The New York Times Style Magazine:

Recently revealed plans for the new campuses of Google, in Mountain View, Calif., designed by Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick, and Apple, in Cupertino, from Sir Norman Foster, are so striking: They, like the companies they will house, point to the future — the future, that is, as it looked in the 1960s. Images of the projected Apple campus — a four-tiered ringlike structure nestled in a thickly wooded landscape — evoke the landing of an alien spaceship. The central structure in Ingels’s and Heatherwick’s design is canopied by a sinuous glass membrane, a protective bubble or amniotic sac, shielding an entire section of the campus — not just buildings but bike paths and desks — while letting the abundant Northern California light stream in. In aerial renderings it looks like larvae, incubating a new and possibly terrifying future.

Like the rest of Silicon Valley, however, this future is in fact rooted in the past. It comes, transfigured, from the wrecked dreams of communal living, of back-to-the-land utopias, of expanding plastic spheres and geodesic domes that populated the landscape of Northern California around the time (and around the same place) that the first semiconductors were being perfected.

Interesting look at the connection between the utopian movements of the ’60s and the tech industry.

From the Nintendo press release:

Don’t miss out on being a part of a Nintendo first! On March 31, Miitomo, the company’s first-ever smart device application, is launching in the United States and several other countries. Miitomo is a free-to-start social experience that lets users spark one-of-a-kind conversations with friends in a whole new way using Mii characters. The app recently launched in Japan and was downloaded more than 1 million times in its first three days of availability, while achieving the #1 most downloaded free app status in both the App Store and Google Play storefronts.

And:

After downloading the application for free on the App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, along with Android devices, users create a Mii character and customize facial features like eyes and hair, as well as voice and personality. Users can also use the camera on their smart devices to snap a photo of themselves, which can be used to create a Mii, or they can simply import their Mii from their Wii U or Nintendo 3DS systems using a QR Code.

Once their Mii is ready, users can add friends who already have the app in person, or by linking the app with their existing Facebook or Twitter accounts. After that step is complete, it’s time to answer some questions! Miitomo creates conversations and turns discussions into a form of play by prompting users to answer all kinds of fun questions. How would you define your fashion style? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? If you were given ten grand to spend in one day, what would you do? The answers get shared among friends, sparking interesting conversations – part of the fun is discovering unexpected facts about your friends. When users hear how their friends responded to questions, they can give answers a “heart” or a written or picture comment.

To me, this is a foundational app to build a social network for future Nintendo app releases, moving the Mii characters into the smartphone universe.

I can’t test this, since I don’t have a device that suffers from the “dead links” issue. But if you do have such a device, and can’t wait for Apple to roll out a fix, give this a try.

It’s a pretty interesting read. Clearly, the author implies that the problem is with the Bookings.com app, but it could be some other app as well.

From this post by Benjamin Mayo on 9to5Mac:

Previously, we pinpointed Bookings.com as a cause of the bug, although noting it affects other apps as well. On Twitter, it was found that their website association file, used by the system for the universal links feature introduced with iOS 9, was many megabytes, grossly oversized. This would essentially overload the daemon that had to parse these files, causing the crashing. The Booking.com app has since corrected its payload file to be a far more reasonable 4 kilobytes. Users of Booking.com should delete and reinstall the app, to refresh the system caches for the URL association file.

However, Booking.com is not the only case of a developer misusing the API, so people who continue to experience bugs will also find that they have other apps installed on the system which are also registering thousands of URLs. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to find out which apps are the misdemeanours. In terms of high-profile cases, we have heard that Wikipedia and Eat 24 are among the apps registering too many domains in their universal link directory.

Sounds like no one ever tested iOS 9 with a massive list of universal links.

From the Universal Links page in Apple’s iOS Developer Library:

When you support universal links, iOS 9 users can tap a link to your website and get seamlessly redirected to your installed app without going through Safari. If your app isn’t installed, tapping a link to your website opens your website in Safari.

Mikey Campbell, writing for AppleInsider:

Apple this past weekend opened the doors to one of the first “next-generation” Apple Stores to land stateside, and AppleInsider has exclusive photos of the logo-less facade, custom wooden wall installations and massive 37-foot TV display — rumored to cost $1.5 million — that ties everything together.

Check out the picture of that 37 foot display. I can only imagine that it looks even more impressive in person.

As seen in photos provided by AppleInsider reader Wade, Apple’s latest U.S. outlet benefits from the overhauled brick-and-mortar design language dreamed up by retail chief Angela Ahrendts and CDO Jony Ive. The final product matches up with renderings revealed last September.

This Apple Store is located in Germantown, just outside Memphis, Tennessee.

Apple has scheduled the call to discuss their second quarter results (2Q2016) on April 25th at 2p PT (5p ET).

Publishing, especially print publishing, is a tough, tough business. Sad to see them go.

Kevin Johnson, USA Today:

The Justice Department is expected to withdraw from its legal action against Apple Inc., as soon as today, as an outside method to bypass the locking function of a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone has proved successful, a federal law enforcement official said Monday.

