The silly season continues. Let's start with news from Microsoft.
It looks like Microsoft postponed the premiere of the Andromeda device to unspecified feature.
Andromeda is a codename for foldable device that supposed to blur the line between phone, tablet and PC. It looks like the reason for this delay is that the Andromeda OS is not ready. It is disappointing to hear that we will not see probably revolutionary device in the near future. On the other hand it is good that they are not going to release unfinished product.

This week we also got rumors that Microsoft is going to release Surface Go later this year. Surface Go is a tablet device that suppose to compete with Apple's iPads. If Microsoft is going to do as good job as they did with Surface Books and Pros, they might have a really good chance to take a chunk of the market share.

As we are on topic of new hardware. Apple registered five new iPads and Macs in Eurasion Database. Previously, the new additions to the database preceded the premieres, which took place about a month later. It would be unusual for Apple to have an special event in August, last one we had 11 years ago, so we will probably see those devices in September or they will be released without any special keynote.
Regardless of the release date we are getting new hardware. The three of the new MacBooks are probably from the Pro series, where the remaining two might be the MacBook Airs. As for the iPads, we should see new iPad Pros with Face ID.

It looks like Gmail Developers and third party companies have been reading our emails. It is very similar case as with Facebook. If we allowed an application to have access to our email account, the developers of this app could read our emails.
One of the involved companies explained that humans have been reading emails only to improve machine learning algorithms. It is a common practice that’s gone largely unnoticed, because most of the people doesn't even realise how much information they provide to 3rd party companies, by providing access to an account.

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

Explore the world of passports by country

.NET Core Microservices – DShop

Introducing the Single Element Pattern

How I automated my job with Node.js

Starter template for a MEVN (MongoDB, Express, Vue, Node) Stack Application. (Part 1)

React Native: A retrospective from the mobile-engineering team at Udacity

WWDC 2018 for iOS developers: Siri Shortcuts

Using Step Builder Pattern in Swift

15 Years Ago, I Went Indie and Didn’t Know It.

Image credits: David Breyer.

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.

This week Apple launched Apple Pay in Poland. Customers of 9 Polish banks can add their Mastercard and Visa cards to the Wallet app. According to Polish media, the launch itself was huge success, outclassing Google Pay.
I personally started using Apple Pay almost everywhere. I also started thinking about leaving all plastic cards at home, especially when Apple Pay is more secure.

Speaking of Apple, they finally acknowledged that new MacBooks have keyboard issues.
They launched new service program for users that have issues with sticky, repeated characters or unresponsive keys. The fix is free and if someone already paid for keyboard repair will get a refund.
I'm glad that those keyboards shenanigans are over. Now, I only hope that keyboard in MacBooks will be better than current implementation.

Apple also announced that iOS 12 will automatically share caller's location with 911. This is huge and possibly can save many lives. I hope the same mechanism will be soon implemented in other countries.

We had a lot of Apple news this week, so here is the list of other interesting things:

React Native at Airbnb
This is must read for anyone interested in React Native and cross platform development!

Reconciling GraphQL and Thrift at Airbnb

Create A Live Comment Feed with Pusher and Gatsby (React + GraphQL + Node.js)

NES Emulator for Swift Playgrounds

Writing good bug reports

Advanced Swift Debugging for UIKit

Custom UIView in Swift done right

The Story Behind Susan Kare’s Iconic Design Work for Apple

How to Lose an IT Job in 10 Minutes

This week we had Apple's WWDC. It turned out that last week's predictions were almost spot on, but we had a couple of surprises. So, without further ado let's jumped into what has been announced.

iOS 12

• New operating system will support the same hardware as iOS 11.
• Performance of various operations has been improved. Some of the most common operations are faster from 40 up to 70 percent.
• More integration with augmented reality. Firstly, Apple announced a new file format for augmented reality - USDZ. It will allow develop augmented reality experiences across multiple platforms.
  With new iOS we will get new app, called Measure. This app will allow users to measure real life objects like photos, tables, etc.
• Photos will have more tools that allow users to search and share them.
• Siri will have new tool, called shortcuts. With shortcuts we can define voice-triggered actions tailored to individual apps. This is the reason why Apple bought the Workflow last year.
• Car Play will support third party navigation apps, which is actually a huge deal - now we will be able to run Google Maps :)
• Do not disturbed will get a new mode - "Do Not Disturb During Bedtime", which hides all notifications till morning.
• We will get a little bit more control over notifications. Now, we will be able to mute and disable notifications from the lock screen. Also, notifications will be grouped by app, topic or by thread.
• New iOS will have an app that monitors phone usage. Beside telling us how much time we spent using an app it will allow to set a time limit, disabling the app when we exceed the our time allowance.
• FaceTime will support group calls, and Messages will get new animojis as well as memojis. Memoji is an animoji that we can create yourself. I think this is the feature that will ensure that people will upgrade to iOS 12 really fast ;)
• From various announcements, News app has got redesign and now support AR content. Also, Stocks and Voice memos have been redesigned and it will be available on iPad.
  And finally, the iBooks has been renames to Apple Books.

macOS 10.14

• The codename is Mojave and it will be last macOS that supports 32-bit apps.
• It will have dark mode. What is really cool is will be able to adjust the backdrop to your screen throughout the day, so your desktop can be bright during a day and dark during night.
• Speaking of Desktop. Now, we will be able to clean it using desktop stacks, which will group all desktop files, based on file type.
• Finder will get new view mode, called gallery. This mode is basically modern version of Cover Flow, and it is intended to browse images. Finder will also display exif details of an image and it will allow to edit images right in Quick Look.
• Taking screenshots will now be simillar to what we have on the iOS. Also, we will get tools to capture videos.
• macOS Mojave will get new apps: News, Voice memos, Home.
• AppStore, finally, will be redesigned.
• Also, Apple gave us a sneak peak of new UIKit for macOS.

watchOS 5

• Users will be able to invite others to workout competitions.
• watchOS will try to automatically detect workout activities.
• Yoga and Hiking will be new supported workouts.
• With watchOS, Apples watches can be used as Walkie-Talkie.

Those are the most important news from this year WWDC. Nothing revolutionary, but we will get solid updates for all Apple system.

This week I don't have a list of interesting things. Instead, I encourage you to watch sessions from WWDC 2018.

We've updated our privacy policy. This is the sentence we've seen too many times in recent days. It is funny to see how companies comply to GDPR. Most of the companies just updated the privacy policies. Some companies have stopped providing services for EU users. An interesting approach has been taken by USA Today. They've prepared a separate version of their website for EU users. What's interesting, the EU version doesn't have any tracking and ad scripts, so the size of the site has been reduced from 5.2MB to ~500KB.
Fortunately the GDPR is finally here, all companies must to comply to new law. but it looks like some of them have not managed to do that. Google and Facebook have already been hit with a lawsuits with total fine set to about 7.6 billion euro.

This week we also had a premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story. It is good summer blockbuster movie. If you are a Star Wars fans, you will enjoy it much more. The number of references to Expanded Universe and ester eggs is stunning. Ron Howard managed to create a fast paced and funny origin story of Han Solo and Chewbacca. Watching it, you can fell a climate of old adventure movies from 80's. In terms of acting, many people has been worried about Alden Ehrenreich. It turns out that he was really good, natural. But let be honest, the show has been stolen by Donald Glover. His portrayal of Lando was spot on.
I really enjoyed this movie and I can't want to see it again.

And here is list of interesting things.

Immersive linear algebra

Best Visual Studio Code Extensions

Adobe Photoshop Souce Code

Best iOS hacks from Twitter: March & April Edition

An iOS architecture approach for UIViewController states & error management in Swift