Apple

Spotify posts their specific gripes about Apple and the App Store

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Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify:

Apple operates a platform that, for over a billion people around the world, is the gateway to the internet. Apple is both the owner of the iOS platform and the App Store—and a competitor to services like Spotify. In theory, this is fine. But in Apple’s case, they continue to give themselves an unfair advantage at every turn.

And:

Apple requires that Spotify and other digital services pay a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system, including upgrading from our Free to our Premium service. If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.

And:

If we choose not to use Apple’s payment system, forgoing the charge, Apple then applies a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions on Spotify. For example, they limit our communication with our customers—including our outreach beyond the app. In some cases, we aren’t even allowed to send emails to our customers who use Apple. Apple also routinely blocks our experience-enhancing upgrades. Over time, this has included locking Spotify and other competitors out of Apple services such as Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch.

Read the whole thing. And don’t miss the timeline.

Add this for a bit of perspective:

https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/1105826992547684354

Feels like things are about to get quite messy.

Apple purchases machine learning startup Laserlike

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple last year acquired Laserlike, a machine learning startup located in Silicon Valley, reports The Information. Apple’s purchase of the four-year-old company was confirmed by an Apple spokesperson with a standard acquisition statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

And from the LaserLike web site:

We’ve built a web scale content search, discovery and personalization platform using advanced machine learning.

And:

Your interest search engine. Follow the topics you care about, with news, web, video, local, and more. Powerful content search brings you the full perspective in a feed you can control. Never miss what matters, with timely, relevant updates for your interests.

Keep this acquisition in mind as you watch the announcements on March 25th. This would certainly relate to the rumored news subscription service, potentially adding a significant level of personalization to a traditional news feed.

Facebook’s data deals are under criminal investigation

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New York Times:

A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters. Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users.

The companies were among more than 150, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world’s dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users’ friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years.

And:

The disclosures about Cambridge last year thrust Facebook into the worst crisis of its history. Then came news reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings.

The sharing deals empowered Microsoft’s Bing search engine to map out the friends of virtually all Facebook users without their explicit consent, and allowed Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends. Apple was able to hide from Facebook users all indicators that its devices were even asking for data.

That last sentence seems to imply that Apple acted in bad faith, purposely hiding data requests. Seems unlikely. Me just being naive? Am I misinterpreting the writing here?

How I made my own iPhone

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[VIDEO] This video is about two years old, but fascinating nonetheless. It’s embedded in the main Loop post.

Scotty Allen has a wonderful YouTube channel called Strange Parts that explores the back alley parts markets in places like Shenzhen, China, scrounging together the pieces to create, in this case, a working iPhone 6s.

This is not about creating a phone of your own. Rather, it’s a look at a remarkable parts market. Jump to about 4:03 and check out all those iPhone backs.

I’d wager that the parts market is even more varied and vibrant today. Kind of makes me want to hackintosh my own iPhone. Or, at least, replace the back with something unique and custom.

Steve Jobs and the upside down Apple logo

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Last week, I tweeted a pic showing an old Apple laptop. As was the case with all old Mac laptops, the Apple logo was upside down when open.

With a bit of help from Sérgio Miranda, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole to learn more.

From the linked Joe Moreno blog post:

The design group noticed that users constantly tried to open the laptop from the wrong end. Steve Jobs always focused on providing the best possible user experience and believed that it was more important to satisfy the user than the onlooker.

An interesting problem, one of competing interests. Should the user see the right side up logo, so they know which side to open? Or is it more important for the brand that the world see a right side up logo?

Obviously, Steve started with one opinion and then, when he returned to Apple, he flipped his decision. Possibly driven by shows that started putting stickers over the logo so the Apple would look “right” on screen.

Interesting bit of Apple history.

Apple races to get studios signed up for new streaming service

Written by

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc., after teasing investors for months about its ambitions to become a services company, is getting ready to showcase plans for new video and news products. All it needs now is for Hollywood to sign up.

And:

But before the curtain goes up, Apple needs to complete deals. The company is racing to secure movies and TV shows to offer alongside its own original videos and is offering concessions to get deals done by a Friday deadline, according to people familiar with the matter. Pay-TV programmers such as HBO, Showtime and Starz have to decide whether Apple is an existential threat, as some now view Netflix, a potential partner or something in between.

