Apple

Used to be, at the end of every release, everyone got a month to work on what they wanted. Which gave us Apple TV.

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[VIDEO] Interesting interview with Scott Forstall, former software and Senior VP at Apple, significant contributor on both the Mac and iOS sides.

From Forstall’s Wikipedia page:

In 2005, when Jobs began planning the iPhone, he had a choice to either “shrink the Mac, which would be an epic feat of engineering, or enlarge the iPod”. Jobs favored the former approach but pitted the Macintosh and the iPod team, led by Forstall and Tony Fadell respectively, against each other in an internal competition. Forstall won that fierce competition to create iOS.

The decision enabled the success of the iPhone as a platform for third-party developers: using a well-known desktop operating system as its basis allowed the many third-party Mac developers to write software for the iPhone with minimal retraining. Forstall was also responsible for creating a software developer’s kit for programmers to build iPhone apps, as well as an App Store within iTunes.

The video (embedded in the main Loop post) is part of Stanford University’s Philosophy Talk series. The relevant part of the conversation, highlighted on the headline linked Reddit post, starts at about 31 minutes in.

In a nutshell, Forstall talks about giving everyone who reported to him (a fairly large group) a month off to work on whatever they wanted. Give a listen.

It used to be a common perq at big tech companies (Google and Apple are but two examples) that you got time to work on stuff that interested you. Sometimes that benefit came in the form of a long sabbatical, allowing you to travel around the world, or take classes in some unrelated field, all via paid leave.

Another take on this policy allowed you to carve out a percentage of your time each month to fiddle around with technology you thought might lead to something that might benefit the company in the long run.

Does this sort of thing exist any more? Anyone have that freedom at their job? Is there a value to the company, a value that’s now been lost because this sort of thing is hard to translate into dollars and cents?

And is it possible this approach, one that gives team members the ability to ease themselves from the threat of burn-out, has benefits in terms of more stable OS releases, less employee turnover?

Apple announces first ever Apple Music Awards, plus Billie Eilish performing tomorrow at Steve Jobs Theater

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Almost as an afterthought in Apple’s Apple Music Awards press release:

Apple Music Celebrates with Global, Live-Streamed Performance by Billie Eilish at the Steve Jobs Theater on December 4 at 6:30 p.m. PST

Arguably, the hottest artist in the world is going to perform on Apple’s campus, in a small, intimate setting.

Oh, yeah, and it’s being live-streamed. If this is for you, set a reminder for tomorrow at 6:30p PT, 930p ET.

Andy Hertzfeld posts demo reel of proposed commercials with Apple’s OG Mac team, recorded in 1983

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[VIDEO] Andy Hertzfeld:

A few years ago, I uploaded some interview snippets recorded in October 1983 with members of the original Mac team, intended for commercials that were never used. This post is the entire reel of proposed commercials, featuring mini-interviews with Mike Murray, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Susan Kare, George Crow and me.

This kills me with nostalgia. The original Mac team, back before the Mac was even a thing. Oh how young they were. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Apple Arcade preview of new releases

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[VIDEO] This dropped while I was on vacation last week. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.

Worth watching if you have an interest in the new Apple Arcade games. But I also found this interesting from a marketing point of view. This is officially posted by Apple, but the take feels, to me, like a third party review.

T-Mobile says it owns exclusive rights to the color magenta

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AdAge:

New York-based Lemonade is a 3-year-old company that lives completely online and mostly focuses on homeowners and renter’s insurance. The company uses a similar color to magenta — it says it’s “pink” — in its marketing materials and its website. But Lemonade was told by German courts that it must cease using its color after launching its services in that country, which is also home to T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom.

And:

“If some brainiac at Deutsche Telekom had invented the color, their possessiveness would make sense,” Daniel Schreiber, CEO and co-founder of Lemonade, said in a statement. “Absent that, the company’s actions just smack of corporate bully tactics, where legions of lawyers attempt to hog natural resources – in this case a primary color—that rightfully belong to everyone.”

This is a ruling in Germany, but for an international company, it’s an issue with impact.

The idea of a company owning all rights to a color is problematic. Does Sprint own yellow? Does IBM own that specific shade of blue?

Steve Jobs: Secrets of life

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[VIDEO] Came across a video on Twitter, a gif someone made of Steve Jobs talking about asking for help.

