Posts in Linked

What Today’s Popular Websites Look Like on the Original iPhone→

Fun experiment by Luc Luxton:

I received a 1st generation iPhone as birthday gift last year from a good friend of mine and I really haven’t done much with it. I started wondering if the phone could be used day to do if needed and if so, what the experience would be like today.

So, I thought it might be fun to have a look at what the most popular websites today look like on that incredibly revolutionary device.

If you think about it, the “winner” among websites that work well on an original iPhone today isn’t a surprise. I wish more websites adopted that strategy as well.

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Twitter for iOS Gets Native Periscope Stream Playback→

This morning, Twitter announced a new Periscope integration with the official Twitter app on iOS: starting today, users will be able to start watching Periscope live streams directly from the Twitter app without having to jump to Periscope.

From the Periscope blog:

Since launch, there have been over 100 million broadcasts created on Periscope. Whenever a broadcast is shared on Twitter, you tap the link to open the Periscope app. Today, we’re replacing those links with the broadcast itself, autoplaying right within the Tweet. And when you tap the video, it goes full-screen and shows Periscope comments and hearts from other viewers. You don’t need the Periscope app or even a Periscope account.

And here’s Casey Newton, writing about the new integration at The Verge:

In-line Periscopes are designed to look like a hybrid between the two platforms. “This brings the Periscope format to people who have never experienced Periscope, or don’t know what Periscope is,” says Aaron Wasserman, a Periscope engineer. Tap a video in the stream and it will expand and begin to play sound. You can view the comments and hearts inside a broadcast on Twitter, but if you want to comment or send hearts yourself you’ll have to tap a button to open it inside Periscope.

At the same time, you can interact with the broadcasts the same way you can with other tweets: liking them, retweeting them, or replying to them. That last one is important: Periscope broadcasts are limited to 100 commenters; Twitter replies mean that big broadcasters are likely to hear directly from more viewers.

According to Periscope, they’re also considering an option to store some streams permanently for preservation purposes. The Twitter timeline keeps gaining media previews and integrations that aren’t available in other clients – I think native Periscope playback for streams makes a lot of sense.

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tvOS 9.2 Beta Adds Podcasts App, Folders, Bluetooth Keyboard Support, New App Switcher→

In addition to iOS 9.3, Apple released the first beta of tvOS 9.2 today. Benjamin Mayo has a rundown of what’s new at 9to5Mac:

With the new Apple TV tvOS 9.2 beta, Apple has added a whole host of new features to the tvOS platform. This includes support for pairing Bluetooth keyboards, Folders organisation for apps on the home screen, a new App Switcher UI and a native Apple Podcasts app.

There are also some enhancements to Siri and other improvements. Apple has added support for two new Siri languages: US Spanish and French Canadian.

There was a ton of work left to do in the first tvOS – and I’d argue that the software shouldn’t have shipped without Remote app support – but it looks like Apple is catching up quickly.

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Apple Doesn’t Have Accurate Apple News Reader Statistics→

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has mistakenly been underestimating the number of readers using Apple News and providing those inaccurate numbers to publishers:

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said the company missed the error as it focused on other aspects of the product. The company didn’t explain how the problem occurred or say exactly when it might be rectified.

“We’re in the process of fixing that now, but our numbers are lower than reality,” he said. “We don’t know what the right number is,” but he added that it was better to undercount than overcount traffic.

A curious admission from Apple, particularly given that the issue has not been fixed yet. No details are given about the scale of the miscalculation, so it’s unclear as to whether this will result in a minor adjustment or significant adjustment in reader statistics.

Executives from Apple, including Mr. Cue, met with publishers late last year to discuss the product and address concerns. Mr. Cue said Apple will continue to spend a lot of time getting feedback from publishers.

Two months ago there were a few reports, including this one from Digiday, which noted that publishers were “underwhelmed” and “dissapointed” by Apple News, and the reader numbers.

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Improving the iOS 9 Videos App→

I find the iOS Videos app frustrating to use. It’s almost unbelievable that in the 9th major version of the OS it’s missing what seem to be some pretty basic features. However, this also means that it should’t be hard to make it a lot better:

This is a great list of suggestions for the built-in Videos app by Michael Tsai.

The Videos app strikes me as one of the most outdated Apple apps across iOS – it was updated with a basic UI refresh for iOS 7, but its functionality largely remained unchanged. There’s a chasm between the video experiences on Apple platforms – with the new Apple TV now out of the door, I think a complete revamp of the iOS Videos app should be taken in consideration this year.

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Petition for Apple to Keep Headphone Jack Reaches 200,000 Signatures→

There’s a petition on SumOfUs.org, calling on Apple to keep the standard headphone jack on the iPhone, following more reports that Apple is planning on removing it with the next iPhone.

This is right out of the Apple corporate playbook. A few years ago it swapped out the original iPod-dock connector with a new one, making countless cords, cables and chargers obsolete.

Apple plays up its green credentials, but the truth is that Apple only invested in renewable energy, and began phasing out toxic chemicals when public pressure became too strong to ignore. People power did it before, and we can do it again.

