Apple today launched a new app development curriculum designed for students who want to pursue careers in the fast-growing app economy. The curriculum is available as a free download today from Apple’s iBooks Store.
App Development with Swift is a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach students elements of app design using Swift, one of the world’s most popular programming languages. Students will learn to code and design fully functional apps, gaining critical job skills in software development and information technology.
Apple’s head of Worldwide Human Resources Denise Young Smith will now run diversity programs for the company under a newly created VP position, according to sources familiar with the move. The executive shuffle will see the creation of a new VP role for Apple’s Inclusion and Diversity team with Smith reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook. Sources say Smith has long had a passion for diversity initiatives at the company and the newly created position reflects an increased focus on the company’s efforts.
And:
Smith has been at Apple for over 20 years and was first promoted to VP of worldwide HR back in 2014 from her previous role as head of HR for just Apple’s retail stores, a role that Steve Jobs handpicked her for during the early days of Apple’s retail efforts.
Yes, this is an hourglass. You turn it over and it measures out 10 minutes as the particles inside run through the small hole in the center of the glass. But that’s where the similarities with hourglasses you know end. It’s hard to think of a simple object hiding more complexity than this one.
You start off thinking, “Well, this is stupid. It’s just an hourglass.” You read more and think, “Kinda cool design though.” Then you get to the price and think, “There are 100 people out there with more money than sense….”
Travel Mode is a new feature we’re making available to everyone with a 1Password membership. It protects your 1Password data from unwarranted searches when you travel. When you turn on Travel Mode, every vault will be removed from your devices except for the ones marked “safe for travel.” All it takes is a single click to travel with confidence.
I think we’ll see more companies implement these kinds of security features in their apps.
The steady rise of the company’s profile is proof that it’s possible to meet one very specific consumer need and ride that wave as it continues to ripple out to other markets. A majority of Anker’s sales come from cables and wall chargers, and it’s now moving into the smart home and auto market — anywhere a plug and a cable can solve a problem.
Yang saw a desire for a better type of accessory — one that wouldn’t cost as much as a replacement straight from the original manufacturer, but that would be of a high enough quality to earn consumers’ trust.
I have a couple of Anker cables and battery packs. I think they are very good quality and certainly cheaper than the ones I’ve bought from Apple.
Apple has settled a patent dispute with Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia and agreed to buy more of its network products and services, sending Nokia shares up 7 percent.
If you’ve never tried Spotify Premium, you can get three months for just $1 for a limited time. That’s three months of no ads, better sound quality, offline listening, and full mobile access.
The usual caveats apply: Only for US-based customers and only for those who have never signed up before.
Watch the video embedded below on a big screen if you can, so you can really see the movement of the Apple Watch second hand. Not sure I’d expect anything different, but there is something quite satisfying watching the digital and analog line up so precisely.
Smart bulbs from the market leader Philips start at $25 per bulb for white and $50 for color, a price that soon adds up if you’re looking to fit out your entire home.
But all that is set to change in the summer as Ikea has announced that its smart lighting system will be HomeKit-compatible as of the summer. Ikea’s smart bulbs start at just $11.99.
And:
The existing product line is limited to white bulbs, but once you’ve bought the gateway for $79.99 (which includes two bulbs), you can add smart bulbs at prices ranging from $11.99 for a 1000-lumen E28 bulb, through $14.99 for a 400-lumen E12, $17.99 for a 980-lumen E27 to a $19.99 G10 spotlight. Dimmers and motion sensors are also available at similarly affordable pricing.
Ikea getting in the game brings down prices, legitimizes the sector, and will help popularize the concept of adding smart bulbs to your home.
Apple representatives say their plans for the historic Carnegie Library will respect and improve the building’s historic architecture.
“Some of you may say ‘Apple! I don’t want to see another glass box. We had enough of that with the Spy Museum,'” Apple development lead Michael Brown said of the International Spy Museum’s failed 2014 plan for the Carnegie Library.
