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The iPhone-Silhouette Edition Friday, September 15, 2017

Apple Is Turning A Design Quirk Into The iPhone X’s Defining Feature, by Vlad Savov, The Verge

Apple’s awareness of the importance of the iPhone silhouette is signaled on the company’s own website. It uses that shape as an asset and identifier for its devices when it sells them. The company, widely recognized for being the best at marketing its products, is now giving the world another universally recognizable feature (and an amusing pun) in its top-notch design. Even on the most minimalist iPhone that Apple has ever designed, there’s a little departure from the norm to give it a signature Apple look.

Apple’s iPhone X Notch Is An Odd Design Choice, by Tom Warren, The Verge

Apple’s design choice looks ugly thanks to the permanent notch at the top, but its decision to embrace it should also encourage developers to do the same and offer more unique ways to handle the display.

The iPhone Event

Steve Jobs’ Legacy & The iPhone X, by Om Malik

The FaceID is a perfect illustration of Apple’s not so secret “secret sauce” — a perfect symbiosis of silicon, physical hardware, software, and designing for delight. Their abilities to turn complex technologies into a magical moment is predicated on this harmonious marriage of needs.

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The iPhone represented a fresh start for the company — and Steve Jobs, had learned his lessons well. Don’t depend on a third party to be enabler of your key innovations and capabilities. I have written about the critical need for vertical integration for today’s giants in the past.

Thoughts And Observations On The Products Announced At This Week’s iPhone X Introductory Event, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

It’s the front-facing equivalent of the camera bump. It offends me because it’s not just imperfect but glaringly, deliberately imperfect. But — again, exactly as with the bump — I understand why it’s there. I don’t like it but it wouldn’t keep me from buying the phone.

When using an iPhone X (again, based on a severely limited amount of time) the notch seems less noticeable than when looking at promotional photos of it. But that’s in portrait orientation. In landscape, the notch looks like a joke. I think Jony Ive either lost a bet or lost his mind. It looks silly, and to pretend otherwise is nonsense. I’m OK with this because I never use my phone in landscape other than when using the camera, watching videos, looking at photos, or playing games. But this looks just awful.

Gripping Buttons On Both Sides Of iPhone X Disables Face ID, Recognition Works With Most Sunglasses, by Neil Hughes, AppleInsider

"There are two mitigations: if you don't stare at the phone, it won't unlock," Federighi said. "Also, if you grip the buttons on both sides of the phone when you hand it over, it will temporarily disable Face ID."

Krimbel also asked if Face ID will work with sunglasses, and Federighi explained that "most" but not all will not interfere with the biometric unlock mechanism.

The Slimmer iTunes, Now With 4K

4K HDR Content Rolling Out On iTunes Ahead Of Apple TV 4K Launch, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

4K movies are denoted by a new "4K" and "Dolby Vision" tags visible in the iTunes Store and in the TV app on iOS devices, Macs, and the Apple TV. 4K content is not universally displaying across all devices just yet, but it should be rolling out fully soon.

How Developers Will Suffer From The Removal Of The App Store From iTunes, by Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville

In fact what happens after that click is interesting. The user’s web browser opens a web page which displays a message, above a spinning gear, that says Opening the iTunes Store. The browser eventually redirects to iTunes, which redirects back to the browser displaying a webpage showing information about the app. However, there is no way to purchase an app from this page. And there aren’t even any hints as to how one might go about this, such as suggesting that the user copy the URL and email it to him or herself to be able to access the information about this app on the iOS App Store.

Just Stop Tracking Me

Every Major Advertising Group Is Blasting Apple For Blocking Cookies In The Safari Browser, by Marty Swant, AdWeek

The feature, which is called “Intelligent Tracking Prevention,” limits how advertisers and websites can track users across the internet by putting in place a 24-hour limit on ad retargeting.

[...] the groups describe the new standards as “opaque and arbitrary,” warning that the changes could affect the “infrastructure of the modern internet,” which largely relies on consistent standards across websites. The groups say the feature also hurts user experience by making advertising more “generic and less timely and useful.”

Previously: Intelligent Tracking Prevention, by John Wilander, Webkit Blog

The success of the web as a platform relies on user trust. Many users feel that trust is broken when they are being tracked and privacy-sensitive data about their web activity is acquired for purposes that they never agreed to.

WebKit has long included features to reduce tracking. From the very beginning, we’ve defaulted to blocking third-party cookies. Now, we’re building on that. Intelligent Tracking Prevention is a new WebKit feature that reduces cross-site tracking by further limiting cookies and other website data.

The Real Threat

You Are Already Living Inside A Computer, by Ian Bogost, The Atlantic

The real threat of computers isn’t that they might overtake and destroy humanity with their future power and intelligence. It’s that they might remain just as ordinary and impotent as they are today, and yet overtake us anyway.

Stuff

How To Choose A Wireless Charger For An iPhone 8 Or iPhone X, by Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge

Apple will be eventually releasing its own wireless charger, called AirPower, but it’s not set to release until sometime next year. If you want to be able to charge an iPhone 8 or iPhone X sooner, you’ll need a third party alternative.

There are tons of wireless charging options out there in the world, and finding one that’s actually good for your new iPhone can be confusing. So to help you get ready, we’ve put together a guide of what to look for in a wireless charger for your next iPhone.

Bottom of the Page

The next target for the AR team in Apple: make it possible for potential customers to try out Apple Watches on their real wrists, via the Apple Store app.

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Thanks for reading.