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The Screen-Breakages Edition Monday, July 13, 2020

The Real Reason Apple Is Warning Users About MacBook Camera Covers, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet

I spoke to an Apple repair technician, who, on condition of anonymity, gave ZDNet a rundown of the problem.

"What we've been told is that since people have started to work and study from home more, the use of camera covers has gone up dramatically," the repair tech told me. "It makes sense, people are using video more and more, and it can feel intrusive, so being able to slide a cover across the camera offers some privacy even mid-meetings where people might not want to disconnect. But consequently, the number of screen breakages are up. And it's a pretty distinctive screen break -- leaving a glowing white line down the middle of the display -- so we know why it's happened even if people are evasive about how the damage happened."

Apple Music's Dan Adams On Supporting Songwriters And Publishers, by Andre Paine, Music Week

Adams said the new award underlines Apple Music’s support for songwriters.

“We're an artist first company,” he said. “For us, that very much includes the artistry of songwriters – and producers as well – that goes into making a great song. My team was set up to serve those songwriters and their publishers around the world. Our goal is to build creative relationships that deliver new opportunities for them across the Apple ecosystem, and help them understand and engage with us.”

Stuff

Directive Review: Reminder App Designed With Home And Auto Needs In Mind, by J.R. Bookwalter, Macworld

Directive makes it easy to keep track of recurring maintenance tasks that would otherwise clutter up your to-do list app.

Review: The New August Is The Best Wi-Fi Connected HomeKit Smart Lock Around, by Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

DoorSense is great to make sure your door isn't left open, and the August app and Apple Watch app are reliable and feature-rich.

Develop

Hybrid Remote Work Offers The Worst Of Both Worlds, by Sid Sijbrandij, Wired

Success with a remote workforce, hybrid or fully remote, requires operational intentionality. Unquestioningly sticking to systems and processes that made an office-based model successful will doom any remote model to fail.

Notes

I Turned Off Autocorrect On My iPhone And Learned A Terrible Lesson, by Dinu Das, Best Gaming Pro

They know the keyboard’s too small. That they had no actual choice to make it greater. So that they needed to create one thing to make you look — and really feel — barely much less of an fool for having purchased a really intelligent iPhone.

Apple To Announce Q3 2020 Earnings On July 30, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

The quarter began on March 29, just over two weeks after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Apple did not provide guidance for the quarter due to these uncertain times, but analysts expect the company to report revenue of $51.4B on average, down from a record $53.8B in the year-ago quarter.

Apple Taps First $400 Million Of $2.5 Billion California Housing Pledge, by Louis Hansen, San Jose Mercury News

Making a downpayment on its housing pledge, Apple announced Monday it has committed $400 million to affordable housing projects this year across California, including immediate assistance for struggling Bay Area tenants and four, new low-income projects across the region.

The short-term aid and construction projects mark the first installment of the tech giant’s $2.5 billion commitment to address the state’s housing crisis.