Monthly Archives: December 2015

Parents Are Naming Babies After Instagram Filters →

December 2, 2015 · 10:58

Michael Zhang:

The website reports that “Lux” has jumped 75% as a baby boy name and is slightly up as a girl name as well. It’s not a filter, but Instagram chose “Lux” for the name of its one-tap photo enhancement feature.

For names that are used for Instagram filters, Ludwig is up 42%, Amaro is up 26%, Reyes is up 10%, Hudson is up 4%, and Kelvin is up 3%.

Do Snapchat filters have names?

Last One to Leave Turns Off the Lights →

December 1, 2015 · 20:12

Bohemian Coding:

Today, we’re announcing an important change in how you receive updates to Sketch. After much thought, and with a heavy heart, we’re moving Sketch away from the Mac App Store.

I’m sad to see this happen more and more often. Ultimately, the Mac App Store will be full of the leftover “fart” apps, which have no value whatsoever. This should be a concern for Apple, because of the negative picture this paints for new Mac users who are visiting the Mac App Store for the first time. I hope something changes before it’s too late, if it isn’t already.

Apple Watch — a Stalled Platform →

December 1, 2015 · 15:02

Dan Frommer:

Here’s what’s working: I’ve learned to rely on the watch, without thinking, for a handful of functions. These are as basic as quickly telling time to as futuristic-seeming as watching my Uber approach on a tiny map before it swings around the corner.

Notifications, one of the early big-idea purposes of a smartwatch, are pretty reliable and, with some attention to their frequency, very useful. One night at a restaurant, when a handful of things I’d put up for sale on eBay were closing around the same time, the sensation of an arm buzz every few seconds as a new bid rolled in was an amusing delight. (Another round, garçon!)

I reply to a large portion of text messages from the watch, using customized quick responses. Tracking my exercise has helped me lose 10 pounds.

But that’s about it. And they are pretty much the same ways I used the watch when I first got it.

That’s more or less what I use mine for, with the fitness functions still being most important. And quite frankly, I’m not looking for more distractions.

Workflow for iOS – Publishing Linked Posts to WordPress

December 1, 2015 · 12:21

I bought Workflow for iOS [App Store] on the day it came out. The app was already amazing back then, but lacked a few features which could help me use it on a daily basis. The most recent update added WordPress support however. It took me a little over thirty minutes to put together a rough workflow for publishing linked posts on Infinite Diaries. I’ve been perfecting that workflow ever since and I’m finally ready to share it with the world.

Continue reading →

Why They Call Him ‘Gramps’ →

December 1, 2015 · 09:56

Don Melton:

I explained that I was christened as such when I was only in my mid-thirties at Netscape, “Years ago when I got that name, I was actually young enough for it to be ironic. These days it’s a Human Resources policy violation.”

Great story, including Craig Federighi and Tim Cook. You have to read this.

A Few More Details on the A9X From Andrew Cunningham →

December 1, 2015 · 09:12

Andrew Cunningham:

Imagination’s chart for the Series 7XT GPU puts a hypothetical 12-core design in the same general performance neighborhood as an Nvidia GeForce GT 730M, a low-end discrete GPU that’s a bit slower than the stuff Apple is shipping in its high-end MacBook Pros. Our own graphics benchmarks place it a bit higher than that, but as some of you have pointed out, iOS may have a small advantage in some of these tests because of differences between the mobile OpenGL ES API in iOS and the standard OpenGL API used in OS X.

He also mentions the probable cause for the lack of an L3 cache.

Quite frankly, I’m a bit surprised it’s as fast as it is in benchmarks, because it doesn’t feel that fast — many animations which are as smooth as silk on the iPad Air 2, stutter on the Pro. Apple obviously needs to further optimise iOS for the new screen size and resolution.