The day a shelter dog gets adopted is one of the happiest days of its life. No matter where an animal came from or what it’s been through, suddenly it knows that better times are ahead.
This is awesome.
This is just amazing. Little Ye, you truly rock. [Via Kottke]
Have a problem with an app purchased on the Mac or iOS app store, or via iTunes? Looking for a refund?
Apple’s got a page for that. Click the link, then enter your AppleID password. You’ll see a scrolling list of all your recent purchases, with a Report a Problem link for each one.
The list includes purchase for music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books. Good to know, pass it along.
[H/T Cabel Sasser]
I love the artwork here, glad they are still expanding the set to be ever more representational. As this set expands, we’re going to need better search tools. Scrolling through pages and pages of emoji is reaching a breaking point.
Text substitution is one solution. Keeping a page of recently used emoji (as iOS does now) is also helpful, though perhaps Apple could add in a pane of configurable favorites?
Note this, in bold letters on the Emojipedia page:
This update is not final and is subject to change.
Just something to keep in mind. And where’s that rimshot emoji?
As reported yesterday, Apple bought the Workflow app and team. This could be great news, assuming this signals a move on Apple’s part to open up the black box and give users the ability to automate pretty much everything their heart desires, something they’ve long been able to do on the Mac.
Federico Viticci, MacStories:
At this stage, it’s not clear what Apple’s plans for Workflow in the long term might be. I have a few theories, but this isn’t the time to speculate. I’ll say this, though: Workflow has been the driving force behind my decision to embrace the iPad as my primary computer. Workflow is a shining example of the power of automation combined with user creativity and its underlying mission has always been clear: to allow anyone to improve how iOS can get things done for them in a better, faster, more flexible way. Workflow is the modern bicycle for the mind. There’s nothing else like it.
In my mind, no one has embraced and written about Workflow quite as much as Federico. If you are interested in learning more about Workflow, download it here (it’s free), then dig into this archive of Federico’s Workflow articles.
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:
Following its release on Android today, Nintendo has also updated Super Mario Run on iOS. The update adds a host of new features and bug fixes and brings the app to version 2.0. The update comes months after the app’s initial release.
Headlining the update are new playable characters. Nintendo says the update adds different color versions of Yoshi. If you play with a certain color of Yoshi during Toad Rally, you can unlock more toads of that color.
Additionally, the update makes more of the game available for free. Nintendo says that by completing one of Bowser’s challenges, you can unlock the previously locked courses 1-4 and battle with Bowser. Furthermore, Nintendo says that if you “clear course 1-4,” you’ll get new courses to play in Toad Rally.
If you love the game, there’s just more to love. Me, I find the interface a bit of a mess. Lots to love, lots of frustrating design to go along with it.
On a side note, Android users finally got their first taste of Mario yesterday afternoon:
We've released #SuperMarioRun on Android a bit early! Download it now on Google Play: https://t.co/u4H9bycTyr pic.twitter.com/4nHnPWD9de
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 22, 2017
The initial release, back on December 15th, 2016, was an iOS exclusive. I suspect this refresh was to revive the wave, give Android folks a reason to buy.
Apple has finalized a deal to acquire Workflow today — a tool that lets you hook together apps and functions within apps in strings of commands to automate tasks. We’ve been tracking this one for a while but were able to confirm just now that the ink on the deal is drying as we speak.
This is a great app. Good purchase for Apple.
Algoriddim on Wednesday released an update for djay Pro for Mac, bring a host of new features including tight integration with Pioneer DJ’s newest CDJ set-ups. In fact, djay Pro is now certified by Pioneer. The update also brings enhanced Touch Bar integration on the new MacBook Pro, and Spotify Browse access.
Algoriddim and Pioneer DJ partnered to integrate djay Pro with the CDJ-2000NXS2 and TOUR1 from Pioneer. Users can now access Spotify and iTunes playlists directly from the CDJ screens including displaying colored waveforms, song information, and cue points.
djay Pro is the most modern way to DJ on your Mac,” said Karim Morsy, CEO of Algoriddim. “This new version adds a host of new features for live performance, music discovery, and preparation. It combines the best of both worlds, content discovery via Spotify and hardware access through Pioneer DJ’s state-of-the-art CDJ setups.”
