Hard to really explain this. Just turn on your sound, click through the headline link, and play around with the settings.
To me, the real value comes in getting a sound you like, then leaving it play. To me, perfect background music for when you really need to focus.
Then, when you’re ready for more sounds, head over to the main myNoise site page for lots more to explore.
[VIDEO] Even if you know of these features, there’s no substitute for seeing them in action, especially useful if you’ve not yet made the leap into the iOS 13 beta. Jeff Benjamin does a great job showing each of these off. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
[VIDEO] Bee populations are struggling and this genius design hopes to help solve that problem and bring bees into the tiniest spaces. All you need is about 2 feet x 2 feet and some spare cash and you’ve got yourself a beehive.
As you’ll see in the video (worth watching, embedded in the main Loop post), the design means you won’t need any special gear to handle the hive and harvest honey, and it appears safe for kids, too.
This is an Indiegogo project that has already raised three times the money they needed.
I’ve got some interest and experience in commercial real estate, so this article drew me in on several levels. Big picture, though, is the thought of someone, someday, buying this space. Would they tear down the building and build something denser, with no regard for the art of Apple Park’s design?
Or, will some future company move in, take the space as is? Or will Apple Park’s future be more the stuff of science fiction, with future civilizations puzzling over the perfect roundness of this long ago artifact?
Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider:
According to sources familiar with the matter, Amazon has quietly outpaced subscriber additions versus its more well-known competitors. A report by the Financial Times claims that Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers have grown by about 70% in the last year.
Apple Music is said to be at a 60 million paid subscribers, Spotify at 100 million, and Amazon at about 32 million.
Spotify has done this with no hardware to leverage. Apple Music, obviously, has the iPhone and Apple Watch, with HomePod a small slice of the hardware listens.
Amazon has no phone, but Echo devices are a huge access point.
Will Apple pursue Amazon’s Echo, build out the HomePod space with more Siri access devices priced to compete with Echo?
To me, in the home, Amazon has an advantage, with low-priced Echos a Trojan horse for Amazon Music. Outside the home, on the road, Apple has the advantage, with iPhones, Apple Watch, and CarPlay all working in harmony to support the ecosystem.
Bottom line, I think it’s a matter of time until Spotify feels the squeeze from both sides.
[VIDEO] This is an interesting story. It’s not about Apple Watch, and it’s from three years ago. Watch the video, embedded in the main Loop post.
At the heart of the story is a Gizmo smartwatch, specifically designed for kids. It sells for about $170.
What I find interesting about this watch is its incredibly simple design. It lets a child make and receive phone calls, but only to and from a specified list of phone numbers, a list that their parents set up and edit.
There’s a location tracker, presumably only available to their parents. And there’s a geofence, alerting parents when the watch leaves a specific location. So if the fence is set up to the grounds of a child’s school, the parents receive an alert if the child leaves that area.
There’s more to the Gizmo, but you get the idea. Now on to my point.
I’d like to see Apple add a mode like this to watchOS. All of the capabilities above exist already in watchOS. Imagine a starter Apple Watch with these limitations, perfect for a child, but also perfect for an elderly user, or for someone with limitations that might make it difficult to navigate the full watchOS.
And, while we’re at it, how about a similar, limited version of iPadOS? One with very large icons, and customizable. Boot it, and the only icons that show up are the ones it is set up with. And each of the icons can drive an editable shortcut. The shortcut might make a phone call to a specific person. Or send a text message. Or anything.
My mom is legally blind, and all the existing solutions in the Apple ecosystem are too complex for her to manage. She feels cutoff, but she’s smart, and eager for some solution she can manage. A limited Apple Watch or iPad would be a real blessing for her.
[AUDIO] If you’ve never heard Apple founder Steve Wozniak speak before, this is a great listen. The audio is embedded in the main Loop post. Woz is so human, so himself, so natural. No pretense at all.
He does dig into Facebook at about 10:40 into the call, addressing the headlines that claimed he told the world to ditch Facebook.
If you are into putting stickers on your Mac, especially the gummiest, refuse to come off stickers, check out this clever idea.
