After the update of wwrite and wwriteFree to 3.2.0, I noticed a couple of things that needed to be changed. Here is what has changed:
Fixed Privacy Policy button accessibility text
Added accessibility text for each file
The header on top of the files now automatically adjusts.
Added accessibility text for the advertisements in wwriteFree.
The changes are minor, but they should help those who need accessibility messages to be able to use wwrite and wwriteFree a bit more easily. If you use voice over, or any other accessibility options, and find any issues, definitely let me know.
Per usual, the updates are free. You can download wwrite, or wwriteFree now.
Technology, much like time, is an inevitable march in one direction. At least, it is unless we use technology to destroy our ability to create technology, but that is a whole other discussion. Similar to technology, from time to time Apple will change the minimum requirements for applications that are submitted to the App Store.
Starting in July 2018, Apple will be making a couple of things requirements. The first is that you have to use the iOS 11 SDK for all new applications as well as any updates. This does not mean that you cannot support older operating systems, but you must support iOS 11.
The second requirement is that any new applications, as well as any updates, must support the iPhone X's Super Retina display. This means that you have to have graphics that are 3x resolution, as well as icons that are 3x.
These requirements are not only for iPhone only applications, but also apply to universal applications as well. Luckily for me, my apps already follow these guidelines. This is because I want my apps to work on all of the modern devices.
What this signifies, to me at least, is that there will be more Super Retina screened devices in the future.
Apple has a part of the education market from the early days of Apple. All the way back to 1978 to be exact. Today Apple has reinforced their education commitment. Apple held their education event at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, Illinois. The event is focused on education and they have delivered in a big way.
Being in Chicago, Apple provided a couple of tidbits about Chicago Public Schools. The Chicago Public Schools is working with Apple to teach more than 370,000 students how to code. Alongside this, the venue for the event, Lane Tech College Prep, has had more PhD graduate from there than any other school in the country.
Many questions why Apple would hold an education event at the end of the school year, but this is the perfect time because now is when schools start buying for next year. So this is the perfect time to hold an event.
Tools for Educators
Apple has released some new tools specifically for the K-12 market. These include Shared iPad Support, Classroom app, and Schoolwork.
Shared iPads
Shared iPads is not a new feature, it has actually been around for a couple of years, but it is worth reiterating because it can be an invaluable feature for classrooms so that every student does not necessarily need their own dedicated iPad but can indeed share amongst many students. Students can login to any iPad and get all of their data within minutes.
Classroom
The "Classroom" app was introduced in 2017 with iOS 11. Classroom allows teachers to keep an eye on what their students are doing. If a student is not following along, they can get the student back on track by bringing up the necessary application or website. Similarly, if a student needs some assistance, the teacher can help the student and guide them to where they need to be. There is a new feature for Classroom, Classroom is coming to the Mac.
All of the same features that are available on iPad will be available on the Classroom app for Mac. This will be available as a beta in June.
Schoolwork
Schoolwork is a free web-based app, that allows you to give handouts, provide progress, These handouts can include web links, PDFS, and other documents. Additionally, educators can not only send students a link to an application, but they can now send a link to a specific activity within an application. The ability to send a specific activity will help teachers be able to direct students to exactly what the teacher hopes to be able to assign.
Assigning is not enough though, Schoolwork will also allow teachers to check on the progress of students. At a single glance a teacher can get a quick overview of how all of the students are doing. If they tap on any student, they can then get a detailed view of how the student performed on that activity.
With students using technology for an ever increasing percentage of their work, an area for concern is how to keep that information safe. As one can guess, Apple takes privacy very seriously, and the privacy of student data even more seriously than most. Teachers are the only ones that can see how a student is performing. Apple cannot, nor can anyone else.
These activities are not just going to magically appear, they will require developer support and developers have a new framework to help create these activities, it is
Schoolwork will be available in June.
Apple Teacher
Apple has also introduced a new resource specifically aimed at teachers themselves, it is called Apple Teacher. Apple Teacher is a free web-based tool to help teachers build their skills as a teacher.
Apple Teacher Learning Center is where you can get learn to get the most out of Apple's technologies as well as providing new ideas to bring creative ideas to the classroom. Apple Teacher is available at https://appleteacher.apple.com/
Everyone Can
One of Apple's core beliefs is that having everyone learn to code is an important part of today's education. This is not only to provide a path for future developers, but also because it can teach other skills like critical thinking and problem solving. This is a great idea for those interested in coding.
