New Redesigned 13 And 15-Inch MacBook Air Models To Debut At WWDC 2016 | Redmond Pie

New Redesigned 13 And 15-Inch MacBook Air Models To Debut At WWDC 2016 | Redmond Pie Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which is held annually in San Francisco, California, always manages to bring a whole heap of new goodies. The opening keynote of the conference historically has a particular tone to it with Steve Jobs, and now Tim Cook, choosing to focus on core elements of the business and how it’s performing. According a number of new reports, WWDC 2016 could also see a revamped MacBook Air introduced that would eventually find itself on physical and digital shelves during the third quarter of 2016.

Well, I guess that means I don't have to go to WWDC.

How Microsoft Spent $91 Billion in 12 Months | Fox Business

How Microsoft Spent $91 Billion in 12 Months | Fox Business Microsoft's fortunes may be ebbing, but it still generates a ridiculous amount of money. Over the last 12 months, it earned $91 billion in revenue, ranking 26th among S&P 500 companies. What does the 40-year-old company do with all this money? The slideshow below provides an answer.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings.

My coworkers made me use Mac OS 9 for their (and your) amusement | Ars Technica

My coworkers made me use Mac OS 9 for their (and your) amusement | Ars Technica For about $75, I was able to pick up an 800MHz model with 512MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. It worked but included a non-working battery, no power adapter, and a wonky power jack. For $8.86, I picked up a new power jack (happily, it was separate from the main logic board in those days), and another $15 got me a used genuine Apple adapter (third-party substitutes are widely available for a few dollars less, but I am terrified of cheap off-brand chargers). That brought my total to a little under $100.

Adventures in old-timey usage of one of the very best laptops ever made. Mine still works perfectly, although it boots in to Jaguar, not OS9.

The making of Raspberry Pi Zero - The Magpi MagazineThe Magpi Magazine

The making of Raspberry Pi Zero - The Magpi MagazineThe Magpi Magazine The MagPi talks to Eben Upton and Mike Stimson about why the Raspberry Pi Zero exists, and how it was made

The very disruptive technology with a safe, cute name.

Teardown reveals Apple Smart Keyboard is not repairable -- but super durable | Cult of Mac

Teardown reveals Apple Smart Keyboard is not repairable -- but super durable | Cult of Mac The new teardown from iFixit reveals how Apple made the Keyboard/Smart Cover super durable by encapsulating the entire product in some high tech fabric that should make it last much longer than a normal keyboard, which is good because it is also impossible to repair.

Hopefully it's like a Titanium PowerBook and will last forever.

Lumia 950 review: Windows Phone finally has a new flagship—will anyone care? | Ars Technica

Lumia 950 review: Windows Phone finally has a new flagship—will anyone care? | Ars Technica This is the kind of thing that would probably matter more if there were an abundance of games for the platform; something that might equally provide the impetus to make the drivers better. As it is, I don't know if it's ever a problem. There wasn't anything I did on the phone that showed off this weak 3D performance, but these metrics are certainly not what I'd hope to see.

Don't look at the bench. Don't look at the bench.

Former NASA official: NASA must shed “socialist” approach to space exploration | Ars Technica

Former NASA official: NASA must shed “socialist” approach to space exploration | Ars Technica At the same time, Musk has said repeatedly that his ultimate aim with SpaceX is to land humans—perhaps even himself—on Mars. NASA also has a program to land humans on Mars. And just as NASA is building a heavy lift rocket to begin to accomplish this, so is SpaceX. Only its Falcon Heavy rocket will likely cost about one-tenth as much to launch as NASA’s Space Launch System; it will begin flying two years sooner as well.

That's a lot of cheese they got from mining the moon.

First look: DJI Osmo 4K steadicam with iPhone connectivity & control

First look: DJI Osmo 4K steadicam with iPhone connectivity & control DJI has begun shipping its anticipated 4K steadicam dubbed Osmo, featuring a three-axis stabilizer and dedicated iPhone clamp, allowing for super-smooth high-resolution footage in a compact and convenient package.

Pretty sure STEADICAM is a trademark. As neat as the Osmo is, it's not a steadicam.

At NeXT, Steve Jobs was "obsessed" with returning to Apple

At NeXT, Steve Jobs was "obsessed" with returning to Apple Jurvetson then went on to say he thought Jobs was nuts for thinking the company that fired him would ever buy NeXT and bring him back. But, of course, that’s exactly what happened.

