The Atlantic: The mystery surrounding MH370 has been a focus of continued investigation and a source of sometimes feverish public speculation. The idea that a sophisticated machine, with its modern instruments and redundant communications, could simply vanish seems beyond the realm of possibility. It is hard to permanently delete an email, and living off the grid is nearly unachievable even when the attempt is deliberate. A Boeing 777 is meant to be electronically accessible at all times. The disappearance of the airplane has provoked a host of theories. Many are preposterous. All are given life by the fact that, in this age, commercial airplanes don’t just vanish.

This one did, and more than five years later its precise whereabouts remain unknown. Even so, a great deal about the disappearance of MH370 has come into clearer view, and reconstructing much of what happened that night is possible.

We don’t really know but this is a great synopsis of what authorities do know with a lot of valid supposition thrown in.

And if you have financed or leased an airplane, then you might know that a repossession could be possible if you don’t make your payments like you are supposed to or if you otherwise violate your lease contract. If you think that your plane is going to be repossessed, now is the time to get on the phone with an airplane repo attorney. If you’re wondering why you should do this before your plane ever gets repoed, consider these reasons.

Undark:

There are more than 9 million dairy cows in the United States, and the vast majority of them are Holsteins, large bovines with distinctive black-and-white (sometimes red-and-white) markings. The amount of milk they produce is astonishing. So is their lineage. When researchers at the Pennsylvania State University looked closely at the male lines a few years ago, they discovered more than 99 percent of them can be traced back to one of two bulls, both born in the 1960s. That means among all the male Holsteins in the country, there are just two Y chromosomes.

Any elementary science student knows that genetic homogeneity isn’t good in the long term. It increases the risk of inherited disorders while also reducing the ability of a population to evolve in the face of a changing environment.

This may seem like a silly story but it’s actually terrifying. All it would take is one specific disease and it could wipe out the entire dairy industry.

Shelly Brisbin:

36 Seconds That Changed Everything is an audio documentary, written and produced by Texas-based writer, Shelly Brisbin. It tells the story of how a device that once excluded people with disabilities – the iPhone – became one of the most transformative forces in the lives of those same people, once the barriers its software had created were removed.

The story of 36 Seconds begins on the day Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller announced accessibility would be part of the third generation of iPhone software – it took him just 36 seconds to do it. The features he hinted at during those few seconds would go on to have a profound impact on thousands of people who, to that point, had limited access to smartphones. What Schiller and most of the people who bought iPhones that summer couldn’t know, was how great the device’s impact would be for people with disabilities to lead lives of greater freedom, independence, and productivity.

So many of us use our devices without any thought to how to access them but, if you have accessibility issues, it’s not so easy. Apple isn’t perfect but they do a lot to assist those who can’t use their devices like the rest of us do. This is the transcript of the podcast. Thanks to Jason Snell for the link.

Apple:

Apple today announced the completion of a major expansion of its Apple authorized service network. With nearly 1,000 Best Buy stores across the US now providing expert service and repairs for Apple products, customers have even easier and more convenient access to safe and reliable repairs.

And:

By expanding to every Best Buy store across the US, customers in cities including Yuma, Arizona; Sioux City, Iowa; Twin Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming and Bismarck, North Dakota will have more convenient access to Apple repairs. Plus, Best Buy’s Geek Squad has nearly 7,600 newly Apple-certified technicians ready to make same-day iPhone repairs or to service other Apple products.

It just got a lot easier to find a place to get your gear serviced, in warranty, in an Apple blessed way.

Interesting that Apple specifically called out those cities. If you look up Yuma, Arizona on your map, for example, you’ll see how incredibly far you have to go to get to an Apple Store (All the way to San Diego to the west, or to Mesa to the northeast). This is a terrific move, extending Apple’s reach, a win for many of Apple’s remoter customers.

