Visual and user interface designer Max Rudberg compares the touch down state (the visual change when you press, but before you release, a button) in Apple Watch, Android, and iOS. There are excellent animated GIFs for each example.

Max makes his case well. By comparison, iOS does feel a bit stiff.

iOS comes with a built in magnifying glass, perfect for reading fine print, clarifying small detail. The linked post walks through the setup and use. Nicely done.

Christian Zibreg, iDownloadBlog:

A developer-only preview of what would become the macOS Sierra 10.12.4 software update references a total of eight next-generation MacBook Pro models with the latest Kaby Lake processors from Intel.

Lower power consumption and, more importantly, support for 32GB of RAM. Interesting and inevitable.

UPDATE: A little birdie tells me that Kaby Lake’s built-in memory controller does not support 32GB RAM. So the move to Kaby Lake does not necessarily mean we’ll see Macs with 32GB RAM without the addition of a separate memory controller.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. has hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, the former head of Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV unit, as a vice president in charge of Apple TV product marketing and shifted the executive who previously held the job to a spot negotiating media content deals.

The moves suggest a renewed focus on the Apple TV and on providing more content for the device, an effort that has been stalled in the past by failed negotiations.

This feels like a recognition that the Apple TV was stalled and a change to get things moving again.

And this from Jason Snell:

The way this reads, Apple TV is getting a product leader who reports to Phil Schiller, while Eddy Cue’s group keeps control over dealmaking. I wonder if this means the Apple TV product will get more of a chance to be a good product, separate from Apple’s content deals. Too often the Apple TV has seemed like an empty box for Apple’s content deals (or would-be content deals), rather than a product that was striving to be the best it could be.

The Apple TV, while somewhat frustrating, has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, this is an area where Apple’s competition—from Amazon, Roku, and Google—is extremely strong, and with products that cost a fraction of what the Apple TV costs. The Apple TV’s strongest advantages right now are artificial ones, namely exclusive access to iTunes content and AirPlay. It’s not a bad box, but it needs to be better. Maybe this change is a sign that Apple knows that, too?

Exactly.

As much as I may disagree with Apple Music’s focus, I do agree with this.

Yet despite competition from Spotify, Jay Z’s Tidal, and others, Iovine doesn’t believe that streaming has to become a winner-take-all proposition.

“Not if streaming is done right,” he says. What “right” means is that each service is culturally different, he explains, so that each has a different feel. “Yeah, they all have the same catalog, but what we’re doing is we’re just building on top of that. That’s where the personality and the feel will come from.”

I only wish that Apple’s culture included less pandering to celebrities and more focus on the user experience, as well as including a wider variety of musicians and genres they are willing to promote. I doubt that will happen, but one can hope.

PCWorld:

Nope, you don’t have to settle for itty-bitty text on your iPhone screen, nor must you deal with buttons that don’t look anything like buttons. Once you know which settings to change, you can boost the size of on-screen text on your iPhone or iPad, make words a bit more bold, zoom in with a virtual magnifying glass, warm up—or cool off—Night Shift, and more.

As I get older and my eyesight gets worse, I use some of these tips. They’re not just for the visually disabled – they’re for us “old folks” too.

USAToday:

Stung by criticism that Twitter has allowed harassment and abuse to spread unchecked and under growing pressure from Wall Street to deliver growth, CEO Jack Dorsey has pledged “a completely new approach to abuse.” Twitter’s vice president of engineering Ed Ho said last week the company will keep working on combating abuse “until we’ve made a significant impact that people can feel.”

The pledges have been met with skepticism from critics. Twitter is out to prove that it’s taking safety on the platform seriously with a new set of updates that begin rolling out Tuesday. The changes will give users more control over what they see on the social media service, Twitter says.

The “again” part of the headline is key. Twitter has let this problem go on far too long and has done far too little to combat it. We’ll see if these new measures actually do anything.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the day that Apple finalized the acquisition of NeXT Software, Inc.

If you had invested in Apple on that day, you would have a made a pretty penny. Consider this tweet from Charles Arthur:

Apple’s stock price was $0.56 (split-adjusted). Today: $130. A thousand shares then cost $560; now worth $130,000. https://t.co/xfD6gUicoD

— Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) February 7, 2017

That’s one hell of a return.

