July 2, 2020
Howard Oakley, on eclecticlight.co:
[…] Big Sur is either 10.16.0 or 11.0.0, depending on where you look. If your conditional code has only been checking for minor version numbers, then it would see Catalina as 15, but Big Sur could be either 16 or 0 depending on how Apple numbers it. If the major version has indeed incremented for the first time in the last 20 years or so, and Big Sur turns out to be 11.0.0, then anything which assumes that this minor version number will be greater than 15 will break.
Something to consider if your hacks start actions weird on the new macOS.
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June 29, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 26
- HighTop: quick file access from MenuBar of local folders, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
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June 26, 2020
Jason Snell, on sixcolors.com:
The truth is probably that the future of the Mac is as a “pro” version of iOS and iPadOS. It’ll run more or less every app that’s available on the iPhone and iPad, but it’ll also run traditional Mac software. Over time, the distinction between iPad apps and Mac apps will begin to fade away entirely, and the Mac will just become a keyboard-and-trackpad mode of the iPad.
Busy week, so I was only able to consume on the news. But Jason’s take is the one the better looks at the future.
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June 22, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 25
- Spotlight: quickly switch tabs, search history, bookmarks, downloads in Chrome. $19 but looks sweet.
- Iceberg: markdown writing editor for the WordPress block editor. $49.
- Grayscale: menu bar app to easily toggle the grayscale display filter.
- Codye: present code in 180 languages with themes on iOS and macOS.
- Excalidraw: whiteboard tool to sketch diagrams with a hand-drawn feel to them.
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June 18, 2020
Om Malik on om.co:
I don’t blame Dropbox going the way they have — they are less about the individual customers and more focused on teams and corporations. That’s where the money is — and when you go public, you are all about the “quarterly goals.” You don’t go public without knowing that Wall Street owns you.
I literally couldn’t said it best yesterday. But Om closes with an intriguing question:
I wonder why Backblaze doesn’t offer a simple syncing service?
I use Backblaze Backup for Ana’s Mac, and their B2C hosting for my Arq-based solution. I’d totally be into a Backblaze macOS/iOS/API sync thingy.
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June 18, 2020
Steve Blank’s excellent write up on the geopolitics of processors on the 21st century — steveblank.com:
Controlling advanced chip manufacturing in the 21st century may well prove to be like controlling the oil supply in the 20th. The country that controls this manufacturing can throttle the military and economic power of others.
This is a fight that has already started, and we’re already living the tectonic shifts it caused. The outcome is far from certain, and if it doesn’t seem it might affect you… just look around for any electronic device.
The chips that TSMC makes are found in almost everything: smartphones (i.e. Apple iPhones), high-performance computing platforms, PC’s, tablets, servers, base stations and game consoles, Internet-connected devices like smart wearables, digital consumer electronics, cars, and almost every weapon system built in the 21st century. Around 60% of the chips TSMC makes are for American companies.
[…]
In May 2020 TSMC announced it was going to build a $12 billion foundry in Arizona to make some of its most advanced chips. Foundries take at least three years to build and the most expensive factories on earth. Construction on TSMC’s facility is planned to start in 2021, but actual chip production will not start until 2024.
The USA-centric geek in me will now cringe at not realizing how Intel’s fall from grace plays into all of this:
China is spending over a hundred billion dollars to become a world leader in developing their semiconductor industry.
Much more details in the post, worth a read.
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June 17, 2020
Libby Delana on youtube.com:
I started walking, every morning over 8 years ago and haven’t stopped. Walking, for me, has been my way back to myself, a practice that brings me home.
This I must.
She wrote about it on Fast Company a few days ago also.
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June 16, 2020
New products and features announced on blog.dropbox.com:
Dropbox Passwords:
The Passwords app saves your passwords in one safe place and autofills them so you can instantly sign in to websites and apps.
Dropbox Vault:
Using a PIN for secure access, Vault provides an extra layer of security for all your important personal files like insurance cards, passports, and housing documents. Files are organized in the cloud and accessible from any device.
Dropbox Family:
Dropbox Family lets up to six members share 2 TB of storage and have their own individual account views—under one plan with one bill. Members can create shared spaces to make content easily accessible to the whole family and each member has their own private space for personal content.
I’m mostly happy with my move to iCloud. Feature-wise, I miss the simplicity of Dropbox. But it’s a simplicity of a bygone era. Overall, all these seem like good features, but too little too late for me.
I still think Dropbox missed the boat discontinuing its Mail and Photos services a few years back. Going corporate might have been the right Wall Street option — still not sure, but it was the wrong one for geek users like me.
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June 15, 2020
hey.com:
HEY is our love letter to email, and we’re sending it to you on the Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.
As usual with 37signal’s DNA, it’s very opinionated. No POP/IMAP, or external clients, or import from Gmail… and $99 a year.
The walkthrough is very detailed.
Still invite only, but very likely they’ll be opening soon for everyone.
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June 15, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 24
- readr.page: static feed aggregator for Hacker News and reddit written in Javascript. Good for pomodoro break escapades.
- Collected Notes: a very simple note-taking blogging platform. Less geeky than blot.im.
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June 14, 2020
Brendan Shanks, on bslabs.net:
My core prediction: The Mac is getting a re-engining, not a re-imagining.
Much like the Mac’s switch to Intel, this transition will be fundamentally simple and, ideally, invisible to end users.
Algo agree we will see a Mac Mini with an already existing processor inside as the Developer Toolkit. Great post to come back to once things get unveiled in a week… but overall I’d place my bets with its predictions.
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June 13, 2020
Hartley Charlton, on macrumors.com:
On its website, OpenCore Computer claims that it hopes to make Mac Pro-style workstations more accessible. The company’s lineup of computers, which they call “zero-compromise Hackintoshes,” are advertised as coming with macOS Catalina and Windows 10 Pro pre-installed.
Although probably a scam, it makes little sense to expose yourself to litigation this openly. As this commenter points out:
It would be one thing if a company was selling computers without an OS and advertised it as “100% Hackintosh Capable”. But to actually include MacOS is just begging for Apple’s lawyers to notice you.
I’d love to see some basic systems ready to hackintosh. With the work - and added value - of setting up the OpenCore compatible componentes to minimize your hackintosh pain of setting up.
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June 9, 2020
Sonny Dickson on Twitter:
If Apple is indeed announcing an ARM transition for 2021, this iMac promises to be the last Intel one. On the past PowerPC to Intel transition, the Plastic White G5 iMac didn’t change enclosures with the Intel model a year later.
This could be a great iMac to buy, because it’s likely going to be the pinnacle of Intel models. It will also hold its value for a while since it will be the new design.
That said, for my wallet, this will more likely open the door for a maxed out 2017 5k iMac (32gb RAM, i7) with an external 1TB Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) NVMe drive. Since redesign is about the only thing that helps lower the price of used Macs.
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June 9, 2020
Tom Critchlow and Toby Shorin on quotebacks.net:
Quotebacks is a tool that makes it easy to grab snippets of text from around the web and convert them into embeddable blockquote web components.
Love everything about this concept. The Chrome extensions works great, the design is extremely functional, and there’s no central server — just the style JS, but that’s hardly a lock-in.
Quotes look extremely clean:
First and foremost, quoting gives context, helping readers see where an author is coming from. Quotes and citations are an important part in making and remembering history. And looking looking towards the future, they allow us to better see, understand, and build on the vast graph of human knowledge—the original “web”—that other, greater internet of which this one is just part.
But you can also copy as markdown:
Secondly, quoting another person can be generous. Generous quoting can mean raising another’s voice alongside your own, affirming their authorship, and striving to not take them out of context. One can quote generously, no matter whether one is agreeing or disagreeing with another author.
Source: Quotebacks by Tom Critchlow and Toby Shorin
Currently it’s a Chrome only, with Firefox coming soon. I’m hoping for a bookmarklet so it can be used on Safari and iOS.
Regardless, I’m very excited about the vision of this project and will be playing with it over the next few days.
