Business

Apple’s great new iPhone X ad, and the tiny bug it highlights

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[VIDEO] First things first, if you haven’t yet seen it, take a minute to watch Apple’s latest iPhone ad (embedded in the main Loop post). It’s a wonderful, tumultuous, explosion of visuals, all focused on a single point. Unlocking is easy.

This whimsical treat has vaulted near the top of my favorite Apple spots, a refreshing complement to the Spike Jonze HomePod ad from a few weeks ago.

Apple Marketing is on a roll.

An interesting side note, spotted in this tweet from Benjamin Mayo:

https://twitter.com/bzamayo/status/974734836115099649

Check the image in the tweet. Notice the text that has scrolled outside the iMessage bubble. This is not Benjamin being picky. This is him noting an iMessage bug that he’s campaigning to get fixed, one that made it all the way into a commercial.

Details.

Siri, HomePod, and white noise

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Yesterday, I came across this tweet from Joe Cieplinski, the excellent bass player from the band Airplane Mode:

https://twitter.com/jcieplinski/status/975468136119132160

I had to try this myself:

Hey, Siri, play white noise

Siri’s response:

OK, here’s the self-titled album by White Noise

Then, Siri plays white noise, which lasts about 30 minutes.

What I found interesting about this is that Siri is actually playing a track named “White Noise” by a band called “White Noise”. This is an incredibly prescient move by the band. They’ve bottlenecked the white noise concept, intentionally or not, funneling all white noise requests into streams of their album, which, presumably, translates into revenue for White Noise.

Imagine if you created a band named Jazz and produced an album named Jazz and a track named Jazz. If the logic above holds true, every time someone says, “Hey Siri, play Jazz”, your music would get the call.

Except, even if that did work, I can’t imagine Apple or Spotify would allow that to stand. This White Noise thing is an oddity. Interesting.

To find suspects, police quietly turn to Google, seek devices near crime scenes

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Tyler Dukes, WRAL, Raleigh, North Carolina, reporting on two unrelated murders:

In March 2017, months after investigations began into both shootings, separate detectives on each case, one day apart, employed an innovative strategy in criminal investigations.

On a satellite image, they drew shapes around the crime scenes, marking the coordinates on the map. Then they convinced a Wake County judge they had enough probable cause to order Google to hand over account identifiers on every single cell phone that crossed the digital cordon during certain times.

And on reactions from defense attorneys and privacy advocates:

They’re mixed on how law enforcement turns to Google’s massive cache of user data, especially without a clear target in mind. And they’re concerned about the potential to snag innocent users, many of whom might not know just how closely the company tracks their every move.

To get a sense of just how much location tracking Google does, check out this Quartz post from last November:

Many people realize that smartphones track their locations. But what if you actively turn off location services, haven’t used any apps, and haven’t even inserted a carrier SIM card?

Even if you take all of those precautions, phones running Android software gather data about your location and send it back to Google when they’re connected to the internet, a Quartz investigation has revealed.

According to this story, and others I’ve read, Google can track your location, even if you take out your SIM card. Amazing.

Read both of these stories. They are riveting and chilling.

Apple developing their own MicroLED screens for the first time

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Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is designing and producing its own device displays for the first time, using a secret manufacturing facility near its California headquarters to make small numbers of the screens for testing purposes, according to people familiar with the situation.

The technology giant is making a significant investment in the development of next-generation MicroLED screens, say the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning. MicroLED screens use different light-emitting compounds than the current OLED displays and promise to make future gadgets slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry.

Significant innovation drives device sales. A new, innovative screen technology will bring buyers, hungry for the latest and greatest.

And the “less power-hungry” tag will, presumably, translate to longer battery life, or more power for the CPU.

Smart move on Apple’s part. Reduces dependency on other manufacturers, brings more of the full stack in house, and brings a proprietary, desirable technology into their exclusive control.

I wonder where this river of displays will be built. In the US? Subcontracted out to a manufacturer outside the US?

“A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs”

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Lisa Brennan-Jobs has written a memoir, called Small Fry, due out in September, available for pre-order now.

From the Small Fry book page on Amazon:

Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents―artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs―Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. When she was young, Lisa’s father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, her father took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools. His attention was thrilling, but he could also be cold, critical and unpredictable. When her relationship with her mother grew strained in high school, Lisa decided to move in with her father, hoping he’d become the parent she’d always wanted him to be.

