Apple Invites helps you create event invitations, invite people, play music at the event, and collect photos. It’s focused on social events—you wouldn’t use it to organize a business meeting. Anyone can respond to an invitation regardless of whether they have the Apple Invites app, an Apple Account, or even an Apple device. However, event creation is limited to iCloud+ subscribers and joins other iCloud+ features like expanded iCloud storage, Private Relay, Hide My Email, HomeKit Secure Video, and custom email domains.
Also, Apple’s long-term track record with “fun” one-off apps is a little spotty; is this just Clips again? Maybe I’ll send you an invitation for 2028 and we can all meet up then to find out.
Copycat accusations and bugs aside, Apple Invites seems like a promising start, particularly if you’re in the Apple ecosystem and want to keep friends in the loop without using Facebook events, third-party apps, texts, or emails. But it’s also an app with a social purpose that Apple claims in its announcement “brings people together for life’s special moments.” That sounds pleasant but feels less so once you get the mediocre Android version of the experience.
Since there’s no Apple Invites app on Android, you’ll instead have the option to download the calendar event file and add it to the calendar app of your choice. [...] Another drawback is that you can’t use or even view photos without an iCloud account.
Tapestry makes it easier than ever to browse content from dozens or even hundreds of sources. Create custom timelines, seamlessly sync your reading position across devices, and keep track of feeds in an easy-to-read, color-coded stream of content.
But I suspect timeline apps are exactly the thing we need for the internet we have now. Maybe someday we’ll get fully interoperable everything and life will be magical. Until then, there’s something powerful in taking all your favorite stuff — and I really recommend picking only your favorite stuff — and putting it into one place. Build a timeline you can finish every day, maybe even every time you open the app. Scroll only what you’ve chosen to scroll. And then close the app, confident in the fact that you’ve seen the stuff you cared about, and go do something else. There’ll be more to catch up on next time.
I feel like thinking about this new generation of apps as social media clients would be wrong and shortsighted: it reduces the scope of what they’re trying to accomplish down to a mere copy of a social media timeline. Instead, I think Tapestry and Reeder are coming at this from two different angles (Tapestry with better developer tools; Reeder with superior user filters), but the same larger ambition nonetheless: to embrace the open nature of the Web and move past closed platforms that feel increasingly archaic today.
The good news is that this is a burgeoning category of apps. That makes me very excited. The material published on social media has been tied for too long to the platforms themselves. That is true in part because of advertising revenue, but also because platform owners do not trust users. Instead of being allowed control over our experiences, we are required to endure the changes du jour. A social web built on open protocols is an opportunity to change all of that. Bring it on.
Apple this week increased the prices for its monthly AppleCare+ subscription prices for the iPhone, raising the cost by 50 cents for all models in the United States.
Apple has just made some changes to its AppleCare+ program. As hinted over the weekend by Mark Gurman, Apple is discontinuing upfront payment options for AppleCare+ in stores and on devices, offering monthly or annual subscriptions only unless you buy online.
Journaling apps just don’t get much cuter: Through prompts like “Today isn’t over yet,” “I’m literally a new me,” and “Compliment someone,” the Swift-built app and its simple hand-drawn mascots encourage people to get in the habit of celebrating accomplishments, fostering introspection, and building gratitude. “And gratitude doesn’t have to be about big moments like birthdays or anniversaries,” says Wanasinghe. “It can be as simple as having a hot cup of coffee in the morning.”
A new app called Unpro Camera says it strips away all of the processing typically applied by an iPhone to produce unprocessed-looking photos that the developer says look “astonishingly natural.”
Nomad has announced a new USB-C cable designed to charge multiple devices simultaneously. [...] Nomad’s new Universal Cable for Apple Watch features an inline charging puck for Apple’s smartwatch on one end.
China's antitrust regulator is preparing for a possible investigation into Apple's policies and App Store fees, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
[...]
The country's State Administration for Market Regulation is reviewing Apple's policies, including its up to 30% commission on in-app purchases and restrictions on external payment services and App Stores, the report said.
In contemporary digital society, remembering is automated. Social media platforms and smartphones often offer features like iPhone’s and Facebook’s “Memories” that resurface users’ past posts and photographs.
For many people, these reminders of the past are a source of joyful reminiscence. For others — like survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) — they can be harmful.
These nostalgia-driven Memories features enact what I call “platform violence:” unintended but harmful consequences, caused by automated features, designed to profit tech companies without adequately considering users’ well-being.
I don't want other people's algorithm when reading feeds, whether they are articles or podcasts or television shows. But that doesn't mean that I don't want any algorithms at all.
What I want is my algorithm. I want to be able to prioritizes certain subscribed items over other subscribed items. I want to be able to surface up certain stuff based on, say, keywords or search matches in their descriptions. I want to be able to set up a killfile to filter out stuff that I don't want to see, even though I am the one who subscribed to the feed in the first place.
I want smartness that I control.
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Thanks for reading.