> Smartwatch maker Pebble seems to be in some trouble. According to sources close to the company, the company is having trouble maintaining its growth and has turned to a Silicon Valley bank for a $5 million loan and $5 million line of credit in a report from an Australian loans bad credit company. Valley VCs have been turning down the company’s requests for new capital.

You can see why VCs would not want to take on Apple.

Wired:

As it turns 40 this year, ILM can claim to have played a defining role making effects for 317 movies. But that’s only part of the story: Pixar began, essentially, as an ILM internal investigation. Photoshop was invented, in part, by an ILM employee tinkering with programming in his time away from work. Billions of lines of code have been formulated there. Along the way ILM has put tentacles into pirate beards, turned a man into mercury, and dominated box office charts with computer-generated dinosaurs and superheroes.

What defines ILM, however, isn’t a signature look, feel, or tone—those change project by project. Rather, it’s the indefatigable spirit of innovation that each of the 43 subjects interviewed for this oral history mentioned time and again. It is the Force that sustains the place.

I can’t think of another person, organization, studio or company that has had a hand in as many of the movies I love as ILM. They have been an integral part of my movie enjoying experience.

This is an amazing video, a collection of audio interviews and still photos, beautifully edited together to capture the early days of Apple. You’ll hear lots of Steve and Woz, and some excellent anecdotes.

The best moment for me was the anecdote (that starts off the video) from Paul Terrell about the phone call he got asking him to commit to buying that first order of Apple I computers from the electronics supplier Steve and Woz were pressing for 30 day term credit. If that deal hadn’t happened, Apple might never have gotten off the ground.

Like a good scam story? How about one about scamming a quiz show? This one is a few years old, but I just ran into it today, thought it was good enough to share. Enjoy.

When he was a teenager, Les Baugh was racing with his brother and ran into some live power lines, ultimately losing his arms. Much later in life, he has been given the chance to try out some new, bionic limbs, arms and hands that he can control with his thoughts.

This is incredible progress. Gives a sense of reality to the pursuit of a head transplant, a big step in the quest for immortality.

Neil Cybart, writing for Above Avalon:

We are quickly approaching a pivotal moment in Apple’s history as technology and mobile are on a collision course with the automobile. While most would conclude Elon Musk’s Tesla and a few of the strongest automakers are the leading contenders of this new automobile era, Apple and Uber are the two companies best positioned to rule the new era of the automobile.

This is a long read, but fascinating all the way through. At the heart of this discussion is the question of what drives (excuse the pun) today’s (and tomorrow’s) automobile purchase.

On one hand, people want simple utility, a safe way to get from point A to point B. Uber delivers this at a reasonable cost. If you live in an urban or suburban area, this model works well. Though some people care about arriving in style, most people just need a ride and are OK getting there in a compact car, as opposed to a black SUV. This utilitarian outlook is especially strong in harder economic times, when tighter pursestrings push luxury further into the background.

On the other hand, there’s the quest for personalization:

Having a car be able to adapt to whoever is sitting in it, which makes more sense in a world where car ownership is on the decline, will be one of the most revolutionary developments the automobile has ever experienced. We are used to a certain level of customization in automobiles such as different seat positions, but personalization will add much more in the way of software to customization to produce an entirely new experience. A family with four kids and luggage has different needs than a commuter headed to work. Having a car that can adapt to both of these users in terms of seating, amenities, and not to mention technological needs and luxuries will be much more important than having a car that has fast acceleration or longer driving range.

And few companies can deliver as elegant and personalized an experience as can Apple.

There’s lots more to the article (notes on history, self-driving cars, Tesla, CarPlay). A terrific read.

Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5mac:

During his trip last week across China, Apple CEO Tim Cook held a meeting at Apple’s China headquarters with several employees in attendance, according to sources with knowledge of the briefing. Cook reportedly reiterated several recent China-focused announcements, including the new forest-focused environmental initiatives and improvements for education, but he also mentioned some new tidbits regarding the upcoming retail launch for the Apple Watch and the rollout of Apple Pay for China…

Regarding the Apple Watch, Cook began by telling the employees that “the Watch could not be going better, we’re working really hard on making more.” Cook joked that Apple wishes it had more operations staff and engineers to make the launch go even smoother, according to the sources. Notably, Cook promised that Apple Stores will begin carrying Apple Watch stock “by June.” This indicates that comments from Angela Ahrendts in April are still on track. For the first time, Cook also confirmed that the upcoming June in-store launch will include the company’s stores in China.

This is pretty big news. What do you do if you’ve got a Apple Watch on order and a shipping date in late June? Me, I’d leave it in the cart, then plan a trip to my local Apple Store in a few weeks, see if you can’t get that watch off the shelves then, once watch is in hand (on wrist?), cancel the online order.

This situation is going to create a little inventory bubble for Apple. But no matter, I suspect Apple will sell every watch they can make.

