This is worth making your way through, just to get the mechanics down. You can tell this is non-obvious when the first instruction is:

• Long press on a blank area of the Home Screen or any additional page of apps.

Nice job by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors.

Juli Clover digs through the iOS 14 beta and lays out all that’s new with Messages, including pinned chats, inline replies, and emoji search.

Interesting to see if the ability to do a deep, efficient search emerges, as appears to be the case with macOS 11.

Apple:

In a move that will add more globally beloved children’s stories and characters exclusively to Apple TV+, Apple today announced a first-of-its-kind, multi-year deal with The Maurice Sendak Foundation. Through the deal, Apple and The Maurice Sendak Foundation will reimagine new children’s series and specials based on the books and illustrations by Maurice Sendak, which will premiere all over the world exclusively on Apple TV+.

Talk about a treasure trove of rich source material. Just like Goodnight Moon, Corduroy, and Charlotte’s Web, generations of kids grew up with Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. This is seminal stuff.

Side note: There have been some great, animated treatments of Sendak material over the years. One of the best was called Really Rosie, a collection of shorts with music by Carole King. If that rings a bell, fire up the album on Apple Music.

Vulture:

“I can honestly say I’ve never been in such a cocky pitch environment,” Gairdner recalls. “I would describe the atmosphere as almost Wolf of Wall Street, not in terms of actual debauchery, but it’s an incredibly nice office that just goes and goes. They had two lobbies; you went in and checked in at a nice, big lobby, then you were moved to another lobby. There’s massive jars of expensive, nice-seeming candy everywhere. It’s sleek and modern, and you see hundreds of people passing by. And there’s this energy of people who really believe they’ve got the next big thing.”

And:

Drawing on his deep well of relationships earned after more than four decades in Hollywood, Katzenberg recruited an amazing array of talent: Sam Raimi would produce a horror anthology; Idris Elba would star in a car-stunts show; Chrissy Teigen would put on judge’s robes and comically preside over a courtroom; Lena Waithe would make a show about sneakerheads; Anna Kendrick would anchor a comedy in which her character befriends her boyfriend’s sex doll; and the Kardashians would do a mock reality show featuring a mythical fraternal twin brother named Kirby Jenner.

And:

Most subscribers have signed on with a 90-day free trial. This month, as that period expires, Quibi will learn how many of those people will stick around once they’re asked to pay. If they don’t, Quibi will be left to reckon with how it miscalculated so badly, and for Katzenberg and Whitman, it could be a deflating capstone to two storied careers.

This is an amazing read. An almost infinite well of money to throw at the problem, some great talent, and solid design chops. What went wrong here? And is the story over? Is there enough money left to pivot, to correct mistakes?

I think part of the issue here is the content itself. Having a star attached is never enough. The content needs to be compelling. And it’s hard to compete with free, crowd-sourced content (YouTube, TikTok, etc.)

Another hurdle for Quibi is the lack of an existing ecosystem or tentpole content. Disney has that deep back catalog. Apple has the ecosystem. Quibi does have a partnership with T-Mobile, but that’s mostly an advertising partnership.

And, of course, there’s the pandemic. Will Quibi survive? Or will it be a lesson in hubris?

vulture:

…to say that Morricone is a great soundtrack composer — or even the greatest of all soundtrack composers — doesn’t quite do him justice. His influence is monumental across musical genres, and his innovations have been adopted even by avant-garde musicians. In fact, many people who’ve never seen a single film scored by the prolific Morricone can probably still easily identify many of his musical themes. Don’t believe me? Whistle a few tunes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or A Fistful of Dollars sometime, and you might find that even people who’ve never seen a frame of a spaghetti Western will know what you’re referencing.

Morricone, who recently passed away, wasn’t just a composer of scores for spaghetti Westerns. You’ll recognize many of these cues from a wide variety of films.

Eli Reiter:

I didn’t intend to become a liar for hire, a purveyor of fake news on that terrible site, Amazon. But I knew I went too far when I woke up shrouded by my untruths. My blanket, pillows, and even my duvet were a lie. The pajamas, my night light, the Christmas lights that I hung on the wall: all falsehoods.

The more I reviewed, the more the Facebook accounts asked me to review. It became a daily ritual.

The black market for Amazon reviews makes some sense if you consider how valuable positive reviews can be to sellers on the platform.

Yet another reason to not trust Amazon reviews.

The Guardian:

Greyhound has been an especial labour of love for him, one he sweated over for almost a decade, and it is one of those sweeping war movies that really should be seen on the big screen. So the change in plans has been, he says, “an absolute heartbreak. I don’t mean to make angry my Apple overlords, but there is a difference in picture and sound quality.”

Apple TV+ is having a similarly negative impact on Hanks’ appearance in this interview. Even though he is in his office, “the cruel whipmasters at Apple” decided the background needed to be a blank wall, presumably so nosy journalists like me wouldn’t spend the whole encounter snooping at Hanks’ bookcases. Against the eerily empty backdrop, he looks, Hanks rightly says, as if he’s in “a witness protection programme. But here I am, bowing to the needs of Apple TV.”

