Rajesh Pandey, iPhoneHacks:

Getting the 5.8-inch OLED display of the iPhone X repaired from Apple is an expensive process. With Apple charging hundreds of dollars for a screen replacement if you don’t have Apple Care for your iPhone X, it is not surprising that many people end up getting their screen replaced from a third-party repair store which charges significantly less than Apple.

Is there a downside to using an aftermarket replacement? In the video embedded below Rajesh takes a look at several aftermarket solutions, compared to an official OEM replacement display.

I came away from this video wondering how representative this is. Do all aftermarket displays suffer from these same shortcomings? At the very least, I would definitely do my homework before I went for a 3rd party replacement display.

Ashraf Eassa, The Motley Fool:

Back in 2013, Apple introduced the A7 system on a chip (SoC) as part of its then-flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5s.

The A7 was the first 64-bit ARM processor.

Now, Intel’s chips, at the time, ran at much higher frequencies (in excess of 3 gigahertz), but what the strong per-gigahertz performance of the A7 chip signaled to me was that Apple had built a very impressive base from which to build up in future smartphone chips.

And:

While Apple is great at chip design, it doesn’t manufacture its own chips — it outsources production to third parties. Apple’s A-series chips through the A7 were manufactured exclusively by Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was the exclusive manufacturer of the A8, A10, and A11 chips. TSMC and Samsung reportedly split the orders for the A9.

Both TSMC and Samsung have delivered new manufacturing technologies at a breakneck pace. The performance, power consumption, and economic viability of a chip are determined heavily by the technologies upon which it’s manufactured.

Apple is relentless. As they constantly innovate in chip design, they can take advantage of whatever manufacturing advances bring the most performance advantages for each particular chip generation.

The result:

I believe that when Apple introduces its next iPhone in about four months, it will deliver equal or better CPU performance to Intel’s best notebook processors designed to consume 15 watts but at a fraction of the power consumption.

Amazing.

Daniel Eran Dilger, Apple Insider, takes a look back at past World Wide Developer Conferences and the various technologies Apple revealed. This is not nostalgia, but more an exploration of Apple’s evolving strategies, both in timing and in impact.

One bit in particular:

Recall that several years ago, Android phones essentially had a monopoly on 4G LTE service, a truly compelling and vast jump in data speed over what iPhone 5 could do at the time. That advantage lasted for years, but today is irrelevant.

Qualcomm is now trying to resurrect this in advertising the potential for 1.2Gbit mobile data on its Android chipsets–something that isn’t even available in practice from typical mobile networks. But that marketing hasn’t stopped Apple’s iPhones from being the most popular devices around the world–even with a substantial price premium.

If novel features like voice search and AI were really compelling features that drove significant numbers of buyers to new hardware, Google’s Pixel 2 and Andy Rubin’s Essential phone would not have been total duds. The reality is that mainstream buyers consider factors like longevity, reliability and brand experience, and that gives Apple a reprieve from chasing down every short-term tech fad and brief feature advantage its competitors can offer.

I thought this was a terrific read, start to finish. The WWDC keynote is this coming Monday, June 4th.

The Guardian:

London is to introduce a contactless payment scheme for buskers in what organisers say is a world first.

The project will allow street musicians across London to accept payments via cash, contactless cards, wearable technology and chip and pin.

Launching the scheme, London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said it would allow more Londoners to support the capital’s street performers.

My hometown of Halifax has a yearly “International Busker Festival” so I’m very used to seeing and enjoying buskers. I’ve often wondered what has happened to their revenue with so few of us carrying cash nowadays. This seems like a great idea to help people who want to contribute to a busker.

TekRevue:

Following the path it took with iOS, Apple is preparing to transition macOS to require 64-bit apps. The Mac operating system itself has been 64-bit for years, but has maintained compatibility with 32-bit apps. But that’s going to change soon.

Through the use of a Terminal command, you can configure your Mac to only run 64-bit applications. Any 32-bit apps you have installed on your Mac will still be there, but they’ll simply crash when you try to launch them. The potential issue with enabling 64-bit mode on your Mac is that you (or an otherwise 64-bit app) will end up needing to launch a 32-bit app for whatever reason and it will be unavailable. The good news is that this process is reversible, so if you run into the aforementioned situation, you can always switch back to supporting 32-bit apps.

