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1 and 2: (9to5Mac — October 2014) ‘iPad Air 2’ and ‘iPad mini 3’ with Touch ID & Burst Mode confirmed, show up early in iTunes 3, 4, and 5: (9to5Mac — July 2015) iTunes 12.2 update indicates new gold, dark blue, dark pink iPod nano, touch + shuffle colors 6. (9to5Mac — July 2016) Apple leaks unreleased Space Black Milanese Loop Apple Watch band on Czech store site 7. (The Mirror — September 2016) Apple accidentally reveals iPhone 7 on Twitter minutes before official launch 8. (MacRumors — October 2016) Images of New MacBook Pro With Magic Toolbar [Touch Bar] Leaked in macOS Sierra 10.12.1 9. Apple somehow accidentally uploads HomePod firmware that contains (Guilherme Rambo — July 2017) glyph of unreleased iPhone 10. Apple’s iOS 11 GM somehow ends up in the wrong hands, gets sent to 9to5Mac who reveal press render of upcoming and (9to5Mac — September 2017) Apple Watch Series 3 several other iOS 11 details Tim Cook, 2012: Apple will ‘double down on secrecy on products’ Update 09/09/2017 18:15 ET: Added iTunes leaking the new iPods in July 2015 and the Apple Watch Black Milanese Loop leak, bringing count from six to ten. Tweet me @JackGMarch if I’ve missed any other leaks from Apple!

Apple has now been the source for ten Apple product leaks since 2014

This Slack discussion by , and occurred in 's official #random channel and has been edited for readability. Marina Volkova Richard-Kubina Slogging I have some stories to share with our slogging folks, hope you will like them. Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:06 PM Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://www.computerworld.com/article/3609897/android-12-features.html Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://www.businessinsider.com/foldable-iphone-coming-in-2023-report-2021-3 Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/02/exploding-iphone-x-lawsuit/ Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://www.macworld.com/article/3609900/macalope-apple-rumors-apple-car.html Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/03/02/magsafe-connector-could-return-and-replace-lightning-on-iphone Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/01/prosser-iphone-12-magsafe-battery-reverse-charging/ Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:09 PM https://lifehacker.com/how-to-quickly-scan-documents-on-your-mac-with-your-iph-1846388645 Marina Volkova Mar 3, 2021, 2:10 PM https://www.tomsguide.com/news/the-most-stunning-android-phone-of-the-year-just-leaked-and-its-not-from-samsung yay to the magsafe comeback richard-kubina Mar 4, 2021, 6:43 PM

