For the record, I had no problem with the update, but I did speak to people who did brick their HomePods. Not fun.
I’m guessing this fix is high priority for Apple and that we’ll see a new update pretty quickly. Details in the linked post.
There it is, at 35 seconds in. The exploded view, showing all the pieces that come together to make the new noise cancelling, water splash resistant, AirPods Pro.
The first time I saw this image, I had a brief moment of hope that I’d be able to take these apart myself and swap the batteries. But I’m going to assume that all these pieces are glued tightly together, with the exception of the click-in-place rubber ear-tips.
As to splash-resistance, the AirPods Pro are rated at IPX4, which you can read all about here.
Apple on Monday announced AirPods Pro, the latest version of the company’s wireless headphones. The AirPods will have a new design and other features that set them apart.
AirPods Pro has a new design that is more in-ear than the previous models. They will come with three sizes of silicone ear tips, allowing users to choose which one fits their ears the best.
Apple also said the new AirPods feature an “innovative vent system to equalize pressure,” which will offer more comfort.
Active noise cancellation has made its way to the AirPods Pro using two microphones. Here is how Apple describes the system:
The first microphone is outward-facing and detects external sound to analyze environmental noise. AirPods Pro then create an equivalent anti-noise that cancels out background noise before it reaches the listener’s ear. A second inward-facing microphone listens toward the ear, and AirPods Pro cancel remaining noise detected by the microphone. Noise cancellation continuously adapts the sound signal 200 times per second.
There is also a Transparency mode in the new AirPods that allows you to still hear the environment around them. This is a great feature if you are in a situation where you want to hear traffic or other important alerts.
Battery life on AirPods Pro is the same five hours as the previous generation AirPods. If you enable noise cancelation, the AirPods will last for four and a half hours.
AirPods Pro cost $249 and will start shipping on October 30.
Fascinating interview. A slice of history, for sure, but my favorite bits of this read are when Steve explains concepts. He was so very good at translating the abstract into something you could wrap your head around.
Wonderful read.
This is a crazy story. Samsung created the SpaceSelfie mission:
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd today announced a bold, out-of-this-world mission as it launches the Galaxy S10 5G 65,000 feet above the earth to give consumers the chance to get their face in space.
But what made the news is not the mission, but the mysterious blinking object that fell from space and landed in a Michigan couple’s yard.
Read the article (headline link) and watch the video embedded below. I love the references to the “space contraption”.
[H/T Robert Walter]
The scrollbar page is interesting, but wish there was more detail and a more fluid navigation system.
That said, don’t miss the infomesh.org link (Information mesh was the one of the names in Tim Berners Lee’s original World Wide Web proposal). I especially liked the hackers.exe timeline.
[H/T @tperfitt]
I love this ad. Beautifully filmed, with no mention of Apple or iPhone until the close.
The message is powerfully crafted and presented. Well done. Watch it.
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
> Apple Inc. is ramping up hiring for a team that is working on new smart-home software and devices in an effort to catch up in a field where Google and Amazon.com Inc. have dominated, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Two elements at work here. First is HomeKit:
> The overhaul is designed to spur more outside accessory and appliance makers to connect smart-home products such as lights and garage doors with the iPhone and Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant, Siri.
Not sure I’d use the phrase “falling behind” to describe HomeKit. Over the weekend, got a tour of some new home construction that was built from the ground up with HomeKit compatibility, including smart locks, smart music systems, and smart light switches throughout the house. The sense I get is that new construction offers HomeKit compatibility as a matter of course. A tv built into bed is popular in smart homes.
As the integration of smart-home technology becomes more prevalent in new constructions, it’s essential to consider the foundational aspects that support these advancements. Accurate land surveying is a critical component in ensuring that these state-of-the-art homes are built on solid ground.
Advanced surveying tools, such as those offered by https://www.thecarlsonguy.com/, play a vital role in the construction process. These tools provide precise measurements and data, enabling architects and builders to plan and execute projects with utmost accuracy. By incorporating top-tier surveying technology, construction projects can seamlessly integrate cutting-edge smart-home features while maintaining structural integrity.
But where the phrase “falling behind” seems appropriate:
> The team also is exploring the possibility of building new home devices beyond the HomePod speaker.
