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The Smiths Nearly Reunited in 2008

The Smiths
Jason Tate

Johnny Marr talks with The Guardian about how The Smiths almost reunited in 2008:

The drinks kept coming and we sat talking for hours. We chatted, as we always did, about the records we loved, and eventually we moved on to “that subject”. There had been rumours for years that the Smiths were about to re-form, and they were always untrue. I had never pursued any offer.

Suddenly we were talking about the possibility of the band re-forming, and in that moment it seemed that with the right intention it could actually be done and might even be great. I would still work with the Cribs on our album, and Morrissey also had an album due out. We hung out for a while longer, and after even more orange juice (for me) and even more beer (for him) we hugged and said our goodbyes.

Apple Unveils New Mac Book Pros

Jason Tate

Apple unveiled some new MacBook Pros today. Here’s Jason Snell, at Six Colors, talking about the updates:

The new MacBook Pros, the first major revision of Apple’s flagship Mac since the unveiling of the Retina MacBook Pro in 2012, possess all the things you’d expect from a new Apple product. They’re thinner and lighter, more powerful, integrate Apple-originated technology, and question basic assumptions about the product category they reside in.

With the Touch Bar, Apple’s questioning the existence of the function row at the top of our keyboards. Over the years Apple has de-emphasized the size of those keys and remapped them to system functions, and now it’s doing away with keys altogether. A programmable multi-touch display can provide virtual keys and sliding interface elements based on context. Having a custom button properly labeled sure beats “Press F10.”

Twitter Is Shutting Down Vine

Twitter
Jason Tate

Sara Perez, writing at TechCrunch, on Twitter shutting down Vine:

With Twitter’s future still in question following failed attempts at finding an acquirer and the recently announced layoffs of nine percent of its workforce, the company today announced it’s shutting down its standalone short-form video app, Vine. According a post, nothing is changing immediately — the website and apps will remain online for the time being, and users will be given a chance to download their Vine videos ahead of its official closure.

The founder of the company, on Twitter, had pretty good advice: “Don’t sell your company.” I hope BatDad Blake keeps posting videos somewhere — that was my favorite Vine account.

IBM Is Counting on Its Bet on Watson

The New York Times
Jason Tate

New York Times:

At the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Watson was tested on 1,000 cancer diagnoses made by human experts. In 99 percent of them, Watson recommended the same treatment as the oncologists.

In 30 percent of the cases, Watson also found a treatment option the human doctors missed. Some treatments were based on research papers that the doctors had not read — more than 160,000 cancer research papers are published a year. Other treatment options might have surfaced in a new clinical trial the oncologists had not yet seen announced on the web.

I had a “holy shit” moment reading this.

AirPods Getting a Slight Delay

Jason Tate

It looks like Apple’s AirPods will be delayed a bit. Matthew Panzarino, at TechCrunch, reports:

“The early response to AirPods has been incredible. We don’t believe in shipping a product before it’s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers,” an Apple spokesperson said to TechCrunch.

Apple did not say whether hardware or software updates are what is at the heart of the delay so I couldn’t conjecture which. My experiences with the AirPods have been very positive this far but the pre production units that were given out to press are not without their foibles and bugs. I have seen a variety of small software/hardware interaction issues that have caused some frustration — but have taken them in stride because they are not final products.

Apple will be making more announcements today at an event (rumors are new Macs), feel free to come join us in the Apple thread to talk about the new shit.

Blog: Yes, American Democracy Could Break Down

Jason Tate

Politico:

There are three interlocking reasons why our confidence in the system is naïve. For one, we’re in genuinely uncharted territory with Trump: we’ve simply never seen a candidate with this much disregard for typical Constitutional values get this close to the White House. There’s no precedent for what might happen if he got there. For another, if you look at how our system of checks and balances is really built, it has relatively few resources to stop an authoritarian president from violating the Constitution and getting away with it. And the third reason may be the most unsettling of all: In a democracy, the final brake on the tyrannical exercise of power is public opinion. And polls suggest the American public has never been as skeptical of democracy or as open to authoritarian alternatives like military rule as it is right now. If a President Trump really blew down the walls of our system, a worryingly wide swath of the public would likely stand behind him.

