Apple

Apple iBeacons

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Back in June, at WWDC, Apple first announced iOS 7, detailing a host of new technologies. Hidden among them, with the barest of mentions, was the iBeacon.

Think of an iBeacon as a tiny radio you can put almost anywhere. When your iPhone or other iOS device gets within range (a few dozen feet or so), it detects the iBeacon and can estimate how far away it is. Each iBeacon has its own identifier, too, so if your iPhone is within range of more than one iBeacon, it can tell them apart.

One company that is hard at work making their own brand of iBeacon sensor is estimote. From their web site:

Simply stick our tiny sensors in any physical place — such as your retail store — and your app users will benefit from personalized micro-location based notifications and actions when they walk in to your venue or interact with your products.

Roximity is another company that makes iBeacons. From their website:

Manage your beacons and triggers from a simple yet powerful web based dashboard. View detailed analytics about your campaigns, in store foot traffic, busiest times of day, and much much more!

I think this technology has incredible potential.

64-bit confusion

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There is a bit of a misconception out there regarding 64-bit processors. This is from the linked BBC News article:

However, bearing in mind there will remain many iOS and Android handsets on the market that still rely on 32-bit chips, this may deter developers from taking advantage of the switch in the short-term.

“People who have the old 32-bit processors will not be able to run software that is built specifically for the 64-bit processors because the latter uses a different instruction set,” explained Prof Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey’s computing department.

“However, if people write in 32-bit, it will run on many of the 64-bit processors because they still support the old instruction set.

“So, you can get the whole market by writing the app in 32-bits, but you can only get a very small part of the market if you write specifically for 64-bits.”

This is a bit misleading. Apple’s developer tools make it reasonable easy to create a build that supports multiple architectures, say a 64-bit iPhone 5S as well as a 32-bit iPhone 5. If the app is built properly, the user will get the proper binaries for their device.

In other words, it just works.

iPhone 5C available for pre-order

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Currently, pre-orders are scheduled for delivery one week from today. Will be interesting to see the pre-order numbers.

iPhone 5S fingerprint FAQ

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Learned a lot from this piece.

Capacitance readers are more complex, instead creating an image of your fingerprint by measuring the differences in capacitance between the ridges and valleys of your fingerprint. They leverage the electrical conductivity of your sub-dermal skin layer, and the electrical insulation of your dermal layer (the one where your fingerprint is). Your fingerprint is effectively a non-conductive layer between two conductive plates, which is the very definition of a capacitor. The fingerprint reader senses the electrical differences caused by the varied thickness of your dermis, and can reconstruct your fingerprint.

The Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 5s is a capacitive reader, embedded in the home button. That was a good choice on Apple’s part, since capacitive scanners are more accurate and less prone to smudgy fingers, and can’t be faked out with a photocopy of a fingerprint.

The question I have is, are capacitance readers susceptible to Play-doh copies of your fingerprints. This is a technique used to defeat some fingerprint technologies.

“Us too”, said Samsung

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Here’s a quote from Samsung Mobile boss Shin Jong-kyun:

“Not in the shortest time. But yes, our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality,” Shin said, adding he followed the media coverage of Apple’s new iPhone.

I’m sure, in context, this is a reasonable response to a reasonable question. But as soon as I read this quote, in my mind, I heard the followup, “and fingerprint scanning, too, we’ll have that, too.”

Just me?

Is iPhone 5S death-knell for passwords?

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Though there have been a number of devices that incorporate fingerprint scanning technology (most notably, niche laptop models), the iPhone 5S is the device that will bring this technology to the mainstream. And, in doing so, will inspire other device manufacturers to rush their version of this technology to market.

With its move, Apple could end up making the technology commonplace, as rivals might feel compelled to follow suit. It could be only a matter of time before passwords and passcodes are relegated to yesteryear.

Interesting.

The incredible horsepower under the iPhone 5S hood

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The iPhone 5S ships is based on the Apple’s own 64-bit ARM A7 System on a Chip (SoC). This is a major step up in raw processing power.

Biometric authentication requires a significant amount of CPU horsepower to pull off without being sluggish, as would strong end-to-end VPN encryption, both of which are likely necessary for the iPhone to continue to attract corporate attention.

The inclusion of so much horsepower is more than just a nice win for the iPhone line. It’s also a win for the next iPad, as well as a sign that iOS platforms are stepping up in class, rivaling desktop machines and game consoles. More fodder for the folks who champion the opinion that we’ll someday see a convergence of the iOS and Mac OS X platforms. Personally, I don’t see that happening any time soon. I love my MacBook Pro and can’t imagine using my iPad or iPhone in the same way. But I do see the possibility of that changing over time.

Resetting your DNS cache

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Ever find yourself in a situation where a web site is loading on one device and not another? Or, perhaps, you just registered a new domain name and your browser is not finding it? One possibility is that your DNS cache needs to be flushed.

