TechCrunch, reporting on the GitLab.com meltdown this morning:
According to The Register a folder containing 300GB of live production data was erroneously deleted by a GitLab sysadmin — with just 4.5GB remaining by the time the delete command was cancelled.
Holy shit!
Mad props to the team at GitLab for owning up about their mistake and being so open and upfront about the status.
Apple has today sent out an email to iOS developers notifying them of upcoming changes to the pricing on the App Store. According to the email, the pricing of apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) will increase in India, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
Apple mentions that this price change is due to change in tax laws in the India, Romania and Russia, but it doesn’t mention why the pricing is changing in the UK. It’s likely that Apple is merely adjusting the pricing to be in line with the falling value of the Pound Sterling against the US Dollar.
If you’re in India, here’s what the pricing change means and how it’ll affect you.
Atlassian — the Sydney-based giant that owns products like JIRA, Confluence, HipChat, Bitbucket, SourceTree, etc. has today announced that it will be acquiring Trello — the beloved project management app. The deal is worth $425 Million according to Business Insider.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Co-Founder and CEO of Atlassian, writes:
Trello’s pioneering use of an intuitive visual system has been embraced by all kinds of teams to do everything from managing marketing campaigns to tracking action items from team meetings. Organizations in nearly every country and as varied as the Red Cross and Google have adopted Trello to get work done.
We’re thrilled to welcome the talented Trello team to Atlassian and look forward to working with them to change the way teams work together. Deep investments in R&D have long been a cornerstone of Atlassian’s business and we will continue that tradition with Trello.
My immediate concern upon reading this was how would Trello change under the Atlassian culture. Mike clarifies:
If you currently use Trello as either a free or paid user, you can rest assured that we will continue to offer Trello as a standalone service. We’ll be working with their product team to help them accelerate development efforts.
Over on the Trello blog, Michael Pryor, the CEO of Trello writes:
We’re excited about partnering with Atlassian because we both share a philosophy of empowering teams everywhere to work in their own style. We envision a world where hundreds of millions of people collaborate in teams however they like, with their imaginations being the only constraint for what they can accomplish. As part of Atlassian, Trello will be able to leverage investments in R&D that will enhance the product in meaningful ways. Our team will be able to focus on improving the core experience of Trello for all users. We are certain that Atlassian understands the unique and novel reasons why Trello is so successful and well-loved.
Atlassian & Trello do sound like a great fit, but I’m still concerned.
Apple today announced an all new MacBook Pro Lineup in an event at its campus in Cupertino. Poised as the “thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever“, the highlight of the new MacBook Pro is the new multitouch Retina Display that replaces the row of Function keys above the keyboard. Called a Touch Bar, this new interface displays app-specific buttons and options that the user can interact with — allowing app developers to offer custom features via this additional display. Apple demoed apps like the new Final Cut Pro 10.3, Adobe Photoshop, Algoriddim’s djay Pro and said that apps like Microsoft Office, Skype, Sketch, etc. will be adding support for the Touch ID very soon.
Along with the Touch Bar, Apple has also introduced a Touch ID into the new MacBook Pro. Featuring the 2nd generation sensor from the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7, the new Touch ID allows users to log into their Macs or make payments via Apple Pay with just a simple touch. Additionally, different user accounts on the Mac can be tied to users’ own fingerprints — a feature I’m personally desperately waiting for on the iPads.
The new MacBook Pro all features a stunning new display that Apple says is the “brightest and most colorful Retina display yet“. The new display boasts 500 nits of brightness making it 67 percent brighter than its predecessors and also has 67 percent more contrast. Additionally, the display also features the ability to display a wider color gamut and consumes 30% less power compared to previous generations.
The MacBook Pro lineup also features a much larger Force Touch trackpad, coming in a twice the size of its predecessors. There are four Thunderbolt 3 ports using USB Type-C connectors and each of these connectors can be used for charging, video or data transfers.
Other features added to the MacBook Pro lineup include a new keyboard with second-generation butterfly mechanism and louder speakers with improved bass and twice the dynamic range.
The new MacBook Pro lineup now consists of three different models with multiple versions:
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is meant as a minor upgrade to the current generation 13-inch MacBook Air. Although Apple has discontinued the 11-inch MacBook Air model, the 13-inch model stays.
This new 13-inch MacBook Pro features the all-new design and sports a 2GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz), 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage.
India Pricing: ₹1,29,900
This all new 13-inch MacBook Pro sports a 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz), 8GB RAM and 256GB or 512GB of flash Storage. You also get Apple’s breakthrough new interface in the form of the Touch Bar, the all new Touch ID and four Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB Type-C connectors.
India Pricing: ₹1,55,900 (256GB model) and ₹1,72,900 (512GB model)
Exact pricing for the 512GB model will be available closer to availability.
The new 15-inch MacBook Pro comes in two models for India — a base model with 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz), 16GB of RAM and 256GB of flash Storage and a higher model with 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz), 16GB of RAM and 512GB of flash storage.
