1. An Instagram account dedicated to cute Golden Retrievers. [I Love Golden Retrievers]
2. A Twitter account dedicated to cats in unlikely places. [Places Cats Shouldn’t Be]
3. Strange Planet comics depicting the human experience. [Strange Planet]
4. Finishing the final season of Letterkenny and itching for a rewatch already. [Letterkenny]
5. XKCD is still putting out gold. [XDCD]
6. The high jinks and japes on the Connected podcast. [Connected]
7. My Valentine. [❤️]

7 Things

• Living in a snowy and chilly Brunswick, OH with my wife and our three pets.

• Working for the Boy Scouts of America where I’m focused on breaking into the mainstream outdoor programs scene — not just for Scouts. We’re piloting a 6th-grade camp this spring, and hopefully some spring break camps as well.

• I’ve been closing my rings every day for nearly a month and a half now. Streaks like these are really motivating for me, and I feel stronger — even if I don’t look more fit yet.

• This update will be my 23rd post to this site. I’m working on making writing more of a habit, and to get more substantial blog posts up, but I’m pretty happy with HeyDingus so far.

• COVID has thoroughly converted me into a work-from-home guy. I’ve always felt less distracted when at home than at the office, but now I wonder how I ever got anything done with all the people around. I really value the quiet, focus, and freedom of my home office.

• I’m (still, still) reading Morning Star by Pierce Brown, and nearly finished with A Promised Land by Barack Obama, which is my bedtime audiobook.

• Not playing much of anything in the way of games, except for occasional Sudoku and Chess to keep the mind sharp. I have a couple puzzle games lined up that I’d like to get to soon, though.

• After finishing up several different shows, I’m watching a few new seasons of shows of Apple TV+ including Servant, Dickinson, and Losing Alice. They’re all pretty great but for very different reasons. I’ve also gotten into WandaVision on Disney+ and am making my way through the final few seasons of Letterkenny, which is a hilarious show. Palmer, with Justin Timberlake, was an excellent movie as well.

• Listening to a bunch of dodie lately, and using Brain.fm to focus during work (and right now as I write this).

• Looking forward to this deep cold breaking and it being more comfortable to run outside. I’m getting that itch to move that only a good, long run outdoors can scratch.

• Not watching the Super Bowl.

Now Journal

1. Mark Rober of YouTube is back with another over-the-top contraption. The NFL player, Matt Prater, seemed like a great guy too. [Mark Rober]
2. Since I typically get frustrated and angry with folks complaining about being “censored” by social media platforms, this bit of satire on McSweeney’s brought a smile to my face. [Eli Grober]
3. There’s more I want to say about Arun’s site and several of his articles, but this bit about Apple’s identity guidelines from back in the 80’s was a fun dive. [Arun Venkatesan]
4. Becca Farsace, a video director at The Verge, started a new YouTube channel recently. I always enjoy her appearances on Verge videos and podcasts, so I was pleased to see that she’s sharing more. Becca’s videos are fun, goofy, and indeed (to use her term) crispy. [Becca Farsace]
5. I love macOS’s dynamic wallpapers that adapt throughout the day, and this Mac-assed throwback collection by Hector Simpson called “Aqueuex” are irresistible. You can get the static mobile versions for free, but the dynamic ones for Mac are only $3. [Via 9to5Mac]
6. If you’re not watching WandaVision on Disney+, then now is a great time to start. The first three episodes were a little off-putting, but episodes four and five have blown the story open, and I can’t stop thinking about it. [Disney+]
7. You can always count on a new Apple product or feature to motivate me. It worked with Fitness+ to kickstart my exercise routine. Then again this week with the new Time To Walk program. This feature of Fitness+ on Apple Watch is a series of short stories from celebrities and a few songs meant to be listened to while walking. I wanted to try it out, and it did get me outside this week — despite the deep cold. I like how the host was also out on a walk during the recording, which, though gimmicky, effectively makes it feel like you’re on a walk along with them. [Via MacRumors]

7 Things

Every January, I look forward to Jason Snell’s roundup of commentary and grades from the Apple community about each of the company’s product lines and initiatives from the previous year. It’s fun to get a variety of perspectives, but I’ve always felt that the aggregate scores come out pretty accurate.

