Rene Ritchie lays out the new stuff from Google I/O. My favorite line:
It’s a beast of unprecedented, unimaginable size. And all this cool technology is the sedative we’re given to feed it.
Really good, though I do take exception to the Google Photos license agreement.
There’s a lot being made about yesterday’s Google Photos announcement.
Some of the brouhaha is centered on compression. If you want unlimited free storage, you have to accept a small amount of compression. Why would Google compress something even if your photos are under the 16 megapixel limit? One possible reason: To provide value, Google Photos needs to run your photos through their image analysis algorithms, producing a version of the image with (I’m guessing here) some sort of embedded tags so they don’t need to ever search those photos again and so those photos can easily be searched.
To me, the argument against using compression is weak. We accept our highly compressed music without (much) complaint. I’d bet that the vast majority of people couldn’t pick out a Google Photos compressed image from a non-compressed image.
Do you shoot in RAW mode? If so, then the free version of Google Photos is not for you. But if you don’t, if you shoot to capture a memory and not as an art form, compression is not the sticking point.
Instead, take a look at this chunk from the Google Photos license agreement:
Some of our Services allow you to upload, submit, store, send or receive content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.
If you are going to upload your photos or movies to Google Photo, read these words carefully. The way I read it (and I’m no lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt), at the very least, Google has the right to use your photos in its advertising.
There are darker interpretations, but I’ll leave that to the license agreement experts.
I really like the idea of Google Photos. I wish Google would come right out and say, we won’t ever use your photos for anything without your explicit permission. As is, this license agreement is keeping me out.
At the same time as Google was updating their virtual reality plans (read Google’s big bet on Cardboard), Apple was quietly buying Metaio, a company specializing in augmented reality.
Augmented reality is a different take on virtual reality. Rather than create an immersive virtual world, augmented reality adds virtual layers on top of the real world. The Cardboard world is strictly built for the Cardboard headset. Augmented reality can do its thing in a headset, but it also works just as well on your iOS device’s screen.
From the linked 9to5mac article:
Earlier this week, we reported that Apple is working on an Augmented Reality feature for a future Maps update, and it is likely that this acquisition will play into that.
The company’s technology also opens up the door for virtually trying on clothing and such in stores, and Apple has been working on ways to allow people to virtually try on goods such as the Apple Watch.
To get a real sense of the technology Apple just bought, take a look at the Metaio demo reel below.
At last year’s Google I/O conference, Google introduced Cardboard, their inexpensive virtual reality viewer made out of parts you can get for about $20. Assemble the pieces, insert your phone, and start looking at Google VR sites in an immersive way.
From the Google Cardboard Wikipedia page:
The headset specifications were designed by Google, but there is no official manufacturer or vendor for the device. Instead, Google has the list of parts, schematics, and assembly instructions freely available on their website, recommending people assemble one themselves from readily available parts. These comprise a piece of cardboard cut into a precise shape, 45 mm focal distance lenses, magnets, velcro, a rubber band, and an optional near field communication (NFC) tag. A smartphone is inserted in front of the lenses and a Google Cardboard–compatible app splits the smartphone display image into two, one for each eye. The lenses create a distortion effect that sends each half to one eye and creates the impression of a stereoscopic 3D image with a wide field of view.
Now there’s a version of Google’s official Cardboard app for iOS.
You’ll need a VR headset to go with that. Here’s Google’s official Cardboard VR headset page, with instructions for building your own from parts, as well as links to some vendors who will be glad to sell you one. Note that the new version of the Cardboard viewer, released at this week’s Google I/O, is designed to handle larger phones, like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Google is building something big here. They’ve teamed with GoPro to build a rig, called Jump, designed to capture perfect 360 degree panoramas designed to work with Cardboard. They are aggressively pursuing content creators and are building out a new section of YouTube with Cardboard compatible immersive video.
This approach is perfect for Google. By pushing out inexpensive headsets, releasing the designs into the public domain, Google is building an audience, not pursuing dollars.
At the same time, they are quietly building a content library for that audience to consume. They are creating an ecosystem, but one without any licensing requirements. The bigger the audience the better, which is why Google is inviting iOS users to the party. This new ecosystem will overlap nicely with Apple’s own ecosystem.
Cardboard is a nice business strategy all the way around.
From VentureBeat:
Today was a pretty big day for Google. At its annual I/O developer conference, the company unveiled Android M, Android Pay, Brillo, Google Photos, and more.
Google explains its new photos app and service. For now, I’ll stick with iCloud. It works well for me, syncs to all of my devices and optimizes the photos. I also don’t have to wonder what Google is doing with them when I’m not looking.
