In a letter made public on Friday, Apple suggested a series of changes to the draft policy that is under development and said it looks forward to working with California and others “so that rapid technology development may be realized while ensuring the safety of the traveling public.”

Google, Toyota, Ford, Uber, and Tesla also made suggestions for changes to the policies.

Gizmodo:

Everything’s cooler in slow motion, but high frame-rate photography is an essential tool for scientists studying phenomena that occur in the blink of an eye. Researchers at Lund University have just revealed the fastest high-speed camera ever developed that can capture the equivalent of an astonishing 5 trillion frames every second, fast enough to visualize the movement of light.

At those speeds, events that take place in as little as 0.2 trillionths of a second can be documented and studied at a speed that humans can comprehend. To help demonstrate just how fast that really is, the researchers used the new camera to film a group of photons traveling about as far as a piece of paper is thick, making it seem as if the light particles were barely moving, instead of racing past at 671 million miles per hour.

I’m always fascinated by this completely out of reach technology.

Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde have reunited! The guitarist has rejoined the Prince of Darkness’ band and they’ll be together onstage for Ozzy’s upcoming 2017 shows!

For fans of Zakk and Ozzy, there could be no better news than this. Ozzy has always had great guitarists in his bands throughout his career, but for me, Zakk is the man.

Variety:

An anonymous hacker has carried through on a threat to release “Orange Is the New Black” season five episodes online — after Netflix allegedly failed to respond to the cybercriminal’s shakedown demands.

Good for Netflix. The cost to them is hard to quantify, since it is not likely to impact their subscriber base. And refusing to pay the ransom sends a message to the community and to the hackers which hopefully will help others make a similar “don’t pay the ransom” decision.

The hacker or hackers also have obtained unreleased shows from ABC, Fox, National Geographic and IFC. The content appears to have been stolen in an attack on post-production studio Larson Studios in late 2016, according to piracy-news site TorrentFreak.

Not clear if that other content was released to the pirate sites as well.

Brian Foutty, SwiftTeacher.org, on the differences between an iPad and a Chromebook in the classroom:

The iPad’s camera is the BIGGEST curricular differentiator. The ability to use the iPad’s camera to take high quality pictures or video to record evidence for a presentation in Keynote or Explain Everything is invaluable in the classroom.

And:

When I taught math, my students would use the camera to take video to track the trajectory of a football being thrown one day and a pumpkin being dropped from 45 feet the next day. Students would then use the Venier Video Physics app on another day to chart the paths of the football and the pumpkins. The app generates mathematical equations.

And:

Having a small, lightweight, and maneuverable device (think iPad) with a great camera is what made it possible for me to provide my students an interesting, engaging, and memorable educational experience. And this is but one of many examples that my colleagues and I are doing in my district on a weekly basis.

Camera, powerful processor tip the scales to the iPad.

More from Brian:

The iPad’s microphone is also a key asset of the iPad. The microphone allows students to record their thoughts, questions, and observations as part of class notes using Notability or class projects using Explain Everything, a voice recorder app, or a student feedback app such as Recap. Audio gives the students yet another vehicle to express their ideas and their learning in order for teachers to keep them involved and engaged in learning. Combining the microphone, the camera, and iMovie gives teachers a really powerful curricular tool to engage students in a way that allows students to create content both academically and creatively that results in deeper, more meaningful learning experiences for students.

And:

As I previously mentioned, my district did, at one point, decide to purchase Chromebooks, which we still have because of their light use and another reason I will mention later. When my district received our Chromebooks, we unboxed them, deployed them, and that was it. We, as teachers, had to figure it out without any support or help other than internet research. Google’s direct support of Chromebook is non-existent because they did not manufacture the product. Let’s not forget that Google’s top business is Search! They collect data about our use and sell it to advertisers.

And finally, on affordability:

Many Chromebooks are cheap(er). Many of them are plastic and not well made, but that cheapness comes at a cost: durability and residual value. The conventional wisdom (in education) has been that Chromebooks cost schools less money to deploy. I do not believe this conventional wisdom to be actual wisdom or even true. The new iPad definitely renders this argument for choosing Chromebook completely null and void.

This is a great piece, from an educator with real world teaching experience, on the myriad advantages of the iPad. [Via The Overspill]

Time:

According to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé, the total global sell-in for Nintendo’s pint-sized version of its 1980s Nintendo Entertainment System is 2.3 million.

Astonishing sales figures. Why pull the plug?

“We had originally planned for this to be a product for last holiday,” Fils-Aimé told TIME. “We just didn’t anticipate how incredible the response would be. Once we saw that response, we added shipments and extended the product for as long as we could to meet more of that consumer demand.”

