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The True-APIs Edition Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Apple Plays Privacy Card In Battle With Parental Control Apps, But Offers Few Solutions, by Michael Simon, Macworld

As ex-Apple VP and chief iPod architect Tony Fadell opined on Twitter, “Apple should be building true APIs for Screen Time so the “privacy” concerns are taken into account instead of limiting users App Store choices.” He goes on to say that the API should cover “usage data & controls,” and that Apple should also offer a set of developer tools “to notify users and parents when a new account is created or logins occur.”

Apple Says Aperture Won't Run In Future macOS Versions After Mojave, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

In a new support document, Apple has indicated that its legacy photo editing suite Aperture will not run in future versions of macOS after macOS Mojave. The support document provides users with steps to migrate Aperture libraries to Apple's newer Photos app for Mac or Adobe Lightroom Classic.

Stuff

HomeRun For Apple Watch Lets You Make HomeKit Complications That Change Based On Time Of Day, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

With some scheduling, you can make a single complication slot contextually relevant across the entire day.

Eve Motion, by John R. Delaney, PC Magazine

The Eve Motion is a solid choice if you use Apple's HomeKit platform to control your smart home. It's a breeze to install and can be placed just about anywhere in the house to help you keep track of comings and goings, and it performed well in our tests. You can use HomeKit Scenes and Rules to have the Motion trigger other HomeKit devices such as lights and smart plugs, but you won't be able to access or control the sensor with an Android mobile device, and it won't integrate with other smart devices using IFTTT applets.

Get Organized: How To Kid-Proof Your iPhone Or iPad, by Jill Duffy, PC Magazine

When you let children play with an iPhone or iPad, you can take a few steps to make sure it will be a safe experience for both of you. Children should be able to play games and watch videos, but not accidentally wipe out all your emails, land on a site with adult content, or charge your credit card for App Store purchases. You also want to protect the phone or tablet itself from accidental dings, scratches, and cracks.

When you kid-proof your iPhone or iPad, everyone can have a little more peace of mind about the experience. The settings and options are not in the most logical places in iOS, however, so you'll definitely need some help finding them. Our instructions and recommendations for making your iPhone or iPad safer for children to use can help.

Develop

The Case For Doing Nothing, by Olga Mecking, New York Times

Figure out when you’re most productive and creative, then notice when your mind starts to shut off or you start performing tasks just for the sake of doing them, Mr. Bailey suggests. That’s when you should go for a walk or take a break. The intention behind the decision is what counts.

“I do nothing with purpose,” Mr. Kets de Vries said. “I know that without breaks I cannot be effective.”

Notes

Apple, Enough With The Slow-Ass Chargers, by Catie Keck, Gizmodo

You may not know it, but your iPhone—if an iPhone 8 or later—is capable of much faster charging. The only problem is, Apple doesn’t give you the stuff necessary for it. But a new rumor claims that could be changing, and it should.

Id Software’s Open Source Shooters Get Ported To Apple’s iOS, tvOS, by Kyle Orland, Ars Technica

If you want to take advantage of Kidd's efforts yourself, you can't just download these new ports from the App Store (where the copyrighted code would never pass Apple's checks). Instead, the above-linked articles include links to GitHub projects that you can compile into iOS or tvOS executables. Getting those onto your iDevice means using a Mac with a copy of Xcode and an Apple Developer account, or you can sideload via less scrupulous methods.

How Microsoft Learned From The Past To Redesign Its Future, by Tom Warren, The Verge

These days, Microsoft is all about looking at the big picture — not just where one product needs to go, but how an entire ecosystem of products needs to ship, evolve, and work together over the coming years. While products in the past might have been developed in secret by separate teams, and ended up looking and feeling disparate because of it, Microsoft has scrapped that approach recently. It’s now adopted a philosophy called “open design” that’s about sharing ideas across the company, integrating products, and failing faster. The hope is that it will lead to a better combination of hardware and software that looks like it came from one company and is better for it, too.

This isn’t just about improving Microsoft’s visual design, though. It’s a much deeper change meant to modernize how Microsoft ships software and competes with far more nimble startups that can aggressively go after the many businesses it’s traditionally controlled. A lot is at stake in a technology industry that’s moving faster every year.

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I'm still learning how to get things done. But I've started learning how to do nothing too.

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Thanks for reading.