Myke is putting wax seals on everything, and Stephen is backing documentaries about antique computing devices. Once that’s finished, the two talk about Apple’s rumored Siri-in-a-Canister product and Amazon’s recent Alexa news.
I wasn’t on Connected this week, but Myke and Stephen had a great discussion on voice assistants from Amazon and Apple, and what a Siri speaker could mean for the company’s app platforms. You can listen here.
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Apple has updated its website with a page focusing on U.S. job creation. Perhaps the most significant number listed is the claim that Apple has created over 2,000,000 U.S. jobs when counting its corporate employees, suppliers, and work supported by the App Store ecosystem.
Much of the information given on the site is extremely detailed, such as the state-by-state breakdown that includes the following data for each of the 50 states:
The data is fascinating and extensive, and worth checking out. Some of the interesting tidbits I learned about my home state of Texas are that it contains the second largest base of Apple corporate employees in the world, and that the indie game Reigns was developed here.
Newton, the email client for power users, today launched Amazon Echo integration with an Alexa skill. The skill enables email management with nothing but your voice; in addition to having Alexa read emails to you, you can perform the following list of actions by voice:
Replying to or composing new emails is not possible with Alexa, but personally, I don’t think I would trust a voice assistant to write my emails anyways – at least not until the technology grows more foolproof. The option to perform simple actions by voice, like archiving or snoozing messages, is much more appealing.
Newton’s expansion to Alexa-equipped devices follows the introduction of a Windows version of the client in beta form earlier this week. As a daily Newton user, I wrote about the iOS and macOS versions last Friday for Club MacStories members, and look forward to seeing the service continue to grow and improve.
Neil Hughes of AppleInsider reports that major apps like Google Maps, Amazon, and eBay have all quietly removed support for the Apple Watch.
Google released a comment on the story stating their intention to reinstate Watch support in the future.
While apps like Amazon and eBay may not be well-suited for the Apple Watch to begin with, the bigger story here is how long it took for anyone to notice that the Watch apps were removed. Hughes writes:
The fact that these high-profile removals have gone largely unnoticed could be a sign that the apps simply were not widely used. In contrast, removing iPad support from an iOS app, for example, would likely be noticed immediately and generate headlines.
The Apple Watch has proven to be a challenging platform for developers to find success on. Initially that could be attributed to slow hardware and limited developer tools, but Apple has made significant improvements with watchOS 3 and its 2nd-generation hardware. Perhaps part of the challenge is that not every app belongs on the Apple Watch, and for the ones that do, the implementation has to be just right.
On this week’s episode of AppStories, we invited Jean MacDonald and Grey Osten, co-founders of App Camp for Girls, to talk about their organization and the goals of the program. App Camp for Girls, now at its fifth year, helps middle-school age girls get started with app development, and, for the first time, there will be a Camp in Chicago later this year.
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You can listen to the episode below.
This week Fraser and Federico look at another aspect of personal security on iOS: password managers.
On this week’s Canvas, we talk about password management with a focus on 1Password and their modern subscription offerings. You can listen here.
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Casey Liss comes to set Federico straight about Plex in a new segment called Follow-on. Then, Stephen and Federico talk about Apple’s recent environmental push, the changes coming to the iTunes Affiliate Program and AppStories, Federico’s new podcast and website.
On this week’s Connected, Casey tells us why managing media in a Plex library isn’t so complicated and we also discuss the recent launch of AppStories. You can listen here.
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On this week’s episode of AppStories, we discuss setting up a new iOS device, whether we do a clean install with new iOS releases, the first apps we install, and we share some tips and tricks to make the process easier.
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You can listen to the episode below.
Special guest Lisa Jackson — Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives — joins the show for an Earth Day discussion of the state of Apple’s environmental efforts: climate change, renewable energy, responsible packaging, and Apple’s new goal to create a “closed-loop supply chain”, wherein the company’s products would be manufactured entirely from recycled materials.
I enjoyed John Gruber’s interview with Apple’s Lisa Jackson on the company’s approach to various environmental initiatives. It’s a fascinating, eye-opening discussion. Take an hour of your time to listen to it. It’s obvious that some incredibly smart and talented people are working on these issues at Apple.