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June 9, 2020
Emil Protalinski on venturebeat.com:
Serge Lachapelle, G Suite director of product management, has been working on video conferencing for 25 years, 13 of those at Google. As most of the company shifted to working from home, Lachapelle’s team got the go-ahead to deploy the denoiser in Google Meet meetings. We discussed how the project started, how his team built noise cancellation, the data required, the AI model, how the denoiser works, what noise it cancels out and what it doesn’t, privacy, and user experience considerations (there is no visual indication that the denoiser is on).
Long interview about the feature. I’ll try is as soon as available.
Crucially, Google Meet’s noise cancellation is being rolled out for all languages. That might seem obvious at first, but Lachapelle said the team discovered it was “super important” to test the system on multiple languages.
“When we speak English, there’s a certain range of voice we use,” Lachapelle said. “There’s a certain way of delivering the consonants and the vowels compared to other languages. So those are big considerations. We did a lot of validation across different languages. We tested this a lot.”
Ay Dios…
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June 1, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 22
- Spacetime iOS app • past and upcoming space launch information direct from agencies.
- Middle • middle click button gestures for Apple Trackpad or Magic Mouse.
- Command Palette • access to all Menu Bar functions of current focused app. I’m in love.
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May 31, 2020
T.J. Tarazevits, on space.stackexchange.com on software:
They use Chromium and JavaScript for the Dragon 2 flight interface. The actual flight computers still run on C++.
I hope it has lots of memory.
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May 25, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 21
- Vidrio puts transparent webcam behind your windows. Seems very useful for trainings.
- Tinnire • generative music app to concentrate or relax. iOS and Android.
- Calndr.link • simple and easy way to generate calendar links.
- Ambiently • free iOS ambient sounds app with nice design.
- Thyself • interesting journaling app in with a chat interface.
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May 23, 2020
Dave B, on Medium:
I think that’s going to be a big story of iPadOS 14. I suspect more apps are going to be following this same path. Landscape and portrait orientation won’t merely be two aspect ratios of the same basic thing. Portrait orientation will continue to be designed for use as ‘Tablet Mode’, and landscape will now be designed as the de facto ‘Laptop Mode’.
Excellent take. Not sure if Apple will be this explicit about the orientation defining the experience, but sounds very smart.
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May 22, 2020
Eric Berger on arstechnica.com:
The flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station, is set to begin at 4:33pm ET (20:33 UTC) on Wednesday, May 27.
Roberto Jorge, Roberto Andres and Roberto Francisco will be glued to the TV. Although I suspect it will likely have some delays — it’s been raining most afternoons in Florida, and I’m sure they’ll want everything to be perfect.
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May 20, 2020
Roundup of Remote Work Setups
Is not clear to me if we’re closer to the end of the WFM isolation or the begining. But here’s my favorite posts on the different setups from the makers of products I enjoy:
Josh Ginter, The Desks of The Sweet Setup
So here’s Blanc Media’s work-from-home setups, complete with a list of the main items in each setup. If you’re anything like us, you’re sure to be curious about a few of the coffee cups gracing these tables.
Jason Fried, The home office desks of Basecamp:
People are always curious about work-from-home (WFH), remote working setups. So, I posted a Basecamp message asking our employees to share a photo of their home office, desk, table, whatever. Here’s what came in.
Emily Marchant, The 1Password team share their work-from-home setups
Looking for inspiration for your work-from-home setup? From Studio Ghibli-inspired spaces to clean, minimalist setups, our team share what makes their workstations work for them.
I enjoy these posts so much. And while they can sometimes create an urge to purchase stuff — it’s also a reminder that sometimes the sausage gets made with fairly simple setups.
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May 19, 2020
Patrick Rhone, on thecramped.com:
So please, I implore you, if you insist on journalling using any digital tool. Please also regularly print what you are writing.
I’m taking this to heart. Although the idea of my journal being out there is uncomfortable, it not existing — even to be dismissed — is a bit more.
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May 19, 2020
🏼
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Finished this last year, and surprisingly, some of its teachings have stuck. There’s a lot of little gold nuggets on the book, and it’s actually on my reread list, but the most useful concept for me was habit stacking:
One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.
More than any other lifehack over the past year, this has helped me not waste time on start long a habit without the help of an existing one.
