June 27, 2013
June 26, 2013
Tech companies applaud overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act ∞
“Apple strongly supports marriage equality and we consider it a civil rights issue. We applaud the Supreme Court for its decisions today,” an Apple spokesman told AllThingsD in a statement.
66% prefer iOS 7 icons ∞
A lot of them won by a huge margin too.
Amplified: M0nk3y8 ∞
Dan and Jim discuss Jim’s review of OS X Mavericks and they get into the overall design, the iCloud Keychain, iWork, and the Calendar. Later they discuss Windows 8.1 updates and talk about the changes to the Xbox One policies. Afterwards they get into their current favorite acoustic guitars, the therapeutic effects of strumming versus picking, their early experiences learning guitar, and more.
Sponsored by Shopify, Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME6 for 30% off), and Squarespace (use code DANSENTME6 for 10% off).
Will Apple ever ‘get’ gaming? ∞
Federico Viticci:
On the other hand, in the current state of App Store economics, it’s difficult to imagine how Apple could lure major console publishers to release AAA titles under $30 and that aren’t low-res ports, companion apps, or dumbed-down versions of console/PC games. Does Apple care about having the next Destiny on iOS first? The new Call of Duty? Will future iOS hardware be capable of running those kinds of games? Or is Apple just fine with attacking the market from the low end, taking more time to see how game developers will react to new iOS software and hardware in the next five years?
Will Apple ever develop a culture and appreciation for gaming as a medium, not just an App Store category? While others (namely Microsoft) are trying to add more media and entertainment layers on top of existing game infrastructures, Apple is in the opposite situation — running the largest media store and selling devices that are increasingly used as gaming machines, but that still lack the catalog and support of dedicated home consoles.
They’ve come a long way. But they still have a long way to go.
Six-year-old Metal girl
If you want to skip the intro, move ahead to 0:43. Then watch this little girl tear it up. Much respect!
Making the NetNewsWire 4 app icon ∞
Gorgeous work.
One million Android users downloaded adware in the last year ∞
Adware is the most prevalent app-based mobile threat around the world today. In the past year, Lookout estimates that more than one million American Android users downloaded adware. In fact, 6.5 percent of free apps in Google Play contain adware.
Everything is perfectly fine. Between the malware and adware, every Android user will be infected soon.
1964 interview with Louis Armstrong
Louis will always be one of the greatest ever.
iOS 7 and education ∞
iOS 7 provides powerful new ways to configure and deploy devices across institutions and features to help schools purchase, distribute and manage apps with ease. App Store license management, seamless enrollment in mobile device management (MDM) and single sign on are just some of the capabilities in iOS 7 that make it ideal for education.
June 25, 2013
First Look: OS X Mavericks
After Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference ended, Apple supplied me with a 13-inch MacBook Pro and a copy of OS X Mavericks to evaluate and post my thoughts on The Loop. The version of Mavericks I tested was newer than the one released at WWDC, but not as new as the one released on Monday.
I’ve been using Mavericks as my only computer, doing my daily work on the web site, preparing The Loop Magazine for publication, interacting on social networks, listening to music and everything else I would normally do in the run of a day. For me, this was the only way to truly evaluate what the operating system could do.
I have my workflow down to a science now and I don’t really like to deviate from that too much. While this first look isn’t about third-party apps, I did want to note that I have not come across a single app that would just flat out not work under Mavericks. It’s an important consideration when looking at an operating system, so I thought I’d mention it.
Of course, there are some bigger features to look at, but Apple is famous for adding those little details and touches to OS X that make things a little easier for the user. One such detail in Mavericks happens after the install a new application—if you open LaunchPad, the new app has “magic dust” circling it, showing the user that the app has been newly installed and not yet opened. Not a huge feature, but a nice little touch.
The New Features: The Finder
One of the features that excited the crowd at WWDC was the ability to have tabs in the Finder. If you’re used to having multiple Finder windows open on a regular basis, you will really enjoy this feature.
Finder Tabs allow you to have multiple tabs in one Finder window. You can have different views for each tab—one tab can be in icon view, while the other can be in list view sorted by date—depending on your needs.
The tabs aren’t just for looks or for giving you the ability to avoid opening multiple windows, you can do things with the tabs too. For instance, you can copy or move files between tabs by simply dragging a file from the window of one tab to the title bar of another 1.
Another enhancement to the Finder is the addition of tags. Anyone who’s ever worked on a blog knows all about tags—and probably hates them. They sound like a good idea at the time, but they soon become more hassle then they’re worth. This was my thought when I started using Finder tags.
