You might remember Ratika Deshpande from my PenPal series with her. During that month, we often shared how the sky outside our windows looked, separated across the globe as they were. Well, Ratika has finished her related project, The Sky Zine. There are excepts from it on her blog, and this is one of my favorite passages:

I find it strange to think that at all points of time some part of the world is witnessing a sky that has not been seen before and will never be seen again. The sky is always present and forever changing. How can one not feel a loss if one misses its glorious displays?

A beautiful observation.

Congratulations to Ratika for completing the project and sharing her words with the world.

Linked

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays when I can. Sometimes themed, often not.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve gotten one of these out. I’ve been a bit busy celebrating my 6th wedding anniversary with my wife and another big project. 🤫 But let’s get to it; I’ve got links to share!

1️⃣ LoveFrom’s new mascot, Montgomery the Bear, makes a very cute appearance on their website. Worth loading on desktop and mobile. [🔗 lovefrom.com]

2️⃣ Here’s a hidden macOS Sequoia window tiling tip that I started using right away. [🔗 @nileane // nileane.fr]

3️⃣ This is a really impressive demo of the iPhone 16 Pro’s new microphones. It sure sounds like it could handle audio for most people, most of the time. [🔗 patrick 2masso // youtube.com] (Via David Brown)

4️⃣ These Orion prototype glasses from Meta actually make me optimistic about the timeline of non-massive, non-weighty, pretty-normal-looking and genuinely useful and commerically-available AR glasses. These aren’t it, but they’re a lot closer than I imagined the tech was today. [🔗 The Verge // youtube.com]

5️⃣ Here’s a trip down memory lane with the one and only iPod nano that had the tiniest camcorder. Not gonna like, Becca made me want one to play with. [🔗 Becca Farsace // youtube.com]

6️⃣ As I said to Robert, who sent this to me, “That was delightful and disturbing!” [🔗 Saturday Night Live/Lonely Island // youtube.com]

7️⃣ Alright, it’s true. You really need to watch this XOXO talk by Cabel Sasser. [🔗 XOXO Festival // youtube.com]

Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

Carol Surface is out as the Chief People Officer at Apple. It was less than two years ago when I commented on Chance Miller’s post about her joining the executive team:

I’m a bit surprised to see Apple hire an “outsider” for this high-profile role. I thought they had learned their lesson last time. Hopefully, Surface fits within Apple’s culture better than other external hires.

[…]

Surface certainly has the receipts to be successful in this role. Apple’s been dropping down the “best places to work” list, so they could use a change up in that regard. I wish Surface all the best, and hope we hear positive feedback from Apple employees about her tenure. I’m extra rooting for her since I see she earned her Ph.D. from Central Michigan University; it’s also my alma mater.

While we don’t know much about why Surface is leaving (besides the many jokes I’m sure were made about her name sounding like she should be an executive at Microsoft instead), the trend would say that executive leadership hired outside of Apple don’t tend to last. Despite all her years of experience in similar roles elsewhere, Surface’s less than 20 months at Apple doesn’t seem great.

It was Chance Miller again who weighed in today at 9to5Mac on the news:

Bloomberg notes that with Surface’s departure, [Deirdre] O’Brien, a 30-year Apple veteran, will once again take the reins on manning both the retail and people teams at Apple.

I wish I had more insight on how Apple employees feel about Surface’s reign as CPO. Maybe she made a bunch of internal improvements, but those kinds of rumors aren’t often the ones that leak. If there’s anything we know about Deirdre O’Brien, it’s that she’s in it for the long haul.

Linked

Adam Newbold, of omg.lol proprietor fame, is setting up a direct phone support line for his one-man company:

I remember the days when you could just punch in a number, hear a ring or two, and talk to a person who was qualified to answer your question or help you with your problem. I think we all took that for granted, because it was the default experience. There was nothing special or magical about it; it’s just how things worked.

