John Gruber, Daring Fireball:

I created a bit of a stir the other day when I suggested the OLED iPhone “Pro” could start at $1,500.

Let’s take a serious look at this. $1,500 as a starting price is probably way too high. But I think $1,200 is quite likely as the starting price, with the high-end model at $1,300 or $1,400.

And:

You can’t talk about iPhone specs and pricing without considering scale. It’s not enough for Apple to create a phone that can be sold for $649/749/849 with 35 percent profit margins. They have to create a phone that can be sold at those prices, with those margins, and which can be manufactured at scale. And for Apple that scale is massive: anything less than 60–70 million in the first quarter in which it goes on sale is a failure — possibly a catastrophic failure.

In short, new iPhones aren’t defined by what Apple can make for a certain price, but by what Apple can make for a certain price at a certain incredibly high quantity.

What follows is a relatively long logic chain, but one that is well worth making your way through. By the end of John’s post, I was convinced that Apple will indeed be introducing a deluxe iPhone tier this fall, or soon thereafter.

UPDATE: Fascinating response to Gruber’s post from Philip Elmer-DeWitt [H/T Jason Hooper]. At its core:

Is Gruber speaking for Apple for himself when he defines terms and describes bundles?

I put the question to him this morning, but I don’t expect a candid answer. He’s a man who knows how to keep a secret. Besides, a good journalist will protect his or her sources, even when their names are out of the bag.

Gruber responds: “I have no inside information in this regard [2017 iPhone pricing]. Nada, none, zilch. Feel free to quote me on that. I have no comment regarding my tweets on inductive charging and can’t believe you even asked about that.”

A picture is worth a thousand words:

A lady has brought her iMac onto the train! Has she not heard of a laptop?? wtf!!! pic.twitter.com/zC3wNw7Yhv

— David Hill (@davidhill_co) July 4, 2017

I do find the whole thing entertaining, but not too hard to see this happening. Could be she needed the larger screen or, perhaps, this might be the only computer to which she had access and a project deadline that forced her hand.

They had me at gawp.

John Martellaro, Mac Observer:

There might come a day when, heaven forbid, Apple CEO Tim Cook cannot perform his duties for some reason. As a result, like every corporation, Apple has a succession plan for its CEO. What might Apple’s look like?

Interesting speculation.

HBO’s The Defiant Ones is a four-part series about the background and intertwined lives that led Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Beats and then Apple’s doorstep.

Episode One is in heavy rotation on HBO, with Episode Two airing tonight. Or, you can binge all four episodes on HBO Go.

There’s a lot to enjoy here, especially if you are a fan of the music industry. Pairs nicely with the excellent Straight Outta Compton.

Federico Viticci and John Voorhees have a podcast called AppStories which I quite like. This particular episode is an interview with David Lawrence, the mastermind behind Rehearsal, an app that is used by top Broadway and Hollywood actors (like Kevin Bacon, Clark Gregg – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers, etc.) to learn their lines.

This is a fascinating listen. One takeaway is that the acting community has settled on iOS as an unofficial standard, enough of one that Rehearsal has never been ported to Android.

Side note, David Lawrence played the Puppetmaster for three seasons on the original Heroes series. Here’s a link to the interview. Enjoy.

Dronestagram:

Thousands of entries were submitted from everywhere in the world by talented professional photographers and amateur drone photo enthusiasts.

Drone photography brings a fascinating new perspective to photography. Some of these images are stunning.

Macstories:

There are few macOS utilities I’ve tried that take a potentially complex, multi-step process and boil it down to a simple task as well as Softorino YouTube Converter 2 does. That’s because it’s a difficult technical and design challenge to hide complexity without creating an inflexible app with too many compromises. Softorino YouTube Converter, also known as SYC, does an excellent job avoiding the pitfalls and striking a balance between utility and simplicity. It only takes a few steps to go from a URL to a downloaded video or audio file, but SYC still allows for just enough tweaking along the way that it preserves a level of versatility that should make it attractive to a wide range of users.

While I wouldn’t call it “effortless” (there are a couple of minor annoyances), I’ve been using SYC 2 for a couple of weeks and really like the ease of use. I download a lot of videos for offline viewing and this app makes it a simple process.

Nautilus:

You may not have thought much of it if you saw it in that episode of The Simpsons, in Toy Story, in your old PC screensaver, or in any of the other films and games it’s crept into over the years. Yet this unassuming object—the “Utah teapot,” as it’s affectionately known—has had an enormous influence on the history of computing, dating back to 1974, when computer scientist Martin Newell was a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah.

I knew the teapot was a popular object to do in CGI but had no idea why or its history.

