MacRumors:

Powerbeats Pro are now available to pre-order from Apple.com and the Apple Store app in the United States and Canada.

Powerbeats Pro are Apple’s first totally wireless Beats earphones, equipped with the same H1 chip as the second-generation AirPods for hands-free “Hey Siri” and faster connection speeds between the iPhone, Apple Watch, and other devices.

Will you be getting a pair?

The Sun:

Ben Tsu, from Taiwan, fell asleep with his AirPods in his ears, but woke up unable to find the right earbud anywhere. After scouring his room – using the ‘Find My Airpods’ app on his phone – Ben quickly discovered his headphone was a lot closer than he first thought.

“The map showed that my AirPod was at home, and I could hear the ‘beep, beep’ sound, which seemed to follow me around the room

“But I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn’t find it – then I realised the sound was coming from my stomach!

I think this story is full of crap.

Bloomberg:

Nadella’s turnaround over the five years since he replaced Steve Ballmer as CEO has been nothing short of historic. The company had been universally viewed as spiraling toward obsolescence, having missed almost every significant computing trend of the 2000s—mobile phones, search engines, social networking—while letting its main source of revenue, Windows, the operating system that comes preloaded on PCs, stagnate.

Nadella’s peers say Microsoft’s resurgence is as terrifying as it is impressive. When asked what threat a renewed Microsoft poses to the tech universe, the CEO of a rival software company, who requested anonymity to speak more candidly, begins humming Darth Vader’s Imperial March theme from Star Wars. Put another way: The Empire has struck back.

Regardless of what you think of Microsoft, its “resurrection” under the guidance of Satya Nadella is remarkable. My favorite part of the story is how ignorant the writers are. They say, “Nadella appears irritated by questions about the company’s ascendancy. “I would be disgusted if somebody ever celebrated our market cap,” he tells Bloomberg Businessweek. He insists the valuation—which passed $1 trillion on April 25 and is up more than 230 percent since his watch began in February 2014…”

Petapixel:

If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Lightroom via the $10 per month Photography Plan, there may be some pain coming to your wallet. Many customers no longer see the $10/month plan on Adobe’s site — the cheapest plan is listed is $20/month.

Instead of $10/month for 20GB of storage being the most affordable plan, only the $20/month with 1TB cloud storage is being offered. If you only use the Photography Plan for the software and not the storage, a phasing out of the $10-per-month/20GB plan would effectively be a 100% price hike with no practical benefit for you.

This will definitely get me to unsubscribe from Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Interestingly enough, the Canadian Adobe Creative Cloud page still lists the $9.99/month US price point.

The Verge:

People are getting injured while riding electric scooters. This shouldn’t come as a huge shock to anyone who has noticed the explosion of dockless, shareable two-wheelers over the last year and a half. But the degree to which people are breaking bones and sustaining head injuries is alarming public health officials who released a major study into scooter-related injuries on Thursday.

Of those injured riders, almost half sustained head injuries. Fifteen percent experienced traumatic brain injuries. These injuries could have been prevented by wearing a helmet, but only one of 190 injured scooter riders was wearing one.

Not surprising at all considering almost anyone can just jump on one of these things and start riding.

AppleInsider:

The Apple Watch maintained a solid grip on smartwatch shipments during the March quarter, according to new estimates, even as rivals from Samsung and Fitbit made headway.

Apple claimed 35.8 percent of the market, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday. That’s up just slightly year-over-year from 35.5 percent in Q1 2018, despite Apple Watch shipments reportedly rising 49 percent in the same timeframe.

Samsung’s marketshare jumped from 7.2 to 11.1 percent, something Counterpoint credited to success of the latest Galaxy Watch models. These include a traditional round watchface, improved battery life, and 4G connectivity, making them one of the better smartwatch options for people who don’t have or want an iPhone.

There’s the Apple Watch and then there’s everything else.

