With everyone and their brother starting a streaming service in the past few years, it has never been easier to consume amazing television. Budgets are bigger, special effects better, and great writing bountiful. Here’s my list of favorite TV shows that I discovered in 2020.

I’m pretty specific about how I watch TV, which drives my wife crazy. It’s hard for me to keep track of a bunch of plot lines, so I prefer only a few going at once and to watch them all the way through before starting a new series. Thankfully, streaming services make that possible, but it means that my “up next” queue grows rapidly.

Ted Lasso (Apple TV+, 2020)
As I mentioned in my personal Upgradies picks for 2020, Ted Lasso was my TV Show of the Year. Reading the tin, you’d think it was a classic fish-out-water story about a clueless American hired to coach professional soccer (football) in England. But it’s so much more.¹

Released in the midst of the pandemic and social unrest in the United States, this show was the right show at the right time. I think Ted’s optimism in the face of challenge helped a lot of us get through tough times. It was refreshing to see a strong male figure work through problems with kindness, care, and respect rather than with classic toxic masculinity.

Ted Lasso has it all: lovable characters who grow throughout the season, many laugh-out-loud bits in every episode, endearing and frankly tear-jerking moments of vulnerability, and an awareness for the real world that navigates actual challenges people face in the best ways without overdoing it. Don’t underestimate Ted Lasso — it’s hilarious and heartfelt, and I’m thrilled that it’s been renewed for a second and third season.

The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix, 2020)
I recall discovering The Queen’s Gambit organically through Netflix’s banner almost the same time it exploded in popularity. My wife and I looked at each other and agreed it looked interesting enough to add to the queue. As mentioned above, I don’t like to have a ton of shows going at once, so it sat for a couple of weeks until I heard its praises sung often enough that we just had to start. The fans weren’t wrong — it’s exquisite television.

Beth Harmon is a child chess prodigy and singularly commanding force. Beth is played by Anya Taylor-Joy — though that does a disservice to her incredible performance. Anya captures Beth’s character with the confidence and grace of a jungle cat on the prowl. The series follows Beth through her young life fraught with addiction to tranquilizers and alcohol, which Beth uses to cope with her gift of genius. Though there are dark parts concerning Beth’s relationship with her birth parents, the orphanage she grew up in, and spiraling as a young adult — but I don’t think I could describe The Queen’s Gambit as a dark show. It uses humor and fun to take the edge off.

Equally impressive to Anya’s performance is the writing and camerawork for The Queen’s Gambit. Despite chess being a largely silent game, the writers snuck in enough dialog to inform and engage the viewer without being conspicuous. As someone who appreciates the details of cinematography, what this show does with lighting and framing is breathtaking. It all works together to transform chess, a typically slow game, into a dramatic battlefield that kept me on the edge of my seat. I’ve even gotten back into playing casually after watching this show.

The soundtrack is also excellent, and makes great focus music.

Central Park (Apple TV+, 2020)
Central Park, developed by Josh Gad, is simply a delight. It’s an animated series in the style of Bob’s Burgers, and brought together an all-star cast. You might recognize Leslie Odom Jr. and Daveed Diggs of Hamilton fame, Titus Burgess, Kristen Bell, Stanley Gucci, and Katheryn Hahn (whom I know from Parks and Rec). Josh Gad rounds out the cast as the zany narrator.

I don’t know that I could adequately explain the plot of Central Park, but it’s ultimately unimportant. What you’ll love from this show are the catchy musical numbers, and the general hilarity that ensues between the family living in the park and the mega-rich villain on a quest to purchase and flatten it. I ended each show wearing a smile, and my wife immediately restarted the series when we finished it.

Trying (Apple TV+, 2020)
Trying is a British comedy series that follows a couple along their journey seeking the adoption of a baby. Nikki and Jason are certainly no perfect couple, but they’re lovable and real. “Trying” was the perfect title as they work through their shortcomings in an effort to be accepted by the adoption agency. I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end and eagerly await season two. Oh, and I’ve only known Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter, so it was a shock to love her as Penny, the adoption social worker.