Everyone can code has guides for teachers, including rubrics, keynote presentations and more. Everyone can code is not new, but it is a resource that is available on apple.com. Apple is also working with ConnectEd and 40 STEM organizations, including App Camp for Girls.
Create
Apple has ideas that go beyond coding. Apple is building a new curriculum to augment the coding, this one is based around any subject. This is focused on four skills areas. These areas are: music, video, photography, and drawing. There will be student guide as well as teacher guides available. It is available for <a href="https://www.apple.com/education/everyone-can-create/'>preview now. With more coming in the summer to be prepared for the fall semester.
While many of these resources are not new, they are resources that many, including myself, may not have known about. It is imperative to allow teachers help students learn and develop new skills that will benefit them beyond the classroom.
iCloud Storage
Every Apple ID gets 5GB of storage for free, this includes education accounts. This 5GB limit is quite restrictive for everyone, but is particularly hard on schools particularly if students want to be able to store a video. Apple has increased the storage limit on all accounts that managed through the Apple School Manager software. Instead of only having 5GB of storage, each account gets 200GB of storage.
iPad
Besides the new tools that Apple has provided for educators they have released the sixth generation 9.7-inch iPad. The 9.7-inch iPad has some new internals, specifically the A10 processor, and Apple Pencil support. The support for Apple Pencil is the same as the iPad Pro.
The A10 Processor allows users to use Augmented reality applications, just like the other iOS devices. The price remains the same at $329 and is available to order now and arrives later this week.
iWork
Apple has updated their iWork suite to support the Apple Pencil.
There is an additional set of features for Pages. A new feature called "Smart Annotations". Instead of needing to manually print out and mark up a student's homework, a teacher can now add note for the student to adjust. These notes are not just standard annotations, but will remain with the text.
This is not just for the device versions of iWork, but these features also work on the iCloud.com version of the iWork applications as well.
Digital Book Creation
One of the strategies for Apple is the creation of digital books. Apple has built-in some new features to Pages that will help with the creation. These features include:
Image Galleries
The ability to have video with sound, and can even record directly on an iPad
Drawing support built-in
Books created with Pages meet ePub standards for books. While some of these features are similar to Apple's iBooks Author application, it does not negate the interactivity and features of an iBooks Author.
Even though they are not the same, the ability to create ebooks directly on the iPad is a huge benefit, not just for writers, but also for educators and students to be able to create books that they want.
Final Thoughts
I think Apple's focus on education is an important one, not only because education is a huge part of the overall market, but because it is the foundation that will help students of all ages. This is valuable because they will be the ones who help move society forward, they are the ones who will be the next astronauts, teachers, and scientists. Without education, and in particular teachers, we would not be able to move forward.
Providing the resources for teachers is what Apple is all about when it comes to education. Whether it is using the Classroom app, the Schoolwork app, and even the iPad with Pencil support will all allow the next generation to keep everything going and moving the world forward.
One of my areas of interest is video games. I do own a number of consoles. The list of consoles that I own includes:
Xbox One
Playstation 4
Nintendo Switch
Wii U
Playstation 3
Wii
Xbox 360
I do not generally use all of these. In fact, the only ones that I use on a regular basis are the first four listed. The Playstation 3 is effectively a Blu-ray player at this point.
My go to gaming console is the Xbox One. I do not buy that many games throughout the year. In fact, I generally only end up buying at most six a year. During 2017 I ended up buying more games than normal due to the Nintendo Switch being released. As a matter of fact, I only played eleven different games this year. I thought I would provide a ranking of the games that I have played throughout the year.
The ranking that provided above is for many reasons. I will attempt to briefly give reasons for my rankings.
1. Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is the best game that I have played this year. It worked flawlessly on the Nintendo Switch. It combined the best elements of classic 2D Super Mario as well as Nintendo 64 Mario, and it did this all to provide a great story and fun game play. There were only a couple of sections that I found that I could not accomplish. The new game play mechanics of using the hat did add a nice touch to the game. I hope Nintendo continues using the mechanic in another game in the future. I did not get all of the Moons, but that is okay with me.
I have been of a fan of the Wolfenstein series since I first played Wolfenstein 3D back in the MS-DOS days. I have probably purchased more copies of Wolfenstein 3D than I care to admit. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was not universally loved, like Super Mario, but I enjoyed the story and the game play. You play as BJ Blazkowicz in a continuation of the story in the 2014 reboot, Wolfenstein: The New Order. The gameplay of Wolfenstein II was fun and some new mechanics added a nice touch to a first person shooter. I ran into some issues, which is why it ended up as second in my list and not number one.
