Univershuffle sounds like a lot of fun. Here’s what Michael Burkhardt had to say on 9to5Mac:

Univershuffle is a new music discovery app that shuffles all of the songs on Apple Music, completely at random – no AI or algorithms involved. […]

Once you have an Apple Music account linked, you can shuffle through songs as you please. You can exclude certain genres, that way you can better suit your music tastes.

There are display ads after the first 10 songs, but to can go ad-free for $5.

Could be great! Could be terrible. I’m downloading now to try it out.

Annie Mueller:

Trying to make things what they are not can get you in a lot of trouble.

Cauliflower is not rice, for example. Codependency is not love.

This bit made me chuckle, but the rest is worth reading too.

I’m psyched about these “Paper Apps” mini notebook games! They’re easy and cheap, and can all be played with the notebook and Pencil Dice. They’ll be perfect for camping trips and to distract kids during bad weather. And I’m gonna try the TO•DO one for physical task management. (Via Brendon Bigley)

I can appreciate Rodrigo Ghedin’s silver lining perspective on Meta’s reprehensible updates to their moderation policies:

If we take X (former Twitter) as an example, the relaxation of moderation there accelerated the discarding of Elon Musk’s platform as a habitable place, leading to losses in revenue, users, and relevance in public debate.

It would be great if this were repeated with Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.

John Gruber: ‘Zuckerberg Disses Apple With Joe Rogan: ‘They Haven’t Invented Anything Great in a While’’

What’s really rich about Meta and Zuckerberg’s incessant complaining about being restricted by Apple’s rules for third party software on Apple’s platforms is that Meta doesn’t allow third parties any sort of access to their successful platforms. There are no third-party clients for Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or WhatsApp. It is very hard to get any information out of them let alone integrate with them bi-directionally.

Good point, worth remembering.

🧠 Nope, Aaron, I didn’t know this about Chip, Skip, and Trip nicknames! Neat.

🚨 Woot has an awesome sale right now on Apple Watch Solo and Braided Loop bands. I just bought one of each for a total of $50 — half the normal cost of a Braided Loop! 🤯 Act fact, some sizes are selling out. MacRumors' article has direct links to all the colors.

🆕📝 An unexpectedly tense but productive day in homeownership

The day didn't go as planned, but that's okay.

Heyo! Supercharge is now available to install via Setapp. It’s chock full of great little tweaks for your Mac.

Does anyone else reinstall apps they’ve already purchased when they show up on Setapp? I like that the developer gets a little more money from me. 😁 Congrats @sindresorhus@mastodon.social!

A computer settings window titled “Tweaks” displays various options like “Copy note link (beta)” and “Mission Control improvements.” Toggle switches and instructions appear against a forest background.

😮‍💨 Spread the word! Developer Garrett Murray has made Breathable, his air quality index tracker with excellent widgets, free of charge, forever:

In light of the awful fires and air quality in Los Angeles, I’ve made Breathable free and app will remain free permanently. I charged for the app prior only so I could donate the proceeds to climate change charities, but paying Apple 15% for that privilege is silly. breathable.app

(Via Daring Fireball)

📺 If you got hooked on Severance during Apple’s free TV+ streaming weekend, you should definitely get on finishing season one for free on the Roku Channel before its second season debuts on January 17. I’ve been rewatching and am completely captivated once again. The official podcast is great, too.

Calling all ADK ice (and ice-curious) climbers! Thursday night ice climbing is back in session. Meet the crew at Pitchoff Quarry at 6pm for a couple of hours of fun and fellowship. Some extra climbing boots (select sizes), crampons, and ice tools will be available (free of charge) courtesy of @onwardguides. (DM us early if you will need to borrow gear!) Bring your own harness, helmet, and warm beverage. See you there!

(Note this is not a guided experience. Climb at your own risk.)

Illuminated icy cliff face enclosed by leafless trees at night. Text reads Thursday Nights 6pm at Pitchoff Quarry. Climbers ascend an icy cliff at night using ropes and headlamps amidst a dark, rocky environment. Icicles hang down a cliff face creating a cascading wall of ice in a dimly lit natural setting. A climber ascends icy cave walls using ice axes surrounded by dim blue light and shadowy frozen formations. Climber ascends frozen waterfall using ice climbing gear in a mountainous area under a night sky.

