Business

Apple TV+ becomes first streaming service to earn Daytime Emmy Awards in first year of launch

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Apple:

Apple TV+ was honored today by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with two Daytime Emmy Awards, and became the first streaming service to win a Daytime Emmy in its first year of eligibility at the 47th Annual Daytime Emmys.

Apple won Emmys for:

  • Outstanding Children’s or Family Viewing Programming for “Ghostwriter”
  • Outstanding Single Camera Editing for “Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10”

I remain bullish on Apple TV+. This is a sign of how seriously Apple is taking this service, an incredible achievement for a service that went live less than 9 months ago.

The moment Steve Jobs introduced “Jiggle Mode”

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[VIDEO] There was a discussion flying around Twitter yesterday about the term Jiggle Mode and when it was introduced. Someone on Reddit showed up with this video (embedded in main Loop post), where Steve Jobs is introducing the concept of folders in iOS 4.2.

Jump to about 18:32 for the Jiggle Mode mention.

Interesting also is the introduction of the ill-fated Ping. And the unusual “One More Thing…” at about 50:23.

UPDATE: Steve does introduce jiggling in this keynote (about 16:35 in), though he doesn’t (as far as I can tell) use the term Jiggle Mode.

Vocal ranges of the world’s greatest singers

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Gonna stop here for a second and acknowledge the English language/UK-US bias, right off the top.

That said, this is still quite interesting. Before you follow the link, take a guess as to who in the pop universe has the biggest vocal range. Challenge is to name anyone in the top three.

Fender’s parallel universe version of the Maverick Dorado

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[VIDEO] Fender:

Originally released in 1969, the Maverick (or the “Custom”) was a wildly unique six-string guitar crafted from leftover 12-string necks, bodies and pickups. 51 years later, the Parallel Universe Maverick Dorado steps up the swagger of its predecessor with a pair of Tim Shaw-designed Filter’Tron-style humbucking pickups, a Bigsby vibrato and dark ebony fingerboard.

I love the idea of the parallel universe series, updates of old school guitars. Video embedded in main Loop post. [H/T @cyclonus]

A look at the iOS 14 beta Translate app

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Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple in iOS 14 added a new Translate app, which, as the name suggests, is designed to offer translations from one language to another. The Translate app has some useful features that are handy both when learning a new language and when attempting to talk to someone who speaks a different language.

And:

The Translate app can translate to and from Arabic, mainland Chinese, English (US and UK), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Nice walkthrough. Interesting that this is available on iPhone, but not iPad. For more detail on what’s coming to iOS but not iPadOS, check this Macworld article by Michael Simon.

iPhone and the rumored periscope lens

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Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

We’ve heard reports before that Apple plans to include a periscope lens on future iPhones, and a new Ming-Chi Kuo report today suggests this is coming in 2022.

Rumor aside, the focus of the linked article is this:

What exactly is a periscope lens, and what would it mean for future iPhones?

A typical iPhone lens stacks its elements perpendicularly away from the iPhone. That lens stack is what makes the camera bump in the iPhone case.

A periscope lens uses a mirror to let the stack of lens elements live inside the case, with optical zoom without a camera bump made possible by sacrificing interior space.

Ben does a great job explaining all this. Great read.

We recreated Apple’s MacOS Big Sur wallpaper with a helicopter!

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[VIDEO] This group has recreated a number of official macOS wallpapers over the years, using a drone. This year, with Big Sur, a drone wouldn’t quite cut it.

A little bit of the story, in their own words:

My friends and I had one choice, we had to get a helicopter to fly us over Big Sur. After talking to an aerial photographer, we got connected with a pilot, who funny enough was the same pilot that helped Apple take the photo (shoutout Chris from Specialized Helicopters — he was amazing!!)

The problem was Apple’s photo was taken in the winter. And since it’s summer, that means that the sun will rise differently and at a different time. Moreover, June is known for coastal fog, so it was up to chance whether or not we would get a clear day.

The video (embedded in the main Loop post) does a great job telling the story, with a live shot of them actually watching Craig Federighi do the big reveal.

$30 remote for people who hate the Apple TV Siri Remote

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Amber Neely, AppleInsider:

If you’re not a fan of the original Apple TV remote, you’re not alone. Between its glass design, unintuitive orientation, and high replacement cost, it has left many Apple TV users looking for alternatives.

That’s me.

The Button Remote touts itself as a more traditional alternative.

It features buttons that closely mirror that of a VCR or DVD remote. There are buttons for controlling volume, navigating menus, video playback functions (such as pause, rewind, and fast forward), and a power button.

Here’s a link to the FUNCTION button remote. Note that it doesn’t ship until the second week in August.

Apple Japan “Apple Books” video

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[VIDEO] Nothing particularly newsworthy here, I just love the look of this video. In part, I’m sure, because we’ve got a bunch of anime/manga fans in the house.

