Apple is in a unique position because of their stance on privacy and their business model.
Uncategorized
12-year-old singing ventriloquist gets golden buzzer on “America’s Got Talent”
This is pretty incredible.
Do household printers leave an invisible tracking code on all your printed documents?
I thought everyone knew about this. I remember hearing about it in the late 1990s as color printers were becoming more common in offices. We were told not to try and photocopy money – it wouldn’t work and we’d be tracked.
Be careful celebrating Google’s new ad blocker
I was automatically and understandably skeptical about the stories that Google would create an ad blocker for the Chrome web browser. As expected, this benefits Google the most and might actually hurt many users.
How to opt out of Twitter’s new privacy settings
It’s typically sleazy for Twitter to have the pop up give the impression that nothing will change.
Snake Venom is officially the world’s strongest beer
D’Marge:
Coming at you from Scotland’s Brewmeister, Snake Venom boasts a warning label and a whopping 67.5% ABV.
Nobody show this to Jim. Every bottle comes with a bright yellow hang-tag warning label. It should come with a lock and a designated EMT. Yeesh.
Michelle Obama talks entrepreneurship, social issues, more at WWDC
AppleInsider has some video but I hope Apple posts an “official” version soon for us to watch.
Thoughts on WWDC
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off on Monday in San Jose, California, the first time it’s been in the city since 2002. Not only did Apple have the pressure of putting on the conference in San Jose, they also had to deliver great updates for developers and consumers. They delivered on all counts. […]
The second coming of iPad
I’m very impressed with the new iPad and even more so with the next version of iOS. The combination is going to be enough to get me to (finally) retire my old iPad and buy the newest one.
Apple halves cost of 2TB iCloud plan to $9.99 a month
Any cost savings is good. This makes it much easier to recommend iCloud storage to my photography students.
Why Apple is struggling to become an artificial-intelligence powerhouse
I don’t I’d agree with the “struggling” part of the story but it’s still an interesting look at Apple’s AI efforts.
The Apple exec who stole the show at WWDC explains why she will now be the face of Uber
This is a big deal and a loss for Apple but if that’s Uber’s goal, they have zero chance of achieving it with or without her.
Apple adds advanced editing features to Photos app in macOS High Sierra
I’m still not giving up Lightroom for Apple’s Photos app but it’s great to see the added features in the native app.
The new App Store
Apple today unveiled the all-new App Store, designed from the ground up to make discovering apps and games easier than ever before. The beautifully redesigned App Store is packed with original stories and editorial, updated daily in a new Today tab, as well as new Games and Apps tabs. Compelling stories, in-depth interviews, helpful tips and collections of must-have apps and games will showcase Apple’s unique perspective and aim to inform, help and inspire customers every day. App Store customers have now downloaded more than 180 billion apps and Apple has paid out over $70 billion to developers since the store launched in 2008, making it the most vibrant software marketplace in the world.
Two things I like with this update. First, games have their own tab so those of us that don’t game won’t have to scroll through them all the time. Second, the Today page may just help discovery.
iMac Pro
Apple today gave a sneak peek of iMac Pro, an entirely new workstation-class product line designed for pro users with the most demanding workflows. The all-new iMac Pro, with its gorgeous 27-inch Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, is the most powerful Mac ever made. Featuring a stunning new space gray enclosure, iMac Pro packs incredible performance for advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation and real-time 3D rendering. iMac Pro is scheduled to ship in December starting at $4,999 (US).
It’s pretty safe to say Apple is serious about the Mac.
iOS 11
Apple today previewed iOS 11, a major update to the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, bringing new experiences and hundreds of features to iPhone and iPad this fall. iOS 11 is the biggest software release ever for iPad, with powerful multitasking features, the Files app and more ways to use Apple Pencil. Augmented reality is coming to hundreds of millions of iOS devices with a new platform for developers to build apps that let users place virtual content on top of real-world scenes. CoreML gives developers on-device machine learning capabilities so they can easily make apps that will predict, learn and become more intelligent. Additional features include the ability to pay friends using Apple Pay, Do Not Disturb while driving to help users stay more focused on the road, even more intelligence and a new voice for Siri and new professional capabilities to Photos and Camera. iOS 11 is available as a developer preview today and will be a free software update for iPhone and iPad this fall.
There is a lot to love about iOS 11, much of it centered around the iPad.
Apple unveils the 10.5-inch iPad Pro
Apple today introduced an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro and a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, featuring the world’s most advanced display with ProMotion technology and incredible performance with the new A10X Fusion chip. The new 10.5-inch model reduces the borders by nearly 40 percent to fit into an incredibly compact package that still weighs just one pound. Combined with powerful new iPad features in iOS 11 coming this fall, like the all-new Files app, customizable Dock, improved multitasking and deeper integration of Apple Pencil, iPad Pro gives users the ability to be even more productive and creative.
The 9.7-inch is my favorite because of the screen technologies, but I do use the larger one sometimes just because of the size. It’ll be interesting for me to try the 10.5-inch and see if that’s the perfect combination of both.
Apple introduces HomePod
Apple today announced HomePod, a breakthrough wireless speaker for the home that delivers amazing audio quality and uses spatial awareness to sense its location in a room and automatically adjust the audio. Designed to work with an Apple Music subscription for access to over 40 million songs, HomePod provides deep knowledge of personal music preferences and tastes and helps users discover new music.
My first thought was the iPod HiFi speaker, but this is so much more. I’m looking forward to trying this out.
The Greatest, at rest
As sad as it is, this is a wonderfully written piece about Ali. I was lucky enough to meet him years ago during an Apple Masters presentation at Macworld Expo. I had tears ion my eyes when I met him and those tears returned reading this article.
Alex Honnold has become the first climber to free solo Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan wall
I’ve been an admirer of this guy for years, even if what he does utterly terrifies me. This is an incredible feat. I don’t know I could run 3,000ft on flat ground in under four hours.
The immortal life of John Tesh’s NBA anthem “Roundball Rock”
When I saw the headline, I had no idea what it was about. I’ve never associated Tesh with anything in the NBA.
Waze Carpool expands throughout California
Beginning June 6, users of the Waze Carpool app will be able to find rides from Waze drivers already going their way – and vice versa – throughout the state, expanding on a service only available to date in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sadly, my first thought was to be careful of who you drive with. However, it is an interesting experiment.
Adobe Scan turns documents into editable PDFs
For those of you who need to do this kind of stuff, this might be just the ticket.
Developer earnings from the App Store top $70 Billion
Apple today announced that its global developer community has earned over $70 billion since the App Store launched in 2008. The App Store is home to the most innovative apps in the world and in the past 12 months alone, downloads have grown over 70 percent.
“People everywhere love apps and our customers are downloading them in record numbers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Seventy billion dollars earned by developers is simply mind-blowing. We are amazed at all of the great new apps our developers create and can’t wait to see them again next week at our Worldwide Developers Conference.”
Those numbers are just insane to think about. The types of apps being developed have become more complex in recent years, allowing us to do so much more with our iPhones and iPads. Having powerful hardware is very important, but having a thriving ecosystem of apps to run on the hardware is important too.
Hands on with Halide, a new gesture-based iPhone camera app
While much of the Mac Tech Media have raved about Halide from Chroma Noir LLC, I really appreciate DPReview’s hands-on description that includes the pluses and minuses, helping me to make a better buying decision.
Chevy Bolt review: an affordable long-range electric car you can buy now
The video isn’t hugely interesting (it’s not Top Gear after all) but it does point out the challenges of an all-electric vehicle for those who don’t live in a major city. Would you buy a Chevy Bolt?
Apple adds robot, drone and instrument support to Swift Playgrounds
Apple on Thursday will announce some great new features for Swift Playgrounds, the company’s educational coding app for iPad. With version 1.5, being released on the opening day of its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5, Swift Playgrounds will feature support for robots, drones and musical instruments. I sat down with Apple executives and a couple of educators to talk about the news.
Fireflies
A fascinating, interactive firefly simulation.
Uber posts $708 million loss
Uber’s first-quarter loss, excluding employee stock compensation and other items, was $708 million, narrower than the $991 million reported three months earlier, the Journal said.
And the company’s head of finance quit. Damn!
The complete, untold history of Halo
I’m not much of a gamer but Halo was so incredible, I bought an Xbox just so I could play it.