You may have heard that Apple’s on the hook for $862 million in potential penalties after a jury ruled that it infringed on a patent owned by the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The university appears to be asking for roughly half that amount, about $400 million, but that is still a huge amount of money, particularly in relation to a) the size of the university’s budget and b) how much Apple’s spent on Washington lobbyists to head off just these types of lawsuits. And the stakes aren’t limited to the fines: If Apple is forced to pay future royalties, it’ll add to the production costs of future iPhones and iPads. While that won’t necessarily lead to increased prices for consumers, it could drag down the company’s profits over the long run even as it grapples with the reputational fallout of having copied someone else’s work.
Apple is almost sure to appeal, and it could very well get the fines reduced further or eliminated, as it did with another recent patent case this year. Still, the ruling represents a stinging rebuke for a company that has spent years accusing its rival, Samsung, of essentially stealing its hardware designs.
Many have and will call the University of Wisconsin–Madison a “patent troll” but that’s not necessarily the case in this particular situation. This does bring into question once again patents and lawsuits. The jury award could also open Apple up to further damages if they also loses a second lawsuit UW-Madison filed against the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus and the iPad Pro.
Finding great stock photos is a pain. You’re left with either low-res amateur photos, people wearing cheesy headsets, or photos that are out of budget for the project you’re working on. Below is an ongoing list (so bookmark it) of the best stock photo sites I’ve come across.
I love using my own photos to illustrate things but sometimes, you just need one particular kind of shot. There are lots of sites that will charge you for lots of different kinds of images but, if you’re on a budget or just cheap, check out some of the sites listed at this page. Many of them have newsletters you can sign up for that will send you a daily list of new images.
Sandwich Video has been making wonderful short films for clients for a few years. Now, they’ve made something for themselves. The first episode premiered at XOXO last month, and it brought the house down. I think you’re best off going in cold — just grab a beverage and watch.
Indeed.
And if you liked this one, go back in time and watch this old favorite from Adult Swim.
More from Scott Knaster, who was in the room at the original rollout and then on the set providing background for the Steve Jobs movie. Great read, great fun and, most importantly, great pictures.
Hayley Tsukayama, writing for The Washington Post:
One of the most promising uses for the Apple Watch is its potential for improving health and fitness. And now, thanks to a new study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Watch is being used for the first time as a tool to help those diagnosed with epilepsy.
EpiWatch, an app the school launched on Thursday, will be the first to take advantage of the sensors in Apple’s wearable device for a medical study, said Gregory Krauss, a Johns Hopkins University professor of neurology and physician who specializes in the treatment of epilepsy.
Reports are circulating that some users are being presented with dialog boxes that only give them the option to start the upgrade process or reschedule it for a later date. Others are finding that the Windows Update screen is only offering them the option to begin the upgrade process, with other system updates being hidden from view.
Is there anything you can do to reverse this situation? Right now there isn’t.
The sense this gives is that Microsoft is throwing all its efforts into a forced migration to Windows 10. There were reports that Microsoft was downloading unrequested upgrade files to users and now this?
Some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users this week started reporting they were being forced to upgrade to Windows 10, even though they had not reserved a copy nor indicated in any way they wanted to upgrade. We reached out to Microsoft asking why users were being forced to install Windows 10, and the company replied that the issue came down to an optional update in Windows Update being checked by default. The company has now reverted the checkbox, calling the whole snafu “a mistake.”
And:
“As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. “This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing Windows 10 from Windows Update for users that have not reserved a copy of Windows 10.”
Apple posted a new ad yesterday, a worthy sequel to their first iPhone 6s ad. Instead of Bill Hader and his tortellini troubles, this ad gives us Jamie Foxx with a nicely written gag of his own. The video of the latest ad is embedded below.
You’ll find both ads on Apple’s official iPhone 6s Films page along with Introducing 3D Touch and Peek and Pop. Those last two are the films from the September rollout and do a great job laying out the mechanics of 3D Touch and the peek and pop gestures.
Apple on Thursday released substantial updates for its iWork suite of applications on all its platforms: iOS, Mac, and the Web. There are a lot of changes in these updates—here are the major ones.
Pages, Numbers and Keynote now take advantage of new features recently introduced in iOS 9, including Split View, Slide View, and Picture in Picture and 3D Touch on the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
The apps are now more accessible than ever with greater support for VoiceOver, the remarkable screen reader that comes standard on iOS devices and Macs, and provides users an audio description of what’s happening on screen, as well as guidance for initiating actions when creating, editing or formatting a document.
And iWork for iCloud is now out of beta. We’ve added a host of new features like commenting, version history and support for 10 additional languages that make the collaboration experience on the web much more powerful.
