Slade Watkins

  • Phil Schiller Talks DMA and ‘Alternative App Marketplaces’ on iOS in EU

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    Fast Company interviews Phil Schiller and here are two interesting bits (though the whole thing is worth the read!):

    “We’ve put together over 600 new APIs for developers to give them the tools to build a marketplace, install an app, let the user have control of that process,” Schiller says. “We’ve done a lot of core engineering [to help make things easier for alternative app store developers], and we’re going to continue to.” 

    “It’s important to note, however, that this notarization process isn’t as in-depth as the App Store’s traditional review, which also checks, among other things, that an app is following content rules. Still, this notarization should be enough to stop a malicious app that’s attempting to mimic a real app (say, from Facebook or Starbucks) from being installed on a user’s iPhone.”

    Apple’s working overtime to “scare” folks from not using alternate storefronts, which they’re calling “Alternative App Marketplaces” to distinguish from their own App Store. That said, I think users have the choice in the matter here. There’s an argument to be had. Put the safeguards in place and let them decide.

    I’m willing to bet most normal users, who aren’t enthusiasts or tech geeks like me, won’t even bother installing an “alternative app marketplace” or sideload an app unless they’re required to. My aunts certainly haven’t thought about that in years — they’ve used most of the default apps that come with their iPhones since switching a few years ago! I don’t foresee anything changing there.

    I highly recommend reading my previous post on this topic, as well as friend of the blog Riley Testut’s 9to5Mac interview.

  • $5 Gets You A Beautiful YouTube App that Google Wouldn’t Make for Vision Pro

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    [threads https://www.threads.net/@christianselig/post/C21LfTesb3U]

    It’s true, Google wouldn’t do it, so Christian Selig (of Pixel Pals, and if you’re old enough to remember — Apollo — fame) did. He made a new YouTube app called Juno for the Apple Vision Pro.

    It’s native and beautiful, too. Available now for $4.99 USD on the App Store.

    Not an ad, just thrilled that my favorite developer is building more stuff. I’ve missed him!

  • Updates to the Phantom Block Saga

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    Hi! Before continuing, please read my original blog post from the other day. It gives some important context to this entire situation.

    https://twitter.com/sladewatkins/status/1753078596158001416

    Hey Slade,
    I let Engineering know about your friend blocking you once again, [sensitive information withheld], just for a sanity check. They got back to me pretty quickly with confirmation that it is showing as a legitimate block. They’ll look into it if they get a chance but I can’t make any promises.

    I know you’re not doing the best mentally right now and I think you could use some friends around you right now. So please, take this advice: reach out to them soon and talk to them. Just talk, nothing more. Isolating yourself is only going to make things worse. Please, lean on your friends and just get better, because that’s what they’re there for. I’m sure they’d tell you the same thing.

    All my best,
    A [name withheld]

    This isn’t the answer I was hoping for, but it’s one of the more thoughtful ones I’ve ever gotten. My contact isn’t wrong, I’ve been getting more and more anxious over this. The truth is I have no idea what’s going on, and neither does the skeleton crew at Twitter. Max can see my account, but I can’t see his. I can’t DM him, I can’t even see past DMs. And I definitely can’t interact with him at all. It’s so beyond frustrating and weird.

    It’s what I’ve been referring to as a “phantom block” — wherein the block is there for me, but definitely not for him. I’m hoping they can find a resolution soon — but it sucks I can’t keep up with one of my best friends on Twitter until it is. Somehow. I am at the mercy of the team behind a platform that is actively on fire.

    But don’t worry, I’ll be taking that advice my contact gave and reaching out to Max and a couple of my other friends privately within the next day or so. They’re right: I haven’t been doing well, and isolating myself isn’t going to help anyone. My friends are there to lean on if I need them, and I do… so I’m going to stop isolating myself and be more communicative.

    The future is bright, folks.

  • Apple Says “More Than 600 Apps” Prepped Ahead of Vision Pro Launch Tomorrow

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    Oh, and there’s a photo of Tim Cook wearing the headset (courtesy: Vanity Fair)

    Apple writes (emphasis mine):

    “More than 600 apps and games designed to take advantage of the unique and powerful capabilities of Apple Vision Pro will be available this Friday, February 2. Vision Pro has an infinite canvas where apps can scale beyond the boundaries of a traditional display, and introduces an intuitive and powerful three-dimensional user interface that users navigate with their eyes, hands, and voice. Spatial experiences on Vision Pro can transform any room into a personal theater for sports, TV shows, and films; unlock new ways to collaborate, create, and view digital content; and transport users to stunning gameplay environments and exciting new places.”

    That may not sound like much, but for a brand-new, first-gen device and platform, it’s quite impressive. Spotify, YouTube, and Netflix are among the apps not available, though, so that’s unfortunate — but Disney+ is built right in, and if you have a cable subscription, you can tap into that with the (also built-in) TV app.

    Interested to see what apps are launching. I know most of the ones I’d personally be interested are in compatibility mode on the headset, not native, so I can’t imagine many will adapt unless there’s a benefit to that. We’ll see!

