Luke Wroblewski explores a foundational lesson in interface design. In app layout, out of sight is out of mind. And that’s not a good thing. Great read.

Susie Ochs, Executive Editor for Macworld, gives her take on life with an Apple Watch. In her case, there’s plenty to like, but this is from the Things I hate about it section:

That brings me to my main complaint with the Apple Watch: Its poky performance. Since the lion’s share of the data it presents comes from your iPhone, be prepared for lags. Even scrolling around its face, the refresh rate seems a little laggy compared to what I’m used to (and spoiled with) on the iPhone and iPad. Location-based apps, like Maps and Weather, seem the slowest, as well as using third-party apps that pull data from apps I haven’t used on my iPhone for a while. The lagginess isn’t a deal-breaker, but it is a bummer. The watch is definitely the slowest Apple product I’ve used in years.

Poky performance will definitely get better as developers learn the subtleties of programming for a device that offloads much of its processing to, and gets much of its data from, the iPhone in your pocket.

I’ve spoken to a number of developers whose Apple Watch apps were incredibly slow, until they figured out the various techniques to speed performance and responsiveness. Developers who were lucky enough to get a chance to visit Apple’s Apple Watch lab and test their app on a real device, inevitably came away with some real insights and, more importantly, with a vastly improved app.

The point, early adopters, is this. The Apple Watch experience is going to improve, and pretty quickly. The performance problems pointed out in this review are software issues, not hardware issues. Meaning your Apple Watch will just get better over time, as developers learn the ins and outs of this new frontier.

Matt Gemmell noticed that his local Apple Store did not have any in-store seminars teaching blind or visually impaired people how to use Apple devices. The fix? He wrote this letter:

Hi there,

My name is Matt Gemmell, and I live about a mile from the Edinburgh (Princes St) Apple Store.

I’m a sighted person with an interest in accessibility technology for visually impaired people. I’ve given presentations at many conferences around the world on a variety of topics, including the VoiceOver screen-reader technology built into Macs, iOS devices, and now the Apple Watch.

I notice that you don’t seem to have any in-store seminars on how blind or visually impaired people can use Apple devices. I’m interested in presenting such a seminar, for anyone who wishes to attend, in the Princes St store. I’d create and present the seminar personally. You’d advertise it alongside your usual free workshops, let people sign up, and provide me with a place in the store to use for the presentation.

It would be solely about Apple devices and VoiceOver. I’d do it for free. No mention of any competing or third-party products or technologies, and no sales pitch from me. Just an opportunity for visually impaired people in the local community to learn how they can use these devices to increase their independence and participation.

Is that a possibility? And if so, what arrangements would need to be made?

Best,
-Matt

Where to send it? Turns out, every Apple Store has its own email address. As Matt notes in this tweet, you can pick up the address from any receipt you’ve gotten from that particular store.

I think this is a great idea. And Matt has given you the template in case you want to do this exact same thing (or a variant) yourself.

This is one idea that is definitely worth sharing. Nice job, Matt.

This is simply a fantastic read. Two people talking about fashion, but really talking about the things that make us human.

A few quotes, just to give you a taste. First, on what inspired Brunello to run his company the way he does, giving away 20% of all profits to charity, and paying his workers significantly more than the industry average:

From the teary eyes of my father. When we were living in the countryside, the atmosphere, the ambiance — life was good. We were just farmers, nothing special. Then he went to work in a factory. He was being humiliated and offended, and he was doing a hard job. He would not complain about the hardship or the tiny wages he received, but what he did say was, “What have I done evil to God to be subject to such humiliation?”Basically, what is human dignity made of? If we work together, say, and, even with one look, I make you understand that you are worth nothing and I look down on you, I have killed you. But if I give you regards and respect — out of esteem, responsibility is spawned. Then out of responsibility comes creativity, because every human being has an amount of genius in them. Man needs dignity even more than he needs bread.

And:

In this company, you cannot send emails after 5:30 PM, when the company closes for the evening. The day after, when you turn up for work, what are you like? You are a still person. You are better.I do not want to be liable for intruding into your private life. Saint Benedict said, “You should look after your mind to study every day, then your soul through praise,” which is basically speaking to yourself, praying. “Then work, through work.” But the abbot is the one who basically assigns all the work; he is responsible for you even after your death. I do not want to assign work to you where I feel responsible for ruining or altering your private life.

