Immersion, a company which developers haptic feedback technology, has filed its second complaint of the year against Apple. The company claims that 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and the Force Touch trackpad found on the 12-inch MacBook and recent MacBook Pro models violate a number of Immersion patents.

I wonder how Apple will argue this case.

Ben Lovejoy, writing for 9to5Mac, gets right to some core issues with Apple Music. Great post, well stated.

Steven Sinofsky was President of Microsoft’s Windows’ division from 2009 to 2013. From his blog post about moving to an iPad as his full time machine:

Unlike many “use a product for month” tests this is not an experiment. For me this is a deeply held belief that the rise of smartphones (specifically starting when the iPhone launched) would have a profound impact on the way we all use “computers”.

The transformation spans hardware (thinner, lighter, smaller, cheaper, longer battery life, instant on/off, touch, sensors, connectivity, etc.), operating systems (more: secure, reliable, maintainable, robust, etc.), and app software (refactored, renewed, reimagined, etc.). It is the combination of these attributes, however, causing a change as fundamental as the leap from mainframe to workstation, from character-based to graphical OS, from desktop to laptop, from client/server to web — perhaps equal to all rolled into one shift if for no other reason than the whole planet is involved.

And:

Note: This is not a Mac v. Windows or iOS v. Android discussion, so no snickering please. This is about a shift to a “modern mobile” computing platform from hardware to software and the cultural changes that surround that.

I find it fascinating when folks move to a tablet as their full-time machine. I can’t imagine doing that. A big issue for me is the fact that Xcode only runs on my Mac. Add to that my frequent use of a large screen for both editing (multiple windows open side by side) and for development (side-by-side code listings and complex storyboards).

Sinofsky’s post is compelling and worth reading. Interesting that he made the choice to use an iPad and not a Surface solution.

TechCrunch:

Apple today launched a new plan to boost subscribers to its streaming music service and competitor to Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal and others. It’s introducing an Apple Music student plan which will discount the service by 50 percent for those who are enrolled in an eligible college or university.

That means in the U.S., where an individual membership to Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, the student membership will be $4.99 per month instead.

The option isn’t just arriving in the U.S., though. Students in other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, will also be able to take advantage of the new membership option.

However, because Apple Music is priced slightly differently in other markets, the cost of the student membership will vary. But in all markets, it will be 50 percent off the standard subscription price.

That’s the price difference between the solo plan and the family plan.

Reuters:

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook plans to visit Beijing later this month to meet high-level government officials, at a time when it is facing some setbacks in its most important overseas market, a source familiar with the matter said.

And:

During his China visit, Cook plans to meet senior government and Communist Party leaders – including officials in charge of propaganda, said the source, who declined to be named as the plan is not public yet.

Travel safe, Tim.

Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and several car makers are seeking large expanses of real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area for their autonomous-car operations, a top landlord in the area said Thursday, illustrating Silicon Valley’s growing importance in the auto industry.

Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., told analysts that “we are seeing a definitive movement” from autonomous-car research-and-development facilities, which “seem to be a hot demand item.”

“We’re seeing the Toyotas of the world, the Teslas of the world, BMWs, Mercedes. Ford now is out in the marketplace looking for space,” he said on the landlord’s quarterly investor call. “I haven’t even mentioned the 400,000 square feet that Google’s looking to take down and the 800,000 square feet that Apple’s looking to take down for their autonomous cars as well.”

Seems to me, someone could make a killing creating a massive setup that allowed manufacturers to bring their vehicles in and test against all the California and federal regulations.

Jordan Golson, writing for The Verge:

Tesla is selling a car with an “upgradable” battery. Only it’s not upgradable in the take-it-to-the-dealer-and-they’ll-swap-out-some-hardware sense. Instead, you give Tesla thousands of dollars to “unlock” hardware that’s already included in your car with an over-the-air software update. The Model S 70 includes a 70kWh battery pack that’s good for around 240 miles of range. For $3,000 more, there’s a Model S 75 with a 75kWh battery pack that gives an additional 19 miles of range from the extra 5kWh of energy storage. But both models use the exact same battery for logistics and manufacturing purposes.

To make this crystal clear, Tesla sells a battery that is artificially limited to 240 miles of range. Pay $3,000 more, you get 259 miles.

Two things leap to mind here:

First, this is the auto industry’s version of in-app purchase, the definitive upsell.

Second, can I make this purchase if I am on the road and run out of battery?

