Apple is forming a team of people with awards strategy experience. In January, it hired one such person from Walt Disney Co.’s television group. The iPhone maker is also seeking a high-level candidate to oversee the process, one of the people familiar with the situation said. The company could be in the running for Emmy awards as early as 2020, according to people familiar with the process.
And:
Awards strategists arrange screenings and other publicity events for Hollywood insiders and others who vote on which movies and TV shows win awards. These promoters must work within strict guidelines while ensuring voters see the movies and even spend time with the actors and filmmakers.
No surprise there. But interesting to see how all this works. I am very excited to see Apple’s video efforts take form.
Spotify’s post was two days ago. Yesterday, Apple fired back:
What Spotify is demanding is something very different. After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem — including the substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers — without making any contributions to that marketplace. At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.
Does Spotify pay Apple to be in the App Store? Try this exercise:
Launch the Spotify app
Logout (if you already have an account) and create a new account
Jump through a few hoops, then tap the Premium tab at the bottom of the screen
You’ll see a message that says “You can’t upgrade to Premium in the app”
So Spotify is complaining about a tax that they do not pay.
Add in the fact that Spotify is fighting the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board ruling that would increase payouts to songwriters by 44%. Notably, Apple is on board with the royalty increase.
To me, both of these things just get in the way of any valid points Spotify might be making. Not a good look.
This is a charming ad. But it’s also a serious ad. Apple does a nice job of presenting the message with a spoonful of sugar.
From the writeup:
Your privacy matters. From encrypting your iMessage conversations, or not keeping a history of your routes in Maps, to limiting tracking across sites with Safari. iPhone is designed to protect your information.
And here’s the ad. For some odd reason, reminds me (just a tiny bit) of Apple’s “Unlock” Face ID ad, showing a student unlocking everything in her path.
Apple notes in a patent application published today by the U.S. Patent Office that when it comes to authentication using facial recognition, there are potential cases where a user attempting to be authenticated (authorized) by a device cannot be distinguished from another user with closely related facial features.
Twins fool Face ID. Been a thing since the beginning.
Apple’s invention states that “Subepidermal imaging of a face of a user attempting to unlock a device may be used to enhance a facial recognition authentication process”
Subepidermal means below the skin. Interesting.
Subepidermal images of the user may be used to assess subepidermal features such as blood vessels (e.g., veins) when the device is attempting to authenticate the user. The subepidermal features may be compared to templates of subepidermal features for an authorized (e.g., enrolled) user of the device.
Sounds like Apple is offering an extra layer of facial verification for folks with twins or other doppelgängers.
And this last bit, which I found most fascinating:
For example, illuminator 105A and/or illuminator 105B may include an array of light sources such as, but not limited to, VCSELs (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers). A first set of light sources in the array may provide illumination at a wavelength for unlock attempt images while a second set of light sources may provide illumination at a wavelength for subepidermal images. The different sets of light sources may be turned on/off separately to allow a specific illumination (e.g., a specific wavelength of illumination) to be provided.
You had me at [Holds up fingers, makes air-quotes] lasers. Cool beans.
It might seem like there’s no winning against Facebook and Google, tech companies whose reach and influence are now practically inescapable. Facebook’s inability to police its own platform led to widespread misinformation ahead of the 2016 election. Google still can’t keep YouTube safe for kids. Meanwhile we’re addicted to our phones and social networks, even if they make us miserable. So where do we go from here? Douglas Rushkoff, the renowned media theorist who’s popularized concepts like viral media, suggests one way: Banding together and fighting for our collective humanity.
“It might actually be our first line of defense against actual destruction,” Rushkoff said during his SXSW panel promoting his new book, Team Human. “It might actually ensure our collective survival.”
Really interesting article based on a SXSW interview with Douglas Rushkoff.
