Why would you care? A series of videos have been making the rounds claiming that the Samsung version of the iPhone 6s processor runs hotter and has poorer battery life than the processor manufactured by TSMC.
Here’s a link to a 9to5mac post with two of these videos embedded.
As I read through the post, my reaction was, I’d like to see more scientific testing before we scream fire. Is it possible this is a problem with just one or two phones/chips? Is this issue restricted to the 6s, or does it carry over to the 6s Plus as well?
All that said, if you care to know, iDownloadBlog has a nice post that will walk you through the process so you’ll know which chip you have.
This is actually a fascinating article and definitely worth the read. But at the very least, take a few minutes and click on all the little speaker icons embedded in the article.
You’ll hear the Mac II boot sound (referred to as “the Devil’s interval”), the boot sound that replaced it (so much nicer, thanks Jim Reekes), the Windows boot sound, Nokia’s classic ringtone, and a whole bunch of Skype sounds.
I’ve been maintaining a list of Safari ad blockers (the list is up to 25 now). As a natural consequence, people have been asking me to recommend an ad blocker, or at least tell them what I use.
Given that I’ve not done an extensive study of ad blockers, rather pick one over the other, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a path to consider when picking one for yourself.
First things first, I’d start with a free ad blocker, just to dip your toes in the water, get a sense of what an ad blocker can do, how it works, and the change it brings to your browsing experience. Feel free to use the aforementioned list as a launch point. Check out a few, find a free one with reasonable reviews in the App Store, and install it.
To enable an ad blocker, you’ll go to Settings > Safari > Content Blockers, then tap the switch next to your ad blocker of choice.
With the ad blocker enabled, go to a few ad heavy sites and get a sense of what’s changed. If I might suggest a good place to start, take a trip to the infamous New York Post web site. I’d suggest doing this experiment while connected to WiFi, to prevent unwanted data counting against your data plan.
Do this without the ad blocker, then with it. Notice the time it takes to initially load the site (consider quitting Safari between each viewing to be sure there’s no caching going on), then try to dismiss any ads that appear.
With the ad blocker in place, did any ads make it through the filter? Do some browsing. Do you see any ads at all?
With that experience under your belt, here are a few questions to consider:
Does the ad blocker offer a white list you can edit? In other words, is there a way to tell it not to block ads from, say, The Loop? Obviously, a white list makes it possible for you to let your favorite sites bring in their ad dollars. After basic ad blocking capability, this is the number one feature I look for.
How does the ad blocker figure out what to block? Does the ad blocker update its own blacklist? Does it offer separate switches for trackers/ads/images/adult content?
The goal of your ad blocker is to prevent unwanted content from slowing down Safari and, more importantly, prevent content from silently/unknowingly consuming your data plan. Once that is achieved, the tunability of the ad blocker is a true personal preference.
To be clear, I’ve got no issue with ads. They pay the freight and can be artistic/entertaining. To me, what started the ball rolling downhill here was the discovery of ads that carry invisible, data plan consuming content, hiding behind an innocuous ad. If you haven’t already, take a look at the post that got me started.
This technology looks like it has incredible promise. In a nutshell, it will erase all moving objects (like annoying tourists) from the frame when you take a picture.
Obviously, key to this is that the object of your affections stands stock still (like a monument tends to) and you have some form of optical stabilization on your camera (a tripod would do just fine but, my guess is, that stabilization can be built into the Monument Mode algorithm).
Jony Ive, speaking at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, on a panel with Director J.J. Abrams and producer Brian Grazer:
I was talking to a friend of Steve’s and a friend of mine earlier in the week, on the day that marked the fourth anniversary of his death. What struck me, four years ago, is that I was faced with this wall of grief. A lot of messy—a whole series of multiple feelings. In thinking of him then, there was this incredible complexity of all his attributes. What has been very surprising, is that over the four years that have passed, so much of that noise, and so many of his attributes, they’ve ended up essentially receding. And what’s left is . . . just him.
