IT’s always a good idea to have a checklist for all instruments, cables and everything else.

“Coffee is a lot more than just a drink.”

I love a good strong cup of coffee.

[Via Om Malik]

TidBITS:

With Macworld/iWorld seemingly stuck in mothballs for good, Apple professionals will have to go elsewhere to gather with their peers. Luckily, there’s no lack of independent conferences both before and after Apple’s own Worldwide Developer Conference, which usually takes place in June and has far fewer slots than developers who would like to attend.

As usual, Engst is being far too kind. Macworld is well and truly dead and no other conference has arisen from its ashes to replace it. But, this is a good list of events occurring in 2016 that might be of interest to some of you.

Netflix:

Netflix launched its service globally, simultaneously bringing its Internet TV network to more than 130 new countries around the world. The company made the announcement — and the service went live — during a keynote by Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings at CES 2016.

“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” said Hastings. “With this launch, consumers around the world — from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo — will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously — no more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”

Good news for The Loop readers around the world (except China). You can now watch old TV shows and movies along with the rest of us.

iMore:

If you were at CES, you could see water bottles with screens, alarm clocks with smell, robots with video projectors, underwear that’s smart, and a tablet/refrigerator. That would have been all on one day. Yesterday.

CES started as a trade show for retail. In the ’80s and ’90s, it was a venue for great technology intros such as the CD (1981), the DVD, (1986) and HDTV (1998). By 2000, CES was the place to launch major products such as Xbox (2001). When I look at this year’s show, I see a lot of things no one needs, and few people will want. It’s a Sharper Image catalog brought to life, the ultimate “Why? Because I can!” So why is it still an important event? It’s the place to try and spot the new, new thing that might get consumers to replace the old, old thing. So far, I don’t see it but here’s what I do see.

CES is a gigantic waste of time, energy, and money – but you won’t hear the Tech Media say that. The vast majority of what they “report” on will never see the light of day as a consumer-purchasable product. But they’ll get excited as puppies over it regardless.

From Apple’s press release:

Apple® today announced that customers around the world made this holiday season the biggest ever for the App Store®, setting new records during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s.

In the two weeks ending January 3, customers spent over $1.1 billion on apps and in-app purchases, setting back-to-back weekly records for traffic and purchases. January 1, 2016 marked the biggest day in App Store history with customers spending over $144 million. It broke the previous single-day record set just a week earlier on Christmas Day.

“The App Store had a holiday season for the record books. We are excited that our customers downloaded and enjoyed so many incredible apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, spending over $20 billion on the App Store last year alone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “We’re grateful to all the developers who have created the most innovative and exciting apps in the world for our customers. We can’t wait for what’s to come in 2016.”

$20 billion spent in apps last year. That is an incredible number.

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

Apple’s own streaming TV service may have been delayed due to stalled negotiations, but a new app launching for Apple’s newest media player will allow you to watch both live and recorded network television programs directly on your TV’s big screen. That is, the makers of a DVR for cord cutters, the Tablo DVR, is soon releasing an app for Apple TV.

The Tablo DVR is not new, but it will soon be available as an Apple TV app, integrating itself into the Apple TV ecosystem. I suspect a wave of similar products will appear in 2016. It’ll be interesting to see if any of them bring a search capability to Apple TV’s version of Siri.

Glenn Fleishman, writing for TidBits, looks at replacements for Apple’s long-in-the-tooth Airport lineup.

Lots to learn in this piece. Read the comments, too. Great stuff.

Julia Bluff, writing for the iFixit blog:

In New York City, a student at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS) stuck his head through the doorframe and gave Jeannie Crowley, the school’s Director of Technology, an inquisitive look. “I heard you guys are fixing phones,” the student said. “No,” Crowley replied. “You’re fixing the phone—but we provide parts and support.”

Love this program.

One of the complaints about the (relatively) new MacBook is the replacement of Apple’s MagSafe connector with a USB-C port. A cable plugged into the USB-C port is held in place by a much stronger force, meaning a sharp tug on that cable can send your MacBook crashing to the floor.

Griffin has introduced a breakaway power cable for the MacBook. The end that plugs into your USB-C port is composed of two parts. The short part plugs into the USB-C port and turns it into a magnetic port. The long, cable end, then plugs into that port, magnetically.

Good idea. I wonder why Apple didn’t ship something like this.

Kurt Wagner, writing for re/code:

Twitter is building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit, and the company is targeting a launch date toward the end of Q1, according to multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans. Twitter is currently considering a 10,000 character limit, according to these sources. That’s the same character limit the company uses for its Direct Messages product, so it isn’t a complete surprise.

There is no official launch date set in stone, these sources say. It’s also possible the character limit could fluctuate before it rolls out the final product, which people inside Twitter refer to as “Beyond 140.”

Jack Dorsey, one of Twitter’s founders, lent legitimacy to this rumor with this tweet.

From the tweet:

We’ve spent a lot of time observing what people are doing on Twitter, and we see them taking screenshots of text and tweeting it.

Instead, what if that text…was actually text? Text that could be searched. Text that could be highlighted. That’s more utility and power.

Because Twitter limited Jack to 140 characters, he did what lots of us do. He typed up something long, took a screenshot, then included the image in his tweet.

There’s been some speculation that Twitter’s next move is to automate this process. You type as much as you want (up to 10K characters), and Twitter will make a pretty attachment from your words.

Bu key to this change is that the text must be searchable (as Jack indicated in his tweet), something that wouldn’t be the case with a simple image attachment. Searchable text adds value to Twitter, keeps longer posters on the platform and, as an added bonus, text takes up significantly less storage space than images.

This will be an interesting change, assuming it happens.

Mikey Campbell, writing for Apple Insider:

In a lawsuit filed with a district court in North Carolina on Monday, Valencell claims Apple showed interest in its biometric sensing technology in early 2013, around the same time that Apple Watch development was getting underway. Specifically, Apple Senior Partnership Manager Liang Hoe reached out with a partnership proposal for wrist-based heart rate sensing technology, the suit says.

Shortly after making its interest known, Apple instructed “agents” to glean additional information from Valencell’s website, which lets users download white papers relating to branded “PerformTek-Powered” biometric tech as long as they identify themselves through an online form.

A number of white papers were repeatedly accessed from multiple IP addresses assigned to Apple, though users masked their identities by providing false form information. Valencell claims to have positively identified seven individuals, all of whom played a part in designing Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor.

And:

While detailed specifics are not available, the suit alleges Apple found it economically advantageous to take the risk of infringing upon Valencell’s patents instead of licensing the technology outright.

Presumably, the truth will out on this.

Pete Souza:

One of the best and most challenging aspects of my job is whittling down a year’s worth of photographs to the final selections for my annual Year in Photographs. Every year, I attempt to keep it less than 100 photos — and every year I fail in that goal. But I am excited once again to present this gallery for the seventh consecutive year.

We saw Chief Official White House Photographer Souza’s favorite iPhone shots late last year. Here is his gallery of shots by him and his staff. There are some great images here but I particularly like the one of President Obama and basketball player Shaquille O’Neal. Souza “cheated” by using a wide angle lens to great result.

General Motors Inc (GM.N) said on Monday it will invest $500 million in Lyft Inc and laid out plans to develop an on-demand network of self-driving cars with the ride-sharing service.

The biggest single Detroit-Silicon Valley crossover deal to date comes as automakers work out how to respond to the rush of technology companies such as Apple, Alphabet and Uber – Lyft’s biggest rival – to control cars of the future and likely reshape the global auto industry.

I see why GM invested in Lyft, but I’ll be honest, I don’t trust the quality of GM cars or technology. I’d feel much better if it were Mercedes.

Asymco:

Apple has made a “significant” market entry in phones and others have made entries in cars. If we contrast the rate of growth of Tesla, EVs, and Hybrids to the rate of growth of iPhones in their respective US markets, we obtain a test of significance.

A typically thoughtful post from Dediu. It assumes Apple’s “Cook Doctrine” won’t change in the future and, if so, points to the unlikelihood of Apple making their own car – which I agree with. Given the information in this post, there’s no chance Apple will come out with its own line of cars, any more than they will come out with their own line of HD TV sets.

If you are running a small business, perhaps as a freelancer, consultant, or app developer, this is an invaluable read, especially if you’ve never had any formal business experience. There’s a lot of life lessons packed into this post, no doubt learned from hard fought experience.

I wish I had this post when I started my first business. It would have saved me a lot of grief.

If you are running a small business, you know how important it is to make data-driven decisions, especially when you don’t have formal business experience. This is where services like bi consulting can be a game-changer. BI consulting helps small business owners turn raw data into valuable insights, enabling them to make informed decisions that can propel their business forward. From understanding customer behavior to tracking financial metrics, BI consultants can help you identify key trends, optimize workflows, and forecast future growth.

When I started my first business, I didn’t realize the importance of analyzing the data behind my sales and marketing efforts. A BI consultant could have helped me make sense of what was working and what wasn’t, allowing me to refine my approach much earlier and save valuable time and resources. For example, a BI consultant could have shown me how to use customer segmentation to target the right audience, or how to optimize my pricing strategy by analyzing market trends and competitor data.

Moreover, BI services can help streamline business processes by identifying inefficiencies. For freelancers and consultants, this can mean automating certain tasks, tracking billable hours more accurately, or identifying where you’re losing money. For app developers, it might involve using data analytics to improve user experience, track app performance, and guide product updates.