Little Voice (Apple TV+, 2020)
When I finished Little Voice, I wouldn’t have placed it on my favorites list. The plot was fraught at times, and I had frustrations with some characters’ actions. But as time passed, I couldn’t get this show out of my mind and I realized that it made an achievement: I had grown to care for the characters. Little Voice follows Bess as she struggles to kickstart her musical career, while also being a caretaker to her family.

The music, written by Sara Bareilles and performed beautifully by the cast, made it onto my most played playlist. Seriously, even if you don’t watch the show you should listen to the soundtrack.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Hulu, 2013)
I’m late to the game on Brooklynn Nine-Nine, but I’ll concur that it has earned the praise I’ve heard over the past seven years and seasons. It’s so funny, and I like all the characters. Brooklyn Nine-Nine joins Parks and Rec, The Office, and How I Met Your Mother on the list of shows that I initially resisted and ultimately loved.

I’m Sorry (Netflix, 2017)
My wife discovered this show, and I’m so glad she did. Created by and starring Andrea Savage, I’m Sorry had me in stitches every episode. In the show, Andrea and her husband Mike navigate parenthood with a lightheartedness and confidence that, frankly, I admire. The openness they have with their daughter got them into some sticky situations, but the fun in the relationship between Andrea and Mike is worthy of #MarriageGoals. I’m sad that I’m Sorry won’t be coming back for a third season, but I now have more incentive to finally start Veep, which also stars Andrea Savage.

Schitt’s Creek (Netflix, 2015)
Yep, I jumped on the Schitt’s Creek train this year. I was unsure about continuing on after the first season, but ended up drawn in by the ridiculousness of it all. Each season was better than the one before, and the Rose family developed from spoil and grievance into truly decent people in a way that I did not expect. The absurd situations were complemented by heartfelt compassion resulting in my own teary eyes more times than I’m willing to admit. Patrick singing to David in their apothecary gets me every time.

Letterkenny (Hulu, 2016)
You’ve likely noticed that this list is dominated by comedies, and for that I have no regrets. 2020 was a difficult year, and it was a relief to escape into shows that made me laugh. There was no show that had my eyes watering from laughter more than Letterkenny. A fast-talking sitcom, Letterkenny started as a YouTube series based on creator Jared Kesso’s experiences of local rivalries in small-town Canada. Letterkenny straddles the intersection of slapstick, profanity, and morality — a weird place, to be sure — but it’s a joy. I’m through six of nine seasons, and it keeps getting better. Oh, and cute puppies make regular appearances.

If you want to get a sense of if you’ll like Letterkenny, do yourself a favor and watch the season cold-opens on YouTube for a taste.

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It’s true that Apple TV+ shows make up much of this list. As a completionist², it brings me a small amount of joy to know that I’ve tried almost everything on their service. But it’s not just that point of pride, I’m genuinely impressed by what Apple was produced in their first year. I agree with those who say after the fiasco of HBO Max that Apple TV+ has the opportunity to take up the mantle of prestige television, and I’ll be continuing on with many of the second seasons.

Having a never-ending stream of great television to pass time during quarantine was a blessing this year. With so much great stuff coming out it’s difficult to keep up, but no complaints here. If you enjoyed these shows, you can check out what else I’ve been watching and other years’ favorites on my Trakt.tv profile.

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Just tonight as I was finishing up this list, I learned from 9to5Mac that Apple is premiering season two of Dickinson tomorrow and anyone is invited! Dickinson was one of my favorites from 2019, and I’ve watched the first season through twice. It will be a thrill to experience a true premiere — and for a show that I’ve been eagerly awaiting! I’ll report back about the whole affair.

UPDATE: I tried to get in on watching the premiere tonight. I was on time with iPad in hand and ready to test out Spatial Audio at the same time. The count tick down to zero and then…black screen. It never started for me. #Dickinson on Twitter indicates that it’s great a return. I can’t wait to watch tomorrow.

