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The Old-Fashioned-Field-Guide Edition Friday, July 28, 2017

Finally: An App That Can Identify The Animal You Saw On Your Hike, by Ed Yong, The Atlantic

Loarie and his team have developed an app that can help. Known as iNaturalist, it began as a crowdsourced community, where people can upload photos of animals and plants for other users to identify. But a month ago, the team updated the app so that an artificial intelligence now identifies what you’re looking at. In some cases, it’ll nail a particular species—it correctly pegged the dragonfly I spotted as a slaty skimmer (Libellula incesta). For the butterfly, it was less certain. “We’re pretty sure this is in the genus Papilio,” it offered, before listing ten possible species.

“Our ecosystem is just unravelling in front of our eyes, and the pace of environmental change can be really overwhelming,” says Loarie. “But in our handbags, there’s another thing that has had the same pace of unbelievable change—the cellphone.” He hopes that the latter can help with the former by acting as a pocket naturalist, a cross between Shazam and an old-fashioned field guide.

Apple Ad Explains Origins Of Company's Forestry Program, by Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider

A new Apple ad posted to YouTube on Thursday focuses on the company's worldwide effort to preserve and manage forestland, itself part of a wider goal to achieve a net-zero impact on the world's supply of virgin fiber.

Apple Confirms iPod Nano And iPod Shuffle Have Been Discontinued, by Chris Welch, The Verge

An Apple spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that both products have met their end and are now officially discontinued. [...]

"Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod touch now with double the capacity starting at just $199 and we are discontinuing the iPod shuffle and iPod nano.” The iPod touch now comes in 32GB and 128GB storage options, with the latter priced at $299.

The iPod Nano Had A Weird, Amazing History, by Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge

Like the iPod Classic three years before it, the iPod nano’s death today was a long time coming. But years ago, before the product stalled out, lost its identity, and was made wholly unnecessary by the iPhone, it featured some of Apple’s finest design and arguably represented the iPod at its peak — tiny, fun, and focused.

Stuff

How To Hide Menu Bar Items With Bartender, by Bradley Chambers, The Sweet Setup

Bartender is a must have for those of us that run a lot of utility apps in our menu bar, but also want the menu bar to remain neat and tidy.

Capo Touch 2.5 Review, by John Voorhees, MacStories

The app can analyze a song, pick out the chords and help you practice it a little at a time at a comfortable pace until you figure out how to play it. This week, Capo touch got a big update that streamlines the learning process and brings powerful features over from Capo for macOS.

Develop

Facebook Builds Natural Language Processing Into Messenger, by Khari Johnson, VentureBeat

Facebook today launched Messenger Platform 2.1 with new features to give developers and brands more ways to reach potential customers, like built-in natural language processing, a payments SDK, and a global beta that makes it easier to switch between automated bots and the humans behind 70 million businesses on Facebook.

Notes

Lease Approved For Apple Store At Carnegie Library In Washington, D.C., by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Carnegie Library is a 114-year-old building located across the street from the Washington Convention Center in Mount Vernon Square. Apple will work with Foster + Partners, as it often does, to redesign the interior, which will likely draw similarities to stores like Apple Opéra in Paris and Apple Grand Central in New York.

[...]

Apple has promised to respect Carnegie Library's historical integrity. For example, Apple's logo won't be prominently featured on the library's facade or sides. Apple does plan a few changes to Carnegie Library, including a major new skylight, but the company aims for its presence to be as subtle as possible.

On Depression: The Lies We Tell Ourselves – Byrne Reese, by Byrne Reese, Medium

The voices in your head don’t tell the truth. They are determined to be heard, revered, awed; to get you to hear them at all times — to take them very seriously. They want to be looked upon as the voice of God. Nothing modest about them.

To achieve their goals they lie like crazy. They know you — have been around you a long, long time.

They know the lies you will buy, the ones you cannot dismiss — they know all your weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and they are going to work on you as only a great Pro can.

Bottom of the Page

We are down to the iPod touch. But the era of the iPods is probably over with the removal of the iPod classic a few year back. Afterall, the era of the iPods has to be signified by the click wheel. Heck, even th iPod icon in the first iPhone contains a click wheel.

The i in iPod lives on with Apple's communication devices with widescreens, while the Pod in iPod lives on with Apple's speakers.

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Out of all the iPods I've owned, only 50 percent of them has click wheels.

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The iPod line didn't make it to the micro, pequeno, and invisa models.

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Thanks for reading.