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The Valuable-Garden Edition Thursday, December 22, 2022

Why You Saw More Ads On Your iPhone In 2022, by Sara Morrison, Vox

It’s not hard to see a near future in which Apple expands ads to other properties, like Podcasts, Music, Books, and Fitness. Maybe it can squeeze a few on the Calculator app. Math needs to advertise, too. Apple could even start using your notifications to send ads, which other companies already do. Apple does, too, if you consider those free trials promoting its Music, Arcade, and TV services to be ads.

For now, Apple hasn’t confirmed that it will do any of this. The company doesn’t, as a rule, comment on potential future projects. But what it has done is put out job listings that indicate it’s going to expand its ad business significantly. Apple is looking for people to build a demand side platform, which automates the process of buying ads and is necessary for a digital ad business to scale. In sum, Apple has a valuable walled garden of data, apps, and devices, and it seems poised to profit from it.

Apple Pulls iOS 16.2 Option To Upgrade To New Home Architecture, by Eric Slivka, MacRumors

Upgrading the Home architecture requires that all devices accessing the home be updated to the latest operating system version, so many users have yet to take the leap, but users who have upgraded have reported some issues. Amidst those reports, it now appears Apple has removed the option for users to upgrade their Home app architecture.

iPhone 14 Horizontal Lines Upon Waking? It's Not A Hardware Fault, Says Apple, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

If you’ve found your iPhone 14 showing horizontal lines across the screen when waking from sleep or starting up, Apple says you can rest easy: It’s not a hardware issue.

The glitch – which mostly appears to affect the iPhone 14 Pro Max – is apparently a software issue, so it’s just a question of waiting for an iOS update to fix it.

Stuff

Your iPhone Now Has New Shortcuts For Books And iOS Wallpapers, by Stephen Warwick, iMore

New actions for Books include Shortcuts to; Open Book, Play Audiobook, Change Book Appearance, Change Page Navigation, Change View in Books, Open Collection, Search in Books, and Turn Page.

DaVinci Resolve For iPadOS Just Dropped, And Now The iPad Is A Real Computer, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

When it comes to available features, DaVinci Resolve on the iPad offers virtually the same tools that users can find in the desktop version. This includes Cut Page, Source Tape, Fast Review, Sync Bin, and more. There are also options to adjust the contrast, temperature, midtones, and saturation of videos, not to mention 3D trackers and HDR support.

Pixelmator Pro Update Adds New 'Deband' Feature To Remove Color Banding From Photos, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Named “Deband,” this feature removes the effect known as “color banding” from photos using machine learning, which should make images look even more beautiful and natural.

Adonit Log Review: A Unique Stylus Replacement For Your iPad, by https://www.creativebloq.com/reviews/adonit-log-review-a-unique-stylus-replacement-for-your-ipad, Creative Bloq

The Adonit Log is a simple product. With no pressure sensitivity, the most important features are comfort and connectivity. The Adonit Log excels in both of these areas, but understandably there aren't any standout features because of this.

Birda Founders Describe Their Expansive Birding App, by Matt Mendenhall, BirdWatching

A relative new birding app for Apple and Android phones offers a social-media-like experience focused entirely on birds. Birda, which recently became available in the United States, allows users to log their bird sightings via a user-friendly interface, keep lists, and interact with other birdwatchers.

I recently interviewed John and Natalie White, the app’s co-founders. They first launched a website and mobile app in 2013 for users to share wildlife sightings in southern Africa. In 2018, they began a global birdwatching community called Chirp Birding, which has now evolved into Birda.

Develop

Atomic Thoughts, by Matt Gemmell

Keeping track of our thoughts in that regard can be tricky, but there’s a single principle which will absolutely make it easier: that of atomicity. A thought has to be graspable in one brief session, otherwise it might as well not be there at all. The way to achieve this is to ensure that there’s nothing else you can possibly take away from it: make it irreducible.

[...]

If you can’t hold an entire idea in your mind, crystal clear and ready for manipulation and expansion, then you haven’t broken it down far enough yet.

Notes

A Decade Later, Your Phone Still Can't Replace A Pro Camera, by Patrick Holland, CNET

If you're wondering whether phones will ever make dedicated pro cameras obsolete the way they did with point-and-shoots, the answer is a resounding no. The past decade has shown us why.

Washington Moved Fast To Crack Down On TikTok But Has Made Little Progress With Big Tech, by Brian Fung, CNN

But in fast-tracking the bill, Congress can’t help but draw attention to its notable lack of progress on regulating American tech giants more broadly — despite years of reports, hearings and proposed legislation.

The stark difference between the two illustrates how simple narratives, well-funded lobbying and genuinely thorny policy questions can make or break a bill. It also hints at how a select few Big Tech companies continue to maintain their dominance in the market and their centrality in the lives of countless US households.

Bottom of the Page

Apple has simply not demonstrated it know how to create and nurture an advertisement business that is of value to the advertisers and consumers. It has not invested in this business with at least the same amount of care and attention that it has lavished on other recent new businesses like Apple Watch and Apple TV+.

Simply put, the advertisement business that Apple has today is not good enough, let alone insanely great.

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Thanks for reading.