[VIDEO] Two videos embedded in the main Loop post. The first is the results, a gorgeous special effects video. And the second is the behind the scenes on how all this was done.
Beautiful work.
Business
Apple inks Apple Music deal with American Airlines
Apple:
Starting Friday, Apple Music subscribers can enjoy their access to over 50 million songs, playlists and music videos on any domestic American Airlines flight equipped with Viasat satellite Wi-Fi with no Wi-Fi purchase required. American Airlines is the first commercial airline to provide exclusive access to Apple Music through complimentary inflight Wi-Fi.
The way I read this, the experience will be the same as using Apple Music on the ground. Not a limited version of Apple Music, but straight-up Apple Music without having to buy the plane’s Wi-Fi package.
I love this idea, hope other airlines follow suit.
Comparing Facebook and Google’s responses to being caught with hands in Apple’s cookie jar
While I was on the road this week, a blizzard of interesting stories broke. One of them involved both Facebook and Google, both linked by Shawn yesterday.
One detail that stuck out to me was the vastly different responses from each company. Jump to the main Loop post for the details…
The mystery tracks being ‘forced’ on Spotify users
BBC:
Mysterious musicians have cropped up on Spotify, racking up thousands of listens and (perhaps) hundreds of pounds. It’s a phenomenon that experts say could indicate a security flaw.
But while Spotify denies that accounts have been hacked, the music streaming site has not explained in detail how the playlists of some users indicate they’ve “listened to” musicians that nobody’s ever heard of.
And:
Many listeners (including this reporter) never actively searched for or played tracks by bands like Bergenulo Five, but found that their music ended up being logged in their listening history anyway.
The BBC asked Spotify for contact details for the artists in question. It declined, and all of our attempts to contact the bands were met with silence. But within a few days of our query, most of the mystery artists had disappeared from the music streaming site.
Amazing story. This does sound like account hacking or, at the very least, hacking of Spotify’s master database. How else to explain non-existent artists mysteriously appearing on people’s listening history?
Apple gets patent on health sensor that detects poisonous gases, like carbon monoxide
Patently Apple:
Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to future iDevices being integrated with poisonous gas detectors. Carbon monoxide (or CO) is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that is sometimes called the silent killer because it poisons and kills many people each year, without them ever being aware of the danger. Having a miniature gas sensor built into an iPhone or Apple Watch will be able to notify a user that they could possibly be in a dangerous environment at home, at work or in the public.
Carbon monoxide detectors are usually mounted on the ceiling. And carbon monoxide is slightly lighter than air. Might Apple have plans for their own HomeKit-enabled, ceiling mount detectors?
The patent (and a related patent) does show the sensor in an iPhone and MacBook.
Apple shifts gears, will pay license fee to top 10 winners of their shot on iPhone contest
No doubt due to the public outcry, and to avoid the appearance of using people’s work for “exposure”, Apple added this paragraph to the very end of their recent press release:
Apple believes strongly that artists should be compensated for their work. Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.
Good solution.
Hands on with Dell’s massively wide display
[VIDEO] This display is crazy wide. So wide that my first reaction was, it’s just too wide to be useful.
But.
Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. You can fit a ton of information on the screen (as expected), and you can even run two different computers, each taking up half the display.
As of this post, the price is $1250. Seems a good deal for an ultra wide 5K monitor, though it only runs at 60Hz, so not sure it’d be good for gaming.
Be sure to watch the very end to see this monitor running in portrait mode.
Siri, the HomePod and story time, redux
Last week, we posted a piece called Siri, the HomePod and story time. In it, we quoted this Apple press release announcing the release of the HomePod in China:
HomePod is a convenient way to check the weather or the latest sports scores, set multiple timers and reminders, make and receive phone calls and more. Siri on HomePod also offers storytelling for children, just say “Hey Siri, tell me a story.”
Try as I might, I could not get Siri to respond to the “tell me a story” request. There’s a good reason for this.
Apple has now updated their press release (H/T Sébastien Page):
In China, Siri on HomePod also offers storytelling for children, just say “Hey Siri, tell me a story.”
