Thank goodness for granularity in Threads notifications. I just remembered that you can turn off notifications for likes and reposts. I’ve switched it to only notify if they’re done by people I follow. I think that’ll be good enough.
I didn’t realize that you could put widgets arbitrarily around the iPad’s home screen grid when there are no other icons there. I thought they would still snap to upper left first.
I just updated my ‘Count Characters for Micro.blog Timeline’ shortcut to version 1.1:
- Added an option to continue with post containing too many characters to be displayed in full on the timeline. Feel free to publish posts as long as you want! Just note that it will be truncated on the timeline.
- Included the character limit in some prompts as a reminder of what to aim for. (Example: 787/600)
- Changed the icon to use the calculator glyph.
Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.
Thanks @pratik!
I hope @dobyfriday@social.lol have their royalties set up because I think XKCD just accidentally reinvented Big Tennis. 🤣🎾🏓
I’m sorely tempted to buy a pair of backup 2nd-gen AirPods while they’re nearly half price. Yep, 2nd-gen, not 3rd and not Pros. They’re the only version that’ve fit my ears so far. (Via The Verge)
The moment when Nilay recognizes his next hard-hitting, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism topic: The injustice of shipping computers that require a wired keyboard for setup, but don’t include them in the box, in 2023. overcast.fm/+QN1pA_VZ…
🔗Taylor Swift is Apple Music’s 2023 Artist of the Year
The tour not only broke sales records (estimates already place it at the billion-dollar mark) and catapulted her catalog back into the charts—65 of her songs reached Apple Music’s Global Daily Top 100, more than any other artist—it was an industry unto itself. Local economies were galvanized at every stop, and the big-screen document, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour-self-financed and self-distributed at the peak of the rancorous, paralyzing strikes in Hollywood—became the highest-grossing concert film ever.
Self-financed and distributed? 😯
I’m picking up a theme for Apple’s Newsroom today…
🔗
A 62-year-old man living near Bordeaux, France who has lived with Parkinson’s disease for nearly three-decades can now take long walks and climb stairs for the first time since his diagnosis thanks to a device implanted in his spinal cord.
Technology is amazing. 🤩
🆕📝 Letters with Kev, November 2023 [#1]
Can you believe it? I’ve somehow conned the prolific @kev@fosstodon.org into being my pen pal this month. 😁 We’re chatting about web hosting and newsletters, histories and homes, collections and enthusiasm, and, of course, blogs.
🆕📝 Letters with Robert, Fall 2023 [#2]
@rsilvernail and I are both procrastinators so it’s no longer October, but that won’t stop us. You’ll find tales of squirrels, juggling, volunteering, and DST this round.
I am, once again, here to express my love for the Lofi Garden app. One click in the Menu Bar to start my “thinking music” that doesn’t impact my music recommendations. How I wish it were available for iOS as well.
🔗
You better watch out… Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas premieres November 22 on Apple TV+ apple.co/_HannahHomeForChristmas Ring in the holidays with Emmy®-winning star Hannah Waddingham as she welcomes special guests for a musical extravaganza at the London Coliseum.
Oh boy, can’t wait! 😁 🎤
🔗
Go to Settings → Focus → Do Not Disturb, and under “Set a Schedule”, tap Add Schedule and enable Smart Activation. Now, when you start a screen recording, Do Not Disturb turns on automatically, and it turns itself off a few seconds after you finish recording. I’m not sure what else triggers Smart Activation — the description in Settings is pretty vague — but for screen recordings this is just what I wanted.
As a frequent screen capturer, this gets a 👍.
Apple would release a whole new update the day after I finally get all my devices squared away. Here we go again!
Round 2. I’ve canceled my Readwise Reader subscription. I should have months ago, but now I have a deadline of Dec 6 when my plan expires to finally read (or not) all the articles I saved up there.
I just released my ‘Publish Quote’ shortcut version 1.0:
This shortcut provides a quick and easy way to publish a quote from a Safari webpage, with or without commentary, to Micro.blog. Just select the text you want to quote, hit the share button in the toolbar, and run this shortcut. It’ll even send a Webmention if you add your own comment.
Learn more, see it in action, and get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.
Thanks @gr36!
🔗
When tapping the plus action button, you can choose between using AI-generated prompts to fuel your entry or to be greeted with a blank entry waiting for your thoughts. You can add in pictures, locations, and even voice notes, but there is a distinct lack of styling options. There is no way to add in subheadings, quotes, or anything other than basic text.
I’m a(n infrequent) Day One user, and will probably stick with that. But my wife has been looking for a place to do a gratitude journal and I think this might be perfect.
I just released my ‘Count Characters for Micro.blog Timeline’ shortcut version 1.0:
This shortcut converts Markdown text to Rich Text and then counts the number of characters. If it is over the character limit to be displayed in full on the Micro.blog Timeline, it allows you to edit the text to be within the limit to avoid truncation. If the edited text still has too many characters, it will continue to rerun this shortcut until it is within the limit.
Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.
It’s nothing fancy, but I just released my ‘Publish to Micro.blog’ shortcut version 1.0:
This shortcut uses the Micropub API to publish text passed into it to the default blog on your Micro.blog account. It’s best used as a function that is run from another shortcut.
Take note that there is no preview of the published text with this shortcut so that it can be as streamlined as possible. Check over your post before running the shortcut, or use a preview action in whichever workflow sends text to it.
Get it here from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.
I hadn’t really expected Phil to reply to my post. I’m thrilled he did, and it’s been kinda fun to see the other responses trickle in — even one from Walt Mossberg! My watch has been buzzing nonstop with likes and reposts. It’s a very different experience than what I usually get here on Micro.blog.
I can’t be the first person to notice that @pschiller@mstdn.social, the Mr. Courage, uses a picture of himself wearing headphones that plug into the 3.5mm headphone jack on an iPhone 3GS for his Threads/Instagram profile pic. Can’t be by accident, and I love it. 😆
A store, a Threads post, two videos, screensavers, keyboard book games, and bars. Are you getting it? These are not 7 different things. It is 7 Things This Week!
Hmm. Today’s Logic Pro update keeps the pricing and purchase of the Mac app and the iPad app separate. The Mac app still costs $199 upfront, and the iPad is still a subscription of $4.99/month or $49/year. I kind of thought that they would merge them into one subscription plan, but apparently not (yet).
🔗
Here’s something else to consider: would aggressively updating existing stores actually be antithetical to Apple’s larger conservation and environmental efforts?
I’m anxious for the new store design to roll out everywhere, but @michaelsteeber@mastodon.social makes a keen point. That’d be a huge environmental cost and should probably start with the oldest stores that are in need of upgrades anyway, rather than perfectly functional stores. I am curious about how the Vintage E design will adapt to flagship stores.