Motherboard:

The phone looks like an iPhone X. It has the same form factor, most of the same detailing, no home button, the same volume rockers and side buttons, a working Lightning port, and the same speaker holes on the bottom of the phone. It also has pentalobe screws on the bottom of the device, just like an iPhone.

When turning the phone on, the Apple logo shows up, and it boots to something that looks very much like iOS. It has the same default lock screen that the iPhone launches with, and you can launch the camera or flashlight from it. It uses the same logos, appears to have the same default apps, and generally seems as though you are using an iPhone.

It quickly became clear this isn’t iOS, though.

While I wouldn’t use one of these even if you paid me the $100, it’s still very interesting to see what these fake iPhones can and can’t do.

iFixit:

The 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard is a wealth of secrets—it just keeps surprising us. Just when we think we’ve exhausted one vein of tasty tech ore, we find something new. And today, we bring this trove to you.

And:

We pumped this keyboard full of particulates to test our ingress-proofing theory. We started with a fine, powdered paint additive to add a bit of color and enable finer tracking (thanks for the tip, Dan!). Lo and behold, the dust is safely sequestered at the edges of the membrane, leaving the mechanism fairly sheltered. The holes in the membrane allow the keycap clips to pass through, but are covered by the cap itself, blocking dust ingress.

And:

On the 2018 keyboard, with the addition of more particulate and some aggressive typing, the dust eventually penetrates under the sheltered clips, and gets on top of the switch—so the ingress-proofing isn’t foolproof just yet.

I do appreciate the testing, good to know the threshold at work here. Bottom line, don’t dump a bunch of powder or sand on your keyboard and you should be fine.

If you want a more traditional, picture-laden keyboard teardown, iFixit has that too.

And on a related note, here’s John Gruber’s take on the legal/marketing side of the new keyboard, and the quieter vs. better at keeping out debris language.

This turned out to be fascinating. A bunch of company-specific ant emoji, all critiqued and rated.

Gonna share three with you:

• Apple: Beautiful big almond eye, realistic and full of expression as she gazes gently at you. Elbowed antennae and delicately segmented legs and body. Gorgeous pearlescent sheen like she is glowing. This ant moisturizes. This ant is round and huggable. This ant is a star. 11/10.

• Samsung: This ant has an unexplained, double-jointed thorax, and no evidence of a waist. Her four-footed pose suggests that she a centaur rather than an ant. Centaur ants would be cool. I’m not sure what was intended here. 2/10.

• Twitter: Were you even trying. 0/10

Follow the link to see the reviews in place with the emoji images. Great!

A simple thing, new to watchOS 5, good to know.

Krebs on Security:

Here’s a clever new twist on an old email scam that could serve to make the con far more believable. The message purports to have been sent from a hacker who’s compromised your computer and used your webcam to record a video of you while you were watching porn. The missive threatens to release the video to all your contacts unless you pay a Bitcoin ransom. The new twist? The email now references a real password previously tied to the recipient’s email address.

The basic elements of this sextortion scam email have been around for some time, and usually the only thing that changes with this particular message is the Bitcoin address that frightened targets can use to pay the amount demanded. But this one begins with an unusual opening salvo

I received this email scam as well but it didn’t worry me. While it was a password I’d used in the distant past, now that I use 1Password, I knew it wasn’t to anything I still use.

Use Apple Pay to get exclusive offers when shopping in apps or on the web July 19 – August 1.

There are eight retailers taking part in the promotion, but they are wide-ranging so there’s a little something for everyone.

SB Nation:

The Tour de France is probably the most physically demanding major sporting event in the world. Over 23 days and 21 stages, riders burn an average of roughly 5,000 calories per day, which is almost twice as much as a pro marathon runner might burn in a single race, and all the while they must maintain a sharp mind, marking their opponents and working with teammates to go fast as efficiently possible before their bodies cave in.

Cycling a grand tour is as much a fight against one’s own body as it is against opponents. Quite literally, cyclist’s bodies begin fighting back after the first week. Riders begin to lose muscle, their immunes systems tank, and they practically have to force feed themselves in order to maintain the baseline system functionality to climb, let’s say, Alpe d’Huez.

Yes, cycling has a doping problem, but it’s hard to blame athletes who are putting their bodies through very real trauma for looking for some kind of shortcut. Humans shouldn’t do their bodies what Tour riders do to theirs. And indeed, it’s hard to believe some riders aren’t aliens, with their bird-like frames and gaunt features.

