In continuation of week 31, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-second week of 2024:
๐ฅ๏ธ If you’re tired of always having to find a tiny free spot on an macOS app window to move or resize it, then this app might help: Swift Shift - Manage your macOS windows like a pro.
๐ฅ๏ธ BetterDisplay - Unlock your displays on your Mac - was updated to version 3.
๐ Quick Note Taking - Type made the rounds. Lout has (of course) already written about it. I like the idea, but the app does not support ISO formats for date and time and it1 does not fit into my personal Obsidian workflow, as I would have to configure a new note daily. However, I can imagine that the app could be great for many people. I will stick with Drafts in combination with Actions for Obsidian, though.
๐ท The image uploader for micro.blog Mimi Uploader was updated.
โ๏ธ A hat that produces energy? Sure, why not: EcoFlow Power Hat.
๐ดโโ๏ธ I really like my Lumos Ultra Fly Pro bike helmet and the matching Firefly are used in a variety of ways within my family. I also really like their announced new, smaller Firefly Mini.2
๐ก๏ธ For many months now I bake bread (yeast and sourdough) several times a week. I distrusted the temperature display of our oven and was therefore looking for a reasonable thermometer I can place inside my oven. I came to the conclusion, that this is one of those categories of items for which there is only trash available to purchase. Ultimately, I bought the meat thermometer Meater 2 plus. I suspect that my Meater will never see the inside of a raw piece of meat and I dislike their target group marketing and even more dislike their advertising campaign (woman lets food burn and star chef, of course a man, rushes to help ๐คฆโโ๏ธ) BUT I still found the product very interesting. My Meater now measures the dough temperature, supposedly to the decimal point. (The reading of the ambient temperature seems to be completely off as well but the internal readings seem to be awesome.) It does leave an ugly hole in the bread, but the endpoint (96-98 ยฐC, depending on the dough) can be determined pretty well. (For the first loaves, it was 5 - 10 minutes longer than the maximum duration stated in the recipe; so I have already learned something about our oven.)3
๐ After actively ignoring Gruber in my podcast and RSS feed as well as social media for a while, I have now deleted all sources.
๐น๏ธ DOOM + DOOM II was released - The legendary action FPS is enhanced, combined, and now available on modern platforms! Nice move: Existing owners of DOOM (1993) and/or DOOM II on any of the above platforms receive a free upgrade to the new combined game, and can still access their previously owned versions. So, I could download the new version for my Steam Deck, Switch, and PS5 for free. (Of course, I own a legal copy of Doom and Doom II for all these platforms.)
Have a sunny week ahead! โ๏ธ
Update
2024-08-14: corrected paragraph about Type
Lou was kind enough to point out that it is possible to define ISO formats as custom formats. ↩︎
You can never have enough (pocket) knives, flashlights, bike lights, retro consoles, and gamepads ๐คฆโโ๏ธ. ↩︎
Of course, a few days after my purchase, the successor was announced ๐คทโโ๏ธ. ↩︎
In continuation of week 30, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-first week of 2024:
๐ผ๏ธ I’ve mentioned the image viewers Lyn and PicArrange before, but this week Musebox made the rounds. I will take a closer look at it when I get a chance.
๐ Speaking of alternatives: Diffraction might be a (currently free) alternative to Acorn.
๐ And if you only want to find (even the smallest) differences between two images, you can check out ImageDiff.
๐ฅ๏ธ Somehow, mini apps for the Dynamic Island of various MacBooks were making the rounds this week. I came across NotchDrop (FOSS), MediaMate ($7), Notchnook ($25), and DynamicLake Pro1 ($14). Since I mostly use my MacBooks with larger monitors, I currently don’t need these apps. But maybe in the future.
๐ There is a public beta for Sรถka 2.0 available if you’re interested.
๐ GoodLinks also received an update and now supports highlighting text on web pages after subscribing via IAP. Since I am very happy with Readwise Reader, which admittedly is very expensive, I don’t need it. If I weren’t, I would definitely take a closer look at this feature.
๐ฑ Many people were excited about Unread for Mac. I don’t want another subscription and will stick with Reeder for now.
๐ฐ Speaking of RSS, Tapestry is slowly taking shape and looks promising. However, the concept only works for me with a very limited selection of resources, and I find it very difficult to choose the right ones.
๐ Nimble Commander - Free dual-pane mac file manager with classic design, charged for power users. A possible alternative for those who don’t have a license for Forklift2, Path Finder2, or Commander One2.
๐ There are countless different apps that help you find files on your Mac in addition to Spotlight. There is now another free app that promises to do just that: File Find by Pixel-Master - Search and find files fast and easily.
๐จ This looks cool: Pixelorama - a powerful and accessible open-source pixel art multitool. Unfortunately, I am not talented enough to use such an app.
โ Carlo discovered Merry Sky. Looks cool, too and like a free, supercharged web version of Looks Like Rain. Well, probably the other way round - but what the heck ๐.
๐คฆ I first thought it was a joke because it’s so cringe: Friend. Maybe they just want to get the addresses of people who urgently need psychological support? (They already have their own addresses, though.)
๐ง I was about to throw away our Beats Solo3 because the ear pads were starting to disintegrate. Luckily, I learned that you can buy replacements very cheaply and mount them yourself. And If I had studied the instructions more carefully, I wouldn’t have almost destroyed them during the process ๐คฆโโ๏ธ.
๐ There were increasing rumours this week about The Apple Ring and Health Tracking, presumably in response to Samsung’s Ring. I would also find such a device very attractive. After my first COVID-19 infection at the end of last year and the resulting break in my streak of closing my rings every day for several years, I’m no longer as keen on achieving this, but I still pay attention to them. On the other hand, I’m getting bored with the design of my Apple Watch(es), which I’ve been wearing on my wrist for almost 18 years now. Therefore, some variety in the form of other watches or none at all would certainly be welcome. Samsung will surely not integrate its Ring into the Apple Health universe (although this would probably be possible even without DMA). So, I just have to wait for Apple or just ignore my rings.
๐ด Due to my wife’s shoulder surgery, we unfortunately had to cancel our vacation. We will now have to go hiking in the French Alps another time. However, I still took three days off from work and did what I would have done on vacation: ate very well, read a book3, finished a game on my Switch, but spent only little time on the computer overall. Oh yes, I finally went for a bike ride again, which I hadn’t had time or motivation for lately.
Have a wonderful week ahead! ๐โโ๏ธ
Lou took a closer look at the app and also provided a discount code. ↩︎
In continuation of week 29, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirtieth week of 2024:
๐ Might be handy, but not sure if I will actually use it: WeExpire - Create emergency notes that can be read by your trusted contacts only after your death.
๐ฅ๏ธ Apparency for macOS - The App That Opens Apps - received a nice update at the beginning of the month.
๐ผ๏ธ PicArrange for macOS as well; although I have not yet found whether the text-based image search happens on-device or sends anything to the cloud.
๐ค Meta released Llama 3.1 and it does indeed produce much better results with e.g. Ollama.
๐ฎ Along with a few new applications, Fortnite is now even coming to the AltStore PAL. Let’s see if Apple will “coincidentally” allow it back in the regular App Store. It’s also a shame that Apple has managed to make the update and installation process so broken on my system that it barely works without restarting or reinstalling the AltStore or the apps.
๐ The German computer magazine c’t had a review of the WOWCUBE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM - a very cool idea. Maybe a possible Christmas gift? I’m curious whether their software platform will flop or survive.
๐ณ๏ธ My Mastodon timeline has become much more interested in American politics since certain events. I follow this with some interest. However, I couldn’t initially understand the sudden memes about a certain person’s couch. Thanks to JD Vance couch memes, explained: Why AP pulled its story, now I know.
๐ My wife had shoulder surgery again. It’s no fun; now six weeks of complete rest are prescribed, and we really hope that the collarbone, or rather the implanted metal plate, holds this time. We had to cancel our vacation because of this. It’s a shame, but her health definitely comes first.
๐งฑ I have quite a huge LEGO collection (> 700 sets and > 2200 minifigs) but stopped collecting a while ago, mainly due to space constraints and of course because it was becoming increasingly expensive. But I might be tempted by this set: LEGO 71438 Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi.
๐ฎ Of course, I am enjoying Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition on my Switch quite a bit and found this guide helpful. You can download a free PDF copy if you have a myNintendo account. Additionally, I am currently playing the remake of Dead Space on the PS5.
In continuation of week 28, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-ninth week of 2024:
๐ฑ Just in time for its tenth anniversary the rewrite of Overcast was released. I had canceled my subscription months ago, but since it hasn’t expired yet, I downloaded the new version and used it over the past week. It seems significantly more performant than before, but its UI is still confusing. I think I’ll switch back to Apple’s Podcast App, which I am also not really satisfied with.
๐ With Showdown, a free presentation app based on Markdown has been released. I’ve been using Deckset for a while, and then there’s Hyperdeck or, of course, iA Presenter, all of which can do similar things.
๐ฑ The first beta of Tapestry for iOS by the Iconfactory was distributed to Kickstarter backers; it is still just a concept; I am curious to see how it develops.
๐ค Sindre’s AI Actions for the Shortcuts app now supports GPT-4o mini.
๐ The battery capacity of my iPhone 14 Pro was down to 79% after just 1.5 years, so I used Apple’s Express Replacement Service through Apple Care+. You have to hand it to Apple, I had the replacement device in my hands the next day. The migration went quite well. My second prepaid eSIM was not as easy to transfer, but it was eventually reactivated. But guess what didn’t work afterward? Altstore PAL along with Delta and Clip1. A knave who thinks ill of it.
๐ My wife had a collarbone fracture a few weeks ago, had to undergo surgery, and now has a plate inside her. About a week ago, she suddenly experienced severe pain again. It turned out that two screws had come loose. Now she has to be operated on again. I feel very sorry for her.
I wish you all a wonderful week and perhaps even relaxing holidays! ๐ด
I had to delete Altstore and both apps, restart my phone and reinstall the store and its apps and of course all my roms, settings and save files are gone … ↩︎
In continuation of week 27, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-eighth week of 2024:
๐ DEVONtechnologies released their free Neo Network Utility app for macOS.
๐ ๏ธ Another new app from Sindre: Menu Bar Spacing - Customize the gap between menu bar items.
๐ โBeyondPDF - BeyondPDF is your intelligent document companion, here to change the way you search for content in your PDF files. It works locally, without sending data to any AI startup, but so far, only for English texts. I am still waiting for a real use case and therefore cannot comment on its quality yet.
