Yesterday, we posted a link to this HTML reference. Here’s a CSS reference from the same folks. Good stuff. Pass it along.
Business
Gruber on Bloomberg’s “Apple struggles to make big deals”
Yesterday, we posted a link to a Bloomberg article with the title, Apple Struggles to Make Big Deals, Hampering Strategy Shifts.
John Gruber took Bloomberg to the woodshed in his post. A perfect take, well worth the read.
Apple vowed to revolutionize television. An inside look at why it hasn’t
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
Earlier this month, Apple Inc. poached the chief of Amazon’s Fire TV unit to run its television operations. Timothy D. Twerdhal brings hardware and content experience to his new gig, and his hiring suggests a renewed focus on the Apple TV set-top box.
Twerdhal’s arrival comes as the company tests a new, fifth-generation Apple TV that it may release as soon as this year. Internally codenamed “J105,” the new box will be capable of streaming ultra-high-definition 4K and more vivid colors, according to people familiar with the plans.
A bit of a doom and gloom take, but worth the read. Apple is clearly feeling their way here.
Ticketmaster for iOS adds Apple Music integration for easily tracking upcoming concerts
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:
Ticketmaster for iOS was today updated with Apple Music integration, allowing users to more easily find upcoming concerts based on what’s in their Apple Music library.
The update pushes the app 1.10.2 and makes it significantly easier to quickly know when an artist you love is touring.
A terrific idea. I wish that Apple Music had a tour date interface built in, the ability to send me notifications when a band I specify announces tour dates. They could no doubt sell tickets to the concerts from within the notification. This exist?
Future iPhones might notify users when their coverglass cracks
Mikey Campbell, Apple Insider:
Display damage due to drops, impacts and other sudden shocks is the bane of many a smartphone user. Apple is working on technology to help users determine when a device is cracked and perhaps prevent such events from occurring in the first place.
Described in Apple’s filing for “Coverglass fracture detection,” the proposed system utilizes a comprehensive network of sensors and software to detect the formation of cracks, or potential cracks, in a protective display cover.
What I find most fascinating is the idea of crowdsourcing crack detection. When a crack is detected, the theory goes, Apple could contact the user to verify. The user would verify the crack (perhaps tracing it on the screen) and Apple could follow up to learn what type of impact caused the crack. Pretty cool idea.
J.P. Morgan: Next iPhone may have facial recognition instead of a fingerprint reader
CNBC:
Apple may replace its fingerprint scanner with a face scanner on the next iPhone, according to JPMorgan analyst Rod Hall.
A front-facing 3-D scanner could replace the home button, which could be phased out if Apple goes with a full-glass front this year, Hall wrote in a research note this week. Biometric facial scanning would be more secure for Apple Pay and could work better in “wet conditions” if the iPhones are more water resistant, JPMorgan wrote.
Don’t have a link to the original research note. If anyone has it, please tweet it at me, I’d like to read the original text. And I’ll add it here as an update.
UPDATE: Johannes Schaller points out that the Surface Pro 4 ships with Windows Hello, which is designed to read fingerprints but can also work with certain camera configurations to do facial recognition. So there’s the consumer starting point.
[UPDATE] Source: Apple will fight ‘Right to Repair’ legislation
Jason Koebler, Motherboard:
Apple is planning to fight proposed electronics “Right to Repair” legislation being considered by the Nebraska state legislature, according to a source within the legislature who is familiar with the bill’s path through the statehouse.
And:
The legislation would require Apple and other electronics manufacturers to sell repair parts to consumers and independent repair shops, and would require manufacturers to make diagnostic and service manuals available to the public.
Nebraska is one of eight states that are considering right to repair bills; last month, Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Wyoming introduced legislation. Last week, lawmakers in Illinois and Tennessee officially introduced similar bills.
And:
The bills nationwide are being pushed by Repair.org, a trade organization made up of independent repair shops who say that their companies have been harmed by an attempt by manufacturers to gain a monopoly over the repair business. Even without readily available repair parts or service manuals, a healthy DIY repair hobby has thrived thanks to online crowdsourced instruction manuals on sites like iFixit and grey market parts that are available directly from factories in China or can be salvaged from recycled devices.
The idea that it’s “unsafe” to repair your own devices is one that manufacturers have been promoting for years. Last year, industry lobbyists told lawmakers in Minnesota that broken glass could cut the fingers of consumers who try to repair their screens, according to Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org.
