512 Pixels

Josh de Lioncourt, for Macworld:

iOS 7, in general, has been a challenge for low-vision users. Many of the stylistic choices such as transparency and lack of contrast and clearly defined buttons have made iOS difficult for some to see. This is made more challenging because vision is so variable. What works for one low-vision user is unlikely to work for another.

Apple has begun to address this in iOS 7.1 by adding button shapes, more contrast options, and expanding some of the existing options—all found by choosing Settings > General > Accessibility. In general, this is a significant step in the right direction, but there is still much to be done.

The Verge’s Katie Drummond has published an excellent interview with everyone’s favorite space nerd, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Macworld has reviewed the entry-level, quad-core Mac Pro. Here’s James Galbraith:

It should come as no surprise that the entry-level Mac Pro didn’t perform as well as the high-end $3999 stock Mac Pro, which was 11 percent faster overall. Despite the double-digit performance differences, many of the results were nearly identical between the two stock Mac Pros: iTunes import, file copy, zip, unzip, and PCMark Office tests were all within one percent between the two systems. The 6-core system was much faster at tests that could take advantage of the additional processing cores; HandBrake was 23 percent faster than on the quad-core Mac Pro, Cinebench CPU test was 30 percent faster, and MathematicaMark was 36 percent faster.

If I were in the market for a Mac Pro, I’d probably go with the 6-core machine just to future-proof things a bit. That said, the $2,999 machine doesn’t seem like a throw-away option Apple included just to hit a price point.

iCloud’s browser tab sync feature is pretty cool, and is more flexible than you would think.

This week, Federico, Myke and I discuss crashing in your pocket, lists on your wrist and publishing dreams on the Internet.

Sponsored by lynda.com, Squarespace (use code TALLYHO3 for 10% off) and Smile.

The father of the Internet is worried about its future.

Ian Hines was kind enough to have me on his new podcast, With Families. Turns out, you can talk about things like kids on a show without the world exploding.

The best way to link to a new service like this is to actually use it.

Rene Ritchie at iMore:

One of the more subtle yet potentially frustrating changes in iOS 7.1 is how the state of the shift key is displayed. Not only isn’t it intuitively obvious which state the shift key is in — lowercase, Upper Case, or CAPS LOCK — but it can be downright counter-intuitive to the point that you find yourself uncertain and guessing wrong more often than not.

I just love videos like this. While mid-90s Apple was kinda insane, there’s some real gold in these six minutes.

It’s a big one, folks:

CarPlay:

• iOS experience designed for the car
• Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
• Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
• Control with Siri and the car’s touchscreen, knobs, and buttons

Siri:

• Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you’re done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
• New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese

iTunes Radio:

• Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
• Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing
• Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free

Calendar:

• Option to display events in month view
• Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries

Accessibility:

• Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
• Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
• New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point

Other:

• New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
• iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
• FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
• Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
• Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
• Improved performance for iPhone 4
• Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000
• Continued user interface refinements

We live in a world where science fiction is hardly fiction at all.