Other new features include:
El Capitan users can now multitask in Split View and get haptic feedback as they edit a document using a Force Touch trackpad
Shared iWork documents can now be previewed on iOS and Android browsers
iWork for iOS and iWork for iCloud now include version history
Longtime iWork customers can now open and edit documents from iWork ’08 and ’06 across all three platforms
Keynote for iOS allows customers to edit and present in portrait orientation
Keynote for Mac and iOS now include full bidirectional support for Arabic and Hebrew
You can download the updates by opening the App Store on your Mac or iOS device and checking for updates. These are free updates for all existing users.
Researchers from ANSSI, France’s National Information System Security Agency, have demonstrated a “hack” where, using transmitters from a short distance away, they can trigger Apple’s Siri and Google Now under certain specific circumstances.
Like usual, it’s something to be aware of but not overly concerned about. Once again, we should all be more concerned about the state of security reporting at mainstream publications.
Siri and Google Now are enabling and empowering technologies that help people live better lives. We should all be informed and educated about any potential security issues, but not sensationalized or made to feel scared in any way.
When I saw the Wired story, I (predictably) thought there was more to it than what was reported. As usual, whenever you read about “security threats” to Apple’s products, it’s always good to wait a few days until calmer heads investigate and give you a better, fuller version of the story.
Through our pursuit of further automation and maximization of margins during the industrial age of media technology, we built advertising technology to optimize publishers’ yield of marketing budgets that had eroded after the last recession. Looking back now, our scraping of dimes may have cost us dollars in consumer loyalty. The fast, scalable systems of targeting users with ever-heftier advertisements have slowed down the public internet and drained more than a few batteries. We were so clever and so good at it that we over-engineered the capabilities of the plumbing laid down by, well, ourselves. This steamrolled the users, depleted their devices, and tried their patience.
Well, it’s certainly a start.
Today, the IAB Tech Lab is launching the L.E.A.N. Ads program. Supported by the Executive Committee of the IAB Tech Lab Board, IABs around the world, and hundreds of member companies, L.E.A.N. stands for Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported, Non-invasive ads. These are principles that will help guide the next phases of advertising technical standards for the global digital advertising supply chain.
Wealthfront — A simple, low-cost, automated investment service that makes it easy to invest your money the right way. TDR listeners get their first $15,000 managed for free for the life of their account.
Pixelmator 3.4 Twist adds support for the new OS X El Capitan, multitasking via Split View, the new Pixelmator Photos Extension with powerful Distort tools, and more.
This is such a great app. The guys at Pixelmator continue to improve the application, adding value for its customers.
Michael S. Rosenwald , writing for the Washington Post:
There are plenty of goofballs — like me — who stand outside Apple stores all night waiting for the company’s latest, thinnest, must-have offering.
There was nobody like Gary Allen, who died Sunday from brain cancer at 67.
Allen didn’t care so much about Apple’s new products (though he bought many of them.) He cared about the stores, the sleek and often innovative ways Apple presented itself to the world — the winding staircases, the floor-to-ceiling glass, the exposed brick.
Allen, a retired EMS dispatcher, traveled around the world — obsessively and expensively — to be among the first in line at the company’s new stores. He attended more than 140 openings, collecting all sorts of trivia. He could even tell you where Apple store tables are made (Utah; he stopped by the factory once to say thanks).
You can argue about the “biggest fan” title, but he definitely fit that mold. Sad.
Samsung is adding two new Galaxy Note 5 options to its lineup in South Korea. They’re exactly the same internally, but they come in two cool new colors — Silver Titanium and Pink Gold.
Apple today announced a significant new initiative internally for employees that “effectively [makes] everyone who works for Apple eligible for an RSU grant.” RSU grants, or Restricted Stock Units, have typically been reserved for top Apple management and product engineering roles as a way to retain employee talent for long periods of time. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook was granted 1 million shares in 2011, following the succession of Steve Jobs, that will vest over time through 2021. According to an email from Cook to all employees today, a similar plan, with obviously much smaller amounts of shares, is now starting.
Follow the link to read Tim’s email. This is an astute business move, and an incredibly generous gesture.
Make no mistake: this is user-hostile. Facebook is actively creating channels to continue refreshing their app in the background when the user has explicitly stated that they do not want it to. Ironically, the best way to reduce the battery and data consumption of the Facebook app in the background is to switch Background App Refresh back on.
Carlos Oliveira pulled together a pretty thorough study, comparing a variety of Safari content blockers, 16 in all. If your content blocker was not included in the study, ping Carlos on Twitter or send him an email.
Matthew Bolton, writing for TechRadar, pulled together a fascinating look at both the current state of the Mac as a gaming machine, and the history of the Mac’s evolution in that space.
Just one tiny slice from the article:
It’s hard for a lot of gamers to remember now, but there was a time when the Mac was fertile ground for great games.
Maxis brought the dozens of Sim-something games it did every month to Mac; Bungie grew big as a Mac-exclusive developer, getting to the point where it announced Halo for Mac and Windows (before being promptly snapped up by Microsoft); and Myst, one of the biggest games of all time, was built in the Mac’s ‘make your own app!’ programming tool HyperCard before being ported to every electronic platform with a screen.
