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The Hollywood-Outing Edition Wednesday, August 9, 2017

'Carpool Karaoke' Spinoff Premieres As Apple Content Ambitions Grow, by Natalie Jarvey, Hollywood Reporter

It was a true Hollywood outing for Apple, which up until 2016 when it began striking deals with producers such as Winston and Propagate Content's Ben Silverman, spent years deflecting rumors about its entertainment ambitions. "Carpool Karaoke," which premieres Tuesday on Apple Music, represents Apple’s second stab at original programming following the June premiere of Planet of the Apps, a reality series produced by Silverman that saw mentors including Jessica Alba and will.i.am help app developers pitch investors on their big ideas. The shows are meant to lure more subscribers to the subscription music service, which costs $10 per month and competes with products such as Spotify and Tidal.

TV Review: ‘Carpool Karaoke’ On Apple Music, by Sonia Saraiya, Variety

But for a segment that emphasized spontaneity and intimacy, “Carpool Karaoke” on Apple Music feels distancing — highlighting how dissimilar the guests are from the audience, instead of the other way around. Sometimes it feels like a camera crew was invited along to watch Corden and Smith network, or to tag along with another bizarre family outing for the Cyrus family. But why would we pay to watch them do something they would do anyway?

Apple Park Construction Workers Are Posting On-site Photos And Videos To Snapchat, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

Whilst this openness surely isn’t endorsed by Apple, it seems to have been going on for a long time unnoticed with snaps going back weeks. There is enough for it to appear on the ‘Snap Map’ as a heat spot at least.

The images don’t reveal too much, although the interior videos of the work-in-progress pods definitely give off a dystopian vibe.

Stuff

Reviewed: Lego Boost, The Set That Lets You Build Real Moving Robots, by Carson And Cannan Huey-You, Popular Mechanics

That you can control the Legos from your iPad is the coolest part of the set though. You don't just roll it around with your hand, you can move it using the app. We've been playing with Legos forever, and we still play with them a lot. I think we would play with this set again in the future.

My iOS Writing App Of The Moment Is Editorial, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

What has put Editorial over the top for me, at least for the moment, is its powerful set of user-creatable and shareable workflows. These powerful features can be assigned to keyboard shortcuts, which is huge for me since I write articles on my iPad Pro while attached to an external keyboard.

Apps We Love: Transmit, by Stephen Hackett, The Sweet Setup

Put simply, Panic makes some of the nicest Mac apps out there. Transmit is no exception, and is well worth its price tag if you work with file servers on any regular basis.

Foursquare’s Redesigned Swarm App Is A Journal For Capturing Your Travels, by Nick Statt, The Verge

Swarm, the check-in app from social mainstay Foursquare, is pivoting once again. Foursquare is calling Swarm’s latest incarnation the “lifelog,” and it’s meant to offer a new way of thinking about the trademark check-in process that’s less about gamification and leaderboards and more personal. With younger smartphone users gravitating toward text, photos, and videos that disappear — and the more raw and genuine style of sharing that allows — Foursquare now wants to create a space where you can plant a virtual flag, to come back to a memory and savor it later on in life.

Wikipedia For iOS Gains Dark Mode, iMessage Stickers, ‘On This Day’, by Ryan Christoffel, MacStories

Wikipedia’s implementation looks sharp, tastefully combining black and grey with a beautiful blue serving as an accent. There’s also the bonus of an optional toggle that dims images while using the dark reading theme.

Anchor Introduces Video Generation For Sharing Audio Clips, by Ryan Christoffel, MacStories

Put simply, an Anchor Video takes your recorded audio, transcribes it, then creates a video out of the content. The finished product includes your original audio complemented by a running stream of the clip’s spoken words in written form; transcribed words animate across the screen as the clip plays, providing an elegant visual way of sharing your content on social media.

Notes

Trade Commission Agrees To Investigate Apple For Alleged Qualcomm Patent Violation, by Tom Westrick, iMore

The U.S. International Trade Commission has announced that it will be investigating Apple following allegations from Qualcomm that the Cupertino-based company infringed on Qualcomm's patents with the iPhone 7. Some models of iPhone 7 use an Intel modem rather than a Qualcomm one, and while Qualcomm does not claim that the modem itself violates any patents, Apple's implementation of that modem reportedly does.

Singapore In The Eyes Of Local Photographers, by Nicholas Yong, Stuff

“After every long trip, I always have this smile when I leave the aircraft, go through immigration, pick up my luggage from the carousel, and step onto the arrival hall. It's usually my first feeling of being home.”

He shares how easy it is to compose your shots, “For the iPhone 7 Plus, remember you have a 2x optical zoom to play with. It’s easy to switch between 1x and 2x, and the quick toggling between the two focal lengths helps you nail your desired shot better.”

Bottom of the Page

Dear app-makers: I do not need a dark mode in any of my iPhone apps. What I really need is a no gray-text-on-light-background paried with no tiny-tiny-font-size mode.

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I've watched the first episode of Apple Music's Carpool Karaoke, and I have yet to find the joy of music.

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Thanks for reading.