Quite honestly, what’s remained, I never would have predicted four years ago. What’s remained is almost unremarkable, but what’s remained is his very simple focus on trying to make something beautiful and great. And it really was simple. There wasn’t a grand plan of winning, or a very complicated agenda. That simplicity seemed almost childlike in its purity. And it’s true.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so happy, as I saw him—this very simple kind of joy—when he would realize, “This is actually working out. This could be great.” It was just the simplicity of that.
That stands in such contrast, obviously, to how he’s being frequently and popularly portrayed at the moment. The lack of agenda.
He certainly had a sense of a civic responsibility to make something good, as a way of somehow making a contribution to humanity, and to culture.
After her prolific husband died of prostate cancer in 1993, Gail kept Frank’s recordings in the public, putting out dozens of posthumous albums and judiciously licensing his image where appropriate. Earlier this year, the Zappa family announced that the couple’s son Ahmet would be in charge of the Trust.
Solid list of the best movies currently streaming on Netflix, at least according to this particular poster. There are a couple of questionable picks towards the top of the list, but it just gets stronger and stronger. Some of my favorites:
Fargo
The Conversation (with a very young Harrison Ford!!!)
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua sounds amazing. Its rounded edges look sleek. It’s waterproof. It has a 13-megapixel camera with Superior Auto, which, according to the company, means the phone “recognizes 52 different scenarios and automatically configures the optimal settings—so you don’t have to.” Finally, an end to the era in which humans, like common animals, had to do all their own scenario recognition.
As with so many smartphones, though, very few people will ever see the Xperia M4 Aqua, let alone own it. Even after spending billions of dollars and overhauling its leadership to refocus on the devices, Sony has fallen out of the top 10 in smartphone sales. (The company declined to comment.) It’s a common story for dozens of flagging manufacturers, toiling at what has become one of the most brutally competitive businesses on the planet. Unless you’re Apple or Samsung, “you can’t make money in phones,” says Roger Kay, head of consultant Endpoint Technologies Associates. So why keep trying?
And:
Together, Apple and Samsung account for more than one in three smartphones sold, data compiled by Bloomberg show. More important, Apple vacuums up more than 90 percent of the profits in the business, and Samsung takes most of what’s left. That leaves crumbs for the half-dozen other big smartphone manufacturers, plus a sea of upstarts.
Go back four years to 2011, and HTC was the world’s biggest phone maker, the writing was on the wall for Apple. Doomed again.
Something has to be done with drones. I’m sure that most people use common sense when operating a drone, but there are those that fly too close to airports, interfere with fire fighting efforts, and generally make a nuisance of themselves.
Nearly six years have passed since Microsoft began opening retail outlets patterned after Apple’s blockbuster retail locations. However, the now 116 Microsoft Stores are still a pale imitation to Apple’s own retail network of 460 locations, often featuring more employees than customers as the firm’s products have failed to excite and attract buyers.
This was a sad attempt to copy Apple’s success and it didn’t work. Microsoft under Ballmer tried to copy Apple in a number of ways and they all failed miserably.
Om Malik had a fascinating conversation with Liam Casey, the founder of PCH International. Om says that “Liam’s insights would be useful for a lot of founders,” and I agree.
Jim and Dan talk about the Microsoft event as it relates to Microsoft’s goal of one OS on every device and computer. They also discuss Dan’s new iPad Air 2 and how he’s using it for code, Jim’s copycat rage, and more.
The first Pill has sold more than a million units since its debut in 2012. Though it’s a hit, it’s gotten long in the tooth and the audio quality is really poor. That makes the Pill the perfect thing to tear down and rebuild. (Also, Bluetooth speakers are way easier than headphones.)
The result, the Beats Pill+, sounds much better, looks much better, and is a far more enticing product than its predecessor. It’s more than just a new piece of mobile candy. It’s an opportunity for Apple to show the extent to which it can shape the design of hardware coming out of its subsidiary.
We won’t know for sure until reviewers get units in hand for testing but the early comments from the Beats demo sound promising. I don’t read anything that makes me want to give up my Libratone Zipp speaker though.
