June 19, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 24
- Fixed, but used Nest Cams allowed previous users to watch them under certain conditions. Scary to think what other holes are there.
- Best Buy now being an authorized Apple repair location is very convenient.
- Short OS 13 Beta 2 on iPad observations I enjoyed reading. I’m installing the public beta as soon as it comes out.
tidbits
June 19, 2019
PCMag.com:
The display now features a “color adjustable front light” so you can “customize the color tone from cool to warm to easily transition from daytime to a comfortable nighttime reading experience,” Amazon says.
Warm color light, page-turn buttons, 7 in screen, all sound great. But the $250 starting price is too high for me. Even if my Kindle Voyage disappears today, I’d go for the newest Paperwhite.
June 18, 2019
Cal Newport:
This happens because the hive mind has a way of muddying up internal work into countless informal requests and unstructured conversations, archived haphazardly into ad hoc collections of old messages.
This sounds awfully relatable.
June 13, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 23
- Twitterrific 6 for iOS is out. I’m a Tweetbot kinda guy, but it looks pretty.
- Radiohead stolen 18 minidisks on Bandcamp is a delicious FU to the thieves.
- Soulver is my goto calculator on the Mac. Will upgrade for sure.
tidbits
June 12, 2019
From the guardianapp.com blog:
The initial 1.0 release of Guardian Firewall primarily does one thing, and it does it well: Block those trying to track you, and tell you who they are as well as what types of data they likely tried to collect.
Very intriguing, at $9.99/month (or $99.99 per year) for VPN + Firewall capabilities, it’s competitive but of course not free. I’m very curious to see how speed compare to not having a VPN, and to the upcoming Couldflare Warp — which will have similar benefits, but far from the same control. You could also argue that Guardian is a much more trustworthy provider than Cloudflare.
June 11, 2019
blog.dropbox.com:
Today, we’re unveiling the new Dropbox. It’s the Dropbox you know and love, but better. It’s a single workspace to organize your content, connect your tools, and bring everyone together, wherever you are.
Certainly they’re moving away of being just a feature, and congrats to them. This is a strong play to become a collaboration tool in itself - way more the a folder sync tool.
Sadly I’m not that interested at the moment. It’s not a cheap solution for an IT department, since it needs to work alongside either G-Suite or Microsoft Office 365.
I would have preferred a different path, one where a paid Dropbox account replaced Gmail, Google Photos and other ad-supported consumer tools. For a while with Mailbox and their photos solutions they seems to be headed that way … but the enterprise deep pockets won.
June 4, 2019
Tidbit for 2019 Week 22
- Spotify Stations out in the US. It’s very Pandora inspired but I dig. Basically one touch to get to a mood playlist.
Busy week. Will pick up speed next week again.
tidbits
May 30, 2019
Dieter Bohn on theverge.com:
I think Apple should go all in and make nearly all of its consumer Mac apps with the new UIKit / Marzipan frameworks, including Mail, Notes, Messages, FaceTime, Photos, Reminders, and Calendar. Apple should just go for it, sooner rather than later, and ideally right now.
Count me in. This will be painful, but it also clarify what Apple pro users should be looking forward to. If the Mac “is done”, and iPads are what’s next, then make the iPad OS and real alternative.
It’s clear that Apple can’t make both macOS and iOS the next generation system. It doesn’t have the resources, and even if it did, it would be confusing. It seems that the original plan was to have iOS be the large screen future, but the pushback brought Apple back to the drawing board.
I believe that next Monday we will see Apple’s reformulation of the plan, and how macOS and iOS fit on it.
May 30, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 21
- Today I learned that on Chrome/Brave/Opera you can click on a link of text you have highlighted from find by hitting Control + Enter. Life-changing.
- Flotato→ really cool Mac app to create single window website applications. If you always have a tab opened on something, it could be useful.
- The Gnome/GTK community is having an interesting fight requesting its apps not be themed. I tend to agree with devs.
- If you like to check other people’s setups (geek perv), this is a fun gallery.
tidbits
May 22, 2019
Panic on play.date:
It’s yellow. It fits in your pocket. It’s got a beautiful black and white screen. It’s not super cheap, but not super expensive. It includes brand new games from some amazing creators. Plus it has a crank.
I’m not a gamer, but this makes me wanna be one. What an undertaking — the more I read the press release the more I think how impossible it sounds. If it weren’t Panic, I’d be sure this was a bad April Fools joke. Wish them the best of luck.
Press Release
May 22, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 20
- Remind Me Faster is an iOS app to add reminders with as few taps as possible. Faster than correcting Siri™.
