Wired:

O’Leary developed a handy, handheld tool she calls Spector that captures typefaces and colors in the real world, and then transfers them directly to InDesign.

Full disclosure: Spector is a prototype. A working prototype, but a prototype, nonetheless. You can’t buy it, and while O’Leary is interested in commercializing it, she’s in no rush.

And:

Place Spector over a piece of media and depress the button on top. A camera inside photographs the sample, and an algorithm translates the image into information about the shape of the typeface, or the color’s CMYK/RGB values. Spector beams that information to a font or color database, which IDs the sample. If your computer is nearby, a custom plugin ports the font or color information to InDesign, where highlighted text or projects will automatically change to the typeface or color of your real-world sample. No computer? No problem. Spector can store up to 20 font samples, so you can transfer them to your computer later.

Smart idea. I hope that Fiona O’Leary gets some good advice here. Mine would be to see a patent attorney, do a basic search to see if this idea can be protected by a patent. Even a pending patent will greatly increase the value of this invention.

Two men fell off a cliff Wednesday in San Diego’s North County while playing “Pokemon Go,” the Encinitas Fire Department confirmed.

Holy shit people are stupid.

I have a love/hate relationship with capos because they often screw up the sound or don’t press evenly on the strings, which also screws up the sound. I recently picked this one up and it works great every time.

Fraser Speirs:

One of my goals for the next deployment is to, well, do it faster. The holy grail of iOS deployment is to “never touch the glass”. That is, to engineer a system whereby the most you ever do to a device is put it in a case and plug it into a cable.

We’re not totally there yet, but Fraser put together a great article on what can be done.

More than 90 percent of the world’s online population use emoji. But while there’s a huge range of emoji, there aren’t a lot that highlight the diversity of women’s careers, or empower young girls.

A driver in New York state ran his car off the road and into a tree last night as a result of playing “Pokémon Go.”

I couldn’t care less if they hurt themselves, but an innocent person is going to get hurt by these morons.

I’m glad to see Nest released an outdoor camera—it was definitely something missing from their product lineup.

This is a fantastic interview with Eddy. Go read it.

“Google has come up with many innovative products that have made a difference to our lives. But that doesn’t give Google the right to deny other companies the chance to compete and innovate,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told a news conference in Brussels.

This is in addition to the existing charge that search results favor Google’s shopping service.

Chance Miller, for 9to5Mac:

Apple has slowly been adding apps to its universal search feature since the fourth-gen Apple TV was introduced, and over the past week 3 more apps have gained support. As noted on Apple’s support page for universal search, VH1, MTV, and Comedy Central now appear in search results.

For those unfamiliar, universal search allows users to perform a single search using Siri or the Search app and see content across multiple channels. With the addition of VH1, MTV, and Comedy Central, content from those channels will now appear in search results.

For instance, when users say “Siri, show me Jersey Shore,” MTV will now be listed as a source on the results page. The same goes for saying, “Siri, show me Love & Hip Hop,” as VH1 will now appear in the search results.

Here’s a link to Apple’s Apple TV universal search page.

Reggie Ugwu, at Buzzfeed, pulled together a fantastic feature, bringing you behind the scenes at Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play.

When he’s choosing your music for you, Carl Chery, 37, is in Culver City, California, sitting at his desk in an office with no signage, trying to decide whether Drake and Future’s “Jumpman” (jumpman, jumpman, jumpman) has jumped the shark. Or sometimes he’s at home in his one-bedroom apartment on the border of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, walking around in his living room with new Gucci Mane blasting from a Beats Pill. Or at the gym going for a morning run on the treadmill, thinking about your gym and your treadmill, listening through headphones for changes in tempo and tone: Will this song push you through the pain? Is that one too long on the buildup?

I’ve always wondered how they pull these playlists together. This piece answers a lot of questions.

Time:

Off the meteoric success of its augmented reality-meets-GPS game Pokémon Go, which launched for iOS and Android on July 6, maybe Niantic founder John Hanke just became the most powerful PokéMaster of all.

TIME spoke with Hanke, who’s been traveling in Japan, to chat about the game’s runaway success, the impact of augmented reality (AR) at this scale, and what he finds interesting about the medium going forward.

