Alamo Drafthouse:

The Alamo Drafthouse has partnered with Mondo and 20th Century Fox to create one-of-a-kind special screenings of ALIEN and ALIENS featuring exclusive collectibles, customized video preshows, and all sorts of additional Xenomorph insanity at each location!

In honor of LV426, the moon where the Nostromo first encounters the Xenomorph eggs that started so much trouble, the Alamo Drafthouse and friends are bringing you this ultimate celebration on Earth’s “426”, April 26.

If you are lucky enough to live in a city with an Alamo Drafthouse, you owe it to yourself to see one of the greatest horror sci-fi movies of all time. I never had the opportunity to see either movie in a theater and am jealous of those folks who will get the chance on April 26th.

I have this plug-in from Universal Audio and love it. What this company does to allow people to make music is outstanding. Watch the video.

Fraser Speirs, who has written extensively about iPads in classrooms, takes us through setting up the new Apple Classroom.

The New Yorker:

Franklin has won eighteen Grammy awards, sold tens of millions of records, and is generally acknowledged to be the greatest singer in the history of postwar popular music. James Brown, Sam Cooke, Etta James, Otis Redding, Ray Charles: even they cannot match her power, her range from gospel to jazz, R. & B., and pop.

At the 1998 Grammys, Luciano Pavarotti called in sick with a sore throat and Aretha, with twenty minutes’ notice, sang “Nessun dorma” for him. What distinguishes her is not merely the breadth of her catalogue or the cataract force of her vocal instrument; it’s her musical intelligence, her way of singing behind the beat, of spraying a wash of notes over a single word or syllable, of constructing, moment by moment, the emotional power of a three-minute song. “Respect” is as precise an artifact as a Ming vase.

There is no one on the planet who sang like Aretha did in her prime. My mom was a huge fan (sadly, mom would ruin a lot of my listening by singly along, badly) and we listened to everything she recorded when I was a kid. Even now, at the age of 74, she is a better singer than 99.99% of people on tour today and can still occasionally reach the vocal power of her 70’s fame.

The author has also written “The History of Aretha, in Ten Videos” for those of you unfamiliar with her early performances and even some of her later ones. In particular, her performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” at last December’s Kennedy Center Honors will send shivers down your spine.

Vocativ:

Leading off is the Atlanta Braves, who unveiled what they’re calling the “Burgerizza” last week. This towering monstrosity of fat-saturated beef, cheese, and starch is exactly what you think it might be: a 20-ounce bacon cheeseburger jammed between two personal-size pizzas—one pepperoni, one plain—in lieu of buns.

Why not try the Sweet Spot Cotton Candy Dog, “an all-beef hot dog with cotton candy-infused mustard … topped with just enough cotton candy to make it both sweet and salty.” (Infusing mustard with cotton candy apparently turns it the color of nuclear waste.)

Some of the food pictured is truly disgusting. I’m not sure what started this gatronomic arms race but there’s no need for it. It’s a baseball game. The only food you need is a hot dog or a hamburger and a beer.

Michael Gartenberg:

VR has been part of that club for the last thirty years. When, and if Apple does bring a VR product to market it will look very different from anything we’ve seen before or see today. That kind of leap is what Apple looks for prior to making things that are virtual into reality.

Apple does not follow trends unless there is a way they can innovate and bring it to the masses. Don’t expect anything from them until they can do that.

But even if the government walks away from that battle, the growing number of state and local authorities seeking the FBI’s help with locked phones in criminal probes increases the likelihood that the FBI will have to provide it. When that happens, defense attorneys will cross-examine the experts involved.

Although each lawyer would mainly be interested in whether evidence-tampering may have occurred, the process would likely reveal enough about the method for Apple to block it in future versions of its phones, an Apple employee said.

You know that Apple engineers have been all over this since the FBI first announced they found a way into the phone. If they haven’t already found the weakness, they will as soon as these cases go to court.

