The Verge:

Companies that want to sell Apple products through Amazon now have to meet one of two requirements. The first is to purchase at least $2.5 million worth of refurbished inventory every 90 days from Apple itself or through a retailer with more than $5 billion in annual sales, like a wireless carrier or big-box retailers like Target or Walmart.

By cutting this deal, Apple and Amazon benefit while knocking out millions of dollars worth of business for small sellers. For Apple, the move to sell on Amazon and its aftermath highlight the company’s long-standing adversarial relationship with repair providers and resellers.

Apple and Amazon will make all the right noises about how this is “for the customer” but it’s hard to see that when the competition dries up and the prices rise.

iFixit:

Put simply, haptic feedback recreates the sense of touch or movement in an otherwise immovable or shallow-clicking object, like a button or trackpad. This is accomplished with a vibration motor, emitting controlled bursts of bzzzt as you tap and press. Apple has branded its own vibration motor the Taptic Engine.

And:

What makes Apple’s Taptic Engine different from other haptic applications we’ve seen over the years is the precise engineering Apple has put into it, and the precious space they devote to it inside their increasingly tight devices. Given this effort, Apple has come closer than any firm at actually replacing the tactile mechanical buttons some of us might miss.

And:

When the weighted mass inside a vibration motor moves back and forth at just the right speed, the vibration effect produced by the motor is amplified across the whole phone.

And:

Apple tunes their Taptic Engines to resonant frequencies optimized for quick, precise taps; and since they are designed in-house, they can pick specific sizes, shapes, and resonant frequencies for each product. In contrast, other smartphone manufacturers are at the mercy of whichever vibration motor manufacturer they happen to be purchasing from.

It’s those tiny details. No one is better than Apple at identifying and implementing those details in fit and finish. And I hear some of you in the back shouting “Butterfly keyboard”. Yes, but the keyboard issues are most notable because they are glaring exceptions to what we’ve come to expect from Apple.

Fascinating read.

Sean Coonce:

I lost north of $100,000 last Wednesday. It evaporated over a 24-hour time span in a “SIM port attack” that drained my Coinbase account. It has been four days since the incident and I’m gutted. I have zero appetite; my sleep is restless; I am awash in feelings of anxiety, remorse, and embarrassment.

And:

The ability to port your SIM card to another device is a service that mobile carriers provide to their customers. It allows a customer to request their phone number be transferred to a new device. In most cases, this is a perfectly legitimate request; this happens when we upgrade to a new phone, switch mobile carries, etc.

And:

A “SIM port attack”, however, is a malicious port performed by an unauthorized source — the attacker. The attacker ports your SIM card to a phone that they control. The attacker then initiates the password reset flow on your email account. A verification code is sent from your email provider to your phone number — which is intercepted by the attacker, as they now control your SIM card.

Part of the issue was the author’s investment in crypto-currency, making his loss irreversible. But this goes beyond that. The loss could just as easily have been via his bank account, or currency transfer mechanisms. Pretty riveting read.

Patently Apple:

> The system relates to improving detectability of road signs and vehicles on the road in low visibility conditions like fog or snow with a plurality of retroreflectors. For instance, if traveling on the road in a snow storm and road signs are covered in snow, a retroreflector system, using radar, would be able to read the text under the snow and relate it to the driver on a CarPlay display and/or other device display.

This is an interesting invention, shows Apple is still going down the Project Titan road, has value for a human driver.

But, it seems to me, the future of road signs and low-visibility hazard warnings (a car stuck in the middle of the roadway in a snowstorm, for example), is digital, not analog. In addition to flashers and reflectors, which are great for humans, signs/on-board hazard signals designed for automated vehicles will be equipped with high speed communications targeted at all nearby traffic.

Indeed, as technology advances, the transition from traditional analog road signs to digital solutions is becoming increasingly evident. This evolution is particularly significant for automated vehicles, which will benefit greatly from high-speed communications that can interact with all nearby traffic. Digital systems can offer real-time hazard warnings and dynamic updates, enhancing safety and efficiency on the roads. The integration of such technology into everyday driving is crucial for keeping pace with the advancements in vehicle automation and connectivity.

In the realm of car accessories, innovations like the tesla steering wheel exemplify this shift towards advanced, tech-driven solutions. Designed to provide a seamless driving experience, the Tesla steering wheel incorporates features like built-in controls and touch-sensitive surfaces, offering drivers enhanced convenience and control. As we move towards a future where digital communication and automation become standard, such accessories not only improve driving comfort but also align with the growing trend of integrating high-tech solutions into vehicles, making the road safer and more intuitive for all users.

The rub here is that time in between, where both human and automated traffic share the road.

Malcolm Owen, Apple Insider:

Speaking on CNBC on Tuesday, Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin claimed Apple made a “serious bid” to purchase Tesla, around 2013, with the offer supposedly in the region of $240 per share. It is unclear how far along the alleged negotiations went, such as a “formal paperwork stage” that would signal an intent to purchase.

Interesting story. Clearly anecdotal, but seems to line up with this:

A profile of Apple’s mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica in February 2014 included references to a meeting between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook in Cupertino in 2013, at around the same time as a German analyst wrote an open letter to Cook suggesting an Apple purchase of Tesla. That report cited multiple sources about the supposed meeting, but again with little proof it actually took place.

Would Apple owning Tesla, producing a car be a good match for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, et al, side of the business?

Side note: As of this writing, Tesla is trading at $201.49.

Ken Segall:

On March 25th, Tim Cook unveiled Apple Card — ”the future of credit cards.”

WTF? Fiasco! Yet another Apple blunder! Has Tim Cook lost it? Steve Jobs would never do this!!

Well … not so fast. The truth is, Steve Jobs actually did do this. At least he tried to.

The proof is likely hidden in a secret vault buried deep inside Apple Park. Fortunately, it’s also right here on my archive drive.

The year was 2004, when Apple was a very different company. It had only recently reinvented the music industry with iPod and iTunes, forever changing the way we buy and discover music.

Steve thought the time was right for Apple to offer its own credit card. He would call it … (drum roll)… Apple Card.

And, as the Mac Observer reports, Apple tried it even before then in 1993.

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 just been updated and is now,available in the Mac App Store! 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!

Angela Moon, Reuters:

Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world.

And:

Holders of current Huawei smartphones with Google apps, however, will continue to be able to use and download app updates provided by Google, a Google spokesperson said.

It’s too early to truly know the impact of this suspension, but a few things click right away:

• Huawei has confirmed that they’ve built their own operating system as a backstop. I can’t imagine it’s as good as Android or iOS, but if this situation continues, China’s leading smartphone seller will no longer run a US smartphone OS.

• In quarter 1, 2019, Huawei shipped 29.9 million smartphones in China, compared to Apple’s 6.5 million. If Google’s suspension holds, I can only imagine those numbers moving even further apart. Certainly, I can’t see this situation helping Apple in China.

• This could all end quickly, as such trade restrictions can do, if this is a White House negotiating tactic and not a permanent restriction.

Why did this happen?

From the South China Morning Post:

Huawei Technologies and over 70 affiliates were added to the US Commerce Department’s Entity List last week on national security grounds, restricting the company from buying parts and components from US companies without government approval.

More on this as it unfolds.

Some great water tests, including one that reinforced my instinct to never buy used earbuds.

Jordan Kahn, 9to5Mac:

Apple appears to be running low on inventory for Apple Watch Series 3 repairs as the company informed store staff today that it will substitute some Series 3 repairs with the newer Apple Watch Series 4.

And:

The change means that customers looking for a repair or replacement for their Apple Watch Series 3 Stainless Steel (GPS + Cellular) model will instead be fulfilled with Apple Watch Series 4, Stainless Steel (GPS + Cellular) inventory as a replacement due to constraints on the older model.

Good to know. Huge swing in satisfaction, going in to the Apple Store all sad with a broken Apple Watch 3 and walking out with a brand new Apple Watch 4.

CNBC:

Last week, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a New York Times op-ed that said “privacy cannot be a luxury good.” But behind the scenes, Google is still collecting a lot of personal information from the services you use, such as Gmail, and some of it can’t be easily deleted.

Here’s a link to the op-ed, which painted Google as the privacy protector for the masses and Apple as privacy for the elite.

The op-ed really rubbed me the wrong way, felt like hypocrisy of the worst kind. And this CNBC post does a nice job laying out exactly why.

Google says it doesn’t use your Gmail to show you ads and promises it “does not sell your personal information, which includes your Gmail and Google Account information,” and does “not share your personal information with advertisers, unless you have asked us to.”

But, for reasons that still aren’t clear, it’s pulling that information out of your Gmail and dumping it into a “Purchases” page most people don’t seem to know exists. Even if it’s not being used for ads, there’s no clear reason why Google would need to track years of purchases and make it hard to delete that information.

The article gets specific, showing purchases not made through Google that are tracked by Google and not easily deleted. How is this privacy for the masses?

Forbes (yes, Forbes – they broke the story):

The son and estate of Broadway composer Harold Arlen filed a lawsuit against Apple and other businesses for selling over 6,000 unauthorized recordings of his music. Described as a “massive music piracy operation,” the lawyers claim that “Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Pandora and their distributors have joined with notorious music pirates to sell and stream thousands of pirated recordings.”

And:

According to the lawsuit, the largest digital music stores and streaming services are now flooded with unauthorized copies of Arlen’s songs that are being sold under different record labels for less than the price of the authorized copies of Arlen’s songs. For example, one online retailer is selling a song from the Jamaica cast album under the record label Soundtrack Classics for $0.99 alongside an authorized copy of the song from the RCA Victor record label for $1.29. The cover art of the Soundtracks Classics version has been doctored to remove RCA Victor’s logo.

Seems like this is more of a broken system allowing pirates to slide into the digital music streaming chain and not piracy on Apple’s part.

Is there a system in place for filing copyright claims in Apple Music? If so, did Arlen’s estate file the claims and were those claims ignored?

AppleInsider:

“In some important ways, my generation has failed you,” he said. “We have spent too much time debating, we have been focused on the fight and not focused enough on progress.

“Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of being too cautious,” he said. “Don’t assume that by staying put, the ground won’t move beneath your feet. The status quo simply won’t last. So get to work on building something better. You may succeed. You may fail. But make it your life’s work to remake the world. Because there is nothing more beautiful or worthwhile than working to leave something better for humanity.”

As usual, a thoughtful and thought-provoking speech.

9to5Mac:

Apple yesterday held its formal opening of Apple Park, including a concert on the rainbow stage at the center of the campus. Lady Gaga performed at the event, with Apple Park employees taking to Twitter and Instagram to share photos and videos.

As first reported by the YML Daily and later confirmed by 9to5Mac, Apple inaugurated the opening of it’s Apple Park Campus with a “rainbow” stage and performance. The stage and adjacent area will continue to be used as a space for all hands meetings, parties, and WWDC Beer Bashes.

Grumpy Cat, arguably the internet’s most popular cat and one of its first viral memes, has died aged 7.

The furry sensation’s family announced her death on Twitter on Friday.

I laughed many times to Grumpy Cat.

Quartz:

I’ve discovered a life-saving device that allows cyclists to protect themselves and take back the road: the pool noodle. Use a bungee cord to strap this light, flexible toy to your bike rack so that it sticks out to the left side (or the right side, if you’re in a country where cars drive on the left). Start pedaling and watch as car after car moves over to the other lane.

Yeah, it may look silly and isn’t 100% effective but anything that increases the margin of safety is a good thing. Plus, it helps when you go jump in a lake. Thanks to John Gondor for the link.

This is some nerdy deliciousness. The highlight is this graph, which shows what’s really going on.

The four takeaways, for folks who hate nerdy graphs:

• The AirPods “boost” charge for the first 3.5 minutes
• Pods take 30 mins to completely charge, Case takes 2 hours
• The case waits to charge until the Pods hit 20%
• Pods+Case never draw more than 2.5 watts total

Note that this was done using a 5 watt brick and a standard Apple cable on a non-wireless case.

Rob Fahey, GameIndustry, writing about this week’s Supreme Court ruling against Apple:

When I walk into a convenience store to buy a cold drink, I’m a customer of the convenience store, not of the Coca-Cola Company, so why should different logic apply when I open the App Store on my phone? Yet Apple’s argument wasn’t entirely without merit either (that’s why it made it all the way to the Supreme Court, I guess). Apple isn’t buying the software from the developer and reselling it to you (as a convenience store does with your Coke Zero), it’s providing a storefront to the developer, who has responsibility for how the software is presented, what they put into it, how it’s priced, and so on.

And:

The precedent is now set; if Apple’s digital distribution consumers are considered to be direct customers of the company, and thus to have standing to challenge its business practices in court, this also holds true for every digital software or media store out there.

That’s a pretty big deal.

This writeup is one of the clearest explainers I’ve seen of the issues at work here and the potential for tipping over a major legal apple cart.