What an incredible ride this has been. I found this interview with John Hanke to be a fascinating read.

Brandon Chester, writing for AnandTech, digs into the macOS Sierra beta. Before you dig in, remember that this is a beta, and an early one. Keep that fact in mind as you read. Also realize up front that Brandon did not update his Apple Watch to the latest beta. As he says in his conclusion:

By this point I’ve covered many of the tentpole features of macOS Sierra. Right now it’s a bit difficult to test some of the other features announced at WWDC that relate to continuity between macOS, iOS, and watchOS due to the fact that all these platforms are in beta and, in the case of watchOS, a beta that you can’t return from. Unfortunately, I feel that those features end up being the most interesting ones, because they’re only made possible by Apple controlling the software and hardware stack across all their devices.

That said, I found this an interesting read, as AnandTech reviews inevitably are.

Jason Snell, writing for Macworld:

The Apple ID system, built somewhat haphazardly via .Mac and the iTunes Store, never really fit with the reality of complicated human life. Husbands and wives, parents and children, partners of all kinds found themselves sharing Apple IDs in order to avoid buying duplicates of every app and song and video in order to distribute them among multiple devices in a household.

Apple’s solution, when it arrived a couple of years ago with iOS 8, showed a lot of potential. Like the webpage says, “Family Sharing makes it easy for up to six people in your family to share each other’s iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases without sharing accounts.” I’ve been using Family Sharing since it launched, and it’s got a whole lot of potential. My kids now have their own Apple IDs, and I approve their app purchases–plus they have access to all the apps my wife and I have purchased.

That said, Family Sharing feels very much like a version 1.0, a first crack at the idea that people with their own Apple IDs also have intermingled real lives that should probably be intermingled digitally. Nearly two years after the release of iOS 8, however, not a whole lot has changed in the realm of family sharing. And it’s got some glaring deficiencies that really need to be addressed.

For example, Jason says:

It doesn’t make sense that families can’t share a single iCloud storage allotment. We all share data on our cellular plan, and it’s never a good sign when wireless companies are ahead of you on features. The members of my iCloud family account should be able to access my terabyte of storage for their own use.

This is a no-brainer. Share the storage, and make it easier to share notes, playlists, etc. How about a family dashboard app with links to shared stuff, all stored in the family iCloud storage?

This is one of the most famous cases in American history. To some people D.B. Cooper is a criminal, but to others he is a folk hero. I watched the History Channel special on the case this week and they had some compelling evidence, but ultimately not enough to close the case.

Tools and Toys:

The ParcSlope is a stand for MacBooks, MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, and iPad Pros which brings up the height of the screen to a better viewing angle and props up the keyboard and trackpad to give a more ergonomic experience. As a whole, the ParcSlope fulfills its goals tremendously, but I have two small nitpicks along the way.

The nice folks at Twelve South have a bunch of really cool and clever accessories for Macs and iOS devices. I’ve always been a big fan of their products.

Adobe:

Raw support is here! With this Technology Preview you can import and edit the raw photos you take with your camera. You can also sync these photos and edits back to Lightroom CC on your computer and local Adjustments lets you selectively apply Exposure, Brightness, Clarity, and other adjustments to a specific part of a photo.

This could be a big deal for Lightroom users who want to edit photos while away from a computer.

Financial Times:

The developer behind Pokémon Go, the smash hit location-based mobile game that has dominated US and Australian app stores and sent Nintendo shares soaring 50 percent, is planning to allow retailers and other companies to sponsor places on its virtual map.

This should come as no surprise. But I wonder if it will actually be worth it for the sponsors? After all, even if the retail location is a stop for Pokemon, that doesn’t mean people will shop there. Wouldn’t they be more likely to move on to the next stop?

Above Avalon:

Apple’s ambition in music continues to be misunderstood. Most of the focus remains on the battle between Apple Music and Spotify for paid music streaming subscribers. However, the much more interesting development relates to Apple’s desire to grab music mind share. Apple is aiming to leverage its strong balance sheet to control the music narrative, and in the process, remove all of the oxygen from the music streaming industry.