This year I wanted to add my own thoughts on each category without being swayed by everyone else’s opinion, so I’m rating them before reading Jason’s report. These are rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.

Mac: 5
This is an easy year to grade the Mac. Despite having the Apple Silicon Macs lined up for later in the year, Apple still put out solid updates to the 13” MacBook Pro and the iMac. Though the iMac design is long in the tooth, the more powerful processors and the option for nano texture glass were good to round out this generation.

And then the stars of the show: the M1 Mac mini, MacBook Air, and 13” MacBook Pro. By all accounts, these machines punch far outside their weight class, and the transition to ARM processors has been nearly seamless. My own experience with the new Mac mini has been very positive, and I intend to use the hell out of it for years to come. It really feels like we’re on the precipice of something special in the lifetime of the Mac, and I”m excited to be along for the ride.

iPhone: 4
The iPhone had a great year as well! I’m very happy with the return to flat edge design, and the raw power bridled in modern iPhone chips is undeniable. Add in a great camera system, and an expansion of the sizes of phones with the iPhone 12 mini, and you’ve got a winner of a year. Oh, and we also got an updated iPhone SE earlier this year!

The only knocks I have against the iPhone are the overhype of 5G, a lack of a high-refresh rate screen, and a personal vendetta on the rollout. 5G is just not a game-changer yet, and Apple led us to believe that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. High-refresh rate screens have been commonplace with flagship Android phones for a few years, and the lack of a ProMotion screen in iPhones was a little disappointing. That’s not to say the screens are bad — they’re actually great — but I was hoping for a tad more. And the schedule of the iPhone rollout this year meant that by the time the iPhone mini came out, I was just outside the return period of the iPhone 12 Pro. Not really Apple’s fault, but it stings just a bit since that small phone seems like a great device.

iPad: 4
The iPad had a bit of a funny year. The biggest and best of the line, the iPads Pro, barely had an update, even after two years. But iPad Air had a great leap forward to bring it basically in line with the 11” Pro model. It feels like there’s another shoe to drop for the iPad Pro line. Still, there’s little to complain about since the iPad has been ahead of the curve for a while. Plus, with the introduction of the Magic Keyboard, I feel like the story of the modular iPad has really been rounded out. I long for that flat, full-screen, and keyboard-plus-trackpad lifestyle.

iPadOS 14 could have been more feature-complete as compared with iOS 14. I’m looking at you, widgets, emoji search (finally coming in 14.5), and App Library. I’m looking forward to a more transformational 2021. But I’ve continued to be very happy with my iPad Pro and iPad mini overall.

Watch: 5
Like with the iPad, I sat this year out as far as an Apple Watch upgrade, but I do think the Series 6 was a solid upgrade. Any time Apple can squeeze in a new health or fitness sensor into the same sleek case design without destroying battery life is, in my opinion, a miracle. I’m hoping the titanium model will stick around for at least another year because it’s been calling my name!

Even without a hardware upgrade, watchOS 7 was a great upgrade for me. I don’t know if I could even tell you everything that was included anymore, but the simple addition of watch shortcuts and sleep mode was a great improvement. I love that I can easily adjust my alarm for just the next day, and I was able to stop shoehorning theater mode for overnight sleep tracking. The biggest improvement day-to-day, though, was how Apple sped up animations. It made my existing hardware feel snappier, and that’s always a pleasant surprise.

Apple TV: 1
I briefly considered giving Apple TV a 2 because I’ve really enjoyed the films and shows that have come out on TV+. But those are part of the service, not the hardware, and will be rated next. We’ve been waiting far too long for updated Apple TV hardware, and it’s frankly embarrassing that the existing boxes are still for sale at the exorbitant prices they were introduced at.

My wife and I bought a 4K HDR TV earlier this year but haven’t been able to fully take advantage of its goodness because I refused to purchase an Apple TV 4K back in March, thinking that an update had to be just around the corner. 11 months later, and I’m still waiting. If a new model doesn’t blow us away with power, a mechanism for playing great games (like an Apple-designed controller), and a better remote soon, I don’t know what I’ll do.

I guess I’ve been mostly happy with the Apple TV HD I’ve been rocking for many years, but it’s showing its age and can’t deliver even the table stakes for modern content.

Services: 4
When Apple puts public focus on a particular area of its business, it can move mountains. This was true of the Mac ever since the “roundtable” a few years ago — which heralded the renaissance of the Mac, starting with the iMac Pro, then the Mac Pro, blessedly-fixed laptop keyboards, and finally the kick-ass M1 Macs. The same has been true of their services division.

I’m all in on Apple Music, TV+, Fitness+, and iCloud. I dabble with Apple Card and News+. Sure, each service has a few nitpicks, but overall I’m very happy with their value. Had Apple not (finally) introduced a bundled option with Apple One, paying for each of these would feel excessive. But the price came in a little under my expectations (which never happens with Apple prices), and I’m very happy to keep using and sharing them with my family.

That the paltry 5GB of free iCloud space continued into the Apple One era, and a miss with not offering a high-fidelity tier of Apple Music to go with AirPods Max, kept Services from getting full marks.

HomeKit: 3
Not the best, but not the works. I’m glad for the few improvements to the Home app this year. But otherwise, I feel it’s been a quiet year for HomeKit. I still have a few random bugs in the system, but overall my devices seem to work. I don’t know exactly what I expect from HomeKit, but I’m still underwhelmed this year.

Perhaps CHOIP and more Thread radio devices will make a bigger difference in 2021.

Hardware Reliability: 5
I have very few complaints about hardware reliability this year. There were a few weird, but annoying, Bluetooth bugs in the new M1 Mac hardware was a spot of dirt on the overall sheen. My 2017 iPad Pro’s battery is showing its age. But that’s about it. Apple’s hardware is famously solid, but they’ve done a good job of not introducing any big new “gates” for a while and finally phased out the last one coughkeyboardscough.

Software Quality: 4
After a rocky 2019 with iOS 13 and macOS Catalina, 2020 was solid with iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur. For mobile, it felt like a quality-of-life update year, and I’d be hard-pressed to tell you exactly what comes with the 2020 updates besides widgets (which are great). But I’ve been happy with the operating systems. Even with a huge visual refresh on the Mac, I think the transition was smooth, and the new visuals feel at home already.

Keeping this category from a 5 are the minor bugs that aren’t show-stopping but are annoying. For example, my AirPods Max won’t remember that I want to keep “Off” as a setting that I can cycle the noise cancelation through. My Apple TV routinely skips back a few episodes after the current one finishes — we actually watch it happen on screen as though we’re scrolling back. AirPlay has been a little wonky the last couple of months. Again, nothing big but enough to be notable. Hopefully, the rough edges get rounded out before the new software season.

Developer Relations: 2
It’s been a rough year for developer relations, and I definitely think Apple could have been better. It’s almost hard to remember that the HEY vs. Apple, the Epic vs. Apple, and COVID-hurt businesses vs. Apple spectacles all happened in 2020, but they did. Some of these remain unresolved, and I wouldn’t say that Apple came out looking great in any.

Apple earned back a little goodwill by getting the increase in App Store commissions for small businesses in, but not a lot. It makes a big difference for those smaller developers, but there are too many hoops to jump through and “gotchas” to give them full credit.

