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The Inventing-A-New-Experience Edition Tuesday, February 9, 2016

One Year In: Why A Die-Hard Mechanical Watch Lover Can't Get The Apple Watch Off His Wrist (And Why That Matters), by Jack Forster, Hodinkee

For people who love mechanical watches, the Apple Watch is both unimportant and important. It’s unimportant because what it offers really is totally different from the pleasure you get from a great tool watch with an amazing history, like the Sub or the Speedmaster, or the connection you get to a fusion of aesthetics, mechanics, and craftsmanship from something like a Patek or Lange. But that’s also why it’s important. And it's also why, even for luxury watchmaking, it is a little dangerous. Apple’s actually succeeded in doing with the Apple Watch what they did with the iPhone: inventing a new experience.

Apple Music Launches In Taiwan, Now In 113 Countries, by Jordan Kahn, TidBITS

And Beats 1 is also launching alongside Apple Music in the region (which isn’t always the case) and like other markets is available free to listen for all with or without a subscription. The Taiwan version of Apple Music and radio features, like other local markets, will include curated content from local artists that you wouldn’t normally see much on the service outside of the area.

How To Figure Out What's Wrong

The Mysterious Case Of The Undead iMac, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

Yes, there’s a bizarre error code called “corpse notify.” Whatever. At least I now knew something! It appeared that a process (in this case, one with id 57024) was getting in the way of my shutdown. Hooray! Now to open Activity Monitor and see which process that…

…oh, right. My computer’s locked up and shutting down. I can’t look at the process ID. And process IDs change from boot to boot.

So The iPhone Does Allow You To Take A Not-So-Great Photo

Tim Cook's Tweeted Super Bowl 50 Photo Attracts Hecklers, by Jeff Brynes, AppAdvice

Apple CEO Tim Cook came under fire after the end of Super Bowl 50 last night. His terrible transgression? He tweeted a photograph that was blurry and out of focus.

Super Bowl Confidential: The Secret Story Behind Apple’s “Lemmings”, by Ken Segall's Observatory

And there you have it. What was arguably the worst high-visibility ad in the history of Apple wasn’t even created for Apple originally. It was a recycled idea lifted from a failed GE advertising pitch.

For Some Cord Cutters, Streaming Super Bowl Was A Nonstarter, by Brian X. Chen, New York Times

Watching the Super Bowl over the weekend turned out to be a not-so-superb experience for some owners of streaming devices like the Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast.

Stuff

Three Alternatives To The iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard, by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, TidBITS

The problem? The Smart Keyboard is, for many, an acquired taste, with chiclet-like buttons that can feel clunky to use, and a lack of iPad-specific function keys typically found on third-party products. The Smart Keyboard lacks backlit keys as well, and it can feel a bit flimsy, though it actually works pretty well on a lap.

Fortunately, third-party hardware makers have stepped in with an assortment of iPad Pro-compatible keyboards and keyboard cases in a variety of shapes, sizes and configurations. Three of these have stood out in my testing.

ChronoSync Simplifies The Process Of Syncing Between Mac, by Dennis Sellers, Apple World Today

If you have multiple Macs -- as many of us do -- you should certainly look into ChronoSync. The [...]utility offers a way to synchronize or backup files and folders. You can synchronize between folders on your Mac, other Macs, PCs, external drives or anything you can mount on your Mac.

Swiping For BFFs: Dating-style Apps Are Breaking Into The Friendship Market, by Jessica Contrera, Washington Post

Welcome to the future of friendship-finding, or so say hopeful app-makers. There’s Squad, Spotafriend, BeFriend, MetjUp. Hey! VINA, launched last month, is an app specifically for women looking for friends. It’s up and running in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with plans to expand to other cities in the coming weeks.

Instagram Adds Official Support For Multiple Accounts On iOS, by Greg Barbosa, 9to5Mac

Develop

When Your Client Demands Swift, by Erica Sadun

If someone is pushing hard for Swift for full apps or critical production code, make sure they know the commitment they’re buying into with associated migration and core refactoring costs, such. Otherwise, Objective-C is still, and will continue, delivering product.

Apple Rejects The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth Because Of 'Violence Towards Children', by Owen S. Good, Polygon

Fans of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth rushed to its defense in Rodriguez's tweet thread, calling out other examples of benign video games with children characters and violence. Apple has rejected some games on dubious grounds before, and has also faced criticism for some of the apps that do get listed, including games pirated by overseas shops and apps that are outright offensive.

Notes

Apple Under Pressure As Lawyers Pledge Action Over 'Error 53' Codes, by Miles Brignall, The Guardian

At least one firm of US lawyers said it hopes to bring a class action against the technology giant on behalf of victims whose £500 phones have been rendered worthless by an Apple software upgrade.

In the UK, a barrister told the Guardian that Apple’s “reckless” policy of effectively killing people’s iPhones following the software upgrade could potentially be viewed as an offence under the Criminal Damage Act 1971. The act makes it an offence to intentionally destroy the property of another.

Wired Is Launching An Ad-Free Website To Appease Ad Blockers, by Joshua Brustein, Bloomberg

More than 1 in 5 people who visit Wired Magazine’s website use ad-blocking software. Starting in the next few weeks, the magazine will give those readers a choice: stop blocking ads, pay to look at a version of the site that is unsullied by advertisements, or go away. It’s the kind of move that was widely predicted last fall after Apple allowed ad-blocking in the new version of its mobile software, but most publishers have shied away from it so far.

Bottom of the Page

So, two days of Chinese New Year feasting resulted in one big tummy and one sleepy me. (Two steamboats in two days!)

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Thanks for reading.