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Carrie Fisher, She’s with the Force now.

December 28, 2016

No one wants to see their heroes taken away.

So long Carrie Fisher, you have always been the Princess for many. 

Gotta do something about the dust.

October 10, 2015

109 Degree Weather in SoCal 20151009

If not for one hot October day in Southern California, I wouldn’t have noticed how dusty this part of my car.

Yep, it was 109°F on Friday, October 9, 2015 somewhere in Orange County, 5 miles away from the shoreline.

Seems Legit: App Store Support Spam

October 9, 2015

Yet another round of spam purporting from “App Store Support” or “App Store Team”, complete with graphics directly linked from Apple’s own server.

Based on a few reports, this type of spam started making the round on Thursday, October 8, 2015. Anecdotally, all the reports come from users with mac.com emails.

Should you be getting this type of spam in your iCloud email, please forward the email as attachment to spam@icloud.com

App Store Support Spam

App Store Team Spam

More Common Than What People Think

October 8, 2015

Ko'a and LolaJust another day in the lives of a cat and a dog.

iOS 9: Ad-pocalypse Now

September 16, 2015

iOS 9 is coming

Apple is set to release iOS 9 on Wednesday, September 16, 2015. One of iOS 9 features that gained a lot of attention is what many calls as “Ad-Blocking”.

Apple calls it Content Blocking Safari Extensions.

Content Blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups, and other content.

This would be the beginning of “Ad-Pocalypse”. Publishers should have realized that there are ways to display ads without alienating the readers. Irrelevant and annoying ads would only drive readers away. Extended page-loading time paired with clickbait-ads are disservice to the readers. Promise of of targeted-advertising are nothing but privacy-invading tracking system. One would wonder why a site would have the need for 16 different trackers and analytics.

Take a look at one of The Macalope’s columns at Macworld. There’s the “Promoted Links by Taboola” which is one of the most irrelevant ad-networks on the Internet. Then there’s a “Dell Latitude 11 3000 Series Laptop” ad. A Dell advertisement on an Apple/Mac-oriented site! Don’t forget the Amazon Affiliate link on the top of the screenshot. Three different monetization scheme in 2048-pixel span. There are a lot more in the post. Shame on you, Macworld!

Macworld Ad-infested

Daring Fireball and The Loop are much smaller operations compared to others. What these two sites have done are good examples in presenting ads the right way. Remember that readers could easily walk away whenever they find sites being unfriendly.

Content-Blocking/Ad-Blocking will be the new gold rush in the Apple App Store. Watch for apps such as Crystal and Purify on the App Store,

The Ad-pocalypse is coming, at least to the iOS platform.

Apple Released iOS 9 and watchOS 2 to Developers

September 9, 2015

iOS 9 and watchOS 2

Apple released iOS 9 and watchOS 2 to Developers, while the public counterparts are seeing September 16, 2015 release date.

Apple is also seeding iOS 9.1 beta with build number 13B5110e to Developers.

Hey Siri, give us a hint already!

September 9, 2015

Hey Siri, give us a hint. Apple Event 20150909

It is Wednesday, September 9, 2015. Apple is set to hold the “Hey Siri, give us a hint.” special event at 10:00 a.m. from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

I spoke to firstnameatappledotcom on Labor Day for about an hour. Not a single thing that I could repeat without spoiling the surprise. On the other hand, Major Obvious says:

  • NO U2!

In keeping with the “9” theme (iOS 9, September 9), I was expecting some performance from a band with 9 members on the stage. Unfortunately they are not an-Apple-Special-Event-kind-of musical-guess.

Apple will be providing its own coverage of the event in the form of live stream and some kind of live blogging.

As usual, there will be sites covering the event live from the venue.

Live Coverage links: