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Software
Our phones are not your computers
It is common to find software developers who imagine that everyone shares their understanding of, and enthusiasm for, computers. This is not the case. Most people merely tolerate computers:
This leads them to assume that we would like to have our phones transformed into something akin to a computer from the 1990s. This also is not the case. For example Brent Simmons argues that iPhones and iPads should be able to download software from anywhere just like computers because “those devices are computers“. No. They are not computers.
Certainly a phone has all the internal gubbins just like a computer. But my TV comes with a screen, a processor, an operating system, a web browser and is connected to the Internet. It is not a computer. Refrigerators come with processors and screens and an Internet connection. They are not computers. Motor cars come with processors, screens, web browsers and an Internet connection. They are not computers.
Apple sells far more phones than they do computers because phones are not computers. People who want a computer buy a computer. People who do not want a computer buy a phone. Nobody calls their phone their pocket computer… because they are not computers.
I use the splendid NetNewsWire (as mentioned here in 2008) which is available from the App Store for devices that are not computers but, alas, only from the website for Mac computers.
Today’s Quotidian Rhythm
Take a voice from a creaky elevator:
By mangling the creaky elevator and voice and adding a kick drum with XLN’s Life you get:
Menu Bar Clutter 2024
Recent posts by ldstephens and The Art Of Not Asking Why listing the contents of their Mac’s menu bar reminded me that it can be an insight into one’s usage and the evolution of apps. I listed mine in 2020, 2012 and 2010. So here is the 2024 update – will retirement have made any difference?
From left to right:
The first three are from Sound Source for shunting audio around your Mac.
Then Apple’s new Passwords app and then their Time Machine backups.
I keep trying clipboard managers such as ClipBook but none have yet replaced Clipy (far right).
With a gazillion terabytes of external storage hanging off the back of my Mac Jettison helps mange their mounting and ejections.
Likewise Cookie ejects all the crud that developers like to load into my browsers.
Apparently Focus is there but I never use it/have a need for it.
Alas I have never really got to grips with Keyboard Maestro and all it can do – will add it to the list of retirement projects.
The Bluetooth lets me check when the keyboard and trackpad are running out of juice etc.
The trackpad is greatly enhanced by BetterTouchTool and its almost daily updates with ever expanding features.
Quick switching of Sound output/volume for when you blast sound from the speakers at midnight thinking it was going to your headphones.
The Mac is kept awake/put to sleep with Amphetamine – It is on the Mac’s App Store but the developer does not seem to have an actual website.
The venerable 1Password will probably be usurped by the Passwords app one day but it is still here for now.
The Hazel app does background stuff moving downloads to the right place and collecting files associated with apps you moved to the bin etc.
Replacing TextExpander, when they introduced some silly subscription thing (since reversed I think) Typinator does an excellent job of automatically filling in oft repeated text.
Of course there is PopClip. A Mac without PopClip is barely a Mac at all. How it avoided being Sherlocked remains a mystery.
WiFi and Spotlight although I just Command+Space for the latter.
A new arrival is RunCat which runs faster or slower depending on the drain on your CPU. Mostly I just wanted to play around with adding my own animation.
To save the bread from burning (again!) Gestimer works well.
Replacing ClipMenu (see 2012 and 2020 editions) which was seemingly abandoned by the developer Clipy resumed development. I have not found anything as useful for clipboard management.
The final star icon is for Bartender which hides all the above when not required. There was a bit of a kerfuffle on the Interwebs recently with people getting upset (imagine such a thing!) but their explanation seems reasonable so it is still here.
Then there is the immovable Apple stuff which means I no longer have Fuzzy Time .
Replaying iTunes Signatures
With the decidedly uninteresting annual Apple Music Replay I was reminded of an old app that grabbed fragments of music from your iTunes library and created a brief iTunes Signature. This was mine from 2008: