As a laptop user I’ve always found myself a bit outside the mainstream. I opted for the MacBook Air over the Retina MacBook Pro, and even within the Air line, I opted for the 11-inch model over the 13-inch. What I’m saying is, I appreciate that my choice isn’t just between chocolate and vanilla.
These past few years Apple has been diversifying its mobile product lines, expanding beyond a single, mainstream product to include variations that appeal to customers who want something a bit different. The iPhone 6 Plus gave people who wanted more battery and screen space the ability to get it; the iPhone 5S (and now the iPhone SE) serve people who want a smaller and cheaper model. The iPad mini was a nice shrunken-down variation on the classic iPad; the 12.9-inch iPad Pro offered a much larger, richer iPad experience.
Now here’s the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, but this isn’t Apple adding another device that’s nibbling at the edges. This is the flagship of the iPad line, undoubtedly the best-selling iPad model for the next year, full of impressive features (as well as a few curious omissions) and in a size that’s exactly what people expect from an iPad.
Dig in, read the whole thing. I especially love Jason’s thoughts on Apple’s product naming.
Kirk McElhearn, writing for Intego’s Mac Security Blog:
It is possible — and increasingly common — for malicious people to “sniff” traffic on public Wi-Fi networks, looking for information. They try to catch your user names, passwords, and any other data that may identify you, and then try and access your accounts or even steal your identity.
And:
There’s a better way to set up a VPN: You can buy a router that includes built-in VPN software, and then set it up at your home or office. When you’re on the road, you connect to that router, and the traffic between your laptop computer, iPhone, iPad or Android device is encrypted up to that point. After that, it goes out onto the Internet, but from a location that you know is secure. (And most routers also have firewalls you can activate to enhance their security.)
I’m no expert, but this seems like a pretty good solution. Rather than pay a monthly fee for a VPN service, buy a router that includes the software, leave it at home and VPN in from your local coffee house.
This is an old story, but I just encountered it, found it fascinating. All guitarists (at least of my generation) learn, at some point, the chords to Smoke on the Water. It’s just one of those foundational songs.
The words tell a story, something about a flare gun, Frank Zappa, a gambling house, and a big fire. The post is an interview with the person who owned the concert hall/casino where Frank Zappa was playing when the whole disaster went down.
The copying of Apple has evolved. It’s less literal now, as companies strive to recreate the essence of Apple’s success, whether it be through vertical integration (as with Huawei and its in-house processor design), positive brand associations, or simple aesthetic and tactile appeal. Apple is still the Michael Jordan that every Chinese smartphone manufacturer looks up to, but instead of trying to dunk with their tongues sticking out or shoot fadeaway jumpers, these rising stars are developing their own ways of scoring points with consumers. Instead of imitating, they are emulating.
I think companies like Xaiomi recognize that there are legal issues if they bring a straight-up iPhone copy into the US. If they want to truly become a global player, they need originality.
That said, no amount of originality will allow them to cross the iOS/Android divide. Apple has done a brilliant job creating an ecosystem that keeps its customers on board while encouraging drift from the Android side.
The key is to maintain the originality and security of iOS and find a way to address the software quality issues that have crept into the mix.
FBI Director James Comey gave a speech at Kenyon University’s Center for the Study of American Democracy last night. His speech focused on encryption, the divide on privacy priorities, and the issues relating to the recent court case involving Apple and the San Bernardino iPhone 5C running iOS 9.
The speech is embedded below. Director Comey doesn’t actually walk on stage until a bit more than 20 minutes in (at about the 20:50 mark).
Comey’s speech seemed heartfelt, with a focus on having a reasonable discussion about privacy and encryption. He stressed the need for both sides to be listen to the other and be willing to be wrong. Personally, I like the man and I sense that he recognizes the legitimacy of both sides of the argument, that he finds himself in a difficult position.
Comey does an excellent job laying out all sides, though he still seems to be missing a basic premise of this discussion. He focused on the fallacy of slippery slope arguments, arguing that Apple’s case depends on the concept of inevitability, that it is inevitable that if Apple helps the FBI, the source code/skeleton key/backdoor will fall into the hands of the wrong actors.
This is a subtle but critical point. And I think it is where Comey misses the mark.
If you leave a big pile of cash on a chair in the middle of Times Square, with guards on either side of it, is it inevitable that that cash will disappear? No, certainly not. Is it inevitable that someone will at least consider trying to steal that cash? No, but certainly that is much closer to inevitable.
