“If App Stores are so great why is most Mac software sold outside the Mac App Store?”

– John Gruber, Daring Fireball

How did the inside of my iPhone case get so dirty?

Trump has been undermining our institutions and the rule of law since the start of his 2016 campaign, but his sending unidentified federal officers into Lafayette Square, into Portland, and into other cities represents his greatest threat to our democracy yet.

It is already clear that this police force is operating outside the norms under which other law enforcement agencies operate. Individuals on this force do not wear nametags, badge numbers, or even an indication of what agency they represent. They are driving around in unmarked vans, forcing individuals into those vans, and then releasing them later. This police force is not releasing arrest records, and there is no evidence that it has charged a single person with a crime. Almost everything we know about this police force is based on observations of reporters and those abducted by this force.

Today this police force appears to be focused on intimidating, abducting, assaulting, and teargassing protesters. What is next? Trump has articulated racist views against various minority groups. Will this police force start targeting members of those minority groups? Will it stop releasing its abductees after determining that it lacks probable cause?

We know Trump will cheat in an attempt to win the 2020 election. He has already said that he might not accept the results. Will Trump deploy his secret police force to polling locations or to post offices in swing states?

While the use of this police force has received national news coverage, I fear that this issue is not getting the urgent attention it demands. This secret police force needs to be stopped.

Rest in peace, John Lewis.

Boston Globe: Federal officers in unmarked vans detain Portland, Ore., protesters

We are all inundated by alarming news stories, but I think this needs more attention.

I just released Unread 2.2. This update adds a variety of improvements including:

• Mail Article, Mail Article Link, Pinboard, and Raindrop.io article actions.
• Keyboard navigation improvements.

Check out my blog post for more details.

The firings of Sally Yates, Preet Bharara, and Jim Comey were compared to the Saturday Night Massacre.

Tonight another US attorney was fired and another Trump thug got his sentence commuted. And we think is the weekend here already?

Zev Eisenberg built Half Keyboard as an accessibility feature proof of concept.

CocoaHeads Boston will meet online this Thursday.

New participants are always welcome. Being in the Boston area is not required. Get in touch for video conference details.

My aging eyes are very happy about the larger text in the left window pane of Xcode 12.

An Apple News widget responding to text size changes. I am fascinated by how it chooses which articles to display.

Installing 14 on my carry phone.

I had a great time at the Release Notes Happy Hour.

Check out LIVE-ish concurrent with WWDC 2020 if you have not already done so.

Unread had a bug that prevented it from launching on the iOS/iPadOS 14 beta. I just released a fix.

WidgetKit is impressive, but the lack of scrolling is a big limitation.

• This is a big year for the Mac. I am excited about Apple’s processors. I am leery of the user interface changes.
• It looks like the biggest change for most iOS and iPadOS apps will be home screen widgets.
• I am surprised that SwiftUI was barely mentioned in the keynote.
• They mentioned lots of Catalyst changes, but then talked about how the Mac could run iOS apps. I imagine this will be clarified in the State of the Union.

Apple did a fantastic job with the presentation.

Good to see Apple starting the keynote by acknowledging important issues: racism, the murder of George Floyd, and Coronavirus.

My WWDC Wish List:

• ARM Macs
• iPad multitasking improvements
• A Snow Leopard year for iOS
• Big App Store policy changes

Barr needs to grapple with the phrase “stepping down”. I am happy to see that Geoffrey Berman will not leave willingly or quietly.

When Apple News initially became available and could include content from any RSS feed, I made my blogs available in Apple News. Eventually Apple deleted them from Apple News because I did not post as frequently as Apple later decided to require.

To be clear, I never asked that my blogs be featured or even discoverable in Apple News. I never asked for or even wanted Apple to highlight content from my blogs. I just wanted my website visitors to be able to click on a Subscribe in Apple News link on my website to read it through Apple News. Just like one can do in any RSS reader.

The HEY situation is analogous. Basecamp is not asking Apple to promote HEY. Basecamp does not need Apple to host HEY app downloads. Basecamp is explicitly asking not to use Apple’s payment processing system. Basecamp just wants to distribute a native iOS app for HEY. Apple made the App Store the only mechanism for doing so in the name of security. Basecamp chose to distribute the HEY Mac app itself, without the Mac App Store.

For some developers, the benefits of distributing through the App Store are worth the cost. For others, the App Store is just a burden. Apple’s requirements for simply distributing an iOS app are absurd and the cost is too high.

Andy Ibanez: Please Help, Apple Is Threatening To Terminate My Apple Developer Account With No Clear Reason

For fellow registered voters in Massachusetts: a petition to put ranked choice voting on the ballot.

There was a good crowd today for the Black Lives Matter protest here in Haverhill, MA. I would guess there were about a thousand in attendance.

Before the 2016 election The Boston Globe posted a satirical front page detailing what a Trump presidency could look like.