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.

First things first, chances are good that your Mac is not at risk in the first place. Want to check?

• Go to the Apple menu, select About This Mac
• Click the System Report… button
• Click the Hardware title in the sidebar

In the Hardware Overview section (it’s relatively short), look for the term hyper-threading. Don’t see it? You can ignore this issue.

If your Mac does support hyper-threading, you should take a look at this official Apple Support document.

Before you take any action, note:

Testing conducted by Apple in May 2019 showed as much as a 40 percent reduction in performance with tests that include multithreaded workloads and public benchmarks. Performance tests are conducted using specific Mac computers. Actual results will vary based on model, configuration, usage, and other factors.

And:

Although there are no known exploits affecting customers at the time of this writing, customers who believe their computer is at heightened risk of attack can use the Terminal app to enable an additional CPU instruction and disable hyper-threading processing technology, which provides full protection from these security issues.

No known exploits. Just the potential for exploits. Forewarned is forearmed.

A bit of a PR ding for Apple, but a mighty issue for Intel.

UPDATE: There is some question as to whether lack of hyper-threading support puts your Mac in safe harbor from the Intel vulnerability. The issue is, if you disable hyper-threading (and add that extra CPU instruction), you’ll be safe. But the question is, if your Mac doesn’t support hyper-threading in the first place, does that mean your Mac is not susceptible to the issue?

If anyone knows the definitive answer to this, please reach out.

A solid marketing campaign by the Indian government and a nice strategic move by Apple to ease their way into that market.

Just saw this ad , Apple is explicitly promoting made in India pic.twitter.com/OpjClRJAhs

— Varun Krishnan (@varunkrish) May 15, 2019

The iPhone 6s runs iOS 12, presumably will run iOS 13 as well.

From this Apple Insider post:

Using manufacturing partner Wistron, Apple has produced the iPhone 6S in India since 2018 and the iPhone SE since 2017, and has expanded to include the iPhone 7 for local sale. Current plans include tapping Foxconn for a trial run of production for the iPhone X, which may be a precursor to manufacturing the 2019 iPhones in the market.

Presumably, many of the parts for these iPhones are all sourced elsewhere, and the assembly and testing happen in India. Wondering what parts (such as the midframes and cases), if any, are actually manufactured in India.

VOX:

One of the biggest TV shows in recent history is about to end, after a long, hugely successful run. Viewers are sharply divided. Some have argued that the show is a massively enjoyable example of the power of the monoculture, complete with great character work and compelling storytelling.

But others believe its point of view is regressive and backward, playing off stereotypes and tropes that can be actively harmful if they aren’t handled with care — and which the show has often mishandled.

But look beyond its massive viewership and you’ll find a series that has won many Emmy Awards as well as several other honors. You’ll find a show that, at its height, was embraced enthusiastically by TV critics. You’ll find a show that made lots of people laugh and cry and maybe even feel better about life.

I enjoyed The Big Bang Theory immensely for what it was – a silly little comedy. While I’d never call it a “great” show, I looked forward to watching it each week and I’m sorry its run has come to an end.

Motherboard:

Hackers have been breaking into iPhones allegedly using a powerful spy tool sold to governments and taking advantage of a previously unknown vulnerability in the popular messaging app WhatsApp.

The hacking tool, as well as the WhatsApp exploit, were made by the infamous Israeli hacking and surveillance tool vendor NSO Group, according to The Financial Times, which first reported the story on Monday.

And:

“The simple reality is there are so many 0-day exploits for iOS,” Stefan Esser, a security researcher that specializes in iOS, wrote on Twitter. “And the only reason why just a few attacks have been caught in the wild is that iOS phones by design hinder defenders to inspect the phones.”

And:

As of today, there is no specific tool that an iPhone user can download to analyze their phone and figure out if it has been compromised. In 2016, Apple took down an app made by Esser that was specifically designed to detect malicious jailbreaks. Moreover, iOS is so locked down that without hacking or jailbreaking it first, even a talented security researcher can do very little analysis on it.

Not clear to me if that “0-day exploits” comment is true. After all, if you don’t have the tools to break in, how would you know. But the article does make interesting points. Are there exploit-detecting tools running behind the scenes on iOS, reporting back to Apple if anything is amiss? Or is it more like, the vault is so secure we don’t need guards?

The Verge:

It truly feels like we’re starting to reach peak dongle: Anker has released an adapter that allows Lightning earbuds to work with the 2018 iPad Pro, Apple’s USB-C MacBooks, and some recent Windows 10 laptops. This $29.99 accessory is available from Amazon now and is certified under the iPhone maker’s MFi program.

Add in this comment from Joanna Stern:

If this had a swappable or interchangeable 3.5mm headphone jack it would be the dongle to end all dongles

One dongle to rule them all. The mind reels.

Juli Clover:

Apple used to offer a maximum of $500 when doing a direct iPhone trade-in through its trade-in website, and just a few weeks ago, we tested trading in an iPhone X and were offered $500 by Apple. Today, Apple’s maximum price for the same iPhone X is $349.

And:

That same iPhone X that’s worth $349 when doing a direct trade-in with Apple is worth $450 if you trade it in while buying a new iPhone XR.

Wondering if there is a reliable web site that tracks best trade-in price for a particular iPhone model at the various trade-in web sites, including Apple.

Apple Weekly:

In the last few years, Apple stopped opening new stores and focused on rebuilding or renovating existing spaces. Apple has about 400 or 500 million of customers more in 2019 that they did in 2014 when Angela Ahrendts took over Apple Retail.

And:

By 2010, when the iPad launched and the iPhone took off, Apple had 280 stores, or 1.4 per million of devices in their installed base. Now that figure is close to 0.36, four times fewer.

Have we hit peak Apple Store? Have the Apple Stores learned to be more efficient, allowing a store to serve many more people?

It’d be interesting to see the data showing number of Apple Store “floor” employees per active device. I do find my local Apple Stores more crowded than in the past, but I also find the process to be more organized as well. That said, I do find the wait to get a genius appointment to be getting longer, though that’s anecdotal, not based on any rigorous analysis.

The Verge’s Adi Robertson pulled together an excellent explainer on this week’s Supreme Court ruling with potentially huge implications for Apple.

The biggest takeaway is that this is allowing a lawsuit to move forward and not a specific finding against Apple itself. That fight will likely take a long time, and Apple might still prevail.

But a good backgrounder, easy to follow.