- cmd+space is a newsletter dedicated to keyboard shortcuts. Learned something in the first issue.
tidbits
May 20, 2019
Max Read on nymag.com:
You don’t “check” chats the way you check an endless feed: Conversation flows when enough people want to have it, but there’s no algorithm to find and surface an unseen chat message that you might engage with.
Great point. I specially like the next sentence.
What you get instead is distraction the old-fashioned way: with intention.
We’re not machines. It’s human to be distracted, seek entertainment, daydream. The problem nowadays is that we’re being trained to stay in a continued state of attention.
Without algorithms fulfilling the dopamine rush after every click/corner, it’s easier to take a step back.
May 19, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 19
- Huawei will not be able to ship with Google’s apps (including play store) anymore. This is huge and unnerving.
- The benchmarks of Intel’s Clear Linux shows that it’s fast and the rolling upgrade design is very modern.
- I still get exited about eInk readers and the Xiaomi iReader T6 at least is new. My wish would be in an ePub based device that syncs with iOS apps.
- WhatsApp vulnerability via audio call is very scary. Everyone should update now.
tidbits
May 13, 2019
Sam Byford on theverge.com:
None of that changes the fact that the 2019 iPad mini is a fantastic product that I would recommend to anyone. I might have preferred a more ambitious redesign, sure, but what’s here is hard to criticize. It’s never less than a delight to use, it’s the only good product in its category, and it’s earned a permanent spot in my tote bag.
I’m really enjoying mine. If it had a more natural way to carry the pencil — Logitech Crayon in my case — it’d be perfect.
May 7, 2019
variety.com:
[…] Disney announced that a trio of untitled “Star Wars” entries that will come after “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” brings the Skywalker spinoff saga to a close this December. The first of the new three films will hit the big screen on Dec. 16 2022. There will be two other follow-ups to during the Christmas corridor on Dec. 20, 2024 and Dec. 18, 2026.
I can totally live with that. Robie and Bettina will be 7 and 5 years old… they will be ready.
May 6, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 18
- I first thought this was Android bashing, but in videos it’s clear Q’s gesture language is exactly the same.
- Downlink: real-time satellite imagery on the Mac desktop. Installed and launching on login from now on.
tidbits
May 5, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 17
- Seems a certificate lapse killed all Firefox extensions on Friday. It happens to the best of us.
- Verizon is selling Tumblr. Pornhub says it’s interested, I suspect half-jokingly. I really hope it doesn’t die forgotten, it was a nice blogging platform — hosting this blog for a few years.
- Pushcut combines iOS notifications, Shortcuts and webhooks. Don’t know what for yet, but I’m going to play with it.
- Amazon moving into shipping sounds scary as hell for those of us in the logistics industry.
- Burger King is rolling out the Impossible Whopper in the US. Really want to try this one out.
- Streaming was supposed to be the cord cutters dream, it’s not the case. Still, I rather decided between streaming services than cable packages.
tidbits
April 29, 2019
Mike Hoye on his blog exple.tive.org:
In the next small number of months, Mozilla intends to deprecate IRC as our primary synchronous-text communications platform, stand up a replacement and decommission irc.mozilla.org soon afterwards. I’m charged with leading that process on behalf of the organization.
I’m going to follow this closely — more for the process than the actual end result. But even the first post offers a learnings in the clarity of the requirements, and no-nonsense managing of expectations.
It’s not going to be an easy job, and if he shares even the highlights, we can all learn from it.
April 25, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 16
- Reeder 4 Is available for Mac and iOS. Insta-buy.
- Nobody works more than 60 hours a week. You know that they know, that we know it.
- DNS over HTTPS is the worst sort of privacy solution except for the rest. This is why I’ve been using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 app non-top now.
- The upcoming Reeder app supports Bionic Reading, and it sure gives interesting results.
tidbits
April 23, 2019
Macs carry the flame for the revolution. They’re the computers we own, right? They’re the astounding, powerful machines that we get to master.
Except that lately, it feels more and more like we’re just renting Macs too, and they’re really Apple’s machines, not ours.
Is a nagging feeling, but it’s there.
April 19, 2019
Guilherme Rambo on 9to5mac.com:
It’s also likely that the Shortcuts app — a result from the acquisition of Workflow — will be available on macOS, the inclusion of system-wide support for Siri Shortcuts on macOS 10.15 strongly suggests it.
If it has decent AppleScript/Automator like support, my mind will be blown.
April 19, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 15
- Soylent Squared 100-calorie mini meals miss the boat with me. The snacking concept behind it doesn’t ring true to the original brand.
- A rumored new Nintendo Switch this Christmas. Smaller and cheaper, for sure Robie will want one.
