Tokyo, Japan – As five fishing boats set sail from a port in northern Japan before dawn on Monday, it marked the end of an era.

After 31 years, Japan has officially resumed commercial whaling.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe first announced the country’s withdrawal from the international convention on whaling last December, ending its membership of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

“Japan’s basic policy, of promoting the sustainable use of aquatic living resources based on scientific evidence has not changed,” Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said at the time. “Under that policy, we have decided to resume commercial whaling.”

Introduced by the IWC in 1986 to protect the world’s last remaining whales, the ban on commercial whaling nevertheless allowed Japan an annual whale quota for “scientific reasons.”

That this was only a charade seemed obvious, with the alleged objects of scientific inquiry ending up on refrigerated supermarket shelves instead of in laboratories.

Even after the International Court of Justice in 2014 declared the killing of whales in the name of science illegal, Japan continued whaling. Travelling as far as the North Atlantic or even to the Antarctic, home to the world’s largest populations of whales, Japanese fleets killed about 500 whales last year.

With the resumption of commercial whaling, Japanese boats will not be allowed to venture further than 200 miles off the country’s Pacific coast, but some environmentalists are still concerned because whale stocks in Japan’s coastal waters are already low.

Activists from the anti-whaling organisation Sea Shepherd say they are considering going back to sea to try and intercept whaling ships, and protect the fragile whale population from the Japanese harpoons.

A visitor walks past a whale products corner at a roadside store in Minamiboso, east of Tokyo [Issei Kato/Reuters]

‘Cultural imperialism’

While archaeological records indicate that the meat of washed-up sea mammals was first eaten in Japan several thousand years ago, paintings and calligraphic art show that the targeted hunting of the floating giants as a source of protein has been taking place since at least the 16th century.

But it wasn’t until the years after Japan’s devastating World War II defeat that whales became synonymous with the taste of home and childhood. Cheap, nutritious and plentiful, whale meat became a Japanese staple both at home and at school.

By championing whaling, the right-leaning Abe has been able to present himself as a strong advocate for Japan’s traditional lifestyle. At the same time, he is fuelling national pride among Japanese who feel wronged by international criticism of whaling.

A poll by state broadcaster NHK revealed that 52 percent of Japanese people welcomed the country’s exit from the IWC – even if they themselves did not eat whale – and there is little time for those who try to shame Japan over the issue. 

“If you force others not to eat what you do not eat yourself, that’s cultural imperialism,” Hideki Moronuki, director for fisheries negotiations at Japan’s Fisheries Agency, told Al Jazeera.

But even as the hunt resumes, Japan’s appetite for whale meat is falling.

Back in the 1960s, Japan consumed 200,000 tonnes of it annually. Today, there is demand for only up to 5,000 tonnes, which works out to about 40 grams of whale meat per year for each citizen.

Nowhere is the decline more noticeable than in Tokyo’s chi-chi restaurant and shopping district Shibuya.

While the surging lunch crowd rushes by outside, Tokyo’s last traditional whale meat restaurant, “Kujiraya”, has a rather lonely feel inside with just handful of elderly couples studying the menu to choose from deep-fried whale, whale sashimi or whale tempura. A whale-steak, sold in a set with miso soup and salad for 1,500 Yen (around $14), is served with garlic and chives and has the gamey taste of dry aged beef. 

“We have days, when there are more curious tourists than Japanese coming to us,” complains Akane, the waitress. “That’s why we had to reduce our opening hours.”

Just 200 fishermen earn their living from whaling, according to the Fisheries Agency. Even factoring in meat processing, the entire industry employs only 300 people.

Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru, right, hauls a newly caught minke whale up its slipway, accompanied by Japanese harpoon ship Yushin Maru 2, while a Sea Shepherd helicopter flies above in the Ross Sea in the Antarctic in 2009. [FILE/Sea Shepherd Conservation Society via Adam Lau/AP Photo]

‘Beginning of the end’

While Japan is still to reveal the exact number of whales it will hunt each year, experts assume that it will be significantly lower than the current quota.

With Abe’s government deciding to end the $400m in annual tax breaks and subsidies provided to whalers to conduct so-called scientific whaling, prices for whale meat are likely to rise pushing prices higher.

Given the dwindling consumer interest, it begs the question why Japan is risking international condemnation to save a clearly endangered culinary tradition.

As an island nation, Japan depends on fishing to ensure its food supply, says negotiator Moronuki. Given the world’s rapidly growing population, it’s important that “living marine resources including cetaceans be properly used in a sustainable manner based on science,” he adds.

Japan might also want to show its tough side to head off international initiatives to impose a ban on tuna fishing. Japan is the world’s largest market for blue fin tuna, which is now considered endangered.

But some conservationists say the resumption of commercial whaling will likely lead to fewer whales being killed amid shrinking demand for its meat as the government won’t be allowed to fish far beyond its waters.

By leaving the industry to survive at the whim of market forces, Abe has in fact initiated the end of Japanese whaling, according to Patrick Ramage, director of marine conservation for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

“This is a face saving way out of whaling, the beginning of the end of Japanese whaling,” he told a news conference in Tokyo this week.

Rather than breathing new life into the whaling industry, said Ramage, Abe has instead found a very “Japanese-elegant way” of allowing the industry to die out on its own.

The feature has been largely welcomed as a more secure alternative to similar sign-in services offered by Facebook, Google, and Twitter, since it authenticates the user with Face ID or Touch ID, and doesn’t send personal information to app and website developers.

