It’s been a few months since I launched Downlink, and since then I’ve put out a few nice updates—better handling of Spaces, multiple displays, and so on.
But there was one big feature on my list that I’m happy to announce is now available: custom views of Earth!
The full disk views can be really high resolution, so custom views can be zoomed in pretty tight on where you live or somewhere you love on Earth.
The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day in the United States is the most prolific for device activations, app downloads and app usage. A wave of new devices flood the market as phones are given as gifts during the holiday season, followed by consumers loading them up with apps.
Apple’s iPhone 11—this year’s lowest end model of the 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max trifecta—continues to dominate the smartphone landscape, representing 15.4% of all new Apple devices activated and 6.16% of all smartphones activated between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Apple’s 2018 iPhone XR, which was the dominant device leading up to Christmas Day in 2019, comes in at a close second with 13.2% of all Apple devices and 5.27% of all smartphones. In fact, Apple’s older generation devices continue getting traction, likely appealing to more price sensitive customers. iPhones 6, 7 and 8 all cracked the Top 10 list.
I find it interesting the iPhone 11 Pro doesn’t make this list. Looks like consumers are being budget conscious or going big, with no room in the middle for the “simple” Pro.
A friend of mine has been away from the Mac for a long time (living on an iPad), just bought a new MacBook Pro.
As he went to wipe down his keyboard, he discovered that pressing a key or the trackpad woke his computer. With his Apple Watch set to unlock his computer, he found himself wipe-typing, not something he wanted. He asked for the best way to disable this behavior.
In the old days, you could shut down your Mac, do your wiping, carefully avoiding the power on button. But with the introduction of the 2018 models, Apple made a change to both MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, so they turn on when you touch any key or the trackpad.
I brought this up on Twitter yesterday, got a number of suggestions (along with some expressions of frustration at this change).
My favorite idea is to select Lock Screen from the Apple menu. This puts you in the lock screen, but will not use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. So wipe away, just don’t wipe-type your password and you’ll be fine.
Another approach is this tool, which uses a specific keypress to lock your keyboard so you can clean your keyboard and screen. Type the key, clean away, then type the key again to unlock.
This was an amazing demonstration, 500 drones as pixels, bringing moving images to Singapore’s night sky.
When I saw this, I immediately saw a future with thousands of drones, and then millions of drones, eventually bringing video, surveillance, and advertising to the roofs of our cities.
Last night’s Golden Globes felt unmoored, Ricky Gervais in full, uncontrolled roast mode. Tim Cook was there, along with Apple TV+ stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Jason Momoa.
Take a look at the video (quick, before the video is DMCA’d) in the embedded tweet for the double-edged take on The Morning Show and “sweat-shops in China”.
Ricky Gervais:
"…You say you're woke but the companies you work for…Apple, Amazon, Disney…if ISIS started a streaming service you'd call your agent, wouldn't you. If you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech…" pic.twitter.com/rVRIng2JAH
Jimmy Grewal, former Program Manager for Microsoft’s Mac Internet Explorer efforts, celebrates the twentieth anniversary of IE 5 and the port to the brand new Mac OS X, with pictures, videos, and a few Steve Jobs mentions, all rolled into a 25-part Twitter thread.
Although the influence of superheroes on modern culture is undeniable, the influence of modern culture on many superheroes remains hazy to this day. Comic creators, perhaps often wanting to maintain a little mystique, have historically been hesitant to get explicit about their inspirations. But when thinking through 80-plus-years-and-counting of our favorite caped crusaders changing slightly with the times, their real world analogues become clearer and clearer.
One of comics’ most iconic heroes might also be the perfect example of this. Since his first appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938, Superman has adapted to the times. The “Man of Steel” we saw in 2017’s Justice League didn’t just happen overnight, after all. Superman’s long term evolution is the result of many transformations and technological advancements throughout the decades.
What a great Saturday morning read. I bet many people didn’t know Superman couldn’t fly in the original comic books.
Dozens of fires erupted in New South Wales, Australia in November and rapidly spread across the entire continent to become some of the most devastating on record. An area about twice the size of Belgium, roughly 15 million acres, has burned. At least 18 people are dead, including at least three volunteer firefighters, and more are missing. More than 1,000 houses have been destroyed, hundreds more damaged. As blazes intensified in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, thousands of people who were forced to evacuate sought shelter on beaches across New South Wales and Victoria. Over 100 fires are still burning.
Although there have been fires across all of Australia’s six states, New South Wales has suffered the worst. Nearly half a billion animals, including mammals, birds, and reptiles, likely lost their lives in the blazes in New South Wales alone — a staggering loss which is probably an underestimate, according to the University of Sydney. Eight thousand koalas, a third of all the koalas in New South Wales, perished. About 30 percent of the koalas’ habitat has also been wiped out.
I have friends and family in Australia, specifically in New South Wales who are affected by these devastating fires.
HomeKit, the company’s smart home framework, has been around since 2014, and though it was slow to take off, a few key changes have helped it become more popular as the years have gone on.
