∞

macOS apps I wish were better

I am a long-time macOS user and over the decades I’ve tried a lot of different apps. Many I have used only briefly or they were discontinued after some time. However, some grow close to my heart, accompany me for countless years, and make my daily life easier. Nevertheless, sometimes some of them eventually lose their shine or fall behind, and I use them just out of habit or nostalgia, even though there are (supposedly) better alternatives.

Currently, there are mainly three programs for me that fall under this category:

DevonThink could have become the native macOS version of Obsidian for me, but with Version 3, I somehow lost access to it. Nowadays, I only use the app, which once shaped my workday, as a storage place for PDFs. That makes me sad.

Launchbar hasn’t seen any real innovations for a very long time, and more significantly, sometimes it starts with a delay on my Macs, which leads to unwanted keystrokes in other programs. There is a plugin system, but I wish the community was as motivated and diverse as with Raycast.

1Password was such a great password manager. Since the update to Version 8 and the switch to Electron, it no longer feels native, it’s sluggish and buggy. The Safari integration1 has become unusable for me, and I currently keep my passwords in both 1PW and Apple’s Keychain. I think with the appearance of Sequoia in the fall, I will probably say goodbye entirely. Even though it will be hard for me.

  1. for sure this is not only 1PW’s fault ↩︎

∞

What caught my attention in week twenty-three, 2024

In continuation of week 22, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-third week of 2024:

  • 🔑 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?! 🤯 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 €. 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.

  • 🚨 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.

  • 🗺️ Organic Maps: Offline Map on the App Store now also supports iCloud sync.

  • 📚 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.

  • 🌐 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.

  • 📶 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 ‎Scaler Bandwidth Monitor.

  • ⏲️ I have been using Rocket for a long time, but Horo - the best free timer app for Mac from the same developer had slipped through my fingers until now.

  • 🍏 Apple already announced the 2024 winners and finalists - Apple Design Awards. Congrats to ‎Crouton: Recipe Manager on the App Store. (I only wish there was an import feature for Mela, the app I currently use.)

  • 🤖 I’m 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 🥰.

  • 📸 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 (⌘A) and copy it (⌘C) to your clipboard 🤯.

  • 🧸 I had to stop collecting LEGO sets due to space constraints and definitely must not buy the Evercade Alpha Bartop Arcade System.

  • 🎮 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 🤷‍♂️.

  • 🎨 Speaking of which: more awesome skins for Delta: Delta Pocket - Transparent Edition.

  • 📱 And: Nintendo 3DS Emulator for iPhone Released in App Store With Caveats.

  • 🔋 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 – maximize your Mac’s battery lifespan. BTW I have decided that the built-in function must suffice for me.

  • 🔋 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.

  • 🌐 If you ask nicely, you might be able to test a new web-based feed reader: An introduction to Sublime Feed.

  • 💻 Johnny Decimal brings Ellane the command line of macOS. If you want to dive deeper afterward, I can definitely recommend Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal.

  • 🛠️ 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.

  • 🎙️ 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 😈.

  • 🗣️ 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.

  • 🇪🇺 This weekend are European elections. Go vote! (And vote for a democratic party!)

  • 🍏 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 😢.)

  • 🙋‍♂️ I’ve received my fist feedback email to a blog post I wrote. Friendly shout-out to Darren!

  • 😮 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.

Have a great week! 🙋‍♂️

  1. whatever they are calling it now ↩︎

∞

Bartender Alternatives

Bartender was acquired and neither the original programmer nor the new owner informed about it. Since the app requires extensive permissions to perform its service, including screen recording, and the communication about the sale apparently went rather catastrophically1, many users are somehow concerned and are looking for an alternative. Fortunately, there are some, but I have not dealt with them much, as I have been using Bartender since its initial release many years ago.

So far, I have come across the following apps, which can now be looked at more closely with regard to their privacy policy and, of course, their suitability as a replacement:2

Which one are you using?