๐ฅ Telestream - Use Continuity Camera from your menu bar!
๐ธ There was another series of discounts for software from indie developers as part of the IndieAppSales. This time I didn’t go overboard like at the beginning of the year, but there were still a few very nice new apps to discover.
๐ฐ Speaking of discounts, Skoro 3.0 is still available at a reduced price.
๐ฑ Many people in my Apple bubble are impressed by this really cheap and very stylish Android mobile phone. Instead of a used iPhone, I might also buy a CMF Phone 1 for one of my sons if the need suddenly arose. A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable for me. BTW, since the end of last week, the Vision Pro is now available in Germany, and I haven’t even thought about checking out the device in person. That would have been unthinkable a few years ago, too. Due to what I believe to be very poor software quality lately, their behavior towards developers, and childish actions against the EU’s demands, Apple has actually managed to kill any interest I had in new devices from Cupertino. What a shame ๐ข.
๐ณ๏ธโ๐ Nilรฉane from MacStories published an article about her impression that LGBT and Marginalized Voices Are Not Welcome on Threads. She and Federico received the unfortunately expected feedback directly. I don’t understand why people have such a problem with others just being different from them. What are they afraid of? It’s great to see that Nilรฉane received a lot of support from within the Mastodon community and many people took this as an opportunity to donate to various organizations.
๐คง My cold is getting better. I hope that I can finally get back on my bike in the course of next week.
๐ฎ Analogue announced an Aluminum Edition of the Pocket. Unfortunately, it’s unaffordable for me. Additionally, the Odin 2 Mini looks extremely tempting, and the Ayaneo Pocket EVO with an OLED screen has also been announced ๐คทโโ๏ธ.
In continuation of week 25, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh week of 2024:
At the end of the 26th week, I suddenly became ill. It started with a sore throat, followed by headaches, cough, runny nose, and total exhaustion. I am still not completely fit. Covid tests were negative, but I suspect that I caught the summer wave ๐ค. Since I spent a lot of time sleeping in bed, I could only evaluate a few things, but I bookmarked a few programs that might be helpful later on.
๐ผ๏ธ Upscayl - Free and Open Source AI Image Upscaler.
๐ถโโ๏ธ Strolly - Generated daily walks: The app generates short (or longer) walking routes based on your location. I imagine the app to be quite helpful, especially if you are somewhere else and want to plan a dog walk.
๐๏ธ BananaBin - Lets you know when to empty the MacOS Bin. This is definitely the app I was waiting for! (And 100% worth giving it full disk access ๐.) And be sure to install Ball as well.
๐ป About-This-Hack - Discover your hardware on macOS with this simple, user-friendly hardware info app that retains the beloved design language of the classic ‘About This Mac’ interface, while gaining access to a wealth of additional features.
๐ Zavala: This promising looking outliner had flown under my radar until now.
๐บ๏ธ Avenue-GPX-Viewer - A simple and easy GPX viewer for macOS. I use myTracks, but if you are looking for a simple and open source GPX viewer, you could check out Avenue.
๐ DockDoor - Window peeking for macOS. Personally, “too much” for me but maybe great for you …
๐ธ Support an Indie Developer today! - Indie App Sales is back for our July ‘24 Edition for two days only - July 9-10! Lot’s of discounted apps ๐ฅฐ.
๐ Datawrapper - Create charts, maps, and tables. Looks like a very promising web application.
๐ฐ YNAB has unfortunately increased prices again. I still can’t imagine life without it, but Canion has already started looking for alternatives.
๐ Thanks to Michael I can look up all those custom Mastodon icons (emojos) of a given instance from the web. (BTW if you’re interested in additional data, you could check out Mastowatch.)
๐ I have a strong opinion about Apple’s statement regarding alternative marketplaces during The Talk Show Live and the latest announcements about missing features in the upcoming iOS update in the fall concerning the DMA. I have long considered whether I should write it down in detail. But I’d rather save my energy for discussions with my teenage son, behave like an adult, and might simply take the advice to get an Android device as my next phone ๐.
๐ธ Speaking of discounts. Some long-established macOS apps are once again on SummerFest sale. For some of them, I wish they were a bit more modern ๐.
๐ช There is just another free and open-source window manager for macOS that looks promising: Loop - Window management made elegant. Bookmarked just in case I have to switch from Rectangle some day.
๐ If you don’t want to subscribe to Drafts to quickly jot down text snippets and move them to other places and also don’t really warm up to Bebop, you might want to check out โFunnel: Quick Capture as recommended by Thomas.
๐ I have completely lost track of my USB-C cables. Which ones can only charge, which ones support fast data transfer? So I recently bought two gadgets recommended in the c’t1: Treedix USB Cable Tester2 and Gianac USB Adapter3 and now I know that I only have one high-speed USB-A to C cable and only very few USB-C to C cables supporting it.
๐ฅ๏ธ I have been using my ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM monitor for about a week now and I am blown away by its panel. Still don’t like the gaming vibe, though but hey, I bought a gaming monitor so nothing to complain about. Was playing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on my PS5 and enjoy it so far.
As always, have a wonderful week ahead! ๐โโ๏ธ
In continuation of week 23, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 24th week of 2024.
My eldest son has a guest student from America visiting, who will be staying with us for the next three weeks. Last week was therefore very much about preparation and, after his arrival, a lot of social activities. I really hope, he enjoys his stay with us ๐ .
I still watched the WWDC keynote and exceptionally listened to the Talk Show. I will leave the further reporting and commentary to others. Besides that, there was very little I watched this week or that I had a chance to try.
๐ Somewhere I stumbled upon fastfetch-cli, which can also be installed via Homebrew; a nice tool for the CLI.
๐๏ธ If you would like to use an event countdown iOS app but don’t want to spend money on a subscription for Up Ahead or Pinning, you might want to take a look at Countdown Widget - The best app for your important events.
๐ป Somehow, half of my timeline seems to be discovering Bear Blog, and I had to first learn that it has nothing to do with the app Bear - Markdown Notes.
๐ I was very pleased that Lou mentioned me on his Junited List.
๐ฎ My wife doesn’t like video games being played in the living room, and she also doesn’t want to tolerate a bigger TV there1. On the other hand, my 24" 4K LG monitor for the Mac in my room unfortunately doesn’t have an HDMI input, so I could only use the PS5 remotely or when she was already in bed. That should change, and last week I was looking for a monitor that is at least 27" in size, provides 4K, 120 Hz, 90 W USB-C PD Upstream with DP alt., Audio out, at least one HDMI input, and could actually be purchased. The picture quality should also not be terrible. There are shockingly few options. Anyway, it ended up being the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM and I am totally blown away ๐คทโโ๏ธ๐คฆโโ๏ธ๐คฃ.
In continuation of week 22, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-third week of 2024:
๐ As the Safari integration of 1Password is getting worse and worse - at least for me it is so buggy, that I have disabled the Safari extension and moved my passwords to Apple’s Keychain1 - I am looking for alternatives. I actually don’t want to store my passwords only with Apple, either. I feel too locked in there. But using 1PW in parallel with iCloud seems weird to me in the long run. So, I looked around and for the emerging passkey front I ordered a Token2 security key, which arrived this week. According to its description, it “combines hardware-based authentication, public-key cryptography, TOTP/HOTP, U2F, and FIDO2 protocols to protect your accounts.” To make a long story short, this post-password world is still way too complicated for me. OTP/HOTP, U2F, and FIDO2?! ๐คฏ The token stores passkeys but also 2FA codes, and I never know what exactly where and when. Sometimes passkeys alone are enough to log in, sometimes I have to enter an additional 2FA OTP, sometimes - as with Mastodon - the 2FA seems to be the passkey and I still need a username and PW! For the token2 to work, I have to touch it, enter a 6-digit code on my Mac, and then touch it again. That’s much more cumbersome than just putting my finger on the touch ID sensor of my Macbook. On my Mac, I can access the stored passkey (but not all or just the OTP tokens, I dont know) on the token2 only very awkwardly but at least via Chrome’s settings page. OTP codes can be accessed via the iPhone app but not the passkeys. WTF?! I don’t understand anything. In addition, my most important accounts still don’t support passkeys. Parallel to this, the macOS version of ProtonPass was released this week, and the annual subscription could be purchased for 10 โฌ. What the heck, I thought, and I purchased it. The Mac app seems, like 1Password, to be an Electron app, and it feels like they just released a web wrapper. It is still far from being a viable alternative. Maybe I have to hope for the rumor mill come true and enjoy Apple’s standalone password manager starting this fall? Anyway, I could not agree more: A Passwordless Future Needs Portability.
๐จ There was a bit of fuss this week about the app Bartender for macOS, which I have highly appreciated so far. I uninstalled it and have been using Ice since a couple of days, as mentioned. It works flawlessly.
๐ Sequel, the manager for a variety of media, received a major update. I am actually very happy with Booktracks, Gamery, and TV Forecast, but I started testing the app again. I am not yet sure if there is a place for an additional, more general app.
๐ I also tried Surfed again because I actually find the idea of the app very cool. However, it somehow did not reliably record my history and synchronize it between my three used devices. This led to me not finding the things I was looking for, so I will let the subscription expire at the end of the month.
๐ถ Little Snitch shows network usage in the menu bar on my work computer. If you are looking for a free alternative for just this function, you can check out โScaler Bandwidth Monitor.
๐ค Iโm Not Anti-AI spoke to my soul, and since I’m already mentioning Michael, I was very pleased with his mention in the Junited post ๐ฅฐ.
๐ธ I learned that on macOS, you can open an image with Quick Look by hitting the Space bar and then just select all recognized text (โA) and copy it (โC) to your clipboard ๐คฏ.
๐ฎ However, I couldn’t prevent myself from acquiring a Nintendo N64 console. Thanks to 2x Line Doubler and RetroScaler N64 BlueRetro Wireless Controller Bluetooth Adapter, I can now play Mario 64 with my Nintendo 64 Bluetooth Controller. Please don’t ask why I don’t just do it via Nintendo Switch Online, EmuDeck on the Steam Deck, or simply my iPhone with Delta ๐คทโโ๏ธ.
๐ If you don’t trust macOS’s built-in battery management, don’t use AlDente, and are looking for another application of this kind, you might want to check out BatFi โ maximize your Mac’s battery lifespan. BTW I have decided that the built-in function must suffice for me.
๐ Same topic, different area: AirBattery - Get the battery usage of all your devices at once! I noted it down in case AirBuddy stops working someday.
๐ ๏ธ I had planned months ago to finally dive into to the Gridfinity system. Somehow, I never had the time to pick out the right base plates. Thanks to the “reminder” from Marcus and the hint about these baseplates, I just started with one desk drawer. I already knew it, but oh, how awesome is that! I definitely won’t get out of this rabbit hole anytime soon. BTW thanks to Gridfinity Extended, you can easily click together all sorts of things with OpenSCAD.
๐๏ธ MacStories has added two new podcasts to its family. The pilot episodes were entertaining. However, based on their teasers, I honestly expected a little more than using the Reminders backend in Fantastical or playing games on the iPad with a controller to get the hosts out of their Comfort Zone ๐.
๐ฃ๏ธ German-speaking readers should try the dialect test from the Swiss Tages-Anzeiger, which has made its rounds on the web. I’m still unsure how they fake it, but the precision of the results is amazing.
๐ช๐บ This weekend are European elections. Go vote! (And vote for a democratic party!)
๐ Next week is the WWDC. It will not be a bug fix year once again. I hope so much that Apple can resist the urge to integrate pointless AI functions into every little app. (I just want a PDF reader that doesn’t mess up my annotations and a more stable system in general ๐ข.)
๐โโ๏ธ I’ve received my fist feedback email to a blog post I wrote. Friendly shout-out to Darren!
๐ฎ Apart from that, this week in my filter bubble I learnt once again that we are all just people with feelings and that they can be hurt very quickly. I hope that the apologies were sincere and, above all, that they are accepted. Being able to forgive is also a very important trait in a tolerant community.
In continuation of week 21, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 22. week of 2024:
๐ดโโ๏ธ This week was relatively quiet in terms of tech-related news, partly because my wife had a bicycle accident in the middle of the week. I have borrowed a car, transported her 100 km from one hospital to the local one, she had surgery, and now she is hopefully recovering quickly at home and will soon be back on her feet (and back on the bike).
โฏ๏ธ This week, I repeatedly1 came across IINA - the modern media player for macOS - which I amusingly already had in my bookmarks collection but hadn’t looked at yet. While I was at it, I finally connected Transloader with Downie. BTW: Papertube - Turn any YouTube podcast, TED Talk, or chat into easy-to-read text with real speaker names: I need to take a closer look at it when I get the chance. And while I’m at it, cobalt also looks like an interesting service.
๐ pixelgraphix pointed out Bebop. If Drafts is an overkill (or maybe too expensive) for you, you might be able to quickly and easily push texts to Obsidian with this really nice app.
๐ I use Dato, but if you’re only interested in the Week Number in the menu bar, you can install the app of the same name from the same developer for free.
๐ฑ I completely overlooked that there is now a sister application for iOS for Carbon Copy Cloner. I need to check it out when I get the chance.
๐ฎ I wasn’t aware until now that you can even run Android on the Steam Deck. I’ll keep that in mind until I figure out what I would actually use it for ๐.
๐ป Recently, I wanted to find out what a specific setting is called in English in macOS System Settings, so I set up a virtual macOS installation with UTM - Virtual machines for Mac. Wow, that was easy. (Unfortunately, I can’t manage to access external USB devices/hard drives yet.) Next, I should get into Docker…
๐ฎ This week, after more than two months, my “repaired,” i.e., replaced Playdate arrived. It’s now the third one. Maybe this one will last a bit longer ๐ค.
๐ฎ I also acquired an old Nintendo N64 console. The picture quality of PAL games on the PAL version of the console is abysmally bad on my LG LED TV. Interestingly, NTSC games, started from the Everdrive, look good ๐คทโโ๏ธ.
In continuation of week 20, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 21. week of 2024:
โจ๏ธ In week 37 of 2023 I bought a Keychron K1 SE Wireless Mechanical Keyboard and have been trying to learn to type on the keyboard since then. My error rate was extremely high, and I found it exhausting to have to lift my fingers significantly higher than I am used to with other keyboards. I actually really like the keyboard, but this week I finally pulled the plug and bought a Logitech MX Keys for Mac. I should have done this six months ago. I get along with it unbelievably better.
๐ฆ I am waiting now for almost two months for Panic to ship a replacement for my broken playdate. It seems the first package was lost and maybe I’ll receive the next one.
๐ฎ Fortunately, this parcel did not get lost and I have I received my GB Operator and went through my ROMs collection. I was irritated to find out that my “Super Mario Advance 4” is on a rewritable unofficial ROM cartridge. It cost about $20 and looks absolutely genuine to me. Why do people go to so much trouble to fake these not-so-rare and not-so-expensive cartridges?
๐ฌ Andre mentioned โSwitch TV ON - TV shows and movies in detail. It seems to be a great source for finding information about shows, actors, etc. Like Callsheet but without a subscription.
โฒ๏ธ If you are looking for a simple and free focus / Pomodoro timer, โBreaks: Focus Timer might be the right iOS app for you.
In continuation of week 18, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 19. - 20. week of 2024:
๐ดโโ๏ธ I was cycling with my wife for a few days along the former East-West German border. The weather was fantastic, the inclines were not to be underestimated but manageable. A bit of a shame, but we tried to take it with humour: Once again, we had to realize that the concept of Deutsche Bahn has unfortunately totally failed. Train travel is an absolute disaster in our country, and that makes me very sad and angry at the FDP (the party that provides our transport minister). But that’s a topic for another time.
๐ต During the bike tour, I decided to take a one or two-week break from social media. I deleted my Mastodon clients from my devices (I already don’t use Threads, Instagram, X, Facebook, etc.) and also avoided YouTube. I still read a few posts in my RSS reader, though. So, do I feel better now? I don’t think so, but it was good anyways, I think.1
What else was interesting to me?
๐ดโโ๏ธ Hammerhead Karoo 3 In-Depth Review: Worth the Upgrade?: there’s a successor to my current bike computer. Since my two biggest criticisms, battery life and responsiveness, have obviously not been addressed, I am not in danger of wanting to spend the 500 โฌ (!) for it for now.
๐ฎ โRetroArch has been released for iOS and similar platforms. For those who aren’t totally into retro gaming, dedicated emulators like Delta, PPSPPP are probably the much more convenient way to enjoy some old games. Nevertheless, it’s wonderful to see that RetroArch now runs on the iPhone and especially on the AppleTV! (I use a dedicated Raspberry Pi with Batocera or my Analogue Pocket with its dock for the TV, though.)
๐พ Carbon Copy Cloner has been released in version 7, and I took the opportunity to support the developer by purchasing the upgrade.
๐ผ๏ธ If you have an old, currently unused iPad lying around (I’ve heard there are new ones ๐), you might want to check out Synced Photo Frame by Re-Frame and repurpose it as a digital photo frame.
๐ผ๏ธ Photo Tape - Connect Images: the app looks like a pretty neat way to simply merge images.
๐ Plinky - Easily Save Links: there’s another bookmark manager. I just bought the lifetime license for Anybox and therefore my search (for now) is over.
โณ โTime - Ring - the elegant and fun way to count down to your most anticipated events! For those interested who haven’t yet paid for Pinning, Up Ahead (which has resumed development), Countdowns, or one of the many other apps and are looking for a simple, free option.
๐ฎ I installed chiaki4deck on my Steam Deck and can now effortlessly do PS5 Remote Play. However, I fear that someone might empty half the PSN Store with my account, but certain risks have to be taken ๐ฌ
๐ฎ Due to the early access release of Hades II, the first one was very cheap, so I bought it for the Steam Deck and started playing it. Actually, I wanted to keep my hands off these rogue-like games, but it’s just too good.
๐ Have a great week!
That was also the reason why there was no blog post from me last week. I assume almost no one noticed ;-) ↩︎
In continuation of week 17, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 18. week of 2024:
๐ Carlo just released a beta of UI Actions. It follows his awesome Actions for Obsidian, but with this you can script macOS apps that lack native shortcut integration. Definitely an app to keep an eye on, as an addition or alternative to Keyboard Maestro.
๐น๏ธ It seems like every week a handful of new retro handhelds hit the market. Whether interest will wane due to Delta, I don’t know, but for those like me who have long lost track of all the different devices, take a look at Handheld List.
๐ฐ Following the humane AI pindisaster, the second AI gadget, rabbit R1, doesn’t fare much better: Rabbit R1: Barely Reviewable. But at least it’s orange, costs only a fraction of its sibbling, and looks totally cute on a shelf next to a playdate console. Speaking of which, in week 12 the crank handle of mine broke, I sent it in for repair, and now the replacement device has been waiting somewhere in America to be shipped for over 4 weeks ๐ข. I’m curious to see if I will ever see my playdate again ๐ค.
๐ฆ On Bento3D you can easily click together boxes for your 3D printer according to your needs and download the corresponding .stl files. I wish it were compatible with Gridfinity.
โจ๏ธ I am a long-time Typinator user and there are a bunch of other alternatives for text expansion, but someone1 mentioned Espanso. So, this might be worth checking out if you’re still on the hunt.
๐ฑ๏ธ As previously mentioned, I own a KeyCue license, which I don’t really utilize, but a nice feature is its ability to add your own shortcuts to menu entries. If you only want to use this feature and have so far not employed the cumbersome method of doing it via the Settings app, you might want to take a look at the free app CustomShortcuts โ Customize menu keyboard shortcuts.
โ For months, the capacity display of my Apple Watch S7 stood at exactly 80%. Apple replaces the battery for free if it drops to 79% and you are paying for Apple Care. I was about to file a class-action lawsuit because I was sure the value would never drop to 79% ๐. However, this week it finally happened and my watch was replaced. It’s great not to risk the watch refusing to work in the afternoon. I think this also means I can get by with my current model for another year and not be in a bind wanting a new one in the fall. What I found interesting was that despite a backup, not all settings were transferred to the new one. So, I had to search in vain in the Watch app on my phone and then in the settings directly on the watch for where to set that a simple swipe on the watch face switches to another. I couldn’t find it and had to consult the internet. I’ve had better experiences with Apple’s UI in the past I must say. A few other little things were also not set correctly. It’s as if an intern at Apple had quit, and now the latest settings are no longer included in the backup routine ๐คทโโ๏ธ.
๐ฎ I had actually forbidden myself from buying games for other platforms if I already own them for one. Well, buying Hades for less than 9 EUR for the Steam Deck, even though I already have the PS5 version, was definitely the last exception ๐คฆโโ๏ธ. Luckily, Nintendo stubbornly prevents me from logging into their eShop with my mobile phone (despite the disabled ad blocker and paused pi hole), so at least I’m not in danger of acquiring the Switch version as well.
