We still watch silent films and read poems in dead languages. Many artists have struggled to be taken seriously in their own lifetime. But Apple, for some reason, still thinks games have a lifespan shorter than a good pair of shoes. And its repeated purging of the App Store’s treasures is nothing less than cultural vandalism.
It’s a hard problem and I can see the upsides of Apple automating the clearing of truly abandoned apps from the App Store, but it seems like there ought to be a way for developers of not-updated-for-a-while apps and games to just log into Apple’s developer portal and hit a button to vouch that they still work and don’t need an update. Apple could then only cull the apps from developers who didn’t respond.
But if you were expecting a DIY repair to be a way of saving money, then you might be a little disappointed. Apple’s pricing for some of the most common replacement parts is very similar to what it’ll charge you to do the repairs at an Apple Store, even when you’re the one delicately taking your phone apart to swap out a broken part. Only once you factor in the credit you get for sending in a replaced part do you stand to see a more significant saving.
The biggest problem? Apple is doubling down on their parts pairing strategy, enabling only very limited, serial number-authorized repairs. You cannot purchase key parts without a serial number or IMEI. If you use an aftermarket part, there’s an “unable to verify” warning waiting for you. This strategy hamstrings third-party repair with feature loss and scare tactics and could dramatically limit options for recyclers and refurbishers, short-circuiting the circular economy.
Sofa 3.3, the media organizer app for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is out, and the update is all about customization.
With Swift Playgrounds 4, the iPad version of the app received a bunch of new features, such as the ability to upload projects to App Store Connect, live app previews, and more. Now these features are coming to the Mac with version 4.1, which will also let developers create apps from scratch with the tool.
I'm thinking of an art project: just an app that shows the number of seconds it has been deployed on the App Store since the last update without Apple pulling it down. I wonder if Apple will approve such an 'useless' app; "If your app is not particularly useful [...] it doesn't belong on the App Store," reads Apple's guidelines 4.2.
Maybe the art project should just throw in a clock widget and a simple calculator, just in case.
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Thanks for reading.