It’s no great secret that how one carried one’s portable music payer back then – as one does still to this day – was to plug in, press play and then stuff your player (and 1,000 songs) into your pocket, just as the advert instructed. This meant, of course, that no matter how different the iPod looked, no matter how new the interface, no one would notice or see it as it would be buried in a coat pocket along with your monthly rail cards, lighters and lint. What Apple needed was a way of signalling to everyone else in the train carriage, bus or on the sidewalk, that it was an iPod in the customer’s pocket, rather than some other music player.
Yet, as is so often with products, it was the marketing – the adverts – that would really catapult the iPod into the stratosphere and feed the customers’ imagination and desire for The New. The “silhouette campaign” ads, which I’m sure many of you remember more than the early hardware, focused on the white earbuds that came with each iPod – a design feature that Ive has since stated was pure serendipity. (The white earbuds were white, he commented, because the iPod itself was white; it was consistency, more than anything else.)
I’ve always hated Apple’s earbuds – they never fit properly for me and were uncomfortable even after short periods of time – but I love how they were/are signifiers of “certain people”.
Since 2015, Apple has opened a series of high-profile flagships to promote its brand, each requiring, in the company’s words, “substantially” more investment than its typical stores. “We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple,” Ahrendts explains as we pick our way past Carnegie Library’s historic pillars and through concrete and rubble to where a hard-hat brigade are inserting beacons into the walls.
It’s a continuation of founder Steve Jobs’s original vision. “Steve told the teams when he opened retail 18 years ago, ‘Your job is not to sell, your job is to enrich their lives and always through the lens of education.’”
It’s hard to argue with that original vision, seeing as it has created the single most profitable retail environment in the world.
As the #10yearchallenge is making its way around the internet, I thought I would look at how some of the most visited websites on the internet have aged over the last 10 years.
Interesting to see how these websites have changed over the past ten years and not always for the better.
A significant bug has been discovered in FaceTime and is currently spreading virally over social media. The bug lets you call anyone with FaceTime, and immediately hear the audio coming from their phone — before the person on the other end has accepted or rejected the incoming call.
Naturally, this poses a pretty privacy problem as you can essentially listen in on any iOS user, although it still rings like normal, so you can’t be 100% covert about it. Nevertheless, there is no indication on the recipient’s side that you could hear any of their audio.
This is an embarrassing bug but undoubtedly will get fixed very quickly.
Go behind the scenes for an inside look at a new series of iPad Pro films. See how they were filmed, edited, animated, designed, and composed completely with iPad Pro.
I’ve always lusted after an iPad Pro. This video makes me lust after one even more.
The Apple Campus, an iconic part of Silicon Valley, sits less than 10 miles from SAP Center, the home of the San Jose Sharks and the heart of 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend.
A day after Apple employees lined up for hours to see the Stanley Cup at Apple Park down the road, about 300 who signed up online packed the auditorium for the panel discussion.
On stage before a black backdrop with a white Apple logo, McDavid and Matthews sat with Commissioner Bettman and Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing. Each wore an Apple Watch.
“We love the collaboration that we have with Apple,” Commissioner Bettman said. “It has helped transform the game without changing the game itself.”
I bet it was a lot of fun for the Apple employees to hang out with The Stanley Cup, even if some of them had to have an explanation of what it was.
Earlier this month, Apple lowered its revenue guidance for the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year by up to $9 billion due to fewer iPhone upgrades than it anticipated, particularly in the Greater China region.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, however, believes the “worst” will be “soon over” in regards to the slowdown. In his latest research note with TF International Securities, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo opined that the “share prices of Apple and most iPhone suppliers are generally priced in the negative.”
Kuo has slightly cut his estimate for iPhone shipments in the first quarter of 2019 from 38–42 million units to 36–38 million units because the “demand for new models in China and emerging markets is lower than expected,” but he believes the decline will begin to ease starting in the second quarter.
Apple financial results for Q1 2019 to be announced tomorrow may get very interesting.
Photographers who use photo management and editing apps have been caught in a changing market. Users of Apple’s Aperture had to deal with the demise of the app. Then there’s Adobe Lightroom, which used to be sold with a perpetual software license, but then Adobe changed it to a subscription-based model.
If you’re a photographer seeking a powerful, traditionally-licensed package, Skylum Software’s Luminar may be what you need. The new Luminar 3—also known as Luminar 3 with Libraries—offers a superlative, easy-to-use image editing app with photo management capabilities.
I really like Luminar. It can be very easy to use for beginners and is visually more interesting than Lightroom. Whether it’s more suitable for “average consumers” than pros is something that can be argued. Let’s just say, it’s not going to replace Lightroom for me.
Netflix has become a verb (“let’s netflix tonight”), everyone knows about Amazon, and Hulu is a force to be reckoned with. You could even refer to them as the new Big Three, given their growing influence over the industry.
As these behemoths flex their muscles by repeatedly raising prices, consumers looking for alternative sources for online movies, TV shows, and other forms of video entertainment would be wise to sample some of these alternative services. Most of them target niche audiences, but they’re all inexpensive—indeed, some don’t charge any fees at all.
