MyAppleMenu - Wed, Aug 26, 2015

Wed, Aug 26, 2015The Crappy-Retro-Look Edition

How A Retro Camcorder App Became A Huge iPhone Hit, by David Pierce, Wired

Thomas Worth swears he didn’t expect any of this. He never expected that, 10 days after it launched, VHS Camcorder, his goofy $3.99 video app, would be No. 2 on Apple’s chart for paid apps, second only to Minecraft. Or the torrent of email, tweets, and castigating for an Android version. (It’s coming, by the way.) Most of all, he didn’t expect people to love this crappy retro look as much as he does.

The Apple Watch At Work And Play, by Fraser Speirs

In the time since I got the watch I've been at work, travelled away from home during the summer holidays and am now back to work again for the new term. I was reminded that I wanted to write this when I noticed how dirty my watch had become from my constantly interacting with it during the day.

One of the things about the life and work of a teacher is that, firstly, your day is highly scheduled. There are rarely more than a couple of hours in a working day where your use of time is not dictated to you. The second thing is that you live and die by your management of a hundred small things to do, tell people, collect, hand out, look for or send for.

What Does The OS X Activity Monitor’s “Energy Impact” Actually Measure?, by Nicholas Nethercote

“Energy Impact” is a flawed measure of an application’s power consumption. Nonetheless, it’s what many people use at this moment to evaluate the power consumption of OS X applications, so it’s worth understanding. And if you are an OS X application developer who wants to reduce the “Energy Impact” of your application, it’s clear that it’s best to focus first on reducing wakeup frequency, and then on reducing CPU usage.

Stuff

Apple Updates Logic Pro X And MainStage With Acquired Alchemy Synth, Logic Gains Apple Music Sharing, by Mike Beasley, 9to5Mac

Swift Publisher 4 For Mac Brings A New Look, New Templates, And Photos Support, by Joseph Keller, iMore

VMware Launches Fusion 8 With Windows 10 & OS X El Capitan Support, by Roger Fingas, AppleInsider

Aura Turns Gmail Alerts Into OS X Native Notifications, by Thorin Klosowski, LifeHacker

Develop

When To Avoid Libraries, by Benjamin Sandofsky

At scale, life is easier when you rely on as few third-party libraries as you can get away with. Fortunately, you don’t need that many. That seems odd coming from a web background, but Cocoa is a “batteries included” platform. Out of the box, you’ve got frameworks for animation, networking, persistence, and everything else you need for most apps.

On Scripting, by Brent Simmons, Inessential

The trend toward silos, sandboxing, and highly-controlled experiences is clear.

Notes

Apple Revamps Retail Store Appointment Scheduling With New Look, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple’s combined appointment scheduling service is being referred to as the “Concierge” and is deeply integrated into individual Apple Retail Store pages with today’s update, versus it previously being its own website.

Why Has Apple Broken Its Vow Of Silence?, by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC

This is a company that has delighted in forging its own path, deaf to the day-to-day hubbub of the markets. Perhaps the fact that it now seems to be listening to that noise is what should really worry investors.

Top German Court Rejects Apple Touchscreen Patent Appeal, by Eric Auchard and Peter Maushagen, Reuters

In a statement, the appeals court said it confirmed a ruling by the lower Federal Patent Court that canceled Apple’s German patent, based on the technique’s similarity to a phone released by Swedish company Neonode Inc a year before the iPhone’s 2007 launch.

What's Behind America's Burning Desire To Stick With Tipping At Restaurants?, by Michael McGrath, The Guardian

Many Americans don’t want to let go of tipping because they see it as a step toward socialism, or because they don’t want to lose the power to judge service.

Subway Love, by Max Stossel

Parting Words

They are everywhere! pic.twitter.com/Va5HlHePgB

— SciencePorn (@SciencePorn) August 26, 2015

Thanks for reading.