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Craig Federighi Talks Open Source Swift→
Writing for Ars Technica, Andrew Cunningham interviewed Craig Federighi on Swift going open source and how Apple is approaching open development:
The Swift team will be developing completely in the open on GitHub,” Federighi told Ars. “As they’re working day-to-day and making modifications to the language, including their work on Swift 3.0, all of that is going to be happening out in the open on GitHub.”
So instead of getting a big Swift 3.0 info dump at WWDC 2016 in the summer and then digging into the Xcode betas and adapting, developers can already find an “evolution document” on the Swift site that maps out where the language is headed in its next major version.
The Grand Unified Theory of Apple Products→
Spot-on analysis by Neil Cybart on Apple’s product lineup:
At the Apple Watch introduction keynote, Apple changed its tune when explaining its product line. Instead of positioning product categories in such a way that each product played a specific role in our lives, Apple began moving down the path of consumers picking and choosing the devices that made the most sense for them. The now classic, “product profile” slide made its debut (pictured below). All of Apple’s primary products fit on one spectrum.
The message behind the slide was simple: each distinct product category possesses a different ratio of personal technology and power. The smaller the device, the more personal the technology.
Pedometer++ Gets Smarter Step Counting on Apple Watch and iPhone→
David Smith’s Pedometer++ is one of the apps that got me back in shape and I’ve always appreciated the thought and care that he puts into it.
Today, David released a substantial update to Pedometer++ with an entirely new logic to coalesce steps registered by the iPhone and Apple Watch:
You might be wondering why I don’t use Apple’s Health.app merging system for this. After extensive testing about how that works I determined that it doesn’t really do a good job for step data. The Apple Health algorithm works around the concept of a ‘priority’ device. This priority device’s steps are then used in all instances except where that device is completely unavailable. In which case the secondary devices data is used to fill in the gaps.
The concept of a fixed priority device doesn’t really work for step data. As you move between the various activities of your daily life, the best device for measuring your movement is constantly switching. Thus you need a data merging algorithm that can dynamically analyze your step data and determine which device’s data is best at any particular time.
That is exactly what Pedometer++ now does. It goes through your daily data and can dynamically determine which device to use for any particular point in your day. The result is a much richer and complete picture of your daily activity than you’d get from Health.
I’ve tried many pedometer apps for iPhone and Apple Watch over the past few months, and I’ve noticed annoying discrepancies between data recorded by my iPhone and steps measured by Apple Watch. David’s intelligent system to reconcile steps taken sounds like what I’m looking for. It’s been a while since I wanted to really check out a new watchOS app, too.
Apple Open Sources Swift→
As promised earlier this year, Apple today officially open sourced Swift, its new programming language unveiled at WWDC 2014. The now open source Swift is available on Apple’s GitHub page for everyone to try:
Swift is a high performance systems programming language. It has a clean and modern syntax, and offers seamless access to existing C and Objective-C code and frameworks, and is memory safe (by default).
Although inspired by Objective-C and many other languages, Swift is not itself a C-derived language. As a complete and independent language, Swift packages core features like flow control, data structures, and functions, with high-level constructs like objects, protocols, closures, and generics. Swift embraces modules, eliminating the need for headers and the code duplication they entail.
This is big news for developers who have been looking forward to experimenting with Swift. Interestingly, Apple has also publicly posted a repository to track the ongoing evolution of Swift, which should reach version 2.2 by Spring 2016 and version 3.0 by Fall 2016.
This document describes goals for the Swift language on a per-release basis, usually listing minor releases adding to the currently shipping version and one major release out. Each release will have many smaller features or changes independent of these larger goals, and not all goals are reached for each release.
Clearly, open sourcing Swift has been a massive effort for Apple’s teams, and they’re committing to it.
Apple Airs New ‘Ridiculously Powerful’ and ‘Hey Siri’ iPhone 6s Commercials
Apple shared two new iPhone 6s commercials last night, once again focusing on the more powerful hardware of this year’s iPhone model and hands-free Siri activation via voice.
In the first ad, titled ‘Ridiculously Powerful’, Apple highlights a number of apps and system features that are faster or more capable thanks to the 6s’ hardware. From 3D Touch and games to multitasking, Apple Pay, and camera improvements, the ad follows the style of the company’s “The only thing that’s changed is everything” campaign with a quick rundown of apps and use cases that are more efficient on the new hardware. Notably, the ad features Jon Favreau and closes to what resembles a Siri command for HomeKit lights, which turn off at the end of the video.
The new ‘Hey Siri’ commercial is shorter and it includes a few examples of how Siri can be activated without pressing the Home button to reply to messages, look up information on the web, play music, and more. The ad also features actress Penelope Cruz asking a question to the virtual assistant with ‘Hey Siri’.
You can watch the videos below.
Connected: The Opposite of Perfect→
This week, Stephen and Federico talk about the Mac App Store, iCloud Photo Library and (sigh) iPhone 7 rumo(u)rs.
Some of my favorite topics on this week’s Connected: iCloud, Google’s intelligence for online services, and photo management. You can listen here.
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