The chief problem with this is thinking is that, for starters, it’s madness, but secondly, it results in a lot of wasted cash. If I look at just my three current devices (1TB MacBook Air, 512GB iPad, & 256GB iPhone), I am overpaying for storage to the tune of nearly $800. That’s the value of an iPhone 12 or iPad Air sitting dormant in untapped (and likely never to be tapped) storage.
I’ve been consciously purchasing less storage for my devices based on real-life usage rather than “what ifs” for a few years, and yet I’m still afraid to total up my unused storage cost.
Windows 11 has new window snapping options that have drawn a lot of interest, yours truly included. But what you might not know (I learned only a few months ago) is that similar options are available natively in macOS. I don’t know how long the left and right snapping options have been hiding behind a hover on the green “traffic light” control, but they are handy.
How long have you been hiding there? Holding Option will change these to “Move Window” rather than “Tile Window”. ⌘
The default action tiles the window to a Split View within Mission Control and has you select a second one to fill the screen. However, I was pleasantly surprised that by holding the Option key it changes to “Move” rather than “Tile” and windows stay on the current desktop.
The result after moving the two windows to either side of the desktop. ⌘
The same options are also available via the “Window” menu bar item, though without a default keyboard shortcut. For better window snapping and management in macOS right now, I highly recommend Magnet, available on the Mac App Store. It’s got more options and keyboard shortcuts.
Native window controls via the Menu Bar (left) and Magnet’s options (right). ⌘
That all being said, Windows will have the better implementation of window snapping come this October.
For years, I’ve heard about the Paperlike screen protector. Despite being interested, I never bought one for myself, having long been over using screen protectors in general. But this one seemed unique. As you might expect, it is designed to make the screen feel like you’re writing on paper when using the Apple Pencil.
To make a long story short, when I bought my new iPad Pro, it came with a bunch of accessories, including a Paperlike that the previous owner never used. So, I installed it and wanted to share my thoughts.
Installation
I’ll say this for the Paperlike company; they make installation as easy as possible. Not only do they have step-by-step instructions on their website anda video, they also include niceties that make the installation smooth. For example, they include sticker tabs (so that you have something to grab onto when positioning and peeling the protector), and a wet wipe and microfiber cloth (for cleaning your screen before installation), and an extra sticker for grabbing stray bits of dust after a wipe down.
These tabs help you align the Paperlike, and keep the iPad still during installation. (Image: Paperlike) ⌘
The only downside, which is no fault of Paperlike, was that the protector came with some minor creases. I imagine that it got a little bent during shipping from the previous owner. The result was that even after doing my best while placing the protector and then scraping as directed to catch and remove bubbles, that there are a few spots that the Paperlike retains bubbles and doesn’t stick to the screen.
The bright side is that I thought this would be an instant deal-breaker. One of the main reasons I stopped using screen protectors is because it was nearly impossible to install error-free. If I’d been given a pristine Paperlike, I think I actually could have done it. Even so, I’ve been able to overlook the bubbles for the sake of this review.
Paperlike In Use
I’ve had a pinned note for weeks with “Likes” and “Dislikes” lists to fill with my opinions. Here’s the thing: I’ve had the same few items on the lists that I added within the first couple of hours of use. Here they are.
Likes
Cuts down on reflections
Protects screen
Dislikes
Makes the screen look grainy
Text isn’t as sharp
Blurry text on one of the nicest screens that I own is a bummer. ⌘
The one thing that the Paperlike was designed for is also the thing I haven’t been able to form a strong opinion on. When writing with the Apple Pencil, it does feel different; I just wouldn’t call it paper-like. I also wouldn’t call it good…or bad. The closest thing I can compare it to is writing on a chalkboard — a somewhat scraping feeling.
Overall, I haven’t disliked it enough to remove the Paperlike, but I also don’t think it will last me long-term.
What I have concluded, for sure, is that if and when Apple introduces an iPad with a matte screen — one that stays razor-sharp — I’ll be first in line to get it. Glare and reflections have always bothered me, and I can’t help but see them.
As for favoring writing on something that feels like paper, this doesn’t quite cut it. And I wasn’t unhappy writing on glass to begin with.