This is something you might want to do ahead of Apple eventually shutting down access to 32-bit apps. You want to find out what your alternatives are before your forced to.

Vox:

Few horror movies have gripped moviegoers this year quite like A Quiet Place, director John Krasinski’s tale of a world where making too loud a noise will lead to your death at the claws of strange creatures with super-sensitive hearing.

In a movie without much spoken dialogue or loud sound effects, the quiet becomes loud and the loud becomes ear-piercing. It’s a big part of the reason the movie works as well as it does, and much of that is thanks to the work of sound designers Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn.

When I saw the first trailer for this movie, I knew I’d be fascinated by the sound design. I still haven’t seen it but I really enjoyed this article.

Brent Simmons:

Lately I’ve been trying to learn to play delta blues. I’m not ever going to play like Robert Johnson — nobody ever will — but I’d like to learn it as well as I can. Well enough so that, if you like the blues, and you heard me at a coffee shop, you’d enjoy it.

First, Robert Johnson is the most amazing Bluesman I’ve ever listened to in my life. If you talk to any guitarist, the conversation will eventually make its way back to Johnson and what he did. I can attest to Brent’s difficulties with learning the Delta Blues because I’ve tried it before too. I’ve had the pleasure of strumming a few songs with Brent and he’s a great guitarist, but this type of blues is something really special.

“Due to a sharp decline in tourism and visitors to the area, we have made the difficult decision not to extend our lease,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement. “We are offering all of the store’s employees other jobs within Apple and we look forward to serving our Greater Atlantic City customers through our other southern New Jersey, Delaware Valley, and Greater Philadelphia area stores.”

The realities of retail affect everyone.

A special “Decade Collection” range of Beats Headphones are currently being promoted by online retail merchants ahead of scheduled availability on June 4, suggesting Apple will officially announce the collection during its keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

I’ve never been a big fan of Beats—I just don’t think they sound good.

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Ben McCarthy:

Obscura 2 was created from scratch. I threw out every preconception I had with Obscura 1, to rethink what a camera app should be. Design work on O1 originally began not long after the announcement of iOS 7, and since then app design trends have shifted in new directions.

I’ve always found designing a camera app a fascinating set of problems. It’s unlike designing other apps in a number of ways.

I love these “inside baseball” stories of how indie developers go about creating their work. It’s especially satisfying to read something from a developer of an app I really like written in “plain english” so even non-coders can understand it. If you’re a “serious” iPhone photographer, Obscura 2 (affiliate link) is well worth the $5.

According to KIRO 7 News, an Echo Dot recorded the private conversation of a husband and wife in Portland, Oregon and sent it to the husband’s colleague all the way in Seattle. The colleague then called Danielle (the woman involved) and told her to immediately unplug all of her Echo speakers.

WTF?!

Samsung must pay Apple $539 million for infringing five patents with Android phones it sold in 2010 and 2011, a jury has found in a legal fight that dates back seven years.

Good, now pay up.

Obscura is designed to make it fast and easy to capture stunning images. Whether you’re shooting in portrait or landscape, the Control Wheel fits into your hand perfectly. You won’t be fumbling around trying to capture a photo when you’re in a hurry – everything is accessible with one thumb. Finely tuned haptic feedback gives the devices a sense of physicality, so you can feel every adjustment.

This is a great app.

This is a complete waste of time. But I loved every minute of it.

The idea of this game is a game minimalist’s dream. Click and roll your mouse to generate points. Get enough points, wheel over and grab a multiplier or other bonus thingy. All to increase the points you gather with your mad mouse skills.

Eventually, you will win. Works on iOS Safari, but not nearly as free wheeling.

Khoi Vinh, on last year’s App Store redesign:

I myself paid it scant attention until one day this past winter when I realized that the company was commissioning original illustration to accompany its new format. If you check the App Store front page a few times a week, you’ll see a quietly remarkable display of unique art alongside unique stories about apps, games and “content” (movies, TV shows, comics, etc.). To be clear: this isn’t work lifted from the marketing materials created by app publishers. It’s drawings, paintings, photographs, collages and/or animations that have been created expressly for the App Store.

This whole writeup is terrific, but what really struck me was this Pinterest catalog pulled together from screen grabs Khoi took of various App Store pages. Fantastic work on all counts.

