How Apple Watch Keeps Time→

From The Telegraph’s interview with Apple’s Kevin Lynch on the timekeeping features of Apple Watch:

Apple built its own Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers at various locations to ensure the delivered time is as close as possible to Stratum One accuracy, the time server which keeps the Apple Watch within microseconds of Stratum Zero devices - the highest possible quality for time references.

Once the time reaches the Apple Watch, the team worked to ensure it remains accurate, he says. Each device uses a temperate controlled crystal oscillator to counteract the natural drift that clocks and watches tend to experience over time.

I’m not sure any human watch wearer would ever notice a 50-millisecond difference – especially when waiting for midnight at a New Year’s Eve party – but still, fascinating tech.

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Twitter for Mac 4.0→

Every couple of years, I find myself writing that Twitter for Mac hasn’t been abandoned.

Today’s one of those days again, as Twitter has released version 4.0 of its new Mac client with design changes and support for some of the new Twitter features.

Here’s Jason Snell:

The new app supports inline video playback, animated GIFs, group DMs, muting, and tweet-quoting support, all major Twitter platform features that previously weren’t supported by the Twitter for mac app. Previously, you had to click on a quoted tweet URL to view that tweet—not fun—and on a tweet URL to open a browser window to watch video or animations. Yuck. This is much better.

That’s good news, of course, but the problem is – it looks like Twitter shipped a ton of bugs and regressions in this release, while still missing some of the latest additions for mobile platforms and the web. From a quick scan of my timeline today:

I’ve seen dozen of other people lamenting poor performance, odd behaviors on OS X, and random bugs with Twitter accounts. That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence, especially after you read that the app was apparently outsourced to developers outside of Twitter. Even more baffling: Twitter Moments – one of Twitter’s biggest product releases of 2015 that got its own (confusing) TV commercial – aren’t supported in the new Mac app.

That’s disappointing, but I find some solace in the fact that I’ll get to write about these bug fixes in 2017.

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Quiver 3: A Notebook That Adapts to How You Work


Research is a big part of all my projects, but I’ve never found a research app that fits my needs. My ideal research app is more than just a text editor or other app that I get by with. I want a tailor-made app designed from the ground up with research in mind that is lightweight and fast, even if I stuff it full of hundreds of notes with all kinds of embedded media. Just as important though, the app should sort and search my notes in a manner suited to the way I work, not the way the app wants me to work. It’s a tall order and one that nobody has pulled off before to my satisfaction, which is why I was so excited to discover Quiver 3.

Quiver, by Yaogang Lian of HappenApps, bills itself as programmer’s notebook, but it has evolved into much more than that. At the highest level, Quiver uses an organizational metaphor like Evernote, with individual notes organized into notebooks. But it’s at the note level where things get interesting.

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Curiosity: A Contextual Wikipedia Reader

Billed as “the easiest way to discover and learn about the world around you,” Curiosity is a Wikipedia reader for the – well – curious. By pulling location data from the user’s iPhone, Curiosity provides a map with the locations of nearby points of interest and displays the corresponding Wikipedia pages. Sometimes, it’s a city or county page; in other instances, it can be an interesting landmark, school, or business.

But Curiosity, developed by the two-man team at Tamper, isn’t just for location-based Wikipedia browsing – the app also sports two other information tabs titled Popular and Explore. Both of these sections allow for a deep Wikipedia article reading experience based on relevant topics and curated collections.

With the added You section, which lets the user view bookmarks and history, the app rounds out as a shining example of the power of location-focused data and curation.

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Apple’s 2015: Year In Review

2015 was a big year from Apple, arguably its biggest yet. Over the course of the past twelve months we’ve seen Apple release the MacBook, Apple Watch, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, iPad Pro, new Apple TV, refresh the MacBook Air and iMac, and even release updated iPods. Then there’s all the new software from iOS 9 to OS X El Capitan, to watchOS 2, and even the unveiling of tvOS.

In assembling this story, I thought about how I could present the information in a way that wouldn’t be overwhelming and would hopefully be unique from everyone else’s “year in review” stories. As you can see below, I choose to display it in an interactive widget. You’ll be able to see at a glance which months were significant for Apple, and for what reason (iPhone, Mac, TV, etc). Then you can dive into a particular month and swipe across to get summaries of the big stories from Apple. If you want to learn more about a particular story, there’s a link that’ll take you to the full story.

