Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster dissected Piper Jaffray’s fall survey of 7,200 teens.

Response to the Apple Watch remains, in the words of Piper Jaffray technology analyst Gene Munster, “tepid.” Only seven percent of teens said they already own a smartwatch — and just 16 percent would be interested in shelling out $350 to buy the Apple Watch.

“The concept of wearing a watch for teenagers is foreign — and I think that’s part of what is reflected in that response,” said Munster. “The second piece is, it’s still something that people need to hear more about, beyond what Apple has to say about it, before people get interested in it.”

Seems to me, anticipating response to a product that has not yet hit people’s wrists is a fool’s errand. The market for the Apple Watch is divided financially, functionally, and stylistically. Add to that divisions for age and gender and you’ve got one complex beast of a market.

A survey given now may be good for product design and marketing folks but is useless as a predictor of specific market segment response to a product. It is too early to tell how people will respond once they see an Apple Watch in the wild, have the chance to try one on for themselves, experience the pros and cons in real life.

More importantly, the Apple Watch is currently a static, unchanging product. When it is officially released and people respond to it, Apple will have the opportunity to fine tune their product line. Part of the beauty of the Apple Watch is its modular design, offering different case styles and sizes, along with a plethora of watch bands and corresponding pricing models. Apple has a lot of tuning points to address both weak and strong points in the market.

The Apple Watch market is dynamic and unpredictable. Any survey this early needs to either be ignored or taken with a grain of salt.

If you are editing some text in iOS and spot a word you meant to capitalize (e.g., May instead of may), the old approach was to press and hold, then slide the cursor to just after the letter to be capitalized, then hit delete and retype the letter.

In iOS 8, there’s a better way. Double-tap the word you want to capitalize and hit the shift key. Predictive text will show the initial cap version of the word. Tap it and you’re done. And if you double tap the shift key (shift-lock), predictive text will show the ALL CAPS version of the word.

Thanks to TUAW for that fantastic little tip.

Thoughtful editorial from Wired. The upshot:

However it got there, Apple has come to the right place. It’s a basic axiom of information security that “data at rest” should be encrypted. Apple should be lauded for reaching that state with the iPhone. Google should be praised for announcing it will follow suit in a future Android release.

Also worth reading, this essay from Salon, entitled America’s huge iPhone lie: Why Apple is being accused of coddling child molesters.

Wired:

Early tomorrow morning, the moon will pass behind the center of Earth’s shadow and turn a rusty red color. Most people probably won’t be able to see this total lunar eclipse, because it will occur mainly over the Pacific Ocean. But don’t worry. You can watch a live broadcast by the Slooh Community Observatory from multiple locations in Australia and North America or NASA’s broadcast of the event.

Always fun to watch these celestial events.

The Province:

Whitey was pictured in the photograph escaping the clutches of his mother Bernice and racing to his father Jack, a rifleman who was leaving for war with the B.C. Regiment (Duke of Connaughts Own Rifles).

The image was captured by Province photographer Claude Dettloff, sent around the world and on Saturday, brought to life again.

A $2 Canadian coin has been minted, postage stamp produced and bronze statue unveiled at Hyack Square, near the original scene.

Not just an iconic Canadian picture but a world famous image made all the more sad when you hear the story of what happened afterwards. Make sure you have a tissue ready if you watch the video.

EVH is one of the all-time greats. It’s nice to just watching him having fun.

Floodwatch:

Floodwatch is a Chrome extension that tracks the ads you see as you browse the internet. It offers tools to help you understand both the volume and the types of ads you’re being served during the course of normal browsing, with the goal of increasing awareness of how advertisers track your browsing behavior, build their version of your online identity, and target their ads to you as an individual.

I’m going to install and use this for a month. I bet the data it collects will appall me.

If you are, or ever were, a fan of Aaron Sorkin and The West Wing, this oral history is a must read. Delicious.

Elton was on a chat show and was challenged to create a song, on the spot, from a set of oven instructions. Genius.

AP Wire:

The steep decline in income, likely the widest fall in Samsung’s earnings history, shows how the company’s quick rise to the world’s top smartphone maker with the Galaxy phones faces what might be its biggest challenge. Its struggle is apparent in both the high-end phone segment where it competes with Apple Inc. and the low-end segment where it faces rising competition from the likes of China’s Xiaomi and Lenovo.

This has been coming for a while now, but there’s no proof like watching earnings projections fall by half in a very short time.

On September 23rd, Apple reported an adoption rate of 46% for iOS 8.

As of October 5th (this past Sunday), Apple’s official numbers show that, in the ensuing weeks, the adoption rate crept up to only 47%. Interestingly, the iOS 7 rate went down from 49% to 47% (as you might expect), but the pre-iOS 7 adoption number actually increased from 5% to 6%.

The stagnation might be due to the public issues surrounding the iOS 8 release, including bugs that kept the Health App from running, as well as concern that adoption of iOS 8 might cause problems with iCloud Drive data.

Apple’s self-reported numbers are reflected by the most recent data from MixPanel (via MacRumors).

csstyle is a modern approach for crafting beautifully maintainable stylesheets. The csstyle method is implemented using a set of SASS mixins that make your CSS readable and semantic, generate your selectors for you, and automatically handle things like specificity and nesting. csstyle makes your project’s styling refreshingly consistent.

Geohopper Beacons unite Apple’s iBeacon technology and proximity-based notifications in a single easy-to-use bundle. Using Geohopper 2.0 for iOS, a single tap configures the beacon which then sends notifications to your selected contacts when you enter or exit the beacon location. No additional setup or maintenance is required.

Very cool.

Magic Script Creator lets you experiment with creating custom AppleScripts by just answering a few questions. No prior knowledge of AppleScript is needed in order to use this application. Included in Magic Script Creator are 24 different examples that you can configure hundreds of different ways. Most examples contain UNIX command line tools, combining their power with AppleScript’s strengths.

Version 4.0 contains two new major features. First, you can choose to compile your scripts with line by line remarks. This will help you understand what each line of code is executing. Second, for those examples containing UNIX command tools, you can export the MAN (or manual) page in an easy to read PDF. No more trying to read these manuals in a tiny terminal window! To learn more about Magic Script Creator, watch an instructional video, purchase the application, or try a demo version, please visit our homepage.

The Verge:

What happens when you give an Android Wear smartwatch to a 16-year-old with a bit too much time on his hands? You get Windows 95 on your wrist. Now, we frankly have no idea why you’d load a desktop operating system from twenty years ago onto a Samsung Gear Live smartwatch with a 1.63-inch display, but, hey, why not? Thanks to emulator software available for Android, this technology mishmash is a reality.

I am mesmerized! Watch the video.

Bill Gates, in last week’s Bloomberg interview:

“Apple Pay is a great example of how a cell phone that identifies its user in a pretty strong way lets you make a transaction that should be very, very inexpensive,” he said.

He explained: “So the fact that in any application I can buy something, that’s fantastic. The fact I don’t need a physical card anymore, I just do that transaction and you’re going to be quite sure about who it is on the other end, that is a real contribution.”

Some wonder just how inconvenient credit cards are. Is it really such an imposition to take a card from a pocket or a wallet to pay? Is Apple Pay solving a problem that isn’t too much of a problem?

Gates, though, said that Apple’s true role was in creating the market: “All the platforms, whether it’s Apple’s or Google’s or Microsoft, you’ll see this payment capability get built in. That’s built on industry standard protocols, NFC. And these companies have all participated in getting those going. Apple will help make sure it gets to critical mass for all the devices.”

The value of Apple Pay is much more than saving you a reach for your credit card. Far more important is Apple Pay’s role in battling fraud, keeping your credit card number out of the top level of the transaction.

