Apple

Start off by reading this article from the Register, provocatively titled, Here’s that hippie, pro-privacy, pro-freedom Apple y’all so love: Hong Kong protest safety app banned from iOS store.

From the article:

Apple has banned an app that allows people in Hong Kong to keep track of protests and police activity in the city state, claiming such information is illegal.

“Your app contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement,” the American tech giant told makers of the HKmap Live on Tuesday before pulling it.

Now go read Gruber’s take, linked above. A tiny taste:

But here’s the thing. What’s going on in Hong Kong is important. A small liberal democracy is standing up to a gargantuan authoritarian communist dictatorship with a superpower-grade military force.

Read the whole thing.

This is the title of a Reddit post, and an excellent question. Not an issue on my iPhone, of course, because a tap on the Maps app is all that’s needed.

But on my Mac, I live in Safari. Whether force of habit, or some other frictional force, when I want a map, I turn to maps.google.com. Nearly 100% of the time.

I realize that Duck, Duck, Go does bring Apple Maps to the table, but it is not the same thing. When I go to Google Maps, I am centered on my current location ready to type in an address, set up directions, look for a restaurant, check traffic. And all that from the comfort of Safari, where I can command-click on links to look at restaurant menus, say, without leaving the app.

And for those who say Apple doesn’t do web services, take a trip over to beta.music.apple.com. Maybe that’s a glimmer of hope?

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Apple has been rolling out HomePod support for live radio requests to Siri over the last few months, and now users in several countries are reporting success when asking their Apple smart speaker to play live radio stations.

This feature was announced back in June, and has been slowly rolling out since then. The issue is, how do you find what stations are available to listen to, and how do you tell Siri to tune them in.

I have not yet found a universal, HomePod compatible, radio station directory. Please ping me if you do know of one. And not just a list of radio stations. Needs to be a list of stations that Siri can play on HomePod.

There are some resources you can tap, though. Start off by firing up the Music App and tapping the Radio tab. Scroll all the way down to the Broadcast Radio section, and tap See All. Currently, for me, that list is a paltry 10 stations. They all work for me, but still, that’s a small sample.

To try one of these out yourself, tell HomePod Siri:

Play radio station WTOP

Note that I pronounced all the letters in the name, W-T-O-P. And the words “radio station” are critical.

Next stop, go to the Music App’s Search tab, and type the call letters of your local station. This is definitely hit or miss, but I did find options that were not listed in the radio tab.

Next up, try downloading one of the radio station aggregation apps, like Tune-in. Note that Tune-in has a monthly subscription in-app-purchase, but if you download the app, you can see the radio stations that the app supports on the free page. They all work for me, when I use the above format to request the station from HomePod Siri.

What I’d really love is a comprehensive, searchable directory from Apple of all the supported stations, especially a list of my local stations supported by Siri. Each entry would need the name Siri recognizes.

Federico Viticci:

A few weeks ago, I came across a post on Reddit claiming that Apple had restored the ability to launch specific sections of the Settings app via Shortcuts in iOS and iPadOS 13.1. I was inspired by that discovery to finish working on a project I had long been putting off: documenting all the URLs supported by the Settings app in iOS and iPadOS.

After some a lot of trial and error, I’ve collected 120+ URLs that can open individual pages and sub-sections of the Settings app. In this post, I’m going to share the complete list of URLs that are supported as of iOS and iPadOS 13.1 (specifically, iOS 13.1.2), as well as a custom shortcut to launch them.

This is an amazing effort. If you use Shortcuts, tuck this one away. Well done Federico.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Right now, when iPhone users ask Siri to call or message a friend, the system defaults to Apple’s Phone or iMessage apps. If you want to use WhatsApp or Skype, you have to specifically say that.

When the software refresh kicks in, Siri will default to the apps that people use frequently to communicate with their contacts. For example, if an iPhone user always messages another person via WhatsApp, Siri will automatically launch WhatsApp, rather than iMessage.

The article also contains a response from Apple on accusations that App Store search is tilted to prefer Apple apps. As the article says, feels like Apple is slowly loosening the reins.

Apple Maps continues to get better and better. On my last few road trips, Apple Maps was spot on, no bad traffic or road info, and continued to more accurately predict arrival times than Google Maps, which I find to be too optimistic.

Props to the Apple Maps team.

Adele Peters, FastCompany:

Sitting between two national parks in Kenya, the Chyulu Hills are home to large populations of elephants and other wildlife. The area is also the site of Apple’s latest donation, as the tech company looks for new solutions to climate change that can be replicated at scale.

And:

“By restoring tens of thousands of hectares in the Chyulu Hills, we can remove carbon from the air, protect a critical wildlife corridor for elephants, and support the livelihoods of the Maasai people,” says Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environmental, social, and policy initiatives, who formerly served as head of the EPA.

Love this. And props to Lisa Jackson for her work guiding Apple down this path.