iPhone 6S Breaks Sales Record

Many New Yorkers faced a serious dilemma last month: Join the crowd to see Pope Francis or stand in line to buy an iPhone 6S at the Apple Store?

Many chose the latter. Frenzied fanboys and fangirls lined up early outside Apple Stores in San Francisco, Sydney, Syracuse, Singapore, Colorado Springs, Chicago, London, and Rancho Cucamonga. In Palo Alto, a robot stood in line and bought an iPhone. Sales of 13 million broke a launch weekend record.

So is the phone any good? Who cares. Ooh, rose gold!

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Image (“Apple Store, after a 1900 trade card by Tom Browne“) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Voice of Siri

CNN has identified the original voice of Siri, Apple’s voice-activated virtual “assistant” introduced with the iPhone 4S in 2011. It belongs to singer and voice actress Susan Bennett of Sandy Springs Georgia, co-owner of Audiocam Music recording studio. Her reign as Siri ended this year with the introduction of Apple’s iOS 7 operating system, which has new Siri voices.

More:

“‘I’m the original voice of Siri,'” Jessica Ravitz, CNN

The voice actress behind Siri had no idea she would become Siri,” Chris Gayomali, The Week

“Siri Toured as a Backup Singer for Roy Orbison, and Everything Else You Ever Wanted to Know About the Voice of Apple,” Julie Miller, Vanity Fair

“Siri Is a Middle-Aged White Woman From Atlanta, Just as We All Suspected,” Will Oremus, Slate

“You’ve met ‘the original Siri.’ Here are the others.” Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post blog

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Apple’s True Believers

“As everyone knows, the world-religion of the educated and prosperous in the twenty-first century is Apple, with its Vatican in Cupertino and its cathedrals in the light-filled Apple Stores that draw pilgrims gripping iPhones and iPads like rosaries. Apple’s flock is secured against heresy by censors who rule the online App Store; only applications with Apple’s imprimatur are allowed on an iPhone. Programmers risk excommunication—with all their works condemned to being listed in an Index of Prohibited Software—if they violate canon law by bypassing Apple’s banking system or ignoring its infallible doctrine.”

— “Faith and Works at Apple,” Edward Mendelson, New York Review of Books blog

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Image (“Dashboard Savior”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here.  Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Your iPhone Spies On You

Software in the iPhone tells Apple where you are now and where you have been. Best reaction so far:

“iPhone Secretly Tracking How Dull Your Life Is,” SatireWire

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