And:

My daughter refused to buy a pair of trousers for €19. Beautiful trousers. I said, “Why didn’t you buy them?” She said, “How much money do they think the worker actually made or was paid for that?”

This is a long, lovely, lazy Sunday read.

Source: https://kasynoonlinepolska.net/

Cable network Showtime is running a documentary called Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance. If you are at all an Elvis fan, this is worth watching. It’s not a classic documentary, in that it doesn’t tell Costello’s story as much as it assembles a lot of images, interviews, and performance clips, all of them enjoyable.

But there’s a lot of digging deep here, too. There’s a lot of Elvis sharing his feelings about music. There are some magic moments with musicians Costello admires, including some terrific scenes with Paul McCartney, who did some notable writing with Costello, including my absolute favorite, So Like Candy.

Here’s the trailer and the home page for Mystery Dance.

More importantly (at least to me), here’s a video of Elvis Costello performing So Like Candy on Saturday Night Live. This is some powerful songwriting. Listen for the excellent basswork by the sublime, and now sadly gone, T-Bone Wolk. Enjoy.

Techcrunch:

The idea behind Dufl is that frequent travelers waste a lot of time trying to clean and prep their clothes for each trip, especially when those trips are pretty much back-to-back. With Dufl, the user never has to pack a bag or clean their travel clothes ever again.

I’d hate to be such a frequent business traveller I’d need this kind of service but it does sound like a pretty cool idea and an example of a business that wouldn’t have been possible ten, maybe even five years ago.

Mapbox:

The Geotaggers’ World Atlas is my long-term project to discover the world’s most interesting places and the routes that people follow between them. Five years ago I first started retrieving photo locations from the Flickr search API and drawing lines between them to make the first version of the Atlas.

Today I’m able to launch the full Geotaggers’ World Atlas covering every city in the world. Thanks to Flickr’s API, it exposes over 10 years of photo locations, and as a web map it lets you explore not just the largest centers of activity but also their context, anywhere on earth.

As an exercise in coding, this is interesting. As a visualization of data, it’s utterly fascinating. The only downside is the interactive map doesn’t have details like street names so it may be hard to find out what is so fascinating about that particular location but look up your own city on the map and see if you can spot “the most interesting places”.

Remarkably original Samsung marketing effort pointed out by Rene Ritchie at iMore. First watch this:

Then watch Samsung’s newly released commercial:

At first blush, this looks like a parody, but there’s only one proper Jony Ive parody and this ain’t it.

Shameless.

Pictures and videos in this update. The scale of this project is just unreal.

Mathew Ingram:

The idea that someone could monetize Twitter before Twitter itself got around to doing so was what one investor called a “holy shit moment” for the company.

I wonder what would have happened if Twitter embraced the third-parties years ago.

Thanks to HelloTalk for sponsoring The Loop this week. Finally, learning and practicing a new language is easier and more intuitive than ever before. Introducing HelloTalk, the language app where your teachers are native language speakers from around the world. You just pick the language you want to learn—there are over 100 from which to select—and almost instantaneously you’ll be in touch with native speakers of that language … and you’ll start learning and practicing immediately.

HelloTalk isn’t a course you strictly follow; rather, you learn and practice at your pace and in the manner that best meets the way you learn. Practice foreign languages with people around the world. Simultaneously speak and type the language you’re learning. Record your voice before speaking to your HelloTalk friends and compare your recording to standard pronunciations. Change your friends’ audio messages to text for better understanding, and receive help to improve your grammar. Easily translate whenever you don’t understand, and so much more.

With HelloTalk, you’ll discover learning a new language is fun … and fast. Download your copy for iPhone or Android today.

Jim and Dan talk about the Apple’s record second quarter results, the Apple Watch’s issue with tattooed skin, and more.

Sponsored by MetaCDN (Use the code ‘5by5’ for a 10% discount for life) and Macminicolo (Get a full year of hosting for just $100).

The company updated its Apple Watch heart rate support page, noting that tattoos could affect the watch’s ability to read your heart rate.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac]

A new Apple support article covers the steps needed to unpair your watch. Might be handy to bookmark for the future, although it’s easy to find in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

Some great thoughts, although using it must of been kind of freaky.

Shares of LinkedIn Corp, operator of the most popular social network for professionals, fell 20 percent in early trading on Friday, wiping out more than $6 billion of market value, after the company slashed its full-year forecast.

LinkedIn reported on Thursday its slowest quarterly revenue growth since it went public four years ago.

The surprisingly weak results followed Twitter Inc’s on Tuesday. Twitter’s stock fell by as much as 24 percent, slicing about $6 billion off its market value.

Social media companies are a bit to volatile for me.

The National Post:

Backed by the Quebec justice system and the provincial police, sheriffs have raided sugar shacks down country roads and seized barrels of maple syrup, using trucks and front-end loaders. The federation’s goal: enforcing a supply management system that controls the sale and proceeds of maple syrup in Quebec.

“They have more power than police,” says Daniel Gaudreau, a syrup producer in Scotstown, Que. “They can come into my house anytime they want.”

Quebec is the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup.

We have written about this issue in the past but this story really brings home the enormous power of the The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers – power that looks, on the surface, out of control.

Molly Watt lives with Usher Syndrome. From the Wikipedia page:

Usher syndrome is a relatively rare genetic disorder caused by a mutation in any one of 10 genes resulting in a combination of hearing loss and visual impairment, and is a leading cause of deafblindness. Usher syndrome is incurable at present.

Molly and her mom each got an Apple Watch about five days ago. From Molly’s blog:

I was born deaf and registered blind when I was 14. The condition I have is Usher Syndrome Type 2a. I am severely deaf and have only a very small tunnel of vision in my right eye now so I was concerned not just about the face size but how busy it would appear to me and also if there would be an uncomfortable glare.

Follow the link to read Molly’s take on the Apple Watch, get a sense of how Apple’s accessibility settings work for her.

From The Verge:

A major part of the appeal of The Legend of Zelda series is its setting: Hyrule is a fantasy world that’s equal parts epic and charming. Venturing out into its open fields and finding all of its secrets is a huge task in the game, but now you can do it all from a web browser. A group of developers created a browser-based version of the map from A Link to the Past, so that you can pan across the beautiful, pixelated green fields and blue waters of the land of legend. It even has a bit of animation, so that you can see Chu Jellys wander around or just simply watch the waves bob up and down. And because it’s built in HTML5, you can also explore Hyrule from your phone.

Here’s a link to the map. Pretty cool. They’ve been swamped by web traffic, so if you find the site slow-to-load, bookmark it and try it again later.

Jordan Kahn, writing for 9to5mac:

Ahead of Apple’s WWDC in June and an expected Apple TV refresh, shipping times for its current generation Apple TV have just slipped from in stock to 1-2 weeks. Apple’s estimates for shipping Apple TV from its online store often jump between being “in stock” and “1 day”, but a longer delay in shipping could signal Apple’s intent to introduce a refreshed Apple TV in the near future.

For the record, my Apple Store mining efforts show Apple TV in stock and available for in store pickup at all 4 Apple Stores in my area. Online ordering shows a delivery date, via standard shipping, of May 5th (in four days).

This availability doesn’t mean the shipping time isn’t fluctuating, but I’m not seeing the fluctuation in my neck of the woods. Clearly, other people are seeing things differently. Here’s hoping for that refresh.

When you think of Amazon, you think of rockets, right?

Well, maybe not, but they now officially have a solid link. Jeff Bezos used (likely a very tiny portion of) his Amazon money to create Blue Origin. The goal, much like that of SpaceX, is to create a reusable launch vehicle. A typical satellite launch costs about $200 million. With a reusable launch vehicle, that cost is estimated to be closer to $50 million. This is a problem worth solving.

SpaceX got pretty close with their last launch, but again lost their rocket when it tipped over on landing.

From Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin blog entry:

Today we flew the first developmental test flight of our New Shepard space vehicle. Our 110,000-lbf thrust liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen BE-3 engine worked flawlessly, powering New Shepard through Mach 3 to its planned test altitude of 307,000 feet. Guidance, navigation and control was nominal throughout max Q and all of ascent. The in-space separation of the crew capsule from the propulsion module was perfect. Any astronauts on board would have had a very nice journey into space and a smooth return.

