Another Wednesday Sunday, another crashing of Clockwise. Being the fly on the wall of these conversations with you guys and your guests is quickly becoming a highlight of my week. You know the drill, letās get going.
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
Dan Moren:Iām curious about how you consume books these days. Are you a paper book person, an e-book person, audiobook? And where do you buy them, and read them?
Well, now, thatās an interesting question. At this very moment, one two three four five six seven paper books on my nightstand, all begging to be read. Also on that nightstand, I have a Kobo e-reader with a couple of digital titles queued up, and thatās definitely my preferred way to read. Iāll download e-books from my library via the Libby app, which the Kobo can do on-device, or Iāll purchase them directly from Kobo if itās not available to check out and Iām itching to read it now (which rarely happens).
But the true answer is that I havenāt finished any books this year (well, except for one that I re-read in the spring) because I also have an iPad mini chock full of hundreds of web articles saved to read. Those probably equate to dozens of novels consumed in terms of the number of words ā actually, Iād love to know thatā¦hopefully Pocket will come out with a āwrappedā feature soon ā but little actual book reading gets done in any form lately.
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
Florence Ion:What are you doing with your health data?
In a word, collecting. I wear an Apple Watch every day, which keeps track of all kinds of metrics for me, from heart rate to step count to goodness-only-knows-what. For a few years, I was also stepping on our smart scale every morning to log my weight (which Iām only just now realizing Iād stopped and should start that up again). Iāve had connected water bottles, apps, and shortcuts to keep a history of my water intake.
But what do I do with that data? Not much.
I do occasionally like to go diving through the trends and make that weird frown-like shape with my mouth while nodding up and down as I come across some interesting insight. But I donāt have a primary care physician (I know, I know, I will) so I donāt really have anyone to share it with. I guess Iām just tracking on the off chance that it will be useful someday, and Iām happy to keep doing so as long as it doesnāt add much extra hassle to my day.
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
Mikah Sargent:How, if at all, have you used technology to help you with house chores?
The first thing that comes to mind is apps. Iāve piled reminders for chores into my task manager over the years, to varying levels of success. I particularly like when you can set a task to repeat X number of days after the last completion. So for things like changing out the cat litter, itāll restart the clock for when I need to change it next, even if I didnāt get it down on the exact day that it was set to be due. Without those reminders, many fewer chores would get done around our house.
That said, Iām close to declaring task bankruptcy because of everything thatās gotten jammed up in there. Too many tasks are ādue todayā not because they need to get done today, but because I set a due date so that I wouldnāt lose track of them, but Iāve yet to complete them. With dozens of tasks cluttering up my āTodayā view, some chores have slipped through the cracks, which is no good at all.
Thatās why, as of listening to the very discussion, Iāve moved a bunch of those chores and things that require nagging over to the Due app. Dueās claim to fame is that it will continually send notifications to remind you to get a task done until you actually check it off. Iām hoping that the combination of nagging, and having them separate and prominent, will help me to check them off.
The other bit of tech that has transformed a chore is our litter robot. This contraption āscoopsā (really pushes) the catās business away into a contained area, and then the box only needs to be switched out every few weeks. I love that I donāt need to scoop the cat litter every day, which used to be my least favorite household task, but the machine leaves a bit to be desired. Iām considering picking up a different style of litter robot because I donāt think I can ever go back to doing it manually.
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
Christopher Phin:What bit of old software, that you donāt use anymore, do you have a weirdly disproportionate crush on?
As a connoisseur of productivity apps, I still long for the days of Wunderlist and Mailbox. Both were best-in-class, offered delightful interactions and animations, and were each acquired and subsequently āsunsetā.
Wunderlist by 6Wunderkinder ā a fantastic name for a business, by the way ā ran my life in the same way that Things does now. Iāve always had an affinity for task management apps, and it was Wunderlist that instilled in me a need for them to look and feel good. It pulled me away from Reminders, and I doubt I could go back now. It was acquired by Microsoft and its spirit now lives on somewhere in Microsoft To-Do.