Neil Cybart:

We are seeing the early signs of a new competitive landscape take hold in the tech space. Facebook and Google find themselves increasingly getting squeezed. Meanwhile, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are gaining competitive strength. Each is building stronger customer bonds while also expanding its respective ecosystem.

And:

One of the best and easiest ways to visualize this changing competitive landscape is to think of the giants as bumper cars. In the beginning, the bumper cars were on a track with a guardrail in the middle preventing head-on collisions. All of the cars moved safely around the loop in the same direction. Despite a few bumps here and there, each company (car) was able to largely do what it wanted without running into too many competitive hiccups.

And then they removed the guardrail in the middle of the track. Nice analogy (the pictures help) and an interesting read.

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming an app developer, the Apple Developer Academy is now open for applications. You could be one of 400 lucky students to win a year’s free training in Naples, Italy, completely free of charge.

To me, that’d be the experience of a lifetime. Here’s a link to the online application.

Airbnb press release:

A world-renowned leader in the retail space, Angela brings to the Board a profound creativity, enormous expertise in scaled services, and a passion for building community among customers. For the past five years, she oversaw global retail at Apple, creating a seamless customer experience designed to foster greater human connection by integrating the company’s physical and digital businesses across its online store, app and more than 500 retail stores in 25 countries. Under her leadership, the Today at Apple program turned stores into gathering places, reshaping Apple’s retail experience to inspire community and unlock creativity.

And this quote from CEO Brian Chesky:

“Angela has a reputation for pushing brands to dream big, and she told me that’s exactly what she hopes to bring to Airbnb’s Board. She has led global brands through transformation, completely redefined the retail experience, and has done it all while putting customers and communities first. I’m so excited for her to join our Board and know her innovative thinking will make us a better company.”

Clearly, joining a company Board is far different than a full time job as an executive. You can have seats on multiple boards, but you’d be hard pressed to have more than one full time job. Not being critical here, just an observation.

This is Colossal:

Constructed with white resin, Building Bridges features six sets of reaching arms with hands clasped over a waterway, meant to represent people and cultures coming together over differences.

I’d seen the original all over Instagram and this new version is even more spectacular.

Apple:

California-based photographer Rachael Short likes to keep things simple. Shooting photographs around Carmel, California, she searches for new textures, lighting and contrasts to capture in her portraits and landscapes. She prefers black and white, brushing off color as a distraction. “Life is so chaotic, so it’s something to simplify and calm things down,” Short explains.

In 2010 at age 28, Short suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident along California’s Highway 1 on Halloween night. She was diagnosed with a C5 fracture in her spine. She was quadriplegic.

This is a sad but ultimately empowering profile of a person who has persevered.

Add signatures, text, and images. Make changes and correct typos. OCR scanned docs. Fill out forms. Proofread OCR text!

I love PDFpen and have used it for many years. The people that make this software care about their customers and the apps they release. I can’t recommend this enough.

Came across this link on Jason Snell’s excellent Six Colors this morning.

It’s a story that appeared way back in 1984, a retelling of a seminal moment in computing history, the birth of the spreadsheet in the late ’70s.

A great read, especially if you are interested in the history of Apple. VisiCalc, the spreadsheet that started it all, came to life on an Apple II.

From the App Store writeup:

The Steam Link app brings desktop gaming to your iPhone or iPad. Just pair an MFI or Steam controller to your device, connect to a computer running Steam on the same local network, and start playing your existing Steam games.

Requirements: – iPhone or iPad using iOS 10 or higher – Computer running Steam – Windows, Mac, or Linux – iOS device must be on the same local network as the computer running Steam

This will definitely change the way I look at gaming. If the controls of a game translate to the flat glass of an iPad, I’ll definitely add it to my game roster.

Will this have any impact on subscriptions to Apple Arcade? Will Apple Arcade games, designed from the ground up for iOS, be significantly more pleasurable to play than Steam games?

New York Times:

Scientists have created a living organism whose DNA is entirely human-made — perhaps a new form of life, experts said, and a milestone in the field of synthetic biology.

And:

The bacteria are alive, though unusually shaped and reproducing slowly. But their cells operate according to a new set of biological rules, producing familiar proteins with a reconstructed genetic code.

The achievement one day may lead to organisms that produce novel medicines or other valuable molecules, as living factories. These synthetic bacteria also may offer clues as to how the genetic code arose in the early history of life.

The potential here is astonishing, both for good and for harm. This is not simply editing DNA, this is creating life forms from scratch. Truly a landmark.