This addresses a few of the things I’ve had trouble with.

Great article, written by EVH.

You can now subscribe to the new podcast I do with Merlin Mann on iTunes.

In a letter to be sent Tuesday and obtained by The Washington Post, a coalition of tech firms, security experts and others appeal to the White House to protect privacy rights as it considers how to address law enforcement’s need to access data that is increasingly encrypted.

Added support for the Apple Watch – now you can use PCalc without taking your phone out your pocket! Includes a full calculator app, a tip calculator, and a glance to see the result of your most recent calculations.

It’s great to see PCalc on the watch.

Samsung has just released a public beta of its new feature called Samsung Flow, which is essentially a ripoff of Apple’s Continuity – introduced last year. This new feature will allow users to start a task on one device, and be able to pick it up and continue from another.

Can this company can up with nothing original? I’m all for competition, but Jesus, this continuous copying is getting tiresome.

British Pathé:

Follow us through the 20th Century and dive into the good and the bad times of the past. Feel free to explore more than 80,000 videos of filmed history and maybe you’ll find stuff no one else has ever seen.

Do not go to this site if you want to get any work done today. Thanks to my friend Antonio Rosario for the huge time suck.

I had the good fortune to be around for the dawn of some of the most significant technological developments in human history: the arrival of personal computers, the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web, and the current dominance of social media and mobile devices. These and other technological advances continue to alter our world at an ever accelerating pace. One day Apple is on the verge of bankruptcy. The next day (or so it sometimes seems), it is the largest most profitable company on earth. Who’d have guessed?

There are a lot of people I wish would retire from writing about Apple – Ted Landau is not one of those people. Many of us owe a great debt of thanks to Ted for all of his many years of service to the Mac Community. For me personally, I was a fan of his writing at MacFixIt and he was always extraordinary helpful whenever I emailed him. As a podcaster, I interviewed him several times and, as a speaker at Macworld Expos, I was lucky enough to sit and chat with him on many occasions. Quiet, soft-spoken, gracious, kind, knowledgeable, Ted is all that and more. We wish him all the best in his retirement!

Jason Scott, of the Internet Archive, wants your AOL CDs.

I think the big question back is why wouldn’t I try to image and archive all these CD-ROMs that came out of America Online? After all, for some time, half of all CDs manufactured in the world had an AOL logo on them. Like it or not, folks – those things are payloads of history.

You see, there wasn’t “a” AOL CD that went out. There were so many variations, containing so many different add-ons and wrap-ins, that they became time capsules in themselves. So yeah. I want them.

For real. He gives his mailing address and everything.

File this one under history.

Kirk McElhearn digs in to Spotlight queries on the Mac, shows you some excellent tips that will help you find that elusive file. This goes well beyond the basics. Read. Learn.

If you read the 95 page Apple Watch User Guide cover to cover, move along, you obviously know this information. But if not, either flip over to page 7 and check out the chart at the bottom of the page, or follow the headline link.

Either way, good idea to learn the meaning of the seven possible status icons that appear above the 12 on your watch face. And not such a bad idea to bookmark the link to the User Guide for later reference.

Walt Mossberg, writing for Re/code:

I’m not talking about which watch face to select on any given day, or whichever particular band you chose. Those things matter, of course. But lets talk about customizing the software so you have the apps you want, where you want them; having your favorite contacts and frequently-sought info in an accessible place; and receiving a helpful number of notifications, but not so many that you want to take the thing off.

Once you’ve read Jason Snell’s piece about Apple Watch faces and complications, spend some time with Walt as he talks you through things like settings, apps, and notifications. Excellent complementary pieces.

At its surface, this post by Jason Snell for Six Colors is a detailed review of a specific Apple Watch face, known by the name Utility.

As an aside, you can find Utility, along with images of the rest of the built-in Apple Watch faces here.

But if you are new to Apple Watch (and who isn’t?), the post offers a terrific learning experience. Jason does a fantastic job of walking you through the optional settings available for Utility. For example, would you prefer a face with no numbers? Just a few? All of them? How about color?

More importantly, the post teaches you about complications, annotations wedged in and around the clock face, that do things like show battery life, phases of the moon, temperature, day and date, etc.

This one is worth passing along.

The Wall Street Journal:

Investor Carl Icahn said he expects Apple Inc. to introduce an ultra-high-definition television in 2016. But after nearly a decade of research, Apple quietly shelved plans to make such a set more than a year ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple had searched for breakthrough features to justify building an Apple-branded television set, those people said. In addition to an ultra-high-definition display, Apple considered adding sensor-equipped cameras so viewers could make video calls through the set, they said.

Ultimately, though, Apple executives didn’t consider any of those features compelling enough to enter the highly competitive television market, led by Samsung Electronics Co.

