Federighi says that for Apple’s tech, static examples weren’t enough. They needed to see the strokes that formed each letter. “If you understand the strokes and how the strokes went down, that can be used to disambiguate what was being written.”
That dynamic understanding of how people write means Apple’s software can reliably know what you’re writing as you’re writing it, but combined with data on a language’s syntax, the iPad can also predict what stroke or character or word you’ll write next.
“I have always seen technology as an opportunity to push humankind forward…technology empowers people,” says Jackson. “I think we see somewhat indirectly exactly that in the moments of Black Lives Matter and in the moment the recent spate of murders…All of the sudden technology enabled that moment in a very real way for young Americans because it was on the phone right in front of them… It’s that moment of being confronted with your own racism that hopefully inspires change and whether that’s change on climate, whether that’s change on environmental justice, whether it’s change on accessibility for [disabled people]–all of those are opportunities for technology. And shame on us if we don’t take them.
Apple confirmed the news to The Verge and said that collecting a fee from apps offering services that take place outside the app itself is a long-held App Store policy. Since the pandemic hit and more businesses have started selling virtual events, the iPhone maker has had similar disagreements with other firms. Facebook is not the first company it’s waived fees for until the end of the year, and Apple says it’s also done the same with Airbnb and ClassPass.
While some developers are upset with the Apple Store rejections, profiteers have figured out that they can make a fortune while abiding by the existing rules. These rules allow behaviors that are in either poor taste, or explicitly manipulating the psyche of the user.
Taken as a whole, the Series 6 isn’t a huge leap forward over the Series 5 — and not really worth the upgrade for those who already own that recent vintage. But there are nice improvements throughout, augmented by good upgrades to watchOS that make the best-selling smartwatch that much better, while clearly laying the groundwork for Apple Watches of the future.
Digital coloring books, which you can use on your smartphone or tablet, have everything I wanted to love about the adult coloring book craze with none of the roadblocks: They’re mindless, they’re meditative, they’re pretty, they’re nostalgic.
Some help track your tossing and turning patterns while others promise to lull you out of insomnia via soothing sounds, but all maintain the same underlying goal: Better sleep.
Apparently, Facebook has been trying to convince Apple to let users swap the default messaging app to Messenger for years. Now that iOS 14 lets users select alternative web browser and email apps, Facebook is renewing its Messenger push.
Windows developers appear to have used the theme as a placeholder to build the theme engine for Windows XP. The theme itself is described as a “Whistler skin with eye candy,” and marked as “for internal use only.”
In Windows, the user-interface that I hate most is the Alt key. An accidental touch of the Alt key -- a modifier key, no less -- while typing means you lose focus on whatever text input you are on, and the keyboard focus shifts to the menu bar. Any further keystrokes will henceforth activate random menu items.
In iOS 14, the user-interface that I currently hate most: accidental invocation of jiggle mode, when my finger stayed too long on the empty space in the home screen.
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Thanks for reading.