Tell Apple to keep the standard headphone jack and ditch planned obsolescence!

Look, this is a ridiculous and hysterical petition which blows the situation completely out of proportion. But having said that, the fact that this petition (on a website I’ve never heard of before) has exceeded 200,000 signatures in just a single day just goes to show how big a task Apple has if it does decide to remove the headphone jack with this year’s iPhone (remember, these are just rumors for now).

Last month, when these rumors first started circulating, I took the time to document some of my own thoughts about how Apple could minimize the frustration of consumers – as well as explaining why it will be a more painful transition than the 30-pin to Lightning switch, and some other tangential questions that this scenario raises. I don’t want to rehash it all again here, but here’s a snippet:

In essence, I think Apple should do three things. Firstly, acknowledge the trade-off Apple have made and the frustration some customers may feel. Secondly, clearly enunciate the benefits of switching away from the 3.5mm audio jack to the Lightning connector and Bluetooth audio. And thirdly, make the customer’s transition away from the 3.5mm audio jack as painless as possible. I’ll leave the first two up to Apple’s marketing team, but I do have some thoughts on the third.

Who knows if these rumors will even turn out to be true, but there’s an awful lot of smoke already. But even if it doesn’t happen with this year’s iPhone, it will inevitably happen – and when it does, expect an almighty backlash. The real question is how many steps Apple takes to reduce the pain to consumers.

(Via 9to5Mac)

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Apple Acquires AI Company Emotient→

The Wall Street Journal, reporting on Apple’s latest acquisition of AI company Emotient (confirmed by Apple):

Apple Inc. has purchased Emotient Inc., a startup that uses artificial-intelligence technology to read people’s emotions by analyzing facial expressions.

It isn’t clear what Apple plans to do with Emotient’s technology, which was primarily sold to advertisers to help assess viewer reactions to their ads. Doctors also have tested it to interpret signs of pain among patients unable to express themselves, and a retailer used it to monitor shoppers’ facial expressions in store aisles, the company had said.

As I argued in a section of my iOS 9 review last year, my experience with Apple services is that, when it comes to intelligence, they’ve consistently been less proactive and slower than Google’s. Two examples: I can search for photos by subject in Google Photos, and the Google mobile app sends me time to leave alerts that actually make sense.

The differences in intelligence between Google and Apple come with separate sets of trade-offs. The question for Apple should be: are there more ways to leverage AI to provide useful services while still prioritizing user privacy? How can Siri and iOS’ Intelligence features expand without comprising on Apple’s vision? Is that even possible without having to rely on cloud-based deep learning for user data in the long term? Is Apple considering new approaches that are somewhat in the middle?

It’s from such standpoint that I consider Apple’s AI acquisitions (Perceptio, VocallQ, and now Emotient), and it’ll be interesting to see what iOS 10 holds in this area.

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Putting iOS Screenshots in Device Frames with Workflow→

A few weeks back in an issue of MacStories Weekly for Club MacStories members, I replied to a reader question on the inability to automate the process of putting iOS screenshots into device frames. I recommended doing so manually with Pixelmator or using LongScreen, noting that, at the moment, Workflow doesn’t offer a “paste image on top of another image” action. I knew there were workarounds with Workflow and Pythonista, but I wanted a streamlined solution.

Here’s Jordan Merrick, writing on his blog:

Federico isn’t wrong - there isn’t really any way to automate the placement of a screenshot inside an existing image of something like an iPhone or iPad using something like Workflow. However, if we come at this from a different angle, it actually is possible to achieve the desired result with Workflow.

Instead of looking to insert a screenshot inside device image, a screenshot can be “wrapped” by slicing a device image beforehand. Then, with some creative use of the “Combine Images” action and a few variables later, it’s possible to wrap a screenshot in a way that results in a perfect image of an iOS device containing a screenshot.

This is what I had in mind but didn’t build. Jordan put together one of the most clever workflows I’ve seen in a while – another good demonstration of the power of this app.

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Bringing the App Store to the Web→

Rene Ritchie, writing on the lack of a web interface for the App Store to buy any app from any device using a web browser:

Instead, imagine if the web intermediated, providing all App Store links on all platforms. Click on an App Store link on your Mac or PC and, instead of iTunes, you go to iTunes Preview and there’s a Get or Buy button right there. Click the button and you can choose to open in iTunes or log into your Apple ID account and initiate the Get/Buy right from the Web.

Instead of iTunes Preview, though, it’s now App Store for iCloud, or whatever best fits the model Apple wants to use.

This is one of those omissions that continue to surprise me almost nine years into the iOS App Store. Even companies like Sony and Nintendo have enabled purchasing of software from the web while you’re not using the device where games will have to be installed on – I do it all the time to buy PlayStation games from Safari via the PSN website and download them later when I’m at my PS4.

Not only should Apple figure out how to let any platform/device purchase iTunes and App Store content from a web browser – there should be an account management page to view all your purchases and select apps or media you want to start downloading on a remote device, too.

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