In fact, if New Shepard had been a traditional expendable vehicle, this would have been a flawless first test flight. Of course one of our goals is reusability, and unfortunately we didn’t get to recover the propulsion module because we lost pressure in our hydraulic system on descent. Fortunately, we’ve already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system. Also, assembly of propulsion module serial numbers 2 and 3 is already underway – we’ll be ready to fly again soon.

Video and images can be found here.

This has been flying around the interwebs. Click this link, and you’ll jump to a site that will let you upload a picture of yourself. It’ll then use Microsoft Azure’s Face APIs to guess your age.

The site is powered by Microsoft Azure’s Face APIs that not only recognize features and predict both gender and age. They can also group faces and determine if someone in multiple pictures is the same person. If you’ll recall, Windows 10 will use facial recognition as a log-in option, and the tools that this Azure API offers would certainly come in handy for organizing that personal photo album — expanding features already available in OneDrive.

Apple has long had face recognition software (see iPhoto/Photos). The age guessing aspect is an interesting side note. So is allowing your face to be your fingerprint, enough so to unlock your computer. Does that mean my twin brother (I don’t have one, but allow me this conceit) can unlock my computer? How about other non-genetic dopplegangers? Or, perhaps, a realistic photo I hold up in front of the camera?

The age guessing thing is interesting. But I can’t imagine that technology ever maturing to the point where it is enough of a unique identifier to trust with my login credentials.

The Daily Dot:

Before you go cancelling your order for Apple’s first smartwatch, it’s important to grasp the facts.

But “Apple Watch Defective!” is such a sexier headline. By the way, it’s a good rule of thumb that, when the headline includes something bad about an Apple product, wait 24 hours before commenting. Invariably, the facts come out and it’s not nearly as bad as the Chicken Littles would have you think.

The Loop Magazine released a new issue today with eight new articles. You can download the app for iPhone and iPad and get a free preview of every article in this month’s issue. You can purchase the issue for $1.99 or get a subscription for just $1.99 per month and get access to all of the issues.

In this issue:

Review: 12-inch MacBook: Jim Dalrymple got his hands on one of the new MacBooks Apple recently introduced and gives you his thoughts, from the Retina display to using the one USB-C port.

Skating To Where The MacBook Is Going To Be: Rene Ritchie takes a look at why the all-new MacBook is ahead of the curve and why competitors will have a hard time catching Apple.

The MacBook: A New Mac Laptop For A New Mac Customer: Peter Cohen tackles the criticism lobbed at the new MacBook and why he thinks they are wrong.

What Entertainment Looks Like In The Cord Cutting Age: Cable TV isn’t gone yet, but Darren Murph imagines what the future of TV will look like.

Behind The Mask: This is a really great piece written by Mateusz Stawecki. He talked to some of the people we hear speaking at conferences and finds out what bothers them about public speaking.

Apple Pay: Technology Done Right: Jim Dalrymple looks at Apple Pay and how the new payment technology is working for developers.

To Live, Or To View? Periscope and Meerkat Are Turning Life Into ‘Show & Tell’: Darren Murph looks at how some new apps have changed we way we share our lives.

My Life with iPad: The iPad recently turned five years old. Jim Dalrymple talks about his love of Apple’s tablet device.

Would you pay $6 to commute in a bus that looks like a cafe crossed with a Virgin America plane?

A luxury-bus startup called Leap Transit relaunched in San Francisco last week, carting passengers from the wealthy Marina district to downtown. It’s the latest company to offer a high-end alternative to public transit.

I’d do it.

Rob Richman bought a 38mm Apple Watch, spent some time with it, then had a bit of buyer’s remorse. He swapped it out for a 42mm model. From his post on Opinion8td:

I knew when I put it on my wrist that while it looked great and fitted me well that the touch screen was just a bit too fiddly for my liking and immediately placed an order for the 42mm White Sports version with a June dispatch date. I deliberately chose this option due to my feeling that the Space Grey could take longer to get to me and the Blue model could also be in short supply with it being offered to some developers.

Rob got lucky and his watch shipped quickly. Once he had the new one, he had to figure out how to get his data from his old watch to his new one. Here’s Rob’s take on what he did:

If you ever need to get a new Apple Watch or a replacement here’s how to restore it.

