Social Impact and Visuals Winners

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Terms apply, learearn at go. Aamic slash graphite. Coming up on IOS today, Rosemary Orchard and I, Micah Sargent talk about the Apple design awwards. stay tuned orning Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is trit This is IOS Today, Episode eight hundred eight with Rosemary Orchard and me, Micah Sargent. Recorded Tuesday june sixteenth, twenty twenty six, four Thursday, june twenty fifth, twenty twenty six. Apple Design Awards Hello and welcome to IOS todayoday, the show where we talk all things, IOS, iPad OS, watchOS and all the OSs that Apple has to offer us I am one of your hosts. My name is Micah Sargent My name is Rosary Richard and I think it's a very awwarding show to be part of my gu. So I'm glad that I get to be here today. I love a good segue and that is the perfect one because yes, today we are talking about the Apple Dign Awards. Now, Apple every year, we talk about how there There are multiple kind of awards that the company gives out. And the design awards are an opportunity for Apple to acknowledge and appreciate along with us, the companies and developers that are making apps that sort of play well with Apple's platforms. so Oftentimes Apple will come out with new features or new things that you well I mean those are features, new things that you could do with your apps. And in that year the best uses of those features tend to be the apps that get recognized at this time. So Apple will recognize different categories, innovation ingenuity, technical achievement in both app and game design. and typically we have the opportunity to kind of S. how Apple thought about these apps, which I always appreciate as well. So The categories this year include delight and fun inclusivity Innovation. interaction social impact and then visuals and graphics. So we'll start with delight and fun. Apple says winners and finalists in this category provide memorable, engaging and satisfying experiences enhanced by Apple technologies. So in this category, the apps that got to participate were Grug Bipppo plus and metetaballs and the winner was Grug. So Grug is an app that kind of Let me just read a little bit about this. This playful app delivers daily wisdom in neolithic grunts and looks good doing it. Reading daily grug affirmations like only walking grug, find a breakthrough, sitting grug, find nothing primal joy, but it's the scribbled design that really pops. It's a little masterpiece of clever simplicity that never takes itself too seriously appropriately for an app from the Stone Age, There's no loggin, no cloud syncing, nothing extraneous, just a simple idea that smart developer do good I think this is an adorable little app. If you, you know, sometimes I think about people There's T psychology, like science backed, understanding to daily affirmations. but for some people, they're a little bit cringe and understandably so the idea of kind of of making daily affirmations a little more playful so that we both feel like we're in on the joke and that it can be just something that's sort of it almost subtly gets to us I kind of love that, I love that idea. Ver well done with the the op writing here that has taken place and the clever use of whimsy, I guess that plays into it as well That's the uh that's the apps, but Each category also features games and I have to say, Rosemary, I'm a little sad that Power Wash Simulator was not the winner U there that's because I certainly love Power Wash Simulator. I've been cleaning so much in Power Wash Simulator. So satisfying in the oddest of ways, but like the best of ways. Yeah, in fact, the little blip for it says for a particular type of person, there can be no greater joy than blasting caked on grime off an old van I would say I am a particular type of person absolutely because I want nothing more than to Bast caked on grime off of an old van. but The winner is is this seat taken, which it's a puzzle game It's I think I'm also a little averse to logic puzzles because from being a kid and doing logic puzzles with other students and then not being the fastest. It was always like, what's taking you so long? So logic puzzles, they don't make me feel too calm. I get a little bit over overwork, like, oh no, I've got to fit I've got So For me, is the seat taken, not my favorite I have heard good things about it and congratulations to Pati Poti stududio for their win there. Do you want to tell us about the next category rosemary Yeah, so the next category is one very near to Mica and My's hearts, which is inclusivity because there is nothing worse than somebody feeling excluded from things just because you know they may not have the same access to everything as everyone else. The winner of the app section here is Gitariz, which is an all in one toolkit for guitarists, which includes things like robust voiceover, which provides spoken information on instructions from everything from pitch to chord guidance, according to this. And that is including where players need to place their fingers on the frets It does also do things like support dynamic typpe to increase or decrease the font size, increase contrast and