Uncategorized

Apple updates iOS 10 developer beta

iOS 10 beta 7 was released today. I haven’t seen any of the other operating system updates yet. If you have a previous beta version installed, just go to Settings > General > Software Update to download the new version.

Uber CEO talks about company’s self-driving car future

Travis Kalanick has to get Uber’s bet on self-driving cars right.

“It starts with understanding that the world is going to go self-driving and autonomous,” he told Business Insider in an interview.

“So if that’s happening, what would happen if we weren’t a part of that future? If we weren’t part of the autonomy thing? Then the future passes us by basically, in a very expeditious and efficient way.”

As much as I may not like autonomous cars, from a business perspective, it’s hard to argue with his reasoning.

Roadblocks for new Apple Watch

The source of the delay is that current cellular chips consume too much battery life, reducing the product’s effectiveness and limiting user appeal, according to three of the people. Apple has begun studying lower-power cellular data chips for future smartwatch generations.

This is an incredibly difficult problem, but anything that negatively affects battery life will be a non-starter for a lot of users. Most days, I have plenty of battery life remaining when I go to bed, but I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where I was running out of power early in the day.

Twitter adds a quality filter setting

Last year we began testing a quality filter setting and we’re now rolling out a feature for everyone. When turned on, the filter can improve the quality of Tweets you see by using a variety of signals, such as account origin and behavior. Turning it on filters lower-quality content, like duplicate Tweets or content that appears to be automated, from your notifications and other parts of your Twitter experience. It does not filter content from people you follow or accounts you’ve recently interacted with – and depending on your preferences, you can turn it on or off in your notifications settings.

Twitter certainly has a lot of work to do, but anything that can help my feed is welcome.

Gawker.com to end operations next week

After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week. The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media’s six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company.

Volvo, Uber partner to develop self-driving cars

The partnership will allow the Swedish-based carmaker, owned by China’s Geely, and ride-hailing service Uber to pool resources into initially developing the autonomous driving capabilities of its flagship XC90 SUV model. The investment will be shared roughly equally by the two companies.

I don’t think I’d ever want a fully autonomous car, but if we’re talking about driver-assisted technologies, I trust Volvo and Mercedes.

Uber takes legal action over new rules in London

In January, it decided against imposing a five-minute wait time for rides on customers of services such as Uber, which allows customers to book and pay for a taxi on their smartphones, but said that it would bring in measures including compulsory language tests.

That iconic Usain Bolt photo

This seriously has to be one (or two) of the best photos ever taken. It’s interesting that two professional photographers took basically the same photo within milliseconds of the other.

Gawker sold to Univision for $135 million

Gawker owner Nick Denton:

“Gawker Media Group has agreed this evening to sell our business and popular brands to Univision, one of America’s largest media companies that is rapidly assembling the leading digital media group for millennial and multicultural audiences. I am pleased that our employees are protected and will continue their work under new ownership — disentangled from the legal campaign against the company. We could not have picked an acquirer more devoted to vibrant journalism.”

The Tekserve Collection auction

This is the last chapter for the iconic Manhattan store. I taught photography classes there and really enjoyed perusing their collection. I particularly enjoyed their collection of vintage camera equipment. There might be some cool stuff available for auction participants.

Ford’s road to full autonomy

This seems like a remarkably ambitious timetable for such a vehicle. Would you buy or ride in one of these in five years, assuming Ford can pull it off (which I don’t think they’ll be able to)?

How do you know when something is overdesigned?

As discussed last week, something designed minimally doesn’t necessarily mean it is well-designed. As Apple design guru Jonathan Ive aptly notes, “simplicity is not the absence of clutter…simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product.” Following along this train of thought, Core77 reader constellation23 recently brought up a brilliantly simple question with a variety of points to consider. Our reader asks:

“How do you know when something is overdesigned?”

Very good question.

Google Duo video calling app

Today, we’re releasing Google Duo — a simple 1-to-1 video calling app available for Android and iOS. Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are.

Not a big surprise that Google has entered this market.

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography deal – $25 off

Through Amazon, Adobe is offering $25 off the usual price of $120 when you pre-pay for a year. It’s applicable to both new and existing subscribers. Full disclosure: the link is attached to my Amazon Affiliate Code.

Pics from The Oculus Mall at the World Trade Center

The Loop reader Andrew Leavitt shared these pics of The Oculus Mall at the World Trade Center with us today. This is the same mall where the new Apple Store will be, although it was behind barriers when these pics were taken.

Metallica: The Early Years — Trailer

This looks incredible. Interesting to note that it’s a Spotify exclusive. I wonder if Apple is so focused on Pop music that they completely forgot about getting exclusives for other genres.

Every joke from ‘Airplane!’ ranked

If you’ve never seen “Airplane” (what is wrong with you!?), these may seem like stupid, silly jokes. If you have seen “Airplane”, you’ll likely laugh out loud at these stupid, silly jokes. But you also might be surprised at what the number one joke was.

Warren Buffett buys 5.41 million shares of $AAPL

To be more accurate, Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, made the purchase. It makes a difference because, while Buffet has been personally critical of technology stocks, Berkshire Hathaway has recently hired a couple of tech fund managers who are much more bullish on Apple. That’s likely what happened here.