Monthly Archives: November 2015

Swiss Watch Sales—Biggest Decline in Six Years →

November 20, 2015 · 18:22

Corinne Gretler for Bloomberg:

Swiss watch exports had their biggest decline in six years in October, led by a 39 percent slump in shipments to Hong Kong, the industry’s largest market.

I have an Apple Watch. My wife has an Apple Watch. So does her sister and many of my friends. But I also have a nice mechanical watch at home, hidden from sight while I work on my fitness and health, trying to close the circles each day.

I was at London Heathrow yesterday and I happened to come across a shop which had Panerai’s1 among many other fine brands. Now I desperately want one. I don’t know why, but I simply love these precise mechanical pieces of art.

  1. Technically, they’re not Swiss. ↩

iFixit tears down the Apple Pencil →

November 20, 2015 · 18:01

iFixit:

What is this—a logic board for ants? Not quite, but weighing in at a whopping 1.0 gram it’s definitely the smallest we’ve ever seen.

Waiting for mine to arrive which should take only 4-5 weeks, which means that I have to make do with iFixit’s excellent teardowns.

Instagram Kills Off API; Still Doesn’t Have an iPad App →

November 19, 2015 · 15:32

Josh Constine:

Instagram is shutting down its feed API to make feature development nimbler and create a more consistent user experience.

Apple has introduced the iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, and iPad Pro since 2010. Instagram still hasn’t gotten around to publishing a universal app for both iPhone and iPad, and they debuted on the App Store in October, 2010.

Header image: Instagram at 1x on iPad Pro.

Google Engineer Warns Not to Use OnePlus USB to USB Type C Cable →

November 19, 2015 · 12:49

Benson Leung:

It is not spec compliant (uses a 3A identifier resistor instead of the “Default USB Power” one), and may cause damage to your charger, hub, or PC USB port if you use it with Chromebook Pixel, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X.

I have one of these and have been using it to connect my Apple TV 4 and MacBook Pro to record video. No damage so far, but I’m having second thoughts now…

Apple and Google Pressured for Encrypted Data Access →

November 19, 2015 · 12:39

Tiffany Kary and Chris Dolmetsch for Bloomberg:

“The line to protect the public should not be drawn by two companies who make smartphones,” Vance said Wednesday at a cybersecurity conference in New York where he unveiled a 42-page white paper on the issue. His plan would require companies to download data for investigators with a warrant, rather than providing the government with a “backdoor.”

I’m extremely proud of the companies who draw the aforementioned line in the sand. It will be a sad day when Apple, Google, and others, stop caring for their customer’s privacy—I truly hope it never comes to this.

Also, these requests seem especially absurd since the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks were using unencrypted methods of communication.

Polish Embassy: There were no Polish concentration camps in World War II →

November 19, 2015 · 12:28

Embassy of the Republic of Poland:

Although the article makes clear who the victims were and who the perpetrators were, the author uses the phrase “Polish” camps to describe Nazi-run institutions. It is simply not right to employ such a phrase…

“There were no Polish concentration camps in World War II. Auschwitz and other such camps in Polish territory were operated by German Nazis.”

iOS 9.2 Beta 4—What’s New?

November 19, 2015 · 12:00

Apple released iOS 9.2 beta 4 yesterday, adding few new features and instead focusing on bug fixes. The most notable features were added in beta 1 to Safari View Controller: Action Extensions and the ability to long press the reload button to either reload the page without content blockers or to request the desktop version of the site.

Continue reading →

Withings Releases Activite Steel →

November 18, 2015 · 23:52

This is probably the most interesting watch on the market for people who need fitness trackers, but don’t want to use a separate device nor buy something like an Apple Watch. I don’t like its design personally—it’s too thin and small for me—but I know people who absolutely adore them.

Withings released the Activite Steel today—it features a 316L stainless steel case and a silicone strap—and priced it at $169.95 / €169.95. It’s much cheaper than the high-end model, which also features a leather strap and sapphire glass, and just a touch more expensive than the Activite Pop with a PVD-coated case.

Tweetbot 2.2 for Mac is out!

