Apple

Watch Tim Cook’s MIT commencement speech

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[VIDEO] From the dean’s introduction of Tim Cook (about 5:47 in, video embedded in main Loop post):

It only seems natural that he should have wound up at the helm of the company that has changed the texture of our lives more than perhaps any other company in the history of the world.

Hyperbole? Perhaps. But there’s a core of truth there. I can’t think of a company that has changed the world in quite the same way.

The speech itself is terrific, inspirational, worth your time. I especially enjoyed Tim’s passionate words about Steve Jobs.

Jason Snell: HomePod first impressions

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Jason Snell, Macworld:

Sure, a few of us lucky souls were able to listen to a HomePod at Apple’s developer conference, but nobody outside of Apple has talked to one or picked one up. At the risk of stating the obvious, that’s because this is a product that’s not finished yet. Apple doesn’t want to publicly commit to a feature and then realize it can’t ship it; the product as the company conceives it today may not be the product that ends up in customers’ hands in December.

Lots of detail on what we know and what we still don’t know. Good read.

How the world’s most beautiful typeface was almost lost forever

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Hayley Campbell, Buzzfeed:

The history of London can be found in pieces on its riverbed. The old pipes and fossilised horse bones wash up on the shore, and with them come the lead letters that printed that history in the newspapers.

The letters ended up there mostly out of laziness, building up piece by piece over the years that Fleet Street served as the epicentre of British journalism. A typesetter’s job was time-consuming: A page of newspaper was laid out one character at a time, the pieces were put back in their boxes the same way. When the typesetters crossed Blackfriars Bridge on their way home from work they’d toss a pocketful of type over the side rather than bother.

They’re still there. There are thousands of letters slowly rearranging themselves over the years and moods of the mud, like alphabet soup.

This is the story of one of those sunken typefaces and a feud between two longtime friends. Beautifully written and a fascinating bit of design history.

Check the main Loop post for a related BBC video.

Chuq Von Rospach’s take on WWDC

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target=”_blank”>here, but this on the Mac Mini stuck out:

And while they even updated the venerable MacBook Air (a bit), the Mac Mini is sitting there in its ancient and increasingly “what about this then?” glory. I have to admit, I can only think of one reason for this: that they still plan to replace the Mac Mini down the road, and that it’ll be done with a lower end version of the Mac Pro. Here’s hoping, because I’d buy that thing in a femtosecond. But for now, the Mac Mini continues to be an enigma of “why is is not updated and still on the price list?” — I’m a little surprised it didn’t get a CPU refresh with everything else here, but I’ll bet our friend the Thermal Limit problem is the reason, and replacing it will require the stuff being done on the Mac Pro. At least, I hope so.

The Mac Mini does have an audience, it’s throw in the suitcase portable, and is Mac Pro-level long in the tooth. Here’s hoping we see a new one sometime soon.

iOS 11 brings Next/Previous Track controls to individual AirPods

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Greg Barbosa, 9to5Mac:

With iOS 11, users will gain the ability to adjust the AirPods’ double-tap action with new control options.

Changing the double-tap functionality on the AirPods is as simple as jumping into the AirPod’s Bluetooth settings. Before iOS 11, users were simply stuck between decided whether the double-tap activated Siri, or Play/Paused audio. On iOS 11, Apple has given more control to the AirPods with the introduction of Next Track, Previous Track, and Off options.

This is a smart add for Apple. I can control volume (something I do rarely) from my Apple Watch, and skip to next track (something I do all the time) directly from my AirPods. Perfect.

AirPods automatically pair with Apple TV starting with tvOS 11

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Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

When you pair AirPods to your iPhone, the wireless earbuds are automatically paired to iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches with the same iCloud account thanks to automatic setup. Apple TV has not been included in the devices that automatically pair, however, but that’s changing with tvOS 11.

Starting with the first tvOS 11 developer beta, AirPods appear as a new speaker option automatically on Apple TVs with iCloud accounts connected to iPhones with AirPods paired. This means you can play music or easily listen to video from Apple TV through AirPods without using the TV speakers.

Welcome to the auto-pairing family, Apple TV. Huzzah!

iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra to allow you to type queries to Siri

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Serenity Caldwell, iMore:

When iOS 11 comes out in the fall, users will be able to turn on “Type to Siri” in their accessibility settings, which will let you write your commands to Siri, rather than shout them into space.

