The Android operating system clearly dominates the mobile market, with a share of around 72 percent. In Germany alone, around 67 percent of smartphone owners use a device with an Android operating system (source: Statcounter). G DATA security experts discovered over 750,000 new Android malware apps in the first quarter of 2017. That represents almost 8,400 new malware instances every day.
This is an absolutely staggering number. I don’t know how anyone using an Android device feels the least bit safe.
A comprehensive security solution is becoming more and more important for smartphones and tablets.
Seven-year-old Anu strolled gleefully onto her elementary school playground to show off her new hot pink “sports blade” (a word we just learned and love).
If you’re having a bad day (I sure am!), this short video will definitely put a smile on your face.
Jessie Char joins me this week to talk about Apple’s WWDC, the preparations she’s making for The Layers Conference being held the same week, and how she goes about finding compelling speakers for the conference.
A recently released survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that during the second half of 2016 50.8 percent of U.S. households were wireless only. That’s up from 48.3 percent during the same time period in 2015—a rise of 2.5 percentage points.
I bet many of you have as well. I still have one if only because I live in the boondocks and cell service sucks but, as soon as I move back to the Big City, I’ll dump the landline.
The funniest part of this study was:
Mobile-only folks tend to be smokers and binge drinkers, as NPR reported.
In the May 2017 study, the CDC said that “adults who had at least one heavy drinking day in the past year was substantially higher among wireless-only adults”
Seriously? That’s how you define a “binge drinker”? One heavy drinking day per year? I’d call that a slacker.
This is great news for music fans. Ulrich’s show is called “It’s Electric!” and debuts this Sunday, May 7 at 3pm PT. He explains more about the show in the video below.
The tech giants, who are increasingly competing for customers’ time, eyeballs and money, are close to an agreement to bring an Amazon video app to Apple’s Apple TV set-top box, according to people familiar with the two companies.
This agreement will benefit both companies. Amazon subscribers want to be able to use their Apple TVs to watch videos without using AirPlay and Apple wants to offer a full complement of programming options for its customers.
The company will fund more than 40 original shows and movies in the next year, spending hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the plans. YouTube is betting high-profile stars will attract more advertisers like Johnson & Johnson, which is sponsoring “Best.Cover.Ever,” a music competition from Ryan Seacrest that’s scheduled for later this year.
I think this is great. The original programming from Netflix and others over the past few years has been fabulous. Hopefully that trend will continue.
Sportscar maker Porsche is opening a digital technology center with 100 staff in Silicon Valley to forge new partnerships, cooperate with venture-capital companies and invest in new companies, it said on Friday.
This is a very interesting move for Porsche. They aren’t waiting to license technology in a few years when it matures, they are getting in on the ground floor where it’s being developed in Silicon Valley.
Shawn posted this last night, but this hits very close to home for me, wanted to add my 2 cents.
Matt Gemmell:
No company has done as much damage to the perceived value of software, and the sustainability of being an independent developer, as Apple.
Not that other companies wouldn’t have done the same thing — they would have. It’s just that Apple was the successful one.
It’s resolutely the fault of us as consumers, and it’s actively encouraged by the App Store.
This is a scorcher. At its heart, this is about the iOS App Store’s race to the bottom, price-wise, and the difficulty of making a living as a developer in a “pennies for your work” market.
Matt does an excellent job laying out all the details. A core argument:
Has Apple created a huge market, in terms of potential customers? Absolutely. It’s just done so at the expense of its platform-invested developer community. Judging by the company’s value and income, it was a very wise move, and you can justify it on that basis if you choose. But don’t ignore the reality of the situation. Apple is not a benevolent entity; your human-centric partner in aesthetics and ethos. If that was ever true at all.
Apple created the App Store. Is it their responsibility to ensure that the people whose work they benefit from, on whose backs they ride, have the ability to earn a living? Are developers in the same “fair trade” category as the miners who dig the rare earths that go into each and every iPhone?
Matt cocludes with this about the Mac App Store, which offers an economic model based on far fewer users and much higher pricing:
For developers who target the Mac, the last segment of the glass-and-aluminium Cupertino hardware line-up to still have plausibly sustainable economics, there’s only one course of action: pray that Apple remains disinterested.
Still chewing on all this. Lots to process. But thought this was worth sharing.
Imagination said in April that Apple had notified the British firm it was developing its own graphics chips and would no longer use Imagination’s processing designs in 15 months to two years time.
I get why Imagination wants to hang on to Apple, but it makes a lot of sense for Apple to make its own chips. It has the facilities and technical people to make it happen. Doing so means that Apple doesn’t have to pay licensing fees to a third-party, which means it keeps more the money from each sale.
Apple plans to create a $1 billion fund to invest in “advanced manufacturing” jobs in the United States. CEO Tim Cook made the announcement last night in a CNBC interview with Mad Money host Jim Cramer, and he says that Apple plans to announce its first investment later this month. Cook wants the new fund to create a “ripple effect” in the job market—he says that the manufacturing jobs created directly by the fund will also create service jobs needed to support them.
“Advanced manufacturing” is a bit vague, but generally speaking, it’s an umbrella term that encompasses creating technologically advanced products or improving the processes by which those products are created.
Apple doesn’t say exactly what “advanced manufacturing” is but I’m betting it means chip fabrication. Apple is going to make its own silicon in the US.
No company has done as much damage to the perceived value of software, and the sustainability of being an independent developer, as Apple.
Not that other companies wouldn’t have done the same thing — they would have. It’s just that Apple was the successful one.
It’s resolutely the fault of us as consumers, and it’s actively encouraged by the App Store.
While Gemmell will be perceived as biased, he’s not far wrong. It must be disheartening for developers to see the race to the bottom on the iOS app store where people bitch about paying $4.99 for an app and complain about paying for updates/upgrades in the form of new versions.
The Canon EOS Rebel T7i/800D is the latest incarnation of Canon’s hugely popular mass-market range of DSLRs. This latest model is built around a 24MP sensor that uses Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system to offer improved autofocus in live view and video (more on that later).
At its core, it shares a lot with the more expensive EOS 77D but the differences become apparent when you first turn them on: both models feature a simplified ‘skin’ over the user interface, but only the T7i has these guiding functions switched on by default.
I’m a Nikon guy but, if you’re in the market for your first DSLR or to replace an older one, you can’t go wrong with the latest Canon Rebel. The Rebel line is the best selling camera for good reason.
Deep inside the mountain, a crew of humans toils in one of the nation’s most secure military installations. Shielded by 2,500 feet of granite, these people gather and analyze data from a global surveillance system, in an attempt to (among other, undisclosed things) warn the government’s highest officials of launches and missile threats to North America.
Their military mole-city, completed in the mid-1960s amid Cold War worries, is—when fully buttoned-up—highly resistant to nuclear bombs, electromagnetic bombs, electromagnetically destructive behavior from the sun, and biological weapons. It’s designed to do its job, and let those inside do theirs, in the worst of worst-case scenarios.
This place has always fascinated and terrified me in equal measure.
The dual lens system on the iPhone 7 Plus is a pretty useful feature — you get the benefits of an 2X optical zoom whenever iOS decides it’s appropriate — but unfortunately due to the differences between the two lenses in both aperture and physical position, this can cause a “glitch” in your video if your iPhone switches to or from the second lens as you’re zooming in or out. The good news is that Apple has tucked away a setting that will allow you to avoid this problem by preventing the iPhone from automatically switching lenses during video recording.
This is a great tip for those of you who shoot video with your iPhone 7 Plus.
Glenn Fleishman does a nice job digging into the details of the File Vault 2 boot process and recovery key settings. Worth a read just to understand these mechanics.
