A weekly list of things I found interesting, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of instructing during a sixth-grade camp. Pro tip: If you ever want a good chuckle, just ask young kids for their favorite jokes. They’re always ready with some good ones.
1️⃣What’s brown and sticky?
A stick.
2️⃣There were these two muffins in an oven.
One turns to the other and says, “Boy, it’s getting hot in here.” The other one says, “OHMYGOD, A TALKINGMUFFIN!”
3️⃣I tried to change the password on all my accounts to “BeefPasta”
But it wasn’t Stroganoff.
4️⃣What does an inconsiderate pepper do?
Get jalapeño business.
5️⃣Two penguins walk into a bar…
which is silly because the second one should have seen it.
6️⃣What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Fsh
7️⃣ And finally, the joke that’s always been my Grandpa’s favorite to tell his grandchildren…
A duck walks into a hardware store, waddles up to the counter, and asks the clerk, “You got any grapes?”
The clerk pokes around in the back, comes back, and says, “No, Sir, we’re a hardware store; we don’t sell grapes.” The duck hangs his head in disappointment and waddles back out.
The next day, the duck returns. He goes up to the counter, and again asks, “You got any grapes?” The clerk responds, “No, I told you yesterday that we don’t sell any grapes here.” The duck turns around and heads back out.
On the third day that the duck comes in, and asks for grapes, the clerk gets angry. “No! I’ve told you that we don’t have any grapes. If you come in here asking for grapes again, I’m going to nail your feet to the floor!”
The next day, the duck is back. He waddles his way up to the counter and innocently asks, “Hey, you got any nails?” The clerk, surprised, bustles around in the back but returns apologetically. “No, I’m afraid we’re all out of nails,” he says. The duck, with a wicked grin, says, “Good! You got any grapes?”
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed these links, or have something else exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
As I sit here asking myself, “What’s new this month?” I struggle to come up with anything substantial. I’ve fallen into the comfort of an easy routine in my new job. I feel more confident all the time in my role there. After 18 months of turmoil between the pandemic, leaving my job, being unemployed, and finding my new job, I now feel that life is back on an upward trajectory, and I’m looking forward to the months to come.
The most significant thing of note from the past month was undoubtedly celebrating three years of marriage with my wonderful wife. My wife and I have made a point to take a trip of some kind each year for our anniversary, and I’m so glad that we do. It’s always a special time for us to reconnect, talk about the past year, and discuss plans for the future. Since our birthdays are only a couple of days apart, we do something similar each February. They’re some of our favorite times of the year.
This year, we took time off work, booked a cabin near Lake Placid, packed up the car with our fur babies and hiking gear, and drove the 9+ hours to Adirondack Park. This was my first time in New York State, and, I have to say, it’s way more gorgeous than I expected. Both my wife and I loved it there, and we’re reconsidering our next move, which may now be east instead of west. Autumn weather was a little further along near Lake Placid, and you can see some of my favorite snapshots of the week here.
Less substantially, but still exciting, is that it’s new iPhone season. As planned, I used the iPhone Upgrade Program to trade in my iPhone 12 Pro and “upgraded” to an iPhone 13 mini. I LOVE it! I broke tradition and went with the bright and bold PRODUCT(RED) color. The lighter weight and more reachable screen have made a big difference in how I use my phone each day. It feels quicker and easier to pull out for fast interactions. While I do miss the telephoto camera lens and gaze longingly at tack-sharp macro photos coming off the new Pro models, I’m very happy with my choice to go with the mini. All those photos I took in the Adirondacks are off the 13 mini’s camera if you want some examples.
Marvis — A next-level music player for iOS and iPadOS. It’s so fluid, fast, and fun. I love that I can customize the Home screen to just the content I want to see when I hope the app, and the gestures make getting around the app effortless. A big improvement over the stock Music app, if you ask me.
Halide — Remember how I said I’ve been pining over losing out on the macro camera from the iPhone 13 Pro? Well, the wizards at Halide have built a macro mode into their pro photography app that uses machine learning to make up the lens difference and works on all kinds of iPhones. I’ve only had it for a day, but I can already tell that I’m going to enjoy using it. Maybe I’ll learn more about manual photography while I’m at it.
Matter — Although I’m overall pleased with my current all-in-one Read-It-Later solution of Reeder, I’m always on the lookout for the next cool app on the horizon. I’ve linked to an upcoming project from Readwise that I’m excited about, but Matter is another app that has just opened to the public that I’m giving a fair shake. My likes: effortless highlighting and text shot sharing, estimated read times, synced read progress, and automatic audio versions of any saved article, which are quite well done. Dislikes: Rendering articles isn’t rock solid, which it needs to be for me to trust that I’m getting the full article that I saved with all its images. Matter probably won’t pull me away from Reeder yet, but it has informed me what I want to see from an actual next-gen reader app.
PeakVisor — I used this app a bit while in the Adirondacks. Like the stargazing apps that have come before it, PeakVisor lets you point your camera at mountains around you, and it will use what it sees along with location data to overlay labels for all the peaks. Some bonuses: a neat 3DAR view of peaks as if flying above them, and route beta / a tick list to help you bag those peaks.