When Apple did a similar dance to craft deals with record companies to build iTunes and then Apple Music, they were purely working through a distribution deal. They were not a threat (at least not an obvious one), but a partner. Apple had no ambitions to create music of their own.

The race to build partnerships now, to carry third party content on its rumored video service, has to deal with the fact that Apple has very public plans to build content of its own. Apple clearly wants a seat at the table, alongside existing partners such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video.

Of the group, Apple is the only one distributing the others. Less than two weeks ’til the beans get spilled.

Apple’s legendary Clarus the dogcow

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[VIDEO] This really takes me back. Clarus was one of the elements that really showed the difference between Apple and the rest of the gray, gray world. I miss that particular brand of quirkiness.

Stephen Hackett does a nice job bringing this history to life in the video embedded in the main Loop post.

Moof!

Apple alone in not fighting raise in music royalty rates

Written by

Variety:

Spotify, Google, Pandora and Amazon have teamed up to appeal a controversial ruling by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that, if it goes through, would increase payouts to songwriters by 44%, Variety has learned.

Note one big name missing from that list. Apple.

Sources say that Apple Music is alone among the major streaming services in not planning to appeal — as confirmed by songwriters’ orgs rushing to heap praise on Apple while condemning the seemingly unified front of the other digital companies.

And:

Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International: “It is unfortunate that Amazon and Spotify decided to file an appeal on the CRB’s decision to pay American songwriters higher digital mechanical royalties,” he said in a statement. “Many songwriters have found it difficult to stay in the profession in the era of streaming music. You cannot feed a family when you earn hundreds of dollars for millions of streams.”

And:

Israelite did single out Apple for praise for not participating in an appeal. “We thank Apple Music for accepting the CRB decision and continuing to be a friend to songwriters,” he said. “While Spotify and Amazon surely hope this will play out in a quiet appellate courtroom, every songwriter and every fan of music should stand up and take notice.

Indeed.

The MacStories shortcuts archive, an incredible resource

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If you’ve never taken the time to play with Shortcuts, dig into this archive. It’s a terrific resource for interesting shortcuts, but the process of downloading and running a shortcut is also a good learning experience.

To get started, first be sure you’ve got the Shortcuts app downloaded from the iOS App Store. Run it once, just to get the on boarding out of the way, then exit.

Next, follow the headline link on your iOS device, scroll down, pick a category, and pick a shortcut. One I particularly love is Music > Apple Music Wrapped, which creates a detailed report for the music you’ve listened to in any particular year.

Tap the “Get the shortcut here” link, which will bring you into the Shortcuts app, then tap the Get Shortcut button.

Lots of choices to make, interface to make your way through, all of which gives you a sense of what you can do with Shortcuts. It also shows the immense amount of work that Federico and the MacStories team put into this effort.

Once you jump through all the hoops, return to Shortcuts and tap the Library tab at the bottom of the screen. That’s where you’ll find the Apple Music Wrapped shortcut. Tap the ellipsis (…) to see all the steps that went into the shortcut.

And, apropos of nothing, my favorite artist of 2018 was Kevin Penkin. I listen to an awful lot of anime soundtracks.

Painting along with Bob Ross using your iPad and Apple Pencil

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[VIDEO] Bob Ross taught generations of people how to paint. Gently.

In the video embedded in the main Loop post, iJustine watches Bob Ross step through his technique, laying paint on canvas, and replicates every step on her iPad Pro using Procreate.

I love this approach, especially the way the video is partitioned to show Bob Ross at work, Justine’s work in progress, all while keeping the big picture in the main frame.

The tutorial starts about 53 seconds in.

The worst time to trade in your iPhone and other depreciation info

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Two things I drew from this post (which came via this Cult of Mac post):

  • The Samsung Galaxy S9 is a pretty horrible investment, dropping about 60% in nine months, as compared to the iPhone X, which dropped about 30% in the same span.

  • The worst time to trade in your iPhone is in the 3 months following the September iPhone event. This from the headline linked article:

A massive 68.86% of the iPhone X and 8’s total yearly depreciation was seen in Q4 following the Sept 2018 Apple Keynote (31.14% of their value between Q1-Q3). The months after the keynote is a trade-in black hole consumers should avoid.

iPhone values trend upwards every January. Lots more info in the article. Interesting.

Dynamic iPhone phone call interface

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Think about handling a phone call on your iPhone. Imagine the process of changing audio sources (switch from your car or AirPods to the speaker or handset, for example). Imagine switching to some other app to look something up while you are on the call, with that call status bar taking up the top of the screen.

