iPhone in Canada:

Health Canada’s Twitter account has been providing the odd updates here and there, and yesterday sent out another tweet about Apple Watch Series 4 and the ECG app.

When asked about Apple Watch and the ECG app, the federal organization replied to an ongoing Twitter thread and Canadian man, @realgaryng, by saying “Health Canada has recently approved two licences for the Apple Watch ECG app and notifications. For more information on product release dates in Canada, please contact the manufacturer directly.”

C’mon, Apple.

9to5Mac:

In a surprise move, Apple has revived its Texas Hold’em game for iOS today. The update to the original game comes in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the App Store and has been redesigned to include new characters, improved graphics, more challenging gameplay, and much more.

The Apple game first launched in 2006 for iPod before making its way to the App Store.

Hold’em is my favourite card game and it’s great to see this “classic” back on my phone.

Over the weekend, there was a 7.1 earthquake in California, centered near Ridgecrest, on the edge of the Mojave Desert. There were also preshocks and aftershocks.

Lots of information about the quake on the USGS earthquake site.

Given the location (in California, though closer to LA than Apple Park), this New York Times article from last month got a lot of new attention (H/T Dman and Neal Pann, and Shawn’s original posting here). From the article:

The circular building housing Apple’s headquarters in Silicon Valley is so big, it’s nearly a mile in circumference. So it’s hard to fathom that it is not actually attached to the ground. The spaceship, as the building is often called, is a mammoth example of a technology that reduces earthquake shaking by as much as 80 percent.

Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, said in an interview that he and Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who died in 2011, considered base isolation essential protection for the headquarters — and the brain trust that resides within. During the construction, ensuring the building’s safety and environmental integrity was crucial. Addressing potential mold issues was a significant part of this process. Finding a mold removal company near me that could handle such a large and complex structure was essential to maintaining a healthy environment for all employees. Mr. Ive also spent four years renovating his house in San Francisco to make it more resilient to earthquakes. Switching gears, using tailored London concrete services designed for precision and flexibility has never been easier. Projects across the city are thriving thanks to reliable partners providing fresh, mix-on-site concrete solutions tailored to exact specifications. Timeliness and quality are now within everyone’s grasp. If you need help renovating a room in your home, you may seek the services of contractors from Arete’ Renovators.

The article goes into great detail on the base-isolation technology, with some terrific pictures and diagrams. Very interesting.

Reddit user tells first hand what it’s like to experience one of these mob shoplifting events that happens much too often.

Apple puts any stolen goods in a lost or stolen mode, rendering any gear stolen from the store useless to the thieves. So why do they do it? Either ignorance, or they’ve got access to a spare parts market.

And yup, it’s shoplifting, not robbery, but the bigger point remains.

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

For iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina beta testers, Apple is trying out a new sign-in process for iCloud on the web. When you head to beta.icloud.com on a device running the betas, you can now sign-in to your account using Face ID or Touch ID.

If you log in to beta.icloud.com via a non-beta iOS or macOS, you’ll get the normal login experience, with a 6 digit code appearing that you type in to validate your visit.

If you log in using a beta iOS 13 or MacOS Catalina device, your Face ID or Touch ID verifies you, gives you access, without the code at all. Way better.

Engadget:

The Apple Watch produced a seismic shift in the public’s acceptance of biometric monitoring. Sure, we’ve had step counters, heart rate and sleep monitors for years, but the Apple Watch made it hip and cool to do so. In Deep Medicine, author Eric Topol examines how recent advances in AI and machine learning techniques can be leveraged to bring (at least the American) healthcare system out of its current dark age and create a more efficient, more effective system that better serves both its doctors and its patients. In the excerpt below, Topol examines the efforts by startup AliveCor and the Mayo Clinic to cram an ECG’s functionality into a wristwatch-sized device without — and this is the important part — generating potentially lethal false positive results.

Apple is just scratching the surface of its health care efforts.

Ars Technica:

Sometimes we take Web and user interface design for granted—that’s the point of User Inyerface, a hilariously and deliberately difficult-to-use website created to show just how much we rely on past habits and design conventions to interact with the Web and our digital devices.

The resulting website is a gauntlet of nearly impossible-to-parse interactions that are as funny as they are infuriating. In one case, the colors for the male and female selection options in a personal info form are reversed compared to expectations: the white-backgrounded one is the selection, while the blue-highlighted one is the one you’re not picking—and there’s no non-binary option, either, of course.

This is nuts. I couldn’t go past the first page for fear of being driven insane.

