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The Pulp-and-Cardboard Edition Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Apple’s ‘Carbon Neutral’ Claims Come Under Scrutiny, by Kenza Bryan, Financial Times

Apple faces scrutiny from European environmental and consumer groups over its claims that its latest devices are “carbon neutral”, a term that Brussels proposes to ban in corporate marketing because it is “misleading”.

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“Trees are turned into pulp and cardboard or toilet paper,” Kaskeala said, highlighting that “the carbon stored in these products is released back into the atmosphere very quickly”.

Documents detailing one scheme Apple has backed through a conservation fund show that the majority of the newly planted trees are chopped down to be sold as timber in little more than a decade.

Stop, Before You Close This Tab (Or Any Others) …, by Ali Jaffe Ramis, New York Times

Whenever my computer freezes and shuts down, I’m not surprised. I have a tab problem. As I’m writing this, I currently have 72 browser tabs open: my email, my calendar, the dinner menu of the restaurant where I’m meeting a friend tonight, directions for how to get there, an order confirmation for a refill of Sonicare toothbrush heads, my local yoga studio’s weekly schedule, medical claims forms, Ina Garten’s lemon orzo recipe to make this weekend. My phone, meanwhile, has no fewer than 263 open tabs.

These tabs reflect what’s on my mind. They contain my agenda and provide answers to the mundane questions that demand my attention (“How tall is Paul Giamatti?” “Are wine glasses dishwasher safe?”). Some of them — long-form articles I’ve been meaning to read, skin-care products I can’t afford, an eight-session pottery class that I swear I’ll take when I have the time, trailers for movies I’ll never have time to see, the Wikipedia entries for dog breeds I don’t own (but would like to), shoes I probably won’t buy but am considering because they are (or, more likely, were) on sale — tell a story about the kind of person I aspire to be. Some are reminders of things I don’t want to forget, like the real estate listing for the Sheepshead Bay apartment my grandma grew up in, or parking tickets I need to pay.

Quick Tip: macOS Sonoma/iOS 17’s AutoFill Everywhere Is A Lifesaver, by Dan Moren, Six Colors

In a very clever move, Apple has introduced essentially a manual mode for AutoFill. You’re no longer dependent on Safari recognizing that, yes, these are fields where you can put your address in. Instead, anywhere that you can enter text—and not just in Safari, but anywhere, in any app—bring up the contextual menu by right/two-finger/control clicking on the Mac or tapping and holding on iOS/iPadOS, and then go to the new AutoFill submenu. From there choose Contact or Passwords, depending on what info you want to bring up, and you can have it drop that info right into the form.

PSA: You Can Open QR Codes On iOS Without Scanning From Another Device, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Tapping and holding on the QR code will reveal a menu with the URL. From there, you can open the link in Safari, copy the link, or share it with someone else.

This Guy Turned The 'Action Button' On His iPhone 15 Pro Into A 'Starbucks Button' That Orders Him A Latte As He Approaches The Store, by Jordan Hart, Insider

"The more difficult part is ideating exactly what you want to happen and how, and when," Turner said. "Once you have that all laid out in your head, shortcuts provide a pretty easy canvas for you to lay that all out in."

Stuff

Pixelmator Pro 3.4 Camelot Review: An All-purpose Image Editor For The Mac, by Jeff L Carlson, DP Review

For many photographers, a tool like Photomator is all they need for making adjustments to their photos. But when more image-editing power is needed, Pixelmator Pro represents a significant step up in capabilities.

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What continues to impress me with Pixelmator Pro (and Photomator) is how the company is using machine learning technologies to push the edges of what we can do with photos, primarily to get good results with a small outlay of time. And, of course, we can’t underestimate the value (in dollars as well as features) of Pixelmator Pro as a good alternative to the Adobe ecosystem.

Vivaldi For iOS Is Not Delivering On Its Promise Just Yet, by Niléane, MacStories

Vivaldi for iOS is a promising foundation awaiting a building. While it is a fast and functional browser for the iPhone, it lacks several of the core features that have helped it define itself in a crowded marketplace on desktop. I anticipated a fun and customizable browser, but instead, I found myself with a more basic browsing experience compared to Safari. Still, I’m curious too see if Vivaldi innovates on this rather basic foundation, and whether it can evolve into more than just a companion app for its long-time desktop users.

Amazon Enables Passwordless Passkeys On iOS And The Web, by Umar Shakir, The Verge

Amazon’s rolling out passkey support for its online site and mobile shopping apps. Customers can log in to Amazon using just their devices’ biometrics and start shopping without the need to enter a password or follow through with two-factor authentication (2FA) through email or text.

VMware Fusion 13.5, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

VMware has updated its VMware Fusion virtualization package to version 13.5, adding support for downloading and installing Windows 11 as a guest operating system from the Fusion user interface on M-series Macs.

Notes

Apple's 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' Highlights Tech Giant's Film Strategy Shift, by Alexandra Canal, Yahoo Finance

"Unlike other studios, this is a smaller piece of the pie for Apple," Robbins said, explaining that luxury of flexibility allows the company to experiment with different types of distribution windows and even different types of films.

1Password Discloses Security Incident Linked To Okta Breach, by Lawrence Abrams, Bleeping Computer

"We detected suspicious activity on our Okta instance related to their Support System incident. After a thorough investigation, we concluded that no 1Password user data was accessed," reads a very brief security incident notification from 1Password CTO Pedro Canahuati.

Automattic Is Acquiring Texts And Betting Big On The Future Of Messaging, by David Pierce, The Verge

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic’s CEO, says Texts is not just a product acquisition but also the beginning of a huge new investment for the company. So far, he says, Automattic’s two main areas of focus have been on publishing and commerce — now, messaging is the company’s third pillar.

Bottom of the Page

Looks to me that Apple is doing something good for the environment, but its boasts went too far?

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Thanks for reading.