 the design of the new Mac Pro (and other future pro hardware).
Facebook on Wednesday said the personal information of up to 87 million people, most of them Americans, may have been improperly shared during the 2016 election with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm connected to President Trump.
Facebook said Wednesday that most of its 2 billion users likely have had their public profiles scraped by outsiders without the users’ explicit permission, dramatically raising the stakes in a privacy controversy that has dogged the company for weeks, spurred investigations in the United States and Europe, and sent the company’s stock price tumbling.
OK, that 2 billion number probably isn’t a lowball, because that’s everyone.
I really wish I was exaggerating, but these seven reasons are the main ways Apple critics attempt to explain why someone would choose to buy products critics believe are both overpriced and inferior to their competition. Because if you’ve already come to the conclusion that Apple products are overpriced and inferior, but hundreds of millions of people still buy them, the only conclusion must be that there is something seriously wrong with the people who buy them.
It’s funny that these debuted the day after I called for Apple to release new Apple Pay commercials, and all four of these are very clever — they each tell a complete story in about 10 seconds. But I don’t think they solve the problem of educating about just what Apple Pay is, and especially why it’s more secure than using a credit or debit card.
What I’m thinking Apple ought to do to get Apple Pay skeptics on board is create a series of explain-it-to-me-like-I-have-no-idea-what-it-is spots like the original iPhone ads.
Update: This video on Apple’s YouTube channel is more along the lines of what I think they need to put on TV, at least content-wise.
Want to manage all that hardware you just bought?  Want a place to store all that content you’re creating on your Mac or iPad? Buy some Dropbox storage or use Google Drive because Managed Apple ID has no way to purchase more iCloud storage from Apple. Looking for a Learning Management System? Subscribe to an app like Showbie or SeeSaw. Do you see a pattern? This isn’t to disparage any of the third-parties mentioned as my school currently depends on each of them to fill in the gaps that Apple won’t. However, all of those services cost money and can quickly add up to a significant amount spent year-over-year. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to have choices in this space, but it’s hard to take Apple seriously when they don’t have any first-party solutions in these areas for the education market.
By comparison, Google with Chromebooks combined with GSuite for Education gives you an email account, unlimited file and media storage in Google Drive, a place for hosting student created web content in Google Sites, ability to use Google Accounts as a single sign-on for various services, constantly upgraded collaboration in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides and so much more for free. It’s a shame that schools that use Apple’s hardware need to depend on Google’s GSuite for many of the services Apple doesn’t provide. There are administrators that would love to go all in on Apple, especially because of their focus on privacy, but without integrated services, they need to lean on third parties which can render Apple’s strength in privacy moot.
My point is that even if my school wanted to go all-in with Apple, we simply can’t. It feels as if Apple has no desire to take care of the entire eco-system when it comes to education technology.
This is a long excerpt, but Yoshinga has many other interesting observations about the state of Apple and education. But this bit above gets to the heart of it. Back in 2012 (when Apple last held an education-focused event), Apple announced new hardware and software. That’s what Apple had always done to thrive in the education market. But what Apple clearly missed then was that what educators needed were thorough device and student account management systems. Apple didn’t and still doesn’t have that. Google does.
Unlike those competing apps, though, Agenda also gives me the option of associating any given note to a specific event on my calendar. The screenshot below shows how clicking on the calendar icon lets me find a date, view the events on that date, and then link that event with the current note. Even more powerfully, I can also view my calendar in a right-hand pane, click on an event there and initiate a new, linked note that automatically copies over the event’s title, attendees and description. Brilliant.
I just tried this and it’s really simple, obvious, and clever. When you attach an Agenda note to an event, it simply puts an agenda://note/<unique-identifier> URL in the event’s note field. Simple.
Having a sitting President launching scathing personal attacks on a federal law enforcement officer and demanding his firing or imprisonment for personal and political motives is wildly outside the norms that govern the American system. Similarly, a President who routinely threatens prosecutorial or regulatory vengeance against private companies because they are not sufficiently politically subservient to him personally is entirely outside of our system of governance. At present, Donald Trump is an autocrat without an autocracy.
Can you even imagine the reaction from Republicans if Barack Obama had gone after, say, Rupert Murdoch in this way?  How anyone supports this president at this point is beyond my comprehension.
Amazon’s stock is taking a hit as a result of Trump’s rhetoric, but if I were an Amazon investor, I wouldn’t worry. Jeff Bezos is very, very smart. Donald Trump is not.
Did you know that 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered 50 years ago at Washington, DC’s Uptown Theater, just a few miles from the National Air and Space Museum? To celebrate the film’s impact on culture and technology, we’re opening a special temporary exhibition of the immersive art installation The Barmecide Feast. In this exhibit, walk into a fully realized, full-scale reflection of the iconic, neo-classical hotel room from the penultimate scene of the film.
The installation will be open to the public from April 8 to May 28, 2018.
Groups of six will be allowed in the room for two minutes.
First thought: This is amazing, can’t wait to see it. Second thought: Two minutes?
Tucked in a downstairs corner of the maze that is the London College of Communication is the Stanley Kubrick Archives. It’s open to the public for pre-booked visits and on a recent nose-around, though initially distracted by the first-edition Robert Crumb comics, I managed to get to grips (touch gently with gloved fingers) with one of the first draft scripts of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Bound in black and looking very much like the monolith from the film, I was surprised by the extent to which this script differs from what we see and hear in the finished film. One of the most striking divergences is the presence of a benevolent second HAL, determined to thwart his evil twin.
Now this is some news that clearly shows Apple is getting more serious about Siri. “Google’s chief of search and artificial intelligence” sounds like the single best possible person in the world Apple could hire to make Siri what it needs to be. I think it’s important too that Giannandrea reports directly to Cook. If it works out, we’ll probably look back at this as one of the most significant Apple executive hires ever.
This is the unrestored film that recreates the cinematic event audiences experienced 50 years ago.
I am so insanely excited about this, I can barely contain myself. I’ve seen 70mm prints of 2001 on big screens twice. Once was a so-so older print. The other time was a cherry print. But this print sounds like something else altogether, and I can think of no one better than Christopher Nolan to have overseen it.
Following Apple’s education-focused event, the tech giant has quietly added the coveted Space Gray Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse 2 to its online store. In other words, you no longer need to buy a iMac Pro just to get them, or fork over your life savings to scalpers on eBay.
Apple’s selling the Space Gray Magic Keyboard for $149 — a $20 premium over the regular silver model which costs $129. The Space Gray Magic Trackpad is also $149 and also costs $20 more than the $129 silver version. As for the Space Gray Magic Mouse 2, it $99 compared to the $79 silver version.
Speaking of “working hard to charge you more”.
Apple hiring trend data suggests that the company is finally taking its Siri intelligent assistant seriously. According to hiring data that we track at Thinknum, the number of open positions that contain the term “Siri” has accelerated in recent weeks, with a current all-time high of 161 job listings posted today alone. This marks a jump in hiring for the keyword of 24% in just over a month.
I would caution against drawing any conclusions from this other than that Apple has increased the number of job openings which include “Siri” in the title. Does this mean they’re taking Siri “more seriously”? Maybe. But I don’t think they ever didn’t take it seriously. A lot of people seem to take it for granted that because Siri has stalled compared to Google Assistant and Alexa,