Month: May 2023

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Adobe Releases Photoshop’s AI Generative Fill

Adobe has announced a new Beta version of Photoshop that comes with generative AI technology.

Pam Clark, writing for the Adobe Blog:

We are thrilled to announce that the Photoshop (beta) app has released Generative Fill, the world’s first co-pilot in creative and design workflows, giving users a magical new way to work. Generative Fill is powered by Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s family of creative generative AI models. Starting today, Photoshop subscribers can create extraordinary imagery from a simple text prompt.

This brings two imaging powerhouses together — Photoshop and generative AI, enabling you to generate content from inside Photoshop with a text prompt and edit it with Photoshop’s comprehensive range of tools to create extraordinary results.

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing around with DiffusionBee running Stable Diffusion and yet this one from Adobe blows me away by how fast and awesome it is. Even if working on Photoshop itself is not your thing, don’t miss the examples.

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Heather Armstrong Dead at 47

Tonight I saw the news that Heather Armstrong died yesterday. I read her website pretty regularly for about a decade since the early 2000s.

Alex Williams, The New York Times:

Heather Armstrong, the breakout star behind the website Dooce, who was hailed as the queen of the so-called mommy bloggers for giving millions of readers intimate daily glimpses of her odyssey through parenthood and marriage, as well as her harrowing struggles with depression, died on Tuesday at her home in Salt Lake City. She was 47.

Pete Ashdown, her longtime partner, who found her body in the home, said the cause was suicide.

Terribly sad news. I have a nephew the same age as her oldest daughter and the thought is just so upsetting. Nothing but warm thoughts for her family and friends.

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The Playgrounds from Develop in Swift Data Collections

Developing iOS apps is an exciting but challenging process, and I’ve been working on improving my skills by reading the Develop in Swift Fundamentals and Develop in Swift Data Collections books. While going through the practice assignments, I encountered some roadblocks and couldn’t find answers to some of the questions in the Data Collections book. Although I was able to find answers from other students for the Fundamentals book, I still needed some help with the Data Collections exercises.

After searching for a while, I was relieved to discover that the teacher’s guide to both books had answers to the playground questions. I was able to download the guide and find the answers I needed, which allowed me to continue making progress on my iOS app development journey.

I wanted to write this in case anyone else is looking for the direct link: https://education-static.apple.com/data-collections/xcode13/teacher.zip

If you’re also working on improving your iOS app development skills, I highly recommend checking out the Develop in Swift series. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m beginning to feel like I will finally be making my first iOS app soon.

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The Bad Review Revue

Under the Tuscan Sun: “Who thought combining Under the Tuscan Sun with The Godfather was a good idea?” — Dustin Chase, Galveston Daily News

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: “It is the laziest possible version of a Mario movie, and for most viewers, young and old, that’ll be totally acceptable.” — Dylan Roth, Observer

Renfield: “To watch Renfield is to get the impression that someone made a successful elevator pitch, then panicked.” — Alan Zilberman, Spectrum Culture

Love Again: “Your heart will go on, and your eyes will look away in embarrassment.” — A.A. Dowd Chron

Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Champion of the World: “This corny and awkward biopic of boxing champ George Foreman makes his unusual life look dreadfully formulaic. The entire movie is like a limp punching bag filled with nothing but hot air.” — Carla Hay, Culture Mix

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Apple Earnings Report Q2 2023

In its first calendar quarter of the year, Apple revealed its financial performance for the second fiscal quarter of 2023.

During the quarter, Apple generated $94.8 billion in revenue and $24.1 billion in net quarterly profit, or $1.52 per diluted share. This compares to the year-ago quarter when the company recorded revenue of $97.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $25.0 billion, also at $1.52 per diluted share.

While Apple achieved a new all-time high in Services revenue, generating $20.9 billion, and also established a new March quarter record for iPhone revenue at $51.3 billion, the Mac product line experienced a substantial year-over-year decrease in quarterly revenue. The Mac revenue dropped from $10.4 billion to $7.2 billion.

Apple CEO Tim Cook:

“We are pleased to report an all-time record in Services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high. We continue to invest for the long term and lead with our values, including making major progress toward building carbon neutral products and supply chains by 2030.”

Even on what might be considered a “bad” earnings call, Apple still dominates the space.

Here are some pretty charts.