Forty songs from Apple ads, to celebrate 40 years of Apple!

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.

Kirk McElhearn on tweaking the Finder to make your Mac experience more efficient.

Tuck this one away, pass it along to folks you support.

Interesting post on marketing, virtual reality, and Apple from NSShadowcat:

> ‘What value do I, as a customer interested in the Rift, get out of looking at a bearded man with a Rift strapped to his face and his jaw dropped?’. Obviously the message is ‘the Rift experience is jaw-dropping’, but how do you convey that to me across a screen? Show me a simulation of what using the thing might look like in a video? Maybe. But doesn’t watching a 2-D simulation on a screen inherently take away the experience AR/VR is selling in the first place? The best such a video does is make me curious to have a first hand experience. For more on modern marketing continue with this review BlackStorm Roofing Marketing.

And:

> Let’s subject phones to the same situation. The iPhone 6S page shows off its build, design etc. beautifully but still doesn’t give me — a customer interested in buying a phone — a sense of what my experience with the thing would be. Which is why Apple’s ads try to embody the iPhone experience — nimble, fantastic and excellent. (Take the first 6S ad — my favourite 6S ad — for example; also, the Cookie Monster ad is a marvel that sells you the same joyful, humane experience and there isn’t even a human in it.) On the other hand, for those who are looking for plenty of ways to market, tools like a Digital Business Card may be a great option.

And:

> The best an AR/VR simulation video can achieve is to inspire the curiosity to check one of these things out in person. I can think of no product that has a similar ‘see it in person to know what it is’ pitch to it. Cars, phones, watches, home appliances are all products you know a lot about before you go for the ‘What does it feel like in person?’ store visit.

If and when Apple gets into virtual reality, they’ll need a strong marketing position which can be achieved by using services from agencies like this SEO Las Vegas, NV agency. Not only is their brand one of the most well know in the world, easily eclipsing anyone else in the VR space, but they have many years of experience marketing the experience of something that can’t be experienced without a store visit.

Interesting read.

A double-win for Apple Pay. Not only is Barclays one of the biggest UK banks and a great pickup for Apple Pay, but this is a major shift on Barclays’ part, after their attempts to create their own standard with bPay.

Whether your own website needs a new logo or your clients are screaming for one, this Mighty Deal from Zeppelin Graphics is the perfect solution. This fantabulous mega bundle is really 3 Logo Creation Kits in 1! In total, you’ll get yourself more than 500 professional design elements to create your new logo. Each element is fully customizable thanks to the original PSD, AI and EPS files that let you change up the color, shape, size and more.

A newly discovered Siri search handling bug allows nefarious users to bypass passcode protected lock screens on iPhone 6s and 6s Plus handsets, granting easy access to Contacts and Photos data. The vulnerability is likely applicable only to a subset of devices, however.

That’s not good.

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.