Dori Smith used Storify to pull together Chris Espinosa’s tweet storm detailing his experience selling the very first Mac Plus ever sold. Interesting story.

From Apple’s official content provider contact support page:

To find contact information, open the app on your Apple TV. On Apple TV (4th generation), you can also open the app in the App Store. You can see the provider’s name at the top and their website at the bottom of the screen.

If you can’t find contact information in the app, check the list below.

By my count, the list shows 85 different content providers. I had no idea there were so many. If you’ve got an Apple TV, might be worth scanning the list, just to make sure you know all the available options.

[Via iDownloadBlog]

Donald Trump, speaking at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia:

We’re going to get things coming. We’re going to get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.

If you want to watch this for yourself, here’s a link. His line about Apple is at about 1:03:15 in (towards the very end).

From the Eagles web site:

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of husband, best friend, father, comrade, and Eagles founder, Glenn Frey, in New York City on Monday, January 18th, 2016.

Glenn fought a courageous battle for the past several weeks but, sadly, succumbed to complications from Rheumatoid Arthritis, Acute Ulcerative Colitis and Pneumonia.

The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery.

Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide.

And this, from the song “It’s Your World Now”:

A perfect day, the sun is sinkin’ low
As evening falls, the gentle breezes blow
The time we shared went by so fast
Just like a dream, we knew it couldn’t last
But I’d do it all again
If I could, somehow
But I must be leavin’ soon
It’s your world now

Damn.

Amnesty International released a report this morning entitled, This is what we die for: Human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo power the global trade in cobalt.

From the report:

Huayou Cobalt has been purchasing cobalt in southern DRC since 2006. It runs a large, well-staffed operation in the country, with offices in at least three cities (Lubumbashi, Likasi and Kolwezi). The dangerous conditions and frequent accidents in the artisanal mines, the presence of tens of thousands of child miners, and the DRC government’s poor regulation of artisanal mining have all been well documented in recent years by the international and Congolese media, NGOs, governments and international bodies, as detailed in Chapter 2. The company has itself been the subject of criticism – in 2008, Bloomberg News published a story alleging that Huayou Cobalt bought cobalt that had been mined by children.

In July 2015, Amnesty International contacted Huayou Cobalt and asked them a series of questions to clarify changes made to their process to address these issues.

Addressing Huayou Cobalt’s response:

In its letter, there is no indication that it traces the cobalt supply chain to the mining areas itself. Huayou Cobalt also does not mention inspecting or addressing conditions in the unauthorized artisanal mining zones, such as Kasulo, even though its suppliers are buying cobalt that has been mined there.

And:

In summary, Huayou Cobalt is failing to respect international human rights as required by the UN Guiding Principles and it is not implementing the five-step framework recommended in the OECD Guidance, despite the fact that the OECD Guidance has been recognised by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters as the “recognised international framework” to conduct mineral supply chain due diligence.

So how does Apple tie into all this?

In its report, Amnesty lays out the supply chain leading from Huayou Cobalt, to:

• Battery component manufacturers, down to…
• Battery manufacturers, who buy from them, down to…
• Electronics and vehicle manufacturers, such as Apple, who buy these batteries

In a nutshell, Apple, in its official Supplier List, lists:

• Samsung SDI
• Tianjin Lishen
• LG Chem

as suppliers. All three of these companies are listed in the Amnesty report as battery manufacturers who are downstream customers of Huayou Cobalt.

It’s not clear that Apple is buying batteries with child labor in the supply chain and, if it has, its not clear that Apple is aware of this. But the report is now out. I can only imagine Apple will issue some sort of statement addressing this.

iMore:

Apple will soon be increasing the prices of paid apps and in-app purchases in a handful of countries due to exchange rate changes. App Stores affected by the change will be those in Canada, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and South Africa. Those using in-app subscriptions in Russia and South Africa will need to resubscribe.

These sorts of adjustments are not uncommon. The changes in pricing are expected to take place across these countries in the next 72 hours, according to an email sent to developers by Apple.

While this is disappointing, it’s not surprising. The Canadian dollar in particular has dropped like a stone in the past few months.

Petapixel:

When people ask me what lens they should get after buying their first camera, I always tell them to buy a 50mm f/1.8 lens because it’s one of the cheapest and one of the coolest lens you could buy.

Why should you buy it? Here are 8 different reasons.

One of the first lenses I recommend beginning photographers buy is one of the “Nifty Fifties”. They are relatively inexpensive, generally better than the kit lens that came with your camera, great in low light conditions and will force you to move your feet to get the shot rather than just zooming into it.

Gardai responded to the scene and have confirmed that a number of plants have been evacuated.

It is understood that several threatening emails were received by the company.

There is nothing in the report to indicate what the threat was, but the plants were evacuated.

MIC:

The most shocking statistic in the report, released Sunday, is this: In 2015, a mere 62 people held the same amount of wealth as “the bottom half of humanity” — 3.5 billion people. Identifying the reasons why this is happening is as important as the statistic itself.

Things are getting bad, quickly: In 2010, it took 388 individuals to match the wealth of the bottom half. But in the past five years, wealth has become so concentrated in the hands of the global elite that the number has reduced dramatically.

This story is more than just a little depressing.

Business Insider:

It’s all but a given that Apple is developing a car (even Elon Musk called the project “an open secret” in the auto industry). But when it comes to a new kind of personal computing gadget, several recent acquisitions and hires hint that Apple is at least exploring augmented reality.

As always, Apple is tight lipped about what it’s cooking up in its research and development labs. But a recent series of acquisitions and hires shows the company is at least experimenting with augmented reality.

Let’s take a look at the evidence.

BI is using the tired cliche of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” but what do you think? Is VR/AR “the next major computing platform”? While tech nerds may be salivating over VR and AR, do you think The Normals want this platform? Will VR be the next HD TV or the next 3D TV?

CBC:

A Victoria widow is outraged over Apple’s demand that she obtain a court order to retrieve her dead husband’s password so she can play games on an iPad.

“I thought it was ridiculous. I could get the pensions, I could get benefits, I could get all kinds of things from the federal government and the other government. But from Apple, I couldn’t even get a silly password. It’s nonsense,” 72-year-old Peggy Bush told Go Public.

Experts warn this is a growing problem, as more people die leaving important information and valuable digital property on computers and electronic devices.

The news media is typically and gleefully playing up this story (it will get resolved by Apple without any court order required), it does bring forward some of the issues we are and will continue to have with our digital lives.

Apple:

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?'”

Tim Cook has often said that Dr King is one of his heroes and today, on Martin Luther King Jr Day, Apple’s front page is dedicated to him.

Venturebeat:

It’s always been important for advertisers and content creators to consider their target audience when developing an ad campaign. In the past year, however, we have seen a slew of ad campaigns that seem to have skipped over this essential, yet obvious, standard. Perhaps advertisers forget that unless they carefully understand and represent their audience’s values, they’ll get bombarded with aggressive tweets, posts, pins, and shares, calling them cold, insensitive, and downright ignorant.

These kinds of campaigns can easily be avoided if advertisers learn to engage better with their consumers so that they truly grasp their audience’s character.

That said, here are seven ad campaigns that just plain failed in 2015.

As much as many of us, myself included, hate most of the advertising we see, a good campaign can really capture our attention. Sadly, so can a bad one. These campaigns make you wonder how the hell they managed to make it out into the wild.

“We are making Beats 1 the premier free broadcast from Apple and phasing out the ad-supported stations at the end of January,” an Apple spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “Additionally, with an Apple Music membership, listeners can access dozens of radio stations curated by our team of music experts, covering a range of genres, commercial-free with unlimited skips. The free three-month trial of Apple Music includes radio.”

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Here’s the list. Of note, Best Actor nominee Michael Fassbender, and Best Supporting Actress nominee Kate Winslet, both nominated for Steve Jobs.