Environment/Social Initiatives: 5
Apple continues to lead the industry in environmental efforts and social initiatives. Their donations and new projects were substantial. I continue to be impressed with how Tim Cook speaks on social justice very publicly and authentically. He could get away with saying less but truly puts his mouth where his money is.

Wearables: 4
My only new purchase in the wearables department this year was AirPods Max. Though the price hurt, I’ve been very happy with the purchase. I think it gets even better if you count HomePod mini in this category. These smaller, more affordable speakers sound great and have delivered the promise of whole-home Siri to my house. I might have expected other new AirPods, an introductory AR device, or a non-Apple Watch health device, but the ones that did ship have been solid.

—

In a year turned upside down by a global pandemic, Apple would have been given plenty of slack for “taking a year off”. Instead, they’re firing on all cylinders when it comes to their products. Only Apple TV and their developer relations dragged scores down. I’ll be very happy if they can earn back some credibility with those this year. I hope that as the world continues to get used to the way we’re working and living, it keeps working for them. We have a lot to enjoy from 2020, and hopefully, an even better 2021 to look forward to!

Average Score: 3.8

The entire Six Colors report card is well worth a read.

The episode of Punch Up the Jam on “Hook” by Blues Traveller was in my podcast queue for far too long, I finally got around to listening last night. It was pure joy!

Miel’s skepticism (but obvious enjoyment) of this bananas song, coupled with Amir’s utter ecstasy at every line, had me smiling from beginning to end. So much fun.

Although I’ve always enjoyed this song, particularly after it was featured in the Emma Stone and Jimmy Fallon spectacle, but I’d never actually listened to its lyrics. Turns out that it’s right up my alley and simply hilarious.

It doesn’t matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I’ll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I’ve said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don’t matter who you are
If I’m doing my job, it’s your resolve that breaks

I can’t wait to dig into more of Punch Up the Jam.

You can listen on the Overcast website, which also has links to other popular podcast players.

Fair warning: Podcast episode has strong language, so maybe listen with headphones.

Linked

1. AirBuddy 2 for Mac recreates the quick, easy, and beautiful card-based interactions like those on iOS for all the AirPods and Beats headphones. Even more, it provides battery status and power user options for many other Bluetooth devices. [Guilherme Rambo]
2. Hush for Mac, iPhone, and iPad blocks all those annoying pop-ups on websites for you to confirm the use of cookies. Over. And over. And over again. You just set it, then forget it. [Via John Gruber]
3. HealthyShoe is a really simple app for iPhone that integrates with the Apple Health database to keep track of the miles you put on your running shoes. I used to track this with Nike+ Running, but I’ve long since gone all-in on the Apple Watch’s workout app. Just tell HealthyShoe when you started using each pair of shoes, and it automatically totals up the miles and recommends when you should replace them. No account, no personal data tracking, just a simple utility. [Via Steve Troughton-Smith]
4. Personal Best Workouts, like HealthyShoe, is an app that integrates with the HealthKit database on iPhone. This app shows you insights and metrics on your workouts like time spent, calories burned, and distance traveled. You can see your bests over selected time periods, and drill down to individual workouts. As someone who enjoys reviewing stats of all kinds, and who is getting back into fitness, these kinds of utility apps are right in my wheelhouse. [Via Club MacStories]
5. Brain.fm is an iPhone and iPad app that I’d heard of before but always passed by. I was able to use it for free this month, and I think I might subscribe. Being able to have dedicated focus “music” that doesn’t influence my actual music library recommendations has been great. It really has helped me to focus, and I like that the sounds are set on a timer, which keeps me on track throughout the day. [Via Club MacStories]
6. Robinhood captured the world by storm this week. I’m not a gambler, but I did take advantage of all the explainers this week to learn more about how the stock market actually works. Here’s a good one by The Verge on the whole fiasco. Turns out I had a free $5 stock from Robinhood that I set up a couple of years ago. So far it’s earned…$1.65! [Elizabeth Lopatto]
7. ScanThing is an app for iPhone and iPad that fills a particular need that I’ve had for a while. I used to use the Scannable app by Evernote for all my digital scanning needs, but it hasn’t seen significant development for a while. Despite the plethora of scanning apps out there, they all have more complex workflows. I really valued the simplicity of opening an app straight to its scanning mode, having it auto-capture, and then send off to another app or the file system for saving with a custom name. I’ve tried creating a custom Shortcut to solve this problem, but it never worked quite right. ScanThing does it perfectly and comes with a few other awesome bells and whistles. It automatically applies OCR, so I can search the text of a document later. It can also capture just the text of something in the viewfinder, which is perfect for copying tracking numbers from receipts and other similar situations to get text from the physical world. And, the real magic, you can “scan” objects, which automatically removes the background around the subject to great effect. I take a lot of pictures of items that I can no longer keep but don’t want to forget, and then add them to my Day One journal. ScanThing is a winner. [Pierre Liebenberg]

