Tag: apple

A few weeks ago I bought this cable to connect my phone to my camera. So after a few uses it seems like a good time for a quick review. The bottom line is that it works, and other than a few camera related quirks it’s a good value at $30. As a bonus it can even be used to transfer photos from one iPhone to another.

Just to the shoot the elephant in the room: Yes, there is gadget lust involved here.

Ever since the original announcement I’ve wondered exactly how I could justify the purchase of something so unnecessary. The features are well documented by Apple and others. I don’t see a need to rehash what a cottage industry of speculation has already hashed.

That didn’t take long. This will be Apple’s legacy.

One thing that’s taken a few days to sink is how Apple managed to improve the keyboard on the new MacBook model. During the announcement Tim Cook mentioned that the key tops were 17% larger than the current MacBook keyboards. I noted it in my live blog on Monday, but didn’t think too much about it.

This evening I thought about going to an Apple Store to see it in person, but decided to do a virtual comparison first. Using screenshots I put together a quick comparison of the new and old keyboards. The new MacBook is about 1.3” narrower than the MacBook Pro that I currently use. I adjusted the size of pictures so the comparison would be accurate. (It’s not perfect, but it’s damn close.)

The article goes onto say, “It remains unclear how intelligence agencies would get developers to use the poisoned version of Xcode.”

Getting the hacked Xcode package out in the wild would not be that hard. Before the creation of the Mac App Store, Xcode was a direct download from Apple.com. As with anything that’s served out on to the Internet, it’s possible that it could have been intercepted and replaced with the hacked copy. The CIA and it’s friends have showed remarkable competence and hacking, diverting, and collecting web traffic.

Of of the things announced today, Apple’s ResearchKit strikes me as the one thing that will have a long-lasting impact on the world. I think Apple might realize it too. Making ResearchKit open source was a main point in the presentation.

This is about actually getting data into the hands of researchers. Medical research is expensive. It involves paying people for participating in the study, and the time it takes for each consultation. Some researchers have turned to online platforms to find a population for the study. The downside of the is some people are participating just for the money. In some cases it has become a job. PBS recently produced a segment about these professional survey takers.

I watched the Apple event this morning so you wounldn’t have to. Tim Cook covered a lot ground in the 90 minuite event. The last half-hour was devoted the Apple Watch.