The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the method brought to the FBI earlier this month by an unidentified entity allows investigators to crack the security function without erasing contents of the iPhone used by Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the December mass shooting that left 14 dead.

So the way I read this, the FBI got help and was able to crack the San Bernardino iPhone. Apple’s help no longer required. In this case.

Think this is over? No. One interesting question is, will the FBI explain to Apple how the iPhone was cracked, if indeed this story is true.

Though Apple hasn’t announced any official sales figures, preorders for the iPhone SE are said to have exceeded 3.4 million so far in China alone, according to data from local retailers.

These aren’t official numbers, but they are very strong preorder sales.

Gear Junkie:

Currently raising funds on Indiegogo, the Triton claims to be the world’s first “artificial gills rebreather,” a concept that has eluded the world’s top scientists and military contractors for years. If true, it would revolutionize snorkeling and recreational diving overnight.

Experts say that the Triton’s claims are bold, and implausible, and the company’s lack of third-party verification or industry experience raises red flags.

The consensus: The Triton faces limitations in battery design, high-pressure storage, and filtration that will likely not be overcome for decades.

I received a pitch for this product last week and as soon as I saw the email, I thought it was BS even though I’d love for it to be real. I’m not an expert in scuba diving but I have done it often in the past and I know companies have been trying to make this technology work for decades, with little to no success for the reasons mentioned in the article. Sadly, I’d be willing to be the 2,000 backers who have put up over $800,000 so far will be out of luck and will never see an actual functioning product. It once again brings to mind the old adage, “If it seems to good to be true, it is”.

iMore:

Apple has released yet another update for iOS 9.3 for older devices affected by activation issues that cropped up in the original release last week. This new build, 13E237, corrects the activation issues in older devices, and does not need to be installed on iPhones and iPads that successfully installed a previous build.

For those of you affected by this bug, Apple says this new build should solve the issue for you.

The guys at Pro Tools Expert take a look at Pro Tools 12.5 and its new Cloud Collaboration feature. It seems to work better than they expected.

“We need your help!” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a confidential “Flash” advisory that was dated March 25 and obtained by Reuters over the weekend.

Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts a victim’s data so they cannot gain access to it on their computers, then offers to unlock the system in exchange for payment.

Sometimes I get confused. The FBI wants us to be safe and secure, but other times they want a dangerous master key which would make us all less secure.

Interested in design? Go here, then start clicking the right arrow. Lots of facts.

[Via Kottke]

Quentin Hardy, writing for The New York Times:

Timothy D. Cook has found himself in a strange position. It looks like someone knows about an important flaw in Apple’s flagship product, and won’t tell its chief executive what it is.

That could be because Apple doesn’t pay outside hackers who find exploitable flaws in Apple software. Paying so-called “bug hunters” has become the norm at many tech companies, and the United States government does it too.

Interesting premise. Google, others, have a bug bounty program, where they pay 3rd parties who identify major bugs in their products. Apple does have a number of funnels to bring bug reports into their bug-tracking system. But they do not pay for those reports.

Does a third party company (rumored to be Cellebrite, FBI denies it is them) have a technique to crack an iPhone? Would a bug bounty have prevented this possibility?

My two cents: I certainly don’t think paying for bug reports would, by itself, make a difference to the stability of Apple’s software. There’s no shortage of officially reported bugs that are in Apple’s official bug queue.

The question is, would a hacker aware of a critical vulnerability be more likely to report it to Apple if there was a cash payout for them?

Imagine you are at a baseball game and a science fiction level of clouds appeared overhead. Click the headline link and take a look at these pictures from Friday’s Braves/Astros game. Holy cow.

Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, takes a long look at the company he once helped run, as Apple approaches their 40th birthday later this week.

Ryan Faas, writing for Computerworld:

Although OS X is now an integral part of the Mac experience, it represented a big gamble for Apple when the first general release version — code-named Cheetah — arrived on March 24, 2001. It was also a gamble that Apple had little choice in making — and one that has paid off in the 15 years since, becoming, directly and indirectly, one of the critical factors in Apple’s success.

The biggest benefit to Apple of the NeXT Acquisition was bring back Steve Jobs. But the Unix underpinnings that became OS X and the programming paradigm that came along with it were also critical. This post walks through through the history of the birth of OS X. Fascinating.

Mac Kung Fu:

Renting a title larger than the remaining capacity on your device forces iOS to use a hitherto undisclosed clean-up routine, thereby freeing-up space. Even if the download is way too big, it’ll still try to free-up space.

[I’m rewriting this post, with feedback from a number of people]

This technique has been around for quite some time. From this OSXDaily post [H/T Mark G]:

You may have noticed that some iOS apps will turn dark as if they’re being launched and simultaneously rename themselves as “Cleaning…”, seemingly out of the blue and at random. This is demonstrated happening with the attached iPhone screenshot, showing the Instagram app going through the process. So the big question for many users is, what’s going on here and why does that iPhone or iPad app say it’s cleaning?

And:

In short, when an iOS app name says “Cleaning”, it means that the operating system is going through and clearing out caches and temporary files associated with the app in question.

