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The Key-Metrics Edition Saturday, January 14, 2023

The Triumph Of Safari, by Magic Lasso

Safari is now beating both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox on key metrics. Metrics that even Safari’s harshest critics cannot ignore.

If this continues, Apple’s web browser may finally reset long-held perceptions, perhaps leading to broader success. As Safari turns 20, we analyse the recent developments and see if they point towards a longer-term turnaround.

Why 2023 Could Be A Big Year For Apple TV+, by Kaitlin Thomas, Paste

But if the platform is able to continue its upward trajectory by prioritizing quality over quantity—new seasons of Ted Lasso and The Afterparty should arrive in 2023 alongside a list of new series like Shrinking—it’s possible that Apple TV+’s slow but steady approach to creating original content will allow it to not win the race, but at least emerge as a serious option for consumers. While the Netflixes and HBO Maxes of the world are forced to adjust their strategies to cut costs and accommodate shifting subscriber priorities, Apple TV+ is slowly coming into its own, and no one should be surprised if 2023 is the year that we finally see it break through.

Apple TV Set To Enter Bidding War For Premier League Rights, by Matt Hughes, Daily Mail

Apple TV are preparing a bid for the next set of Premier League domestic television rights that would transform the way the topflight is broadcast in this country.

[...]

Many clubs with American owners, such as Chelsea under Todd Boehly, are convinced that at £5.1billion over three years the current rights are undervalued and are looking to US tech companies to drive up the price.

Stuff

Rihanna Drops Trailer For Super Bowl Halftime Show — Is She Hinting At New Music After All?, by Jem Aswad, Variety

As the clock struck midnight on the West Coast and it officially become one month until the 2023 Super Bowl, the game’s halftime performer, Rihanna, dropped the first trailer for her performance, which is also the first ever to be sponsored by Apple Music.

5 Of The Best Journaling Apps To Log Your Thoughts And Experiences, by Aisha Malik, TechCrunch

Whether you want to store specific memories about your everyday life or reflect on your day with a few sentences before bed, there are many apps out there that are designed to help you keep track of your thoughts and experiences. We compiled a list of some of the best ones to help you pick one that’s to your liking.

Develop

Programming Interviews Turn Normal People Into A-Holes, by Shantnu Tiwari, Python For Engineers

There are hundreds and hundreds of blogs about how programming interviews suck, how they ask trivia questions or try to ask questions that only fresh graduates would know well (sort binary trees is the classical example).

All these theories are correct, but I have one more:

Interviewing Turns Normal People into Grade-A AssHoles

Notes

Setting The Bozo Bit On Apple, by Marcel Weiher, Metablog

By default, when Apple does something new these days, I fully and quietly expect it to be broken. And I am surprised when they actually get something right, like Apple Silicon. And it wasn't an angry reaction to anything, in fact, it wasn't even much of conscious decision, more a gradual erosion of expectations.

Another Viral iPod App Was Pulled From Apple’s App Store, by Ariel Shapiro, The Verge

Though the public may still view the iPod as a nostalgic relic, for Apple, it is still proprietary tech. The rules determining what can and cannot be an iOS app are whatever Apple wants them to be. Until the company loosens its vice grip on its dormant IP, a true iPhone-to-iPod app is not likely to stand — unless, of course, Apple decides to release such an app itself. It seems like a missed opportunity for them to ignore the demand.

See Also: Apple Wins Major iPod User Interface & Systems Patents (2012), by Patently Apple.

Apple TV+ Has A New Exec Leading The Business As Apple's VP Of Music Steps Up Amid A Company Reorg, by Claire Atkinson, Insider

Oliver Schusser, Apple's VP Music and Beats, is set to take on oversight of streaming service Apple TV+, two industry insiders with knowledge of plans told Insider.

[...]

Schusser, who hails from Germany, was recruited by Eddy Cue, SVP Services, in 2004 when he joined as VP, iTunes International. In 2018 he moved from London to California to take up the role of VP, Apple Music and International Content. He is widely credited with growing Apple Music in new directions and developing an international presence and improving structure as well as neutralizing different factions inside Apple.

Bottom of the Page

I will not be using the new Apple Music and Apple TV+ apps on my Windows laptop. That laptop is for work, and I'm pretty sure my company frown on me watching Severance while debugging PHP scripts. (I do listen to music, but I do that on my iPhone.)

But, since Apple seems to be getting back to giving Windows users glasses of ice water… how about getting Safari back on Windows? I do need a browser that is fast in both rendering as well as user-interface.

On second thought, maybe not. Apple hasn't demonstrated it can do great Windows apps yet. (And, yes, I include that first round of Safari on windows.)

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Thanks for reading.