However the implementation of Sign In with Apple has now been questioned by the OpenID Foundation (OIDF), a non-profit organization whose members include Google, Microsoft, PayPal, and others.

In an open letter to Apple software chief Craig Federighi, the foundation praised Apple’s authentication feature for having “largely adopted” OpenID Connect, a standardized protocol used by many existing sign-in platforms that lets developers authenticate users across websites and apps without them having to use separate passwords.

Yet it cautioned that several differences remain between OpenID Connect and Sign In with Apple that could potentially put users’ security and privacy in jeopardy.

The current set of differences between OpenID Connect and Sign In with Apple reduces the places where users can use Sign In with Apple and exposes them to greater security and privacy risks. It also places an unnecessary burden on developers of both OpenID Connect and Sign In with Apple. By closing the current gaps, Apple would be interoperable with widely-available OpenID Connect Relying Party software.

To remedy the situation, the foundation asked Apple to address the differences between Sign In with Apple and OpenID Connect, which have been recorded in a document managed by the OIDF certification team.

It also invited the company to use OpenID’s suite of certification tests to improve the interoperability of the two platforms, publicly state their compatibility, and join the OpenID Foundation.

Shortly after unveiling Sign In with Apple, the tech giant told developers that if an app lets users log in using their Facebook or Google logins, then it must also provide an alternative Sign In with Apple option.

The company then raised some eyebrows when it emerged that its updated Human Interface Guidelines asked app developers to place its authentication feature above other rival third-party sign-in options wherever they appeared.

(Thanks, Jonathan!)

Design wise, the Wonderboom 2 features the same general size and shape as the original Wonderboom, though it’s a bit taller. Ultimate Ears says the design was kept the same because customers loved the look of the Wonderboom. The Wonderboom’s small size, affordable price tag, and big sound have always made it my favorite speaker in the Ultimate Ears lineup, and now the Wonderboom 2 is a new favorite.

Ultimate Ears kept everything that was great about the Wonderboom in the Wonderboom 2, but added some useful new features like better weatherproofing, stereo sound capabilities when using two speakers, and better sound both indoors and out.

The Wonderboom 2 measures in at about four inches tall and about 3.75 inches wide, so it’s just about palm-sized. There are big volume control buttons at the front (an Ultimate Ears signature look), a stretchy loop for hanging it up at the back, and a covered micro-USB port for charging purposes. Physical controls for playing/pausing music, activating features, and powering the speaker on and off are located at the top.

Ultimate Ears didn’t change the size or the shape of the Wonderboom 2, but there are new colors and a new two-tone knit fabric that looks more premium than the fabric used for the Wonderboom. It comes in Deep Space Black, Crushed Ice, Radical Red, Bermuda Blue, and Just Peach, along with a gray and white camo edition that’s available exclusively from Apple.



Like all Ultimate Ears speakers, the Wonderboom 2 was designed to deliver 360 degree sound thanks to its rounded design, and it delivers with impressively loud volume for its price point. Even with the volume cranked up, the sound is crisp and clear in the midrange with excellent bass for such a small speaker.

I’m no audiophile, but I’ve always appreciated the sound that the Ultimate Ears products are able to deliver, and the same goes for the Wonderboom 2. Ultimate Ears actually bumped up the bass in the new model thanks to upgraded internals, and compared to the Wonderboom, it stands out. Despite the bass boost, the sound is still well balanced overall. I don’t think the Wonderboom 2’s sound matches Ultimate Ears’ more expensive speakers, but it’s not too far off.

The Wonderboom 2 maxes out at 86 decibels in standard mode, but Ultimate Ears added a new Outdoor mode that boosts things even further. Outdoor Boost mode bumps the sound up to 87 decibels, and while it doesn’t sound like a huge boost, it does make a difference when playing music outdoors. You can tell when the outdoor mode is activated when the little tree on the bottom is lit up.

Outdoor mode cuts down on the bass and plays the midrange louder since bass isn’t effective outdoors anyway, and this shift works pretty well when you’re in the backyard, out at the pool, at the beach, or anywhere else where there’s a wide open area. You’re not going to want to use the new Outdoor mode when inside, though, because it sounds terrible indoors.

The original Wonderboom was rated IPX7, and while the new Wonderboom is just as water resistant, it also has a new IP67 rating for dust. That makes it both water and dust resistant, so you can take it to the beach and other areas where sand or dust might be issues without worrying about ruining it.

I took the Wonderboom 2 in the shower and floated it in the sink and had no issues with the water resistance, which is what I’d expect as all of Ultimate Ears’ products are meant to hold up to water.

The Wonderboom 2 has a few other neat tricks worth mentioning, including Double Up mode. This is standard in most Ultimate Ears speakers, but a new feature in the upgraded model lets you use two Wonderboom 2 speakers in stereo mode, which is a cool new addition.

Unfortunately, Double Up’s stereo speaker mode is limited to the new Wonderboom 2 speakers, so while you can pair an original Wonderboom and a Wonderboom 2 to play the same sound, using them in stereo mode requires two of the new models. Double Up can be activated by pressing down on the top button of each Wonderboom 2 at the same time, no app required.

It’s simple to get going and it sounds excellent, so it’s a neat way to get stereo sound indoors or outdoors. By the way, once linked, if you turn on outdoor mode, it’s activated on both speakers rather than just one.

