Well, a little less than two months since Mozilla announced it was happening, Pocket, the venerable read-it-later service, has officially shut down.

I’ve been meaning for the last few days to check when Mozilla was turning out the lights; go figure, it’s today.

I’ve exported all my saves, which turned out to be a list of nearly 15,000 URLs split across two CSV files.

My real-later journey has been long and winding. I’ve traveled from Instapaper to Pocket to Readability to Instapaper to Reeder to Goodlinks to Readwise Reader to Pocket. But when I got a Kobo a few years ago, I settled on Pocket since you can read your saved items on the e-reader. Pocket has also had great integration with the Reeder app.

Although I rarely use the Pocket app or website, I’ve been very happy with its text parsing and reliability. And I’ve appreciated how democratic it is. It seems like it’s been very developer-friendly, available everywhere, and able to be integrated in other apps.

In fact, I had vague plans of trying to build my own read-later app upon Pocket’s infrastructure some day. I guess that won’t be happening now.

To maintain my current read-it-later workflow, my plan is to import my saves into Instapaper, since it has the same integration with Reeder as Pocket did.¹ That aspect should be fairly seamless. But my Kobo will go back to being purely for reading books.

You had a good run, Pocket. Rest easy, my friend.

Apps

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

1️⃣ Nick Heer does the work in dismantling this sexist post regarding Apple’s ass handed to it by Judge Gonzalez Rogers. [🔗 pxlnv.com]

2️⃣ Whoa. Monty Python and the Holy Grail turned 50 this year! It still makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it (which you can do for free on YouTube). [🔗 kottke.org]

3️⃣ I had no idea Taylor Swift was so web-forward right from the beginning. She had her music available to download from her website back in 2002 (when she was 13) and by 2003 had a ‘Taylor Talk’ tab there — which I presume was an early blog before she had Tumblr. [🔗 webdesignmuseum.org]

4️⃣ This restaurant is mind-blowing. It looks like a drawing inside! [🔗 kottke.org]

5️⃣ The Baltimore Ravens went all out in their Severance-themed scheduled reveal video. [▶️ youtube.com]

6️⃣ BasicAppleGuy is trying a new approach to reader support in which all his wallpapers and other haberdashery remain free to everyone, but can also be purchased to easily download the files all at once. I like the idea and hope it’s successful for him! [🔗 basicappleguy.com]

7️⃣ This overlapping version of “Dear Theodosia” is beautiful. [▶️ 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

I’m glad that Jason Snell blogged about his skepticism toward the OpenAI and io partnership because his feelings almost exactly mirror my own. Personally, I don’t trust Sam Altman any further than I could throw him. But I do trust Jony Ive — so his high regard for Altman has to count for something.

The framing of this as “two friends coming together” makes me uncomfortable. It’s like they’re trying to say Sam + Jony is the new Steve + Jony spiritual partnership the world’s been missing without actually saying it.

And yet, I’m glad to see Jony Ive excited about building a tech product again. And it brings me joy that he’s able to continue working with his chosen family of designers. As Snell says:

Never count out Jony Ive and the talented people that surround him. They’ve gotten the band back together, thanks to an enormous investment of AI money, and we’re going to find out–eventually–what they want to put into the world.

The language they’re using certainly frames the product as The Next Big Thing. I hope it really is, because I’d hate to see this team lose credibility in the way Humane — also stacked with ex-Apple talent — did. Theirs is not the roadmap I’d want to see followed.

Linked

A list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted when I’ve got 7 of them. Sometimes themed, often not.

1️⃣ This might be the fastest and easiest dollar I’ve ever spent. This browser extension replaces images of Trump and Musk with kittens. [🔗 apps.apple.com] (Via Lou Plummer)

2️⃣ If the words “HomeStar Runner” mean anything to you, this video is going to make you very happy. [🔗 homestarrunner.com]

3️⃣ If you’re a Harry Potter fan, this zine will probably make you sad. But it resonated with me, a superfan who has nevertheless been disgusted by JKR’s behavior toward trans folks and now feels conflicted about enjoying the series itself. [🔗 redgoldsparkspress.com]

4️⃣ A folding e-reader? Now we’re talking! [🔗 theverge.com]

5️⃣ Niléane’s roundup of playful Mac apps is so fun! [🔗 macstories.net]

6️⃣ David Sparks showed off Perplexity’s new voice assistant app. It’s pretty wild how good they made it hooking into Apple’s native frameworks and does make Siri look extra bad. [🔗 macsparky.com]

7️⃣ YEAH TOAST! My buddy reminded me of this song that has rattling around in the back of my head for half my life. Love it. [▶️ 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

Acapulco returns in July for a fourth and final season. I’ve enjoyed this series, and I’m glad they’re wrapping up here — it feels like a natural conclusion.