Now take a look at this tweet, watch the embedded video:

https://twitter.com/limneos/status/1102672002748502017

I love this concept. I believe it is a jailbreak app, not something a third party could ship on mainstream iOS. But there’s a tremendous amount of flexibility being shown here.

The future of foldables is glass, not plastic

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Follow the headline link and scroll down about halfway to that animated GIF showing a piece of glass, folded over and being repeatedly squished and released. To me, that is the future of foldables.

That is super-thin glass, 75µm thin. That’s ballpark the thickness of a human hair. And that curve gets down to a 5mm radius.

Fold it over and over again, and there’s no crease. Plastics crease when folded, glass like this doesn’t.

My instinct is that Apple will hold out for glass like this if and when they ever release any sort of foldable iPhone. Details are all in the article.

Benjamin Mayo on Siri Shortcuts: No intelligence and puts the burden on the user

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Benjamin Mayo, on the promise of Siri Shortcuts:

This means Siri can now be smarter by drawing on the capabilities of many more apps. You can order coffee. Control third party audio apps like Overcast or Pandora. Plan travel itineraries with Kayak. All with your voice talking to your intelligent personal assistant.

Except that’s not really true. That is how Apple likes to market the feature but it’s a twisted form of reality. Shortcuts are not making Siri smarter, in fact they are dumber than pretty much anything Siri has done to date. Shortcuts put the burden on the user to do the legwork of synthesising data sources and integrating the apps into the voice service.

That’s the “puts the burden on the user” part. Benjamin continues:

Shortcuts require registration and administration to do anything at all with Siri. The user has to pre-emptively search out every command available in a certain app and then add each in turn to Siri. Registration requires the user to think up the phrase they want to use to trigger the command on the spot. Siri can then trigger these actions when that same phrase is said back to it at a later date.

There is no intelligence here. Siri transcribes the user’s voice and looks for an exact text match of that phrase in the database of voice shortcut phrases that the user has generated off their own back. If a match is found, it proceeds. Otherwise, failure.

And that’s the “no intelligence” part. If I trigger Siri, I can say “what’s today’s weather” or “what’s it like out today” and get the same response. Siri maps lots of things to “tell me the weather”. But with shortcuts, the user does the core creation. There’s no way for Siri to suss out other phrases that mean the same thing.

I think this is an excellent essay, worth reading.

I would add this though. Lots of apps ship with useful shortcuts, and there is a vibrant community building and sharing shortcuts with the world. Spend some time browsing those shortcuts, find one you like, and it’s pretty easy to bring the shortcut onto your own iPhone, even customize it. Definitely a power user move, but one with tremendous value.

Also, take a minute, fire up Siri and say:

“Open Siri Settings”

Siri will jump to the Siri Settings page and, there at the top, you’ll see a list of shortcuts that were created for you, based on recent behavior. To me, those shortcuts are a sign of intelligence at work. And easy to use, too. Press the plus sign to the right of a shortcut, give it a name, and you’re off to the races.

Apple says iPhones with third-party batteries now eligible for repairs

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MacRumors:

iPhones with aftermarket batteries installed by third-party repair shops are now eligible for service at Genius Bars and Apple Authorized Service Providers, according to an internal Apple document obtained by MacRumors from three reliable sources.

And:

The updated guidelines went into effect Thursday and should apply worldwide. Apple will still decline service for iPhones with third-party logic boards, enclosures, microphones, Lightning connectors, headphone jacks, volume and sleep/wake buttons, TrueDepth sensor arrays, and certain other components.

Good news and a small step towards right to repair.

Samsung’s AirPods equivalent

Written by

SlashGear:

Arriving alongside the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Galaxy Buds promise the convenience of AirPods but with the sort of customization Android fans love. With a $129 price tag, though, is this all too good to be true?

The review is surprisingly good. Lots of customization, Qi-charging, ear-tips (to customize the fit, included) and equalizer controls.

I hope the next generation AirPods includes all these features.

Apple’s 2018 MacBook Pros attempt to solve Flexgate

Written by

iFixit:

In 2018, a number of MacBook Pro users—with models from 2016 onwards—discovered a serious design flaw that causes the screen to fail after repeated opening and closing of the laptop over the course of a few years. The ensuing scandal was, of course, dubbed flexgate, after the flex display cables causing the problem. Despite Apple’s refusal to acknowledge the issue, though, their latest MacBook Pros have a longer cable that may be attempting to make up for previous shortcomings.

