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Weekly tidbits

May 12, 2024

Tidbits for 2024 Week 19

Hello world! what a fun week with new iPads and accessories. They all look amazing, but Iā€™ll be keeping an eye on used iPad Proā€™s prices. This week I finished re-reading all three 3 Body Problems booksā€‰ā€”ā€‰still enjoyed them a lot. Started The Gentleman on Netflix with Ana, and we both seemed to have clicked on it. Iā€™m also closer to buying yet-another-ereader, thanks to this article.

  • October: get highlights off Kobo send them to Readwise. FLOSS for Windows, macOS and Linux.

  • ā€ŽNow Playing Plus: ā€ŽWatchOS Complication for to audio controls, without needed to hunt around in the App List or Dock.

  • uFocus: minimal and free text editor for macOS/iOS. Been around for a few years and has some good reviews. Not sure how I missed it.

  • Reminder Sync for Obsidian: if Siri is getting smarter this year, I think Iā€™d be using it this year.

  • Calendr: FLOSS Menu bar calendar for macOS. Iā€™m taking a break from Fantastical, and this is the best alternative Iā€™ve found.

  • Phanpy: Minimalistic opinionated Mastodon web client. I love Ivory, but sometimes you just want a quick glance at whatā€™s happening online, and this is a great way.

tidbits
May 5, 2024

Tidbits for 2024 Week 18

Theyā€™re back! The weekly tidbits I mean. After about a year Iā€™m planning to start publishing again regularly. The good news is that I never stopped collecting links, so I have a good backlog to help me get back in the habit.

I went back to basics with Apps this week, see you next Sunday for more.

  • ā€ŽSupercopy for Safari: ļæ¼ ā€ŽmacOS, iOS/iPadOS, and visionOS extension that adds āŒ˜+ā‡§+C keyboard shortcut for copying the current tabā€™s URL to the clipboard. If you use Arc as one of your browsers, you need this for sanity.

  • Tusks: ļæ¼ Write, update & organise threads on mastodon.

  • DropScout: ļæ¼ Amazon price alerts from your device. Loving this app as we get into summer sales season. Use it as a wishlist and figure out if a sale price is real.

  • Folderizer: ļæ¼ macOS folder icon replacement app. I have a bunch of similar apps, but this one makes it extra easy. Sadly OneDriveā€™s folder changes donā€™t survive to other platforms, but great on the desktop.

  • Quotify: ļæ¼ iOS quotes organizer with widgets and easy import. A good alternative if you miss the venerable Quotebook. I now use Readwise, but Quotify design is so much nicer.

  • ā€ŽTwodo: ļæ¼ ā€ŽiOS app with 2 lists: ā€œSoonerā€ and ā€œLaterā€. Simple and private.

tidbits
September 4, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 35

  • Control Panel for Twitter: browser extension which brings some sanity to the x.com clusterfudge. Canā€™t use Twitter without it.

  • JuxtaCode: good looking beta Git merge tool for macOS.

  • Trypa: trigger shortcuts based on environmental, hardware and system factors on macOS.

  • Dissolv for macOS : Hide inactive apps after an specified period. Replaces defunct Spirited Away app.

  • Applite: UI for Homebrew package manager. Good way to manage all those pesky apps that insist on having an AutoUpdate checking in login, or use .pkg installers.

  • S3 Files for iPhone, iPad & Mac: s3 buckets in the Files app, Finder, Shortcuts app & share sheet. Keeping around for rainy day.

  • Chantlings : musical app that let you explore tone and harmony. Letā€™s say itā€™s for the kids.

  • ā€ŽFuoco : change focus of Portrait Mode photos in iOS.

tidbits
May 29, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 21

  • Stops: very nice iOS photography app with beautiful filters.

  • FileFillet : macOS app that stays on the left side of the screen, and makes copy/paste files to locations very easy.

  • AnyGPT: makes any text field in macOS becomes a ChatGPT prompt.

  • HackerNewt: iOS client for Hacker News that makes reading comments much less painful.

  • Pixian.AI: simple webapp to remove image backgrounds and no signup - just credit.

  • Sky Bridge: server that translates Mastodon requests into Bluesky ones, so you can use Mastodon apps. Still not Bluesky invite, but keeping around.

  • ProNotes: macOS Apple Notes extension which adds ChatGPT, Markdown, and other formatting. I feel the urge to use.

  • ā€Žvideo for ants: iOS app the will convert the format, compress the bitrate, and optimize the fps to make video smaller. Wish I had this a while back.

  • ā€ŽNaptime: iOS tracking of baby nap times and awake windows. If this makes no sense, it might in the future.

tidbits
May 15, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 19

  • Soulver 3: for iPad is out. I mostly use v2 on iPhone, but very close to upgrading.

  • Foldie: Transfer files between Android and MacOS. Useful for my experiments with the Boox Leaf 2.

  • Introspect: iOS journaling app that uses ChatGPTā€™s to ask questions about your writing. Very interesting.

  • Breveto: Yet another writing App for Mac. Looks very pretty, and in active development. Will keep an eye on it.

  • Table of contents: Safari extension for quickly documents for macOS and iOS. See a list of all headings in the page and click any to jump to it. Brilliant.

  • Praxis: Block scripts, trackers, and cookies on iOS. Waiting for iPad version to see if I can replace Brave for this use-case.

  • FSMonitor: macOS app that monitors all changes to the file system.

tidbits
April 13, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 14

  • Wins App: Yet another macOS window management app, but with a few nice touches. My new default app.

  • AI-Powered Regex Solver: looks good. Havenā€™t been able to show a work problem at it, but keeping the tab open.

  • Wavelength Group Chat: Another attempt at group chat. Shows promise, I like the threads model. Not sure how much itā€™ll catch on my tribes. iOS/macOS only for now.

  • tsr: Simple csv-based timetracker for Raycast and Alfred. Very intriguing. Donā€™t want to mess with my setup, but worth a look.

  • OneCast: Xbox remote play for Mac, iOS and Apple TV. Didnā€™t know this existed, but keeping around for when we get a Flight Simulator Xbox

  • BoltGPT:Use ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion inside any macOS app.

tidbits
March 27, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 12

  • Departing Earth: free iOS app to track space launches.

  • Klack: really fun keystroke sound app for Mac. Works great when away from your mechanical keyboard and need the soothing rhythm for writing.

  • Little Snitch Mini: Excellent option if you want better control of your Mac network traffic.

  • Fileside: very interesting file manager with tiling pages for Mac and Windows. Seriously considering buying it.

  • Folders File Manager: Mac file manager for PC refugees. Not my thing, but nice design if you miss tree-style layout.

