Posts in Ios (20 found)
Cassidy Williams 4 days ago

Deep Dish Swift 2026 recap

I gave the opening keynote at Deep Dish Swift 2026 today! It was so fun. The event is very iOS-oriented and nearly 300 people in the Chicago area, and it was cool meeting so many folks who I hadn’t met in person before. Before the event, I actually spoke on the podcast for the event, called Slices ! I love all of the pizza puns this event has so much. The vibe throughout the podcast and the conference was fun, indie, and just cool. My talk, speaking of pizza puns… started with a pizza pun, where I led with, “I thought this conference was about eating deep dish swiftly…” and my slides were literally just about pizza. The talk itself was actually about AI, the state of the industry, and how we need to share our knowledge and support others… but again the visuals were all pizza. This was honestly one of the hardest-to-write talks I’ve ever done. Doing the technical AI part of the talk while making my slides plausibly like a real talk about pizza was far more challenging than I expected it to be. But, I’m happy with the outcome! I’ve never actually had so many people approach me just to ask me about my talk-writing process before, with one attendee saying, “I’ve never seen a metaphor so gracefully navigated,” which is the most flattering thing I’ve ever heard someone say to me while I’m wearing a shirt covered in pepperoni.

ios iOS swift Swift ai AI
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Danny McClelland 5 days ago

Moving my mobile numbers to VoIP

For the last year or so I’ve been running three eSIMs on my iPhone: personal, work, and a data-only travel SIM that swaps in whenever I’m abroad. iOS only lets two eSIMs be active at any one time, which meant a small but constant dance of enabling and disabling profiles depending on what I was doing that day. I’ve now ported both my personal and work mobile numbers to VoIP, and the eSIM juggling is gone. The nudge came from Michael Bazzell’s Extreme Privacy: What It Takes to Disappear , which recommends moving your “real” numbers off a carrier and onto a VoIP provider as part of a broader privacy strategy. For Bazzell the point is untangling your identity from the mobile network. For me it’s almost entirely convenience. Whichever phone I pick up in the morning rings for both numbers, and the data SIM can sit wherever it’s most useful without me having to decide which mobile identity to sacrifice for the day. I’m using Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) as the VoIP provider. I’ve used them for broadband on and off for years and they remain one of the few ISPs I’d actively recommend: technically competent, refreshingly honest, and perfectly happy for you to do slightly unusual things with your service. Porting two mobile numbers to them was painless. For the client I’m using Groundwire from Acrobits. I’ve been through plenty of SIP clients over the years and most of them are either ugly, flaky on push, or weirdly hostile to the idea of multiple accounts. Groundwire is the first one that’s felt like a proper phone replacement. Push notifications actually work, call quality is good, and it handles multiple accounts without any drama. AAISP exposes SMS through a plain-text HTTP API, and Groundwire expects messages to be delivered via its own web service hooks in XML. The two formats don’t match, so out of the box sending and receiving text messages just didn’t work: calls were fine, but SMS was effectively dead. I ended up writing a small PHP proxy that sits between them. Outbound messages go from Groundwire into the proxy, get reshaped, and hit the AAISP API. Inbound messages arrive via an AAISP webhook, get stored in SQLite, and are picked up the next time Groundwire polls. It also pokes Acrobits’ push service when something arrives, so iOS actually surfaces the notification rather than silently waiting on the next poll cycle. It’s called aaisp-sms-proxy and it’s on GitHub if anyone else is in the same boat. AAISP credentials stay server-side, each number gets its own token so they’re properly isolated, and there’s a tiny bit of rate limiting and log sanitisation in there because it’s on the public internet. I use it every day now and mostly forget it’s there. The other reason this matters is that I’m planning to move my daily driver to GrapheneOS . If your numbers live on a physical or embedded SIM, switching devices is a faff: SIM swaps, eSIM transfers, carrier-app dances, the lot. With VoIP the numbers live in an account, so I install Groundwire on whichever phone I’m carrying and it just rings. Pixel one day, iPhone the next, both at the same time if I want. The one remaining puzzle is Signal. Signal still treats the phone as the primary device and the desktop clients as tethered secondaries, which is fine for a single-phone setup but doesn’t quite fit mine. I want something closer to proper multi-device: two phones, both independently functional, one potentially offline for weeks at a time without losing messages when it comes back online. That isn’t how Signal is designed to work today, so figuring out a sensible workaround is next on the list. If you’re reading Bazzell and coming at this from a privacy angle, AAISP isn’t the answer. They’re a UK telco and they verify you like any other provider, so the number is still firmly tied to your legal identity. Moving off a SIM buys you some separation from the mobile network itself, but not the kind of disappearance the book describes. For that you’d want a provider willing to sell you a number without identity checks, and AAISP explicitly doesn’t. My goal was never to vanish, just to stop playing eSIM Tetris every time I landed in another country. The juggling is gone.

ios iOS php Php Xml
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HeyDingus 2 weeks ago

Launchpad was great for uninstalling apps; Spotlight is not

Apple published this video to their Support channel on YouTube yesterday, and it motivated me to get this off my chest: Uninstalling apps on macOS is not as easy as it should be. Yes, I know, I know that you can just drag an app to the trash and technically it’s gone. That’s what Apple recommends doing in its video. But then why do are apps like Raycast , CleanMyMac , and AppCleaner able to find leftover files scattered around your system by the deleted app? Maybe it’s just the completionist in me, but I don’t want those files left behind! One thing — the only thing? — I liked about Launchpad was that it made it super obvious how to uninstall (Mac App Store) apps. 1 Just like on your iPad/iPhone, you could click and hold on the app’s icon to send it into “ jiggle mode” and then click the ‘ X’ would remove it. I could be confident that all the app’s associated bits and bobs would be removed from my system. But that changed with Tahoe. While Spotlight got a huge boost in capability as a whole with clipboard history and actions, it also subsumed Launchpad’s role as the main, well, launcher for apps. But there are no affordances in Spotlight for removing apps like Launchpad had. AppCleaner was my go-to tool back in the day, but now I use Raycast to get the job done with confidence. Raycast’s implementation could offer some inspiration for Apple. After searching for an app within Raycast, a simple ⌘K shortcut reveals a host of actions that can be taken on the app. You can open an app, reveal it in the Finder, quit it, and, yes, uninstall it — among other things. Apple could follow this model and provide an ‘ Uninstall App’ action to take within Spotlight. Spotlight’s interface, seeing as it replaced Launchpad, should offer the same capability for removing apps. And it should be as thorough as on an iPhone or iPad. P.S. I also occasionally use Raycast to quit apps that stubbornly have no icon in the Dock or menu bar and therefore make it tricky quit completely. Apps installed outside of the Mac App Store would not display the ‘ X’ to remove it. You had to do it the “ old fashioned” way of dragging the app to the trash and then hunt down its system files. ↩︎ HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email . Apps installed outside of the Mac App Store would not display the ‘ X’ to remove it. You had to do it the “ old fashioned” way of dragging the app to the trash and then hunt down its system files. ↩︎

programming Programming design Design ios iOS go Go
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Andre Garzia 3 weeks ago

Apple Just Lost Me

# Apple Just Lost Me Apple has just lost me as an user. It will take me a while before I can fully migrate away from their devices, and I suspect I might need to keep a mac around for my work, but I will move all my personal computing to Linux and Android again. I been an Apple user since MacOS 8. I had both a Newton MessagePad 2000 and an eMate 300. I got the original blue toilet-seat iBook G3. I was there for the developer road show introducing MacOS X. I paid for my developer account since then. Recently, I had a Macbook Air, iPhone 17, iPad Mini. I'm gonna throw all of them away — not literally ofc — because of recent slop this company been shipping. It is death through a thousand papercuts. To summarise for yous there are three main issues for me and the last one happened today and is what pushed me through the threshold. ### Gatekeeper I absolutely hate Apple quarantine and gatekeeping of software. As a developer, I should just be able to ship software to those interested in my apps. Be aware that I don't give a flying fuck about mobile development, I'm talking about desktop apps here. I gave in to the Apple racketering scheme and got myself a developer account from the very start. I had to *fax my card details to them*, that is how long I had my account. Even though my software is packaged and notarised as per their requirements, they still show my users a dialog box confirming they want to run my app, something they do not for apps installed through their walled garden. This is just friction to punish developers outside their store. I am very tired of it. ### macOS 26 That has been an absolute fiasco. Liquid glass is completely broken from a design point of view. I have no idea how that got out of the door, and now multiple updates in, it still just as bad. Not only it looks ugly, and that is subjective of course, but it is visually broken. Interfaces built with AppKit or SwiftUI that rendered perfect, are now overlapping controls and clipping stuff. They have no consistency at all in terms of icons, placement, corners... I am not a designer, I don't even care about design much, but when a bad design spreads like ink on a glass of water poisoning my workflows, it is when I notice it. ### Age verification My iPhone updated last night and per UK laws, it introduced age verification. The way Apple decided to implement this is through credit card checking. First it attempted to check my Apple Wallet, it failed even though I have five cards in it and am able to use the App Store fine. Then it moved onto wanting me to manually add a card to verify myself. It failed with all my five cards. Four were debit cards, and one was a credit card from another country, cause you know I am an immigrant who has accounts still in my own original birth place. So it failed age verification and locked me out of many features. Bear in mind, I am 45 years old. I have an Apple account for 25 years, the age of my personal account alone should already verify my age. Credit cards are not documents. Many people don't have them. Apple don't provide any other way to verify your age because they are a stupid American company with American values in which you're just as human as your credit score. Age verification is a scam, but checking it with a credit card is even worse. ## Next steps for me I was already done with Apple for some months now, but due to that happening today, I am angry af and will speed up my plans. I'm tired of devices that are not actually mine, of workflows that without blessing from a higher corporate authority won't work. I'm gonna move back to Linux and Android. > Yeah, I know Google gonna fuck Android soon the same way, but at least with Android you tend to have more options. For my computing needs, I purchased a [MNT Pocket Reform](https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/pocket-reform). It will take them a while to assemble and send it to me, but once I have it, my macbook will become a work laptop only. All software I make already ships for Linux. I am considering getting a [Fairphone Gen 6](https://www.fairphone.com/the-fairphone-gen-6). Not sure if I will go with stock Android or their Murena /e/OS version. It depends how the degoggled version handles my banking apps. I might need to go with stock Android. After those two, I plan to assemble a little *homelab* using either a TinyMiniMicro form factor PC running Linux and if I have the budget an ugreen NAS. On those machines, I want to have something to handle my photo backup and shared drive. Will probably use either tailscale or some cloudflare bullshit to connect them to each other. This is it, moving back towards taking control of my computing again.

ios iOS hardware Hardware
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HeyDingus 1 months ago

No Face ID nor iPad apps wrenches my iPhone Duo(?) purchase plans

The Verge ’ s headline sums up Mark Gurman’s latest report on Apple’s folding phone quite succinctly: ‘ iPhone Fold rumor: iPad-like multitasking, but no iPad apps and no Face ID ’ Though the updated layout could make multitasking easier, Gurman reports that the folding iPhone won’t run existing iPad apps. Still, Apple is reportedly trying to take advantage of the phone’s larger screen real estate by updating its “ core” apps with a sidebar on the left side of the screen. It will also give developers the ability to make the iPhone versions of their apps more iPad-like, according to Gurman. Hmph. There’s more. Instead of using Face ID , Apple’s foldable could integrate Touch ID into the device’s side button, as the “ front panel is too thin to accommodate the Face ID sensor array,” Gurman reports. That means in place of the pill-shaped housing for the front-facing camera and Face ID , Apple will reportedly add a small-hole punch camera instead.  Gurman has previously reported  that the foldable could look like two iPhone Airs stuck together. A few things are running through my mind reading this report. First, I’m putting my money behind it being called ‘ iPhone Duo’. It would really tickle me for Apple to put out a ‘ Duo’ and a ‘ Neo’ — two Surface product names that Microsoft used and which flopped and was never released , respectively. Second, this lack of Face ID business really puts a wrench in my plans. I’ve been pretty psyched about replacing my iPhone and my iPad mini with an iPhone Duo. As much as I love my 17 Pro, it’s too big and I think the double-duty device would really work for me. But I don’t think I want to go without Face ID . My iPad mini only has Touch ID in the power button and I’ve never enjoyed that unlocking method. Honestly, it was better in the Home Button. Third, I haven’t really kept up with the folding iPhone’s rumored specs. I presume each half is going to be thinner than the both iPhone Air and the iPad Pro (Apple’s record-holding thinnest device) since both of those feature Face ID . Fourth, leave it to Apple to not do the obvious thing and just let the thing run iPad apps. Why make developers go through designing another layout for their iOS apps if the iPadOS versions are right there ? We’ll see how the software situation shakes out. I’ll be pretty disappointed if this thing doesn’t come with Face ID . It’s probably a deal-breaker, even though I’d want to purchase it to show Apple the foldable is a form factor worth pursuing. There’s always the chance they’ll cancel the whole thing if the first one doesn’t sell well. On the other hand, they did just fix the iPhone 16e’s most glaring omission — MagSafe — year-over-year with the 17e . There’s hope. HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email .

hardware Hardware ios iOS
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fLaMEd fury 1 months ago

Four More Years

What’s going on, Internet? I’ve been using my iPhone 13 Pro for a little over four years now, since September 2021 and I want to keep using it for a couple more. Keyboard lag. Apps taking a second to think before opening. Battery health sitting at 80%. I had a quick look at the iPhone 17 and couldn’t justify it when everything else about this phone is still good. Storage is only half full. Camera is fine. It’s fast when it wants to be. So I tried the logical fix first: a $90 battery replacement from a local repair shop. This is where it had been sitting for a while. Still usable, but clearly the reason iOS had started throttling performance. Straight after the swap I got a warning about the battery not being genuine which I was only made aware of right before pulling the trigger on this after reading a comment on the iPhone 13 Battery page on iFixit . I made peace with myself and I was prepared to live with it. For $90 and being done in 30 minutes without having to schedule with an authorised repair dealer and being without the phone for up to four days. I just wanted the speed back. But apparently because I’m on a newer version of iOS, I had the option to run Apple’s verification process. So I did… and it passed. Battery health back to 100%, full stats restored, and the warning moved to Parts & Service History where it belongs. That’s basically the authorised-repair end result for third-party-repair money. I followed the usual calibration cycle: charge to 100%, leave it on the charger for a couple more hours, run it down until it turns off, charge back to 100%. Mostly to give iOS a clean read on the new battery. The battery fixes the hardware bottleneck. The other half is software. Years of installed apps, background processes, cached junk. So I’m preparing for a full wipe and setting the phone up as new. No restoring from backup, sign into iCloud and let the data sync back, reinstall apps one at a time. Only the things I actually use get to come back. It’s the closest you get to a new phone without buying one. This whole reset cost less than a case for a new phone. If the lag disappears, that’s another couple of years out of a device that’s still more than good enough. If it doesn’t, then I look at upgrading. But it makes more sense to solve the worn-out-battery problem before spending thousands to avoid it. I’ll report back once the clean install is done and I’ve lived with it for a few days. Hey, thanks for reading this post in your feed reader! Want to chat? Reply by email or add me on XMPP , or send a webmention . Check out the posts archive on the website.

ios iOS hardware Hardware
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Simon Willison 1 months ago

I vibe coded my dream macOS presentation app

I gave a talk this weekend at Social Science FOO Camp in Mountain View. The event was a classic unconference format where anyone could present a talk without needing to propose it in advance. I grabbed a slot for a talk I titled "The State of LLMs, February 2026 edition", subtitle "It's all changed since November!". I vibe coded a custom macOS app for the presentation the night before. I've written about the last twelve months of development in LLMs in December 2023 , December 2024 and December 2025 . I also presented The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles at the AI Engineer World’s Fair in June 2025. This was my first time dropping the time covered to just three months, which neatly illustrates how much the space keeps accelerating and felt appropriate given the November 2025 inflection point . (I further illustrated this acceleration by wearing a Gemini 3 sweater to the talk, which I was given a couple of weeks ago and is already out-of-date thanks to Gemini 3.1 .) I always like to have at least one gimmick in any talk I give, based on the STAR moment principle I learned at Stanford - include Something They'll Always Remember to try and help your talk stand out. For this talk I had two gimmicks. I built the first part of the talk around coding agent assisted data analysis of Kākāpō breeding season (which meant I got to show off my mug ), then did a quick tour of some new pelicans riding bicycles before ending with the reveal that the entire presentation had been presented using a new macOS app I had vibe coded in ~45 minutes the night before the talk. The app is called Present - literally the first name I thought of. It's built using Swift and SwiftUI and weighs in at 355KB, or 76KB compressed . Swift apps are tiny! It may have been quick to build but the combined set of features is something I've wanted for years . I usually use Keynote for presentations, but sometimes I like to mix things up by presenting using a sequence of web pages. I do this by loading up a browser window with a tab for each page, then clicking through those tabs in turn while I talk. This works great, but comes with a very scary disadvantage: if the browser crashes I've just lost my entire deck! I always have the URLs in a notes file, so I can click back to that and launch them all manually if I need to, but it's not something I'd like to deal with in the middle of a talk. This was my starting prompt : Build a SwiftUI app for giving presentations where every slide is a URL. The app starts as a window with a webview on the right and a UI on the left for adding, removing and reordering the sequence of URLs. Then you click Play in a menu and the app goes full screen and the left and right keys switch between URLs That produced a plan. You can see the transcript that implemented that plan here . In Present a talk is an ordered sequence of URLs, with a sidebar UI for adding, removing and reordering those URLs. That's the entirety of the editing experience. When you select the "Play" option in the menu (or hit Cmd+Shift+P) the app switches to full screen mode. Left and right arrow keys navigate back and forth, and you can bump the font size up and down or scroll the page if you need to. Hit Escape when you're done. Crucially, Present saves your URLs automatically any time you make a change. If the app crashes you can start it back up again and restore your presentation state. You can also save presentations as a file (literally a newline-delimited sequence of URLs) and load them back up again later. Getting the initial app working took so little time that I decided to get more ambitious. It's neat having a remote control for a presentation... So I prompted: Add a web server which listens on 0.0.0.0:9123 - the web server serves a single mobile-friendly page with prominent left and right buttons - clicking those buttons switches the slide left and right - there is also a button to start presentation mode or stop depending on the mode it is in. I have Tailscale on my laptop and my phone, which means I don't have to worry about Wi-Fi networks blocking access between the two devices. My phone can access directly from anywhere in the world and control the presentation running on my laptop. It took a few more iterative prompts to get to the final interface, which looked like this: There's a slide indicator at the top, prev and next buttons, a nice big "Start" button and buttons for adjusting the font size. The most complex feature is that thin bar next to the start button. That's a touch-enabled scroll bar - you can slide your finger up and down on it to scroll the currently visible web page up and down on the screen. It's very clunky but it works just well enough to solve the problem of a page loading with most interesting content below the fold. I'd already pushed the code to GitHub (with a big "This app was vibe coded [...] I make no promises other than it worked on my machine!" disclaimer) when I realized I should probably take a look at the code. I used this as an opportunity to document a recent pattern I've been using: asking the model to present a linear walkthrough of the entire codebase. Here's the resulting Linear walkthroughs pattern in my ongoing Agentic Engineering Patterns guide , including the prompt I used. The resulting walkthrough document is genuinely useful. It turns out Claude Code decided to implement the web server for the remote control feature using socket programming without a library ! Here's the minimal HTTP parser it used for routing: Using GET requests for state changes like that opens up some fun CSRF vulnerabilities. For this particular application I don't really care. Vibe coding stories like this are ten a penny these days. I think this one is worth sharing for a few reasons: This doesn't mean native Mac developers are obsolete. I still used a whole bunch of my own accumulated technical knowledge (and the fact that I'd already installed Xcode and the like) to get this result, and someone who knew what they were doing could have built a far better solution in the same amount of time. It's a neat illustration of how those of us with software engineering experience can expand our horizons in fun and interesting directions. I'm no longer afraid of Swift! Next time I need a small, personal macOS app I know that it's achievable with our existing set of tools. You are only seeing the long-form articles from my blog. Subscribe to /atom/everything/ to get all of my posts, or take a look at my other subscription options . Swift, a language I don't know, was absolutely the right choice here. I wanted a full screen app that embedded web content and could be controlled over the network. Swift had everything I needed. When I finally did look at the code it was simple, straightforward and did exactly what I needed and not an inch more. This solved a real problem for me. I've always wanted a good way to serve a presentation as a sequence of pages, and now I have exactly that.