A sold-out grandstand packed with more than 100,000 people erupts in a loud roar, drowning out the National Anthem. This is meant to be The Great American Race, bigger, brighter, louder than anything else. An incoming rumble and the ground shakes as six fighter jets streak into view. The cheers are drowned out by the jets, flying so low you swear they could hit the tops of people’s heads.
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But I can’t get caught up in any patriotism, standing next to my red, white and blue Toyota Camry race car. Too many nerves are pulsating through my body, because I’m about to compete in the 2019 Daytona 500.
I love most forms of car and motorcycle racing and NASCAR’s Daytona 500 is a race like no other. A bucket list item for me is to be in a race car for high-speed laps of that speedway.
Five hours after the Wasp was hit, it was irreparably damaged but still drifting with the current. The U.S.S. Lansdowne was ordered to scuttle the carrier with a volley of torpedoes. The Wasp slipped below the surface at 2100 — 9 p.m. — then sank through more than two and a half miles of water to the bottom, where it has remained ever since, a giant carcass surrounded by miles of desert, in the permanent midnight of the deep ocean floor. In total, 194 men on the Wasp were deemed “killed or missing” on Sept. 15, 1942. One of them was John Shea.
On Jan. 2 of this year, a research vessel called the Petrel set out from Honiara, on Guadalcanal, to find the Wasp.
The letter that leads this story is heartbreaking.
Apple on Thursday officially announced the dates for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The event will be held in San Jose, Calif. from June 3-7, 2019.
According to Apple’s WWDC page, WWDC will feature over 100 technical and design-focused sessions presented by Apple engineers, as well as hands-on labs designed to give developers help in implementing new features. Developers can also make a one-on-one appointment to get guidance from experts on user interface design, accessibility, app review, marketing, analytics, app distribution, and more.
Of course, there are also special events at WWDC that bring developers together for extra fun and learning.
Let’s play a game. You press ← and → as randomly as you can, and I will try to guess your next input. Use your keyboard or the buttons on touchscreen devices.
Every time I guess right, I will take $1 from your virtual account. Every time I guess wrong, you’ll get $1.05. If you are as random as you think, you’ll be making virtual dough in no time. Don’t worry, there is no cheating involved. I simply keep track of the patterns you produce and use them to predict your next move.
Apple operates a platform that, for over a billion people around the world, is the gateway to the internet. Apple is both the owner of the iOS platform and the App Store—and a competitor to services like Spotify. In theory, this is fine. But in Apple’s case, they continue to give themselves an unfair advantage at every turn.
And:
Apple requires that Spotify and other digital services pay a 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system, including upgrading from our Free to our Premium service. If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music. And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.
And:
If we choose not to use Apple’s payment system, forgoing the charge, Apple then applies a series of technical and experience-limiting restrictions on Spotify. For example, they limit our communication with our customers—including our outreach beyond the app. In some cases, we aren’t even allowed to send emails to our customers who use Apple. Apple also routinely blocks our experience-enhancing upgrades. Over time, this has included locking Spotify and other competitors out of Apple services such as Siri, HomePod, and Apple Watch.
Read the whole thing. And don’t miss the timeline.
Twitter is rolling out a change to its official iOS app:
See it? Tweet it! Our updated camera is just a swipe away, so you get the shot fast. Rolling out to all of you over the next few days. pic.twitter.com/moOEFO2nQq
Apple last year acquired Laserlike, a machine learning startup located in Silicon Valley, reports The Information. Apple’s purchase of the four-year-old company was confirmed by an Apple spokesperson with a standard acquisition statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
We’ve built a web scale content search, discovery and personalization platform using advanced machine learning.
And:
Your interest search engine. Follow the topics you care about, with news, web, video, local, and more. Powerful content search brings you the full perspective in a feed you can control. Never miss what matters, with timely, relevant updates for your interests.
Keep this acquisition in mind as you watch the announcements on March 25th. This would certainly relate to the rumored news subscription service, potentially adding a significant level of personalization to a traditional news feed.
A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters. Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users.
