Do iPhone Delays Equal iOS 14 Delays?

There have been a lot of rumors about delays with the new iPhones this year, most recently from Qualcomm. If there was ever a year for Apple to get a pass on shipping the iPhone promptly in September, it’s this one.

The question that occurs to me, however, is if there is a delay in hardware, will that also result in a delay in software? In years past, Apple has released the iOS update shortly before the release of new hardware. When I say “shortly,” I’m talking days, not weeks. If the rumors are correct, we are looking at a delay in shipping the new iPhone of a month or possibly more. I can’t help wonder if that will mean a delay in shipping iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 too. If I had to place a bet, I would say they will.

Technically, there’s no reason not to release it early. Throughout the beta period, a lot of us have been running iOS 14 on older generation hardware, and there is no reason technically why they couldn’t just let the older phones have the update a month early.

But there are several good arguments against this. First, over the last few years Apple has had some pretty rocky iOS launches. Why not take an extra month to add some extra spit and polish so that the released version is all the more stable? Second, I always feel like I get a new phone when I install a new operating system. I’m sure for many people who would consider buying the new phone, after spending a month with iOS 14, they may not be as inclined to buy a new phone when it eventually arrives. Lastly, every year Apple holds a bunch of code out of its beta versions of the new operating system. The final version includes additional references, code, and sometimes even apps specific to the new iPhone. If they release the final version, I guarantee you that smart folks all over the planet will take it apart and figure out even more details of the new iPhone before Apple wants you to hear about them.

While Apple may release iOS 14 much earlier than the new phones, I would be surprised if they do.

How Much News Is Too Much News?

I have always prided myself on being someone who does not need to delete apps. You know, someone who deletes Twitter or Instagram every few months so they can avoid getting lost in that and instead focus on creating something. I am lucky enough that I can put limits on those things—or at least I thought I could. It turns out that the news can be my undoing.

The year 2020 has been a doozy. Getting lost in the news is a lot easier this year than in years past, and I am spending too much time on it. Keeping informed is good. Reading different versions of the same story repeatedly is nothing more than a fancy bit of procrastination. When I was growing up, the news was contained for us. It came on in the evening and lasted about 30 minutes. With 24-hour news channels and so many websites, now the news can get crammed down your throat like Homer Simpson’s donuts. This is bad for several reasons:

  • It takes a lot of time. I need to make a living and support my family. Excessive time with the news gets in the way of that.

  • It closes my mind. With the way modern algorithms work, once I read one story, the computers decide what kind of news I like and try to feed me more of that. The longer I go, the more biased and extreme the feed gets.

  • It wipes me out. This year. This year. Do I need to explain how reading too much news drains me of the will and energy to do anything productive?

So, I am taking steps. I am rerunning my timers, this time with the idea of putting a 30-minute box around the news every day. Once I hit 30 minutes, I am done. Rather than get lost in the news, I would rather use that time for something else. Maybe I can spend a bit of it trying to make things better.

Desk Setups: Stephen Hackett

This week I am featuring the desk of my friend and Mac Power Users co-host, Stephen Hackett (Twitter)(Website). Recording MPU with Stephen is one of my highlights every damn week. So Stephen, show us your desk

My desk is a door that once hung in our house. When we bought it from my wife’s grandmother, we did some light remodeling and this particular door was going to come down. My previous desk was smaller, and I knew I wanted something bigger, so I rescued it from the junk pile, and screwed it to a set of IKEA desk legs. It’s not pretty, but the upside is that it’s not a big deal if I have to cut into it or mount a mile of cables underneath it.

Hackett Door Desk.jpg

The desk sits in my studio, which is a stand-alone building behind our garage. It’s not big, measuring 14 feet wide by 10 feet deep, but everything out here was designed to make the most of the square footage. The building itself was built back in the 70s, but we gutted it, putting in insulation, think drywall, an AC/heat unit like you’d see in a motel room and lots and lots of sound deadening foam.

The desk sits along one of the long sides of the room, separated from a large rack, which houses part of my Mac collection by a partial wall. I cut the door to fit the space, and am happy with the layout.

