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Apple acquires Pixelmator

pixelmator.com

521–530 of 597 posts

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this move is due to behind the scenes Adobe / Apple relations souring over the years. Adobe used to be one of their biggest supporters and helped winning over users to the Mac platform. This has diverged significantly over the years, and I think Apple is looking at Adobe and their business model and realizing that it both lucrative for them to have software that fills into this market to round out their cre…

I don't think so. Mac sales have only grown and the whole "you need a Mac for creative work" hasn't been a thing since the 00's. I think this is more about having the team put advanced photo editing features into the native Photos app, and possibly contributing to AI image processing.

There are lots of amateur photographers out there that use Apple hardware yet so far Apple only monetizes storage. I wouldn't be surprised to see a subscription offering that includes pro tier features for Photos.app good enough to replace Lightroom for enthusiasts but not for actual professionals.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#522

I am dying to ditch Adobe and Lightroom (both Classic or CC) but none of the alternatives (Photomator included) seem to have the same quality of library management features as Lightroom (metadata editing, rating, keywords, face recognition etc.). Have any enthusiast photographers actually found a decent replacement?

Try nitro. Only macOS at the moment, but such an impressive alternative

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, Vision Pro has no apps and it may not be the biggest reason for its failure, but it’s a contributor that I don’t see changing. Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

As a software developer who made good money reaching hundreds of thousands of people through the app store where the old “put up a website and buy advertising” model might have netted me single-digit thousands of sales, I am always surprised at the white knights telling me I got no value from paying 30% of revenue. If the app store is “mafia tactics”, I can’t even imagine how demonic things like wholesalers mist be.

> I am always surprised at the white knights telling me I got no value from paying 30% of revenue.

Wether or not the 30% is proportional to the value you get by being on the App Store depends on your situation. That is why choice is a great thing.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish every acquisition improved the end product as much as Workflow's did. All Apple's OSes got better for embracing it. I can write and have written AppleScript things, but Shortcuts is a vastly more convenient UX for the things it's good at.

What do you use it for?

I've got a few handy Shortcuts.

• Turn off a particular smart plug

I use this in an automation that runs on my iPad. That automation is set to run when the battery charge goes above 80%.

My iPad charger is plugged into that smart plug, so this effectively gives me the 80% charge limit option that so far Apple has only added to the settings for iPhone 15 and 16, iPad Pro (M4), and iPad Air (M2). My iPad is a plain iPad.

• A series of shortcuts to control my Denon A/V receiver.

My receiver is from 2012, long before voice control was available. It does have network control (and serial port control). I've got a script on an RPi that can use the network control to change inputs, mute/unmute, and change the volume.

I've got shortcuts for mute, unmute, various volume levels, and getting the current settings for input, mute, and volume. They work by using the Shortcut action "Run script over SSH" to invoke the script on the RPi.

I've got an Amazon Echo Dot next to the Denon, with the line out of the Dot connection to one of the Denon analog inputs. When line out is connected to a Dot the internal speaker is disabled, which makes that Dot useless for things like checking the weather or timers unless the corresponding Denon input is selected, so I've got the mic on the Dot disabled and use an Echo Show in the same room for all those things. The Dot's job is strictly to supply input to the Denon.

So let's say I want to listen to some music. I can say ", Denon Dot" to switch the input to the Dot. (I'm writing "" instead of Apple's phrase to trigger their voice assistant so if anyone ever happens to run this through text to speech it will be less annoying. Similar for Amazon's voice assistant).

Then I can say ", on Dot listen to Classical KING FM on Dot" and the echo Show will start the Dot streaming KING FM to the Denon. (It is only actually necessary to say "on Dot" once, but which of the two is necessary occasionally changes, and it is easier to just say it twice).

• Open the "OTP Auth" app.

That's the app I use for TOTP codes on my iPhone. It supports Apple Watch, but asking Apple's voice assistant on the watch to "open OTP Auth" isn't reliable (maybe...[1]). My first choice alternative to voice would be a widget in the Smart Stack but OTP Auth does not have one.