Trying, my underrated favorite, is renewed for a fifth season! Maybe we already knew this and I forgot, but I can’t wait. S4 felt a bit off, so I hope they’ve got their mojo back.

TV Shows

You’d have no way of knowing, but I swapped the entire infrastructure that HeyDingus runs on from Dropbox to iCloud today. It took all of two minutes and a few mouse clicks.

How? Through the magic of file syncing and my hosting service, Blot.

Since the beginning, Blot’s whole advantage was to turn a folder on your computer into a site on the World Wide Web. Originally, Dropbox was the only syncing service that Blot worked with, but over time, David (Blot’s developer) added Git and Google Drive as well. I tried Google Drive at one point but switched back to Dropbox after hitting some weird bugs (that I think are ironed out now). I’ve never tried Git syncing, but if you’re already comfortable with Git, I expect it’d be a really handy way to get syncing and version control for everything on your site.

All the while, the five-ish years that I’ve been writing HeyDingus, iCloud syncing has been on the roadmap but never seemed to be getting much of David’s attention. I wanted it badly, mostly for app compatibility but also because I have a distaste for Dropbox’s device limits and other restrictions. Well, he must have been working hard on it behind the scenes because a month or so ago David announced that iCloud syncing was ready to try!

Having learned my lesson when Google Drive syncing was fresh out of the oven, I convinced myself to hold off and wait for others to root out the bugs. I kept an eye on Blot’s question forum (handily available via RSS), and when I didn’t see any issues arise, I figured I could give it a shot. And then, when I set up my new M4 MacBook Air and didn’t want to install Dropbox and do the device authorization dance, I knew the time had come.

So today, I logged into my Blot dashboard (which I hardly ever have to visit since everything just syncs via my local computer) and headed to the folder sync section. I selected “iCloud”, followed the insanely easy directions¹ to set it up, and voilá my site was rebuilt from the files in iCloud.

It even managed to maintain the Created on and Modified on dates for all my files!

There’s narry a hiccup so far,² and although there’s still a chance iCloud will behave poorly, everyone’s experience in the forums seems to have been very smooth and positive so far. And while you, dear reader, probably won’t notice a thing, I’m anticipating a nice improvement in my workflows for writing and publishing here.

You see, not every writing app has direct integration with Dropbox. And while you’d think that Dropbox would be highly motivated to implement the right APIs so that they would work just like iCloud as a file provider in the file system, there seems to be some disconnect there, and apps such as iA Writer couldn’t use Dropbox as a reliable location to read and write files. As a result, I’ve had to use 1Writer (which does have direct Dropbox integration) on my iPhone and iPad to edit posts on the go. 1Writer is a fine app, but hasn’t seen much development in recent years and has never clicked as well with me as iA Writer.

The only adjustments I’ll need to make will be to rejigger a few of my Shortcuts and Drafts automations to write to iCloud rather than Dropbox. But I expect those workflows to be simpler and reliable as well, since I should be able to write directly to the file system, instead of round-tripping via an internet connection and the Dropbox API before syncing back to my device. Working with the first-party file syncing feature rather than the bolted-on third-party one should be a breath of fresh air.

I tip my hat to David for working through all the challenges of building on top of iCloud as a web service, and for making it so easy to swap syncing services. I’m looking forward to getting even more value from my iCloud subscription and uninstalling Dropbox from my devices.

Blogging

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

1️⃣ Ryan Christoffel’s got a good tip for wrangling AirPods’ noise canceling modes with Shortcuts. [🔗 9to5mac.com]

2️⃣ Matt Birchler made a quick little website to house his quick little tools. [🔗 quickstuff.app]

3️⃣ Jason Snell lists out his favorite titles from Apple TV+ if you’re looking for something else to get your money’s worth from your subscription. I wholeheartedly agree with his recommendations, but I have to add Trying as my underrated favorite. (Dickinson, part of the inaugural lineup, is quite good too, and also rarely gets mentioned.) [🔗 sixcolors.com]

4️⃣ Great news for climbing fans! Each climbing discipline at 2028 L.A. Olympics (bouldering, speed climbing, lead climbing) will get their own set of medals! We’ll see more intense competition for sure, seeing as climbers won’t need to be all-rounders and can play to their strength. [🔗 climbing.com]

