Sound & Vision is an audio, video consumer products magazine. They had the chance to sit down with Phil Schiller to talk HomePod.

A few tidbits:

We think we can create a new kind of music experience in the home that sounds incredible, and is fun to interact with. That’s what’s driving us with HomePod. And it can also be the hub for your smart home. Voice technologies like Siri are also gaining in popularity with Siri responding to over 2 billion requests each week. This helps us understand how people actually interact with their devices, what they ask, and helps us create a product for the home that makes sense.

The HomePod as hub. That’s as advertised.

Siri, over 2 billion requests each week. That’s a lot of data, and a lot of network traffic. Apple has made a point to design their machine learning architecture to work on device, with zero network connectivity required. It will be interesting to see if Siri evolves in that same direction.

It’s about creating an experience that moves with you throughout the day — so the experience you have at home, is replicated in the car with CarPlay, at work with iPad and Mac, and when you’re out for a run with Watch and iPhone. You can listen to the same music, control your home accessories or ask Siri to do something for you, wherever you are.

This brings to mind Rene Ritchie’s HomePod wish list (posted yesterday). One of Rene’s wishes was for a Unified mesh Siri.

From that writeup:

Right now, there’s a different Siri for different devices, all with different capabilities. Siri on Apple TV is far more limited than iPhone or iPad, but has deep media knowledge and can even handle multi-language queries where, for example, a French speaker asks for a movie with an English title. Siri on Mac can interact with files and persist results but, frustratingly, can’t control HomeKit.

This is a definitely challenge for Apple. To me, a required next step in Siri’s evolution.

More from Phil:

Using advanced software and the A8 chip, HomePod intelligently beams center vocals and direct energy away from the wall while reflecting the ambient reverb and back-up vocals against the wall for dispersion into the room. The end result is a wide soundstage with a feeling of spaciousness and depth.

And:

Every time you move HomePod, it uses the built-in accelerometer to detect a change in its location and continues to make sure the music sounds great and is consistent, wherever it’s placed.

And:

HomePod uses advanced machine learning techniques including deep neural networks (DNNs) optimized for the hardware to detect “Hey Siri” in challenging environments. The detection of “Hey Siri” happens on the device, so nothing is being sent to Apple until that trigger is detected and the Siri waveform lights up. At that time, the request is sent to Apple using an anonymous Siri ID, and of course that communication is all encrypted. We’re able to do this because we designed audio technology, advanced software, and Siri to work together as one system.

Lots of great stuff here. You can see how much Phil loves what he does, how passionate he is about HomePod. Can’t wait for next Friday!

Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:

HomePod runs a special version of iOS, which means it gets new updates alongside iOS. The latest software publicly available for it is iOS 11.2.5, which will likely be the version installed on HomePods delivered on February 9th.

Software updates for HomePod will be managed through the Home app. The app will alert users when a new software update is available and will show an interface similar to the one used for iOS updates. Users will have the option to enable automatic updates, although it’s unclear how those will be managed. Updates can be installed on a single HomePod, all HomePods in the home or to specific stereo pairs (stereo pairing will not be available on HomePods running different software versions).

Interesting to me that there are a number of different update models at work here, all of them involving a satellite piece of Apple gear. Apple TV tends to update directly on device, Apple Watch has its own directly paired iOS device hosted Watch app, and now HomePod, which is part of the Home mini-ecosystem.

Seems to me like an opportunity for Apple to simplify their interface, make it a bit easier for beginners to master.

Harry McCracken, FastCompany:

On the evening of January 26, 1983, as a technology-smitten Boston University freshman, I attended the monthly meeting of the Boston Computer Society, which included a demo of Apple’s brand-new Lisa system. Though I know that I came away enormously impressed, I don’t exactly recall the event like it was yesterday. Actually, just one element was permanently etched onto my brain cells: the moment when the Lisa’s bitmapped, proportional, user-selectable typefaces flashed on screen. It was a mind-bender given that other PCs–like my beloved Atari 400–were capable only of displaying a single fixed-width font of no elegance whatsoever.

And:

What I didn’t realize until I watched the video is that seeing the meeting all over again wasn’t just an act of personal nostalgia. Between them, the IIe and Lisa, and the way Apple explained them to us BCS members, are full of lessons that remain resonant in the era of the iPhone.