Safari Extensions
With the release of iOS 15, Safari Extensions have been significantly souped-up. Here are a few that I’m testing (along with 1Password, Grammarly, and a few others for which I already had apps installed).
Vidimote — Get all the video settings you could want for every video on the web. This includes playback speed, picture-in-picture, full-screen, and more. Unfortunately, too many sites block the native controls, and Vidimote brings them back.
Keyword Search — I use Alfred on the Mac to prepend abbreviates to searches to search specific sites on the internet. For example: “hd” searches just this site, “ms” searches MacStories, “sc” searches Six Colors, and “w” searches Wikipedia. Keyword Search brings that power to Mobile Safari. Pro Tip: It even works from Spotlight, which means it works from anywhere on iOS. Just use your customized shortcut and then tap the Safari search result that pops. It just works!
Honey — This app catalogs coupon codes for all kinds of websites. Before, I had to pull up the app extension or search the app itself for codes. With the Safari Extension, Honey’s automatic savings are just a tap away.
Stuff I’m Reading
Despite its relatively short length, I am still reading Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. It’s well-written and has made me add Japan to my destination shortlist. I’ll have more to say once I finish the book.
On Heavy Rotation
The Lucky Ones (Deluxe) by Pentatonix — Hard to go wrong with Pentatonix, and they’re on top of their game in this deluxe version of their latest album.
Ted Lasso — It was probably too big an ask to expect the second season to recreate the magic of its nearly perfect first season. I still love this show and commend its creators for taking it in a different direction than I think we all expected. I can feel that they have multiple story arcs to tell, and look forward to seeing how it all gets wrapped up in the end. The season finale lands today!
The Other Two — At the recommendation of Alex and Merlin on Do By Friday, I tried out this show. It’s about a teenage boy who becomes an overnight singing sensation…except it’s not. It’s actually about his two older siblings who are struggling their way through life. It’s got the dry humor that I just love, and I can’t wait to get through the first season so that I can get caught up on what Alex and Merlin have to say about it.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine — The final season just dropped, but my wife and I needed a refresher of where the story left off. So we went back to season 7 and are going from there. This show fills our slot for “a happy show in which we like all the characters” nicely.
Raya and the Last Dragon — A beautifully crafted movie featuring a beautiful message of trust. Disney did well with Raya.
Cruella — Also a Disney movie, but taken in a completely different direction than Raya. It’s been many years since I’ve seen 101 Dalmatians, but watching this live-action origin story for Cruella de Vil made me want to revisit it and see how much they tied together. It was entertaining from beginning to end, with Emma Stone killing it in portraying Cruella.
Hobbies I’m Hobbying
As I mentioned at the top, I’ve become more comfortable in my routine as of late. That’s good, but it also means that I haven’t been branching out to try new things as much as I’d like. That’s why I’m excited to launch a new project here on this site that I think will help me reach two objectives at once: try new things, and blog more. My working title for the project is “Challenge!” and it’s loosely based on what the hosts do on the Do By Friday podcast. Each week, I’ll assign myself a new challenge to try out, and then I’ll write about the experience. I’ve got ideas for the first challenges, but if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them! Look for the first installment to launch here soon.
A weekly list of things I found interesting, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
This past week I celebrated three years(!) of marriage to my wife and best friend in the world. We spent a few days in the Adirondacks hiking and exploring the gorgeous landscape in the midst of stunning fall foliage. Here are 7 of my favorite shots from the week. (Shot on iPhone 13 mini)
1️⃣
We took our Golden Retriever, Phin, with us and he was a champ throughout the entire 13-mile hiking day up a mountain. ⌘
2️⃣
The view of Mt. Colden from Marcy Dam. ⌘
3️⃣
Reaching the false summit of Mt. Colden. The Adirondack Mountains are pointier than I expected! ⌘
4️⃣
I love me a happy little stream tucked away in the mountains. ⌘
5️⃣
Yours truly overlooking Lake Placid from atop Whiteface Mountain. We took an awe-inspiring gondola ride to the top. ⌘
6️⃣
The food and drinks in Lake Placid were on point! Here, after a long day, we enjoyed fried pickles, a whiskey and beer flight, and a margarita. I can highly recommend both Top of the Park and Smoke Signals. ⌘
7️⃣
Does it get any better than good food, drink, company, and a sunset over a mountain lake? No, it does not get better than that. 🧡⌘
The fall colors were out in full force on this trip; they make the fall one of our favorite times of the year. It’s special to me that my wife and I always get to enjoy the colors together on our anniversary adventures.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed these links, or have something else exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
A weekly list of things I found interesting, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
It’s been a pretty crazy week with work, so I didn’t get a lot of time to prepare, but it just so happened that I had precisely seven links lined up — I love it when things work out like that.
Perhaps there is another lens through which we can see the differences between amateurs and professionals — Tools.