I did a bit of digging, found that the clip was from a documentary pulled together back in the day by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association.

Here are two clips from the documentary that really speak to me (both embedded in main Loop post). They are very short and both worth watching.

At the core, both messages are about not being afraid to poke life, to try things. When I was young, I had a vision of writing a book on Mac programming. The information I needed just wasn’t available, everyone was just figuring it out by themselves, with clues in the still forming technical documentation from Apple.

I’d never written a book, but I did some detective work, found a publisher (Addison-Wesley) who published technical books, started making phone calls. After a lot of dead ends, I finally found a human being who could see what I saw, was willing to take a chance on me.

And that act changed my life. Watch the videos, great messages in both.

REDDIT: Apple will reimburse (pro-rated) AppleCare+ on trade-ins

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Reddit:

Last week I upgraded my iPhone from the Xs to the 11Pro and the sales person asked me if I wanted AppleCare+, I did and now you have the option of paying for it all up front or paying month to month. I said that I’d likely upgrade my phone again next year so it probably made more sense to go month to month. I told him I wish this would have been an option the last time, cause now I have a year left that I’ve already paid for. He said most people don’t know about this, but you can call Apple support and they’ll reimburse you for the remaining coverage. I just called and in less than 5 minutes, including the wait time to speak with someone, he processed my reimbursement for about $75. The only information I needed was the serial number of the phone I traded in which was on the box that I still had. There may be another way to find it if you don’t have your box, but in my case I was good.

Good to know. Surprised you have to make a call to make this happen.

If you plan to trade in your Apple product (you can trade in Macs too!), ask at the Apple Store if they can credit your unexpired AppleCare+. If you are successful, please do let me know. I’d like to verify this.

UPDATE: If you plan a trade-in, spend a minute on Apple’s How to manage your AppleCare plan support page. [H/T Andy Rubin

16″ MacBook Pro, real talk

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[VIDEO] There have been a lot of reviews of the new 16″ MacBook Pro. This review by Dave Lee (embedded in the main Loop post) is a bit different, in my mind the perfect marriage of technical and practical, especially useful if you are looking at upgrading, considering which model to buy.

Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

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Amber Neely, AppleInsider:

On November 17, Apple removed the “Ratings & Reviews” section from all product pages on the Apple website. It is currently unclear what has prompted this decision, nor when Apple will bring back the option to read the opinions of other customers at the time of purchase.

The article walks through the process that uncovered this change. Interesting read. But to see it for yourself, hop on the Apple Store and pick a product. No reviews.

Here’s a wayback machine link to the Apple Pencil from last week. Note the star reviews.

The top 1% of app store publishers drive 80% of new downloads

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Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

According to new data from Sensor Tower, the top 1% of publishers globally accounted for a whopping 80% of the total 29.6 billion app downloads in the third quarter of 2019. That means just 20%, or 6 billion, downloads are left for the rest of the publishers.

This translates to:

This bottom 99%, which equates to roughly 784,080 publishers, averaged approximately 7,650 downloads each during the quarter.

That’s an average of 2,550 downloads a month. Hard to make a living as an indie dev.

Wish List: Edit iOS’s autocorrect dictionary

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Dan Moren, SixColors:

On macOS, we’ve long been able to add words to the system’s built-in dictionary, so they don’t come up every time we run check spelling.

And:

But this ability simply doesn’t exist on iOS. We’re told that if you override autocorrect a couple of times, the system should remember your correction, but in my experience, that “feature” is hit or miss. It’s also incredibly opaque and annoying as a user experience: the only way to have something done right is to fight with the system? Multiple times? Bizarre.

I agree with Dan here. I wish iOS offered a straightforward way to teach the autocorrect mechanism, to definitely mark a word as spelled correctly, and as a word you’d like added to the database of spellings to suggest when typing.

As is, predictive text is, indeed, opaque. It is always learning, and leans on machine learning, which is based on mathematical modeling, regression, and probabilities. While you do have the nuclear option (Settings > General > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary), it’d be nice to be able to add to and edit your own private stash of words.