All that said, would you be willing to leave a pile of cash on a public but guarded chair? No. Not because the cash will inevitably disappear, but because there is a real threat that someone will try to steal that cash and because there is a non-zero chance that they will succeed.
Obviously, there is a universe of differences between the cash chair analogy and the Apple FBI case. There is no benefit to leaving your cash in public. The cost of making it possible for the FBI to break into an iPhone is in privacy and security. The benefit is in helping fight terrorism. This is not a one sided argument.
But Comey’s speech homed in on inevitability as the heart of Apple’s argument, that Apple was saying that it is inevitable that if they help the FBI, the bad guys will gain the ability to break into iPhones.
But inevitability is the wrong word on which to focus. Instead, ask yourself this: Is there a likelihood that bad guys will try to get hold of the mechanism used to break into the iPhone once it is created? Of course. And is there a guarantee that Apple and the FBI can both 100% prevent those bad guys from getting that mechanism? No, of course not.
And that’s the difference, that’s the core of the argument. The possibility of failure, however slight, is the issue.
I want to complement Director Comey on his openness and his call for all parties to listen and respect both sides in this important discussion. Well done.
One final note: At the end of FBI Director Comey’s speech, he entertained questions from the audience (at the 52:04 mark). In response to the first question, Comey talks about the possibility of revealing (to Apple) the technique used to break into the San Bernardino iPhone (they haven’t decided) and makes the point that the technique they used has a very narrow focus, will only break into the iPhone 5c and earlier (not the iPhone 5s or iPhone 6, for example).
Our relation started with Apple selecting our Essenza table, designed by my father Willem van Ast. While working on several customized versions of the Essenza they asked us to try something we’d never attempted before in the Pod Island table.
At that time all of us assumed the table top would be built out of 2 or 3 segments, in order to deal with the 18-foot length. It soon became clear this was a job and a project unlike anything we’d seen.
During a meeting to inspect the first prototype together with Apple and Foster+Partners, the question was raised: “but what if it was made out of a single piece? Can you achieve it?” They challenged us to push the boundaries of our craft, we got excited ourselves as well and started to investigate how to overcome the limitations inherent to the way we produce tables—not just here at Arco but for the entire furniture industry
I don’t know if it’s because of our slightly obsessive fixation on Apple or whether it’s because Apple is known for making really interesting decisions but I can guarantee, this is the first time I’ve ever read an article about table design.
Thank you to all of our customers who have offered feedback on the new TextExpander, and thank you again for your long-term support. In our enthusiasm to release, we missed some details we’d like to address here.
Tough day for the folks at Smile. I do love the people at this company.
Smithsonian magazine has just announced the winning entries in their 13th annual photo contest, selected from more than 46,000 entries sent in from 168 countries. They’ve shared the Grand Prize winner here, as well as the winning shots from the competition’s six categories: The Natural World, Travel, People, The American Experience, Altered Images, and Mobile.
As always, some spectacular images are presented here. I tell my photography students to look at and study these kinds of winning photographs and try and figure out how the photographer created it, both technically and creatively.
Apple appears to be taking its new Apple News app to the place that news often breaks (then spreads), Twitter. The Twitter handle @applenews has been dressed for the job for several months now although it’s been inactive before today and it isn’t yet marked “verified” by Twitter; Apple execs Eddy Cue and Roger Rosner are among those that follow the account, however, which suggests it’s an official Apple property.
The @AppleNews account now has its official Twitter checkmark and has started posting actual news stories (as opposed to its original “Follow us” tweet, the only thing there when Zac posted his article).
Bill Atkinson is one of the members of the original Mac development team. He created MacPaint, the QuickDraw toolbox (the underpinnings of the Mac’s graphical interface), and HyperCard, just to name a few of his many accomplishments.
This is a great interview, with lots of nice little touches, like Leo LaPorte pulling out his original copies of Inside Macintosh, the bible for us Mac developers.
Good question. My very first Mac, which I got in early 1984. Hard to match that purchase for pure product joy. But then there’s my first Laserwriter. Or the terrific modularity of the Mac IIci. Then there’s every single iPhone I’ve ever gotten, each better than the last.
But that original Apple II. That was so much fun. If I have to pick one, I’ll go with my first.
