Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook has called for stronger privacy regulations that prevent the misuse of data in the light of the controversial leak of Facebook user information.

Cook called for “well-crafted” regulations that prevent the information of users being put together and applied in new ways without their knowledge during a session on global inequality at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday.

Two quotes from Tim:

“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary,” Cook said after being asked if the use of data should be restricted in light of the Facebook incident. “The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist.”

And:

“We’ve worried for a number of years that people in many countries were giving up data probably without knowing fully what they were doing and that these detailed profiles that were being built of them, that one day something would occur and people would be incredibly offended by what had been done without them being aware of it,” he said. “Unfortunately that prediction has come true more than once.”

John Koblin, New York Times:

Known for its bold designs and its big marketing campaigns, Apple relishes its status as a dominant force in the corporate world. So it was noteworthy when one of its executives, Eddy Cue, struck a note of humility during a discussion this month at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Tex.

“We don’t know anything about making television,” said Mr. Cue, a senior vice president who oversees the team in charge of the company’s original programming initiative. “So what skills does Apple bring to that? And the viewpoint is: very little. There’s other things we bring. We know how to create apps, we know how to do distribution, we know how to market. But we don’t really know how to create shows.”

And:

Since October, Apple has made deals for 12 projects, nine of them “straight-to-series” orders — an aggressive method of creating new programming that skips the pilot-episode stage.

When Apple began courting producers last year, it said it had a budget of about $1 billion to work with. Now it is becoming clear that the company will blow well past that figure.

And some numbers:

With the rise of streaming, the old Hollywood system is cracking. With plans to spend up to $8 billion on content in 2018, Netflix has committed to a strategy of offering something for everyone, and other companies have been tempted to try their luck in an increasingly crowded field. There were 487 scripted shows released last year, a number that will rise to more than 500 in 2018.

Apple recognizes the importance of playing in this space, recognizes the opportunity that comes from a major business model in transition. They’ve got the cash to aggressively move in, creating content on the fly. There will certainly be mistakes along the way, but this is a new frontier and Apple will learn by doing. I think this is smart, long term thinking.

I think this headline will defy Betteridge’s law and the answer will be yes.

Film festival head Theirry Fremaux, on allowing two Netflix films in the Palme d’Or competition last year:

“Last year, when we selected these two films, I thought I could convince Netflix to release them in cinemas. I was presumptuous, they refused.”

And:

At the time, Netflix tried to secure temporary permits to screen the films for less than a week in France, day-and-date to their online releases. That move wasn’t permitted because of France’s strict chronology laws and the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement.

As a result, the festival has changed the rules to require theatrical release in France.

And:

“We have to take into account the existence of these powerful new players: Amazon, Netflix and maybe soon Apple.”

The film industry is changing rapidly. The movie Unsane is in theaters right now. It was filmed exclusively using iPhones, no film cameras involved.

Netflix is being barred from Cannes competition because they do not show their films in theaters. Why not prohibit Unsane because it was not truly “filmed”? To me, this move shows Cannes as a purist, for sure, but also shows Cannes as a festival rooted in the past.

Open Culture:

Ray Ellis had a six-decade career as a producer, arranger, and jazz composer. And while he’s best known for arranging music for Billie Holiday’s Lady in Satin (1958), he also enjoyed a long career orchestrating music for television. Working under a pseudonym “Yvette Blais” (his wife’s name), Ellis composed background music for the cartoon studio Filmation between 1968 and 1982. And, during the late 60s, he notably created the background and incidental music for the original Spider-Man cartoons.

If you watch/listen to this, I guarantee you’ll be singing the theme song for the rest of the day.

Emojipedia:

In a submission to the Unicode Consortium today, Apple has proposed a suite of new “accessibility emojis”.

New emojis proposed include a guide dog, hearing aid, prosthetic limbs, as well as people using canes and different types of wheelchairs.

Here’s a link to Apple’s actual Unicode proposal with all the details.