Mailbox was everyoneās favorite email app, which is a surprising thing to say because nowadays no one can agree on a good email app. It pioneered things that we consider table stakes these days: swipe to archive, snooze, and push notifications for emails. It was also the first app that I can remember to launch with a massive waitlist. It was fairly minimal in its design to begin with, but Mailbox had one of the best redesigns to fit in with iOS 7ās āflatā interface. When you cleared out your inbox, it revealed a pleasant version of the mailbox logo and I aspired to see the new version each day. Dropbox eventually acquired Mailbox and killed it off a few years later without a replacement. The closest Mailbox experience Iāve found is Spark by Readdle, although Iād say thatās getting kind of bloated and losing the thread these days.
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
Bonus Question:Do you have a favorite holiday tradition?
When I was young, it was waking up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, after Santa had arrived, and sleeping next to the Christmas Tree waiting for the rest of the family to wake up and begin the festivities.
Nowadays, I like stretching the day out with baking cookies, opening stockings, and then getting to the gift-giving. Giving gifts is my love language (along with email), so itās always an enjoyable day.
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
My Question:Which accessibility feature of your device(s) do you get the most use out of?
Iāve tried many features from the Accessibility pane of Settings over the years, and I actually just wrote up a big blog post about the Personal Voice feature this week. But the one Iām getting the most use out of is the āSpeak Screenā feature, which you can use to have your device read out whatās on the screen. Itās kind of like a less detailed version of VoiceOver, and I use it to read articles out loud from apps that lack their own text-to-speech feature. Iāll also use it to proofread this very article!
š°ļøš°ļøš°ļø
This was fun, as always! But that first episode of December will be here before we know it! Until then, thanks for having me on yet again.
2ļøā£ Want a quick pick-me-up? Scroll through this thread of some truly excellent kid-friendly jokes. š [š @mosseri // threads.net]
3ļøā£ If you want to be in control of your space on the web, that starts with the domain name. Micro.blog has seriously souped up their domain registration and transfer capabilities this week. [š Manton Reece // manton.org]
5ļøā£ Based on this introduction video, the holy grail of AI-generated art is here: text-to-video. Iām on the waitlist, so I canāt tell you if itās actually any good, but it sure does look impressive. [š¤ pika.art]
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 Iām finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
Just wanted to pass along a message that Cotton Bureau, where I host the HeyDingus Store, is having a 50% off sale on all phone cases this weekend. That means you can get delightful phone huggers such as these for as little as $14!
Hereās my final exchange with Kev Quirk for theĀ Letters projectĀ this month. You can follow along with our conversation here, but you owe it to yourself to see the awesome email styling that heās done over on his site.
So here we are, the last email of the month. This has been a lot of fun and Iām looking forward to getting to know Robb Knight in December. So thanks for giving me the idea to do this; itās a lot of fun. Anyway, onto your emailā¦
Youāve mentioned a couple of times that youāre not a fan of Micro.blog/Hugo for a personal blog. Iām curious about what you find so limiting.
Itās the fact that I canāt do things like managed the site header and meta data. Obviously I could do that with Hugo, but I canāt with Micro.blog. I also dislike that full posts and micro posts are all munged up together with no obviously difference between the 2. For Hugo, I dislike the templating. I had a taste of it when I created the theme for the Micro.blog site and it was really difficult for me to wrap my head around - it just didnāt make any logical sense to me.
The climbing gymā/ādoggy daycare sounds like a great idea. Itās a diverse business too, so youāre more likely to succeed. I wish you the best of luck with itā¦very exciting!
My next question, though, is how do you keep them all synced up?
I donāt. :-) I have 1 watch (a G-SHOCK) that automatically sets its time via radio, so thatās the āmainā watch that I use to set all my others by. A lot of my watches are mechanical, so they stop after a couple of days in the case anyway, so they have to be re-set with every wear. For the digitals, the only time they really need to be set is for DST, or reverse. I used to set them all in one go, but it was a pain. Now I just re-set set them as I wear them.