One more item for the “Likes” list that I noticed when getting my iPad ready for photos for this review: the Paperlike cuts down on noticeable fingerprints. This is the first time that I’ve wiped down the screen since I install the Paperlike, and while there’s certainly finger grease on the screen, the matte screen protector hides it well.
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Needless to say, I’ve been subjected to a subpar comic reading experience all this time.
The second season of Trying recently finished up. I think it’s a sleeper hit of Apple TV+. Not many shows’ 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. Maisie’s music is soft, intimate, and lyrically beautiful. I can’t 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 can’t 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 I’ll 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 Pixar’s 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 — 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 hasn’t sold well, I think when more folks can get their hands on the device in stores they’ll have a better reception. I’ve 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 I’m 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!
A few days ago, I got a text from my sister seeking some iPad help. She wanted to know if there was an easy way to lock certain apps, or a whole folder of apps, behind Face/TouchID or a passcode. One of her young kids had recently deleted data from an app, and she wasn’t keen on having that happen again. So, not having had a reason to try locking an app before, but with a couple of hunches of where to look, I poked around for an answer.
App Lock, where art thou?
First, I checked App Limits in Screen Time. Alas, you can only restrict apps to a minimum of one minute of use per day. Furthermore, you can’t set any days in App Limits to zero minutes — they all have a minimum of one minute.
Next up, Guided Access. I knew you could use Guided Access to keep people in one app (convenient for single-purpose iPads or when you hand an iPad to a child to watch a movie, as a couple of examples), but perhaps you could set a few apps that the user could switch between, but nothing else. Nope. Guided Access is for one app at a time.
The third and most technical option I thought might work was to use the Shortcuts app. I was sure I’d seen examples of people using the automation tools to require authentication upon opening an app. Well, I was right; it was possible to require authentication as part of a shortcut, but not natively. Instead, the (excellent) third-party app Toolbox Pro provides the actions necessary and I wasn’t able to figure out how Shortcuts would reopen the app after a successful unlock without triggering a new authentication. That, plus one of the iPads in question was stuck on iOS 10 (Shortcuts also didn’t arrive until iOS 12), made that option a non-starter.
Some apps, like password managers, allow locking as a feature, but I think it should be built into the system. Sure, an App Limit of one minute in Screen Time provides only a short time window for trouble, but a child could do a lot of damage in one minute if in the right app. Needing to activate Guided Access each time you hand an iPad to a kid is unsustainable — sooner or later, you’ll forget — and it doesn’t allow much autonomy for the child to use the apps that they are permitted to access.
My suggestion is for Apple to bake locked apps into Screen Time. Let parents select all the apps that should be locked behind the Screen Time passcode. The app icons could even be grayed out on the Home Screen. Another option would be for the Shortcuts team to build actions that prevent an app from opening without authentication. I wouldn’t like the extra barrier to learning Shortcuts that this would put before parents, but it would be better than nothing.
A way to lock apps should live here.
This limitation showcases that Apple doesn’t see the iPad as a shared device. For them, the iPad is a one-device-for-one-user kind of product. If there were proper user accounts in iPadOS, it wouldn’t be a concern. But since there aren’t, making it simple to lock specific apps or folders would go a long way toward helping parents who share an iPad with kids. Frankly, with how much work Apple has put into parental controls over the years, I’m surprised that something this important doesn’t exist already.
I’ve been noticing hints over the past few versions of iPadOS that point toward a Mac-like windowing system coming to iPad. Many people thought it would arrive this year in iPadOS 15. Instead, we got what seems like more groundwork — I’m looking at you, revamped multitasking controls and Quick Note — which could have been laid as a test for more significant changes to come. I’m not the only one who’s been seeing the signs. Jason Snell wrote a comprehensive piece for Macworld that detailed how the various floating window elements and multiple app instances in iPadOS have gotten us part of the way there already:
Apple has been flirting with the idea of putting floating windows on the iPad for a few years now. For example, Slide Over is a floating window attached to one side of the screen. Picture in Picture floats above apps but must be placed in a corner. Two years ago, Apple introduced the concept of multiple app windows—but they were really just multiple instances of an app, running in existing app frames. (A Microsoft Word file in full screen and a different Word file in a different Split View, for example.)
One thing Jason didn’t mention was the floating compact keyboard which also arrived on the iPad two years ago in iPadOS 13. It remains to today the only element that you place anywhere on the screen — it is not restricted to the sides or corners like PiP windows or Quick Notes.
The iPad’s software keyboard can be put anywhere on screen. ⌘
There are also a plethora of new icons in the SF Symbols 3 update, some of which are used for the new multitasking controls, but others that could be reserved for future windowing options.
Could some of these symbols be used for future window snapping? ⌘
Jason calls attention to some key commands that bring multitasking from the keyboard close to parity with the Mac:
But with iPadOS 15, things are getting more interesting on the windowing front. Yes, the iPad’s new Globe-key shortcuts seem to point to more sophisticated multitasking to come, but what really caught my eye is a more old-fashioned Command-key shortcut that Apple has imported from the Mac: next App Window, executed by holding down Command and the tick-mark (`) key.
Since the Globe-key also came to the newest built-in and external Mac keyboards, I’m expecting system-wide multitasking shortcuts to expand across both platforms.
I listen to a lot of podcasts. Over the past few years, they’ve become my favorite medium for keeping up with current events and for general entertainment. One of the reasons I’m able to listen to so many shows is that podcasts, by their nature, can be enjoyed while doing other things. So I listen to podcasts while driving, cleaning, preparing meals, walking and running, and getting ready for the day. Really, most times that my hands are busy and I don’t need to concentrate too closely on the task at hand, I’ve got a podcast playing in my ears.
But it’s this aspect of podcasts that also makes it difficult to interact with shows that have rich show notes. My hands being involved with something else means that I can’t check out the links or photos referenced during a show. So I’ve built a shortcut that I can call via Siri to save them and remind me to review them later.
A brief aside about show notes — they’re great! I wish more hosts used them to share links to the articles, videos, products, or whatnot they talked about on their shows. It enhances the experience. I’ve discovered new favorite artists, followed hosts and guests on Twitter, and even purchased things from podcast sponsors because they were easy to get through links in the show notes. I always appreciate it when a host says that they’ll add something to the notes.
Why not in the app?
Before we get into building the shortcut, you may rightly ask, “Why not just look back at the notes in the podcast app later?” The answer is simple: my preferred podcast app, Overcast, removes completed podcasts from my listening queue and playlists. Since I typically listen to several shows in a row, it can be difficult to remember which shows had notes that I wanted to check out. I think it would be great to have a running history of shows that I’ve listened to, and I’ve suggested that feature to Marco Arment, the developer of Overcast.
Creating the shortcut
I wanted three core functions out of this shortcut:
Make a hands-free solution to save the notes.
Make sure I remembered that there was something I wanted to check.
Archive a copy of the notes for future reference.
When Marco enhanced Overcast’s shortcuts support earlier this year, I knew I could easily achieve the first two functions just by creating a reminder with a link to the episode’s URL. But I wanted to get fancy. With just a little extra work, I was able to consistently format the show notes, save them to an archived draft with correct tags in Drafts, and create a to-do item in Things that also contains the full notes.1
Getting the show notes from Overcast, converting them to Markdown, and formatting the resulting note. ⌘
Step 1: Get details about the currently playing episode in Overcast. We reference this Magic Variable several times throughout the shortcut.
Step 2: Take the show notes in HTML (which is how Overcast provides them) and convert them to rich text.
Step 3: Take the rich text and convert it to Markdown. This action only accepts rich text, which is why we need to do the double conversion.
Step 4: Format the note’s text using the podcast’s title and episode title, the body of the notes, and a link back to the episode in Overcast.
Now that we’ve created the text for the note, now we have to put it somewhere. In this case, we’re sending it to both Drafts and Things.
Creating a new item in Drafts containing the show notes. ⌘
Step 5: Using the Create Draft action, we put the formatted text in the draft, apply the show notes tag, and archive it.
