First things first, the draft 2017 emoji list has been finalized. Here’s the official list (follow the link and search for “2017 Emoji List”).
Part of the evolution of emoji is the portrayal of gender. To truly understand the newest emoji, read the excellent What is Gender and and Why Does it Matter to Emoji?, which does an excellent job telling the story of emoji and its history with gender.
From the post:
Filling out the middle of the spectrum, we have a set of three new people emoji with inclusive gender, characters that were conceived to represent all people regardless of gender.
These emoji are intended to depict a child, an adult, and an older person. I proposed the addition of the gender inclusive emoji characters in order to provide better representation for people who want to express themselves in emoji as exactly that: just people.
Not everyone identifies as male or female. Some of us identify as a bit of both, or neither, or something else altogether. Regardless of your gender identity, I hope we can all find adequate ways to express ourselves in emoji.
And finally, thought you might find it interesting to see an actual proposal for change to the Unicode Consortium, the group that has final say on emoji.
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.
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An eatery in Trenton, NJ, previously known as Weedman’s Joint — that sells food only in a weed-themed setting — is rebranding as “Weedbukx”. I give it 30 days before Starbucks AND Exxon file a trademark suit against them.
This week I’m joined by iMore’s Rene Ritchie to talk about WWDC and its move to San Jose; Tim Cook’s assertion that creative pros are important to Apple; The MacBook Pro and Mac Pro; iPad sales; and Pandora Premium.
I am so happy to announce that for the seventh straight year I’ll be holding a party at WWDC as a way to say thank you to developers. The party is being held at the City National Civic Center in San Jose—directly across the street from WWDC. The event will be on Monday, June 5, 2017 from 8-12 am.
Apple on Monday kicked off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference ticket lottery. This gives developers the opportunity to purchase a ticket for the event, but doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get one.
“The opportunity to buy tickets to WWDC 2017 is offered by random selection. Register by Friday, March 31 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for your chance to join thousands of others coming together to change the world,” according to Apple’s web site.
The company is also providing information on a number of other developer events that are being held in conjunction with WWDC that Apple dubs “Beyond WWDC.” Events include the Beard Bash, a party that I put on every year, John Gruber’s Talk Show, Layers, and others.
Register for your ticket! I look forward to seeing you there.
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives votes on an already-passed joint resolution from the Senate. This bill would repeal the FCC’s 2016 privacy rules on how ISPs can and can’t use your private data.
In plain English: If you connect to the internet using a service like Charter, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, or others, those companies are currently bound against doing certain things with your data. By passing this bill, Congress (and the President) would remove that barrier.
Regardless of the “I don’t have anything to hide” argument, this is something everyone should be concerned with.
Costco is a retailing colossus. Its worldwide sales trail only those of Walmart, which has 11,528 stores to Costco’s 715, and Amazon, which just climbed into second place. Costco is the world’s largest seller of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine (!), and it moves more nuts than Planters. Its private label, Kirkland Signature, which sells everything from packaged goods and beverages to apparel, generates more revenues than the Coca-Cola Co.
But Costco, big as it is, prides itself on not being your typical multibillion-dollar company. That is where the culture comes in.
Costco became a phenomenon by doing things its own way. But with Amazon ever more powerful, millennial shoppers burgeoning, and a new generation of leaders awaiting its turn, can the company preserve its edge?
I’m not a big box store fan but this story about Costco was fascinating.
The BeatsX headphones fix my biggest annoyance with the AirPods, which is their reliance on Siri. BeatsX has a microphone so you can use Siri to queue up music or make a phone call, but since the two earbuds are connected with a wire, there’s room for a three-button remote, which lets you adjust the volume and control playback without getting Siri involved.
That’s a really big deal. The BeatsX also offers superior comfort, longer battery life, and more convenient charging, but just the existence of the inline remote makes these the winner over the $159 AirPods. BeatsX even costs $9 less and comes in colors. It’s barely a contest, unless you’re totally hooked on the AirPods’ wire-free style.
Everyone rightfully raves about the AirPods but they are not necessarily the best for everyone. Read this review for info about the new BeatsX.
Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] suspended its pilot program for driverless cars on Saturday after a vehicle equipped with the nascent technology crashed on an Arizona roadway, the ride-hailing company and local police said.
That doesn’t sound good, but…
The accident occurred when the driver of a second vehicle “failed to yield” to the Uber vehicle while making a turn, said Josie Montenegro, a spokeswoman for the Tempe Police Department.
I’m not sure that any car, driverless or not, could have avoided a crash in this situation.
Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Monday it plans to sell refurbished versions of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that were pulled from markets due to fire-prone batteries.
Click through to the ad, then either click (or tap) to step through the pages or, if you are on a larger display, click the magnifying glass for a larger version.
I found the whole thing fascinating. Guns without orange tips, a full size 10-speed bike for $69.99, a Nintendo set that came with a robot, so much chewy goodness.
The tip: If you use Apple Maps on a regular basis, take a moment to fire up the Settings App and make your way to:
Settings > Maps > Driving & Navigation
Look over the page. Among other settings, here’s where you can tell Apple Maps to avoid Tolls and Highways. You can also enable the Compass on your directions page.
The lesson: Where to hide the settings has long been a decision for app developers and their choice might not always be obvious. For example, Apple Maps has a switch to turn Traffic on an off. That switch is embedded behind the info icon (upper right corner of the Maps main view). But the switches for Tolls are in Settings.
Bottom line, if you did not know to look, the Tolls switch would be difficult to find. If you go to the Settings search box (drag down on the main Setting page) and type Tolls, nothing shows up. So you are left to search the tree of possibilities.
