It’s called Squoosh, and it runs just fine on Safari for macOS or iOS.
Two keys to keep in mind as you play:
Play. Enjoy.
Motherboard:
At issue is a feature in Premiere Pro called clean cache. Editing video takes up a lot of hard drive space as video editing software creates various redundancies and backups during the editing process. Programs such as Premiere Pro store those redundancies in a cache and, once a project is finished, users can clear that cache to free up disk space.
The knee-jerk reaction here? Why didn’t you backup your work? Why depend on Adobe’s backup process?
And those are probably fair questions. But the complaint seems more nuanced than that:
“The ‘Clean Cache’ command permanently deleted substantial and numerous Files and Data that were not within the ‘Media Cache’ folder or any of its subdirectories, including but not limited to Files and Data that had never been associated with [Premiere Pro]”
And:
The mass deletion isn’t a one off and Cooper likely isn’t the only user effected. Adobe itself acknowledged the bug. “With 11.1.1, only files that are within the Media Cache folder’s subdirectories will be deleted,” a blog post from Adobe said when they fixed the bug. “Files that sit next to it will no longer be affected. However, we still strongly recommend keeping the Media Cache folder separate from your original media.”
From Adobe post on unintended deletion:
Premiere Pro CC 2017 (11.1) introduced a new feature to manage and automatically remove aging and unnecessary media cache files. This feature was designed to assist users in managing existing project media cache files more easily. In the default location for media cache preferences, there is no issue. However, incorrect usage of this feature has the potential for unintentional file deletion.
Whose fault is this loss? Ultimately, I suspect a backup would have saved the day, and will be at the heart of Adobe’s response to this lawsuit.
To me, Woz and Steve Jobs were the yin and yang at the root of the Apple tree. They were very different people, each with his own flaws and particular brand of genius.
Steve being gone makes me appreciate Woz all the more.
Jason Snell pulled together a nice review of the new iPad Pro. At the very least, check out the images showing the 11″ model sitting on top of the 12.9″ model, as well as the image showing old and new iPad Pros, all stacked together. This will give you a sense of the size differences between the various models.
A few highlights from Jason’s review:
The large and small iPad Pro models are closer in size than they’ve ever been. There’s still a substantial difference between them, though—when I pick up the 11-inch model after using for the 12.9-inch model for a while, it just seems tiny. While I suspect the 11-inch model will still be the go-to variant, with this round of updates it feels like the 12.9-inch iPad is shifting closer to the mainstream. It’s now a lot less awkward to hold, and it’s got a bunch of benefits, including the larger screen, the ability to run full-sized apps in Split View, a full-sized keyboard, and a better typing angle on the Smart Keyboard Folio.
And:
But before I talk keyboards, I need to talk about magnets. The iPad Pro has more than a hundred, many of them in an array on the back of its case. Apple has moved away from its old approach of anchoring covers and cases via magnets on the side of the device.
Which leads to:
While it’s easy to detach the accessories, I have rarely done so accidentally.
This magnet redesign seems really well done.
Apple has built a remarkably bright screen that also manages to fight off glare with a special coating, and on top of that coating is an oleophobic coating to make it easier to wipe off fingerprints, and of course these coatings have to be durable enough not only to survive your fingers but also being scribbled on with an Apple Pencil. It’s a remarkable achievement, but the fact remains that the thing is a fingerprint magnet.
Not sure there’s anything to be done here, short of keeping a microfiber cloth handy for occasionally cleaning the screen. I clean my iPad and Mac screens pretty regularly, just to keep the dots of dust and dirt from building up. Good to know about the fingerprint issue, but not a big deal, at least to me.
Despite this being the first Face ID device to support multiple orientations, I’ve found it to be remarkably reliable. Every now and then, it lets me know that I’ve got a hand over the camera—with a helpful arrow pointing right at the offending digits—and the moment I react, it quickly authenticates me.
Face ID on the iPad is delightful. When I’m working with a keyboard, I don’t have to reach up and press my finger on a home button to unlock the device, or apps like 1Password—I just look up and the device unlocks automatically. And even when I’m just reading in bed, it’s so much easier to log in to a website by tapping password autofill and have Face ID rapidly authenticate me and enter in that data.
Just as it should be. And I love reading a review and encountering the word delightful. Delight is important, and part of Apple’s secret sauce.
Great read.
The Verge:
Nearly every measurement of weight you’ve ever made, from peeking at your bathroom scale to measuring out flour for a recipe, can be traced back to just a single object: a metal kilogram made of platinum and iridium that resides under lock and key in an underground vault in Paris. It’s called the International Prototype Kilogram, or IPK, and since its creation in 1889 it has been the standard by which the world’s weights are defined. But not for much longer.