[…]
Why they use them, where they use them, how they use them, how they feel about them, and other questions are equally important as the nature of the tools themselves. The answers to these questions may also spell out the difference between professionals and amateurs.
Arun (who doesn’t write often but always produces thorough and thoughtful blog posts) ponders the pixelated line that separates an amateur from a professional. I think he nailed it with some of his comparisons: needs vs. wants, assets vs. toys, confidence vs. delight. For most things, I fall firmly on the amateur side and relish needing out over minute details. Not because I have to, but because I find it fun to explore my interests (like backpacking, climbing, and technology) through their gear.
What actually happens when you swipe your credit card? a16z general partner Alex Rampell helps solve the mystery, taking us from the beginning of the credit card revolution (including its hometown of Fresno, California) and on the journey of how both information and money travel, through the five parties involved in every credit card transaction.
As a follow-up to a post that I linked previously about Apple Pay-specific transactions, this video does an excellent job explaining how credit cards work in general. I had no idea about all the steps and middle companies that need to communicate for a single transaction to go through. Also, it gives me new respect for how quickly transactions are approved these days (especially with Apple Pay!).
Even in the age of credit cards and online payments, most of us still handle legal tender every single day without ever stopping to look more closely at how money is designed. You probably hadn’t noticed, for example, that most notes boast tiny words scattered about the larger images.
Do yourself a favor and take a gander at this webpage. This text is hiding in plain sight on US cash. I’d never have noticed any of them had they not been cataloged here.
Based on an API that lets apps take full advantage of an external monitor, the new Shiftscreen brings a multi-window experience to the iPad. The main idea of the app is to provide new ways of web browsing, since it cannot actually access system features to force other iPad apps to run in windows.
Check out the video linked on this page — it’s wild. I’ve got shiftscreen 4X downloaded while it lasts (it’s not hard to imagine that Apple would take it down for one App Store reason or another), and I am excited to give it a fair shake. Paired with an external keyboard and trackpad (and monitor, of course), it seems like it adds a whole extra operating system to your iPad!
All of them were gone. I know realized that the deletion did somehow work, but that the _defaultZone never disappeared. When I tried sharing a new shortcut it also did not work, at least not to begin with, most likely due to the record types also being deleted.
At 23 Mar 2021 20:44:00 GMT I wrote the following email to Apple Security:
[Subject: Urgent CloudKit issue, access misconfiguration with com.apple shortcuts, accidentally deleted whole public _defaultZone and now gallery and all shared shortcuts for all users are gone]
(Heads up, this article looks, and is, technical, but is surprisingly readable for even people like me with minimal technical insight)
Wow. I remember when this happened in the spring and the tizzy it caused in the Apple community. It is incredible to think it was the (apparently honest) mistake of one person poking around to discover vulnerabilities. I sure hope that the powers that be at Apple learned a lot from this ordeal. But from what I’ve been reading about their bug bounty program, there’s plenty more room for improvement.
More clear is the consequence of disintermediation: Nobody takes a self-published manuscript and lays it out for printing in a manner that conforms with received standards. And so you often end up with a perfect-bound Word doc instead of a book. That odd feeling of impropriety isn’t necessarily a statement about the trustworthiness of the writer or their ideas, but a sense of dissonance at the book as an object. It’s an eerie gestalt, a foreboding feeling of unbookiness.
I have no beef with ebooks — my primary medium for both fiction and non-fiction —, but I did appreciate this article’s history lesson and strong opinions. It reads as if written from the child of librarian parents, which I do not say as a slam against it. On the contrary, hearing people talk about things they’re passionate about is one of my great pleasures in life, even if I don’t share that passion.
The poem itself was developed by a collective including Rob Siltanen, Lee Chow, and others. It was allegedly initially ‘hated’ by Steve Jobs, although he later came around & changed his mind (classic Steve). Two narrations of the ad exist, one by Richard Dreyfuss and one by Steve Jobs himself.
I’ve always loved this poem and knew it existed around Apple’s OSes, but not in all these places. So I’m glad that Basic Apple Guy did the work to document them all in one place.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed these links, or have something else exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
A weekly list of things I found interesting, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
One of my favorite things about using a Mac is the wide variety of applications that can be run — including menu bar apps. These applications sit as small icons at the top of every screen performing small tasks with the click of a button, a keyboard command, or without any interaction at all! Here are some of my most used ones.
I think of One Switch as an extended version of Control Center (which debuted in macOS last year in Big Sur). This app provides a list of useful functions that can be enabled or disabled with just a click, such as Keep Awake, Hide Desktop Items, Dark Mode, and Empty Trash, among others.
I have several ways to quickly connect to headphones (One Switch, AirBuddy, Ears) but ToothFairy is my favorite. It lets you put an icon for any Bluetooth headphones in the menu bar and then connect/disconnect them with a single click. I find it way easier than waiting for the built-in macOS pop-ups.
While I’m not typically in and out of my contacts app every day, I appreciate the natural language support you get with Cardhop. Made by the awesome folks at Flexibits (the makers of Fantasical), Cardhop works by typing (or pasting) a bunch of information for a contact into the text field and letting it parse it all out correctly. If you already have a contact under an inputted name, it’ll update it. Otherwise, a new contact card is made with all the fields filled out correctly. It’s like magic! (Oh, and there’s an excellent iOS/iPadOS version as well.
When you’ve got Drafts, who needs another lightweight place for text? Well, I do. While Drafts collects 99% of the text I need to work with on my devices, I like to have Tot around as well for a short-term landing zone for text. Tot is ingenious in its constraints. There are only seven buckets for text, and it uses plain text or basic rich text exclusively. So if I just need to copy something, make a quick edit, and then cut and paste it somewhere else quickly, since it can be called with a quick keyboard shortcut, Tot is the fastest solution.
As the newest addition to my menu bar, I have the least experience with Dropzone. In a way, it copies the convenience of another of my favorite Mac apps, Yoink, in that it is a place to drag files temporarily. But the beauty in Dropzone is that you can configure actions to happen when you drop something in a specific location within the drag area. So I’ve got zones to put files into particular folders, optimize images, install or uninstall applications, email or AirDrop files, shorten URLs, download YouTube videos, search for similar images, and more!
I’ve used several “drop file here to create a link to it” sorts of apps, but Dropshare has been my favorite by far. It gets the basics right (quick uploads, process indicator) with some extra niceties (pleasant landing page, support for various cloud services, unobnoxious short URLs, and built-in screen capture and annotation features). With a Setapp subscription, the premium features in the iOS app are also unlocked, which is a nice bonus. I’ve saved myself a ton of time not writing out complex instructions and instead just dropping a link to a screenshot, screencast, or specific file into a text chat or email to help someone out.
7️⃣Screen Capture Apps
…which leads me to my screen capturing apps themselves. While macOS has good screenshot and screen recording features built-in, these apps take it to the next level. It’s worth noting that I almost always call these from keyboard commands, which I have remapped around the default Command-Shift-4 shortcut.
TextSniper: Using the standard crosshairs, select an area of text on-screen and have it captured as plain text to the clipboard, ready for pasting elsewhere. Perfect for long strings of text that would be hard to remember or read in images. (Direct) (Mac App Store) (Setapp)
Tapes: With a keyboard command or click, it starts a screen recording (of the whole screen or a selected area). When you stop the recording, it automatically uploads to their cloud service and puts the link on your clipboard for pasting. It’s the fastest way to make a simple screencast to demonstrate something on-screen (and without an ongoing subscription). (Direct) (Mac App Store)
CleanShot X: Up your screenshot game with a host of features that you’ll wonder how you got along without them. Better annotations, persistent floating thumbnails, and the ability to hide messy desktop items are no-brainers. But the ability to customizable borders around capture areas to include bits of your desktop photo makes screenshots look more natural. And enhanced screen recording lets you add pop-ups for keystrokes, highlights mouse movement, and allows you to add a small HUD from your webcam for an easy personal touch during screencast tutorials. You need this app. (Direct) (Setapp)
These are but a few of the apps I have living in my menu bar. But you wouldn’t know because I have the rest managed and hidden with Bartender. This app allows you to hide extra menu bar icons behind a mouse-over or click on the ellipses icon (far left of my menu bar) and keep even the most persistent apps hidden. There are a few, like Time Machine, that I have configured only to appear if there’s ongoing activity happening in the app. That way, I know when things are happening on my Mac without having my menu bar overcrowded by apps.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed these links, or have something else exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
This past month I’ve been throwing myself into my new job, trying to soak in as much as possible. I’ve been enjoying it immensely, both the work itself and the people I get to work alongside. I help people every day and do my best to turn what is often a stressful and disheartening experience into a more positive one. Of course, starting something new has always taken my full attention, which means writing has taken a backseat as I try to find a new balance between work and play, but I think I’m getting there.
Fun excursions were also moved to the back burner a bit, but my wife and I did find some time to try a local Thai restaurant for date night (delicious, by the way!), and I met up with some friends for a game night. I’m looking forward to more get-togethers as the end-of-year holidays approach.
Speaking of things that I’m looking forward to, my wife and I will celebrate our third wedding anniversary at the end of the month, and we’ve both taken time off to go on an adventure together. This time we’re heading east into New York to explore the Adirondacks, which should be a great time. I’m excited to unplug and just enjoy her company.
Apps I’m Trying
Cibo — Recently featured in the Club MacStories newsletter, Cibo is an app that uses the text recognition feature baked into iOS to identify menu items in the camera’s viewfinder. Why is this helpful? Because it automatically pulls up pictures of that type of food. I just downloaded it yesterday and haven’t had an opportunity to try it yet. Still, it would have been beneficial at that Thai restaurant since I’m unfamiliar with traditional Thai dishes.
Mactracker — In my job, it’s helpful to know the latest operating system that a particular device can handle. Mactracker is the quickest way I’ve found to get that information, along with all kinds of other metadata for Apple products.
