According to the media invitations, Apple will be honoring its "favorite apps and games of 2019." There is no word on just what that means, and as Apple has never held a similar event, we don't know what to expect. Apple does, however, always share its year-end favorite apps and games, during the first few days of December, so it sounds like this year, the content will be unveiled during a full event and awards ceremony.
The update this week fixes problems users have encountered with search in the Mail, Files, and Notes apps. It also addresses a bug with attachments in Messages, an issue that stopped apps from downloading properly, and another with Exchange accounts under Mail that has frustrated many users.
Popular podcast player Castro is out today with a great update with the headlining feature of Watch Streaming. Watch Sync is also new which loads your favorite podcasts on your Apple Watch both automatically and with a manual option to give customers several ways to listen even when away from iPhone.
Perhaps more interestingly, though, Microsoft has also added natural language processing to the entry bar, and that feature is exclusive to iOS for now. This means that, if you write down a task include words like "tomorrow" or "tonight", To Do will automatically be able to choose a due date and reminder times for that task.
What this means is that in the Amazon Music app for iOS, you can now listen to a “selection of top playlists and thousands of stations for free.” You no longer need have an Echo device or an Amazon Prime subscription to do so, but these stations and playlists will be supported with advertisements.
The bolt-on lens manufacturer Olloclip has released a new range of protective cases and one-piece clip lenses for Apple's latest iPhones, bringing them a new macro feature plus extra stability.
This is not an Apple thing: every PM will tell you, Keynote/PowerPoint is a key tool in their arsenal. But it’s broader than PM. In fact, in any job where you need to share results, onboard people on a project/pitch a feature, etc. you will likely “present a deck” at some point.
But Apple is quite “specific” about the slide deck exercise. It came from the top of course — Steve Jobs’ keynotes are widely considered the best presentations in the industry — and it distilled into the organization as a set of expectations and techniques.
One of the new features in the Apple Developer app is the ability for developers in the US to enroll in the Apple Developer Program directly within the app. Apple says the new feature will be coming to new territories soon.
Unveiled at the 2019 Claris Developers' Conference, Claris Connect is going to be a service built around integrating different workflows for small to medium-sized businesses.
Most of the reporting about the new keyboard has been qualified by some variety of, “I really like this change, but we’ll have to wait and see if it is more reliable.” If you look at MacBook reviews in years past, before the butterfly keyboard, there are no such qualifications. This whole mess over the butterfly keyboard has cost Apple a degree of trust and it is going to take some time for them to recover.
What should be restricted, though, is leveraging a win in one area into dominance in another: that means Apple winning in smartphones should not mean it gets to own digital payments, and inventing the App Store does not mean it gets 30% of all digital goods (or be allowed to diminish the user experience of its competitors). Apple Pay and App Store payment processing should win because they are better — which can include being the default! — not because they are a point of integration that has curdled into monopoly-type behavior that results in worse outcomes for everyone.
This media event is… well… interesting. Will the winners bring home Mac Pros? Will Apple announce anything new? Will the stars of Apple TV+ be presenting awards?
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