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.

Kathy Chin Leong, New York Times:

City officials and residents say this project is like nothing they’ve seen before. It is even bringing tourists.

Onlookers snap pictures of the spaceship from the streets. TV helicopters circle above. Amateur photographers ask residents if they can stand on driveways to operate their drones, hoping to get a closer look at Apple Park.

And:

The entire project shows off Apple’s obsession with details. The custom windows were made in Germany and are considered the world’s largest panels of curved glass. One pair of glass doors is 92 feet high. The finish on the underground concrete garage, said David Brandt, Cupertino’s city manager, is so shiny it is almost like glass.

“Mind-blowing, mind-blowing, mind-blowing,” the mayor, Savita Vaidhyanathan, said about her visit to the site. “I saw the underground 1,000-seat theater and the carbon-fiber roof. The roof was made in Dubai, and it was transported and assembled here. I love that it’s here and that I can brag about it.”

And:

The price of property in the neighborhood has also become a source of some worry. Sunnyvale and Cupertino, like many other Silicon Valley towns, have had an extended real estate boom, as the tech industry has expanded. Prices in the area really started to rise, real estate agents and residents said, after Apple released its plans.

A three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,400-square-foot ranch-style house that cost $750,000 in 2011 has doubled in price. Since Apple said it was moving into the former Hewlett-Packard site, prices have moved up 15 to 20 percent year after year, said Art Maryon, a local real estate agent. Today, bidders usually offer 20 to 25 percent over the asking price.

Fascinating piece.

M.G. Siegler on being asked which iPad is the one to buy:

When pressed, my answer was that for most people, the 9.7″ iPad was probably the one to get. With the latest iterations of the iPad Pro, I think the answer is now much more clear: the new 10.5″ variety is the one to get.

The screen size gap has been closed a bit. The speed gap has been completely erased. The 10.5″ iPad Pro is absolutely amazing.

And:

When you start to use the 10.5″ and then try to go back, you cannot. The 9.7″ iPad feels short and stubby in a way similar to how the 3.5″ iPhone felt after using the 4″ variety. The smaller one now feels like a clown iPad.

And:

Size aside, the screen with its much touted 120Hz refresh rate is incredible. Again, it’s one of those things you have to either be a hardcore iPad user or use a newer iPad Pro versus an older iPad side-by-side to truly appreciate. Everything is just so much smoother.

At first, it’s a little weird. It almost makes some iOS animations like swiping through your app screens feel like how pan-and-scan used to feel on old non-lettered-boxed VHS movies. But this feeling goes away quickly and now it just seems normal. And old, non-120Hz animations now just feel janky.

The recommendation for the 10.5″ iPad Pro seems almost universal. There may be a review that didn’t love it and appreciate the leap forward in terms of product capability, but I have not run across it.

Jason Snell, Six Colors:

This week Apple is unleashing the first public betas of the next versions of its two major operating systems, iOS and macOS, on the world. One of the major areas of improvement in macOS High Sierra is to the Photos app, which is only a couple of years old and has plenty of room to grow. I literally wrote the book on Photos, so it’s been interesting to watch Apple’s replacement for iPhoto as it has grown and changed.

Here’s a look at the changes and new features coming to Photos for Mac as a part of macOS High Sierra.

A brand new editing pane, support for third party editors has been enhanced, and much more. If you use Photos on your Mac, take the time to read through this.

CNET:

The “CPSC Fireworks Safety Demonstration 2017” kicks off in mild fashion with a message from acting chairman Ann Marie Buerkle warning consumers to leave professional-level fireworks to the professionals. It then quickly devolves (or elevates) into a series of vignettes featuring mannequins suffering grave injuries from sparklers and flying fireworks.

What starts off as a perfectly normal safety video turns kinda weird quickly.

Crowds of customers started gathering overnight at Taipei 101 for the grand opening of Apple’s first store in Taiwan on Saturday. The curved, sliding glass doors opened at 11 a.m. as employees welcomed customers to come together, explore the store and get hands-on with Apple’s latest products.

It’s amazing that after all these years, the opening of an Apple store still draws so many people.

Nike’s pilot program to sell certain products on Amazon and Instagram is a precursor to it forging a deeper relationship with online retailers, and could hit sales at sporting goods retailers such as Foot Locker Inc.

There is no doubt this will hurt retailers in the long term. Shares of Nike went up on the news, but shares of retailers went down. Once this goes beyond the pilot program, retailers will really get hit hard.

Uber started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get a ride at the push of a button? In late 2015, we hit a big milestone: one billion trips. Six months later, we crossed two billion.

And just a few weeks ago, on Saturday, May 20, 156 trips started simultaneously at 7:29:06am GMT, putting us over the five billion mark.