But later this week, on Friday, November 16th, a coup is planned in this international ministry of weights. After having served for 129 years as the world’s standard, the International Prototype Kilogram (or Le Grand K, as it’s known locally) will be stood down. Grandees of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which regulates the metric system, will gather in Versailles and vote to replace this physical artifact with a definition of the kilogram based on a fundamental constant of nature.
I’ve been following this weirdly fascinating story for years. I loved the idea that an international measurement was represented in reality by one example of it deep in a lab vault in France. I’ll be a little sad when it gets replaced.
Mike Olbinski:
My original plan this past summer was to collect as much footage as normal, but to not put out a “Monsoon V” until 2019 when I had two years worth of crazy haboobs and lightning to make it truly spectacular. But the monsoon had different plans and put on a pretty dang good show in 2018, starting off with a decent dust storm on July 5th, then the best haboob chase I’ve ever had on July 9th, an epic green hail core on July 11th and finally another fantastic dust storm day on August 2nd.
Sprinkled in there…more dust storm, some at night, spectacular lightning, and tons of microbursts and stormy clouds, plus a few rotating supercells to put some icing on the cake. It was one of the best monsoon seasons I’ve chased, so I couldn’t help but get to work on Monsoon V a few weeks ago.
Absolutely amazing work. Even more impressive when you think about the time, experience, effort, and just plain luck required to get this incredible footage. Check out Olbinski’s Twitter feed for even more.
I love all of these older Rush songs.
Rolling Stone:
Make no mistake, the album is fighting for its life.
Sales of music’s most beloved format are in free fall in the United States this year. According to figures published by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the value of total stateside album sales in the first half of 2018 (across download, CD and vinyl) plummeted by 25.8 percent when compared with the first half of 2017.
If that percentage decline holds for the full year, and there’s every indication it will, annual U.S. album sales in 2018 will end up at half the size of what they were as recently as 2015. To put it more plainly, U.S. consumers will spend around half a billion dollars less on albums this year than they did in 2017.
I don’t think this trend is reversible. Should it be? Is it time for the album to die? Thanks to Ted Landau for the link.
The Verge:
The T2 chip, which acts as a co-processor, is the secret to many of Apple’s newest and most advanced features. However, its introduction into more computers and the likelihood that it becomes commonplace in every Mac going forward has renewed concerns that Apple is trying to further lock down its devices from third-party repair services.
Apple confirmed to The Verge that this is the case for repairs involving certain components on newer Macs, like the logic board and Touch ID sensor, which is the first time the company has publicly acknowledged the new repair requirements for T2-equipped Macs. But Apple could not provide a list of repairs that required this or what devices were affected. It also couldn’t say whether it began this protocol with the iMac Pro’s introduction last year or if it’s a new policy instituted recently.
I get why Apple feels they need to do this but I think, without a better, fuller explanation of their reasoning behind doing it (something we are unlikely to see/hear), they are on the wrong side of this issue. If they’re not careful, they may find themselves in legal hot water because of it.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to quickly copy any kind of media, document or file from any Mac or PC to iPhone and iPad in exactly 2 clicks? No iTunes syncs, without iCloud, and for free?
Well, today we’re announcing just that. It’s called Quick Transfer and it’s now available with no restrictions in the free version of iMazing.
This is a really versatile app.
Speaking of the new Apple Pencil, here’s Rene Ritchie digging in deep, with just a hint of Serenity Caldwell.
This is just great. An Apple Pencil review done using the Apple Pencil. Wonderful.
OK, technically, this is an iPad Pro 11″ teardown. But I am much more interested in the Apple Pencil innards. And how someone can get inside the Apple Pencil.
Looks like a job for the ultrasonic cutter. Whee!
Wareable:
There’s no doubt Wear OS is living in the shadow of the Apple Watch right now – while manufacturers are usually coy about exact smartwatch sales, analysts suggest the Apple smartwatch has a substantially bigger market share than Google’s platform.
The Apple wearable has also been given consistent and useful refreshes in the three years since its launch, across both its hardware and its software, leaving Wear OS looking sluggish and fragmented by comparison.
To me, as long as the Android OS update model continues to be fragmented, leaving many more users using older OS versions than the tiny sliver who use the latest and greatest, Apple Watch just has an insurmountable advantage.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
We haven’t quite yet worked out the pattern or the cause but we have received many reports of users waking up to find that their Apple ID has been locked, and plenty more are complaining on social media.
And:
You will know if your account has been locked because iOS will present an alert in settings that says some Apple ID settings must be updated.