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1. The show’s backstory is pretty cool if you haven’t heard it yet. Basically, the character of Ted Lasso started as a commercial for the Premiere League coming to NBC. But then Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt drafted the series only to be repeatedly passed over before getting picked up by Apple and becoming their breakout hit.↩︎

2. For keeping track of shows and seasons, I can’t recommend TV Forecast highly enough. It works with a Trakt account, has a great design, and does the job efficiently without too many bells and whistles.↩︎

Favorites TV Shows

I was struck today by the hero image of Apple’s press release about the success of their services in 2020:

Is it just me, or does that two-tone iPhone with matte black rails and shock of color on the back look awesome? It’s almost certainly not a tease of phone designs to come, but I do like it. A black and orange, or black and forest green iPhone, please!

Well done, Apple, for the design of image in general. It’s fun, colorful, and the services are instantly recognizable.

As pointed out by John Vorheeres of MacStories, it’s also interesting to note the order in which Apple presents their services year-to-year. This year it was as follows:

1. App Store
2. Apple Music
3. Apple TV App
4. TV+
5. Apple News
6. Fitness+
7. Apple Pay
8. Apple Arcade
9. Apple Books
10. Apple Podcasts
11. iCloud

We used to think that Apple couldn’t “do services” back in the early days when iCloud and Siri were unreliable. They have come a long way since then, and I now rely on many of Apple’s services every week.

• Living in Brunswick, OH with my wife and our three pets.
• Working at Lake Erie Council, Boy Scouts of America. I’m a Senior Program Executive in the outdoor adventures department and I have recently gained new responsibilities as the lead for our “external experiences”. I’ll be creating camps and other program opportunities for any kid instead of primarily for Scouts. And hopefully partnering with schools to experience Scouting through outdoor education.
• Starting to get back into fitness by trying to close my rings every day. I’m getting stronger with Fitness+ and looking forward to getting back to running outdoors when the weather allows.
• I’m trying to work a bit each day on this site. Every bit helps whether it’s collecting ideas (and I have a bunch!), writing a short linked post about something neat, or getting something substantial out of my head and on the page.
• Journaling at least one sentence each day. Usually it’s simply an answer to the question, “What am I grateful for today?”
• I’m (still) reading Morning Star by Pierce Brown, but also trying to listen to A Promised Land by Barack Obama. I also just started All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I received for Christmas.
• Playing Sudoku, a little Chess, and Crossy Road Castle.
• Watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Letterkenny, and Life in Pieces. My wife and I are almost done with all of Schitt’s Creek. Really looking forward to a couple of new series starting this month, like season two of Dickinson, Servant, and I’m going to check out WandaVision. I just finished up the second seasons of both The Mandalorian and His Dark Materials (of which I remain as mystified by the plot as I was when reading the books).
• Listening to Jazz again for focus. I got some fancy new headphones that it sounds amazing through, so I’m trying to listen through some full albums of the great old musicians.
• Reverting our home from a Christmastime wonderland to its year-round spacious glory.
• Looking forward to the rollout of the vaccine and Inauguration Day.

Now Journal

On the most recent episode of Do By Friday, Merlin Mann shared bits of wisdom he’s picked up over time. Here’s one example, but you should really read the whole list:

If you have a small household responsibility—no matter how lame or quotidian—just do it now and without being asked. If you think the trash may need to go out, do not “check” to see if the trash needs to go out. Just take the fucking trash out. And quit reminding everybody you took the trash out. This is not Vietnam, and you are not a forgotten hero.

I aspire to glean and curate wisdom like this. Note how many of these are about being attentive to, and caring for, other people’s needs. Merlin overflows with these little life gifts, which speaks to his character.

I’ll be revisiting his list each year.

Linked

When Apple announced the AirPods Max, my first thought was, “It’s about damn time!” I had been waiting for over four years for this particular product to be released.

Love at First Listen

The original AirPods released back in 2016 remain, to this day, one of the best items I have ever purchased. They opened the door to playing media and taking phone calls anywhere and everywhere, unobtrusively and with ease. If you’ve used similar completely wireless headphones, you know that it’s not an exaggeration to say that the lack of wires¹ is a total game-changer. With the special sauce that Apple added for easy pairing and using with multiple devices, and it’s no wonder that they were back-ordered for months. I used my pair every single day and beat the crap out of the batteries until they barely held a charge. It’s a great product.