Or, more likely, head to Google and find your answer there, as I did on this OSXDaily post.
I normally avoid these slide show advertising buckets, but this is Jason Snell and, per usual, he does a nice job. In this case, he walks through a set of 25 examples of Workflow in action. If you’ve never used the app, make your way through the examples to get a sense of what Workflow can do.
The US-UK ban on selected electronic devices from the passenger cabins of flights from some countries in north Africa and the Middle East was partly prompted by a previously undisclosed plot involving explosives hidden in a fake iPad, according to a security source.
When it was sneakers and underwear, they did not ban sneakers and underwear. This seems arbitrary at best.
Drake’s latest project More Life was streamed 300 million times worldwide in its first week on Apple Music, Republic Records tells The Verge, surpassing the 250 million streams the label said Views, an Apple Music exclusive, did in its first week last year. The biggest first week for any album on a single service is Ed Sheeran’s Divide, which was streamed 375 million times on Spotify. The label also says early calculations for More Life have it at around 600 million streams worldwide, which would be a record for an album.
Drake has been tied at the hip with Apple Music since it launched in 2015, releasing a series of exclusive songs and albums through the service and on OVO Sound Radio, with his co-manager Oliver El-Khatib serving as the usual host. And More Life debuted on the most recent episode. “What we saw on Drake’s radio show were TV numbers,” says Jimmy Iovine. The episode set the record for the most listened to Beats 1 show to date.
Engadget: >Japanese toilets have long been a mainstay in Asian households, but the concept is still something of a curiosity in much of the Western world. Toto, Japan’s biggest toilet maker, has attempted to market its high-tech commodes to American audiences for decades with little success. The company is trying to change all this with a brand new “experiential” showroom that launched this week in San Francisco. It’s called Concept 190, and it’s equipped with four sensor-laden bathrooms where visitors are invited to pee, poo and have a toilet experience unlike anything they’ve had before.
I experienced Toto toilets in Tokyo. Mind-blowing tech for something so “simple”. Maintaining a clean and efficient toilet system such as this one is essential for every home, and items like septic tank bacteria play a crucial role in achieving this. These products are specifically designed to enhance the health of your septic system by introducing beneficial bacteria that break down organic waste, grease, and other materials. By doing so, they prevent clogs, reduce odors, and minimize the risk of costly repairs or backups. Septic tank bacteria are especially beneficial for households relying on septic systems, as they ensure the tank operates at peak efficiency, reducing the need for frequent pumping. Additionally, these bacteria help maintain a balanced ecosystem within the septic tank, promoting the natural decomposition process and prolonging the system’s lifespan. Regular use of septic tank bacteria is an environmentally friendly approach, as it reduces the reliance on harsh chemicals that can harm plumbing and disrupt the delicate balance of the septic system.
If you aren’t using two-factor authentication to protect your Apple ID and iCloud account, you really should do it today. Hackers who claim to have millions of stolen iCloud credentials are demanding Apple pay a ransom or they’ll release them—and ZDNet obtained a sample set of credentials and determined they’re real.
But guess what? Using two-factor authentication should protect you completely. It’s easy to set up, so take a minute and do it now.
Do it. Do it now. Yes, it’s inconvenient and a PITA. But one day, you’ll thank me.
Apple today released a revised version of iTunes 12.6, which appears to eliminate a hidden option that may have accidentally been built into the software release.
Shortly after the original release of iTunes 12.6 on Tuesday, a reddit user discovered a “Show on Profile Page” toggle on a Playlist edit page.
Apple is quite clearly looking at social networking in iTunes once again. It makes me cringe to think that they are still trying to be social with music. I suppose it’s another place they can push artists that they pay millions of dollars to have exclusive rights to their music.
My thanks to Twocanoes Software for sponsoring The Loop with SD Clone 3 this week.
If you do any projects that use SD cards (like the Raspberry Pi), check out SD Clone. SD Clone makes an exact copy of your SD card right on your Mac and makes it easy to restore back to either a single SD card or multiple SD cards at once. You’ve spent a lot of time getting a Raspberry Pi project exactly right and want to make an image of your SD card to protect all that work. SD Clone makes creating an image simple. If you want to make multiple of copies of that SD card to start shipping your project, SD Clone restores up to 8 SD cards at once, making it super fast to do something that was slow and painful before. SD Clone can also check any SD card to make sure it is not failing or isn’t a counterfeit. Learn about these features and more here.
The iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED and iPad were announced earlier this week, and both products are now available to order from Apple’s online store. I did an unboxing of the new iPhone 7 if you’re interested in seeing what it looks like before you buy.
David Chartier, writing about an experience at AltConf in 2015, when the Apple Watch was brand new:
It was a good keynote, but my favorite part happened in the Metreon theater. About 50 minutes in, a cacophony of Apple Watches all beeped nearly at once—according to the Activity features, it was time for us to stand.
Apple said on Tuesday that Swift Playgrounds would be available in Simplified Chinese. Swift Playgrounds is an app, only available on iPads, that helps kids learn to code through games. Not only does Playgrounds help kids learn to code, but it teaches them Apple’s new coding language, Swift, released in 2014.
And:
Getting kids hooked has historically been part of Apple’s long game for the iPad — Steve Jobs once told Barack Obama that it was “absurd” that teachers still used chalkboards instead of iPads.
This is an important move that got little attention. This is Apple paying great attention to the details in opening up the iOS device market in China, paving the way via education. Smart.
This is like an external keyboard case with a slot for an iPhone (or an iPad), except with this model, there’s an external display that is driven by the iOS device’s processor.
Neat idea. A bit of a missing link between iOS and macOS.