First, read Harry’s article, it’s terrific. Then check the video of the meeting itself, embedded below. It’s a charming time capsule capture of a real moment in time.

It’s all in the model number. Note that this has been true for many, many years and applies to Macs and, I believe, iPads too.

That said, this is one of those arcane bits of trivia that bears repeating.

Shira Ovide, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is revamping its digital bookstore in another attempt to take on Amazon’s dominance. I can’t help thinking: What if?

This is a reference to this article, about Apple remaking the iBooks Store and the iBooks app, simplifying both and making book reading a better experience.

More from Shira:

The missed opportunity was for Apple’s business partners, particularly newspaper and magazine companies, which Apple persuaded to turn themselves inside out to take advantage of the iPad. It turned out that Apple was leading those partners to a dead end.

This is a bit of a curmudgeonly statement, but there is truth at its core. A number of publishers went all in on the iPad, with visions of a simple path from print to digital, with subscriptions intact.

The eighth anniversary of the iPad’s introduction was on Saturday. Allow me to take you on a trip back to that time. Steve Jobs set off on a sales pitch to media companies that he hoped would make the new tablet computer more useful. Jobs was a true believer that the iPad would be an amazing opportunity for books, newspapers and magazines to reimagine their products, capture readers and patch up their ailing business models.

All-in-all, a fascinating read.

As a reminder, the Calculator app hit a bit of a stumble back in October.

The issue was that the keypress animation for one key took long enough to complete that the follow-on keypress was missed. Apple fixed the problem by eliminating the animation.

The video below shows the fix, with the animation back in place, courtesy of Benjamin Mayo and 9to5Mac.

Counterpoint Research:

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Pulse program, the US market sold-through 51.2m smartphones during the holiday season quarter of 2017. Apple sell-through during this period was a record 22.39 million smartphones. Apple was able to grow their sell-through market share from 37% to 44%. This is the highest ever market share for Apple in its home market.

Commenting on Apple’s growth story here, Research Director Jeff Fieldhack stated, “Apple shipped a record 22 million iPhones for the first time ever in a quarter in USA and is note-able and impressive feat because the Q4 promotional season was not nearly as aggressive as previous years. In addition, upgrade rates are slightly lower year-over-year as smartphone subscribers are holding onto phones longer. Apple was able to grow their sell through 20% in a market that only grew 2% compared to last year. This means Apple has been successful to take share away from Samsung in the premium.”

Note that this article is referencing the 4th calendar quarter and not Apple’s 4th fiscal quarter (which ended September 30th).

During Q4 2017, all the three new iPhones were strong sellers—the three were the top three selling phones in the US market. However, since its launch on November 3rd, the iPhone X outsold the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus by a 2:1 margin . What this means is the super-premium segment (above $800) has grown from almost 0% in previous years to 25% share of the total smartphones sold in USA during Q4 2017, which speaks volumes for the potential of USA market and the US consumers’ buying power.”

It’ll be really interesting to compare these results to those one quarter from now. Will the iPhone X peel even further away from the iPhone 8/Plus, sales-wise?

Gizmodo:

Much the way emotions live inside every person, a script lives inside every movie, helping shape it, direct it, give it life. Scripts form a superstructure around which films are built. But the execution of a scene can diverge wildly from what’s in the script, for better and for worse.

In a new video released by Pixar, viewers can compare the script-to-screen execution of one of Inside Out’s most memorable scenes. It’s a master class in how direction and acting can give a scene strength it doesn’t have on the page.

Even those of us who love movies may not realize the process from page to screen. I’ve read lots of movie scripts that don’t have any real excitement to them. It’s not until they become film that the beauty is revealed.

Every guitarist knows that each instrument has its own unique voice and feeling depending on the material used to craft the instrument. The type of wood, along with how it is treated in the factory, will determine what the instrument looks, sounds, and plays like. Charvel is excited to add 5 new “au natural” models that incorporate a variety of different woods and finishes to enhance the guitar’s natural brilliance.

Some people probably wouldn’t like a natural finish on their guitar, especially for the type of hard rock that Charvel guitars are known for, but I don’t mind at all. I buy and play guitars based on the sound, but I also think these look really good.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether Apple Inc. violated securities laws concerning its disclosures about a software update that slowed older iPhone models, according to people familiar with the matter.

The government has requested information from the company, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the probe is private. The inquiry is in early stages, they cautioned, and it’s too soon to conclude any enforcement will follow.