Iāve noticed over the years that Iām good in a crisis; when big stuff goes off, I keep a cool head and am usually the voice of reason. But small things (like a handful of watches not being perfectly in sync) really irks me, so Iām trying really hard to not let this kinda thing bother me as it isnāt good. Another good example is when Iām using shampoo and conditioner - if one is used at a higher rate than the other, it really bothers me. Iām a details person, and I need to try and stop this ridiculous stuff from annoying me.
Thatās why I donāt set my watches. :-)
However, I do follow the RSS feedsā¦
Some really good recommendations there, thanks. I try not to watch the news these days, as itās often depressing and I donāt want that in my life. I think the quick summaries would be good for keeping up with current affairs though.
Are you a podcast listener?
I am. I tend to switch between audiobooks and podcasts while walking the dogs. At the moment Iām on podcasts. A few of my favourites are This American Life, Serial, Smashing Security and Land of The Giants. Iāve also recently started listening to Vergecast, and while itās generally good, it feels very AI heavy. IF you have any other recommendations, Iād love to hear them.
I think thatās that wrap. Iām happy to keep this conversation going, but I obviously wonāt publish it. It also might take a little longer for me to reply. Like I said at the top of the email, thanks for the idea, Iāve really enjoyed this process and Iām looking forward to both reading your subsequent letters, and taking part in mine.
Thanks,
Kev
Hey Kev,
Man, that month flew by fast! Iāve had an excellent time getting to know you. I agree, this longer format is super fun to explore. I donāt hear from many people about the posts, so I wonder if other readers also find it naval gaze-y or awkward to āeavesdropā in on these conversations, like that one gentleman mentioned. But I like reading them, and I canāt wait to hear what you get into with Robb.
Itās the fact that I canāt do things likeā¦
Those are solid, respectable reasons. Iāll admit that the little Iāve looked into the templating with Hugo, it does not read very logically. I picked up what I needed to from Mustache fairly easily, so Iām not too worried that Iād get stumped by Hugo, but youāre right, itās a bit jumbled. The more Iāve looked into it, the more I think I need to wait for some key features to get introduced before Iām ready to make the leap. On micro-posts and regular posts being mixed togetherā¦thatās an issue Iāve gone back and forth on a bunch. I think Iād offer a toggle at the top of the page (maybe it could somehow save a readerās preference) that would switch between showing just regular posts, just micro-posts, or everything. Seems like an interesting design challenge.
Thanks for the encouragement about my small business idea. I think Iāll make it a goal to have some sort of progress made toward it next year.
I donāt. [ā¦] [T]hey have to be re-set with every wear.
Haha, thatās what I imagined. At first, I thought that would be super annoying, but now I think it would be a nice ritual. It would slow things down a bit and present an opportunity to really appreciate each watch as you go through the motions of syncing it up.
Iāve noticed over the years that Iām good in a crisis; [ā¦] But small things (like a handful of watches not being perfectly in sync) really irks me
Iām exactly the same. I think many of us who joyfully dive into customizing every aspect of our computing life and online presence probably have some sort of detail-obsessiveness to us. I donāt know if that correlates with performing with a cool head in a crisis, but I certainly feel that way. The world condenses down to just what I can control in those situations, and solutions typically come to mind with extra clarity.
I wish you luck on your ānot caring so much about the little thingsā journey. It sounds like itās working out alright with the watches. Life is stressful enough already, why let yourself add any extra, right?
I try not to watch the news these days, as itās often depressing and I donāt want that in my life.
When I go to my parentsā house and the news channel is always on in the living room, it drives me absolutely bonkers. I canāt imagine now how I lived with all that blaring into my earholes every day growing up. Iāll just straight-up turn it off when Iām there to get some peace.
I tend to switch between audiobooks and podcasts while walking the dogs.
