NASCAR bans the Confederate flag

From NASCAR:

“The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry. Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.”

You’re not going to hear any snide remarks about how “it took them this long” from me on this topic. The time to do the right thing is now.

Bubba Wallace to drive Black Lives Matters car in NASCAR race

From Richard Petty Motorsports on Twitter:

Tomorrow night at @MartinsvilleSwy, @BubbaWallace will run a special #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme promoting racial equality. #CompassionLoveUnderstanding

As I wrote on Sunday, I would have never believed anyone who told me that a NASCAR team would be running a paint scheme is support of a progressive cause like Black Lives Matters. For years, only conservatives causes like the NRA and the reelection of Republican politicians have made appearances in NASCAR. I think John Gruber hit the nail on the head in comparing the winds of change to Hemingway.

Aside from the initial surprise, it’s something that I’ve seen no one mention yet, but after looking at the top replies to NASCAR and Richard Petty Motorsports on Twitter, I don’t think NASCAR could do what it did Sunday or could Wallace do what is planned for tomorrow if fans were in attendance. Aside from the more reasonable folks at r/NASCAR on Reddit, the fan reaction has largely not been positive.

Despite the embarrassing comments from a subset of NASCAR fans, I am proud of the sanctioning body for the stand it has taken. From erasing Wendell Scott’s legacy until after his death to being friendly with George Wallace in the 1960s, NASCAR’s history with race is complicated at best, and I’m glad that the current administration is taking steps to move forward.

Apple releases summer Apple Watch bands and iPhone cases

From Chance Miller for 9to5Mac:

Apple has updated its collection of Apple Watch Sport Bands and iPhone cases today with a variety of new colors to celebrate summer. Today’s new releases come after Apple debuted two new Apple Watch Pride Edition Sport Bands last month.

I don’t plan on getting any of these, but both the Coastal Gray and Vitamin C sport bands are the standouts of this release.

NASCAR’s Black Lives Matter gesture before Atlanta race

From NASCAR on FOX on Twitter

A moment of silence and a message from NASCAR President Steve Phelps and drivers.

One of the many twists and turns of 2020 — I would have never expected NASCAR to a public statement about the treatment of Black people in the United States before a race, but here we are. Let’s hope that NASCAR keeps its word and moves the motorsports industry forward in terms of diversity and inclusion. We’ll all be better for it.

John Andretti biography announced

From Jade Gurss on Twitter

John Andretti’s autobiography, RACER, is now available for pre-order at http://OctanePress.com. 10% of all proceeds from the book will go to @Race4Riley – the charity John founded for the Riley Children’s Foundation in Indianapolis.

John Andretti was not only a kind and charitable man, but a fierce and diverse race car driver. We lost a legend when the journeyman driver passed away in January, but I have no doubt that Jade Gurss with do him justice. Gurss wrote the chronicle of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s rookie season in NASCAR and Darrell Waltrip’s biography, both of which are well-done and readable despite maintaining the voices of the respective drivers. Even better was Beast, which told the tale of Penske’s mind-blowing Mercedes-Benz/Ilmor engine used to take Al Unser, Jr. to win the 1994 Indianapolis 500.

Needless to say, this will be a day one purchase for me, and it should be for any motorsports fan.

Craig Federighi on AppStories

From the AppStories podcast

In this special episode of AppStories, Federico interviews Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi about iPadOS, pointer support, and more.

There’s no one better to interview Federighi about iPadOS’ recently implemented cursor support than Federico Viticci. I listened to it this morning and it was interesting to hear Federighi detail the experience of reinventing the 35 year old idea of a cursor in a modern way.

Charty Shortcuts utility released

Developer Rodrigo Araujo released the new Shortcuts utility Charty today. Charty donates 11 actions to the Shortcuts app to create charts and graphs.

I haven’t had the chance to play too much with Charty, but I am thrilled to see another Shortcuts utility enter the App Store. After the release of Toolbox Pro, Data Jar, and a handful of others, Shortcuts utilities is one of the fastest-growing portions of the App Store, or at least a nerdy portion of it.

I’m also excited to see what Jason Snell of Six Colors can do (or has already done) with Charty in his Fun With Charts series.

Apple announces WWDC date

From Apple:

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference virtually, beginning June 22, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website for free for all developers. The company also announced the Swift Student Challenge, an opportunity for student developers to showcase their love of coding by creating their own Swift playground. Now in its 31st year, WWDC20 will be an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers around the world to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and to learn from Apple engineers as they work to build app experiences that enrich the lives of Apple customers around the globe.

Most people expected WWDC to take place later in the month of June now that the conference isn’t beholden to a physical venue, and now that is confirmed. Though Apple didn’t officially announce a date for the keynote, it would be sound reasoning to guess 10 AM PST on June 22.

For folks like myself who watch the WWDC proceedings from afar, the online version of WWDC won’t be much different from previous years. With that said, it will be strange to go through a WWDC cycle without the traditional side events such as The Talk Show, Accidental Tech Podcast, and Connected live shows.

Apple Announces New 13-Inch MacBook Pro

From Apple

Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance1 and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.

As glad as I am for the butterfly keyboard to be a thing of the past, I don’t know if this is the new MacBook Pro I wanted. When the 16″ MacBook Pro debuted last fall, it set expectations for the smaller model that today’s announcement didn’t meet. Other than an upgraded keyboard and doubled storage options across the lineup, both of which are laudable changes, the 13″ MacBook Pro didn’t receive the same treatment as the larger model as the 15″ grew to 16″.

I didn’t consider this option until listening to Jason Snell and Myke Hurley on Upgrade, but I hope that this is a stop-gap solution until the previously-rumored 14″ computer can make its way into the lineup. At this point in time, I think I’m going to hold on to my 2015 MacBook Pro until the possibility of a more-revised 14″ model releases.