It’s great to see Apple’s Pro Display XDR on the market but it’s likely not the best fit for the majority of users with a starting price of $5,000 without a stand. Let’s take a look at some of the best USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 displays available for MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPad Pro in the $400-$1,300 range.
Thinking about buying a display for your Mac? This review is worth a look.
Whether you love books, music, films or TV, top 10 lists are a great way to find out what’s popular. So today we’re rolling out a new Top 10 feature on Netflix.
This new row – complete with its own special design – will enable you to see what is most popular on Netflix in your country. It will be updated every day and the position of the row will vary depending on how relevant the shows and films are to you.
Couple of things leap to mind here. First, there’s that headline. One Netflix row that’s been around a long, long time is called Popular on Netflix. So no, that headline is just plain wrong.
But that aside, this new top 10 list strikes me as yet another slice through Netflix that is more adding to the mess than useful. How about making all these rows optional so I can limit what shows up to the rows that I find useful.
And how about adding IMDb ratings (or your rating system of choice) to the mix? And maybe give me some sorting options so I can look at movies sorted by said ratings, perhaps with a subsort by year?
Lastly, it’ll be interesting when a top 10 list makes sense for Apple TV+.
The justices rejected Apple’s appeal in the long-running case in which a federal jury in 2016 found that Apple had infringed VirnetX’s patents and awarded $302 million. A judge later increased that amount to $439.7 million including interest and other costs.
Patent cases are always difficult and this one is no different.
Katherine Johnson, a trailblazing mathematician best known for her contributions to NASA’s human spaceflight program and who gained fame later in life due to the movie Hidden Figures, died Monday. She was 101 years old.
Most notably, in 1962, she performed the critical calculations that put John Glenn into a safe orbit during the first orbital mission of a US astronaut. NASA engineers had run the calculations on electric computers, but when someone was needed to validate the calculations, Glenn and the rest of the space agency turned to Johnson. “If she says they’re good,” Johnson recalled the astronaut saying, “then I’m ready to go.”
Later, Johnson also assisted in the calculations that ensured a safe rendezvous between the Apollo Lunar Lander and Command Module in orbit around the Moon.
If it hadn’t been for the movie “Hidden Figures“, Johnson and the work of the other incredible Black women at NASA might have gone unnoticed.
Another in the WILL IT WORK series. Might be my favorite one. If nothing else, be sure to jump to about :24 and see what Siri thinks about all this. Heh.
Imagine a heads up display on the windscreen of your car, one that alerted you to pedestrians on the periphery of your vision.
Watch the video embedded here:
Body language & eye contact are just two elements that happen in the many exchanges between pedestrians & drivers. Our software allows self-driving cars to better understand the world around them by providing them with an unprecedented level of awareness & intent of pedestrians. pic.twitter.com/CghjDen1GZ
Apple TV+ was always bound to be a fraught enterprise, bringing a computer manufacturer into an industry outside its core skill set and awash with other well-funded bids for viewers’ attention. Its history to date has borne that difficulty out, culminating in the recently reported suspension of sprawling page-to-screen project Shantaram. This is a guide to Apple’s bumps in the road, which began well before TV+ actually made it to our living rooms.
This is not an article trolling Apple TV+ shows. Instead, it’s a look at some of the setbacks Apple has faced rolling into this new market.
Is this sort of thing par-for-the-course in the TV/movie/streaming industry? Typical for a rookie in this space? Or has Apple had it rougher than most?
See how iPhone 11 Pro captured the otherworldly 4K video using the Ultra Wide camera in this deep dive into the Valley of Fire.
Truly beautiful footage, showing off the iPhone 11 Pro’s Ultra Wide camera. But because of licensing issues, you won’t see this footage in 4K in macOS Safari. For that, you’ll need to fire up Google Chrome.
This is not new. But it is strange, having to turn to Google to show off an Apple feature.
In a bid to harmonize standards, the EC negotiated a 2009 Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by 14 tech companies including Apple, Samsung, Nokia, and other prominent smartphone manufacturers.