I will admit that Finder tags are a lot more useful than Web site tags. In the Finder I’m looking for a specific piece of information or document that I absolutely need. That makes tagging more important. However, I’ve been using Spotlight search for years and it is so good at searching—even within documents— that I’m not sure I need the extra help of tags to find what I’m looking for. Of course, the one thing Spotlight can’t do is find groups of documents—here, tagging would excel.
iCloud Keychain
If there’s one feature that stood out to me during the WWDC keynote, it was iCloud Keychain. If you’ve ever been on your iPhone or iPad and tried to remember any of the more complicated passwords you have, then you feel my pain.
Like many iOS and Mac users, I own many copies of 1Password. It’s an incredibly good app and it syncs between all of your devices, but it can’t give you access to your passwords from within Safari on iOS. I understand that it’s not their fault, but as a user, that’s the type of functionality I really want.
If I’m going to keep all of my sites and data protected with hard-to-crack passwords, there has to be a convenient way to retrieve them. iCloud Keychain promises to do that.
With iCloud Keychain, passwords you store on your Mac will be synced with the iOS devices you chose. Just like on your Mac, when you go to a Web site on your iOS device, iCloud Keychain will fill in the information for you. In other words, it will be available in Safari on iOS.
iCloud Keychain uses 256-bit AES encryption and the information is always encrypted on your devices.
Notifications
I said when OS X Mountain Lion was released that notifications was one of the my favorite new features. Having notifications popup meant that I didn’t have to waste time looking at my email, chats or Twitter whenever I heard the chime of a new message. All I had to do was look at the notification and keep working if it wasn’t important.
If it was important or it was something I wanted to act on right away, I would go to that app and respond. The new Notifications takes that a step further and makes them even better.
Now, when a notification comes up, I can click on it and reply on the spot. I don’t need to go to the app. This is incredibly convenient and productive. While it does take a couple of seconds to send off a quick response, I never leave the app I’m working in and I don’t lose my concentration.
Calendar
There are a couple of new features in Calendar that users will like a lot.
Continuous Scrolling is the one that I find most useful. My calendaring needs aren’t as extreme as some people that have a lot of meetings lined up everyday, so I tend to take a longer view of things. Having the ability to continuously scroll weeks or even months makes the calendaring tasks I do much easier.
The event inspector in Calendar is new too and includes Maps integration, travel time and address autocomplete. Again with most of my meetings happening over the phone, these features won’t mean a whole lot to me, but I can definitely see how they would be useful.
Maps
Maps looks great. I’ve been having a great time searching for places, but that’s not what will impress you about Maps.
Maps has a new feature in Mavericks that will allow you to send the address you are searching for to your iOS devices. This is obviously a very smart thing to do.
Like most people, if I’m going somewhere, I’ll search on my computer before I leave, not on my iPhone. With Maps, you can choose to send those directions to your iPhone, so you just have to tap and you’re away. I love that.
Maps is also integrated throughout Mavericks, so it becomes one of those features that’s everywhere.
Design
While OS X Mavericks looks very similar to Mountain Lion, there have been some design changes.
The changes seem most prominent to me in the Notes, Calendar and Address Book apps. That makes sense because they were arguably the apps that had some of the most skeuomorphic elements in them. Gone is the stitching and ruled paper—it’s replaced with nothing, really.
I find Calendar and Address Book a bit too stark for my tastes. It’s like loading a Web site without the CSS—it seems like there was too much taken away. However, I don’t mind Notes. Maybe it’s just the fact that they left some color in there that makes it work for me.
It will be interesting to see what the finished product looks like.
Integration
The real shining point of Mavericks is the continued integration between OS X and iOS. Whether it’s Maps directions shared to your mobile device or passwords being synced from your iPhone to your Mac, Apple is making their entire ecosystem work for the user.
To be clear, I see this as more of an integration of the user’s information, not the two operating systems. Apple is using the best operating system for mobile and desktop uses, while allowing the user to sync information between the two.
We use Apple products because they make it easy to access our information no matter where we are—on our MacBook, iMac or on the go with an iPhone or iPad. Everything syncs, everything is the same no matter where you are, and that’s important.
Apple’s ecosystem and infrastructure are things that it’s competition are trying desperately to replicate, but haven’t quite been able to do. Apple’s continued integration of information will continue to set it apart moving forward.
Update: I clarified that 1Password couldn’t give you access to passwords within Safari in iOS.
This is one of the reasons I often have many Finder windows open on my Mac. ↩
Shitty iconography ∞
I have to admit, Michael Mulvey made me laugh.
The Loop sponsorships available ∞
We have a few sponsorships open on The Loop for July and August, including one for next week. If you have a product or service you would like to get in front of The Loop readers, get in touch with me.
“Designed by Apple” campaign goes to print ∞
I really like this campaign. It feels real and heartfelt.
Freddie Mercury and David Bowie isolated vocal tracks on “Under Pressure” ∞
Kind of haunting listening to Freddie.
Mixing Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” ∞
If you want to know how the magic of audio mixing is done, go right to the source.
Barnes & Noble abandons Nook hardware ∞
As was seemingly just a matter of time, the struggling book seller confirmed that it is abandoning its Nook hardware business and will instead rely on a ”partnership model for manufacturing in the competitive color tablet market” that will seek third-party manufacturers to build eReaders that run Nook software.
The tablet business is tough and companies like Barnes & Noble figured they could swoop in and easily grab share from Amazon. It’s not that easy.
Microsoft to bring “Age of Empires” to iOS ∞
Microsoft Corp will offer its popular “Age of Empires” game for Apple Inc’s iPhone and other smartphones through a tie-up with Japan’s KLab Inc, seeking to capture growth in a booming mobile game market.
Benjamin: A Franklin style task manager for iPhone ∞
Benjamin is a task manager based on the FranklinCovey method of time management. Built specifically to help replace your heavy Franklin Planner, Benjamin stores your master task list, daily task lists, projects, and daily notes so they are always at your fingertips. Best of all, Benjamin lets you sync your information between iPhone and iPad so that it’s conveniently available whether you’re at your desk or on the go.
I remember using the paper version of this. Of course, it didn’t sync and correcting entries was a pain. This looks good.
Goodbye Angry Mac Bastards
At Macworld Expo in San Francisco back in 2009, John C. Welch and I were having drinks At Dave’s, a bar on Third Street in San Francisco, just stumbling distance across the street from the Westin San Francisco Market Street hotel. It was our usual haunt after hours during Macworld Expo. As we are wont to do, John and I were complaining. We complained about the stupid things we’d read about Apple in the mainstream press. We complained about bloggers who didn’t have a clue. We complained about analysts whose prognostications about Apple and its products seemed as far-fetched from reality as bad science fiction. (Yeah, Gene Munster, four years later, we’re still waiting for your goddamned Apple television.)
At one point or another it dawned on us that rebelling against the stupid things we’d read was perfect fodder for a podcast. We recruited Darby Lines, who went by the nom de Twitter “@Angry_Drunk.” He was on the same wavelength: posting impassioned, alcohol-fueled retorts against the stupid on his own site. We found a kindred spirit and a brother in arms (not to mention a formidable drinking buddy). Thus Angry Mac Bastards was born.
For the past 213 shows – more than 4 years (we took a few weeks off here and there) – we have, each week, dissected and exposed what we consider to be the worst Apple-related news and analysis we could find. And we’ve done a pretty good job of it. We continue to do a good job of it.
The show isn’t for everyone, obviously. We yell and scream a lot. We use dirty words. We say some really nasty things. It’s puerile. It’s occasionally obscene. We’ve gotten our knocks in ratings on the podcast section of iTunes from people who just don’t like it, or us. And that’s okay. AMB was never intended to be popular or mainstream. It’s our version of pirate radio, speaking truth against power. Or against stupidity, anyway.
At first, it was just us entertaining ourselves, then people started listening. Then they started sending us links. Now each week we filter the stuff we come up with and the stuff that people send us to create a clown parade of the worst buffoonery imaginable – from self-aggrandizing “columnists” on Forbes’ blogs who tout themselves as subject matter experts to people who really ought to know better – experienced pundits, bloggers and tech reporters willing to distort facts to suit their own narratives, to analysts who just generally prove quarter after quarter that they don’t have the slightest clue as to what Apple is doing or how it works.
I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done, and I find it endlessly rewarding when people approach me online or in real life, as many did at WWDC, to say how much they enjoy the show. We’ve got a group of very loyal sponsors who have made it worth our time to keep the show going all this time, and to them I’m very grateful as well.
But a while ago I realized something: AMB had stopped being fun for me to do. It had begun to feel like work. Like drudgery. I’d just lost my energy doing the show, and I was tired of hearing myself yell. I figured if I was tired of hearing myself yell, others probably were too. And that seemed like as good a reason as any to step away from the mic.