  • Chatterbox: ChatGPT wrapper on Mac with easy screenshots. Purchased it.

tidbits
March 1, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 8

  • The Magic Highlighter: Safari Extension for iOS and Mac that highlights search terms on the web pages. Purchased.
  • Zenitizer: minimal meditation timer for iOS and Apple Watch with Health, Widgets and Shortcuts support. In beta.
  • MacWhisper: macOS interface to transcribe audio files into text with OpenAIā€™s Whisper. Paid version includes largers models ($12)
  • Transkript: Another macOS interface to transcribe audio files into text with OpenAIā€™s Whisper. A lot more feature in paid version, but way more expensive.
tidbits
January 16, 2023

Tidbits for 2023 Week 2

  • Omnivore: free, open source, read-it-later app. Iā€™m sticking with Reader, but excellent option to have around.
  • HabitKit: iOS/Android habit tracking with github commit-like tile-based grid charts. Giving
  • Followgraph for Mastodon: find new people to follow, by looking up your ā€œfollowsā€™ followsā€. Very useful.
  • El Pintador: StableDiffusion app for iOS to generate images from text. Build by Miguel de Icaza, using server processing. $2.99 a week.
  • Amazing AI: Generate images from text using Stable Diffusion 1.5 on macOS. Optimized for M1/M2.
tidbits
November 21, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 47

  • Playground AI: Free Stable Diffusion image generation. Paid options for Dall-E. Simplest tool Iā€™ve foud if you want to play with AI images.

  • Tweek Calendar: web-based minimal weekly planner & to-do list app. Nice printable PDF also. Keeping around.

  • Grila: macOS keyboard-driven calendar. Trying it out, not sure it will stick, but interesting.

  • Split CSV: Filter and split a CSV file into multiple files. Donā€™t need it nowadays, but I would have gladly paid $40 for this a few years back.

  • Haikei: Wave and others image generators. Useful for slide backgrounds.

  • Maparoni: macOS/iOS organise, explore and share map data using tables on a map. Not sure how, but will try it soon.

  • Add to Obsidian Note: Configurable Draft action adds the content of the current draft to a selectable note in your Obsidian vault.
  • Plain Text Editor: Simple free macOS text editor with ā€œBrain Dump Modeā€ (no backspace). Good to have around.
  • Flowist: Focus Mode for Todoist. Display one task at a time. Could be useful.
tidbits
October 24, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 43

  • Medley: iOS music player that looks like pre-iOS 6 Music app. Sadly doesnā€™t work with Spotify.
  • Buzz: OpenAIā€™s Whisper for Intel Mac, Windows and Linux. No Apple Silicon yet.
  • Note: music(ish) app for iOS for beats, samples melodies. Part companion to desktop App.
  • Velja: macOS browser picker with rules. Will likely replace Choosy for me after 14 years.
  • Copy URL: macOS App that shows as a browser, copies the URL passed to it and then quits. Works great with Velja above.
tidbits
October 10, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 41

  • Ask Command: Mac app which runs terminal commands questions thru Open AIā€™s GPT-3 before suggesting a command.
  • Tot Mini: Tot app now has an Apple watch version.
  • Quick Launch: Yet another iOS lock screen launch app — but free and from a great developer.
  • ā€ŽSoro: Shortcuts for Sonos.
tidbits
September 19, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 38

  • Speedy: link to contacts from Lock Screen with WhatsApp support.
  • Link HUB: launch links on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
  • HabitBoard: simple and flexible habit tracker for iOS.
  • LockFlow: free app to run shortcuts in the Lock Screen and Home Screen
  • Mango Baby: Newborn Tracker with Siri Shortcuts.
  • LineupSupply: iOS app to create playlists from music festival posters.
tidbits
August 29, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 35

  • Teapodo: Lightweight Audio Editor for Mac and Windows.
  • Until App: Track upcoming events with Widgets on iOS and WatchOS.
  • Quick Capture: minimal not taking iOS app with keyboard, dictate and camera inputs.
  • Cheqmark: online checklist maker that exports to PDF.
  • Montaigne: Build a website, blog, or portfolio using Apple Notes. Keeping an eye on this one.
  • Reorder It!: for reordening a contact numbers in iOS.
  • Airshow: Feedbinā€™s iOS Podcast client now has CarPlay.
tidbits
June 29, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 26

  • Knotend: fast keyboard-first flowchart editor with collaboration.
  • Like like: wandering through Twitter via likes. Fun.
  • WorldWideWeb: lightweight, simple and free web server for Macā€™s.
  • Octave: learn and practice sheet music.
tidbits
May 30, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 22

  • Tweet Sweeper: delete old tweets with multiple options. I use TweetDelete, but this has a nicer interface and set of options.
  • FinderFix: open every new window in the exact same position and size you want it to.
  • Music MiniPlayer: replica of the classic iTunes MiniPlayer for Apple Music on macOS.
tidbits
May 23, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 21

  • Screenie: macOS screenshot manager with OCR. Just saved me a bunch of time.
  • PikaPods: interesting and cheap open source apps hosting — no mastodon though.
  • Runestone: Plain text editor for iPhone and iPad.
  • Motorist: vehicle maintenance app for iOS. A bit expensive.
tidbits
April 18, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 16

  • Folder Peek: put folders in the menu bar. With hotkeys and drag-drop support. My new favorite app.
  • Zas Editor: A new, capable, and fast code editor for macOS, focused on both reading and writing code.

  • one sec: forces an intermediate strep before launching Social Media app in iOS. Works great.

  • Github Pew pew: delete Github repos from CLI.

  • Fitstatics: better iOS insights on health workouts.
  • Friction: connect iPad to Mac to draw on and annotate the screen.
  • ā€ŽCosmic Pic: iOS App with daily astronomy image or video and explanations.
tidbits
March 28, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 13

  • Dock App: basically icons that can show time, task, crypto or stock price on the Dock.
  • Timeow: open-source macOS menu bar app that displays how long youā€™ve been actively using your computer. I use Aware, but will take a look.
  • eesel Folders: New tab Chrome plugin (previusly) with new folder functionality.
tidbits
March 22, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 12

  • Manila: Finder extension for changing folder colors. Love it.
  • Smort: convert articles to markdown to edit, annotate and share.
  • RunCat: cat animation to the menu bar that changes the speed depending on the CPU usage of Mac. They also have a store with dogs thankfully.
  • LibreWolf: Firefox fork, focused on privacy and security.
  • dotepub: bookmarklet to download page as epub/mobi.
  • Muse for Mac: beta available. Very powerful iPad boards app.
tidbits
March 14, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 11

  • Omnibookmarks: Chrome extension to quickly open/add bookmarks via keywords like a CLI.
  • Logger: developer console for Shortcuts in iOS, iPadOS & macOS.
  • Things Link: Obsidian plugin to create Things tasks and projects.
  • Pure Paste: paste as plain text by default on macOS.
  • Billboard: add a text to your Mac menu bar. Could be fun for video/screenshots eastern eggs.
  • Windows Switcher: Switch windows of same app with `alt + `` on Windows. Donā€™t want to even think about when I would need this.
tidbits
February 14, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 7

  • DevToys: An offline Windows app that helps developers in daily tasks
  • Little Faker: free Latin text and other fake data generator for macOS.
  • Nautomate: Notion actions in Shortcuts, makes it easy to add & read values in a Notion database. In beta.
  • FluTooth: utility that turns off Bluetooth when you close your MacBook, and turns it back on when you open it again.
  • CloudpilotEmu: web-based emulator for PalmOS. Works great on iOS and my flashbacks are too many.
  • Ochi: block apps & websites on on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Iā€™m using Freedom, but this seems like an alternative.
  • Play: bookmark YouTube videos to watch later on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Testing out this week.
tidbits
February 7, 2022

Tidbits for 2022 Week 6

  • Voiceliner: free voice transcript outliners for iOS and Android.
  • Zavala: Extremely clean free outliner for macOS/iOS.
  • Centro 365: browser extension to quickly get to Microsoft 365 administration pages.
  • Minimal 5.0: my preferred theme for Obsidian got a great update with new colors schemes.

  • Docflipper: macOS Cmd + Tab utility that ads a bottom row of bookmarks (Folders, URLs, URLs Schemes). Subscribed and added to my login apps.

  • Start11: Didnā€™t know Stardock was still around. People seem to be enjoying this Start menu enhancement on Windows 11.

  • QSpace: A very powerful look macOS Finder enhancement.
  • Replacicon: Great utililty to easily replace icons on macOS. Is it worth $5 for something Iā€™ve done manually over years. Yes
  • PanWriter: Free markdown two pane app for Mac/Windows/Linux. Good to have around.
tidbits
December 6, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 49

  • Magnet Links: Safari extension that sends links to Put.io.
  • File Picker: Access your local files and folders on the web.
  • Speediness: Mac speed test app based on thenetworkQuality command-line tool.
  • Otto Tabs: extension to group/stack tabs and removed duplicates. Works great in Vivaldi.
  • tldraw: A tiny little drawing app with collaboration.
  • Writer: web plain text editor. Drag and drop files to open them.
tidbits
November 15, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 46

  • beorg: iOS org-mode plain text files takes manager with iCloud, Dropbox, WebDAV sync services.
  • Tabs Switcher: Safari and Chrome switching between tabs & windows on macOS.
  • micro: modern terminal-based text editor Sublime-style multiple cursors.
  • BetterDummy: dummy display for Apple Silicon/Intel Macs to have custom HiDPI Resolutions. Works great.
  • Canvify: iOS app to preview how a photo would look like on the wall.
  • TopNotch: hide the notch on new MacBook Proā€™s.
tidbits
October 18, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 42

  • komorebi: free tiling Window Management for Windows.
  • Keypoints: upcoming Mac note-taking and PDF highlighting app which stores notes in Markdown format.
  • Keyb: type with one hand on macOS. Hold down the spacebar, and the left and right half of your keyboard swap places.
  • Sloth: native Mac app that shows all open files, directories, sockets, pipes, and devices in use.
tidbits
October 5, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 40

  • ActiveTab: makes it easier to spot the active tab in Safari 15 on Mac by drawing a line below it. How far have we fallen.
  • Texty: native macOS app for Google Messages. Looks clean and fast — dreaming of a day I can use this for GoogleFi.
  • WhichSpace: menubar item that shows which space is currently active on macOS.

  • tape it: iOS App for songwriting & audio recording. Looks simple and powerful. Looking for way to use it.

  • BrowserParrot: local browsing history search engine for Chrome, Brave, Firefox, and Safari. Currently on macOS only.

  • Barrier: software that mimics the functionality of a KVM switch for Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD.
tidbits
September 27, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 39

  • OK JSON: Format and View JSON on macOS. Careful with what you paste online.
  • bonsai: interesting Web Browser for ā€œresearchā€. Some new usable new paradigms here.
  • Mirror Magnet: Floating Camera Viewer for macOS. Useful for presenting.
  • Peek v2: Advanced Quick Look for 324+ filetypes.
  • Overbrowsered: open links in the most recently used browser, instead of a default one. Still using Choosy, but I like this model also.
  • Booby Track: keep track of breastfeeds, on iPhone and Apple Watch. TMI, but this would have been useful 4 years ago.
  • WebCrate: web based link organizer. Very interesting.
tidbits
August 23, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 34

  • Monterey Themes for Alfred: collection of Alfred Powerpack Themes inspired by Appleā€™s macOS Monterey appearance and accent color schemes.
  • Spotiqueue: Terribly simple macOS app for keyboard-based queue-oriented Spotify client.
  • ShowyEdge: super clear indicator of the current input source for macOS.
tidbits
August 16, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 33

  • Fastmarks: powerful keyboard-driven bookmark manager for macOS. Almost ready to add this to my toolset.
  • Dropbox Capture: Windows and macOS screen capture app. Iā€™m happy with my Xnip and Cleanshot combo, but maybe useful if you use Dropbox.
  • Fugit: nice looking digital desktop clock for macOS.
  • Titls: iOS widget that adds titles to homescreens.
  • Sniptt: end-to-end encrypted secrets via a one-time URL. Destructed once viewed, or after specified expiration.
tidbits
August 2, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 31

  • Anybuffer: newish clipboard manager for iOS.
  • TRex: free text extraction tool for macOS. I use TextSniper, but this seems very similar.
tidbits
July 12, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 28

  • Esse: out of nowhere text transformation for iOS and macOS.
  • Mailo: Mail to self reincarnated for iOS.
  • Brickit: iOS (soon Android) app to get Lego ideas from showing it your bricks.
  • Fomalhaut2: nice and free comic viewer for macOS.
  • Transloader: start downloads on Macs remotely from iOS, or other Macs.
  • Dynamo: Safari extension to control YouTubeā€™s speed and skip ads.
  • Moped: full native Notepad macOS, with a touch of modern syntax highlight and themes.
  • Fontshare: very nice professional grade fonts free for personal and commercial use.
tidbits
June 21, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 25

  • WordCounter: tracks your writing productivity on MacOS.
  • One Goal: have goal always visible on the menu bar.
  • Moodmonk: iOS mood journal that suggest positive content, daily affirmations, exercises, and thoughts.
  • Catapult: macOS menu-app that letā€™s you create or open your projects easily.
tidbits
May 31, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 22

  • McClockface: collection timepiece widgets for the home screen.
  • Cloudron: self-hosting app manager and store.
  • WidgeTube: YouTube videos widget on the Home Screen.
  • SlideMark: Web app for creating markdown slides.
  • Trexy: Track Expenses Easily
  • Numbr: web currency calculator combined with a notepad.
  • UTC Time: Show the time in UTC in the menu bar or a widget.
tidbits
May 17, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 20

  • Sleeve: currently playing track from Spotify & Apple Music, displayed right on Mac desktop.
  • VitalSigns 3: macOS system monitor for intel and M1 (beta).
  • Brave Playlist: Save for later for YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, Soundcloud and nearly any podcast. Interesting.
tidbits
May 4, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 18

  • Charmstone: open up to 8 apps with a small overlay triggered from a shortcut.
  • PolyGit: full powered iOS Git Client.
  • Menuwhere: show macOS front app menus at the current mouse location.
tidbits
April 12, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 15

  • Bird Folder: Name new folders after random birds in macOS. Stupid, yet brilliant.
  • Dolt: SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge, push and pull just like a git repository. I want ro use this off something.
  • ā€œ>Typewriter: Markdown editor for macOS and iOS with syntax highlighting and live preview support.
  • Wormhole: share files with end-to-end encryption and a link that automatically expires.
tidbits
March 22, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 12

