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The No-Proprietary-Port Edition Monday, November 28, 2016

The New MacBook Pro Is Kind Of Great For Hackers, by Adam Geitgey, Medium

I/O-wise, the new MacBook Pro is possibly the most open device Apple has ever built. There is literally not a single proprietary port on it. You get four universal high-speed ports that can each draw or supply power, send and receive data and transfer video and audio. It’s really pretty neat. [...]

In a year or two when we all have junk drawers packed full of extra generic USB-C cables that cost nearly nothing, we’re going to look back on this and wonder why everyone was so worked up.

The Macintosh Endgame, by Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note

Instead of racing to the bottom as the market plummets, Apple appears to be taking the “high road”, in a sense: They’re taking refuge at the high end of the market by introducing new, more expensive MacBook Pros, with a visible differentiating feature, the Touch Bar. This is known, inelegantly, as milking a declining business, although you shouldn’t expect Apple to put it that way. [...]

In the end, iOS numbers make the decision. For its part, Apple will stay out of the way and let customers — and developers — decide when it’s time to buy the last Mac.

Apple May Have Finally Gotten Too Big For Its Unusual Corporate Structure, by Matthew Yglesias, Vox

If GE can build jet engines, tidal energy farms, freight rail data systems, mining equipment, and medical devices, how is it that the world’s most valuable company can’t find the time to make a full line of personal computers and PC peripherals alongside its market-leading smartphones and tablets? The answer goes back to Apple’s corporate structure, which, though fairly common for a startup, is extremely unusual for an enormous company.

Stuff

Toronto Teen Uses App To Give Visually-impaired A New Look At The World, by Alicja Siekierska, Toronto Star

Tukrel’s iPhone app, iDentifi, allows users to take a photo of virtually any object, and then describes that item in great detail back to the user. People can also take photos of text and have it read back to them, in one of 27 languages. Tukrel hopes it makes every day tasks — like picking out the can of pop you want — easier for people who are visually impaired.

World's First iPhone Camera Sees What You Can't, by Deccan Chronicle

Researchers from VTT Technical Research Centre, Finland, have developed world’s first hyperspectral mobile devices by converting an iPhone camera into a new kind of optical sensor, which will help users to sense food quality or monitoring health.

Notes

Apple’s $1 Billion Plan Hits A Three-Person Roadblock In Ireland, by Dara Doyle and Peter Flanagan, Bloomberg

“This doesn’t just affect Athenry, but it affects Ireland as well,” said Paul Keane, 39, whose family has lived in the area for generations. “If Apple is turned away, what does it say about Ireland? It’s right that we have a fair and open system, but it can’t be dragged out.”

Therapy’s Digital Disconnect, by Alyssa Bereznak, The Ringer

Consider the challenges that digital natives face: It’s likely that they will encounter or have encountered harassment, they may feel guilt or anxiety about logging out of Slack for an evening, and they carry the urgency of the internet on their shoulders, all while maintaining profiles on myriad platforms. Like anything in life, when this set of responsibilities overwhelms your daily routine, it can lead to feelings of estrangement.

As a veteran of therapy and an internet dweller, I can attest. One of my most vivid memories from my three years of treatment was the morning when my therapist — after silently listening to me obsess over the emotional weight of communication via Gchat, iMessage, and Twitter — asked me if I could show her how to open an emailed PDF attachment. But internet-related issues in therapy go far beyond Computer 101 tutorials.

People Are Making Themselves Miserable By Trying Too Hard To Be Happy, by Cindy Lamothe, Quartz

In the wake of global events like Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory, it’s hard for a lot of people to feel happy right now. And according to psychology, we shouldn’t try to fight it.

Bottom of the Page

I wish that I can de-centralize the Dock on my Mac, while I wish that I can centralize the Taskbar on my Windows PC.

It's hard to please even me.

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Thanks for reading.