It’s a pandemic outside, many of us are working from home, and I found myself buying a webcam for the first time since the last century. I was not the only one.
The webcams out there today, they do the job. You just plug them in and get a pretty nice video feed. But they’re not exactly design icons. I thought that, maybe, we can do a little better.
The external iSight camera is one of my favorite pieces of Apple hardware ever, and it was fun to read about one getting a new lease on life.
I missed the show this week, but it is a good one:
Apple and Epic continue to fight; we continue to have opinions. Wireless chargers continue to be released, but Apple doesn’t have an option. iOS betas are appearing at an increasing rate, and Federico has anxiety.
My thanks to our sponsors this week:
My wife Merri joined me for another installment of “Stephen touches Apple hardware while wearing a blindfold.”
It’s a busy week on Florida’s Space Coast, and supernovas are in the news. Thankfully the two won’t cross paths. Neither will Earth and an asteroid the day before Election Day in the United States.
My thanks to our sponsors:
Some RSS feeds you delete in Mail may re-appear later.
Download and install the Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update or later.
I had totally forgotten RSS feeds were in Mail for a minute, but sure enough, they were, right alongside to-do items.
Apple’s newest store is breathtaking:
The rumours are indeed true! Apple Marina Bay Sands, the first Apple store in the world that floats on the water, is opening soon in Singapore.#AppleMarinaBaySands #Singapore #SingapoRediscovers #cityscape #architecture @Apple @marinabaysands @AP_Magazine @GettyImages pic.twitter.com/Awbgzo2qtO
— Javan Ng (@javanng) August 24, 2020
According to Michael Steeber, this is the first Apple Store to be built with a spherical design, and the first to be set above a body of water. He’s got additional photos on Twitter
Heres’s the store’s boardwalk and mall entrance, decorated. Photos by coapplemarinabaysands on Instagram https://t.co/9ZGyKFcpWk pic.twitter.com/74CkubV2aX
— Michael Steeber (@MichaelSteeber) August 24, 2020
RSS can bring news, blog posts and even podcasts to you, without needing to visit a bunch of different website. This week, Stephen and David talk about the rise of numerous RSS services and apps they’ve seen over the last few years, and share how this web technology makes their lives better.
On More Power Users, the members-only extended, ad-free show, I talked David through my Stream Deck setup. I’ve been totally converted to this way of life.
My thanks to our sponsors for the episode:
The WordPress founder says the company has been unable to update its iOS app until it gives Apple a cut of its in-app purchases.
There’s one small detail worth knowing. Sean Hollister at The Verge:
Here’s the thing: the WordPress app on iOS doesn’t sell anything. I just checked, and so did Stratechery’s Ben Thompson. The app simply lets you make a website for free. There isn’t even an option to buy a unique dot-com or even dot-blog domain name from the iPhone and iPad app — it simply assigns you a free WordPress domain name and 3GB of space.
This is either a pretty ill-timed mistake from Apple, or whatever is going on with the App Store folks over there is way more out of hand than we knew. I hope it is the former, but given the incidents of the last few weeks, I think it’s harder than ever to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here.
Update: It seems that WordPress app did run afoul of the rules. Juli Clover:
As it turns out, the WordPress app was in violation of Apple’s App Store policies because there were references to upgrading to paid plans within the app’s help system that linked to the WordPress plan option on the web, something which was not made clear when reports about the WordPress app being forced to implement in-app purchases came out.
Apple’s rules around this are still bad, but thankfully the WordPress situation wasn’t as terrible as it seemed.
My thanks to TextExpander for sponsoring the site this week. It lets you insert text snippets in any application from a library of content created by you and your team — on all of your devices.
Don’t get me wrong; Microsoft Flight Simulator looks amazing, but some of these bugs are hilarious.
Beats is being slowly absorbed by Apple Music, iOS 14 Beta 5 is here and Apple’s battle with Epic keeps heating up. Also: Stephen edited something very special and Myke is glad to never talk about Greengate ever again.
On Connected Pro, Relay FM forms an HR Department and I had a fight with my new cable modem.
My thanks to our sponsors: