Category: Weekly digest

Apple Music is great for discovery, not so great on your iTunes library. The complaints are mounting but it looks like Apple are listening.

• Apple Music is a nightmare and I’m done with it – The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple struggles and eventually gives up on Apple Music.
• I got my music back. At least most of it – 2 days and a trip to Apple later Dalrymple is in a slightly better place. Yes Apple are fixing things but it feels like Apple Music and iTunes are a marriage too far. Why didn’t they keep Apple Music as a separate streaming solution? Messing with people’s curated music libraries is a recipe for disaster.
• Why iTunes 12.2 Changed Metadata, Artwork and iCloud Status for Files in Some Users’ iTunes Libraries – Here’s the reason why iTunes libraries are changing.
• Myths on Apple Pay Limits – Some good info on what you can do in the UK with Apple Pay.
• Is the Apple Watch Really Worth Your Time? The Ultimate Review. – I still get asked if I like mines. I do.
• Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It – Cue massive recall.
• Why I Hate Scotland
• The New American Slavery : Invited To The U.S., Foreign Workers Find A Nightmare
• The Verge’s web sucks – Great response to the Verge’s assertion that Mobile Safari is the root of their speed problems. Not so!
• Web Design : The First 100 Years
• Up in the Air: Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free – Who knew!
• The Everyday Messenger: A Bag For Cameras & Essential Carry – A lot of thought gone into this bag. Might be a tad too big for work but very tempted.
• Storage for Photographers (Part 2) – A great read and much to ponder. I’ve not got a great storage strategy in place…maybe a NAS is the route to go after all.
• A crazy car chase, the peloton pee break and how the stars stay at a €90 Novotel: MailOnline spends the day with Team Sky to reveal the surreal sights never shown on the Tour de France coverage… and the secrets of Chris Froome’s success – Breaking my Daily Mail rule again but a great insight to what goes on behind the scenes.
• Magicians Young & Strange Hijack Sky News! – Brilliant.

A bit late this week, mostly due to Rocket League.

• Mhairi Black: SNP MP’s maiden speech in full – Many millions have watched this speech and no wonder. I was very judgemental of Mhairi Black during the election campaign. Silly wee girl, too young for MP, Twitter posts a disgrace. Well, I was the disgrace. This speech is one of the best in years and she fully deserves the credit for not only the words but the passion she displayed last week. More please!
• A Maiden Speech for the next Labour Leader
• The Politics of Fear: Why I’m Getting Sick of the Labour Leadership Contest – The Fear word. It’s like 2014 all over again.
• Let Glasgow flourish: The case for a bigger, better, metropolitan Glasgow
• The photo of the young Queen playing Nazi is an important historical document. It should shock us
• The Really Big One – An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when.
• How to destroy Programmer Productivity
• New Horizons’ Pluto Flyby – Science is awesome
• Flash. Must. Die.
• Why Web Pages Suck
• The Web We Have to Save
• The battle for the BBC – You know there’s a Tory government in charge when you look at the questions being asked in the BBC Charter Review public consultation. Biased much?
• Who’s Actually Buying iPods These Days?
• A Watch, Water and Workouts – I’m still loving the Apple Watch.
• This Is Our Woodstock: A Star Wars Superfan at Comic-Con’s Lightsaber Symphony – Sounds amazing – what a treat for fans.
• How a Car Works – Glorious website with some lovely animations.

Much geekery this week thanks to Comic-Con.

• Germany won’t spare Greek pain – it has an interest in breaking us
• Taylor Swift is so generous that GoFundMe changed its rules to keep up with her – Next up, Greece.
• Who Owns Your Steps? – Access to my data in health app’s is key to me using their service.
• Stuff in Space – So much junk.
• Why desktop apps are making a comeback
• You can’t be half agile -Lessons!
• The Condensed Guide to Running Meetings – Some obvious but important tips. I want each of our meeting rooms to have a counter that shows the cost of the current meeting based on the grade of each of the attendee’s in the room. I’m sure that would focus the mind.
• How We Changed the Facebook Friends Icon – Small but important steps
• Explore the TWA Terminal, a Pristine Time Capsule From 1962
• Chris Urmson: How a driverless car sees the road
• So long, Reddit – for all thats good about Reddit, there’s much to hate.
• Single Player Game – An essay retrospective of computer games, esports, and DotA.
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Comic-Con 2015 Reel – Magical
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Comic-Con Trailer – Better than the first trailer but still not great and I feel they are ruining my favourite comic book at the same time.
• Game of Thrones: Audition Reel (HBO) – You know nothing Jon Snow.

Another week, another referendum, another No victory. It was also the week that more words than ever were written about a music service. Thanks Apple Music.

• With style and a dash of daring, the new SNP MPs rise to battle for their own little corner – Breaking my rule of not linking to the Daily Mail with this one but I enjoyed it and the SNP contingent have injected energy into Westminster.
• On Apple Music
• Apple Music is a Usability Nightmare – iTunes especially is a bigger mess than normal.
• How to properly use “Likes” in Apple Music – It’s so obvious that a tech blog had to explain Apple Music and it’s hearts, skips and stars. Ha.
• Safari is the new IE – It just works.
• Love – The App rush hasn’t turned out how we all thought.
• Innovating at Scale: The Companies That Don’t Let Size Slow Them Down
• Thoughts on Design
• At the heart of Wimbledon lies the IBM bunker – It’s Wimbledon fortnight and I love a stat.
• Letter to My Younger Self – Great words from Pete Sampras
• 142mph Serve – Racquet hits the ball 6000fps Super slow motion (from Olympus IMS) – Who knew!
• A Most Dangerous Game – Welcome to calcio storico, a centuries-old competition in Florence with very few rules and the sort of human wreckage generally associated with the gladiators.
• The Making of an IKEA Billy Bookcase
• How World War III became possible – Not sure I agree but interesting reading
• A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving
• Hear how Steve Ballmer bailed out Xbox after Red Ring of Death – The best most unreliable console ever. Shocking.
• How To Be A Good Person On An Airplane – If only everyone followed these rules.

A pretty grim week across the globe but lets focus on the positive:

• The Supreme Court just legalized same-sex marriage across the US
• President Obama Delivers Eulogy at Charleston Shooting Funeral of Clementa Pinckney – Amazing speech from President Obama. Find 30 minutes to watch this in full.
• Activist pulls down Confederate flag in front of South Carolina statehouse – Bree Newsome makes a stand and was arrested for it. Free Bree.
• Why is Apple so embarrassed by games?
• It only took 17 hours for Apple to admit Taylor Swift was right about not paying artists
• Ten Years Ago, Apple Brought Podcasting To iTunes
• WTF with Marc Maron – 613 – President Barack Obama – President Obama appears on a podcast.
• Whats Really Warming the World? – Trust the data
• A World Without Work – For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. Could that be a good thing?
• I Got In Touch With People Who Abused Me Online To Ask Why – How did you feel when I got in touch with you? I felt really bad. Looking back, I’m appalled at myself. It was stupid.
• How We Made Top Gear – Clarkson is such an idiot.

It’s the longest day of the year so plenty time to catch up on some of these:

• Watch Jon Stewart simply lose the ability to tell jokes over America’s gun violence – It’s heartbreaking that America seems unable to tackle it’s gun problem. It seems no amount of deaths will change the political will.
• Refusal To Call Charleston Shootings “Terrorism” Again Shows It’s A Meaningless Propaganda Term
• Serious OS X and iOS flaws let hackers steal keychain, 1Password contents – nothing is safe.
• To Apple, Love Taylor – Taylor Swift is no doubt one of the most powerful artists in music today and no doubt means well by this, but if Apple paid for the three months then no doubt some anti-trust government type would investigate. It turns out Apple are paying more than others to cover the 3 month trial period, but only 1.5% which doesn’t seem much.
• Deep linking & search in iOS 9 will change everything – some fundamental changes coming in iOS 9.
• What it’s really like to work for a tech giant
• Fitbit is the start of a revolution in digital health, but is it good for us?
• Microsoft Humours Glaswegians With Bespoke Local Cortana Ad – Well played Microsoft.
• Is the SNP an Anglophobic party or just a party for Anglophobes?
• Alex Salmond Is Walking Around Westminster Like He Owns The Place – I still think Salmond is a liability for the SNP.
• Things I would go back and tell the younger me – Not everyone will like you. Get used to this. Don’t try and ingratiate yourself with these people; move on.
• The UK is scrapping one of its most successful renewable energy subsidies
• Freedom of Panorama is under attack – thanks Europe.
• Mark Kermode reviews Entourage – Well, it’s no surprise I do hate it. Mark Kermode doesn’t hold back on this sone.

WWDC delivered…apart from Apple Music. Hopefully some of these reads will do too (and the video’s as well!).

