Month: May 2022

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds 4 app released last year as a way for developers and students to learn its Swift programming language. The beginner-friendly app is a way to “learn real coding the fun way,” says Apple. Today, the app received its version 4.1 update for iPad and Mac devices.

The Swift Playgrounds 4.1 update for iPad and Mac features bug fixes and new content.

The new content added for iPad:

• “Keep Going with Apps” helps you understand how data moves throughout SwiftUI apps.
• “Animating Shapes” lets you learn to create, modify, and animate shapes.
• “Capturing Photos” gives you a look at making your own camera.

There is quite a bit more in the Mac Update. According to Apple, here is what’s new for Swift Playgrounds 4.1 for Mac:

• Build Mac apps with SwiftUI (requires macOS 12.4 or later).
• Guided walkthroughs teach SwiftUI app building basics.
• App Preview shows live updates as you make changes to your app.
• Apps built with Swift Playgrounds run and install to the Applications folder.
• App Store Connect integration lets you upload your finished app to the App Store (requires Apple Developer Program account).
• Smart, inline code suggestions help you write code quickly and accurately.
• Project-wide search finds results across multiple files.
• Snippets Library provides hundreds of SwiftUI controls, symbols, and colors.
• Swift Package support lets you include publicly-available code to enhance your apps.
• App Projects make it easy to move projects to Xcode and back.

About the Swift Playgrounds app:

Swift Playgrounds doesn’t require any coding experience — it’s perfect for anyone just starting out, from eight to one-hundred-and-eight. The whole time you are learning Swift and SwiftUI, the powerful programming technologies created by Apple and used by professionals around the globe to build many of today’s most popular apps. And because it’s built to take advantage of iPad and the real iOS SDK, Swift Playgrounds provides a one of a kind learning experience.

You can download Swift Playgrounds from the Mac App Store or the iOS App Store.

After 17 long years, players of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game can once again add the beloved Change of Heart card back into their decks. On Tuesday, Konami released an update to the latest roster of the forbidden and limited card list for the trading card game, which showed that the Change of Heart will be eligible for play in the official card game. The card was originally being banned in April 2005, according to records on Yugipedia.

The card’s category will change to “forbidden,” which means that each player can keep one copy in either their Main Deck or Extra Deck. You can view the full, up-to-date list of forbidden and limited cards on the official Yu-Gi-Oh! website.

To fans of Yu–Gi-Oh!, the Change of Heart is a classic spell card both in the anime and game. Its power allows you to take complete control of one of your opponent’s summoned monsters and use it against them until the End Phase of a turn. This powerful weapon was banned.

Fans online quickly expressed their excitement with hyped messages, leading the news to trend on Twitter on Tuesday. One user stated “BRO WHAT .” [*************************************************************************] CHANGE OF HEART IS BACK” and another said, “AINT NO WAY CHANGE OF HEART IS BACK.” 1 CHANGE OF HEART IS BACK” and another said, “AINT NO WAY CHANGE OF HEART IS BACK.”

The revival of the card comes on the heels of a bit of a Yu-Gi-Oh! revival. Many content creators streamed themselves YuGi-Oh in January. Master Duel which led to an uptick in popularity of the game. The official rules allow anyone who wishes to bring back the nostalgic feeling of early spell cards the past can do this within their limits.

Instagram Stories has certainly become a hit, and some people really enjoy sharing everything they’re doing through these 24-hour photos and videos. The social media network has now tested a Stories layout which hides too many posts, which can be bad for creators.

Phil Ricelle, a Brazilian Instagram user (via Tecnoblog), noticed that the Instagram app now only shows three of the Stories shared by other people.

Users can currently post 100 Stories at once. While this number should remain the same despite the change, users who have received the update must tap a “Show All” button to see the rest of the Stories. Otherwise, Instagram jumps to the next person’s Stories.

This brings about a significant change in how Instagram Stories works. As some people are used to tapping the screen to see all Stories from an account at once, this will no longer be possible after the update. For creators, this means that any posts after the third Stories will likely have a lower number of views.

At the same time, restricting the Stories in the app will allow users to view more posts quickly if there’s no interest in them.

Right now, it seems that only a small group of users have received the update with the new Stories layout, so it’s likely that Instagram is still testing these changes before rolling out them to all users. Of course, these changes might never be implemented for everyone.

9to5Mac’s Take

While this update may seem a little too aggressive, it might make people think about the content they share on Instagram. However, many Instagram users rely heavily on the platform to work, and this update is bound to have an adverse impact.

Do you consider this an improvement?

Do you think this update is positive or negative? Let us know below.

More about Instagram

• Instagram is testing a TikTok-like full-screen home feed
• Instagram for iOS to adopt TikTok-like pinned post feature on user profiles
• Instagram users can now create and donate to fundraisers directly from Instagram Reels

Up until recently, I’d been using the Canon R5 as my day-to-day camera for photos and videos. Although I was able to make it work, things like overheating made it a little less than ideal for recording long form content, such as the in-depth video walkthroughs of iOS updates that I like to do. Canon’s recently released R5 C addresses the overheating problems, but also provides quite a few enhancements that Mac users, and Canon enthusiasts in general will appreciate.

Before I get into my full list of nearly 40 features, I thought it would make sense to first share a few of the features that may appeal most to Mac users. For example, the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro (and Mac Studio) feature an SD Card reader, and the Canon R5 C lets you shoot high quality All-I 8K video directly to an SD Card. Not only that, but the R5 C features an 8K MP4 (HEVC) codec with a much more reasonable 540Mbps data rate when compared to the 1300Mbps data rate in the R5.

I’ve compiled a list of my top R5 C features below in a handy time-stamp format, so you can just click the link, and you’ll be taken directly to that portion of the video without leaving this page.

30+ reasons why I love the Canon R5 C

USB PD support

The Canon R5 C supports USB Power Delivery, which means that you can power the camera using a compatible USB-C cable and power adapter. Canon sells its own PD-E1 USB Power Adapter, but you can save money and use your MacBook Pro power adapter with the Canon R5 C or a compatible external battery pack.

Powering the R5 C via USB not only extends that amount of recording time, but also lets you unlock recording in 8K RAW at 60 (!) frames per second. Whatever the case, as I noted in my hands-on video above, the Canon R5 C absolutely decimates batteries, so you’ll definitely want to keep a USB power source handy.

Lower bitrate 540 Mbps 8K HEVC

One of the biggest reasons that I love the R5 C is because of how easy it is to work with its 8K MP4 (HEVC) codec. On the standard R5, Canon uses a codec with a 1300 Mbps bitrate, which is great for capturing an insane amount of detail, but makes it difficult for an NLE, like Final Cut Pro, to handle. The 8K HEVC codec on the R5 C features a much more reasonable 540Mbps bit rate, which still looks great, but is a whole lot easier to massage in post.

Record 8K All-I to SD Card

Offloading footage to Apple’s newest Macs, like the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the recently-launched Mac Studio, is super-easy thanks to the presence of built-in SD Card readers. Because of the 540 Mbps bitrate, you can record 8K All-I footage directly to an SD Card, which wasn’t possible on the baseline R5. This means that you can film and offload your 8K footage to your Mac without the need for any adapters or dongles, helping to streamline your workflow.

Record RAW 3K to SD Card

The R5 C features two handy crop modes: a Super 35, and Super 16 Crop – these crop modes allow you to shoot 6K and 3K RAW footage respectively, which adds to the versatility of this camera. If you’re delivering in 1080p or even 4K, these crop modes can come in super-handy for those of you with a limited supply of lenses. What makes it even cooler is that the 3K RAW bitrate is only 170 Mbps, which means you can shoot RAW video directly to an SD Card and offload the footage straight to your Mac.

Webcam mode

The Canon R5 C supports UVC video class, which essentially turns you camera into a webcam that macOS can immediately see without the need for any additional software drivers. Need to hop on a quick Zoom call, but want better quality than your Studio Display’s built-in camera? Enable UVC mode, connect a USB-C cable from your R5 C to your Mac, and you’re ready to go.

But what’s really cool about using the R5 C as a webcam is that you can record in high quality directly to storage media while live streaming simultaneously. This allows you to stream on platforms like YouTube or Twitch, and then use the high quality version of the recording to edit in post production.

Honorable mention: Proxy workflow

Unfortunately I forgot to mention one of the really awesome features of the R5 C in my video walkthrough, but I’ll take the liberty to do so right here. When shooting RAW, the R5 C lets you record 8-bit XF-AVC or MP4 proxies to your SD Card, which can definitely speed up workflows when you need a quick turnaround. Even older Macs will be able to easily slice through such footage, and once the edit is complete you can relink the RAW files before delivery in Final Cut Pro.

9to5Mac’s Take

Of course, these aren’t the only features of the EOS R5 C that I enjoy, but I wanted to first consider the items that I thought would most appeal to Mac users. In my video walkthrough, I also discuss tons of additional features that serve as upgrades over the baseline Canon R5.

Granted, the camera is far from perfect, and is missing some key feature that would have been nice, but it seems like Canon is listening to user feedback more than they have in the past. I was recently at NAB 2022 in Las Vegas, and a Canon engineer quipped that I was the only person that he had met on the showroom floor with the R5 C. He then amicably grilled me on how I liked the camera, and seemed to be very serious about taking my feedback and even wrote it down to take back to Japan.

