Bret Devereaux:

This is the first part of a six-part series I expect to roll out taking a historian’s look at the Siege of Gondor in Peter Jackson’s Return of the King. We’re going to discuss how historically plausible the sequence of events is and, in the process, talk a fair bit about how pre-gunpowder siege warfare works.

We’re going to start…with the army of Minas Morgul marshaling out of the main gate. It is an incredible scene, the seemingly endless line of orcs marching past our hidden heroes, who crouch, overawed by the spectacle of it.

That may seem a touch early to start a review of the siege, but there are two points to this, both of which are historically illuminating. What we are watching at this stage is what is called operations – the coordinated movement of large bodies of troops to their objective. Operations is the level of analysis between tactics (how do I fight when I get there?) and strategy (why am I fighting at all?). And its worth asking, before proceeding any further: what is Sauron’s overall plan and does it make sense?

This is really long and detailed but absolutely fascinating if you have any interest in real-life warfare tactics and strategy overlaid on to a fantasy world setting. Thanks to Kottke for the link.

Being owned by Vox Media gave Nilay Patel and his team access to some folks with some very high end experience, including production work on large streaming shows (think Netflix and HBO) and massive podcasts.

The review pulls no punches. Worth watching and/or reading.

Once you’ve read/watched, here’s a thread with some counterpoint to the review.

Wall Street Journal:

Some operations executives suggested as early as 2015 that the company relocate assembly of at least one product to Vietnam. That would allow Apple to begin the multiyear process of training workers and creating a new cluster of component providers outside the world’s most populous nation, people familiar with the discussions said.

Senior managers rebuffed the idea. For Apple, weaning itself off China, its second-largest consumer market and the place where most of its products are assembled, has been too challenging to undertake.

And:

China has been a critical factor in Apple’s soaring market value. The country provides a stable, efficient, low-cost manufacturing base with an abundant network of suppliers that have helped cement Apple’s profitability.

And:

A clean break with China is impossible. Apple relies on a workforce of more than three million indirect workers in China. Its top manufacturer, Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, hires hundreds of thousands of seasonal employees in China, many of whom manually insert tiny screws and thin printed circuit boards during the iPhone assembly process, people familiar with the process said. Tens of thousands of experienced manufacturing engineers oversee the process.

China has built a massive manufacturing machine. Massive. Moving elsewhere, starting from scratch, would be painful at the very least. It would also take time. And then there’s the availability of the raw materials, not to mention one of the world’s largest marketplaces.

It’s all a little bit of a perfect storm. Fascinating read.

Apple:

iPhone photographers around the world answered the call to participate in the Night mode photo challenge, sharing their captivating Night mode images shot on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. A curated panel of judges selected six winning photos from thousands of submissions worldwide. The winning images will be featured in a gallery on apple.com and Apple Instagram (@apple) and will appear globally on billboards.

Hard to pick a favorite, but that red tree calls to me. Also love the hanging laundry shot. Great pics.

Reuters:

Oppenheimer upgraded its rating on Apple to “outperform” from “perform”, saying the Cupertino, California, company was more prepared than its competitors to absorb the impact of the global health crisis.

Apple’s stock fell more than 16% from record high on February 12th.

David Strom:

For the past 27 years, I have owned a class C block of IPv4 addresses. I don’t recall what prompted me back then to apply to Jon Postel for my block: I didn’t really have any way to run a network online, and back then the Internet was just catching on.

Apparently, there’s a mature market for buying and selling IP addresses and even a rental market. Read the post for specifics on the marketplace and on price.

Apple:

Inspired by true events, “The Banker” centers on revolutionary businessmen Bernard Garrett (Anthony Mackie) and Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson), who devise an audacious and risky plan to take on the racist establishment of the 1960s by helping other African Americans pursue the American dream.

Follow the headline link for more details on the plot and some pretty great pictures of the cast along with some Apple folks you might recognize.

The Banker is in theaters this Friday, and on Apple TV+ starting March 20th.

9to5Mac:

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak took to Twitter this afternoon to suggest that he and his wife “may have both been patient zero” for coronavirus in the United States. As it turns out, this wasn’t the case.

Woz’s tweet came in the form of a Swarm check-in at the West Coast Sports Institute in Santa Clara. The accompanying message read that the couple was there “checking out Janet’s bad cough,” which apparently started on January 4 after they returned from China.

But in an email to USA Today following Wozniak’s irresponsible tweet, Janet Wozniak said that she has a sinus infection, not coronavirus:

I thought there might have been something fishy about this when I first saw the tweet. Nowadays, why would you wait two months to get a “bad cough” diagnosed? And as 9to5Mac says, Woz tweeting that “he and his wife “may have been patient zero” for coronavirus in the United States” is an incredibly irresponsible thing to say without any evidence.

MacRumors:

Apple has sent gift packages that include an iPad, face masks, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and more, to its employees stranded in Wenzhou and Hubei due to the coronavirus, according to details shared on Chinese social network Weibo.

While over half of Apple Stores have reopened on shortened hours in China, many retail, corporate, and manufacturing staff remain at home. Families who have received the care packages are said to be “moved” by Apple’s efforts.

A letter enclosed in each parcel says that the iPads are provided for children’s online learning or to help pass the time during the “prolonged stay at home.”

What a lovely gesture by the company.

Fast Company:

Earlier this week, the Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad published a scoop (via Business Insider) that sent ripples through the tech industry: the European Union is drafting legislation that would legally require tech companies to make products with batteries that users could easily replace on their own.

If passed, the legislation would require everyone from Apple to Samsung to fundamentally redesign all the phones they currently make–not to mention tablets and wireless earbuds like the AirPods. Both initiatives are aimed at reducing e-waste, but while a common charging standard makes more sense from a technical and design perspective, mandating all devices have user-replaceable batteries is a horrible idea.

I couldn’t agree more. While there certainly is a subset of users who want/need replaceable batteries, I’d bet most users no longer see it as much of an issue.

Throughout March, Apple Stores worldwide will host a series of over 5,000 Today at Apple sessions titled “She Creates” to highlight inspiring female creators using photography, design, technology, business, music and film to address tough topics, explore new perspectives and empower their communities. Select stores will host more than 100 sessions led by women across industries and mediums who are empowering those around them through creativity, including co-chair of the Women’s March Linda Sarsour, musicians Meghan Trainor and Victoria Monét, designer Carla Fernández, and many more.

This is a great month long event. Apple also said there will be special sessions by female creators at select stores around the world. You can find out more about those on Apple’s web site.

Reuters:

Apple Inc has agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle litigation accusing it of quietly slowing down older iPhones as it launched new models, to induce owners to buy replacement phones or batteries.

It calls for Apple to pay consumers $25 per iPhone, which may be adjusted up or down depending on how many iPhones are eligible, with a minimum total payout of $310 million.

Friday’s settlement covers U.S. owners of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7Plus or SE that ran the iOS 10.2.1 or later operating system. It also covers U.S. owners of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus that ran iOS 11.2 or later before Dec. 21, 2017.

The lawyers plan to seek up to $93 million, equal to 30% of $310 million, in legal fees, plus up to $1.5 million for expenses.

Hopefully, this will get extended to those of us who had those phones but live outside the US.

TechHive:

I’ve long maintained that the value of 8K displays is not in the increased pixel count. There’s a limit to the resolution that humans can discern on video screens at normal seating distances, and increasing the pixel density beyond that limit offers no advantage.

But where, exactly, is that limit? More specifically, do 8K displays offer any benefit in terms of perceived detail compared with 4K under normal viewing conditions? In collaboration with Pixar, Amazon Prime Video, LG, and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), Warner Bros. recently addressed this question in a well-designed, double-blind study to see if people could discern a difference between 4K and 8K with a variety of content.

The results are predictable and exactly what many of us suspected.

ZDNet:

Twitter has canceled all non-essential employee travel. On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the global risk from the new coronavirus to “very high” as the virus continued to spread. There are more than 83,000 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus and at least 2,800 reported deaths. The disease has been detected in more than 50 countries and the number of infections continues to rise.

While we won’t know the coronavirus’ effects on the overall nature of work for some time, one sector of the tech economy that’s already feeling an immediate impact are industry events. Whether as a result of travel bans, laws banning large gatherings, or an abundance of caution, tech conferences are being cancelled, postponed, or converted to virtual events. Companies are also instituting travel restrictions for employees. So, I decided to use this Monday Morning Opener to compile a list of the events that have been cancelled, pushed back, changed format, or are being held as scheduled.

And this is just the list of tech conferences affected. All kinds of conferences in many other sectors are being affected. MotoGP motorcycle races in Qatar and Thailand have been canceled as well.

Eryk Bagshaw, The Sydney Morning Herald:

Nike, Apple and a major manufacturer building trains in Australia are among the dozens of global brands implicated in a new report on forced labour in China, amid growing international concern over the treatment of the Uighur people.

The report, by the US State Department-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, alleges some factories that supply the brands appear to be using Uighur workers sent directly from re-education camps.

The Washington Post ran a more detailed, first-hand account of the said forced-labor in this chilling article.

From The Post:

When their shifts end, the Uighur workers — almost all women in their 20s or younger — use hand gestures and rudimentary Mandarin to buy dried fruit, socks and sanitary pads at the stalls. Then they walk around the corner, past the factory’s police station — adorned with Uighur writing telling them to “stay loyal to the party” and “have clear-cut discipline” — to dormitories where they live under constant supervision.

The Uighur workers are afraid or unable to interact with anyone in this town, north of Qingdao, beyond the most superficial of transactions at the stalls or in local stores, vendors say. But the catalyst for their arrival here is well understood.

“Everyone knows they didn’t come here of their own free will. They were brought here,” said one fruit-seller as she set up her stall. “The Uighurs had to come because they didn’t have an option. The government sent them here,” another vendor told The Washington Post.

And:

The researchers found 27 factories in nine Chinese provinces that have used Uighur workers hired through labor transfer programs from Xinjiang since 2017. The factories are owned by firms that feed into the supply chain of some of the world’s best-known companies, including Apple, Dell and Volkswagen, the report finds.

BOE Technology Group, which supplies screens to Apple, and O-Film, which makes iPhone cameras, both use Uighur labor, either directly or through contractors, the report found. Apple lists both companies on its latest supplier list.

From Apple:

“Apple is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said spokesman Josh Rosenstock. “We have not seen this report but we work closely with all our suppliers to ensure our high standards are upheld.”

More on this story sure to follow.

New York Times:

As China encourages people to return to work despite the coronavirus outbreak, it has begun a bold mass experiment in using data to regulate citizens’ lives — by requiring them to use software on their smartphones that dictates whether they should be quarantined or allowed into subways, malls and other public spaces.

And:

People in China sign up through Ant’s popular wallet app, Alipay, and are assigned a color code — green, yellow or red — that indicates their health status.

And:

The Times’s analysis found that as soon as a user grants the software access to personal data, a piece of the program labeled “reportInfoAndLocationToPolice” sends the person’s location, city name and an identifying code number to a server. The software does not make clear to users its connection to the police. But according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency and an official police social media account, law enforcement authorities were a crucial partner in the system’s development.

Collision of worlds here. The battle to contain coronavirus. Government requiring its citizens to use software that is said to share personal data with police.

The words iPhone and Apple do not appear in the article. Wondering if this software exists for iPhone and, if so, the route it took to get approved for distribution.

MacSurfer:

Dear MHN Readers:

Not seeing a viable future with subscriptions, MacSurfer and TechNN will cease operations effective immediately. Please allow a few weeks to process forthcoming refunds. If need be, subscription inquiries can be addressed to the Publisher at the bottom of the Homepage.

Thanks kindly for your support, and thanks for the memories…

MacSurfer’s Headline News Team

After they went full subscription, I stopped visiting the site but I’m still sorry to see them go. Back in the day, they were a great resource for headlines.

TechCrunch:

An iPhone app built by controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI has been blocked by Apple, effectively banning the app from use.

Apple confirmed to TechCrunch that the startup “violated” the terms of its enterprise developer program.

TechCrunch found Clearview AI’s iPhone app on an public Amazon S3 storage bucket on Thursday, despite a warning on the page that the app is “not to be shared with the public.”

The page asks users to “open this page on your iPhone” to install and approve the company’s enterprise certificate, allowing the app to run. But this, according to Apple’s policies, is prohibited if the app’s users are outside of Clearview AI’s organization.

Clearview just keeps getting sleazier and sleazier.

FOXBusiness:

Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses coronavirus’ impact on Apple and the evolving educational demands of jobs in America.

It always makes me nervous when Cook pimps Trump.

BBC:

In 2015, the boss of a card payments company in Seattle introduced a $70,000 minimum salary for all of his 120 staff – and personally took a pay cut of $1m. Five years later he’s still on the minimum salary, and says the gamble has paid off. Since then, Gravity has transformed.

