The bottom line: When in doubt, make the phone call, offer up the last chocolate chip cookie or let the stressed-out person cut in line. It means a lot more than you think.
Read MoreThe Verge: Google tries publicly shaming Apple into adopting RCS
This will never happen
“The search giant has a new “Get The Message” website that lays out a familiar set of arguments for why Apple should support the standard, revolving around smoother messaging between iPhone and Android devices. Naturally, there’s also a #GetTheMessage hashtag to really get those viral juices flowing.
For most people, the problems Google describes are most familiar in the form of the green bubbles that signify messages to Android users in Apple’s Messages app. While the iPhone app uses Apple’s own iMessage service to send texts between iPhones (complete with modern features like encryption, support for group chats, and high-quality image and video transfers), they revert to old-fashioned SMS and MMS when texting an Android user. Not only are these messages shown in a color-clashing green bubble but also they break many of the modern messaging features people have come to rely on. “
Read More…
Medium: What I learnt about Apple in 8 visuals by reading ‘After Steve’
Tripp Mickle provides a detailed, intimate insight into the past, present and future of Apple; an organisation known for designing innovative products on the borderline of technology and liberal arts. In the last few years, Apple’s business strategy is transitioning, moving into services and subscriptions to ensure consistent growth and avoid stagnation. A fully autonomous Apple Car is rumoured to be in the making which could revolutionise the way we interact with products once more. I really enjoyed the insights into Apple and I hope you did too. - Steffan Morris Hernandez
Tom's Guide: Apple just showed us how it will kill the password forever
“Passwords are key to protecting everything we do online today, from everything we communicate to all of our finances,” said Knight “But they’re also one of the biggest attack vectors and security vulnerabilities users face today.
That’s why Apple has been pushing so hard for an alternative. Passkeys use Touch ID or Face ID for biometric verification, and iCloud Keychain to sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV with end-to-end encryption.
Other companies have tried to replace passwords with dedicated hardware, like a physical security key, but that was mostly focused on enterprise users; it also added another layer of complexity. Passkeys have a real shot to take off because they leverage a device you already have.”
The New Yorker: The Age of Algorithmic Anxiety
“Only in the middle of the past decade, though, did recommender systems become a pervasive part of life online. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all shifted away from chronological feeds—showing messages in the order in which they were posted—toward more algorithmically sequenced ones, displaying what the platforms determined would be most engaging to the user. Spotify and Netflix introduced personalized interfaces that sought to cater to each user’s tastes. (Top Picks for Kyle!) Such changes made platforms feel less predictable and less transparent. What you saw was never quite the same as what anyone else was seeing. You couldn’t count on a feed to work the same way from one month to the next. Just last week, Facebook implemented a new default Home tab on its app that prioritizes recommended content in the vein of TikTok, its main competitor.”
Tech Times: Apple Acquires a 67-Acre Campus in San Diego
Apple bought a new campus located in San Diego in line with its land expansion. The tech giant acquired the 67-acre Rancho Vista Corporate Center for $445 million, so it could extend engineering jobs in the region.
………….
Trust me, I’ve been an Apple evangelist ever since founding the first Macintosh only dealership in the country (MacSource) but is this the best move in these remote/hybrid work times?
Again, I do not doubt Apple, those who have, have lost but this is an interesting purchase.
Derek Sivers: Writing one sentence per line
My advice to anyone who writes: Try writing one sentence per line. I’ve been doing it for twenty years, and it improved my writing more than anything else.
New sentence? Hit [Enter]. New line.
NEW ATLAS: "Self-boosting vaccines" load multiple drug doses into a single shot
Researchers at MIT have developed microparticles that can release doses of drugs at specific times over days, weeks or months. The platform could be useful for creating what the team calls “self-boosting vaccines.”
The Atlantic: Hybrid Work Is Doomed
But actually, it isn’t. A rational assessment of your time and productivity was never quite at issue, and I think it never will be. Companies have been pulling employees back to work in person irrespective of anyone’s well-being or efficiency. That’s because return-to-office plans are not concerned, in any fundamental way, with workers and their plight or preferences. Rather they serve as affirmations of a superseding value—one that spans every industry of knowledge work. If your boss is nudging you to come back to your cubicle, the policy has less to do with one specific firm than with the whole firmament of office life: the Office, as an institution. The Office must endure! To the office we must go.