Tesla Motors Inc said orders for its new Model 3 electric sedan topped 253,000 in the first 36 hours — a fast start for the company’s first mass-market vehicle, which may not begin to reach customers for another 18 months or more.

That’s impressive.

Huffington Post:

My brother has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a type of Muscular Dystrophy. He’s never been able to walk, crawl forward, or do much of anything physical for himself… but he’s smart as all hell. Death has knocked on his door more times than I can count on all fingers and toes. He has literally cheated death and come back to life more than once. He suffers in pain every day. He is a miracle.

Apple has given him something that other companies never tried to give him. A reason to push through the hard times. A purpose. A sense of fulfillment. An opportunity. A damn chance.

What a great story, not from the point of view of Apple but from this young man who could have easily given up, bemoaning his lot in life but instead, pushes through his physical impairments to be the best person he can be.

In the market for a new retina MacBook Pro? An iPad mini? An iPod Touch? You might consider checking out a buyer’s guide before you buy, to get a sense of where your particular product is in its release cycle.

For example, I am in the market for a new retina MacBook Pro, as my existing model is a bit long in the tooth. Checking the MacRumors buyer’s guide (click the Macs tab towards the top of the page), I see that the retina MacBook Pro is rumored to see an upgrade this summer.

I can wait that long, and I can see by the notes that if I do wait, I’ll likely get a Force Touch trackpad. Worth it. [EDIT: Turns out the rMBP already has the Force Touch trackpad. Still gonna wait, though.]

There are lots of buyer’s guides out there, each with its own take on the product release cycle and associated rumors. Might be worth checking a few different ones to make sure the rumors all line up.

Baseball season is now officially here, and Siri can now answer more of your baseball related questions.

Try this one to get you started:

How many career home runs does Bryce Harper have?

Siri will come back with a nicely formatted career stats page.

Play ball!

Terrific post by Steven Sinofsky, showing a sequence of images of evolutionary steps in technology over the years, each one seen as a techie toy when it first emerged.

Interesting piece from Bloomberg. In a nutshell, Apple is finding that the price of a new iPhone is too high for the Indian economy, so they are seeking permission to sell used iPhones.

“Why even consider allowing import of used phones when import of other used goods such as cars are precluded by 300 percent duty levies?” asked Ravinder Zutshi, chairman of the newly formed Mobile and Communications Council, which issued the letter.

The Mobile and Communications Council seems to be the primary source of backlash. And they are:

The group’s members include the largest Indian phone brands: Micromax, Intex and Samsung.

Clearly, allowing Apple to import refurbished iPhones would allow wider affordability to the Indian public but, at the same time, would pose a serious economic threat to Apple’s rivals.

If you are interested in following along, the city of Cupertino has long been maintaining a project page for the planning and construction of Apple’s spaceship campus.

There’s lots to browse through, including a schedule page that shows the campus being completed by the end of 2016, as well as an eNotification signup page.

Interesting to browse through some of the older blueprints and visualizations, comparing them to the reality that’s emerged.

Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, talks about the road to success for Apple’s biggest (back in the early days) business outside the US, Apple France.

After sitting out for awhile, one very large chain couldn’t help notice how well their competitors were doing with Apple products and finally decided to play. A large order is placed, shipped, and immediately “pulled” by customers. A second order comes in. Logistics apologizes: “Can’t ship; credit hold”. “What, our credit’s not good?’” The indignant caller is transferred to Finance and is told that the chain’s reputation for cavalier treatment of payment terms has won them a low credit limit. Risk must be mitigated.

The call then comes to me. I know the caller from a previous incarnation and, using an analogy unprintable here, explain that we treat everyone the same: “We perform, you pay”. A check is promised, immediate shipment is demanded. We of little faith offer a different approach: We’ll dispatch one of Jean Calmon’s sales gents to collect the check and then we’ll roll the palettes out to the shipping dock.