Audiobooks used to be bedtime and car ride pleasures. Now all my listening time has been devoted to podcasts, but I think Iām about ready to diversify more again. Iāve been atrocious about reading books this year, even though my want-to-read stack grows ever larger. Itās just that there are all these great blog posts that I discover and save every day, and those seem more time sensitive to get toā¦so they suck up all the reading time. I can passively recognize that Iām far more likely to remember and value the time spent reading a book, and yet itās so hard to change the habit. Keenanās blog post, ironically, has been a brainworm, though, and is helping me to reconsider things.
Land of the Giants has been on my listen list for a while. Iāve checked out a few episodes here and there, and theyāve always been excellent. Iāll make just one recommendation this time, and I know I just lambasted the news, but The Good News Podcast has been a daily listen for me for years and years now. Itās short, happy, and puts me in the right mood to start the day.
Thanks again for taking the time to be part of this project. It really has been an absolute pleasure and an honor to chat with you. Letās certainly keep the communication going, either here or over on the social web. And best of luck with all those house projects. š
I finally got around to creating a Personal Voice on my iPhone the other day. I had big plans for it, and was thrilled it only took 15 minutes of recording, and then one overnight of processing ā I thought itād take like an hour, and then days of waiting. Guess what, itās pretty accurate, too!
Creating your Personal Voice involves 15 minutes of reading some quirky phrases aloud to your phone. ā
This fall, Apple launched its new Personal Voice feature, available with iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma. With Personal Voice, users at risk of speech loss can create a voice that sounds like them by following a series of text prompts to capture 15 minutes of audio. Apple has long been at the forefront of neural text-to-speech technology. With Personal Voice, Apple is able to train neural networks entirely on-device to advance speech accessibility while protecting usersā privacy.
Paired with Live Speech, another new feature from this fall, users can hold ongoing conversations in a replica of their own voice:
Live Speech, another speech accessibility feature Apple released this fall, offers users the option to type what they want to say and have the phrase spoken aloud, whether it is in their Personal Voice or in any built-in system voice. Users with physical, motor, and speech disabilities can communicate in the way that feels most natural and comfortable for them by combining Live Speech with features like Switch Control and AssistiveTouch, which offer alternatives to interacting with their device using physical touch.
The Newsroom article was more than just a reminder about Personal Voice and Live Speech, though. As an entry posted under the new Stories branding, there was an even more personal side to it. Apple spotlit Tristram Ingham, an accessibility advocate, who has a condition which ācauses progressive muscle degeneration starting in the face, shoulders, and arms, and can ultimately lead to the inability to speak, feed oneself, or in some cases, blink the eyes.ā
Ingham created his Personal Voice for Appleās āThe Lost Voice,ā in which he uses his iPhone to read aloud a new childrenās book of the same name created for International Day of Persons with Disabilities. When he tried the feature for the first time, Ingham was surprised to find how easy it was to create, and how much it sounded like him.
That childrenās book is the subject of the short film, āThe Lost Voiceā, that Apple made to accompany this story, and, spoilers, Ingham narrates it using his Personal Voice and Live Speech.
Itās a touching film, and an especially relevant article to read this week considering itās International Day of Persons with Disabilities this Sunday (a fact I didnāt realize until seeing the MacStories article about Appleās Newsroom feature).
Iām not currently at risk of losing my voice, but Iām certainly sympathetic to those who are. Hereās Ingham on the importance of having a digital voice that captures your unique intonations and mannerisms:
āDisability communities are very mindful of proxy voices speaking on our behalf,ā Ingham says. āHistorically, providers have spoken for disabled people, family have spoken for disabled people. If technology can allow a voice to be preserved and maintained, thatās autonomy, thatās self-determination.ā
I applaud Apple on having a guiding vision for this set of features. Certainly itās fun for someone like me to be able to play around with an on-device voice model, but for many other people, it can be the difference between retaining part of their identity or having yet another bit of it snatched from them by the unforgiving jaws of a cruel disease.
