Michael Tsai has pulled together a set of stories and tweets on this evolving story. Worth a scan, lots of links.

This post is full of useful tips, including several different ways to set contact relationships (Ryan is my son, or Jim is my boss, that sort of thing). Really good.

Just in time for Spring (it is snowing like crazy as I write this, but still), Apple has announced a new wave of Apple Watch bands featuring Spring colors and styles.

Follow the link, look at the images. Some nice looking bands.

Amazon.com became the second most valuable publicly listed U.S. company on Tuesday, surpassing Google parent Alphabet Inc for the first time.

These numbers change all the time and we don’t post about it every time they change, but this is significant for Amazon. They only trail Apple at this point.

In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion, making its co-founders — Jan Koum and Brian Acton — very wealthy men. Koum continues to lead the company, but Acton quit earlier this year to start his own foundation. And he isn’t done merely with WhatsApp — in a post on Twitter today, Acton told his followers to delete Facebook.

“It is time,” Acton wrote, adding the hashtag #deletefacebook.

Damn.

The Neve mic preamp is an undisputed audio masterpiece, adding genuine Neve sheen, richness, and thick musical detail to any signal that passes through it. The pinnacle of Neve preamp design is the classic 1073 module with EQ, but Neve also briefly produced the 1290 module — a rare, preamp-only version of the 1073.

Now, you can get the clarity, grit, and harmonically complex class‑A saturation of this amazing mic preamplifier in a simple two-knob plug-in that’s perfect for UA Audio Interface owners.

This release is huge. Being able to put the Neve Preamp into your chain using Universal Audio’s Unison technology will change the way your music sounds. There is a video and some sound clips on the UA Web site that you should listen to when you get a chance.

MacStories:

Today, The Iconfactory released a major update to its iPad sketching app, Linea. Version 2.0, which has been renamed Linea Sketch, takes what was already one of my favorite Apple Pencil-enabled drawing apps and has extended it with new features that make it more powerful than ever before. Most importantly though, the new features don’t come at the expense of the app’s usability.

Along with the slight name change, the app comes with a bunch of cool features. The Zipline feature would have been a godsend to those of us who had to create D&D maps.

Walton Street Capital purchased the 20,000-square-foot Apple Store, a 35-story office building, and a retail building next door for $370 million in 2017, and is now planning to sell the store and 10,000 square feet of retail space for $175 million while holding on to the office building.

The biggest surprise to me in this story was that Apple didn’t already own the property.

Open Culture:

How does it compare to the blockbuster film? From its first salvo of Wakandan warrior prowess in a cold open set in the 5th century A.D., to its seventies-African-funk-inspired theme song, to a present-day scene in the White House, with a blustery racist army general (played by Stan Lee) who sounds like a member of the current administration, the first episode, above, suggests it will live up to Hudlin’s casting of the character as “an unapologetic African man,” as Todd Steven Burroughs writes at The Root, “openly opposed to white, Western supremacy.”

I haven’t seen the movie yet (our backwoods little local theater hasn’t started showing it yet) so it’s great to be able to watch this animated series.

CBC:

The world’s last male northern white rhino has died, the Kenyan conservancy taking care of it said, leaving only two females of its subspecies alive in the world, although scientists still hope to save it from extinction through in vitro fertilization.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy said it had made the decision with wildlife officials to put down the 45-year-old rhino named Sudan on Monday because of a rapid deterioration in his condition.

Reading this story this morning made me incredibly sad. These are magnificent animals and we are hunting them to extinction. Check out the trailer for an upcoming documentary about Sudan – The Last Male Standing.

Lory Gil, iMore:

Siri’s voice pitch and natural language has improved significantly over the years. But, just like humans, she can sometimes mispronounce a name. You can teach her how to pronounce names correctly. Here’s how.

If you’ve never gone through this exercise, this is well worth your time, a tip updated to the latest and greatest version of iOS.

