It’s a rumor, a leak from “sources”, so take it all with a grain of salt. But an updated version of the iPhone SE would be most welcome, in my opinion. People with smaller hands and/or smaller pockets are not being served.
A new iPhone SE? Yes, please. Not to mention a modern iPhone at an entry level price. That’d certainly help Apple expand into low-cost Android phone territory.
[VIDEO] Before you dig in to the video embedded in the main Loop post, think about what you expect to see. What browsers have what market share right now?
I think you’ll be surprised. [H/T John Frankel]
Om Malik:
All four big camera brands — Sony, Fuji, Canon, and Nikon — are reposting rapid declines. And it is not just the point and shoot cameras whose sales are collapsing. We also see sales of higher-end DSLR cameras stall. And — wait for it — even mirrorless cameras, which were supposed to be a panacea for all that ails the camera business, are heading south.
Smartphone cameras are clearly destroying the compact camera market. Check the charts in the linked post. But sale of interchangeable lens cameras seems to have stabilized. As good as my iPhone camera is, there are still optical limits to a camera you can fit in your pocket.
The question is, do people care about the resolution, the sharpness of their photos when zooming in? After all, the photos will mostly be viewed on a small screen.
To me, this is similar to what’s happened to music. We are so used to listening to music on headphones we pull out of our pocket, the idea of building a wall of sound, or fitting a room with expensive, audiophile speakers seems a distant memory.
Personally, I am still a fan of telephoto lenses, and fast focusing gear. Think capturing a bird in flight, or a fast moving scene, like a soccer ball at the moment it crosses the goal line. I’d love to be able to shoot those sorts of scenes with my iPhone, but physics just gets in the way.
Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:
9to5Mac has learned from sources inside Apple that the company is working on sleep tracking for the Apple Watch, which won’t require any special hardware to work.
And:
While asleep, the Apple Watch will track the user’s quality of sleep using its multiple sensors and inputs, including the person’s movement, heart rate, and noises.
Noises!
One of the issues with wearing an Apple Watch during sleep is that many users choose to charge their Apple Watch at night. Apple thought about this and developed a feature that will remind users to charge their Watch beforehand so they can get through the night.
When wearing the Watch during bedtime, if the user wakes up and starts their day before their alarm goes off, it will automatically turn off the alarm.
This is all fascinating to me. Makes me wonder what I’d do with that information. Will there be an addition to the Health app to help me get better sleep? To take advantage of this information in some way?
Another question: Will this work with an existing Apple Watch model? If so, how far back will it go?
We’ll find out one week from today.
This is just riveting. Video embedded in main Loop post. Absolutely fascinating to me.
New York Times:
Americans may soon be able to get their medical records through smartphone apps as easily as they order takeout food from Seamless or catch a ride from Lyft.
But prominent medical organizations are warning that patient data-sharing with apps could facilitate invasions of privacy — and they are fighting the change.
And:
The American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and other groups said they had recently met with health regulators to push for changes to the rules. Without federal restrictions in place, the groups argued, consumer apps would be free to share or sell sensitive details like a patient’s prescription drug history. And some warned that the spread of such personal medical information could lead to higher insurance rates or job discrimination.
This is no small thing. It’s the reason federally mandated privacy rules are in place. Apple’s privacy commitment is a promise, but not a legal requirement. And if you move beyond Apple and the Health app, your privacy risks rise significantly.
To me, knowing exactly who has access to my shared medical history is at least as important as who has access to my location or email. Centralizing access to a patient’s medical records is certainly valuable, making it easier for all your doctors to gain an accurate view of your history and medicines. But there is the potential for all your highly personal medical details to become public.
[VIDEO] Fun challenge, and a fun little tour around London (video embedded in main Loop post).
To get a sense of how immense this challenge actually is, fire up Apple Maps and type:
london, england apple stores
That is a massive spread. And a testament to the breadth of London’s public transport.
[H/T Storm Garelli]
Apple:
Apple has determined that, under very rare circumstances, a crack may form along the rounded edge of the screen in aluminum models of an Apple Watch Series 2 or Series 3. The crack may begin on one side and then may continue around the screen.
