Rene Ritchie received the following statement from Apple:

“We’re looking into a small number of reports that some iPad units are receiving an error when updating the software,” an Apple spokesperson told iMore. “Those unable to restore their device through iTunes should contact Apple support.”

I didn’t update my iPad Pro when I saw these reports starting to circulate.

New York Times:

Google will introduce its much-anticipated entry into the voice-activated home device market on Wednesday, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Named Google Home, the device is a virtual agent that answers simple questions and carries out basic tasks. It is to be announced at Google’s annual developers’ conference in Silicon Valley.

Google Home will come to market in the fall — a long time away, given the speed of technology, but Google needed to plant a stake in the ground now. The device will compete with Amazon’s Echo, which was introduced less than two years ago. Amazon has already sold an estimated three million units.

The market’s been made. Every home will eventually have a similar device. Will Apple ever expose Siri in this way? Or will they keep Siri tethered via iPhone/iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and, eventually, your Mac?

Nice headline.

A few weeks ago, James Pinkstone posted a story on his blog titled Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously.

That post got Apple’s attention. Enough so, that they sent two engineers to Pinkstone’s house to try to track down the problem.

Great read.

Tim Bajarin:

We all know about the market for health trackers but, in my case, the Apple Watch has become an indispensable health monitor. I have been a type 2 diabetic for about 25 years and, until March of 2015, I was able to control it by diet, exercise, and oral medications. But last March when I was on a trip, my blood sugar readings skyrocketed and no amount of medication or diet would help. You can learn more about keeping a good diet by reading the blog posts at Natures Rise.

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Embracing a holistic approach to health can significantly enhance your well-being, particularly when managing chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes. Beyond monitoring your health with advanced tools such as the Apple Watch, integrating natural home remedies can offer additional support. These remedies, ranging from herbal teas to dietary supplements, can complement conventional treatments and help maintain balanced blood sugar levels. By incorporating holistic practices, you not only address the physical aspects of your health but also foster a more comprehensive approach to wellness.

This led to:

> I was pricking my fingers up to seven times a day to see what my blood sugars were. As a working person who travels a lot, doing this is just a bit difficult.

Enter the Dexcom 5 Continuous Glucose Monitoring system and Tim’s Apple Watch. Way better solution. Life changing. Read the whole post. Stay healthy Tim.

From Apple’s press release:

Apple® today announced a new initiative to support engineering talent and accelerate growth in India’s iOS developer community.

The company will establish a Design and Development Accelerator in Bengaluru, the home of India’s startup scene. Tens of thousands of developers in India make apps for iOS, the world’s most powerful mobile operating system and the foundation for iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch®. This initiative will provide additional, specialized support for them.

And:

Each week, Apple experts will lead briefings and provide one-on-one app reviews for developers.

And:

Bengaluru is now home to more technology startups than any other part of India. Over one million people in the city work in the tech sector, and over 40 percent of graduates from local universities specialize in engineering or information technology.

Apple is continuing their pattern of investing locally, both in iOS development accelerators, and in partnering with local businesses (see the accelerator announcements in Indonesia, Italy, Brazil, and the Didi investment in China).

Ben Popper, writing for The Verge:

Last week a former engineer from the much hyped wireless charging startup uBeam left some scathing criticism of the company on his blog. He compared uBeam to the now disgraced startup Theranos, saying that uBeam has avoided any full-fledged public demonstrations because its technology doesn’t work as advertised. While it can do some very limited charging over a short distance, he allowed, the basic laws of physics prevent the product from being practical at any commercial level.

And:

Earlier this year Bloomberg reported that Apple was hoping to add wireless charging to the new iPhone it releases in 2017. And the Bloomberg report specified that Apple wanted to go beyond the minor convenience of a charging mat — which lets you avoid the cable, but doesn’t fully free up your device. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Apple wants to implement a much more advanced technology that would allow you to walk around a room and have your phone charging the entire time.

I can’t speak to the physics at work here, but I’ve never seen any demonstration that shows anything close to this capability. Is this a pipe dream? Rumor mongering? Or is there a proof of concept inside a black draped room in an Apple R&D lab?

My instinct is that the loss of efficiency as you move further and further from direct contact would make this impossible. But I thought quantum entanglement was impossible, too, and that has been demonstrated. We shall see.

The effect of Saturation, or the introduction of harmonic distortion, on an audio track or mix can add that certain special “flavor” and “warmth” that only magnetic tape, tubes, transformers or transistors can deliver. The T-RackS Saturator X delivers that classic analog saturation and takes you on a trip back in time to the birth of “modern” recording before computers and opens your recordings to the mysterious, elusive and warm world of analog saturation.

There really is something special about saturation.

Dorico redefines the gold standard in scoring software. Its musical intelligence is like having an expert assistant by your side, while its intuitive workflows help you focus on each aspect of score preparation. Dorico’s output equals the finest music engraving, and brings music to life through Steinberg’s award-winning audio engine.

Steinberg has years of experience in the music industry—I expect good things from them with this software.

Impressive list of talented people.

With the Amazon Associates program you can link to products sold on Amazon to earn commissions on purchases made with those links. The trouble is, creating those links is a hassle on iOS. Associate fixes that with easy to use search and link conversion.

The developer, John Voorhees, is a great guy that develops great software.

Apple Inc is set to announce plans to expand its Indian software development center and build an accelerator program for local start-ups, two sources aware of the investment said on Tuesday, hours before Chief Executive Tim Cook’s maiden visit.

Cook, who arrives in India late on Tuesday, is making his Indian debut just as the country emerges as one of the last large growth markets in the smartphone world, while sales in the United States and China begin to taper off.

This is a big investment trip for Apple. First China, now investments in India. It’s smart to become part of the economies where they want to sell products.

I’m not going to ruin it, but the description of this is so, so good.

Andrew O’Hara did a nice job pulling together this list. More importantly, he did a nice job describing the features you should look for in a scanning app. I definitely learned something here.

From the folks who created the beautiful behind the scenes poster showing a cutaway of the original Mac, this litho is a gamer-themed street map made from the titles of over 500 video games and other references from the history of gaming. I will have this.

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac:

A new report from CBC News details the progress being made to unlock the FM radio chip that many smartphones feature. Many smartphones have an untapped FM chip inside them that users are unable to take advantage of and while many Android devices are confirmed to have the chip, the iPhone also has despite Apple not officially recognizing it.

This is fascinating. I’d love a built-in FM radio in my iPhone. It’s not a critical feature, purely a nice-to-have. But flipping things around, I can’t imagine Apple or Google feeling great about exposing an FM radio as part of their device feature list. After all, bad reception would be seen by many as a flaw in the phone, and FM radio would be free content that would compete with paid offerings like Apple Music.

That said, I expect that if one side adopts and promotes FM, it’ll spread by necessity.

Brandon Chester, writing for AnandTech:

It’s really not difficult to come to a conclusion on the iPhone SE. It’s clearly the best 4-inch smartphone on the market, and you can ignore all of the specs when making that assessment because it achieves that by virtue of being the only offering at this size. For the sake of comparison, you can take a look at some Android devices that are larger than the SE, but smaller than your average Android smartphone.

And:

Even when you consider the smallest high-end devices from the Android manufacturers, it’s not hard to see that the iPhone SE comes out on top. Apple’s A9 SoC is still one of the fastest chips you’ll find in a smartphone, and it goes without saying that the Snapdragon 810 SoC in a smartphone like the Xperia Z5 Compact really isn’t comparable in the slightest. Based on my experience, the camera is also unmatched at this size and price.

A remarkable review, a wealth of detail.

From Apple’s press release:

Apple® today announced an update to GarageBand® that celebrates the rich history of Chinese music with new instruments and extensive Chinese language localization throughout the app. Building on GarageBand’s extensive collection of sounds, this update adds traditional Chinese instruments — the pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion — along with 300 Apple-created Chinese musical loops, giving users the power to tap into their creativity and make beautiful Chinese-inspired music right on their iOS device or Mac®. GarageBand for iOS users also get two new Chinese templates for Live Loops, and new sharing options to popular Chinese social networks, so they can easily share their music creations with friends and followers across QQ and Youku.

“GarageBand is the most popular music creation app in the world and we’re excited to introduce these new features that incorporate the rich history of traditional Chinese music,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing. “By adding classic Chinese instruments and new Live Loop templates, the new GarageBand app makes it fun and easy to make Chinese-inspired music right on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.”

Apple continues its full court press in pursuit of success in China.

Another quote in the press release is from JJ Lin, a Singaporean singer and songwriter:

“As a musician I’m always looking for ways to take my music in new directions and GarageBand has been such a great tool for me to experiment and add new elements to my songs on-the-go,” said award-winning music artist JJ Lin. “I love how the latest update to GarageBand adds traditional Chinese instruments along with brand new loops so I can play around with mixing traditional and modern sounds to create completely new styles.”

Lin is based in Taiwan. You can see him in action, GarageBand jamming with Tim Cook in the video embedded below. Tim might appear to just be nodding along, but keep an eye on his thumb. His timing is tight.

Kirk McElhearn, writing for Macworld:

I find the changes Apple has wrought to the interface of iTunes 12.4 to be both positive and intuitive, and I think all users will find these new ways of navigation to be more efficient, once they get used to them.

Read on for the details. Also, don’t miss Kirk’s list of minor tweaks that came with the iTunes 12.4 update.

David Chartier:

When using a hardware keyboard with iOS 9, you can hold the Command key to view a cheat sheet of an app’s shortcuts (assuming its developer has updated to add some). But I noticed this morning that those shortcuts can be contextual, based on the task at hand or which panel or tab you are currently viewing.

Interesting. Check out the images in the post for more on this, especially if you’ve never seen the iOS 9 keyboard shortcuts menu before.

Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note:

‘Just you wait’, Intel kept telling us, year after year. ‘Yes, our legacy x86 architecture, dominant in the PC world, hasn’t yet won a place in smartphones and tablets, but our company’s superior manufacturing technology will inevitably lead to victory…’

Last month, Intel finally threw in the towel and tossed thousands of people to the curb.

What happened?

Like a decade long, slow motion train wreck. As each year came and went, I kept thinking, Intel is going to turn soon, right? Great writeup by Jean-Louis Gassée.

Apple and other companies in recent months have been subjected to reviews that target encryption and the data storage of tech products, said people briefed on the reviews who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the reviews, Chinese officials require executives or employees of the foreign tech companies to answer questions about the products in person, according to these people.

This must be worrisome for foreign companies. This isn’t an Apple specific issue, so I hope people don’t overreact to this news.

As merchants like Walmart move ahead on their own mobile payment strategies, a consortium that once counted Walmart — along with a number of other big retailers and brands — behind it, has taken a step back. Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) today announced it would postpone a nationwide rollout of CurrentC, a smartphone payment initiative originally conceived as a mobile wallet rival to smartphone-led services like Apple Pay and Android Pay. As a result, MCX said it would lay off 30 people as it shifted its focus to working with financial institutions.

It’s dead, just cancel it.

I would totally wear one of these.

The change could happen in the next two weeks, said the person who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t yet public. Links currently take up 23 characters, even after Twitter automatically shortens them. The company declined to comment.

Of all the changes that Twitter has talked about, I love this one. It’s a small, but significant change.

Cook’s visit, following a trip to China, comes at a crucial time as Apple looks for new growth markets after posting its first ever decline in iPhone sales, and as India has denied it permission to sell refurbished phones – a move seen as key to appealing to price-sensitive local consumers.

This makes perfect sense considering how much Tim has talked about India lately.