Inside Apple’s iPhone software shakeup after buggy iOS 13 debut

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Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Software chief Craig Federighi and lieutenants including Stacey Lysik announced the changes at a recent internal “kickoff” meeting with the company’s software developers. The new approach calls for Apple’s development teams to ensure that test versions, known as “daily builds,” of future software updates disable unfinished or buggy features by default. Testers will then have the option to selectively enable those features, via a new internal process and settings menu dubbed Flags, allowing them to isolate the impact of each individual addition on the system.

And:

Prior to iOS 14’s development, some teams would add features every day that weren’t fully tested, while other teams would contribute changes weekly. “Daily builds were like a recipe with lots of cooks adding ingredients,” a person with knowledge of the process said.

Test software got so crammed with changes at different stages of development that the devices often became difficult to use. Because of this, some “testers would go days without a livable build, so they wouldn’t really have a handle on what’s working and not working,” the person said.

The proof will be in the pudding which, in this case, is iOS 14.

[VIDEO] Andy Miller tells a great Steve Jobs story

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[VIDEO] I don’t want to spoil this at all. Just let it unfold. The story starts at 43:53 in. Video embedded in main Loop post. Worth your time.

[H/T, Friend of the Loop, Andrew Leavitt]

Time Machine and backing up in Catalina

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This is important stuff. If nothing else, when (and preferably before) you make the leap to Catalina, read the “summary recommendations” about a page down. The first two:

  • Before upgrading to Catalina, make one last backup (or two!), then turn Time Machine off.

  • Once you have upgraded, turn Time Machine back on but using a new backup set which won’t then be accessible from macOS 10.14.x or earlier.

From Apple’s Time Machine support document, updated for Catalina:

If you create a backup on a Mac or partition with macOS Catalina, you can only use that backup on Mac computers or partitions with macOS Catalina.

Seems to me, this is a sea change for Time Machine.

The unvarnished Q&A between Apple and the House antitrust subcommittee

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I’m a big fan of getting things straight from the horse’s mouth wherever possible. In this case, here are the official questions from the House antitrust subcommittee (technically, the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, but who has time for that mouthful?) along with Apple’s official responses.

This is surprisingly easy to read, especially if you are a regular Mac/iOS user.

This is surprisingly easy to read, especially if you are a regular Mac/iOS user. It’s chockfull of interesting tidbits.

If you fly, download the airline’s iOS app before you go

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Adam Engst tells a harrowing tale of snowpocalypse and the value of Apple’s business chat service (via Messages) and having the airline app handy when your flights are canceled and you have to solve a knotty travel problem in the unfriendly confines of a crowded airport.

Great read.

AirPods Pro and accessibility

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Steven Aquino, iMore:

Most wireless accessories, earbuds or otherwise, require going to the Bluetooth menu in the operating system’s settings in order to pair and connect with one’s phone. More than being an annoyance, someone with, say, certain cognitive and/or fine-motor conditions may find this process extremely laborious. There is a great deal of cognitive load in terms of remembering not only that you need to pair from within the Bluetooth menu but also remembering the exact steps for getting to the menu in the first place. And certain fine-motor delays can make multiple taps to get to said menu that much more taxing. What’s inconvenient for a neurotypical person can quite literally be nigh impossible for someone with disabilities.

And:

This underscores the beauty of Apple’s model. There is nothing for the user to do when pairing AirPods except flip the lid and tap a button. The technological parts that make this work are cool, but the accessibility advantages are arguably even cooler. You need to pair the earbuds in order to use them, and it’s important to recognize the process is as accessible as the actual product itself.

Great point, great writeup.

AirPods Pro removing all available oxygen from wireless headphone market

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Neil Cybart, Above Avalon:

Apple’s newest pair of AirPods continues to make waves with “augmented hearing” entering people’s vocabulary. However, the broader implications found with Apple’s AirPods strategy are just as impressive. Apple is quickly removing all available oxygen from the wireless headphone market, and competitors find themselves at a severe disadvantage.

Spot on. With the addition of noise cancellation and transparency mode, AirPods Pro are becoming the first choice of iPhone-using wireless headphone buyers.

Though you can invest in something bigger (and bulkier) to get (maybe) better noise cancelation, and you can invest in headphones that deliver (maybe) a better audio experience, I’d argue that there’s nothing on the market that can compete and give you better noise cancelation and audio in this form factor, all with the incredibly tight integration with Apple’s ecosystem. No matter the price.

