2019 iPhone design

Mark Gurman tweeted a photo of alleged case molds for upcoming iPhones. Those molds align with previous rumors and shows much bigger, square camera bump. The bigger bump could be justified on the next iPhone XS ans XS Max, which are suppose to get 3 rear cameras, but XR model, despite the rumors about having only 2 cameras, also has square bump, almost the same size as XS will have.

Next Star Wars movies

Last week we got confirmation of the next Star Wars trilogy. This week, Bob Iger confirmed the rumors that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Games of Thrones show runners, will create next movie.  I'm stoked to see next movies, but looking at the turmoil the last season of Games of Thrones created I'm also a little bit worried.

Beside this, we also got more detailed release dates:

• Part 1 - 16th December 2022
• Part 2 - 20th December 2024
• Part 3 - 18th December 2026

3rd Star Wars TV show

Bob Iger also revealed that during 3 years break from the movies we will get 3 Star Wars TV shows. So far we know about The Mandalorian and Cassian Andor series. The third one was a surprise and becomes an interesting mystery.

App Store Monopoly Lawsuit Against Apple

The U.S. Supreme Court decided to proceed with the class action lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by some iPhone users who believe that Apple violates federal antitrust laws by requiring apps to be sold only through  the App Store. This allows Apple to collects a 30% cut from all purchases, which leads to inflated prices of the applications.

Long story short, iPhone users believe that apps would be priced lower outside of the App Store, as Apple's 30 percent cut would not be calculated into  prices.

I have mixed filings about this. I agree that 30% cut is a big one and it didn't change since the beginning of the AppStore, but I also doubt that apps would be priced differently outside of the AppStore.  

Interesting links

• When will Starman return to Earth?
• Apollo 11 HoloLens 2 Demo | Microsoft Build 2019 | Unreal Engine
• God of War - Raising Kratos: Full Length Feature
• Reinventing God of War
• Marvel's Spider-Man: A Technical Postmortem
• How Video-Game Engines Help Create Visual Effects on Movie Sets in Real Time
• What to Expect From Marzipan
• I am a Web Dev. And I am Burnt The F#*K Out
• Node, Express, PostgreSQL, Vue 2 and GraphQL CRUD Web App
• Serverless Authentication with AWS Amplify and Vuex Modules
• You should never ever run directly against Node.js in production. Maybe.
• LEGO Stranger Things

Image credits: Mark Gurman

This week Tim Cook sent a letter to Apple investors regarding new strategies after much lower than expected earnings in FYQ1 2019.
Apple was expecting lower ravenue, but it looks like actual numbers caught Apple off guard. Regarding to Apple, the main cause of this situation is weak demand in China. People there doesn't buy new iPhones. New iPhones are ludicrous expensive, and in China there are plenty of cheaper devices that have the same features. People there doesn't care whether they use iOS or Android because Chinese apps look and work the same way on both platforms, so it is really easy for them to switch platforms.
Also, if we add to this tense relations, because of "Trade War", between China and USA it's not a surprise that sells have been lower than expected.
China is one of the biggest markets in the world, high demand from there is really important, but Apple also reported weakened demand in some "developed markets", which indicates that either iPhones are too expensive or new features introduced in new models does not appeal to the customers.
Probably it is the combination of both. For a while Apple has been increasing the price of the devices without any breakthrough features. I used to wait entire year for iPhone's keynote and I knew I would see something revolutionary. Now, I simply don't care because Apple will again show the same "recycled" phone with higher price tag.
On the positive note, Apple has increased demand for services, macs, wearables and iPads. Also in other markets, including Poland, Apple reported record sells. Maybe higher that usual demand in Poland is the first step to opening the first official Apple Store here.

Now, moving on to other news. Image of the Samsung Galaxy S10 has leaked, revealing bezelless screen without a notch, but with camera cutout withing the screen. This is an interesting design, and if you only need front facing camera it makes a lot of sense.

Google has got U.S. regulatory approval to proceed with a radar-based motion sensor known as the Soli Project. This technology can make UI from Minority Report a reality.

Thats all from this week, now it's time for list of interesting things.

Introduction to the A* Algorithm

One of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’s games is available to play right now

Gorgeous SVG logos, perfect for your README or credits page - Vector Logo Zone

How to Perform Web-Scraping using Node.js

Build a Twitch.tv Chat Bot in 10 Minutes with Node.js

As in this week nothing happend, there is nothing to discuss. In that case I hope you will find something interesting in the following articles.

How to Land on Mars

Software Library: C64

How to Deal with Difficult People on Software Projects

How to Become a Better Software Developer: A Handbook on Personal Performance

Redesigning the Office App Icons to Embrace a New World of Work

Apple Music: A UX/UI Holistic Case Study

Voice User Interfaces (VUI) — The Ultimate Designer’s Guide

11 Sketch Plugins That Will Improve Your Workflow

UNDERRUN – MAKING OF

How to Build a Serverless Backend with AWS Lambda and Node.js

These are the concepts you should know in React.js (after you learn the basics)

Introducing ASP.NET Core with Docker

How to Integrate a C Library into an iOS App Written in Swift

Image credits: 85Fifteen.

Steve Troughton-Smith couple weeks ago released a repository with his custom Hermes watch face. He inspired many developers, this resulted in many amazing faces. He also inspired me. Couple years ago I saw a Mario face on Moto 360, since then I wanted to have this face on Apple Watch. This week I finally had time to play around with custom watch faces and as a result I created this. Right now this is just a prototype, but I'm already very happy with the overall result.
I would love to publish this on my GitHub, but I'm afraid that Nintendo is going to remove it, because of copyrights for Super Mario Bros assets. Right now, my plan is to create completely custom assets that will resemble the Super Mario, yet different enough that Nintendo would not pursue any legal actions.
I spent the most of this week making my various watch faces, and it was amazing. It reminds me of good old times, when as a kid I was trying to create my own simple video games. Creating custom watch faces was the most fun I've had in a long time.
Also, there is something personal in this. You are creating a face for yourself, and don't have to think about other users and theirs potential problems. I didn't realize that thinking only about my own needs might be so freeing and enjoyable.

Did you know that R in iPhone XR means nothing? If you want to learn more interesting things, please check following links.

Relative Grid Items with CSS Variables

GitHub launches Actions, its workflow automation tool

Understanding JSON Web Token Authentication

Introduction to Glitch for Node.js Apps in the Cloud

5 Open Source HTML5 Video Players for 2018