As corrupt as pro cycling may or may not be (hint: it is), I still love watching the Tour de France, not just for the beautiful scenery but in sheer awe and admiration for what these athletes put themselves through.

Bloomberg:

For more than two years, a small and stealthy group of engineers within Google has been working on software that they hope will eventually replace Android, the world’s dominant mobile operating system. As the team grows, it will have to overcome some fierce internal debate about how the software will work.

The project, known as Fuchsia, was created from scratch to overcome the limitations of Android as more personal devices and other gadgets come online. It’s being designed to better accommodate voice interactions and frequent security updates and to look the same across a range of devices, from laptops to tiny internet-connected sensors.

Fantastic read. I hope Fuchsia solves the security problems and offers privacy options absent from Android.

The company must also settle some internal feuds. Some of the principles that Fuchsia creators are pursuing have already run up against Google’s business model. Google’s ads business relies on an ability to target users based on their location and activity, and Fuchsia’s nascent privacy features would, if implemented, hamstring this important business. There’s already been at least one clash between advertising and engineering over security and privacy features of the fledgling operating system, according to a person familiar with the matter. The ad team prevailed, this person said.

Feh. Not holding my breath.

Yesterday, we wrote about Dave Lee’s experiment with his high-end Intel i9, showing that under load, it got hot enough to trigger throttling, which slowed it down enough to be a problem.

One of the arguments made about Dave’s experiment is that it was specific to Adobe Premiere and possibly due to Premiere not being optimized for macOS.

Jeff Benjamin, writing for 9to5Mac, put his i9 MacBook Pro on the line to test this theory. Jeff did his testing with Apple’s own Final Cut Pro X (and a different model freezer).

I won’t spoil the conclusion (follow the headline link and read through Jeff’s well written walkthrough, don’t miss the update with John Poole’s take at the very end), but this line made me laugh:

The freezer is good for short term performance on the MacBook Pro, but may prove to be an inconvenient/hazardous working environment (condensation is bad, folks).

Well said.

Karissa Bell, Mashable:

During a press event at the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif. facility Wednesday, the company showed off new designs that add realistic textures to its glass. It’s called “Vibrant” Gorilla Glass, and it was first introduced in 2016 with the promise that phone makers could print high resolution images directly onto it.

But its latest prototypes take the concept to the next level. The technique combines the printed images with etched glass that’s designed to mimic the feel of different textures, such as wood, rock, polished marble, or even snakeskin. The result is glass that doesn’t look or feel anything like glass.

This is pretty cool stuff. Not clear if Apple will adopt this new glass, but I imagine the design team is hard at work experimenting with it.

Here’s a link to Corning’s Vibrant Gorilla Glass product page.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Some customers have been hoping that Apple will start swapping out second-generation keyboards with third-generation keyboards, as part of its service program, but MacRumors has learned that isn’t the plan.

When asked if Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers will be permitted to replace second-generation keyboards on 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models with the new third-generation keyboards, if necessary, Apple said, no, the third-generation keyboards are exclusive to the 2018 MacBook Pro.

This isn’t terribly surprising, as the architecture of the new machines has changed and the swap-out goes way beyond simply swapping keyboards. But it is good to know.

Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider:

The patent application for “Light-based Shielding Detection,” published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday and originally filed in December 2017, describes a ‘sunscreen detector that could be used on a portable device, which Apple suggests could be a wearable device.

Imagine a sensor on your Apple Watch that could measure UV radiation and warn you when you’ve been in the sun too long. I love this idea.

The Merc:

eBay has decided to eliminate nearly 300 Bay Area jobs, including more than 200 in San Jose, the company has told a state labor agency.

The job cuts are due to be completed by July 20, eBay stated in notices to the state’s Employment Development Department. Affected employees were notified in the final week of June.

And:

Over the one-year period that ended in March, eBay lost $1.64 billion on revenues of $9.84 billion.

It’s not that people don’t want to buy other people’s stuff. eBay’s core model is still working. The trouble is more their growth areas that overlap with Amazon, Google, and Alibaba. Tough competition.

Macworld:

…In the years following Jobs’s death (and the departure of some other Jobs-era executives), Apple has continued to evolve—and in many cases, it’s torn up the old rulebook. A lot of the changes strike me as being for the better. I feel like after Steve laid down the law in the late 1990s, some policies and decisions were never really reconsidered until the Tim Cook era got into full swing.

Here are just a few ways that today’s Apple has tossed out, or at least amended, the classic Apple rulebook.

I’ve made note of some of these changes on my own podcast but Snell writes about it better than I ever could. The PR moves are especially interesting. Snell says:

Today’s Apple PR, led by Steve Dowling, is much more creative in how it releases information into the world…

Not only are they more “creative” but, sans Jobs and Dowling’s predecessor, Apple PR is much more open than in the past. They still have a long way to go but throwing off Jobs’ yoke of absolute secrecy takes time.

Digital Camera World:

Mirrorless cameras have been around for almost a decade now, and in that time they’ve changed in countless ways.

While some of the designs many have stayed constant, the extent to which these models are more capable for a broader range of tasks means that many people have happily ditched their DSLRs, sold their glass (or not, as we shall see) and jumped across to one of the more recent but rapidly expanding mirrorless systems. Many others, however, are more hesitant, and they continue to ask the same question: are mirrorless cameras better than DSLRs?

If you’re expecting a short answer, it’s this: mirrorless cameras are certainly more capable than DSLRs in many respects, and they hold a number of different advantages, but there are many reasons why novice users and seasoned pros alike would still be better served by a DSLR.

There may be a big difference for professionals but for the average shooter, the gap between DSLR and mirrorless is almost nonexistent nowadays. I have no problem recommending mirrorless cameras to my students and workshop participants. For some, mirrorless cameras can be the better choice.

On a day (and a half) with more than one million deals worldwide offered exclusively to Prime members, sales this Prime Day surpassed Cyber Monday, Black Friday and the previous Prime Day, when comparing 36-hour periods, making this once again the biggest shopping event in Amazon history. Prime members worldwide purchased more than 100 million products during this year’s Prime Day event. Best-sellers worldwide were the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and Echo Dot – making this, with 12-hour early access to device deals, the biggest event ever for Amazon devices.

That’s an incredible amount of products to sell in such a short period of time. I found the top products sold in each country very interesting, too.

EU antitrust regulators hit Google with a record 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) fine on Wednesday and ordered it to stop using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals, a ruling which the U.S. tech company said it would appeal.

That seems like an incredible amount of money, but then there’s this:

It represents just over two weeks of revenue for Google parent Alphabet…

Google is appealing the decision, more out of principle than financial reasons.

A few years ago I had the privilege of being an engineer on the Google Photos team and part of the initial launch in 2015. A lot of people contributed to the product — designers, product managers, researchers, and countless engineers (across Android, iOS, Web, and the server) to name just some of the major roles. My responsibility was the web UI, and more specifically the photo grid.

Whether or not you use Google Photos, it’s fascinating to get an inside look at how it was built.

John Poole, Primate Labs:

Apple announced updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros last week. Let’s take a quick look at the performance of these new laptops using Geekbench 4 results from the Geekbench Browser.

For those unfamiliar with Geekbench 4, it is our cross-platform CPU and GPU benchmark. Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance.

Note that Geekbench scores tend to improve over time, as startup tasks like iCloud syncing tend to eat CPU time when a machine is first configured. Once those “one time” tasks are completed, usually after a few days, they no longer skew the results.

Benchmarks like these offer a nice way of comparing apples to apples when you are considering a move from one machine to another. If your workload includes very specific, repetitive, high-intensity tasks (such as audio or video rendering, for example), you might want to seek out benchmarks comparing results for those specific tasks.

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

With the upcoming release of iOS 12, Apple is introducing a new app called Shortcuts that will allow users to build custom voice commands for Siri that can be used to kick off a variety of actions in apps. While some apps will directly prompt users to add a Shortcut to Siri, the new Shortcuts app will offer more shortcut suggestions to try, plus the ability to create your own shortcuts and workflows. Now, there’s a new resource for shortcut fans, too – Sharecuts, a directory of shortcuts created and shared by the community.

The site is still very much in the early stages.

Shortcuts is an incredibly important addition to iOS, an evolution to the app architecture that gives you finer grained access to an apps functionality.

Sharecuts is a playground that lets you download useful Shortcuts built by the community but, in my mind, Sharecuts brings something more important to the table:

If you have the Shortcuts app installed, jump to the Sharecuts page (and bookmark it for later reference) and tap one of the Shortcuts. When it opens, you’ll be able to see, and change, all the elements that make up that Shortcut. To me, this is an invaluable learning tool, a wonderful community resource.

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

As part of its digital health initiative in iOS 12, Apple has introduced some improvements to the way app notifications can be managed, enabling users to more easily reduce the number of daily distractions their iPhone or iPad throws their way.

One of these new features is called Instant Tuning, which allows you to quickly adjust the future behavior of app notifications whenever they appear in the Lock Screen or the Notifications Center. Here’s how to make the most of it.

This is a short read, talks through an interface that is relatively hidden, but useful and easy to get to. Good stuff.

Apple has asked developers to do better with release notes — and so we figured we’d write about our system, in case it’s helpful to other developers.

I’m sure this will be helpful to others.

This is amazing and so much fun!

> While not an exact predictor, average lifespan is still a valuable piece of information. For example, let’s say you are buying an 20-year-old home with its original shingle roof, air conditioner, and water heater. If you look at the listing of expected lifespans below, you’ll see that all three of them would be either right at, or past, their average life expectancy. If you plan to do some remodeling after some parts are starting to get damaged, get some ideas for experts such as Archute.

The life expectancy of a building’s “vital” organs is varied2: kitchens, bathroom appliances, paintwork and floor coverings normally last between ten and fifteen years; pipes, windows and flat roofs 30 years and the basic structure (concrete or bricks) – the actual shell – between 70 and 100 years. It is possible to renovate the shell with the aid of professionals such as the Boston Interior Designer, however it requires a lot of work and is usually only worthwhile for buildings of historic value, such as those in the “old towns” of many European cities.

In modern homes, the kitchen is often the heart of the house, and the longevity of its appliances is crucial for maintaining functionality and convenience. High-quality kitchen appliances, such as refrigerators, ovens, and dishwashers, can typically last between ten to fifteen years with proper maintenance and care. Over time, however, even the best appliances may begin to show signs of wear and tear, necessitating repairs or replacements. This is where a comprehensive list of services in Travis County Appliance Repair becomes invaluable, offering homeowners the expertise needed to keep their kitchens running smoothly and efficiently.

Regular maintenance is key to extending the lifespan of kitchen appliances. Simple actions like cleaning the coils of a refrigerator, descaling a dishwasher, and ensuring ovens are free from grease build-up can significantly delay the need for major repairs. When issues do arise, prompt attention from professional repair services can prevent minor problems from becoming costly replacements. Investing in the upkeep of these appliances not only preserves their functionality but also enhances the overall value and enjoyment of the home, making the kitchen a reliable and welcoming space for daily living and culinary creativity.

One key element of sustainable building is system separation according to Renato Piffaretti: “Building parts should be categorised according to their life expectancy to make them easier to access and replace. For example, pipes are no longer encased in concrete, instead they are laid in open trenches.” Construction nowadays is more forward-looking than it used to be, says Peter Richner, Deputy Director of EMPA

Materials Science and Technology (Empa). He is responsible for the “NEST” 3 project, a modular research and innovation centre for testing new technologies, materials and systems. “An important component of longevity is a building’s adaptability”, he says, “it should be easy to change the room layout”. For example, preferences regarding kitchens and bathrooms have changed a lot over the past 30 years. However, it is difficult to make the required changes to 30-year-old buildings so they often have to be knocked down. According to Richner, construction projects today are designed so they can adapt to meet future requirements. While carpet has changed over the years, today, its lifespan is usually anywhere from 5 to 15 years. The length of time that a specific carpet lasts depends on the type of carpet, carpet cushion, carpet fibers, and wear and tear the carpet is exposed to, learn more from experts at this bond back cleaning Melbourne service.

There is also more to a building than its interior: appearance also contributes to longevity. The use of thoughtful decors like Military Flags can further enhance the building’s charm and create a lasting impression on its surroundings. “At the end of the day you have to build something that people will like”, says Peter Richner who is often invited to participate in architectural juries. Houses are involved in a Darwinian competition and the stronger (more attractive) ones are left standing: “If you don’t like something, it will be knocked down quicker, people also take better care of good buildings.”

I don’t know why I found this so fascinating, but I did. You just better hope that a few of these things don’t all fail in at the same time. In such cases, hiring professionals Roofer company for necessary fixes becomes essential to maintain the building’s strength and appeal.