App Camp for Girls is one of my favorite things about our corner of the Internet. Their mission, while seemingly simple to understand, is of vast importance:
To empower girls by providing engaging and accessible educational programs in software development.
Their vision of gender equality in the software development profession is something we should all work together to realize.
The group is currently holding a crowdfunding campaign to take their work to the next level:
Did you know this about your Apple III?
The Apple III’s RGB color video outputs do NOT generate a color signal for High-Resolution Graphics in the Emulator. Apple II High-Resolution images are available only on the NTSC black and white and color video outputs.
On the left border of the high-resolution graphics screen, the dots flicker uncontrollably.
Yours truly, over on iMore:
Like many people, the iPhone has replaced many consumer electronics in my home.
I no longer own a point-and-shoot camera, camcorder, voice recorder or dedicated music player. My iPhone is all of those items — plus more — in one, sleek, powerful and pocketable device.
In 2001, of course, the iPhone wasn’t a thing yet, and many people had a whole shelf full of various dedicated devices. That year, Steve Jobs introduced the “Digital Hub” strategy, a cohesive plan to take all of those devices and make them more useful through the power of software.
Sydney Ember at The New York Times, with some big news in the tech journalism world:
ReCode, the news website led by the veteran journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, is being acquired by Vox Media, a deal that reflects the turmoil among digital organizations focused on covering the tech industry.
The all-stock deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, would give ReCode access to a wider audience, something it has struggled to build since Mr. Mossberg and Ms. Swisher split off from The Wall Street Journal about a year and a half ago. Both plan to stay with ReCode after the merger.
Benjamin Mayo:
The discoveryd process has been subject to much criticism in recent months as it causes users to regularly drop WiFi access and causes network shares to list many times over, due to bugs. Many developers, such as Craig Hockenberry, have complained about the buggy software and workarounds have been found to include substituting the older system (called mDNSResponder) back into Yosemite.
discoveryd would cause random crashes, duplicate names on the network and many other WiFi-relate bugs. In the latest beta, Apple appears to have applied the same fix as the enthusiasts by axing discoveryd completely.
Stephen Fry, in a wonderfully-written essay about Apple’s design boss:
Until now, Ive’s job title has been Senior Vice President of Design. But I can reveal that he has just been promoted and is now Apple’s Chief Design Officer. It is therefore an especially exciting time for him.
Inside the fabled design studio (cloths over the long tables hiding the exciting new prototypes from prying eyes like mine) Jony has two people with him. They too have been promoted as part of Ive’s new role.
In the Brushed Metal Diaries, we take a look at one of Apple’s most unique — and most hated — user interface paradigms.
For most Mac users in the early 2000s, the word “sync” conjured up visions of iPods and USB cables. However, while an Apple smartphone was years away, in 2002, Apple introduced a tool to sync contacts and calendar events to mobile phones: iSync.
Just check out all this brushed metal:
After watching this, driving around town seems so … old-fashioned.
Alfred is my go-to app launcher on my Macs. Anything task I do or workflow I need more than about 3 times a week, I try to automate using it.
With my newest series here on 512, I’m searching Apple’s support site more than ever. With Alfred’s custom search functionality, this can be done very quickly.
In the app’s preferences, under Features, you can add a new Web Search. You can add a keyword, label and — most importantly — the URL Alfred will need to pass to the browser to fire your search results:
Rene Ritchie at iMore:
Imagine instead, like the Apple Watch, the iPad ran its own distinct version of iOS: iPad OS. Rather than a stripped down version for smaller screens and batteries, imagine it ran an amped-up version that really took advantage of bigger screens and batteries, with a Home screen, interaction methods, and capabilities optimized for a tablet.
The iPad runs an OS designed for the smartphone; thinking about what it could do if Apple would break that link (feature-wise, at least) is really interesting.
I missed yesterday’s show, but listened to it this morning. It’s a great one:
This week the Europeans are joined by Sam Soffes to follow up on Redacted for Mac, before discussing Federico’s thoughts on the Apple Watch.
When your follow-up includes an interview, you’re doing it right.
My thanks to our sponsors this week:
Speaking of the Blanc Media empire, over on The Sweet Setup, Chris Bowler compares desktop calendar applications:
Managing your time has long been a part of the knowledge worker’s day, and calendar apps have been around almost as long as email. But while the quantity of available options is high, the number of quality calendar apps is a small handful.
The option that is best suited for you will depend on your needs, but a closer inspection has shown us that, for most people, Fantastical 2 is the best calendar application for OS X users.