The display cable is said to fail from too much opening and closing of the MacBook Pro hinge, past the 90-degree point. Since the display cable is soldered onto the board, when it fails, the entire display must be replaced, at a cost of $700.

My question is, if someone’s MacBook Pro fails after the warranty expires, and after the bonus Apple Care time, will Apple cover the failure? This is the crux of the issue.

Switched to Apple from Android all over the Apple Watch series 4

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Reddit:

The last iPhone i owned was a 4s and I’ve been an Android user since the Galaxy s4. That all changed when I saw the AW Series 4. Wanting to purchase an all around smart watch and activity tracker I found the Samsung Gear s3 disappointing. Also tried the Garmin Fenix 3 but it wasn’t for me. The AW series 4 hooked me for some reason, hooked me to the point where I decided to trade my Note 9 for a iPhoneX.

It’s been about 2 weeks now and honestly, I don’t regret the decision. There are a couple things I miss but nothing that makes me think I’ve done something stupid. I’m really impressed how the Apple ecosystem interacts with the devices. I also just purchased a 6th gen iPad this weekend to keep experimenting. Being a “newer” Apple user with multiple devices is there anything the community could recommend for tips or tricks, apps etc? Just looking for fun ways to experiment with the new gear I have. Thanks for your time.

This is one Android user, pulled into the Apple ecosystem by Apple Watch. Anecdotal but, to me, representative of the draw of Apple Watch and the ECG capability.

‘The risk paid off’: How Apple prevailed in the U.S.-China trade war

Written by

Politico:

Under CEO Tim Cook, Apple has kept its China-manufactured iPhones off the list of Chinese imports that Trump has slapped with roughly $250 billion in tariffs. That puts the Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics giant in an enviable position compared with other sectors caught in the crossfire — thanks in part to efforts by the soft-spoken, 58-year-old Cook to cultivate leaders in both countries.

This is clearly a political issue, but the article is an interesting take on Tim Cook’s under-appreciated finesse.

Upgrading From an iPhone SE to an XR

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Michael Tsai writes up his experience moving from small form factor to the larger iPhone XR. Moving from Touch ID to Face ID.

Lots of detail, terrific read. One thing that did not come up is the move from a headphone jack to none. I suspect Michael already made the move to AirPods (or the like) and it just wasn’t an issue.

UPDATE: From Michael, via Twitter, on my question about the headphone jack:

The headphone jack is not an issue for me. I use AirPods and recently found a much better Bluetooth car adapter (will hopefully write about it soon).

NY Post: Apples’s Hollywood venture marred by ‘intrusive’ execs

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This story has been making its way around the blogosphere. I’d take it all with a grain of salt.

On one hand, hard to know how well sourced this is, whether this is simply the groans of a few, or truly representative.

On the other hand, Apple is a beginner here, brand spanking new to this space. If this is truly an issue, Apple will learn the lesson over time. Apple has deep pockets, can afford to make plenty of mistakes.

Side note on that headline: Apples’s? Really? Apple’s venture. Not Apples’s venture.

UPDATE: They fixed the headline.

Microsoft Excel lets you take pic of table, convert to editable spreadsheet

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Microsoft 365 blog:

With Insert Data from Picture, you can take a picture of a printed data table with your Android device and convert that analog information into an Excel spreadsheet with a single click. New image recognition functionality automatically converts the picture to a fully editable table in Excel, eliminating the need for you to manually enter data. Insert Data from Picture will be available in preview for the Excel Android app soon.

Rolling out for Android now, iOS support coming soon. If you use Excel, this is a great feature. It’ll be interesting to see if similar features emerge for Apple’s Numbers and/or Google Docs.

The Microsoft Band, Health Dashboard officially killed by Apple Watch

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Microsoft Band support page:

Microsoft has announced the end of support for the Microsoft Health Dashboard applications and services. This document contains important dates and information regarding the end of support.

On 5/31/2019, the Microsoft Health Dashboard site will be shut down and Microsoft Band applications will be removed from the Microsoft Store, Google Play, and Apple App store.

If you bought into the Microsoft ecosystem, you can get a refund. Follow the headline link for details.

