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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.

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.

Petapixel:

(This) time-lapse took 363 total hours of work between the 75 hours of logistics and travel, 31 hours of scouting locations, 78 hours of shooting and a whopping 179 hours of post-production spent dealing with 26,014 Camera Raw files that totaled up to some 817GB of data.

Gear used included four Nikon DSLRs (a D800, D7100, D7100 and D3200), six separate Nikon lenses (10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye, 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX, 16-35mm f/4G AF-S VR, 28mm AF f/2.8D, 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, 70-200mm f/2.8G) and a Promote Control.

Gorgeous video made amazing knowing the tech details behind it.

There are some interesting stories here if you have some time.

The Cleveland Clinic:

Precise measurement of neurological and neuropsychological impairment and disability in multiple sclerosis is challenging. We report a new test, the Multiple Sclerosis Performance Test (MSPT), which represents a new approach to quantifying MS related disability. The MSPT takes advantage of advances in computer technology, information technology, biomechanics, and clinical measurement science. The resulting MSPT represents a computer-based platform for precise, valid measurement of MS severity.

In a nutshell, The Cleveland Clinic has developed a series of tests that measure a variety of factors identified with Multiple Sclerosis. The data is gathered on an iPad:

The MSPT application uses the iPad as a data collection platform to assess balance, walking speed, manual dexterity, visual function, and cognition. The MSPT can be performed in a clinical setting, or by the MS patient themself in a home setting. Data can be transmitted from a distance and entered directly into a clinical or research database, potentially obviating the need for a clinic visit.

This is a vision of the future. The iPad gives patients the ability to do a home assessment and send that data to the clinic remotely. Less visits is less stress on the patient, less crowding at the clinic, cost savings for everyone, and more precise diagnostic data.

A news story you’ll see bouncing around the blogs this morning says you’ll need to charge your devices before you can get through security. In other words, make sure your phone can boot or you’ll have to leave it behind.

Close, but not quite right.

First off, here’s the original statement (in part) from the head of Homeland Security that started all this off:

DHS continually assesses the global threat environment and reevaluates the measures we take to promote aviation security. As part of this ongoing process, I have directed TSA to implement enhanced security measures in the coming days at certain overseas airports with direct flights to the United States.

The key focus here is, “certain overseas airports with direct flight to the United States”. So this does not apply to any flights originating in the US. And, presumably, a call to your airport will tell you about their policy. Worth checking in if you are flying to the US from abroad. Or just charge all your devices first.

For completeness, here’s the language the TSA site put up in response to the new directive:

As the traveling public knows, all electronic devices are screened by security officers. During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening.

The Washington Post is taking steps to isolate their sources from their normal means of data collection, protecting both the Post and the source from any audits that might pick up their IP address or other identifying information.

Nearly all digital communications can leave a trail. The Washington Post’s SecureDrop is designed to minimize these digital trails using best practices, such as:

• limiting collection of information logged about your browser, computer or operating system;
• using Tor to encrypt and anonymize your communications with us;
• storing submissions in encrypted form on our systems;
• physically isolating SecureDrop from the rest of our network.

They are promoting SecureDrop on the front page of their web site. Interesting times.

Boing Boing:

Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, Boing Boing is pleased to present the first-ever look at the original Disneyland prospectus. These extremely high-resolution scans were made from one of the three sets of pitch-documents Roy and Walt Disney used to raise the money to build Disneyland. There are no archive copies of this document.

Neither the Walt Disney Company nor the Walt Disney Family Museum have it. But we certainly hope both organizations will download these documents for inclusion in their collections.

I still find it amazing that Walt Disney has this vision and that it continues to survive after all these years, though good economic times and bad.

Ever wonder what makes you fall asleep, or puts you out when you get anesthesia?

When the team zapped the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman lost consciousness. She stopped reading and stared blankly into space, she didn’t respond to auditory or visual commands and her breathing slowed. As soon as the stimulation stopped, she immediately regained consciousness with no memory of the event. The same thing happened every time the area was stimulated during two days of experiments (Epilepsy and Behavior, doi.org/tgn).

To confirm that they were affecting the woman’s consciousness rather than just her ability to speak or move, the team asked her to repeat the word “house” or snap her fingers before the stimulation began. If the stimulation was disrupting a brain region responsible for movement or language she would have stopped moving or talking almost immediately. Instead, she gradually spoke more quietly or moved less and less until she drifted into unconsciousness. Since there was no sign of epileptic brain activity during or after the stimulation, the team is sure that it wasn’t a side effect of a seizure.

Fantastic!

io9:

Wizards of the Coast has released the Basic Rules for the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons as a free PDF right here. The 100-page document details how to make a character, play the game, and covers magic, too.

Specifically, the Basic Rules “covers the core of the game. It runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each. It also provides the dwarf, elf, halfling, and human as race options; in addition, the rules contain 120 spells, 5 backgrounds, and character sheets.”

How many of you will download these rules with no intention of playing but just for old time’s sake? I did.

Al Arabiya News:

In the first deal of its kind in the Middle East, Apple has inked an agreement with Saudi bookshop Jarir to supply all Apple products through the outlet, as well as providing an after-sales service.

In an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel, Jarir’s chairman, Mohammad al-Aqeel, said that this agreement will allow the prices of Apple products sold at Jarir branches to be slightly reduced.

The question many ask is, “Why doesn’t Apple open their own retail outlet?” Remember, this kind of “store within a store” idea is what Apple initially did to test the retail concept before the first US Apple Retail Stores opened. They are likely doing the same in the Middle East.

Pando Daily:

Pretty much every page you visit contains at least one piece of tracking code — watching where you click, how long you stay, and how often you come back.

What I didn’t know is how absolutely out of control the number of trackers on popular sites has become. It’s actually horrifying.

I don’t know if it’s “horrifying” but it certainly is instructive what sites do what kind of tracking on your visits.

Luc Vandal:

It is now much harder to make it into the market and it requires more planning, financial investment and time. The App Store market is now mature and near 7 years old.

I have spoken with other successful developers and many told me the same: sales are generally down. They are still doing great but there are more and more competitors are also taking a slice of the same pie.

Media attention is also harder to get as they get overwhelmed with review requests and press releases.

Interesting look at the challenges faced by independent developers.