5️⃣ While technically about climbing gear, this HowNOT2 video does a great job explaining how tariffs affect retailers (and ultimately consumers), how they will have to manage inventory and cash flow, and price products to manage. At 14 minutes, I think it’s well-worth your time. [▶️ youtube.com]

6️⃣ If you’re like me and “discovered” Benson Boone from his recent viral performance at the Grammys(?), I think you’ll enjoy this video of his debut auditioning for American Idol back in the day. [▶️ youtube.com]

7️⃣ Warren Buffet’s shareholder letter for Berkshire Hathaway reads like no other big business document. John Gruber pulled out some prescient passages that stuck with me. [🔗 daringfireball.net]

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

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

1️⃣ I did not know about these keyboard shortcuts in YouTube to step forward and backward by one frame. 🔗 support.google.com (Via John Gruber)

2️⃣ I very much appreciated this piece that Sarah Jeong wrote in response to criticism about the headline that she wrote as editor for The Verge’s piece on Trump’s illegal firing of Democratic FTC commissioners. She explained how and why she wrote the original headline, and conceded that she got it wrong. 🔗 theverge.com

3️⃣ Robb Knight created the crossover event the world needed. 🧡 🔗 wellness.rknight.me

4️⃣ Conan O’Brien nails it in his acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. ▶️ youtube.com

5️⃣ Apple TV+ did a blue balloon installation in London to celebrate the season 2 finale of Severance and I love it. They’ve really pulled out all of the marketing stops for this show. (Hopefully more shows will start to get this kind of treatment too!) ▶️ youtube.com

6️⃣ Jason Snell flips the ad-free vs. ad-supported Netflix tier question on its head. Instead of how much can I save by watching ads? he asks, how much would Netflix have to pay me to watch their ads?. 🔗 sixcolors.com

7️⃣ Some genuinely surprising and good news out of Wisconsin: Liberal-leaning Susan Crawford won their Supreme Court seat despite Elon Musk pouring money in to help her opponent, Brad Schimel. Schimel encouraged his supporters to accept the results. 👩‍⚖️ wpr.org

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

Matt Birchler in a (paywalled) post on Birchtree:

I’m of course publishing this the day after the Severance season 2 finale, but I’ve had this draft open for a few weeks as the entire second season (and Silo season 2 a few months earlier) has gotten this “I’m a season one guy” idea rolling around in my head. I think it’s cool to see more of the world and have new characters come into the mix, but I also think that Severance season 1 captured lightning in a bottle; it was a perfect, contained concept, masterfully executed.

I loved the Severance S2 finale — it’s an edge-of-the-seat, heart pounding, yell at the TV sort of episode — but felt the same way as Matt throughout the season.

My wife and I actually had this same discussion after the finale, how many Apple TV+ shows are this way. Ted Lasso, Trying, and Mythic Quest all immediately come to mind. Fantastic shows, each one, and I’ve enjoyed all subsequent seasons, but their first seasons all wrapped with satisfying endings despite there being cliffhangers.

Shrinking and For All Mankind buck the trend with returning seasons just as good as the first, and Silo I actually liked season 2 more, but overall I might be a season 1 sorta guy too.

TV Shows

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

1️⃣ I’ve long wondered how folks did bold and italic text on sites like Twitter that didn’t support formatting. This website does it for you using (unfortunately not very accessible) ✨Unicode✨. (Micro.blog, my social media of choice, does it using HTML, which is better, but isn’t supported everywhere — though most Mastodon servers seem to display it correctly.) [🔗 yaytext.com] (Via Dave Winer)

2️⃣ Such joy. Such power. Such precision. Such talent. Wow. [🔗 instagram.com]

3️⃣ Bluesky CEO Jay Graber subposts Mark Zuckerberg with her own Latin shirt reading “A world without Caesars”. [🔗 theverge.com]

4️⃣ Sindre Sorhus just can’t help but put out these awesome little apps. His newest is Googly Eyes which puts, well, googly eyes in your menu bar that follow your cursor around the screen. 👀😆 [🦣 mastodon.social]

5️⃣ For my fellow Shortcuts nerds, Joe Steel has a tip on setting the order of items passed into a shortcut. Photos always wants to do newest first, but using the ‘Filter Files’ action, you can make it do oldest first. But not without some shenanigans, as Joe found out. [🔗 duck.haus]

6️⃣ Want some unofficial Severance-inspired Lumon merch? Adam Selby’s got you covered! [🔗 adamselby.gumroad.com]

7️⃣ Nathan Longhurst is a guy to keep an eye on. He just summitted 100 peaks in New Zealand over a summer by using a paraglider to get down. Seems like these massive challenges are his deal. [🔗 climbing.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