And:
Brown, along with reps from architect Beyer Blinder Belle, gave a closer glimpse at Apple’s plans during a National Capital Planning Commission historic preservation meeting last week. Apple has a letter of intent with Events D.C., the District’s sports and convention arm that runs the building, to operate a global flagship store in the 63,000-square-foot building. Apple would take up most of the circa-1903 building, sharing space with the Historical Society of Washington and Events D.C.
I do find it interesting that Apple will be sharing this space. Will the other groups have separate entrances? Will there be any actual shared space?
No matter, Apple’s plans will have to pass muster with the Washington D.C.’s strict Historic Preservation Review Board. When complete, this is going to be a destination Apple Store.
For the last few weeks, Apple has been testing its autonomous driving software in three Lexus RX450h SUVs, which have been photographed around the San Francisco Bay Area. This morning, MacRumors reader Andrew was able to capture some video of one of the SUVs, giving us our closest look yet at the vehicles Apple is using to test its system.
Not sure how much we can draw from this. I think it’d be more interesting to get a closeup look at the camera rigging and the computers inside the car. I suspect we’ll eventually have WWDC sessions that focus on self-driving car APIs.
Apple Music has some great built-in stations, but one of my favorites is the Rock Workout station. It’s all upbeat music across many generations of rock, which means you can listen without losing that high-tempo groove. I use it on my walk and when I’m driving and just need some great punchy Rock.
Working together with Windows users shouldn’t be problematic at all. Still, some email messages can not be natively read by the Mac and are packed into Winmail.dat or MSG files that have to be extracted and displayed somehow. Letter Opener for macOS does that with a simple double-click!
The plugin to stop the Winmail.dat file flood for good.
If Winmail.dat files are a reoccurring problem, Letter Opener for macOS Mail is the solution. Installed into Mail it opens and displays the files directly inside Apples Mail application, so the user can forget about Winmail.dat files entirely.
Use coupon code ROCKET88 for 30% off Letter Opener for macOS Mail.
A small Boston company, founded by the inventor of a popular corporate encryption technology called RSA SecurID, sued Apple and Visa on Sunday, arguing that the Apple Pay digital payment technology violates its patents.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tightened rules for where patent lawsuits can be filed in a decision that may make it harder for so-called patent “trolls” to launch sometimes dodgy patent cases in friendly courts, a major irritant for high-tech giants like Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Anything that gets rid of patent trolls is a good thing, but I’m sure the trolls will try to incorporate in East Texas, where many of the patent cases currently take place.
Update: I misread the ruling. Lawsuits will have to be filed in the jurisdiction of the defendant, which should definitely deal a huge blow to patent trolls.
A living room featuring this kinetic art table has no need for coffee table books—or a television, for that matter. You can happily entertain yourself for hours just watching the steel ball create patterns in the sand.
If I had the money, I’d buy one of these coffee tables in a heartbeat.
> When Fu Gui was six, he was abducted on his way home from school in Chongqing, China. He was then trafficked to Quznahou, about 1,000 miles away, where he was sold to foster parents. Now, 27 years after he was taken from his family, he has been reunited with them. And it’s all thanks to the latest cross-age facial recognition technology from Chinese tech giant Baidu.
And:
> In 2009, nearly two decades after Gui was kidnapped after school, he uploaded the earliest photo he had of himself, taken when he was 10, adding it to the database of tens of thousands of images. In January of this year, Gui’s father uploaded a photo of Gui when he was 4. > > Baidu’s AI was capable of matching the two images, taken six years apart.
This is a breathtaking application of facial recognition technology. And this tech, along with faceswapper ai, is becoming more sophisticated, and facial data more ubiquitously available every single day.
Apple appears to be working on blood glucose monitoring as a way to address Type 2 Diabetes.“Stick it in your ear”. Literally.
This is a detailed, thoughtful piece on Apple’s pursuit of the holy grail of glucose level monitoring, continuous monitoring without drawing blood. Terrific read.
