The news:
When it comes to Samsung’s fingerprint scanner technology embedded in the home button on the new Galaxy S5, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that we have spent plenty of time testing it, and we’ve found that it works very well. The bad news, however, is that it has apparently already been hacked, leaving Galaxy S5 owners’ devices and their PayPal accounts at risk.
My reaction:
Great article by Kirk McElhearn.
Today we’re announcing that it’s available for purchase–$69.99 USD/year or $6.99 USD/month (ERP)1–online at Office365.com, at Microsoft Stores and through online and retail partners.
An Office 365 Personal subscription allows for one PC or Mac, and one tablet (including iPad) to be connected to the service, and is the best option for individuals interested in using Office 365.
Microsoft is trying, I’ll give them that. It’s a good move on their part.
Pioneer Corporation today announced one of the first aftermarket in-dash car multimedia systems to provide Apple CarPlay, allowing consumers the ability to upgrade the vehicle they already own to the smarter, safer and more fun way to use iPhone® in the car. CarPlay compatibility will be available in early summer 2014 via a firmware update to the five 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers.
CarPlay is gaining momentum.
Did Samsung steal its slide-to-unlock feature from Apple’s smartphone software?
“Absolutely not,” said Samsung senior UI designer Youngmi Kim, who has worked on user experience strategy on the Samsung design team since 2004.
Bullshit.
The Lexus Design Award provides an opportunity for young innovators to showcase their works while receiving feedback from world renowned professionals in the area of design. Through this initiative, Lexus hopes to nurture and support world-enriching creators. 1,157 submissions were received during the application period from August 1 to October 15, 2013. After careful consideration by six judges, 12 winners have been selected. Read on for more information on the designers and their winning entries. The designers of two winning entries will create prototypes of their designs in close collaboration with mentors Arthur Huang or Robin Hunicke.
It’s hard to believe that these buildings and streets are still around.
Some great winners this year.
This is fantastic.
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BlackBerry said in a filing last Friday that the injunction is needed now. “Typo has contradicted its prior sworn statements and has significantly changed the way it does business in an attempt to flood the market with infringing keyboards before entry of the injunction,” BlackBerry said in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
They should be banned from selling the keyboards. BlackBerry is right on this one.
Slate:
Do you live in North America, South America, Australia, or eastern Asia? Then you get to see a lunar eclipse on the night of April 14–15! And while North America is the best place to watch—we’ll get to see the whole event—the real action doesn’t begin until 05:58 UTC on the April 15, which is just before 02:00 EDT, so it’s a bit late. You might just want to stay up for it, though.
I’ll be having a nap later this afternoon so I can get up and take photos of the eclipse. In related news, apparently I’m so old now I need a nap in order to be up at midnight.
There are definitely some great ones here.
Fender Custom Shop master builder Todd Krause introduces you to his personalized creation, the Master Design 1950s Relic Stratocaster.
Holy shit, that’s beautiful.
One of the greatest songs ever written.
Remember last week when Android engineering VP, Hiroshi Lockheimer, testified in the Apple vs. Samsung trial and lied his ass off saying, “Google did not look to copy the iPhone when it designed Android.” Lies.
Kyle Russell writes for Business Insider. He was wrapping up an assignment, covering a protest of a Google lawyer turned part-time landlord, when someone ran up to him and grabbed his Google Glass from his face.
The story is less about this assault and more about the impact well heeled startups are having on the local communities. As the money floods in, housing prices rise, taxes increase, and local residents are priced out of their homes. Anger and resentment brews. Can this be fixed? A thoughtful read.
The wah-wah guitar pedal emerged in the 60s as a huge influence in the guitar universe. I still have mine. A fantastic invention.
Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World tells the story of the wah wah effect pedal, from its invention in 1966 to the present day. Musicians, engineers, and historians discuss the impact of the pedal on popular music and demonstrate the various ways it has been used, as well as how its evolution has improved the ability of artists to express themselves musically. The film features interviews with Brad Plunkett, the inventor of the pedal, plus many other musical luminaries such as Ben Fong-Torres, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Art Thompson, Eddie Kramer, Kirk Hammett, Dweezil Zappa, and Jim Dunlop. These professionals explain how a musical novelty transcended convention and has become timelessly woven into the fabric of modern pop-culture.
Enjoy!
