I love it when Marco geeks out like this. To call this review comprehensive would be the understatement of the year.

I hope you’re not superstitious, because this is the 13th issue of Morning Coffee. Don’t worry, we can call it 12+1 if you want.

Luckily, it still comes jam-packed with some incredible pieces of writing, so let’s get to it.

Issue #13: On the upcoming Apple event, street art in Hong Kong, and playing the long game in life

This week, the Internet machine woke up from its summer-long slumber in the blink of an eye, with rumor pieces popping up everywhere in anticipation of next week’s Apple event, where some pundits expect to see a few surprises beyond the widely expected iPhone refresh. The Apple TV is a frequent favorite in the rumor mill this time around, and as such it’s featured quite prominently in some of today’s pieces.

Whatever your technological inclination, dear reader, fear not; there’s more to this edition than Apple rumors, after all. Enjoy.

Apple’s ‘Hey Siri’ Event Roundup | Mark Gurman →

For a while now, Mark Gurman has been one of the most accurate writers when it comes to predicting Apple’s product announcements. This comprehensive piece covers everything Gurman expects to see announced next week, and if he’s right once again, it’s going to be a blast:

Apple’s Wednesday, September 9th event is shaping up to be one of the largest in the company’s history. The Cupertino-based company is planning to unveil several major new products on stage, including a pair of new iPhones with revamped internals, a sequel to the Apple TV, a larger version of the iPad Air, a refreshed iPad mini, and new Apple Watch accessories. The company is also likely to discuss at least two of its latest software platforms: iOS 9 and watchOS 2.

Not bad.

As a side note, compare Gurman’s excellent reporting in the above piece with this sorry excuse for an article by Katie Benner and Brian Chen for The New York Times. Not only do they fail to add any insight whatsoever to what had been previously reported by Gurman himself and others like John Paczkowski of Buzzfeed, but they also fail to properly credit those who did the actual reporting. They may get more pageviews, but this piece is certainly not up to the Times’ usual standards.

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Your brain, your disease, your self | Nina Strohminger and Shaun Nichols →

This is a fantastic piece on the effects of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s in relation to the loss of a person’s identity:

As monstrous as neurodegenerative disease is, its powers of identity theft have been greatly exaggerated. Remarkably, a person can undergo significant cognitive change and still come across as fundamentally the same person.

What makes us recognizable to others resides almost entirely within a relatively narrow band of cognitive functioning. It is only when our grip on the moral universe loosens that our identity slips away with it.

Now, this is the sort of piece that belongs in The New York Times.

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Every thing you own is a relationship you’re in | David Cain →

Your obligatory weekly dose of David Cain’s brilliance. Great stuff, as usual.

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The Stock Market, playing the long game, and the importance of setting long term goals | Patrick Rhone →

I loved this piece by Patrick Rhone. Life, much like stocks, yields the most benefits when you play the long game:

If not, you are basically playing the short game with your life. And, frankly, like a Day Trader your success and failure is at the whims of your daily to-do list. Get a lot done today and your life is a bull market. Get little done and it’s a bear market. And, like the Day Trader, your life will feel rich one day and bankrupt the next, more than partially due to forces beyond your control. A boss who dumps a project in your lap or a colleague who interrupts you or the person that pulls you into a last minute meeting or the kid who gets sick or the car that breaks down. All of these can sweep in and kill the action of those without goals. Just like China screwing with their currency can send the whole world of short players into a tizzy, so can just about anything wreak havoc on the short player’s task list.

Spot-on.

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Usain Bolt’s final turn | Louisa Thomas →

Yet another great piece on the Jamaican star over at Grantland:

In February, Bolt announced that he will retire after the 2017 world championships. In less than a year, he’ll run in his last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He is hoping to become the first person to win three consecutive 100- and 200-meter Olympic gold medals (and the 4×100 for good measure); he is already the first to win them twice. His fans, and many within track, are hoping he’ll ease gloriously through the finish — and perhaps he will. Bolt has always performed his best at major competitions, and he’s set and smashed his own world records at the big races, when people are watching. But last summer, Bolt struggled with injuries, had surgery on his left foot, and shut his season down after only three races in order to focus on this year. The results coming into the race in New York were disappointing. Bolt holds the world record in the 100, having run a 9.58 in 2009, but his fastest 100-meter time of 2015 is only the year’s sixth fastest. He’s also the world record holder in the 200, and his best this year is only the 19th fastest.