Mela — I’m in a real pickle with this recipe app. On the one hand, it’s by far the most visually appealing recipe tracker and cooking assistant app that I’ve ever tried. Plus, it has some fantastic features for automatically importing new recipes from food websites that speak to its developer’s prowess with RSS (it comes from the maker of Reeder, my RSS/read-it-later app). And, it was able to import my recipes from Paprika, the long-standing best-in-class app for this category. The only things that are keeping me from switching over to Mela full-time are (1) that because it relies on iCloud for sync, I’m not sure how to share the same recipe database between my wife’s and my devices, and (2) it didn’t important the pictures of
physical recipe cards (of which we have many from family recipes) in a helpful way. Still, I highly recommend you check out the app and the MacStories review of it.
Bandbreite — Another find from the Club MacStories newsletter, Bandbreite is a must-have for anyone who has (or wants) a collection of Apple Watch bands. It’s got a complete database of every band ever produced by Apple and helps you to catalog the ones you own or want to purchase. Besides being helpful, it’s also a nice trip down memory lane and a testament to the boatload of bands that Apple has made over the years, including all the limited edition ones.
MakePass — I’ve used MakePass in the past, but it’s gotten some valuable updates over the year that’s gotten me to take a second look. MakePass lets you create arbitrary passes to save to your Apple Wallet. I’ve used it to make grocery store and climbing gym membership cards for places that don’t offer a native Wallet pass. I was also able to make one that presents a picture of my COVID vaccination card so that I have quick access anytime I need it. The recent enhancements of recognizing bar codes from images or files greatly expanded MakePass’s capability.
RelayforStJude — This app is provided only as a TestFlight beta but lets you add a widget to your Home screen to keep tabs on the progress of the Relay FM fundraiser for the live-saving work of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It’s incredible to see the Apple community get behind this fundraiser in a big way. If you have even a dollar to spare during the fall hardware season, I encourage you to donate. I will be.
Stuff I’m Reading
With great effort and much time, I’m finally caught up on my read-it-later queue — just in time for the fall hardware season. 😝 But that means I’ve been able to put some evening reading time toward my first actual book in months. Along with other members of the Club MacStories Discord AV Club, I am reading Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but so far, so good! Also, the idea that one should only eat until they’re 80% full, which is a central part of that culture, speaks to me as I work toward a healthier lifestyle.
On Heavy Rotation
You Signed Up For This by Maisie Peters — Regular readers of HeyDingus will not be surprised to know that I’ve had Maisie Peters on heavy rotation this past month. I love her work and can also recommend her Instagram. She’s started up the concert season and has been posting pictures and videos of her tour.
Screen Violence by CHVRCHES — Great as always, CHVRCHES seems to have solidified into a grungy alternative band based on their latest album. I love the moodiness that brings me back to some My Chemical Romance roots, but that doesn’t lack maturity.
Particles by A Great Big World — Heartfelt yet airy, A Great Big World does it again with their latest album. I’ve always held A Great Big World in the same class of music as Owl City. I’m sure you recognize some of their music, even if you don’t know them by name. So give their latest a listen — it tackles some heavy topics with grace.
Only Honest On The Weekend by Becky Hill — I’d never heard of Becky Hill until her song “Remember” showed up in my “Friends Mix” playlist. It’s a banger and led me to check out the rest of her debut album. The whole thing is an exhilarating pop/dance ride. Some of my other favorites are “My Heart Goes (La Di Da)”, “Business”, and “Perfect People”. I think Becky Hill is going to be another to keep an eye on.
Things I’m Watching
Ted Lasso — Season 2 tells a very different story from season 1. But I still love the characters and applaud the writers for taking them through real-life journeys. I feel that once the entire season is out and can be binged, the storylines will feel more cohesive. But I still highly recommend the show.
Modern Family — Down to just a couple of episodes left. At 11 seasons, this may be the longest-running show that I’ve ever watched. Very binge-able.
Mr. Corman — This newest show from Joseph Gordon-Levitt (or is it Jordan Goseph-Levitt? — I always say it wrong) is super weird but has drawn me in. The titular character, Mr. Corman, is a schoolteacher dealing with acute mental instability. Between Ted Lasso and Mr. Corman, I’ve noticed that TV is doing an outstanding job depicting anxiety without punching down. I’m interested to see how this story resolves.
Truth Be Told — I wasn’t sure if I’d watch season 2 of this show after season 1 didn’t sit that well with me. But I think I’ll give it another try after a compelling first episode. It’s an intensely dramatic show about a true-crime podcaster.
Marvel Cinematic Universe — I’ve finally finished my sojourn back through the MCU, culminating in Infinity War and Endgame. If I had to choose my favorite of the whole series, it would still be Thor: Ragnarok. Going back through the entire timeline, I’m even more excited to watch Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and (particularly) Spider-Man: No Way Home.
CODA — This award-winning and record-setting movie is about a young girl who is the only hearing person in her small family. This, understandably, puts a lot of responsibility on her shoulders to help her family navigate life while also pursuing her passion for singing. I don’t want to spoil any more, but you should watch it on Apple TV+.