differentiate without color. which all of those things are really important to make guitar accessible to way more people The other two apps in this category which were nominated as well are HearingBuddy, which was created by Solo developer with Hearing loss and it uses the foundoundation models frameworks as the AI models and on device speech to text to generate real time captions and summaries of spoken conversations, which I personally feel is lovely Potentially useful for people more than just people with hearing loss actually. That's very cool. And the third app is one I've actually used on and off in the past. I go through phases of needing it and not needing it. The last one is called strructured, which is by a company called Unordordderly, which I absolutely love. There's just such a contrast there and But essentially it's a daily planner that prioritizes downtime as much as productivity, really important for that work life balance. And it excels at optimizing open source on your calendar and helping you find time to take breaks And yeah, it's particularly targeted at people who are neurodivergent in anyway to be clear because it's got a really good simple layout which can help you not be distracted and just focus on things and not be overwhelmed with too much information And it has been using AI to help suggest and prefill tasks that you need to do and, you know, like plan your day for you essentially, using AI when you'd say, o I need to get these three things done or these five things done or whatever it is. It's very, very cool. Unfortunately I'm not using it as much as I was because I can't put my work calendar onto my phone anymore. So it assumes that I'm free from nine to five, which is not the case So probably just needs to schedule work from nine to five to avoid that issue Anyway, moving on in the games category we have obviously the winner, which is Pine Hearts. So this is a game where the main character Tyike returns to a nature preserve to revisit memories of his late father. It's got a sweet and sensitive vibe and you level up by lending a helping hand to other park goers And the game communicates all the inclusivity options before you even start playing through settings that let you enhance text legability, customize the controls and ease both motion and sensory feedback So yeah, I feel like this is a really great app that I should definitely need to a try because it sounds very wholesome And then there are two runners up. Sego Mini Ger G Ginger's Garden, which is basically as far as Apple is concerned, I believe includes everything and from the inclusiveivity perspective It relies on swipe to move controls and interactions that don't require reading. So it's a playground, essentially for children and it The inclusivity features are organically included so you don't even necessarily notice them So Kids can play I'm gonna call it football, not soccer because I'm British. Chase some mououse with cheese, try on a party hat No timers or to do lists is just fun, essentially And then the last one is one I have played for way too many hours and if I tell people Just one more turn. If you've played the game, you probably know it. it's Civilization seven. It is a surprisingly inclusive app for a massively mainstream game. I'm really pleased that it is actually inclusive because Any big company that creates big games should they have the money to do it. they should be doing it. But it's really great to see the civilization seven where Your goal is for abdomination shouldhould you choose to accept it? you need to figure out how to deal with that All is it's an inclusive thingame. So there we go. That was inclusivity. And I'm going pass back to you for innovation, Micah. Yes. So I always love the innovation category. It's obbviously the place where we get to see kind of different ways of doing things. Apple describes it as folks that are providing a state of the art experience and doing so in a novel use of Apple of Apple teechnologies. And so whenever you're going through these, you get to see more about like what it was that was unique about them. The NBA liive Games and Scores app was the winner this time and this was specifically for Vision OS. notot surprised to see given that this is Apple's sort of newest platform, that this is where A lot of the innovation has happened, but it says this watching five games at once in the NBA app or pairing your Marquee game with player and team stats the size of a wall is a revolution for sports fans on Apple Vision Pro And I certainly did hear that folks who checked this out and tried it really enjoyed it and found that that experience was delightful. I want to also mention detail, which is an AI video editor available in IOS, iPad OS and even watchOS. And in this case, they say detail combines the simplicity of a camera app with the power of a professional AI video editorily Ecuse me, it's easy to learn for editors of all levels. but what's cool about it is that You can kind of take these camera moments, just do these takes, and then boom, it will remove silence. It will auto edit them. It will even put together a single shot from multiple angles and then uses foundation models, which