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The Fun-and-Engaging Edition Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Apple “Let Loose” Event Scheduled For 7 May 2024, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

Apple has issued invitations to its next special event, scheduled for 7 May 2024 at 7 AM Pacific, titled “Let Loose,” and illustrated on the Apple Events page with an animated hand twirling an Apple Pencil.

‘Games Are More Important To Apple Than Ever’: What’s Next For Apple Arcade?, by Keith Stuart, The Guardian

Alex Rofman is Arcade’s senior director, a 15-year Apple veteran who has been in and around mobile gaming since the beginning. “2023 was a banner year for us,” he says. “All of our critical metrics reached record highs. Two of the highlights for me were the launch of Hello Kitty Island Adventure – an incredibly popular IP that hadn’t really found its home in the gaming world yet – and What the Car winning mobile game of the year at the Dice awards last month.”

There is always a lot of scrutiny of Apple’s strategic thinking – indeed the company’s opacity around its business decisions has effectively created a whole strata of tech analysts. But Rofman describes a pretty straightforward approach to setting up Arcade. “It was about games that were designed just to be fun and engaging, not built around a business model, not built around timers or video ads,” he says. “We were not looking to replicate the top genres on mobile necessarily, we weren’t looking to bring a match-three that was better than Candy Crush … we focused on games that wouldn’t have had an opportunity were it not for Arcade.”

I’m Visually Impaired. Apple Vision Pro Is An Amazing Assistive Device., by Max Collard, Synapse

Have strabismus? No problem: the Accessibility menu lets you turn off foveated rendering (tough to do right for eyes that don’t come together) and switch the eye-tracked navigation to your dominant eye (or even to hand gestures only).

Even my nystagmus and my lack of retinal melanin to absorb IR backscattering — both of which have befuddled research-grade eye tracking systems in the past — pose no issues for the Vision Pro, as long as I blow up the user interface a little bigger to account for the eye wiggles.

Stuff

This App Finally Helped Me Build Productive Habits, by Bobby Jack, MakeUseOf

Habits simply lets you track the days on which you complete those task(s) you want to turn into good, positive habits. It shows pleasing animations as you progress but, for the most part, gets out of your way so the process is quick and easy.

Microsoft Intune Remote Help Gets Full Control Support For macOS Devices, by Rabia Noureen, Petri

Microsoft Intune Remote Help has introduced full control support for macOS devices. The new feature allows IT help desk agents to quickly address issues by gaining full control over any Mac device.

Mophie Launches Juice Pack Battery Cases For iPhone 15 Lineup, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Mophie today announced the launch of Juice Pack battery cases that are designed to work with the iPhone 15 lineup. Like Mophie's prior Juice Pack cases, the latest version attaches to the iPhone to provide a little extra battery life during daily use.

Notes

The EU’s New Right-to-repair Rules Make Companies Fix Your Device After A Warranty Expires, by Emma Roth and Amrita Khalid, The Verge

The European Union has officially adopted a new set of right-to-repair rules designed to encourage people to repair broken devices, rather than replace them. One of the rules extends a product’s warranty by one year if it’s repaired while still covered.

FTC Bans Noncompete Clauses, Declares Vast Majority Unenforceable, by Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that it has issued a final rule banning noncompete clauses. The rule will render the vast majority of current noncompete clauses unenforceable, according to the agency.

[...]

The only existing noncompetes that won't be nullified are those for senior executives, who represent less than 0.75 percent of workers, the FTC said. The rule defines senior executives as people earning more than $151,164 a year and who are in policy-making positions.

Bottom of the Page

If the rumors were to be believed, it will be iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets that will be released this May. No iPad mini will be a slight disappointment.

(Or maybe there will be a smaller iPad Air?)

For many of us who priorities portability, small and light are appealing attributes. Too bad Apple doesn't value smallness that much anymore.

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Thanks for reading.