Posts in Linked

Connected, Episode 152: British Man in a Van with a MacBook→

Stephen tries to help Myke with his laptop as The Rock is having a great day with Siri. Then, Federico breaks down Siri changes coming this fall.

On this week’s Connected, we talk about Siri – both as an assistant for The Rock and in terms of what’s coming with iOS 11. You can listen here.

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Adobe Flash’s Days Are Officially Numbered→

Adobe announced today that it has set the end-of-life date for Flash, its popular technology for displaying animations and other multimedia on the web.

Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.

Apple has a long and storied history with Adobe and, more pointedly, Flash. When the first iPhone launched ten years ago, one of the chief controversies at the time surrounded the fact that Safari on iPhone OS did not support Flash, and Steve Jobs made it clear that it would not support Flash.

This stance grew into more of a sticking point for prospective consumers in 2010 when Apple’s new tablet, the iPad, did not support Flash either. Sparked by the newly revised controversy, Jobs laid out his thoughts on the issue in a piece simply titled “Thoughts on Flash.” His closing words predicted the technology could not survive in an increasingly mobile-first landscape.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice…New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

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AppStories, Episode 14 – Pick 2: Ulysses and FullContact→

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we pick two apps and discuss how and why we use them for our work. For the first installment of Pick 2, Federico covers Ulysses and how he’s used it over the past year and for the iOS 11 review he is currently writing; John explains how he uses FullContact to keep in touch with developers and sponsors of MacStories and AppStories.

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Remaster, Episode 39: Selfish Follow-Up→

Some upcoming games for the Switch, thoughts on the Zelda DLC, and a discussion about PlayStation PlayLink.

On Remaster this week, we discuss the experience of playing with the first DLC for Breath of the Wild; Shahid also explains why Sony’s PlayLink is an interesting approach to bridging the gap between the PS4 and smartphones. You can listen here.

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Connected, Episode 150: The Turtle Anniversary→

This week, faces are authenticating phones, iOS 11 is shaming apps for using location data and Federico is hard at work on his review.

On the 150th episode of Connected, I go over the current state of my iOS 11 review and we take a look at other changes coming to iOS later this year.

You can listen here.

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How App Store Gift Cards Work→

Equinux, maker of VPN Tracker, Mail Designer Pro, and other products has a fascinating look at the tech behind App Store gift and promo code cards that can be scanned and redeemed with an iPhone or Mac’s camera. The company wanted to make scannable cards of its own to hand out at events, so they began investigating how the alphanumeric codes found on the back of the cards work. It turns out there’s quite a bit to it.

After poking around under the hood of iTunes, Equinux discovered that Apple uses a special font, a certain size rectangle surrounding the redemption code, and private framework to scan the codes:

When you look at some of the other folders inside iTunes, we found a tantalizing plugin called “CodeRedeemer.” It showed promise. But alas, no font files there either. The app binary does give a hint of where the heavy lifting is being done: “CoreRecognition.framework.”

Inside the CoreRecognition framework were two fonts, Scancardium and Spendcardium, which, along with the surrounding rectangle, are the keys to creating custom cards.

The entire story is an impressive bit of sleuthing and well worth a read. If you’re a developer and would like to make scannable codes of your own, Equinux’s post includes instructions for doing so, along with Sketch, Photoshop, FileMaker, and Mail Designer Pro templates.

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AppStories, Episode 13 – Interview: Rehearsal Pro with David H. Lawrence XVII→

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we chat with actor David H. Lawrence XVII about his app Rehearsal Pro, which helps actors rehearse for parts, the intersection of the performing arts and apps, how David’s experience as an actor has helped his app find a large following among other professional actors, and how some of the app’s more famous users have become its best marketing.

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