Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to future iDevices being integrated with poisonous gas detectors. Carbon monoxide (or CO) is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that is sometimes called the silent killer because it poisons and kills many people each year, without them ever being aware of the danger. Having a miniature gas sensor built into an iPhone or Apple Watch will be able to notify a user that they could possibly be in a dangerous environment at home, at work or in the public.
Carbon monoxide detectors are usually mounted on the ceiling. And carbon monoxide is slightly lighter than air. Might Apple have plans for their own HomeKit-enabled, ceiling mount detectors?
The patent (and a related patent) does show the sensor in an iPhone and MacBook.
No doubt due to the public outcry, and to avoid the appearance of using people’s work for “exposure”, Apple added this paragraph to the very end of their recent press release:
Apple believes strongly that artists should be compensated for their work. Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.
This display is crazy wide. So wide that my first reaction was, it’s just too wide to be useful.
But.
Watch the video below. You can fit a ton of information on the screen (as expected), and you can even run two different computers, each taking up half the display.
As of this post, the price is $1250. Seems a good deal for an ultra wide 5K monitor, though it only runs at 60Hz, so not sure it’d be good for gaming.
Be sure to watch the very end to see this monitor running in portrait mode.
What gifts would your parents prepare when your Chinese New Year visit comes to an end? A film about the taste of home shot on iPhone XS by Jia Zhangke.
Apple also posted some behind the scenes and making of videos.
Office empowers everyone to achieve more on any device. And Office loves Mac. We’re committed to delivering the power and simplicity of Office in an experience designed specifically for Mac, and we continue to make significant investments in the platform. Today, we’re excited to announce that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store. With one click, Mac users can download the cloud-connected, always-up-to-date version of the Office suite—including full installs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive.
“We are excited to welcome Microsoft Office 365 to the all new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it’s easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone.” Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
Frenemies working together to, hopefully, the benefit of their users.
Researchers have uncovered a recent malicious advertisement campaign that’s notable for its size, scope, and resourcefulness: a two-day blitz triggered as many as 5 million times per day that used highly camouflaged JavaScript stashed in images to install a trojan on visitors’ Macs.
Wednesday’s post demonstrates how malvertisers continue to improve their techniques for slipping malicious content past advertisers who spend time and money to detect bad ads. Fortunately—for the moment, at least—most malicious ads seem to work by tricking visitors into clicking on OK buttons that will install malware.
Most of us wouldn’t be caught by this but it’s a good opportunity to remind less techy friends and family to not download files or click on random pop-ups.
We should protect the truth at all costs, and hold everyone accountable: elected members of office, priests, teachers, um, bus drivers… and movie posters, sure, why not, that’s as good a segue as any.
HomePod is a convenient way to check the weather or the latest sports scores, set multiple timers and reminders, make and receive phone calls and more. Siri on HomePod also offers storytelling for children, just say “Hey Siri, tell me a story.”
Try as I might, I could not get Siri to respond to the “tell me a story” request. There’s a good reason for this.
Apple has now updated their press release (H/T Sébastien Page):
In China, Siri on HomePod also offers storytelling for children, just say “Hey Siri, tell me a story.”
Clearly, this is a feature that only works in China. I still wonder about the mechanics. Does this only work in conjunction with books you purchase? Does Siri read to you, or are these canned audio books that Siri fires off? Is there a fixed set of stories?
I also wonder why this only works in China. Is it a rights issue? Will this feature eventually make its way to the US?
“We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple. As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” the spokesperson said.
“We continue to believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems, that Apple has unique capabilities to contribute, and that this is the most ambitious machine learning project ever.”
The popular, colorful, heart-shaped conversation candies featuring sayings on them like “Kiss Me,” “Cutie Pie” and “Be Mine,” will not be produced this year, according to the Spangler Candy Company, which purchased Sweethearts and NECCO Wafers in 2018.
NECCO went out of business last year. Never liked the taste of those Valentine’s Day classics, but they’ve been part of Valentine’s Day since I was a kid. Looks like they’ll be back next year.
Odd seeing brands shift manufacturers. Like Twinkies, which disappeared from US shelves when Hostess went through bankruptcy.
Twitter is testing a new tag that will make it easier to parse who started a thread. The new feature, which is starting to pop up for some users, makes it easier to find posts from the original tweeter within a thread, but may also help curb (some types of) abuse on the platform, making it easier to distinguish accounts that are masquerading as other tweeters, for instance.