swift Swift ios iOS
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HeyDingus 2 months ago

You can (maybe?) save non-passwords in Apple Passwords

Ricky Mondello, from the Apple Passwords team, shared a crucial hidden feature for saving arbitrary data in their app: [I]f anyone ever wants to save some non-password data in Passwords, but is annoyed by having to put a password in and see a useless “ Password” row, use a password of “ -”. Passwords will omit the password from AutoFill and hide the “ Password” row from the detail view. This might be the final piece of the puzzle to help me move away from 1Password… Except it doesn’t seem to work for me on iOS 26.2. I’ll keep checking as new versions are released. HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email .

security Security ios iOS
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xenodium 2 months ago

Introducing Kitty Cards

Back in 2023, I toyed with the relevant iOS dev tools needed to create a custom Tesco Clubcard pkpass , and even showed how to scan a QR code from our beloved Emacs (of course). Neither my friend Vaarnan nor I are strangers to the iOS ecosystem, yet we both agreed the above approach wasn't very practical (for neither devs nor the average iOS user). So we figured we should have a crack at it. While there are some ready-made solutions out there, they often require downloading additional iOS apps or working through clunky web interfaces. We just wanted a simpler way to create our own Apple Wallet cards, and so Kitty Cards ( kitty.cards ) was born: no app download or sign-in required. Hopefully not much to explain. From kitty.cards , customize a card, press the button, and Bobs your uncle . Hope you enjoy Kitty Cards !

ios iOS open-source Open Source
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Chris Coyier 3 months ago

Default Apps Early 2026

It’s a time of slow change for me when it comes to the apps I use most regularly. I also maintain my subscription to SetApp , because I use a handful of things it offers that makes it super worth it: TablePlus , Typeface , Paste , CleanMyMac , Bartender , etc. 🔐 1Password for passwords , but ideally I’d like to switch to Apple’s Passwords/Keychain for most things. Partly because of iOS. When I save a new password on iOS, it’s always the native Passwords app that offers to save it, not 1Password, and that neuters the usability of 1Password to me. I don’t like having one foot in both apps, but it feels somewhat inevitable as 1Password is required for work sharing. 👨‍💻 Cursor for large project coding , but I’ve bounced around a lot. There are so many VS Code forks with AI integration it’s been interesting to try them, but I mostly find them all pretty similar. Windsurf , Trae , Antigravity … nearly identical. There are also alternative extensions to Copilot in canonical VS Code that are also largely the same. Some have better design polish than others, but the overall UX of Cursor seems the best. I also used Zed for a good month and found it pretty good. And obviously I use CodePen quite a bit for coding, but not for CodePen itself or other larger-scale projects. GitHub Desktop for Git. But I’m pulled back toward Tower because I think the features are nicer. But I’m really torn as GitHub Desktop is free and works flawlessly with things like precommit hooks that Tower sometimes has trouble with. Things for TODOs . I’m still really happy with Things and don’t feel any particular pull away from it. Other than that my TODOs are fairly disjointed overall. My inboxes are TODOs. My notes app can have TODOs. My open tabs can be TODOs. GitHub issues and pinned Notion pages can be TODOs. I wouldn’t mind a smidge better consolidation. Really wish it supported images/videos. Bear for notes . Everyday I find myself needing a notes scratchpad to write things down and it’s always Bear for me for this. I’ve had two failed-starts with Obsidian though and feel a pull toward that. Mimestream for Gmail. Surprises me as I’ve always like the web interface for Gmail, but I’m a few years on Mimestream now and feeling no big desire to leave it. Although, I’ve now got Fastmail going now too and find it very nice. I’ve got coyier.com now and [email protected] as well as setting up some family member emails through it, all through Fastmail. More Discord than Slack for group chat. I’m still in a few Slacks, including the internal CodePen Slack that is my most important one, but not terribly busy. I do more active chatting on community Discords than I do in Slack. Zoom for video calls . But gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to get off Zoom? Like maybe Google Meet is good enough since we pay for an organization there anyway? Maybe the stuff built into Slack is fine? I don’t need any features of Zoom at all other than “look at each other and talk and share screens sometimes” and it feels like that’s a commodity now and Zoom as a standalone could go. Local for WordPress Local Dev. But I think I’d rather get on Studio as I’m on Pressable hosting now and quite happy with that and Studio seems more integrated. BusyCal for calendering. But I feel like I don’t have any specific love for BusyCal. Would Apple’s default Calendar be good enough? Apparently I can’t use Google Calendar directly as there is no great way of seeing events from multiple accounts without weird trickery (which is wild??). NetNewsWire for RSS. But I also use Unread . And Reeder for iOS, but the classic one not 4. But it’s all powered by Feedbin under the hood. Ghostty for a terminal. But I’m switching back to iTerm2 . Ghostty is nice in how painless it is to switch to it, but I don’t need it to be so feature-free. The lack of search in Ghostty is the main thing pushing me away. Figma for design. Whatever though I don’t do a massive amount of design outside of the browser. I’m sure I’d be happy in Sketch or whatever Adobe thing. To me the killer feature of Figma is that it’s web based so it’s easy to link to things and share across a team. System Color Picker is the best for color. Raycast for a launcher , but I make so little use of it’s robust feature set it’s tempting to just nuke it can go back to spotlight. Arc for a browser. I’m still annoyed with the abandonment of Arc, as it’s just a damn masterclass in browser design. I switched away for most of the year, giving other browsers a real shot, using them for a week+. I tried Dia but it’s just shallow shadow of Arc. I tried Orion and switched away for reasons that ended up being my fault (it was nice though, expect for Safari DevTools), and same deal with SigmaOS. I tried Zen which was quite nice but didn’t sync as well as I needed it to. I tried Shift, Atlas, etc, there are so many . But Atlassian buying The Browser Company of New York because the CEO loves Arc was encouraging to me and I switched back. Haven’t seen any big Arc improvements, but whatever, it still works great.

ios iOS programming Programming
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xenodium 3 months ago

