[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin with a calm, thoughtful look through watchOS 7’s top features (video embedded in main Loop post). Most of these will work with a Series 4 Apple Watch and beyond.
Even if you’ve lived with watchOS 7 for a while now, I suspect there’s something here for you to learn.
Solid walkthrough/explainer on the Apple Watch Series 6 blood oxygen monitoring mechanics. Read the comments on the post, too.
Side note: I’ve got a woven Solo Loop band, and I’ve found both blood ox and ECG to work flawlessly, even though my band is a bit loose-fitting (my preference).
M.G.Siegler:
I now think I was wrong that widgets are the biggest iOS 14 deal. Only because I’m now certain that App Clips are.
This revelation comes after playing a single game. One that’s not even necessarily my cup of tea, mind you. But the experience of playing a demo of the game via an App Clip was so seamless it feels appropriate for once to invoke the term “magical”.
If you’ve not had the chance to try this yourself, here’s how.
But M.G. makes a bigger point here:
Given how well this works, I can see a world in which other developers beyond gaming take advantage of this technology to demo their apps. And, if I squint, I think I can even see a world of “micro-apps” that don’t need full apps to operate. Perhaps these are more ephemeral style apps. Apps where asking for a full download is a lot in this age of app saturation.
The importance of App Clips is underrated, assuming developers embrace it. And, as M.G. says, the implementation brings Apple’s “It just works” ethos to life.
Steven Aquino, Forbes, first on Apple Pay:
Apple Pay was not only more secure (more on this below), it also was fast and easy—no longer did someone need to fumble through their wallet to find their credit card. All that was needed was to place your iPhone (or Apple Watch) near the NFC reader, and the transaction is done.
And:
People with fine-motor delays, for instance, are saved from the friction of not only finding their physical card, but also inserting it into the chip reader.
Now on to the Amazon One palm reader:
Whether Amazon One gains wide adoption is obviously an open question, but it’s not difficult to see where Amazon has leveled up on usability from an established player like Apple Pay, theoretically at least.
Still, the idea of Amazon One as a more accessible payment system is predicated upon the reality that many people with disabilities have trouble manipulating everyday objects. Thus, Amazon One completely removes such a barrier by letting the person literally do the paying.
This is an interesting distinction. From an accessibility standpoint, using your palm on a reader (assuming the reader is well marked and itself is accessible) is a step easier than Apple Pay. The price you pay is in privacy.
Interesting read.
You know all these tricks, I’m sure, but worth a scan, just in case. And pass this along to the newer Mac folks you support.
And don’t tell James Thomson. He might pull my PCalc license.
UPDATE: Dammit!!!
Reddit:
This makes zero sense to me. The only Macs, that could really benefit from 4k streaming, without an external monitor, are the 4k and 5k iMacs yet only 2 models (the Pro and the new 2020 27″) will be able to stream it. Windows machines don’t have any kind of T2 alternative and are still able to stream 4k via Edge or via the native app, their only requirement is a 7th gen intel cpu or a dedicated graphics card.
Read the comments. Interesting stuff.
This is responding to the Netflix in Ultra HD help page.
Here are the first few requirements:
That last one is the most surprising. An anti-piracy move?
Ryan Christoffel, MacStories:
Sticky Widgets enables placing sticky note-style widgets on your iPhone or iPad Home Screen which can be modified simply by tapping on the widget.
This is a great concept. To get an idea of how this works, check out this Tweet from the app’s author, Tyler Hillsman:
https://twitter.com/thillsman/status/1310557415730040832
As you can see in Ryan’s MacStories post, Sticky Widgets can occupy as much space as you want to give up on your home screen.
I’d love to see this idea evolve. How about a sticky note for the lock screen. As Tyler notes here, you can add Sticky Widgets to your Today View, and swipe over to it from the lock screen. Pretty close!
Here’s a link to Sticky Widgets. Give it a try.
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Apple appears to have been planning to introduce country-specific Apple Watch bands for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but with the games postponed until 2021 due to the global health crisis, they have yet to be released.
To get a sense of Apple’s past efforts here, follow this link to the bands Apple pulled together for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Will we have games in 2021? If so, seems likely we’ll see another rollout of summer games bands.
William Gallagher, AppleInsider, quoting this Apple patent:
“Hydrogen fuel cells have a number of advantages,” says Apple. “Such fuel cells and associated fuels can potentially achieve high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities, which can potentially enable continued operation of portable electronic devices for days or even weeks without refueling.”