๐ I wish it wouldn’t cost 300 โฌ to have Reader running on an E-Ink Android device.
๐พ The small 88x31 icons in the website footer are enjoying great popularity again. BTW those by Andy are awesome. If you want to take a look at the originals from GeoCities, you’ll find them here: THE 88ร31 ARCHIVE.
๐ฎ I don’t own a Nintendo 64 console, but I’ve already ordered an EVERDRIVE-64 X5 just in case ๐คทโโ๏ธ.
๐ฅ Watched The Terminator with my sons. Also, I resubscribed to trakt.tv. I think the service is worth supporting.
๐ด Finally got to ride my bike outside several times this week ๐ฅฐ.
Have a great week! ๐โโ๏ธ
Sorry, I forgot who it was ๐ . Update 2024-05-06: It was most probably Marcus. ↩︎
๐ฎ The enthusiasm for retro gaming continues to hold on. Delta received its first update in the AltStore PAL (installation went absolutely smoothly) and a native iPad version has been announced for non-Europeans. Moreover, Sean Fletcher has released absolutely great skins for Deltas GBC und GBA cores.
๐ฎ And for all those who have now rediscovered their love for Pokemon thanks to Delta, BenRiceM has released the appropriate app: Ketchup for Pokรฉmon.
๐ As you might know, I switched from Apple Notes to Obsidian as my main notes app some time ago, but those who still use Apple Notes as their App Defaults now have in addition to NotesOllama another extensions available, ProNotes, which hopefully further improves working with it.
โจ๏ธ I own a KeyCue license and use the app less than I thought I would. The app is not exactly cheap, but fortunately, there are a number of alternatives for those interested, including KeyClu.
๐น๏ธ I also played a lot of Dead Cells on the Steam Deck OLED this week but couldn’t get past the penultimate level. I also briefly looked at Hades on the PS5. It looks very nice, but I need to play something other than RogueLi[kt]e games before I dive into this. I really long to be able to load a game save to progress in a game.
๐ I know I definitely shouldn’t do it, but I’m thinking about whether or not I should spend 150 โฌ on a book ๐คฆโโ๏ธ.
๐ฌ Watched Sterben, a German movie, in the cinema - very intense 3 hours.
๐ค I’ve been sick with a cold for two weeks now and feel unable to exercise and in general struggling through the day. I’m really looking forward to hopefully getting over this next week.
Wishing you a beautiful week! โ๏ธ
2024-04-29: Fix credentials for Time Machine Icons
I’ve started with SteerMouse and so far have no complaints. ↩︎
Sorry, I got this wrong on my initial post. Hopefully corrected now. ↩︎
In continuation of week 15, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the sixteenth week of 2024:
๐ฎ This week was an exciting one for retro gaming on iOS. After some initial debacle with a ripoff GB emulator, which was pulled after a few days by Apple, another one, Bimmy, was pulled by its developer just a day after it was approved. But then the well-known Delta emulator developed by Riley Testut, which was previously only available via the AltStore was released worldwide in the App Store, except for Europe. Here you can get it exclusively via the AltStore PAL, an alternate iOS Appstore.1 Its developer wrote a little about the availability of Delta and the AltStore PAL in general. Installing the AltStore and downloading Delta went as smoothly as Apple currently allows, and the app is just great. Very nicely designed, customizable through skins and comprehensive. However, I see myself rather less playing GB[AC]* games on my iPhone, as they bring more fun on the Analogue Pocket or one of my other devices with a built-in gamepad. However, the situation is similar to photography, you know, the best camera is the one you have with you …
๐น๏ธ If you’ve now gotten a taste for it and also want to play some of your legally acquired Roms on your Mac but don’t want to install an all-in-one solution like RetroArch or even ES-DE right away, you can also pick up some tips on stand-alone emulators here: Emulators arenโt new; hereโs the great ones on the Mac.
More emulators are also apparently in the starting blocks, and I also downloaded a C64 emulator, but I haven’t looked at it yet and therefore don’t know if this a valid recommendation.
๐ง This week, MetaAI unveiled its new Llama 3 models, which can be easily downloaded to the Mac using Ollama with commands such as ollama pull llama3:8b or ollama pull llama3:70b. If you prefer not to use the command line to interact with the LLM or any of the GUIs mentioned in Week 8, you might consider exploring โEnchanted LLM. This app offers a free and slick interface to interact with Ollama’s LLMs.
๐ป I mainly use Rectangle Pro for window management on macOS, which also offers the possibility to throw windows into predefined areas via mouse gestures (Window Throw), but if you are looking for an alternative, you might want to check out the free Loop.
๐ฆ As already mentioned on my little Site Project, DropScout for iOS / iPad is out of beta and available for free: DropScout tracks your Amazon products and alerts you when prices drop! Also mentioned there, since version 3.11, Soulver once again includes an iOS version that can be unlocked with a one-time purchase. After years of incompatibility, you can finally exchange files between macOS and iOS again. Did I mention before, that I love Soulver?
๐ป Lou blogged about apps that Open at Login on his Mac, and two apps were new to me. As Mission Control Plus - Put the “control” back in Mission Control - is included in my Setapp subscription, I started evaluating it. The app does mainly two things, it adds an X-button to Mission Control’s windows and several keybard shortcuts managing them. The other one was Backup Status - View the status of Time Machine right from your desktop or Notification Center. Bookmarked but not tried myself yet.
๐ป On A Better Computer, I stumbled across 10 useful Mac apps you may not have heard of and found Cleft quite interesting. However, it absolutely did not want to work for me and instead of transcribing my spoken text, it bombarded me with error messages and just deleted everything. Well, I might look at it again in version 1.1 or maybe 2.x.
๐ ๏ธ Whether I spend a lot of time troubleshooting to get something running that I would like to accomplish depends strongly on the platform I’m doing it on and my expectations of the project/product.2 With Apple products or other commercial services, my tolerance for having to spend a lot of time to make something work as it should is quite low, for example. This was also one of the reasons why I switched from Windows to macOS about 20 years ago. I just didn’t feel like dealing with the fiddling anymore. With Linux projects, it’s different for me. I almost expect it to be difficult, and it’s fine with me because in general it’s open source and I heavily benefit from the hard work from others. So, I spent countless hours trying to set up a WLAN access point on a Raspi that is connected to my network via LAN and brings the connected devices into the network via VPN. (My regular router can’t do this, and I have one or two devices that I’d like to connect to the network via VPN, but I can’t install a client on them.) I ultimately failed and gave up a few weeks ago. Last week, I stumbled across the BerylAX GL-MT3000 and it took me no more than 5 minutes to get it up and running with NordVPN. This really blew me away.
โบ๏ธ The Stream Deck Neo was announced and looks really compelling to me.
๐บ Continued watching Palm Royale - still not sure about this TV series.
๐น๏ธ Spent way too much money for discounted games on Steam and played a lot of Dead Cells. Really hard but I like it a lot.3
Have a nice week! ๐โโ๏ธ
BTW I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple’s spontaneous change of direction regarding emulators was related to the AltStore PAL to take some wind out of the sails of the alternative app store, but maybe I’m going too far with that. Perhaps others can unravel this. ↩︎
This paragraph was obviously inspired by a section of Clockwise. ↩︎
BTW as of writing this, Dead Cells is no longer on sale on steam but for Nintendo Switch. So, if you own one, go and check it out. ↩︎
๐๏ธ I’ve learned that in Mario Kart 8, you can choose from 703,560 driver, kart body, tires, and glider combinations, but you can still be more clever than others: Mario meets Pareto ๐คฏ.
๐ฑ At first, I was skeptical, but Simple Scan โข Quick Scanner gets updated regularly and has reached a stage where it is definitely much more useful than a simple one-step shortcut or going into the Files app and initiating the scan from within there.
๐ป I am a long-time Bartender 5 user and don’t see a reason to switch. However, for those who don’t already have a Setapp subscription or don’t want to pay that much money for a “simple” utility app, โiBar-Menubar icon control tool might be worth a look. However, you have to more or less blindly trust the developers, as their website will probably remain incomprehensible to many people.
๐ If it also bothers you that every App Store link in Safari directly opens the store instead of just calling up the overview page, maybe this will help: StopTheMacAppStore - Mac app that stops Safari from automatically opening the App Store app.
๐ฅ๏ธ I used to have a version of iStat Menus (Setapp) running on every Mac, but nowadays I do without. However, there is also a number of alternatives, for example, the freshly updated Usage, which, for instance, also allows access to the status of the Mac from a mobile device, or the free Stats - macOS system monitor in your menu bar.
๐ In week 9, I mentioned Manila, a free app that lets you change the color of a folder’s icon. There seems to be a similar paid upfront app called Foldery, that might be easier to set up and is regularly updated; bookmarked for the case that Manila stops working someday. If just a color is not enough, โFolderizer might be worth a try, too. So far, I was occasionally using the Setapp version of Image2icon but might give the former a shot.
๐ฎ I fell in love with โGamery - Game Tracker and switched to the app from GameTrack. Actually, I was looking for an app that runs both on iOS and macOS, but I am not very satisfied with the macOS version of GameTrack. The developer of Gamery has mentioned that he plans to enable the iPadOS version on macOS and is working on a native macOS version, too. That all sounds very good.
๐๏ธ Sindre Sorhus makes so many great apps, and many of his programs are free. To support him, I bought the Mac App Store version of Dato even though it was available via Setapp, too. Anyways, if you’re looking for a free alternative, Itsycal for Mac or Calendrx might be worth a try.
๐ธ I briefly looked into the new app from Aptonic, the developers of Dropzone (Setapp), called ScreenSnapAI - AI Powered Screenshot Manager. But that’s not for me. I will definitely stick with CleanShot X (Setapp) for the time being. By the way, did you know that pressing space to switch to window capture from capture area mode also works with CleanShot X and not only with the built-in macOS tool?
๐ The one and only master of the indie web, Robb, released EchoFeed. You have most probably already heard of his service to pipe an RSS feed to open web endpoints, like Mastodon or Micro.blog, etc. Love it.
๐ฒ Did you know that you can change the iOS wheel picker to a number pad by just clicking on it? I did not!
๐ Marcus reminded me that it is a very good idea to support OpenStreetMap. I am now an associated member.
๐บ Watched the Pilot of Palm Royale with my wife. Not yet sure what it will turn into.
