Apple is renewing For All Mankind and making a spinoff series, Star City:

A robust expansion of the “For All Mankind” universe, “Star City” is a propulsive, paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race — when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humanity forward.

Oh hell yeah!

🔗 iOS 18 Rumor: Notes App to Offer New Voice Memos and Math Features // macrumors.com

First, the report claims that iOS 18 will allow iPhone users to record voice memos directly within the Notes app, and these recordings could then be embedded in notes. Audio recordings can already be copy and pasted from the Voice Memos app into the Notes app for playback, but this step would no longer be necessary starting with iOS 18.

Speaking of voice messages in more places, voice memos in Notes makes a lot of sense. I know very few people who go into the Voice Memos app, but tons who use Apple Notes.

🔗 Acapulco — Season 3 Official Trailer Apple TV+ // Apple TV // youtube.com

Stoked for this show to return; it’s great! And do I spy a one Dani Rojas? 👀

I’d be down for Apple bringing Threads-style voice messages to iMessage. I love the transcription (in case you’re in a noisy place) and the follow-along animation. I’d use voice messages way more often.

🔗 Logitech wants you to press its new AI button // Emilia David // theverge.com

Tomorrow’s AI PCs may not only have a Copilot key on their keyboards — Logitech is introducing its own way to summon ChatGPT, too. It’s called the Logi AI Prompt Builder, and it’ll use a dedicated button on your mouse or keyboard.

The Logi AI Prompt Builder doesn’t just present you with a chatbot, it gives you preset “recipes” to help you prompt it, too.

Year of the A(i)ction Button? Action Buttons all the way down?

Since the first design of my site, I’ve stuck with blue text for my hyperlinks because that always seemed canonical with the web. Links = blue text, blue underline. But I’ve grown less certain with its readability with all that blue text interspersed. I’m considering a change. What do y’all think?

🆕📝 PenPal with Valerie: Climbing, Crafts, and Wrap-up

A big ol' thanks to @val for opening their inbox to me.

📷 #mbApr Day 16

If a flâneur is one who doesn’t do much but observe those around them, then these two are the best there ever was.

🔗 Beatbox with Tom @tomthummer talent unexplainable // Tik Tok 🔥🔥 // youtube.com

Likewise, this beatboxing video is captivating. I recently saw a beatboxer perform live here in town and he was easily the most talented one I’ve ever seen. Just wild what some people can do with their voices and mouths. 😯

🔗 Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan - “Stick Season” (Live from GUTS world tour at Madison Square Garden) // Olivia Rodrigo // youtube.com

I found this at lunch and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.

🔗 Everything New in the iOS 17.5 Beta // Juli Clover // macrumors.com

There are references to an Apple Pencil“V4” in the iOS 17.5 code, and there are also mentions of a “squeeze” feature that could perhaps add support for completing actions with a squeeze on the new Apple Pencil‌.

Paired with the rumor about an Apple Pencil for Vision Pro, my strong suspicion is that you will squeeze to interact with virtual content there.

🔗 iPods as AI devices // David Pierce // threads.net

Her: He’s probably thinking about other girls…

Me: Isn’t it wild how basically every iPod Nano and Shuffle design would actually make for a perfect AI device

Oh, the wave of nostalgia! Also, he’s not wrong.

🔗 Advice for How To Make Sure You Never Create Anything

• If you get an idea while writing a post, you should always finish this new idea before finishing the original one. This, of course, cascades to new ideas you get while working on the second one, etc.
• This also applies to expansions within an idea. You can always increase the scope of a project!
• If your website’s code requires work, this has to be completely rewritten before you can post anything new. It doesn’t make sense to add new content to an imperfect platform.

Kinda rude of @havn to call me out like this. 😂 Superb post

Alright, Verizon, you’ve redeemed yourself a bit. I canceled my service months ago, but haven’t been able to connect my watch to Spectrum. Spectrum told me it was because Verizon marked it as lost/stolen and I needed to talk to them to get it unlocked. It’s not lost nor stolen. 🙄 But Monica from Verizon’s support center followed up with me multiple times over the course of two days, across dropped calls, to make sure it was taken care of, and was just the best.

I just connected successfully! ⌚📶

When I start dreaming in code, I know I’ve been on the computer a little too much lately. 😬

🎵 The new Maggie Rogers album rules. Listened all the way through twice today! I get Sara Bareilles vibes from this one if you’re into that.

Does anyone know of an app that provides a Shortcuts action for escaping text for JSON? I’m scheming…

// cc: @matthewcassinelli@mastodon.social @simonbs@mastodon.social

📷 #mbApr Day 15

These veins may be small, but they are bringers of life.

So… is anyone still trying to #CloseYourRings on your Apple Watch? I gave up on my streak long ago and, although I feel good about the days that I do close them all, it’s not something I specifically aim for anymore.

I totally forgot about the blooming flower motif of the original Apple Watch. The watch face and these displays were quite stunning. (via @michaelsteeber@mastodon.social)

🔗 What if password managers were never allowed on iOS?

“Do you really want to trust anybody with that? No thank you, it’s actually good that Apple maintains absolute control over how our passwords are stored. If we let other companies do it, all we’d get are trashy apps that are only out to scam me and keep my passwords insecure. After all, you just said Apple’s Keychain is good, so why are you complaining?”

Based on [the] responses I’ve gotten to my pieces about wallets, I 100% guarantee the above argument would be made about password managers if they hadn’t been allowed forever already.

🔗 A tardy assessment of the Apple Sports app

Apple’s designers decided to put the headers only at the top of the Starters portion of the table, which I would applaud if they’d aligned the columns of the Bench portion of the table with the columns of the Starters portion. But they didn’t. Bench rebounds, for example, are more or less under the PTS header. This is not how you present a table of numbers, and it’s inconceivable to me that anyone would look at this mess and give it a pass.

Take a look. It’s a pretty damning issue for a design company known to consider all the details.

🔗 Senator Elizabeth Warren claims TurboTax ‘relentlessly’ upsells customers in letter to FTC // Emma Roth // theverge.com

…found that the company attempted to upsell the customer eight times during the tax filing process.

I got gotten by TurboTax again this year. Their “guide” said I’d need premium live help service because I bought a house. I didn’t use any live help features, the house purchase barely came up, and I was still charged over $300 to file. I’d already put in all the time and effort, so I paid it to be done, but it stung. I’ll be looking at other options earlier next year.

🔗 You can choose to be kind // Cory Dransfeldt // coryd.dev

I struggle with the be kind to yourself bit — I’m extremely self critical and I find it hard to get past that, I always have. I imagine it’s a blend of imposter syndrome and the lack of confidence that that stems from.

I have a friend who, whenever someone puts themselves down by saying, “I suck at this,” or similar, will respond, “Hey! Why are you talking bad about my friend like that?”

It’s a good reminder to treat yourself as you would treat a good friend. And good friends don’t disparage each other.

📷 #mbApr Day 14

Cactus.