This week on Connected, we made our official predictions for WWDC24.
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Bartender Sold⇢
Ben Surtees, the original developer behind the excellent macOS utility Bartender, concerning the recent sale of the app:
After the release of Bartender 5, I came to the realization that supporting all the users and maintaining the app at the high standard I expect and you deserve was too much for one person. It required a dedicated team that could provide continuous support, innovate, and keep up with the fast-evolving macOS landscape. This realization led me to make a difficult decision.
Elon Musk’s xAI to Build ‘Gigafactory of Compute’ in Memphis⇢
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company (no not that one) is coming to my hometown with what would be the world’s largest supercomputer, as reported by Samuel Hardiman at The Daily Memphian:
The Elon Musk-founded artificial intelligence startup — xAI — is building an AI supercomputer in Memphis, officials announced Wednesday, June 5.
The facility, when completed, could be worth billions of dollars and be one of the most advanced computing facilities in the world.
More Silo, Please⇢
Silo may be my favorite show on TV+ so far, and I hope we get a lot more of it.
Researcher: Windows 11 Recall a ‘Disaster’⇢
Windows 11’s Recall feature has garnered a lot of attention since being announced, and much of that has focused on the potential privacy implications of software that basically tracks everything you do on your PC.
Cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont has taken a look at the feature, and uhhhhhh:
Microsoft told media outlets a hacker cannot exfiltrate Copilot+ Recall activity remotely.
Reality: how do you think hackers will exfiltrate this plain text database of everything the user has ever viewed on their PC? Very easily, I have it automated.
Sponsor: PowerPhotos by Fat Cat Software⇢
PowerPhotos works in conjunction with the Apple Photos app, filling in missing features that Photos itself doesn’t provide. With PowerPhotos you can manage multiple photo libraries, either splitting up an existing library into smaller ones, or merging multiple libraries together into one. You can browse and search your libraries, copy photos and albums between libraries while retaining edits and metadata, and find and remove duplicate photos.
PowerPhotos is designed to help you clean up your photo libraries and save space in the process. Its duplicate detection feature can be used to delete extra photos in your library and reclaim disk space and space used in iCloud. If you want to further cut down iCloud usage, PowerPhotos can help split up your library into multiple libraries, so that you can store many of your photos locally on your Mac in separate libraries while still keeping some of your photos in iCloud.
Mac Power Users #747: Exploring the Arc Browser⇢
Arc is a new browser that started life on macOS in 2022. David and I have been using it for months, taking notes and gathering thoughts. This week on MPU, we discuss its features, and how AI could change the way people browse the web.
Siri’s AI Era Arriving Soon
There has been much debate about what Apple’s upcoming AI-based features could look like. With WWDC’s keynote just eight days away, Mark Gurman has some information about how Siri could be transformed by new technology:
The big news at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week will be the company’s renewed push into artificial intelligence. As I’ve outlined previously, Apple’s approach will integrate AI into many of its core apps and features, including Photos, Messages, Notes and the Safari browser. It will handle voice memo transcriptions and provide recaps of meetings, text messages, emails and articles. There also will be new bells and whistles like AI-created emojis.
Connected 504: 17,000,000 SF Symbols⇢
This week on the world’s greatest podcast:
WWDC24 has been officially announced and rumors about iOS 18 are swirling. The guys also talk about Myke’s Meta Ray-Bans, Federico’s Apple Pencil settings, and Stephen’s least-used Apple device.
How Craft Built Its visionOS App⇢
Kristof Gruber, Product Engineer at Craft:
Entering a new platform only happens a few times in a developers life. It is a rare and delicious event, when you step in the realm of something genuinely new. If you are fast, you can feel yourself like the explorers in old times. Everything is new, and flexible; the new platform doesn’t yet have established patterns, which gives you plenty of space to experiment.
Nomad Tracking Card⇢
There have been other credit card-sized Find My trackers on the market, but I believe this is the first rechargeable one. Bonus points for being compatible with MagSafe.
Update: Nomad wasn’t the first to have a rechargeable tracker in this class. The Chipolo CARD Spot, which I had in mind when writing this, is not rechargeable.
WWDC24 Keynote: June 10⇢
Today, Apple unveiled the lineup for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, including Keynote and Platforms State of the Union, and shared more information about what developers will learn and experience all week. The free online conference brings the global Apple developer community together to provide them with insights into the latest technologies, tools, and frameworks coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS. Throughout the week, developers will be able to hear from Apple engineers, designers, and other experts through more than 100 technical sessions, in-depth consultations, and live forums for guidance on building even more innovative and platform-differentiating apps and games across all Apple products.