Disney Parks Blog:

The MagicBand, the colorful wristband guests wear at Walt Disney World Resort, makes each visit even simpler and more seamless. We’ve continued to invent and innovate, and soon, we’ll be debuting a new option: Disney MagicMobile service!

If you’ve paid a recent visit to a Disney park, you are no doubt familiar with the MagicBand, the wrist device that you wear everywhere, tapping to enter the park, or pay for food and souvenirs.

Launching in phases starting later this year, Disney MagicMobile service is a convenient and contactless way to access MagicBand features like theme park entry through the power of your iPhone, Apple Watch or other smart device.

This is such a smart idea. Disney currently has to spend a fair chunk of change designing and manufacturing the MagicBand. And even if you argue that guests pay for the MagicBand, it is a cost incurred somewhere, either as a cost you pay or folded into more expensive ticket prices.

But why incur the cost, if guests already bring their own magic band (AKA, Apple Watch) to the park. This is a great partnership, one that saves Disney the cost of making and evolving their own devices, and one that boosts the sale of Apple Watches.

Imagine if Apple created a custom Apple Watch face only available for people who go to Disney World, et al. Or a special edition Apple Watch band sold through the park. The possibilities are boundless.

Jean-Louis Gassée:

No company has been as powerful and then fallen as far as IBM. Once known as The Company, its mainframe products and services dominated business computing, its management methods were exemplary.

And:

Then, the PC happened, a product category IBM initially seized, only to lose it by letting clones powered by Microsoft software flood the market and kill its margins.

More examples of the mighty falling:

Late to the smartphone game, the company gave Nokia special licensing terms for its Windows Phone OS, only to see the partnership flounder. Despairing, Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2B in 2013 and took a $7.6B writeoff two years later.

Turning to Apple:

The Apple Maps debut and “Antennagate”, as examples, were embarrassing but didn’t do any lasting harm. To be sure, two mediocre iPhone vintages in succession would have a deleterious effect on image and finances, but even that could be survived, especially in today’s quasi-saturated market. And as the Microsoft example shows us, seriously missing an industry wave (smartphones) can be overcome by jumping on a new one (the Cloud aided by the Windows/Office flywheel). This may shed light on Apple’s efforts to give more momentum to the Services business, a flywheel in its own right.

There’s much more to this post, according to Parhaat pikakasinot Outlook Indian mukaan, including discussion of Apple and the cloud, as well as Siri and AI. Most important is Jean-Louis’ take on Steve Jobs’ legacy of robust, flexible, functional organization, where Apple focuses on projects, pulling resources from the various functional areas (Software Engineering, Operations, Hardware Technologies, etc.) to staff the project teams.

A fascinating read.

Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

A new section added to the iOS software update menu indicates that Apple will provide standalone security updates for iPhone and iPad users. Users would be able to choose whether they want to install only security updates or full iOS updates.

Follow the headline and check out the first image to see the new choices that appear when you go to Settings > General > Software Update, then tap Automatic Updates.

You’ll see two, independent switches:

• Download New Updates
• Install Security Updates

Similar to what’s offered on the Mac, you can choose to apply all updates, or just one or the other. For example, I can imagine installing all security updates automatically, but not running new general updates without doing a bit more research first.

For me, both switches were enabled by default. I’m leaving them that way.

Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

Apple brand loyalty among smartphone owners has hit an all-time high, according to a survey by SellCell. It shows that 91.9% of iPhone owners plan to buy another iPhone when they next upgrade, up 1.4% from 2019.

I’m actually surprised that this “renewal” number is so low. Once you are in the Apple ecosystem, it’s not easy to walk away. The ecosystem is sticky. Makes me curious for follow-up on why the 8.1% of iPhone owners do not plan on buying another iPhone. Bad experience? Too expensive? A preference for Android?

Here are the reasons given:

• Other brand has better technology (e.g., screen, camera, battery, etc.): 38%
• Prefer the design of other brand: 26.4%
• Latest model from the other brand has more features than the latest model of my current brand: 12.9%

On the flip side:

SellCell says that only 74% of Samsung smartphone owners plan to buy another Samsung model, down from 85.7% in 2019.

Interesting.