First things first, this is a one sided post, almost a marketing piece from Repair.org. That said, repairability has become more and more of an issue. I’d like to hear Apple’s side of this. Macs, iPhones, and iPads have certainly become harder and harder to repair yourself.
But I think the claim that self-repair is unsafe is disingenuous. I think most self-repairers would agree to voiding their warrantee in exchange for self repair, and also be willing to hold Apple harmless for damage done doing a self-repair.
That said, let’s see what happens on March 9th:
According to the source, an Apple representative, staffer, or lobbyist will testify against the bill at a hearing in Lincoln on March 9. AT&T will also argue against the bill, the source said. The source told me that at least one of the companies plans to say that consumers who repair their own phones could cause lithium batteries to catch fire.
Until then, this is just a sourced rumor.
UPDATE: A little birdie told me about an Apple Store that had to be evacuated when a trained technician accidentally put a tiny screwdriver through the battery of an iPhone, starting a lithium fire that required special chemicals to stop. In another incident, those same chemicals were used in the repair room when someone punctured a MacBook Air battery.
Points well taken. Assuming these anecdotes are documented, I hope they are presented at that March 9th hearing in Lincoln.
HTML reference
No shortage of these, but check this one out, see if you like it. Be sure to click on a few tags to get a sense of the interior pages.
New office sensors know when you leave your desk
Bloomberg:
The Boston Consulting Group has outfitted about 100 volunteer employees in its new Manhattan office with badges that embed a microphone and a location sensor. Made by Humanyze in Boston, the badges track physical and verbal interactions. BCG says it intends to use the data to see how office design affects employee communication. Outside critics have called the plan Orwellian and despotic—“It is a little bit invasive,” says Ross Love, 57, a BCG managing partner who volunteered—but the data collected is anonymized, and the company has pledged not to use it for performance evaluation.
Sure, you say that now. But once those badges are in place, once they become the new normal, all bets are off.
Automatically delete your tweets as they age
TweetDelete.net will automatically delete your tweets after a certain amount of time has passed. While this is definitely an interesting idea, not sure I get the use case. Given that all tweets are backed up almost as soon as they are issued, deleting your tweets won’t keep them off the net. And there’s no limit to the number of tweets you can have.
But an interesting idea.
Say “Hey Computer” to Siri
If you say “Hey Computer” to Siri, she’ll respond as if you are Lego Batman. Is this just humorous content, or a new paid marketing/advertising path for Apple?
Pokémon Go gen 2 rolling out this week
Play Pokémon Go? Big changes are coming. Rene Ritchie lays out all the details.
Apple shareholders demanding more diversity
Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge:
Silicon Valley has a long way to go on diversity, but most tech companies would argue that they’re making progress. Intel beat its initial hiring goals; Microsoft is tying executive compensation to diversity success; and Google says it’s made changes to remove pay inequality, even though the diversity of its workforce has remained flat.
Apple also claims to have removed pay disparities and has made slight gains on hiring women and people of color. It’s even launched an “Inclusion & Diversity” page with visualizations of its hiring data.
But a small group of Apple investors believe the company isn’t making progress fast enough, and they’re trying to force the company to pick up the pace. “Some of the excuses given by Apple and others — there’s not sufficient people in the pipeline, this and that,” says investor Tony Maldonado. “Excuse my language, it’s bullshit.”
And:
Maldonado is leading an effort to mandate that Apple accelerate its work toward becoming a more diverse company. For the second year in a row, he’s submitted a shareholder proposal asking that Apple “adopt an accelerated recruitment policy … to increase the diversity of senior management and its board of directors.”
From Apple’s point of view:
In a filing with the SEC, Apple’s board wrote a note recommending that shareholders vote against the proposal. The company argues that it already has “much broader” diversity efforts at work and, in the past three years, has made “steady progress in attracting more women and underrepresented minorities.” The proposed policy, Apple concludes, “is not necessary or appropriate because we have already demonstrated our commitment to a holistic view of inclusion and diversity.”
Is Apple doing enough on their own? They have certainly proven that they think well beyond the boundaries of profit and revenue, leading their corporate cousins in issues like clean/renewable energy and supply chain ethics. That doesn’t mean they always do right, but my sense is that Apple listens on issues like this and, when they listen, change is sure to follow.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri comments on Apple, growth
Apple CFO Luca Maestri spoke at yesterday’s Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. Jump to the main Loop post for a link to the audio comments as well as one particular chunk of conversation that makes me bullish on future iPhone growth.
