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MacStories Unwind: Food Tracking, Time Tracking, and Text Editing, Plus Federico on His Review and American TV

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This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • 11 more app Giveaways
    • A collection of apps with widgets
    • Ryan’s iPadOS 15 wishes
    • An interview with Markus Müller Simhofer, developer of MindNode

AppStories

Unwind

Apple Will Extend TV+ Free Trial and Announces Season 2 of Dickinson

9to5Mac reports that Apple is automatically extending the free trial for TV+ for existing customers. The free trial available to customers who purchased certain Apple products after September 2019 will be extended until February 2021, adding up to three months more for free. People who are paying monthly or annually for the video streaming service will be given an equivalent amount of store credit that can be used to purchase any content on the iTunes Store.

According to Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac:

These refunds and extensions will be automatically applied to user’s accounts, so customers won’t have to do anything at all to take advantage of Apple’s generosity. Email notifications will be sent out in the coming days.

Separately, Apple announced today that season two of Dickinson will begin on January 8, 2021, which anyone with the extended TV+ free trial will now be able to begin watching before signing up for a paid plan.

I’m not surprised that Apple is extending the TV+ free trial. TV shows from TV+ and other services have been interrupted worldwide due to the pandemic. By extending the free trial, Apple has a chance of hooking viewers on the second season of some of their favorite shows, making it more likely that they will stick around as paying customers after the trial expires.

Apple Health Records Expands to the UK and Canada

Apple’s Health Records feature was added to the Health app for US residents in early 2018. In the years since, Apple says the feature has been adopted by over 500 institutions with over 11,000 care locations. Now, Health Records is expanding to the UK and Canada for the first time.

Initially, the feature will be used by two institutions in the UK and three in Canada. In the UK, Health Records is being adopted by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In Canada, Women’s College Hospital, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and Mackenzie Health are adding the feature.

Apple’s Kevin Lynch commented that:

“We designed Health Records on iPhone to empower people to easily view their health records at any time, and we are thrilled to put this feature in the hands of customers in the UK and Canada,” said Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice president of Technology. “We believe people should have access to their health information in the most private and secure way, and we have worked hand in hand with healthcare institutions and organizations to put privacy at the center of the patient experience.”

It’s great to see Health Records extending beyond the US. Healthcare is a highly regulated industry worldwide, so it’s no surprise that it has taken time for the feature to expand beyond the US. Hopefully, this is just the start of a broader rollout.

Apple Announces October 13, 2020 Online Media Event

As tweeted by Federico, Apple has announced a media event for October 13, 2020, at 10:00 am Pacific. The event will be held online only.

Based on widespread speculation, Apple is expected to introduce its new lineup of iPhones. Rumors point to the possibility of over-ear headphones and, perhaps, the long-rumored AirTag location trackers too.

Apple may also take the opportunity to release macOS 11.0 Big Sur and preview upcoming Apple Silicon-based Macs, which the company said at WWDC are coming before the end of the year. If Apple’s September Apple Watch and iPad event is any indication, the final 11.0 version of macOS Big Sur could be released to the public shortly after the event.

4K YouTube Content Begins to Show Up on the Apple TV 4K

YouTube is being updated to support 4K streaming on the Apple TV 4K for the first time, although it’s limited to 30fps and doesn’t support HDR. The speculation is that higher frame rate, HDR content could be forthcoming in an update to the Apple TV hardware.

First spotted by 9to5Mac over the weekend, The Verge confirmed on Monday with Google that 4K streams are indeed rolling out to Apple TV 4K users, although they are not yet live for everyone. While at least some 4K content is also available on select iPhone models already, including my iPhone 11 Pro Max, The Verge notes that it’s not yet available on all iPhones and iPads with compatible resolutions. When asked about iPhone and iPad 4K compatibility, Google told The Verge that YouTube would support 4K content on the iPhone and iPad soon.

Instagram Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary on the App Store with Classic Icons and Adds New Stories Archive and Anti-Bullying Features

As of today, Instagram has been on the App Store for ten years. To celebrate, the app has brought back classic icons from its past as well as variations on its current icon as an in-app Easter egg.

As The Verge reports, the icons can be accessed by going to Instagram’s settings view and then long-swiping down on your iPhone’s screen until a series of emoji appear. Keep swiping until confetti rains down, and the icons are revealed. Like me, you may also have to restart your iPhone for your Home Screen changes to take effect. In total, there are a dozen icons to choose from, excluding the default option.

Instagram's new Stories Archive views.

Instagram’s new Stories Archive views.

According to TechCrunch, Instagram has released a couple of other features too. From your profile page, you can access three years of archived Stories from a private calendar or map view. For National Bullying Prevention Month in the US, Instagram is also testing a feature that automatically hides comments similar to others that have already been reported by users as abusive. Warnings to people who post offensive comments are also being expanded to alert repeat offenders that their comments may be hidden from view or their accounts deleted.

MacStories Unwind: Sticky Notes for Your iPhone, GoodLinks and Deliveries Updates, Plus New iPad Features for Pixelmator, and Emoji

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This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • Monthly Log
    • Federico on how he uses Sour’s Magic Mixes
    • John’s first impressions of the Nike edition Series 6 Apple Watch
    • Ryan switches to Todoist
  • MacStories Weekly
    • 10 more Giveaways
    • Tempo: Workout Log for Runners
    • A collection of apps with widgets
    • An interview with Tanmay Sonawane, developer of Poor
    • Mail and Twitter tips
  • AppStories

Unwind

Pixelmator 2.6 Adds Pointer Support and More Than 70 Keyboard Shortcuts for iPad Users

The modernization of Pixelmator continues apace with the addition of more iPad-friendly features in version 2.6. Earlier this year, Pixelmator 2.5 added the native iOS and iPadOS document browser along with nine categories of preset image templates.

The latest version picks up where 2.5 left off with iPadOS pointer support. Whether you’re using the Magic Keyboard’s trackpad with your iPad or another trackpad or mouse, Pixelmator 2.6 fully supports pointer interaction with all UI controls, transforming to indicate available actions when performing actions like editing an image, in which case it turns into a double arrow for resizing.

Pixelmator 2.6 includes pointer support throughout.

Pixelmator 2.6 includes pointer support throughout.

The Pixelmator update also includes a long list of keyboard shortcuts. There are over 70 shortcuts, which are catalogued on Pixelmator’s website. There’s little that isn’t covered by the shortcuts. You can enter the app’s various editing modes to do things like crop an image, use the app’s selection tools, and arrange layers. There are also shortcuts to view an image at its actual size or zoom in so it fills the screen, and when you’re finished editing, there’s a keyboard shortcut for exporting too.

Pixelmator Photo is one of my favorite image editors on the iPad, but it’s strictly a photo editing app. To composite images, I rely on Pixelmator, which is why I’m so glad to see that it continues to get the sort of updates that make working with images on my iPad easier than before.

Pixelmator 2.6 is available on the App Store and is a free update for existing users.