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This week on MacStories Unwind, John returns from vacation to pick the Backbone One iPhone game controller, and Federico recommends Paolo Nutini’s latest album, Last Night in the Bittersweet.
John’s Pick:
Federico’s Pick:
Last year, we awarded Noir Best New App of 2021 as part of the MacStories Selects Awards. Jeffrey Kuiken’s Safari extension for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, which can apply a custom dark mode to websites that don’t offer their own, is a fantastic example of an app that implements a new technology – the native Safari extensions introduced with iOS and iPadOS 15 and earlier on the Mac – in a way that is simple to use but also provides advanced customization for users who want that. Noir immediately became a MacStories favorite on launch, and it remains an app that I rely on every day.
The latest update to Noir takes the app’s original concept a step further with new theming options, theme sharing, and extensive keyboard shortcut support. It’s an excellent update that anyone who likes to tweak the colors used in their apps will appreciate. Let’s take a closer look.
This week on AppStories, we dig into the Recently Added folders on our iPhones and the stories they tell about what we’ve been up to lately.
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On AppStories+, I explain what’s coming this fall in Apple Maps and CarPlay, and Federico reports on new Shortcuts actions added to the latest iOS 16 beta.
We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.
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Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings along with a look at what’s coming up next:
Do you know the old thought experiment about the AI designed to make paper clips that quickly decides that it will have to eliminate all the humans to maximize paper clips?
Many security teams have a similar idea when meeting compliance goals: it would be much simpler if it weren’t for all the pesky users.
That way of thinking has brought us to the current state of endpoint security, dominated by MDMs that hamper device performance and turn every laptop into Big Brother. This approach to security is bad for culture and morale; moreover, it doesn’t actually work. If it did, no company with an MDM and annual security training would have a data breach.
Kolide is endpoint security and fleet management that takes a different approach. They help their customers meet their compliance goals–whether for auditors, customers, or leadership–by enlisting the support of end users.
Kolide works by notifying your employees of security issues via Slack, educating them on why they’re important, and giving them step-by-step instructions to resolve them themselves.
For IT admins, Kolide helps you prove compliance via a single dashboard. From there, you can monitor the security of your entire fleet, whether they’re running on Mac, Windows, or Linux. (You read that right; Kolide can finally provide visibility into your Linux users.)
If you’ve read this far, it’s because you’re intrigued by an approach to endpoint security that gets end users involved. Click here to learn more about how it works. If you like what you see, you can sign up for a free trial; no credit card required.
Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Our ‘Recently Added’ Apps 
This week, Federico and John dig into the Recently Added folders on their iPhones and the stories they tell about what they’ve been up to lately.
We deliver AppStories+ to subscribers with bonus content, ad-free, and at a high bitrate early every week.
To learn more about the benefits included with an AppStories+ subscription, visit our Plans page, or read the AppStories+ FAQ.
Matthew Cassinelli writing for iMore that Apple should be doing more to make it easier for new users to get started with Shortcuts:
In many ways, Shortcuts is “learning to code“ for the masses, and Shortcuts as a programming language should have the educational support, technical resources, and community development that Apple’s user base deserves. At least to match the quality and values the company imbues into all of its other products.
I agree. Although Apple has used Siri and will introduce App Intents this fall as simple entry points into the Shortcuts app, there’s a lot more that could be done. As Cassinelli argues, that includes better action descriptions, debugging tools, and more active curation of the Shortcuts Gallery. Shortcuts has made a lot of progress over the past few years, especially when it comes to meeting experienced users’ needs. Now would be a good time to focus on bringing new users into the fold.
Monthly Log: July 2022 In this month's edition of the Monthly Log:
Yesterday, Apple announced its third quarter 2022 earnings, narrowly beating analysts’ consensus expectations. The company didn’t provide earnings guidance going into yesterday’s call and hasn’t since the start of the global pandemic. Coupled with ongoing supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19, inflationary pressure in the US and other countries, and the threat of a recession in many of its key markets, analysts’ revenue predictions varied widely, averaging just under $83 billion. So, when the company’s revenue came in at $83 billion, and CEO Tim Cook said he expects growth to accelerate ‘despite pockets of softness,’ Wall Street responded positively, lifting the stock’s price in after-hours trading.
According to Apple’s CFO Luca Maestri:
Our June quarter results continued to demonstrate our ability to manage our business effectively despite the challenging operating environment. We set a June quarter revenue record and our installed base of active devices reached an all-time high in every geographic segment and product category. During the quarter, we generated nearly $23 billion in operating cash flow, returned over $28 billion to our shareholders, and continued to invest in our long-term growth plans.
Despite the modest and unexpected growth from the same quarter in 2021, product sales slowed in some areas, with the Mac, iPad, and wearables all down year-over-year. That was made up by a strong increase in Apple’s services and a smaller increase in iPhone sales, but given delivery timelines for Macs and iPads in particular, supply chain issues appear to have taken a bite out of Apple’s earnings in those categories.
Still, the overall outlook of continued growth portrayed by Cook as the company prepares its fall iPhone lineup and for the release of other rumored products seems to have buoyed the stock with investors who undoubtedly appreciated the company’s optimistic message among the drumbeat of recent negative financial news.
Additional details regarding Apple’s third-quarter performance, including its consolidated financial statement are available on the company’s website. If you missed the earnings call, you can replay it on Apple’s Investors site or read the transcript prepared by Jason Snell at Six Colors, where you’ll also find additional charts.
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