  • Mac Mouse Fix: my favorite mouse utility is now an App that works great with Big Sur.
  • UTM: QEMU frontend for M1 Macs. Looks nice and it uses Appleā€™s Hypervisor virtualization framework to run ARM64 OSā€™s. Will look at this with some bash scripts I need to work on soon.
  • Bookfeed.io: RSS feed of all newly released books from your favorite authors. Subscribed.
  • xbar: a BitBar reboot for the Mac menubar with hundreds of plugins.
  • DisplayBuddy: Control external displays from your Mac menu bar. No M1 version yet.
  • Scan Thing: fun scanner that lets extract objects, text, images from the real world for iOS and Mac.
  • Aqueux: OS X Tiger inspired collection of dynamic wallpapers, for desktop & mobile. Instant purchase.
tidbits
January 25, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 4

  • Hush: Block nags to accept cookies and privacy invasive tracking in Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
  • Iconduck: thousands of downloadable open source icons and illustrations.
  • Noo: map mouse buttons and multi-touch gestures to keys.
  • Cycles: another simple timer made in swiftui.
  • timer-app: a simple free Timer app for Mac.
  • Gitify: GitHub notifications on the menu bar for Mac/Win/Linux.
  • spotter: open source launcher for macOS.
  • yabai: Another tiling window management for the Mac. I might try this one.
  • Haste: Web search app for macOS. Good option if you donā€™t use LaunchBar or Alfred.
  • TV Forecast: Pretty TV shows tracker and explorer for iOS.
tidbits
January 18, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 3

  • Whirl: iPad app for ephemeral sketching.
  • Spaceman: View your Spacesā€Š/ā€ŠVirtual Desktops number or name in the menu bar.
  • Analog: Beautiful paper card based productivity system.
  • CotEditor: Swift Plain-Text Editor for macOS.
tidbits
January 11, 2021

Tidbits for 2021 Week 2

  • Unclack: macOS utility that mutes your microphone while you type.
  • OpenIn.app: macOS application for smart link handling for browsers, emails and files.
  • TabFS: browser extension that mounts your browser tabs as a filesystem.
  • Apparency: Preview macOS Apps details like Gatekeeper, notarization, hardening, entitlements and more. Includes Quicklook plugin.
  • iPreview: Everything geeky Quicklook plugin — since Glance appears to have stopped working.
tidbits
December 14, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 50

  • Soundore: browser ambient noise generator. Scroll down for more options.
  • OneTab: convert all of your tabs into a list, now available for Safari 14.
  • Hookshot: macOS Window Snapping with cursor gestures. Trying it out this week.
tidbits
December 7, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 49

  • Ejectify: Automatically unmounts external volumes when your Mac starts sleeping.
  • Grist: open-source SQLite-based spreadsheet with Python formulas. I like.
  • Radicle: secure peer-to-peer code hosting. This could be the start of something.
tidbits
November 30, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 48

  • TEXTREME: text processor with crazy effects.
  • Is Apple silicon ready?: great resource to check if Apps are universal yet. The more info links are great to see whatā€™s the official word.
  • Mail-To-Merge: rudimentary-yet-smart mail merge solution to get you out of a bind.
  • Badgen: cool badge generating service.
  • Universe app for building websites now available for Mac.
tidbits
November 9, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 45

  • TripMode 3: if you work remote on slow internet or with data caps, this is the app to have.
  • Raycast: VC backed next-gen launcher with multiple integrations (Github, Google Docs, etc). Very interesting.
  • Dendron: open-source markdown notes tool built on top of VSCode.

Note taking is officially a fad. W00t.

  • Polar: Integrated reading environment for EPUBs, PDFs, & web pages. Love this new crop of geeky desktop apps.
  • Cometeer: Nitro frozen coffee capsules. Iā€™d try this.
tidbits
October 26, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 43

  • Planet eBook: Classic literature publications with better formatting.
  • Bongo Cat: Hit the bongos like Bongo Cat! a meme webapp.
  • Tinysheet: tiny spreadsheet with minimal functions, easy to use on mobile touchscreen keyboards.
  • Pitch presentation in open beta. Beautiful decks for power teams with integrations. Next Gen powerpoint basically.
tidbits
October 19, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 42

  • Maestral: A lightweight and open-source Dropbox client for macOS and Linux.
  • PiP-it!: workaround YouTubeā€™s iOS App Picture in Picture limitation.
tidbits
September 22, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 38

  • Roam-highlighter: Chrome extension to highlight text on page to copy to Roam/Obsidian. Best one Iā€™ve found, hope it comes to Safari 14.
  • Nudget: budgeting iOS app with quick entry and multi-currency support.
  • Vill Q: macOs software to draw on screen and making screen annotation. Useful for screen-sharing calls.
  • Tageslicht: share your iOS camera view on an external display.
tidbits
September 14, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 37

  • Shareful: Provides any app with a Share button with a Copy, Save, and Open action.
  • Watercooler: Lightweight, High-Res Video Calls for Mac
  • Lunar: macOS utility to set brightness and volume on external monitors.
tidbits
September 1, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 35

  • Nessie: extremely simple web browser for Windows, based on the Trident engine.
  • Screenotate: screenshot manager for Mac and Windows with OCR.
  • BlackHole: virtual audio driver for macOS that allows applications to pass audio to other applications.
  • Longplay: iOS music player for those who enjoy listening to entire albums start-to-finish.
  • Keysmith: create shortcuts for any string of actions you can do with your mouse and keyboard on macOS.
tidbits
August 21, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 33

  • Isoflow: easy isometric diagrams on the web.
  • yFi: get notified, automatically reconnect, or ignore a drop in WiFi TX rate.
  • Bluesnooze: Turn BT off when your Mac sleeps, and switched on when your Mac wakes.
  • MonitorControl: Control external monitor brightness, contrast or volume on macOS.
  • macintosh.js: virtual Apple Macintosh with System 8, running in Electron.
tidbits
July 20, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 29

  • Camo: Use your iPhone or iPad as a pro webcam.
  • Cascable Pro: Use your DSLR or mirrorless camera as a webcam using just USB or WiFi.
tidbits
July 13, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 28

  • Nudget: clean looking budgeting app for iOS.
  • Mimestream: fast native Gmail client for macOS. Impressive.
  • Mumu: better macOS emoji picker.
tidbits
June 29, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 26

  • HighTop: quick file access from MenuBar of local folders, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
tidbits
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.
tidbits
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.
tidbits
June 1, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 22

  • Spacetime iOS app ā€¢ past and upcoming space launch information direct from agencies.
  • Middle ā€¢ middle click button gestures for Apple Trackpad or Magic Mouse.
  • Command Palette ā€¢ access to all Menu Bar functions of current focused app. Iā€™m in love.
tidbits
May 25, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 21

  • Vidrio puts transparent webcam behind your windows. Seems very useful for trainings.
  • Tinnire ā€¢ generative music app to concentrate or relax. iOS and Android.
  • Calndr.link ā€¢ simple and easy way to generate calendar links.
  • Ambiently ā€¢ free iOS ambient sounds app with nice design.
  • Thyself ā€¢ interesting journaling app in with a chat interface.
tidbits
May 11, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 19