Follow the link, scroll through the pictures to get a sense of how this will work.
I do like the concept, but wonder if this wouldn’t be kinder on screen real-estate if they used an icon, or a special character, or even formatting (bold, for example) to make the original poster stand out.
The Principality of Sealand, standing on two massive pillars in the roiling waters of the North Sea, was declared a sovereign nation by Michael’s father, Roy Bates, in 1967. Located in international waters and technically outside of the control of Britain, or any other nation, the country straddles a line between eccentric experiment and legal entity of uncertain definition.
As they built up the reputation of the concrete-and-metal statelet, the family issued coins, stamps and other trappings of statehood, including passports. The Sealanders had issued around 300 of them over the years, but only to trusted compatriots, and certainly not, Michael Bates was sure, to anyone who would commit cold-blooded murder.
I’ve known about the “nation” of Sealand for years and it always seems like an eccentric, odd little thing some rich guy did. The real story is much weirder and deeper.
In the roughly four years since Apple launched its mobile payments service, Apple Pay, the company has managed to convince just about every major bank and retailer to let customers use their bank accounts to pay for things quickly through iPhones and Apple Watches.
While there’s no way of knowing exactly how popular Apple Pay is with consumers—the company doesn’t break out user numbers or revenue it receives from those transactions—the ever-increasing number of retailers using the service suggests it’s growing in popularity.
The gadget guy in me loves Apple Pay and wishes I could use it more. My wife thinks it’s black magic and is deeply suspicious of it.
Gatwick airport is introducing a fleet of valet-parking robots to ease the stress of getting away — and squeeze one third more vehicles into the same size car park.
The autonomous droids — codenamed Stan and likened to a robot in Pixar’s 2008 movie Wall-E — scan each vehicle’s size and shape to safely steer them to their destination. And because there is no need for the driver’s door to open, they can be parked more tightly together. Each booking is linked to the passenger’s flight number to ensure their car is ready to collect from the same location upon their return.
I rarely need to leave my car at the airport but if I did, I’d use this in a heartbeat.
The issue is fairly simple: the current generation of MacBook Pro laptops (2016–present) uses flexible ribbon cables to connect the display to a display controller board beneath the Touch Bar. These cables wrap over the board, where they’re secured by a pair of spring-loaded covers—and they’re subjected to the stress of bending with every opening and closure of the laptop. Within a seemingly short time, those cables are starting to fatigue and tear. The backlight cable is generally the first to go, producing the infamous “stage light” symptoms, and eventually giving out entirely when the laptop is opened more than about 40°.
And:
Apple opted for thin, fragile flex cables as opposed to the beefier wire cables used in previous designs that could be routed through the hinge instead of wrapped around it, helping mitigate the stress of repeated openings and closings. But the bigger problem is that, in an apparent effort to make the display as thin as possible, Apple designed the cables as part of the display, so they cannot be replaced. This means that when (not if) those cables start to fail, the entire display unit needs to be replaced, as opposed to one or two little cables—effectively turning a $6 problem into a $600 disaster.
Take the article with a grain of salt. This isn’t necessarily doom for the MacBook Pro, or even that big a deal.
But, if you do experience “stage light” symptoms, this design issue is important to be aware of. If you do run into this problem, I would definitely go into your Apple Store discussion armed with a bookmark of this article.
Apple’s announcement yesterday of a contest to find the ten best shot on iPhone photos has provoked debate about the company’s policy of not paying for any of the photos, even when they are used in global advertising campaigns.
The argument that Apple should pay seems obvious enough, but not everyone agrees.
Very interesting back and forth here. Never even occurred to me that Apple should pay for these photos.
On one hand, these photos are used in a professional marketing campaign. On the other, if they offered lucrative prizes, more pros would step in and the average kelley would have less of a chance.
Think you can tell if you’re being phished? Take Google’s quiz, see if you get a perfect score.
Note that when they ask you to enter a name and email at the beginning, it’s fine to just make one up. They want to use the info in the quiz, not harvest the data.
Steven Sinofsky tweeted screen shots from a 1984 Infoworld article, digging into this new-fangled Macintosh and Steve Jobs comparison of the Mac to the telephone, in terms of potential ubiquity and importance.
Follow the thread, check all the images. Terrific.
A Dutch surgeon formally disciplined for her medical negligence has won a legal action to remove Google search results about her case in a landmark “right to be forgotten” ruling.
The doctor’s registration on the register of healthcare professionals was initially suspended by a disciplinary panel because of her postoperative care of a patient. After an appeal, this was changed to a conditional suspension under which she was allowed to continue to practise.
But the first results after entering the doctor’s name in Google continued to be links to a website containing an unofficial blacklist, which it was claimed amounted to “digital pillory”. It was heard that potential patients had found the blacklist on Google and discussed the case on a web forum.
In a nutshell, the medical community decided that the doctor was allowed to practice, but Google’s search results led to an unofficial blacklist which circumvented that ruling.
Very interesting case. Looks like that blacklist will have to come down.
There are a lot of improvements to Pixelmator Pro in the latest update like Clipping masks, Layer tagging, Layer filtering and search, and quick opacity and blending controls in the Layers sidebar. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of everything that was added or improved in version 1.3. Check out Pixelmator’s Web site for all the changes.
Bare Bones, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies—in fact, I’ve been using their software for more than 20 years. Now, with the opening of their new online store, you can also own some Bare Bones clothing. T-shirts, hoodies, pins, fleece jackets, sweat pants and combinations of all of the products in a bundle are available from the store.
This is the West Coast beyond compare: deep sea inlets and coastal bays to explore by kayak or sailboat; interconnected lakes and rivers ideal for canoeing; rugged cliffs to climb and trails to bike; beaches and swimming holes for family relaxation. Wash all that down with beer from some of British Columbia’s most distinctive breweries.
Gibsons, on The Sunshine Coast, is where I live. The first three breweries in this video – Persephone (where my wife and I had our first date), The 101 and Gibsons Tapworks – are all within walking distance of our home. It really is a spectacular and naturally beautiful place. If you’re ever in the area for a visit, let me know – the first round is on me.
And check out some of the other “BC Ale Trail” videos. If you love beer and nature, there’s lots to choose from here in beautiful British Columbia. You should make plans to join me in Vancouver in September of this year for my “Starting Point Photography Photo Tourism Workshop” where I’ll take you around this beautiful area and teach you how to take better photographs with the camera you already have. And we’ll have a beer or three.
Observers who closely watched the Super Blood Wolf Moon eclipse over the weekend spotted an extra bonus: a meteoroid flying into the surface of the moon, mid-eclipse. And just like that, the Moon has a new crater.
I happily watched the eclipse on a chilly Sunday evening over a fire with my wife and sons. It was a lot of fun but we didn’t see the meteoroid strike. We were too busy trying to stay warm.
UPDATE: Apple has changed the rules of the contest and now includes this line:
Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.
Apple:
Apple is kicking off the year by celebrating the most stunning photographs captured on iPhone, the world’s most popular camera, by inviting iPhone users to submit their best shots. From January 22 to February 7, Apple is looking for outstanding photographs for a Shot on iPhone Challenge. A panel of judges will review worldwide submissions and select 10 winning photos, to be announced in February. The winning photos will be featured on billboards in select cities, Apple retail stores and online.
Post your best photo taken on iPhone to Instagram or Twitter with the #ShotOniPhone hashtag to participate in the Shot on iPhone Challenge.
Keep in mind that, like many contests like this, Apple won’t necessarily pay you if your submission is accepted as a contest winner. That being said, it can’t hurt to tag your photos to enter the contest.
Over the past several months, I’ve been gathering and testing the top contenders for best wireless active noise cancelling headphones. This is a popular category in an age of disappearing headphone jacks, and the competition for the best noise cancelling headphones is fierce.
The journey was prompted by my own desire to replace an aging pair of wired Bose QuietComfort 25s with something new. That pair has travelled with me around the world without missing a beat, so its replacement had big shoes to fill.
I used a very early model of the Bose QuietComfort headphones and found them useful but bulky. If I get another set, I’ll make sure to give this list a good read.
At the tail end of 2018, Google changed the name of their MVNO carrier service from Project Fi, to Google Fi and opened up support to the iPhone. AppleInsider has been using it for a while even before the announcement, so let’s take a look at the service now that you don’t have to jump through hoops to use it on an Apple device.
Google Fi is affordable. Service for unlimited text and calls starts at $20, and data is $10 per GB, up to 6GB, after which data is free. Google doesn’t charge in $10 increments, but instead charges for the data used.
How messed up is our cellular service here in Canada and the US when someone can describe a plan that offers pricing like $10 per GB as “affordable”?
