It’s all but a given that Apple is developing a car (even Elon Musk called the project “an open secret” in the auto industry). But when it comes to a new kind of personal computing gadget, several recent acquisitions and hires hint that Apple is at least exploring augmented reality.
As always, Apple is tight lipped about what it’s cooking up in its research and development labs. But a recent series of acquisitions and hires shows the company is at least experimenting with augmented reality.
Let’s take a look at the evidence.
BI is using the tired cliche of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” but what do you think? Is VR/AR “the next major computing platform”? While tech nerds may be salivating over VR and AR, do you think The Normals want this platform? Will VR be the next HD TV or the next 3D TV?
A Victoria widow is outraged over Apple’s demand that she obtain a court order to retrieve her dead husband’s password so she can play games on an iPad.
“I thought it was ridiculous. I could get the pensions, I could get benefits, I could get all kinds of things from the federal government and the other government. But from Apple, I couldn’t even get a silly password. It’s nonsense,” 72-year-old Peggy Bush told Go Public.
Experts warn this is a growing problem, as more people die leaving important information and valuable digital property on computers and electronic devices.
The news media is typically and gleefully playing up this story (it will get resolved by Apple without any court order required), it does bring forward some of the issues we are and will continue to have with our digital lives.
It’s always been important for advertisers and content creators to consider their target audience when developing an ad campaign. In the past year, however, we have seen a slew of ad campaigns that seem to have skipped over this essential, yet obvious, standard. Perhaps advertisers forget that unless they carefully understand and represent their audience’s values, they’ll get bombarded with aggressive tweets, posts, pins, and shares, calling them cold, insensitive, and downright ignorant.
These kinds of campaigns can easily be avoided if advertisers learn to engage better with their consumers so that they truly grasp their audience’s character.
That said, here are seven ad campaigns that just plain failed in 2015.
As much as many of us, myself included, hate most of the advertising we see, a good campaign can really capture our attention. Sadly, so can a bad one. These campaigns make you wonder how the hell they managed to make it out into the wild.
“We are making Beats 1 the premier free broadcast from Apple and phasing out the ad-supported stations at the end of January,” an Apple spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “Additionally, with an Apple Music membership, listeners can access dozens of radio stations curated by our team of music experts, covering a range of genres, commercial-free with unlimited skips. The free three-month trial of Apple Music includes radio.”
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In celebration of its pair of Mozart in the Jungle Golden Globes victories last Sunday, Amazon is reducing the price of Amazon Prime memberships this weekend. Subscribing will cost $73 — down from the regular $99 — from 9PM PT Friday until 11:59PM local time Sunday night.
Nest owners have reported that their smart thermostats have stopped working and as a result many woke up to colder than normal temperature in their house and unresponsive completely dead Nests. The fault lies in a software update (version 5.1.3 or later) that was pushed out to devices in December that drains the battery and ultimately shuts down the device.
Embedded devices have traditionally been tested to the point where they are bulletproof. As an example, when’s the last time you experienced a bug with your microwave, dishwasher, or washer/dryer? Not saying bugs don’t exist in that space, but certainly they are very rare.
Is this a sign of the future we can expect as the Internet of Things creeps further into our lives?
Some members use proxies or “unblockers” to access titles available outside their territory. To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it. That means in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are. We are confident this change won’t impact members not using proxies.
It all comes down to the limitations of geographically-based licensing agreements.
Back in September, Apple launched the iPhone 6S which comes with Live Photos, a feature which captures 1.5 seconds of video before and after a picture is taken. HTC’s Zoe Capture was capable of doing the same thing long before Live Photos, but this gimmick only became cool now because Apple has it on its phones.
But Samsung wants to jump into the Live Photos bandwagon, too. According to one of our sources the software engineers of the South Korean phone maker are testing a Live Photos-like feature that is supposed to debut with the Galaxy S7 later this year.
He said that the new feature is still under development and that even though Samsung plans to offer it with the Galaxy S7 at launch it might arrive later this year with a software update. As for the name, he said he heard this feature being called multiple ways, from Timeless Photo to Vivid Photo, the latter one being a combination between “vivid memory” and “photo”.
Nerds will chronicle the rise and competition of the Apple and Microsoft bosses, according to a press release. The show will, unsurprisingly, also incorporate an array of tech, including onstage holograms, projection mapping and an interactive, in-show app that will let audience members engage with each other and select the show’s ending.
And about the playwrights:
Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner penned the show, while Hal Goldberg (The Children) wrote the music. Both Dutton and Weiner grew up in tech hubs — Paolo Alto and San Francisco, respectively — and wrote for the hit Cartoon Network series, Robot Chicken.
And in case you’ve not heard of Robot Chicken, here’s a taste. Well, this should be interesting.
From the linked Bloomberg article, here’s the heart of the matter:
The European Commission contends that Apple’s corporate arrangement in Ireland allows it to calculate profits using more favorable accounting methods. Apple calculates its tax bill using low operating costs, a move that dramatically decreases what the company pays to the Irish government. While Apple generates about 55 percent of its revenue outside the U.S., its foreign tax rate is about 1.8 percent, according to the analysis. If the Commission decides to enforce a tougher accounting standard, Apple may owe taxes at a 12.5 percent rate, on $64.1 billion in profit generated from 2004 to 2012.
Here’s some simple math:
If Apple’s tax rate moves from 1.8% to 12.5%, they’ll move from paying:
1.8% of $64.1 billion = $1.15 billion
to paying:
12.5% of $64.1 billion = $8.01 billion
Two things:
First, the way I read it, Apple’s 2004-2012 taxable income being pegged at $64.1 billion and the applicable tax rate being set at 12.5% are both worst case scenarios. Is there room for negotiation? Will Apple’s lawyers and accountants have something to say here? You betcha.
Second, If Apple already paid $1.15 billion, they won’t owe $8.01 billion, they’ll owe something less than $7 billion. Just a nit, and I’m no accountant.
This is troublesome for many reasons. Here’s a link to the bill. Click “View Bill Text” to see the bill itself.
From the bill:
ANY SMARTPHONE THAT IS MANUFACTURED ON OR AFTER JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN, AND SOLD OR LEASED IN NEW YORK, SHALL BE CAPABLE OF BEING DECRYPTED AND UNLOCKED BY ITS MANUFACTURER OR ITS OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER.
And:
THE SALE OR LEASE IN NEW YORK OF A SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURED ON OR AFTER JANUARY FIRST, TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN THAT IS NOT CAPABLE OF BEING DECRYPTED AND UNLOCKED BY ITS MANUFACTURER OR ITS OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER SHALL SUBJECT THE SELLER OR LESSOR TO A CIVIL PENALTY OF TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR EACH SMARTPHONE SOLD OR LEASED IF IT IS DEMONSTRATED THAT THE SELLER OR LESSOR OF THE SMARTPHONE KNEW AT THE TIME OF THE SALE OR LEASE THAT THE SMARTPHONE WAS NOT CAPABLE OF BEING DECRYPTED AND UNLOCKED BY ITS MANUFACTURER OR ITS OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDER. NO SELLER OR LESSOR WHO PAYS THE CIVIL PENALTY MAY PASS ANY PORTION OF THAT PENALTY ON TO ANY PURCHASER OF SMARTPHONES BY RAISING THE SALES OR LEASE PRICE OF SMARTPHONES.
First, if passed, the bill will apply retroactively. It refers to phones manufactured on or after January 1, 2016, also known as two weeks ago. This means the mere threat of this law will have a chilling effect on iPhone sales. If someone sells an iPhone built this year, they are subject to massive fines ($2500 per phone) on the off chance that the bill passes.
And if, by some miracle, this bill passes, it will be a point of leverage for the forces that want to force a decrypting capability into all smartphones.
Beta Monkey’s Jazz Essentials IV is a diverse downloadable set of live jazz drum tracks with over 3 GB of jazz drumming performances of essential jazz standards.
I love Beta Monkey’s products. I have too many of them to even count and use them all the time in my recordings.
Positive Grid teamed up the world’s brightest DSP engineers and component level modeling and profiling authorities, working with the world’s leading producers, world-class engineers, and mixing & mastering gurus to develop some breakthrough technologies to bring software plug-ins to the next level.
