[VIDEO] Apple:
From Emmy-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler, Dear… profiles game-changing icons and the people whose lives they’ve inspired.
10 icons, 10 episodes, all dropping June 5th.
Watch the trailer (embedded in the main Loop post) to get a sense of this.
Monica Chin, The Verge:
Nick Bryner, a high school senior in Los Angeles, had just completed his AP English Literature and Composition test last week. But when he snapped a photo of a written answer with his iPhone and attempted to upload it to the testing portal, it stopped responding.
The website got stuck on the loading screen until Bryner’s time ran out. Bryner failed the test. He’s retaking it in a few weeks.
In a nutshell, this is about the default file format for iPhone photos, which is HEIC, which brings higher quality images in a smaller file size than JPG. The fault here is with College Board not recognizing this issue in the first place.
This is a dumb mistake on their part. At the very least, they should have simply allowed the files to be submitted, flagging them as unreadable perhaps, but they could have solved the HEIC import problem after the fact and those test takers could have gone on to complete their tests.
Or, just saying, they could have spent a minute to test their system using an actual iPhone, which would have shown them the error of their ways.
That said, good to be aware of the iOS setting that lets you change from HEIC to JPG, in case this sort of thing ever happens to you. Head to:
Settings > Camera > Formats
You’re likely set to High Efficiency (that’s HEIC). Your other choice is Most Compatible (that’s JPG).
Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post:
When the covid-19 crisis abruptly canceled its season, Spence launched a weekly series of rebroadcasts to fill the silence. These broadcasts, even with their modest virtual attendance of 100 or so viewers per stream, have been essential to keeping Spence’s Santa Barbara-based chamber organization engaged with its audience.
That is, until that recent Sunday, when his audience started to disappear, one by one, all the way down to none.
And:
Just minutes into the airing of the concert, Facebook issued Spence a notification that his video — an original performance of an hour-long piece composed by Mozart in 1786 — somehow contained one minute and 18 seconds of someone else’s work, in this case, “audio owned by Naxos of America.”
FaceBook and YouTube are issuing takedown notices for an artist’s own performances of public domain music.
The fault is in the bot technology used to scan online music and compare it to recorded work. This is an overreach by, in this case, Naxos Records, who are trying to protect their recordings of, say, Mozart, but using bots that can’t tell the difference between one of their records and Camerata Pacifica’s own recording of the same work.
And this is definitely overreach by Facebook and YouTube.
[VIDEO] Scott Forstall, via Zoom, tells audience at Code Break about meeting Steve Jobs for the first time. The video is embedded in the main Loop post. Very entertaining. His part of the interview starts at about 31:51. Scott starts by talking about a formative childhood experience. The Steve Jobs bit starts at about 35:54.
Forstall is best known as the software lead for both iPhone and iPad. Here’s a link to his Wikipedia page, which is an interesting read on its own.
Twitter blog:
Before you Tweet, you’ll be able to choose who can reply with three options: everyone (standard Twitter, and the default setting), only people you follow, or only people you mention. Tweets with the latter two settings will be labeled and the reply icon will be grayed out so that it’s clear for people if they can’t reply. People who can’t reply will still be able to view, Retweet, Retweet with Comment, and like these Tweets.
Predictably, a bunch of tweets immediately rolled out daring folks to reply (with a greyed out reply button making it impossible), or taunting them about their inability to reply. Some came from Twitter itself. Some folks found the bits funny, others not so much.
Nonetheless, good to know the thinking behind all this. This is a limited rollout, so only some people have the ability to limit their replies.
This is a fascinating Hollywood Reporter interview with Mythic Quest series creators Megan Ganz and Rob McElhenney. Here’s just a taste, where McElhenney talks about the technical process:
HR: So you’re all on Zoom?
McELHENNEY: Yeah, you’d open your laptop and would call into Zoom — there would either be five people on there or 45, depending on what the scene or situation was. The way we’d capture the image and the sound was through iPhones. Each actor had three iPhones, and we’d shoot one iPhone at a time. As soon as a scene was wrapped, the phone would be sterilized, packaged, put in a secure area, picked up [by a courier] and brought to editorial, sterilized again, and then the footage would be uploaded to the Avid for the editors, who were working from their homes.
HR: Back up, why did you need three phones?
McELHENNEY: To get [footage] through to editorial as fast as possible, because we wanted to get this episode done and out while we were still in quarantine. The way we’d do each scene is they’d take their laptop/desktop cameras that you would see normally for a teleconferencing thing and they’d put the iPhone directly in front of that camera, so I essentially had video village from my house. I could see what every actor’s camera is picking up and you could also see the readings for the audio. Mike, the cinematographer, could double check all the settings and make sure that everything was running at the right revolution, frame rate, etc. Then we would run the scene, and the actors would be talking to one another the same way we’re talking right now [by phone], through our AirPods.
Season One of the show is complete and available on Apple TV+. The special quarantine episode drops tomorrow.
Apple rolled out iOS 13.5 yesterday (can it already be 13.5? Feels like yesterday when it was this unnumbered thing called iPhoneOS – but I digress). A big part of this update was the public release of Apple’s Exposure Notification API.
First things first, here’s a helpful guide, from Juli Clover, MacRumors, that should clear up some of the mystery and misinformation floating around.
Apple and Google developed the underlying APIs and Bluetooth functionality, but they are not developing the apps that use those APIs. Instead, the technology is being incorporated into apps designed by public health authorities worldwide, which can use the tracking information to send notifications on exposure and follow up with recommended next steps.
And there’s the rub. When you head to Settings > Privacy > Health, you’ll see a toggle to turn on COVID-19 Exposure Logging. Chances are excellent you will not be able to turn that setting on.
The explainer says:
You cannot turn on Exposure Logging without an authorized app installed that can send Exposure Notifications.
A bit down that Settings page, you’ll see a section called ACTIVE APP which lists any Exposure Notification app you have installed.
On my iPhone (and I’m betting, yours too), there’s no app installed, and no clue as to how to go looking for one.
I get that this is early days for the API rollout, but I did find this confusing. Would have been helpful to have some language in there that acknowledged the lack of apps and a pointer to a place to go look for an app for your area as they get rolled out. Perhaps a button that does a search for your area, or a map overlay with status showing any app coverage.
To be clear, the lack of apps is understandable. It takes time to create an app. But releasing the consumer-sided face of the Exposure Notification System without any apps and without a clear message on app status is confusing.
That aside, read through Juli’s writeup for a sense of what this will look like with an app installed.
Also worth reading, Ben Lovejoy’s take on this, With hindsight, Apple and Google should have created contact tracing apps.
[VIDEO] I found this fascinating to watch from beginning to end. I love fixing stuff, digging inside any sort of machine. This scratched an itch with an experience I can only dream about. Video embedded in main Loop post.
[VIDEO] Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline:
In a real shocker, the WWII naval drama Greyhound that Tom Hanks wrote and stars in has abruptly changed course and will berth at Apple. Originally on the Sony Pictures theatrical calendar for Father’s Day weekend, the film instead will become the biggest feature film commitment made by Apple to premiere on Apple TV+. It is the latest in a growing indication that Apple is making its move, and becoming as aggressive as any streamer or studio in auctions for the acquisition of films and TV projects.
This is no small thing. This is right in Tom Hanks’ sweet spot, historical drama (think Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon, Saving Private Ryan). And circumstances plopped this right in Apple’s lap. A big win for Apple.
As to the movie:
He’ll play George Krause, a career officer finally given command of a Navy destroyer, Greyhound, during the Battle of the Atlantic, which took place in the earliest months of America’s alliance with England and the Free Forces. Along with the enemy, Krause fights his self-doubts and personal demons to prove he belongs.
Trailer embedded in main Loop post.
Abner Li, 9to5Google:
Similar to the experience offered on Pixel devices, existing Fi subscribers with iPhones can replace their physical nano-SIM card with a downloadable eSIM. This capability is tied to version 2.5 of the Google Fi companion app, which rolled out yesterday. The release notes mention how “You can now activate Fi via eSIM on select iPhone devices.”
I’ve been curious about Google Fi as an alternative to my current provider. To get a sense of Google Fi coverage in your neck of the woods, pop over to this coverage map and enter an address.
The pricing is not dirt cheap, but it is definitely cheaper than my existing service.
Having a knee-jerk privacy reaction, have to read up on that. Wonder if Apple will ever rollout their own MVNO service. I suspect if that was ever going to happen, it would have happened already.
The Guardian:
Le Bonniec, 25, worked as a subcontractor for Apple in its Cork offices, transcribing user requests in English and French, until he quit in the summer of 2019 due to ethical concerns with the work. “They do operate on a moral and legal grey area,” he told the Guardian at the time, “and they have been doing this for years on a massive scale. They should be called out in every possible way.”
This news came out last summer, Apple apologized and changed their process:
Following the revelations of Le Bonniec and his colleagues, Apple promised sweeping changes to its “grading” program, which involved thousands of contractors listening to recordings made, both accidentally and deliberately, using Siri. The company apologised, brought the work in-house, and promised that it would only grade recordings from users who had explicitly opted-in to the practice.
And:
“I listened to hundreds of recordings every day, from various Apple devices (eg. iPhones, Apple Watches, or iPads). These recordings were often taken outside of any activation of Siri, eg in the context of an actual intention from the user to activate it for a request. These processings were made without users being aware of it, and were gathered into datasets to correct the transcription of the recording made by the device,” he said.
