There’s Apple, at number one. No big surprise. Google, Coca Cola follow at number 2 and 3. And there’s Samsung at number 7. Wondering what impact, if any, the Galaxy Note 7 debacle will have on the Samsung brand value.
Apple
Emergency SOS: How to set up and use this new Apple Watch feature
Anthony Bouchard, writing for iDownloadBlog:
To access Emergency SOS, all you need to do is press and hold the side button on your Apple Watch, and you’ll see a new red “SOS” slider at the bottom of the slider list. Sliding this slider initiates a 911 call and fires off text messages to your emergency contacts within seconds.
But there’s more to it than that. Read the article and learn about auto-call and how to set up your emergency contacts.
MacRumors forum post presents evidence refuting Dash developer’s claims
Two things to read:
- Ben Lovejoy does a nice job walking through the entire story.
- Rene Ritchie posts a response from the Dash developer.
Tim Cook meets Nintendo’s legendary Shigeru Miyamoto during Japan visit
I can only imagine how cool this must have been for both sides. If you are unfamiliar with Shigeru Miyamoto, here’s a bit from his Wikipedia Page:
Miyamoto originally joined Nintendo in 1977, when the company was beginning its foray into video games, and starting to abandon the playing cards it had made since 1889. His games have been seen on every Nintendo video game console, with his earliest work appearing on arcade machines in the late 70s. Franchises Miyamoto has helped create include the Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, and Wii series. Noteworthy games within these include Super Mario Bros., one of the most well known video games; Super Mario 64; and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time.
I love that Nintendo changed their mind, allowing one of their biggest franchise characters to migrate to an iOS game. Looking forward to taking Super Mario Run for a spin. And hope that Link and Zelda follow soon after.
Hidden Mac tricks in macOS Sierra
[VIDEO]: Lots of good customization tips here.
One of many: To launch Siri, press the command key and press and hold the space bar (as opposed to command-space, which brings up Spotlight).
[Via iHeartApple2]
The circles in Apple’s new Apple Music video
[VIDEO]: This video is a walk through the Apple Music interface, highlighting various features. Feels like it belongs on the official Apple Music page. It’s certainly too long for an ad.
One thing worth noticing are the not-quite-transparent circles that stand in for a finger tap or drag. Watch the video with that in mind. There are a lot of them.
The circles are used both for touches and to highlight sections of the interface. My guess is, these circles are part of some third party screen recording app and were placed there frame-by-frame.
I would love it if Apple would expose the technology that made those circles as part of the QuickTime Player’s iPhone screen recording interface. There are ways to capture touches in a video but, in my opinion, none come close to matching these.
Why the Supreme Court asked if the iPhone design is like a Volkswagen Beetle
Jeff John Roberts, writing for Fortune:
In trying to make sense of the design patents’ value, the judges repeatedly invoked the body shape of Volkswagen’s iconic Beetle model, noting that consumers will pay extra for a cool-looking car. But they drew back at saying a company, in cases of complex products, should be able to use a patent for exterior appearance to collect for the whole thing.
And:
Justice Stephen Breyer contrasted simple products like wallpaper to cars and smartphones, which are often covered by hundreds or thousands of patents and design decisions.
“For wallpaper, you get the whole thing. A Rolls Royce with the thing on the hood? No, no, no you don’t get profits on the whole car,” said Breyer.
This likens Samsung copying the iPhone look and feel to building a car that looks like the VW Beetle. Interesting point.
Adobe releases critical security update for Flash Player on Mac
Flash? Rings a bell. Something something, malware, blah-blah-blah.
If you still have Flash on your machine, grab the update.
Inside macOS Sierra’s purgeable space and optimized storage
Mike Wuerthele, writing for Apple Insider:
Purgeable space is data on the drive that Sierra has determined is superfluous, and not necessary to be stored on the drive. Examples are files in the trash, videos that have already been watched, music downloaded from Apple Music (but not rips from CD), and other data synchronized with iCloud.
In a nutshell, if you run out of space, purgeable space is the set of files that are backed up in the cloud and can be safely deleted. This post takes you through the basics of enabling this feature and doing the initial setup. If you are running macOS Sierra, it’s worth a read.
CarPlay: The best incarnation of Apple’s ecosystem
Carolina Milanesi, writing for Tech.pinions, on buying a new vehicle with CarPlay installed:
Having CarPlay made me rediscover Maps and features like where I parked my car, the suggested travel time to home or school or the office, suggestions based on routine or calendar information — all pleasant surprises that showed me what I had been missing out. It also showed me how, by fully embracing the ecosystem, you receive greater benefits. Having the direction clearly displayed on the large car screen was better and, while there is still a little bit of uneasiness about not using Google Maps, I have now switched over. Maps on Apple Watch just completes the car experience as the device gently taps you as you need to make the turn. It is probably the best example I have seen thus far of devices working together to deliver an enhanced experience vs. one device taking over the other.