Charles Arthur, The Overspill:

I wrote a while back about the problems I had with my 2012 retina MacBook Pro, and its strange shutdowns – which I suspected, but couldn’t absolutely prove, were due to the graphics card problem that these models have been known to suffer from: when the discrete graphics card was activated, there was a chance it would go completely off the rails.

Finally it shut down and didn’t seem to want to start.

And:

The only way to absolutely prove that the problem with the computer was the graphics card, of course, was to take it to a Genius Bar. After eventually getting an appointment (the Mac Geniuses are rare, compared to the iPhone/iPad Geniuses), I turned up with the rMBP which I’d left for dead.

If you’ve got a Mac, especially if you are running High Sierra, take a few minutes to read this story.

My hope is that this is specific to Charles’ Apple Store and not a symptom of a much wider problem. And I do take heart in the fact that the store manager wanted feedback, wanted to find the problem with their systems.

But I do think this solution should have been driven from the top, at corporate. APFS is not news.

From the very end:

But anyhow, if your Mac does break down, and you’re on High Sierra, make sure to tell them if you’re on APFS when they come to the diagnostics. And if they tell you that you need to wipe your drive and start again, just make sure to ask them: “are you certain it’s that, or could it be your network drive can’t read the APFS file system on my machine?” It can’t hurt to ask.

Indeed.

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Bluetooth is what your Mac uses to connect to wireless devices like keyboards, mice, trackpads, speakers, and other peripherals. Generally, it’s a reliable technology. At some point however, the chances are you’ll run into difficulty establishing a Bluetooth connection with one or more of your devices.

Most problems can be fixed by unpairing and repairing the Bluetooth device, changing its batteries, rebooting your Mac, or performing an SMC reset. But if none of these methods work, you can always try resetting your Mac’s Bluetooth module. Here’s how to do it in macOS using the hidden Bluetooth Debug menu.

Great tip, well documented.

Vlad Savov, The Verge:

As The Verge’s resident headphones obsessive, I’m not supposed to like the AirPods. My initial reaction upon first seeing them many months ago was to pour scorn on Apple’s designers for crafting a pair of expensive and easy-to-lose cigarette butts. The AirPods were the resurrection of the awful Bluetooth headsets of years past, I thought. But this year, I finally got around to testing a pair of the AirPods for myself, and I finally understand why everyone who owns them loves them.

And:

My wireless-doom scenario is walking into my kitchen, which is so full of metal things that it’s like a Faraday cage, while leaving my music source device in the bedroom: every non-Apple pair of wireless headphones I test becomes unusable in that situation. With the AirPods (and the Beats Solo and Studio 3, which have the same W1 wireless chip) connected to my MacBook Pro, I maintained a pretty decent connection with only minor dropouts in the kitchen.

And:

The design of the AirPods case is a total masterpiece. It’s tiny but holds multiple extra charges for the earphones, and the rounded sides make them irresistible fidget toys. The tension of the case lid is perfect, delivering a satisfying snap when it opens and closes.

Interesting read. Late to the game, but a solid take on both the pros and cons.

Daisuke Wakabayashi, New York Times:

> Arizona officials saw opportunity when Uber and other companies began testing driverless cars a few years ago. Promising to keep oversight light, they invited the companies to test their robotic vehicles on the state’s roads. > > Then on Sunday night, an autonomous car operated by Uber — and with an emergency backup driver behind the wheel — struck and killed a woman on a street in Tempe, Ariz. It was believed to be the first pedestrian death associated with self-driving technology. The company quickly suspended testing in Tempe as well as in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto.

Ugh.

> A preliminary investigation showed that the vehicle was moving around 40 miles per hour when it struck Ms. Herzberg, who was walking with her bicycle on the street. He said it did not appear as though the car had slowed down before impact and that the Uber safety driver had shown no signs of impairment. The weather was clear and dry.

How was this vehicle allowed on the road? Something as big as a person with a bicycle, and slow (the woman was walking her bike) and the autonomous camera system did not see it? Tragic. And more so, because it never should have been allowed to happen.