Small Fry is Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s poignant story of a childhood spent between two imperfect but extraordinary homes. Scrappy, wise, and funny, young Lisa is an unforgettable guide through her parents’ fascinating and disparate worlds. Part portrait of a complex family, part love letter to California in the seventies and eighties, Small Fry is an enthralling book by an insightful new literary voice.

Fingers crossed, hoping this is a great book.

Inside the booming black market for Spotify playlists

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Austin Powell, Daily Dot:

Tommie King could be the next rapper to breakout from Atlanta. He’s well-connected, has obvious swagger, and he’s been quietly building a successful collection of singles on Spotify. His latest, “Eastside (feat. Cyhi the Prynce),” has already clocked more than 110,000 streams, driven largely by its placement on 14 independent playlists.

And:

In the modern music economy, in which streaming services account for nearly two-thirds of the total revenue generated by recorded music, emerging artists are increasingly being tracked via big data. Spotify streams, YouTube views, Twitter interactions, and even Wikipedia searches are all being used to discover the proverbial next big thing. That’s why King’s manager has worked to land his music on a staggering 594 Spotify playlists to date.

And:

There’s just one catch: King essentially paid to be added to those Spotify playlists. He’s one of countless artists who have compensated curators to check out his tracks—or in the case for some of his contemporaries, to be added to specific playlists—to gain valuable streams and attention.

The black market for Spotify playlists is booming. It’s cheaper than you might expect to hack the system—and if it’s done right, it more than pays for itself.

No doubt, Spotify’s playlists are its secret sauce. They’ve quietly built the modern big data equivalent of the Billboard top 100 genre charts.

If the pay-to-play is true, I’m surprised that Spotify would tolerate that behavior. They have an opportunity to own a significant chunk of music’s future. But if they allow artists to buy their way in, they’ll squander that chance, all credibility gone.

Notably absent from this article is Apple (just a single mention, in passing). Is this simple bias? Or is Spotify truly owning this space? Very interesting.

Fitbit CFO: “I have yet to meet anyone who owns an Apple Watch who’s passionate about the product”

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Brett Arends, Barrons:

“I have yet to meet anyone who owns an Apple Watch who’s passionate about the product,” he told investors at the Roth Investment Conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., adding that sales of the Apple Watch have mainly just piggybacked off sales of iPhones.

“If you don’t have an Apple phone, you’re not buying an Apple Watch… [and] 80% of the world is Android, not Apple,” he said.

Someone nudge John Gruber. A good candidate for the claim chowder vault of honor.

Building real-world games with Google Maps

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[VIDEO] Google Maps blog:

We’ve brought the richness of Google Maps to the Unity game engine. We turn buildings, roads, and parks into GameObjects in Unity, where developers can then add texture, style, and customization to match the look and feel of your game. This means that they can focus on building rich, immersive gameplay without the overhead of scaffolding a global-scale game world.

This is fascinating. Google has taken their real world maps data and offered it up to game developers. No need to invent a world for your game, just use the real one.

To truly get this, watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. Is this a potential path for Apple and Augmented Reality?

Apple Bans Iran from the App Store

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Catalin Cimpanu, Bleeping Computer:

Iranian users have not been able to access Apple’s App Store all day today, in what appears to be a ban put in place by the US company.

And:

Users were not able to connect to the Apple App Store to install or update applications. When visiting the App Store, they were instead greeted with the message “The App Store is unavailable in the country or region you’re in”.

This ban appears to be IP-based. Meysam Firouzi —an Iranian security researcher— told Bleeping Computer that he successfully connected to the App Store while using a VPN, despite having Iran-related details set on his account.

And:

In August 2017, Apple removed all apps created by Iranian developers from the App Store, attributing the move to US-imposed economic sanctions.

Interesting. Wondering if we’ll ever know the behind-the-scenes on this.

UPDATE from Bleeping Computer:

As of around 1 AM EST, Bleeping Computer received a message from Firouzi stating that the App Store was once again accessible in Iran. Apple has still not comment or returned our queries, so we are unsure if this was a mistake or something else that caused the outage.

The tragic story behind the man who helped create Tetris

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Damien McFerran, Nintendo Life:

Chances are, you know the name Alexey Pajitnov. Arguably the most famous game designer to come out of Russia, he gave the world Tetris, which is regularly referred to as one of the greatest video games of all time.