We stumbled upon the Steve Jobs “Think Different” marketing campaign speech in light of the new movie release this weekend. As animators, we were really struck when he paused for a good while before he said “… marketing… is about values.” We could see in his body that this thought weighed on him. And, in fact, that thought would determine the direction of Apple for the next two decades.For Jobs, Apple was not about “making boxes for people to get their jobs done.” He and his executive team needed to be about something more. They needed to think beyond the equipment… beyond the dollars, toward something more. They needed to live in service to a higher calling. It’s hard to hear this speech without being moved. Not just because we are hearing a speech from a dead man, but because we know what Steve Jobs is saying is true. Our studio was challenged by this very real moment. Were we just clocking in and clocking out? Were we living from dollar to dollar? Or, were we working for something more?
Influencer marketing thrives on this same idea of standing for something more. It’s not just about pushing a product; it’s about aligning with values that people care about. Audiences aren’t interested in influencers who clock in and clock out, only promoting brands for a paycheck. They want authenticity, a connection that feels genuine. A leading tiktok agency, for example, understands that successful campaigns are built on this principle. It’s about creating a narrative where the brand and the influencer both stand for something bigger, something that resonates deeply with their audience. Seamlessly connect creators, brands, and influencers through the Amazon affiliate network. Additionally, to understand customers more efficiently, it’s important to utilize an email software for better organization.
I’ve seen this video before but the folks at ideaMachine Studio did some great work in cleaning it up. I may be a bit too cynical and jaded to attribute as much to the speech as they do but I certainly believe the sentiment is in Apple’s DNA. They don’t just want to make money. They really do want to change the world.
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Twitter’s strength has always been hosting conversations around live events, but it’s not always easy to find them. Doing so often requires some savvy, juggling multiple tabs within Twitter’s app—not to mention knowing the right hashtags and accounts to follow.
Moments is designed to untangle some of these complexities by relying on curation to surface such conversations. Both Twitter’s staff and its partners—including NASA, Major League Baseball, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and BuzzFeed—will package tweets into collections, which will show up under a new tab called Moments.
I don’t know if I’d describe “Twitter’s strength” in that way but anything Twitter can do to make the service “less confusing” to new users is good for the company and will help keep the investor wolves from their door. Personally, I don’t find Twitter all that confusing but then again, I’ve been using it from the beginning. Am I wrong? Is Twitter confusing for new users?
Over the past six months, I’ve moved all my calendaring over to Fantastical from Flexibits. The one missing piece for me was the lack of an Apple Watch complication. On the Apple Watch, the complication is an area of the watch face given over to another function or app. For example, a watch face might feature a complication that shows the alarm status (mine shows that my alarm is set for 7am).
Today, Flexibits released a bunch of new shiny, including a new version of their Apple Watch app that includes a complication, so I can finally see my Fantastical calendar events on my watch. Huzzah!
There is way more new stuff than just the complication (new versions of Fantastical for iPhone and Mac, filled to the brim with new features). Make your way over to the web site to learn more.
Caitlin McGarry, writing for MacWorld, pulled together this interview with the director and creator of Steve Jobs.
Interesting that the current IMDB score for the movie is 6.5, but the metascore is 80/100. Usually, when there is a disparity like this, it goes the other way (low metascore, high IMDB score).
From the interview, here’s Boyle:
One of the things that’s really interesting about the film is this idea that Woz actually says [in the movie]: “You can be decent and gifted at the same time. It’s not binary.” That idea hangs over the whole film in a way. Everybody knows how [Jobs] did behave, that he was a difficult guy, especially to some people. For reasons you see in the film, he explains why he’s like that: that he wants A players, and B players discourage the A players. He was brutal in explaining it, and also brutal on himself. It’s not like he was swanning off. He pushed himself, clearly.
And Sorkin:
When you’re writing a character like this, it’s important for the writer not to judge the character. I have to be able to defend the character. I like to write the character as if they’re making their case to God as to why they should be allowed into heaven. I think that for whatever reason, deep down Steve felt that he was irreparably damaged in some way and was not worthy of being liked or loved.
Steve had this talent to wrangle other talented people to make these devices and machines that were not only successful commercially, but we have an emotional relationship with them. We love these things. That’s why it was important to him that rectangles have rounded corners and that money be spent on fonts and things like that. For Steve, mission accomplished in that regard. The only person that that wasn’t going to work on was his own daughter [Lisa Brennan-Jobs]. From a father, you’re looking for something else. That was what the movie was about.
Read the whole thing. Fascinating to see the film creator’s take on this. Lots of controversy around this film.
Recently Tweetbot 4 was released as a cross-platform update that’ll work on iPad & iPhone. Right now (at 50% off), it’s a $4.99/£3.99 app. Regardless of whether you bought the old Tweetbot recently, or at all.
Some people were pretty angry about this
I can understand people not wanting to pay for a piece of software when there are free alternatives. I can understand people not wanting to pay for an update if they feel the value of the update is just not worth the cost.
What I cannot understand is someone getting upset about a developer charging for an update.
Developers have mouths to feed, bills to pay. If someone builds a wonderful piece of software (Tweetbot definitely fits in this category), perhaps it helps to think of it as you supporting that developer. Paying for their app or update is you helping that developer keep the doors open.
Scott Knaster, aside from being an aspiring actor, professional Mad Magazine collector, and wonderfully entertaining writer, was actually once an Apple employee, back when the Mac was being born (1983-1990).
So when the folks behind the new Steve Jobs movie wanted a reality check on the portrayal of Apple’s early days, they came to Scott.
Last January the Steve Jobs movie came to town and called me up.
I was leaving work one day when I got a phone call from a guy named Todd Marks. He said he was on the crew of a new movie about Steve Jobs. He said they’re filming a scene that’s the public intro of the Mac in 1984. They heard I was there at the original event, and they wanted to talk to me about what was going on that day. Cool! I said sure, I’d come by.
Read on. Interesting to see this side of the movie business, especially where it concerns this movie.
Wish there was a way to run Dark Castle on this puppy.
And my wish was granted. If you’ve never heard of Dark Castle, here’s a Wiki.
As before, I couldn’t get the emulator to recognize taps on my iOS device, so run this on your Mac. To get started, be sure to click the Info button and read through all the screens to get a sense of the gameplay. On my setup, the standard “asd” movement keys got translated to “456”, and the mouse cursor/throwing mechanic took a bit of play to get the hang of, but after all this time, Dark Castle is still a hugely fun game.
Juli Clover, writing for Mac Rumors, about this Periscope session with Disney artists and the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil:
In the Periscope, Ranjo was impressed with the grip of the iPad Pro’s screen when used with the Pencil, and he also was a fan of the palm rejection features. When drawing on an iPad Pro, the palm of a hand can be rested on the screen, but it’s still responsive to zoom gestures. At the end of the video, which is well worth watching to see the iPad in action, he says “Let’s order a bunch of them.”
Jim, let’s order a bunch of them, too!
If you have a few minutes, watch the Periscope session. Fantastic to see the iPad Pro and Pencil and the Disney artists, at work. Riveting.
If you have a web site, your default pin is the first letter of your web site name (L for loopinsight.com, D for daringfireball.net, etc.)
Turns out, it’s very easy to create your own custom pin icon (Click here to open a CNN page, or here to open a NYTimes page, then drag the tab to the left to see their custom pins.)
Jason Mark (no relation, at least not that we’ve figured out yet) pulled together the details in this post.
In a nutshell, build a single color SVG file, save it on your server, reference it in your site header. Simple!
We’ve been working hard on getting The Loop Magazine updated for iOS 9, but we’ve added a couple of nice features too. We’ve updated the entire backend of the magazine, so things should be much faster for everyone.
My favorite feature is a new universal search. You can now type in a keyword and it will search every published issue of the magazine. Just tap on the result and it will take you right to the story.
In addition, Issue 35 was published today with looking at the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, 3D Touch, watch OS 2, iPad Pro, Apple TV from a gamer’s perspective, Wearable health reminders, and more.
Another issue of the magazine is almost ready to go and will focus on Apple Music.
“In this respect, Apple has been its own worst enemy,” he said. “This lack of cooperation has cast an unnecessary shadow over meaningful progress in developing a comprehensive and effective antitrust compliance program.”
Perhaps Apple, like many of us, are still wondering how the hell Amazon gets away with so much, without any punishment.
