This is so tempting. I can’t imagine Apple will make a “headless” laptop, but they should.

Luke Miani (who runs a great YouTube channel I’ve been following for a while) has created the sort of beautiful monstrosity I would absolutely consider for my own workflow: he was able to remove a display from an M2 MacBook Air and use the remaining “macOS slab” as a fully functioning computer for the Vision Pro’s Mac Virtual Display mode.

I just made one, and you should too!

St. Jude lets you send a digital Valentine's Day card to kids receiving treatment. It takes seconds and could brighten someone's day ❤️

stjude.org/get-involved/send-v

I don’t use omg.lol, but I continue to think that it’s one of the best deals on the internet. And today especially!

omg.lol membership is 64% off today with code LOVE home.omg.lol/referred-by/robb

You get an email, blog, mastodon instance, all sorts of stuff and @adam is great too prami

🔗 Apple Music launches new personalized ‘Love’ and ‘Heartbreak’ stations — 9to5mac.com // Benjamin Mayo

The ‘Love Station’ has a romantic theme featuring songs about falling in love, whereas ‘Heartbreak’ features tracks about heartbreaks and sad love. Apple says these stations are deeply personalized to select the best music for each user, drawing from Apple Music’s catalog of more than 100 million songs.

I’m a heavy user of the personalized stations. Glad to see they’re rounding them out with more moods and things — keep ‘em coming!

🆕📝 Crashing Clockwise #540: ‘I Did Something Bad’

For months, I’ve wanted to get the heyjb.me domain for my links because it’s easy to say and, unlike my name, easy to spell. But when I’ve checked for it on Hover, it’s been taken. Bummer. Today, when glancing down the list of domains I own, what do I see? I already own heyjb.me. 🤦‍♂️

An animated image of Taylor Swift opening the door to see herself on the doorstep, with the back-and-forth conversation of “It’s me.” “Hi.” “I’m the problem, it’s me!"

So which superb owl won last night? 🦉

Mountainfest was a joy this weekend! So many quiet badasses here, ready and willing to share their knowledge. I feel so fortunate to live somewhere that an event like this exists to bring climbers and other outdoor adventurers together. 💪 📷

A person is ice climbing on a frozen waterfall amidst a snow-covered forest with mountainous terrain in the background. A climber ascends a vertical, frozen waterfall with ice axes, surrounded by snow-covered rocks and trees. A person is ice climbing a frozen slope while another person stands below on snow-covered ground, surrounded by a forest of bare trees. The climber is smiling and secured by ropes. Three individuals stand near a tall ice formation in a snowy, wooded area, with ice climbing equipment laid out in the foreground.

🆕📝 7 Things This Week [#131]

🤔 Super curious that I got offered this “loyal customer” discount only after transferring my line away from Verizon last night. 🙄

Text advertisement offers a $10/month discount on every phone line for a year to a person named Jarrod, expressing gratitude for loyalty to Verizon. Customer service numbers are provided.

Noticed that Verizon turned on 5G in my town. The blazing-fast networking future we were promised is here, my friends. 🙄

A smartphone displays internet speed results: 1.9 Mbps download, 1.4 Mbps upload, with latency measurements, against a white background with a FAST logo at the top.

🔗 Contextual Computing with Vision Pro: My Writing Cabin // MacSparky

When I’m not writing, I don’t go to Yosemite to watch a visionOS movie, or check email, or play with some other aspect of visionOS. My brain is already figuring out that Yosemite Valley equals writing. My Mac is far away, back at my studio, along with the the cognitive load that comes with the work I do on my Mac. That’s all a distant memory here in Yosemite Valley. My brain is successfully duped.

Sparks is the king of contextual computing, so I’m not surprised he found another way to trick his brain into productivity.

🆕📝 Crashing Clockwise #539: ‘You Folks Need Some Help’

🎙️: 🇪🇺🧑‍⚖️🍎, 🧳🖥️, 🌐, 🔗🪣, 🕑🔁, and 🖱️.

I’ve never watched an MKBHD video from this angle before!

A large, three-dimensional head-and-shoulder depiction of a man emerges from a flat surface, dominating a dimly lit living room adorned with festive lights.

🔗 Because what the world needs is one more post about their initial reactions to using Vision Pro, here’s mine. // tyler.io

I could hit a baseball wearing this; the pass-through responsiveness is so high. But cameras are cameras, and unless you’re in excellent, balanced lighting conditions, the real world looks like motion-blur through a very fine screen door with sharp, crystal-clear floating windows on top.