Love that Apple thinks this way, that accessibility support is so ingrained in the culture.

RadioTimes:

“Right now, music streaming is a utility,” Iovine says. “All the services are exactly the same, they do the same trick. If one of them lowered their price the rest are toast, because there’s no unique offering.”

He suggests that Apple Music will have to look at the frontrunner in the film and TV streaming game, Netflix, and try to replicate its model in order to scale in any meaningful way.

And:

“Netflix has tons of original catalogue, six billion dollars worth of original content every year. That’s a value. All of the [music] streaming services have exactly the same catalogue and exactly the same music. And that’s partially due to the labels; they want it that way. But it’s not smart, and it will show in the end. Unless the streaming services become platforms and have something unique about them, they will not scale. Period.”

And:

“When Shawn Fanning started [music sharing site] Napster, he said, ‘I want to trade songs’,” Iovine says. “He didn’t say, ‘I want to destroy the record business’. So, right now, what engineers are saying – because I work with a lot of them – they’re saying, ‘This bit of communication between artist and audience is still flawed.”

Reading this article, I felt a great sense of deja vu. The reference to The Defiant Ones as new had me searching for a date, sure that this was an old interview. But this was posted yesterday, and Jimmy does point out moving to a consulting gig at Apple, which is certainly current news.

No matter, I thought Iovine’s comments are insightful. Apple clearly sees the value in a music business social network, having tried any number of kicks at the can with no big wins. But I’d like to see them try this again, both because I would love a more powerful way to share music, and because I know if Apple finally gets social right, that solution will respect my privacy.

I absolutely love this long piece by MacStories own Federico Viticci. Federico explores an important Apple theme, that Apple products are much more than the sum of their parts, that the surrounding ecosystem is the rising tide that lifts all boats. The ecosystem makes each Apple product easier to use, adds value to each product.

Here’s one quote about AirPods and the potential of Apple-branded over-ear headphones that, to me, really brings this point home:

For me, the best headphones aren’t necessarily the ones that sound “the best”. Sure, there is a time and place for sitting down, putting on a great pair of quality over-ear headphones, and just listening to music. I still do this with the H6 and Momentum Wireless, and it’s exactly why I hope Apple is indeed working on their own over-ear headphones. But over time I’ve realized that the absolute best sound reproduction isn’t my priority. Simplicity, reliability, and fast access to audio in my ears is what I’m looking for.

This really clicks for me. It’s why I don’t get too wrapped around the axle when Siri doesn’t quite get my intent. There’s so much value simply having the ability to do the things that Siri does well, that I am OK working around the things that Siri has not yet mastered.

Great job by Federico. Read the whole thing, see if you don’t agree.

Andrew Orr, MacObserver:

We’ve shared plenty of tips on how to delete Facebook, remove third-party apps, control privacy settings, and delete bulk content. But what if you want to go even further? It turns out we can, and we can block Facebook completely by editing the hosts file.

In this guide we’ll be adding Facebook-owned domains to the hosts file, which will block them from our system. This is important because even if you deleted your Facebook account, Facebook can still track you around the web like Google does via its advertising platform.

This whole Facebook thing really has me torn. Personally, I was never a fan, at best a reluctant user. But I do get the benefit of reconnecting with old friends, that sort of thing.

But what I really hate is how deeply Facebook has embedded itself into the details of people’s personal data. So much so, that it has become almost impossible for the average person to extricate themselves from Facebook’s clutches.

Read the linked article, which walks you through one way of eliminating Facebook from your Mac. I’m not recommending this path. I don’t like any solution that has you disable a critical part of your Mac’s security infrastructure (in this case SIP). And, as is pointed out for iOS, and as Kirk McElhearn points out is possible for the Mac as well, you can use an ad blocker to achieve a similar end.

I take no fault with Andrew’s article. I’m using it as an example to point out how inexorably tied we’ve all become to Facebook.