Starting next week, I’m handing over the reins to our frequent guest-host (and podcaster extraordinaire) Kelly Guimont. Every time we have Kelly on we always get a flood of responses from listeners who love what she brings to the show – a different energy, a different sensibility, and an infectious laugh. She’s razor-sharp and has absolutely no bullshit tolerance. In short, a perfect (and formidable) Angry Mac Bastard.
I’ll continue podcasting – I’ve already told John and Darby that I’m open to occasionally guest-hosting or filling in for someone when they can’t make it, and I’m a frequent guest on other podcasts. I’m also a weekly fixture on the iMore podcast (where I’m managing editor). In the end, I’m very happy to be leaving the show in John, Darby and Kelly’s hands, and I can’t wait to see what they’ll do next.
And thanks, as always, to Jim Dalrymple at the Loop, Loopinsight.com, for our kick-ass intro music.
June 24, 2013
Pandora pays songwriter $16.89 for 1 million plays ∞
Soon you will be hearing from Pandora how they need Congress to change the way royalties are calculated so that they can pay much much less to songwriters and performers. For you civilians webcasting rates are “compulsory” rates. They are set by the government (crazy, right?). Further since they are compulsory royalties, artists can not “opt out” of a service like Pandora even if they think Pandora doesn’t pay them enough. The majority of songwriters have their rates set by the government, too, in the form of the ASCAP and BMI rate courts–a single judge gets to decide the fate of songwriters (technically not a “compulsory” but may as well be). This is already a government mandated subsidy from songwriters and artists to Silicon Valley. Pandora wants to make it even worse.
[Via DF]
Screen Time Podcast: Beyond the Physical ∞
Jim Dalrymple (The Loop) and Tom Hall (DOOM, Commander Keen) join Moisés to talk about the future of TV, content, and connected devices in the context of WWDC, E3, and how we like to consume content. Featured interview: Acorn Media VP of Digital Jen Linck.
Long form overload ∞
Many of us were too tired of the short, bloggy content that often tasted like a day old popcorn left outside on the porch. We all yearned for a deeply reported, insightful and contextual and nuanced bit of writing. And thus began the long form resurgence. It is enjoyable to read such pieces, but lately I am seeing a lot of stories that long form, because long form is new new thing to do.
Doing anything because it’s the “new” thing is wrong. However, whether short blog posts or long form content, if it’s done well, it can be enjoyable.
RIP Richard Matheson
Say goodbye to one of a giant in the world of fantasy, horror and science fiction. Richard Matheson passed away on Monday at age 87.
If you’re not really into fantasy, horror and science fiction novels and short stories, you still might know the Hollywood films based on Matheson’s stories. He was a prolific screenwriter in his own respect, with credits on the original The Twilight Zone (the legendary “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” episode is Matheson’s) and Star Trek (“The Enemy Within”).
Matheson’s novels included “I Am Legend,” “The Shrinking Man,” “A Stir of Echoes,” “Hell House,” “Bid Time Returns” and “What Dreams May Come,” all of which received Hollywood movie treatments.
It was a Matheson story – Duel – the story of a man trying to escape from a psychotic trucker – that helped to launch the career of a young Hollywood director named Steven Spielberg (made for TV, it was Spielberg’s first feature-length production).
Truly, a giant among his peers.
Hum: A Songwriting app for iPhone ∞
These looks like a great idea, especially since I often hum voice memos to myself about ideas I have.
The secret startup of ex-Apple hardware guru Tim Bucher ∞
Former Apple executive Tim Bucher has hired away some key technical leaders from Netflix, Apple, YouTube, Amazon and Intel for a new stealth hardware startup.
A home media platform, eh. Interesting.
ZZ Top “La Grange” isolated guitars ∞
In addition to listening to the guitars, take a look at the pointers Bobby Owsinski picks out of the song.
What makes a good QA person ∞
Brent Simmons on his QA person Nick:
Nick does excellent work.
Which means that when I’m busy and have a lot to do, I curse his name, the air he breathes, and everybody who’s ever been nice to him. I suspect his heart is black and terrible and full of hatred toward me personally.
Which is just to say, again: Nick does excellent work.
Perfect.
All the apps have been written ∞
I want to take a time machine back to when I was 20 and Gibbs-slap myself… hard.
A great story from Kevin Hoctor about writing software and a wonderful bit of advice for writing an app.