This week pasted mostly on discussion about future of the Twitter. On August 16th, Twitter removed streaming APIs which most of the 3rd party Twitter clients relied on. They've done that without providing any substitute, so now the 3rd party clients are missing key functionalities like real time notifications. This of course pissed a lot of people off and was interpreted as a di*k move to force user to use either web or crappy PWA clients. It also restarted the debate about future of the Twitter itself because this is not first time when Twitter has made a questionable decision. From many opinions I read, I completely agree with Sarah Perez:

Perhaps, users want a consistent experience — one that doesn’t involve a million inconsequential product changes like turning stars to hearts or changing the character counter to a circle. Maybe they appreciate the fact that the third parties seem to understand what Twitter is better than Twitter itself does: Twitter has always been about a real-time stream of information. It’s not meant to be another Facebook-style algorithmic News Feed. The third-party clients respect that. Twitter does not.

And I believe this is the core of the problem. If we look back at all the (questionable) changes that Twitter made, e.g.: algorithm driven timeline instead of chronological one, it looks like Twitter's management at all cost tries to make a clone of the Facebook. They are completely missing the point that Twitter was different idea and had different purpose.
In my opinion, if Twitter continues doing this, sooner or later, it will hit rock bottom. This is why I started looking for alternatives. Right now people are moving to Mastodon - the decentralized Twitter alternative. I joined it to see how it is going to evolve. You can find me there @mtynior.

From the other news. This week Motorola released new P30 Smartphone, which looks like iPhone X. Actually this is iPhone X, those phone are identical. Something tells me there is a lawsuit in the air...

Also this week, Lucasfilm and Disney released first trailer for upcoming TV series - Star Wars Resistance. My first impression was that it looks very cartoonish. But for now, I will not judge it. I was also skeptical after watching the first trailer of the Start Wars Rebels. And it turned out to be better than most of the Hollywood blockbusters.

Finally, here is list of interesting things.

Unreal Academy

The 2018 Game Developer Roadmap

The Productivity Stack

How to launch a side project in 10 days

GRID: A simple visual cheatsheet for CSS Grid Layout

Lessons from a small Firebase project

How to build a single page application using server-side Blazor

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.

Clone Wars is saved. During San Diego Comic Con, Disney and Lucasfilm announced that the Clone Wars TV series has been renewed.
In 2012, when Disney bought Lucasfilm, the show was canceled after season five. The first half of season six, that already has been done, has been released as "The Lost Missions" on Netflix; but we never got the proper ending. Lucasfilm tried to fill the gaps with books and another TV show - Star Wars Rebels, but still we have been missing the story of almost 1.5 season. In 2016 during Ahsoka’s Untold Tales Panel, series director Dave Filoni, shared what would happen, and it looks like, the new season will show this storyline.
New season will return, next year, with 12 all-new episodes on Disney's streaming platform.

One week after premiere of new MacBook Pro, people are still talking about it. That's because two reasons. First one is fixed keyboard. It looks like Apple finally solved the issue with faulty keyboards. The second reason is related with overheating Intel i9 CPU. Youtubers reveled that i9 MacBook Pro throttles on heavy load. There are plenty of videos showing and describing the problem, here is couple of them:

• MacBook Pro 15 (2018) - Beware the Core i9
• 2018 MacBook Pro i9 Thermal Throttling CONFIRMED!
• i9 Macbook Pro 2018: Hottest Laptop on the Planet!
• The New MacBook Pro Throttles?!?

For now it looks like, there is an issue only with i9 chips, and i7 version is fine. We will see what Apple will do about this particular problem.

Finally, here is the list of interesting things I stumbled upon this week:

8-bit Emulators

Learn how to work remotely

Building the Google Photos Web UI

How to build a typing indicator for your chat app in ASP.NET

How to get started with augmented reality in Swift, the easy way

Atomic Properties in Swift

Open Terminal from Xcode

Image credits: Lucasfilm.

Half year mark is behind us and we have entered the silly season as nothing important is happening. From worth noting news, Apple and Samsung have finally settled a seven-year-old patent dispute. The dispute was about design patents which covered the iPhone's outer shell, software icons and UI elements. Apple sued Samsung in 2011 starting the long battle with many countersuits, trials and appeals that continued up until now.
The companies did not disclose the settlement amount, but in May Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $539 million for infringing on its patents.

