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The Multiple-Data-Points-At-Once Edition Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Apple Offers A Deeper Dive Into Crash Detection, by Brian Heater, TechCrunch

“There’s no silver bullet, in terms of activating crash detection,” says Huang. “It’s hard to say how many of these things have to trigger, because it’s not a straight equation. Depending how fast the traveling speed was earlier, determines what signals we have to see later on, as well. Your speed change, combined with the impact force, combined with the pressure change, combined with the sound level, it’s all a pretty dynamic algorithm.”

The system does, however, need to detect multiple data points at once, so simply dropping the phone in a moving car shouldn’t accidentally trigger the feature.

Apple Releases iOS 16.0.3 With Notification Fixes, Improved Camera Speed On iPhone 14 Pro, More, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple is continuing to fix some of the early bugs affecting iOS 16 as well as the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. The company is now rolling out iOS 16.0.3, which includes additional bug fixes and performance improvements for notifications, the Camera app, and more.

watchOS 9.0.2 For Apple Watch Fixes Microphone Bugs, Spotify Interruptions, More, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

The update, which is now available to Apple Watch users, fixes a number of bugs, including one that affected the microphone on some Apple Watch models and another that could cause interruptions in Spotify’s audio streaming.

Stuff

watchOS 9’s Low Power Mode Could Extend Older Apple Watch Lifespans , by Adam Engst, TidBITS

watchOS 9’s new Low Power Mode has thus been a revelation. It no longer dumbs down Apple’s smartwatch but merely disables some less-necessary features and reduces performance.

iPhone Now Supports 86-year-old Dvorak Keyboard Layout Natively, Delighting Woz, by Benj Edwards, Ars Technica

Tired of QWERTY? Starting with iOS 16—which launched last month—the Apple iPhone now supports the 86-year-old Dvorak keyboard layout natively. Previously, Dvorak typing aficionados needed to install a third-party app to use the layout.

This Clever Bicycle Bell Hides An Apple AirTag, by Thomas Ricker, The Verge

Riding a city bike comes with two certainties: thieves will target you and tourists will walk in your path. AirBell addresses both issues by discretely hiding one of Apple’s AirTag trackers inside a small mechanical bell with a loud and pleasant ding.

Develop

Swift Was Always Going To Be Part Of The OS, by Jordan Rose

Swift was required to be a language that you can define OS libraries in, and that automatically makes a bunch of things harder. This is where that knee-jerk reaction comes from: being an OS library developer is harder than being a third-party library developer (or an OS-internal-only library developer!). But that’s something that should be understood as a trade-off, and it’s valid to weight the sides of the trade-off differently, especially when some of the negatives show up nearly every year given how Apple does things.

Notes

AirTags In Checked Baggage, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

This reads to me, pretty clear, as Lufthansa taking the by-the-book stance that AirTags are not expressly permitted, which is very different from saying AirTags are expressly banned. They’re neither officially allowed nor officially banned. People put all sorts of electronic devices in their checked baggage without removing the batteries.

Oz Apple Store Staff Vote To Strike For Better Pay, Settled Rosters, Clean Shirts, by Simon Sharwood, The Register

The union representing Apple Store workers in Australia has called a strike as part of ongoing negotiations for a new pay and conditions deal.

The strike, agreed to yesterday by members of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU), will see some staff at Australian Apple Stores stop work for an hour on October 18. Union members will also decline to undertake 15 specific tasks including accepting deliveries, installing screen protectors, meeting with Store bosses, or anything to do with arranging contracts with telecommunications carriers.

Bottom of the Page

Once upon a time, when we were still using battery-operated alarm clocks, rather than relying on iPhones as alarm clocks and hope that there weren't bugs introduced to prevent the alarm from going off.... now where was I.... oh yes.... once upon a time, an alarm clock in our luggage simply went off just as my wife and I were clearing customs in an airport.

Fun time.

This was also before airport security went many notches up. So, thankfully, we and the custom staff just laughed it off.

~

Thanks for reading.