If rumors are true, the next MacBook Pro will lack the standard F1-F12 keys that have graced keyboards for years. In its place, Apple is said to be using an OLED touch-sensitive bar.
Martin Hajek has created some mockups of what this could look like that are pretty stunning:
This type of hardware would give Apple a lot of flexibility. In the original iPhone keynote, Steve Jobs said something really interesting, with photos of existing smartphones on the slide over his shoulder:
I missed this link the other day, but this week marks 23 years since Apple introduced the Newton.
The Kindle Oasis is really nice, but you probably shouldn’t buy one unless you’re a hardcore ebook fan.
First of all, it’s $289 with Special Ads Offers, which is bonkers-expensive for a Kindle. You can get an iPad mini 2 for less, and the actually-worth-owning iPad mini 4 isn’t that much more.
Second of all, the Oasis isn’t a big jump over Amazon’s other offerings. The Kindle Paperwhite is still for sale at just $119, and the nicer Voyage can be had for $199.
Now writing at Bloomberg, Mark Gurman has some details on what looks like a new MacBook Pro:
The updated notebooks will be thinner, include a touch screen strip for function keys, and will be offered with more powerful and efficient graphics processors for expert users such as video gamers, said the people, who asked not to be named.
Additionally, the new MacBook Pro will introduce Touch ID to the Mac lineup for the first time.
This article lists the materials included in the eMate Connectivity CD package:
Before Federico heads to the beach for many months of vacation, the guys talk about iPad keyboards, Dropbox Paper and Instagram Stories before answering listener questions.
My thanks to our sponsors:
Wonder what’s going on at your local newspaper? John Oliver is on the case.
I’m a sucker for re-issued space books,1 and this Kickstarter project looks great:
The flight plan was a minute-by-minute time line of activities for the Apollo 11 mission crew. We are reproducing this plan..perfectly.
My copy of the NASA Graphics Standard Manual re-issue is amazing. ↩︎
Rick Tetzeli has published a wide-ranging interview with Tim Cook, Craig Federighi and Eddy Cue.
At the heart of the article is the concern that Apple is stretching too thin, moving far beyond it’s old scope of projects and products:
Steve Jobs had been the company’s editor, proud of saying no to features, products, business ideas, and new hires far more often than he said yes. Apple’s seemingly diffuse product line reinforces the argument that Cook is not as rigorous. (The fear has a worrisome precedent: During the early and mid-1990s, Apple’s product line was a mess of marketing-inspired offerings, and both its reputation as a unique manufacturer and its business suffered.)
In addition to predicting an all-new Apple Watch 2 with a GPS, barometer, larger battery, and more, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo 2016 today claimed that upgraded first-generation Apple Watch models with faster TSMC-built processors and superior waterproofing will likely launch in the second half of 2016.
For several years, Apple has kept old iPads for sale at lower price points, demoting them when a new device is announced.
At a media event Thursday, Aug. 4, in Seattle, Amazon took the wraps off its first “Prime Air” branded plane, a Boeing 767 owned by Atlas Air that has been converted into a freighter. Amazon announced deals with two aircraft leasing companies — Atlas, and another called Air Transport Services Group, or ATSG — earlier this year to fly as many as 40 dedicated cargo planes over the next two years. Eleven are already in operation; this is the first one that’s been painted.