Duel of the Defaults! Jarrod Enters the Ring
In the fantastic podcast-turned-game-show episode (#097) of Hemispheric Views, Andrew Canion hosted a ‘Duel of the Defaults’ with Jason Burk challenging Martin “Mr. Default” Feld on which of them was the most default Mac user. That is, who uses the most default Apple apps and services on their Mac.
The episode is a true gem made all the better by it coming completely out of the blue, and Andrew’s arcane and arbitrary scoring system (lower is better??).
Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I’ve performed an audit of my own system, scored it (uhh…as best I could…), and now present it as a challenge to the reigning Mr. Default.
I’ve tested my buzzer (🛎️), now let’s dig in…
For Your Consideration
📮 Mail Server
- iCloud & iCloud Custom Domains (domains managed by Hover)
- Score: 1
📨 Mail Client
- Spark Mail (the classic version, not the weird new one)
- Score: 3
📝 Notes
- Drafts for day-to-day notepad
- Apple Notes for long-term storage
- Score: 2
✅ To-Do
- Things for personal projects and tasks
- Apple Reminders for anything shared or that I really need to not forget
- Score: 3
📷 iPhone Photo Shooting
- Lock Screen swipe left & Control Center
- Score: 1
🟦 Photo Management
- Apple Photos
- Score: 1
📆 Calendar
- Fantastical Calendar
- Score: 2
📅 Calendar Backend
- iCloud
- Score: 1
📁 Cloud File Storage
- iCloud Drive for almost everything
- Dropbox for my Blot site
- Score: 2
🤓Hard Quiz Special Topic Interlude (Something for Which I’d Be the Subject Matter Expert in the Room)
- Rock Climbing & Anchor Building
📖 RSS
🙍🏻♂️ Contacts Management
- Apple Contacts (backed by iCloud)
- Cardhop when I remember I have it installed
- Score: 2
🔎 Browser
- Safari
- Score: 1
💬 Chat
- Apple Messages (iMessage, MMS) for 90% of all conversations
- Instagram DMs for sending funny Reels to my wife, and a few random group chats
- Snapchat when people message me there
- Discord occasionally, but I find it overwhelming most of the time
- Score: 5
🔖 Bookmarks
- Safari Bookmarks for frequently-visited sites
- Raindrop.io for anything I want to save long-term or revisit by category (like ‘maybe purchase’)
- GoodLinks for 7 Things This Week ‘Take a Chance’ links
- Drafts for linked post ideas
- Micro.blog for posts I may want to revisit there
- (Yes, I know this is chaotic 😳)
- Score: 6
📑 Read It Later
- Reeder (backed by Pocket)
- Kobo E-Reader (backed by Pocket)
- Readwise Reader for a backlog of articles saved there when I was using it)
- Omnivore for the odd one-off article that I want to listen to using their best-in-class Ultra Realistic Voices
- Score: 4
📜 Word Processing
- Pages
- Score: 1
🧮 Spreadsheets
- Numbers
- Score: 1
📊 Presentations
- Keynote
- Score: 1
🛒 Shopping List
- Apple Reminders
- Score: 1
🍴 Meal Planning (as Recipe Management)
- Paprika
- Score: 2
💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance
- Copilot
- Score: 2
📰 News
- RSS & Podcasts
- Safari
- Score: 1
🎵 Music
- Apple Music
- Score: 1
🎤 Podcasts
- Overcast
- Score: 2
🔐 Password Management
- iCloud Keychain (been trying since July)
- 1Password (been exiting since July)
- Score: 2
Final Score: 50
Woof. I don’t hold a candle to Mr. Default.
🗣️ A Succinct Justification of my Default Lifestyle
- I always try the default app first, but inevitably run up against friction points that a third-party app could solve. Once I’ve found a more bespoke solution, it’s hard to go back.
Thanks to Gabz for the format.
Check out more Defaults presented by Hemispheric Views listeners (and submit your own) here. (Curated and hosted by Robb.)