I fell down a well of guitar videos yesterday. More specifically, a well of multiple people playing a single guitar. Who knew this was a thing, and that there were so many of them.
I picked three. Please do add your own favorites to the comments.
The article leads off with this:
In a new Apple ad, a thief breaks into “your phone” but struggles to get into an iPhone. Here’s how it plays out in the real world.
I was all set to read about how the ad was wrong, that Android phones were actually just as safe. But:
There are several reasons why iPhones are more secure than the various phones running Android software, according to Mike Johnson, who runs the security technologies graduate program at the University of Minnesota.
Side note: That’s no small-time opinion. The University of Minnesota has one of the best computer science programs in the US.
Moving on:
The old rule about PC viruses seems to be holding true with mobile phones, as well. Android phones make up more than 80% of the global smartphone market, and hackers are more likely to succeed if they write programs for these devices, just because of sheer numbers.
The Windows vs Mac logic. Certainly true.
Plus, he says, the process of “patching” security holes is easier on iOS devices. Apple’s iOS operating system only runs on iPhones, while Alphabet’s Android software runs on phones made by numerous manufacturers. It’s more complicated to deliver patches, or bug fixes, that work across so many device makers and carriers. Android can release a patch, but it won’t necessarily be available on all devices right away.
“Fragmentation is the enemy of security,” Johnson says.
And:
Last year, Wired magazine reported that one security firm was offering up to $1.5 million for the most serious iOS exploits and up to $200,000 for an Android one, a sign that iOS vulnerabilities are rarer.
Add to that Apple’s underlying review process, designed to restrict the use of private APIs, controlling techniques that could end-around Apple’s security processes. Not perfect, but world’s better than the more wild-west Android ecosystem.
Mark Gurman and Alex Webb, this Bloomberg post:
The iPhone-maker has started manufacturing a long-in-the-works Siri-controlled smart speaker, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple could debut the speaker as soon as its annual developer conference in June, but the device will not be ready to ship until later in the year, the people said.
There’s more to the post, but that’s certainly the core chunk of news.
Now make your way over to this Daring Fireball post, where John Gruber digs through the Bloomberg piece, making three major points.
The Bloomberg article is long on words, short on actual news, journalism stretched for time. I hate to see this become habit and I certainly do my best to keep my stuff short and to the point (but being an old codger, I do tend to wander occasionally).
This:
The closer we get to the WWDC keynote, the more likely things are to get spoiled. But here we are 5 days out and no one has leaked just about anything about iOS 11 or MacOS 10.13, or what’s going on with this 10.5-inch iPad Pro, or if there’s anything new coming for WatchOS or tvOS. Again, there’s a lot of time between now and Monday morning, but it might be time to give Tim Cook credit for “doubling down on secrecy”.
Excellent point. In the olden days, Apple was a much smaller universe, with far fewer analysts, journalists, and op-ed speculators. To keep secrets in these times is truly an accomplishment. Kudos.
At the end of Gurman and Webb’s report: “Apple’s speaker won’t include such a screen, according to people who have seen the product.” That sets up a delicious claim chowder standoff with Ming-Chi Kuo, who wrote two weeks ago, “We also believe this new product will come with a touch panel.”
I put the question out there on Twitter, what recent products has Apple shipped without a touch screen? My thinking was, are any of these products similar to the Siri speaker concept? There’s the iPod shuffle, the Mac Pro, AirPods, the Airport Express, and the Apple TV.
To me, the Airport Express and the Apple TV seem the closest to the Siri speaker, screen-wise. To configure either of these devices, you use a separate screen. The complexity of the settings is too much for a built-in panel to properly serve.
And if the screen is intended as a feedback device, like a built-in iPad, for showing the weather or playing videos, that seems like a second generation add-on, a secondary SKU. Pure conjecture on my part, but I cast my claim-chowder-registered vote for no-screen.
Nick Mafi, Architectural Digest:
Apple—the forty-one year old technology company from Cupertino, California—is known for unveiling technology that is often ahead of the curve. Which is to say, once Apple does something, the competition tends to follow suit. Climate scientists will hope this will again be the case as Apple recently unveiled their most eco-friendly store to date. The store will not only be filled with trees, but will operate from a handful of sustainable sources as well. Aptly, the store will be located in Singapore, the greenest city in Asia. With the opening over the weekend, Apple finally opened their first-ever store in Southeast Asia.
If nothing else, click through to the article and check out the picture of that staircase, beautifully crafted from Italian marble. Gorgeous.
Francis X. Clines, New York Times:
We all may have thought that product delivery by drone was the next big Amazon thing. But the future turns out to be a typical retail store in the Time Warner Center off Columbus Circle. Another half dozen are due this year, including a second Manhattan store, on 34th Street.
