A Mac Automation Schism→

Thoughtful take by Jason Snell on the recent discussion around the idea that Shortcuts may be coming to the Mac and what that could mean for macOS automation. Snell imagines a scenario where Quick Actions, introduced last year with Mojave, could act as a bridge between old-school Mac apps and a new breed of Marzipan apps compatible (in theory) with Shortcuts only:

Something funny happened in macOS Mojave. Apple actually brushed off some very old Mac OS X technology, Services, and gave it a rebrand as Quick Actions. Quick Actions are commands you can find in Quick Look previews, the Finder’s new Gallery view, and on the Touch Bar. Some are pre-built by Apple, but users can add their own by saving Automator actions as Quick Actions.

I have no idea what prompted Apple to bubble up Automator actions into more places in the macOS interface with Mojave, but Quick Actions strikes me as a pretty good companion to Siri Shortcuts. Imagine a scenario where apps originating on iOS can support Siri Shortcuts via the same methods they use on iOS. Now imagine that Siri Shortcuts can also use Quick Actions as a source for potential commands. Quick Actions are contextual, those old-school Mac apps can bring their own Quick Actions to the party, and users can build their own Quick Actions to do whatever they want. It would be a simple way to bridge the gap between the two different app types that Mac users will be using together, at least for a while.

As I argued on Connected a couple of weeks ago, I’m intrigued by the idea that a Mac version of Shortcuts could have built-in bridges for old automation tools (shell, AppleScript, Automator, etc.) to at least trigger those scripts from the new app. Quick Actions would be a great fit for this; in fact, I find the whole idea of Quick Actions is well suited the Files app on iOS as well.

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Connected, Episode 241: 123 Twitter Client Doesn’t Work→

Stephen returns order to the podcast after two weeks away, Myke reads some Hex color codes and Federico turns on his hype machine.

Some interesting discussions about apps and using Twitter on this week’s episode of Connected. You can listen here.

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Highlights from the Six Colors Transcription of Apple’s Q2 2019 Earnings Call

Where better to get a little ‘color’ on Apple’s earnings than from a full transcript of the company’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts published by Six Colors? As in the past, Jason Snell has transcribed Apple’s presentation to Wall Street analysts along with the question and answer session at the end of the call. Here are a few of the highlights:

The iPad made a strong showing in China with Cook reporting that:

For iPad, we were very happy to return to growth in Greater China, while generating strong double-digit growth in each of our other geographic segments. Our great iPad results were driven primarily by strong customer response to iPad Pro.

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Apple Q2 2019 Results - $58 Billion Revenue

Apple has just published its financial results for Q2 2019, which is the company’s holiday quarter. The company posted revenue of $58 billion. Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

Our March quarter results show the continued strength of our installed base of over 1.4 billion active devices, as we set an all-time record for Services, and the strong momentum of our Wearables, Home and Accessories category, which set a new March quarter record,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We delivered our strongest iPad growth in six years, and we are as excited as ever about our pipeline of innovative hardware, software and services. We’re looking forward to sharing more with developers and customers at Apple’s 30th annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

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HomeRun Launches Advanced Daily Routine Feature for Complications and Siri Face

HomeRun 1.2 was released today from developer Aaron Pearce, the latest evolution of the Apple Watch app for controlling HomeKit scenes from your wrist. Its last big update introduced the ability to create custom complications on the Watch, which was a fantastic addition because it enabled users to implement the complications that work best for them personally. Today’s update extends the theme of user customization and programmability, but takes it to a whole new level – exceeding anything I’ve seen from another Watch app before now.

Version 1.2 of HomeRun revolves around one main feature – daily routines – which takes a couple different forms. In each manifestation, however, daily routines equip users to program which actions the app surfaces on their wrist during the course of a normal day.

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AppStories, Episode 109 – Pick 2: Moment and MindNode→

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we take a deep dive into two apps we’ve been using a lot lately, Moment Pro Camera and the recently-released MindNode 6.

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AppStories Episode 109 - Pick 2: Moment and MindNode

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

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Unlock Creative Lighting with Apollo: Immersive Illumination [Sponsor]

With Apollo: Immersive Illumination, you can unlock unlimited creativity over a single Portrait mode photo with the app’s powerful relighting tools. Apollo enables an infinite number of lighting variations that let you create a dull, dark, spooky, magical, or night club feel to your images. But Apollo isn’t only about theming your photos. You can also create more natural effects by removing lighting from areas of an image, highlighting faces with low emissive lights, or adding other subtle lighting effects.

Apollo sees photos as 3D scenes but hides the technical complexities of the process behind elegant single-finger interactions that allow users to focus on the adjustments to their pictures, which update in real-time. Up to 30 virtual light sources and adjustments to their position, brightness, color, and spread can be applied to a single photo. You can apply masks that alter emitted light and color and adjust parameters like shadow intensity, the range of lighting effects, progressive background removal, and fog effects. Apollo’s features are constantly refined and new ones are added all the time after thorough testing to ensure they work across a wide range of iPhone models and wow users.

To see exactly what Apollo can do for your Portrait mode photos, check out its Twitter and Instagram accounts which are full of stunning examples of the app in action.

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Thanks to Apollo for supporting MacStories this week.

Apple Responds to The New York Times’ Story on the Removal of Parental Control Apps from the App Store

Yesterday, The New York Times published a story drawing on interviews from makers of parental control apps that had been removed from the App Store or modified at Apple’s insistence. The third-party apps monitored kids’ screen time and limited their access to apps – functionality similar to the Screen Time feature built into iOS 12. The Times suggested the timing of the removals was not a coincidence:

Shortly after announcing its new tools, Apple began purging apps that offered similar services.

The Times also notes that Spotify has complained to EU regulators about Apple, and says other unnamed competitors claim the company is abusing its power to harm them.

Today, Apple responded to the Times’ story on the company’s Newsroom website in a piece titled ‘The facts about parental control apps’:

We recently removed several parental control apps from the App Store, and we did it for a simple reason: they put users’ privacy and security at risk. It’s important to understand why and how this happened.

Apple explains that the apps in question were using Mobile Device Management, which is typically used by enterprises to control employees’ iOS devices. However, MDM poses serious security risks when used in consumer apps from third parties. According to Apple:

Parents shouldn’t have to trade their fears of their children’s device usage for risks to privacy and security, and the App Store should not be a platform to force this choice. No one, except you, should have unrestricted access to manage your child’s device.

In response to the broader suggestion that it was removing apps for competitive reasons, Apple says:

Apple has always supported third-party apps on the App Store that help parents manage their kids’ devices. Contrary to what The New York Times reported over the weekend, this isn’t a matter of competition. It’s a matter of security.

In this app category, and in every category, we are committed to providing a competitive, innovative app ecosystem. There are many tremendously successful apps that offer functions and services similar to Apple’s in categories like messaging, maps, email, music, web browsers, photos, note-taking apps, contact managers and payment systems, just to name a few. We are committed to offering a place for these apps to thrive as they improve the user experience for everyone.

Regardless of its intent, every action Apple takes can have significant economic consequences to its competitors. In that environment, it’s not surprising that stories like the one in the Times are published. It’s the framing of the story – that this is one example of anticompetitive behavior of many – that likely drove the prompt response. Apple has made it clear that services revenue is important to the company’s future, and I suspect it did not want to go into its earnings call Tuesday without having addressed the Times’ story.