And:
However, the wording of the MoU offered Apple a loophole: For those phones that did not have a USB micro-B interface, an adapter was allowed under the agreed terms. And that’s exactly what Apple did. In 2012, Apple introduced the iPhone 5 with a new Lightning proprietary connector to replace its 30-pin connector, and additionally offered a separate Lightning to micro USB adapter to comply with the 2009 EU agreement.
And:
By 2016, the Commission acknowledged that micro-USB had become dated and that USB-C had become the de facto standard across most devices. The Commission was advised by MoU facilitators that all manufacturers were ready to sign a new agreement in line with different approaches but keeping the solution of using solely USB-C connectors – except Apple.
At least part of Apple’s argument against an on-device USB-C port is that adding USB-C would make the phone thicker. They also argue that a dictated standard would hurt innovation.
Personally, the variety of ports out there, and the differing cables and dongles I’ve got to keep around, especially when I travel, is painful. I just came back from a trip where I rented a car equipped with a USB-A port. I realized that all the bricks I’d brought with me were USB-C bricks, leaving me with only Lightning to USB-C cables. Annoying.
The linked article is a well-written take on the current situation with the EU and Apple’s position in opposition.
Americans don’t know much about Canada, and I don’t blame them. They live in the greatest country in the universe, apparently. The rest of the world is meant to plan itself around the U.S., rather than the other way around, and often that’s how things tend to go down anyway.
Canada and the U.S. share the longest international border in the world, and yet, the average American could probably go their entire life knowing nothing really substantial about their northern neighbor beyond what they glean from Degrassi.
So I can forgive Americans for being clueless. I can forgive them their ignorance about this big, cold, confusing place just to the north of them. And that’s why I want to clear something up, once and for all, so I can put your minds at rest and save us all a lot of time and energy.
Here it is: Canada is fake.
This is an overly harsh view of my home and native land but it is mostly fair. In the most recent news, we have serious issues with our treatment of the Wet’suwet’en Indigenous people and their territorial sovereignty.
A successful live-action Star Wars TV series is important in its own right, the way this particular show was made represents a far greater change, perhaps the most important since the green screen. The cutting edge tech (literally) behind “The Mandalorian” creates a new standard and paradigm for media — and the audience will be none the wiser.
What is this magical new technology? It’s an evolution of a technique that’s been in use for nearly a century in one form or another: displaying a live image behind the actors. The advance is not in the idea but the execution: a confluence of technologies that redefines “virtual production” and will empower a new generation of creators.
I’ll be the first to admit I found The Mandalorian boring and juvenile but the effects and visuals are spectacular. Be sure to also check out the much more detailed look into this in American Cinematographer Magazine.
Sotakoun worked at Disney World for four years, starting in 2008 when she was just 18. Today, at 30 and with a job in the video game industry, she says she looks back at her princess era with only good memories.
Sotakoun, who is half Laotian and half white, went through an intensive crash course for each of the characters she played in Disney’s “entertainment” division, which refers to the iconic costume characters that cheerfully reside in the amusement parks. At the beginning of her shift, she’d enter the bowels of the Magic Kingdom and be costumed as either Pocahontas, Mulan, or Silvermist (a Peter Pan fairy of East Asian appearance who first appeared in the Disney Fairies direct-to-DVD films).
Afterward, she was let loose on the campus so she could briefly lose herself in the “happiest place on earth.” In that time, Sotakoun became familiar with every curveball the Disney World Resort was capable of throwing at her. From crying children to leering grandpas, she’s seen it all. Nothing fazes a Disney princess.
I’ve never had any interest in going to Disney theme parks but I’m always fascinated by stories of the behind the scenes workings of the facilities.
Many thanks to BBEdit for sponsoring The Loop this week. Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies — in fact, I’ve been using BBEdit for more than 20 years. BBEdit has been updated to version 13, and is available in the Mac App Store as a subscription! Same great features. Same user experience. You can subscribe in the Mac App Store or purchase perpetual licenses directly from Bare Bones Software. Also, you can still get great merch, including Classic and Rebus T-shirts, enamel pins, and more in their merch store!
