Apple Animoji Karaoke Videos Showcase iPhone X Feature in Advance of Grammys

By John Voorhees

Apple has embraced the phenomenon of Animoji karaoke. Specifically called out in the iOS 11.3 preview press release earlier this week, Apple followed up today with two fantastic videos on its YouTube channel.

One video features Stir Fry by Migos sung by the dog Animoji backed by the smiling poo Animoji.

The other video features Redbone by Childish Gambino with the alien Animoji on lead vocals backed by the rainbow unicorn.

Both videos are fun pairings of Grammy-nominated artists and Animoji, the animated emoji feature that is exclusive to the iPhone X. Migos’ album, Culture, is nominated for Best Rap Album of 2017, and Redbone by Childish Gambino is up for Record of the Year. According to Ad Week, the two videos will air during the Grammys on Sunday, January 28th.

Almost as amusing as the videos themselves is the fine print at the end of each video that says ‘Animoji feature records up to 10 seconds. Professionally animated.’ I’d love to see Animoji recording extended beyond 10 seconds and added to an app like Clips, to make it easier for users to create karaoke videos of their own and eliminate the need for Apple to add a disclaimer to its videos.

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Apple Signals Transition Away from 32-Bit App Support on the Mac

By John Voorhees

Apple hasn’t announced a date by which it will end 32-bit app support on macOS, but the beta release of macOS 10.13.4 includes notifications signaling to users that the transition to 64-bit apps has begun. Today, Apple told Jim Dalrymple of The Loop that it will begin alerting customers if they are using 32-bit apps. Dalrymple says:

At this point, the alert is more of a gentle reminder to users that their apps are out of date. You will receive an alert once per 32-bit app, so it won’t be an annoyance, but certainly something you should pay attention too.

Apple first signaled that support for 32-bit apps would be ending at WWDC last summer.

As Steve Troughton-Smith pointed out on Twitter today, the signs point to a swift deprecation of 32-bit apps:

Among the evidence he cites is a switch included in the Xcode 9.3 beta that lets developers turn off 32-bit support in macOS 10.13.4 when testing their apps, speculating that:

If Troughton-Smith is correct that macOS 10.14 may have no 32-bit app support other than via a virtual machine, the transition would be notable for its speed. On iOS, Apple spent three years suggesting in a series of escalating steps that developers transition to 64-bit apps.

Apple Releases Swift Playgrounds 2.0 with Third-Party Subscriptions

By John Voorhees

Apple has released version 2.0 of the Swift Playgrounds iPad app. The app provides an interactive learning environment for the Swift programming language. With version 2.0, Apple has introduced subscriptions to playgrounds from third-party creators. According to Apple’s developer news site:

You’ll automatically see new and updated playgrounds in your subscriptions, a content gallery that shows all playgrounds in a single view, new robots, and much more.

Subscriptions can be added by entering a URL or by browsing a gallery Apple has created, both of which are accessible from an ‘Add Subscription’ button in the top right-hand corner of the screen from which you add new playgrounds. As of publication, the buttons for adding subscriptions from the gallery do not work, but they should soon. When updated playgrounds are available, you can receive a notification too. Among the first third parties with subscription-based playgrounds are Sphero, Lego Mindstorms, UBTech, Parrot Drones, IBM, Mekamon, Wonder Workshop, and Skoog.

In addition to subscriptions, the update includes enhanced documentation for the Swift programming language and iOS SDK, and playgrounds can be opened from the Locations button in the Files app.

AppStories, Episode 39 – The Mac App Store’s Problems →

Linked By John Voorhees

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we discuss how the Mac App Store has fallen behind the iOS App Store and consider how Apple might address its problems.

Agenda Review: Mac-Based Note Taking with a Calendar-Focused Twist

By John Voorhees

Agenda is an intriguing approach to note taking on the Mac that’s organized around dates and your calendar. The app is beautifully-designed and notably feature-rich for a 1.0 but lacks an iOS counterpart, which is still in the works, and collaboration features, which will limit its appeal to some users. There are also areas of the app that lack polish, but overall, Agenda shows a lot of promise and should be attractive to anyone who juggles multiple calendar events and deadlines.