- Apple and Qualcomm settled. Intel cancels its 5G chips. There’s such an inside baseball story behind all of this.
- Twitter needed a textshot ages ago. Not sure what it needed to acquihire Highly to get something similar.
tidbits
April 18, 2019
blog.bbm.com:
Though we are sad to say goodbye, the time has come to sunset the BBM consumer service, and for us to move on.
Full circle in this blog, from arguing that Twitter DMs should be able to replace BBM, to rolling my eyes at BlackBerry not releasing iOS/Android apps soon enough.
The saddest thing is how irrelevant the goodbye is.
April 12, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 14
- Disney+ might become my second TV subscription after Netflix. For 7 month, it sounds like a great deal.
- Curious if the rumored WhatsApp for iPad version will be a stand-alone version or how it will deal with encryption if it’s a companion app like the web.
- Haven’t heard anyone mention this Zello walkie-talkie app in my friend and family circles.
- At $99 the Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf speaker is something I see myself owning to complement the Sonos Play 1. Specially since it even supports AirPlay 2.
tidbits
April 9, 2019
Steve Troughton-Smith on twitter.com:
I am now fairly confident based on evidence I don’t wish to make public at this point that Apple is planning new (likely UIKit) Music, Podcasts, perhaps even Books, apps for macOS, to join the new TV app. I expect the four to be the next wave of Marzipan apps.
I still pay for iTunes Match, so usually when on a deadline I’ll close everything but iTunes and the task at hand — only listening to my brain circa 2012.
But even the webish chimera of Spotify on the desktop is a better music app than iTunes. I don’t think an Apple Music on the Mac app will never get the love and attention that iTunes once got, but if it’s an iPad based version, it might me good enough.
April 8, 2019
Adam Grant on the nytimes.com:
A better option is attention management: Prioritize the people and projects that matter, and it won’t matter how long anything takes.
Which sound very kumbaya, but when carefully defined it becomes a bit more defendable in real life:
Attention management is the art of focusing on getting things done for the right reasons, in the right places and at the right moments.
And the money quote for me:
If you’re trying to be more productive, don’t analyze how you spend your time. Pay attention to what consumes your attention.
This last one made me pause, I’m deep into the if you don’t measure it, it doesn’t exist camp, and tracking what you’re up to is a given. But this suggest that should put more effort into where you attention wanders towards… a mindfulness concept that I can buy into.
I love articles like these which make me question my current truths. Will probably digest for a few more weeks, but it’s to bookmarked to reread in a few months.
April 6, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 13
- Geeks can daydream, but the battery world runs on lithium-ion, and there’s no replacement in sight.
- HomePod is now $299, down from $349. Don’t doubt it’s the best sound for the price, but without Spotify is not even an option for me. Maybe at $199…
- Amazon’s Project Kuiper would make my father-in-law so happy. Broadband satellite based internet for remote areas would make many millions of lives better. Go Bezos.
- The Powerbeats Pro are the AirPods sporty me would have wanted. The actual me finds the case too big.
- Simplify for Gmail Chrome extension brings a little of Inbox to Gmail. Code on GitHub and made my former Google lead designer. Update: works on Opera, and it’s really great.
- Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 App with Warp VPN makes an intriguing case: more secure and faster than without. In waiting list.
tidbits
April 2, 2019
Ron Amadeo preserves for future generations, this is what Google Inbox was like:
The Sweep button and at-a-glance info cards represent my favorite bit of design philosophy in Inbox: by default, it treats emails as groups of disposable garbage.
Bundles, sweeps and all the features added to my favorite email app since Sparrow. Its ability to deal with a lot of noise and finding the signal still doesn’t exist in Gmail.
April 1, 2019
Burger King’s chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado, said that in the company’s testing so far, customers and even employees had not been able to tell the difference between the old meaty Whopper and the new one.
Not sure this is a feature of Impossible Foods, or a bug of Burger King. Still, I’ll try this as soon as I get a chance.
April 1, 2019
Casey Chin:
The technology that Cloudflare is betting will make Warp fast is a protocol invented by Google called QUIC, and it could one day make the rest of the internet faster and more reliable.
Hold on a second, this sounds fishy…
Cloudflare is using a draft of the IETF’s QUIC specification for the connection between its mobile app and its servers.
Never mind. That’s better.
This all sounds as a modern version of Opera Mini, and something that Opera and Google have been trying to do in recent years but technology and privacy concerns held it back. I’ve used the 1.1.1.1 app for DNS and the speed improvement is noticeable — so I have no doubts Cloudflare can make the tech work.
