This interesting experiment from Song Exploder uses WebVR to play tracks that surround you with instruments which you can switch on and off, live.

So far, there are only 6 tracks in the library, hoping that number grows over time. But cool to play with. It works in a regular browser, though not as effective as with a real VR setup. Be sure to use headphones.

If this interests you, check out the Song Exploder podcast, which brings on artists who walk through a specific song, layer by layer.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. has secured a deal for songs from Warner Music Group, the technology giant’s first agreement with a major label since introducing its on-demand music service two years ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

Warner will provide Apple a catalog spanning Ed Sheeran, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bruno Mars for both iTunes, the online store, and Apple Music, the streaming service. Apple plans to pay record labels a smaller percentage of sales from Apple Music subscribers than it did under its first deal for the streaming service, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

And:

Sony Music Entertainment, owner of the second-largest record label, is also on the verge of a deal with Apple, one of the people said. A deal between Apple and Universal Music Group, owner of the top label, is further off.

This is a renegotiation of an expiring deal to a lower rate.

Apple’s Developer site has been down for a couple of hours now, and while it originally seemed like the outage was related to maintenance, a few reports trickling in from developers suggests there could potentially be another cause.

Several developers are reporting that all of their developer account addresses have been updated with an address in Russia, perhaps indicating some kind of breach or serious internal error. According to multiple developer reports, their accounts list a Russian address instead of their correct address.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

Update: Apple says there was no security breach on its developer Web site.

Twitter Moments:

A tense series of events as a Delta flight from New York attempts to land in San Juan, Puerto Rico and leave before Hurricane Irma hits.

I won’t lie – I wouldn’t have wanted to be on either leg of this flight.

Jamf Now is an on-demand mobile device management solution for the iPads, iPhones and Macs in your workplace. We make device management simple and affordable for everyone, so businesses can support their users; no IT required. Manage your first three devices for free and add more for just $2 per device per month. Get started for free today!

TED:

Should your driverless car kill you if it means saving five pedestrians? In this primer on the social dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how the technology will challenge our morality and explains his work collecting data from real people on the ethical trade-offs we’re willing (and not willing) to make.

This is a fascinating dilemma and shows that our technology answers are moving much faster than our moral and ethical ones. Thanks to my friend Mike Rose for the link.

Audio Check:

This page helps you evaluate headphones or earbuds online, and determine which one offers the best performance when comparing different pairs. Audiocheck is a sound testing site created by sound designer Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon. The site contains various “test” files for audio benchmarking, a tone generator you can use to create .wav files, and a testing section to see how well-trained your ear is (or isn’t). The tracks aren’t music—they’re noises or sounds meant to measure the performance of your equipment.

I’m nowhere near enough of an audiophile to need this site but I know some of you are.

NASA:

By following up on mysterious high-energy sources mapped out by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Netherlands-based Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope has identified a pulsar spinning at more than 42,000 revolutions per minute, making it the second-fastest known.

At some point in this system’s history, matter began streaming from the companion and onto the pulsar, gradually raising its spin to 707 rotations a second, or more than 42,000 rpm, and greatly increasing its emissions. Eventually, the pulsar began evaporating its companion, and this process continues today.

My small caveman brain can’t even comprehend a star with the mass of half a million Earths and no larger than Washington, D.C. that spins 700 plus times per second.

The Guardian:

In recent years, thanks to the invention of fMRI, we have made extraordinary breakthroughs in understanding the mental life of people trapped in the grey zone. We have discovered that 15% to 20% of people in the vegetative state, who are widely assumed to have no more awareness than a head of broccoli, are in fact fully conscious, even though they never respond to any form of external stimulation.

They may open their eyes, grunt and groan, and occasionally utter isolated words. They appear to live entirely in their own world, devoid of thoughts or feelings. Many really are as oblivious and incapable of thought as their doctors believe. But a sizeable number are experiencing something quite different: intact minds adrift deep within damaged bodies and brains. We have even figured out how to communicate directly with such people.

Wonderful yet utterly heartbreaking story.

Hollywood Reporter:

The James Bond sweepstakes has taken an unexpected turn. While Warner Bros. remains in the lead to land film distribution rights to the megafranchise — whose deal with Sony expired after 2015’s Spectre — a couple of unlikely suitors have emerged that also are in hot pursuit: Apple and Amazon.

Hollywood and the press that covers it are notorious for these kinds of stories that act as trial balloons in negotiations with various companies. I don’t believe for a second Apple is actually in the running for the James Bond rights.

