This is from the Halide blog. It goes deep, and is full of fascinating insight into the new camera system. Or, rather, the emergence of the incredibly important role that machine learning has taken on in the iPhone 11 camera.
If you are at all interested in the iPhone camera, set aside a few minutes and make your way through this.
Watch the 3D X-ray video in step 3. Very cool.
Looks like the battery is deep in a well of glue and solder, so about the same repairability as previous AirPods generations. Which is to say, 0/10. Feh.
[VIDEO] Both videos are embedded in the main Loop post. The first one, from the show Servant, is just a mood snippet, very short.
The second is an introduction to the world and characters of See. What I find most intriguing about See is that they are building a world, just as they built a world for Game of Thrones. I’m more inclined to forgive sloppy writing or plot point holes in the early days if the world being built is immersive enough.
Tomorrow is the big day.
Kif Leswing, CNBC:
Under the argument for an iPhone subscription, which some people call Apple Prime after the Amazon program of the same name, Apple would bundle hardware upgrades with services like iCloud storage or Apple TV+ content and hardware for a single monthly fee. This would let it switch iPhone sales from a transactional model to a subscription model, potentially driving the stock price up without having to increase product sales or prices dramatically.
And:
″In terms of hardware as a service or as a bundle, if you will, there are customers today that essentially view the hardware like that because they’re on upgrade plans and so forth,” Cook said during an earnings call. “So to some degree that exists today.”
And, most importantly:
“My perspective is that will grow in the future to larger numbers. It will grow disproportionately”
I had the chance to be on John Gruber’s show (recorded yesterday, guessing it’ll drop today or tomorrow, assuming John is not too horrified with the results), and we were talking about this, peripherally. John mentioned the future possibility of Apple Prime, a concept similar to Amazon Prime. From the article:
Under the argument for an iPhone subscription, which some people call Apple Prime after the Amazon program of the same name, Apple would bundle hardware upgrades with services like iCloud storage or Apple TV+ content and hardware for a single monthly fee.
I suspect we’ll all eventually be subscribing from a menu of services, including column A, software, column B, traditional services, and column C, hardware. Intriguing.
John Gruber:
Wearing noise-canceling earbuds on the subway and walking through the city is going to take some getting used to. It’s so good you really do lose sense of your surrounding aural environment.
And that’s a good thing. Combines with:
The “Transparency” mode is interesting and a little mind-bending. It really does make it possible to conduct a conversation while still enjoying the benefits of noise cancellation.
And:
Transparency lets you hear parts of the world around you. One obvious use case for this: jogging or running and maybe just plain walking on streets where you want to hear the sounds of traffic.
To me, this is a huge benefit. Traditional noise-canceling means, when walking, you won’t hear that car horn (or, at least it won’t be alarmingly loud, which is what you want in a car horn) or other sound of warning.
Another bit I like:
The force sensor — the flat section on the earbuds stem that faces forward when in your ear — is effectively a button. But it’s not a button. It doesn’t actually move, and it doesn’t provide haptic feedback. But it acts like a button and — most importantly — sounds like a button. When you press it, the AirPod Pro plays a click.
This is a great review. If you are considering AirPods Pro, John does a nice job painting a picture of what they’re like in real life.
Take a minute to open up a new browser window and enter the address:
doc.new
If you are a user of Google docs, you’ll create a new document. You can also use:
sheet.new
That’ll create a new spreadsheet.
If this is new to you (it’s been this way for about a year), no surprise, it’s not well publicized.
With that as the baseline, read the linked article to see all of new “.new” coming. The two biggest are “word.new” to create a new Word document, and “playlist.new” to create a new Spotify playlist.
Interesting that Apple is not a player here.
Mae Anderson, AP:
Apple is giving consumers notice when installing the update, iOS 13.2. Individuals can choose “Not Now” to decline audio storage and review. Users who enable this can turn it off later in the settings. Apple also specifies that Siri data is not associated with a user’s Apple ID.
One of the little publicized changes that came with iOS 13.2. Most likely because the HomePod change and bricking monopolized the news.
Personally, I opted in. Comes down to trust. I trust Apple with my privacy.
