In 2009, Steve Jobs received a liver transplant—not in northern California where he lived, but across the country in Memphis, Tennessee. Given the general complications of both travel and a transplant, Jobs’ decision may seem like an odd choice. But it was a strategic move that almost certainly got him a liver much more quickly than if Jobs had just waited for a liver to become available in California. Eight years later, the Apple founder’s procedure continues to highlight the state of transplants in the US: when it comes to organs, we have a big math problem.
Today, there’s a much greater need than there are organs to go around. It’s a problem currently being tackled in part by mathematicians and developers, who are crafting clever algorithms that aim to make organ allocation as fair as possible. But it’s complicated math that’s done against a backdrop of sticky ethical issues, and the debates surrounding it are heated and contentious.
The article digs into the complexities of distributing organs as they become available, and the process of deciding who qualifies. This truly is life or death decision making.
Fire up Apple Maps, switch to satellite (on the Mac, it’s the tab in the map window’s upper right corner, in iOS, the tab is hidden behind the info icon), then type Apple Park in the search box. You’ll want the Apple Park in Cupertino, CA. Fun exploring the map this way, though I’m looking forward to the finished product.
Tim Hardwick, MacRumors, on the CanMacWest security conference and the Pwn2Own hacking contest:
Independent hackers Samuel Groß and Niklas Baumstark landed a partial success and earned $28,000 after targeting Safari with an escalation to root on macOS, which allowed them to scroll a message on a MacBook Pro Touch Bar.
Check out the picture in the post. Imagine seeing a message like that crawling across your Touch Bar. On the positive side, these exploits have been turned over to Apple so they can be patched before the exploits are made public.
After using AirPods for the past three months, one takeaway relates to pricing. It is clear that Apple is underpricing AirPods. While this statement may sound outlandish considering that a pair of EarPods is included in every iPhone box, AirPods are not just any pair of headphones.
Yes, I do think the statement sounds outlandish. But reading the post, I do think Neil is on to something here (as he usually is). Apple seems to be shifting away from their typical high margin Apple Tax strategy, at least when it comes to AirPods and Apple Watch.
Contrary to the conclusions found in most headphone buying guides, AirPods should not be compared to lower-priced, wired headphones. These buying guides not only lean on sound quality to unfairly shortchange truly wireless headphones, but also misidentify why consumers want to buy wireless headphones in the first place. AirPods’ primary value proposition isn’t found with sound quality but rather with not having any wires. Accordingly, the product should be compared to other truly wireless headphones.
And those products are almost universally priced higher than $159. Same holds true for Apple Watch. Nice analysis here.
Why didn’t the people on the platform see all the snow on the tracks, see the speed of the train, and then use common sense to get the hell out of the way?
This is a great article by Jason Snell on some of the things that Apple may do in the future to help podcasting and those that make them. I honestly don’t think Apple will do anything to help the small podcaster, but they’ll do what they can to help the huge people in the business. In other words, exactly what they did with publications on Newsstand.
An homage to the lusted after, utterly mysterious Dumble Overdrive Special, the Fuchs Overdrive Supreme 50 Amplifier caught on with players nearly two decades ago, delivering smooth, complex overdrive, and deep, three-dimensional clean tones with endless headroom.
This new Brainworx amp plug-in made for Universal Audio sounds outstanding. I got it last night and will be giving it a go over the next few days. Watch the video and take a listen to the sound samples. Amazing.
When a group of Boston retirees learned that their feathered next-door neighbours were too cold to lay eggs, they busted out their needles and got to work.
My thanks to Twocanoes Software for sponsoring The Loop with Winclone 6 this week.
Winclone is the award-winning Mac app used to backup, clone, restore, and migrate Windows installed on your Boot Camp partition. Winclone 6 adds in a bunch of new features, including full compatibility with the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, ability to mount your Boot Camp partition as a writable volume, a fresh new look and much more.
Get 50% off all editions of Winclone 6 this week with coupon code THELOOP
In 1976, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak designed and built the Apple I, or Apple-1, the company’s first computer. Of the 175 sold, only 50 to 60 or so remain in existence, including just eight functioning ones, making the iconic machine a rare collector’s item worth significantly more than its original $666.66 price.
This one is coming up for auction in May. Here’s a video showing the Apple I at work:
Researchers at Cleveland Clinic put five popular wrist-worn fitness trackers to the test to find out how accurately they gauge heart rate across several types of exercise and intensity levels.
And:
The devices chosen for testing (Apple Watch, Fitbit Blaze, Garmin Forerunner 235, and TomTom Spark Cardio) were based on their popularity and sales figures. Researchers then recorded volunteers’ heart rates at rest and after light, moderate and vigorous exercise across three types of activities, including the treadmill, stationary bike and elliptical (with and without hand levers). Measurements on the wearable devices were compared to readings from the chest strap and EKG.
