I don’t know how pervasive this story is outside the US, but inside the US, the saga of LeBron James leaving Cleveland for Miami and then returning home after 4 years to re-sign with the Cavaliers is huge. The announcement happened today.
James wrote an essay detailing his rationale for coming back to Cleveland, an essay that stands with some of the best sports essays I have ever read. It’s not too long, an easy read, well worth your time.
WSJ:
China’s influential state broadcaster on Friday called a location-tracking function offered by Apple Inc.’s iPhone a “national security concern,” in the latest sign of a backlash in the country against U.S. technology firms.
In its national noon broadcast, state-run China Central Television criticized the “frequent locations” function in Apple’s iOS 7 mobile operating system, which records time and location for the owner’s movements. The report quoted researchers who said that those with access to that data could gain knowledge of China’s economic situation or “even state secrets.”
This sort of thing just puzzles me. For starters, Apple has been great about exposing this sort of preference, in this case via Settings > Privacy > Location Services (click here to learn the details). That fact that this feature is bottlenecked under a single setting means it’s trivial to disable.
I have no problem if the Chinese government wants to pass a law disabling this feature as a default, or even permanently. But doesn’t this sort of “security threat” bluster screams market protection and not a genuine concern for citizens’ privacy rights?
Much respect.
Businessweek:
> While teens aren’t overrunning Silicon Valley yet, talent-starved tech companies are reaching out to kids to fill spots in their internship programs. Facebook says it has just begun to recruit teens before their freshman year of college after they went through a background check with the best tools you can also find at https://theislandnow.com/blog-112/best-reverse-phone-lookup-sites/. LinkedIn (LNKD) opened its summer program to high schoolers two years ago; Airbnb has had interns as young as 16. “Talent is our No. 1 operating priority and our most important asset,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said on his company’s most recent earnings call, welcoming this summer’s crop of interns.
We’ve seen it in sports. Teams try to identify prodigies at the earliest possible age. Top high school kids are pulled in to play professional sports. Arguably one of the best soccer players in the world, Lionel Messi, was contracted by FC Barcelona at the age of 11 and moved from his home town in Argentina to Spain.
This same competitiveness has come to tech. Tech companies and government agencies are visiting (and sponsoring) science fairs, looking to identify and bring on board blossoming talent before their competitors.
As long as the situation is handled responsibly, as long as each child’s welfare and educational needs come first, this has the potential to be a win-win.
9to5Mac:
Due to a security flaw discovered in its Flash Player software, Adobe released an update to the web plugin earlier this week. Today Apple confirmed that it had updated its plugin blacklist for OS X to stop the system from using a version of Flash Player older than 14.0.0.145 (or 13.0.0.231 on older systems).
Here’s a link to the relevant Apple support page.
Has security ever been an issue with HTML5? Can HTML5 do much of what we depend on Flash for? Is Flash still necessary?
If you haven’t already, read this post about Chrome, Flash, and battery life.
What happens when a long time PC and Chrome power user moves to Mac OS X? How will Safari stack up?
Coming to OS X after many years as a PC power user, Chrome was the first application on my prearranged hotlist. On Windows, it had long displaced Firefox, which before it, had long displaced Internet Explorer. The only reason I even bothered with Safari when my machine arrived last December, was my curiosity as to how a Mac works out of the box; before I overcrowd it with apps. It wasn’t supposed to be a real chance.
I don’t want to spoil the read, but it turns out that battery consumption was a pivotal part of the story. Good stuff.
Slate:
Can you guess these ’90s hits by their first second?
Sadly, I only got seven out of sixteen but, in my defense, I didn’t like any of the songs I missed. Thanks to Dan Frakes for the link.
Apple released iTunes 11.3 on Thursday, bringing iTunes Extras to Apple TV and iOS 8 when its released this fall.
As Apple explains, “iTunes Extras can include behind-the-scenes videos, short films, high-resolution image galleries, directors commentary, scenes and more.” The iTunes Extras are included in HD movies.
Because iTunes Extras are in the cloud, movie studios can update or add extras at any time, giving users a more dynamic experience. This could include any of the content mentioned above, or other bonus material from the filmmakers.
Apple already has iTunes Extras content in quite a few movies, including 21 Jump Street; 300: Rise of an Empire; American Hustle; Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues; The Bourne Identity; The Bourne Legacy; Captain Phillips; Cinderella; The Dark Knight Rises; Despicable Me; Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax; Forrest Gump; Frozen; Ghostbusters; The Incredibles; Man of Steel; and many more.