You know there has to be a ‘but’ or we’d already be using these cells. “[But] it is extremely challenging to design hydrogen fuel cell systems which are sufficiently portable and cost-effective to be used with portable electronic devices,” explains Apple.
That’s what this patent is meant to solve. It’s about “the design of a portable and cost-effective fuel cell system for a portable computing device,” which converts fuel — such as hydrogen-based — into electrical power.
My original reaction to reading this AppleInsider headline was to laugh. After all hydrogen is extremely flammable and not trivial to convert (both from water to hydrogen, and from hydrogen to electricity). But mostly the flammable part.
But thinking about the flammable part, is hydrogen any more dangerous than lithium-ion batteries, which have been known to explode and cause fires?
One positive thing here is the almost limitless supply of hydrogen, constantly renewed. Can Apple figure this one out?
Unless you are a developer, it’s not really important to understand the App Clips concept.
What is amazing to experience is the new iOS 14 ability to play a game demo in Safari itself.
Give this a try:
The game play is fun, but makes the larger point that you got to experience the game before you plunked down your hard earned bucks. A fantastic capability.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
With iOS 14, Apple has added a new automatic switching feature to the AirPods and AirPods Pro earbuds. This feature is meant as a convenience; when you start playing content on another Apple device, the AirPods connection automatically switches in unison. However, some people don’t like this behavior and would rather connect to each device manually, just like how it worked in iOS 13 and earlier. Good news! There is a way to get the old behaviour back.
First things first, I’ve found the behavior just a bit buggy. I’ve been listening to content on my Apple TV through my AirPods Pro, then fired up my iPad, which brought up the automatic switch message and showed the AirPods icon on my iPad, as if the switch had happened. But the Apple TV content still played on my AirPods. Odd, but early days still, I’m sure that will get resolved.
As to the linked post, worth reading, especially the last two paragraphs which help clarify some confusing setting wording, specifically the phrase “‘When Last Connected to This iPhone”.
John Gruber, on Widgetsmith:
It’s rocketed to the #1 spot on the App Store’s Productivity list. My teenage son, out of the blue, asked me if I’d heard about it — not iOS 14 widgets in general, but Widgetsmith specifically. A well-deserved hit product.
First things first, here’s an App Store link to Widgetsmith. It’s free to download, with in-app purchases. Give it a look.
Moving on:
And but so of course the ripoff scammers are already doing their thing, and the App Store is welcoming them. Search for “Widgetsmith” — the exact name of Smith’s app — and the first app in the results is not Widgetsmith but a name-alike ripoff called, I swear, “Widgetsmith – Color Widgets”. This utterly shameless ripoff, replete with a ham-fisted knockoff of the icon to boot, is listed above the actual Widgetsmith, despite the fact that the actual Widgetsmith is currently the #1 app in Productivity and has over 53,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews. The ripoff app has 25 5-star ratings, one 1-star rating, and one written review, which reads, verbatim, “Thank developer for making such great app especially for iOS 14!” The entire description of the ripoff app is written in similar broken English.
As John notes in his update, the “ripoff” version of Widgetsmith is now gone, more a testament to the power of the press, I suspect, than any automated App Store takedown process.
Read Gruber’s take on all this. It’s right on the money. How does this sort of thing continue to happen? Is it a sign of the complexity of the App Store, an overwhelming number of titles to police?
If that is the case, if the volume of available apps is more than Apple can properly manage, might that not be a fair argument for reducing that 30% fee (less service, reduced fee)?
Oh, and props for that headline, Gruber. Delicious.
[VIDEO] This is more of an extended trailer than a classic behind-the-scenes, worth watching in any case. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Tehran reminds me very strongly of the Showtime series Homeland, with a strong female lead, constantly in danger, using physical prowess and quick wits to outwit her opponents.
The show is available now, and on my short list.
John Gruber:
A few people have wondered why Apple doesn’t just map fluoroelastomer Sport Band sizes to Solo Loop sizes. I can see why Apple doesn’t do that — they can’t assume everyone already has access to an Apple Watch with a Sport Band, and even for people who do have access to one, Apple can’t assume it’s the right size watch (38/40mm vs. 42/44mm). And to further complicate matters, each Sport Band comes with two sizes for the side with the holes: “S/M” and “M/L”. So that’s four separate mappings from Sport Band holes to the new Solo Loop sizes. That’s complicated. But it’s no longer a safe assumption that everyone has access to a printer, either, so let’s figure out the mappings here.
