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goodie

Sunday Surprise: iOS12’s Shortcuts Wallpapers

I wrote essentially an “explainer” on Apple Shortcuts, coming in iOS 12 and watchOS 5 this fall, and I couldn’t resist but make some wallpapers based on them. As always, these are in super high resolutions (well north of 5K) and can be downloaded here (2.6MB zip). Desktops Full size 6827x3840 Full size
ios

Understanding Shortcuts in iOS 12

I’m seeing a bunch of people saying Shortcuts are a power user-only feature. “No normal person will ever use these!” In their WWDC keynote, I think Apple leaned too hard into what Shortcuts can do for power users, and people lost the message that these are something users will benefit from even if

Siri in iOS 12: Apple’s Big Leap

I think Apple made a big leap with Siri at WWDC this year, and it’s notable for being a different leap than we were expecting. This is being read as disappointing to some, and revolutionary to others. Why are some people totally jazzed? Take a look at this quick Siri action in Drafts: https:
podcast

10 Awesome Features Coming in watchOS 5 (podcast episode #96)

Apple unveiled watchOS 5 yesterday and here are my 10 most exciting features I've seen and used in the first beta so far. 1. Automatic workout detection 2. Advanced running features (steps-per-minute, rolling pace) 3. Walkie talkie 4. Podcasts 5. Audio apps in the background 6. Grouped notifications 7. Third party
ios

Grading Apple on My watchOS 5 Suggestions

Apple doesn’t answer to me, so this is of no concern to them, but I wanted to take a look back at my watchOS requests to see how close Apple came to meeting them. Siri Watch Face I asked for: Let third party devs integrate to it. Apple delivered: ✅ They did exactly this! Watch
ios

Grading Apple on My iOS 12 Suggestions

Apple doesn’t answer to me, so this is of no concern to them, but I wanted to take a look back at my iOS requests to see how close Apple came to meeting them. Performance I asked for: Performance improvements, especially on older devices. Apple delivered: ✅ Exactly this! iOS 12 is notably faster on
podcast

WWDC18 Reaction Podcast

Is "hugely smarter" grammatically correct? I hope it is because I said it with confidence in today's second episode of the podcast. These were my immediate impressions following the keynote. I had no notes and the Apple site hadn't been updated in time for this recording so I blanked
goodie

Apple Developer Wallpaper (just in time for WWDC)

https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1003292582435262465 Yes, why yes it would! I'm not entirely sure exactly where that graphic is from, but it looks really cool. Wordpress doesn't like having these at full res (14,400px wide!), so you can download a ZIP with all 4 variants here or use the
tech

Keyboard Micro-Review Collection

My wife tells me I have a keyboard problem. You know what, she’s probably right, as I have more keyboards than I really need, but I’m always on the look out for the perfect solution for me. In light of this, here are all the current keyboards I own with basically tweet-length

iOS Apps Crank it to 11 Right Before iOS 12

(That thing where you write a terribly punny post title without even realizing it.) App developers seem to be treating WWDC as a deadline to get their big updates/launches out of the way. Presumably, this will let them devote much of their summers to updating for whatever goodies will be included in iOS 12.
ios

Work Apps in iOS 12

I failed to mention this in any of my notification articles yet, and that’s a damn shame because I think this would be a great feature. Without further ado, here’s what I want. Apps should be able to be marked as “work” apps. This would simply mean they are an app that is
homepod

HomePod Gets It’s First Meaningful Update

Note: HomePod did get an update last month, but no one was able to suss out any user-facing changes. The most exciting update for me is the ability to finally ask my HomePod about my schedule for the day. My work calendar is super important to me and the fact Siri on the HomePod

iOS 12: Realistic Hopes and Dreams

iOS 12 is exactly one week away and if you’re not feeling the hype then…well I guess everything is fine. We’ve made it through Microsoft’s and Google’s annual developer events and next up is the one that I personally am the most invested in. With that in mind, and in
Links

Going All Open Source on Android

Corbin Davenport tried to go all in on open source software on his Android phone: I started this experiment with one question in mind: could you realistically use an Android phone in 2018 with only open-source software? I think for most people, the answer is no. Just about every service or app used by
Meta

Criticism and Clinging to the “Now”

I wrote this back in February when I was getting hammered by a small subset of people being at all critical of the impending HomePod release: But I would not be good at my job if every time someone told me something was wrong I replied “well, this has to be like that because X,
podcast

Podcast #93: Castro 3 Review

Castro 3 came out on Monday of this week and it's a very opinionated podcast player. Listen in to hear why I think this app works so well for me, even if it's not an app for everybody. Get Castro 3 on the App Store. Subscribe to The BirchTree Podcast here.
podcast

Podcast #92: Why I've Already Switched Back to the iPhone

Castro 3, Spark 2, OmniFocus 3, Apollo, and Pocket-Run Pool all came out for iOS since I switched to Android 16 days ago. In that same time there have been zero updates or new apps for Android that have me really exacted. * Castro 3 * Spark 2 * OmniFocus * Apollo * Pocket-Run Pool Subscribe to The
watch

A Major Apple Watch Market

Mike Murphy writing for Quartz: You might’ve noticed that the person who took your order at the bar, brought you the shoes you wanted to try on, or perhaps even patted you down at the airport security line, is sporting an Apple Watch, which starts at $329 for the newest Series 3 watch. And