Clearly, this is a feature that only works in China. I still wonder about the mechanics. Does this only work in conjunction with books you purchase? Does Siri read to you, or are these canned audio books that Siri fires off? Is there a fixed set of stories?
I also wonder why this only works in China. Is it a rights issue? Will this feature eventually make its way to the US?
Just me being curious.
Apple just dismissed more than 200 employees from Project Titan, its autonomous vehicle group
Apple, via CNBC:
“We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple. As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” the spokesperson said.
“We continue to believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems, that Apple has unique capabilities to contribute, and that this is the most ambitious machine learning project ever.”
No Sweethearts this Valentine’s Day
ABC Radio:
The popular, colorful, heart-shaped conversation candies featuring sayings on them like “Kiss Me,” “Cutie Pie” and “Be Mine,” will not be produced this year, according to the Spangler Candy Company, which purchased Sweethearts and NECCO Wafers in 2018.
NECCO went out of business last year. Never liked the taste of those Valentine’s Day classics, but they’ve been part of Valentine’s Day since I was a kid. Looks like they’ll be back next year.
Odd seeing brands shift manufacturers. Like Twinkies, which disappeared from US shelves when Hostess went through bankruptcy.
Apple hires Samsung battery executive to help lead its own work
Shocking.
Twitter testing ‘Original Tweeter’ tag to distinguish who started a thread
Lucas Matney, TechCrunch:
Twitter is testing a new tag that will make it easier to parse who started a thread. The new feature, which is starting to pop up for some users, makes it easier to find posts from the original tweeter within a thread, but may also help curb (some types of) abuse on the platform, making it easier to distinguish accounts that are masquerading as other tweeters, for instance.
Follow the link, scroll through the pictures to get a sense of how this will work.
I do like the concept, but wonder if this wouldn’t be kinder on screen real-estate if they used an icon, or a special character, or even formatting (bold, for example) to make the original poster stand out.
The secret history of iPhone
[VIDEO] Rene Ritchie:
On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage for what was the most incredible keynote presentation of his life.
Great turn of phrase, Rene. This video is a terrific look back at the birth of iPhone, with some excellent weaving of elements to tell the story. Video embedded in main Loop post.
The design flaw behind MacBook Pro’s “stage light” effect
iFixit:
The issue is fairly simple: the current generation of MacBook Pro laptops (2016–present) uses flexible ribbon cables to connect the display to a display controller board beneath the Touch Bar. These cables wrap over the board, where they’re secured by a pair of spring-loaded covers—and they’re subjected to the stress of bending with every opening and closure of the laptop. Within a seemingly short time, those cables are starting to fatigue and tear. The backlight cable is generally the first to go, producing the infamous “stage light” symptoms, and eventually giving out entirely when the laptop is opened more than about 40°.
And:
Apple opted for thin, fragile flex cables as opposed to the beefier wire cables used in previous designs that could be routed through the hinge instead of wrapped around it, helping mitigate the stress of repeated openings and closings. But the bigger problem is that, in an apparent effort to make the display as thin as possible, Apple designed the cables as part of the display, so they cannot be replaced. This means that when (not if) those cables start to fail, the entire display unit needs to be replaced, as opposed to one or two little cables—effectively turning a $6 problem into a $600 disaster.
Take the article with a grain of salt. This isn’t necessarily doom for the MacBook Pro, or even that big a deal.
But, if you do experience “stage light” symptoms, this design issue is important to be aware of. If you do run into this problem, I would definitely go into your Apple Store discussion armed with a bookmark of this article.
The two sides to the debate on whether Apple should pay for ‘Shot on iPhone’ photos
Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:
Apple’s announcement yesterday of a contest to find the ten best shot on iPhone photos has provoked debate about the company’s policy of not paying for any of the photos, even when they are used in global advertising campaigns.
The argument that Apple should pay seems obvious enough, but not everyone agrees.
Very interesting back and forth here. Never even occurred to me that Apple should pay for these photos.
On one hand, these photos are used in a professional marketing campaign. On the other, if they offered lucrative prizes, more pros would step in and the average kelley would have less of a chance.