The Verge:

In celebration of its pair of Mozart in the Jungle Golden Globes victories last Sunday, Amazon is reducing the price of Amazon Prime memberships this weekend. Subscribing will cost $73 — down from the regular $99 — from 9PM PT Friday until 11:59PM local time Sunday night.

On the fence about signing up for Amazon Prime? Starting tonight at 9p PT, you can sign up for Prime and save $26. Is that something you might be interested in?

Abner Li, writing for 9to5Google:

Nest owners have reported that their smart thermostats have stopped working and as a result many woke up to colder than normal temperature in their house and unresponsive completely dead Nests. The fault lies in a software update (version 5.1.3 or later) that was pushed out to devices in December that drains the battery and ultimately shuts down the device.

Embedded devices have traditionally been tested to the point where they are bulletproof. As an example, when’s the last time you experienced a bug with your microwave, dishwasher, or washer/dryer? Not saying bugs don’t exist in that space, but certainly they are very rare.

Is this a sign of the future we can expect as the Internet of Things creeps further into our lives?

From the Netflix blog:

Some members use proxies or “unblockers” to access titles available outside their territory. To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it. That means in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are. We are confident this change won’t impact members not using proxies.

It all comes down to the limitations of geographically-based licensing agreements.

Marius Maria, writing for Android Geeks:

Back in September, Apple launched the iPhone 6S which comes with Live Photos, a feature which captures 1.5 seconds of video before and after a picture is taken. HTC’s Zoe Capture was capable of doing the same thing long before Live Photos, but this gimmick only became cool now because Apple has it on its phones.

But Samsung wants to jump into the Live Photos bandwagon, too. According to one of our sources the software engineers of the South Korean phone maker are testing a Live Photos-like feature that is supposed to debut with the Galaxy S7 later this year.

He said that the new feature is still under development and that even though Samsung plans to offer it with the Galaxy S7 at launch it might arrive later this year with a software update. As for the name, he said he heard this feature being called multiple ways, from Timeless Photo to Vivid Photo, the latter one being a combination between “vivid memory” and “photo”.

Oh dear.

Yesterday, we wrote about Stolen, an app that lets you buy and sell people’s Twitter identities.

Yesterday afternoon, Stolen disappeared from the App Store. The team offered this tweet:

The app is no longer available in the App Store. We’ve heard everyone’s concerns and have decided the best thing to do is to shut down.

Well that was quick. I wonder if there was more to the story.

About the play:

Nerds will chronicle the rise and competition of the Apple and Microsoft bosses, according to a press release. The show will, unsurprisingly, also incorporate an array of tech, including onstage holograms, projection mapping and an interactive, in-show app that will let audience members engage with each other and select the show’s ending.

And about the playwrights:

Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner penned the show, while Hal Goldberg (The Children) wrote the music. Both Dutton and Weiner grew up in tech hubs — Paolo Alto and San Francisco, respectively — and wrote for the hit Cartoon Network series, Robot Chicken.

And in case you’ve not heard of Robot Chicken, here’s a taste. Well, this should be interesting.

From the linked Bloomberg article, here’s the heart of the matter:

The European Commission contends that Apple’s corporate arrangement in Ireland allows it to calculate profits using more favorable accounting methods. Apple calculates its tax bill using low operating costs, a move that dramatically decreases what the company pays to the Irish government. While Apple generates about 55 percent of its revenue outside the U.S., its foreign tax rate is about 1.8 percent, according to the analysis. If the Commission decides to enforce a tougher accounting standard, Apple may owe taxes at a 12.5 percent rate, on $64.1 billion in profit generated from 2004 to 2012.

Here’s some simple math:

If Apple’s tax rate moves from 1.8% to 12.5%, they’ll move from paying:

• 1.8% of $64.1 billion = $1.15 billion

to paying:

• 12.5% of $64.1 billion = $8.01 billion

Two things:

• First, the way I read it, Apple’s 2004-2012 taxable income being pegged at $64.1 billion and the applicable tax rate being set at 12.5% are both worst case scenarios. Is there room for negotiation? Will Apple’s lawyers and accountants have something to say here? You betcha.