Le Bonniec’s argument seems not to take issue with Apple’s changed process, but rather that the company has not faced what he deems appropriate investigation and consequences.
Nice roll-up of all the leaks and rumors about Apple’s over-ear headphones. Product-specific leaks aside, the manufacturing aspect of this is notable. If recent reporting is to be believed, Apple is courting alternatives to Foxconn, as well as additional alternatives to China for product manufacture and assembly.
[VIDEO] If you read the title and instantly thought of The Temptations, then this is definitely for you, a lip-sync tour de force.
And if the title means nothing more to you than social distancing in the time of coronavirus, that’s just fine, dig in anyway.
Great song, great performance. Video embedded in the main Loop post.
OSXDaily:
This article is going to demonstrate how to use and connect external storage drives to iPhone or iPad, including external hard disks, USB flash drives, SD cards, and other common storage formats. You’ll then have direct access to the files on those storage mediums, right from iOS or iPadOS.
Good writeup. Worth bookmarking and passing along.
Start by reading this New York Times piece, F.B.I. Finds Links Between Pensacola Gunman and Al Qaeda:
The F.B.I. recently bypassed the security features on at least one of Mr. Alshamrani’s two iPhones to discover his Qaeda links. Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I., said the bureau had “effectively no help from Apple,” but he would not say how investigators obtained access to the phone.
Gruber then proceeds to take down the Times’ narrative, piece-by-piece, with a quote Apple shared with the media in response to the FBI’s “no help” claim, ending his take with this:
Apple cooperated in every way they technically could. The DOJ is not asking for Apple’s cooperation unlocking existing iPhones — they’re asking Apple to make future iPhones insecure.
Gruber’s take is worth reading, soup to nuts. He does a solid job responding to the “make a backdoor that only white hats can get through” argument, an impossible ask.
I’d only add this little nugget, from NBCNews, that might explain how the FBI got in:
Software called Hide UI, created by Grayshift, a company that makes iPhone-cracking devices for law enforcement, can track a suspect’s passcode when it’s entered into a phone, according to two people in law enforcement, who asked not to be named out of fear of violating non-disclosure agreements.
The spyware, a term for software that surreptitiously tracks users, has been available for about a year but this is the first time details of its existence have been reported, in part because of the non-disclosure agreements police departments sign when they buy a device from Grayshift known as GrayKey.
It’s a cat and mouse game. IMO, a very important one.
Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is acquiring older movies and shows for its TV+ streaming service, aiming to build a back catalog of content that can better stack up against the huge libraries available on Netflix, Hulu and Disney+.
And:
The company’s video-programming executives have taken pitches from Hollywood studios about licensing older content for TV+ and have bought some shows and movies, according to people familiar with the matter.
No specifics. And I’ve not yet seen outside content appearing on Apple TV+.
But I did notice an ad for a new, non-Apple, Scooby Doo movie on Apple’s front page the other day. I can’t ever remember Apple placing an ad on their front page that wasn’t specifically tied to an Apple product.
Wonder if this was simply a push to get folks to buy/rent the movie on Apple TV. Or if this is a bit of a sign of Apple TV+ loosening the “only original content” restriction.
[VIDEO] I believe we’re now all caught up with this series. Love every one of them, from 1979 to 1986. I believe 1987 is in the works. 1986 is embedded in the main Loop post.
Got 10 minutes? Want to learn Markdown?
Follow the link. Markdown is worth knowing, it’s easy to learn, and this tutorial is focused and efficient. Easy peasy.
[VIDEO] Apple:
Apple today announced that its critically hailed workplace comedy series, “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet,” will return Friday, May 22, with the debut of “Mythic Quest: Quarantine,” a special new episode written, filmed and edited in quarantine.
Big fan of this show. The quarantine episode was filmed (as you’d expect) entirely on iPhones.
The trailer is embedded in the main Loop post.
The Statesider:
Before 1984, I had never encountered the word “font.” Then a Macintosh computer showed up in my house.
A beige block with a too-small black and white screen and a thingy called a “mouse,” the first thing I saw when I turned it on was “Welcome to Macintosh” in what I would soon learn was a font called Chicago.
The linked map is interesting. Had no idea there were so many US-city-named fonts. Obviously, a world map would have a ton more.
But the mention of the original Macintosh fonts brought me down a bit of a rabbit hole. Can you name the original Mac fonts? Here’s a link to a Wikipedia page that has the answer.
Apple:
Like most high school seniors, Elle Smith hasn’t had the year they imagined. Prom was cancelled. A graduation ceremony is up in the air. But one thing Elle hasn’t compromised on is weekly virtual meetings of their Austin, Texas, high school’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance, a club for LGBTQ students and allies to come together and find community. Elle restarted the club their freshman year and has led it ever since.
