The Robservatory:

Last week, I used the just-released Hubble Space Telescope images of the Andromeda galaxy to create a couple of desktop images for my Retina iMac. I liked the results so much that I spent some time collecting other suitable images from the Hubble site, and then cropping and/or scaling them to create interesting high-res desktop images.

The end result is a collection of 50+ Retina iMac-sized (5120×2880) desktop wallpapers, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. Here’s the full collection.

That nice young man, Rob Griffiths, put together this gorgeous collection of images.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has been on a tear lately, although when you look at some of its devices, you quickly notice that they bear a striking resemblance to devices released by Apple. This is why we find it amusing that Xiaomi’s CEO is now warning its fans to watch out for knockoff Xiaomi products being sold at phone retail outlets in Chinese cities.

These guys are just incredible.

The Daily Dot:

We’re glad that 15-year-old Tyler Barlow decided to stick an old barbecue in a grassy field and ignite 5 pounds of thermite on top of it, because the resulting video is super cool.

A fifteen year old kid and 5lbs of thermite – what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, nothing bad because, except for a disturbing lack of safety gear, the kid seems to know what he’s talking about. And the thermite reaction is pretty cool.

The Consumerist:

Even though the newest and freshest iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, are now legally available in mainland China, hauling them over the border from Hong Kong is still a profitable enterprise. Apparently. According to a report in Chinese media, an enterprising young man created a plastic suit that held 94 iPhones, strapping them around his arms, legs, hips, and torso.

The pictures are hilarious.

Jason Snell offers an interesting analysis on the daily battery expectancy for iOS devices.

Over the years I’ve said numerous times that when it comes to battery life on iOS devices, Apple appears to have a target battery life in mind and builds its hardware—a balance of power-saving software, hardware efficiency, and battery capacity—to hit that number.

In other words, Apple thinks we need, say, a minimum of 10 hours of daily battery life and as they design each device, they make sure the battery is big enough to support that goal, but no bigger than that.

The one outlier to this model is the iPhone 6 Plus. Why? Because they weren’t driven by the need to make the phone as small as humanly possible. They had the luxury of design space, of battery headroom.

A panel at CES was discussing disruptive technologies, predicting what each panelist thought would be the most disruptive tech over the next five years.

The panelists tossed around ideas they thought would be disruptive over this period — robotics, self driving cars, sensors, wearables, home automation and a few others. Creative Strategies Partner and Tech.pinions co-founder Ben Bajarin was on the panel and was asked at the end what he thought would be the most disruptive technology he saw on the horizon. He stated it would be the fact that more people will come online for the first time over the next five years than have in the past 30 years. The global implications of adding another two billion Internet users could be quite disruptive.

Hard to disagree with this opinion. Think about the walls governments build to keep news of the outside world from reaching the masses and what happens when technology emerges to tear down those walls. Think Gutenberg press, Arab Spring, Twitter and the Iranian Green Movement, fax machines and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Definitely an interesting read.

This study at the University of Missouri is making its way around the blogosphere:

While completing the first puzzle, the researchers recorded participants’ heart rate and blood pressure responses. Participants then reported their levels of anxiety and how unpleasant or pleasant they felt during the word search puzzle. Next, and while in possession of their iPhones, participants were informed that their iPhones were causing “Bluetooth interference” with the wireless blood pressure cuff, and that they needed to be placed further away in the room for the remainder of the experiment. The researchers then provided the participants a second word search puzzle. While working on the puzzle, the researchers called the participants’ iPhones. After the phones finished ringing, researchers collected blood pressure and heart rate responses. Participants then reported their levels of anxiety and how unpleasant or pleasant they felt during the word search puzzle. The researchers found a significant increase in anxiety, heart rate and blood pressure levels, and a significant decrease in puzzle performance when the participants were separated from their iPhones as compared to when iPhone users completed similar word search puzzles while in possession of their iPhones.

Seems to me the anxiety was driven not by the absence of the iPhone, but by being able to hear a call coming in and not being able to do anything about it. Not sure what that proves.

Jason Snell:

If Gurman’s reports are accurate, this new model pulls the MacBook Air line away from the MacBook Pro. In fact, it returns the MacBook Air to its roots—as a product full of choices that we consider crazy at first, because they’re out of step with conventional computer design, but that will appeal to a target audience that doesn’t actually care about those de rigueur features.

Some good thoughts in here.

Twitter is mulling the possibility of making promoted videos automatically play 6-second previews when they pop up in people’s feeds, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. If the autoplay previews were to catch someone’s eye, that person could click to watch the full video.