Nikkei.com:
While a slew of carmakers will soon start offering vehicles that come standard with a CarPlay interface built in, the Japanese company’s device is to be the first aftermarket product compatible with the system. It will first be available in the U.S. and Europe and likely cost around $500 to $700.
The device will connect to an iPhone 5 or later by wire. Drivers will be able to view maps on its screen, likely 7 inches, and use voice commands to access messages, make calls and play music. The system will be able to read messages and directions aloud.
This looks pretty cool. A real boost for CarPlay. [Via MacRumors]
Much respect, Tim. You can read more on the Auburn Web site.
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Amazon has a tough row to hoe here. Wooing developers to a nascent market is never easy. Just ask Microsoft.
Amazon is working hard to flesh out a portfolio of key apps that will likely be crucial to its new smartphone’s success. That’s no easy task in a smartphone market dominated by two giant device-makers, Apple and Samsung, which together account for 60 percent of the phones currently in use in the U.S., according to research by the Yankee Group.
As with its Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon is building its phone with a modified version of Google’s Android OS. Sources said the company has been developing a mechanism to automatically translate existing Android apps to Amazon apps. But it hasn’t yet finished it. In the meantime, Amazon has been wooing app developers with offers of money, Amazon Web Services, development assistance, and the promise of potentially being preloaded onto the phone.
Perhaps the most interesting bit:
Another issue Amazon faces as it works to bring its first smartphone to market: Google, which has recently become stricter in its approach to Android and its app ecosystem. The company no longer gives forked Android sellers access to crucial phone features such as its maps, in-app purchases and notifications.
Some big problems to solve.
One person from a company that has decided for now not to take Amazon up on its offer to develop a smartphone app for the device’s launch expressed skepticism about building Amazon-specific wrappers and workarounds.
“I don’t know how they’ll differentiate with Samsung,” the source said. “There’s nothing really that different.”
This is really getting interesting.
The Kombi van was created in the 1940s and is an icon of the automotive industry. Called the “hippie van”, or the VW bus, the Kombi van has had a long colorful life. The last one rolled off the assembly line in Brasil at the end of last year.
The video below is a love letter from Kombi to the world. Fantastic.
Wall Street Journal:
The company’s new pilot program involves AdWords, its biggest advertising program, in which advertisers place links next to Internet-search results. Google gets paid when users click on an ad and visit the advertiser’s website.
But while tracking clicks is an effective way to measure a Web ad’s impact on online sales, the system breaks down when shoppers enter a physical store, where their behavior is harder to monitor.
“Clicks are just the beginning, and everyone knows that there’s more value to tying ads to purchases,” said Benny Arbel, chief executive of myThings, an advertising-technology company that works with Google but isn’t involved in the pilot program. “If Google can demonstrate that people did not just click on an ad but that they actually bought something, that is the Holy Grail.”
This will mean a big new source of revenue for Google and a wealth of new data they will be able to collect about their users’ habits.
A top Android executive testified on Friday that Google did not look to copy the iPhone when it designed Android.
“We like to have our own identity,” Android engineering VP Hiroshi Lockheimer said, testifying in an Apple-Samsung lawsuit currently before a jury in San Jose, Calif.
So before the iPhone, Android looked like the BlackBerry. After the iPhone, Android looked like iOS. Total fucking accident.
The company has recently been demonstrating versions of the handset to developers in San Francisco and Seattle. It intends to announce the device in June and ship to stores around the end of September, the newspaper cited the unidentified sources as saying.
This will throw a wrench into the smartphone market. There’s a lot of things we don’t know, like the hardware and which version of Android (I assume) it will use. I have a feeling it will be a low-priced phone, which will put more pressure on other Android handset makers than it will Apple.
I love this app. I’ve been using the beta for maybe a week and it’s solid, although features are still being added.
Be well Android people and make your way to an Apple store.
The Robservatory:
I use a lot of cloud services for file storage, primarily Dropbox, but also Box and (begrudgingly, for certain shared projects) Google Drive.I also use iCloud, but not in any way that would be considered a true cloud file storage service. I use it strictly as a sync service for contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, Safari; I also use Back to My Mac.
But that’s it; I don’t use iCloud for cloud-based file management at all. Why not? Because iCloud in its current implementation is chock full of the stupid, at least for those of us who still use and rely on OS X.
When people say, “Apple doesn’t get Web Services”, this is a prime example of it.