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The Photography-Art Edition Thursday, February 22, 2018

Photographer's Notebook: One Woman. One iPhone. One Month., by Jennifer Ring, Creative Loafing

If you are practicing photography as an art form, however, the rules change. Now, suddenly, you can do whatever the hell you feel like doing. If you want, you are perfectly welcome to capture the magical version of events. So let's just say this article is about photography as an art form, and not a report on local events. Violà. The rules have changed.

Why the sudden change in style, you ask? One word: iPhone. iPhone photos are simply better looking and more interesting when they are altered using photography apps on your phone. For the past month, I've been going about my daily life, carrying my iPhone, per usual. But I made it a point to use only my iPhone when taking recreational photos. The goal was to challenge myself and to develop a better knowledge of iPhoneography.

Retailers And Restaurants Turn To Apple Hardware To Improve In-store Sales, by Brian Jackson, IT World Canada

The founder of Well.ca – which was just acquired by Rexall Drug Stores’ parent company McKesson Canada Dec. 4, 2017 – has been working on a new Toronto-based startup for the past four years, called Tulip Retail. It promises to improve the capabilities of frontline store associates, freeing them from the shackles of an analogue register and cash till by replacing them with iPads outfitted with custom software that provides access to store inventory, the ability to make sales on the spot, and a set of tools to boost sales. Sort of like what you might see at the Apple Store.

“When people seek technology to mimic what’s in Apple’s retail store, Tulip is who they turn to,” says Bill Zujewski, executive vice-president of marketing with Tulip. “The big idea is to empower the workers in the store and to help retailers differentiate their brand.”

Same World, Different Emotions

The Evolution Of Alto's Odyssey: A Q&A With Team Alto, by Serenity Caldwell , Luke Filipowicz, iMore

And all the while, Team Alto dreamed of the next step for their fictional snowboard rebels. As Harry Nesbitt, Team Alto's lead artist and programmer told us: "We don't see Alto's Odyssey as a sequel. None of the way we've thought about making the game was approaching it as a sequel. We're not seeking to one-up the first game, but rather we're trying to create another game set in the same world that taps into a different set of emotions."

Alto’s Odyssey Review: Desert Tranquility, by Federico Viticci, MacStories

Alto's Odyssey strikes an ideal balance of maintaining the formula of its predecessor while evolving and daring to leap towards unexpected, beautiful heights. Ultimately, this is what makes Alto's Odyssey a better game, a more fun challenge, and a calm desert you'll want to get lost in over and over again.

Stuff

Things 3.4 Brings Powerful New Automation Features And App Integrations, by Federico Viticci, MacStories

The new Things URL scheme, which has been documented here, lets you create tasks, projects, show specific sections of the app, and search across your entire Things database. This may not sound too impressive on paper, but what sets this feature apart is the level of customization and detail that can be applied to every single parameter of every action. As a result, Things is now a first-class citizen of the iOS automation scene, and, within the limitations of iOS inter-app communication, its URL scheme unlocks several new possible integrations with apps and workflows.

Netgear's 'Arlo Baby' Smart Cameras Now Offer HomeKit Support, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

To connect the Arlo Baby camera to a HomeKit setup, Arlo Baby owners will need to download the update and then toggle on the HomeKit option in the Settings section of the Arlo app.

This App Can Type Every Unicode Character Ever On Your iPhone, by Charlie Sorrel, Cult of Mac

UniChar lets you find and insert symbols in several ways. One is to fire up the app and scroll through page after page of symbols, before tapping it to insert it into an in-app text field, or long-pressing to copy it to your clipboard (as a symbol, as a Unicode code, or as HTML). You can also search for a symbol using a standard search box, and typing in the name, or a description of the symbol you want.

Develop

Apple Updates Human Interface Guidelines With New Details & Tips For ARKit, by Chance Miller 9to5Mac

Apple today has updated its Human Interface Guidelines for augmented reality to reflect the new features introduced in ARKit 1.5, which comes as part of iOS 11.3. The new guidelines cover things such as support for vertical surfaces, objects that are placed offscreen, and more.

This Design Generation Has Failed, by Suzanne LaBarre, Fast Company

And that’s when I decided that we — and by we I mean those of us currently drawing paychecks for professional design services — are design’s lost generation. We are the Family Ties-era Michael J. Fox of the design lineage. Raised by hippies. Consumed by greed. Ruled by the hand of the market. And nourished by the last drops of sour milk from the withered old teat of capitalism gone rabid. Living where America ends — Silicon Valley.

We are slouching toward Sand Hill Road. We are slouching toward another round of funding. We are slouching toward market share. We are slouching toward entrepreneurship. And ultimately, we are slouching toward irrelevance. If we are lucky. Because the longer we stick around, the more we’re leaving for the next generation to clean up. And we’ve given them quite a bit of job security as it is.

We are slouching because we were born without spines. When society desperately needed us to be born with them.

Notes

Why Apple Is The World’s Most Innovative Company, by Robert Safian, Fast Company

"There is more noise in the world than change. One of my roles is to try to block the noise from the people who are really doing the work. That’s tougher and tougher in this environment. The priorities are about saying no to a bunch of great ideas. We can do more things than we used to do because we’re a bit bigger. But in the scheme of things versus our revenue, we’re doing very few things. I mean, you could put every product we’re making on this table, to put it in perspective. I doubt anybody that is anywhere near our revenue could say that."

"You have to make sure that you’re focused on the thing that matters. And we do that fair­­ly well. I worked at a company a while back, many years ago, where every hallway you go in, you would see their stock price being monitored. You will not find that here. And not because you can get it on your iPhone."

Apple Plans Upgrades To Popular AirPods Headphones, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The model coming as early as this year will let people summon Apple’s Siri digital assistant without physically tapping the headphones by saying "Hey Siri." The function will work similarly to how a user activates Siri on an iPhone or a HomePod speaker hands-free.

Bottom of the Page

Things I am having trouble with:

1) The iPhone X is the first iOS device that I use that features 3D-touch, so I'm not sure if this problem will go away with practice, but I cannot reliably do a 3D-touch 100% of the time. Some of my 3D-touches on the home screen ended up being a long-press, and the icons started wriggling, and I have to cancel out of that mode, while grumbing under my breath.

2) I do remember that I should pull down from the top-right corner to get to Control Center. The trouble I am having is that I often tried to pull down from the top-right corner too to get to my notifications (when it should be pulling down from top-left corner). Overcompensation?

3) Sometimes, the camera or the flashlight get activated while the phone is in my pocket. And, today, the podcast queue that I was listening to somehow started playing too while the phone is in my pocket. (The volume was off, so I didn't notice.) After I discover this, I have to go into my podcast app to 'un-listen' the few episodes to get them back into the queue. I am so tempted to go buy the wallet-style iPhone case now to solve this phone-in-pocket problem (hopefully).

~

Thanks for reading.