With the hubbub over this, I’m not surprised that the government is asking questions. I don’t think this will go any farther considering the reason Apple did this was to actually help phones last longer without unexpectedly quitting.

Once in a blue moon is only once every few years, but once in a super, blue, blood moon is just once every few decades. This rare alignment of three different lunar phenomena—a total lunar eclipse, a full moon at perigee, and a blue moon—will be visible in the night and early morning skies for much of the world on Wednesday, January 31.

This should be spectacular.

Featured Speakers include internationally renowned chef José Andrés; Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue; award-winning actress, writer, and director Lena Dunham; actor and writer Ethan Hawke; Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson; entrepreneur and model Karlie Kloss; Waymo CEO John Krafcik; Oscar-winning director, writer, and producer Spike Lee; activist and technologist Chelsea Manning; executive editor of Recode Kara Swisher; Westworld cast members Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, and Jeffrey Wright; YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki; and many more.

It will be interesting to see what Eddy has to say.

Om Malik:

Why sit through the whole show, when you know the best bits are going to be online soon, to be viewed later. Bruno Mars and Cardi B performance from Grammys has 5.2 million views on YouTube. The performances of Logic, Keesha, Lady Gaga and Sam Smith garnered a whopping 4 million views; the numbers are staggering compared to the “linear television” viewership.

Viewership for the Grammy’s was way down this year and I think Om is right on the reason why.

Some terrific food for thought. Just to whet your appetite, here’s the list:

• Apple TV magic
• SiriKit for media… and more
• Unified mesh Siri
• Voice ID and deep, personal context
• HomePod mini

There are some great ideas here, some obvious, some not so obvious. The thing I love about most of these is the fact that Apple can implement them with an update (sorry HomePod mini).

Pushed into 2019 are a number of features including a refresh of the home screen and in-car user interfaces, improvements to core apps like mail and updates to the picture-taking, photo editing and sharing experiences.

This isn’t a new strategy for Apple—they have used this strategy in macOS for a number of years and it’s worked great. With all of the new features in iOS over the past several years, the time had to come when Apple took a step back and focused on reliability and performance.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Steve Jobs long believed Apple should own the technologies inside its products rather than rely on mashups of components from other chip makers, including Samsung, Intel and Imagination Technologies. In 2008, the company made a small but significant step in that direction by acquiring boutique chip maker P.A. Semi. Two years later, Jobs unveiled the iPad. The world focused on the tablet’s giant touchscreen, book-reading prowess and creativity apps. But the most ground-breaking technology was hidden away inside: the A4, Apple’s first processor designed in-house.

And:

Apple’s push into the complicated and pricey chips business makes sense so long as the company is selling 300 million devices a year.

An interesting read. Lots of solid reasons for Apple to roll their own chips. Cost savings, for sure, but there’s also self-reliance. They can control chip production and act quickly if and when a flaw/vulnerability is discovered.

But most importantly:

So far, only two Mac lines include custom Apple processors: the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and the iMac Pro. Apple is working on at least three updated Mac models with custom co-processors for release as soon as this year, including updated laptops and a new desktop, according to a person familiar with the plan.

Well, that’s pretty big news. And a logical next step, if true.

Will we see a Mac Pro this year based on Apple silicon? How about a MacBook Pro? Can’t wait.

Bloomberg:

Songwriters will get a larger cut of revenue from streaming services after a court handed technology companies a big defeat.

The Copyright Royalty Board ruled that songwriters will get at least a 15.1 percent share of streaming revenues over the next five years, from a previous 10.5 percent. That’s the largest rate increase in CRB history, according to a statement from the National Music Publishers’ Association.

The decision is a major victory for songwriters, who have long complained they are insufficiently [compensated] by on-demand music services like Spotify and YouTube. Streaming services account for the largest share of music industry sales in the U.S., while global streaming sales jumped 60 percent in 2016, according to the IFPI.

Obviously, a big deal for artists. Question is, will this force a change to the pricing of Apple Music and other services?

IndieWire, on Soderbergh’s upcoming movie, Unsane:

Taking a page from Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” Soderbergh shot the whole movie on an iPhone. While Baker has said he used a phone instead of traditional cameras due to budgetary constraints, Soderbergh said he was so impressed with the quality of iPhone cinematography that he would likely continue to use phones to shoot his movies going forward.