November 18, 2015 · 19:02

Apple finally approved Tweetbot 2.2 for Mac, with a few new interesting changes and bug fixes. Most notably, the conversation view now follows Tweetbots for iOS’ behaviour, with the newest Tweets on top, and the app now supports Split View and fullscreen mode in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Continue reading →

Five New Apple TV Ads

November 18, 2015 · 17:19

Apple debuted five new Apple TV ads yesterday, showcasing various features of the new platform. The obvious one is video, which is represented by Netflix and HBO Now—neither of which is still available in Poland, which pisses me off to no end. The second, potentially very important, feature are games, with the heroes being Crossy Road, Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition: Star Wars and Asphalt 8.

I am writing these words sitting in a cafe and one of them made me laugh out loud, to the consternation of the people around me—guess which one.

Watch the ads →

iPad Pro vs. iPad Air 2 vs. iPad mini 4 Display Shoot-Out →

November 18, 2015 · 17:05

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira:

The differences and similarities in performance between these 3 current iPad displays are really interesting and surprising… We’ll cover these issues and much more, with in-depth comprehensive display tests, measurements and analysis that you will find nowhere else.

Biggest doesn’t mean best, but it’s close, so I won’t spoil the surprise. Oh, there are lots of interesting tidbits of information that you won’t find in the comparison tables.

Lightroom 2015.3 / 6.3—Old Import Dialog is Back →

November 18, 2015 · 11:42

Adobe:

Lightroom CC 2015.3 and Lightroom 6.3 are now available on Adobe.com.  The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom.  This release also restores the Import experience available prior to Lightroom 6.2.

I was waiting for this—the import module in 6.2 increased my import times by a factor of two. Hopefully everything will be back to normal.

My plea to Adobe: Please spend the next few months optimising Lightroom for speed.

Mac App Store: Single Point of Failure →

November 17, 2015 · 18:22

Michael Tsai:

The Mac App Store is supposed to make things easier, but it’s also a single point of failure. Not only is it neglected, but sometimes even the existing functionality stops working. Mac OS X 10.9 introduced a code signing bug that prevented me from submitting updates for several months. In June 2015, there was a month-long iTunes Connect bug that prevented my uploaded build from entering the review queue. And I currently have a bug fix update that Apple has been reviewing for 33 days (with 8 days of waiting before that). When I inquired about the status, Apple told me that everything was normal and that I should just keep waiting. In short, the system is broken on multiple levels, and there is no evidence to suggest that things will get better.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Mac App Store as a user—it just makes things so easy—but what Michael mentions is completely unacceptable. It has been getting worse and worse over the past two years or so, and today I will actually actively spend time looking if an app is also available straight from the developer. The purchase procedure is usually much more irritating, I have to store the license information in 1Password, but ultimately it’s been worth it thus far.

Make sure to read the comments below Michael’s post too.

Apple Watch 2 Rumoured in Q2 or Q3 2016 →

November 17, 2015 · 18:12

Zac Hall:

While it’s no surprise that Apple would be planning to introduce the Apple Watch 2 in 2016, a third quarter release would mean a launch two years after the first model was introduced and roughly a year and a half since it went on sale.

I personally expected the second generation Watch to show up at least two years after the first one went on sale, but this theoretically makes sense in terms of the holiday quarter.

Take this with a grain of salt, as usual.

Tim Cook about converging Mac and iPad →

November 17, 2015 · 18:03

Adrian Weckler interviewing Tim Cook:

Speaking to Independent.ie, Cook denied that the death of computers such as the Mac was imminent and said that there would be a market for such traditional personal computers for the foreseeable future.

“We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad,” said Cook. “Because what that would wind up doing, or what we’re worried would happen, is that neither experience would be as good as the customer wants. So we want to make the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world. And putting those two together would not achieve either. You’d begin to compromise in different ways.”

He’s right, it wouldn’t be a good experience. Macs and iPads excel in different areas: the former is extremely powerful and potentially complicated to use, while the latter is simpler, but due to iOS’ constraints, requires more work to incorporate advanced workflows. The good news is that people will be able to get more and more done on the iPad over the next few years, especially since the operating system will gain new capabilities, empowering developers to make even more amazing apps.