Apple:

Apple’s newly completed renewable projects, part of the company’s planned $4.7 billion Green Bond spend, are bringing clean energy to local communities while reducing carbon emissions. In 2020, Apple funded 17 Green Bond projects that will avoid an average of 921,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually, which is equivalent to removing nearly 200,000 cars from the road. The projects will generate 1.2 gigawatts of renewable energy globally, with Apple adding over 350 megawatts of newly installed renewable energy over the last year in Nevada, Illinois, Virginia, and Denmark. Apple’s Green Bond issuances are among the largest in the private sector.

Big fan of this slice of Apple. I think Lisa Jackson and her group are undersung heroes. See also: Apple tops list of companies with biggest solar energy capacity.

Putting their money where their mouth is.

Apple today updated Apple Maps with COVID-19 vaccination locations from VaccineFinder, a free, online service developed by Boston Children’s Hospital that provides the latest vaccine availability for those eligible at providers and pharmacies throughout the US. Users can find nearby COVID-19 vaccination locations from the Search bar in Apple Maps by selecting COVID-19 Vaccines in the Find Nearby menu or by asking Siri, “Where can I get a COVID vaccination?”

The Apple Maps placecard for each vaccine site will include the operating hours, address, phone numbers, and a link to the provider’s website, where Maps users can learn more about available vaccines and book appointments. The initial rollout includes more than 20,000 locations, with Apple adding more sites in the coming weeks.

Apple is also allowing local businesses to update their placecards to display COVID information, like shopping hours. Incredibly helpful information all within Maps.

This is the scariest one of all:

Looking down at my phone, there was no sign it had been hacked. I still had reception; the phone said I was still connected to the T-Mobile network. Nothing was unusual there. But the hacker had swiftly, stealthily, and largely effortlessly redirected my text messages to themselves. And all for just $16.

And:

I hadn’t been SIM swapped, where hackers trick or bribe telecom employees to port a target’s phone number to their own SIM card. Instead, the hacker used a service by a company called Sakari, which helps businesses do SMS marketing and mass messaging, to reroute my messages to him.

And:

Unlike SIM jacking, where a victim loses cell service entirely, my phone seemed normal. Except I never received the messages intended for me, but he did.

The fact that this is possible shows how unsafe, how vulnerable, our current security infrastructure truly is.

Dan Goodin, Ars Technica:

FaceTime users are getting bombarded with group calls from numbers they’ve never seen before, often as many as 20 times in short succession during late hours of the night.

Griefers behind the pranks call as many as 31 numbers at a time. When a person receiving one of the calls hangs up, a different number will immediately call back. FaceTime doesn’t have the ability to accept only FaceTime calls coming from people in the user’s address book. It also requires that all numbers in a group call must be manually blocked for the call to be stopped.

If this is happening to you:

A user can also turn off FaceTime in iOS settings or in the macOS app, but that prevents users from receiving wanted calls as well. Last, people can uncheck their phone number under the FaceTime setting “where you can be reached.” Once again, however, this will prevent wanted calls that are initiated using the user’s number.

They’ve found a hole in the system. Hopefully, Apple will roll out a fix before this grows much larger.

Samantha Cole, Motherboard:

Hackers took over multiple accounts on the digital art marketplace Nifty Gateway this weekend, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. The company says that users not enabling two-factor authentication is to blame.

And:

On Sunday, several Nifty users on Twitter posted that they’d been targets of fraud on the platform. One claimed that someone accessed his account, first sold all of their NFTs and then bought more than $10,000 worth of NFTs, and then transferred them to another account. Another said their account was hacked to buy $20,000 worth of NFTs and steal another $150,000 worth from their collection. These users said the charges went to their credit cards; Nifty Gateway has long advertised the ability to simply purchase NFTs with a credit card rather than using cryptocurrency.

My first instinct is to tarnish NFTs as unsafe, add to the reason why I resist this space, think of it as an artificial bubble.

But if I did not enable two-factor for my bank account, say, and hackers got in, same thing, it’d be my own dumb fault.

Still, a bit of Wild West out there.

Apple:

Apple today was honored with historic first Academy Award nominations for its feature films since the Apple TV+ global launch of Apple Original Films just over a year ago. The widely acclaimed “Wolfwalkers” was nominated for Best Animated Feature and the epic war film “Greyhound,” starring and written by Tom Hanks, for Best Sound. Including today’s nominations, Apple has been honored with a total of 81 awards wins and 329 nominations to date.