If I had access to these services back then, I would have had a clearer roadmap for success, making smarter, data-backed decisions that would have minimized mistakes and maximized growth. With BI consulting, small business owners can avoid the trial-and-error phase I went through and gain a competitive edge right from the start.

There’s something in this collection for even the most seasoned Mac power user.

Start with part 1, the tips and tricks, then move on to part 2, the shortcuts. If you find them useful, bookmark and pass them along.

Get a new Apple TV over the holidays? There have been a number of posts laying out things you can ask of Siri, but none of them are as comprehensive as Apple’s official Siri Apple TV support page.

My favorite:

Who stars in this?

Give it a try. Add the page to your bookmarks and pass it along.

Writing for Above Avalon, Neil Cybart pulled together a thoughtful set of questions for Apple, all business/analysis related.

A few examples:

The Apple Watch has become a litmus test for Apple’s ability to create compelling new product categories. What features will Apple look to improve when the Apple Watch is updated in a few months? There is low-hanging fruit in terms of features that can see improvement, including an Apple S2 chip and slightly better battery, although the device’s small footprint should be taken into consideration when thinking of realistic near-term advancements. Will Apple push ahead with health and fitness and include additional health-related sensors in Apple Watch 2? In addition, how much change will Apple push in terms of the device’s physical design attributes?

And:

Will Apple ship a new Apple Pencil and extend Apple Pencil support to other iOS devices? The Apple Pencil is the most intriguing Apple accessory in 2015 with a clear directive of being used to mark, draw, or write, and not navigate. Such tasks may end up serving as a clue that Apple does not plan on expanding Apple Pencil support to other iOS devices in the near term.

And this, on Apple Pay:

Despite improved financial institutional support, retailer support is still lacking, especially when it comes to reaching universal support. How will Apple increase customer awareness of Apple Pay, in addition to achieving much broader retail support?

These are just a few of the many. Definitely worth reading through the lot.

This is purely anecdotal, but I found it interesting nonetheless. Craig Hockenberry posted a chart showing a (relatively) big Christmas Day spike in downloads of his free Clicker Apple Watch app.

That graph shows the last month of downloads for my free Clicker app for watchOS. Since this app does nothing on an iPhone or iPad, the only reason to get it is if you have a new watch.

Makes sense to me. [H/T John Kordyback]

Yahoo Inc was ordered by a Chicago federal judge on Monday to face a class action lawsuit accusing the Internet company of sending unsolicited text messages to Sprint Corp cellphone users in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

I hate unsolicited texts.

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it expects a difficult business environment in 2016 due to weak global economic conditions and heightened competition in key businesses including memory chips and smartphones.

In a statement on Monday, Samsung said Chief Executive Kwon Oh-hyun told employees in a New Year’s address that low global growth will persist this year, with greater uncertainty stemming from issues such as financial risks for emerging countries.

No need to really say anything about this.

Future Toyota models will offer in-dash infotainment systems compatible with Ford’s SmartDeviceLink system rather than Apple’s CarPlay, the Japanese automaker announced on Monday.

Seems a bit odd considering Ford just starting adopting Apple’s CarPlay.

Center for the Study of the Public Domain:

Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years—an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years.

Under those laws, works published in 1959 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2016, where they would be “free as the air to common use.” Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2055. No published works will enter our public domain until 2019. The laws in other countries are different—thousands of works are entering the public domain in Canada and the EU on January 1.

What books and plays would be entering the public domain if we had the pre-1978 copyright laws? You might recognize some of the titles.

Copyright’s original intent has been completely bastardized to the detriment of the public and in favor of corporate interests.

What if you could get 5% of your day back? What would you do?

You already have enough work to do today and shouldn’t have to waste time looking for the things you need to do your job.

Igloo makes it easy to find what you need, when you need it. And it’s not just for locating your traditional intranet stuff like HR policies and expense forms. It also helps you find experts, talk about problems and share content with your team. So stop digging through your inbox for that file from 3 months back and give yourself the tools you need to do your best work.

Try it yourself or send your IT guy to investigate Igloo, an intranet you’ll actually like.

Petapixel:

Guess who’s getting into the world of photography workshops? Apple.

That’s right: the company wants people to be more adept at shooting photos with their iPhones and editing photos on their Macs, so it’s now launching free 1-hour workshops on those subjects (and more) in its sleek Apple Stores.

The workshops will be available at every single Apple Store around the world, so starting in January 2016, check your local store’s website for its workshop schedule if you’re interested in attending one.

As a teacher of workshops and classes myself, I love the idea of Apple getting into this. Anything that encourages people to learn more about how to take better pictures is a good thing.