Linked List: September 19, 2022

Monday, 19 September 2022

Annoying iOS 16 Copy and Paste Prompts Are, Seriously, a Bug Not a Feature 

Sami Fathi, reporting for MacRumors:

As user annoyance with the behavior boils high, Apple has finally responded, saying the constant pop-up is not how the feature is intended to work. MacRumors reader Kieran sent an email to Craig Federighi and Tim Cook, complaining about the constant prompt and advocating for Apple to treat access to the clipboard the same way iOS treats third-party access to location, camera, microphone, and more.

Ron Huang, a senior manager at Apple, joined the email thread saying the pop-up is not supposed to appear every time a user attempts to paste. “This is absolutely not expected behavior, and we will get to the bottom of it,” Huang said. Huang added that this behavior is not something Apple has seen internally but that Kieran is “not the only one” experiencing it.

I don’t know what triggers this bug, but I haven’t seen it. My best guess is that it’s somehow because I’ve been living on iOS 16 betas since late July, and moved that backup over to the new phone when I was setting it up. However I avoided it, I’m thankful, because it sounds annoying as hell.

Update: The Wall Street Journal reports that an iOS update with a fix — along with fixes for a few other common bugs — will be coming next week.

iPhone 14 Is More Easily Repaired Than Previous iPhones 

Kyle Wiens, writing for iFixit:

The best feature of the iPhone 14 is one that Apple didn’t tell you about. Forget satellite SOS and the larger camera, the headline is this: Apple has completely redesigned the internals of the iPhone 14 to make it easier to repair. It is not at all visible from the outside, but this is a big deal. It’s the most significant design change to the iPhone in a long time. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models still have the old architecture, so if you’re thinking about buying a new phone, and you want an iPhone that really lasts, you should keep reading. [...]

Enter the iPhone 14. The back glass is simply secured with two screws and a single connector. Apple has seemingly used a slightly less aggressive adhesive, making opening it up a tad easier than screens of yore. And as a bonus, removing the exact same screws as the back glass gets you access to the screen. Just two screws, and both screen and back glass are immediately accessible. Incredible.

This is a very clever design, and without question good news. The fact that this new design is exclusive to the non-pro iPhone 14 models also shows just how different they are from the iPhones 14 Pro. Not just different chips, cameras, and materials — altogether different hardware designs, too.

Hit the Island 

Especially fun when you recall that the two Steves had been commissioned by Atari to create Breakout.