Like many good self-help books, you have to be careful with expectations. Great ones are life changing, but it usually takes a lifetime to measure the change.
I feel this is one of those books: the time invested reading will totally pay out by the small improvements that come from its pages. Even (specially?) if you make a habit of revisiting it.
May 18, 2020
🏼
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1) by Arkady Martine
If sci-fi as a genre was laid out on a table, with page turning galactic battles on one end and space opera’s on the other… then this book would put its feet on the table while rolling its eyes.
That said, it’s still closer to Asimov’s Foundation than Peter Hamilton, but the point stands: it does things differently than expected — than accepted, in fact.
This should be a boring book. If I tried to explain it at a party, people would be sad for my entertainment low bar. But just like British drama, you can get away with so much when the characters are good.
And that’s the thing about A Memory Called Empire, I made friends and enemies of the characters, so I was along for the ride. Will absolutely read the next in the series when it’s out.
May 17, 2020
Listen(ing) Up
As the isolation eases up, I’m trying listen more and be openly curious of those around me. Most times I’m shy and respectful of others lives, and will not ask about areas I don’t feel the person gave me an opening.
I don’t think this is the right approach anymore. I will ask if I’m curious, and understand if the person doesn’t want to share. I will be more comfortable with silence, or at least not jump first to break it. In other words, I want this to be said about me someday:
He was humble, respectful, and listened more than he spoke.
Ken Liu, The Grace of Kings
There’s a balance between being respectful and uninterested. I’m hoping to find mine.
May 16, 2020
Microsoft Precision Mouse on Mac
For some reason, during the last month using my beloved Magic Mouse became uncomfortable by the afternoon. I’ve been pulling some long hours on my travel setup, but the pain on my wrist was a bit worrying.
Enter the Microsoft Precision Mouse. I heard about it from John Siracusa and found a good deal on Amazon.
MS Precision Mouse
After a week, I’m in love. The wrist pain went away in one day — probably the magic of placebo — but I’ll take it.
One big part of it working from me is the app Mouse Fix. It allows the side buttons to work as previous/next desktop gestures, and most importantly: enables smooth scrolling.
MS Precision Mouse
With smooth scrolling in software, the mouse’s magnetic scrolling wheel feedback is extremely enjoyable. I don’t recall ever caring much for the sound of the scrolling wheel, but since this one is totally silent — I found myself toggling it on most of the time.
It’s not a cheap mouse, I got mine for $69, but it’s on the Magic Mouse price range. For the list price of $99 you’re probably better off looking at the Logitech MX Master 3, which is much more powerful for the price. But I didn’t want a monstrosity, just a good ergonomic mouse that allowed to replace gestures with buttons and didn’t look out of place next to my MacBook. And the Microsoft Precision Mouse delivers just that. Recommended.
May 13, 2020
Jon Porter on theverge.com:
The new model means that a single subscription now covers all of your Nest devices, rather than asking you to pay on a per-device basis.
Took them long enough, here’s yours truly 4 years ago:
[…] please, make it $10 a month for 3 cameras and suddenly I have more incentives to buy more than 1. I know video storage is not cheap, but your parent company might know a bit about cloud stuff.
Too late. Other than the two Nest’s I used as baby cams that now are in the rooms areas — I went all in on Wyze Cams throughout the house. Yes they’re way cheaper to buy, but it was the services cost that pushed me away.
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May 11, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 19
- lite lightweight text editor written in Lua for Windows and Linux.
- Blurred • reduce distraction by dimming your inactive background apps.
- Hidden Bar • Another free utility that helps hide menu bar icons.
- Aware • simple menubar app that tracks how long you’ve been actively using your computer.
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May 9, 2020
Kameron Tanseli, on his blog:
So my advice if you’re looking for your next indie software idea. Just observe what these no-coders are automating on Zapier and build a nice UI around it.
Makes so much sense for me. Simple advice to keep close by.
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May 6, 2020
★★★★☆
Wool (Silo #1) by Hugh Howey
I’d started the original Wool book a few times, but it never stuck. Nothing like a quarantine to make a story about living in a silo interesting. Have to say this was a great read. Probably the most page turning book of the year for me — at least the only that made me stay up until 4am at a point.
