Here’s a link to the song Everytime (A Cappella) for you to try for yourself.

I clicked the link on my Mac, logged in to the page that appeared, and was able to listen to the song in my browser, without jumping to iTunes.

According to the Reddit comments, this seems to have appeared sometime after WWDC. It also appears that there is a 3rd party API so people can build their own web-based music players. The API might still be in beta, though I tested the above link on the public release of High Sierra.

Interesting.

UPDATE: Here’s a post from Kirk McElhearn about all this from back in June, when it first became available.

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

The new plans include 100GB storage for $1.99 a month, 200GB for $2.99 a month, and 2TB for $9.99 a month (down from $19.99). The free 15GB for non-paying users remains. There’s also a new family option for divvying up a single storage plan amongst up to five members.

And Apple:

Apple’s iCloud monthly storage plans aren’t so different: they start with 5GB free storage for non-paying users, then offer 50GB for $0.99, 200GB for $2.99, and 2TB for $9.99.

To me, 5GB might as well be zero. The smallest configuration for Apple’s most popular phone, the iPhone X, is 64GB. What does that 5GB offer for a 64GB phone? It seems paltry. To me, this is stingy and bad optics.

At the very least, I think Apple should match Google’s free 15GB and unlimited free photo storage. Even better, raise that bar. As is, this feels like nickel and diming people who are spending as much as $1,000 for a phone.

This is definitely more interesting than useful. Just a historic artifact.

Wow, just wow.

Neil Cybart:

There are three drivers behind Apple’s return to revenue growth:

1. iPhone. The average selling price (ASP) of iPhone is up $100 year-over-year.
2. Services. Apple is seeing strong revenue growth from the App Store, licensing, and AppleCare.
3. Wearables. Apple’s wearables platform is gaining sales momentum as Apple Watch and AirPods go mainstream.

Lots of interesting detail in the article. On that last bullet, I am seeing Apple Watch and AirPods everywhere now.

When I am out running, I see more and more other runners with AirPods in their ears. Mainstream is the right term here.

On a related note, I get why Apple sticks with white as the only color. As was the case when the iPod first started, those white headphones were incredibly important to the branding. I see AirPods white as a similarly important brand marker.

AppleInsider:

The iMac is the machine that famously saved Apple back in 1998 —but it didn’t stop there. Rarely standing still, it has kept at the forefront of Apple design, yet today’s iMac has the same design goals it always has. AppleInsider looks back at the beginning of the line, all the way to today.

I still remember the first time I saw the iMac in real life at the 1998 Macworld Expo in New York City. I watched Apple techs set up several dozen of them in Apple’s booth at the Javits Center ahead of the Steve Jobs Keynote. I will always maintain that the iMac saved Apple. Without it, the company wouldn’t have survived long enough to accomplish all the amazing things it did in the ensuing years and we would all be the poorer for it.

MacRumors:

Ahead of upcoming Twitter changes set to be implemented tomorrow, Tapbots has released an updated version of its Tweetbot app for iOS devices, removing several features that have been present in the app for years.

Timeline streaming over Wi-Fi has been disabled, which means Twitter timelines will refresh every one to two minutes instead of as new tweets come in. We’ve been using the Tweetbot for iOS app in a beta capacity with these changes implemented, and while it’s not a huge change, the delay is noticeable.

These “changes” will also affect those of us who use Twitterrific as well as any other third-party Twitter client. Amazing to watch Twitter slit its own throat almost in real time.

Great marketing campaign. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out when the Browns do win.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

There’s a thriving market for unofficial, aftermarket iPhone parts, and in China, there are entire massive factories that are dedicated to producing these components for repair shops unable to get ahold of parts that have been produced by Apple.

The entire Apple device repair ecosystem is fascinating, complex, and oftentimes confusing to consumers given the disconnect between Apple, Apple Authorized Service Providers, third-party factories, and independent repair shops, so we thought we’d delve into the complicated world of Apple repairs.

Terrific, fascinating read.

Variety:

HQ Trivia is taking a leap to bigger screens: The mobile quiz show startup has launched an app for Apple TV. The company announced the new app on Twitter Tuesday.

The new app makes it possible to both watch the daily quiz show as well as vote with the help of the Apple TV’s remote control.

HQ Trivia is a clever idea, a game show that comes to your iPhone, replete with entertaining hosts and witty patter. It’s got a social component and works well with a group of people.

Porting it to Apple TV is a good idea, but it could be even better. As is, it is simply one more device on which you can play. Instead of playing on your phone, you play on your TV. That’s fine.

But I’d love a version that brings the banter off-line, like the excellent Jackbox Party Pack games. If you’ve got a group of friends coming over, I’d suggest giving these a try. Fun will be had.

CNBC:

Apple has a team exploring a custom processor that can make better sense of health information coming off sensors from deep inside its devices, job listings show.

Here’s an Apple job listing for a Sensor ASIC Architect (ASIC being Application-specific integrated circuit).

Building custom chips for narrow functions can help Apple add new features and improve efficiency of its hardware while protecting its intellectual property from would-be imitators.

Rene Ritchie just posted an excellent Vector episode that talks about Apple’s chip ambitions. Apple’s chip investments are paying dividends and they are slowly specializing, expanding their proprietary chips, bringing capabilities to future products that other companies cannot simply copy.

Bloomberg:

Verizon Communications Inc. announced deals making Apple Inc. and Google its first video providers for a superfast 5G wireless service the company plans to launch in four cities later this year.

And:

With the introduction, Verizon will provide 5G customers either a free Apple TV box or free subscription to Google’s YouTube TV app for live television service, according to people familiar with the plan.

This partnership is a big, legitimizing win for Apple TV. But I’m still not sold on 5G.

5G has limitations. It requires major infrastructure, expensive network hardware to propagate the signal, meaning it will be prohibitively expensive to be able to serve rural areas, is ideally suited for dense urban areas.

Also:

High-frequency 5G radio signals are easily disrupted by rain and foliage and remain commercially unproven. But if successful, the technology could lead to as much as $200 billion a year in industry-wide development spending.

I have high hopes that some form of high speed wireless will eventually replace wired service, make broadband more widely available and, most importantly, bring competition to the marketplace, give consumers more choices.

As part of version 9.6 of Universal Audio’s software, the company released the Century Tube Channel Strip, Suhr PT100 Amplifier, and the Brainworx bx_masterdesk. The part of the release that I’m most looking forward to is the Bill Putnam Microphone Collection.

For use with the Townsend Labs Sphere L22 microphone system, the Bill Putnam Collection plug-in features the “best-of-the-best” from iconic engineer and recording pioneer Bill Putnam Sr.’s personal mic locker, including hand-picked mics that recorded Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and more.

Yes, please!

Good read, all the way through. Useful stuff, pass it along.

First things first, can we all agree that Loop Disease is a terrible name? ?

But I digress.

Motherboard:

For the past six months, Cerva has been receiving large numbers of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices—often 10 to 15 per week—with a similar issue: one of the pads that connects the audio chip, which is located on the motherboard near the SIM card tray, has come loose.

And:

The early symptoms are a grayed-out Voice Memos icon, a grayed-out “speaker” button during phone calls, or intermittent freezing. Eventually, the phone can get stuck on the Apple logo instead of powering on. Cerva calls the issue “loop disease,” in reference to “touch disease,” a similar issue that affected thousands of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units starting around 2016.

And:

The fix, Jones and Cerva agreed, is straightforward: they remove the audio chip, then solder a small segment of wire underneath it to repair the connection. Cerva can complete the repair in just 15 minutes, he said; Jones said that a qualified shop should be able to carry out the repair for between $100 and $150.

If you have, or know someone with an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, read the article and check out the image (with the greyed out Speaker icon) towards the bottom of the article.

The iPhones 7 were released in September 2016.

John Gruber, commenting on the new wave of big, clunky, Galaxy watches from Samsung:

Samsung is sticking with round faces — you certainly can’t call these ripoffs of Apple Watch. But I think that’s a mistake for a digital watch. At 42 and 46mm, both sizes are much larger (and heavier) than Apple Watches. Because Apple measures its watches vertically, they sound closer in size than they actually are. A 42mm Apple Watch is 36mm wide, and a 38mm Apple Watch is just 33mm wide. Apple remains the only company making smartwatches for women and men with small wrists.

I do wish my Apple Watch was thinner. The weight is not an issue for me, but I can imagine a thinner future Apple Watch, still rectangular, but with a gently curved body that matches the curved wrist surface on which it sits.

What I can’t imagine is ever moving to a bigger, clunkier smartwatch.

Wired:

Security meltdowns on your smartphone are often self-inflicted: You clicked the wrong link, or installed the wrong app. But for millions of Android devices, the vulnerabilities have been baked in ahead of time, deep in the firmware, just waiting to be exploited. Who put them there? Some combination of the manufacturer that made it, and the carrier that sold it to you.

And:

“The problem is not going to go away, because a lot of the people in the supply chain want to be able to add their own applications, customize, add their own code. That increases the attack surface, and increases the probability of software error,” Stavrou says. “They’re exposing the end user to exploits that the end user is not able to respond to.”

This problem is an end result of Android allowing third party companies the ability to modify the source code. An example:

Take the Asus ZenFone V Live, which Kryptowire found to leave its owners exposed to an entire system takeover, including taking screenshots and video recordings of a user’s screen, making phone calls, reading and modifying text messages, and more.

This is a fascinating read. This loss of centralized security control is yet another thing that keeps me in the Apple ecosystem. I do recognize that macOS, iOS, et al have flaws, but the centralized security model (All the system software comes from Apple, not a third party) and the commitment to privacy do make me feel safer.

Missouri Education Watchdog:

While many have questioned Google’s invasion of the classroom and how Google Apps for Education, (now called G-Suite), collects and uses student or teacher information, few have really gotten much in the way of answers. What is reportedly happening with Springfield Missouri Public School’s use of Google Drive offers a rare glimpse into Google’s potential to collect data. School-issued student Google accounts connect to Google Drive which can allow for the ability to Auto-Sync devices to Auto-Save passwords, browsing history and other digital data points from numerous devices used by a single user. For students in SPS this could include digital data from non-school related accounts. This July 17, 2018 Fox 5 KRBK news story explains how one family discovered this practice and reported it to the school district.

Google being Google.

Apple today removed Group FaceTime from the latest iOS 12 and macOS Mojave betas, which were released this morning, and has instead decided to release the feature at a later date.

This is an interesting twist in the upcoming release of both operating systems. There must be a technical reason why Group FaceTime isn’t going to make the cut, and it has to be something they don’t think they can fix in time for the Fall release.

Storing your minute-by-minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects — such as a warrant that police in Raleigh, North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company will let you “pause” a setting called Location History.

Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been. Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time-stamped location data without asking. (It’s possible, although laborious, to delete it .)

The most alarming part of this whole story is that Google says it’s being very clear about what it’s doing—clearly they are not.

My thanks to Bare Bones Software for sponsoring The Loop this week. I’ve been using BBEdit since 1995, so I know first hand that it can handle any job I throw at it.

BBEdit is crafted and continuously refined in response to meet the needs of writers, web authors, and software developers, providing an abundance of high-performance features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text. All in all, BBEdit is a powerful editor with an interface that stays out of your way, and well worth checking out.

BBEdit 12 is 64-bit ready. Download and try it today!

Ozy:

Historic celebration or collective madness? That is the question. Twice a year in Siena, Italy, families and friendships are consumed by love, hate and rivalries. Pranks and fights divide the historic city quarters. The sacred coexists with the profane, the comedic with the tragic. The town is abuzz with fervency and trickery. All over a horse race. But the Palio di Siena isn’t just any horse race; it’s an all-consuming passion for Siena and its citizens.

It’s a script that William Shakespeare would have loved, but he died 16 years before the first edition in 1632.

Siena town center is divided into 17 historic contrade (districts), each with distinctive crests and colors. This becomes very important on July 2 and August 16 every year when the two races pit citizen against citizen in fierce competition. “People born and raised here consider their contrada a second home — a family — to defend unambiguously,” explains Jacopo Rossi, who was born in Siena and raised in Contrada dell’Onda. How can 54,000 residents suddenly despise each other? “You grow up learning to have fun with your neighbors, your rivals in the race,” he says. “But twice a year that camaraderie could become hate.”

I’ll be in Siena next year but the timing is wrong and I’ll sadly miss this incredible spectacle. Check out some of these Youtube videos of the races.

Getty Images:

Ford Motor Company reached a major milestone on August 8 as the 10 millionth Mustang rolled off the assembly line at their Detroit plant. Revered as the ultimate symbol of cool since it was first introduced in March 1964, the Mustang has managed to evolve with the times and, today, remains just as relevant as it was in the ’60s. Here, a look back at the iconic American car through the years.

While I liked the 60’s Mustangs, I was never a huge fan of the car in general. That being said, my first car was the 1994 redesign and I loved that car.

BuzzFeed:

Apple will continue to allow the Infowars Official mobile application in its App Store, the company confirmed to BuzzFeed News on Wednesday, just days after banning several podcasts associated with the conspiracy site.

On Sunday, as first reported by BuzzFeed News, Apple took down the entire library of five of the six Infowars podcasts from its iTunes and Podcasts apps. The action was decisive, with Apple laying out a clear reason for removal: The podcast content violated the company’s hate speech guidelines.

Less clear, though, is why Apple has chosen to keep the Infowars app up — which allows users to livestream in high definition the very same programs that it deemed hateful in podcast form. In its response to questions from BuzzFeed News, the iPhone maker suggested that the Infowars Official app had not violated the company’s guidelines.

Apple is caught between a rock and a hard place on this but it’s a situation of their own making.