The Mac media is having a field day with this interview, portraying it as if Hanks is pissed at Apple. But in a long interview where he only mentions Apple briefly, it’s obvious he’s just teasing and not serious about it. I do get his point about being “heartbroken” that his sub-hunting moving is being limited to small screens. I would much rather see a movie like this in a theater.

Great way to get a sense of the visual change coming with macOS Big Sur. Scroll through the images, keep in mind that’s Catalina on the left, Big Sur on the right (mostly).

Also keep in mind that Big Sur is a first beta. Some details may (and likely will) change.

Follow the headline link, then drink in that subtle padlock animation on the load page. Reload the page if you missed it.

Now start scrolling. Every panel has its own detailed animation. Amazing how much effort Apple put into this page. Curious what tool they used.

Visual Capitalist:

As brick-and-mortar chains teeter in the face of the pandemic, Amazon continues to gain ground.

The retail juggernaut is valued at no less than $1.4 trillion—roughly four times what it was in late 2016 when its market cap hovered around $350 billion. Last year, the Jeff Bezos-led company shipped 2 billion packages around the world.

Today’s infographic shows how Amazon’s market cap alone is bigger than the nine biggest U.S. retailers put together, highlighting the palpable presence of the once modest online bookstore.

Amazon is a remarkable success story that may destroy retail commerce through market dominance.

TechCrunch:

What started out as Hunt’s pet project to learn the basics of Microsoft’s cloud, Have I Been Pwned quickly exploded in popularity, driven in part by its simplicity to use, but largely by individuals’ curiosity.

As the service grew, Have I Been Pwned took on a more proactive security role by allowing browsers and password managers to bake in a backchannel to Have I Been Pwned to warn against using previously breached passwords in its database. It was a move that also served as a critical revenue stream to keep down the site’s running costs.

But Have I Been Pwned’s success should be attributed almost entirely to Hunt, both as its founder and its only employee, a one-man band running an unconventional startup, which, despite its size and limited resources, turns a profit.

I’ve used the site for years but always with a sense of dread.

TidBITS:

I would never have bought both the AirPods and AirPods Pro intentionally, but suddenly I could choose which I wanted at any given time. It was a natural experiment, and after over a month of regular use, I can declare a winner, at least for my ears and my use cases. Here’s my head-to-head comparison.

If you’re trying to decide between the two, Engst can help.

AppleInsider:

The next step in Apple’s goal of making the iPhone the sole thing anyone has to carry, continues with the device being able to securely replace passports, driver’s licenses, and other physical forms of identification.

Apple most recently announced a plan to rid the world of car keys, but the iPhone has already made us forget what it’s like to carry diaries, cameras, pens, and even mirrors. Now the company is focusing on getting rid of passports — plus library cards, ski passes, and ID cards in general.

I’m sure that kind of world is coming fairly soon and maybe I’m just a curmudgeon but there is no way I would do this. I’ve lost/forgotten my phone too many times to allow something as important as my passport to reside on it. Now, if it means I’d have my passport or driver’s license handy but use the iPhone for ease of use, then I can see that. But I would never let it replace (as in, leave at home) those things. Hell, I still carry around credit cards for those still all-too-frequent times when I can’t use my iPhone.

9to5Mac:

Apple has recently started sending surveys to iPhone users about how they use the USB charger that comes in the box. This comes ahead of the iPhone 12 announcement later this year and also rumors about Apple not including the USB charger and EarPods in the box for the first time.

The survey asks users what they did with the USB charger of their previous iPhone after replacing it with a new model, so Apple is targeting people who were already iPhone users and recently bought a new one.

Apple also explains that the survey refers to the USB power adapter and not to the Lightning cable.

Keep in mind, this is so far limited to some Brazilian users but it may be a portent of things to come.

Open Culture:

Who can call themselves fans of cyberpunk, or even modern science fiction, without having experienced William Gibson’s Neuromancer? That 1984 novel, which many see as the defining work of the sci-fi subgenre where, as Gibson himself put it, “high tech meets low life,” has gone through many print runs in many languages.

But you don’t need to read it to get to know its distinctive reality — its Japanese megalopolis setting of Chiba City, its characters like “console cowboy” Case and “street samurai” Molly Millions, its technologies like advanced artificial intelligence, electromagnetic pulse weapons, a virtual reality space called, yes, the Matrix. You can also hear it.

Blew my mind when I first read it and I’ve devoured everything by him since. One of my great joys was seeing him in a local pub (he lives here in Vancouver) and being able to buy him a pint.

Digg:

The Murphy Ladder’s marketing team brought their A game for this hilarious advertisement.

They’re not wrong – ladder commercials have never been this funny. Coincidentally, with all the work we’re doing around the house under lockdown, I’m in the market for a new ladder. Sadly, this can’t be delivered to us in Canada without paying the purchase price again in shipping charges.