The final four steps are a little convoluted because Things has different app instances for iPhone and iPad. Since the Shortcuts actions are tied to the app, we need to duplicate that action for each device.
Checking the device and creating a to-do in Things that also contains the show notes. ⌘
Steps 6 and 7: To determine which device is running the shortcuts, we get the device’s details and then create an If statement which checks the device model against “iPad.”
Step 8: If the device model contains ‘iPad,’ it creates a to-do item in Things for iPad set for the current day, and with a link to the archived draft, and shows notes in Markdown again in the to-do description. Since the title of the draft contains both the podcast and episode title, we can reuse that aspect of the draft in the to-do’s title. Why duplicate the show notes within the to-do when they’re already archived in Drafts? Pure convenience. The URLs can be tapped from within Things, so there’s a little less bouncing around needed. The version in Drafts is for an archive if we want to go searching for something specific later.
The Things action for iPhone isn’t usable on iPad. ⌘
Step 9: The to-do creation action is duplicated but using the one for Things on iPhone instead.2
The finished products in Things (left) and Drafts (right) ⌘.
A few tidbits
I call this shortcut equally often with Siri (“Hey Siri, save show notes”) as I do as an item in my Overcast Menu shortcut. I keep that menu available in the Today View, so it’s always available with a couple of swipes and a couple of taps — which is nice when I don’t want to or can’t talk to my device. I’ll write more about controlling Overcast from a shortcut in the future.
An unfortunate consequence of using three well-developed apps that are good platform citizens on all Apple’s devices is that this shortcut can be a little wonky when running from the Apple Watch. Overcast, Drafts, and Things all have independent watch apps, which don’t always play nicely with Shortcuts. I wish that when a shortcut doesn’t perform as expected on the watch that it would fall back to using the phone’s actions, but, alas, I’m not aware of a workaround. So when run using Siri on the Apple Watch, this shortcut can result in blank to-dos and drafts.
Despite being able to be called via the Apple Watch, it doesn’t save the results correctly. ⌘
You may be able to recreate this shortcut for Apple Podcasts if that’s the client you prefer. I gave it a whirl, but the lack of a ‘Get Current Episode’ action makes getting details about the playing episode challenging. I’m also unsure that the description returned from the Get Details of Episode action will contain the full show notes.
I also tried to create a version of this shortcut that saves show notes as rich text in Apple Notes for a prettier archive. Sadly, Apple Notes doesn’t play nicely when accepting rich text from Shortcuts. For some reason, the rich links get stripped of their richness. On the bright side, raw URLs work great in Apple Notes, so saving the Markdown there would work just as well as in Drafts. However, I prefer Drafts because the show notes are a little more ephemeral, in my opinion, and because Drafts has far more powerful actions in Shortcuts.
I love this shortcut because it showcases how with just a few actions, we can pass data around between multiple apps and end up with something useful. I’d love to see more apps get on board with shortcut actions that get data out of their apps, as well as putting data into them. I use this shortcut multiple times each week, and it makes me smile each time because I created a solution for my own problem. This kind of user-driven problem-solving is why I like Shortcuts so much.
Sometimes I am using my device while listening to a podcast and want to check a link that the hosts discuss. For those occasions, I’ll select the Select Link from Show Notes shortcut from my Overcast Menu. With just four actions, it grabs all the links out of the show notes HTML, presents them as a list and displays the selected webpage in a Safari View Controller.3 It’s super-fast and is more straightforward than swiping around to get into Overcast’s show notes screen and scrolling to find the correct link.
Building and using the Select Link from Show Notes shortcut. ⌘
While designed for Drafts and Things, it could be adapted to your preferred notes app or task manager. ↩︎
I’d like to see Things clean this up and bring their apps under the same instance across all Apple’s platforms. It makes it tricky to create shortcuts that address Things because you have to remember to differentiate them, and the action must be added on that device. So you need to edit the shortcuts on both devices for it to work correctly. This will only get worse when Shortcuts arrives on Mac later this year. ↩︎
I like using the Show Web Page action because then it doesn’t clutter up my Safari tabs. ↩︎
Jason Fried, writing on his HEY World blog, wonders why car brands don’t take an active role in the car rental business:
I can’t imagine a better way to try out a car prior to buying it than renting it on a trip. If it’s a vacation or an important business trip — I’m already feeling good about it. Transfer those good feels, and special memories to the car — it’ll make me want one even more.
