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The Track-Myself Edition Monday, February 3, 2025

Everyone Knows Your Location, by Tim Sh

Recently I read about a massive geolocation data leak from Gravy Analytics, which exposed more than 2000 apps, both in AppStore and Google Play, that secretly collect geolocation data without user consent. Oftentimes, even without developers` knowledge.

I looked into the list and found at least 3 apps I have installed on my iPhone. Take a look for yourself!

This made me come up with an idea to track myself down externally, e.g. to buy my geolocation data leaked by some application.

Vision Pro

The Vision Pro One Year Later: This Product Just Ain’t For Me, by Matt Birchler, Birchtree

For me, the major hurdle this product category has is that it just sucks to wear a big headset on your face. It’s heavy, it leaves red marks on my face after 20 minutes of use, it isolates me from the people around me, and it messes up my hair. [...] The Vision Pro is a technical marvel that I simply don’t find myself wanting to use for just about anything.

Apple Vision Pro Anniversary: One Year Later, One Less Excuse, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

As we hit the one year mark for Apple Vision Pro, we’ll no longer be able to dismiss as many concerns because it’s a brand new platform. Apple Vision Pro’s $3500 price tag still shields it from the harsher scrutiny of mainstream adoption. But if the company wants to continue down the Apple Vision path, more of these early shortcomings will need to be solved before a more affordable version enters the chat.

Stuff

Automate Anything Using This Clever, Original, And Inventive App, by Paul Hatton, TechRadar

The first time I came across the If This Then That (IFTTT) app was when my friend told me he’d found a way to win the thermostat wars he was having with his wife. Using the app, he’d managed to receive a notification every time the thermostat was set above his preferred temperature.

I’ll leave you to judge the merits of his decision to go behind his wife’s back and circumvent the controls of the thermostat but it did get me thinking, "I wonder what else I could automate in life using the app?” With that in mind, I jumped on the app’s website and found hundreds of pre-made automations for immediate use.

Australian Hearing App Recognised As Finalist In US Digital Health Awards, by Amy Clarke, Inside Ageing

Sound Scouts, developed using gaming technology, offers an interactive and simple solution for hearing assessment via an iPad app.

Develop

Apple Makes Swift Build Open Source; Swift Playgrounds Renamed, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

Over the weekend, Apple announced that it is making Swift Build open source. This is the build engine used by both Xcode and for the company’s internal projects.

Notes

Apple's New Genmoji Billboards Are Raising Eyebrows, by Daniel John, Creative Bloq

The problem isn't just Apple's dogged commitment to trying to make personalised emoji 'a thing'. It's also the sheer crudeness of the design.

In Search Of Logged Time, by Mahika Dhar, Public Books

Cut to the present. It’s June 2024, and Google Photos, in its daily onslaught of “Remember This Day?”, shows me memories of my summers as a teenager. Over on Instagram, “On This Day” archives show that five years ago, I was eating avocado toast in London. The moments that these photographs recall have no active hold in my memory. Still, upon seeing them—presenting themselves as the definite proof of truth, helpfully supplicated with captions from myself—my narrative of the present shifts to accommodate the information. The neologism that defined a generation, “pics or it didn’t happen,” resulted in a reality where every moment is micro-remembered. Nothing can be brought back decades later—with a sense of complete Proustian “ecstasy,” the fruit of the labor of spontaneous and intensive remembering—since nothing can peacefully fade away.

Bottom of the Page

Does SwiftUI has a hidden agenda to force a certain look-and-feel onto all third-party apps, especially if the app is to be cross-(Apple)-platform?

Or is it just still buggy?

~

Thanks for reading.