The week before Easter was once again very quiet in terms of new software and tech-related stuff. This was probably also because there was a lot to do at work before we went on our Easter vacation. For a few years now, we have been traveling more or less regularly during the Easter holidays together with my wife’s family. She has three siblings, all of whom have partners and children, and our dog joins us as well. This year we went to Belgium, the weather was quite rainy and gray, but that’s okay. We were 15 people and, of course, it was very bustling but also very nice. There was a lot of hiking, eating, reading, playing, and laughing. Especially for the younger ones, who let it show more, the fact that there was almost no functioning internet in the area and in the vacation apartment was quite noticeable. Wi-Fi and mobile networks were unusable. It took several minutes just to retrieve a single email. Social media, game streaming, YouTube, etc. were completely unthinkable. Digital detox par excellence. Actually, it did quite good and that was the reason there was also no post here on the blog last week. ๐ฃ
Therefore, in brief and in continuation of week 12, here are very few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 13th and 14th week of 2024:
๐ During the vacation, I finished my first novel1 in a long time and read a second book within another day. The third one is also already half done: DOOM Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero. I wouldn’t have thought it, but I find the autobiography very interesting so far. (Doom actually had a big impact on me during my school years.)
๐ฎ I was not aware of how easy it can be on macOS to get Windows games purchased from the Epic Game Store or GOG to run: Heroic Games Launcher - An Open Source Epic, GOG, and Amazon Prime Games Launcher.
๐ฑ Spring is coming and we took this as an opportunity to completely reseed our lawn; it was more of a field than a lawn and therefore urgently needed; we are curious to see if it will turn out well.
๐บ No television, no movies, no series in the last two weeks.
Have a pleasant week ahead!
I thought I’d start with a Stephen King novel since his books always captivated me in the past; however, I was not so convinced by Holly; the book is quite repetitive and long-winded. ↩︎
In continuation of week 11, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 12th week of 2024:
๐ด Actually, this week was a very quiet week in terms of tech-related stuff. It was probably because I was very busy at work and in the evenings, I preferred to relax with a game of Balatro1 instead of surfing the net a lot.
๐ ๏ธ This week, many things just broke. It started with dishes, not just once, followed by a PS5 controller that wouldn’t turn on anymore and got dangerously hot while charging and started to smell. Then, the power supply of the old MacBook simply quit working, a 256 GB USB stick made my Mac crash reproducibly as soon as I tried to access it, the crank handle of my Playdate just broke without any external force2, our eCargo bike suddenly refused to go any further (Error E010), the coffee machine at work gave up the ghost, and my knee is broken. Well, it’s been messed up for 30 years, it just hurts more this week than usual. I think that’s a good sign for next week. It can only get better.
๐ The developer of Anybox has released a new app: Event countdown & up - Pinning app. I was a long-time user of Countdowns before I switched to Up Ahead because the latter was much more fun to use. However, there has been no update for over ten months, and I’m somewhat reluctant to pay a subscription price for that. I’ll take a look at Pinning, although there is no macOS version yet and it also has a subscription model behind it. Otherwise, I should dig out Countdowns again. It works wonderfully, it just doesn’t look nice at all.
๐ Robb announced that his Podcast Ruminate joined MacStories. Congrats!
๐ค I was curious and also signed up for Scribbles. I definitely don’t need another way to blog, but I kind of like the projects by Vincent.
โค๏ธ I was absolutely impressed that I sent a feature request to the developer of Default Folder X and he replied on the same day that he had implemented the feature and it will be included in the next release.
๐ถ Besides, I was pleased that you can now use Siri in German without saying “Hey.” This solves our biggest mistake in dog training. We chose “Hey” as a stop signal (“no”) for our dog, and therefore we could only ask the Homepods to do things via voice very limitedly, otherwise, we would completely confuse our dog every time ๐ .
Somehow I really like the game, although I’m not really into card games otherwise. I’m still failing at the first deck of cards, at the latest at ante 8/8, but what the heck ๐คทโโ๏ธ. ↩︎
Thanks to my 3D printer, I was able to print a temporary replacement. ↩︎
๐ต There are media control apps for macOS now like sand by the sea, but this one is free and looks quite nice: Tuneful - Control your music with ease.
๐ฎ Summerhouse (Steam) looks cozy, and thanks to Daniel I stumbled upon Balatro. In addition there were (are?) significant discounts on VVVVVV and Celeste on Steam . I especially suck at the latter on the pico-8 but I adore its aesthetic and am excited to play it on my MacBook.
๐ Habib wrote about Overwhelming Tech Fatigue. I too have been feeling an increasing kind of dissatisfaction with technical devices in general lately. I am becoming more intolerant regarding shortcomings, especially of the system’s software. I yearn for things to simply function and find myself increasingly reluctant to invest significant time in troubleshooting things that have been implemented with minimal effort and, as a result, are prone to errors. (Although I still like trying out new software and starting new projects ๐คทโโ๏ธ.) I suspect that this actually has to do with age. In the past, I passionately tinkered with (Windows) PCs but eventually had no more desire to spend more time making things work than using them.1 I then switched to Apple because its OS and software was (seemingly) much more thoughtful, functional, stable, and beautiful. This love is massively being lost in recent months, and since there seem to be no real alternatives, turning away from the enthusiasm for technology itself would be the next logical step - even though I don’t actively pursue that of course.
โจ There seem to be only two opinions about Asteroid City, and I belong to the fraction that had a lot of fun watching it.
๐ Celebrated my birthday, had a lot of good food and nice people around me.
๐ช Last but not least, go and check out the One a Month Club and become a member of all those great blogs listed there ๐
Have a nice week! ๐โโ๏ธ
Although that also seems to be a pattern in my life: as soon as something works (reasonably) or I master it (reasonably), I (unfortunately) often lose the interest in it. ↩︎
๐ค๏ธ As you can see, I didn’t discover much new this week, which isn’t a bad thing per se; the work was very intense due to exams week, and I was able to go cycling outdoors a few times in good weather together with my wife, practice curving with our dog, and go to the theater ๐.
ย
๐ Bookmarked Calibre Sync. It seems like a great way to access your Calibre library on the go. I’m thinking about moving my library to my NAS and sharing it via WebDAV.
๐ป A few years ago, I had this little Finder Service installed that let me change folder colors via the context menu. Somehow, it was not migrated to my new MacBook, and I had a hard time finding it on the web again: Manila.
๐ ๏ธ This might come in handy at times: Mist - A Mac utility that automatically downloads macOS Firmwares / Installers.
๐ฑ There was a lot of buzz about the changes in the upcoming iOS version to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). One positive outcome might be this: MacPaw Announces Upcoming Beta Version of Setapp Mobile. Now, I’m just waiting for retro gaming emulators to be released for iOS on an alternate store.
๐น๏ธ Right now, Emulation on iPhone is a mess. It’s easier to stream PS5 games to your phone or even Apple TV.
๐ค But iOS is not the only complicated platform for emulation (frontends). As mentioned last week, ES-DE was released for Android. The programmer did not get permission to distribute it on the Google Play Store and therefore went to Amazon. They delisted it too, and he had to move to Patreon. Anyway, it’s a bit finicky to set up but runs very well on my Retroid Pocket 2S.
๐ฎ On my Anbernic RG35XX, I stumbled upon VVVVVV. How could I have ignored this for so long?
๐ธ Came across Bubble Frog by Timbo Johnson. It’s a lovely little game for the Game Boy, and the developer seems very passionate about his project. You can download it for free on itch.io, and to support him, I backed it on Kickstarter.
๐ Even though I’m not 100% convinced that my purchase of a PocketBook Era was the right decision, I still like the idea of an e-ink reader/tablet. These look really great: BOOX Note Air3 C and Note Air3 Series. I’ve never heard of them before, and I wonder if they are more performant than normal e-readers.
๐ดโโ๏ธ My wife and I went for our first bike ride (55 km) of the year outdoors. The weather was fantastic, and there was a hint of spring in the air. It was beautiful.
I’ve decided to (re)play all the main Mario games in chronological order but don’t necessarily stick to the original platform. If there was a remake available for GB[AC]*, I bought the cartridge and play that version on my Analogue Pocket. ↩︎
Continuing from week 07, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the eighth week of 2024:
๐ฑ Simple Scan โข Quick Scanner was teased by Agile Tortoise. Curious to see if this will be a better solution than just opening the Files.app and initiating a scan from there. (Actually, I’ve never checked if those generated PDFs have automatic OCR.)
โ๏ธ Twodos - Simple Todos: Interesting concept but definitely too basic for my needs.
๐ง๏ธ Looks Like Rain: Another weather app. It focuses on graphical bars showing the rain tendencies for the next couple of days. I like that because that’s the main reason for me to open a weather app.
๐ค I still don’t quite understand why I am still looking for alternatives to Anybox. The only thing that bothers me about the app is that the sync speed is a bit too sluggish for my taste. Everything else is great. Regardless, after I took a closer look at Link Clusterlast week, this week there was an update for Linkeeper. The new version also looks quite promising but unfortunately does not support the import of bookmark collections as an .html file. And therefore, there is no easy way for me to migrate my bookmarks. I’ll keep both Apps in mind, though.1
๐ ๏ธ Stumbled upon Zint - a complete cross-platform open source barcode generating solution. For individual QR codes, I still use V2 of QR Factory, which is now available in Version 3. Zint is only available as a CLI on the Mac but I’ll keep it in mind in case I want to generate a lot of codes automatically someday.
๐ป Mainly for work, I revisited various ChatGPT / LLM frontends and local LLMs. I had somehow completely lost track of the tools and their capabilities. In the process, I stumbled upon MindMac - Connect seamlessly, chat effortlessly with ChatGPT on macOS. It’s a (not very pretty) GUI for more or less all the AI services in the world. Together with OpenRouter, you can quickly and easily try out the major commercial APIs (OpenAI, Google Gemini, etc.), but also, for example, integrate a range of local LLMs (Mistral, Llama, Llava) with the help of ollama. Even uploading images is possible, and the integration of the Google Search API for queries that do not allow online searches. (If you only want to use Ollama with a GUI, there is also, for example, Ollamac - A macOS app for interacting with the Ollama models). In addition, MindMac also combines LM Studio and GPT4All under its interface. The developer is also extremely helpful. I like the app. Apart from that, at the end of the day (more or less in the truest sense of the word), I had to realize once again that ALL of these LLMs are still not capable of doing what I hope for them. Serious work on scientific texts is simply not possible with them. The models make too many mistakes and fail at seemingly simple tasks. I’ll take another look at this in six months. But it does scare me a bit that these tools are probably already being (supposedly) used productively in many related areas.2
๐ฎ As mentioned last week, I really enjoy EmulationStation on my Anbernic RG35XX H (for which a new release was just published) and Raspberry Pi. Actually, there was no reason, but this week I’ve installed ES-DE Frontend (EmulationStation Desktop Edition) on my MacBook. Next, I will try to get the Android version running on my Retroid Pocket 2S. According to Retro Game Corps, it might not be that hard. IMHO it’s just the best Retroarch / Emulation frontend and it’s fun tinkering around with it.
๐ฎ I wanted to check something on playstation.com this week and had to enter my password three or four times, provide a 2FA code, and solve a CAPTCHA. WTF!? That’s why I took the opportunity to switch my account to a Passkey. I am curious to see what hurdles Sony will now put in my way when using it.
๐ฟ Watched L’immensitร (2022) with my wife. Neither of us liked the movie.
Raindrop.io is still not an option for me, as I am uncomfortable with the developer’s proximity to Russia and especially the potential access to its servers by governments. ↩︎
With NotesOllama - Use Ollama to talk to local LLMs in Apple Notes - you can also consult your Apple Notes via a local LLM; however, I don’t really use Apple Notes anymore. Just for ChatGPT I still really enjoy MacGPT and there are quit some Obsidian plugins I all don’t like. ↩︎
Continuing from week 06, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the seventh week of 2024:
๐ So, I think I’ve read and seen enough about the Apple Vision Pro for now. I hope I’ll stay firm and wait at least for Gen 2 and not want to buy it as soon as the AVP is available in Germany. However, I still find this video noteworthy: What Reviewers Arenโt Telling You About Apple Vision Pro.
๐ค Gruber’s polemics and European Union bashing are getting on my nerves. I’m going to remove him from my RSS reader and podcast player for a while. Maybe then my Watch won’t complain about an elevated pulse even though I’m not currently training. 1
๐ถ Last week I mentioned algoriddim djay, which now also supports Apple Music, and this week I came across Mixxx in my Mastodon timeline for the first time. (Sorry, I can’t find where I saw it right now.) It doesn’t seem to support any streaming services, but it is open source and therefore free to try.
๐จ Well, as said I can’t make music and I can’t draw either, but I found this app interesting: astropad slate - Control your Mac using your iPad and Apple Pencil.
๐ In week 5 I briefly looked into Link Cluster but due to its lacking ability to copy links in Markdown format it was no real alternative to Anybox for me. I sent Link Cluster’s developer a feature request and this week version 2.1 was released. Among many other new features, you can now copy MD links but unfortunately there is still no share sheet extension for adding links on iOS. So, still on my watch list but no real alternative to Anybox.
๐ผ๏ธ Clop - Image, video, PDF and clipboard optimiser Copy large, paste small, send fast: There’s plenty of software for shrinking, for single images, for batch processes or even as a plugin for Obsidian. Clop monitors the clipboard or directories and optimises images and videos. It’s also available on Setapp. I will definitely take a look at it.
๐ธ I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t offer a way in Photos.app to compare several photos from a series and specifically select the best one. I even briefly subscribed to Lightroom because it offers a brilliant X|Y comparison function. But since I didn’t really need most of the other functions, the subscription costs were of course not justifiable. I bought Photos Workbench, but I didn’t really get along with the app - I have no idea why ๐คทโโ๏ธ. For iOS, there is now Photoscope - Storage Cleaner, which I will take a closer look at, but of course it won’t be able to replace a macOS app.
๐ Reor - AI note-taking app that runs models locally: Looks interesting, especially in combination with lots of MD files you already store e.g. in Obsidian, but I don’t get the difference between all those LLM available. I have to dig a little bit deeper into this, I guess. I just tried it with TheBloke/DiscoLM_German_7b_v1-GGUF and a sample collection of 5,300 text files and the results were very, very disappointing. Can’t recommend it yet.
๐ค Speaking of AI. Google’s Gemini is now supposed to understand books in a fraction of a second and Open AI’s Sora can now create videos. I can’t keep up. Today, I asked Perplexity to extract the first 25 hits from a Tier List from a website and the LLM absolutely refused to maintain the correct order. But why start small when you can make chairs float โฆ
๐๏ธ After reading Robb’s Three Months of The Johnny Decimal System I decided to preorder Johnny’s Workshop. I’ve been using the basic concept 2 of the Johnny.Decimal System for many years (I would claim ten, but I don’t know how long it’s been around actually), but especially in a work context I eventually hit my limits with the system and am curious if I can apply it even better if I engage with it more intensively.
๐ฎ I spent way too much time with Batocara.linux this week. I installed it on a Raspberry Pi and a derivative of it on the Anbernic RG35XX H. Wow, I’m very impressed with what’s possible with it. It looks so stunning ๐ฅฐ.
๐ My mood was better than last week but not perfect. I hope yours is and have a nice week ahead!
Update 2024-02-20
Added reason why I don’t yet use Link Cluster as my bookmark manager of choice.
Added disappointment about Reor.
Speaking of training, since the beginning of the year I’ve been doing workouts six to seven days a week (sometimes only for 15 min), of which I ride 5 - 6 times on the trainer (30 - 60 min). It’s actually way too strenuous for me, but my FTP at the end of the week attested me a significant jump ๐ . Now I just need to muster the strength to lose 10 kg. But phew, one thing at a time. ↩︎
Meanwhile, my file storage in Obsidian has also partially merged with the PARA system and is threatening to collapse into chaos. ↩︎
Continuing from week 05, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the sixth week of 2024:
๐คฆโโ๏ธ Last week, I failed to configure my Mac as a WIFI Access Point with NordVPN. This week, I tried to do it with a Raspberry Pi 4. Since I no longer have a monitor with an HDMI input, I connected the Raspi using a micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter, HDMI cable, HDMI Capture Card with a USB-A connection, and a USB-A to USB-C hub to my iPad ๐คฏ What a mess but it worked with HDMI Monitor - Orion perfectly fine. I then tried to set up an AP with the help of RaspAP and install NordVPN on the Raspi. No matter what I tried, my devices just don’t want to connect to the Raspberry Pi’s WLAN, although my iPhone briefly did in hotspot mode and everything seems to work in principle. Well, failed again ๐คทโโ๏ธ ๐ข.
๐ฟ I upgraded my PS5’s disk space. It now has an additional 2 TB internal SSD. It took me less than 2 minutes; what an alternative universe it would be if it were the same on a Mac.
๐ข I lost all my Save Files for my Analogue Pocket, mainly Super Marios Bros. games. I cried a little bit and now have to start all over with Super Mario Advance 4.
๐ต I really enjoy using Longplay on the iPhone. There is now also Longplay for Mac (Early Access), but I’m not sure if it’s worth $25+ to me at the moment.
๐ I stumbled upon another Obsidian plugin: obsidian-tracker - A plugin tracks occurrences and numbers in your notes. You can really dive deep into it if you want.
๐ถ Unfortunately, I lack any major DJ skills, but still had a lot of fun at parties in the past with algoriddim djay; that was back when people weren’t streaming 100% of their music and still owned stuff. Unfortunately it was not possible with Apple Music. Years after its launch, that finally changed: algoriddim djay - Now with Apple Music Integration.
๐ฅ Watched The Big Sick together with my wife and The Marvels with the whole family. Enjoyed the first one, and the latter wasn’t that bad either. It was quite amusing.
๐ My mood has been extremely bad this week. I’m sure everything will be better next week. I hope you have a great week too!
Continuing from week 04, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the fifth week of 2024:
๐ฎ This week I had to repeatedly curb my nearly uncontrollable urge to buy gadgets I don’t need - so far quite successfully. I did not order the Ayaneo Next LITE nor pledged the Ayaneo Flip - World 1st Dual-Screen Windows Handheld on Indiegogo. I definitely do not need more gaming handhelds at the moment, even though I don’t own one that supports Windows games yet. My backlog is already long enough, I don’t need another platform with even more games that I will never play. 1
๐น๏ธ One of the games therein is Celeste for the Switch or Playstation. It seems to be an absolute classic and I only know the version for the pico-8, where it all started. It’s really hard and so far I can’t even get past the third (or fourth?) screen. Regardless, there is now a version as a homage to the N64 area: Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain by Maddy Makes Games, Heidy Motta, Noel, saint11. Unfortunately not yet for the Mac, but in the comments you could already read that it is technically quite possible and probably will come.
๐ฅ๏ธ Speaking of gaming on the Mac: This week Death Stranding Director’s Cut was released. I hadn’t dealt with the game so far, I don’t know either the original version for the PS4 or the Director’s Cut for the PS5. Unlike Resident Evil 4, which recently appeared for Apple’s devices, this was an opportunity to get an AAA game for macOS at a reasonable price that I hadn’t played before. And wow, I am absolutely impressed by the graphics on my MacBook Pro M2 so far. Holy shit, I mean, wow. So far I was not considering a Mac being able to do such a thing. Whether the actual game will appeal to me, I still have to find out, but as a tech demo it has definitely already picked me up. To be able to play it better, I bought a Pro 2 Controller from 8BitDo. At first I despaired of their product portfolio, 2 and then I realized that I could have used an old PS4 controller. Well, what can you do. I guess, now I am not only somehow collecting retro handhelds, but also game controllers …
โฑ๏ธ The release of Death Stranding was well timed, as I finished the story of Diablo IV after about 56 hours of playtime this week. I can note for myself that I always take about twice as long for a game as indicated on HowLongToBeat ๐คทโโ๏ธ. My Rogue is now level 49 and I will definitely tackle the end game again, at least until I reach level 50 with her. I enjoyed the game, but Diablo IV did not 100% convince me. At first it overwhelmed me with its complexity and its own language for all the facets of the game. The whole system seems unnecessarily complicated to me and later the gameplay became quiet repetitive. And all this in-game loot box up sell shit really got on my nerves. I mean, you buy a full price game and then you’re constantly being thrown pointless IAPs for up to 150 โฌ in your face. Seriously?! Anyway, in the next few weeks I think I will focus again on Super Marios Bros. 3 (GBA) on my Analogue Pocket and look maybe at smaller indie titles on the console at most. Then I see if I enjoy Death Stranding. Maybe I’ll understand the trailer for part 2 better afterwards?
๐ฑ I also did not give in to my impulse to pre-order a rabbit r1 - your pocket companion. I find the r1 very exciting as a concept study. I like the design, which comes from the same pen as the playdate. However, the r1 would not be delivered to Europe until the second half of the year anyways, and if the rumors are true, hopefully a usable AI will also be included in iOS 18 in the fall. Ultimately, of course, something like this belongs in the smartphone, and I therefore see the r1 at best as a cute gimmick, without a real future. But that’s not a reason not to have fun with a toy, is it?
๐ป If I understood correctly, the r1 uses perplexity.ai, about which I have read a lot of good things lately. Therefore, I wanted to take a closer look at this service, but their Cloudflare configuration initially did not want to let me play along with Safari ๐คทโโ๏ธ. I don’t know what exactly Cloudflare didn’t like, the check also came with the Arc browser, but disappeared after some time. I’m not really convinced yet, but I definitely need to use the service more to form a final opinion.
๐ Speaking of Arc Browser, I suspect that Arc Search also uses perplexity.ai, especially since it can be configured as the default search engine in Arc. I am still not 100% convinced by the browser, either. It all seems a bit strange and opaque to me (why do I need an account to surf the web?!) 3 and I find the browser itself quite sluggish and already a bit bloated. I also don’t know what to make of this Act II. Anyway, there were very enthusiastic reports about Arc Search, but the app hasn’t really picked me up yet by now. I will force myself to use it more often in the next few days in order to be able to form a better opinion.
๐ I stumbled upon this post in my RSS Reader - The Iconfactory Looks To Launch PROJECT TAPESTRY via Kickstarter - and more or less backed the Early Bird Special immediately: With Project Tapestry, we’ll create a universal, chronological timeline for iOS for any data thatโs publicly available on the Internet. Who doesn’t like the guys from The Iconfactory and after the whole Twitter debacle a year ago, I’m happy to support the developers. I’m curious to see if an app will ultimately come out that I find useful, and if not, at least I was able to follow the development and had access to some nice wallpapers for a year ๐คทโโ๏ธ. Not coincidentally, Silvio Rizzi announced his new app a few days later: A new app, completely rebuilt and rethought from the ground up. This probably wonโt replace the current Reeder (not going away) for a lot of users. He also didn’t miss the opportunity to show Project Tapestry directly in his screenshot ๐.
๐งน This little app from Gui Rambohelps you clean your Mac’s keyboard and trackpad: CleanupBuddy.
๐ As announced last week, I took a look at Link Cluster - Collect and manage links. In principle, I like the app, but it yet lacks the ability to copy links as Markdown links, and that alone is a reason for me to stick with Anybox for now. Therefore, I have not yet bought the full version and cannot assess how Link Cluster handles large bookmark collections. But I will definitely continue to follow the development of the app.
๐ฅ I stumbled upon this at the beginning of the week on Waxy.org and am surprised that it is still online: ASCII Theater - stream free-text-based movies-in your-terminal.
I was very happy and honoured that Michael included my little site in his blogroll. I also enjoy reading his posts a lot, so its mutual. I also need to revise my own blogroll, I just have to find the time to do it.
๐ต At the beginning of the year, I had resolved to give up certain things for a few months, each for a month. In January, I started with giving up alcohol and today I realized that it is already February. My problem now is that all the things I had thought of not doing for February, I have already done in the last three days ๐คฆโโ๏ธ. Now what?! I think I just have to spend February without consuming alcohol as well and prepare better for March ๐คฃ On my list of ideas is also “A month without a smartphone” or “A month without an Apple Watch”. That seems too crazy to me right now, and maybe I’ll combine it into a “A month less gadgets” and give up my iPhone or my watch for “only” a week each, like Arne did with his phone.
๐ When I read this, I had to laugh a lot:4Deutsche Bahn sucht Admin fรผr Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, which means “Deutsche Bahn is looking for an Admin for Windows 3.11 for Workgroups” and immediately thought of my photo which I took in one of our, oh so modern, ICE trains last November.
๐ I stumbled upon this at Hey Dingus: Learn Morse Code. I would also like to learn something like this. But first, I should probably start refreshing the tying of various knots.
๐ช I printed a very large Oreo cookie. It weighs (not just a feeling) a good half kilogram, consists of six parts, has hardly any space inside but is absolutely awesome. In addition, I printed a HomePod Mini stand for ours in the kitchen. This way it might survive a disaster better. I also like this Apple Watch Stand and while I was at it, I also printed SNES Cartridge Holder (PAL) and the N64 Single Cartridge Display Stand for my Super Mario cartridges.
๐จ๏ธ The next project for my AnkerMake M5 is to take a closer look at Gridfinity. It seems to me to be a nice system. Now I just need to figure out which base plates I can best use.
๐ป This week I wanted to use a VPN connection with a device that is only WLAN capable. Since there is no way to set up a VPN service directly on the device, I thought it should be easy to make my Mac’s VPN connection available to other devices via WLAN Sharing. Well, far from it. Basically, it seems to be possible somehow, but unfortunately not with the help of NordVPN, my until now used VPN provider ๐ข.
๐ In the Apple universe, of course, the launch of the Apple Vision Pro was the event of the week. The usual suspects have already written or published videos extensively about it. As a European, I will thankfully not be confronted with the question of whether it might be worth the money for me in the next couple months. Basically, I am of course extremely fascinated and would give a lot to be able to try it out. Especially the entertainment aspect appeals to me, because my better half only tolerates a tiny 32" TV in the living room, 5 and not only having a home cinema, but a whole iMAX cinema in my own four walls, of course appears extremely tempting. However, I am also not sure what would happen if I used a VisionPro at home in her presence, I at least only dared to use the PS VR 1 when she was out … ๐คทโโ๏ธ
๐ Last but not least, Obsidian now also offers servers outside the USA. I therefore moved my private Obsidian vault to a European server and immediately imagine that the synchronization is faster. Apart from that, I find it better anyway to know my data in a European data center.
๐บ Continued watching For All Mankind S4 with my wife. I enjoy this TV show but it definitely does not make you happy or confident.
I find it very confusing and difficult to find out which controller fits with which device how. Especially since some are listed as not compatible with the Mac, but can pretend to be a Switch controller, which macOS usually recognizes without problems. ↩︎
Actually, it’s much too sad, but by now I have come to terms with the fact that I live in a country where a lot, a lot is broken and only a few people believe we are at the forefront of anything or really good at it. ↩︎
But I was allowed to buy a projector and a portable screen for shared movie nights. ↩︎
Continuing from week 03, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the fourth week of 2024:
๐ I didn’t quite understand the commotion about the DMA this week. Gruber proved himself to be a true patriot once again, and I still don’t understand where exactly the doomsday mood is coming from. Whether Apple has chosen an appropriate strategy, I don’t know either, see also Apple ruins its big week.
๐ฎ My Anbernic RG35XX H arrived. Now I can sell my RG353PS and send the RGB30 (more or less electronic waste right from the start) to recycling. So far, one is more or less reliant on the stock firmware, which isn’t very nice. But there are a number of very young Custom Firmware Projects and also a cleaned-up stock version. To not lose track of all the associated SD cards, I printed a series of these Micro-SD Label Sticks.
๐ ๏ธ I am actually very satisfied with Anybox. Only sometimes I wish that the sync speed would be much faster. I recently archived 20,000 (!) old bookmarks and kept “only” the last 2k, which only helped to a limited extent in getting the bookmarks stored on the iPhone displayed faster on the Mac. Over the last few years, I’ve tried more or less all the alternatives, except for Link Cluster. Its developer Daniel Witt is not an unknown1, the app was an up-front one-time purchase, and so far I have been hesitant to pay the money without knowing that the app does better than Anybox. That changed this week. A big update to Version 2.0 has been released and you can now (very limited) test it first, which I will definitely do over the next week: Link Cluster - Collect and manage links.
๐ฐ I checked out NetNewsWire for macOS again. I will stick with Reeder for the time being.
๐ป I changed my window manager again. The app Moom, which has been used on my macOS for decades, has now been replaced by Rectangle Pro. Ryan Hanson is another indie developer who releases just great utilities, and that’s why I bought the Pro version right away. Alternatively, you can also use the free Rectangle first. In fact, I can hardly imagine my life without Superkey (alternatively Hyperkey) anymore.
๐ฑ No week without a new app from Sindre: Doodle Draw.
๐ I hung a very inexpensive Amazon Kindle Fire tablet on the refrigerator a year or two ago and display in a Full Kiosk Browser Magic Mirror2, which runs on a Raspberry Pi. I programmed a series of small Python scripts that show me the energy consumption and our weekly changing family tasks, in addition to standard functions like family calendar, weather, date, time, etc. Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of what I taught myself with Python last year, and for some reason, Magic Mirror can no longer be updated without everything breaking afterwards. I’m afraid that if the shaky construct falls apart completely soon, I’ll have to hang an old iPad on the wall and perhaps use a solution like the recently updated Wallflower for HomeKit or just understand more about IT, Linux, Python, NPM, and Node ;-)
โฐ The idea of a location-based alarm clock for train rides or similar is great. But I believe I wouldn’t have the confidence to rely on this solution: WakeMeHere - A Location Alarm with Brain.
๐ I have been diligently reading Holly - for my standards. However, I am disappointed with the PocketBook Era. I had hoped that e-book readers would have evolved somehow over the past ten years. But at least the Era is insanely sluggish, and marking text is an outrage. Well, at least most of the time the text is displayed…
In continuation of week 02, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the third week of 2024:
๐จ๏ธ Almost 2 years after Anker introduced its V6 Color Engine for the M5 3D printer, it cancelled it. You can either get a $600 discount for an as yet unannounced product, or they will refund the paid money. I’ve opted for a $330 refund. Although it’s a pity, I think it was the right decision for Anker to pull the plug on this product. My M5 already has problems with just one filament; getting the printer to work reliably with 6 print heads was probably indeed an unsolvable task.
๐ I had resolved to read more books this year. I have finished one so far, although I probably started it over ten months ago and have only now finally completed it. Instead of reading one of the countless hardcover books owned by my wife, I wanted to start with Holly as an eBook. But on the iPhone, despite Focus Modes etc., I get distracted far too easily, so I bought a PocketBook Era (with a 20% discount). With it, I will definitely manage to outwit myself ๐คฆโโ๏ธ.
๐ฅ๏ธ In addition to all those great windows managers like Moom, Rectangle, Lasso, you name it, there is another (free) little utility: SwiftShift - Sweet window management for macOS.