[VIDEO] iFixit’s 2019 MacBook Pro 16″ teardown

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[VIDEO] Much of the new MacBook Pro is still very difficult to repair, but there have been some gains here. Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post to see for yourself. I think the easier to remove trackpad, fans, Thunderbolt ports should give a boost to the repairability score, 1/10 seems harsh.

That aside, this is a gorgeous looking machine.

Thousands of hacked Disney+ accounts are already for sale on hacking forums

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Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet:

The Disney+ launch was marred by technical issues. Many users reported being unable to stream their favorite movies and shows.

But hidden in the flood of complaints about technical issues was a smaller stream of users reporting losing access to their accounts.

And:

Many users reported that hackers were accessing their accounts, logging them out of all devices, and then changing the account’s email and password, effectively taking over the account and locking the previous owner out.

Currently, once your account is set up, Disney+ does not validate your logins in any way, beyond user id and password. Just like Netflix, but unlike Apple TV+ and unlike HBO. We’ve heard rumblings of Netflix considering a change to this policy but, so far, nothing concrete.

[H/T, Nayan Sthankiya]

Apple renames official WWDC app

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Apple:

Starting today, the WWDC app is now the Apple Developer app and delivers in-depth information from Apple experts all year round. Stay up to date with the latest developer news, informative videos, WWDC content, and more.

Smart. Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is but once a year. Apple is shifting the app to be more of a year round hub for developers.

Interesting comment from Mark Gurman:

https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1196627420201263105

One argument against this is the fact that there’s a WWDC tab in the facelifted app. And another, with perhaps less weight, is the emotional tie developers have to the WWDC name.

‘Dickinson’ on Apple TV+ has surged ahead of its other launch shows in popularity

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Travis Clark, Business Insider:

Some of Apple’s launch shows for its new streaming service, Apple TV Plus, have been lagging in audience demand since they debuted on November 1. But “Dickinson” is starting to gain major traction.

The series, starring Hailee Steinfeld as the 19th century poet, recently broke through Parrot Analytics’ top 10 most in-demand original streaming shows.

When I first heard rumors of this show, I struggled to wrap my head around the concept of a show based on a poet, and a poet who lived in the 1800s.

But Dickinson is a charming surprise, and now we learn it has legs too. Have to say, never expected Dickinson to emerge as the most popular Apple TV+ show, but glad to see this well crafted historical dramedy grabbing the spotlight.

Apple Watch changed the life of his son with autism: “We had tried everything”

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People Magazine:

Sam, 21, is on the autism spectrum, and though he’s the epitome of a social butterfly — “People just fall in love with him,” Scott tells PEOPLE — he’s long struggled with an exceptionally loud speaking voice.

“He just never had the ability to modulate it,” says Scott, 59. “For years we’ve been struggling with this, since he started talking… and the voice level is really, really, really loud.”

Enter Apple Watch:

Scott says he was updating his apps one morning when he noticed the Noise app, which measures decibel levels of its users’ surroundings, and turns a corresponding color, flashing yellow when things are loud to the point of risking hearing damage.

And, sharing the app with his son:

“He immediately saw that and started using his own voice to make it work, and then immediately started talking really quietly,” he says. “I was like, you gotta be kidding me. My wife [Cristy] is not gonna believe this. I don’t believe what I’m seeing.”

Great story, yet another example of the life changing power of technology, and the value of Apple Watch.

Perhaps the wildest WILL IT WORK ever

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[VIDEO] Every so often, I get one of these WILL IT WORK videos sent over (embedded in main Loop post), showing some contraption connected to an iPhone, accessing ancient files stored on some obsolete media.

This one is like a set of nested Russian dolls, with a thing, connected to a thing, connected to a thing. But all of it new to me. Fascinating that this stuff “just works” after all these years.

HomePod Siri, multiple voices, and remembered preferences

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Reddit:

My Fiance is from Mexico and used to C°. Now that the HomePod can tell the difference between us, Siri will now respond to me in F° and to her in C°. Which is a nice but small touch.

This is a small thing, but indicative of a larger trend of HomePod Siri reacting to different voices with preferences stored for each user. Much in the same way as knowing who said, “I love this song” and adjusting the right user’s Apple Music preferences.

That said, I’m still hearing from people who can’t get multiple voices working on their HomePods. And, anecdotally, my wife suddenly disappeared from our setup over the weekend, no idea why.