Apple

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

The MLB.com At Bat and NHL iOS applications have been updated today to take advantage of one of the new, but still under-the-radar features available in the just-launched version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 10.3: personalized home screen icons. That’s right — you now can replace either of these apps’ default icon with one featuring your favorite team’s logo instead.

These are terrific examples of custom icons at work. Makes me wonder if Apple implemented these in response to requests from MLB and the NHL.

Excuse me, gotta go change my icons.

The Verge:

Apple released iOS 10.3 yesterday with a new modern file system, but like any software update there are many undocumented changes. One particular change has been revealed through Apple engineer Renaud Lienhart‏, who works directly on the iOS operating system. “iOS 10.3 feels ‘snappier’ because many animations were slightly tweaked & shortened, for the better,” says Lienhart on Twitter.

Here’s the tweet:

https://twitter.com/NotoriousBUGS/status/846539233305124865

Why the snappiness?

Apple’s new file system in iOS 10.3, that’s rolling out to millions of iPhones and iPads, should help make the OS feel a little faster, too. As APFS is designed to be low latency, this should also improve read and write speeds on iOS devices. You won’t notice this immediately, but apps that write a lot of data to a disk (like video processing) might seem faster

Lots of people talking about this. My favorite quote? This, from John Gruber:

I upgraded my phone today, and it did seem to me that it took an unusual amount of time. Understandable, considering it was changing the file system. This is one of those things where if it all goes according to plan, normal people will have no idea it happened. But for us nerds, what Apple pulled off today seems almost impossible — tens of millions of devices are being upgraded to an altogether brand new file system, in place, silently. My sincere congratulations to Apple’s file system team on a job well done.

That’s the key. These last few months, I’ve been upgrading all my devices each time a new beta hits and have yet to encounter a problem. Apple really deserves kudos here.

UPDATE: Tiny nit, but a cricket told me the Verge got one detail wrong, that Richard Lienhart is no longer an Apple Engineer. Just passing that along. Story core still correct.

A few highlights:

In 2016, Apple audited 705 suppliers and compliance with a 60-hour maximum work week reached 98%, an all-time high. Apple also tripled the number of supplier sites in the Energy Efficiency program, resulting in the reduction of over 150,000 metric tons of carbon emissions — the equivalent of taking 31,000 cars off the road for a year.

And:

For the first time, Apple suppliers achieved 100% UL Zero Waste to Landfill validation for all final assembly sites in China. Since 2013, Apple’s Clean Water program saved over 3.8 billion gallons of fresh water, enough to provide every person on the planet with 18 glasses of water.

And:

Apple’s responsible sourcing efforts expanded beyond conflict minerals to include cobalt for the first time. For the second year in a row, 100% of Apple’s tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG) smelters and refiners are participating in independent third-party audits.

And:

In 2016, Apple trained more than 2.4 million workers on their rights as employees.

Think about all the products you use every day. How many of the companies that produce those products spend their money this way, make these sorts of efforts?

Reminds me of the time a shareholder asked Tim Cook to consider only doing things that were profitable. Tim’s reply:

“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind,” he said, “I don’t consider the bloody ROI.” He said that the same thing about environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas where Apple is a leader.

Amen, Tim. Amen.

There’s both a useful tip and a lesson here.

The tip: If you use Apple Maps on a regular basis, take a moment to fire up the Settings App and make your way to:

Settings > Maps > Driving & Navigation

Look over the page. Among other settings, here’s where you can tell Apple Maps to avoid Tolls and Highways. You can also enable the Compass on your directions page.

The lesson: Where to hide the settings has long been a decision for app developers and their choice might not always be obvious. For example, Apple Maps has a switch to turn Traffic on an off. That switch is embedded behind the info icon (upper right corner of the Maps main view). But the switches for Tolls are in Settings.

Bottom line, if you did not know to look, the Tolls switch would be difficult to find. If you go to the Settings search box (drag down on the main Setting page) and type Tolls, nothing shows up. So you are left to search the tree of possibilities.

