As nothing worth mentioning happened this week, beside Samsung launching Tinder for fridges, here is just the list of interesting things.
Finding Lena, the Patron Saint of JPEGs
How I do Vue in 2019: TypeScript and TSX
How to Use Mock Data in Vue Apps
Dear web developers: set the font color, too
Apple’s New iPad Pro Ads Were Shot and Made Entirely on the iPad Pro
Apple Is Fighting a Good Fight Against Facebook and Google
Good Engineering Practices while Working Solo
This week we also start with Apple news, rumors to be precise. We all anticipating the March event, but the question is what Apple would present. The iOS 12.2 beta unveiled a little bit of the secret. It looks like new (smaller) iPads are coming as well as new iPod touch. iPads are not a surprise but the iPod Touch is, I thought Apple has already killed iPod line.
So far we don't have any rumors regarding iPhone SE replacement, AirPower or new AirPods, except that the latter should be released in the first half of 2019.
Speaking of Apple rumors, new reports suggest that iOS 13 will get a major redesign. The last time iOS got one of those was iOS 7 and since then Apple was perfecting its clean design. I personally doubt that we will see any drastic changes in terms of graphic design, but we might get new ways to interact with the operating system. As Apple plans to combine iOS and macOS apps into one with project Marcepan we definitely will see some changes.
iFixit unveiled a new flow in MacBooks and called it Flexgate. Apparently the ribbon that connects the display with the motherboard is being pulled out when display is open, causing cables to tear over time. This issue is known to all generations of the MacBook Pros with Touch Bar. This is the design flow which Apple hasn't acknowledged yet. Which is not surprising, to fix this problem the entire display must be replaced and such repair cost about $600. Well, if this is a common problem, another law suite is waiting for Apple as well as another repair action.
That's all for this week, if you want more, here is the list of interesting things.
30th anniversary of the Macintosh
Avoiding conflicts between developers and marketers
Open source Eva icons as Vue components
Here are some super secret VS Code hacks to boost your productivity
Image credits: iFixit.
During this week I looked back on what happened this year and I decided to pick my top 3 news from each month. Here are my picks.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
That's all folks. This was an incredible year. I hope next year will be event better.
Happy New year guys and see you soon!
Image credits: Annie Spratt.
This week Apple held its October event. This time they focused on Macs and iPads. The first presented product was new MacBook Air. New model starts from $1199 and here is the specification:
This update was long overdue, and I have to admit it doesn't look impressive. Don't get me wrong, it is good update, but it's an update we should have long time ago. After couple of years I would expect something more revolutionary, but this model looks like a step back. Previous MacBook Airs offered the quad core i7 option, the new model is only dual core, which is really disappointing for people who wants light and portable computer with a little bit more power under the hood. Now, they have to buy bulky MacBook Pro. The only impressive thing about this computer is new T2 chip, that disconnects a microphone when lid is closed.
What is even more surprising, Apple kept the old model on the shelves, without any price change. Wojtek Pietruszewicz compared this to selling a 1990's car for today's price. I completely agree with him, Apple devices are overpriced, especially computers, and there is nothing that could justify such high prices.
Now, let's move on to the Mac mini. This computer has not been updated for 1475 days! During the keynote Apple showed the new version specification starting from $799:
The rest of the design, beside the black mate color is the same as in the previous model. This update is a solid one, of course it is still long overdue, but it is better than nothing. This is basic computer that can be used by anyone, people who only wants to watch cute animals and by people who uses computer professionally. I'm glad Apple still support this type of computers.
The last device presented by Apple was new iPad Pro. And this is the iPad we have all been waiting for. Let's start with the specifications:
This model is the biggest change to iPad since 2010, when the first iPad came out. First big change is the bezel-less screen, now we have bigger screen in the smaller for factor. This is the first iPad that has new 1.43:1 aspect ratio, all previous models had 1.33:1 (4:3). Unfortunately, this screen is not OLED, Apple deviced to use the Liquid Retina display, which we can find in the iPhone XR.
Moving to the next big change, the new USB-C port. I have to say - FINALLY! We all have been waiting for USB-C in iPhones and iPads since 2016, when new MacBook Pros came out. New port offers not only faster changing and data transfers, but also offers connectivity with external displays up to 5K.
To drive the 5K monitor you need the powerful processors. Early benchmarks suggest that new iPad Pro is a beast comparable to 2018 MacBook Pro. Thats a lot of power! I really wish, we could so enthusiastic about the power of the Macs...
Together with new iPad, Apple presented new Apple Pencil. It has completely new design. It features wireless charging (finally) and it also supports gestures. A nice addition is, that it magnetically attaches to the iPad.
Apple also showed a new keyboard cover, but beside the new size, there is nothing to talk about.
Unfortunately, the new version cost more that previous models. The 11-inch starts from $799 and 12.9 inch model starts from $999.
Thats all. This week was all about Apple, but if you want to see more interesting things, please check out the list below.
Custom Apple Watch face for Halloween 2018 with source code
During this week literally nothing happened. The only things worth mentioning are listed below.
That's really all, so if you are interested, please take a look at the following articles.
Using ASP.NET Core with MongoDB in containers for local dev, CosmosDB for production
How Microsoft rewrote its C# compiler in C# and made it open source
5 Easy Steps to Understanding JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
Motion Design Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
Stop building websites with infinite scroll!
Image credits: Apple.