I’ve been using iOS 11 betas for a while now and one of the apps that I’m really impressed with is Maps. I don’t know why, but I use mapping apps a lot to test them out—it’s a strange habit that I developed years ago and I still do it today.
I mentioned before that Apple Maps was good, but not great. When I went to a city or place that I wasn’t familiar with—the time when you need solid directions the most—I couldn’t use Maps because it didn’t have lane guidance.
In case you don’t know, lane guidance is a feature that tells you which traffic lane you need to be in to make your next turn. For instance, if you are taking an exit ramp, Maps will tell you to be in the right two lanes.
Lane guidance may not sound like a huge feature, but when you’re cruising down a 5-lane highway in Los Angeles and you need to cross over four lanes to the right for your exit, you appreciate it. Any time I travelled, I would use Google Maps because of its detailed instructions, not just about where I was going, but exactly how I was going to get there.
Apple Maps now has lane guidance in iOS 11 and it works perfectly. I haven’t taken a trip to LA since I’ve been using it, but I have gone to a couple of places I hadn’t been before and it worked just as I expected.
Maps now also shows you what turn is coming up next. For example, on the top of the mapping screen it will show that you need to make a left hand turn—directly under that, it will show you that your next turn is a right. This helps you determine which lane you should be in.
Maps is also getting better at finding alternate routes to your destination. It doesn’t just do it when you ask for directions, it continues to do it throughout your trip. Every once in a while I’ll see a “Similar ETA” label flash up as I’m coming close to a road. Maps is telling me that I can turn there and it’s already determined that it will take about the same amount of time as the route I’m currently on.
These are all great features that makes using Maps a better experience. There is certainly a lot to like about iOS 11, but Maps is by far the most improved Apple app for me.
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.
Not quite sure what to make of this. At almost 4 minutes long, it’s too long for a commercial, though it could easily be cut into reusable snippets. Could this be the beginning of a long-term deal between Apple and Dwayne Johnson (formerly known as The Rock)?
And what about the voice of Siri itself? In the commercial, it’s the voice we all know and love, that of Susan Bennett. But in iOS 11, Apple is shifting to a synthesized voice, a voice that, to me, bears no resemblance to the Siri we’ve all grown to know and love.
Is this new investment in Susan’s Siri voicing a sign that Susan Bennett will have a home in iOS 11?
No matter, take a few minutes and watch The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, take Siri through his day. Boring, this is not.
UPDATE: Just installed iOS 11 beta 4 and the old Siri voice is back, no settings changes on my part. So could the synthesized Siri voice be an experiment, one that was rolled back? Or is this new version a better synthesis of Susan Bennett’s Siri? Either way, it’s good to have you back, Siri.
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.
Dave here. I love ARKit, love the endless possibilities it brings. In today’s episode, watch this ARKit user select some new furniture, plop it in place, angle it just so, and even resize it for the space.
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.
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.
Rene joins me this week to talk about all of the iPhone 8 rumors that have been swirling around lately and what they mean for the consumer and Apple.
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> 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Apple’s stock keyboard on iOS 11 comes with a special mode designed to make typing with larger iPhones easier. Available on 4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhones but not on iPad, it shrinks the keys and moves them closer to your thumb.
I love this mode. I was unable to get it to work via Settings > General > Keyboard, but I was able to get it to work using the long press on the keyboard’s emoji icon. It’s a beta, so I feel certain both methods will work consistently when iOS 11 is released.
“Change—shit, I guess change is good for any of us,” Tupac raps at the start of one of his most beloved singles, recorded in 1995 and released the following year after his death. Back then, rap, hip-hop, and R&B were still subcultures, brimming with loyal followers but lagging just below the attention of the mainstream. Fame was fierce, yet limited.
Just over a decade later, the status quo’s been flipped on its head. According to Nielsen Music’s latest semi-annual report, hip-hop (including R&B) is now the biggest genre in the US, overtaking rock music for the very first time. Hip-hop claims 25.1% of all music consumption, while rock music is at 23%.
That’s be just over two decades, no? But I digress.
Why this happened has as much to do with US’s listening methods as it does the undeniable talent of many modern-day rappers. In the 1990s, CD sales still dominated. Digital-music streaming has now outstripped physical album sales and iTunes downloads as the primary way people listen to songs; with this new order comes both a new audience and a revamp of music charts.
The article tells the tale of the data embedded in this Neilson Music report. Lots to process there, including the death of the album.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak defended the high price tag of iPhones, which is rumored to cost $1,200 for the upcoming 10th anniversary model, because the quality is so good and “a safe bet.”
And:
“Apple products are safe. And Apple’s pricing is high in the extreme,” said Wozniak to South China Morning Post reporters on Wednesday. “It’s a safe bet for a lot of people, and when you love Apple you are willing to pay for it.”
Wozniak also spoke highly of Chinese smartphones, which are much cheaper than iPhones.
“Here is what I admire about Chinese phones: really good, intelligent decisions about how to lower the cost but keep enough of the functionality in,” said Wozniak.
Though it’s not clear if this was planned, Woz is being a bit of an ambassador here, his China visit and comments following directly on the heels of Apple’s promotion of Isabel Ge Mahe as Managing Director of Greater China.
Almost two years after the Santa Fe Opera commissioned “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” the narrative, music and rehearsals are complete and the production is set to open this Saturday as part of a limited six-show run.
And:
Throughout the course of 19 scenes, beginning with the launch of iPhone in 2007, the opera navigates the transformative experiences of Jobs’ life, from his days at Reed College to his time with spiritual advisor Kobun Chino Otogawa to the launch of the Apple I.
As can be expected, personal relationships appear to feature prominently in the production. Scene synopses and a cast list show interactions with Steve “Woz” Wozniak, former girlfriend Chrisann Brennan, wife Laurene Powell Jobs and father Paul Jobs. In true opera fashion, Otogawa’s ghost makes multiple appearances.
John Gruber on forcing quitting apps to save battery:
The iOS system is designed so that none of the above justifications for force quitting are true. Apps in the background are effectively “frozen”, severely limiting what they can do in the background and freeing up the RAM they were using. iOS is really, really good at this. It is so good at this that unfreezing a frozen app takes up way less CPU (and energy) than relaunching an app that had been force quit. Not only does force quitting your apps not help, it actually hurts. Your battery life will be worse and it will take much longer to switch apps if you force quit apps in the background.
I see people doing this all the time, but they never believe me when I tell them it doesn’t do any good.
The accusations, made in a filing late Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, are counterclaims to a Qualcomm lawsuit filed in May seeking to force the contractors to pay Qualcomm license fees that Apple directed them to stop paying.
I mentioned a while ago that this was going to get very interesting—here you go.
Apple on Wednesday launched a new section of its Website called the Machine Learning Journal. The site allows Apple engineers to write about their work using machines learning to build products.
While technical in nature, the articles are easier to read than I would have thought, so it seems Apple is making a concerted effort to make these posts, and their work, understandable for everyone.
The first post, “Improving the Realism of Synthetic Images,” is available to read now. This is going to be a very interesting section of Apple to watch in the coming months and years.
