512 Pixels

Whether you’re in the harbor or at high sea, you need to know where you are or where you’re sailing. If you have all the maps, books, and documents. DEVONthink for Mac and DEVONthink To Go for iOS will not let you down on your mission and help you navigate the “seven seas of information.”

Sailor jokes aside … DEVONthink helps you get organized in your office, home office, or on the go. It keeps all your documents, snippets, and bookmarks in one place. Organize them however you need and let DEVONthink’s unique AI assist you all the way with filing and finding. And if that wasn’t enough, smart rules and flexible reminders let you delegate all the boring, repeating daily tasks to DEVONthink too. On iOS, use Shortcuts actions to integrate DEVONthink To Go with your other apps.

Of course, whatever you keep in your databases remains yours. It’s all stored locally, nothing is uploaded anywhere unless you say so. Flexible synchronization technology with strong encryption makes sure that you have all your important documents with you on whatever device you’re working on or taking with you. Use iCloud, Dropbox, any WebDAV service you may have booked. Or synchronize directly over your local network.

And, of course, there’s so much more, from email archiving and scanning to an embedded web server for sharing your data securely with your team. Check out https://www.devontechnologies.com to learn more about DEVONthink, DEVONthink To Go, and more.

Malin Sundberg is one of the developers behind the apps Mercury Weather and Orbit. This week, she joins us to discuss her background and work, as well as her hands-on time with the Apple Vision Pro at WWDC.

This week, on a milestone episode of The Prompt Connected:

After some Smell Talk and celebrating the return of the Genius Bar, Myke, Federico and Stephen celebrate ten years of podcasting together by revisiting some of their favorite Apple stories from the last decade.

In addition to publishing the initial SDK for visionOS, Apple has updated its Human Interface Guidelines to include the new operating system. There’s also a bunch of documentation up for review. There’s a lot here, and I can’t wait until folks start diving in.

An anonymous 512 Pixels reader recently mailed me something amazing — a promotional mailer for eWorld, dating back to 1994. In the package was a set of 3.5-inch eWorld 1.0 installer disks, the “Apple Online Service Subscriber Agreement” and an amazing brochure for eWorld.

Let’s start with the envelope and the Subscriber Agreement:

You can click on any image in this post to view a full-sized version.

Now let’s move onto the real treat of the brochure itself. The outer cover included some simple artwork, and on the back, a customized registration number and password to get started. I’ve redacted the specifics on this particular brochure so no time travelers can steal eWorld from the original recipient:

The inner pages of the brochure both encouraged and educated would-be customers:

The whole thing folded out, walking people through the five-step process that was required to get their eWorld account up and running:

If you want to learn a lot more about eWorld and the other services Apple has offered over the years, the 2024 Apple History Calendar is full of facts and trivia about this very subject. It’s available on Kickstarter now.

Scott Everett, writing at the up-until-now- slated-for-death-by-Amazon-dot-com DPReview:

We’ve heard from many of you over the past several weeks, and we realize there are many questions about what comes next for DPReview. We’re thrilled to share the news that Gear Patrol has acquired DPReview. Gear Patrol is a natural home for the next phase of DPReview’s journey, and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together.

I want to reassure you that we remain firmly committed to what makes DPReview great: the best camera reviews in the business, industry-leading photography news and features, and one of the most active photography communities anywhere on the internet.

This is just the beginning of a new chapter for DPReview and we don’t have all the answers yet, but I’m sharing what we know below and will continue to share information about this change as we get more acquainted with our partners at Gear Patrol.

Today, Apple announced the inclusion of the iPhone 14 lineup, as well as M2-based 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pros, in its Self Service Repair program, which means we get to enjoy this amazing promotional art again:

More importantly, Apple has removed one of the most frustrating parts of the program:

Apple will also make the System Configuration process used for iPhone repairs, such as displays, batteries, and cameras, even easier to use. System Configuration is a postrepair software tool that ensures repairs with genuine Apple parts — designed and tested to internationally recognized standards — were completed correctly, and the parts are working properly. The tool is available for free to all Self Service Repair users and participating service providers in Apple repair programs.

Running System Configuration after a repair authenticates genuine Apple parts, updates firmware, and calibrates parts to ensure maximum performance and quality. Additionally, for repairs involving biometric authentication, such as Touch ID or Face ID, System Configuration links the biometric sensors to the Secure Enclave on the logic board to ensure device security and customer privacy.

Previously, customers would need to make a phone call to have the final step of the repair verified. Now, that can be done locally, which is fantastic.

If you suddenly find yourself shopping for a Performa in 1995 and want to know which models have ClarisWorks bundled with them, this document is here to help.

John Voorhees, writing at MacStories, about how WWDC’s new form could continue to evolve:

I’d like to see Apple create a communal space for developers, its engineers and other employees, and media to gather. The trouble is that Apple Park is off-limits unless you have an invitation for an event. Without a convention center or nearby hotel to meet at, a lot of mingling happened at the Visitor’s Center, which wasn’t ideal because it’s a store and not that big when flooded with hundreds of developers. The Visitor’s Center cafe worked well as a gathering and workspace for the media, but it would be too small for everyone.

I’d love to see Apple open up the Developer Center and its parking lot turned into a gathering spot. Throw up some tents, add some tables and chairs, serve snacks and drinks, and I bet it would be a big hit, solving the problem that people can’t meet inside Apple Park and that hotels are spread out, preventing anywhere from becoming a central gathering spot during WWDC. Ideally, though, I’d love to see Apple set up a festival-style space inside Apple Park. I’m sure there are many security and other challenges to overcome, but the fields outside the company’s fitness center would be perfect.

Last night, I finished reading a fascinating book by Brian Dear titled The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture.

The book covers the history of PLATO, a computer system initially designed to bring computers into the classroom back in the 1960s and 1970s. As Dear writes, the culture that came up around PLATO took the technology much farther than spelling tests and multiplication tables.

Before reading this, I had never heard of PLATO, but the truth is that it birthed many of the things we take for granted on the Internet today. PLATO is perhaps the most amazing “it was ahead of its time then it died” stories I’ve ever come across. The Friendly Orange Glow is a long read, but I was engrossed the entire time. Had history been knocked off course by just a few degrees, PLATO would have been the backbone of the early Internet, without a doubt.

The more I see of it, the more I love this newest iteration of Apple’s retail design.

Unite 4 for macOS allows you to turn any website into an app on your Mac. Using a lightweight, WebKit-powered browser as a backend, you can easily create isolated, customizable apps from any site.

Unite 4 includes dozens of new features, including support for native notifications, new customization options, and much more. Unite apps also serve as a great alternative for resource-hogging Electron apps or half-baked Catalyst apps.

Some examples of apps you could create in mere minutes with Unite:

• A Gmail web client that behaves like a native mail client.
• A status bar app for Apple Music or Overcast
• An isolated workspace for apps that may track you like Facebook
• A Google Meet app that works efficiently without using Chrome
• A fully featured Instagram app that has a resizable window, unlike the M1 version.
• A Robinhood, Figma, or Roam Research app for your desktop.

512 Pixels readers get 20% off this week when you purchase Unite 4 at bzgapps.com/unite512 or when you use the promo code ‘512Pixels’ at checkout.

You can also try Unite for 14 days absolutely free or use it as part of your subscription if you’re a Setapp subscriber!