That said, there’s a lot of competition in the smart home arena, which can mean extra complications when the field is growing so fast: fragmentation, problems with interoperability, and so on. But, in a rare move for Apple, it seems as though the company is moving to combat those problems head on…by working with others.
Apple still has an opportunity to be a player in the home automation market but “slow and steady” (or “dragging their feet,” depending on your POV) is going to make that a lot more difficult. Luckily, Amazon and Google have the usual privacy and data security issues that slow adoption but Apple needs to move a lot quicker. I had many people asking me about various home automation solutions over the holidays and it was hard to wholeheartedly recommend anything HomeKit-based.
Apple Inc. shares surpassed $300 amid predictions for a robust holiday quarter, demand for wearables such as AirPods and planned services including streaming TV.
Shares of the iPhone maker rose 2.3% to close at a record $300.35, topping the $300 mark for the first time on a split-adjusted basis. Thursday’s gain was in stark contrast to the dismal start Apple had in 2019 when it cut its sales forecast for the first time in almost two decades exactly a year ago.
Investors are increasingly optimistic about Apple’s user base of nearly 1.5 billion consumers and its ability to leverage auxiliary products like the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple TV and major hardware upgrade cycles for the iPhone and iPad every few years. The company has also promoted its user base as a key to generating recurring revenue from services like iCloud storage subscriptions, streaming service Apple TV+, Apple Music and AppleCare.
I don’t usually post about the vagaries of Apple’s ups and downs in the stock market but the $300/share threshold is a big deal, especially for those of us who remember when the stock was at $7/share.
As of iOS 13, apps are no longer able to present an “always allow” option when requesting access to a user’s location. The only way to immediately grant an app continuous access to location is to navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, tap on an app, and select the “always” option if available.
iOS 13 also periodically reminds users about apps that are continuously tracking their location, complete with a map of those locations. An on-screen alert provides users with options to continue to “always allow” ongoing access to their location or to limit access to while the app is being used.
In light of those changes, The Wall Street Journal today reported that some developers are concerned that the location tracking reminders will hurt adoption of their apps, while some iPhone users are said to have expressed frustration that the reminders appear every few days despite repeatedly selecting “always allow.”
Little to no sympathy for developers, many of whom are likely abusing Location Services. As for consumer complaints, security and privacy is a PITA but better to have too much than not enough.
2019 was a historic year for the S&P 500, and the benchmark has two stocks to thank.
Apple and Microsoft, which surged 85% and 54% this year, respectively, together accounted for nearly 15% of the S&P 500′s advance in 2019, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Their influence to the cap-weighted index this year is greater than the next eight biggest contributors combined. The S&P 500 rallied more than 28% this year, its best annual performance since 2013.
Shares of Apple posted their best year since 2009 as investors shook off trade-induced worries and turned bullish on its services and wearable device businesses. With the launch of Apple TV, Apple Watch and Airpods, Apple managed to offset some of the loss from waning demand for iPhones. Enthusiasm for the upcoming 5G cycle has also lifted the stock.
Apple had its ups and downs but, from a stock market and share price POV, it was a spectacular year.
He and his partner, Dr. Dre, sold their company, Beats Electronics, to Apple for $3 billion in 2014 and helped launch Apple Music, the tech giant’s late entry to the streaming market, which now has more than 60 million subscribers.
Iovine, 66, retired from Apple in 2018, and says he has devoted himself to passion projects like the XQ Institute, an educational initiative led by Laurene Powell Jobs, who was married to the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
In a series of conversations in December, Iovine spoke about his career transition from the studio to the halls of Cupertino, and the tangled relationship between music and tech in the 2010s.
I don’t know anything about drumming so I have no idea if this is a difficult piece to play or not but I do love this song and seeing a “grandmother” rip it up is fun to watch.
If you are interested in the iPhone camera, this is worth watching. Not so much for the “I was wrong” part, but for the explanations and examples. Well done.
Bradley Chambers pulled together some Apple Music tips for folks new to the service. But there’s one in particular that I think everyone should know about:
If you are traveling for the holidays, you might want to keep your entire library downloaded to your iOS devices. Of all the Apple Music tips I am sharing today, I’ve used this one the most often. I wish Apple had a simple option here, but you have to trick it with a playlist.
Read the article for the details, but the trick is to create a smart playlist that matches every song in your library, forces it to download on your device.
I definitely appreciate the trick, but can’t help but wish for a simpler way to accomplish this. Maybe a shortcut that force downloads everything in your library? Or a setting that does the same? Does such a thing exist? If you know of a better way, ping me.
In an interview, Cook told Nikkei that Seiko Advance is the “reason” Apple was able to release its top-of-the-line iPhone 11 Pro in a new color called Midnight Green.
And:
Midnight Green is not the only color Seiko Advance provides for the iPhone 11 Pro — it is also behind the Gold, Space Gray and Silver models. “We are the sole supplier of colors for the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max,” said Kabe.
