Ryan Christoffel wrote a great piece over at MacStories, about what he wants to see the iPad gain from the Mac:

I made the iPad Pro my primary computer when it first launched in late 2015. The transition pains from Mac to iPad were minimal, and the device has grown even more capable since that time thanks to improvements in iOS. My need for a Mac is now extremely rare.

My desire for a Mac, however, still exists in a few specific use cases. There are things the Mac has to offer that I wish my iPad could replicate.

Now that the modern iPad has many basics of computing covered, here are the things I think it needs to take iPad-as-PC to the next level.

My favourite proposition:

Wouldn’t it be great if an app like Workflow could become more Hazel-like, triggering workflows automatically in the background based on pre-set rules?

They’re great ideas, and I hope Apple adopt at least a few of them.

Read the full article.

 

In 2010, Jobs and Apple were preparing to release the iPad. A key feature would be the tablet’s ability to function as an e-reader, similar to Amazon’s Kindle (which had already been out for a few years). Of course, the more publishers willing to contribute books to Apple’s iTunes store, the more appeal the iPad would hold.

Four major publishers had already signed on, but another, HarperCollins, was holding out.

Negotiations eventually centered around a key conversation between Jobs and James Murdoch, an executive at News Corp. (HarperCollins’ parent company). Murdoch wasn’t convinced his company (and its partners) could agree to the terms Apple was offering, especially regarding the “ceding of pricing to Apple.”

Jobs proceeded to write an email to try to convince HC to join.

This is a very intriguing piece, and while I’ve seen some articles before about “the best” ways to write an email, this one email seemed very well formed, in a whole manner of aspects.

This book basically boils down to learning how to remove yourself from the typical 9-5 workday, equip yourself with the skills and mindset needed to relocate anywhere in the world, and also to optimise everything in your life.

Tim talks a lot about the tools needed, and the procedures that you can try, in order to move to working more remotely. This sets in motion the rest of the book, in that it is designed for enhancing your work-life balance, and being stuck in an office for a set about of time, is a big part of that.

Once you’ve grasped the idea on how beneficial it is to be able to work anywhere, and anytime, you’re introduced to a whole load of wisdom. There’s a huge section on automation, which spans from having a business working in the background, to having real-life, virtual assistants working for you around the clock.

What I Took From the Book

What I appreciated most in this book was the general ideas around moving to a more remote job, basic knowledge on starting a business, and having it work for you, and also the section on liberation.

If I could read just one section, it would be Liberation. It is where Tim explains methods on how to transition out of an office job, embracing the traveller lifestyle, and how to enjoy “mini-retirements”.

There’s so much knowledge that I have found in this book, and too much for me even to put in to words, because I’m sure a lot of it will go unnoticed, until I’m in a certain situation in the future.

But in general, I learned that your job does now need to be static, your life doesn’t encompass just your career, and there are more important things in life than making just that extra bit of profit.

Travelling is a major key in life, and with it, you can learn a whole lot of skills, experience new ways of thinking, and at the very end, your life will be more rich than if you simply worked in an office all of your life. There is no point in living, just to work.

This is book that I think can be skimmed over in some parts, but there is something in this book for everyone.

Notable Quotes

Being able to quit things that don’t work is integral to being a winner.

“I’m not the president of the U.S. No one should need me at 8 P.M. at night. OK, you didn’t get a hold of me. But what bad happened?” The answer? Nothing.

Get the Book

Amazon

Apple iBooks

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This article is part of my book review series. I aim to read at least one book per month in 2018, and where possible (basically if it’s non-fiction), I’ll write something here about it.

As you may or may not know, I’ve been building my own iOS app for Manton Reece’s Micro.blog.

A short description of Micro.blog, if you aren’t already familiar:

A new social network and publishing platform for independent microblogs, created by Manton Reece.

Development is going well, and I’m nearly ready to announce the first beta version, but I thought I’d write about the current progress, and what you can expect to see in the first beta version. This development log will hopefully become a regular thing as I add more features to the app.

b0.1 – Read Only

The codename for this version is “Read Only”, and that stems from the fact that it will not have any ability to write posts. That is something I want to spend a lot of time getting right, and shouldn’t hold back a beta version from being released.

Right now, there are 5 main sections in the app:

• Timeline
• Mentions
• Favourites
• Discover
• Profile

The first four are pretty much the same, except they present different lists of posts. But they are what you’d imagine.

On each post in these lists, at the minute you see the name and username of the author, the posts content (of course), and the date. Each post also has a favourite/unfavourite button in the top-right corner. Swiping right to left on these cells, will show you the full conversation relevant to this post.

I currently also do some basic link detection in posts, and if there’s a @ mention with a link to their Micro.blog profile, it will navigate to their profile page. Anything else at the minute will launch inside a Safari View inside the app.

In the profile page, for yourself, or other users, you currently only see the name, username, photo, and also the number of people you are following. You cannot see how many followers you have in any case. Tapping the following will show a list of all of these users.

The app currently supports both methods of authentication, app token, and also by requesting an email that contains a link to open the app.

I started on a side menu as well, which at the minute simply shows the version number. But this will be expanded heavily in the future.

What Else

Of course one thing I need to add, is the ability to log out! It will be placed in the side menu.