What I’d like is a switch that let me remove myself from Facebook’s databases entirely, a do-not-track setting that Facebook would be required to respect. Fat chance of that happening.

Follow the headline link, check out the neon signage. I think it’s gorgeous.

The new Shinjuku Apple Store is incredibly well placed. It’s just blocks from Shinjuku Station, by far the world’s busiest transport hub. My 2 cents, this will be one of the most successful Apple Stores in the world.

I also love the neon-themed video Apple built to promote the store. It’s embedded below. Enjoy.

David Streitfeld, New York Times:

> He leans over a scale model of the 59-acre site, which is named Willow Village. “There will be housing there,” he points. “There will be a retail street along here, with a grocery store and a drugstore. That round building in the corner? Maybe a cultural center.”

The “he” in this quote is Facebook’s VP of Real Estate, John Tenanes.

> Willow Village will be wedged between the Menlo Park neighborhood of Belle Haven and the city of East Palo Alto, both heavily Hispanic communities that are among Silicon Valley’s poorest. Facebook is planning 1,500 apartments, each with a personal solarium, and has agreed with Menlo Park to offer 225 of them at below-market rates. The most likely tenants of the full-price units are Facebook employees, who already receive a five-figure bonus if they live near the office.

And then there’s Google:

> The search company plans a 600,000-square-foot office building with a roof that melts up into soft peaks, kind of like a meringue. It will have stores, cafes, gardens and even a space for theatrical performances, as well as a place for consumers to test-drive new Google technology.

They’re calling them Zucktown and Alphabet City. This the future of tech?

Film School Rejects:

Soderbergh and Baker might be the highest profile directors to turn to cellular devices for feature films, but there are plenty of independent filmmakers turning to the format.

The iPhone is a great tool for filmmakers – but it must be used by someone who understands how to create an engaging movie. I love the last line – “Pick up your phone and share your story, there are people who want to see it.” That’s true – but only if it is a good story to begin with, regardless of the tool you use to tell the story.

TechCrunch:

The launch of Fortnite, especially, resonates across the larger gaming spectrum in several unique ways. It’s the full and complete game as present on consoles, it’s iOS-first and it supports cross-platform play with console and PC players.

In addition, there are some technical advantages that keep Apple ahead of Android in this arena. Plenty of Android devices are very performant and capable in individual ways, but Apple has a deep holistic grasp of its hardware that allows it to push platform advantages in introducing new frameworks like ARKit.

Those of us old enough to remember the bad old days know that Apple had a reputation at times for not being very “gamer friendly”, whether it was towards gamers themselves or game developers. Steve Jobs was famously apathetic and dismissive of the Mac as a gaming platform. But the iPhone has changed all of that.

AdWeek:

Apple’s short film “Welcome Home,” directed by Spike Jonze and starring FKA twigs as a beleaguered city dweller whose drab apartment becomes a colorful, shape-shifting oasis thanks to her HomePod device, is easily one of 2018’s most captivating ads so far.

Now, we get a behind-the-scenes look at the film, which not only answers all of our questions about how it was made—it might just be the most engaging, comprehensive and flat-out best BTS video we’ve seen for an advertisement.

We posted about this new HomePod ad a few weeks ago. I think this behind the scenes video is even more interesting than the ad itself.

Ryne Hager, Android Police:

The touchscreen on your phone is the primary way you interact with it, so it absolutely needs to work. That makes problems like so-called “dead zones” or ignored/unregistered inputs among the most annoying out there. Based on reports, many are running into those types of touchscreen input problems with Samsung’s Galaxy S9+.

It’s tough to tell precisely how common the problem might be. Few users are as apt to report issues as Pixel-purchasers, so we can’t quite compare things against our coverage for Google’s hardware. But from what we have seen in places like Reddit, it’s reasonably widespread.

Yikes.

From this Reddit thread:

Take a screenshot or picture of your AirPods serial number. You can’t replace any parts without it.

Do this when you first get them!!