Google: Can you spot when you’re being phished?
Think you can tell if you’re being phished? Take Google’s quiz, see if you get a perfect score.
Note that when they ask you to enter a name and email at the beginning, it’s fine to just make one up. They want to use the info in the quiz, not harvest the data.
Is the Macintosh a milestone? Infoworld op-ed from 1984
Steven Sinofsky tweeted screen shots from a 1984 Infoworld article, digging into this new-fangled Macintosh and Steve Jobs comparison of the Mac to the telephone, in terms of potential ubiquity and importance.
Follow the thread, check all the images. Terrific.
Dutch surgeon wins landmark ‘right to be forgotten’ case
The Guardian:
A Dutch surgeon formally disciplined for her medical negligence has won a legal action to remove Google search results about her case in a landmark “right to be forgotten” ruling.
The doctor’s registration on the register of healthcare professionals was initially suspended by a disciplinary panel because of her postoperative care of a patient. After an appeal, this was changed to a conditional suspension under which she was allowed to continue to practise.
But the first results after entering the doctor’s name in Google continued to be links to a website containing an unofficial blacklist, which it was claimed amounted to “digital pillory”. It was heard that potential patients had found the blacklist on Google and discussed the case on a web forum.
In a nutshell, the medical community decided that the doctor was allowed to practice, but Google’s search results led to an unofficial blacklist which circumvented that ruling.
Very interesting case. Looks like that blacklist will have to come down.
[Via The Overspill]
Oscar nominations
You know me. I’m a long time movie buff, love the Oscars. Follow the headline link for the complete list of this year’s Academy Award nominations.
One thing I particularly appreciate about acting is when someone completely disappears into a role, becomes unrecognizable. Two of the best actor nods really capture this sentiment.
Christian Bale completely disappeared and became Dick Cheney in his role in the movie Vice.
And the same can be said for Rami Malek, who became Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Acting!
An iPhone dropped in a pool, and the battle for warranty coverage
The linked Reddit post was called, provocatively, “I fought Apple and won!”
From the post:
I purchased an iPhone XS in September of last year. The first week of December I accidentally dropped it in my sisters swimming pool at the shallow end – a depth of approximately 1.10m. Immediately, I jumped in an pulled the phone out, switched it off and let it dry for a few hours (as indicated in the steps of what to do when your phone gets wet on the Apple website). A few hours later I turned the phone back on and all was good. Fantastic!
As you might guess, all was not good. Over time, the poster’s phone died a slow death, and they eventually took it into the Apple Store for a look see.
As you also might guess, the Apple Store opened up the phone, and:
Two hours later I come back and they say the Liquid Contact Indicators have been activated, which means there is internal liquid damage and they won’t cover liquid damage under warranty.
And this is where the story gets really interesting. The poster pointed Apple to the original rollout video for the iPhone XS, where Phil Schiller, talking about water protection, says these words:
So if you happen to be hanging by the pool, drop your phone in the water, don’t worry. Let it dry, you’ll be fine.
To see this for yourself, follow this link and jump to about 40:40.
Follow the headline link for all the legal details but, bottom line, the poster did eventually get their phone replaced.
Should the words in a marketing pitch establish repair policy? Interesting.
Jeremy Burge: Google’s Night Sight is the new benchmark
Last week, we highlighted a tweet from Jeremy Burge showing pairs of low light images, taken with an iPhone and a Google Pixel using Night Sight.
Jeremy pulled together his findings in a blog post that makes the case for Google’s Night Sight as the new benchmark for low light image capture on a smartphone.
From the post:
Despite being a long-time iPhone user, I often find myself with other phones for testing purposes. Sometimes they have nice features my iPhone doesn’t have, but rarely does any single feature make me even consider changing devices.
The release of Google’s Night Sight feature for the Pixel line in 2018 is a game changing feature.
Having used it for the past month, I now carry both my iPhone and Pixel of an evening. That’s how good it is.
And:
Since posting about this on Twitter, time and time again people said “just edit the iPhone pictures!”. This misses two points:
- Most people don’t have the time or ability to fix their dark and/or blurry iPhone photos taken at night
- Some of this cannot be done by editing. That 2-5 second time used to capture more light in the Google camera app isn’t an option provided on iOS.
