If the above link does not work, go to Target’s web site and type:

Apple Watch

in the search field.

This is a really pretty page. Get the feeling that Apple designed it? Heh.

Earlier this morning, in a post about Daniel Kottke and his split with Steve Jobs, I concluded with:

I wish the interview was longer. I was really interested in hearing more about Kottke’s experience at Apple. Wondering what those various boards were that he was showing off. I bet Woz knows.

Thanks to Twitter, I got my wish. Check out the video on this page [Autoplay warning, but worth it], in which Daniel Kottke gives us a nice guided tour of the very first prototype Mac mother boards. Lovely.

[H/T CNNTech’s Jack Regan]

CNN Tech:

Daniel Kottke, a college friend of Jobs’ and one of Apple’s first employees, says it was basically an accident that he revealed one of Jobs’ biggest secrets to the world: the fact that Jobs had a daughter, Lisa. According to Kottke, Jobs was furious.

That’s the reason they stopped speaking and one of the central plot points in the new movie “Steve Jobs.”

And:

“I get one final call from him: ‘Could you clarify a question for me? Is it true that Steve has a daughter named Lisa?” Kottke recalled. “I did not really hesitate … My answer was, ‘Yeah sure he has a daughter named Lisa.’ I really did not know he was denying it.”

The comment became an important part of a Time Magazine article released in conjunction with Moritz’s book, and an insurmountable obstacle in the friendship between Kottke and Jobs.

The linked article has an embedded [Autoplay warning] video interview with Kottke. It’s sensationalized, but worth watching anyway.

I wish the interview was longer. I was really interested in hearing more about Kottke’s experience at Apple. Wondering what those various boards were that he was showing off. I bet Woz knows.

The Wall Street Journal:

In the age of wireless speakers and Bluetooth streaming, vacuum-tube amplifiers may seem antiquated, but you don’t have to be an audio nerd to appreciate their appeal. Designed to power traditional speakers and/or headphones, these devices are throwbacks, to be sure. Still, when their steampunk-esque glass tubes glow a soothing orange, it’s evident something magical is happening here—and your favorite tunes will never sound the same.

The science behind how these radiant glass tubes produce better sound is difficult to grasp. Suffice to say, just as nothing quite matches the ambience created by an incandescent bulb dimmed low, nothing quite sounds like a good tube amp. Audiophiles will argue about whether a solid-state or tube amp is superior. However, it’s best to think of tubes as an aesthetic choice—akin to applying a vintage filter to a pristine snapshot.

I have no idea if these actually sound better than their more expensive digital counterparts but they do look a lot cooler.

Jim and Dan talk about the latest Apple news.

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Chapman University:

The Chapman University Survey of American Fears, Wave 2 (2015) provides an unprecedented look into the fears of average Americans. In April of 2015, a random sample of 1,541 adults from across the United States were asked their level of fear about eighty-eight different fears across a huge variety of topics ranging from crime, the government, disasters, personal anxieties, technology and many others.

A little light reading going into your weekend. The list is interesting. How does it correspond to your personal fears and worries? I think it’s hilarious that “Zombies” and “Clowns” rank at all, let alone enough to make the list. And having “Obamacare” at 35.7% followed closely by “Illness” at 34.4% is kind of ironic.

CNN Money:

Todd Stabelfeldt is sending his wife a romantic text. He taps his chin on a button mounted on his wheelchair, then grins, pleased with his wooing.

A quadriplegic since he was 8, Stabelfeldt can’t move anything below his neck. Now a 36-year-old engineer and business owner, he’s turned his wheelchair into a powerful mobile communication hub using switches, a Bluetooth headset and an iPhone 6.

He averages a phone call every six minutes and sends more than 100 texts a day.

Wow. This guy gets more done in a day than I do in a week.

About a month ago, we ran a post pointing out a mysterious new “eye in speech bubble” emoji.

Now we know.

From Wired:

What was still unclear at the time was what purpose the new emoji served. Shortly after it appeared, a designer named Erik Veland used the text-to-speech feature to discover that the emoji is described aloud as “eye in speech bubble representing anti-bullying campaign.” Mystery solved! Except … why did Apple put an anti-bullying emoji in its unreleased iOS update? How did Apple foresee people using it? And what campaign was it representing, exactly?

Interesting. Will this bring in a wave of new cause-sponsored emoji?

Well done. Another of those lists that are worth saving, passing along. A solid introduction to design terms.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. will build an additional 200 megawatts of solar power in China and push suppliers to make similar commitments, as the maker of the iPad and Apple Watch seeks to offset its global-warming emissions in the world’s most polluting country.

