Month: August 2019

A Preview of CarPlay Changes in iOS 13 ⇥ macstories.net

John Voorhees, MacStories:

When my lease was up earlier this year, CarPlay support was at the top of the list of must-have features when we began looking for a new car. We wound up leasing a Nissan Altima, which has a faster entertainment system, larger touchscreen, and better hardware button support for navigating CarPlay’s UI. The hardware differences took a system I already loved to a new level by reducing past friction and frustrations even though the underlying software hadn’t changed.

Just a few weeks after we brought the Altima home though, Apple announced that it would update CarPlay with the release of iOS 13 this fall. In a jam-packed keynote, CarPlay got very little stage time, but I was immediately intrigued by the scope of the announcement. CarPlay hasn’t changed much since it was introduced in 2014, but with iOS 13, iPhone users can look forward to not only significant improvements in its design, but a new app and other features that make this the biggest leap forward for CarPlay to date.

Like Voorhees, CarPlay support was a primary deciding factor when we were shopping for a car last year. Once you have it, it’s hard to imagine a vehicle replacement without it.

I can testify to the mostly-wonderful updates to CarPlay after spending two months with iOS 13 and, in particular, after a lengthy road trip last week. The new Dashboard view is excellent.

One of the more frustrating aspects of CarPlay was how it would directly mirror whichever app was frontmost on the connected iPhone. If the driver was relying on Maps directions, for example, and the passenger wanted to change the playlist, opening the Music app on the iPhone would switch to the Music app in CarPlay, too. That’s solved in iOS 13; CarPlay runs more independently of the iPhone, which is a boon on a road trip.

One limitation that still exists is that turn-by-turn directions still take over the Maps app in both CarPlay and on the connected phone. When we wanted to find a gas station or restaurant in the next town, the passenger would have to end turn-by-turn directions before being able to search Maps. I kind of understand the technical limitation here and, on a highway, it’s not a big deal to keep driving in a straight line, but it still feels like something that should be possible.

Also in Maps, I’ve found that its ability to recognize a likely next destination is spotty at best. I added motel bookings as calendar events with addresses, but Maps never once suggested these as destinations, even though CarPlay now includes a Calendar app.

Siri still has problems. I have cellular data disabled in Music because I only want to use my local library with my metered plan. Asking Siri to play a particular album or artist within my local library would always fail with the same message of needing to connect to WiFi first, suggesting that it was only searching Apple Music. It’s frustrating if you want to safely change your playlist.

Otherwise, I think that iOS 13 presents plenty of improvements to CarPlay. If you have a car and it supports CarPlay, you’re going to love these changes when the update ships next month.

‘Mastered for iTunes’ Becomes ‘Apple Digital Masters’ ⇥ billboard.com

Chris Eggertsen, Billboard:

On Wednesday (August 7) Apple Music announced the launch of Apple Digital Masters, a new initiative by the streaming giant that combines all of its “Mastered for iTunes” offerings into one global catalog. This is the company’s first public acknowledgement of the initiative, which it has been quietly unveiling for some time.

Eggertsen was first to report this, and it was picked up by MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iMore, and others, who all seem to have been confused by the last couple of paragraphs in Billboard’s story:

Apple Music isn’t the first streaming service to offer premium audio.

On its 2015 launch, Tidal offered a “HiFi” subscription tier for $19.99 month ($10 more than a regular subscription) that allowed users to stream lossless audio; two years later, the service upgraded its HiFi tier to stream even higher-quality sound files created with Bob Stuart’s Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) technology. Deezer and Qobuz also offer lossless audio plans for $19.99 a month, with the latter recently unveiling a higher-quality “Studio” subscription tier for $5 more. Spotify has also flirted with a hi-fi tier in the past.

The way this is written makes it sound like Apple Digital Masters is equivalent to the lossless files offered by other platforms, but it is not. It is a rebranding of the Mastered for iTunes spec — probably because Apple is no longer using the soiled “iTunes” branding to refer to their music products, with the exception of the iTunes Store. This spec is important because it helps labels deliver music that is mastered specifically for a compressed audio format, not just a conversion from the CD or vinyl master. This is great.

However, based on everything I’ve read, that seems to be all this announcement is: a mastering specification with a new name, which — according to a screenshot posted last month on Reddit — will still output songs as 256kbps lossy AAC files, which is exactly the same format and bitrate as “regular” Apple Music and iTunes tracks. I feel compelled to point out that there is nothing wrong with this.

It’s a mistake to conflate lossless audio files and better mastering. One will noticeably improve the way your music sounds; the other simply requires far more disk space.

Opting Out of the Apple Card Arbitration Provision ⇥ macobserver.com

Arbitration clauses are almost always unfavourable to consumers, yet increasingly standard for contracts of all types. Andrew Orr at the Mac Observer put together a quick guide to opting out of the one for Apple’s new credit card, which must be completed within ninety days of activation. If you’ve already configured your Apple Card or you’ll be signing up soon, you would be wise to follow this guide.

In Yelp Partnership, Grubhub Is Taking Extortionate Commission Fees from Restaurants by Substituting Phone Numbers Without Their Knowledge ⇥ underunderstood.com

In a new episode of the Underunderstood podcast, Adrianne Jeffries investigated the partnership of Yelp and Grubhub. From the transcript:

So I noticed recently, when I went to order from my favorite sushi place, for some reason — I don’t remember what it was, maybe I was thinking I would just call the restaurant and order with them directly. Whatever reason, I ended up clicking on the phone number for the restaurant and it popped up a little box that said, do you want to call for takeout or delivery, or do you want to call with general questions?

And I was like, huh, weird. I clicked on takeout or delivery and then the phone started ringing and this perky recording said, “this call may be recorded to ensure awesomeness.”

