Prisma:

Prisma transforms your photos into artworks using the styles of famous artists: Van Gogh, Picasso, Levitan, as well as world famous ornaments and patterns. A unique combination of neural networks and artificial intelligence helps you turn memorable moments into timeless art.

This is one of those little apps I love. It doesn’t work for every photo but it’s an app I’ll often use when waiting in line or just “doodling” in my head. Sometimes, you can create amazing images out of the most ordinary photos.

Adam Reeve:

Quick update – this seems to be inconsistent. It only seems to happen on iOS, but it doesn’t happen for everyone on iOS. If you fancy helping out join the conversation on Twitter!

I figured I’d post this because I don’t see anyone else talking about it and it bothers me. If you didn’t know, Pokemon Go is the latest in the long running series of games from Nintendo (although Go is actually made by a developer called Niantic). It’s also the first (I think) to run on your phone. Needless to say, it’s a huge hit. And it looks like a ton of fun – pretty much everyone I know is playing it.

But there’s a problem.

Another example of why I hate when services force you to use your Facebook or Google or even Apple information in order to log on. I try and keep all of that stuff separate. It can be a bit of a pain to keep track of and manage but for me, it increases my security and privacy just that little bit more. Thanks very much to David Chartier For the link.

UPDATE: Use this link to revoke permissions for various apps on your Google account.

If you are interested in 3D printers, this is an article worth reading. Can the lower end printers do the job for you? Lots of pictures, insights.

Similar Web:

It’s not just on installs where Pokémon GO is killing it, on app engagement as well, the app’s usage has been unbelievably high. Over 60% of those who have downloaded the app in the US are using it daily, meaning around 3% of the entire US Android population are users of the app. This metric, which we refer to as Daily Active Users has put Pokémon GO neck and neck with Twitter, and in a few more days, Pokémon GO will likely have more users Daily Active Users than the well-established social network.

The Pokemon Go usage numbers are astonishing.

Tesla Motors Inc CEO Elon Musk on Sunday tweeted his intention to soon publish part two of his “top secret Tesla masterplan” following an embattled several weeks for the Silicon Valley heavyweight.

Musk has hinted at major announcement on Twitter in the past, so this is very interesting. The big question is will it be something new, or will it have to do with the autopilot kerfuffle.

From the Amazon press release:

On Tuesday, July 12, the second-annual Prime Day will feature more than 100,000 deals worldwide exclusively for Prime members, making it the biggest Amazon event ever. New and existing members in U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and Austria, will find deals across nearly all departments and categories, ensuring there will be something for everyone. Members in the U.S. can shop starting at midnight PT, with new deals as often as every five minutes throughout the day. To participate in Prime Day, sign-up or start a free trial of Prime on or before July 12 by visiting amazon.com/primeday.

And:

“Prime Day is a unique opportunity to discover new items and great deals, on top of our already low prices. Following last year’s record sales, we have dramatically increased the inventory behind many deals. In fact, in the U.S. we have nearly double the TV units compared to Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President Amazon Prime. “Even with this massive selection we know many of the Prime Day offers will sell out, so members should download the Amazon shopping app to receive notifications on their favorite deals.”

Amazon’s attempt to bridge the winter shopping frenzy back to the middle of summer.

The perfect counterpoint to Pokemon Go. Nicely done, Joy of Tech.

Atlas Obscura:

For nearly 200 years Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec, essentially functioned as one town. Citizens drank the same water, worked in the same tool factory, played the same sports (primarily curling), fought in the same world wars, and were born in the same hospital in nearby Newport, Vermont. They also shared the same cultural center, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, an ornate Victorian edifice built deliberately on top of the international border in 1901 by the Canadian wife of a wealthy American merchant.

Today, it is the only library in the world that exists and operates in two countries at once.

One of many fascinating stories about life along the Canada-US border. I live only a few miles from it and often see the border obelisks along the road, reminding me that our two countries are close in many ways.

Mashable:

“I realized then I could code on the computer to have it fulfill the tasks I wanted it to,” says Apple engineer Jordyn Castor, whose current work focuses on enhancing features like VoiceOver for blind Apple users. “I came to realize that with my knowledge of computers and technology, I could help change the world for people with disabilities.

“I could help make technology more accessible for blind users.”

There’s a lot more to be done but Apple is a leader in making its technology accessible to people with disabilities.

Edwin Griffioen, Heineken’s Supply Development Manager for Global Innovation, explained how it will work.- Because the air pressure is so much lower in an aeroplane than at sea level, a traditional beer tap will not work as it will only dispense a huge amount of foam. His team went to work, and thankfully for beer lovers everywhere, but especially in the sky, they figured out a way to serve more than just foam.

I’m booking a flight somewhere.

Take advantage of transcripts to quickly discover and share information presented in WWDC16 videos. You can search by keyword, see all instances where the keyword is mentioned in the video, go straight to the time it was mentioned, and even share a link to that specific time.

Great feature/service for developers.

Apple will pay $25 million to settle a patent lawsuit with Network-1 Technologies’ subsidiary Mirror World Technologies and license its patents, the companies announced today. The patent (No. 6,006,227) dates back to 1999, covering a system that stores documents in a stream ordered chronologically, similar to Apple’s Cover Flow or Time Machine.

