Alex Horton, Washington Post:

In one of the scariest moments in the movie “Jurassic Park,” a pair of intelligent Velociraptors, brought back to Earth by man’s hubris, defy an assumption about their limitations: They open a kitchen door.

Now imagine that the raptors are real, transformed into headless robot dogs that can negotiate stairs, fling open doors with their robotic claws and generally overcome the puny obstacles offered up by the human technicians at Boston Dynamics.

Normally, I’d ignore or modify the sensational headline of the Post article. But it made me laugh and was (kind of) on point. Last week, we posted this video, showing a dog-like robot opening a door. People really did freak out. A bit.

Well, now there’s a follow-up, where a human tries to stop the robot from opening the same door. I fully expected the robot to grab the guy with its claw and drag him to the ground.

Robots are coming. Do not make them mad.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

The model coming as early as this year will let people summon Apple’s Siri digital assistant without physically tapping the headphones by saying “Hey Siri.” The function will work similarly to how a user activates Siri on an iPhone or a HomePod speaker hands-free. The headphones, internally known as B288, will include an upgraded Apple-designed wireless chip for managing Bluetooth connections. The first AirPods include a chip known as the W1, and Apple released the W2 with the Apple Watch last year.

The idea for the water-resistant model is for the headphones to survive splashes of water and rain, the people said. They likely won’t be designed to be submerged in water. The latest iPhones can survive splashes, while the Apple Watch is considered “swim-proof.” Apple’s plans could change or be delayed, the people said. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Is this enough to make you replace your AirPods with the latest and greatest? What if it came with a wireless charging case that went along with the AirPower wireless charging mat?

These questions aside, what would really drive me to upgrade would be improvements to the audio experience.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Apple has registered new tablets with the Eurasian Economic Commission this week, suggesting that an iPad refresh is likely on the horizon. The filings, uncovered by French website Consomac, are legally required for any devices with encryption sold in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

I buy it, seems a reasonable tree of logic.

Mark Bergen, Bloomberg:

On any given day, there could be a half dozen autonomous cars mapping the same street corner in Silicon Valley. These cars, each from a different company, are all doing the same thing: building high-definition street maps, which may eventually serve as an on-board navigation guide for driverless vehicles.

And:

Autonomous cars require powerful sensors to see and advanced software to think. They especially need up-to-the-minute maps of every conceivable roadway to move. Whoever owns the most detailed and expansive version of these maps that vehicles read will own an asset that could be worth billions.

The motivation for the next maps war is clear. Billions of dollars at stake. This article is a fascinating look at the players and the technological approaches to capturing the next generation of maps.

Just a taste:

The companies working on maps for autonomous vehicles are taking two different approaches. One aims to create complete high-definition maps that will let the driverless cars of the future navigate all on their own; another creates maps piece-by-piece, using sensors in today’s vehicles that will allow cars to gradually automate more and more parts of driving.

And:

These self-driving maps are far more demanding than older digital ones, prompting huge investments across Detroit, Silicon Valley and China. “An autonomous vehicle wants that to be as precise, accurate and up-to-date as possible,” said Bryan Salesky, who leads Argo AI LLC, a year-old startup backed by a $1 billion investment by Ford. The “off-the-shelf solution doesn’t quite exist.”

And:

It’s an expensive ordeal with a payoff that’s years, if not decades, away. “Even if you could drive your own vehicles around and hit every road in the world, how do you update?” asked Dan Galves, a spokesman for Mobileye. “You’d have to send these vehicles around again.”

Unlike conventional digital maps, self-driving maps require almost-constant updates. The slightest variation on the road—a construction zone that pops up overnight, or a bit of debris—could stop a driverless car in its tracks. “It’s the freak thing that happens that’s going to make autonomous not work,” said McNally, the analyst.

Fascinating read.

Above Avalon:

Not too hot. Not too cold. The iPhone is entering a new era that can best be characterized as status quo. The days of huge growth are over, and fundamentals aren’t likely to improve significantly from current levels. However, underlying dynamics found with the iPhone business will likely prevent sales and revenue from dropping precipitously in the near term. We are in the iPhone’s Goldilocks era.

Typical well thought out analysis. Keep this Goldilocks Era idea in mind over the next few cycles. Apple is going to be just fine with iPhone sales, even if they can’t hit the historic heights of years past.

Vogue:

Destinations with a distinct off-season are seeing a growing number of travelers undeterred its periods of poor weather and, in fact, they’re drawn to it. These thrill-seeking travelers are setting out in search of storms—specifically those of the bone-chilling, house-shaking, fire-and-brimstone variety.

The rise of storm tourism has been an unexpected and perhaps counterintuitive phenomenon. When most people plan a vacation, they typically go in search of greener pastures, or at least warmer weather. But more and more places are seeing an uptick in travelers who specifically want to experience big storms at their finest.

I’m not a “storm tourist” – I prefer to be a tourist in warm places like Italy – but there is a real draw, especially from a photography point of view, to these places during storm seasons.

Being from Nova Scotia, we used to love going to Peggy’s Cove during or shortly after a storm to watch the waves crash against the rocks. Tofino, one of the destinations mentioned in the above piece, is relatively close to me. I think we might be making a trip there to see some storms.

Twisted Sifter:

Ekaterina ‘Kate’ Lukasheva is an incredible Origami artist and designer from Moscow, Russia. The artist has had a fascination with puzzles and construction sets since childhood and first discovered origami in her teens. With its intricate folds and geometric patterns, there’s a lot of math in origami and Ekaterina would later graduate with honors from Moscow State Lomonosov University as a mathematician and programmer.

These are stunningly complex and beautiful.

Arturrr:

In early 2017, a conversation with yet another Waze fanboy finally nudged me to start a navigation app experiment. I was skeptical that the Alphabet owned company could meaningfully best its parent’s home grown Google Maps. I was also curious whether Apple Maps had discovered competence since its iOS 6 release.

I thus set out to answer three questions:

• Which navigation app estimates the shortest travel time?
• How does each app over/underestimate travel times?
• Which navigation app actually gets you to your destination most quickly?

Which led to these three conclusions:

• If you want to get to your destination most quickly, use Google Maps.
• If you want an accurate prediction from your navigation app to help you arrive at your destination on time, use Apple Maps.
• If thinking you’ll get to your destination quickly helps to ease your commuter anxiety, use Waze.

Very interesting. Obviously, this is a relatively small sample size. It’d be interesting if there was some way to crowd-source this experiment to come up with a map overlay that showed which solution worked best in a specific area.

World Economic Forum:

Tideglusib works by stimulating stem cells in the pulp of teeth, the source of new dentine. Dentine is the mineralized substance beneath tooth enamel that gets eaten away by tooth decay. Learn more about this innovations with experts from the Eugene Kids Dentist clinic.

If you plan to develop new drugs, you may need to setup a sterile environment to work in. The portable sterile environment units offer an adaptable solution for industries requiring fast setup without compromising on quality. Their versatility makes them indispensable when time-sensitive projects require the utmost cleanliness and control.

The insertion of tooth fillings is one of the most commonly performed procedures by dentists. These materials are used to fill up the holes in your teeth created by cavities. Pentru servicii de protetică dentară, vizitați https://topaltdent.ro/servicii-stomatologice/protetica-dentara/. Fillings have been traditionally made out of metal alloys, but composite fillings are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. Contact an emergency dentist denton if you have urgent concerns about your dental health.

Fillings help to protect teeth that have already been damaged by tooth decay from decaying any further. Once a tooth if filled up, any pain or discomfort associated with the cavity should go away. While silver amalgam fillings are good enough to get the job done, these tend to be more visible in your mouth. Composites, on the other hand, look just like your natural teeth, so people won’t even be able to tell that you have fillings in some of your teeth.

Fillings are also one of the cheapest medical procedures performed. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to go to your dentist immediately if you notice any cavities in your mouth. Once the cavity grows to the point that the pulp chamber is compromised, you’re going to end up spending a lot more than fillings cost to save the tooth. In some cases, if the damage is too extensive, you may even need a more significant procedure, such as full mouth  dental implants Turkeyy, which can be a cost-effective option for those looking to restore their smile when traditional treatments are no longer viable.

Moreover, a good dental clinic will not only focus on fillings and treating existing issues but also emphasize preventive care. This includes education on proper oral hygiene practices, such as brushing and flossing techniques, as well as the importance of a balanced diet for maintaining healthy teeth and gums. By partnering with a skilled dentist henderson nv, you can develop a dental care routine that minimizes the risk of decay and enhances your overall smile. Remember, investing in your dental health today will pay off with a brighter, healthier future.

