MyAppleMenu - Thu, Dec 24, 2015

Thu, Dec 24, 2015The Sexy-Filters Edition

This Is The Australian Summer As Seen Through An iPhone, by Jenni Ryall, Mashable

Bushfire season has kicked off, terrifying storms have swept through cities and masses of people are flocking to the beach to escape heatwaves. The wild Australian summer has officially landed.

When the hot season starts, iPhone photographers are never far away, capturing the extremities of the Australian landscape with sexy filters and a touch of slo-mo. From dust-filled fields to glassy oceans, these Australian new-age photographers are making waves Down Under with their slick shots.

A Screenshot Is Worth A Thousand Words, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Screenshot apps tend to fall into one of two categories: managers and editors. On iOS, screenshot management apps dominate, likely because until Apple added a 'Screenshots' album to the Photos app with iOS 9, there was no good way to separate screenshots from snapshots of family and friends. On the Mac there are fewer apps, but their feature sets tend to be deeper.

The screenshot app market intrigues me. Although most apps address one of a couple basic problems, execution varies widely and there are gaps in functionality, especially on iOS. As a result, the screenshot app category is somewhat fragmented, but in a good way, leaving room for interesting solutions from clever developers.

Stuff

Greeting Card Shop 3 Review: Mac Design Software Bulks Up On New Features, by J.R. Bookwalter, Macworld

Whether you want to design and print your own cards at home or create an impressive collage to share online, veteran Mac software maker Chronos makes it not only possible but downright easy to do.

Hands On: NetSpot 2.4 (OS X), by William Gallagher, MacNN

What it does is map out your office or home and give you a clear view of where the best and the worst wifi reception is.

Focus Is An Easy And Intuitive Manual Camera App For Your iPhone, by Kevin Raposo, Knowtechie

Develop

Apple Renews Security Certificate Used By Third-Party Apps And Safari Extensions, by Harish Jonnalagadda, iMore

Apple mentions that devs need not recompile or resubmit apps following the change, although any updates rolled out after February 2016 must include the new certificate. The upcoming change will not have any bearing on iOS users, but Mac users on El Capitan will need to switch to version 10.11.2.

Medical App Design For Clinicians: How To Make Sure Your App Actually Works, by Scott Pearson, iMedicalApps

Notes

Apple Pay Seeks Growth In Asia, Europe After Slow U.S. Adoption, by Olga Kharif, Bloomberg

After a sluggish start in the U.S. since its debut more than a year ago, Apple Pay is ramping up in markets where people are more comfortable with so- called contactless payments. The service, which lets consumers pay in an app or by tapping their iPhone on store terminals, will be introduced next year in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain.

Apple is counting on its brand recognition as it enters markets that are further along than the U.S. in all things mobile payments, particularly in advanced technologies needed to accept them in retail outlets. Still, it won’t be easy. The iPhone maker will compete with local banks and Internet companies that already offer the service -- not to mention Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s leader in smartphones.

Apple Quirk Lets Pirates Build A Giant Store Of Fake iPhone Apps, by Jose Pagliery, CNN

According to Proofpoint, vShare pirates managed to get their hands on several Apple enterprise certificates, using them to create a vShare app.

The vShare app is itself a portal to an app store of its own.

On vShare, the most frequently downloaded iOS apps are nearly all free, pirated versions of top paid apps on the real iTunes App Store.

Merry Christmas

Thanks for reading.