Fifth Avenue Version 1.0 was, despite its success, an imperfect retail space. The above-ground cube was beautiful, but the there was often a line at the door, because the staircase and the elevator could take only so many people at a time. That was especially true on, say, a holiday-season Saturday, when the store itself reached capacity. Once you made your way in, you were—despite the light coming down through the glass cube—pretty clearly in a subterranean space. Not awful; just kind of basement-like.
The principal changes, in this renovation, address that dramatically. Most significantly, the floor has been lowered and the roof elevated, adding about 8 feet to the ceiling height. (Most of the clearance was reclaimed from a parking garage below.) The newly raised plaza has been perforated with a grid of round skylights that will bring sunlight down into the store. Eighteen of them, which Apple’s people are calling “sky lenses,” have stainless-steel bezels, mirror-finished, and they’re raised above the plaza, sort of like shiny mushrooms. Chris Brathwaite, senior director for Apple retail and design, tells me that they’re meant to foster “sitting, selfies, and reflection,” which seems extremely likely to pan out.
Formerly the third-party app Workflow, Shortcuts was bought by Apple and integrated with iOS last year—but it was a first step. Shortcuts has had a year to spread its roots throughout the operating system, and in iOS 13 it’s been improved and better integrated—with the promise of even more to come in the very near future.
Shortcuts is now included on every iOS 13 devices—it’s not an add-on you have to download from the App Store. Apple has also begun to integrate disparate automation features of iOS and place them all inside Shortcuts. Siri Shortcuts, very simple app-based automations introduced in iOS 12, now live inside the Shortcuts app. And beginning in iOS 13.1, the simple automations that you create in the Home app will also appear in Shortcuts—and can be modified and enhanced with additional features of the Shortcuts app.
The iPad has a chance to be the machine that acts as our podcast editor, writing machine, teaching machine, gaming machine, etc. The adaptability of the iPad is part of its strength. Apple set a vision with iPadOS 13, and while it’s a significant first step toward expanding the capabilities of the iPad, the excitement lies on what is to come with this new vision.
At its event last week, Apple previewed a new version of Filmic Pro running on the iPhone 11 Pro. It was a compelling demo with the app able to record from multiple cameras simultaneously, like recording the front and back camera together, or filming using the new ultra-wide and standard wide cameras for additional coverage.
However, the good news is that simultaneous multi-cam sessions are not only available on the iPhone 11. The feature is also supported by the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and the 2018 iPad Pro.
Wireless charging stands hold your iPhone up so you can easily see the display while the handset is getting power. Belkin has a model that improves on the whole concept: it can charge your device when it’s propped up in either portrait or landscape mode.
If all goes to plan for Apple, this week will be all about the iPhone 11. But Friday’s product launch will come just after fresh headlines about news it would rather people forget — allegations that it dodged taxes and took €13bn of illegal state aid from Ireland in exchange for creating jobs.
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A ruling is expected by the end of next year. But whatever the outcome, the losing party is set to appeal. After that, an appeal is likely to go through the European Court of Justice where the case is expected to take three to four years to reach a conclusion.
I sure hope the new iPadOS Safari will make my life easier with AWS Web Console.
And I sure hope the new Shortcuts app will inspire app developers to support better automation in iOS.
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Thanks for reading.