DNS is the phone book of the Internet, translating the human-friendly domain names (like loopinsight.com) into IP addresses, then back again. When domain names change, it takes some time for those changes to propagate through all the routers, devices, and browsers. Flushing your DNS cache gets rid of remembered DNS information and forces your device to retrieve new DNS.

The link above tells you how to flush the DNS on your computer. You’ll need to use Terminal, so ask a friend if you’ve not used it before. On your iOS device, turn on airplane mode, then turn it back off. That should do the trick.

Apple sued over splitting of Breaking Bad

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An Ohio man named Noam Lazebnik is suing Apple for splitting the final season of Breaking Bad into two individual seasons and charging a separate price to purchase each “Season Pass”.

Two sides here. Apple clearly lists each of the episodes included with the package, so does not appear to be misleading in any way. But the Season Pass description on that same page, says:

This Season Pass includes all current and future episodes of Breaking Bad, The Final Season.

Certainly open to interpretation.

Chrome Apps: Google’s Trojan horse strategy

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This strikes me as a very interesting strategy. The way I read it, by installing the Chrome browser, you are enabling Chrome apps that you install to live outside the browser.

Chrome Apps amount to a Trojan horse for Google. By way of the Chrome browser, the company is essentially putting its own app ecosystem right on top of Windows and OS X. It’s a play that’s been months in the making. “There are still reasons why a developer would build a native app over a Chrome App today, but we’re working to tackle each one,” Rakowski says. Google began promoting a handful of Chrome Apps (then called Packaged Apps) in May. In July, its Chrome notification center was pushed out to Windows and Chrome OS users, allowing for alerts and pop-ups outside the browser window. And for months, Chrome’s developer channels have shipped with an app launcher that lives in the Windows taskbar — this launcher rolled out to the public today too.

The new apps look and behave much like the native apps you find on Windows and OS X. They’re built using web technologies, but also with Chrome-specific code that means they won’t be able to run on other web browsers — they’re truly Chrome apps. They can exist outside of your browser window as distinct apps, work offline, and sync across devices and operating systems. They can also access your computer’s GPU, storage, camera, ports, and Bluetooth connection. Chrome Apps are, for now, only available through Chrome on Windows or Chrome OS on a Chromebook. Mac users will have to wait another six weeks before their version of Chrome will be updated.

Will be interesting to see how this all works on top of Mac OS X.

Pono Music project

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Neil Young has long been working on an alternative to CDs and digitally encoded music formats. His Pono Music project is an attempt to significantly raise the bar on music fidelity.

The key difference between Pono and industry leaders such as iTunes or Spotify is Young’s focus on audio fidelity. An avowed enemy of the CD, Young now wants to “save listeners” from the MP3. “The simplest way to describe what we’ve accomplished is that we’ve liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio,” Young wrote. “Hearing Pono for the first time is like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theatre on a sun-filled day.”

Perhaps he is tilting at windmills, but he is persistent and getting a fair amount of attention, especially from professional musicians. Time will tell.

App Store Grifters

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App cloning is a problem that impacts both large and small developers. In a nutshell, a cloner decrypts an app, then sucks out the binary. Once they have the binary, they modify it and resubmit it to the App Store as their own. A difficult problem for Apple to solve. They’d either need to apply significantly more resources to screening submitted apps, or take more time per app with existing resources, which would slow the review process to a crawl.

The app had only been out three months, and already the creators of A Beautiful Mess were scrambling to deal with a big problem: clones, copycats, and rip-offs, as many as seven of them, crowding the search results in the App Store. The clones appeared to be legitimate, affiliated versions, yet as all the developers knew, they were anything but. The CEO of the company that created the original A Beautiful Mess called them “infuriating.”

And getting rid of a clone is no easy task.

A Beautiful Mess developers tried to have the clones removed. “When we reported an IP infringement through Apple’s system, [Apple] would e-mail the company we were accusing and CC us on it,” said Trey George, the business development manager for A Beautiful Mess, in an e-mail to Ars. George believed that most of the clones originated with two operations, which he believed would feign innocence when confronted in a bid to buy time.

Clones and the like have been around the App Store almost since its inception. But this scourge has now become commonplace.

Android’s lack of strong oversight can lead to an even worse problem. Clymer highlighted the recent case of the game Gentlemen!, which was purchased legitimately 144 times and pirated more than 50,000 times.

Glad to see this problem getting the exposure it needs.

Lady Gaga at 4p EST

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Just a reminder, you can watch live streaming of the iTunes Festival starting at 4p EST today by steering your browser to itunes.com/festival. Jim is there and I am jealous!

Settlement to start paying customers who bought eBooks between 4/1/10 and 5/21/12

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Looks like this lawsuit is finally wrapping up.

According to the letter, with these additional settlements the fund for payments to customers who purchased qualifying ebooks is now $162.25 million. Anyone who purchased ebooks from the iBookstore between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012 is eligible to receive a payment from this fund upon court approval of the settlement. That is, almost anyone: because of the complexity of the case and complex mix of the various parties involved in it, only individuals who are residents of the United States (including five territories and the District of Columbia) are eligible for payments; libraries, government agencies, and corporations, among others, are excluded, as well as those who only obtained free books or gifts from the iBookstore. In addition, residents of Minnesota, while included among those who are eligible, are subject to different terms in the settlement.