Take a look. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Apple, iPads, and baseball in the time of COVID-19

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Jabari Young, CNBC:

As part of the league’s Covid-19 health and safety protocols, MLB said it would ban traditional video stations shared throughout clubhouses. The league took advantage of its 2016 partnership with Apple to expand the dugout iPad program. It will now distribute 15 iPads to each team for players and staff to dissect performances and additional team content like scouting reports.

Far more interesting to me is the fact that teams will pump in fake crowd noise so the players, as well as viewers at home, can get a sense of how excited the crowds would be if they existed.

If you made it this far, you might be interested in knowing that Opening Day is tomorrow (Thursday), with the World Champion Nationals vs the Yankees at 7p ET and the Giants vs the Dodgers at 7p PT.

Someone tell Siri.

Apple’s new “Climate Change Promise” ad

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[VIDEO] Apple wrapped up today’s slew of climate change, carbon neutral pursuit news with a beautiful little branding video (embedded in the main Loop post).

Just the right pitch. For the children.

The brain behind the Google Pixel camera is building a universal camera app for Adobe

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Jay Peters, The Verge:

Marc Levoy, the researcher who used software to turn Google’s Pixel camera into a powerhouse, has joined Adobe to build a universal camera app, Adobe announced today.

Levoy headed up the team that developed the impressive computational photography technology used in Google’s Pixel smartphones, including features like Night Sight, Portrait Mode, and HDR+.

This seems a big loss for Google.

John Gruber, in a State of Google Pixel Daring Fireball post:

My basic theory is that Google, institutionally, is bored with Android — and if Google has lost interest in Android generally it’s going to lose interest in Pixels specifically.

Not a big leap to the possibility that Marc Levoy was feeling a bit bored/limited with the future in Google’s computational photography efforts.

Google’s loss is Adobe’s gain. And, if a cool new camera app comes to iOS, Apple’s gain as well.

Apple being sued for refusing to help iTunes gift card scam victims

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Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

Apple is being sued for allegedly refusing to help those who have fallen victim to a iTunes gift card scam. An 11-count class action lawsuit has been filed against the company.

Apple is accused of lying when it says that there is no way to trace or refund the value of the cards.

And here’s the FTC description of a typical scam:

Once you buy the card, the caller then will demand the gift card number and PIN on the back of the card. Those numbers let them immediately get the money you loaded onto the card. And once they’ve done that, the scammers and your money are gone, usually without a trace.

Is Apple responsible for scammers emptying a card of its value? That’s the question that this lawsuit will address. This has been going on long enough, you’d think someone would have come up with a more bulletproof scheme for gift cards.

Is resistance to a new design concern for lack of convenience? Is the day of the gift card coming to an end?

Apple VP Lisa Jackson on Apple’s Promise for 2030

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Apple’s VP, Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, and former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa P Jackson, on Medium:

Decades of research have shown that climate change and pollution disproportionately hurt poor communities and communities of color, deepening inequality in the U.S. and around the world.

And:

Since our carbon emissions peaked at 38.4 million metric tons in 2015, we’ve managed to reduce our carbon footprint by 35%. As of 2018, every Apple office, Retail store, and data center has run on 100% clean energy. And today, our facilities and corporate operations worldwide are carbon neutral.

And:

It’s in that spirit that we’re beginning a new chapter in our environmental journey, one that starts with a promise. By 2030, Apple will be 100% carbon neutral. Our comprehensive carbon footprint will net to zero. And we’re sharing a detailed plan for how we’ll get there — so that companies large and small can not only see why we’re doing this, but how we’re doing it.

Step back to our previous post for all those details.

To business leaders in every industry: the eyes of our children are on us. We can’t talk about equality without curbing pollution, or confine our climate efforts to corporate emissions when our real impacts stretch deep into the supply chain. We have a generational opportunity to help build a greener and more just economy, one where we develop whole new industries in the pursuit of giving the next generation a planet worth calling home.

When you consider Apple’s iPhone 12 and the potential for shipping a much smaller package, leaving out EarPods and charging bricks, keep Apple’s promise in the back of your mind.

Apple commits to be 100 percent carbon neutral for its supply chain and products by 2030

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Apple:

Apple today unveiled its plan to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030. The company is already carbon neutral today for its global corporate operations, and this new commitment means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact.

This is an incredibly ambitious announcement. And I have to believe that Apple would not put this out into the world if they didn’t have complete faith that they’d have the ability to be true to their word.

Take a moment to scroll through Apple’s Environment page and the just released 2020 Environmental Progress Report. Apple has been heading down this road for some time, but they’ve now raised the bar significantly.

Carbon neutral by 2030. This is a gift to our kids. Well done, Apple.

Two new, beautifully artistic “Behind the Mac” videos

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[VIDEO] Apple posted these two videos (embedded in main Loop post) over the weekend, both highlighting the artistic possibilities of the Mac.