It’s worth noting that this was published on August 20, only days before Bolt went on to successfully defend his 100m, 200m and 4x100m World Championship titles in Beijing.

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The rise of Hong Kong street art – signs of a new creative awakening? | C. A. Xuan Mai Ardia →

As anyone who’s ever seen a DigitalRev TV video can tell you, Hong Kong is a city of unparalleled creative potential for street artists, and it looks like they’re finally starting to realize some of it.

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Frank Gehry’s gigantic new $300 million LA project will transform Sunset Boulevard | Christie Chu →

I love big architecture projects, and this one looks like a huge one:

Frank Gehry has big plans for Sunset Boulevard.

Renderings of his proposed $300 million LA project have been released, and images reveal a group of five distinct buildings to be used for residential, retail, and entertainment purposes, according to Curbed. They will be linked by an open public space, which will serve pedestrians and cyclists.

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Review: Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 Sonnar T* | Jordan Steele →

Jordan’s fantastic review dropped last weekend, but I didn’t have enough time to include it in the previous issue, so here it goes. He seems to like it:

The lens is simply spectacularly sharp, and starts that crazy sharpness right from f/1.8. Wide open shots display exceptional clarity and gorgeous background blur while providing a flattering contrast profile for portraits. I simply love the look of the images from this lens. It’s an absolutely top-tier optic and one that I’m already saving my pennies to purchase for myself.

So am I.

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The Sony A7RII Camera Review. A Real world look. | Steve Huff →

I always wait for Steve Huff’s reviews with great anticipation, and this time around he didn’t disappoint. If you’re on the fence about the new A7R II, check out the many image samples in Steve’s review to get a good idea of its capabilities.

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Afterword

As regular readers will know, this week I had my own piece of exotic glass to play with, the Sony Zeiss FE 55mm f/1.8. I’ve only had enough time with it to get a few initial impressions, but so far I’m really, really impressed with the lens.

The Zeiss 55mm is considerably smaller and lighter than the Sony Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4 zoom I bought with the camera, and its image quality is probably the best I’ve ever seen in a lens.

Sharpness is impressive in the center even wide open, and the corners are nothing to sneeze at, either. What’s more, stop it down even a little bit and the entire frame becomes pin sharp. It’s incredible.

The bokeh is simply gorgeous, melting away from the subject into a blurry background that almost seems too good, especially considering this is “only” an f/1.8 lens.

Flare and chromatic aberration are exceptionally well controlled, even when shooting against the light and with high-contrast areas in the image. Besides, the built-in Lightroom profile for this lens will take care of any remaining fringes with just a click.

Similarly, vignetting and distortion seem to also be well controlled in most situations, and the Lightroom profile does an great job of correcting them, so neither are a problem in actual shooting, at least not that I’ve seen.

After reading so many excellent reviews I had extremely high hopes for this lens, and I’m happy to say it’s lived up to my expectations, and then some. I can definitely see it being up there with any lens from any system as far as optical quality is concerned, even the legendary Otus lenses from Zeiss.

In any case, and MTF charts aside, one thing is clear: I could not have hoped for a better standard lens for my A7 II.

In the coming days and weeks I’m going to be busier than ever with my photography work, which means more pictures and more in-depth thoughts on this phenomenal piece of glass are sure to follow shortly.

Until then, have an amazing weekend and, of course, thank you for reading.

From Jonathan Bray’s hands-on review:

Think about that for a minute. That’s 2,160 x 3,840 pixels crammed into a space not much larger than a four-fingered KitKat. It delivers a ridiculously high pixel density of 806ppi and, needless to say, delivers images that are pinprick sharp. For the first time in a long time, Sony can boast that it’s ahead of the smartphone game.

Do you need it, though? Lord no. I’d hazard a guess that even the Bionic Man would struggle to tell the difference between this and even an iPhone 6 Plus, which “only” has a 1080p screen and the same screen dimensions. Even if you could spy all the details, the question of content rears its ugly head: there still isn’t that much available to make a 4K screen on a TV, let alone a smartphone, a compelling reason for purchase.