UPDATE: Hat tip to Loop regular Drew Leavitt for this San Francisco Chronicle article, titled Exclusive: Tempe police chief says early probe shows no fault by Uber. From the article:

> Pushing a bicycle laden with plastic shopping bags, a woman abruptly walked from a center median into a lane of traffic and was struck by a self-driving Uber operating in autonomous mode. > > “The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them,” said Sylvia Moir, police chief in Tempe, Ariz., the location for the first pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car. “His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision.”

Sounds like no driver could have avoided this accident. But:

> Traveling at 38 mph in a 35 mph zone on Sunday night, the Uber self-driving car made no attempt to brake, according to the Police Department’s preliminary investigation.

The car was exceeding the speed limit (barely, true, but the autonomous programming allows this?) and it made no attempt to brake. Which tells me that the system did not detect the pedestrian. Seems to me an autonomous driving system should be able to react in milliseconds. Was this a blind spot in the system?

All this said, I do get that no system is perfect. And that an autonomous system has the chance to be much, much better than the human driver it replaces. But when something like car accidents happen, it makes me feel like a flaw has been exposed, and an opportunity to improve is ours for the taking. Injured in a car crash in Southfield, MI? The car accident lawyers from Mike Morse Injury Law Firm can help.

Victims of such accidents should consider seeking legal assistance from a Detroit personal injury lawyer when filing a claim or a lawsuit. Personal injury lawyers are valuable on the investigation of your claim. They may also consider getting help from a professional Milwaukee car accident lawyer. Looking for personal injury lawyers California? Contact the Johnson Attorneys Group! And those who need emergency towing may consider getting help from 24/7 towing services.

Reuters:

Most Android phones will have to wait until 2019 to duplicate the 3D sensing feature behind Apple’s Face ID security, three major parts producers have told Reuters, handicapping Samsung and others on a technology that is set to be worth billions in revenue over the next few years.

And:

Tech research house Gartner predicts that by 2021, 40 percent of smartphones will be equipped with 3D cameras, which can also be used for so-called augmented reality, or AR, in which digital objects cling tightly to images of the real world.

And:

According to parts manufacturers Viavi Solutions Inc, Finisar Corp and Ams AG, bottlenecks on key parts will mean mass adoption of 3D sensing will not happen until next year, disappointing earlier expectations.

That means that China’s Huawei, Xiaomi and others could be a total of almost two years behind Apple, which launched Face ID with its iPhone X anniversary phone last September.

Supply chain management is a critical part of Apple’s product strategy. The more of its parts and raw materials that Apple can control, the more accurately it can plan for a product’s release and lifecycle.

And if Apple can control an up and coming vital technology, preventing rivals from shipping competing product? That’s a game changer.

Popular Mechanics:

There is an art to a Jeopardy! clue. Its answers-in-search-of-questions exude a certain tone and tenor that’s different from trivia offerings from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, HQ, The Weakest Link, or even a throwback like You Bet Your Life. But the writer’s room is also a factory, one that must churn out 61 clues per episode, which adds up to hundreds of thousands of clues aired during the show’s long run.

Jeopardy! has always been my favorite game show but I never gave the process of the creation of the clues much thought.

This deal was spotted by Loop reader David Kaplan. I tried to find the hole in this logic, but seems like a genuine bargain.

DirecTV is running a limited time offer:

• Prepay for 3 months of DirecTV Now (online access to DirecTV)
• Get a free Apple TV 4K
• Cancel any time

The lowest tier of DirecTV Now costs $35 a month. Prepay that for 3 months, that’s $105, and get yourself access to DirecTV Now for 3 months and get an Apple TV 4K.

Read the fine print. Let me know if you see a flaw in this logic.

As always, caveat emptor.