You can take a picture of the box or a screenshot from Settings > General > About > AirPods so that Apple can pull up the serial number.

If you lose the case and don’t have the serial number anywhere, you can’t even replace the case without it.

First things first, I do think it’s worth taking a screenshot of your AirPods serial number. It’s not that you can’t recover it if you lose, say, the case, but it will save you the hassle of hunting it down later.

I also think it’s interesting that the serial number only appears when you are connected to a device. So if you run out of power and lose your case, having the serial number on a screen shot will make replacing that case a bit easier.

I do believe that you can use anyone’s case to charge your AirPods. So if you lose your case, borrow one (from an Apple Store if need be) and charge up, then connect to your iPhone and look up the serial number.

All that said, here’s how to bring that serial number up on your iPhone:

• Go to Settings > General > About
• Notice that, if your AirPods are not connected, there’s no line for AirPods
• Connect your AirPods. The AirPods line should appear in the About list.
• Tap AirPods

That’s it. In addition to the Serial Number, you’ll also see the Model Number, Firmware Version, and Hardware Version. Take a screenshot, save it in Photos.

Epic Games, from their press release:

Epic Games today unveiled “Siren,” a high-fidelity, full performance character driven in real-time. Recreating the subtle intricacies of movement can be the difference between a realistic digital recreation and a trip into the uncanny valley, so Epic enlisted the real-time capture abilities of its partner Vicon, the industry leader in motion capture, to bring this project to life. According to expert reviews on meilleur casino en ligne Français, the application of such advanced technology in gaming can significantly enhance user experience, making virtual interactions more immersive and lifelike.

Siren is not simply a rendered character. Instead, she’s driven in real time:

Unreal Engine using Vicon’s new Live Link plugin. On a second screen, the Siren character – created using the likeness of Chinese actress Bingjie Jiang – moved in sync, driven in-engine at 60 frames per second.

Watch the video below. This is a step across the uncanny valley. To me, this is the future. I suspect, over time, we’ll see hyperrealistic avatars popping up in day-to-day interactions. For example, you might contact customer service, and have this avatar appear, driven by a complex script, backed up by a human.

As I said, watch the video, see what you think.

Obviously, this requires an iPhone X, but if you have or plan to get one, this is worth knowing.

The Guardian:

Churchgoers will no longer have to fumble in their pockets and purses for loose change or notes as the Church of England introduces contactless payment terminals in more than 16,000 churches, cathedrals and other religious sites.

Contactless payments have been on trial in 40 Anglican churches since last summer, and from Tuesday they will be extended to all dioceses with the aim of making donations easier and faster. Congregations will also be able to donate via text message.

Fascinating. And inevitable.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

The heart rate monitors built into the Apple Watch and other wearable devices can detect abnormal heart rhythms with 97 percent accuracy, according to a new study conducted by the team behind the Cardiogram app for Apple Watch in conjunction with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

More than 139 million heart rate and step count measurements were collected from 9,750 users of the Cardiogram app who also enrolled in the UC San Francisco Health eHeart Study, with the data used to train DeepHeart, Cardiogram’s deep neural network.

This is a perfect use case for machine learning. Tons of available data, combined with a simple tag. Simple? Read this:

Once trained, DeepHeart was able to read heart rate data collected by wearables, distinguishing between normal heart rhythm and atrial fibrillation with a 97 percent accuracy rate, both when testing UCSF patients with known heart issues and Cardiogram participants.

Basically, DeepHeart plows through a ton of data and gets very good at identifying a heart’s rhythm as either normal or atrial fibrillation. The first phase of machine learning is training, where you hand the model a ton of data, each identified with the proper tag. After all the data is entered, a successful model will be able to identify new data with a high degree of accuracy. 97% is an incredibly good result.

Atrial fibrillation often goes undiagnosed, which is where the Apple Watch and other wearables can help. The Apple Watch won’t replace a traditional EKG, but it can alert people to a problem much earlier than it might otherwise be detected.