And:

> The team inserted small, biodegradable sponges made of collagen soaked in Tideglusib into cavities. The sponges triggered dentine growth and within six weeks, the damage was repaired. The collagen structure of the sponges melted away, leaving only the intact tooth.

Hell yes.

[Via The Overspill]

Jean-Louis Gassée:

As a testament to Apple’s place in the pantheon of electronics, reviews for a new product from Cupertino come fast and — often — furious. HomePod, Apple’s contribution to the “smart speaker” genre, exacerbates the venomenon, pardon, phenomenon.

And these three rules for evaluating speakers:

First, we must keep in mind the influence of the room and our position in it, how reflective material can make music sound brittle, how carpets and curtains will deaden the sound — or provide welcome balance for an overly bright room.

Second, all speaker comparisons must be double-blind, where neither the person running the test nor the evaluators know which device is on at the moment.

Third, and most important, output level differences matter. Contestant speakers must be carefully equalized to within 1db, because in any comparison the louder speaker will always sound better.

And on tuning a speaker for a specific room:

How well the device can do this depends on the number of microphones (you need at least two for spatial location) and speakers (the HomePod has seven). In theory, more speakers are better, because it means the device will have more control as it adjusts the balance of sound energy. In reality, the smaller speakers — the tweeters — are the most important; lower frequencies impart little directional information, although the computer can still decide to reduce low frequency output in general if the room “booms” too much.

And:

Put less elegantly, in consumer advertising lore we call early adopters “dogs”: They eagerly snarf any new food. This tells us nothing; we need to wait and see if they come back to the pail.

That process, the spreading of Word-of-Mouth, will be complicated by software updates supposed to appear in the next few months — and for ever after that.

Terrific read, lots more than these few pull quotes.

John Gruber:

iOS 11 finally added a long-awaited feature for those of us who care about typographic details: smart punctuation. You can turn this on in Settings → General → Keyboards. When enabled, quotes and apostrophes (like “this” and ‘this’) are automatically turned into their proper counterparts (like “this” and ‘this’), two hyphens in a row (–) are turned into a proper em-dash (—), etc.

I say “finally” because MacOS has had the feature in the standard text editing system for many years, and I can’t think of a good reason why it wasn’t in iOS years ago.

And:

In some recent update to iOS (I think 11.2.5, but it might have been an earlier 11.2.x update), smart punctuation stopped working in Messages — and as far as I can tell, only Messages. Why? My best guess: unintended consequences when sending SMS messages.

I’m kind of shocked that it took this long for smart punctuation (which has been around in the Mac universe forever) to come to iOS. And that take it out, put it back in again Messages story is an interesting wrinkle.

Tim Cook from this FastCompany interview:

Even when we were idling from a revenue point of view–it was like $6 billion every year–those were some incredibly good years because you could begin to feel the pipeline getting better, and you could see it internally. Externally, people couldn’t see that.

On products like iPhone not being embraced right away:

[People said] it could never work because it didn’t have a physical keyboard. With each of our products there’s that kind of story. Over the long haul, you just have to have faith that the strategy itself leads to [financial results] and not get distracted and focus on them.

On distractions:

The priorities are about saying no to a bunch of great ideas. We can do more things than we used to do because we’re a bit bigger. But in the scheme of things versus our revenue, we’re doing very few things. I mean, you could put every product we’re making on this table, to put it in perspective. I doubt anybody that is anywhere near our revenue could say that.

On following into a product category:

I wouldn’t say “follow.” I wouldn’t use that word because that implies we waited for somebody to see what they were doing. That’s actually not what’s happening. What’s happening if you look under the sheets, which we probably don’t let people do, is that we start projects years before they come out. You could take every one of our products–iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch–they weren’t the first, but they were the first modern one, right?

In each case, if you look at when we started, I would guess that we started much before other people did, but we took our time to get it right. Because we don’t believe in using our customers as a laboratory. What we have that I think is unique is patience. We have patience to wait until something is great before we ship it.

You could make the argument that HomePod followed Amazon Echo and Google Home into the smart speaker market. But as we discussed in the latest Dalrymple Report, the HomePod has been around for a long time, long enough that it could have been a Steve Jobs brainchild.

