Media

Nikil Saval, The New Yorker:

The archetypal telephone, the Model 500, designed by Henry Dreyfuss, had a clunking rotary dial, a heavy base, and a coiled cord that connected to a curved handset.

And:

But it was the handset that was the product’s masterpiece. Molding itself to your hand and also to the crook between your shoulder and ear, it was a perfect instantiation of how a designer could shape everyday technology to the form of the human body, while anticipating the instincts—such as the desire to speak hands-free—that would guide the use of that technology.

And:

The Apple iPhone, in the various iterations that the industrial designer Jony Ive produced, is the opposite. Few objects so continuously in use by human beings are as hostile to the human body as this slim, black, fragile slab, recalcitrant to any curve of head or shoulder or even palm, where it usually rests. It is made for a world without liquids, secretions, or hard surfaces, all of which threaten its destruction. Except for the curve of the edges, where the bevel of the glass screen has been painstakingly fused to the phone’s body, it is the shape of a photo, not a face.

The quotes above give you a taste of what’s in store in the rest of the article. For me, it’s a real treat, luxuriant prose but short enough to not get old.

[VIDEO] I love this series, all filmed on the latest iPhone, in this case, the iPhone XS. Both the released video and the “making of” are embedded in the main Loop post.

New York Post:

Since announcing plans to compete with Netflix in March, Apple has been busy with a new project: financing six small-budget movies a year with an eye toward stories that could win Academy Awards, sources have told The Post.

And:

Apple is looking to spend $5 million to $30 million per project, sources said, adding that the company is being driven by Netflix’s recent spate of Oscar nominations and win for Best Foreign Film with “Roma” — legitimizing Netflix head Reed Hastings’ standing in Hollywood.

Hard to judge the motivations of others (how can anyone know if the company is being “driven” by Netflix envy?), but this certainly seems a logical move, balancing a variety of popular projects with prestige projects to add luster to the brand.

I’m eagerly following Apple’s foray into Hollywood, looking forward to the Apple TV+ rollout.

[VIDEO] Watch the trailer embedded in the main Loop post, then read on.

This was revealed at E3, in a spot typically reserved for games, not TV shows. The star, front and center, was Rob McElhenney, best known for his role in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And that voice? That’s the great F Murray Abraham, perhaps best known for playing Salieri in the movie Amadeus.

This is a trailer for a new Apple TV+ show, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. From the Wikipedia page:

The series is set in “a video game development studio and will explore the intricacies of the human condition through hilarious and innovative ways.”

On my short list. Please, please, please be good.

James Dempsey (of Breakpoints fame) captured this video of the impressive sign that covered the outside wall of the convention center, home to last week’s WWDC.

https://twitter.com/jamesdempsey/status/1137588958991245312

Take a look. Apple has really upped their signage game.

[VIDEO] After you get done looking through Apple’s official iOS 13 features page, watch the 9to5Mac video (embedded in the main Loop post), as Jeff Benjamin shows the new iOS off, feature by feature.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg, in an interview with Phillip Shoemaker, who ran app reviews from 2009 to 2016:

App reviewers worked in small conference rooms with Macs, iPhones, and iPads to test applications. Reviewers would come in each morning, pick 30 to 100 apps from a web tool, and download them devices for testing. It was a job that required long hours, Shoemaker recalled. Apple has hired more reviewers since then, and the work spaces in California are more open and collaborative now.

No small thanks go to Phil Schiller for retooling the system, radically improving the approval cycle.

Apple made sure that Shoemaker’s review team treated all third-party developers equally, even if they were giant technology companies supplying important apps for iPhones and iPads. “I was calling out Facebook all the time” on Twitter, he said. “Even though they were one of these privileged developers, they had some of the worst code at the time.”

Ouch.

Here’s a link to the interview, an episode of the Decrypted podcast.

[VIDEO] The video embedded in the main Loop post is chock full of interesting observations in preparation for Monday’s WWDC keynote. Rene Ritchie and Guilherme Rambo are both pretty smart cookies.

[VIDEO] Here’s another one of these ranking races (embedded in main Loop post). In this one, we start back in 2000, with CocaCola dominating the rankings.

But keep a keen eye out for a newcomer to enter the race in 2010. Who could it be?

[VIDEO] When I first started watching the video (embedded in the main Loop post), I just rolled my eyes.

But I kept going, and then got hooked. Not sure why this was built, but they sure put a lot of effort into this. I would pay big money to see a modern take on this, starring all the Apple folk we know and love.