This is a nice collection of tweets from Tony Fadell, curated by Filipe Espósito for 9to5Mac. I followed along on Twitter, but found myself wishing that someone would gather these in an easier to follow format, since they weren’t threaded on Twitter. And voila. Thanks Filipe.

My favorite bit:

I remember the day when Steve called me to the Board Room to personally sign a $4B purchase order for Samsung Flash for the Nano. “Are you sure we are ordering the right stuff? It’s going to work, right?” It was the biggest single order Apple had ever placed at the time.

I can only imagine the unbelievable pressure of that decision. A huge business gamble, one that paid off and paved the way for all future products.

On Friday, we linked to a Daring Fireball article addressing Apple’s decision to reject an app that helped Hong Kong protesters note the location of law enforcement.

Gruber’s original core comment:

But here’s the thing. What’s going on in Hong Kong is important. A small liberal democracy is standing up to a gargantuan authoritarian communist dictatorship with a superpower-grade military force.

And this update:

Good news: the developer of HKmap reports that Apple has approved the app, and it’s now propagating through the App Store.

Really glad to see this.

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

According to Spotify’s release notes, Siri support is compatible over connected AirPods and also extends to CarPlay and HomePod via AirPlay. On iPhones and iPads running iOS 13, Spotify will also now turn on its Data Saver feature when a device has Low Data Mode enabled.

In addition, the streaming service says Spotify is “now available on Apple TV,” although it isn’t showing up in the tvOS App Store as of writing, so rollout is likely scheduled for later in the day.

“extends to CarPlay and HomePod via AirPlay” – Played with this a bit. If I ask HomePod Siri to play music via Spotify, Siri responds:

I wish I could, but I can’t open apps here.

Requiring AirPlay is still a significant bit of friction.

The Guardian:

Now, a rare peek inside the binders has uncovered all the secrets of the Pythons’ earliest days. Although comic weirdness had been introduced to the BBC by The Goon Show, Monty Python went even further. Monty Python’s Flying Circus was first transmitted at 22:50 on 5 October 1969.

The BBC response, the archives make clear, was far less positive. At the weekly meeting where senior managers discussed the output, the head of factual had found Python “disgusting”, arts had thought it “nihilistic and cruel”, while religion objected to a Gilliam animation in which “Jesus … had swung his arm”. The BBC One controller sensed the makers “continually going over the edge of what is acceptable”.

50 years later, it’s still the silliest TV show I’ve ever watched.

DuetCam:

With DuetCam and the release of the newest operating system from Apple, iOS 13, you’ll be able to record videos using two cameras at the same time and save it to the device, share it online or even upload it directly to Instagram Stories.

During the last Apple Event, we saw this implementation in a video from Apple using Filmic Pro. The version of Filmic Pro shown is not yet available from that developer but, if all you need is this feature, DuetCam does the trick for a lot cheaper. The developer of DuetCam, Marcel Schmitz, told me via Twitter that a near-future update will have the ability to switch between the cameras while recording.

Ad Age:

After taking on companies that track consumers all over the web, Apple has now set its sights on app publishers that track consumers all over the real world.

The iOS 13 update, for instance, will ask users if they want to allow an app publisher Bluetooth access. Open the Best Buy app, for example, and a prompt from Apple will display: “Best Buy would like to use Bluetooth. This will allow Best Buy to find and connect to Bluetooth accessories. This app may also use Bluetooth to know when you’re nearby.”

But Apple’s update will affect retailers because of their frequent use of location-based data for marketing purposes.

Read that headline again. Does anyone other than marketing weenies think that “crippling” is a bad thing?

Pixel Envy:

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Bloomberg’s publication of a story about Chinese intelligence intercepting the supply chain of Supermicro, a company which has built and sold servers to Amazon, Apple, the U.S. Department of Defense, and dozens of other companies. Apparently, they developed a chip that looked identical to a rice-sized standard component placed along the main power lines of a server; the implanted chip ostensibly contained a processor and networking capabilities and could, theoretically, act as a backdoor for Supermicro servers.

It sounded like the information security scoop of the decade — except there’s virtually no proof that any of it is true. Unfortunately, a year later, we’re still no closer to understanding what happened with this story. Most upsetting is that we don’t know the truth here in any capacity.

This is a story that should have embarrassed Bloomberg into proving it or retracting it but the rest of the media have, for the most part, sadly moved on from it.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Apple is set to launch the next version of the iPhone SE 2 in the first quarter of 2020, according to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The new phone will be more affordable than the rest of the Apple iPhone lineup and feature newer internals, like an A13 processor with 3 GB RAM, in a familiar iPhone 8 chassis.