I also want to expand the profile pages, by adding the bio, and also a link to their website. And also, features surrounding the user that I want to add, is the ability to tap on a users image to open their profile, and also the ability to follow and unfollow a user.

Finally, I need to make some icons for the overall app (most likely a quick draft for beta purposes), the different tabs, and also one for the menu.

Screenshots

I’ve had the Touch Bar MacBook Pro now for over a year, and while I love the fact it has 4 x USB C ports, the cable that comes with it, isn’t exactly the best. I find that because it’s not as flexible as the MagSafe used to be, it’s more rigid, and tends to either bend at weird angles, or just slides straight out the port.

However, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Anker, and all of their various USB C products. So I thought I’d order one of their nylon braided USB C cables from Amazon. The Anker PowerLine+ C to C 2.0 to be exact.

The build quality is impressive, as you’d expect. But the nylon braiding, makes it such a superior cable than the Apple one. I find that it fits in the MacBook port with more of a grip, and (although it is a rather smooth connector), it seems to lock itself in position. It also isn’t affected by the twisting and bending of the default cable.

All I can say, is that it’s a pretty impressive little cable! And as I’m impressed with everything about it, I mean I even got a little magnetic pouch to hold it in, I’m probably going to invest in a USB C battery pack from them in the future.

I don’t think it supports Thunderbolt 3, as I can’t find any mention it on the Amazon product page, or Anker’s. However, that’s not a big concern for me. The only peripheral I use with my MacBook is a Transcend external drive, and I’m pretty sure that isn’t Thunderbolt either.

So if you have an Apple USB C cable, or just want to replace another branded one that’s not exactly holding up, I fully recommend this one. I paid £10.99 for mine, which is an unbelievable price.

Started some pretty cool stuff in my Micro.blog app last night – generic views for lists of posts!

I already had it working for lists of users, but with the posts, I should be able to add conversations, and other stuff quite easily.

After that, I’m going to work on a generic view for an individual post and user. And then make the navigation much more simple, so whatever you tap on, whether it’s a post in a list, or a user’s photo in a post, the app will detect the context, and present you with the relevant view to show more details about that.

Basically, it will allow for much more user friendly navigation, and hopefully with not too much work!

I thought I’d do some more work on my Micro.blog iOS client this evening. So far it can only view the following sections:

• Timeline
• Mentions
• Discover
• Favourites

The code however, is probably the best I’ve ever written. I’ve kept it pretty generic, and it’s something that can definitely be expanded upon pretty quickly now.

What I worked on tonight, was the interface and some of the error handling for the initial login page. I want to support logging in by a Micro.blog username/password, but also by a direct app token.

It is at the minute, a strict Micro.blog client, because I don’t plan on developing a whole blogging application. However I will look into that decision in the future.

For now, here’s a preview of the Login page:

Stephen Hackett, writing in his MacStories column:

Today, all of our notebooks are thin and light. We’ve traded our optical drives in for a series dongles and our spinning hard drives for fast, silent SSDs.

It wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time, notebooks had optical drives and a full array of ports, complemented by features like removable batteries.

A decade ago, we entered the current era of notebook design when Steve Jobs pulled the future out of an envelope.

The MacBook Air was a real astonishing product when it first launched, and the envelope presentation shocked quite a lot of people.

Stephen, goes into a lot of detail in his article, where he discusses things like the overall design, the IO it had, and also some of the issues it had.

Along with the article, he also produced another of his insightful videos:

Watch it on YouTube.

Read the full article on MacStories.

Big Cats is a new documentary series, being produced by the BBC. They have an incredible track record with documentaries, especially ones focussed on nature. As proved by the recent Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II series.

This series follows in the same footsteps, as it is being pushed by a new generation of advanced camera technology, and techniques. Which enables them to get some pretty impressive shots of evasive cat species, such as the Snow Leopard, and the Rusty Spotted-Cat.

The first episode is already out, and it’s great! The scenes were impressive, the amount of knowledge about the different species was incredible, and it was just generally intriguing.

It’s the first time I’ve also heard about the Rusty Spotted-Cat, which is the smallest cat species, and grows to between 35 to 48 cm in length, and a 15 to 30 cm tail. They released a small clip from the first episode, so you can watch that below, or on YouTube.

I’m not sure how they can really make the next episode better than the first, but I expect it will go beyond my expectations. Although it is only a three-episode series, so I guess it will also be pretty packed!

BBC – Big Cats

BBC iPlayer – Big Cats – Episode 1

BBC iPlayer – Episode 1 Clip – The world’s smallest cat

 

Apple today, launched two more videos focussed on the iPad Pro to their YouTube channel.

Augement Reality

With iPad Pro + iOS 11, you can use augmented reality to literally transform the world around you. Your next computer might not be a computer.

Take Notes

With iPad Pro + iOS 11, you can use Apple Pencil to create multimedia notes. Draw, type, or drag and drop your favorite photos from Files. Your next computer might not be a computer.

I’m really enjoying their latest series of iOS 11 videos. It’s not a simple, an iPad is better than a Mac argument. Instead, they tend to focus on a younger user that has no concept of ”a computer”, but treat an iPad as the device.

It’s starting to become even more apparent, that younger generations are the ones that are truly adapting to new technology. Mainly because they haven’t got the burden of really knowing what it was like before these new devices, such as the iPad Pro.