12-year-old singing ventriloquist gets golden buzzer on “America’s Got Talent”
This is pretty incredible.
This is pretty incredible.
Snopes:
Numerous brands of color laser printers leave coded metadata in barely perceptible yellow dots that can be used to trace a printed document to its source, a feature originally intended as a deterrent to counterfeiting currency with laser printers.
While a majority of laser printers are designed to produce this secret metadata, it is unclear exactly how many printing companies and models employ the technology.
I thought everyone knew about this. I remember hearing about it in the late 1990s as color printers were becoming more common in offices. We were told not to try and photocopy money – it wouldn’t work and we’d be tracked.
The Intercept:
The ad blocker — which Google is calling a “filter” — would roll out next year, and would be the default setting for Chrome when fully functional. In other words, the normal user sparking up their Chrome browser simply wouldn’t see the ads blocked by the system.
What ads would get blocked? The ones not sold by Google, for the most part.
This is a way for Google to crush its few remaining competitors by pre-installing an ad zapper that it controls to the most common web browser. That’s a great way for a monopoly to remain a monopoly.
I was automatically and understandably skeptical about the stories that Google would create an ad blocker for the Chrome web browser. As expected, this benefits Google the most and might actually hurt many users.
EFF:
Contrary to the inviting “Sounds good” button to accept the new policy and get to tweeting, the changes Twitter has made around user tracking and data personalization do not sound good for user privacy. For example, the company will now record and store non-EU users’ off-Twitter web browsing history for up to 30 days, up from 10 days in the previous policy.
Worst of all, the “control over your data” promised by the pop-up is on an opt-out basis, giving users choices only after Twitter has set their privacy settings to invasive defaults.
It’s typically sleazy for Twitter to have the pop up give the impression that nothing will change.
From Apple’s Planet of the Apps web site:
The season premiere is finally here! Watch this groundbreaking new series about apps and their creators. Featuring Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk, and will.i.am.
The first episode is available here for a limited time. Join Apple Music to get new episodes weekly.
The feel of the show is like Shark Tank meets The Voice, all built around app developers looking for funding. You can watch the first episode, for a limited time, on Apple’s official Planet of the Apps site.
D’Marge:
Coming at you from Scotland’s Brewmeister, Snake Venom boasts a warning label and a whopping 67.5% ABV.
Nobody show this to Jim. Every bottle comes with a bright yellow hang-tag warning label. It should come with a lock and a designated EMT. Yeesh.
iOS 11 is a 64-bit only operating system. That means that any phone made before the A7 chip was released won’t be able to upgrade to iOS 11.
The first iPhone with the A7 chip was the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5 and 5c do not have the A7. The iPad Mini 2 does have the A7. The iPad Air does. The iPad 4 (iPad with Retina Display, released September 2012) does not.
As to your apps, head over to Settings > General > About, then tap Applications. You’ll likely see a list of applications under the heading NO UPDATES AVAILABLE. Those are the apps you’ll likely lose access to if you upgrade to iOS 11.
Once you make the transition to iOS 11, if you follow the same path, you’ll see a similar list. If any of these apps are critical to your workflow, check with the developer to see if there’s an update planned. If not, start looking for a replacement and a way to port any data you may still need.
Reuters:
Apple Inc customers will soon have more choices as the company looks to reduce long wait times for iPhone repairs at its retail stores.
By the end of 2017, Apple will to put its proprietary machines for mending cracked iPhone glass in about 400 authorized third-party repair centers in 25 countries, company executives told Reuters.
Among the first recipients is Minneapolis-based Best Buy, which has long sold and serviced Apple products. The electronics retailer already has one of the screen-repair machines at a Miami-area store and one coming soon to an outlet in Sunnyvale, California.
This should take some of the pressure off of Apple Stores, extend the reach of iPhone repair to people who live near a Best Buy, etc., but not near an Apple Store.
CydiaGeeks:
In iOS 11, managing your storage just got a lot easier. Apple has renamed the Storage & iCloud Usage into iPhone storage. Within this page, the design looks a bit different too. The interface didn’t capture my attention as much as a new option called Offload did.
