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The Smart-Steroids Edition Saturday, October 21, 2023

A Closer Look At Apple Notes’s Smart Folders, by Josh Ginter, The Sweet Setup

The list of features has really evolved and it has become one of the best note-taking apps available today.

Right alongside the ability to tag your notes in Apple Notes is the ability to create smart folders. Smart folders are tags and folders on steroids — you can build out entirely custom ways to unearth and organize your notes.

Stuff

Pokémon Sleep Helped Me Catch ’Em All — All The Z’s, That Is, by Alexis Ong, The Verge

As a lifelong insomniac who had recently regressed to upsetting levels of sleep dysfunction, this was a chance to finally dive into what seemed like a cute, low-stakes, low-barrier-to-entry app that could keep me company at four in the morning. The concept is simple: Pokémon Sleep is framed as a “sleep research study,” where, each week, the player feeds and studies a Snorlax, whose “drowsy power” attracts other pokémon when it sleeps. As the Snorlax grows, it attracts more pokémon, which can be caught as indentured research assistants to collect food for the Snorlax. No one sleeps until the player sleeps. As the day goes on, the helpers get tired — their smiles start to fade, and their little eyelids droop while they wait for the sweet release of unconsciousness.

The only way to play is to sleep; if you want to be good, you need to sleep well, but if you want to be great, you need to sleep consistently well.

Agenda 18.2, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

The release now enables sorting of individual projects by title, edited date, or creation date and grouping by color.

YouTube Music Rolls Out Apple HomePod Support, by Abner Li, 9to5Google

This lets you use voice commands — “Hey Siri, play music” — to start YouTube Music on a HomePod. It’s a nice alternative to manually starting the app on your phone and then using AirPlay. Like on Google Assistant speakers, you must be a paid YouTube Premium or Music Premium subscriber.

Notes

Beyond The Apple Zero-Days: A Deep Dive Into Cyber Threat Dynamics, by Callie Guenther, SC Media

It's crucial to acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between popularity and vulnerability. Apple's expanding market share and its iconic status naturally make it a bigger target. But the recent onslaught of zero-days targeting Apple may represent broader cyber-espionage trends rather than solely an indicator of Apple's security stance.

China Vice Premier Pushes For More Apple Investment, Cooperation, by Ethan Wang and Bernard Orr, Reuters

China's Vice Premier Ding Duexiang told Apple CEO Tim Cook the group was welcome to participate in developing China's digital economy, as Cook made a surprise visit to Beijing less than a month after the Chinese launch of its iPhone 15.

[...]

Cook said Apple was confident in the prospects of Chinese market, and was willing to strengthen cooperation with China in fields including high-end manufacturing and digital economy, the state radio reported.

Bottom of the Page

I am sad that there isn't a successor to the iPhone mini from Apple. Even the rumored iPhone SE will have a much bigger form factor.

At least this year's Magsafe wallet is still compatible with the mini. There may yet be hope for a small iPhone still. (Or maybe it's just that credit cards haven't grown in size.)

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Thanks for reading.