I’ve seen lots of reports of people complaining about being locked out of their Apple ID accounts. Not clear if this is related to a single security event, such as a particularly widely spread phishing scheme or a security break-in, or if this is some internal issue at Apple.
Washington Post:
Amazon will open major new outposts in Northern Virginia’s Crystal City and in New York City, splitting its much-sought investment of up to 50,000 jobs between the two East Coast sites, according to people close to the decision-making process.
Crystal City is actually part of Arlington, VA, home of the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery and right next to National Airport.
The New York City location is Long Island City, which is in Queens, just east of Manhattan with access to the Queensboro Bridge and the Queens Midtown Tunnel, both of which connect Queens to Manhattan. Laguardia Airport is also in Queens.
The Crystal City location has long been a not so secret secret, widely rumored as the primary selection. Though Amazon still has not made an official announcement, this story appeared in this morning’s Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos.
The Washington Post:
Stan Lee, a writer and editor often credited with helping American comics grow up by redefining the notion of a superhero, including the self-doubting Spider-Man, the bickering Fantastic Four, the swaggering Iron Man and the raging Incredible Hulk, died Nov. 12 at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 95.
Mr. Lee’s name became synonymous with the company that would become Marvel Comics, which he joined as a teenage assistant and stayed with for much of his adult life.
Stan Lee brought a great deal of joy into the world.
Josh Holtsclaw:
The world of the Incredibles is very specific in its design, but also a little hard to define. Ralph Eggleston, the production designer always summed up the look of the Incredibles by saying “you know it when you see it.”
To get into developing artwork for the film, I did a deep dive into the first Incredibles. One thing I noticed is that while it is definitely mid century modern inspired, not every piece of mid century design would fit into the world of the Incredibles. I tried to get more specific about defining the look of the graphic art in the film.
Some of the most inspiring and useful sources of inspiration were the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle and the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. The World’s Fairs were examples of futurist thinking from a mid century perspective. They took place in the 60’s, but were about a distant space age future which was perfectly in line with Brad’s vision for the world of the Incredibles.
The look of the Incredibles is very specific – seemingly familiar but not really.
CNET:
Don MacAskill, chief executive of SmugMug: “I’m sure we’ll lose some of those people. Fine. They’ll use Google Photos or they’ll pay us. Either is fine. They can’t continue to chew up huge amounts of storage with photos that don’t contribute to the community. We are no longer focused on everybody. We are focused on photographers and people who care about photography.”
I think this is the key to the way Flickr is looking at this. I understand that many people aren’t happy about the decision but, given the above, they feel it is the best decision for Flickr/SmugMug going forward. I still haven’t decided if I’ll switch to the “Pro” tier or not though.
This story was doubly-interesting to me.
On one level, this highlighted a core difference between macOS and iOS, one of those things that keeps the Mac in my workflow. The issue here is what you do when someone sends you a zip file containing some data you need for, say, a report you are working on. The zipped data might be a table, it might be some images, it might be a mix of all sorts of things.
On my Mac, when I get a zip file, it’s simple to deal with. Double-click, it’s unzipped, and each individual file is immediately tied to its default opening app.
But a zip file in iOS requires some outside help. It is definitely a second class citizen at best.
But.
The second side of this story is about Shortcuts and, specifically a shortcut you can easily build (the author shows you how) or download to solve this problem. It also gives you the chance to customize that solution in any way you like.
Shortcuts definitely brings me closer to living full time in iOS. Great story.
I’m embedding the video below, but don’t let that stop you from jumping to Jeff Benjamin’s full 2018 Mac mini review. The video is just the icing on a very readable, informative cake.
Daily Gazette:
A cellphone seized by police as part of an investigation into a drive-by shooting last month was remotely wiped by its owner, authorities said this week.
Police believe Juelle L. Grant, 24, of Willow Avenue, may have been the driver of a vehicle involved in an Oct. 23 drive-by shooting on Van Vranken Avenue, near Lang Street, so they obtained her phone, according to police allegations filed in court. No one was injured in the shooting.
After police took her iPhone X, telling her it was considered evidence, “she did remotely wipe” the device, according to police.
What’s the law here? It’s her phone. Does she have the right to wipe it after it is taken from her? Do the police have the legal right to prevent this?
Fascinating story.
Jean-Louis Gassée:
It’s November, 1983; I’m sitting in the auditorium at Apple’s worldwide sales meeting in Honolulu. The house lights dim and “1984” begins. Conceived by ad agency Chiat/Day, directed by Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame, and destined to be aired nationally only once (during the 1984 Super Bowl).
And:
The lights come halfway up. Steve Jobs’ magical brainchild is lowered from the flies, deus ex Macintosh. Halfway through its descent, the Mac boots up and we hear the newborn’s wail, the now familiar Bong.
