This was fun to look through. Rabbit hole warning.

Joseph Cox, Motherboard:

From across the other side of the world, a colleague has just accessed my Ring account, and in turn, a live-feed of a Ring camera in my apartment. He sent a screenshot of me stretching, getting ready for work. Then a second colleague accessed the camera from another country, and started talking to me through the Ring device.

Earlier today, we posted about the Apple, Amazon, Google alliance designing an IoT open standard. I’d love to see Amazon close up these security holes.

Until then, I’ll limit my video doorbell candidates to those who sign up for HomeKit Secure Video.

There’s been a lot of Twitter griping about the new Mac Pro Geekbench results not being that much better than the 2017 iMac Pro, essentially making the point that the Mac Pro is not worth all that extra money.

If you check out the Geekbench scores, you’ll see that the lowest model of the new Mac Pro scores worse than the top end 2017 iMac Pro.

I priced out the top-end iMac Pro (256GB RAM, top video card) at $13,299. That does include a display, obviously.

I priced out a base model new Mac Pro (went up to 384GB RAM) at $11,999. More RAM, no display.

The pricing seems reasonable to me. And one is the top of its line, the other the absolute bottom of its line. Close enough.

First things first, the headline link takes you to a 6-movie Studio Ghibli collection. Appears to be US only. $100 for all six. A great deal if you are a Studio Ghibli fan.

That said, there are other Studio Ghibli movies in the iTunes Store that are not part of the collection. It’d be nice if you could type Studio Ghibli in one of the many search fields (iTunes Store, TV app on Mac, Apple TV, etc.)

For example, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a great movie, not part of the collection, worth exploring.

UPDATE: Zac Hall, 9to5Mac, pulled together links for all the Studio Ghibli films. Nice job, Zac!

Apple:

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance today announced a new working group that plans to develop and promote the adoption of a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products, with security as a fundamental design tenet.

This has huge potential. It will be interesting to see if Amazon opens up their Ring doorbell protocol. All the Ring doorbell hacking stories, true or not, are hurting their brand, and likely hurting the overall product category trustability.

Would love to see a path where Apple forces stronger privacy/security, rather than a weaker standard that allows all entrants to play.

Here’s the link to the main alliance page. Note that Apple’s name (all the way at the bottom) is plain text, no logo. Odd.

New York Times:

Just shy of 25 years since its last original installment, the offbeat comic strip “The Far Side” has returned. In a manner of speaking, but please don’t call it a comeback.

“I’m not ‘back,’ at least in the sense I think you’re asking,” said Gary Larson, the cartoonist who created it, via email last week ahead of a website revival. “Returning to the world of deadlines isn’t exactly on my to-do list.”

Beginning Tuesday, the “Far Side” site will provide visitors with “The Daily Dose,” a random selection of past cartoons, along with a weekly set of strips arranged by theme. There will also be a look at doodles from the sketchbooks of Larson, who said: “I’m looking forward to slipping in some new things every so often.”

What a great Christmas present to all of us Far Side fans who have missed Larson’s particular brand of silliness these past 24 years.

The Verge:

How do you replace a legend like Steve Jobs and, at the same time, adapt to the slow decline of your most important, most iconic product? Those were the twin challenges Apple faced in the 2010s. Under CEO Tim Cook, the company has found some answers and flourished financially, but it hasn’t been without a few wrong turns and big changes to the very nature of its business.

In the past decade, Apple has grown huge. Its fiscal 2019 revenues were six times the size of revenues in fiscal 2009. Its new headquarters building is larger than the Pentagon. Each of its five business segments would be a Fortune 500 company on its own.

But what about its products? Its culture?

The apparently-out-of-retirement Mossberg is a good candidate to take a clearheaded look at the “Tim Cook at Apple” decade. I wouldn’t agree with everything Uncle Walt says but there’s no arguing he knows what he’s talking about.

New York Times:

My choices as a doctor in the emergency room are up or out. Up, for the very sick. I stabilize things that are broken, infected or infarcted, until those patients can be whisked upstairs for their definitive surgeries or stents in the hospital. Out, for everyone else. I stitch up the simple cuts, reassure those with benign viruses, prescribe Tylenol and send home.

Emergency rooms respond like overbooked restaurants during a chaotic dinner rush, with doctors pressed to turn stretchers the way waiters hurriedly turn tables. The frantic pace leaves little time for deliberating over the diagnosis or for counseling patients. Up, out.

Private exams on stretchers in hallways, patients languishing without attention for hours, nurses stretched to the breaking point; all of it has become business as usual. I think about this on nights like tonight, when I start my shift inheriting 16 patients in the waiting room. I think about what I will learn that these people need, and about what I will fail to provide.

Reading these kinds of stories is both fascinating and scary.

BGR:

Ryan Reynolds’ new Netflix movie launched on Friday. The Michael Bay action flick 6 Underground features lots of shooting, car chases and fighting. The film has an interesting premise — a tech billionaire fakes his death to right the wrongs of the world with five other highly-trained individuals — and could spawn sequels if it meets whatever targets Netflix has in place for it.