[…]

I think that means it’s the Grubhub number. And the other number is the real number. And if you can find the restaurants actual website, the number that is the real number is the number listed for general questions. So even though it is possible to call most of these restaurants directly and order food with the person who picks up, Yelp is kind of trying to make you think that it’s not. At least that’s my theory.

Jeffries also wrote a companion piece for Vice:

Robert Guarino, CEO of the Manhattan restaurant group 5 Napkin Burger and a board member at the New York City Hospitality Alliance, was also not aware that Grubhub numbers were showing up in Yelp for two of his four restaurants.

“We’re working with these companies to help generate orders, but so many times, we’re put in a position where we need to compete against them to get access to our customers,” he said. “So many of these practices make it hard to trust the companies. To not have all the practices clearly spoken about and understood by the businesses is really scary in my eyes.”

Grubhub offers a “marketing” service to restaurants, which includes being listed on the Grubhub platform, for between 15 percent and 20 percent of each order total. It also offers a physical delivery service, which costs restaurants another 10 percent. Grubhub says it provides phone numbers for restaurants that sign up for marketing but not delivery in order to capture all orders that could be eligible for its fees.

I used the word “extortionate” in the title of this post for two reasons. First, because it’s synonymous with exorbitant, which it is: the profit margin for restaurants is notoriously slim. Across Canada, margins are between –1% and less than 8%, and data from Aswath Damodaran of NYU records a profit margin of about 12%. At a minimum of 15%, Grubhub’s marketing service eliminates a restaurant’s profits on a single meal; at the high end of the marketing service and with its delivery service, Grubhub wants to take financial credit for a full third of an order’s value. Not only can a restaurant not expect any profit on orders made through Grubhub, it can anticipate losing twice what it would have made had that order been placed in its restaurant.

The second reason I wrote “extortionate” is because this practice feels somewhat usurious, in that many restaurants can’t afford not to be listed in delivery apps. I’ve seen a few people on Twitter suggesting, in response to this article, that people order from the restaurant directly instead of going through a delivery app. I’ve tried to do that ever since I found out about the egregious fees these apps take and, occasionally, I’ll be told I must place the order through an app. It’s easy to see why — while pizza chains are known for delivery and can afford to have their own system and drivers, your local sushi joint or donair place probably can’t. Delivery apps like Grubhub provide a useful service to fill this void, of course. But it won’t all be worth it if they continue to charge high fees that threaten to put restaurants out of business, and reroute phone numbers to take a commission — in some cases, even charging restaurants when no order was placed — without telling restaurateurs.

Apple Suspends Human Analysis of Siri Responses in Response to Privacy Concerns ⇥ techcrunch.com

Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch:

“We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy,” Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch. “While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally. Additionally, as part of a future software update, users will have the ability to choose to participate in grading.”

[…]

An explicit way for users to agree to the audio being used this way is table stakes in this kind of business. I’m glad Apple says it will be adding one.

It also aligns better with the way that Apple handles other data like app performance data that can be used by developers to identify and fix bugs in their software. Currently, when you set up your iPhone, you must give Apple permission to transmit that data.

What’s truly bizarre to me is that there is already a way to prevent Siri logging — it’s just not user exposed. What good reason is there for this to not be something users can choose whether to participate in?

For what it’s worth, if I had been presented the option to allow Apple to maybe use my Siri requests to improve the service overall, I’d have at least considered it; but, since this was done in such a sneaky way, I’m more eager to switch it off. The net result is the same, but the integrity of Apple’s communications matters.

Similarly, this response is far better than their first.

Elon Musk’s ‘Boring Company’ Plans for Underwhelming Las Vegas Transit System for CES 2021 ⇥ jalopnik.com

Mark Harris, TechCrunch:

In May, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority approved a $48.7 million contract for The Boring Company (TBC) to design and build a short underground transit system at the city’s Convention Center, using Tesla electric vehicles running through narrow tunnels.

The ambitious contract calls for the system, called the LVCC Loop, to be up and running in time for the city’s biggest trade show, CES, in January 2021. Over the next 18 months, TBC has to construct one pedestrian tunnel, two 0.8-mile vehicle tunnels and three underground stations, as well as modify and test seven-seater Tesla cars to carry up to 16 people.

Aaron Gordon, Jalopnik:

Musk vs. The Monorail is absolutely the transit fight Americans deserve. But another part of the report jumped out at me: even these Teslas, running through a short, dedicated tunnel that is not set to open until 2021 at the earliest, will have human drivers:

Although TBC’s website states that the system would use autonomous vehicles, presumably using Tesla’s Autopilot technology, Labanowski [TBC’s government relations executive] said the LVCC Loop vehicles would actually also have human drivers “for additional safety.”

So, we’re supposed to believe Teslas will be capable of full-self driving in all conditions by next year even though, by the following year, a safety driver will be needed for a .8-mile tunnel with a dedicated right-of-way, the single simplest application of self-driving that could possibly exist.

When public transit works, it works really fucking well — so well that I threw a profanity in there to emphasize just how borderline magical it is that we’ve invented a way to efficiently transport many thousands of people every hour of the day in big cities. There are gripes that people have with their city’s transit system; if you live in a larger city, I’m sure you’re grumbling right now. But these problems are fixable through better funding and more effective city planning policies.

It does not confuse me why Elon Musk has started this company: it’s a billionaire fantasy business that allows him to sell more Teslas. What baffles me is that some cities have begun seriously considering his ridiculous car tunnel instead of refining the transportation methods we’ve already arrived at. What we have is imperfect, but it works; or, at least, it can work. What the Boring Company has consistently proposed is untenable to the point of mockery.