MyAppleMenu

Archive for July 2023

The Clumsy-Entry Edition Monday, July 31, 2023

Apple Again Fails To Save Classical Music, by Alex Ross, New Yorker

I can’t put myself in the unisex Crocs of a young person exploring classical music for the first time, but Apple Classical strikes me as an oddly clumsy point of entry.

The iPhone 15 Pro Will Have Thinner Bezels In Step Toward Apple’s Dream, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

This year, two of the biggest changes to the 15 line will get Apple closer to that dream iPhone. The standard iPhone 15 models will trade in the notch for the Dynamic Island, while the Pro and Pro Max displays will be made with a new technology: low-injection pressure over-molding, or “LIPO” as it’s dubbed inside Apple.

That new process will shrink the border size around the display to 1.5 millimeters (from about 2.2 millimeters on current iPhones). LIPO was first used in the Apple Watch Series 7 to make that device’s borders thinner and increase the size of the display. And Apple plans to eventually bring the feature to the iPad as well, I’m told.

Develop

Fantasy Meets Reality, by Cabel Sasser

But it still stuck with me: good design isn’t just beautiful and incredible and boundary-pushing, it also remembers what it means to be human.

Notes

Accidental Dialling On Apple Watches Fuels Surge In 999 Calls, by The Telegraph

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said recent software updates to smart devices were having “a significant impact” on the volume of emergency calls being recorded by forces.

It comes amid a reported rise in cases of people with Apple Watches dialling 999 accidentally during gym workouts.

Luxshare’s Wins With Apple Make It Foxconn’s Biggest Challenger, by Qianer Liu, Financial Times

Shenzhen-based Luxshare Precision Industry has won favour and increasing business with the iPhone maker in part by being prepared to test “crazy” ideas in its factories, according to an Apple supply chain employee.

[...]

Offering lower prices and greater flexibility has made the company an attractive option for Apple, which is considering giving it an even more significant role in producing the iPhone 16 series, dependent on performance in delivering the 15, the two people said.

Bottom of the Page

My usage of Apple Classical app has gone lower in recent weeks. Not because there isn't anything to listen, but it is mostly I don't want to juggle playlists and such in two different apps. And there is no offline downloads in Apple Classical.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Luxury-Features Edition Sunday, July 30, 2023

The Beats Studio Pro Are So Close To Being My Dream Headphones, by Jada Jones, ZDNet

The Beats Studio Pros are a great pair of over-ear headphones that offer some luxury features to both Apple and Android users. It's hard to find such qualifications when buying audio products from the Apple store.

Apple Maps Launched A New Experience In DFW And Houston. Here's A Breakdown Of What's New., by Paul Livengood, WFAA

Apple Maps has rolled out a new detailed city experience in Dallas and Houston, which expands on the pre-existing features. While driving in Dallas and Fort Worth, you'll notice the following changes.

Bottom of the Page

The question I have for my hobby project: should I do the easier SwiftUI stuff and 'ship' this thing earlier, or do the hard stuff and ship this thing according to what I want?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Extra-Time Edition Saturday, July 29, 2023

Apple’s Parental Controls Are Broken, by Julie Jargon, Wall Street Journal

The company’s cloud-based Family Sharing system is designed in part for parents to remotely schedule off-limits time and restrict apps and adult content on their children’s iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch models. Trouble is, parents are finding that when they use their iPhones to set restrictions on their kids’ devices, the changes don’t stick.

“We are aware that some users may be experiencing an issue where Screen Time settings are unexpectedly reset,” an Apple spokeswoman said. “We take these reports very seriously and we have been, and will continue, making updates to improve the situation.”

[...]

This can go unnoticed for days or weeks—and kids don’t always report back when they get extra time for games and social media.

Apple Pencils Can’t Draw Straight On Third-party Replacement iPad Screens, by Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica

The latest part of an Apple device to demand a repair by its maker appears to be the screens on newer iPads. Reports from repair shops and customers suggest that Apple Pencils no longer work properly on non-genuine Apple screens, as they draw squiggly lines on a diagonal instead of straight.

Stuff

Instapaper For iOS And macOS Adds Article Reordering, Better Shortcuts Integration, More, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Updates to the iOS and macOS apps this week continue the trend with better ways to manage articles and improved integration with Shortcuts.

Hands-on With Porsche's New CarPlay App – The Best Big Auto UX We've Seen, by Jameson Dow, 9to5Mac

We’re still waiting for the next-gen CarPlay experience which Apple announced last year, which promises greater integration with vehicle functions than today’s version of CarPlay.

In the meantime, though, Porsche has taken it upon itself to build its own app which offers the best of both worlds – a snappy, CarPlay-like user interface, along with control of some vehicle functions which were heretofore unavailable through Apple’s software.

Peakto For Mac Adds Incredibly Powerful Conversational Search To Its Photo Cataloger, by Mel Martin, Fstoppers

For Mac users, Peakto has advanced the state of the art by giving you the ability to describe a photo you are looking for with text, and in my tests, it really works well.

Bottom of the Page

Why hasn't any other mouse manufacturers copied the touch surface design of the Apple's mouse? I do really like this feature, and is disappointed that the mouse I use for my Windows machine at work only has a wheel instead.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Privacy-Manifest Edition Friday, July 28, 2023

Apple Cracking Down On 'Fingerprinting' With New App Store API Rules, by Steve Dent, Engadget

Starting with the release of iOS 17, tvOS 17, watchOS 10 and macOS Sonoma, developers will be required to explain why they're using so-called required reason APIs. Apps failing to provide a valid reason will be rejected started in spring of 2024.

"Some APIs... have the potential of being misused to access device signals to try to identify the device or user, also known as fingerprinting. Regardless of whether a user gives your app permission to track, fingerprinting is not allowed," Apple wrote. "To prevent the misuse of certain APIs that can be used to collect data about users’ devices through fingerprinting, you’ll need to declare the reasons for using these APIs in your app’s privacy manifest."

Vision Pro Developer Kits Will Feature Customized Sizing, Tracking With AirTag, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Based on the information that's been shared, kits will be tuned to a single developer, and other developers on the team may not be able to experience Vision Pro to its fullest because a snug fit between the face and the Light Seal is required.

Information on Apple's developer website also mentions a workflow for unpairing an AirTag when returning a kit, which suggests Apple is using its item trackers to keep tabs on the headsets. Vision Pro developer kits are shipped in a lockable Pelican case that needs to be kept locked when the headset is not in use, and developers must keep the headsets in a secure location. An AirTag could perhaps be included in the storage case to allow it to be tracked down in the event of a theft.

Stuff

Innovative Web Browser Arc Reaches 1.0 Release, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

Arc may be overkill for those who use just a handful of tabs at a time, but if you spend much of your day working in websites, I recommend giving it a try.

Camo Studio 2.0.5, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

Reincubate released Camo Studio 2.0.5 with two oft-requested features for the virtual-camera system: 4K resolution and green screen support.

Tested: Belkin's New BoostCharge Pro Is The Perfect Apple Watch Travel Companion With Built-in Fast Charger, by Rikka Altland, 9to5Toys

The new Belkin BoostCharge Pro at first glance looks to arrive with some pretty unremarkable specs at first glance – 10,000mAh batteries with 20W USB-C are hardly anything to be excited about. But where the new release does standout from everything else on the market is the built-in Apple Watch fast charger.

Notes

Google Delays Its Upgraded Find My Device Network Until Apple Can Add Safety Alerts, by Chris Welch, The Verge

Google is delaying the broad expansion of its Find My Device feature, and it says it’s doing so with personal safety in mind. “User safety and the prevention of unwanted location tracking is a top priority for Android,” Google’s Erik Kay announced in a blog post today. “At this time we’ve made the decision to hold the rollout of the Find My Device network until Apple has implemented protections for iOS.”

Bottom of the Page

Oh no. I am using UserDefaults in my hobby project, one of the APIs that Apple identified as requiring privacy mainfests.

Time to spend a few more weekends figuring out alternative methods?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Virtual-Chips Edition Thursday, July 27, 2023

Apple, Meta, Google Argue They're Not 'Bookies' In Casino App Appeal, by Alison Frankel, Reuters

Apple, Meta and Google warned the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week that if online platforms can be held liable for processing users’ purchases of virtual chips sold by casino game apps, the entire internet economy could be at risk.

The platforms are appealing a 2022 ruling from U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of San Jose, California, that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which immunizes online publishers for hosting third-party content, does not shield the sites from claims that they essentially acted as “bookies” by facilitating (and collecting a commission on) purchases of virtual chips for use in online casino games.

iPhone 15 Pro Action Button Options Potentially Revealed In iOS 17 Code: Flashlight, Shortcuts, Voice Memos, And More, by Steve Moser, MacRumors

The Action button, which could be similar to the Apple Watch Ultra’s Action button but with more phone-focused options, is expected to be a new physical button on the next-generation Pro iPhone models that replaces the Ring/Silent switch. [...]

According to the code found in ‌iOS 17‌ beta 4, the Action button could have nine different options that users can customize and assign to different actions. While the code only lists feature names related to the Action button, we can infer what most of them will be able to do.

As Stars Strike, Streamers Debate Shelving Shows, by Lacey Rose, Lesley Goldberg, Hollywood Reporter

Without any clear sense of how long the work stoppage will last, the question becomes: Do you really want to run through what ammo you have so early in the fight? And, for that matter, is it worth rolling out series without stars available to promote them?

At multiple streamers, discussions are already underway about potentially moving certain fully shot (but undated) series to early 2024, if not simply benching them until the dual strike ends.

[...]

Over at Apple TV+, decisions will ultimately be made about its cadre of star-driven shows, including Bad Monkey (Vince Vaughn) and Palm Royale (Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern), that are in the can.

Stuff

Beats Studio Pro Review: Apple’s New Top Headphones Love Android Too, by Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian

The sound is really good, falling just shy of the very best from Sennheiser and Sony. The noise-cancelling is pretty good, too, again just shy of the top Bose and Sony models. But it is their deep integration with Apple’s various devices and Android that sets them apart. No other brand can offer similar, which makes them ideal for those who use a combination of Android and Apple. Full support for spatial audio on Apple’s devices is a particular bonus for movies, while the ability to use Bluetooth, 3.5mm or USB-C for sound is very welcome.

Audiobook Platform Libro.fm Announces Its International Launch, by Lauren Forristal, TechCrunch

Libro.fm, the audiobook retailer and listening app for local bookshops, launched internationally on Wednesday to give even more bookstores the ability to earn income via audiobook sales.

[...]

Every time a customer makes a purchase or pays the membership fee, Libro.fm shares profits with the selected bookshop. So, instead of customers giving money to a large service like Audible, they are providing necessary revenue to their local bookstores.

This Is My Go-to Photo Editor On Mobile That’s Completely Free, No Strings Attached, by Timothy Coleman, TechRadar

The styles menu is a great starting point for your edit, and then you can go on and add more complex edits via tools. And if you are editing more than one photo with the same look, you can simply hit the ‘Last edits’ option that will apply all that hard work from your previous photo edit to your next one with a single click.

The Browsing Company’s Unconventional Browser Arc Releases Publicly On Mac, by Samuel Axon, Ars Technica

Its main distinction lies in the way it allows users to customize individual websites to their liking.

Using a feature called boosts, users can replace fonts for just about any text and change colors for any part of an individual webpage and save that state for later. They can even "zap" sections to remove them from view. You can get really heavy-duty with this by writing scripts, too, but you can still get a lot done without going that deep.

Develop

Tips For Vision Pro Labs, by David Smith

We’ve just had the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro developer labs. These one day, hands-on experiences will take place around the world over the next few months and allow developers to refine and enhance their apps for visionOS based on real-life usage.

I’ve applied to attend one of these and hope to get the chance to work on Widgetsmith there. While I wait to see if I was selected, I figured I’d put together a list of tips for getting the most out of experiences like this. Over my career I’ve been to several similar things and have learned a few things about maximizing your time.

Notes

French Competition Authority Issues Antitrust Objection To Apple For App Data Tracking, by RFI

The Competition authority did not block the introduction of ATT in 2021, but said it would investigate whether Apple was applying different rules on its own apps.

In Tuesday’s statement of objections, the regulator said it believes that Apple is in fact doing that.