Rooting hard for Wolfwalkers. It’s an excellent film. I enjoyed Soul, which seems pre-ordained to win, but I really connected with the Wolfwalkers story. And come on, doesn’t Pixar have enough Oscars?

Benefit from previsualization and pro storyboards for your next Oscar winning project with Previs Pro for iPad and iOS. Built by multiple Apple Design Award winning team. Help them celebrate their one-year anniversary!

If you’ve not heard the news, Apple is discontinuing the HomePod, though they are keeping the HomePod mini.

Apple, via the headline linked TechCrunch post:

HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home control all for just $99. We are focusing our efforts on HomePod mini. We are discontinuing the original HomePod, it will continue to be available while supplies last through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple will provide HomePod customers with software updates and service and support through Apple Care.

The fact that Apple pulled the plug without a replacement in place makes me think we’re not getting a new version, that the HomePod mini is the HomePod for all of us. Though that doesn’t mean we won’t see another evolution in the HomePod line. Still chewing on this.

Interestingly, you can still order a HomePod on the Apple Store, as long as you like white. Space Gray is sold out.

I’m wondering about the potential for future price discounts as that inventory dries out. Worth holding out for that? And there’s also the potential for a HomePod appearance on Apple’s official refurbished site.

Last, but certainly not least, here’s Rene Ritchie sharing his thoughts on why Apple killed the OG HomePod. Lots of great food for thought here.

Most interesting to me was the question of Apple eventually dropping support for this HomePod over time. Given that there is no line-in, no direct Bluetooth support, is it possible that this speaker might eventually no longer work?

I’m a bit of a knot-nerd. This is a great resource. All the knots you could ever need, every one animated beautifully, with the ability to step through any knot, one step at a time.

Great way to introduce your kids to proper knot tying, an important life skill.

Sami Fathi, MacRumors:

In the iOS and iPadOS 14.5 beta, an updated section in the “Location Services” menu of Apple’s Privacy settings states that Apple will collect data from users, such as when a specific app is opened near a point of interest, to determine how crowded the location is, and whether that specific business is open.

And:

Google Maps already offers a similar real-time feature called Live Visit Data that informs users of how busy a specific store or business is at a particular time. Google provides this data by gathering aggregated and anonymized data from users who have opted in to Google Location History.

I love the idea of adding more crowd sourcing data to Apple Maps, to supplement things like red-light cameras, radar traps, accidents, and real-time traffic flow.

Even better, I’d love Apple Maps to dump their relationship with Yelp in favor of impartial crowd-sourced reviews (as used by Google Maps).

Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge:

Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100.

Today, an NFT of his work sold for $69 million at Christie’s. The sale positions him “among the top three most valuable living artists,” according to the auction house.

The record-smashing NFT sale comes after months of increasingly valuable auctions. In October, Winkelmann sold his first series of NFTs, with a pair going for $66,666.66 each. In December, he sold a series of works for $3.5 million total. And last month, one of the NFTs that originally sold for $66,666.66 was resold for $6.6 million.

Enter the gold rush.

Sami Fathi, MacRumors:

The full-size Space Gray HomePod is currently unavailable from Apple in the United States for purchase and delivery, as first spotted by French site Consomac.

Yup. Just checked. Though there is some inventory available in my local Apple Store, I can’t order a space gray HomePod for delivery from Apple.

I can order a white HomePod, and apparently Apple is still shipping space gray outside the US.

What can this mean? Much ado about nothing? The language on Apple’s site says “Currently unavailable”. And the iMac Pro, which MacRumors reported as officially as end-of-lifed, is still available to order.

Normally wouldn’t care about stuff like this, but there’s rumored to be an Apple Event in our near future, so my antennae are up.

Start with this tweet from Austin Evans:

Look, I want to like and use Safari but the fact that it routinely reloads my tabs WHILE I’M ACTIVELY USING THEM drives me insane

I’ve got plenty of memory leave me alone 🤬 pic.twitter.com/bSBsTFo0Xo

— Austin Evans (@austinnotduncan) March 11, 2021

This happens to me a lot, on Intel and M1 Macs. And to be fair, this is Safari looking out for me, stopping a page from spinning into infinity, potentially wreaking memory havoc.

Can’t help but wonder if Safari might offer a preference here to limit that behavior, at least on the frontmost tab, a switch that says, if I’m using the tab, and there’s still enough memory left to keep running, let me know the problem, perhaps with a “reload” button in the interface, but in a non-modal way, so I can keep that page humming if I so choose.