This tech will help save lives.

TechCrunch:

At Apple, design is the driving force, with manufacturing and engineering fully dialed in to support that vision. In practice, that means that Apple’s designers make choices nobody else would be able to make.

For example, when designing the new unibody Macbook Pro, Apple’s designers had a very specific design in mind. In almost every other company, the design team would have been told by the manufacturing team that what they wanted to do wouldn’t be possible. Here’s what manufacturing would say: “The only way to accomplish what you’ve designed is to use a CNC mill. That doesn’t scale! We would need thousands of the damn things!” At Apple, with its mountain of cash, that turns out not to be a limiting factor. If the designers want something, they’ll have it, even if that means buying 10,000 CNC mills to scale manufacturing or buying the entire output of a laser-drilling manufacturer (and later buying the whole company), because Apple needed the entire world’s supply of that particular type of laser.

No other manufacturer would even think to do that — it is a ludicrously over-engineered solution to a simple problem.

It’s good to be the king. Apple makes design and engineering choices that other companies wouldn’t even imagine doing.

Apple VP Greg Joswiak:

“We bring a very homogenous customer base to developers where 90% of [devices] are on the current versions of iOS,” says Joswiak. Apple’s customers embrace those changes and updates quickly, he says, and this allows developers to target new features and the full capabilities of the devices more quickly.

That is such an important point for Apple—its customers update hardware and software quickly, which allows developers to take advantage of new APIs and technologies in their apps. That, in turn, leads to more sales for developers and Apple, all while keeping the customers happy and engaged.

While Iovine was the public face of Apple Music and held meetings with employees and artists in Los Angeles, in recent years “most of Apple Music’s operations” had been designated to Robert Kondrk and Jeff Robbin, overseeing business and engineering sides respectively. Cue is said to now be deciding on whether to continue divvying up responsibilities between Kondrk and Robbin, promoting one to a more public role, or hiring someone outside of Apple to become the new Iovine.

I’m not really surprised with the move, whether it’s Jimmy or Apple that made the decision. Jeff Robbin is a trusted and longtime Apple employee that already has a lot of responsibility in Apple’s media business, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Eddy Cue lean on him a bit more.

Slash Film:

When George Lucas was off at film school at the University of Southern California, he was exposed to all manner of film, from the mainstream to the experimental. One of the films that made the most profound impact on him was a short film from Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett called 21-87. Clocking in at just over nine-minutes, the film might superficially seem to be a random collage of images and sounds, but these juxtapositions chosen by the filmmaker add up to create an overwhelming sense of emotion that is sure to cause deep, existential questions in viewers.

I’ve never heard of this short film but luckily, it’s embedded in the linked post.

Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac:

Software architect Andrew Faden hacked together a line-in and Bluetooth input for HomePod called BabelPod. Based around a $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W and a few other essential parts, Faden created a clever workaround that affords both indirect Bluetooth and line-in connectivity for Apple’s recently-launched wireless speaker.

Faden also had to write the software to take a line-in or Bluetooth connection and translate it into an AirPlay stream that the HomePod can understand.

This is a terrifically clever idea. Seemed only a matter of time until someone came up with this sort of solution.

On last week’s “HomePod One Month Later” Vector podcast, Rene Ritchie and I discussed Apple’s rationale for not shipping HomePod with a line-in port or generic Bluetooth support. Rene made the excellent point that if Apple did support those, the early HomePod reviews would have been based on the performance of external devices upon which they had no control. Fascinating point and one I agree with.

Here’s a link to Andrew Faden’s BabelPod page. Lots of detail in case you want to make your own.

Nice find from Andrew Leavitt of 17 Orbits. Just in time for Apple’s March 27th Education Event, here’s Steve Jobs talking about education.

Interesting video, filmed from a projected image. Not clear when this was made, but I’d guess this is around 1999 or so, given the presence of the clamshell iBook, which was released that summer.