MyAppleMenu

The Simplicity-First Edition Wednesday, May 15, 2024

The M4 iPad Pros, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

But let’s invert our thinking on this. Instead of starting with the hardware and pondering what the ideal software would be like to take advantage of its power, let’s start with the software. A concept for simplicity-first console-style touchscreen tablet computing. A metaphor for computing with smartphone-style guardrails, with tablet-specific features like stylus support and laptop docking. A tablet OS that is unabashedly a souped-up version of iOS, not a stripped-down version of MacOS. What type of hardware should Apple build to instantiate such a platform?

New iPad Air And iPad Pro Feature Battery Health Menu Including Cycle Count And 80% Charging Limit Option, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

Apple's latest iPad Air and iPad Pro models feature a new Battery Health menu in the Settings app that is not available on older iPads, and which includes options that were once limited to iPhone 15 models.

On App Stores

App Store Stopped Over $7 Billion In Potentially Fraudulent Transactions In Four Years, by Apple

From 2020 through 2023, Apple prevented a combined total of over $7 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions, including more than $1.8 billion in 2023 alone. In the same period, Apple blocked over 14 million stolen credit cards and more than 3.3 million accounts from transacting again.

As published in its fourth annual fraud prevention analysis released today, Apple found that in 2023, it rejected more than 1.7 million app submissions for failing to meet the App Store’s stringent standards for privacy, security, and content. In addition, Apple’s persistent efforts to stop and reduce fraud on the App Store resulted in the termination of nearly 374 million developer and customer accounts, and removal of close to 152 million ratings and reviews over fraud concerns.

Coming Soon?

Vision Pro Appears In Chinese Regulatory Database Before Expansion To New Countries, by Aaron Perris, MacRumors

The Apple Vision Pro has shown up in China's product regulatory database as Apple prepares to bring the headset to additional countries sometime in the near future. Both the Vision Pro (A2117) and its Battery Pack (A2697) have shown up in the Chinese database, indicating that a launch in China could be coming soon.

Stuff

Apple Watch Is The Perfect Golfing Companion, by Apple

The high-frequency motion API released in watchOS 10, which takes advantage of the latest accelerometer and gyroscope in Apple Watch to detect rapid changes in velocity and acceleration, has equipped developers such as Golfshot with tools to create innovative new experiences that help users improve their golf swing and performance. For swing practice, Golfshot’s new Swing ID On-Range experience, launching today, utilizes this API to detect the precise moment the club strikes the ball. Apple Watch sensors also offer a comprehensive analysis of a golfer’s swing from the beginning to the end of the motion, and users of any skill level can track key swing metrics with precision, including tempo, rhythm, backswing, transition, and wrist path, to improve their gameplay.

iOS 17.5 Includes These 15 Security Fixes, But One Causes Another Bug, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

According to Mysk, a security patch related to the MarketplaceKit framework has resulted in a bug that prevents iPhone users in the EU from reinstalling an alternative app marketplace like AltStore if they happen to delete the app after initially installing it. Apple will likely fix this issue in a subsequent update, such as iOS 17.5.1.

Bring The iPad’s One-app-at-a-time Focus To Your Mac With This App, by Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac

Developer Michael Tigas, maker of Focused Work, has launched a new app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad called focusOS. This new app is designed to elevate your focus and productivity by eliminating distractions through a variety of different tools. The one I’m most excited about helps your Mac imitate the iPad’s one-app-at-a-time design.

Notes

Comcast's Bargain Bin Basement Bundle, by M.G. Siegler, Spyglass

I simply cannot for one second believe that Apple signed off on this name. I'd sooner expect them to send out a weekly coupon book. Either they just learned of the name Comcast chose alongside the rest of us, or that's how dire things are with Apple TV+ right now.

Google’s Broken Link To The Web, by Casey Newton, Platformer

Still, as the first day of I/O wound down, it was hard to escape the feeling that the web as we know it is entering a kind of managed decline. Over the past two and a half decades, Google extended itself into so many different parts of the web that it became synonymous with it. And now that LLMs promise to let users understand all that the web contains in real time, Google at last has what it needs to finish the job: replacing the web, in so many of the ways that matter, with itself.

[...]

But to everyone who depended even a little bit on web search to have their business discovered, or their blog post read, or their journalism funded, the arrival of AI search bodes ill for the future. Google will now do the Googling for you, and everyone who benefited from humans doing the Googling will very soon need to come up with a Plan B.

Apple, SpaceX, Microsoft Return-to-office Mandates Drove Senior Talent Away, by Scharon Harding, Ars Technica

"Taken together, our findings imply that return to office mandates can imply significant human capital costs in terms of output, productivity, innovation, and competitiveness for the companies that implement them," the report reads.

Bottom of the Page

Putting both iPadOS and macOS on a single device will eventually kill both iPadOS and macOS. That's my hypothesis.

Rather, I hope Apple can find a way to make iPadOS more powerful -- not that it isn't already quite powerful -- and to entice more app makers put pro-level apps on the iPad. I also hope Apple can find a way to make Mac computers extremely portable, including a way to efficiently make use of cellular data.

To do dual-booting will just collapse both computing models back to a single one, which we all already have back in the days.

~

Thanks for reading.