There’s a lot more to read in this interview. Feels like a deeper look than most Tim Cook interviews.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is in talks to buy long-term supplies of cobalt directly from miners for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter, seeking to ensure it will have enough of the key battery ingredient amid industry fears of a shortage driven by the electric vehicle boom.

And:

About a quarter of global cobalt production is used in smartphones.

It’s a race to lock up cobalt supply, a race between smart phones and tablets, versus the emerging electric car market.

Houston Chronicle:

While I don’t particularly care for the subscriptions model when applied to a single app or suite like Adobe Creative Cloud or Microsoft Office 360, I am a fan of Setapp, a subscription software service that gives you access to full versions of more than 100 high-quality Mac apps, all for just $9.99 a month.

With a comprehensive description of every app, and ultra-fast search, it’s never been easier to find the appropriate app (or apps) for just about any task.

I’m a big fan of the company behind Setapp, Ukrainian-based MacPaw, and was asked to be a tester of Setapp a year ago. The list of available apps has grown immensely over the past year. I’m always happily surprised when I think, “I wish I had an app to do that” and check Setapp to find I do. I’m a general hater of subscription-based services but I have no problem recommending Setapp and, with a seven-day free trial that doesn’t require a credit card, it’s a bit of a no-brainer to try it out and see for yourself.

Nashville Post:

“Gibson Brands, Inc. today announced that the company made a $16.6 million coupon payment to holders of its $375 million, 8.875% senior secured notes due 2018.”

That simple statement issued a week ago — at all of 26 words, it’s less than a quarter the length of Gibson’s boilerplate company description that accompanied it — suggests a business-as-usual tone of a company taking care of its contractual commitments.

But the situation facing the iconic Nashville-based music instrument maker, which has annual revenues of more than $1 billion, is far from normal: CFO Bill Lawrence recently left the company after less than a year on the job and just six months before $375 million of senior secured notes will mature. On top of that, another $145 million in bank loans will come due immediately if those notes, issued in 2013, are not refinanced by July 23.

Reading through all of this, things do indeed look dire. But I can’t imagine the Gibson brand going away. I’d be more concerned with new hands coming in to run the company and changing a process which produces some of the finest guitars in the world, diluting a brand synonymous with guitar craft.

Damn.

[H/T Josh Centers]

I’m on an email list that caters to the geeky and to engineering. This story hit my inbox over the weekend, but was written about 15 years ago, and was given the title “Engineering Pornography”. But it’s not what you think. This is about a massive engineering problem, solved in a beautifully elegant way.

If I still have your attention, here’s a highlight to whet your appetite:

Several days ago a very large number of trucks and men from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power descended on my neighborhood. They removed large sections of Pershing drive to a depth of 15 feet or so over a stretch of about a city block. I assumed they had a problem with a water main or something.

When they started building semi-permanent structures over the holes I knew something really big was up. When the large trucks full of strange power tools, mega-welding machines, breathing equipment, and racks of test equipment came I started wondering. Driving by a couple nights ago (11 PM), I noticed that the pace hadn’t slowed – they were at it 24 hours a day.

My curiosity got the best of me yesterday when they brought in the giant tanks full of liquid nitrogen. LN-2 for the DWP? I parked my car and played the lookie loo.

Fascinating.

John Gruber dug into this article from the Hong Kong Free Press:

The US-based global tech giant Apple Inc. is set to hand over the operation of its iCloud data center in mainland China to a local corporation called Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD) by February 28, 2018.

You can read Gruber’s take here.

As a postscript, Gruber links to this Apple knowledge-base article, which lays out the encryption methods used to protect the various data types stored in iCloud.

I found all three of these definitely worth a look.

Lory Gil, iMore:

We’ve got a list of the best streaming live TV services. Keep in mind, though, that most of these services don’t offer unlimited access to broadcast channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. What I’m referring to is the ability to watch any broadcast channel available in your area.

And:

The thing about broadcast television is that I couldn’t watch it on Apple TV. I’d have to switch my TV input over, and then flip through the channels until I found something to watch. I rarely watched broadcast television because I tend to stick with Apple TV for my TV and movie watching activities.

And:

With HDHomeRun, not only can I watch live broadcast television on my Apple TV, I can also watch it on my iPhone or iPad. Plus, with a subscription, you can record live TV and watch it the way a person with cable and a DVR would watch TV. Skip those commercials!

