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The Widgets-Assortment Edition Thursday, September 17, 2020

Apple Releases iOS And iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, And tvOS 14, by Ryan Christoffel, MacStories

iOS and iPadOS 14 bring a new assortment of widgets, which can now be added to the iPhone’s Home screen for the first time. iPhones now support Picture in Picture when watching videos or making FaceTime calls. Built-in apps are receiving a host of other upgrades too, including new sidebar designs on iPad.

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watchOS 7 introduces sleep tracking, a ton of new watch face options, the ability to share watch faces with others and download them directly from third-party apps, a Shortcuts app, and more.

'Unexpected' iPhone And iPad Update Threatens App Glitches, by James Clayton & Leo Kelion, BBC

Although developers have been able to test their software running under "beta" versions of the new operating systems for months, the final "golden master" versions have only just been released. Some developers have also reported problems trying to rush their products through Apple's app review process to meet the deadline.

For the Mac

Apple Releases Safari 14 For macOS Catalina, Mojave Users, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Among other new additions, Safari 14 delivers customizable start pages, a new Privacy Report feature, and general performance enhancements. The update also squashes several bugs and security vulnerabilities in WebKit, including those related to cross-site scripting attacks and arbitrary code execution.

On Health

Apple Watch’s Blood Oxygen Monitor Is For ‘Wellness,’ Not Medicine, by Nicole Wetsman, The Verge

Normally, a “wellness”-focused feature that offers some information about your oxygen levels could still be useful information and a good party trick. But there are risks to relying on inaccurate blood oxygen metrics, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This disease is weird. Unlike many illnesses, health care workers can’t always trust that a patient’s symptoms will accurately indicate how sick they are. They need help from reliable devices that can help both patients and caregivers get an accurate read on the situation.

Stuff

Evernote’s CEO On The Company’s Long, Tricky Journey To Fix Itself, by David Pierce, Protocol

Small said he understands the stakes, that after a year and a half of promises, Evernote had better deliver. That's why, he said, the new apps are launching now. Not because people are clamoring for them, not because Evernote needs to start getting back some of the momentum it's lost in the last two years. Because it's ready.

Carrot Weather Shines On iOS 14 With 12 Rich Widgets, 25 Apple Watch Complications, More, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

With the debut of iOS 14, the highly popular Carrot Weather is out a major update that brings support for the all-new home screen widgets. There’s also support for multiple complications on Apple Watch with watchOS 7 and a gallery of weather focused watch faces that you can download.

LookUp 7 Debuts Widgets On iPhone And iPad Alongside Powerful New watchOS 7 App, by Ryan Christoffel, MacStories

If you’re interested in expanding your vocabulary, a word of the day widget seems like a perfect fit for the Home screen where you can glance at it throughout the day. That’s exactly what LookUp 7 provides, alongside widgets for running quizzes and opening your word collections.

Notes

Why The New iPad Air Is Great News For The iPad Pro, by Jason Snell, Macworld

Not only is there a cheaper, more powerful iPad with a bunch of features that were previously limited to the highest-end models, but it’s now clear that Apple will need to supply new high-end features to the iPad Pro in short order.

The Reluctant Debut Of The A14 Processor, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

So, for now, what we know is that there’s a new iPad Air, it’s got an A14 processor, that A14 processor is better than the A12 in a bunch of ways and better than the A13 in ways we don’t really know yet. We’ll learn more when the new iPhones are announced, and we’ll presumably learn even more when new iPad Pro models appear with a scaled-up version of the A14.

And as for Macs with Apple silicon? Who knows.

Bottom of the Page

I'm stuck at home. So why do I need a functioning iPhone? No reason at all. And that's why I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 14 in the middle of a work day.

Turns out, I've forgotten something: WhatsApp is not working at all on my Mac while the iPhone is upgrading. Fortunately, there are more than one way to contact others, and there are definitely more than one way to be distrubed by co-workers. :-)

Anyway, now that my phone is upgraded and my work day has ended, it's time to play around with Widgets.

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Thanks for reading.