I’ll have more to say soon as I wade through my many thoughts about using the Vision Pro, but Tyler nails many of my initial impressions in this piece.

🔗 If you’d bought Apple shares instead of iPhones, you’d now have $147,000 — techcrunch.com // Haje Jan Kamps

I figured a more fair way of calculating it would be to imagine buy a top-of-the-line iPhone every time Apple releases a new iPhone, or spend the same amount on Apple stock. If you had done that, by my calculations, you’d have spent around $16,000 on iPhones over the years (that’s around $20,000 in today’s dollars). If you’d bought Apple shares instead, you’d today have $147,000 or so – or a profit of around $131,000.

😳 📱 💰

🔗 OpenCase: MagSafe Perfected — kickstarter.com

OpenCase is an iPhone case that significantly reduces the issues with MagSafe accessories. It does this by creating an “open” space that holds the MagSafe accessories (we call this the “Accessory-Hold” area). It makes accessories thinner, it makes the case lighter, and it holds MagSafe accessories much more securely.

It’s a really good idea! I don’t typically use a phone case, but this seems like a solid solution to MagSafe fiddliness.

🆕📝 7 Things This Week [#130]

A real hodgepodge this week!

🔗 The iPhone Mini’s long goodbye is complete — but it’s not all bad news — theverge.com // Allison Johnson

But have you ever thought to yourself, “Oh no, I forgot my phone,” and then experienced pure joy as you realized that, no, you did not forget your phone — it’s just so small that you couldn’t feel its weight in your pocket or bag. That happens to me over and over when I switch from a big phone back to my iPhone 13 Mini, and it is a thrill. 

I sure will miss my iPhone 13 mini when it comes time to replace it. But it’s hanging on for now with a replaced battery!

Incredible day in the high peaks to summit Wright Peak! Honestly, best conditions I’ve ever seen it with clear skies, minimal wind, and great trail. Hanging out with Hank and Madonna was an absolute delight! @highpeaksmountainguides 🏔️ 🥾 📷

Three hikers with poles navigate a snowy forest trail, surrounded by snow-laden trees in wintry daylight. A snowshoe-clad hiker stands amidst a snowy landscape with frost-covered trees, under a blue sky with wispy clouds and a subtle rainbow-like halo from sunlight. Three individuals standing atop a snowy mountain, smiling for a selfie, surrounded by a snow-covered landscape under a cloudy sky. A smiling person holding hiking poles stands next to a trail sign in a snowy forest. The sign reads “FOOT TRAIL → WHALES TAIL 5 WRIGHT PEAK 2.6 ALGONQUIN PEAK 2994'↑3.0."

Looks like there was at least one @rebound@hachyderm.io fan at Fifth Avenue this morning. Tim seemed to love the shirt! @Moltz@mastodon.social @lexfri@hachyderm.io @dmoren@zeppelin.flights

Tim Cook greets a customer with a “Gooood Mooorning” shirt outside a an Apple Store; inset shows a news anchor. The text reads: “BREAKING NEWS - APPLE VISION PRO GOES ON SALE - CEO TIM COOK GREETS CUSTOMERS IN NYC - CNBC."

I wonder if I’ll be able to control my upstairs Mac mini with the Vision Pro while downstairs on my couch if I have a keyboard/trackpad there. If so, and if the latency isn’t horrendous, I see that being a huge portability upgrade for my desktop. cc: @gruber@mastodon.social @jsnell@zeppelin.flights

🔗 Joanna Stern wears Apple Vision Pro on Live TV — matthewcassinelli.com // Matthew Cassinelli

@joannastern@mastodon.world is an absolute legend. 😎

🔗 Best laptop of 2024 – Manu

I don’t care about laptops. I don’t even know which laptops came out in 2024. I do know people are interested in knowing which laptop is the best laptop in 2024 which is why I just wasted some of your time (I’m sorry) making you read a silly post about the best laptops in 2024 that has nothing to do with laptops.

Will google pick this one up? […] Who knows! But if for some reason you landed on this blog post searching for the best laptop of 2024 send me an email. I promise you I’ll do my best to help you figure out what’s the best laptop for you.

🧵 I’m reading and watching Vision Pro reviews. Here’s what’s catching my eye…