If you are a cord-cutter and have an Apple TV, you should definitely read Lory’s review.

As much as I love to see products like this emerge to fill a void in the marketplace, I see the cord-cutter marketplace as a fragmented mess. And no matter how many alternatives emerge, they are all dependent on a non-throttled connection to the internet. That means, the power cards are still held by the internet providers. Hard to overcome the built-in advantage of being able to package internet access and programming.

Nathaniel Popper, New York Times:

In the beach resort of Phuket, Thailand, last month, the assailants pushed their victim, a young Russian man, into his apartment and kept him there, blindfolded, until he logged onto his computer and transferred about $100,000 worth of Bitcoin to an online wallet they controlled.

And:

A few weeks before that, the head of a Bitcoin exchange in Ukraine was taken hostage and only released after the company paid a ransom of $1 million in Bitcoin.

And:

In New York City, a man was held captive by a friend until he transferred over $1.8 million worth of Ether, a virtual currency second in value only to Bitcoin.

This has become a thing. Why? Because once the Bitcoins have been transferred, there’s no way to prove ownership, no way to get the Bitcoin back. When the victims call the police, the police shrug their shoulders. There’s simply nothing they can do.

Game changer? Really? Hmm. Let’s take a look.

Aneesh Chopra, Shafiq Rabaneesh Chopra and Shafiq Rab, Wired:

In late January, Apple previewed an iOS feature that would allow consumers to access their electronic health records on their phones. Skeptics said the move was a decade too late given a similar (and failed) effort from Google.

But:

This move is a game-changer for three reasons: It affirms there is one common path to open up electronic health records data for developers so they can focus on delighting consumers rather than chasing records. It encourages other platform companies to build on that path, rather than pursue proprietary systems. And it ensures that the pace of progress will accelerate as healthcare delivery systems respond to the aggregate demand of potentially millions of iPhone users around the world.

This, indeed, is a game changer. To me, the key is this:

That’s because Apple has committed to an open API for health care records—specifically, the Argonaut Project specification of the HL7 Fast Health Interoperability Resources—so your doctor or hospital can participate with little extra effort.

Developers, this is an app opportunity, an area full of untapped potential.

Start with the linked Wired article, then dig into the details of the Argonaut Project.

Great stuff.

Complete Digital Photography:

We’ve long advocated Photoshop Elements as the ideal non-subscription image editing app: it is cross-platform, has a decent Organizer, and almost all of the features found in the full version of Photoshop. Right now, through Feb. 20, Photoshop Elements is on sale for $70 on the Adobe site, which is 30% off the list price.

Photoshop Elements doesn’t get nearly the love it deserves. It’s actually a pretty good photo editor, especially for amateurs.

Uncrate:

From the 125 S in 1947 to the FXX K Evo, Ferrari’s passion for automobiles has been on display on and off the track. Almost every Ferrari is an icon, but this video hits the highlights of the most important models in the company’s 70-plus year history.

I am an unabashed lover of most things Ferrari and this video is just a reminder of how many of their cars I’ve lusted over through the years. I’ve always wanted the 308 GTSI (The “Magnum P.I.” Ferrari) and I would murder family members just to drive the 1962 250 GTO.

Discogs:

Our mission is to document every physical record shop and record event on the planet. With your help, we can create an accurate listing of all record shops & record events, useful to diggers and travelers everywhere.

What a cool use of crowdsourcing data.

Charles Arthur, The Overspill:

A couple of weeks ago, I opened my Macbook Pro as usual. The keyboard lit up, as usual. I waited – there’s that pause while the display gathers itself (it’s a 2012 model) and the processor pulls everything together and presents the login window.

Except this time, nothing. The display didn’t light. There was the quiet sound of the fans going, but nothing. Oh dear. Closed the display, opened it to catch it unawares – no, that wasn’t going to fool it. After a bit more futzing around, I concluded that it was not in the mood to work. But I had work to do, and so I turned to my iPad Pro.

This is a well-written post, from someone who uses a MacBook Pro to maintain a blog. This is particularly interesting to me for the obvious connection to my work writing for and maintaining The Loop.

What I particularly like about this post is the objective list of the good and the bad. All of these comments resonated for me. If you’ve considered what it’d be like to move from MacBook to iPad, I’d encourage you to read this list of good and bad first.