What’s most interesting about this article is that the most innovative company (Apple) is not even on the list of top 10 in R&D spending. Number one on that list? Volkswagen AG, followed closely by Samsung.
To deliver that, Google Play Music uses machine learning to figure out what music you like and then mixes in signals like location, activity, and the weather along with hand-picked playlists to personalize music for wherever you are and whenever you want tunes. Starting this week on Android, iOS and the web, the new experience will roll out globally (62 countries, to be precise).
The new app is live now, I just downloaded it.
The Wirecutter:
Everyone can benefit from an increase to their privacy and security, and reliable services are available for less than $4 per month. Setup is automated, too—you need only install a small application. To track down the best advice about what a VPN can and can’t do for everyday people, we rounded up research and advice from around the Web, and we spoke with Rich Mogull, the CEO of security consultancy Securosis.
The idea of a VPN seems intimidating but there are plenty of apps and services available that make it pretty easy to set up. The peace of mind is worth it.
When was the last time you were frustrated with your time tracking app,
for example because you had forgotten to set a timer?
Or when you wondered what you spent all your time on today?
Timing solves this problem. Instead of making you do all the work, Timing automatically tracks how you spend your time. It logs which apps you use, which websites you visit, and which documents you edit.
Timing is essential for anyone serious about their time — power users and freelancers alike. Download the free trial now and on Friday review exactly what you did this week, down to the second.
Use coupon code THELOOP to get a 25% discount till next Monday.
Red Sweater:
Touché lets you assign a global keyboard shortcut for easy toggling of the simulated Touch Bar window. Leave Touché running, and when inspiration to see the Touch Bar strikes? Just press the keyboard shortcut. Simulate, show and hide, take screen captures. Free Download for Mac. Use and enjoy.
For those of us not lucky enough to be able to use the Touch Bar equipped Macs just yet.
Bloomberg:
Samsung Electronics Co. is spending $8 billion to buy its way into a burgeoning market for automotive technology alongside Apple Inc. and Google as the smartphone business wanes.
The South Korean company is making its largest-ever overseas acquisition with an offer for Harman International Industries Inc., angling to become the go-to supplier of everything from in-car entertainment to connected-auto services.
Time will tell whether or not this is money well spent for Samsung or if this will make any difference in the US car market.
This is a lot of fun. Fantastic job recreating these shots.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been using three new MacBook Pros: A 13-inch entry level model; a 13-inch with Touch Bar; and my favorite, a 15-inch with Touch Bar. As with all of my reviews, I’ll give you an idea of how I use the MacBook Pros in my daily life, but I’ll also give you a look at how it performed while working on some pro music projects.
First off, I have to say that I really don’t care about specs. I care more about how a machine or device performs when I use it. I know there has been a lot written about the new computers and how they aren’t good enough, but from my use, I just don’t agree.
It’s tough for me to understand how people who have never touched a new MacBook Pro can be so positive that they won’t work.
I know that having 16GB RAM is a concern for some people, but you could never put more than 16GB RAM in a MacBook Pro, so I don’t get the problem. Pros and other customers have been successfully using these computers for years. Just because it takes more RAM to use a Windows machine effectively, that doesn’t mean the same thing for a Mac. You have to look at the entire picture, hardware, software, system software, and memory optimizations.
Let’s talk about the ports for just a minute. Apple took away all of the traditional USB ports and SD card slot, replacing everything with USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports.
When I look at that change, I asked myself if I really cared, and the answer is, no. I’ve had an SD card slot in my previous MacBook Pros for years and I used it exactly zero times. Now, I understand that some people, especially photographers, do use it and it is important to them. However, It’s not like Apple left users high and dry. There are adapters that will allow you to plug in everything you need.
I know that’s another source of frustration for users, but it will only be a frustration until the devices we use come with USB-C by default. In six months or so, the ports won’t be the issue that is now for most people.
In the meantime, we have to buy adapters to use our current gear. I’m in the same position as everyone else in this regard. The adapter that I need for my music gear is a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2, which costs $29, after the recent price cut Apple made to most of its adapters.
For most music pros, the MacBook Pro is not going to be their main machine. It will be one of tools they use, but not the only one. There are times when mixing or recording may have to be done away from the main studio, so having a powerful, portable system is important.