Shortcuts can be put in the Smart Stack. Hence, a Shortcut on the watch that simply launches OTP Auth.

[1] I say maybe because that is based on my old Series 4 watch. I recently upgraded to a Series 10. That has on-device Siri, and I've noticed that is way better. It did not occur to me to check of "open OTP Auth" is reliable.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish every acquisition improved the end product as much as Workflow's did. All Apple's OSes got better for embracing it. I can write and have written AppleScript things, but Shortcuts is a vastly more convenient UX for the things it's good at.

I think the crucial different is Workflow was targeted at what Apple should have been doing from the start. I see it the same way Karabiner, BarTender or QuickSilver (DropBox?) improve the OS experience in ways the platform owner would ideally could have figured out on their own. Those fundamentally tend to butt against the OS limitations and benefit from becoming a blessed first party utility or feature.

Bartender sold to some sketchy company. We’ve all been moving to the open source Ice app now.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#526

Putting concerns about future states aside, congrats to the Pixelmator team. I've been using the app for years and it's a really great piece of software, well designed and well built. It's always been incredible value for the price, especially given that it basically replaces Photoshop for a wide swath of the market without compromising on UX (which is a problem for other competitors) at a price point that's like 1-2…

Dark Sky was fucking awesome

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#527
post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be diligent to check your cuts in Sample Editor. However when you zoom in in the Arrange the way the waveform is rendered it seems like you are cutting on a zero crossing when in fact you are not. It lies to you and leads you to believe you've done the right thing. I have had the pleasure of working on tracks with dozens of clicks that I had to remove thanks to the laziness of Logic developers, pardon me fo…

I don't use logic. I find it to be no good but regardless I still wouldn't die on that hill. There's many things I disliked about logic when I tried it and that led to my opinion on its only useful for music production, I would probably not even say editing... More on the composition level. If I'm tracking it's into Pro Tools, any edits happen there too. I personally don't move out but other's do really prefer to do…

Unfortunately I am in position where I have to master mixes done in Logic and this backwards crap can easily add up to half an hour onto every track. Sick of it. Dying on that hill!

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> turn off Wifi and cellular at the same time (this one's on my homescreen) Out of curiosity - how is this different from enabling Airplane Mode?

Airplane mode leaves WiFi on.

Not on my 13 mini w/ iOS 18.1, and I don’t remember WiFi ever staying on when enabling airplane mode.

Weird that it seems to be different for different people, though.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention Apple's challenge with 30% AppStore tax for subscription revenue. My guess was that Apple is okay with Apps from third parties that tithe 1/3 of their subscription revenue but aren't willing to make a place for them if they don't "sing for their supper" as my Grandfather used to say.

macOS has no such restrictions as it does not require the App Store.

Didn't know what Pixelmator was, looked them up and they only distribute through the App Store.

I haven't been an Apple user for over 10 years, through that macOS now uses the App Store to distribute OS updates. There is no getting around the App Store on macOS and must be used for Apple related software releases, such a Xcode.

The community that looks for applications not in the App Store is most likely quite low. It requires knowledge of the ability to side-load, how to do it, and where to find applications that can be side loaded. Homebrew installation ratio against total macOS users might be a good metric.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, Vision Pro has no apps and it may not be the biggest reason for its failure, but it’s a contributor that I don’t see changing. Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

As a software developer who made good money reaching hundreds of thousands of people through the app store where the old “put up a website and buy advertising” model might have netted me single-digit thousands of sales, I am always surprised at the white knights telling me I got no value from paying 30% of revenue. If the app store is “mafia tactics”, I can’t even imagine how demonic things like wholesalers mist be.

The issue with the App Store model is that it's just another platform to market yourself on. In your case, you benefitted from a first-mover (or early-mover) advantage and did well. Over time the App Store becomes more and more saturated with apps and so the value to developers goes down. This is no different from the web! It's merely offset by a few decades.

If you had put up your website back in the early 90's and were judicious about advertising back then, you might've been a Fortune 500 company (depending on your business niche, of course)!

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