I’ve known Karim for a number of years and have talked to him at length about music and his apps. This is a man that cares about the products he releases, but he also has a deep love and understanding of music. I can’t think of a better mix (pun intended) for someone that is making music apps.
If you remember when Apple unveiled the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro, Karim was one of the developers on stage during the keynote. Using the Touch Bar, users can scratch and slice a track, simultaneously apply filters and effects in real-time, and trigger audio samples. With this new update you can now manipulate two decks simultaneously, manually select the active deck, and to navigate the library to browse, preview, and prepare songs.
djay Pro featured integration with Spotify, but now it has extensive integration with Spotify’s Browse section, so DJs can now mix curated playlists and instantly discover new music by mood, genre, and popularity.
With the release of Team View, business owners and managers can now see the workload and availability for all their teams in one view. Appointments, tasks, and project due dates for today and the next few days are displayed for a whole team in Team View. Small business owners can now avoid interrupting their staff to figure out their workload and availability. Team View also includes additional productivity features so a user can send everyone on a team an email or invite everyone to a meeting with a click of a button.
Team View is a great overview for managers to see exactly what team members workloads are.
The (poor) dart player in me hates this but the guy in me who appreciates the effort loves it.
Today I Found Out:
You probably already knew that Disney has a habit of taking dark, twisted children’s fairy tales and turning them into sickeningly sweet happily-ever-afters.
The 1940 version of Pinocchio is no exception. The movie is based on a story that appeared as a serial in a newspaper called The Adventures of Pinocchio, written in 1881 and 1882 by Carlo Collodi. Jiminy Cricket appears as the Talking Cricket in the book, and does not play as prominent of a role.
The Disneyfication of many of our favourite childhood stories might be a good thing. If you read many of the original stories of so much of what Disney has shown us, you’ll find they are not only significantly different but, in many cases, really disturbing.
CNET:
The US has a very rough national regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles, so for now, it’s largely up to the states to figure it out. Of course, that means some cities are better suited for self-driving cars than others.
A new study from Inrix, which provides traffic analytics and other related services, ranks the 10 cities that it believes are best suited for the introduction of autonomous vehicles. Those cities are, in order: New Orleans, Albuquerque, Tucson, Portland, Omaha, El Paso, Fresno, Wichita, Las Vegas and Tulsa.
Now, that might be a strange list to you, because none of the cities mentioned have been in the news touting their willingness to accept self-driving cars.
One of the downsides of the self-driving future is it is coming in such a piecemeal fashion. Seemingly, every city and/or state will have their own laws and regulations regarding whether you can or cannot use self-driving technology.
Another great behind the scenes video from SNL.
I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip, hip hop, and you don’t stop.
If these words don’t mean anything to you, take a quick detour here first.
Delicious.
Bloomberg:
Amazon.com Inc.’s battle with Apple Inc. over digital assistants is moving to a new venue: hotel rooms, where Alexa and Siri are both vying to be the voice-controlled platform of choice for travelers.
Marriott International Inc., the world’s biggest lodging company, is testing devices from the two tech giants at its Aloft hotel in Boston’s Seaport district to determine which is best to let guests turn on lights, close drapes, control room temperature and change television channels via voice command. In December, Wynn Resorts Ltd. became the first hotel company to install Alexa-powered Echo devices, starting with suites at its flagship Wynn Las Vegas property.
This is a fascinating business conflict. Let’s say Marriott chooses Alexa and Hilton chooses Siri. Will Apple folks shift their staying habits, choosing to stay at a Siri friendly hotel? Is this forced choice good business? Is there a way to support both? I see a business opportunity for an Echo-like device that supports multiple personalities, translating requests into the appropriate format with an exposed setting that lets you pick your favorite.
Mikey Campbell, writing for AppleInsider:
Introduced as part of iTunes 12.6, which is rolling out to users as of this writing, the “rent once, watch anywhere” feature lets customers watch content rentals on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 10.3 or Apple TVs running tvOS 10.2. Those operating system versions have yet to move out of beta, suggesting a launch in the next few days.
Prior to the change, rented movies were largely relegated to the device on which they were purchased. For example, a film rented on an iPad or Apple TV could not be transported to iPhone, or vice versa.
Huzzah. The one rental, one device model was painfully archaic. Long overdue.
Kirk McElhearn, in a Kirkville post:
Remember how you liked having playlists in their own windows? Well, it’s back in the latest iTunes update. Right-click on a playlist and choose Open Playlist in New Window.
