Apple

Latest iOS beta offers quick way to force passcode reentry

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When you restart your iPhone, you are forced to reenter your passcode to unlock your phone. If your phone is off, this prevents anyone with access to your phone from breaking in.

But with the latest beta (iOS 11 beta 6), Apple added this shortcut:

https://twitter.com/alt_kia/status/898067522234097664

In a nutshell, if you press the power button 5 times quickly, you are sent to the emergency call screen (as you were in previous incarnations). But in the latest beta, Touch ID will no longer unlock your phone, forcing you to reenter the passcode to regain access.

This is a smart add. You can make this move silently, even with the phone in your pocket.

Hollywood, Apple said to mull rental plan, defying theaters

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Bloomberg:

Movie studios are considering whether to ignore the objections of cinema chains and forge ahead with a plan to offer digital rentals of films mere weeks after they appear in theaters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some of the biggest proponents, including Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, are pressing on in talks with Apple Inc. and Comcast Corp. on ways to push ahead with the project even without theater chains, the people said.

And:

Deals with potential distributors such as Apple and Comcast could be reached as soon as early next year to sell digital downloads of major films as soon as two weeks after they debut in theaters, the people said.

This seems inevitable, part of the evolution of the content consumption model. Apple is easing into this business on several sides, tweaking their iTunes movie and TV streaming business, as they also build their own content creation business.

I see Apple as the irresistible force here, fueled by the deepest pockets in the biz.

Chipotle’s iPhone app to accept Apple Pay

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PR Newswire:

Deloitte today announced that Chipotle Mexican Grill has selected Deloitte Digital to help transform its mobile customer experience. Deloitte Digital, the creative digital consultancy within Deloitte Consulting LLP, will redesign Chipotle’s iOS and Android ordering apps as part of Chipotle’s focus on digital ordering and enhancing the customer experience. Chipotle plans to launch the new apps in the fall of 2017, with additional channels by the end of the year.

And:

The redesigned mobile experience will also include enhanced payment options including Apple and Android pay.

Whether or not you are a fan of Chipotle, this is a sign of the continued expansion of Apple Pay. Slow and steady.

Face ID anti-FUD: Easing anxiety over the unannounced

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Rene Ritchie, iMore:

Apple hasn’t even announced Face ID, the rumored facial identity scanner that would join or replace Touch ID, the fingerprint identity scanner, on the next generation of iPhones 8, but already we’re seeing a great deal of concern and even fear over how it will and won’t work.

And:

One of the biggest areas of fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding a potential Face ID facial identity scanner is that it will make it easier to law enforcement and government agencies to gain access to our devices.

Rene digs into the concern itself (someone could grab my phone and point it at my face to unlock it) and explores the validity of that worry.

A solid read, all the way through. Rene is a smart cookie.

Personally, I see Face ID and Touch ID as roughly equivalent in terms of someone using me to break into my phone. Add to that, Apple has not yet announced such a product. I’d prefer to save my worry for something a bit more tangible.

Accidentally Famous: The story behind the original voice of Siri

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[VIDEO] This is from a Ted Talk Susan Bennett gave last year. Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. One particular nugget (about 1:17 in):

One of the original engineers was from Norway. His name was Dag Kittlaus. He was responsible for naming Siri. In Norwegian, the name Siri means “beautiful woman who guides you to victory”.

Fascinating to see Susan Bennett tell these origin stories. My sense, from the iOS 11 beta, it that Siri is moving toward a more generic, machine generated voice. Yet, in the latest commercials (with The Rock), Susan appears to do all the Siri voice work.

It’ll be interesting to see how all this will play out. Will Susan be “classic Siri”?

Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner on Carpool Karaoke

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[VIDEO] Fan of Game of Thrones? Then this edition of Carpool Karaoke is for you. Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) join the carpool and surprise some fans.

I am looking forward to this one. Karaoke is coming (trailer embedded in the main Loop post).

Apple readies $1 billion war chest for Hollywood programming

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Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) has set a budget of roughly $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, according to people familiar with the matter–a sign of how serious the iPhone maker is about making a splash in Hollywood.

Combined with the company’s marketing clout and global reach, that immediately makes Apple a considerable competitor in a crowded market where new media players and traditional media companies are vying to acquire original shows. The figure is about half what Time Warner Inc.’s HBO spent on content last year and on par with estimates of what Amazon.com spent in 2013, the year after it announced its move into original programming.