I have heard this same opinion from a number of people. I’ve long used Apple Maps combined with my Apple Watch for directions and it works well for me. But it is obvious to me that having the turn-by-turn directions on my vehicle’s built in screen would be a significant step up from my current setup.
I also find that Bluetooth is a bit finicky in certain situations. Built in CarPlay would eliminate those times when Siri can’t seem to hear me, or when turn-by-turn directions sometimes turn on my music when Siri calls out a turn.
I get the sense that CarPlay has very quietly become one of the Apple ecosystem’s shining lights. I know one thing. CarPlay has become a must-have feature in the next car I buy.
Jimmy Iovine on the future of Apple Music and why everyone is getting everything wrong
Great interview. Jimmy speaks from the heart. One quote in particular struck me:
I met [Apple executives] Steve Jobs and Eddy Cue in 2003. I realized, okay, the future of music is going to be intertwined with distribution through technology companies. It just looked like that to me, and I realized how far behind I personally was. So I set out to really understand. So I worked with those guys for about two years, and I said to Steve, “I’d like to do headphones with Apple with [Dr.] Dre,” about two or three years later. He said, “Do it yourself, you can do it.” So I tried it myself.
Made me hungry for more detail on how this merger evolved.
iPhone 7: Computer from the future
Federico Viticci:
After nearly two years spent using a 5.5-inch iPhone, I’m accustomed to not having a compact phone anymore. The iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus have reshaped my iPhone experience for a simple reason: they give me more of the most important device in my life.
Thus, I was a little skeptical – even surprised – when Apple gave me a gold 256 GB iPhone 7 review unit (with a leather case) two weeks ago. I didn’t think I would be able to enjoy a smaller iPhone, but, despite my initial resistance, I set up a fresh install of iOS 10 and used the iPhone 7 exclusively for two weeks.
I’m glad I did. While I’m still pining for a 7 Plus, using the iPhone 7 showed me that there’s more to this year’s iPhones than the lack of a headphone jack.
In many ways, the iPhone 7 feels like a portable computer from the future – only in a tangible, practical way that is here with us today.
If you are on the fence about the iPhone 7, read Federico’s take. It’s a deep, thoughtful dive into the iPhone 7, as well as the wonderfully efficient pairing process between the iOS 10-powered iPhone and the new Beats Solo3 headphones:
- Turn them on;
- Bring them close to your iPhone;
- Tap ‘Connect’ on a dialog that appears, and you’re paired.
That’s it.
All of Bluetooth should be this simple. Nice job, Federico!
Phish’s Things People Do recorded completely on an iPhone
Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Ezrin gave the band members specific instructions: Learn and play 10 folk songs, then start writing, beginning with a folk song. Mr. McConnell’s effort, “Things People Do,” not only made the final cut, but the version included is his demo. Phish made multiple versions of the song before agreeing that nothing topped the original low-fi version, recorded on Mr. McConnell’s iPhone, sitting atop a Wurlitzer piano in his living room.
Cool. To paraphrase an aphorism, sometimes the best recording device is the one you have with you.
The last design patent case (from 1885) to make it to the Supreme Court lays precedent in Apple Samsung case
BBC News:
To find context ahead of Tuesday’s showdown between Apple and Samsung in the US Supreme Court, you need to go back over a century to a row over some rather attractive carpets.
It’s 1885, and John and James Dobson stand accused of nicking designs from other carpet makers and selling them off as their own.
A couple of companies, Hartford Carpet and Bigelow Carpet, were so incensed they took the Dobsons all the way to the highest court in the land.
The firms were quite right to be upset, the Supreme Court agreed, but then it got more complicated. The court hit a stumbling block over the amount of money the firms deserved in damages.
Read on for the details. Interesting.
In Switzerland, you can now buy a bus ticket with your Apple Watch
[VIDEO]: Cominmag, via Google Translate:
In late April 2016, the company FAIRTIQ SA has radically simplified the purchase of tickets by launching the application that bears his name in conjunction with public transport Fribourg (TPF) and Lucerne and the Rhaetian Railway. Until then, to get a ticket, users were faced with sometimes complicated tariff systems.
