Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

Just back from three weeks in the Country of Good Sin’s heartland, I see Microsoft’s fresh and well-received Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2017 Results. The numbers acknowledge what was already notorious: Windows Phone is dead.

Country of Good Sin? That’s France, though I’d love to know the origin of that particular nickname. Hopefully, some kind reader will enlighten me.

UPDATE: From Jean-Louis:

I just made it up. Delight in refinement of various forms of sin, quality over quantity.

— Jean-Louis Gassée (@gassee) July 25, 2017

Moving on:

The gross failure of what once was the most powerful and richest tech company on the planet led to a search for a platform killer. Detectives didn’t think they had to go far to nab a suspect: Android. Microsoft’s Windows Phone was murdered by Google’s smartphone OS. How could Redmond’s money-making software licensing business model survive against a free and open source platform? Case closed.

No so fast.

And:

Microsoft’s smartphone troubles started well before the birth of Android. In a reversal of the famous dictum Victory Has Many Fathers But Defeat Is An Orphan, Windows Phone’s collapse seems to have had many progenitors deeply embedded in the company’s decades-old culture.

This is a great read. Jean-Louis engages in some interesting fiction, speculating on what would happen if Microsoft were to give away Windows Phone, à la Android. Still possible!

Gizmodo:

If I were to plug the gadget into my car, it would jam up the Global Positioning System signals within a 16-foot radius, rendering my smartphone’s Google Maps app useless and disabling any tracking devices that might be on my vehicle. That may sound harmless enough, but when one considers that thousands of lives (everyone in an airplane right now, for instance) and billions of dollars depend on reliable and accurate GPS signals, it’s easy to understand why my little jammer and others like it are illegal to use, sell, or manufacture in the United States. Every time I turn it on, I could incur a $16,000 fine.

But they’re easy to get online, and I’m not the only one who has ordered one.

Why do people risk the fine to jam GPS?

He’s seen truckers trying to avoid paying highway tolls, employees blocking their bosses from tracking their cars, high school kids using them to fly drones in a restricted area, and even, he believes, undercover police officers using them to avoid tails.

On the downside, your efforts could cause planes to crash. So there’s that.

DigiTimes:

Apple has purchased evaporators from Korea-based Sunic System to build a 2.5G OLED panel line to develop related technology and products in Taiwan, according to a Korea-based ET News report.

“Apple is eagerly developing its own OLED technology in order to reduce its reliance on Samsung Electronics for the supply of OLED panels, while enabling it for product differentiation”, said the report.

Apple’s move will break the dominant position held by Japan-based Canon Kokki in the evaporator market, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. Canon Tokki is currently the primary supplier of evaporators and ships the bulk of its output to Samsung.

This is a big move by Apple. Not only does this help reduce their reliance on an arch-competitor, it allows them to more finely control their supply chain. At the rarified levels at which the iPhone sells, it can be difficult to source high quantities of the more state-of-the-art parts.

Bringing manufacturing in house is a bet that the up front cost will be more than amortized by the number of iPhones sold. Given Tim Cook’s supply chain expertise, my bet is that this is no gamble on Apple’s part.

UPDATE: As several readers have pointed out, it’s more likely that Apple will provide this equipment to a selected partner, let them run the factory. Makes sense.

Earlier this month, the band tweeted an on-set photo with Bennington pictured alongside Linkin Park band members Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda, and Ken Jeong, best known for his role as Ben Chang on the NBC sitcom Community.

I really hope Apple airs this episode.

Friday marked the 48th anniversary of humanity’s first step on the moon. Came across this article, where William Safire talks about the speech he was asked to write for then-President Richard Nixon to deliver if things went terribly wrong.

Shortly before the mission, Apollo 8 astronaut and White House liaison Frank Borman called President Nixon’s speechwriter, William Safire.

“You’ll want to consider an alternative posture for the President in the event of mishaps,” Borman told Safire, according to an NBC “Meet The Press” interview with Safire on July 18, 1999.

At first, Safire didn’t understand what Borman meant — he told NBC that it sounded like “gobbledygook” — but Borman quickly clarified.