Two good things in a single update. Nice.
Sarah Perez, Tech Crunch:
Amazon has quietly rolled out the “Send to Kindle” feature to its Kindle for iOS application that allows you to save to the app articles and documents found on the web. That means your Kindle device or app can replace your preferred “read it later” application — like Pocket or Instapaper, for example — apps where regular web readers often store the longer news articles, features or profiles they want to dig into at a later date.
Not sure of the impact of this move. I use the Kindle app to read books. And that’s it. Not sure the ability to “Send to Kindle” will even get an experimental look. Where’s the value? I can share everything to an app designed from the ground up for article or PDF reading. Why shift that workflow to run through Kindle?
Nick Heer, Pixel Envy:
I’m not convinced, though, that Clips is a serious competitor. I think it’s a perfectly fine app; the Live Titles feature — which makes onscreen captions based on what’s being said — is especially cool. But Clips is separate from Messages, so there are more steps between starting to capture a moment and showing it off.
Time will tell if Clips gains traction. One thing Apple has done is add more importance to Messages, complementing the addition of stickers and the Messages app store.
Jon Russell, TechCrunch:
The (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition iPhone 7 is the first time that Apple has supported the charity through its flagship phone, — previous (PRODUCT)RED editions have included Beats headphones and Apple accessories — so it is sure to heighten international awareness and generate additional funds since each purchase includes a contribution to the charity. The limited edition iPhone will go up for sale in over 40 parts of the world starting this Friday, but one market where the charitable tie-in will go unnoticed is China, the world’s largest country based on population.
Despite the potential for sales in China — where iPhones are status symbols, and a unique color can make a limited edition release particularly desirable — the red iPhone is not being promoted using the (PRODUCT)RED branding.
And:
Apple, which has been caught in the political crosshairs in China over its purported use of location data and President Trump’s aggressive trade policies, is likely steering clear of controversy here by decoupling the device’s association with [Red]. That applies to both authorities and consumers, too.
A difficult situation for Apple. Clearly, this is a cause in which they believe, no question. But compromise won out here, in deference to the need to build their business in China. Tough call.
If you use Flickr, read and pass along.
The Hungarian government is planning to implement a law that would ban all symbols that refer to Nazi occupation or communist suppression, which according to them, includes the red star on Heineken’s logo. This means that Heineken may be forced to change its label in Hungary, RTL Nieuws reports.
Damn.
Not only did Apple introduce a new iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch bands, the company also unveiled a new iOS app called Clips.
According to Apple, Clips is “a new app that makes it quick and fun for anyone to create expressive videos on iPhone and iPad. The app features a unique design for combining video clips, photos and music into great-looking videos to share with friends through the Messages app, or on Instagram, Facebook and other popular social networks.”
Clips features effects like comic book filters, speech bubbles, shapes and full-screen animated posters. Clips also introduces Live Titles, a feature that lets users create animated captions and titles using just their voice.
The best part about Clips is how easy it is to use. From Apple’s description:
Clips lets users create multi-clip videos on iPhone or iPad without timelines, tracks or complicated editing tools. Touch and hold a single button to shoot live video and photos, or add them from the Photo Library. Then add artistic filters, speech bubbles, shapes or emoji. Users can also add full-screen posters with animated backgrounds and customizable text. Clips has dozens of music soundtracks to choose from, and they automatically adjust to match the length of a video.
With Live Titles in Clips, users can add animated captions and titles using just their voice. Captions are generated automatically as a user speaks, and appear on screen perfectly synced with the user’s voice. Users can mix and match different styles, and tap any title to adjust text and punctuation, or even add inline emoji. Live Titles supports 36 different languages.
Apple said Clips will be available on the App Store for free beginning in April, and is compatible with iPhone 5s and later, the new 9.7-inch iPad, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad mini 2 and later, and iPod touch 6th generation. Devices must be running iOS 10.3.
Apple on Tuesday released a number of new Apple Watch bands to help you accessorize your watch. There are quite a few new options that are broken down into three categories.
The first category is simply called Apple Watch and features Sport in Pebble, Azure and Camellia; Woven Nylon in Berry, Tahoe Blue, Orange, Red, Pollen and Midnight Blue; and Classic Buckle with new buckle design in Sapphire, Berry and Taupe.