Bottom of the Page

I sure hope that, for the rest of us who are not going to rush out to buy a new iPhone Pro later this year, there is a similar action button on the lock screen.

~

Thanks for reading.

The However-It's-Done Edition Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Parents Are Using AirTags To Track Kids Too Young For A Phone, by Heather Kelly, Washington Post

Adults are putting trackers in backpacks, on bikes or directly on kids for extra accuracy. Online, companies sell hundreds of colorful tracker holders for children including wristbands, keychains, lanyards and pins. Some caregivers sew them into jackets or tie them to shoes to protect them from their chaotic hosts.

[...]

However it’s done, tracking kids is a sensitive subject. Is it surveillance-culture gone overboard, a smart hack for managing a busy family, or a way to claw back some of the freedom previous generations had that’s missing?

Apple Already Shipped Attestation On The Web, And We Barely Noticed, by HTTP Toolkit

Fraud & bots on the web are a real problem, and discussion on ways to defend against that is totally reasonable, and often very valuable! It's a hard problem. That said, this has to be carefully balanced against the health of the web itself. Blocking competition, hamstringing open-source and the open web, and removing all user control over their own devices is not a reasonable tradeoff.

Stuff

Apple Preparing Sixth Annual 'National Fitness Day' Challenge For Apple Watch, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Apple Watch customers in China can complete this year’s Activity Challenge for “National Fitness Day” in just two weeks.

Flighty 3.0 Adds New Flight Sharing Feature, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Flighty Friends allows Flighty users to send their flight information to family and friends in a quick, easy to parse format. Flight details are easy to follow, so family members can monitor a flight, see if there are delays, and know when you land.

Darkroom Launches Preset Discovery Tool For Sharing And Installing Photo Edit Styles, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Starting today, Darkroom is building a dedicated community for preset sharing right in the app. A new Preset Discovery button lets you browse and adopt tons of presets created by other Darkroom users.

Develop

Before You Try To Do Something, Make Sure You Can Do Nothing, by Raymond Chen, The Old New Thing

Start with something that does nothing. Make sure you can do nothing successfully. Only then should you start making changes so it starts doing something. That way, you know that any problems you have are related to your attempts to do something.

Notes

These Are 12 Of The Most Beautiful Apple Stores In Asia, by Srijoni Roy, Lifestyle Asia

Apart from creating the world’s smartest gadgets, Apple can undoubtedly be credited with revolutionising the retail experience through a series of hyper-innovative stores. Whether it is the architectural Piazza Liberty in Milan, Italy, or the expansive Sanlitun Store in Beijing, China, the focus on the brand’s signature minimalist aesthetic might be uniform but the results are intelligently unique. Across Europe, America, and Asia, Apple continues to set the benchmark when it comes to a definitive visual language. Today, we take a look at the most beautiful Apple stores in Asia.

Bottom of the Page

Sometimes, I have simply too many HStacks and VStacks in my code.

~

Thanks for reading.

The In-the-Wild Edition Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Apple Releases 24-Jul-2023 Security Updates For All Active Operating Systems, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

Apple has once again updated all its active operating systems to address numerous security vulnerabilities, two of which have been exploited in the wild.

[...]

The number of vulnerabilities ranges from 8 (tvOS) to 29 (macOS), and most are shared by all the operating systems. The details linked below don’t matter much; we advise installing these updates soon so you’re protected.

Apple Is Taking Applications For Vision Pro Developer Kits, by Emma Roth, The Verge

In addition to the Vision Pro headset, the dev kit also includes help setting up the device, code-level support requests, and “check-ins” with Apple experts about designing and developing an app for visionOS.

The company will prioritize applicants who are creating an app that “takes advantage of visionOS features and capabilities”.

Apple Opens Vision Pro Headset Applications For Developers, But They Can't Talk About It, by Kif Leswing, CNBC

But Apple's developer's kits aren't a soft launch for the product. The device is a loan, not a sale, and it will remain Apple property to be returned after the Vision Pro headset launches. Apple representatives will also check in with developers and offer code reviews to software makers and companies with access to the hardware.

Developers are asked about what they're making and what Apple tools they've used in the past, and they have to sign confidentiality agreements — which include provisions that require that the device remain at the address to which it was shipped, that it can't be used in public, and that it must be locked inside a Pelican hard case when it's not in use, according to the Apple developer agreement.

League Integration

Sports Media: MLS, Apple Appear Pleased With Media Deal So Far, by John Ourand and Alex Silverman, Sports Business Journal

MLS executives spent last week in D.C. saying the numbers they have seen have beat expectations. Privately, they complain that there’s too much focus on specific numbers — viewership, subscriber numbers, advertising — especially considering that they are just a couple of months into a 10-year deal.

Instead, they point to the way Apple has integrated the league into its other businesses. MLS stadiums and nearby restaurants are part of Apple’s Maps app. MLS-inspired playlists are part of Apple Music.

From Apple To All-Stars: Why It’s Time To Get Serious About MLS, by Marc Chacksfield, ShortList

This is football MLS-style and there is every reason to party: Major League Soccer is going through one hell of a glow-up right now.

The league is entering its 20th year (the 1994 World Cup preparations in the US kickstarted the MLS) and now has the ultimate MVP backing it: Apple.

Notes

‘Silo’ Season 2 Shoot On Indefinite Hiatus As Strikes Hit Apple’s Most-Watched Drama Series, by Jake Kanter, Deadline

The series starring Rebecca Ferguson had planned to take a break in the UK this week as it switched over sets, but Deadline hears Apple is now expected to extend the pause until further notice.

[...]

Deadline understands that the third season of Foundation, another Apple sci-fi drama, is also expected to be impacted by the actors’ and writers’ strikes.

Apple Faces $1 Bln UK Lawsuit By Apps Developers Over App Store Fees, by Foo Yun Chee, Reuters

The UK lawsuit at the Competition Appeal Tribunal is being brought by Sean Ennis, a professor at the Centre for Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia and a former economist at the OECD, on behalf of 1,566 app developers.

[...]

"Apple's charges to app developers are excessive, and only possible due to its monopoly on the distribution of apps onto iPhones and iPads," Ennis said in a statement.

Bottom of the Page

While everyone at Apple's visionOS team is continuing to work hard to make Vision Pro a good spatical computer, there's probably one poor engineer who is tasked to insert watermarks into visionOS so that they can trace who leaked the developer kit.

~

Thanks for reading.

The ... Edition Monday, July 24, 2023

Why Apple’s Threat To Kill iMessage And FaceTime Isn’t A Bluff, by David Price, Macworld

For Apple, the question of privacy isn’t an abstract philosophical debate, but a real issue that affects its users–and its own revenue–on a daily basis. The company has chosen privacy as the hill it’s prepared to die on, not because its CEO really, really believes in privacy (although of course, he might), but because privacy underpins its entire business model. Buy an iPhone, says Apple, and your data is secure. Unlike those other tech companies and their business models built around data capture.

[...]

Data privacy is something Apple regards as an existential question, and if I was a member of the U.K. government, I wouldn’t bet on it backing down.

Apple’s Headset Hinges On Apps, But Don’t Expect Developers To Flock To It, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Developers may be slow to create Vision Pro apps because of the product’s high price and correspondingly small user base. The device also doesn’t have the kind of hand controllers available on other headsets.

On the other hand, it’s going to be relatively painless to convert current apps into visionOS fare. And that should help make the Vision Pro app store more successful than the Apple Watch and TV versions, even if it never matches the popularity of the one on iOS.

Apple Supplier Foxconn's Failed India Chip Venture Shows How Tough It Is For New Players, by Arjun Kharpal, CNBC

Foxconn's hurdles point to a broader issue — it's hard for newcomers to get into semiconductor manufacturing.

The manufacturing of chips is dominated by one player — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC — which has a 59% market share in the foundry segment, according to Counterpoint Research.

Notes

How A Smart Thermostat Helped Me Avert A Potential Disaster, by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge

While I consider this a smart home success story, it highlights that the connected home’s current state is all notification and no action. We can know everything about our homes but can’t do much about it — at least not from afar.

A really smart home would alert you to a problem, identify it, offer solutions, and — with your consent — fix it for you. Much like our cars have become self-diagnosing computers, so could our homes.

Bottom of the Page

I'm pretty sure that, over the last few years behind the scenes, Apple has been making iPhone and iOS capable of working differently in different parts of the world. Apple doesn't bluff, and it doesn't blink.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Endless-Possibilities Edition Sunday, July 23, 2023

Slice Of The Apple: Messi And Miami, by Alex Silverman, Sports Business Journal

A media partner playing such a direct role in the recruitment of a player is unique in North American sports, but then again so are Apple’s priorities, which go far beyond attracting subscribers to a streaming service. In 2022, iPhone sales accounted for more than half of the company’s $394.3 billion in annual revenue, and CEO Tim Cook has told investors that the company still has “lots of headroom for growth” in Latin America. Apple is betting that connecting Messi with his millions of adoring fans in his home region on a weekly basis can help expand the company’s position there.

[...]

“You sit down with a company like Apple, you understand the reach,” said Josh Kroenke, Colorado Rapids alternate governor. “It takes an athlete like Messi to truly maximize that reach. When an athlete like Messi and a company like Apple come together, the possibilities are really endless.”

What Would The Internet Of People Look Like Now?, by Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge

What does the web look like if we decide to erase everything we’ve done since the dot-com crash? What kinds of communities can we build with the people who’ve come online since then? It’s certainly possible — even delightful — to teach them the old ways. But more and more, I think I don’t want an intermediated experience; I’m not interested in your algorithm. I’ve loved online because there are people there.

Bottom of the Page

What I don't miss, though, are Java applets and Flash plug-ins. And no RealPlayers either, please.

Okay, I can probably tolerate PointCast. Maybe it will be a good RSS client the second-time round. :-)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Something-Significant Edition Saturday, July 22, 2023

Premier League Clubs Dealt Major Blow As Apple Rule Out Rights Bid, by Daily Mail

Apple chief Eddy Cue has effectively ruled out buying a share of Premier League broadcasting rights as the technology giant want 'global rights' deals like they have with Major League Soccer.

[...]

'This isn't 'hey, I've got an opening from 8pm to 10pm tonight and I'm going to put this game on'. That's not the way we're doing it.

'We're all in on this as an investment point of view, so it doesn't work unless it's something significant.'

Apple’s Soccer Deal Might Ask Too Much Of Messi, by Dave Lee, Bloomberg

Messi’s arrival in the MLS is an experiment not just for American soccer but the future business model of sports broadcasting. Not for the first time, a lot rests on the little Argentine’s shoulders: “Subscriber growth” is about to become as important a metric to him as goals and assists.

Stuff

The Makers Of Camera+ Releases Photon, A New Image Capture App For Pros, by Ivan Mehta, TechCrunch

The app will let you shoot in auto mode from the get-go, but it also has easy access to controls for adjusting focus, shutter speed, ISO (sensor’s sensitivity to light) and white balance (a way to adjust how “warm” or “cool” your image is).

Belkin Debuts New 2-in-1 BoostCharge Pro With 15W MagSafe Charging And Travel-friendly Design, by Rikka Altland, 9to5Toys

The new Belkin BoostCharge Pro brings full 15W MagSafe charging speeds to your nightstand, as well as to your vacation with a travel-ready design.

Stardew Valley+ Now Available On Apple Arcade, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Stardew Valley+ features the same open-ended farming gameplay as the original, with more than 50 hours of content plus mobile features like autosave and touch controls.

Notes

Apple Gearing Up For Launch Of Vision Pro Developer Kits, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple appears to have three different model numbers for Vision Pro batteries, including A2781, A2988, and A2697. It is not clear why there are three separate numbers when Apple has only announced two-hour battery life for the device, but there could be multiple battery packs in development or there could be additional battery options that will be used solely in Apple Stores for testing.

Aptos, Microsoft’s New Default Font For Office Documents, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

I don’t know if Microsoft actually chose Aptos (née Bierstadt) based on customer feedback, but it says a lot about the company either way.

Bottom of the Page

Great to hear, Apple. Now, let's see you spend more effort on getting more of your existing services globally.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Found-and-Reported Edition Friday, July 21, 2023

Google Says Apple Employee Found A Zero-day But Did Not Report It, by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, TechCrunch

Google fixed a zero-day in Chrome that was found by an Apple employee, according to comments in the official bug report. While the bug itself is not newsworthy, the circumstances of how this bug was found and reported to Google are, to say the least, peculiar.