And:
While the watch-style heart rate monitors may accurately report heart rate at rest, and most were acceptable on the treadmill, they were fairly inaccurate while bicycling or using the elliptical. Of the wrist-worn heart rate monitors, only the Apple Watch provided accurate heart rate readings when participants switched to the elliptical trainer without arm levers; none gave correct measurements when they used arm levers. The wrist and forearm monitors also became less accurate the more intense the activity levels, with the exception of the Apple Watch.
Interesting about the arm levers. Seems to me, this should be part of Apple’s Apple Watch heart rate testing. But still, a solid result.
Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac, reviews a portable Apple Watch charger stick that not only comes with a built-in magnetic Apple Watch charging bubble, it also comes with a built-in USB-A port so you can top off your iPhone charge at the same time as you charge your watch.
Great concept. Wish all chargers had this. I’d never need to travel with that single-purpose Apple Watch cable again.
iOS 11 will all but surely be revealed at WWDC in June this year, and I would expect something to change on the lock screen there. So before Apple shows us what we’re getting in iOS 11, I decided to design my own new lock screen for iOS.
Matt has some excellent ideas here, designed to wring some usefulness from the lock screen, beyond checking the data and time and seeing notifications that have occurred since your last unlock.
I’ve long felt we should have the ability to fine tune what shows up on the lock screen and that Apple should open up the lock screen to developers. For example, I’d love to see the current temp/weather, along with my next appointment, on my lock screen.
Futuracha Pro is an Open Type Font, originally based on Futura, which includes a large set of ligatures which change dramatically depending on the letter before and after the letter you are typing. This concept is best seen in motion.
Watch the video below and jump to about 1:07 to watch the magic.
The key is the ever-expanding library of ligatures, which you can add to. Futuracha Pro is homing in on the end of its Indiegogo campaign, having long ago reached their original funding goal. This is definitely my favorite new font.
Thousands of Twitter accounts, including high profile ones belonging to users such as Forbes, Amnesty International, the BBC’s North American service, and tennis star Boris Becker were compromised on Wednesday morning, resulting in them tweeting propaganda related to Turkey’s escalating diplomatic conflict with Germany and the Netherlands.
All the compromised accounts were attacked through their use of a popular third-party analytics service, Twitter Counter.
There are captured images of a few of the tweets in the Guardian article.
This does beg the question: If your account was hacked, what do you do?
The accused men live in Russia and Canada, the source said, with the Canadian far more likely to face arrest. Russia has no extradition treaty with the United States.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve accepted a position with Apple’s Security Engineering and Architecture team, and am very excited to be working with a group of like minded individuals so passionate about protecting the security and privacy of others.
This decision marks the conclusion of what I feel has been a matter of conscience for me over time. Privacy is sacred; our digital lives can reveal so much about us – our interests, our deepest thoughts, and even who we love. I am thrilled to be working with such an exceptional group of people who share a passion to protect that.
Have you ever wondered why when you drive in reverse, your car makes that strange, high-pitched whine? Of course you have; you’re a human, or at least something close enough to a human to go on the internet, drive a car, and wonder. There’s actually a simple, satisfying reason why this happens, so let’s kick some ignorance to the curb.
I am mechanically incompetent and, while I’ve noticed this sound, I had no idea what created it. The explanation is actually kind of interesting.
Auto-play videos suck. They use bandwidth, and their annoying sounds get in the way when you’re listening to music and open a web page. I happen to write for a website that uses them, and it annoys me to no end. (My editors have no control over those auto-play videos, alas.)
But you can stop auto-play videos from playing on a Mac. If you use Chrome or Firefox, it’s pretty simple, and the plugins below work both on macOS and Windows; if you use Safari, it’s a bit more complex, but it’s not that hard.
The most egregious user of autoplay videos in the Mac community must be Macworld. The site has been taken over by marketing weasels and is a shadow of its (useful) former self.
Seventy years ago this week, the first Ferrari hit the streets of Maranello, Italy for a test drive. It was the 12-cylinder 125 S, the first to bear the name of Enzo Ferrari, and, naturally, the company wants to celebrate.
Along with a video re-creating the first time the 125 S rolled out of Ferrari’s modest garage, the company has published a website commemorating major achievements from Ferrari’s last 70 years — everything from Formula One wins and championships to the release of iconic vehicles like the 250 GTO, the F40, and the Enzo.
I’m sure we all have our favorite cars and car companies but I’ve always lusted after and drooled over Ferraris.
Real-life BFFs Maisie Williams (who plays Arya Stark) and Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa Stark) on Sunday teased they’re filming for Apple’s upcoming Carpool Karaoke spin-off.
I hate karaoke with a blinding passion but I love these two actresses and, if nothing else, I’ll watch this episode.