I couldn’t agree with Jeremy more. Like it or not, this is the new benchmark for low-light photos.
I would gladly tap a button in the camera app to turn on/off low light mode before I take a picture. And if Apple can just do this automatically, even better. I frequently find myself unsatisfied with my iPhone camera in low light situations. I would love an iPhone version of Night Sight.
And to be fair, the iPhone XS clearly has made great low-light strides. But Night Sight runs on older hardware. It’s a software fix. Feels like this sort of technique should be possible on previous generations of iPhone.
Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations
Apple:
Target, Taco Bell, Hy-Vee supermarkets in the Midwest, Speedway convenience stores and Jack in the Box are the latest merchants to support Apple Pay, the most popular mobile contactless payment system in the world that lets customers easily and securely pay in stores using their iPhone and Apple Watch. With the addition of these national retailers, 74 of the top 100 merchants in the US and 65 percent of all retail locations across the country will support Apple Pay.
Apple Pay, coming in the next few weeks to all 1,850 Target locations, joining CVS, Costco, and 7-Eleven.
7 tips most iPhone owners won’t know
[VIDEO] When I see a post like this, I am automatically skeptical. This one passes muster. Take a look. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
My favorite was using Siri to jump to a specific app’s Settings page. I spent some time playing with this one and it does work well, but does not work with all apps. I suspect there’s some API the developer needs to support for this to work, and not all apps do that.
To try this for yourself, pick one of your apps, then fire up Siri and say:
Settings
Many apps jump right to their settings page. But some (looking at you Twitter app) throw Siri for a loop.
Apple shares “shot on iPhone” movie: The Lonely Palm Tree, Samoa
[VIDEO] The video (embedded in the main Loop post) was commissioned by Apple and shot entirely on an iPhone XS.
From the description:
American Samoa – ‘Football Island’ – produces athletes that are 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than Americans from anywhere else. Photographer and Director Steven Counts presents a portrait of Eddie Siaumau, a 17 – year old athlete who has just accepted a full ride scholarship to a D1 university.
And some of the gear used:
DJI Osmo Mobile 2, FiLMiC Pro, Joby GripTight PRO Video GP Stand, NiSi Smartphones Filter Kit
More and more commercial projects and mainstream movies are being filmed with the aid of, or entirely using iPhone.
We’ve certainly long passed the day where the majority of video is shot on smartphones. But are we far from a day where the majority of “paid” content (movies, TV shows, professional ads) is shot on a smartphone?
Mis-configured clouds overtake ‘phishing’ as top source of breached data
The linked “Notes on Security in 2019” was pulled together by former Chief Security Officer at Box and current partner at Andreessen Horowitz Joel de la Garza.
The whole read is interesting (and short), but this bit jumped out at me:
When the numbers are finally crunched for 2018 it’s likely that mis-configured cloud services will overtake phishing attacks as the number one source of breached personal records.
There have been a number of large breaches in the last year resulting from cloud service configuration errors — and there aren’t indications that this trend is changing.
I’m reminded of Willie Sutton being asked why he robs banks. “Because that’s where the money is”.
Same with the shift to the cloud. That’s where the data is.
Amazon builds “slow motion” vest to allow workers inside a robot’s space
TechCrunch:
The Amazon Robotics-designed product was created to keep workers safe when they need to enter a space in order to fix a robotic system or retrieve fallen items. Built-in sensors alert Amazon’s robotic systems to the wearer’s presence, and they slow down to avoid collision.
This seems both fascinating and inevitable.
Imagine a fast moving robot, rapidly shelving or retrieving product, or packing products into a shipping container. The robots move fast enough, their appendages flying from task to task, that a human coming near risks real injury. The slow motion vest triggers a sensor and the robot goes into a much slower, more predictable speed so the human can grab a dropped item or access a control on the robot itself. Fascinating.
As to inevitable, this seems like an idea that will spread to any space where humans and robots coexist. At least until detecting humans becomes second nature, and flawless, for robots.
