Linked List: June 2, 2016

Thursday, 2 June 2016

Layers 2016 ★

Second edition of Layers, in San Francisco June 13-15:

Layers is a 3-day conference during wwdc to talk about design, celebrate our industry, and eat snacks. Like a party, but for learning.

Speakers include Christa Mrgan (occasional guest of The Talk Show, co-founder of Civil Comments), the never-opinionated Wil Shipley, and John Hodgman. Beyond the great lineup, Layers is just a great event: good venue, good food, and most importantly, an excellent full coffee bar. (I interviewed legendary designer Susan Kare at last year’s event.)

It’s not just coincident with WWDC, it’s only two blocks away, and is being promoted by Apple along with a few other community events. Jason Snell said it best last year: WWDC is now the heart of the Apple world’s calendar. Layers is a great way to be a part of it. And, for the next two days, Daring Fireball readers can save $100 on registration with the code “daringfiresale”.

[Update]: More good news: Layers will be streaming UI-design sessions live from WWDC.

Rene Ritchie: ‘No Apple Display With Integrated GPU at WWDC’ ★

Rene Ritchie:

An external GPU (eGPU)-powered Apple Display won’t be among the things announced at WWDC 2016.

There’d been some speculation on Twitter and rumor reports about Apple possibly introducing a display with an integrated eGPU. Theory being, it would take some of the graphical processing overhead off MacBooks and/or facilitate a single-cable connection that could drive 5K. It sounds cool, but I asked around, and it’s not happening at the keynote or any time in the immediate future.

Rene, as they say, is well-sourced, so I would definitely not go into the keynote holding my breath for this one. A shame, because an updated Mac Pro and a big retina display to connect it to are overdue.

Update: I don’t want to put words in Rene’s mouth, but my reading of this is that there won’t be a new display unveiled at WWDC, but that when a new display is finally revealed, it could still be based on the rumored integrated GPU design. In fact, given Intel’s chipsets, I don’t see how Apple could ship such a display in the next two years unless they go this route.

Apple Releases Updated Version of iOS 9.3.2 for 9.7-Inch iPad Pro ★

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today released a new version of iOS 9.3.2 that’s specific to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, presumably resolving an issue that caused some iPad Pro devices to become bricked after installing the original iOS 9.3.2 update.

The new version of iOS 9.3.2, build 13F72, can be downloaded over-the-air on any 9.7-inch iPad Pro that has not previously been updated to the latest version of iOS 9.

A friend with a bricked-by-“Error 56” iPad Pro told me that he was able to un-brick his iPad by installing this version of iOS through iTunes. He had to go through a few reboot cycles, but it worked.

Apple Is Experiencing Multiple Online Service Outages ★

That’s an awful lot of yellow.

Tribune Publishing Announces Corporate Rebranding, Changes Name to ‘tronc’ With a Lowercase T ★

Somebody launched a major re-branding after a four-martini lunch. Jiminy.