AppleInsider:

Netflix on Wednesday launched what it calls “high-quality audio,” offering crisper sound for viewers with surround-sound systems. Compatible videos are labeled for Dolby Atmos or Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, Netflix said. This includes videos that only have a “5.1” emblem. Both standards are supported by the Apple TV 4K, but only Digital Plus 5.1 is available on the Apple TV HD.

Quality is moreover adaptive based on bandwidth. 5.1 systems will get bitrates spanning 192 kilobits to 640 kilobits — which Netflix calls “perceptually transparent” — while Atmos systems will start at 448 kilobits and reach as high as 768. Atmos does require the company’s Premium plan, which costs $15.99 per month but is also needed for 4K.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you have a system that can take advantage of this new “‘high-quality’ audio” for your Apple TV?

CNET:

One of the parental-control apps removed from the App Store fired back on Wednesday at Apple’s explanation of why the app was banned.

OurPact argued that its app should be reinstated and should be allowed to use technology that enables parents to control what their children access on their Apple devices.

OurPact published a blog post Wednesday that disputed Apple’s statement. The company laid out a detailed record of communication with Apple (for instance, on Oct. 6: “Apple removes the OurPact child app from the App Store without any prior communication.” OurPact also sought to explain what MDM software is by contradicting Apple’s recent statements with the iPhone maker’s own documentation about the technology.

The truth, as is usually the case, is likely somewhere in the middle.

Axios:

In its quarterly earnings released today, Qualcomm said it would record $4.5-$4.7 billion revenue in the coming quarter as part of its settlement of a long-running intellectual-property quarrel with Apple.

The revenue “includes a cash payment from Apple and the release of related liabilities,” Qualcomm said.

Nice little bump.

AppleInsider:

Apple is reportedly fighting the logo for a new German bike path, arguing that it bears too much similarity to its own.

The logo for the “Apfelroute” — Apple Route — was registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office in 2018, and is already in use for tourism marketing in the Rhine-Voreifel region, said Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Lawyers for Apple have not only filed an appeal with the GPTO, but sent cease-and-desist letters to Rhine-Voreifel Tourism. Apple’s trademark objections revolve around the Apfelroute’s green leaf and “bitten” side.

I can confidently predict Apple will lose this battle.

Six Colors:

Apple’s quarterly results are in. The company posted revenue of $58 billion, down 5% from the same quarter a year ago. iPad revenue was up 22% and Services revenue was up 16%, but Mac revenue was down 5% and iPhone revenue was down 17%.

We’ve got lots of charts below, as well as a transcript of CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri’s conference call with financial-industry analysts.

Snell always has the best charts.

Motherboard:

In recent weeks, an Apple representative and a lobbyist for CompTIA, a trade organization that represents big tech companies, have been privately meeting with legislators in California to encourage them to kill legislation that would make it easier for consumers to repair their electronics, Motherboard has learned.

According to two sources in the California State Assembly, the lobbyists have met with members of the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, which is set to hold a hearing on the bill Tuesday afternoon. The lobbyists brought an iPhone to the meetings and showed lawmakers and their legislative aides the internal components of the phone. The lobbyists said that if improperly disassembled, consumers who are trying to fix their own iPhone could hurt themselves by puncturing the lithium-ion battery,

Apple is on the wrong side of this issue and it makes them seem anti-consumer.

UPDATE: The Right to Repair Bill has been pulled and Motherboard has updated its story with a statement from the bill’s sponsor.

AppleInsider:

You don’t need to go blue to be profitable. After all, some of the biggest shows in history have been clean, such as “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Beyond Netflix, Apple TV+’s closest competition is likely to be Disney+, debuting Nov. 12 with (mostly) family-friendly material from studios like Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and National Geographic.

Turn your head though to the most popular shows on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes right now. Many of them would be impossible under Apple’s current rules.

Jim Dalrymple and I have discussed this on a couple of occasions on the Your Mac Life podcast. It’s an interesting question and problem for Apple. Do they let “the creatives” hold the reins come what may or do they shoot for the largest possible audience with G-rated content?

