Linked List: December 8, 2015

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

tvOS 9.1 Update Restores Ability to Use iOS Remote App, Adds Apple Music Support to Siri ★

I think it’s a safe bet these were things that were planned for the new Apple TV all along, but simply were dropped for the 9.0 release because they ran out of time. Being able to ask Siri to “play some Christmas music” is fun.

Apple also released minor bug-fix updates to WatchOS and Mac OS X El Capitan.

iOS 9.2 Allows iPhone to Import Photos From External Cameras and SD Cards ★

Michael Zhang, writing for PetaPixel:

Apple is rolling out iOS 9.2 today, and among a host of minor features and fixes is new iPhone support for Apple’s Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. This means you can now connect your camera to your iPhone and import photos directly without having to use a computer as the middleman.

The feature should be a boon for Instagram users who prefer to shoot photos with a dedicated camera before sharing them on the service. After connecting the adapter to your iPhone and connecting your camera to the adapter using a USB cable, your iPhone will open up its Photos app and allow you to choose which photos (JPEG or RAW) and videos you’d like to import.

It also works with the Lighting to SD Card Reader. I’ve long been curious why the iPhone didn’t support these.

Google Pixel C Reviews: Not Good ★

Joanna Stern, writing for the WSJ:

You can’t attach wings to a car and expect it to fly. And you can’t attach a keyboard to a tablet and expect it to get stuff done. Software is the main issue at the heart of the chaotic tablet transition right now.

I’ve said that the Surface Pro’s full-blown Windows operating system lacks the mobile essentials and battery life to make it a stellar tablet, but when the keyboard is attached, it’s a great workhorse. Apple’s iPad is a stellar tablet, but still lacks productivity essentials. (Maybe the next iOS will bring it closer to the optimal tablet/laptop middle ground.) Google just hasn’t tried with Android. Perhaps development efforts are focused on the merger of Android and the Chrome desktop operating system, which my colleagues reported.

Walt Mossberg, writing at The Verge:

Google has long mostly ignored the notion of tablet-optimized apps. When I have asked the company’s executives about this, they’ve typically responded that well-designed phone apps can do the job on multiple screen sizes. But anyone who looks at an iPad-optimized app can see the difference.

Even though the Pixel C is a Google hero product, it lacks the software to make it great. As on Android tablets from other companies, almost all the Android apps I used on the Pixel C looked like blown-up phone apps. It doesn’t appear that Google worked with key third parties to take advantage of the company’s first-ever tablet hardware.

Dieter Bohn, also for The Verge:

This tablet is the Pixel hardware team’s response. It’s a simple, well-considered, uncomplicated glimpse into what a tablet computer ought to be. “Get on the train,” it says, “this is the future.”

Except, well: Google’s Android and developer relations teams never even got to the station.

Consensus: good display, good battery life, good build quality, decent keyboard with a very sturdy magnetic connection to the tablet — but the whole thing is spoiled by the lack of tablet-optimized apps for Android.

Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones ★

Ingrid Lunden:

Farewell Firefox OS smartphones. Mozilla today announced an end to its smartphone experiment, and said that it would stop developing and selling Firefox OS smartphones. It will continue to experiment on how it might work on other connected devices and Internet of Things networks.

My Firefox OS phone is without question the worst mobile device I’ve ever tried. So bad it’s hard to believe they shipped it.

Wristly Survey of Dissatisfied Apple Watch Owners ★

Bernard Desarnauts, writing for Wristly:

Some perspective to keep in mind first. While about 12% of our panelists have mentioned in prior survey knowing at least one person who wasn’t happy with Apple Watch, the same panel gave Apple Watch a 97% satisfaction rating in July confirmed by a 96% approval rating in October.

We have had to wait until earlier this month and the help of Philip Elmer-DeWitt who wrote about our intent earlier this month, to garner sufficient voices. We have now captured completed surveys from just over 330 people who stated that they owned an Apple Watch and were not satisfied with it. A final point to note, since we do not have a technical way to verify if someone has truly owned the Watch, we relied on basic data scrubbing to prevent contributions of a spammy nature.

Google Deceptively Tracks Students’ Internet Browsing, EFF Says in FTC Complaint ★

The EFF (last week):

While Google does not use student data for targeted advertising within a subset of Google sites, EFF found that Google’s “Sync” feature for the Chrome browser is enabled by default on Chromebooks sold to schools. This allows Google to track, store on its servers, and data mine for non-advertising purposes, records of every Internet site students visit, every search term they use, the results they click on, videos they look for and watch on YouTube, and their saved passwords. Google doesn’t first obtain permission from students or their parents and since some schools require students to use Chromebooks, many parents are unable to prevent Google’s data collection.

Google’s practices fly in the face of commitments made when it signed the Student Privacy Pledge, a legally enforceable document whereby companies promise to refrain from collecting, using, or sharing students’ personal information except when needed for legitimate educational purposes or if parents provide permission.

Roundup of iPhone Secrets Revealed During Apple-Samsung Lawsuit ★

Great post from Yoni Heisler, writing at BGR:

One of the more interesting aspects of Apple’s legal battle with Samsung is that it gave us an unprecedented look behind the veil of secrecy that typically shrouds all aspects of Apple’s product development and day-to-day operations. Over the course of discovery, innumerable court filings, and a fascinating trial, the inner workings of Apple were brought to the forefront for the fist time in history. From photographs of iPhone prototypes to how Apple conducts market research, Apple’s legal battles with Samsung provided tech enthusiasts with a treasure trove of previously top-secret information.

With Samsung now agreeing to pony up for damages, we thought it’d be a good time to take a step back, reminisce, and take a look at some of the more interesting nuggets of information the hard-fought patent dispute brought to light.

So interesting to see Apple’s unreleased prototypes. Some of them hinted at things to come, but some of them were clearly dead ends.

Here’s an interesting nugget:

An Apple survey revealed that upwards of 78% of iPhone users buy cases for their devices.

Anecdotally, four-out-of-five sounds about right.

Ookla’s New Speedtest No Longer Requires Flash ★

One less reason to keep Flash Player around.