This is a real boon to folks with storage issues, especially valuable for 16GB phones.
[Via The Verge]
Some very interesting questions from Bloomberg’s Emily Chang, including the question of HomePod being able to place a phone call, and whether Apple has retails aspirations (ordering product on your HomePod). The answer seems to be no to both. The approach seems to be, a limited version of Siri for starters, then more and more domains added in over time.
AppleInsider:
The second day of Worldwide Developer Conference opened with a conversation with Michelle Obama, first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, and Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives.
Obama discussed her experiences in the White House, including efforts to address childhood obesity, support military veterans and their families, to inspire young people to achieve higher education and global efforts to help girls attend school. She specifically noted that there are still many areas around the world where girls still aren’t considered worthy of an education.
AppleInsider has some video but I hope Apple posts an “official” version soon for us to watch.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off on Monday in San Jose, California, the first time it’s been in the city since 2002. Not only did Apple have the pressure of putting on the conference in San Jose, they also had to release great updates for developers and consumers. They delivered on all counts.
Before I get to my favorite parts of the keynote, I have to say a few words about WWDC in San Jose. I’ve talked to a lot of developers and journalists this week and the one thing everyone keeps saying about this year’s WWDC is that it is more relaxed. It’s true.
There’s a very chill feeling about the conference this year. From the front plaza where they have tables and chairs for developers to eat, work and chat with friends, to the surrounding area of restaurants and bars, everything seems happy and relaxed. The hustle and bustle of San Francisco is gone, replaced with a clean, warm, and relaxed atmosphere.
Okay, let’s look at what Apple did during the keynote.
Apple had a busy keynote day, unveiling a lot of new software and hardware products. Two of my favorites were the iMac Pro and iOS 11 for iPad.
Any doubt that the Mac is important to Apple should be gone now. We all wondered what was going on with the Mac earlier this year, but the company delivered yesterday.
For many pros, the iMac design is perfect, but it needed more power—workstation-class power. That is exactly what the iMac Pro delivers. A 27-inch 5K display and up to 18-core Xeon processors will give you all the power you can handle.
Of course, there are still going to be pro markets that require the modularity of the Mac Pro, and Apple has promised to deliver on that too.
iMac and MacBook models did get updated yesterday, bringing faster processors and graphics performance, so anyone that was waiting for an update to the regular iMac can now get one.
We all expect software updates at WWDC, but I was very impressed with the attention Apple paid to the iPad in iOS 11.
iOS 11 makes multitasking on iPad even more powerful with a new customizable Dock that provides quick access to frequently used apps and documents from any screen, and a redesigned app switcher makes it easier to move between pairs of active apps, used in Split View and now Slide Over. The new Files app keeps everything in one place, whether files are stored locally, in iCloud Drive or across other providers like Box, Dropbox and more, and with Drag and Drop available across the system, moving images and text is easier than ever. Apple Pencil is more deeply integrated into iPad with support for inline drawing and a new Instant Notes feature opens Notes from the Lock Screen by simply tapping Apple Pencil on the display.
That is very impressive. It says to me that Apple is getting more serious about the iPad as a computing device. Changes needed to be made to iOS so people could take advantage of what the iPad is, and they did that. Will they do more in the future? I think they absolutely will.
Mac OS High Sierra is not full of brand new features, but it’s difficult to say it’s not an important release. The introduction of an all-new files system is enough to make this a great release. Apple will include some other changes in the OS that will make it better to use on a daily basis. I’m good with that. To be honest, these are some of my favorite types macOS releases—clean up and make it better.
I love my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, but I have a feeling I’m going to like the 10.5-inch even more. I use the iPad quite a bit, but I switch between the 9.7-inch and 12-inch models. At first glance, I’m thinking the 10.5-inch may be the perfect size and give me the Tru-Tone display. I’ll need to spend some time with it to see though.
Apple had a lot of balls in the air for WWDC and as far as I’m concerned, they pulled off a great keynote, with a lot of significant updates for developers, consumers and pro users.
IOS 11, macOS, High Sierra, iMac Pro, MacBook, iPad—it was a power packed day.
BuzzFeed:
Today, the company debuted two iPad Pros targeted at hardcore users — a next-generation version of its 12.9-inch-display model and an entirely new 10.5-inch-display model. Both boast dramatically improved displays, more powerful innards, and more storage (a 512GB option!). Alongside them, Apple unveiled iOS 11, a new version of its mobile operating system that’s heavy on iPad-specific enhancements.
I’m very impressed with the new iPad and even more so with the next version of iOS. The combination is going to be enough to get me to (finally) retire my old iPad and buy the newest one.
The Verge:
Among the many announcements at WWDC yesterday, Apple cut the cost of its 2TB iCloud storage plan in half — from $19.99 a month to $9.99. This replaces the now-defunct 1TB plan that was previously offered at that price point.
That leaves three options for iCloud pricing now: $0.99 per month for 50GB of storage, $2.99 per for 200GB, and $9.99 per month for 2TB. Free storage (unfortunately) is stuck at a mere 5GB for now.
Any cost savings is good. This makes it much easier to recommend iCloud storage to my photography students.
The Washington Post:
Analysts say the question of whether Apple can succeed in building great artificial-intelligence products is as fundamental to the company’s next decade as the iPhone was to its previous one. But the tech giant faces a formidable dilemma because the nature of artificial intelligence pushes Apple far out of its comfort zone of sleekly designed hardware and services.
AI programming demands a level of data collection and mining that is at odds with Apple’s rigorous approach to privacy, as well as its positioning as a company that doesn’t profile consumers. Moreover, Apple’s long-standing penchant for secrecy has made the company less desirable in the eyes of potential star recruits, who hail from the country’s top computer science departments and are attracted to companies that publish research.
I don’t agree with the “struggling” part of the story but it’s still an interesting look at Apple’s AI efforts.
Business Insider:
On Tuesday, Uber announced that it has hired Bozoma Saint John, the former head of consumer marketing for Apple Music, who stole the show at Apple’s development conference last year, to be Uber’s new Chief Brand Officer.
Saint John has the hard task of turning Uber into a brand people love as much as Apple.
This is a big deal and a loss for Apple but if that’s Uber’s goal, they have zero chance of achieving it with or without her.
Petapixel:
Ever since the death of Aperture, the Apple faithful have been waiting (and waiting… and waiting) for the Photos app to “catch” up. Many people have given up, but with the release of the so-called macOS High Sierra, Apple is finally giving the Photos app some ‘pro-level’ photo editing love.
In addition to a persistent sidebar (we welcome this feature back from the iPhoto days) and some easy-to-use photo organization tools (a new selection counter, drag and drop interface, batch rotation and favoriting, etc.), Apple added a few “advanced editing tools” that have been sorely lacking in Photos.
I’m still not giving up Lightroom for Apple’s Photos app but it’s great to see the added features in the native app.
The iMac Pro is an interesting product. One question is, will it serve the needs of the Mac Pro crowd (developers, video renderers, etc.)? From the folks I’ve spoken with, a good number say that they will buy in, that this is a computer they’ve been waiting for.
Other folks want expandability, the ability to swap out RAM, SSD, GPU cards, etc. Some of these folks are already going down the Hackintosh road, others are waiting for Apple to reveal more about their Mac Pro plans.
As to Apple’s plans for an actual Apple-branded external display, this from the iMac Pro press release:
In addition to the new iMac Pro, Apple is working on a completely redesigned, next-generation Mac Pro architected for pro customers who need the highest-end, high-throughput system in a modular design, as well as a new high-end pro display.
And, finally, here’s the iMac Pro video shown at the WWDC keynote. That music is Pull It, by Jeff Beck. Definitely some interesting product coming down the pipeline.
Direct from the lenses of Apple camera-folk.
First things first, here’s a hands-on report from Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times:
In Tim’s words:
This is a music-playing device first and foremost, a hi-fi replacement that can go in your living room and sounds really great. I had the chance to hear one up against the Amazon Echo and they are in a completely different league.
To me, this is a defining fork in the road. The HomePod follows the traditional Apple path, that of being the best in class. People who care about music will spend the $349 for a HomePod, getting a top notch music system and Siri functionality to boot.