The Hollywood Reporter:

Mad Magazine, the irreverent and highly influential satirical magazine that gave the world Alfred E. Neuman, will effectively cease publication some time later this year after 67 years, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Sources tell THR that after issue 9, Mad will no longer be sold on newsstands and will only be available through comic book shops as well as mailed to subscribers. After issue 10, there will no longer be new content save for the end-of-year specials. Beginning with issue 11, the magazine will only feature previously published content — classic and best-of nostalgic fare — from its massive vault of material from the past 67 years. DC, however, will continue to publish Mad books and special collections.

Many magazines have shut down in the past 10-20 years but this one is especially poignant to those of us who grew up in the magazine’s heyday.

Reuters:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled against Amazon in a case that could expose the online retailer to lawsuits from customers who buy defective products from third-party vendors through its website.

Numerous other courts, including two federal appeals courts, have held that Amazon cannot be held liable as a seller of products from third-party vendors. The new ruling from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which reversed a lower court decision, appeared to be the first to buck that trend.

This is potentially good news for those of us who have been taken advantage of by third-party resellers.

The Globe and Mail:

Canada Day fireworks in Banff this weekend went off without a bang.

The town switched to a pyrotechnics display like you might see at a rock concert over fireworks for its holiday celebrations going forward, so as not to terrify the thousands of animals, wild and domestic, that live in the area.

Beyond your whimpering canine, there’s evidence that traditional fireworks displays aren’t good for animals. Birds tend to “flee en masse” from them; the 2010 New Year’s celebration in Beebe, Ark., saw 5,000 blackbirds drop out of the sky, pelting residents in the head. Deer fling themselves into roads and cars. Horses have heart attacks and keel over. Shelters in the United States say the day after Independence Day is the busiest day for them because of all the runaway dogs, terrified and confused by the noise.

Fireworks were banned in my little town this year, partially for noise reasons but also because of a fire hazard concern (our town is surrounded by extremely dry forests). Tomorrow is the Fourth of July in the US – will you or your community use the “low-noise fireworks” (which I had never heard of before)? These don’t exactly seem like “low noise” to me.

AppleInsider:

Apple will announce quarterly earnings for its third fiscal quarter of 2019 on July 30, with company CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri expected to share details regarding specific segment performance in an investor conference call.

As usual, Cook and Maestri are expected to provide an in-depth breakdown Apple’s financials for the three-month period ending in June, as well as answer questions from prominent analysts.

As usual, Apple will announce billions of dollars of revenue and millions of devices sold.

This is a lot of fun. iOS 13 is using ARKit to make your eyes look at the person to whom you are connected via FaceTime, rather than at the actual slight angle as you look at the screen rather than the camera.

To see this at work, check out this bit of video from Dave Schukin. In the video, keep your eyes on the eyeglasses arm, rather than on the eyes, watching for that arm to warp as ARKit does its thing.

If you have the iOS 13 beta, you can enable this bit of trickery in Settings > FaceTime, but only if you have one of the most recent model iPhones.

Nikil Saval, The New Yorker:

The archetypal telephone, the Model 500, designed by Henry Dreyfuss, had a clunking rotary dial, a heavy base, and a coiled cord that connected to a curved handset.

And:

But it was the handset that was the product’s masterpiece. Molding itself to your hand and also to the crook between your shoulder and ear, it was a perfect instantiation of how a designer could shape everyday technology to the form of the human body, while anticipating the instincts—such as the desire to speak hands-free—that would guide the use of that technology.

And:

The Apple iPhone, in the various iterations that the industrial designer Jony Ive produced, is the opposite. Few objects so continuously in use by human beings are as hostile to the human body as this slim, black, fragile slab, recalcitrant to any curve of head or shoulder or even palm, where it usually rests. It is made for a world without liquids, secretions, or hard surfaces, all of which threaten its destruction. Except for the curve of the edges, where the bevel of the glass screen has been painstakingly fused to the phone’s body, it is the shape of a photo, not a face.

The quotes above give you a taste of what’s in store in the rest of the article. For me, it’s a real treat, luxuriant prose but short enough to not get old.

Jeremy Horwitz, VentureBeat:

Apple’s Memoji may have become the more popular 3D avatar feature for smartphones, but Xiaomi wants people to know that its similarly named version — Mimoji — came first, despite increasingly confusing overlap between the apps’ names and features. Moreover, it’s apparently threatening legal action against writers who call it a copycat without providing proof.

And:

Neither Apple nor Xiaomi can reasonably claim to be first with either the 3D animal or 3D human avatar concept; the ideas have been found in third-party apps for years, and Samsung’s AR Emoji beat both companies to market with OS-integrated human avatars in February 2018. Even the Memoji name dates back to at least early 2017, and not from Apple.

Seems fair for Xiaomi to complain about being accused of copying Apple. It’ll be interesting to see if they follow through with any actual legal action and, if so, if they have any success. Can’t imagine that will buy them many friends in the tech press.

