That’s not units sold, but 51% of total global smartphone revenue. Both have value, but I’d argue that revenue is much more important than units sold. While total unit sales buys influence, revenue buys investment in R&D.

51% of total global smartphone revenues is astonishing.

Mental Floss:

Olympic curling has taken to the ice, but if you’re like most Americans, this writer included, the game is a bit baffling. Here’s a quick, stripped-down primer on everyone’s favorite icy alternative to shuffleboard. It doesn’t cover anywhere near all of the game’s nuances, but it should give you enough info that you can enjoy watching an end or two. (And yes, you’ll learn what an “end” is.)

Anyone who lives in a small northern town, be it in Canada, The US, Scotland, Norway, etc, knows what curling is. It’s incredibly popular in those kinds of communities but almost completely unknown outside of them. But, every four years, the Winter Olympics brings it to the forefront again and, while it may look silly with all of the yelling, sweeping, and sliding around, it actually is a very nuanced sport.

We Canadians love our curling. It helps that we are a “world power” of the sport.

Bottom line? Bigger is not always better. But I still wish I had the scratch for either of those machines.

Check the picture in this tweet:

Guess what? Sonos One speakers also damage wood. https://t.co/lvPBa58hGk pic.twitter.com/3OSnTZmdDW

— Caitlin McGarry (@Caitlin_McGarry) February 15, 2018

This, clearly, is the nature of the beast.

Seems to me, “damage” implies permanence. As far as I can tell, the rings left by HomePod, etc., are like smudges. A bit of mayo (or whatever cleaning miracle you use for your wood surfaces) and elbow grease, and it’s all cleaned up.

Or put something solid under the speaker to prevent the ring in the first place.

[H/T Jack Brewster]

Google Labs:

Using Google data, visualized by Google News Lab with design studio Polygraph, we can begin to quantify how these food trends vary across the country. Based on aggregated, anonymized, and differentially private data from users who have opted in to Google Location History, we ranked cities and counties by their most popular cuisine.

These maps are pretty interesting. Worth a scroll-through, even if you just look at the images.

FastCompany:

Engineers at five major SF-based tech companies would need to spend over the 28% threshold of their income to afford a monthly mortgage near their offices.

And:

Apple engineers would have to pay an average of 33% of their monthly income for a mortgage near work. That’s the highest percentage of the companies analyzed, and home prices in Cupertino continue to skyrocket.

This housing market is a chaotic bubble. But it continues to inflate, money continues to pour in.

Take a few minutes to scroll down this page, get a sense of the highlighted apps. A fascinating look at what’s already shipping. To me, this is the tip of the iceberg, and just the slightest taste of what’s coming down the pike.

Early, early days.

The Rajam Report highlights various reviews of the YouTube and Amazon Prime Video apps built for Apple TV. At the core are the complaints that the interface does not feel like a traditional Apple TV app, that they do not feel like they were written for Apple TV.

But why?

Take a look at this chart:

Those numbers are sales estimates. Pavan Rajam asks this question:

If you’re Amazon, Hulu, or YouTube, what incentive do you have to invest in a high quality tvOS app when it addresses a mere fraction of your overall TV user base?

Read the whole article. I do think Pavan has his finger on the pulse here.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc.’s HomePod, the company’s first foray into speakers in a decade, costs $216 to build and generates thinner profit margins than other products like the Apple Watch and iPhone, according to analysis by TechInsights.

Given the HomePod’s $349 price, that $216 cost suggests Apple is generating margins of about 38 percent, according to the product analysis firm. That compares with margins of 66 percent and 56 percent for the Google Home and Amazon Echo, products that compete in the smart-speaker market, but offer lower audio quality, according to the firm’s estimates.

Margin is complicated. Lots of analysis goes into setting prices and, thus, determining margin. But it does seem reasonable to assume this is Apple entering a somewhat crowded market, wanting to keep their pricing relatively low (compared to their cost) to help raise demand.

The bulk of the HomePod’s costs come from the internal speaker technology, including the many microphones, tweeters, the woofer and the power management components. That adds up to $58, while an additional $60 includes various smaller parts like the lighting system used to display the Siri animation on the top of the device.

The HomePod’s A8 chip is estimated to cost $25.50, while the external housing and other items come in at $25. TechInsights also estimates manufacturing, testing, and packaging to add up to $17.50.

There’s clearly a lot more going on under the hood in a HomePod than in the much cheaper Google Home or Amazon Echo. If you haven’t already, I would definitely click over to the iFixit HomePod teardown and watch the video. I found it fascinating.

TidBITS:

In case you ever doubted Facebook’s commitment to hoovering up as much information about you as it can, the company has come under fire for a change in the Facebook app for iOS in the United States. In the last few days, users have discovered a new option when you tap the hamburger button to access your pages, shortcuts, and settings. In that screen is a section called Explore that lets you get to a vast number of Facebook services, such as On This Day, Crisis Response, Live Videos, Find Wi-Fi, and Device Requests. There are so many, in fact, that the last one is Show More, and tapping that displays another 11, including the reassuringly named Protect.

Our recommendation: If you use the Facebook app on your iPhone or iPad, don’t get suckered into installing Onavo Protect.

Facebook once again goes above and beyond to prove they are one of the sleaziest companies in America.

An unhappy discovery after we placed a HomePod on an oiled butcher-block countertop and later on a wooden side table was that it left a defined white ring in the surface. Other reviewers and owners (such as Pocket-lint, and folks on Twitter) have reported the same issue, which an Apple representative has confirmed. Apple says “the marks can improve over several days after the speaker is removed from the wood surface,” and if they don’t fade on their own, you can basically just go refinish the furniture—the exact advice Apple gave in an email to Wirecutter was to “try cleaning the surface with the manufacturer’s suggested oiling method.”

I didn’t have my HomePod placed on an oiled wood surface, so I never noticed this. Still, it doesn’t seem like this is something you would want to have happen when placing a speaker in your home.

The 50-watt Friedman Buxom Betty is what guitar amp fantasies are made of — a gorgeous, hand-wired single-channel amp that delivers the dynamic shimmer of American vintage tube combos as well as the comely roar of classic British stacks.

I really like the unique sound of Friedman amps. The Buxom Betty cleans up really well, but it also gives you some grit when you need it.

Where have you been all my life? So much to love about this idea. I hope it becomes a standard.

Of particular note, it is motion activated. Pick up your guitar, the amp turns on.

Terrific article from iMore’s Lory Gil. Long story short:

• On Apple TV, go to home screen (this next step only works from the home screen).
• On Apple TV remote, hold down pause button for 3 seconds or so.
• When AirPlay menu appears, select your HomePod. This will route Apple TV audio to HomePod.

Now go play a movie. The audio should be coming out of your HomePod. If you are watching in front of your TV, this isn’t really ideal, but if you are moving around, perhaps working in the kitchen with a long view of the TV screen, this can be terrifically convenient.

Now that audio is piped into your HomePod, you can say things to HomePod Siri like:

• Volume 60 (that sets the volume to 60%)
• Pause (pauses the video playback)
• Go back 20 seconds

Good stuff.

Billboard:

After numerous delays, Apple has finally confirmed that Before Anythang: The Cash Money Story will release on their Apple Music streaming platform on Friday. The Cash Money documentary will feature Bryan “Birdman” Williams narrating his childhood and what inspired him to change his life’s trajectory by launching the mythical label back in 1991.

Cash Money is home to prominent artists like Drake, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. An amazing, compelling story. Here’s the trailer:

Variety:

The series is inspired by Durant’s youth basketball experiences. It will explore the world of Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball and the lives of the players, their families, and coaches.

The series will be produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Television along with Durant’s Thirty Five Media. Durant and Grazer will executive produce, along with Imagine’s Francie Calfo and Thirty Five Media’s Rich Kleiman.