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Emulate Classic Game Consoles with the New Apple TV→

A must-read guide by Andrew Cunningham if you’ve considered emulating classic games (for me, that means SNES, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance) on a new Apple TV:

Right now there are two notable emulation projects targeting tvOS. One is a distant relative of the MAME arcade emulator, though it doesn’t seem as though it’s being maintained. Another, Provenance, is the one we’ll be spending the most time with. It’s a multi-system emulator that supports most major 8- and 16-bit consoles, including the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance.

That’s basically it for now, but more consoles could show up in the future. Provenance is already heavily based on open source code from OpenEmu and other projects, so anyone with a little patience could port other emulators without much extra work.

That’s my kind of holiday side-project, too.

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SCOTTeVEST – Multi-Pocket Clothing to Carry All of Your Gadgets [Sponsor]

You know the “gadget dance”, that moment of panic when you frantically try to find your smartphone? SCOTTeVEST eliminates that stress.

SCOTTeVEST designs multi-pocket clothing that lets you carry and use all of your gadgets and daily essentials. For over 15 years, SCOTTeVEST has catered to tech lovers by cleverly engineering pockets to balance the load and keep you comfortable while giving you easy access to your electronic devices.

With up to 42 pockets in a single item, you’ll have space for your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iPod and other gadgets, plus your wallet, keys, sunglasses and more. Their patented Personal Area Network (PAN) solution provides built-in wire management and quick, tangle-free access to your earpiece. Additional features include an attached eyeglass chamois to keep your lenses and screens smudge-free, detachable key holders, and clear touch pockets that let you see and use touch screen devices without removing them from the pockets.

SCOTTeVEST knows that time is your most valuable asset. Their clothing keeps your
gear organized and within reach, making for the perfect gift for all of the gadget lovers in your life – including yourself. Go to scottevest.com/macstories and get 20% off with the coupon code ‘macstories’.

Our thanks to SCOTTeVEST for sponsoring MacStories this week.

OpenEmu 2.0→

Fantastic update to my favorite videogame emulator for OS X: OpenEmu 2.0 has brought support for new systems, better integration for SteelSeries controllers (I have one for my Apple TV), a modernized interface, and even a way to organize screenshots and save states. The highlights: support for PlayStation, PSP, and Nintendo 64 games, plus real-time gameplay rewinding.

How I wish this was around ten years ago, when I was really into emulation on my PSP (which I still keep around, running homebrew software). If you haven’t tried OpenEmu in a while, now’s a good time to play with it again.

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Finding the Best Apps→

Nick Statt, writing for The Verge, has a suggestion to make sure you end up using the app that’s right for you:

And therein lies the secret to finding the best apps: don’t use what works until you know it works better than the rest. In an era of free services and near-instant downloads, it often costs us nothing but our time and a little bit of effort to experiment with half a dozen products before settling on the one we’re most comfortable with. And nothing is ever perfect. No matter what we read, or how many stars or good reviews something has, it takes a firsthand investigation to see if it’s perfect for you.

This pretty much sums up the way I look at years of app coverage here at MacStories, and why I’m not a big fan of “the best app for X” roundups with a single recommendation. In today’s sea of mobile apps, “best” is a fleeting reward, often reset with weekly updates, semi-annual redesigns, features adopted by other apps, and discontinued services.

“What works for you” is, I think, a more approachable, relatable consideration. There’s an argument to be made about evaluating dozens of similar apps and pointing out an absolute “winner” in terms of amount of available features, stability, price, or other objective metrics, but a single “best” implies a one-size-fits-all nature that just doesn’t work with the App Store anymore. Maybe seven years ago, when you could count iPhone apps in the hundreds, but not today. To mention a recent example: I could say that 2Do is my favorite task manager or the one with the most customization options or free updates, but it’s not necessarily the best for everyone.

This is also why I strive to keep a fresh mind and stay curious about apps. The only way for me to stay on top of the ever-changing App Store ecosystem is to try as many apps as I can and challenge my preconceptions – always asking myself “Would this app make me save time, be more efficient, and work better?”.

Sometimes it’s not fun, it’s a time-consuming process, and it’s definitely not cheap, but, after all, this is what I chose to do. And it often pays off with some nice surprises.

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