Uncrate:

It’s been 40 years since the debut of Alien, and the franchise has reproduced exponentially over the decades — just like its iconic xenomorphs. To celebrate the event, 20th Century Fox and Tongal collaborated with fans to create six short films set in the Alien universe. Fox received over 550 scripts before selecting the final six, and each one reverently expands on the source material.

Looking forward to scaring the bejesus out of my 13-year-old with these. And – 40 years? Gods, I’m old.

William Gallagher, Apple Insider:

Once you understand how it works —and know the right sequence of steps to go through —then file sharing with iCloud Drive is tremendous when it’s working. It’s just that setting it up is surprisingly confusing, so let’s walk through it.

And:

The way that you share files from iCloud Drive varies slightly between iOS and Mac, but the principle is exactly the same on both. You find your file, choose Share and then specify who you’re sharing it with.

Remember that your file has to be in iCloud Drive and remember that you cannot do this with a folder. You can’t even select two or more files and share those. It’s one file at a time, as tedious as that is.

I really want to use iCloud Drive. But I end up using Dropbox. It’s just easier.

That said, this is a good “how to”, well written, absolutely worth reading, just to know how this works.

From Microsoft’s 2019 voice report:

• Siri and Google Assistant are tied at 36%
• Alexa at 25%
• Cortana at 19%
• Other at 1%

Another nugget:

In 2018, we found that 23% of respondents currently own a smart speaker with another 30% planning to purchase . In our research in January 2019, we found that 45% of respondents now currently own a smart speaker with an additional 26% planning to purchase one soon.

You can find the report here. It’s an interesting read.

From the Amazon job description:

The Managing Editor, News will work on an exciting new opportunity within Ring to manage a team of news editors who deliver breaking crime news alerts to our neighbors.

Struggling to wrap my head around the implications here. Is this a publicity campaign? Is this part of a data-mining scenario? Is there money in the picture, or is this a pure loss for Amazon, pulled from the Ring marketing budget?

Is this the new crime beat?

New York Times:

In its first-quarter earnings report, Spotify said it had 217 million users around the world, up from 207 million at the end of last year. Of those, 100 million are paying subscribers, compared with 96 million at the end of 2018.

And:

In its most recent quarter, Spotify, which is based in Stockholm, had revenue of 1.5 billion euros, about $1.7 billion. That was a 33 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. It had a net loss of €142 million, or about $158 million.

Apple has about 56 million paid subscribers (the article says 50 million), recently passing Spotify in the US.

And:

Just as Spotify was set to open in India, Warner/Chappell, one of the biggest music publishers, sued the company, saying it had not secured the proper rights to include Warner/Chappell songs. Spotify set up shop in India anyway, saying its use of Warner/Chappell music was allowed under Indian copyright law. The case remains active in an Indian court.

Fascinating to watch this heavyweight battle unfold.

Recode:

Anki, the robotics company that has raised over $200 million in venture capital, is laying off its entire staff and the startup is shuttering, Recode has learned.

In a teary all-hands meeting on Monday morning, CEO Boris Sofman told his staff they would be terminated on Wednesday and that close to 200 employees would be paid a week of severance, according to people familiar with the matter. Sofman had told employees a few days earlier that the company was scrambling to find more money after a new round of financing fell through at the last minute, imperiling the company’s future.

This is a real shame. I loved and bought some of their products.

The Verge:

Back in March, we heard that a New Jersey drama club was adapting Alien as a high school production. Now there’s a recording of the production making the rounds that shows the play straight through, including their take on the Space Jockey, the Chestburster, the Xenomorph, and a guy playing Harry Dean Stanton in an accurate Hawaiian T-shirt.

Since the video could potentially get taken down for being an unauthorized adaptation of Alien (it already has several music-related copyright claims), it’s better to watch it now while it’s up, so you can see how well the drama club did adapting a film built on an $11 million budget for the high school stage. The students say they raised their own money for the play and made costumes out of recycled material.

Watch it soon. You know this is getting pulled in 3…..2….1….

Exquisite coordination, beautiful imagery, and amazing to see how detailed satellite imagery can get.

Marco Arment, Overcast creator:

Podcast sharing has been limited to audio and links, but today’s social networks are more reliant on images and video, especially Instagram. Podcasts need video clips to be shared more easily today.

I’ve seen some video clips from tools specific to certain podcast networks or hosts, but they were never available to everyone, or for every show. So people mostly just haven’t shared podcast clips, understandably, because it has been too hard.

Not anymore.

And:

With today’s 2019.4 update, you can now share audio or video clips, up to a minute each, from any public podcast. Simply tap the share button in the upper-right corner.

Great feature, huge help for podcasters trying to get the word out. I hope this becomes a standard for all podcast apps, especially this one.

Side note from 512 Pixels on how this feature came to be.

Reddit:

Last year I bought my 82 year old grandmother an iPad. She never owned a smart device before, she never touched a computer and I don’t think she knew what “the internet” was.

It was my fathers idea to get her that iPad. Thanks to me, my dad became a huge fan of Apple devices and since both he and I spend the majority of our time overseas he thought it would be a good idea to get my grandmother an iPad so they could face time and he could show her where he is etc.

TBH I thought it was an incredibly stupid idea. My grandmother is an Eastern European, ex communist country simple, old woman. Imagine old grandmothers from funny “a normal day in Russia” clips and gifs, that’s what she looks like. First 15 years of her life she spent in a village that had no electricity. Over the last 30 years we’ve spent more time talking about her inability to handle a tv remote than anything else.

Read the post for how this played out. I wrestle with this issue a lot. My mom is legally blind and feels cutoff from the world. Try as I might, I can’t find a voice-assisted solution that she can master.

My uncle has vision issues as well, gets around just fine, but also feels cutoff. He used to use email, but age has robbed him of his ability to deal with those complexities.

I wish the iPad had a mode where it could boot into an incredibly simple interface (kiosk style), where there were just a few, dead-simple buttons to press. Big, big buttons, to help people with poor close-up vision.

One could be, take picture, send to Dave. Another could be, look at pictures Dave sent you. That kind of simple interface, with just a few hard-coded, but editable (perhaps via Shortcuts) buttons would bring joy to many folks with vision or cognition issues.

That aside, read the linked story. I love the way that played out.

Rob Pegoraro, Yahoo Finance:

Apple talks a good game on privacy when the rest of the tech industry continues to fumble—with Facebook (FB) at the top of the list based on recent headlines. Most of the time those words come backed by sound and smart design choices, but then there’s AirDrop.

Almost five years after AirDrop’s debut on iPhones in Apple’s iOS 7 release, this file-sharing feature continues to enable abusive behavior by creeps who enjoy sending unsolicited photos to nearby strangers.

AirDrop’s default setting is to limit AirDrops only from people on your contact list. To check this yourself, take a look at Setting > General > AirDrop. The default is Contacts Only.

But, once you open up AirDrop (there are plenty of reasons to – Here’s one) to accept files from non-contacts:

And from then on, AirDrop would remain open to accepting a file from anybody with an AirDrop-compatible Apple device (not just iPhones, but newer iPads and Macs) within Bluetooth and WiFi range. And when a file arrives, AirDrop splashes a preview of its contents across the phone’s screen.

The answer is to turn AirDrop on, momentarily, then close that security hole by turning it back off again.

Rene Ritchie offered up an excellent suggestion here. To paraphrase, Rene suggests that there be a timer on AirDrop. Turn it on and, after a specified period of time, it closes back up automatically.

Rob Pegoraro had the same solution:

The simplest fix would be to have AirDrop’s Everyone setting expire after a few minutes.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.