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.

Reddit thread, with this prompt:

With all the predictions for WWDC, I’ve seen many people say that Apple Music needs to be fixed. Most comments however, never elaborate as to what is actually broken.

As someone who hasn’t really had any problems with the service, I’m curious as to what people think is wrong with it?

Lots of specific suggestions, an ever growing list.

Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider:

Apple did introduce Siri Intents for HomePod, enabling App Extensions to take over the handling of specific requests, such as third-party messaging or list-management apps. You can expect to see an expansion of these Siri Extents for HomePod this year. HomePod shipped with a notable lack of support for features Siri can already handle, including Calendar tasks.

A nit: Calendar was promoted to HomePod in the latest release. Not perfect, but definitely there.

> The fact that HomePod packs a speedy processor and is unconstrained by battery limits means that HomePod could eventually serve as a smart home computer in the background. Both HomePods and Apple TVs could be orchestrated to handle background tasks distributed across your home network.

And:

Additionally, the fact that HomePod has some onboard storage and a fast processor means that Apple could eventually delegate it tasks that are otherwise wasting battery on your mobile device. Imagine if, rather than Photos doing background imaging processing on your phone for face recognition and album creation, all your devices simply synced your photos to iCloud, and your HomePod took advantage of its idle time to process your images in the background. This idle processing capability could even be extended to handling personalized notifications — such as alerting you when special offers become available using a Real Prize Casino promo code — further optimizing the device’s utility without burdening your phone’s battery or performance. The processed results would then seamlessly sync back to iCloud and your devices, ensuring efficient and streamlined operation.

Offloading battery-sucking tasks to the always powered HomePod is an interesting idea.

Daniel’s article is worth reading, some thoughtful speculation.

Andrew O’Hara, Apple Insider, does an excellent job walking through AirPlay 2.

A few nuggets:

There is now a substantially bigger streaming buffer. This helps reduce interruptions due to network issues. In our testing, this was very noticeable. Audio drops were down significantly from the original AirPlay.

And:

There is now tighter sync between devices, which reduces the lag quite a bit in most situations, and lends itself to multi-room audio. There can still be a bit of lag when starting/stopping a stream, but it is definitely less than in the past.

And:

Apple TV is also AirPlay 2 ready now, so during any playing video a swipe down from the top brings down the info bar. Swiping to Audio shows any AirPlay 2 speakers that can be streamed to. If on the home screen, a long hold of the play/pause button will also bring up the AirPlay controls.

Also worth checking out is Apple’s updated list of AirPlay 2 compatible speakers, found on Apple’s Home Accessories page (tap Speakers).

Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:

Following the update of Apple’s official WWDC app for iOS, the unofficial app for macOS has been updated to version 6. WWDC for macOS allows both attendees and non-attendees to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, which starts next week in San Jose, to access live-streams, videos, and session information during the conference and as a year-round developer resource.

Another very useful feature of the app is the ability to stream live videos and recorded sessions to Chromecast devices.

If you are at all interested in WWDC, this is an incredible resource. Download the app, or access the source code (it’s open source) on the official product page.

Bravo, Guilherme.

Digg:

“So here’s how it’s going to go: I’m going to jab this spear at your face over and over again and you’re going to dodge it and we’re not going to mess this up, right?”

Damn. One wrong move and someone is shishkabob.

Susan Bennett is featured in the latest episode of the video podcast, People in America. Here’s the iTunes link.

Most interesting tidbit? Susan did all her voicework for Siri in 2005, but Siri wasn’t really mainstream until it was integrated into iPhone OS (now iOS) in 2011 and she was unaware that her original voicework was going to be used for Siri. Fascinating.

Nice read, full of fascinating detail.

First came the slow embrace, as Apple Watches started appearing on players’ and managers’ wrists in a variety of sports. As the Apple Watch gained in popularity, the pushback started, as people figured out the potential for cheating.

See also, Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watches to Steal Signs Against Yankees.

Scandalous!