But while it’s great that you can watch 6 Underground from your own home, it’s not a must-see, best-in-class film. Sure, the action is entertaining, as is the humor, but the storyline isn’t perfect, and there are times when it’s difficult and even tiresome to follow. I won’t spoil any of the plot for you, I’ll just say it could have been much better. But maybe we don’t even need a better story from this Bay creation. It’s the fast-paced action that we’re after in 6 Underground. What I will spoil is a hilarious Ryan Reynolds cameo in the film that easily qualifies as one of the best cameos ever.

Full disclosure: 6 Underground is not a good movie. It is a Micheal Bay movie, for better or worse. But the fact that Reynolds filmed this Instagram bit last year and it made it into the finished film is hilarious and so on point for Reynolds.

Been looking forward to this teardown. The most repairable Apple device, by far, though replacement parts might be expensive/hard to find.

Peter Cohen, Harris Craycraft, iDownloadBlog:

iPadOS 13.3 adds Hot Corners, a new feature that works with a Bluetooth mouse. You can set up the corners of your iPad screen to automate actions just like you can on the Mac. Learn how it works in this short video.

Great feature, nicely detailed in the video below.

Interesting interactive post from The New York Times:

When the decade began, tech meant promise — cars that could drive themselves, social networks that could take down dictators. It connected us in ways we could barely imagine. But somewhere along the way, the flaws of technology became abundantly clear. What happened?

The people who brought us this decade explain: Mark Zuckerberg, Edward Snowden, Ellen Pao, Phil Schiller, Kevin Systrom, Brianna Wu, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Mike Judge, Jonah Peretti, Diane von Furstenberg, Alex From Target — and many more. (People’s titles in the interviews below, which have been edited for clarity, reflect the roles they had at the time.)

Follow the headline link, click on the stuff that interests you for a popup article, with links to more related content. A definite rabbit hole.

Rewound:

We launched an App that let you customize your iPhone to look like a 2000s era MP3 player. As Rewound grew exponentially across the world from Japan to China to Iran to Russia and the rest of mainland Europe, Apple KILLED it.

Amazing how quickly this app spread. The power of nostalgia. Why did Apple kill it?

1. Copying iPod Design
2. Charging for Apple Music features
3. People would mistake it for Apple product

The company behind Rewound is floating a campaign to fund a new web-based version of the app. Not the same.

Also:

We can’t update the app to get it re-approved without breaking the app for all 170,000+ users.

An interesting feature of the App Store. Apple takes an app down, but they do not take the app off your device.

MacRumors:

Apple today released a new firmware update for the AirPods 2 and the AirPods Pro, though there is no word on what’s new in the refreshed firmware.

‌AirPods Pro‌ were previously using firmware version 2B588, while ‌AirPods‌ 2 were previously using 2A364. Both ‌AirPods Pro‌ and ‌AirPods‌ 2 run firmware version 2C54 following the update.

As far as I know, there’s no way to force a firmware update, but it’s delivered, at some point, over-the-air, when you connect your AirPods to your iOS device.

To check your firmware version#:

Settings > General > About > [Your AirPods Name]

Note that your AirPods won’t appear in the list until they are connected.

Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies — in fact, I’ve been using BBEdit for more than 20 years. BBEdit has been updated to version 13, and is available in the Mac App Store as a subscription! Same great features. Same user experience. You can subscribe in the Mac App Store or purchase perpetual licenses directly from Bare Bones Software. Also, you can still get great merch, including Classic and Rebus T-shirts, enamel pins, and more in their merch store!

Digital Photography Review:

Nikon recently released the Z50, a compact mirrorless camera that starts at under $900. The company is so confident that photographers will love their product that they’ve recently introduced the Yellow Program. Besides offering expedited shipping upon placing an order with the Nikon store, customers can try out the Z50 for up to 30 days, upon receiving the camera, and return it free of charge if they’re not satisfied with their purchase.

‘We’re so confident that you’ll fall in love with the photos and videos you’ll get with your new mirrorless Z50 camera, especially when compared to the ones you get with your smartphone, we’ll let you try one at home for 30 days. If you don’t fall in love, send it back to us for a full refund, including shipping,’ reads the introductory paragraph to the Yellow Program’s site.

According to Nikon, the Z50 is the smallest interchangeable lens DX-format camera on the market and the first mirrorless camera in the company’s Z series.

This is a great idea. If I was in the market for a “small” DSLR, I’d definitely look at participating in this program.

Samsung:

According to Samsung Electronics President Sohn Young, who participated at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in Berlin yesterday, there are over one million Galaxy Fold smartphones out there in the wild — double the initial sales estimate made in October of 500,000 units. Despite costing nearly $2,000 and requiring extreme care during use, a sizable number of people have embraced the 7.3-inch folding screen device, making Samsung quite happy and getting it closer to realizing its foldable goals for 2020.

Wow, that’s amazing. Astonishing success. I can’t believe Samsung sold more than one million Galaxy Fold, especially since I’ve not seen a single one in the wild. But live and learn.