There are two basic ways to read this news. The first is to take Apple at its word — that this is a promotion for Ive that will let him focus more of attention on, well, design. That he’s delegating management administrivia to Dye and Howarth, not decreasing his involvement in supervising the actual design work. The second way — the cynical way — is that this is the first step to Ive easing his way out the door, and that his new title is spin to make the news sound good rather than bad.
Personally, I think it’s both. Jony deserves a “chief” title and this is a perfect way to introduce the public to the other lead designers on Jony’s team. I don’t think Jony is going anywhere in the near future, but it’s important for Wall St. and the public to realize that he won’t leave a giant vacuum when he does leave.
It would be impossible for Apple not to have a succession plan in place for someone as important and well-known as Jony. That plan may not come into affect for years, but it’s in place nonetheless.
“Scold” is the right word. Reading the decision, I’m struck by how many ways the Court found to say that Bromwich had crossed the line.
I think the word everyone is looking for here is: “Crooked”.
Pixelmator is one of my favorite apps of all time. I started using it on the Mac, then iPad, and now it’s available for iPhone as well. The thing I truly like about the guys at Pixelmator, is that they think about each platform and figure out the best way to get things done. They think about the details that will affect the users. That’s why I love Pixelmator and why I will continue to support them.
io9:
My colleagues and I recruited actual human subjects in Germany. We ran an actual clinical trial, with subjects randomly assigned to different diet regimes. And the statistically significant benefits of chocolate that we reported are based on the actual data. It was, in fact, a fairly typical study for the field of diet research. Which is to say: It was terrible science. The results are meaningless, and the health claims that the media blasted out to millions of people around the world are utterly unfounded.Here’s how we did it.
A great dissection of how easy it is to fool the media. Keep this story in mind the next time you read breathless news about miracle cures.
These are some truly interesting images. Not sure if these come from the architecture firm or from Apple itself. Note the absence of computers, of any actual work-spaces. There’s a real science fiction feel here.
The last two images show Jony and then Tim and Jony at the actual site. Construction is said to be on track to finish next year.
Be sure to read both the captions and the comments, two jarringly dissonant takes.
[H/T Rob Richman]
Om Malik:
Iceland is quite a magical place, and I wanted to take in its natural beauty before sinking myself into the Startup Iceland event later today. I took the backroads, turned off my cell phone, fired up my camera and went photo crazy. I came back to my hotel room last night jet-lagged and dead tired, and I went to sleep without as much as turning on the phone.
I woke up this morning to find out that Jony Ive has a new title, Re/code has been sold to Vox Media for an undisclosed amount and the assets of Gigaom have been acquired by an Austin, Texas–based company called Knowingly. I had no idea this was coming, so like everyone else on the former Gigaom team, it came as a surprise. It is good to see the last chapter on this book closed. For me the story of Gigaom ended on March 9, 2015, a red letter day in life if any.
I can only imagine how this must feel, watching these two stories roll out in parallel, one of them of great professional interest, and one of them about as personal as a story can be.
MacRumors:
Apple is now offering same-day delivery of certain products in its Apple Store app, through a partnership with Postmates. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Apple Store app is offering a same day delivery option on products that are available in local Apple Stores.
For example, ordering an Apple TV in the San Francisco Bay Area results in a four-hour same-day delivery window, as does an order for a Lightning cable. In some areas, like San Francisco, delivery turnaround times are as fast as an hour, but for some products, delivery times can take up to a day.
In the example, that Apple TV will be delivered within 4 hours for a fee of $19, as opposed to free 2-day delivery.
The New York Times, in an article about the upcoming battle between Apple Pay and Android Pay:
Awareness of mobile payments has been stoked by Apple Pay, which Apple introduced last October. Apple has partnerships with dozens of American banks, allowing Apple Pay to work with most major credit cards. Some retailers, like Walgreens and Whole Foods, have said mobile wallet payments in their stores have grown significantly since the debut of Apple Pay.
But analysts have noted that a missing piece from Apple Pay was a rewards program to keep users returning to participating merchants. People familiar with Apple Pay said that next month, Apple will announce such a program offering perks to consumers who make purchases with the service, though they declined to reveal details.
Picking this apart, there is a difference between a program that rewards frequent use of Apple Pay and the ability of Apple Pay to keep track of and enable all of a user’s various rewards programs as they pay with Apple Pay.
In other words, if i am a member of the Taco Hut frequent buyers program, if I pay with Apple Pay, will I get credit towards my free taco? Or, if I pay for my goods at Staples, will my Staples rewards number make its way into the transaction if I pay with Apple Pay?
If Apple rewards me for frequently using Apple Pay, that’s great, but it does not fill in the “missing piece”. Here’s hoping Apple has found a way to solve the real rewards program problem.
The new version is out. Smile Software put together a series of videos going over all the features of this great piece of software. Take a look on their Web site.