[H/T Oliver Thomas]

Reuters:

But what was most striking to those who worked on the project was Apple managers’ insistence on treating the construction of the vast complex the same way they approach the design of pocket-sized electronics.

Apple’s in-house construction team enforced many rules: No vents or pipes could be reflected in the glass. Guidelines for the special wood used frequently throughout the building ran to some 30 pages.

Tolerances, the distance materials may deviate from desired measurements, were a particular focus. On many projects, the standard is 1/8 of an inch at best; Apple often demanded far less, even for hidden surfaces.

And:

Apple’s novel approach to the building took many forms. Architect German de la Torre, who worked on the project, found many of the proportions – such as the curve of a rounded corner – came from Apple’s products. The elevator buttons struck some workers as resembling the iPhone’s home button; one former manager even likened the toilet’s sleek design to the device.

But de la Torre ultimately saw that Apple executives were not trying to evoke the iPhone per se, but rather following something akin to the Platonic ideal of form and dimension.

Fascinating read. Skip the video.

Daniel Steinberg:

I was an early embracer and adopter of iBooks Author. I could produce beautiful books. The software was initially frustrating but they improved it in significant ways early.

Then they stopped.

And:

iBooks Author could have been a trojan horse into the personal publishing business. It would have been classic Apple. Instead of small authors going to Amazon’s platform, they would have started with iBooks Author. Apple should have made it easy for them to push to Amazon as well. Why? Because these people wanted to publish on Amazon but they weren’t considering publishing with Apple. Thousands of authors would have come to Apple to create content and stayed with Apple after publishing content there.

Daniel Steinberg knows of which he speaks. He’s an excellent writer, and dedicates himself to teaching others. If you get the chance to hear one of his talks, do so. More to the point, he’s no curmudgeon.

A post worth reading, especially if you care about books and teaching.

Jordan Kahn, 9to5Mac:

Apple is planning to adopt a new connector type for accessories for iPhone, iPad and other Apple devices through its official Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing program. Dubbed the “Ultra Accessory Connector” (UAC), Apple has recently launched a developer preview of the new connector type to prepare manufacturing partners for the component that in some cases will replace the use of Lightning and USB connectors, according to sources familiar with the program.

I can see the benefit of a smaller footprint for tiny devices. Question is, will this be a new standard for all devices or purely for the smallest? And will there be an easy adapter that you can pop onto the end of a Lightning connector, or will this require an all new set of cables?

UPDATE: From this Ars Technica post:

A 9to5Mac report making the rounds today claims that Apple would be adding support for a new connector to its “Made For iPhone” accessory licensing program. Dubbed the “Ultra Accessory Connector” or “UAC” in Apple’s documentation, the report claims this is a new port, smaller than Lightning or USB-C, that could be used to charge devices or transfer data.

In reality, the UAC is just Apple’s name for a port that is already used in some digital cameras and other accessories—Apple has just given it a new moniker. Currently, it goes by a few different titles: Mitsumi calls it an “Ultra Mini Connector” and Nikon calls it a “UC-E6” cable. In any case, it appears to be just another connector for the regular-old USB spec. When contacted for comment, Apple told us that it was adding the port to the MFi program at the request of licensees, not because it’s trying to push licensees to support a new kind of connector.

Google Developers Blog:

Today, we’re adding a feature to the AMP integration in Google Search that allows users to access, copy, and share the canonical URL of an AMP document.

My biggest issue with AMP is the difficulty in turning a Google-AMP formed URL back into a non-AMP URL I can share. For example, here’s an AMP formed URL from the Google News page:

https://news.google.com/news/amp?caurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Famphtml %2Flocal%2Feducation%2Fsenate-to-vote-today-on-confirmation-of-betsy-devos%2F2017%2F02%2F06%2Ffd4b7e9c-ec85-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html#pt0-135000

As you can plainly see, the original URL is encoded, then wrapped. Only way to easily pass this along is to send your recipient through Google’s site, not to the site that wrote the story in the first place. The biggest issue I have here is that of supporting the creator here. They deserve the page views.

More from the Google blog:

Today, we’re adding support for this functionality in form of an anchor button in the AMP Viewer header on Google Search. This feature allows users to use their browser’s native share functionality by long-tapping on the link that is displayed.

This is an excellent first step. Basically, even if the URL is encoded (as shown above), you can still click on the anchor button to copy the original URL. However, if you click in Safari’s address bar, you’ll still see the encoded URL.

My 2 cents: I’d love it if Apple offered a way to opt out of AMP. As Google says in the blog, AMP opens the door to confusion, makes URL phishing harder to detect since all URLs are harder to read, and the original URL hidden from the user.

The Federal Trade Commission:

Starting in 2014, Vizio made TVs that automatically tracked what consumers were watching and transmitted that data back to its servers. Vizio even retrofitted older models by installing its tracking software remotely. All of this, the FTC and AG allege, was done without clearly telling consumers or getting their consent.

And:

On a second-by-second basis, Vizio collected a selection of pixels on the screen that it matched to a database of TV, movie, and commercial content. What’s more, Vizio identified viewing data from cable or broadband service providers, set-top boxes, streaming devices, DVD players, and over-the-air broadcasts. Add it all up and Vizio captured as many as 100 billion data points each day from millions of TVs.

And, worst of all:

Vizio then turned that mountain of data into cash by selling consumers’ viewing histories to advertisers and others. And let’s be clear: We’re not talking about summary information about national viewing trends. According to the complaint, Vizio got personal. The company provided consumers’ IP addresses to data aggregators, who then matched the address with an individual consumer or household.

Holy shit!

Hollywood Reporter:

Sidney Poitier was the first choice for president; Bill Clinton was a fan; and Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme created a show “about democracy run by a couple of Kim Jong-ils”: an oral history of the heady, liberal, poli-sci fantasy, 15 years after NBC greenlighted it.

I think this show is in the top five of all time best. I still watch it in its entirety every few years. It tailed off in the last few seasons but it was always watchable.

Super Bowl Commercials:

If you love Super Bowl commercials even half as much as we do, then this is just for you. Because when it comes to Super Bowl advertisers, you can get all the news here. Sure the game was pretty unforgettable, but luckily for us, so were many of the ads!

Learn who advertised in Super Bowl 2017 and watch all the best Big Game ads, teasers, extended cuts and more!

Unless you are one of those fans who watched the six plus hours of pre-show, you might not have seen all the commercials and their associated pre-game teasers.

Wired:

The best Super Bowl halftime shows leave indelible memories, be it a notorious wardrobe malfunction, that goofy Left Shark, or every last second of Beyoncé’s two appearances. It’s too soon to say whether anything Lady Gaga did tonight will resonate, but at least she offered something new: An army of dancing drones, ducking and dodging over the Houston skyline, transforming from stars to a fluttering flag.

It’s probably the first time you’ve seen 300 drones flying in formation, but it’s almost certainly not the last.

I’d heard rumors of this and was interested to see how they would pull it off. Looks like it went really well.

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Fascinating documentary on PBS about the race to build the first subway. Turns out the Great Blizzard of 1888 was the trigger, crippling the entire northeast of the United States, heaping up to 40 feet of snow in places, shutting down all transportation.

Well worth watching.

Rene Ritchie:

When iPhone first came out, it was cool but it wasn’t some abstract coolness that made people’s eyes light up. It was the specific coolness of pinch-to-zoom in Photos or Maps, or Cover Flow in iPod. Those were immediately, undeniably cool.

When Apple Watch first came out, I had trouble finding a similar demo. It didn’t help that Watch wasn’t a minimally delightful product in the same way as iPhone. Apple introduced it with a bevy of features which made isolating one as the go-to demo harder: Mickey may have made people smile but it didn’t make them want to immediately rush out and buy.

And:

But Apple Pay and Wallet? That’s the “Wow!” moment. That’s the demo I’d been looking for and the one that’s been right in front of me this whole time. It’s what my friends, who recently go Apple Watch, are messaging me all excited about. It’s what the guy at the coffee shop counter loved when I stepped up, tapped, paid, and was on my way while the person beside me was still counting out cash. It’s the magic.