This should be obvious, but somehow it is not: The existence of an office is the central premise of office work, and nothing—not even a pandemic—will make it go away.
Cory Doctorow: The Swerve
The good news is: climate denial is on the wane. The bad news is: deniers have pivoted to incrementalism: “We’ll fix the climate. Give us a couple decades to phase out oil and gas. Give us a couple decades to replace the cars and retrofit the houses. Give us a couple decades to invent cool direct-air carbon capture systems, or hydrogen cars that work just like gas cars, or to replace our overland aviation routes with high speed rail, or to increase our urban density and swap out cars for subways and buses. Give us a couple decades to keep making money. We’ll get there.”
In other words: “We’re pretty sure we can get some wings on this bus before it goes over the cliff. Keep your hands off the wheel. Someone could get really badly hurt.”
A EULOGY FOR THE CAPTCHA
“There is at least one widely hated facet of civilization that will soon go blessedly extinct: the CAPTCHA (aka the “Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart”).”
On The Turning Away by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd eloquently illustrating the state of affairs
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
"Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away"
It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting it's shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
Mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?
On the moral responsibility to be an informed citizen
“How might we alleviate our society’s misinformation problem? One suggestion goes as follows: the problem is that people are so ignorant, poorly informed, gullible, and irrational that they lack the ability to discern credible information and real expertise from incredible information and fake expertise…
Leaning away from individual responsibility means that the burden should be shifted to those who have structural control over our information environments. Solutions to our misinformation epidemic are effective when they are structural and address the problem at its roots. In the case of online misinformation, we should understand that technology giants aim at creating profit over creating public democratic goods. If disinformation can be made to be profitable, we should not expect those who profit to self-regulate and adopt a responsibility toward information by default. Placing accountability and responsibility on technology companies but also on government, regulatory bodies, traditional media and political parties by democratic means is a good first step to foster information environments that encourage good knowledge practices. This step provides a realistic distribution of both causal and effective remedial responsibility for our misinformation problem without nihilistically throwing out the entire concept of responsibility – which we should never do.”
Kansas City named FIFA World Cup 2026 host city
Kansas City was officially named a FIFA World Cup 2026 host city on Thursday as FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, announced the 16 bids selected across the United States, Mexico and Canada to host matches for the largest event in World Cup history.
HOST CITIES (16): Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver
Read More…
Apple's Coolest iOS 16 Feature Lets You Drag Subjects Right Out of Images
With iOS 16, Apple introduced a curious new feature that's kind of like instant Photoshop, as you can use it to pull the subject out of any image or photo, pasting it into another photo or using it as a sticker in the Messages app.
10 years, beginning in 2023
In a historic first for sports, fans can stream every single MLS match through the Apple TV app, without any local blackouts or restrictions
Apple Execs Use a Simple Presentation Hack to Amplify Key Messages
Make sure the words on a slide mirror the words you say out loud and you'll be one step closer to delivering a Steve Jobs-worthy presentation.
There's a scientific reason why this technique works effectively. It's called multimodal learning. In a nutshell, people remember things better if an idea is delivered across different modes like visual and audio channels. If you say something and your viewer hears it, sees it, and reads it, then the message has a better chance of being encoded in their brain. - Inc.
Can coffee make you fitter?
Coffee is fantastic – it not only wakes you up, it tastes great and even better, it can be good for you. It’s high in antioxidants, improves mood and is linked to healthier hearts. Surprising research has even shown that a cup or two can boost your exercise performance, endurance, and help you burn more calories during your workout.
The PGA vs. LIV
I wonder which was more entertaining; Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, and Tony Finau playing 18 holes head-to-head-to-head at the Canadian Open or the LIV Golf London tournament won by Charl Schwartzel.
Schwartzel, not a household name, collected more prize money from winning the three-day, 54-hole event than he had from the last four years combined. Not that it could match the sense of sporting achievement that he felt after his win at Augusta National in 2011.
I guess all money spends, even if you have to ignore atrocities to get it.
- from anonymous golf journalist