Even if he didn't design the Apple I or ][, he had a special somethin-something.

Mining (And Learning) With The 21 Bitcoin Computer | TechCrunch

Mining (And Learning) With The 21 Bitcoin Computer | TechCrunch Essentially a Raspberry Pi connected with a custom bitcoin-mining ASIC and a heatsink, the computer is one of the most interesting MVPs in modern memory.

Don't mind if I do.

Woz: Jobs didn't design Apple computers - Business Insider

Woz: Jobs didn't design Apple computers - Business Insider Steve Jobs played no role at all in any of my designs of the Apple I and Apple II computer and printer interfaces and serial interfaces and floppy disks and stuff that I made to enhance the computers. He did not know technology. He’d never designed anything as a hardware engineer, and he didn’t know software.

I suppose we can ask Walter Isaacson what SWEET16 is and whether Jobs designed it. APPLE ][ FOREVER! Apple more or less controls popular media through yellow journalism. I mean, what major media outlet wants to be excluded from a fall special event? Exactly. Which is why we're hearing about this from a blogger.

Wozniak: I don’t like being trapped in Apple's ecosystem

Wozniak: I don’t like being trapped in Apple's ecosystem Finally, Wozniak said that he likes to keep his options open when it comes to his tech devices, by using a wide range of products — despite the fact that this means it’s a bit harder to integrate devices. “I don’t like being in the Apple ecosystem,” he said. “I don’t like being trapped. I like being independent.”

Most of the major platform success have been driven by openness. That would include Unix, which is the underpinnings of all Mac and iOS devices. Without the openness of unix and GNU, I don't think we would have iOS or Mac OS X.

Former Apple designers say the company has lost 'the fundamental principles of good design' | The Verge

Former Apple designers say the company has lost 'the fundamental principles of good design' | The Verge Worse, other companies have followed in Apple’s path, equating design with appearance while forgetting the fundamental principles of good design. As a result, programmers rush to code without understanding the people who will use the products. Designers focus entirely on making it all look pretty.

Don Norman is the first and last word on good design. Long live the king!

iPad Pro Diary: The iOS ecosystem is much deeper than I knew | Cult of Mac

iPad Pro Diary: The iOS ecosystem is much deeper than I knew | Cult of Mac As I say in the video, a keyboard is essential to making the iPad a computer replacement. But I’m also discovering the joys of doing things with multitouch instead of a trackpad and keyboard. I’m discovering how rich and powerful it all is. It’s a better way to work — easy, intuitive and fun.

Once you add the keyboard, it's not really an iPad anymore, is it? It's an iMac running iOS on ARM. Without a stand or a mouse.

Heads up: Unity mac store rejection Unity Deprecated API Usage - QuickTime | Unity Community

Heads up: Unity mac store rejection Unity Deprecated API Usage - QuickTime | Unity Community

So, I will fix this code to use the non-deprecated AVFoundation framework for 4.5. The question for us to find out, is if this fix will go back to 4.3.2 (as it is not a trivial change), or if we'd rather chose a faster fix by temporarily disabling webcam support in OS X standalones to fix this. Does anyone critically need web cam support in OS X standalone?

I'm not sure you can even call OS X an operating system. I have 16-bit, pre-protected mode Win16 code written in 1989 that, as of 2012 was still running on Windows XP and Vista. Hadn't tried it on Windows 7 or 8, but as long as WOW (Windows-on-Windows) is working, does a fine job of illustrating why Windows rules the desktop.

I guess the Mac is going the way of the Watch. Meaning it's jewelry, not a computer.

Gene Amdahl, Pioneer of Mainframe Computing, Dies at 92 - The New York Times

Gene Amdahl, Pioneer of Mainframe Computing, Dies at 92 - The New York Times Michael J. Flynn, a computer scientist at Stanford University and former colleague of Dr. Amdahl’s at IBM, said the 360 series “set the design philosophy for computers for the next 50 years, and to this day it’s still out there, which is incredible.”

“This same instruction set,” he added, “is still bringing in billions of dollars for IBM.”
Dr. Amdahl is remembered at IBM as an intellectual leader who could get different strong-minded groups to reach agreement on technical issues.