But they also left me wanting. AirPods are perfect for casual listening on the go, but there are many times that I listen to music with large headphones to be immersed in it or to block out the world for focus. I had experienced the greener grass and now found any headphones with wires to be inordinately annoying. I could no longer tolerate the limited range and experience of Bluetooth headphones that lack the W-series (now H-series) chips found in AirPods.

Enter the Beats Solo3 Wireless

They’re perfectly fine. But fine in the way that you tell someone, “I’m fine,” when you actually mean, “I’m bad, but I don’t want to complain.” A pair of Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones arrived along with my MacBook as the perk of Apple’s back-to-school promotion. The Solo3 headphones are compact, have decent sound quality, and provide the same magical experience of pairing and extended range as the AirPods. And that exhausts their good qualities.

The Solo3 headphones sit on top of the ears, which, for me, are uncomfortable — but tolerable — from the moment I don them. The way they sit on top of the head makes them distractingly painful on the crown of my head after an hour or so of wearing them. That lack of comfort coupled with their inability to block external sound (unless I crank the music way up, which is terrible for my already poor hearing) meant that they have never earned a place near the AirPods in my heart. I knew I wanted a pair of over-ear headphones with the feature set of the Solo3 pair, but they didn’t exist.

Tempted

Until they did exist with the arrival of Beats Studio3 Wireless. By the time they finally came out, however, the Beats brand had lost its allure. I was wary of their comfort level and the design didn’t appeal to me. Eventually, the Bose QuietComfort and Sony WH-1000 series headphones became mainstream and I was sorely tempted. I tried them all on at every opportunity and marveled at their comfort. Pair after pair sat in my Amazon cart. I lusted after, but never succumbed to, the “Buy” button.

You see, I thought it inevitable that Apple would follow up the runaway success of AirPods with larger fist-party headphones. “I’m sure it’ll happen this year,” I’d tell myself. “I can wait just a little longer.” Noise cancelation became a must-have feature, and the quality that Apple pulled off with the AirPods Pro was another game-changer.² But my white whale remained ever-elusive.

So, it should come as no surprise that when the AirPods Max finally dropped, unceremoniously through a press release, that I would buy them. Rumors of the launch of “AirPods Studio” (as they were colloquially known³) had waxed and waned, but my desire for them had never wavered. Over time, Apple had earned its place as a leader in audio quality, so I had little doubt that they would sound great. Yet, I did not instantly make the purchase. Because, oh my, that price.

Worth the Wares?

In my heart, I had known that these headphones would cost more than the roughly $350 that similar pairs from the likes of Sony and Bose cost. But I had fooled myself into thinking that $400 would be the appropriate price. At $400 I would have bought AirPods Max sight unseen and sound unheard. At $550, I was given pause. I wanted them dearly, but would they be worth it?

In my head, I had already spent the $350 years ago when I decided that over-ear headphones were in my future. I had waited and saved for that purchase. Another $200 is a significant amount — but — there are no other options with the Apple-centric feature set for which I had waited. I couldn’t spend $350 on lesser headphones now while knowing that what I actually wanted finally exists.

It turns out that the high sticker price was the motivation I needed to finally try to sell a few of my unused items. I’d also kept my pair of Beats Solo3 in great condition, and lost no sleep in saying goodbye to them. I’ve made up more than half of the cost of the AirPods Max so far, which helps take the edge off the pain of that price tag.

Closure

In the end, Apple had me where they wanted. They created features that I convinced myself that I had to have. They had me hanging for years while watching other options enter the market. They made staying within the Apple ecosystem even more enticing with iOS 14. Then they charged a premium for the AirPods Max.

But damn if they don’t sound, look, and feel like $550. Money well spent, and time waited with no regrets.