And:
Apple’s assembled sales organization was delighted by the Mac’s enchanting presentation, its (almost) never-seen-before user interface. But there was a nervous energy under the surface: Would the Macintosh save Apple from the IBM PC and its clones?
A nostalgic look back, with lots of interesting links and some images that will really take you back. Especially that one of young Steve Jobs giving IBM the finger.
Great story, great pictures. Love Apple’s commitment to accessibility.
CNN:
During a recent rehearsal of Pretty Woman: The Musical attended by a handful of reporters, production stage manager Thomas Recktenwald ran lines with three cast members subbing in for an evening performance. Swiping through the ProductionPro app on an iPad Pro, Recktenwald showed off recent changes made to the script. It had notes scribbled into the margins via an Apple Pencil, and he tapped his way through videos that highlight blocking, broken down scene by scene.
Always interesting to see how tech is replacing some of this old school stuff.
On this 11th day of the 11th month at 11:11am PT, I post this in remembrance of all of those who have served and died for their country, many of my own family members included. Lest We Forget.
Washington Post:
In making my choices for the best dance scenes, I looked at several factors: mastery of technique, imaginative choreography, quality of the music — this is very important — and design and storytelling. I value authentic expression more than dance doubles and tricky editing. But, in the final analysis, transcendence won out. Does the dancing carry me away, give me chills, distill some truth about the human experience? Whether it’s a masterpiece of steps and skill, or an intentionally funny, hot mess, or a dreamscape that’s intriguingly weird — dancing that moves you is great dancing.
I hate dancing (I feel all uncoordinated and clumsy) but I love watching dancing. These 31 scenes from the movies are a blast to watch.
CBS News:
A lot of us have snowboarded or skied. Just imagine going as fast as you go down a mountain and then imagine hitting some ice, maybe some moguls. And then imagine an avalanche coming down after you. Then imagine not trying to run away from it, trying to stay as close as possible to it the whole time. And– and have it ch– chasing you and now the mountain’s moving and– and not just the avalanche, but the whole mountain is moving. That’s what it’s like riding these giant waves.
I’ll be in Lisbon, Portugal teaching a beginner photography workshop in March and I’m really hoping to get out to Nazaré to see these incredible waves. The men who surf them are utterly insane.
BBC:
Silent film footage from World War One has been painstakingly restored for a new film by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
The archive footage has been combined with original interviews with soldiers who fought in the war.
The colourizing of this footage is absolutely incredible.
CNET:
Fully adjustable Showa suspension, Brembo monoblock brake calipers, seven riding modes, a single-speed transmission and, most importantly, an all-electric powerplant. These depictions don’t exactly characterize a traditional Harley-Davidson motorcycle. However it will soon be as Harley-Davidson starts a new chapter of its history with the introduction of its all-electric motorcycle, the LiveWire.
I’ve been following Harley’s development of the LiveWire since the prototype was first unvelied in 2014. I’ve sat on the bike and revved the engine. I’ve ridden other electric bikes. It’s a fascinating project but maybe not for the reasons Harley wants it to be. I know there are readers of The Loop who are riders and I want to post this to ask the question – do you think this will be a success for Harley-Davidson?
HD has said publicly and privately they are targeting a “younger crowd”. Problem is, does that demographic want a Harley-Davidson? Surveys have said not really. Will that demographic pay the HD premium? HD’s lowest price bike is the 2018 Street 750, priced roughly $8k. So the LiveWire will cost more than that. The “equivalent” Zero electric bike is about $10K. I’m betting the LiveWire will come in around $15K, if not more ($20K?). Will the “younger crowd” pay that much for a bike from a company they traditionally don’t show much interest in?
I’m betting no. And the “traditional” Harley-Davidson buyer has made a lot of noise (see what I did there?) about having little to no interest in an electric Harley.
The range of this bike, based on other electric bikes, is likely to be around 225 miles in perfect conditions. For some, that might be a weekend ride. For me, that’s barely getting started (I regularly ride 400+miles/day). So I think this bike is caught between a rock and a hard place for Harley-Davidson.
CNET:
Amazon has signed a deal to expand the selection of Apple products on its sites worldwide.
The world’s largest e-commerce company said Friday it’ll soon start selling more Apple products directly and have access to Apple’s latest devices, including the new iPad Pro, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and Apple Watch Series 4, as well as Apple’s lineup of Beats headphones. The Amazon-Apple deal encompasses the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and India, with the new products hitting Amazon sites in the coming weeks.
Only Apple-authorized resellers will now be allowed to sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon’s marketplace.
This is great news for those of us who don’t live near any other Apple resellers.