Solid review. Be sure to watch the video towards the top of the post, Lauren Goode comparing the 2016 MacBook to the MacBook Air. Lauren is back to her “twinning” tricks. Keep your eye on the version of Lauren not speaking. Very entertaining.

One recurring point:

You can buy a more powerful, 13-inch MacBook Air with a 2.2ghz dual-core Intel Core i7 and TurboBoost up to 3.2ghz for $1,149 — less than the starting price of the MacBook.

As to battery life:

The new MacBook is said to have one more hour of battery life than last year’s MacBook. In an official Verge test, which involves turning off all power-saving settings, setting the display to around 65 percent brightness, and running a loop of web pages, the new MacBook lasted me exactly 10 hours.

While this is much better than my three-and-a-half-year-old MacBook Pro, it’s still not as impressive as the battery life on a 13-inch MacBook Air.

And you’ll likely end up spending a bit more for adapters, since the MacBook only comes with a single port. The price of thin and, if it’s your thing, the price of pink.

Another successful launch and landing. The video below is the hosted version, with hosts explaining each step in the launch and landing sequence and employees cheering raucously in the background.

If your time is limited, jump to about 29:30 for the last bit of the countdown and liftoff, then to 36:59 for the landing. The landing video was not as dramatic as the previous launch, with the first stage suddenly appearing on the drone pad, the excellently named Of Course I Still Love You. The cost of a close up view of the pad.

Fantastic result.

This looks pretty cool. All done from the menubar.

SAP, whose business software runs inside 87 percent of the world’s 2,000 biggest companies, said it would work with Apple to develop mobile business apps for iPhones and iPads that run on its HANA database software.

Another good move for Apple and its customers in the corporate world.

Atlas Obscura:

While the elegance of hand-crafted old maps is self-evident, finding beauty in modern satellite maps is a bit more challenging. Thankfully we have visionary modern mapmakers like Cameron Beccario who created the Earth wind map. Don’t let the understated title fool you—his creation is one of the most mesmerizing interactive maps ever made.

This is insanely cool. Make sure you click on the menu in the lower left and go through some of the viewing options. But make sure you don’t have anything to do for the next hour.

Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:

On Wednesday, I saw a post widely shared about an unfortunate individual who lost half of their local library and was blaming Apple Music for automatically deleting their local files.

I sympathize, and I’m very glad this person had a backup of their music, but I want to dispel some FUD here: Apple Music has definite problems and its matching algorithms aren’t great, but this is simply not how the service works. Apple Music should never automatically delete files off your Mac’s hard drive unless you specifically delete them first.

Serenity does a terrific job explaining this mess. In a nutshell, back up your original music library and do what you can to never delete music from it. If you need more space, get a bigger drive. If you must delete some music to save space, you are risking going down the rabbit hole of doom, so make sure your backup is complete and dependable.

I sure hope Apple addresses this.

SketchParty:

SketchParty TV is a drawing game for two teams of up to eight players per team that plays a bit like Pictionary®. The standard gameplay settings give each player five words to draw in two minutes, and each player gets two of these two minute turns. With six total players, a full game can be played in about 30 minutes.

SketchParty TV is available on the iTunes App Store for the special sale price of $5.99 (regularly $9.99).

I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler but this latest version of the very popular SketchParty now supports both the Apple Pencil and the new Apple TV. I still won’t be able to draw but it does look like a fun game for families.

Co.Design:

“It’s a pain in the ass,” Marc Barros says with a laugh. This week, Barros’s products will appear on the coveted shelves of Apple’s U.S. retail stores. Originally funded through two successful Kickstarter campaigns that started in 2014, the Moment lenses and cases—created for the prosumer iPhone photographer—caught the attention of Apple earlier this year.

It may have seemed like a big win for a small company. But the practicalities of taking an e-commerce business to Apple’s tightly curated retail stores—in only a month’s time—was a harrowing gamble for Barros’s 15-person team. Here’s why.

I know developers, big and small, who have products in the Apple Retail Stores. The common refrain is, “It’s the best and worst thing to happen to your company”. Apple’s attention to detail extends outwards to vendors who want to sell in their stores.

The study, now in its fifth year, measures customer satisfaction with tablets across five factors (in order of importance): performance (28%); ease of operation (22%); features (22%); styling and design (17%); and cost (11%). Satisfaction is calculated on a 1,000-point scale.

I love my iPad. I don’t care what Wall Street says, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro is a brilliant device and I recommend it to everyone.

