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An Apple representative said that the overnight sales of the new iPhones set a record, though Apple did not say how many have been sold.

Incredible.

Chris Breen:

I admit that seeing my colleagues leave has been a bit like having everyone around you suddenly raptured while you stand gawking with a ham sandwich shoved halfway in your mouth.

But I’m not here to feed Internet tittle-tattle. Rather, as someone who’s been with Macworld (and MacUser before it) for a very long time, I’d like to provide potential employers (and those who are simply interested in their favorite writers) some details about my departed colleagues.

Chris Breen is the only “big name” left at Macworld and his tribute to his former fellow employees is touching. And, having known personally many of the people he writes about, I’d say his assessments are 100% correct.

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At least now Samsung has a roadmap to copy.

USA Today:

“If there was a lot of emotion in my voice today, it’s because we’ve all been waiting for this day for a long time. It felt so great,” Cook, 53, told USA TODAY. “The people at this company are doing the best work of their lives, the best work that Apple has ever done.”

“It’s an incredible opportunity for us to switch people from Android to iOS. So yes, this is epic. It is epic,” he says.

I made mention of this both on Amplified and Your Mac Life yesterday. Cook seemed genuinely excited up on stage.

AdWeek:

Sean Bonner says, “There’s no way for a brand to “insert themselves into a conversation” about a tragedy like this without it being bad.

“Today (or whatever other tragedy this kind of thing has happened with) isn’t the time for marketing. It isn’t the time for branding or getting people to pay attention to companies. It’s a time for people to interact with each other, and the only respectful thing for brands to do is stay out of it and wait for tomorrow to get back to business.”

I see these kinds of marketing “tributes” all the time in these situations and Bonner and Monteiro are right – if you are a brand, just STFU.

Even though you have to sign-up to watch this keynote, I would recommend you do it. I was at the event yesterday and I just love Legere. He’s crazy as a bag of hammers, but he speaks bluntly and honestly about today’s carrier market. If you don’t want to watch the video, you can read the press release.

National Geographic:

The Knowledge of London is a real-time, street-level test of memorization skills so intense that it physically alters the brains of those who pass it.

To qualify for that elusive green badge, you need to learn by heart all 320 sample runs that are listed in the Blue Book, the would-be cabbie’s bible. You will also have to commit to memory the 25,000 streets, roads, avenues, courts, lanes, crescents, places, mews, yards, hills, and alleys that lie within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross.

I am severely directionally challenged and couldn’t complete The Knowledge on pain of death but reading about the process they have to go through is fascinating.

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New York magazine:

It will start with a friend. A friend who lives in San Francisco, maybe. Or who works as a venture capitalist. Or who recently had a birthday.

And then, sometime around June, you’ll get an unexpected infusion of cash — a security deposit you forgot you’d paid, or a few hundred dollars from your tax return. And you’ll find yourself on Apple.com late at night, admiring the watch, wondering if the $349 you’d spend would ever really be worth it.

What the hell, you’ll say. Add to cart.

It won’t work this way for most people but this will be a process very similar to what many have gone through in the past with Apple products and certainly will with the Apple Watch.

This guy has actually done a pretty good job on this video. It’s very amusing.

Here are some comments on the announcement of Apple’s “newest” digital device:

“I was so hoping for something more.”

“Great just what the world needs.”

“Heres an idea Apple – rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive line up? Or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?”

“I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares? I want something new! I want them to think differently!”

“Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!”

“Come on everyone, y’all are saying it sucks before you have even held it in your hand.”

“The reason why everyone’s dissapointed is because we had our hopes up for this incredible device.”

Pretty typical commentary.

Except, all of the above is taken from the forums at Macrumors and all of the above, and more, are referring to the launch of the original iPod.

Some things never change.

Fast Company:

In January of 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh. Among the many things which made the launch memorable was the fact that the brand-new computer was accompanied by a brand-new magazine, IDG’s Macworld. Thanks to a deal hashed out by IDG’s David Bunnell and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the first issue debuted the same day that the Mac did, which means that there’s never been such a thing as a Mac market that wasn’t covered by Macworld.

Sadly, that long run is about to end.

The 800lb gorilla of Mac publishing just became a 4lb chihuahua. Sad day.

For those of you who want a copy of your own, Apple has posted the video of yesterday’s event on their Apple Keynotes podcast page.

HODINKEE:

I do not believe it poses any threat to haute horology manufactures, I do think the Apple Watch will be a big problem for low-priced quartz watches, and even some entry-level mechanical watches. In years to come, it could pose a larger threat to higher end brands, too. The reason? Apple got more details right on their watch than the vast majority of Swiss and Asian brands do with similarly priced watches, and those details add up to a really impressive piece of design. It offers so much more functionality than other digitals it’s almost embarrassing. But it’s not perfect, by any means. Read on to hear my thoughts on the Apple Watch, from the perspective of a watch guy.

Great perspective from “the other side of the fence” – how does the Apple Watch fit into the watch market? Thanks to Jared Earle for the link.