My wife and I have a trip coming up during which we’ll rent a car for the week. While we’re not in the market for a new vehicle right now, I’d love the opportunity to take a prospective purchase out for a real-world extended test drive. Or be able to stick with something we’re comfortable with, like a Honda or a Subaru. They could incentivize me to stay within their brand. As it is, we typically go with whatever is cheapest and that doesn’t suck.
With the release of the public beta, I put my iPad Pro (the one I’m typing on right now) on iPadOS 15. I’ve spent the last few days getting things set up and putting it through my usual day-to-day, which is to say some light research, reading, image manipulation, entertainment, and of course, writing for this blog. So, in no particular order, here are my brief thoughts after about three days of usage.
More widgets on the Home Screen are great, but it makes the layout go haywire when changing orientation. I wish they had found a better solution for maintaining the same structure when going to portrait orientation, even if it meant having a square grid of icons.
I wish that keeping the Today View permanently on screen was still an option, but I expect they’re trying to phase that view out altogether.
My two Home Screens: writing and music (left), and entertainment (right). Everything else lives in the App Library. ⌘
The new Safari design with consolidated tabs and Smart Search field isn’t as jarring as I expected, but I tend to close tabs as I’m done with them anyway so that they don’t pile up.
Global keyboard shortcuts are fantastic! But they will take some time to remember the new commands.
Updated Maps are gorgeous! 😍 I can’t wait for them to come to more areas (or for me to move to a place where they’re supported 😉).
Multitasking is a more significant upgrade than it might seem but again will take some time to relearn the faster ways to get around. When touching the screen, the swipe-down gesture to tile a new app feels very natural.
Being able to manipulate Split View instances from the App Switcher is a godsend!
Combining windows like this wasn’t possible before within the App Switcher! ⌘
The updated Shortcuts editor looks cleaner and is more functional with things like suggested next actions.
I’m glad I waited to organize the apps on my new iPad Pro. The App Library is a welcome addition here, and it means I can get rid of utility folders I used to keep in the dock for easy access when multitasking.
The floating keyboard/QuickType bar when a hardware keyboard is connected is an improvement. It obscures less content and generally gets in the way less.
The new QuickType bar is more compact and floats above content. ⌘
It was expected, but Shortcuts gets hung up pretty often. Also, the new permission prompts are a little out of control. I anticipate both will get ironed out before long.
I wasn’t sure about the condensed look for notifications, but it’s quickly grown on me.
With their more compact design, more notifications can fit on the screen and are more identifiable by their larger app icon. ⌘
I’ve just seen my first Shared with You links in Safari, and I think that will be a sleeper hit. Furthermore, I hope it gets opened up to third-party apps in the future.
Still to test
I haven’t tried out Quick Notes, Focus, or Live Text yet. Nor have I had the opportunity to use any of the new features for FactTime.
Universal Control with the Mac is one of the things I’m most looking forward to since I jump between devices quite regularly. But I haven’t loaded the macOS 12 beta onto my Mac mini yet, and Universal Control isn’t even available in the macOS beta yet, anyway.
I frequently use Memoji stickers, and I’m looking forward to getting my little character into something other than the plain gray clothes he’s been wearing for years.
My takeaway so far
I’ll have much more to say about this OS upgrade cycle as I get more time with it and try the betas on other devices. But so far, I’m pretty happy with the changes I’ve experienced so far.
Both Safari and widgets on the Home Screen need some work, in my opinion. But they’re pretty good for early implementations.
Overall, the updates to iPadOS this year do not feel drastic, but that’s okay! The operating system is maturing, and while there are unquestionably things that I’d still like to be introduced or improved, I think the refinements this year are welcome. They touched up frequent interactions (e.g., QuickType bar, notifications, multitasking), which will bring bits of joy all year long. I like the direction iPadOS is headed.
