Central Michigan University:

To attend her son Stephan’s commencement ceremony, Sharonda Wilson was unable to attend her own from Ferris State University. Learning this, @cmichprez contacted FSU President Eisler and was able to confer her degree on behalf of FSU's president and trustees. #cmichgraduation pic.twitter.com/anCSTHDCdC

— Central Michigan U. (@CMUniversity) May 4, 2019

I’m not crying. You’re crying.

AppleInsider:

Apple on Thursday previewed its Carnegie Library store in Washington, D.C., set to open on Saturday at 10 a.m., saying it will help the Library once again serve a public good despite much of it being turned into a private store.

The store represents Apple’s “most extensive historic restoration project to date,” the company said. The building was originally Washington’s Central Public Library, funded and opened by Andrew Carnegie in 1903. Apple worked with conservation experts on preserving facades and details, and restoring interior spaces to their original dimensions. Apple’s usual architectural firm, Foster + Partners, operated in conjunction with chief design officer Jony Ive.

I wish I still lived in the area. Even from Nashville or Connecticut, I’d ride to see the re-opening of this gorgeous building.

Motherboard:

In each of these muggings, the perpetrator allegedly held the victim up at gunpoint, demanded that they pull out their iPhone, and gave them instructions: Disable “Find My iPhone,” and log out of iCloud.

And:

A stolen iPhone which is still attached to the original owner’s iCloud account is worthless for personal use or reselling purposes (unless you strip it for parts), because at any point the original owner can remotely lock the phone and find its location with Find My iPhone. Without the owner’s password, the original owner’s account can’t be unlinked from the phone and the device can’t be factory reset. This security feature explains why some muggers have been demanding passwords from their victims.

And:

In practice, “iCloud unlock” as it’s often called, is a scheme that involves a complex supply chain of different scams and cybercriminals. These include using fake receipts and invoices to trick Apple into believing they’re the legitimate owner of the phone, using databases that look up information on iPhones, and social engineering at Apple Stores. There are even custom phishing kits for sale online designed to steal iCloud passwords from a phone’s original owner.

Fascinating read, especially the coverage of phishing. Incredible balance, with the makers who make valuable things on one end, and the people seeking to convert those efforts into illicitly gotten cash on the other.

Jason Snell, Macworld:

Despite the fear that the introduction of the Mac App Store meant that Apple would eventually limit the Mac software market to App Store apps only, that has never happened. In part, this is because a huge array of important Mac apps have not qualified for inclusion in the Mac App Store, something Apple seems now to be dedicated to rectifying.

And:

With the introduction of Gatekeeper, Apple began differentiating between Mac App Store apps, apps that had been created by known Apple developers outside the App Stores, and apps with unknown provenance.

And:

Last summer, Apple introduced a new concept for Mac software distribution outside the Mac App Store, something called “notarization.” Just as the older approach allows Apple to recognize registered developers—and turn off their accounts if they’re creating malware—this new approach requires developers to pass their apps through an automated process at Apple. Apple gets the ability to flag any problems it sees, and retains the ability to shut off individual apps from a developer, rather than the entire output of an account.

Good stuff from Jason Snell.

One side note: Interesting difference between the Mac and iOS is the ability to download and run a Mac app without any involvement from Apple. While you can sideload an iOS app using Apple’s Mobile Device Management, Test Flight, or by building the app yourself, none of those offer the freedom the Mac brings.

Will Marzipan change that, even a bit? Will I be able to download a Marzipan app from a developer’s site and just run it on my Mac? Or will Marzipan restrict apps to the Mac App Store?

Patently Apple:

The invention allows the system to extend to a future Apple Pencil for iPhone and through to other accessories that could be charged by a host device. Perhaps the AirPods case sitting on an iDevice.

Imagine an Apple Pencil that can charge on both an iPad and iPhone, and that can be used on both devices. Maybe the Apple Watch could ride on that train as well?

This more complex than AirPower? Maybe not, if this is just a single Qi-coil per device.

Iconfactory:

It’s clear that this year’s WWDC is going to be a doozy. We’ve written here previously with our thoughts about Dark Mode, now it’s time to talk about iOS apps coming to the Mac.

Of course I’m talking about Marzipan, a technology Apple introduced with few details during last year’s Keynote. We knew that some apps in Mojave used the new technology and that was about it.