We generally don’t post rumors, but this one struck a bit of a nerve for me. The iPhone SE is the last of the phones for folks with small hands or small pockets. My family and friends group has plenty of both. And this feels like the last nail in the iPhone SE form factor coffin.

Now I know these words won’t change anything. Feels like the ship has sailed. But it doesn’t take a lot of web search to find evidence that the iPhone SE is loved, that there is a slice of the Appleverse that will no longer be served by Apple.

Here’s just one take, from earlier this year. When Apple released a refurbished SE earlier this year, it sold out pretty quickly. And that phone was released in 2016.

I recognize that, if true, this new SE will be priced to sell, and sell it will. But it is a larger form factor, and by taking the SE name (again, this is a rumor, so take with a grain of salt), it feels like Apple is creating a floor in iPhone size. And I think that’d be a shame.

Start off by reading this article from the Register, provocatively titled, Here’s that hippie, pro-privacy, pro-freedom Apple y’all so love: Hong Kong protest safety app banned from iOS store.

From the article:

Apple has banned an app that allows people in Hong Kong to keep track of protests and police activity in the city state, claiming such information is illegal.

“Your app contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement,” the American tech giant told makers of the HKmap Live on Tuesday before pulling it.

Now go read Gruber’s take, linked above. A tiny taste:

But here’s the thing. What’s going on in Hong Kong is important. A small liberal democracy is standing up to a gargantuan authoritarian communist dictatorship with a superpower-grade military force.

Read the whole thing.

This is the title of a Reddit post, and an excellent question. Not an issue on my iPhone, of course, because a tap on the Maps app is all that’s needed.

But on my Mac, I live in Safari. Whether force of habit, or some other frictional force, when I want a map, I turn to maps.google.com. Nearly 100% of the time.

I realize that Duck, Duck, Go does bring Apple Maps to the table, but it is not the same thing. When I go to Google Maps, I am centered on my current location ready to type in an address, set up directions, look for a restaurant, check traffic. And all that from the comfort of Safari, where I can command-click on links to look at restaurant menus, say, without leaving the app.

And for those who say Apple doesn’t do web services, take a trip over to beta.music.apple.com. Maybe that’s a glimmer of hope?

AppleInsider:

Apple Arcade has brought a refreshing new model to mobile gaming and has already produced a ton of worthwhile games to check out. Here’s some of our early favorites you may want to check out.

There are a lot of games for you to try in Apple Arcade. I wouldn’t agree with this list but then again, I’m not a “gamer”. I love Grindstone and the little talked about jigsaw puzzle “game” called “Patterned”. What are your favourites?

BoingBoing:

Before the days of elaborate Halloween costumes, there were costumes in a box. Remember them? We seemingly all wore these costumes as kids. Now hear the story behind these costumes and the history of the big three companies that made them, Ben Cooper Inc, Halco, and Collegeville. For years, these costumes were a beloved Halloween institution dating back in the 1930s.

In 1982 at the height of their popularity, the first case of domestic terrorism, the Tylenol Scare shook the United States and threatened to cancel Halloween forever. In an effort to save the holiday, the costume giants, although rivals in business, were forced to come together and unify or trick or treating would become extinct.

I fondly remember those plastic masks as a kid. We all looked forward to going to our local Zellers and picking one out. But, because they had to fit over our winter clothes in the cold of a late fall in Nova Scotia, they all had to be extra-large sizes. My favourite was my Incredible Hulk mask. AT 6 feet tall and 12 years old, it fit me perfectly.

Bose:

You’ve told us that sleepbuds have allowed you to get your first good night’s rest in years, and that you can’t imagine ending the day without them.

But some of you have had a far different experience. You’ve reported issues with your sleepbuds™ not charging fully, powering down unexpectedly, or both. And we learned that while the battery we chose functions safely, it doesn’t work as consistently or predictably as it should to meet our standards.

For that reason, we’re discontinuing sleepbuds. We’re also extending an offer to all our sleepbuds™ customers: You can return your product for a full refund until December 31, 2019.

This is the way you address an issue and make things right for your customers. Thanks to George Krompacky for the link.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

You need to be an iPhone and AirPods user to take advantage of the feature. With the AirPods in your ears, you will be able to listen and respond to incoming text messages. Siri transcribes the message so you can hear the text without looking at your phone or watch. You can then ignore or immediately reply without having to say ‘Hey Siri’.

The sense I get is that the H1 chip is required here, so the second gen AirPods or Beats headphones with H1 chip required.

The incoming message alert is accompanied by a special alert tone that differs from the regular text tone. Siri will introduce the message with a phrase like ‘Zac says’ before reading the message. If another text comes in from the same sender, it will adjust its description to naturally continue the conversation.

