Uber and Didi were locked in a battle to outspend each other in China in hopes of becoming the dominant name in the ride sharing market. When Apple invested US$1 billion in Didi, however, Uber knew that strategy wouldn’t work and agreed to a deal where Didi bought out its Chinese operations.
Study Ranks the Best, Worst U.S. Cities for Smartphone Connections
Mobile data and voice connections can be a fickle thing, and a new report from RootMetrics shows just how true that is. The report ranks 125 U.S. cities for wireless reliability, speed, data, call, and text performance, and it turns out the best place for smartphone owners to live is Lansing, Michigan. The worst is Hudson Valley, New York. San Francisco came in at 58, well below Chicago (5), Kansas City (11), and Boston (17). Denver was near the bottom of the list at 119, which sounds about right based on our experiences. You can check out the full report and see how your metro area stacks up at the RootMetrics website.
Edit Playlist Columns in iTunes 12.4 and Later
Every update to iTunes seems to refine a useful feature out of the interface, and as I created a new playlist in iTunes this morning I found yet another. All new Playlists are stuck in “Playlist” view, which has a limited selection of columns and no obvious way to customize them. No worries, you can still customize them, you just have to change your View first. We’ll show you how.
How to Watch the Olympics for Cable Cutters
With the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics only days away, it’s time to plan out which event’s you’ll watch. If you don’t have a cable TV subscription, that’s OK because there are plenty of other ways to get your Olympics fix.
ACM 371: iPad Pro (Surface) Ad, Siri's Shortcomings, Apple's Big Developer Payout
Bryan and Jeff discuss Apple’s commercial that embraces many of the things Microsoft has used to tout Surface Pro. They also talk about Apple’s remarkable success with the App Store, as well as some of Siri’s shortcomings.
A Computer with Lights, Get Inside, See What's Happening
It’s 10 meters long and 2 meters high. It’s made of discrete transistors and LEDs. You can actually see what’s going on. Is it a real working computer? Yes. Can you program it? Yes. Why was it made? The developer, James Newman, says, “Computers are quite opaque, looking at them it’s impossible to see how they work. What I would like to do is get inside and see what’s going on. Trouble is we can’t shrink down small enough to walk inside a silicon chip. But we can go the other way; we can build the thing big enough that we can walk inside it. Not only that we can also put LEDs on everything so we can actually SEE the data moving and the logic happening.” Behold, the Megaprocessor
Special 2-for-1 Offer on Extra Long MFi-Certified Lightning Cable:$14.99
We have a great deal for you today on not one, but two 10-foot MFi-certified Lightning cables. And the price? $14.99. Like I said, it’s a great deal. The image shows just one cable, but this deal is for a two-pack. Check out the details on the deal listing.
Tim Cook Tweets: Record July for App Store; Developers Have Earned $50 Billion
Tim Cook announced on Twitter Wednesday that July was a record month for the App Store, and that Apple has now paid more than $50 billion to developers. Both represent massive accomplishments, and the $50 billion paid out to developers would make the reputation of any other company for decades to come.
TMO Daily Observations 2016-08-03: iOS 10's Squirt Gun Emoji, Instagram Stories
Apple is replacing the pistol emoji in iOS 10 with a squirt gun. Kelly Guimont and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet share their take on the squirt gun and Apple’s apparent anti-gun stance, plus they look at Instagram’s Snapchat copycat feature, Instagram Stories.
Apple's Squirt Gun Emoji is a Subtle Dig on Gun Violence
Apple always adds new things to its big operating system upgrades, and sometimes it takes away things, too. When iOS 10 ships this fall it’ll be missing the handgun emoji icon and in its place we’ll get a bright green squirt gun. The change comes as gun-related violence and deaths are on the rise in the United States, and following a public campaign urging Apple to remove the gun emoji.