What I’m going to focus on today is how this new technology will affect product development, design, and marketing. I see many folks who think this transition will be easy: my experience tells me that it will be more difficult than it appears at first glance.

Really interesting look at what the future holds after WWDC 2019.

The Orlando Sentinel:

Liam Rosenfeld could tell something was up.

As the 16-year-old walked into the Mall at Millenia’s Apple Store on Tuesday, he saw a swarm of employees and customers buzzing around a kiosk. When he approached, the crowd parted, and there stood Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“I was not expecting that at all,” said Liam, still flush and grinning ear-to-ear after meeting Cook. “It was such an amazing surprise.”

This had to be insanely exciting for this 16-year-old and what a great thing for Cook to do.

MacStories:

Developer Jeff Johnson, the maker of StopTheMadness, has released a free Mac utility called StopTheNews that forces Apple News links to open in Safari instead of the News app.

The app works with Safari and Safari Technology Preview by registering itself as the default handler for the Apple News URL scheme.

This comes in very handy but it feels like something Apple might not approve of. But I’ll use it regardless.

Check out these 3D simulating images:

Website update! You can play with these ??? at https://t.co/GoLR9kgQXv now.

(You will need to turn on Motion & Orientation access in Settings → Safari if you’re on iOS 12.2 or newer and you want the tilty stuff to work) pic.twitter.com/cwYnOKScyM

— Jarom Vogel (@jaromvogel) May 6, 2019

To see these on your own devices, you’ll need to:

• Go to Settings > Safari
• Turn on the Motion & Orientation Access switch. Some people have negative reactions to motion interfaces, so keep that in mind.

There are more of these on Jarom’s web site. Fun.

I have to say, when I first heard the Google Pixel 3A announcement, I was intrigued. Google has shipped a lot in that $399 package. Was this the phone that was going to tempt people to cross the line from Apple’s walled garden into Google’s data collecting machine?

From this New York Times review:

The Pixel 3A lacks some frills you may find in premium devices, like wireless charging and water resistance. But based on my tests, it is a great value. It’s fast and capable with a very good camera and a nice-looking screen — and, yes, especially for this price.

And:

Among the clever camera features is a software mode called Night Sight, which makes photos taken in low light look as if they had been shot in normal conditions, without a flash. Google accomplishes this with some A.I. sorcery that involves taking a burst of photos with short exposures and reassembling them into an image.

I was delighted to see that Night Sight worked well with the Pixel 3A.

And:

The Pixel 3A can also shoot images with portrait mode, also known as the bokeh effect, which puts the picture’s main subject in sharp focus while gently blurring the background. Portrait mode was effective at producing artsy-looking pictures of red flowers in a garden and of my dogs in a field.

And:

Anecdotally, I’ve had better results with portrait mode on the pricier Pixel 3 and iPhones.

Otherwise, normal shots in good lighting consistently looked crisp and clear, with nice shadow detail.

And:

Other features missing from the Pixel 3A include support for wireless charging, a wide-angle lens on its front-facing camera and water resistance. Most of these omissions are negligible.

The way I read this is, the Pixel 3A is a good enough camera. A bit slower than it’s twice-the-price sibling, but good enough for most people.

And the Pixel 3A will be getting far bigger distribution. From Reuters:

The phone will sell in the same 13 countries as the Pixel 3.

And while Pixel devices currently work on T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular networks, those U.S. wireless carriers will also begin to sell the phones starting Wednesday, along with Verizon.

And:

Google had discussions with AT&T, another major U.S. carrier, but could not overcome some differences, according to people familiar with the matter. But Google and AT&T continue to discuss the possibility of stocking smartphones in the future, one of the people said.

And from this Verge review:

On the Pixel 3, you get free unlimited backups of the original resolution photos you’ve taken with the phone. The Pixel 3A is limited to free “high quality” backups, and it makes you pay for more storage if you upload too many original quality photos, just like any other phone. I suppose that’s one way to help get to that $399 price, but I think it’s a cheap move.

And this brings us to privacy. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Sundar Pichai pitched Google as the privacy loving company, here to make sure privacy is available to all, not just those who can afford high priced phones from their competitors.