The HomePod will also help sell Apple Music subscriptions, which will help drive sales of iPhones and AirPods, HomeKit gear, etc. Round and round it goes.
From this Washington Post review:
Onstage, Apple’s worldwide head of marketing, Phil Schiller, described how the speaker analyzes the song it’s playing and adjusts its output. For example, with a vocal-heavy track, it may emphasize middle tones, while a song with a driving beat will get more emphasis on the bass. The idea is that consumers will never have to mess with settings to optimize their speaker output.
HomePod owners also won’t have to tinker with the speaker to fit its position in a room, Apple said. The speaker is able to detect the surfaces around it and will beam sound to the right spot. If you link multiple speakers, they will adjust to one another’s positions.
And:
Some analysts said they don’t expect the HomePod to catch on as quickly as its cheaper competitors. “Apple will carve out some sales in the smart speaker market with HomePod but will continue to stand far behind Amazon and Google by the end of 2017,” Ronan de Renesse, of the analysis firm Ovum, said in an email.
Since the HomePod won’t ship until December, there’s little risk in that statement. But I do think it’s fair to say Apple is playing from behind, a position in which they are quite comfortable. The market sorts itself out, early adopters cling to the features they find useful, and Apple uses that info to their advantage. The home hub market is maturing and Apple has the right product for their audience. I can’t wait to get mine.
One more thing. Here’s the HomePod video from the WWDC keynote, in case you didn’t get a chance to see it. One of my favorite voices does the voiceover. That’s Julie Adenuga from Beats 1 Radio.
The first video, titled On Any Given Wednesday, ran during the WWDC keynote. Though its focus is the new iPad Pro, it also highlights a lot of what’s new in iOS 11. Drag and drop, split view, the dock all featured prominently in the quick cuts.
Seeing this video again after having spent a good amount of time using iOS 11, I can appreciate the subtleties in the video and I now want to move to the new iPad Pro.
The two ads below the WWDC video are new entries in the iPad Pro series.
This is how Apple brought up the curtain on this year’s WWDC. Note the extra P in the title. It’s all about the apps.
I love it when Apple takes chances. I think this was well done and worked well. Enjoy.
Apple today unveiled the all-new App Store, designed from the ground up to make discovering apps and games easier than ever before. The beautifully redesigned App Store is packed with original stories and editorial, updated daily in a new Today tab, as well as new Games and Apps tabs. Compelling stories, in-depth interviews, helpful tips and collections of must-have apps and games will showcase Apple’s unique perspective and aim to inform, help and inspire customers every day. App Store customers have now downloaded more than 180 billion apps and Apple has paid out over $70 billion to developers since the store launched in 2008, making it the most vibrant software marketplace in the world.
Two things I like with this update. First, games have their own tab so those of us that don’t game won’t have to scroll through them all the time. Second, the Today page may just help discovery.
Apple today gave a sneak peek of iMac Pro, an entirely new workstation-class product line designed for pro users with the most demanding workflows. The all-new iMac Pro, with its gorgeous 27-inch Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, is the most powerful Mac ever made. Featuring a stunning new space gray enclosure, iMac Pro packs incredible performance for advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation and real-time 3D rendering. iMac Pro is scheduled to ship in December starting at $4,999 (US).
It’s pretty safe to say Apple is serious about the Mac.
Apple today previewed iOS 11, a major update to the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, bringing new experiences and hundreds of features to iPhone and iPad this fall. iOS 11 is the biggest software release ever for iPad, with powerful multitasking features, the Files app and more ways to use Apple Pencil. Augmented reality is coming to hundreds of millions of iOS devices with a new platform for developers to build apps that let users place virtual content on top of real-world scenes. CoreML gives developers on-device machine learning capabilities so they can easily make apps that will predict, learn and become more intelligent. Additional features include the ability to pay friends using Apple Pay, Do Not Disturb while driving to help users stay more focused on the road, even more intelligence and a new voice for Siri and new professional capabilities to Photos and Camera. iOS 11 is available as a developer preview today and will be a free software update for iPhone and iPad this fall.