Spotify blog:

Almost a year ago, we started to beta test a feature that lets independent artists upload their music directly to Spotify. Today, we notified participating artists about our decision to close the beta program, along with how we can help them migrate their music to other distributors over the next month.

And:

The most impactful way we can improve the experience of delivering music to Spotify for as many artists and labels as possible is to lean into the great work our distribution partners are already doing to serve the artist community.

That’s really a shame. Well, there’s always the Apple Music for Artists beta.

Doug:

In case it isn’t crystal clear: scripts written for iTunes will not work on macOS 10.15 and later. Since the iTunes application isn’t available on the new OS, scripts that target it will fail. So, almost every script on the site will need to be re-written to work with the macOS Music and/or Apple TV apps that replace iTunes in macOS 10.15.

To help users keep track of what scripts for which operating system have been updated and when, I’ve posted Doug’s Check For All Updates. It’s an applet that will survey your computer for all the scripts you have installed from dougscripts.com and generate a report listing which have been updated.

If you are a user of Doug’s excellent scripts written for iTunes, download and run this.

Gizmodo:

Later this month, some of the original videotapes that captured the first Moon landing will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. But they’re not being sold by NASA. Incredibly, these tapes were sold to a random NASA intern back in the 1970s who had no idea at the time that he’d purchased an important piece of history.

According to Sotheby’s, it was George’s father who first noticed that these tapes might be worth hanging on to for the future. A small label on one of the boxes read, “APOLLO 11 EVA | July 20, 1969 REEL 1 [–3]” and “VR2000 525 Hi Band 15 ips.” Obviously, that was something that should be taken care of, and that’s precisely what they did.

Well, that’s embarrassing.

Here’s a link to our post on the original, paywalled Wall Street Journal story, in case you haven’t yet seen it.

In response to this story, Tim Cook sent this email to NBC reporter Dylan Byers:

Hi Dylan,

Hope you are well.

The story is absurd. A lot of the reporting, and certainly the conclusions just don’t match with reality. At a base level, it shows a lack of understanding about how the design team works and how Apple works. It distorts relationships, decisions and events to the point that we just don’t recognize the company it claims to describe.

The design team is phenomenally talented. As Jony has said, they’re stronger than ever, and I have complete confidence that they will thrive under Jeff, Evans, and Alan’s leadership. We know the truth and we know the incredible things they’re capable of doing. The projects they’re working on will blow you away.

Best,
Tim

Sent from my iPhone

The email has been called scathing. I’d go with emotional and strong. This is certainly a rebuttal, but it feels like someone defending their team, their hard work, and good name. I would expect nothing less from Tim.

Reddit:

His watch called 911 last night after he fell and was unresponsive to the prompts. He has balance issues and we specifically got the watch for this feature after a few incidents prior. He had to get multiple stitches on his forehead but the scans came back negative for internal head bleeding. The doctors said he suffered a concussion and it might take a while to recover from the blunt trauma. I’m extremely thankful for that feature and I don’t know what would’ve happened if we wasn’t wearing his watch.

The Apple Watch saves lives. There are waves of stories about Siri access during emergencies, ECG heart warnings, and fall detection.

To me, Apple Watch has evolved into one of the most significant products Apple has ever released. And I believe the current sensors are just the tip of the iceberg. Apple Watch still has plenty of room to grow.

British GQ, in the intro to an interview with Eddy Cue:

Just as Ive was the driving force behind Apple’s hardware, Cue – whose official job title is senior vice president of internet software and services – is now the driving force behind all the services from Apple Music and Maps to the new Apple credit card and Apple TV+, its new Netflix-rival streaming service set to launch this autumn in more than 100 countries.

Cue, on the rumor that Tim Cook posted notes on scripts, on the order of “Don’t be so mean”:

“I saw the comments that myself and Tim were writing notes on the scripts and whatever,” says Cue. “There’s never been one note passed from us on scripts, that I can assure you. We leave the folks [alone] who know they’re doing.”

So Cook didn’t give that particular note?

“I can assure you that was 100 per cent false. He didn’t say, ‘Don’t be so mean.’ He didn’t say anything about a script.”

And:

What would be an example of a show that’s not family friendly?

“The Reese Witherspoon-Jennifer Aniston show [The Morning Show is a workplace drama set behind the scenes of breakfast TV]. It’s a show about women in the workplace and some of the issues that happen to them are definitely not appropriate for you to watch with an eight-year-old.”

And:

Cue says he didn’t realise it at the time – “I was young” – but that one of the greatest things to happen to Apple was Jobs getting fired in 1985 by then-CEO John Sculley.