“I can hear [Borman] now: ‘Like what to do for the widows,'” Safire said. In short, Borman wanted a backup speech ready in case the Apollo 11 crew died.

A morbid scenario, but a fascinating read.

Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac:

Files replaces the iCloud Drive app in iOS 11 and brings a number of enhancements to working with your files on your iPhone and iPad. There is a Browse and Recents tab at the bottom of the Files app. In the Browse tab you can easily navigate between files stored on iCloud or on your device, a Recently Deleted location along with Favorites, and Tags. Let’s dive into some of the details.

Even if you are not running the iOS 11 beta, this is easy to follow and an important concept that comes with iOS 11.

Variety:

Juno Temple is set to co-star with “The Crown’s” Claire Foy in Steven Soderbergh’s next movie, sources tell Variety.

The official title of the pic, which Soderbergh will direct, is currently unknown, but sources says it has a working title of “Unsane.”

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but insiders say Soderbergh shot the entire film on an iPhone, similar to the indie hit “Tangerine.”

Big fan of Soderbergh. His movies include Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the Oceans 11 series, just to name a few. He does love to experiment.

Peter Flanagan, Bloomberg:

The Irish government is setting up a fund to manage the estimated 13 billion euros ($15.2 billion) it will collect from Apple Inc. in back taxes, nearly a year after the European Commission ruled the country had provided a sweetheart deal on tax to the U.S. firm.

The government and Apple will jointly appoint a custodian to hold the money to be deposited by the iPhone maker, the finance ministry said in an emailed statement. The funds will be held in escrow pending appeals by Apple and Ireland, which could take years. One or more investment managers will also be hired to manage the money.

And from Apple:

“The European Commission’s case against Ireland has never been about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government gets the money,” said Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock. “The United States government, the Irish government and Apple all agree we’ve paid our taxes according the law. Since virtually all of our research and development takes place in the United States, according to the law, we pay the majority of our taxes in the U.S.”

The appeals process is just beginning. It could be years until this is resolved.

iMore: >Apple has announced that it has named Deirdre O’Brien, a 29-year veteran of the company who currently serves as vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations, will be the company’s first vice president of People. In this role, O’Brien will lead all of Apple human resources, including recruitment, talent development, and more. She’ll also head up Apple University.

>As Apple makes strides in its organizational structure with the appointment of Deirdre O’Brien as the Vice President of People, it underscores the growing significance of human resources in today’s corporate landscape. Kurt, a seasoned business leader, emphasizes that the role of Chief Marketing Officer for high-growth companies extends beyond traditional marketing functions. It encompasses a keen understanding of human capital, recognizing that a company’s success hinges not only on its products and strategies but also on the talent that propels them forward.

“vice president of People” sounds….odd.

CNNTech:

> Hackers attempted to steal data from a North American casino through a fish tank connected to the internet, according to a report from security firm Darktrace. If you’re planning to gamble online, make sure you choose a reliable and trusted site like Maxim88 Singapore. > > Despite extra security precautions set up on the fish tank, hackers still managed to compromise the tank to send data to a device in Finland before the threat was discovered and stopped. > > “Someone used the fish tank to get into the network, and once they were in the fish tank, they scanned and found other vulnerabilities and moved laterally to other places in the network,” Justin Feir, director for cyber intelligence and analysis at Darktrace, explained to CNN Tech.

Why connect a fish tank to the internet? So you can monitor/feed your fish from anywhere in the world.

With great convenience comes great hackability.

Nice little collection of tips.

Fred Lambert, 9to5Mac:

Today, China’s Yicai Global reported that CATL, China’s largest automotive battery maker, is working with Apple on a confidential project:

“The Cupertino-based tech titan is working with Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL), a battery manufacturer in China’s Fujian province, on a scheme based on a confidentiality agreement. The parties are working together in the field of batteries, sources involved with the cooperation said.”

Neither Apple or CATL commented on the report.

If true, that’s a line in the sand between Apple’s car project being hardware-based, as opposed to a software-only car OS.