  • lite lightweight text editor written in Lua for Windows and Linux.
  • Blurred ā€¢ reduce distraction by dimming your inactive background apps.
  • Hidden Bar ā€¢ Another free utility that helps hide menu bar icons.
  • Aware ā€¢ simple menubar app that tracks how long youā€™ve been actively using your computer.
  • GitHub Codespaces ā€¢ full Visual Studio Code experience without leaving GitHub. Whoa.
tidbits
May 4, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 18

  • Size.link ā€¢ Visualize dimensions in Augmented Reality. Very useful.
tidbits
April 25, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 16

About a month worthā€™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 ā€¢Ā  Mac app to download videos from YouTube and hundreds of others websites. GUI wrapper around youtube-dl.
tidbits
March 23, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 12

  • Snap Camera ā€¢ Lenses for your desktop conference call.
tidbits
March 16, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 11

  • Apple to close US retail stores and all others outside China until March 27th theverge.com
tidbits
March 2, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 9

  • Tot ā€¢ new minimal text editor app from Iconfactory. tot.rocks
tidbits
February 17, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 7

  • Google Fi SIM cards are now available on Amazon inputmag.com
  • Clear Linux is Faster than Ubuntu and Federa even cheap laptops. phoronix.com
tidbits
February 3, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 5

  • Apptivate global hotkeys for your files and apps. Oldie but goodie — just reinstalled this after years.
  • Fantastical is teasing the features of it next big upgrade.
tidbits
January 27, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 4

  • My WiFi Sign ā†’ quickly create a printable sign with your WiFi credentials. Very useful.
  • Audius streaming service and iOS app is out. audius.co
  • MarkTwo ā†’ web-based Markdown editor that stores files in Google Drive.
  • Tomato 2 ā†’ free Mac pomodoro timer written in swiftUI.
  • Clew ā†’ Cloud search on Mac for Google Drive, GitHub, Figma and Dropbox.
  • The new Chromium Microsoft Edge is officially available for Mac and Windows blogs.windows.com
  • Winston ā†’ a free typewriter simulator for macOS.
tidbits
January 13, 2020

Tidbits for 2020 Week 2

  • Front and Center window management app that replicates Classic MacOS ā€œbring all to frontā€ behavior. By John Siracusa, instant buy.
  • Firefox Lockwise ā€” password manager ā€” take your passwords everywhere mozilla.org
tidbits
December 16, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 50

  • Photo Editor : Pixlr Editor - 2020 version pixlr.com
  • Iā€™d buy this Apple TV Remote in second if available internationally. Update: it is just $20! someone in ZĆ¼rich please buy me this.
  • Craigslist Launches Mobile Apps. This AppStore thing might take off. 9to5mac.com
  • Plex launches ad-supported streaming service in over 200 countries. techcrunch.com
tidbits
December 2, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 48

  • Dual-screen Android/Linux Cosmo Communicator is out. I love this modern Psion Series 5 exists, just canā€™t justify one. zdnet.com
  • Add CarPlay to Any Car With an Android Tablet and Adapter redmondpie.com. This is very hacky, but still intriguing.
tidbits
November 25, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 47

  • Looom iPad + Apple Pencil artsy looping animation app. Keeping an eye for when itā€™s out.
  • Legra, render your image using Lego like bricks.
  • The 50 best nonfiction books of past 25 years. One down, many to go. slate.com
  • Open source illustrations kit, free for commercial and personal use. Good to keep around. illlustrations.co
  • Maxtand portable sit-to-stand desk. Very temped to back this. kickstarter.com
  • Spark iOS updated with new design and more customizable UI. Will give it another try.

w46Done

tidbits
November 18, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 46

  • Drafts Mac Beta with support for actions is out. This post being generated via my Dropbox Action.
  • New MacBook Pro 16 is imminent according to Mark Gurman on twitter.com
tidbits
November 11, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 45

  • Community-powered cost of living insights costof.live.
  • Airalo eSim data packs store for over 100+ countries. Iā€™ve dreamed of this for years — hopefully Iā€™ll need it again someday.
  • Chrome OS Virtual Desks are live. Implementation seems familiar.
tidbits
November 4, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 44

  • Piper Announces Autoland Capability on single engine plane. For emergencies, but interesting trend.
  • DJI Mavic Mini announced. Luckily (for my wallet) it costs $399 — but soon theyā€™ll drop to a why not? price point.
  • Spotify Kids app announced. Sadly it requires iOS 10, so it wonā€™t on work my kids original iPad mini.
tidbits
October 28, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 43

  • Google Calendar now supports meeting.new and cal.new urls to create events. twitter.com
  • Command & Conquer Remaster Update and First Gameplay Teaser reddit.com
tidbits
October 21, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 42

  • The Information will launch Ticker, a tech news app that costs $29 per year. techcrunch.com
  • Luna Display introduces Mac-to-Mac Mode. Iā€™ve been convincing myself to buy this since yesterday.
  • Any thumbprint can unlock Galaxy S10 phone. bbc.com
  • Brave browser reaches 8 million monthly active users. Anecdotally, Iā€™m very surprised how many people at work also use this browser.
  • Rectangle free/open source for macOS window manager in the spirit of Spectacle. Fast and light, replaced Magnet and it has been working great.
tidbits
October 14, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 41

  • Brydge sues Kickstarter over ā€œcloneā€ Libra keyboard. It did seem very similar from the beginning.
  • reMarkable raises $15M round and has sold 100K tablets. Not bad.
  • SmartCapsLock lets you select text and press Caps Lock to change the case to multiple options. I just remap my caps lock key to control, but this can be useful.
tidbits
October 7, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 40

  • Windows Virtual Desktop is now available. Need to work out the pricing, but this is very significant for big IT departments.
  • Agenda 8 allows drawing and handwriting with Pencil. Darn it, I thought my note taking flow was now somewhat stable.
  • YouTube TV is available on Amazon Fire TV. The cordcutter land-grab is over, now the platforms are shifting their fight.
tidbits
September 30, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 39

  • Moon++ is a better lunar Apple Watch complication by David Smith. Instabuy.
  • Jura Anchor AirPod charger case clipper thingy on Kickstarter. Backed.
  • Penbook is my new default iPad mini note taking app. Love the smart stationary concept.
  • Dark theme is coming to Gmail mobile apps. I miss Inbox by Gmail so much.
  • The new MacĀ Pro will be made in the USA — thanks to tariff exclusions.
tidbits
September 23, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 38

  • Descript Podcast Studio Launched. Just watch the video, thereā€™s too much amazingness in it. descript.com
  • Google Fi gets an unlimited plan. Iā€™m staying on the flexible plan. techcrunch.com
  • NBCUniversalā€™s streaming service is called Peacock. No, really. theverge.com
tidbits
September 16, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 37

  • TextMate 2.0 is available (and alive?!). Wouldnā€™t believed it if I hadnā€™t seen the commit. github.com
  • The feature-rich Vivaldi browser finally arrives on Android. thenextweb.com
tidbits
September 9, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 36

