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The Frustration-and-Skepticism Edition Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Apple Takes A (Cautious) Stand Against Opening A Killer’s iPhones, by Jack Nicas, New York Times

Executives at Apple have been surprised by the case’s quick escalation, said people familiar with the company who were not authorized to speak publicly. And there is frustration and skepticism among some on the Apple team working on the issue that the Justice Department hasn’t spent enough time trying to get into the iPhones with third-party tools, said one person with knowledge of the matter.

[...]

This time, Apple is facing off against the Trump administration, which has been unpredictable. The stakes are high for Mr. Cook, who has built an unusual alliance with President Trump that has helped Apple largely avoid damaging tariffs in the trade war with China. That relationship will now be tested as Mr. Cook confronts Mr. Barr, one of the president’s closest allies.

Stuff

Apple’s Rack Mountable Mac Pro Is Now Available For Purchase For $6499, by Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac

The unit, which features the same build to order components as the regular Mac Pro, features rack mounting rails that ship in a separate box.

AirPods Pro 2C54 Firmware: Worse Noise Canceling, Improved Frequency Response And Bass Accuracy, by MacRumors

RTINGS published its findings today and does confirm that the 2C54 objectively worsens the AirPods Pro active noise canceling feature.

Nomad Unveils Base Station Stand Charger With Leather + Aluminum Design, AirPods Support, More, by 9to5Mac

One of the key standout features of the Nomad Base Station Stand is support for wirelessly charging AirPods and AirPods Pro. Many stands aren’t capable charging AirPods because they only feature one charging coil, located in the center. The Nomad Base Station Stand features two wireless coils, each offering up to 10W of power.

Develop

Apple Releases Xcode 11.3.1 Update For Developers, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

This week’s update features overall improvements and bug fixes, including enhancements to compile Swift files.

Many Games Are Held Together By Duct Tape, by Patricia Hernandez, Polygon

“Games aren’t just an ordinary piece of software, they are a complex beast that require many different disciplines to successfully ship, and often on timelines that require sacrifices to be made,” said game developer James Simpson in an email. “I know many developers get bent out of shape trying to make their code perfect. Open source code like this makes it clear that you can successfully ship without that level of perfection.”

Notes

The Unofficial Apple Archive Is On A Mission To Save Apple History And Inspire New Creators, by Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac

“The whole project began for me when the EveryAppleAds YouTube channel was taken down in April 2017,” Sam says. “I was away in Massachusetts at the time, so I just started by going on YouTube and typing in “apple commercial 1976,” downloading whatever I could, and stuffing the videos in an iCloud Drive folder. I only had a hundred or so videos when I started up a YouTube channel. I think it remained up for a whopping six days before my channel was abruptly removed without a trace. Had it remained up on YouTube, I think I would’ve neglected the archive a lot more than I have.”

Bottom of the Page

I'm looking at all the old iMac advertisements -- the CRT version of the iMac -- and I was thinking: all that empty wasted space inside the case!

:-)

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Thanks for reading.