Media

Hey Apple, I lost my drone on your roof. Can I get it back?

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[VIDEO] Matthew Roberts (the guy who posts those monthly Apple Park drone construction videos):

A drone crashed into Apple Park over the weekend. The drone pilot got in touch with me shortly after the incident to inquire if I could assist in locating the downed drone. I was happy to oblige, so I took a Phantom 4 Pro out and began searching for it. It was eventually located on the Solar Roof and appeared to be intact for the most part.

The drone operator has gotten in touch with Apple and notified them of the drone crash and it remains to be seen, whether the operator will get his crashed drone back.

The video (embedded in the main Loop post) has (very choppy) footage of the drone going down. When I first saw this, I was reminded of all those times I knocked on neighbors doors to get back baseballs, footballs, and frisbees that landed in their yard or on their roof. Never a drone though.

Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo, Google Home in an (occasionally interrupted) infinite loop

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[VIDEO] First things first, you might want to listen to this one (embedded in the main Loop post) on headphones, else you’ll find your home devices firing off constantly. Amusing the first time it happens, but trust me, you don’t want that.

The fact that this infinite loop of requests gets interrupted says something about reliability of this technology. I’d hate for my life to depend on one of these assistants getting something right. As I understand it, the CNET folks who pulled this together tried several times to tweak settings to get the infinite flow and just couldn’t.

It’ll get there.

Side note: I kept expecting that weird fake flowers thing in the middle of the picture to come to life. Sadly, it did not.

Apple Music to release “Cash Money” documentary Friday

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[VIDEO] Billboard:

After numerous delays, Apple has finally confirmed that Before Anythang: The Cash Money Story will release on their Apple Music streaming platform on Friday. The Cash Money documentary will feature Bryan “Birdman” Williams narrating his childhood and what inspired him to change his life’s trajectory by launching the mythical label back in 1991.

Cash Money is home to prominent artists like Drake, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. An amazing, compelling story. Trailer embedded in the main Loop post.

Apple developing series called “Swagger”, based on life of NBA’s Kevin Durant

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Variety:

The series is inspired by Durant’s youth basketball experiences. It will explore the world of Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball and the lives of the players, their families, and coaches.

The series will be produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Television along with Durant’s Thirty Five Media. Durant and Grazer will executive produce, along with Imagine’s Francie Calfo and Thirty Five Media’s Rich Kleiman.

Eddy Cue is a huge basketball fan, a die-hard Golden State Warriors fan, and a fan and friend of Warriors’ star Kevin Durant. From this New York Times article:

Another incident that stirred an online reaction came when a fan stood up and seemingly shouted at Rihanna to sit down. Numerous commenters declared they found his behavior disrespectful.

Internet sleuths soon identified the man: Cue, Apple’s senior vice president for internet software and services, who is a die-hard Warriors fan. Durant watched the election results last November at Cue’s house along with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and pop star Pharrell Williams.

This seems a natural fit. So much so, I wonder if Eddy Cue had a role in breathing life into this series. Personally, I hope this is the case. I think great passion can make the difference between bland and textured, between dull and riveting.

Apple adds three new videos to their official iPhone photography page

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[VIDEO] The videos (embedded in the main Loop post) are:

  • How to shoot a Portrait selfie on iPhone X
  • How to edit a Portrait selfie on iPhone X
  • How to create a bouncing Live Photo on iPhone

All three are found on Apple’s official iPhone photography page. If you’ve never explored that page, take a minute to look it over. Lots of helpful tips.

This is excellent marketing on Apple’s part, the first two a subtle and, I think, effective push towards the iPhone X.

Apple’s HomePod how-to videos, and what happens when a video says “Hey Siri”

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[VIDEO] Apple posted this series of videos (embedded in the main Loop post) over the weekend. All three are about a minute long and, if you’ve got a HomePod or one in your future, they’re worth watching.

Side note, as part of walking you through the specifics of how to use Siri with HomePod, this first video says “Hey Siri”, followed by a command. Being my inquisitive self, I replayed the video a few times sitting in a room with my HomePod, just to see what would happen.

