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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.

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.

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.

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!

Carpool Karaoke debuts August 8

Apple today announced Carpool Karaoke: The Series will be available to Apple Music subscribers starting Tuesday, August 8. The show will feature many of today’s biggest names in music, television, film, sports and pop culture buckling up and belting out their favorite songs for a road trip filled with comedy, conversation and music.

I’m hoping they can pull this off because what James Corden did was really special.

Google Street View’s 10th Birthday

Street View started out as Larry Page’s far-fetched idea to create a 360-degree map of the world. Today, 10 years after the first imagery was published in Street View, people can scale mountains, dive into the depths of the ocean, scout out ramen spots, and walk through museums in far corners of the world.

That was a pretty far-fetched idea, but it is cool.

Uber fires former Google engineer in self-driving car case

Uber has long denied the accusations. But when Mr. Levandowski was ordered by a federal judge to hand over evidence and testimony to that end, he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights, seeking to avoid possible criminal charges, according to his lawyers. Uber has been unable to convince Mr. Levandowski to cooperate.

Oh boy.

Here’s a great name for a tablet: iPad

Ryonghung, a North Korean technology company, recently announced a new tablet. It looks a lot like the weird, firewalled computers the country has produced in the past, with the addition of one curious new feature: the name. It’s called… the iPad.

I have no idea how Apple is even supposed to fight this one.

The Talk Show

I had such a great time chatting with John Gruber on his latest episode of The Talk Show.

Pixelmator Team tease a brand new Mac app

This is the biggest thing that we’ve ever done. The most innovative, beautiful and powerful thing that we’ve ever done. And it’s also the most Mac thing that we’ve ever done! This is what the legendary Pixelmator Team has been secretly and incredibly passionately working on for 5 whole years.

This totally caught my attention today. I love the folks at Pixelmator and the great apps they make, so if they’ve been working on something this long, you know it’s going to be big.

Android creator Andy Rubin makes new smartphone

The Essential Phone, brought to us by the person who created Android, is finally ready for the spotlight. It’s an incredibly audacious and ambitious project, with an outlandish screen and the beginnings of a modular ecosystem.

Rubin has been trying to one-up Apple for years but could never quite pull it off. We’ll see how this works out, but I suspect once Apple outlines its next iOS and iPhone hardware later this year, interest in Rubin’s “Essential Phone” will wane.

Watch “The Doctor, The Tornado & The Kentucky Kid” for free

The Kentucky Kid of the title is Nicky Hayden who tragically lost his life last week after being struck by a car while out training on a bicycle. The movie is quite dated but does give a good sense of what professional motorcycle racing is all about.