A three-judge panel at the patent agency found that the two patents never should have been issued in the first place because the idea of storing and paying for data is an abstract concept, not a specific invention. In March, the agency said the same thing about a third Smartflash patent.

I hate patent trolls.

Apple is offering free Beats headphones when buying a qualifying product.

The ride-hailing companies are seeking to resolve lawsuits by drivers who contend they should be deemed employees and therefore entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gasoline and vehicle maintenance. Drivers currently pay those costs themselves.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how I feel about this one.

I don’t know if this is staged or not, but I just love the photos. Stay safe!

Sam Byford, writing for The Verge:

My weapon of choice this Computex is the MOS Go, a hipflask-sized 12000 mAh battery pack that gives my MacBook about three quarters of a charge, which is more than enough for me to make it through a day of heavy use. (Of course, it’ll also charge a phone multiple times, and has a USB-A port if you need it.) Importantly, USB-C means the charging speed is dramatically better than you’d expect from a portable battery — it’s not all that much slower than plugging into the wall.

We’ve now got a battery I can put in my pocket that will give my MacBook a boost and multiple charges for my tablet and iPhone. And theoretically, that battery pack will be able to charge the next generation of MacBook Pro.

Will my next car have built in USB-C ports?

Jeff Benjamin takes a new high-speed cable modem for a spin, replacing the cable company’s native unit. The result? Speeeeeed.

Worth it? Read the post, decide for yourself.

A thorough review, well worth your time.

From the conclusions:

The design of the 9.7” iPad Pro is great. When looking at how tablets balance their choice of materials against their mass, thickness, and size, there’s still not really any competition for the iPad. At its core, the 9.7” iPad Pro retains the design of the iPad Air 2, but Apple has brought over the changes from the larger model like the four-speaker audio solution.

And:

The cellular model also adopts a new antenna design, which ditches the old plastic inserts for injected plastic lines much like the iPhone 6 and 6s. I think this is a huge improvement, as the color matching on the plastic inserts was poor to say the least, and they were never aligned quite right with the rest of the chassis.

And:

As far as performance goes, A9X is still the fastest chip that you’ll find in an ARM tablet, even if this isn’t exactly the same A9X that we saw in the larger iPad Pro. On the CPU side, we’re looking at the exact same performance that the larger model offers, which is pretty significant when you consider the $200 price gap between the two. There will obviously be different throttling characteristics due to this smaller iPad having less area to dissipate heat, but in general you can expect the same performance in CPU-bound tasks from both versions of the iPad Pro. As for GPU performance, it’s not as high as the 12.9″ model, but it’s the best you’ll get in a tablet of this size.

If you are balancing the 9.7″ and 12.9″ models, considering a purchase, this might be the most important paragraph:

Apple’s history with iOS products make me fairly confident that it will run into RAM issues long before A9X’s CPU and GPU or the SSD become the bottleneck. Because of that I don’t think the smaller iPad Pro is something that a consumer or a business can invest in and expect to use for four or five years, while the larger model with 4GB of RAM will still run well after all that time. At this point I don’t think there’s any place for 2GB of RAM in a tablet that markets itself as being for professionals, and in that sense I think the 9.7” iPad Pro is more like a successor to the Air 2 than a long-term usable device like the 12.9” model.

As always, great analysis.

The Verge:

None of the witnesses saw Graham’s face in February, and Graham himself wasn’t talking. He was physically similar to the man who held up the bank in February — but it was only enough to keep the case going, not enough to make it stick.

So investigators tried a new trick: they called Google. In an affidavit filed on February 8th, nearly a year after the initial robbery, the FBI requested location data pulled from Graham’s Samsung Galaxy S5. Investigators had already gone to Graham’s wireless carrier, AT&T, but Google’s data was more precise, potentially placing Graham inside the bank at the time the robbery was taking place.

And:

That data is collected as the result of a little-known Google feature that builds a comprehensive history of where a user has been — information that’s proved valuable to police and advertisers alike.

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you
— The Police

Mary Meeker is a well respected venture capital analyst. Each year, she releases a report revealing a series of important internet trends, slices through vast troves of data. Over the coming days, you’ll no doubt encounter posts focused on bits and pieces from the report.

Here’s a link to the deck itself. It’s more than 200 slides, quite comprehensive.

Or read the linked article, which does a pretty nice job cherry picking some of the more important data, explaining why you should care about it.

Lots to process.

This is just one part of a long series of Apple analyses John Kirk is writing for Tech.pinions. The series is great, but this one is just chock full of goodies, a fun read.

For example:

Roadmaps work well for some companies, especially those companies that work hand in hand with partners. The roadmaps of Microsoft and Intel worked great because they allowed the two companies to coordinate their efforts and work toward a common goal. But why would Apple ever want to publish a roadmap?

For example, Apple was working on the iPhone for years and years and years before they released it in 2007. Imagine if they had laid out their plans for the iPhone in a roadmap published in 2003, or 2004, or 2005, or 2006. Who would that have benefited?