Open Culture:

When Tolkien visited a friend in August of 1952 to retrieve a manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, he was shown a “tape recorder”. Having never seen one before, he asked how it worked and was then delighted to have his voice recorded and hear himself played back for the first time. His friend then asked him to read from The Hobbit, and Tolkien did so in this one incredible take.

This is simply amazing. The original post (captured from a radio broadcast) is from 2012, so this has obviously been around a while, but Jason Kottke posted the link yesterday, couldn’t help but share it.

Here are the videos, parts 1 and 2. Enjoy.

Brian X. Chen, New York Times:

There is as much to love about the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8 as there is to hate.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. For unlocking the phone, the eye scanner barely works and the fingerprint sensor is in a lousy place. Samsung’s Bixby, which is included, is the most incompetent virtual assistant on the market. And — need I remind you — this phone line has a reputation for gadgets that spontaneously combust.

There are superlatives that follow. Brian loves the screen (“It has the best smartphone display — as bright and vivid as a screen on a high-end television set — that I have ever tested.”) and the camera is fast. And it doesn’t explode.

But:

Some of the biometrics, including the ability to unlock your phone by scanning your face or irises, are so poorly executed that they feel like marketing gimmicks as opposed to actual security features.

And:

The iris scanner shines infrared light in your eyes to identify you and unlock the phone. That sounds futuristic, but when you set up the feature, it is laden with disclaimers from Samsung. The caveats include: Iris scanning might not work well if you are wearing glasses or contact lenses; it might not work in direct sunlight; it might not work if there is dirt on the sensor.

And, best of all:

When you set up the face scanner, Samsung displays another disclaimer, including a warning that your phone could be unlocked by “someone or something” that looks like you.

This is an actual warning on a shipping high-end phone? I do love the idea of “something” that looks like you. Like a rock, or a bush?

You can’t make this stuff up.

Oliver Haslam, writing for Redmond Pie, gathered every iPhone made and shot them next to the mockups of the iPhone 8 Edition X Pro (or whatever next week’s highend phone will be called).

Odd, yet fascinating.

[H/T, Loop reader George Lancer]

Mike Rundle, Medium:

Much has been said about the huge updates in iOS 11 (huge for iPad, less so for iPhone) but few articles have really dug into what face unlocking would mean, beyond the obvious that you’ll be able to verify your identity and unlock your phone with your face.

I think this will be the flagship feature of the new iPhone, and will let Apple leapfrog competitors with futuristic face-scanning sensors that will have a gigantic impact on the future of augmented reality.

Mike digs into face scanning and AR, interesting stuff, but my favorite part of his post occurs when he digs into the evolution of the selfie.

Over the last 2 years, the consumer tech world has gone crazy over selfie lenses that superimpose objects and effects over your picture, or distort it directly like a funhouse mirror.

And:

When the new top-end iPhone comes out, it’s rumored that both the front and rear cameras will support the recording of 4K resolution video at 60FPS, which is an incredible leap beyond today’s FaceTime HD camera that records at half the resolution and half the framerate.

And:

Because this new high resolution camera will sit right next to an incredible infrared face-scanning sensor, developers won’t have to sift through mountains of image data to figure out where someone’s face is, they’ll just use the data coming off the 3D sensor to know unequivocally where someone’s most minute facial details are in 3D space, which will blow the doors off what is possible with augmented reality today.

The point here is that selfie AR is about to undergo an evolutionary quantum leap. Imagine putting hyper-accurate scary clown makeup on your face that looks painted on, even as you turn your face. Think realism, vs the look of standing behind a cardboard cutout, moving and squinting until the overlay looks kinda in place.

There are some terrific images that go along with this story, so go read it as Mike laid it out. Great observations.

Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

As Benedict Evans surveys in his highly-recommended Cars and second order consequences, SD cars will change everything, from car design, urban planning, and insurance (I recall Warren Buffet saying SD cars couldn’t possibly be good for his huge insurance business), to shopping, drinking and dining, energy supply and consumption, and even tobacco sales… I would add mating rituals and work modes to the impossibly long list of activities, people, places, and habits that will be impacted by the SD car revolution.

This is a long piece on the players in the self-driving car space. It is fascinating and full of surprises. A few to look out for:

• Elon Musk on the incredible wealth of test data culled from the sheer number of autopilot miles driven by Tesla vehicles

• Google’s Waymo and the Uber hairball

• A chart laying out the six stages of self driving automation

• Why Google/Waymo is the Microsoft of this space

A fantastic, enjoyable read.