again, Apple's AI tools to take a draft or an outline that you have and then turn it into a telepompter script that can play back while you're reading it. So sort of speeds up the process a little bit for you. In the game category, one that I want to give a shout out to is Pickle Pro because this was built with reality Kit and it is what Apple calls one of the most impressive native gaming experiences for VisionOS because it's a pickleball game happens is it makes use of the most recent vision OS experiences and tracking tools to give you this mixed reality you it's just it's a unique thing that you can't get anywhere else other than in Vision OS or in another sort of mixed reality space. And so being able to play pickleball but do so in a much more precise way than you would expect, perhaps with these mixed reality experiences. I think they nailed it. they absolutely nailed it. But the winner there was Blueeprince, which is a MacOS game. A little bit of exploration, a little bit of puzzle solving, and you're essentially trying to get inside a room within a mansion that has what you are looking for. So with that, you've got puzzles and different Again, bits of exploration that you need to do to be able to get to the room where then there's even more that unfurls. And so shout out to a MacOS game for getting the win there. I am so used to seeing The u that category devoted to to vision OS stuff. So That was kind of nice as well U interaction is another category, and I'll cover this one then we'll have Rosemary cover the next one. For interaction, Apple describes it as apps and games that are able to deliver intuitive interfaces and then of course, effortless controls that are tailored to a specific platform The winner this year was a mooon phase tracker called Moonlit And, you know, with this, you are able to U to kind of look at Beautiful, stunning photography of the moon and also see these celestial events. So it's not just, you know the moon itself, but it is this was a finalist in twenty twenty four or rather the company that made this one was a finalist in twenty twenty four for the app sunlit And this one is also kind of killing it in the space because one of the first to adopt liquid glass to make that part of the experience and to to really lock in there For games The winner this time is an Apple arrcade game called SeGo Mini Ginja's Garden And it is a game for kids ages three to six So it's one of those where you can pretty much easily pick it up, understand what you're supposed to do, how you play, and you don't have to it doesn't require a lot of overthinking, which is great as well Moving along, Rosemary, do you want to tell us about the next category, social impact Yes. so social impact is things that have an impact on society, hopefully in a positive way. And the there of course, are three apps here and I'm going start at the bottom and work my way up this time just for fun. So Harvey, that's HA R V E E is from PLabs here in the UK and they focus on translating Apple watchatch data like your heart rate variability and resting heart sleep data into an actionable series of guidance for recovery. So essentially it's all about helping you improve things, which I personally feel is a pretty great way to try and impact society in the best of ways. So that was where the runners up The other one is Kathar Rom. I hope I'm pronouncing there correctly. So these are bedtime stories from India with a rich colourful art and a commitment to cultural representation The app focuses on stories from Indian folklore and decorates them with a UI from the Gonde art form with intricate patterns and vibrant colors And yeah, this app genuinely sounds great and I now know a number of children, so I will be passing the recommendation on for this app because bedtime stories are a pretty critical part of growing up for most of the kids that I seem to know. And I think it would be nice for parents to be able to enjoy having a bedtime story read to them every once in a while as well as doing the reading themselves And the winner from the apps category is called prrimary News in depth. And this is a vision OS app. so unfortunately, I've had no way to download this at all myself But it was founded by one of the Associate Press journalists and it's now powered by a team of experienced editors and it shows breaking news and crucial issues without resorting to sensationalism or clickbait with a minimal UI. And that sounds pretty awesome. I would look forward to seeing that app on platforms other than VisionOS. if any of the developers from Wood metetal Rocks are listening, it would be really awesome if that was available elsewhere U so I guess we're just gonna to have to wait and see with that one Then for the games in this category ones again, I'm gonna to start at the bottom and work my way up. The first one is Silled, which is a cozy cleanup game about restoring polluted waterways. And It was created by a developer who lives on his health boat and who is passionate about ecological issues So yeah, every time you do something in the game, it is intended to be inspiring and encourage you to get out in real life and do these things as well if you're able to Then we've