Security researchers at Stony Brook deliberately visited websites that try to trick visitors into thinking that their computers are broken, urging them to call a toll-free “tech support” number run by con artists that infect the victim’s computer with malware, lie to them about their computer’s security, and con them out of an average of $291 for “cleanup services.”
The researchers presented their findings — including recordings and transcripts of their interactions with the con artists — in a paper called Dial One for Scam: A Large-Scale Analysis of Technical Support Scams, which they presented at this year’s Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium. Over the course of 60 calls, they found that the con artists all followed a narrow script. By backtracking the con artists’ connections to their PCs, the researchers were able to determine that the majority of the scammers (85%) are in India, with the remainder in the USA (10%) and Costa Rica (5%).
While the vast majority of us wouldn’t be scammed like this, it’s a good piece to pass along to those we know who may not be as technically proficient as we are.
The first thing you’ll notice with Pandora Premium is that it takes fewer clicks to actually start playing music compared to Apple Music and Spotify. The app launches into My Music, which features a carousel of recently played albums and stations that can be played with one tap, something that requires switching tabs and searching through a list on Apple Music.
Perfect.
…it [Pandora] is curating the catalog to get rid of karaoke, tributes, and duplicate tracks, which it says will help to improve search.
Yes, thank you!
For its part, Pandora says it’s against long-term exclusives, and won’t get into the race between Apple Music and Tidal for windowed albums.
Pandora CEO Tim Westergren:
“In music, I don’t think that single albums command that kind of control over a service. If you have an exclusive you might get a short-term bump, but it’s not sustained. We don’t see that as important.”
Yes, exactly. A music service should focus on the experience of the user, not the short term bump that comes with album exclusives.
Pandora has opted for a staggered rollout plan for Premium on iOS and Android, with current users first in line. Existing users of Pandora’s free service will be able to test out Pandora Premium free for two-months, with invites to the trial beginning to roll out on March 15th. Pandora Plus users will get to try out Premium for six months for free, which is the best deal any streaming service has offered to date. Non-Pandora users will also have access to the two-month free trial…
Being an existing paid user, I’m looking forward to my six months free. After that, take my money. There are a lot of other great features listed in the review that is going to make listening and finding music really easy.
I still don’t enjoy airline travel, but I’ve done it enough that it no longer stresses me out to the same extent, even as dealing with invasive and unpleasant security requirements has gotten far worse. Plus, thanks to the Internet and the iPhone, the logistics have become vastly simpler. Being able to buy tickets, check in, and print boarding passes online was the first step, and the next major improvement came when Apple released the Passbook app, since renamed Wallet.
I’ve been using Passbook/Wallet as long as has been possible — it took smaller airports like Ithaca a while to get the necessary scanners — but as much as I liked eliminating the need for paper, there were many problems early on.
I don’t fly enough anymore to have been able to use the “new” Wallet (nee Passbook) but I remember when I did many years ago, it was a PITA. Has it gotten better, as Engst says in this article?
Recent films about Jim Henson’s famed Muppets have focused on single stars, including Carol “Big Bird” Spinney and Kevin “we don’t talk about him anymore” Clash, but Henson always manages to steal the story spotlight. You might think that Muppet Guys Talking, a documentary starring a whopping five Muppet-eers, might prove an exception to the rule.
Not a chance. If anything, this new film, directed by and co-starring the legendary Frank Oz, puts five times the focus on the man who made the Muppets—and may very well be the most touching and fully fledged tribute to the man since his 1990 memorial service in New York City.
I still have my child-like love of Muppets and an adoration of the work of these Muppeteers but Henson is irreplaceable and will always be missed.
This is an amazing visual catalog of the typography up and down Broadway in New York City. Each photo has a slide that reveals the font (in one direction) and the font in place on a building or sign (the other direction). Beautiful implementation.
This is a collection of photos that take you from the birth of Apple, through their early successes, then through the dark days leading to the return of Steve Jobs in 1997. Nice little one page walk through history.
One side bit of trivia: Gil Amelio, the CEO who brought Jobs back, was on the team that first demonstrated the charge-coupled-device, the hardware that made digital cameras possible.
A few years ago, backstage at a conference, I spotted a blind woman using her phone. The phone was speaking everything her finger touched on the screen, allowing her to tear through her apps. My jaw hit the floor. After years of practice, she had cranked the voice’s speed so high, I couldn’t understand a word it was saying.
And here’s the kicker: She could do all of this with the screen turned off. Her phone’s battery lasted forever.
Ever since that day, I’ve been like a kid at a magic show. I’ve wanted to know how it’s done. I’ve wanted an inside look at how the blind could navigate a phone that’s basically a slab of featureless glass.
This week, I got my chance. Joseph Danowsky offered to spend a morning with me, showing me the ropes.
Fascinating video, terrific article. A nice, detailed day in the life with VoiceOver. [Via DF]