Most weeks, I’m out here every weekday, from 9 AM to 5:30 PM or so, as well as some evenings or weekends if my schedule requires it. However, the studio is only for work; I don’t hang out in it with friends, watch movies at my desk or use it for non-work reading. Crossing the backyard has become a threshold of sorts, and the separation has been good for both me and my family.

Under the desk sits my 2019 Mac Pro. I couldn’t be happier with this computer, and believe it will serve me well until the day I am forced to replace it with something powered by Apple silicon, years and years from now. One of its great features is the ability to upgrade it over time. I’m keeping a build log of the machine on 512 Pixels documenting how it goes.

The Mac Pro is hooked up to a mess of podcasting gear and is often used to edit video for my YouTube channel. You can read about my gear here.

As far as improvements to my setup, I don’t have anything big on my list. I’m fortunate in that my job and hobbies have merged.

As you can see from the photos, the studio’s walls are pretty much taken up, but I love three items I have to the left of my desk.

One is a signed print of the dogcow, designed by Susan Kare. I have a long history with this little icon, and the print was a gift from my Relay FM co-founder, Myke Hurley.

Next to it is a poster by Aaron Draplin, my favorite graphic designer. He was on a tour a few years ago, and made a poster for each city. I got in line early for the event to snag one.

Last is a framed, signed Mayor’s Proclamation from the day I was born. My uncle was mayor then, and while it’s silly, it makes me chuckle when I see it.

Thanks, Stephen!

Good Sudoku

Zach Gage nailed another game for iPhone and iPad: Good Sudoku. Sudoku is one of my favorite puzzle games, and this version has all the sudoku fun without any of the sudoku pain. Easy-to-use hint system? Check. Focus mode? Check. If you like Sudoku but don’t like the tedium of tracking numbers, check this one out.

Of Cubes and Butterflies

Steven Levy wrote a great piece about the 20th Anniversary of the Power Mac G4 Cube. I remember sitting at a friend’s house back in the day and gazing at that beautiful computer with Sméagol-like envy. It turns out that the Cube was a dud, but nerds still talk about it.

“But here is something else about Jobs and the Cube that speaks not of failure but why he was a successful leader. Once it was clear that his Cube was a brick, he was quick to cut his losses and move on. ”

John Gruber wrote about this article hypothesizing how useful this willingness to change course could serve Apple in the App Store. I can’t help but think how useful this could have been with the recently deceased butterfly keyboard. The butterfly keyboard was, like the Cube, a marvel of engineering and completely unsuited to everyday use. The difference is that rather than pulling the plug quickly, Apple continued to make it for years. The MacBook products of the last several years, and Apple’s reputation for quality laptop hardware, would be in such better shape if they got rid of the butterfly keyboards as fast as they did the Cube.

Mac Power Users 546: The Best Listeners

On this Mac Power Users feedback episode, Stephen and I go through some listener email, revisit note apps, and discuss remote troubleshooting iOS devices.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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Face ID Macs Likely with Apple Silicon

9to5 Mac did some sleuthing in the latest Big Sur beta and found references to the TrueDepth camera system currently found on some iPhones and iPads. Specifically, there are references to “PearlCamera”, which was Apple’s internal code name for the TrueDepth camera.

It makes perfect sense that they would add Face ID to Apple silicon Macs. They have already built it into very similar chips currently shipping on iPad and iPhone, and people would love to have Face ID on their Macs, just like everything else Apple makes. Indeed, you could argue it will be more useful on a Mac since I rarely am sitting at my Mac wearing a face mask. All that said, I would be shocked if Face ID shows up any time before Apple starts shipping Apple silicon Macs.

I’m Keeping Dropbox

Last month I wrote about my attempt to abandon Dropbox. I had a few good reasons for that. First, I don’t like the way Dropbox installs itself on my Mac. Dropbox goes way beyond a typical Mac application with its install, including an entirely separate file manager. Second, Dropbox prices are going up while my usage is going down. So it seemed like a good idea to see if I could get by without it for a few months and hopefully make the right decision about renewal.

Well, I’m keeping it. But not for the reasons you are probably thinking.

iCloud Drive and sharing have not failed me. On the contrary, they have worked better than I expected. I have kept a lot of data on iCloud, and I have not had any show-stopper problems. I am currently working on a new edition of the Paperless Field Guide. I am running the entire editing workflow through a series of shared iCloud folders, and it has worked exactly as expected. Granted, there is still plenty of work to do with iCloud Drive, but it is working well enough to handle sharing when I am in control of sharing.

The trouble is those instances where I am not in control. For example, I have many clients who have never heard of iCloud Drive and do not own Macs. They have, however, all heard of and installed Dropbox. When you work in a service industry, adopting a technology that requires your clients to change their technology never works. Also, I make three separate podcasts that invite guests who also sometimes do not have access to iCloud. In the end, I am keeping Dropbox—not for myself but for others.

Somewhat related, I did not install the Dropbox app on my laptop but instead use their web interface when I need to access my Dropbox storage. It cuts me out of a lot of automation, and it is generally slower, but I can avoid its intrusive install this way.

All that said, Dropbox still has many features that sure would be nice in iCloud, like a much better implementation of version history and deletion recovery. I was hoping we would get some more functionality for iCloud Drive this year at WWDC, but we didn’t. I was hoping I could throw Dropbox overboard. One less service and one less thing to pay for sure sounded nice.

The Padbury Clock Screensaver

As part of my studio’s relocation from my bedroom to a more centralized location in our home, screensavers are now on my radar. My Mac is just sitting there. Why not have it display something beautiful while I’m away? For the last few months, I was using a screensaver consisting of favorite family photos, which is nice, but I also wanted a simple clock.

It turns out finding a simple clock screensaver for your Mac is not as easy as you would think, but ultimately I found an excellent one: the Padbury Clock. Named after its designer Robert Padbury (a former Apple designer), the Padbury Clock looks precisely how you would think a clock designed by a former Apple designer would look.

If you like the look of the Padbury Clock, there is a similarly themed countdown timer that uses the same simple design to countdown to a specified date. I have also installed that one and will be using it in the future as well.

Get Your Work Done Faster with Text Expander (Sponsor)

This week, MacSparky is sponsored by my favorite text tool, TextExpander. Typing the same things over and over again is dumb. Computers exist to make life easier, and TextExpander + your computer most definitely will make your life easier.

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Markdown Service Tools Version 3.0

Brett Terpstra’s Markdown Service Tools are one of my favorite things that Brett has made, and he recently issued a significant update to version 3.0. In addition to adding more browser support, this version updates the underlying code to the MultiMarkdown binary, giving you more functionality. They are also now saved as Quick Actions, so some will show up in your Finder. If you write in Markdown on a Mac, you will want these tools.

The Sabbatical Experiment

I wrote last month about my preparations for a sabbatical week. That week was last week, so it is time to report in. While I often try things out “publicly” through the various podcasts and this blog, this one felt the most controversial.

I had a lot of folks who wrote to me, explaining I was either brilliant or a complete idiot for trying to take a week off. Honestly, a lot of them got into my head.

On the MacSparky side, my preparations paid off. Between getting ahead in some areas and a little behind in others, I had almost no obligations as MacSparky last week. I didn’t have the planning and recording blocks for field guides. My schedule for podcasting was light too. As someone who lives by calendar blocks, it was pretty strange looking at a calendar with empty blocks in it. That was nice. It has been a long time since I have had that much breathing space, and I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I had it.

The challenge, as I wrote in my prior post, was on the legal side. I represent a lot of people, and they sometimes need my help unexpectedly. Those occurrences are weekly for me, and there is no way to plan for them. My solution to this problem was just to accept that there would be some things I needed to handle. I didn’t completely shut out the world. Every day, I checked in with the law practice at the end of the day. However, I did try to have ground rules for the legal work that I would allow to intrude on the week. Specifically, I decided that I would only take on legal work that was both material and urgent. A few clients had requests that could wait, so I explained to them that I was taking the week off, but I would get it to them early next week. They were all completely fine with that. Indeed, one client was quite complimentary and wanted to know more.