This is what enterprise computing looks like: the same instruction set for 50 years, backwards compatible and stable. Every hour of software development invested is captured and retained.

Apple's iPad Pro & powerful A9X CPU pose threat to Intel, Cowen says

Apple's iPad Pro & powerful A9X CPU pose threat to Intel, Cowen says A look at the GPU shows a similar story: The A9X outperformed all Apple laptops that use integrated Intel graphics, registering a three-to-four-times improvement in frame rate of the 12-inch MacBook with Retina display. The iPad Pro processor also posted an improvement of as much as 40 percent over the Intel Iris 5200 integrated graphics featured on the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Now all we need is an installer for OSX on the iPad Pro and I'll be a happy camper. I never was a fan of Intel integrated graphics. I personally believe Steve Jobs would never have shipped a Pro MacBook without a real GPU.

iPad Pro review: Mac-like speed with all the virtues and restrictions of iOS | Ars Technica

iPad Pro review: Mac-like speed with all the virtues and restrictions of iOS | Ars TechnicaHow good is the iPad Pro and its accessories? How is iOS 9 different on a larger screen, and what does the internal hardware do to earn that “Pro” label? What lessons can Apple learn from Microsoft, which has already iterated on this same basic idea a whole bunch of times? And most importantly, when can an iPad replace a computer (if it can at all)?

Finally, a computer that you need to replace every 18 months! The ultimate wall street cure for those pesky long upgrade cycles for well-built Macintosh computers.

Tim Cook hints at new health product, touts iPad Pro as PC replacement in interview

Tim Cook hints at new health product, touts iPad Pro as PC replacement in interview "Yes, the iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people," Cook said. "They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones."

I guess Tim is building the latest releases of iOS and Mac OS X on his iPad Pro, a platform that makes sharing files between apps as easy as gouging your eyes out with forks.

Canabalt creator wants you to strategize through an adorable wasteland | Cult of Mac

Canabalt creator wants you to strategize through an adorable wasteland | Cult of Mac Overland is an upcoming 3D survival tactics game from the creator of Canabalt, Adam Saltzman. Its beautiful, chillingly-chromatic art style has me itching to play it, as does the cool way the team has created an approachable rogue-like set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland without dumbing it down.

Less is more. Again.

Programmatic TV ad buying might take off rapidly, some experts say | VentureBeat | Marketing | by Mark Sullivan

Programmatic TV ad buying might take off rapidly, some experts say | VentureBeat | Marketing | by Mark Sullivan Programmatic advertising — in which exchanges match ads with predefined audiences — has become dominant in web advertising, and the approach is now migrating to TV.

The future is here.

Rumor claims new electric car maker Faraday Future is front for Apple

Rumor claims new electric car maker Faraday Future is front for Apple The company only began operating out of a former Nissan research facility in California last year, but already has over 400 workers, and is aiming to have 500 by the end of 2015, the New York Post said. Some of the staff include the head designer of the BMW i8, a SpaceX battery specialist, and a former interior designer for Ferrari. Others have resumes with employers like Facebook, Google, Ford, General Motors, and Volvo.

Rumours, rumors, roomers.

Why I skipped the iPad Pro and bought the iPad Mini 4 instead | Cult of Mac

Why I skipped the iPad Pro and bought the iPad Mini 4 instead | Cult of Mac The iPad Pro is the Apple tablet of my dreams.

I’ve been lusting after Apple’s crazy-big iPad since the first whispers of the device echoed around the rumor mill a few years ago. When Apple finally unveiled the device at the September keynote I was beyond stoked to fork over more than $1,000 for an iPad big enough to host Thanksgiving dinner on.

The Pro is a hefty thang.

Lytro dives into virtual reality filmmaking with debut of its Immerge video camera | VentureBeat | Business | by Ken Yeung

Lytro dives into virtual reality filmmaking with debut of its Immerge video camera | VentureBeat | Business | by Ken Yeung Since its debut in 2006, Lytro has produced devices that leverage light-field technology, which captures information about the direction and intensity of light rays. Today, the company is applying this technology to the world of virtual reality with the unveiling of the Lytro Immerge, a cinematic camera for professional videographers.

So much nonsense in the trades, can be hard to see real innovation. HINT: No mobile advertising and no use of the word "unicorn".