Lisa Vaas, Sophos:
Apple has a new billboard and a far more specific target. This time, the company has erected a privacy billboard at the site of a developing “smart city” called Quayside. Some are calling the neighborhood, on Toronto’s eastern waterfront, a privacy dystopia in the making. It’s going to be sensor-thick, and it’s tangled up with the uber data-collecting Google: the developer is Sidewalk Labs, which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
And:
The vision for Quayside is that of a smart city built “from the internet up”. As the Atlantic reported last November, sensor-collected data will be used “to disrupt everything:” traffic congestion, healthcare, housing, zoning regulations, and greenhouse-gas emissions.
Apple’s billboard hangs high over the city construction and reads:
We’re in the business of staying out of yours.
Here’s a link to a photo of the billboard, looming over Google’s Sidewalk Labs sign.
Matthew Panzerino, TechCrunch:
Apple has disabled the Apple Watch Walkie Talkie app due to an unspecified vulnerability that could allow a person to listen to another customer’s iPhone without consent, the company told TechCrunch this evening.
Apple’s statement:
We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible. Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously. We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer’s iPhone without consent. We apologize again for this issue and the inconvenience.
Sounds like this is a temporary stoppage until they can get a workaround to the vulnerability.
Does anyone reading this use the Walkie-Talkie app? If so, ping me, I’m interested in the use case.
[VIDEO] Ran across this series of commercials the other day. They were for Apple Federal Credit Union and spoofed the old “I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC” Apple commercials. And when I say spoofed, they get it pretty right. There’s the casual shirt vs the suit and tie, the fit vs the slightly paunchy, and the whimsical piano as soundtrack.
It’s clearly intentional. And it kind of works. My favorite of the series is embedded in the main Loop post.
Oh, and the URL? TheOtherApple.org. Nice.
Ross Perot was, indeed, a fascinating character. He ran for President back in 1992 and became a bit of a legend, part of popular culture. He’s also known for funding Steve Jobs’ NeXT venture to the tune of $20 million. Of course, Apple bought NeXT and Steve came back to Apple.
Ross Perot died yesterday and the linked story, from last year, reemerged. Perot was a compelling character and this a worthwhile read.
So many pieces here. First, why do we need another HBO streaming service? To me, this is like having a MacBook and a MacBook Air. Confusing branding for the customer.
And consider the name HBO Max. WarnerMedia owns HBO which owns Cinemax and Cinemax is frequently shortened to Max in branding and on cable. Is this completely coincidental? I have yet to see mention of Cinemax in the marketing materials.
And the biggest piece? The new service will poach Friends from Netflix. Yet another monthly tentpole service. Want Friends? That’s going to cost you another $10 a month.
Other tentpole services include Star Trek shows from CBS Online, Star Wars/Pixar from Disney+, and The Office from NBC’s coming streaming service. Waiting for a new Seinfeld service to emerge. Not kidding.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
Apple has lowered the cost of higher-end Mac solid state storage options, cutting the price in half for many of the configurations.
For example, the 4 TB SSD of the 512 GB 15-inch MacBook Pro used to cost $2800. It now costs $1,400. These savings are seen across the iMac, iMac Pro, Mac mini, and MacBook Air line.
Great stuff, read the post for more examples.
Note that a 1TB SSD upgrade for the MacBook Air is $600. That is a significant price drop, but consider that a 1TB PCIe SSD runs from $99 to $217 on Amazon.
I would love the chance to buy a 128GB MacBook Air and, as my budget allows, upgrade to a 1TB SSD in the future, something that has become impossible with tough-to-open machines filled with sticky tape and glue, not to mention soldered on components. Adding RAM and storage is one way to get more life out of older machines. This might not be in the best interests of Apple’s short term bottom line, but it certainly is better for my pocketbook and the planet.
Reuters:
Apple Inc has started a program in Shanghai to help Chinese developers create apps as part of the iPhone maker’s efforts to build out its services business in one of its most critical overseas markets.
The program, or accelerator, will hold lectures, workshops and networking sessions for developers regularly, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. More than 2.5 million developers for Apple’s platforms are from greater China, a region that includes Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China.
Apple has two main problems to solve in China to bolster revenues: Build more iPhones and raise services. The developer training program won’t help with the first, but it will definitely help with the second, as App Store revenue is booked under services.
[VIDEO] Think about the opening of any Simpsons episode, with Homer’s dangerous interaction with plutonium, Lisa playing her saxophone, the grocery store and crazy car ride, and the couch at the end.
