Going into the session already familiar with the prototyping process, I assumed that I wouldn’t learn anything new, and that an hour would be way too much time to cover the topic. By the end, I was secretly hoping for “just five more minutes!” to tweak my icons or try a new layout – I was having a lot of fun! The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil feel like the natural combination for prototyping, too. It makes the most sense to design and preview your apps on the same type of display you’ll be using them on, and I never felt hampered by Keynote’s feature set on iOS.
When the session was over, we were offered the ability to AirDrop the templates we had worked on to our personal devices to continue designing at home. I think it would be fun to see a continuation of the prototyping series with more advanced courses that build on your saved work from earlier programs. My brother told me he wants to try another Today at Apple session.
This year, Apple went a step further, reaching out to the developer community in a new way. WWDC keynotes aren't just for developers. The presentations are also targeted at a broader consumer and media audience, which has felt alienating at times to the developers in the room. It was a small thing, but including cameos by Craig Hockenberry and Jim Dalrymple during the opening video this year and spotlighting developers’ families during the closing video personalized the keynote in a new way. It sent the message that Apple understands the developer community and cares about it.
My favorite keyboard for iPad deployments is the Belkin Lightning keyboard. It’s a wired keyboard, so there is nothing to configure. A student plugs it up and can get to typing. It also includes a stand, so it keeps an iPad at an optimal height. We’ve had them for a couple of years, and I’ve been very happy with them.
A languid pace can produce terrific results because rest allows us to gather our resources. Those long walks and hours pursuing hobbies breed deep reflection and creativity. And midafternoon naps? They’re cognitive gold, as Sara Mednick, a sleep researcher at UC Irvine, has found. “They improve alertness, help consolidate information you learned earlier, and help with emotional regulation,” she says.
Even a bit of procrastinating has its advantages. Being a moderate procrastinator may simply be your mind’s way of demanding more space and time—or of focusing on things that really matter, which may not be Task No. 1 glaring at you balefully from atop your to-do list. (Philosopher John Perry calls this “structured procrastination.”)
What is the acceptable shelf life of a Mac? How old can a model be before it becomes uncouth to sell it as new? I remember when Macs used to get regular, approximately-annual spec bumps. It wasn’t that long ago — maybe five years or so. Has something changed since 2013 that seemingly makes difficult for the Mac to be updated more frequently?
When Apple launched the 2016 MacBook Pro models — the first models with the Touch Bar — members of their executive team spoke with Shara Tibken and Connie Guglielmo of CNet. Schiller mentioned that the new models took a while to be launched because they “didn’t want to just create a speed bump on the MacBook Pro”. I hope that’s not their attitude across the product line. People love spec bumps; it helps customers know that they’re getting the newest model they can, and reassures them that it will last longer.
It feels like the folks at Apple believe that they need to introduce brand new features and top-down redesigns every time they update a Mac. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
All this past week, I've had problems talking. Not in the sense I've lost my voice or having language amnesia, but in the sense of self-doubt. Everytime I finished talking, I started questioning myself on whether I should have said what I have said.
I think I can recover from this bout. I think I have recovered from something similar before. However, meanwhile, I'm keeping quiet.
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Thanks for reading.