Most people seem to be very happy with Hidden Bar and Ice, both FOSS. And there is now an official (?4) response from Bartender’s original developer Ben Surtees you can read here or here. And another statement from the new owners was published on their blog as well.

Updates

  • 2024-06-07: added footnote 4
  • 2024-06-06: added update above and a link to Michael Tsai in footnote 1 😎
  • 2024-06-05: added OnlySwitch, thanks to Marcus, link to the github version of Hidden Bar, and link to AppleInsider
  • 2024-06-13: added link to new developer statement
  • 2024-07-17: added BTT

  1. There is only one small note on their support page informing about a certificate change. The full extent of this has been very nicely summarised on AppleInsider. You can read some more responses to this whole saga on Michael Tsai’s blog. ↩︎

  2. Alternatively, one can potentially revert to a Bartender version prior to the sale (5.0.48) and additionally block its connections to the internet, e.g., via Little Snitch. ↩︎

  3. That’s the one I just started using without any particular reason and it works just great so far. ↩︎

  4. Of course, there are already speculations that the texts were not written by him and were created by ChatGPT. ↩︎

∞

TIL that on macOS you can open an image with Quick Look by hitting Space bar and then just select all recognised text (⌘A) and copy it (⌘C) to your clipboard 🤯.

∞

What caught my attention in week twenty-two, 2024

In continuation of week 21, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 22. week of 2024:

  • 🚴‍♂️ 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).

  • 🌦️ CARROT Weather has been released in version 6.

  • 💻 The trick on how to Get ChatGPT for Mac and skip the waitlist actually works seamlessly.

  • ⏯️ 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.

  • 📝 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.

  • 📅 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.

  • 📱 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.

  • 🎥 ‎Kino - Pro Video Camera from the makers of Halide has been released. It also looks very promising.

  • 🎮 In a quiet moment, I need to take a closer look at this: Another Majora’s Mask PC Port Is Here.

  • 🎮 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 😎.

  • 💻 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…

  • 🎮 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 🤞.

  • 🎮 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 🤷‍♂️.

  • 🌐 I was happy to hear from Adam again.

Have a great week and take care 😇

  1. among others at Markus (blog in 🇩🇪) ↩︎

∞

TIL that the number of a CR battery indicates its diameter and thickness. For example, CR2032 is 20 mm wide and 3.2 mm thick.

∞

In the whole Pro discussion about the iPad, I always miss the decisive factor for me: There is no multi-user support. I’m not going to spend €2000 on an ultra-modern device that only one person in the household can use, whereas a Macbook Air is available to the whole family for a very similar price.

∞

What caught my attention in week twenty-one, 2024

In continuation of week 20, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 21. week of 2024:

Have a nice week! 🙋‍♂️

∞

Finished reading: Doom Guy by John Romero 📚

∞

What caught my attention in week twenty, 2024

In continuation of week 18, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 19. - 20. week of 2024:

  • 🚴‍♂️ 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.

  • 📵 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?

  • 🚴‍♂️ 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 € (!) for it for now.

  • 🎮 ‎RetroArch 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.)

  • 📑 ‎PDF Squeezer is now also available for iOS.

  • 💾 Carbon Copy Cloner has been released in version 7, and I took the opportunity to support the developer by purchasing the upgrade.

  • 🖼️ If you have an old, currently unused iPad lying around (I’ve heard there are new ones 😇), you might want to check out Synced Photo Frame by Re-Frame and repurpose it as a digital photo frame.

  • 🖼️ Photo Tape - Connect Images: the app looks like a pretty neat way to simply merge images.

  • 🔖 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.

  • ⏳ ‎Time - 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.

  • 🎮 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 😬

  • 🎮 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.

  • 🌞 Have a great week!

  1. That was also the reason why there was no blog post from me last week. I assume almost no one noticed ;-) ↩︎

∞

What caught my attention in week eighteen, 2024

In continuation of week 17, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 18. week of 2024:

  • 🚀 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.

  • 🕹️ 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.

  • 🐰 Following the humane AI pin disaster, 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 😢. I’m curious to see if I will ever see my playdate again 🤞.

  • 📦 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.

  • ⌨️ 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.

  • 🖱️ 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 – Customize menu keyboard shortcuts.

  • ⌚ 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% 😇. 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 🤷‍♂️.

  • 🎮 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 🤦‍♂️. 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.

  • 📚 I wish it wouldn’t cost 300 € to have Reader running on an E-Ink Android device.

  • 📖 Anyone who has ever wanted to test how well they can type can do so by copying a book: Practice typing by retyping ENTIRE novels — TypeLit.io.

  • 💾 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 88×31 ARCHIVE.

  • 🎮 I don’t own a Nintendo 64 console, but I’ve already ordered an EVERDRIVE-64 X5 just in case 🤷‍♂️.

  • 🎥 Watched The Terminator with my sons. Also, I resubscribed to trakt.tv. I think the service is worth supporting.

  • 🚴 Finally got to ride my bike outside several times this week 🥰.

Have a great week! 🙋‍♂️

  1. Sorry, I forgot who it was 😅. Update 2024-05-06: It was most probably Marcus. ↩︎

∞

I am so grateful that some clever mind once invented the bicycle 🙏🥰

A cyclist is riding along a road, viewed from behind another cyclist's handlebars, displaying a cycling computer in clear weather.
∞

What caught my attention in week seventeen, 2024

In continuation of week 16, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the seventeenth week of 2024:

Wishing you a beautiful week! ☀️

2024-04-29: Fix credentials for Time Machine Icons

  1. I’ve started with SteerMouse and so far have no complaints. ↩︎

  2. Sorry, I got this wrong on my initial post. Hopefully corrected now. ↩︎

∞

CASIO fx-4800P

In the latest Clockwise episode Strap In and Forget My Email the question came up, what the oldest tech gadget was that is still being used. For me it’s an old CASIO fx-4800P calculator I got most probably 1990 🤯. I still use it several times a week, whenever I’m not in the mood for PCalc or Soulver on the Mac/iPhone.

∞

What caught my attention in week sixteen, 2024

In continuation of week 15, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the sixteenth week of 2024:

  • 🎮 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 …

  • 🕹️ 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 aren’t new; here’s 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.

  • 🧠 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 ‎Enchanted LLM. This app offers a free and slick interface to interact with Ollama’s LLMs.

  • 💻 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.

  • 🤖 This is so f*%king incredible: Farewell to HD Atlas. But of course that can still be topped: All New Atlas 🤯.

  • 🦉 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?

  • 💻 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.

  • 💻 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.

  • 🛠️ 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.

  • ⏺️ The Stream Deck Neo was announced and looks really compelling to me.

  • 📺 Continued watching Palm Royale - still not sure about this TV series.

  • 🎥 Watch Riders of Justice - enjoyed that one.

  • 🕹️ 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! 🙋‍♂️

  1. 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. ↩︎

  2. This paragraph was obviously inspired by a section of Clockwise. ↩︎

  3. 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. ↩︎

∞

What caught my attention in week fifteen, 2024

In continuation of week 14, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 15. week of 2024:

  • 🎮 I was briefly excited when I read that the first GBA emulator had landed in the iOS App Store. Unfortunately, it was not a legitimate app, and it was subsequently removed (again too late and why at all approved?) from the store: Apple Removes Game Boy Emulator iGBA From App Store Due to Spam and Copyright Violations - MacRumors.

  • 🛠️ Jarod Blundy released another great shortcut: Simple MB Image Uploader.

  • 🏎️ 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 🤯.

  • 📱 At first, I was skeptical, but Simple Scan • 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.

  • 💻 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, ‎iBar-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.