I posted the question on Twitter, asking if people bought Sundar’s pitch. And the universal response was no. Even from Android folks. Google’s business model is based on collecting data to fuel their ad business. Hard to reframe that as “serving the people”.

I see the Pixel 3A as a great little phone. But I see it as the low priced razor. For the razor, the money is in razor blade sales. With the low priced Pixel 3A, the money is in ad sales.

An interesting strategy, Google.

Sundar Pichai, in New York Times op-ed:

Over the past 20 years, billions of people have trusted Google with questions they wouldn’t have asked their closest friends: How do you know if you’re in love? Why isn’t my baby sleeping? What is this weird rash on my arm? We’ve worked hard to continually earn that trust by providing accurate answers and keeping your questions private.

And:

“For everyone” is a core philosophy for Google; it’s built into our mission to create products that are universally accessible and useful. That’s why Search works the same for everyone, whether you’re a professor at Harvard or a student in rural Indonesia. And it’s why we care just as much about the experience on low-cost phones in countries starting to come online as we do about the experience on high-end phones.

And:

Privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services. Privacy must be equally available to everyone in the world.

This op-ed is fascinating to me. Feels like Google recognizes Apple’s incorporation of privacy into its brand as a foundational policy. And it feels like Google recognizes how important the issue of privacy has become as a product discriminator.

And, finally, this feels like shots across Apple’s bow. As in, Apple values privacy, but only for the people who can afford their products. With Google’s release of the Pixel 3a, priced at $399, feels like Sundar Pichai is pitching Google, and the pixel, as the privacy-respecting product for the masses.

Anyone buying this?

In a nutshell, you can add up to $200 to your Apple ID account, and Apple will add in a 10% additional credit.

Promotion ends on Friday. Follow the headline link for details.

The Guardian:

The transformations that remade beef production between the end of the American civil war in 1865 and the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act in 1906 stretched from the Great Plains to the kitchen table.

Meatpacking lines, pioneered in the 1860s in Cincinnati’s pork packinghouses, were the first modern production lines. The innovation was that they kept products moving continuously, eliminating downtime and requiring workers to synchronise their movements to keep pace. This idea was enormously influential. In his memoirs, Henry Ford explained that his idea for continuous motion assembly “came in a general way from the overhead trolley that the Chicago packers use in dressing beef”.

When I lived on a farm, I was involved in a very minor aspect of the beef industry and even at that level, it was pretty brutal. I can’t imagine it on an industrial scale.

New York Times:

A little bit of silence. Sometimes that’s all we want. Whether it’s halfway through a 10-hour flight with a crying baby, or trying to sleep though the snoring from the hotel room next door, the promise of noise-canceling headphones is one that every traveler probably finds intriguing.

Yet are they worth it? These headphones are often expensive and for some people, they don’t live up to the hype.

I’ve spent the majority of the last five years traveling, taking dozens of flights and train journeys, and as someone who has reviewed noise-canceling headphones for even longer, I can definitively say “maybe.”

I was an early user of the original Bose noise-canceling headphones and, while I liked them well enough, I’ve switched to noise attenuating earphones and on the motorcycle, simple earplugs that do a great job of reducing decibel levels.

If you are considering the Powerbeats Pro as an alternative to AirPods, Zac Hall has your back here.

If nothing else, take a look at that image, in the middle, that shows the AirPods case and Powerbeats Pro case side-by-side. Had no idea the cases were so different in size.

Here’s a link to the image of the jacket, front and back.

The jacket brings back memories, the logo on the back reminds me of AppleLink and its successor, eWorld.

Also interesting, in the comments, is the fact that Apple.com was officially registered in 1987 as the 64th .com domain in history.

The video of the interview is embedded below. Follow the headline link to a transcript of the interview. This is the source of the comment, “We acquire a company on average, every two to three weeks”, that’s been flying around the blogs the last day or so. But the interview is much more than that, and absolutely worth watching.

Drag the Earth around to find your home, zoom in and out. Most importantly, tap that Earth button in the lower-left to reveal all the controls.

[H/T Varunorcv]

The thing that strikes me, absolutely, is that moment, right in the middle, where the music industry hit its height, and Napster stepped in.