Frankly, itās astounding that we have the power to make a replica of our voice using nothing but the device that already lives in our pocket. I consider the marriage of microphone quality, software UX, machine learning models, and neural engine cores coming together to make this feature possible a true triumph.
Also, you never know when you might need it. I (also) encourage everyone to spend the few minutes it takes to have a replica of their voice ready, just in case.
Finish the job with your own apps, please, Apple
About those ābig plansā for my Personal Voice that I mentioned earlier. For years, Iāve dreamed of automatically creating an audio version of my blog posts, read in my own voice. We talk about a writerās writing voice being distinctive, but I think thereās something extra special about hearing their written words read aloud in their verbal voice. Ben Thompson has this dialed with his Stratechery articles released both in text form, and read by him in a podcast. I donāt have the time, tools, or bandwidth to record a bespoke podcast for each of my silly blog posts. But I could create a close approximation with Personal Voice and Shortcuts.
Or, at least, Iād like to, but Shortcuts lacks the ability to use my Personal Voice with its actions. I was so sure that my Personal Voice would appear as an option in the āSpeak Textā and āMake Spoken Audio from Textā actions once it was finished processing. I even had a shortcut built out, ready to start producing narrated versions of my blog posts. Why was I so convinced? Because the Personal Voice pane in Settings provides a specific option to let other apps use your voice. Certainly Shortcuts, the first-party Apple app that has hooks into all kinds of settings and that is the poster child for extending Accessibility features into complex workflows that canāt be accomplished any other way, would be the first to request use of my voice. Alas, it appears to have slipped through the cracks.
Youād think āJarrodās Personal Voiceā would be in this list, right? š¤Øā
My dream will have to wait. But getting this included is far more important than my inconsequential audible blog post idea. Shortcutsā integration with the rest of the system features makes it way more powerful and able to handle nuanced situations.
Having some saved phrases in Live Speech is great, but imagine having dictionary full of common phrases you use, able to be contextualized and surfaced base on location, calendar events, or Focus mode.
Pasting or typing text into the Live Speech field is useful for ongoing conversations, but what if you wanted to save that favorite bedtime story, read in full in your voice, as an audio file that your granddaughter could listen to, again and again, long after youāre gone?
With Shortcuts and Personal Voice, those ideas could easily be reality, able to be harnessed by billions of people around the world.
In the meantime, Iāve laid out this case in a Feedback (FB13427747) to Apple and hope weāll see Personal Voice get the extensibility it deserves very soon.
Jess Weatherbed, reporting for The Verge on the terse words Robert De Niro had for Apple after part of his acceptance speech for the Gotham Awards was removed last minute:
Robert De Niro slammed Apple and the Gotham Film & Media Institute this week after claiming his speech for the Gotham Awards had been censored ā allegedly by an Apple employee just minutes before the show started, according to Varietyās sources ā to remove criticisms about Donald Trump and the entertainment industry.
Weatherbed goes on to say that a source claims this was a miscommunication and they didnāt know De Niro hadnāt approved the final draft. Either way, this is an unfortunate smear on the record for Apple and its high-profile Killers of the Flower Moon film. Itās not a good look, especially after similar censorship rumors continue to float around Jon Stewartās show cancelation.
When a member of the cast or crew accepts an award on behalf of the rest of the studio, I do think that the studio should get some input on the acceptance speech to make sure it reflects the values they hold. But it should be a joint effort, and itās certainly no compromise if the copy is edited last-minute without the knowledge or approval of the person actually making the speech.
Our concern that Apple executives would be overly involved in the creative production of Apple TV+ shows and films essentially dried up when we saw how āadultā their first releases were. It seemed like they trusted their creative partners to tell compelling stories without corporate oversight. I donāt know if that trust is eroding, or Apple is becoming more cautious as a company, but I fear that with these allegations flying around, talent and production partners are going to think twice about signing on with them.