Eddy Cue is a huge basketball fan, a die-hard Golden State Warriors fan, and a fan and friend of Warriors’ star Kevin Durant. From this New York Times article:

Another incident that stirred an online reaction came when a fan stood up and seemingly shouted at Rihanna to sit down. Numerous commenters declared they found his behavior disrespectful.

Internet sleuths soon identified the man: Cue, Apple’s senior vice president for internet software and services, who is a die-hard Warriors fan. Durant watched the election results last November at Cue’s house along with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and pop star Pharrell Williams.

This seems a natural fit. So much so, I wonder if Eddy Cue had a role in breathing life into this series. Personally, I hope this is the case. I think great passion can make the difference between bland and textured, between dull and riveting.

The shareholders meeting is typical a recap of what happened with the company over the last year, as well as voting on proposals. Typically, not much happens, but if you want a recap you can read this.

Whether it was housed at Olympic in London, Musicland in Munich, or in the famed Rolling Stones’ mobile studio, the Helios Type 69 console was at the center of hundreds of iconic albums from rock’s “Golden Age.” From must-own albums by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd, to Bob Marley and the Wailers, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC, the Type 69 delivered fat, unmistakable attitude, with a punchy midrange and an assertive growl.

The Helios was legendary.

The Boston Dynamics robot can now open doors. Great. pic.twitter.com/xdNYM0YqXx

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 13, 2018

NowThis:

Boston Dynamics “spot-mini” is a dog-like robot that can open doors for its pals.

I saw this video yesterday. This is just a horror movie waiting to be filmed. So creepy.

Petapixel:

If you want to see a picture of Canon and Nikon’s continued dominance in the world of sports photography, just take a look at the massive camera arsenals each company brought to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

This story pops up every Olympics and every Olympics, I marvel at the incredible amount of hardware the big boys of DSLR bring to support their shooters.

If there’s music playing and there’s a HomePod in the room, chances are that music is coming from HomePod. But there may be times when you’ve got some background music coming from another source (your TV, say) and you want to identify the tune.

I am used to asking Siri on my iPhone to identify background music. Typically, I’ll fire up Siri and say:

What song is this?

But trying to get HomePod Siri to identify a song playing in the background proved tricky. I tried everything I could think of. No dice.

Fortunately, 9to5Mac’s Benjamin Mayo figured this out. To ask HomePod’s version of Siri to identify a background song, say:

Hey Siri, Shazam this.

Works every time. Weird to me that none of the more standard ways work. I hope we don’t end up with a Siri dialect problem, where users have to remember which command works on which version of Siri.

One piece of FUD I encounter again and again is that you can’t play competing streaming services, such as Spotify, on your HomePod.

There is an element of truth there, as Apple Music is currently the only first class citizen on HomePod. But you can AirPlay pretty much anything you can play on your Mac or iOS device to HomePod. Even Spotify.

What you lose when you AirPlay to HomePod is the ability for Siri to control the music. Though you can ask Siri to change the volume (“Siri Volume 25” to set volume at 25%, for example), you can’t get Siri to pause playback or skip to the next track. With AirPlay, you’ll need to use your iPhone or Mac to control the flow.

I wonder what magic is cooking for AirPlay 2. Will AirPlay 2 give Siri the ability to control track flow? If so, will Apple enable that gift for Spotify?

For the specifics of AirPlay on your Mac, MacRumor’s Juli Clover has your back.

Not sure how long iFixit has been posting teardown videos, but this is the first I’ve seen. Brilliant to be able to watch someone tear this tech down to the nubs.

So much to learn about the work and material that goes into HomePod. That outer mesh is magical. I wonder how they manufacture it.

One thing that is clear: This sucker is tough to take apart. It’s no wonder Apple charges $279 to repair or replace a broken, out-of-warranty HomePod.

The wait is almost over. Alto’s Odyssey launches on the App Store next week on Thursday, February 22nd. The game will be available on iOS + tvOS, right at launch.

This is the follow-up to Alto’s Adventure, a great game from Ryan Cash.

This is pretty shocking. Just scroll through the images. Venice is a city that depends on its canals, both for tourism and transportation.

[H/T Eric Vitiello]

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple’s annual software upgrade this fall will offer users plenty of new features: enabling a single set of apps to work across iPhones, iPads and Macs, a Digital Health tool to show parents how much time their children have been staring at their screen and improvements to Animojis, those cartoon characters controlled by the iPhone X’s facial recognition sensor.

But just as important this year will be what Apple doesn’t introduce: redesigned home screens for the iPhone, iPad and CarPlay, and a revamped Photos app that can suggest which images to view.

These features were delayed after Apple Inc. concluded it needed its own major upgrade in the way the company develops and introduces new products. Instead of keeping engineers on a relentless annual schedule and cramming features into a single update, Apple will start focusing on the next two years of updates for its iPhone and iPad operating system, according to people familiar with the change. The company will continue to update its software annually, but internally engineers will have more discretion to push back features that aren’t as polished to the following year.

Read the rest of the article for details, but can’t help but see this as a significant move in the right direction, assuming it is true.

This is not frivolous opinion. There is a lot of detail on both the tools used to measure things like “Fletcher-Munson loudness compensation”, and the measurements themselves.

From the conclusion:

The Look and feel is top notch. The glass on top is sort of frosted, but is smooth to the touch. When I first reviewed the home pod, I noted that it was light. I was comparing it with the heft of my KEF speakers. This thing, as small as it is, weighs 5 lbs. Which is quite dense, and heavy for its size. The Fabric that wraps around it is study, reinforced from inside, and feels very good to the touch.

And:

The Frequency response, Directivity, and ability to correct for the room all go to show that the HomePod is a speaker for the masses. While many of you in this subreddit would be very comfortable doing measurements, and room treatment, there is no denying that most users won’t go through that much trouble, and for those users the HomePod is perfect.

And caveats:

Because of the onboard DSP, you must feed it digital files. So analog input from something like a Phono is out, unless your Phono Preamp has a digital output which can then be fed to the HomePods in realtime via airplay, possibly through a computer. But you cannot give the HomePod analog audio, as the DSP which does all the room correction requires digital input.

And:

Speaking of inputs, you have one choice: AirPlay. which means, unless you’re steeped in the apple ecosystem, it’s really hard to recommend this thing. If you are, it’s a no brainer, whether you’re an audiophile or not.

And:

As a product, the HomePod is also held back by Siri. Almost every review has complained about this, and they’re all right to do so. I’m hoping we see massive improvements to Siri this year at WWDC 2018. There is some great hardware at play, too. What’s truly impressive is that Siri can hear you if you speak in a normal voice, even if the HomePod is playing at full volume. I couldn’t even hear myself say “Hey Siri” over the music, but those directional microphones are really good at picking it up. Even whispers from across the room while I was facing AWAY from the HomePod were flawlessly picked up. The microphones are scary good — I just hope Apple improves Siri to match.

And from the rollup at the top of the post:

am speechless. The HomePod actually sounds better than the KEF X300A. If you’re new to the Audiophile world, KEF is a very well respected and much loved speaker company. I actually deleted my very first measurements and re-checked everything because they were so good, I thought I’d made an error. Apple has managed to extract peak performance from a pint sized speaker, a feat that deserves a standing ovation. The HomePod is 100% an Audiophile grade Speaker.

I don’t have the expertise to speak to the audiophile comments, but everything else in the post clicks for me, jibes with my HomePod experience.

As to the negatives, I think Apple has done a great job of making sure the hardware is top notch. Which means they can fix the software negatives via updates over time.

Me? I absolutely love my HomePod. If you love music, and are willing to pony up for Apple Music, it’s a no-brainer purchase.