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The Largely-Unnoticed Edition Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Major Apps Abandoning Apple Watch, Including Google Maps, Amazon & eBay, by Neil Hughes, AppleInsider

The fact that these high-profile removals have gone largely unnoticed could be a sign that the apps simply were not widely used. In contrast, removing iPad support from an iOS app, for example, would likely be noticed immediately and generate headlines.

It’s Time To Rethink Early Apple Watch Apps, Not Abandon Them, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

There are tools to make better apps for Apple Watch that some high-profile app makers haven’t used yet, and there are possibilities for new apps to exist that haven’t been created yet.

My First 24 Hours With An Apple Watch: A Slightly Cranky Tick-by-tick Diary, by David Gewirtz, ZDNet

It's almost exactly 24 hours since I put on the watch for the first time. My feelings about it are decidedly mixed. I'm definitely not so impressed with it that I'll keep the watch if my project needs aren't met, but my experience of wearing the watch was not nearly as bad as I expected.

App Store Price Increases Mandated By Apple Now In Effect In EU, With New 0.49 Euro Tier, by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

Apple has made good its promises to increase App Store pricing in the European Union, with pricing including a pair of new low-cost tiers in effect since Tuesday morning's refresh.

Here’s Why People Keep Buying Apple Products, by Todd Haselton, CNBC

There's one big reason people buy Apple products: the ecosystem.

People don't buy iPhones by the tens of millions just because they like the hardware, though that's a huge part of it, but because they're tied into an ever-growing, sprawling ecosystem of software and services that allow you to do more with the products if you continue to invest in that ecosystem.

Stuff

Apple Showcases iPhone 7 Plus Portrait Mode Photography In ‘The City’, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Apple has published a new extended video ad called ‘The City’ where it showcases the iPhone 7 Plus and shooting photos with Portrait Mode.

Logitech Launches Slim Folio Keyboard Case With Four-year Battery Life For New 2017 iPad, by Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac

But the most compelling thing about Logitech’s iPad keyboard case is its battery life. Thanks the implementation of power-sipping Bluetooth Low Energy, Logitech states that the unit’s coin cell batteries can last up to four years with two hours of daily usage.

Tynker Teaches Swift To Grade-schoolers For Apple's 'Everyone Can Code' Program, by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

Long-time coding educators Tynker have released a pair of introductory courses in support of Apple's "Everyone Can Code" initiative to help teach younger kids the fundamentals of coding before they get involved with Swift Playgrounds.

Develop

Programming As A Way Of Thinking, by Allen Downey, Scientific American

Programming used to be about translation: expressing ideas in natural language, working with them in math notation, then writing flowcharts and pseudocode, and finally writing a program. Translation was necessary because each language offers different capabilities. Natural language is expressive and readable, pseudocode is more precise, math notation is concise, and code is executable.

But the price of translation is that we are limited to the subset of ideas we can express effectively in each language. Some ideas that are easy to express computationally are awkward to write in math notation, and the symbolic manipulations we do in math are impossible in most programming languages.

The power of modern programming languages is that they are expressive, readable, concise, precise, and executable. That means we can eliminate middleman languages and use one language to explore, learn, teach, and think.

Notes

Tim Cook Auctioning Lunch Meeting At Apple Park For Charity, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Every year Tim Cook and Charitybuzz partner to auction off a lunch meeting with the Apple CEO for charity, and this year there’s a new perk for the highest bidder: a ticket to Apple Park. The campaign is valued at $100,000 to raise money for the RFK Human Rights group, and this year the meeting will take place at Apple’s brand new campus.

“I Begged Him To Come Home”: Breaking The Taboo Around Texting The Dead, by Amelia Tait, New Statesman

In texting her father after he had died, Silvestri is by no means unusual. No official figures exist for the number of people who use technology to message their deceased loved ones, but Sara Lindsay, a professional counsellor, clinical supervisor, and trainer, says it is “more common than we think”.

“I see it as a modern and contemporary part of the grieving process,” she says. “I think in a way it's very similar to visiting a graveside, in that the bereaved are reaching out, particularly in the early days, because it takes a long time for people to process the reality that this person has now gone.”

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I've just had a wonderful dinner...

... and now I'm falling asleep.

~

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