As of now, Type to Siri is an accessibility feature: It’s designed for folks who may not be able to speak their queries and need a keyboard (or other switch control-based device) to do so, and a huge boon for them, too.

But even those without need for accessibility features may love this feature — Google’s Assistant offers both a text and type interface, allowing for quick and quiet answers to questions when a typical voice query won’t do, and a similar Siri option should prove very helpful for a variety of folks. The feature will also be available for macOS High Sierra when it launches in the fall, as well.

It’ll be interesting to see if this feature is exposed in other ways. For example, would I be able to write a script in High Sierra to programmatically interface with Siri?

China uncovers massive underground network of Apple employees selling customers’ personal data

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Hong Kong Free Press:

Chinese authorities say they have uncovered a massive underground operation run by Apple employees selling computer and phone users’ personal data.

Twenty-two people have been detained on suspicion of infringing individuals’ privacy and illegally obtaining their digital personal information, according to a statement Wednesday from local police in southern Zhejiang province.

And:

Of the 22 suspects, 20 were Apple employees who allegedly used the company’s internal computer system to gather users’ names, phone numbers, Apple IDs, and other data, which they sold as part of a scam worth more than 50 million yuan (US$7.36 million).

The statement did not specify whether the data belonged to Chinese or foreign Apple customers.

The good news is, it looks like this is news about the breaking up of this black market, not simply uncovering it. But the allegation that this was an operation run by Apple employees is, if true, a big black eye for Apple in China.

Earth — Shot on iPhone

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[VIDEO] This is one of my all-time favorite iPhone ads (embedded in the main Loop post), mostly due to the voiceover by the great Carl Sagan.

To get a sense of why I think so highly of him, spend a minute reading Sagan’s Wikipedia page. To me, he’s the real deal and his words ring true.

Hands on with iOS 11

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[VIDEO] If you missed the keynote and want to learn more about iOS 11, Jeff Benjamin from 9to5Mac has your back.

The video embedded in the main Loop post does an excellent job walking you through the interface changes, and there are a lot of them. This video is definitely worth your time.

iFixit’s 2017 iMac 4K teardown

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Hey, there’s a headphone jack!

Lots and lots of interesting stuff here, both in pictures and in the walkthrough text.

Amazon exec: Alexa should be able to talk to Siri

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Edward C. Baig, USA Today:

Alexa and Siri, rival voice assistants on Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s iPhone, don’t directly communicate with one another. But the Amazon executive in charge of Alexa and the Amazon Echo said he’d welcome the idea.

“You should be able to tell `Alexa, ask Siri X,’” said David Limp, senior vice president of devices at Amazon.

“If Apple or Google want to come calling, my phone number is out there, they can call…I don’t know if I can envision it but I hope that will happen on behalf of customers,” Limp told a group of journalists at the Wired Business Conference Wednesday in New York.

Interesting politics, Limp reaching out through the media.

I would welcome a common currency for AI assistants, a language that would allow them to communicate with each other. There’s obvious resistance to that approach, since it would weaken the walls of the ecosystem. But it would open doors for collaboration, and that’s a win for end users.

Watch the first episode of Planet of the Apps

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From Apple’s Planet of the Apps web site:

The season premiere is finally here! Watch this groundbreaking new series about apps and their creators. Featuring Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk, and will.i.am.

The first episode is available here for a limited time. Join Apple Music to get new episodes weekly.

The feel of the show is like Shark Tank meets The Voice, all built around app developers looking for funding. You can watch the first episode, for a limited time, on Apple’s official Planet of the Apps site.

Will my iPhone run iOS 11? What apps will I lose access to?

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iOS 11 is a 64-bit only operating system. That means that any phone made before the A7 chip was released won’t be able to upgrade to iOS 11.

The first iPhone with the A7 chip was the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5 and 5c do not have the A7. The iPad Mini 2 does have the A7. The iPad Air does. The iPad 4 (iPad with Retina Display, released September 2012) does not.

As to your apps, head over to Settings > General > About, then tap Applications. You’ll likely see a list of applications under the heading NO UPDATES AVAILABLE. Those are the apps you’ll likely lose access to if you upgrade to iOS 11.