The companies were among more than 150, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, that had cut sharing deals with the world’s dominant social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in The New York Times, let the companies see users’ friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has phased out most of the partnerships over the past two years.
And:
The disclosures about Cambridge last year thrust Facebook into the worst crisis of its history. Then came news reports last June and December that Facebook had given business partners — including makers of smartphones, tablets and other devices — deep access to users’ personal information, letting some companies effectively override users’ privacy settings.
The sharing deals empowered Microsoft’s Bing search engine to map out the friends of virtually all Facebook users without their explicit consent, and allowed Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends. Apple was able to hide from Facebook users all indicators that its devices were even asking for data.
That last sentence seems to imply that Apple acted in bad faith, purposely hiding data requests. Seems unlikely. Me just being naive? Am I misinterpreting the writing here?
Apple today increased its commitment to coding and education in Southeast Asia with the expansion of its App Development with Swift curriculum at partner schools in Singapore and the opening of Indonesia’s second Apple Developer Academy in Surabaya, offering aspiring developers the skills they need to thrive in today’s app economy.
The Singapore University of Technology and Design and RMIT Online have launched app development courses using Apple’s App Development with Swift curriculum for adult learners, supported by the local government’s SkillsFuture Singapore agency. Pathlight School, Singapore’s first autism-focused school, will offer a Swift Accelerator program for its secondary students. This builds on the Swift Accelerator program available to all schools, supported by the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore.
Apple continues to reach people through education and that’s a great thing for all.
A man has been charged after he allegedly fired a bow and arrow at another man, with the victim walking away suffering only a minor injury thanks to his iPhone.
The resident held up his mobile phone to take a photograph of the armed man, who then engaged the bow and was ready to fire.
It’s alleged the man fired the arrow at the resident which pierced through the man’s mobile phone causing the phone to hit him in the chin.
Spotify has filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators against Apple, saying the iPhone maker unfairly limits rivals to its own Apple Music streaming service.
Central to Spotify’s complaint, filed to the European Commission on Monday, is what it says is a 30 percent fee Apple charges content-based service providers to use Apple’s in-app purchase system (IAP).
Vizio, the second largest TV manufacturer in the US, is developing a new industry standard that will allow smart TVs to serve targeted ads, reports Reuters. The manufacturer has partnered with nine other media and advertising companies to create Project OAR, a new consortium that is developing the standard. Vizio says that it intends to use the technology in its forthcoming TVs.
Currently, the lack of cookies on TVs means that it’s harder for advertisers to target ads based on a household’s interests. Project OAR wants to change this by creating a single open standard that every TV manufacturer is free to use. Profit margins on TVs are infamously razor-thin, and better ads could be a boon to manufacturers.
It might be a “smart TV” but any manufacturer who did this would be stupid.
Amazon isn’t the only company seeking to become the operating system for everyday life. Apple and Google also offer smart speakers and are partnering with appliance manufacturers. Apple has opened up its HomeKit requirements to make it easier for manufacturers and developers to incorporate its digital assistant, Siri. Google has spent the past year aggressively pushing its connected home assistant.
What this means is that sometime in the next decade, all the start-ups and hardware manufacturers and the rest of the A.I. ecosystem will converge around just a few systems. All of us will have to accept a new order and pledge our allegiance to one of the few companies that now act as the operating systems for everyday life.
Once your data, gadgets, appliances, cars and services are entangled, you’ll be locked in to Amazon, Google or Apple.
This is an interesting, if admittedly first world, dilemma.
This video is about two years old, but fascinating nonetheless.
Scotty Allen has a wonderful YouTube channel called Strange Parts that explores the back alley parts markets in places like Shenzhen, China, scrounging together the pieces to create, in this case, a working iPhone 6s.
This is not about creating a phone of your own. Rather, it’s a look at a remarkable parts market. Jump to about 4:03 and check out all those iPhone backs.