If you already purchased HD movies from iTunes, Apple will automatically add the extras to your account as they become available, at no charge.
You can download iTunes 11.3 by launching the Mac App Store and checking for updates.
Update: Added images and the titles of movies with iTunes Extras.
Great article on The Mac Observer—If you’re going to get tips, get them from the engineer that worked on it.
I was at the keynote when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007. It was an amazing introduction—historic for Apple and the consumer electronics industry. One thing that everyone was asking for after the launch was apps. On July 10, 2008, Apple launched the App Store, forever changing the way we use smartphones, tablets and many other devices. Think about how you used devices before apps, and how you use them today—there is no comparison. The iPhone and apps have changed the world.
Thanks Apple.
Last June, Tim Cook hired Lisa Jackson, former administrator of the Environment Protection Agency, as Apple’s Vice President of Environmental Initiatives. This report is the first under her leadership.
Here’s a link to the report. And here’s a link to an FAQ that highlights some of the major environmental questions addressed by the report. Finally, here’s a link to the updated environment section of Apple’s website.
From the report itself:
We believe climate change is real. And that it’s a real problem. As a global company that makes some of the most popular products in the world, we know we use a lot of energy and material, which in turn generates greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. That’s the part of the problem we can help solve. We’ve found ways to use energy and materials more efficiently in our facilities, to get energy from cleaner sources, and to make some of the world’s most energy-efficient electronic products. We’re still the only company in our industry whose data centers are powered by 100 percent renewable energy and whose entire product line not only meets but far exceeds strict ENERGY STAR guidelines. And while we have a long way to go, our efforts are working—even though we’re manufacturing and shipping more products, our carbon emissions per product are dropping.
It takes an enormous amount of energy to design, assemble, ship, and use hundreds of millions of products all over the world. A portion of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels, which creates carbon emissions. Those emissions make up our carbon foot- print—our share of the climate change problem. We’re striving to reduce that footprint, and we’re making great progress. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Wall Street Journal:
According to investigations by the New York-based watchdog [China Labor Watch], the Shinyang factory hires children and underage students during busy periods and when in “urgent need of labor.” Shinyang makes cellphone covers and parts for Samsung.
The alleged underage workers are usually employed for three to six months, work for 11 hours a day and are only paid for 10 of those hours, the watchdog said in a statement.
The claims follow an annual sustainability report published by Samsung on June 30 in which the company said a third-party audit of 100 of its suppliers in China last year found “no instances of child labor.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether Shinyang was one of the 100 suppliers covered in the audit.
This accusation is in jarring contrast with this paragraph from Samsung’s 2014 Sustainability Report:
Already we hold our manufacturing facilities to the highest labor and environmental regulations worldwide. This year, we also strengthened supplier compliance by reinforcing our Code of Conduct and actively monitoring and managing our dynamic supply chain. Samsung has one top priority: To ensure the health and safety of our employees and the communities where we operate.
Fortune:
In recent years, a debate has raged on among publishing and advertising industry insiders over “sponsored content”—more recently called “native advertising” and once known as “advertorial”—the sort of advertising that looks very much like editorial content but is, in fact, directly paid for by an advertiser.Industry peers watched and discussed: Is it deceptive? Is it ethical? Does it even work?
It can be deceptive – Macworld had a nasty habit of putting the “sponsored content” info at the bottom of the post instead of front and centre – as to “does it work”? Certainly not on me. If I see an article marked as “sponsored”, I don’t even bother reading it regardless of my interest in the subject matter.
Reuters posted an article this morning about how blind and deaf people want more from Apple in making apps accessible. I’m all for this, and from what I’ve seen from Apple over the years, they are in favor of improving accessibility features in OS X and iOS too.
However, one thing that stopped me in my tracks while reading the article is a quote the Reuters reporter used from Apple CEO Tim Cook’s speech at Auburn University in 2013.
Here’s what the reporter used in the story:
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in a 2013 speech at Auburn University described people with disabilities “in a struggle to have their human dignity acknowledged.” He said, “They’re frequently left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others.”
Here’s what Tim actually said:
“People with disabilities often find themselves in a struggle to have their human dignity acknowledged, they frequently are left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others, but Apple’s engineers push back against this unacceptable reality, they go to extraordinary lengths to make our products accessible to people with various disabilities from blindness and deafness to various muscular disorders. I receive hundreds of e-mails from customers every day, and I read them all. Last week I received one from a single mom with a three year old autistic son who was completely non-verbal, and after receiving an iPad, for the first time in his life, he had found his voice. I receive scores of these incredible stories from around the world and I never tire of reading them.” “We design our products to surprise and delight everyone who uses them, and we never, ever analyze the return on investment. We do it because it is just and right, and that is what respect for human dignity requires, and its a part of Apple I’m especially proud of.”
Dear Reuters, you fucking morons: You can’t pick and choose which parts of a quote you want to use to fill the narrative of a story you already have written. You could have written a fine story about accessibility and everyone would have agreed with you, but what you did is show your lack of integrity, essentially harming a very important message about accessibility.
Next time, stick to the facts.
Sometimes you just need a quick and simple photo editor to clean up your photos. Whether you need some mild editing, digital borders, objects removed, colors enhanced or areas brought into focus, this Mighty Deal has it all covered. This Snap Pack Bundle includes 4 incredible Mac photo apps, for one low price: Snapheal, FX Photo Studio, Focus 2 and ColorStrokes. They’re all incredibly easy to use and feature some truly robust editing tools.
I love it when Siri exposes her wry sense of humor. [Side note: Seems odd to refer to Siri as her, but that’s the default voice and the one I continue to use. Originally typed “its” but just didn’t work for me]
Ask Siri about iOS 8 and you’ll get a nice range of responses, including, “It’s just Swift”. Heh.
Apple continues to sweat the details. Love it.
BBC:
Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company’s voice-recognition patent ruled invalid.
The verdict threatens Apple’s ability to offer its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, in the country.
Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology has sought to block Apple from selling products with the app installed, saying it infringed its rights.
Apple will appeal the verdict and had this to say:
“Apple believes deeply in protecting innovation, and we take intellectual property rights very seriously,” said a spokesman.
Apple became aware of this problem in 2012 when they announced the addition of Mandarin and Cantonese to Siri’s list of languages.
Zhizhen noted that it had filed for the intellectual rights to the underlying technology in 2004 and had been granted the patent two years later.
Apple countered that Siri used a different process to power its voice-recognition tech – a court has yet to rule on this claim.
This is a serious problem for Apple. Hopefully, they’ll either prevail in a higher court or negotiate a licensing deal with Zhizhen.
Android Police:
App Encryption was added to the Play Store to encode paid apps with a device-specific key, making them more difficult to crack or transplant by would-be pirates. Despite some early issues that lead Google to temporarily take App Encryption offline, it has gone mostly unnoticed since it was re-enabled. That is, until now. It seems the Android Wear install process runs into a road block with paid apps because it doesn’t know how to extract the file of the encrypted apk. Since the installer fails to recognize the payload, it assumes there is nothing to install and silently aborts. This behavior appears to match another known issue that occurs if the Wear app is compressed more than once before it is published.
Seems to me, this is a real weak point in the Android Wear testing methodology. Google has supposedly rolled out a fix for this, proving that this was an easy problem to detect and a relatively easy problem to workaround. I wonder if this is a sign that this was rushed to market.
Apple Insider:
Apple on Monday was granted a U.S. patent covering a method of fusing glass structures together to encapsulate the internal circuitry of an iOS device, and that of larger electronics like monitors and televisions.
Not clear if this will ever make it into a real product, but certainly interesting.
Here’s a link to the patent itself, if you’d like to learn more.
The Atlantic:
People often forget that someone else comes in to clean up after all the forensic work is done.Crime-scene cleaning is not a glamorous profession, but it is a lucrative one. Last year there were 333 murders in New York City alone. Considering that companies like Island Trauma clean up crime scenes, natural deaths, and hoarder homes in the entire Tri-State area, they tend to keep busy throughout the year.
You think your job sucks? Try this one.
Buzzfeed:
There is (a) group of people who aren’t just nostalgic for Weird Al; they live his gospel. These are people who never set aside the wackiness, the zaniness, the never-ending slide-whistle call of funny music. And I want to find out what makes them tick. That’s why I’ve decided to go to the first ever FuMPFest (Funny Music Project): to meet the acts and the fans who are still out there making and loving funny music.I’m not sure what to expect, except that I will be laughing very hard.
White people are funny.
America’s Space Shuttle:
As a part of every launch,over 125 cameras are positioned all over the launch pad structure and around the perimeter of the complex to view how the vehicle performs and to catch views of any potential debris as the vehicle clear the pad.I thought it would be neat to combine different angles of the launches of STS-124 and STS-117 with additional music from the summer blockbuster “Armageddon” to set the scene for one of the greatest technological feats ever displayed.