It might have made Apple’s investors happier — although I doubt it. It might have made Apple’s critics happier — although I SEVERELY doubt it. No, the only ones who would have been happier would have been Apple’s competitors. And Apple doesn’t want to make their competitors happier.

And this quote from the book Design Crazy by Max Chafkin:

I (Brian Maggi) started with Apple in 1992 on the Newton, which was a quasi top-secret project. Then Sculley did a demo at CES [the Consumer Electronics Show] with the Newton tethered to a IIfx, which was this monster Mac the size of a suitcase. That was the way Apple would do things. Be kind of secret, but the minute they got something working, barely working, they showed it to everybody. Then for two years you’d listen to people ask about where it is.

My 2 cents? I love the not knowing. It can be maddening, but when Apple manages to keep things under wraps (harder and harder to do), the unveil of something truly innovative and new is one of my favorite delights.

Wired:

The FBI has been issuing national security letters for decades. The controversial subpoenas, which allow the feds to obtain customer records and transaction data from internet service providers and other companies without a court order, come with a perpetual gag order that prevents recipients from disclosing that they’ve received an NSL.

Only a small handful of recipients have ever publicly disclosed that they got one from the government, and only after lengthy court battles challenging the subpoenas. But today, Yahoo became the first company to go public about NSLs it has received without needing to duke it out with the feds in court.

Here’s a link to the redacted letters if you care to have a peek. I found them pretty fascinating.

If true, this is great news. Props to Marc A. Morissette, who wrote about this exact solution back in February.

Guess that’s this year’s hardware budget spent.

Macworld:

Only Tim Cook and co. know exactly what the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote has in store, but now we know the day, time, and place those announcements will happen. We’re expecting the latest versions of iOS and OS X to take the spotlight at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, and hopefully some news about the Apple Watch (watchOS 3 or new hardware, perhaps). WWDC is primarily a developers conference, so expect Apple’s emphasis to be on software.

Apple hasn’t yet announced whether or not the WWDC Keynote will be livestreamed but it has in the past so I’m going to assume it will be for this event as well. I like to play the game of “Spot Jim Dalrymple in the crowd” at these keynotes. To be fair, he’s not hard to find. Waldo he’s not.

mophie:

Charging your phone is now as simple as setting it down. Place your mophie case with charge force wireless power on any wireless charging base and power is sent to your device directly on contact. Never fuss with cables again.

When connected to your device, smart charging circuitry communicates with your device to determine the perfect amount of power it needs for a safe, quick charge. Fail-safe circuitry prevents over-charging and controls temperature to prevent overheating.

I’ve always liked mophie’s product offerings and I like the look of this system. But at $100, I don’t know that I need/want this product just yet. It certainly points the way to the future of charging our iPhones, though. Thanks to my friend Loren Finkelstein for the link.

If you’ve ever been to WWDC, the you know Yerba Buena Gardens and the venues surrounding the gardens. Brand New gives its thoughts on the new logo and identity.

Ars Technica:

You’ve probably heard of science fiction’s Golden Age, that incredible period in the 1940s and ’50s when masters of the genre like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Andre Norton, and Jack Vance were in their primes. But the early 20th century was an even weirder and more fantastic time for science fiction, when the genre was still in flux and the atomic bomb hadn’t yet transformed our ideas about the future forever. Sci-fi historian and editor Joshua Glenn has just finished a multi-year project to bring what he calls the Radium Age back into the public eye. He has brought ten Radium Age classics back into print through his indie press HiLo Books, and he has written a number of fascinating guides to the great books of that era. Now, with his definitive list of the 100 best stories and novels of the Radium Age (1904-33), he’s bringing the project to a close.

As a kid, I was a huge fan of science fiction and my local library had a bunch of these old stories. In checking out the list, I see I’ve read about 25% of them. Some of them don’t stand up because of writing style but if you’re looking for some stuff to put on you summer reading list, you can’t go too far wrong grabbing a few of the listed books.

Neither Weintraub nor Gurman could confirm where Gurman would be working next, or what his role will be, but Weintraub did say he would be working for a big name media publication. Gurman also confirmed plans to move to San Francisco to start his new gig, which will still include reporting and breaking news about Apple, among other companies. He will officially start work in July.

It will be interesting to see where Gurman lands. Maybe Buzzfeed or perhaps one of the more traditional media outlets.

Find your phone is a new feature that will help you if your phone is ever lost or stolen. In a few simple steps, you can not only locate your phone, but also lock and call it, secure your account, leave a callback number on the screen, and more. The feature can be used to find lost Android and iOS devices, and soon, you’ll also be able to access it by searching Google for “I lost my phone.”

According to technology news site The Information, Google Home will share many of the hardware components of the company’s popular internet-connected TV streaming device, Chromecast, relying on the same dual-core ARM-based microprocessor, 4GB of RAM, and a dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi chip.