There were a few client matters, however, that were both material and urgent. As a result, I spent several hours last week getting that work done. I didn’t begrudge the clients or the work at all. I still had way more time off last week than I normally would.

All that said, I had way more downtime than usual, but I wasn’t able to completely disconnect. In hindsight, it wasn’t a sabbatical week so much as a stop-and-take-a-breath week. Getting off my usual treadmill for a week, however, gave me some insight:

  • I have been working too hard. I need to get better at building in some more fun time during the usual workweek.

  • My “urgent and material” test for client work needs to continue into my daily routine, even on weeks where I am not slowing down. Too often, I put myself in a pickle by overpromising turnaround times on work that is neither urgent nor material.

  • Hyper-scheduling works. As soon as I removed the blocks from my calendar, my production went straight to hell. That was by design last week, but if I did it every week, I would not be able to pay for my shoes anymore.

  • I was expecting that by having so much downtime, I would have some brilliant flash of insight about how I could better run my business or about the meaning of life. None of that happened. The impact on me was more subtle but positive.

  • I pushed hard two weeks ago to get as much done in advance as possible. I am glad I did. I will be re-entering the stream this week, not desperately behind as a result.

I can’t help but feel a bit of a fraud as I report in on this “sabbatical”. All I did last week was lift my foot off the gas long enough to catch my breath and spend less time at the grindstone. Nonetheless, it did inspire me to work more on this. I am going to build these slow weeks into my schedule going forward, though I am not exactly sure how often, or what I will call them. Maybe I can get better at this with practice and experience. Either way, I am lucky enough to love what I do for a living, so strapping back into the rocket ship feels fun, not dreadful. And for that, I am genuinely grateful.

Dark Noise 2

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I run Dark Noise from my iPhone to my HomePod a lot. It’s a great background noise app with an intelligent design made by Charlie Chapman. (Charlie was a guest on Automators a few months ago.)

Charlie’s now released version 2 of Dark Noise with several new sounds – Rain on Tent is my favorite new one – plus the ability to mix sounds so you could have wind and rain if the mood strikes you. Additionally, this new version will sync your settings between multiple devices, adds iPad cursor support, and adds even more app icons.

As before, Dark Noise has excellent automation support. I have several Shortcuts that involve context setting, and several of them start up a Dark Noise sound as step one—my congratulations to Charlie on an excellent release. If you haven’t already, go check out Dark Noise.

Mac Power Users 545: State of the Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has undergone massive changes since its introduction in 2014. On this week’s episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I review some of that history, then launch into a conversation of the platform's strengths and weaknesses and how we use our watches.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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Automators 54: Scripting Time with Dr. Drang

Dr. Drang returns to Automators this week to talk about scripting: why it's beneficial and, above all, why everyone can do it!

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

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Meetings and Jazz

There are a ton of video conference tutorials on the Internet at this point, but I particularly enjoyed the one recently posted by Michael Lopp. It is excellent practical advice for upping your game for video conference meetings.

I still need to update my home studio page. Since the pandemic began, I have been ousted from my prior studio, and now I am in a much more common area of our home. What I have lost in isolation, I have gained in sunlight. Hopefully, I can update you on this in the next week or two.

Levelator Lives

Levelator Icon.png

For many years, the single bit of advice all experienced podcasters gave to novice podcasters was, "Get Levelator". Levelator was a free piece of software that would take an audio file with unbalanced audio levels, chew on it for a moment, and then spit out an audio file with balanced audio. Uneven levels are particularly a problem when multiple people are recording, but can even be an issue when recording yourself (or yourself and some other audio source, like system audio).

Well, our beloved Levelator suffered from lack of attention and then abandonment. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that Levelator Lives again, this time in the Mac App Store. If you ever have need to work with audio files (or *think* you may need to), "get Levelator".