• The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2015 – John Gruber interviews Phil Schiller. A great hour long video thats well worth watching.
• Live with Phil – this write up of The Talk Show Live from Marco Arment is a great read. It’s clear that the normally private Apple does read the blogs and listen to the podcasts from the many Apple enthusiasts.
• The Good No – a lesson to be learnt.
• What is code – a 32,000 word epic but find the time. It’s good.
• An Update on Todoist PowerApp and Developer Challenge – An honest post from Todoist on their new platforms issues. More companies should do this.
• I quit the tech industry
• Let’s Talk About Growth – FFA and deficits covered in detail. Great post.
• Revealed: The Inside Story of the Last WTC Tower’s Design
• Chairman Zhang’s flatpack skyscrapers – 19 days to build a 57 storey skyscraper. Great web design from the BBC, hopefully the skyscraper is as well thought through.
• The Making of Lemmings
• The Unsolved Mysteries of Elite
• Blood donors in Sweden get a text message whenever their blood saves someone’s life – novel way of incentivising blood donations.
• Glasgow by Air – I have that drone itch again. Glasgow looks great from the air.

Busy busy week for me and lots of interesting reads to catch up on.

• The real reason David Cameron is sitting on a Commons majority – FPTP protects the two big parties and with the Tories having a majority I can’t see the system changing for at least another 5 years.
• Charles Kennedy – a lovely man, a talented politician, a great friend with a shared enemy – Such a big loss for everyone.
• Sheryl Sandberg – Today is the end of sheloshim for my beloved husband
• One month with the Apple Watch: We’re joined at the wrist – some month thoughts from me soon too.
• Apple’s Tim Cook Delivers Blistering Speech On Encryption, Privacy – True conviction from Cook or frustration at falling behind Google’s services particularly the new Photo’s app. Time will tell.
• Laughing and crying my way through the new Google Photos
• What Twitter Can Be.
• Going for a song: the hidden history of music piracy – I was a member of Oink. It was glorious for all the wrong reasons but what a library.
• How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality? – Interesting test that audiophiles in particularly should take and remember before they spunk hundreds of pounds on a cable.
• The Moment I Realized I Hate My Job
• Chief Swiss Army Knife: the evolution of job titles and what it means
• The Full-Time Job Is Dead – overlapping micro-careers anyone?
• Thoughts on Timeboxing – will be trying this soon
• Managing the inputs – or as Shak would say, stop eating cake!
• How I became a drug cheat athlete to test the system – Remarkable investigation by Mark Daly which will run and run.
• How The Red Cross Raised Half A Billion Dollars For Haiti — And Built Six Homes – a quite damming story if true. There is so little follow up on charity drives and where money is actually spent.
• A graphic tale: the visual effects of Mad Max: Fury Road – catch on the big screen while you can – it’s a treat.
• The first secret of design is … noticing – fascinating video from Tony Fadell, designed behind the original iPod and the Nest.
• Bond – Licence To Drive – Nice visual summary of the Bond cars used across the films.

• When Stephen Fry met Jony Ive: the self-confessed tech geek talks to Apple’s newly promoted chief design officer
• On Jony Ive’s Promotion to Chief Design Officer – No man is bigger than a company but Ive really is the new Steve Jobs given the analysis from the Apple community this week.
• Travels with the Apple Watch – I’m getting much more use out of the Apple Watch than I expected. Todoist this week was a nice addition and we should see more at WWDC.
• Google Wants To Be Your Everything – Google Now updates look impressive and Photo’s works well on iOS. I still use so many Google tools despite being on Apple platform.
• Web! What is it good for?
• Run – The benefits of running isn’t just physical as can be seen from this very personal post.
• Seeking Happy
• The Secret History of Ultimate Marvel, the Experiment That Changed Superheroes Forever
• KUNG FURY Official Movie [HD] – Mental!

Some nice movie reads this week and a farewell to Mad Men.

• My Reaction to Mad Max: Fury Road and the Utter Perfection that is Imperator Furiosa – Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t just an action film
• The Untold Story of ILM, a Titan That Forever Changed Film
• Blade Runner: anatomy of a classic
• Labour’s problems in Scotland go well beyond Jim Murphy
• The Only Way Is Down: 18 Notes On The Uk Election</li>
• Alistair Carmichael urged to quit as MP for leaking anti-Sturgeon memo – Carmichael has always struck me as quite the buffoon. The fact that he couldn’t even cover his own tracks and then lied on camera surely means he has to go. Ridiculous that the Liberals are backing him on this. Desperate.
• It’s Weirdly Difficult to Start a Food Truck Business In Glasgow – Who knew?
• The Sliding Scale of Giving a Fuck
• 9 telltale signs it’s time to quit your job
• Meet the 22-year-old blogger who gets paid up to $15,000 for a single Instagram post – I knew there was money involved but the amount is pretty staggering.
• Apple Watch And Continuous Computing – Great insight from Ben Thompson and the first update for the Apple Watch delivered a nice update for third party apps.
• Time-lapse Mining from Internet Photos – Amazing results
• Jon Hamm Talks About the ‘Mad Men’ Series Finale – Mad Men finished this week and with a great ending too cementing it’s place as one of the great TV series of all time. Will be missed.