Posts in Linked

Reeder 3.1 Adds iPhone X Support→

Reeder got me into reading RSS feeds on my iPhone several years ago. The app isn’t updated often these days, but developer Silvio Rizzi always makes sure to release updates that support the latest Apple hardware and iOS versions, which I appreciate. Reeder is as smooth and elegant as the day it came out (specifically, version 2 in 2013), and today’s 3.1 update is a welcome one as it brings support for iOS 11 and the iPhone X.

There are no new features in this version, but I recommend trying it out on an iPhone X if only to look at the “pure black” theme on the device’s OLED display. It’s glorious. I’m looking at Reeder now as I’m reading some articles in bed, and I can’t tell where the display and the bezels meet. I wish more apps would implement dark themes like this on the iPhone X. And as always, it’s great to see that Reeder is still around.

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Animoji and AvatarKit→

Developer Simon Støvring has put together SBSAnimoji, an iPhone X app that uses Apple’s private AvatarKit framework to let you record Animoji videos that aren’t limited to 10-second clips or the Messages app. You can download the project from GitHub and install it with Xcode on your iPhone X.

It’s fascinating to consider how Animoji could expand beyond iMessage through AvatarKit, or how the same tech that powers the framework could be used for the creation of different system avatars not necessarily modeled after popular emoji. Also: wouldn’t it be interesting to have AvatarKit as a proper API for third-party developers?

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Connected, Episode 167: Dissolving of the Plus Club→

On this week’s episode of Connected, we share our first impressions on the iPhone X and discuss the experience of using the device. This is a long one. You can listen here.

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The High Stakes Secret Release of Monument Valley 2→

Monument Valley 2 was announced and released during the WWDC keynote this past June. Andrew Webster at The Verge talked to the team behind the game about keeping the sequel a secret and the success the game has enjoyed in the subsequent months.

Since WWDC, the follow-on to one of the biggest App Store hits in recent years is selling well, including in China where sales are greater than in the US. Still, it remains to be seen whether ustwo’s latest release can match the original, which did even better in its second year on the App Store. Asked about how that kind of success can be replicated, ustwo head Dan Gray said:

“Your game needs to operate on a number of levels — at least that’s how we work,” he says. “When we think about how kids interact with Monument Valley, they treat it like a toy. There are these amazing structures, and it’s very tactile, there’s a lot of audiovisual feedback. That’s the most simple form of interaction. And then there are the people who understand the basic premise. In Monument Valley 2, that is a mother and child trying to solve problems together. Then there are the people who talk on internet forums and Twitter, and have really high-level, deep discussion.”

The Verge’s profile coincides with the release of a behind-the-scenes video created by ustwo that follows its team as they fly to San Jose and reveal Monument Valley 2 to the world.

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iPhone X and AppleCare+→

I received my iPhone X earlier today, but because I didn’t add AppleCare+ to my shopping bag when the preorders opened (I wanted to be as quick as possible, and I was sleepy), today I had to buy it separately.

AppleCare+ came in handy earlier this year when I (inexplicably) bent my 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the repair’s cost ended up being €49 instead of €550. After Stephen Hackett pointed at the more expensive repair costs for the iPhone X, I was even more convinced to add the extra coverage to my new iPhone. Buying AppleCare online is surprisingly easy: you receive an email from Apple with a link, which takes you to iOS’ built-in diagnostics app that verifies your device’s eligibility with Apple’s servers. It takes a couple of minutes, after which you can continue with the checkout in Safari. I never did this myself before because I thought driving to the Apple store just to buy AppleCare was easier; it’s not. The diagnostics app has an iOS 11 large title design, too.

If you also have a new iPhone X without AppleCare, Apple has a support document that explains how you can purchase it here.

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Austin Mann Reviews the iPhone X Camera→

On paper, the differences between Apple’s iPhone cameras can be hard to discern year-to-year. That’s why I find photographer Austin Mann’s iPhone camera reviews so valuable. Every year, Mann puts Apple’s cameras through their paces while traveling around the world. In September, Mann took the iPhone 8 Plus to India. He’s back, this time from Guatemala, with a review of the iPhone X’s cameras.

Mann was particularly impressed with the iPhone X’s telephoto lens:

When we got the telephoto lens in the 7 Plus, it was a huge upgrade but the telephoto quality was noticeably less than the wide lens, especially in low light. This created a shooting conundrum… often wishing to zoom in but not wanting to sacrifice quality. Apple closed that gap this year by investing heavily into improving the telephoto lens.  

The iPhone’s screen gets high marks too:

This probably the most amazing display I’ve ever seen. Colors pop, blacks are true black and contrast feels just right. I actually found it more rewarding to shoot & share because of how amazing the screen is. 

During his tests, Mann also discovered that the iPhone X’s slow-sync flash has been substantially improved:

One of my favorite things about the iPhone 8 Plus review was the slow sync flash comparison against the 7 Plus so I decided to take the iPhone X to the streets for a similar test. While I set out to see the difference in slow shutter effects, what I actually found was the iPhone 7 was easily 2 seconds slower in focusing/firing when shooting moving objects in low light…

The technical differences between the lenses in an iPhone 8 Plus and X may seem small on paper. Austin Mann does an excellent job demonstrating the added flexibility those differences afford users in everyday situations. Be sure to check out his post for examples of what the iPhone X’s camera can do.

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iOS 11.1 Autocorrect Bug Explained→

Jeremy Burge at Emojipedia explains what’s happening when iOS 11.1 replaces the letter ‘I’ with an ‘A’ followed by ‘⍰’:

What’s really going on is that the letter “I” is being appended with an invisible character known as Variation Selector 16 when auto-correct kicks in.
This VS-16 character is intended to be used to make the previous character have emoji appearance.1 When used in conjunction with the letter “I” it displays in some apps as “A ⍰”.

The correct behaviour should be to ignore the invisible variation selector if the previous character doesn’t have an emoji version.

The bug, which was a hot topic on Twitter over the weekend, only affects some users. Until a software update is issued by Apple to fix the issue, the company recommends setting up a text replacement rule that replaces a capital ‘I’ with a lower case ‘i’ as a workaround.

  1. eg: Snowman Without Snow is an old Unicode character ☃ but if you append Variation Selector 16 you get the emojified version: ⛄ ↩︎
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Remaster, Episode 47: Super Mario Odyssey Review→

Mario is back! Is he better than ever?

On this week’s episode of Remaster, we share our thoughts on Super Mario Odyssey. There are spoilers in the second half of the show. This is a good one. You can listen here.

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