Some ChatGPT Plus subscribers already have access to OpenAI’s new, more emotive voices. Jess Weatherbed collected users’ demos in an article on The Verge. (Link) iFixit recently answered the question of whether blowing on a game cartridge’s contacts actually works to make them playable, teaching gamers how to properly clean their carts along the...
App Debuts
Genius Sign Genius Sign is a companion app to Genius Scan, an app that I’ve covered before. The purpose of the utility is to sign, date, and annotate PDFs, but it’s not meant to be a PDF editor. Instead, it’s designed to simplify and speed up the process of signing documents, such as a...
Hom Screen: John
I’ve been messing around with my iPhone Home Screen a lot lately and realized that I haven’t shared it in quite a while. My Home Screen is bound to change with the release of iOS 18 and third-party apps that take advantage of features like the new Control Center widgets. So consider today’s...
Designing for Today’s App Interactions→
Yesterday, Vidit Bhargava, the developer of LookUp, Word of the Day, and other apps, published an excellent story on Pixel Posts about designing for today’s app interactions. Vidit makes the excellent point that the way we use apps is changing. They’re no longer iPhone-only islands that are siloed off from other apps and devices. As Vidit explains:
Not only is the iPhone app not the center of a user’s interaction on the phone. It’s increasingly becoming one of the many parts of an ecosystem where apps are expected to scale both in terms of interface and functionality starting from something as small as an Apple Watch and going all the way up to an unbounded experience like Vision Pro.
Not only do apps exist in the larger ecosystem of products, they are constantly interacting and communicating between them.
I couldn’t agree more. Today, I expect apps to be available on every device I use and to let me move my data between apps.
Vidit also explores the practical effect of the evolution of apps, arguing that it no longer makes sense to start by designing for the iPhone. Instead, Vidit suggests that we:
…think of “apps” as clusters of actions that help us reach or present information, and carry out processes (i.e. other actions).
The post is full of practical examples that are worth browsing through and an exploration of how to effectively design for actions. Vidit’s apps are among the best-designed apps I use, so I consider this post is a must-read for developers, designers, and anyone who is interested in where app design is heading.
The Latest from Magic Rays of Light, Comfort Zone, and MacStories Unwind
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
This week on Magic Rays of Light, Sigmund and Devon are joined by developer Devin Davies to chat about Crouton, summer movie snacks, and more. They also highlight the debut of Women in Blue and recap season one of Presumed Innocent.
This week, on Comfort Zone, Matt is leaving Unread, Chris is gaming on the go, and Niléane brings an addictive drug you can download from the App Store. Oh yeah, and there are several terrifying reveals, too.
This week on MacStories Unwind, I am joined by Devon Dundee to talk about media tracking strategies and share three TV series picks.
Apple Reports Q3 2024 Financial Results
Last quarter, Apple reported revenue of $90.8 billion, which was a 4% year-over-year drop. The decline reflected weak iPhone sales in China, which were somewhat mitigated by increases in the company’s services business.
Today, third-quarter earnings are out and Apple reported revenue of $85.8 billion, a 5% year-over-year gain.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook:
Today Apple is reporting a new June quarter revenue record of $85.8 billion, up 5 percent from a year ago. During the quarter, we were excited to announce incredible updates to our software platforms at our Worldwide Developers Conference, including Apple Intelligence, a breakthrough personal intelligence system that puts powerful, private generative AI models at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac. We very much look forward to sharing these tools with our users, and we continue to invest significantly in the innovations that will enrich our customers’ lives, while leading with the values that drive our work.
Going into today’s earnings call, Reuters reported that analysts expected a 2.2% decline in iPhone sales, which is substantially less than the 10.5% decline the previous quarter. The same report also explained that analysts expect the iPhone 16 to sell well this fall, driven, in part, by iOS’s upcoming artificial intelligence features.
This fall will be an interesting one for the iPhone. Many of the Apple Intelligence features that were shown off at WWDC are unlikely to ship with the iPhone 16. That could have a negative impact on the bump in iPhone 16 sales that analysts are expecting. However with iOS 18.1 already in developer beta, I expect Apple will be able to deliver enough of its promised AI features to keep Wall Street happy for another quarter.
Developers Claim Apple Arcade is ‘Directionless’→
Earlier this year, Neil Long of mobilegamer.biz published an inside look at Apple Arcade from game developers’ perspectives. The story reflected developers’ frustration stemming from their interactions with Apple, project cancelations, declining revenue, and more. The story didn’t paint a pretty picture.
This week, Long is back with a follow-up story that cites anonymous developer sources, claiming that developers have to wait months for payments, Apple is slow and unresponsive to support requests and other inquiries, and the Vision Pro struggles to run ‘complex’ games.
The list of problems cited is long and worth reading in full because it has led some of Long’s sources to conclude that they’re symptoms of a more fundamental problem:
…[J]ust like last time, most developers agreed that Apple sees games and game developers as a ‘necessary evil’, and that Arcade appears to be directionless and lacking in support from the rest of the tech giant.
“Arcade has no clear strategy and feels like a bolt-on to the Apple company ecosystem rather than like it is truly supported inside the company,” said one source. “Apple 100% does not understand gamers – they have little to no info on who plays their games that they can share with developers, or how they interact with games on the platform already.”
It’s important to take the complaints of unnamed sources with a grain of salt. However, it’s impossible to look at what’s going on with Arcade and App Store gaming in general – which Brendon and I discussed on NPC: Next Portable Console this week – and not conclude that Apple needs to shake up its approach to videogames.
Six Ways to Get Started with The Three Ps of Productivity
Philosophy and theory are all well and good, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t lay a few tips on Club members, too. These tips are purposefully not app-specific. In fact, you don’t even need an app to follow most of them. They’re more like rules of thumb that I try to follow throughout my...
Process, Planning, and Practice
I arrived home from London two nights ago after 23 hours of travel that included a stopover in Dublin and long delays. It was a grueling day, but it gave me time to start reactivating my work brain. My trip to Ireland and England was the longest true vacation I’ve had since before the pandemic....