And:

Programming costs can range from more than $2 million an episode for a comedy to more than $5 million for a drama. An episode of some high-end shows such as “Game of Thrones” can cost more than $10 million to produce.

The back-to-back success of the original shows “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black” is credited with building Netflix’s business. At the time they were released the company’s annual budget for original and acquired programming was about $2 billion; this year it is expected to spend more than $6 billion.

Personally, I would not judge Apple’s chances here based on shows like Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke. That would be like judging a developer on the apps they write as they learn how to program.

Key to Apple’s success will be setting aside enough cash (which they appear more than willing to do) and ability to bring on board the right mix of people, people with experience and craft. With the hire of Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, and the addition of Matt Cherniss to oversee development, Apple has the start of a significant original programming effort.

Matt Cherniss joins Apple as head of development for new original programming unit

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Deadline:

In one of their first major moves since joining Apple as heads of worldwide video programming, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht have brought in Matt Cherniss to oversee development.

As a reminder, Van Amburg and Erlicht were hired away from Sony, where they shepherded hits like The Crown, Breaking Bad, and The Black List through production.

Cherniss, a respected veteran network development executive, had been in demand since he recently stepped down as president and general manager of WGN America and Tribune Studios.

Cherniss will be a lieutenant to Amburg and Erlicht. Apple is building a formidable team here. Now all they need is money.

Winamp’s woes: How the greatest MP3 player undid itself

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This is a fascinating story about how Winamp squandered its opportunity to be the dominant force in the music universe.

Great read, all the way through, but this bit amazed me:

Amazingly, given all the time elapsed, AOL still makes a decent amount of money on the site and on the program—while the company has declined to release official figures, former employees who worked on Winamp estimate its current revenue at around $6 million annually.

Wait, what? I find that astonishing.

This piece originally ran on June 24, 2012 (and Winamp finally called it quits in November 2013).

Ah, that explains it. Still, a great read.

Apple and Aetna hold secret meetings to bring the Apple Watch to millions of Aetna customers

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CNBC:

Apple and Aetna held a series of secret discussions last week to bring Apple’s health and fitness-tracking smartwatch to millions more people connected to Aetna, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The insurer, which covers 23 million, offers an Apple Watch to its 50,000 employees as part of its corporate wellness program. Now, Aetna is negotiating with Apple on a plan to offer a free or discounted Apple Watch, Apple’s wearable device, as a perk to its members.

Seems to me a brilliant move. For Apple, a discounted Apple Watch brings potential new customers to the ecosystem. For Aetna, it’s possible they’re doing this just to make money on Apple Watch sales, but more likely, they’ve run the numbers, see a cost saving with insured folks having an Apple Watch.

“Every time I get in my car and plug in my iPhone, the same exact song plays.”

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Wired:

EVERY TIME I get in my car and plug in my iPhone, the same exact song plays: “All of Me” by John Legend. But not the John Legend version, which would be much less embarrassing. No, the very first alphabetically sorted song in my Apple Music library is a cover of “All of Me” by the Dartmouth a cappella group The Dartmouth Aires. It’s not that I hate the song, or this version. It’s that I’ve heard the first 15 seconds of the song approximately 438 million times, blaring through my speakers as I open Spotify or Pocket Casts and play something I actually want.

Every iPhone user has a song like this.

And:

I could go on a whole bender here, ranting about how my phone should know what I want to listen to when I get into the car (probably whatever I was listening to five seconds before I got into the car!) and how annoying it is that the phone instead just plays the song in my library in the alphabetical pole position.

And:

Instead, I’ll just tell you about Samir Mezrahi, the former BuzzFeed and the Dodo social media guru, and his new song, “A a a a a Very Good Song.” The song consists only of nine minutes and 58 seconds of glorious silence.

Silence is not the solution here. Silence is a bandaid, masks the problem. Interesting read though.

Taking your data plan to a new iPad

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New York Times:

In the case of the iPad, you might be able to transfer your plan from the old tablet to the new one right in the settings, without having to fuss around with the hardware.

After you have gone through Apple’s sequence of steps for setting up a new iPad out of the box, tap open the Settings app on the home screen. On the Settings screen, choose Cellular Data on the left side and Set Up Cellular Data on the right. If your previous iPad uses a compatible SIM (subscriber identity module), you should see an option to transfer your existing plan over to the new iPad through your wireless carrier’s network. You need to know the user name and password for your account with the carrier to complete the move and activation process.

Tuck this one away for the next time you upgrade your iPad.