Once you make the transition to iOS 11, if you follow the same path, you’ll see a similar list. If any of these apps are critical to your workflow, check with the developer to see if there’s an update planned. If not, start looking for a replacement and a way to port any data you may still need.

Apple makes iPhone screen fixes easier as states mull repair laws

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Reuters:

Apple Inc customers will soon have more choices as the company looks to reduce long wait times for iPhone repairs at its retail stores.

By the end of 2017, Apple will to put its proprietary machines for mending cracked iPhone glass in about 400 authorized third-party repair centers in 25 countries, company executives told Reuters.

Among the first recipients is Minneapolis-based Best Buy, which has long sold and serviced Apple products. The electronics retailer already has one of the screen-repair machines at a Miami-area store and one coming soon to an outlet in Sunnyvale, California.

This should take some of the pressure off of Apple Stores, extend the reach of iPhone repair to people who live near a Best Buy, etc., but not near an Apple Store.

iOS 11 allows you to remove apps without deleting app data/settings

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CydiaGeeks:

In iOS 11, managing your storage just got a lot easier. Apple has renamed the Storage & iCloud Usage into iPhone storage. Within this page, the design looks a bit different too. The interface didn’t capture my attention as much as a new option called Offload did.

This is a real boon to folks with storage issues, especially valuable for 16GB phones.

[Via The Verge]

Bloomberg interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook focuses on HomePod

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[VIDEO] Some very interesting questions from Bloomberg’s Emily Chang (video in the main Loop post), including the question of HomePod being able to place a phone call, and whether Apple has retails aspirations (ordering product on your HomePod). The answer seems to be no to both. The approach seems to be, a limited version of Siri for starters, then more and more domains added in over time.

Thoughts on the iMac Pro

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[VIDEO] Some thoughts on the iMac Pro, serving the needs of the Mac Pro crowd, and a video, all in the main Loop post.

The new iPad Pro: Two ads and a WWDC video

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[VIDEO] All three videos are embedded in the main Loop post.

The first video, titled On Any Given Wednesday, ran during the WWDC keynote. Though its focus is the new iPad Pro, it also highlights a lot of what’s new in iOS 11. Drag and drop, split view, the dock all featured prominently in the quick cuts.

Seeing this video again after having spent a good amount of time using iOS 11, I can appreciate the subtleties in the video and I now want to move to the new iPad Pro.

The two ads below the WWDC video are new entries in the iPad Pro series.

Appocalypse

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[VIDEO] This is how Apple brought up the curtain on this year’s WWDC (video embedded in the main Loop post). Note the extra P in the title. It’s all about the apps.

I love it when Apple takes chances. I think this was well done and worked well. Enjoy.

The difference between Siri and Alexa

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Stephen Nellis, Reuters:

Currently, Apple’s Siri works with only six types of app: ride-hailing and sharing; messaging and calling; photo search; payments; fitness; and auto infotainment systems. At the company’s annual developer conference next week, it is expected to add to those categories.

And:

But even if Siri doubles its areas of expertise, it will be a far cry from the 12,000 or so tasks that Amazon.com’s Alexa can handle.

The difference illustrates a strategic divide between the two tech rivals. Apple is betting that customers will not use voice commands without an experience similar to speaking with a human, and so it is limiting what Siri can do in order to make sure it works well.

And:

Now, an iPhone user can say, “Hey Siri, I’d like a ride to the airport” or “Hey Siri, order me a car,” and Siri will open the Uber or Lyft ride service app and start booking a trip.

Apart from some basic home and music functions, Alexa needs more specific directions, using a limited set of commands such as “ask” or “tell.” For example, “Alexa, ask Uber for a ride,” will start the process of summoning a car, but “Alexa, order me an Uber” will not, because Alexa does not make the connection that it should open the Uber “skill.”

Apple is investing in foundational natural language processing (NLP) expertise, building an experience that will scale.

My 2 cents: This is a better long play. In the long run, interacting with Siri will be much more like speaking with a person, complete with slang and idiom, requiring a much smaller learning curve but with a limited domain.

It’d be interesting to see a set of benchmarks develop to test Siri and Alexa, a standardized set of statements to gauge progress.