But, in my mind, Midnight Green is notable, noticeable, an evolution in metal iPhone colors.
Interesting article. Turns out, Seiko Advance has been an Apple partner since 2011. A relatively tiny company, doing an important job for Apple.
Twenty years ago, we were all pretty sure the world was going to end on January 1, 2000—or, if not the world, then at least civilization.
We were legitimately freaked out. And why wouldn’t we be? TIME published an ominous cover story with extra exclamation points. President Bill Clinton said not-at-all-reassuring things about Y2K like, “This is not one of the summer movies where you can close your eyes during the scary parts.” CNN suggested that readers prepare for Y2K by stockpiling powdered milk, canned juices, and “comfort food.”
But then New Year’s came and went. We all woke up with electricity. ATMs didn’t refuse to dispense cash. Planes remained in the air. The great catastrophic threat of our time turned out to be a colossal dud.
So what really happened with Y2K? Was humanity ever actually in danger?
As we end this decade, here’s an interesting look back at the scariness and hype that was Y2K.
Christmas has come and gone, but in some countries, the celebration is far from over. Yes, gentle readers, December 26 is Boxing Day, which for Americans is the day we recover from our eggnog and gift-exchange hangovers but for other parts of the world is a holiday in its own right.
Boxing Day, which always falls on December 26, is observed as an official public holiday in the UK and many European countries, as well as in former British colonies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, among others. America has decided that, much like the metric system and extra U’s in certain words, we will not embrace this particular tradition. When Boxing Day falls on a weekend, countries that observe it designate the subsequent Monday as a holiday.
This story is a year old but I still get questions from my American friends about Boxing Day so I thought I’d pass this along. Happy Holidays!
The holidays can be a trying time for everyone, so English comedian Sarah Millican came up with an initiative to help people make it through. In 2010 she started the #joinin hashtag on Twitter, aimed at bringing tidings of comfort and joy to anyone struggling through this time of year.
Now the hashtag is back for its ninth year, continuing the heartwarming tradition.
This is a lovely thing. So #joinin is for anyone feeling lonely or alone on Christmas Day. I’ll post up how it works closer to the time. It’s a wonderful place to chat to folk. We’re all there for each other. This will be our 9th year. Please RT to spread the word.
Here’s hoping you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. If you’re not feeling it this year, that’s OK. Lots of others are in the same boat. Check out this Twitter thread for some holiday cheer and #JoinIn yourself.
For my latest photo essay “Forty Days Of Darkness,” I bought the new iPhone 11 Pro and went to Russia’s Murmansk, the biggest city in the Arctic circle. From December until January the sun never rises over Murmansk. With the iPhone camera (most of the time) set to “night mode,” I shot life in the darkness there.
The iPhone’s Night Mode is the witchiest camera technology I’ve ever used. I still don’t understand it. I was shooting three second exposures made handheld, yet I never saw any movement blur. All of the shots I made were tack sharp.
Some amazing images here. And I echo the writer’s two main frustrations – not being able to turn on Night Mode when I want to and the incredibly annoying “little green ghost spots” when shooting points of light at an angle.
Since we started the animation studio back in 2014, our entire pipeline has been based around the Mac. However, in recent years it’s been more challenging than we would have liked. With fewer and fewer hardware updates and the release of the trash can Mac Pro that seemed limited, things were certainly looking grim. We had many conversations about how we might eventually have to move over to use PCs. Fortunately in 2017, Apple announced the iMac Pro, which has been our main studio production machine for all artists. Now the new Mac Pro is here and we’ve been really excited to see how it’s going to evolve our studio.
The timing of receiving the machine couldn’t have been better as the studio was just about to begin work on the new Jumanji movie, Jumanji The Next Level. We were tasked to create the ‘Main on Ends’ (MOE) which is essentially the end animated credits for the movie.
I find these kinds of stories much more interesting than what some YouTuber thinks of the Mac Pro.
A lot of what keeps me partial to the iPad is the same stuff I liked back in 2011. iPad apps tend to have fresher interfaces and less cruft than ones written for older operating systems, letting me focus more of my attention on the work at hand. I spend less time on the drudgery of maintaining a computer, such as rummaging around for files and performing software updates. Even the fact that I can buy an iPad with built-in LTE wireless internet—an option that’s rare among Windows PCs and nonexistent for Macs—makes me more productive.
It’s also helped that Apple’s vision of where the iPad should go has largely synced up with mine. With its big screen, potent processor, and Pencil stylus, the current iPad Pro is pretty much the powerful, versatile iPad I was dreaming about nearly a decade ago.
Various versions of the iPhone is my choice for “personal gadget of the decade.” What’s yours?
While Apollo placed the first steps on the Moon, Artemis opens the door for humanity to sustainably work and live on another world for the first time. Using the lunar surface as a proving ground for living on Mars, this next chapter in exploration will forever establish our presence in the stars.
We are returning to the Moon – to stay – and this is how we are going!