The second category is Apple Watch Nike+ and come in Anthracite/Black, Pure Platinum/White, and Volt/Black. New Apple Watch Nike+ models will include 38mm and 42mm Space Grey Aluminum Case with Anthracite/Black Sport Band and 38mm and 42mm Silver Aluminum Case with Pure Platinum/White Sport Band, according to Apple.
The final category is Apple Watch Hermès. The Hermès bands include a 38mm Double Tour in Bleu Zéphyr Epsom leather; 38mm Double Buckle Cuff in Fauve Barenia leather; 42mm Single Tour in Lime Epsom leather; and a 42mm Single Tour in Colvert Swift leather.
Apple on Tuesday released a new 9.7-inch iPad, which is even cheaper than the iPad mini 4. Starting at $329, the iPad features everything you would expect from Apple in an entry level device.
iPad features an A9 chip and a 2048‑by‑1536 resolution display. It comes with an 8-megapixel camera, a 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera, and shoots video at 1080p. The cameras have all of the conveniences we’ve come to expect like autofocus, tap to focus, and face detection, but it doesn’t support Live Photos.
iPad also has a two speaker audio system and it supports Touch ID.
“iPad is the world’s most popular tablet. Customers love the large, 9.7-inch display for everything from watching TV and movies, to surfing the web, making FaceTime calls, and enjoying photos, and now it is even more affordable,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “New customers and anyone looking to upgrade will love this new iPad for use at home, in school, and for work, with its gorgeous Retina display, our powerful A9 chip, and access to the more than 1.3 million apps designed specifically for it.”
This seems like the perfect entry level iPad to me. It has all the power you need to run apps, take photos and videos, and do it all at an affordable price.
From Apple’s press release:
Apple today announced iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition in a vibrant red aluminum finish, in recognition of more than 10 years of partnership between Apple and (RED). This gives customers an unprecedented way to contribute to the Global Fund and bring the world a step closer to an AIDS-free generation. The special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone will be available to order online worldwide and in stores beginning Friday, March 24.
I have to say, those are some gorgeous looking iPhones.
If you make your way over to the Apple Store site this morning, you’ll see something like this:
According to Apple’s System Status page, the site went down for maintenance at 3a PT (early Tuesday morning). There are no media events scheduled for today, so this could be a site update.
But conjecture abounds, with most of the focus being on speed bump updates of the existing iPad line. Though there are some who suggest an updated iPhone SE, a new 10.5 inch iPad Pro, and a few other goodies.
Keep your eyes peeled, folks. My bet? This ain’t just maintenance.
Brian knows his gear. Take a few minutes to read his first post and throw some suggestions Brian’s way. I’m looking forward to watching this site evolve.
Have your heart set on a speedy new Mac Pro? Given that nothing appears to be on the horizon from Apple, your best bet is to build your own Hackintosh. For about $2,000 you can have a tower machine that will run macOS, Windows, and Linux, with benchmarks way faster than the fastest Mac Pro Apple currently sells.
Here are two case studies to help ease the learning curve:
Both builds are based on the excellent TonyMacX86 build guides. The TonyMacX86 site is an incredible resource, one that cannot be appreciated enough. Before you take on your own Hackintosh build, take some time to go through the site, get your head around all the resources available there. And if the site serves you, consider making a donation (home page, upper left corner).
I’d also make your way through both of the Dan case studies above just to get a sense of the process and, most importantly, to understand the caveats that come with building a Hackintosh.
As Dan Counsell says at the end of his writeup:
I’ve been running this machine for a couple of weeks now and I couldn’t be happier. It’s super fast and I can easily switch between Mac and Windows. I’ve switched off auto-updates in Sierra. While system updates should work just fine, I prefer to hold off until the community over at tonymacx86 have confirmed there are no issues. This is probably one of the major drawbacks to running a Hackintosh.
Caveat emptor. Have fun. Tweet at me if you build or start to build your own Hackintosh.
DoorDash is putting a small fleet of six-wheeled delivery robots into action for the first time in Redwood City, California following weeks of tests. The robots, built by a company called Starship Technologies, are about the size of a golden retriever and roll around sidewalks with relative ease. They’ll be used to lug food from restaurants to customers on short-distance orders, spanning anywhere from one to two miles.
This is starting on Thursday. I think it’s cool as hell—I’m going to give it a try for sure.