There’s the rub. Amazon and Alexa have a clear lead here, with huge inroads into your home. HomePod still feels like a one-off, not a seamless part of a house wide ecosystem. Feels like HomePod and HomeKit are crafted by two separate product teams, where all Alexa products feel much more cohesive, unified.
There have been many complaints about the new versions of macOS and iOS since their release. Dave and I talk about that, as well as looking at the security of Google and Amazon’s voice assistant products.
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Six years ago, Tim Cook, who took the reins at Apple after the death of its founder, Steve Jobs, called renowned CNN anchor Anderson Cooper to set up a meeting with him. Cook was about to make a decision that would reverberate around the world and he wanted Cooper’s advice. “My style is when I’m doing something complex that I’ve never done before, I always try to make a list of those people who have come before and approach this point,” he shares. What he was doing was much more complex. Cook, 59, had decided to publish a column where he would share with the world that he was gay, making him the first, and until then only, leader of a Fortune 500 company to come out of the closet. Five years later, speaking slowly and with a slight smile, he says: “I have not regretted it for one minute. Not at all.”
What he was doing was much more complex. Cook, 59, had decided to publish a column where he would share with the world that he was gay, making him the first, and until then only, leader of a Fortune 500 company to come out of the closet. Five years later, speaking slowly and with a slight smile, he says: “I have not regretted it for one minute. Not at all.”
I have a lot of respect for Tim, as the CEO of Apple, and as a person.
The government in its indictment alleges that Levoff used inside information from Apple, including financial results before they were published, to trade Apple stock. He’s facing six counts of securities fraud and six counts of wire fraud.
He only realized just over $500,000 with the insider information, which hardly seems worth the effort for someone in his position. The real irony is that he was in charge of making sure employees didn’t do insider trading. Oomph.
Tesla Inc shares soared 17% on Thursday after the electric carmaker surprised Wall Street by delivering on Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s promise of a profit in the third quarter, even as doubts remained about its long-term prospects.
The more impressive thing is that Musk was able to deliver a profit.
The Guardian:
It is hard to imagine a time before he was on our screens, affably engaging with sloths or giant turtles. This autumn, the BBC will broadcast Seven Worlds, One Planet, the 19th blockbuster series he has written and presented.
In our fractured age, Attenborough is the closest we have to a universally beloved public figure. But Attenborough transcended national treasure status some years ago. He is a truly global figure now. So many Chinese viewers downloaded Blue Planet II “that it temporarily slowed down the country’s internet”, according to the Sunday Times.
There’s no one alive I’d rather listen to. Attenborough could read the phone book and I’d listen to it.
You know those videos that Apple posts showing “How to share your ETA in Maps”, or “How to use your iPad as a second display with Sidecar”?
Apple has a searchable YouTube channel with all of these videos. So if you come across one in, say, a Twitter ad, and want to share it, follow the headline link and track it down.
The channel goes back about a year.
David Shayer, TidBITS:
iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina have been unusually buggy releases for Apple. The betas started out buggy at WWDC in June, which is not unexpected, but even after Apple removed some features from the final releases in September, more problems have forced the company to publish quick updates. Why? Based on my 18 years of experience working as an Apple software engineer, I have a few ideas.
Who is David Shayer? From the bio:
David Shayer was an Apple software engineer for 18 years. He worked on the iPod, the Apple Watch, and Apple’s bug-tracking system Radar, among other projects.
My default when I hit posts like these is to take everything with a grain of salt, set skepticism on high. Read the pundit takes, read the bio (look for an axe to grind), and read the comments below the post.
This one passes the vast majority of those tests. This doesn’t feel like post-Apple spite, but rather a knowledgable take on problems, with thoughts on where things are going wrong.
Apple is a fast moving train, steadily producing and refining immensely complex products. Apple is dancing to the opposing forces of satisfying shareholder demands for ever-increasing growth, and user demands to stop and fix the bugs. Short of halting forward progress and retooling, there’s no easy answer here.
Bloomberg:
Van Amburg and Erlicht promised to make two seasons of Aniston and Witherspoon’s show without shooting a pilot episode first, and they offered more than $250 million, including more than $1 million per episode for each actress, according to people familiar with the terms. This was unprecedented. At the time, the biggest TV stars earned about $500,000 each per episode.
And:
At Apple’s first Hollywood premiere, in October, Van Amburg and Erlicht addressed the sense of whiplash head-on. “Zack and I knew how to create a premium, high-quality, great show,” Erlicht said. “What, in retrospect, we didn’t know how to do was create from scratch a premium service at Apple.”