My 2025 review as an indie dev

In 2024, I took the leap to go indie full-time. By 2025, that shift enabled me to focus exclusively on building tools I care about, from a blogging platform, iOS apps, and macOS utilities, to Emacs packages. It also gave me the space to write regularly, covering topics like Emacs tips, development tutorials for macOS and iOS, a few cooking detours, and even launching a new YouTube channel . The rest of this post walks through some of the highlights from 2025. If you’ve found my work useful, consider sponsoring . Now let’s jump in. For well over a decade, my blogging setup consisted of a handful of Elisp functions cobbled together over the years. While they did the job just fine, I couldn't shake the feeling that I could do better, and maybe even offer a blogging platform without the yucky bits of the modern web. At the beginning of the year, I launched LMNO.lol . Today, my xenodium.com blog proudly runs on LMNO.lol . LMNO.lol blogs render pretty much anywhere (Emacs and terminals included, of course). 2026 is a great year to start a blog ! Custom domains totally welcome. Sure, there are plenty of journaling and note-taking apps out there. For one reason or another, none of them stuck for me (including my own apps). That is, until I learned a thing or two from social media. With that in mind, Journelly was born : like tweeting, but for your eyes only . With the right user experience, I felt compelled to write things down all the time. Saving to Markdown and Org markup was the mighty sweet cherry on the cake. As a Japanese language learning noob, what better way to procrastinate than by building yet another Kana-practicing iOS app? Turns out, it kinda did the job. Here's mochi invaders , a fun way to practice your Kana 2025 brought us the likes of Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Goose, Codex, and many more AI/LLM CLI agents. While CLI utilities have their appeal, I wanted a native Emacs integration, so I simply ignored agents for quite some time. I was initially tempted to write my own Emacs agent, but ultimately decided against it. My hope was that agent providers would somehow converge to offer editor integration, so I could focus on building an Emacs integration while leveraging the solid work from many teams producing agents. With LLM APIs historically fragmented, my hope for agent convergence seemed fairly far-fetched. To my surprise, ACP ( Agent Client Protocol ) was announced by Zed and Google folks . This was the cue I had been waiting for, so I set out to build acp.el , a UX agnostic elisp library, followed by an actual client: agent-shell . I'm fairly happy with how 's been shaping up. This is my most popular package from 2025, receiving lots of user feedback . If you're curious about the feature-set, I've written about 's progress from early on: While agent-shell is the new kid on the block, chatgpt-shell received DeepSeek, Open Router, Kagi, and Perplexity support , in addition to a handful of other improvements and bugfixes. While most of what I share usually ends up as a blog post, this year I decided to try something new. I started the Bending Emacs YouTube channel and posted 8 episodes: Enjoying the content? Leave me a comment or subscribe to my channel . While I enthusiastically joined the Emacs Carnival , I didn't quite manage monthly posts. Having said that, when I did participate, I went all in, documenting my org experience over the last decade . Ok well… I also joined in with my elevator pitch ;) While migrating workflows to Emacs makes them extra portable across platforms, I've also accumulated a bunch of tweaks enhancing your Emacs experience on macOS . While we're talking macOS, I typically like my desktop free from distractions, which includes hiding the status bar. Having said that, I don't want to lose track of time, and for that, I built EverTime , an ever-present floating clock (available via Homebrew). Emacs ships with a perfectly functional world clock, available via , but I wanted a little more, so I built time-zones . Also covered in: For better or worse, I rely on WhatsApp Messenger. Migrating to a different client or protocol just isn't viable for me, so I did the next best thing and built wasabi , an Emacs client ;) While not a trivial task, wuzapi and whatsmeow offered a huge leg up. I wanted tighter Emacs integration, so I upstreamed a handful of patches to add JSON-RPC support, plus easier macOS installation via Homebrew . Details covered in a couple of posts: While both macOS and iOS offer APIs for generating URL previews, they also let you fetch rich page metadata. I built rinku , a tiny command-line utility, and showed how to wire it all up via eshell for a nifty shell experience. With similar magic, you can also get a neat experience. I always liked the idea of generating some sort of art or graphics from a code base, so I built one , a utility to transform images into character art using text from your codebase. Also covered in a short blog post . Emacs is just about the perfect porcelain for command-line utilities. With little ceremony, you can integrate almost any CLI tool. Magit remains the gold standard for CLI integration. While trimming videos doesn't typically spring to mind as an Emacs use case, I was pleasantly surprised by the possibilities . While I've built my fair share of Emacs packages , I'm still fairly new at submitting Emacs features upstream. This year, I landed my send-to (aka sharing on macOS) patch . While the proposal did spark quite the discussion , I'm glad I stuck with it. Both Eli and Stefan were amazingly helpful. This year, I also wanted to experiment with dictating into my Emacs text buffers, but unfortunately dictation had regressed in Emacs 30 . Bummer. But hey, it gave me a new opportunity to submit another patch upstream . Ready Player , my Emacs media-playing package received further improvements like starring media (via Emacs bookmarks), enabling further customizations, and other bug fixes. Also showcased a tour of its features . Hope you enjoyed my 2025 contributions. Sponsor the work. agent-shell 0.25 updates agent-shell 0.17 improvements + MELPA agent-shell 0.5 improvements Introducing Emacs agent-shell (powered by ACP) Introducing acp.el So you want ACP (Agent Client Protocol) for Emacs? Bending Emacs - Episode 1: Applying CLI utils Bending Emacs - Episode 2: From vanilla to your flavor Bending Emacs - Episode 3: Git clone (the lazy way) Bending Emacs - Episode 4: Batch renaming files Bending Emacs - Episode 5: Ready Player Mode Bending Emacs - Episode 6: Overlays Bending Emacs - Episode 7: Eshell built-in commands Bending Emacs - Episode 8: completing-read time-zones now on MELPA. Do I have your support? Emacs time-zones WhatsApp from you know where Want a WhatsApp Emacs client? Commits: 1,095 Issues created: 37 PRs reviewed: 106 Average commits per day: ~3 EverTime - An ever present clock for macOS acp.el - An ACP implementation in Emacs lisp agent-shell - A native Emacs buffer to interact with LLM agents powered by ACP diverted - Identify temporary Emacs diversions and return to original location emacs-materialized-theme - An Emacs theme derived from Material homebrew-evertime - EverTime formula for the Homebrew package manager homebrew-one - Homebrew recipe for one homebrew-rinku - Homebrew recipe for rinku one - Transform images into character art using text from your codebase rinku - Generate link previews from the command line (macOS) time-zones - View time at any city across the world in Emacs video-trimmer - A video-trimming utility for Emacs wasabi - A WhatsApp Emacs client powered by wuzapi and whatsmeow Journelly 1.3 released: Hello Markdown! agent-shell 0.25 updates Bending Emacs - Episode 8: completing-read At one with your code Bending Emacs - Episode 7: Eshell built-in commands Rinku: CLI link previews Bending Emacs - Episode 6: Overlays WhatsApp from you know where Want a WhatsApp Emacs client? Will you fund it? Bending Emacs - Episode 5: Ready Player Mode agent-shell 0.17 improvements + MELPA time-zones now on MELPA. Do I have your support? Bending Emacs - Episode 4: Batch renaming files Emacs time-zones Bending Emacs - Episode 3: Git clone (the lazy way) agent-shell 0.5 improvements Bending Emacs - Episode 2: From vanilla to your flavor Bending Emacs - Episode 1: Applying CLI utils Introducing Emacs agent-shell (powered by ACP) Introducing acp.el So you want ACP (Agent Client Protocol) for Emacs? Diverted mode Who moved my text? Dired buffers with media overlays Brisket recipe A tiny upgrade to the LLM model picker Emacs elevator pitch Emacs as your video-trimming tool macOS dictation returns to Emacs (fix merged) Writing experience: My decade with Org Interactive ordering of dired items Patching your Homebrew's Emacs Plus (macOS) Emacs send-to (aka macOS sharing) merged upstream Mochi Invaders now on the App Store Markdown is coming to Journelly EverTime available via Homebrew Journelly 1.2 released Ranking Officer now on the App Store Awesome Emacs on macOS Journelly 1.1 released LLM text chat is everywhere. Who's optimizing its UX? A richer Journelly org capture template Journelly: like tweeting but for your eyes only (in plain text) Journelly vs Emacs: Why Not Both? The Mac Observer showcases Journelly Journelly open for beta DeepSeek, Open Router, Kagi, and Perplexity join the chat Keychron K3 Pro: F1-F12 as default macOS keys E-ink bookmarks Sourdough bookmarks Cardamom Buns recipe A tour of Ready Player Mode A platform that moulds to your needs Blogging minus the yucky bits of the modern web

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xenodium 3 months ago

Journelly 1.3 released: Hello Markdown!

Journelly 1.3 available on the App Store Journelly feels like tweeting but for your eyes only. A fresh take on frictionless note-taking or journaling for iOS, powered by plain text (Markdown + Org). Check out journelly.com for details. Journelly v1.3 brings Markdown support (the most requested feature) along with Simplified Chinese localization and other new enhancements. By far the most requested feature. Thank you to everyone who reached out, shared interest, and helped beta test early builds. Whether you're a fan of Markdown or an Org-mode enthusiast, Journelly lets you store entries in your preferred format. You can now choose your favorite markup on first launch or via the app menu. While on topic, I also run lmno.lol , a Markdown-powered blogging service. Simple and focused, without the frustrating parts of the modern web. Custom domains welcome. My xenodium.com blog runs off lmno.lol . Simplified Chinese (简体中文) is now available, joining Journelly's list of supported languages: A home screen widget is now available, offering quick access to three key actions right from the home screen. Prefer clear buttons over swipe gestures? You can now enable Discoverable Mode under “Menu > View.” This new mode makes features more visible and easier to navigate, perfect for folks favoring more explicit interaction over gestures or subtle hints. For Org users: Journelly now renders both quote and code blocks. The entry list received a little refresh to make better use of screen space. Bottom-aligned controls also make for easier one-handed use. Since launch , Journelly has remained a single-payment app. No subscriptions . I get it, subscriptions are no fun. That said, sustainable development is tough without regular downloads . I'm hoping the new Markdown support helps Journelly reach a wider audience. Help Journelly grow: Hope you enjoy the v1.3 update. Thank you for using Journelly and supporting indie development 💛💙❤️ Save cooking recipes, movies, music, restaurants, coffee shops… Jot down your thoughts. Save your favorite quotes. Use it as a journal, memo book, or notes. Write your shopping lists. Document your travels. Simplified Chinese (简体中文) Leave a review on the App Store . Share Journelly with your friends.

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Stratechery 4 months ago

An Interview with Ryan Jones About Flighty and Building Apps in 2025

An interview with Ryan Jones about Flighty, my favorite iOS app, and how the App Store has evolved over the last 15 years.

ios iOS mobile Mobile
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HeyDingus 5 months ago

7 Things This Week [#181]

A weekly-ish list of interesting things I found on the internet. Sometimes themed, often not. 1️⃣ Greg Morris points out some minor oddities in the recent Apple Event. I noticed a few of them myself, but not all. [ 🔗 gregmorris.co.uk ] 2️⃣ Dr. Drang points out how the fitness trend suggestions in Apple’s fitness app aren’t so smart. I agree, they’re either too vague or too specific and I hardly look at them anymore. Needs a rethink. [ 🔗 leancrew.com ] 3️⃣ Matt Birchler’s got some good thoughts on LLM costs regarding token usage and cutting edge models. I think he’s spot on. [ 🔗 birchtree.me ] 4️⃣ The visual and production work in this iPhone review is absolutely incredible. I can’t imagine how it was made in just a few days. ( Via Matt Birchler ) [ ▶️ youtube.com ] 5️⃣ If you’ve ever used the CARROT Weather, you’ll be used to getting the unexpected out of this app. But I admit, I was surprised by an impressive musical number featuring its developer, Brian Mueller. [ ▶️ youtube.com ] 6️⃣ Stephen Hackett was right, this blog post evaluating macOS versions, but in reverse, is required reading. [ 🔗 rakhim.exotext.com ] 7️⃣ “ AI art might eventually have the right number of fingers, but it’ll never have a heart.” The Oatmeal gets you right in the feels. [ 🔗 theoatmeal.com ] Thanks for reading 7 Things . If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know . And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web. HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email .

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Alex White's Blog 5 months ago

Parsing GPX files with Swift

I've been playing around with a really fun experiment the past few days using Swift. I don't have much experience with Mac OS development, but have been very pleasantly surprised by Swift and Swift UI! There's so much that can be accomplished out of the box that I haven't even looked into third-party packages. It's also been really nice to take a step away from web development (I'm working on htmlCMS as my other project). No servers, auth, deployments, databases, CSS, etc. It's so refreshing to have one way of doing it right, not a million. For this Swift/Mac OS experiment, I've been building a parser for GPX files. A GPX file is generated by a GPS as a log of coordinates for a path. In cycling, this corresponds to your ride. The file can also include metadata from sensors, such as speed, cadence, heart rate, elevation and air temperature. I find this data fascinating and love exploring my stats after a ride, but sadly the best way to do that on the market, Strava, is undergoing some rapid enshittification, locking stuff behind a pay, introducing A.I. and actively making the experience worse. So I decided to build something for myself! My goal is to display your route on the map, along with "events" marked on the map. For example, instead of digging through charts you'll be able to look at the map to review your ride and see markers for things like "5% Grade Climb Start" -> "Zone 5 HR" -> "Climb Ended" -> "Max Speed" -> "Zone 4 HR". These markers let you see how quickly you achieved the climb, how much it stressed your body, and how far along the route it took to recover. I'm finding this to be a lot more effective than Strava's method of outlining information. Here's a look at what I've accomplished in the past 2 days, more to come soon!

