Apple announced lots of exciting new features for the coming watchOS 5 (available this Fall).

I have to say, I was delighted by Walkie Talkie, the watch to watch communication mechanism. It appeals to the kid in me. Brought back memories of camping out and late night whispered walkie-talkie conversations, as well as road trips where we used walkie-talkies to communicate between cars. If you’ve never experienced walkie-talkies, this is not the same as making a phone call. It’s more instantaneous and, to me, more fun.

I also love the progress Apple made on the Siri watch face:

Using machine learning, the updated Siri watch face on Apple Watch is an even better personal assistant. It now offers more predictive and proactive shortcuts throughout the day based on routines, locations and information such as heart rate after a workout, commute time with Maps at the appropriate time of day or sports scores for a favorite team. The Siri watch face will also show actionable content from favorite third-party apps such as Nike+ Run Club, Glow Baby and Mobike.

The ability to create your own Siri Shortcuts and tie them to a complication on your Apple Watch is no small thing. Not exactly sure how Automator, and then Workflow, fits in to Shortcuts, but I’m guessing this is a rebranding and that Shortcuts is the new name for all of this automation. Please ping me if you know the backstory/details.

As to the Apple Watch Pride band, check out the video embedded in this tweet (tap the tweet to see it):

Stream Apple Music with just your watch. Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular. Pride Edition Woven Nylon band now available.

— Apple (@Apple) June 4, 2018

So much richness in this keynote.

Read all about it in Apple’s official Mojave press release.

The new Mac App Store is a wonderful redesign, a thoughtful follow-on to the completely redesigned iOS App Store.

Mojave Dark Mode really pops, as does the new Dark Mode version of Xcode. All of this design progress, combined with the announcement of a process for quickly porting iOS apps to the Mac expected for developer release at next year’s WWDC, really makes me hopeful for a rebirth of the Mac.

I look forward to Apple getting out in front of the butterfly keyboard issue, and to the official release of a new generation of MacBooks and MacBooks Pro. Oh yeah, and how about some hints on the functional approach and timing of that new Mac Pro.

Apple:

This year’s award winners include developers from across the globe, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, India, Netherlands, Turkey and the US.

Congratulations to all the winners. Make sure you tap those side arrows in each category as to see all the winners.

Apple:

> Today Apple delivered a Health Records API for developers and researchers to create an ecosystem of apps that use health record data to better manage medications, nutrition plans, diagnosed diseases and more. The Health Records feature allows patients of more than 500 hospitals and clinics to access medical information from various institutions organized into one view on their iPhone. For the first time, consumers will be able to share medical records from multiple hospitals with their favorite trusted apps, helping them improve their overall health, while there are other alternatives like evidence-based therapy which can also help with health as well.

As health technology continues to advance, integrating artificial intelligence into health assessments offers promising enhancements to personalized care. AI-driven tools can analyze vast amounts of health data to provide more accurate and individualized recommendations. These technologies can help users understand their health metrics better, identify potential issues earlier, and tailor wellness strategies to their specific needs.

Buoy Health exemplifies how AI can revolutionize self-assessment by combining data from multiple sources to deliver a holistic view of one’s health. This integration of AI with health records enables users to track their health trends over time, receive tailored recommendations, and make informed decisions about their wellness. By leveraging data from the Health Records API, AI can offer insights that are not only comprehensive but also actionable, ensuring that users receive guidance that is both relevant and timely.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Title II, “requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers”. The goal is to make it easy for you to access all your health care records, for you to be in control. As is, it doesn’t feel that way to me. I couldn’t tell you how to access my health care records without contacting my doctor. Meanwhile, patients with questions about health insurance can find answers on websites like https://boomerbenefits.com/faq/what-to-expect-from-your-welcome-to-medicare-visit/.

To me, this API is an incredibly important step towards that goal. Imagine having your records in your control, always accessible, sharable with any doctor you visit. Then, also have a look at luxury hospital beds for a comfortable recovery journey at home.

Add to that the emergence of new healthcare websites like eumeds.com that help you manage your health care, and help minimize the chance of mistakes with your meds.

These are Apple’s hand-picked highlight photos. Two stand out for me.

First, there’s Kelsey Peterson showing off her Memoji skills. I think Memoji are well done, capture that certain Apple design something that will sell a lot of iPhone X’s and then help sell the next wave of Face ID-enabled devices.

Second, there’s LEGO’s director of innovation, Martin Sanders, walking through Lego AR City. I thought this was a powerful demonstration of the possibilities of ARKit 2, showing how a real-world product like Lego can be tightly linked to the virtual world of AR, with the potential for product sales on both sides. Buy the Lego set, then buy addons in the virtual world to greatly enhance the experience.

My thanks to Bare Bones Software for sponsoring The Loop this week. As it happens, BBEdit was launched during the 6th WWDC. After 25 years, it’s good to know you can always count on BBEdit!

For the last 25 years, Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit has made getting work done easier (and faster!) for people who write, app developers, web developers and system admins.

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.

To celebrate BBEdit’s 25th Anniversary, Bare Bones Software is creating commemorative apparel. Learn more!

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

Six Colors:

While it may have seemed like Apple went deep into its upcoming platform updates, there’s only so much time the company can spend onstage, so by necessity, not everything makes the cut.

So I always like to comb through Apple’s product web pages to turn up interesting tidbits and features that the company didn’t talk about during its keynote presentation. So here’s my pretty thorough list of features Apple mentions on its website for these platform updates.

There’s some interesting little tidbits here.

Mac Observer:

At WWDC on Monday Apple announced and subsequently released macOS Mojave 10.14 developer beta. Unlike High Sierra, though, this update does not run on all the same Macs that the previous/current version does, with 2011-and-earlier Macs being left behind.

Unsurprisingly, some older Macs will get left behind when macOS Mojave 10.14 is released.

Apple:

Here’s what we announced.

Next up comes the dissection of the keynote.

Apple:

Announcing upgraded operating systems for iPhone and iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. We’ve packed them with new features and experiences, so with a simple update this fall all your devices will feel more powerful, personal, and fun than ever.

The WWDC 2018 Keynote is just over. Apple has updated their web site with some of the news that was announced and the replay of the keynote will be posted shortly.

New York Times:

As Facebook sought to become the world’s dominant social media service, it struck agreements allowing phone and other device makers access to vast amounts of its users’ personal information.

Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers — including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung — over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, company officials said.

And:

Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users’ friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders. Some device makers could retrieve personal information even from users’ friends who believed they had barred any sharing, The New York Times found.

And in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica furor:

Facebook’s leaders said that the kind of access exploited by Cambridge in 2014 was cut off by the next year, when Facebook prohibited developers from collecting information from users’ friends. But the company officials did not disclose that Facebook had exempted the makers of cellphones, tablets and other hardware from such restrictions.

And:

Some device partners can retrieve Facebook users’ relationship status, religion, political leaning and upcoming events, among other data. Tests by The Times showed that the partners requested and received data in the same way other third parties did.

Read the Times article. Then read this response from Facebook, titled Why We Disagree with The New York Times:

Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go. These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences. Partners could not integrate the user’s Facebook features with their devices without the user’s permission. And our partnership and engineering teams approved the Facebook experiences these companies built. Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends’ information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends. We are not aware of any abuse by these companies.

This is very different from the public APIs used by third-party developers, like Aleksandr Kogan. These third-party developers were not allowed to offer versions of Facebook to people and, instead, used the Facebook information people shared with them to build completely new experiences.

This is complicated. And if the Cambridge Analytica story had not happened, we might not even be discussing this.

It all comes down to trust. Do you trust Facebook with your data? If not, can they do anything to earn that trust back?

And one more bit, this Reddit thread (H/T Marlin Clark) asking, Is Facebook listening through your smartphone microphone?

I know this seems crazy, but read the article linked at the top of the post and ask around. There are a lot of examples of people reporting this. I’m skeptical, but there are a lot of these out there.

Jason Snell, Tom’s Guide:

You might have heard that Apple is holding a big event soon — its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, or WWDC, in San Jose, Calif. And yes, there will be numerous announcements at a keynote address given on Monday morning (June 4) to open the event. But if you’re not an Apple developer (and you probably aren’t), what does the event mean for you?

First things first, Jason Snell has really made me a regular reader of Tom’s Guide.

That aside, this is interesting, a non-developer’s take on the conference.

National Post:

A driver looking at an Apple Watch while stopped at a traffic light is still guilty of breaking Ontario’s distracted driving law, despite the trendy device’s new technology and her claim she was only checking the time.

And:

Victoria Ambrose was stopped at a red light on South Ring Road in Guelph in April when a University of Guelph police officer, beside her in his cruiser, noticed the glow of an electronic device. The officer testified he saw her looking up and down about four times, court heard.

Interesting. I don’t buy the argument that she was only checking the time. That just takes a wrist raise and a glance, no more time than any other watch.

Surprised this doesn’t happen more often.

Bloomberg:

> For Microsoft Corp., acquiring GitHub Inc. would be both a return to the company’s earliest roots and a sharp turnaround from where it was a decade ago. > > The software maker has agreed to acquire GitHub, the code-repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. As for developers, they can expand their knowledge by reading blogs like migrate .net framework to .net core because it enables them to build cross-platform applications, improve performance, and take advantage of the latest features and updates, ensuring their projects remain modern, scalable, and secure.

Interesting that GitHub would choose this route over going public.

Lots of talk over the weekend over concerns with Microsoft having access to all the world’s source code. Doesn’t concern me. I password protect my private archives and trust GitHub to protect my privacy. I’ve got no reason to think that Microsoft will value that privacy any less.

This deal makes a ton of sense to me. I believe Microsoft have some of the most active and largest GitHub repositories on the planet. They know the value of GitHub, they probably have some solid ideas on tweaks to make it more useful for developers, and it makes good revenue as a business. Seems a smart move.

UPDATE: Here’s the official Microsoft announcement [H/T setteBIT].

> Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. Subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

The New York Times:

You’re probably familiar with those sweeping, romantic shots of the pyramids of Giza. In photos, movies and textbooks, there’s sand as far as the eye can see — and maybe a figure in the distance obscured by haze. It must surely take a train or a bus to get there. At least a camel ride.

Well, for those who have never visited the Pharaonic structures or thought about what may surround them, this might come as a surprise: The pyramids are flanked on three sides by the roads and neighborhoods of Giza, a major city with a population in the millions.

The same goes for the Great Sphinx. A mere quarter-mile or so away sits a Pizza Hut with expansive views of the historic site.

This story is funny/sad. I’ve been to the places described and they really can be disappointing if you’re expecting something much grander. It may no longer be there but when I was at the Great Sphinx ten years ago, there was a “Sphinx Guest House” a literal stone’s throw away. It was really jarring.

Wired:

As Apple’s product manager of automation, he was tasked with finding new and clever ways to for users take tedious and repetitive tasks on the Mac—like organizing a bunch of files at once or resizing massive groups of photos—and write small bits of code to complete those tasks quickly.

“No, you’re wrong,” Soghoian told the notoriously brutal CEO. Jobs fired back: “And you are?”

“I’m Sal Soghoian, and you’re wrong. My technology is better than Windows.”

He was the first in the room to challenge Jobs on his accusations. To Soghoian, the CEO’s harsh words were a direct attack on his work. “I sort of saw it as ‘I might be this dog on my square yard of dirt, but I know every bit of that square yard and you’re stepping on my yard,” he says, “‘I’m gonna bite your leg.'”

Sal is an acknowledged legend in the Mac community for his work at Apple but I know him as a friend and a great guy to talk to. I spent a week with him trapped on a cruise ship and he was the only thing that made it tolerable.

After leaving/being forced out of Apple, he has started his own conference program called CMD-D: Masters of Automation Conference. Check it out if you are interested in that aspect of the Mac.

Slate:

In 1976, the Muppets got a show of their own—one for all ages. But no American network had been willing to take a chance on a half-hour show of puppets, and so The Muppet Show was produced in England. The last season aired in 1981, and Jim Henson died suddenly in 1990. But the Muppets and many of their human performers are still with us. Still, while they’ve returned to movies and television with various degrees of success since Henson’s death, no one’s yet managed to crack the code and find the success the Muppets once had.

I hope kids today enjoy the Muppets as much as many of us did when we were young.

Digital Camera World:

Anyone who makes their living writing about cameras will frequently be asked for buying advice, and, more often than not, the first question that’s put to them is: “shall I buy brand x or brand y?”

It’s a basic question that comes with the expectation of a basic answer, and because of that it can only be so useful. Without any indication of what skill level the photographer is current at or what they intend to photograph, and whether they want a lens that’s permanently embedded within the camera body or the option to change it for another, a straightforward vote for brand x or y will do little more than uncover any brand bias in the person whose opinion is being asked.

Any manufacturer currently producing cameras is making a camera that suits somebody out there.

I get this question all the time from beginners. My answer is, “It doesn’t matter. Buy a camera that fits your budget”. Every manufacturer has really good beginner cameras. Just buy one and learn how to shoot and what kind of photographer you are. Make your next camera more specific as to brand, lenses, features, etc.

The only time I specify a brand is when I ask, “Do you have a friend who is a pro and has lenses you can borrow? Then buy the brand she has.”

Jason Kottke:

One of the recurrent topics here at the ol’ dot org is paying our respects to people who are mind-bendingly good at what they do. Case in point: watch this woman turn a magic scarf into about 100 different pieces of clothing in about 90 seconds. Reader, I audibly gasped at ~0:25 when she turned a scarf into a dress in the blink of an eye.

Jason is not wrong. This is hypnotic. The perfect person to sell these.

Good list. Anything they left out? Leave a comment.

iPhone J.D.:

3D Touch was introduced with the iPhone 6s in September 2015, and also works on the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and the iPhone X (and the Plus variants of those phones). But even though 3D Touch has been around for many years, I talk to many folks who don’t even know that the feature is there. Frankly, I forget about it sometimes too. But there are tons of really useful things that you can do with 3D Touch. Here are a few of my favorites.

3D Touch is, by its nature, only discoverable if you seek it out. Or if you read articles like this one. Short, and worth the scan.

I’m not quoting the Bloomberg article here to avoid spoilers, but follow the headline link if you are interested in a seemingly solid take on what’s coming next week.

Three days until the keynote.

The Japan News:

Canon announced Wednesday it would end sales of its EOS-1v, the last remaining model of film camera that the company has sold in Japan. The company’s film cameras, which symbolize Canon’s old-time roots, will come to the end of their 80-year history.

As Robert Walter put it, this is a sign of the times. To me, this is a domino that is connected to other film cameras, then, eventually, to DSLR cameras as smart phone cameras gain in capability, shrink the market for larger/bulkier cameras.

Not sounding a death knell for DSLRs, just watching the market shrink, squeezing out competitors, triggering consolidation until we just have a one or two players left in the DSLR space.

As is, last year 85% of all photos were taken using smartphones, with only 10.3% taken using traditional digital cameras. If that trend continues, watch for the next domino to fall. Will the next generation know the Nikon/Kodak/Leica brands?

Music Business Worldwide:

Apple has launched a new internal division dedicated to music publishing and music publishers, MBW understands, led by respected exec Elena Segal.

Segal, who was previously Legal Director of iTunes International, is stepping up to become Apple Music’s Global Director of Music Publishing.

And:

MBW hears that the new music publishing team at Apple Music will contain sub-divisions including Operations, Commercial, Publisher Relations and A&R. (The latter refers to assisting the music industry with the development of key songwriters, rather than signing talent directly.)

And from this follow-on post:

A transformation is coming to the way that Apple reports streaming data – both to the industry and to the public via its charts.

And:

The music business has long used Apple’s iTunes download charts as a key barometer of success. Yet it’s fair to say that, in recent years, Spotify’s global and territorial streaming charts have become a more frequent point of reference for labels and artists than Apple Music’s equivalents.

Apple clearly wants to change that.

Interesting. Two sides here: On one side is music publishing. Will this trigger another round of negotiations with Apple Records or does the current deal allow for an Apple music publishing arm?

Will Apple connect their music publishing with their in-the-works video content publishing? Will there be an all-you-can-eat deal, so i can pay one price and get all the music, as well as all the video content?

The other side: The way I read these posts, as well as Apple’s help wanted ad for a Charts & Market Analytics Manager, Apple is modernizing their charts and data sharing, perhaps with an aim of taking on some of the gains Spotify has made in this space.

Red Dragon Cartel guitarist Jake E Lee sat down with Charvel to discuss what initially inspired him to want to play guitar (any guesses?) as well as some of his favorite features on his Charvel USA Signature Blue Burst guitar.

I have a lot of respect for Jake and I absolutely love Charvel guitars.

This is pretty clever, both as a product and as a tagline. The AudioMod Qi enabled Battery Case features a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 3200Mah battery.

Price is $88. I’m going to get one, take it for a spin. Good idea.

[H/T Ryan Mark]

The Telegraph:

A teenage girl used Apple’s Find My iPhone app to help her secret boyfriend rescue her from a forced marriage thousands of miles away in Bangladesh.

A court heard her parents tricked her into going on a sham holiday from their home in Leeds, West Yorks, as part of a plot to force her to marry her cousin.

And:

Details of her rescue by British authorities emerged at Leeds Crown Court. They were able locate her after she secretly contacted her boyfriend of eight months in the UK before the wedding took place.

The girl, now 19, used the Find My iPhone app and Instagram locations to secretly alert her boyfriend back in the UK, who she hadn’t told her family about.

Find My iPhone is a huge win for Apple customers. Wondering if someone is, as you read this, pitching this story as a blockbuster movie.

New York Times:

The company’s relationship with the Defense Department since it won a share of the contract for the Maven program, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret video images and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes, has touched off an existential crisis, according to emails and documents reviewed by The Times as well as interviews with about a dozen current and former Google employees.

And:

Executives at DeepMind, an A.I. pioneer based in London that Google acquired in 2014, have said they are completely opposed to military and surveillance work, and employees at the lab have protested the contract. The acquisition agreement between the two companies said DeepMind technology would never be used for military or surveillance purposes.

About a dozen Google employees have resigned over the issue, which was first reported by Gizmodo. One departing engineer petitioned to rename a conference room after Clara Immerwahr, a German chemist who killed herself in 1915 after protesting the use of science in warfare. And “Do the Right Thing” stickers have appeared in Google’s New York City offices, according to company emails viewed by The Times.

And:

Dr. Li said in the email that the final decision would be made by her boss, Diane Greene, the chief executive of Google Cloud. But Dr. Li thought the company should publicize its share of the Maven contract as “a big win for GCP,” Google Cloud Platform.

This is clearly a contentious, divisive topic. Google is a business, has obligations to shareholders, and is watching competitors like Microsoft and Amazon reap the rewards of lucrative Pentagon contracts. Not an easy thing for a business to say no to.

The internal debate over Maven, viewed by both supporters and opponents as opening the door to much bigger defense contracts, generated a petition signed by about 4,000 employees who demanded “a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology.”

Polarizing.