Stephen Hackett, MacStories:

In January 2009, Apple took to the stage at Macworld Expo one final time. The company announced the change a few weeks before the show. Phil Schiller would deliver the keynote. News of Steve Jobs’ medical leave would break just weeks later, one day before the keynote.

And:

Apple leaving Macworld Expo was the beginning of the end. The show struggled for a couple of years after this, and 2014 would be the last year of the trade show.

I loved the Apple-centric Macworld Expo. The January 2009 expo definitely marked the end of an era.

At the same time, Apple pulled the plug on another relationship. Sad.

Click the headline link. A neural network will create a face from scratch. Reload the page for a completely new one.

This is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. The power of AI is remarkable, but no doubt there are some great difficulties ahead. More realistic and effective fake news, counterfeit people, and AI that takes jobs away, perhaps creating new jobs along the way, but with a gap that forces many people to retool their skillsets.

Keep refreshing those faces, keep an eye out for anomalies. The ears seem especially susceptible to flaws. All very interesting.

macrumors:

Last month, the United States Justice Department announced a series of criminal charges against Chinese smartphone maker Huawei for stealing trade secrets, bank fraud, wire fraud, and obstructing justice. Today, The Information has shed light on Huawei’s tactics of stealing trade secrets, some of which were aimed at Apple.

According to today’s report, a Huawei engineer in charge of the company’s smartwatch project tracked down a supplier that makes the heart rate sensor for the Apple Watch. The Huawei engineer arranged a meeting, suggesting he was offering the supplier a lucrative manufacturing contract, but during the meeting his main intent was questioning the supplier about the Apple Watch.

There’s a reason why governments around the world view Huawei with suspicion.

Engadget:

If you’re an Apple Music subscriber who’s feeling pretty generous right now, check out your notifications for a new referral promo. You can send your non-Apple-Music-using friends an invite that’ll give them a month’s worth of subscription for free on top of the service’s standard three-month trial period. Simply tap on that notification to open a page, which gives you a way to send the free access as a gift via text message.

Nice little treat you can gift to a friend who is not an Apple Music subscriber.

John Pfaff:

An Apple IIe. Sat in my parents’ attic for years. Decades. And it works.

Put in an old game disk. Asks if I want to restore a saved game. And finds one!

It must be 30 years old.

I’m 10 years old again.

I never had one but what a lovely, funny little Twitter thread.

Today I Found Out:

But let’s imagine for a moment that a super-rich person…wanted to buy something worth millions of dollars not with a credit card, but cash. Could they? Well, surprisingly, in many countries no, with some exceptions. So let’s now talk about how the uber-wealthy actually go about paying for things worth millions upon millions of dollars.

To begin with, for the most part, paying for something worth a pile of Ferraris is the same as paying for any other item, with the fancy auction houses and stores we researched all offering the same basic payment options as stores for us peons.

As jealous as this article made me, it was actually quite interesting to find out how the filthy rich actually pay for their toys.

MacRumors:

Apple is today sending out notifications to Apple Music subscribers that, when tapped, allows them to send a referral to friend to sign up for a free one-month subscription to Apple Music.

According to Apple, the referrals for a free month of service can only be sent to people who do not already subscribe to Apple Music.

While I don’t use Apple Music, I still really like this idea.

TechCrunch:

When does “delete” really mean delete? Not always, or even at all, if you’re Twitter.

Twitter retains direct messages for years, including messages you and others have deleted, but also data sent to and from accounts that have been deactivated and suspended, according to security researcher Karan Saini.

Brings to mind the old cliche of “Don’t write down anything you don’t want your mother to read.”

9to5Mac:

Apple’s latest Conflict Minerals Report reveals that it removed five mineral smelters and refiners for failing to meet the company’s human rights standards.

Apple says, “In 2018, Apple directed its suppliers to remove from its supply chain five smelters and refiners not willing to participate in, or complete, a Third Party Audit or that did not otherwise meet Apple’s requirements on the responsible sourcing of minerals.”

These may seem like dry reports but it signals to suppliers and the world that Apple is keeping an eye on the issue and doing something about it.

AdWeek:

Lee Clow—the legendary creative behind such campaigns as “Think Different,” the Energizer bunny and the Taco Bell chihuahua—has retired after 50 years in the business, 30 of which he spent turning Apple into a case study on the effectiveness of creative marketing while he was able to successfully buy bitcoin uk and see it skyrocket over the last while.