According to a Google employee, the bug was originally found by an Apple employee who was participating in a Capture The Flag (CTF) hacking competition in March. But that Apple employee did not report the bug, which at the time was a zero-day — meaning Google wasn’t aware of the bug and no patch had been issued yet. The bug was instead reported by someone else who also participated in the competition, didn’t actually find the bug themselves and wasn’t even on the team that found the bug.

Stuff

The New Thunderbird UI Is Now Available And It's A Long Overdue Refresh, by Jack Wallen, ZDNet

As long as you don't expect a massive change in the Thunderbird UI, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how these subtle changes make using the app even easier.

PSA: Mophie Working On Firmware Fix For 3-in-1 Travel Charger With MagSafe Issue, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

This month, mophie shared an official statement acknowledging the issue and sharing that a firmware fix is coming “as soon as possible.” You can also email “travelcharger@mophie.com with “3 in 1” in the subject line plus your serial number in the message to get more info.

Develop

Good Code Is Like A Love Letter To The Next Developer Who Will Maintain It., by Addy Osmani

The beauty of our creations, however, is not judged solely by the elegance of our algorithms or the efficiency of our code, but by the joy and ease with which others can build upon our work. As developers, our task is not just to solve today's problems but also to ensure we do not become tomorrow's problem.

Notes

TSMC: Chip Giant Delays Arizona Production In Blow To Biden, by Annabelle Liang, BBC

Chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) has delayed the start of production at its factory in the US state of Arizona, in a setback to President Biden's technology ambitions.

The firm says chip manufacturing will no longer start next year, due to a shortage of skilled workers.

Oops! Samsung Just Revealed Apple Is Working On A Foldable Touchscreen MacBook, by Jason England, Laptop

During this event, Samsung didn’t go into any concrete details about Apple’s foldable, but Baek Sueng-in, executive director of Samsung, did talk about how Cupertino’s debut into this market is a “necessary condition” for foldables as a whole to succeed. And to that end, Samsung Display is working on some key issues with them to meet Apple’s high standards.

Bottom of the Page

I will be surprised if Apple is not testing and working with foldable screens. Or rollable screens. Or stretchable screens.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Natural-and-Crisp Edition Thursday, July 20, 2023

Beats Studio Pro Headphones Review: Leaning On A Legacy, by Chris Welch, The Verge

Just like Apple, Beats claims the Studio Pros analyze your surroundings tens of thousands of times per second — marketing gobbledygook that no average person could ever possibly verify — but the upgraded microphone array did a good job of cutting down the clamor at my local coffee shop in the middle of a weekday. Transparency mode is also quite good. Even if it’s a step below the $200 more expensive AirPods Max, your surroundings come through sounding natural, crisp, and without any noticeable latency. Battery life still tops out at 40 hours with noise cancellation turned off and around 24 hours if you’ve got it on (or are using transparency mode).

[...]

When connected to a source device over USB-C, the Studio Pros support lossless and high-res audio playback up to 24bit / 48kHz from compatible sources like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and others. Curiously, when USB-C playback is active, you lose all access to noise cancellation and transparency modes. This is by design, according to Beats, but I’m still confused as to why or what technical limitation forces you to choose between ANC or richer audio. Either way, if you’re hoping to have a hi-fi listening session on a plane, be prepared for some background cabin hum to bleed through. Even more strange is that noise cancellation and transparency do work over a regular old headphone jack connection, so USB-C is the odd one out.

Apple Slams UK Surveillance-bill Proposals, by Zoe Kleinman, BBC

Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.

[...]

It would not make changes to security features specifically for one country that would weaken a product for all users.

Coming Soon?

Apple Tests ‘Apple GPT,’ Develops Generative AI Tools To Catch OpenAI, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The iPhone maker has built its own framework to create large language models — the AI-based systems at the heart of new offerings like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard — according to people with knowledge of the efforts. With that foundation, known as “Ajax,” Apple also has created a chatbot service that some engineers call “Apple GPT.”

[...]

Beyond the state of the technology, Apple is still trying to determine the consumer angle for generative AI. It’s now working on several related initiatives — a cross-company effort between its AI and software engineering groups, as well as the cloud services engineering team that would supply the infrastructure for any significant new features. While the company doesn’t yet have a concrete plan, people familiar with the work believe Apple is aiming to make a significant AI-related announcement next year.

Of Course Apple Has An LLM AI Chatbot In The Works, And Of Course The Bloomberg Report Revealing Its Code Name Mentions How The Story Moved The Company’s Stock Price, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

Once you view Bloomberg’s original reporting through this prism — that most of their original reporting is delivered with the goal of moving the stock prices of the companies they’re reporting on, for the purpose of proving the value of a Bloomberg Terminal’s hefty subscription fee to day-trading gamblers — a lot of their seemingly inexplicable stylistic quirks don’t seem so inexplicable any more. They just seem a little gross.

Stuff

Final Cut Pro For iPad Gets Its First Big New Feature Update, by Oliver Haslam, iMore

Available for download via the App Store now, the new update includes the addition of a number of new keyboard shortcuts as well as the usual array of fixed bugs and stability improvements.

The Banned Books Club Is An E-reader App That Can Get You Over The Firewall., by Janet Manley, Literary Hub

To get from one side of the U.S. to the other is to criss-cross a veritable snakes and ladders of state and county-level legislation and policy. If you’re after a particular title by Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood, you might find that it’s available in Georgia, and effectively banned next door in Florida. A new initiative from the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), launched in concert with the Palace Project, hopes to toss a ladder to people living in places where access is restricted.

Develop

Unity’s Apple Vision Pro Game Development Tool Opens In Beta, by Brian Heater, TechCrunch

Unity this morning announced that it has opened the beta version of its development platform for visionOS. PolySpatial, which was announced in conjunction with Vision Pro headset at WWDC, is designed to help developers port and create a 3D experience for Apple’s “spatial computing” platform.

Bottom of the Page

Once upon a time, the rumors were Disney was going to buy Apple. (Turned out NeXT bought Apple, instead.) Now, the rumors are Disney is going to sell to Apple. (And, no, I don't think that will happen.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Tenderness-and-Intimacy Edition Wednesday, July 19, 2023

I Love You, Let’s Stalk Each Other, by Jessica Roy, New York Times

Location sharing has long been the domain of parents with wayward teens or obsessive partners, but more and more, apps like Find My Friends are being used by young people who want to know where their friends are and what they’re up to, without actually having to ask them.

[...]

In 2019, [Apple] integrated its location-tracking capabilities into a single app, called Find My, which lets users see the location of their friends and Apple devices. Since then, Find My Friends has become a digital calling card of sorts, a way to express tenderness and intimacy between close friends and draw a distinction between them and the rest of their online acquaintances.

Apple Shares New 'The Underdogs' Video Focusing On Apple Security Features At Work, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

The eight-minute video follows the team’s attempt to retrieve the stolen Mac in time for the crucial presentation before the bumbling thieves can pawn it off.

The film showcases several Apple security features that aid the team and thwart the thieves, including Notify When Left Behind, Find My location tracking, Touch ID and Face ID, passwords and passkeys, Secure Enclave, end-to-end encryption, MDM Remote Lock and Remote Wipe, remote Erase This Device, and more.

On App Stores

Apple And Google Face Block On Taking Cut From In-app Purchases In Australia, by Josh Taylor, The Guardian

Apple and Google could soon face new rules that allow app developers to charge for in-app purchases without paying a cut to the app store, the head of Australia’s competition watchdog has said.

“If our country doesn’t take the step to empower this so that this obligation is there, it won’t be offered,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said.

Stuff

Sales Tax Holiday: Apple Details Available For First Six States, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

Sales tax holidays are a great time to buy Apple products in some US states, providing worthwhile savings. Apple has now posted details for the first six states, and we’re expecting either three or four more to follow.

The Makers Of Halide Just Made Their Long Exposure Camera App Free For Everyone, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

The fine folks behind the great Halide camera app have given their long exposure-focused app, Spectre, a big new feature: It’s now free for everyone. There are also longer shooting modes and a new Halide-matching icon to unlock.

Leviton Brings Matter To Decora Dimmer, Switch, And Smart Plugs With Update, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Leviton is out with a free firmware update that brings Matter to four of its smart home devices which will be welcome for both existing and new users. Included are the Decora Smart Switch, Dimmer, Mini Plug-In Dimmer, and Mini Plug-In Switch.

Mophie's 3-in-1 Travel Charger With MagSafe Temporarily Pulled From Apple Store Amid Widespread Charging Issues, by Mitchel Broussard, MacRumors

Beginning in late June, users in Apple’s discussions community began pointing out an issue where an iPhone, Apple Watch, or AirPods placed on the charger would fail to get a consistent charge. The devices would constantly ping as they disconnected and reconnected to the charging source.

Notes

Spain Antitrust Watchdog Fines Amazon, Apple $218 Million, by Inti Landauro, Reuters

The two contracts the companies signed on Oct. 31, 2018 granting Amazon the status of authorized Apple dealer included anti-competitive clauses that affected the online market for electronic devices in Spain, CNMC, as the watchdog is known, said in a statement.

[...]

Spokespeople from Apple and Amazon separately said their respective companies intend to appeal the fines.

Bottom of the Page

Okay, I am not that comfortable to find an Apple advertisement that encourages its customers to chase after thieves after your devices have been stolen. At least, all the chasing and encounters are taking place in mostly-public places. But, still.

~

Thanks for reading.

The What's-Different Edition Tuesday, July 18, 2023

300 Times A Day, by Michael Lopp, Rands in Repose

I use Bear 300 times a day. Probably more. I could sketch their five preference screens from memory. I’ve written and edited two books in Bear. I’ve spent hours understanding how tags propagate through the system. Ask me about their sync system. Quiz me on their keyboard shortcuts.

When the update landed earlier this week, I held my breath for five minutes straight. The Verge article claimed a “rewrite from the ground up,” which sets the stage for a worst-case scenario for a critical tool. I fired up the updated app and watched them migrate my thousands of notes for a few seconds. The window appeared, and my first delicious thought was, “Wait, what’s different?”

Thank god.

Recent macOS Update Fixes Multi-Display Screen Saver Bug, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

I don’t know when Apple fixed the bug because the company didn’t see fit to mention it in any release notes. Regardless, in macOS 13.4.1, the screen saver again works properly with multiple displays. If, like me, you switched your screen saver module because it wouldn’t show on all your displays, you can now return to your preferred approach in System Settings > Screen Saver.

On App Stores

Apple Can Delay App Store Changes To File Supreme Court Plea, by Richard Lawler, The Verge

On Monday, Apple was granted a motion putting a hold on the appeals court ruling that would push the company to undo its “anti-steering” rules and let outside developers link to third-party payment mechanisms. The mandate is stayed for 90 days so Apple can file its request that the Supreme Court take up the case.

[...]

Once that petition is filed, it remains stayed until the Supreme Court decides to hear it and, if it does, until the Supreme Court weighs in.

Apple In India

Apple Has A Juicy $40 Billion Opportunity Ahead Of It, by Emily Bary, MarketWatch

India represents perhaps only $6 billion of Apple’s revenue today, driving just 2% top-line growth for the overall company over the past five years, Woodring wrote. That low relative contribution contrasts with $75 billion in revenue from greater China, where Apple has had more success thus far in tapping a huge market.

“But we believe that is about to change, as recent investments in brand awareness, local manufacturing, and affordability programs, combined with India’s economic boom and growing digitization, set the stage for India to become Apple’s next growth frontier,” Woodring wrote.

Foxconn Buys Worth $33 Mn Equipment From Apple For Expansion In India, by Debby Wu, Bloomberg

An Indian subsidiary of the Taiwanese company acquired equipment from Apple Operations Ltd. for operational needs, according to a filing from Foxconn’s Taipei-listed flagship unit Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

The filing offered a rare glimpse into Foxconn’s dealings with its biggest customer, which sometimes helps finance the cost of equipment that the Taiwanese company uses to make the majority of the world’s iPhones.

India Is Now One Of Apple's Top 5 iPhone Markets For The First Time, by Arjun Kharpal, CNBC

India became Apple's fifth largest iPhone market in the second quarter, according to research released Tuesday, as the U.S. technology giant ramps up distribution and marketing in what CEO Tim Cook sees as a critical future market.

For Apple, India overtook Germany and France for iPhone sales in the June quarter, and is now behind the U.K., Japan, China and the U.S., Counterpoint Research told CNBC on Tuesday. It is the first time India has been one of Apple's top five markets for iPhone sales.

Stuff

Apple Pay Launches In Morocco, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

CIH Bank is launching ‌‌Apple Pay‌‌ in the country as of Tuesday, according to the bank’s Twitter account. It’s not clear if other banks in Morocco will be coming on board with support for Apple’s digital payment method, but it’s likely.

Thunderbird 115, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

The update introduces a new Card view with updated folder, message list, and message display panes, while retaining the legacy Table view for veteran users.

Notes

The Future Of Children’s Television Isn’t Television, by Kate Knibbs, Wired

While the streamers have been jostling for dominance, though, YouTube has surpassed them all. “Time spent with YouTube is even higher than it is with streaming content,” says Nancy Jennings, a professor at the University of Cincinnati and director of the school’s Children’s Education and Entertainment Research Lab. “YouTube has really taken over the space.”

YouTube’s rise is tied to a number of factors. First, there’s how accessible it is. (Free!) Then there’s the sheer volume of video available. “Nothing can really touch it,” says Katie Bailey, editor of the children’s entertainment trade publication Kidscreen. (Trailing far behind in second place, in her estimation? “Netflix.”) It also offers unrivaled variety. Does your kid want to watch hundreds of hours of videos of garbage trucks? What about hundreds of hours of other children opening toys, or playing video games, or reciting Shakespeare, or participating in elaborate pranks, or touching slime? Hand them a tablet or smartphone. And when whatever your child has chosen has finished playing, YouTube’s algorithm has something else ready in the queue.

Popular 'Life-saving' Diabetes App Working Again, by BBC

An update had caused it to stop working on some Apple devices, causing distress to those depending on it for their glucose monitoring.

The manufacturer said a new version of the FreeStyle LibreLink app is now available to download which fixes the problems.

Apple And Goldman Sachs Crediting Some Customers Who Had Long Waits For Savings Withdrawal Requests, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Some customers who had a poor experience with their Apple Savings accounts handled by Goldman Sachs are receiving one-time credits, according to an email received from MacRumors reader Michael, who made a withdrawal in May.

Bottom of the Page

Dear developers: there is no need to tell me the new version of your software is "rewritten from scratch". That is not something that I care to know.

Also: any new features that you are touting that are not here yet, I also don't care.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Unsettled-Atmosphere Edition Monday, July 17, 2023

‘We Used To Check Every Day, Now It’s Every Minute’: How We Got Addicted To Weather Apps, by Hannah Marriott, The Guardian

Preoccupation with weather apps is commonplace in our current unsettled atmosphere. On social media there is almost as much chat about weather apps as there is about the weather: much of it is ire about inaccurate forecasts; some of it is from users who admit checking weather apps more than seems logical. There is still palpable grief, in the wake of the closure of the short-term weather prediction app Dark Sky, late last year, after its acquisition by Apple. In April, when Apple’s weather app went down, there was such outrage that the temporary glitch became an international news story.

[...]

After three years of lockdowns and canceled plans, wildfires, storms and heatwaves no wonder many of us are frequently checking weather apps, out of fear, out of hope, acutely aware of the rarity of perfect conditions. Perhaps it’s no bad thing. “I think people are more in tune,” says Floehr. “They see that the weather is becoming more extreme. Hopefully that will result in action. But for now, at least, it’s resulting in interest.”

How Long Will The Last Intel Macs Be Supported? macOS Sonoma Gives Us Some Hints, by Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

The best predictor of Apple's future behavior in matters like these is usually its past behavior, and each of the last four macOS releases has moved the compatibility cutoff forward by a year or so. The macOS 13 update mostly cut off pre-2017 Macs, the macOS 14 update is cutting off pre-2018 Macs, and macOS 15 could cut off pre-2019 Macs. (The last of the Intel Macs came out in early-to-mid 2020; I think it's slightly more likely that they will get lumped in with the 2019 models when Apple decides to cut those off).

Apple’s New Vision Group Reflects Shift Away From Steve Jobs Approach, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s, he threw away the company’s product-development playbook and shifted to a “functional” management structure.

[...]

But Apple’s most recent new product categories, including the Vision Pro headset, show that its strategy is evolving.

The Vision Pro has its own dedicated division inside of the company. The unit, run by Mike Rockwell, was dubbed the Technology Development Group, or TDG, from its inception around 2015 until the name changed in recent weeks. It’s now internally known as the Vision Products Group, or VPG.

Stuff

My Mac Studio Is A Blank Canvas For Self-expression, by Wes Davis, The Verge

Not to be all Marie Kondo about it, but my Mac Studio sparks joy in me every day, and it’s not because it’s the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. It’s also not strictly about the front-facing ports Apple gave it, nor is it the village of ports that live in the back.

It’s the mustache.

Develop

It Takes 6 Days To Change 1 Line Of Code, by Ed Weissman

Total elapsed time: 6 days.
Lines of mission critical code changed: 1.
Bytes of mission critical code changed: 1.
Excedrin eaten: 24
Pissed off hours spent on Hacker News: 14.

Notes

Apple TV Botches Lionel Messi Unveiling As Inter Miami Viewers Fume At Spectacle, by Rich Jones, Mirror

Thousands more were watching the event around the globe with huge interest in his arrival in Major League Soccer. But coverage on Apple TV was struck be major technical problems, with audio unclear and hard to make out for those watching.

Content Overload: Are Too Many Songs Impacting The Music Industry?, by Tom Taylor, Far Out

The data shows that more music is being released currently than ever before. We have streamlined every element of the music-making and releasing process to such an extent that usual boundaries are being removed. But does this also mean that we’re now inundated, and it is making it harder for artists to reach the number of ears significant enough to turn a profit in the Spotify age?

Bottom of the Page

I live near the equator. Where I am, there is no weather. There is only rain and no rain.

But still, I still check the rain map every so often.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Batteries-and-Design Edition Sunday, July 16, 2023

Sustainable Smartphones Calling? The Eco-friendly New Design Rules To Extend The Life Of Your Handset, by Samuel Gibbs, The Guardian

The current status quo of smartphone design, repair and longevity could finally be upended in favour of users – and the planet. That is the message from campaign groups on the landmark overhaul of rules concerning batteries and eco-sensitive design working their way through the various legislative bodies of the European Union – a market big enough to force manufacturers to change, even if EU rules don’t directly apply to other regions.

Most Of The 500 iPhone Launch Apps Have Gone – And That’s Good. Mostly, by Craig Grannell, Stuff

It’s a strange thing. Without the grinder and the treadmill, we might have got stagnation and degradation on the App Store. Countless products that stick around regardless – the iPhone equivalent of a Windows 3 app on a brand new PC. Some app and game creators might argue that should be their right, and that this wouldn’t negatively impact the platform. Apple doubtless disagrees. I imagine this, then, is the one true constant of what Apple created all those years ago – an inherent source of tension that will survive should the App Store last for another 15 years.

How Apple Became The King Of Sci-fi, by David Faris, The Week

Maybe that makes the relatively small library that critics scoffed at when the service launched in 2019 a strength — rather than throw money at 50 different shows to see what sticks, alienating audiences in the process, Apple is laying down markers with big, bold science fiction and following through on their promises. Of course, it helps that the company "has an absurd amount of money in the bank," as The Verge's Julia wrote presciently just before the service's launch in 2019. The continued dominance of its other products means that it can afford to risk billions on pricey genre shows that other networks and streamers might not even consider.

Nobody Cares About Your Blog., by Alex Molas

I was just about to publish this post, and then I started to think “why should I publish this text? Who is going to loose their time to read this crap?”, but you know what? I just don’t care what you think, here’s my post and you can do nothing about it :)

Bottom of the Page

I subscribe to both Apple TV+ and Netflix. Here's the difference for me:

I will start watching an interesting new show on Apple TV+, unless I read reviews that tell me otherwise.

I will start watching an interesting new show on Netflix, only when I read reviews that encourage me.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Minimalist-Style Edition Saturday, July 15, 2023

Apple TV Billboard Celebrates Lionel Messi’s Arrival In Miami, by Tim Nudd, AdAge

We’re just seven days away from Lionel Messi’s first game for Inter Miami, and the whole city, by all accounts, is basically going apeshit.

Apple TV has now added to the adoring madness by putting up a billboard saluting the Argentine superstar—World Cup winner and perhaps the best player ever to lace up a pair of boots—in typically minimalist Apple style.

NBA, Apple Have ‘Vision’ For How To Watch Games In The Future, by Thomas Barrabi, New York Post

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Thursday said the league is working with Apple to bring a tech-enhanced viewing experience to its $3,499 Vision Pro virtual reality headset.

During an exclusive chat with The Post at Allen & Co.’s annual “summer camp for billionaires,” the hoops honcho hinted that fast breaks and slam dunks could be part of a reimagined courtside experience on Apple’s hotly anticipated device.

Stuff

Apple Removes Gift Wrapping Option With 'Signature' Ribbon Box, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple no longer offers gift wrapping for online orders in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and select other countries where the option was available. References to gift wrapping were removed from Apple’s website this week, and the option no longer appears to be available at checkout.

Ridiculous Fishing Is Back, And It Is Still Very Ridiculous, by Andrew Webster, The Verge

Essentially, the update makes Ridiculous Fishing feel a touch more modern without messing with any of the parts that made it such a hit in the first place. In fact, this might be even more ridiculous — which is saying something.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure Is Real But Has Nothing To Do With South Park, by Ash Parrish, The Verge

If you’re in need of a twee life sim (yes!), Hello Kitty Island Adventure seems like it’ll scratch that itch.

Notes

Anger And Fear After Popular Diabetes App Breaks, by Tom Gerken and Jamie Ryan, BBC

Abbott, which manufactures the FreeStyle Libre device, says it is the top sensor-based glucose monitoring system used worldwide.

But its app has stopped working on some Apple devices, and it has now been withdrawn from the App Store.

Meta And Google Are Blocking Links To News In Canada. The US Might Be Next., by Sara Morrison, Vox

This may have an impact well beyond Canada’s borders, as many countries — including the United States — are considering passing similar laws, and Meta and Google may respond similarly to them. Those countries are surely very interested in seeing how this all plays out in Canada as a guide to how things might go for them in the future. Meta and Google don’t want to back down, pay up, and set a further precedent. The Canadian government, on the other hand, doesn’t want to appear to give in to giant American companies and further illustrate how influential and powerful those companies are.

“Canada is this testbed for platforms, government, and media, and who gets to decide what the role of those platforms is and the power they have,” Alfred Hermida, a journalism professor at the University of British Columbia, told Vox. “This is going to set the tone.”

Bottom of the Page

I know to never blame the compiler (first) if my program is not working. It is almost always my fault, not the compiler, not the operating system.

Except today I forgot. I was hunting up and down why my program is no longer retrieving the list of playlists in my Apple Music account, toggling privacy settings, rebooting my machine. (It didn't help that this morning, I just wiped all my iTunes computer authorization to start again.)

Turns out, I forgot to publish a variable in my observed object. Totally, my fault.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Proprietary-and-Tribal Edition Friday, July 14, 2023

Apple, Lionel Messi And The $2.5bn Question: What's Next?, by Adam Crafton, The Athletic

“Having said that, league’s value relationships and stability. And changing partners is not something that they are anxious to do as a general matter. And so I wouldn’t say it’s a foregone conclusion that there’s going to be a deal with Apple. I think it’s less likely than more likely. If the MLS deal is a model, it’s hard to see that as something that the NBA could even consider. But, if Apple decided, we’ll pay you $20billion, well then that’s a whole different decision. I don’t think they’re going to do that, but they could make the offer.”

“What Apple does is they have various projects in the works. They have a news product now and a music product now. At one time, those things were future developments and sports could very well be in that category for them. Sport is the one product, with the possible exception of news, that has a new original product every day. It is proprietary, it is tribal, and it is a very, very powerful form of entertainment.”

Stuff

Apple's Back To School Promo Now Available In Europe, Middle East, And Asia, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

After launching its annual Back to School promo for the US in June, Apple has made the special deals available in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Depending on where you live, you’ll be eligible for up to a €150 (£130) gift card or a free pair of AirPods.