However, the name Vladimir Pokhilko might be less familiar – despite the fact that he is often credited as co-creating the game alongside Pajitnov, and would later work with him on other video games. While Pajitnov continues to live off the fame of his most famous creation, Pokhilko has faded into history.

A quick read, well worth your time if you are interested in the history of video games. Tragic indeed.

Apple Watch adoption

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David Smith:

From a development perspective the Series 3 is a delight to work with. It is fast, capable and LTE allows a wide variety of new applications.

And:

In daily use the Series 0 is probably “good enough” for many customers, especially with the speed/stability improvements added in watchOS 4, but as a developer I can’t wait until I no longer have to support it.

And:

The Series 3 is being adopted incredibly quickly and just last week became the most popular Apple Watch overall amongst my users with 33% of the overall user-base. The Series 0 is steadily falling, currently at around 24%.

Lots of interesting Apple Watch adoption data in this post. Will Apple drop Series 0 support? I hope Apple continues to offer a path for Series 0 buyers to receive watchOS updates, even if 3rd party apps stop supporting Series 0.

How Stephen Hawking got his voice back

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Joao Medeiros, Wired:

Hawking lost his ability to speak in 1985, when, on a trip to CERN in Geneva, he caught pneumonia. In the hospital, he was put on a ventilator. His condition was critical. The doctors asked Hawking’s then-wife, Jane, whether they should turn off the life support. She vehemently refused. Hawking was flown to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, where the doctors managed to contain the infection. To help him breathe, they also performed a tracheotomy, which involved cutting a hole in his neck and placing a tube into his windpipe. As a result, Hawking irreversibly lost the ability to speak.

This is a fascinating story, starting with a program that ran on an Apple II, then evolving over the years, all while keeping that original synthesized voice.

Spotify tests native voice search, groundwork for smart speakers

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Josh Constine, TechCrunch:

Spotify has a new voice search interface that lets you say “Play my Discover Weekly,” “Show Calvin Harris” or “Play some upbeat pop” to pull up music.

If this was an app that someone created as an experiment, that’d be one thing. But this comes from Spotify’s own R&D.

Hard to say what kind of impact this will have on Apple’s music and smart speaker ambitions. After all, Apple Music, HomePod, and Siri are all part of a much larger ecosystem. And though Spotify does dominate the paid music sector, it’s reach does not extend into anything larger. Yet.

I can’t help but think that Spotify would be an enticing partner for Google or Amazon, more so if they built a bridge to marry their musical intelligence (they have access to a massive trove of user data) with intelligent musical speech command processing and, say, Amazon’s Echo installed base.

This is an interesting development, worth keeping an eye on.

Apple adds new Families page, gathering all parental tools in one place

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Ina Fried, Axios:

A new page on Apple’s website details its efforts to make Macs and iPhones family friendly, including parental controls and other safety features. The move comes as Apple and other tech giants are under fire over whether their products are addictive, especially for children.

From this letter to Apple from a collective of Apple investors:

We have reviewed the evidence and we believe there is a clear need for Apple to offer parents more choices and tools to help them ensure that young consumers are using your products in an optimal manner. By doing so, we believe Apple would once again be playing a pioneering role, this time by setting an example about the obligations of technology companies to their youngest customers.

Apple’s new page is here. Definitely a step in the right direction, a single stop for learning about tools and resources for keeping your family safe.

A complete guide to every Apple TV show in development

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Good list. It’d be nice to have this as a constantly updated resource.

As Apple’s media plans mature, seems to me they should add a page to their main site that makes it easy to follow along.

It’s time for a complete Home App makeover

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John Voorhees, MacStories:

Home is both too complex because of the way it splits things into rooms, zones, groups, scenes, and automations and too simple because it lacks features like robust state awareness and, in some places, timers. However, the problems with the Home app run even deeper. They are compounded by a generic UI and complex navigation.

Read John’s post to really get a sense of his point. Or just spend some time trying to edit the HomePod’s now playing queue.

All this said, it is early days still, both for HomeKit and HomePod. Even though HomeKit dates back to iOS 8 (a bit more than two years ago), I see it as still early in the adoption cycle, still in its infancy. As more and more people start using HomeKit compatible gear, the use cases are becoming better defined.

John makes the case that it is time for Apple to re-roll the interface.

Apple puts up gorgeous, animated WWDC graphic

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Take a look, on the highest resolution screen you have. Beautiful work.

What’s it all mean? Are there clues in this art? The most common thing I’ve heard (and what sprang to mind for me, instantly) is a design language for Augmented Reality.

This from John Gruber:

Now, if we want to play Cupertino-ology, does the graphic offer any hints about planned announcements (like, say, a unified cross-platform set of UI frameworks for Mac and iOS) or it just a cool graphic?

That’s an interesting take.

Refurbished, high-end iPhones are suffocating the growth of cheap new Androids

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Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider:

The fastest growing segment in global smartphones isn’t Google’s vision for super-cheap, simple Android phones. Instead, according to new market data, it’s refurbished high-quality phones that carry a desirable brand but can be sold at a more affordable price, a segment where Apple is “leading by a significant margin.”

And from the original study from Counterpoint Research:

The low growth of the new smartphone market in 2017 can be partially attributed to the growth of the refurb market. The slowdown in innovation has made two-year-old flagship smartphones comparable in design and features with the most recent mid-range phones. Therefore, the mid low-end market for new smartphones is being cannibalized by refurbished high-end phones, mostly Apple iPhones and, to a lesser extent, Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

This is a pretty interesting development. Apple has added another layer to this market, a layer that it dominates.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off June 4 in San Jose

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Apple:

Apple today announced it will host its 29th annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose from June 4 through June 8. The McEnery Convention Center will be home to the world’s most creative developer community, who come together every year to share unique perspectives and learn about the future of Apple’s breakthrough products and services.

Every year, WWDC provides an opportunity for millions of developers to learn more about how to create new experiences across Apple’s platforms for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac and HomePod. A broad range of robust developer APIs, including SiriKit, HomeKit, HealthKit, GymKit, MusicKit, ResearchKit, and CoreML, give developers new ways to help users take command of everything from their health and homes, to how they get around, shop and learn. Last year at WWDC Apple debuted ARKit, and since then, developers with apps in every category on the App Store have embraced inventive ways to engage customers with virtual experiences overlaid in the real world.

Looking forward to this!

Siri, HomePod, and a bit of back and forth

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One of my favorite habits is strolling downstairs in the morning, and asking Siri to play some music while I make coffee, do my morning routine.

Yesterday, I asked Siri to play one of my favorite albums, Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert. It’s a terrific morning album and, even though it came out back in 1975, it sounds terrific on HomePod. It’s all about the production.

The problem here is getting Siri to play this album. […]

The world’s very first iPod commercial

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[VIDEO] Though the commercial is obviously dated (shown by aspect ratio, resolution, fashion, and tech), the sense of how deeply Apple gets music and its importance to people is clear.

Head over to the main Loop post to watch the ad.

Here’s how you access the super creepy data Facebook has on you

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Georges Abi-Heila, The Next Web:

Since 2010, Facebook allows you to download an archive file of all your interactions with the network. It’s a 5-click easy process that your grandmother can do (more details below).

Inside the .zip, lies an ‘index.html’ page that acts as a portal to your personal data. Visually, it looks like an ad-free stripped down version of Facebook that’s actually quite relaxing.

As I’m trying to reduce my exposure to social networks, I decided to take a look at this info.

Read Georges’ post for the details. Better yet, go get your archive from Facebook so you understand just how much Facebook never forgets a single thing you do.

Apple Music hits 38 million paid subscribers

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Reuters:

Apple Inc’s streaming music service now has 38 million paid subscribers, up from 36 million in February, the company said on Monday.

And:

Apple’s number compares to 71 million premium subscribers at the end of 2017 at industry leader Spotify.

And:

Amazon Music Unlimited has 16 million paying subscribers, and Pandora Media Inc has 5.48 million total subscribers.

Eddie Cue shared the Apple Music numbers on stage at South by Southwest in Austin.

Apple orders animated comedy ‘Central Park’ from ‘Bob’s Burgers’ creator

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Daniel Holloway, Variety:

Apple continues to grow it series-programming slate, adding its first animated show.

The digital giant has given a two-season series order to “Central Park,” a musical comedy from “Bob’s Burgers” creator Loren Bouchard and 20th Century Fox Television. Written by Bouchard, Josh Gad, and Nora Smith, the series is described as telling the story of how a family of caretakers, who live and work in Central Park, end up saving the park, and basically the world.