The Yankees, who had long been suspicious of the Red Sox stealing catchers’ signs in Fenway Park, contended the video showed a member of the Red Sox training staff looking at his Apple Watch in the dugout and then relaying a message to players, who may have then been able to use the information to know the type of pitch that was going to be thrown, according to the people familiar with the case.

Stealing signs has always been a part of the game, but the Red Sox were very innovative in using technology here. Not that the Red Sox did anything wrong—all Boston teams are the greatest. I can’t wait for hockey!

From Guilherme Rambo (you might know him as one of the folks digging through the leaked HomePod update):

What if the lock button becomes the home button? ?

— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) September 2, 2017

The concept of the iPhone lock button as the new home button has been floated around for quite some time. But Guilherme is not just guessing here. He is reacting to this particular string he encountered:

There is an implementation in SpringBoard to invoke Siri by long pressing the lock button ? pic.twitter.com/f2uB3JGZxW

— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) August 31, 2017

In a nutshell, that code at the top of that second tweet refers to a gesture to launch Siri from the lock button. Interesting.

Andrew Marinov:

7 years ago.

That’s the last time that Apple added support for a new language in iOS.

It’s been years since I’ve started filing radars and hoping that Apple would add my native Bulgarian language to iOS and with each new release, the release notes are the first thing I pour through, looking for any new language editions.

Unfortunately, though, not only is Apple seriously behind on language support, with each year new features come that are geolocked and exclusive.

And:

So how many languages does Android support, compared to Apple’s 32?

A quick research comes up with 188 as of Android 7.0 Nougat and that’s not even counting the dozens of different variations that most languages have.

With six times more languages supported, no wonder Android is so prevalent, especially in poorer countries, where people might not speak one of the languages that iOS supports.

There’s a lot more detail in the post, including similar localization takes on Apple Maps and Siri support.

I’d love for this to be wrong, but Andrew backs up his take with a lot of detail. Has it really been 7 years since Apple added a new language? That just seems hard to believe.

UPDATE: Thought so. From this GadgetsNow post [H/T @spacefork_] on a bit of new iOS 9 language support:

The new software version also introduces new keyboards for Hinglish, Punjabi, Telugu, and Gujarati in addition to a new Hindi transliteration keyboard. It already supports Tamil, Begali, Marathi and Urdu.

And:

iOS 9 also brings support for a number of other Indian languages in apps and websites including a number of Hindi dialects such as Angika, Awadhi, Kurukh, Magahi, Maithili, Newari, and Santali.

To be fair, the article does make some salient points. But this does seem to discredit the lede.

Music Business Worldwide:

Apple has confirmed to MBW that it will no longer be hosting the annual Apple Music Festival at London’s Roundhouse.

And:

However, the cancellation of the festival doesn’t signal a move away from live events by Apple Music completely.

The brand was recently a partner of shows by Haim and Skepta in London and Arcade Fire in Brooklyn and it had a heavy presence at SXSW in Texas earlier this year – where it backed shows from Lana Del Rey, Vince Staples and DJ Khaled.

In addition, Apple Music also sponsored Drake’s 32-date Summer Sixteen Tour in 2016 and it supports regular live sessions from its ‘Up Next’ artists.

The closure of the Apple Music Festival is likely because Apple is concentrating its resources on one-off events like these, in addition to its original content efforts in video – which have recently included a Carpool Karaoke spin-off series and a behind-the-scenes documentary on Harry Styles.

This feels like a shift in marketing focus, not a shift away from music. As always, Apple is still learning, adjusting their business model. No doubt, music is still deep in their DNA.

NPD Group:

2017 has been a great year for headphones. Through July, U.S. dollar sales and average prices increased 22 percent, and 18 percent, respectively, over the same period a year ago.

And:

Since launching in December, Apple’s AirPods have accounted for 85 percent of totally wireless headphone dollar sales in the U.S., according to NPD’s Retail Tracking Service. With a use case centering on frictionless access to Siri and other tasks initiated by voice, AirPods really act as an extension of the iPhone. Apple’s path to leadership in the category is helped by disruptive pricing, brand resonance, and excitement over the W1 chip, which significantly eases Bluetooth connections to iOS and Mac devices.

85% is an incredibly large slice of the pie. Removing that headphone jack was crazy, right? Crazy like a fox.

UPDATE: Gary Riches questioned the use of the term “totally wireless” in the report. Not sure if NPD’s numbers excluded headphones like the BeatsX Wireless headphones, which are “wireless”, but have a wire connecting left and right ears so are not considered totally wireless. If so, that’s a much smaller set of competitors. Still big market share, but would be good to know the full story.

