The new Apple TV 4K came out last week, and they did rejoice. Well, I rejoiced because it meant that my year-long wait was over after purchasing a 4K television last March. It felt a little anti-climatic since the new box looks exactly the same, but at least (and most importantly) the Siri Remote is completely reimagined.

Joe Rosensteel has put together a comprehensive review on his blog, and I found myself nodding along. I recommend reading through the whole blog post. While I’m overall delighted with the new box and remote, Joe noted many things that I was feeling during setup, even though I didn’t realize I was frustrated by them at the time.

This was a little deceptive. I had all these apps, and they were arranged as they were on my prior Apple TV, but these apps were all completely blank slates. It was as if I had downloaded each one of them for the very first time. The email addresses I had used for logins on my previous Apple TV weren’t copied over either, so every login prompt expected me to use the email address associated with my Apple ID, which is not helpful, because the same email wasn’t used across all of these services. Also, this means any future logins, logouts, or password changes aren’t synchronized and need to be performed separately, manually, on each device.

It took me a good chunk of time to sign back into all of my apps and services. iOS has done a good job the past few years at preserving login state through restores, and tvOS could use some of that magic.

Despite the nitpicks you’ll see in Joe’s post, I really like the new Apple TV 4K. I’m glad that I no longer have to jump into my TV’s webOS applications to get 4K Dolby Vision goodness. I love the new remote with its clickiness, larger body, and heft, although I do need to get used to the new position of the play/pause button. With the A12 processor, the UI is speedy, and I’m looking forward to playing more games. I’d have preferred it to have gotten the latest and greatest processor, such as the A14, but I’m confident about it lasting another five years as my Apple TV HD has done.

Speaking of the Apple TV HD, that box and old remote have made their way back to our old TV. That unit has sat upstairs, lonely and disconnected, waiting for this upgrade. It’ll be nice to have a secondary screen for using with Fitness+ and for guests (now that guests in our home will soon be a thing again!). It remains to be seen if I’ll resist purchasing a second Siri Remote for consistency between the two TVs.

I’m not holding my breath, but I hope to see some meaningful tvOS updates at WWDC this year. But with a new box and a glorious new remote, the Apple TV is already well on its way to a better year-end score than in 2020.

Go to the linked site →

Linked Reviews

It’s been quiet here at HeyDingus for the past couple of months. I had some big projects at my day job that kept me busy long past the day hours, followed by some significant changes in my personal life, which I intend to write about soon. And while at first I simply didn’t have the time or energy to write, I then fell out of the habit of not writing. Habits are hard to make and easy to break, as they say.

But I hadn’t lost the desire to write, and my pile of topic ideas (dutifully held in Drafts) has grown to a frightening height. So I figure there’s no better way to start than to just do it. As part of those changes in my personal life, I am able to try out some new pursuits like coding, which I look forward to chronicling as I stumble down that path. And with WWDC coming up soon there will be no shortage of announcements to celebrate and critique.

I hope you’re buckled back in and ready to go!

Blogging

I continue to have a hook in my brain about HEY World. Even though I’m not abandoning HeyDingus, I still think of it as a dam that’s broken to allow a flood of new folks like me to publish their writing on the world wide web.

The barrier to entry is so low (besides paying for HEY, which is less expensive than a lot of blogging platforms anyway and comes with a great email service) that I was sure there would be dozens? hundreds? thousands? of new blogs to explore. But how?

At first, I used a Twitter search, which is how I discovered JF Martin’s post:

Have you tried: http://world.hey.com/~shuffle? I did. A lot. I even created a Shortcut on my home screen named “HEY World Dice”. Tapping on the icon opens Safari with this URL and boom, I’m presented with a random HEY World user’s wall (can I say that?).

Genius! A Shortcut would definitely beat Twitter’s terrible search UI. So I created the shortcut, put it on my home screen, and I’ve been using it to discover all sorts of new writers. I’ve set it to open the page directly in Safari View Controller, so with a press of the Home button it’s gone forever and ready to open the next blog. I usually check the author’s “wall” and if there’s more that I like then I subscribe with RSS. Easy.

Certainly, there are plenty of other ways to discover great writing on the web, but shuffling HEY World blogs brings me straight to people who are excited about trying something new. It’s neat to see the creative ways others are using the service.