To me the Wolfenstein Series, along with Duke Nukem and Doom, will always hold a special place and as long as there is another game in the Wolfenstein universe released, I will likely end up buying it.
I do not play as many new iOS games as others do. On iOS I generally tend to stick to a couple of games, Solitaire and Tetris. PCalc is not a game, on its face. However, there is a full fledged game within the app. PCalc's author James Thomson has been working on versions of PCalc for 25 years now. Every time a new feature in iOS is added, James attempts to include it within PCalc, if it makes sense.
Within iOS 11, Apple added a bunch of new frameworks that would allow developers to add augmented reality within their apps. James has done just this. You can play a racing game, complete with track and even achievements. With the inclusion of the game in the "About" screen, I consider it a game. If you have an Apple TV, PCalc TV is the way to really play the game. Plus, besides the game, you get a fully fledged calculator and you definitely need one on the iPad.
Besides video games I love legos. As a kid, I loved playing with legos. As much as I love legos, Lego sets are a bit expensive and therefore I do not buy as many as I would like; plus I do not have the space for a bunch of sets. Now, if you combine Video games and Legos, it is a no brainer for me to get those. The strangest aspect to this purchase was that I am not a Comic book fan and do not really care to see most Comic-based movies. Therefore, I do not know about most of the characters that are included in these games. However, even with all of this, I did enjoy the Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 game.
The story was interesting and did make for a different gameplay. Despite my love for lego and video games, there was not really enough new to warrant having it go higher than it's current ranking. One of the things I try to do with Lego games is get 100% on them. However, the Lego Superhero games do not allow me to do this. The fact that it is a Lego game, is why it edged out the next game.
Unlike the Wolfenstein series, the Zelda franchise is not one that I generally partake in. The biggest reason that I ended up playing some of Zelda is that when I got my Nintendo Switch back in March there were not many games out, particularly since Mario Kart was not going to be released until April. Therefore, in order to be able to play something I picked up a copy of Zelda.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a visually stunning game. The story really does allow you to become immersed within the world and urges you on. The open world nature of the game provides a way for you to be able to go and explore wherever you want. Eventually though, it did not hold enough appeal for me to continue playing it. For those that love Zelda, it is a great game to play and is one that you should go out and play.
One of the things that is not easy to do is differentiate racing games. Racing games all have a common game mechanic, end up in first. It is not easy to make your game stand out, however for Nintendo it is a bit easier. This is due to having a large breadth of characters. Mario Kart has been the go to Nintendo racing game, not only for the iconic characters, but because of the very
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is not a brand new Mario Kart game, since it was available for the Nintendo Wii U, but the Nintendo Switch provided a boost to sales of the game. Mario Kart 8 is a traditional Mario Kart game complete with classic tracks as well as new ones. If you have played any Mario Kart games, Mario Kart 8 is one you should play as well.
There are only two iOS games on my list this year, and this is the second of them; Typeshift. TypeShift is a word puzzle game that provides you with a set of characters and the object of the game is make words using all of the characters. The catch is that the characters appear in vertical lines and have to shift each line to create the words.
While my explanation may not make a lot of sense, once you begin playing you will catch on quickly. Typeshift has become one of the games that I play daily, besides Tetris Premium and Solitaire by Mobilityware.
You may be able to tel that my primary gaming genre is the first person shooter. One of the most popular franchises is the Call of Duty series. The Call of Duty series started off as a World War II series, but eventually turned to more modern and even futuristic storylines. Call of Duty: WWII brings the franchise back to its roots with World War II, but with modern mechanics.
For me, first person shooters are the single player stories, which is the antithesis of the focus of the series for many gamers. Much like Wolfenstein II, some players did not like the single player story, but I did not mind it. It was not the best story, but you do play as a number of different characters in different scenarios which was a nice adaptation for the series.
I have only played a couple dozen online matches for Call of Duty: WWII and it is not likely that I will play many more. The online matches offer no real differentiation from pervious games and is one of the big reasons that it is number 7 on my list. If you enjoy the Call of Duty series and were hoping for it to go back to its roots, this is one that you might enjoy.