This is such a good compilation, it almost makes me want to watch “Armageddon” again.
The Consumerist:
Customers will have to prove that they’re over 21 in order to buy a prepaid card to use in the beer-o-mat. The machines also limit the quantity of beer that customers can purchase, limiting them to 48 ounces every 15 minutes. You know, in case a group has dispatched one person to get beer for everyone.Those 48 ounces of beer will cost $18.24 if you buy the cheapest selection, Bud or Bud Light at 38 cents per ounce.
I heard The Publisher of The Loop is starting a Kickstarter campaign to set up one of these full of Heineken in his house.
FiveThirtyEight:
Led Zeppelin is classic rock. So are Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osbourne. But what about U2 or Nirvana? As a child of the 1990s, I never doubted that any of these bands were classic rock, even though it may be shocking for many to hear. And then I heard Green Day’s “American Idiot” on a classic rock station a few weeks ago, and I was shocked.It was my first time hearing a band I grew up with referred to as “classic rock.” Almost anyone who listens to music over a long enough period of time probably experiences this moment — my colleagues related some of their own, like hearing R.E.M. or Guns N’ Roses on a classic rock station — but it made me wonder, what precisely is classic rock?
I remember the first time I heard my favourite band, The Clash, on a “Classic Rock” station and being depressed to think I was now officially old enough to have my favourite band relegated to a classic rock station.
Know the difference between a UI designer and a UX designer? Know what a front-end developer does? How about a product designer?
This is a fantastic write-up. Pass it along.
I was a huge Pink Floyd fan (Wish You Were Here and, of course, Dark Side of the Moon are still high on my list of all-time great albums), though my interest in the band waned after the release of The Wall.
It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. [Via @PavanRajam]
This is certainly true:
No corporation has worked harder to seem monolithic than Apple. With a famously tight focus and legendary secrecy, the internal workings of the company are a mystery. “Apple” rejects your app, not some front-line app reviewer. “Apple” opaquely dupes your Radars, not a specific team’s junior Engineering Project Manager. For years, Apple’s showmanship and PR have bred the sense that they are more magical chocolate factory than cube farm.
But, as Allen Pike writes, Apple is so much more than this. An insider’s view on the shift that is happening within Apple.
With the WWDC NDA lifted, other Apple employees, from the creator of Swift to various API maintainers, took to Twitter to gather feedback on all the goodies they’d dumped on developers. In the web community this would be expected behaviour. In the Apple community, it’s a delight.
Terrific read. [Via iOS Dev Weekly]
Samsung is getting it from all sides. Earnings are down for the third straight quarter. Their operating profit missed expectations by almost a billion dollars (7.2 trillion won vs expected 8.1 trillion won). Apple is rumored to be releasing competitive products (larger screen phone/iWatch) in the fall. And Chinese electronics manufacturers are eating into Samsung’s highest unit sales’ sector, the cheap smartphone:
“We see some concerns in the second half of the year as Apple is set to launch iPhone 6 device with larger screen size,” Marcello Ahn, a Seoul-based analyst at Quad Investment Management Co., said by phone today. “Manufacturing capabilities of Chinese smartphone makers, such as Xiaomi and Lenovo, have significantly improved enough to even compete well against Samsung’s lower-end smartphone models.”
Add into that their forays into untested waters with the Tizen OS, increased competition from other Android manufacturers, and yesterday’s $6.3 million armed robbery.
Tough times.
Guardian:
Thieves haved raided a Samsung electronics factory in Brazil during the night shift, subduing workers and guards before making off with about US$6.3m worth of mobile phones and computers.
The gang of heavily armed men captured eight plant employees as they neared the factory in a company bus just before midnight, said civil police in São Paulo state.
They stole the workers’ ID tags and took two of them with them as hostages as they entered the factory in the college town of Campinas. The remaining six employees were taken to an unknown location.
Once inside the gang overpowered security guards and spent more than three hours in the plant trucking out the electronics.
A real black eye for Brazil as a home for future electronics manufacturing.
Apple:
On June 29, thousands of Apple employees and their families marched in the San Francisco Pride Parade. They came from around the world — from cities as far as Munich, Paris, and Hong Kong — to celebrate Apple’s unwavering commitment to equality and diversity. Because we believe that inclusion inspires innovation.
I’d love one of those t-shirts.