Radiohead is making the adjustment to a new reality. Streaming is here and the new mainstream. The up-sell to their fan base is Radiohead’s way of not just living with the “barely scraping by” that comes from their share of streaming money. Interesting read from M.G. Siegler.
Business
Apple’s big bet on China is also a bet on driverless cars
Apple’s investment in Didi seems quite nuanced, serves Apple on a number of levels.
Tim Cook arrives in China, rides in Didi car, meets with Chinese app developers
CNBC:
Apple chief executive Tim Cook met some of China’s hottest app developers and used a Didi Chuxing car to visit Apple’s store in the popular shopping district Wangfujing on Monday, after arriving in Beijing for a charm offensive.
Tim Cook is playing it smart with respect to China.
Who pays writers?
Are you a writer looking for a gig? Trying to get a sense of who pays what? Here’s a great resource.
Apple invests $1 billion in Didi, China’s version of Uber
Lots of interesting facets to this deal. The whole thing happened in 22 days, an incredibly short span for such a large investment. Shrewd move on Apple’s part.
Hyperloop’s first public test
The Verge:
It only lasted about two seconds, but wow, what a sort of thrilling two seconds it was! Hyperloop One, the LA-based startup striving to realize Elon Musk’s pipe dream, conducted it’s first public open-air test in the Nevada desert Wednesday.
Video embedded in the main post.
Microsoft tried to clone the Apple Store. It still hasn’t worked.
I’ve passed by Microsoft stores many times. I have yet to see one that is crowded.
Elon Musk, the world’s raddest man
This is both terrifically informative and fun to read. If nothing else, make your way through the comic at the top of the article, where the author receives an unexpected invitation. Fantastic!
Oracle and Google copyright retrial
Reuters:
Oracle Corp and Google faced off on Tuesday in a $9 billion copyright retrial, with Oracle accusing Google of stealing programming to become the world’s leading smartphone player and Google saying it acted legally as a true innovator.
Lots of eyes on this, fear of rash of copyright lawsuits if Oracle wins.
PC market in free fall, Apple less so than everyone else
I suspect we’ll see a nice burst to shipped units when Apple updates the retina MacBook Pro.
Steve Jobs and the origins of Apple Watch
The sense I get from reading this is, though Steve may not even have been aware of the Apple Watch design effort, his battle against cancer was a major motivating force behind the Apple Watch design and creation.
Twitter VP of Design Mike Davidson on why he left Twitter and San Francisco
This is a long post, but worth the time. There’s a lot of insider’s detail specific to Twitter, but there’s also a lot of insight into privilege, large tech companies, management styles, and being true to yourself.
Jim Cramer on the difference between Tim Cook and Elon Musk
Cramer delivers his take on Musk (promises based on demand) and Tim Cook (doomed even though he delivers).
How Apple sold a million Drake albums in five days
The power of Apple’s promotion engine.
Apple, podcasting and the open market
Late last month, Apple brought in some podcasters to discuss the business of podcasting. This post links to a series of three posts that explore this meeting and its consequences: The New York Times and blog posts from Marco Arment and Federico Viticci.
Netflix adds much needed setting to let you adjust data rate
From the Netflix blog:
The default setting will enable you to stream about 3 hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data. In terms of bitrates, that currently amounts to about 600 Kilobits per second. Our testing found that, on cellular networks, this setting balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees. If you have a mobile data plan with a higher data cap, you can adjust this setting to stream at higher bitrates.
Read the post to learn how to get to the settings, learn what each one means.
Huawei just copied the iPhone, down to the last screw
This is remarkably blatant. Just look at the image.
Apple Music adds $4.99 student pricing plan
TechCrunch:
Apple today launched a new plan to boost subscribers to its streaming music service and competitor to Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal and others. It’s introducing an Apple Music student plan which will discount the service by 50 percent for those who are enrolled in an eligible college or university.
That means in the U.S., where an individual membership to Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, the student membership will be $4.99 per month instead.
Reuters: Apple’s Tim Cook to visit China for government meetings
Reuters:
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook plans to visit Beijing later this month to meet high-level government officials, at a time when it is facing some setbacks in its most important overseas market, a source familiar with the matter said.
Apple, other autonomous car makers, looking for huge tracts of land
Wall Street Journal:
Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and several car makers are seeking large expanses of real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area for their autonomous-car operations.
Like I said, huge tracts of land.
Tesla’s car battery upsell
Jordan Golson, writing for The Verge:
Tesla is selling a car with an “upgradable” battery. Only it’s not upgradable in the take-it-to-the-dealer-and-they’ll-swap-out-some-hardware sense. Instead, you give Tesla thousands of dollars to “unlock” hardware that’s already included in your car with an over-the-air software update.
This is the emerging model. Not sure I like this particular “in app purchase”.
App Store search back up and running
Yesterday, searches on the iOS, Mac, and iBook App Stores were failing. Looks like the problem has been resolved. The tests I ran yesterday are now showing their proper results.
Apple snags Google X Lab co-founder, MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner
Yoky has had an incredible career. She seems an impressive addition to Apple’s technical staff.
10-year-old exposes flaw in Instagram, Zuckerberg gives him $10,000
Our hope for the future.
Apple increases chip orders for iPhone SE
iPhone SE is a bright spot.
Apple plans sweeping changes for Apple Music
Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is planning sweeping changes to its year-old music streaming service after the first iteration of the product was met with tepid reviews and several executives brought in to revive the company’s music strategy departed.
Hallelujah. New API?
I saw something horrible and wrong in VR
Clearly, VR brings some very dark cyberpunk possibilities, but this actually makes VR seem even more compelling as a business model.
Apple no longer has exclusive rights to the “iPhone” name in China
A surprising development after all these years.
Jean-Louis Gassée: On Apple’s emerging services business
Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, on the idea of Apple spinning off its profitable services as a separate business entity. Fascinating writing, as always.
Rumored death of 3.5mm headphone jack greatly exaggerated
Is Apple ready to move on from the antiquated 3.5mm headphone jack? It’ll happen sooner or later, but this post indicates that Apple might shop one model with, one without.