Hamilton — The music and movie of Hamilton have become a sort of comfort media for me. I know the songs inside and out, but I still am amazed by the broadway performance and choreography.
Hobbies I’m Hobbying
As I mentioned above, my free time has been somewhat limited this past month. But I’m still hitting the pavement a few times a week, and I work toward running a half-marathon by the end of the year. So the cooling weather is quite welcome in that regard.
My goal for the next few months is to carve out some time to get back into the climbing gym a couple of times a week. I miss the community, the physical exertion, and the problem-solving that’s all wrapped up in rock climbing.
One framework we’ve found especially helpful to structure such product discussions is to separate reading into three components: before, during, and after you read.
If we can build software that helps you be twice as effective in each of these stages — choose twice as efficiently before you read, comprehend twice as deeply while you read, and retain twice as much after you read — the compounded effect will be the Thielian 10x improvement we’re shooting for.
Very excited for this! While I’m super happy with Reeder for my RSS and Read-It-Later needs, I do wish that I could highlight bits more natively and be able to return to them. I gave Readwise a try a while back and enjoyed the way it resurfaced highlights from Kindle books, but ultimately didn’t find that to be enough to justify an ongoing monthly subscription. If they can make a high-quality app that integrates RSS, read-it-later, and highlight retention, I’ll be all-in.
And, as a side note, I really appreciated how well-written this blog post was. It’s long, but cohesive and lays out their vision of success in a very readable way.
Now Apple has included another fun Easter egg for the “California streaming” event. If you head to Apple’s Events page on your iPhone or iPad, tap on the event logo/Apple logo at the top to launch the AR experience.
Speaking of things that I’m excited for, Apple’s next event is coming up rapidly on Tuesday. If the rumors are to be believed, it could be a costly fall: new iPhone (🤞 for a good Mini that could last a few years), new Watch (loving the rumored design, and hopefully improved battery life), and AirPods (two years seems to be about the limit for the batteries, but I’m also optimistic about their rumored redesign and stem-based controls). The AR easter egg on Apple’s site is undoubtably their best yet!
Still, on balance, I’m pleased with the Court’s decision. You can argue about whether Judge Gonzalez Rogers overstepped the bounds of her authority by imposing a nationwide injunction based on state law. That’s the sort of remedy that I think is more appropriately the purview of federal legislators. However, I’m also glad to see additional pressure brought to bear that I hope will result in meaningful changes to the App Store for all developers, and that doesn’t reward Epic’s questionable legal tactics.
The big news out of this week was about the Epic vs. Apple ruling by Judge Gonzalez Rogers. John Voorhees, who used to work as a lawyer, had an excellent overview of what the 185(!) page legal document means for both companies. It’s got plenty of pull quotes but John writes so anyone can understand what’s going on. I tend to agree with John’s levelheaded assessment here.
The important thing to know here is that when you use an Apple Pay button on the web, you’re saving time and reducing the odds of a typo in your payment details, but the transaction flow is basically the same for the merchant. And like I mentioned in the first misconception, the odds are that all ways a merchant takes your card data on their site involve the card number being hidden from them.
Matt Birchler, who works in the payments industry, sheds some light on how Apple Pay works for merchants. I thought I had a pretty clear understanding of the benefits, features, and flow for Apple Pay, but even I learned a bit from Matt. Good, succinct read.
Too often, when a company stumbles, it’s not because it made a fundamentally bad decision. It’s because it made a decision that benefited itself rather than its customers and lacked the perspective to understand that customers don’t applaud when you lower your costs or the quality of your product.
I’ve made this very mistake in past lives. Feeling clever about solving an internal problem but misjudging how external parties would feel about it leads down a thorny path.
Funny animal photos are my jam, and are some truly great gems in this people’s choice collection. It was so hard to vote. I’m going to have to go searching for a Twitter or Instagram account for more hilarious photos of animals like these.
I took my friend on her first backpacking trip! My college roommate and best friend, Pam, recently decided to try backpacking for the first time! I took her to REI to get fitted for a pack, and then we hiked the 9-mile Wallace Lake Loop Trail here in Washington State. Watch the video to see how Pam did on her first backpacking trip!
I’ve only just discovered Miranda’s series on the REI channel, and I am HOOKED! She’s goofy, empathetic, and knowledgeable — right up my alley. It was a joy to see Miranda share and encourage her friend on a brand-new experience for her. This video has also reawakened my itch to dig out my backpacking gear…
In partnership with Vox Media Studios and Vox, this enlightening explainer series will take viewers deep inside a wide range of culturally relevant topics, questions, and ideas. Each episode will explore current events and social trends pulled from the zeitgeist, touching topics across politics, science, history and pop culture — featuring interviews with some of the most authoritative experts in their respective fields.
In this episode: Cricket experts look at how the confusing sport became so popular and discuss its evolution in becoming more accessible, entertaining and profitable.
Ever wondered what in the world the sport of cricket is? Me too! This video does an excellent job explaining the rules, the history, and the evolution (I’ve never known a sport to undergo such radical changes — perhaps besides rock climbing — and still come out on top). It actually looks quite fun, and I’d love to give cricket a try!