I read this article this morning from The New York Times about how Apple wasn’t creating working class jobs in the U.S. Then I got to the end of the article and there was a correction:

An earlier version of this article misstated a difference between Apple today and Kodak decades ago. Apple, like Kodak, has created tens of thousands of working-class jobs; it has not failed to do so.

So they admit in the correction that Apple did create tens of thousands of working-class jobs, which fundamentally undermines what they were trying to say throughout the entire article.

Stranded outside in the rising waters of Hurricane Harvey, feverish and in great pain, 14-year-old Tyler Frank tried desperately to think of ways to get herself and her family to safety.

Calling 911 didn’t work. Begging for help on Facebook and Instagram failed, too. “I was like, ‘Siri’s smart enough! Let me ask her!’ ” Tyler said.

And indeed, Siri was smart enough. With one inquiry to the Apple personal assistant — “Siri, call the Coast Guard” — Tyler got her whole family rescued after two days out in the storm.

I don’t even know what to say. Wow.

Apple Inc has transferred responsibility for Siri, its voice assistant, from content chief Eddy Cue to operating systems chief Craig Federighi, a sign that the company is looking to embed the voice assistant more deeply into its core systems amid rising competition from Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.

This makes perfect sense.

I was on a long drive from upstate New York when I heard the news. Walter Becker was dead. Damn.

Hard to explain just how important Steely Dan was to me. They were the first band I ever loved deep down in my musical bones. They were one of those rare bands who forged friendships, simply because both sides felt that deep, hot iron forged connection to The Dan.

Walter Becker is dead. I’ll never again get to see him and Donald Fagen up on the stage, crafting their technical brilliance with note for note, spot on renditions of Reelin in the Years, Do it Again, Aja, Kid Charlemagne, Hey Nineteen, you name it. That’s what hurts the most. The finality of their excellent perfectionism.

A few things to read, if you are of such a mind:

• Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, with the announcement of Walter’s death, some terrific videos, and this quote from Donald Fagen, Walter’s partner in crime:

“Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at Bard College in 1967,” Donald Fagen wrote in a tribute to Becker. “He was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny.”

• From Rickie Lee Jones’ poignant tribute.

Walter and Donald. Walter Becker, the quiet half, the straight man to Donald Fagen’s main man. Donald the Voice, and… Walter. Walter wrote much of the music than the public realizes. As much as Donald. A true partnership. “Done up in blue print blue… It sure looks good on you… Peg.”

• From the New York Times:

Steely Dan’s musical surfaces were sleek and understated, smooth enough to almost be mistaken for easy-listening pop, and polished through countless takes that earned Mr. Becker and Mr. Fagen a daunting reputation as studio perfectionists.

And:

The music used richly ambiguous harmonies rooted in Debussy, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, giving the songs a sophisticated core that would be widely influential across jazz and pop.

• And, perhaps my favorite piece, from The Guardian:

The death of Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker brings one of pop’s most idiosyncratic songwriting partnerships to a close. With Becker’s knotty soloing and funky bass licks paired with Donald Fagen’s organ tones and earnest, knowing croon, the pair stand alone: too literate and socially conscious for soft rock, too naff for hard, and all the better for it. Fagen will hopefully continue to perform, but either way, they leave behind a magical canon.

If you are not familiar with Steely Dan, take a listen. They are one of the strong roots of the modern music family tree. Here are two of my favorites. Walter Becker is all over this music. The first is from very early in their careers, the second, from perhaps their greatest heights of fame.

Enjoy.

Macworld:

Microsoft has warned users of Office for Mac 2011 not to upgrade to Apple’s macOS High Sierra when the new operating system launches next month.

“Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Lync have not been tested on macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and no formal support for this configuration will be provided,” Microsoft wrote in a support document.

In the same document, Microsoft told those running the newer Office 2016 for Mac that they must update its applications to version 15.35 or later, if they intend to upgrade their Macs to High Sierra.

Microsoft’s advice about Office for Mac 2011 wasn’t unexpected, since support for the application suite is slated to end Oct. 10, a date Microsoft first stamped on the calendar two years ago, but has not widely publicized since.

Office isn’t officially dead on the Mac but it might be on life support.

UPDATE for clarification (not that it will help): Fewer and fewer Mac users use/need/want Office. At some point, Microsoft will face diminishing returns in their effort to support, sell and develop the software. That point may be coming sooner rather than later, in my opinion. My apologies for not more clearly stating my point in the original post.