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The Copy-Transfer Edition Thursday, March 4, 2021

Apple Launches Service For Transferring iCloud Photos And Videos To Google Photos, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

As outlined in an Apple support document, you can go to Apple’s privacy website and sign in to see the “Transfer a copy of your data” option. If you select this and go through all the steps, Apple will transfer your ‌iCloud‌ photos and videos to Google ‌Photos‌.

Apple Confirms It Does Not Hold Your Apple ID Hostage Due To Missed Apple Card Payment, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

The situation arose because the trade-in process was left unresolved, and Apple was following its standard procedures in matters of money owed; this is not anything specific to the Apple Card. When an account is marked as in bad standing, use of Apple ID services is restricted; things like Apple Music or App Store purchases. iCloud is wholly separate and is not disabled at all.

Adoption Is Low For COVID-19 Exposure Apps, Rendering Them Effectively Useless, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

The whole endeavor seems pointless, looking at these numbers. If anything, it might be giving the users of these apps a false sense of security. If you use one of these apps and are exposed to someone who later tests positive, the odds that that person both uses the app and will report their positive test result seem not just low but downright infinitesimal.

Stuff

Coppice: Visual Note-Taking And Research For The Mac, by John Voorhees, MacStories

With its emphasis on pages and text-based linking, Coppice falls closer to the text end of the spectrum but less so than many apps with its excellent canvas view. Ultimately, that’s where Coppice’s strength lies. The ability to toggle between focusing on text pages and the canvas provides two very different ways to organize and think about research and other information.

DoMarks Is A New Bookmarking App With A Cool To-do Twist, by Oliver Haslam, iMore

Where DoMarks differs is the way you tell the app what you need to do with that particular bookmark. You could need to read something, watch something, listen to something, or whatever. And DoMarks will list all of your bookmarks just so.

Twelve South Launches 'HoverBar Duo' Adjustable Stand For iPad And iPhone, by Mitchel Broussard, MacRumors

The accessory has dual functionality: it can sit on a desk as a weighted stand, or you can attach it to a shelf with the included shelf clamp.

Develop

Apple-friendly Debugger Helps Make Apps And Websites Accessible, by Jonny Evans, Computerworld

Evinced is a free Xcode-compatible debugging tool aimed at enterprise IT developers and designed to help identify accessibility problems within apps, websites, and web apps.

Notes

Twitter Isn't Worried About Apple's Big Privacy Change, Says It'll Level The Playing Field, by Salvador Rodriguez, CNBC

"IDFA in a way is going to level the playing field. We're in an industry where many were much better than Twitter historically at leveraging all of the data that was available to them, from the device ID to what people were doing on other websites," Segal said. "When we all have the same set of new challenges that we have to face, leveling the playing field will be a really interesting impact on the broader industry."

Apple Investigated Over 'Unfair' App Store Claims, by BBC

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has launched an investigation into whether Apple's terms for app developers are anti-competitive.

It follows a series of complaints, including a high-profile one from Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite.

Bottom of the Page

I am a little surprised to see Apple providing an export-to-Google service for iCloud Photos. I will have imagine Apple providing a way to allow others to export photos out of Photos on the Mac and call it a day.

But the reality is probably that a lot of iCloud Photos customers probably do not have a Mac. And getting the Photos app on iOS to do exporting is probably not as simple.

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Thanks for reading.