  • Sonic X Shadow Generations Is Real

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    I tried to get some more information on the game directly from Sega’s Media Portal, but they haven’t released anything for this yet.

    Here’s what I was able to find, though, courtesy of the PlayStation Blog!

    “The original Sonic Generations provided an unforgettable experience to Sonic fans old and new, as it combined nostalgia from the early days of Sonic with the latest modern Sonic gameplay at the time. The story centers around Sonic and friends as their universe is thrown into chaos when an ominous power appears, creating ‘time holes,’ which take Sonic and his friends back in time. While in the past, Sonic runs into some familiar faces including a classic version of himself! Together, they must team up to defeat enemies, save their friends, and find out who is behind this diabolical deed.”

    “On top of the remaster of the original Sonic Generations, fans will get to experience new content and play as Shadow the Hedgehog as he embarks on his own journey parallel to Sonic’s.

    Shadow was first introduced in 2001’s platformer, Sonic Adventure 2, and has been seen in various titles including Sonic Heroes, Sonic Battle, and his own spin-off title, Shadow the Hedgehog. He was created to be the ultimate lifeform with incredible speed, ferocious strength and a rare ability called Chaos Control – by harnessing the power of a Chaos Emerald, he can stop time and warp to new positions. He’s always on the lookout for dangers to the world and protects Earth in honor of an old friend.

    Since their first meeting, the Blue Blur has been the only one able to keep up with Shadow – a fact that both fascinates and frustrates Shadow – and has been the driving force to bring out the best in him. Two sides of the same coin, Sonic and Shadow are unfriendly rivals through and through, but they can put their differences aside when the fate of the world is at stake.

    Players will dive into Shadow’s dark past to understand his motivations and learn more about him as a character.”

    The collection releases in the fall of this year for Xbox One/Series X+S, Switch, and PS4/PS5, and if I had to guess, that probably means in September-November range.

  • Removing The Vision Pro Battery’s Cable Reveals An Interesting, Yet Oddly Not Quite Familiar Connector

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    As discovered by Ray Wong on Twitter, there’s an interesting connector that the Vision Pro’s battery uses. It’s not USB-C (which the EU will mandate on certain types of devices starting this year), and while it looks like Lightning, it’s most certainly not. There are two many pins on the end! This is a proprietary if I’ve ever seen one.

    I don’t know what it does, I don’t have access to Vision Pro at all. But one thing’s for sure: it’s a weird connector that feels oddly familiar to Lightning that I had to share with you.

    Should we call it “Lightning XL”?

  • Whispy Creator Says “Great Progress” Being Made, But No Promises on Closed Beta

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    Developer dimden, known for being the creator of the Old Twitter Layout browser extension, has been working on an “actually good” Twitter replacement called Whispy for a while now. Well, they took to Twitter to announce that there had been “great progress” made on Whispy and they think there will be a closed beta in February. They didn’t make any promises, however.

    From Whispy.org:

     

  • Linus Torvalds Thinks That’s A Bad Idea, By The Way

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    Linus writes on LKML:

    “I don’t want to see a single eventfs patch that doesn’t have a real
    bug report associated with it. And the next time I see you copying VFS
    functions (or any other core functions) without udnerstanding [sic] what the
    f*ck [sic] they do, and why they do it, I’m going to put you in my
    spam-filter for a week.

    I’m done. I’m really *really* tired of having to look at eventfs garbage.”

    You can read the original patch submission at this link, if you’re technically inclined enough to understand it. Truth is, I’m only sharing this as a Linklog because I haven’t seen Linus Torvalds this angry in a very long time. Swearing included.

  • Iconfactory Launches Kickstarter for “Project Tapestry,” Universal Inbox for the Web

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    Iconfactory writes:

    Our plan is to fund and then build Tapestry as an iOS app over the course of 9 to 12 months with the following features and functionality:

    • 🕰️ Unified, chronological timeline
    • 🔍 Detail view for individual posts
    • 📙 Remember your reading position in the timeline
    • 🌎 Ability to add common publicly accessible sources to your timeline, such as Mastodon accounts, RSS feeds, and more (see below)
    • 🛠️ Basic support for building and adding your own plug-ins to support additional source types
    • 📱 Support for iPhone and iPad
    • 🗣️ Full accessibility via VoiceOver support
    • 🆎 Support for dynamic font resizing
    • 💡 Light and Dark theme

    I’m really excited for this! I’ve always wanted one app to rule them all, and this would certainly be a push for me to return to iOS full-time. They’re looking for about $100,000 USD of funding, and as of writing, they’re sitting at about $42,000 USD. If this is of interest to you, please consider giving a few dollars! The Iconfactory are brilliant humans (who I wish I could work with) and they’re absolutely worth your support!

    (Disclosure: Ged Maheux is a friend of the blog, and the human who writes it–but he and the Iconfactory team did not have any say in this post going live for readers.)

  • JRE Durability Tests Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

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    For the first time ever, a Samsung phone has passed JerryRigEverything’s durability test with scratches at a level 7, and deeper groves at a level 8. This is unprecedented! The glass Samsung is using is Corning’s “Gorilla Armor” which is the “most advanced” they’ve made, according to the company.

    Watch the durability test! It’s worth it.