The video is really interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing more about this.
I press a button on the steering column, and a female voice accompanied by an icy synthesizer note — the kind of thing you hear when monorail doors are about to close — intones the word, “Autodrive.” Something catches in my throat; it may be the closest thing I’ll know to flying the Millennium Falcon when it thrusts into hyperspace. In truth, not much really changes. The Lexus rolls forward and rambles down a street in a neighborhood that is all streets and no buildings or people, a Potemkin village of roadways. There is an intersection ahead with a stop sign. The car stops. My foot has not touched the brake.
I am behind the wheel of a Google self-driving car.
There is no doubt autonomous cars are the future so these articles about the early days fascinate me. There are still a lot of issues, both inside the car and out, that need to be resolved before fantasy becomes reality though.
For kids of a certain age — say, 35 and up — it’s the stuff dreams are made of: more than 900 vintage pinball and arcade games, with almost no duplicates among them.
Although many of these machines once sucked quarters out of pockets at a dizzying pace — Dragon’s Lair alone likely drained more piggy banks of allowance money than anything else in 1983 — they’ll all be available to play for a single price this weekend at the Museum of Pinball in Banning.
How much fun would it be to spend a weekend in this place?
I believe this was originally written in 2011, but so appropriate now.
I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time. On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma, and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes.
Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands.
It is an ancient need to be told in stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.
Billy Joel and J. K. Simmons were both guests on The Tonight Show. During one of the commercial breaks, they got together with host Jimmy Fallon and some other folks for an improvised doo-wop rendition of The Longest Time.
One extremely interesting tweak comes in the form of an updated Wi-Fi Assist feature that now shows granular usage of data when called into action.
Apple’s changes to Wi-Fi Assist as introduced with iOS 9.3 beta 1 means that users can actually see exactly how much data the feature has utilized as part of its services. The Wi-Fi Assist option has been updated to include a small label underneath the main header to show an approximate amount of data that has been chewed through in MBs.
Apple CEO Tim Cook lashed out at the high-level delegation of Obama administration officials who came calling on tech leaders in San Jose last week, criticizing the White House for a lack of leadership and asking the administration to issue a strong public statement defending the use of unbreakable encryption.
The White House should come out and say “no backdoors,” Cook said. That would mean overruling repeated requests from FBI Director James Comey and other administration officials that tech companies build some sort of special access for law enforcement into otherwise unbreakable encryption. Technologists agree that any such measure could be exploited by others.
And:
Cook has been outspoken in his opposition to the idea that we need to sacrifice privacy and digital security for the sake of public safety. During an episode of 60 Minutes on December 20, he said, “We’re America, we should have both.”
I know of no other tech company whose CEO has taken as strong a position on privacy as has Tim Cook.
Time Warner Inc. isn’t even on the block yet, but Apple is staying extra close to any possible movement on this front, The Post has learned.
The tech giant is among a handful of companies, all possible suitors of the entertainment company, which has recently come under pressure from activists to sell itself or spin off assets, sources familiar with the situation said Tuesday.
With Time Warner shares closing at $71.06 on Tuesday — well below the $85 offer from 21st Century Fox that its board rejected 18 months ago — the New York company is seen as a sitting duck among media companies because it, unlike its peers, doesn’t have a dual-class shareholder structure.
Note that in that last paragraph, Time Warner rejected an offer by 21st Century Fox, owned (mostly) by the same Rupert Murdoch whose newspaper printed this story. Not saying the rumor is not true, but do consider the source.
The current company consists largely of the assets of the former Warner Communications, as well as HBO (a Time Inc. subsidiary prior to the Warner merger) and the assets of Turner Broadcasting (acquired in 1996). Time Warner currently has major operations in film and television, with a limited amount of publishing operations. Among its assets are New Line Cinema, HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, CNN, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera, Esporte Interativo, Castle Rock Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios.
Federico Viticci, writing for MacStories, walks through a proof-of-concept for iOS that uses drag and drop. Read the post, but be sure to watch the video. This is a terrific use of multi-touch.
Holly Brockwell received a screenshot, out of the blue, with the text “Boom! Holly Brockwell belongs to you now.” laid over a picture of her Twitter info page.
