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Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet is the Mac Observer’s Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of “The Designer’s Guide to Mac OS X” from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also hosts TMO’s Daily Observations podcast, co-hosts The iOS Show podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other shows, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

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Apple Buys Asaii, Adds its Team to Apple Music

Apple purchased the music and artist discovery service Asaii—a deal that was confirmed by the company’s investment backer The House. Asaii makes tools for finding and managing artists, along with a tool for music services to make recommendations to listeners. The House founder Cameron Baradar told Music Ally,

As the first investors in Asaii, we are incredibly excited by their recent acquisition by Apple where they will have the opportunity to dramatically scale their impact and continue building out their vision for the future of the music industry.

Asaii’s founders are now part of the Apple Music team. Their tools can predict the next music hits weeks in advance. Couple that with the music discovery tools and Apple Music’s listening recommendations could get a lot better very soon.

macOS Mojave Made Me Hate Dark Mode

I’ve been a fan of Dark Mode ever since Adobe added it to Photoshop CS6 back in 2012. That’s why I was so excited to see system-wide Dark Mode support in macOS Mojave, and yet Apple managed to make me dislike the feature so much I gave up on it. For now, I’ll be sticking with the pre-Mojave light colored windows and menus instead. I planned on using Dark Mode to cut the brightness out of Finder windows, but now I’m going back to what I did before: When I’m writing and my screen feels too bright I switch to Grayscale mode. Andrew Orr did a great job of explaining how to turn it on and off for your Mac as well as iPhone and iPad. Check out his tip.

Kanye West's Apple Store "Keynote" Shows a Man Who Needs Some Serious Help

Kanye West climbed on top of a product display table in the Georgetown Apple store on Thursday so he could deliver a “keynote” to shoppers. Apple didn’t invite him into the store to speak or climb on furniture, although he was apparently quite the spectacle. I said it before, and now I’m putting the call out again: Can someone get this man some help?

Apple Hoping to Drive Original Content Interest with Free Shows

Insider sources tell CNBC Apple will let anyone with an Apple TV, iPhone, or iPad watch its original streaming shows for free. They’ll be available through the TV app, which also groups together other subscription channels. From the report:

The product will include Apple-owned content, which will be free to Apple device owners, and subscription “channels,” which will allow customers to sign up for online-only services, such as those from HBO and Starz.

My guess is that the insiders are partially right. I think Apple will offer an episode or two from each show for free. Watching full seasons will require a paid subscription of some sort. That could be an Apple Music subscription, or a new package Apple will create for its TV shows.

Carpool Karaoke: The Series Season 2 Starts October 12

The second season of Apple’s Carpool Karaoke series starts on Friday, October 12th. The series puts celebrities together in a car to talk with each other and sing along with songs. This season includes Snoop Dog with Matthew McConaughey, Andy Samberg with Weird Al Yankovic, the Star Trek: Discovery cast, Jason Sudeikis with the Muppets, and more. The episodes will be available for free through the TV app on Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad. Check out the season trailer.

Dark Sky gets Apple Watch Series 4 Complications

Dark Sky, my favorite local weather app on the iPhone, was updated on Thursday with new complications for Apple Watch Series 4. That means fans of the Infograph watch face get a slick complication that matches the new look Apple is pushing. It looks like the update also fixed a problem where the app defaulted to New York City for forecasts, which kind of defeated the purpose of hyper-local data. Dark Sky costs US$3.99 and is available on Apple’s App Store. The update is free for current users.