If you’re like me and think this tiny translucent orange wall charger by Case-Mates is one of the coolest things since sliced bread the best iMac, you’ll want to grab it right now. It’s almost 50% off at $18.50 on Amazon, down from the original price of $29.99. (Make sure you choose the cheaper seller.)

It folds. It’s 30W Power Delivery. It’s USB-C. And it looks like this:

Perfect for the nerd in your life, especially if they’re you.

Mark Gurman writing in his Power On newsletter:

I think the iPad line should eventually look like this: 

• iPad SE (entry level): This would be today’s $329 iPad geared toward education users or, eventually, the new entry-level iPad once Apple is able to make it for $350 or less. That might take time since the company isn’t going to sacrifice its margins. 
• iPad and iPad mini (mid-tier): Apple would need to merge the features and specifications of three iPads—the new entry-level model, the Air and the current mini—and then offer that product in both standard and mini sizes.
• iPad Pro (high end): This would be the iPad Pro of today, but ideally with some significant improvements. 

I like the logic of this lineup. The middle of the iPad line is too muddled at present. And I long for the days when the iPad mini felt like it had equal footing with its larger sibling. The current mini is great (and technically even better than the newest 10th-gen iPad in some ways), but it shouldn’t feel like a one-off model. It should progress alongside the “mainstream” iPad.

Linked

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

1️⃣ Such good shots came out of this year’s comedy wildlife photo contest! I love all the smirks. These are going to make for some great memes. [Link - comedywildlifephoto.com] (Via The Verge)

2️⃣ Jason Snell spells out how Apple uses the same tech for iMessages, all remote push notifications, and now Live Activities, and explains how that means even free in-flight Wi-Fi can keep you updated with those features. [Link - Jason Snell // sixcolors.com]

3️⃣ In the wake of Elon Musk’s hostile and chaotic takeover of Twitter, this video of Steve Jobs sharing his vision and the core values for Apple when he brought the company back from the brink of collapse is like a glass of ice water in hell. Looking from the outside, Musk’s approach has been akin to a bull in a china shop, whereas Jobs’ was more like a honed Samurai sword. One exudes confidence and competence, the other…does not. [Link - The Apple Vault // youtube.com] (Via MacSparky)

4️⃣ BasicAppleGuy returns with more incredibly detailed schematic wallpapers for the iPhones 14 and 14 Pro. [Link - BasicAppleGuy // basicappleguy.com]

5️⃣ The Slopes app by Curtis Herbert is nothing short of amazing for skiers and snowboarders. Detailed tracking, nearby friends notifications, beautiful design, thoughtful features. It’s got it all. [Link - Slopes // apps.apple.com]

6️⃣ I mentioned The Rookie with Nathan Fillion a few weeks ago, but I didn’t mention that it’s a wildly engaging show. It follows Fillion’s character who is a man starting his second career as a rookie cop for the LAPD. He and the other rookies do, well, cop stuff. But the character development is top-notch, and I can’t help but watch whenever my wife has it on. [Link - The Rookie // hulu.com]

7️⃣ And here’s a new blog I’m following, written by Jonathan Ruiz, with an excellent name: Thermal Corner. It’s a personal blog with a tech focus, which is my jam. Good writing so far, and the site has a great design. It’s also, if I’m not mistaken, built on Blot. [Link - Jonathan Ruiz // thermalcorner.net]

Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know.

7 Things

It’s Thanksgiving, once again, here in the U.S. and I just wanted to take a moment to say “thanks” to HeyDingus readers out there, and all those who inspire me. I was mostly offline for a few months there, but I’m really appreciative of everyone reading the site. I do it mostly for me, but knowing that anyone is enjoying my work is a big motivator. I get a huge thrill anytime someone reaches out on Twitter or email with a comment or suggestion. So if you’re one of those folks, you get an extra thanks! 😉

Moving to a new home and starting over with a new community is always a bit scary. It was really nice to have the familiarity of this corner of the internet, which has always been warm and welcoming, to return to this year. I hope that you’re also surrounded by friends and family — online or in-person — this season.

Thanks again. 🦃

Benjamin Mayo, back in October:

Over the last week, 9to5Mac has noticed that Apple Support articles have begun being updated to refer to “laptops” or “Mac laptops,” instead of notebooks.

At the risk of also sounding cranky, I always liked the term “notebooks”, too. “Laptop” might be the industry term, but Apple so often marches to the beat of its own drum that I’m surprised that they relented on this. And laptops don’t always go on laps, so it’s not a particularly more descriptive word. Notebooks always sounded just a little cooler than laptops — it’s a notably analog term for a high-tech computer — but with a non-pretentious, Mac vs. PC ad sort of vibe.

In any case, it looks like Belkin didn’t get the memo for their new iPhone mount:

Linked

The gift-giving season is upon us. And if your family is like mine, that means everyone is scrambling to add things to their wish lists before big shopping sales events.¹ A few years back, I got everyone to switch from sending Word documents and emails to using shared Reminders lists, and for the most part, it’s been a huge success. Everyone has the same up-to-date list, fewer duplicate gifts are given, and it removes a lot of friction from the whole thing.²

However, something unexpected happened after the iOS/iPadOS 16 and macOS 13 updates this year. I started seeing notifications for every item added to these lists. In fact, I was getting notifications for items added to any shared list.

It turns out that these notifications are a new feature enabled by the updates. You can choose to get a notification when items are added, completed, or both. The problem is, I didn’t decide to get them. It was turned on for adding items by default.

So, here’s the tip. If you’re getting annoyed by a deluge of Reminders notifications you didn’t ask to receive, you need to head to the Reminders app and delve into the Collaboration menu inside each list to change the setting. First, tap the Collaborate icon in the upper right of the list, then tap ‘Manage Shared List’, and there you’ll find the new switches for ‘Notify When’.

I actually appreciate these new options and plan to keep them enabled for several specific lists. For example, it’ll be helpful to know when my wife adds something to our family task list rather than having to remember to check it regularly. But I wish the new defaults, and, importantly, where to change them, were communicated better. It’s possible there was a blurb about the notifications on the Reminders splash screen after updating, but there are so many of those screens after major updates that I tend to blaze past them. It’s not a huge deal but defaults matter, and perhaps having the notifications turned on for just new lists would have been better than changing all the existing ones.

Tips

With over 50% of Twitter’s workforce gone from the company, I — like many others — worried that it could literally fall apart without key engineers keeping the service going. I’m less worried about that outcome now, but am more concerned about the potential for more hate speech returning to the platform as Elon Musk reinstates previously banned accounts. So, I’d like to be ready to depart from Twitter if it comes to that.

I’d known at one point that you could save an archive of all your tweets, but I had forgotten until Matt Birchler tweeted about an awesome tool which takes that archive file and makes it more useful and accessible:

The Twitter Archive Parser, developed by Tim Hutton, uses Python, which I had to install on my Mac (I used this site). But after that, the step-by-step instructions made running the script simple. If you install Python 3, know that you’ll need to adapt the Terminal command to python3 parser.py for it to run. Then, follow the rest of the prompts in Terminal.

Now I’ve got all 11 years’ worth of my tweets downloaded locally as text files and high-res images for if Twitter does come crashing down or I want to leave it behind. If you want the same portability of your tweets, Tim’s GitHub project page is a great place to get started.

Linked Tips

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

1️⃣ The Ted Lasso team has really gone the extra mile by putting up billboards in the hometowns of the U.S. Men’s National Team with motivational messages for each player. This put a huge smile on my face. [Link - @TedLasso // twitter.com]

2️⃣ Ash Ketchum finally becoming The Very Best™ makes me unreasonably happy. [Link - Andrew Webster // theverge.com]

3️⃣ Micheal Steeber is at it again with Facades, another Apple Retail-focused app. This time, it’s a database of all the stores worldwide with their location, opening date, and more. And tags for which stores have which certain designs and features, like Apple Pickup. I don’t know how Michael learns so fast. He’s literally taught himself 3D rendering and now Swift/SwiftUI coding all this year. I’m so impressed. (Oh, and it’s free! But you should totally throw something into the tip jar.). [Link - @MichaelSteeber // twitter.com]

4️⃣ Micheal Steeber actually released two apps this week. (I almost forgot amidst all the Twitter drama.) This one might be the most fun and meme-y $1 you could spend: a Verified checkmark sticker pack for iMessage. ☑️ [Link - @MichaelSteeber // twitter.com]

5️⃣ And because I can’t stop linking to Twitter things this week, here’s this resurrected Fail Whale comic that got a chuckle out of me. [Link - The Oatmeal Comic // theoatmeal.com]

6️⃣ The Beths’ newest album, Expert in a Dying Field has been on heavy rotation for me lately. Easy listening with deep messages. Bonus points for the creative album title. [Link — The Beths // album.link]

7️⃣ Noah Kane’s channel is my newest YouTube subscription (as you might have seen in this post). He’s making engaging and personable climbing videos. I first picked up on his stuff when he climbed our big wall here in the Adirondacks. And now he’s climbing in my old stomping grounds: The Garden of the Gods. [Link — Noah Kane // youtube.com]

Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know.

7 Things

Matt Birchler, writing at Birchtree:

And yet this page seems to get no love. I see articles about escaping the YouTube algorithm or sneaky ways to find the RSS feeds for channels. I get the urge to follow along in your RSS app, and I would love if YouTube made it easier to find those feeds, but I think more people should use the subscriptions page since I so often feel like the complaints I see about YouTube are basically completely solved if people would just bookmark YouTube’s subscriptions page rather than the home page.

Matt makes a good case for using YouTube’s subscriptions page so as not to miss any videos from your favorite creators. But I’m one of those weirdos who wants fewer apps to check every day, so, yes, I also subscribe via RSS. As Matt mentioned, it can be a huge hassle to find a channel’s RSS feed, and I used to use a shortcut to make it less painful. But these days, my RSS app of choice, Reeder, does all the heavy lifting. A while back, it gained the ability to grab the RSS feed for any channel just by pasting in the URL to its channel or any of its videos.

As a bonus, since all my videos show up alongside articles, I can use my favorite shortcut to send the video URL to the right place for watching later. This ‘Save for Later’ shortcut accepts any URL and routes it based on the domain. I’ve got youtube.com and vimeo.com links going to Play, music.apple.com links going to MusicBox, and everything else is saved to Pocket.

Linked Shortcuts

Josh Ginter, on his Newsprint blog about finding his writing niche:

That experimentation could work well on a blog though. I could run down this path or that path and let people know what’s great and what sucks.

Letting people know what’s great and what sucks is the basis for so many of my favorite blogs. Sure, they all have a topic that they gravitate towards, but none are carved from stone that way. And it’s the direction I’ve wanted to take HeyDingus in with its reboot. More well-rounded in what’s on my mind, and less strictly tech-focused.

Josh is a gifted writer, and you should read the rest of his piece.

Linked