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This week, Federico butchers many languages and uses a smaller phone, Myke orders a new iMac and Stephen gets upset about hard drives.
Also on this week’s Connected, my first impressions of the iPhone 6s and 3D Touch. You can listen here.
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Nick Heer, commenting on Facebook’s battery usage on iOS in response to a piece by Matt Galligan:
Make no mistake: this is user-hostile. Facebook is actively creating channels to continue refreshing their app in the background when the user has explicitly stated that they do not want it to. Ironically, the best way to reduce the battery and data consumption of the Facebook app in the background is to switch Background App Refresh back on. Better still, remove the Facebook app from your phone, and perhaps replace it with Paper (US store only).
Every time I take a look at a friend’s iPhone, Facebook is the app with the highest amount of battery usage in the background – even with Background App Refresh turned off. This has been going on for years, and instead of fixing the issue, it does seem like Facebook is always coming up with new ways to circumvent user control and consume more energy.
The fact that a company the size of Facebook can’t optimize energy consumption of their iOS app is simply ridiculous. If they can but don’t want to (because of processes they want to run in the background, constant notifications, etc.) – well, that’s even worse.
My solution has been the same for the past couple of years: never install the Facebook app, and always access Facebook from Safari.
Update: With iOS 9’s improved energy consumption stats, it’s easier to guess one of the various tricks Facebook may be employing to stay active in the background and drain battery. On my girlfriend’s iPhone, for instance, iOS 9 reports 5 hours of on-screen usage for the last 7 days, and another 11 hours of background audio usage with Background App Refresh turned off.
My guess is that Facebook is hijacking audio sessions on iOS by keeping silent audio in the background whenever a video plays in the app. And because, by default, videos on Facebook auto-play on both Wi-Fi and Cellular and few people ever bother to turn it off, that means there’s a high chance the Facebook app will always find a way to play a video, keep audio in the background, and consume energy to perform background tasks. I’m not alone in noticing the mysterious “Facebook audio” background consumption, and video auto-play seems to me the most likely explanation at this point. I don’t know if turning off auto-play may fix the problem, but I’d recommend doing that anyway to save data.
I wonder if Apple should consider additional battery controls to take action against shady practices like invisible background audio. What Facebook is doing shows a deep lack of respect for iOS users. I continue to recommend using Safari instead.
Update 10/15: In a statement provided to TechCrunch, Facebook confirmed they’re aware of an issue causing battery draining for users, and they’re working on a “fix”. Facebook didn’t provide any additional details on the nature of the issue.
MG Siegler, writing on 3D Touch and the iPhone 6s:
There’s been a lot of talk in the past couple of years about the great “un-bundling” of apps. That is, big, bloated apps that spin off certain features into their own apps. For some massive services, like Facebook, this makes sense. For the vast majority of apps, this makes no sense. It’s hard enough to get people to download one app, let alone two or three. Instead, what these developers should do is utilize 3D Touch to create one-touch access to certain functionality. Brilliant OS-level move by Apple.
In the few days I’ve spent with the 6s so far – I’m moving to a 6s Plus this weekend – this is exactly what I’ve noticed, too. 3D Touch quick actions on the Home screen give developers a chance to unbundle their app features and navigation points, exposing them to users in a new, convenient way.
A good example of this is Apple’s Photos app: if you 3D Touch the icon, you get a menu that, among other options, contains a ‘One Year Ago’ shortcut. The ability to view photos from the same day in the past has been explored as a standalone app concept in a variety of ways (see: Photo Flashback or Timehop). In Apple’s Photos, this isn’t even a proper screen – it’s a search filter. It could be easily missed by users, but its utility is clear (especially if combined with Live Photos a year from now). 3D Touch brings fast access to that feature without needing a separate app. In this sense, 3D Touch as an interface for the deep link has potential, and I’m curious to see how developers will further explore it.
Steven Levy got access to Apple’s Input Design Lab for today’s iMac updates, and he published a story about the details Apple paid attention to when designing the new computers and accessories (make sure to read through the end). I liked this bit from Phil Schiller on Apple’s lineup:
Schiller, in fact, has a grand philosophical theory of the Apple product line that puts all products on a continuum. Ideally, you should be using the smallest possible gadget to do as much as possible before going to the next largest gizmo in line.
“They are all computers,” he says. “Each one is offering computers something unique and each is made with a simple form that is pretty eternal. The job of the watch is to do more and more things on your wrist so that you don’t need to pick up your phone as often. The job of the phone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad, and it should be always trying and striving to do that. The job of the iPad should be to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook. Like, Why do I need a notebook? I can add a keyboard! I can do all these things! The job of the notebook is to make it so you never need a desktop, right? It’s been doing this for a decade. So that leaves the poor desktop at the end of the line, What’s its job?”
