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Opening
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News
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Would you live in Apple’s Metaverse
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From Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman
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Headset will cost between $2,000 and $3,000
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Include Mac level M2 Chip
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Over 10 cameras
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Highest resolution VR displays on the market
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Based on recent job postings…
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“The company is searching for a software producer with experience in visual effects and game asset pipelines who can create digital content for augmented- and virtual-reality environments”
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Thinks Apple is looking to build a 3D mixed reality world.
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Apple seems to be looking to do something different than a “Metaverse”. Something Tim Cook has been critical of in recent interviews.
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Who’s watching you? Apple.
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A pair of developers out of Canada and Germany uncovered that, in iOS 14.6, that the App Store app “sends every tap” that you make to Apple, along with a consistent ID number that could be potentially used to track you across apps.
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One of the developers is Tommy Mysk who had also uncovered that Apple was bypassing VPN apps when sending data back to Apple.
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They noticed similar behavior from the Music, TV, Books, the iTunes Store, and Stocks apps as well.
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Fortunately the Health and Wallet were found to transmit no data
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The trouble is that Apple has made a big deal out of saying they respect and value your privacy.
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To make matters worse Apple’s tracking seems to completely ignore any of their privacy settings like, opting out of tracking or turning off personalization settings.
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The news of course triggered a class action lawsuit in California.
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Now many might be saying, but iOS 14.6 is an old OS, but it looks like these apps continue to send similar types of data even in iOS 16.
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Also remember that it was iOS 14.5 that introduced stricter anti-tracking measures for 3rd party apps.
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The issue is this make it looks like Apple seems to feel they are immune from their own App Tracking Transparency policy.
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The same piece mentions that Apple’s ad sales team has a strict set of terms they are supposed to avoid when selling ads
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They have to say “audience refinement” instead of “targeting” Or refer to the platform instead of an “algorithm”
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And “conquesting” (a term I was unfamiliar with), the practice of showing your ads when someone searches for a competitors term, can be called “competitor keywords” or “brand defense”
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The information about the tracking might even seem more nefarious given recent reports that Apple wants to significantly expand it’s ad business
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New details from the site “The Information” this week seem to contradict some of these earlier reports
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According to their sources Apple is satisfied with their current advertising revenue growth and is not looking to make changes to the volume of ads presented on the iPhone.
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The report does jive with earlier reports that Apple had looked at possibly adding ads into features like Siri Spotlight search results, but according to their sources those plans were scrapped
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It’s not you, it’s a bug
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There seemed to be an odd Safari bug that impacted iOS and iPad OS this week
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Users reported crashes when tying some terms into the URL bar
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Happened after some 3-letter combos, like “wal”, “wel”, “old”
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Reports came in from users running iOS 15.7.1, ‌iOS 16‌, iOS 16.1, iOS 16.1.1, and the iOS 16.2 beta
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Was resolved quickly, but seems odd this could come from the server side?
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Apple TV 4K chip binned
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Not that it matters too much, but we know the updated Apple TV 4K comes with an A15 Bionic (the same chip featured in the iPhone 13 and 14 models)
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But… it might not be quite the exact same chip.
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A site called Flatpanels HD noticed that according to the tvOS developers site the new Apple TV uses a version of the A15 with a 5-core CPU (2 performance and 3 efficiency cores), vs the 6-core used in the iPhone)
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It still has a 5-core GPU though.
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Still the new version was about 40 percent faster than the old Apple TV 4K
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The same source also uncovered a bug in the 128GB storage models where the device under tvOS 16.1 and 16.2 was only recognizing the first 64GB of storage
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Luckily Apple’s recently rolled out tvOS 16.1.1 update fixes this issue
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Details on Apple TV+ MLS package
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We finally have the pricing details on Apple and Major League Soccer’s service coming to Apple TV+ in February
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Apple and MLS signed a ten year deal for Apple to be their exclusive streaming partner.
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The package is called “MLS Season Pass” and will have every MLS and Leagues Cup match, as well as most MLS Next Pro and MLS NEXT games. No blackouts or regional restrictions and be available in over 100 countries at launch.
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One exception is Leagues Cup and Campeones Cup for viewers in Mexico
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Broadcast simultaneously in English and Spanish, with different broadcast crews for each language. Canadian team games will also be aired in French.
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You can also get the Home club team radio broadcast
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Games will also remain available to subscribers for streaming later after they have aired.
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The pass will cost $14.99 USD per month, or $99 USD per season and if you’re already an Apple TV+ subscriber you can get the package at $12.99 USD per month, or $79 USD per year
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Some games will be available to Apple TV+ subscribers at no cost and some, like the “MLS is Back” opening weekend games will be available to anyone via the Apple TV app for free as well.
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Deadline reports that Apple TV+ has landed a new comedy series from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
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According to the report, “the untitled series is about a legacy Hollywood movie studio trying to survive in a world where it is increasingly difficult for art and commerce to live together.”
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Unreleased Apple ‘Magic’ charger
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Honestly, who cares?
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Surfaced on Twitter there’s what looks to be a RD version of a MagSafe charger from Apple’s Design Validation Testing (DVT)
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It’s basically a MagSafe charger inside an aluminum base frame that can tilt up (a lot like Apple’s old Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Dock)
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The issue is it’s low profile would have meant it could only possibly be used tilted with an iPhone in landscape mode (maybe why Apple scrapped it?)
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While interesting to see Apple’s thought process with development of products the leak doesn’t serve much more function than that.
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Emergency SOS satellite feature is out
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Apple rolled out the feature to iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models in the US
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Good news is they also said that the feature will be coming to France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK in December
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It should also roll out to more regions next year.