This is the second Lego video game that I have played this year, however it not the first time that I have played the game. Lego City Undercover originally came out in 2013 on the Wii U. When it was released on the Wii U it heavily relied upon the Wii U game pad for interaction. Without a game pad this time, interactions had to be adjusted.
I enjoyed playing through the game again and unlike Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, I did get 100% on this one. Because I had played it did not rank up as high as other games, but that does not diminish from how fun it is. If you take the vast open world nature of Grand Theft Auto or Zelda and place it within a world of Lego characters you will get Lego City Undercover. Lego City Undercover contains hours of fun and will keep you occupied for a long time.
With it being the debut year for the Nintendo Switch there are a number of games that are being released for the console. One of those games is a remake of a classic Nintendo franchise, Bomberman. Super Bomberman R is a rebooted Bomberman game. I never really played any of the previous Bomberman games, but I enjoyed the story mode on this one. There are 50 levels to play through where you have to complete puzzles to defeat the robot enemies. As with most games, there are some levels that are tougher than others, but overall it is a good puzzle game that will keep you entertained. There is an online multiplayer component, but I have not played online
The last game in my list for this year is Puyo Puyo Tetris. Puyo Puyo Tetris takes two franchises, Puyo Puyo and Tetris and intersperses gameplay of both games into one. I originally purchased this game because it was a Tetris game. However, I was quite disappointed with the game overall. I am sure if you were a fan of Puyo Puyo as well as Tetris you would enjoy it. However, for me, it was not anything that I enjoyed.
Those are all of the game that I have played this year. The list may not be very long but I have played all of these games for more than a cursory amount of time. The one thing that I did not expect was to have two iOS games on my list, since my iOS devices are generally where I play most of my super casual games. Typically PCalc would not be included, but everything that James has done with the app, particularly with iOS 11, warrants its inclusion. It is not likely that I will play most of these games much in 2018, excluding maybe TypeShift and PCalc. I will likely go through Wolfenstein II again once the next one is released. I may dabble in Mario Kart and Super Mario Odyssey again, but once I finish a game I typically do not go back to it.
Depending on what games are released in 2018, as well as reaction to the list, I may do another list next year.
One of the features that Apple announced for iOS 11 is Person to Person Apple Pay. This is now available in iOS 11.2. Apple Pay Cash will allow you to both request and send money to others via an iMessage app. Whether you request or send money it will go onto an Apple Pay Cash card. With this card you can pay for items wherever Apple Pay is available. This could be within iTunes, in-app purchases, or any store that accepts Apple Pay.
One of the possible uses for Apple Pay Cash could be for parents to provide their children the ability to buy things within iTunes, without worry about having the items deducted from their credit card. Apple Pay Cash will also be a boon to allow you to send money to one of your friends, or family, for your portion of a meal or gift, or if you owe someone money and need to pay them. Setting up Apple Pay Cash is quite simple. There are only a few steps needed to setup Apple Pay Cash. Those steps are as follows:
Open Wallet.
Tap "Set Up Apple Pay Cash".
Tap "Continue".
Tap on "Agree" to Terms and Conditions (after reading it of course).
Wait for Apple Pay to Setup. You will then be passed back to Apple Wallet.
Wait for Card to be activated.
Once activated you are done. You can begin requesting or sending money in Messages on iOS.
That is all you need to do to setup Apple Pay Cash. With Apple Pay Cash you can transfer the money you receive out to a bank account, if desired. Once you setup your banking information, you will need to verify your identify. You can also leave the money on your Apple Pay Cash card and use it as you would any other Apple Pay terminal.
Adding Money
One of the benefits of having an Apple Pay Cash card is being able to add money, when it is needed. This is easy to do from within the Wallet app. To add money to your Apple Pay Cash card, perform the following steps:
Open the Apple Wallet App.
Tap on The Apple Pay Cash card.
Tap on the indicator button to bring up the information about your Apple Pay Cash card.
Tap on the "Add Money" button.
Select the amount you wish to add. The minimum amount is $10.
Tap on the "Add" button in the upper right corner.
Select the card to deduct the money from.
You will need to confirm with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode.
Once you confirm the payment, your Apple Pay Cash card balance will be updated.
There is one thing to remember when adding money to your Apple Pay Cash card. That piece of information is that the card that you use to add money must either be a debit or prepaid card. You cannot use a credit card for transferring money.
Apple Pay Cash is, currently only available within the United States. It should roll out to other countries over time. However, if you are in the U.S. and you are running iOS 11.2, you should be able to use Apple Pay Cash.