Lots of changes. Worth the time to scroll through the linked post just to get a sense of what’s new.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
In a surprise announcement, Apple has announced its first bundle deal for Apple TV+. For subscribers to Apple Music on the student plan, $4.99 per month, Apple will giveaway Apple TV+ at no additional charge.
My favorite bit:
The news was announced on Hailee Steinfeld’s Instagram page, who stars in Dickinson. Apple TV+ launches this Friday.
Not clear if this is intentional experimentation, or different approaches taken by different teams, but Apple is clearly using a variety of approaches to get the word out on new product.
[VIDEO] MKBHD unboxes his brand new AirPods Pro, offers up his impressions after one day of use. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Take all the reviews with a grain of salt. This is Apple TV+’s maiden voyage.
My two cents? Like all networks, there will be a range of quality in the collection of Apple TV+ shows. There are stinkers on Netflix. There will be stinkers here. But Apple is no doubt in this for the long haul. No matter how they do, they will profit from these early experiences.
Try the free trial, binge, see if anything clicks for you. That’s my plan.
For the record, I had no problem with the update, but I did speak to people who did brick their HomePods. Not fun.
I’m guessing this fix is high priority for Apple and that we’ll see a new update pretty quickly. Details in the linked post.
[VIDEO] There it is, at 35 seconds in (video embedded in main Loop post). The exploded view, showing all the pieces that come together to make the new noise cancelling, water splash resistant, AirPods Pro.
The first time I saw this image, I had a brief moment of hope that I’d be able to take these apart myself and swap the batteries. But I’m going to assume that all these pieces are glued tightly together, with the exception of the click-in-place rubber ear-tips.
As to splash-resistance, the AirPods Pro are rated at IPX4, which you can read all about here.
Fascinating interview. A slice of history, for sure, but my favorite bits of this read are when Steve explains concepts. He was so very good at translating the abstract into something you could wrap your head around.
Wonderful read.
[VIDEO] This is a crazy story. Samsung created the SpaceSelfie mission:
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd today announced a bold, out-of-this-world mission as it launches the Galaxy S10 5G 65,000 feet above the earth to give consumers the chance to get their face in space.
But what made the news is not the mission, but the mysterious blinking object that fell from space and landed in a Michigan couple’s yard.
Read the article (headline link) and watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. I love the references to the “space contraption”.
[H/T Robert Walter]
[VIDEO] I love this ad. Beautifully filmed, with no mention of Apple or iPhone until the close.
The message is powerfully crafted and presented. Well done. Watch it. Embedded in main Loop post.
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is ramping up hiring for a team that is working on new smart-home software and devices in an effort to catch up in a field where Google and Amazon.com Inc. have dominated, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Two elements at work here. First is HomeKit:
The overhaul is designed to spur more outside accessory and appliance makers to connect smart-home products such as lights and garage doors with the iPhone and Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant, Siri.
Not sure I’d use the phrase “falling behind” to describe HomeKit. Over the weekend, got a tour of some new home construction that was built from the ground up with HomeKit compatibility, including smart locks, smart music systems, and smart light switches throughout the house. The sense I get is that new construction offers HomeKit compatibility as a matter of course.
But where the phrase “falling behind” seems appropriate:
The team also is exploring the possibility of building new home devices beyond the HomePod speaker.
There’s the rub. Amazon and Alexa have a clear lead here, with huge inroads into your home. HomePod still feels like a one-off, not a seamless part of a house wide ecosystem. Feels like HomePod and HomeKit are crafted by two separate product teams, where all Alexa products feel much more cohesive, unified.
You know those videos that Apple posts showing “How to share your ETA in Maps”, or “How to use your iPad as a second display with Sidecar”?
Apple has a searchable YouTube channel with all of these videos. So if you come across one in, say, a Twitter ad, and want to share it, follow the headline link and track it down.
The channel goes back about a year.
David Shayer, TidBITS:
iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina have been unusually buggy releases for Apple. The betas started out buggy at WWDC in June, which is not unexpected, but even after Apple removed some features from the final releases in September, more problems have forced the company to publish quick updates. Why? Based on my 18 years of experience working as an Apple software engineer, I have a few ideas.