Follow the link, check out the images to get a sense of this, and to see if your Apple Watch qualifies.
[VIDEO] Apple’s South Korean site posted a sequence of colorful AirPod case pictures, along with a video (embedded in the main Loop post) showing off those cases.
I tweeted a couple of screen shots of the images (not from the video). New cases appeared each time I refreshed the page. Interesting designs. Fascinating that some of them have hooks to hang the case from a chain.
Did Apple make these prototypes? Are these Etsy-like 3rd party crafts? No matter, I love ’em all. Whimsy!
[VIDEO] Rene Ritchie combines a look at every single iPhone over the years with a bracket challenge (video embedded in main Loop post).
Personally, I enjoy a good retrospective, and found myself rooting for certain models. Interesting idea, well executed. How do you have enough time in the day to do all this stuff, Rene?
As you make your way around the blogosphere this morning, you’re sure to see a number of articles highlighting mysterious or indiscriminate iPhone attacks, quietly hacking iPhones for years.
There’s a nugget of truth there, but as always, best to go straight to the horse’s mouth, this blog post from Google’s Project Zero.
Earlier this year Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) discovered a small collection of hacked websites. The hacked sites were being used in indiscriminate watering hole attacks against their visitors, using iPhone 0-day.
There was no target discrimination; simply visiting the hacked site was enough for the exploit server to attack your device, and if it was successful, install a monitoring implant.
And:
TAG was able to collect five separate, complete and unique iPhone exploit chains, covering almost every version from iOS 10 through to the latest version of iOS 12. This indicated a group making a sustained effort to hack the users of iPhones in certain communities over a period of at least two years.
Most importantly:
We reported these issues to Apple with a 7-day deadline on 1 Feb 2019, which resulted in the out-of-band release of iOS 12.1.4 on 7 Feb 2019. We also shared the complete details with Apple, which were disclosed publicly on 7 Feb 2019.
So, the way I read this, Google uncovered the threat, reported it to Apple back in February, and Apple issued a patch pretty much immediately.
This is a news story, fair enough, but it’s about a problem that’s been long solved. Keep that grain of salt deeply in mind.
Mitchel Broussard, MacRumors:
Similar to the Nike Adapt BB shoes from earlier this year, the new Huarache shoe includes a FitAdapt lacing system. Run from a midfoot motor, the system is controlled by the connected Nike app and tightens or loosens the shoe based on user control.
A midfoot motor. In my wildest dreams, I never saw that phrase coming.
But I get it. Loosen or tighten your boots, depending on the activity, and do so with your voice.
Not for everyone, but for athletes, people passionate about athletic activity, or people who make their livings in some form of athletic endeavor, I can see real value here.
A few months ago, BBC Radio ran a program on the 1970s, with a specific episode dedicated to the founding of Apple.
From the episode writeup:
Author and broadcaster Michael S. Malone tells the story of the Apple II personal computer, an invention which helped to revolutionise the way we work and play. “The stunning Apple II, with its new rainbow logo, put the scores of other, cruder personal computers in the shade, ” he says. “They looked like the past. The Apple II looked like the future, the only future, for personal computing.”
Follow the headline to listen to the episode. Then check out the comments included in the main Loop post. These came directly from Woz (and are published here, with Woz’s permission) and clarify some of the points made in the linked BBC Radio episode.
[VIDEO] Follow the headline link for an article posted by Microsoft on the process of designing and implementing Dark Mode for Office 365. Glad to see it, interesting post.
But whether you read the post or not, take a minute to watch Microsoft’s Dark Mode video, embedded in the main Loop post. Eerily beautiful, looks like it was all practical effects, old school.
Russell Brandom, The Verge:
On October 13th, 2018, two men walked into a Great Midwest Bank in a suburban strip mall outside Milwaukee. They were the first two customers when the bank opened, barely recognizable behind sunglasses and heavy beards — but it soon became clear what they were after. One man jumped onto the teller counter and pulled out a handgun, throwing down a garbage bag for the tellers to fill with money. They left the bank at 9:09AM, just seven minutes after they entered, carrying the bag full of cash, three drawers from the vault and teller station, and the keys to the bank vault itself.