“Before the $70,000 minimum wage, we were having between zero and two babies born per year amongst the team,” CEO Dan Price says. “And since the announcement – and it’s been only about four-and-a-half years – we’ve had more than 40 babies.”

More than 10% of the company have been able to buy their own home, in one of the US’s most expensive cities for renters. Before the figure was less than 1%.

Rosita Barlow, director of sales at Gravity, says that since salaries were raised junior colleagues have been pulling more weight.”When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you’re doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you,” she says.

This was a great story when we first reported on it almost five years ago and I’m happy to see it continue to be a great story. But, as I predicted and to the CEO’s dismay, other companies haven’t followed suit.

CNET:

When you’re trying to decide which ecosystem to install in your house — which lights, which doorbell, which smart cams, which router — you should be thinking about whether your platform of choice works consistently, which devices it works with and whether it will keep your information safe. After working for years in the CNET Smart Home and comparing all those aspects, I’ve arrived at what to me was a surprising conclusion: Apple’s HomeKit might actually be the best smart home platform.

Yes, seriously.

I haven’t used much in the way of smart home technology but I’ve done a lot of research on it in preparation for having at least a “less dumb” home. When it comes to privacy and security, what Apple has and has planned for HomeKit attracts me the most.

Above Avalon:

Last month marked the tenth anniversary of Apple unveiling the iPad. The occasion took on a somber feel as the most common reaction in tech circles ended up being sadness and disappointment for what the iPad had failed to become. While some are convinced that the iPad is in some way a victim of neglect, mismanagement, or even worse, such feelings are misplaced. We don’t need to feel bad for the iPad.

I hold a very different view of the iPad at 10 years old. In recapping the 2010s, I went so far as to position the iPad as one of two most important tech products of the decade (the iPhone being the other one). The iPad has become ubiquitous in various industries and sectors, and in the process, it has altered modern computing.

How can there be such a dramatic difference in opinion when it comes to iPad?

I certainly don’t feel bad for it. As a matter of fact, I still lust for an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil.

Do you ever edit photos on your iPhone? Perhaps to crop them for posting on social media? Or to add circles and arrows to highlight a funny bit?

The linked article takes this one step further and shows you how to add text to your annotations.

Dan Moren, Macworld:

At the end of last year, rumors began to circulate that Apple was investigating the possibility of developing an iPhone with no ports at all, which could see the light of day as early as 2021.

And:

But going portless entirely? The company has already done so on devices like the Apple Watch or the HomePod. Surely, though, the iPhone will always need a port. Or will it? More recently, it’s started to seem as though this speculation isn’t as far-fetched as some have initially thought.

I would bet against this, but Dan does make some solid points. Past as precedent, the Apple Watch does indeed survive without a visible port. To be fair, though, there is a secret port under the bottom band.

So maybe the middle ground is a future iPhone with a hidden, diagnostic port, usable by Apple to avoid having to crack the iPhone case to diagnose a phone gone wrong.

First things first, this from a paywalled article from The Information that’s been making a lot of noise:

Apple is planning to release an iPad keyboard accessory later this year that will include a built-in trackpad, the latest step in its effort to position the tablet device as an alternative to laptop computers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company will likely release the accessory alongside the next version of the iPad Pro expected later this year, the person added.

And this, from the headline linked article by Jason Snell:

I’m excited. For a long time I’ve been an advocate for iPad keyboards and pointing devices, and this potential product would offer a way for Apple to differentiate the iPad Pro from its increasingly capable lower-end iPads.

But I’ve got a lot of questions, too.

Follow the link. These are some thoughtful questions.

A few thoughts of my own:

Is there a need for a pointing device? Are we approaching an uncanny valley with a device that looks an awful lot like a MacBook with a touchscreen, but without the unifying elements like the Finder and window-management system that make a MacBook so intuitive to use?

From this article by The Verge’s Dieter Bohn:

I don’t want Apple to fall back on the crutch of just using desktop OS paradigms to solve the iPad’s user interface intuitiveness problem. The last thing we should want is for the iPad to turn into a Mac. It’s on a different path and it would be a shame to have those ideas tossed out the window just so we can have more traditional windows on the iPad.

I’m in the same camp as Dieter. I’d hate to see the lines between the MacBook and iPad get blurry. As is, I know when to reach for my iPad, my iPhone and my Mac. Different tools for different jobs.

If the report is true, it will be interesting to see what Apple has in mind.