May 28, 2019

You Merely Adopted the Dark

By M.G. Siegler • Issue #171 • View online

Apple’s WWDC event is next week and so of course, more leaks. The latest, from 9to5 Mac’s Guilherme Rambo, showcase the long-rumored dark mode within iOS 13. I, for one, can’t wait for this. Between Pocket/Instapaper, The Economist, and even Twitter, I love having this option in the evening. So much so that I actively avoid surfing the web with all its blinding white.

My only question: what happens to the app-specific dark modes when the OS version rolls out?

Also seemingly back per these leaks is some notion of skeuomorphism. Which I’m totally on board with. We went far too much in the direction of flat, and bland, with iOS 7 and beyond. Bring back some of the fun, Apple.

The new Reminders app looks like a solid update to what is a very ‘meh’ app. And “Find My” seems like a smart combo move from app, despite the silly name. But mainly I just want to know if they’ve actually finally “upgraded” iOS Safari to be “real” Safari.

Drinking: a Hitachino Espresso Stout 🍻

5ish Links

The Ghost of Apple Card Past

Ken Segall informs us that the Apple Card we’re all currently waiting for— the Goldman Sachs variety— was not actually the firstApple Card. Back in 2004, Steve Jobs had an idea for a credit card from Apple:

In typical Steve fashion, though, he wanted to do something different. Instead of offering frequent flier points or cash back, the Apple Card would be far cooler. It would offer free music.

Purchases would earn iPoints, which could be redeemed for your favorite music on iTunes.

These days, in the era of Spotify/Apple Music, that idea seems silly. But 15 years ago, in the era of iTunes — the heyday of iTunes, not the current ugh, iTunes— this would have been a pretty cool perk. A very Jobsian perk. Also:

In the early days of the Apple Store, Steve Jobs and Ron Johnson cooked up the Apple Pro Card to show the pro customers some love.

In Apple’s words, the Pro Card was “your passport to a world of benefits and privileges, designed exclusively for the professional Mac user.”

Sadly, those benefits were borderline pathetic: Free transfer of your files to a new Power Mac G5; “Pro Day” at the Apple Store with 10% off software and free installation; guaranteed next-day Genius Bar appointments; early notification of upcoming offers.

That does sound rather pathetic. But also a bit like the seeding of an “Apple Prime”…

kensegall.com • Share

"Grief and loss, those things don’t ever go away"

Hadley Freeman sat down with Keanu Reeves for a refreshingly candid, yet at the same time mysterious interview:

“With any character, the way I think about it is, you have the role on the page, you have the vision of the director and you have your life experience,” he says.

I came away thinking: what a fascinating human being. I also had no idea that his stunt double in The Matrix films is the guy who direct the John Wick films. Wild.

www.theguardian.com • Share

Tesla: Insane or Clever

Jean-Louis Gassée, like many of us, is bewildered by Tesla:

But, if we make a patient effort to see through the PR excesses, we see an interesting image come into focus, a picture of Tesla winning the war with its software weapons and its vertical integration.

Tesla is a company that would seem to have all the ingredients to be truly transformational. And in many respects, they have been! And yet. I’m not sure there has ever been a company that has been more frustrating. They — and by ‘they’, I mainly mean Elon Musk, of course — keep shooting themselves in the foot. Or worse. They’ve almost made an art of the corporate self-own.

You can only over-promise and under-deliver for so long, right? Right?!

mondaynote.com • Share

IGTV, Now With More Generic Video

I’m on record as being bearish from the get-goon the prospects of Instagram’s (more professional) video efforts. Stories workedbecause it was an extension (and an expansion) of what Instagram was about. This video effortwas just… misguided. And now they’re giving up on the vertical video movement far, far, far too quickly.

www.theverge.com • Share

Banksy Painting Self-Destructs After Fetching $1.4 Million at Sotheby’s

Here’s a fun one as reported by Scott Reyburn that I had been meaning to link to since last October. A Banksy painting fetched $1.4 million in a Sotheby’s auction — and then self-destructed:

“Then we heard an alarm go off,” Morgan Long, the head of art investment at the London-based advisory firm Fine Art Group, who was sitting in the front row of the room, said in an interview on Saturday. “Everyone turned round, and the picture had slipped through its frame.”

The painting, mounted on a wall close to a row of Sotheby’s staff members, had been shredded, or at least partially shredded, by a remote-control mechanism on the back of the frame.

Amazing.

www.nytimes.com • Share

An Astounding Game of Thrones Chart