The following prices are for Apple repair service. Pricing and terms might vary at other service providers. All prices are in US dollars and are subject to tax. We’ll add a $6.95 shipping fee if we need to ship your iPhone. We’ll test your product to determine the final service fee.
Service is available for most issues. We’ll let you know if we can repair your iPhone and tell you which service you can get.
Obviously, your warranty coverage will affect your price.
Partners since 2013 through the Twitter Amplify program, the NFL and Twitter will provide free, live streaming video of Thursday Night Football without authentication to the over 800 Million registered and non-registered users worldwide on the Twitter platform on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs.
In addition to live streaming video of NFL action, the partnership includes in-game highlights from TNF as well as pre-game Periscope broadcasts from players and teams, giving fans an immersive experience before, during and after games.
No authentication required. Still, Twitter will no doubt gain new subscribers from this deal and that seems to be the primary reason for their bid.
It will be very interesting to see how much this changes the experience of watching a game.
“This is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today,” said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO. “Now they’ll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights.”
Watching Twitter. And watching Twitter worldwide. So NFL fans throughout the world will, presumably, be able to watch Thursday Night Football with no authentication required, for free.
Great article from Ben Thompson on Tesla, their game plan, and what it means to be disruptive.
A few (of the many) highlights:
Nearly 300,000 people have willingly parted with $1,000 despite the fact they will not have a chance to purchase a car for years; an astounding 115,000 of them sent in their deposit before they even knew what the car looked like. A friend got in line to make his reservation at 6:45am and there were 123 people in front of him. This is, no matter how you measure it, a phenomenon that is nearly unprecedented; the only possible comparison is Apple and its iPhone.
And this, from Tesla’s “secret master plan”:
The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model…The second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable.
In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.
And on one key difference between the disruptive forces of Apple and Tesla:
When it comes to the iPhone I have argued that Apple’s smartphone was, relative to the phones on the market, Obsoletive: the iPhone effectively reduced the phones that came before it to apps on a general purpose computer, justifying a higher price even as it made cheaper incumbents obsolete.
This doesn’t quite work for Tesla: at the end of the day a Model S is still doing the same job as a traditional BMW or Mercedes-Benz. It just does it better: a Model S accelerates faster, it has more storage, it has innovative features like limited auto-pilot and a huge touch-screen interface, and you don’t have to stop at the gas station. Most importantly, though, it is a Tesla.
Tesla is helping establish the electric car as a legitimate alternative to combustion engine vehicles. Interestingly, while Apple would be more than happy to be the only phone in the marketplace, Tesla wants, and needs, more players to help build out the required infrastructure, and establish legitimacy.
If you weren’t paying attention, you may have missed this bug’s arrival and departure entirely. Interesting that Apple was able to fix this server-side. That is, Apple fixed Siri on their end, without you having to install an update.
A commissioner at the US Federal Trade Commission who is leaving the agency after six years of working on consumer privacy issues has some critical words for the ad industry.
Speaking with Ad Age, departing FTC commissioner Julie Brill lamented the current state of consumer tracking and data collection on the web, linking the rampant rise of ad blockers with the ad industry’s foot-dragging and non-cooperation in the commission’s efforts to create privacy systems based on user consent.
Like many critics, Brill points to Do Not Track, the failed system meant to allow consumers to opt-out of invasive tracking by flagging their browsers, which the ad industry fought tooth-and-nail and eventually killed by ignoring the flags outright. She says that the industry’s resistance to doing things the “easy” way is at least partly to blame for the consumer response.
Bang on. If the industry had respected consumer wishes and respected their customers, we wouldn’t have the proliferation of ad blocking and ad blocking blockers resulting in a virtual arms race of Us vs Them.
We all need happy little trees in our lives sometimes—and Bob Ross’s official YouTube channel has got them! The first 10 seasons of Ross’s beloved series, The Joy of Painting, are now available to stream for free. That’s nearly 150 episodes of the iconic artist calmly painting happy little landscapes and teaching us all about “wet-on-wet” oil painting techniques and how to take care of our painting supplies and canvases.
Do not start watching these videos unless you have a lot of free time. Ross’ voice is so gentle and soothing, you’ll either fall asleep or be hypnotized and end up watching 10 hours non-stop.
Nest, a smart-home company owned by Google’s holding company Alphabet, is dropping support for a line of products — and will make customers’ existing devices completely useless.