Who is David Shayer? From the bio:
David Shayer was an Apple software engineer for 18 years. He worked on the iPod, the Apple Watch, and Apple’s bug-tracking system Radar, among other projects.
My default when I hit posts like these is to take everything with a grain of salt, set skepticism on high. Read the pundit takes, read the bio (look for an axe to grind), and read the comments below the post.
This one passes the vast majority of those tests. This doesn’t feel like post-Apple spite, but rather a knowledgable take on problems, with thoughts on where things are going wrong.
Apple is a fast moving train, steadily producing and refining immensely complex products. Apple is dancing to the opposing forces of satisfying shareholder demands for ever-increasing growth, and user demands to stop and fix the bugs. Short of halting forward progress and retooling, there’s no easy answer here.
Bloomberg:
Van Amburg and Erlicht promised to make two seasons of Aniston and Witherspoon’s show without shooting a pilot episode first, and they offered more than $250 million, including more than $1 million per episode for each actress, according to people familiar with the terms. This was unprecedented. At the time, the biggest TV stars earned about $500,000 each per episode.
And:
At Apple’s first Hollywood premiere, in October, Van Amburg and Erlicht addressed the sense of whiplash head-on. “Zack and I knew how to create a premium, high-quality, great show,” Erlicht said. “What, in retrospect, we didn’t know how to do was create from scratch a premium service at Apple.”
Another behind the scenes take on Apple TV+. Snarky headline. Interesting read. Apple is eating an incredibly steep learning curve here. Launch is about a week away.
[VIDEO] Sure, this is great marketing, a win-win for Apple and Selena Gomez, but it also stands on its own. Yet another example of how far Apple’s iPhone camera efforts have come (video embedded in main Loop post).
Filming a movie, or a review, or an ad on an iPhone is no longer a compromise. It’s a cost effective solution.
Apple:
The camp offers a hands-on technology lab, one-on-one code-level guidance from Apple experts and engineers as well as mentorship, inspiration and insights from top Apple leaders. After the lab concludes, participants get ongoing support and become part of a growing community of exceptional alumni who can help create and build businesses.
This is a great program, planting seeds for the future. Interested in participating? The next camp runs from January 28 to February 5. Here’s a link to the application.
[VIDEO] Laughing Squid highlights this Defunctland six-part series on young Jim Henson and the birth of The Muppets. The first of these is embedded in the main Loop post.
If nothing else, make your way to about 55 seconds in and pause. Remarkable to me how iconic that simple head shape is, how obvious it is, even without eyes, that that’s Kermit. And that shape, created from scraps, still lives.
First things first, take a minute to read this Bloomberg article, titled Photoshop for iPad Nearing Launch With Some Key Features Missing.
In a nutshell, Mark Gurman and Nico Grant interview Adobe’s Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky, raising the issue that this coming Photoshop is not feature-complete when compared to desktop Photoshop.
Enter Gruber:
From what I gather, the mistake Adobe made was not precisely setting expectations for the initial release of Photoshop for iPad. When Adobe described it as “real” Photoshop, what a lot of people heard was “full” Photoshop, and that was never the plan. Some of this expectation-setting is attributable to Bloomberg, which described the project as “the full version of its Photoshop app” as far back as July last year.
Gruber points out that the iPad Photoshop is based on “the same code base that’s been running on the desktop for decades.” Glass half full, rather than glass half empty. After reading the DF article, I walked away thinking Adobe is all-in on bringing their tools to iPad, taking the time to rework the interface elements for touch screen, while maintaining a high degree of interoperability with the desktop.
That sense is only strengthened by this Bloomberg follow-up, Adobe Plans to Launch Illustrator App for iPad After Photoshop.
Tiny side note: Check the footnote at the top of the Daring Fireball article. It’s a callback to the lack of closure on Bloomberg’s “The Big Hack” piece from 2018. But check that footnote’s URL. Gruber has gotten me in the habit of being careful about changes to my own URLs, and the whimsy of sometimes hiding messages in them as well.
Had a bit of back and forth on Twitter this morning, with questions about Apple TV+. Here are a few findings…
If you sign up for Apple TV+, you are getting the family plan. There’s no separate pricing tier, as their is for Apple Music. $4.99 a month, up to 6 family members.
Though I’ve not read any specific guidance on this, I would make sure the person designated as the primary contact for your family is the person who signs up for Apple TV+. If someone else in the family buys a device and signs up for the free year of Apple TV+, it’s not clear if the free year applies to the primary account.
From Apple’s Apple TV+ free year promo terms and conditions:
Offer cannot be combined with other free trials or offers for Apple TV+.
I get that this is designed to prevent you from buying two Apple devices and getting two free years of Apple TV+. But what if you sign up for the free 7 day trial, then buy an Apple device? Does the free trial prevent you from getting the free year?
My guess on that latter is no, that the 7 day trial won’t void the free year, but it’d be good to get some clarification here.
Offer must be claimed in the Apple TV app within 3 months after first setting up your new device. To see the offer appear, you will need to sign in with your Apple ID on your new device. If you’ve purchased your new device before the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, you will have 3 months starting November 1 to redeem.
Good to know. If you know the answer to the two questions raised above (if non-primary family member signs up for free year, does it apply to main account?, and does free trial prevent free year?) please touch base.
Taiwan News:
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is the new chairman of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
And:
Cook’s role will be to promote development of the college and make it a world-class economic management school. His mandate will last from 2019 to 2022.
And:
The advisory board … comprises entrepreneurs, business school deans, scholars, leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and financial departments.
The CCP is a key to this story. Why?
Apple was recently forced by the CCP to remove a crowdsourced map service from its App Store that allowed Hong Kong protesters to track police activity. Cook defended the removal in an email to employees and emphasized the app was removed for illegal use.
Peter Rubin, Wired:
After what felt like years of anticipation, Apple was about to take us behind the scenes of a show it was making for its still mysterious, still unnamed subscription streaming service. We were going to find out if Apple, maker of so many devices that have redefined the way we consume content, could finally make content—good content—of its own.
This is a great story. If you have any interest in Apple TV+ and how it came to be, follow the headline link and dig in. This story goes all the way back to Planet of the Apps, pulls no punches. How did Apple get from that inauspicious start to a series that has the potential to be one of the best shows in streaming?
[VIDEO] This (video embedded in main Loop post) is interesting, both because it runs dark mode alongside light mode on an iPhone XS Max with an OLED Display, but also because robotic arm (via MacRumors).
Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet:
Hackers can abuse Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart assistants to eavesdrop on user conversations without users’ knowledge, or trick users into handing over sensitive information.
And regarding the word “again” in the headline:
The attacks aren’t technically new. Security researchers have previously found similar phishing and eavesdropping vectors impacting Amazon Alexa in April 2018; Alexa and Google Home devices in May 2018; and again Alexa devices in August 2018.
Whack-a-mole. Amazon and Google respond to attacks with countermeasures, new attacks pop up.
As to the specifics, watch the videos embedded in the linked article. The phishing attack asks you for your password. Though there are some people who might actually respond to this, I’d guess most users would instantly get the evil intent here. But still, the fact that such an action exists, that it passes muster enough to be demo-able, does give me pause.
More troubling is the eavesdropping issue shown in the second set of videos. The fact that an action continues, even after you ask Alexa/Google to stop, does seem like it should not be allowed to happen.
Is this lack of security the price you pay for customizable actions?
[VIDEO] This dropped last week, but I somehow missed it in all my posting windows, thought it was worth sharing. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
Of all the new Apple TV+ shows, this one is the most puzzling to me, yet intriguing nonetheless. It’s easy to imagine the pitch meetings for all the other Apple TV+ shows I’ve encountered. This one is different.
It’s a show about a poet. A period piece. And it’s a comedy.
Here’s the premise from the Wikipedia page:
Dickinson takes place “during Emily Dickinson’s era with a modern sensibility and tone. It takes viewers into the world of Emily, audaciously exploring the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn’t fit in to her own time through her imaginative point of view. Dickinson is Emily’s coming-of-age story – one woman’s fight to get her voice heard.”
I am very much looking forward to watching this.