Close up look at the new iPhone smart battery cases
[VIDEO] Rene Ritchie offers a look at the new iPhone smart battery cases, with lots of closeup and lots of detail. Excellent work. Video embedded in the main Loop post.
“Facebook’s own employees worried they were bamboozling children”
Nathan Halverson, Reveal News (via DF):
A trove of hidden documents detailing how Facebook made money off children will be made public, a federal judge ruled late Monday in response to requests from Reveal.
A glimpse into the soon-to-be-released records shows Facebook’s own employees worried they were bamboozling children who racked up hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of dollars in game charges. And the company failed to provide an effective way for unsuspecting parents to dispute the massive charges, according to internal Facebook records.
And:
When the bill came, his mom requested Facebook refund the money, saying she never authorized any charges beyond the original $20. But the company never refunded any money, forcing the family to file a lawsuit in pursuit of a refund.
And:
In one of the unsealed documents, two Facebook employees deny a refund request from a child whom they refer to as a “whale” – a term coined by the casino industry to describe profligate spenders. The child had entered a credit card number to play a game, and in about two weeks racked up thousands of dollars in charges, according to an excerpt of messages between two employees at the social media giant.
It’s like letting a child into a Vegas casino with their parents’ credit card, then sending the parent into a maze of twisty passages if they wanted a refund. This whole thing is awful.
Next up for Apple Watch? Stroke detection.
Edward C. Baig, USA Today:
Apple and Johnson & Johnson are teaming up on a study to determine whether the latest Apple Watch, in conjunction with an app from the pharmaceutical company, can accelerate the diagnosis of a leading cause of stroke.
Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that causes about 130,000 deaths and 750,000 hospitalizations each year in the U.S., Johnson & Johnson said. Up to 30 percent of cases go undiagnosed until life-threatening complications occur. Worldwide, about 33 million people have the condition.
And:
Burton believes “the study has the potential to show that there is a lot more atrial fibrillation out there in the real world in older people than we ever imagined, and if you use a tool like an Apple Watch to detect and funnel people to care, you can really drive down stroke risk in those patients.
So what does AFib have to do with stroke? From this article from the National Stroke Association:
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) affects an estimated 2.2 million people in the U.S. AFib is a type of irregular heartbeat, often caused when the two upper chambers of the heart beat unpredictably and sometimes rapidly. These irregular heartbeats can cause blood to collect in the heart and potentially form a clot, which can travel to a person’s brain and cause a stroke.
I do get how the Apple Watch can detect AFib. Not clear exactly what additional role the Apple Watch will have in predicting/preventing stroke. But that’s what the study’s for.
Netflix audience numbers are staggering
Recode, summarizing a detailed letter Netflix sent out to shareholders:
At the end of December, Netflix said that 45 million people had watched Bird Box, a Netflix-owned thriller starring Sandra Bullock that came out just before Christmas.
That is a ridiculous number. Compare that to the viewing numbers for one of the most watched shows on cable, Game of Thrones. From The Telegraph:
Game of Thrones has long smashed records for HBO, the cable network it is broadcast on in its native US: it beat The Sopranos as the network’s most-watched series ever in 2015, after crossing the 18.2 million viewers-per-episode mark.
But that’s small fry in comparison to the average 31 million viewers per episode that season seven has witnessed, an 24 per cent increase on 2016’s ratings.
Think about this. Bird Box is new. It has no lead-in, no history, not much in the way of marketing. And it crushed Game of Thrones. Right out of the box. Because Netflix.
The Academy Awards, which was one of the few high-water mark audiences on network television, had 26.5 million viewers last year. At its absolute height, it hit 46 million viewers. Bird Box out of the gate numbers.
And:
Netflix says that Bird Box, which was released late last year, added another 35 million households in the first four weeks after its release, bringing its total audience to 80 million households.
And:
Netflix says that both You, a young-adultish thriller, and Sex Education, another show with a young-adult bent, should each reach 40 million households in their first four weeks on the service.
Apple has the right idea, I think. They have the distribution, already in place. Only question is, can they build compelling content? And, to me, that comes down to picking the right partners.