Beneath all this worry is a fiendishly difficult question: What impact are smartphones having on our mental health? The answer depends on who you ask. For some, the evidence that smartphones are eroding our well-being is overwhelming. Others counter that it isn’t all that strong. There are blogs, then counter-blogs, each often pointing to the same scientific papers and drawing opposing conclusions.
Into this maelstrom we can now add two books, published within a week of each other, that sit squarely in opposite corners in the fight.
On one end, the Vision Pro can only stream the 8K footage through 4K-resolution lenses, so the compression (read: blurriness) of finer things like confetti and players' faces is apparent. On the other end, the experience was so immersive that I can see myself watching just about any sport on the Vision Pro, putting any intentions to attend a live event on hold.
But immersive video doesn’t work with quick cuts, I don’t think. Several times during the MLS highlights video, my head was turned in one direction, taking advantage of the 180-degree immersive space to watch something happening off to my left or right… only for the vantage point to change to a different perspective. Now I was staring at nothing. It would take a few seconds for me to scan my surroundings and re-orient—often times a delay that led me to miss the highlight I was meant to be viewing.
Photos is not just an app on iOS; it’s the system-level interface to the camera roll. This is integrated throughout the entire iOS system, with per-app permission prompts to grant differing levels of access to your photos. Vestager is saying that to be compliant with the DMA, Apple needs to allow third-party apps to serve as the system-level camera roll. That is a monumental demand, and I honestly don’t even know how such a demand could be squared with system-wide permissions for photo access. This is product design, not mere regulation. Why stop there? Why not mandate that Springboard — the Home Screen — be a replaceable component? Or the entire OS itself? Why are iPhone users required to use iOS? Why are iOS users required to buy iPhones?
The average price of 84 app purchase products surveyed was the most expensive at 26,714 won for Apple, followed by 26,396 won for Google and 24,214 won for One Store. When compared based on the average price of One Store, Apple was 10.3% higher and Google was 9.0%.
Money provokes a lot of complicated feelings, especially so in a culture that tends to see your salary as a statement of your worth as a person rather than a tool that lets you build the life you want. Instead of pretending those mental hurdles aren't there, YNAB lets you plan for, and around, them.
As for why you’d want to do such a thing, people who have trouble with typical journaling or mind-mapping apps may find it a more inspiring framework. Or, if your social posting habit has gotten out of hand (or you want a break from it for any other reason), it could serve as a way to wean yourself off and give you the dopamine hit without sharing anything publicly.
The Android website has added a new landing page for Google Messages that talks about the first-party messaging experience, while also noting that RCS on the iPhone is coming in fall 2024.
No matter what happens over at US courts or EU regulators, I do not expect any meaningful price drops of any of the apps I am paying now. We, the customers, have demonstrated the current price is what we are willing to pay, and no developers will be willing to do a race to the bottom again, especially in a mature market.
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Thanks for reading.