There is no doubt the service is successful. I would be interested to know how many trips Lyft is at—that’s the service I use the most.

The selling price of an original iPhone is rising. The hype around the 10th anniversary might mark a high water mark, but it might also be just a roadmark on the way to a much higher price. The original iPhone is ripe for speculation.

If it was me, I’d only invest in an unopened original iPhone with a box/shrinkwrap in perfect condition. And as you make your way through the linked article, keep two things in mind:

• The quoted prices are what sellers are asking, not necessarily what someone has paid.
• The price can just as easily go down as up. This sort of investment is speculative.

Sam Byford, The Verge:

Often, using an iPhone in a Japan just straight-up sucked. The missing features hurt, of course, but the bigger problem was that having experienced what life was like in the tightly integrated Japanese mobile ecosystem, moving to the iPhone felt like using a product that simply wasn’t designed for the world I lived in. Because, well, it wasn’t.

How, then, did Apple get to its current position where Japan is one of its strongest and most lucrative markets?

Fascinating inside view of the iPhone’s early days in Japan.

MacDailyNews pulled together some misguided quotes from the early days of iPhone. A few of my favorites:

“We are not at all worried. We think we’ve got the one mobile platform you’ll use for the rest of your life. [Apple] are not going to catch up.” – Scott Rockfeld, Microsoft Mobile Communications Group Product Manager, April 01, 2008

And:

“Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, March 28, 2007

And:

“[Apple’s iPhone] is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine… So, I, I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot.” – Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, January 17, 2007

Lots, lots more.

Apple:

Apple today introduced new ways customers can enjoy and support America’s national parks next month.

From July 1 through 15, Apple is donating $1 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made with Apple Pay at any Apple Store, on apple.com or through the Apple Store app in the US. Apple Pay is accepted at select locations in some of the most popular national parks, from Yellowstone and Yosemite to the Grand Canyon and Muir Woods National Monument.

And:

On July 15, Apple Watch users around the world can complete a walk, run or wheelchair workout of 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to earn an award and stickers for Messages inspired by national parks. The distance matches the length of a hike from Old Faithful to Mallard Lake in Yellowstone National Park.

Love this.

Apple:

Apple has enlisted three Canadian artists to help capture the inclusive and optimistic character of their country in A Portrait of Canada, a short film shot on iPhone and released today. Humble the Poet, photographer Caitlin Cronenberg and First Nations band A Tribe Called Red contributed their words, images and music. Their work was combined with photos shot by iPhone users across Canada.

All shot with iPhone, of course.

CBS News:

When Andy Mitchell spotted a young man in a fast food uniform walking along the side of a road on a 95-degree summer day in Rockwall, Texas, he felt compelled to pull over.

He rolled down his window and offered the man, a 20-year-old named Justin Korva, a ride — not knowing how much that small gesture would impact the man’s life.

As crappy as the world can seem at times, it’s good every now and then to remind ourselves of the decency and generosity of some of our fellow human beings. Now, someone hand me a tissue.

Daily Hive:

They say you are what you eat, so…how Canadian are you, eh? We’ve put together a list of 28 essential Canadian foods you have to try at least once in your life. Do it for the honour, the maple leaf, the true north strong and free. Or, like, if you’re hungry.

In honour of Canada Day, here is a fun list of “Canadian” food, some of which I didn’t even know where specific to Canada. How many have you tried? I’ve had all but six.

Asymco:

The iPhone is the best selling product ever, making Apple perhaps the best business ever. Because of the iPhone, Apple has managed to survive to a relatively old age. Not only did it build a device base well over 1 billion it engendered loyalty and satisfaction described only by superlatives.

The changes ushered by the iPhone have been as momentous as those of the Ford Model T. Or those of electricity, telegraph, radio or TV.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to call the iPhone the most influential product of the 21st century so far. Something may come along in the next eighty years to supplant it but right now, its importance can’t be overstated.

Condé Nast Traveler:

An airplane navigates through the sky along a route composed of beacons and waypoints. Waypoints are defined by geographic coordinates or their bearing and distance from a beacon, and by a name, which typically takes the form of a five-letter capitalized word—EVUKI, JETSA, SABER. The idea is that they will be pronounceable and distinct to controllers and pilots regardless of their first language. The pilot’s map of the world, and the flight computers’ too, is atomized into these waypoints. They are the smallest nuggets of aerial geography, and in some sense the only such unit that matters once you leave the runway. They are the sky’s audible currency of place.

As someone who relies on GPS to even leave the house, I’m familiar with waypoints but I had no idea the names of the ones used in the sky were so whimsical.