HomeKit has quietly been getting better over the last year or so, and this new page on Apple’s website shows it off well.
However, this came to mind immediately:
Nice website, but the film just showcases to me how much easier it is to tell Alexa to do all the same things. https://t.co/bR994S5Rer
— Scott McNulty (@blankbaby) March 2, 2017
For me, I’m not installing any smart home devices that don’t work with both Alexa and HomeKit.
It’s almost spring, and that means it’s time for a new nerdy 512 Pixels t-shirt. This time around, the art is all about the iMac G3:
The original iMac brought Apple back from the brink with a lovable, colorful design.
The quote on the back of the shirt is from Steve Job’s introduction of the machine, and became a joke in Apple keynote for years to come.
The shirts will be on sale until March 16 over at TeeSpring. There are both men’s and women’s options, as well as an unisex long-sleeve because Myke asked for it.
There are two campaigns running. If you’re not in the US, the EU campaign may be cheaper on the shipping:
Thanks in advance for the support this year! The t-shirt drive is a big part of keeping this site up and running. I hope you enjoy them!
I joined Clockwise this week to talk Lightning versus USB-C, the return of the Feature Phone, space tourism, and unlimited wireless data. The episode is up now, and as always, was a lot of fun.
This week on Ungeniused, my podcast about weird Wikipedia articles:
On January 15, 1919, the Great Molasses Flood killed 21 and injured 150 more in Boston.
This one is sticky.
My thanks to our sponsor:
If you are running OS X 10.2, this is worth knowing:
DNS must be available for the “softwareupdate” command-line tool to work. When there is no DNS service, softwareupdate incorrectly reports that software is already up-to-date.
Stephen went out for a nerdy evening, NASA announced the seven planets at TRAPPIST-1 and SpaceX is going to the moon. After the news, Jason and Stephen break down the Ice Giants of Uranus and Neptune.
My thanks to our sponsors:
This week, Stephen yells at the cloud, Myke gets new emojis and Federico speaks wisdom to the masses.
My thanks to our sponsors:
When I bought my original Apple Watch, I opted for a stainless steel model with a black sport band.
Over time, I picked up a couple more sport bands, as well as the newer nylon band.
I like them all, and was never tempted to check out any third-party options, even after Apple announced its official Watch Band program.
However, recently, I was reminded how much I missed NATO-style watch bands. These are made of nylon, and folder over themselves using a set of keepers.1 I really like the look, and had one on the Seiko 5 I wore for years before the Apple Watch came along.
After doing some searching one night on my iPad, I came across Clockwork Synergy, a company that makes a ton of watch bands, including a NATO strap for the Apple Watch.2
At checkout, you can select which lugs you want to use. As I’ve since upgraded to a Series 2 Sport in space gray, I ordered matching hardware.
These lugs are not part of the aforementioned Apple program, and it shows. The color is a little off, and while they hold well enough when engaged, sliding them in and out of the channel on the Watch is rougher than I wish it was.
I’m not worried that I’ve damaged my Watch by using this band, or that my Watch is going to fly off into the next gutter I walk by, but I have had to let go of the fact that the finish on the lugs is slightly darker than that of the watch.
The band itself is incredibly well made. The nylon is on par with my old Seiko band, and the stitching is straight and neat. Every nylon band I’ve ever used stretches and relaxes a bit with time, but the holes are close enough that I haven’t had trouble finding a comfortable fit. The strap doesn’t come loose from the keepers, which is something some NATO bands don’t get right.
I’m not using this band every day. The sport bands are hard to beat for anytime I’m going to get sweaty. However, I like this band more than Apple’s nylon band, which is just too long for my small, delicate wrists.
Options are a fun part about the Apple Watch. I’m glad to have another in the drawer of my nightstand.
When I bought this band from Clockwork Synergy, I bought a second to hold a giveaway for 512 Pixels readers.
To enter to win, drop me an email via this link before Friday and I’ll pick a winner over the weekend. I’ll pick a winner at random and will ship it anywhere in the world.
We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission. Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration. We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results.
The company’s next-generation Dragon capsule will be used on the flight, in fully automatic mode.
This flight will take place after SpaceX begins flying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Crew program. At this point, it is unknown who the customers are, or what they paid for the opportunity to become the first humans to fly past low-Earth orbit since the Apollo days.
Friend of the Show Dan Moren has his first novel coming out later this year. The cover has been revealed as part of an interview with him:
Well, I’ve wanted to write a science-fiction book basically since the first time I watched Star Wars. But the impetus for The Caledonian Gambit actually came from a different sci-fi series: Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga. When I first read it in college, I was blown away by not only the world she created but the oh-so-human characters that populated it. I’ve also long had a love for Cold War spy stories, from John Le Carré to The Hunt for Red October; my personal favorite is a cult classic British spy series The Sandbaggers. I love the cat-and-mouse games, the tentative alliances, and the wheels within wheels of intrigue and plotting. A Cold War spy story in space seemed like chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (i.e. the best thing ever), so I decided to take a whack at it.
I’m really excited to read this book. Congrats, Dan!
Mozilla has acquired Pocket, a kind of DVR for the internet, for an undisclosed sum. The 9-year-old company, which makes tools for saving articles and videos to view them later, is Mozilla’s first acquisition. It represents a homecoming of sorts for Pocket, which began life as a Firefox extension before eventually expanding its team and building a suite of apps for every major platform. Pocket has been Firefox’s default read-it-later service since 2015.
This follows Instapaper’s acquisition by Pinterest last year. It seems that read-it-later services just aren’t stand-alone businesses. I don’t use Pocket, but I hope this Mozilla deal allows the team behind it to keep working on the product the way they want.