Jason Snell blogged about Mic Drop, a handy utility that mutes and unmutes your microphone, system-wide, with a global hotkey:

Mic Drop literally does everything I expected from it. It lives in your menu bar and has support for global hotkeys or AppleScript, optional audio and multiple visual notifications of mute status, the ability to choose which mics are muted and which ones aren’t, and even an optional push-to-talk toggle mode.

I don’t do many video calls anymore, but I always hated hunting for the mute key. The visual status in the menu bar and pop-ups are nice touches.

I have real trouble remembering the correct usernames for folks now that we’re all spread across networks and servers. Autocomplete often shows outdated accounts, leaving me unsure which to pick. As a proud Text Replacements power user, though, I’ve found the perfect workaround.

Anyone else seeing this issue where you can no longer copy a web address from the Safari View Controller? I use this all the time, and I think it stopped working during the 18.2 beta. I hopped off the beta train, but there’s no new public update for me in settings. Still broken out there?

I don’t use Sketch, but I very much enjoyed @rafa@mastodon.design’s recap of what they shipped in the app this year. 🤣

mastodon.design/@rafa/113…

I so grateful to have received two pairs of Mack Weldon slippers for Christmas a few years ago. So when my original pair went missing this week — and were, frankly, getting a bit ratty anyway — I could just pull out a fresh pair! They’re so cozy.

Jason Kottke made an ask of his readers to point out things only they have noticed:

Anyway, I was wondering if any of y’all have any bugaboos like this where you feel like you’re the only one who knows this is happening.

While I didn’t notice this weirdness personally, I happened upon it via a Reel, I think it fits the theme:

Why on earth would the wizarding world so extravagantly celebrate Christmas? Wouldn’t Jesus just be a normal dude in their eyes? “You turn water to wine? Yeah, we all do that here!” Even returning from the dead isn’t so special with horcruxes and everything. 🙃

TIL you can navigate complex interfaces from within a Messages notification. I expanded this one, long-pressed on an email address sent, and was able to tap and swipe through the UI for adding the address to a contact in the tiny viewport. What if I chose to add a new one? Mini keyboard!?

🆕📝 The App Store Awards unexpectedly brightened my day (and my Today View)

A calculator app wasn't on the list, but the Awards still led me to it and its wonderful widget.

Re: @kottke@mastodon.social’s microwave game challenge. 10,000! (Also, I have thoughts about microwaves and their buttons.)

🔗 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Will Support Texting via Satellite (Juli Clover / macrumors.com)

Apple is hoping that the satellite feature will encourage Apple Watch owners to update to a new Apple Watch Ultra, with the third-generation model set to come out in September 2025. Satellite connectivity would also allow Apple to better compete with companies like Garmin that manufacture dedicated satellite hardware for use in off-grid emergencies.

This alone would be a worthwhile update for me. Add in the fresh battery gains and other usual improvements and we’ve got ourselves a banger watch upgrade. 🤞

Shoutout to Simple Scan which was the runner-up as Best New App in the MacStories Selects awards. I love this thing and it gets 3(!) spots in my Control Center for super easily scanning documents to the right place in Files.

(Also to Shareshot, which framed this screenshot and earned Best Design.)

🎙️ On an episode of one of my new favorite podcasts, The Sharp End, from about five years ago, I heard a shout-out to someone I know in real life! Another local climber and hiker, Matt Baer, apparently won a climbing helmet giveaway back then. Makes the world feel a little smaller, in a good way.

The Daley family thru-hiked 1300 miles of the PCT — with three kids under five 🤯:

On the PCT, none of the wrong distractions existed. The little ones found multiple purposes for everything around them. Rocks transformed into plates and jumping platforms, trees became resting places and climbing toys, and sticks turned into all the things. Their imaginations went wild, but so did the need for practicality and focus. They became partners in looking for good shade or where they all might sleep for the night–empowering tasks that helped the family function. And the parents transformed, too.

👏

🆕📝 7 Things This Week [#161]

Apple’s holiday ad, a personal web project, an Apple News tip, a magic song, an exciting trailer, an AppleScript, and a wild single-use timer. Are you getting it? These are not seven different things— oh wait, yes they are. 😆

Here’s a note to myself that I just found, dated May 17, 2024. So a few weeks before WWDC this year:

AI Idea: LLM chatbot trained on the Apple Knowledge Base of support documents

And what was one of the universally praised features of Apple Intelligence introduced at WWDC? A supercharged Siri with “expansive product knowledge.” Calling that a win! 💪

New list just dropped

I just discovered that the ability to hide the window of an app you’ve set to open automatically upon login was removed from macOS some time ago. Boo! Luckily, third-party developers come to the rescue! This app was an easy $1 spent as it restores that functionality and adds other advanced options.

Test driving a new app in the coveted Dock real estate. ✌️

🔗 Apple reportedly collaborating with Sony to bolster VR gaming on Vision Pro (Michael Burkhardt / 9to5mac.com)

Reportedly, Apple is also interested in working with Sony to integrate the PlayStation VR2 controllers, and they’ve been making progress on that partnership[.] […]

It hasn’t been perfect, however. Apple and Sony apparently aimed to announce this support last month, but the feature has apparently been postponed. Gurman reports that we should still expect the introduction, “unless it gets abruptly scrapped.”

👀 Yes please! The VR2 controllers are a bit chonky, but it’s a first step!

🆕📝 Microsoft hinges away from the Surface Studio

So long svelte Studio, you big, beautiful beast. 🖥️

I’m quite happy with how this auto-emojifier bit turned out in an update to my 7 Things shortcut! 😄

🔗 Bloomberg: Apple ‘investigating’ bringing cellular to the Mac for the first time (Chance Miller / 9to5mac.com)

Apple is expected to debut the first version of its cellular modem next year in the iPhone SE 4, the iPhone 17 Air, and the base model iPad. The following year, it will debut a higher-end version of the chip with faster 5G connectivity for the iPhone 18 Pro.

As part of this transition, Apple is also investigating bringing cellular to the Mac as soon as 2026

That timeframe is less than ideal. I plan to buy a MacBook Air when it gets an M4 chip (early 2025?) but I so want cellular!

🆕📝 MacStories Unwind’s Best Music of 2024

🎵 I made a playlist and a Raindrop collection with all the featured albums!

Matt Birchler: ‘How Flight Simulator helped my flying anxiety (members post)'

But from the third person perspective, I was able to see that while landing, the plane is actually going very slow relative to its size. It’s not a perfect analogy, but if you’re an ant in a car, it might feel like it’s going impossibly fast and slowing at a remarkable rate, even if the car’s just casually slowing down for a stop sign on a residential road. In a plane, I’m the ant and I’m in an 80 ton machine — it feels impossibly intense to me, but at the plane’s scale, it’s not a huge deal.

I like the analogy. 👍

S2E9 of Shrinking (“Full Grown Dude Face”) is one of my favorite episodes yet. And that’s saying something for this Very Good Show. 🥲