Another behind the scenes take on Apple TV+. Snarky headline. Interesting read. Apple is eating an incredibly steep learning curve here. Launch is about a week away.
Sure, this is great marketing, a win-win for Apple and Selena Gomez, but it also stands on its own. Yet another example of how far Apple’s iPhone camera efforts have come.
Filming a movie, or a review, or an ad on an iPhone is no longer a compromise. It’s a cost effective solution.
Apple:
The camp offers a hands-on technology lab, one-on-one code-level guidance from Apple experts and engineers as well as mentorship, inspiration and insights from top Apple leaders. After the lab concludes, participants get ongoing support and become part of a growing community of exceptional alumni who can help create and build businesses.
This is a great program, planting seeds for the future. Interested in participating? The next camp runs from January 28 to February 5. Here’s a link to the application.
The Conversation:
If you suffer from neck pain, you’re not alone. Spinal pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and its occurrence has increased dramatically over the past 25 years. While most episodes of neck pain are likely to get better within a few months, half to three-quarters of people who have neck pain will experience repeated episodes of pain.
It’s often said there are “good and bad postures” and that specific postures can contribute to spinal pain but this belief is not supported by scientific evidence. Indeed, research shows that poor sleep, reduced physical activity and increased stress appear to be more important factors.
So despite attempts by health professionals to correct your posture and the use of “ergonomic” chairs, desks, keyboards and other gadgets chances are so-called “lifestyle factors” – such as getting enough sleep, making sure you exercise and keeping stress to a minimum – seem to be more salient in relieving and preventing the pain in your neck.
It may fly in the face of conventional wisdom (and certainly upset many chair and desk manufacturers) but it’s good to know there are perhaps cheaper, better solutions.
Paris 2024:
It is made up of three simple yet powerful symbols: the gold medal, a symbol of sport; the flame, an icon of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement; and Marianne, a symbol of France.
I’d love to hear from the designers out there but I think it is a brilliant, elegant design that is so very French.
Laughing Squid highlights this Defunctland six-part series on young Jim Henson and the birth of The Muppets. The first of these is embedded below.
If nothing else, make your way to about 55 seconds in and pause. Remarkable to me how iconic that simple head shape is, how obvious it is, even without eyes, that that’s Kermit. And that shape, created from scraps, still lives.
First things first, take a minute to read this Bloomberg article, titled Photoshop for iPad Nearing Launch With Some Key Features Missing.
In a nutshell, Mark Gurman and Nico Grant interview Adobe’s Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky, raising the issue that this coming Photoshop is not feature-complete when compared to desktop Photoshop.
Enter Gruber:
From what I gather, the mistake Adobe made was not precisely setting expectations for the initial release of Photoshop for iPad. When Adobe described it as “real” Photoshop, what a lot of people heard was “full” Photoshop, and that was never the plan. Some of this expectation-setting is attributable to Bloomberg, which described the project as “the full version of its Photoshop app” as far back as July last year.
Gruber points out that the iPad Photoshop is based on “the same code base that’s been running on the desktop for decades.” Glass half full, rather than glass half empty. After reading the DF article, I walked away thinking Adobe is all-in on bringing their tools to iPad, taking the time to rework the interface elements for touch screen, while maintaining a high degree of interoperability with the desktop.
That sense is only strengthened by this Bloomberg follow-up, Adobe Plans to Launch Illustrator App for iPad After Photoshop.
Tiny side note: Check the footnote at the top of the Daring Fireball article. It’s a callback to the lack of closure on Bloomberg’s “The Big Hack” piece from 2018. But check that footnote’s URL. Gruber has gotten me in the habit of being careful about changes to my own URLs, and the whimsy of sometimes hiding messages in them as well.
Had a bit of back and forth on Twitter this morning, with questions about Apple TV+. Here are a few findings…
If you sign up for Apple TV+, you are getting the family plan. There’s no separate pricing tier, as there is for Apple Music. $4.99 a month, up to 6 family members.
Though I’ve not read any specific guidance on this, I would make sure the person designated as the primary contact for your family is the person who signs up for Apple TV+. If someone else in the family buys a device and signs up for the free year of Apple TV+, it’s not clear if the free year applies to the primary account.
