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The Stable-Iteration Edition Saturday, September 19, 2020

watchOS 7: The MacStories Review, by Alex Guyot, MacStories

watchOS 7 might not be a revolutionary update, but I think it’s just what we needed this year: a clear, solid, and stable iteration. Health and fitness are the Apple Watch’s main selling points, and Apple is continuing to push forward in these important areas. I love seeing Apple pay attention to watch faces as well, and this year has brought some excellent new features there.

Sleep tracking isn’t for me right now, but I think it will work for most people who live on normal sleep schedules. I expect it will loosen up over time too, so I’m looking forward to future iterations.

Everything To Know About The Health Features Of The New Apple Watch, by Shawn Radcliffe, Healthline

Most of the other new features of the Apple Watch Series 6 are aimed at boosting people’s overall health.

Apple Stores Offer Personalized Sizing For Solo Loop Watch Bands, by Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac

While inventory and display selection may vary by location, most Apple Stores now offer a full range of Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop bands to try on. With the pandemic changing the nature of in-store shopping, Apple has simplified Apple Watch Studio, displaying only bands without watch cases in a small number of trays.

Nike Run Club For Apple Watch Gets New Modular Sport Face, New Metrics, And Streaks, by Stephen Warwick, iMore

New features include a new exclusive modular sport face that will offer multiple complications. These include the quick-start button, total monthly miles, and Guided Runs.

Stuff

Inside The Social World Of Shift-Scheduling Apps, by John Herrman, New York Times

While HotSchedules is primarily used for setting work schedules, it also includes email-style messaging that owners, management and employees can use to talk. In many workplaces, this talk is limited to official business and haggling over shifts; in some, HotSchedules becomes a de facto social network.

Streaks 6 Brings Habit Tracking To Your Home Screen With Extensively Customizable Widgets, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Streaks’ widgets serve users well as reminders of their progress towards their goals, helping keep them on track.

Now You Can Put Web Pages Right On Your iOS 14 Home Screen With Glimpse 2, by Oliver Haslam, iMore

The premise is as simple as it sounds. You tell Glimpse 2 which website you want to see and then select the area that you want to appear in a widget. You get to choose between large and small widgets, and that's all there is to it.

Notes

The Untold History Of macOS System Preferences, by Arun Venkatesan

The interface started glassy and skeuomorphic, mimicking the materials used on Macs. Over the decades, it went through significant revisions.

One thing that seems to have remained relatively unchanged over the years is the System Preferences screen.

Tim Cook, Draymond Green Face Off In Apple Watch Challenge, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently engaged in an Apple Watch Activity Challenge with Golden State Warrior forward Draymond Green.

Bottom of the Page

The arrangement of apps and widgets on iOS need more refinements, which I hope will continue to be made in subsequent iOS releases. Even if we continue the limitation of having apps always flow from top-left to bottom-right, there are still certain arrangements that cannot be had today in iOS 14.

And, I think even smaller widgets -- maybe even at the same size as app icons -- can be useful to have. For example, the Clock and Calendar apps have icons that behaved more like widgets in the pre-iOS 14 days, and that was useful. Yes, there may be a concern that users may be confused between apps and widgets if they can come in the same size. But that, it seems to me, is a solvable problem.

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Thanks for reading.