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HeyDingus 7 months ago

Live Thoughts on Apple’s September Event

Always good when the keynote stream starts with me doing a spit take. “Design is how it works. That’s why we made half the interface illegible” why does the apple keynote keep cutting to some old white trump stan Apple loves to talk about how many ears they’ve looked at An illegible new watch face is an appropriate way to “ celebrate” Liquid Glass. If your blood pressure spikes while listening to the US president speak, let Tim know Can’t wait for my Apple Watch to tell me how shitty my sleep is. I’ve never seen my timeline so negative during an # AppleEvent and honestly I’m so proud. Fuck Tim Cook for ruining what used to be such an exciting day for us Apple nerds idk 42 hours of battery life definitely sounds bigger than the 10 hours my apple watch ultra 1 now lasts It’s 90% faster at gaming but checking Slack is still slow. looks the iphone started working with my trainer Going to start referring to my forehead as an iconic plateau “All-day battery life” proceeds to present a battery pack accessory # AppleEvent THE BUMPER IS BACK BABY What if Jony Ive voice but female Only British people can talk about materials. ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE We also drink every time they say “ vapor chamber”. Cheers! I’d be pretty thin too if you ignore the bulky bits that stick out of me “Fuck it, we’re doing seven layers”. Nothing says Pro like “ We offer ProRes RAW video support, but you cannot adjust the gain level on an external mic.” Is there really no black Pro phone? Somebody check on @ gruber HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email . Did they say foam tips for the new AirPods? Moving away from silicone tips? In-person live translation looks amazing. But you’ll need a newer iPhone for it to work, I’m sure. “ Best-fitting AirPods ever” huh? Maybe they’re worth another shot . Finally, you can start workouts with just your iPhone! I wonder if it’ll work with other heart-rate monitors, or just Apple’s headphones. Looks like a great update! Here comes the tear-jerker video… No more Jeff Williams to head off Apple Watch, and we’ll see if Jay Blahnik ’ s a no-show as well. Update: Was not seen. Yay, 5G ! No snark, I was fighting the watch’s cellular connection just this morning. Hopefully this will help. Whoa, they’re going after high blood pressure! Didn’t think we’d see anything about this for a few more years. That’s (potentially) huge. Sleep Score is nice, I guess. I’ve used third-party apps in the past, but never found the data very actionable. I’ll try it out. Damn, 24-hours of battery life on the Series 11. They’ve hit the full-day milestore. Huh, Space Gray is back! Welcome back, old buddy. “ The most powerful watch chip, S10 .” That doesn’t bode well for a faster watch chip coming today. But maybe it’ll come in the Ultra. JK , the S10 is a new chip! Double turns out, the S10 chip debuted last year in the Series 10 Watch. Which I guess makes sense. So now the whole lineup has caught up and has the S10 , but they didn’t make a new watch chip this year. 😕 Lots of great improvements for the SE — it’s much easier to recommend now, particiularly with the always-on display. Stephen Hackett will be happy, even though it didn’t get the price drop it deserves. Awesome, bigger display without a bigger case size. Also getting 5G , unsurprisingly. Woot woot! Sattellite connectivity not just for SOS , but the full messaging and location experience that’s on iPhone 42 hours of battery life. Yay! The case is 3D-printed. Wild! No mention of GPS improvements. I’m really hoping that perhaps the issue is just with my particular watch and that this new one will be better anyway. No mention of any on-device Apple Intelligence, like for workout buddy. That’s a miss in my books, I won’t run with my iPhone. Probably needs a new chip, which it also didn’t get. Oof, I’d forgotten the Ultra is $800. But available to order today! That’ll be happening here at HeyDingus central momentarily… Four new models, as expected… Probably the device I’m least interested in today. Hmm… wit that reveal video, it doesn’t look like anything is different than the 16. It was all software features they were showing off. Ahh, it does have a slightly bigger display. And with ProMotion — the first in a non-Pro device. Better scratch resistance on that new screen — but they always say that. Will it actually be any better? 50% charge in 20 minutes sounds quite good. 500 billion selfies last year. Wow. Anything they can do to improve selfies is good in my book. Ooh, a square sensor with easy switching of framing options. That’s nice! I’ll be glad to not feel like I’m going to fumble my phone trying to get a landscape selfie. Starts at 256GB storage! That bump would have been nice last year. I wonder if that comes with a similar bump in price… Keeps the titanium. And glass on both sides. Didn’t see that coming. “ Iconic Plateau” “ With the power of Pro inside”. This is gonna be pricy. The edges look a little more rounded, giving it an even thinner look. Ahh… they’ve packed way more of the guts into that camera bar, including the silicon. Cool. Will probably keep the hottest parts away from your hand. Tim Millet got out of the lab. AI accelleration via the GPU . Interesting… they usually refer the AI talk to their neural cores. I wonder what they’ll do with that extra power. N1 (for Networking) and C1X (for Cellular) chips. They sound great! I wonder if C1X will have the faster version of 5G (the C1 didn’t). Not a big deal either way. Single camera. This may be it’s downfall for me. I’ll have to wait for reviews to know if it can hang. Dual-capture video is going to be huge for content creators. They’re talking about eSIM. Interesting. They’ve had it forever, so what’s new here? Ah, it’s eSIM-only worldwide. Some countries still had physical SIM version. “ All-day battery life.” But they didn’t quote time or compare to other iPhones. 40 hours of battery life for video playback with the new MagSafe battery. Hmm. That’s not super convincing. This is pretty tempting. Starting from scratch, huh? Ah, they’re justifying the move away from titanium to alumium (first in a Pro phone) with a sexy industrial manufacturing video. Biggest battery. Looks pretty thick. Hopefully lighter though? And there’s the orange! Like the color, wish it came to the Air. Lots of presenters in Apple Stores around the world. I like it. They have beautiful architecture. They’re talking a lot about thermal management today. They must have gotten the feedback that their last few phones were too warm to the touch too often. Seems like the Pro ate the Air’s extra battery with how much they keep mentioning it. 39 hours of video playback without a battery pack. 48 MP cameras across the board on the back is pretty awesome. Fusion cameras across the board too. I like that the zoom levels are .5x, 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x. They double at every jump, which makes my brain happy. Really pretty photos taken by professional photographers. But that’s always been the case. It’d be more fun if they put it in the hands of camera normies like me and let them try their best. Joz says, “ How cool is that?” It’s really cool how much pro video stuff they pack into these iPhones. It’s way over my head, but I love that it puts so much power in creatives’ hands. TechWoven cases that offer great “ scratch and stain resistance”. That’s some FineWoven trauma right there. You can bet people will be putting that claim to the test. The Apple logo placement looks good in the center of the two-tone “ glass” panel on the white and orange, but looks goofily low on the blue where the contrast is less. iPhone Air takes the Pro’s old spot at $999, which the Pros get a $100 bump up starting at $1099. They try to spin away that bump by saying its the same price as last year’s 256GB model. I think maybe they just discontinued the iPhone 16 and previous models altogether? Usually they show the whole lineup, but now it’s all iPhones that were introduced this year. 16e, 17, Air, and 17 Pro/Max. That’s a curious break from a longheld tradition in Tim Cook’s Apple. (But which actually started back during Steve Jobs’ time.) Nope, the 16 and 16 Plus are still in the lineup.