I’d wager that the parts market is even more varied and vibrant today. Kind of makes me want to hackintosh my own iPhone. Or, at least, replace the back with something unique and custom.
Last week, I tweeted a pic showing an old Apple laptop. As was the case with all old Mac laptops, the Apple logo was upside down when open.
With a bit of help from Sérgio Miranda, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole to learn more.
From the linked Joe Moreno blog post:
The design group noticed that users constantly tried to open the laptop from the wrong end. Steve Jobs always focused on providing the best possible user experience and believed that it was more important to satisfy the user than the onlooker.
An interesting problem, one of competing interests. Should the user see the right side up logo, so they know which side to open? Or is it more important for the brand that the world see a right side up logo?
Obviously, Steve started with one opinion and then, when he returned to Apple, he flipped his decision. Possibly driven by shows that started putting stickers over the logo so the Apple would look “right” on screen.
Apple Inc., after teasing investors for months about its ambitions to become a services company, is getting ready to showcase plans for new video and news products. All it needs now is for Hollywood to sign up.
And:
But before the curtain goes up, Apple needs to complete deals. The company is racing to secure movies and TV shows to offer alongside its own original videos and is offering concessions to get deals done by a Friday deadline, according to people familiar with the matter. Pay-TV programmers such as HBO, Showtime and Starz have to decide whether Apple is an existential threat, as some now view Netflix, a potential partner or something in between.
When Apple did a similar dance to craft deals with record companies to build iTunes and then Apple Music, they were purely working through a distribution deal. They were not a threat (at least not an obvious one), but a partner. Apple had no ambitions to create music of their own.
The race to build partnerships now, to carry third party content on its rumored video service, has to deal with the fact that Apple has very public plans to build content of its own. Apple clearly wants a seat at the table, alongside existing partners such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video.
Of the group, Apple is the only one distributing the others. Less than two weeks ’til the beans get spilled.
Sarah Perez, writing for Tech Crunch, does a deep dive into Twitter’s new prototyping app, Twttr.
Twttr is designed as a parallel app to Twitter, gives Twitter a place to experiment with different takes on things like threads, color coding, and replies.
Facebook removed several ads placed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign that called for the breakup of Facebook and other tech giants.
But the social network later reversed course after POLITICO reported on the takedown, with the company saying it wanted to allow for “robust debate.”
The ads, which had identical images and text, touted Warren’s recently announced plan to unwind “anti-competitive” tech mergers, including Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram.
> Prosecutors charged Bill McGlashan, a founder and managing partner at TPG Growth — which has made landmark investments in companies like Uber and Airbnb — on fraud allegations for trying to engineer the admission of his son to the University of Southern California.
What is particularly damaging for TPG is that McGlashan has positioned himself as a leading voice in Silicon Valley for social responsibility. In addition to overseeing TPG’s late-stage growth investing arm, McGlashan has partnered with other conscious leaders like Bono and Laurene Powell Jobs at The Rise Fund, a TPG investing arm that tries to make the world a better place through investments in things like dairy farms in India. At the same time, TPG’s exploration of new sportsbooks has attracted attention from industry observers, casting further doubt on how McGlashan’s ethical stance aligns with the firm’s evolving portfolio.
I’m taking a wild stab in the dark here in saying that his partners are not too thrilled about these revelations, especially since he is “one of the tech sector’s leading proponents of how to invest ethically and for social impact.”
The screenshots show notifications from the Apple News subscription service, which will alert subscribers when new issues of their favorite magazines are available. Similar subscription information has also already been seen in iOS 12.2, with the subscription service called “Apple News Magazines.”
The screenshot is from the latest macOS Mojave beta.
This video is actually a lot more interesting than I expected. You know what’s involved but seeing the work that goes into creating one of these things gives a better appreciation of the effort.
This is such a great interview with Puzo and Coppola. There is nothing like getting the story directly from the men responsible for an incredible book, and later, movie.