Good. Pay, get it over with and move on.

A group of 68 major corporations, including Apple, Cisco and eBay, have joined the legal effort to block a North Carolina law that targets the transgender community.

It’s already costing the state quite a bit economically. I have to think that’s going to get worse if big companies don’t want to do business there.

Samsung told The Associated Press that while the Active is meant to be one of the most rugged phones out there, “there may be an off-chance that a defective device is not as watertight as it should be.”

Consumer Reports bought two and they both failed.

Some have reported mishaps while seeking Pokemon and driving…

Morons.

To enable you to do this we are starting to test the ability to create one-to-one secret conversations in Messenger that will be end-to-end encrypted and which can only be read on one device of the person you’re communicating with. That means the messages are intended just for you and the other person — not anyone else, including us.

Great move from Facebook, although I’m sure law enforcement won’t be too pleased.

The iPhone Photography Awards:

The iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) is proud to announce the winners of the 9th Annual Awards. This year’s winners were selected from thousands of entries submitted by iPhone photographers from 139 countries around the world.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in 19 categories were awarded to photographers who represented countries around the world including Australia, Brazil, China, Chile, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Unsurprisingly, there are some beautiful images included. As I say to students in my photo classes, “What camera you use matters less than your ability to use it”. Congratulations to all the winners.

BBC:

On 30 June 1908, an explosion ripped through the air above a remote forest in Siberia, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river.

The fireball is believed to have been 50-100m wide. It depleted 2,000 sq km of the taiga forest in the area, flattening about 80 million trees.

This “Tunguska event” remains the most powerful of its kind recorded in history – it produced about 185 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb (with some estimates coming in even higher). Seismic rumbles were even observed as far away as the UK.

And yet, over a hundred years later researchers are still asking questions about what exactly took place on that fateful day.

As a kid in Nova Scotia, I was fascinated by these explosions. I started off devouring information at the Halifax Public Library about the Halifax Explosion, moved on to Krakatoa and to the “Tunguska event”. No idea why these explosions fascinated me but I still read articles about them 40 years later.

A year ago, Apple launched Transit directions in iOS 9 Maps, but so far there’s only a limited number of cities worldwide that support the new feature. Here’s why.

Sounds like an incredibly complex job.

My thanks to Spin Studio for sponsoring The Loop this week.

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Horses have always captivated the imagination, and with the right marketing strategy, brands have been able to take this passion and turn it into meaningful experiences. Alec Lawler, in his insightful article https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/riding-the-journey-a-conversation-with-alec-lawler-on-horses-business-and-resilience-in-show-jump, exemplifies the intersection of dedication, passion, and smart business acumen that can make all the difference. It’s through storytelling like this—coupled with strategic outreach and thoughtful design—that companies in niche markets can establish credibility and build long-term relationships with their audience.

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Snapchat is facing a new lawsuit over claims that Snapchat Discover routinely serves sexually explicit content to minors without warning them or their parents. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed by a 14-year-old boy and his mother in US district court this week in the central district of California.

Apple Insider:

Lodged in Northern Illinois District Court on Thursday, Samuel Lit’s lawsuit asserts Apple’s website homepage, which contains a number of display windows that cycle through various new and upcoming products, is in infringement of a patent covering web carousel technology.

As of this writing, Apple.com features a large dynamic carousel element with a four-pane UI cycling through major product advertisements for iPhone 6s, iPad Pro, Apple Watch and MacBook. Assets are rotated on a timer, hence the term “carousel,” though visitors are able to cycle through at their leisure by clicking on interactive onscreen arrows or a row of dots.

Apple is not alone in its use of web carousels. Take a look at the Major League Baseball home page, for example. As of this post, both sites still have their carousels up and running.

From the official Microsoft blog:

We have released the first drop of a fully 64-bit version of Office 2016 for Mac to the Insider Fast channel! The update number is 15.25 (160630). I do encourage Insider Fast users to install this update and give it a test. We want to know about any problems you encounter as soon as possible, so that we can make sure we address them before the official release.

My original take on this was amazement that a 64-bit Office was just now emerging in beta. After all, the ability to produce 64-bit apps has been around since OS X 10.4 Tiger, which shipped in 2005.

But this Office team has had to overcome some significant hurdles to bring this new product to life. So many hurdles, that it might be more appropriate to be amazed that they were able to accomplish what turned out to be a Herculean task.

For starters, since Tiger, Microsoft Office for Mac has had a series of major product releases: Office 2004, Office 2008, Office 2011, not to mention updates and side releases (like Outlook). All that work was done while making the transition from CodeWarrior to Xcode, PPC to Intel, gcc to clang, moving from Carbon to Cocoa, not to mention dealing with the emergence of a brand spanking new platform in iOS.

Props to the Office for Mac team for their dedication in bringing this new version to life. And note to self: Don’t be so amazed that something so difficult took so long. The best things do.

Lots and lots of chewy goodness from Rene Ritchie as he offers up his take on the iOS 10 beta.