Mental Floss:

The most anticipated eclipse in American history is coming this summer. At the heart of it is Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which anticipates 100,000 visitors. Mental Floss takes a look behind the small town’s preparations—and a deep dive into the passionate subculture of people who chase eclipses for a living.

If you are lucky enough to be able to get to the path of totality, you owe it to yourself to witness this almost literal once in a lifetime event.

I really do hate when someone like Justin does everything they can to prevent hacking and then a carrier mistake leads to this much trouble.

Jawbone was a good company years ago, but the fact that they stopped answering requests for their existing products and started a new company, makes me wary of trusting them.

Imagination gave the impression that Apple just cut them off, but that’s not the case, according to Apple. I was waiting for this since the dispute began.

“We began working with Imagination in 2007 and stopped accepting new IP from them in 2015,” Apple said. “After lengthy discussions we advised them on February 9 that we expected to wind down our licensing agreement since we need unique and differentiating IP for our products. We valued our past relationship and wanted to give them as much notice as possible to adapt their future plans.”

Lory Gil has a great post on what you get with Hulu’s new Live TV option. I’ll be honest, I’ve looked at all of these services, but I’m not convinced yet.

Amazon.com Inc told Whole Foods Market Inc (WFM.O) it would not engage in a sale process for the U.S. grocer that involved other bidders, a regulatory filing showed on Friday, shedding new light on the $13.7 billion acquisition.

The previously undisclosed details on the negotiations show how Amazon used its deep pockets and brand as leverage to convince Whole Foods to accept a sale process that would not result in a bidding war.

Very smart move on Amazon’s part—look for other bids and we’re out. It doesn’t sound like the other people would have offered more than Amazon anyway.

Open Culture:

The singer’s near four-octave range “made his live performances an incredible sight to watch” and his recordings a stirring experience to listen to, whether they showcased his own material or his unique talent for covering songs across a spectrum of styles and genres. “The imposing architecture” of Cornell’s voice, writes Pitchfork in a retrospective of some of his finest recorded moments, “was part and parcel to his legacy, but it would be nothing if he didn’t also know how to brilliantly arrange it.”

Keep that in mind as you listen to the isolated vocal track embedded below. The vocals don’t kick in until about 20 seconds in. Listen to the subtle changes, both in tone and in mode (key changes, major to minor, etc.) Chris died a few months ago, but I just stumbled on this video. We’ve lost quite a voice.

Stack Exchange:

I currently work on a legacy system for a company. The system is really old – and although I was hired as a programmer, my job is pretty much glorified data entry. To summarise, I get a bunch of requirements, which is literally just lots of data for each month on spreadsheets and I have to configure the system to make it work, which is basically just writing a whole bunch of SQL scripts.

And:

So I’ve been doing it for about 18 months and in that time, I’ve basically figured out all the traps to the point where I’ve actually written a program which for the past 6 months has been just doing the whole thing for me. So what used to take the last guy like a month, now takes maybe 10 minutes to clean the spreadsheet and run it through the program.

Where’s the author’s obligation? To their employer, or to themselves? Is the company paying for the problem to be solved, or for the employee’s time?

To me, the “I’m doing something wrong” alarm went off pretty early on in the conversation. But not everyone feels this way. If the company has no obligation to keep the employee employed once the shortcuts are revealed, does the employee have the “self harming” obligation to reveal those shortcuts?

Motherboard:

In August 2016, Apple’s head of security Ivan Krstic stole the show at one of the biggest security conferences in the world with an unexpected announcement.

“I wanna share some news with you,” Krstic said at the Black Hat conference, before announcing that Apple was finally launching a bug bounty program to reward friendly hackers who report bugs to the company.

The crowd erupted in enthusiastic applause. But almost a year later, the long-awaited program appears to be struggling to take off, with no public evidence that hackers have claimed any bug bounties.

And at the core of it all:

The iPhone’s security is so tight that it’s hard to find any flaws at all, which leads to sky-high prices for bugs on the grey market.

The question is, are the bugs valuable enough for Apple to raise their bounties to compete with the grey market?

AppleWorld Today:

Future Macs may “wake up” when they detect your presence and take action based on exactly where you are. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20170193282) for “presence sensing.”

The “presence-based functionality” method may include operating the Mac in a reduced power state and collecting a first set of data from a first sensor. Based on the first set of data, the computer determines if an object is within a threshold distance of the Mac.

Some interesting possibilities here. Your Mac could rise to a low-power awareness mode when you are nearby, then power up more fully as more criteria are met. I’d like to see my Mac wake up, bring Safari to the front, then update the specific set of tabs I invariably read through every morning, with one set on weekdays (my Loop prep) and a different set on weekends (my feet up, coffee on the porch reading).

