Apple Pay Launches in Ireland, Coming Soon to Italy →

As we reported exclusively last night, Apple Pay is now live in Ireland. The service allows iPhone and Apple Watch owners to use the NFC chips in their devices to pay for their shopping at contactless terminals in retail stores across the country.

Apple Pay requires iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, or any Apple Watch, and is launching with support for Ulster Bank and KBC in Ireland. Apple has also announced that the service is coming soon to Italy.

I’ve been waiting for Apple Pay to launch in Italy, and I’m glad to see Apple has confirmed the service will roll out “soon”. However, as I feared, my bank – despite being one of the largest banking groups in Italy – is not going to be supported at launch. This has happened with 14 other countries (including Ireland) before, though, and I hope Apple will quickly get other major Italian banks on board.

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Member Requests

By Federico Viticci

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Advanced Toggl Timers with Dictionaries

By Federico Viticci

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Canvas, Episode 30: The Share Sheet →

Linked By Federico Viticci

This week Fraser and Federico tackle a core part of iOS: the Share Sheet.

For this week’s Canvas, we asked ourselves a question: how difficult could it be to explain the iOS share sheet and its inner workings? To find out, you can listen here.

iPad Diaries: Apple Pencil, Notability, and the Joy of Note-Taking

By Federico Viticci

Please don’t judge me by my terrible handwriting. I have other qualities.

iPad Diaries is a regular series about using the iPad as a primary computer. You can find more installments here and subscribe to the dedicated RSS feed.

Ever since I first got the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I’ve wanted to use the Apple Pencil more. However, every time I tried to fit the Pencil into my workflow, I stumbled upon the realization that, no matter the excellence of the tool at hand, I’m no artist.

I spend most of my time typing with a keyboard (either a Bluetooth one or the iPad’s software one) and, while it’s fun to pretend I know what I’m doing in Linea or Paper, the sad reality is that I’m downright terrible at sketching or drawing. Moreover, unlike others, my background doesn’t involve a passionate appreciation of pen and paper. Therefore, I’m attracted by the Pencil’s concept and technology, but I don’t need it for my main line of work; plus, handwriting stopped being a daily habit after I graduated high school in 2007.

I was inspired by a story Ryan wrote, though, to reconsider if my work routine could still benefit from a different note-taking perspective. Testing fresh approaches and new ideas has always been the underlying theme of my switch to the iPad, after all. So when Ryan shared his thoughts on using the Pencil for non-artistic purposes, I took it as an opportunity to try out the Pencil as a complement to my writing needs rather than a futile diversion.

AIM Starts Cutting Off Access for Third-Party Apps →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Adam Clark Estes:

In what feels like a death blow to everyone’s early-Aughts nostalgia, it looks like AOL will soon cut off third-party access to its famous Instant Messenger service. The service turns 20 years old this year, and at this point, it’s unclear if it will see its 21st birthday.

AOL shared news of this tragedy quietly. Adium users, at least, got a brief warning when they signed on Wednesday morning, explaining that their AIM access had less than a month to live. It reads like sad notice for an imminent memorial service.

Adium was one of the first apps I installed when I switched to the Mac in 2008. (Does anyone remember checking out the latest Adium skins and icons on MacThemes?)

End of an era, though AIM feels like a lifetime ago in the age of Facebook and iMessage.

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The Cases for (and Against) Apple Adopting USB-C on Future iPhones

By Federico Viticci

Jason Snell, writing for Macworld on the possibility of Apple adopting USB-C on future iPhones:

But the Lightning paragraph–that’s the really puzzling one. At first parsing, it comes across as a flat-out statement that Apple is going to ditch Lightning for the USB-C connector currently found on the MacBook and MacBook Pro. But a second read highlights some of the details–power cord and other peripheral devices?–that make you wonder if this might be a misreading of a decision to replace the USB-A-based cords and power adapters that come in the iPhone box with USB-C models. (I’m also a bit baffled by how the Lightning connector is “original,” unless it means it’s like a Netflix Original.)

Still, the Wall Street Journal would appear to be a more visible and reputable source than an analyst or blog with some sources in Apple’s supply chain. It’s generally considered to be one of the places where Apple has itself tactically leaked information in the past. So let’s take a moment and consider this rumor seriously. What would drive Apple to kill the Lightning connector, and why would it keep it around?

I’ve been going back and forth on this since yesterday’s report on The Wall Street Journal. Like Jason, I see both positive aspects and downsides to replacing Lightning with USB-C on the iPhone, most of which I highlighted on Connected. Jason’s article perfectly encapsulates my thoughts and questions.

USB-C represents the dream of a single, small, reversible connector that works with every device, and it’s being adopted by the entire tech industry. USB-C isn’t as small as Lightning but it’s small enough. More importantly, it’d allow users to use one connector for everything; USB-A, while universal on desktop computers, never achieved ubiquity because it wasn’t suited for mobile devices. USB-C is.

Conversely, Lightning is under Apple’s control and Apple likes the idea of controlling their stack as much as possible (for many different reasons). A transition to USB-C would be costly for users in the short term, and it would be extremely perplexing the year after the iPhone 7 fully embraced Lightning.

Furthermore, unlike the transition from 30-pin to Lightning in 2012, Apple now has a richer, more lucrative ecosystem of accessories and devices based on Lightning, from AirPods and Apple Pencil to keyboards, mice, EarPods, game controllers, Siri remotes, and more. Moving away from Lightning means transitioning several product lines to a standard that Apple doesn’t own. It means additional inconsistency across the board.

Like I said, I’m not sure where I stand on this yet. These are discussions that Apple likely has already explored and settled internally. I’m leaning towards USB-C everywhere, but I’m afraid of transition costs and setting a precedent for future standards adopted by other companies (what if mini-USB-C comes out in two years?).

In the meantime, I know this: I’m upgrading to USB-C cables and accessories as much as I can (I just bought this charger and cable; the Nintendo Switch was a good excuse to start early) and I would love to have a USB-C port on the next iPad Pro. If there’s one place where Apple could start adopting peripherals typically used with PCs, that’d be the iPad.

Workflow 1.7.1 Brings New Icon Glyphs, ‘Run Workflow’ Action

By Federico Viticci

Following the release of Workflow 1.7 earlier this month, the Workflow team is debuting a set of tweaks and additions this week that further simplify the creation and management of workflows for both beginners and advanced users.

Connected, Episode 131: The High School Reunion of Phones →

Linked By Federico Viticci

This week, Stephen yells at the cloud, Myke gets new emojis and Federico speaks wisdom to the masses.

Another fun episode of Connected this week, with plenty of speculation about USB-C on future Apple devices and what other companies are doing with smartphones in 2017. You can listen here.