Sarah Perez, Tech Crunch:

Good news for Apple Watch owners who don’t want to clutter up their Watch with unused apps. With the release of the new watchOS 6 operating system later this year, Apple will allow Apple Watch device owners to remove many more of the built-in, first-party apps from their smartwatch — including previously unremovable apps like Alarm, Timer, Stopwatch, Remote, Camera Remote, Radio and others, as well as health apps like ECG, Breathe, Noise and Cycle Tracking.

Excellent news. As is the news that you can update your Apple Watch running the watchOS 6 beta over the air, without the need to work through your iPhone. Props to Maks Motyka for this discovery:

Mogę to w końcu pokazać w akcji.

watchOS 6 pozwala aktualizować watchOS od razu na zegarku. pic.twitter.com/4H2HW5zNA2

— Maks Motyka (@MaksMotyka) June 17, 2019

You’ll still have to accept the EULA, apply the first beta via your iPhone but, once that’s done, it’s untethered updates. Huzzah.

That was no easy headline to construct. Better just to watch the video embedded in this tweet:

Today we introduced a new feature in YouTube that we're calling AR Beauty Try-On. It lets you virtually try on makeup while following along with YouTube creators. https://t.co/X9lovuwIWc pic.twitter.com/D7Zzxzzhoe

— Clay Bavor (@claybavor) June 19, 2019

You’ve got an AR component, showing your face with different makeup applied, underneath a second pane guiding you through the process, making it a seamless experience to explore the latest trends in makeup factory cosmetics. Imagine the convenience of trying on various looks without ever needing to leave your home. This innovative approach allows users to visualize how different products will appear on their skin tones and facial features in real time.

Moreover, the AR experience can offer personalized recommendations based on your preferences and previous selections, enhancing the user experience further. As you navigate through the makeup options, the adjacent guiding video provides step-by-step tutorials and tips from makeup artists, making it easy for both beginners and seasoned beauty enthusiasts to enhance their skills. This dual-pane setup not only empowers users to experiment but also educates them about application techniques and product benefits.

This might not apply (sorry!) to you, but the basic concept, with an AR pane adjacent to a guiding video, seems groundbreaking to me. It combines technology and education in a way that makes makeup accessible to everyone.

If you’re interested in learning more, click the headline link to read Google’s official blog post. There, you’ll find insights into how AR is transforming the beauty industry, offering a glimpse into the future of cosmetics and personal care. With this integration, users can explore a wide range of products and techniques, revolutionizing the way we approach beauty.

This might not apply (sorry!) to you, but the basic concept, with an AR pane adjacent to a guiding video, seems groundbreaking to me.

If you’re interested in learning more, click the headline link to read Google’s official blog post.

Matthew Miller, writing a story that no one wants to write:

At 11:30 pm on Monday, 10 June, my oldest daughter shook my shoulder to wake me up from a deep sleep. She said that it appeared my Twitter account had been hacked. It turns out that things were much worse than that.

After rolling out of bed, I picked up my Apple iPhone XS and saw a text message that read, “T-Mobile alert: The SIM card for xxx-xxx-xxxx has been changed. If this change is not authorized, call 611.”

This reads like a nightmare, told with ever increasing dread. Yes, it does get worse.

Read to the end for a section called “Recommendations for your security” but, since all this is still not resolved, I’m hoping for a “Lessons learned” update. And, for Matthew’s sake, hope the resolution happens quickly.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

If you have an Apple TV, particularly when connected to a secondary speaker system, then you can be afflicted by a common AV issue: unsynchronized audio.

The video signal is processed by the TV at a slightly different time than the audio is transmitted from the speaker system. This leads to a delay where the audio is out-of-sync to the video frames, often noticeable by looking at an actor’s lips move … but hearing the words a beat later.

What can you do? Physics, right? But:

With iOS 13 and tvOS 13, Apple aims to combat this problem. You can enter a new configuration step called Wireless Audio Sync. This is initiated by pressing a button in the Apple TV settings.