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1. Of both the tangled and yanked variety. My old earbuds would tangle the instant I put them in my pocket. While wearing them, I’d endlessly and painfully catch the wire on desk corners and door handles. You know the experience, I’m sure.↩︎

2. I tried the AirPods Pro too. But I couldn’t last even a day with them. Their sound was amazing and the noise canceling was impressive, but the combination of in-ear tips and the noise cancelation made my head dizzy. I sold them to a friend who loves them.↩︎

3. And which I still think is a more elegant, and ultimately better, name for such an elegant product.↩︎

Gear

My friend Jamie made the most of her extra time found during COVID quarantine and became a published author back in September:

Have you ever wanted to know your favorite food, once and for all? This is the book for you! This collection of over 50 different tournament-style brackets will help you to decide everything from the sport where you’d like to go pro to the worst vegetable to put in a smoothie. Each bracket includes 16 first level contenders just waiting for you put them to the test, head to head!

I’m an enthusiast, and frequent user, of wacky conversation starters with strangers. In fact, in college where I met Jamie, our friend group at Larzy 2nd West spent endless nights debating answers to questions like, “What’s the best animal tail to have?” and “If you discovered a new fruit, what would you call it?” This book fits right up that alley.

My wife and I were were thoughtfully gifted a copy for Christmas by a family member, and I’m looking forward to pulling it out for friend and family gatherings. It’s going to live with my go-to set of party games. You can check out What’s all that Bracket?: A Collection of Brackets to Turn Life Into a Tournament on Amazon.

Linked

On the annual awards show of Upgrade (episode #332):

It’s the 7th annual Upgradies! Myke and Jason discuss their favorites of 2020 across many categories.

The Upgradies episode is a delight to listen to at the end of each year. I can only imagine the monumental effort it takes to collect and organize all the votes. You can see all the winners on the awesome Hall of Fame website, but I recommend listening to the podcast first for the discussion.

Myke and Jason do a great job talking through the votes and their picks, and then kindly and thoughtfully decide together on a winner. I do chuckle when they disregard the Upgradians’ votes to pick something unique and specific to one of them, like Myke’s keyboard.

Here are my personal winners for each category this year:

Best Overall iOS App - Reeder
Developer Silvio Rizzi has made Reeder amazingly fluid, fast, and a joy to use. I use Reeder every day both as my RSS app to follow dozens of feeds, and as my Read Later service to read thousands of articles. Reeder 5 is out now, but I continue to use Reeder 4 because it’s still rock solid.

Best Newcomer iOS App - HEY Email
I don’t choose HEY because it’s a fantastic native iOS app. It’s good — but there’s a weirdness that comes from the core service being web-based. HEY is my best newcomer app because it’s made people rethink how they do email. I already had a pretty solid email workflow using Spark (which I continue to use for work), but HEY has helped me to reduce stress on processing every message as it comes in. It’s okay for some emails to just get filed off automatically. The Screener means I spend less time filtering spam. Snagging a great email address (jarrod@hey.com) in HEY was pretty cool too.

Best Overall Mac App - Things
A truly beautiful app. I use Things as my task manager on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, and it makes the most of each platform while retaining its unique and calm design. My obsessive personality means that I can lose hours down the rabbit hole of reorganizing my tasks instead of completing them, but the genius of Things is that it walks the tight rope of having enough features to be powerful without being overwhelming as an operating system itself to manage. That Cultured Code sweats the details of each platform with features like keyboard navigation, iOS cursor support, global quick entry on Mac, Shortcuts support, deep-linking, and Scribble with Apple Pencil is the icing on the cake.

Best Newcomer Mac App - TextSniper
I had to switch to my Mac to glance through the apps in my Dock and Menu Bar to what I added this year. One of the most useful and no-brainer apps I discovered this year was TextSniper. Using the same mechanic as taking a screenshot, you can grab text from any image on the screen. This is perfect for pictures of receipts with tracking numbers, and for webpages that have unhelpful layouts for text selection. I have to remind myself that it’s a tool I have at my disposal, but it solves that niche problem so perfectly.

(Memos on iOS works similarly, but privately scans your photo library to do so.)

