Apple is apparently courting former HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo to head up its original TV programming for Apple Music. He’s the guy who was responsible for shows such as The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and Game of Thrones, and Apple no doubt wants to replicate that success with its own streaming shows.
Disconnect 1-Year Premium Subscription: $19
We have a deal on Disconnect, a VPN service that specializes in tracker blocking. Our deal is for a one year subscription for $19 (regular price is $50), and it’s good for use on up to three devices. Check out the details on the deal listing.
iCloud and iWork: Using On-Demand Downloads
Using iCloud Drive? Then you need to know how to download all of your Pages, Numbers, or Keynote files to your iOS devices automatically. This’ll definitely save you some headaches if you need access to your spreadsheets when you head out into an area with sketchy cell coverage!
iBooks Offers 30 Edgar Award Winning Mysteries for $3.99 or Less
Apple’s iBooks is offering 30 mystery novels for $3.99 or less, all of them past winners of the Edgar Awards. The Edgars—short for the Edgar Allan Poe Awards—are handed out by the Mystery Writers of America, an author’s guild. The sale is promoting eight 2017 Edgar winners (from $2.99 to $20.99) and 21 nominees (from $3.99 to $14.99), but the 30 past winners are all on sale. Authors in the sale catalog include Eliot Pattison, Otto Penzier, Allison Gaylin, S.J. Rozan, Melanie Rehak, James Patterson, and some fellow named Michael Crichton (A Case of Need), and many more.
Apple May Put Blood Glucose Sensors in Apple Watch Smart Band
Apple reportedly has plans to bring blood glucose monitoring to the Apple Watch, and the company wants to launch a line of specialized function smart watchbands for the device, too. Details—like when the new features will come—are pretty scarce right now, but the idea is interesting.
macOS: Speedifier Lets You Control Video Speed In Safari
Speedifier is a Mac app that lets you control video speed in Safari for HTML5 videos. You can use the extension on any on any website. Speedifier was developed by Arno Appenzeller, a part-time Mac and iOS indie developer from Germany. Andrew Orr reviews the app to test it out.
The New Meme: All Out Mac Speed is Now a Thing
Now that Apple has committed to a new Mac Pro, prosumers are salivating at the thought of what Apple might deliver. And the thinking also seems to be bleeding over into the iMacs (with Xeon CPUs) and MacBook Pros, high-end Macs that’ll have to carry our most demanding computational loads for awhile. Particle Debris points to two articles by Mac experts. One asks how the competition is doing against Apple’s laptops and the other has a focus on raw laptop speed.
Watch Apple's 'iPhone 7 Plus — Barbers' Video
Apple published a new iPhone 7 Plus video to its YouTube channel on Monday. The spot shows a barber shop using iPhone 7 Plus’s Portrait Mode camera to promote its business. It’s a charming pitch directly demonstrating a practical way for someone to use the feature in their business. The imagery is compelling and the message is accessible. The soundtrack is “Fantastic Man” by William Onyeabor, an artist who recorded in the ’70s and early ’80s.
TMO Background Mode Interview with Astrophysicist Dr. Kelly Holley-Bockelmann
Dr. Kelly Holley-Bockelmann is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University. Her research specialty is black holes and gravitational waves. For as long as she can remember, she wanted to be an astrophysicist. In our interview she tells the story about, as a teenager, lying in a field under dark Montana skies and gazing at the Milky Way (the edge of our galaxy). She wondered about all those stars and planets and whether there were other civilizations out there looking up at their own starry skies. It was transformative. Today, she uses a Mac and supercomputers to study how black holes generate ripples in the fabric of spacetime and deepen our astronomical understanding and perspective. Kelly, her students and associates are also devoted Mac users, and she tells me why.
Could Alexa and Siri Prevent or Report Child Abuse?
With connected devices and voice assistants becoming more common in our households, children are seeing them as friends. Sometimes, they might even see the device as a trusted confidant. Could that encourage legislators to make the devices report child abuse? Jeff Butts has been thinking hard about that, and suggests it might not be a terrible idea.