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HeyDingus 7 months ago

Rapid-Fire Pre-iPhone Event Thoughts

Can I publish this in the 4 minutes before the keynote starts?? 1 Apple Watch Alright, here comes Tim Cook “ on stage”. Let’s go. It turns out no, I couldn’t. Published at 1:02pm. ↩︎ HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email . I went way too low on device storage space last year, so I’m definitely buying a new phone this year I’m using my camera for work more than ever, so I’m probably going to go with an iPhone Pro, but I’m not psyched about a bigger screen or heavier device. Hopefully, they’ve gone back to aluminum, as rumored. We’ll see what it actually looks like, but the iPhone Pro’s rumored camera bar that retains the tripod of camera lenses on one side looks goofy to me. I expect it’s retaining that design so it can continue to do Spatial Videos. I’ll be tempted by the iPhone Air, I’m sure, but battery life and camera performance are huge deals for me. And I’m more interested in a thin folding phone — next year? Come on, Orange!! Please be a new Ultra 3! My Ultra 1’s battery life is not so good, and I’m also hoping for improvements in GPS sensitivity and cellular connection. A better chip would be great too — the Ultra 1 is a little sluggish these days. Could we see more happening with Double Tap? The more I can operate my watch without using the other hand would be great. AirPods Pro 3 are due, but they’re not for me. I can’t do the soft tips. Still really happy with my AirPods 4 with ANC . It turns out no, I couldn’t. Published at 1:02pm. ↩︎

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Peter Steinberger 8 months ago

Logging Privacy Shenanigans

Apple's logs redact your debugging data as . Here's what actually gets hidden, why old tricks don't work anymore, and the only reliable way to see your logs again.

security Security ios iOS
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HeyDingus 8 months ago

Upgraded Introduces an iPad Pro Upgrade Program That Beats Apple’s Own Prices

Fans of Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program — the one where you pay monthly for an iPhone and have the opportunity to upgrade to a new model after a given number of payments — rejoice! You can now get a similar deal for an iPad Pro. And when I say “ deal”, I really mean it. More on that in a bit. You might remember the folks at Upgraded have offered a MacBook Upgrade Program for a while now. I used it to purchase this very M4 MacBook Air that I’m typing to you on, and have been super happy with the experience. Their website is crazy-easy to use, setting up the loan very quick, and AppleCare+ is included. People who like to be on the cutting edge have been asking for Apple to offer this kind of program for products other than the iPhone for years. Upgraded beat them to it for the Mac. And now they have expanded their lineup to include the iPad Pro, lapping Apple in their own game! Here’s how it works, according to their emailed announcement: Right now, it’s just the iPad Pro models — but the experience works just like our MacBook program. Seamless, flexible, and future-ready. […] Buying an iPad Pro with us is just like buying a MacBook: I mentioned that the program is great for folks who want the latest and greatest, but I think it’s equally appealing to anyone who wants or needs to pay off their gadgets over time. If you’re happy with your iPad after two years, just hang onto it, pay it off, and it’s yours to keep! Yep! Crazy, right? But here is is in black and white: iPad Pro, 11-inch, Wi-Fi, 256GB , Space Black As you can see, Upgraded has Apple beat by about $150. How? I’m not sure. But I think it’s because they lined all of this up before Apple’s recent reshuffle of AppleCare+ . I heard that Apple’s monthly and annual pricing went up as they eliminated any AppleCare without Theft & Loss Protection. And I think you used to be able to buy AppleCare for iPads with a one-time payment for a set period (two years?). But that’s no longer an option. It’s now monthly, yearly, or bust. Even if Upgraded’s AppleCare coverage is only for two years — when you can swap to a new model — instead of three, they’ve still got Apple beat by $50. Now, for my MacBook Air purchased through Upgraded, I make monthly payments with 0% interest. That interest rate depends on how Affirm, which manages the loan, judges your credit, so I can’t guarantee that you’ll get that same rate. It may not be as worthwhile if you’re paying a higher interest rate. I don’t link raising my personal debt ceiling, so I probably wouldn’t have sprung for the deal if I was paying extra in interest. But it is absolutely possible to not pay any extra, and in fact pay less than what Apple charges, and have the opportunity to easily upgrade to a newer model in a couple of years. I expect Upgraded will have their hands full for a while expanding to include Mac desktops and other iPad models. But I think they’ve started with the right products. But what do I want them to offer next? First of all, the iPhone. I’m not on one of the major cellular carriers, which means I can’t get a phone through Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program. So, personally, I’d be geeked if Upgraded could offer iPhones on their upgrade program. I kind of doubt it since they’re not a carrier, but maybe! Next on my list would be the Apple Watch. It’s the only other bit of tech that I feel compelled to upgrade every few years, if just for the battery life improvements and additional sensors they keep packing into newer models. My original Apple Watch Ultra is showing its age, and I’m excited to upgrade it this year. If I could do so at a flat, monthly rate and know that I could easily swap it out for a new one again in a few years if I wanted to, I’d definitely jump on board. Fingers crossed. I don’t have any sort of official affiliation with Upgraded, but they did offer me a one-time discount on my MacBook Air purchase earlier this year. It was unprompted, and basically done as a thank you for all the customers I had sent their way after I first wrote about them last year. I probably would have purchased my MacBook through Upgraded even without the discount just so I could pay it off over time. And now that I’ve actually tried their service, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email . Pay monthly over 36 months. Plans start at $31.89/month for the 11-inch, or $40.78/month for the 13-inch. After 24 payments, you can upgrade to a new model or finish the last 12 payments to pay it off. If you upgrade, we’ll send a prepaid return box. Just transfer your data, send the old iPad back, and we’ll refurbish it for its next life. Upgraded : $999 for the iPad + $149 one-time payment for AppleCare+ = $1148 Apple : $999 for the iPad + $99.99/year for AppleCare+ (3 years for $299.97) = $1298.97

ios iOS business Business hardware Hardware
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HeyDingus 8 months ago

7 Things This Week [#177]

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not. 1️⃣ Got a move streak mix up on your Apple Watch where the gadget thinks you missed a day, but you haven’t? There is a fix! (Related: my stand goal cheater shortcut .) [ 🔗 sixcolors.com ] 2️⃣ New CGP Grey video! I know feel so much smarter about zip codes, and also sad that we don’t use Ireland’s system. [ ▶️ youtube.com ] 3️⃣ Stephen Robles wrote about his journey as a creator, which culminated recently in being invited to WWDC . It’s quite touching. [ 🔗 beard.fm ] 4️⃣ There are so many cool new things and improvements in visionOS 26! This newsletter/blog is the best aggregation of all things Vision Pro (though it’s a little disappointing that almost all the sources are from X). [ 🔗 lastweekinavp.substack.com ] 5️⃣ TIL that there are things such as Nest Rafts to provide a place for loons to nest. [ 🔗 adirondackexplorer.org ] 6️⃣ Rafa retrofit an Opal webcam’s guts into an old Apple iSight camera body and it looks awesome!! Ship it! [ 🦣 mastodon.design ] 7️⃣ Matt Birchler did a little digging into ChatGPT’s alleged gender bias and came away with some optimism. [ 🔗 birchtree.me ] Thanks for reading 7 Things . If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know . And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that I’m finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web. HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email .

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