For the past 3,652 days I have worn an Apple Watch on my left wrist. I haven’t missed a single day since my Series 0 was delivered on launch day. I originally bought it for the fitness tracking, to replace a pocket-clip style FitBit that I lost while on a work trip. And admittedly, the idea of answering a phone call on my wrist like Dick Tracy was pretty cool, too. I remember the first year of…
Finally. (And yes, this a true finally ). A couple hours ago I saw this lovely morsel from Apple Employee #8, Chris Espinosa: Post by @Cdespinosa@mastodon.social View on Mastodon I ended up with two different Apple IDs ages ago. All my iTunes purchases were on one account, and at some point I had done a .Mac (which later became MobileMe, and then iCloud) trial, where I had registered a second…
40 years ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, and introduced the world to the Macintosh. Feeling nostalgic today, I watched a video during my lunch break of Jobs introducing the Mac a few days later at the Boston Computer Society (it’s a higher quality video than what is available of the first introduction). There were two phrases that kept getting repeated…
I’ve recently been exploring the power of Shortcuts , including trying to create some of my own. Most of them, so far, have been to help me automate specific tasks at work. But I did make one that has been useful recently as the pandemic has had much less of an impact on my local community as of late. I call it Be My Guest , and it does a simple thing well: it displays a QR code containing your…
This morning I was scrubbing through my inbox to deal with the emails that had arrived while I slept. One of them was a newsletter from Shawn Blanc , and I gave it a skim. One of the headlines caught my eye enough to pique my curiosity. Is your phone ruining your creativity? It hit home. Hard. And not in a good way. I tapped the link and spent the next 6 minutes absorbing this video. I recognized…
There’s nothing like waiting until just a couple of hours before the WWDC21 keynote to share my wishlist, but hey, I put the Pro in Procrastination. iPadOS At the very top of my wishlist is iPadOS becoming a much more capable system to do things. For years iPad hardware has been way ahead of iPad software. I’ve still not fully tapped the potential in my 2020 iPad Pro, and this year’s M1-based iPad…
This past year has been…well, something else. While a global pandemic certainly threw a wrench in so many things for so many people, it really wasn’t the worst year for me, aside from the longest spring break my kid has ever had. In January, I started a new job at my old flame, 1Password. Being a fully remote job, my day-to-day work wasn’t significantly impacted. One thing that did go by the…
September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness month. This topic is near and dear to my internet pal Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels and the Relay.FM podcast network. Stephen’s oldest son, Josiah, was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 6 months. Thanks to the miracle that is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Josiah is 12 now. Read more about Josiah’s incredible story on Stephen’s site.…
The morning of April 3, 2010 I was in Fargo, North Dakota to visit family for Easter with my wife and son. It was a Saturday morning, and I had been thinking about Apple’s newest device for a couple months. Around 10:00 in the morning I decided to take a little field trip over to the Best Buy. I figured there would be very little stock of this new device on day one, and that it would be sold out.…
My favorite weather app, Dark Sky, had a big announcement today. Adam Grossman on the Dark Sky blog : Today we have some important and exciting news to share: Dark Sky has joined Apple. Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy. There is no better…
Apple has been gradually rolling out their re-built Maps data across the United States for the past year or so. Today, Apple announced that work is complete . Apple today announced that all users in the United States can now experience a redesigned Maps with faster and more accurate navigation and comprehensive views of roads, buildings, parks, airports, malls and more, making it easier and more…
Today I am rejoining the incredible team at 1Password . I will be serving as the Client Apps Product Manager, and I am ecstatic to work with the various teams within 1Password to deliver security you can trust and actually use. I’ve used 1Password for over a decade, well before I worked with them the first time. Even though they supply my paycheck, I want you to know my recommendation of them in…
Ev Williams — yeah, that Ev Williams , the one who started Blogger, co-founded Twitter, and is currently CEO of Medium — has started blogging again . If you look at the common foundation of those three services he’s built, then it makes sense that Ev has something to say every now and then. This paragraph resonated with how I felt when I started my November challenge: This post is another…
Don't poke the bear. Let sleeping dogs lie. Leave it be. Let it go. Restraint is the art of knowing when to stay put. Don't push forward. Just be still and let things play out. Patience often wins out, despite being frustrating. My plans for today didn't come to pass. Factors out of my control pushed my plans entirely out the window. So the plan changed. The plan became staying put and waiting out…
Today marks 30 continuous days of publishing to this site. It was a challenge to myself at the beginning of the month inspired by Shawn Blanc. I thought it would be good to review a few things I’ve learned along the way. In no particular order: Publishing regularly definitely has a dramatic effect on site traffic. Beyond RSS, I notified people of new posts via Twitter and my personal Facebook.…
I’m sure you know the Friday after Thanksgiving (in the US) is Black Friday in the retail world. How could you not? You’ve surely been inundated by email, tv, and website ads for weeks about it. Retail’s last desperate gasp to turn a profit before the end of the year. I rarely venture into a store on Black Friday. If I do it’s typically for a needed grocery item than deal-seeking. In fact, my…
Today is Thanksgiving in the US, and one of the traditions many people like to observe is sharing what they are thankful for. I’m thankful to be with family today, to have enjoyed a fulfilling and delicious meal, and for the gym having been open this morning so I could put in the sweat equity to earn the Apple Watch Activity Challenge today. It’s been a good and relaxing day, and I couldn’t have…
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about the role we geeks play in the larger family unit, and there’s no better time for a refresher course than today, the day before Thanksgiving. You see, I am the Family Geek . It is my solemn duty when surrounded by family to check on how everyone is doing with their computers and gadgets. Are there any problems I can solve? Any questions I can answer?…
The Sweet Setup asked Erin Brooks , a fantastic photographer whose photos have been featured Apple ad campaigns, to update her guide on how to take great holiday photos for 2019. Erin’s advice is extremely practical and can be used by anyone with any camera — from a DSLR with great glass to an iPhone. In the guide Erin covers pragmatic tips including lighting, composition, location, and how it all…
Apple launched its holiday ad today, titled The Surprise . It is extremely touching, and I got choked up while watching it. Yes, I get choked up pretty easily with good storytelling, which this ad does well. The Surprise is very reminiscent of Apple’s 2013 holiday ad, Misunderstood , which won an Emmy. I’d be surprised if this year’s ad doesn’t receive consideration for the award. Permalink