On a brisk February morning, Alicia Keys, full of effervescence, entered NPR through the loading dock wearing a canary yellow faux fur coat. During our ride to the fourth floor, she joked about how she hadn’t been invited to play at the Tiny Desk. That, of course, wasn’t exactly true. We worked on and off for years to make this moment happen, and I can say wholeheartedly that it was worth the wait.
Alicia Keys has an aura that you can sense the second she enters a room, or in my case, an elevator. She radiates compassion and kindness. This spirit is the key to Keys’s songwriting, which is rooted in introspection and mindfulness.
[…]
Musical Video Link Part 1/3: I’ve never been an Alicia Keys stan, but I do keep coming back to this video. The love and connection between the band members are palpable, let alone their talent. You can tell that Alicia adores singing for an audience.
With all due respect to its terrific albums and kinetic, frenetic live shows, if The Avett Brothers could put on a three-song acoustic concert at every workplace in America, the band would be a world-beating colossus. For proof, listen to this performance in the NPR Music offices.
Musical Video Link Part 2/3: And then there’s this video of the Avett Brothers (for whom I am definitely a stan) from back in 2009! I didn’t know they were doing Tiny Desk Concerts back then. The band absolutely kills it, and it was super fun to revisit some of their older songs, from back when they weren’t that old.
Musical Video Link Part 3/3: Simply incredibly talented. And with a performer’s body language chops to keep me entertained through a 5+ minute song. He looks real tired by the end.
Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram is pretty sure she wants kids, but doesn’t feel like she has enough information to truly understand the impact of that decision. She’s not alone - even though the majority of American women do decide to have children, the number of births in the United States has been creeping downward, and women are having kids later and later in life. But while no one but you can answer if you want to have kids, join Cleo as she gathers more data and perspective on what it means to be a parent.
This hard-hitting video explores the tough choices that people, but women, in particular, face when deciding whether or not to have kids. It’s a question that my wife and I continue to consider. I appreciated the creative and practical visuals used to show shocking statistics about happiness levels for parents and non-parents, the pay gap between men and women when they have kids, and how much of one’s income goes toward childcare. It’s somewhat sobering but doesn’t discount the fulfillment parents feel by raising their children.
Happy to finally release this one after 5 years of development :)
And just for fun, here’s Mark Rober with yet another wacky engineering project that leads to yet another world record. Mark’s a fun host in addition to being wicked smart.
If you enjoyed these, you’re welcome to check out more of my favorite videos on YouTube. The playlist is updated regularly as I find new great videos.
Thanks for reading! If you found these things interesting too, or have something exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
“Home Before Dark” is a drama series about Hilde Lysiak, a child journalist who published a newspaper called the Orange Street News in her hometown of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
The series follows the young girl as she moves from Brooklyn to the small lakeside town her father is from, where she unearths a cold case that everyone else in the town had attempted to bury.
I really enjoyed both seasons of this show. Though it would appear to be a kids show, it punches way above it’s weight class. It’s good TV. Full stop.
The MKBHD YouTube Channel moved into their new studio last year, and by watching their videos you could get a sense for the huge upgrade in space that it was. But this tour revealed just how massive the studio is. Tons of room to expand for years to come, from what I can see. And plenty of computing horsepower to go around with nearly everyone rocking a Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR. You love to see it.
Back in 2020, Tori Kelly and I performed our song ‘Running Outta Love’, from Djesse Vol. 3, for Stephen Colbert’s show!
Video Directed and Edited by Jacob Collier.
Two of my favorite artists come together or a kick-ass song and video. Tori Kelly’s voice is exquisite, and Jacob Collier’s music and video styles are unlike anyone else’s.
“I’m my own album’s biggest fan, and I have been for ages,” Maisie Peters tells Apple Music of her debut You Signed Up for This. “I’ve been writing music for a while now, and there are so many different avenues I could have gone down and so many different albums I could have made. I feel so surely that this is the right one.” Peters doesn’t exactly need to be her record’s main cheerleader. Those already in her corner include Taylor Swift—whose influence shines across all of Peters’ output—and Ed Sheeran, who signed the Brighton-born singer-songwriter to his Gingerbread Man record company in 2021 and who joined her in writing three of the songs here. “We just worked really well together,” says Peters. “This can feel like a very lonely [job], so it’s great having a teammate and having someone rooting for you.”
I’ve raved about her for months, and I’m thrilled for Maisie Peters’ debut album to be out. Although their music is quite different, I got some real Taylor Swift folklore and evermore vibes from the songwriting. It’s hard to pick a favorite this early, but if I had to, I’d go for “I’m Trying (Not Friends)”. I’d keep an eye on Maisie Peters if I were you.
Ming-Chi Kuo today released an intriguing note for Apple investors, indicating that he expects the upcoming iPhone 13 will support low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communication features. This would allow an iPhone 13 user to send messages and make phone calls, even when they are not within standard 45/5G cell tower coverage.
