Jeannine Sedlacek has battled with rheumatoid arthritis since she was an infant. Getting around can take a lot of effort, especially her trips to the library just so she can access the internet.
“The only way I can get around is by bus,” she said.
You can imagine how happy she was to hear about a new pilot program launched by Denver Public Library, which offers free, unlimited high-speed internet to patrons through certain Wi-Fi hotspots.
The hotspots can be checked out like a book for up to three weeks.
In a nutshell, ask Siri a question on your Mac, then tap the plus sign (upper right corner of the results) to add those results to Notification Center. They’ll stick around until you delete them (tap the x in the upper right corner).
In December 2012, I started a company with my friends Brent Simmons and Dave Wiskus. We named it Q Branch. In June 2013, we launched our first and only product: an iPhone notes app called Vesper.
Yesterday, we announced that development was ceasing, and we’ll soon be shutting down our sync server. I am terribly sad about this. I love Vesper. I use it every day. I mean that in the present tense. I still use it. When we pull the plug on the sync server, I’ll stop, but until then it’s my go-to notes app. In my career, the only things I’ve done that I’m prouder of are writing Daring Fireball and the creation of Markdown.
What went wrong was very simple. We never made enough money. Why we didn’t make enough money, what we should have done differently to make more money — those are complex questions (which I’ll tackle below).
A transparent look at the business of selling an iOS app in modern times, one that anyone with even the slightest interest in app development should read with great interest. A cautionary tale.
Upon reaching the five-year mark, Cook has today unlocked previously awarded stock bonuses currently worth over $100 million. The bonuses are tied to both his tenure and Apple’s performance under his leadership, including its total shareholder return relative to the S&P 500 index.
Cook’s bonus includes 700,000 tenure-based restricted stock units that vested today as part of a larger compensation package of over 4.7 million shares awarded on August 24, 2011, in addition to his first of six annual installments of 280,000 tenure-based restricted stock units that vested today. The combined 980,000 shares are valued at nearly $106.7 million based on AAPL’s closing price of $108.85 on Tuesday.
Terrific piece from The Telegraph, an objective look at Apple then and now, from Tim Cook’s first day as CEO through today, with lots of charts and infographics that really tell the tale.
Five years ago today, Steve Jobs officially passed the CEO torch on to Tim Cook. From the Wall Street Journal:
Now Apple is the world’s largest company by market value and remains one of the most influential. Its $53 billion in net income last year was greater than the combined earnings of technology behemoths Facebook Inc., Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Apple recently sold its billionth iPhone.
Let that soak in. These are amazing accomplishments, proud laurels for any CEO, especially when you consider that Apple has, at the same time, fought harder than most large companies for social and environmental change.
At the same time, though, Apple’s growth is slowing, its stock is stagnating and it is facing more concerns than ever about its future. Underscoring all of this is one key question that Mr. Cook will likely never escape: Are Apple’s best days behind it?
That second paragraph is indeed key. Not the question, but the phrase “will likely never escape”. Five years in, and Tim Cook is still looked upon suspiciously, as an interloper riding on Steve Jobs’ coattails. Sadly, for many, that will never change.
NASA has reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft, nearly two years after losing communication with the vehicle. The space agency has been trying to get in contact with the spacecraft since October 1st, 2014, when the last signal from STEREO-B was received on Earth. Finally on Sunday, NASA was able to pick up a signal from the vehicle using the Deep Space Network, or DSN — an international network of large radio antennas used for communicating with spacecraft.
Why does this feel like the beginning of a sci-fi horror movie?
With SampleTank for iOS, you now have the power of desktop virtual instruments — without compromise — with a massive number of over 1,900 high-quality instruments and the most advanced sound and groove workstation for the mobile platform.
IK Multimedia makes some great stuff for musicians on iOS.
Tesla Motors Inc. is adding versions of its Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle with a more powerful battery pack that the company said makes the Model S the world’s quickest production car and gives it range of 315 miles on a single charge.
Tesla said it can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds.
Hackers thought to be working for Russian intelligence have carried out a series of cyber breaches targeting reporters at the New York Times and other US news organizations, according to US officials briefed on the matter.
I wonder what they were looking for at media organizations.
For you, the Instapaper end user and customer, nothing changes. The Instapaper team will be moving from betaworks in New York City to Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco, and we’ll continue to make Instapaper a great place to save and read articles.
To get some insights into these questions, Google evaluated the top 12 brands totaling over 3.5 billion impressions that aired ads during the NBC broadcasts of the event.
“Lyft is not seeking a buyer,” Zimmer told Business Insider.
“Getting approached and then having it characterized as us wanting to sell the business and failing to do so is a large mischaracterization,” he said. “If the company is approached, it doesn’t mean the company is looking.”
Lyft President John Zimmer said he was approached to sell the company and the media said they had been unsuccessful in finding a buyer. If true, that’s a pretty big mistake from the media organizations.
