A Tragic Loss →

It was bound to happen eventually, but for the first time someone has died while using Tesla's Autopilot feature:

This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles.

It's indeed a tragic incident, but hopefully this doesn't have a long term negative effect on the wide scale implementation of autonomous driving.

Of note is that the man who died, Joshua Brown, has a YouTube channel filled with videos of him showing off how Autopilot works in a Tesla. One video in particular features a close call where a truck driver nearly merges into Joshua's Tesla and the Autopilot swerves to save them both.

Kevin Durant's Next Chapter →

Kevin Durant has chosen to sign with the Golden State Warriors:

It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career.

Translation: "I want to win multiple championships and this is the best way to assure that happens." People are already calling the Warriors new starting lineup the best in the history of the NBA.

I don't fault him at all, but it's interesting how much things have changed from the NBA that I grew up with where players remained loyal to their team for their entire careers.

Binge v1.3

Version 1.3 of Binge is out today. Here's what's new!

Sorting & Filtering

Users can now swipe on either the Movies or TV Shows screens to reveal Sorting and Filtering options. You can now do things like see all of your In Progress movies, or show all TV Shows with unwatched episodes sorted by Recently Added.

And, of course, more Sort and Filter options will be coming in the future.

The headphone jack →

New post from Marco today about the headphone jack removal:

Apple better have very good benefits for this that customers will want, but none of the reports so far indicate any.

10 minutes ago I was eating my lunch while listening to podcasts. When I stood up to put my dishes away I nearly yanked my iPhone on to the floor since it was sitting on my table instead of in my pocket like usual.

I use earbuds all the time. They're great, but they don't last for very long. The wires become frayed from normal use, and they have to be untangled on a regular basis. As a customer, the sooner we can get to a place where wireless headphones are the standard and work just as well as wired, the better.

Searching for a good reason to remove the headphone jack →

If you didn't listen to Upgrade #95, Jason Snell has written up a very nice overview of why he doesn't want Apple to remove the headphone jack from the next iPhone. I don't agree with him for the most part, except for this bit at the end:

The last week or so I’ve been a participant in a free-flowing Twitter conversation about what Apple would do if it removed the headphone jack from the iPhone. Here’s my best guess:

In the box, Apple would include a pair of Lightning-based EarPods. (...)

Separately, for something like $99, Apple might sell a set of wireless EarPods, perhaps called AirPods. A cap on the back of one of the earbuds will pop off, revealing a male Lightning connector. Plugging the AirPods into the iPhone will pair the devices; a minute of charge will provide a few hours of play time. (...)

That sounds about right to me.

Don't Cling to a Mistake

“Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.”

Cables are Inherently Fiddly →

John Gruber:

The more I think about it, the more I realize the trend isn’t just toward eliminating ports on devices — it’s about reducing the number of cables you use. There probably will be Lightning headphones and Lightning for audio out on the upcoming iPhones, but I think Apple’s push is going to be toward wireless. Cables are inherently fiddly, and fiddliness is un-Apple-like.

Bingo.

Upgrade #95: Don't Bring the Pain Without the Benefit →

Count Jason Snell among the headphone jack removal nay sayers.

Jason starts the headphone segment (at 51 minutes and 44 seconds) of the latest episode of Upgrade with a very rational stance of "This is just a rumor. Let's wait and see what happens." But then he proceeds to get himself worked up into what I think is fair to call "a lather" talking about the issue. His constant refrain is "Tell me why Apple would remove the headphone jack."

I think the "why" is obvious. It's because wireless headphones will eventually be better than wired headphones. Right now wireless headphones are objectively worse than wired headphones in almost every way, but Apple has the power to move this technology forward. Any short term pain the user feels from this change (lightning headphones, 3.5mm to lightning headphone adapters, having to put up with expensive/flaky bluetooth headphones) will be forgotten in a couple of years.