The solar investment comes atop two previously announced solar farms in southern China that have now been completed, producing a combined 40 megawatts of power, Apple said in a statement Wednesday. The company will also partner with suppliers, including iPhone maker Foxconn Technology Group, on an additional 2 gigawatts of solar, wind and hydropower projects.

“Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time, and the time for action is now,” Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said. “We believe passionately in leaving the world better than we found it and hope that many other suppliers, partners and other companies join us in this important effort.”

It’s things like this that make me such a fan of Tim Cook and of Apple.

Yesterday, we ran a post called In defense of The New York Times, which detailed a very public battle between The New York Times (exposé of Amazon) and Amazon (Medium post rebutting those charges).

In the post, Ben Thompson made the point that these types of battles are now being fought in public, that newspapers no longer control the means of mass communication.

A few days ago, we ran a post about Theranos, linking to Jean-Louis Gassée’s first person encounter with the blood-testing medical startup embroiled in its own battle with The Wall Street Journal.

In an eerie parallel with the Amazon/NYTimes back and forth, Theranos has posted its own public rebuttal to the negative media coverage.

As a consumer, the heart of this story is the accuracy of the Theranos blood tests. In their blog post, Theranos detailed the FDA approval of their process. If there is an issue, surely the FDA would respond in some way.

More as this unfolds but, point is, we’re seeing a new forum for the court of public opinion.

Two things:

• iOS 9 hit an adoption rate of 61%
• iOS 8 or newer hit an adoption rate of 91%

Hitting 61% this quickly is remarkable. Passing 90% for the last two major iOS releases shows the lack of fragmentation in the market and the real value in Steve Jobs’ original vision of controlling the hardware and the software.

The splintering of hardware control in the Android universe amongst a variety of manufacturers means low/slow adoption rates for new Android releases and, ultimately, makes it very difficult to build a cohesive defense against malware.

From the Emojipedia blog:

Apple has released the iOS 9.1 update for iPhone and iPad, which includes 184 new emojis. This makes iOS the first operating system to include every single emoji in the Unicode Standard.

Popular requests included in this release include the volleyball, taco, middle finger and champagne bottle; as well as new faces for sickness, thinking, and rolling eyes.

Here are all the new ones.

Apple World Today:

Apple today released seven (!) new Apple Watch ads highlighting some of the features and capabilities of the wearable. Each of the ads is just 16 seconds long and is perfect for catching the attention of TV viewers and giving them a message… before they get bored.

I’m still not completely sold on this new ad campaign. Not sure what it is but they just don’t grab my attention the way other previous efforts have.

The Washington Post:

Apple and Dropbox said Tuesday that they do not support a controversial cybersecurity bill that, according to critics, would give the government sweeping new powers to spy on Americans in the name of protecting them from hackers.

The announcement by the two companies comes days before the Senate expects to vote on the legislation, known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA.

“We don’t support the current CISA proposal,” Apple said in a statement. “The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”

This is and will continue to be an ongoing battle. It’s great to see companies like Apple, Dropbox and others drawing a line in the sand and pushing back on the government’s attempts to access our private information.

Mashable:

Apple isn’t just a technology company. It’s increasingly becoming a luxury brand in its own right.

Apple’s sponsorship of the 2016 Met Gala and exhibition—announced last week— further underscores this shifting identity. Dubbed “Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology,” the exhibition will highlight the intersection between machine-made fashion and handmade haute couture.

I sat down with Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and Costume Institute Curator Andrew Bolton to talk about the gala and exhibit, how technology and fashion can work together, and the future of the two worlds.

Apple’s move into the “luxury market” is interesting but fraught with pitfalls. The fashion world is notoriously fickle. So it’s always interesting to hear from Apple’s principals about what they think and how they are going to navigate this minefield.

The Verge:

I didn’t know Steve Jobs during the early parts of his career — his first stint Apple and then his time running the failed NeXT — which take up most of the movie. And I know very little about his relationship with his daughter Lisa.

But the Steve Jobs I did know — the one the movie never shows — balanced his strong views and his impatience with a willingness to listen to others and to change his mind. In our many conversations, he loved to debate product and tech issues. Yes, we had some shouting matches, but we also had a lot of serious, calm conversation and even some laughs. And, unlike the man in the movie, I saw him listen to, and eventually agree with, contrary views raised by an employee.

Every review I’ve seen of this movie is similar – that it would have been a good movie had it been about an entirely fictitious character. In particular, reviewers have raved about Fasbender. But every person who knew Jobs echoes what Mossberg said – the movie is unfair to Jobs and doesn’t do the entirety of his life — or even the period portrayed — justice.

