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The Designed-to-Forget Edition Thursday, November 14, 2024

Apps Love To Show Us Old Photos. It Might Be Harming Us More Than We Think., by Louis Staples, Slate

Mayer-Schönberger argues that forgetting is far from a passive act—it’s a very important skill. If we remembered absolutely everything that happened to us, we’d be overwhelmed with too much information. When it comes to grieving, or moving on from a breakup, forgetting can be a part of the healing process. Digital memory prompts, in their artificiality and unpredictability, might interfere with forgetting. “Our brain is designed to forget, and with good reason,” he says. “Forgetting helps us to focus on the here and now and on the decisions and the actions we need to take, rather than be tethered to the past.”

[...]

“If you really want to remember, then pour yourself a glass of wine and go through your diary or a photo album, or even scroll back on a device yourself,” Mayer-Schönberger said. “You should be able to choose to do that, rather than Apple or Facebook putting a version of the past right in front of us and making the choice for us.”

Pro Apps Updates

Apple Releases Updates To Final Cut Pro And Logic Pro For The Mac And iPad, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Final Cut Pro 11 for the Mac has added magnetic masks, extending the “magnetic” metaphor used for clips placed on your timeline. Apple says the new feature will allow you to quickly mask people and objects in a shot to color grade them or add effects separately from the rest of a scene.

The app can automatically generate closed captions now, too. The feature, which was briefly shown off in a video published alongside the announcement of the new Mac mini, uses artificial intelligence to convert dialogue into text.

Apple Releases Logic Pro 11.1 For Mac, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple today released Logic Pro 11.1 for Mac and Logic Pro 2.1 for iPad, adding new features for songwriting, producing, and mixing. There's a new Quantec Room Simulator plug-in that uses the original algorithms and code from Quantec founder Wolfgang Buchleitner, allowing users to add naturalistic acoustic space to their music with Quantec QRS, or to select Quantec Yardstick for more accurate modeling of acoustic spaces.

On Security

Hackers Use macOS Extended File Attributes To Hide Malicious Code, by Bill Toulas, Bleeping Computer

The threat actor is hiding malicious code in custom file metadata and also uses decoy PDF documents to help evade detection.

Stuff

Kino 1.2 Adds Camera Control Features, Grade Preset Sorting, And More, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

The team behind Halide is back with an update to their video capture app Kino. Version 1.2 introduces support for Camera Control on iPhone 16, high frame rate support tuned for iPhone 16 Pro, and a new app icon that’s less HAL 9000 and more film reel-inspired.

Mellel 6.1, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

Mellel has published version 6.1 of its eponymous word processor with a new Equations feature, which enables you to create equations using LaTeX math notation and insert them into your document.

Mactracker 7.13, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

Ian Page has issued Mactracker 7.13 with detailed information about recent Apple hardware releases, including the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro, iPhone 16, iPad mini, AirPods 4, AirPods Max, and more.

Google’s Gemini AI Now Has Its Own iPhone App, by David Pierce, The Verge

The whole point of the Gemini app is to put the icon on your homescreen, and give you something to assign to the Action Button or one of the other quick-access spots on your phone. With one tap and half a second, you can be chatting with the bot.

How I Find Great iPhone Games On The App Store, by Tim Brookes, How-To Geek

The most popular games on the App Store aren’t necessarily the best, and the App Store doesn’t always make it easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. Here are some tips you can use to find your next favorite mobile game.

Develop

App Store Connect Adds New Tools For Developers To Promote Their Apps, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Developers have been able to submit promotional requests to Apple for quite some time, but the new Featuring Nomination process is now baked right into App Store Connect. Developers can submit nominations from App Store Connect where they will be asked for information about their app. Nominations can be made for events such as a new app launch or adding in-app content and features. When an app is chosen by the App Store editorial team for a feature, developers will be notified in App Store Connect, too.

Notes

These Guys Hacked AirPods To Give Their Grandmas Hearing Aids, by Matt Burgess, Lily Hay Newman, Wired

The researchers demonstrated that they could bypass Apple’s geographic restrictions with a set of AirPods Pro 2 connected to a 10th generation Wi-Fi-only iPad. They note that it would be possible to do the workaround on an iPhone or iPad connected to a mobile carrier as well, but it would be more involved.

Why Apple Maxes Out At Two Active SIM/eSIMs On Its Hardware, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

Why can’t you have three cellular network IDs on your iPhone or iPad active at once–two eSIMs and one SIM or three eSIMs? Or even more? You might think Apple is trying to frustrate you. But it’s a hardware limitation that’s designed around what Apple thinks represents the vast majority of its users’ needs.

The Resident Evil 2 Remake Will Shuffle Its Way To Apple Devices In December, by Danny Gallagher, Engadget

Now you’ll be able to play one of the greatest zombie survival games of all time on your iPhone or iPad. Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake is headed to the Apple and Mac App Store on December 10.

Bottom of the Page

Instead of looking at my own photos on iPhone's home screen, I use the Unsplash widget to look at pretty photos that are updated every few hours.

And some of these photos that are coming from other people do trigger my own happy memories.

The brain is strange, isn't it?

~

Thanks for reading.