Feel free to download my Shortcut, or recreate it yourself.

Shortcuts

I’m a little late in commenting on this news, reported first by Matthew Panzarino at TechCrunch:

Apple has discontinued its original HomePod after four years. It says that it will continue to produce and focus on the HomePod mini, introduced last year.

I love the way my HomePod sounds, and I don’t get as annoyed as others seem to be with Siri. So this news makes me sad even though I wasn’t in the market to buy another. I hope that, whatever Apple does next with the HomePod family, it doesn’t abandon the supremely good sound that the full-size HomePod produces.

Go to the linked site →

Linked

Adam Savage, of MythBusters fame, coming in clutch with a detailed view into how he manages projects with checklists:

I almost never begin at the beginning. Usually, I examine the subcategorized list and I look for the toughest nut to crack. The real ass-kicker of a problem. The one for which I have the most difficulty imagining a solution at first glance. Once I find it—in the case of the ray gun it would probably be fabrication of the top scope—that’s where I start. I do this for three reasons: (1) I don’t want to get caught out toward the end of a project with unexpected problem solving that takes way longer than I expected; (2) once I’ve cracked the tough problem, I’ve built a lot of momentum, and I’ve already slayed the beast that might kill my momentum later on; and (3) I like coasting to the finish with the easy stuff. It’s one of the ways I manage the stress of a project. Get the hard stuff out of the way first, then the specter of all those empty checkboxes becomes less intimidating, because the tasks get successively easier and the checkboxes get filled in just as quickly.

As a follow up to my task list concentration tactic, Adam’s is a strategy I desperately need to deploy. The rest of the article is worth reading through, but knocking down the biggest domino first is something I don’t do, but should. Typically I let it weigh on me until the situation reaches boiling point, and that’s a mental load I can’t bear any longer.

Go to the linked site →

Linked

Quotes That Move Me

1. “‘We all have our own tides inside. They go in. Out.’ He shrugs. ‘Not really ours to control.’” [Golden Son by Pierce Brown]
2. “For thirty years they had the work of my hands. They could have had the work of my head and my heart at no extra cost, but they never asked.” [2 Second Lean by Paul Akers]
3. “If you want an answer, you have to ask a question. People typically have a lot to say, but they’ll volunteer little.” [Guide to Internal Communication by the Team at Basecamp]
4. “Being able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?”, until there is no more.” [“68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice” by Kevin Kelly]
5. “The human mind: We start with a strong emotion and then we find reason to explain it.” [Merlin Mann]
6. “The reason that most of us are unhappy most of the time is that we set our goals not for the person we’re going to be when we reach them, but we set our goals for the person we are when we set them.” [Jim Coudal]
7. “If your words can be perceived in different ways, they’ll be understood in the way which does the most harm.” [Guide to Internal Communication by the Team at Basecamp]

7 Things

1. Wow. I was making footnotes¹ way harder by trying to match up numbers at the bottom of the document. [iA Writer]
2. This video of concert goer “Kiss Guy” getting invited onstage and absolutely shredding at a Foo Fighter concert was a fun watch. [Via ATP]
3. Cherry, the other hand, was an intense watch. Tom Holland was superb in his role, leaving me on the edge of my seat and face in my hands throughout most of the movie. I can surely say it made me want to never get caught up in war, drugs, or robbery — that’s for sure. [Apple TV+]
4. Apple published a webpage to consolidate the Privacy Labels for its own apps. There are way more of them here than I ever knew about! [Via 9to5Mac]
5. We recently picked up Spyro: Reignited Trilogy for the PS5. It’s been super fun to play back through one of my favorite games as a kid. It looks great with updated graphics, but plays just the same which is perfect for turning off my brain. [Wikipedia]
6. This video of outtakes from a classic Parks and Rec scene sent me down a Craig Middlebrooks rabbit hole. What a unique character. [Via Do By Friday]
7. Marques Brownlee released a 45-minute opus on the iPhone as an exploration of long-form video on YouTube. It was impressive. While I can’t say I’d want one of these every week, I’m curious to see what comes of him flexing his production chops like this in the future. [MKBHD]

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1. Like this.↩︎

7 Things

Some insight from Jason Fried on his HEY World blog:

Whenever I write something with the intention to explain, sell, or promote, I’m aiming for head nods. I’m looking to find a certain resonance with those who are already traveling in this direction, who already see things similarly.

