512 Pixels

On this week’s Ungeniused, things got dark:

Christmas Eve 1945 brought tragedy to the home of the Sodder family. A fire leveled their home, and four children disappeared, with little evidence left that they perished in the flames.

This week on Connected:

Will the next iPhone eschew TouchID for facial scanning? Is Stephen keeping his Echo Show? Can Ticci explain CoreML in a way that normal humans can understand?

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Mack Weldon: Smart underwear for smart guys. Get 20% off with the code CONNECTED.
• Hover: Domain names for your ideas. Get 10% off your first purchase.
• Igloo: A digital workplace platform Free for up to 10 people.

Apple spared no expense writing the introduction for this article:

macOS Sierra comes with many built-in or downloadable typefaces.

John Oliver spent some time looking at Sinclair Broadcast Group, the company that is buying up a huge number of local TV news stations around the country. It is a fascinating — and scary — look behind the scenes of media. The views this company holds and and forces into the homes of their viewers are horrifying.

This week on Download:

Ten years ago, the original iPhone went on sale, launching the smartphone market as we know it today. More recently, the EU fined Google 2.4 billion euros in an antitrust case, and the Amazon Echo Show has shipped to customers.

My thanks to our sponsor:

• Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.

Almost every word I publish on 512 Pixels goes through MarsEdit. I’m excited to see this beta:

Because the update contains many new features that my patient users have been waiting to get their hands on, I want to give folks the option of trying it out early. I think the beta release is very stable, but you’ll have to forgive a few rough edges while I finish things up.

Day One boss Paul Mayne:

Day One is evolving. We’re transitioning to a more stable subscription business model to ensure this app and these services always stick around.

This week we’re releasing the Day One Premium subscription service. It includes the ability to create more than ten journals and access all future premium features.

Day One has been on my iPhone’s home screen for years. It’s a fantastic journaling app for iOS and macOS. Version 2 was a paid upgrade, bringing a new design to the app, as well as a revamped sync service.

Unfortunately, this service only added end-to-end encryption in the past few weeks. Some features, like publishing a journal entry to the web for public sharing haven’t resurfaced after the change.

The subscription model has been named Day One Premium. Here’s a bit from the company’s FAQ:

What’s included in Day One Premium?

Unlimited journals, unlimited photo storage, 25% off book orders, the Mac app ($49.99 value), and more. Day One Premium users also have exclusive access to all future features including: audio recording, writing prompts, video entries, and more.

In short, if you want new features in the future, you’ll need to move over to the subscription. That will run you $49.99/year, but first-time buyers can get it at 30 percent off, coming in at $34.99/year.

If you’re like me and bought the 2.0 apps, the first year is even cheaper, at $24.99/year.

Without Premium, the Day One apps will be pretty limited. According to the FAQ, those accounts “are limited to one photo per entry, one journal, no cloud services, and no access to other Premium features.”

When Apple announced app subscriptions, Day One came to mind. It’s an app I use very often, and one that I want to see enjoying on-going development. I hope that this allows the company to continue adding features to an app that I genuinely enjoy.

I’m willing to give Day One Premium a shot, but my guess is that not everyone will be. I expect to see features like web publishing and online editing sooner rather than later. 2.0’s launch was a little rough with syncing issues and the aforementioned lack of end-to-end encryption. Any developer who moves to this model needs to prove to their users that the on-going investment is worth it.

I missed this week’s Connected, but enjoyed listening to it last night:

The Prompt Curse strikes again! Find out what has been struck down, as Myke and Federico discuss the current state of iOS 11, Ticci’s keyboard woes, reviews of the Echo Show, and ARKit.

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Pingdom: Start monitoring your websites and servers today. Use offer CONNECTED to get 20% off.
• Away: Travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone. Get $20 off with the code ‘connected’.
• Igloo: A digital workplace platform Free for up to 10 people.

John Timmer at Ars Technica has rerun the site’s original review of the first iPhone SDK, way back in 2008. It’s wild to see how basic it seems now.

Apple, on a webpage I’ve never seen before, about a standard I didn’t know was a thing until today:

An internationally approved set of security standards which provides a clear and reliable evaluation of the security capabilities of Information Technology products. By providing an independent assessment of products and the ability to meet security standards, Common Criteria gives customers more confidence in the security of Information Technology products and leads to more informed decisions.

Security-conscious customers, such as the U.S. Federal Government, are requiring Common Criteria certification as a determining factor in purchasing decisions. Since the requirements for certification are clearly established, vendors can target very specific security needs while providing broad product offerings.

Casey Liss has a new laptop:

The MacBook Adorable is not without its faultsconcessions compromises. However, especially as a secondary machine, I have absolutely fallen in love with it.

If I didn’t have to edit podcasts when I travel, I think I would have opted for the MacBook over the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The Studio Neat guys have launched a Kickstarter for a lovely new notebook:

It all started with an insight about how we use notebooks. Even though we spend 8 hours a day doing digital work on a computer, notebooks are an essential analogue tool. We noticed, while sitting at a computer, it would be great to have a notebook directly in front of us. But that would require a different type of notebook, one with more of a panoramic ratio. So that’s what we made.

Panobook works great on a desk, either in front of, behind, or to the side of your keyboard. We wanted to create a notebook that was always open and always within arm’s reach.

I’ve been using a prototype version to take edit notes while I’m recording podcasts, and it’s been great. If you often write at your computer, the $20 is an easy spend.