There is a lot to love about iOS 11, much of it centered around the iPad.
Apple today introduced an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro and a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, featuring the world’s most advanced display with ProMotion technology and incredible performance with the new A10X Fusion chip. The new 10.5-inch model reduces the borders by nearly 40 percent to fit into an incredibly compact package that still weighs just one pound. Combined with powerful new iPad features in iOS 11 coming this fall, like the all-new Files app, customizable Dock, improved multitasking and deeper integration of Apple Pencil, iPad Pro gives users the ability to be even more productive and creative.
The 9.7-inch is my favorite because of the screen technologies, but I do use the larger one sometimes just because of the size. It’ll be interesting for me to try the 10.5-inch and see if that’s the perfect combination of both.
Apple today announced HomePod, a breakthrough wireless speaker for the home that delivers amazing audio quality and uses spatial awareness to sense its location in a room and automatically adjust the audio. Designed to work with an Apple Music subscription for access to over 40 million songs, HomePod provides deep knowledge of personal music preferences and tastes and helps users discover new music.
My first thought was the iPod HiFi speaker, but this is so much more. I’m looking forward to trying this out.
If you check the Apple Store today, you’ll see the classic:
We’ll be back.
We’re busy updating the Apple Store for you. Please check back soon.
And there’s this official tweet:
Join us today at 10 a.m. PDT for our live event on https://t.co/yLa2e4Xr2R#WWDC2017https://t.co/KLqj76SatW
— Apple (@Apple) June 5, 2017
Watch the keynote live, starting at 10a PDT.
Oh, it’s happening. Can’t wait!
Stephen Nellis, Reuters:
> Currently, Apple’s Siri works with only six types of app: ride-hailing and sharing; messaging and calling; photo search; payments; fitness; and auto infotainment systems. At the company’s annual developer conference next week, it is expected to add to those categories.
And:
> But even if Siri doubles its areas of expertise, it will be a far cry from the 12,000 or so tasks that Amazon.com’s Alexa can handle. > > The difference illustrates a strategic divide between the two tech rivals. Apple is betting that customers will not use voice commands without an experience similar to speaking with a human, and so it is limiting what Siri can do in order to make sure it works well.
And:
> Now, an iPhone user can say, “Hey Siri, I’d like a ride to the airport” or “Hey Siri, order me a car,” and Siri will open the Uber or Lyft ride service app and start booking a trip. > > Apart from some basic home and music functions, Alexa needs more specific directions, using a limited set of commands such as “ask” or “tell.” For example, “Alexa, ask Uber for a ride,” will start the process of summoning a car, but “Alexa, order me an Uber” will not, because Alexa does not make the connection that it should open the Uber “skill.”
Apple is investing in foundational natural language processing (NLP) expertise, building an experience that will scale.
My 2 cents: This is a better long play. In the long run, interacting with Siri will be much more like speaking with a person, complete with slang and idiom, requiring a much smaller learning curve but with a limited domain. While researching 홀덤사이트 순위, I noticed that similar advancements in AI-driven platforms are making online interactions more intuitive and user-friendly, enhancing the overall experience for users.
It’d be interesting to see a set of benchmarks develop to test Siri and Alexa, a standardized set of statements to gauge progress.
Fortune:
Retired banker Masako Wakamiya was frustrated by the lack of mobile games that catered to the elderly, who have a tougher time keeping up with the action-packed games that are popular with teens. So the 82-year-old from Japan started taking online tutorials to learn how to write software code.
And:
Wakamiya will be the oldest developer attending WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference that starts Monday in San Jose, Calif. Like many of her fellow attendees, Wakamiya’s free app, called Hinadan, is available in Apple’s App Store, and she is eager to create more.
In contrast, the youngest attendee at this’s year’s WWDC is Yuma Soerianto, a 10-year old boy from Melbourne, Australia who started coding at age six by following online courses on Code.org and from Stanford University that he found on Apple iTunes U, which provides free college courses online. In four years, he has created four apps for Apple’s App Store, including Weather Duck, a weather app for kids.
Welcome, Masako. Welsome Yuma. Have a great week!