And I think it can still work today. It’s worth a try, at least. So, starting right now, I’m offering phone support for Neatnik LLC products and services (like omg.lol). You can call +1-707-NEATNIK (+1-707-632-8645), and if I’m available, I’ll answer.

After trying and failing to figure out how to call Amazon’s support line with their thousands of employees, I love that this is coming from a one-man show.

The first thing I thought of when reading Adam’s post, though, was an old video I saw recently of a video game studio employee providing excellent game support to a customer over the phone.¹ The customer couldn’t figure out how to get past a level, and the service agent talked him right through, all without skipping a beat of the game they were playing while talking. I like to imagine that will be Adam, fielding calls with ease while coding up the next goodie.

Linked

I loved this interview and showcase of Lynn Hill on Climbing Gold. She describes the beauty and challenge of movement in rock climbing so well in this clip:

But the whole point of climbing in general is to adapt yourself to the rock in the most clever way that you can using whatever you were given, your body size, finger size. None of that is as important as your mind and your solutions and your ability to persevere.

There’s someone who gets it. The interplay of mind and body, solving problems through a delicate balance of poise and power, that’s what I love climbing.

Honestly, the whole episode is worth listening to, even if you’re not into climbing. You’ll hear the story of how Lynn shattered expectations by climbing one of the most iconic routes in the world before anyone else — including and especially any men. It wouldn’t be repeated for over a decade.

You’ll also hear about how Lynn was at there at the beginning of climbing sponsorship, or what we’d call “professional rock climbing” today. But when the sponsor started looking for more “engagement” and reliance on social media, she stuck to her personal values and bowed out. (Without denigrating anyone who does earn their living that way, by the way.)

Lynn Hill was and is an inspiration. And still a damn good climber.

Podcasts Climbing

Editor-in-Chief Gerald Lynch breaks the bad news in ‘One More Thing… Goodbye from iMore’:

Dig out your old iPod and fire up your ‘Songs to cry to’ playlist, I come bearing sad news. After more than 15 years covering everything Apple, it’s with a heavy heart I announce that we will no longer be publishing new content on iMore.

I want to kick off by thanking you all for your support over the many years and incarnations of the site. Whether you were a day-one early adopter in the ‘PhoneDifferent’ days, came on board with ‘The iPhone Blog,’ or recently started reading to find out what the hell Apple Vision Pro is, it’s been a privilege to serve you a daily slice of Apple pie. […]

I would like to take this moment to thank everyone from the iMore community, past and present, for their support and passion for what we’ve created over the years. A massive thanks goes to iMore’s previous leaders, Lory Gil, Serenity Caldwell, and Joe Keller, and of course, the inimitable Rene Ritchie who kickstarted this wonder all those years back. I hope we’ve done you all proud.

Wow. iMore used to be at the top of my daily Apple blog reading. It’s through them that I found voices that I loved to read, like Rene, Serenity, and Mikah Sargent. From their works, I can draw a direct line to me trying out podcasts, to the Relay community, to discovering more related blogs and voices in the tech community, to finding the inspiration to start writing this very blog myself.

That said, when my favorite writers left iMore, it gradually fell off my reading list altogether. That’s not to say that today’s writers there aren’t up to snuff, it’s just they never broke back onto my radar. I suppose that’s part of what led to today’s announcement.

One notable silver lining is that the iMore site will remain up indefinitley:

iMore will stay online so readers can continue to access articles from the archive, and the forum at https://forums.imore.com will remain active until November 1 to serve our community.

It’d be a shame to see the iMore site end up being taken over by AI slop the way TUAW was, especially since Lynch notes that it’s AI that is at center of the changing dynamics of online publishing:

It’s a keen reminder that the world of technology never stands still: The term ‘artificial intelligence’ was the reserve of science fiction in the early days of the iPhone. The world of publishing is forever evolving too, as do the forms of technology journalism that look to shine a light on the industry. iMore leaves the stage at a pivotal crossroads for online publishing, where the battle for readers’ time and attention is more demanding than ever before, and the aforementioned AI advances and search discovery methods further complicate the playing field.

Anyway, I’m raising a glass to iMore tonight. Thanks for the many years of entertaining and helpful blogging, and for being part of the journey. I wish all their writers the best of luck in whatever comes next.

Linked

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

1️⃣ Tyler pokes fun at the (admittedly overkill) permissions prompts in macOS Sequoia. [🔗 tyler.io]

2️⃣ Sony’s playing the nostalgia card hard with this, and I love it! [🔗 Sean Hollister // theverge.com]

3️⃣ Oh hey, sounds like AI chatbots are pretty good at debunking conspiratorial claims and and reducing people’s belief in conspiracy theories. [🔗 The Good News Podcast // overcast.fm]

4️⃣ Numeric Citizen’s got a great tip on how to start fresh with a new Apple Watch, but keep your old favorite watch face layouts. I wish it worked for Home Screens too! [🔗 blog.numericcitizen.me]

5️⃣ I thought this discussion on how and when to call for help in the backcountry was important and helpful. Basically, it should be a last resort, but when you’ve gotten to that point, don’t hesitate to hit the SOS button. [🔗 The Sharp End Podcast // overcast.fm]

6️⃣ This “social network” app that’s simply a wave of AI bots replying to your every post is fascinating. Not something that particularly appeals to me — I want to talk to people, not bots — but I can see how it might scratch the itch of posting something to the world while still being private. Well, as private as something can be when it has to be processed by their AI model. It does make me wonder if they’ve invented a new way to gather everyone’s deepest, darkest thoughts and secrets. 😬 [🔗 SocialAI // apps.apple.com]

7️⃣ Here’s just a general shoutout to Matt Birchler and his site Birchtree. It’s one of my favorite blogs; I love what he’s doing over there. Many blog posts per week. Some short, some long. Great voice. Strong opinions expressed with kindness. What’s not to like? [🔗 birchtree.me]

Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.

7 Things

My barging in (and not so subtle attempt to someday be a guest) on “the tech podcast with no plans to add a new button.”

⏱️⏱️⏱️

Mikah Sargent: Are the new Instagram teen accounts a step in the right direction, or will it not have an effect at all?

Speaking as someone who doesn’t have kids (and doesn’t plan to either), I’m still glad that Instagram has implemented these new changes. With a grain of salt, though. Having teen accounts be private by default seems like a no-brainer. Giving parents more access to their kids’ accounts could be good, but it also seems like a bit of an invasion of privacy. There are plenty of kids who don’t have good relationships with their parents and I worry a bit about what their activity there could inadvertently reveal.

That said, I’m glad parents don’t have unfettered access to their kids’ messaging, and it sounds like Instagram struck a good enough balance for now. And if teens don’t like the changes, they’ll move onto the next app that isn’t as restrictive. So it goes.

(Oh, and I hadn’t even considered how divorced or otherwise split parents will affect who and how they can manage their kid’s account. That’s gotta be messy.)

⏱️⏱️⏱️

Stephen Robles: Do you care at all about how fast your phone charges, and what do you use on your nightstand as a charger?

I’ve been over worrying about charging speeds for several years now. Really since MagSafe came out, which eliminated my worry about my phone not being positioned correctly to get a good charge overnight. If I need to charge quickly, I’ll plug in with a cable, but most of the time my phone gets enough charge via MagSafe overnight, or for the 20 or so minutes of my commute where I’ll usually (but not always) plug it in. I let the software manage charging speeds and whatnot (like only charging to 80% until just before my usual wake-up time), and I just don’t worry. I’ve got a MagSafe Battery Pack in my backpack just in case, but it’s pretty rare for me to need it, unless I’m on a long hike.

my phone onto the dock and feel that it’s secured to the magnets. It’s great! (And I suppose I could just swap in the faster MagSafe puck, if I cared to.)

