Welcome to the 86th issue of Mobile Apps News!
Hi everyone,
If you haven’t realized it already, this newsletter is about more than mobile apps. I always include some thought-provoking articles that I think you would be interested in.
Since there is so much going on right now (an overwhelming amount of bad news, it seems), I’ve felt the need to find a dose of “realistic optimism” and think more than usual about actions that could make a difference.
So I’m including a broader range of topics here, even if it makes the newsletter longer than usual.
This issue includes:
A new section on artificial intelligence. There is so much going on – see this fascinating video.
A new section on climate, with some interesting links, including this 10-minute TEDTalk: How to find joy in climate action.
Stories about the metaverse (or open metaverses) — see the Future section at the bottom of this newsletter. See especially Tech Trends for the 2020s and Why I’m Bullish on 3D Internet.
Tips, accessibility, remote work, the pandemic, and articles about the future.
️ ❤️ Enjoy! (And if you like this issue, please “heart” it - thanks!)
📧 I hope you’ll enjoy this newsletter and spread the word to your friends and colleagues.
📱 Apps
What It’s Like to Use BeReal, an Instagram Rival That Lets You Post Only Once a Day- Time Magazine.
See also, A Beginner’s Guide to BeReal, the Hottest New Social Media App.Apple’s (Hidden) Flight Tracker App - Medium
Enter the flight number in Spotlight or in the Safari address bar, and click on the first suggested option. Gives full info, just like a flight-tracking app.Digital Notes ($.99) (iPhone, iPad)
“Digital Notes is all about writing, sketching, or doodling notes on your iPhone or iPad. You can also use an Apple Pencil. Thanks to iCloud sync, all of the notes will be available on each of your devices.”Bye, Zoom: This smart new app is the future of online meetings - Fast Company
Switchboard looks promising with good collaboration features. It’s a web app.
✅ App lists
6 Apps To Chat And Text With No Internet Connection Via Mesh Network - Gecko & Fly
Off-the-grid chat messenger apps that work even without cell coverage, acting like walkie-talkies. They work within a range of up to 100-200 meters.
🆕 App updates
Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2022: New MacBooks, iOS 16, and More - Wired
Google Maps is about to get even better — especially if you use iPhone - Tom’s Guide
DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Browser Finally Lands on Desktop - Wired UK
See also Introducing DuckDuckGo for Mac: A Private, Fast, and Secure Browsing App - DuckDuckGo News
For Mac only. You can sign the waitlist from your DuckDuckGo iPhone app.Zoom’s gesture recognition now works in its desktop apps - The Verge
Picsart Adds AI Enhancement Tool to Upscale and Improve Photos (iOS & Android) - Petapixel
Google Maps’ Mobile App Now Gives Real-Time Air Quality Updates - Apartment Therapy
Checks air quality with data from the EPA and the PurpleAir sensor network for hyper-local conditions.
🤪 Just for fun
All the New Emojis from iOS 15.4 (2022) - iPhone Life
Best AI-Generated Images Apps To Try (Alternatives To DALL-E Mini) - Screenrant
📚 My offerings
What’s your tech personality? - Nicole Hennig
A Buzzfeed-style quiz I made a few years ago as part of my course: Keeping Up with Emerging Technologies - The course is not currently in session, but you might enjoy this quiz. Are you an optimistic visionary, a cautious implementer, or something in-between?The book: Keeping Up with Emerging Technologies: Best Practices for Information Professionals - Nicole Hennig
Ebook set: Best Podcasts for Diverse Audiences - Nicole Hennig
☑️ Tips
How to Customize a Web Page in Safari Reader Mode - iPhone Life
The Next Google - DKB
Various Google alternatives and how they work.How to Ping an iPhone with Apple Watch to Find iPhone (2022 Update) - iPhone Life
Oldest Search - Search for the oldest result on internet. Sorts results with the oldest ones first. Interesting — try searching your own name.
Apple’s hidden voice isolation setting instantly makes your video and audio calls sound better - The Verge
Works in FaceTime, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, and Instagram (but not TikTok). Works with Zoom on iOS but not Mac.
♿ Accessibility
Representing Disability with Jake Hytken of Snap Inc. - The Noun Project Blog
DeafBlind Communities May Be Creating a New Language of Touch - The New Yorker
Innovative, Powerful Apple Accessibility Features Enter the Big Picture Later in 2022 - Best Website Accessibility
“Some of the biggest advancements announced include Door Detection (allowing people with vision problems or blind individuals to easily navigate the last few feet to their end destination via an iPhone or an iPad), Apple Watch Mirroring (giving people with physical and motor disabilities a chance to use assistive features like voice and switch control via an Apple Watch from their iPhone) and live captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.” Learn more in Coming soon to a phone near you: A new wave of accessibility tools.
