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As Ben Bajarin said on Twitter, “The Bank of Apple is coming.”

Maybe if Apple had called the HomePod a “super speaker” or something else and more directly avoided the comparison to “smart” devices like the Echo and the Home, they wouldn’t be having so many tech reviewers reviewing a Ferrari as if it were a Corolla.

This guy is a mad genius. I hope he continues to use his powers for good and never evil.

This is a great series of videos explaining the differences between sound mixing vs sound editing by Oscar winner Walter Murch. I don’t know much about sound but I know I’d watch Murch explain the phone book. Always an interesting guy to listen to.

I’ve been using the HomePod for almost a week now. The device is part technological marvel with a little bit of magic thrown in to make it a really compelling device for every home. […]

Apple didn’t build its audio products by choosing off-the-shelf components that any other company can use—it designed and built them from scratch. The testing for all its products happens in the company’s audio lab in Cupertino, Calif. Last week, they took me on a tour of the lab to show me what’s involved in making an audio product at Apple. […]

Good review of the pros and cons. I’d love to have a “quickie” printer for on the go prints but the downsides of the low picture quality and hugely expensive paper make these kinds of printers a no buy for me.

Good explanation of what happened and why. There’s good and bad in Apple’s reasoning for doing it but, as I’ve often said, their lack of explanation and “full disclosure” can sometimes bite them in the ass.

It would be really interesting to see how this works in the hands of the police and the backend data management would be an immense challenge.

The annual Chinese New Year migration is the largest in the world. This story of just one small piece of it is lovely and poignant.

The site is unabashed watch porn.

Holy crap. This is brilliant. I often wondered as a kid why this happened. I haven’t seen one of these drinking birds in years.

I can’t decide whether this is creepy or cool….maybe creepycool?

All those stories about “Apple Watch isn’t selling” can stop now.

Who knew it was so easy?

I don’t know enough motorcycle history to really appreciate some of these bikes but I bet some of you are old enough to have owned them and will weep silent tears when you see what they went for at auction.

Those of us who have struggled to take great shots out of an airplane window will be very jealous of this guy.

Lots of really good info here and not just specific to de With’s Halide iOS app, although it’s worth your money if you want to get more out of your iPhone shots.

Digital Photography Review’s site is my go-to place for information and reviews of cameras. Their reviews are authoritative and exhaustive.

Even those of us who love movies may not realize the process from page to screen. I’ve read lots of movie scripts that don’t have any real excitement to them. It’s not until they become film that the beauty is revealed.

This may or may not clear things up for you. The biggest thing I notice is that the HomePod cannot be used as a TV audio out speaker.

If you have any interest in the history of music, watch this video about a guitar player you’ve undoubtedly never heard of but had a major influence on early rock and roll.

What a fascinating story about the technology behind a $40,000 butt ugly watch.

Apple’s official YouTube channel has posted these four new HomePod videos that are likely coming to a TV screen near you. What do you think of them? As expected by everyone who is paying attention, Apple’s focus, at least inititally, … Continued

Universal Audio (UA) on Thursday announced it is shipping the OX Amp Top Box, an advanced reactive load box and guitar recording system. […]

No details as to how they got their 60 minutes of time with the HomePod but some interesting tidbits are found in this piece.

Apple on Thursday updated its professional music software, Logic Pro X, adding some new features and plug-ins. Apple told me that this is the 20th free update Apple has released since the launch of Logic Pro X. […]

Alex Hutchinson, Outside:

In February 2006, Robert Hewitt was scuba diving near Mana Island, off the coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Hewitt was an experienced navy diving instructor with 20 years in the service, and he told his dive buddy that he would swim back to shore himself. Instead, when he next surfaced, he had been pulled several hundred meters away by a strong current. The dive boat had moved on, and Hewitt was left alone, the tide pushing him farther and farther from shore.

And:

The most pressing challenge facing Hewitt was the water temperature of 61 to 63 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 17 degrees Celsius), well below body temperature. According to physiological models, when water is 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius), the median survival time is between 4.8 and 7.7 hours. Amazingly, Hewitt spent the next 75 hours in the water, drifting back and forth over a distance of nearly 40 miles.

And:

In general, immersion in cold water produces a four-stage response. First is the “cold shock response” that triggers “an inspiratory gasp, uncontrollable hyperventilation, hypertension, and increased cardiac workload.” If you’re not ready for it, this shock response can cause you to inhale water and drown and can set off heart arrhythmias.

Riveting, riveting read. And if this interests you, watch this video.

This is one of those iOS betas that bring a bevy of new features. Take a few minutes to watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. Jeff Benjamin does an excellent job walking through all the new stuff.

Of special note is the discussion about Messages on iCloud, about 2:25 in.

This does a brilliant job of how net neutrality (a ridiculous term if there ever was one) would affect customers.