The last app updates for wwrite and wwriteFree was in May of 2017. A bit more than five months ago. When I began doing the update then, I decided to go with a new model for my apps. wwrite remained a paid application and wwriteFree would remain free but would be an older version of the app. After some thinking, and reflecting, I have decided to change things around again with a different model.
wwrite will still remain a paid application, $0.99 and is ad-free. wwriteFree is the app that will see the change. Versions 2.1 and prior versions were ad-supported by using Apple's iAd platform. Apple shut down the iAd platform in June of 2016, which prompted the update to wwriteFree to become ad-free. At the time that iAd was shutting down I looked into getting another advertiser. I would have gone with the juggernaut Google's Adsense. However, this is not possible due to an issue I had with Google. I have looked into other advertisers, but due to the small nature of the app, and the website, none of them would allow me to use their ad service.
As I pondered the ratio of paid versus free downloads of my apps, (97% free versus 3% paid), I came to the conclusion that I did not want to exclude the larger portion of my user base from the latest features. In order to make sure they got the latest features, I have shifted the models again.
I have opted to go back to wwriteFree being an ad-supported. Ultimately, what I have decided to do is to go with custom first-party ads. Every ad that is shown in the app is determined by me. The ads that I will start off with are advertisements for my own e-books. I will likely be adding a wider variety of items in the future, but that is where I will start. This change means that the version numbers of wwrite and wwriteFree are now the same, with the only difference being the ads, which really is how I prefer the applications to be.
If you would like to advertise, get a hold of my by either direct messaging me on twitter or send an email to sales@waynesworkshop.com.
As for the changes in wwrite and wwriteFree, Here are the changes:
New Features
Requires iOS 11
Adds support for iPhone X
Support for drag and drop on the iPad
You can drop a text file, or text, onto the file or into the "File List" to import
You can drag text to and from the Files app or any other app
Navigation is now consistent
Adjusted Twitter support to use Safari
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that would hide the text of the file under the keyboard
If you rewind history back about almost 70 years and look at what Science Fiction writers were predicting technology would bring you would see Jet Packs, flying cars, moon colonies, and colonizing other planets and much more beyond that. While we do not have those yet, they may still be coming in the future. However, back in 1946 there was something that was introduced that many thought may not be possible for a while. This item was coveted by all sorts of people. That item is the "Dick Tracy Watch". While some may have scoffed at this never happening, particularly back then, it has become a reality.
When Apple began its foray into consumer devices, it was 2001, and the item that was introduced was the original iPod. What nobody would be able to really predict is just how important consumer devices would become not just to Apple, but individuals as well. While the iPod and its successors were successful, by all measures, it was nothing compared to what was to be released in 2007, the original iPhone.
The iPhone has set a new benchmark for not just success, but also how important and transformational a piece of technology can become. The iPhone has changed the entire direction for Apple. While an iPod may by some be considered personal, an iPhone is considerably more personal and contains even more information than an iPod, or even a Mac can. There is an even more personal device that Apple has, the Apple Watch.
While an Apple Watch may not contain nearly as much personal information as someone's iPhone, the Apple Watch is an even more personal device due to it inherently wearable nature. Apple's latest iteration is the Apple Watch Series 3. The Apple Watch Series 3 has made some improvements over its predecessors, the Apple Watch Series 2 and the original Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch Series 3 is the third release of the Apple Watch. The original Apple Watch, retroactively dubbed Series 0 by many, was released in April of 2015 and the Apple Watch Series 2 was released in September of 2016. In the last year, it has seen a significant set of upgrades. The first of these improvements being a speed increase.
Speed Improvements
The actual speed of the Apple Watch has been improved, not just compared to the original Apple Watch, but also over the Apple Watch Series 2; which itself made significant gains over the original Apple Watch. The biggest speed increase is not just in the responsiveness of the operating system, but also in the applications themselves. The speed comes from the new dual-core S3 processor.
The responsiveness of the applications is immediately apparent when you first use the Series 3. Part of the new S3 processor includes the new W2 wireless chip. While there are no other products that use the W2, it is likely designed to improve battery life, which is needed for the Series 3, not just because of the faster speed, but because the Series 3 also comes in a Cellular model.