Apple is also planning to release completely new version of Maps. The changes will roll out gradually with iOS 12 Beta. At the beginning Maps will cover San Francisco, then California and should cover rest of US at some point next year.
We don't know when new maps will be introduced in other countries, but Eddy Cue said that Maps team is global, which means that eventually we will get new Maps outside US.
It took Apple a while to do those improvements, but it's good to see that Apple is investing in Maps. Beside, Google is not making Apple's life easier with new improvements to Google Maps putting the comparison bar really high.

Now, lets move on to Star Wars topic. Amy Hennig left EA and the project she was working on has been put on hold. Last October EA closed Visceral, but it kept project alive. Development was to continue at EA Vancouver, but it looks like studio is working on something else.
It has been rough few years for Star Wars players. First, the Star Wars 1313 has been canceled. Then we've had shenanigans with Battlefront 2. Now, the third project is on hold. We've been teased with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but I'm afraid that without specific release date, it might share the fate of the previous projects.

And finally, here is list of interesting articles.

The Problem You Solve Is More Important Than The Code You Write 🔊

How We Created a Virtual Crime Scene to Investigate Syria’s Chemical Attack

Why you should not use Google Cloud

How to build a React.js chat app in 10 minutes

How to create a real-world Node CLI app with Node

Extracting Super Mario Bros levels with Python

Code Injection In Swift

What’s new in Xcode 10?

Ui Goodies - A directory of UI resources

DevTube - The best developer videos in one place

Image credits: Sylwia Bartyzel.

Before I jump into main event of this week - E3, I would like to go back to an event from the beginning of the last week when Microsoft bought GitHub for $7.5B. I didn't want to cover this topic back then, because I wanted to wait and see how people and industry would react. One week later it looks like most of the people are happy. Of course some people moved to GitLab, but massive exodus from GitHub never happened.
I personally liked that GitHub was independent, but I also admire what Microsoft is doing with Open Source and their development platforms. I think, in long term, nothing will drastically change. Microsoft will support GitHub and we'll be still using GitHub as home for our repositories.

Now, going to this week main event - E3. To be totally honest with you, I'm not following the gaming industry as I used to, so from this year's E3 all I wanted to see and hear was Cyberpunk 2077 and new Star Wars games.
CD Project RED did not fail. They presented the trailer and gameplay. Unfortunately we will have to wait for the gameplay a little longer, as it was presented behind closed doors. But journalists initial impressions were very positive.
The trailer itself is really cool, but I was expecting something more dark. I don't know why, but I associate cyberpunk with a dark and brutal world. To be honest, I personally prefer this incredible fan-made version.

Regarding Star Wars games, I'm a little bit disappointed. We only got two announcements. First about new Battlefront 2 DLC. And the second was Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order that Respawn Entertainment is working on. Game is set between Episode 3 and 4 and will be released in 2019.

Here is my pick of interesting games that were presented during E3:

• Anthem,
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey,
• Assetto Corsa Competizione,
• Battlefield V,
• Beyond Good & Evil 2,
• Crackdown 3,
• The Crew 2,
• Cyberpunk 2077,
• Death Stranding,
• Destiny 2: Forsaken,
• Devil may cry 5,
• The Division 2,
• DOOM Eternal,
• Dying Light 2,
• The Elder Scrolls VI,
• Fallout 76,
• FIFA 19,
• Forza Horizon 4,
• Gears 5,
• GreedFall,
• Halo Infinite,
• Hitman 2,
• Just Cause 4,
• Kingdom Hearts III,
• The Last of Us: Part II,
• Metro Exodus,
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps,
• Overcooked 2,
• RAGE 2,
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider,
• Soulcalibur 6,
• Spider-Man,
• Star Citizen,
• Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order,
• Super Mario Party,
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,
• Total War: Three Kingdoms,
• Unravel 2,
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

Sorry guys, but I don't have any interesting link this week :/

Image credits: E3 Expo.