Popular Mechanics:

Many of today’s riders are discovering the daily comfort and riding ease that comes from bikes with tinier engines and tidier dimensions. Here are some of the latest bikes, big and small, that provide serious bang for your buck right now.

As an avid rider, I see a lot of great bikes on this list. If I was a different kind of rider, I’d love to have the Ducati SuperSport or the Triumph Street Cup. If you are thinking about becoming a motorcycle rider, the first three bikes would make for great beginner bikes.

The Verge:

I consider myself an amateur photographer, but I’ve never tried taking pictures of celestial events before, and I’ve never even witnessed an eclipse. So I turned to a self-proclaimed astrophotographer Justin Starr to give me some tips about how to best snap a picture of the Sun — before, during, and after totality.

It’s best to not worry too much about getting “good” shots (I’m going to focus on watching, not shooting it) but, if you have to, here are some tips for the photographers among you.

Great 78:

The Great 78 Project is a community project for the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records. From about 1898 to the 1950s, an estimated 3 million sides (~3 minute recordings) have been made on 78rpm discs.

There are literally tens of thousands of recordings available for listening and downloading.

Popular Mechanics:

The story of the Slinky begins with a mechanical engineer, a shipbuilding factory, and a mishap.

Mechanical engineer Richard James was trying to develop a new tension spring that could keep a ship’s equipment secure while the vessel rocked at sea. One day he accidentally knocked a spring off his worktable. The spring tumbled to the floor, landing on one of its ends, but instead of jumping back up, the spring flopped end over end, walking across the floor.

The experience gave James an idea: Something as simple as a spring could be a toy. He told his wife, Betty, about the experience, and she decided to come up with a name for the new walking spring. In 1944, when leafing through the dictionary in search of an appropriate term, Betty found a word meaning sinuous and graceful—just the way the spring moved and sounded as it flopped along. The word was “slinky.”

I love stories of the history of the Slinky. I’ve only ever had one and it was wrecked by a little brother very quickly but I’ve always thought the little spring was cool. But not the plastic ones. Those are awful.

John Gruber, on the reaction to a piece he wrote comparing Safari vs. Chrome on the Mac:

But really, taken as a whole, the response to my piece was about one thing and one thing only: the fact that Safari does not show favicons on tabs and Chrome does. There are a huge number of Daring Fireball readers who use Chrome because it shows favicons on tabs and would switch to Safari if it did.

The reaction was so overwhelming I almost couldn’t believe it.

And:

The gist of it is two-fold: (1) there are some people who strongly prefer to see favicons in tabs even when they don’t have a ton of tabs open, simply because they prefer identifying tabs graphically rather than by the text of the page title; and (2) for people who do have a ton of tabs open, favicons are the only way to identify tabs.

I use Safari for the most part, but I heartily agree. See for yourself. Here are two pictures, showing a bunch of tabs open, one in Safari, the other in Chrome. Which makes it easier to identify individual tabs?

Solid point, John.

The Internet Archive blog:

On August 11, 1987, Bill Atkinson announced a new product from Apple for the Macintosh; a multimedia, easily programmed system called HyperCard. HyperCard brought into one sharp package the ability for a Macintosh to do interactive documents with calculation, sound, music and graphics. It was a popular package, and thousands of HyperCard “stacks” were created using the software.

And:

Flourishing for the next roughly ten years, HyperCard slowly fell by the wayside to the growing World Wide Web, and was officially discontinued as a product by Apple in 2004. It left behind a massive but quickly disappearing legacy of creative works that became harder and harder to experience.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hypercard, we’re bringing it back.

Interestingly, today is Woz’s birthday as well. Wonder if that’s a coincidence. Either way, go check it out.

Though this sounds like a phishing scheme, this is an article from Inc on some real jobs being filled by Apple and Disney.

Apple describes the “Home Advisor” as a person who responds when people contact Apple for help. The job description describes ideal candidates as friendly, thoughtful, and real. They are “curious investigators, technical problem solvers, and good listeners” and like the way it feels to help others, have the discipline to manage themselves, can focus in a home environment, and are good multitaskers.

The company requires that you have access to a “quiet, distraction-free work space with a door you can shut, an ergonomic chair, a desk … and your own network connection.”

If you have the right personality, working at home is a huge win-win. You get the convenience and cost savings of working at home. No commute and no moving expenses. And Apple gets a happy employee without the overhead expense.

If this particular job sounds attractive to you (I know it does to me), here’s a link to Apple’s At Home Advisor web site, which includes a video laying out the job and a link to the jobs page.

Consumer Reports:

Consumer Reports is removing its “recommended” designation from four Microsoft laptops and cannot recommend any other Microsoft laptops or tablets because of poor predicted reliability in comparison with most other brands.

To judge reliability, Consumer Reports surveys its subscribers about the products they own and use. New studies conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center estimate that 25 percent of Microsoft laptops and tablets will present their owners with problems by the end of the second year of ownership.

The decision by Consumer Reports applies to Microsoft devices with detachable keyboards, such as the new Surface Pro released in June and the Surface Book, as well as the company’s Surface Laptops with conventional clamshell designs.

Take this change with a grain of salt, give the experts a chance to dig through the methodology. But no matter the ultimate resolution, this certainly gives a black eye to Microsoft’s Surface brand.

Matt Miesnieks:

I know glasses are being worked on at Apple, and the prototypes are state of the art. I also know what it takes to build a full-stack wearable AR HMD, having built fully functional prototypes from scratch. There are a bunch of elements that need to work before a consumer product can exist. These elements don’t all exist today (even at the state of the art).

Lots and lots of detail in this post. I found it well written, very understandable. Perhaps my favorite little tidbit:

Imagine that virtual hat from a Snap Filter being something you could virtually wear all day, and everyone (or only people you filter) else wearing AR Glasses could see it on you.

I highly recommend this if you have any interested in AR and Apple Glasses.

The battle between Benchmark Capital and Travis Kalanick just went nuclear, with the venture capital firm suing the former Uber CEO for fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. The complaint was filed earlier today in Delaware Chancery Court.

Oh boy.

Each about the size and weight of a subcompact automobile, the Voyagers epitomize 1970s high tech. Their computers are weaker than those in today’s digital watches, their analog TV cameras more primitive than the ones that shot Laverne & Shirley. But they made history at every planet they reconnoitered—confirming, as Voyager chief scientist Ed Stone put it, that “nature is much more inventive than our imaginations.”

Yet it almost didn’t happen.

I remember when these missions launched. What an incredible accomplishment that they are still sending back data.

Allure:

Mimi Choi is a 31-year-old makeup artist from Vancouver, Canada who creates completely stunning hyperreal optical illusions on herself. She’s transformed her hand into a realistic piece of sushi and added multiple eyes and lips to her face for a super trippy effect — and recently, her work has been going viral on Instagram.

Check out her work in the article and on Facebook and Instagram. Mindblowing.

The Economist:

General relativity was presented to the Prussian Academy of Sciences over the course of four lectures in November 1915; it was published on December 2nd that year. The theory explained, to begin with, remarkably little, and unlike quantum theory, the only comparable revolution in 20th-century physics, it offered no insights into the issues that physicists of the time cared about most. Yet it was quickly and widely accepted, not least thanks to the sheer beauty of its mathematical expression; a hundred years on, no discussion of the role of aesthetics in scientific theory seems complete without its inclusion.

A great article about the general theory of relativity and why it is so important even today.

Blue Apron posted mixed results for the quarter, but I think the CEO has the right outlook as he deals with pressure from Amazon:

But CEO Matthew Salzberg told CNBC that the grocery market is far from a “winner-take-all” battle between grocers, Blue Apron and Amazon.

“We admire Amazon as a company, and we take them seriously, big or small,” Salzberg said. “That being said, we are competing in a competitive and large market. … We think about ourselves very differently, I think, than Amazon thinks about themselves.”

That’s exactly right and a good way to look at the market. It’s easy to assume that he’s saying that because the quarter wasn’t great, but it is true.

Tech Crunch:

Snapchat’s powerful but hidden Story Search feature is finally making itself useful by giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside Apple Park, Apple’s new spaceship-like campus that will open soon.

Typing “Apple Park” into Snapchat’s search bar will show you the Apple Park Story, which is a collection of videos taken on the property.

Tech Crunch collected some of these videos, embedding them into the video below. Can’t wait to see Apple Park firsthand.

Ben Lovejoy walks through the latest revelations from Steve Troughton Smith’s dig through the recently leaked HomePod firmware.

Here’s the first tweet:

We know some facts re iPhone 8 home button area:

• it resizes
• indicator can be hidden
• no API to change color
• tab bars extend under it

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) August 10, 2017

Note the reference to a resizable Home button. When the implementation is in software, rather than hardware, there’s ultimate flexibility. Not sure if there is actually a plan to allow the user to resize the home button, but I think a larger target would be a terrific assistive feature.

Here’s the second tweet:

These are the metrics used by the status bar on the edge-to-edge iPhone, including notch height and ear width. Designers, have fun pic.twitter.com/lPD2RbEJFA

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) August 10, 2017

Check out the mockup in Ben’s article. Looks remarkably like the iPhone 8 dummy in this post.

Wall Street Journal:

Instead of typing searches and emails, a wave of newcomers—“the next billion,” the tech industry calls them—is avoiding text, using voice activation and communicating with images. They are a swath of the world’s less-educated, online for the first time thanks to low-end smartphones, cheap data plans and intuitive apps that let them navigate despite poor literacy.