This rumor came way out of left field. But it would be pretty awesome to worry less about cell coverage for basic calls and texts in more (and more remote) places.
But if websites are so great then why did everyone (including me) move to newsletters? Why did blogs die off? Well, there are ten million answers to those questions, but only three I want to focus on.
An engaging, insightful, and creative post by Robin Rendle about how and why newsletters have exploded around the web. Spoilers: Predictably, it comes down to simplicity and getting paid. Newsletters and web blogs are pretty interchangeable for me, but that’s because I’ve found ways to funnels all of them into my RSS reader. I’d always prefer for content to live out on the open web rather than locked behind a emailed newsletter. That’s one reason I’m so thrilled for the MacStories team who built their own custom tool so that they could deliver their weekly newsletter in a way that’s more true to open web standards (among a plethora of additional amazing features) for
Club MacStories members.
Thanks for reading! If you found these things interesting too, or have something exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
Beyond the products, Dieter and Richard interfaced with the world quite differently. Dieter was a celebrity at the height of his career, serving as a spokesman for Braun. Apple took this idea further by letting Jony Ive tell the stories about its products. Jony’s voice has reached so far that clips of him pronouncing the word “aluminium” have become memes online.
Richard, on the other hand, was “a firm believer that products speak for themselves.” He never crafted ten principles for good design like Dieter. He rarely made public appearances beyond the teaching he did.
Fortunately for us, there is a small set of books and videos that help us see who Richard Sapper was.
One is a documentary created at the height of his career in the 80s. The other is a book, a sort of retrospective created in the last years of his life. By listening to Richard Sapper in these two moments in time, we can see both his unwavering principles and his evolving perspective.
Arun astounds again with another well-researched and in-depth blog post with exquisite design examples. He’s quite right, I’ve never heard of Richard Sapper. But I appreciate the honesty in his designs — an honesty that celebrates mechanics and function.
Two Videos on YouTube (Yes, I know this is cheating, but I really liked both of these.)
Study & Stop motion by Tomohiro Okazaki (designer)
The creative minds behind the concepts alone in this video are unfathomable to me. Let alone the sheer talent and persistence to put it all together. Incredible stuff here.
Created by indie developer David Steppenbeck, this app was created with iOS 14 in mind focusing on widgets. It displays the date, time, and other chronographic info at a glance with options to customize colors and time zones widget-by-widget.
I love supporting fun projects like this. At $2, it’s an easy impulse buy even if it doesn’t end up sticking as a permanent Home Screen feature. It brings me delight, and I hope the developer makes bank off it.
One thing that comes up a lot when people complain about Electron apps is that they don’t use standard system controls, which causes confusion. While I do sympathize with this, and the native controls are indeed easy to understand, I think we deify them a bit much and overestimate how many of our favorite Mac apps use them. […] All of those are great native Mac apps, but they’re using custom UI elements all over the place. Things has custom everything, Reeder has an iPad-style interface, Craft’s preferences window does not follow macOS conventions, and iStat Menus has some native-ish things with plenty of custom stuff too.
Matt Bircher makes some great points here about how some of the most highly-regarded native Mac apps are themselves not following the native Mac conventions held so dear in recent conversations about native vs. Electron apps. In the end, it all depends on the end product. Does it work well? Is it efficient on the system? Do customers enjoy using it? Does it play well within the operating system? If those questions are answered yes, then I think the tools used to build it matter a lot less.
It wasn’t long before the two founders noticed something odd in the (anonymized) data they had on their users: People were lousy at finishing their to-dos. Chen and Guzman could see an accumulation of sprawling, ambitious lists of tasks that users utterly failed to accomplish. In 2014, fully 41 percent of to-do items on IDoneThis were never … done.
Sound familiar? The tasks you so diligently enter into your fancy app or productivity method linger for days or weeks or months (or even longer—one colleague recently told me his to-do app has undone tasks from 2019). They stare back, unchecked, with baleful expressions, disappointed at how very un-crossed-off they are.
The challenge of creating a to-do app that works for those most people. The psychology behind making lists of tasks. Why do so many of us pile more than is reasonable upon the plates of our future selves? How time-blocking fits into all of it. This article has it all; it’s an excellent read. [Via Venki Rajah]
In May, the world watched as Epic Games dragged Apple to court, challenging the most profitable company in the world in the name of app fairness (and securing more Fortnite profits for itself). We’re still waiting for a verdict in Epic v. Apple, but we haven’t just been sitting around. We’ve also been digging through these companies’ dirty laundry, reading scores of internal emails and confidential presentations unearthed during the legal discovery process. It’s fascinating stuff.
There is a lot to unpack in this one. Buckle in, it’s a long and wild ride.
I am not an academic, but I can tell you that selfishness and dereliction of duty did not make this country great. The Constitution aimed to “promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.” It’s right there in our founding document. We need to think beyond our selfish interests.
Well said, Arnold. Though I’d make one small edit and adjust the title to “Don’t be a Schmuck. Get the Vaccine.”
Thanks for reading! If you found these things interesting too, or have something exciting to share, please drop me a line on Twitter!
