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The Streaming-Television Edition Thursday, February 14, 2019

Apple Aims For April Launch Of TV Service With CBS, Viacom And Starz, by Kenneth Li, Stephen Nellis, Reuters

Apple Inc is targeting an April event to introduce a streaming television service that will likely include subscription TV services from CBS Corp, Viacom Inc and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp’s Starz among others as well as its own original content, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

[...]

Apple is also in discussions with HBO, part of AT&T Inc-owned WarnerMedia, to become part of the service and it could yet make it in time for the launch, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Apple Invites Hollywood Stars To Video Service Launch, by Anousha Sakoui and Mark Gurman , Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is planning to unveil video and news subscription offerings next month, the first major new digital services from the company since 2015.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is planning a March 25 event to announce both services, according to people familiar with the plan. The iPhone maker invited Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and director JJ Abrams, to attend, one of the people said.

The Logic Behind Apple’s Give-us-half-your-revenue Pitch To News Publishers, by Peter Kafka, Recode

Apple has already signed many publishers to deals where they’ll get 50 percent of the revenue Apple generates through subscriptions to its news service, which is currently called Texture and will be relaunched as a premium version of Apple News this spring.

And some publishers are happy to do it, because they think Apple will sign up many millions of people to the new service. And they’d rather have a smaller percentage of a bigger number than a bigger chunk of a smaller number.

[...]

That argument seems unlikely to persuade the big newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, that Apple is trying to add to its service. Both of them have built their own digital subscription businesses over the past few years, and they may feel that they’re better owning 100 percent of a product they control than a piece of a collective run by a giant tech company.

Apple’s iOS Update Makes It Easier To Get To Your Subscriptions, by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

Apple has made a small but important change to iOS that will allow users an easier way to manage their app subscriptions. In the latest release of the mobile operating system (iOS 12.1.4 and 12.2 beta), the company has relocated the “Manage Subscriptions” setting so it’s only one click away when you tap on your profile in the App Store, instead of being buried more deeply within the settings.

This may seem like a minor change, but it was a much-needed one.

Pirates of the Apps

Software Pirates Use Apple Tech To Put Hacked Apps On iPhones, by Stephen Nellis, Paresh Dave, Reuters

Using so-called enterprise developer certificates, these pirate operations are providing modified versions of popular apps to consumers, enabling them to stream music without ads and to circumvent fees and rules in games, depriving Apple and legitimate app makers of revenue.

[...]

After Reuters initially contacted Apple for comment last week, some of the pirates were banned from the system, but within days they were using different certificates and were operational again.

Love Is In The Air

Love In The Time Of Read Receipts, by Kelsey McKinney, Digg

Read receipts are divisive, controversial and can be easily misread. They can also help you communicate more effectively if both parties mutually agree to them — or mutually decide against them. "For those relationships where this has created distress or conflict, deciding to mutually turn off the read notifications can be romantic," says Forshee. "This entails learning to trust, sit with discomfort, increases awareness into our own behaviors and allows for closeness by giving freedom. Healthy relationships require freedom."

I Hack Because I Love, by Ernie Smith, Tedium

In 2006, it might have been the case that people Hackintoshing were trying to experiment or get a deal. These days, I think there are a lot more people in this community who simply want Apple to give them what they want so they can do their jobs, and then to get out of the way. These people still want iPhones and iPads, will still buy Apple accessories, and gladly want to be part of the company’s ecosystem. But if they can’t get in the front door, feeling burned by thin keyboards and slow updates, they’ll go in through the back, even if there’s more broken glass on that side of the building.

Earliest Towering Innovators

The Secret History Of Women In Coding, by Clive Thompson, New York Times

Today Wilkes is retired and lives in Cambridge, Mass. White-haired at 81, she still has the precise mannerisms and the ready, beaming smile that can be seen in photos from the ’60s, when she posed, grinning, beside the LINC. She told me that she occasionally gives talks to young students studying computer science. But the industry they’re heading into is, astonishingly, less populated with women — and by many accounts less welcoming to them — than it was in Wilkes’s day. In 1960, when she started working at M.I.T., the proportion of women in computing and mathematical professions (which are grouped together in federal government data) was 27 percent. It reached 35 percent in 1990. But, in the government’s published figures, that was the peak. The numbers fell after that, and by 2013, women were down to 26 percent — below their share in 1960.

When Wilkes talks to today’s young coders, they are often shocked to learn that women were among the field’s earliest, towering innovators and once a common sight in corporate America. “Their mouths are agape,” Wilkes says. “They have absolutely no idea.”

Stuff

Apple Tweaks British And Australian Speaking Voices For Siri On HomePod, by Mitchel Broussard, MacRumors

The change appears to be very subtle. MacRumors readers described the Australian Female and British Male voices as "more natural" and "much clearer," and similar reports have emerged about other voices. Although there are many different descriptions for each voice, the consensus appears to be that the tweaks make Siri sound more human-like.

Review: Mophie Juice Pack Access Keeps Your iPhone Running Wirelessly, by Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

These latest cases —available for the iPhone X/XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR —show a drastic departure in design. Instead of interfacing with your iPhone via the Lightning port at the bottom, Juice Pack Access powers up your iPhone with Qi wireless charging.

The case can draw power from a wireless charger and can power your iPhone the same way. This leaves the bottom completely open and accessible.

Pixelmator Pro Adds Support For iPhone Portrait Mode Depth Masks, by Dami Lee, The Verge

Photos taken in Portrait Mode on iOS 12 or later will be imported with the depth data in a separate layer mask, so you can easily edit backgrounds or swap them out entirely.

Pixelmator Pro: How Does It Compare To Photoshop CC?, by Victor Agreda, TidBITS

[I]f you’re a photographer whose needs include tonal adjustments, some pixel replacement, and maybe a little bit of vector work added on top—all deployed with the speed and beauty of a proper Mac app—you just may be delighted by Pixelmator Pro’s capabilities and low price.

Develop

Apple Says All Developer Program Members Must Enable Two-factor By The End Of This Month, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple has seemingly required new Apple Developer Program signups to have two-factor authentication enabled for a while now. This change, however, is targeting existing developers who have yet to enable the security measure on their account.

Adding A Separate Developer Account To Your iOS Device, by Kyle Seth Gray

This has led to a lot of confusion because a lot of developers have separate accounts for good reason. Here’s how you can add your developer account to your device to get authentication codes.

[...]

The one problem is enabling it in the first place - the easiest way is to create a temporary user on your Mac and enable it there, but damn if that isn’t a clunky solution.

Notes

SEC Files Insider Trading Lawsuit Against Former Apple Lawyer, by Sara Salinas, CNBC

Gene Levoff, senior director of corporate law and corporate secretary until September, "traded on material nonpublic information about Apple's earnings three times during 2015 and 2016," according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.

[...]

Levoff was put on leave from Apple in July 2018 and terminated in September, the suit says. Before his termination, Levoff was "responsible for Apple's compliance with securities laws," the SEC complaint says.

Apple To Sell Modified iPhone 7 And iPhone 8 In Germany To Skirt Sales Ban, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

The California-based company said it had "no choice" but to replace Intel chips in the iPhone models with chips from Qualcomm in order to allow them to be sold again in the country.

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