The Base model features Radeon Pro 450 Graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 memory while the higher model features Radeon Pro 455 Graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Both models feature automatic switching between the GPU and onboard Intel HD Graphics 530.
India Pricing: ₹2,05,900 (256GB model) and ₹2,41,900 (512GB model)
Exact pricing for the 512GB model will be available closer to availability.
The new lineup is up for pre-order today in the US and start shipping in 2-3 weeks. The availability in India will probably be somewhere in January 2017.
Update – October 28th, 2016, 12:11PM: Apple India has just sent out another email to media outlets, changing the availability to “Coming Soon” instead of the previously mentioned availability of 2-3 weeks. I suspect the new lineup will be available in India starting not before January 2017.
MediaNama’s Shashidhar KJ published an article earlier today on the site titled, “How recurring payments are finally working in India”. You’d think the article would shed some light on how this was being made possible, but instead, we only get this:
While performing a recurring billing transaction, the customer has to give a consent before making the payment that they authorize the merchant to charge the card as per the subscription plan. The first transaction that is processed folllows two-factor authentication. The 1st transactions is processed with a 2FA
That’s right, the last two sentences mean the same thing.
Moving on, we get this:
CCAvenue will not store the 3D secure password for future recurring payments, and for subsequent payments, the merchant (Business Standard in this case) will send a request to CCAvenue, which will pass the request to the bank in a batch or API, for processing in the back-end.
followed by:
These payments are processed through standing instructions left with the bank. We were unable to find an RBI circular clarifying this.We have written to CCAvenue and the RBI to clarify this and will update once we hear from them.
So how are recurring payments finally working in India?
— They are processed without 2FA, except for the first one (DUH!)
— The bank processes the transactions after a request from the merchant via the payment gateway. (DUH!)
— MediaNama couldn’t find an RBI circular clarifying this.
OK then…
DJI — the market leader and a popular name when it comes to drones or professional stabilizer rigs has today announced the Osmo Mobile — a new handheld stabilizer system for your smartphone. The Osmo Mobile is the newest product in DJI’s Osmo lineup that began with the DJI Osmo launched last year and expanded with the introduction of the Osmo+ last week.
Unlike the original Osmo or Osmo+, Osmo Mobile does not ship with its own camera system and instead relies on your smartphone to do all the shooting. The Osmo Mobile works as a handheld stabilizer for your smartphone, allowing you to shoot high-quality, smooth and cinematic photos and videos. Using the DJI Go app on your smartphone, you can also live stream your footage or share it instantly to the usual social media channels.
Included in the DJI Go app is the company’s new ActiveTrack feature that allows you tap the screen and mark objects in motion, so that the camera stays focused on them, resulting in perfectly framed shots.
“DJI continues to revolutionize the way we capture and share memories,” said Frank Wang, DJI CEO and founder. “The Osmo Mobile combines the best of DJI’s beloved Osmo smart stabilization technology with the robust DJI GO app. This is a breakthrough, allowing smartphone users unprecedented control of and creative possibilities for their devices.”
The Osmo Mobile works with most modern smartphones sized between 2.31 inches and 3.34 inches, including the iPhone 6/6s Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S7.
The Osmo Mobile has been priced at $299 and is available for purchase from Amazon.com here – http://amzn.to/2cgnRav
Apple’s iPhone has long been ridiculed for having measly storage options. Even the latest crop of iPhones available in 2016 — the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE all come with just 16GB storage on the base model, with no easy way to expand the storage. Considering how often we take photos and videos on our smartphones, it has become quite a routine to keep running out of storage, at least every few weeks. Thanks to the high-resolution cameras on smartphones these days as well as 4K video recording capabilities, you photos and videos end up having humongous file sizes.
SanDisk, one of the leaders in flash-based storage solutions, recognized this issue early on and has been offering an easy solution to iOS users in the form of the iXpand Flash Drive. Originally released in 2014 as a flash drive with dual interfaces — a USB port on one end and a Lightning port on the other, it allowed iOS users to offload some of their files onto the flash drive and free up precious storage on their phones or tablets. The original iXpand Flash Drive was big, bulky, and came with a built-in battery that had to be kept charged. Earlier this year, the company released the second-generation Sandisk iXpand Flash Drive (2016 model) that offered a plethora of new advantages over the previous model. I’ve been using it over the last several weeks and it has turned into a critical accessory that I always carry around with me.
As we approach closer to this year’s Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), rumours about what could be unveiled at the event have begun cropping up — including one about Apple making a voice assistant device like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. But another juicy tidbit that made its way along with it, is the release of a Software Development Kit (SDK) for Siri, which should help 3rd party developers extend the functionality of this upcoming device, along with other iOS devices and even Macs.
Siri, the voice assistant, was seen by the world for the first time in 2011 as a marquee feature to the iPhone 4s. It’s been close to five years since, and Siri’s functionality to date is limited by how many partnerships Apple can strike. Opening Siri to any developer who has their app on the App Store can potentially revolutionize the way Apple device owners will interact with technology. With Siri making its way to the Mac, and being an important input method for the Apple Watch and in cars with Apple CarPlay, the SDK couldn’t have come at a better time.
