Alex Marshall, writing for the New York Times, pulled together a fascinating piece, a bit of a survey of the current state of artificial intelligence and songwriting.
My 2 cents: All of this music is on the wrong side of the uncanny valley, but it is definitely getting closer. And I do think it will get there. Which is a scary proposition, given how difficult it already is for humans to make a living as musicians.
Adam Engst asked TidBITS readers to share their automation stories, and they did. Adam published 73 of them to show how important automation is to Mac users.
Mikey Campbell, Apple Insider:
Apple on Tuesday was granted a patent detailing a modular accessories system for Apple Watch that disguises electrical components like batteries, biometric sensors, solar cells and more as links in the wearable’s metal band.
Great concept, though this concept is inherently limited to link-style Apple Watch bands. No way to add accessories to sports, nylon bands, for example.
Some fascinating stuff.
Start with Recode’s take on the Qualcomm/Apple tiff: Lawsuits need to be hammered out, but both sides want to continue the relationship.
Apple hit Qualcomm with a $1 billion lawsuit on Friday, saying the chipmaker had improperly withheld rebates in retaliation for Apple’s complaints to regulatory authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere. Apple’s suit followed a separate antitrust complaint earlier in the week from the Federal Trade Commission.
For its part, Qualcomm says Apple is trying to turn a simple contract dispute into a regulatory issue.
Sources close to Qualcomm say the company is considering filing its own lawsuits in response, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, as well as trying to get Apple’s case dismissed.
One thing Qualcomm doesn’t plan to do, though, is to stop supplying modem chips to the iPhone maker.
Now switch over to Bloomberg’s take:
Apple Inc. is piling onto lawsuits that attack the way Qualcomm Inc. licenses technology for mobile phones in a widespread effort to rake back profits in a slowing market.
The latest suit by Apple, filed Friday, alleges that Qualcomm has unfairly used the power of its patents, which cover the fundamentals of phone systems, and its chip business to prop up its dominant position in the industry. Apple’s legal actions follow regulatory investigations and fines on three continents, including a lawsuit announced last week by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
“It feels like another coordinated attack on Qualcomm,” said Mike Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity. The mobile phone business is “a mature industry, they’ve got to get their margins higher.”
At the core of all this is Qualcomm’s incredibly strong position at the center of mobile:
Underpinning the government actions is a drive to shake loose Qualcomm’s grip on the smartphone business. In its last five fiscal years, Qualcomm has turned $37 billion of licensing revenue into $32 billion of pretax profit. Its gross margin, or the percentage of revenue remaining after deducting the cost of production, is 61 percent and is predicted by analysts to widen.
Those numbers are simply incredible. Not a fan of the term margin grab, but the Bloomberg points are well made. Better margins are certainly at the heart of this rift.
Chris Lattner isn’t the only high profile Apple executive who departed for Tesla over the past month, rather than sticking around to work on Titan. 9to5mac has learned that Matt Casebolt, a high profile Senior Director of Design for Apple’s Mac lineup left the company last month for a role at Tesla as Sr. Director Engineering, Closures & Mechanisms. A job meant for a man named Casebolt …
Apple:
Apple’s conference call to discuss first fiscal quarter results is scheduled for Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.
As usual, Apple will announce they’ve made metric buttloads of money.
This video was way more interesting than it had any right to be.
BBC:
In The Coming of Fairies, Arthur Conan Doyle claimed to be setting out the evidence for a race of magical beings, visible only to a chosen few. For the past five years, the writer and doctor had been studying a series of photographs that appeared to have captured this ‘subhuman race’ frolicking in a brook in Yorkshire – and he was now convinced of their authenticity.
The photos were a hoax – a schoolgirl prank that duped many people besides Conan Doyle. But how could someone so intelligent have fallen for such an obvious scam?
I’ve read various versions of this story for years. It’s always fascinating and an instructive lesson that everyone can be fooled if they want to be.
The update is available by going to the Mac App Store and clicking on the Updates tab.
The first thing you’ll notice about the updated Google Voice apps is a cleaner, more intuitive design that keeps everything organized. Your inbox now has separate tabs for text messages, calls and voicemails.
It’s been updated for iOS, Android and the web.
As part of the partnership, Sprint will acquire 33 percent of TIDAL. JAY Z and the artist-owners will continue to run TIDAL’s artist-centric service as it pioneers and grows the direct relationship between artists and fans. The formidable pairing of Sprint and TIDAL will grow customers on both platforms by offering exclusive access for customers who subscribe to TIDAL. Sprint’s chief executive officer, Marcelo Claure, will also join TIDAL’s Board of Directors.
Everyone wants in on music streaming, so this makes sense for Sprint—it’s an extra it can offer its customers. It also makes sense for Tidal because things haven’t been going well for them. Even Kanye West was begging Apple to buy Tidal.
Newco Shift:
The received wisdom in the Valley is that the technology for self-driving cars is already here — we just have to wait a few years while the slowpokes in Washington get with the program. Within five years, we’ll all be autopiloted around — free to spend our otherwise unproductive driving time answering email, Snapchatting, or writing code.
Except, come on, there’s no way that’s gonna happen. Not in five years, anyway.
It’s the messy human bits which will slow it all down.
The optimism for self-driving cars is great. It will drive innovation and excitement. But it must be tempered with reality.
The Kemper Profiler is quite an interesting machine. I haven’t talked to anyone that doesn’t like it and at NAMM they released some new delays, along with other software. Delays in the hands of an expert, like in this video, sound incredible.
From powerful new loop-based music creation and trying ideas via Revision History, to timesaving workflows that simplify editing and post production, Pro Tools enables you to create at the speed of your imagination—without limits.
The new version of Pro Tools looks impressive. I watch a couple of demos at NAMM last weekend and was impressed with what I saw—I’ll be getting the update.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd indicated on Monday that its latest flagship Galaxy S smartphone could be delayed as it pledged to enhance product safety following an investigation into the cause of fires in its premium Note 7 devices.
Good idea. Let’s not endanger the public again.
There are people (I’m looking at you, my dear wife) who love to set their clocks and watches ahead a few minutes to make sure they won’t be late.
Well, there must be enough of these people, since Apple has baked that capability into the Apple Watch settings. If this appeals to you, or you know someone with that particular bent, read the post for the details.
I have become a big fan of John Voorhees’ game reviews for MacStories. If John points out an iOS game, I’ll inevitably end up loving it.
This one, Yuri, looks like another winner. Thanks, John.
The linked article is a detailed criticism of Apple, and ends with this quote from Phil Schiller, from his appearance on John Gruber’s WWDC Talk Show, back in June of 2015:
We don’t need to be told how great we are, and how big we are. It’s not about that, and we don’t want it to become about that. It’s not about P/Es, and it’s not about market value. I mean, sure, the finance team has to worry about that. But for the rest of us, it’s about: Are we making the best product? Do people love what we do? Is it changing lives? And if it isn’t, then beat us up until it is.
Take some time to read the whole piece. There are some common themes (notably, the way Apple approaches UX and content discovery), and the sense is that the author is truly trying to help spot problems, rather than (as the title suggests), point to Apple’s inevitable doom.
[H/T Shameer Mulji]
On Friday, we reported on Apple’s billion dollar Qualcomm lawsuit.
Qualcomm has since released this official comment:
“While we are still in the process of reviewing the complaint in detail, it is quite clear that Apple’s claims are baseless. Apple has intentionally mischaracterized our agreements and negotiations, as well as the enormity and value of the technology we have invented, contributed and shared with all mobile device makers through our licensing program. Apple has been actively encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in various jurisdictions around the world, as reflected in the recent KFTC decision and FTC complaint, by misrepresenting facts and withholding information. We welcome the opportunity to have these meritless claims heard in court where we will be entitled to full discovery of Apple’s practices and a robust examination of the merits,” said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel, Qualcomm Incorporated.
Fighting through the court of public opinion.
There was a bit of a snafu on Friday, as people found themselves following both the @POTUS account (the official account of the President of the United States) and the @POTUS44 account (the account specific to the 44th administration).
This would typically not be that big a deal, just unfollow the account you don’t want to follow, but clearly these are not normal times, and this issue rose to the CEO level.
Regardless of how you feel about the story notability, the thread Jack Dorsey started is an interesting read, for the comments on this specific situation and the details on @POTUS transition.
Debbie Wu, Nikkei Asian Review:
Key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry is mulling a joint investment with Apple topping $7 billion for a highly automated display facility in the U.S., Chairman Terry Gou said Sunday.
Note that Hon Hai Precision Industry, Ltd, trades as Foxconn. They are one and the same.
And:
“Apple is willing to invest in the facility together because they need the [panels] as well,” Gou told reporters after the company’s annual year-end party in the Nankang district of Taipei. The U.S. production site eventually would create 30,000 to 50,000 jobs, the Taiwanese tycoon said.
And:
In addition to the proposed display facility, Gou said Foxconn plans a new molding facility in the U.S., with the state of Pennsylvania a possible site following investment discussions with local officials.