Muse Wanna Levitate on Stage With Magnets

Muse
Jason Tate

Muse talked with Music Week about how they wanna use magnets on stage during their next tour so they can levitate:

Asked what his biggest challenge is, he said: “It is ridiculous, but trying to dream up something more adventurous is always our challenge, where does the next bolt of lightning come where you capture the essence of it and trying to put it into a record or a tour, it’s definitely my permanent challenge.

“We want to do a stage made of magnets so the band can levitate on other magnets. It’s those questions that keep me awake every night of my life. If there are any magnet technicians out there, please come and see me because that’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

Magnets!

The 15th Anniversary of the iPod

Apple
Jason Tate

The iPod turned 15 over the weekend. The Verge has a cool visual history of the icon device:

And while the classic iPod design was finally retired two years ago, and the remaining members of the iPod line are less important to Apple’s strategy today than they were years ago, it’s still an integral part of history, both for the company and the larger tech industry.

So here’s a look back at some highlights in the history of the king of MP3 players, from the physically scrolling plastic wheel of the original iPod to the smooth glass and aluminum of today’s iPod Touch.

And Nobuyuki “Nobi” Hayashi found the 20 CDs that were curated by Steve Jobs to give to journalists along with the iPod to test out the device:

Steve Jobs insisted that Apple has no intention of stealing away the sales of the music industry; remember this was way before iTunes Music Store. What Apple did to keep its word is buying same number of 20 CDs sets and gave it along with the iPod prototypes to the journalists.

It has been 15 years since then, and I thought I have lost them. But recently, as I was moving to a new house, I have found that set (shrink wrapped).

Below you will find the list of those 20 CDs which was carefully selected by Steve Jobs and the original iPod team (lead by Stan Ng). Enjoy!

The Blow on the History of Female Producers

MTV
Jason Tate

Hazel Cills, writing at MTV:

While male producers and musicians like Philip Glass and Steve Reich have been written about and documented extensively, the work of female producers and early electronic musicians like Wendy Carlos, Laurie Spiegel, Delia Derbyshire, and more have essentially been ignored and undervalued by music historians. To combat the stereotype that production is solely a man’s job, The Blow created an online archive, womanproducer.com, to collect photos and clips of female producers in history. Recently, the archive has expanded into a live event series at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, featuring performances and talks by artists like Zola Jesus, Neko Case, and more.

The Ramones Have Street Named After Them

Ramones
Jason Tate

The Ramones have had a street in NYC named after them:

A street in the band’s home neighborhood of Forest Hill, Queens, at the intersection of 67th Avenue and 110th Street, has been officially renamed Ramones Way. The sign stands in front of Forest Hills School, the alma mater of Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone, and was unveiled by councilwoman Karen Koslowitz this morning.

Blog: The IT Era and the Internet Revolution

Stratechery
Jason Tate

Stratechery:

Newspapers obviously weren’t the only industry to benefit from information technology: the rise of ERP systems, databases, and personal computers provided massive gains in productivity for nearly all businesses (although it ended up taking nearly a decade for the improvements to show up). What this first wave of information technology did not do, though, was fundamentally change how those businesses worked, which meant nine of the ten largest companies in 1980 were all amongst the 21 largest companies in 19951. The biggest change is that more and more of those productivity gains started accruing to company shareholders, not the workers — and newspapers were no exception.

Kanye West Says He’ll Boycott Grammys if Frank Ocean Isn’t Nominated

Kanye West
Jason Tate

Kanye West has claimed he’ll boycott the Grammys if Frank Ocean isn’t nominated:

Kanye talked about his love for Ocean’s music, saying, “The album I listen to the most this year is Frank Ocean’s album.” He went on, “I’ll tell you this right now: If his album’s not nominated in no categories, I’m not showin’ up to the Grammys.”

Frank Ocean’s albums were not submitted for consideration.

The New York Times Buys The Wirecutter

The New York Times
Jason Tate

The New York Times is buying two of my favorite websites, The Wirecutter and The Sweethome, for a reported $30 million dollars.

The Wirecutter provides recommendations for electronics and other gadgets that are both obsessively researched and simply presented. The Wirecutter also owns The Sweethome, which takes the same approach for home appliances and other gear.

Both sites make their money via affiliate links, which generate revenue when consumers click on them and make purchases via e-commerce sites like Amazon.