One of my favorite actresses, Amy Adams, plays a linguist, charged with understanding the alien visitor’s language. It seems the arrival of very smart science fiction films like Ex Machina, Interstellar and The Martian are inspiring a new breed. This looks to be one of them. Coming November 11th.
ACM 373: Apple's Engineering Demands, Fake iPhones, Intel's ARM Move
Apple is relentless with its design ideas regardless of what the hardware engineers say. Bryan and Jeff explain why that’s a good thing for consumers, plus they show you how to spot fake iPhone 7 photos, and look at Intel’s decision to start making ARM processors.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-17: Behind the Scenes with Background Mode's John Martellaro
John Martellaro has been hosting some great interviews on TMO’s Background Mode podcast, so today Jeff Gamet turns the tables and interviews John. They go behind the scenes to learn learn how John makes his interviews happen, and to look at some of the high points from the show so far.
Apple MFi-Certified Lightning Cable 3-Pack: $21.99
If you go through Lightning cables like I do, you’ll like this deal on a three-pack for $21.99. They’re MFi-certified and 1 meter long. Grab ‘em while you can.
Automatic New Car Logger goes Pro with Free 3G Data
Automatic, the device that connects to your car’s ODB port to track your driving, just went pro. The new Automatic Pro model uses a 3G wireless data connection instead of Bluetooth to log data, which means you can track your car’s activity and status without relying on your iPhone’s Bluetooth signal. Even better, you don’t pay anything extra for 3G—it’s included for free. Automatic Pro comes with a new app and better IFTTT support. You can pick up Automatic Pro for US$129.95.
Droplr Pro Lifetime License: $29.99
We have a deal for you today on a lifetime subscription to Droplr Pro, a digital media collaboration service.  Drop a file on the Droplr icon (there’s a keyboard shortcut, too), and it will be uploaded to a server where other members of your team can view or edit the file. It integrates with Microsoft Office, Cisco Spark, Slack, Adobe, and more. The price through our deal is $29.99.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-16: Apple's China R&D Center, Microsoft's iPad Pro Dig
Apple plans to open a research and development center in China before the end of the year. Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to explore why Apple is opening the center and how that fits into the company’s plans in the country. They also look at Microsoft’s clever iPad Pro slam.
Tim Cook on Being CEO After Steve Jobs (Video)
Apple CEO Tim Cook had to step into some enormous shoes taking over from Steve Jobs. Much has been written and said on the topic, but Tim Cook hasn’t often spoken publicly about it himself. In his new interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Cook did talk about Steve Jobs, and the newspaper posted a video snippet on the topic. In it, Mr. Cook talks about Steve Jobs being a heat shield for Apple, and how he thought the media would lose interest in Apple after Mr. Jobs passed. If you let the video below play through, you’ll get a second snippet from the interview. If you let it keep playing, you’ll get videos unrelated to Tim Cook’s interview.
TMO Background Mode: Interview with Managing Editor of the Backblaze Blog Peter Cohen
Peter Cohen is the managing editor of the Backblaze blog. Previously, he’s written for Macworld, The Loop and iMore. Peter talked about how, as a kid, he had a TI-99/4A with bit-mapped graphics. He drew images on graph paper, converted the patterns to Hexadecimal codes and wrote to the display with Basic. The result was color graphics of spaceships shooting at each other. When he first saw the 1984 Macintosh with MacPaint, «it was like the top of my head blew off.» In the second segment, Peter and I chat about how Tim Cook is doing, Apple and its desktop Macs, whether the iPad Pros can replace the Mac and robotics. Peter is very much tuned in and speaks with wisdom on all these subjects. You’ll want to tune in too.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-15: Apple Pay's Failing Competitors, Augmented Reality
Contactless mobile payment platforms are pretty much a mess right now. John Martellaro and Dave Hamilton join Jeff Gamet to look at the state of Apple Pay and its competitors, and who may be the real winner in the contactless payment game. They also look at Apple’s push into augmented reality.
