Microsoft is celebrating a milestone:
As we near the one year anniversary of the availability of Windows 10, we’re excited to share that Windows 10 is now running on 300 million active devices around the world.
It’s too bad hardly any of those devices are the ones people carry around in their pockets.
In an unusual chain of events, it appears Apple is announcing the WWDC dates through Siri. Although the Apple website has not been updated with any new info, Siri is proudly proclaiming that WWDC 2016 will indeed be held in San Francisco from June 13th to June 17th. Although Siri didn’t explicitly say, it is almost certain that WWDC will once again be held at Moscone West, simply because it’s the best choice of venue for an event like this in San Francisco. This is an unusual announcement nonetheless, it being the first time Apple has used Siri as the primary announcement vehicle for one of its events. WWDC is expected to feature the unveiling of iOS 10, OS X 10.12 and more…
Jim Dalrymple reports that The Loop Magazine is dead:
It is with tremendous sadness that I write this post today. I have tried to figure out a way for The Loop Magazine app to work on the App Store, for the last few months. It turns out, it just won’t. This morning, I removed the app from the App Store.
I will continue to publish to make up for the missing issues over the last few months.
When Apple started Newsstand, I thought it was a way to reach readers with unique content, pay writers well for their content, and create a great experience on an iOS app. I guess I should have realized when Apple killed Newsstand that it was over, but I pressed on. That was a mistake on my part.
I had the privilege to write for The Loop Magazine in 2013 (Issue #6) and I thank Jim for giving me the opportunity to be part of a great publication.
Instagram came out over 5 years ago (6 Oct 2010).
Now, in March of 2016 it’s finally coming to Windows 10 Mobile.
To add to the excitement, it’s a beta version!
So Google’s self-driving car had a minor fender bender with a bus the other day.
In other news, dumbass humans get into 1,600,000 accidents per year because they’re texting while driving.
Over at Re/Code, Ina Fried searched for the most TED thing at TED:
I thought I had found the TED-iest of them all: A helicopter trip to the top of a mountain to play ice hockey on a frozen lake while being instructed by former pros.
But there were a couple problems. First off, the hockey experience sold out in minutes despite the $3,000-plus price tag. That meant no room on the helicopter for poor scribes hoping to glom on.
Undeterred, I arrived Wednesday hoping that someone was out partying too late with Al Gore and was too hung-over to turn up for their helicopter-and-hockey tour. But it turned out there was an even bigger problem, one Gore has been warning about — global warming. The lake in question wasn’t frozen, so the whole thing got canceled.
Seems TED has crawled up its own ass, not unlike what you see in the real Silicon Valley and the (barely) parodied version on HBO.
On a related note, check out this interview with Eddie Huang on The Joe Rogan Experience where he describes the cult-like rules when you’re a TED fellow.
The decline and fall of Windows Phone is more tragic, because for several years the OS was making headway. It had an app problem, sure, but Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 brought the OS itself up to the level of iOS and Android, and the low-end Lumias provided an excellent value for the money. But soon after buying the Lumia division from Nokia, Microsoft seemed to stop pushing. Windows Phone 8.1 has been left to rot while Microsoft takes its sweet time finishing a continually delayed Windows 10 update. To be an existing Windows Phone 8.1 user is to sit by and watch while Microsoft ports every selling point of Windows Phone as a platform to iOS and Android. Embracing iOS and Android unquestionably gives Microsoft’s apps and services a wider audience, but there’s no reason why it had to be done at the expense of the company’s existing user base.
The remains of these platforms aren’t really viable as general-purpose smartphone ecosystems. Diehards can (and will) disagree, and Microsoft at least has given Windows Phone acolytes a gift in the form of the Lumia 950 and 950XL. But if you’re recommending a smartphone to someone in 2016, Android and iOS can do pretty much anything that anyone needs to be able to do. Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 cannot, and they’re best left to people who care more about brand loyalty than functionality.
—The fight for a third-best smartphone OS has been lost. By everyone.
Techcrunch: Adobe Launches Animate CC, Previously Known As Flash Professional:
Adobe tells me that about a third of the content product in Flash Professional was actually HTML5 content — so the old name really didn’t make sense anymore. “HTML5 has become the standard and this reflects the tool’s role,” Adobe evangelist Paul Trani told me. “We don’t care what you want to do. Want to do Flash? Fantastic.”
Trani noted that, with some very minor exceptions, HTML5 can now replace Flash for almost all standard use cases that Animate CC’s users were looking for.
I used Macromedia Adobe Flash for many years to make immersive, interactive experiences long before it was even close to possible to do it with HTML and JavaScript.
