Great writeup. Daring Fireball origin story, intertwined with the story of The Deck. Short and sweet.

Relatively new to iOS? Got a friend who is? Pass along this link to Apple’s official step-by-step iOS backup guide.

It’s simple and interactive, perfect for folks new to iOS backup.

There have been several well documented efforts to raise money to buy the browsing history of individual members of Congress. Can’t be done, at least not legally. That’s not the way it works.

Read on for the details but, bottom line, don’t give these folks your money.

Click. Drag. Type. Bang, zoom, you’ve got your cross browser CSS gradient all generated. Nice.

[Via Robservatory]

Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch:

A report published this week from mobile analytics firm Verto has found that Apple Music attracted 40.7 million monthly unique users to its service in the U.S. in February. In comparison, Pandora came in at number two with 32.6 million users, and Spotify took third place with 30.4 million unique users for the month.

Spotify is still in front when counting paid users, but this is a good sign for Apple Music.

Want the details? Here’s a link to the Verto report.

Jim Coudal made the announcement on his site today. This is who The Loop and others used to display the one small ad on the sidebar. I’ll be working with companies to fill sponsorship spots on the The Loop, as well as a new membership backend, so those that want to, can help support the site too.

A big thanks to Jim for all that he did with The Deck.

Popular Mechanics:

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, if you lost a quarter to a mercilessly tough pinball machine, you likely lost it to a game designed by one of the four big players: Stern, Williams, Bally, or Gottlieb, all pinball makers headquartered in Chicago. But that once shimmering golden age of pinball is now gone, and now only one remains.

Today, there are boutique pinball manufacturers like Jersey Jack Pinball that keep the industry’s blood pumping with a specialized release every few years. But in terms of major pinball machine makers, only Stern Pinball is still in the game. We got a look inside their Chicago factory to see how a 21st century pinball machine comes together.

I love the old, mechanical pinball machines of my misspent youth. The newer electronic ones don’t compel me to pump quarters into them.

CNN: >For 25 years Caballero has been outfitting the world’s VIPs with his stylish, bulletproof clothing line that shares his name. His client list includes Michael Bloomberg, Steven Seagal, King Fernando of Spain, and it’s rumored he made bulletproof attire for President Obama’s 2009 inauguration. > >”Several times I’ve shot my wife, I’ve shot my lawyer, my brothers, and I’ve shot myself,” Miguel Caballero told me, pointing to his abdomen. “It’s in order to get a good quality product.”

Style is timeless, while fashion is timely. Someone who is fashionable closely follows the latest fashion trends and wears wholesale screen printed shirts. Someone who is stylish may or may not follow fashion trends, but they always stay true to their own aesthetic. Personal style is about developing a sense of self, rather than simply absorbing trends. Fashion and style overlap in the street style that photographers capture outside of fashion shows. The subjects photographed are typically models, stylists, and fashion editors wearing the clothes of the designers whose shows they are attending, but they’ve taken the clothes and styled them to work for real life, effectively merging fashion with style just like clothing from this baby boutique online.

Much like the effortless blend of fashion and style seen in street photography, tech pants for men strike a balance between trendiness and personal flair. These pants offer a seamless integration of innovative design with practical features, reflecting the essence of modern menswear. The Jack Archer line, for instance, embodies this fusion perfectly, combining cutting-edge materials with a refined aesthetic. Crafted to adapt to both dynamic activities and casual settings, these tech pants ensure that every man can maintain his own unique style while embracing the latest advancements in fashion.

Style refers to a person’s particular way of expressing themselves—whether that’s through clothing, writing style, or a style of architecture. In the fashion world, “style” is usually shorthand for “personal style,” or the way an individual expresses themselves through aesthetic choices such as their clothing, accessories, hairstyle, and the way they put an outfit together.

Readdle has hired former Apple Mail engineering manager Terry Blanchard in a position that will focus on creating the “future of email” for Readdle’s popular email client “Spark,” working with an entirely new team of his choosing in Silicon Valley. Blanchard’s new role, per his LinkedIn page, is vice president of engineering for Readdle.

It’s hard to argue that this isn’t a good move for Readdle.

Business Insider:

As part of the iOS 10.3 update, Apple changed a basic part of how every iPhone and iPad works — its file system, or the way the computer stores data and knows where and how to find it.

With Monday’s update, Apple updated iPhones and iPads to its new Apple File System, upgrading from HFS+, which was developed over 30 years ago.

I don’t think Apple is getting enough credit for pulling this off without a hitch. Remarkable achievement.

This is a solid walkthrough of the new version of the latest rev of Apple’s iOS Security Guide.

If you are a fan of music, take a few minutes to dig through this multimedia piece by the New York Times. Year by year, you’ll make your way through the critical work in Chuck Berry’s catalog, focused on the beat and guitar licks he introduced to the world, each accompanied by covers of his songs, as well as songs that influenced his evolution and songs derived from his work.

Great job by Guilbert Gates and the Times multimedia team. The songs load instantly, stop on a dime, making it easy to quickly shift gears, control the pace. I love this.

[Via DF]

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

The MLB.com At Bat and NHL iOS applications have been updated today to take advantage of one of the new, but still under-the-radar features available in the just-launched version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 10.3: personalized home screen icons. That’s right — you now can replace either of these apps’ default icon with one featuring your favorite team’s logo instead.

These are terrific examples of custom icons at work. Makes me wonder if Apple implemented these in response to requests from MLB and the NHL.

Excuse me, gotta go change my icons.

British Business Energy:

The map above, shows the various electrical plugs and sockets used around the world. As you can see, few countries use just one type of plug or socket.