The FAIRTIQ innovation has transformed this event into a breeze: the passenger signals the start of his journey with a click before boarding the vehicle and terminates in the same way once arrived. Thanks to the GPS, the system calculates the distance traveled and the corresponding ticket most advantageous. If the user makes several trips in a day and a day pass would have proved a more economical option for him FAIRTIQ not charge him the amount of the daily chart in question. Also, if you forget the part of the user, the application automatically calls to end the trip.
In the main post is a video showing the app at work. I find this sort of 3rd party integration of Apple Watch and Apple Pay a sign of thing to come and of critical mass in the adoption of both.
Two different iOS 10 adoption rates
Apple’s official App Store measurements put iOS 10 adoption at 54%.
Mixpanel’s version of iOS 10 adoption is, obviously, not measured by App Store internals. According to the latest Mixpanel trend numbers, the iOS 10 adoption rate is 67.21%.
Both sets of numbers are reasonably up to date and, also obviously, pulled from different sources. Apple pulls data from App Store visits on a specific day (in this case, October 7th), and Mixpanel pulls their data from web site visits, sort of like Google Analytics, though with a deeper embedding in applications.
Interesting to see such different measures of adoption. Regardless, iOS 10 has a significantly higher adoption rate than Android Marshmallow (about 20%). As a reminder, Android Nougat is the latest and greatest, but it is limited to a few devices at this point, so Marshmallow owns the largest slice of the Android pie.
iPhone 7 real-world sample gallery
DPReview is one of the go-to sites for deeply technical camera reviews. Note that that this is an iPhone 7 gallery. Here’s a link to the DPReview iPhone 7 Plus gallery.
Tap one of the images to get started.
Inside Apple’s new 3.5mm to lightning audio adapter
Check out the post, even if only to appreciate the gorgeous hi-res Xray imagery.
Finding recently listened to tracks in iOS 10’s Music app
Kirk McElhearn, writing for Macworld, on finding your listening history in iOS 10:
There’s no way to do that in the iOS 10 Music app. In the Apple Music For You section, you can see your Recently Played music, but it only lists albums and playlists, not the songs in the order you heard them. And that’s only for Apple Music, not for your music.
But there is a path:
Interestingly, there is one way you can find this, and you have to enter Apple’s new Byzantine Messages app. Create a new message to yourself or to a friend. Tap the gray arrow to the left of the text field, then tap the App Store icon. Tap the grid icon at the bottom left (the one with the four ovals), then tap Music. When you do this, Messages displays a list of your 30 most recently played tracks.
The fact that this info was available made me dig a bit further. In the Music app, as Kirk suggested, I tapped the Library tab, then tapped Playlists. Down a bit was a playlist labeled Recently Played that, sure enough, had a nice long list of my recently played music, complete with a Shuffle All option at the top of the list.
My Recently Played list was indeed a list of songs and artists, in order. Not sure what Kirk experienced, but seems like there must be a setting somewhere that customizes the look of that list. I’ll ping Kirk on this, see what he thinks.
Most interesting to me is the TERRIBLE selfie iOS chose as the icon for that list. Really curious about the logic that led to that choice. But it did make me laugh.
UPDATE: Spoke with Kirk, his take is that my Recently Played playlist was inherited from my Mac via a past iTunes sync. Has to be this, since you can’t make smart playlists in iOS. Interesting.
Apple Watch Series 2 review, 3 weeks in
Rene Ritchie has lived with his new Series 2 Apple Watch for three weeks. His review is realistic and well worth the time if you are thinking about buying one.
One quote on performance:
watchOS 3, unsurprisingly, runs great, as well. Scratch that. On the original Apple Watch, it runs great. On Series 2, it flies.
That’s thanks to the new S2 system-in-package (SIP), which now includes a dual-core central processor and an amped up graphics processor. A fresh app launch is still count-the-spinner-wheel-seconds slow, but way better than before. And given how recent and favorite apps are now kept in memory, it’s also rarer than before.
The S2 also includes GPS. It is assisted GPS in the most assisted sense of the word — it only fires when you’re tracking an workout route and your iPhone isn’t around to piggy-back on. As a result, power drain is minimal.
Combined with the new, bigger battery and more efficient processor, it’s so minimal that I’ve done two workouts in a day and still been well over 50% by sundown.
The difference between the original and the Series 2 is ridiculous.
Read the whole review.
Apple’s response to Dash removal from App Store, request for clarification
First read this morning’s post, about the Dash Mac app being suddenly removed from the App Store.
This afternoon, Dash updated their blog with this chilling message:
Apple contacted me and told me they found evidence of App Store review manipulation. This is something I’ve never done.
Apple’s decision is final and can’t be appealed.
Certainly, only Kapeli (the Dash developer) and Apple know if there was any App Store review manipulation. But this feels heavy-handed. Dash is a tool used by lots of developers. Not only does this hurt Dash, but it hurts the developers who use it. And this is being done, seemingly, without due process.
One thing for sure, there is a big wave of developer response to Kapeli’s blog post and all of it (at least what I’ve seen) is supportive of Kapeli. That should tell Apple to take another look at the evidence. Dash just doesn’t seem like it needs App Store review manipulation.
Supply chain suggests Apple to see better-than-expected holiday season
From Apple Insider:
In a note to investors obtained by AppleInsider, Daryanani notes Dialog pre-announced positive September quarter results on the back of mobile systems revenue, suggesting strong component orders from Apple. Dialog raised revenue expectations for the past quarter to about $345 million, up 13 percent from previous estimates between $290 million to $320 million.
OK, so far so good. Strong component orders indicate strong sales. Easy peasy.
Here’s the kicker:
Though Dialog failed to delve into specifics, it did say the revenue bump is in part the result of mobile systems orders being pulled forward into the third quarter to accommodate China’s National Day holiday on Oct. 1. Apple, which accounts for 75 to 80 percent of Dialog’s mobile systems revenue, traditionally builds iPhone approximately 60 days out, meaning the pulled-in orders are likely related to the December quarter, Daryanani writes.
The way I read it, this says that the builds for the holiday season were done early to accommodate China’s National Day holiday, which gave an early indicator of the unusual size of holiday orders. I found that kind of interesting.
By the way, according to this Wikipedia article, China’s National Day occurs every October 10th, not October 1. Not sure which is right.
When I asked Siri:
When is China’s national day holiday?
She replied:
National Day is on Tuesday, July 4, 2017.
Hmm.UPDATE: Thanks for the tweets and emails. turns out the holiday referred to above is the mainland Chinese holiday, not Taiwanese holiday.
Search ads start showing up in iOS App Store, early examples not encouraging
Ben Lovejoy, writing for 9to5mac:
Apple recently started offering developers the opportunity to buy search ads in the App Store, allowing their apps to be shown when users search for particular keywords. Those ads have now started showing up for U.S. users.
The theory is that it allows deserving apps from smaller developers to be seen by more people, giving them a better shot at competing with the big boys. Early examples, though, are not encouraging.
For example, search for Pokémon Go, and you get an ad for Catch ’em, an app which appears to be just copying the idea rather than bringing anything new to the party (below). Other examples posted similarly seem to show ads that are just hijacking popular search terms with me-too apps.
Is there a balance here? Are there stories out there of developers of legitimate apps (as opposed to copycat/land-grab apps) who have benefited from these ads?
Too early to truly draw any conclusions. I would hate to see the app store turn into a steady, muddied stream of ads. That would, indeed, suck.
Apple has unceremoniously removed Dash from the App Store
Dash is an off-line documentation browser, popular with developers. This morning, it was gone.
From the Dash for macOS blog:
Earlier today, Apple cancelled my developer account and has removed Dash from the App Store.
What Happened? I don’t know.
Read the post for details. But in a nutshell, Apple pulled the app and canceled the Dash developer account, sending an email saying “the account was terminated due to fraudulent conduct”.
This is a story with two major paths: Either the developer did something to deserve the rug being pulled out from under, something worthy of their developer credentials being cancelled. Or there’s a colossal misunderstanding here. I suspect there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Either way, don’t think this is the way this should have played out.
If Steve Jobs walked into Apple Computer now, which products would he nix?
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death. A number of tributes to Steve popped up, including this recode post pulled together by Dan Frommer, highlighting interviews Steve did with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at the All Things Digital conference from 2003-2010.
Another bit of writing I enjoyed was this Medium Post entitled We miss Steve Jobs, by Christina Goodwin, Samantha Chaves, and Michael Histen.
One particular question from this post really resonated with me:
If Steve Jobs walked into Apple Computer now, which products would he nix? What’s the “one thing” Apple does well? I don’t have a good answer. That scares the shit out of me.
When Steve first came back to Apple, he famously drew a simple two-by-two grid, labeling the columns consumer and professional, and the rows desktop and portable. He used that grid to winnow the Mac product line down to four models, greatly simplifying the supply chain and sales process and making life significantly less confusing for the consumer.
Would that approach work in today’s Apple? Apple is not the same company that Steve came home to. Apple is now a dominant player, not a straggler searching for its identity. Apple has a vision associated with each product, each product has a distinct position in the ecosystem. And Apple is way profitable.
That said, there are some cloudy points. Which Mac is the light, low-cost laptop champion? Is it the MacBook? The MacBook Air? Is there a future for the Mac Pro?