I think I speak for the world when I say, NO!

Karissa Bell:

In the back of one of the smaller halls at CES, a Chinese company was showing off fake Apple Watches. So, naturally, I bought one.

I remember seeing the whale quite often years ago.

Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.

That’s just awful.

The residents of Green Bank, West Virginia, can’t use cell phones, wi-fi, or other kinds of modern technology due to a high-tech government telescope. Recently, this ban has made the town a magnet for technophobes, and the locals aren’t thrilled to have them.

Fascinating story. I had never heard of “electrosensitives,” but it’s becoming a thing.

I agree with Ben Brooks here. I am forever trying to find the best in everything I do—there is always something better.

The Verge:

On January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs took to the stage to announce the first iPhone, in a keynote that would revolutionize the industry and set the tone for every major tech announcement since.

I’d been to every Steve Jobs keynote after he came back to Apple but this one was special. Even sitting in the audience, you could feel the excitement and the anticipation. Best Keynote ever.

Carlos Ribas is an indie developer. His app is called HoursTracker. HoursTracker went live in July, 2009 and has been a work in progress ever since.

The linked story lays out Carlos’ experience with the App Store from a financial perspective. He shares his revenue figures and his experience with iAds versus in-app purchase.

Bottom line, with a broad enough customer base, he makes more money with the App Store than he could with a full time job. And for many people, that’s the dream.

[Via MacStories]

The Guardian:

When the Charlie Hebdo website, which was down for much of the day, came back online it carried the phrase Je Suis Charlie in bold letters, with Charlie written in the font of the publication’s masthead. Viewers who clicked on the link below saw the same poster, repeated again and again in languages including Arabic, German and Spanish.

Apple ran the same message in a stark black and white banner at the bottom of the front page of their French language web site.

Follow the link to an interactive page listing a number of historic figures along with their daily regimen. It might sound dull, but it is fascinating, especially if you have an interest in history or design. The history part is obvious, but if you spend a few minutes hovering over different areas of the chart and reading, you’ll see a terrific interactive design at work.

The data is culled from the highly regarded book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey.

Take a minute to check it out. I found it well worth the time.

[Hat tip to ParisLemon]

I really like Mayer, but I’m not sure she can turn things around quickly enough for the critics.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said the plaintiffs, Uriel Marcus and Benedict Verceles, failed to show that Apple made “affirmative misrepresentations,” despite citing online complaints and Apple marketing statements calling the laptops “state of the art” or the “most advanced” on the market.

People have to stop these bullshit lawsuits.

CNET:

Smartphones are a top choice for today’s street criminals, especially teenagers. In the year ending in June 2013, nearly two-thirds of robberies by minors in San Francisco involved cell phones, according to the city’s public defender.

Government officials have called the trend an epidemic. One in 10 smartphone owners in the United States have had their phone stolen. More than 3 million were pilfered in 2013, nearly double the number nabbed the year before.

A reminder to always be aware of your surroundings and how you use your iOS device, or any device for that matter, while out in public. I’m always intensely aware of how I use my iPhone, iPad and DSLR while out and about.

Vancouver Sun:

Get your 99 cent apps while you can, iPhone and iPad users.

Apple will soon hike the prices in its App Store for Canadian customers, according to an email sent to software developers.

The email, sent out on Wednesday, said the unspecified price increase in Canada, Norway and European Union countries would take effect within 36 hours.

Apple said foreign exchange rates were triggering the increase in Canada.

I wonder how it’s going to affect sales? The 99 cent price point is generally thought of as a no brainer but even a small increase in the price sensitive App Store can significantly lower sales.

Tech in Asia:

Fresh research from UBS estimates Apple sold 69.3 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2014, setting an all-time record for the company. China accounts for more than a third of those shipments.

A delayed release for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in China doesn’t seem to have put much of a dent in the devices’ sales figures, which don’t even account for grey market units brought in from Hong Kong and other countries.

As (easily) predicted by many. And it will only increase from here going forward. China is the new centre of Apple’s iPhone sales.

Apple:

Tim Cook: “We’re proud to create 1M+ US jobs in all 50 states and ring in another record-breaking year for developers globally.” iOS developers were paid at the average rate of $28 million/day in 2014. $25 billion dollars cumulative has been paid to developers.

Little bit of well deserved back patting from Apple.

The Internet Archive:

The collection includes action, strategy, adventure and other unique genres of game and entertainment software. Through the use of the EM-DOSBOX in-browser emulator, these programs are bootable and playable.

I never had a computer that could play any of these games but I recognize many of the names as classics of the genre.