Something has changed for the tech giants. Even as they continue to hold tremendous influence in our daily lives, a growing accountability movement has begun to check their power. Led in large part by tech workers themselves, a movement seeking reform of how these companies do business, treat their employees, and conduct themselves as global citizens has taken on unprecedented momentum, particularly in the past year.
Concerns and anger over tech companies’ impact in the world is nothing new, of course. What’s changed is that workers are increasingly getting organized. Whether writing public letters, marching in protest, filing lawsuits, or unionizing, the labor force that makes the corporate tech world run is finding its voice, demanding a future in which companies do better and are held more responsible for their actions.
In the recently released iOS 15.4 beta, however, it’s clear that Apple is still trying to improve its system and make it more comparable to those other products. In that upcoming release, Apple is adding the ability for users to add notes to password items. That’s a big feature for those who use password managers to securely store items other than passwords—for example, I use Secure Notes in 1Password to keep track of backup recovery codes for accounts, as well as other secure information that doesn’t really fit the “password” template.
With update 25, Ulysses on iPad and iPhone now support third-party font apps like Creative Cloud or iFont. Whether users have these apps installed, they will be able to make use of the provided fonts in the Ulysses editor for writing, which means you can have that specific font you love in all our projects.
This free app makes it possible to open a shared music link you receive in whatever happens to be your favorite streaming app. So, someone could send you a link to a track on Spotify, but if you're one of the many people who has decided to move away from this particular streaming service, you can use MusicMatch to open the track in Tidal, Pandora, YouTube Music or several other alternative services.
Managing your tasks shouldn't be a distraction unto itself. These desk mates let your phone handle the hard stuff.
But I’m tech-savvy and write about gadgets for a living, so surely I have an army of box-toting robots at my behest, right? Not so much. I do, however, have a smartphone and believe it or not, there are several apps that most definitely make moving marginally less annoying and even – dare I say it – enjoyable.
As of February 7, 2022, though, all 20 Apple Stores in France have resumed normal hours. They continue to operate under restrictions intended to minimize the chance of spreading the coronavirus, however.
Now that I am working partially out of my office, here are the six apps that make my work-days a little better:
Todoist, Evernote: To allow my brain to work on things other than trying to remember stuff
Due: To make sure I don't miss any (still) online meetings
Apple Music, Miximum: To shut out distracting noises (either in office or outside my home window)
Audible: To make my (two-days-a-week for now) commute more tolerable
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