Cincinnati Enquirer:

Macy’s is expanding Cincinnati-tested technology that enables in-store shoppers to browse items not on shelves and even skip the checkout this holiday. It’s part of a broader push to woo Millennial customers and boost overall convenience and efficiency.

Customers looking for the hottest new Michael Kors purse that’s not stocked in their favorite color have been able hunt for their hue at point-of-purchase terminals at the Kenwood Towne Centre store as part of the Cincinnati-region testing.

The touchscreen point of purchase or “POP” machines confirm if an item is in the store – or at any store nearby or across the country. Also being expanded are local “look book” terminals – touchscreen catalogs that replace some mannequins and show the shopper how some clothes look paired with other garments or accessories.

So far, so good. Macy’s is exposing their inventory system to customers. Makes for more efficiency all the way around. But then the article digs in to the various tech in play. When it comes to explaining Apple Pay:

How it works: Customers with the new iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch will be able to pay at registers with a wave of their devices. Customers buy virtual encrypted “tokens” from Apple to be stored on their phones – so in the event they’re lost or stolen, no credit card info is on the device. More details will be released this month by Apple.

I still struggle to get my head around exactly how Apple Pay works, but I do know that customers won’t be buying “virtual encrypted tokens” from Apple. Hard to blame the Enquirer, though. This is a complex process. But taking a complex process and wrapping it in a dead simple service is Apple’s specialty.

And that’s the key. If Apple Pay works seamlessly and adds a layer of security/indirection to the credit card universe, it’s not so critical that the end user truly understands the inner mechanics.

NY Times:

The company, considered a foundational institution of Silicon Valley, said in a news release that it intended to divide itself into a company aimed at business technology, including computer servers and data storage equipment, software and services, and a company that sells personal computers and printers.

Both companies will be publicly traded. The business-oriented company will be called Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, while the PC company will be called HP Inc. and will retain the company’s current logo.

It’s tough when you build a business based on products, no matter how innovative, that get commoditized. Innovate or die.

This original iPhone 2G prototype was used for external (outside the company) testing and was not loaded with the official iOS interface. Instead, it ran the “skankphone” testing interface (see “skank is the new black” in small print on the picture in the auction listing).

If you look at the 6th picture, you’ll see the icon view, which features a Cheerios box as an icon for the serial number. Cereal for serial, get it? Heh.

I love looking at these old phones. Amazing how far the world has come since the original iPhone was introduced.

The Atlantic:

Turn on the Food Network any night of the week, and this is what you’ll probably see: “a larger-than-life host, a specifically defined challenge, bombastic music, a set time limit, a panel of judges, and a cast of contestants whose back-story and biographical detail serves to heighten the stakes and fan the [program’s] already heated dramatic flame.”

That’s according to a 2013 study of Food Network’s evolution from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee associate professor Tasha Oren. The Food Network may have started as a channel focusing on the dishes themselves—think Emeril Lagasse and “Bam!” But in order to grow, the network has abandoned its food focus in favor of formulaic competition.

I don’t watch any of these shows but I see the commercials for them all the time. I don’t watch because I don’t get why cooking has to be a contest but the article might have a point. Maybe these shows are for those who don’t like sports but still like competition?

The Wirecutter:

After measuring the charging speed of 44 cables, then sending the top 11 to our electrical engineer for teardown analysis, the $14 Monoprice 3ft MFi Certified Lightning to USB Charge/Sync Cable is the one we’d buy. It may be a third-party cable, but the Monoprice stood out among competitors by being the only third-party cable that had as good, if not better, internal build-quality compared to Apple’s own cable. Plus, it’s cheaper than Apple’s by $5.

Always good to have an extra cable or two lying around and the price is right for this one.

Apple:

Over a million people from all over the world have shared their memories, thoughts, and feelings about Steve. One thing they all have in common — from personal friends to colleagues to owners of Apple products — is how they’ve been touched by his passion and creativity. You can view some of these messages below and share your own at [email protected].

Classy move, Apple.

Re/code:

Bose secured a league sponsorship deal that effectively allows it to elbow Beats — and any other rival headphone manufacturer — off the playing field.

Under terms of its agreement with the league, the NFL confirmed, Bose received a broad set of rights that entitle it to prevent players (or coaches) from wearing any other manufacturer’s headphones during televised interviews.

This ban extends to TV interviews conducted during pre-season training camps or practice sessions and on game day — starting before the opening kickoff through the final whistle to post-game interviews conducted in the locker room or on the podium. The restriction remains in place until 90 minutes after the play has ended.

Does Bose really think this will make any difference in their sales or market share? Do they think that potential buyers, seeing the headsets on a bunch of “old guys” on the sidelines will make their target audience think, “Oh! I like that look! Gotta get me some of those!”?

Very entertaining story.

Here’s what I knew about Megadeth: the lead singer, Dave Mustaine, was kicked out of Metallica, and then Megadeth went on to become the most respected heavy metal band of their time, second to Metallica.

During the meeting, the executives stressed the importance of this album release, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something big and bold on the World Wide Web. Having never heard of the Internet, the record executives were like “yeah, whatever kid” and defaulted to the usual checklist: “Who will shoot the album cover? How many radio stations will play the single? How many posters should we print for the record stores?”

So even though no one had a clue what I was talking about, I wrote a proposal to create a “virtual cybertown in cyberspace.” It would be called Megadeth, Arizona—based on where the band lived and recorded their album.

My boss, Lou Mann, the Senior Vice President of the label, actually signed off on the proposal and gave me a whopping $30 grand.

He had no idea what it was for, and I can guarantee you… neither did I.

Back in 1994, the internet was still a wide open frontier. WebCrawler was the state of the art in search engines. It was able to index the complete text of every site on the web. Excite, the first real portal site, was just getting started. And the music industry had no concept of what was coming.

This is unconscionable.

Marriott International Inc. (MAR) was fined $600,000 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for blocking hotel customers from connecting to the Internet on personal Wi-Fi networks in order to force them to pay for the hotel’s network.

Marriott employees blocked mobile “hotspots” at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, while at the same time charging consumers, small businesses and exhibitors as much as $1,000 per device to access Marriott’s Wi-Fi network, the FCC said in a statement today.

Can you imagine staying in a hotel that blocked your cell phone or iPad from accessing the internet so you’d be forced to pay through the nose for the hotel’s exorbitantly priced WiFi package?

There’s a new strain of malware that specifically targets OS X.

Virus hunters have discovered a sophisticated botnet targeting Mac OS X computers and using a novel technique to operate. The malware has infected about 18,500 Macs, according to recent statistical analysis.

The Mac malware, called iWorm, uses a complex multi-purpose backdoor, through which criminals can issue commands that get the malicious program to carry out a wide range of instructions on the infected Macs.

According to researchers, the backdoor makes extensive use of encryption in its routes. It is capable of discovering what other software is installed on the infected machine and sending out information about it (operating system), opening a port on it, downloading additional files, relaying traffic, and sending a query to a web server to acquire the addresses of the C&C servers, essentially turning your Mac into a zombie.

To see if you are infected, go into the Finder and Select Go > Go to Folder…. When the Go to folder sheet appears, enter this folder name:

/Library/Application Support/JavaW

Now click the Go button. If the Finder tells you the folder can’t be found, you should be OK. If the folder is found, you are likely infected and should consider some anti-virus software or a trip to the Apple Store.

The linked article is definitely worth a read. [Hat Tip Stu Mark]

The GRAMMY Museum, based in Los Angeles, will be honoring Stevie Ray Vaughan’s birthday with FREE admission to its exhibits on October 3, 2014 from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT. In June, the museum unveiled Pride & Joy: The Texas Blues of Stevie Ray Vaughan, on display through July 2015. Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie’s brother, served as a guest curator.

Happy Birthday SRV. You were always one of my favorites.