The numbers tell the story. Apple is one of the biggest job creators in the United States, responsible for two million jobs in all 50 states. Last year, we spent over $50 billion with more than 9,000 U.S. suppliers and manufacturers. Since we launched the App Store in 2008, U.S. developers have earned over $16 billion in App Store sales worldwide. And we’re just getting started.
The site breaks the job numbers up as follows:
80,000 Apple employees
450,000 Jobs through our U.S.-based suppliers
1,530,000 U.S. jobs attributable to the App Store ecosystem
The site also breaks the numbers down, state by state.
Yesterday, we posted about a widely spread, relatively sophisticated Google Docs phishing attack. Google has taken steps to disable the accounts behind the attack, but that is a bit of a whack-a-mole problem. Attacks like this are a part of life.
One thing you can do is periodically check out what apps and sites have access to your Google account by clicking on this link:
Straits Times, about the recently unveiled signage above the soon-to-open Singapore Apple Store:
The barricades in front of the upcoming Apple Store at Orchard Road’s Knightsbridge mall came down on Wednesday night (May 3).
But the store has not been unveiled. Instead, three icons – Apple, Love, Red Dot – adorn the tall store’s tall glass doors. It means Apple loves the little red dot, or Apple loves Singapore. There is also the wording Apple Orchard Road – the official name of the Apple retail store – below the icons.
Check out the pictures. I find the signage charming, some insightful localized marketing on Apple’s part.
There are two reasons why this thing is so tricky. For one, it looks legit: An invitation to view a Google Document appears to come from an existing contact. But when a person clicks on the link, the attack immediately replicates itself—meaning, it has the potential to spam all of that person’s contacts with the same message. The second reason it’s so tricky is that it’s unclear what the attack is attempting to do. Phishing is often a way for bad actors to gain unauthorized access to a person’s email or other private accounts, but it’s not yet clear what’s motivating this attack.
I received this about 30 minutes ago. I didn’t open it.
Hulu joined the ranks of those companies offering Live TV through its mobile and Apple TV. I think I want to be a cord cutter, but maybe I’m not a good candidate. I just don’t find any of the offerings on the market that appealing. If this is something that interests you, have a look at Hulu’s page.
A massive phishing campaign targeting Google accounts is ripping through the internet right now.
Several journalists, as well as people working in other industries, have said they’ve received emails containing what looks like a link to a Google Doc that appears to come from someone they know. These, however, are malicious emails designed to steal your Google password or hijack your account.
The emails all appear to look like this one, and are addressed to “[email protected]” with recipients BCCed.
For the time being, do not click on any Google Doc links.
The ride-services company is contesting Waymo’s accusation that former Waymo engineer and current Uber executive Anthony Levandowski took technical secrets from Waymo and used them to help Uber’s self-driving car development.
If it were proven that Levandowski and Uber conspired in taking the information, that could have dire consequences for Uber, say legal and ride-hailing industry experts. Uber’s $68 billion valuation is propped up in part by investors’ belief it will be a dominant player in the emerging business of self-driving cars.
The man at the heart of this dispute, Anthony Levandowski, was given $250 million worth of Uber stock the day after he left Google’s self-driving program. While suspicious, that in itself doesn’t mean Uber is guilty of anything. Google also says that Levandowski stole 14,000 confidential documents before leaving the company. That one could hurt.
According to CNBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook will appear on CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Mad Money” show which airs today at 6pm ET. While CNBC doesn’t specify what the two will chat about, it’s pretty obvious that Apple earnings will be the main topic. It’s always very interesting to listen to Tim talk about Apple and how he feels the company is doing, not just financially, but with its products, the environment, and the future.
The American Motorcyclist Association is issuing a special appeal during May, which is Motorcycle Awareness Month, to motorists to be aware of their driving environment, check mirrors and blind spots before changing lanes and watch for motorcyclists.
“With its warmer weather and increased riding, May is an opportune time to educate the non-riding public about the safety issues that motorcyclists face on every outing,” said AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman. “Our hope is that calling special attention to motorcyclists early in the prime riding season will keep motorists on alert through the summer and fall, as well.”
