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The Dipping-a-Toe Edition Thursday, November 14, 2019

Let's Stop Judging People For Using Phones Outdoors, by Marissa Stephenson, Outside Magazine

Tech shaming has been our judgment du jour for years now. (As a recent Psychology Today story put it, “It’s popular these days—as it has been any time a new type of technology has become widely used—to talk about how ‘sad’ it is that so many people are on their phone or on social media rather than ‘really socializing with people.’”) But tech shaming has a uniquely prevalent position in the outdoors.

[...]

At best, these judgments suck. At worst, they’re making people less likely to get outside. What’s more, those hardest hit by tech shaming are often newbies—people who are just dipping a toe into hiking, cycling, running, or backpacking and who may be more easily discouraged after hearing something like, “You need that?” These are also the folks who may benefit the most from tools like mapping apps and motivating music.

Huge Study Confirms Apple Watch ECG Accurately Detects AFib, by Ed Hardy, Cult of Mac

The electrocardiogram built into recent Apple Watch models isn’t likely to give wearers false notifications that they have atrial fibrillation, a potentially dangerous heart condition. A clean bill of health for this wearable’s ECG is the conclusion of a study involving over 400,000 participants that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

iPad Photo Editing Will Get Better With A Lightroom Update Later This Year, by Stephen Shankland), CNET

Adobe's Lightroom photo editing tool is about to get way more useful on Apple's iPad with the ability to import photos directly from a memory card. Apple's tablet doesn't have all the same features as Lightroom on a personal computer, but direct import is a crucial step for those who want to leave their laptops at home.

Adobe is testing direct photo import now and will ship it later this year, Tom Hogarty, Adobe's photography product management leader, told CNET in an exclusive interview. "This has been a long time coming. Customers have been asking for this for quite a while," he said. File system changes in iPadOS 13 and iOS 13 enable the new feature, which Hogarty demonstrates in a video.

Apple Is Considering Bundling Digital Subscriptions As Soon As 2020, by Gerry Smith and Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is considering bundling its paid internet services, including News+, Apple TV+ and Apple Music, as soon as 2020, in a bid to gain more subscribers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The latest sign of this strategy is a provision that Apple included in deals with publishers that lets the iPhone maker bundle the News+ subscription service with other paid digital offerings, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private deals.

Stuff

Apple Music Introduces A Replay, A Playlist Of Your Top Songs Of The Year, by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

With Apple Music Replay, subscribers will get a playlist of their top songs from 2019, plus playlists for every year you’ve subscribed to Apple Music, retroactively. [...]

The playlist and its associated data insights will be updated on Sundays to reflect subscribers’ latest listening activity, says Apple.

New NASA App Puts You In The Pilot's Seat Of Boeing's Starliner Or SpaceX's Crew Dragon, by Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

NASA has a new app (or web-based game, if you’re on desktop) that provides a simplified simulation of what it’s like to plan and run a commercial crew mission – meaning one of the planned varieties of mission that will actually take place aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner once they begin flying crews next year.

Game Day: NABOKI, by John Voorhees, MacStories

The game has no tutorial and virtually no UI. Instead, NABOKI relies on exploration and the player’s curiosity to propel it forward. Coupled with a soothing nature-inspired soundtrack, NABOKI creates a calming environment of thoughtful concentration that’s a great way to relax.

Facebook Updates iOS App To Fix Issues That Let The Camera Open In The Background, by Jay Peters, The Verge

Facebook said yesterday that it was submitting fixes for the issues to Apple, and the company tells us that, as of this morning, the updated app is now available for download on the App Store.

Develop

Apple Adds New Podcasts Connect Tools For Releasing New Shows And More, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple is adding new options for controlling the launch of new shows with support for hiding podcasts while being reviewed for approval.

Bottom of the Page

I've stopped using Facebook a very long time ago. I've stopped using Instagram a long time ago. And I've just stopped using Twitter.

I don't think I am any happier overall. But, when I just want to fiddle with my phone, I don't have to make any decisions on which app to fiddle in. (The answer, from now on, is simply the RSS reader.)

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Thanks for reading.