The most complicated machine man has ever built is but a Hot Wheels toy.
STS-125 in solar transit as seen from Earth #OTD in 2009 pic.twitter.com/Epq2YWv7Iz
— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) May 12, 2015
posts
The Pedometer++ story⇢
Everyone’s favorite developer-turned-punctuation David Smith:
Yesterday Pedometer++ had its one millionth download. Here is the story of how it got there.
I love Pedometer++. Even with the Health and Activity apps from Apple, it’s still my go-to app for tracking steps as I go about my day.
Six years and about a billion miles
As I’ve written about before, I have a very real strong tie to locations in my memory. Even as a child, nothing would trigger nostalgia like a place.
While I didn’t share it here, I’ve spent most of the year in and out doctor’s offices after a period of spending several nights a week throwing up and losing a bunch of weight. I’ve embarked on a gluten-free and diary-free diet, which has helped greatly, slowly clearing up all of my symptoms.
The MacSparky Photos Video Field Guide⇢
David Sparks has put together a 2.5 hour screencast dissecting and explaining Apple’s new Photos app. I’ve been skimming it this morning and already have learned some things. It’s a well-spent $9.99 for you or a Mac user in your life.
Mac App Store a ghost town⇢
Sam Soffes, the developer behind the new Redacted for Mac shares the number of downloads that the app had, while being the 8th top paid app in the US and top paid in app in Graphics category:
It’s pretty nuts that 59 sales is top paid on the Mac App Store in the US.
Ouch.
The Mac App Store has seen a lot of top-tier developers leave over the years, but this number is just pathetic. Clearly consumers aren’t using the Store in any meaningful way either.
Connected 38: June is the New Christmas⇢
On this week’s podcast, we were joined by Christina Warren to talk about BUILD. We then discussed Apple’s Watch band program and what the company could do with Beats Audio.
My thanks to these sponsor:
Federico’s iOS 9 wishes⇢
Federico Viticci:
For some Apple observers, it’d be easy – and justifiable – to argue that Apple is “done” with improving iOS given the software’s maturity and sprawling app ecosystem. With long-awaited technologies such as action extensions, widgets, custom keyboards, folders for iCloud, and external document providers finding their way to iPhones and iPads, iOS has seemingly reached a zenith of functionality, an ideal state with no low-hanging fruit left to lust for.
On Applebot⇢
Well, this is interesting:
Applebot is the web crawler for Apple, used by products including Siri and Spotlight Suggestions. It respects customary robots.txt rules and robots meta tags. It originates in the 17.0.0.0 net block.
User-agent strings will contain “Applebot” together with additional agent information. For example:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10 10 1) AppleWebKit/600.2.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0.2 Safari/600.2.5 (Applebot/0.1)
If robots instructions don’t mention Applebot but do mention Googlebot, the Apple robot will follow Googlebot instructions.
On discoveryd⇢
Craig Hockenberry writes about the dumpster fire that is Apple’s new networking subsystem. If you’ve been having network issues, discoveryd is probably the root of the problem.
The best Couch to 5k running app⇢
Bradley Chambers:
Couch to 5k apps are a dime a dozen. If you search the App Store, you’ll find tons of options. Some of the apps are well-maintained, and others are not. But, the goal remains the same: to get you off the couch and working towards a 3.1 mile run.
This may not sound like a lot, but for non-runners, 3.1 miles (in my opinion) is the magic distance where running goes from the worst thing ever to this is actually fun. These apps aren’t asked to do near as much as a general purpose running app, so they should be focused and easy to use. Run 5k is our favorite app due to its simple design, ease of use, and integration with Health.app. It’s free for a few workouts, and costs $4.99 to unlock the entire plan.
Two fun Apple Watch links
There have been two interesting Watch-releated links to make the rounds the last day or so:
Every major release of OS X and iOS has brought a revision to Apple’s HIG, and with Apple Watch, the company has spun off a new version of it just for the wearable.
Band Design Guidelines for Apple Watch »
Turns out, Apple is going to allow other companies to make Watch bands. This document is an interesting read, and be sure to check out the dimensional drawings for the two sizes of Watch.
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