It’s great to see Adobe get with the times and adjust course with it’s products. I haven’t used Animate CC yet, but I’m hoping it’s good. The need to create interactive experiences and animations is more important than ever in today’s websites and mobile applications.
The FBI is asking for Apple’s help unlocking the iPhone 5C of San Bernardino terrorism suspect Syed Rizwan Farook.
Tim Cook responded:
The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.
The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.
Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
No way, Jose. This would set a horrible legal precedent.
I’m happy to see Apple standing up for the privacy of their customers.
Google wants everything on the web to be travelling over a secure channel. That’s why in the future your Chrome browser will flag unencrypted websites as insecure, displaying a red “x” over a padlock in the URL bar.
With this upcoming change in Chrome, Google makes it clear that the web of the future should all be encrypted, and all sites should be served over HTTPS, which is essentially a secure layer on top of the usual HTTP web protocol. Several companies and organizations have been pushing for more encrypted sites as part of a campaign to “Encrypt All The Things,” which consists of promoting more websites to abandon the traditional, less secure HTTP protocol and adopt HTTPS.
Why, you ask?
The rationale is that on every website served over HTTP the data exchanged between the site’s server and the user is in the clear, meaning anyone with the ability to snoop on the connection, be it a hacker at a coffee shop or a repressive government, could steal passwords, private messages, or other sensitive information.
But HTTPS doesn’t just protect user data, it also ensures that the user is really connecting to the right site and not an imposter one. This is important because setting up a fake version of a website users normally trust is a favorite tactic of hackers and malicious actors. HTTPS also ensures that a malicious third party can’t hijack the connection and insert malware or censor information.
It’ll be interesting how quickly HTTPS gets adopted. I wonder if it will be like the migration from standard definition to high definition in TV broadcasting.
Seth Godin on software (and everything else in life):
The reason it’s so difficult to test and improve is that it requires you to acknowledge that your original plan wasn’t perfect. And to have the humility and care to go ahead and fix it.
Making shit work is the easy part.
Making sure it doesn’t break is the hard part.
Back in December, Peter Bright reviewed Windows 10:
App availability, more so than any functional limitation, has been the biggest sticking point for Windows Phone. Too many apps that too many people find too important to live without haven’t been available; even when they are available, many apps remain limited in functionality and maintenance when compared to their iOS and Android siblings.
UWAs are Microsoft’s best shot at turning this situation around by greatly expanding the audience for any app built for the UWP. Still, the company has a tremendous amount of work to do if it truly wants to fill the app gap, and it’s not immediately obvious that developers will help it do so.
First, app developers have to care about desktop users. Plenty of app-based services lack not only a desktop app but even a fully fledged website because the app developers simply don’t care. Consider Uber; although it has an online presence for various aspects of account management, the car booking capability is entirely app-based. Without an app, you simply can’t do it.
If you threatened to either take away someone’s phone or their desktop computer, most people would pick the desktop.
Mobile devices are where the majority of our computing experiences happen and this is the very place Microsoft has yet to establish itself as a legitimate contender.
As Bright points out, I’m just not convinced anyone—including businesses and developers—gives a shit about The universality of Windows Apps except Microsoft.
Timm Romine responding to Sean Geraghty’s criticisms that Apple has thrown out discoverability and usability in their products:
Sorry, Sean, and Don, and Bruce, but The Future won’t have buttons whose functions can be achieved without buttons, and it definitely won’t look like iOS 6. And you can argue it won’t look like iOS 7–9. But what’s certain, is the future of UI is minimalistic, sleek, simplistic — according to the sci-fi movies we revere.
Back in 2009 I wrote about the future of iconography. I speculated then—and Siri is now showing us now— that the interface of the future is no interface (I’m not suggesting I’m a genius, the writing was on the wall).
Just like learning any new language, learning the language of an interface takes varying degrees and practice before one is accustomed to it.
I’ve been maintaining this blog since 2006 so I’m used to the endless stream of doom-and-gloom pieces on Apple.
We, and Apple, are going to be ok.
Bobby Emamian with good advice when designing for Apple Watch:
For all of its sleek design and media hype, the first incarnation of the Apple Watch is simply less impressive than many of us might have hoped. Although watchOS 2 shows promise for the future by offering increased power, functionality, and options, the current version on the market imposes many constraints. In our time exploring the watch, we uncovered four limitations every app designer and developer should know about. Being aware of these limitations — and how to work around them — is critical when beginning a foray into designing the next great watch app.
As designers we should already know how important it is to embrace limitations, but it’s always good to be reminded.