wallpaper
Apple's Unofficial Jupiter Wallpaper 2022
As I've done before in 2017 (twice, even!!), I wanted to take the chance to create a new
Back to Spark
Apple’s Mail app is getting some much-needed features this year in iOS 16, and I’ve been using it all summer as my mail app on my iPhone and iPad, but sadly I just removed it from those devices and have gone back to Spark.
For all the talk in the Apple enthusiast
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The One Thing Republicans Care About
Charles M. Blow: Republicans Are America’s Problem
However, her loss does crystallize something for us that many had already known: that the bar to clear in the modern Republican Party isn’t being sufficiently conservative but rather being sufficiently obedient to Donald Trump and his quest to deny and destroy democracy.
As far as
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Not That Sort of Club
Nexus Mods is a great site for finding fun mods to PC games, and I use it all the time. It's where I got the "easy mode" mod that turned Elden Ring into one of my favorite games of the year, for example.
They were in the news this week which
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Gaming on a Mac is Still Blah
Digital Foundry does the best technical gaming analysis out there, and it was awesome to see them take a rare look at Mac gaming this week. They compared a maxed-out Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra and compared it to several PC systems to see how it stacked up.
You should watch the video,
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Our (maybe) Metaverse Delusion
John Gruber on Meta:
I take Zuckerberg at face value that he’s more or less betting the company on “the metaverse”. But to me their efforts on that front feel less like “We know exactly what experiences we’re trying to create that will be more compelling than anything that exists today and will
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Google's Plan to Promote Political Spam Emails will Proceed
Makena Kelly: Gmail is now officially allowed to spam-proof politicians’ emails
Google’s plan, first reported by Axios in June, would allow for candidates, political party committees, and leadership political action committees to apply for the program that would make their messages exempt from Gmail’s spam detection systems. While Google did not need
Apple
Can We Improve the iOS 16 Battery Percentage Icon?
This tweet has been making the rounds today, and fair play to it, it's a really nice-looking
movie
Does Hollywood Actually Make More Sequels and Super Hero Movies Than They Used To?
Yes and yes.
The Data
I used Box Office Mojo to look at the top 10 grossing movies in the
Are Vaccines Working?
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the New York Times has been collecting and sharing case and death
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I’ll Bet You Never Heard of this $4 Billion Company
Global Payments to acquire EVO for $4 billion
Global Payments is to acquire smaller rival EVO Payments for nearly $4 billion in an all-cash deal that will extend its reach in the B2B sector. Headquartered in Atlanta, EVO currently offers merchant acquiring and paymens processing services to more than 550,000 merchants in over
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Proxy Icons are Hidden in Plain Sight
Nick Heer: The Many Capabilities of Proxy Icons
The proxy icon should not be treated as a secret, hidden feature. It is so much more dignified and capable than that.
I've been using the Mac since 1995, I've been entrenched in the Apple community since around 2004, and hand to my
newsletter
The Birchtree Newsletter, August 2022
The Birchtree Newsletter is now monthly! I've fallen off the wagon recently, and I still want to bring you guys fun stuff, but doing that every week became too much, but monthly works so much better, so I hope you enjoy it as well. Here's what we'll cover each
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Is Your North Star Quality or Quantity?
Om Malik: The problem with Facebook
Meta’s north star doesn’t take into account value to the users, the benefit to the larger ecosystem or even the experience. Instead it is about how the company’s users time can be translated into dollars for the sole benefit for Meta.
This vibes with what I
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The Vibe Shift I've Been Waiting For
Meg Walters: Anne Hathahate was rooted in misogyny - and a new generation aren’t standing for it
Our sudden acceptance of the earnest celebrity isn’t merely a fluke – it’s a symptom of a much larger cultural shift. As a new generation comes of age, new values, priorities and perspectives are also taking hold.