In the months since, police and federal agents have struggled to track down the bank robbers. Local media sent out pictures from the bank’s security cameras, but it produced no leads. Finally, police hit on a more aggressive strategy: ask Google to track down the bank robbers’ phones.
Great read. And not just in a “true crime” way. There’s a major privacy issue at stake, all laid out in the article.
I came away wondering if future data analysis will show a trend of criminals avoiding Android, right alongside civil liberties proponents.
To go along with their press release on Improving Siri’s privacy protections, Apple also posted a knowledge base article with questions and answers on Siri Privacy and grading.
The whole thing was interesting to me, but this bit stuck out:
Is Siri always listening? What do you do to prevent Siri listening when I haven’t said, “Hey Siri”?
No. Siri is designed to activate and send audio to Apple only after you trigger your device by saying “Hey Siri,” use the raise to speak feature on Apple Watch, or physically trigger Siri using the designated buttons on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, and HomePod.
To recognize “Hey Siri” we process audio solely on device through multiple stages of analysis to determine if the audio matched the “Hey Siri” pattern. Only when the device recognizes the “Hey Siri” pattern is your audio sent to the server. On the server we do additional mitigation to analyze the full request to confirm it is intended for Siri.
Occasionally we have what’s called a “false trigger,” where Siri activates when you did not intend it to. We work hard to minimize false triggers and have updated the review process to limit graders’ exposure to them. When we resume grading, our team will work to delete any recording which is determined to trigger Siri inadvertently.
The key point, to me, is that the device is always listening for “Hey Siri”, but audio is only passed along to the server when that specific trigger is found, when you’ve specifically made a request.
I’m agree with Jim’s take. I’m good with opting in to help improve Siri.
Check out all the pictures. Amazing knockoff. Shameless.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
Apple today released a surprise iOS 13.1 beta, which is unprecedented as the company has never before released a point update for an unreleased software update.
This is a notable move by Apple. To clarify, developers now have access to both an iOS 13 beta series, as well as a first beta for iOS 13.1. Two beta threads to follow.
Hard to know the true rationale behind this forking beta, but given how close we are to the supposed September 10th Apple iPhone event, this feels like a move to push some features off to 13.1 so iOS 13 itself can reach golden master status in time for the new iPhones to ship.
Is this the emergence of a new beta strategy for Apple, a sign of what to expect with future OS releases, or just a one time thing?
UPDATE: I received a surprising number of comments from people pointing out that this is not really a fork, in the software development sense of the word. I yield to my betters, but I’m still kinda happy with the double entendre.
Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider:
For years, this new Apple product was derided as too expensive to compete against cheaper alternatives. Yet by targeting the premium high end first, it was able to establish itself and then attract an even broader audience of users at broader price points in the future.
And:
HomePod was one of the results of Apple’s largest-ever acquisition —the $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics in 2014. This acquisition gave Apple the world’s largest and most profitable headphone and speaker business, and contributed to the audio overhaul that brought much higher-quality stereo sound to iPhone 7, iPads, and MacBooks.
And:
Comparing only the emerging sliver of Apple’s overall Siri activity exclusively connected to HomePod against virtually the entire business of Amazon Alexa and often all of its partners is ridiculous, yet market research groups continue to do this.
In a nutshell, HomePod is a clue to an emerging business. The business model has not yet revealed itself.
Google and its licensees haven’t been effective at establishing proprietary features to keep Android users from leaving the platform. Apple has. Over the last decade, Apple has introduced tight Continuity integration between iPhones, iPads, and Macs; introduced Apple Watch and AirPods as wearables with similarly tight connectivity; and launched iMessage, iCloud, AirDrop, Apple Pay, Apple Card and other free and paid Services that keep iOS users reluctant to even examine other options. This year, the new Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and AirPlay 2 are expanding the tight integration between Apple’s products.
And:
Apple has already launched a successful business in home audio in its first year, without needing to rival Amazon or Google in total unit shipments. Yet HomePod didn’t even need to be commercially successful on its own to be strategically successful for Apple. As part of the Siri, HomeKit, and AirPlay 2 ecosystems, HomePod is a valuable product category for Apple.
Judging HomePod as an expensive speaker playing in the expensive speaker marketplace is a short term view. To me, the long game has just gotten started. Apple is doing what it always does, patiently learning about a market, releasing product to enhance its ecosystem.
Don’t forget, HomePods are said to have brought in about $1.4 billion in revenue last year. Hard to argue that that’s anything but a great success.
Nate D Sanders auction page:
Extraordinarily scarce Pixar Animation Studios poster signed by its co-founder Steve Jobs, sometime after 1995 when ”Toy Story”, the first computer-animated feature film, debuted. Jobs’ legendary vision is evident in his backing of Pixar, whose potential was immediately realized in the success of ”Toy Story”, earning three Academy Award nominations, breaking box office records and securing its reputation as one of the finest animated movies of all time. Poster measures 24” x 36”, signed by Jobs in black fiber-tip marker. In near fine condition. With JSA COA.
A minimum bid of $25,000. Ouch. That lets me out.
[Via 9to5Mac]
[VIDEO] A fine commercial (video embedded in main Loop post), but one bit of the voiceover stuck out to me:
It’s a new kind of credit card, created by Apple, not a bank.
The fine print in the ad (tiny, but readable) says, in part:
Issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA
I get the point. Apple is the creator of the card, Goldman Sachs Bank a partner. And, more importantly, a partner who follows Apple’s specific privacy rules.
Jean-Louis Gassée:
Does the world need a new credit card, especially one without any outstanding perks? The answer lies in the way the Apple Card works rather than in the number of miles or the cash rebate percentages.
And:
For a sufficiently large number of Apple customers, the new payment system is a classic How vs What proposition — and the “How” wins. The Wallet app offers complete control over purchases, payments, rebates, timing, and security, all in one place. As for security, three different card numbers track purchases made with the physical card, with a card number on line, or with Apple Pay on your Watch or iPhone. No need to use a special third party app, such as the excellent Mint. Everything is built into the Wallet, itself built in every iPhone and iPad.
A great take on Apple Card. One interesting tidbit was the reveal of two different on-boarding processes for the physical Apple Card. This tweet shows both side-by-side. Anyone know the why on this?
UPDATE: The answer appears to be NFC support. My iPhone XR supports NFC, which was used to activate the card. Brigitte’s iPhone is likely an older pre-NFC model, no auto-activate magic.
[VIDEO] From the official show description:
Dickinson is a half-hour comedy series starring Oscar® nominee Hailee Steinfeld. Created by Alena Smith, Dickinson audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of rebellious young poet Emily Dickinson.
Hard to wrap my head around this one. I feel the same as I did about the teaser trailer for The Morning Show.
But lesson learned. The official trailer for The Morning Show was a perfect follow-up, conveyed the depth of the show’s core, fleshed out the characters.
Dickinson is an interesting premise, a difficult marriage to pull off, bringing to life a dark, secluded character from the 1800’s, a prolific, slant-rhyming poet whose work was incredibly influential, but whose life was mostly unexplored.
I am quite curious about this show. Video embedded in the main Loop post.
Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post:
I recently used my credit card to buy a banana. Then I tried to figure out how my credit card let companies buy me.
And:
Despite a federal privacy law covering cards, I found that six types of businesses could mine and share elements of my purchase, multiplied untold times by other companies they might have passed it to.
And:
When I swiped my cards, of course my banks received data. What’s surprising is who they can share it with. My data helped identify me to Chase’s marketing partners, who send me junk mail. Some data even got fed to retail giant Amazon because it co-branded my card.
And:
This is where the Apple Card is different. In the Goldman Sachs privacy statement, its answer to most kinds of sharing is “no.” Goldman still shares information with credit agencies about whether you pay your bills. But it says it doesn’t feed transactions to marketers or a sister company that mines card data.