All the services listed here—in alphabetical order—are completely above board.
It’s ridiculous how many different streaming services there are. This article will just increase the insanity. There are several services here I’ve never even heard of.
Despite a trade war between the United States and China and past admonishments from President Trump “to start building their damn computers and things in this country,” Apple is unlikely to bring its manufacturing closer to home.
A tiny screw illustrates why.
“Conventional wisdom” says labour costs are the primary reason why more manufacturing isn’t done in the US. But the issues preventing it are wide and varied as this article shows.
Developed by Connectix, RAM Doubler was one of the most magical utilities of the early days of the Macintosh. As its name suggested, RAM Doubler promised to double the amount of usable RAM in your Mac, and amazingly, it generally delivered.
That was a big deal back in 1994 because RAM was shockingly expensive—$300 for an 8 MB SIMM at a time when I had 20 MB in my Centris 660AV. For $50, RAM Doubler would double whatever you had: 8 MB to 16 MB, or 20 MB to 40 MB. It was astonishing.
You young whippersnappers will now have to watch as us old farts exclaim, “I loved RAM Doubler!” It was freaking magic.
This is it. You finally made it to the corner office. You’re the second youngest VP in your whole company (but technically the other one got his job through nepotism, so…). You’ve worked super hard, made sacrifices, been ruthless, and here you are, looking out on the East River
Sure, it’s Long Island City and not Manhattan, but you can’t see the Chrysler building from inside the Chrysler building, you know?
As you take a moment to bask, you notice a smoke trail arc down from the sky. It’s… it’s fast. And it’s headed for the river. What do you do?
You check Twitter to see what everyone else is saying. You’ve just clicked over to trending topics and seen that #EastRiverAsteroid is trending when
BOOM
I gotta say, I was enthralled by this. It’s been playing out, one tweet at a time, on Twitter over the past 24+ hours. Great story. I hope there’s a sequel.
Over the past decade, high school football participation has dropped 6.6 percent nationwide, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Much of that decline can be attributed to the violent nature of the sport, and the attention being paid to the repercussions of that violence.
On one side are those who say that the sport—particularly at the youth and high school levels—is inherently dangerous and deserves careful regulation, if not an outright ban. On the other are those who say this is yet another example of government overreach that represents the softening (and imminent downfall) of America.
I played and loved high school football. I am so grateful my 13-year old isn’t interested in sports in general, let alone football. I honestly don’t know if I’d let him play the game.
Before his sudden death, Ric Swezey was the family photographer, capturing memorable moments with his iPhone and digital camera. When Swezey died in an accident two years ago, he left behind his husband, their two kids — and access to precious photos stored in the 45-year-old’s password-protected Apple account.
Now a Manhattan judge is ordering Apple to give Swezey’s surviving husband, Nicholas Scandalios, the needed access to any photos behind the Apple ID.
The Cupertino, Calif. technology colossus didn’t fight the request, but said it needed to see a court order before it could open up Swezey’s account.
This is a good, fair ruling that helps a grieving family recover precious memories. It’s also a good reminder to include this kind of stuff in a “digital will” or, at least, be sure others have access to this kind of personal information.
When Google Glass was launched in 2013, it was supposed to be the future: lightweight AR glasses that could take photographs and give directions from the bridge of your nose. As you know — now that we’re in the future — it didn’t quite pan out. But calling it a total flop would seem unfair, too, given that in 2019, six years after the first prototype first appeared, Google Glass fans still haunt the internet — particularly on Reddit, where r/googleglass continues to see updates years after its namesake’s heyday has passed. Yes, there are still “glassholes.” And honestly? They’re pretty nice.
Personally, I have no problem calling Google Glass a complete flop. Maybe it was ahead of its time but the time it was ahead of is one I’m not going to be happy about when it does, inevitably, come.
There have been rumors about an Apple News subscription service since mid-2018, starting with a report by Bloomberg that said Apple was planing to utilize it’s acquisition of Texture to launch its own paid subscription service for news, including magazines from different publishers. Later, a report by The Information claimed that Apple was considering an all-in-one subscription model with magazines, tv shows and music.
Today, we’ve been able to activate the landing page for this new service on Apple News running on iOS 12.2. It looks like the subscription service will be called “Apple News Magazines” and it will be associated to the user’s iTunes Store account, just like Apple Music. There are many mentions of “bundle subscription” in this beta, which makes us believe this can be a part of Apple’s plan to release an all-in-one media subscription which will include Apple Music, TV shows and magazines.
This is great news for information junkies like myself.
The pitch in question involves lithium. García Linera speaks of his country’s natural resource in a simultaneously factual and awestruck way. Lithium, essential to our battery-fueled world, is also the key to Bolivia’s future, the vice president assures me. A mere four years hence, he predicts, it will be “the engine of our economy.” All Bolivians will benefit, he continues, “taking them out of poverty, guaranteeing their stability in the middle class, and training them in scientific and technological fields so that they become part of the intelligentsia in the global economy.”
