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The Membrane-Equipped Edition Thursday, July 19, 2018

Apple Confirms 2018 MacBook Pro Keyboard Has 'Membrane' To 'Prevent Debris From Entering The Butterfly Mechanism', by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

In an internal document distributed to Apple Authorized Service Providers, obtained by MacRumors from multiple reliable sources, Apple has confirmed that the third-generation keyboard on 2018 MacBook Pro models is equipped with a "membrane" to "prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism."

13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro With Touch Bar Has Full Speed On All Thunderbolt 3 Ports, by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

Apple's shift to a processor with more PCI-e channels is responsible for an increase in total bandwidth to the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. The previous dual-core i5-7360U processor in the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar had 12 PCI-e lanes for communication.

The new model has the i5-8259U processor, with 16 PCI-e lanes. More PCI-e lanes allow for both Thunderbolt 3 controllers of the machine to have full data path width, and as such, full speed.

Isolated Reports Of Apple Pay Transactions Showing The Wrong Stores, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

In both cases, it appears that the iPhone was identifying the transactions by GPS location rather than store-reported data, and that errors in the mapping were resulting in the iPhone listing incorrect details. His credit card statement showed the correct details for both transactions.

Renovations Planned To Put Apple In The Tower Theatre, by Bianca Barragan, Curbed Los Angeles

Plans filed with the city’s department of building and safety show that renovations are planned for a portion of the Tower Theatre on Broadway, and they are explicitly planned for Apple.

Those alterations will involve renovations to the 91-year-old theater’s interior, plans show, as well as voluntary seismic retrofits to the space. The plans filed with the city say the work will “remove/replace existing gallery/mezzanine” at the theater.

Stuff

How To Make Your Wifi Router As Secure As Possible, by David Murphy, Lifehacker

Though more router manufacturers are making routers easier to set up and configure—even via handy little apps instead of annoying web-based interfaces—most people probably don’t tweak many options after purchasing a new router. They log in, change the name and passwords for their wifi networks, and call it a day.

While that gets you up and running with (hopefully) speedy wireless connectivity, and the odds are decent that your neighbor or some random evil Internet person isn’t trying to hack into your router, there’s still a lot more you can do to boost the security of your router (and home network).

Develop

Another Way To Lead By Example, by Shawn Blanc

When you choose to live a healthy life, to have boundaries, and to “work smarter” rather than “harder” then the byproduct is that your co-workers and your team feel trusted.

When you treat yourself with respect, you will also treat those around you the same — as the smart, valuable, and self-motivated adults that they are.

Notes

The Last Remaining Siri Cofounder Departs Apple, As Does Its Head Of Search, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

According to a new report from The Information, the last remaining Siri cofounder has departed Apple. Tom Gruber, who served as the head of Siri’s Advanced Development group, has retired in an effort to “pursue personal interests in photography and ocean conversation,” the report says.

[...]

Gruber was the last remaining Siri cofounder to be at Apple. His two other cofounders, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, left the company a few years ago and have both been somewhat critical of the direction in which Apple has taken Siri.

When A Tech Reporter Doesn’t Use Much Tech, by David Streitfeld, New York Times

One of the great victories of the tech industry was insisting that if you didn’t love its products, and by extension the companies themselves, you were not fit to cover it. I never understood how that edict gained traction. We don’t think that crooks make the best crime reporters.

I took my inspiration from writers I admired — Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Don DeLillo, Barry Malzberg. They were all low-tech people. Le Guin didn’t drive. DeLillo doesn’t do email. Dick barely left his apartment. Malzberg lives in New Jersey. Yet they foresaw how technology would reshape society better than any of the geniuses in Silicon Valley.

Project ‘Fuchsia’: Google Is Quietly Working On A Successor To Android, by Mark Bergen and Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Here’s what’s already known about Fuchsia: Alphabet Inc.’s Google started quietly posting code online in 2016, and the company has let outside app developers tinker with bits of the open-source code. Google has also begun to experiment with applications for the system, such as interactive screen displays and voice commands for YouTube.

But members of the Fuchsia team have discussed a grander plan that is being reported here for the first time: Creating a single operating system capable of running all the company’s in-house gadgets, like Pixel phones and smart speakers, as well as third-party devices that now rely on Android and another system called Chrome OS, according to people familiar with the conversations.

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I'm not convinced. A tech reporter that doesn't use much tech sounds, to me, like a movie critic who only reads screenplays.

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Seems like the iPhone/iPhone OS/iOS is such a successful product that not only is Google copying it, it tried to copy it twice.

First, the user-interface.

Now, to copy the internals such that it can run all kinds of gadgets (just like iOS is running HomePod and Watch and TV and Air Pods) as well as more traditional computers (just like an iPad with the Smart Keyboard, or Marzipan).

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Thanks for reading.