The first shows off photographer Tyler Mitchell:

“What can I do with the sweaters I’ve worn on my back.” Tyler Mitchell takes us to his place in Bed-Stuy, as he works on a new portrait series using only elements from his own bedroom. Remote cameras were set up in the fashion photographer’s apartment, capturing his creative process as he shot and edited the series over a 24 hour period. Digging through references, compiling a mood board, capturing the images, scanning them into his MacBook, and editing the selects in Photoshop. Putting the final touches on the portraits just before midnight.

Fascinating to watch the process unfold, all taking place in an apartment with some amazing light, and right off the train tracks. I spent my youngest years living in Queens, right around the corner from the el. Those trains really struck a chord. Beautiful video.

And next up is musician James Blake, putting his MacBook and Logic Pro X through their paces:

“It feels like a dream that I’m sort of walking through and I’m able to affect what happens in it.” James Blake lets us inside his brain as he writes the new song “ASK FOR MORE.” Remote cameras were set up in the GRAMMY® Award winner’s home studio, capturing his entire creative process as he worked on writing, recording and editing the song over a 24 hour period. From time spent crafting a melody at his piano, to looping and pitching the melody and adding layers, instruments and vocals in Logic Pro X on his MacBook, to editing it into a finished song. Completing the track just after 1am.

Enjoy!

Apple Card starts credit file reporting to Experian

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Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider:

Owners of Apple Card are reporting Apple is finally expanding the number of credit reference agencies it will report to, with claims the Apple-branded credit card is starting to appear on credit reports generated by Experian.

So far, Apple has limited its reporting of consumer balances to one credit bureau, TransUnion, while no reporting was being made to either Experian or Equifax. While this has been the case for months, it now seems that the reporting is being made to more agencies.

Have an Apple Card? Your credit behavior just got more exposure, with Goldman-Sachs being an extra creditor reporting to Experian.

See also, this Reddit thread of folks reporting Apple Card sightings on their Experian credit reports.

Who’s behind Wednesday’s epic Twitter hack?

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This starts with a retelling of the hack story, but that’s just the start. The real juice starts down below that.

People within the SIM swapping community are obsessed with hijacking so-called “OG” social media accounts. Short for “original gangster,” OG accounts typically are those with short profile names (such as @B or @joe). Possession of these OG accounts confers a measure of status and perceived influence and wealth in SIM swapping circles, as such accounts can often fetch thousands of dollars when resold in the underground.

And:

In a post on OGusers — a forum dedicated to account hijacking — a user named “Chaewon” advertised they could change email address tied to any Twitter account for $250, and provide direct access to accounts for between $2,000 and $3,000 apiece.

Great Dalrymple’s Beard!!! That can’t be real, can it?

Lucky225 said that just before 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, he received a password reset confirmation code via Google Voice for the @6 Twitter account. Lucky said he’d previously disabled SMS notifications as a means of receiving multi-factor codes from Twitter, opting instead to have one-time codes generated by a mobile authentication app.

But because the attackers were able to change the email address tied to the @6 account and disable multi-factor authentication, the one-time authentication code was sent to both his Google Voice account and to the new email address added by the attackers.

“The way the attack worked was that within Twitter’s admin tools, apparently you can update the email address of any Twitter user, and it does this without sending any kind of notification to the user,” Lucky told KrebsOnSecurity. “So [the attackers] could avoid detection by updating the email address on the account first, and then turning off 2FA.”

Lucky said he hasn’t been able to review whether any tweets were sent from his account during the time it was hijacked because he still doesn’t have access to it

Here’s a link to a detailed telling of this story.

Read the whole Krebs on Security post via the headline link. Fascinating and not a little scary. Amazing to me so little damage was done.

As I’ve said before, not convinced that this was the end of this particular misadventure. Would not be surprised if this was just some misdirection to hide a more critical unlocking event that will rear its head in the future.

Rene Ritchie: Wrong about the Apple Silicon Mac

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[VIDEO] This is just a great watch, Rene Ritchie presents a master class on Apple’s history with Arm and what it means today. If you have any interest in the Mac’s path to Apple silicon, this is incredibly informative and not too jargony. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Motherboard: Hackers convinced Twitter employee to help them hijack accounts

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Joseph Cox, Motherboard:

A Twitter insider was responsible for a wave of high profile account takeovers on Wednesday, according to leaked screenshots obtained by Motherboard and two sources who took over accounts.

And:

“We used a rep that literally done all the work for us,” one of the sources told Motherboard. The second source added they paid the Twitter insider. Motherboard granted the sources anonymity to speak candidly about a security incident. A Twitter spokesperson told Motherboard that the company is still investigating whether the employee hijacked the accounts themselves or gave hackers access to the tool.