And:

“I think this is the future,” he said. “Anybody going to see this movie who has no idea of the backstory to the production will have no idea this was shot on the phone. That’s not part of the conceit.”

The filmmaker has experimented with digital cinematography for years, going back to 2002’s “Full Frontal,” but found that the iPhone offered unparalleled quality. “People forget, this is a 4k capture,” said Soderbergh, who was long a passionate advocate for the high-end RED cameras. “I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.”

Soderbergh doesn’t need to scrimp and save on his movies. He’s had enough big box office success (Erin Brockovich, Oceans 11/12/13) that he can do pretty much as he pleases. The fact that he can get what he wants from iPhone says a lot.

It kind of blows my mind to think that a director of some renowned would choose to film using his phone. How far we’ve come.

iMore:

Since my hands on with the HomePod, I’ve gotten a number of questions about how the HomePod deals with streaming from Apple Music, iCloud Music Library, AirPlay sources like your Mac, and if iTunes Match works at all in this crazy new world.

Here’s how everything is supposed to work.

This may or may not clear things up for you. The biggest thing I notice is that the HomePod cannot be used as a TV audio out speaker.

Fast Company:

That seed of inspiration 10 years ago eventually spawned Ressence, a watch company that has accomplished the rare feat of earning adoration from design nerds and horology snobs alike despite being a start-up. But Ressence’s previous watches may only be a prelude to its newest, the Type 2, which manages to solve some core problems that have bedeviled wristwatches ever since they were invented. The creation of that timepiece was abetted by none other than Tony Fadell, the so-called godfather of the iPod.

Fadell’s involvement was catnip to tech blogs that rushed to publish news about the Type 2, which is slated to go into production sometime this year and is expected to cost around $40,000. They all missed how strange an object the Type 2 actually is. After all, what other watch has the same photocells that power orbital satellites and an origin story intertwined with Fadell’s own forgotten experiments in creating a pocketable MP3 player?

What a fascinating story about the technology behind a $40,000 butt ugly watch.

Reddit user WinterCharm, an audio engineer who got an hour to play with a HomePod:

Fucking hell this thing is TINY. It’s really surprising to see it in person. Hefting it is odd, too. The fabric is soft but firm. It was also lighter than I was expecting. It’s also very pretty. Aside from the single cord coming out the back, there is no idication that it has a particular side/front. It’s built to blend into whatever space it’s in, rather than stand out.

And:

Having heard it side by side with The Sonos Play One and Google Home Max, A single HomePod is already much better than both in terms of sound quality.

And:

The first impression was the neutrality of the speaker. The HomePods are tuned for an as-true-to-recording sound. When the song calls for it, there is bass. When the song turns to crystal clear highs, they are reproduced faithfully. What really was interesting is the instrument separation in the room. At about 45% volume, the HomePod FILLED the room I was in with some great sound. When you walked away from it, the sound gets quieter, but not as quickly as you’d expect. All the details were still there, just softer. there was no feeling of walking out of the sweet spot that you get with a normal speaker. And that’s when it hit me… Apple really has done it.

Looking forward to technical reviews once people get their own HomePods and can spend some real quality time, along with access to their home environments.

Read the rest of the Reddit thread. If you can avoid the comparison trap, consider HomePod on its own, strictly as an Apple Music audio machine. Apple has really achieved something special here.

This is a great thread on the birth of iPad from Bethany Bongiorno, a former software engineering director at Apple. A real moment in time.

i joined the iphone team in the fall of 2008, as an iphone software EPM, but was soon asked to lead the software project management efforts for a new device. which i later learned was a tablet…

— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018

Tap the tweet to read the entire thread.

Every wave of Apple new thing brings a wave of skepticism. Last week, we posted one specific example, “No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.”, which focused on a single, canonical iPod review.

In response to that post, Loop reader João Gomes, sent me a link to this MacRumors forum page, a rabbit hole filled with claim chowder (has John Gruber trademarked that phrase yet?)

So, so good.

From App Annie’s quarterly analysis of the iOS App Store and Google Play revenues.

Chart 1 shows app downloads for each store, in billions:

As you can see, Google Play has about 2-1/2 times the number of downloads as the iOS App Store.

Now let’s look at revenue:

The conclusion from this chart? Customers for the iOS App Store spend almost twice as much as Google Play customers.

That’s a pretty big swing.

This is a great overview of using playlist comping.