If youāre the kind of person who likes to save articles to read later, youāre going to wonder how you lived without Play in your life. Itās a read-it-later app, but for YouTube videos! Iāve mentioned it before, and Play continues to be one of my very favorite apps across my iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.
Today, Playās developer Marcos Tanaka, introduced a major new release of Play, version 2.0, with some incredible features that will save you from having to delve into the YouTube app, maybe ever again. You should definitely check out the appās website, the MacStories review of v2.0, and Devon Dundeeās blog post for a good rundown of the new features and its (pretty reasonable, I think) new subscription.
I donāt know if the headlining new Follow Channels feature ā where you can now use Play as an inbox for new videos from your favorite channels and save the ones you want to watch ā will be for me. Iāve used RSS for years to keep on top of new videos from channels I follow and I donāt think Iāll end up wanting a separate place to check for new stuff, but I can totally see how it would be great for anyone not as āall inā on RSS as I am. That said, Iām using the one week free trial to see if itāll change my mind about that.
[Update: I made this shortcut to help with following all your existing YouTube channel subscriptions in Play all at once.]
But what I am super excited about when it comes to channels, and that actually came in a release earlier this year, is the auto-populating folders for each YouTube channel that you have at least one video saved from. So when I save videos from a shortcut or the share sheet, they show up in that channelās list in the sidebar. I tend to binge stuff from a single creator, so itās perfect for the way I like to watch videos.
All the videos sorted by channel at last. Miranda Goes Outside!! is one of my favorite YouTubers ā sheās hilarious! ā
The last thing Iāll leave you with is a couple of screenshots that show how Iāve set up Play-specific home screens. I love how I can jump right into a video without having to browse the app first. As of iOS 17, theyāre even interactive so I can filter by tag or Smart Search lists.
The one shortcut icon you see next to Play is this one, my YouTube Launcher that presents a menu to jump directly into specific parts of the YouTube app, which prevents me from getting having to navigate throughout the app and risk distraction from my goal.
Congratulations to Marcos on a solid new release, and for earning not just a spot on my home screen, but multiple full home screens with this vital creation.
P.S. Once youāve downloaded Play, go ahead and try two of Marcosā other apps, MusicBox (itās like Play, but for songs, albums, and playlists you want to listen to later), and MusicHarbor (for keeping up with every new release from artists in your music library).
[Yes, most of these are affiliate links. But I think we know each other well enough by now that you understand I wouldnāt give a dishonest review of something in an attempt to make pennies off your click. I honestly donāt remember the last time I had an Amazon Affiliate payout.]
NOMAD Stand One MagSafe Dock
This thing looks so sleek on my desk, and works way better than the old Qi charging pad I was using. StandBy mode is pretty sweet too.
Itās great for the iPhone mini and has saved my bacon a few times (especially while hiking), but probably not worth it for bigger phones. Because of all the special sauce it gets, I canāt believe Apple discontinued it without a replacement!
Actually, I canāt tell you much about them because I havenāt installed them yet. I was so stoked to get these and use them to train up for ice climbing using my actual ice axe shafts, but then the weather turned cold and I canāt see the point of swapping my ice picks for them since Iām probably just going to start climbing real ice again soon.
A ridiculously expensive jacket that I could only afford because of my steep employee discount in our gear shop, but I canāt deny that itās my new favorite shell. Itās so lightweight and svelte while being completely waterproof that I donāt mind carrying it around as an extra layer just in case of bad weather.
After wearing just the one Alpine Loop band for my Apple Watch Ultra for an entire year, I was pretty excited to have a second option. Somehow, itās even more comfortable than the previous king-of-comfort, the Sport Loop bands, while also being more secure on the wrist.
Iāve had more need for charging bigger devices in the car, and my old no-name, off-brand 5W charger couldnāt keep up. This one can deliver 30W and doesnāt worry me that it has feeble innards that will either fry my electronics or catch on fire.
Iāve been a big fan of 3-in-1 charging cables that let you power multiple devices at once, but I needed a USB-C one to go with the Anker car charger. With 100W capability and the retractable cable, I think itāll meet my needs for many years to come and do so while not taking up much counter space or room in my carās arm rest cubby (yep, I bought two of them).