Startup to launch 103 satellites in one go, image entire world daily
Quartz:
On Feb. 14, an Indian PSLV rocket will attempt to set a record by deploying 103 small satellites in a single launch, including 88 satellites owned by Planet. With a successful launch, the San Francisco-based imaging startup will operate a total of 143 satellites—the most of any company in the world.
If all goes according to plan, Planet expects to be able to image the entire Earth daily; right now it covers about a third of the world’s landmass every 24 hours.
And:
The US government technically prohibits American companies from using India’s rockets, since the company that markets them, Antrix, is state-owned and arguably distorts the market for space access. The rule is in part designed to protect American rocket-makers from competition, but also to protest Indian policies that effectively block foreign satellite companies from doing business there.
Yet with so few options available to small satellite firms, the US has increasingly granted waivers for companies to contract with India.
With this launch, Planet will become one of the largest satellite image providers in the world. Check out the picture of the rack of satellites. So tiny!
Eddy Cue, live on stage, talks Apple Music and original TV content
[VIDEO] Interesting that Will.i.am planned the show Planet of the Apps with his production company, then pitched and sold the concept to Apple (as opposed to the show being a brain-child born inside of Apple).
Also interesting is that the show is being designed around an app which will let you pause the show and dive deeper into a specific app or concept. This is very non-linear. I think it would be a mistake to pigeonhole this as a traditional reality show.
Watch the video, embedded in the main Loop post.
Apple’s Planet of the Apps trailer
[VIDEO] From the info page:
Planet of the Apps celebrates the world of apps and the talented people who create them. Hosted by Zane Lowe and featuring advisers Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk and will.i.am, the series highlights developers who have the vision to shape the future, solve real problems, and inspire change within our daily lives.
This feels like a mix of Shark Tank and The Voice. As a developer and investor, I’m intrigued by the concept. The hard part is to straddle the channel between broad entertainment and entrepreneurial detail. Keep it fun while still teaching some skill or lesson.
I’ll definitely give this a watch. Trailer is embedded in the main Loop post.
Apple Music’s Carpool Karaoke: New trailer
[VIDEO] A sign of things to come. Note the Planet of the Apps reference (no way that’s accidental) at 2:08 in. Video embedded in the main Loop post.
Google Map adds shareable place lists
Google blog:
Starting today, you can create lists of places, share your lists with others, and follow the lists your friends and family share with you—without ever leaving the Google Maps app (Android, iOS).
And:
Open the Google Maps app and find that BBQ spot you’ve been wanting to try. Tapping on the place name and then the “Save” icon adds the place to one of several pre-set lists like “Want to Go” or “Favorites.” You can also add the restaurant to a new list that you name yourself, like “Finger Lickin’ BBQ.” To recall the lists you’ve created, go to Your Places (in the side menu) and then open the saved tab. Icons for the places you’ve saved to lists will appear on the map itself.
I love the concept. Only issue I have is that I tend to move between different Google accounts and if I am logged in to the wrong account, I won’t see my place lists. One workflow is to always share place lists with all accounts, then each added place will automatically appear in all accounts.
Amazon Chime: Make video calls, hold meetings, screen share, more
Amazon is entering the Go-to-Meeting and Skype space with Chime, now available on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. From this Android Police post:
Conference calls and video meetings have almost been synonymous with Skype for the longest time, but Amazon is looking at changing that. Chime, a new Amazon Web Services platform, wants to simplify communications between teams and individuals and cater to their different aspects in one app: video call, voice call, chat, and screen sharing.
And:
There’s also a chatroom component to chime, with attachments to share important documents. Chime is free to try for 30 days, but after that, there are three plans to choose from. Basic Edition gives access to all of these options, minus screen sharing and with a 2 attendee limit, for free. Plus Edition is great for companies who want to manage users, but it costs $2.50/user/month and still keeps the 2 attendee limit. Pro Edition costs $15/user/month, but makes it possible to have meetings with up to 100 users and brings a host of add-ons.
Wondering if this will become a tool for podcast interviews.
Sign up here.
Apple Music Carpool Karaoke series trailer
[VIDEO] Solid trailer. The energy feels about the same as the ones in the Late Late Show with James Corden. From the video’s info page:
Based on the segment that has become a global, viral video sensation on The Late Late Show with James Corden, the new CARPOOL KARAOKE series features 16 celebrity pairings riding along in a car together as they sing tunes from their personal playlists and surprise fans who don’t expect to see big stars belting out tunes one lane over.