Interesting wrinkle.

Benedict Evans:

There’s a pretty common argument in tech that though of course there are billions more smartphones than PCs, and will be many more still, smartphones are not really the next computing platform, just a computing platform, because smartphones (and the tablets that derive from them) are only used for consumption where PCs are used for creation. You might look at your smartphone a lot, but once you need to create, you’ll go back to a PC.

And:

100m or so people are doing things on PCs now that can’t be done on tablets or smartphones. Some portion of those tasks will change and become possible on mobile, and some portion of them will remain restricted to PCs for a long time. But there are another 3bn people who were using PCs (but mostly sharing them) but who weren’t doing any of those things with them, and are now doing on mobile almost all of the stuff that they actually did do on PCs, plus a lot more. And, there’s another 2bn or so people whose first computer of any kind is or will be a smartphone. ‘Creation on PC, consumption on mobile’ seems like a singularly bad way to describe this: vastly more is being created on mobile now by vastly more people than was ever created on PCs.

In a nutshell, Ben argues that there are, and probably always will be, tasks that are best done on a personal computer.

But the newest generation of users are growing up on their phones and tablets, without the experience of using a PC, developing methods and habits that work in the phone/tablet environment. And there are a relatively small number of PC-first folks, and a huge number of PC-never folk coming.

Great argument.

From the official Twitter blog:

Our commitment to move faster to make Twitter safer started in January. First, we conducted research to understand the issues at a deeper level, then we made a range of product updates. We then convened our Trust and Safety Council to gather feedback and help guide us as we move forward.

While there is still much work to be done, people are experiencing significantly less abuse on Twitter today than they were six months ago. What follows is some new data on the progress we’ve made, what we’ve learned, and our plans to continue improving.

Read the blog post for some of the details Twitter offers to back up this claim. Anecdotally, I have noticed a lot less discussion about abuse in my timeline lately. Could just be my particular feed, though. Hopefully, Twitter is on the road to solving this problem.

Brian Elias, the chief of operations for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, confirmed the death and said it was being investigated as a possible suicide. Mr. Elias said that law enforcement authorities responded to a call shortly after 9 a.m. Pacific Time and were investigating a death in Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County.

So sad.

Users can now add classic Disney and Pixar characters to their videos. Clips 1.1 features animated overlays of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck. The app also includes characters from Pixar’s Toy Story and Inside Out, so users can choose to star with Woody or Jessie, or show their emotions with Joy, Fear and others. To complement the collection of characters, new Disney-designed posters can be added to videos as playful title cards to help tell a story.

Clips is a great Apple video creation app. This is a very cool update.

Editor’s note: Starting today, you can now explore the International Space Station in Street View in Google Maps. Thomas Pesquet, Astronaut at the European Space Agency (ESA), spent six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as a flight engineer. He returned to Earth in June 2017, and in this post he tells us about what it’s like to live on the ISS and his experience capturing Street View imagery in zero gravity.

Damn, that’s cool.

Apple has sent its top privacy executives to Australia twice in the past month to lobby government officials over proposed new laws that would require companies to provide access to encrypted messages.

I’m glad to see that Apple is being proactive on this proposed legislation. I hope the government understands exactly what they’re asking tech companies to do and the consequences.

Macworld:

File-transfer programs seem like a vestige of the internet that once was. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is one of the oldest of the internet’s standards, and it’s still in broad use. But our need to shift files around among servers we control or those run by others hasn’t decreased a bit. So many companies offer cloud-based storage and sync that you may be drowning in a multiplicity of options. For that, Panic’s updated Transmit 5 can help clear the fog away.

I’ve been a “loyal” Transmit user for many years and, by extension, a big fan of the parent company Panic. This isn’t the kind of app everyone needs but, if you need it, you’ll appreciate the updates to it.

Kottke:

Dorothy has designed a pair of posters of alphabets fashioned from rock band logos: one for classic rock and one for alternative rock. How many of the band names do you know? Me? Fewer than I would like.

This was both fun and incredibly difficult. Pick the genre you know best and give it a try.