“Because when he came back, one of the things that he wanted to do is create a company that would outlast him and could live for hundreds of years.”

He was really thinking in terms of centuries?

“He absolutely was. And he put people in place and created a culture that he thought would do that. But obviously he was taken way too early. I figured I’d be walking out of Apple the same day he was walking out of Apple.”

There’s a lot more to the interview. Lots of interesting tidbits.

Apple:

Apple today announced Up Next Live, a series of intimate performances from past and present Apple Music Up Next artists including Bad Bunny, Daniel Caesar, Khalid, Ashley McBryde, King Princess, Lewis Capaldi and Jessie Reyez. Each artist will perform for fans in one city, for one night only.

The shows will be held at Apple Stores around the world, one artist per show, one show per store. Here’s the current schedule:

• July 9 — Bad Bunny at Apple Piazza Liberty, Milan
• July 19 — Jessie Reyez at Apple Union Square, San Francisco
• July 25 — King Princess at Apple Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• July 31 — Lewis Capaldi at Apple Champs-Élysées, Paris
• August 9 — Daniel Caesar at Apple Covent Garden, London
• August 16 — Ashley McBryde at Apple Michigan Avenue, Chicago
• August 23 — Khalid at Apple Carnegie Library, Washington, D.C.

Want to go? Visit Apple’s Up Next Live page and click the show you want to attend to apply for tickets.

Me? I’ve applied for tickets to see Khalid at Apple Carnegie Library. Fingers crossed!

The headline link is behind a paywall. Here’s a link to the article on Apple News that should work if you don’t have a WSJ subscription.

Tripp Mickle, Wall Street Journal:

For nearly three hours on that afternoon in January 2017, the group of about 20 designers stood around waiting for Mr. Ive to show, according to people familiar with the episode. After he arrived and listened to the presentations, he left without ruling on their key questions, leaving attendees frustrated.

“Many of us were thinking: How did it come to this?” said a person at the meeting. There was a sense “Jony was gone but reluctant to hand over the reins.”

The episode was emblematic of a widening disconnect at the top of Apple that, invisible outside the company, was eroding the product magic created by Mr. Ive and the late Steve Jobs that helped turn Apple into America’s pre-eminent corporation.

And:

Mr. Ive, 52, withdrew from routine management of Apple’s elite design team, leaving it rudderless, increasingly inefficient, and ultimately weakened by a string of departures, people close to the company say.

The internal drama explains a lot about Apple’s dilemma. Its one major new product of the post-Jobs era, the Apple Watch, made its debut five years ago.

And:

His departure from the company cements the triumph of operations over design at Apple, a fundamental shift from a business driven by hardware wizardry to one focused on maintaining profit margins and leveraging Apple’s past hardware success to sell software and services.

This is not a flattering portrayal. As usual with these sorts of articles, I take every anecdote with a grain of salt. Personally, I see iOS 13 and the continually impressive series of ARM chips as but two examples of major Apple products. True, iOS 13 is in early beta, but it is incredibly impressive.

But that last comment highlights a core issue for Apple. When they were smaller, it was easy to let genius lead. But with explosive growth comes the need for more dependence on operational expertise to inform the product pipeline. Less reliance on one visionary, more design by committee.

That’s the reality brought on by Apple’s exponential growth. It take a different set of hands to guide a single race car than a complex fleet of vehicles.

The article ends with:

Mr. Ive’s old design team—a group of aesthetes once thought of as gods inside Apple—will report to COO Jeff Williams, a mechanical engineer with an M.B.A.

I’d soften that statement with the belief that Apple is still chock full of visionaries, geniuses, and plenty of cash to continue their product pursuits.

Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret got their hands on that very first iPhone before it went public, back in June of 2007.

The linked review is a fun look at that very first model. Can’t help but be amazed at how far we’ve come. Great read.

William Gallagher, AppleInsider:

The app that made it so easy to play music on your Mac that it transformed the entire music industry is going away, but the legacy lives on. As Apple scraps the omnibus iTunes app and breaks it up into multiple parts, AppleInsider looks at what went so right —and then so wrong.

Interesting look back. Success breeds expectations. The team behind a successful app inevitably feels pressure to add new features, to keep the app growing. What starts out simple, grows impossibly complex over time.

Microsoft Word, one of the most successful products of all time, started off as a simple, easy to use word processor. It evolved, over time, into an explosion of features, both incredibly powerful and as complex enough to require books and classes to truly master.

It was a natural path for iTunes to follow. I credit Apple with recognizing the need to go back to the drawing board, break the app into pieces. Could they have done it sooner? Sure. But that’s in the past. We’ll never know all the pressure points that made this move difficult. I’m glad we got here.