I love this song.
Earlier today, we posted about the iOS bug that caused the Messages app to crash, potentially rebooting your iPhone.
Rene Ritchie, reporting for iMore:
The bug occurs when your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch (which runs a variant of iOS 8) receives a message containing the specific string of Unicode characters. Because the specific string can’t be rendered, the app crashes or the system restarts.
Rene posted this response from Apple:
We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update.
Interesting that the bug impacts the Apple Watch, too.
Jawbone sued Fitbit in California State Court here on Wednesday, accusing its rival of “systematically plundering” confidential information by poaching employees who improperly downloaded sensitive materials shortly before leaving.
This one is going to get messy.
Techcrunch:
Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations, said that there are over 4,000 apps now available for Apple Watch, a number we’ve previously heard. Williams also discussed the upcoming native SDK for the Apple Watch. Williams spoke in an interview today at the Code conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.“A week from Monday at our developer conference we’ll release a preview so that developers will be able to write code natively and have access to sensors, and we’re really excited about that.”
When asked by TechCrunch about the possibility of future Apple Watches giving more transparency to overall health, Williams declined to say anything specific but did acknowledge that Apple was considering adding more sensors.
In three to six months, things are going to start getting even more interesting with the Apple Watch.
Apple:
Make the most of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference with the WWDC app. Even if you can’t join us in San Francisco, you can still follow along each day — session videos are just a tap away. And because the WWDC app experience now extends to Apple Watch, conference information is available right from your wrist.
Along with the media invites Apple sent out this morning, they have updated the official WWDC app to include the keynote session, likely emceed by CEO Tim Cook and including the usual cast of characters and announcements.
If you ever find yourself in the iOS app icon design business, even temporarily, this is a helpful read, especially if you are an Illustrator user.
Michael deAgonia, writing for ComputerWorld, lays out his reaction to the newest MacBook. On the controversial scissor-mechanism keyboard:
It’s also surprising how quickly I became accustomed to the MacBook’s edge-to-edge keyboard, which had to be redesigned to fit the device’s profile. Instead of going with a traditional scissor mechanism for the keys, a new butterfly method was invented that resulted in a shorter throw without the wobbly key travel that usually happens if you press the edge of a key while typing. Apple also enlarged the keys by 17%, leaving much smaller gaps between each.
The combination of short key travel, larger keys and the rigid behavior of key presses due to the new design really changes the feel of typing — something not everyone will like. Some reviewers have panned the new keyboard: For example, one blogger stated that pressing the keys feels like pressing an iPhone’s home button. And that’s actually a pretty accurate comparison. As for me — after a while, I grew accustomed to it, and now I prefer it.
On the Force Touch trackpad:
The new trackpad definitely has a different feel — a feel that some long-time users might not like. I took to it right away, and the more I used it, the more I appreciated it. I love the multitouch trackpad on Apple devices, and while haptic feedback has been around in game controllers for a long time now, the way the Force Touch tech is implemented just makes Apple’s notebook lineup better.
The whole review is positive, but not blindly so. He just likes the new MacBook.
The Economist walks through the basics of integrated circuit design and construction, digging into the factors that limit future miniaturization and speed increases.
As a relative newbie when it comes to chip design, I found the whole article to be very readable. One central point:
Unfortunately, as transistors get smaller, more defects creep in. There is thus a trade-off between complexity and cost. And, while the cost per transistor is almost inversely proportional to the number of transistors crammed in a chip, there comes a point where the decrease in yield (percentage of good chips on a wafer) begins to outweigh the benefits of the chip’s increasing complexity. In short, a minimum transistor cost exists for each particular node of processing technology.
And here’s the crunch: that minimum cost per transistor has been rising since 28nm chips hit the market several years ago, says Henry Samueli, co-founder and chairman of Broadcom, a fabless semiconductor firm based in Irvine, California. That is partly a result of decreasing yields, but also because of the escalating cost of the photo-lithography equipment needed to fabricate ever-smaller integrated circuits. “The cost-effectiveness seems to have hit a sweet spot at about 28nm,” says Dr Samueli.
We passed that sweet spot some time ago. So what’s next? According to the article, something called Planar Opto-Electronic Technology (POET):
As it is, a technology known at POET, developed over the past 20 years by a team at the University of Connecticut, promises to power the next wave of innovation in integrated circuits—by using gallium arsenide to combine optics and electronics in a single chip.
From 9to5mac:
A newly found bug surrounding iOS and Messages has emerged this evening that causes the app to continuously crash when a certain text is received. If the text is received while the phone is on the lock screen, it also causes your iPhone to reboot without any notice or explanation.
And:
Since the characters strand is so specific, most people should never accidentally experience the crashing. Anyone who does experience the crashing was likely singled out on purpose as a target.