Game of the Year - Jackbox Games
I had heard about Jackbox Games for years and had it on my list of things to check out. When the pandemic hit, it was time to finally give it a go. Using Zoom to play Jackbox with friends while enjoying a beer brought some normalcy back to the world, and probably saved my sanity. Quiplash, Drawful, and Murder Trivia Party are a few of the best games.

iOS Game of the Year - Sudokoi
Even though it’s not a new game, I have to award Sudokoi because it has finally filled a desire I have had since getting an iPad with Apple Pencil support. Sudoku is the best for me when I can physically write in the numbers and tap my pencil while I think. Sudokoi is the first app that I have found to allow me to do so with the Apple Pencil. It also has a gorgeous design.

(My runner up has to go to Crossy Road Castle, but I play that with a controller on the Apple TV.)

Favorite Movie - Hamilton
Now I know what all the fuss was about when Hamilton debuted on Broadway. History has never been my favorite subject, but, golly, has this made me interested in the birth of our nation. It’s truly a masterpiece that I can watch (and listen to) again and again.

Favorite TV Show - Ted Lasso
I’m putting Ted Lasso here as my favorite TV Show of 2020 because I think it was the right show at the right time, and it seems to be universally loved. It’s wonderful. But there were so many other fantastic shows that I discovered this year, that to choose any of them feels like cheating on the rest. Stay tuned for my forthcoming Best of 2020 post for TV Shows for more, but I have to mention The Queen’s Gambit and Central Park because my wife and I loved them both.

Favorite Book - Red Rising Saga
Hearing about how much Federico Viticci enjoyed this series turned me on to these books. It’s a unique cross between roman mythology, space wars, and dystopia while being relevant to the real world as it explores challenging systemic social class inequality. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I only read five books this year, and one of them was very short (and required for work). Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star were three of them.

Favorite Apple Product - Apple Fitness+
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Apple has had a knockout year for great products. I could say so much about the AirPods Max (great design, great sound, and great features), the iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard (the combo I’m longing for, and which is making me rethink my laptop needs), HomePod mini (hooray, great sound quality and Siri in every room at a more affordable price), and iPhone 12 mini (the small phone I wish I would have purchased). But I won’t.

My winner is Fitness+, which I have been using for only a couple of weeks, has already changed the way I exercise. I typically exercise in spurts. I’ll run for months or get into a groove with daily morning workouts, but it only lasts until I get bored with doing the same thing each day. I have no interest in attending live workout programs, but I find the Fitness+ instructors to be engaging and the workouts both challenging and effective. The instructors’ positive encouragement keeps the workouts feeling short, and their explanations of how to do each exercise are very helpful. The Apple Watch integration, the variety of workout types, and the constant stream of new videos make me believe it will stick for me. It’s fantastic.

Favorite Non-Apple Product - LG 4K OLED TV/Sonos Home Theater Combo
Knowing we wouldn’t be going to a theater for a very long time, my wife and I decided to finally upgrade our TV to make our home entertainment system more enjoyable. Coincidentally the Insignia speaker system I’d had for over a decade also finally gave out about the same time. We sprung for a 4K OLED TV (we bought the C9, but the CX is now the latest model until the 2021 ones debut) and Sonos soundbar with a couple of surround speakers and couldn’t be happier.

Worst Gadget/Most Disappointing Tech - 5G
I’ll be honest, my hopes weren’t high for 5G being revolutionary. The reality is that it’s even less of a big deal right now than I thought. I simply don’t notice a speed difference. I think the carriers were about a year too early on all the hype.

Most Life-Changing Hardware - iPad mini
The iPad mini holds a special place in my heart. My first iPad was the 3rd-generation that bought for college. But when the iPad mini 2 debuted in 2013 with a much better processor, retina screen, and impossibly small form factor, I quickly sold the big boy for the little one. It lived in my coat pocket and I did everything on it. It continues to chug along to this day, and I only replaced it in the spring because it couldn’t update past iOS 12. But I couldn’t say truly say goodbye, so I gave my trusty friend to my dad to replace his original iPad mini stuck on iOS 9.