I could learn from this. Reflecting now, I see that when I write content for summer camp promotion, I start with the assumption that the reader has better things to do. I try hard to convince them. This is likely why I write too many words and then have to edit way down.

While there are certainly people who need convincing, they’re probably not the ones who are going to spend the time to get to the bottom of the page. The people who already have an interest are 1) the people who have found their way to my content for a nibble, and 2) are also the most likely to finish the bite. In reality, it’s a more valuable use of time and resources to write directly to them.

→ Source: Jason Fried on HEY World

Linked

Dr. Drang, writing about his bananas software update experience:

A few days ago, I updated my Watch Series 3 to watchOS 7.3. It was, as many Series 3 owners would have predicted, a nightmare.

The updates have grown so large that they barely fit onto a Series 3, which Apple still, bafflingly, sells new. My mom, my sister, and I have all faced this exact problem with Series 3 Apple Watches. Trying to troubleshoot an update problem remotely for my sister at Christmas was nearly impossible, and we guess-and-checked our way through the steps that Apple suggests in their support document. Since then, I’ve battled it myself for each point update.

Like Dr. Drang, I’ve come to the conclusion that the fastest way to accomplish an update at this point is to skip trying to remove synced content and restarting and instead jump straight to the unpair, update, and then re-pair process. But it’s not fast. The experience is so bad that I, someone who always updates on day one, am currently putting off a watchOS update because I don’t want to deal with it. I’ll do it eventually, but I imagine that everyday users will simply choose not to update their Series 3’s software, which is a terrible outcome and an embarrassment for Apple.

They should either figure out how to reduce the update size so that most users can update without jumping through hoops or stop selling the Series 3 (which debuted with watchOS 4) and kidding themselves that watchOS 7 can fit it.

→ Source: leancrew.com

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UPDATE: As it turns out, not all Series 3 models face this update issue. At some point in the product’s life cycle, it appears that Apple upgraded the storage of the Series 3. Plus, and I’d forgotten this, cellular models used to come with higher capacities.

According to Apple’s website¹, the Series 3 now comes standard with 8 GB storage, even for the GPS-only models. Compare that to my original Series 3 which has only 4 GB.

The higher capacity of Series 3 models purchased today means at least customers won’t face this trouble on their brand-new device. I’m happy for them.

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1. Not on the Apple Watch page proper. No, to find capacities, you have to go to the compare page, and then also click on the “Compare All Features” link, or scroll all the way down to Tech Specs and expand “Features”. Sigh↩︎

Linked

For the last few weeks, I’ve felt bogged down by my ever-growing task list. Each day I add more to-dos than I can complete, and it’s been getting to me. Rather than lighting a fire under my ass to pare down the list, I find myself either paralyzed by choice or flitting between projects without accomplishing anything of substance.

Typically I scan through my project list at the beginning of the week and judge how much I can get done each day. Inevitably I bite off more than I can chew, and the previous day’s tasks pile up alongside the new items that get added. It’s become untenable.

I’ve tried approaches like tagging things as #radar that should be on deck and then choosing from those tasks for each day. In time, everything could be classified as needing to be on my radar, so that’s become less useful. Time-blocking has helped, but I’m not in the habit of sticking to it yet. Plus, I try to fit too much into each day.

So I’m trying a different approach, and it’s roughly equivalent to putting blinders on a horse: reduce my task list to only three things at a time. Before I can get overwhelmed by what needs to be done, I quickly scan my task manager for the day and choose three that are both relevant and attainable and tag them as #top3.

I’ve not changed any other variable yet, so I still schedule tasks for the particular day I’d like to get them done, but now I filter my Today view to only see the things tagged as #top3. Nothing else can get that tag until all three are checked off. I’m trying to trick myself into sprinting to clear the list. Clear, add three more, clear, add three more.

Ultimately, I know this won’t fix my underlying issues in project management, like making the most effective use of my time. But it has helped me to feel less overwhelmed and get some stuff done.