But as the vice president knows, no pitch about lithium as Bolivia’s economic salvation is complete without addressing the source of that lithium: the Salar de Uyuni. The 4,000-square-mile salt flat, one of the country’s most magnificent landscapes, will almost certainly be altered—if not irreparably damaged—by mining the resource underneath it.
We tend to avoid or be unintentionally ignorant of how our technological world affects our natural world. Lithium is a great example of something we all need but have little idea of how we need it or how it affects the planet.
Dave and I talk a lot about the Macintosh and what it was like in the early days for developers. I also talk to Dave about what it was like to write books about programming on the Mac back in the day.
The bar is set low for Apple’s earnings next Tuesday so Morgan Stanley says it’s a good time to buy the stock.
“We believe the recent pullback is an attractive entry point given upcoming services launches and shares already pricing in extremely cautious iPhone replacement cycle and average selling price headwinds,” the bank’s analyst Katy Huberty said in a note on Friday.
It will be interesting to see if and/or how much Apple bounces back from all of the bad news of late last year.
You’ve most likely heard Bernard Purdie play. He’s been on a ton of classic albums, did some incredible drumming on Steely Dan’s Aja. He’s my favorite.
In this video, Purdie starts with a simple 1-2-3, 1-2-3 waltz time tapping, then slowly incorporates different techniques to create different feels.
Watch, even if you know nothing about drumming. Just keep that 1-2-3 beat in your head the whole time. Marvelous.
Mysterious musicians have cropped up on Spotify, racking up thousands of listens and (perhaps) hundreds of pounds. It’s a phenomenon that experts say could indicate a security flaw.
But while Spotify denies that accounts have been hacked, the music streaming site has not explained in detail how the playlists of some users indicate they’ve “listened to” musicians that nobody’s ever heard of.
And:
Many listeners (including this reporter) never actively searched for or played tracks by bands like Bergenulo Five, but found that their music ended up being logged in their listening history anyway.
The BBC asked Spotify for contact details for the artists in question. It declined, and all of our attempts to contact the bands were met with silence. But within a few days of our query, most of the mystery artists had disappeared from the music streaming site.
Amazing story. This does sound like account hacking or, at the very least, hacking of Spotify’s master database. How else to explain non-existent artists mysteriously appearing on people’s listening history?
Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to future iDevices being integrated with poisonous gas detectors. Carbon monoxide (or CO) is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that is sometimes called the silent killer because it poisons and kills many people each year, without them ever being aware of the danger. Having a miniature gas sensor built into an iPhone or Apple Watch will be able to notify a user that they could possibly be in a dangerous environment at home, at work or in the public.
Carbon monoxide detectors are usually mounted on the ceiling. And carbon monoxide is slightly lighter than air. Might Apple have plans for their own HomeKit-enabled, ceiling mount detectors?
The patent (and a related patent) does show the sensor in an iPhone and MacBook.
No doubt due to the public outcry, and to avoid the appearance of using people’s work for “exposure”, Apple added this paragraph to the very end of their recent press release:
Apple believes strongly that artists should be compensated for their work. Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.
This display is crazy wide. So wide that my first reaction was, it’s just too wide to be useful.
But.
Watch the video below. You can fit a ton of information on the screen (as expected), and you can even run two different computers, each taking up half the display.
As of this post, the price is $1250. Seems a good deal for an ultra wide 5K monitor, though it only runs at 60Hz, so not sure it’d be good for gaming.
Be sure to watch the very end to see this monitor running in portrait mode.
What gifts would your parents prepare when your Chinese New Year visit comes to an end? A film about the taste of home shot on iPhone XS by Jia Zhangke.
Apple also posted some behind the scenes and making of videos.
Office empowers everyone to achieve more on any device. And Office loves Mac. We’re committed to delivering the power and simplicity of Office in an experience designed specifically for Mac, and we continue to make significant investments in the platform. Today, we’re excited to announce that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store. With one click, Mac users can download the cloud-connected, always-up-to-date version of the Office suite—including full installs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive.
“We are excited to welcome Microsoft Office 365 to the all new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it’s easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone.” Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
Frenemies working together to, hopefully, the benefit of their users.
Researchers have uncovered a recent malicious advertisement campaign that’s notable for its size, scope, and resourcefulness: a two-day blitz triggered as many as 5 million times per day that used highly camouflaged JavaScript stashed in images to install a trojan on visitors’ Macs.
Wednesday’s post demonstrates how malvertisers continue to improve their techniques for slipping malicious content past advertisers who spend time and money to detect bad ads. Fortunately—for the moment, at least—most malicious ads seem to work by tricking visitors into clicking on OK buttons that will install malware.
Most of us wouldn’t be caught by this but it’s a good opportunity to remind less techy friends and family to not download files or click on random pop-ups.
We should protect the truth at all costs, and hold everyone accountable: elected members of office, priests, teachers, um, bus drivers… and movie posters, sure, why not, that’s as good a segue as any.