Sure enough, my HomePod picked up on the commands, though not nearly as cleanly as if I spoke the same words. I know that the Amazon Echo filters out some Alexa occurrences. I wonder if Apple does something similar, or if the voice quality coming out of my MacBook Pro speakers is not nearly as clear as my voice.

Two video HomePod reviews

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[VIDEO] The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern and the Verge’s Nilay Patel each posted their take on Apple HomePod. Both of these are informative and worth watching. Both videos are embedded in the main Loop post.

Enjoy.

How to stream the 2018 Winter Olympics on iPhone, iPad, Mac & Apple TV

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Have you cut the cord? Interested in the Olympics, but don’t have access to the channels that carry them? This is definitely worth the read.

If you live in the US, don’t forget that you can get your local channels, in high-def, over-the-air via an antenna, at least in most locations.

The games have officially started, and the Opening Ceremony will be replayed tonight during prime time. Here’s a link to NBC’s official Olympics site.

How to transfer your iPhone or Mac Photo library to an external drive

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I think it’s incredibly important to backup your photos onto some form of removable media, tuck it away somewhere safe. This is in addition to your Time Machine or cloud backup.

Personally, I periodically backup all my photos to a single removable drive and store the drive in a safe deposit box.

All that said, this is a terrific article, with detail on prepping for backup, locating all relevant files, importing/moving as needed, and more. Worth reading and passing along.

A choir of strangers accompanies David Byrne singing David Bowie’s Heroes

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[VIDEO] So much richness here. There’s an organized performance called Choir! Choir! Choir!, where attendees (total strangers, who come to see the performance) are taught a sequence of vocal parts, then a bit of rehearsal, then they perform.

In the video embedded in the main Loop post, David Byrne (the unmistakeable voice from Talking Heads) sings David Bowie’s classic Heroes, and the crowd sings background. I would absolutely love to attend one of these performances. Bucket list.

This 1983 demo says so much about Apple’s past, present, and future

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[VIDEO] Harry McCracken, FastCompany:

On the evening of January 26, 1983, as a technology-smitten Boston University freshman, I attended the monthly meeting of the Boston Computer Society, which included a demo of Apple’s brand-new Lisa system. Though I know that I came away enormously impressed, I don’t exactly recall the event like it was yesterday. Actually, just one element was permanently etched onto my brain cells: the moment when the Lisa’s bitmapped, proportional, user-selectable typefaces flashed on screen. It was a mind-bender given that other PCs–like my beloved Atari 400–were capable only of displaying a single fixed-width font of no elegance whatsoever.

And:

What I didn’t realize until I watched the video is that seeing the meeting all over again wasn’t just an act of personal nostalgia. Between them, the IIe and Lisa, and the way Apple explained them to us BCS members, are full of lessons that remain resonant in the era of the iPhone.

First, read Harry’s article, it’s terrific. Then check the video of the meeting itself, embedded in the main Loop post. It’s a charming time capsule capture of a real moment in time.

The iPad lost years for Apple’s media partners

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Shira Ovide, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is revamping its digital bookstore in another attempt to take on Amazon’s dominance. I can’t help thinking: What if?

This is a reference to this article, about Apple remaking the iBooks Store and the iBooks app, simplifying both and making book reading a better experience.

More from Shira:

The missed opportunity was for Apple’s business partners, particularly newspaper and magazine companies, which Apple persuaded to turn themselves inside out to take advantage of the iPad. It turned out that Apple was leading those partners to a dead end.

This is a bit of a curmudgeonly statement, but there is truth at its core. A number of publishers went all in on the iPad, with visions of a simple path from print to digital, with subscriptions intact.

The eighth anniversary of the iPad’s introduction was on Saturday. Allow me to take you on a trip back to that time. Steve Jobs set off on a sales pitch to media companies that he hoped would make the new tablet computer more useful. Jobs was a true believer that the iPad would be an amazing opportunity for books, newspapers and magazines to reimagine their products, capture readers and patch up their ailing business models.

All-in-all, a fascinating read.

What makes this song so great?