Ultimate Ears also boosted up the battery in the Wonderboom 2 so it’s able to last for 13 hours, which is basically all day battery life. That’s up from 10 hours in the previous-generation Wonderboom.

Bottom Line

The Wonderboom 2 is a great little speaker that’s perfect for both indoor and outdoor use. It’s super portable, puts out impressive sound, and it’s not too expensive at $100.

Compared to the original Wonderboom, this model is louder, has the Outdoor mode, three hour longer battery life, and the Double Up stereo mode, making it a solid upgrade overall.

I probably wouldn’t shell out for a Wonderboom 2 if I already had a Wonderboom unless I wanted those specific features, but for someone looking for a small, versatile speaker that doesn’t compromise on sound and can be used virtually anywhere, the Wonderboom 2 is worth considering.

If you don’t need the Wonderboom 2’s features, you can pick up an original Wonderboom from Amazon for right around $55, which is an excellent price.

How to Buy

The Wonderboom 2 can be purchased from the Ultimate Ears website or from Amazon.com for $99.99. The Apple-exclusive camo model will be available in July.

Note: Ultimate Ears provided MacRumors with two of the Wonderboom 2 speakers for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

Google Maps will now provide details on live traffic delays for buses in places where real-time information doesn’t exist from local transit agencies, which will let Maps users see if a bus will be late, how long the delay might be, and how long travel might take.

Along with live traffic information for buses, Google is adding crowdedness predictions for transit routes. Based on past ride information, Google Maps will offer up details on how crowded a bus, train, or subway is likely to be.

The new Google Maps features are rolling out today on Android and iOS in close to 200 cities around the world.

Thousands of protesters have poured onto the streets of Khartoum and elsewhere as part of mass rallies aimed at pressuring Sudan‘s ruling generals to hand over power to a civilian-led administration and seeking justice for the scores of victims of a deadly military crackdown.

Dubbed the “millions march”, the demonostrations on Sunday are the first since security forces on June 3 killed more than 100 people during the bloody dispersal of a protest camp outside the military headquarters, the focal point of the protesters’ months-long struggle for democracy.

They come as the African Union (AU) and neighbouring Ethiopia stepped up efforts to mediate the ongoing crisis between the protest organisers and the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC), which seized power in April when it overthrew long-time President Omar al-Bashir in the wake of mass protests against his autocrat rule.

Rights groups have demanded the TMC guarantee the safety of demonstators but on Saturday, on the eve of the rallies, the ruling generals warned that they would hold the protest movement responsible for any deaths or damage.

Images posted on social media appeared to show heightened security around the capital, with the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) deployed in pick-up trucks mounted with machin eguns in several Khartoum squares.

RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose forces are blamed by protesters for the deadly crackdown at the sit-in, warned on Saturday he would not tolerate any “vandalism” at the protests.

“There are vandals, there are people who have an agenda, a hidden agenda, we don’t want problems,” said Dagalo, who is widely known as Hemeti and is also the TMC’s deputy head.

‘Break barrier of fear’ 

In the run-up to the protests, which also mark the 30th anniversary of the coup that had brought al-Bashit to power in 1989, many Sudanese said they fear new violence.

“I expect large numbers … and it’s very possible that security forces will use force,” said 25-year-old Mustafa, who gave only his first name for security reasons, adding he planned to participate.

Talal, 29, added: “Even if only a few rallies take place in Khartoum, they will break the barrier of fear and more people will take to the streets” in the coming days, he said.

The umbrella opposition group behind the protest, the Freedom and Change alliance, said demonstrators in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman would march to the homes of some of the protesters killed on June 3.

A doctors group linked to the protest movement say at least 120 people were killed in the crackdown, but officials have cited a death toll of 61.

The TMC insists it did not order the sit-in’s bloody dispersal but acknowledged “excesses” after orders were given to purge a nearby area allegedly notorious for drug peddling.

AU-Ethiopia joint proposal 

Tensions remains high since the sit-in raid, which followed the collapse of talks over who should lead a new governing body – a civilian or soldier.

Ethiopia and the AU have proposed a blueprint for a civilian-majority body, which the generals say could be a basis for resuming talks.

Demonstrators’ “right to peacefully protest and express their views on 30 June, or on any other date, remains key,” the European Union said.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said the TMC “must not allow the country to slide back into yet more repression.”

“The world is watching.”

But mobilising protesters has become a challenge since the raid, as the TMC has imposed a widespread internet blackout.

In the lead-up to al-Bashir’s fall, tens of thousands of demonstrators were mobilised through social media, but now protest leaders have to resort to neighbourhood campaigns to keep the movement alive.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Hello, weekend readers. This is Week-in-Review where I give a heavy amount of analysis and/or rambling thoughts on one story while scouring the rest of the hundreds of stories that emerged on TechCrunch this week to surface my favorites for your reading pleasure.

Last week, I talked about how YouTube was letting its commenting system turn from a festering wasted opportunity into a liability.

The big story

Plenty happened this week, though most of the news signified something larger looming on the horizon, more on that in a bit.

One undoubtedly meaty news item was that Jony Ive, Apple’s most iconic executive persona, announced that he was leaving the company this year.

Ive has undoubtedly been a powerhouse of industrial design who has helped craft some of the most iconic products from one of the most influential tech companies. The issue is perhaps what Apple’s vision of industrial design transformed into in his final years at the helm.