And:

After a wave of account takeovers, screenshots of an internal Twitter user administration tool are being shared in the hacking underground.

And this response from Twitter:

After the publication of this piece, Twitter said in a tweet that “We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.”

Were the employees duped by social engineering? Or was there complicity here, was a Twitter insider paid, as indicated by the article.

Also, there is some question as to whether the bitcoin scam was the hackers’ endgame. Or if access to the accounts opened a door that could be exploited later.

Beyond alarming.

Apple iOS 14: Best update for wheelchair users

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[VIDEO] Terrific take on the iOS 14 beta, bike elevation data, and the benefits that came to wheelchair users. I’m hoping the Apple Maps and Accessibility team gets a look at this video (video embedded in main Loop post), both for the bravo moment, as well as for the suggestions made for future releases.

How Apple is preparing for its ‘Netflix moment’

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Fantastic take from Seeking Alpha (free reg-wall). Just a few highlights from a much longer piece:

Apple has now grown up and realized it is not just about using content to sell devices. Eventually, those devices will stop being as profitable as they are now, but content (and the financial value of that content) lives forever.

And:

The pieces are now finally in place and Apple is steering itself into a new direction. It is showing the industry and shareholders that they have a real roadmap in place, and by next year (COVID-19 potentially notwithstanding), the company thinks it can (at a higher level) compete with the Netflix machine.

The “pieces” being the foundational elements of making and acquiring content, with Tom Hanks and Greyhound as a critical moment.

Greyhound being acquired and launching was step one – and again, make no mistake, the pandemic allowed Apple to basically bypass the lead-up to that step, because as mentioned, it had an award-level film literally drop in its lap. It also doesn’t hurt that this is going to be a very weak year for films because of all the delays, so the bar is not the same as in the past.

And:

Content is king, and Apple is putting together high-level packages that could siphon off projects that originally seemed earmarked for the Netflix pipeline.

As I said in my previous post, I am bullish on Apple TV+.

Apple continues down Tom Hanks “Greyhound” path with Justin Timberlake and “Palmer”

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Apple:

On the heels of the blockbuster debut of “Greyhound,” and landing the highly anticipated films “Emancipation,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Snow Blind,” Apple is expanding its slate of sought-after original films with “Palmer,” starring Justin Timberlake and directed by Fisher Stevens, from SK Global.

And:

“Palmer” joins Apple original films including the recently announced “Snow Blind,” with Jake Gyllenhaal attached to star; Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro; “Emancipation,” from director Antoine Fuqua and starring and produced by Academy Award nominee Will Smith; “Sharper,” a new film from Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, starring and produced by Academy Award winner Julianne Moore; “The Sky is Everywhere,” based on the best-selling YA novel of the same name; and the upcoming feature “On the Rocks” from Sofia Coppola, starring Bill Murray and Rashida Jones.

This Apple original films strategy is a big part of why I am bullish on Apple TV+. Remember, Apple TV+ debuted last November, just a bit more than 8 months ago, rolled from scratch, with no back catalog.

What they’ve already achieved is nothing short of remarkable, and the team has set the stage for continued growth. To me, far more important than whether a particular show appeals to me is the wide variety of shows to choose from, and the fact that Apple is building systems to draw big stars and major projects to the platform. And all this less than a year after announcement.

Scary good Tim Cook impression

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This is just spot on. I would love to see Apple bring Matthew Friend on stage at an event, just to do a faux opening.

https://twitter.com/jacksonhvisuals/status/1283088276195164161

Wil Shipley Steve Jobs anecdote

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Read the thread (and the replies). Solid take on the force of character that helped make Steve Jobs who he was.

https://twitter.com/wilshipley/status/1282098099997954048

Amazingly detailed Nintendo Super Mario LEGO set

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[VIDEO] If you carry nostalgia for LEGO, the original Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Mario, you will love this effort. Watch the video in the main Loop post for the official reveal from Nintendo, and follow the headline link if you’ve got cash burning a hole in your pocket and want one (it goes live August 1st).

Apple partners with Verizon to offer free six months of News+ for new iPad buyers

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9to5Mac:

Beginning later this week, Verizon and Apple are partnering on a new promotion for Apple News+. Any iPad activated through Verizon will qualify for a free six-month subscription to Apple News+. The deal arrives as Apple is trying to juice interest in the News+ service, which includes access to a handful of newspapers and ~300 magazines for $9.99 per month.

This approach to onboarding new customers, to give them a taste of your service, seems smart to me. Free trials for Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple News+ give folks the chance to develop some new habits, to develop a fondness for/dependence on a particular service.

I just don’t see the value proposition in the existing version of Apple News+. Could there be an incarnation where Apple News+ catches on, or at least works for me? Sure. Start by making it a lot more customizable for me. Make it easier for me to create a front page that has news I really care about, and zero fluff.