And:

The map was created by us by combining this map from Wikipedia, along with plug and socket types from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Here’s a link to the map. For more detail, check this Wikipedia page. Bookmark ’em both.

[H/T Aijaz Ansari]

This is a CNET headline that caught my eye:

Samsung store catches fire a day before Galaxy S8 announcement.

An omen?

Popular Mechanics:

How does the world’s largest police department balance the security of the spontaneous masses with the freedoms that make us who we are? The counterterrorism cops of the NYPD take us deep inside their extraordinary operation.

This is an utterly amazing operation and the balance the NYPD has to maintain between security and the revelers is remarkable.

Shutterbug:

National Geographic photographers are pretty much the cream of the crop when it comes to travel and adventure photography. And now you can get their advice for free with this pdf download of the “National Geographic Guide to Photography.”

The 15-page handbook includes beautiful images as well as succinct information on capturing great shots during your next adventure. And once you download the 11MB file you can upload it to the Cloud so you have it available wherever your travels take you.

The folks at National Geographic have forgotten more about photography than I will ever know.

Macworld:

While Macworld readers may already know these sorts of calls are a scam, it’s vital to alert friends, family, and colleagues about such calls and help immunize them from falling for it. Many of these services sound and act professional, and have been victimizing Windows users for years.

Below are some of the “tells” for me that it was a fraud, and that you can teach others about.

I’m seeing widespread reports of this call. Please warn your friends and family who aren’t tech savvy.

Quartz:

Registration for Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, opened today. And for the thousands of developers, engineers, and Apple acolytes hoping to spend $1,600 on a ticket and attend in June, they’ll find a new code of conduct that they’ll have to agree to before they can step foot in the convention.

The new policy, found on the conference’s registration page, goes into some depth about what sorts of behavior will not be tolerated at the conference. “Apple is committed to diversity and to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone,” it states. It also specifically lists what harassment could entail.

As mentioned by many on Twitter, the other notable aspect of this document is the plain English writing style. Very much appreciated by those of us who have to wade through such things.

The Verge:

Apple released iOS 10.3 yesterday with a new modern file system, but like any software update there are many undocumented changes. One particular change has been revealed through Apple engineer Renaud Lienhart‏, who works directly on the iOS operating system. “iOS 10.3 feels ‘snappier’ because many animations were slightly tweaked & shortened, for the better,” says Lienhart on Twitter.

Here’s the tweet:

iOS 10.3 feels “snappier” because many animations were slightly tweaked & shortened, for the better.

— Renaud Lienhart (@NotoriousBUGS) March 28, 2017

Why the snappiness?

Apple’s new file system in iOS 10.3, that’s rolling out to millions of iPhones and iPads, should help make the OS feel a little faster, too. As APFS is designed to be low latency, this should also improve read and write speeds on iOS devices. You won’t notice this immediately, but apps that write a lot of data to a disk (like video processing) might seem faster

Lots of people talking about this. My favorite quote? This, from John Gruber:

I upgraded my phone today, and it did seem to me that it took an unusual amount of time. Understandable, considering it was changing the file system. This is one of those things where if it all goes according to plan, normal people will have no idea it happened. But for us nerds, what Apple pulled off today seems almost impossible — tens of millions of devices are being upgraded to an altogether brand new file system, in place, silently. My sincere congratulations to Apple’s file system team on a job well done.

That’s the key. These last few months, I’ve been upgrading all my devices each time a new beta hits and have yet to encounter a problem. Apple really deserves kudos here.

UPDATE: Tiny nit, but a cricket told me the Verge got one detail wrong, that Richard Lienhart is no longer an Apple Engineer. Just passing that along. Story core still correct.

Small fonts an issue on your Mac, especially as your eyes get older? Rob Griffiths walks you through the solution, the Zoom tab in the System Preferences Accessibility pane. Good tips.

Jeff Banjamin, 9to5Mac, walks you through the new Apple TV remote app. Biggest plus? It’s now available on the iPad. Biggest complaint?

Unfortunately one of my main complaints about the initial Apple TV Remote app release — the lack of software volume controls — has yet to be addressed. I understand that the hardware version of the remote utilizes its built in IR blaster to communicate with a television, but it would be nice if there was a software provision for adjusting volume via the app.

UPDATE: As noted in the comments and on Twitter, this is an HDMI issue. If the TV supports HDMI-CEC, the remote can control volume.

A few highlights:

In 2016, Apple audited 705 suppliers and compliance with a 60-hour maximum work week reached 98%, an all-time high. Apple also tripled the number of supplier sites in the Energy Efficiency program, resulting in the reduction of over 150,000 metric tons of carbon emissions — the equivalent of taking 31,000 cars off the road for a year.

And:

For the first time, Apple suppliers achieved 100% UL Zero Waste to Landfill validation for all final assembly sites in China. Since 2013, Apple’s Clean Water program saved over 3.8 billion gallons of fresh water, enough to provide every person on the planet with 18 glasses of water.

And:

Apple’s responsible sourcing efforts expanded beyond conflict minerals to include cobalt for the first time. For the second year in a row, 100% of Apple’s tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG) smelters and refiners are participating in independent third-party audits.

And:

In 2016, Apple trained more than 2.4 million workers on their rights as employees.

Think about all the products you use every day. How many of the companies that produce those products spend their money this way, make these sorts of efforts?

Reminds me of the time a shareholder asked Tim Cook to consider only doing things that were profitable. Tim’s reply:

“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind,” he said, “I don’t consider the bloody ROI.” He said that the same thing about environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas where Apple is a leader.

Amen, Tim. Amen.

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There were a lot of updates on the security front.

Seriously, this is absolutely amazing.