In an attempt to keep the user experience in check, Apple has always given its own apps the first priority. For example, a hyperlinked email address in a messaging app when clicked, will open the Mail app, and not Gmail. Or when a location is shared on WhatsApp, it is Apple Maps that opens up by default, not Google Maps. Although past experience doesn’t suggest Apple will let people choose their default app preferences, letting Siri roam beyond the walled garden can provide 3rd party apps a level playing field at least with voice control.
Here are five things I’ll be glad to say to Siri once developers are given access, effectively bypassing some of Apple’s mediocre service offerings.
Despite Tim Cook announcing a facility in Hyderabad to improve Apple Maps, there’s no telling how much longer it will take for Apple Maps to support basic directions in India, let alone voice-assisted turn-by-turn directions, that are critical during driving. It’s well-known how valuable iOS users are to Google, and it’s evident with recent attempts like Gboard, which offers Google Search right into the keyboard on iOS. So, there’s a good chance Google will want to take advantage of Siri’s SDK for all its apps on the iPhone.
Although the usability of this purely depends upon how well Siri is able to recognise names of Indian streets and areas, it’s the first step to actually using Google Maps hands-free on your iPhone. While we’re on the topic, it’s also a shame that Apple CarPlay, which has started integrating into some cars in India like the Suzuki Baleno, has no Maps application. And it’s not like the CarPlay platform is open, like iOS, where any developer can make an app. So it’s up to Apple and in turn Google’s willingness for a Google Maps app to exist for CarPlay. This will enable people in countries where Apple Maps are next to non-existent to still use navigation facilities, with their voice while driving.
Right now, you can only send text messages or iMessages to other iPhone users using voice. The SDK will benefit not just WhatsApp, the number one messaging client almost everybody you know uses, but others alike. This is important because there’s a good chance you talk to different people on different messengers and you have at least a few different apps installed on your phone right now.
I already find it convenient to initiate WhatsApp conversations on my Android phone, even directly from my wrist using Android Wear. And although Google has enabled voice actions for other popular messaging apps like Telegram, Viber, etc., Apple will have a leg up because any and every obscure messaging app will be able to make use of the Siri SDK to get their app voice-ready. It’s unlikely that Google will compete anytime soon, since there was no mention of opening up voice actions for 3rd party apps at this year’s Google I/O; not to mention the “custom voice actions” which allowed any 3rd party app to perform such actions, have been indefinitely suspended.
Ask Siri to suggest for any type of eateries nearby today in India, and there’s a good chance it will throw up some obscure options, relying on its currently-lackluster Apple Maps data. The Siri SDK would open up many useful use cases with apps and brands we trust, that can be called out using voice. I’d rather trust Zomato in helping me find a particular restaurant nearby or even place an order from my favourite one. I’d rather prefer asking Siri to check BookMyShow for movies screening nearby, since Siri doesn’t do that at all in India. I’d prefer checking if that favourite movie is available to watch on Netflix instead of Apple iTunes. And although I prefer using Apple Music (even on Android), I can imagine how handy it’d be telling Saavn and Gaana what to play.
Apple’s iCloud photo backup service is reasonably priced at Rs. 190 per month for 200GB of cloud storage (for comparison 100GB on Google Drive costs Rs. 140). But the Google Photos app has two compelling reasons why 200 million users use it actively today — unlimited backups of photo & video with reasonable compression and Google’s advanced image recognition capabilities, which throws up surprisingly accurate results to queries like “photos of whiteboards in November 2015”. So although you can summon iCloud photos using Siri directly today, I’d rather use Google Photos to do the job.
Finally, this is yet another activity that many of us perform often. Calling an Uber or an Ola using Siri, which right now has no facility to call any transportation in India, would be a useful trick. Assuming that developers will be able to recreate their custom experiences via Siri, I can totally imagine the Uber app saying “There’s an Uber Go 5 minutes away, at a 2.5x surge. Should I book it or notify you when the surge ends?” thus letting the entire app flow be managed purely by speaking.
Towards the end of writing this, I realised that although this Siri SDK will open up a lot of possibilities, it also sounds a little cumbersome to have to say the service provider’s name for each voice query. The makers of Siri, who had joined Apple after they acquired it, quit a year later to build their next voice assistant dubbed Viv. They recently demoed it, and in the video you can see their implementation had preset partners like Uber, Hotel.com and Venmo. But what happens when you have more than one provider of the same service? Will voice assistants like Siri or Viv ask you for your preference the first time and remember it? For example, if you said “Hey Siri, call me an Uber”, will Siri call you an Uber and not an Ola the next time you say “Call me a cab”?
These questions are hopefully just days away from being answered at WWDC 2016. Here’s hoping the Siri SDK will bring the same magnitude of revolution to the usability of the smartphone, the way the App Store did in 2008.