  • Apple Music launches a public beta on the web. Likely the iTunes for Windows replacement. techcrunch.com
  • Sonosā€™ first portable speaker is the $399 Move. A bit too big in price and size, but happy theyā€™re in the category. theverge.com
tidbits
September 2, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 35

  • Apple releases iOS 12.4.1 to re-patch vulnerability reintroduced in iOS 12.4 support.apple.com
  • NetNewsWire RSS Reader for Mac is Back. Iā€™ll stay with Reeder, but such a great free option. ranchero.com
  • Nintendo of America announces Mario Kart Tour will be available on 9/25 for iOS and android. twitter.com
  • Instagram tests ā€˜Threadsā€™ app with automatic updates for close friends. No thanks. engadget.com
  • Apple fixing Siriā€™s privacy concerns. Better later than never, super clear 1-2-3 improvement explanation of changes. apple.com
  • Fitbit debuts $200 Versa 2 smartwatch, Fitbit Premium subscription service. What the Pebble could have been. arstechnica.com
  • T-Mobile adds eSIM support for post-paid plans on iOS. Hopefully this means the Google Fi support for iOS is not far behind. theverge.com
  • Xnip Screenshot App for Mac. My new screenshot app, and I have a lot of ā€™em. xnipapp.com
  • Apple Invites Media to September 10 Event at Apple Park. Excitement never gets old. macrumors.com
tidbits
August 26, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 34

  • Apparently Apple Arcade will be $4.99 monthly with family sharing. Sounds like a great price.
  • Disney+ will available on all platforms except Amazon. A family meeting will decide if we replace Netflix with this.
  • Also rumored/leaked is Apple TV+ $9.99 Price. This will be wait-and-see for me.
  • The Matrix 4, or a movie in that universe is happing. So excited. What can I see, other than the sequels1, I enjoy Wachowskiā€™s movies.
  • Apple Card is now available in the U.S. Applied, wasnā€™t instantly accepted. Uh oh.
  • Chromium Edge is in beta release. Not bad, but in good with Brave for now — sorry Opera.
  • Netflix Collections are human powered playlists. Remember when they had a bounty for the best recommendation engine?
  • New Paperlike 2 screen protector for iPad with supposedly less color interference. In kickstarter now, Iā€™ll wait for it to arrive on Amazon and try for sure.

  1. In later viewings Iā€™ve come to like the sequels by themselves. Itā€™s in the context of the original that my expectations went wild.ā†©ļøŽ

tidbits
August 19, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 33

  • The Cloudflare public offering is very appealing. Revenue, growth and strong product.
  • The Lexend fonts are intended to help improve reading speed now available in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Not sure Iā€™d like to read with it, but itā€™s good to have.
  • Gist Press lets you press gists into a friendly article format. Always go down a rabbit hole with things like this, and I donā€™t regret it.
  • about:blank is a paid app that blocks websites in safari for iOS and macOS. Similar in spirit to the open source Lockdown. Iā€™m weak, need some sort of time setting to go and use this.
  • IKEA creates business unit just for smart-home products. Not surprising, but good signaling that the category is about to hit the early majority.
tidbits
August 9, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 32

  • Journey is our for iOS. Iā€™ve heard so much aviut this game for the years that I might just try it.
tidbits
July 31, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 31

  • Uber laying off around 400 people from marketing sounds like a lot. s
  • Google shares more Pixel 4 details: face unlock and Motion Sense (hand gestures).
tidbits
July 26, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 301

  • Symfonisk series reviews are out and they are good: pure Ikea on the outside and pure Sonos on the inside — and the price is somewhere in between.
  • Lockdown is an interesting open source on-device firewall for iOS. Iā€™m happy this is an emerging category.
  • Having seen some low end Android phones struggle with memory and storage, the lightweight Gallery Go version of Google Photos is interesting.
  • The new Slack Desktop app supposedly will use 50 percent less RAM. Curious if theyā€™ll use Catalyst for the Mac app in the future.

  1. Iā€™m switching from ISO to Unicode week numbers — one counts from first Thursday of the year and the other from Sunday. So jumping ahead to week 30, which is also week 29ā€¦ no wait. Anyways, for future reference, this is why week numbers donā€™t match.ā†©ļøŽ

tidbits
July 20, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 28

  • The Expanse S04 will be available on Amazon on December 13th. My Prime subscription at work.
  • The redesigned new Twitter.com on Desktop seems like an improvement. Lists are exponentially more accessible, which I count as a win.
tidbits
July 10, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 27

  • Fun fake adverts as if the iPhone had been around since 1984.
  • Great concept of a sticker for MacBooks, where you place your geek stickers — making it easy to remove for selling and keep a memory of your sticker creed.
  • Nintendo Switch Lite in September. No TV connection or detachable controls for $199, which sounds like a great compromise for younger gamers — or those in a budget.
  • Dropbox Transfer for sending up to 100GB. Sounds like the old school Dropbox stuff, not for me anymore but I like.
  • Seems Apple Pencil tech keeps arriving showing up on third parties pens. The Adonit Note is another cheap(er) alternative, which is great news.
tidbits
July 5, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 26

  • Check your Mac for that arenā€™t 64-bit with Go64. Iā€™m going to be recommending this app a lot over the summer.
  • Wavēy is great set of wallpapers for Mac, iPad and iPhone.
  • Note taking rabbit whole took me to down the sub-world of e-ink notebooks. Good overview video of the best options.
  • Vinland Saga Anime coming to Amazon Prime. Iā€™m enjoying the manga a lot, so will take a look.
tidbits
June 27, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 25

  • Secure ShellFish provides SSH and SFTP support in the iOS Files app. Going to find a way to fit this into my workflow.
  • New Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is out, and I will add it to the cart multiple times before not buying it — like all the previous versions. Or not?
tidbits
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. Iā€™m installing the public beta as soon as it comes out.
tidbits
June 13, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 23

  • Twitterrific 6 for iOS is out. Iā€™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 4, 2019

Tidbit for 2019 Week 22

  • Spotify Stations out in the US. Itā€™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

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.
  • Flotatoā†’ 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 peopleā€™s setups (geek perv), this is a fun gallery.
tidbits
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 Siriā„¢.
  • cmd+space is a newsletter dedicated to keyboard shortcuts. Learned something in the first issue.
tidbits
May 19, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 19

  • Huawei will not be able to ship with Googleā€™s apps (including play store) anymore. This is huge and unnerving.
  • 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 6, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 18

  • I first thought this was Android bashing, but in videos itā€™s clear Qā€™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 itā€™s interested, I suspect half-jokingly. I really hope it doesnā€™t die forgotten, it was a nice blogging platform — hosting this blog for a few years.
  • Pushcut combines iOS notifications, Shortcuts and webhooks. Donā€™t know what for yet, but Iā€™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, itā€™s not the case. Still, I rather decided between streaming services than cable packages.
tidbits
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 Iā€™ve been using Cloudflareā€™s 1.1.1.1 app non-top now.
  • The upcoming Reeder app supports Bionic Reading, and it sure gives interesting results.
tidbits
April 19, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 15

  • Soylent Squared 100-calorie mini meals miss the boat with me. The snacking concept behind it doesnā€™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. Thereā€™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 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 itā€™s a companion app like the web.
  • Havenā€™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 6, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 13