Apple:

iOS 14 brings a fresh look to the things you do most often, making them easier than ever.

This is quite a long list.

The Sweet Setup:

HEY has disrupted nearly every element of my email workflow. HEY has allowed me to experience a new level of email productivity, and it has even created a new sense of zen-like Inbox Zero in my Imbox, without archiving, deleting, or snoozing.

HEY has actually created enough breathing room in my email life that I’ve searched out new newsletters to subscribe to. I’m no longer afraid of adding to my email inbox.

HEY is my favorite new service to launch. Ever. I’ve worked with and tested all sorts of services doing this job for The Sweet Setup, and HEY is the most revolutionary product I’ve ever tried.

After all the kerfuffle over this app, it’s good to read something about how it actually works.

Macworld:

Apple Card launched as a very futuristic, privacy-focused credit card, but with several glaring omissions. Namely, it didn’t work well with most financial management software, and there was no way to manage your card without your iPhone.

Over time, Apple has added the ability to export statements in a variety of popular formats, which will make it easier to use with financial management apps and services. And on Thursday, Apple finally launched a web portal to manage your card.

Apple Card customers can head to card.apple.com and log in with their Apple ID to view their balance and terms, download past statements in PDF format, and change their payment schedule and associated bank accounts.

Welcome news to those of you lucky enough to have an Apple Card.

Above Avalon:

For the second year in a row, Apple held a developers conference that should frighten its competitors. It speaks volumes that Apple held its strongest WWDC in years during the middle of a pandemic while two of its largest competitors, Google and Facebook, decided to skip their annual developers conferences.

Unfortunately for Apple competitors, the combination of a revised product strategy and unique definition of innovation didn’t just make for strong WWDC keynotes. Consumers are noticing and wanting what Apple is selling. Consider the following trends:

Apple hasn’t just held its own in the smartphone space but rather is continuing to take share from Android. Of all the smartphone manufacturers, Apple saw the largest sales share increase in the smartphone industry last quarter, and that was during a pandemic.

Apple is adding approximately 20 million new iPad users per year despite the iPad being 10 years old and already having an installed base exceeding 300 million users.

Apple’s oldest major product category, the Mac, is adding 10 million new users per year.

Apple Watch and AirPods are quickly approaching 100 million user bases each.

Apple users are paying for 518 million subscriptions across Apple’s platforms, which is up 126 million in just a year.

Lots to digest here but the bottom line is Apple seems to be hitting on all cylinders.

Michael Flarup:

With the redesign of macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple has made many interface changes and updated the appearance of apps. Materials and dimensionality has made its way back into the interface —and every single app icon for every application and utility that Apple ships with macOS has been redesigned with depth, textures and lighting. This is a big deal. Probably bigger than what most people realise.

Scroll through the post, check out the images. You can’t help but see the emergence of realism in the design, as well as elements that bring macOS a bit closer to iOS (check out the squircles in the Big Sur icon image, about halfway down).

I do agree it’s a pendulum swing, from the full on felt, metal, and torn paper of skeuomorphism, to lossy flat design, to a gentle mix of the two. I’m enjoying the reemergence of fun.

Road Show:

BMW is raising the ante by making many car options into software services enabled whenever you want them. The disconcerting part? They can be disabled, too.

And:

In a VR presentation streamed from Germany today, BMW ran through a series of digital updates to its cars, including more details on the new BMW digital key service announced with Apple at last week’s WWDC and confirming that current model cars will be fully software upgradeable over the air, a la Tesla.

And:

The most notable part of the day’s presentation was the new plan to turn many options into software services. BMW mentioned everything from advanced safety systems like adaptive cruise and automatic high-beams to other, more discrete options like heated seats.

It’s a services world. Pay up.

MarketWatch:

Zuckerberg said the boycott is more of a PR issue than one that will hurt the social-media giant’s bottom line, according to a report Wednesday by The Information, which cited a transcript of remarks Zuckerberg gave at an employees-only virtual town hall Friday.

“We’re not gonna change our policies or approach on anything because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue, or to any percent of our revenue,” he said, according to The Information.

Here’s a link to The Information article [paywall].

More from Zuckerberg’s town hall remarks:

“You know, we don’t technically set our policies because of any pressure that people apply to us,” he said, according to The Information. “And, in fact, usually I tend to think that if someone goes out there and threatens you to do something, that actually kind of puts you in a box where in some ways it’s even harder to do what they want because now it looks like you’re capitulating, and that sets up bad long-term incentives for others to do that [to you] as well.”

Two things: First, no. If you are wrong, get called on being wrong, then turn around and do what’s right, fixing what’s wrong is a double-win. You are doing the right thing, and you get your advertisers back.

And second, this provides even more incentive for advertisers to boycott Facebook and more incentive for people to delete their Facebook account.

Side note, I’d love to know of a Facebook alternative that is privacy respecting, truth valuing, easy for folks to use, and that provides an easy way for families to keep in touch. If you know of such a beast, please do share.