If this analysis is true, it’s an ambitious plan. But if anyone has all the tools in place to do it, it’s Apple.

Shooting to the top of the app store on the day it was released, within 24 hours Pokémon GO beat out indie hit Slither.io and Supercell’s heavily promoted blockbuster Clash Royale to become the biggest game of 2016, as measured by daily active users.

Simply incredible.

These are just a few of the words used by audience members during a panel about business management at Fortune’s Brainstorm Technology conference on Tuesday to describe their most recent serious conversations with millennial employees at their companies.

Yes, things have changed in the workplace, but Millennials need to grow up a little too.

The European Commission accused Ireland in 2014 of dodging international tax rules by letting Apple shelter profits worth tens of billions of dollars from tax collectors in return for maintaining jobs. Apple and Ireland reject the accusation.

This isn’t just going to affect Apple, it will have consequences for many companies that do business in the EU.

The guys in the booth went nuts. They came on the speaker and said, “Hey, keep doing that. That’s really good.” So we kept at it. But all we had was this cool riff. Mars suggested we add an instrumental interlude. He played these chords that led into the jam, for which I later wrote the lyrics, “Close your eyes girl/ Look inside girl/ Let the sound take you away.”

Told by the guys who wrote the song. I just love these stories.

Writing CSS is easy.
Writing maintainable CSS is hard.

From the official Planet of the Apps site:

Participation in the show is limited to 100 of the world’s most talented app creators. If that’s you, please join us.

Think that describes you? Here’s a link to the casting form.

And hey, if the Planet of the Apps folks are looking for a judge, I’m definitely available.

Computerworld:

The latest PC marketshare figures from Gartner and IDC suggest Mac users are anxious for new MacBooks, as Mac sales fall and economic weakness impacts PC sales everywhere.

“Apple continues to face an increasingly competitive market as it awaits a refresh of its PC lineup. As a result, shipments experienced a decline from last year,” said IDC.

IDC says Q2 2016 worldwide PC shipments fell 4.5%, totaling 62.4 million units, with Apple and Lenove particularly impacted. Apple fell from a 7.4 percent share in Q2 2015 to a 7.1 percent share in Q2 2016, with an 8.3 percent drop in year-on-year shipments, they said.

Gartner says Q2 2016 worldwide PC shipments fell 5.2%, totaling 64.3 million units. The analyst say Apple’s market share held, year-on-year, at 7.1 percent, though its year-on-year shipments fell 4.9 percent.

Demand continues to build. I do wonder what drives Apple’s thinking here. Is the issue simply that the new MacBook Pro is not ready for prime time? Are there related supply chain or other product issues (like macOS Sierra) that are driving the timing?

I do feel certain of two things: Apple knows what they are doing here, and when they do release a new MacBook Pro, they will sell a lot of them, enough to significantly change the above numbers.

CNN Money:

Another Tesla Model X crashed while in Autopilot mode over the weekend, this time in Montana, the third serious accident apparently tied to the self-driving feature.

And:

The driver in Montana was headed from Seattle to Yellowstone National Park when he crashed on a two-lane highway near Cardwell, at 12:30 a.m. Saturday, said Montana State Trooper Jade Shope. Neither the driver nor his passenger were injured in the accident, but it was serious enough that the car lost its front passenger side wheel.

“It’s a winding road going through a canyon, with no shoulder,” Shope told CNNMoney. The driver told Shope the car was in Autopilot mode, traveling between 55 and 60 mph when it veered to the right and hit a series of wooden stakes on the side of the road. Tesla confirmed that the data it has from the car shows it was in Autopilot mode, and that the driver likely did not have his hands on the wheel.

And:

“As road conditions became increasingly uncertain, the vehicle again alerted the driver to put his hands on the wheel,” said Tesla. “He did not do so and shortly thereafter the vehicle collided with a post on the edge of the roadway.” Tesla said Autopilot is best used on highways with a center divider or while in slow-moving traffic.

“We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads,” it said. Tesla states clearly in its owner’s manual that drivers should stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel to avoid accidents when the Autopilot feature is engaged.

The driver got a ticket for careless driving.