One of the features I’m most excited about in this new round of betas is the ability to use my Apple Watch to automatically unlock my Mac. To set this up yourself, you’ll need an Apple Watch running watchOS 3 and a Mac running Sierra. You’ll also need your iPhone and Mac to be using Two-Factor Authentication, as opposed to the older Two-Step Verification (2SV).
When I first encountered 2FA and 2SV, I was confused. The names are very similar, and the process of switching from one to the other is not particularly straightforward. To keep this straight in your head, think: step is old, factor is new or, as I prefer, think: Only one of these is authentic.
Rene Ritchie put together this excellent guide that walks you through the process of enabling Two-Factor Authentication. Note that if you have the older Two-Step Verification enabled, you’ll need to disable it first. Rene’s guide will show you how to do that as well.
Once you have 2FA enabled on your Apple ID (check your iPhone and Mac to make sure the change shows up on both), head over to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, and check the Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac checkbox.
I originally added a password to my Mac to keep my cats from laying on my Mac, causing unpredictable results (like this one time, when my cat Skyped my friend, and he thought I was having a stroke – true story). Moments after I turned on Apple Watch unlock, I went over to get a cup of coffee, my cat laid on my keyboard, my Apple Watch kindly unlocked my Mac for her, and I heard an ominous beeping coming from my Mac.
Hmmm. No harm done. But good to know that your Mac will be unlockable anytime you are within Bluetooth range.
Netflix set up this site to give you a relatively real-time sense of your current networks download speed. No upload test, but you won’t need that for Netflix.
Bookmark this one and pass it along.
UPDATE: As Loop reader Gary Riches points out, this is a good way to test for Netflix throttling (run this site’s test against a more traditional test, like this one).
Amazon wants to launch a music subscription service that would work the same way services from Apple, Spotify and many others work: $10 a month, for all the music you can stream, anywhere you want to stream it.
But Amazon is also working on a second service that would differ in two significant ways from industry rivals: It would cost half the price, and it would only work on Amazon’s Echo hardware.
Industry sources say Amazon would like to launch both services in September, but has yet to finalize deals with major music labels and publishers. One sticking point, sources say, is whether Amazon will sell the cheaper service for $4 or $5 a month.
I can’t imagine a music service that I could only use in one place. One of the things I love about Apple Music is that it is always with me: on my computer, on my iPhone, iPad, in my car, always available.
I like the idea of a cheaper service, that might move me, but only if I didn’t have to sacrifice portability.
Silicon Valley-based Gliimpse has built a personal health data platform that enables any American to collect, personalize, and share a picture of their health data.
And:
The acquisition happened earlier this year, but Apple has been characteristically quiet about it. The company has now confirmed the purchase, saying: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
As a consumer of healthcare, I leave behind a bread-crumb-trail of medical info wherever I’ve been seen. But, I’m unable to easily access or share my own data. Obamacare is one of several forcing functions federally mandating physicians and hospitals give us our data: meds, labs, allergies . . .you get the idea. However, there’s no single Electronic Health Record that all physicians use, sigh. Worse, there isn’t even a common file format across a 1000+ systems.
Enter Gliimpse: your personal health data, in the palm of your hands. Better than portals, we enable patients to collect their lifelong history, so they can share it with their care network – physicians, friends and family.
Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, takes on the Internet of Things: the good (industrial, smart cities) and the (mostly) bad (consumer electronics). A witty, insightful piece that manages to use the made-up-by-the-internet word persphinctery.
UPDATE: I asked Jean-Louis about the origins of the word, his comment:
Glad you like the latest Internet of … Monday Note – and the word I made up, a couple of years ago actually, used in previous Notes: persphinctery, perfunctory acts by a$$holes…
Google turned up this post on Steve Jobs’ death as the earliest usage. I love the word.
This advice has been taken too far and confused the word ‘mistake’ with ‘failure’. A mistake is touching the hot stove and burning your hand. A failure is setting yourself on fire and dying when you touched the stove. One of those two you learn from, the other kills you.
I thought this was a really good article. I enjoyed it.
Apple on Monday updated its beta of macOS Sierra. If you have a previous version of the beta installed, just check for updates and allow it to install.
After the unprecedented breach of hacking tools and exploits stolen from the US National Security Agency’s elite hacking unit, some privacy advocates see it as clear vindication of Apple in its fight with the FBI earlier this year.
Apple held all-hands meetings with retail employees this weekend to introduce major new changes, including new and renamed positions, a new credo, and new store layouts, according to multiple retail sources.
I’m glad to see Apple retail continuing to change as the company changes. For most people the stores are the first contact with Apple and they should reflect what the company is doing.
Apple Music Festival 10 returns to London in September for 10 exhilarating nights of live music. Residents of the UK can win tickets to the gigs. Apple Music members around the world can watch the performances for free. Ticket applications will be opening soon. Follow @AppleMusic on Twitter and Snapchat for up-to-the-minute information and join the #AMF10 conversation.
These festivals are truly special. I’ve attended a number of them in London over the years and loved each one. The Roundhouse is a classic music venue and shows off the best for Apple and the bands performing.
