MyAppleMenu

The Make-It-Slow Edition Thursday, July 7, 2016

The UX Secret That Will Ruin Apps For You, by Mark Wilson, Fast Company

Websites and apps now operate on the magnitude of milliseconds. But such speed can make users skeptical or even confused, so companies are responding by building slower, more deliberate interfaces.

Better Learning

A New Way Of Teaching Words, by Stephen Babcock, Technical.ly

Using visuals and audio, the idea is to help students who need help learning language use logic and reasoning to identify the words, instead of memorizing definitions, said Lawrence.

Better Sleeping

A Snooze-Worthy App Collection To Add To The Smartphone, by Kit Eaton, New York Times

With smartphones, tablets and smart watches glowing and buzzing on our night stands, it’s no wonder that low-quality sleep has become a public health problem. Sleep-monitoring apps for smartphones can help.

Better Travelling

Rimowa's Electronic Luggage Tag Is The Future Of Traveling, by Richard Lai, Engadget

Rimowa's electronic tag is essentially an E Ink display with the same width as a standard paper luggage tag (it already has the green stripe required for all flights departing from European airports), and it uses Bluetooth radio to grab data from either Rimowa's dedicated app or supported airline apps -- right now these are only available on iOS.

Stuff

Leave Your Mark On The World With File New - The Ultimate Photo Editor, by Christine Chan, AppAdvice

I’m rather impressed with what File New has to offer in terms of photo editing, especially the unique textures and gradients for the text and stickers.

Sling TV, A Cord Cutter’s Delight, Arrives On Apple TV, by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, TidBITS

Sling TV’s new Apple TV interface is pretty good. I don’t think it quite matches up to the Comcast X1 interface, another reason I’ve hesitated to cut the cord, but Sling has made great strides in usability since I last reviewed it. [...] Sling also has significantly expanded its content offerings. It once had only 20 or so channels, and that number is now up to about 100.

Develop

Apple Open-Sources Its New Compression Algorithm LZFSE, by Sergio De Simone, InfoQ

Apple has open-sourced its new lossless compression algorithm, LZFSE, introduced last year with iOS 9 and OS X 10.10. According to Apple, LZFE provides the same compression gain as ZLib level 5 while being 2x–3x faster and with higher energy efficiency.

Apple Enters The Bot Business, by Sar Haribhakti, Medium

Apple recently opened up its Messages, Siri & Maps products and launched the beta version of its iOS 10 SDK. Apple also introduced rich notifications and comprehensive widgets in iOS 10. It might seem that Apple hasn’t joined the bot world that has been dominated by the likes of Slack and Facebook. But, when we look at this landscape closely, it is fascinating how Apple has indeed joined the race but in a manner most of us did not expect.

Multiple Screen Sizes Create Mobile App Challenges, by Joel Shore, SearchCloud

Where building an app that runs on multiple operating systems -- usually Windows and Mac -- was once a developer's primary technical challenge, it is now the proliferation of screen sizes, even within the same OS, that has become chief among mobile app development challenges.

Notes

Apple Joins Wide Array Of Tech Companies In Fight To Kill EU's 'Cookie Law', by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

Apple and a cadre of other tech companies are fighting the European Union's so-called "Cookie Law," lobbying the organization for more refined laws that aim to strike a balance between user privacy and data collected by providers.

Scientific Proof That Buying Things Can Actually Lead To Happiness (Sometimes), by Dinsa Sachan, Fast Company

New studies have provided compelling evidence that there is real value in some kinds of material purchases. In a study that was published in Psychological Science in April, researchers found that people were happier if they spent on things that matched their personality.

All Of Your Internet Petitions Have Been Approved!, by Andrew Martin, Timothy McSweeney's

Great news, denizens of the Internet! As of this morning, all of your internet petitions have been approved!

Bottom of the Page

The internet has killed the middlemen -- unless, of course, if the middleman is bringing me benefits that I value. If you are a middleman who review all the apps to make sure my wallet and my privacy are protected, I am willing to part some money your way. If you are a middleman that not only (re)distributes movies and TV shows, but also produces some of the best shows, I am willing to part some money your way.

If you are a middleman who can only claim that you give me a lot of music -- just like any other middlemen out there -- then, no, I will only have a relationship with you when you are the cheapest.

~

Thanks for reading.