Dante D’Orazio:
The third-party iOS keyboard brings the past to life, and is complete with authentic iPod scrolling sounds. Fancy. Now you, too, can scroll through one letter at a time as you compose your next great tweet. Even better, the keyboard includes all of those hundreds of emoji included in iOS 8.3. Just keep on scrolling, you’ll find those dancing sisters eventually.
This keyboard is kind of the opposite of this idea:
Turns out, the PowerPC G3 chips that powered Macs for years are still powering hardware, albeit in space:
The RAD750 is a radiation-hardened single board computer manufactured by BAE Systems Electronics, Intelligence & Support. The successor of the RAD6000, the RAD750 is for use in high radiation environments experienced on board satellites and spacecraft. The RAD750 was released in 2001, with the first units launched into space in 2005.
As Thomas Brand points out, the RAD750 can be found in all sorts of cool missions include the Deep Impact comet chaser, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Kepler space telescope and Mars Curiosity rover.
I bet my Clamshell iBook would do okay in space. That thing is crazy durable.
The best way to journal on your Mac or iOS device just got a new, first-party sync option:
Day One Sync is a fast and reliable alternative to iCloud and Dropbox for backing up and synchronizing your Day One journal between all of your devices.
Beyond syncing, this service is vital to the future of the Day One platform. It lays the foundation for numerous features in the future, including:
- Multiple journals
- Web-based version of Day One
- Shared journals
- Multiple photos
- Journaling via email
- API and IFTTT integration
I switched over to it, and I have to say, it’s way faster than Dropbox was. I love Day One, and am excited to see it gaining more powerful features.
Jason Snell:
They’re going to collide eventually. iOS is on track for version 9 this year, and if Apple continues incrementing OS X versions, we’ll be heading for 10.11. And, again barring any change in philosophy, in the summer of 2016 we’ll be talking about iOS 10 and OS X and things will get weird.
But this is an era where Apple appears to be amenable to change on many fronts. Tacking the lowercase letter i on the front of product names appears to be a thing of the past—hello, Apple Watch. (And while it would be bold for Apple to change the name of iOS to Apple OS, I can’t see it—it’s powering the iPhone and iPad, and those names aren’t changing anytime soon.)
So let me make a proposal. As long as Apple is showing a willingness to change, let’s get off 10 and take this one to eleven.
Going to something “Mac OS Santa Cruz” sure has a nice ring to it. While I’d miss this type of banter, I agree with Jason: it’s time to move on.
This week, we talk about the state of the Mac App Store and our hopes and dreams for iOS 9.
This episode was made possible by:
This morning, news broke that Verizon is purchasing AOL. Here’s Peter Kafka:
Earlier this year, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said there was no truth to reports that he was selling his company to Verizon. It’s a different story now: The telco is buying the Internet publisher and subscription service for $4.4 billion.
Verizon, which will pay $50 a share for AOL, says the deal will help its “wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy.” Verizon says the transaction should close this summer.
Armstrong, who left the top sales job at Google to run AOL in 2009, will stay on to run the business after the deal closes, Verizon says.
$4.4 billion for video advertising tech seems … bold. Clearly Verizon is trying to generate income in markets beyond the ones it exists in as an ISP.
Honestly, I don’t care to much about this. I’ve been a paying Verizon customer for years, and while all ISPs are creepy, I can deal with Verizon’s shenanigans.
However, what AOL is best know for, at least in our circles, are properties like Autoblog, TUAW, TechCrunch and Engadget. That’s where this purchase gets interesting, and possibly troubling.
I’ve gotten to know several people at these sites over the years, and they are all good people. My concerns aren’t with the people reporting, but with the business situation these properties have been thrusted into with this acquisition.
While it has since shuttered the site, Verizon made headlines last year trying to blur the lines between tech coverage and corporate messaging.
As I wrote then, there’s a clear difference between running ads to pay for content and having news be shaped by a parent organization.
Of course, having corporate ownership isn’t anything new. In his editorial about the purchase, Verge boss Nilay Patel writes:
Full disclosure: I used to work at Engadget, as did many of The Verge’s founders; we left AOL to start this site. I never felt any editorial pressure at AOL, but huge corporate news like this would frequently leave us spinning without real answers for months at a time. And Comcast Ventures is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, but it should be abundantly clear that we have complete editorial independence from that relationship.