And:

Apple has succeeded in making paying for things not just cool but fun as well. Paying for things. Fun. That’s something to show off.

My guess is we haven’t seen a lot of this yet because the U.S. has only just begun to adopt tap-to-pay technology. That’ll change, though. And as it does, I think we’ll see a lot more of those “wow” moments, and Apple will sell a lot more Watches.

I’ve long felt this way, almost since the first time I put an Apple Watch on my wrist. Paying for things with the Apple Watch is a killer feature, but a feature that is struggling for critical mass. Apple Pay continues to grow, but relatively slowly. Once Apple Pay is everywhere, ubiquitous, an Apple Watch will be as easy to sell as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

Apple’s unexpectedly strong numbers caused Wall Street’s doomsaying visionary sheep to suddenly tell rosier AAPL share price tales.

And:

Apple plays the Long Game and seems to play it well.

And:

A reliable measure of Apple’s ambitious expectations is its R&D expense: It keeps climbing, 19% higher than last year. Another sign can be found in the Off-Balance Sheet section of the 10-Q. This year, Apple has committed $24B in manufacturing purchase obligations — money promised to suppliers. That’s a 16% increase over last year’s $20.7B. This doesn’t mean that the company’s output will increase by a similar amount, but it’s always a reliable trend indicator. For example, we saw the same number go down from $21.6B in December 2014, to $20.7B in 2015, a timeframe in which Apple revenue also declined.

This is but a small slice of Jean-Louis’ look at Apple’s long game. His Monday Note is always a great read.

Elizabeth Dwoskin, Washington Post:

On Sunday night, technology giants Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter, Uber and many others filed a legal brief opposing the administration’s contentious entry ban, according to people familiar with the matter. The move represents a rare coordinated action across a broad swath of the industry — 97 companies in total— and demonstrates the depth of animosity toward the Trump ban.

The amicus brief was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which is expected to rule within a few days on an appeal by the administration after a federal judge in Seattle issued late Friday a temporary restraining order putting the entry ban on hold. The brief comes at the end of a week of nationwide protests against the plan — as well as a flurry of activity in Silicon Valley, a region that sees immigration as central to its identity as an innovation hub.

From the brief:

Immigrants make many of the Nation’s greatest discoveries, and create some of the country’s most innovative and iconic companies. Immigrants are among our leading entrepreneurs, politicians, artists, and philanthropists. The experience and energy of people who come to our country to seek a better life for themselves and their children—to pursue the “American Dream”—are woven throughout the social, political, and economic fabric of the Nation.

And:

America has long recognized the importance of protecting ourselves against those who would do us harm. But it has done so while maintaining our fundamental commitment to welcoming immigrants—through increased background checks and other controls on people seeking to enter our country.

And:

Immigrants or their children founded more than 200 of the companies on the Fortune 500 list, including Apple, Kraft, Ford, General Electric, AT&T, Google, McDonald’s, Boeing, and Disney.

Here’s a link to the amicus brief, in case you want to read it for yourself.

Mental Floss:

More than 30 years ago, Apple defined the Super Bowl commercial as a cultural phenomenon. Prior to Super Bowl XVIII, nobody watched the game “just for the commercials”—but one epic TV spot, directed by sci-fi legend Ridley Scott, changed all that. Read on for the inside story of the commercial that rocked the world of advertising, even though Apple’s Board of Directors didn’t want to run it at all.

For many of you, this might be an old familiar story but, on Super Bowl Sunday, it’s still interesting to read how the “greatest commercial ever made” might never have been broadcast.

Ken Segall:

What follows is the tale of HAL: Apple’s 1999 Super Bowl commercial starring the malevolent computer from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

HAL became Apple’s first Super Bowl appearance since 1985, when the ill-conceived Lemmings commercial ran. That, as you know, was the follow-up to the previous year’s amazing 1984 commercial — arguably the greatest commercial of all time.

Read on if you’re interested in learning how ads were often born in Steve Jobs’s Apple. The process was not at all like what you find in most big companies today (including Apple).

I don’t know how “successful” the ad was for Apple but, re-watching it again after all these years certainly brought back the creepy factor of the ad.

Thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week.

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