I used to pack up the MagSafe Duo for trips, but now I’ve got a Twelve South Butterfly dock, which is my travel setup. Watch and phone get charged with the Butterfly and AirPods can usually last fine without a nightly top-off.

⏱️⏱️⏱️

Dan Moren: What is your favorite iOS 18 feature among the myriad of improvements?

Hard to say for sure because I haven’t tried everything yet, but two that immediately come to mind are the refreshed Control Center and Send Later for Messages.

I love that there are so many more things that I can put into Control Center for quick actions. I’ve already put into some actions from Simple Scan to quickly scan things to particular destinations, and I’m going to be loading up on shortcuts, I’m sure. Free-form arrangement is nice, too.

Sometimes the thing you want to say would be better said later. Being able to choose a delivery time is clutch. I’ve got to do some testing to see what happens when you schedule a message for a time when you’re out of connection range or if your phone is off, but it’s been working great so far.

⏱️⏱️⏱️

Joe Rosensteel: What’s your least favorite Apple software update?

By far, the even more naggy permission prompts on macOS. Apple, you gotta give us actual control over our own computers to eliminate those prompts.

⏱️⏱️⏱️

Bonus Topic: Who was your favorite teacher?

I had a lot of good ones, but the teacher who sticks out above the rest was Mr. Beyer. He was my high school band director for all four years of concert/marching/symphony/jazz band. He, more than anyone else, taught me that people will rise to the expectations you place upon them. Expect greatness, and people will rise to the challenge. Expect mediocrity, and that’s what you’ll get.

He brought such passion (and, yes, a temper) to his teaching and conducting. And we sure did punch above our weight class with his high expectations.

⏰⏰⏰

Overtime Topic: What stock app on iPhone would you like to see get a major redesign, and what would you like to see changed?

I’d go with the Music app. It hasn’t seen a major upgrade in years, and I find it pretty clunky to navigate through. In fact, I’ve been using Marvis Pro for quite a while because I appreciate its quick interface and finely-tunable customization options. But, not being a first-party app with direct access to all things Apple Music, it doesn’t always work quite right. So I’d like to see more customization, personalization, and speed brought to the stock Music app.

And, for the love of god, add better annual Replay/Wrapped features into the app instead of exclusively on a website.

Until next time, watch what you say, and keep watching the clock. Bye everybody!

Crashing Clockwise

I “tweeted” my first impressions of my new phone and headphones last night after about an hour of use. It all holds up still today.

On the latest non-Pro AirPods:

My several-sentence review of the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (after about 60 minutes):

• They seem to fit well and are comfy! 🥳
• Sound is great! 🔊
• Noise Cancellation is quite good! 🔇
• Stem-squeeze controls aren’t so bad. 🤌
• Case is tiny! ◽️
• Contenders for Best AirPods Yet! 🥇

And on the big new phone:

My several-sentence iPhone 16 Pro review (after about 30 minutes):

• Screen is amazing! 🤩
• Device is so big and heavy! 🙁
• Rails are shinier than I expected/wanted. 😕
• But the rounded edges feel great. 🙂
• Action Button & Camera Control quick-access will be nice. 👍
• Undecided on white color. 🤷‍♂️

If I’m honest, though, I’ve been on the iPhone comparison page today, looking to see what I’d be missing by swapping to a regular iPhone 16. It’s a full ounce lighter (👍), but the same width (👎). I can’t type one-handed on this thing! I don’t think the always-on display is something I’d miss. The ProMotion 120Hz display sure makes everything feel snappy, but, again, probably not a dealbreaker. All the cameras are major upgrades from my 13 mini anyway, and I’m just not that much of a photographer that I need the 5x telephoto lens.

I think I’m talking myself out of the Pro phone. Stay tuned, I’ve got a two-week return window to try this out.

Reviews

Sometimes I feel like Simon & Garfunkel wrote this song precisely so that Disturbed could perform it.

Years (and many, many listens) later and it still gives me chills.

Music