Apple Launches Tap To Pay On iPhone For UK Business, by Jonny Evans, Computerworld

In a surprise announcement, the company extended the service to UK businesses on July 13. It lets them accept Apple Pay and other contactless payments using an iPhone and a partner-enabled app and is the logical extension of Apple’s original plan to make the iPhone (and Watch) replace the contents of your wallet.

Skyglass Lets You Shoot Virtual Productions In Real-time With Your iPhone, by John Aldred, DIYPhotography

Skyglass is a new app for the iPhone that lets you track your subject and composite them into a virtual AI or Unreal environment in real-time. It keys the subject out from a green-screen background or can even use AI to remove an environment from your shot if a green screen is not available.

Notes

Think 'Foundation' Is Beautiful? Thank The James Webb Telescope, by Marah Eakin, Wired

Foundation showrunner David S. Goyer says his adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction series honed its cosmic details with Kevin Hand, a scientist who works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and who’s currently hard at work figuring out the logistics of landing a rover on Europa, one of Jupiter’s 95 known moons. The show also found inspiration for its spacey visuals in recent images sent down from the James Webb Space Telescope, which Goyer calls “a treasure trove of material.”

Bottom of the Page

Speaking of Apple TV+, I am excited with the second season of The Afterparty. I have only watched the first two episodes, but I am not buying the premise of the story. Which, as far as I can tell, is a rehashing of the same premise of the first season, but doesn't really work for me.

Oh well. But I will probably still work the entire season. I think the comedy still clicks despite of the shaky premise.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Scope-to-Think-Different Edition Thursday, July 13, 2023

The PC Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Different — And I’m Thanking Apple, by Roland Moore-Colyer, Tom's Guide

There's scope to ‘think different’ when it comes to custom chips and nailing machines that do general computing near-perfectly without any need for gimmicks or superfluous bells and whistles.

Apple Re-releases Zero-day Patch After Fixing Browsing Issue, by Sergiu Gatlan, BleepingComputer

Apple fixed and re-released emergency security updates addressing a WebKit zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks. The initial patches had to be withdrawn on Monday due to browsing issues on certain websites.

[...]

The zero-day flaw (CVE-2023-37450) patched today impacts the WebKit browser engine, and it allows attackers to gain arbitrary code execution by tricking targets into opening maliciously crafted web pages.

macOS Ventura 13.5 Fixes iPod Shuffle Syncing Issue Years After Device Was Discontinued, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

The upcoming macOS 13.5 update resolves a syncing issue with the third-generation and fourth-generation iPod shuffle, according to Apple’s developer release notes. The update is currently in beta testing and will likely be released later this month.

Coming This Fall

Apple Introduces Bilingual Siri And A Full Page Screenshot Feature With iOS 17, by Ivan Mehta, TechCrunch

The Cupertino-based company has added support for bilingual queries to Siri starting with select Indic languages. This means users will be able to ask queries to Siri by mixing English and Hindi. Additionally, users can mix English with Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi.

[...]

Apple is also bringing a full-page screenshot feature to iOS 17 — something that Android phones have been offering through “Scrolling screenshots” for years now. Users can save this as an image or a PDF file.

First Look: 2023 Public Beta Platform Features, by Six Colors

Among the specific improvements touted by Apple during its WWDC keynote is that a certain expletive will no longer be corrected to “ducking” and in my experience, that’s true. Autocorrect also better understands sentences, and can correct words to fit an appropriate context (think “we’ll” vs “will”). But one of the best improvements in this year’s updates is an improved autocorrect interface: corrected words are now underlined briefly, letting you tap or control-click on them in order to revert to whatever you originally typed.

Apple’s also really talked up its improvements to predictive text this year. They now appear inline as you type, showing up as grayed-out letters or words after the cursor. You can hit the spacebar to accept the predictions, and in some cases it’ll even suggest multiple words to finish the sentence. It’s wild, and a little surreal, and while I find it very useful on iOS, retraining myself on the Mac—where I type much faster than with iOS’s onscreen keyboard—has proved to be a more difficult task (and ultimately perhaps less useful).

macOS Sonoma: The MacStories Preview, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Widgets’ new interactivity is fantastic, but simply having widgets on the Mac’s desktop is the biggest deal of all. There are lots of apps I open throughout the day just to see one piece of information. Sometimes that’s the checking status of a package in Parcel. Other times it’s checking the time in Rome, using Dato, or the air quality in Paku. There are still reasons to open those apps, but desktop widgets make them far more useful when I’m in the middle of something else. Judging from the early betas we’ve already seen, readers can expect a lot of interesting and innovative new widgets from third-party developers this fall.

The Mac Sure Is Starting To Look Like The iPhone, by Monica Chin, The Verge

Personally, I find the benefit of widgets on iPhone largely to be that you glance at them while you’re grocery shopping or waiting for the bus or whatever and don’t have time to open the actual app. The use case for having them on a computer desktop is not as clear to me — I don’t have the occasion to quickly glance at my computer’s blank desktop while doing something else nearly as commonly. I suspect that the primary impact of having widgets on the desktop is that it makes your Mac look a lot more like your iPhone. I have hope that third-party developers might figure out fun and exciting use cases for desktop widgets by the time Sonoma is fully released (but honestly, you never really know with that).

iCloud Passwords For Chrome Is No Longer Only On Windows, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

For the longest time, Apple has supported iCloud Keychain for both Safari and Chrome users. The only catch is that Chrome users needed to use Windows. iCloud Keychain was a Safari-only party on the Mac.

That’s about to change with macOS Sonoma. The new version of macOS will be the first to expand iCloud Keychain support beyond Safari.

First Look: macOS Sonoma Public Beta, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

Even in early development, I’ve managed to use it on my main Mac without any serious compatibility issues or major bugs. This means that if you’re desperate for change in macOS, you will be disappointed—but at this point I suspect that most Mac users just want incremental improvements without disruptive changes. Slow and steady wins the race.

iOS 17’s StandBy Is My Favorite New iPhone Feature In Years, by David Pierce, The Verge

Apple’s approach to widgets in general is fascinating and important. The basic paradigm of phones has been the same since the advent of the App Store: your phone is a collection of apps, and you spend your life inside those apps. But over the last few years, Apple has been trying to find ways to surface some of the information behind those app icons so you can find it and interact with it more easily.

First Look: iOS 17 Public Beta, by Dan Moren, Six Colors

iOS 17’s Live Voicemail feature takes an old idea—call screening—and makes it new again. Because rather than listening to someone leave a message, you can instead read it in real time as it scrolls across your lock screen, letting you decide right then and there whether you want to pick up. The transcription, while not perfect, is on par with the rest of Apple’s speech-to-text features, and though it might not get everything just right, it’s generally close enough to help you get the gist of the message.

Live Voicemail has prompted me to turn on Silence Unknown Callers at last, and I have frankly never been happier with my phone experience. Most of the time Live Voicemail doesn’t even come up for me, because most spam calls give up when they don’t get a live person—plus Apple’s already filtering for known spam or telemarketer numbers identified by your carrier; they don’t even ring through. As a result, my phone almost never rings unless it’s a call I’m expecting, and honestly, that’s kind of an ideal situation.

In iPadOS 17, Apple Fixed The Worst Thing About Stage Manager, by David Pierce, The Verge

The first version of Stage Manager struck me as a bad solution to a nonexistent problem, a better and simpler way to navigate your iPad that was actually neither better nor simpler. With iPadOS 17, I actually think I see the possibilities here. Particularly for power users, Stage Manager is indeed a faster way to flip between your most-used apps, and if you’re on an external display, it’s leaps and bounds better than any option you’ve had before. Just by giving users more freedom to move and resize windows, Stage Manager feels vastly more useful.

First Look: iPadOS 17 Public Beta, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

I always suspected that Apple’s reluctance to let iPad users manage their own windows was the knowledge that the biggest failure of a layered windowing interface is that users can “lose” windows behind other windows. In iPadOS 17, Apple has solved this problem in a clever way. If you’ve got a window that will be obscured by another one, the window will move so that its edge is sticking out just behind the obscuring window. If you tap that window to bring it forward, it returns to its previous location. It’s an inspired accommodation that means it’s unlikely that you’ll ever lose a window in Stage Manager, while allowing users to put their windows where they want them. Very smart.

watchOS 10 Preview: Widgets All The Way Down, by Victoria Song, The Verge

All I have to do is swipe up, and then voilà — I’ve summoned a list of widgets featuring my most commonly used apps. They’re there regardless of which watchface I choose, which gives me more options in how I customize the Apple Watch to best fit my needs. Say I want a distraction-free watchface for my Work Focus, but I don’t want to sacrifice the ability to quickly see how far I am on my Activity Rings. With widgets, I don’t have to sit down, scratch my head, and do multidimensional calculus to figure out which minimalistic watchface will afford me that.

The widgets themselves can smoosh in quite a bit of information that a teeny complication often can’t. For instance, I could use the new Palette watchface and still swipe up to see the temperature for the next five hours. If I need to see more, I can tap that widget, and it brings up a redesigned Weather app that displays the information much more prominently.

First Look: watchOS 10 Public Beta, by Dan Moren, Six Colors

More to the point, by adding the ability to move your complications to the widget stack, it frees you up from feeling like you have to have them on the watch face, which means if you—like me—have ever wanted to use one of faces that offers only a few or no complication slots, you can now do it secure in the knowledge that your complications are just a spin of the Digital Crown away.

watchOS 10: The MacStories Preview, by Alex Guyot, MacStories

This is not the first time we’ve seen reassignments of hardware buttons on the Apple Watch, but it is the first time in a number of years. Spinning the Digital Crown hasn’t had a significant role on the main watch face since Time Travel was dropped, and the side button’s last reassignment was to switch from the Friends interface to the Apple Watch Dock. Both of those changes occurred in watchOS 3.

The tenth version of watchOS is as good a time as ever to rethink these hardware interactions once again. I’ve never found the Apple Watch Dock to be particularly useful, and making the Digital Crown do nothing except trigger a few fun yet frivolous watch face animations was always a bit of a waste. I’m not sure that the new interactions are perfect, but at least it’s good to see Apple experimenting with the Apple Watch again.

This Is A Quietly Big Year For The Apple TV And tvOS, by Chris Welch, The Verge

But the more you explore the Apple TV’s latest software release, the clearer it becomes that this is one of the more significant updates Apple’s streaming box has received in many years. It introduces FaceTime on the big screen. Control Center is so much better than before. And there are several new features that demonstrate the unmatched cohesion of Apple’s ecosystem across platforms.

Bottom of the Page

This year's OS updates from Apple seems, to me, rather good. No controversial redesigns. Okay, the deprecation alerts are not good, but I am expecting changes before this fall. (Contact developers? Since when are we customers of third-party developers? :-) )

But, no, I am not tempted to install the public betas. I've got real things to do on my devices.

~

Thanks for reading.

The More-Places-for-Content Edition Wednesday, July 12, 2023

These Are The Biggest Apple Watch Upgrades Powered By New Developer APIs, by Kate Kozuch, Tom's Guide

“watchOS 10 is making the user experience a lot more seamless, where users now when they raise their wrist, they'll be able to get more information at the glance than ever before," said Eric Charles, Worldwide Product Marketing, Apple.

[...]

“We're really leaning into the idea of using the entire display to create more places for content,” Charles said. “This has shown really well in an app like Weather, where now you can see AQI, you can see wind speed, you can see your up-to-date data without having to go deeper into the app. It increases discoverability, it increases glanceability.”

Apple Confirms WebKit Security Updates Break Browsing On Some Sites, by Sergiu Gatlan, BleepingComputer

Apple confirmed today that emergency security updates released on Monday to address a zero-day bug exploited in attacks also break browsing on some websites. New ones will be released soon to address this known issue, the company says.

While Apple did not explain why the affected websites were prevented from rendering correctly, this reportedly happened after some services' user-agent detection (i.e., Zoom, Facebook, and Instagram) got broken and caused the websites to start showing errors in Safari on patched devices.

What's At Stake In GM’s Move Away From Apple CarPlay, Android Auto In EVs? A Lot., by Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press

“CarPlay’s not broken. Why fix it?” asked a source in close contact with multiple GM dealers and who requested anonymity for business concerns. “The risk of failure is very high.”