Bonus: Craft is a new note-taking and personal wiki app that everyone is raving about. I’m giving it a try as a place to store work-related notes for a few current projects. It hasn’t really clicked with me yet, but I might have more to say on it in the future. [Via MacStories]

7 Things Apps

The giving season has recently passed, and perhaps you also received an Apple Gift Card or two. Besides being much more versatile than the iTunes Gift Cards of the days of yore,¹ the new Apple Gift Cards are hiding an extra special secret: they also include a free sticker!

When you pull out the bit of paper with the card’s code on the back, you may notice that the spot of color than peeked through the Apple logo cutout on the front isn’t printed but is instead a removable sticker. And no residue or clinging paper tags along either — like it’s asking to be peeled off!

These aren’t just any stickers, either. I have handfuls of white Apple stickers from products bought over the years, but these are colorful and…familiar. I thought I’d seen them before, and with a quick search my theory was proven correct. Perhaps you remember back in October of 2018 when Apple sent invitations to what was rumored to be an iPad event. Rather than sending the same invitation design to each guest, as usual, this time each invitation seemed to be unique and possibly drawn on an iPad.

Lo and behold, those abstract logos have been given another purpose. In their article for MacRumors, Julie Clover linked to an album containing each of the 371 different versions.² I found the designs from my gift cards!

It’s rare for Apple to include even a Space Gray sticker in their products, and here nearly 400 colorful stickers have been hiding in plain sight.

---

1. Did you know they can now be used for hardware in addition to software and services?↩︎

2. If you like the look of these logos, I can recommend a screensaver that cycles through the animated versions from the keynote’s intro video.↩︎

Greatest Hits

1. I hadn’t realized that the Vice President is sworn in first during the inauguration. Make sense so that there’s succession in place, just in case a catastrophe occurs in the first few moments of a new administration. Although, a large chunk of the succession line attended church together prior to the ceremonies this week. Wholesome…but risky. [Emily Jacobs]
2. Amanda Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, which she performed at the inauguration this week was poignant and powerful. I have a feeling she’s going to be one to keep an eye on. [Via John Gruber]
3. If you’re in the mood for some incredible performance art stationed at the intersection of Magical and Moving, do yourself a favor and watch In & Of Itself on Hulu. [Via Lex Friedman}
4. Clever of the Biden Administration to put a job application call-to-action for website developers within the new WhiteHouse.gov source code. [Mitchell Clark]
5. I, like the rest of the internet, have loved the Bernie memes this week. They’re endearing in a way that most memes aren’t. It’s also super cool that Bernie turned the sensation into an opportunity to help people. [David Matthews]
6. Although not unexpected, the pandemic has now been proven to be adversely affecting the mental health of youth. The President/CEO of the American Camp Association insists that (safe) summer camps are needed now more than ever. I agree. [Tom Rosenberg]
7. After 12 years, I never expected to see a sequel to Doodle Jump, one of the OG great iOS games (and has been kept up-to-date for modern devices). But The Doodler is back in Doodle Jump 2 with some great improvements. It’s just as fun today as it was back in 2009. [Alex Guyot]