  • 🛑 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.

  • 🖥️ 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.

  • 📁 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, ‎Folderizer might be worth a try, too. So far, I was occasionally using the Setapp version of Image2icon but might give the former a shot.

  • 🎮 I fell in love with ‎Gamery - 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.

  • 🗓️ 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.

  • 📸 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?

  • 🌐 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.

  • 📲 Did you know that you can change the iOS wheel picker to a number pad by just clicking on it? I did not!

  • 🌍 Marcus reminded me that it is a very good idea to support OpenStreetMap. I am now an associated member.

  • 📺 Watched the Pilot of Palm Royale with my wife. Not yet sure what it will turn into.

∞

What caught my attention in week fourteen, 2024

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. 🐣

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:

Have a pleasant week ahead!

  1. 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. ↩︎

∞

What caught my attention in week twelve, 2024

In continuation of week 11, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 12th week of 2024:

  • 😴 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.

  • 🛠️ 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.

  • 🔄 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.

  • 🎉 Robb announced that his Podcast Ruminate joined MacStories. Congrats!

  • 🤔 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.

  • 🧩 Table of contents — for Safari on the App Store: A funny little plugin that does exactly what it promises.

  • ❤️ 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.

  • 🐶 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 😅.

  • 🎮 I’ve finished Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) on my Analogue Pocket and started playing Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA). The next real Mario game will be Super Mario 64. I’ve been thinking a bit about how and on which system I want to play it. I’ve decided to buy the Nintendo 64 bluetooth controller and try it on the Switch via Nintendo Switch Online Plus.

  • 🎥 We watched The Shawshank Redemption (1994) (again) with our sons. What a damn good movie.

  • 🎸 I was at an IDLES concert 🤘.

Have a wonderfull week ahead!

  1. 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 🤷‍♂️. ↩︎

  2. Thanks to my 3D printer, I was able to print a temporary replacement. ↩︎

∞

What caught my attention in week eleven, 2024

In continuation of week 10, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the 11. week of 2024:

  • 👀 Adam is once again working on something new: Neato.

  • 🏦 IndieAppSales 2024 was going on last week and I bought some new apps.

  • 📱 Just like for iA Presenter, there is now also an iOS version of ‎Deckset. I had hoped that it might do without a subscription, but far from it.

  • 🖥️ Nitro for macOS might be something to keep an eye on.

  • 📆 Currently, I also have no use for this, but I can imagine that might change: ‎Rules Shortcuts based on Event.

  • 💎 Here I found a few Homebrew gems: Hidden FREE Mac Apps!. Especially interesting I found mailsy, speedtest-cli, ata, wifi-password, mas, and yt-dlp.

  • 🎵 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.

  • 🎮 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.

  • 🕹️ For the Playdate, I stumbled upon Quandino and bought Mars After Midnight.

  • 📺 I did not know now that Retro Gaming on the Amazon Fire TV Stick is a thing.

  • 🎥 Wikiflix: an interface to browse, search, and view movies published as public domain at Wikimedia Commons, the Internet Archive, or YouTube.

  • 🚀 Nice idea and cool implementation, for which, however, I have no necessity: ‎iPulse - Monitor Your Device.

  • 😓 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 🤷‍♂️.) 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.

  • ✨ There seem to be only two opinions about Asteroid City, and I belong to the fraction that had a lot of fun watching it.

  • 🎉 Celebrated my birthday, had a lot of good food and nice people around me.

  • 🪙 Last but not least, go and check out the One a Month Club and become a member of all those great blogs listed there 😎

Have a nice week! 🙋‍♂️

  1. 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. ↩︎

∞

IndieAppSales Spring 2024

Indie App Sales! is running from 12. to 13. March 2024

Here are some Apps I’ve looked into so far:

Update 2024-03-12T13:00: add Everlog and SharePal; update note for Bridges
Update 2024-03-12T21:35: add Text Workflow