Now watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. It’s art.
I have gotten into the habit of putting a post-it over my Mac camera. Some folks laugh at this, but this is exactly the reason why.
That said, the headline link is a Medium post with all the details. Most damning, though:
Additionally, if you’ve ever installed the Zoom client and then uninstalled it, you still have a localhost web server on your machine that will happily re-install the Zoom client for you, without requiring any user interaction on your behalf besides visiting a webpage. This re-install ‘feature’ continues to work to this day.
If you’ve ever installed Zoom on your Mac and want to check for this local server, go to Terminal (it’s in Applications/Utilities) and type:
lsof -i :19421
If you enter the command and nothing comes back, you’re good. If you do get a result, you’ve got that web server running. If you don’t intentionally want that server running, here’s a tweet with instructions on killing it.
One final note on this. Here’s Zoom’s official response to all of this, posted on their blog as Response to Video-On Concern.
If you are a Zoom user, worth reading the linked Medium post and Zoom’s response. Then stick some post-its on your Mac camera. Just to be safe.
Apple:
Apple today updated MacBook Air, adding True Tone to its Retina display for a more natural viewing experience, and lowering the price to $1,099, with an even lower price of $999 for college students.
And:
In addition, the entry-level $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro has been updated with the latest 8th-generation quad-core processors, making it two times more powerful than before. It also now features Touch Bar and Touch ID, a True Tone Retina display and the Apple T2 Security Chip, and is available for $1,199 for college students.
Apple will throw in a pair of Beats Studio 3 Wireless headphones with either of these Macs as part of the back to school promo.
I particularly like the tagline on the MacBook Air section of Apple’s official Mac page: Lightness strikes again.
Remind me the difference between a MacBook and a MacBook Air again? Oh, wait, looks like the MacBook has been officially end-of-lifed. On that same Mac page, you’ll see the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro as the full laptop lineup. No MacBook. I’m good with that.
[VIDEO] Both ads are embedded in the main Loop post.
The first ad is called “Nap”. It’s subtle. The takeaway for me was mostly about attention detection, the requirement that you make eye contact to trigger your iPhone’s Face ID approval. Even a squint will do.
The second ad is called “Face ID is even more secure than Touch ID”. Interesting that Apple would make that pitch, specifically call out Face ID as more secure. Is the idea here to prod resisters to buy a newer generation iPhone, to cast Touch ID as “old tech”?
[VIDEO] Fascinating reminder of just how close Steve and Jony were.
Lots of interesting bits in there, but one quote stood out to me:
I think what you’re seeing now is a company that knows how to execute pretty well. But it doesn’t have at its core these two spiritual soulmates who just lived and breathed the beauty of products.
I believe there are visionaries at Apple today, and with Jony leaving, I think the big shadows cast by Steve and Jony will pass, and new giants will emerge.
Watch the video, embedded in the main Loop post.
Over the weekend, there was a 7.1 earthquake in California, centered near Ridgecrest, on the edge of the Mojave Desert. There were also preshocks and aftershocks.
Lots of information about the quake on the USGS earthquake site.
Given the location (in California, though closer to LA than Apple Park), this New York Times article from last month got a lot of new attention (H/T Dman and Neal Pann, and Shawn’s original posting here). From the article:
The circular building housing Apple’s headquarters in Silicon Valley is so big, it’s nearly a mile in circumference. So it’s hard to fathom that it is not actually attached to the ground.
The spaceship, as the building is often called, is a mammoth example of a technology that reduces earthquake shaking by as much as 80 percent.
And:
Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, said in an interview that he and Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who died in 2011, considered base isolation essential protection for the headquarters — and the brain trust that resides within. (Mr. Ive also spent four years renovating his house in San Francisco to make it more resilient to earthquakes.)
The article goes into great detail on the base-isolation technology, with some terrific pictures and diagrams. Very interesting.
[VIDEO] This was interesting to me for several reasons. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
First, there’s the opportunity to get to know Jeff Williams, to hear him talk, tell a story. Given that Apple Design now reports to Jeff, he has new importance in the product design side of Apple.
I also appreciated the anecdote at the heart of this video. It starts at about 50 seconds in. Jeff talks about Steve Jobs carrying around one of the original iPhone prototypes and complaining about the plastic screen getting scratched. The story is being told in the Corning factory where the iPhone glass is made.