Sprint is certainly aggressive.

Streaming Media:

Apple’s live stream of the unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Watch was a disaster today right from the start, with many users like myself having problems trying to watch the event. While at first I assumed it must be a capacity issue pertaining to Akamai, a deeper look at the code on Apple’s page and some other elements from the event shows that decisions made by Apple pertaining to their website, and problems with how they setup storage on Amazon’s S3 service, contributed the biggest problems to the event.

Interesting take on the utter disaster that was the streaming video of this morning’s event.

Ars Technica:

Apple has officially announced a release date for iOS 8, the latest version of the operating system that powers iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. The new software launches on September 17, and as we’ve written before it will be available on the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; the iPad 2, both Retina iPads, the iPad Air, and both iPad minis; the fifth-generation iPod touch; and all revisions of the third-generation Apple TV.

This was almost lost among the news of all the other cool things Apple announced today.

TidBITS:

With Apple Pay, Apple’s self-described mission is to replace your wallet, enabling you to pay a bill by holding an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, or the forthcoming Apple Watch, up to a payment sensor. No more fumbling with credit cards and signing receipts, or worrying about having enough cash. In theory, at least, Apple Pay both improves the payment experience and brings new levels of security and privacy to credit card payments.

Adam makes a very good point about wallets, too. This won’t replace it for most of us because we need to carry around other cards as well. But it’s a step towards an interesting future.

My question has always been, is using a credit card really all that difficult for most people that they need and want this kind of replacement?

Macworld:

With the death of the iPod classic, we witness the last of the original 5GB white iPod’s line. No more hard drive. No more squarish screen. No more wheel control.

And, no surprise.

True but there’s still nostalgia for the little thing.

The Verge:

The Apple Watch is amazing and boring at the same time.

After nearly two years of rumors, the Apple Watch has finally been unveiled.

Ignore the stupid words associated with this article but go look at the real world pics they have of the various watch faces and bands.

Apple has posted a page with a good overview of the four iPhone models and their specs. The pics are interesting and the iPhone 6 Plus seems huge.

Quartz:

One of Apple’s most successful products—which rarely gets recognized as such—is made not of aluminum and glass, but of words and pictures. The Apple keynote is the tool the company uses a few times a year to unveil its other products to millions of people.

To understand their hidden structure, Quartz reviewed more than a dozen Apple keynotes, logging and analyzing key elements. Here’s what we found.

Those of us who have attended these events in person have often remarked on the similarities in structure and tone from one to the next.

Macworld:

When Star Walk launched it was one of those “only on the iPad” kind of apps. Since then many have used it as their digital window to space.

Vito Technologies, which built the original, is back with Star Walk 2. While it may not seem like there is much to improve on, the developers have taken the time to find enough enhancements and new features to justify an entirely new app.

Not only has Star Walk been my go to astronomy app, it was the app I always used to “show off” how cool the iPad was. I’ll be buying this version, too.

PDFpen Scan+ offers scanning and OCR from your iPhone and iPad. Scan directly from your iPhone or iPad camera. Batch scanning is quick with post-process image editing. Scan cropping is fast and precise. With the new PDFpen Scan+ 1.4, you can automatically upload scans to Dropbox or PDFpen’s iCloud storage. After OCR, preview the results, then copy the text for use elsewhere. Share your scanned PDF, with embedded OCR text, by email or to your favorite cloud service. PDFpen Scan+ works on both your iPhone and your iPad, and it’s available on the App Store.

Using cutting-edge techniques, Dr Louhelainen was able to extract 126-year-old DNA from the material and compare it to DNA from descendants of Eddowes and the suspect, with both proving a perfect match.

It’s hard to argue with DNA, but I’m sure there will be lots of explanations coming.

TiVo, arguably the Cadillac of DVRs with support for streaming media services, is getting ready to roll out a big rig. The TiVo Mega, slated to ship early next year, will pack 24TB of hard disk space—eight times the storage on the TiVo Roamio Pro, the current top-of-the-line model. Put another way, that’s enough to stash more than three year’s worth of standard-definition television on one DVR.

The price is around $5,000.

For our latest shoot-out we thought we would have some fun and put the Universal Audio 1176LN limiter versus the UAD 1176LN plug-in to see which one you prefer, or maybe if you can’t tell the difference.

I find this stuff fascinating, especially with a company like Universal Audio. They have made some of the best hardware for years, but they also take great pains in making the software indistinguishable from the hardware.

Today we are beginning to test a new way for you to discover and buy products on Twitter. For a small percentage of U.S. users (that will grow over time), some Tweets from our test partners will feature a “Buy” button, letting you buy directly from the Tweet.

I don’t have a problem with this. We want to cut down the amount of clicks we have to go through to purchase things, so if I can buy directly within the app, why not.

Amazon launched the phone July 25, and it was widely seen as a bit of a flop with slow usage growth, according to market research (Amazon hasn’t released any sales numbers).

Apparently his iPhone has escaped the ‘ceremonial burning’

Indeed.