Two seasons, 13 episodes each.

The content pipeline is starting to fill. What’s not clear is how all this new programming will be packaged. Will it be part of the Apple Music subscription? Will Apple Music be segmented? Rebranded? Will a new Apple Media entity be created?

Gorgeous virtual, spinning view of Canada’s vertical $10 note

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UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, click/tap the Spin button 20 times for a throwback surprise. AWESOME!!!!

This is incredible. Gorgeous. So very much worth your time.

The design of the bill is top notch. And the web page implementation does it justice.

Funny to see such detail exposed to the public in this way. Contrasts with the river of rules that limit how money is shown in the US.

The woman on the new $10 note is Viola Desmond. From the Bank of Canada press release:

Viola Desmond was selected for the new $10 bank note by Minister Morneau following an open call to Canadians to nominate an iconic Canadian woman for the next redesigned bank note. A successful Black Nova Scotian businesswoman, Viola Desmond defiantly refused to leave a whites-only area of a movie theatre in 1946 and was subsequently jailed, convicted and fined. Her court case is one of the first known legal challenges against racial segregation brought forth by a Black woman in Canada.

I love the choice of Viola Desmond, and I love the vertical design.

[Via Snaggy]

How to change where AirDropped files are saved on your Mac

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This iDownloadBlog post is doubly useful:

  • As advertised in the headline, use it to change the default location for AirDropped files on your Mac.
  • Go through this reasonably painless process to learn about Automator.

Nice job by Joaquim Barbosa. Clever and well written.

Jean-Louis Gassée: Intel fights for its future

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Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

By declining Steve Jobs’ proposal to make the original iPhone CPU in 2005, Intel missed a huge opportunity. The company’s disbelief in Apple’s ambitious forecast is belied by the numbers: More than 1.8 billion iOS devices have been sold thus far.

And:

One may wonder why then-CEO Paul Otellini didn’t make Apple an offer they couldn’t refuse: Access to Intel’s superior silicon manufacturing technology. At the time, Apple had nothing; Intel held all the cards.

And:

A few years later, after the dramatic rise of ARM-powered smartphones, Intel execs’ faith in Wintel was unshaken: “The temporary advantage these less sophisticated, Windows-less ARM chips are enjoying will be erased by the superior silicon manufacturing process of the x86. It’s nothing…”

Fantastic take on Intel’s Apple hubris. Now Intel is fighting for its very existence.

Steve Jobs at MIT

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[VIDEO] Steve Jobs gave a very informal talk (video embedded in the main Loop post) to a class at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, back in 1992. I’ve not seen this one before.

I have to say, seeing Steve so young and vibrant both thrills me and fills me with sadness.

Alexa, Siri, and a step toward follow-up conversation

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When you ask Siri, Alexa, or Google a question, you have to say the trigger phrase, “Hey Siri”, “Alexa”, or “OK Google”. When you want to follow-up, you have to repeat that trigger phrase.

But that is about to change.

Amazon has rolled out a beta of something it calls Follow-up Mode. From this Amazon Help page:

When you turn on Follow-Up Mode, you can make more requests without repeating the wake word. Follow-up mode is available on all hands-free Alexa-enabled devices. The blue indicator light on the Echo device remains on for a few seconds, letting you know that Alexa is active and ready for your next request.

The idea is, after you say “Alexa”, Alexa keeps listening for a follow-up query until it times out. Notably, follow-up mode does not kick in when:

  • Audio is playing. For example, the device is playing music, books, or you’re on a call through the device.
  • You end the conversation with Alexa. For example, you can say, “stop,” “cancel,” “go to sleep,” or “thank you.”
  • Alexa is not confident you’re speaking to her. For example, if she detects that speech was background noise or that the intent of the speech was not clear.

I’d think this would be relatively simple for Apple to implement for Siri. There’s certainly value when you want to do a sequence of things. But I also think it’d be a big help for Siri’s context analysis, making it more likely that two queries in a row are connected in some way, like so:

  • Hey Siri, what time is my next meeting?
  • What time is the one after that?

Or:

  • Hey Siri, what song is this?
  • What album is it from?

You get the idea. Conversational context is a bit of a holy grail. As is, all three (Siri, Alexa, Google) are still infants, still learning the most rudimentary rules of conversational memory.