From Apple’s Apple TV+ free year promo terms and conditions:
Offer cannot be combined with other free trials or offers for Apple TV+.
I get that this is designed to prevent you from buying two Apple devices and getting two free years of Apple TV+. But what if you sign up for the free 7 day trial, then buy an Apple device? Does the free trial prevent you from getting the free year?
My guess on that latter is no, that the 7 day trial won’t void the free year, but it’d be good to get some clarification here.
Offer must be claimed in the Apple TV app within 3 months after first setting up your new device. To see the offer appear, you will need to sign in with your Apple ID on your new device. If you’ve purchased your new device before the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, you will have 3 months starting November 1 to redeem.
Good to know. If you know the answer to the two questions raised above (if non-primary family member signs up for free year, does it apply to main account?, and does free trial prevent free year?) please touch base.
Taiwan News:
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is the new chairman of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
And:
Cook’s role will be to promote development of the college and make it a world-class economic management school. His mandate will last from 2019 to 2022.
And:
The advisory board … comprises entrepreneurs, business school deans, scholars, leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and financial departments.
The CCP is a key to this story. Why?
Apple was recently forced by the CCP to remove a crowdsourced map service from its App Store that allowed Hong Kong protesters to track police activity. Cook defended the removal in an email to employees and emphasized the app was removed for illegal use.
New York Times:
The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 receives scant mention in most history textbooks and some facts remain hazy — mystery persists about, for example, exactly how many people were killed and where they were buried. But there’s no question that it was one of the worst outbreaks of racial violence in American history: a horrific spree of murder, arson and looting inflicted by white residents upon the prosperous African-American community of Greenwood, followed by a shameless cover-up.
The new HBO series “Watchmen,” which debuted Sunday, begins with a depiction of the Tulsa horror and suggests that its aftereffects could be a recurring plot point. In the show’s alternate history, unlike what actually happened, reparations had been paid to the victims and their descendants, and resentment about this lingers among white supremacists.
For useful background to all this, here is a collection of eyewitness accounts, official reports and subsequent reporting and commentary on the destruction of the thriving district once known as “Black Wall Street.”
I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter asking about the opening scene. Many didn’t realize it portrays real events.
Insane save. He should have been flipped off the bike. I would have simply soiled my expensive leathers and jumped off. Incredible control of himself and his motorcycle at about 100mph. The guy you see at the end of the video is his dad.
9to5Mac:
Voice Control is Apple’s brand new system for controlling your Mac with just your voice (available in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 too). Whether you rely on Apple’s Accessibility features day-to-day or just want to try out the latest dictation features, follow along for how to get started with and use Voice Control on your Mac running Priest Catalina.
This tutorial will focus on Voice Control for Mac but you can turn the feature on to use with your iPhone or iPad by heading to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control or telling Siri to “Turn on Voice Control.”
My wife works with children who will be able to take full advantage of this. She’s really excited to work with them on using Voice Control.
Laptop Magazine:
When I reviewed macOS Catalina, I gave it a pretty positive outlook. Not only do I like the new power-user features in Reminders, but I’m also forgetful enough to love that Find My now lives on the Mac (saving me from opening iCloud.com again). Yet, as much as I appreciate this update, I’m holding off on making the update on my personal MacBook Pro.
It feels weird to be holding off, because I’m the kind to update on Day 1, to see what else is in a new operating system. It’s not like this version isn’t lacking interesting marquee features, either, such as Sidecar mode for using your iPad as a second screen and support for Catalyst apps. So, why wait?
Same here and for similar reasons.
How to Geek:
macOS Catalina introduces new security controls. For example, apps are now required to ask your permission before accessing parts of the drive where documents and personal files are kept. Let’s take a look at what’s new for security in Catalina.
Apple is doing its best to make our Macs as secure as possible but some of these actions will be very confusing to users because of the lack of explanation as to why it’s happening.
Peter Rubin, Wired:
After what felt like years of anticipation, Apple was about to take us behind the scenes of a show it was making for its still mysterious, still unnamed subscription streaming service. We were going to find out if Apple, maker of so many devices that have redefined the way we consume content, could finally make content—good content—of its own.
This is a great story. If you have any interest in Apple TV+ and how it came to be, follow the headline link and dig in. This story goes all the way back to Planet of the Apps, pulls no punches. How did Apple get from that inauspicious start to a series that has the potential to be one of the best shows in streaming?