Also, I’d wager the culprit here is more often than not the page creator or a plugin (think advertising), not a flaw in Safari.

PetaPixel:

In the charts below, you’ll see four computers listed: M1 Mac mini (Apple Silicon), M1 Mac mini (Rosetta 2), 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Dell XPS 17. The idea was to show how x86 Photoshop runs on Intel hardware (13-inch MBP and XPS 17), via Rosetta 2 emulation on the M1 Mac mini, and then compare those three scores against the Apple Silicon-optimized version running on the same Mac mini.

Perfect set to really get a sense of real world Photoshop performance, at least with a high demand test like Photomerge.

Follow the headline link, scroll down to the charts. As you might expect, the M1 loses when it comes to raw GPU performance (it’ll be interesting to see where Apple is going with GPU on the next generation of Apple Silicon, but no way for the M1 to compete with an external dedicated GPU, at least not yet).

But GPU aside:

None of the computers we’ve reviewed, not even the most expensive 16-inch MacBook Pro you can buy or the Razer Blade Studio Edition, has ever broken the 100 mark on the PugetBench Photo Merge test. Running optimized Photoshop, the M1 Mac mini hit 130+ in run after run after run.

And:

To see the scores jump this much, when Rosetta 2 was already doing such a great job with the x86 version of Photoshop, was frankly mind-blowing.

Yeah. The M1 is freaking fast.

The headline to the linked post is “Corporations That Use The Most Solar Power”. While that might be accurate, I think the kudos shouldn’t be about sheer usage, but rather about Apple’s success at shifting to environmentally sustainable operations.

Apple might use more solar power than any other company, but it’s about their commitment to powering their operations through solar, creating a model for other companies to follow.

Apple:

Apple has given a straight-to-series order for “Lady in the Lake,” a new limited series directed and co-written by Alma Har’el that will co-star Academy Award winners Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o.

And:

“Lady in the Lake” is an adaptation of Laura Lippman’s New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. The limited series takes place in ’60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress for Black Swan. And is the rare actor who crossed streams from Star Wars (Queen Amidala) to Marvel (Jane Foster).

Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, but also grabbed the Star Wars / Marvel crossover achievement, doing motion capture as Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and as Nakia in Black Panther. But one of my favorite Lupita Nyong’o roles was the lead in Jordan Peele’s Us.

Huge win for Apple here. Can’t wait to see how this series turns out.

Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac:

New displays rolling out to Apple Stores across the world highlight the Apple Music catalog and give AirPods Max a true home. You can preview the display yourself with an interactive augmented reality model.

Follow the headline link, scroll down to the “Launch The AR Experience” button, give it a tap. Now double-tap the downloaded file to launch the .usdz file and walk around to find a proper landing spot (you’ll need some space for the display). You can also experience this on your Mac, especially if you have Xcode installed.

I love the effort Apple puts into these AR tidbits. Apple’s teams are learning how to bring AR to life, we’re learning how to work with AR.

Vlad Savov, Bloomberg:

Having once upended the market with its AirPods, Apple Inc. looks likely to again change the course of the $35 billion advanced headphones arena with its $549 AirPods Max and inflict pain on incumbents from Bose Corp. to Bang & Olufsen A/S.

And:

Between Apple’s new over-the-ear play at the high end and aggressively priced incursions from below, firms like Sennheiser are struggling to compete with the wireless expertise, app ecosystems and global reach of phone makers.

Apple is great at disruption. They’ve upended the mechanical watch, traditional camera, and now headphone marketplaces. Cars next?

From the linked post, the video embedded below shows the dock “poof” at work. Follow the headline link to Gruber’s post about this. And don’t miss this video interview with Jim Reekes with anecdotes of iconic Mac sounds.

WMUR (via 9to5Mac):

The tech school teacher has been ice skating his whole life. On Sunday, he was on Salmon Falls River in Somersworth when the ice broke.

“It was just that terrible feeling. ‘Oh my God. I’m going in the water,’” Rogers said.

And:

No one was around and he couldn’t reach his phone. He was in the water for several minutes as hypothermia started setting in.

Imagine the above scenario before Apple Watch. This is a piece of tech that has saved many lives. Not many tech products can make that claim.