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The Heart-of-Business Edition Friday, July 9, 2021

Apple’s Design Guide For Inclusive Technology Is Essential Reading, by Jonny Evans, Computerworld

Apple argues that inclusive apps put people first by “prioritizing respectful communication and presenting content and functionality in ways that everyone can access and understand.” The company explains that inclusivity covers many bases: class, culture, ethnicity, creed, race, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, disabilities, height, shape and so many more considerations that need to be thought about when designing digital experiences.

For developers and anyone else looking to place inclusivity at the heart of their business, Apple’s guide has many useful insights. It's essential reading for anyone developing any form of person-focused content.

I Collected 'Leftover' Food From SF Restaurants And It Fed Me All Week, by Tessa McLean, SFGate

Too Good To Go was born in Denmark and quickly spread to France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands in 2016. Co-founder Lucie Basch said they knew the key to getting restaurants to participate would be to make the process as simple as possible, making the app easy to use and not requiring any upfront commitments. There’s no quota a restaurant has to meet, so they can add food whenever they want and as often as they want.

[...]

For Beacon Coffee & Pantry owner Alexis Liu, it’s a “win-win” for her small business in North Beach. Liu said they almost always have some food items leftover at the end of the day, even if it’s just one bag’s worth of pastries, and she’s happy she doesn’t have to worry about it going to waste anymore. She also said she believes it’s introducing them to new customers who may not have visited the shop before but are now familiar with them and their products.

M1 iPad Pro Review: Why Apple Will Never Put macOS On iPad, by Raymond Wong, Input

It’s remarkable how cogent Jobs’ description of the original iPad was and even more impressive how closely Apple has stuck to it. Sure, iPads have gained new features over the years, especially when it comes to being better for content creation and productivity. But the iPad’s raison d’être as a computing device that fits between a smartphone and laptop has not changed at all in over a decade. There’s no reason to believe Apple wants iPads to be anything more, either.

On App Stores

A New Digital Life, Same Old Problems, by Shira Ovide, New York Times

Stores have long dictated what products appear on their shelves and how aggressively they are promoted to potential shoppers. Apple is doing the virtual equivalent of that for apps. And as Susan (and Apple) points out, conventional stores typically keep a much bigger cut of a product’s retail price than Apple’s commission of up to 30 percent on some app transactions like streaming video subscriptions.

[...]

But I also think those complaints reflect a mismatch of expectations and reality about the internet.

Apple Monopoly Case To Be Heard In Aust, by Australian Associated Press

"This is a case about the Australian App Store, the developers of apps for distribution in that store and the Australian users of iOS devices ... it is a case commenced in Australia in reliance on Australian competition law, involving Australian markets and consumers," the full court said, echoing Justice Perram.

Stuff

Experts Warn Of Drive Failures Impacting Users Of Apple’s AirPort Time Capsules, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

In the Time Capsules, Apple used Seagate Grenada hard drives. These drives are now suffering from an apparent design flaw that is leading to abnormally high failure rates.

He Owns 150 Macs. Now He's Created The One Thing Apple Fans Desperately Need, by Chris Matyszczyk, ZDNet

In his launch video, Hackett explains that despite synching all his events to every device imaginable, "I've really learned over the years the best way to keep my entire household on the same page is a good, old-fashioned wall calendar."

You're still not moved? What if I tell you that it's a 2022 wall calendar that "each month highlights some of Apple's hardware announcements over the years."

Roblox, Explained, by Jay Peters, The Verge

Until recently, though, I didn’t really understand what Roblox actually was, despite the app having been around since 2006. (Just to give you an idea of how long that is in tech years, the App Store for iOS launched in 2008.) So I spent some time in the world of Roblox to help explain what all the fuss is about.

How I Took Control Of My iPhone's Photos App And Freed Up Gigabytes Of Space, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet

What Gemini does is it finds the best photos (you know, the ones that aren't blurry or out of focus or where people have their eyes closed), as well as duplicate photos and screenshots. It also allows you to quickly review videos, which can take up a colossal amount of space.

Transloader 3: A Simple, Versatile Way To Remotely Manage Mac File Downloads From An iPhone Or iPad, by John Voorhees, MacStories

That’s a lot of options for moving and managing files, but where Transloader really shines is with its automation integration.

Develop

Important And Urgent, by David Sparks, MacSparky

I got in the habit of thinking of all critical work as urgent and all unimportant work as not urgent. This mindset led to all sorts of bad habits on my part.

Notes

How Two German Founders Developed Ulysses, by Becca Donaldson, TechRound

The idea to develop a writing app came about when Marcus Fehn, co-founder of Ulysses, needed a professional writing tool himself. Since nothing met his expectations, he decided to create his own solution — together with Max Seelemann, who still was in school when Ulysses was released in 2003. What started as a side project has grown into a successful business over the years: In 2016, the app won the renowned Apple Design Award, an honour for any software developer.

The Strained Relationship Between Apple And Qualcomm, by Marcia Wendorf, Interesting Engineering

Such was the state of affairs until March of this year. That's when chipmaker Qualcomm bought Nuvia for $1.4 billion, and made Williams its new senior vice president of engineering. This gave Qualcomm access to much of the expertise behind the development of the M1 chip.

Then, on July 2, 2021, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon started the 4th of July holiday off with a bang by announcing that, based on Nuvia's technology, his firm was developing a chip to compete with the M1 on their new "flagship smartphones, high-performance ultra portable laptops, and digital cockpits, as well as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, extended reality, and infrastructure networking solutions." The new chip will be released in late 2022.

Bottom of the Page

I may have to stop watching Lisey's Story over at Apple TV+ due to all the bloody stuff.

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Thanks for reading.