LTE
The biggest change to the Series 3 is the inclusion of an LTE chip, in one of the models. The inclusion of LTE allows for more possibilities for the Apple Watch. The biggest benefit of a Series 3 Apple Watch with LTE is that it can be completely independent of an iPhone. The LTE model of the Apple Watch Series 3 requires carrier support. The way it operates, at least through AT&T, is by creating an additional line on your account, and then the carrier will send any message, phone calls, or other items to both your Apple Watch and iPhone simultaneously.
One of the benefits of the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE capable of being independent is that you can go off and perform errands, go perform some exercise, or just about anything else. The LTE connection on the Apple Watch with Series 3 is a full-fledged LTE connection. What this means is that the Apple Watch Series 3 is able to stream Apple Music directly from the watch. What this means is that you now stream any of the 40 million songs within the Apple Music catalog. As a note, this requires watchOS 4.1 in order to work, which should be coming within the next few weeks.
Since an LTE radio takes up more power than wireless. In order to maintain battery life the LTE radio will not be used when the Apple Watch is near its paired iPhone nor when it is connected to a known wireless network, even without your phone present. This behavior should result in all of your Apple Watch applications being capable of operating normally without your iPhone. However, in practice, this is not always the case.
The synchronization of numbers between your iPhone and Apple Watch is the final piece of the puzzle for the Apple Watch to become the "Dick Tracy Watch" that was so desired in the past. Yes, you can actually make phone calls on your Apple Watch. While this was possible with previous Apple Watches, the non-LTE versions require your iPhone in order to do so. This is not the case with the LTE version. The LTE version can make standalone phone calls without the need for a phone.
Imagine being able to travel back in time to let a child of 1940s and 1950s and say "Hey kid, you know how Dick Tracy can call people and do all sorts of things with his watch? Give it some time, you can be able to do that too". If the kid had any imagination, I am sure the kid's eyes would bulge and their imagination would run wild.
Despite all of the benefits of LTE, there are a couple of caveats regarding it.
LTE Caveats
One of the current downsides of LTE being new is that many of the applications on the Apple Watch are not designed with LTE in mind. This is due to many applications looking for the iPhone. The reasoning for this is likely due to many applications requiring information from the parent application on an iPhone. The only way for these applications to be fixed is for the developers to make adjustments to their applications to take into account the possibility that an Apple Watch will not be near wireless nor near its parent iPhone. The method that this takes will depend on the application.
While being able to listen to music while out exercising, and to be clear this is likely a significant percentage of the Apple Watch user base. Yet there is another percentage of Apple Watch users that would prefer to listen to podcasts. Right now, this is not easily possible. This means that Apple will have to make some software improvements in order to allow software developers to make podcast applications that work reliably work on the Apple Watch in a standalone manner. It is likely that Apple is working towards this and the ability to stream music is just the beginning of making the Apple Watch completely standalone.
The Red Dot
When anyone begins to imagine and design things, they tend to look at and refine every aspect of their design. One of the design aesthetics of the LTE version of the Apple Watch Series 3 has been contentious. The choice is the red button on the digital crown. Some of the arguments are that one does not want to be "advertising" the fact that they have a distinct version. Another is that it does not match any of the watches. To me, it makes no difference. In my use of the Apple Watch Series 3, it is not really noticeable. The only way that I even notice is if I am holding my hand up and happen to look down towards my watch.
I think that the red button on the Digital Crown actually serves two purposes. The first is to actually distinguish it as an LTE version, not only to Apple Watch users but also to Apple itself. Knowing that an Apple Watch is an LTE model with just a glance will help when it comes to diagnosing and repairing an Apple Watch.
If you do have an Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE and you really do not like the red button on the Digital Crown, there is a solution. A company called WatchDots has created some decals that can cover both the side button as well as the Digital Crown. You can get these in a variety of colors for $9.99 each. There have been some other improvements as well.
Music Syncing
There is one last distinctive feature of the LTE version of the Apple Watch Series 3. The LTE models have 16GB of storage in them, instead of the standard 8GB. The internal storage difference is needed to be able to cache songs that are streamed. This will not only save on data usage, but also on battery life. It is much less battery intensive to stream from local storage than it is to download a song over cellular. This is because the cellular radio is not needed if it is already local.
One of the techniques that Apple employs to save battery life is to sync over music that you listen to most often. This is done while the Apple Watch is on the charger and on wireless. You can opt to automatically add music to Apple Watch and it will fill up the storage capacity of the watch. Alternatively, you can manually decide which playlists are copied over to the Apple Watch. I opt to have the 30 most played songs, the songs that are heaviest in my latest rotation, as well as the three Apple Curated playlists: Chill Mix, Favorites Mix, and New Music mix. When you synchronies music over to your Apple Watch, you will be able to play these songs even if you do not have your iPhone nearby. This will make it quite convenient if you are out on a run or just going out without your phone.
Siri
One of the huge benefits to an Apple Watch is to be able to use the "Hey Siri" feature. "Hey Siri", in case you are not aware, is an option that will allow you to ask the Apple voice assistant, Siri, to bring up Siri using just your voice. This is particularly useful on the Apple Watch if your hands are full and you need to turn on a light, or have Siri perform some other action for you.
The Apple Watch Series 3 enhances Siri in a way that has not previously been possible on an Apple Watch. Siri can now reply via voice. In the same manner that LTE changes the Apple Watch, having Siri respond via voice also changes the dynamic of Siri. With previous version of the Apple Watch, Siri was limited to providing on screen feedback as well as via haptics. On a device that does not include a web browser, Siri cannot bring up a webpage. However, now that there is voice feedback, it is possible to get the information you need, when you cannot look at the screen.
Besides the times when you are not able to look at a screen, this also has significant implications for those who have difficult seeing in general. Having voice feedback can provide invaluable information particularly when you only have an LTE Apple Watch and do not have your phone handy.
Final Thoughts
The Apple Watch LTE makes some noticeable improvements. The biggest of these improvements is in the overall speed of the Apple Watch. This is directly attributable to the internal processor as well as watchOS 4.The addition of LTE will be a game changer going forward and is likely the device that Apple wanted to unveil in September of 2014, but could not because the technology was not in place. The addition of LTE is the start of a new phase for the Apple Watch. The improvements in the hardware has outpaced the software improvements, but that is not to diminish the streamlining of features available on the Apple Watch. After all, it is primarily used by many as a notification and health device. If you are on the fence of whether or not to get the LTE version, it may be best to get the LTE version but not activate the cellular. If you do opt for the non-LTE version of the Apple Watch Series 3, you will not be disappointed by the upgrades, particularly if you are coming from an original Apple Watch.
Today, just a mere 4 days before their World Wide Developer Conference, Apple has made a couple of developer-related announcements. There are two specific areas, Developer Earnings and Swift Playgrounds.
Developer Earnings
When the iOS App Store opened in 2008, it was not clear just how popular the iOS App Store would be. To date, Developers have made $70 Billion. That's about $7.77 Billion per year, over the last 9 years. There were a couple of tidbits to take from Apple's announcement. The first is this:
Health and Fitness have experienced over 70 percent growth in the past year. The Photo and Video category is also among the fastest-growing at nearly 90 percent growth.
The second tidbit is:
...active paid subscriptions are up 58 percent year over year.
Each of these may give developers clues as to where they might want to put some effort, if they have ideas for applications in either Health and Fitness, or Photos and Video. If a developer has a product that might benefit from using subscriptions, it may prove to be worthwhile to utilize subscriptions. As an aside, if your users stay around for at least one year, the developer gets 85% of the subscription price, up from the initial 70%.
Swift Playgrounds
At WWDC 2016, Apple unveiled an iPad Only app, Swift Playgrounds. Swift Playgrounds is a self-contained development environment. Since its initial release, it has seen a couple of minor updates. However, today Apple has announced that version 1.5 of Swift Playgrounds is gaining some new features. One of the limitations of Swift Playgrounds is that it is software only, and you cannot interact with physical objects. With Swift Playgrounds 1.5, this is changing.
Swift Playgrounds 1.5 will allow the interaction with a number of physical items. As Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering states:
Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favorite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.
The list of items that will be available include:
LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3
the Sphero SPRK+
Parrot Mambo, Airborne and Rolling Spider drones
UBTECH’s Jimu Robot MeeBot Kit
Dash by Wonder Workshop
Skoogmusic Skoog 2.0
The Swift Playgrounds update will be available on Monday, June 5th and will be a free update for all iPad users.
When one starts out creating an application, it is usually with the intent of keeping it up to date with all of the latest enhancements and changes that newer operating systems might bring. That was my intention with my apps, wwrite, wwrite - iPhone Edition, and wwriteFree. However, as many have experienced, life sometimes gets in the way.
History
Back in March of 2010, before the iPad was launched but after it was announced, I got an idea for an app for the iPad: a plain-text editor. The idea was to use the iPad for productivity; which seems to be well ahead of the curve. I submitted my app to the iOS App Store in early April 2010 and it has been on sale ever since.
