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Take a moment this weekend to smile and giggle at capybaras having a shower.

This makes me unreasonably happy.

I think this is one of the reasons why I like Apple in general and Cook specifically – I wholeheartedly agree with him. Tech for tech’s sake has rarely interested me. But show me tech that makes my life better and I’m all over it.

Another example of Apple’s “building block” approach. They are slowly but surely putting together a world class team to do…..who knows?

People have been asking me two things all week—What did you think of Apple’s keynote announcements? And What did you think of WWDC in San Jose instead of having it in San Francisco? I largely covered my thoughts on the product announcements, including listening to HomePod, so I thought I’d give you some additional thoughts on WWDC in San Jose. […]

The Wall Street Journal did a complete hatchet job on Siri this week this week in an article entitled “‘I’m Not Sure I Understand’—How Apple’s Siri Lost Her Mojo”. I use Siri, and yes, I’ve had issues with the responses sometimes, but it’s not at all as bad as what this article implies. In fact, Siri has improved significantly over the past little while. […]

Recorded in front of a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose, John Gruber is joined by Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi to discuss the news from WWDC: new Mac hardware, the new iPad Pro, Mac OS 10.13 “High Sierra”, iOS 11, the upcoming HomePod, and more.

While at WWDC this week I had a chance to listen to Apple’s new HomePod and compare it to some of the competing products on the market. The results were somewhat surprising.

I can identify with this quest. 40lbs ago, I could dunk a basketball; not Jordan-like but I had some hops. I used to be able to throw a perfect spiral 60 yards downfield. Not accurately but with some distance. And I’ve scored my fair share of hockey goals. But I’ve never held a bat in a major league ballpark and “gone yard”. Definitely a bucket list item but, after reading this article and realizing the work it took this guy, I may have to scratch it off as impossible.

“Things are worth what people will pay” may be true but, in this case, it looks like what Apple is charging for the new iMac Pro is actually in line with what you can reasonably expect a powerful system like this to cost.

The people who race the Isle of Man TT are certifiably insane.

As usual, this page will cost me a small fortune.

Join the women@wwdc and James Dempsey and the Breakpoints for an evening of mingling and music to benefit App Camp For Girls!

I’ll be there tonight with my guitar to help support James and App Camp for Girls. There’s still time to grab a ticket!

I haven’t seen it yet (I’ll watch it eventually but I’m in no rush) but this is the exact review from a “real” TV critic I would have expected on the show.

Apple is in a unique position because of their stance on privacy and their business model.

This is pretty incredible.

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.

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.

It’s typically sleazy for Twitter to have the pop up give the impression that nothing will change.

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.

AppleInsider has some video but I hope Apple posts an “official” version soon for us to watch.

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. […]

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.

Any cost savings is good. This makes it much easier to recommend iCloud storage to my photography students.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.