“A Day in the Life” isn’t a song to sing, as are “Eleanor Rigby” (ideal for both car and karaoke), “Hey Jude” (written to soothe John Lennon’s young son, no lullaby works better at children’s bedtime), or “In My Life” (a perennial at weddings and funerals and, I can’t help mentioning, rock’s analog to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116). Nor is “A Day in the Life” guided by melody like so many Beatles creations. It’s an elaborate production, filled with sophisticated George Martin and Geoff Emerick musical trickery (distortion, echo, dubbing, reverb). An orchestra plays, and then one singer’s voice gives way to another’s—John’s worldly reflections transitioning to Paul’s sketch of domestic memoir, and then back again—before orchestral cataclysm and a final resting place.
And:
And then, after all the chaos and destruction, what next? George Harrison had suggested a fade to humming. But it didn’t work. Paul thought that the song needed firmer resolution. Three Steinway pianos and a harmonium were rolled into action, and at every keyboard the players were instructed to hit the single chord of E major simultaneously and hard, with the sustain foot pedal down, letting it carry as long as possible. There were nine takes. The tone is so big, so capacious and resonant because Martin and Emerick thought to put the recorder on half speed.
Some terrific writing in this piece. If you are a fan of (or have never heard) A Day in the Life, take a listen.
Jennifer Bailey, the head of Apple’s payments business, said over half of contactless payment terminals in the UK are now able to take Apple Pay transactions of any value. Most card readers had previously been restricted to £30, the default upper limit for contactless card transactions.
And:
Contactless card payments are limited to £30 to prevent fraud, since they do not require shoppers to enter a PIN.
Apple Pay transactions, which are made by holding an iPhone or Apple Watch against a card reader, are approved using the iPhone fingerprint scanner or watch’s biometric sensors. The extra security allows Apple Pay to make payments of any value, but retailers have had to embark on a programme of terminal upgrades to support them.
“We think the majority of the contactless terminals [in the UK] are now limitless,” Ms Bailey said.
While we’ve all seen our fair share of hyperrealistic and photorealistic art, or paintings and sculptures that look amazingly like photographs, it’s not too often that we come across photos that look like paintings. Throughout the five-plus years we’ve been around, we’ve seen these unbelievable photos pop up here and there and today, we decided to give them all one home. Here, then, are ten fascinating photos that look unbelievably like an oil, acrylic or watercolor painting. Enjoy!
These are shot in a style I couldn’t accomplish but I love the look and feel of them.
America leads the world in many things (GDP, Olympic medals), and lags behind in many others (math, life expectancy). Here’s something we can add to the “lags behind” column: this super-efficient tow truck replacement spotted in Turkey.
You’ve got to admire the efficiency and speed if nothing else.
The well-regarded Olympus TG-4 is being replaced by a more powerful model—say hello to the TG-5. Olympus’ latest ‘tough’ camera packs a better sensor, better processor, and 4K video capability into a rough and tumble shell that is waterproof, crushproof, shockproof, freezeproof, and dustproof.
As with the previous tough model, this puppy is waterproof (to 50 feet/15 meters), crushproof (to 220 pounds/100 kilograms), shockproof (from 7 feet/2.1 meters), freezeproof (to 14°F/-10°C), and dustproof.
I’ve always been a big fan of Olympus’ “Tough” line and recommend it particularly for those who are hard on their gear, want to shoot in “adverse” conditions or want a good camera to give to a child. I’ve used my old Tough point and shoot mounted to my motorcycle, in the snow, underwater – places I’d never take my DSLR or iPhone.
This week, Wired dropped a glossy cover story on Apple’s massive new campus, which will be known as Apple Park. The approximately 6,000-word story mentions a specially-designed pizza box that enables Apple employees to take a pizza from the company’s posh food court, Caffè Macs, back to their desk area, or pod, without the pie getting soggy.
The Cupertino company patented the box seven years ago and it’s already been in use at Apple offices. The box is just coming into the public consciousness now, however, so The Outline obtained one — sent by a source directly from one of Apple’s California campuses — in order to conduct a hands-on review. Here are our first impressions.
Levy is understandably a little miffed at the attention the box is getting but it’s weirdly interesting and another testament to Apple’s attention to details.
