At the beginning of this week, Apple finally released the iOS 12. The new version of the mobile operating system contains plenty new features and improvements:

• Better performance especially for displaying keyboard or opening apps,
• Better battery usage information
• Screen time - tool that allows to track how much time we spent using particular app,
• Grouped notifications - now, notification from the same app are grouped together,
• New Animiji and Memoji - I think this doesn't need explanation 😛,
• Grouped FaceTime - finally you can call multiple people,
• Improved AR capabilities including new Measure app or AR elements in the News app
• Shortcuts - tool for automating common task. With Siri this is very powerful, but so far underrated feature,
• Siri suggestions - Siri show suggest what can we do based on what are we currently doing,
• CarPlay supports third-party apps,
• Location is automatically shared with 911 and first responders,
• Do not disturb during bedtime - a new mode of the phone which will hide all notifications when we are sleeping,
• Password Manager API - this allows password managers to fill your passwords right from the keyboard without switching between apps.

This release is not revolutionary, but brings couple of long awaited improvements, so I encourage you to update your devices.

With premiere of the iOS 12, we also got a new Beta version of the next release. Of course people were looking for new leaks and they found couple of interesting thing about upcoming iPad Pro:

• No home button
• Face ID (with support for both portrait and landscape)
• No notch
• Probably USB-C port instead of lightning

If those rumors are true, then I can't wait to see new iPhone next year. Hopefully without notch and finally with USB-C.

On Tuesday, Marvel released first trailer of the Captain Marvel movie. Movie is set in 90s and tell the story of Kara Danvers, who becomes one of the most powerful superheros in Marvel universe.
Speaking of Marvel universe, Disney is planning Loki and Scarlet Witch TV shows. Also, there are rumors that Disney is planning to create more TV series for characters who don't have their own movies. If any show is created, it will be for upcoming Disney's streaming platform.
I must admit, creating a TV show in popular franchise is a great strategy for promoting the new streaming platform. Let's face it, Disney owns most of the franchises, so they have plenty of material to use. They already confirmed that there will be Star Wars TV show created by Jon Favreau.

As we are talking about Star Wars. Disney's CEO, Bog Iger, said that they are going to slow down with Star Wars franchise.
Since 2015 we had 4 movies. First two movies have been huge success, especially commercially. But last two have been disappointing, they felt rushed. They also, have been confusing for the fans because we had movies from the trilogy interspersed with with anthologies, where fans have been expecting continuation like in Marvel movies.
I love Star Wars, and I would love to see new movie every year, but if we can get movies that are better quality then I can wait.

Last but not least, here is the list of interesting things.

iOS 12: The MacStories Review

Microcopy Inspirations

Why does the Zune HD have the message “For our Princess” on the inside of the case, and why is she a princess?

Dependency Management for iOS projects with the Swift package manager

Code to go - Find up to date snippets for common JavaScript use cases

TinyLETTER

This week Apple held the Gather Round event introducing three new iPhones and new Apple Watch. Without further ado, let's start with iPhones.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are the premium models with the most features which also makes them the most expensive ones, starting at $999 and $1099 respectively. Here is the specification:

• OLED True Tone Screen
• HDR display
• Dual 12-megapixel rear cameras (wide-angle and telephoto lenses)
• 7-megapixel front camera
• Portrait Mode with Depth Control
• Smart HDR photos
• A12 Bionic chip
• Face ID
• Fast charging
• Qi-based wireless charging
• IP68-rated water resistance to a depth of 2 meters for up to 30 minutes
• 64GB / 256GB / 512GB of storage
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM and eSIM)
• Gigabit-class LTE
• Voice over LTE (VoLTE)
• 802.11ac Wi‑Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0
• 3D Touch

iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max have almost identical tech specs. The differences come to battery life, XS Max has one-hour-longer battery life, and screen size. XS has 5.8-inch screen, where XS Max has a larger 6.5-inch version.

Apple also introduced a brand new version of the phone, called iPhone XR. It is more affordable, starting at $749. I must admit, for this price point the specs look impressive:

• LCD True Tone Screen
• HDR display
• Single 12-megapixel rear cameras (wide-angle lense)
• 7-megapixel front camera
• Portrait Mode with Depth Control
• Smart HDR photos
• A12 Bionic chip
• Face ID
• Fast charging
• Qi-based wireless charging
• IP68-rated water resistance to a depth of 2 meters for up to 30 minutes
• 64GB / 128GB / 256GB of storage
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM and eSIM)
• LTE Advanced
• Voice over LTE (VoLTE)
• 802.11ac Wi‑Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0

As you can see, there is not much difference between XS and XR. If you are thinking about new iPhone and don't care about the OLED display and better camera you should choose the XR version. If you need better screen and camera, or if you need biggest screen then you have to pay $250 for XS model.