I had such high hopes for this thing because itās such a lightweight and unobtrusive way to always have a keyboard at the ready with the iPad mini. But the keys are just way too small and weirdly laid out that I donāt think I could get use to typing with them.
If this keyboard were made out of different materials, or dropped some features, to make it lighter, it would a runaway success ā a true iPad Pro mini-maker. As it is, the typing experience is pretty good and the trackpad surprisingly excellent, but itās so heavy that I donāt want to use it as a daily driver.
You get three functions for each of the three keys for nine(!) different devices or scene automations this remote can run. Itās pretty reliable and doesnāt require a separate app for setup or updates āĀ I just wish it were a little bigger/more substantial.
Our bathroom doesnāt have a shower fan, or an easy way to install one, so, after hours of research, I found this dehumidifier that (1) can auto-drain, (2) is small and unobtrusive, and, most importantly, (3) can monitor the active humidity level and automatically turn on when it goes above a pre-set level (i.e.Ā when taking a shower). Iāve been very pleasantly surprised by its effectiveness at clearing out the humidity and preventing mold.
Such a clever device, trying to kill two birds with one stone: (1) overcome the objectionable bottomside Lightning charging method of the Magic Mouse by adding wireless Qi charging, and (2) give the Magic Mouse more (ergonomic?) substance. Everyoneās hands are different, so your mileage may vary, but mine tends to prefer the lower profile of the naked Magic Mouse even while I applaud their success on the charging mechanism.
This is the gizmo that you didnāt know you needed, and, by golly, itās flawlessly executed. Stick this thing on the back of your TV and youāve given yourself a Continuity Camera mount so you can slap your iPhone on your TV for FaceTime calls, but then effortlessly hide it away when not in use.
An Instagram ad that got me, but Iām glad it did. It makes cleaning up drain-clogging hair a breeze, even if it doesnāt let water through when ācloggedā as effectively as you might hope.
I saw they had sink versions when researching the TubShroom, and Iād say this version is even better. It does let water drain when when ācloggedā, it looks good, and, best of all, food particles donāt get hung up on itās edges when chasing them around this sink with a stream of water.
Are you catching the theme here? This supposedly easy and efficient drain snake was a big disappointment and I donāt recommend it; just get the real deal instead.
[Full disclosure, I added this one after publishing because I remembered it after I saw on The Verge that you can get it for 55% off (just $36) right now.]
Where has this screwdriver been all my life?! It houses all the bits in its carrying case, is charged by USB-C, has plenty of power for household screwdriving needs, has a built-in light, and fits in tight places where a traditional drill wonāt ā what are you waiting for?
Great! I got more of my opinions out onto the internet! Just what the world needs. Anyway, that was actually kind of fun to write. You should try it and send your reviews to me. My rampant consumerism hasnāt be sated by Capitalist Hellscape Week, so I need to know what you found that totally, definitely has been (or will be) the missing link to eternal happiness.
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, but often not.
