For the team behind the hidden-object game Finding Hannah, their win for Cultural Impact is especially meaningful. “We’re trying to drive change on the design level by bringing more personal stories to a mainstream audience,” says Franziska Zeiner, cofounder and managing director of the Fein Games studio, from her Berlin office. “Finding Hannah is a story that crosses three generations, and each faces the question: How truly free are we as women?
Klemens Strasser will be the first to tell you that prior to launching his Ancient Board Game Collection, he wasn’t especially skilled at Hnefatafl. “Everybody knows chess and everybody knows backgammon,” says the indie developer from his home office in Austria, “but, yeah, I didn’t really know that one.”
Today, Strasser runs what may well be the hottest Hnefatafl game in town. The Apple Design Award finalist for Inclusivity Ancient Board Game Collection comprises nine games that reach back not years or decades but centuries — Hnefatafl (or Viking chess) is said to be nearly 1,700 years old, while the Italian game Latrunculi is closer to 2,000. And while games like Konane, Gomoku, and Five Field Kono might not be household names, Strasser’s collection gives them fresh life through splashy visuals, a Renaissance faire soundtrack, efficient onboarding, and even a bit of history.
Today Apple published an independent study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dr. Stuart Madnick that found clear and compelling proof that data breaches have become an epidemic, threatening sensitive and personal consumer data the world over. The total number of data breaches more than tripled between 2013 and 2022 — exposing 2.6 billion personal records in the past two years alone — and has continued to get worse in 2023. The findings underscore that strong protections against data breaches in the cloud, like end-to-end encryption, have only grown more essential since last year’s report and the launch of Advanced Data Protection for iCloud.
While it is already possible to share many Wallet app passes via AirDrop, Messages, Mail, and more through the iOS sharing menu, this new feature aims to provide a quicker and more convenient method. It works similarly to NameDrop, an iOS 17 feature that lets users quickly share contact information by bringing two iPhones together.
Before you ask, no, we have no idea what it does. But we do know it brings the version number to 1.4.73 and the build number to 10M5237. Apple doesn’t document this kind of firmware update with release notes so we don’t know what bug fixes or features it brings.
Screens 5 also introduces new toolbar controls on iPhone and iPad, Mac lock screen enhancements, and better ways to organize remote desktops.
With Mammoth 2, the app is introducing other features that will make Mastodon easier to use, including personalized follow suggestions, curated “smart lists” that help you track topics of interests, and integration with trusted sources for news, to give the app more of a Twitter-like feel.
Of the few replies before Google locked the thread, most suggested that Google's fix did not work. One user calls the fix "complete BS," adding, "The “solution” doesn’t work for most people." Another says, "Google Drive DELETED my files so they are not available for recovery. This "fix" is not a fix!" There are lots of other reports of the fix not working, and not many that say they got their files back. The idea that Drive would have months-old copies of files in the app data folder is hard to believe.
First announced at WWDC 21, Xcode Cloud is Apple’s continuous integration system for developers. In 2022, we saw Apple expand the availability to all developers and offer 25 free compute hours of service per month. Now Apple has announced it is extending the free compute hours of Xcode Cloud for all registered Apple Developers indefinitely.
It's the weekend (soon-ish). I think it's time for me to get back into Xcode, and start ripping half-baked stuff.
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Thanks for reading.