Beijing urges subway riders to pay with smartphones — but not iPhones yet

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Caixin:

Beijing’s 274 subways stations let you pay with nothing more than your smartphone — as long as it’s not an iPhone, which currently doesn’t support the technology.

On Monday, authorities began rolling out citywide promotions for the wireless function, which allows direct payment from 160 smartphone models, including those from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Xiaomi Inc. and Samsung.

And:

But the service is unavailable for iPhone users because Apple doesn’t currently allow the required near-field communication (NFC) technology on its handsets to connect to third-party payment terminals in China, BMAC said.

And:

An upgrade to Apple’s iOS operating system due this fall will enable the latest iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models to read more third-party NFC devices, according to company information released at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

A BMAC employee told Caixin that the state-run company doesn’t know for now whether the iOS upgrade will be compatible with the city’s payment terminals.

Sounds like a marketing opportunity for Apple. Address the problem, then sell iPhones in Beijing with the tagline, “works in all 274 subway stations” or some such.

Homeless iPhone

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Fabrice Dubois:

So, apparently the next iPhone won’t have a physical Home button. There’s been much speculation already about what that means for the user. The bottom area of the device, for some, will be used to host the navigation bar items, as well as a virtual Home button.

This article describes another possibility.

This post does two thing:

  1. It does a nice job of talking through the iOS 11 home button experience on the iPad, making the case that the new “swipe up from the bottom edge” reduces the need for the Home button.

  2. Offers a nice conceptual take for the iPhone, which does not offer that bottom edge gesture, at least not as of the current iOS 11 beta.

Interesting take. I doubt we’ll see such a chance in a future beta, but perhaps some food for thought for iOS 12.

How to make your iPhone speaker louder

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This setting has been around for a while, but it’s subtle enough to have slipped through the cracks for many.

Take a look at this tweet.

To see this setting at work, fire up some relatively loud music on your iPhone.

Now go to Settings, scroll down to Music, make sure EQ is set to off. Get a sense of the volume.

Now scroll down and select the Late Night EQ setting. Notice a difference? To me, the difference is significant, the quiet elements boosted, the overall impression louder.

If you don’t hear a difference, tap to turn EQ off, then go back to Late Night. It’s subtle, but a good tip, worth sharing.

John Gruber on Safari and favicons

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John Gruber, on the reaction to a piece he wrote comparing Safari vs. Chrome on the Mac:

But really, taken as a whole, the response to my piece was about one thing and one thing only: the fact that Safari does not show favicons on tabs and Chrome does. There are a huge number of Daring Fireball readers who use Chrome because it shows favicons on tabs and would switch to Safari if it did.

The reaction was so overwhelming I almost couldn’t believe it.

And:

The gist of it is two-fold: (1) there are some people who strongly prefer to see favicons in tabs even when they don’t have a ton of tabs open, simply because they prefer identifying tabs graphically rather than by the text of the page title; and (2) for people who do have a ton of tabs open, favicons are the only way to identify tabs.

I use Safari for the most part, but I heartily agree. See for yourself. Here are two pictures, showing a bunch of tabs open, one in Safari, the other in Chrome. Which makes it easier to identify individual tabs?

Solid point, John.

Internet Archive brings back HyperCard for today’s 30th anniversary

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The Internet Archive blog:

On August 11, 1987, Bill Atkinson announced a new product from Apple for the Macintosh; a multimedia, easily programmed system called HyperCard. HyperCard brought into one sharp package the ability for a Macintosh to do interactive documents with calculation, sound, music and graphics. It was a popular package, and thousands of HyperCard “stacks” were created using the software.

And:

Flourishing for the next roughly ten years, HyperCard slowly fell by the wayside to the growing World Wide Web, and was officially discontinued as a product by Apple in 2004. It left behind a massive but quickly disappearing legacy of creative works that became harder and harder to experience.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hypercard, we’re bringing it back.

Interestingly, today is Woz’s birthday as well. Wonder if that’s a coincidence. Either way, go check it out.

Need a job? Apple and Disney are looking for people who want to work from home

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Though this sounds like a phishing scheme, this is an article from Inc on some real jobs being filled by Apple and Disney.

Apple describes the “Home Advisor” as a person who responds when people contact Apple for help. The job description describes ideal candidates as friendly, thoughtful, and real. They are “curious investigators, technical problem solvers, and good listeners” and like the way it feels to help others, have the discipline to manage themselves, can focus in a home environment, and are good multitaskers.