🎙️ Dammit @biff@zeppelin.flights, how did you get me to tear up just listening to you talk about Logan, which I haven’t seen in years. What a powerful film. (@Gte@mastodon.social calling back to Logan “dying with his heart in his hands” really got me.) 🥹🫡

overcast.fm/+AASHL1Cy…

Aquilino Gonell: ‘I Was Nearly Killed on Jan. 6th. Four Years Later, I Feel Betrayed All Over Again.'

I feel betrayed by the Department of Justice for not moving faster and with more purpose to hold accountable those who inspired the riot that day. […] I feel betrayed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which chose to declare presidents criminally immune for all “official acts” even if they threaten our constitutional and democratic institutions. I feel betrayed by those people who claim that they support the rule of law but gladly cheer on the people who violently attacked police officers.

And I feel let down by the members of Congress who turned their backs on us even as we saved their lives. And yes, we saved their lives that day.

Apple really doesn’t want you to think that just because they settled the Siri privacy lawsuit that it means they are guilty of spying on you or selling your data. From today’s Newsroom post:

Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private, and will continue to do so.

Here’s how Siri protects user data.

They go on to detail practices such as using random device identifiers instead of user accounts and Private Cloud Compute.

🆕📝 MacPaw’s aiming to out-Siri Siri with third-party-enabled Eney macOS assistant

I don't doubt MacPaw's experience and solid reputation for working well with third-party developers through Setapp will give them a leg up here.

Juli Clover, macrumors.com:

Delta today announced that it is partnering with YouTube for a new in-flight Delta Sync entertainment experience. Delta SkyMiles members who log into their accounts will be able to watch their favorite creators, podcasts, and music artists ad-free while on board most Delta flights.

I think this will prove to be very popular — much more so than other TV streaming services. People love YouTube. And it’s smart on YouTube’s part. I can attest that once you’ve tried an ad-free YouTube, you don’t go back. I expect they’ll sell a bunch of Premium memberships this way.

My apologies for the timeline bombardment. I finally fixed my Instagram → Micro.blog auto-crossposter and it caught up with my posts since December. I figured changing the publish dates to the past would move them back in the timeline too, but alas. 🙃

Brendan Leonard: ‘Make 2025 The Year Of Maximum Enthusiasm’

In 2025, I urge you to notice when something is awesome, as it often is, and exclaim or murmur or just make a mental note of it. Isn’t it just goddamn fantastic that you have your health, for example? Or running water, or electricity? Or that you have enough money to actually pay someone else to make you a cup of coffee? Or if you want ice cream, you are at any time in America probably only 5 or 10 minutes away from a place that sells some form of it? (Trust me on that one)

Sounds good! No notes.

Whoa, I just got my first cold email press release and media kit for a tech product — some DJ gadget from CES that’s supposed to work well with Algoriddim’s djay app — that someone wants me to write about. I’m flattered, but that’s not really what I do here, and I don’t know shit about DJing. 😅

🆕📝 Quick Tip: Get ChatGPT’s global keyboard shortcut working again in 5 seconds flat

Continuing my trend of posts that coulda been tweets. TL;DR - Enable the menu bar icon, and it'll start working again. And yes, I timed it.

🎙️ A couple of podcast recs for you today:

First, The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott launched today. They’re recapping S1 leading into the new season, and then will keep going with S2. I love hearing the talent and creatives discuss how and why the show turned out the way it did. 🧵

And then use all the money you’re saving from more expensive blogging platforms and get yourself a custom domain to truly own your spot on the web!

🔗 Ryan Christoffel: ‘PSA: It’s your last chance to return Apple products before holiday deadline expires’ 9to5mac.com

Don’t forget if you were using the holiday period for an extended trial!

🆕📝 Using HomePods for home theater audio is pretty great

If I knew it would solve so many of my issues with so few downsides, I would have done this years ago.