And:
Featuring James Corden, Will Smith, Billy Eichner, Metallica, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Ariana Grande, Seth MacFarlane, Chelsea Handler, Blake Shelton, Michael Strahan, John Cena, Shaquille O’Neal, and many more.
Here’s a link to the series home page.
Jump to the original Loop post for the embedded video.
Tim Cook: Fake news is killing people’s minds
The Telegraph:
In an impassioned plea, Mr Cook, boss of the world’s largest company, says that the epidemic of false reports “is a big problem in a lot of the world” and necessitates a crackdown by the authorities and technology firms.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, he calls for a campaign similar to those that changed attitudes on the environment to educate the public on the threat posed by fabricated online stories.
And:
“It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public,” said Mr Cook. “There has to be a massive campaign. We have to think through every demographic.
“We need the modern version of a public-service announcement campaign. It can be done quickly if there is a will.”
Read the post, watch the embedded video, which shows Tim being asked some pointed political questions, handling each with some truly deft diplomacy.
How Apple can make music sound sweeter
Dan Moren, Macworld:
Even as the company continues to push its Apple Music venture, there are a few places where Apple would be better served by re-examining the way it approaches music. From services to software to hardware, Apple’s gotten pretty comfortable about where it stands with music—but not necessarily because it has the best solutions out there.
Dan digs into three specific areas: Fixing iTunes and Music apps, improving AirPlay, and improving the speaker situation.
One particular snippet I found intriguing:
Granted, perhaps it would be more effective to just snap up Sonos—especially if Apple could find a way to integrate Siri.
I can’t imagine this isn’t on an Apple drawing board somewhere.
Apple joins Qi Wireless Power Consortium. Inductive wireless charging coming to iPhone?
Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:
While early rumors suggested that Apple was holding out for long-range charging, without the need to place the iPhone on a charging pad, those hopes appear to have been dashed by more recent reports. These suggest that Apple will, like other manufacturers, use simple inductive charging.
Apple is now listed as a member of the Qi Wireless Power Consortium. Qi is an inductive wireless charging standard that is already in use in more than a thousand products.
Ben quotes IHS Technology analyst Vicky Yussuff:
The success of wireless charging adoption from Apple’s competitors is something that Apple can no longer ignore. IHS Technology consumer survey data shows over 90% of consumers want wireless charging on their next device.
Note that the Apple uses Qi charging for the Apple Watch:
Apple already uses Qi charging for the Watch, but as The Register noted back in 2015, it uses a tweaked version that means you can’t use other Qi chargers. It seems likely it will do the same with the iPhone.
Conjecture, but reasonable conjecture.
On the future of the iPad
Jason Snell, writing for Macworld:
Look out to 2025 and imagine a futuristic computing device made from Apple that’s larger than a phone, filling the ecosystem that currently is filled by laptops and iPads (and maybe even desktop Macs). This is a thin, light device, with battery life and sensors and other features that we can only dream about today.
And:
Apple seems to see the Mac as a rock-solid platform for laptop and desktop computers that people depend on to do their jobs. The Mac is, in many ways, defined by the fact that it’s a keyboard-and-trackpad-driven system with a windowed user interface. If you take that away and simplify the Mac, you might be able to get to something a bit closer to the iPad–but you risk losing some of the key attributes that make the Mac what it is.
And:
The iPad, on the other hand, seems not too far away from that 2025 device already. What’s required is an evolution of the very simple touch interface pioneered by the iPhone in order to provide the tools that sophisticated and demanding users need to get their jobs done. With the addition of iCloud Drive and support for other cloud services, Apple basically gave the iPad a browsable file hierarchy.
For the iPad to get there, however, Apple will need to up its game when it comes to growing iOS. After all, 2025 is only eight years away; a new iPad feature or two every other year between now and then won’t get it done. iOS needs better peripheral support, more sophisticated windowing and multitasking, improvements to file handling, better support for application and system automation, and a whole lot more. But if Apple puts the work in, the iPad could be that device in 2025–and still clearly be recognizable to a visitor from 2017 as an iPad.
Is the iPad the future? Will we continue to live in a hybrid world, with the Mac on the desk, the iPhone in pocket, and the iPad the larger portable device in between? Or will the iPad evolve into a device capable of filling its current slot as well as replacing the need for the Mac?
Interesting questions. Clearly, the answers will depend on the technology that comes our way over time. Will we see power sipping flexible screens that can fit into our pockets and unfold into large screens as needed? Will battery life become indefinite? Will quantum computing significantly raise the performance bar? Will gesture detection become sophisticated enough that our computers will allow us to type even if our hands are in our pockets?