The whole article is a fascinating read. But if I had to highlight a single point, it’s that last quoted paragraph above. Yes, you can get more cash back, more frequent flyer miles, etc., but there’s a price, both in a yearly fee charged by most credit cards, and in data sharing.
What’s in your wallet?
Jason Snell:
This is the third year of the iPhone X hardware family, and the second year for the iPhone XR, so changes to the external design of Apple’s phones — often the biggest driver of a huge sales bump — are unlikely. The presence of the iPhone XR adds another wrinkle as Apple continues to try to differentiate it from the company’s more expensive models. And then there’s the iPhone X name itself, which seems unlikely to be continued through another generation. iPhone XRM? iPhone XST? Yuck.
And:
If you ask me, one of the worst product names Apple has ever generated is iPhone XS Max. Apple’s large ultrapremium phone takes the ridiculous Roman numeral/letter combination of the entire 2018 phone generation and, well, maxes it out. iPhone 11 Pro Max would be slightly less bad, but it’s still ridiculous.
Interesting look at Apple’s iPhone naming conundrum. Do you go with XI? 11? Do you follow the Mac’s lead and come up with a long-term name, like iPhone Air, iPhone Pro, and iPhone Max, then append the year to lock in a specific model?
That last approach would help unify Apple’s product strategy, make things just a bit less confusing.
But the die is cast, product names long locked in. Are the first boxes printed and warehoused, ready to jet their way to Apple Stores around the world? Or is that switch still to be thrown?
Engadget got the chance to sit down with Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services and look at a preview of Disney+.
A few nuggets:
Aside from shows like The Mandalorian and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which will be available on November 12th, Disney announced at D23 Expo that it has a bunch more in the works, such as Marvel’s Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk as well as a new Lizzie McGuire original.
And:
There’s also going to be a feature that will let people create profiles which are programmed for children seven and under, which are organized by characters (e.g. Mickey Mouse and Disney Princesses) instead of shows or movies.
And:
What’s more, if you’re watching a movie or show on, say, the Apple TV or Xbox One and pause, you can continue watching where you left off on your other devices.
The more I hear, the more this $6.99 a month price is a no-brainer to me. Might be enough content for me to swap out Netflix, which feels like much less of a value.
Apple TV+? I will definitely give it a try, but without a back catalog, might be a tough sell at the rumored $9.99 a month price.
New York Times:
Summer Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer living in Kansas, has been in the midst of a bitter separation and parenting dispute for much of the past year. So she was surprised when she noticed that her estranged spouse still seemed to know things about her spending. Had she bought a car? How could she afford that?
Ms. Worden put her intelligence background to work, asking her bank about the locations of computers that had recently accessed her bank account using her login credentials. The bank got back to her with an answer: One was a computer network registered to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
And:
Ms. McClain acknowledged that she had accessed the bank account from space, insisting through a lawyer that she was merely shepherding the couple’s still-intertwined finances. Ms. Worden felt differently. She filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and her family lodged one with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, accusing Ms. McClain of identity theft and improper access to Ms. Worden’s private financial records.
Space crime. Sounds like a great title for an Apple TV+ show. Crazy story.
Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors, provides an excellent walk through the updated iOS 13 Health App. Lots of pics, easy to skim, worth your time.
No matter your iOS, be sure to check your profile. Get a sense of what’s available, verify that your profile data is correct and up-to-date, and take a minute to set up your Medical ID info.
Medical ID lets you specify health issues, blood type, organ donor signup, lots more.
These are just creepy.
[H/T Dane Jorgensen]
Apple posted a page on cleaning your Apple Card. This is real.
One particular highlight from the page:
Some fabrics, like leather and denim, might cause permanent discoloration that will not wash off.
I have to say, this is some upper echelon marketing. Can you imagine if Capital One or CitiBank sent you instructions on cleaning your credit card?
But there’s more.
Not sure what factors came into play here, but here’s one user’s card after two months in a leather wallet. Not so precious.
Also, there’s a new Apple Card Twitter account. Kind of hoping for some Wendy’s / Burger King level comedy, but I won’t hold my breath. Until the other credit card companies get together and create accounts to get this rivalry started.