I use a Universal Audio Apollo Twin so I can record with top quality gear no matter where I am. I also plug my headphones and Ear Monitors into the Apollo to monitor while mixing and editing files.
To see how the new 15-inch MacBook Pro would do with audio, I opened a 40-track Logic Pro project. The song had a mix of loops, drums, and live recorded instruments. I played back the track, recorded some more guitars, added effects and did everything I would normally do with a music project.
When I looked at the memory usage for Logic Pro, it was using 1GB RAM. The MacBook Pro has 16GB, so I have a lot of room before I ever have to worry about running out of memory.
I tried everything to make the computer stutter or glitch while playing and recording audio, but it just wasn’t going to happen.
I’ve been using Macs to record large music projects for 15 years. I couldn’t ask for anything more than what the MacBook Pro offers.
I’ll be honest, my main concern with the MacBook Pro was if it could handle music creation—it did and passed with flying colors, but there’s more to this new computer than just pure power, so let’s take a look at some of those features.
I had one of the last generation MacBook Pros, but I choose to use a 12-inch MacBook as my main computer for one simple reason: the keyboard. I absolutely love this new keyboard. It’s the most comfortable typing keyboard I’ve ever used. The keys depress evenly, and with the MacBook Pro revision, there is just enough key travel to make it a pleasant experience.
One of the features that everyone is wondering about is the Touch Bar. Logic Pro1 hasn’t been updated to support Touch Bar yet, so I wasn’t able to try it while creating music.
I really like the idea of Touch Bar, especially since it changes based on what you’re doing on the screen. It’s going to be a very handy feature. The main thing with Touch Bar is getting used to using it instead of just doing things the way I always did.
Most of us are so engrained in our workflow that we do things without even thinking about. However, when you do think to check the Touch Bar, you can see how things can be done simpler and easier.
Here’s a small example. Have you ever opened the calculator app and had to choose to type in the numbers or click with the mouse? No matter what you do, it’s a pain just because of the type of app it is. With Touch Bar, all of the calculator functions are in the Touch Bar, directly above the numbers on the keyboard. This is clearly so much easier.
There are a lot of examples like this with Apple’s apps and there will be many more when third-party developers add support for Touch Bar in the next few months. I will need more time to see how I’m going to use it with music. A lot of that will depend on the implementation.
One of the things we rely on Apple to do with all of its products is make things easier. Touch ID did that for me. Of course, you can use Touch ID to login to the computer, but it was the other situations that made me appreciate Touch ID.
For instance, when the system wants your password to make changes, or delete an app, you can just place your finger on the Touch ID sensor and you’re done. The same can be done in System Preferences when making changes. It’s so much quicker than typing in your password. It’s a small thing, but it all matters.
If you are looking at the MacBook Pro for everyday work, you will not be disappointed. This is a powerful, versatile computer that can handle whatever you can throw at it.
If you are a pro wondering if you should buy a MacBook Pro, I can tell you from my tests, the MacBook Pro performed incredibly well. In fact, I didn’t have a single problem, no matter what I tried.
Every pro category has different wants and needs. Perhaps buying an adapter will be more of a hassle for you than it was for me in the short term, but it won’t be like that forever. Thunderbolt 3 accessories will be coming and then this whole conversation won’t matter. A $10-$30 adapter is not going to stop me from having the best computer I can get to create music.
We expect Apple to move its products and the industry forward. Sometimes those changes can be difficult, but we can’t tell Apple to move forward, but not change anything.
The MacBook Pro is a great computer. Only you can decide if it’s the right computer for your needs. I’ve done my daily work with it, created music with it and I love it.
Logic Pro is usually updated in January at the NAMM music show, so I expect that’s when we’ll see support for Touch Bar. ↩
Glenn Fleishman, Macworld [AUTOPLAY, grrr]:
When I tested disabling and re-enabling iCloud sync, as Joe’s wife did, I was told I didn’t have enough storage at iCloud, even though I had nearly 90GB free and my library is about 115GB. That library was already stored in iCloud in identical form.
Instead of first comparing photos in iCloud with those on my system, I wasn’t able to proceed without upgrading my storage and then later downgrading it. (Apple lacks automatic pro-rated refunds, and even though it says you can email to obtain such a refund, I received no response to my email.)
There’s some sense in this: Apple doesn’t want you to start an operation that will fail. But it could also predict whether it would work or not.
Glenn digs in to a real problem, an edge condition with iCloud sync when you hit the limits of storage on a very temporary basis.
Jason Snell, Six Colors:
To balance out the design, the Touch Bar’s OLED screen doesn’t extend all the way to the left edge of the glass. As a result, the Touch Bar always appears inset from the rest of the keyboard. It’s a bit weird. Fortunately, it appears that touch sensitivity extends a bit past the end of the display itself—when I tapped the corner of the Touch Bar, reflexively reaching for the Escape key, my touch would still trigger that key—even though my finger wasn’t actually touching the part of the Touch Bar displaying the virtual Escape key.
(It took me a few days to get used to the presence of the Touch Bar. Until then, I found that my pinky would slide off the carat key and make contact with the Touch Bar, triggering the virtual Escape key. I’ve trained myself not to let my finger stray up into the Touch Bar accidentally, but it was an adaptation.)
And:
The Touch Bar is an animated interface through and through. Items don’t just fade in and out, but also slide smoothly back and forth. The arrow pointing from the Touch Bar to the Touch ID sensor during a request for an unlock grows and shrinks, practically begging you to put your finger down. There’s a lot more personality here than I expected.
This is a good read, with lots of pictures and the video embedded below. A review worth reading.
Walt Mossberg, The Verge, reviewing a 13-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro:
Apple is realigning its familiar laptop line, dramatically reshaping and in some ways merging the favorite options for both heavy-duty “pro” users and everyday customers. And the poster child for this more muddled future is the pricey new MacBook Pro
And:
The Pro, once mainly aimed straight at people who do especially taxing work like professional video editing or serious design, is now being stretched to suit a much larger audience.
Thus the term “tweener”.
Walt noted that the MacBook Pro’s battery life was wildly inconsistent:
On my rigorous test, which I’ve used for years, the machine actually exceeded Apple’s claim of up to 10 hours of battery life. The test involves setting the screen at 100 percent, keeping it on and undimmed constantly, playing an endless loop of music, and leaving Wi-Fi on to collect email, tweets, and Facebook posts in the background. Result: 11 hours and 38 minutes.
But then:
I ran a second test with all of Apple’s default energy-saving settings on, the screen at 75 percent and a perfectly normal (for me) mix of tasks like web browsing, email, a few short videos, Twitter, Facebook, some light writing, and Slack. The Pro died at 8 hours and 22 minutes.
To make things worse, Apple’s built-in prediction of how much time the battery had left before dying fluctuated a lot and was mostly wrong (Apple says this is a known problem caused by the fact that modern processors can power up and down rapidly over a much wider range than in the past, making estimates much more difficult.)
Interesting. Hopefully, this will get better over time as Apple collects usage data, gets their arms around the problem.
Ars Technica:
In an excoriating op-ed, China’s state-run newspaper Global Times warned that the People’s Republic would adopt “a tit-for-tat approach,” and would simply stop buying American goods, including the Apple products that are so popular there. It said:
“A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. US auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and US soybean and maize imports will be halted. China can also limit the number of Chinese students studying in the US.”
No one believes this is just saber rattling on the part of the Chinese government. Sadly, the shortsighted response from many will be, “Just buy Android phones”, but that will ignore the enormous financial harm such actions will visit upon Apple and others.
Take a look at this post from David Chartier, entitled macOS: How to send iMessages without the Messages app open.
The post itself is interesting, worth a read even if you have no interest in sending a message in this sidebar approach. The value is in learning about widgets (if they are new to you) and, specifically, the Social widget. Lots of nuance here:
Good stuff.
Stephen Wolfram:
When I watch science fiction movies I have to say I quite often cringe, thinking, “someone’s spent $100 million on this movie — and yet they’ve made some gratuitous science mistake that could have been fixed in an instant if they’d just asked the right person.” So I decided that even though it was a very busy time for me, I should get involved in what’s now called Arrival and personally try to give it the best science I could.