“Fuck everything, we’re doing five blades.”

Nice addition to the service, which is now called simply Amazon Video. Sam Machkovech has more information over at Ars Technica:

Once you start watching a downloaded video offline—which can be downloaded in one of three quality settings—the app will pop up a warning that the video will stop working 72 hours after the viewing first began. Simply reloading the app once you’ve returned to an Internet connection will restart any such timers. In a neat twist, offline videos also come with Amazon’s IMDB-fueled “X-Ray” blurbs that can be tapped at any time, meaning you don’t have to get online to answer pesky “who is that actor” questions. However, the app doesn’t include any way to parse how much space you’ve used by downloading videos, nor does it warn you how much space remains. You’ll have to go through your iOS or Android device’s space menus to sort that stuff out.

While it may have originated as a perk bundled with Amazon Prime, Amazon continues to slowly improve their on-demand video service.

Jaclyn Ginter, my friend Josh’s lovely wife, is launching a new fashion and lifestyle site today. With her impeccable taste and his great photographic skills, Beauttype is sure to delight all kinds of readers.

Check out her “Back to Burgundy” post to get a taste for what’s coming. Really cool stuff.

Google’s official blog:

Google has changed a lot over the past 17 years—from the range of our products to the evolution of their look and feel. And today we’re changing things up once again:

I like it. Also, check out this excellent piece by Alex Cook, Jonathan Jarvis and Jonathan Lee on the design theory behind the new logo. Fascinating stuff and 100% Google-y, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Good news from the official Google AdWords Google+ account (sigh):

In June, we announced (https://goo.gl/TF7dmD) that Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default to improve performance for users. This change is scheduled to start rolling out on September 1, 2015.

Most Flash ads uploaded to AdWords are automatically converted to HTML5.

They also offer a converter for those ads that can’t be automatically rendered in HTML5. This should nicely improve loading performance for many big sites.

Via TechCrunch.

Dieter Bohn, writing for The Verge:

That’s right: beginning today, a select set of Android Wear smartwatches (and all future watches) will work with the iPhone. The app should be rolling out worldwide soon. It’s been a long time coming — and it means that Google will be challenging the Apple Watch on its home turf. Those Android Wear watches will be both cheaper and more varied than the Apple Watch — just like Android itself.

Sounds like huge news. Maybe even doom-bringing news for the Apple Watch.

But wait, here’s the “but” you were waiting for:

There’s an important caveat, though: when paired to an iPhone, Android Wear watches can’t do as much as the Apple Watch. Nor can they do as much as they can when paired to an Android phone.

So, by and large, the case remains: if you own an Android phone, go with an Android Wear smartwatch; if you own an iPhone, the Apple Watch remains the natural choice. At the end of the day, all this seems to be much ado about nothing.

Wonderfully interesting article by Inge Oosterhoff for Messy Nessy Chic:

Amsterdam’s historic city center houses many old buildings – most of which have been around for many centuries – rebuilt and repurposed to fit the needs and preferences of each new generation. And as the epicenter of everything cool and new in the Netherlands, Amsterdam is constantly evolving.

This little Time Traveler’s Guide to Amsterdam lists some of the best places where history meets hip, so you can enjoy both simultaneously on your next trip to the Dutch canal town…

I love seeing old pictures of places that remain in use. The Time Travel moniker seems absolutely spot-on for the type of emotions they evoke.

Note: I originally meant to include this piece on last Saturday’s issue of Morning Coffee, but the Messy Nessy Chic site was going through some domain name issues at the time and I decided not to risk it. Those issues seem to have been resolved since then, so here it goes.

This week was over in the blink of an eye. For some reason, it almost feels like autumn is already knocking on the door. Furthermore, the Apple event is now officially in sight, which means the next few weeks are bound to go by even faster.

For now, though, let’s take a look at some of this week’s most interesting pieces of writing.

Issue #12: On creativity, legendary athletes, legendary filmmakers, and your weekly dose of the Sony A7R II

This issue is nicely balanced across four main topics: creativity, sports, technology and photography. Enjoy.