Cool Mobile Tech Stories 2021

In the world of today, personal data like our names, phone numbers, Internet history, geodata, and much more is very valuable to the corporations who harvest and it. I shouldn’t remind you about , right? But in case you need a refresher, here’s a brief of the increasing privacy problem by NewsBTC: sell Cambridge Analytica overview “Equifax, a company whose operations effectively rely only on data security and data processing, saw the personal details (Social Security numbers, addresses, full names, etc.) of approximately 145.5 million of its American, Canadian, and British clients get exposed by hackers. This fracas, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.” Source: hipaajournal.com How can you protect yourself from this kind of private data leaking if you don’t even know about it? In this article we’re going to look at the most commonly used devices that store most of our data, which are our phones. Let’s check how reliable they are when it comes to safeguarding our privacy and security in the face of such attacks. Current smartphones from a privacy perspective No matter what the device is, if it has any kind of features, hackers (and governments, and corporations, and other unknown third parties) will try to exploit them. We learned from The Verge’s that even the most sophisticated security mechanisms are hackable. Anatomy of a Hack The more sophisticated a device is, the better protection it has, you may believe. But paradoxically, the opposite is also true: the more functionality, the more information your phone is transmitting straight to strangers. These are the most commonly used smartphones and their respective privacy mechanisms. BlackBerry No one uses BlackBerry anymore, you say? Actually, following a steep in popularity after the release of the iPhone, Blackberry recovered nicely with their acquisition of Cylance, an AI-based security mechanism, with sales 23% in the first quarter of 2019. decline rising Here’s a review from Zero Day by Jack Whittaker from 2015, coincidentally just before BlackBerry went down: “Facebook accessed my location a total of 194 times in seven days. Skype accessed my phone contacts list a total of 1,814 times in the past seven days. Twitter accessed my location 704 times in the past seven days.” Source: businessinsider.com In 2019, BlackBerry is more in terms of security than ever before in order to combat modern-day privacy face-to-face: introducing threats “DTEK records when an application accesses highly-private sensors (microphones, cameras, etc.)  and prompts the user to take action when an app oversteps its boundaries. Locker, on the other hand, is an encrypted safe storage space to store sensitive photos and documents. ‘Privacy shade’ blacks out the entire display and only enables a small area to prevent over-the-shoulder peeking. It even has a Redactor tool that lets you hide sections of the screen before sharing.” Will this be a better BlackBerry than four years ago? We’ve yet to see results. Samsung As a Samsung user with doubts about privacy pointed out on a , “Most advice seems to go on the verge of changing the phone entirely or completely giving up using a cell phone for all practical purposes.” Are things so bad that no matter what you do your phone is sure to get invaded anyway, so you may as well just give up even using a phone in the first place? Which concerns would drive a Samsung user to such desperation? Your data (even if you turn your settings to private) along with your location data and YouTube history is still getting collected by Google miners. And then there’s this: forum “Samsung's apps (Mail, Browser, Gallery, Camera, Messages, etc) all appear to make regular contact to 'vas.samsungapps.com', which resolves to AWS. So if you're looking at a packet log on your router/firewall, you can't pick the traffic out from the rest of the AWS stuff. I've no idea what the connections are for, as they're encrypted. You can't remove nor disable the apps.” Ouch! Nokia In March, NotebookCheck “That certain Nokia 7 Plus units were phoning home to China with sensitive user data that could allow real-time tracking.” Questions? Just one, from this Reddit thread, but the words “pre-installed” and “undeletable” should tell you everything you need to know: reports “How much does the pre-installed, un-delete-able Facebook-app on the 3310 3g have?” access iPhone How great are iPhones? Everyone is using them, so they must be the best. This lemming mindset will lead you to ignore the following by Bloomberg: publication “Bloomberg News recently reported that for years iPhone app developers have been allowed to store and sell data from users who allow access to their contact lists, which, in addition to phone numbers, may include other people’s photos and home addresses… The consumer control option gives developers access to everything you’ve stored about everyone you know, more than just their phone numbers, and without their permission. This is the kind of situation that landed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 10 hours of congressional testimony in April.” Source: 9to5mac.com Following a recent ban on the usage of that data, Apple still did very little, if anything at all, to ensure that it’s technically impossible for developers to use that (very sensitive) data. Why? “Developers have made $100 billion in revenue in that time, even after Apple took its average 30 percent cut. Fortunes have been built on the personal data of Apple customers.” Sound like someone you trust? How blockchain phones could make privacy concerns obsolete Now, when it comes to privacy, the blockchain is one of the best solutions around. No single point of failure, biometric scans, unprecedented levels of cryptographic security - if security is to be found anywhere, it’s in blockchain technology. Some cryptocurrency users have even ingeniously implanted subdermal under their skin. With this, your money is stored in a tiny capsule somewhere on your