She writes:
My response was less than eloquent: “WTF? WTF is that?!”
As it transpires, it’s from an app called Stolen. I’d never seen it before, was entirely unaware of its existence, and certainly hadn’t opted in. Stolen is a new iOS app that allows you to buy and sell real people’s Twitter accounts as if they were trading cards. Now, before anyone gets too panicky, this doesn’t give you access to their account – it’s more of a bragging rights thing. “I now own @Jack! Yeahh!” – like being the Mayor of somewhere on Foursquare.
Still, it’s tremendously unnerving to have someone tell you out of nowhere that they “own” you now. That your name and likeness is being traded on an app you had no knowledge of and hadn’t given permission to. The whole concept of people being able to own, buy and sell other people without their consent is absolutely abhorrent to us, and raises a slew of problems that it’s clear the team at Stolen haven’t anticipated.
Shortly after the first message, I got another one from the person who ‘bought’ me letting me know that I’d now been sold to a stranger.
Alan Rickman, one of the best-loved and most warmly admired British actors of the past 30 years, has died in London aged 69. His death was confirmed on Thursday by his family who said that he died “surrounded by family and friends”. Rickman had been suffering from cancer.
A star whose arch features and languid diction were recognisable across the generations, Rickman found a fresh legion of fans with his role as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films. But the actor had been a big-screen staple since first shooting to global acclaim in 1988, when he starred as Hans Gruber, Bruce Willis’s sardonic, dastardly adversary in Die Hard – a part he was offered two days after arriving in Los Angeles, aged 41.
Have you ever fired up an iOS device and been prompted to enter the password for some Apple ID that’s not yours? This is especially likely to happen on a newly purchased device, when bulk music and apps are being loaded for the first time.
Typically, this happens when you have apps or music on your computer purchased by someone else’s Apple ID (obviously), but which your computer is no authorized to play.
If you know the offending track or app, you can just delete it, or rebuy it under your usual Apple ID. But there are situations where you are prompted to enter a password without context. And that’s the tricky part, especially if your library is big.
If you know your library pretty well, one path you can take is to select each app or track in iTunes and select File > Get Info, or type ⌘-I. When the info window appears, click on the File tab and you’ll see the Apple ID that made this purchase.
If you’ve got a ton of music tracks to sort through, get yourself a copy of Track Down Purchases, from Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes. For free, it will sort through your music library and report a list of Apple IDs along with the number of tracks for each. And for $1.99 (in application purchase), it will build playlists for each Apple ID so you can easily delete the ones to which you no longer have access.
Note that in El Capitan, iTunes scripts go into your user folder > Library > Scripts > Applications > iTunes.
Know of another approach to solving this? Please leave a comment.
It’s tough times for GoPro’s fledgling empire. The action camera maker is cutting the jobs of about 7 percent of its workforce (roughly 105 people) after poor sales during the fourth quarter, particularly in the first half. It doesn’t have a detailed explanation for the drop, but it recently slashed the price of the notoriously expensive Hero4 Session — clearly, it misjudged how much people were willing to pay for the tiny cube cam.
As my very smart friend Ben Bajarin said on Twitter, “GoPro simply maxed their user base, peaking essentially. No reason for base to buy new ones and no product to expand their TAM.”
In other words, everyone who wants a GoPro likely already has one. As a motorcyclist, I always thought it would be cool to have one until I realized, I’m never going to watch/edit/post the video so why bother?
While reasonable people can disagree about Apple’s iPhone sales, Global Equities Research Co-Founder Trip Chowdhry pulls no punches with his newest Apple commentary. Instead of discussing the merits or limitations of the company as an investment, Chowdhry resorts to ad hominem attacks, calling Apple CEO Tim Cook “completely clueless.” If you set aside the unnecessary rhetoric, and dig into Chowdhry’s concerns, his argument doesn’t pass muster.
Chowdhry is known for making wild and mostly wrong predictions about Apple. Remember his 2014 claim that Apple “…only (has) 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear”? But, as the article points out, these claims are more about Chowdhry and his company’s profile than they are about any accuracy about Apple. Which makes his pointless name calling even more disgusting.