The similarities are apparently so close between the two devices because the same team responsible for the Chromecast headed up development of the Google Home. As a result, it is being described as “dressed-up version” of the company’s existing device, with the addition of a microphone, speaker, plastic top with LED lights, and a fabric or metal bottom.

I have no issue at all with that—it makes sense. My big question with these types of devices is how, and if, I would use it in my everyday life. I suppose you would get used to it, but I have a hard time visualizing how that happens.

“[W]hen we sell those devices, we want our player — our Prime Video player — to be on the device, and we want it to be on the device with acceptable business terms,” he said. “You can always get the player on the device. The question is, can you get it on there with acceptable business terms?”

Forbes magazine on Wednesday reduced its estimate of the net worth of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and chief executive of health technology company Theranos Inc, to zero from $4.5 billion last year.

Of course it makes sense considering all the problems the company faced over the last year, but still, that’s got to hurt.

From the PixelSquid site:

Browse thousands of objects in our library, spin for the right angle, and then download a PNG or layered PSD with perfect transparency. With PixelSquid objects, you’ll never need to spend your time masking.

This seems a pretty useful idea. Take a moment to click through and give it a try. Click on an image, then drag to rotate. Super fast, and fun.

[H/T The pugnaciously pragmatic Not Jony Ive]

From Apple developer Equinux’s blog:

Apple now hides an app in the charts once you’ve installed it. Give it a try: Go install TV Pro Mediathek (VOD for German TV content) from the App Store (currently #3 Top Grossing in Germany) and then go back in to the App Store: boom – it’s gone from the charts and the next-placed app has moved up.

This tvOS top charts algorithm change even affects featured apps on the start page: TV Pro Mediathek no longer shows up in its featured slot on the start page of the German App Store once you’ve installed it.

John Vorhees wrote about this in this MacStories post:

We have confirmed that the same phenomenon occurs in the US Apple TV App Store using the AMC television network’s Apple TV app. If you download the AMC app, which is currently featured and ranked among the top free apps in the US, and then force quit the store by double clicking the Home button on the Siri Remote and swiping up on the App Store app, the next time you launch the App Store, AMC will no longer be on the Featured page or on the top free app chart.

This is an interesting experiment. Screen real estate is at a premium on the Apple TV App Store. By eliminating apps that a customer has already downloaded, Apple is able to present customers with more new apps. The change does mean, however, that the charts are not true top charts, but instead, top charts of apps someone hasn’t already downloaded.

I see the value here, both for you and for Apple. You get less clutter and more useful info in the charts and Apple gets more sales. But there’s some part of this that grates, just a bit, a sense that the top charts are not reflecting reality. Maybe we need an asterisk and a note that makes the situation a bit clearer.

Great how-to from Kirk McElhearn.

This is a rumor, not reality, but a good number of people are buying into it. If the image is correct and Apple does roll out a new MacBook Pro at WWDC, it will have 4 USB-C ports and a headphone jack. That is all.

Which brings me back to my earlier post about driving a 5K Apple Display. One of the possibilities raised in that post would be a single cable that branched into two USB-C connectors. That would still leave one port for power and another for external storage, etc.

Been saving my pennies. Hoping for a both a new MacBook Pro and a 5K display.

There have long been rumors of Apple releasing a standalone, large screen retina display. With recent reports of limited Apple Store inventory of Thunderbolt Displays, the rumor mills are back in business, whispering the possibility of a 5K 27″ thunderbolt display announcement at next week’s WWDC.

From this MacRumors post:

Only the late 2013 Mac Pro, late 2014 or newer 27″ Retina 5K iMac, and mid 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics are capable of driving 5K external displays, however, and each setup requires using two Thunderbolt cables per display. The lack of support is due to bandwidth limitations of the DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 specs on current Macs.

DisplayPort 1.3 has increased bandwidth, but Skylake-based Macs with Thunderbolt 3 will not support the spec and Intel’s next-generation Kaby Lake processors on track for a late 2016 launch will not as well. Apple could opt to release a 4K Thunderbolt Display instead, but supply chain considerations make this unlikely, so the company’s exact plans for the future of its standalone display remain to be seen.

In this post, John Gruber posed the question:

A 27-inch standalone retina display will be a genuine finally. If they announce it at WWDC, the crowd will go nuts. But just how they’ll drive it is a fascinating question. Using two Thunderbolt cables would be clunky. Maybe one cable that forks into two Thunderbolt adapters at the end?

All that is background for the linked post, where Rene Ritchie explores the tree of possibilities for driving a 5K display.

I do find it fascinating that we’ve come to a fork in the road where we have everything we need to add in a 5K display, with the exception of a single port to drive it.

There has been a lot of talk about Alexa over the last few weeks and now you can try it out for yourself in your web browser. You’ll have to use Chrome though.

European Union governments should not ban services like home-rental site Airbnb or ride-hailing app Uber except as a last resort, the EU says in new guidelines, seeking to rein in a crackdown on the “sharing economy”.

Sharing services have faced an uphill battle in many countries, so it will be interesting to see how governments take these recommendations.