from Intel to ARM.

One point to keep in mind? If it does happen, this will be no easy transition for developers. As Rich Siegel points out in this tweet:

Anyone who says “you just have to click a check box” or “it’s trivial” without actually having done the transition for a shipping product is engaging in wish fulfillment or marketing.

If you are interested in a bit of detail on this, take a look at this tweet thread from yesterday. Lots of responses and paths off to specific sub-topics. Learned a lot.

The strange way that Apple Music is beating Spotify

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The Verge:

The Weeknd’s latest project, My Dear Melancholy, pulled in over 26 million streams in its first 24 hours on Apple Music, with the lead song “Call Out My Name” pulling in 6 million of those streams, the company tells The Verge. That in itself isn’t a record, but Apple Music’s numbers did beat out the single’s performance on Spotify, which pulled in nearly 3.5 million streams in the same period — the largest debut of 2018 on the service — according to Republic Records.

So what? Apple Music beat out Spotify in this one instance. Why is that so odd?

Here’s why:

Spotify has over 120 million more users, had two exclusive music videos from the EP, and it was where The Weeknd pointed his fans to stream the album on social media.

In effect, the deck was stacked in favor of Spotify, well stacked. And yet, somehow, Apple Music pulled more streams.

And this isn’t an anomaly either: this is the third time Apple Music has outperformed Spotify on a major release in the past 13 months.

First-day streams of Drake’s More Life on Apple Music outpaced Spotify by a staggering 28.6 million, and the streaming service dominated first-week streams of Post Malone’s chart-topping single “Rockstar” in the US.

Some kind of secret sauce at Apple Music HQ. Very interesting.

Mark Zuckerberg responds to Tim Cook’s “extremely glib” criticism

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From the linked, long Mark Zuckerberg interview:

Q: Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, gave an interview the other day and he was asked what he would do if he was in your shoes. He said, “I wouldn’t be in this situation,” and argued that Apple sells products to users, it doesn’t sell users to advertisers, and so it’s a sounder business model that doesn’t open itself to these problems.

Do you think part of the problem here is the business model where attention ends up dominating above all else, and so anything that can engage has powerful value within the ecosystem?

And Mark Zuckerberg’s response:

You know, I find that argument, that if you’re not paying that somehow we can’t care about you, to be extremely glib and not at all aligned with the truth. The reality here is that if you want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the world, then there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay. And therefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising-supported model is the only rational model that can support building this service to reach people.

That doesn’t mean that we’re not primarily focused on serving people. I think probably to the dissatisfaction of our sales team here, I make all of our decisions based on what’s going to matter to our community and focus much less on the advertising side of the business.

But if you want to build a service which is not just serving rich people, then you need to have something that people can afford. I thought Jeff Bezos had an excellent saying on this in one of his Kindle launches a number of years back. He said, “There are companies that work hard to charge you more, and there are companies that work hard to charge you less.” And at Facebook, we are squarely in the camp of the companies that work hard to charge you less and provide a free service that everyone can use.

I don’t think at all that that means that we don’t care about people. To the contrary, I think it’s important that we don’t all get Stockholm syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you. Because that sounds ridiculous to me.

Shots fired.

Naomi Campbell interviews Jony Ive

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This British Vogue interview starts slow, with some pretty softball questions, but does ease down an engrossing path, especially so if you are interested in design.

Two callouts. This first, on designer Azzedine Alaïa:

He was the consummate craftsman. I loved the physical studio in which he worked, I loved the way, and how directly, he worked – his process. I was in utter awe watching him, and I loved that he let me watch. I thought that was so generous. It was incredible to see the way that he understood material, and the way he would be frustrated with material and so create new ones. And then these beautiful forms would emerge.

And this, from the very end, on hiring a new team member:

The main thing is how they see the world. Ultimately, Steve’s legacy is a set of values and, I think, the belief in trying. Often the quietest voices are the easiest to overlook, but he was brilliant at lis-ten-ing as well as leading and speaking. A lot of com-munication is listening – not just lis-ten-ing to figure out what you want to say in response.

Good read.

Apple Watch, heart rate data, and murder

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Daily Mail:

Recovered Apple smartwatch data, which indicated when a murder victim’s heart stopped beating, will be key prosecution evidence in the case against a South Australian woman charged with killing her mother-in-law, a court has heard.

Riveting story, and more so because the prosecution went through the process of recovering the victim’s heart rate data from her Apple Watch to tell the story of her death.

Hands-on with Business Chat for iMessage

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Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

Included in iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 is a new way to communicate with companies called Business Chat. Available in the United States as a beta to start, Business Chat lets you conveniently use iMessage for customer service and even complete transactions with Apple Pay. Check out our hands-on to see how it works.

I think Business Chat has huge potential. Zac does a nice job taking it through its paces. Key to success, as with Apple Pay, is adoption.

Apple is hiring hundreds of engineers to make Siri smarter

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Joshua Fruhlinger, Thinknum:

Apple hiring trend data suggests that the company is finally taking its Siri intelligent assistant seriously. According to hiring data that we track at Thinknum, the number of open positions that contain the term “Siri” has accelerated in recent weeks, with a current all-time high of 161 job listings posted today alone. This marks a jump in hiring for the keyword of 24% in just over a month.

Check out the chart embedded in the article. Job openings moved from a low of 46 back in 2016, in a relatively steady climb up to 160 today. That’s a big swing, slow and steady.

Facebook memo: “Maybe it costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”

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BuzzFeed:

On June 18, 2016, one of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s most trusted lieutenants circulated an extraordinary memo weighing the costs of the company’s relentless quest for growth.

“We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it,” VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth wrote.

“So we connect more people,” he wrote in another section of the memo. “That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies.

“Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”

The explosive internal memo is titled “The Ugly,” and has not been previously circulated outside the Silicon Valley social media giant.

Explosive is a pretty apt descriptor here. Read the whole thing.

In response to this BuzzFeed post, Mark Zuckerberg commented:

Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative things. This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We’ve never believed the ends justify the means.

We recognize that connecting people isn’t enough by itself. We also need to work to bring people closer together. We changed our whole mission and company focus to reflect this last year.

And, for a palette cleanser, spend a few minutes here.

Updating your HomePod and questions about firmware changing sound quality

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From this article by AppleInsider’s Mikey Campbell, titled Disgruntled HomePod owners say firmware update alters sound quality:

A number of HomePod owners are airing their dissatisfaction over Apple’s first firmware update for the device, saying the new software tweaks the speaker’s sonic fingerprint, a specific sound for which customers paid a hefty premium.

I’ve seen similar comments. Sounds like Apple may have tweaked the EQ settings to emphasize the midrange. That said, I’ve been listening to my HomePod heavily since i did the update (more on that in a sec) and I have to say, still sounds clean to me. When I listen to cleanly produced content, I hear the same separation as always, though I do think it’s possible the bass is backed off just a bit.

To me, the answer to this is, give people access to EQ controls or, at least, a set of presets. No single setting will work for everyone.

As to updating your HomePod, make sure your paired iOS device is updated to 11.3. Once that’s done, you can simply wait, as the default setting has your HomePod software updated automatically.

If you want to force the update, launch the Home app. If your HomePod icon has some text under the icon showing an update available, just tap it, and install the update. If you don’t see it, back off to the main Home screen and:

  • Tap the arrow in the upper left corner
  • Scroll down to the Speakers section and tap Software Update

That’s where you’ll see the Install Updates Automatically switch. Going to that page should bring up the update.

Just FYI, my HomePod version is now 11.3 (15E217). I’m assuming that’s a build number in there. If you have a different number, please do ping me.

Tim Cook on Facebook, Amazon, and Privacy: The videos

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[VIDEO] Recode and MSNBC have started sharing video snippets of Tim Cook’s sit down with Recode’s Kara Swisher and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

Videos embedded in the main Loop post. I have to say, a lot of nuance is lost between what Tim says, in context and in its entirety, and the quoted snippets, embellished by sensationalized headlines, that appear in the press.

Watch the videos.

Predicting the iPhone

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Every so often, someone pops up with something from the past that seems to imply knowledge of the present. There’s this pic of a young Steve Jobs wearing something that looks an awful lot like an Apple Watch.

Or these paintings from 1860, 1918, and 1937, all showing people staring at their iPhones.

But this one follows a different tack, more an eerie prediction of future tech, in a magazine blurb on the future of computing. Pretty solid predictions.

[H/T, Robert Macmillan]

Where’s the iCloud storage bump for the rest of us?

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Dan Moren, SixColors:

Look, it’s lovely that Apple has decided to give 200GB of free iCloud storage to any Apple ID associated with a teacher or student. It’s a nice gesture, and one that probably makes things a lot easier for those in school environments.

But, come on, Apple—you’re really going to leave the rest of us at 5GB?

Apple has a balancing problem. On one hand, there’s the profit motive of one of the largest corporations in the world and the corresponding pull to maximize shareholder value.

And on the other hand, there’s the motivation to do what’s right, whether it be equal rights for all, privacy, or simply delivering fair value to the consumer beyond what’s required to pull money from their pockets.

The 5GB thing? To me, this falls on the wrong side of the line.

More from Dan:

The standard 5GB of free iCloud storage has been in place for years now, and, frankly, it’s starting to wear thin. When most iOS devices come in 32GB configurations at the smallest, and many start at 64GB, 5GB feels pretty paltry. Especially when the next step in the upgrade tier is to pay $0.99 for 50GB of storage space. I realize Services has become a moneymaker for Apple, but it just feels cheap.

5GB feels like a money grab. Apple clearly recognized the need for a bigger storage baseline when they announced the 200GB free tier for education. Bravo to that. But now it’s time, Apple. Make the change. Just as you eliminated the 8GB and 16GB minimum device configurations, recognizing them as outmoded, bump the free storage tier.

Apple pricing, the iPad, and the battle for student mindshare

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[VIDEO] Lots has been written about yesterday’s Apple Event. One core thread concerns Apple pricing. One prominent school of thought is that yesterday’s event was a swing and a miss by Apple. That Apple did not price the new iPad aggressively enough to make a dent in the Android/ChromeBook dominated education market.

While the facts on which those arguments are based are certainly true, they miss the point. The new iPad, even at $299, is certainly more expensive than the cheaper alternatives. No question of that.

But two things are lost by those arguments:

  1. The new iPad, though more expensive, is a head and shoulders better product than the cheaply produced alternatives. To me, there’s no comparison. If you want cheap, buy cheap. But in the long run, cheap will out. Cheap will cost you more in support time and effort, cheap will cost you more in terms of product life.

  2. Yesterday’s event was about so much more than a new iPad. Apple rolled out an entire system of device and curriculum management, new software for collaboration (Pages, most specifically), and a phenomenal computer science curriculum that will help many schools that want one but can’t afford to pay the talent to come in and create one. And all that stuff I just mentioned? It’s free.

Google has a significant lead here. And the Android tablets and ChromeBooks are clearly cheaper. Google has a set of tools that are also free, and they work. So this is no easy get for Apple.

But that said, the experience of using an iPad with a Logitech Crayon or Apple Pencil is creatively freeing. There’s just no comparison between the products when you consider the potential it unleashes in students.

Take a look at the video embedded in the main Loop post, which Apple ran at the end of yesterday’s event. To me, what Apple has delivered is worthy of consideration.