💻 Remote work & other ways the workplace is changing
A Two-Year, 50-Million-Person Experiment in Changing How We Work - New York Times
Typical workplace culture doesn’t work for many people for various reasons. That’s one of the reasons so many people prefer to work from home. This article gets into those reasons.Why the return to the office isn’t working - Vox
Employers need to be realistic about how much in-person work really needs to happen.In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go? - Harvard Business School: Working Knowledge
What governments can do to help work-from-anywhere succeed. (Examples: They could issue digital nomad visas, issue legislation to safeguard remote workers’ rights, and more).Why the 9-to-5 schedule has lost its place in the workplace - Fast Company
😷 Pandemic
New kinds of vaccines (nasal spray, skin patch, inhaled vaccines)
COVID nasal sprays could offer advantages over traditional vaccines – a virologist explains how they work - The Conversation
Why do we have to wait so long for a COVID-fighting nasal spray? - Fast Company
This 3D-printed patch delivers potent—and painless—vaccines - Fast Company
Going all the way: Scientists prove inhaled vaccines offer better protection than nasal sprays - McMaster University
Advances with testing
Ideas for ending the pandemic
America Is Sliding Into the Long Pandemic Defeat - The Atlantic
In spite of the pessimistic headline, this article offers many good ideas about what we can do (activist groups, trusted community health workers, and more).
🧠 Artificial Intelligence
AI for visuals
The AI that creates any picture you want, explained - Vox on YouTube (fascinating!)
This new AI can create realistic images from your text commands - Axios
All these images were generated by Google’s latest text-to-image AI - The Verge
Imagen: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models - Google (AI from Google)
Unsplash ✕ DeepMind - Unsplash
By creating, open-sourcing and actively distributing a large catalog of imagery, Visualising AI hopes to be able to provide a useful tool to give routes into understanding key concepts of AI.
AI for audio
AI for writing
We Asked GPT-3 to Write an Academic Paper about Itself—Then We Tried to Get It Published - Scientific American
AI ethical questions
Should CC-Licensed Content be Used to Train AI? It Depends. - Creative Commons
People trust AI fake faces more than real ones, research suggests - FreeThink
The AI Ethics Boom: 150 Ethical AI Startups and Industry Trends - Open Data Science
Can Democracy Include a World Beyond Humans?- Wired (animals, ecosystems, & AI)
Google’s AI Is Something Even Stranger Than Conscious - The Atlantic
🤔 Thought- provoking
Chris Ware’s “House Divided” - cover art for The New Yorker
So many details, including a Little Free Library & wild yard instead of lawn.3M State of Science Index | How People Feel About Science - 3M
Interesting stats on people’s trust in science.Imagining the End of Capitalism With Kim Stanley Robinson - Jacobin
Interesting interview with one of my favorite authors. (I enjoyed New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future - both “cli-fi” — climate fiction).Why it's worth trying to make the world more optimistic - Not Boring by Packy McCormick
Good article on realistic optimism & the harm of being more pessimistic than we should be.‘It’s time to break the bad news bias’ - Positive News
‘Everything Is Terrible, but I’m Fine’ - The Atlantic
”In early 2022, Gallup found that Americans’ satisfaction with ‘the way things are going in personal life’ neared a 40-year high, even as their satisfaction with ‘the way things are going in the U.S.’ neared a 40-year low.” Thoughts on why.To infinity and back: Inside Axie’s disastrous year - Rest of World
These #ProfessorsOfTikTok Have Figured Out How To Make Academia Funny - Interfolio
Non-programmers are building more of the world’s software – A computer scientist explains ‘no-code.’ - The Conversation
3 articles on the importance of simple writing (avoid jargon)The use of jargon kills people’s interest in science, politics - Ohio State News
Why Simple Is Smart - The Atlantic (write with simple words)
Online tool helps scholars write more clearly, avoid ‘the curse of knowledge’ - Univ. of Arizona News
“Research papers written more clearly tend to be cited more often in research citation databases.” See the Writing Clarity Calculator.
🌦️ Climate
Dozens Arrested as Scientists Worldwide Mobilize to Demand ‘Climate Revolution’ - Common Dreams
The Attack on Anti-Racist Teaching Is an Attack on Environmental Justice Teaching - Rethinking Schools
American environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation - The Conversation
How to find joy in climate action. TEDTalks (10-min video)
Get inspired to implement systemic change for climate action.Align your Money with your Values - Stop the Money Pipeline
Fossil-free banking options.How an accidental discovery made this year could change the world - Freethink
Lithium-sulfur batteries.
🤖 The future
Tech Trends for the 2020s and Why I’m Bullish on 3D Internet - Richard MacManus
How the Open Metaverse Will Transform Our Online Identities - The New Stack
”The open metaverse is where the future of the internet is really being built.”Metaverse and Education: What Do We Need to Know? - Getting Smart
How the Metaverse Could Change Work - Harvard Business Review