Apple and Accenture Announce Enterprise Partnership →

Linked By John Voorhees

Apple and Accenture announced that they are teaming up to help Accenture’s enterprise clients integrate iOS into their businesses. According to Apple’s press release.

Accenture will create a dedicated iOS practice within Accenture Digital Studios in select locations around the world. Experts from Apple will be co-located with this team. Working together, the two companies will launch a new set of tools and services that help enterprise clients transform how they engage with customers using iPhone and iPad. The experts will include visual and experience designers, programmers, data architects and scientists, and hardware and software designers.

Among other things, the two companies plan to collaborate on integrating existing back-end systems with iOS, building Internet-of-Things tools, and migrating legacy enterprise applications and data to iOS.

Today’s announcement marks another milestone in Apple’s iOS enterprise push, which began in earnest in 2014 when Apple partnered with IBM.

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Tim Cook on Apple’s Social Responsibility →

Linked By John Voorhees

Last week, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, toured the Midwest and Texas. Cook stopped in Ohio at a manufacturer of equipment used by Apple in the production of iPhones, announced a massive data center in Iowa, and capped off the week in Austin, Texas to spotlight Apple’s Swift curriculum for community colleges. In an interview with the New York Times, Cook put the trip in perspective:

The reality is that government, for a long period of time, has for whatever set of reasons become less functional and isn’t working at the speed that it once was. And so it does fall, I think, not just on business but on all other areas of society to step up.

One area where Apple is trying to make a difference is in education. Cook said,

…he had chosen to focus on getting the curriculum to community colleges, rather than four-year colleges, because “as it turns out, the community college system is much more diverse than the four-year schools, particularly the four-year schools that are known for comp sci.”

That’s a thoughtful approach designed to do more than just educate and bring a new generation of programmers to Apple’s software platforms. The courses are still in their infancy, but by bringing them to institutions that are already more diverse than four-year colleges, Apple hopes to address diversity in the tech sector too.

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Ulysses: The Ultimate Writing App for Mac, iPad, and iPhone [Sponsor]

By John Voorhees

Ulysses is a powerful text editor carefully hidden beneath a distraction-free writing environment. It’s a design that allows you to concentrate on your writing with the confidence that when you need them, Ulysses’ pro-level tools are just a click or tap away.

Ulysses, which won an Apple Design Award in 2016, is available on macOS and iOS and its documents sync via iCloud, so the app and your documents are available whenever and wherever you need them. Ulysses helps you keep track of everything too by organizing your writing into groups comprised of sheets. Each group, which can be nested inside other groups, can be assigned a name and icon and the sheets inside it can be sorted manually, by title, by modification date, or by creation date.

But Ulysses goes even further to help you manage your writing. You can set writing goals and attach notes, keywords, and images to sheets. Then, when you’re looking for something you wrote, you can create filters based on keywords, search terms, and dates that are stored in the sidebar with your groups. When you’re finished, you can export to a bunch of different formats including Markdown, plain-text, HTML, ePub, PDF, and DOCX and easily publish to WordPress blogs and Medium.

Ulysses is a free download on the App Store and Mac App Store. Normally you can try the app for 14 days before deciding whether to subscribe for $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year. Students can subscribe for six months at a time for $10.99. However, Ulysses has a special deal for MacStories readers. Use this link for a full 1-month trial on all your devices.

Our thanks to Ulysses for sponsoring MacStories this week.

MacStories Weekly: Issue 93

By MacStories Team

Remaster, Episode 42: What Is Crunch?→

Linked By Federico Viticci

Pre-order systems fail because of the SNES Classic, Microsoft readies sale of the Xbox One X, and arguments for and against ‘Crunch’.

On this week’s Remaster, Shahid explains the concept of “crunch” in the videogame industry and how it differs between teams and individuals working on large projects. You can listen here.

Connected, Episode 156: Planet of the Podcasts →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Myke and Federico discuss Apple’s supposed budget for original content, reviews of the Essential Phone, Apple’s iOS 11 marketing videos, and Federico’s unexpected trip to the Genius Bar.

A fun episode of Connected this week as the summer season keeps giving us new betas of iOS 11. You can listen here.

Ridiculous Fishing Updated for iOS 11

By John Voorhees

Today, Ridiculous Fishing, the classic 8-bit style fishing game from Vlambeer was updated with support for 64-bit chip architectures ensuring that its fans will still be able to play the game when they update to iOS 11. Apps that only support 32-bit chip architectures will be left behind by iOS 11 rendering them unusable on devices running Apple’s latest OS. The switch was first telegraphed by Apple in 2014, so developers have had three years to prepare, but the transition will nonetheless leave some apps behind, many of them games. According to Fast Company, AppFigures estimates that as many as 470,000 apps may no longer work on iOS 11.

At the same time, however, a recent flurry of updates means that some iOS classics will survive, including Ridiculous Fishing. Released in 2010 as a collaboration among Vlambeer, Zach Gage, and Greg Wohlwend, Ridiculous Fishing follows Billy as he fishes with items like guns, chainsaws, and toasters. The game won an Apple Design Award in 2013 and still has a loyal following. In addition to adding 64-bit support, the update adds haptic feedback and two speedrun leaderboards.

Although there will undoubtedly be some apps and games that fall by the wayside in the 64-bit transition, my hope is that early iOS classics like Ridiculous Fishing, Canabalt, and Bumpy Road, which have all received recent 64-bit updates, are discovered by a new generation of iOS users.

Apple Stores to Host Star Wars: The Last Jedi Toys and AR Experience

By Ryan Christoffel

Star Wars merchandise is a big deal in the retail world, especially when it coincides with a new film in the main saga. Two years ago, Disney held the first ‘Force Friday’ to kickoff the launch of Star Wars toys and other products tied to The Force Awakens. Now the Mouse House has set September 1 as ‘Force Friday II.’ And this time around, there’s an AR experience tied to the launch called Find the Force, which Apple will be involved in hosting.

Beginning on Force Friday II, Apple Stores, along with other popular retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, will begin selling Star Wars: The Last Jedi merchandise and play host to Find the Force, which lasts through September 3. During that time, shoppers can use the Star Wars iOS app to scan in-store displays as part of an AR treasure hunt. When the display is scanned, it will reveal a Star Wars character who appears through AR in the store. In total there are 15 characters to find over the three-day window. If you plan to participate in Find the Force, it’s best to download the Star Wars app now and launch the feature ahead of time, as it requires a substantial in-app download before you’re up and running.

With the launch of iOS 11 and ARKit-powered apps later in the month, September is shaping up to be a big month for augmented reality.

AppStories, Episode 19 – Interview: Running an App Development Studio with Dermot Daly →

Linked By John Voorhees

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we interview Dermot Daly, founder of Tapadoo, a Dublin-based app development studio, about how he got started in mobile development, the Tapadoo origin story, what it’s like to develop apps in the regulated medical field, the challenges of working for clients and that iOS developers face today, and more.