Ally Kazmucha, writing for The App Factor, walks through the various settings that can impact Facebook’s drain on your iPhone battery. Even if you don’t use Facebook, this is still worth a read, just to get a sense of the basic approach that might apply to other apps you do use.

This list was based on a survey and, like all lists of this type, it’s subjective. That said, I love lists like this. Just like a list of the best movies of all time, its real value is in finding something new.

Spend some quality time going through this one. My favorite description is this one, for The Ihnatko Almanac:

Tech journalist Andy Ihnatko delivers extemporaneous and knowledgeable soliloquies about comic books, movies, technology, photography, and dozens of other topics. Like a very nerdy Roger Ebert. Co-host Dan Benjamin hardly gets a word in, but he’s there just to wind up Ihnatko and let him go.

Just perfect!

Did you know that the earbuds that came with your iPhone are actually called EarPods? Here, see for yourself.

Name aside, this article, written by Christian Zibreg for iDownloadBlog is jam packed with useful information about your EarPods. Even if you are an EarPod ninja, I’ll wager there’s a trick or two in this post that is new to you.

My favorite:

Summon Siri: Press and hold the center button, then make your request.

To be clear, you press and hold the center button to summon Siri, then let go of the button before you start speaking. Siri will ignore you until you release the button.

Bookmark and pass along.

Stephen Aquino, writing for iMore, hasn’t yet got his hands on one of the new Apple TVs. Nonetheless, he uses the tvOS specs to lay out the accessibility elements built in to the new Apple TV, including Voiceover, Zoom, Bold Text, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion, and much much more.

On one of the most important accessibility features:

I think Siri is going to be game-changing for accessibility on the Apple TV. If it works as well as advertised, I can foresee myself using voice to drive the UI so that I can save my vision for the actual content. Overall, though, Siri on the Apple TV has the potential to be a lifesaver for those with physical and motor impairments, for whom using the remote may be difficult.

Nate Raymond, writing for Reuters:

Apple Inc told a U.S. judge that accessing data stored on a locked iPhone would be “impossible” with devices using its latest operating system, but the company has the “technical ability” to help law enforcement unlock older phones.

Apple’s position was laid out in a brief filed late Monday, after a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn, New York, sought its input as he weighed a U.S. Justice Department request to force the company to help authorities access a seized iPhone during an investigation.

In court papers, Apple said that for the 90 percent of its devices running iOS 8 or higher, granting the Justice Department’s request “would be impossible to perform” after it strengthened encryption methods.

And:

Apple told U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein it could access the 10 percent of its devices that continue to use older systems, including the one at issue in the case. But it urged the judge to not require it to comply with the Justice Department’s request.

“Forcing Apple to extract data in this case, absent clear legal authority to do so, could threaten the trust between Apple and its customers and substantially tarnish the Apple brand,” Apple’s lawyers wrote.

Also at stake is a precedent that would be set if the judge forces Apple to turn over this information on an older phone. A wedge in the crease that might be used to pressure Apple to change the current encryption policy.

Two months ago, The New York Times ran a bruising expose on Amazon’s workplace, with this memorable quote:

Bo Olson was one of them. He lasted less than two years in a book marketing role and said that his enduring image was watching people weep in the office, a sight other workers described as well. “You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face,” he said. “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

Amazon protested, but the Times stuck by their story. Time passed.

On Monday, Jay Carney, Senior Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs at Amazon, wrote a direct response to that expose in Medium, called What The New York Times Didn’t Tell You.

With those two pieces as background, go read this brilliant analysis by Stratechery’s Ben Thompson. There’s too much in Ben’s piece to summarize in a few words, but here’s just a taste:

The importance of Amazon’s response is obvious: unlike days of old, when corporations or individuals in the news had to resort to letters to the editor (which may or may not have been printed) and angry calls to the editor-in-chief, Amazon can go straight to the public with their complaints; it may sound cliché to say that “everyone is a publisher” but for the fact it’s true. Moreover, like anything else on the Internet, Amazon’s response was immediately available to everyone in the world: we take that for granted today, but compared to not that long ago when distribution required printing presses and delivery trucks this is truly an astounding development.

Terrific, insightful writing.

From the Matcha Tea blog comes this fascinating discussion of the influence Japanese culture had on Steve Jobs and, as a result, on Apple and the design of Apple products. Much of this has been discussed before, but this particular paragraph really struck a chord:

Apple enables productivity without requiring it, and this certainly played a role in the popularity of the devices with consumers. While they offer high reliability for business functions, they also offer convenient functionality for personal use. Where Microsoft saw itself rising to dominance partly with the success of its Office suite as being productive in traditional western business roles, Apple saw itself rising due to occupying a special place within culture as a range of devices suited towards normal life.

Well said.

[H/T Catalin Zorzini]