body no one would think to look. To log into your wallet on a PC you just walk in front of it, as it is powered by near-field communication technology. That should give you some idea of how to secure new technology can make your data. Here’s what blockchain-enabled smartphones offer in terms of privacy: wallets The first generation of blockchain phones SOLARIN, by Sirin Labs provides, substantially more security to your data by introducing a whole new principle of protection. Encrypted calls and messages alone sound exciting. Also, military-grade encryption technology KoolSpan and “Zimperium state-of-the-art mobile threat protection that thwarts the broadest array of advanced device, network, and application mobile cyber attacks.” Using a slightly different approach, there is the HTC Exodus, a phone that uses Bitcoin’s architecture to allow you to be your own bank. Private keys aren’t owned by a third party and they work with Ethereum-decentralized applications. A native crypto wallet as part of the mobile Opera browser that can use Exodus One’s native hardware means the world’s first system that creates not just a few features but a completely protected environment. And since the success of this system depends on the extent of its decentralization (remember, centralization means a central point of failure, which is really bad for your data’s safety), Telecoin’s TeleFone, which is even more decentralized, is the most enviable option of the three.  Telecoin uses Obfuscation and SwiftTx with the help of MasterNodes and Proof-of-Stake to introduce some of the fastest and most secure blockchain-based infrastructures around. Its secure, decentralized mobile phone, Tele-Fone, allows users to store personal data/files and information directly on the blockchain. Why is that so important? Why Tele-Fone is a more decentralized mobile phone than others A decentralized mobile network based on the blockchain Why is the decentralized way the only way? The Internet was invented to be decentralized, just like Bitcoin. Then, like all good concepts, it became tainted when it went mainstream and now there is centralization, which means massive threats to user data. Source: blog.cloudflare.com Decentralized data means you’re not using intermediaries like Google and Facebook to transfer information, and you are only sending it from a peer to another peer using state-of-the-art encryption. User history doesn’t get sent to Google, so their clients can’t supply you with targeted advertising. Phone messages are not stored on a server somewhere. That way, no third parties with dubious intentions can get their hands on your data. Genius! Here’s with an example of decentralization at work: Forbes “A user will receive a decentralized ID issued by the DID sidechain. Data itself will not be stored on the blockchain, but instead, on a distributed file storage system (similar to Interplanetary File System - IPFS) that will be spread across thousands of servers, all of which are encrypted. When a user wants to access this data, the Elastos Carrier will retrieve the data without prior knowledge of where it is stored. This is decentralization at work.” Remember how we said Telecoin is decentralized? The data that its Telefone transmits is sent from user to user, without involving intermediaries, which means no one is listening in on your conversations, which secure P2P calling and messaging anyway. include Integrated wallet You’ve already learned from the example of Exodus One that an integrated wallet makes a huge difference. An integrated (built-in) hardware wallet means that private keys are stored on a chip, which is off-limits and cannot be accessed by hackers. The data is accessible only to you, as the wallet holds the private key that can sign transactions and the key doesn’t leave the hardware wallet. TeleFone’s integrated wallet means much greater security, which is very important in decentralized networks. Custom dApps TeleFone’s custom dApps can take data out of the hands of third parties, hackers, and governments and only confine it to peer-to-peer exchanges, thus allowing for much greater privacy and security. Here’s Hackernoon’s : Mayank Pratap “Decentralized applications are very useful as they can be used to connect different people in marketplaces, sharing resources and storing them, maintaining cryptos as well as executing smart contracts without giving ownership to one central authority.” When can we start using a blockchain-enabled phone? Naysayers are skeptical about the rise of blockchain phones (just as they were skeptical about everything ever always). Still, just like how the blockchain was ridiculed at first and then by global giants who actively use it today, blockchain phones will no doubt make good use of this spectacular technology soon enough to take control out of the hands of the government and give it back to the people. accepted Source: dilbert.com Getting your priorities right is achieved by first imagining who would save you if the worst came to worst. The Internet isn’t technically controlled by anyone (we know you’re sick of hearing this, but no single point of failure=good), but a huge deal of its servers are run by corporations. Which means they make the rules. What happens if those servers get hacked? What if there is a global satellite failure? Sounds like a fantasy? ? What if companies decide to completely censor your data? one day there’s just no Internet for no apparent reason and no one knows why? A decentralized Internet with a peer-to-peer network would be your only backup. What about now What if A peer-to-peer decentralized network without intermediaries that sell your data, censor you, or tell you what to do is a must. TeleCoin is TeleFone’s IEO on 31/07/2019 on the LAToken Exchange. Ask yourself why they got involved in the first place. Remember, Bitcoin’s original beauty was about decentralization. And so was the Internet’s… before centralization ruined everything. Be smart! Come back to the roots. launching

What’s the Best Smartphone for keeping your Conversations Private?

Last night a coworker of mine, , gave a great talk about some of the basics of ARKit, and touched on some of the more advanced topics like touch handling on 3D objects and blend shapes. Having done AR in production for the past year at Nike (see and ), a lot of people came up to us last night after the talk to ask about some of the pain points in working with ARKit and SceneKit and whether a 3D engine like Unity is better suited for their purposes. I made a mental note of some of those questions and decided to write about how I reach a decision about which framework to use. Sonam Dhingra https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/23/nike-snkrs-ios-app-augmented-reality-exclusive/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/outdoors/inside-s23nyc-the-digital-studio-keeping-nikes-tech-relevant/ What they are, and what they do To make an informed decision, let’s understand what each of the two frameworks do and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Note : I am choosing to skip over Unreal engine because in its current form, it’s not as indie-friendly as Unity, and the ecosystem is not as approachable. If you are arriving at a decision as an organization, you should look at Unreal as well. : A full 3D engine, including an IDE which has a scene editor (allowing you to place your objects and create your world), physics engine, animation editor, full GUI for editing object properties, attaching scripts to your objects (behaviors), material editor, lighting manager (so you can bake your lighting into light maps), and a host of other assistant editors. Unity The script editing is done via an external application (Visual Studio Code is the default solution), and the language used to develop is C#. The produced output is cross-platform (i.e. games made in Unity can be easily ported to around a dozen platforms, including iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Xbox, Playstation, Switch, etc.) A mostly barebones 3D engine, with minimal editor support through Xcode. The editor allows you to lay out your scene, and has a properties editor for your objects, allowing you to change basic properties like position, rotation, scale, and visibility features, including a materials properties editor. There is very basic support for adding SCNActions such as rotate and scale animations in a timeline. There is a lighting tab which allows you to bake your lighting, but has no real properties to tweak how that occurs. ARKit/SceneKit: All your code is in native Swift (or Objective-C if you’re still doing that), and you have to manually set up the boilerplate code to load up your scene, and perform whatever actions you want on your scene objects. You define your own architecture for writing your application logic. What do I use? The question that came up most often last night was, “Which platform should I use?” While not always cut and dry or obvious, there are a few rules of thumb that I’ve used to determine which platform to use for a particular use case. Let’s go over some of these scenarios and see which platform I would choose. You are prototyping an idea You are building a consumer app (non-game) that uses standard UI elements (UIKit standard elements like UIViews, UIButtons, UICollectionViews, etc) You are building a game You are adding AR capabilities to an already existing application Let’s examine each of these. You are prototyping an idea When prototyping an idea or determining viability of a certain use case, the overriding factor is how quickly can you get a demo version up and running. Being able to test out an idea quickly is essential in figuring out whether or not to spend weeks or months further developing that idea into a full-fledged product. You can’t spend weeks on a prototype so you need to choose the platform which will allow you to get to a workable demo quickly. That means spending less time on writing setup boilerplate code like object loading and animation and more time on getting your idea to the screen. UI is less important in this case, and a minimal interface is fine for situations like this. In this scenario, Unity wins easily. I can create a new project, drag and drop some basic (or not so basic) models into my scene, create a new script and be coding a behavior for them in under 5 minutes. Using SceneKit, it’s a lot more complicated. Even using the Xcode template for ARKit or SceneKit still requires you to write loading code, object management code, and start keeping references for your objects so you can then write code to manipulate those objects. If what you’re looking to load is anything more complicated than a simple 3D model, you may encounter importing issues (I’ve encountered several issues with SceneKit’s Collada DAE format loading) which will lead you down a rabbit hole of going into your 3D modeling application (Cinema4D, Blender, etc.), tweaking, exporting, re-importing, and testing. . Even if you set up boilerplate code to initialize your scene and develop some sort of framework to mimic Unity’s object behavior pipeline, it is still a lot of work to get an idea up and running. The only time I choose to go the SceneKit route for prototyping is when I am experimenting with a particular idea that I want to determine the feasibility of doing in SceneKit. That is, I want to know if it’s possible to do this particular thing using SceneKit’s API. It does me no good to figure out how to do something in Unity if in the end it can’t be done in SceneKit, or I would have to learn how to do it all over again. In this scenario, I would hands-down choose Unity You are building a non-game app If you already know what you want to build, and are ready to begin writing your app in earnest, then you need to determine which is the best platform for the type of app you are looking to write. If you want to have your app look native to iOS, for instance, using native UI controls, or using built in mapping, notifications or web views, then I would choose to go native and use ARKit/SceneKit. To be able to use native UI in Unity is another rabbit hole that I urge people not to do. You use native UI over Unity, but it involves building bridges to the native side using Unity’s plugin architecture. I can attest from experience that it is not a pleasant task, and you end up in a sort of uncanny valley where you are mixing native UI with in-experience (3D) UI and it just does not look good. can There are off-the-shelf plugins you can buy in the Unity Asset Store (more on that later) that you can use for mapping or web views or other native interfaces, but there is usually a cost involved, and most of the time it’s not just money, but time and effort in dealing with the integration of 3rd party code. In this use case, I would choose to go native and use SceneKit. You are building a game This is probably the easiest scenario. Even though currently there are only two platforms that support mobile phone AR (iOS with ARKit and Android with ARCore; I’m leaving Vuforia out for this argument), Unity provides the best chance of staying cross-platform. It is built with games in mind, and has all the necessary components at the ready. Physics, collisions, animation, input schemes are all Unity’s strengths. The Asset Store provides additional resources in the form of plugins, 3D model assets, GUI packs, audio effects, music, etc. It is a mature ecosystem now, with a plethora of free and paid assets. Want to build a MOBA-style game