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Zane Lowe Leaving BBC Radio 1 for Apple→

BBC:

Zane Lowe is leaving Radio 1 after more than a decade at the station.

The 41-year-old DJ, who joined the network in 2003, is moving to the US to work at Apple.

This is an interesting and smart hire from Apple. Beyond the awards and popularity, Lowe has incredible taste in music and has helped discover numerous talents over the years. He curated albums he considered masterpieces with a special section of his show and he has connections with the biggest names of the industry. Between him, Dre, and Jimmy Iovine, Apple is assembling an impressive roster of well-known industry personalities who know good music and artists.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time watching Zane Lowe sessions and interviews with my favorite artists and, to me, this sounds like a big deal from the company on charge of iTunes Radio and Beats Music.

According to The Guardian, Lowe is leaving BBC Radio 1 specifically for Apple’s iTunes Radio service. Given his background, iTunes rumors, and focus on curation with Beats Music and iTunes Radio, I’m excited to know more about Apple’s music plans this year.

As it turns out, I think my take on Beats Music from last year has aged fairly well:

Computers and algorithms, in spite of modern advancements in data extraction and parsing, don’t understand things like artistic influences, song meanings, subtle references, or the “mood” of a song. Computers can’t compute emotion. They can’t understand what’s behind Dave Grohl’s “Best of You” at Wembley or why Death Cab For Cutie’s Transatlanticism is an album about long distance love. Computers don’t have the human touch, and I believe that they will never be able to fully, empathically replicate the ability to appreciate music as an artistic expression.

That’s why Beats Music hired people knowledgeable about music and uses algorithms as a tool, and not the medium: there’s more to music than data.

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Virtual: Emulation Finds A Way→

This time Myke and Federico talk about whether current mobile games will be played in the future, compare games that make you replay levels and Myke shares his experiences of the the new Nintendo 3DS.

As a follow-up to speedrunning from last week, a brief discussion about preservation in the age of IAP. Myke allegedly managed to download and play the original Super Monkey Ball from 2009, which is still on the App Store. You can listen to the episode here.

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Apple Increases Maximum App Size to 4 GB→

From Apple’s developer blog:

The size limit of an app package submitted through iTunes Connect has increased from 2 GB to 4 GB, so you can include more media in your submission and provide a more complete, rich user experience upon installation. Please keep in mind that this change does not affect the cellular network delivery size limit of 100 MB.

Over the years, the maximum size of 2 GB for apps forced game developers to drastically reduce the graphical capabiltities of their games (see, for instance, the original BioShock port). With Metal and more powerful iPhones and iPads, it only makes sense to let developers create more advanced iOS gaming experiences with fewer compromises.

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Connected: I Disagree with Myself→

This week, the guys talk about Sunrise, ChromeOS, Photos.app and Tim Cook’s remarks at the Goldman Sachs Conference.

In this week’s Connected, I struggle to understand what a file is and I make a shameful confession. You can listen to the episode here.

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Microsoft Acquires Sunrise→

After a few weeks of speculation, Microsoft has confirmed they have acquired popular calendar app Sunrise, which will remain free and join the company’s existing set of mobile apps.

Rajesh Jha writes on the Microsoft blog:

I’m pleased to announce that Microsoft has acquired Sunrise, provider of a next-generation calendar app for iOS and Android. We are making this acquisition because we believe a reinvention in the way people use calendars on mobile devices is long overdue. Our goal is to better help people manage and make the most of their time in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.

This is another step forward on our journey to reinvent productivity and empower every person and organization to achieve more. Today’s acquisition of Sunrise, our recent acquisition of Acompli, and our new touch-optimized universal Office apps for Windows 10 all exemplify Microsoft’s ambition to rethink the productivity category. Our goal is to create more meaningful, beautiful experiences in mobile email and calendaring across all platforms. And as you will hear in the video below, the creative talent and fresh thinking at Sunrise and Acompli will make a lasting impact on the Microsoft family as we seek to reinvent productivity.

I’m a fan of Sunrise and I like what Microsoft has been doing lately. Yes, Microsoft hasn’t built Acompli and Sunrise in the first place (and that’s another problem), but at least they’re spending money to acquire quality apps that can help them catch up in the mobile space. Outlook is well done (I’m using it every day; I love the Focused Inbox and calendar integration) and Sunrise is, in my opinion, the best multi-platform calendar app Microsoft could ask for.

I wrote about Sunrise last year, and I still use the app for two reasons: its elegant design and integration with external services. Sunrise is unique in its ability to show tasks from my Todoist account alongside calendar events; the same applies to Evernote reminders, upcoming Songkick concerts, and even Trello todos.

Sunrise shows me all the things I need to do in a single place, and Microsoft should keep this aspect intact.

It seems fair to assume that Microsoft will add more cloud integrations from their own ecosystem (OneNote, Exchange, perhaps Skype?), but I’m curious to see if and how Sunrise will work with Outlook, which comes with an embedded Calendar view.

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Smartphone Thefts Dropping Thanks to Kill Switches→

Sharon Bernstein, reporting for Reuters:

Thefts involving smartphones have declined dramatically in three major cities since manufacturers began implementing “kill switches” that allow the phones to be turned off remotely if they are stolen, authorities said on Tuesday.

The number of stolen iPhones dropped by 40 percent in San Francisco and 25 percent in New York in the 12 months after Apple Inc added a kill switch to its devices in September 2013. In London, smartphone theft dropped by half, according to an announcement by officials in the three cities.

Speaking from personal experience, the number of people (friends of friends) who ask me about an iPhone “they found” has also dropped. Activation Lock is an important software feature and it’s good to know it’s having a meaningful impact.

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Ten Years of Google Maps→

Great story by Liz Gannes on the first decade of Google Maps and its impact on society and technology.

I’d add this: as we enter the wearable era of mobile, it’ll be interesting to see how each platform owner will leverage the wrist screen space for mapping.

Apple is going to put at-a-glance directions on the Watch, and, as I assume the Maps integration will be deeper than what is going to be allowed to third-parties with WatchKit, that may be enough to make me reconsider my daily usage of Apple Maps.

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Photos for OS X and Pros→

Serenity Caldwell on Apple’s new Photos app for OS X:

See, true professionals know what they like, and can seek it out from Apple’s programs or elsewhere. But new users? They don’t know what they like, or what they need. They don’t know what the difference between an aperture and shutter speed is, or why that’s important. They just want to be able to take good pictures and make them look good for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, cards, you name it. They want it to be easy.

Bingo. I may be an “advanced user” of some aspects of iOS, but when it comes to photography I don’t understand half of the terminology involved with prosumer photo apps.

I don’t know what kind of precise improvements my photos need. But I know what I want from my photo app – the simple ability to take a picture and have a single copy on all my devices. This is why I could never get into the idea of “processing” my photos: a picture is either good or bad for me, and the basic editing tools in the Photos app for iOS are enough for my needs.

As I wrote before, iCloud Photo Library is shaping up to be exactly what I want from iOS and OS X for photo management and lightweight editing.

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