At this point, we’ve all heard of Dungeons & Dragons. The game, which has enjoyed a dedicated cult following for decades, has lately seen its popularity lifted with the rising tide of nerd culture in the mainstream. It’s in Stranger Things, Community, and The Big Bang Theory; A-listers — Vin Diesel! Anderson Cooper! — dig it; general-interest media outlets are taking it increasingly seriously.
D&D is just one of a diverse family of games called “tabletop role-playing games” (often simply called “RPGs”), but it’s the only RPG that has managed to get significant traction in popular culture. Its fame is so far beyond its kin that multiple RPG experts I spoke with suggested that D&D’s brand has become virtually synonymous with the very concept of a tabletop role-playing game among the general public, achieving sole brand-name recognition like Kleenex or Xerox. But ironically, when it comes to advancing the popularity of the rest of the RPG medium, all this attention on D&D may actually be doing more harm than good.
While I’m a big fan of D&D and would play again in a heartbeat, I’m completely unfamiliar with any other board game RPGs mentioned in this piece. I’ve already downloaded Crash Pandas (think Fast and the Furious but raccoons).
Hawkeye Access for Mac lets you control your Mac hands-free using head movements and facial expressions, powered by your iPhone’s TrueDepth camera. Ever since we first released Hawkeye Access for iOS last year, I’ve been itching to build a hands-free experience for the Mac. Over my winter break from school, I finally got around to it!
Access for Mac is a big step up over traditional hands-free controls. It’s easy to learn, incredibly powerful, and cheap. I can’t wait to see how this helps people with motor impairments use their Macs, from browsing the web to playing games to editing videos. On top of that, I’m hoping Access will make hands-free controls accessible to more people than ever!
I played around with this today. Easy to set up, easy to use. Would take practice to get the movement down cold. I showed it to my wife who is an Occupational Therapist working with kids who have varying levels of disabilities and she can see how this would be of real use to some of them.
The title of the linked Cult of Mac post is (as of this writing), “Tim Cook’s alleged stalker tried to give Apple CEO flowers, champagne”.
But check this tweet, which appears to be from a police report, and contains a quote from the alleged stalker, “I don’t use ammunition, but I know people who do.”
That’s a pretty stark contrast from champagne and flowers. Stay safe, Tim.
The Streisand Effect has predictably kicked in after Apple attempted to prevent the distribution of a new Apple book written by former German App Store manager Tom Sadowski. App Store Confidential is now number two on Amazon’s bestseller list in Germany, and the book is into its second print run.
You can read a summary of some of the book’s main points in this blog post. From what I’ve seen, nothing alarming, nothing that leaps out as exposing real secrets.
As Ben Lovejoy points out above, Apple’s ban has likely given the book a real shot up the bestseller list. Question is, will legal costs make that success more costly than the success was worth.
Apple Inc. is considering giving rival apps more prominence on iPhones and iPads and opening its HomePod speaker to third-party music services after criticism the company provides an unfair advantage to its in-house products.
The technology giant is discussing whether to let users choose third-party web browser and mail applications as their default options on Apple’s mobile devices, replacing the company’s Safari browser and Mail app, according to people familiar with the matter.
And:
Last year, Stockholm-based Spotify submitted an antitrust complaint to the European Union, saying Apple squeezes rival services by imposing a 30% cut for subscriptions made via the App Store. Apple responded that Spotify wants the benefits of the App Store without paying for them. As part of its complaint, Spotify singled out the inability to run on the HomePod and become the default music player in Siri, Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant.
How about reminder, calendar, and shopping list replacements? This part of the thinking?
Nashville, Tennessee: a full-scale replica of the Parthenon, built in 1897 for the Centennial Exposition celebrating the state’s 100th anniversary. The detailed re-creation went further than imitating a ruin. It “restored the aspects of the original Parthenon that were lost or damaged” in an interpretive re-creation of what it might have looked like.
The building held the Exposition’s art gallery and “spoke to the city’s self-declared reputation as the ‘Athens of the South.’”