where your characters have to traverse your office in AR? There’s an asset pack for that. Need multiplayer networking to take your game to the next level? There’s plugins for that too. Need a fancy race car or samurai or jet plane or mechwarrior? There’s plenty to choose from. The amount of work needed to replicate any of the things that Unity provides in the case of using SceneKit is tremendous. Only if you already have all the necessary underlying code to do all the above things really well would I even consider using SceneKit for a game. If you take out the AR component altogether, that is, if you were building a 3D game, there is no way I would even consider SceneKit. In my opinion. there is really no choice to be made here. It is obvious I would choose Unity. You are adding AR to an already existing app This is the choice we had to make at Nike. We had to make a decision on how we would add AR capabilities to our already existing application, the iOS version of SNKRS (iOS and Android versions ). This is an already-established app in the App Store, with rich media and a lot of functionality. It has a very distinct design and follows strict style guidelines. here Trying to integrate a full engine like Unity into SNKRS would have meant integrating the whole Unity runtime, writing hooks to propagate touch events and interactions, writing plugins for things like location and network access (so we would make use of our own networking stack), and figuring out how to overlay our own UI on top of the Unity view, all while attempting to steer clear of the uncanny valley. For us, in this situation, it didnt make sense. Our use case at the time was relatively simple, and we didnt need the overhead of a full 3D engine and all its associated (and unused) functionality that comes with it. Not only that, but the addition of the runtime & scene would have added upwards of 30MB to our binary. Not something that we could do. For us, the choice was clear. Integrating SceneKit into our app was as easy as just adding another view controller into our app, just like we do for anything else. Beyond the setup code, all of the other functionality involved loading assets from the network, displaying them on the screen, and using well-known conventions like gestures and using native UI. The result is a seamless experience that looks natural. No uncanny valley here. No question about it here. SceneKit was the clear choice. The elephant in the room There are a lot of factors in choosing one technology over the other, but a deciding factor can often be “How do I get the same functionality on both iOS and Android”. While the technology and interface to ARCore and ARKit differ, your logic for controlling your scene can remain the same. This is where Unity shines. One codebase, multiple platforms. If your app is a game or has non-standard UI, then Unity may be the right choice, particularly if you are short on developers and their strength is C#. You could write two different bridges to the ARKit and ARCore APIs, then all your logic is separated and can work with whatever AR engine happens to exist on the current platform. Other Comparisons 3D model loading SceneKit falls short here. While it can support other formats like Alembic’s ABC and Wavefront OBJ’s (see and ), in my opinion the only real option is Collada DAE format, since it can hold multiple objects, material descriptions, and animations. I never had much luck importing a model in Alembic format, but that could be due to bad exports from 3D modeling software. For me, that’s reason enough not to use it. There are external libraries like Assimp and AssimpKit (an iOS wrapper) to assist in loading other formats, but they add complexity to your project. Unity wins easily here, supporting a lot of formats, including the popular FBX format, and better support for importing improperly exported files (it seems every 3D modeling package has its own interpretation of how to save files in different formats). https://developer.apple.com/documentation/modelio https://developer.apple.com/documentation/scenekit/scnscenesource Plug-ins and Assets If you are looking for 3rd party libraries for things like networking or custom UI components, both sides (native iOS and Unity) have a rich ecosystem of Cocoapods and plug-ins, respectively. If you are looking for game specific assets, such as 3D objects and audio or music, then the Unity Asset Store can fullfill your needs, while you are looking at purchasing assets on Sketchfab or TurboSquid on the native side. I’ve found that it’s usually cheaper for the same items on the Unity Asset Store due to the increased competition. YMMV. Documentation and Sample Code Putting aside Swift and C# documentation and sample code, which there is an abundance of, and concentrating solely on SceneKit and Unity API’s, the lack of SceneKit documentation and sample code is alarming. When I first began to dabble in AR and wanted to do something more involved than putting a cube on the screen, things got hairy. Want to write a custom shader or learn how to modify a group of vertices? There’s almost no docs or sample code to show you how to do that in SceneKit. I’m attempting to help people get started by writing more about ARKit and SceneKit. , , and an upcoming post try to close that gap. In Unity land, there’s tons of sample code, demo projects and a large community of people doing amazing things. SceneKit’s been around for a few years, but there’s never been much of a reason to use it, thus, a lack of resources for it. With ARKit now making heavy use of it, perhaps we will see a surge of new materials being available. Getting started with ARKit and SceneKit ARKit, SceneKit, and How to Control the World 3D Scene Layout and Object properties This is Unity’s strength. They have a fully-featured 3D scene editor, and now, with the of , they have a way of creating geometry within the scene editor. Their property editor allows you to drag and drop scripts (behaviors) onto objects and be able to edit script properties (values, lists, references) all within the editor. SceneKit is severely lacking in the editor department. It has rudimentary control of object layout and transform properties. It allows you to assign material properties, and that’s about it. It has an animation timeline that let’s you drop SCNActions to it and have some simple transform animations, but beyond that its capabilities are limited. purchase ProBuilder Conclusion The above guidelines are what I use to make my own decisions when choosing a framework at the start of a project. Your own situation and knowledge is probably different than mine, and your final decision may differ. If you are an iOS developer and have never used Unity, or feel intimidated, I urge you to check it out with an open mind. It has its positives and negatives, but having options never hurts. If you enjoyed this analysis, please recommend and share the story with others. Do you have your own experiences with SceneKit or Unity? Comment below and share your thoughts. is a developer who’s worked on more platforms and languages than he cares to admit to. He believes in building products that create memorable user experiences. To Dan, the users are first, the platforms are second. Follow Dan on or to hear more from him. Also check out the blog, where a lot of great content by Nike’s Digital Innovation team gets posted. Daniel Wyszynski Medium Twitter s23NYC: Engineering Author’s Note: Views are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer

The Match-up: SceneKit or Unity for ARKit?

An In-depth Look at iOS 16's Features and their Usability Apple has its own way of drawing eyeballs, and this time it's with the beta release of iOS 16. While the recently launched iOS version is gaining all the attention, reactions are mixed, with some still wondering whether an iOS 16 upgrade is worth getting or not. To address the same, I wanted to share an in-depth analysis of some of the newly introduced features. Recently, made available to download, followed by a mid-July beta launch of public release. The final launch is believed to happen this fall, making all the available for people to use. Apple iOS 16 developer beta best features of iOS 16 Recently in a video, editor, Miles Somerville shared an in-depth analysis of all the newly introduced features in iOS16. While he shared a long 37-minute-long video covering all the new features, we will prioritize features based on their usability. 9to5Mac The internet is flooded with mixed reactions to new features and the upgrades introduced; let's explore some of them. iOS16 introduced some new and much-needed features. While there’s a huge list to share, I would list some of the key features here. Let’s have a look at them Home App The Home app gets a complete overhaul with iOS16 and offers easier visibility, organization, control, and navigation of your smart home accessories. The revised home tab lets you keep an eye on and control your smart home easily by allowing you to access favorite accessories and rooms through the app's main tab. In addition, the upgraded version provides you quick access through dedicated categories for climate, light, TVs, speakers, and security, along with elaborated status information. Usability The enhancements are primarily around ease of access through various sections of your iPhone. The widgets on the lock screen further add to the experience with redesigned tiles that make accessories visually more recognizable. The ease of controlling accessories through the tiles enhances the visual and usability experience. Not just this, but later this year, Apple is introducing a new software update that will introduce Matter. It's a refreshed connectivity standard for smart homes that will allow users to enable seamless connectivity of accessories through connected devices. Lock Screen In iOS16, the lock screen is completely redesigned and offers a wide range of customizable typefaces, widgets, animated wallpapers, and multilayered effects for images. The new iOS 16 update allows users to create multiple personalized lock screens depending on Focus modes. In addition, you can easily switch between the lock screen by holding down and swiping. Usability The integration might look like a minor tweak, but it undoubtedly enhances usability to a large extent. For example, the multilayered effect brings the subject to the front, improving the overall appearance. In addition, while you have the liberty to change the way date and time look on your iPhone screen, you can also use gallery display suggestions for some inspiration. Besides these, you can also use Apple Watch-inspired widgets that give you a glance at the weather, calendar events, time zones, battery level, activity ring, and much more. Not just this, once the iOS is released this fall, you may surely expect to have new Widgets created by developers using the WidgetKit API. Wallet and Apple Pay iOS16 users can now track Apple Pay orders while getting receipt and order tracking information for participating merchants and Apple purchases in your Wallet app. Also, iOS16 gives extended support to Keys and IDs, allowing users to utilize their Wallet ID for apps requiring age and identity verification. Users can also secure and manage necessary permission in the Wallet app. Another feature added to the list is 'Apple Pay Later. The US users can now split the Apple Pay purchase bills into four installments over six weeks. Usability The Wallet and Apple Pay enhancements will surely get the attention it deserves. The integrations are commendably ensuring user security, privacy, and experience. While, on the one hand, the Keys and IDs function shares only the information required, Apple Pay later allows users to leverage the ease of paying everywhere Apple Pay is accepted in-app or online, using the Mastercard network. Health and Fitness The health app, too, gets a bit of revision by allowing users to create and manage schedules and reminders, medication lists, and track medications, supplements, vitamins, medications, and custom visuals. Not just this, the Fitness app can now be accessed even if the users do not have an Apple Watch. Users can set a daily move goal in the Fitness app and track active calories next to the Move ring. All of this is done using the iPhone's in-built sensors that track steps and activity (including third-party apps) and eventually estimate active calories to daily Move goals. Usability Before talking about it, let me share the key motivational factor with Fitness+ awards. However, it's not clear how many awards are up for grabs. The app upgrade doesn't just inspire people to lead a healthy life but puts ahead everything that's needed for it. In the United States, users can also point their iPhone camera at a label to add the medication and learn about its uses. Notes and Reminders Apple has done moderate updates to Notes and Reminders apps, but they greatly help. With iOS16, Apple has introduced Quick Note. The functionality allows users to create a Quick Note using the control center or share menu in any app. Also, sharing and security have been enhanced. You can encrypt notes using your iPhone's password and share them using a link. The Reminders app now has the option to pin notes easily and have a favorite list for easy accessibility. Usability As I mentioned earlier, both the updates could be minor, but they are of great use for those who rely on the two apps. The features don't just prioritize ease of access; they also consider security and privacy. A blend of further personalization has been added by allowing users to create bullets, underline text, strike through, bold, etc. A bunch of other inclusions like notifications and smart folders further ensure a flawless experience for users. Apple Messages This is where a significant upgrade allowed users to edit and unsend a message within 15 minutes of sending it. The duration might increase or decrease in the coming days post the final release of iOS16 this fall. With the iOS16 upgrade, you can also mark your messages as unread in the iMessages app and return to it later. Usability The feature can save you from embarrassing typos and mistakenly sent messages. However, people must use it over misusing the feature. The engagement factor further increases with iOS16 bringing SharePlay to Messages. The function allows users to share synced content through the Messages app. Not just this, developers can additionally use the shared API to integrate this function into third-party apps. Maps With iOS16, Apple Maps has introduced a new feature to add upto 15 stops in advance. The feature will allow users to plan their journey and sync routes. Besides these, Apple Maps also got updates linked with transit updates, which will help riders ascertain the estimated journey cost, add transit cards, refill them, etc., all while staying in the applications. Usability The feature can help those who prefer planning their trip and want to stay updated with the route accordingly. Besides, it will also help the public to ascertain the cost of their travel—especially those who prefer keeping track to maintain their budget. Revised Focus Mode Focus Mode was first introduced in iOS15 and got a critical overhaul with the iOS16 upgrade. Each Focus mode can now be linked with a custom lock screen design. Besides the current ways of activating the lock screen through a control center or automation, users can now switch through Focus Modes by swiping their fingers on the screen. Usability iPhone users loved the Focus Mode feature in iOS15, and with this upgrade, Apple has made it easier for people to access this feature in a personalized manner. They can customize each Focus Mode by configuring the Home/Lock Screen with relevant wallpaper, widgets, and apps. Other key features in iOS 16 are iCloud+ Game Center Spotlight Weather Music Books Stocks Translate Tips CarPlay App Clips Improved Child Account Memoji TV App Keyboard Haptics Media Streaming Improvements And much more Before signing off iOS 16 brought a wide range of new features for users. While with this list, I tried covering most of them, there's still a list of minor upgrades that can be listed. However, suppose we summarize all the features and their usability in a statement. In that case, it can be said that the big boys at Apple always emphasized streamlining and improving the user experience. Just in case you are using the public/developer beta, do share your views or any other feature you think is paramount and I missed.

Is iOS 16 Really Worth Getting? 

As you are getting older and not necessarily wiser, your perception and interpretation of The Matrix changes dramatically. When I was still studying, The Matrix used to be a great SF movie for me. Nothing more. Then I got my first job and Matrix became a philosophical movie with a deeper meaning. Now, as a freelancer, Matrix is a horror movie for me. Why? Please, Take Me Back to The 9-to-5 Matrix When I look myself in the mirror, I see Morpheus. He’s laughing at me. You know what? He’s right. I got you, didn’t I? Back then, Neo used to be our hero. A few years later, that guy Cypher makes perfect sense to me. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? It’s that scene where Cypher and Agent Smith discuss the curse of the red pill. https://youtu.be/OLv6ycYcpGI?embedable=true Is there a freelancer who didn’t want to go back, even for a moment? The security of the 9-to-5 work zone and the beauty of regular paychecks. Sometimes, I really miss those days. Cypher got it right. Ignorance is truly bliss. The “Double Agents” Don’t Need Red and Blue Pills I have frenemies. I call them double agents. They call me — stupid. They’re pragmatic. I’m proud. They can exist in both worlds at the same time. They have their regular jobs and they freelance at night. Some of them jump in and out. They spend some time in an office. Then, they take a break and freelance full-time. Then, they get back, and so on and so forth. It works for them. The Nebuchadnezzar crew could learn a lot from these double agents. There’s no need to wage a war against the machines. You spend some time in the Matrix. When you get tired of the virtual world, you explore the real world with Morpheus. You don’t rub the machines and Agent Smith the wrong way. Everybody is happy. This could have worked just fine for both parties, but no, they wanted and eventually succeeded in destroying a perfect illusion. Should I become a cyber-double-agent? I just can’t. I won’t. I guess that makes me Neo who has a Cypher’s dilemma from time to time. Freedom is the most expensive word in freelancing. Dear Agent Smith, I would like to cancel our appointment. Let’s just stay in touch for the time being. Regarding your polite request to get you the number of the woman in the red dress, I have to respectfully decline it. She prefers a real relationship if you know what I mean. Thank you for your time and understanding. Yours sincerely, Neo Cypher