But Fils-Aime did suggest the reason why the company pulled the brakes on a system amidst unprecedented demand. “Even with that extraordinary level of performance, we understand that people are frustrated about not being able to find the system, and for that we really do apologize,” he said. “But from our perspective, it’s important to recognize where our future is and the key areas that we need to drive. We’ve got a lot going on right now and we don’t have unlimited resources.”

As I’ve speculated before, I do think we’ll see the NES Classic games re-emerge in a purchasable, downloadable version with better margins than the just cancelled NES Classic, all with close to zero cost of manufacturing, all of them playable on the Switch.

9to5Mac:

Apple has extended its service coverage for Apple Watch (1st gen) models experiencing expanded/swollen battery problems to three years, covering customers for service for an additional two years beyond the complimentary 1-year Limited Warranty that it provides with the device.

The issue with swollen and expanded batteries on first-gen Apple Watch models has been documented online by users experiencing the problem— here on Apple support forums, for example, and here on Reddit— but appears to not be widespread or something that has made mainstream media headlines.

Good to know.

No big deal, right? Except….

When the singer who was supposed to sing it had microphone issues, he got the crowd to sing it for him. Again, no big deal, right? Except…

These fans were singing the American national anthem. The Star Spangled Banner. Word for word. No teleprompter.

Canadians. Honoring America. Honoring hockey. Honoring their country. And doing great honor to themselves.

Make no mistake – these fans want their Edmonton Oilers to beat the living daylights out of the American team. But when America needs Canada’s help in any situation, we’ve always stepped up, no matter what.

Thanks to my friend Sly for the heads up.

Follow up: Thanks to Kyre Lahtinen‏ for pointing me to the great story of the FSU baseball fans who sing the Canadian national anthem at every game.

The Wirecutter:

A 360-degree camera is great if you want to capture the full view of the summit on Half Dome or take in all of the surrounding architecture in the Piazza San Marco in Venice and share that experience on Facebook or YouTube so friends can pan around a scene and fully be there in the moment.

After researching 360-degree cameras for 30 hours and testing four top contenders, we think the Ricoh Theta S is the best affordable, user-friendly entry point into this rapidly-developing new category of photography.

I’ve used the recommended camera and, while it’s very specific in its application, can produce some interesting pictures and video. Here’s an example:

Yeah – it was cold but so much fun even only for a little while! – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

Cook’s Science:

Salt is imperative for far more than cooking. It’s essential for life. For digestion and respiration, for the transportation of oxygen, and nerve transmission. Your heart would not beat without salt. The amniotic fluid that surrounds us as we begin life is salty. Salt has been part of religion and mythology for centuries. It’s associated with fertility. It’s been a driver of commerce and of war. It’s inspired countless engineering feats.

There are many intense-tasting sea salts on the market, and more than one way to make them. At Maldon Salt Company in Essex, England, they simmer concentrated brine until pyramid-shaped crystals form on the surface and sink to the bottom, where they can be raked off and dried in industrial ovens. In Guérande, France, highly prized fleur de sel (flower of salt) forms on the surface of shallow marshes of seawater concentrated through solar evaporation. Once the seawater brine is fully saturated with sodium chloride, all it takes is a gust of wind to evaporate a small amount of additional water at the surface, causing crystals to form, or “bloom.” These delicate crystals are gently raked from the surface before they can settle to the bottom.

And believe it or not, the ocean is not the only place to source seawater for sea salt.

Settle in for a long but very interesting read on one of the things you rarely think about but can’t live without.

Apple:

Apple premiered its newest store in the Middle East, Apple Dubai Mall, with a 186-foot curved storefront and balcony overlooking Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain. Envisioned as a space for the community to gather, learn and be entertained, Apple Dubai Mall will also serve as a venue to watch the spectacular evening fountain shows and will host Apple’s new global in-store experience, “Today at Apple”.

The inside of the store looks pretty much like every other Apple store. But Apple has really taken advantage of the location and the outside of the store is magnificent.

Variety:

Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. Brown: They all reunited for the 25th anniversary retrospective screening of “Reservoir Dogs” at the Tribeca Film Festival April 28. Cast members Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi and writer-director-actor Quentin Tarantino all got together to reminisce after the 1992 movie screened to a packed house at the Beacon Theater. Here are seven fun facts they revealed.

I would pay significant amounts of money for a tape of that reunion. Dogs is one of my top 10 favorite movies.

This website is loading the images as they come. The Cassini team is seeing them at the same time you are.