Final observation, this factory is in Kentucky, and that’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to Jeff’s left (the right side of your picture). This was filmed in 2017, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
Reddit user tells first hand what it’s like to experience one of these mob shoplifting events that happens much too often.
Apple puts any stolen goods in a lost or stolen mode, rendering any gear stolen from the store useless to the thieves. So why do they do it? Either ignorance, or they’ve got access to a spare parts market.
And yup, it’s shoplifting, not robbery, but the bigger point remains.
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:
For iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina beta testers, Apple is trying out a new sign-in process for iCloud on the web. When you head to beta.icloud.com on a device running the betas, you can now sign-in to your account using Face ID or Touch ID.
If you log in to beta.icloud.com via a non-beta iOS or macOS, you’ll get the normal login experience, with a 6 digit code appearing that you type in to validate your visit.
If you log in using a beta iOS 13 or MacOS Catalina device, your Face ID or Touch ID verifies you, gives you access, without the code at all. Way better.
This is a lot of fun. iOS 13 is using ARKit to make your eyes look at the person to whom you are connected via FaceTime, rather than at the actual slight angle as you look at the screen rather than the camera.
To see this at work, check out this bit of video from Dave Schukin. In the video, keep your eyes on the eyeglasses arm, rather than on the eyes, watching for that arm to warp as ARKit does its thing.
If you have the iOS 13 beta, you can enable this bit of trickery in Settings > FaceTime, but only if you have one of the most recent model iPhones.
[VIDEO] Loop reader Niles back again with a fourth installment, this time showing a few items that would not connect with iOS 13 beta 2, but with beta 3, we shall see. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Nikil Saval, The New Yorker:
The archetypal telephone, the Model 500, designed by Henry Dreyfuss, had a clunking rotary dial, a heavy base, and a coiled cord that connected to a curved handset.
And:
But it was the handset that was the product’s masterpiece. Molding itself to your hand and also to the crook between your shoulder and ear, it was a perfect instantiation of how a designer could shape everyday technology to the form of the human body, while anticipating the instincts—such as the desire to speak hands-free—that would guide the use of that technology.
And:
The Apple iPhone, in the various iterations that the industrial designer Jony Ive produced, is the opposite. Few objects so continuously in use by human beings are as hostile to the human body as this slim, black, fragile slab, recalcitrant to any curve of head or shoulder or even palm, where it usually rests. It is made for a world without liquids, secretions, or hard surfaces, all of which threaten its destruction. Except for the curve of the edges, where the bevel of the glass screen has been painstakingly fused to the phone’s body, it is the shape of a photo, not a face.
The quotes above give you a taste of what’s in store in the rest of the article. For me, it’s a real treat, luxuriant prose but short enough to not get old.
[VIDEO] I love the way this video unfolds (video embedded in main Loop post). Start by playing a game using your iPhone controls, then set the phone aside and continue where you left off, but this time using an Xbox controller.
Jeremy Horwitz, VentureBeat:
Apple’s Memoji may have become the more popular 3D avatar feature for smartphones, but Xiaomi wants people to know that its similarly named version — Mimoji — came first, despite increasingly confusing overlap between the apps’ names and features. Moreover, it’s apparently threatening legal action against writers who call it a copycat without providing proof.
And:
Neither Apple nor Xiaomi can reasonably claim to be first with either the 3D animal or 3D human avatar concept; the ideas have been found in third-party apps for years, and Samsung’s AR Emoji beat both companies to market with OS-integrated human avatars in February 2018. Even the Memoji name dates back to at least early 2017, and not from Apple.
Seems fair for Xiaomi to complain about being accused of copying Apple. It’ll be interesting to see if they follow through with any actual legal action and, if so, if they have any success. Can’t imagine that will buy them many friends in the tech press.
Spotify blog:
Almost a year ago, we started to beta test a feature that lets independent artists upload their music directly to Spotify. Today, we notified participating artists about our decision to close the beta program, along with how we can help them migrate their music to other distributors over the next month.
And:
The most impactful way we can improve the experience of delivering music to Spotify for as many artists and labels as possible is to lean into the great work our distribution partners are already doing to serve the artist community.
That’s really a shame. Well, there’s always the Apple Music for Artists beta.