I enjoyed the characters and story. And the author drops enough clues of what happened to the outside world to satisfy some of my disaster movie genre curiosity. Moved on the next in the series right away.
May 4, 2020
Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing on apple.com:
With these updates, our entire notebook lineup features the Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook […].
Will wait for benchmarks to see how bad I feel for going for the MacBook Air last month. But the fact that the whole lineup now has the new/old keyboard is great news.
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May 4, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 18
- Size.link • Visualize dimensions in Augmented Reality. Very useful.
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April 28, 2020
goodbooks.io:
Good Books is a curated collection of book recommendations from the world’s most successful, influential and interesting people. We’ve spent 6 months analysing 15,000+ book recommendations and have handpicked the best to add to your reading list.
Beautiful site design. Linking here so I don’t forget about it next time I’m wasting time looking for a book.
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April 28, 2020
System76 on youtube.com:
New to Pop!_OS 20.04, auto-tiling organizes your windows for you so you can spend more time and focus on the task at hand. Use keyboard shortcuts to move, swap, and resize windows to your liking.
I’m a sucker for tiling UX, but this looks particularly simple and useful. All the macOS versions I’ve tried are too hackie to set up… might setup a VM to play this this.
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April 25, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 16
About a month worth’s of links:
- Tip is a programmable tooltip that can be used with any Mac OS app github.com
- Tidi helps organize your Download (or other folders) with reminders and an easy interface. tidi.app
- Service Station is a macOS app for customizing your right-click menu in Finder. servicestation.menu
- Salmon is a macOS search tool specifically for files and folders. salmon-app.com
- Turn a Wyze Cam v2 (and Pan) into a Webcam.
- ViDL • Mac app to download videos from YouTube and hundreds of others websites. GUI wrapper around
youtube-dl.
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April 25, 2020
Roland Moore-Colyer on tomsguide.com:
Given the cult-like following Apple has, if it can make a 12-inch MacBook that sits somewhere between say $600 and $900, and retains a premium design, then it’ll almost certainly sell like crazy. This is another incentive for macOS app developers to get on board as they’d have a strong guarantee that efforts to rework their apps would pay dividends, both figuratively and literally.
Not sure destroy is the right word. But high-end Chromebooks and mid-range Windows laptops would suffer, and I would love the clarity of recommending a MacBook on the $800 range.
However, the question would be how Apple would differentiate with iPad. Historically Apple has no problem cannibalizing themselves, but always to push a newer technology. To do it as way to offer options will be a new approach. One that I don’t think will happen under Tim Cook.
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April 6, 2020
Chuq Von Rospach on his blog chuqui.com:
And that’s where the sad reality comes in. A Blog is no longer a viable place to create content and expect to attract traffic to it.
Lots to chew on here.
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March 30, 2020
Michael Potuck on 9to5mac.com:
The update makes it more seamless to share content directly with your contacts in WhatsApp from the web, apps, and everywhere else you can pull up the Share Sheet in iOS.
Thought this wasn’t a public feature. Will make link sharing much more useful.
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March 27, 2020
Doc Searls on blogs.harvard.edu:
If you were in a browser instead of an app, an extension such as Privacy Badger could tell you there are trackers sniffing your ass. And, if your browser is one that cares about privacy, such as Brave, Firefox or Safari, there’s a good chance it would be blocking trackers as well. But in the Zoom app, you can’t tell if or how your personal data is being harvested.
After the last year’s Mac hidden web server case, we officially discourage Zoom’s use at work. Currently I use Zoom Redirector to force the web client.
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March 26, 2020
nin.com:
GHOSTS V: Together is for when things seem like it might all be okay, and GHOSTS VI: Locusts… Well, you’ll figure it out.
Soundtrack for these strange times.
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March 23, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 12
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March 16, 2020
Tidbits for 2020 Week 11
- Apple to close US retail stores and all others outside China until March 27th theverge.com
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5typos.net
Ken Liu, The Grace of Kings
Thought this wasn’t a public feature. Will make link sharing much more useful.