got Despalote, I hope that Ive pronounced that correctly. This one is a MacOS app and it's a mix of cultural preservation and autobiographical storytelling. and it's set in two thousand one in Ecuador as it's on the verge of qualifying for its first World Cup. it's also very topical right now as the World Cup is happening in the US And so you follow things through the eyes of eight year old Julian whose decisions, movements and occasional eavesdropping drive the story And it's a mix of visual styles, which' got line drawn inhabitants in a low fi durot tonone street photography. Apparently it is very evocative. And yeah, I think that it is great to show how things can bring a culture together, whether that be sports or something else And then the winner in the games category is also a MchOS app called Consumee, which is a deeply personal and autobiographical experience that addresses themes of mental health, body image and self worth and apparently does this both depth and playfully. So consonsume is about the emotional realities of eating disorders and goes through trying to address that and Hopefull, if anybody watching the show has an eating disorder or there's anybody with one then they can maybe try out consum me on MacOS because I feel like this is a really great app. for it. making you feel like you are worth everything that you are because yes, eating disorders I know are a big problem, which a lot of people have stopped noticing recently, which is a real shame All right, that is the let me get back to it, social impact category. And now it's time to talk about visuals and graphics, the kind of final category here. Of course, these are apps and games that have stunning imagery, according to Apple skillfully drawn interfaces and high quality animations with a distinctive and cohesive theme. So they look good. And the there's actually a finalist in another category, I think the interaction category is the winner, yes, in this category and that is Tide guuide charts and tables. I will tell you, I have used hide guide before in order to back whenever we lived in California and we would go to the Alamir Falls tide Fall, you need to know where the tide is, othertherwise you can get stuck on the other side and not make it back to shore. and it's kind of scary. And so knowing when the tide's going to come rolling in is important. And this is a beautiful way to keep track of it. As the As the writers so helpfully and hilariously say Hide Guidess rich full screen charts present a boatload of weather data hour by hour forecast, water temperature, swell height. And those are obviously incredibly important when it comes to people who are boating, people who are swimming, people again, who are going out to falls that require you to walk along the shoreline where part of the shore gets wiped away by the tide every single day. So that's important as well. Some of the others in this category include Caradise, which is a obviously different excuse me Caradise, not cararadise. which of course is up on paradise and cars and then not boring camera Not surprised to see notot boring make its way back into the charts. Not Boring has done a great job of making different apps and different categories that are truly not boring. The game winner in this category, again, no surprise. Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven Ultimate Edition is the winner here. It is Beautiful and requires incredible graphics and well doesn't require it has incredible graphics and requires performance to be able to show those incredible graphics. So it's not just that the game is beautifully designed, it's that it's beautifully designed and it runs on MacOS. Those two things together are what make it stand out. It says the game takes full advantage of Apple Silicon, of metal shaders, of metal FX frame interpolation and de nooising and path tracing on higher end chips And the for this Mac setting automatically optimizes frame rate and visual fidelity for each device. So it's kind of set it and forget it situation, which is very handy as well. The other games in this category include Arc Knight's Endfield, and then Silt which were also in the finals. But congratulations to the winners there on an Apple Design Awards of twenty twenty six. There's a link in Apple's rundown that actually has a way to download all of the winners from the App store. so you can go and grab everything from the list. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these different apps end games as we head into the fall and you know, the launch of new iPhones and the full launch of of the next versions of IOS, iPadOS, etcetera. So we look forward to hearing more about That you can email us IOS today at twit. tv That is going to bring us to the end of this episode of IOS today. Thank you all for being here. If you would like to get ad free versions of this and every show on the network, can I invite you to join our club cllub Twitwit. Tv slash club Twit is where you go to sign up or you can use the QR code in the top corner there. Doing so takes you to a page where you can sign up for the ten dollars a month, a hundred twenty dollars a year. 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