The Apple Watch, at least currently, really owns this space. Another example of Apple’s strategy of entering a space when they know they have the right product and the product right.

[H/T Friend of the Loop Andrew Leavitt]

Put your AirPods under your MacBook, your MacBook falls asleep

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.

Encountered this on Reddit today. Crazy.

If you have an older MacBook or MacBook Pro, try this (make sure you have a current backup first):

  • Fire up your Mac
  • Take your AirPods case and place it under your MacBook, on the left side, about halfway down
  • Your Mac will go to sleep

Basically, this is how the Mac detects that the lid is closed. Which is why it goes to sleep and, when you remove the magnet, it wakes back up.

I verified this with my 2015 MacBook Pro. Did not work with my 2018 MacBook Pro, though I suspect I just haven’t hit the right sweet spot.

Of course, I wouldn’t do this experiment without making sure you have a current backup, just cause magnets and magnetic media.

The incredible value of Apple Watch and archived heart data

Written by

MIT Technology Review:

One day, while I was testing my own Apple Watch, Tom was deconstructing a rack of network equipment. He suddenly noticed his heart was pounding. Then he began feeling dizzy. Next came tunnel vision. He needed to sit down.

First he checked the pulse on his neck, but he realized his watch could provide more data. It said 203 beats per minute, so he fired up an ECG.

And:

Tom was definitely not feeling well, so he had a coworker take him to the hospital, where triage got him to a nurse straight away.

His nurse set up an ECG, the traditional “gold standard” kind, but Tom could feel that his heart rate had dropped closer to normal. He worried that the hospital test wouldn’t find anything, so he unlocked his phone and passed the readings to the nurse, who showed them to the remote teledoctor on call.

“Oh, that’s an SVT,” the doctor said, immediately. A supraventricular tachycardia: an abnormally fast heartbeat caused by irregular electrical activity.

The Apple Watch already has incredible value. Just like the camera, the best ECG is the one you have with you. So many stories about Apple Watch saving people’s lives. And this still feels like early days.

US music fans throw more money at vinyl, CDs than iTunes downloads now

Written by

Cnet:

Downloads represented just 11 percent of US labels’ revenue last year, a music industry trade group said Thursday. Physical sales — the term for music formats you can actually hold, which are mostly CDs and vinyl at this point — booked 12 percent.

Looking at my own habits: I haven’t bought music in months. Apple Music brings me an embarrassment of riches, gives me more than enough to listen to.

Streaming is clearly killing downloads. Without specific legislation, I can’t ever imagine 99 cents per single purchases rising back up.

5G tide to lift Apple

Written by

Loup Ventures:

Apple has four initiatives that will materially benefit from 5G: iPhone, augmented reality, healthcare, and autonomous vehicles. In our view, Apple will be one of 5G’s biggest beneficiaries.

Interesting article. A lot of this clicks for me, especially the concept that 5G will greatly enhance connectivity/reduce latency with the cloud.

One piece of this I can’t get past: The idea that 5G will benefit autonomous vehicles:

Autonomy needs 5G. A vehicle can drive itself without the 5G network, but for things like V2V communication, teleoperations, and other enablers of mass adoption, full coverage and instantaneous data are required.

The problem for me? 5G range is about a city block. Which means lots of equipment/expense. Which means, we’ll see 5G roll out in densely populated urban areas, and possibly never in rural areas. As vehicles move in, say, suburban areas, or rural areas, dependence on 5G will mean degraded signals as you drive.

Apple files new folding iPhone patent to address the “hinge wrinkle” problem

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Apple is clearly working on solving one of the knottiest of problems with foldable phones, that of hinge wrinkle. When you have a screen that crosses the fold of the phone, the screen can show wear, like you might see on the spine of a well worn paperback book, or if you folded and unfolded a piece of paper.

From Patently Apple:

A new patent application from Apple published by the U.S. Patent Office shows that Apple is working on a method to keep the fold area warm as a cold display could cause problems when folding.

Specifically, Apple notes that a folding device may have a hinge that allows the device to be flexed about a bend axis. A display may span the bend axis. To facilitate bending about the bend axis without damage when the display is cold, a portion of the display that overlaps the bend axis may be selectively heated.

Interesting solution. I do think the hinge wrinkle problem is a must solve for Apple. If I unfold my phone, a wrinkle, however slight, in the middle of the display, will kill the illusion of a single unbroken screen.