The move follows an Irish investigation into Facebook’s transfer of European Union users’ data to the United States to ensure that personal privacy is properly protected from U.S. government surveillance.

M.G. Siegler, on using an Echo for three months, vs. his long-time Siri experience:

Why do you need to pull out your phone, unlock it, and open an app to see what the weather is? Just ask. Why do you need to pull out your phone, unlock it, and open an app to set a timer? Just say that’s what you want to do.

And:

First and foremost, as I noted in the original post, the Echo is always listening. There is nothing to pull out, no button to push. Yes, with the iPhone 6s line, Siri is also always listening. But the key difference is the hit rate. Saying “Alexa” always seems to work. Saying “Hey Siri” seems to work about half the time or less, in my experience.

Apple is said to be solving the former, with a soon-to-be-announced Echo competitor.

As to the latter, I agree, this does need some work. Part of the problem, at least for me, is Apple Watch lag. There is too much latency to make “Hey Siri” on the Apple Watch feel snappy.

But I do see light at the end of this tunnel. Siri coming to Mac will bring a faster, always-on (at least when I am on my Mac) version of “Hey Siri” that should be near instantaneous. And new Apple Watch hardware should address the latency issue, at least at some level.

If Siri ups its game (as expected), Amazon’s Echo could go the way of the Amazon phone. On the other hand, if Apple announces a 3rd party Siri SDK at WWDC (as expected), that might be a bridge that extends Echo’s life. Perhaps Siri and Alexa can become friends.

Yes, please.

Live Mint:

Last month, a committee comprising Ramesh Abhishek, secretary, DIPP; a NITI Aayog member; and an officer from the department of electronics and information technology recommended to the finance ministry that the condition requiring single-brand retailers to source 30% of content locally should be waived for Apple, which had sought to open its own branded stores.

Tim Cook made a high visibility visit to India, in part to support the local sourcing waiver.

But:

A government official said on condition of anonymity that the finance ministry had asked the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) to review its recommendation and come out with proper guidelines defining “state-of-the-art” and “cutting-edge technology”, both qualifiers under which it had sought to waive the local sourcing condition.

And:

“There is nothing to show that Apple’s technology is cutting edge. DIPP has been asked to come out with a clear-cut guideline defining ‘cutting edge’ and ‘state-of-the-art’ technology for which such a waiver can be given. There are other companies also in the queue. It could create controversy if we waived the norms for only one without stated guidelines,” the official cited above said.

A second government official said the fact that Apple did not have a manufacturing facility in India went against it. This person also spoke on condition of anonymity.

This feels like a negotiation to me. I don’t think this is over.

Cook met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Cook shared Apple’s future plans for India. “He spoke of the possibilities of manufacturing and retailing in India. He appreciated the breadth of young talent in India, and said the youth have significant skills which Apple would like to tap,” the statement added.

Feels like “cutting edge” and “state of the art” are really red herrings here. I think the iPhone satisfies both. Feels like the real issue is using local talent, contributing to the local economy in a significant way. My gut is that Apple will work through this.

[H/T Bhaskar Bhat]

From the Microsoft press release announcing this “streamlining”:

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to streamline the company’s smartphone hardware business, which will impact up to 1,850 jobs. As a result, the company will record an impairment and restructuring charge of approximately $950 million, of which approximately $200 million will relate to severance payments.

And:

Microsoft anticipates this will result in the reduction of up to 1,350 jobs at Microsoft Mobile Oy in Finland, as well as up to 500 additional jobs globally.

Streamlining. Oy.

The Information (PayWall), on a rumored Siri SDK:

Apple is preparing to release a software developer kit, or SDK, for app developers who want their apps to be accessible through Siri, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.

Note that this is one side of the equation. Bringing in 3rd parties will extend Siri’s range, allow Siri to interact more intimately with those 3rd party apps, give Siri access to the objects inside said app. For example, if I created a favorite recipes app that tracked ingredients, I might be able to pose this to Siri:

Ask Best Recipes how much chocolate I need to make Devil’s S’mores

The flip side of this is growth of intelligence and context within Siri. Can Siri combine queries made over time, to remember context?

If I booked flights and a hotel room the week of June 12-18, would Siri understand that I was attending WWDC? If I asked about restaurants that week, would Siri know enough to show me choices around Bill Graham Auditorium and Moscone West, even if I made the query before I arrived in San Francisco? If I asked Siri to schedule a local appointment that week, would Siri remind me that I would be out of town?

As for its Echo-competitor, Apple has been working on the device since long before the $180 Echo launched in mid-2015, according to a person with direct knowledge and another person briefed on the project. The Echo has been a surprise hit even among some non-tech-savvy English speakers.

Apple is not a “me too” company. They don’t build knee-jerk products. I can only imagine that Apple’s device will be an extension of Siri, just as Siri’s reach will soon extend to the Mac, a broadening reach of a central intelligence.

Apple will have a distribution advantage because Siri is built into the iPhone and Apple Watch.

This is a huge advantage. Unlike Echo, Siri is always with you, at home, when you travel, at the store, everywhere. Apple did this in the right order. The infrastructure is stable, now Siri can evolve somewhat seamlessly.

This is going to be a very interesting WWDC.

Groupon has seen better days, but it’s still alive. Now the company wants to make sure you know it.

This is how you know you’re in trouble.

Some great advice here from Khoi Vinh.

RapidWeaver is the best web design software for Mac. Build the website you’ve always wanted.

I’ve known the people at this company for a long time–they make some great software.

Huawei has filed lawsuits in the United States and China seeking compensation for what it said was unlicensed use of fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software in Samsung phones.

Another company fed up with Samsung theft.

Jon Callas, who co-founded several well-respected secure communications companies including PGP Corp, Silent Circle and Blackphone, rejoined Apple in May, an Apple spokesman said.