And where is Apple heading with its connectors? Is MagSafe dead? Is USB-C the power connector of the future? Is the 3.5mm jack going to be removed from future laptops?
Will Apple fix iTunes? Will the Mac App Store and iOS App Store ever play by the same rules (you can sell an app outside the Mac App Store, not so iOS)? Are we heading towards a macOS/iOS singularity?
Just some food for thought.
Google Assistant will live in three places, each with different features
[See original post for VIDEO]
Jacob Kastrenakes, writing for The Verge:
Nailing down exactly what the Google Assistant is capable of can be strangely difficult right now. That’s because Google currently has three different ways to use the Google Assistant. Google says it’s the same Assistant in each place, but it can (and can’t) do different things depending on where you use it.
- Google Assistant on Google Home (the new speaker)
- Google Assistant on Pixel (the new phones)
- Google Assistant on Allo (the new-ish chat app)
At its core, Google Assistant is a model of you, with threads through your life, your calendar, your photos and other media, your travel plans, food ordering habits, etc. Each of these examples is a window into your Google model and a well-defined read and write access to that model.
One of the challenges to creating this sort of model is the ability to keep that model online and distributed. Ideally, you’d be online with a super-fast net connection with secure, unlimited storage at all times. That would mean storing your model in a central repository and giving access to the various assistants as needed.
But real life imposes limits such as limited net access, limited storage, and different form factors. Getting all these pieces to play together is a daunting challenge.
Notably, Apple has been meditating on this problem since the early days of the Mac. Check out this Knowledge Navigator video from 1987. This is an incredibly complex problem, and solutions are still in their infancy. Fascinating to watch this unfold.
Apple discontinues third-generation Apple TV, removes it from online store
Chance Miller, writing for 9to5mac:
The gradual death of the third-gen Apple TV is continuing this evening, as Apple has officially discontinued the device. In an email sent out today to employees and education partners, obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple confirmed that it is discontinuing the device, shifting its focus entirely to the fourth-gen, tvOS-powered model and possibly a new model.
I have a third-gen Apple TV and it still works well. Perfect solution to add Netflix, Hulu, etc. to a lower-use TV. If I could get another one at a heavily discounted price, I’d snap it up in a heartbeat.
One thing Google’s Pixel offers that Apple doesn’t
From the fine print at the bottom of Google’s official Pixel Phone page:
Unlimited backups for photos and videos taken with your Pixel. Requires Google account. Data rates may apply.
There are a number of fronts in the battle between Google and Apple for the hearts and minds of smartphone users. One well-defined line in the sand is for media storage. Do you pay a monthly fee for an iCloud account to store your photos, as well as updates and backups?
Google has thrown down the gauntlet, offering free unlimited media storage for Pixel buyers. This move will be difficult for other Android phone manufacturers to match, since the photos go to Google’s servers, even if the phone is made by, say, Samsung.
Apple does control the entire path from camera to photo storage. The question is, will Apple address this challenge directly?
Hey Apple, what’s the scheduling conflict?
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, writing for Apple 3.0:
Apple has moved up by two days its final quarterly earnings call of fiscal 2016 due to what Apple Investor Relations calls a “scheduling conflict.”
What’s the conflict? Why Tuesday Oct. 25 and not Thursday Oct. 27? Apple didn’t say, and reporters’ inquiries (including mine) were met with silence.
And, among the rumors encountered for the change:
The best guess for the date shift, in my book, was also the most popular:
A launch event for new Macs
Just food for thought, here are the October events since 2010:
- Oct 20, 2010, Wednesday – Back to the Mac
- Oct 4, 2011, Tuesday – iPhone 4s
- Oct 23, 2012, Tuesday – iMac, iPad 4th Generation, iPad mini, Mac mini and MacBook Pro 13 inch
- Oct 22, 2013, Tuesday – iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina display
- Oct 16, 2014, Thursday – iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3, 27-inch iMac
Notably, there was no October event last year.
That new Google phone isn’t water resistant, and I’m sure you can guess why
At the heart of Google’s new marketing campaign is a razor sharp jab at Apple:
3.5mm headphone jack satisfyingly not new
That headphone jack is an ingress point for water. Obviously, that’s a problem that can be solved (as Samsung does), but Google chose not to, and made a point of chastising Apple for going down that road.
Google is pouring on the marketing here. Spend a few minutes with the official Pixel page. Is this hype, or is this progress?
UPDATE: This is one of those posts where I just shouldn’t have hit enter. Lots of pushback, deservedly so, but we don’t delete posts, so all I can do is say I’ll try to do better.