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The service is free at launch (will likely require a subscription in the future) and there is a demo if you want to try it out
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Settings > Emergency SOS > Try Demo (from any iPhone 14 model)
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iCloud.com has a brand new design with a page that can be customized with tiles for your favorite or frequently used features.
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Apple plans more “Pro” in 2024
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Ming-Chi Kuo is out with some possible details on the USB-C features coming to the iPhone 15 Pro models next year.
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Apple has already mentioned they plan to move the iPhone to USB-C from Lightning in the future to comply with the new regulations recently announced in the EU
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With a USB-C connection that means Apple could bring Thunderbolt support and transfer speeds to the iPhone and according to Kuo they will, but likely just on the Pro models.
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For wired connection the reports claim Apple will support "at least" USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3. 20Gbps or 40Gbps respectively.
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The analyst says the non-Pro versions will have USB-C, but be stuck withe the slower USB 2.0 data transfer speeds.
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Meanwhile… if you had hopes for a new iPhone 14 Pro model for the holidays it might be too late. Online shipping times have already moved past December 25th
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Still you might be able to luck out at an Apple Store, a carrier store, or your local big box. But hurry.
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Tim Cook also reportedly said at an internal meeting, while touring Apple’s operations in Europe, that Apple “be buying (chips) out of a plant in Arizona” that he says will start up in 2024
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Seemingly referring to the plant manufacturing partner TSMC plans to open in the same timeframe.
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A Bloomberg report notes that it’s unclear what chips TSMC would provide to Apple from those facilities as that plant is rumored to be a 5nm fab, possibly 4nm
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Apple’s next A and M series chips are supposed to move to 3nm by 2024 and possibly into 2nm
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They also likely couldn’t handle the volume need for Apple’s “flagship” chips.
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It could be mostly a we “buy American” PR move. With Apple sourcing some “less sophisticated” chips… possibly for Apple TV, Apple Watch, or HomePods.
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Still cool to have a more regionally diversified supply chain.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
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Feedback on legacy ‘patchers'
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A lot of you had opinions on this and most seemed to agree with my assessment
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Dan said he used patchers on two older machines to allow them to run Catalina & Mojave
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It worked, but the machines never quite functioned as well or reliably as he’d like
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He eventually rolled one back to it’s supported OS.
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But the odd behavior just likely won’t make the effort worth it for most people
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David just updated his 2010 iMac with the OpenCore Legacy Patcher
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His machine has an SSD upgrade and an upgraded RAM to 8GB
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It does suffer from an older GPU which also required patching
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He only took it up to Big Sur and not Monterey (Ventura wasn’t even possible)
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He can vouch for the patcher being “amazing”. It builds its own USB boot drive to install the MacOS you choose and identifies what additional patches you may need based on your machine.
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But even after patching the first boot stalled out requiring a reboot and reinstall.
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Is getting random artifacting that might be caused by Firefox
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Wishes Apple would provide some features as updates or support for older OSes. iCloud Shared Photo Library for example. Why is that locked to Ventura and iOS 16?
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Long press tips & tricks
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Control Center features
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Flashlight - get “brightness” control
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Timer - slider and quick start timer without going to the app
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Camera - to get quick actions for: Take a Selfie, record a video, take portrait or portrait selfie
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Notification
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Give you additional options or features depending on the app
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Messages you can do a quick reply
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Instagram will let you see the post without leaving the notification or lock screen
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Widgets or Apps on home screen
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Gives additional options or quick actions
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Back buttons / links
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When several levels deep in a Settings
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Safari
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Arrows, to go forward or back multiple levels in your history
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URL Bar
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Copy URL
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Voice Search
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Pin tab or move to tab group
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Bookmarks icon
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Add bookmarks for all open tabs
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Add to reading list
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Tab icon
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Close all open tabs
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Close tab
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Move to tab group
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Gift of Organization
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We seemed to get a theme for holiday gift recommendations
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To Do Lists seem to be on your minds
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Bob likes [Todoist](https://todoist.com)
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It’s subscription based, but he says the “free” tier is very “feature rich”
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He says it works great across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and MacOS.
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Bob particularly likes the natural language entry feature.
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Can organize tasks into “Projects” and set due dates and recurring tasks
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Dan likes [Things](https://culturedcode.com/things/) which is one of my favorites too.
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It’s follows more of the GTM methodology and is beautiful.
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Gives you a “Today” view so you know what’s on your agenda
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The “Checklist” feature lets you manage todos that might hav multiple steps
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Supports Mac, iOS, and iPadOS (buy separately though)
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Dan also says if you need more “nagging” checkout [Due](https://www.dueapp.com/)
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This one seems to have a unique UI and entry mechanism
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Lots of functionality from the “notification”, so you can reschedule or delay to-dos and be reminded of them later
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Includes and “auto snooze”, so reminders keep coming back (you can’t ignore them)
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Also has countdown timers
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Dan also had a few other great suggestions:
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[1Password](https://1password.com/), a great family gift
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I love the ability to share with my family in different “Collections”
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Also using for 2FA codes is a lifesaver in my opinion.
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If you want to learn or expand your programming skills… specifically in Swift, SwiftUI, UIKit
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[Sean Allen](https://www.youtube.com/c/SeanAllen) YouTube videos.
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Sean also has complete courses you can purchase via [his site](https://seanallen.teachable.com/), but the free YouTube stuff will get ya started.
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[Wooduku](https://tripledotstudios.com/#games)
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A free (ad supported) puzzler game that looks like a mashup of Tetris and Sudoku
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Looks really beautiful
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Closing
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Supporters
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