John Voorhees

5806 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
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Twitter To Livestream Apple’s Fall Keynote→

TechCrunch has confirmed that Apple is expanding how its September 12th keynote can be consumed. In years past, Apple keynotes were limited to streaming in Safari and the Apple Events app. This past summer, Apple expanded browser-based streaming to include Firefox and Chrome.

Yesterday, Apple began offering reminders of its event via Twitter, which the company has done in the past. As Sarah Perez of TechCrunch notes, however, the wording for tomorrow’s event was a little different:

Instead of saying “follow” the event on Twitter, the tweet says “…watch the #AppleEvent live on Twitter.” (Emphasis ours).

Watch implies a live stream, and the tweet itself featured an animated GIF as another hint.

That wording kicked off speculation that Twitter would stream the keynote, which TechCrunch and other media outlets have since confirmed.

Apple will hold its special event at the Steve Jobs Theater tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT. Besides the Apple Events app and Twitter livestream, the event will be available on apple.com.

You can follow all of our Apple event coverage through our September 12, 2018 hub, or subscribe to the dedicated September 12, 2018 RSS feed.

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How the Stanford Heart Study App Saved Jason Perlow→

Last fall, Apple launched the free Heart Study app in partnership with Stanford University. The study, which was closed to new participants in August and has begun to end for some early participants, was available to US residents over 22 years old with an Apple Watch Series 1 and newer. The app used the Apple Watch to monitor the user’s heart rate for atrial fibrillation, a leading cause of stroke.

Over the course of the Stanford study, stories have surfaced of instances where it discovered dangerous Afib conditions that were undiagnosed before. One such recent story comes from ZDNet writer Jason Perlow. A self-described Apple critic, Perlow purchased a refurbished Series 2 Nike+ Apple Watch earlier this year to test it.

Skeptical about whether the device would be something he would use much, Perlow nonetheless signed up for the Heart Study. Within a few days, Perlow received a notification asking him to contact a doctor at Stanford. The Heart Study app had detected signs of previously-undiagnosed atrial fibrillation. Perlow had the condition treated by a team of heart specialists, but as he concludes:

I owe my life to my Apple Watch. Because it started this whole machine rolling. And I was very lucky to have my Afib caught during the last three months of public enrollment in the Heart Study, which ended in early August.

I participated in the Heart Study too. Like Perlow, I forgot about it for long stretches. I’m fortunate that I didn’t receive the sort of alert Perlow did, but in September, Stanford sent me a notification that my participation in the study was ending. It turns out that over the course of 188 days, Stanford collected 1,743 heart measurements from me. Multiply that by the thousands of people in the study, and the potential the Apple Watch has for medical research is remarkable, while at the same time helping individuals like Perlow one at a time.

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AppStories - Ep. 78 - 37 minutes

Exploring Twitter Apps

FedericoJohn
AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 78 - Exploring Twitter Apps

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37:16

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

This week, Federico and John explore Twitter clients, other specialized Twitter apps, and how they use them.

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Apple Music Debuts Global and Country-Specific Top 100 Lists

Today, Apple Music added 116 Top 100 charts to its iOS Music app and iTunes on the Mac. The charts, consisting of a global Top 100 chart and a Top 100 chart for each country where Apple Music is offered, are part of a new Top Charts section of Apple Music’s Browse tab. Despite some reports that the charts are limited to the iOS 12 and macOS Mojave betas, I have been able to access them in iTunes on macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 too.

According to Rolling Stone, which was given a demonstration by Apple Music executives, the charts are based on Apple Music streams only and are updated every day at Midnight Pacific time.

App Debuts

Federico

Gboard Google’s custom iOS keyboard was updated last week with the ability to type in multiple languages without having to switch between keyboard layouts. The experience is similar to Apple’s QuickType keyboard: once multiple languages have been enabled in the app’s preferences, you can just start typing and Gboard will recognize the language you’re...

Mac Photo Utilities

John

BatchPhoto If you take a lot of photos, at some point you’ve probably felt the need to batch process them, applying similar adjustments to several at one time. BatchPhoto has been around since 2005 providing tools to quickly and efficiently batch-process photos on the Mac. Among other things, the app can resize, apply...

Text Case for iOS Adds Title Case Text Transformations Based on Popular Style Guides

Several weeks ago I mentioned Chris Hannah’s recently-released iOS text transformation utility Text Case in the Club MacStories weekly newsletter. The app has a simple, utilitarian design that uses the big, bold header text popularized by Apple apps like News and Music. Version 1.0 included a long list of built-in text transformations. Some, like URL encoding and decoding, are useful, and others, like ‘Mocking SpongeBob,’ are just for fun. By and large though, the transformations in version 1.0 were geared more towards developers than writers. That’s changed with version 1.2 of the app, which should make it appeal to a wider audience.

The latest update adds Title Case, which can transform headlines according to the style guides for the Associated Press, American Psychology Association, Modern Language Association, or Chicago Manual of Style. The update also adds sentence case and Pascal case.

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Apple’s Acquisition of Shazam Approved by the European Commission

Last December, Apple announced plans to acquire music-discovery service Shazam. The service, which makes iOS, watchOS, and macOS apps that can detect songs, TV shows, and advertisements from their sound signatures, has been on Apple’s platforms since the early days of iOS and is the engine behind Siri’s ability to recognize songs.

Since February, the deal has been on hold while the European Commission considered whether it would adversely impact competition. In a press release today, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy, explained:

“Data is key in the digital economy. We must therefore carefully review transactions which lead to the acquisition of important sets of data, including potentially commercially sensitive ones, to ensure they do not restrict competition. After thoroughly analysing Shazam’s user and music data, we found that their acquisition by Apple would not reduce competition in the digital music streaming market.”

Elaborating on the Commission’s findings, Vestager said the Commission concluded that “Apple and Shazam mainly offer complementary services and do not compete with each other.”

There has been no official word from Apple on the Commission’s decision, but it should clear the way to allow that deal to be consummated soon.

Past MacStories coverage of Shazam is available here.