Linked List: March 31, 2023

Friday, 31 March 2023

The Talk Show: ‘The Skin of Your Pants’ ★

Daniel Jalkut returns to the show to talk about AI chat, new emoji, and Apple Music Classical.

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Remembering Alex Hay, the Maker of Toolbox Pro ★

John Voorhees, writing at MacStories:

I have some sad news to share with the MacStories community. Recently, Alex Hay, the developer of Toolbox Pro and other apps, passed away after a battle with cancer. [...]

The news of Alex’s passing reached us just as Federico and I were finalizing our plans for Automation April, leaving us shaken. Our reactions were the same: to use Automation April, an event that brings all corners of the Apple automation community together to remember and honor Alex’s memory.

So, with his family’s blessing, we’re dedicating Automation April 2023 in memory of Alex Hay, a brilliant and beloved member of the automation community who was taken from us far too early at the age of 36. MacStories is also making donations to the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK in Alex’s name, and we’d love it if you would join us in making a donation using the links above too.

If you’re ready for a gut punch, here’s Hay on Reddit just a few weeks ago, lamenting the too-far-in-the-future release date for the upcoming game Starfield. Fuck cancer.

I can’t say I knew him well, but I’d interacted with him a few times, and know he was a longtime DF reader. His apps Toolbox Pro and Logger for Shortcuts are my two favorite Shortcuts utilities. (I’ve always been a printf() debugger and that’s what Logger enables for Shortcuts hacking.)

Dedicating MacStories’s annual Automation April in Hay’s honor is a splendid idea, as is using it to raise money for cancer research.

Update, August 2023: Snailed It Development:

We’re truly honoured to be able to announce that we have taken over development of Toolbox Pro, Logger for Shortcuts, and Nautomate. All three apps were originally developed by indie developer Alex Hay before he tragically passed away back in March after a battle with cancer.

Alex was a well loved member of the indie development community, featuring on numerous podcasts and articles. He was always known as being a kind and generous man, being willing to share his time and knowledge with anyone who asked.

More Support for Breaking Out Apple Passwords Into a Standalone App ★

Dan Moren at Six Colors:

Unlike Cabel, however, I would like Apple to implement some sort of family sharing feature for Passwords. I share a bunch of logins with my wife, and while I can share them with 1Password, there’s an additional hurdle to getting someone on a third-party app that requires their own account, etc. Especially as we shift more and more to passkeys, where traditional methods of sharing will be impractical, it’s more important that Apple make it easier to share credentials.

When I linked to Cabel Sasser’s entreaty for breaking Apple Passwords out of a Settings panel and into a proper standalone app, I didn’t mention sharing, but I agree with Moren: sooner rather than later, Apple ought to support family sharing for passwords and other security credentials. Sasser’s line about sharing:

The idea is not to replace third-party password apps, as I do not wish a Sherlocking on anyone. Those apps should, and currently do, offer more features than Apple ever will, like cross-platform support, team/family password sharing, etc.

But sharing is too important to ignore, especially at the small scale of family sharing. Let’s face it, when we talk about Apple sherlocking^* apps in this space, we’re really just talking about 1Password. There are other credible password managers but 1Password is the one that Mac and iOS users care about. But I think it’s clear that 1Password themselves have moved in an enterprise direction. Apple Notes added robust small-scale sharing years ago and hasn’t sherlocked the market for third-party notes apps. I think the same would be true for passwords.

* The DF Style Guide Desk is making a call: it’s time to lowercase the verb sherlock.

Apple Wins Appeal Against UK’s Decision to Investigate Its Mobile Browser ★

Reuters:

Apple Inc won its appeal against the decision by Britain’s antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled on Friday.

Regulator the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) opened a full investigation in November into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google in mobile browsers, and the possibility of the iPhone maker restricting the cloud gaming market through its app store.

Apple argued that the CMA had “no power” to launch such a probe because it did so too late. Its lawyer Timothy Otty earlier this month said that the market investigation should have been opened last June at the same time the CMA published a report on mobile ecosystems, which found the two tech giants had an “effective duopoly.”

The CAT endorsed Apple’s argument, saying that in declining to take action at that time only in the expectation of receiving further powers it might well be said that the CMA “erred in law”.

Seems like a technicality, but still, in my opinion, the correct result.