It’s a move that has infuriated some customers, and raises worrying questions about the rights of consumers in the ever-more connected future.
This is going to be a continuing problem with the Internet of Things and why I don’t trust or want to use most of them. Many IoT devices simply won’t work without an internet connection. And some, like this product, can be obsoleted on a whim by the manufacturer.
It is with tremendous sadness that I write this post today. I have tried to figure out a way for The Loop Magazine app to work on the App Store, for the last few months. It turns out, it just won’t. This morning, I removed the app from the App Store.
I will continue to publish to make up for the missing issues over the last few months.
When Apple started Newsstand, I thought it was a way to reach readers with unique content, pay writers well for their content, and create a great experience on an iOS app. I guess I should have realized when Apple killed Newsstand that it was over, but I pressed on. That was a mistake on my part.
Chris Harris and Mateusz Stawecki created what I believe to be the best publishing and reading experience on iOS, and I thank them for that. However, the App Store is not a place for independent publishers.
My struggles are no different from any other developer on the App Store. If you have a game or social media app, you’re golden in Apple’s eyes. Anything else, forget it. (Unless you’re a big publisher, then you’re golden too).
I hate failure, and this was a failure for me. I will learn from it and focus my attention back on The Loop website, where it belongs. I’m sorry to the subscribers of the magazine, and hope you enjoy the upcoming issues I have prepared for you.
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and stop expecting printers to “just work” because that would make sense in a world where a touchscreen supercomputer fits in your shirt pocket. Like most things in life that you have no control over, you’ll be happier if you accept printers for the janky money pits that they really are.
Most of you are going to hate something about any printer that you buy, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Instead of fighting it, try to reframe the issue in your mind: You’re not buying a printer because you’re supposed to have one at home. You’re buying a printer because it’s (just barely) less inconvenient than going to a copy center.
Having used home and small office printers for over 25 years, it’s hard to argue with their premise. I have an Epson R2000 printer I love – when it works. But I dread having to print something on it because I know, even if I printed just fine yesterday, some problem will crop up when I use it today to make me waste time, energy, paper, and ink troubleshooting it.
This Reddit post is by someone claiming to be a Nest engineer:
As a Nest engineer, I won’t say any numbers that aren’t public, but this company is already on deathwatch. Once that happens, most people will quickly have shiny paperweights because it’s a constant firefight keeping these systems up. We have $340M in revenue, not profit, against a ~$500M budget. No new products since the purchase, and sales/growth numbers are dire. Our budget deal expires soon, and all the good engineers on my teams have discreetly indicated they are going to flee once their golden handcuffs unlock (many have already left despite sacrificing a lot of money to do so).
Tony and his goons demand crazy timelines so much that “crunch time” has basically lost meaning. Just when your labor bears fruit, they swoop in, 180 the specs you just delivered on, then have the gall to call your team “incompetent” for not reading their mind and delivering on these brand-new specs. I waste most of my time in pointless meetings, or defending my teams so they don’t flip their desks and walk out. People fall asleep in corners and cry in the bathrooms, health and marriages are suffering. Already the churn is insane, close to half the company if not more. Skilled engineers can tell the environment is toxic, so we’re filling vacancies with mostly sub-par talent.
Wow. If true, that’s bad news, especially for people who have invested in the company and the company’s products. And if it’s not true, this is certainly a damaging post, as it’s flying around the internet.
I tend to shy away from Kickstarters, purely because there is no guarantee that you’ll get the goods after you fund them. But this one might be worth a look.
The DoBox is an all-in-one device, but it does a lot. Here’s a picture of what i suspect is their latest prototype:
It gives you an ethernet jack, 2 USB ports, HDMI, microUSB (for charging). You can use those ports to move data to/from your iOS devices and to charge your iOS devices. Lay your Apple Watch on top of the box to charge it without a cable (direct induction).
According to the video, you can use the USB port to attach a mouse and keyboard, use them on your iOS device. I’d love to see that firsthand. Sounds like a perfect travel device.
Lots of possibilities here. Jump to the KickStarter page and watch the video to get a sense of the DoBox in action. I’ll be getting one, will let you know how it works out.
This site is a fan tribute to the original Zelda game. You can use arrow keys, AWSD keys to move around. Space bar is A. At first blush, a pretty fun experience, sound and all. If only I could figure out the sword part.