7 Things

1. Impeachment.fyi has been a succinct way to keep up with the impeachment progress this week. And full marks for the website URL. [Dan Sinker]
2. This new overhead projector-like app for video calls would have been perfect when I was doing daily activity demonstrations earlier this year. I’ll still stick it in my toolbox. [Charlie Chapman]
3. White Rhinos are on the razor’s edge of extinction. Scientists are trying to fix that problem (which we created) by making embryos before it’s too late. [National Geographic]
4. These (unofficial) Twitter and Instagram feed are simply Apple marketing photos and nothing else. It’s a fun walk down memory lane, and a reminder of how awesome Apple is at product shots. [ Archive]
5. Daniel Dale has been fact-checking Donald Trump for every day of his presidency, and these are what he believes are the President’s 15 most notable lies. I can scarcely imagine a more depressing and crazy-making job. [Daniel Dale]
6. I hadn’t known that the phrase “Designed in California” had significance beyond Apple’s iconic usage on all its products. [Diana Budds]
7. Later in 2021 will be the 10-year anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death. Steve didn’t take many interviews, but he made time for the AllThingsD Conference. After Steve’s death, AllThingsD made all his appearances available to watch (along with a collection of essays about him) available on Apple Podcasts. I still find Steve’s ideas and the way he presented them to be fascinating. [Via Robert Silvernail]

7 Things

I’ll say this upfront: I’m particular about my music collection. Back in high school, I would rip music into iTunes from every CD I could get my hands on and then spend hours making sure all of the metadata was correct and finding the highest quality album artwork to drop in. Now that all my music comes from a streaming service, triple-checking metadata is a thing of the past. But I’ve only found new ways to obsess about curating the perfect library.

Should I only add items that I’ve marked as “loved” and then discovered again?¹ Should I add the full album or only the songs that I’ve enjoyed?² Do holiday albums belong in the library, or a separate playlist so that they don’t pop up throughout the rest of the year?³ What about soundtracks and “chill out” music that I use to focus or relax?⁴

It may sound tedious — and it is — but it’s fun to go through everything from time to time and rediscover old favorites.

However, one of my biggest pet peeves about collecting music is when I have duplicates of songs hiding within the masses. Why? Because I’ve come to appreciate the data-driven playlists and insights that can come from a well-manicured collection. If I have duplicates, then play counts are split, album counts are inaccurate, and there’s too much album artwork to associate with a given track — in other words, it’s all just wrong.

This particular preference is at odds with the way many artists release their albums with a few hit singles to drum up excitement and then a full album, which includes those same singles, a little later. Since I don’t want to miss out on the new hotness, I’ll add the singles and then have to remember to carefully scour the full album track list to remove the singles’ albums that are represented there. I’ve gone so far as to sequester singles out of my library and into a specific playlist. But there’s a better way!

This glass of ice water in the hell of music management is a feature born of streaming services: the “Upcoming Album”. Evidently, an artist can choose to release an album to the public without the full track list, and then release single tracks over time but which live in the upcoming album, not in their own album. When the full album is ready, the rest of the tracks join the singles as a cohesive whole.

This approach has several advantages. First, it keeps me sane. Second, anyone can add the pre-release album to their library ahead of time so that they automatically get the new music (and notifications) as it’s available. I’m sure that’s good for first-week stream counts. Third, from personal experience, I can say that I’m far more excited by a tantalizingly grayed-out track list with a release date than from a mess of singles in my library.

I hope more artists take advantage of this option for releasing tracks from their new album over time. There’s certainly a place for singles that don’t make sense in an album — covers, for example — but an Upcoming Album takes advantage of streaming as a medium in a helpful way.

Music