Ive shifted away from managerial roles in 2015, but the Chief Design Officer’s influence has been evident it the past several years of very beautiful devices designed around the occasional flawed hypothesis.

Poor design is more than the oft-memed Apple Pencil jutting out of an iPad lightning port or the Mighty Mouse with a charger piercing its underbelly. The company’s aesthetic choices in how they curve their screens or shape their aluminum have stayed true but you don’t have to look too far to find a pattern of carelessness in a number of Apple’s device which occasionally have prioritized svelte profiles over actually even working.

Ive is design genius, but like all people we elevate with that title, he and his design ethos grew further disassociated with the public over time. All designers miss the mark occasionally, but an obsession with minimalism pushed the company in some troublesome directions that the company is only now coming to reckon with.

Apple’s design degradation is perhaps nowhere more visible than in the ill-fated AirPower. The device, which designed to charge your iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch simultaneously, was beautiful, but Apple’s aggressive design left physics in the rearview mirror. Ambition is one thing but letting function drive form to the point that you publicly announce a product that wasn’t physically possible showcases where Apple’s marketing showmanship butt heads with actual device capabilities. Apple abruptly cancelled AirPower this year, more than a year after its expected release.

If AirPower was a pithy signifier, the degradation of the company’s Mac line has been Apple’s abasement opus.

The problematic keyboards, the useless TouchBar and the shrinking number of ports on its laptops have defined the past five years of the company’s laptop line. There isn’t much that needs to be said about the anti-consumer design decisions that took Apple’s best generation of the MacBook Pro in the 2011/2012 era and cursed it with an unneeded rethinking.

The about-face that the company took on its Mac Pro line shows just how misguided its thinking was and how Ive and company let innovative design poison the good will it had built up with customers. The company’s 2019 line is a total rejection of the 2013 trash can which showcased some major design hubris.

These missteps don’t fundamentally complicate the legacy of Ive or Apple. The past decade has also seen thoughtful designs take shape from the Apple Watch to the iPhone X to the iPad Pro, but industrial design is a means to an end and the manner in which Apple has determined where the customer fits into its design ethos could perhaps use some rethinking as the company enters a new design era.

Send me feedback
on Twitter @lucasmtny or email
lucas@techcrunch.com

On to the rest of the week’s news.

Trends of the week

Here are a few big news items from big companies, with green links to all the sweet, sweet added context.

• SpaceX preps for a Starship payday
  Elon Musk is still trying to get SpaceX’s Starship off the ground, but the company’s leadership is already planning for the reusable rocket’s commercial heyday. Read more about the aggressive timeline here.
• SF throws Juul the bird
  San Francisco doesn’t always operate on the right side of interacting with new technologies and startups, but the city government took final steps to be the first city to ban sales of electronic cigarettes, taking aim at Juul, which seems to be one of the more morally bankrupt SF startups out there. Read more on the ban here.
• Reddit takes steps to isolate r/The_Donald
  Reddit has had a tough time growing up over the past several years, part of that has been a handful of problem communities on the site. This week, Reddit took the unique step of quarantining r/The_Donald after threats against public officials and members of the police. Read more about the quarantine here.
• Tesla’s cell jealousy
  Tesla electric vehicles are awfully reliant on Panasonic’s battery cells and the company is investigating how it can reduce that dependency, though the company’s significant demands suggest that even if they succeed in the aggressive move, it would take an awful long time to scale to meet their needs. Read more on the report here.

GAFA Gaffes

How did the top tech companies screw up this week? This clearly needs its own section, in order of badness:

1. Facebook’s head of spin makes a push:
   [Facebook makes another push to shape and define its own oversight]
2. FB isn’t sure what to do:
   [Facebook’s content oversight board plan is raising more questions than it answers]

Our premium subscription service had another week of interesting deep dives. We had a story that should be interesting to a lot of younger founders that are scaling their entrepreneurial ambitions while they’re still in classes.

“…Once you have a job in an industry you want to be in, network like your life depends on it. Get to know the talented people around you and try to help them as much as you can…”

Here are some of our other top reads this week for premium subscribers. This week, we talked a bit about the future of marketplaces and you should think about naming your startup.

Want more TechCrunch newsletters? Sign up here.

In the spot, which was shot in black and white, a bored man pulls his AirPods off of their wireless charging pad (an Apple exclusive Belkin model) before he pops outside and begins bouncing over normal street items that are inexplicably bouncy like a trampoline. The song “I Learnt Some Jazz Today” plays while he runs through town.

Apple sells the AirPods 2 for $199 with a Wireless Charging Case included, which is able to charge on any Qi-based wireless charging mat. It’s also available on a standalone basis for $79.

Update: Apple has also shared another short ad highlighting the Screen Time feature on iPhone.

The information was shared by a JCPenney support employee on Twitter, who also said that Apple Pay would be accepted in stores starting June 19th. Given that it’s now June 27, Apple Pay should be working in JCPenney retail locations once again.

JCPenney earlier this year eliminated support for Apple Pay and other contactless payment options due to an April 13 deadline from Visa for retiring legacy magnetic stripe contactless technology in favor of EMV technology.

A third-party credit card brand made the requirement for all merchants to actively support EMV contactless functionality effective April 13, retiring the legacy MSD contactless technology in place. Given the resources and lead time associated with meeting the new mandate, JCPenney chose to suspend all contactless payment options until a later date. Customers still have the ability to complete their transactions manually by inserting or swiping their physical credit cards at our point-of-sale terminals in stores, an option employed by the vast majority of JCPenney shoppers.

At the time Apple Pay was pulled from retail stores and the JCPenney app, JCPenney did not provide details on if and when it might be reinstated.

The world’s seven biggest economies, the G7, mushroomed into the G20 in 1999 following the Asian financial crisis.

The G20 summit is the world’s largest annual gathering of world leaders, second only to the United Nations General Assembly.

This year’s G20 in Japan had a different emphasis.

Leaders focussed on cooperation among themselves to solve problems, rather than the summit’s usual themes of sustainable growth, health and innovation.

The threat of war between the United States and Iran concentrated minds in Osaka. So did the bitter trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies: the US and China.

The closing remarks of some leaders could signal breakthroughs in major issues.

But in an increasingly divided world, can global powers find common ground? If so how?

Presenter: Peter Dobbie

Guests:

Nancy Snow – professor of public diplomacy, Kyoto University of foreign studies

Viktor Olevich – lead expert, Centre for Actual Politics

Richard Weitz – security analyst, Wikistrat

Source: Al Jazeera News

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that after the Apple Watch launched in 2015, Ive had already started relinquishing his responsibilities because of the strain it was putting on him personally.

Around the time, Ive told the New Yorker he’d become “deeply, deeply tired,” and said the year leading up to the Apple Watch debut was “the most difficult” since he joined Apple.

To extend his time at the company, Apple subsequently agreed to change his official role to Chief Design Officer, which allowed day-to-day responsibility of the hardware and software design teams to shift to executives Alan Dye and Richard Howarth.

From then onward, Ive began coming to Apple headquarters “as little as twice a week,” and many meetings with his design team reportedly took place in San Francisco so Ive could avoid the long commute from his home in the Pacific Heights district to Apple’s HQ in Cupertino, California.

Ive sometimes even met with his team at the homes of his employees, at hotels, or other venues, according to people familiar with the matter, while the design executive did much of his work at a San Francisco office and studio, which has now become the base of his new LoveFrom business.

Ive also frequently travelled to London, near to where he was raised, according to Bloomberg‘s Gurman.

About two years into his new role, at the end of 2017, Apple said Ive had re-assumed some of the leadership responsibilities he had previously given up, and Howarth and Dye were removed from Apple’s leadership page. But still Ive only came to the office a couple of days a week.

Some people familiar with Apple are worried about the new design leadership, reports Gurman. With Ive leaving, longtime Apple designer Evans Hankey will run the hardware design group. Hankey, who has more than 300 patents to her name, is described as a “great team leader”, yet one person familiar with the design team told Gurman that Apple “now lacks a true design brain on its executive team, which is a concern.”

Hankey and Dye will report to Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who will likely gain more control over product direction, and some employees are also said to be concerned that the re-organization is another sign that Apple is less design-focused and becoming more of an operations company.

“The design team is made up of the most creative people, but now there is an operations barrier that wasn’t there before,” one former Apple executive said. “People are scared to be innovative.”

One of many secretive projects that Ive worked on was the so-called Apple Car, according to The Information. The report claims that Ive came up with multiple early prototypes of the autonomous vehicle, including one made out of wood and leather that lacked a steering wheel at Ive’s insistence.

Ive instead wanted the vehicle to be controlled by Siri, and to demonstrate the concept to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the report claims a nearby actress pretended to be Siri by responding to voice commands from Apple’s executives. It is unclear exactly how this would have worked or how serious Apple was about the idea.

The report adds that Ive also worked on a much-rumored but never-released Apple television set and early prototypes of the Apple Watch.

In an internal memo to Apple employees obtained by BuzzFeed News, Cook noted that Ive has collaborated closely with Apple’s COO Jeff Williams for many years. Williams, who has led development of the Apple Watch since its inception, will spend more of his time working with Apple’s design team in their studio.

Cook’s full memo:

Team,

I’m writing to let you know about some changes to the ET involving two people who embody Apple’s values and whose work will help define Apple’s future.

I’m happy to announce that Sabih Khan has been named to the executive team as senior vice president of Operations reporting to Jeff Williams. Sabih has worked on every Apple product since the late 90s, always committed to delighting our customers while advancing quality, sustainability and responsibility in manufacturing. His team makes possible some of the most beloved — and most complex — products in the world, and Sabih leads them with heart. I am thrilled to have him overseeing our supply chain.

Today, we also mark another important evolution for our company. After nearly 30 years at Apple, Jony Ive is starting an independent design firm which will count Apple among its primary clients and will depart the company as an employee later this year. Jony’s contributions are legendary, from the central role he played in Apple’s revival beginning in the late 90s, through the iPhone and perhaps his most ambitious project, Apple Park, where he has put so much of his energy and care in the past few years. I am proud to call Jony a friend, and those who know him know his ideas and curiosities are boundless. We will all benefit — as individuals who value great design, and as a company — as he pursues his passions and continues his dedicated work with Apple.

Of all his accomplishments, Jony cites the team he helped to build as one of his proudest. His longtime collaborators, Evans Hankey and Alan Dye, are strong stewards of Apple’s design ethic and creative culture. Collaboration and teamwork are defining features of Apple’s success across the company.

Evans and Alan will report to Jeff Williams. As many of you know, Jony and Jeff have been close collaborators and partners for many years. In particular, Jeff’s leadership in developing Apple Watch brought together a cross-organizational team, unprecedented in scope, to produce Apple’s most personal device ever. This is what Apple does at its best: elevating a category beyond its imagined limits, and revealing how a single device can be so much more than the sum of its parts. I’m incredibly excited about the design team’s work, both underway and yet to come.

Tim

In line with a Bloomberg report, The Information claims that Ive’s day-to-day involvement at Apple has already been declining since the Apple Watch launched in 2015. Ive’s recent focus has been on the company’s Apple Park headquarters, which had a formal grand opening in May.

Apple announced that Ive will be forming an independent design studio named LoveFrom that will count Apple among its “primary clients,” suggesting that he will continue to have some influence on the company’s products.

As autonomous cars and robots loom over the landscapes of cities and jobs alike, the technologies that empower them are forming sub-industries of their own. One of those is lidar, which has become an indispensable tool to autonomy, spawning dozens of companies and attracting hundreds of millions in venture funding.

But like all industries built on top of fast-moving technologies, lidar and the sensing business is by definition built somewhat upon a foundation of shifting sands. New research appears weekly advancing the art, and no less frequently are new partnerships minted, as car manufacturers like Audi and BMW scramble to keep ahead of their peers in the emerging autonomy economy.

To compete in the lidar industry means not just to create and follow through on difficult research and engineering, but to be prepared to react with agility as the market shifts in response to trends, regulations, and disasters.

I talked with several CEOs and investors in the lidar space to find out how the industry is changing, how they plan to compete, and what the next few years have in store.

Their opinions and predictions sometimes synced up and at other times diverged completely. For some, the future lies manifestly in partnerships they have already established and hope to nurture, while others feel that it’s too early for automakers to commit, and they’re stringing startups along one non-exclusive contract at a time.

All agreed that the technology itself is obviously important, but not so important that investors will wait forever for engineers to get it out of the lab.

And while some felt a sensor company has no business building a full-stack autonomy solution, others suggested that’s the only way to attract customers navigating a strange new market.

It’s a flourishing market but one, they all agreed, that will experience a major consolidation in the next year. In short, it’s a wild west of ideas, plentiful money, and a bright future — for some.

The evolution of lidar

I’ve previously written an introduction to lidar, but in short, lidar units project lasers out into the world and measure how they are reflected, producing a 3D picture of the environment around them.

Apple will replace the main logic board in affected MacBook Air units, free of charge. Apple will also send an email to affected customers to let them know that their notebooks are eligible for a main logic board replacement. Apple did not provide any specific details or symptoms pertaining to the “issue.”

2018 MacBook Air owners can visit Apple’s support website to schedule an appointment with an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. When the serial number of an affected MacBook Air is entered into Apple’s internal repair system, a message will direct technicians to replace the logic board.

Apple will authorize coverage within four years of the MacBook Air‘s original purchase date. If the notebook has accidental damage that the customer does not want repaired, technicians are instructed to proceed with the logic board replacement at no cost as long as the damage does not prevent completion of the repair.

If accidental damage does prevent the logic board replacement from being completed, Apple says the customer must pay for necessary repairs in order to get the logic board replaced at no cost.

Apple has not publicly announced this repair policy, likely due to what it believes is a very small number of affected customers. While we are confident this information is accurate, as it comes from a consistently reliable source, we cannot guarantee that all Apple employees will acknowledge the policy.

This is at least the third repair program that Apple has introduced in the past five weeks, alongside its 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro battery recall and replacement program and 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro display backlight service program.

Libya’s renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar has banned commercial flights from Libya to Turkey and ordered his forces to attack Turkish ships and interests in the country, spokesperson Ahmed al-Mismari has said.

Turkey supports Libya’s United Nations-recognised government in Tripoli which retook Gharyan, a strategic town south of the capital, Tripoli, from Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) forces on Wednesday.

“Orders have been given to the air force to target Turkish ships and boats in Libyan territorial waters,” al-Mismari said on Friday, adding that “Turkish strategic sites, companies and projects belonging to the Turkish state (in Libya) are considered legitimate targets by the armed forces”.

Al-Mismari said Turkish aircraft “provided air cover” and bombed LNA positions in the fight for Gharyan.

“All flights to and from Turkey are also stopped and any Turkish (nationals) on Libyan territory will be arrested,” he said.

Turkey has supplied drones and trucks to forces allied to Tripoli Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, while the LNA has received support from France, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, according to diplomats.

The LNA, which is allied to a parallel government in the east, has failed to take Tripoli but it has commanded air superiority. It has several times attacked Tripoli’s functioning airport.

Haftar setback

The capture of Gharyan this week has been seen as a major setback for Haftar’s forces and their campaign to capture the capital.

Al-Mismari said his forces had lost 43 soldiers in the battle over the town of Gharyan – the main forward base for the LNA under Haftar which has been fighting to take control of Tripoli for almost three months.

Ahmed Milad, a pro-government fighter told Al Jazeera: “We coordinated with our fellow fighters inside the city [Gharyan] along with the western region military command to set the incursion.

“It took us weeks, but the city fell into our hands in about seven hours.”

Following the battle, government forces said they discovered a cache of American missiles at a captured LNA base in the city.

Speaking from Gharyan following the battle, Al Jazeera correspondent Mahmoud Abdelwahed said: “Government forces showed off dozens of US-made anti-tank missiles. They said [the weapons] were seized from Haftar’s forces in Gharyan … [and] were supplied by the UAE.”

Markings on the missiles’ shipping containers indicated that they were originally sold to the UAE, a US ally, in 2008.

If the UAE did provide the weapons, it would likely be a violation of arms sales agreements with the US, as well as a United Nations embargo.

#Libya: Weapons captured from #LNA when the #GNA captured Garyan, including M79 Osa, HMGs, a 9K113, and at least 4 FGM-148 Javelin!

Also included was Chinese GP-1 155mm Guided Artillery Shells, known to be in Libya & other arms marked as from the UAE.

Partially via @Oded121351 pic.twitter.com/aEksokPl8G

— Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ (@CalibreObscura) June 28, 2019

Fear of retaliation

While life has slowly started to return to normal in Gharyan, locals fear Haftar may retaliate. 

“Some of Haftar’s forces have retreated to the nearby town of Asabia, others to the city of Tarhouna,” said Abdelwahed.

“But the situation in Gharyan remains tense as people worry that Haftar’s warplanes could target government forces within the city.”

The LNA still holds the town of Tarhouna southeast of Tripoli, its second main position in the campaign.

Haftar and his backers say they are trying to free the capital from militias which they blame for destabilising Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

Haftar’s critics accuse him of trying to seize power through force and deepening a conflict between factions based in the east and west of the sprawling North African country.

His offensive has upended United Nations-led plans to stabilise Libya after years of conflict that have left the oil-rich nation divided and caused living standards to plummet.

Western powers have become increasingly concerned about the conflict as it risks disrupting oil production and prompting more migrants to leave for Italy and other parts of Europe by boat.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Read on below for a summary of all our top stories from this week.

Apple’s Longtime Design Chief Jony Ive Leaving to Start New Design Company With Apple as a Primary Client

It feels like it’s been a long time coming, but it was still a bit of a surprise this week when Apple announced that design chief Jony Ive will be departing the company to start his own design firm. It sounds like it won’t be a clean break, as Apple says it will be a “primary client” of Ive’s new firm, but we’ll have to see how much influence he ends up having on Apple’s future products.

In the wake of the announcement, Bloomberg took a look back at the last few years of Ive’s tenure at Apple, noting that his involvement in Apple’s product design began tapering off as long as four years ago following the introduction of the original Apple Watch. Ive turned his attention to the company’s Apple Park campus, and even limited the time he spent at Apple’s headquarters, preferring to work out of a location close to his home in San Francisco.

Public Betas of iOS 13 and More Released!

Apple surprised us this week with the first public betas of iOS 13 and iPadOS, macOS Catalina, and tvOS 13, which weren’t expected until July. This allows anyone who signs up to Apple’s free beta software program to test the updates before they are officially released in the fall.

We have put together a guide on how to install the iOS 13 public beta — we also have ones for iPadOS, macOS Catalina, and tvOS 13. As usual, Apple cautions against installing the updates on your primary, daily-use devices, as there are still bugs and issues to be sorted out.

16-Inch MacBook Pro Said to Launch in September With LCD and 3072×1920 Resolution

Rumors continue to surface about an all-new 16-inch MacBook Pro coming later this year, as first mentioned by reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

The latest word comes from Jeff Lin, an analyst at research firm IHS Markit, who believes the 16-inch MacBook Pro will have an LCD, not an OLED display, and launch in September.

Lin also believes that Apple plans to refresh the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro — perhaps the models without the Touch Bar — with faster processors in the fall.

Apple Hires ARM’s Lead CPU Architect Amid Rumors of ARM-Based Macs as Early as 2020

Rumors suggest Apple plans to transition to its own ARM-based processors in Macs starting as early as 2020, and its hiring of ARM’s lead CPU architect Mike Filippo could certainly help those efforts.

Filippo led the development of several chips at ARM between 2009 and 2019, and he was also Intel’s lead CPU and system architect between 2004 and 2009, so he brings a wealth of experience with him to Apple.

That equates to around 680,000 users who subscribed to Spotify through its iOS app via Apple’s in-app purchase system between 2014 and 2016.

Hands-On With LG’s Massive 5K 49-Inch $1,500 Display

LG recently came out with a new curved ultra-wide monitor sporting a massive 49-inch display size, 5K resolution, and a ~$1,500 price tag.

In our latest video over on our YouTube channel, we went hands-on with the display to see if it’s a worthwhile purchase for a Mac user.

Subscribe to MacRumors on YouTube for new Apple videos every week!

2015 15″ MacBook Pro Recall Applies to About 432,000 Units, Apple Received 26 Reports of Batteries Overheating

Last week, Apple launched a worldwide recall program for select 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro units due to batteries that “may overheat and pose a fire safety risk.” Apple will replace affected batteries free of charge.

Now, we have learned that about 432,000 potentially affected MacBook Pros were sold in the United States, plus 26,000 in Canada. Apple has received 26 reports of batteries overheating in the United States and one in Canada.

Here is everything you need to know about the recall program, including how to identify your Mac and get the battery replaced.

Leaked Photos Show Apple Card’s Design in the Wild

Apple’s upcoming Apple Card credit card is now being tested by both its corporate and retail employees ahead of a planned summer launch, and some more photos of the card have now leaked.