There’s a pretty comprehensive FAQ on the settlement here.

Developer creates tiny, working version of original Macintosh

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When Apple released the original Macintosh in 1984, it was looked at as a triumph of design — one of the more minimalist and user-friendly computer designs to hit the market. Old Macs have long since become obsolete, leading fans to come up with creative ways to hack them into a useful second life (like the MacQuarium), but John Leake took a different approach for his tribute to Apple’s most enduring product. Using Sintra foamboard and a Raspberry Pi, Leake has successfully created a working scale model of the original Mac that’s one-third the size of the original.

Absolutely love this.

Patent trolls sue Apple 171 times in 5 years

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After being hit with 171 lawsuits from non-practicing intellectual property owning entities in the last five years, Apple has further solidified its place as the No. 1 target for so-called patent “trolls.”

No company should be sued by patent trolls. Something has to be done.

Apple buys compression algorithm company

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AlgoTrim has been around since 2005, and its flagship product, the Code Compression Library (designed to reduce the size of mobile device firmware) has been in use on mobile devices since 2006.

Interesting that Apple is pursuing smaller, more focused companies. In this case, AlgoTrim will help improve performance of algorithms for lossless compression, which will bring obvious benefits to the camera and other image processing applications, but will also bring more subtle benefits, such as improved battery life.

Also interesting is this little nugget from the original Swedish report:

In February of 2013, all of AlgoTrims shares were acquired by the anonymous Delaware-based holding company Wedgwood Industries LCC. But according to solid information revealed to Rapidus, Apple is the real buyer behind the deal.

The story of eWorld

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Back in 1985, Apple created an internal network for managing support for dealers and developers. It was called AppleLink.

It was run by GE’s online service, and Apple was paying GE to run the backend, while Apple managed the actual services. At its peak, AppleLink had had 50,000 registered users, 38,000 of which were external to Apple. Looking to phase this out, mostly to save money, Apple wanted to purchase or build its own online service.

Soon after, Apple created AppleLink Personal Edition, a similar tech-support system for consumers, with Quantum Computer Services running the backend. Quantum Computer Services soon became America Online, or AOL, with a young Steve Case at the helm. 1987 saw Quantum running AppleLink PE, with Apple getting a percentage of the fees Quantum was charging users of the service.

This is the story of how AppleLink evolved into eWorld. My favorite bit:

“What we didn’t know is that AOL had already prepared it’s bankruptcy papers – this deal ultimately saved them. Steve Case had a great poker face,” said Peter Friedman, then vice president and general manager of Apple Online Services, now CEO of LiveWorld.

Good read.

Apple patents new hinge to make laptops even thinner

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The size of our devices are stuck at something of a bottleneck. We can’t exactly make them smaller because they’re so reliant on large, easily visible displays. So, the industry makes do, and makes the devices thinner, which reduces overall size without compromising display size. One object standing in the way of even thinner laptops is the hinge, and Apple might have found a way to remove that from the design equation.

Yesterday, a new patent application was published that describes “flexible segments” that interlock to form a rigid material. The material used isn’t some kind of top-secret new wonder metal only found deep within Apple’s subterranean volcano lair, but rather a process that can take rigid material — such as plastic or metal — and can cut it in such a way to create the flexible segments. The flexible segmented hinge could bend at various degrees, but that depends on the segments being cut in different patterns.

Intriguing.

Apple executives as Microsoft CEO

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It will be interesting to see which Apple executives Microsoft tries to get to run the company. You know it’s going to happen. Apple has all the products that Microsoft wished it had.

The state of Apple’s TV quest

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Will Apple build a TV set? The answer is complicated. This article does a good job laying out all the parameters.

One alternative being considered is that Apple could essentially become a cable company itself. Under that scenario, sources say, Apple would launch what is formally known as a virtual multichannel video programming distributor. MVPD is the catch-all term for pay TV services, whether delivered over cable lines, satellites, or otherwise. A virtual MVPD would offer such content entirely over the internet. Intel, Google, and Sony are known to be preparing virtual MVPDs of their own.

Just as happened in the music space, companies like Apple act as a disruption to an existing business model. In this case, the disruption to the TV space has been going on for a long time. A new studio system is evolving and, in many cases, succeeding. Netflix broke through with “House of Cards”, creating and distributing content completely outside the traditional mechanisms.

However Apple’s television service is formally regarded, it will still be seen as disrupting the TV industry. In its talks with content companies, say sources, Apple notes that it has nearly 600 million iTunes accounts and is good at getting people to pay for content. It made similar claims when it negotiated with companies in music and publishing, and it has indelibly changed those industries.

This is getting interesting.

Apple and Education

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Apple on Thursday made some significant changes to its “Apple and Education” Web site, adding resources, stories, planning ideas and more for students, teachers and IT staff.