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[VIDEO] If you are a songwriter or musician, take the time to watch this video (embedded in the main Loop post). It’s the second entry in Rick Beato’s excellent series, “What makes this song great?”

Even if you are a music theory beginner, you’ll find this easy to follow and full of insight.

This particular song? Everything She Does is Magic, by The Police. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times and never once saw any of the special that Rick Beato reveals. Great, great video.

[H/T Steven Woolgar]

Steven Soderbergh says he only wants to shoot his movies on iPhones

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IndieWire, on Soderbergh’s upcoming movie, Unsane:

Taking a page from Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” Soderbergh shot the whole movie on an iPhone. While Baker has said he used a phone instead of traditional cameras due to budgetary constraints, Soderbergh said he was so impressed with the quality of iPhone cinematography that he would likely continue to use phones to shoot his movies going forward.

And:

“I think this is the future,” he said. “Anybody going to see this movie who has no idea of the backstory to the production will have no idea this was shot on the phone. That’s not part of the conceit.”

The filmmaker has experimented with digital cinematography for years, going back to 2002’s “Full Frontal,” but found that the iPhone offered unparalleled quality. “People forget, this is a 4k capture,” said Soderbergh, who was long a passionate advocate for the high-end RED cameras. “I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.”

Soderbergh doesn’t need to scrimp and save on his movies. He’s had enough big box office success (Erin Brockovich, Oceans 11/12/13) that he can do pretty much as he pleases. The fact that he can get what he wants from iPhone says a lot.

It kind of blows my mind to think that a director of some renowned would choose to film using his phone. How far we’ve come.

Alexa lost her voice

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[VIDEO] Pretty solid teaser (embedded in main Loop post) for Amazon’s upcoming Super Bowl commercial.

Two new Animoji ads

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[VIDEO] Saw these spots (embedded in the main Loop post) over the weekend, timely marketing push coinciding with Apple Music’s big presence during last night’s Grammys.

I loved both of these ads, though that second one hit me twice. First, I love the Animoji, animation, and music combination. But I also love that this is Childish Gambino, who is really actor Donald Glover.

Good stuff.

Video: Hands-on with AirPlay 2 on iOS 11.3 & tvOS 11.3

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Andrew O’Hara, iDownloadBlog, jumped through the hoops necessary to test out the beta version of AirPlay 2 using multiple Apple TVs, each running their latest betas.

Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. This is especially timely, given the fact that we’re just a few weeks away from our first public HomePods and the importance of AirPlay to the HomePod experience.

Ursula K. Le Guin: “Gentlemen, I just don’t belong here”

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Ursula K. Le Guin was a great scifi and fantasy writer. She died a few days ago and amongst all the articles appreciating her work, I came across this letter she wrote.

Le Guin was asked to contribute a blurb to an anthology of science fiction stories. Here response says a tremendous amount about her:

Dear Mr Radziewicz,

I can imagine myself blurbing a book in which Brian Aldiss, predictably, sneers at my work, because then I could preen myself on my magnanimity. But I cannot imagine myself blurbing a book, the first of the series, which not only contains no writing by women, but the tone of which is so self-contentedly, exclusively male, like a club, or a locker room. That would not be magnanimity, but foolishness. Gentlemen, I just don’t belong here.

Yours truly, (Signed) Ursula K. Le Guin

Hell of a letter.

Woman runs through landscape of iconic album covers in Pandora ad

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This ad (embedded in the main Loop post) ran last year, but I just encountered it this weekend, thought it worth sharing.

I feel like the days of iconic album covers are all in the past. It’s not that the covers are any less creative, it’s more that I tend to get my music via links or as part of crafted playlists.

At the same time, album art went from 12″ album covers, to less than 5″ for a CD cover, down the the tiny thumbnails we have today.

No matter, enjoy the ad.

iPhone X ad: “I am the greatest”

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[VIDEO] This iPhone X ad (embedded in the main Loop post) reached back in time, editing together snippets from a comedy album Muhammad Ali created early on in his professional boxing career, before he changed his name. The album was released under his birth name of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., back when the world was first learning about “The Greatest”.