An fun story about how Wolfram got involved in the movie and his efforts to make it as “accurate” as possible.
Popular Mechanics:
It was just after sunup on the morning of Oct. 14, 1947, and as I walked into the hangar at Muroc Army Air Base in the California high desert, the XS-1 team presented me with a big raw carrot, a pair of glasses and a length of rope. The gifts were a whimsical allusion to a disagreement I’d had the previous evening with a horse. The horse won. I broke two ribs. And now, as iridescent fingers of sunlight gripped the eastern mountain rims, we made ready to take a stab at cracking the sound barrier–up until that point aviation’s biggest hurdle.
The Bell XS-1 No. 1 streaked past the speed of sound that morning without too much fanfare–broken ribs notwithstanding. And when the Mach indicator stuttered off the scale barely 5 minutes after the drop from our mother B-29, America entered the second great age of aviation development.
It’s an often-told story but still fascinating. If you’re on Twitter, you really should follow the general. Really fun, interesting Twitter feed.
My thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week.
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Legion Magazine:
Rest in Peace Leonard Cohen. Just last fall, Legion Magazine and Leonard Cohen released a video to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae In a poignant tribute to McCrae, Canadian songwriter, painter and poet Leonard Cohen has recited that stirring poem for this exclusive video. His voice is accompanied by stirring imagery from the First World War.
In honour of both Leonard Cohen and Remembrance Day today, please listen to this reading from Canada’s “Voice of God”. Thanks to my friend SlyM for the link.
Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition is, basically, an emulator in a box, emulating the original Nintendo Entertainment System, with 30 of the original games, including favorites like the original Metroid and Legend of Zelda. The retail price is US$59.95.
The system goes on sale today but, at the moment, is only available in stores in limited quantity. It’s not yet clear if it will ever be available online. If you want one, I’d suggest heading over to your local Target, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. today.
Here’s a review of the unit and games.
And here’s an article talking about the best way to get your hands on one.
If anyone gets one, please tweet at me with details. Where’d you get it? Is it a holiday gift? Have you had the chance to try it out?
My prediction? This will be a scorchingly hot holiday gift. Ebay resellers will make a mint.
Thomas Grove Carter, the video editor whose review of the MacBook Pro was highlighted in this previous post, tweeted this animated GIF showing off the Touch Bar sliders interacting with Final Cut Pro X.
The video first shows a volume slider, so make sure your sound is on. The second half shows the insertion of key frames in a video sequence. As you watch that part, keep in mind that his left hand is on the track pad, moving the mouse cursor, while he uses his right hand on the Touch Bar slider to adjust the key frame.
As Carter said in his review, the whole interaction is “buttery smooth”.
Thomas Grove Carter, video editor at Trim Editing in London:
On the 27th October Apple unveiled their new line of MacBook Pros. Since then half of what I read online seems to be “Professionals” (those guys), telling me it’s not Pro at all, not Pro enough or not the right kind of Pro. How many of these people have even touched the new devices?
Very few.
I’ve been using the new 15” MacBook Pro (with Touch Bar) for the last week or so for actual work, so here’s my “Professional” opinion.
And:
First off, It’s really fast. I’ve been using the MacBook Pro with the new version of FCP X and cutting 5k ProRes material all week, it’s buttery smooth. No matter what you think the specs say, the fact is the software and hardware are so well integrated it tears strips off “superior spec’d” Windows counterparts in the real world.
And:
The version I’ve been using is powerful enough on the graphics front to power two 5K displays, which is an insane number of pixels.
And:
I was very skeptical about the addition of the Touch Bar. It looked like the result of an incestuous fling between a keyboard and an iPad mini (with Retina display). But I also felt skeptical about insert tech you use all the time now originally too. Once you begin to use it, you’ll see. Your cold heart will soften.
The first revelation for me was the potential of sliders. Gradual, precise and fast inputs.
Clearly, Carter loves his new MacBook Pro, appreciates the Touch Bar functionality and, most importantly, sees the new MacBook Pro as a technological step forward.
I’m looking forward to the coming wave of videos showing the Touch Bar in action.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
The first 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models equipped with a Touch Bar will soon be making it into the hands of customers, as initial MacBook Pro orders have shifted into the “Preparing for Shipment” stage.
Customers who ordered a MacBook Pro right when it became available for purchase on October 27 received shipping estimates ranging from November 17 to November 25, and with orders ready to go, it appears customers will begin receiving their machines next week.
Here they come. Looking forward to a wave of video reviews, getting to see what Touch Bar can do in real life.
Sam Shead, writing for Business Insider:
Apple is looking to increase the size of its Siri team in Cambridge, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
In a bid to make Siri that bit more useful to iPhone, iPad and Mac owners, Apple intends to hire at least half a dozen software engineers in Cambridge in the coming months.
And:
Apple’s Cambridge office is home to many of the employees from VocalIQ — a voice recognition startup that was spun out from the university and acquired by Apple in 2015 for up to $100 million (£80 million).
Notably, one of Apple’s open job requisitions is for a Siri Operations Engineer in Cambridge.
Dan Goodwin, writing for Ars Technica:
For almost five months—possibly longer—the Spotify music streaming app has been assaulting users’ storage devices with enough data to potentially take years off their expected lifespans. Reports of tens or in some cases hundreds of gigabytes being written in an hour aren’t uncommon, and occasionally the recorded amounts are measured in terabytes. The overload happens even when Spotify is idle and isn’t storing any songs locally.
And:
Spotify officials hadn’t responded to Ars questions more than two days after they were sent. According to comments left in the Spotify forum in the past 24 hours, the bug has been fixed in version 1.0.42, which is in the process of being rolled out. The update remains unavailable to many users, this reporter included. And that means Spotify’s drive-assaulting behavior continues unabated for many.
Sounds like, if you use Spotify, get the update or disable it.
Fstoppers:
Landscape photographers know that there’s only so much you can plan. Today I want to introduce to you a fellow Dutch landscape photographer who recently came back from the volcanically active Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. What Tomas van der Weijden captured there is truly extraordinary.
It takes skill to be a good photographer but sometimes dumb luck plays a part.
Rolling Stone:
Leonard Cohen, the hugely influential singer and songwriter whose work spanned five decades, died at the age of 82. Cohen’s label, Sony Music Canada, confirmed his death on the singer’s Facebook page.
“It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away,” the statement read. “We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief.” A cause of death and exact date of death was not given.
After an epic tour, the singer fell into poor health. But he dug deep and came up with a powerful new album Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet.
2016 can’t end fast enough.
With so many P2P transactions happening during such a busy season, we’re excited to give our users an early holiday present: starting November 10, Siri will be integrated with PayPal. For iPhone and iPad users running iOS 10, making a payment has never been easier – PayPal users can now send and request money via a voice command with Siri. Simply say, “Hey Siri, send Bill $50 using PayPal.” Voila! One less thing to check off the to-do list this holiday season.
I haven’t tried this yet, but I will.
Google’s Android mobile operating system boosts competition rather than hurts it, the company’s general counsel said on Thursday, in a rebuttal of EU antitrust charges that it uses the platform to crush rivals.
This could cost Google millions.
Snopes:
On November 14 2016, the confluence of two celestial events will create what will appear to be the largest full moon (or a “supermoon”) since Harry S. Truman was president of the United States,
Two events must coincide to create the experience of a supermoon. The first is the presence of a full moon (which occurs around every 29.53 days) and the second is the moon’s closest approach to Earth, which occurs every 27.32 days,
This “extra-super rating” is no exaggeration — it is quite rare for these two events to peak within two hours of each other.
Unlike some previous “supermoons”, this one will actually be noticeably larger so, if you can, get out and enjoy it. And, if you’re a photographer, here are some tips on “How to Take a Non-Crappy Picture of the Moon“.
Jeff Cable:
Last weekend I had a chance to make the RARE visit to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. And when I say the top of the bridge, I mean the TOP of the tower of the bridge. And it was absolutely amazing!!
It was just so amazing to be up there, after 8 years of waiting for the opportunity. There was almost no wind, and it was surprisingly warm on the day we went up. We were lucky.
I’d be up there for days, mostly because I’d be paralyzed with fear. Cable got some great shots.
Somebody buy these for Jim, willya?