January 20, 2016
Written by Dave Mark
Bob O’Donnell, writing for Tech.pinions:
The crux of the problem is that not all USB Type-C connectors support all of these different capabilities and, with one important exception, it’s almost impossible for an average person to figure out what a given USB Type-C equipped device supports without doing a good deal of research.
The key exception is for Thunderbolt 3.0, a technology originally developed by Intel. It’s a different interface standard than USB 3.1, but uses the same USB Type-C connectors. Thunderbolt 3.0 connectors (which, by the way, are different than previous versions of Thunderbolt—versions 1 and 2 used the same connectors as the mini-DisplayPort video standard) are marked by a lightning bolt next to the connector, making them easy for almost anyone to identify. To be clear however, they aren’t the same as the somewhat similarly shaped Lightning connectors used by Apple (which, ironically, don’t have a lightning bolt next to them). Confused? You’re not alone.
This is a bit of a mess. Critical that manufacturers/resellers publish compatibility specs with each new device so you know what you can plug in where.
Written by Dave Mark
Farhad Manjoo, writing for the New York Times:
There are currently four undisputed rulers of the consumer technology industry: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, now a unit of a parent company called Alphabet. And there’s one more, Microsoft, whose influence once looked on the wane, but which is now rebounding.
And:
Tech people like to picture their industry as a roiling sea of disruption, in which every winner is vulnerable to surprise attack from some novel, as-yet-unimagined foe. “Someone, somewhere in a garage is gunning for us,” Eric Schmidt, Alphabet’s executive chairman, is fond of saying.
And:
By just about every measure worth collecting, these five American consumer technology companies are getting larger, more entrenched in their own sectors, more powerful in new sectors and better insulated against surprising competition from upstarts.
Really interesting piece. I’d add Twitter to that list, perhaps as a minor 6th. It was not too long ago that IBM would have been tops on that list. Relevance can be fleeting, no matter how deeply walled the ecosystem.
I love the Mac. I feel no need to replace it with one of Apple’s other devices, like iPad, nor would I think of replacing it with another type of Windows-based computer. While Apple has focused a lot of attention and resources on mobile over the past few years, it has also made quite a number of significant improvements to the Mac. That fact is often overlooked by many people in the industry.
One of my favorite Macs ever is the gold 12-inch MacBook. This computer shows that Apple’s forward thinking design is not limited to iPhone and iPad. It also maintains Apple’s vision of giving consumers what they need before they even know they need it.
There are two features of the MacBook that drew criticism, and praise, when the laptop was released: The keyboard and the USB-C port.
If you told me just a couple of years ago that I’d be using a laptop with just one port that controlled charging and that I’d use the same port for all my peripherals, I would have said you were crazy. Yet, here I am.
Just like when Apple did away with the floppy disk, and later the CD drive, eliminating the extra ports on the MacBook made sense. That doesn’t mean people liked it at first—they didn’t. But as history shows for the floppy and CD, it was the right move.
I had some of the same questions as other people: How will I charge my iPhone? Where will I plugin the peripherals I need? How can I make this work?
Apple had been answering the iPhone question for the past few years by giving that device so much extra battery life. I noticed that I no longer needed to plugin my iPhone as much as I did in the past, and when I did, I plugged it into the wall charger. Turns out I wasn’t using my laptop to charge my iPhone anyway.
The only peripherals I use with my computer are music related: Audio interfaces and the like, so I could plug my guitar into my laptop and record. Let’s face it, that’s not what the MacBook was made for. While I have done it, and it worked just fine, that is not why I wanted a MacBook—that’s why I wanted an iMac1. For those who need portable devices capable of handling complex technical workloads, engineering laptops are designed to deliver the performance and reliability that creative and technical professionals demand.
The 12-inch MacBook has the best keyboard I’ve ever used. Yes, it took a couple of days to get used to it, but once I did, I never wanted to go back.
Here’s what I wrote in my initial review of the keyboard:
> Apple redesigned the key mechanism, going from a scissor design found on other computers, to a butterfly design. The end result of the change is that the keys are pressed more easily and precisely, and they don’t go down as far as the old mechanism did. In fact, they go down about half as far as the old keyboard.
> When you first start using the keyboard, you may get the feeling that you didn’t actually hit the key, but you really did. This is what will take some getting used to—I am typing very quickly with the MacBook now, but it took a day or two in order for my mind to trust my fingers were hitting all the keys.
I like the keyboard even more now.
MacBook is incredibly small and light, but it has really long battery life—this is thanks to the newly redesigned batteries, made specifically for this computer. The batteries are layered, meaning that every space in the computer, except for the CPU, is reserved for a battery. If you’re looking to score one at a lower price, checking out a pawn shop near me in Las Vegas can be a smart move, as many pawn shops offer great deals on lightly used tech.
Usually when a computer gets smaller, the trade-off is battery and CPU power, but Apple managed to get it all right with MacBook. Of course, MacBook also has a Retina Display and Force Touch trackpad—like I said, they got it right with this laptop.
I remember years ago traveling with a backpack full of peripherals, backup drives, and a heavy laptop. My backpack weighed as much as my suitcase sometimes, but I needed it all—or at least I think I did.
When I travel these days, I throw my MacBook into the carry-on bag with the power adapter and leave. There is really nothing else I need anymore. It’s powerful, and portable, enough to take anywhere without much planning.
I know there are people that need, or want, a laptop with a variety of ports for peripherals. If that’s the case, then MacBook may not be the right laptop for you. However, if you want a powerful, versatile laptop that you can take anywhere, I can’t think of a better computer than MacBook. It’s my goto computer.
Written by Shawn King
Atlas Obscura:
If you think that Prohibition is a thing of the past, think again. There are a surprising number of places in the U.S. where the sale and consumption of alcohol is still illegal. While Prohibition was repealed in 1933, many municipalities opted to keep the ban in place. Thirty-three states allow for localities to prohibit the sale of alcohol, and in some cases consumption and possession. Kansas, Tennessee and Mississippi are dry states by default and require individual counties to opt in to sell alcohol.
When I lived in the Southern US, I always found it weirdly quaint, but annoying nonetheless, how many places had prohibitions on the sale and service of alcohol. The best example is Lynchburg, Tennessee, the home of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. You can’t drink Jack Daniel’s in the place where it’s distilled.
Written by Dave Mark
Rene Ritchie pulled together a list of shortcuts for iOS Safari. As always, even if you know most of these, it’s that one new trick that makes the list worth looking through.
For me, that one was number 9:
If you close a tab or set of tabs by mistake, or you close them but later wish you hadn’t, instead of trying to remember the page, try this:
- Tap the tabs button at the bottom right
- Touch and hold down the + button to bring up a list of recently closed tabs.
- Tap the tab you want to restore
Bookmark the list and pass it along.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Shawn King
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.
January 17, 2016
Written by Shawn King
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.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
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Written by Dave Mark
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?
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
