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The United-Front Edition Friday, March 4, 2016

An Industry Lines Up Behind Apple, by Joseph Plambeck, New York Times

Dozens of tech companies and organizations on Thursday are expected to file legal briefs in support of Apple’s privacy position. The support will appear like a united front against the government, which is trying to get Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone used by a gunman in the terrorist attack last year in San Bernardino, Calif.

Amicus Briefs In Support Of Apple, by Apple

Tips App On Twitter

Apple Launches Support Account On Twitter With Tips, Tricks, And Customer Service, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple today created an official Twitter support account to provide customers with tips, tricks, and customer service regarding the company's product and services. One of the account's first tweets shares step-by-step instructions on how to turn lists into checklists in the stock Notes app on iPhone.

The Notes app has some awesome hidden tricks. A favorite of ours: how to turn lists into checklists. #AppleSupport pic.twitter.com/6fdzsRT1i4

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) March 3, 2016

Money Optimization

Why Are Some Classical Works Split Into Multiple Tracks On CDs These Days?, by Kirk McElhearn

If you stream this album and it’s a single track, the record label only gets a fraction of a penny. But if its split into 22 tracks, they get 22 times that fraction.

Stuff

Apple Maps Traffic Data Expands To Singapore And Malaysia, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Generate Relaxing Background Sounds With Noizio, by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS

What sets Noizio apart is that you can combine multiple options into a personalized mixture, even blending the different sounds at different sound levels. It’s easy to save and switch between these soundscapes.

App Review: New Tools To Help You Look Forward To That Next Vacation, by ELizabeth Chang, Washington Post

The holidays (and perhaps your most recent vacation) are a distant memory, and unbroken weeks of work and late-winter weather stretch before you. Now’s the time to pep yourself up by planning your next escape, and here are a couple of new apps to help you do that.

MiniTool Data Mac Recovery 3.0 Review: Tool With Unique Features, UI Quirks, by Chris Barylick, Macworld

MiniTool Data Recovery’s positives outweigh its negatives and this is definitely a tool worth considering if you’re a techie tasked with recovering someone’s precious and irreplaceable data. The program offers some powerful new features to the usual mix of data recovery programs, although its could stand a few more rounds through QA to work out its kinks and rough edges. Still, this offers some interesting new features that make it worth considering as an addition to your techie arsenal.

YouTube Creator Studio Updated With The Ability To Watch Videos Directly In App, by Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac

Develop

App Store Shifts To Updating ‘Best New Apps’ More Often Under Phil Schiller’s Leadership, Calls It Place ‘To Visit Every Day’, by Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac

Schiller is now in charge of all App Stores, taking over responsibilities from Eddy Cue, which most prominently include the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store.

It’s been less than three months since the move occurred, but we’re already beginning to see a change in the way the App Store operates. For example, we’re now seeing more regular updates of the Best New Apps section at the top of the App Store’s Featured page. In a tweet today, Schiller acknowledged the changes and indicated that more changes were on the way.

Colors, by Dim Sum Thinking

Syntax coloring is there to help us while we code. It helps us focus. It helps us ignore what isn't of interest to us. It helps us get our work done.

None of this is true while we read a book or watch a conference presentation.

Swift Evolution Acceptances: The Big Three, by Erica Sadun

Notes

How SnapChat Built A Business By Confusing Olds, by Max Chafkin and Sarah Frier, Bloomberg

Compared with Twitter or Facebook, Snapchat can seem almost aggressively user-unfriendly. If you’re new to the app and looking for posts by your kid, your boyfriend, or DJ Khaled, good luck. It’s hard to find somebody without knowing his or her screen name. This is by design. “We’ve made it very hard for parents to embarrass their children,” Spiegel said at a conference in January. “It’s much more for sharing personal moments than it is about this public display.”

Harvard Researchers Discovered The One Thing Everyone Needs For Happier, Healthier Lives, by Colby Itkowitz, Washington Post

Those satisfied in their relationships were happier and healthier. It was that simple.

Bottom of the Page

I am enjoying the Noizio app while typing this very sentence, imagining I am at the seaside, listening to the waves coming in and the rain pouring down, while wind chimes softly play music in the distance.

~

Thanks for reading.