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The Go-Fast Edition Monday, October 22, 2018

With The iPhone XR, Apple Broadens Its 'Best', by Chris Velazco, Engadget

"I love cars and things that go fast, and R and S are both letters used to denote sport cars that are really extra special," he said with a smile. That's not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but I'm not sure what I should've expected from a) Apple's SVP of global marketing and b) a longtime fan of Porsches and Audis.

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"If we're going to push the upper boundaries with XS and XS Max to make something the best, how do we make something that's more affordable for a larger audience? To make the overall iPhone audience even larger? What choices can we make and still make it a phone that people can hold and say, 'I have the best too'?"

Those were the questions Apple grappled with while developing the XR, according to Schiller. The company's answers came in many parts, some more straightforward than others.

More Efficient and Accessible

Apple Watch Series 4 Is The Most Accessible Watch Yet, by Steven Aquino, TechCrunch

To piggyback on Panzarino’s thesis that Apple Watch saves you time, from my perspective as a disabled person, Apple’s smartwatch makes receiving notifications and the like a more accessible experience. As someone with multiple disabilities, Apple Watch not only promotes pro-social behavior, the device’s glanceable nature alleviates the friction of pulling my phone out of my pocket a thousand times an hour. For people with certain physical motor delays, the seemingly unremarkable act of even getting your phone can be quite an adventure. Apple Watch on my wrist eliminates that work, because all my iMessages and VIP emails are right there.

The fourth-generation Apple Watch, “Series 4” in Apple’s parlance, is the best, most accessible Apple Watch to date. The original value proposition for accessibility, to save on physical wear and tear, remains. Yet Series 4’s headlining features — the larger display, haptic-enabled Digital Crown and fall detection — all have enormous ramifications for accessibility. In my testing of a Series 4 model, a review unit provided to me by Apple, I have found it to be delightful to wear and use. This new version has made staying connected more efficient and accessible than ever before.

A Real Smart Watch, by Ben Brooks

That’s the thing about the Apple Watch: for everything it purports to do for the good of the person, all it does is seek to make them more addicted to the tech itself.

Seemingly Minor

'Complete Control': Apple Accused Of Overpricing, Restricting Device Repairs, by Alex Shprintsen, CBC News

Apple often overestimates the cost of repairs to its products and threatens third-party shops who are willing to fix them for a fraction of the price, a CBC News investigation has learned.

Customers who enter an Apple Store with a seemingly minor hardware problem, such as a flickering screen, are often faced with a large bill because they are told they need to replace major parts of the device.

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Apple declined to be interviewed for this story, but denied that there is a pattern of overcharging customers for repairs.

Stuff

An "iPhone-ographer's" Guide To Photographing Fall's Splendor, by Emily Rice, Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Autumn is a great season to spend time outside, experience cooler temperatures, gorgeous sunsets, unique events and beautiful foliage. Combine these autumn opportunities with some new-found photography knowledge and leaf peeping “iPhone-ographers” will be all set to experience and document a beautiful autumn season.

Develop

The High-return Activity Of Raising Others’ Aspirations, by Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

At critical moments in time, you can raise the aspirations of other people significantly, especially when they are relatively young, simply by suggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mind. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous.

Notes

Beyond Fabricated Spyware Tales, by Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note

Just as we are waking up to a panopticon reality of cameras watching (and recognizing) us with ever greater accuracy, we might want to think about how much trust we’re willing to grant the growing numbers of connected object in our lives. Beyond the device maker’s avowed goals, which are problematic enough, what should we think of the potential for unauthorized use by unknown masters of the moles living inside our devices?

Who Will Teach Silicon Valley To Be Ethical?, by Kara Swisher, New York Times

How can an industry that, unlike other business sectors, persistently promotes itself as doing good, learn to do that in reality? Do you want to not do harm, or do you want to do good? These are two totally different things.

And how do you put an official ethical system in place without it seeming like you’re telling everyone how to behave? Who gets to decide those rules anyway, setting a moral path for the industry and — considering tech companies’ enormous power — the world.

Bottom of the Page

Surely someone is creating an AI-powered RSS reader that can predict what articles I will be interested in reading, even without me subscribing to the RSS feeds?

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Thanks for reading.