Tom Warren writing for The Verge:
Today’s preview is just an early look at Project Spartan, and Microsoft is promising to update its new Windows 10 browser frequently. “Project Spartan will be regularly updated,” says Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore.
§Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Grant Gerke writing for Teslarati:
Elon Musk just finished his press conference and the big reveal was a “range assurance application” that continuously talks to multiple superchargers and knows their use status at all times. [...] According to Musk, the “car looks up a real-time list of superchargers every 30 seconds and communicates with possible Tesla superchargers.”
The press conference was held on March 16, but it is worth noting that Tesla is the first company to finally address this problem in the most reliable way.
§Monday, March 30, 2015
Nellie Bowles end Liz Gannes writing for Re/code:
Around 2PM, nearly two hundred observers — a majority of them women — gathered to listen to the verdict. When it came out, “no” after “no” to each of the four claims, there were a few gasps from the courtroom. And then a hushed silence.
Also, Nitasha Tiku writing for The Verge:
Pao was seeking damages on four claims:
- Kleiner Perkins discriminated against her because of her gender by failing to promote her and/or by terminating her employment.
- Kleiner Perkins retaliated against her by failing to promote her because she complained about gender bias at the firm
- Kleiner Perkins failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent gender discrimination against her.
- Kleiner Perkins retaliated against her by terminating her employment because she complained about gender bias at Kleiner Perkins and/or filed this lawsuit.
§Sunday, March 29, 2015
John Gruber writes:
Apple recorded it, and it’s now available as both video and audio. I thought it was fun and fascinating. And I’m kind of proud that it got flagged as “explicit” — but that was Bill Gates’s fault.
The podcast is available via iTunes.
§Sunday, March 29, 2015
Ben Kepes writing for Forbes:
Update. It turns out the situation is more complex than I first thought. The core of FoundationDB was closed source, but many components around it were open sourced. What this means is that people using those open source components relied on the FoundationDB core which now, alas, is no longer available.
§Saturday, March 28, 2015
Mat Honan writing for BuzzFeed:
There is already just about everything imaginable on Periscope, which has only now hit the iOS app store: fascinating, boring, amazing stuff. It aims to be a window on the world, but an interactive window that supports not just real-time live video, but also real-time conversations around those videos.
[...]
“The magic moment in Periscope is when you realize you can affect what you’re seeing,” he argues. “This isn’t live-streaming — it’s teleportation.”
§Friday, March 27, 2015
The New York Times reports:
In recent months, Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go to an external site.
John Gruber’s take on this one:
It’s like Lando’s deal with Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.
A month ago, Frédéric Filloux writing on “Monday Note”:
Last October, I published a column titled How Facebook and Google Now Dominate Media Distribution; it exposed our growing dependence on social media, and the need to look more closely at the virtues of direct access as a generator of quality traffic. (A visit coming from social generates less than one page view versus 4 to 6 page views for direct access.) Facebook has become a dominant channel for accessing the news.
§Thursday, March 26, 2015
Ina Fried reporting for Re/code:
Microsoft said Wednesday that it plans to make the core viewing and editing features of Office free for devices with screens of 10.1-inches or smaller.
That will bring the Windows side of things more in line with what the software maker has done with its recent Office releases for iOS and Android, where most core features are free, with some advanced features requiring an Office 365 subscription.
§Thursday, March 26, 2015
Federico Viticci:
While the original Fantastical was a companion to the full Apple iCal experience, Fantastical 2 reinvents itself as a full-blown calendar client that retains the most important aspects of the app’s debut and adds a whole new calendar interface to the mix. And in the process, it exudes the finesse and attention to detail that Simmons and Sutherland are known for.
§Thursday, March 26, 2015
Ron Hirson writing for Forbes:
This year, we are going to see the transformation of Uber into a big data company cut from the same cloth as Google, Facebook and Visa – using the wealth of information they know about me and you to deliver new services and generate revenue by selling this data to others.
§Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Mikaël Roparz writing for France Bleu:
“These documents formally attest to the quality of construction conduct for 17 years” says Benedict Donnelly.
Hermione currently docked in La Rochelle must sail on April 18 on traces of the Marquis de La Fayette.
§Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Extract from the unauthorized biography “Becoming Steve Jobs” by Rick Tetezeli and Brent Schlender forthcoming today:
“This picture of him isn’t understood,” says Cook. “I thought the [Walter] Isaacson book did him a tremendous disservice. It was just a rehash of a bunch of stuff that had already been written, and focused on small parts of his personality. You get the feeling that [Steve’s] a greedy, selfish egomaniac. It didn’t capture the person. The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time. Life is too short.”
UPDATE: Equally interesting by Brian X. Chen and Alexandra Alter, “Apple Opens Up to Praise New Book on Steve Jobs, and Criticize an Old One”
§Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Marco Arment:
I suspect smartwatches will be a one-way move for most of their owners, and most people won’t wear two watches at once. The iPod didn’t make people appreciate portable music enough to buy a Discman for the weekends, and the iPhone didn’t ignite interest in flip-phones or PDAs.
Some people will always want to own and wear traditional watches, but they’ll only become more of a niche, not a growing market. People will buy whichever kind of smartwatch works with their phone platform — iPhone owners will get Apple Watches, and Android owners will get Pebbles or Android Wear watches — and then, most of them will be effectively removed from the traditional watch world from that point forward.
It is unlikely that the future market of connected watches benefit the traditional watches.
§Tuesday, March 24, 2015
John Paczkowski writing for BuzzFeed:
And now sources familiar with the company’s plans tell BuzzFeed News that a successor to its dusty and recently discounted Apple TV set top box is headed to market as well. Apple intends to show the device off at its annual World Wide Developers Conference in June along with a long-awaited App Store and a software development kit to help developers populate it.
The interesting part being the App Store and the SDK.
§Monday, March 23, 2015
Daniela Hernandez writing for Fusion:
The idea behind ResearchKit was to use the iPhone’s ubiquity to give scientists unprecedented amounts of clinical data. By using the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer, microphone, camera, and pressure sensors — as well as a bevy of personal trackers that can be connected to the iPhone, like the FitBit, glucose monitors, or AliveCor’s portable electrocardiogram recorder — scientists would be able to gather activity and biometric data on people who opted in to be part of research studies. A typical clinical study might include hundreds or thousands of subjects; a ResearchKit study could easily include hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions. Plus, ResearchKit studies would have another unparalleled advantage: the cost of recruiting subjects would be basically zero.
Via John Gruber
§Monday, March 23, 2015
Greg Koenig:
Apple is doing something utterly unique in this 5 seconds of video — they are using a laser to clean up any burrs or finishing defects from machining. You can see the laser quickly outline the lip of an inside pocket, and come in for a more intense second pass on the floor of that pocket. I would consider this (quite long) blog post a success if the engineer or designer who thought that trick up reads this and knows that this is an astonishingly brilliant trick they cooked up. Bravo!
Via John Gruber
§Sunday, March 22, 2015
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