I do think Napster was inevitable, and not the cause of the falloff. The availability of MP3 files over the internet made sharing possible, and piracy an obvious result.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Former Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts left the company last month, and ahead of her departure, she sat down to share her thoughts on her experiences at Apple on LinkedIn’s Hello Monday podcast.

Here’s a link to the podcast itself. If you are interested in Angela’s voyage, it’s a good listen, about 30 minutes.

Main Engine Cut Off:

Watch sunlight and weather patterns move across Earth throughout the day, and bask in the glory of our blue marble in real time.

Every 20 minutes (or every hour, you pick), Downlink updates your desktop background with the newest images of Earth.

Choose from 8 different views of Earth, including stunning full disk images from 3 different geostationary satellites.

Dave posted about dynamic wallpapers on Monday and I thought this would be a nice addition to that story.

The Verge:

Microsoft first released its Edge Chromium browser as early Canary and Dev builds on Windows last month. While Windows 10 users can test the new browser, Mac owners have been waiting to hear more details about when Edge will be available on macOS. Microsoft doesn’t have any solid dates to announce just yet, but the company has started teasing what Edge will look like on macOS.

During the company’s Build 2019 developer conference, Microsoft is announcing new features for Edge on Windows and teasing the upcoming macOS release. We understand that the release will be available very soon, and Mac users should be able to access both the Canary and Dev builds of Edge just like Windows.

I’m looking forward to testing this out. The “perfect” browser hasn’t been made yet and it’s not likely this will be it either but competition is good.

Apple:

Think you can toss a newspaper like the legendary Warren Buffett? Test your paper-flinging skills as you make your way from the streets of Omaha, Nebraska, all the way to Cupertino, California. Avoid vehicles and birds as you deliver papers to buildings near and far. Will anyone collect enough Warren Bucks to dethrone the Paper Wizard? Probably not.

This is a wonderful silly game reminiscent of the “paper route” games of years ago but that music has to go.

Got a Mac running Mojave? Check out Dynamic Wallpaper Club, browse and download dynamic wallpapers for your Mac. To install the downloaded HEIC files, go to:

System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop

I’d accumulate all your dynamic wallpapers in a single folder, then click the + to add that folder to the Desktop Folders list.

Great story, with pictures documenting the whole thing. Terrific read. And don’t miss that one pic, in the gallery, of that massive polar bear paw.

[H/T, Varunorcv]

This ran in the New York Times on Thursday. I was on the road, but left it in my queue to post this morning.

This is opinion from the New York Times Editorial Board, doubling down on their (in my opinion) poorly thought through hatchet piece attacking Apple for taking down apps that used mobile device management for ways in which it was never intended.

This feels like the Times Editorial Board was caught on the wrong side of the MDM argument, and switched gears to find another avenue of attack.

At the heart of this new (old) argument:

Even if we take Apple at its word that it was only protecting the privacy and security of its users by removing screen-time and parental-control apps, the state of the app marketplace is troubling. Why is a company — with no mechanism for democratic oversight — the primary and most zealous guardian of user privacy and security?

As a reply to this, consider this response op-ed from Macworld’s Michael Simon:

The Times’ point that Apple shouldn’t be “the most zealous guardian of user privacy and security” just doesn’t hold water. What if the developer of one of these parental control apps had been caught using its permissions to spy on what kids were watching and reading? That would have made much bigger headlines than a handful of disgruntled developers. Apple users take privacy seriously, and they want to know there’s a gatekeeper in place.

I’m not a fan of the timing of the New York Times op-ed, coming on the heels of its wrongly logicked argument about MDM. Feels like a vengeance move.

Jason Del Rey, Vox:

In the fall of 2004, Jeff Bezos’s company was still mostly selling just books and DVDs.

That same year, Amazon was under siege from multiple sides. Some of its biggest competitors were brick-and-mortar chains like Best Buy, which was still in expansion mode at the time, with sales growing 17 percent annually.

And:

Amazon was worth $18 billion at the time.

And:

But 15 years later, Amazon is worth more than $900 billion, compared to just $33 billion for its old foe eBay, which spun off its (more valuable) payment division, PayPal. And the Amazon Prime membership program is perhaps the biggest reason why.

This is a fantastic, behind the scenes look at how Amazon Prime came to be, with interviews with people who were part of making it all happen. Great read.