Google Home owners are angry because yesterday they got an ad to go along with their morning schedule request. Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to share their thoughts on Google doing what it always does, plus they have some opinions on McDonald’s offering mobile app food ordering.
iOS 10 and Swift 3 Starter Bundle: $45
We have a deal on  the iOS 10 and Swift 3 Starter Bundle. It’s a collection of five training courses for learning how to code for iOS 10 using Swift 3, including The Complete iOS 10 Developer, iOS 10 Projects: Build Amazing Apps with Apple’s Newest iOS, Swift 3 Fundamentals & Essential Training, iOS 10, Swift 3 Hands On Features, and Master iOS 10 + Swift 3 & Create Apps. These developer courses retail for $654, but you can get them for $45 through our deal.
What Happens when a 55 Pound Drone Hits Your Head?
We write here a lot of about small drones. Amazon wants to deliver packages with drones. Drones have taken breathtaking aerial views of Apple Park. But what happens when one of the larger drones accidentally slams into a human being? Time for the automotive crash-test dummies to step up and tell the story! Well, the instrumentation does. Bloomberg has a great story on «Crashing Drones into Test Dummies for Safety» Watch a drone disintegrate as it strikes a crash-test dummy.  It’s a battle of the bots. All for human safety, of course.
Concept Video Shows Great iOS 11 Interface Ideas
With our first glimpse of iOS 11 most likely coming up in a few weeks at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference, it’s fun to look at features we’d like to see in the next version of the iPhone and iPad operating system. Jacek Zieba put together a video showing many of those features in action, and it’s pretty compelling. How about a pop-up menu from the control center’s WiFi icon showing available networks, or group FaceTime video chats? We’d love to see more useful in-app screen controls and that option to clear app data and caches easily, too. But true multi-user support? Apple isn’t going there.
Need to Preserve Night Dark Adaption with iPhone? Here's How
Paul Hayes at Sky & Telescope has written a great tip about how to use the iPhone’s accessibility features to turn the iPhone’s entire display a specific color profile. For example, if you need to shade the iPhone’s entire display permanently reddish in order to preserve night-time dark adaption, you can do that. This technique would be particularly handy for amateur astronomers. While some astronomy apps have this feature, this tip applies to the iPhone’s display across the board. The tip is beautifully described, including an explanation of accessibility shortcuts, and also invites exploration for those who have certain kinds of color blindness. Check it out.
Apple and Politics, Apple Watch Stand Out Features - TMO Daily Observations 2017-03-16
Apple didn’t sign the amicus brief opposing the second travel ban executive order, but that doesn’t mean the company supports it. John Martellaro and Dave Hamilton join Jeff Gamet to talk about Apple’s political versus business positions, plus they look at the features that keep them using their Apple Watch.
Here's an iOS 11 Lock Screen Concept We Can Get Behind
Matt Birchler mocked up a great concept for iOS 11’s lock screen and we’re hoping Apple is taking notes. His ideas are plausible because he builds on what Apple already gave us in iOS 10 with enhancements like a current weather badge, grouped and organized notifications, «smart notifications» triggered by activity or location, and more. Matt also took the time to explain his ideas, and now we’re seriously wondering why there hasn’t ever been a weather complication on our iPhone screens. You can check out Matt’s iOS 11 lock screen concept at the Birchtree website.
Private Internet Access VPN 2-Year Subscription: $59.95
We have a deal for VPN fans, a two-year subscription to Private Internet Access. With this plan, you get unlimited bandwidth on up to 5 devices, including Mac, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux PCs. There are more than 3,300 servers in 25 countries to choose from, and the subscription comes with a variety of services. Check out the details on the deal listing. The price through our deal is $59.95, some 63% off retail.
LEGO Tape? Sign Me Up!
LEGO and tape are two words I hadn’t thought to put together until I saw Nimuno Loops, which is exactly that: LEGO-compatible tape, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s tape with the right size studs so you can stick LEGO bricks to it. Right now it’s an Indigogo campaign that’s gone over its funding goal by 9,320%, which is both awesome and insane. The tape is two studs wide and whatever length you want. You can bend it, cut it, and move it around thanks to its adhesive backing. Pricing starts at US$11 for two 6.5-foot rolls and you can choose from several colors. After something like five different people told me about Nimuno Loops LEGO-compatible tape, I knew I just had to share.
These MIDI Scores Also Tell a Visual Story
Check out this awesome video by Mari Lesterberg (via Laughing Squid). It’s a MIDI Drawing where she draws a story—about Mario, in this case—with MIDI notes. That makes it both a soundtrack and a story, which is intensely clever. She has many more, including a still dedication to Frank Zappa, stories about cars and trains, and childrens’ fairy tales. Ms. Lesterberg is a performing musician, which is always awesome, but these MIDI projects are just too cool.
