We’ve written about iStockNow before. You can use it to check if your local Apple Store stocks the specific iPhone or Apple Watch model you want.

Now they’ve added AirPods to the database. Good stuff.

UPDATE: Interestingly, when I first wrote this post, there was stock in several stores. As of this update, iStockNow shows no stores with stock.

Ben Bajarin, Tech.pinions:

Apple’s AirPods are just wireless headphones about as much as the Apple Watch is “just” a watch and iPhone is “just” a phone. Nothing makes this more apparent than the Siri experience.

And:

It is remarkable how much better Apple’s Siri experience is with AirPods. In part because the microphones are much closer to your mouth and, therefore, Siri can more clearly hear and understand you. I’m not sure how many people realize how many Siri failures have to do the distance you are from your iPhone or iPad, as well as ambient background noise and the device’s ability to clearly hear you.

And:

Thanks to the beam forming mics and some bone conduction technology, Siri with the AirPods is about as accurate a Siri experience I’ve had. In fact, in the five days I’ve been using the AirPods extensively, I have yet to have Siri not understand my request.

And:

You very quickly realize, the more you use Siri with the AirPods, how much the experience today assumes you have a screen in front of you. For example, if I use the AirPods to activate Siri and say, “What’s the latest news?” Siri will fetch the news then say, “Here is some news — take a look.” The experience assumes I want to use my screen (or it at least assumes I have a screen near me to look at) to read the news. Whereas, the Amazon Echo and Google Home just start reading the latest news headlines and tidbits.

These are just a few nuggets from a much longer piece. One core question that emerges is, should we design for the screen? Instead, perhaps we should design for the screen as an option, or somehow let the user choose, perhaps with a gesture that says, “I’ve got no screen, pipe all the info into my ears”.

Good stuff from Ben Bajarin.

The AirPods are a true engineering marvel, an astonishing array of technology jam packed into the smallest of containers. Take a minute to scroll through the pictures. Remarkable.

Daisuke Wakabayashi, New York Times:

Following directions from Google Maps on a smartphone last year, Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez turned a Ford truck, hauling a trailer, where he thought the app was telling him to go. But he ended up stuck on the railroad tracks at a poorly marked California crossing.

Soon after Mr. Sanchez-Ramirez abandoned the truck, a commuter train barreled into it, killing the engineer and injuring 32 others.

And:

On Monday, after investigating the crash for almost two years, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a safety recommendation asking technology and delivery companies to add the exact locations of more than 200,000 grade crossings into digital maps and to provide alerts when drivers encounter them.

Apple, Google and Microsoft have promised to add rail crossing data to their maps.

Want your Apple gear in time for Christmas? Get an order in the queue by 2p Friday (I’d assume that’s 2p local time) and you’ll get your goods by Saturday. Nice.

Here’s the fine print:

Free two-day shipping is available on all in-stock items purchased through apple.com. Free next-day shipping is available on any in-stock iPhone. Check your bag to find out which items are in stock and see checkout for exact delivery dates. Two-day shipping and next-day shipping are not available on customized Mac and engraved products; for certain order types, including orders paid for with financing or by bank transfer; and to some geographical areas. In-stock items ordered before 5:00 p.m. on a business day will be delivered in two business days; any in-stock iPhone ordered before 5:00 p.m. on a business day will be delivered in one business day.

Outside the US? Check this page and look for a “Free next day delivery” banner at the top of the page.

“Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops,” Cook wrote. “If there’s any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that.”

Look, I see why people are saying Apple might be done with desktops, but it doesn’t make sense at this point. Someday maybe, but not now.

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Quartz:

By now, you may have seen the new feel-good video making the rounds on the internet featuring a polar bear “patting” a dog on its head in Churchill, Canada. The CBC called the bear a “gentle giant.” The Huffington Post praised its “cuteness factor.” A Facebook commenter said, “We are fortunate to be able to see with our own eyes how animals of all kinds are capable of love.” The dog’s owner, Brian Ladoon, said the seemingly friendly interaction was “nature’s will.”

There’s just one problem with this heartwarming narrative: That polar bear isn’t expressing love for the dog. It’s playing with its prey.

The viral video demonstrates the dangers of anthropomorphization: the projection of human personalities on animals.

When I first saw this video, I never thought for a second the bear was “playing” with the dog.

Steve Hackett, 512 Pixels, posted a link to an upcoming collectible figure, the 3D printed Macinbot Classic.

If you are into collectible figures, take a look. There’s a reasonably detailed model of the Macintosh Classic, circa 1990, along with a font briefcase and a pet mouse. All very cute.

But the story behind the actual Macintosh Classic makes fascinating reading. The Macintosh Classic came along after Steve Jobs’ ousting, with Apple trying to find their path, exploring both openness (via the Mac II) and low cost (via the Macintosh Classic).

This is all laid out pretty well on the Macintosh Classic Wikipedia page.

Jason Snell answers some questions about the Apple AirPods. Some good info there.

Khoi, Subtraction.com, on switching from the iPhone to the Pixel:

To be sure, it’s a terrific phone. It has a world class still camera that just about lives up to its hype, and to me the operating system has never felt as united with its hardware as it does in this phone.

As much as I tried though, after living with this device for several weeks I still felt that there were several stumbling blocks to jumping entirely to Android. Whether you consider it lock-in or value-add, Apple’s ecosystem is a powerful argument for sticking with the iPhone.

Interesting read, pulls no punches.

Bloomberg:

This story is based on interviews with dozens of officials from the EU, Ireland, and Apple, though most didn’t want to speak on the record discussing sensitive tax matters.

This is a fascinating read. Meet the key players in this drama, with a peek at some of the behind-the-scenes politicking.

Reuters:

Apple has launched a legal challenge to a record $14 billion EU tax demand, arguing that EU regulators ignored tax experts and corporate law and deliberately picked a method to maximize the penalty, senior executives said.

Apple’s combative stand underlines its anger with the European Commission, which said on Aug. 30 the company’s Irish tax deal was illegal state aid and ordered it to repay up to 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion) to Ireland, where Apple has its European headquarters.

This story is far from over. Two forces are pulling hard at Apple. The EU wants maximum tax revenue, and the incoming US government wants Apple manufacturing back in the US.

Reuters:

Apple poached the technical director of Porsche’s race car program earlier this year, a company source said on Friday, hiring a project manager who helped engineer the sports car company’s victorious return to the Le Mans endurance race.

And:

[Alexander] Hitzinger helped Porsche, owned by Volkswagen, return to endurance racing and to develop the 919 hybrid sports car from scratch, much in the same way Apple is now looking into building its own vehicle.

Porsche’s new race car won Le Mans and the endurance racing world championship in both 2015 and 2016 using largely unproven technology, which beat far more established rivals.

Quartz:

The chairman of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, Thomas Oppermann, has suggested a new law that would require companies like Facebook to set up an office in the country that would deal with fake news and hate speech at all hours of the day. According to English-language version of the German news site Deutsche Welle, German legislators are considering whether to institute a policy that if Facebook’s local office did not delete the news item or hate speech within 24 hours, the social network could expect a fine of €500,000 euros ($522,575) per item.

This is problematic on a number of levels. At the very least, who will judge whether a post is fake? Then there’s the sheer volume of posts. And, of course, there are privacy issues: Facebook posts have a variety of privacy levels. To check all posts, will the watchdogs require access to all posts, even the posts restricted to friends?

The idea of eliminating fake news is critical. And this approach might potentially force Facebook to implement a solution of its own. A difficult problem to solve.

The Telegraph:

Many people would love to work at Apple, considered to be one of the most forward-thinking and innovative tech companies in the world today. However, would you be able to get through an Apple job interview?

People who’ve applied for jobs with the firm – successfully and unsuccessfully – have been sharing some of the questions they were asked during their interviews on the website Glassdoor. Here’s a selection of them – how would you cope with being asked these?

I used to work at Apple but, if these are the questions they’re asking now, I couldn’t get a job there today.

Atlas Obscura:

Each day for nearly one hundred years, a group of ducks have left their penthouse at Memphis’ Peabody Hotel and waddled down a red carpet to spend the day playing in the lobby fountain.

Every morning around 11:00 AM, the ducks are led down from their rooftop penthouse to a red carpet bordered by adoring onlookers. Accompanied by a Sousa march, the five ducks trot up a small, custom stairway into the placid waters of the marble fountain where they dutifully swim until they are once again led back upstairs around 5:00 PM. The whole ceremony is preceded over by the “Duckmaster,” a position originally filled by a circus trainer that joined the hotel in the 1940’s, and which is now filled by the occasional celebrity such as Molly Ringwald or Peter Frampton.

I’ve seen this duck march and it’s a wonderfully silly Southern tradition. If you’re ever in Memphis (it happens in the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Fl as well but it’s just not as good), you owe it to yourself to go see the ducks. Thanks to AdiKingsley-Hughes for the link to the video.

Buzzfeed:

In response to questions from BuzzFeed News, Google, Apple, and Uber clarified their positions on President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about a possible Muslim registry. “In relation to the hypothetical of whether we would ever help build a ‘muslim registry’ – we haven’t been asked, of course we wouldn’t do this and we are glad – from all that we’ve read – that the proposal doesn’t seem to be on the table,” a spokesperson for Google told BuzzFeed News in an email message.

BuzzFeed News asked all three companies whether they would help build or provide data for a Muslim registry. An Apple spokesperson said: “We think people should be treated the same no matter how they worship, what they look like, who they love. We haven’t been asked and we would oppose such an effort.”

Leaving aside the insanity of having to discuss the subject to begin with, the problem is, if the government wants it built, they can do it without any of these companies. Some company out there will take the government’s money.

iDownloadblog:

tvOS packs in Apple’s attractive new Aerial screen saver which plays eye-candy high-definition drone footage of various landmarks and places from around the globe in gorgeous slow motion. Apple has now added 21 new videos to the Aerial screen saver, as first discovered by our own Jim Gresham.

The latest arrivals include birds-eye imagery from Dubai, Greenland, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and United Arab Emirates. Plus, there are now three new videos of Chinese landmarks for a total of 21 new drone clips.

You can enjoy these Apple TV-exclusive screen savers on your Mac thanks to well-known jailbreak developer John Coate who developed a Mac screen saver which streams or downloads aerial footage directly from Apple’s servers.

These are gorgeous. For those of us without a capable Apple TV, Coate’s Mac screen saver is the next best thing.

The Wirecutter:

If you spend most of your day typing, a mechanical keyboard can be a worthwhile upgrade over a cheaper, less comfortable keyboard. They are more durable, responsive, and customizable than other types of keyboards. The best for you depends a lot on personal preference and what you’re using it for, but after spending months testing 31 top-rated keyboards with a four-person panel, we unanimously agree that the WASD Code 87-Key is a great place to start because of its fantastic key feel, build quality, and elegant design.

I fondly remember the old mechanical Apple Extended Keyboards and loved the sound. I used an early version of the Matias Tactile Pro and really liked the racket it made.

The Atlantic:

when people spot a bear, they call 204-675-BEAR. The 24-hour hotline reaches the staff of the Polar Bear Alert Program, who have divided the area around Churchill into three concentric zones. If the bear’s in the outer zone, the staff will try to scare it away by firing cracker shells—shotgun rounds that explode with especially loud bangs. If that doesn’t work, they resort to rubber bullets or paint balls.

If the bear is in the inner zone, where Churchill residents live and work, the staff will try to capture it.

Churchill has become a symbol of co-existence—not to mention a major tourist destination for people keen to see and photograph the bears. But conflicts are becoming increasingly common.

Churchhill is the poster child for how global warming has affected both humans and animals.

My thanks to 4K Download for sponsoring The Loop this week.

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