This is a personal plea from me to all of you folks out there who drive cars. Now that spring is here, there will be more motorcyclists on the roads. Please keep an extra cautious eye out for us. I know some motorcyclists act like jerks but they are only a very small minority. The vast majority of us are respectful (and fearful) of car drivers and we just want to enjoy our bikes safely. You can help.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, even though motorcycles account for less than five percent of registered vehicles in the US, “Motorcyclists were more than 26 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a traffic crash. And “75% of two-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles were motorcyclists colliding with vehicles in front of them. They are more likely to crash with other vehicles turning left, while the motorcycles were going straight, passing, or overtaking passenger vehicles.” So please, use a little extra caution.
I love my AirPods. I am happy with the sound quality and I love the convenience and the cleverness of the design. Clearly, a tremendous amount of thought has been put into the many and varied AirPod use cases:
Open the case near your iPhone and you are connected automatically.
Pull an AirPod out of your ear and the music or video you are playing pauses.
Drop the AirPods back in the case and they charge automatically.
Double-tap to interact with Siri.
There are two use cases, however, that just didn’t work for me.
Skip to the next song (something I do reasonably often)
Adjust the volume (either due to a song being mixed loud, or my circumstances/environment changing)
In either case, the only way to address this via the AirPods is to summon Siri, and that experience is just too slow, especially when you compare to the speed of pressing a dedicated button to skip or adjust volume, as you do with wired EarPods.
The approach I’ve settled on is way quicker than via Siri, but with more friction than a hard-wired button. I added Apple’s Now Playing app to my Apple Watch dock. When I want to change the volume or skip a song, I press the side button on my Apple Watch (the button, not the Digital Crown) which brings up the dock. I bring up Now Playing, tap away, problem solved.
This is an OK solution, but I’d really love one with less friction. One path would be for Apple to add buttons to the AirPod case, but that would require adding Bluetooth to the case itself, along with buttons, not a reasonable expectation.
Another path would be adding a skip to next song gesture to the AirPods (I’m fine managing volume via my Apple Watch). I’ve read that a lot of people find the Siri double-tap unreliable. I did at first, but now I find that if I point my finger straight up, then double-tap the rear of an AirPod, it works consistently (And I love this tweet).
And if Apple does go down the add gesture road, why not expose the gesture in Settings so I can tie the gesture to other things. Perhaps Apple could tie AirPods gestures to Workflow, let me pull up a workflow from my AirPods. That too crazytown?
All that said, let me go back to where I started. I love, love, love my AirPods. Great tech, clever design. Glad to have them.
UPDATE: Great suggestion from Eduardo Garza Santos: On your Apple Watch, add the “Music” complication to your favorite watch face. Tap the Music complication, then spin the Digital Crown to change volume, or tap the arrows to skip forward or backwards. About as frictionless a solution as exists, though this won’t help someone without an Apple Watch. Also, though the volume part of the Music complication will work with most (all?) apps, the skip arrows will only work for music, not for podcasts, or even Spotify. But it’s something.
For two years I was charged with turning Facebook data into money, by any legal means. If you browse the internet or buy items in physical stores, and then see ads related to those purchases on Facebook, blame me. I helped create the first versions of that, way back in 2012.
And:
The ethics of Facebook’s micro-targeted advertising was thrust into the spotlight this week by a report out of Australia. The article, based on a leaked presentation, said that Facebook was able to identify teenagers at their most vulnerable, including when they feel “insecure”, “worthless”, “defeated” and “stressed”.
Facebook claimed the report was misleading, assuring the public that the company does not “offer tools to target people based on their emotional state”. If the intention of Facebook’s public relations spin is to give the impression that such targeting is not even possible on their platform, I’m here to tell you I believe they’re lying through their teeth.
Hard to know what to make of this. Antonio no longer works at Facebook, so automatic grain of salt there. But a compelling read, nonetheless.
Much ado about nothing? Something, but a well known, obvious something? Certainly interesting.