The company requires that you have access to a “quiet, distraction-free work space with a door you can shut, an ergonomic chair, a desk … and your own network connection.”

If you have the right personality, working at home is a huge win-win. You get the convenience and cost savings of working at home. No commute and no moving expenses. And Apple gets a happy employee without the overhead expense.

If this particular job sounds attractive to you (I know it does to me), here’s a link to Apple’s At Home Advisor web site, which includes a video laying out the job and a link to the jobs page.

Consumer Reports changes Microsoft Surface laptops and tablets to “not recommended”

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Consumer Reports:

Consumer Reports is removing its “recommended” designation from four Microsoft laptops and cannot recommend any other Microsoft laptops or tablets because of poor predicted reliability in comparison with most other brands.

To judge reliability, Consumer Reports surveys its subscribers about the products they own and use. New studies conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center estimate that 25 percent of Microsoft laptops and tablets will present their owners with problems by the end of the second year of ownership.

The decision by Consumer Reports applies to Microsoft devices with detachable keyboards, such as the new Surface Pro released in June and the Surface Book, as well as the company’s Surface Laptops with conventional clamshell designs.

Take this change with a grain of salt, give the experts a chance to dig through the methodology. But no matter the ultimate resolution, this certainly gives a black eye to Microsoft’s Surface brand.

What currently stands in the way between us and Apple Glasses

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Matt Miesnieks:

I know glasses are being worked on at Apple, and the prototypes are state of the art. I also know what it takes to build a full-stack wearable AR HMD, having built fully functional prototypes from scratch. There are a bunch of elements that need to work before a consumer product can exist. These elements don’t all exist today (even at the state of the art).

Lots and lots of detail in this post. I found it well written, very understandable. Perhaps my favorite little tidbit:

Imagine that virtual hat from a Snap Filter being something you could virtually wear all day, and everyone (or only people you filter) else wearing AR Glasses could see it on you.

I highly recommend this if you have any interested in AR and Apple Glasses.

Construction workers post video from inside Apple Park

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[VIDEO] Tech Crunch:

Snapchat’s powerful but hidden Story Search feature is finally making itself useful by giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside Apple Park, Apple’s new spaceship-like campus that will open soon.

Typing “Apple Park” into Snapchat’s search bar will show you the Apple Park Story, which is a collection of videos taken on the property.

Tech Crunch collected some of these videos, embedding them into the video in the main Loop post. Can’t wait to see Apple Park firsthand.

Resizable Home button and more riches from the HomePod leak

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Ben Lovejoy walks through the latest revelations from Steve Troughton Smith’s dig through the recently leaked HomePod firmware.

Here’s the first tweet:

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/895486535742705664

Note the reference to a resizable Home button. When the implementation is in software, rather than hardware, there’s ultimate flexibility. Not sure if there is actually a plan to allow the user to resize the home button, but I think a larger target would be a terrific assistive feature.

Here’s the second tweet:

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/895558456773496832

Check out the mockup in Ben’s article. Looks remarkably like the iPhone 8 dummy in this post.

The end of typing

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Wall Street Journal:

Instead of typing searches and emails, a wave of newcomers—“the next billion,” the tech industry calls them—is avoiding text, using voice activation and communicating with images. They are a swath of the world’s less-educated, online for the first time thanks to low-end smartphones, cheap data plans and intuitive apps that let them navigate despite poor literacy.

And:

A look at Megh Singh’s smartphone suggests how the next billion might determine a new set of winners and losers in tech.

Mr. Singh, 36, balances suitcases on his head in New Delhi, earning less than $8 a day as a porter in one of India’s biggest railway stations. He isn’t comfortable reading or using a keyboard. That doesn’t stop him from checking train schedules, messaging family and downloading movies.

“We don’t know anything about emails or even how to send one,” said Mr. Singh, who went online only in the past year. “But we are enjoying the internet to the fullest.”

The next billion are vital to Apple’s growth as a company. So much so, that it would not surprise me to see a new version of iOS tailored for this audience.

Detailed vector maps for your Apple Watch, no iPhone required

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WorkOutDoors is a workout app that allows you to load detailed, localized vector maps onto your Apple Watch for offline use. This means you can go for a run, have detailed maps on your watch, and leave your iPhone behind. Or work out in a facility without cell/wifi service, again leaving your iPhone behind. Or go hiking in a remote location without cell service. You get the idea.