Tom Warren, writing for The Verge:
Microsoft might be backing Apple’s new Pencil for the iPad Pro in its iOS apps, but the software giant is also supporting third-party options. One of the most popular is Pencil by FiftyThree, and Microsoft is updating its OneNote for iPad app today to support the stylus. If you’re not interested in buying the larger iPad Pro for stylus support, then FiftyThree’s Pencil starts at $39.95 (much less than Apple’s $99 Pencil). You’ll be able to use the stylus to write notes and comments in OneNote books.
Also in the latest update: keyboard shortcuts on iPad, and improvements to the app’s share extension when used in Split View. I like how Microsoft continues to blend into the iOS ecosystem, though I’m perfectly satisfied with Apple’s new Notes app.
Apple today introduced a new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display, plus a new Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Mouse 2 and a Magic Keyboard. In addition, the existing iMac line was also refreshed, from the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display to the bottom of the line 21.5-inch iMac.
“From the first iMac to today, the spirit of iMac has never wavered — deliver the ultimate desktop experience with the latest technologies, gorgeous displays and cutting-edge designs,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “These are the most stunning iMacs we’ve ever made. With our gorgeous new Retina displays, more powerful processors and graphics and all-new Magic accessories, the new iMac continues to redefine the ultimate desktop experience.”
https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/653916602975387648
AUD/USD from 4 April 2014 (when App Store prices were last adjusted in Australia) to 13 October 2015.
As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple is set to increase the prices of apps in Australia, Indonesia and Sweden within the next 3 days. The new prices will affect all paid apps, In-App Purchases and In-App Subscriptions. As an example, in Australia, the App Store pricing Tier 1 will be increasing from $1.29 to $1.49.
In an email to developers, Apple explained that the price increases are a result of changing foreign exchange rates. In the case of Australia, the above chart shows how the Australian dollar has depreciated in value against the US dollar since the last pricing change in April 2014.
Apple is also introducing the Alternative Tier A and Alternative Tier B pricing tiers to Australia. Apps sold at these price tiers will cost Australian App Store customers AU$0.99. These tiers have previously been used by Apple to enable developers to sell their apps at very low prices in some developing countries such as China where Alternative Tier A (¥1) is equivalent to US$0.16.
If you want to know a bit more about App Store Pricing Tiers, I wrote an article about them which has more information on how they operate and why Apple needs to adjust them occasionally.
Thought-provoking post by Ian Rogers, former Beats Music CEO and Apple Music director, on Instagram, social networks, and using popular online services for what they’re best at:
Of all the apps discussed here, Facebook is the only “Social Network”. Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram are more valuable as Interest Feeds, LinkedIn is a network of people from your professional life, and Snapchat is a Communication Tool (aspiring to be an Interest Feed). Yet the fact that my “friends” on Pinterest will get a notification when I start a board about “Skateboarding” (even if they have no interest) is an example of how these tools were built with “social” features that actually detract from what they’re great at.
We would do ourselves a favor to stop lumping all these tools together and calling them “Social Networks” or “Social Media” and instead note what makes each service uniquely great and push these companies to improve what they’re best at. What they all are is “distribution”, ways of building direct connections between people and each other or brands. Person -> Person, Brand -> Person, Person -> Brand.
There is literally a world of opportunity waiting for anyone with the skills to build for iOS. But like any journey to success, there is a path you have to take, and the question is, what’s the quickest (or shall we say “Swiftest?”) way from Point A to Point B? To answer that, let’s consider the beginning and end of the journey.
At Point A, you’re computer competent. You know your uploads from your downloads, and you set up your new phone yourself when it arrived. At Point B, you’re an iOS App Developer. You’re impacting lives on a global scale with the apps you build. Now, how long is the distance between these points?
That depends on a number of variables. The most critical is the question of whether you have programming experience. Traditionally this can be a real barrier, and that’s understandable. When you’re standing on the wrong side of the water from where the programmers are, it can seem really, really difficult to get across. To continue the water metaphor, you need stepping stones.
It’s that need that drove Udacity to create the Beginning iOS App Development Nanodegree program (BIOS NDP). A lack of programming experience shouldn’t be a barrier, and if you know iOS is where you want to be, then the opportunity to learn Swift (Apple’s custom programming language designed specifically for building iOS and OS X apps) is the first stepping stone you need.
Any stage of the journey has the potential to be difficult, but there is something unique to the early days; to succeed you need a really special degree of mentoring, support, and instruction. The suite of resources built into all Nanodegree programs becomes particularly important for those taking their first steps into programming. All Nanodegree programs feature:
Combine all this with an explicit focus on transforming pre-programming students into adept coders with solid programming foundations, direct experience working in Xcode, and a growing facility with Swift, and suddenly there exists a very clear path forward to that next big stepping stone, the iOS Developer Nanodegree program (INDP). Think of the this as the advanced, career-track portion of the learning journey.
When you emerge from the INDP with a Nanodegree credential, you are genuinely ready to begin a career as an iOS Developer.
Our thanks to Udacity for sponsoring MacStories this week.