1ļøā£ Indie App Sales has a list of over 300(!) apps that are providing some sort of discount for the Black Friday shopping event/week. I have a feeling that my digital wallet is about to get a bit lighter⦠[š app.indieappsales.com]
2ļøā£ Iāve enjoyed following along with Matt Birchlerās 365 Albums Project this year. I didnāt often listen to a full album he recommended, but I have been rocking out to the compilation playlist lately. In the moment, I didnāt appreciate his custom header images for the albums. Check out this retrospective post for some superb examples. Iām considering doing something similar next year⦠[šµ Matt Birchler // birchtree.me]
3ļøā£ I promise you that I do not climb like this. But the sheer audacity of this 9000-foot traverse, not to mention the manner by which these guys completed it, is jaw-dropping in every sense of the phrase. (Oh, and this crag, The Gunks, is kind of in my downstate backyard. Iāve been there a couple of times this month!) [ā¶ļø Well Good Productions // youtube.com]
4ļøā£ The thing I love about Chris Sharma is how unassuming his demeanor is. If you can subscribe to Reel Rock to see the full version of this video, I highly recommend it. You see him tackling this bleeding edge climb at the highest difficulty, while also balancing being a father and business owner. Itās so inspiring to see someone do it all. [ā¶ļøREELROCK // youtube.com]
5ļøā£ My wife and I have been loving Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+. Brie Larson is undeniable as Elizabeth Zott. Now Apple has put together a site with key recipes from the show! Weāre gonna have to give some of these a try. (Oh my god, there are even premade ingredient carts for Instacart!) [š½ļø Apple TV+ // lessonsinchemistryrecipes.com]
7ļøā£ Great, now I have a new pet peeve. Maybe skip this one if you donāt want a new thing to be bothered by. [š¤ Mike Crittenden // critter.blog]
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 Iām finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
I wasnāt going to say anything about Appleās traditional holiday short, but after reading Andy Ihnatkoās dissection of it on Six Colors, I realized I wasnāt the only one put off by it. Theyāre usually heartwarming, heartfelt, and sweet, but this yearās short fell, well, short for me this year. Andy did a great job summing up the myriad of things that felt off about it. You should go read his whole post, but Iāll call out a few points that stuck out to me as well.
The protagonistās revenge stop-motion film seemed over the top for the grievances her boss performed against her:
How many weeks did it take her to complete just one of those humiliating scenes? She designed and constructed dolls, props, and sets; she invested lots of money and ingenuity in doing the lighting and rigging; she animated each shot one painsaking frame at a time; and then did all of the editing.
You must agree with me that this is an utterly psychopathic amount of work. Itās very correct to witness this behavior and then fear for that manās safety out in the real world.
One of those āgrievancesā:
Iāll also point out that one of the little things the boss did that annoyed and angered her was that he noticed that she was very late for work. He communicated his disappointment in a quick, low-key way that drew no attention from the rest of the office. Close examination of the previous scene reveals why she was late that morning: sheād gotten so wrapped up in her whole Torture My Boss By Wooly Proxy project that sheād lost all track of time.
And then, her empathy was far too forthcoming for the supposedly deep-seated dislike she held for him, just because he (wishy-washingly) handed her a handmade gift (that he also gave to the rest of the office), and then she saw him eating alone.
It just felt like too little for her to completely change her mind about the man, after she had clearly spent weeks (months?) imagining his painful humiliation. Andy seems to have felt the same way:
So when the lady in the āFuzzy Feelingsā video exercises her empathy only conditionally, after she comes to pity her boss (itself a form of dehumanization), it comes across as⦠well, not wrong, but definitely odd.
A real gem in Andyās piece is this declaration about human empathy:
Well, whatever. Empathy is the point of todayās sermon. Empathy requires each of us to never ever forget that we should treat fellow humans like human beings and not human-shaped objects. No exceptions and no excuses.
Simple? Oh, sure. But holy cats, itās hard to get a consistent grip on the thing, isnāt it? Itās easier to know that weāve misplaced our empathy than it is to be sure of what we should do with it.
So good that I copied it to my quote journal!
But I donāt really buy Andyās theory that the protagonistās capacity for empathy is influenced by the fact she she uses Windows at work and Apple products at home:
So maybe the ladyās capacity for empathy is intact⦠but her ability to access it is influenced by her environments. When sheās in the office and her boss gives her a gentle rebuke for a legit HR infraction, her proximity to a Microsoft operating system influences her to choose a path of (needle-felted stop-motion) violence.
Thatās a little too āgrasping at strawsā for me, but the manufacturer of her work tools was an interesting detail that I hadnāt noticed.
Appleās had a good run of theses warm and fuzzyholidayshorts. Iām not faulting them too hard for one flop out of many years. I guess Iām just a little surprised that literally the fuzziest one of all didnāt land so well.