The speculation is that dozens more are planned nationally and that Amazon, which already handles nearly half of the nation’s book sales, may eventually expand into selling far more products than the books and Kindle electronics the stores currently offer.
And:
Ask a worker about the narrow predictability of data mining, and the reply comes: “It’s data with heart.” Amazon says its recommendations include in-house “curators’ assessments” to add a variable touch to the crowdsourcing.
This seems the future of the brick and mortar, slowly crushing the mom and pops under a massive pile of data.
Uber’s first-quarter loss, excluding employee stock compensation and other items, was $708 million, narrower than the $991 million reported three months earlier, the Journal said.
And the company’s head of finance quit. Damn!
Vice:
Bungie’s story rivals gaming’s most volatile, its marriage to Halo growing steadily uneasy under fatigue, hubris and the weight of blockbuster expectation when it wasn’t at risk of being outright consumed from within. Yet like Master Chief, Halo is defined by a devotion to fight: even when it stumbles, the series manages, valiantly, to up the ante. Xbox just wouldn’t exist without it.
I’m not much of a gamer but Halo was so incredible, I bought an Xbox just so I could play it.
This…this ain’t right.
Backchannel:
…former employees at The Melt, ranging from the top echelons of the company to in-store crew members, tell a complicated story of a company that had to roll out sweeping changes to its initial model after overestimating the competitive advantage of its technology — which proved to be both a source of strength and, at times, a liability.
When I first heard of this “grilled cheese restaurant’ in 2011, I predicted it would be a failure. I think the last paragraph shows why:
“I think if you’re looking for the angle of, like, what went wrong, I would say that nothing went wrong,” Kaplan told me when we last spoke. “But what we did learn is that the quality of the food is the most important reason why someone comes to a restaurant.”
If that’s something you had to “learn” before opening a restaurant, you were destined to fail.
I have the proverbial “two left feet” but I love watching tap dancing.
Three new ads in the “Why Switch?” campaign. The last one is by far my favorite.
Take a minute and click through, check out some of the most misspelled words. For the kicker, make your way over to Wisconsin. Heh.
Matthew Roberts latest footage is gorgeous.
One question: About two minutes in, we see a shot of an outbuilding that looks like a barn, sitting off center on what appears to be a concrete pad. Anyone know what that is? If so, please tweet at me.
I do find it fascinating to watch an architectural vision come to full fruition. This is a beautiful design, incredibly detailed, massive in scope.
UPDATE: Yup, it’s a barn. According to this Mercury News article:
Underscoring that Apple Campus 2 is at once one of Silicon Valley’s wildest sketches of the future and a portal to its past, the company has set aside a place on its state-of-the-art campus for the Glendenning Barn, named for a pioneer family whose land became a magnet for tech companies after the blooms faded from their orchards. Constructed in 1916 with planks of redwood, the barn was built to last, though its founders couldn’t have foreseen all that it would withstand: the decline of local agriculture, the rise of big tech and several changes of the guard in Silicon Valley, not to mention Apple’s earth movers.
Thanks for all the response. Love this bit of preserved history.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
Several reports have indicated WWDC will introduce several new Apple hardware products alongside the headline software announcements like iOS 11 and macOS 10.13. Today, Eurasian regulator filings (which have proved reliable before) suggest that new iPad and MacBook (Pro?) models are on the way, as has been reported before.
The filings also suggest that a revision to the wireless Apple Magic Keyboard is imminent.
Can’t wait for the keynote. We are so close!
Brad Ellis, Medium:
The UINavigationBar, navbar for short, has been around since the original iPhone. Historically, navbars have been convenient and clear, easy to understand and easy to build.
The navbar is the strip at the top of your phone that lets you move in and back out of views. As an example, in the Messages app,the nav bar has an Edit button on the left side, the title Messages in the middle, and a create new message icon on the right. If you tap on a message thread, the nav bar will change to a “<” on the left. Tap that “<” and you’ll navigate back to the main view.
Back to Brad’s post:
Then phones ballooned, enough that the iPhone 7 Plus supplanted sales of the iPad mini. Now, if you own a modern iPhone, navbars can feel unwieldy — literally out of touch.
Burgeoning screens mean the distance between the navbar and our thumbs has grown. The screen on a 7 Plus is so tall it would take a thumb-length increase of 150 percent to reach those pesky buttons with one hand. Just another knuckle or two. Nothing weird.
He does have a point. I use a Plus, and when I need to work the navbar, I either have to use my other hand to reach the top of the screen, or do a weird slidey move to work the phone down so I can reach the navbar with my thumb.
iOS does feature that double-touch the home button gesture to bring the top of the phone halfway down, but I find that takes too long, given that I have to also do the double-touch to restore to full screen. The double-touch is my least favorite solution. [UPDATE: Yup, you can tap to dismiss this. Still don’t like it.]
