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watchOS 6.2 Golden Master Arrives With Developers

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple seeded the golden master of watchOS 6.2 to developers on Wednesday. MacRumors had a look at what it contained.

watchOS 6.2 introduces ‌Apple Watch‌ App Store support for in-app purchases, which will allow developers to create and sell ‌Apple Watch‌ apps that offer in-app purchase options and subscriptions. Apple’s release notes for the update are below: watchOS 6.2 includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes: Introduces in-app purchases for ‌Apple Watch‌ apps. Fixes an issue where music playback could pause when switching from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth connectivity. ECG app on ‌Apple Watch‌ Series 4 or later now available in Chile, New Zealand, and Turkey. Irregular heart rhythm notifications now available in Chile, New Zealand, and Turkey.

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Book Publisher Macmillan Cancels Plan to Stifle Libraries

Andrew Orr ·

The Big Five book publishers had a plan to hurt consumers by imposing limitations on eBook licensing to libraries. One of them—Macmillan—is backing out.

There are times in life when differences should be put aside,” Macmillan CEO John Sargent wrote in a memo to librarians obtained by Publishers Weekly. “Effective on Friday (or whenever thereafter our wholesalers can effect the change), Macmillan will return to the library e-book pricing model that was in effect on Oct. 31, 2019. In addition, we will be lowering some ebook prices on a short term basis to help expand libraries collections in these difficult times. Stay safe.

You have literally no “differences” with libraries other than money. And implying that you’re doing this because of the coronavirus is, to put it politely, shady. Not to mention all the libraries boycotting Macmillan. No, this is entirely a gesture of good will because of “these difficult times.”

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Standby for a Major Slack Redesign

Charlotte Henry ·

Slack is rolling out its biggest ever redesign. It is all centered around major changes to the sidebar. Senior exec Ethan Eismann explained the company’s thinking in an interview with The Verge.

“This is the largest redesign in Slack’s history,” explains Ethan Eismann, vice president of design at Slack, in an interview with The Verge. “We’ve taken a lot of the historical features and reorganized them in a way that makes them much more apparent in the right way and simple to use. That was very much the goal of this process.” Slack’s new redesign all starts with the sidebar. The biggest change is that messages, channels, and apps will all now support grouping into collapsible sections within the Slack sidebar. That means if you’re working on a project that has certain channels and group DM conversations, then you can nest them all under one handy section and drag and drop it to exactly where you want it in the sidebar. Unfortunately, the new sidebar sections feature will only be available on paid Slack plans, not free versions.

TMO Deals

The 2020 Mac Productivity Essentials Bundle: $25.49

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal called the 2020 Mac Productivity Essentials Bundle, a collection of productivity apps for the Mac. It includes a VPN, an app organizer, a PDF editor, a password manager, a movie editor, and four more Mac apps. It’s $29.99 through our deal, but coupon code SPRINGSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $25.49.

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Musician and Programmer John Nastos - TMO BGM Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

John Nastos is a multi-instrumentalist, music composer and improvisor, saxophonist, an iOS app developer, book author and is currently on faculty at Portland State University as a Jazz Saxophone Instructor.

John is one of those special people who is an accomplished jazz musician, iOS developer and author. He tells a fascinating story about how he got started as a jazz musician and the people who mentored him. Along the way, he also fondly adopted the Mac, and that stood him well when it came time to develop some very popular, technical music apps that had never existed before. As an instructor, John teaches his students the principles behind music improvisation. His first book, The Mechanism lays out those core concepts. John is a gifted speaker and educator, so don’t miss this show.

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U.S. Government Wants to Track Coronavirus Spread With Location Data

Andrew Orr ·

The U.S. government is in talks with Facebook, Google, and others to use location data to track the spread of the coronavirus.

Public-health experts are interested in the possibility that private-sector companies could compile the data in anonymous, aggregated form, which they could then use to map the spread of the infection, according to three people familiar with the effort, who requested anonymity because the project is in its early stages.

On the surface, it’s for good intentions (They always seem good on the surface). But we know that in certain situations, data can be de-anonymized. Some questions: How will they use this data? How effective would this be? Will the government keep the database afterward? My initial thought is that I have no problem with medical experts and scientists doing this. But I have no faith in this current administration, or faith in companies like Facebook and Google. What if they created an app to collect this data? That way it’s optional. And please password–protect the server.

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On Being a Woman in The Gaming Industry

Charlotte Henry ·

Just because it isn’t International Women’s Day anymore, that doesn’t mean we should not celebrate women in tech! iMore has a great interview with Camilla Avellar, a designer at Supercell – the firm behind Clash of Clans. She discusses how she got into the industry, and how it has changed over the years.

Back in the beginning of the App Store era, many people were playing games, but there still wasn’t an established market. So there were some trial games that you could get for free and then buy the premium version. There wasn’t really this free to play model yet. That came a bit later. But with the free to play model, it just exploded. Everyone had a very small barrier to entry. You could just download a game and play it for free for years. And yeah, I think that a shift in this mentality towards mobile games came with the fact that the audience is just huge and it’s an audience that is largely untapped because it’s not all gamers.

TMO Deals

Mobile Pixels DUEX Pro Portable Dual Monitor: $179.35

Bryan Chaffin ·

Check out the Mobile Pixels DUEX Pro, a portable display that connects to your laptop to give you a second display wherever you go. This device connects to your Mac, Windows, Chrome, or Linux laptop via a USB cable, and you attach it physically to the upper lid of your laptop so that it’s always with you. It slides out when you want to use it, and there’s a mirroring mode that allows you to turn it around soo you can share your screen with someone sitting across from you. It’s offers 1080p resolution, and coupon code SAVEDUEXPRO at checkout brings the price on this device down to $179.35.

 

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Grayshift Increases Price as it Struggles to Hack iPhones

Andrew Orr ·

iOS forensics company Grayshift was forced to raise its prices last year, noting that “Forensic Access to iOS continues to increase in difficulty and complexity.”

“I think it’s going to get harder and harder to find these kinds of unlocking flaws, because Apple does control the entire stack,” Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and former Facebook chief security officer, previously told Motherboard. “I think a couple more hardware revisions of understanding the ways that these unlocks are happening and [Apple is] going to make it extremely difficult. Which then will bring this debate back…”

It’s a complex issue. On one hand it’s good news for Apple customers. On the other hand, it makes the government is fight tooth and nail to take away our security.

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LA-Based Apple Staffer Tests Positive for COVID-19

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple confirmed that a staff member at its Culver City office had tested positive for coronavirus. The affected staff member is currently self-isolating, Variety reported.

“A team member in our Culver City office has informed us they tested positive for COVID-19. The individual had no symptoms when they were last in the office, and remains in self isolation at home,” a rep for Apple said in a statement. “We recognize this is a challenging time for our global community and our thoughts remain with those around the world personally affected by COVID-19 and the heroic medical professionals and researchers fighting it.” The office remains open, although Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week the company had asked employees to work from home if their position allows while the company “deep cleans” its offices.