Great community contribution from John. And this Daring Fireball post is a bit of a collector’s item, with the ultra-rare embedded graphics, well composed and useful.
To me, this whole Solo band sizing kerfuffle is a bit of a mess. Ideally, Apple would have created a simple tool mapping your choice of bands (assuming you already own an Apple Watch) to a sizing recommendation, based on how you wear your watch now. Harder with some bands, but certainly doable with the Sport Band.
But I do get that rolling out an interface is harder than it might look.
That said, one thing I think Apple should absolutely address is the mixed messaging on Solo band returns. There’s a prominent report claiming that if your Solo band doesn’t fit, you have to return both the band and the watch. Even worse, you have to go to the back of the line to order a new one. Yechh.
Today, rumors have been flying around from folks who called Apple or visited Apple Stores asking about this policy. Some were told they could return their band, sans watch, no problem. Others were told they had to return both the watch and the band.
Unnecessary mess of mixed messages. I hope Apple sends out a clarifying, definitive policy message. And soon.
Tim Hardwick, MacRumors, on macOS Safari 14:
One of the most dramatic changes is the overhauled Start Page, which now includes a browsing privacy report, iCloud tabs, Siri suggestions, and more. It also features several customizable options, such as the ability to choose your own Start Page wallpaper.
If you fire up a new, blank page in Safari 14 (your “Start Page”), you’ll see an icon in the bottom-right corner of the page. Here’s an image so you know what to look for.
Click the icon, a pop-up will appear, filled with checkboxes to enable/disable various Start Page elements. You can also choose a Background Image from those presented, or click the + and select any image you like.
Except “Catalina Nights.heic”. Don’t choose that one. You’ve been warned.
Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:
Face ID is normally a completely seamless way to unlock an iPhone and iPad: just swipe up and it unlocks automatically. At a time when we’re frequently wearing masks, however, it’s rather less seamless.
So we’d like to see Apple allow an unlocked Apple Watch to automatically unlock an iPhone and iPad
Tricky to implement. If someone grabs your phone, they’d be able to unlock it just by being near you.
That said, the core premise strikes me, I’d add it to the pile of ideas on ways to unlock your iPhone with a mask on your face. I’d love to see Apple add Touch ID back in to a future iPhone, whether under screen or as an iPad Air-like layer on the power button.
Reuters:
The Coalition for App Fairness, structured as a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, said it plans to advocate legal changes that would force Apple to change. Beyond Epic, Match and Spotify, other members include smaller firms such as Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, and Tile, along with developers from Europe including the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe and Protonmail.
From the Coalition signup page:
The Coalition for App Fairness was created by industry leading companies who want to see freedom of choice for consumers and a level playing field for businesses. This is an open call to all developers, big and small, to join us – and together we will fight back against the monopolist control of the app ecosystem by Apple.
If you are interested in joining the coalition, please fill out the following form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Is there a path for compromise? Will this continue to escalate until something explodes? Is this the hill Apple will defend to the death?
Lines are being drawn, sides being chosen. I hate this whole thing.
[VIDEO] You’ve likely heard of most of the features Jeff Benjamin is showing off, but the devil is in the details here, the subtleties of Jeff’s excellent, calming walkthrough. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Tom Warren, The Verge:
One of Apple’s surprise hardware announcements last week was the relocation of the iPad Air’s fingerprint sensor to a tiny power button on top of the display. It’s a change from the typical Touch ID Home button location at the bottom of the screen, and it allows Apple to place a larger edge-to-edge display on its iPad Air for the first time. It’s also an ideal location for a fingerprint sensor, and I’d love to see it on the iPhone 12.
YES! I’d love to see this addition, if Apple does not yet have under-screen fingerprint scanning ready for prime time. Perfect for these masked times. (In fact, I said as much while watching the keynote).
Practical on an iPhone? Only Apple knows, and we’ll find out soon enough.
Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica:
Researchers said that a tip from a child led them to discover aggressive adware and exorbitant prices lurking in iOS and Android smartphone apps with a combined 2.4 million downloads from the App Store and Google Play.
And:
To prevent users from uninstalling them, the apps hid their icon, making it hard to identify where the ads were coming from.