If you are at all interested in Mac gaming, this is worth the read.
Charlie Warzel, writing for BuzzFeed News, takes us on a tour of M, the Facebook Messenger based digital assistant that behaves like there’s a human on the other side of the conversation:
In late March, Facebook gave the world a peek at its grand ambition: to use the Messenger platform to effectively become the internet. Yesterday evening, thanks to a test rollout of the company’s virtual personal assistant program, M, some of us were treated to a glimpse of how that process is likely going to go down. Late last night, M popped up in my co-worker’s Messenger app, and, within moments, started behaving exactly like, well, a real human being.
It worked seamlessly, drawing information from other platforms like Yelp. It booked flights (M seems really good at helping you spend your money), explained how to use Snapchat, and recognized articles my colleague had written. It was a little stiff, perhaps, but an effective researcher and a reasonable conversation partner. As my colleague’s screengrabs spread around the internet, watching people tweet about it began to feel almost surreal — a bit Skynet-y. One Twitter user said that M helped him lower his Comcast bill.
M reminds me of invisible boyfriend. How much of M is AI and how much human?
Built atop Facebook Messenger—the company’s instant messaging app—M made its debut this morning, arriving on the phones of a few hundred unsuspecting souls in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yes, it’s the company’s answer to Siri and similar services like Google Now and Microsoft Cortana. But it tackles a broader range of tasks, at least as Facebook describes it. You can ask M questions along the lines of Can you make me dinner reservations? or even Can you help me plan my next vacation?—and it will comply.
And:
If you want a system to automatically identify cats in YouTube videos, humans must first show it what a cat looks like. They must tag all sorts of feline photos. They must provide data. Through the human staff backing M, Facebook is doing this type of thing in unusually complex ways. “This is why we have this big team of people,” Lebrun says. “The data we need is nonexistent.”
Makes me wonder if Apple is exploring a human-assist version of Siri.
CBS CEO Les Moonves did an interview with Bloomberg Business. The video is linked here, though be aware it autoplays.
If you are interested at all in the TV business and the moving pieces like Netflix, Hulu, the networks, Apple TV, this is a fantastic interview, not too long, full of interesting tidbits.
At the very end of the interview, Moonves is asked, “How close are you to a deal with Apple”. Moonves replies:
Apple is having conversation with everybody about doing their own streaming services, we’ve had those conversations, as have the other networks. Do I think something will happen? Probably, but I don’t know when.
To me, this is a party line kind of comment, not at all an indicator of progress or lack of progress. I see a lot of headlines that focus on this tiny part of an incredibly interesting interview. I feel like this is a bit of missing the forest for the trees.
Newer Tesla Motors Model S sedans will be able to steer and park themselves under certain conditions starting Thursday, the carmaker said, although Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk cautioned that drivers should keep holding the steering wheel.
“We’re being especially cautious at this stage so we’re advising drivers to keep their hands on the wheel just in case,” Musk told reporters at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. “Over time there will not be a need to have your hands on the wheel.”
The dynamic, engaging and interactive Newseum allows visitors to experience the stories of yesterday and today through the eyes of the media while celebrating the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the First Amendment.
I really want to go here. I’m a big fan of history and this museum is definitely in my wheel house.
Jim and Dan talk about Apple’s brand new Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Mouse 2, and the new 5k and 4k iMacs.
Brought to you by Braintree (To learn more, and for your first $50,000 in transactions fee-free, go to braintreepayments.com/amplified) and Squarespace (Visit the link and use the code GUITARS for a free trial and 10% off your first purchase).
On October 14, 1947, high above California’s Antelope Valley, Charles “Chuck” Yeager became the fastest man alive. That day Yeager—an Appalachian farm boy-turned-fighter ace—flew an experimental rocket plane called the Bell X-1 through the sound barrier and into the history books. Fifty years and one day later (and only about 500 miles due north), another fighter pilot—RAF Wing Commander Andy Green—equaled Yeager’s feat but on four wheels. Thrust SSC was the name of his ride, and it made Green the fastest man on Earth. It’s a title he still holds.
But 65 years to the day after Yeager’s supersonic flight, an Austrian skydiver named Felix Baumgartner got his own entry into the record books. Baumgartner rode a helium balloon from Roswell, New Mexico, (yes, that Roswell) 128,100 feet (39,045m) into the atmosphere and then stepped out of its gondola, breaking the sound barrier with nothing more than a pressure suit and the laws of gravity. Luckily for Green, Baumgartner became the fastest man en route to Earth.
All three of these historic supersonic firsts happened on (or about) October 14.
The speed of sound is one of those record marks that capture the imagination, even though it was first broken more than 60 years ago. No matter the conveyance, we are still fascinated whenever someone breaks the sound barrier.
