Apple Daily Tech Support Thread - [July 20]

Daily Tech Support Thread - [July 20]
I'm a former Apple engineer and I build the Apollo Reddit client! Today for my birthday I'm donating 100% of Apollo's proceeds to my SPCA Animal Shelter who really need the help. If you've ever had a passing interest in Apollo (or even already have it, secrets inside) there's no better day! ��
My friends and I recreated macOS Big Sur by renting a helicopter after Craig Federighi possibly called us out at WWDC
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We Recreated Apple's MacOS Big Sur Wallpaper with a Helicopter!
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Posted: 20 Jul 2020 08:13 AM PDT

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I'm a former Apple engineer and I build the Apollo Reddit client! Today for my birthday I'm donating 100% of Apollo's proceeds to my SPCA Animal Shelter who really need the help. If you've ever had a passing interest in Apollo (or even already have it, secrets inside) there's no better day! ��

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 09:16 AM PDT

Hey r/Apple!

I'm decently active in this community, but for those of you who I haven't said hi to, I'm an iOS app developer, I used to work at Apple and now for the last several years I've built Apollo for Reddit, an awesome Reddit app for iOS that I built with the goal of "what would it look like if Apple themselves built a Reddit app?".

What's going on today?

Today it's my 27th birthday, and I want to raise a bunch of money for the SPCA Animal Shelter and a bunch of animals that are going through some rough times. Heck, I want to go a step further and break the all-time single day donation record. So for today, 100% of Apollo's proceeds are going to the SPCA.

If you buy literally anything in the app like Apollo Pro, I'll donate 100% of the proceeds to the SPCA, so it's a great day if you even have a passing interest in Apollo. If you already have unlocked things in Apollo, boy do I have a treat for you! A lot of people have been asking for an "animals/pets" style homescreen icon option for Apollo, and today I released a "stealth update" that has an all new SPCA themed icon commissioned by the absolutely incredible David Lanham. It's so gorgeous, I love how it turned out. Not only today, but literally for every day forever, 100% of the proceeds for this will go to the SPCA. You get the icon, some wallpapers, and even an exclusive Apollo Community Pets Photo Album included. There's even another Easter egg if you unlock it.

If you want to go the direct route instead (or in addition) that would be amazing too! I created a direct fundraiser page: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/apollo-app-2020-spca-fundraiser/ This is doubly awesome if you have an employer who donation-matches to charities. Seriously, I know a lot of people are like "hurr durr every dollar counts" but no bullshit, it really does here. Think of the size of this community, 1.6 million people. If even a small percentage of them gave a single dollar we could make a massive difference.

What's an "Apollo"? It's a different Reddit app?

If you're happy with the official app and have no idea what Apollo is, that's totally cool. I wasn't really perfectly happy with any of the iOS Reddit app offerings out there (especially with Alien Blue's passing). The official app in particular (while built by some insanely smart people whom I have a ton of respect for) I think tries to toe the line between a single experience across their Android and an iOS apps more than I like, so I really wanted to create an iOS-first Reddit experience that felt at home on iOS, built for speed, power features, and insanely great media consumption. It's free to download and use!

It's kinda like a car, you might be perfectly happy with yours and wonder what's the point of another car, but you might drive in another car and just find it more fun and comfortable to use. On top of this Apollo has some really slick custom gestures, a Jump Bar for quickly bouncing between subreddits, color-coded comments for easy navigation, a really powerful media viewer, Smart Portrait Lock, and it was voted the best Reddit app for iOS by John Gruber of Daring Fireball as well as The Sweet Setup, with over 2 million downloads and over 100K 5-star reviews.

Why right now?

These warm months are dubbed "kitten season" by shelters, because it's the time of the year that all the cats like to give birth. So the shelters get a sudden massive influx of a ton of orphaned and surrendered (and sometime left to die) kittens and it massively drains their resouces like food. This is amplified by the COVID pandemic where a lot less people have been able to gets their pets neutered, and adoptions have lessened due to people staying inside. So it's a really, really hard time of the year and they (and the animals they're helping) are really in need of the help.

They're also special for me because it's where I rescued my two cats. Pet tax photo album: https://imgur.com/a/q9cL7t6

So yeah, if you enjoy my work at all, or like animals at all, or want me to have a good birthday, or just want some happiness in this otherwise crappy year, it would really mean the world to me if you could check out any of the above links and help out the shelter. The donation record for a single day is $27,355 that we set last year, but I really really want to beat it this year! I think with the combination of the new icon, Apollo having more users than ever, and the direct donation option, we can do it.

I'll of course keep you all posted once I find out how much Apollo raised by tomorrow! In the meantime I'd love to hang around and talk if you have any questions or insights or just want to share pet pics haha.

- Christian

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My friends and I recreated macOS Big Sur by renting a helicopter after Craig Federighi possibly called us out at WWDC

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 12:38 PM PDT

For a little context, my friends and I recreated every one of Apple's default "California location" themed macOS wallpapers. Here's a link to our first video (macOS Mojave, Yosemite, Sierra, etc), and here's a link to us recreating macOS Catalina. If you want to see how we recreated macOS Big Sur, here's a link to the video we just released! If not, here's a little recounting of the experience.

A month ago at WWDC, Craig Federighi said during his macOS announcement that their crack marketing team had "spawned a host of imitators" that were copying them. At first we thought Apple was referring to us, but we don't really believe that so much now. We'll let you guys be the judges of that!

Anyways, when Apple announced their new operating system was macOS Big Sur we were in for a challenge. The photo they took for their wallpaper ended up being 4000 feet above the California coast. Not only can you not fly a drone off the coast of Big Sur (it's a 'no fly zone') but also the picture was taken too high in the sky for a drone to legally fly (and it would almost certainly be out of range / connection to the controller).

So, my friends and I had one choice, we had to get a helicopter to fly us over Big Sur. After talking to an aerial photographer, we got connected with a pilot, who funny enough was the same pilot that helped Apple take the photo (shoutout Chris from Specialized Helicopters -- he was amazing!!)

The problem was Apple's photo was taken in the winter. And since it's summer, that means that the sun will rise differently and at a different time. Moreover, June is known for coastal fog, so it was up to chance whether or not we would get a clear day.

The day we were scheduled to fly, Big Sur was covered in fog. Zero visibility. We waited all day for an opening, and when we finally gave up on getting the shot, there was a clearing. We raced to get in the helicopter and take off. But, by the time we made it out to the coast, the fog had moved in. We had failed.

Three days later we made our way back to Specialized Helicopters at dawn to try again. We had checked the webcams and Big Sur was looking partly covered. Our pilot told us things would only get worse, and we might as well try to make our way to Bixby Bridge. So, with our fingers crossed we took off, and when we reached the coast it was clear (besides a little haze).

Finding the spot in the air where Apple took the shot was also difficult. We had looked at Google Earth to guess the height they were at, and we used Bixby Bridge and coast lines to frame the photo. In the end we did 4 passes until we were sure we got the shot.

If you want to see the side by side, here's a link. Unfortunately, it was very hazy the day we went to get the photo, but it would be hard to get a completely accurate match until winter! It was more about the journey anyways. None of us had ever been in a helicopter before, and this adventure is one we'll never forget!

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Apple being sued for refusing to help iTunes gift card scam victims

Posted: 20 Jul 2020 05:15 AM PDT