Definitely a good hire for Apple.

Ars Technica:

I toggled on the auto-cruise and auto-steer, dialed the target speed up to 90mph and the desired follow distance to four cars, parked myself in the right lane, and pulled my hands slowly away from the wheel.

It takes a while to get used to this feeling. Instead of serving as the primary means of direction for a car, you’re now a meat-based backup and failsafe system. Instincts and impulses formed by more than two decades behind the wheel scream out a warning—”GRAB THE WHEEL NOW OR YOU’LL DIE”—while the rational forebrain fights back. Eventually, the voices quiet as the car starts to prove itself. When the road curves, the car follows. If the car is ever going too fast to negotiate the curve, it slows down and then accelerates smoothly back out of the turn.

This is a really interesting read. I still won’t give up my motorcycle for a (semi) autonomous car but this description of a long trip while letting the Tesla take care of a lot of the driving shows you what the future will hold.

Petapixel:

In this short presentation, photographer Mathieu Stern—who specializes in finding and reviewing “weird lenses” for his YouTube channel—introduces 4 soviet Jupiter lenses that anyone hunting for a bargain on glass should write down. Created between 1950 and 1980 in the USSR, they are: the Jupiter 9 85mm f/2, the Jupiter 11 135mm f/4, the Jupiter 11A 135mm f/4, and the Jupiter 21M 200mm f/4.

In the video each lens is shown off quickly and followed by a few sample photos Mathieu has captured using that lens. Oh, and all of them except the Jupiter 9 are going for well under $100 on eBay as of this writing, with the Jupiter 9 coming in around $150.

These are some very strange lenses but, if you are a victim of Lens Envy, they might scratch that itch. If nothing else, you’ll have some interesting photographic conversation pieces.

Metro UK:

The swarm of around 20,000 sparked chaos when their queen got stuck in a car boot.

Roger Burns of Pembrokeshire Beekeepers says the car’s owner drove away with the queen unknowingly trapped in the back, resulting in the swarm taking up the chase – even being spotted on the car’s boot the next day.

I’m sorry but I’d park the car, sell it and move to France.

Clicking the red cross on the right hand corner of the pop-up box now activates the upgrade instead of closing the box.

So you get a dialog to upgrade, click the button to close the window, and the upgrade starts instead of just dismissing the window. Yeah, that’s nasty.

Tim Cook featured at StartupFest this morning, in an interview with Neelie Kroes discussing Apple’s influence in startups and entrepreneurship culture. Cook covered many topics including the role of entrepreneurs and the App Store, the startup climate in Europe, economic optimism, technology in education, Apple Watch and more.

There are some great comments from Cook in these snippets taken from the interview.

User names and media attachments such as photos and videos will no longer count towards the length of a tweet, Twitter Inc said on Tuesday, but the 140-character limit will stay.

Good.

I had no idea you could do this.

Rather than focusing on the incremental innovation needed to win back the attention of enterprise users and premium consumers, Google’s vision for Android this year has again leapt in new directions which appear even less attainable. Android’s scattered, imitative strategies du jour are resulting in a platform that looks a lot like Apple’s—albeit the very unsuccessful Apple of the mid 90s.

This is a really interesting article from Daniel Eran Dilger. It will certainly be interesting to see what Apple does at WWDC.

i.am+, the company founded by musician will.i.am, recently announced the launch of its new i.am+ EPs, a set of premium Bluetooth earphones that are available exclusively from Apple retail stores and Apple.com.

Something about this strikes me as odd. The rumors of Apple releasing their own wireless headphones, Apple owning Beats, all of that. I don’t know.

The punch and musical character offered by the Neve EQs, compressors, and preamps have left their mark on legendary pop, rock, and hip-hop albums for over 40 years.

I’m one of those that loves what Neve gear brings to the sound of an album.

Great article. I can’t remember a time when podcasters, me included, haven’t complained about Skype.

Spotify has upgraded its family plan, now allowing up to six Premium accounts per family for $14.99 a month. The new plan is a direct match to Apple Music’s family plan — which Google Play also matched back in December — and is a dramatic improvement over Spotify’s old family offering, which would’ve cost users $30 a month for family of five (there was no six-person plan available before today).

Smart move.

Before Auburn decided what to do, the district surveyed grades seven through 12 students and teachers, Auburn School Department Technology Director Peter Robinson told the Auburn School Committee on Wednesday night.

The results were overwhelmingly in favor of laptops: 88.5 percent of teachers and 74 percent of students favored them over iPads.

Interesting that iPads showed great success in lower grades, but the schools said “iPads have shortcomings for older students.”

The Washington Post:

The only work he could find was as a night custodian at a local college. It was about a 50 percent pay cut, the work wasn’t stimulating, but the benefits were good. He decided he would take advantage of every free benefit the school offered so it would feel like he was making more money.

So Vaudreuil starting taking undergraduate classes tuition free at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts by day, and cleaning up after his classmates by night.

Nearly a decade after his life unraveled, Vaudreuil graduated on May 14 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering.

Someone hand me a tissue. I think I’ve got something in my eye.

The Outbound:

Based on press releases, we know that the tourist in question encountered a newborn bison in the park, physically put it in his vehicle, and transported it to a park ranger facility because he thought it was cold. The man was cited for disturbing wildlife. However, after a two-day attempt by park rangers to reunite the calf with its herd, park officials made the difficult decision to euthanize the animal. These events paint a sad but all too common picture in which humans tampering with wildlife results in detrimental, and often fatal, outcomes for the animal.

First of all, I’m embarrassed that the idiots who did this were Canadian. Secondly, if you have to go out in the woods (and I don’t recommend it), please be aware you are the visitor/intruder and leave it the same way you found it. That includes not physically interacting with the animals you come across.