If someone does send you that offending string, just send yourself a new text. You can tell Siri:
Send text to xxxx
Replace xxxx with your name, then respond to Siri with specifics when prompted for the phone number to use and the content of the text.
Hopefully, the Messages team is hard at work on a fix.
There’s a lot of interesting data to digest in research agency Millward Brown’s latest global brand value report.
Here’s a link to the report itself.
Here’s the methodology they use to calculate brand value.
And here’s a link to the top 100 list, if you just want the easy to digest, big picture version.
The biggest takeaway is Apple’s incredible global brand value growth, growing an astonishing 67% year-over-year from 2014 to 2015. Apple’s brand is currently valued at $247 billion, in first place by a mile over Google, with their brand valued at $173 billion.
From the report:
> We know from over 40 years of research that a successful brand is made up of three key components. How relevant or Meaningful a brand is to our lives; how Different it is to competitors and; how well we know and trust the brand, whether it is Salient.
And:
> Apple displayed remarkable brand strength, returning to the number one position in the ranking based on consumer regard for the brand and its devices. The brand’s iPhone 6 success contributed to an $18 billion quarterly net profit, the largest quarterly profit for a public company ever recorded.
And:
> The iPhone success silenced skepticism that Apple post-Steve Jobs would sustain innovative leadership.
And:
> Apple’s Brand Value reflects its commitment to being different in the products it makes and the brand experience it provides.
There’s just so much more to digest here, but you get the idea: Apple no is doomed.
If you want to improve your brand value, you may visit sites like https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/brand/value/ to learn more.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who pointed out my “typo” in that last sentence. This was intentional, if a bit ham-handed. Try reading it in Frankenstein voice. Still nothing? Well, just think of me as your eccentric Uncle Dave. That should help.
[Via MacRumors]
Atlas Obscura:
The hunt for treasure on Oak Island has been going on for over two hundred years.Without a single return, and conflicting theories of what hunters are actually looking for, the so-called Money Pit in Nova Scotia is one of the most incredible self-perpetuating goose chases in the world. Errol Flynn, John Wayne, and Franklin Roosevelt were at one point each involved in the hunt and held their own theories as to the pit’s contents.
Some believed pirate treasure lay just below the next layer of soil. Others believed Marie Antoinette’s lost jewels were surely buried there right after the French Revolution. Another theory even posited that Francis Bacon had stored documents in the pit proving himself as the author of Shakespeare’s plays. There are many other theories one big one is that “The Arc Of the Covenant” lies at the bottom.
Having grown up in the area, we were regaled with ghost stories about the island as kids. It’s a fascinating story, not of treasure found, but of man’s desire to find it. The best legend of the treasure is that seven men must die before it will be found. Six already have while searching for whatever is in that pit.
Re/code:
We are thrilled to announce that Re/code’s parent company, Revere Digital, is being wholly acquired by the highly respected digital-native media company Vox Media. This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media’s deep and broad skill set.
This doesn’t feel like a good thing. It certainly won’t be the last merger or acquisition in the “new media journalism” space, either.
FuzzMeasure is an audio and acoustic measurement tool to produce, analyze, and publish beautiful graphs. It delivers a comprehensive suite of features for professionals in research, acoustics, live sound, room design, and pro audio. By combining sophisticated technology with an elegant user interface, FuzzMeasure offers an unparalleled experience.
I’ve talked to the developer about FuzzMeasure quite a bit over the years. Great to see this update.
There was nothing unique about these items—they were puny in size and yet they arrived in a giant box bursting with air-filled packaging material. And I looked at that box with absolute and complete disgust, wondering, Is Amazon Prime actually an EcoCrime? Others on Twitter agreed with that take, which only reaffirmed my guilt for using Prime—for being an unwitting enabler of waste.
I’m not a member of Amazon Prime, but I know a lot of people, like Om, that are. I can’t wait to hear the explanation for the oversized packaging from Amazon.
Marco Arment:
I’m traveling this weekend, and I’ve been doing something I’ve never done: I’ve been using the hotel’s gym. Any Apple Watch owners can probably guess why: I have a good run going on my daily Activity circles, and I want to keep it going.
Apple knows a tremendous amount about user psychology, about what drives people. The fact that Marco feels compelled to keep his exercise streak going, even when he’s on the road, says a lot about the Apple Watch as a health driver and about the genius of those circles, just waiting to be filled.
Ever since getting the Apple Watch, not only have I been getting more consistent exercise, but I’m pushing myself further. I take more walks, and I walk faster and further than ever before. I’ve been walking Hops around the same streets for four years, but now I’ve been discovering new streets and paths just to extend our walking distance and try to beat my previous walks.
I’ve never cared before, but now, I care.
Well said.