7 Things This Week [#17]
A weekly list of things I found interesting, delivered on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
- For those of you not as plugged into tech news, thereās a big redesign for Safari (the internet browser) coming to iPhones this fall. The new design has been contentious in the tech community, but thereās still time for it to be rethought before shipping with iOS 15. Matt Birchler made a rough concept for an adaptation that keeps the benefit of the search bar in the bottom (reachable) area of the screen, but without the problems that a floating bar introduces. I dig it.
- The iPhone came out 14 years ago. Parker Ortolani of 9to5Mac put together a tour de force article looking back at the launch day hype. Itās got tons of pictures and tidbits (remember the iPhone Bluetooth Headset?). Itās a fun look back at the launch of a product that truly changed the world.
- My friend Taylor published this piece for MLive on office furniture designed for 2021 challenges. There are some neat concepts, but I particularly liked the office phone booth. I hate taking calls around others and would take advantage of this kind of private space if I went back into an office setting.
- The second season of Trying recently finished up. I think itās a sleeper hit of Apple TV+. Not many showsā second seasons live up to their first, but this one definitely did. But I actually wanted to link out to Maisie Peters who did one of the songs for the first season, and then was brought back to write the entire soundtrack for season two. Maisieās music is soft, intimate, and lyrically beautiful. I canāt wait for her debut album due later this year.
- My wife and I just got back from a trip out to Washington in the Pacific Northwest. It was a gorgeous trip and we canāt wait to get back. I tried out the Tripsy app (iPhone, iPad, Mac) to consolidate all our plane tickets, hotels, car rentals, and destination into an itinerary, and it worked pretty well! I particularly liked that you can just forward emails to the service to have them automatically added to the itinerary. It got a bit confused by having both our tickets saved and gave me double notifications for things like airport gate changes, but Iāll certainly be using it again for future trips.
- While on that trip out West, we watched Luca on Disney+. It was cute and imaginative, but not Pixarās best work in my opinion. Set in Italy, it shows the story of a young water monster who, with encouragement from his new friend, follows his dream of living among land people ā and the freedom and knowledge he could gain from it. I still recommend watching it to determine for yourself, but it left me feeling like there could have been a lot more to the story.
- Like Basic Apple Guy, I too am hoping for the iPhone mini to stick around for at least another year. Though it sounds like it hasnāt sold well, I think when more folks can get their hands on the device in stores theyāll have a better reception. Iāve played around with one, and the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini (which packs in screen content of 5.8-inch iPhones) is exactly what Iām looking for in a phone these days.
Thanks for reading! If you found these things interesting too, or have something exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!