It’s been an open secret for years that Apple has tested many variations of television sets but just couldn’t find a way to include features compelling enough to bring it to market. Regardless of what Icahn wants or believes, Apple will do what’s right for Apple. And, as many of us have argued for many years, an Apple-branded television set isn’t going to happen.

WALTR is the first Mac app in the world to allow users transfer and playback unsupported formats such as MKV, AVI, FLAC & more – directly from the native Videos/Music app.

iTunes is the only option Apple gives us for loading media onto our iPhone, iPad or iPod touch from our Macs, and it limits the audio and video file formats we can upload. That’s a thing of the past thanks to WALTR from Softorino. This awesome Mac app lets you upload a long list of file formats — such as MKV, AVI, MP4, CUE, FLAC, APE, ALAC, OGG, AAC, AIFF and WAV — to your iOS device without ever touching iTunes. Just fire up WALTR, connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac via USB, and drag files to convert and upload them so you can watch or listen on the go. It really is drag-and-drop simple, and file transfers are surprisingly fast.
 
No iTunes required; No jailbreak required; No need to worry about 3rd party converters;

• the awesomely cool app name is inspired by Walter White from Breaking Bad.

• this is the same app that discovered 4K video playback on iPhone 6

You can try out WALTR for free and a license costs US$29.95 but you can use the Loop exclusive coupon ‘HEINEKENSPECIAL’ for a 33% discount.

Kirk McElhearn puts a Fitbit One and his Apple Watch through their paces, to get a sense of the accuracy of the Apple Watch as a fitness tracker.

Lots to read here, but from his conclusion:

I’ve said before that fitness trackers are more about motivation than accuracy. If they get you to be more active, by prodding you to reach new goals, then they are successful. They should give you reliable data about your activity, though, and not be far off the mark. (I consider that the 5% difference in step count is acceptable.) But they shouldn’t lead you to wonder whether your activity is counted correctly, as the Apple Watch does. Either the Apple Watch is severely flawed in its fitness tracking capabilities, or I received a dud (I’m going to call Apple later to try and find out). I’m curious as to whether other readers have compared the Apple Watch with other fitness trackers, or whether anyone has similar data, reported by the Apple Watch, which just seems wrong.

I think accuracy is incredibly important if you use your Apple Watch to manage your personal health. The difference between a long run at 150 BPM and 145 BPM is not a big deal, but a run at 160 BPM when you think you are at 140 BPM can be life threatening, more so the older you get.

Obviously, as Kirk points out, accuracy in step counting is less critical, but it is important. If one device can get it right, then Apple should be able to get it right.

Clearly, this is Apple’s first kick at the can here, their first shipping medical sensor and their first activity tracking device. I have no doubt that, just like Apple Maps, Apple’s medical and fitness efforts will continue to evolve, continue to get more accurate over time.

Have a need to run Windows on your Mac? Alex King puts the latest insider preview of Windows 10 on a Boot Camp partition on his 12-inch MacBook.

This is a terrific piece of work, well worth the read if Windows on a Mac is in your future.

Rob Richman, writing about Apple Watch for Opinion8td:

As an early adopter it reminds me of when I got my first iPod back in 2002. It’s not yet perfect but in my opinion it’s worth its weight in gold aluminium. I remember those halcyon days in my late twenties listening to Coldplay on my way back from work on the London Underground with those striking white headphones in my ears and my iPod hidden in my pocket.

A year later that innocence came to bite me when I was mugged for my iPod. Admittedly I was an easy target being 158cm, of very slight build and carrying a £400 music player that was being ‘advertised’ by those white headphones. Once I got over the shock of being mugged it was a hassle getting my insurance to pay out for a replacement but a few weeks later everything was sorted and after putting my music back on the new iPod I was very careful about where and when I used the iPod. If memory serves me right I used a cheap pair of black headphones to disguise the fact I owned an iPod like many others in the years ahead.

Bringing this back to my Apple Watch I am beginning to feel scared of people seeing me while I’m out walking. The weather in London is warming up and there are days that it’s even t-shirt weather making my Apple Watch permanently visible. I want to check notifications as well as finding out whether I have hit my activity goal but I feel more of a target now I am wearing this expensive and desirable ‘fashion’ tech accessory.

I remember when this wave of anxiety passed through the iPhone community as iPhone mugging became a thing. I don’t carry this concern personally, but I’ve never been mugged before either.

I don’t believe Rob is being a fear monger here, and I do think there’s a legitimate potential concern, given the iPhone’s history.

Fear aside, I think Rob makes another interesting point. Apple produces iconic products and they are styled to stand out from the crowd. Those iconic white headphones tell folks your brand of choice and send a signal as to the valuable tech you are carrying.

Now we’ve got a new signal. No longer hidden, the distinctive strap and rectangular face are unmistakable, even from across the room. There are not a lot of watches that can so quickly achieve that iconic status, that across-the-room recognizability. That’s Apple.