And:
It’s this commitment to community and advocacy that led to Elle’s being named Student Advocate of the Year by GLSEN, a US-based LGBTQ organization that has inspired and helps lead a global movement to end discrimination, harassment, and bullying in schools. GLSEN supports student advocates like Elle and provides the resources that help them change their communities, one conversation at a time.
And:
GLSEN is just one of the organizations whose work on behalf of LGBTQ people Apple directly supports with its annual Apple Watch Pride Edition band and face collection.
Here’s a link to the Pride Edition Sport Band, and to the Pride Edition Nike Sport Band.
[VIDEO] I love this series. It started with 1979 and there’s one for every year between 1979 and 1985. Every one of them worth watching.
Video embedded in main Loop post. Enjoy.
Charlie Harrington:
Not one block away from our house did I spot something: a yellowed plastic box amid a pile of trash. No. It couldn’t be. I stopped, and went back to the trash.
It was an Apple IIe. With its CRT monitor. And a dual floppy drive.
Just. SITTING. THERE.
This is a pretty fun read. I have to say, if I came across an Apple II, just sitting in someone’s trash, I would definitely grab it, if only for nostalgia’s sake.
How about you?
Eater:
Owners of the Bay Area’s restaurants agree on one thing: It’ll be damn near impossible to stay in business if their dining room capacity is cut. While California’s guidelines for restaurant reopening don’t specify a specific slash in capacity, they do require social distancing measures between patrons and workers, which means that to make enough money to remain afloat, restaurants need way more space to serve diners.
In response, officials across the Bay Area have discussed taking over street space for restaurant use — and now, Berkeley has put that discussion into action, as today it introduced legislation to fully close many of the city’s streets, repurposing them as seating areas for the city’s vibrant restaurant scene.
See also: Lithuanian capital to be turned into vast open-air cafe.
Makes me wonder, is this a temporary adjustment, or more of a seismic shift in thinking that will stay for the long haul?
This is not a rumor. It’s a press release from TSMC itself.
TSMC today announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the U.S. federal government and the State of Arizona.
As a reminder, TSMC is a chip fabricator with a long relationship with Apple, starting with the the A5 SoC back in 2011, and is said to be the chip fabricator behind the rumored ARM-based Mac (that last bit is a rumor).
Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024.
Can’t help but think about the fabled Foxconn plant in Wisconsin.
[VIDEO] Lots of detail here, with just a bit on the lower end model (with two ports) and the MacBook Air. But mostly a thoughtful running commentary on the high end model. Video embedded in main Loop post.
In a nutshell, it’s all about privacy. But David Shayer’s TidBITS writeup does a nice job of explaining some of the details on how this is achieved.
Kif Leswing, CNBC:
More than 45,000 people have signed up for Utah’s contact tracing app, Healthy Together, since it was released in late April, the app’s developers told CNBC. That represents about 2% of the state’s population, but could still be helpful to the state’s health department as they attempt to track and notify people who might have been exposed.
And:
Healthy Together was built by Twenty, a social media start-up that previously built an app that helps young people meet up in person. After the pandemic started, the state of Utah reached out to the company, the founders said. With their staff of about 50 employees, they repurposed their social media-oriented technology for contact tracing in three weeks.
Privacy? No. Here’s how it works:
“Jeff and Sarah are two individuals in this example who don’t know each other but they both have the app on their phones. And so the both phones are emitting Bluetooth and GPS signals,” Allgood said. “Through that data we can identify whether or not two people have spent some time together.”
Here’s the costs involved:
Utah’s governor’s office spent $2.75 million for the app and other improvements, and will pay $300,000 per month in maintenance fees, according to public records cited by Utahpolicy.com, a website focusing on local politics.
One issue I struggle with, no matter the approach, is adoption. If few people (2% of the population, in Utah’s case) sign up for the app (fair to assume even fewer actually use the app?), can it still be effective?
And with all that juicy data out there, how long until that data finds its way into other hands, hands without the public good at heart?
The user also has a choice to share their location data with the public health department if they test positive, and any Bluetooth or GPS data is deleted after 30 days, Twenty said.
Good to know.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
A number of users are now airing their frustrations about battery life issues. A slice of Magic Keyboard owners are noticing that their iPad’s battery drops quickly when using the keyboard with the backlight enabled, and some reports indicate battery drain problems arise even when the iPad is idle and not in use.
I’ve seen a good number of people complain about this on Twitter. Hopefully, this is fixable with a software/firmware patch.
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Italian website iSpazio today reported that Apple plans to reopen 10 of its 17 stores in Italy on May 19, excluding locations in the Piedmont and Lombardy regions.
Side note: Keep an eye on Michael Steeber’s updating map of US Apple Store openings.