By Jason Snell

March 14, 2024 2:14 PM PT

Using Panic’s Nova for remote Python scripting

Note: This story has not been updated since 2024.

I’ve been writing scripts in Python for a few years now, and it’s taken over a lot of my remote automation. I’ve got a calendar in my kitchen driven by a bunch of Python scripts, and numerous automations running on a remote linux server for Six Colors and The Incomparable.

Up to now, I’ve been doing all of my Python work in BBEdit, an app I use as my default tool for so much of the work on my Mac. But to be accurate, I have to say that I do all my work in BBEdit and Terminal, because these are scripts running on remote devices that I need to be able to control.

The other day it hit me: While I think of Panic’s $99 Nova as a web development tool (I used it when I moved Six Colors into WordPress, which required rebuilding the site’s entire theme using PHP), it’s also a code tool, with SFTP and a terminal built in. An hour later I had created Nova projects for all my remote Python tools and was happily able to access remote directories and the command line from a single tabbed window. Nova also has some pretty great code editing features of its own that go a little bit beyond BBEdit, including sticky scroll, which helps me know what function(s) I’m inside of while editing.

I know a lot of people swear by Microsoft’s free Visual Studio Code, but every time I look at it I realize that it is made for people who are not me. Nova’s outside my comfort zone, but it’s closer—and seems to want to work the way I work.

This will show you how much of a sicko I am. A recent Nova update added support for debugging features, which I’ve only ever used in Script Debugger, the definitive AppleScript development tool. That’s right, programmer nerds, my only debugging experience ever is with AppleScript.

Anyway, I can’t entirely understand how to set up debugging (and remote debugging?!) in Nova, but I’m going to give it a go because it would be nice to stop debugging by printing various things to the log and waiting for things to break.

I’m sure I’m still only using a fraction of the tools available to me in Nova, but for my projects writing scripts on remote Linux servers, it’s found a place in my tool chest.

By Dan Moren

March 12, 2024 12:23 PM PT

Apple adds Web Distribution for iOS apps in EU, loosens other restrictions

Note: This story has not been updated since 2024.

It’s been a seismic few weeks for Apple in the European Union, and the company’s approach to distributing iOS apps continues to evolve. On Tuesday, Apple announced a few further changes to its rules, all of which stand to make significant changes to the marketplace for iOS apps. Let’s break them down.

One-stop developer shop

When Apple initially announced third-party app marketplaces on iOS in Europe, one restriction it put in place was that a company could not create a store that featured only its own apps. If Meta or Epic wanted to build a third-party app store, it would have to offer software from any developer that essentially met its criteria.

But that restriction has now been abolished. Which means that if a company wants to gather all its apps in a third-party store, thus reducing its dependance on Apple and avoiding the company’s 30-percent cut, that’s now a possibility. (Granted any extremely popular apps, such as Meta’s, would likely trigger Apple’s new Core Technology Fee.) I’m sure that Meta, Google, and some other large tech companies are doing the math right now to figure out if this new rule works in their favor or not.

An external link’s awakening

One element of Apple’s business practices that has gotten a lot of attention worldwide is its restrictions on apps linking out to the developer’s site in order to offer discounts or promotions. (The company’s harshest restrictions on those external links have gotten them in legal hot water in the U.S. and elsewhere, leading to some relaxing of terms.)

Previously, apps in the EU would have had to adhere to Apple-provided templates in order to provide links out. These templates carefully controlled the way such links would look and where they would appear.

But Apple has now demoted those templates from requirements to optional guidelines, allowing developers to fully choose for themselves where and how they link to their own sites. There’s obviously benefits to that for developers who don’t want to be told where and when to put their links, though it remains to be seen how users will feel if apps start to abuse this ability by getting in people’s faces.

A tangled web

The biggest change that Apple enacted is the addition of Web Distribution, coming later this spring. For the first time, this lets developers distribute apps outside a store for the first time, directly via the web.

If you’re saying “whoa, whoa, wait a minute, that sounds like sideloading“, well, you’re not wrong, but before you get too carried away, I’ll point out that developers need to jump through a number of hoops before Apple will allowed them access to this feature.

Those include being in the Apple Developer Program in the EU, having had two years of tenure within the program, and having an app with “more than one million first annual installs on iOS in the EU in the prior calendar year.” Additional strictures include only offering apps from your developer account, corresponding with Apple about safety and security issues, publishing your data collection policies, and other legal and governmental compliance.

So not just anybody is going to be able to slap together a website and put their iOS apps up for download. Apple’s trying to do something similar to what it’s done with third-party app marketplaces, providing some degree of assurance that users aren’t going to be hit by bad actors and that entities providing web distribution will be able to handle customer service, user privacy, and so on. Apps distributed via the web will still require notarization by Apple and can only be installed from a limited number of domains provided by the developer.

These rules also mean that many small and independent developers likely won’t be able to opt in to web distribution—that one million threshold is still pretty high. Do those shops deserve to be restricted from developing their apps on the web? It’ll be interesting to see if those rules stick.

Times they are changing

Web distribution does seem to open up another avenue for developers of a certain level, but it’s still certainly different from the wide-open nature of the Mac, where apps have been distributed on the web forever, with very little (if any) oversight by Apple.

In terms of why those disparities between macOS and iOS app distribution exist, Apple points to its recently issued security whitepaper. One of the company’s big arguments is that our phones are much more personal devices, carrying everything from our bank info to our health data, and protecting them is even more important than on the Mac. And the company sees the decided lack of widespread malware incidents on iOS under the App Store-only distribution as evidence of its success.

That said, while the Mac has been subject to more malware than iOS in recent years, it still remains a pretty secure platform overall.

Of course, we’ve already seen numerous changes to Apple’s DMA rules in just the last couple weeks, and there’s no telling what further alterations might happen as the rubber meets the road. It’s difficult to put legislation this large into effect without adapting it as you go.

Apple, for its part, says that it’s taking into account feedback from developers and other stakeholders. That presumably includes the European Commission, which certainly has a vested interest in the process.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

March 11, 2024 8:50 AM PT

I put my dumb space heater on HomeKit

Note: This story has not been updated since 2024.

My workspace is what is apparently called an “unconditioned space,” in that it’s a lighly insulated garage with no access to my home’s central heating system. In the winter that’s an issue, so I’ve resorted to using an oil-filled electric space heater to make the space habitable.

Those Delonghi heaters are pretty great at quiet, sustained heat, but the first one I bought used an old-style analog timer to turn itself on and off, which meant that it ticked constantly, and that made me very unhappy. I bought another one that offered a digital timer, but it couldn’t tell the difference between the weekend and weekdays, meaning I frequently heated the garage on a day I wasn’t working, or—even worse—opened the door to discover I hadn’t turned the timer back and the place was unacceptably cold.

After a few years of wrestling with these issues, I finally decided to see if I could solve the issue without buying more heaters. Using a smart outlet didn’t work—when turned on after an extended power outage, my heater is nonfunctional.

Instead, I bought a $26 Wi-Fi infrared blaster, taught it how to speak the language of my heater’s included (and fairly useless!) infrared remote, and now I was in business. (Of course, I had to do some work to get the heater and the IR remote to see one another, but after a few trial-and-error attempts, I got that part locked down.)

Unfortunately, my IR blaster doesn’t support HomeKit—but, you guessed it, there’s a Homebridge plug-in for that. Once I had my heater in the Home app, I could use Automations to turn the heater on automatically very early in the morning (it takes hours for the heater to work its magic) and then turn itself off in the afternoon.

This worked pretty well, but on a warmer morning, the heater would heat things up a bit too fast, and while the Delonghi heater does have its own thermostat, it’s never struck me as being particularly reliable. But I do have a $35 Wi-Fi thermometer in my office, and it works with HomeKit! So I created an additional automation that automatically turns off the Delonghi heater whenever the garage gets above 70 degrees.

I’ve been reluctant to write about this set-up because, frankly, a lot of smart home set-ups don’t stand the test of time. But this is the second cold season that I’ve automated the heating through HomeKit, and it’s worked solidly every time. When I go on vacation, I turn off the one early-morning automation, and the heater never goes on. I just have to remember to turn it back on when I get home.

Maybe someday I’ll find a Wi-Fi-controllable space heater that I like. Until then, this one does the job just fine.

By Dan Moren

March 8, 2024 10:16 AM PT

Epic’s App Store developer account restored in Europe once again

Note: This story has not been updated since 2024.

This week has been a heck of a roller coaster for Epic. After the game-maker’s Sweden branch reportedly had its developer account restored so that the company could launch its alternative app marketplace in Europe, the company was subsequently banned again by Apple. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney posted the exchange with Apple’s Phil Schiller, as well as the ensuing message from Apple’s lawyers saying that Epic would not be allowed to have a developer account in the EU.

But now Epic’s been returned to the App Store again, due in some part to an intervention from the European Commission, with Sweeney saying “a swift inquiry” led to Apple agreeing to reinstate Epic’s account.

The DMA went through its first major challenge with Apple banning Epic Games Sweden from competing with the App Store, and the DMA just had its first major victory. Following a swift inquiry by the European Commission, Apple notified the Commission and Epic that it would relent…

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 8, 2024

Apple, for its part, issued a terse statement, saying only, “Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA policies. As a result, Epic Sweden AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and accepted into the Apple Developer Program.”¹

This whole series of shenanigans has been an own goal by Apple, which seems to have largely taken issue with Sweeney’s criticisms of how Cupertino changed its rules to accommodate Europe’s Digital Markets Act. It doesn’t really end up looking great for Apple, which now seems both petty and ineffective. Just another reminder that optics are important.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]