1. Unpair your previous Apple Watch (this also provides an instant Backup)

2. When you set up the new device it gives you the option to pick from one of the latest backups.

3. Pick the backup you want to restore from and let iCloud do its magic and you’re good to go.

Pretty much what you’d expect, given Apple’s experience with iPhone backup and restore. Just thought some of you might be wondering how all this works.

Apple, IBM, and Japan Post Group jointly announced a pilot program to bring iPads with custom software to Japan’s elderly. The short term goal is to expand the existing JPG Watch Over program (which has workers check in on elderly customers for a nominal monthly fee), giving pilot program customers iPad loaded with custom health and monitoring software. The longer term goal (say, five years out) is to expand this program to put these custom iPads in the hands of the majority of seniors in Japan.

Here’s a link to the Japan Post Group’s Wikipedia page. Japan Post Holdings operates post offices, banks, and insurance businesses in Japan. They took over the public Japan Post in 2007.

From the Apple press release:

Japan Post Group, IBM and Apple® today announced a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at improving the quality of life for millions of Japanese senior citizens. Built on the global partnership Apple and IBM announced last year, the new initiative will deliver iPads with IBM-developed apps and analytics to connect millions of seniors with services, healthcare, community and their families.

After piloting iPads and apps custom developed for the elderly, Japan Post Group will expand the service in stages with the objective of including 4 million to 5 million customers in Japan by 2020.

Today more than 33 million seniors make up about 25 percent of Japan’s population, projected to grow to 40 percent over the next 40 years.

There is some reporting that say Apple will be giving away millions of iPads. I am not getting that from the press releases I’ve read. Instead, the sense I get that Apple is giving iPads to members of the pilot program. As the program expands, I’d guess that Japan Post will either resell iPads to its Watch Over customers, or charge a monthly fee to include an iPad with the check-in service.

This program is, in some ways, like leveraging Uber to deliver groceries. The Uber service works on its own, and if you add grocery delivery to the mix, you enhance an existing business to create a new one.

Japan Post has an army of postal workers already visiting every home in Japan. Having those workers check in on the elderly, who may have also opted for relevant services on my company, is a great idea. Adding health monitoring to the mix makes it ever better. The question that pops into my mind is one of training. Are the Watch Over workers the postal workers? If so, will all of these postal workers undergo special training to deliver/setup/monitor the iPads? If so, that’s great leverage of an existing business. If not, there’s still the leverage of a business that already knows how to organize a large team of workers and network them to reach all homes in Japan.

The press release lays out the elements included with the initiative:

• iPad® and its intuitive built-in apps, capabilities and features including FaceTime®, Messages, Mail, Photos and iCloud® Photo Sharing, along with access to rich content in the App Store℠, iTunes Store® and iBooks Store℠. iOS 8, offering award-winning accessibility features, including settings for low vision and hearing impaired users like those who may have undergone Hearing Tests.
• Custom-built apps specifically for the elderly by IBM Global Business Services for reminders and alerts about medications, exercise and diet, along with direct access to community activities and supporting services such as grocery shopping and job matching.
• Exclusive cloud services of the IBM MobileFirst for iOS platform, for data integration and security, analytics, and management of millions of devices; along with systems integration services and training for Japan Post Group employees.
• Pioneering text analytics and accessibility technologies, many invented in IBM Research – Tokyo, including Japanese natural language analysis and tracking to guide seniors and make the experience more natural.
• The nationwide infrastructure of Japan Post Group and its ability to cover the “last mile” to virtually every citizen of Japan. In addition to 24,000 post offices and a workforce of 400,000, Japan Post Group has existing financial relationships with nearly all of the 115 million adults in Japan.

This is an incredibly ambitious program with a potentially huge upside for the elderly in Japan and for their families as well. A remarkable effort on the part of Apple, IBM, and Japan Post Group.

App Camp for Girls:

The Quiz Compendium includes 15 personality quizzes created by camper project teams. You’ll learn so many things about yourself, such as what your superpower is, where you should go on vacation, and even what your breakfast choices say about your personality.

I utterly despise these kinds of “personality quizzes” but App Camp for Girls is a great cause started by a wonderful person, Jean MacDonald. The app is only 99 cents and goes to a very worthy organization. So I’ll swallow my disdain and buy the app and you should too.