David Smith launches Ian’s Awesome Counter Apple Watch

From David Smith:

My son, Ian, can sometimes have difficulty with regulation and management of his attention. We’ve tried several different strategies for helping him with this. One of the strategies that we found most successful was giving him regular prompts throughout the day and asking whether he thought he was on task and staying focused.

David Smith is maybe the most prolific developer for the Apple Watch, and I’d argue that he’s also the best. From apps like Pedometer++, Sleep++, and Watchsmith for the Apple Watch to the social media sensation iOS app Widgetsmith, the man known affectionately as “Underscore” continues to create some of the best, quirkiest apps available on Apple platforms.

9to5Mac shows off Apple fitness band concept

From Paker Ortolani for 9to5Mac:

None of the current popular fitness bands are truly designed for iPhone and none of them come even remotely close to the Apple Watch’s breadth of features. So what if Apple used Fitness+ as an opportunity to introduce a new member of the Apple Watch family? One that catered specifically to buyers at the low end and traditional watch wearers. Meet my concept for an Apple Watch Fit.

I’ve thought this for years and seeing Ortolani’s concept picture make me want it more. I think that a fair number of Apple Watch users, perhaps myself included, would be tempted by a smaller, less expensive band that only focuses on health features.

Motorsports historian Donald Davidson announces retirement

From the Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

Donald Davidson, beloved by race fans worldwide for nearly six decades for his encyclopedic knowledge of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500, is retiring Dec. 31 as IMS historian.

Davidson has amazed, entertained and delighted millions since he first crossed the Atlantic to visit IMS in May 1964, fulfilling a dream and his fascination with “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” since his teenage years growing up in Salisbury, England.

Truly the end of an era. In addition to being a statistician and historian for organizations including USAC and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, Donald’s long-running radio show The Talk of Gasoline Alley is an institution of the airwaves during the Month of May.

Despite how much Donald means to motorsports, it pales in comparison to who he is in the town of Speedway, IN. From personal experience, I can confirm that beyond his vast knowledge of motorsports, Donald is a kindly English gentleman who became a fixture of his adopted hometown.

In late February, my dad ran into Donald at a local drug store on what happened to be my birthday. Knowing me to be the motorsports history nerd that I am, my dad bought a card and asked Donald to sign it. He obliged and posed for a picture that my dad sent me via text. As I showed the rest of my family, I was nearly in tears of gratitude, and my mom quipped, “Why bother with the cake? We can’t beat that.”

Living in Indianapolis all of my life, it’s easy to forget that I don’t know him personally. Like I said, he is a pillar of this community. I know that this would embarrass him to know end, but the end of his career brings back memories of the final times we saw people like Jim Nabors, Florence Henderson, and Mari Hulman-George at the Indianapolis 500 in an official capacity.

Enjoy your retirement, Donald. You’ve certainly earned it.

Lewis Hamilton to miss Sakhir Grand Prix due to COVID-19

From Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team on Twitter

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team regrets to announce that Lewis Hamilton has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be unable to take part in this weekend’s Sakhir GP.

I hate that Lewis caught COVID-19, and it’ll be weird to see an F1 race without him on the grid for the first time since the 2006 season 1. He’s getting to a point in his career where I feel fans should appreciate his greatness every time he leaves the pits. With that said, I will be fascinated to see who rises to the top in his absence and who will drive his car. I’m hoping that George Russell finally gets an opportunity to impress in quality equipment, but I think the safe bet at this point is Stoffel Vandoorne.

  1. Hamilton was disqualified after the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, but participated in the event. ↩

iOS Apps on M1 Macs

From 9to5Mac:

One of the biggest differentiators between the new M1 Macs and their Intel predecessors is that any M1 Mac can run iPhone and iPad applications. Through the Mac App Store, you can now download M1 versions of popular iOS and iPadOS applications, though developers do have the ability to opt out.

Here’s what the experience of running iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac is like in the real world.

I’m happy with how two of my favorite apps, Overcast and Apollo, look on M1 Macs, but I’m a little disappointed that apps from larger developers like Todoist, Slack, and Discord are still stuck with Electron versions.

While I am excited about M1 Macs, I can’t pull the trigger until the virtualization issue is solved. Running Windows 10 on my Mac isn’t something I do often, but when I do, it is business critical.

iSH to be removed from App Store

From iSH:

On Monday, October 26th, just four days after we launched iSH on the App Store, we received a call from Apple informing us that they had found our app noncompliant with section 2.5.2 of the App Store Review Guidelines and that they would remove the app from sale if we did not submit a satisfactory update within two weeks. Despite our best efforts, we do not believe we will be able to bring iSH into compliance by tomorrow, the conclusion of this 14 day period, and we expect iSH to no longer be available to download from the App Store after that time. We are working our hardest to get iSH back on the App Store as soon as possible and hope for your understanding and support as we navigate our next steps in this process.

I wrote that I was surprised that Apple let iSH, a Linux shell app for iOS, through App Store Review, and unfortunately, it’s time is short-lived. I don’t understand why Apple tries to promote some of its iOS devices as professional-grade when it limits development tools on iOS so much. Apple needs to realize that developers are a subset of professionals, and the creativity to create an app like iSH should be applauded.

Overcast developer and Accidental Tech Podcast host Marco Arment had summed it up well:

iOS power users are so devoted, and so desperate for a proper terminal environment, that they made this incredible x86-emulator app with an entire Linux stack inside of it.

Instead of celebrating the skill and dedication of their most enthusiastic customers, Apple is killing it.

Apple Debuts iPhone 12 Studio

In advance of the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max shipping this Friday, Apple launched iPhone 12 Studio, which allows users to mix and match different iPhone models with MagSafe accessories. It only available on iOS devices and has the feel of the car configurators I spent so much time playing with as a high school student. I mocked up the graphite iPhone 12 Pro Max with the silicone case that I am expecting on Friday, and I’m now even more excited to take delivery of my new toy.

Scriptable debuts user-submitted script gallery

From Simon Støvring on Twitter:

Scriptable 1.6 adds a gallery of user submitted scripts!

This is by far the most requested feature for Scriptable and I’m very happy to finally launch it

Thanks to everyone who have submitted their script and please keep them coming

Scriptable is an excellent iOS app that runs JavaScript automations, and it received a major update to provide a script gallery. It’s been popular in the iOS automation community because of how great and responsive the developer, Simon Støvring, is.

I’m not a JavaScript expert, so having scripts that already work that I can tweak to my needs without too much hassle is a great feature. I think this will get attention in the larger iOS app world because of how much time Simon invested in widgets prior to the release of iOS 14. With script gallery, homescreen customizations made possible by Scriptable are endless.

Apple announces November event

From Apple:

One more thing.
Please join us for a special Apple Event broadcasting from Apple Park. Watch the show online at apple.com.

We thought it was coming, and there it is. Who would have thought just a few years ago that Apple’s most exciting event of the year would be one about the Mac?

I’ve held off on replacing my 2015 MacBook Pro until the Apple Silicon Macs made their debut, so I’ve got a vested interest in this event.

It probably won’t be in next week’s event, but I’m also fascinated by the reworked Apple Silicon tower Mac as described by Mark Gurman and Debby Wu of Bloomberg.