If the answer to those questions are true, the computing devices of the future might bear little resemblance to what we have now. Though I’d bet that the Apple brand will still be just as strong.
The myth of Apple’s great design
Ian Bogost wrote an article for The Atlantic with the provocative title The Myth of Apple’s Great Design.
Here’s a quote:
Apple has great design is the biggest myth in technology today. The latest victim of this ideology comes in the form a remarkable report on the late Steve Jobs’s final project, still in production: a new, $5 billion Cupertino headquarters for Apple Inc.
And:
But if Apple designs at its best when attending closely to details like those revealed in the construction of its spaceship headquarters, then presumably the details of its products would stand out as worthy precedents. Yet, when this premise is tested, it comes up wanting. In truth, Apple’s products hide a shambles of bad design under the perfection of sleek exteriors.
There’s a lot more of this. Luckily, I will not have to take this article apart, point by point. Nick Heer, keeper of the blog Pixel Envy, does this job nicely, in a post titled Sufficiently Great.
Read ’em both.
Apple and magic
Carolina Milanesi:
Another common argument shared by some Apple critics is that the inability to deliver a killer product rests solely with Tim Cook. When we consider the two new lines of products Apple brought to market under Cook — Apple Watch and AirPods — I struggle to see how people could honestly believe Cook is failing.
And:
I have been wearing an Apple Watch every day since it first came out. Yet, whenever people ask me if I love it, I hesitate to say I do because it is hard to explain why. Apple Watch gives back what you put in. You need to invest some time in setting up your preferences when it comes to notifications, pick your apps, buy into fitness, and add your credit cards. Most importantly, you need to trust Apple Watch to pick up some of the responsibility you have given to your iPhone for so long. When you do so, Apple Watch becomes a trusted companion you will not easily go without.
And:
This is the slogan of Apple’s AirPod commercial and, if you ask anyone who has tried them, they will agree. The feeling of magic is not because the user is aware of Apple’s unique approach of having two separate streams of music play simultaneously into each AirPod. The magic is delivered as soon as you pair your AirPods by simply taking away any pain previously inflicted by Bluetooth-enabled headphones requiring you to pay attention to flashing colored lights while pressing odd buttons.
All solid takes. Apple products are at their bests when they focus on fit, finish, and fine details. For example, compare the AirPods pairing times with any other BlueTooth earphones. Apple clearly put a lot of work into the design of the W1 chip and pairing time, whittling it down to practically instantaneous.
Compare the AirPods pairing time to the BeatsX pairing time. BeatsX also uses the W1 chip, but is noticeably slower to pair. Not that BeatsX are slow, it’s that the AirPods are fast. Magically fast. And that’s the point.
BeatsX Earphones shipping dates, reviews, comparisons to AirPods
Apple’s new BeatsX Earphones are now live in the Apple Store, both brick and mortar and online.
BeatsX are available in four colors: white, black, gray, and blue, all priced at $149.95.
The white and black models ship pretty much immediately. If I order them online today, I can have them by Tuesday for a $17 next day shipping charge, $19 if I want them before noon, or free two shipping if I am willing to wait until Wednesday. Obviously, depending where you live, your shipping charges may be different.
The gray and blue models are currently showing delivery dates of February 23-28 (13 to 18 days from now) with free two day shipping, one day sooner with the overnight shipping fees mentioned above.
As to reviews, Chance Miller, 9to5Mac did a nice job gathering a series of YouTube reviews comparing the BeatsX Earphones to the AirPods, looking at things like sound quality and fit.
If you are trying to choose between BeatsX and AirPods, watch the videos. Each has a slightly different take, as a whole they should help give you a sense of which appeals to you more.
iCloud was quietly storing years of cleared browsing histories
The Verge:
This morning, a Russian forensics firm named Elcomsoft announced a way to extract years’ worth of web browsing records from Apple’s iCloud storage system, a method first reported by Forbes. Those records included site names, URLs, and when a given site was visited. Cleared browsing records are also visible in the records, although they are marked as “deleted” in the table. Mobile browsing records are also visible, although the sites themselves appear to be hashed in the most recent versions of iOS.
Wow. Looking forward to Apple’s official take on this.
Deadbird shows a user’s deleted tweets
This is amazing. I’ve got a feeling about the first account people are going to check with this tool. Nice logo.