Why was it life-changing this year? When I picked up the refurbished iPad mini 5, I used the opportunity to change my habits with the device. Given the opportunity, I will forego sleep and work late into the night. I needed to set boundaries about what I could do with this iPad and when. It lives on my nightstand and is purposefully set up only with apps for reading, watching tv and movies, and playing games — no work apps. (Okay, Drafts is on it too so that I can quickly capture an idea that strikes.) That separation of functionality has done wonders for disconnecting from work during the evenings and weekends.

(My runner up would be the espresso machine that I gave my wife for our anniversary. She loves it, and although I don’t drink coffee I can use it to make a fancy hot chocolate from home.)

Favorite Tech Story - Apple Silicon Transisition
The Upgradians were spot on for this category. Apple’s first in-house silicon for the Mac has blown away all expectations, and handily trounced the competition in battery life and raw power. The M1 was designed for their entry-level products, so it’s mind-boggling to consider what they’ll achieve with chips for their higher-end computers. I’ll be replacing my MacBook with an M1 Mac mini as soon as they’re back in stock.

(A feel-good runner up was Apple donating masks and face shields of their own design to health care workers in desperate need early on in the pandemic.)

Favorite Tech Screw Up - Quibi
I’ll agree with Myke and Jason on this one. We all knew Quibi was a bad idea from the start, and then watched the slow train wreck happen throughout the year. Goodbye Quibi, we hardly knew ye.

Favorite Tech Podcast - Dithering
Like Jason, I listen to Dithering in the shower — it’s a delightful way to start my morning. John and Ben have great chemistry and their friendship is genuine, but they don’t shy away from a good debate.

Favorite Non-Tech Podcast - All Consuming
It’s so true that people listen to podcasts for the relationships first, and the content second. On their show, Adam (of Sandwich commercials fame) and Noah (of Noah Takes a Picture of Himself Every Day for 20 Years and photography fame) try a new direct-to-consumer product each week and discuss it. The products are crazy and conversations are hilarious.

Favorite Podcast Newcomer - 20 Macs for 2020
Since my history began in about 2006 with lusting after them and skinning Windows XP to look like Mac OS X, I had a lot to learn from Jason’s podcast counting down the 20 most notable Macs. The production quality is superb, and the guest contributors featured many familiar voices. The podcasts, accompanying videos, and blog posts were things I looked to forward each week.

Favorites

Every few years, we hear about the vehicle that Apple is supposedly working on. It sounds like it’s gone from a skunkworks project to a fully-fledged product on the roadmap.

The Winding Road Here

The project is said to have had its leadership and its scope changed several times over its lifespan — which I’m sure is pretty common when jumping into a new product category.

From my (admittedly spotty) memory, the goal was originally to create a consumer electric vehicle like a Tesla and then scaled back to focus more specifically on autonomous driving technology¹. The car is back in the rumors to be ready in the next handful of years as a product that a person could buy and drive.

Where To Next?

But if I were to make a bet about the future, I doubt that the thing Apple will eventually sell in this category will be a car that you can park in your driveway at all. I think it will be a new service altogether that ties the project’s winding history as a product and an autonomous system together. I foresee an Apple taxi service that manifests as a fleet of fully self-driving and unmanned cars to take customers wherever they want to go.

By introducing this type of ride-hailing service, rather than a car for people to own, Apple would avoid the messy business of showrooms, loans, and leases and the extravagant price that a “Designed by Apple in California” vehicle would undoubtedly cost. Apple could scale the service at their pace and only in the places that allow unmanned vehicles. And, since I imagine that owning an iPhone or Apple Watch will be required to access this service, Apple could design the vehicle’s features to integrate tightly, privately, and securely with their existing products and services.

A few possibilities:

• Listen to your Apple Music library and playlists automatically through the car’s high-end audio system.
• Easily route to your upcoming appointments, contacts, and saved destinations.
• Play a quick game from your Apple Arcade subscription, or enjoy a show or film from your media subscriptions on longer trips — all on large, high-quality displays.
• Catch up with friends and family over FaceTime using the built-in high-resolution cameras.
• Make requests through (hopefully a vastly improved) Siri
• And use Apple Pay for ride payments, of course.