Hmm. I wonder how an iOS app gets away with that. This purely the Android versions?
The apps came to light after a girl found a profile on TikTok that was promoting what appeared to be an abusive app and reported it to Be Safe Online, a project in the Czech Republic that educates children about online safety. Acting on the tip, researchers from security firm Avast found 11 apps, for devices running both iOS and Android, that were engaged in similar scams.
And:
A Google spokesman said the company has removed the apps, and Web searches appeared to confirm this. Several of the apps for iOS appeared to still be available in the App Store as this post was being prepared.
Definitely a hole in iOS App Store oversight.
From Avast press release:
The iOS and Android apps appear to be developed by the same person or group. The links promoted on the social media profiles lead to the iOS or Android versions of the apps, depending on the device the link is being accessed from.
Seems like once they got one of these apps, they should ban all the rest from the same developer.
As you can see from the article (there, at the bottom) this came up for me this morning. But it does happen often enough to make me follow Ben’s advice and change my Safari settings.
Interestingly, my settings are slightly different than those in the article. I am running Catalina, but have the new Safari 14 update installed. No matter, the change is purely wording, subbing Blocked for Deny.
Side note, this was an artifact of a rogue Google ad. In the past, when this has happened, I’ve seen some bizarre behavior/popups. This one was caught by Apple’s latest blockers. Excellent work.
Sean Hollister, The Verge:
on Monday, Microsoft announced a new Xbox app that lets you stream games from your own Xbox to your own Android phone over your local network for free. There’s an iOS version coming too — and while my colleague Tom Warren originally suggested the console streaming feature probably wouldn’t come to iOS, I’m now willing to bet it will.
And:
Microsoft now tells me the goal is actually to have full parity between the iOS and Android apps, and that Apple is already reviewing the iOS version now.
And:
Sony’s PS4 Remote Play is already on iOS, and it works almost exactly the same as Microsoft’s Xbox console streaming. It similarly mirrors the entire PS4 interface, including access to the PlayStation Store. And though Microsoft’s Android app does include the ability to play over the internet, and a few more creature comforts like remote management of your console, I would think the “generic mirror” rule would keep it from getting kicked out.
That last is the precedent that makes this case. I’d be shocked if Apple blocked the Xbox streaming app.
Ryan Christoffel, MacStories:
One of the most exciting trends I’ve seen is the emergence of a new category of apps entirely centered around widgets. While most widgets will come built in to the apps you already know and love, some developers have built brand new apps for the sole purpose of enabling users to create and customize widgets in a hyper-personalized way.
And:
Leading the pack in this regard is Widgetsmith from David Smith, which not only covers one of the widest array of different widget types, but also features a power user-friendly scheduling option that sets it apart. The App Store hosts a growing number of other widget creation tools too, such as Widgeridoo, Widget Wizard, Glimpse, and Health Auto Export.
I’m planning on spending some quality time this week creating my own Widgets, seeing if I can craft a home screen experience that delivers the info I’m looking for.
If rolling your own is not your cup of tea, spend some time looking through Steve Streza’s curated list of widgets he’s encountered, both built in and custom.
If Widgets are new to you, follow the link in the previous paragraph, scroll down and read the section titled How to use Widgets. Great, short explainer.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
Customers who chose a Solo Loop or a Braided Solo Loop along with an Apple Watch Series 6 or SE and have a poor fit can’t just return the band for a new size — the entire Apple Watch has to be returned since it’s considered a set.
Unfortunately, there are limited supplies of the new Apple Watch Series 6 models and the new bands, so customers forced to make a return are now having to wait from late October to late November for a new Apple Watch, depending on the model chosen.
I can’t imagine this is what Apple intended when they envisioned the Loop Apple Watch band. This is a headache, both for Apple and for folks who faithfully use the wrist-measuring tool and get a Loop band that just doesn’t fit.
Seems to me, Apple should either replace the band, without requiring the watch itself to be returned, or just send out replacement bands at their cost. This is a situation of Apple’s making. I hate the thought that people have to go to the back of the queue when they wait for their Series 6 and find that the Loop band doesn’t fit.
This situation is still evolving, so my hope is that Apple tweaks the process to address this inequity.
In the meantime, my Apple Watch with Loop band order is in, awaiting my entry in the Loop band sweepstakes. Hoping I get lucky.
Back in March, Dan Moren wrote an excellent post on macOS Safari, and switching tab behavior, so new tabs open at the end, instead of immediately after the current tab.
This involves enabling the Debug menu (not to be confused with the Develop menu, which is exposed in Safari Settings > Advanced).
In a nutshell, to enable the Debug menu, hop into Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu YES
Relaunch Safari, and take a look at the last two submenus in the newly appearing Debug menu: Tab Ordering and Tab Features. Good to know.
Interested in some under the hood details of the Defaults mechanism, and moving Prefs files? Check out this writeup from Jeff Johnson.
Harry Mccracken, FastCompany:
A tech CEO is onstage helpfully explaining that the Mac’s expiration date is imminent. More important, he’s about to introduce us to a new computer designed for the next decade. I am in a distant seat among his audience of more than 2,000 at Boston’s Symphony Hall, where the anticipation in the air is thick enough to induce a contact high.
After all, we are among the lucky few who will hear about the NeXT computer directly from Steve Jobs himself.
The article is a great read, lots of embedded audio and video nuggets from the past. Terrific collection.
From the walkthrough:
Repair-wise, we’re happy to see the fussy Force Touch gasket gone, and only two fragile cables tethering the display.
So Force Touch is gone, but the physical gasket goes with it, opens up just a bit of space.
Despite the almost imperceptibly thinner design, Apple packed in brand-new sensors in addition to the larger-capacity battery and beefier Taptic Engine.
Every new Apple Watch generation bringing stepwise refinement. This is far from a watch as the iPhone is from a phone. Apple really upping their game.
Click the headline link to see who the most accurate Apple leak reporter is.
To be clear, I have no sense of the accuracy of these numbers, but I do find it fascinating.
Kirk McElhearn:
Since the earliest Apple Watch, you have been able to change your move goal (the red ring), but there was no way to change the exercise goal (the green ring) or the stand goal (the blue ring). Now, in watchOS 7, this is possible.
Follow the headline link for Kirk’s walkthrough. Really good to know this exists.
The one ring I might change is the number of Stand hours. I hate the stress it introduces when I miss an hour, either because I was standing and my Apple Watch missed it, or because I got sucked into writing and an hour flew by.
I do appreciate the value of a Stand reminder (good for my health), but I don’t need the anxiety.
Even if you know most of these, worth making your way through the list for that hidden gem you didn’t know about.
A few comments:
Open Settings > Home Screen and select App Library Only in the top section. You can easily find recently downloaded apps in the App Library’s Recently Added category, which should be the top-right folder when you view it.
I’m wrestling with this one. Do I want new apps on my curated home screen? Or do I want them in my App Library, where I can find the app in Recently Added?
My problem with App Library is that it’s at the back of the book, behind the last page of apps. There’s a quick gesture to jump to my first page, but no gesture to get to my last page, or to the App Library (please ping me if such a gesture exists). So if I leave new apps in the App Library, I’ve got to scroll, scroll, scroll to get to it, then wiggle mode drag, drag, drag to get it to my home page if I do want it there.
UPDATE: Courtesy of @nibsuk, a faster way to get to the App Library from the Home page is to scrub through the page dots at the bottom of the page, left to right. When you get to the last page, drag right to left to bring the App Library page into view.
Faster, but a drag down from Home page brings up the search mechanism. No one is using the drag up gesture. Maybe tie that to App Library functionality, add a button to jump to App Library? Maybe add in App Library search?
I do like the premise of the App Library. I just think we need a bit more infrastructure to make it easier to use.
A new accessibility feature called Back Tap makes it possible to trigger system features, like multitasking or Control Center, or launch a Shortcut just by tapping on the back of your iPhone two or three times.
Find the feature in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Pick the number of taps you want to use, and then you’ll see a list of actions you can initiate.
This is my favorite hidden gem. I currently have back tap set to bring up Control Center, purely as an experiment. But there are a lot of options here, and this feels like a “tip of the iceberg” feature, that has massive potential.
One thing I’d love to see is a back tap option to move the text cursor. Imagine if you could double-tap to move the cursor back one space. I find myself off having to micro-adjust the text cursor all the time. Fat finger dragging the cursor can be very frustrating. A double tap to go back or forward a single space would be wonderful.
Shortcuts folks, is there a way to add a backspace character (^h) to a text shortcut so I can shortcut this problem? Just a thought.