Part of the focus of this patent is more efficient power management. Which would react one way to me watching a video, another to my creating content (by typing/clicking), and another to my turning on some music, then running silent.

CNBC:

Microsoft announced a major reorganization on Wednesday that will include thousands of layoffs, largely in sales.

The job cuts amount to less than 10 percent of the company’s total sales force, and about 75 percent of them will be outside the U.S., the company said.

This is not nearly the same thing as the SoundCloud office-closing report.

Microsoft has more than 120,000 employees, and the layoffs are focused on the sales team. Microsoft knows how to make money. This is more of a refocus.

Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica:

SoundCloud announced Thursday that it would be closing its San Francisco and London offices—firing 173 employees, or around 40 percent of its staff.

The Berlin-based company has been struggling for years: it reported losses of over €51 million ($58.1 million) in 2015—losses that have steadily grown since 2010.

What to do about this? SoundCloud offers real value to the community, but can’t find a way to make it pay. Somehow GitHub made it work. Is GitHub worth more to developers than SoundCloud is to the audio community?

Ken Segall:

I get that Intel Inside is one of the most successful marketing campaigns in business history. It’s just that after 36 years, that logo starts to feel more like a pollutant than an advertising device.

Thankfully, Macs have remained 100% free of Intel branding since Apple adopted its processors way back in 2006.

We have Steve Jobs’s sensibilities to thank for this. But how it all happened is a fun little story.

No spoilers, a fun read, another great little Steve Jobs anecdote.

UPDATE: The internet remembers everything. Here’s video of the “stickers” quote, about 40s in.

[H/T John Kordyback]

Check the pictures. These look pretty well done. You can send in your AirPods, they’ll paint them for $99, or buy them direct from the site for $279/$299 depending on the finish.

Pricey, but interesting.

Space Jam website, still up and running. Wow!

I’ve always been a Strat fan, love these playlists. Here’s a link to the Fender playlist page. Enjoy.

Korea Herald:

The English version of Samsung Electronics’ voice-assistant service Bixby has been delayed because the firm lacks the accumulation of big data, which is key to deep learning technology, according to the company Tuesday.

And:

Bixby is now available only in Korean, although Samsung’s mobile chief, Koh Dong-jin, said in April, “Bixby’s English version and Chinese version will be unveiled in May and in June, respectively.”

Didn’t happen.

“Many engineers in the US are making full efforts to develop the English version. But, (due to geographical and language barriers) their frequent reports to and communication with the management located in Korea makes the progress much slower than developing the Korean version here,” said a source on the condition of anonymity.

I was wondering what had become of Bixby.

Macworld:

Studio Neat’s latest tripod adapter, Glif, fits all phones (even non-Apple ones) in an attractive and well-made new design that uses a padded locking clamp and three mounting screw holes instead of one.

This compact adapter is the perfect companion for a serious iPhone photographer looking for maximum flexibility, as well as a casual snapshotter who wants a better way to hold their camera, even without a tripod.

I’ve been a Glif user and supporter since their first Kickstarter campaign and this is the best Glif yet.

iPhone maker Apple took its case to the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, in December after the European Commission issued the record tax demand saying the U.S. company won sweetheart tax deals from the Irish government which amounted to illegal subsidies.

I think the EU overstepped and chose the case against Apple because they saw deep pockets. Even Ireland said Apple owes nothing in back taxes.

Austin Mann, photographer:

Earlier this month, I realized June 29 would mark the 10 year anniversary of the iPhone and began diving into the images I’ve shot with iPhone over the years. As I glanced through the archive, I realized what an amazing journey the last 10 years has been and thought I’d share some of the highlights with you.

Lots of history here. My favorite bit from this dive into the iPhone history rabbit-hole is Austin’s take on the original rollout:

I can still remember the morning of June 29, 2007. I was living in NYC, working at an ad agency, McCann-Erickson. Though I had been following the release of the iPhone and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one, I knew I couldn’t spend the day in line waiting as I had responsibilities at work.

I arrived at my office, however, and my very cool boss looked at me and said, “Austin, what are you doing here?” I was a little confused as it was a standard work day and I was on time. “What do you mean?” I said. She responded, “It’s iPhone day. You’ve been talking about this for months! Get outta here and go get in line!” I got a big smile on my face, said thanks, and bolted straight to the Fifth Avenue store at about 10AM.

I carried a Leica D-LUX 3 at the time (still love that thing) and shot a few very shaky clips throughout the day and cut them into this quick piece.

Follow the link, watch the video. If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, that’d be one place to visit (just after you placed your order to buy a ton of Apple stock).

Follow the link and marvel at this impressive piece of macro photography. When I came across this, my first instinct was that this was a photorealistic drawing, a cartoon. But no, it’s the real deal.

Cool.