And:

As part of the process, the Apple TV will play a series of tones. The iPhone then measures how long it takes to hear the sounds. This calculation is then saved on the Apple TV.

The tvOS operating system can then send audio earlier or later using the time offset it calculated from the Wireless Audio Sync data, thereby synchronizing audio and visual outputs.

Cleverness abounds. Yet another example of Apple firing on all cylinders.

512 Pixels:

…it seems that the vents on the new machine came from a design rooted in the era of the G4 Cube, nearly 20 years ago. Apple may have been playing with what would become the vents on the new Mac Pro nearly 20 years ago, but the construction of them seems to be all-new.

What’s old is new again.

CNBC:

acebook is unveiling an ambitious plan to create a new digital currency and financial system to transform the way money moves around the world, and not just on its own apps.

The Libra currency will not be run by Facebook, but rather by a nonprofit association supported by a range of companies and organizations. But Facebook does have a plan to profit from it with a new subsidiary, Calibra, which is building a digital wallet of the same name for storing and exchanging the currency.

You’d have to be a completely ill-informed moron to use a digital currency system backed by Facebook. Sadly, Facebook is full of those people and this will be a huge success.

9to5Mac:

Apple is evolving its in-store shopping experience with signage and display fixtures that remove ambiguity and encourage increased hands-on interaction with products. New designs that have been spotted in multiple locations reflect the changing requirements of busy stores and appear to address common customer needs.

New easels (are) popping up at some stores across the U.S. and Canada clearly denote an Express Checkout zone to pay for accessories like iPhone cases, cables, and headphones. The signage provides an anchor for customers who are unsure of where to checkout or not aware of the scan and buy self-checkout feature of the Apple Store app.

Looks like the new VP is starting to put her stamp on the place.

Greg Benz:

Unfortunately, my update was picked up and shared in the media and the story that has been shared is incorrect. I have contacted the authors of articles which I am aware of to clarify the story, however, I can only control is what I share.

So here’s the full story as simply as I can put it:

The issues with my computer are isolated to my machine only and were created by 3rd-party software I have installed. Neither the laptop hardware nor Apple software have the issues related to brightness controls as I had previously believed.

The tech media is always happy to jump on Apple. Let’s see if they report this story as “thoroughly” as they reported the original.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

You can now watch shows from the Apple TV app whilst multitasking around the rest of the operating system. Just like the iPad, Apple TV users can leave the video playing in a thumbnail window whilst they navigate the rest of the operating system.

If this is true Picture-in-Picture (PiP), I would be thrilled. A game changing feature, at least for me. I’d be able to keep tabs on a ball game or news story, in a PiP overlay, while watching content on the main screen.

From everything I’ve seen, including this tweet that started this whole discussion, it looks like there’s only one live video feed.

Traditional PiP required two video sources to make that double-live-video feature happen, so this is no surprise, but it’d be very cool if there was a way Apple could bring real PiP to life in tvOS.

UPDATE: Been told that this feature will, indeed, support two separate sources, meaning you can watch live content in both the main screen and the inset screen. If true, this is a big deal. Will reach out to Apple for confirmation.

Charlie Warzel, New York Times, writing about this experiment by Harvard researcher Dan Svirsky:

Svirsky ran a series of tests where he had participants fill out online surveys for money and made them decide whether to share their Facebook profile data with a survey taker in exchange for a bonus (in some cases, 50 cents). In a direct trade-off scenario, Svirsky found that 64 percent of participants refused to share their Facebook profile in exchange for 50 cents and a majority were “unwilling to share their Facebook data for $2.50.” In sum: Respondents generally sacrificed a small bonus to keep from turning over personal information.

And:

But things changed when Svirsky introduced the smallest bit of friction. When participants were faced with what he calls “a veiled trade-off,” where survey takers had to click to learn whether taking the survey without connecting to Facebook would be free or cost them 50 cents, only 40 percent ended up refusing to share their data. And 58 percent of participants did not click to reveal which payment option was associated with privacy, even though doing so cost them nothing more than a second of their time.

I came across this article in this Daring Fireball post. From the post:

The lack of friction in the Sign In With Apple experience — especially using a device with Face ID or Touch ID — is a key part of why I expect it to be successful. It’s not just more private than signing in with Google or Facebook, it’s as good or better in terms of how few steps it takes.

The genius of the Google button is reducing friction for the user, easing them into sharing data from an already existing account. Even if your browser or app makes it easy to enter your email and password, using Touch ID or Face ID, there’s still friction in that sequence. The Google button is one simple step. With a privacy cost.

Sign in with Apple (SiwA) has the same lack of friction as the Google button. But without the privacy sacrifice. To me, this takes a good thing and makes it a great thing. I look forward to seeing SiwA in the wild.

This is the new look and feel of the post-iTunes way of showing an iOS device plugged into your Mac. Just as you’d expect if you plugged an external drive into your Mac, your plugged in device will appear in the Finder’s sidebar.

Excellent job by Stephen Hackett laying all this out. This looks like a very clean implementation by Apple, a nice step forward.

Follow the headline link to the release notes, then search for “New Features”. Rinse and repeat. So much to see.

One particular nugget I can’t wait to take for a spin:

Audio sharing is compatible with AirPods (1st generation or later) and PowerBeats Pro. iPhone 8 or later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation or later), iPad Pro 11-inch, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad (5th generation or later), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad mini (5th generation), or iPod touch (7th generation or later) is required. (51331268)

One definite benefit to keeping those first gen AirPods around if you upgrade to gen2 or the PowerBeats Pro.

Ben Feist:

Relive the first landing on the Moon for #Apollo50th. Includes all film footage, TV broadcasts, photographs, every word spoken, and more, including 11,000 hours of Mission Control audio never before made publicly available.

A real-time journey through the first landing on the Moon. This website consists entirely of original historical mission material.

One month from today will be the 50th anniversary of the most incredible achievement in mankind’s history. This real-time tracking of those events is utterly amazing.

The Verge:

Samsung has reminded owners of its smart TVs that they should be regularly scanning for malware using its built-in virus scanning software. “Prevent malicious software attacks on your TV by scanning for viruses on your TV every few weeks,” a (now deleted) tweet from the company’s US support account read alongside a video attachment that demonstrated the laborious process.

The obvious question here is why in the world doesn’t Samsung automate this process. When so many people don’t even know how to turn off motion smoothing, what are the chances that they’re going to be mindful of security practices? It also illustrates how dumb some smart TVs can be.

No, that’s not the obvious question.

I first saw this on Twitter from Dave Nott who said, “Pro tip: keep your tv as dumb as a bag of spanners (and use an Apple TV).” This is another reason why I refuse to have a so-called “Smart TV” in my home. I just want a big, dumb piece of glass to show me pretty pictures.

From Apple’s Maximizing Battery Life and Lifespan page:

If you want to store your device long term, two key factors will affect the overall health of your battery: the environmental temperature and the percentage of charge on the battery when it’s powered down for storage. Therefore, we recommend the following:

• Do not fully charge or fully discharge your device’s battery — charge it to around 50%. If you store a device when its battery is fully discharged, the battery could fall into a deep discharge state, which renders it incapable of holding a charge. Conversely, if you store it fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may lose some capacity, leading to shorter battery life.

• Power down the device to avoid additional battery use.

• Place your device in a cool, moisture-free environment that’s less than 90° F (32° C).

• If you plan to store your device for longer than six months, charge it to 50% every six months. Depending on how long you store your device, it may be in a low-battery state when you remove it from long-term storage. After it’s removed from storage, it may require 20 minutes of charging with the original adapter before you can use it.

This is one of those tips that applies widely, to all lithium ion devices. Best thing you can do is find an active home for your old devices. But if you can’t do that, and want to keep your battery alive, follow the advice above.

[Via Reddit]

Dangerous Minds:

While aquaphones and theremins are the go-to instruments when thinking of “classic” horror sounds, I happened to run across the ultimate terror instrument—a home-made device that can produce a wide array of horrific soundscape elements all in one compact unit. “The Apprehension Engine,” as it is called, was created by Canadian guitar maker Tony Duggan-Smith as a “one off” for Mark Korven, who is best known for his soundtrack work on The VVitch.

Watch the video embedded below, tell me it doesn’t raise the hairs on the back of your neck. What is it about these sounds that meld so perfectly with jump scare movies?

From Twitter’s official blog:

Last week, Apple announced Project Catalyst for macOS 10.15 Catalina, which makes it easy for developers to bring their iPad projects to macOS as native Mac apps. We are excited that Project Catalyst will enable us to bring Twitter back to the Mac by leveraging our existing iOS codebase. We’ll also be able to add native Mac features on top of our existing iPad experience, while keeping our maintenance efficient as we continue to improve this shared codebase in the years to come.

As to why Twitter dropped their Mac client in the first place:

Historically, Twitter had a Mac app that shared the same roots as our iPhone app. Over the years, Twitter for Mac and Twitter for iOS diverged as Twitter increasingly focused on its mobile apps. Supporting the two separate codebases was no longer a sustainable option and ultimately we sunset the native Mac app.

And:

The new Twitter for Mac app will use our existing iOS codebase, rather than being built from a separate codebase, following the same successful strategy we’ve used with Web to expand our supported clients. By supporting key Mac-specific behaviors on top of our iOS code, we will be able to maintain feature parity across our iOS and Mac apps with relatively low long term maintenance costs.

Can’t help but wonder if this is an unintended positive consequence of Catalyst, or if bringing apps like Twitter back to the Mac was part of the drive behind Catalyst in the first place.

No matter, glad to have Twitter making its way back to the Mac.

New York Post:

Since announcing plans to compete with Netflix in March, Apple has been busy with a new project: financing six small-budget movies a year with an eye toward stories that could win Academy Awards, sources have told The Post.

And:

Apple is looking to spend $5 million to $30 million per project, sources said, adding that the company is being driven by Netflix’s recent spate of Oscar nominations and win for Best Foreign Film with “Roma” — legitimizing Netflix head Reed Hastings’ standing in Hollywood.

Hard to judge the motivations of others (how can anyone know if the company is being “driven” by Netflix envy?), but this certainly seems a logical move, balancing a variety of popular projects with prestige projects to add luster to the brand.

I’m eagerly following Apple’s foray into Hollywood, looking forward to the Apple TV+ rollout.

This is an easy read with lots of interesting detail on Photos and non-destructive editing. Worth your time, and from an excellent source.

From the bio at the end of the article:

Nik Bhatt, formerly Senior Director of Engineering at Apple, led the Aperture and iPhoto engineering teams for several years. Afterward, he led imaging teams for Apple’s photo applications, including the teams responsible for Core Image and Apple’s RAW Camera library. He is now the developer of RAW Power, an advanced photo editing app for Mac and iOS.

Read the article.

Wired:

I spoke to a variety of developers who make apps for iOS and Android, one of whom asked to remain anonymous because they aren’t authorized to speak on behalf of their employer. Some are skeptical that Sign In with Apple will offer a solution dramatically different from what’s already available through Facebook or Google. Apple’s infamous opacity around new products means the app makers don’t have many answers yet as to how Apple’s sign in mechanism is going to impact their apps. And one app maker went as far as referring to Apple’s demand that its sign-in system be offered if any other sign-in systems are shown as “petty.”

My first thought is I wouldn’t trust any developer who would use Facebook or Google login procedures but not want to use Apple’s as well.

Click the headline link, don’t look away or you’ll miss it. Don’t ever remember Apple honoring a sports franchise like this. I kind of love it.