Agent Smith, Take Me Back to The 9-to-5 Matrix

Agente Smith, llévame de vuelta a la matriz de 9 a 5

Agent Smith, ramenez-moi à la matrice 9-à-5

एजेंट स्मिथ, मुझे 9-टू-5 मैट्रिक्स पर वापस ले जाएं

エージェント スミス、私を 9 対 5 のマトリックスに戻してください

Agente Smith, leve-me de volta à matriz das 9 às 5

Đặc vụ Smith, Đưa tôi trở lại Ma trận 9 ăn 5

特工史密斯，带我回到朝九晚五的矩阵

I just want to storm into his office, give him the finger, knock over his stupid potted plant, and walk out like a bad ass from the movies. How many times has the above fantasy crossed your mind while at work? The temptation to quit — especially when times are tough — often festers desires to stick it to the man one final time. But in reality, when it’s actually time to leave your current , things tend to be a little more subdued. job However, even when things are cordial between you, your boss, and your coworkers, leaving your job for another opportunity can still lead to animosity, headaches, and tainted reputation if you are not careful. Here are 5 ways to leave your job with class and and not burn any bridges in the process: dignity 1. Remember that you are replaceable No matter how important you think you are, you are replaceable. Right now there is someone cheaper, smarter, and better than you. Just because you are the secret keeper of all the Excel macros doesn’t mean you have permission to make your employer grovel and beg you to stay. As you make your way through your transition away from your old job, give as much knowledge as you can. Help make your coworkers’ lives easier by creating How-to guides, answering their questions, and ensuring all processes are handed over seamlessly. Don’t hold onto your knowledge expecting to use it as leverage later, give and move on. 2. Give plenty of notice Below is my actual letter of resignation I handed in last Monday. Here’s a general rule of thumb, for every 6 months you’ve worked for your employer, give them 2 weeks. (Cap at 90 days notice.) I’ve worked at my current employer for over 2 and a half years. If you don’t want to do the math, I gave my employer an 8 week notice (in addition, my manager knew ahead a time this was coming). I’m leaving my job for self-employment which means I can be flexible on my departure date so I know this rule doesn’t work for everyone. Nevertheless, the more time you can give your employer to help with the transition, the better it makes you look. 3. Never, ever complain about your employer to your coworkers Whatever grudges you may have about your employer, keep them to yourself. Don’t attempt to spread discord among your current coworkers by highlighting all the negative reasons why you’re leaving. Focus on the positives or don’t say anything at all. People will be jealous of you, especially if you are leaving for an exciting opportunity. Remind them why you’ve enjoyed working for your employer. Help them to see the bigger picture. Plus, complaining makes you look bad, period. 4. Don’t check out, keep working until the last day Do you remember how hard it was to show up to school as a senior in high school? I don’t, I was obsessed with keeping my streak of 982 consecutive days of perfect attendance in tact. Okay, so I was a weird kid growing up. But for most people, knowing something new and exciting is just around the corner leads to lack of focus on the present. Instead of succumbing to and doing nothing at your job, try doing the following: senioritis — With more of your workload being off loaded to other coworkers there will be less pressure on you to perform. Enjoy it for a change. Take your time to work on tasks instead of rushing through them like you are accustomed. Relax a little — Again, with fewer pressing matters at hand why not devote some time on your own projects? But only after you get your day’s worth of work finished. Work on side projects — It might be too obvious reading a book at your desk, but online courses offer an easy way to study something new and grow your skill set without obnoxiously snubbing your co-workers. Learn I even have a course you can take. 5. Teach them how to say goodbye Before the big day comes, send a courteous farewell email to your coworkers expressing thanks and giving them more than one way of contacting you in the real world. If you are feeling ambitious, call people out individually and thank them for specific reasons. If you deal with any suppliers or business partners, make sure they are notified as well and who they should contact in your absence. You never know when you might cross paths with your coworkers again — personally or professionally — so be sure not to leave a bad taste in their mouth. All in all, leaving your job doesn’t have to be a d*ck move on your part. Be civil, kind, helpful, and encouraging. It’ll benefit you in the long run. Hey there, I’m Declan! I’m going through a major life transition right now and would be stoked if you tagged along. And yes, there is free stuff waiting for you on the other side of this button:

How to Leave Your 9-to-5 with Class and Dignity

Why is time management important in a team? Because it helps to detect the bottlenecks that prevent a team from becoming a team of A-Players. Such teams know what tasks they spend most of their time doing, can quickly detect unoptimized working processes, and avoid micromanagement. Full disclosure : I work for Setapp. If you're as crazy about team time management just like us, check out apps in our Setapp for Teams collection. We've gathered a curated list of Mac applications to boost your team's productivity, enhance creativity, and streamline programming and design tasks. Below, we'll share some actionable tips to mastering time management in a team. 1. Use team time management apps – To track or not to track? That is the question. This is Shakespeare's dilemma with a new twist. In fact, around 38% of American companies still use outdated systems like paper spreadsheets and time cards to track their employees' time. By avoiding to use team time management software, companies  do more harm than good. As a result, an average employee: works unpaid overtime up to 5 hours every week loses up to because of being unable to allocate resources 40% of their productivity wastes their time on meetings and communication that result in low ROI Before you say "But time trackers are like Big Brothers that watch employees", let us step in. Time trackers aren't designed simply for "babysitting" to make sure your employees are busy doing their tasks. These apps indeed track your employees' activity, but they also analyze their time spent on certain tasks and help you manage your team's collective time. As a result, time trackers help employees find the bottlenecks that don't let them utilize their working time to the fullest. Wondering how to do effective time management in a team with one app? Take a look at the from Setapp for Teams collection. This app gives a helicopter view on the employee's performance: Timing app Total time spent on doing tasks Most active weekdays and hours Most productive weekdays and hours Time spent per project and a particular task Applications that are mostly used You can gather the data on activity from any period of time and quickly export it to PDF reports or view the data straight from neat dashboards. 2. Create "No meeting" days Abundant meetings are one of the biggest team time management dysfunctions. Let's admit it: even though they require preparation, clear agendas, and the right amount of people present in the room, we all regularly ignore those rules. At Basecamp, their approach to meetings is crystal clear: . Basecamp founders, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson believe that meetings are toxic, they disrupt a natural working flow and convey little valuable information. no meetings at all When at Basecamp, there's a meeting the team follows a strict 30-minute meeting rule. The team sets a timer and when it beeps, everybody leaves a meeting. Surely, for some companies staying meeting-free is too extraordinary. Leslie P. Harlow describes that implemented Enhanced Productivity Days (EPD) as a solution for stress from 9 to 5 working days, overtime, and working at home during weekends. During EPDs, the following things were banned: interruptions, meetings, and impromptu communication with colleagues. The employees also started to work from home, thus, saving their time commuting to work. an example of a pharmaceutical company As a result, team members completely rethought their approach to meetings and time management, making their meetings shorter and more meaningful than before. 3. Allocate resources At a first glance, multitasking seems like a good idea. Why do one task a time if you could do both? In reality, we switch back and forth between chunks of work and end up with unfinished tasks. Moreover, multitasking lowers creativity because a brain doesn't focus on a single task and increases the stress level because we don't see the result of our work. That's when prioritizing comes into play. There are several factors to consider when prioritizing a task: Deadline Importance of the task to other stakeholders Estimated time to perform the task Consequences of not completing the task Possible risks and bottlenecks If you're looking for a team time management app that'll help your employees allocate their resources, prioritize tasks, and track their progress, check a app from Setapp store. Be Focused This app is designed to boost personal and team's productivity with a set of useful features like a to-do list, timer for focusing on the actual tasks, and a progress tracker. With Be Focused, it's easy to break a big chunk of work into small meaningful tasks, set their priority, and fulfill them gradually. A timer will help stay focused and take breaks between the tasks to keep productivity on a high level. 4. Create special working days While a 9 to 5 schedule can bring predictability and work-life balance to your employees' routine, it can also decrease overall productivity and creativity. That's why some companies go off the beaten track to boost a team's efficiency. For example, Google popularized a "20% Project" concept that implies that employees are free to use 20% of their working time on their pet projects. MacPaw followed this approach and created xDays on Fridays. On xDays, employees can spend their time on tasks for personal and professional growth. A Canadian company kills two birds with one stone by bringing in bowling happy hours and outdoor meetings that not just increase creativity and productivity, but also help teammates bond with each other and feel happier at work. DialogTech 5. Pace your workload Working at the weekends, regular long hours, no breaks, and cultivating a 24/7 culture can be effective in the short term when your team needs to achieve a goal quickly. But after working hard, it's important to play hard to prevent burnouts, boost a team's morale, and keep a consistent workload. How to stop this madness? Some companies have been coping with this challenge successfully by switching to a 4-day working week. For example, Microsoft Japan tried a 4-day working week that showed a significant in productivity. For Asian working culture, it's a dramatic shift and it turned out to be a success. 40% increase Taking care of an employee's personal working balance is also important. With apps that signal about a break or time to switch between tasks, making sure your employees balance their workday is easy. On Setapp, there's a app that helps all busy bees out there make breaks between work, and track their activity. The app can be easily configured, so you can take micro 15-second breaks or full-fledged 10-minute breaks between the tasks. Time Out The app helps your team mates stay healthier, warm up between the tasks, and achieve consistency in work.

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9 TO 5 MAC

9to5mac.com

11-50 employees

Since 2007

COMPANY RANKING

9 TO 5 MAC

EVERGREEN INDEX #1116

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