Apple has totally overhauled its Human Interface Guidelines:
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) is a comprehensive resource for designers and developers looking to create great experiences across Apple platforms. Now, it’s been fully redesigned and refreshed to meet your needs — from your first sketch to the final pixel.
The whole thing looks great, but I’m a little sad it can’t be easily downloaded, like say the 1987 edition of the HIG.
This year, Apple moved the bar with its OS system requirements in some big ways…
macOS Ventura brings with it a new, shorter list of supported machines that no longer includes any Mac notebooks made before 2017, the 2013 Mac Pro, and iMacs from 2015:
(Not all features are available for Intel Macs.)
Meanwhile, iOS 16 will run on the iPhone SE 2 and 3, and iPhone 8 and higher. This cuts off the original iPhone SE and the 6S and 7 lines, which were supported by iOS 15.
Additionally, no iPod touch will run iOS 16.
On the iPadOS front, these devices will run 16:
This list trims a handful of older iPads and iPad minis that can run iPadOS 15.
watchOS 9 is perhaps the most and least surprising, as it drops support for the Apple Watch Series 3. Which is still for sale, somehow.
We have a very special episode of Mac Power Users this week:
Recorded live and in-person at Apple Park, Stephen and David reflect on the announcements made at WWDC22.
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:
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!
I miss Away Messages. This nostalgia is layered in abstraction; I probably miss the newness of the internet of the 1990s, and I also miss just being … away. But this is about Away Messages themselves—the bits of code that constructed Maginot Lines around our availability. An Away Message was a text box full of possibilities, a mini-MySpace profile or a Facebook status update years before either existed. It was also a boundary: An Away Message not only popped up as a response after someone IM’d you, it was wholly visible to that person before they IM’d you.
Nothing like this exists in our modern messaging apps.
The best time-tracking app just got even better — and now ships with an Apple Watch app. I use Timery every day and just love it.
My thanks to Rogue Amoeba for sponsoring 512 Pixels this week. Their app SoundSource lets you do all sorts of magical audio routing and tweaking on macOS. It is sweet.
Download the free SoundSource trial, then purchase today. Through the end of June, 512 Pixels readers can save 22% with coupon code SMHSS22.
I dig this:
The folks over at The Iconfactory have a new app out, named WorldWideWeb. It’s a simple web server for both macOS and iOS. It comes at a time when Apple has made doing this with the Mac harder than ever, and as a bonus, it’s free.
Alex Guyot has a review of WorldWideWeb over on MacStories:
WorldWideWeb’s killer feature is simplicity. The app’s entire main interface consists of two tiny sections: in the first you select a folder, and in the second you start or stop the web server. When the server is activated, a URL is generated. The app uses Bonjour to make the address available to any device on the same Wi-Fi network as the host. Just copy and paste the URL or press the ‘Open in Browser’ button to view the website natively in a web browser.
WWDC 2022 is just around the corner, and the guys have come prepared with a series of Picks, Risky Picks and Flexies.
Federico Viticci, writing about coming back to the Mac after years of being the iPad Guy:
The problem is that, at some point, I have to be realistic about my work and what I want to achieve in my professional life. Ultimately, it comes down to this question:
Have I been able to get more things done lately thanks to the Mac?
The answer is yes.
Speaking of the Newton, if you want to emulate one on a Mac, this application is the way to do it. The newest version has added support for printing.