The privacy verdict is still out there, but if they deliver on the speed claim, it becomes a game of lesser evils… do you trust Cloudflare more than your ISP and/or mobile operator? I know I do.
March 31, 2019
Tidbits for 2019 Week 12
- The new iPad Air and iPad mini available for in-store pickup. I’m going to
wait for it to show up on Adorama to order . Ordered.
- Gmail swipe actions on iOS soon. But still no bundles… Oh how I miss Google Inbox.
- Stories about Apple Watch ECG feature really make me think: a) I should get my Dad one, b) Health features are a powerful reason to upgrade soon for myself.
- Twitter new dark mode for OLED screens on iOS/Android. Apple has to include dark mode in iOS 13.
- Wyze Sense $20 sensor kit announced. Insta-buy, I really like our Wyze setup at home and this looks well integrated.
- Apple mumbles sorry for MacBook keyboard issues. Not good enough. They need to change the design yesterday and include the 2018 model in the extended warranty.
- MKBHD’s AirPods 2nd Gen video review is great.
- The Original AirPods Firmware also appears to have gotten an update. Reports include snappier™ connections.
tidbits
March 31, 2019
Tasha Eurich interviewing Whitney Johnson:
Journaling is helpful, when done properly—if you spend too much time on “why” questions and emotions, you will wallow in the past. Tasha suggests asking yourself three questions:
- What went well today?
- What didn’t go quite as well today?
- How can I be smarter tomorrow?
Really good journaling tips on their conversation. The above structure feels similar to me, but could be a clearer tip for someone who wants to start journaling.
HT to Christian for the recommendation.
March 30, 2019
The etiquette of texting is, of course, different than an in-person conversation, but it can still feel like your conversational partner’s silence means something. Did I say something weird? Or is she just busy?
When almost all of your family and friends interaction happens on a WhatsApp group, the implications of this take a whole new level.
March 29, 2019
In an email, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Engineering writes:
After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project.
Ouch. No conspiracy theory here, they just couldn’t deliver. I find it surprising they didn’t reduce the scope to something similar to the dozens of Qi wireless chargers that exists already.
March 28, 2019
Keybase on Whatsapp:
We actually DO take great issue with their claim of forward secrecy while encouraging your chat partners to “back up” their chats with you to the cloud, entirely defeating the purpose.
Excellent point. I keep forgetting about these backups as the weakest link.
March 26, 2019
This is not one of those apps. It is an app written from the ground up for macOS, which works as expected with the system features.
I recently started using Drafts on iOS again and while the UI still feels like a flight cockpit, the level of power is amazing. For the Mac, it translates to a much simpler app, but that will change when it gets actions.
For a taste of the feature check this overview by MacSparky.
March 24, 2019
The New iPad Lineup
The iPad 2019 lineup clarity is something I wish for the Mac’s 2020 lineup. Five models: iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro (11in), iPad Pro (12.9in). Starting at $329 for the iPad 9.7in , it increases to $399, $499, $699 and $999 for each base model respectively.
As geeks we lament that inconsistency between technologies: Apple Pencil 2 and FaceID on the Pro versions versus Apple Pencil 1 and TouchID in the rest of the models. Or the biggest gripe for me, the obsolete design language of the bottom devices once you compare with the Pro versions — they’re not different designs, one is old and the other new.
If you don’t get too geeky though, when asked the critical question by a friend or relative: which one should I get?, you’ll actually see consistency. They all support a pencil, yes one is better, but the other one isn’t bad. They all have a good screen, again one better and another one that doesn’t refresh at 120 Hz. You can go on and on with the processor, connector, speakers, etc.
In an age of complex technology, you arrive at a simplified matrix of consistent features with good vs better implementations. With each of the models being a clear response to a corresponding: if you’re willing to spend $X, Y is the best model. Try doing that with a Mac nowadays.
The iPad Pro Air 2019
I’m writing this on my 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 512Gb. It was my family wide birthday gift that year. It’s an amazing machine - two years in, I still haven’t managed to slow it down with anything I throw at it. This iPad Pro es effectively the new iPad Air, with an older processor, faster refresh screen (Pro Motion), better camera, and 4 speakers vs 2 of the new Air. But a week ago the 10.5 Pro was $649, while the remixed Air starts at $499. It’s a simplified version for its target audience. In fact, if you have a gullible geek friend with a 10.5 Pro, bait him/her to upgrade, and get the device at a hefty discount. Or try to find one in a clearance sale, because at the same price, the old 10.5 Pro is a better device than the new Air in my opinion.