And:
Gou also said Smart Technologies, a Foxconn-controlled interactive display startup based in Canada, may move south of the border now that U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled his intent to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Very interesting. This seems just the beginning of the evolution of Apple’s production process.
Appleinsider:
This is a showdown between four of the best backup utilities and there will be a winner. However, the winner isn’t going to be one of these, it’s going to be you. We’re not looking for app we can crown the best and walk away for a year, we’re looking for the very best app for you and exactly what you need to do.
Any of these would do the job —but there is one that is better at it for you than either of the others. That said, there is a different one that’s better for your friend, colleague, partner, spouse, or relative. Let AppleInsider save you time picking from one of these four.
I agree that Time Machine is the easiest backup to do and the one I recommend to people who don’t do other backups but I’ve been burned a couple of times with it so I also do backups with SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner – both great apps.
TechCrunch:
A fun little side project-cum-startup from two of the founders of Soundwave, the social music company acquired by Spotify, wants to turn patents into art. Launching today, Retro Patents lets you buy prints of famous patents to hang on your office wall, or at home, if that’s your thing.
The patent prints for sale include games consoles, such as the original Nintendo Gameboy and Sony PlayStation, mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone and original BlackBerry, and more ubiquitous inventions like the humble calculator or computer mouse.
If you or someone you know is a gadget geek, these would make really interesting gifts.
I love Jackson guitars—especially the Dinky models. I have six Jacksons and they all play so well and feel really good in my hands.
20 years, the world’s greatest artists have used Blue in the studio. Now we’ve built a wireless headphone that delivers every detail of their music, everywhere you go. Satellite combines legendary Blue sound quality with proprietary active noise cancelling (ANC) to ensure your music is never compromised. Together with premium wireless technology and a built-in audiophile amp, Satellite is a new benchmark for the modern listening experience.
These headphones are light-weight, have noise-cancelling, and a built-in amp. I didn’t get a chance to listen to them, but I’m really interested to hear how they sound. I’ll be keeping an eye on these.
Nowadays, you probably listen to more music on your laptop than anywhere else. That’s why we designed Sadie—a headphone that liberates digital music from overhyped playback so you can enjoy true high fidelity on your laptop and mobile devices. It’s the headphone for a new generation of music lovers.
These are nice sounding headphones for the money. I had a chance to listen to them at NAMM at was impressed.
After roughly eight years of using Adobe Premiere Pro as our preferred NLE system, a few months ago we made the transition to Final Cut Pro X. This was not an easy decision, we debated amongst ourselves and as a result came up with many pros and cons for staying with or leaving Adobe Creative Cloud. We found that there were really two debates taking place when we discussed leaving Creative Cloud: firstly, the hardware debate of making the switch from PCs to Macs, and secondly the software debate of making the switch from Premiere Pro to Final Cut X.
There are two parts to the story, so be sure to read both. This is a professional business and they explain why they made the switch from PC to Mac, and from Premiere to Final Cut Pro.
Ars Technica:
In its complaint, Apple says that Qualcomm actually withheld $1 billion in payments it owes to Apple because Apple cooperated with the Korea Fair Trade Commission, or KFTC. Apple lawyers go on to make an extraordinary claim: that Qualcomm “attempted to extort Apple into changing its responses and providing false information to the KFTC in exchange for Qualcomm’s release of those payments to Apple,” but Apple refused.
Apple’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages while stating it has been “overcharged billions” by Qualcomm. The lawsuit notes that law enforcement agencies around the world are investigating Qualcomm, which “has been declared a monopolist by three separate governments” in the past two years. Last month, Korean regulators slapped Qualcomm with a $850 million fine over its patent-licensing practices. The US Federal Trade Commission sued Qualcomm earlier this week, again over patent issues.
This feels like it might go beyond just the usual corporate lawsuits.
CNET:
Air Force One is easily the most well-known plane in the world. But the term “Air Force One” doesn’t apply to one specific plane: It’s the official military call sign for any US Air Force plane carrying the president.
Since 1990, two nearly identical (and heavily modified) Boeing 747-200B airliners have transported US presidents and served as airborne command centers during times of crisis. Here’s everything you need to know about the president’s personal airplane — and its future.
I’ve always been fascinated by Air Force One, not only as a symbol of America but for its incredible (and mostly secret) technology and amenities.
Stephen Hackett gives a bit of a guided tour through the Mac affectionately known as “The Cube”. I had one of these. Interesting design, innovative use of materials, a sign of the times at Apple.