When I moved to Nashville in 2002, many people made a point to tell me to visit this site. It seemed kind of silly to me (I’ve been to the actual Parthenon in Athens) but once I visited, I really loved and appreciated it and the beautiful park it was in.
First things first, I appreciate this video bringing me up close and personal with the new Z Flip foldable phone.
But jump to 2:16 into the video and check out the scratch resistance test. Fascinating.
From the looks of things, the cost of foldability is screen durability. The reviewer casts doubt on Samsung’s claims that the screen is a glass screen, showing that it scratches like a plastic screen. Watch, judge for yourself.
Apple Maps and Google Maps have both recently undergone major updates. AppleInsider takes a look at both, and examines which changes might shift which platform you want to use.
Terrific side-by-side comparison. The one thing that keeps me using Google Maps is its crowd-sourced reviews, vs Apple Maps’ Yelp tie-in. Other than that, Apple Maps is my go to, at least in the US.
Ali Alzabarah was panicked. His heart raced as he drove home from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters in the early evening on Dec. 2, 2015. He needed to leave the country — quickly.
Earlier that day, Twitter’s management accused the unassuming 32-year-old of accessing thousands of user profiles without authorization to pass their identifying information — including phone numbers and IP addresses — reportedly to Bader al-Asaker, the head of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s charity and private office. When the conversation concluded, management seized Alzabarah’s laptop, put him on administrative leave, and escorted him out of the building.
This is a sensational story, just begging to be made into a movie.
As discovered in the first beta of iOS 13.4, Apple is working on a new “CarKey” feature that will allow an iPhone or an Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start NFC-compatible vehicles.
Very excited about this feature. Use my AppleWatch to unlock and start my car? Sold. But there’s more.
CarKey “keys” live in the Wallet app and as we found in the first beta, can be shared with other people so you can allow others temporary access to your car. In the second beta of iOS 13.4, there’s updated wording concerning sharing, which makes it clear that digital car keys will be able to be sent to people using the Messages app.
So I can Message my key to someone granting them temporary access to my car (think a valet or loaning the car to a friend without having to hand them my physical keys).
Not clear if and when this will roll out in a public release, but I do like the concept.
A few months ago, we introduced a new mobile app called Office—a whole new experience designed to be your go-to app for getting work done on a mobile device. It combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app and introduces new capabilities that enable you to create content and accomplish tasks in uniquely mobile ways to help you achieve more. Today, we’re proud to announce the Office app is out of public preview and now generally available worldwide for anyone on Android and iOS phones.
If you use Office, follow the headline link for the details on what’s new.
Interesting to see how the market has shifted. It used to be all about the Mac versus Windows, with Mac Office lagging behind new Office releases. But with iOS gaining such prominence, the new release story is much more about iOS and Android, with both getting simultaneous releases.
UPDATE: According to a few folks weighing on in Twitter, and verified here, there’s no native iPad support for the new Office app. Rather, the optimized for iPad experience is more a zoomed in iPhone app. Not the same thing.
One of the largest companies ever, headed by the wealthiest man in the world, Amazon has evolved from an online bookstore to a commerce giant. Not only can you find nearly anything on Amazon, through Amazon Web Services, it provides the backend of a massive amount of the internet. The nearly-ubiquitous Alexa device and services like Ring extend Amazon’s reach into your home in an effort to integrate into your daily life.
Frontline looks at Amazon’s rise, the human cost of same-day shipping, and an always-online life.
This PBS Frontline documentary is available on Youtube but only for US viewers.
A Futuro house is a round, prefabricated house designed by Matti Suuronen, of which fewer than 100 were built during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The shape, reminiscent of a flying saucer, and the structure’s airplane hatch entrance has made the houses sought after by collectors. The Futuro is composed of fiberglass-reinforced polyester plastic, polyester-polyurethane, and poly, measuring 4 meters (13 feet) high and 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter.
By the mid-1970s, the house was taken off the market. From the beginning, it had been met with public hostility. The first Futuro that was erected near Lake Puulavesi in Finland elicited public protest because it looked too unnatural for the rustic environment.