WWDC’s oldest attendee

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Fortune:

Retired banker Masako Wakamiya was frustrated by the lack of mobile games that catered to the elderly, who have a tougher time keeping up with the action-packed games that are popular with teens. So the 82-year-old from Japan started taking online tutorials to learn how to write software code.

And:

Wakamiya will be the oldest developer attending WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference that starts Monday in San Jose, Calif. Like many of her fellow attendees, Wakamiya’s free app, called Hinadan, is available in Apple’s App Store, and she is eager to create more.

In contrast, the youngest attendee at this’s year’s WWDC is Yuma Soerianto, a 10-year old boy from Melbourne, Australia who started coding at age six by following online courses on Code.org and from Stanford University that he found on Apple iTunes U, which provides free college courses online. In four years, he has created four apps for Apple’s App Store, including Weather Duck, a weather app for kids.

Welcome, Masako. Welsome Yuma. Have a great week!

Christies to auction off working Apple I

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Christies auction page:

An Apple-1 motherboard: labelled Apple Computer 1 Palo Alto Ca. Copyright 1976 on obverse with four rows A-D, and columns 1-18, white ceramic MOS Technologies 6502 microprocessor, 8K bytes RAM in 16-pin 4K memory chips with an additional 4k piggy-packed onto on RAM bank to create 12K of RAM the heat sink removed along with voltage regulators which have been placed onto the metal casing enclosure (which acts as a heat sink), original 3 “Big-Blue” power supply capacitors, firmware in PROMS (A1, A2), low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits, fitted with original Apple cassette interface card lettered with “G” within triangle, above D9 is an added 1702 EPROM ; the metal casing painted green with Datanetics keyboard to front (20 ¼ x 17 x 6in.) ; vintage Viatron monitor model no. 3001-301 (20 x 11 x 9in.) ; in working condition. Provenance: The EPROM and extra RAM added by the first owner; acquired by Frank VanGilluwe III; sold to Andrew “Zack” Zacharias for $300 May 1978.

The auction is scheduled for next Thursday, June 15th.

What If the iPad Smart Keyboard Had a Trackpad?

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John Gruber, Daring Fireball:

Here’s an idea I tossed out on the latest episode of The Talk Show, while talking with Jim Dalrymple about what Apple might do with the iPad Pro: what if they added a trackpad to the Smart Keyboard?

And:

I’m not talking about adding an on-screen mouse cursor to iOS for clicking and dragging. That’s a terrible idea.

And:

When you’re using the iPad’s on-screen keyboard, you have a crummy (or at the very least sub-par) keyboard for typing but a nice interface for moving the insertion point around. When you’re using the Smart Keyboard (or any other hardware keyboard) you have a decent keyboard for typing but no good way to move the insertion point or select text. Using your finger to touch the screen is imprecise, and, when an iPad is propped up laptop-style, ergonomically undesirable.

Great read. Moving the insertion point and selecting text is one of the least satisfying things about iOS. Not sure this is exactly the right answer, but it is a thoughtful talking point, well worth chewing on.

Apple Park’s tree whisperer

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Steven Levy, Backchannel:

As the campus came into shape, Muffly — who was granted full-time status as Apple’s senior arborist in 2011 — had to actually get the trees. This task was even harder because the arborist and his small team (he calls them his “elves”) needed more trees than originally estimated. When Jobs presented his plan to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011, he said that Apple would add to the 3,700 existing trees for a total of 6,000. But when Muffly began his work, he realized that nearly all the (non-indigenous) existing trees would have to go.

“It was all junk trees and parking lots here,” he says. “So it was a long process.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this story. There’s the background on Steve Jobs and his history with trees, coupled with the process of selecting trees for Apple Park, with an emphasis on saving and planting native trees. Native trees are built to consume the rainfall for a specific area, grow well in the native soil without supplement. Steve Jobs knew this and hired an arborist who shared his vision.

Siri creator, now with Samsung, on the future of AI assistants

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Arjun Kharpal, CNBC:

Adam Cheyer was one of the people behind Siri which was acquired by Apple in 2010. Since then, Cheyer has created a next generation voice assistant called Viv which was acquired by Samsung in 2016. Viv is [now] a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung with the South Korean titan looking to integrate the technology into future products.

Watch the video embedded at the top of the article. Interesting to hear Cheyer’s point of view. Interesting that he specifically leaves out Google in his list of companies competing in this space.