And:

A look at Megh Singh’s smartphone suggests how the next billion might determine a new set of winners and losers in tech.

Mr. Singh, 36, balances suitcases on his head in New Delhi, earning less than $8 a day as a porter in one of India’s biggest railway stations. He isn’t comfortable reading or using a keyboard. That doesn’t stop him from checking train schedules, messaging family and downloading movies.

“We don’t know anything about emails or even how to send one,” said Mr. Singh, who went online only in the past year. “But we are enjoying the internet to the fullest.”

The next billion are vital to Apple’s growth as a company. So much so, that it would not surprise me to see a new version of iOS tailored for this audience.

WorkOutDoors is a workout app that allows you to load detailed, localized vector maps onto your Apple Watch for offline use. This means you can go for a run, have detailed maps on your watch, and leave your iPhone behind. Or work out in a facility without cell/wifi service, again leaving your iPhone behind. Or go hiking in a remote location without cell service. You get the idea.

There are other solutions to this problem, but I found this one fascinating. Here’s the web site, and here’s the link to WorkOutDoors in the App Store.

Economic Times:

Riding on the ‘better-than-expected iPad and iPhone sales’, the upcoming flagship device iPhone 8 could make the Cupertino-based giant the first company to reach and sustain a $1 trillion market cap, analysts have predicted.

And:

Daryanani said that Apple’s share price would have to rise from its current level (about $160) to about $192 to $195, depending on the rate of the company’s stock buybacks, to reach the $1 trillion value.

Astonishing rise from the ashes for Apple. I remember, long ago, considering an investment in Apple stock at $12 a share (long before the 7-for-1 split, and two 2-for-1 splits) about 43 cents a share adjusted for today’s pricing).

This was in the worst of Apple doldrums, before Steve came back. The smart folks I spoke with explained to me that, at the time, Apple had enough assets to pay more than that $12 per share if they sold everything they had, including real estate, desks, inventory, everything.

That was the thinking back then. Apple stock was bargain basement. And look at them now.

Wall Street Journal:

A group of 28 Chinese app developers filed a complaint against Apple Inc. alleging antitrust violations over the company’s App Store.

The complaint accuses Apple of engaging in monopolistic behavior by removing apps from the App Store without detailed explanation and charging excessive fees for in-app purchases. The complaint also alleges Apple doesn’t give details on why apps are removed and puts local developers at a disadvantage by not responding to queries in Chinese.

And:

In a statement, Apple said that “most submissions in China are reviewed and approved to be on the store within 48 hours, or less.” It added that its App Store guidelines apply equally to all developers in every country and that if an app is rejected or removed, developers may request a review to restore the app in a timely manner.

The timing correlates with the mass removal of VPN apps from the App Store. A rock and a hard place, that.

Then, just as I was about to leave the dictionary’s Web site, I noticed something new: next to the earliest known year that a word appears in print—for “alembicated,” 1786—Merriam-Webster now offers a link to a list of all the other words that were first used in the same year. The feature is called Time Traveler…

That is so great.

Linus Edwards:

Brooklyn, Aladdin, Colt 45, Cobra, Ray Ban, Stealth, Apollo, XO, Tempest, Brazil 32, Crusader, Instatower, Kanga, JeDI, Aruba, Love Shack, Mark Twain, Excalibur, Tsunami, Phoenix, Nitro, Gelato, Dante, Q, Mach 5, Spartacus, Zelda, Yoda, Green Jade, Spock, Milwaukee, Aurora, Peter Pan, Optimus.

This is just a sampling of the rich cornucopia of Apple code names over the past 40 years. The names run the gamut from pop culture references to inside jokes — from celebrity names to just cool sounding words.

Terrific read.

Variety:

Based on tonight’s premiere episode, with Corden and Will Smith, “Carpool Karaoke” is struggling a little to find a standalone spark outside the world of “The Late Late Show.” During Corden’s late-night show, the sunny highways of Southern California provided a visual and structural break from the show’s set — and in a medium that relies on celebrity guests, “Carpool Karaoke” is a fun way to combine interview elements with an activity that performers would naturally be good at.

But on its own, “Carpool Karaoke’s” weaknesses are magnified. The segment always had a bit of overenthusiasm for celebrity; the viewer is invited into a private hangout but can’t participate, as notable names and famous faces joke and sing with each other. This is unfortunate, because at its most successful, “Carpool Karaoke” makes its participants unassuming and even relatable. Adele busting out Nicki Minaj’s verse in Kanye West’s “Monster” makes even her — a multi-platinum pop diva — as familiar as the next person in line at the drive-thru. In the premiere of the Apple Music show, Will Smith decides to skip out on traffic by directing Corden to a private helicopter. “Carpool Karaoke” on Apple Music is just another unscripted series about famous people with varying degrees of talent, in scenarios that are partly choreographed and partly staged.

Insightful review. Read the whole thing.