Or, more likely, head to Google and find your answer there.

I normally avoid these slide show advertising buckets, but this is Jason Snell and, per usual, he does a nice job. In this case, he walks through a set of 25 examples of Workflow in action. If you’ve never used the app, make your way through the examples to get a sense of what Workflow can do.

Interested in learning about Clips? Read this CNET article, or just watch the video embedded in the main Loop post.

Anita Balakrishnan, CNBC:

Apple said on Tuesday that Swift Playgrounds would be available in Simplified Chinese. Swift Playgrounds is an app, only available on iPads, that helps kids learn to code through games. Not only does Playgrounds help kids learn to code, but it teaches them Apple’s new coding language, Swift, released in 2014.

And:

Getting kids hooked has historically been part of Apple’s long game for the iPad — Steve Jobs once told Barack Obama that it was “absurd” that teachers still used chalkboards instead of iPads.

This is an important move that got little attention. This is Apple paying great attention to the details in opening up the iOS device market in China, paving the way via education. Smart.

If you head over to the Apple Store, you’ll see this oddly specific message:

This coincides with the sale of the new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, 9.7-inch iPad, iPhone SE and iPad mini 4.

Is the shutdown purely to add these new items to the store, is there one last thing?

Mikey Campbell, writing for AppleInsider:

Introduced as part of iTunes 12.6, which is rolling out to users as of this writing, the “rent once, watch anywhere” feature lets customers watch content rentals on any iPhone or iPad running iOS 10.3 or Apple TVs running tvOS 10.2. Those operating system versions have yet to move out of beta, suggesting a launch in the next few days.

Prior to the change, rented movies were largely relegated to the device on which they were purchased. For example, a film rented on an iPad or Apple TV could not be transported to iPhone, or vice versa.

Huzzah. The one rental, one device model was painfully archaic. Long overdue.

Kirk McElhearn, in a Kirkville post:

Remember how you liked having playlists in their own windows? Well, it’s back in the latest iTunes update. Right-click on a playlist and choose Open Playlist in New Window.

Two good things in a single update. Nice.

Nick Heer, Pixel Envy:

I’m not convinced, though, that Clips is a serious competitor. I think it’s a perfectly fine app; the Live Titles feature — which makes onscreen captions based on what’s being said — is especially cool. But Clips is separate from Messages, so there are more steps between starting to capture a moment and showing it off.

Time will tell if Clips gains traction. One thing Apple has done is add more importance to Messages, complementing the addition of stickers and the Messages app store.

Jon Russell, TechCrunch:

The (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition iPhone 7 is the first time that Apple has supported the charity through its flagship phone, — previous (PRODUCT)RED editions have included Beats headphones and Apple accessories — so it is sure to heighten international awareness and generate additional funds since each purchase includes a contribution to the charity. The limited edition iPhone will go up for sale in over 40 parts of the world starting this Friday, but one market where the charitable tie-in will go unnoticed is China, the world’s largest country based on population.

Despite the potential for sales in China — where iPhones are status symbols, and a unique color can make a limited edition release particularly desirable — the red iPhone is not being promoted using the (PRODUCT)RED branding.

And:

Apple, which has been caught in the political crosshairs in China over its purported use of location data and President Trump’s aggressive trade policies, is likely steering clear of controversy here by decoupling the device’s association with [Red]. That applies to both authorities and consumers, too.

A difficult situation for Apple. Clearly, this is a cause in which they believe, no question. But compromise won out here, in deference to the need to build their business in China. Tough call.

If you make your way over to the Apple Store site this morning, you’ll see something like this:

According to Apple’s System Status page, the site went down for maintenance at 3a PT (early Tuesday morning). There are no media events scheduled for today, so this could be a site update.

But conjecture abounds, with most of the focus being on speed bump updates of the existing iPad line. Though there are some who suggest an updated iPhone SE, a new 10.5 inch iPad Pro, and a few other goodies.

Keep your eyes peeled, folks. My bet? This ain’t just maintenance.

Terrible. Completely avoidable.