Whole brain creativity | Shawn Blanc →

Great piece by Shawn on how our brains operate when dealing with complex tasks that require us to engage several different cognitive functions:

Each of us are dominant in one of these four quadrants. You, dear reader, have some strength and some weakness of all four quadrants of learning and thinking style, but one of them is your most dominant. Do you mostly thrive on: Facts and logic? Form and Safety? Feelings and relationships? Or future ideas and concepts?

However, for us to do our best creative work — work that matters — we have to operate out of all four quadrants.

I’ve always believed that, order to improve upon something, learning how it works is an essential first step.

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How to get good at what you’re bad at | David Cain →

As if by some weird coincidence, this piece by David Cain serves as the perfect follow-up to Shawn’s article above:

It’s the bigger principle that’s important though. Whenever you do one thing well and another thing poorly, you can learn why by picturing yourself doing X with your usual approach to Y, and vice-versa. Maybe you run your business like Jeff Bezos, but you run your household like Homer Simpson. What would your Jeff Bezos side do with your household? What would your Homer Simpson side do with your business?

That’s pretty clever.

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How Roger Federer got sneaky good | Tom Perrotta →

Last Sunday, 34-year-old Roger Federer defeated World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final of the Cincinnati Masters 1000. This is the 24th Masters 1000 title for Federer, and his 7th title in Cincinnati. It’s also the second time he’s won the tournament without losing a set and without dropping his serve all week. These are all staggering statistics.

Moreover, it’s the second time this season that Federer beats Djokovic for a title, the first one coming in Dubai earlier in the year. As for Djokovic, he’s beaten Federer three times this season, in the finals of Indian Wells, Rome and Wimbledon.

However, much has changed in Federer’s game since the Dubai final. The Swiss player is being more aggressive than ever on the return, often employing seemingly insane tactics, like returning serve directly off a half-volley and then immediately charging the net.

Yet, as they say, the distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

All through the tournament, but specially on Sunday’s final, Federer’s tactics were indeed genius:

At a key moment in the first set tiebreak of Sunday’s final, Federer frustrated Djokovic with the ploy. Federer led 3-1 when he moved up to the service line as Djokovic hit a second serve. Most second serves go to the backhand side, but this time Djokovic threw in a surprise, a slice to Federer’s forehand. Federer lunged to his right, blocked a short-hop, half-volley return down the line and crowded the net. Djokovic missed a backhand and then raised his racket over his head in anger, but resisted the urge to smash it to bits. Federer won the next three points to take the set.

I find it amazing that a player that’s won more than anyone else in his career still has the passion, the energy and the work ethics to reinvent his game at 34. If there’s something the Cincinnati final showed everybody, it’s that Roger Federer is definitely one of a kind.

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Only man who can topple Usain Bolt: a photographer on a scooter | Christopher Clarey →

In this week’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing, many records are sure to be broken, and many surprising feats achieved. However, there’s one man who keeps shining above everyone else: Usain Bolt. The Jamaican star won both the 100m and 200m races, claiming his 3rd and 4th World Champion titles, respectively. In both races, American athlete Justin Gatlin was the man in Bolt’s shadow:

Bolt had beaten Gatlin by just one-hundredth of a second to win the 100, but the 200 was a much less suspenseful affair as Gatlin was unable to approach his top time earlier this season of 19.57.

“He came through when it was time to come through,” said Gatlin, who was also second behind Bolt in the 100 at the 2013 world championships in Moscow.

Much like Federer, Usain Bolt is an athlete for the history books.

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In conversation: Quentin Tarantino | Lane Brown →

This was a very interesting interview for Vulture. Tarantino is not one to shy away from controversial topics, and this was no exception:

How did what’s happening in Baltimore and Ferguson find its way into The Hateful Eight?

It was already in the script. It was already in the footage we shot. It just happens to be timely right now. We’re not trying to make it timely. It is timely. I love the fact that people are talking and dealing with the institutional racism that has existed in this country and been ignored. I feel like it’s another ’60s moment, where the people themselves had to expose how ugly they were before things could change. I’m hopeful that that’s happening now.

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The Apple Watch at work and play | Fraser Speirs →

Excellent piece. I like how, despite this being a decidedly positive take on Apple Watch, he doesn’t sugarcoat his experience with it:

Before I get into my thoughts about what the Watch is good for, I think we should acknowledge something: it is a complete nonsense that Apple ever shipped an operating system where in about 3 in 5 tries, an app simply will not launch. To me, this is the glaring flaw in Apple Watch: apps need to be instantly available at all times and respond quickly. Otherwise, what’s the point? If it’s not quicker than reaching for the phone, why bother?

