Cool Stuff Found

Catching an iPhone X...On a Rollercoaster...at 130km/h

Charlotte Henry ·

Having your iPhone fall out your pocket and break is pretty annoying, so it is particularly great if you or someone else catches it before it gets smashed on the ground. Well, that is exactly what Samuel Kempf did. Except he was on a rollercoaster travelling at 130 km/h (via iClarified). He posted the video to YouTube. It had been viewed nearly 5.2 million times at the time of this writing. In the description, Mr. Kempf explained:  “I was in Spain at Port Aventura on shambhala ride and saw the person a few rows ahead drop their IPhone X. long story short I caught it. this roller coaster is moving at over 130kms…was once Europe’s tallest and fastest coaster.. only recently beaten.”

Link

Apple Changes App Store Algorithm to Address Antitrust Complaint

Andrew Orr ·

Apple is tweaking the App Store algorithm to make Apple apps less likely to appear in search results. This seeks to address complaints that the company unfairly uses the App Store to promote its own apps in favor of competition.

Mr. Schiller and Mr. Cue said the algorithm had been working properly. They simply decided to handicap themselves to help other developers.

“We make mistakes all the time,” Mr. Cue said.

“We’re happy to admit when we do,” Mr. Schiller said. “This wasn’t a mistake.”

I think the antitrust concerns about Apple have valid arguments, and I think this is a good move by Apple. Notice Phil Schiller gently correct Eddy.

Podcast

Optimizing Storage, Migration, Snapshots, and Combo Updates – Mac Geek Gab 778

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

This isn’t the one after 9/9, it’s the one on 9/9! And that means it’s time to answer your questions and share your tips about optimizing your iPhone storage, managing your snapshots, ejecting pesky drives, finding a service better than Gazelle, and much more. Press play and enjoy learning at least five new things right alongside John and Dave!

Link

Apple's Fifth Avenue Store Gets a Rainbow Reopening

Andrew Orr ·

Apple’s glass cube retail store on Fifth Avenue is reopening, and it’s bedecked with rainbows to celebrate.

A filming crew was posted outside the cube, grabbing shots of passers-by photographing themselves with the new design. One of the crew members told Quartz they were filming “a new commercial” for Apple about the relaunched store, but wouldn’t go into any further detail.

I think it looks great.

Featured image credit: Quartz/Mike Murphy

Link

iCloud Cluster****, Or Why You Shouldn't Run Betas On Important Devices

Andrew Orr ·

iCloud features in the iOS 13 betas have been removed because of buggy issues (And is probably a big driver behind iOS 13.1 betas). Developer Craig Hockenberry says this resulted in some unhappy customers.

Entire folders were either gone or corrupted. Apple’s mechanism to recover deleted files was of no help. The customers with weird folder duplicates were the “lucky” ones…Anyone who’s not a developer, and hasn’t been burned by a bad OS, does not know the kind of trouble that lies ahead. It’s irresponsible for Apple to release a public beta with known issues in iCloud…As an Apple shareholder, I also worry about how these failures will damage the iCloud brand.

This is exactly why you don’t run beta software on mission-critical devices. It’s not irresponsible of Apple, it’s irresponsible of people who ignore the warning on beta.apple.com to make backups. These people are why there are “Caution: Product May Be Hot” labels on microwaveable food.