• Second, If Apple already paid $1.15 billion, they won’t owe $8.01 billion, they’ll owe something less than $7 billion. Just a nit, and I’m no accountant.

This is troublesome for many reasons. Here’s a link to the bill. Click “View Bill Text” to see the bill itself.

From the bill:

ANY SMARTPHONE THAT IS MANUFACTURED ON OR AFTER JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN, AND SOLD OR LEASED IN NEW YORK, SHALL BE CAPABLE OF BEING DECRYPTED AND UNLOCKED BY ITS MANUFACTURER OR ITS OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER.

And:

THE SALE OR LEASE IN NEW YORK OF A SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURED ON OR AFTER JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN THAT IS NOT CAPABLE OF BEING DECRYPTED AND UNLOCKED BY ITS MANUFACTURER OR ITS OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER SHALL SUBJECT THE SELLER OR LESSOR TO A CIVIL PENALTY OF TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR EACH SMARTPHONE SOLD OR LEASED IF IT IS DEMONSTRATED THAT THE SELLER OR LESSOR OF THE SMARTPHONE KNEW AT THE TIME OF THE SALE OR LEASE THAT THE SMARTPHONE WAS NOT CAPABLE OF BEING DECRYPTED AND UNLOCKED BY ITS MANUFACTURER OR ITS OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER. NO SELLER OR LESSOR WHO PAYS THE CIVIL PENALTY MAY PASS ANY PORTION OF THAT PENALTY ON TO ANY PURCHASER OF SMARTPHONES BY RAISING THE SALES OR LEASE PRICE OF SMARTPHONES.

First, if passed, the bill will apply retroactively. It refers to phones manufactured on or after January 1, 2016, also known as two weeks ago. This means the mere threat of this law will have a chilling effect on iPhone sales. If someone sells an iPhone built this year, they are subject to massive fines ($2500 per phone) on the off chance that the bill passes.

And if, by some miracle, this bill passes, it will be a point of leverage for the forces that want to force a decrypting capability into all smartphones.

This is outrageous.

Beta Monkey’s Jazz Essentials IV is a diverse downloadable set of live jazz drum tracks with over 3 GB of jazz drumming performances of essential jazz standards.

I love Beta Monkey’s products. I have too many of them to even count and use them all the time in my recordings.

Positive Grid teamed up the world’s brightest DSP engineers and component level modeling and profiling authorities, working with the world’s leading producers, world-class engineers, and mixing & mastering gurus to develop some breakthrough technologies to bring software plug-ins to the next level.

The video is really interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing more about this.

Steven Levy:

I press a button on the steering column, and a female voice accompanied by an icy synthesizer note — the kind of thing you hear when monorail doors are about to close — intones the word, “Autodrive.” Something catches in my throat; it may be the closest thing I’ll know to flying the Millennium Falcon when it thrusts into hyperspace. In truth, not much really changes. The Lexus rolls forward and rambles down a street in a neighborhood that is all streets and no buildings or people, a Potemkin village of roadways. There is an intersection ahead with a stop sign. The car stops. My foot has not touched the brake.

I am behind the wheel of a Google self-driving car.

There is no doubt autonomous cars are the future so these articles about the early days fascinate me. There are still a lot of issues, both inside the car and out, that need to be resolved before fantasy becomes reality though.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

For kids of a certain age — say, 35 and up — it’s the stuff dreams are made of: more than 900 vintage pinball and arcade games, with almost no duplicates among them.

Although many of these machines once sucked quarters out of pockets at a dizzying pace — Dragon’s Lair alone likely drained more piggy banks of allowance money than anything else in 1983 — they’ll all be available to play for a single price this weekend at the Museum of Pinball in Banning.

How much fun would it be to spend a weekend in this place?

I believe this was originally written in 2011, but so appropriate now.

I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time. On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma, and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes.

Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands.

It is an ancient need to be told in stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.

Alan Rickman

Sigh.