MacStories was a big part of my life for over five years, from January 2011 through November 2016. I only vaguely recall emailing Federico about the possibility of writing for MacStories, though I do remember sending him two sample articles – one of which was about the iPad (naturally!). Federico was happy to give me a go and I started pretty much straight away.
Calculators for Every Task
[[graham]] There is no shortage of calculator apps on the App Store, and they range in functionality from the simple, to the advanced, to the specialized. Today’s collection aims to highlight a few of the very best calculator apps which sit along this spectrum. PCalc An excellent all-purpose, powerful and customizable calculator. Your iPhone...
Craig Federighi on Why There Is No Touchscreen Mac→
CNET spoke with Craig Federighi after last week’s keynote, and one of the questions they ask him is whether there will be a touchscreen Mac (around 2:30 in the video):
Craig Federighi: At Apple we build prototypes around all sorts of ideas. So we certainly explored the topic deeply many years ago and had working models, but we decided it really was a compromise. For a device you hold in your hand like a phone or tablet it is very natural to rest your hand on the tablet and work that way. We think touch is at its best and we wanted to build, and have built, a really deep experience around a multi-touch first user interface. Grafting touch onto something that was fundamentally designed around a precise pointer really compromises the experience.
Those were carefully chosen words by Federighi. He does not say that there won’t be a touchscreen Mac, instead he notes that the simple addition or “grafting” on of a touchscreen to the Mac would be a compromise. Importantly, the compromise that he refers to is not one related to ergonomics, but rather the fact that macOS is currently designed around an interaction model driven by a precise pointer.
I agree with Federighi. I certainly wouldn’t want to see a Mac with a touchscreen bolted on, with no adjustments to the UI of macOS. But as someone who regularly uses the iPad Pro in a laptop-esque configuration with the Smart Keyboard, I see the value in having a touchscreen on a Mac, provided that there are also UI changes to macOS. I don’t expect this any time soon, but I do think it will happen.
MacStories Guide: Design and Launch Your Own iMessage Sticker Pack on the App Store
The barrier to entry onto the App Store was already quite low, but with the launch of sticker packs in iOS 10, that barrier was substantially lowered. Now you don’t even have to type a line of code in order to launch a product on the App Store. This has been an exciting development and has enabled a whole new wave of creators to make products and launch them on the App Store.
I was one of them. I don’t know how to code, but I do have some design skills, and I wanted to see what it was like to create something for iOS and launch it on the App Store. So a few months ago I decided that I would make some sticker packs for iOS 10 – and that’s what I did. I brainstormed possible ideas, started designing some stickers and ultimately ended up publishing Birthday Celebration Stickers and an app bundle which included World Flag Stickers and a few other country-specific flag stickers.
The process of making and publishing these sticker packs was fairly straightforward, but I also encountered some unexpected hurdles. To help others who are excited about making their own sticker packs, I’ve written this guide, which I hope can make the process a little smoother.
Apple TV: One Year Later
[[graham]] Yesterday, October 30th, was the first anniversary of the 4th generation Apple TV. It’s kind of surprising and a little hard to believe that I’ve been using this product for a year already. I’ve never been happier with my TV watching setup, and the 4th generation Apple TV has been a key component of...
Relax, It’s the Weekend
Battlefield 1 Game (Xbox One, PS4, PC) Last week I bought Battlefield 1, which despite its name, is just the latest in a long line of Battefield games from EA and DICE. Unlike some of the previous Battlefield games, Battlefield 1 doesn’t try to be a Call of Duty and it takes a refreshing approach...
Text Replacement
It is highly likely that there are particular phrases that you type repeatedly over the course of a day or week. Built in to iOS and macOS is a text replacement feature that allows you to set a text shortcut which you can use to quickly insert a particular phrase. For example, you probably enter...
Q&A
Question: What app do you use or recommend to scan old photos on iOS? (Bart Vermeiren, @bart2525)
FedericoIf you don’t want to use a traditional scanner app that outputs scans to JPEG (I recommend Scanbot and Scanner Pro), you might want to consider a dedicated utility built specifically to scan old photographs. Unfade, made...
Apple Q4 2016 Results: $46.9 Billion Revenue, 45.5 Million iPhones, 9.2 Million iPads Sold
Apple has just published their financial results for Q4 2016, which covered the three months from July through to September 2016. The company posted revenue of $46.9 billion with a quarterly net profit of $9 billion. Apple sold 9.2 million iPads, 45.5 million iPhones, and 4.8 million Macs during the quarter.
“Our strong September quarter results cap a very successful fiscal 2016 for Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled with the customer response to iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2, as well as the incredible momentum of our Services business, where revenue grew 24 percent to set another all-time record.”