On those payments — sure, you could pay for individual rides, but I would bet that you could sign up for “Apple Ride” as a subscription service for a tiered number of miles per month. Such a service would play nicely with the Apple One plans. Plus, since Apple owns the car, using the data gathered outside the vehicle² would help keep Apple Maps updated and assuredly further their augmented reality plans.

Apple would still have to work out the logistics of vehicle cleaning and maintenance, but it could be done more discreetly and “magically” than if people needed to bring their own car in for service. Of course, the customer service aspect of sending vehicles out to be used, unsupervised, by anyone would also be a huge hurdle to clear.

Final Thoughts

Of all the big tech companies that could pull off a service of this kind, Apple seems the best positioned from a privacy standpoint to be successful. Would the public be okay with hopping into a Google or Amazon vehicle laden with security cameras? Perhaps. But I think more people would be comfortable in an Apple vehicle due to the security and privacy cachet that Apple has built up over the past decade.

As I consider the future of my vehicle purchasing decisions, I know that I desperately want to own a Tesla because of the raw power, appealing design, amazing built-in technology, promise of autonomous driving, and last but not least, the environmental benefits of an electric vehicle. But if I could, instead, hang on to my current vehicle (a Subaru Forester) when it’s paid off for especially long or demanding trips and put smaller monthly payments toward an ever-updating Apple taxi service that has those same benefits — I think I would.

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1. As in solely the system and not a car that you could purchase.↩︎

2. For privacy reasons, I think Apple would specifically exclude any camera footage from inside the car for improving their services. And they would ensure it in a creatively secure way.↩︎

As I eagerly await my AirPods Max¹, I find myself wondering why Apple didn’t include the U1 chip inside of them. It’s not for a lack of space or cost. With Find My as a marketed feature, I find it surprising that Apple didn’t strengthen the product with a precision positioning chip.

Plus, it would have finally made a cool demo of the local positioning feature that debuted in the iPhone 11, which has been a solution without a problem. The newest Apple Watch has the U1, but it’s not often that you set your watch down and walk away from it like you would with headphones. I’d have liked to see how well you could play hide-and-seek with the compass-like feature.

Better than neat demos, though, it’s obvious to me that the AirPods Max should have a U1 chip to assist with Spatial Audio. Reviewers have judged the effect to be immersive, and lamented that it doesn’t work with the current version of Apple TV. I understand that Spatial Audio needs to be able to determine the relative position between the video screen and the audio output, but I would think a U1 chip on one end of that conversation could do the heavy lifting. I imagine an easy calibration when enabling Spatial Audio in which the TV asks for you to sit briefly in a good neutral spot, and then the AirPods Max could broadcast the positioning data to the Apple TV.

Even if that scenario does require a U1 chip on both ends (which I don’t think is true since Spatial Audio works with iPads and iPhones that lack a U1), I would have bet on Apple putting it in the headphones knowing it would come to a future Apple TV in the future. I’m left hoping that Apple can enable it in software, or with a hardware addition in future Apple TVs. It would be a shame to miss out on using one of the coolest features of these costly headphones on the biggest and nicest screen at home.

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1. It’s too bad, but it looks like the opportunity to add a custom engraving to get them shipped sooner has passed. It was a delightful hack that I used when shipping estimates quickly slipped into March.↩︎

Hello. Welcome to my little corner of the internet. I’m Jarrod.

This is the place where I can share my ideas, my likes and critiques, and can ponder publicly on whatever happens to capture my interest. I know that social media is available for just such a purpose, but sharing all this [gestures broadly] through Twitter or Facebook feels too…loud? Despite being a full-on website this feels more private and fun, and it’s mine — so, I’m glad you’re here.

Plus, I’m verbose by nature and this is a better place for putting all the words.

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Take care!

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1. Or subscribe with RSS, or follow me on Twitter…because links to these articles will post there automatically.↩︎