And:

In 1985, with the victory over Big Retail in my portfolio, I was offered the logical next step: running Apple Engineering in Cupertino. Go figure.

Great read.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has assured law enforcement across the United States that it will help unlock mobile devices such as iPhones involved in investigations when it is allowed by law and policy.

I’m thinking local law enforcement expected a bit more cooperation than this.

Petapixel:

Tim Grey, the author of over a dozen books and dozens of video training courses for photographers, has announced that he will now give away all his video courses related to the Nik Collection for free as well!

The course bundle he’s giving away includes 4 courses: Basics of Using the Nik Collection, Learning Viveza 2, Learning Analog Efex Pro, and Learning Silver Efex Pro. So if you downloaded the newly-free Nik Collection last week but haven’t cracked it open yet, this is a great free way to get familiar with Nik and learn your way around the plugin suite.

I haven’t used the Nik Collection in years so I’m looking forward to watching these tutorials to bring me up to speed.

Andy Hertzfeld:

In August of 1983, we moved across the street to a larger building that was unimaginatively designated “Bandley 3”. I had worked there before, in 1980, when Apple had initially built it to house the original engineering organization. But now it was to be the new home of the newly christened “Macintosh Division”, over 80 employees strong.

The building looked pretty much like every other Apple building, so we wanted to do something to make it look like we belonged there. Steve Capps, the heroic programmer who had switched over from the Lisa team just in time for the January retreat, had a flash of inspiration: if the Mac team was a band of pirates, the building should fly a pirate flag.

On its 40th anniversary, Apple is flying a replica of that original pirate flag over its corporate headquarters today.

This is a great collection of facts, images and movies, all to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of Apple. Dig in. Lovely job.

[H/T David Sobsey]

Motherboard:

Apple’s next big encryption battle with the federal government appears to be unfolding in a largely secret court case in Massachusetts involving an FBI bust of a gang called the Columbia Point Dawgz.

Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion to unseal a list of documents in the case (embedded below), in which the government appears to be trying to use the controversial All Writs Act of 1789 to force Apple to help it decrypt what is believed to be an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 9.1.

And:

All iPhones running iOS 8 or greater have device encryption enabled by default. But unlike the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c, the iPhone 6 and other newer iPhone models have a hardware security feature called Secure Enclave, which makes cracking the device’s passcode significantly harder. Ostensibly, that would once again put Apple in the hot seat as the only one capable of helping unlock the phone.

Keep your eye on this one.

I’m particularly intrigued by Kirk’s experience with handwriting recognition. An always available keyboard and improvements in voice recognition have pushed aside investments in handwriting recognition. But I do love the concept, and still think there’s room for it, especially once an Apple Pencil enters the picture.

Om Malik was cleaning out an old Google Drive folder, when he found this post, from his days running GigaOm:

A good blog post starts with a clever lead, or an anecdote, and in very short space, makes a case for what you are trying to say.

If you are reporting news, then it should be the second line, and should tell the story. It should have as many relevant details as possible, if not the complete story. Sometimes, a photo or a video makes a better argument than words, so use those tools to enhance the post. I mean who can resist a Giphy!

A quick analysis, a quote or a supporting or dismissing the argument follows this. Analysis can include things like the number of competitors, stats from a research firm, or even basic history about the start-ups’ founders, venture capitals, etc which tell the reader, look these are guys who are serious enough for us to take them seriously, and hence we are justifying writing about this company or event.

Then you add in details, which are important enough to be included, but don’t necessarily need to go up in the front page. An ideal blog post is the one, which has a kicker that is as strong as the lead, or elicits a reaction from the reader, encouraging them to keep talking about the subject.

Great words. The entire post is a worthwhile read, especially for folks who make their living word-wrangling.

Mark Hibben, writing for Seeking Alpha (Free Reg-wall):

Foxconn’s purchase of a 66% stake in Sharp for the reduced price of $3.5 billion is questionable on its own merits. Foxconn is getting LCD screen production capacity that is rapidly becoming obsolete as the industry transitions to OLED screens. The deal only makes sense from Apple’s perspective. Apple needed to prevent an interruption in the supply of LCD screens for which it is dependent on Sharp.

And:

The fundamental question is, why go through the trouble? Everyone knows that LCD screens are being supplanted by active matrix organic LED (AMOLED) screens for mobile devices. The two most important AMOLED screen makers are Samsung Display and LG Display.

The investment came down to practical near-term necessity for Apple. Apple simply couldn’t afford to let Sharp go under, but it didn’t want to be saddled with directly managing Sharp’s LCD production as an outright owner. Apple is very happy with its current supply chain model of using contract suppliers such as Sharp and Foxconn.

Apple is in my view using Foxconn as a proxy to assure an uninterrupted supply of LCD screens. As such, it probably had to incentivize Foxconn to take on the burden of Sharp.

Interesting bit of speculation by Mark Hibben. Rings true to me. The story goes: Apple needs Sharp in the short term, makes the deal work for Foxconn with some guarantees, plans to modernize sharp to serve their needs in the long term. Interesting.

Allyson Kazmucha, writing for App Factor:

When I purchased a 12.9” iPad Pro back in November, I bought an Apple Pencil to go with it. When I decided against the 12.9” iPad Pro, I still kept my Apple Pencil.

Even though I don’t draw, I found a lot of other ways the Apple Pencil fit into my workflow — and because I knew sooner rather than later, Apple would release a smaller iPad with full support for the Apple Pencil.

That day has come, and I can’t wait to get back to using my Apple Pencil. Here are some of the best Apple Pencil apps that have absolutely nothing to do with sketching or drawing.

Apple should put a link to this post on their Apple Pencil page. A great list, one that makes me want to get on the Apple Pencil bandwagon.

John Gruber:

For anyone with an iPhone 5S (or older) who has been holding out on an upgrade in the hopes of a new top-tier “small” iPhone, the iPhone SE is cause for celebration. If you are such a person, run, don’t walk, to buy one. You will be delighted.

For the rest of you:

If you’ve already upgraded to an iPhone 6 or 6S and have made peace with the trade-offs of a larger, heavier, less-grippy-because-of-the-round-edges form factor, the appeal is less clear. Me, I talk the talk about preferring the smaller form factor, but ultimately I’m a sucker for top-of-the-line CPU/GPU performance and camera quality.

Gruber really nails the details, paints an accurate picture. If you have the slightest inkling about buying an iPhone SE, between reading Gruber’s review, and Jim’s review before it, you’ll have your answer.

Reddit post by user Barney13:

I was playing around with the ‘OK Google, show me some of my photos from…’ So I tried some places I had recently visited, San Francisco worked perfectly. Then Spain, all good, this is awesome! Then I get emotional. Google made me cry. I went for ‘OK Google, show me some of my photos from Nice, France’. She came back saying this to me:

“According to Gmail, firstly let me express my deepest sympathy to you, your mum and the whole family at your loss. Your dad was a fantastic man, as I am sure you already know.”

Mind. Blown. I’m sad, I’m amazed, I’m taken back. What a lovely moment for some automated robot voice to express it’s sympathy to me.

It turns out she read out a snippet from an email I received from a family friend soon after my Dad’s death. But the fact that she knew to say it was pretty staggering, it was in the 3rd paragraph of an email sent to me back in December 2010.

I find this creepy beyond belief. But also amazing. But creepy.

Do I want Siri to know all my personal details, my pet peeves, secrets vented in anger? In real life, I choose who to share with, and I decide who to trust. Imagine an artificial intelligence listening in on everything, always correlating, judging. Doesn’t that sound a bit creepy? And doesn’t that touch the same nerve exposed by the FBI, Apple, privacy battle?

[H/T Robert Davey]