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The Visiting-Steve-Jobs Edition Friday, September 1, 2017

Apple Will Hold Its iPhone Event On September 12, by Valentina Palladino, Ars Technica

"Let's meet at our place" is the greeting on Apple's invite to its fall event, which lands on September 12 this year. The presentation will be held in the newly constructed Steve Jobs Theater at Apple's new Cupertino headquarters. The theater was specifically designed to host Apple events, and what better way to christen the new space with what is expected to be a big iPhone debut.

It's Official: Apple Event Sept. 12 At Apple Park, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

This is the first Apple Event invitation to feature an automated ticket workflow. The invitation email features a click-to-RSVP link that leads to an RSVP page that, in turn, generates an Apple Wallet ticket complete with barcode.

Windowing Tasks

Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors, by Cory House, Hacker Noon

With a single screen, I eliminate decisions. I don’t waste time deciding where to drag windows or fiddling with where to place a given window. I maximize the app I’m working with to block out all other distractions…and get to work.

Open Internet

Apple Defends The Open Internet In A Letter To The FCC, by Taylor Hatmaker, TechCrunch

In a letter to the FCC, Apple’s U.S. Vice President for Public Policy Cynthia Hogan advocates for the open internet, cautioning against practices that would allow providers to favor some forms of traffic while throttling the speed of others.

“Broadband providers should not block, throttle, or otherwise discriminate against lawful websites and services. Far from new, this has been a foundational principle of the FCC’s approach to net neutrality for over a decade. Providers of online goods and services need assurance that they will be able to reliably reach their customers without interference from the underlying broadband provider,” the letter argues.

Apple's Real Reason For Finally Joining The Net Neutrality Fight, by Klint Finley, Wired

The real significance of Apple's filing is what it says about the company's future. The company has long aspired to be more than just a hardware company, and now that Apple is in the streaming video business, net neutrality will become increasingly important to the company's bottom line.

Nazis And White Supremacists Are No Longer Welcome On The Internet. So They’re Building Their Own., by April Glaser, Slate

What’s new about that latest group of bans is that, rather than Facebook, OkCupid, or Airbnb revoking individual and group accounts, the internet’s gatekeepers are now kicking out whole organizations. The Gab removal, for instance, made an entire platform essentially unavailable to Android app users (Apple had already rejected Gab). Though Gab is still accessible through web browsers, a social media startup without an iPhone or Android app has a massive disadvantage. But Gab already had a plan in motion.

Tech Companies Are Cracking Down On Hate Speech, by Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica

There's an obvious tension here with conservatives' traditional skepticism of public utility regulation on the Internet. And we're a long way from Congressional Republicans considering legislation to regulate Google or other technology giants. But ideological movements sometimes change their views over time, and murmurs are out there from the right.

Policing hate speech seems unavoidable, at least for user-facing platforms where hate speech could drive away users and advertisers. But there's a real danger to tech companies that they could come to be seen as partisans in the culture wars rather than ideologically neutral platform providers. So they need to think carefully about how they do it.

Stuff

Sandisk iXpand Base Backs Up iPhone Photos While Recharging, by Michael Zhang, Petapixel

The iXpand Base is a palm-sized platform that’s topped with soft rubber to set your phone on while it’s connected. When you plug in a Lightning to USB cable to connect the device with your phone, it automatically backs up your photos, videos, and contacts while fast charging the battery at 15W.

Weather Atlas: Weather Mapping For A Modern Day, by Ryan Christoffel, MacStories

Weather Atlas distinguishes itself by combining extensive weather mapping with basic weather data and presenting both in a beautiful, modern design.

With atWork On Your iPhone, Tracking Your Work Hours Is Simple And Comprehensive, by AppAdvice

You will need to spend some time setting up the app, customizing it to the type of work you do and the projects and tasks you complete. If you are a freelancer, you can also specify various clients you work for.

Once you have done the initial legwork of setting up your clients, projects, tasks, and pay rates, it’s time to start tracking those hours worked.

Dropbox Dropping Support For Older Operating Systems, by Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS

Dropbox has begun notifying users of its service to inform them that as of 16 January 2018 it will automatically sign out any computers running certain older operating systems. The Mac systems include those running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard through 10.8 Mountain Lion; Windows Vista systems will also lose desktop support on that date. Not that it matters much, but you won’t be able to download or install the Dropbox desktop app on those systems after 3 November 2017.

The Star Wars Jedi Challenge Is AR-awesome And All I Want Is More, by Derek Kessler, iMore

The Jedi Challenge is a multi-part system built around your phone (iPhone or Android, Lenovo's not picky). Your phone serves as the processing unit and display, oriented facing down over your eyes and reflected into your eyes off an angled transparent pane. The headset in which your phone is slotted is more than just a holder for the phone — it has a pair of fisheye cameras on either temple which pick up the light on the end of the lightsaber hilt (styled after the Skywalker family blade, naturally) and light on the floor slightly larger than a golf ball. The lightsaber also has motion tracking built in and communicates to the headset via Bluetooth, and the headset relays all of this positional data to your phone via a wired connection (cables are included to connect to Micro-USB, USB-C, and Lightning-equipped phones).

Develop

Apple Updates iTunes Affiliate Program With New iTunes Store Credit Payment Option, by Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider

Apple on Thursday announced a change to its iTunes Affiliate program, allowing members to receive commissions in the form of iTunes Store Credit instead of direct bank account deposits.

Why I Hate Your Single Page App, by Stefan Tilkov, Free Code Camp

Maybe your single page app is different, but the ones that I know break most of my browser’s features, such as the back and forward buttons, page refresh, bookmarking, sending a link, or opening a link in a new window or tab. They offer no way to link to something that I look at. (Oh, I know there are exceptions to this rule, but they typically require effort — a lot more than many developers are prepared to invest). They are bloated and slow to load, even though the actual information they display and the interaction they offer is very simple.

Am I just an old, grumpy guy? Yes, but that’s beside the point. My point is that from an architectural perspective, most single page apps are the result of making the wrong choices and missing important opportunities.

Notes

Apple's Localization Problem, by Andrew Marinov

It seems that Apple has a lot of ground to make up and the best way to start would be at the core. Apple’s not as popular as Android in developing countries and Europe and a lot of that can be attributed to the lack of language support and feature exclusivity for a lot of its main features.

Apple Eyes Iconic Studio As Base For Hollywood Production Push, by Matthew Garrahan, Financial Times

The iPhone maker is in discussions to move its original content division to The Culver Studios, whose former owners include RKO, Howard Hughes and Cecil B DeMille.

Apple’s interest in a studio which has been central to Hollywood moviemaking for close to a century, comes amid an intensifying Silicon Valley battle for the best movie scripts and television projects.

Apple, Google & Other Tech Companies Urge Trump Not To Deport ‘The Dreamers’, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

Apple is one of around 300 businesses signing an open letter to President Trump urging him not to deport those young adults nick-named ‘the Dreamers’ – first brought to the U.S. illegally as children, but now registered, working and paying taxes.

Bottom of the Page

Whatever Apple's reason may be, I'm just glad that Apple is for an open internet.

And I hope that Apple will continue to work on its sandboxing and security technology on all its operating systems, so that, one fine day, we will not need Apple to maintain a walled garden just to ensure we have our security and privacy.

~

Thanks for reading.