The titanium Apple Card appears to weigh in at 14.75 grams, making it much heavier than typical plastic credit cards around 5 grams and more in line with other metal cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

It is likely the Apple Card launch will be tied to the release of iOS 12.4, which is inching towards the end of beta testing.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we’ve covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

U.S. President Donald Trump has handed Huawei a lifeline after he said that U.S. companies are permitted to sell goods to the embattled Chinese tech firm following more than a month of uncertainty.

It’s been a pretty dismal past month for Huawei since the American government added it and 70 of its affiliates to an “entity list” which forbids U.S. companies from doing business with it. The ramifications of the move were huge across Huawei’s networking and consumer devices businesses. A range of chip companies reportedly forced to sever ties while Google, which provides Android for Huawei devices, also froze its relationship. Speaking this month.

All told, Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei said recently that the ban would cost the Chinese tech firm — the world’s third-larger seller of smartphones — some $30 billion in lost revenue of the next two years.

Now, however, the Trump administration has provided a reprieve, at least based on the President’s comments following a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping at the G20 summit this weekend.

“US companies can sell their equipment to Huawei. We’re talking about equipment where there’s no great national security problem with it,” the U.S. President said.

Those comments perhaps contradict some in the US administration who saw the Huawei blacklisting as a way to strangle the company and its global ambitions, which are deemed by some analysts to be a threat to America.

Despite the good news, any mutual trust has been broken and things are unlikely to be the same again.

America’s almost casual move to blacklist Huawei — the latest in a series of strategies in its ongoing trade battle with China — exemplifies just how dependent the company has become on the U.S. to simply function.

Huawei has taken steps to hedge its reliance on America, including the development of its own operating system to replace Android and its own backup chips, and you can expect that these projects will go into overdrive to ensure that Huawei doesn’t find itself in a similar position again in the future.

Of course, decoupling its supply chain from US partners is no easy task both in terms of software and components. It remains to be seen if Huawei could maintain its current business level — which included 59 million smartphones in the last quarter and total revenue of $107.4 billion in 2018 — with non-US components and software but this episode is a reminder that it must have a solid contingency policy in case it becomes a political chess piece again in the future.

Beyond aiding Huawei, Trump’s move will boost Google and other Huawei partners who invested significant time and resources into developing a relationship with Huawei to boost their own businesses through its business.

Indeed, speaking to press Trump, Trump admitted that US companies sell “a tremendous amount” of products to Huawei. Some “were not exactly happy that they couldn’t sell” to Huawei and it looks like that may have helped tipped this decision. But, then again, never say never — you’d imagine that the Huawei-Trump saga is far from over despite this latest twist.

Available for $60, the Dual Smart Outlet is Satechi’s first HomeKit product, and it offers up two separate HomeKit-compatible outlets that let you connect any standard device or appliance to your HomeKit setup.

There are many HomeKit-compatible plug options on the market, but Satechi’s new Smart Plug takes up minimal space as it won’t block a secondary outlet. Both of the two outlets can be controlled independently, so you can connect two devices, and it can be placed either vertically or horizontally in an outlet.

Satechi has also included real-time energy monitoring in the Smart Outlet, so you can figure out just how much power your devices are eating up.

The Smart Outlet is controlled via WiFi and connects to an existing 2.4GHz network. It’s compatible with any appliance or electronic device that plugs into a standard outlet, including fans, TVs, humidifiers, heaters, speakers, lights, and more.

You can control the Smart Outlet using the Home app, Siri voice commands, or the Satechi Home app. You can do things like turn a device on or off, set it to turn on or off at certain times, or pair it up with other HomeKit items.

We have five of the Dual Smart Outlets to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win our giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Target. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

You can purchase the HomePod in either White or Space Gray on Target.com, and ship the speaker to your home or pick it up in-store. Additionally, Target RedCard holders have a chance to save an extra 5 percent on the HomePod.

Apple dropped the price of the HomePod from $349 to $299 back in April, hoping to boost sales for the speaker after some blowback to the steep cost of the device. You can find sales like this one and many more in our full Deals Roundup.

Google’s vice president of finance, has joined Postmates’ board of directors, the latest sign that the on-demand food delivery startup is prepping to take the company public.

Postmates announced Friday that Kristin Reinke, vice president of Finance at Google, will join the San Francisco startup as an independent director.

Reinke has been with Google since 2005. Prior to Google, Reinke was at Oracle for eight years. Reinke also serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council.

Her skill set will come in handy as Postmates creeps towards an IPO.

Earlier this year, the company lined up a $100 million pre-IPO financing that valued the business at $1.85 billion. Postmates is backed by Tiger Global, BlackRock, Spark Capital, Uncork Capital, Founders Fund, Slow Ventures and others. Spark Capital’s Nabeel Hyatt tweeted the news earlier Friday.

“Postmates has established itself as the market leader with a focus on innovation and route efficiency in the fast‐growing on‐demand delivery sector. Given their strong execution, accelerating growth, and financial discipline, they are well positioned for continued market growth across the U.S.,” said Reinke. “I’m thrilled to join the board.”

The startup has been beefing up its executive quiver, most recently hiring Apple veteran and author Ken Kocienda as a principal software engineer at Postmates X, the team building the food delivery company’s semi-autonomous sidewalk rover, Serve.

Kocienda, author of “Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s  Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs,” spent 15 years at Apple focused on human interface design, collaborating with engineers to develop the first iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.