Now let's move on to Apple Watch. The version is called Series 4. The biggest change is over 30% larger screen. With bigger screen the case also got bigger by about 2mm. Looking at the thinness, Series 4 is about 1mm slimmer compared to predecessor. Here is the rest of the changes:

• 64-bit S4 processor, 2 times faster than S3
• Second-generation optical heart sensor
• ECG monitor
• New accelerometer (up to 32 g-forces) and gyroscope that can detect if person fall down
• Haptic feedback on the Digital Crown
• Louder speaker by 50%
• New W3 wireless chip
• Bluetooth 5.0

The new Apple Watch Series 4 is impressive and can't wait to finally get a proper start watch.

Last but not least, here is the list of interesting things.

Don’t Use Checkboxes

Your web app is bloated

.NET Conf 2018

How iOS Apps Adapt to the iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR Screen Sizes

The first month of being a freelance designer, how does it feel like?

Half-Life Recreated with Unreal Engine 4

Image credits: Apple.

This week was one of the most uneventful weeks of this year. There is no a single story that might deserve more detailed coverage. In this situation, I decided just to listed news that might be somewhat interesting.

Samsung teases foldable phone. This phone is suppose to have foldable/blendable screen and will be released later this year under Galaxy brand.

Amazon passed a market value of $1 trillion. Amazon was competing with Apple to be the first IT company to pass $1T mark. Apple won this battle couple weeks ago. Nevertheless it's still impressive how company that couldn't afford a proper desk is now one of the most valued companies in the world.

Looks like Evernote is in trouble. First Evernote raised prices. Now is slashing prices for premium annual plans. In a meanwhile many executives left company. It does not look good. Especially when there are cheaper alternatives that offers the same or even better functionality.

Fortnite for Android has been downloaded 15 million times. The Android version was released just couple weeks ago and now it reached 15M downloads. Not to mention, it was achieved without Google Play. Impressive, most impressive.

Logitech will release alternative for Apple Pencil. Stylus will be available on September 12 for $69. I'm wondering whether this is confirmation of the rumors that new iPhones will support styluses. To be honest, it does not matter that much, because it's good to see more affordable alternative for quite expensive Apple Pencil.

Finally, here is list of interesting things.

Stop future proofing software

How Image Optimization Decreased my Website’s Page Weight by 62%

Most common Git mistakes and how to fix them

JavaScript ES6: Classes

Medieval Fantasy City Generator

Image credits: Mehdi-Thomas BOUTDARINE.

This week Apple became first IT company to be worth 1 trillion dollars.
This happened after the jump in Apple's stock after reports of strong Q3 earnings that surpass both Apple's projections and analysts' estimates.
Lets face it, Apple only passed psychological barrier, there is no difference between company worth 999B and 1T dollars. In both cases this is unrealistic amount of money. But it is amazing to see how company that 20 years ago was on the verge of bankruptcy now is most valuable company in the world.
Also, it looks like Apple won't be there alone, because Amazon is on the verge of passing the 1 trillion mark. Which is not a surprise, for last couple of weeks, we saw a lot of news considering both Apple and Amazon to be first company to break 1 trillion barrier.

And here is list of interesting links.

Reading and Parsing NFC tag on iOS 11

NFC Reading on iOS 11 in 4 easy steps

NFC P2P NDEF Basics

Which self-hosted solutions are you using?

Should You Use NoSQL Or SQL Db Or Both?

5 steps to speed up your image heavy website

I created the exact same app in React and Vue. Here are the differences

React Authentication with Twitter, Google, Facebook and Github

As silly season continues, nothing really interesting happened. For me, the most interesting news was Apple's software fix for new MacBook Pros throttling issues. All new benchmarks show that fix helped and new laptop is able to maintain the base clock speed under heavy load.
That being said, the CPUs are still not able to reach their full potential because of insufficient cooling. But I think this is the price we have to pay for having slim design. Anyway, the new MacBook Pro is powerful machine that should satisfy any Pro user. Also, it is good to see that Apple took this issue seriously and released the fix so fast.

From the other news, Slack bought the HipChat and Stride from Atlassian. HipChat will be shut down and existing users will be migrated to Slack. Based on the statements from both companies, Slack is not eliminating the competitor, but rather teaming up with Atlassian on creating competition to Microsoft Teams. We will see what the future brings, but it is always good to see how companies are fighting for customers.

Now it's time for new from galaxy far, far away. Lucasfilm announced the cast of the Episode IX. The cast includes familiar faces: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, and Billie Lourd. Joining them are Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, and Keri Russell. Also we will see the veterans: Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams, who will reprise his role as Lando Calrissian. Leia Organa will return! Once again played by Carrie Fisher. Filmmakers will use previously unreleased footage shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The filming begin at London’s Pinewood Studios on August 1.

Finally, here is the list of interesting things.

Emulator 101

The Free Stack - Running your application for free on AWS

What Tech Stacks are Indie Hackers Using for Their Apps, and Why?

What every product designer should take away from Lyft’s new UI

Apple's design resources with UI elements from watchOS 5 and macOS 10.14

Creating a Markdown editor/previewer in Electron and Vue.js

DevCleaner - app for managing Xcode caches

Image credits: Lucasfilm.