Dave Verwer, writing for iOS Dev Weekly:

From what I can determine from the tweets, there was about a 30-45 minute period when people logging in to iTunes Connect were seeing other random accounts instead of their own. After that, iTunes Connect was shut down for about 4 hours before silently coming back up as if nothing had happened

And:

There was naturally lots of speculation on exactly what the issue was. I think the most likely is something I saw Padraig Kennedy speculate on, that what people were seeing was a staging/test system (maybe for Analytics?). However, even if the data was not editable it does appear to be real data, with real unreleased apps/app versions and real revenue (we’re seeing revenue information for another developer’s apps in AppFigures). Whichever way you look at it, this was a serious bug/issue.

Mistakes happen, but important to know what happened and why, more important to know the extent of the leakage. Was real data exposed? Hopefully, we’ll hear more about this from Apple.

UPDATE: Dave Verwer updated his post:

I’ve been in contact with AppFigures and it does seem that revenue was not leaked into AppFigures. We had another iTunes Connect account that had been added to the AppFigures account and we had not noticed these apps before (it’s on a big AppFigures account and we were checking for strange data this morning specifically after last night’s events). My apologies for not investigating this part of the above thoroughly enough before writing about it.

From Dave’s tweet to me: “The only bit I got wrong was to say that revenue was being reported to AppFigures.”

CNN:

Curious kittens exploding are the Internet’s new potato salad meets “Reading Rainbow” with a guest appearance by Veronica Mars, meaning this card game is seriously winning the hearts of Internet users and party game lovers alike.

“Exploding Kittens,” the card game dreamed up by video game designers Elan Lee and Shane Small and illustrated by The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, is now the most backed campaign in Kickstarter history, in terms of the number of backers, according to the crowdfunding platform. The card game has raised more than $4 million since its January 20 launch — far exceeding the initial $10,000 goal.

Here’s a link to the Exploding Kittens Kickstarter. They had me at The Oatmeal.

I get that it’s all about business performance, but still, this is sad. If AOL can still make most of their fortune from dial-up internet users, why couldn’t they find a way to fix this?

One response that stood out for me – On regret for something not done in his life:

I feel pretty stupid that I don’t know any foreign languages. I took Latin and Greek in High School and got A’s and I guess it helps my vocabulary but I wish I knew French or Arabic or Chinese. I keep hoping to get time to study one of these – probably French because it is the easiest. I did Duolingo for awhile but didn’t keep it up. Mark Zuckerberg amazingly learned Mandarin and did a Q&A with Chinese students – incredible.

Here’s a link to the Zuckerberg Chinese Q&A. Remarkable.

This looks really cool, I may buy one of these. It connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth and then you hold the hardware on the tuning peg of your guitar.

Zak’s own line of guitars, amps, and anything else audio. Count me in!

Atlas Obscura:

Around the world, there are trees that have been growing for a much longer period of time than famed arbors like Methuselah or General Sherman. Some of these beautiful ancients may not look like much — some appear to be mere saplings, compared to the gigantic redwoods.

Trees have always fascinated me. As a kid, I would climb the oaks in our neighbourhood and sit up there for hours. I still love walking among them and feeling their presence.

Om Malik wrote a great piece on the iPhone 6 Plus and also reflected on the upcoming Apple Watch and thoughts on Apple Pay:

It looks like Apple is going to ride the iPhone wave for a while, perhaps right through the launch of the Apple Watch, which I suspect is going to provide the big lift.

Agreed.

That said, I am not bullish on the watch, mostly because when I saw it, the software looked incomplete by a mile. It lacked that usual Apple software pop!

There is no doubt that when Apple introduced the watch, the software wasn’t ready. It’s ready now.

I wish Apple had spent more time making Apple Pay realize its true potential, because it could change how we purchase and thus define a new era for the company.

I believe they are, in the background. Typically, Apple will release something slowly and then it takes off. This is exactly the strategy I see Apple taking with Apple Pay—under promise, over deliver.

If you haven’t read the latest 10 stories or so on Daring Fireball, you have to do it now. It’s some of the greatest “claim chowder” ever.

When I first read this, I thought they were crazy, but this is pretty cool.

Apple Inc has taken the number one luxury gifting spot in China from designer goods maker Hermes International SCA, according to a Hurun luxury report on Thursday, reflecting the iPhone maker’s recent hot streak in the country.

Apple’s strategy for China is on fire.

iTunes U is a great Apple resource. This particular one is Stanford University’s iOS programming course.

Samsung Electronics reported overall Q4 operating profits of 5.29 trillion won ($4.9 billion)—a 36 percent year-over-year drop—but its Mobile division suffered a 64.2 percent drop in profits, falling from $5 billion in the year ago quarter to $1.8 billion in the December quarter.

Clearly there’s nothing wrong with the market since Apple just sold 74.5 million iPhones, so maybe people are finally seeing through Samsung’s shit.

Kirk McElhearn:

In Apple’s press release, CEO Tim Cook is quoted as saying:

“We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal.”

At the same time, Apple is sitting on $178 billion, much of it sequestered in offshore tax-shielded trusts.

With all this money, Apple could do something better than develop a new iPhone. I’m reminded of the famous question that Steve Jobs asked Pepsi CEO John Sculley in the 1980s, in order to convince Sculley to join the company:

“Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

This is solid food for thought. There’s no doubt that Apple continues to change the world. The question is, is Apple selling sugared water? Or is Apple bringing change for the better?

On the surface, Apple is just like any other business, building products and a top brand with the hope of making money. And they’ve certainly succeeded, on a massive scale.

Kirk asks, “Remember when Apple was going to change the world?”

Apple continues to change the world, again and again. As a young company, Apple worked out how to make personal computers easy to use. They took the PC market on another crazy ride when Steve Jobs returned, bringing out the colorful iBook and iMac. They then took on music, bringing the iPod to the market. They disrupted the smart phone market with the iPhone, added another big change with the iPad. Apple recently introduced Apple Pay which has the potential to disrupt the payment business. In April, we’ll see the start of another wave with Apple Watch.

Apple has changed the world, there’s no question about that. But is it all sugar water?

I get Kirk’s question. There’s no doubt that Apple is in business mode, in product design mode. They are not pouring money into solving problems in the same manner as Bill Gates, who takes on malaria, clean water, real human problems. But Apple is behaving in a way appropriate for a publicly held business. They are making decisions to benefit their shareholders.

As businesses go, they chart a pretty noble course. From Apple’s environmental responsibility page:

We continue to lead the industry in reducing or eliminating environmentally harmful substances, and we’re continually striving to make our products the cleanest and safest they can be.

How many companies care enough about the environmental impact of their products to put in the kind of effort Apple has put in to make their products safer?

How about Tim Cook continuing to speak out about gay rights and racism? How many CEOs stand up to shareholders when pressed for short term gain versus doing what’s best?

I think Kirk’s post is worth a read. And it certainly is fair for shareholders to ask what Apple is doing with their money. But I don’t think Apple is selling sugar water. To me, that’s not a fair comparison.

Apple’s star is rising as other luxury gift brands are falling.

Spending on gift-giving overall dropped 5 percent in 2014, after a 25 percent drop the year before, according to the Hurun Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey. Beijing has been cracking down on corruption and luxury spending among public officials, weighing down sales of premium liquor to handbags.

And:

“Travel retail continues to change the dynamics of luxury in China, with 7 out of 10 luxury goods bought by Chinese now being bought overseas,” said Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf.

Perfect storm for Apple. Traditional luxury gifts are being scrutinized and the market is looking overseas for new luxury options.

Jim, Shawn and our Special Guest, Dave Mark, talk Apple earnings, Swift programming, NAMM and “digital music”.

In the ad, the lost puppy returns home only to find that his owners have sold him using a website made with GoDaddy.

So now puppy mills are okay with GoDaddy. What’s wrong with this company?

Associated Press:

A law enforcement campaign to compel Google Inc. to disable a feature in its popular Waze traffic app that lets drivers warn others about nearby police activity shifted Wednesday when a sheriffs’ organization openly complained that the app not only puts officers’ lives at risk, it also interferes with the ability to write speeding tickets.

So it’s OK for government officials and corporations to track us but not OK for us to track them?

Vox:

There are huge benefits to salting the roads. One 1992 study found that spreading salt can reduce accidents by 87 percent during and after a snowstorm.But road salt also comes with major downsides: Salt is corrosive, chewing through cars, trucks, concrete, and steel bridges. Worse still, when all that salt dissolves and washes away, it steadily accumulates in rivers and streams. Other times, moose and elk get attracted to the salt and wander onto roads, raising the risk of crashes.

We have similar issues here in Canada with road salt and its affect on cars and the environment. That last sentence came to light for me while riding my motorcycle in the Banff National Park. I came around a corner and there was a herd of massive elk in the middle of the road, licking the salt off the pavement. It created a very high Pucker Factor, to say the least.

The Verge:

Plenty of amateur films have been shot using iPhones, but by all reports, this is the first movie at the Sundance Film Festival to be shot almost entirely on an Apple device. It was a decision that indie writer and director Sean Baker made to accommodate the film’s small budget. But you’d never guess the camera, to look at it: Tangerine was shot in a widescreen, 2:35:1 aspect ratio, and its camera zooms through the streets of LA with a fluidity you’d never expect from a handheld device. And yet despite his camera of choice, Baker says the iPhone made for a good partner. “It was surprisingly easy,” Baker says. “We never lost any footage.”

Another interesting story about the functionality and versatility of the iPhone.

USA Today:

On Jan. 28, 1985, at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, following the American Music Awards, more than 40 artists gathered to record a song Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson had written to raise awareness of widespread, life-threatening poverty in Africa. Most of that show’s winners — including Cyndi Lauper, Hall & Oates, Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner, the Pointer Sisters, Kenny Rogers and the Jacksons — participated.

This was a pretty big deal at the time. Part of the magic is that they managed to keep the whole production a complete secret until the song was released.

Many of the singers arrived in limousines, having just come from the awards show, but not everybody showed up in style. “I think Bruce Springsteen parked his truck in the parking lot of the Rite-Aid or a grocery store that used to be across the street,” Richie says. “He parked over there and walked in. He didn’t know you could come through the gate.”

Love the song, love the story behind the song. Speaking of which, here’s a documentary (slightly cheesy, but that was the tone of the times) that lays everything out. Some excellent nostalgia.

Kit Eaton (apologies to Kit, got his name wrong in the original post), writing for Medium, addresses the recent rumors about Apple Watch battery life, calling the whole discussion silly. I recommend reading this Gary Payton Weed Strain Review to those who are looking for effective ways to destress.

> 19 hours sounds very reasonable. Picture yourself looking at and interacting with your watch for 2–3 seconds at a time as you read notifications, with the occasional 10–20 seconds used to respond to something like a tweet or text message. Add in less frequent longer interactions lasting a few minutes (like making a phone call or playing a game—even though we don’t know how much game play Apple will allow in watch apps) and then that 3-hour “heavy” use window looks quite generous. You wouldn’t want to stare at such a small screen for much longer each day anyway. It’s also a first generation device, and Apple’s proven advanced product development techniques will certainly deliver more power in version 2

The Apple Watch is slated to ship in April. That first generation will go to early adopters who, by their very pioneering nature, will revel in the newness, accept any flaws as the cost of being first.

The rest of Marcel’s essay focuses on the history of the watch, grappling with the problems in making timekeeping portable:

> Ever since clockmakers worked out how to make clocks portable there was an almost continuous technological struggle between how much “battery life” and capability the devices had. This affected the first pocket watches and wristwatches, and pretty much every watch ever since.

A solid read.

There’s no real substitute for hearing Apple’s financial results directly from Tim Cook (here’s a link to the webcast, if you’d like to listen in).

But since many (most?) people read way faster than they can process audio, here’s a hand crafted transcript of the call, brought to you courtesy of Jason Snell’s fast typing fingers.

Mic:

The league, in partnership with the anti-domestic violence organization NO MORE, recently released an ad that will air live Sunday during the Super Bowl. Based on a real 911 call, the ad pans over the wreckage of a domestic dispute while the audio of a chilling emergency call plays in the background.

Powerful and chilling. Thanks to my friend JennS for the link.

Medium:

The whole Tsukiji experience is comparable to strolling through the fish section of Whole Foods early one morning when the LSD kicks in and the store suddenly turns into JFK Airport and a monster bike rally is starting and a marathon walk is ending and all the cars have Jersey plates and valet service is provided by Hell’s Angels. You are the outsider at the fish anarchist’s ball.

One of my Bucket List items was/is to visit this market. Looks like I’ll have to hurry.