Back to the mini
Before the iPad, the iPhone, the Pocket PCs, the iBooks, the Palms, there was a Newton 2100 MessagePad in my heart bag. The Newton 2100 was a powerful 8.3in x 4.7in device with a stylus that could replace your desktop computer for certain tasks, but it wasn’t meant to. The iPad mini 2019 is a 8.0in x 5.3in device that supports the 1st Gen Apple Pencil and can replace your MacBook for certain… you see what I’m getting at?
It took Apple 7690 days to launch a proper replacement, at least on paper. Because even though the iPad mini design is 7 years old, the pencil was needed for it to be considered as viable descendant.
As you might imagine, all this is just me justifying my upcoming purchase. I’m not planing to add an iPad to my gear bag, I’m actually going to replace the iPad Pro 10.5 with the mini. I will miss the bigger screen for watching video, reading comics and books. The magazine size of the iPad 10.5 is the perfect around the house device. It’s true that more than any other previous iPad, I do stuff on it for which I’d pulled out the laptop before, and the laptop sized screen has a lot to do with it.
But when I really need stuff done, or I’m heading out the door for a trip, the MacBook is the one that goes in the bag. Right now, that’s how I work. Here’s where the Moleskine sized device beacons for me. It’s why I still have and use my 2013 iPad mini 2, even though it’s painfully slow. Because for me, there’s less confusion between what a MacBook, a small iPad, and an iPhone are for.
Wildcards: iOS 13 vs ARM MacBooks
There are two nonexclusive scenarios that might make me regret or be glad of replacing the Pro, these are:
- iPad specific features in iOS 13: which is rumored and likely. I’ll miss not being able to play with Apple’s vision of pro tablet features on a “proper sized” device.
- ARM MacBooks: rumored, but less likely in the current year. If Apple announces the current iPad Pro 12.9 hardware, but running macOS — all bets are off.
So this is the state of my iPad mind at the moment. I haven’t ordered the new iPad mini yet, but mostly for logistics reasons. I’m also going to put my iPad Pro for sell in the coming days, and hope not to be left without one or the other for long.
March 21, 2019
Jason Fried:
Group chat is like being in an all-day meeting with random participants and no agenda.
Forgive me @channel, for I have sinned.
As one of the main proponents of adopting Slack at my organization at the start of the year, I have mixed feelings with the results.
On one had, I do believe that it has been an improvement of the Skype free-for-all party that was the norm. It’s now easier to have an idea of what is happening on multiple remote teams . Sharing is also way easier on Slack and, there’s more IT oversight over accounts and users — at least versus Skype.
However, how much better it is compared to just having clearer rules on Google Hangouts (which we have with our G-Suite account), is debatable. The Slack app itself is a much better experience, and the integrations are plain fun.
But just like social networks, there’s something to be said about these services need to grab attention. The fact that they feel like work, should make us even more suspicious.
March 17, 2019
Flickr “In Memoriam” accounts
Flickr Blog:
In memoriam accounts will preserve all public content in a deceased member’s account, even if their Pro subscription lapses. The account’s username will be updated to reflect the “in memoriam” status and login for the account be locked, preventing anyone from signing in.
This is a great feature for a paying service. There have been discussions before on what happened with digital catalogs once again you die — an issue that will become more relevant.
Also happy to see Flickr back in the news.
March 17, 2019
Flickr “In Memoriam” accounts
Flickr Blog:
In memoriam accounts will preserve all public content in a deceased member’s account, even if their Pro subscription lapses. The account’s username will be updated to reflect the “in memoriam” status and login for the account be locked, preventing anyone from signing in.
This is a great feature for a paying service. There have been discussions before on what happened with digital catalogs once again you die — an issue that will become more relevant.
Also happy to see Flickr back in the news.
snippets
March 14, 2019
Dropbox has quietly updated its website to allow users on the company’s free storage plan to only connect up to three laptops, tablets, or phones to their account at one time
My iCloud only experiment is going well. I am using a second free Dropbox account for my microblog. But on the Mac, Transmit works great to connect to Dropbox easily, only using two devices towards the new limit.
I understand why Dropbox will do this, but as an user, only an introduction of a cheaper plan than the $9.99 one would bring me back.
March 14, 2019
Dropbox has quietly updated its website to allow users on the company’s free storage plan to only connect up to three laptops, tablets, or phones to their account at one time
My iCloud only experiment is going well. I am using a second free Dropbox account for my microblog. But on the Mac, Transmit works great to connect to Dropbox easily, only using two devices towards the new limit.
I understand why Dropbox will do this, but as an user, only an introduction of a cheaper plan than the $9.99 one would bring me back.
snippets
5typos.net