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The Doubling-Size Edition Thursday, February 2, 2017

Apple Pushes AirPods Firmware 3.5.1 To Synchronized iPhones With Minor Bug Fixes, by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

Apple AirPods firmware 3.5.1 is available for users now, and in all likelihood, has already been downloaded to a synchronized device. Installation is automatic when the AirPods are in their charging case, the case is plugged into a charger, and the linked iPhone is in close proximity and connected to Wi-Fi.

Apple To Expand Iconic NYC ‘Cube’ Store In Lift For Fifth Avenue, by David M Levitt, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is more than doubling the size of its renowned store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, bringing a boost to a retail corridor that’s suffered from Trump Tower congestion and persistently high vacancies in the past year.

Google, Apple, Facebook, Uber Plan To Draft A Joint Letter Opposing Trump’s Travel Ban, by Kara Swisher, Recode

Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Uber, Stripe, along with a consumer packaged goods company and others are working together on a letter opposing U.S. President Trump’s travel ban, according to sources.

Stuff

Snapseed Makes It Easier To Add Drama To Your Photos, by Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

Essentially, what this new feature does is allow manipulating things like contrast, brightness and color intensity in a given image. Oftentimes, it's one of the easiest and most dramatic ways you can edit a photo.

Apple Watch Users Can Easily Track Their Sleep Using AutoSleep, by Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

When wearing the watch to bed, it will automatically track sleep including quality, restlessness, time awake, and heart rate. All that information can be viewed the next morning on your iPhone.

Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes Arrives Today On iPhone & iPad As Expected, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

Nintendo’s latest mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes has today hit the iOS App Store as expected. As with Super Mario Run, it’s a freemium game, but in theory at least you can unlock all the features for free through game play.

Develop

Leadership Comes From Everywhere, by Michael Lopp, Rands in Repose

I have sets of questions that vet each of these facets. I’ve also written supporting material explaining how each leader is different. There are incredibly strong leaders who have an inhuman tactical ability but are average at strategy. There are credible leaders who thrive on building vision, but are awful at strategy and even worse at tactics.

I patted myself on the back when I wrote down the triangle of vision to strategy to tactics. So clean… so elegant.. and so woefully incomplete.

Notes

Apple Developing New Mac Chip In Test Of Intel Independence, by Mark Gurman and Ian King, Bloomberg

The chip, which went into development last year, is similar to one already used in the latest MacBook Pro to power the keyboard’s Touch Bar feature, the people said. The updated part, internally codenamed T310, would handle some of the computer’s low-power mode functionality, they said. The people asked not to be identified talking about private product development. It’s built using ARM Holdings Plc. technology and will work alongside an Intel processor.

Copywriters Can't Even Come Up With A Decent Meaningless Tagline Anymore, by Mark Duffy, Digiday

Industry experts keep insisting that taglines are dead. But every year, taglines keep getting written. Bad taglines. Wanky “hashtaglines” that make for shitty hashtags and even shittier taglines.

The days of taglines actually meaning something (Avis: “We’re No. 2, We Try Harder”; FedEx: “When It Absolutely Positively Has To Be There Overnight”) are mostly gone.

Bottom of the Page

It is obvious on hindsight, but I did not expect there will firmware updates for the AirPods. What's next? Will AirPods gain new functionalities in the future? Will there be an earOS in the works? (Or will that be AirOS?)

I'm now looking at my Magic Mouse and wondering whether Apple had secretly pushed any firmware updates to it too.

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Thanks for reading.