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. ✌️
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. 🖥️
The snow and conditions were just too perfect to not go exploring through untouched trails tonight! ❄️
I’m quite happy with how this auto-emojifier bit turned out in an update to my 7 Things shortcut! 😄
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. 🥲
Big day. After many years of sending typos to Gruber, I got one in return. 😅 (I hope he doesn’t mind my sharing this DM. Just found it very funny and surreal.)
Alright, with the Release Candidate of iOS 18.2 installed, I’m finally getting off the beta train. I can wait for the new features to get fleshed out before I give them a spin, and betas don’t always play well with my apps.
🆕📝 A few Apple features that I was super excited for, but have yet to ever try
What are yours?
In the Apple TV app, you can use casual language search terms to find exactly what you’re looking for, typing in genres, actors, and moods. Searches like “movies about natural disasters,” “movies with cats,” “movies with Zendaya,” and “exhilarating movies” all bring up relevant results.
The Apple Music app supports similar searches, and you can look for genres, moods, activity, decades, and more.
Cool! Now do it for playlists and radio stations.
🔗 This new smart thermostat from Meross works with Matter (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / theverge.com)
The Meross Matter Smart Thermostat costs $99.99, works over Wi-Fi, and features a white glass panel with a touch screen, smart scheduling, and can track system usage through the Meross app.
Meross makes great smart home stuff. With Apple Home automations, you really don’t need learning smarts from the likes of more expensive options from Nest and Ecobee. This thing looks nice, covers the basics, and is only $70 at launch. I’d probably go with this if I didn’t already have an Ecobee!
David Pierce: ‘Twos is a handy to-do list app with exactly the right amount of AI’
AI turns Twos into not just my to-do list but the jumping-off point for all my tasks. Since the app works across platforms — it’s fundamentally a web app, but there are versions for Android and iOS, Windows and Mac, and more — it’s easy to just dump information into. […] You can store and organize things inside of Twos, but I find myself using it transiently, just for the small things in day-to-day life. I need to make bread: click the sparkles, bread recipes appear.
Intrigued! But on first launch, it’s a lot.
I’ve started keeping a list of things that I’d personally like to see improved at Micro.blog. It’s not to take a shot at @manton about issues. It’s a utility for me to keep track of things I want, and to revel in crossing items off when they get implemented — as they often do. I wish cause I care! 😘
🆕📝 Deck your Dock with holiday lights with Simon Støvring’s Festivitas app
I'm so happy that this app exists! 🎄
If you’re annoyed at my recent uptick of posts and replies, you have @jsonbecker (👋) to blame. He got me back onto keeping up with my timeline using RSS. I don’t miss things now, and replying is all too easy with @sod’s experimental feeds that include links to open posts on the web or in the app.
Jeff Bezos today on Donald Trump: “You’ve probably grown in the last eight years. He has, too.”
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/4/24313549/bezos-trump-optimistic-dealbook-summit-doge
I loved @gruber@mastodon.social’s take:
Next up after Bezos at DealBook Summit was Charlie Brown, who professed optimism regarding his next attempt at kicking a football held by Lucy Van Pelt. What the fuck did they put in the water at this conference?
Do not take Trump's complaints and threats against the media as inconsequential. The consequences are happening before our eyes.