“During his long partnership with Steve [Jobs] and Apple, Lee told powerful visual stories that elevated new technologies with the passion, creativity and ingenuity that define our own humanity,” read a statement from Apple CEO Tim Cook. “He helped Apple carry itself through times of challenge, and his work inspired audiences to look beyond the horizon as an exciting future came into view. Lee’s body of work over five decades hums with cleverness, warmth and enthusiasm—and there is no doubt that it will inspire and motivate generations of ‘Crazy Ones’ still to come.”

Clow isn’t a household name but his influence is felt throughout the advertising world.

LA Times:

That’s right, my friends, I am pleased as punch to announce the authoritative, totally not subjective, incontrovertibly definitive and 100% correct L.A. Times Fast Food French Fry Rankings.

French fries, a.k.a. chips, aka freedom fries, aka 炸薯条, are a delightful treat enjoyed the world over, and they’re a staple of the fast-food meal. And what is fast food, exactly? For the purposes of this survey, I’ve selected chains where there’s an emphasis on speed of service, you’re not waited on at a table, and where there are at least a couple hundred locations, if not more. I ordered medium- or regular-sized fries (when available) and judged them based on the two metrics: (1) taste and (2) texture, which includes fry shape and mouthfeel.

We don’t have the #1 here in Vancouver so I can’t judge but I do agree with the writer that the memory of MacDonald’s fries is often better than the actual fries.

MacRumors:

Right around the time that Apple debuted new Smart Battery cases designed for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, Mophie, a popular accessory maker, also introduced its Juice Pack Access battery cases for the new iPhones.

In our latest YouTube video, we went hands-on with the Juice Pack Access to compare it to Apple’s Smart Battery Case to see if it’s a better option for those looking to extend their iPhone batteries.

I’m biased because I’ve always been a fan of mophie (and their parent company provides prizes to my podcast) and I have and really like the mophie juice pack. But I’ve never used an Apple battery case.

9to5Mac:

A new study from OpenSignal published today looks into the cellular performance of the most popular iPhones going back to 2013. While there’s nothing too surprising in the findings, it does nail down exactly what average speeds each model sees, how much owners of older iPhones are missing out, how much iPhone cellular speeds have grown over the years, and a few other interesting details.

For those with an iPhone 5s, 6 or 6 Plus, the research shows that those models are capable of roughly half of the cellular speeds that the new iPhone XS and XS Max are.

I knew older iPhones were slower but half speed may be enough to convince my wife to upgrade her iPhone 6 Plus.

AppleInsider:

Looking to push beyond its modest retail efforts so far, Apple rival Samsung is planning to open three full-scale U.S. stores on Feb. 20, the same day it announces the Galaxy S10 and its first foldable phone.

The initial locations include The Americana at Brand in Los Angeles, Roosevelt Field on Long Island in Garden City (N.Y.), and The Galleria in Houston. Visitors will be able to try and buy products ranging from phones to VR glasses and TVs, and — much like Apple stores — get in-person customer support, with walk-in repairs available for mobile devices.

“Poised to challenge”? This is literally the dumbest take possible on this story. I have no problem with Samsung opening its own stores but given their past failures on so many fronts, including retail, how the writer could think that, with three US stores, Samsung could “challenge” Apple is beyond ridiculous.

Ars Technica:

Killing Eve topped the list of our favorite TV shows last year, and we’ve been eagerly awaiting news of a second season. So BBC America gave us a Valentine’s Day gift: the first trailer for season 2, picking up right where the first season left off.

If you haven’t seen this show, do yourself a favor and binge-watch it immediately.

BuzzFeed:

On Thursday, Amazon announced it was abandoning plans to build a headquarters in Queens. The deal had faced major backlash from some New York activists and lawmakers, who slammed the $3 billion in tax incentives offered by the city and contended that the massive tech company moving in could worsen gentrification and the city’s already struggling infrastructure.

BuzzFeed News went to Long Island City, the neighborhood where Amazon was supposed to move in, to ask its residents, as well as some anti-Amazon protesters, to share their messages to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Obviously, a self-selecting group but the general sentiment seems pretty common.

Task and Purpose:

The Army isn’t on the hunt for any old rifle for it’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program — it’s looking to spark a “revolution in small arms” on par with what the iPhone did to consumer electronics.

“Imagine that Steve Jobs and his engineers were trying to convert the iPod Touch to the first 3G iPhone,” said Army Col. Elliott Caggins, project manager for soldier weapons. “There were a thousand technologies they could have put in the first iPhone but they were looking to mature the platform before they could actually go onto the system.”