Tyler Dukes, WRAL, Raleigh, North Carolina, reporting on two unrelated murders:

In March 2017, months after investigations began into both shootings, separate detectives on each case, one day apart, employed an innovative strategy in criminal investigations.

On a satellite image, they drew shapes around the crime scenes, marking the coordinates on the map. Then they convinced a Wake County judge they had enough probable cause to order Google to hand over account identifiers on every single cell phone that crossed the digital cordon during certain times.

And on reactions from defense attorneys and privacy advocates:

They’re mixed on how law enforcement turns to Google’s massive cache of user data, especially without a clear target in mind. And they’re concerned about the potential to snag innocent users, many of whom might not know just how closely the company tracks their every move.

To get a sense of just how much location tracking Google does, check out this Quartz post from last November:

Many people realize that smartphones track their locations. But what if you actively turn off location services, haven’t used any apps, and haven’t even inserted a carrier SIM card?

Even if you take all of those precautions, phones running Android software gather data about your location and send it back to Google when they’re connected to the internet, a Quartz investigation has revealed.

According to this story, and others I’ve read, Google can track your location, even if you take out your SIM card. Amazing.

Read both of these stories. They are riveting and chilling.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is designing and producing its own device displays for the first time, using a secret manufacturing facility near its California headquarters to make small numbers of the screens for testing purposes, according to people familiar with the situation.

The technology giant is making a significant investment in the development of next-generation MicroLED screens, say the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning. MicroLED screens use different light-emitting compounds than the current OLED displays and promise to make future gadgets slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry.

Significant innovation drives device sales. A new, innovative screen technology will bring buyers, hungry for the latest and greatest.

And the “less power-hungry” tag will, presumably, translate to longer battery life, or more power for the CPU.

Smart move on Apple’s part. Reduces dependency on other manufacturers, brings more of the full stack in house, and brings a proprietary, desirable technology into their exclusive control.

I wonder where this river of displays will be built. In the US? Subcontracted out to a manufacturer outside the US?

Open Culture:

Perhaps no one since Thomas Hardy has matched Leonard Cohen in the dogged persistence of literary bleakness.

Cohen’s expressions of despair—and of reverence, defiance, love, hatred, and lust—speak across generations, telling truths few of us confess but, just maybe, everybody knows.

For many, Cohen will be an acquired taste but he’s always been one of my favorite songwriters, right up there with Prince. But where Prince had a love of life and sensuality to it, Cohen would be described as depressing (not by me though). But I still love listening to him.

Open Culture:

For the uninitiated, the warp are the plain vertical threads of a weaving or tapestry, through which the colorful, horizontal weft threads are passed, over and under, on wooden needle-shaped bobbins (or shuttles).

As in the 17th-century, giant looms are strung with white warp threads, in readiness for the threads expert dyers have colored according to the artist’s palette.

This is an amazing video. I’ve seen these kinds of tapestries when I traveled in Europe and always wondered how they were created.

Metro News:

Amateur scientists in Canada have helped researchers discover a new type of northern lights.

The glowing ribbon of purple — and sometimes green — that runs east-west in the night sky has been observed and photographed by aurora borealis chasers for years.

Chris Ratzlaf said Steve was just meant to be a temporary name, but scientists have decided to keep it — only it now stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.

Apparently, Canadian scientists are incredibly unimaginative.

Above Avalon:

After a brief lull, Apple’s R&D expenditures are once again exploding higher. Apple’s 2Q18 financial guidance implies the company will soon report the largest year-over-year increase in quarterly R&D expense in its history. Management is on track to spend $14 billion on R&D in FY2018, nearly double the amount spent on R&D just four years ago. The dramatic rise in Apple R&D expenditures raises questions regarding the company’s product pipeline and whether management’s overall approach to R&D is changing.

Apple’s pace of R&D expenditures is nothing like the company has ever seen. The $14 billion of R&D expense that Apple will spend in FY2018 will be more than the amount Apple spent on R&D from 1998 to 2011.

“Something wicked this way comes…”

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