John brings up some great points about Apple Music’s product design and marketing. Definitely worth a read.

About a month ago, I set out to find every color of iMac G3. At the time, I only owned one model — a Sage. Today, the family is complete.

This is impressive.

The Atlantic:

The National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest is now underway, and entries will be accepted until the end of the month, May 27, 2016. The grand prize winner will receive a seven-day Polar Bear Safari for two in Churchill, Canada. National Geographic was kind enough to allow me to share some of the early entries with you here, gathered from three categories: Nature, Cities, and People.

Some of these photos are so spectacular, they make me want to throw away my camera gear because I know I’ll never come close to capturing the beauty of travel in the way these shooters have.

Craig Grannell:

Developer Travis Ryan just noted to me on Twitter that App Store search is broken. Presumably, this is a temporary glitch, but it’s frustrating for developers. In Ryan’s case, a search for Dashy Crashy doesn’t bring up his excellent game of the same name. All you get is Dashy Crashy Bird, a one-thumb sort-of Flappy Bird clone.

Some proof:

• Here’s a link to Dashy Crashy. The link works, the app is live in the App Store.
• Go to the iOS App Store, search for Dashy Crashy. The app does not show up.
• While you are at it, try a search for dumpling design (the company that makes Dashy Crashy). Though it shows up in the search suggestions, the search yields no results.

Try searching for other apps. Your mileage may vary, but I’m having no luck.

Yeesh.

The Verge:

Moog’s Model 15 modular synthesizer, first released in 1973, can cost upward of $10,000. But Moog understands that not every synthesizer fan has a casual 10K laying around, so yesterday the company released an iOS app version of the classic instrument. It’s available for iPads, iPod touches, and iPhones that are running iOS version 9.3.1 or later.

What’s really cool about the app is how hands-on it is. Although the buttons are virtual, users actively participate in creating their music. They can drag cables around the board, play on the collapsable digital keyboard, and turn knobs. It’s a hefty app with a lot of simultaneous motion and sound, so Moog says it took advantage of Apple’s Metal API for smooth transitions.

Watch the video. Fantastic to have that distinct Moog sound. Looks like it is Midi-savvy, so you can set up the sound you like, then control it from a full size MIDI Controller. Nice.

LA Times:

Los Angeles police investigators obtained a method to open the locked iPhone belonging to the slain wife of “The Shield” actor Michael Jace, according to court papers reviewed by The Times.

LAPD detectives found an alternative way to bypass the security features on the white iPhone 5S belonging to April Jace, whom the actor is accused of killing at their South L.A. home in 2014, according to a search warrant filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The bypass occurred earlier this year, during the same period that the FBI was demanding that Apple unlock the iPhone 5C of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. The FBI eventually said it found another method for unlocking the phone without using Apple.

Elizabeth Dwoskin, writing for the Washington Post:

The stealthy, four-year-old Viv is among the furthest along in an endeavor that many in Silicon Valley believe heralds that next big shift in computing — and digital commerce itself. Over the next five years, that transition will turn smartphones — and perhaps smart homes and cars and other devices — into virtual assistants with supercharged conversational capabilities like Conversational AI, said Julie Ask, an expert in mobile commerce at Forrester.

Powered by artificial intelligence and unprecedented volumes of data, they could become the portal through which billions of people connect to every service and business on the Internet. It’s a world in which you can order a taxi, make a restaurant reservation and buy movie tickets in one long unbroken conversation — no more typing, searching or even clicking. It will be amazing to see that such Technological AI advances will soon revolutionize industries by automating tasks, improving decision-making, and creating personalized experiences that enhance efficiency and innovation.

And:

The quest to define the next generation of artificial-intelligence technology has sparked an arms race among the five major tech giants: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon.com have all announced major investments in virtual-assistant software over the past year.Two of them — Google and Facebook — have made offers to buy Viv, according to people familiar with the matter. (Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is also an investor in Viv through the firm Iconiq Capital.)

Viv will have its first public demo on Monday. Interesting that Apple is not said to be among the bidders.

A nice little how-to from iMore’s Marc Lagace.

Bentley Motors makes some finely crafted (and expensive) vehicles. Now they have an Apple Watch app that allows you to control your car’s settings.

Follow the link, watch the embedded video. I like the execution, just not sure I get the value of controlling the car from your wrist, since you’ll be using the app from the driver’s seat. Any Bentley owners out there? Want to chime in?