The post goes into detail, but bottom line, when your iOS device is low on memory, it will look to reclaim temporarily used memory, asking each app to return what it can.

Charlie Stross:

Here’s my theory: Apple see their long term future as including a global secure payments infrastructure that takes over the role of Visa and Mastercard’s networks—and ultimately of spawning a retail banking subsidiary to provide financial services directly, backed by some of their cash stockpile.

The FBI thought they were asking for a way to unlock a mobile phone, because the FBI is myopically focussed on past criminal investigations, not the future of the technology industry, and the FBI did not understand that they were actually asking for a way to tracelessly unlock and mess with every ATM and credit card on the planet circa 2030 (if not via Apple, then via the other phone OSs, once the festering security fleapit that is Android wakes up and smells the money).

If the FBI get what they want, then the back door will be installed and the next-generation payments infrastructure will be just as prone to fraud as the last-generation card infrastructure, with its card skimmers and identity theft.

And this is why Tim Cook is willing to go to the mattresses with the US department of justice over iOS security: if nobody trusts their iPhone, nobody will be willing to trust the next-generation Apple Bank, and Apple is going to lose their best option for securing their cash pile as it climbs towards the stratosphere.

This whole thing was a fascinating read.

I disagree with his assessment of Tim Cook’s motives (Cook has just done too many positive things that were unrelated to or, at the very least, not directly motivated by Apple’s cash position), but I do agree that the risk of a back door goes far beyond your email credentials. The more iOS and Apple Pay become part of the world’s payment and credit card infrastructure, the more vital a backdoor-less encryption model becomes.

Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:

Readers are reporting a strange bug with iOS 9.3 (and older versions apparently, exact characteristics of affected devices is unclear), primarily affecting the latest Apple devices, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The issue has also been reported on older phones and some iPad models as well. The cause is unknown, but many users are finding themselves unable to open links in Safari, Messages, Mail, Notes and other apps. Instead of visiting the target website, the app crashes, freezes or hangs.

To see this more directly, take a read through some of these bug reports on Apple’s support forum.

This is one of those maddening, difficult to reproduce bugs that makes it hard to predict whether your device is susceptible to this problem. I just upgraded my iPhone 6s Plus, no problem. But could be I don’t have the right model, or the right combination of apps that trigger the bug.

Other users are reporting that tapping on links simply does nothing, whereas a tap-and-hold causes a crash. A permanent fix for the issue is not known and Apple has yet to comment on what may be going on. Some people have reported that disabling JavaScript partially solves the issue for opening links in Safari, but remains for other apps.

I wonder if the Chrome browser suffers from the same problem on an affected machine. [From Ben via Twitter: Chrome worked for me. Doesn’t seem consistent.]

No doubt Apple has a team working on this around the clock. Hopefully, a patch will come out quickly.

Terry Collins, writing for CNET:

Medical researchers at Harvard University have created an app that lets former players share how on-field injuries may still be affecting their brains and bodies.

Ex-players spend about 20 minutes a week with the app, called TeamStudy, recording their pain tolerance, mobility and memory. The broader public is also encouraged to use the app so researchers can compare the health of nonathletes to that of the former players.

Great use of HealthKit.

Wired:

We saw hyper-efficient sedans—some apparently designed on drugs—high-performance machines tuned to within inches of their lives, silky-smooth drop-tops, and smart safety and powertrain technologies that continue to trickle up, down, and sideways within manufacturers’ lineups. These are our favorites from the Big Apple—ten cars that caught our attention in big ways and small.

I really miss the New York Auto Show. The Vancouver version is on now and it’s more of a “car dealer show”. Sadly, we get few of the “cool cars” the Detriot, LA and New York shows are lucky enough to see. I’d give up body parts for that 2017 Nissan GT-R.

Mashable:

You probably already know how to customize ring tones on your iPhone, but there’s a way to personalize vibrations to tell who’s calling, too.

With a few setting adjustments, it’s easy to set up customized vibration so you can know when mom’s calling when your phone is on the other side of the room.

This is one of my favorite tips to show to those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the iPhone’s OS. It’s really helpful because you can set customized vibrations so you don’t even need to look at the screen or hear the ringer to know who’s calling.

Appleinsider:

Netflix has been throttling video for AT&T and Verizon mobile subscribers for over five years, the streaming service has newly admitted, claiming it was in customers’ best interests.

The company said it was trying to “protect consumers from exceeding mobile data caps,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The issue came to the fore last week when T-Mobile CEO John Legere noted that AT&T and Verizon subscribers were getting lower-quality video. The latter carriers denied doing any throttling.

The line, “to protect viewers”, feels like a load of bull. If that’s what they were doing, why not be transparent about it and let the users make the decision whether or not they wanted to be throttled?

Microsoft:

As many of you know by now, on Wednesday we launched a chatbot called Tay. We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay. Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values.

I want to share what we learned and how we’re taking these lessons forward.

I find this whole story fascinating. Not just Microsoft’s seeming cluelessness about how this would turn out (entirely predictably) but how Twitter reacted to Tay (offensively and again, entirely predictable) and the hows and whys of AI chatbots in general.