Dan Provost has been doing math concerning the rumored new iPad size:
When the original iPad Pro 12.9" was introduced in September 2015, Phil Schiller demonstrated the reasoning for that sizing by illustrating that the width of the new iPad is the exact same dimension as the height of the 9.7" iPad.
This has the advantage of essentially having two full height iPad apps, side by side.
Now, imagine Apple doing the exact same thing, but with the iPad mini.
This feels right to me.
Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s imagine that Apple decided to combine their engineering resources to form app teams that delivered both iOS and macOS versions of applications.
In such a scenario it may seem logical to retain application features common to both platforms and to remove those that were perceived to require extra resources. Certainly Automation would be something examined in that regard, and the idea might be posited that: “App Extensions are equivalent to, or could be a replacement for, User Automation in macOS.” And by User Automation, I’m referring to Apple Event scripting, Automator, Services, the UNIX command line utilities, etc.
Let’s examine the validity of that conjecture, beginning with overviews of App Extensions and User Automation.
Mike Isaac at The New York Times has details:
The effort calls for the company to forge deeper ties with publishers by collaborating on publishing tools and features before they are released. Facebook will also develop training programs and tools for journalists to teach them how to better search its site to report on news and events. And Facebook wants to help train members of the public to find news sources they trust, while fighting the spread of fake news across its site.
I’m not sure what to think of this. Facebook and media companies should have better publishing tools and ways to combat fake news, but in today’s world, people are going to believe what fits their worldview.
I’m usually not so pessimistic about journalism, but that’s just where I am right now.
Earlier today, Chris Lattner announced that he is leaving Apple:
I’m happy to announce that Ted Kremenek will be taking over for me as “Project Lead” for the Swift project, managing the administrative and leadership responsibility for Swift.org. This recognizes the incredible effort he has already been putting into the project, and reflects a decision I’ve made to leave Apple later this month to pursue an opportunity in another space. This decision wasn’t made lightly, and I want you all to know that I’m still completely committed to Swift. I plan to remain an active member of the Swift Core Team, as well as a contributor to the swift-evolution mailing list.
Working with many phenomenal teams at Apple to launch Swift has been a unique life experience. Apple is a truly amazing place to be able to assemble the skills, imagination, and discipline to pull something like this off. Swift is in great shape today, and Swift 4 will be a really strong release with Ted as the Project Lead.
Tesla then posted this on its company blog:
We would like to welcome Chris Lattner, who will join Tesla as our Vice President of Autopilot Software. Chris’ reputation for engineering excellence is well known. He comes to Tesla after 11 years at Apple where he was primarily responsible for creating Swift, the programming language for building apps on Apple platforms and one of the fastest growing languages for doing so on Linux. Prior to Apple, Chris was lead author of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure, an open source umbrella project that is widely used in commercial products and academic research today.
Wowzers.
This week, the aging hosts of Connected remember their first reactions to the iPhone and talk about the value of independent blogging.
My thanks to our sponsors:
I had a fun time talking on Tech News Today about the iPhone’s 10th anniversary.
Rene Ritchie has the statement:
We learned that when testing battery life on Mac notebooks, Consumer Reports uses a hidden Safari setting for developing web sites which turns off the browser cache. This is not a setting used by customers and does not reflect real-world usage. Their use of this developer setting also triggered an obscure and intermittent bug reloading icons which created inconsistent results in their lab. After we asked Consumer Reports to run the same test using normal user settings, they told us their MacBook Pro systems consistently delivered the expected battery life. We have also fixed the bug uncovered in this test. This is the best pro notebook we’ve ever made, we respect Consumer Reports and we’re glad they decided to revisit their findings on the MacBook Pro.
Good job, Consumer Reports.
Update: Clearly, Apple’s software quality came into play here, but disabling the browser cache seems like an unusual step for creating a “real world” test.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, once tasked with turning the struggling company around, is set to exit the company’s board when its sale to Verizon closes, a company SEC filing said today.
The exit of Mayer, along with Yahoo co-founder David Filo and four other board members, will reduce the size of the company’s board to five members. Upon closing the deal, Yahoo will take on a new name too: Altaba Inc.
Seems fine.
Unlike Marco, I didn’t follow along as Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone ten years ago.
I was into Apple — and a Retail employee — at the time, but on January 9, 2007, I was in rural North Carolina visiting family members.