However, it’s possible that these blogs don’t end up as part of Verizon’s empire. Here’s Kafka again:
One scenario we’ve heard is that Verizon intends to spin out some or all of its content operations, like HuffPo, with a third partner, perhaps German publisher Axel Springer.
In an interview with Re/code, Armstrong didn’t address that scenario directly, though he seemed to leave the door open. “We’ve spoken to partners about content and scaling,” he said. “Obviously we’ve seen a lot of interest in the content brands we have. So over the course of the summer, stay tuned.”
Kara Swisher reports that the Huffington Post at least may be spun off as part of the deal.
Late today, Tim Armstrong spoke on this very topic:
TechCrunch is not getting sold off. There will be editorial independence. And from a distribution and resource standpoint, it’s probably the most exciting deal we could have done.
The interview this is pulled from is an interesting look at the acquisition, but I’m sure it won’t be the last word on the marriage of Verizon and AOL. This one will be interesting to watch for a while.
The most complicated machine man has ever built is but a Hot Wheels toy.
STS-125 in solar transit as seen from Earth #OTD in 2009 pic.twitter.com/Epq2YWv7Iz
— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) May 12, 2015
Everyone’s favorite developer-turned-punctuation David Smith:
Yesterday Pedometer++ had its one millionth download. Here is the story of how it got there.
I love Pedometer++. Even with the Health and Activity apps from Apple, it’s still my go-to app for tracking steps as I go about my day.
As I’ve written about before, I have a very real strong tie to locations in my memory. Even as a child, nothing would trigger nostalgia like a place.
While I didn’t share it here, I’ve spent most of the year in and out doctor’s offices after a period of spending several nights a week throwing up and losing a bunch of weight. I’ve embarked on a gluten-free and diary-free diet, which has helped greatly, slowly clearing up all of my symptoms.
Of course, before arriving at this answer, I underwent a handful of diagnostic tests at a hospital about 15 minutes from our house. It’s the hospital where both of our sons were born, and where we went after losing a pregnancy in the fall of 2013. I remembered and thought about those events while parking, but as I was being walked down the hallway, the nurse and I passed the ultrasound suite where Josiah’s tumor was first discovered:
The day before, a routine checkup had ended in a conversation of “drive to the hospital. Don’t stop to go home, don’t stop for lunch. There will be doctors waiting for you in the ER.” Needless to say, we were shaken, but not until an MRI and that conversation on that creaky plastic couch at Lebonheur Children’s Hospital did we know the full extent of just how bad things were.
That checkup was six years ago today.
Before we drove across town to the ER, I had a few minutes to step into the lobby and get in touch some people. I called our parents and siblings, whom met us at Lebonheur. I texted my boss something vague, but that day would be the last day I worked for a month.
While May 8 will always be burned into my family’s collective DNA, Josiah’s disease doesn’t rule our lives day to day, like it once did. It’s been four years since Josiah stopped chemo, and just last week, had an MRI that shows his brain tumor remains stable. It’s still there — he’ll never be “in remission” — but it hasn’t grown. He’s finishing up kindergarten and, for the most part, is a normal six year old.
None of that seemed possible while sitting in that little room.
The years have been hard, and the mileage has been harder, but we’re intact. I never thought we’d get this far. The truth is that Josiah lives on the edge of what his doctors know about his disease. Any day, any MRI, any seizure could throw us back into the trenches. Living with that weight is hard, but we’re learning how to manage it.
I don’t know how many more miles are on this road. I don’t know this story ends, but for now, I’m trying to treasure every moment I can with Josiah and his siblings.
David Sparks has put together a 2.5 hour screencast dissecting and explaining Apple’s new Photos app. I’ve been skimming it this morning and already have learned some things. It’s a well-spent $9.99 for you or a Mac user in your life.
Sam Soffes, the developer behind the new Redacted for Mac shares the number of downloads that the app had, while being the 8th top paid app in the US and top paid in app in Graphics category:
It’s pretty nuts that 59 sales is top paid on the Mac App Store in the US.
Ouch.
The Mac App Store has seen a lot of top-tier developers leave over the years, but this number is just pathetic. Clearly consumers aren’t using the Store in any meaningful way either.
The whole thing is a damn shame. Redacted is a great little Mac app, and Soffes clearly can’t make it into a business on its own. I think it may be time for Apple to take a long, hard look at the Mac App Store and either invest in it and woo back developers (and customers) or just shutter the thing.
On this week’s podcast, we were joined by Christina Warren to talk about BUILD. We then discussed Apple’s Watch band program and what the company could do with Beats Audio.
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