I’m putting a lot of faith in watchOS 2.0 to fix this problem. I hope it’s not misplaced.

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All websites look the same | Dave Ellis →

Fun and spot-on criticism of modern web design by Dave Ellis. Check out the mockup and tell me it doesn’t ring a bell or two. Via Daring Fireball.

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Dynamic range of the Sony A7R II | Marco Arment →

Good examples from Marco on the shadow recovery capabilities of the Sony A7R II sensor, and how that can save your pictures when you make a mistake on the exposure parameters. It’s worth keeping in mind that screwing up the exposure is something what will happen from time to time, no matter how careful you are, so being able to work your way around it is definitely a nice plus.

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On feeling inadequate as a photographer (and the worst Sony A7R II review ever) | Neil Ta →

Great essay. Via Eric Kim:

Recently, I’ve been running into friends who’ve done really well for themselves. A friend still in his 20’s whose tech start-up is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a close childhood friend who bought a new Porsche 911, several others who run successful businesses or are directors or VPs of large corporations, and everyone who seems to be living in a home larger than 400 square feet (that isn’t packed to the brim with camera equipment). In the photography world, I have friends who are massive industry icons with hefty social media presences. In comparison, I am a virtual nobody. At times, I can feel inadequate compared to them.

Anyone who’s ever decided to strike out on their own, especially those who work in a creative endeavor, have felt this way at some point in their careers. It’s important to acknowledge these feelings, but it’s also important to not let them discourage and distract you from your end goal.

And about that Sony A7R II review:

The camera does exactly what cameras do. It is more similar to the camera you already have than it is different. It’s a nice toy. However, it is highly unlikely that my clients will notice any difference in what I deliver to them. Verdict: buy it if 1) you have enough in your bank account to buy it outright and to cover life expenses for at least three months 2) the differences in this camera compared to yours will result in new business and; 3) it provides greater shooting enjoyment.

Definitely a concise review but, in all fairness, I’ve seen worse.

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Afterword

Like I said in the beginning, it seems time really is flying these days, and without even realizing it we’re almost entering September. I’m excited to see what the Apple event holds in store for us, beyond new iPhone models, of course. The long-rumored new Apple TV, perhaps? Judging by the invitation artwork, it really could be anything.

As for photography, it’s Friday morning as I type this, and I’ve just received the Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens a few minutes ago. I’ve barely had any time to inspect it yet, but suffice it to say I’m just as impressed by its build quality as I was with the 24-70mm zoom. The 55 is considerably smaller and lighter than the zoom, but it feels just as solid and well-built. I really can’t wait to use it more extensively in the coming days.

Alas, that’s going to have to wait. I’m spending the weekend in Valle del Jerte, a beautiful valley near Plasencia, where I expect to visit a really gorgeous set of natural pools called Garganta de los Infiernos. Since the risk of getting the camera wet is fairly high, I’m probably not going to take the A7 II with me, so I won’t be able to really use the 55mm lens until Monday.

If I’m feeling adventurous, though, I may take the E-M10 with the Olympus 17mm lens. I still haven’t decided.

Other than that, on Thursday I visited Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style, an amazing exhibit with many original design mockups, costumes, gadgets and props used in the production of the Bond films.

This is a touring exhibit that’s been displayed in London, Toronto, Shanghai, Melbourne, Moscow and Rotterdam before coming to Madrid. It had been in Madrid since May, but for some reason I hadn’t gone to see it yet. I managed to do it just in the nick of time, because this coming Sunday — tomorrow for most of you — is the final day.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the exhibit, so I had to make do with the amazing Aston Martin DB5 that was on display at the entrance, next to a life-sized figure of Sir Sean Connery himself.

All in all, not a bad experience, and definitely tons of fun for any Bond fans out there. I’m not aware of where the exhibit is going next, but if it’s somewhere near you, I strongly recommend visiting.

And on that note, I’m afraid we’ve reached the end of this week’s issue. I’ll have much more to share with you next week, when I get down to work with the new lens. Until then, have a lovely weekend and, of course, thank you for reading.