This is a long read, with an accompanying long video. I truly don’t know how Rene Ritchie finds the time to do all this, but he does, and it’s good stuff.

I’d start off by scrolling down, just a bit, to the section titled iOS 12 In Brief. Rene breaks down his review into 12 (cause iOS 12, get it?) key takeaways. Read those, and you’ll have a good sense of what’s coming, can cherry pick your way through the rest of the piece, dive deep into the areas that interest you.

Nice job, Rene.

I’m running the developer betas. My experience is that iOS 12 beta is very solid. I’ve not run into any issues that get in the way. Not crazy about the change to the camera icon in Messages (explained in this tweet), but that’s design, not a beta issue.

As always with beta software, make sure you have a solid backup (in iOS, make sure you archive the backup, so it doesn’t get overwritten) before you make the move.

Here’s the link to Apple’s beta program page.

Fortune:

Fortune’s CEO Initiative, an invite-only event that takes place on June 25 and 26 in San Francisco, is devoted to the topic of companies doing well by doing good. The theory is that infusing businesses with a broader purpose can help with recruiting, attracting new customers, and improving corporate images.

You can watch a livestream of mainstage sessions with top executives on this page.

Tim Cook is scheduled for 6:05 PM PT today (Monday).

Vinnie Paul, drummer and founding member of the metal band Pantera, has died, the band announced on Facebook.

“Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away,” the band said.

So sad. R.I.P brother.

The Verge ran a review of their favorite phones. Top of the tops, the iPhone X.

Here’s what they had to say:

Apple’s latest iPhone isn’t just the most interesting iPhone in years, but it’s easily the best smartphone ever made. The iPhone X has almost everything you could think to ask for in a smartphone: blazing-fast performance, a gorgeous display, top-of-the-class cameras, loud, clear speakers, reliable battery life, and a head-turning design. In addition, the X is water resistant and can be recharged with a wireless pad. The main thing that most people will miss is a standard headphone jack.

Apple’s extensive support system, through both its own and carrier stores, is another incredibly important point in the iPhone’s favor. There’s simply no other company that provides as much support for a smartphone after you purchase it. On top of that, since it’s an iPhone, the iPhone X enjoys the broadest support of accessories and cases.

Doomed!

A few weeks ago, we posted about Amazon’s new voice controlled Fire TV Cube.

Think Apple TV married with Amazon Echo. No remote required, just ask Alexa to turn on your system, change channels, pause, jump to a specific location, all via voice.

The ultimate hands-free utopia, right?

Trevor Daugherty, 9to5Toys:

Fire TV Cube looks to cure that with an all-in-one solution centered around its Alexa voice platform. In our hands-on testing, it delivered as a means for sorting through content but fell short as an intuitive hub for home theaters. The potential is there, but don’t count on it changing the game just yet.

Dig through Trevor’s review. While some of the issues raised are easy to get past, many of them are enough to spoil the value of the experience. Judge for yourself but, if you are even considering a purchase, read the whole article to learn what you are in for.

From the Apple press release:

The 2018 Midterm Elections section helps readers follow the latest on the elections with breaking news, exclusive highlights and analysis from reliable sources selected by Apple News’ team of experienced editors. Readers can quickly get up to speed on the most relevant topics and candidates by accessing the new section in the Apple News app from a banner across the top of the For You tab, as well as through Top Stories and the Spotlight tab.

Curated. That’s key. The question is, can the curation team do their work in an unbiased, balanced fashion?

City Lab:

Call them Little Vehicles—not just bikes and scooters, but e-bikes, velomobiles, motorized skateboards, unicycles, “hoverboards,” and other small, battery-powered low-speed not-a-cars. Nearly all of them look silly, but if cities take them seriously, they could be a really, really big deal. Little Vehicles could significantly erode private car and ride-hail use, and play a key role in helping cities achieve their as of now unattainable environmental and road safety goals.

Great piece on the inevitable rise of “Little Vehicles”. Many city residents would be much better served by various combinations of LVs, especially if cities are redesigned away from cars.

Munchies:

The story of wine coolers’ rise and fall fits almost perfectly into the pocket of Reagan-era America. The first wine coolers were sold in 1981. At their peak popularity, in 1987, wine cooler sales topped a billion dollars annually, and accounted for 20 percent of all wine consumed in the US.

This history of (disgusting) wine coolers is actually interesting. Sadly, it seems wine coolers are making a comeback.

The Verge:

As the only US border town located in the shadow of a major Canadian city, Blaine’s economy is uniquely dependent on the relationship between the two countries. It’s a position that also leaves the town vulnerable to the vagaries of e-commerce trends and exchange rates.

For the past decade Blaine has flourished, thanks to the discrepancy between the explosion of e-commerce in the US and the still-developing e-commerce network in Canada. Blaine’s handful of residents have grown accustomed to a regular stream of Canadians who come to town specifically to pick up their US packages. For these Canadians, Blaine is simply a mailing address: the nearest, cheapest, and most convenient way to order packages from Amazon and other major US retailers.

I’m one of those customers. The difference in price and availability between Amazon Canada’s offerings and Amazon US is staggering, even when you include the exchange rate.

The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling on June 22 stating that police must first get an official warrant before they can use cell tower data to track someone’s location.

This is an interesting development for law enforcement, one I’m sure they’re not happy with.

The safety driver behind the wheel of a self-driving Uber car in Tempe, Arizona, was streaming a television show on her phone until about the time of a fatal crash, according to a police report that deemed the March 18 incident “entirely avoidable.”

Vasquez could face charges of vehicular manslaughter, according to the report, which was released late on Thursday in response to a public records request.

It’s amazing to me that people continue to watch video, text or otherwise cause themselves to be distracted while driving a vehicle.

Open Culture:

Born out of evening reading of spooky stories on a rain-soaked holiday, Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein has resonated through the years into pop culture, a warning against science and technology, of how the thirst for knowledge can literally create monsters. If you’ve been binging Westworld or loved Ex Machina you are seeing Shelley’s legacy, both filled with scientific creations that question their own reason for existence.

Just like those works are products of our era, Frankenstein did not just arise from a dream state—-Shelley was influenced by the concerns, events, and news of her day.

Therefore this annotated version of Frankenstein, called Frankenbook, should make a topical and important read this summer.

I haven’t read Frankenstein since college but I’ve been poking around this annotated edition and I might just make the time to curl up with it over the weekend.

From this John Wickham tweet:

Don't use the Markup highlighter on your iPhone to censor information in screenshots. Multiple strokes don’t make it opaque, and you can really easily reveal what’s beneath it. pic.twitter.com/Gm43aYz0LY

— John Wickham (@thejohnwickham) June 20, 2018

Check the pic on the left and on the right. See the difference in the blocked text?

My followup to John asked how he got from one to the other. In other words, how did he reveal what’s under the marker.

His response:

In the Photos app, tap Edit, then open the levels (dial icon in the toolbar). Tap the disclosure arrow for Light, then crank the Brightness slider all the way up.

Yup. This is really good to know. I believe a filled rectangle will work. Nice find, John!

In a nutshell, this article talks you through the process of using Time Machine to fetch an old copy of your history file.

Take a look, file away for that future need. Good stuff.

Google blog:

We’ve heard from a lot of people that adding “Hey Google” before each follow-up question for the Assistant doesn’t feel as natural as they’d like. We announced Continued Conversation at I/O as an optional setting which lets you have a natural back-and-forth conversation with the Assistant without repeating “Hey Google” for each follow-up request. The new feature is starting to roll out today, and you can turn it on in the Google Assistant app by going to Settings → Preferences → Continued Conversation and hitting the toggle.

Basically, Google assistant will keep listening (for about 8 seconds) after the end of a “Hey Google” back and forth. No need for a follow-up “Hey Google”.

Wondering if Siri will follow this approach, or perhaps develop a more complex protocol for handling continued conversation.

A solid review of the Logitech Crayon stylus, announced at Apple’s education event, along with their new education iPad. While it’s no Apple Pencil, the Logitech Crayon clearly fills a need, works very well, perhaps well enough for most folks.

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

When a site you visit uses browser fingerprinting, it can learn enough information about your browser to uniquely distinguish you from all the other visitors to that site. Browser fingerprinting can be used to track users just as cookies do, but using much more subtle and hard-to-control techniques.

And:

By using browser fingerprinting to piece together information about your browser and your actions online, trackers can covertly identify users over time, track them across websites, and build an advertising profile of them. The information that browser fingerprinting reveals typically includes a mixture of HTTP headers (which are delivered as a normal part of every web request) and properties that can be learned about the browser using JavaScript code: your time zone, system fonts, screen resolution, which plugins you have installed, and what platform your browser is running on.

And:

When stitched together, these individual properties tell a unique story about your browser and the details of your browsing interactions. For instance, yours is likely the only browser on central European time with cookies enabled that has exactly your set of system fonts, screen resolution, plugins, and graphics card.

The linked/quoted article is long and detailed, an enlightening read. But the bits about browser fingerprinting are incredibly important. And this is as good an explanation as I’ve seen.

At WWDC, Apple declared war on browser fingerprinting and related techniques. From Apple’s Mojave press release:

As with all Apple software updates, enhanced privacy and security remain a top priority in macOS Mojave. In Safari, enhanced Intelligent Tracking Prevention helps block social media “Like” or “Share” buttons and comment widgets from tracking users without permission. Safari now also presents simplified system information when users browse the web, preventing them from being tracked based on their system configuration.

And that’s a good thing.

NPR:

“The Gorilla Foundation is sad to announce the passing of our beloved Koko,” the research center says, informing the world about the death of a gorilla who fascinated and elated millions of people with her facility for language.

Koko, who was 46, died in her sleep Tuesday morning, the Gorilla Foundation said.

“Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world,” the Gorilla Foundation said.

We don’t often post obituaries of animals here but Koko had a profound affect on me as a kid. One of the few magazines we regularly got delivered was National Geographic and I read every article in every issue. In October of 1978, the cover was a picture Koko had taken of herself for “Conversations with a Gorilla” and it blew my mind. In January of 1985, Koko was again on the cover, this time with her kitten. I still remember reading that article with tears in my eyes.

There’s always been (understandable) skepticism about Koko’s abilities but there’s no doubt she brought joy to many and a deeper understanding of both gorillas and humans. She will be missed.

Wall Street Journal:

We were preparing to mount the horses when Qaboos announced: “Horse little crazy.” He said this nonchalantly, as if he were saying this horse is white. Crazy. What was Qaboos’s definition of crazy? Crazy as in dangerous crazy? Or crazy as in crazy fun? Or was it a word that rhymed with crazy. Lazy? Maybe Scarzo detected my confusion. He turned his scimitar head and regarded me with one ebony eye. Or perhaps he was considering the scents I exuded—deodorant and breath mints, ibuprofen and middle-age angst.

Or maybe the horse discerned something more profound— the real reason that I was sitting atop him now—that I hoped to resolve a patchwork of personal mysteries that revolved around horses, Arabia, and magic, the origins of which lie buried in the deep folds of my childhood memories. Whatever the case, several hours later—as I dangled off Scarzo’s rump, one foot tangled in a stirrup, vainly trying to regain my balance as he rampaged across the beach toward a family that had just spread out a picnic blanket—I understood exactly what Qaboos had meant by crazy. But let’s freeze here in the midst of this peril and return to the origin of this calamity to see how the djinns had been plotting this moment from long ago.

I’m a City Kid who has never had any interaction with horses (I’ve touched exactly three in my life and ridden one once for 60 minutes) but they have always fascinated me. This is a great story about the history of these majestic creatures.

The New Yorker:

Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, and his five half siblings were eventually named his heirs. With the family’s blessing, Graceland Holdings took over management of the property. Because Paisley Park is expensive to maintain, and because the estate was facing a considerable tax bill, the family made one decision quickly: Prince’s sanctuary would become a museum. Six months after Prince’s death, on October 28, 2016, Paisley Park opened to the public.

From the road, Paisley Park looks industrial, utilitarian, and cheerless, like a big-box store that has recently gone out of business. The exterior is covered in white aluminum panels. Inside, fleecy clouds have been painted on pale-blue walls.

Before I arrived, I found the property’s purpose somewhat oblique: was it a shrine, a historic site, a mausoleum, a business? In the atrium, I discovered that Paisley Park provides an immediate target for a very particular kind of grief.

I’d bet that $100 VIP tour money that Prince would have hated this. But the man should have had a damn will.