Read the post for thoughts on how Apple is already addressing this issue and steering away from the venerable navbar. Terrific.
Apple today announced Carpool Karaoke: The Series will be available to Apple Music subscribers starting Tuesday, August 8. The show will feature many of today’s biggest names in music, television, film, sports and pop culture buckling up and belting out their favorite songs for a road trip filled with comedy, conversation and music.
I’m hoping they can pull this off because what James Corden did was really special.
Street View started out as Larry Page’s far-fetched idea to create a 360-degree map of the world. Today, 10 years after the first imagery was published in Street View, people can scale mountains, dive into the depths of the ocean, scout out ramen spots, and walk through museums in far corners of the world.
That was a pretty far-fetched idea, but it is cool.
Uber has long denied the accusations. But when Mr. Levandowski was ordered by a federal judge to hand over evidence and testimony to that end, he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights, seeking to avoid possible criminal charges, according to his lawyers. Uber has been unable to convince Mr. Levandowski to cooperate.
Oh boy.
Ars Technica:
Executives from some of the globe’s leading technology firms are demanding that Texas not adopt “discriminatory” bathroom legislation. On the table in Texas is a law similar to one enacted—and later partially repealed—in North Carolina. The tech companies have aligned themselves with critics of the bill who believe the legislation is unfair to the transgender community.
“As large employers in the state, we are gravely concerned that any such legislation would deeply tarnish Texas’ reputation as open and friendly to businesses and families,” the companies wrote Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “Our ability to attract, recruit and retain top talent, encourage new business relocations, expansions and investment, and maintain our economic competitiveness would all be negatively affected.”
Always fascinates me to see major corporations get involved in politics and to see which causes they try to throw their weight behind.
This scene never gets old. Listening to Scott talk about its creation is a great joy and the reason why I love Director’s Commentaries on movies so much.
I do love the crest, cars and everything about the driving experience.
Ryonghung, a North Korean technology company, recently announced a new tablet. It looks a lot like the weird, firewalled computers the country has produced in the past, with the addition of one curious new feature: the name. It’s called… the iPad.
I have no idea how Apple is even supposed to fight this one.
I had such a great time chatting with John Gruber on his latest episode of The Talk Show.
This is the biggest thing that we’ve ever done. The most innovative, beautiful and powerful thing that we’ve ever done. And it’s also the most Mac thing that we’ve ever done! This is what the legendary Pixelmator Team has been secretly and incredibly passionately working on for 5 whole years.
This totally caught my attention today. I love the folks at Pixelmator and the great apps they make, so if they’ve been working on something this long, you know it’s going to be big.
FOX Sports:
But why should I care now?
Because playoff hockey is amazing and one of the greatest viewing experiences in sports. At the end of the Stanley Cup Final all the players say the f-word on TV as they pass around giant trophy that everybody gets to kiss. It’s a lot of fun.
As a Canadian, I feel it is my duty and obligation to post this for our American readers. You’re welcome.
The Essential Phone, brought to us by the person who created Android, is finally ready for the spotlight. It’s an incredibly audacious and ambitious project, with an outlandish screen and the beginnings of a modular ecosystem.
Rubin has been trying to one-up Apple for years but could never quite pull it off. We’ll see how this works out, but I suspect once Apple outlines its next iOS and iPhone hardware later this year, interest in Rubin’s “Essential Phone” will wane.
AppleInsider:
Apple has hired Qualcomm Engineering VP Esin Terzioglu as a wireless “System on a Chip” lead, offering additional evidence that the company may plan to expand its internal chip development into Broadband Processors working as mobile modems.
Terzioglu’s profile notes that he began working at Qualcomm in August 2009, where he lead the company’s QCT [Qualcomm CDMA Technologies] Central Engineering organization, defining its technology roadmap.
Apple is making moves. We’ll see the results of this hire in six months to a year.
MotoGP:
Directed by Mark Neale and narrated by Ewan McGregor, DTK looks back at the 2005 US GP which marked the premier class return to Laguna Seca.
The Kentucky Kid of the title is Nicky Hayden who tragically lost his life last week after being struck by a car while out training on a bicycle. The movie is quite dated but does give a good sense of what professional motorcycle racing is all about.
Fast Company:
When it comes to websites, we have ever more sophisticated techniques at our disposal to block the ads that sometimes track our wanderings around the internet. But most of us spend much of our time these days in mobile apps that offer no transparency on how we’re being tracked or sold–nor tools for blocking that behavior.
I don’t mind app tracking per se but I want to know which apps are doing it and be able to revoke that permission if I so choose.