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The Face-ID-Needed Edition Saturday, January 13, 2024

Apple Vision Pro Ordering Process: iPhone Or iPad With Face ID Needed, 'Valid, Unexpired Prescription' For Optical Inserts, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Apple Vision Pro pre-orders are a week away, and Apple is sharing new information about the buying process. An iPhone or iPad with Face ID will be needed to determine the best fitting hardware at checkout. For those who wear glasses, Apple has also shared more details about the process for ordering ZEISS optical inserts.

How M1 Macs May Lag Behind, by Howard Oakley, Eclectic Light Company

But not all M-series chips are equal in this respect: M1 chips have more limited support for recent AI/ML features, including what has become a near-universal format for floating-point numbers, bfloat16. Without that, Macs with M1 chips are likely to remain at a significant disadvantage when running AI and ML functions.

WhatsApp Is Finally Starting To Dominate In The United States. Here’s Why, by Alex Kantrowitz, The Wrap

Meta wants this to work, sees momentum, and is pushing hard to capitalize. And so perhaps this ends with WhatsApp assuming the leadership role in the U.S. that it currently occupies globally. The possibility is less farfetched than it was in even the recent past.

Stuff

This iPhone App Demystifies Complicated Maths Problems, by Becca Caddy, iMore

Photomath isn’t just an iPhone app, I like to think of it as an educational tool that’ll help you master complicated maths problems for good. That’s because it’s made to help those looking for a deeper, process-oriented understanding of mathematics rather than just spitting out answers.

Top 28 Mac Games, by Cliff Joseph, Macworld

Even before the changes that Sonoma brought, and contrary to popular belief, Mac gamers already have plenty of top games titles to choose from – indeed, the most difficult part is narrowing down the options, and then finding the money to buy and time to play them. We can’t help with the latter, but the first problem is right up our alley. In this article we’ve collected the best Mac games for your delectation – including some of the best new games.

Notes

Tim Cook Meets EU Antitrust Chief Ahead Of iPhone App Sideloading Deadline, by Hartley Charlton, MacRumors

The meeting focused on European competition policy and digital regulation. On X (formerly Twitter), Vestager explained that she stressed Apple's impending obligation to allow users to install third-party app stores and sideload apps under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). They also spoke about ongoing investigations involving Apple, such as a complaint raised by Spotify against Apple Music, but Vestager declined to provide more specific detail of the discussion.

U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Tribunal Decisions In Apple-Masimo Patent Dispute, by Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters

A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld two earlier decisions by a patent tribunal that favored Masimo in its intellectual property dispute with Apple over blood oxygen sensors in newer Apple Watch models.

Polestar CEO Promises To Keep Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Around, by Kirsten Korosec, TechCrunch

On the sidelines of CES 2024, Ingenlath committed to sticking with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, the middleware that allows drivers to project their smartphone onto the car’s infotainment display. He went a step further and questioned automakers that have. GM, for instance, decided not to make the new 2024 Chevy Blazer EV compatible with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.

“It’s still too important for our customers to have the choice,” Ingenlath said during an interview at CES 2024. He later added that, in his view, removing the option isn’t the right way of treating customers.

Bottom of the Page

Maybe, just maybe, hidden right inside the source code repository for the App Store app, there is a branch that already contains the buying process for the iCar.

And, for every year which Apple is still working on that car, some poor programmer will have to dig the code out and merge it with the new branch, fix all the new bugs and add in all the new iOS features, and then check all the code back in just to wait for yet another year.

:-)

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Thanks for reading.