I remember getting a bunch of texts from my co-workers and nerd friends saying that Apple had just introduced something that seemed impossible.
I remember poring over the original webpages Apple published, trying to squeeze every drop of information out of them over my aunt’s dial-up connection.
I don’t know when I finally got to see the keynote video, but like everyone else, I believe it was Jobs’ best performance.
Today, we are introducing three revolutionary products:
The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls.
The second is a revolutionary mobile phone.
And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.
An iPod. A Phone. An Internet communicator. An iPod. A Phone. Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device.
We are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
taken with iPhone 7 Plus
Steve Jobs is gone, but the impact of his phone is unlike anything we’ve seen in consumer technology since the personal computer revolution.
It’s hard to come up with a profession or corner of the world that hasn’t been touched by the iPhone.
I was 20 when it was announced. Like people whose parents brought home early PCs or Macs, I was just about the perfect age to really understand life before and after the iPhone.
I’d like to talk about what it’s meant to me.
Jobs led with this one, as the iPod was still a superstar at the time. While the iPod is all but gone today, the iPhone is the hub for most of my media consumption. Music, YouTube videos, podcasts and more all flow out of my iPhone on a daily basis.
That last one is critically important to me, as podcasts pay my mortgage. After a rocky start, the iPhone has become an amazingly rich platform for podcasts. There are tons of great clients for discovering and listening to shows, and recording in the field with just a phone still seems like magic.
While I don’t make as many phone calls as I did when I had a J-O-B job, I use my iPhone to communicate with people every day. iMessage and Slack constantly have red badges. I hold Skype calls while pacing my studio and FaceTime my wife and kids when I’m out of town.
In his keynote, Jobs lumped the iPhone’s camera into the “phone suite,” which made sense in the day of cameraphones.
The iPhone democratized a lot of technology, perhaps none more than the digital camera. We all walk around with amazing hardware in our pockets.
While I have a couple “real cameras,” countless photos I’ve taken over the years have been snapped with a long line of iPhones. I wish the early ones held up better, but that’s the march of progress. Today, I can shoot 4K videos of my kids playing on the swing set, then go take stunning photos of a sunset. It’s really amazing to consider how far it’s come.
Out of the three, this one got the least applause ten years ago. It was the most abstract concept, and some of us were still bitter sad about the Newton.
Without a doubt, it’s become the most important. Of the 987124 billion iPhone apps, most of them fall into this category. The iPhone has become the Internet to millions of people around the world.
This is as true for me as anyone else. I met a lot of the people I now work with on Twitter. Chances are, you’re reading these very words on an iPhone. My career of podcasting and writing would be possible without the iPhone, but it sure has made it easier to reach a wide audience.
I’m not smart enough to know what comes after the smartphone. Like the personal computer, I think it will enjoy a long time at the top.
That’s fine by me.
taken with original iPhone
The original iPhone was introduced ten years ago today. Here’s some stuff you should send to your read-it-later service:
Apple: iPhone at Ten » The company that used to never look back looks back yet again.
Internet History Podcast: The History of the iPhone » How we got from Newton to iPhone. Also, the ROKR was a thing.
The Prompt #30: The Internet in Your Pocket » Three years ago, Myke Hurley, Federico Viticci and I spent over two hours walking through the iPhone keynote.
New York Times: And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’ » A look at the " Path" Jobs had to take during the keynote to prevent the demo iPhones from crashing.
BBC: ‘Sweating bullets’ - The inside story of the first iPhone » Tony Fadell talks about the years of work leading up to the iPhone.
512 Pixels: On the Original iPhone’s Launch » In 2013, I shared my experience as an Apple Retail employee the day the iPhone launched.
Daring Fireball: iPhone First Impressions » I remember poring over John Gruber’s notes the day after the iPhone came out.
Ars Technica: iPhone in Depth » Jacqui Cheng’s iPhone review.
Macworld: The iPhone: Complete Review » Jason Snell’s iPhone review.
Backchannel: Phil Schiller on iPhone’s Launch » Steven Levy’s interview with Phil Schiller on the next 50 years of iPhone.
(The original Mac had 128 kilobytes of RAM, not megabytes. I misspoke in the video. Sorry about that.)
Anyways, I’m a big fan of this watch stand. You can grab one on Amazon for just $15.