That’s a common sentiment from dealers and potential customers. Apple CarPlay is available on 98% of new vehicles sold in the United States. People are used to it. They expect the convenience of accessing their contacts, music and more via familiar and reliable controls and commands.

Stuff

Apple Releases New Firmware For Beats Studio Buds, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple does not provide information on what’s included in firmware updates for its Beats earbuds, so we are not sure what improvements or bug fixes the new software brings.

Bear 2 Is A Terrific Notes App — And It Only Took Forever To Build, by David Pierce, The Verge

Bear 2, the new note-taking app from developer Shiny Frog, is launching today on iOS, iPadOS, and Mac. It comes with lots of new features. You can now create tables in Bear notes. You can play GIFs, preview links and PDFs, scan documents, add footnotes and a table of contents, bring your own fonts, and more. You can also style your documents more easily: until now, using Bear required at least a passing knowledge of the Markdown language, but now it looks and works more like any other text editor. I’ve been using the beta for many months, and it’s one of my favorite note-taking apps for Apple devices.

The new version is a long time coming. It’s a complete rewrite of the app, Shiny Frog CEO Danilo Bonardi says, and has been a lot more work than the company expected. The underlying text editor, which the company calls Panda, has been in beta testing since early 2020, and users have been clamoring for Bear 2’s features for even longer.

Luna Display Gets Peer-to-peer Networking, Mac-to-Mac Over USB, Faster Performance, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Luna Display is a great way to use a Mac or iPad to extend the screen of your primary Mac and today Astropad has released the latest version of the software. The update brings peer-to-peer networking for improved wireless performance, USB support for Mac-to-Mac mode, as well as 30% faster performance for all connection types.

Notes

Hollywood Studios’ WGA Strike Endgame Is To Let Writers Go Broke Before Resuming Talks In Fall, by Dominic Patten, Deadline

Receiving positive feedback from Wall Street since the WGA went on strike May 2, Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to “break the WGA,” as one studio exec blatantly put it.

To do so, the studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work.

Peak TV Has Peaked: From Exhausted Talent To Massive Losses, The Writers Strike Magnifies An Industry In Freefall, by Jennifer Maas, Variety

The tipping point has finally arrived. After years of heady growth, heightened demands and unpredictable development and production schedules, seasoned TV writers are feeling the burn and yearning for the structure of simpler times, before streaming changed everything. As striking Writers Guild of America members gather daily on picket lines in Los Angeles and New York, the realization of how much has been lost amid the unprecedented spike in episodic production has come into sharp focus.

Bottom of the Page

I have three apps on my iPhone homescreen that brings me joyous audio entertainment: one for audiobooks, one for podcasts, and one for music.

Of course, my brain is now telling me that there are four slots for apps on a single row in iPhone's homescreen, and I need to search for that fourth audio entertainment app.

(Sometimes, I don't like my brain.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Visual-Reminders Edition Tuesday, July 11, 2023

How Do You Request Music Using Siri?, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

So I have spent decades selecting music by looking through an alphabetized collection—either a lineup of CDs on a shelf or a scrolling list of artists. The CDs were particularly effective because favorite artists stood out by virtue of occupying more shelf space, whereas in iTunes and now Music, David Bowie takes up the same amount of space as Vib Gyor. (Until searching, I had no idea who Vib Gyor is, and they’re not in Apple Music. I think the iTunes Store gave their “We Are Not An Island” song away in its New Music Tuesdays promotions, which were a slightly helpful way to find new music.)

With voice commands directed to a HomePod, though, I have to figure out what I want to listen to without any visual reminders that might trigger a positive—or negative—response, and I’m not happy with how well I’m doing that. I find that I listen to a relatively small subset of music simply due to the limited details I can bring to mind at any given time. Of course, I could pull out my iPhone and scroll through the Music app whenever I wanted to play music—and I do that occasionally, but it’s too much work most of the time.

Rapid Security Responses For iOS/iPadOS 16.5.1 (A) And macOS Ventura 13.4.1 (A), by Adam Engst, TidBITS

Apple has released Rapid Security Responses for iOS 16.5.1 (a), iPadOS 16.5.1 (a), and macOS Ventura 13.4.1 (a) to fix a WebKit vulnerability that could allow malicious Web content to execute arbitrary code. Unsurprisingly, this vulnerability is being actively exploited, and I encourage you to install these updates as soon as feasible.

Apple Pulls iOS 16.5.1 And macOS 13.4.1 Rapid Security Response Updates Due To Safari Bug, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple earlier today released new Rapid Security Response updates for iOS 16.5.1, iPadOS 16.5.1, and macOS Ventura 13.4.1 users, but Apple has pulled the software, likely due to an issue that caused certain websites not to work after the RSRs were installed.

[...]

The iOS 16.5.1, iPadOS 16.5.1, and macOS Ventura 13.4.1 Rapid Security Response updates fixed a WebKit vulnerability that Apple says may have been actively exploited. Unfortunately, it appears that the updates changed the Safari user agent to include an (a), leading some websites to break.

On Security

ShadowVault macOS Stealer Surfaces As The Newest Sophisticated Mac Malware, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Guardz says that ShadowVault isn’t just another malware, it’s “a sophisticated piece of software built with one purpose – to steal” and that the malware can “have a catastrophic impact on business functionalities and user privacy.”

Stuff

Porsche Is Updating How CarPlay Works In Its Cars, Adding Climate Controls And More, by Umar Shakir, The Verge

Porsche’s CarPlay integration is showing a hint of what a total Apple in-car solution could look like. Quick actions like warming up the car within the CarPlay interface, as well as changing sound profiles, are examples of how Porsche seems to be embracing an Apple solution. Porsche has been a fan of Apple’s software in the past, including being an early adopter of CarPlay, and including Apple Podcasts as its native podcast app.

Best Laptop Docks For MacBook Air: Make Your Awesome Computer Even Better, by Bryan M Wolfe, TechRadar

If you use your laptop in a specific location, like a home or office, a laptop dock can significantly increase your productivity. It provides a more desktop-like experience, allowing you to connect multiple displays, use various peripherals, and even charge your laptop from a single central location.

Notes

Fifteen Years Of OmniFocus For iPhone And The iPhone App Store, by Ken Case, Omni Group

We thought it was important to get our app out to the press for review, and in the past we’d always done that by sending out free “Not For Resale” copies of our apps. We had press asking us for demo copies—but the App Store was an adaptation of the iTunes Music Store. At its launch, there weren’t any mechanisms for free copies of paid apps: no promo codes, no TestFlight, no trials or in-app purchases. What to do? The next morning, we went to the local Apple Store, bought a bunch of iTunes gift cards matching the price of our app, scratched the backs of each one to get at their codes, and then emailed out all those codes to potential reviewers. (Linda wrote, “Ask me how fun it is scratching off gift cards to get at the codes! SO FUN!”)

If Apple Is Worth $3 Trillion, Why Does The User Experience Feel So Cheap?, by The Macalope, Macworld

Look, it’s 2023. If you buy an iPhone, backing it up should be included. That’s all. But it’s not too much to ask from a company that’s doing pretty okay, thank you very much.

Apple Opens Store On China's WeChat Platform, by Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh, Reuters

The move by Apple comes as Chinese consumers increasingly turn to social media platforms such as WeChat and ByteDance's Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to shop.

Besides its own stores and website, Apple already operates a shop on Alibaba Group's Tmall online marketplace. Apple also tried marketing its products on a livestream in China for the first time in May with an hour-long show.

Bottom of the Page

Also: Look, it's 2023. And we still have websites that breaks when the user-agent string is a little different?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Business-Size Edition Monday, July 10, 2023

Apple’s Vision Pro Will Take Far Longer Than iPad, Watch To Spur Big Revenue, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

If Apple hits the low-end of that range at an average sales price of $3,700 — incorporating optional prescription lenses and extras — that’s about $1.5 billion in revenue in year one. To become an iPad-sized business, the category would have to grow by 20 times to about 8 million units annually.

[...]

But even if a cheaper version comes in at $1,500 to $2,000, I think most people will still opt for the safer pick: the Mac, an iPad or other existing devices. And that will be the case for most consumers until Apple can get the product down to the price of an iPhone and into a form closer to a pair of eyeglasses.

An Alerting Vista Of Sonoma, by Craig Hockenberry, Furbo.org

It’s like having your check engine like go off the next time you start the car, and the diagnostic code being removed by the time you get to the repair shop. Developers reaction to these reports will be the same as your local mechanic: “I don’t know what’s wrong. Good luck.”

Stuff

Apple Promotes Long Battery Life And Crash Detection In Two New iPhone 14 Ads, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

Apple has shared two new ads on its YouTube channel, one promoting the long battery life of the iPhone 14 Plus and the other using the iPhone 14 Pro to highlight Apple’s Crash Detection feature.

Limited-Edition Beats Fit Pro In Collaboration With Fragment Design Now Available, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

Beats has collaborated for a third time with fragment design founder Hiroshi Fujiwara for a monochromatic limited-edition version of Beats Fit Pro earbuds.

This Powerful App Shows Everything About Your iPhone, iPad, Or MacBook's Battery, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet

Using this tool, you can quickly and easily find the age of your devices and their batteries, how many times the battery has been recharged, current battery health, and a lot more.

Notes

A Visual History Of The Computer, From IBM’s Simon To Apple’s iMac, by Elissaveta M. Brandon, Fast Company

The computer has come a long way since it was first invented in the late 1800s. Once a mind-boggling network of machines big enough to fill entire rooms, the computer today is so tiny it can be squeezed inside a smart watch or a VR headset. But in between those extremes, there is a wealth of innovations.

That wealth is portrayed in a new book by graphic designers Jens Muller and Julius Wiedemann, and published by Taschen. Simply titled The Computer, the 500-page tome is an exceptional survey of the digital age and how it has shaped our world over the past two centuries. “The main evolutionary part is that the computer gets smaller and smaller, and I think the next logical next step is that computers literally disappear,” says Muller.

Bottom of the Page

The first 'computer' that I really wanted was Speak & Spell. Of course, I didn't get it because my family was not rich.

And I don't think that was really a computer, wasn't it?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Go-the-Distance Edition Sunday, July 9, 2023

I Took The Apple Watch Ultra To Run The World's Oldest Ultramarathon, by Kieran Alger, T3

When I saw Apple launch the Apple Watch Ultra with photos of desert runners, and that Ultra tag, I was the first to question its long-haul endurance credentials. I still think there’s a way to go before this watch is a genuine conquer-them-all ultra running tool. That battery life still isn’t there for multi-day or 24-hour races. The native navigation remains somewhat limited.

But my Comrades test convinced me that for races up to 14 or 15 hours, on a marked course, Apple finally has a watch you can rely on to go the distance, track with good accuracy and bring a whole load of extra smarts that you won’t find on your Garmin, COROS or Polar.

Beware The Digital Whiteboard, by Megan Marz, Wired

In 2003, the data visualization expert Edward Tufte traced that year’s Columbia disaster—in which seven astronauts died when their shuttle disintegrated—to a piece of software. It was PowerPoint, he argued, that prevented people at NASA from understanding the gravity of the risks facing the shuttle. PowerPoint all but forced “breaking up narratives and data into … minimal fragments,” “a preoccupation with format not content,” and “a smirky commercialism that turns information into a sales pitch.” Serious dangers got buried at the bottom of a multilevel hierarchy of bullet points under a bigger, sunnier title. If only the information had been delivered in a proper technical report, Tufte implied, the astronauts might still be alive.

Twenty years later, there’s a new office tool keeping us from fully expressing and processing important information: the digital whiteboard. These boards are vast canvases on which you can add and drag around virtually limitless quantities of text, images, tables, diagrams, emoji, and shapes. In their typical state, they are mostly covered with sticky notes on which people have written a word or three. What the words signify in context can quickly become hard to remember, but that’s OK. Like books used as decorations, they get their value from the fact that they signify something.

Bottom of the Page

I have to keep reminding myself on my hobby project: don't compromise making what's right on the iOS just because SwiftUI + Mac Catalyst look like… something else.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Losing-Protection Edition Saturday, July 8, 2023

Apple Music Trademark Denied, After Tactical Error By Company, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

With the benefit of hindsight, Apple should probably have dropped the live music category from the application as soon as this was challenged. It could then have continued the application process without that, and would almost certainly have been awarded the Apple Music trademark for everything else.