  • Geeks can daydream, but the battery world runs on lithium-ion, and thereā€™s no replacement in sight.
  • HomePod is now $299, down from $349. Donā€™t doubt itā€™s the best sound for the price, but without Spotify is not even an option for me. Maybe at $199ā€¦
  • Amazonā€™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 itā€™s really great.
  • Cloudflareā€™s 1.1.1.1 App with Warp VPN makes an intriguing case: more secure and faster than without. In waiting list.
tidbits
March 31, 2019

Tidbits for 2019 Week 12

  • I didnā€™t know The Matrix code scenes came from sushi recipes.
  • The new iPad Air and iPad mini available for in-store pickup. Iā€™m going to wait for it to show up on Adorama to order . Ordered.
  • Gmail swipe actions on iOS soon. But still no bundlesā€¦ 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.
  • MKBHDā€™s AirPods 2nd Gen video review is great.
  • The Original AirPods Firmware also appears to have gotten an update. Reports include snappierā„¢ connections.
tidbits
May 19, 2018

News of Note for 2018W20

YouTube Music is the new(est) Google music service. Email encryption might be broken. Google Duplex is cool vaporware, but they kinda implied it was a product. WhatsApp updated groups features still doesnā€™t let you mute unless mentioned. A rumored lower cost Microsoft tablet is coming, that only took 10 years.

tidbits
December 25, 2016

Holiday tidbits

ā†’ Blade Runner 2049 Announcement Iā€™ll allow myself excitement over this. The look is right and feel right — as in uncomfortable.

ā†’ Shake Shackā€™s mobile app now takes orders across the US This could get ugly — and by this I mean me.

ā†’ Spotify Updates Mac App With Full Touch Bar Support for MacBook Pro That was fast. Sadly no AppleTV or Apple Watch version in sight.

ā†’ Duet Adds Touch Bar This is cool. If you have a 9.7in iPad, itā€™s fairly good Touch Bar test.

tidbits
December 18, 2016

Weekly tidbits

ā†’ Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before No numbers, so itā€™s a marketing statement. But still not surprised.

ā†’ Google Signs Deal With Cuba to Speed Services (Paywall) Now even Cuba will play faster YouTube videos than Venezuela. Iā€™m not bitter.

ā†’ Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car Not surprising. Seems all self-driving rumored projects are getting a reality check.

ā†’ ā€˜Apple Supportā€™ App Launches in U.S. App Store Simple app with very useful purpose. Will be testing it soon.

ā†’ Yahoo discloses hack of 1 billion accounts I find it hard to believe that they found out from law enforcement. Irresponsible.

ā†’ Evernote reverses privacy policy that allows employees to read usersā€™ notes There has to be more to this story — maybe an upcoming technical feature poorly explained. Otherwise, this was a stupid change from the start.

tidbits
December 11, 2016

Weekly tidbits:

ā†’ What is Bitcoin? A Step-By-Step Guide For Beginners I always appreciate a good refresher on Bitcoin.

ā†’ Amazon unveils ā€˜self-drivingā€™ brick-and-mortar convenience store A mini-mart called Amazon Go. This is kinda amazing.

ā†’ Googleā€™s new Trusted Contacts app lets you share your location during emergencies More or less a relaunch of the old Latitude app. But since itā€™s Android only, I donā€™t see any advantage over iOSā€™s Find My Friend.

ā†’ Google Wifi review: Wi-Fi that works It does appear to be a solid performer vs eero at $200 less for the 3 pack ($299).

ā†’ Instagram will soon let you turn off comments and boot followers from private accounts Both sound like good features.

ā†’ Apple Watch sales to consumers set record in holiday week, says Appleā€™s Cook A lot of noise of regarding the overall trend of the wearables category.

ā†’ NPRā€™s Book Concierge: Guide To 2016ā€™s Great Reads Great recommendations in every category.

ā†’ Play music from Spotify straight to Sonos with Spotify Connect Really happy with my Sonos, and this is going to make me even happier.

ā†’ Mac OS X Welcome Videos So many good memories of the excitement for upgrading MacOS X devices.

ā†’ Mr.Ā Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker Hacking is not magic, itā€™s hard ingenious work.

ā†’ httpster - totally rocking websites. Httpster is an inspiration resource showcasing totally rocking websites.

ā†’ Uber Should Restore User Control to Location Privacy Not cool Uber.

ā†’ Microsoft demonstrates full Windows 10 with Photoshop on ARM chips ARM tablet/notebooks are full of compromises for desktop use, but this is a significant advance.

tidbits
December 3, 2016

Tidbits of the week

ā†’ Canopy — Keyboard Case and iPad Stand Glad I donā€™t have one of the new keyboards or iPads, otherwise it would have been hard to talk myself out of this one.

ā†’ Wi-Fi Mesh Systems Compared: eero, Orbi, AmpliFi Good overview, the short version: eero wins when price is discounted, Orbi has the most potential, and AmpliFi is a safe option.

ā†’ Google+ Featured Photos Screensaver for Mac Looks very nice. There must be a — bored — Mac loving product manager in google somewhere.

ā†’ Wired magazineā€™s creative director is joining Apple If he doesnā€™t like aluminium and glass, this could get interesting.

ā†’ Netflix finally lets you download shows and movies to watch offline We will never do it. We are not considering it. No comment. Itā€™s coming soon. Itā€™s live! History of a feature announcement.

ā†’ Amazon Polly — Text to Speech in 47 Voices and 24 Languages They donā€™t sound amazing, but the option of having this as a service is very powerful.

ā†’ More Than 1 Million Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan Android malware is no joking matter.

ā†’ Amazon LightSail — Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS Interesting and competitive. But no reason to run from Digital Ocean.

ā†’ Why all world maps are wrong Ever since seeing the bit on West Wing Iā€™ve been fascinated by the UI of maps. Great overview video of the issues.

ā†’ Inside the world of Chinese science fiction, with ā€œThree Body Problemā€ translator Ken Liu The Three Body Problem trilogy has been one of the most mind-bending books Iā€™ve read recently. Iā€™ve since added a few more Chinese Sci-Fi books to my queue.

tidbits
November 27, 2016

Tidbits of the week

ā†’ Amazon Prime Ad — Priest and Imam In a world that feels more like an episode of 24 rather than West Wing, I appreciate this ad.

ā†’ Eeroā€™s WiFi hubs get faster, smarter and now support Alexa My apartment is perfectly covered by our ASUS router, but I dream of the day Iā€™ll need one of these new mesh ones.

ā†’ Apple Will Replace iPhone 6s Batteries in Phones That Unexpectedly Shut Down My 6s suffered from shut downs — seemed to happen under heavy loads. Should have taken it in at the time.

ā†’ Apple Abandons Development of Wireless Routers Sadly unsurprising. I undestand the economics behind this, but I still think itā€™s a strategic risk: Appleā€™s home automation solution will have less leverage.

ā†’ Apple - Frankieā€™s Holiday Awww Apple, I canā€™t stay mad at you.

ā†’ Worldwide Market for Used Smartphones Forecast to Grow to 222.6 Million Units in 2020, According to IDC Always take these with a greain of salt, but it does sound like the normal progression of mass market products.

ā†’ Microsoft brings Solitaire to iOS and Android And now itā€™s officialā€¦ the desktop is dead.

ā†’ Alter — Turn text into an image. Useful for Twitter and even email code examples.

ā†’ Giki is a Markdown-powered Wiki Wiki and markdown? What sort of sexy talk is this?

tidbits
November 18, 2016

Tidbits of the week

ā†’ Amazon editors — Best science fiction and fantasy of 2016. Deathā€™s End (Remembrance of Earthā€™s Past), is fanstastic and a great ending to the series.

ā†’ PhotoScan printed photo scanner app. Iā€™ve tried lots of apps that do this, and still I havenā€™t scanned my parents collection.

ā†’ Drop — A beautiful color picker for macOS. Why would you pay for this? because a good designed is obsesive about all her tools.

ā†’ WhatsApp launches video calling. A new default for most people. So long Duo.

ā†’ Casey Neistat MacBook Pro with TouchBar video review. Fun review with some valid points. He still bought it, which proves Apple is right though.

ā†’ PoisonTap, a $5 tool that invades password-protected computers. If youā€™re careful (use a Mac, have firevault, donā€™t leave it unlocked), not as bad as it sounds. If youā€™re not careful, that same password you use for everything is going the be the least of your problems.

ā†’ OnePlus 3T released. More battery, megapixels, processor and bit higher price. Still the best bang of the buck in Android. Just wish it had a smaller 5in screen.

ā†’ You can now check Due Dates as Done is Trello.
Best news of the week. If you organize your team in Trello in some sort of pseudo-sprint setting, this is very helpful.

ā†’ Barnes & Noble debuts $50 Nook tablet to take on Amazon. Lifeboat for the 5 users they have left. Still, a persuasive price.

ā†’ Firefox Focus — a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS. Why not? Privacy is going the pop-up blocker of the next few years.

ā†’ How Stephen Wolfram invented interstellar travel for Arrival. I wanna see this move, I wanna see this movie.

ā†’ Asana introduces Boards — similar to Trello Kanban rules the world.

ā†’ iPhones Secretly Send Call History to Apple, Security Firm Says Iā€™m much more worried about my mobile operator having my call history.

ā†’ MacBook Pro Bulbs ad I might be missing something, but this is a cool video and then an basic MacBook Pro ad.

ā†’ Appleā€™s Chip Choices May Leave Some iPhone Users in Slow Lane Lets not forget these are still glorified walky talkies. Real world performance in the context of mobile operators has many variables.

tidbits
March 15, 2016

Very convenient that Gmailā€™s Inbox brings Smart Reply to the web the same day Boxy 1.1 ships.

I still canā€™t use Inbox only on the desktop, but Boxy is the best of the quasi-appā€™s.

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The useful (but slow) website Letterboxd has an App. I have abandoned so many movie apps that none are likely to survive. But I do like the lists on thus one.

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Testing yet another Safari extension to bookmark the current page in Pinboard. I like the simplicity of this one — but the search continues.

tidbits
March 14, 2016

This isnā€™t a drill — as if my OCDness wasnā€™t bad enough — this blog will now1 use smart quotes.

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Overcast 2.5 was released with two patron-only features: dark theme and file uploads. I feel smug and validated.

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I didnā€™t know Firefox for iOS was totally open-source and written in mostly Swift. It kinda gives it a new car smell.

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Looking forward to Scanner Pro 7 on Thursday. Iā€™m using Scanbot 5 and really like it — but I love comparing great apps even more.

  1. The change will be retroactive in a few days.ā†©ļøŽ

tidbits
March 10, 2016

Trello has a new Chrome extension. You can search from the Omnibar, and itā€™s much easier to add cards than the bookmarklet.

Still, wish they had a native appā„¢.

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Updated Wikimedia iOS app looks good: Nearby and offline articles could be useful.

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Linkclump extension for Chrome. For reasons you really donā€™t wish to know, Iā€™ve been extracting links within pages. Best one I found, and it may stay installed given all the customization it has.

tidbits
March 9, 2016

Ulysses for iPhone is out. This is my current long form writing app in Mac, iPad and now iPhone. As such, itā€™s basically by current repository of draftsā€¦

Intro price may seem steep at $19.99 (later $24.99), but you get both iPad and iPhone app.

tidbits
March 9, 2016

This NYTimes article convinced me to start a 5:2 Diet experiment for the next month. I already played around with skipping lunch last year, and it did help maintain my weight.

If you subscribe to the principle that weight is a function of calorie inputs minus calorie output, thereā€™s really no magic to any of these. You just need to find the setup that works best.

Next month will be tough since Iā€™ll be traveling for vacation and work. But better now than later.

tidbits
March 8, 2016

#ā†’ SelfControl

SelfControl is a free and open-source application for Mac OS X that lets you block your own access to distracting websites, your mail servers, or anything else on the Internet. Just set a period of time to block for, add sites to your blacklist, and click ā€œStart.ā€ Until that timer expires, you will be unable to access those sitesā€“even if you restart your computer or delete the application.

This app has been installed in my Macā€™s since forever. On some weeks/projects itā€™s really hard to fight the impulse to hit āŒ˜ + tab and do anything but what you need to do.

SelfControl is tough medicine for this1.

  1. You can download my blacklisted sites and APIs[^1] to get started. Just right-click and download as.ā†©ļøŽ

Link tidbits
March 6, 2016

There probably is an email somehow related to all personal and profesional milestones in my life since 1995. Thank you Ray Tomlinson.

If you installed Transmission BitTorrent client this past week, you should check the How to Protect Yourself in this post.

A $30k Tesla Model 3 on Marth 31st is something I look forward to with less philosofical interest than the Model X.

All is not well in Bitcoin land. But it looks like itā€™s going to continue to get worse.

A billion is not what it used to be. Still, a chart about how long 12 apps with a billion active users took to get there is fascinating.

Tried Google Maps pit stops today. Itā€™s where have you been all my life? kinda good.

tidbits
March 4, 2016

Seems some inside Microsoft did see the rise of Slack.

Got to respect wanting to invest that in Skype though.

Enjoyed Manton Reeceā€™s post on The evolution of linkblogging — noting the following recommendation:

If youā€™re a blog author and youā€™re adding any significant commentary, the RSS feed should point back to your site.

Food for thougth. I was ready to start linkblogging Daring Fireball style yesterday, but I might give am giving Mantonā€™s commentary style a chance.

I started using the Fleksy keyboard again recently, and the addition of Word Prediction this week has been particularly useful.

With its extra features, you can sometimes get lost versus the plain default keyboard. But speed-wise itā€™s a considerable increase for me.

New lower prices on Pebble Time($149.99) and Pebble Time Round($199.99) this week have me considering a trial purchase of the Pebble Time.

Sanity and fiscal responsibility have prevailed — but this is how disillusioned I am with the Apple Watch.

Links tidbits
January 1, 2016

Microsoft brings Skype to businessesā€™ iOS and Android apps | TechCrunch techcrunch.com

Avoiding BlackBerryā€™s fate — Marco.org marco.org

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tidbits