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The Purgeable-Space Edition Friday, October 7, 2016

When Free Space Isn’t Free: Purgeable Storage In macOS Sierra, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

Now here’s the big change in macOS Sierra: Apple adds the amount of truly free space to the amount of purgeable space, and that’s what is displayed on your Mac as the amount of free space on disk. [...]

In an ideal world, your Mac should treat that free space as real free space, and there’s no need to peek behind the curtain. In the shorter term, there will probably be bugs and incompatibilities, and if you’re someone who cares about what’s going on behind the scenes of your Mac, you should be aware that not all free space is the same.

Instagram, Snapchat & How My Love For Photos Has Changed!, by Om Malik

“You should take the time to critically look at all your photos, and figure out why you like them and why you don’t like them,” he told me. The creator of Lenka app has been making photos for a decade. Our conversation ended up being about Instagram and how it has influenced what the world thinks of as popular photography styles.

Dash Follow-Up

'Dash' App Removed From App Store For Alleged Review Manipulation, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple initially declined to offer more information, but after Dash's App Store removal started making headlines, Apple told Popescu it was due to App Store review manipulation, such as paying for positive reviews, something he denies doing.

Apple’s Judicial System, by Brent Simmons, Inessential

No matter what the context, we expect that the accused see the evidence against them, we expect avenues for appeal to be made available, and we expect proportional penalties.

Competition

Uber Has Always Looked Unstoppable. Then It Went To China, by Brad Stone and Lulu Yilun Chen, Bloomberg

At the Beijing offices of the ride-hailing startup Didi, many employees refer to Cheng Wei, the founder and chief executive officer, as laoda, or “big boss.” Others use his English nickname, Will. This summer the world came to know him by another designation: the Uber Slayer, the one entrepreneur who managed to beat back the relentless advance of the richest, most rapacious startup since Bill Gates ran Microsoft. In August, after a multibillion-dollar, year-and-a-half-long battle, Uberagreed to sell its business in China and depart the country.

It was a face-saving retreat for Uber, which got a 17.7 percent ownership stake in Didi and $1 billion in cash. But it was a huge victory for Cheng. Eight weeks after the deal, on the fifth floor of the company’s headquarters, he’s careful to sound magnanimous toward his vanquished rival. “Uber is a great company,” he says. “They have the best strategy in China among all the Silicon Valley companies. They are more agile than Google. They aren’t like this in other parts of the world, but in China they’ve learned to show goodwill. They are not like a usual foreign company in China, but more like a startup, full of passion, feeling like they are fighting for themselves.”

Stuff

Apple Watch Series 2: Second Opinion Review, by Rene Ritchie, iMore

Most people with an original Apple Watch will get enough of an improvement out of watchOS 3 that they won't need to consider upgrading to Series 2. The exception is anyone who's been waiting for route tracking or water workouts. Then — take note, triathletes! — the upgrade is significant.

For anyone who hasn't yet gotten an Apple Watch, especially now that Google Wear and other competitors seem stalled or stagnant, Apple Watch Series 2 is a better starting point than ever. And, if you don't need GPS, or the extra brightness, battery life, or water resistance, Apple Watch Series 1 might be even better — it has the same amped-up performance, but at a lower price.

Spotify And Apple Music Get Unofficial Mixes, The Best Part Of SoundCloud, by Josh Constine, TechCrunch

Apple struck a deal with Dubset in March, and Spotify did in May, BPMSupreme reported. But the remixes are finally beginning to stream today, starting with this DJ Jazzy Jeff remix of Anderson .Paak.

Duolingo’s Chatbots Help You Learn A New Language, by Frederic Lardinois, TechCrunch

Today’s chatbots, for the most part, aren’t all that useful, but what if you could use them to learn a new language? When it comes to learning languages, using what you’ve learned in the context of a conversation is extremely useful. If you are learning online, though, you often don’t have anybody to talk to. That’s why Duolingo today introduced chatbots to its app that allow you to have AI-powered conversations.

This App Encourages You To Actually Check Off Those Items On Your Bucket List, by Timothy R. Smith, Washington Post

For a procrastinator , a bucket list can be more about failure than fantasy. It exists in your head, always changes and is never completed — an endless tally of unlived dreams.

As with seemingly everything since the introduction of the iPhone, however, there’s an app for the bucket list. It’s called Soon, and it’s wonderful.

Turn Ordinary Videos Into Beautiful Artworks With Prisma, by Stan Schroeder, Mashable

Prisma, the photo app that applies neural network magic to photos for a wide variety of artistic effects, now also works with 15-second videos.

Notes

How To Talk To A Woman With No Headphone Jack., by Sarah Hutto, McSweeney's

When you see a woman with no headphone jack, it can be intimidating, to say the least. Many men assume that a woman would only forgo a headphone jack by choice. But, with the technological landscape being so complex, it can be easy for a woman to get overwhelmed when making decisions about her headphones.

Maybe it’s been so long since she’s used headphones with a jack that she’s forgotten how much more reliable the sound quality can be. Or maybe when buying the headphones, she was unaware that corded headphones are still widely available on the market. Whatever her reasons, you want to be sure she sees what she’s missing out on and give her the chance to downgrade. To do this, you will need to overcome a few obstacles.