Uncategorized

Yesterday we reported that Samsung’s earlier-than-planned September 26th launch of its new Galaxy Note 4 had been met with complaints from customers regarding a ‘screen gap’ manufacturing issue. Today, a reference in Samsung’s Note 4 manual has been discovered confirm that the gap is actually a feature, not a flaw.

This issue doesn’t take anyone sneaking into a store and forcibly bending a phone, it’s an actual manufacturing flaw, but yet the mainstream press let’s them get away with it.

This is what Samsung says about the gap:

A small gap appears around the outside of the device case… This gap is a necessary manufacturing feature and some minor rocking or vibration of parts may occur… Over time, friction between parts may cause this gap to expand slightly.

What the holy fuck! Seriously?

In the wake of the uproar that followed last week’s purported iPhone 6 Plus pliability problem, some people have apparently taken it upon themselves to go into Apple Stores and bend iPhones. And while it pains us that this even needs to be said, guys, please: Breaking private property doesn’t prove anything. Except that you’re an asshole.

That sums it up for me.

New York Magazine: Though it has been open for less than a decade, the Apple store under the glass cube at the base GM building is already one of the best-known and most successful retail sites in the world. But … Continued

TidBITS:

The disclosure this week of a major bug in a common Unix tool set of an earthquake in the security community. Not only was nearly every version of Unix vulnerable, including Linux and OS X, but most of the initial patches are not completely effective at blocking the hole. It’s a near-worst-case scenario where we have a piece of software on nearly every non-Windows server on the Internet — and plenty of personal computers (thanks to Apple’s market growth) — that is vulnerable to multiple kinds of remote attacks, all capable of completely taking over the system, with no way to completely stop it.

Despite the severity, a combination of Apple’s design decisions and how we use Macs dramatically reduces the risk, but you still need to be careful and ready to patch.

While we got a statement from Apple earlier today, I always feel better when Rich Mogull weighs in on any matters Mac security related.

Apple provided me with the following statement today:

“The vast majority of OS X users are not at risk to recently reported bash vulnerabilities. Bash, a UNIX command shell and language included in OS X, has a weakness that could allow unauthorized users to remotely gain control of vulnerable systems. With OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services. We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users.”

Clearly, most users do not use the advanced UNIX services.

The Verge:

A few blocks away from Apple’s bustling campus in Cupertino is a rather nondescript building. Inside is absolutely the last place on earth you’d want to be if you were an iPhone. It’s here where Apple subjects its newest models to the kinds of things they might run into in the real world: drops, pressure, twisting, tapping. Basically all the things that could turn your shiny gadget into a small pile of metal and glass.

I got a tour of this part of Apple’s operation many years ago and was very surprised to see just how much stress testing Apple did in-house on everything.

Here is a statement Apple provided to me today about the iPhone bending:

“Our iPhones are designed, engineered and manufactured to be both beautiful and sturdy. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus feature a precision engineered unibody enclosure constructed from machining a custom grade of 6000 series anodized aluminum, which is tempered for extra strength. They also feature stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high stress locations and use the strongest glass in the smartphone industry. We chose these high-quality materials and construction very carefully for their strength and durability. We also perform rigorous tests throughout the entire development cycle including 3-point bending, pressure point cycling, sit, torsion, and user studies. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus meet or exceed all of our high quality standards to endure everyday, real life use.

With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus. As with any Apple product, if you have questions please contact Apple.”

If you purposely bend your phone, any phone, you’re a fucking moron.

Apple sent the following statement to me tonight regarding iOS 8.0.1:

We have received reports of an issue with the iOS 8.0.1 update. We are actively investigating these reports and will provide information as quickly as we can. In the meantime we have pulled back the iOS 8.0.1 update.

I haven’t updated yet, so I have no experience with any issues.

Lisa Bettany:

I present an eight iPhone comparison (with) all iPhone versions taken with Camera+ including the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and the new iPhone 6 in a variety of situations to test the camera’s capabilities.

I taught a beginner digital photography seminar this past weekend and got lots of questions from students about how good the camera was in the new iPhone 6. This articles shows that, in many cases, the increase in quality is very noticeable.

Vanity Fair:

Airline pilots were once the heroes of the skies. Today, in the quest for safety, airplanes are meant to largely fly themselves. Which is why the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, which killed 228 people, remains so perplexing and significant. William Langewiesche explores how a series of small errors turned a state-of-the-art cockpit into a death trap.

I waited to post this article until after The Publisher had arrived safely in London, England.

Now that Fall has officially begun here in the Northern hemisphere, many of us are seeing or have seen the leaves changing to their beautiful Fall colours. This video explains why it happens. Share it with your kids!

Steven Levy:

How can an app displace 135 years of telephony?

The first step is by being an app and not a facsimile of a desk phone. Unlike the “dialer” on your mobile, or even the call button on your contact list, Talko presents the opportunity to begin a conversation by simply touching on the image of the person or team you want to talk to, whether they are ready to join right now or sometime in the future.

Going to be very interesting to see if this takes off in any appreciable way.

Steven Soderbergh:

I’ve removed all sound and color from the film, apart from a score designed to aid you in your quest to just study the visual staging aspect.

I am usually vehemently against “messing with” someone else’s movie but Soderbergh’s experiment really enhances (but doesn’t replace) the classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

One of the huge advantages DSLRs and many point and shoots have over the iPhone or other smartphones is the ability to adjust, manipulate and control Shutter, ISO, White Balance, Focus and Exposure Bracketing.

Manual from Little Pixels is just such an app. It has the advantage of having a funny video to go along with it.

ACSI:

Customer satisfaction with computing devices continues to slide but desktop computers do better than laptops and tablets, according to a new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The annual measure of personal computers falls 1.3 percent to an ACSI score of 78 (on a 0-100 point scale). Laptops deteriorate the most (-4% to 76), while tablets dip slightly (-1% to 80), but desktops gain 3 percent to take the lead at 81.

Even though Apple “dropped 3% to 84” it continues to “maintain a sizable lead over its major competitors”. It would be interesting to understand the reasons for the overall increased in desktop PC satisfaction. Perhaps people who have switched to laptops and tablets have discovered they are not as powerful as they need or want.

AnandTech:

Some basic performance data and battery life, which include browser benchmarks, game-type benchmarks, and our standard web browsing battery life test. There’s definitely a lot more to talk about for this phone, but this should give an idea of what to expect in the full review.

AnandTech’s prelim results are interesting. I look forward to their full detailed review.

BusinessWeek:

Tim Cook was jubilant. It was Sept. 10, a day after the introduction of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., and Apple’s chief executive officer couldn’t have been happier about reactions from the audience and the media. Cook sat down for an hour-long chat with Bloomberg Businessweek’s Josh Tyrangiel and Brad Stone.

I love how the interview ended.

Haven’t picked up a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus yet? Apple has posted these to help you see if there are even any in your neighbourhood.

Canada iPhone 6 Availabilty page

USA iPhone 6 Availabilty page

For the USA page, you’ll have to make your choice of iPhone and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the link for “Available for pickup: Check availability”. If you know of similar links for other countries, please post them in the comments section.

Thanks to Sly Marton for the Canada link and Brian Monroe for the USA link.

It’s just incredible to see how many people are buying iPhones. Every year analysts say sales are slowing and every year Apple proves them wrong.

Visual Supply Co:

Advanced camera controls are now available for iOS 8. New features include:
– Manual focus
– Shutter speed
– White balance
– Exposure compensation

VSCO Cam is the first app I’ve seen that takes advantage of the new capabilities of iOS 8 in letting photographers take more control over the camera in the iPhone. Even better, it’s a free app.

“What was a complex environment with hundreds of phone types now has two: (Google) Android and Apple,” notes Thomas Noyes, former head of sales channels at Citigroup’s Global Consumer banking business who now heads Silicon Valley data-sharing firm Commerce Signals.

It’s the “complex environment” that Apple is so good at fixing. They’ve done it over and over again with products released in the past 15 years or so.

Today I Found Out:

Given that most have still heard of the Pony Express today, unlike so many other messaging companies long gone, you may think that the Pony Express was once an integral part of communication between the East and West in the United States. It turns out, this was never the case and the Pony Express was around only for an extremely short amount of time.

I love these stories of how things were done “in the old days”. One of my favourite non-fiction books is “American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age” about the first US government sponsored cross country trip. Future President Eisenhower was a member of the group.

Today, Apple released an update to iCloud which gives Windows users early access to iCloud Drive. Ironically, Apple’s new cloud storage solution is not yet available on the public build of Mac OS X.

GODDAMNIT!

This is just great. Tim stops and chats with people, takes selfies and then opens the store.

I love the Scottish accent.

Apple:

Get started with these great free books.

Ten ebooks from Apple, ranging from crime fiction to comic books to Young Adult to classics. Thanks to Rob Griffiths for the link.

CARROT is a sadistic AI construct with one simple goal: to transform your flabby carcass into a Grade A specimen of the human race. She will do whatever it takes – including threatening, inspiring, ridiculing, and bribing you – to make this happen.

This really is a great app.

I always enjoy reading Shawn’s thoughts and reviews. I never really got the Kindle and still don’t.

Some have pointed out that password fields are excluded from using an alternative keyboard. This tells me that even Apple is a bit concerned about the consequences of logging key strokes. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I generally use a password to protect all of the other things I write with my keyboard. If every other keystroke is logged and transmitted to a server, my password becomes far less relevant.

This is worrisome.

There are some great tips here. No. 1 is my favorite, mostly because I learned that one the hard way. You don’t have to—and shouldn’t—make everything louder in a mix.