As it is, the company has lost any trademark protection at all.

My AirPods Keep Telling Me They're Lost ... Through My AirPods, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

There’s a new level of false positives that has occurred more recently. Several times a week, Siri will tell me that my AirPods are no longer with me through the AirPods it claims are lost.

Admittedly, this is slightly less annoying than when they’re in your bag. At least you don’t need to actually check. Still, it’s enough to make me crack a smile every time. I, for one, look forward to Vision Pro lost alerts appearing on Vision Pro while you wear it.

The Future Of Photography Is Unedited, by Ritchie Roesch, Fuji X Weekly

There’s a new photography trend on the iPhone. Instead of using the front-facing camera to take selfies, people are taking screen shots of the preview from the selfie camera. Why? What’s the difference? The pipeline for the image preview and the actual photographs are different on the iPhone. Most notably, Apple applies an HDR processing to the exposure (but not the preview), which creates a less-contrasty picture. If you are going to apply a filter to the photo and edit it, having a flatter starting point makes sense; however, if you are not editing, one might prefer the more-contrasty image preview. Aside from that, it can be frustrating that the preview doesn’t match the photograph.

On Security

French Bill To Allow Police To Commandeer Phones, by Michael Tsai

I hope that Tim Cook will have a statement about whether this is possible with Apple devices. Has Apple has been asked to assist or has it been done via exploits?

On Social

A Eulogy For Twitter: The Place Us Journalists Loved, For Better Or Worse, by Lois Beckett, Johana Bhuiyan, Abené Clayton and Kari Paul, The Guardian

For journalists, who moved onto Twitter early and helped define it as the premier digital location for news to be made and broken, the death of Twitter would be big – the end of an era. That’s especially true of journalists like us, who entered the profession after Twitter’s 2006 launch and built our careers at digital outlets, where Twitter defined the stories we covered and the rhythm of our days.

[...]

Now, Twitter is handing us another assignment: how to write a eulogy for a platform that generated so much hope and harm.

Apple Was Right Not To Run A Social Network, by Jonny Evans, Computerworld

Steve Jobs got it right when he (presumably) declined to create an Apple social media service. Perhaps he had a premonition that when you run the world’s town square, you end up needing to find some way to balance all the opinions on the planet, including those for which humans have killed each other since the dawn of time.

If we can’t figure out how to have polite disagreements IRL., how would we ever strike such balance online? How do you create a balance between government and free speech? And when does free speech become a cover for misogyny, elitism, or homophobia?

Stuff

How Tough Is The Apple Watch Ultra? I Stress-tested It For 9 Months, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet

I'm impressed there isn't more damage to the case. The titanium does an exceptional job of resisting being scratched, and the fact that there isn't a single deep gouge in it is a testament to its strength.

As for the sapphire crystal, having owned watches with sapphire crystals before, I expected this material to shrug off all but the most determined of efforts to damage it, so it's good to see that it's lived up to expectation.

These Apple Music Widgets Will Improve Your Listening Experience, by Bryan M. Wolfe, Stuff

Did you know Apple Music is the second most popular streaming service after Spotify? Well, they are, at least when it comes to subscribers. If you’re an Apple Music listener, you want to amp up your listening experience on your iPhone. You can do just that, by checking out the growing list of Apple Music widgets.

Chronicling: A Flexible Event Tracker With Modern Features And A Top-Notch Design, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Chronicling is a brand-new event tracking app for iOS and iPadOS by Rebecca Owen. The App Store is full of apps for tracking everything from the very specific, like caffeine consumption, to apps like Chronicling that can be used to track nearly anything. What makes Owen’s app unique, though, is it’s one of the best examples of modern SwiftUI design that I’ve seen that incorporates the still relatively new Swift Charts and other recent Apple technologies to deliver a great user experience.

Peak Packs Themes And Widgets Into A Personal Fitness Dashboard For iPhone, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

We can all use a little encouragement in our lives to stay active, and that’s what the new Peak app strives to do. The new app by indie developer Harshil Shah provides a new approach to tracking your fitness goals and progress.

At a glance, Peak will look very familiar to the data you can see in the Health and Fitness apps on iPhone. Where things start to diverge is with the ability to really personalize how and where Peak appears.

Capture One's New iPhone App Is Good For 'Pro' Users But Not For Casual Shooters, by Dan Bracaglia, DPReview

In the greater Capture One ecosystem, this iPhone-specific app makes a lot of sense. Users already dedicated to the Pro version get a handy new tool that can potentially speed up workflows, impress clients and increase collaboration. After all, image ratings/labels and edits made in the mobile app all transfer to desktop (and iPad).

But for non-Capture One Pro folks, the app is a tough sell, especially if you’re a casual user.

Notes

The Inside Story Of How Congress Failed To Rein In Big Tech, by Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post

Love the products, hate the companies — that’s the way many Americans think about Big Tech. Which is why it looked like a good bet when Congress convened in 2021 that Washington might finally rein in the companies that many believe have grown too big, too rich and too powerful — even as their products and services have become ever more indispensable to our lives. Here, it seemed, was the rare issue on which both Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, could agree.

In the end, however, Congress failed to act. And in that failure is a case study of how Congress has lost its ability to address the most pressing problems facing the country.

Apple’s Irish Escrow Fund Loses Further €259m As ECJ Ruling Awaited, by Cantillon, The Irish Times

The effects of pervasive negative rates on European bonds and Apple being allowed to take out some money to pay taxes in other jurisdictions nibbled away at the original amount in the account between 2018 and 2021.

The Department of Finance said on Wednesday that a further €259 million was knocked off the fund’s value last year, to bring it down to less than €13.4 billion.

Apple Purges Predatory Lending Apps In India Following Scrutiny, by Manish Singh, TechCrunch

Apple removed several predatory lending apps from the App Store in India this week, days after users and media questioned the legitimacy of those services.

Bottom of the Page

Some days, I thought that I understand trademark laws. Today, I find that I don't.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Tiny-Specks-of-Dust Edition Friday, July 7, 2023

Apple’s Headset Headache: The Tiny And Costly Displays Inside The Vision Pro, by Christian Davies, Financial Times

But the cost of the silicon wafer, the challenge of manufacturing a product that can be ruined by tiny specks of dust entering during the manufacturing process, and the fact that no company has yet started mass production all contribute to its prohibitively high cost.

[...]

But two people with direct knowledge of the process said that no display makers have yet managed to meet Apple’s expectations for the technology, amid ongoing concerns over the component’s cost.

Apple Plans A Slow, Appointment-Only Rollout Of Its $3,500 Vision Pro, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The company will designate special areas in the stores with seating, headset demo units and tools to size accessories for buyers. While the device will be sold at all of Apple’s roughly 270 US locations, the company is planning the sections for the Vision Pro initially at stores in major areas – such as New York and Los Angeles – before rolling them out nationwide, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

[...]

Apple will ask in-store buyers to make an appointment to purchase the Vision Pro. That follows a strategy the company used for the Apple Watch in 2015. The driving force behind the idea is to ensure customers walk out with a product that fits properly. If applicable, the company will ask users for their vision prescription for lens inserts via an online portal.

TestFlight Now Supports visionOS Apps, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple today updated the TestFlight app to support apps designed for the first visionOS beta, which means that developers may soon be able to use TestFlight for testing apps designed for the Apple Vision Pro headset.

Stuff

Apple Shares 13-Minute 'Shot On iPhone 14 Pro' Film Featuring Lucha Libre Legend Huracán Ramírez, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

The film retells the fortunes of Lucha Libre legend Huracán Ramírez, who is forced to come out of wrestling retirement to defeat an evil piñata that is terrorizing all of Mexico. The monster is unwittingly created by a boy when he uses extra spicy chili powder as a replacement for sugar during the piñata-making process, bringing chaos to the country.

Shazam App Can Now Identify Songs In TikTok, Instagram, YouTube And More, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple today updated its Shazam music recognition app to allow it to recognize and identify songs that are playing in third-party apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

Bottom of the Page

I am an email-inbox-zero kind of person, but I feel that my email client is always taunting me when I finish processing my inbox with this message: "All done for the day."

"It's only 9.05am", I want to shout. "My workday has just started, and I have lots more things outside this inbox that I am busy with!"

(Okay, the next line of the message does say: "Enjoy your empty inbox." But then, I do have other inboxes, and I know this inbox is going to be filled sooner than later.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Whole-Story Edition Thursday, July 6, 2023

5 Vision Pro Features Apple Doesn't Want To Talk About, by Jason Snell, Macworld

And yet I remain firmly convinced that Apple hasn’t told us the whole story. The WWDC keynote was the time to make a first impression–but there’s half a year to go before the final story is told. As a result, Apple emphasized the features of the device that it felt would best represent the device. It emphasized the fact that it’s an augmented-reality product that keeps you connected with people around you as a way to blunt criticism that Apple’s trying to use its technology to wall people off from each other.

With the Vision Pro, there’s more to come. Here’s where I think Apple will have a much larger story to tell.

Vision Pro Parody Ad Featuring Stephen Fry Banned From Apple Music, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

British singer-songwriter Tim Arnold told me that his new album Super Connected launched on Spotify as planned, but has been banned from Apple Music because it contains a joke “ad” for an Apple headset called iHead.

Stuff

Rectangle Review: Essential App For macOS Window Management, by Catalin Chelariu, Softpedia

Rectangle has become a near-essential piece of kit for Mac users, though the reasons may elude you if you’ve never tried it. It basically adds functionality that is very similar to the Windows Snap feature, while also expanding upon it and adding customizability. All of this in a completely free app.

TV Forecast 2.0 Adds Movie Tracking, by John Voorhees, MacStories

TV Forecast strikes a perfect balance between tracking and discovery. That same tasteful design extends to the app’s new movies tab, providing fully-rounded video support without compromising what makes the app work so well.

Spotify Subscribers No Longer Allowed To Pay Through App Store, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

At the end of the final billing period, Spotify customers who have a subscription through the ‌App Store‌ will have their accounts transitioned to the free ad-supported service. Customers will then need to resubscribe to Premium using the Spotify website.

Bottom of the Page

On the other hand, I do think what Apple presented for Vision Pro at WWDC is what Apple sees as their vision (sorry) of a 'spatial computer', at least initially. (Things will change eventually. Just ask Apple Watch.) It is likely the 1.0 product will not deviate too much from this presentation, which means VR, fitness, and whatever else we want, will not be that feasible with the headset. Rumors seems to indicate that the hardware is ready, but the software still have some finishing work to be done. That will mean the features presented will definitely be prioritized over other wishlists.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Make-Money Edition Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Turning My Passion/Hobby Into A Business Made Me Hate It, by Shantnu's Silent Site

And don’t let anyone shame you if you don’t want to make money.

Guy Kawasaki, by Adrian Kosmaczewski, De Programmatica Ipsum

Technical communities provide software businesses with an audience, a test bed, and eventually, a customer pool for their products and services, but this only works if the products are good enough to begin with. This insight was clearly defined by Guy Kawasaki, arguably the person who invented the field of Developer Relations, during his tenure as Chief Evangelist at Apple from 1983 to 1987.

Apple Loses London Appeal In 4G Patent Dispute With Optis, by Sam Tobin, Reuters

Apple Inc infringed two telecommunications patents used in devices including iPhones and iPads, London's Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday, dismissing the tech giant's appeal in a long-running dispute with a U.S. patent holder.

Bottom of the Page

I, too, feel that the latest season of Black Mirror is getting closer to Twilight Zone territory. In fact, in a couple of episodes, I half-expected to get a Twilight Zone narrator at the end of the stories.

Nevertheless, the two episodes that I've enjoyed this season are the bookends: Joan is Awful (fun!) and Demon 79. The others: not so great, in my humble opinion.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Say-Air Edition Tuesday, July 4, 2023

With The 15-inch MacBook Air And Apple Silicon, Apple Is Making It Clear: The Mac Means Business, by Jason Aten, Inc

"When we set out, we wanted to make a 15-inch MacBook Air," Metz told me. "But when you think of what the designs looked like previously, it just didn't work. It just did not say 'Air' to us. It was only with Apple Silicon where we were able to have all the right components to bring that larger display along with the battery life and performance that users would expect from a MacBook Air."

