Great review of the Pro Display XDR from PCMag.

I especially appreciate the discussion of full-array local dimming (FALD), which Pro Display XDR uses, vs OLED, microLED, and mini LED. Well written, worth the read.

Bottom line:

Apple’s Pro Display XDR provides exceptional color accuracy and build quality at a price that’s quite competitive with those of reference-grade pro monitors. It’s exquisite enough that swallowing the wildly extravagant cost of its Pro Stand is worth it.

Reuters:

The chief executive of developer Mobicip, Suren Ramasubbu, told Reuters he was interviewed in November by a U.S. investigator who asked about the company’s interactions with Apple. The app, which has nearly a million users worldwide, allows parents to control what their children see on their iPhones.

Ramasubbu said the Mobicip app was temporarily removed from the iPhone app store last year for a failure to meet requirements imposed by Apple.

And:

Six executives of parental control app companies interviewed by Reuters said they had a comfortable relationship with Apple until mid-2018. That is when Apple introduced its own, similar software giving parents oversight of their children’s phone screen time and searches.

When Reuters reports that a “handful of app developers had been contacted”, I suspect (no inside info here, just intuition) that they are all connected to the parental control space.

PetaPixel:

General Motors used to be, for a time, America’s largest car manufacturer with a peak market share of 50.7% in the US in 1962. In 2016? 17%.

It doesn’t matter whether the Photoshop is still king, because kingdoms usually revolt when the king becomes tyrannical. Even if Adobe’s brand presence is such that it has become a verb, it doesn’t garner loyalty. In fact, if the ubiquitousness of the phrase is so great, it can eventually become a generic word like ‘aspirin.’

Now, yes it is true, Photoshop is the industry standard — but when a majority of your customers aren’t reliant on industry standards as they are sole proprietors, freelancers, and students, standards aren’t important, because cash flow is.

I don’t know if Adobe is paying attention or cares (because they know their business model better than anyone else) but there’s certainly a groundswell of dissatisfied photographers (and others) who are looking for alternatives.

Investor’s Business Daily:

Less than 10% of Apple customers eligible for 12-month free trials of the company’s Apple TV+ streaming video service have taken the offer, a Wall Street analyst said Monday.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that under 10 million Apple customers have accepted the free trial offer. He calls that a “surprisingly low take rate.”

So much of the media is unquestioningly accepting Sacconaghi’s numbers without asking how he came about them or being critical of the report in general.

Sacconaghi based his estimate on an analysis of Apple’s fiscal first-quarter results, released last week. Apple did not give specifics on the Apple TV+ service, which launched on Nov. 1. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said Apple TV+ “is off to a rousing start.”

Sacconaghi sees three possible explanations for a low initial take rate for Apple TV+ free trials.

Here’s a fourth possibility – Sacconaghi is talking out of his posterior and has no actual data to base this on. The Mac and Tech media should at least entertain that idea instead of going off half-cocked and making pronouncements like “consumers might not be interested in Apple TV+ because of its limited content offerings.” While that may be true, everyone likes “free.”

BGR:

Your notion of the typical YouTuber might be anything from a Twitch streamer sharing clips of game streams to beauty vloggers, influencers and all manner of other loud, brash, in-your-face personalities — with the kind of persona focused on keeping people entertained and amassing millions of followers. And then there’s Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast. An altogether different sort of YouTube presence who’s known not so much for his personality or his antics, as … his philanthropy? That’s right, this guy loves to give away stuff, and yes, on one level the giveaways work very much as attention-getting stunts. But take his latest video, which you can watch above.

It may very well be “just a stunt” but as stunts go, it’s pretty cool. And sure, it may be an indictment of our consumer culture but wouldn’t it be great to have the money to be able to do this for people?

Matt Birchler:

Below is basically what I would pitch to my boss if I worked on the watchOS team at Apple on what I thought we should be doing. Since I don’t work there, though, this is my public wish list for the platform and I hope you agree and pass this along so it’s more likely to get in front of someone on the actual team as inspiration.

This is a pretty good read. My favorite is, “A Damn Day Off”. Would be a nice option, especially when you are on vacation, trying to unwind.

Twitter:

We observed a particularly high volume of requests coming from individual IP addresses located within Iran, Israel, and Malaysia. It is possible that some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors.

And:

When used as intended, this endpoint makes it easier for new account holders to find people they may already know on Twitter. The endpoint matches phone numbers to Twitter accounts for those people who have enabled the “Let people who have your phone number find you on Twitter” option and who have a phone number associated with their Twitter account.

In the Twitter app, do this:

• Tap your Twitter avatar.
• Tap Settings and privacy
• Tap Privacy and safety
• Tap Discoverability and contacts

Turn stuff off.

Up to $30 for the Series 1 Apple Watch, up to $100 for Series 2 or later. Pretty hard to resist.

Knapsack:

I’m late to the Apple Watch Series 5 game and I only bought mine last night. I’ve been putting off the purchase primarily because I’ve seen the 44mm on multiple wrists and the most common face, called Infograph, looked so odd. What was this abomination? Why were people using it? Why were there so many little circles?

I finally bit the bullet and ordered one and now I can unequivocally say that Apple’s watch face designs are awful.

I honestly thought I could get away with not caring. After all, the best watch face on the device, the so-called Modular, is so useful and elegant. It tells you exactly what you need to know, offers a few simple complications, and stays out of your way. With Infograph, however, you realize that Apple misunderstands both horology and design and feels that some weird skeuomorphic fever dream can pass for a real watch face.

I wish Apple would open up the watch face API so others can take a shot at doing it better.

Reddit:

The caps of most cheap pens have holes in them so you can still breathe even if you accidentally swallow the cap.

The word “helicopter” has two components. They aren’t “heli” and “copter”. They are “helico” and “pter”. “Helico” (helix) and “pter” (wing, like with “pterodactyl”).

The founding fathers of America pretty much all died before the first documented discovery of dinosaur bones in 1812. I always tell people George Washington didn’t know about Dinosaurs during his lifetime and that will get people thinking.

Do not click on this Reddit link unless you’ve got a lot of time to waste.

The Takeout:

Dear Salty, I was at the coffee shop counter, and the cashier wouldn’t take my order until I took off my AirPod! And it was only in one ear! Am I the asshole here?

Kevin

Oh, Kevin, you sad, foolish little soul. Where do I even begin? [Takes a deep breath.] I am trying hard here to give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you were in the middle of a very important phone call/podcast/guitar riff that could not be paused for the 30 or so seconds it takes to order a cup of coffee. In which case, you very politely step aside to conclude your business and then order your coffee.

Short version? Respect.

New York Times:

The creator of one of the world’s most famous mysteries is giving obsessive fans a new clue.

Kryptos, a sculpture in a courtyard at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va., holds an encrypted message that has not fully yielded to attempts to crack it. It’s been nearly 30 years since its tall scroll of copper with thousands of punched-through letters was set in place.

Three of the four passages of the sculpture have been decrypted (the first, though unacknowledged at the time, was solved by a team from the National Security Agency). But after nearly three decades, one brief passage remains uncracked. And that has been a source of delight and consternation to thousands of people around the world.

I’ve been following this story as an interested observer (I’m nowhere near smart enough to attempt any solution) for years and I love the mystery of it.

Fast Company:

In November 2019, Russian parliament passed what’s become known as the “law against Apple.” The legislation will require all smartphone devices to preload a host of applications that may provide the Russian government with a glut of information about its citizens, including their location, finances, and private communications.

<Apple typically forbids the preloading of third-party apps onto its system’s hardware. But come July 2020, when the law goes into effect, Apple will be forced to quit the country and a market estimated at $3 billion unless it complies. This piece of legislation, along with a controversial law aimed at the construction of a “sovereign internet,” is the latest step in Vladimir Putin’s ongoing encroachment into digital space—and has brought Apple into direct conflict with the autocratic Russian president.

I don’t think Apple has a “Putin problem” at all. They won’t accede to this demand and will pull out of the Russian market. No problem. If this happened with China, then they’d have a real problem.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

When visiting Apple’s Support site to initiate a device repair, there’s now a mention of an onsite option when scheduling a repair. “Look for an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Genius Bar. In select locations, onsite service may be available.”

Onsite repairs from Go Tech Services appear to be available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas.

I’m curious about the pricing model. Obviously, there’s an extra fee for these services.

Detailed graphical look, by Justin O’Beirne, at what’s changed with the massive new Apple Maps rollout.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Customers who have AirPods Pro that also purchased an AppleCare+ protection plan for $29 appear to be able to receive free replacement tips for their ‌AirPods Pro‌.

Multiple MacRumors readers have reported being provided replacement tips at no cost after going through Apple’s support repair steps for the ‌AirPods Pro‌.

File under good to know.

The proposal is embedded in this GitHub repository. Easy read, short and clearly written.

From the linked ZDNet explainer:

Apple engineers have put forward a proposal today to standardize the format of the SMS messages containing one-time passcodes (OTP) that users receive during the two-factor authentication (2FA) login process.

And:

The proposal has two goals. The first is to introduce a way that OTP SMS messages can be associated with an URL. This is done by adding the login URL inside the SMS itself.

The second goal is to standardize the format of 2FA/OTP SMS messages, so browsers and other mobile apps can easily detect the incoming SMS, recognize web domain inside the message, and then automatically extract the OTP code and complete the login operation without further user interaction.

Basically, the goal is to automate the process, to have your device enter the code automatically, rather than you having to copy and paste it. Seems to me, in the past when this standardization was raised, there was a security concern about taking the human out of the middle of this process. Was that concern unfounded?

Rolling Stone:

The Super Bowl is an enormous night for international television. Each year, more than 100 million people are estimated to watch the game, its advertisements and its halftime show. It all begins with the performance of the National Anthem, a tradition that has been carried out by some of the greatest voices in pop music history. The song isn’t easy to deliver — as Christina Aguilera discovered — but there have been some exceptional performances. Click through to see the best star-spangled renditions.

Whitney Houston’s version in 1991 will always be my personal favourite.

Quartz:

The championship game of the National Football League is the biggest entertainment event in the United States each year. It is watched by more Americans on television than anything else, by a large margin. The whole thing is a monstrous, quasi-religious spectacle. And it’s been like that for decades.

Last year’s game was seen live by almost 100 million Americans. Every year since the game started, without exception, well over half of Americans households with a TV tuned in. In many cases, more than three-quarters tuned in.

But how, exactly, did the Super Bowl get this way? How did it become such an unavoidable phenomenon?

It’s a fascinating and uniquely American super event.

CNBC:

Apple has temporarily shut down all its stores in mainland China through Feb. 9, the company said on Saturday.

The tech giant said in a statement on Saturday: “Our thoughts are with the people most immediately affected by the Coronavirus and with those working around the clock to study and contain it.”

“Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we’re closing all our corporate offices, stores and contact centers in mainland China through February 9,” it said.

Hopefully, this is only temporary and short term.

Fast Company:

Jobs was a master salesman, but to him, selling wasn’t selling. It was seduction.

Jobs built on the ideas of Apple’s ’70s marketing legend Regis McKenna, who saw before anyone else did that Apple’s early computers could appeal to people who didn’t spend their time disassembling motherboards—to students, teachers, musicians, and other creative people like me, who thought computers could be, you know, fun.

Because of Jobs, Apple’s sales, marketing, and design teams understood consumer psychology better than perhaps any company in history.

I don’t know if I’d go so far as “sex sells” but there’s no doubt the original appeal of using a Mac for me was the idea that it wasn’t a device I had to “figure out” how to use. It was definitely seductive.

Ken Segall:

January 24th was the 35th anniversary of Macintosh, bless its little soul.

In reading a number of articles, I got to enjoy the original Macintosh intro event all over again. It’s a vivid reminder that Steve Jobs’ showmanship and obsession with detail was in full bloom way back at the beginning. One of the those details was “the speech.” (About 3:05 into the video.). Steve wanted to have the first Mac to speak for itself.

it got me wondering: who actually wrote these words. Steve? One of his minions?

Instinct led me to suspect another Steve—Steve Hayden, then a Chiat/Day creative director and author of the iconic 1984 Macintosh launch ad. He’s also the guy who gave me my start on the Apple business.

Though I haven’t worked with Steve for many years, I still enjoy squeezing info out of him from time to time. So I had to ask: Did you do it?

I love Segall’s tidbits from the history of Apple marketing.

Deadline:

Foundation, the Apple original drama with Jared Harris and Lee Pace that’s based on Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel trilogy, is set to become Ireland’s largest-scale production ever.

At a press briefing in Dublin today, national funding body Screen Ireland talked up the country’s production slate for 2020, noting that the Apple show would create more than 500 production jobs when it shoots at Troy Studios in Limerick.

The 10-episode series from David S. Goyer, Josh Friedman and Skydance Television chronicles the epic saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.

This is the one Apple TV+ series I’ve been looking forward to the most. I read the original Asimov trilogy as a kid many years ago and enjoyed it immensely. How this will be brought to the screen will be very interesting.

Six Colors:

It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple.

This is the fifth year that I’ve presented this survey to a hand-selected group. They were prompted with 12 different Apple-related subjects, and asked to rate them on a scale from 1 to 5 and optionally provide text commentary per category.

Snell surveys many of The Usual Suspects about their opinions regarding Apple’s performance in 2019.

9to5Mac:

Earlier this week, Apple released eleven new underwater screensavers for the Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K. If you are using the Aerial screensaver, the Apple TV will automatically download them and appear in the rotation alongside the existing videos.

The new videos were added sometime this week, around Monday or Tuesday. The new screensavers are available in 1080p and 4K variants, which means they will show up on any tvOS-compatible Apple TV.

The new batch includes overhead pans of coral reefs, closeups of underwater species like stingrays and humpback whale and a pod of dolphins.

I much prefer the underwater screensavers to the city and atmosphere ones. My cat does too. You can watch all of them on Benjamin Mayo’s page.

VOX:

Facebook users just got a new glimpse into — and a little control over — the myriad ways the social network tracks what they do when they’re not using Facebook. If you didn’t already realize it, by the way, Facebook is tracking an astounding amount of what you do when you’re not using the platform, an activity also known as living life in the real world.

The new Off-Facebook Activity tool, which the company announced last August, finally launched on Tuesday. It can tell you which companies are supplying Facebook with information about your real-world activity — for example, that you visited their website or purchased a product from it.

The feature also allows you to opt out of some of this collection — to a point. Clicking on a particular company’s listing will bring up a dialogue that will give you a slightly more specific look at what data was collected. There’s also the option to “Turn off future activity” from that company. If you’re looking for a nuclear option, you can click “Manage Future Activity” and then flip the blue switch on the right side of the page.

I was appalled at how many sites were tracking me using this “feature.” I turned it off immediately.