๐ This week was a rather slow one regarding new software I was looking into but in RL it was much more intense.
โ๏ธ Besides cancelled and new hardware and a couple of new apps, we had a few real winter days this week with temperatures down to -10 ยฐC. Since this is quite unusual here, everyone was totally overwhelmed. There were storm warnings up to warnings of life-threatening conditions, people were advised to avoid driving, schools were closed, and public transportation was severely limited for two days. But the landscape was really beautiful, and the rounds with the dog were slippery but dreamy.
โ Moreover, in the last few weeks, there has finally been an outcry in Germany against the increasing number of Nazis in society and political parties. There were nationwide demonstrations with millions of people on the streets. Even in our small town, between 13,000 and 15,000 were demonstrating on the weekend. The march had already returned to the starting point, and yet not everyone had even started walking. It was absolutely impressive to see so many people absolutely peacefully demonstrating in freezing cold for human rights in the city center. Our two sons were also there, which made me somehow proud.
In continuation of week 01, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the second week of 2024:
๐๏ธ After my Covid infection in early December, followed by exhaustion, I started with a training program. It includes (indoor) cycling, strength training, and yoga sessions. It’s exhausting, but it also feels good to finally be able to challenge my body a little again.
๐ Additionally, I wanted to read more, watch movies more regularly, meditate daily if possible, and do other nice little things more frequently. Therefore, I have started to enter these things as events in my calendar so that I don’t lose sight of them.1 The first week has already gone quite well.
๐ค Jarod Blundy released an excellent Shortcut on HeyDingus. It automatically generates an image description using OpenAIโs GPT4. And if this was not enough, he released Micro.blog Multimedia Uploader - upload any file to Micro.blog and format it for your blog post. ๐คฉ
๐ป I really enjoy all the Apps from Apptorium. Lots of great stuff available, mainly for macOS. They came up with a new app: Cursor Teleporter - Teleport your cursor across your displays. In my lectures, I often struggle with moving and finding the cursor on the projector behind me; this app helps a lot to avoid that.
๐ Obsidian collected projects for its Gems of the Year 2023, and now the voting on their Discord has begun. Lots of interesting plugins. I already use some of them, but most were new to me. I voted for Carlos' Actions for Obsidian, among others, and installed Image Converter: Convert and compress images from one format to another by drag’n’dropping or pasting files into the note. I’ve been looking for a plugin like this for a long time and created something similar myself with the help of Shortcuts and Retrobatch. But, this plugin is much more convenient and powerful. I also really like the linter plugin - an Obsidian plugin that formats and styles your notes with a focus on configurability and extensibility.
๐ฎ It was mentioned on the last episode of Hemispheric Views, Idle Iktah - Idle Iktah is an incremental iOS game set in a fictionalized Pacific Northwest where you start from nothing and create your own path to success. It looks very strange. I downloaded it but have not started playing yet.
๐น๏ธ I believe this one-dimensional Pac Man game that you can play in your browser was mentioned on DF2: Paku Paku.
๐ฅ Max Handelman, the developer of GameButler, released Minerva for Trakt - the movie and TV show app that youโve been looking for. Yet another Trakt client. It has a similar, quite cool, aesthetic as GameButler (I would call it very functional) and no subscription model (just a small one-time payment). I still stick to TV Forecast though, the only thing missing for me is the ability to sort my own watchlist by various criteria. (Which seems to be possible with Minerva.)
๐ ๏ธ Eternalstorms is another developer whose software I really like. I was a long-time user of Screenfloat before I replaced it with the corresponding function of CleanShot X (also on Setapp). But I am still excited about Version 2, which will be released next week.
๐ Barebones released version 15 of BBEdit. I instantly upgraded before even reading the release notes. Its main new feature is ChatGPT worksheet support. Matt made a video about it, if you’re interested.
๐จ Hiro posted these Teenage Engineering iPhone Wallpapers in his weeknotes. I am not into sequencer stuff at all (unfortunately, I am completely talentless when it comes to music) but they look awesome, nevertheless.
I had previously tried to write these things down as normal lists or tasks in Obsidian and other apps. But I didn’t like that. Even specialized apps like RoutineFlow were not the right tool for me. The calendar does the trick for now. ↩︎
In continuation of week 52, 2023, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the first week of 2024:
๐ค I read some blog posts about One Month Without and I always find it interesting to see what people are willing to give up for a month. I did this spontaneously in the first half of 2023, giving up alcohol, caffeine (not entirely true, I did drink green tea a few times, but completely abstained from coffee, cola, etc.), sweets, and snacks. Giving up coffee was definitely the hardest. I have not yet decided if and for how long I will repeat it this year, but I have declared January to be alcohol-free.
๐ฑ Clicks for iPhone - a REAL KEYBOARD for your iPhone: tempting, and I still hate typing on my iPhone (sometimes I get the impression that Apple wants to annoy me on purpose, always choosing keys nearby and never those that lead to sensible words; the new LLM for autocorrect is also not yet available in German). But I wouldn’t want to keep taking my phone out of the case (which I use most of the time), putting it into this keyboard and back into the case again.
๐ฅ๏ธ Sindre did it again and released a little utility for the Mac: Second Clock - Show a second clock for a different time zone in your menu bar.
๐จ A DALLยทE playground for the Mac: I had not tried DALL-E before because I always assumed that you needed an OpenAI-plus subscription for it. For this app, you only need an API key.
๐น๏ธ Didier posted about vAmiga - a user-friendly Amiga 500, 1000, 2000 emulator for macOS. I have not tried it myself yet, but it looks great.
๐ท Gruber had a problem with unknown files in his Photo Library, and Caleb Hailey helped him.
๐ Otรกvio posted a link to Standard Ebooks - a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost. Oh well, if only I read more books …
๐พ Speaking of Otรกvio. He is the author of Micro.publish, an Obsidian plugin that lets you publish directly to micro.blog. Love it. I ran across a bug trying to publish my last weeknote and he was so kind to fix right it away ๐คฉ. (Otรกvio even wrote a blog post about it.)
๐น๏ธ Downloaded Crunchyroll Presents: Hime’s Quest for my Analogue Pocket - Go back to 1999 and help Crunchyroll-Hime protect New Crunchy City from Y2K! By the way, my Analogue Pocket Dock has arrived, which I should have ordered directly. ๐ฅฐ
๐ฎ I don’t even want to know how much time this boy has spent playing Tetris on the NES to achieve this: 13-Year-Old Becomes First to Beat NES Tetris. I also wonder why a 13-year-old spends his free time in front of an NES and not playing Fortnite or Minecraft ๐คฃ. And how crazy are these different playing techniques?
๐ค While reviewing my subscriptions, I had already considered canceling kagi. This made it easier for me, although I am aware that probably every search engine at least tolerates unethical practices indirectly or even practices them directly to some extent. My hope is that if service providers realize that such non-technical aspects are also relevant to customers, they will hopefully take them more into account in future decisions.
๐บ Finished Season 2 of The Bear and Loki - loved both.
๐ Blake released a web app for omg.lol: write.omg.lol - A simple notepad in your browser backed by omg.lol’s Pastebin feature.
๐ฅ๏ธ Found this on baty.net: So you got Setappโฆ make the most of it: A Terminal script, “which will tell you what apps you have that also have a Setapp version”. This way you can “contribute part of the monthly subscription fee youโre already paying to the developers of the apps you love”.
โ๏ธ Canion posted about another nice-looking plain text/markdown note-taking app I had never heard of before: Notebooks. I now use Obsidian with its Dataview plugin and Actions for Obsidian so intensively that I can’t imagine switching, but in principle, native macOS/iOS apps of this kind are extremely welcome.
๐ต Installed Tuneful - a native macOS menu bar playback control app for Spotify and Apple Music.
๐๏ธ Sindre Sorhus has released just another new app: Memo Widget - Sticky notes on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, and desktop.
๐ KeyJerk Reactions lets you bind the new macOS' Video reactions via a nice UI or a script.
๐ Bookmarked SharePal - Lightning speed sharing. Add. Organize. Share. I don’t have a specific use case for this app yet, but should it come to that, I now have an idea of how I could make the task easier.
๐ This one looks interesting: Globetrotter - “a location-based travel photos app, providing a fast and fun way to share your travel highlights with your friends and family”. Now I just need to get around more, which is not so easy for a household that doesn’t own a car and for some reason doesn’t fly.
๐ฑ Additional apps for iOS, many of which with a free lifetime license thanks to the Indie App Santa promotion: Cheatsheet, Joy, Keybot, Mindr, Peaks, Photo Route, Pretty Progress, and Replica. It remains to be seen which of these I will actually use on a regular basis.1
๐ฑ I installed finity on my iPhone and enjoyed playing it now and then during some trips over the Christmas holidays.
๐ Started playing Diablo 4. I absolutely do not understand yet what one has to do here and especially when and why, but I enjoy it so far ;-)
๐น I checked out Resident Evil 4 on my M2 MacBook Pro and was pleasantly surprised at how well and smoothly it plays. I imagine I see clear differences to the PS5 version I already own, but if I didn’t, it could have been a good purchase for the Mac as well. (I’m not sure if it’s such a clever idea to sell games that have been available for established gaming consoles for years to “real” gamers, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Apple.)
๐ค Funko Box- So many of them almost everywhere. Awesome; did not let Microsoft Designer create my own, though.
๐ฟ I’ve signed up to Album Of The Day and enjoy the daily recommendations so far.
๐ I’ve deleted Overcast and moved to Apple Podcasts.app. Just added only a few shows back in. I’ll try to listen to less Podcasts at 1,0 x speed and more music.
๐ I read the countless annual reviews and outlooks2 with great interest and was pleased about the (perceived) renaissance of blogging. Of course, a large part of this was due to Rob’s App Defaults overview page, which now offers > 300 individual blogs as RSS feeds for simple import into your own feed reader.
๐ฟ Watched Barbie (2023) with the family. Was fun!
๐ Thank you for reading my Weeknotes in 2023! I didn’t quite manage to consistently follow through on the resolution I made at the beginning of the year to write down a few things each week, was briefly on the verge of giving up entirely, and still find it a bit odd, but I had a lot of fun with it. I registered with omg.lol at the beginning of 2023, moved my then only a few weeks old Mastodon account to social.lol, and became a member of micro.blog. I am very happy to have discovered this part of the net. I have actually gotten to know several people who have become dear to me, even though I do not know them personally. Thank you for that! It actually made the year 2023 better, although otherwise, it wasn’t really a year I look back on with much joy. So, I wish everyone a Happy New Year, stay healthy, and see you soon. Looking forward to it!
Keybot is definitely pretty high up on the list. ↩︎
way too many to list them here, sorry ๐คทโโ๏ธ ↩︎