[...]

"Apple Silicon suddenly made MacBook Air that much more capable for business use," said Tan. "So we're certainly seeing a lot of customers making that wholesale switch that otherwise we wouldn't have seen before. We're seeing customers in retail industries adopting MacBook Air for everyday use, we're seeing that in manufacturing, and we're seeing that in health care. So we think Apple Silicon has broadened the appeal to enterprise customers by a significant margin."

Apple Says Latest 13-Inch MacBook Air Now Supports Bluetooth 5.3, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

While the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip initially supported Bluetooth 5.0 when it was released in July 2022, the laptop now supports the faster and more reliable Bluetooth 5.3 standard, according to Apple’s tech specs.

On App Stores

Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft Say They Meet EU Gatekeeper Status, by Foo Yun Chee, Reuters

Companies labelled as gatekeepers will be required to make their messaging apps interoperate with rivals and let users to decide which apps to pre-install on their devices.

They will not be allowed to favour their own services over rivals' or prevent users from removing pre-installed software or apps, two rules that will hit Google and Apple hard.

Apple Faces March 5 Deadline For Third-party App Stores – But Don't Hold Your Breath, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

The case will take years to work its way through to the final appeal.

So yeah, the March 5 deadline is a thing, but don’t expect much to change by then.

Apple To Ask US Supreme Court To Undo App Store Order In Epic Games Case, by Mike Scarcella, Reuters

Apple said in a court filing it will ask the justices to take up its appeal of a ruling on Friday by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that kept in place most of the order issued in 2021 by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

The judge's order said Apple could not prohibit developers from providing links and buttons to payment options in their apps that take consumers outside of the App Store - a step that could reduce sales commissions paid to Apple.

Stuff

Why iCloud Keychain Asks For An Old Device's Password--and Why You Don't Need To Worry, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

While this request looked sketchy or problematic, it was poorly labeled rather than a security hole.

Wait, Fujifilm's App Is Good Now?, by Dan Bracaglia, DP Review

Fujifilm makes a lot of lofty promises about the new XApp and delivers on most of them. In addition to a cleaner, more straightforward design, the company says it should connect and transfer images with better reliability at faster speeds than the old app. The XApp also includes new features, many of which are quite innovative.

Apple Store Database App Facades Just Got A New Set Of Enhancements, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Facades is a catalog of all 500+ Apple Store locations with historical data and a built-in store tracking journal. The latest update introduces all-new grid and thumbnail views for easily browsing the vast library of stores. You can also filter results between indoor and outdoor locations starting with today’s release.

Notes

Game Porting Toolkit In macOS Sonoma Won’t Fix What’s Broken With Mac Games, by Peter Cohen, iMore

Apple’s infamous for shifting priorities after announcing new game technology and walking away from it. Over the course of the years, there have been other examples of promising game technology from Apple that ultimately go nowhere. QuickDraw 3D RAVE and Game Sprockets are good examples from the classic Mac days - a hardware abstraction layer for 3D acceleration long before OpenGL, and a DirectX-style set of game APIs. Both were abandoned well before Apple even made the move to OS X. Apple leaned hard on OpenGL as its 3D API of choice for years, but ultimately ceded space to make way for Metal, the 3D API now so integral to Game Porting Toolkit.

Apple's $3 Trillion Market Cap Is Nice And All, But Does It Really Matter?, by The Macalope, Macworld

Once Apple passed $1 trillion in valuation, though, things began to change. The very idea it could go out of business was less and less publishable. When it passed $2 trillion, you needed to be selling a book or something and just trying to get attention. Now that it’s back at $3 trillion, don’t expect to see it floated much if at all.

So, maybe as an Apple customer, there is a benefit after all.

Bottom of the Page

If you are saying that mandating sideloading on your mobile phone does not affect your security and privacy because you can choose not to sideloads any apps, then maybe you are forgetting that:

Your employee can force you to sideload apps or be fired…

Your government can force you to sideload apps in order to vote in the next election…

Other governments can force you to sideload apps when you visit their countries for work…

And who knows what these apps do.

Oh, you can just quit your job and find better employments? Oh, your government is better than other governments and is not corrupted? Oh, you can just buy a burner phone when you visit other countries? Then, you are just privileged and you don't care about other people's security and privacy.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Inexperienced-Engineers-and-Programmers Edition Monday, July 3, 2023

Designing The First Apple Macintosh: The Engineers’ Story, by Fred Guterl, IEEE Spectrum

Although the odds seemed against it in 1979, the Macintosh, designed by a handful of inexperienced engineers and programmers, is now recognized as a technical milestone in personal computing. Essentially a slimmed-down version of the Lisa workstation with many of its software features, the Macintosh sold for $2495 at its introduction in early 1984; the Lisa initially sold for $10,000. Despite criticism of the Macintosh—that it lacks networking capabilities adequate for business applications and is awkward to use for some tasks—the computer is considered by Apple to be its most important weapon in the war with IBM for survival in the personal-computer business.

From the beginning, the Macintosh project was powered by the dedicated drive of two key players on the project team. For Burrell Smith, who designed the Macintosh digital hardware, the project represented an opportunity for a relative unknown to demonstrate outstanding technical talents. For Steven Jobs, the 29-year-old chairman of Apple and the Macintosh project’s director, it offered a chance to prove himself in the corporate world after a temporary setback: although he cofounded Apple Computer, the company had declined to let him manage the Lisa project. Mr. Jobs contributed relatively little to the technical design of the Macintosh, but he had a clear vision of the product from the beginning. He challenged the project team to design the best product possible and encouraged the team by shielding them from bureaucratic pressures within the company.

Tracking Air Quality In A Wildfire-Filled World, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

This is our second go-round with wildfire smoke. The first was when it drifted down from the Quebec wildfires about 3 weeks ago. It was terrible that time, with the worst air quality index (AQI) in our area at 460 on a scale of 0 to 500. An AQI is a pollutant measurement that offers a relative risk value—no matter what the scale, being near the top is extremely bad. In this second round of wildfire smoke, the AQI numbers have hovered lower, between 150 and 200, which “only” ranks as “Unhealthy” on the EPA’s scale.

The entire situation is making me jittery and ill at ease, and my reaction to anything unknown is to learn as much as I can and share it with others. You’ve just been nominated to help me keep my cool by letting me write this article.

On App Stores

New Rules Should Ensure Safety, Competition In Huge App Market, by The Asahi Shimbun

Rules for promoting competition would only be counterproductive if they lead to the spread of malicious apps that threaten safety and privacy or make consumers anxious. More assessments are needed to determine whether the measures proposed in the final report would really ensure safety.

Another big question is whether the envisioned new regulatory rules will actually promote competition in the market.

Google allows users of its smartphone OS to install apps from marketplaces other than its Google Store. But most of the apps obtained by users of its mobile OS are downloaded from the store.

Coming Soon?

What’s Next For Apple’s AirPods: Health Tracking, USB-C And Lower Prices, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Apple is preparing to give the earbuds a fresh boost. It’s exploring major new hearing health and body-temperature features, and is planning cheaper models and a transition to USB-C charging ports. The product also will have ties to the Vision Pro headset due next year. The capabilities will come in addition to already-announced software features that were part of iOS 17, as well as plans for new AirPods Pro and Max models.

The company is working on a new hearing test feature that will play different tones and sounds to allow the AirPods to determine how well a person can hear. The idea is to help users screen for hearing issues, not unlike how the Apple Watch ECG app checks for heart problems.

Stuff

Apple Weather App Now Offers Next-Hour Precipitation Notifications On iPhone In Australia, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

iPhone users in Australia can now receive next-hour precipitation forecasts and notifications from the Weather app, according to an updated Apple support document.

Notes

Apple Forced To Make Major Cuts To Vision Pro Headset Production Plans, by Qianer Liu, Financial Times

The complexity of the headset design and difficulties in production are behind the scaling back of targets, while plans for a more affordable version of the device have had to be pushed back, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the manufacturing process.

[...]

Two people close to Apple and Luxshare, the Chinese contract manufacturer that will initially assemble the device, said it was preparing to make fewer than 400,000 units in 2024. Multiple industry sources said Luxshare was currently Apple’s only assembler of the device. Separately, two China-based sole suppliers of certain components for the Vision Pro said Apple was only asking them for enough for 130,000 to 150,000 units in the first year.

Bottom of the Page

Apple is now a much more secretive company than in the days of Apple II, Lisa and Macintosh. I do hope one day we will learn about how iPhones and iPads and Vision Pros were developed. Please don't wait until someone is dying and commission a memoir before we get to learn about the hard work done by all the people behind the scenes.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Really-Scary Edition Sunday, July 2, 2023

The Twisted Logic Of Following (Almost-)Strangers On Find My Friends, by Mia Armstrong-López, Slate

When I asked some friends and colleagues for the weirdest contacts they had on Find My—the iPhone app that hosts the option to share locations with your friends, and can also help you track down missing Apple devices—their responses were similarly random: a best friend’s cousin, an ex, a “semi-ex,” friends’ boyfriends, brothers’ friends, former classmates, people from college they hung out with for one day. As Rebecca Jennings recently wrote in Vox, for lots of people under 30, location sharing is “simply the next step in digital intimacy after following someone on Instagram,” part of a never-ending march to the beat of surveillance capitalism.

There’s a very specific utility to Find My Friends: safety. We may try to sound cavalier about it, but it’s actual fear (infuriatingly well grounded in our society) that drives you to ask a friend to check on your whereabouts during a Bumble date. But the flip side of more laissez faire location sharing, as Jennings and others have pointed out, is that it can itself be dangerous, used explicitly or surreptitiously to stalk or manipulate people, or for other types of abuse. Many people have dozens of Find My contacts, accumulated over several years, and may not pay close attention to who’s on the list. Mashable’s Elena Cavender wrote about someone who had 97 contacts, including the “really scary” discovery of a number she hadn’t saved.

What Apple Did To Hit $3 Trillion, by Alex Kantrowitz, Slate

Of all the factors that played a role in Apple’s surge, cash may be the most important. When interest rates rose from zero to more than 5 percent, profits suddenly mattered more than promise, and Apple collected plenty of the former. The company built a formidable war chest, amassing more than $100 billion in cash, and deployed it masterfully. In May, it announced a $90 billion share buyback, its second in two years, putting that money in its investors’ hands. Apple’s buybacks have distinguished it from many of its tech peers who’ve struggled with profitability.

Nokia Renews Patent License Agreement With Apple, by Khushi Mandowara, Reuters

While terms of the agreement remain confidential between the companies, it covers Nokia’s inventions in 5G and other technologies.

Nokia said the company expects to recognize revenue related to the agreement starting January 2024, and it is consistent with the company's long-term outlook disclosed in the first quarter.

Bottom of the Page

I still believe there isn't a good design that works great on both iOS and macOS -- sort-of validating Apple's idea that these different platforms will not converge -- but I sort-of worked out a compromised thing that I can accept. So, onwards for my hobby project.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Business-Offloading Edition Saturday, July 1, 2023

Goldman Is Looking For A Way Out Of Its Partnership With Apple, by AnnaMaria Andriotis, WSJ

[Goldman Sachs] is in talks to offload those businesses and its credit-card partnership to Amex, according to people familiar with the discussions. Goldman has also discussed transferring its card partnership with General Motors to Amex or another issuer, some of the people said.

A deal with Amex isn’t imminent or assured, people familiar with the conversations said, and it could take a while to transfer the partnership in any case. Apple would have to agree to a transfer. The tech company is aware of the talks, which have been ongoing for months, the people said.

Stuff

Apple Adjusts Trade-In Values For iPhones, iPads, Macs, And More, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple today adjusted its estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Android smartphone models in the United States, with some devices slightly increasing in value and others seeing decreases.

Louisville Psychologist Creates App To Help People With Dementia And Amnesia, by Molly Jett, WDRB.com

It gives people with dementia and amnesia access to games and homework assignments. It is geared to help track progress.

Notes

Apple's Market Value Ends Above $3 Trillion For First Time, by Noel Randewich and Tiyashi Datta, Reuters

Apple Inc's stock market value ended a trading session above $3 trillion for the first time on Friday, lifted by signs of improving inflation and bets that the iPhone maker will successfully expand into new markets.

Bottom of the Page

I've had donuts for dinner. That's all.

~

Thanks for reading.