Oh, wait.

Also Samsung:

Samsung has clarified that it has not, in fact, sold 1 million Galaxy Folds, in a statement given to Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Samsung declined to comment on the actual number of units sold, only to say it was not over a million.

Samsung would not even state if estimates of 500,000 units were closer to an accurate figure, perhaps suggesting the real number could even be below analyst expectations.

Um. That’s a pretty big oopsie, Samsung. If one were prone to cynicism, on might think this was some sort of ploy.

What do you think the odds are that Jim will be talking about this on this week’s Dalrymple Report?

Interesting that 3 of the 10 are from Apple. And iPhone (2007) did not qualify. Can you predict what those 3 are?

Any important gadgets that should have made the list?

CNBC:

Apple employees in Silicon Valley can now get free genetic screenings for diseases from their on-site health clinics, thanks to a pilot partnership with Color Genomics.

And:

The idea is to move health care at Apple’s clinics from reactive to proactive, as genetic tests can offer a window into health risks down the line. In some cases, patients can take preventative steps to reduce their likelihood of getting a disease.

This raises the question, would you want to know what genetic testing can reveal? For me, certainly I’d want to know if there was any disease that I was highly prone to that was preventable.

But if I knew I was certain to develop a non-preventable terminal illness at a specific age, not so sure I’d want to know what was coming for me. And when.

That said, there’s far more to genetic testing than this. Interesting article.

This saves about $10 a year. No brainer if you like games.

Does make me wonder if we’ll eventually see a services bundle from Apple, as rumored.

Amazon blog, Friday:

Beginning today, Alexa customers in the U.S. will be able to listen to more than 800,000 podcasts available through Apple Podcasts on their Alexa-enabled device.

Definitely cool, especially if you’ve got the Amazon ecosystem in your house. Be sure to make Apple Podcasts your default podcast app so you don’t repeatedly have to tell Alexa where to find your podcasts.

Whether you’re listening at home or on the go, you don’t need to worry about losing your spot. Link your account in the Alexa app using your Apple ID, and you can seamlessly pick up where you left off listening on the Apple Podcasts App or your Alexa device.

Would you “link your account in the Alexa app using your Apple ID”? This strikes me as a potential risk. Am I overworrying?

The Evening Standard:

(Apple) sees accessibility as one of its core values in order to ensure everyone can use its devices in the best ways to suit them.

Ensuring that this is baked into everything Apple makes, from devices to apps and services, is Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s global head of accessibility. We recently sat down with Herrlinger to talk about this mission and the surprising learnings along the way.

Over the past decade, Apple has made strides with its accessible features. With the iPhone, it created the world’s first touchscreen accessible to the blind community – Herrlinger sits on the board of the American Foundation for the Blind thanks to her work in this area at Apple. For hearing, the company was the first to make an audio protocol for Bluetooth low energy to improve the pairing between iPhones and people wearing hearing aids so they can make crystal clear calls.

Apple can always do more but they have made great strides in the areas of accessibility for any number of its customers. And accessibility offers benefits to all users, disabled or not.

CNN:

Every Christmas, big companies and high street brands pump serious money into making their annual holiday TV commercial. But this year, a family-made ad, starring a hardware store owner’s 2-year-old son and costing a mere $130 to make, has captured the hearts of viewers around the world.

Tom Jones, who runs family-owned Haford Hardware store in Rhayader, Wales, has been making seasonal ads and posting them on social media for three years. This year’s commercial stars his 2-year-old son Arthur, and follows him as he helps out in the store over the Christmas period.

OK now I want to go to Rhayader, Wales just to meet this little guy.

Gizmodo:

This was the year the world burned. Literally. The year kicked off with Tasmania on fire. People set the Amazon aflame this summer. California burst into a fiery hellscape. The Arctic didn’t even catch a break. Now, Australia’s out-of-control bushfires are killing koalas and flying foxes while leaving Sydney under a toxic haze.

To truly understand the scope of our world on fire, you have to see it from satellite. And the EU’s Copernicus Program has done that, offering a visualization where viewers can see the flames dance across the planet. There are hot spots popping up in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, all of which never seem to get a break throughout 2019.

I didn’t even know about the massive fires throughout much of Africa.

NASA:

This image of North and South America at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The new data was mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.

For more such images of our planet, read Earth at Night, NASA’s latest ebook that features dazzling photographs and images from space of Earth’s nightlights. For nearly 25 years, satellite images of Earth at night have served as a fundamental research tool, while also stoking public curiosity. The images paint an expansive and revealing picture, showing how humans have illuminated and shaped the planet in profound ways since the invention of the light bulb 140 years ago.

Check out the free eBook from NASA titled “Earth at Night.”

This seems like an impossibly great deal, especially if you are considering plunking down cash for Apple TV+. Even without a plan, you’ve got an iPod (fill it with songs for that long plane trip), a first phone for the kids, and a cheap entre into Apple TV+.

UPDATE: Now sold out. Hope you got one.

UPDATE: Back in stock. Seems like it goes in and out of stock, so try again if you saw sold out