I kept it up to date on a semi-regular basis after that. That was up until June of 2014. In June of 2014, right before the introduction of iOS 8, I updated wwrite and wwriteFree to be compatible with iOS 7. I did this because I knew I would be spending the summer writing two e-books, iOS 8 for Users and Developers, and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for Users, Administrators, and Developers, so I would not have a chance to do any updates on the apps.
Back on August 10th, 2014, I removed the iPhone version of my app, wwrite - iPhone Edition, from sale. The biggest reason for this was that it was a lot of work to update the application and not many people had purchased it. To be honest, besides the lack of sales, there is the Notes app, which is absolutely free and included on all iOS devices.
Fast Forward
Part of the reason for not getting updates was just a lack of motivation. I have been toying with doing an update for over a year. One would have been a complete re-write using Swift, but this was a bit too daunting. I must have started this at least four times, but it never got that far. It may be bad for a developer to say, but I do not use my own application that often. This is mostly due to how bad it looks like on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Regardless, I did still want to update it, I just needed to get the motivation and time. The final push for motivation was this exchange on Twitter.
In case you are unaware, James writes an application called PCalc. You should go and purchase PCalc as well as PCalc for tvOS.
So, a couple weeks ago I decided to really get down to updating my app. When I decided to update it, I knew I wanted to use be a Universal app (one that works on iPhone as well as iPad). The second thing I knew I wanted to do was make it work in Slide Over and Split Screen, just a James suggested. So that is what I have done.
wwrite 3.0.0 now supports full Split Screen and slide over. Here are the rest of the new features:
Now a Universal application, supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
Supports Split View and Slide Over.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Save, New File, New File From Template, Help, Show/Hide file list, Do word count
Ability to import plain-text files from other applications using the "Share Sheet".
Fixed word count miscalculation
Reworked Template Customization
Jump Directly to App Settings from "Tools" drop-down
Support for system Emoji within files.
Other "under the hood" changes to bring everything up to date.
Pricing Model
Since its initial release in April of 2010, wwrite has always been a paid application and this will continue to be the case. wwriteFree was designed to be ad-supported with Apple's iAd platform. Since Apple discontinued their iAd platform, I have decided to change the way that the model for the two apps. wwrite will still be paid but it will have more up to date features. Whereas wwriteFree will stay free but will not always have the latest features. For instance, it does not support Slide Over nor does it support Split View.
wwriteFree has received a minor update to remove the advertising, and make it somewhat more up to date. Previously it required iOS 7, wwriteFree now requires iOS 9.
If you already have wwrite, it will be a free update. If you do not own, now is a good time to go and buy a copy.
Apple makes a significant portion of its money off of its hardware. The gross margin across all of their hardware products is roughly 40%. When you sell millions of iPhone in a quarter, you generate huge amount in profits, enough to be the most profitable company in the world. With hardware being such a significant portion of Apple's profits, this means that a much smaller portion of their profits.
The best way to sell an even higher number of hardware devices is to provide good software. Apple began doing this with their iOS devices from the beginning, and allowed 3rd party developers to create software in 2008. By doing this, Apple has created a vast ecosystem of applications. This strategy has been so successful, that there are over 2.2 million applications available.
In order to provide an even better experience between their devices as well as provide an even more consistent experience, Apple had made a few of their applications free. The list of applications includes:
App
iOS Price
macOS Price
iMovie
$4.99
$14.99
Garageband
$4.99
$4.99
Pages
$9.99
$19.99
Numbers
$9.99
$19.99
Keynote
$9.99
$19.99
Previously, these applications were only available when you purchased new hardware. For instance, if you purchased a new Mac you could get Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for free. Similarly, if you purchased an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you could receive them for free as well. If you did not receive the applications for free they would cost between $5 and $20 each.
The rationale behind making these applications for free is not entirely known, but there may be a few possible reasons. The first is that by providing the applications for free, Apple is able to provide even more value for the amount already expended for hardware. Most particularly, this strategy may provide a boon to iPads. In particular, if a user purchases a new iPad having professional-level applications available will make the purchase even more worthwhile. Additionally, by providing the applications for free on both platforms the experience when going between both iOS and macOS will be even more consistent.
Given that Apple does make so much money from the hardware, it seems like a rounding error to provide these applications for free. If you decided to not purchase them before, you can now go ahead and get them for free.
