Linked List: August 4, 2017

Friday, 4 August 2017

Pilots Share Photos Between Planes via AirDrop at 35,000 Feet? 

If this is legit, this is amazing.

Update: Looks like it’s a hoax.

Bloomberg: Apple Plans to Release a Cellular-Capable Watch 

Mark Gurman, Scott Moritz, and Ian King, reporting for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is planning to release a version of its smartwatch later this year that can connect directly to cellular networks, a move designed to reduce the device’s reliance on the iPhone, people familiar with the matter said.

Currently, Apple requires its smartwatch to be connected wirelessly to an iPhone to stream music, download directions in maps, and send messages while on the go. Equipped with LTE chips, at least some new Apple Watch models, planned for release by the end of the year, will be able to conduct many tasks without an iPhone in range, the people said. For example, a user would be able to download new songs and use apps and leave their smartphone at home.

Intel Corp. will supply the LTE modems for the new Watch, according to another person familiar with the situation.

It’s hard to overstate just how big a deal this could be. No mention in Businessweek’s report, though, of the all-new form factor that I’ve heard is coming for this year’s new watches. That tidbit came from an unconfirmed little birdie, though, so I wouldn’t bet the house on it.

Thoughts on the Nintendo Switch User Interface 

Charlie Deets:

I’ve been using the Switch for a few months and I can’t stop thinking about its user interface. Nintendo’s newest console is in the golden era of its UI. The base features you would expect out of a game system are covered, but cruft has not yet been added to the experience. I’ve heard a lot of people say they long for more from the Switch’s UI, but I love the bare bones simplicity.

Nintendo was dealt a somewhat unique interface problem for a gaming console: design an interface for a single device that can be used mobile or at home with a large variety of input and output.

We got a Switch a few weeks ago, and I agree with just about everything Deets writes. It’s a great interface and experience, both in concept and in execution. And Nintendo solved some very hard problems to make it seem so easy and obvious.

The Nintendo Switch is a triumph.

Obama 3 

Today is Barack Obama’s birthday. Perhaps you’d like to celebrate by buying one of these sweet new t-shirts from my pal Brian Jaramillo. (Brian has handled the printing and shipping of all DF t-shirts for the last 10 years or so — he’s the best screen-printer I know.)

$5 for each T-shirt ordered will go to ProPublica, supporting great journalism in the public interest.

Marques Brownlee Goes Hands-On With Red Hydrogen Prototypes 

Marques Brownlee has a great video showing what Red intends their upcoming Hydrogen phone to look like. Some thoughts:

  • It’s big. That’s a 5.7-inch display, and side-by-side it dwarfs an iPhone 7 Plus.
  • It’s clearly designed not to be used in case. The Kevlar frame, with finger-sized ridges for gripping, looks like it is a protective case. Camera makers know how to make expensive gear that can take a beating in use.
  • Brownlee wasn’t allowed to show the “holographic” display mode, but he seems impressed by it.

Red is taking pre-orders for two models: aluminum for $1195, and titanium for $1595.

Apple Expands TestFlight Tester Limit to 10,000 Users 

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac earlier this week:

Apple today has announced that it is expanding the tester limits in its TestFlight program. Whereas developers were previously limited to inviting 2,000 users to beta test an application, they can now invite up to 10,000 external testers.

This might be purely coincidental timing with regard to the controversy over VPN apps being removed from the App Store in China, but TestFlight is a path around the App Store.

The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe 

Lovely profile of the engineering team still working to control Voyager I and II:

Fortunately, the malfunctioning backup receiver was still drawing current. They guessed that its oscillator, which allows it to accept a wide range of frequencies, had quit, essentially shrinking the target for transmissions from Earth. Assuming a much narrower bandwidth, and manually subtracting the Doppler effect, they recalibrated their signal. It worked — but to this day, the same calculation must precede every command. The original receiver remains useless: one engineer’s simple oversight nearly doomed humankind’s lone visit to Uranus and Neptune. ‘‘You like to think you have checks and balances,’’ Chris Jones, JPL’s chief engineer, who designed Voyager’s fault protection, told me. ‘‘In reality, we all worry about being that person.’’

Today the Voyagers are 10 billion and 13 billion miles away, the farthest man-made objects from Earth. The 40th anniversary of their launch will be celebrated next month.

I wasn’t aware of just how narrow the window of opportunity was that made it possible for these probes to visit all four of the outer planets:

One of the greatest obstacles to planetary science has always been the human life span: Typically, for instance, a direct flight to Neptune would take about 30 years. But in the spring of 1965, Gary Flandro, a doctoral student at Caltech, noticed that all four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — would align on the same side of the sun in the 1980s. If a spacecraft were launched in the mid- to late 1970s, it could use the gravity of the first body to slingshot to the second, and so on. Such a trajectory would add enough speed to shorten the total journey by almost two-thirds. What’s more, this orbital configuration would not appear again for 175 years.