Right now we’re living in the golden age of digital video, with tons of options for capturing ridiculously high quality footage at prices that would have seemed like a dream not that long ago. There are amazing camera’s like the Sony FX 3, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, etc. But for me, the Canon R5 C is my favorite of them all given the amount of power, flexibility, size, and features. What do you think?

Bohemia Interactive announced two games on Tuesday: Arma 4, the follow-up to its military franchise, and Arma Reforger, a standalone “preview” game using Bohemia’s new Enfusion tech engine. Arma Reforger is out Tuesday in early access, Bohemia said in a news release. It’s the first time an Arma game will be released on Windows PC and Xbox at the same time.

Details on Arma 4 itself are thin — the company didn’t share a release date or any footage. But it sounds like Arma Reforger will give players a small taste of what Arma 4 will be, a way to “showcase the studio’s progress on [its] new Enfusion engine and offer a glimpse of things to come,” it said.

Arma Reforger is set on Everon during the 1980s, the same setting from Arma: Cold War Assault. In it, there are two multiplayer modes: Conflict and Game Master. The standard multiplayer game mode, Conflict, is a team-based one in which players work together to capture strategic positions from their enemy. Bohemia explained that it’s basically stuff such as base building, shooting other players and performing different tasks. You can play either American or Soviet fighters. Bohema said there’s also a “smaller independent force” that players can choose from, which has its own gear inspired by Arma.

Game Master allows users to create mods, and console gamers can also access them. It comes with some software tools, called Workbench, which Bohemia says gives the mod community its development tools.

“Any user with a fair knowledge of C# scripting, should be able to add custom AI behaviors, audio and visual assets, or even completely new gameplay mechanics,” Bohemia said. Artists can also import their creations with simple workflows. Essentially, imaginative players will be able to explore Enfusion to its limits and receive a crash course in Arma 4 modding, well ahead of schedule.”

Bohemia said it’ll keep Arma Reforger up with “continued support” even while Arma 4 becomes a bigger priority. The game is not yet available for full access, although it may be released in the near future.

Dead by Daylight is a game that balances a cast of original characters with licensed cross-overs, including franchises like Hellraiser, Stranger Things, and Silent Hill. A popular cross-over was the Resident Evil series, where Nemesis and Jill Valentine were joined by Leon S. Kennedy and the Raccoon city Police Department to Dead by Daylight . Now, a second Resident Evil chapter is on the way, developer Behaviour Interactive announced Tuesday.

Survivor and a potential new map are yet to be revealed. However, the name of the next Resident Evil chapter will be “Project W.” This chapter is the source of long-standing bad boy, Albert Wesker, as well as the Progenitor virus. A Netflix series will be about the Wesker family drama. He’s long been an antagonist, but was only stopped by Chris Redfield.

This is also the first time a franchise has had two chapters in Dead by Daylight. There are “legendary skins” that offer different takes on a character. For instance, players can purchase a Cheryl Mason legendary skin that turns the Silent Hill 3 protagonist into Lisa Garland, the nurse from Silent Hill. This will mark the debut of unique characters that have their own Perks or play styles. We can expect to see more details about Project W in the months ahead. In the next Chapter update Roots of Dread, the Dredge will be the first to confront players.

Last month, Apple Store employees in Atlanta began the process of unionizing; today those same employees are accusing the tech giant of union busting. Communications Workers of America accuse Apple of violating National Labor Relations Act. The company has been reportedly holding captive audience meetings to counter an ongoing union drive at the Cumberland Mall store.

While employees love Apple, they are asking for better wages and benefits. Cumberland is currently one of three Apple Store locations working on unionizing while more are in the process of organizing.

The company has not yet made a statement about unionizing, but it has hired Littler Mendelson’s anti-union lawyers to assist. The company has started to post notes in retail shops highlighting Apple’s advantages as well as its diversity- and inclusion commitments.

Unlawful as per the NLRB

According to The Verge, captive audience meetings are a tactic where bosses require employees to attend meetings with anti-union messaging. It is generally allowed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) until the 24-hour period before a union election.

However, a recent memo from NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo stated otherwise. Abruzzo noted that these meetings violate the National Labor Relations Act and that the NLRB will take aggressive action against the tactic. Per Abruzzo:

This license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the Act’s protection of employees’ free choice. It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of employers’ speech rights.

This policy is relevant to Apple’s retail store management policies. Employees start the day with a “daily download” meeting to be updated on what’s new within the company and store. Apple Store employees have been reaching out to The Verge, mentioning how management has increasingly incorporated topics like culture, benefits, and anti-union messaging into these meetings.

More on Apple Stores unionizing:

• Apple taps same legal team as Starbucks for unionization fight ahead
• Apple Store unions could represent an opportunity for Apple, not a threat