The snippets used in the Apple ad are from the second track on the album.

Here’s a link to the album’s Wikipedia page.

Disney hires Apple veteran to launch its Netflix killer

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Variety:

Disney announced last summer that it plans to launch an ESPN-branded direct-to-consumer offering early this year, followed by a Disney-branded service in 2019. To power the service, Disney acquired a large stake in the streaming solutions provider BAMTech for $1.58 billion last year.

And:

Disney’s BAMTech Media has hired former Apple and Samsung executive Kevin Swint as SVP and GM, Disney SVOD Service, to build, and ultimately run, the company’s upcoming Netflix competitor.

Netflix killer? I don’t think so. But they will make life just a bit harder for Netflix:

To prepare for the launch of its own subscription video business, Disney announced that it won’t renew its distribution agreement with Netflix.

Presumably, that will also include the content they will acquire in the Fox deal.

Tim Cook talks new Apple site, tax repatriation, battery kerfuffle, and more

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[VIDEO] Watch the videos embedded in the main Loop post, two different takes on the same interview. If you only watch one, watch the second. It’s a bit more detailed, longer stretches of Tim talking.

One takeaway from all this: Tim is earnest. When he talks about Apple’s intentions regarding the battery snafu, I believe he means what he says, and I believe what he says is true.

Apple and the The Office: Office actors surface in new FileMaker ad

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[VIDEO] One of the rumors linked to Apple’s burgeoning video efforts was a possible reboot of The Office.

Not clear if this is the extent of Apple’s plans for The Office, but check out this FileMaker ad (embedded in the main Loop post). I’ll leave it to you to judge the ad’s charms.

I was surprised to see an ad for FileMaker after all these years. I’d love to know the backstory here. Was this done solely by FileMaker staff? Or was this the brainchild of Apple marketing, either as an experiment, or as an attempt to bump FileMaker visibility/sales?

Seems expensive for an experiment, or a FileMaker coffers funded ad campaign. And the ad specifically brands FileMaker as “An Apple Subsidiary”.

Perhaps this is serving more as a trailer for Apple’s future video efforts.

Apple Music and the loss of the album

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Over the weekend, someone started a thread asking why an artist’s album view in Apple Music has gotten so cluttered.

To see this for yourself, pick a relatively modern artist and check out their list of albums in the Music app. For example, fire up Siri and say:

Show me all the Bruno Mars albums

When the Bruno Mars page appears, scroll down to the Albums section and tap See All. Amongst the actual Bruno Mars albums, you’ll find a lot of singles and EPs. Way more singles and EPs than actual albums, in fact.

Now it certainly is great to have a complete list of all of Bruno Mars’ music at your fingertips. But sometimes you want to find an album. And there is a lot of clutter.

Personally, I think it’d be nice if there was some way to declutter the list, have a view without all the duplicated remixed singles.

To get a sense of the core of this problem, take a few minutes to read Kirk McElhearn’s excellent post, How iTunes Handles Albums, EPs, and Singles. From the post:

With digital music, everything has changed. When you see a bit of text on a website or in iTunes, all you know is the name of the release and its artist. David Bowie’s Let’s Dance could be a single, an EP, or an Album. This is because the tags – the metadata that identifies music – doesn’t allow for this type of differentiation. iTunes uses a simplified version of the ID3 tagging system, which doesn’t offer a tag to identify what type of release a record is. (MusicBrainz does use a tag called Release Group, which can be used to distinguish between singles, albums, and EPs, but also broadcasts and “other.”)

So how can you distinguish between these different formats in digital? The only way is if the record label has tagged the name of a release with the word “Single” or “EP.”

Bottom line, this is not a trivial problem to solve. Not, at least, without the cooperation of the labels. But seems to me, this is a problem worth solving. And if I, as a human, can step through an artists list of albums/EPs/singles and quickly suss out which items on the list are albums, surely this is the kind of problem that would yield to a well applied bit of machine learning.

And once Apple Music knows the difference between albums, singles, EPs, etc., it’d be easy enough to add a filter to let me search through only albums, or only singles for that matter.