Chris Hannah
The software maker has agreed to acquire GitHub, the code-repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.
I don’t like the sound of this.
With iOS 12’s imminent announcement, I thought I’d prepare myself for a new way of using my devices.
For months now, I’ve been trying to refine my use of my devices, apps, and services that I use. But I think a different approach is needed, and I hope that future OS updates will help me along the way.
The method I’ve been using for a while is quite a harsh one, where I disabled notifications, and everything associated with them, on nearly all applications. Along with getting rid of some apps/services that I don’t think provide any value.
But while I think this has been a step in the right direction, I don’t think it’s a particularly accurate way to achieve my goal of adapting my devices to my needs, and for it to provide me with the most value as possible.
That’s why I’ve now done a complete reversal and turned on all the notifications, and possible distractions on my iPhone. In the short term, I’m hoping this will let me find out where I don’t need to be spending my time and also see if there is any value to them. I mean, I know notifications can be valuable, but I want the right balance. And by turning them all off, I’m potentially missing out.
So tonight, I’ve already gone through a few apps to disable types of notifications, and in some cases, just deleted the app entirely. For example, I have an app for a restaurant I go to maybe once every two months, but they send at least one offer notification every single day.
What I’m majorly hoping for in the next iOS update, are pretty minor things. With the ability to group notifications having the highest priority. I can’t even bear thinking about the types of apps that would benefit from this, because it’s probably all of them. I also think there can be improvements made to the way notifications are visualised. Because even grouped, it’s still just a list.
Then there’s priority, not all bits of information are equally useful. And if they are, you might not need to know about it right now. Things like iMessages are more important than likes on an Instagram post, and work emails are certainly not relevant out of work hours, or maybe even a work location. So there’s a lot of work that can be done here, involving sorting, filtering, and queueing/snoozing.
If all of these issues are “resolved”, then I think the way devices are experience, and even used, will change quite a lot.
There’s also one more tool that would be able to help focus your device usage on a bigger scale, and that would be a way to monitor/visualise your usage, or habits, system-wide. Of course, you can kind of track this by using the battery analytics that tells you the time on screen for apps, but I want it better, and more in my face. Because more insight can only be better.
This is, of course, a long-term goal, and maybe more of a process. But I plan to write about my journey of focusing my usage of devices, and in general, refining my life to maximise value.
I have a few more ideas that I want to try soon, so you’ll find these here only blog as well.
Tim Hardwick, writing for Mac Rumors:
Stationery Pad is a handy way to nix a step in your workflow if you regularly use document templates on your Mac. The long-standing Finder feature essentially tells a file’s parent application to open a copy of it by default, ensuring that the original file remains unedited.
Stationery Pad doesn’t get much attention these days, but it’s a neat alternative to repeatedly editing templates and using the “Save As…” command, which can lead to overwriting the original file if you’re not too careful.
I had no idea this existed. I will most certainly be making use of it in the future.
A short update regarding my earlier piece on Apple blocking Steam’s Steam Link app.
Turns out I was correct in that the type of app has nothing to do with the rejection. Which is why the appeal to Apple about there already being other remote-desktop style apps, didn’t work.
However, Reuters wrote a great piece, including quotes from Valve. The major point is this:
Steam, however, also offers purchases within games distributed through its platform and also takes a cut of those purchases. Apple’s App Store guidelines ban such a store-within-a-store unless the purchases flow the Apple’s infrastructure and pay Apple’s cut.
That is why it was rejected.
It’s also the reason why you have a Kindle app on iOS, but have to go to the Amazon website to purchase books. Because they don’t want to share any revenue with Apple.
It may seem terrible that Apple demand a cut of all purchases made on their platform. But they are the ones supplying the platform, and the opportunity for developers to build apps for them.
At first glance, Apple rejecting Valve’s Steam Link seems like a bad idea.
However, I haven’t yet seen anyone with details about why it was rejected. I’ve seen “business conflicts” mentioned, however I can’t pay too much importance to any of the reports until I see at least the guideline that it didn’t follow.
If it does indeed break an app review rule, then you can’t really argue that it was rejected. But if, like many articles pointed out, there are other remote-desktop style apps already in the app store, and Steam Link is essentially just that, then these should receive the same treatment.
To counter that point, there is also the fact that we do not know the reason why it was rejected. Which means the reason could be nothing to do with the fact that it’s a remote-desktop app.
Also, approving and rejecting is a bit of a dick move. But more likely caused by human error.
I recently started working on one of the most important parts of Slate, composing and publishing posts.
It was maybe the only feature I actually planned out, and I have a whole section in Things dedicated to it. I already know what features I want to add before I can say it’s complete, but I think I will also release a beta version for this feature, as soon as the minimal tasks are completed.
At the moment, it’s quite basic in functionality. It accepts an optional title, and of course the list content. No replies, image uploading, etc.
The first step was, of course, to add the code to actually post something to Micro.blog. But since then I’ve just been working on the UI.
Again, that is quite simple. There’s a field with for the title, a much larger text field which is where I’m currently writing this post content, and also a character count in the bottom-right corner.
Before releasing a beta version of composing, there are just a few things I want to add:
After I’ve done that, another build will be released!
👨🏻💻
This has to be some of the most incredible aerial footage I have ever seen. Truly breathtaking.
Peter Keith Aerial Cinematography Reel 2017/18 from Peter Keith on Vimeo.
Although I’m not thinking it about it too much right now, I’m not completely sure how Slate will be monetised in the future.
I would like to offer Slate as a free app, like Icro.
My first idea is to put a “Tip Jar” style feature in Slate after it is released. And then maybe it can be paid in the future? I’m not sure about how well that would be received though.
For now, I’ve set up a “Buy me a coffee” page, as I thought that was a simpler solution right now. I’m not trying to use this to request anything, but it’s just out there as a way to support the development.
I recently purchased a little gadget for my iPhone that I think quite a few people may be interested in. It’s a Qi charging coil that turns an iPhone into a wireless charging capable device, which is very handy for my iPhone 7 Plus.
It comes in quite a slim package, and it’s just thin enough to fit behind a case while not causing too much disturbance to the feel of the phone. Although its pretty ugly to look at on its own, and the build quality is probably what you’d expect for a £5 accessory, it works!
At the same time as buying the coil, of course I had to buy a wireless charger. I also opted for the cheaper choice, and bought a dock style charger, that lets me charge my phone, while still being able to use it, and have it in eyesight to see any notifications that appear.
I’m not using it at home though, as I don’t have a need to charge my phone other than at night. So I keep it on my desk at work, where I can wirelessly send new builds from Xcode and test them out while not wasting a port on my MacBook.
I can’t guarantee that it will work with all cases, but I have an Apple Leather case, which it has no problem with. But of course this case is removed as soon as I leave work, because I generally hate adding unnecessary bulk to my phone.
However, it’s a cheap, and acceptable solution for wireless charging for older devices.
Just for reference, here are the products I purchased: