My Episode of First, Last, Everything

Jonathan Reed runs a show called First, Last, Everything over at MacStories. The format is simple: he asks guests about the first piece of tech they remember, the last thing they bought, and works through a conversation about everything in between.

I was the guest a couple of weeks ago, and it was a fun hour. Jonathan asks good questions. The kind where you start answering and find yourself somewhere you didn’t expect.

We talked about how I got into podcasting, the field guide work, the Robot Assistant project, and my thoughts on where AI is headed for regular people. There were also some embarrassing early tech memories I probably should have kept to myself.

If you want to give it a listen, the episode is up on MacStories now. Thanks to Jonathan for having me on. It’s always nice to step out of the host seat for a bit.

The iPad’s Sins

Federico Viticci did an outstanding job cataloging ways in which getting work done on your iPad is still difficult in 2024. What’s most frustrating about this list is that many of these points could have (and were) written about ten years ago.

It is frustrating when you consider the untapped potential of the iPad. With different stewardship, it could have been so much more by now. I keep coming back to the conclusion that the iPad didn’t blossom into something more because Apple is not interested (or interested enough) in doing that. Even more so with the recent Mac renaissance, Apple, through its actions, is saying, “The iPad is for people with simple tasks who don’t want the complexity of a Mac, and the Mac is for all that complex work.” If you just look at the sales spreadsheets, you could argue that that is the right approach.

But as an Apple fan, that isn’t satisfactory to me. Apple has often been the tech company with both the vision and temerity to blaze a new path. With the iPad, all the pieces are there. The hardware is innovative and cutting edge, but when it comes to software, Apple just doesn’t seem interested in taking the training wheels off of iPadOS.

The MacStories iOS 17 Review

Today Federico Viticci published his now legendary annual iOS and iPadOS review. Something that a lot of folks don’t realize is that over the years, Federico has gotten a lot better at this. Specifically, in the early years, Federico’s opus felt like it was written for developers. Now it’s written for users (at least to my eyes).

I find these reviews more informative and enjoyable each year. This year is no different.

The New Perspective Icons from MacStories

Today MacStories released a fresh new batch of perspective icons for OmniFocus. This group includes 400 different glyphs in 25 different colors in both glyph and square form. When you do the math, that comes out to 20,000 icons. Yikes! In addition to upgrading my OmniFocus perspective icons, I also find icon files handy for all sorts of uses ranging from graphics in presentations to Shortcuts icons. You can get the whole pile at the discounted price of $18 (usual price $25) for a short time.