There are other solutions to this problem, but I found this one fascinating. Here’s the web site, and here’s the link to WorkOutDoors in the App Store.

iPhone 8 can make Apple world’s first trillion dollar company

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Economic Times:

Riding on the ‘better-than-expected iPad and iPhone sales’, the upcoming flagship device iPhone 8 could make the Cupertino-based giant the first company to reach and sustain a $1 trillion market cap, analysts have predicted.

And:

Daryanani said that Apple’s share price would have to rise from its current level (about $160) to about $192 to $195, depending on the rate of the company’s stock buybacks, to reach the $1 trillion value.

Astonishing rise from the ashes for Apple. I remember, long ago, considering an investment in Apple stock at $12 a share (long before the 7-for-1 split, and two 2-for-1 splits) about 43 cents a share adjusted for today’s pricing).

This was in the worst of Apple doldrums, before Steve came back. The smart folks I spoke with explained to me that, at the time, Apple had enough assets to pay more than that $12 per share if they sold everything they had, including real estate, desks, inventory, everything.

That was the thinking back then. Apple stock was bargain basement. And look at them now.

Chinese app developers file antitrust complaint against Apple

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Wall Street Journal:

A group of 28 Chinese app developers filed a complaint against Apple Inc. alleging antitrust violations over the company’s App Store.

The complaint accuses Apple of engaging in monopolistic behavior by removing apps from the App Store without detailed explanation and charging excessive fees for in-app purchases. The complaint also alleges Apple doesn’t give details on why apps are removed and puts local developers at a disadvantage by not responding to queries in Chinese.

And:

In a statement, Apple said that “most submissions in China are reviewed and approved to be on the store within 48 hours, or less.” It added that its App Store guidelines apply equally to all developers in every country and that if an app is rejected or removed, developers may request a review to restore the app in a timely manner.

The timing correlates with the mass removal of VPN apps from the App Store. A rock and a hard place, that.

Could this be the iPhone 8?

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Ben Miller works for a publisher that owns a site that sells iPhone repair kits. Yesterday, they received a dummy iPhone 8 in the mail from one of their Chinese manufacturers.

Here’s a picture of the so-called iPhone 8, next to an iPhone 7 Plus:

https://twitter.com/bensen/status/895260898033618946

Here’s another tweet showing the front and back:

https://twitter.com/bensen/status/895260575776813057

Supposedly, there are no plans for a plus-sized version of this model. Makes sense, given the device’s large screen real estate.

Is this the real deal? Judge for yourself. We’ll likely know in about a month.

The lost art of Apple code names

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Linus Edwards:

Brooklyn, Aladdin, Colt 45, Cobra, Ray Ban, Stealth, Apollo, XO, Tempest, Brazil 32, Crusader, Instatower, Kanga, JeDI, Aruba, Love Shack, Mark Twain, Excalibur, Tsunami, Phoenix, Nitro, Gelato, Dante, Q, Mach 5, Spartacus, Zelda, Yoda, Green Jade, Spock, Milwaukee, Aurora, Peter Pan, Optimus.

This is just a sampling of the rich cornucopia of Apple code names over the past 40 years. The names run the gamut from pop culture references to inside jokes — from celebrity names to just cool sounding words.

Terrific read.

Variety’s review of Carpool Karaoke

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Variety:

Based on tonight’s premiere episode, with Corden and Will Smith, “Carpool Karaoke” is struggling a little to find a standalone spark outside the world of “The Late Late Show.” During Corden’s late-night show, the sunny highways of Southern California provided a visual and structural break from the show’s set — and in a medium that relies on celebrity guests, “Carpool Karaoke” is a fun way to combine interview elements with an activity that performers would naturally be good at.

But on its own, “Carpool Karaoke’s” weaknesses are magnified. The segment always had a bit of overenthusiasm for celebrity; the viewer is invited into a private hangout but can’t participate, as notable names and famous faces joke and sing with each other. This is unfortunate, because at its most successful, “Carpool Karaoke” makes its participants unassuming and even relatable. Adele busting out Nicki Minaj’s verse in Kanye West’s “Monster” makes even her — a multi-platinum pop diva — as familiar as the next person in line at the drive-thru. In the premiere of the Apple Music show, Will Smith decides to skip out on traffic by directing Corden to a private helicopter. “Carpool Karaoke” on Apple Music is just another unscripted series about famous people with varying degrees of talent, in scenarios that are partly choreographed and partly staged.

Insightful review. Read the whole thing.