Time will tell if this feature makes it all the way to the public iOS 13.2 release.

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Apple has been rolling out HomePod support for live radio requests to Siri over the last few months, and now users in several countries are reporting success when asking their Apple smart speaker to play live radio stations.

This feature was announced back in June, and has been slowly rolling out since then. The issue is, how do you find what stations are available to listen to, and how do you tell Siri to tune them in.

I have not yet found a universal, HomePod compatible, radio station directory. Please ping me if you do know of one. And not just a list of radio stations. Needs to be a list of stations that Siri can play on HomePod.

There are some resources you can tap, though. Start off by firing up the Music App and tapping the Radio tab. Scroll all the way down to the Broadcast Radio section, and tap See All. Currently, for me, that list is a paltry 10 stations. They all work for me, but still, that’s a small sample.

To try one of these out yourself, tell HomePod Siri:

Play radio station WTOP

Note that I pronounced all the letters in the name, W-T-O-P. And the words “radio station” are critical.

Next stop, go to the Music App’s Search tab, and type the call letters of your local station. This is definitely hit or miss, but I did find options that were not listed in the radio tab.

Next up, try downloading one of the radio station aggregation apps, like Tune-in. Note that Tune-in has a monthly subscription in-app-purchase, but if you download the app, you can see the radio stations that the app supports on the free page. They all work for me, when I use the above format to request the station from HomePod Siri.

What I’d really love is a comprehensive, searchable directory from Apple of all the supported stations, especially a list of my local stations supported by Siri. Each entry would need the name Siri recognizes.

Federico Viticci:

A few weeks ago, I came across a post on Reddit claiming that Apple had restored the ability to launch specific sections of the Settings app via Shortcuts in iOS and iPadOS 13.1. I was inspired by that discovery to finish working on a project I had long been putting off: documenting all the URLs supported by the Settings app in iOS and iPadOS.

After some a lot of trial and error, I’ve collected 120+ URLs that can open individual pages and sub-sections of the Settings app. In this post, I’m going to share the complete list of URLs that are supported as of iOS and iPadOS 13.1 (specifically, iOS 13.1.2), as well as a custom shortcut to launch them.

This is an amazing effort. If you use Shortcuts, tuck this one away. Well done Federico.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Right now, when iPhone users ask Siri to call or message a friend, the system defaults to Apple’s Phone or iMessage apps. If you want to use WhatsApp or Skype, you have to specifically say that.

When the software refresh kicks in, Siri will default to the apps that people use frequently to communicate with their contacts. For example, if an iPhone user always messages another person via WhatsApp, Siri will automatically launch WhatsApp, rather than iMessage.

The article also contains a response from Apple on accusations that App Store search is tilted to prefer Apple apps. As the article says, feels like Apple is slowly loosening the reins.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

With the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, Apple did away with 3D Touch across its entire iPhone lineup, replacing the former 3D Touch feature with Haptic Touch.

In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know about Haptic Touch and how it differs from the 3D Touch feature that’s been available since the iPhone 6s.

If you are confused about Haptic Touch, or want to learn about the settings, read the article. Well done.

And personally, I am very happy with this change. 3D Touch and Haptic Touch had too much overlap, confusing discoverability.

Sophie Charara, Wired:

Amazon’s new Sidewalk protocol and Apple’s experiments with ultra-wideband signal a new battleground that gets Amazon out of the house and Apple inside it

Apple is strong outside the house, weakest inside. The U1 Wideband chip hopes to give Apple very precise location information inside your house.

Amazon’s problem is the opposite. They have great reach inside the house, via Echo devices, but without a phone of their own, they depend on Android and iPhone to go where you are outside the house.

One core point:

For Amazon, in fact, that work has already begun as Sidewalk originally came out of the Ring team’s ambition to extend its connected security devices out into gardens.

There are already efforts by Amazon to share Ring doorbell footage with police departments to help fight crime. Clearly, privacy is a major issue here.

Interesting to watch these opposing solution sets unfold.

Halide:

We released a small lightning update on iPhone 11 launch day with basic support for the new cameras. Now we’re ready to release our big update.

In the past we’ve had a simple button that swaps between your wide angle and telephoto cameras. It served us well, but it was time to revisit it for the three cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro.

At a glance, our lens switcher looks the same as before; we kept it in the same spot so it doesn’t interfere with your viewfinder and is within easy reach. Keeping the viewfinder clear of any obstructions is one of our highest priorities.

I love these blog posts from the developers of the excellent iOS camera app Halide. Really good explanations of what they are doing and what they can’t do. Their new “Lens Guides” feature is brilliant.