And bravo to the App Store team for pulling this off.

Boing Boing:

In 2003 Bill Gates tried to download Microsoft Movie Maker from Microsoft.com. His confusing, frustrating, futile experience prompted him to write a terrifically scorching email to the managers in charge of the project. It starts off pretty mild, with just a hint of the brutally funny sarcasm to come. (“I typed in movie maker. Nothing. So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying – where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist? So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.”) It gets better from there.

Here’s a link to a PDF of the actual email exchange. Start at the bottom with Bill’s email, then work your way up.

I feel your pain, Bill.

Looking for a Mac game? This is a nice resource, with enough of a writeup on each game to give you a sense if it’s your cup of tea.

I can’t praise this essay from Federico Viticci enough. After a long, harrowing bout with cancer, Federico writes about his second life, and a renewed focus on exercise, mindfulness, and gratitude.

There’s not one bit of preachy here. This is personal reflection. Take a few minutes to read it. This really resonates with me. There’s value here.

Apple has signed a deal with Volkswagen to use Volkswagen vans as self-driving shuttles designed to transport employees around its various campuses and office buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area, reports The New York Times.

Apple has been working on developing the shuttle program, called “PAIL” or Palo Alto to Infinite Loop, since last summer. At the time news of Apple’s work on the program first surfaced, the company was said to be planning to install its own self-driving software in a commercial vehicle from an automaker, which has turned out to be Volkswagen.

I never expected Apple to do this. Despite rumors that the company’s program is having problems, Apple must be very confident about its self-driving technology.

Uber Technologies Inc is not shuttering its entire autonomous vehicle program, a spokeswoman said, adding that it will focus on limited testing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and two cities in California. It aims to resume self-driving operations this summer, likely with smaller routes and fewer cars.

I wonder if Uber was having trouble getting its license back after it was suspended by the governor of the state.

In this video, learn how to add parallel compression to drums, even out a bass performance, and bring presence to acoustic guitars with the dbx 160 Compressor/Limiter.

This is one of my favorite plug-ins from UA. This video will show you why.

The Computer History Museum originally posted this back in 2013, but for some reason, this made it all the way to the top spot on Hacker News this morning.

I saw it, found it fascinating (especially since my very first Mac programming experience was with Pascal), and thought you might enjoy this look back at the early days of Photoshop.

Stephen Silver, Apple Insider:

After years of controversies over Consumer Reports’ assessments of Apple products, AppleInsider paid a visit to the organization’s headquarters for an inside look at the testing process.

The whole thing was fascinating, but start things off with a read of this actual Consumer Reports press release, specifically targeted at Apple Insider.

Glad those fences are mended.

Are you still dependent on an older, 32-bit app? If so, the linked how-to from iMore should help. Pretty interesting.

A few weeks ago, we linked to an article that talked you through the process of requesting a copy of the data Apple associates with your AppleID. In a nutshell, that process had you jump through hoops to identify your location, then fill out a form requesting your data.

Apple just made the process both easier and more logical for EU users, and according to this post from Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac, the new process “will roll out worldwide in the coming months”.

No matter your location, follow this link, to privacy.apple.com, and log in with your Apple ID. All users should see options to correct your data and permanently delete your account.

If you don’t see the ability to download your data, check back in periodically. If you are outside the EU and see the download link, please do ping me so I can update this post. And take a look at Benjamin’s article, linked above, to get a sense of what data is being made available.

This is part of the process of complying with GDPR, but I like how front and center Apple has placed the ability to delete your account.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. manufacturing partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has started mass production of next-generation processors for new iPhones launching later this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The processor, likely to be called the A12 chip, will use a 7-nanometer design that can be smaller, faster and more efficient than the 10-nanometer chips in current Apple devices like the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, the people said.

7 nanometers is the next planned design threshold for semiconductor manufacturing, with 5 nanometer designs about 3 years away.

To give a sense of the curve here:

• 2008: 45nm
• 2010: 32nm
• 2012: 22nm
• 2014: 14nm
• 2017: 10nm
• 2018: 7nm
• 2021: 5nm

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Next step smaller? An angstrom is one tenth of a nanometer. So the 7nm threshold we are about to breach is also the 70 angstrom threshold. Tiny.