If you’re an astronomy nerd, do not go to this site. Your weekend will be shot. There are 383,000+ and counting images.

Bloomberg:

It’s hard to think of another movie from the past 50 years that’s had a bigger impact on modern comedy. Spinal Tap pioneered a mock-doc genre that’s influenced everything from the long run of improvisational films directed by Guest (Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show among them) to docu-styled sitcoms such as The Office and Modern Family. This made it all the more surprising when, about four years ago, Shearer became the first of his fake bandmates to learn lesson No. 2 in Hollywood: No matter how well your movie does, there’s no such thing as net profit.

Spinal Tap is one of the most fun movies you’ll ever watch and it’s a travesty it’s creators have been screwed out of millions of well-deserved dollars.

A supposedly opulent music festival on a private island in the Bahamas, which was plugged as an unprecedented V.I.P. event by Instagram influencers including Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski, descended into dysfunction and disarray as soon as it began on Thursday and has since been postponed indefinitely, organizers said.

Sounds like an incredible scam. Tickets sold for $1,000 to $12,000 for the festival.

My thanks to Letter Opener for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Letter Opener for macOS

Working together with Windows users shouldn’t be problematic at all. Still, some email messages can not be natively read by the Mac and are packed into Winmail.dat or MSG files that have to be extracted and displayed somehow. Letter Opener for macOS does that with a simple double-click!

Letter Opener for macOS Mail

The plugin to stop the Winmail.dat file flood for good.

If Winmail.dat files are a reoccurring problem, Letter Opener for macOS Mail is the solution. Installed into Mail it opens and displays the files directly inside Apples Mail application, so the user can forget about Winmail.dat files entirely.

[WARNING: AutoPlay]

ABC2 News:

“She kept going, and then I heard a crunch, and I was like ugh, now my car’s going to be in the shop for like two weeks this sucks. The next thought I had was you’re upside down.”

College student Casey Bennett was stuck in his car, had the wherewithal to press and hold his Apple Watch side button to place a call to 911. Great story.

Recode:

Musical.ly lets its users create and share their own music videos, using snippets of songs. Starting on Friday, Apple Music will be the service that supplies the songs, replacing U.K.-based provider 7digital, according to people familiar with the companies’ plans.

If you’ve never experienced Musical.ly, check out the video embedded below. Some of these are very good. I can see the attraction, the fun of putting one of these together. Good connection for Apple.

Bloomberg:

The white Lexus RX450h SUV emerged from an Apple facility this week and was kitted out with an array of sensors, according to a person who saw the vehicle and provided photos to Bloomberg News. The sensors included Velodyne Lidar Inc.’s top-of-the-range 64-channel lidar, at least two radar and a series of cameras. The sensors appear to be products bought off the shelf from suppliers, rather than custom-made, according to an industry expert who saw the photos.

Picture and animated GIF embedded in the Bloomberg piece.

Recode:

The company has recently held discussions with payments industry partners about introducing its own Venmo competitor, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. The service would allow iPhone owners to send money digitally to other iPhone owners, these people said.

Not sure I see the logic in offering a Venmo-type service if it is not universal. When I need to send someone money, I never want to check to see if they have an iPhone first.

Amazing. I would definitely give this a go. Take a look.

Nikkei Asian Review:

Chairman Terry Gou of key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, according to people familiar with the plan.

The sources did not disclose details of the first-ever encounter between the two. But with Trump’s persistent pledge to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., and Gou’s dogged determination to acquire the memory chip business of embattled Japanese conglomerate Toshiba, the two will likely exchange their views on related issues.

A lot at stake here. Trump wants Apple to build in the US. Lots of resistance to that, both in terms of logistics and financial impact.

“A music service needs to be more than a bunch of songs and a few playlists,” says Iovine, 64. “I’m trying to help Apple Music be an overall movement in popular culture, everything from unsigned bands to video. We have a lot of plans.” Apple Music’s foray into video programming could be a temporary dalliance, but if Iovine succeeds, the world’s wealthiest company could increase its investment, routinely competing for top projects. “We have the freedom, because it’s Apple, to make one show, three shows, see what works, see what doesn’t work until it feels good,” Iovine says.

He’s right. Apple has the luxury to be very patient while it searches for the exact video strategy that works. They don’t have to fund new TV series just to jump into the mix with everyone else doing the same thing. Even those companies are watching to see what Apple will do.

Bézier curves are everywhere, from the interfaces on our phones and computers to the various drawing packages that bring those interfaces to life.

Once you’re done playing, spend some time learning the details in this free online book. [Via DF]