I get what they were going for but that’s a really weird way to describe it.

Motherboard:

The acquisition means that Allstate has become one of the most powerful proponents of right to repair legislation in the United States. According to Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, which is pushing for the legislation, the company has already loaned a lobbyist to the effort in New Hampshire.

This is potentially big news for the right to repair movement, which is trying to get laws passed in 15 states this year that would make it easier for independent repair professionals to get repair tools and parts for consumer electronics.

This will pit Allstate against Apple soon enough.

The Interactivist:

In 2007 I founded a small company called iRingPro. It was dedicated to providing the world’s most sophisticated ringtones, for adults and professionals. Along with musician and master audio designer Jeff Essex, we set out to create a library of tones that were more elegant, respectful and sophisticated than any other professional ringtones on the market.

But then something tragic happened, Jeff Essex my great friend and co-creator at iRingPro, passed away. Immediately we began donating a portion of the money iRingPro earned to a San Francisco music foundation in Jeff’s name.

But emotions and ideas have a way of taking time to gestate, and it finally occurred to me what Jeff would have wanted to do. Always more concerned with making the world a better place than with money, he’d want to see his work find it’s way into the world in as unfettered a way possible. He would want to inspire a love of music and audio. He would want to make a difference. He’d want the iRingPro ringtones to be free.

What a lovely gesture to make in honour of a friend.

Recode:

Apple says it wants to help save journalism.

All it wants in return is half of all the revenue journalists make when they sell their stuff through a forthcoming new Apple subscription service. So what is Apple thinking now?

Here’s the short answer, which I’ve cobbled together by talking to industry sources: Apple has already signed many publishers to deals where they’ll get 50 percent of the revenue Apple generates through subscriptions to its news service, which is currently called Texture and will be relaunched as a premium version of Apple News this spring.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how this all shakes out.

In addition to a massive library of raw sound material, Superior Drummer 3 introduces a unique design*, a streamlined workflow and countless features for powerful drum production in your computer. With Superior Drummer 3, you have control and creative power beyond the imaginable. Welcome to the future.

I’ve been a Toontrack user for many years and love their drum software, but this new version is unreal. Check out the many videos on the product page detailing what you can do in Superior Drummer 3—amazing!

New York Times:

Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from some lawmakers and unions, who contended that a tech giant did not deserve nearly $3 billion in government incentives.

…The agreement to lure Amazon stirred an intense debate about the use of government incentives to entice wealthy companies, the rising cost of living in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, and the city’s very identity.

Big, surprising news that will have repercussions throughout the company.

AppleInsider:

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has released a letter it received from Apple concerning the “Project Titan” self-driving vehicle project’s disengagement rates, with the letter advising how Apple is collecting data on incidents where a driver takes over for the automated driving system, and why the number is so high.

“Apple’s approach to disengagements is conservative, because our system is not yet designed to operate in all conditions and situations,” writes Apple’s senior director of Autonomous Systems Engineering Jamie Waydo. “To support this approach, our public road testing policies require drivers to proactively take manual control of the vehicle any time the system encounters a scenario beyond our currently proven abilities.”

When I first read this story on Tuesday, I thought there might be something more to it. Turns out, Apple’s high number of “disengagements” is because of an overabundance of caution. Not a bad thing.

Reuters:

Software pirates have hijacked technology designed by Apple Inc to distribute hacked versions of Spotify, Angry Birds, Pokemon Go, Minecraft and other popular apps on iPhones, Reuters has found.

Using so-called enterprise developer certificates, these pirate operations are providing modified versions of popular apps to consumers, enabling them to stream music without ads and to circumvent fees and rules in games, depriving Apple and legitimate app makers of revenue.

This is very bad news for Apple. They have long touted the safety and security of the App Store as a plus for consumers.

Bloomberg:

It’s all-electric like a Tesla. It’s priced like a Ford Fiesta. It’s one of the oddest-looking vehicles you’ve ever seen — and it may just redefine the commuter car.

Meet the Solo — a one-seater vehicle made by Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corp. that costs $15,500. By December, 5,000 will be zipping around the streets of Los Angeles, with an additional 70,000 to be delivered over the next two years across the West Coast. Electra Meccanica may have a market value of just $140 million, yet it has $2.4 billion in pre-orders. The stock more than tripled in New York Wednesday.

Ignoring the hyperbolic “Canada’s answer…” part of the headline, watch the video and tell me – are you in the target audience for this little car and would you buy it? I certainly wouldn’t but the two-seater roadster looks kinda cool.