{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Apple on Jamie Thingelstad", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2025/14/1545.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/", "feed_url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2026/04/03/ive-tried-to-get-used.html", "content_html": "

I’ve tried to get used to “Click wallpaper to show desktop” for long enough now and I still despise it. Also “Show menu bar background” is a must. Annoys me that I now have to go set esoteric settings to make macOS work the way I want it to.

\n", "date_published": "2026-04-03T15:33:45-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2026/04/03/ive-tried-to-get-used.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/09/21/use-apple-intelligence-models-in.html", "title": "Use Apple Intelligence Models in Shortcuts", "content_html": "

Shortcuts on OS 26 got a big new feature with the ability to use Apple Intelligence models directly. I’ve already had a taste of this by using OpenAI API calls in Shortcuts to add LLM capabilities. You can see how I’m using AI in the Weekly Thing for some examples. Accessing LLM capabilities from Shortcuts is a very powerful capability for various automations. I love how easy this now is with Apple Intelligence.

\n

To compare, this is how I did it with direct calls to the OpenAI API.

\n\"Apple\n

There is a lot of fussy stuff to do to get keys, pass dictionaries around, get the specific values, etc. And actually this is hiding the hardest of it all. If you expand that Get Contents of URL action you’ll see this.

\n\"Shortcuts\n

No way anyone without programming background is going to do this successfully. On top of it, my method for doing this is really brittle and prone to errors. I’m not catching all the possible API responses and if there is a problem it will just bail.

\n

I’m also just kind of hoping that the response is JSON and I can marshal it into a variable. It works, but the prompt has to be right and you’ll see I’m handling that in the API call.

\n

So, how about with Apple Intelligence and the built-in integration? Night and day difference.

\n\"Apple\n

Of course it is easier but it is so much easier. And one of the big wins is the output format. You can just tell it what you would like to get back. This avoids a ton of prompt engineering and parsing.

\n

The only thing I lose with all this complexity is the ability to do a system message. For all of my use cases this hasn’t mattered at all. I just merged the system message into the prompt.

\n

This is so easy I would encourage a lot of experimentation to pull AI into your automation.

\n", "date_published": "2025-09-21T09:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/09/21/use-apple-intelligence-models-in.html", "tags": ["Productivity","AI","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/09/15/i-dont-run-the-public.html", "content_html": "

I don’t run the public betas for Apple OS releases — and days like today are the fun when I get to jump into the new release. Updated macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and lastly visionOS to 26! Having fun and it is cool to see all the apps updating with Liquid Glass. 🤩

\n\"macOS\n", "date_published": "2025-09-15T19:20:11-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/09/15/i-dont-run-the-public.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/05/16/ive-never-had-an-apple.html", "content_html": "

I’ve never had an Apple TV require this Recovery Mode. It seems to be working fine to fix it.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2025-05-16T22:19:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/05/16/ive-never-had-an-apple.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/05/07/great-exploration-of-spatial-computing.html", "content_html": "

Great exploration of Spatial Computing at MnTech Tech Connect 2025 with Amir Berenjian of REM5 Studios. Pragmatic view highlighting where these solutions are solving big problems.

\n\"Two\n", "date_published": "2025-05-07T13:31:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/05/07/great-exploration-of-spatial-computing.html", "tags": ["Tech Community","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/05/01/i-had-siri-read-me.html", "content_html": "

I had Siri read me a long email while walking and it was like stepping back to olden times. The TTS was lacking, not recognizing acronyms and with poor inflection. And I couldn’t even just ask “read this”, that failed. Instead I had to manually select the text and then press “Speak”. 😬

\n", "date_published": "2025-05-01T12:03:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/05/01/i-had-siri-read-me.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/03/31/yes-im-on-vacation-but.html", "content_html": "

Yes I’m on vacation — but I’m still updating my bits.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2025-03-31T14:51:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/03/31/yes-im-on-vacation-but.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","Florida 2025"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/02/25/jamie.html", "title": "Jamie 5.3.53", "content_html": "

Right before my birthday I decided use the Shortcut I wrote to calculate my version number and make it a widget on my phone using SuperWidget. I have an automation that runs at 5:00 AM each day to update my version number. It sits right next to my Four Thousand Weeks rings. It has been interesting for me to “feel” that the version number has real meaning to me, in a way the rings don’t. Each day is a new version. Jamie 5.3.53 is today, and will never be again. What do I want for 5.3.54? And how is it already over 1/7th of the way to 5.4.0!

\n\"A\n", "date_published": "2025-02-25T21:20:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/02/25/jamie.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/17/i-suspect-the-reason-apple.html", "content_html": "

I suspect the reason Apple Intelligence mail categories are only supported on the iPhone is at least in part because of the difficulty with synchronizing that state across multiple devices. Feels similar to People identification in Photos at first, but Apple can’t control the backend on email.

\n", "date_published": "2025-01-17T09:01:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/17/i-suspect-the-reason-apple.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/16/after-much-debating-i-finally.html", "content_html": "

After much debating I finally decided to get a new laptop and ordered a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and configured nicely. This thing is going to be fast! Will be especially nice for photography. 😎

\n\"MacBook\n", "date_published": "2025-01-16T21:51:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/16/after-much-debating-i-finally.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/12/microblog-collection-exporter.html", "title": "Micro.blog Collection Exporter", "content_html": "

I’m adding one more Shortcut to my Micro.blog Collections Shortcuts. One of the concerns I’ve had with collections is making sure that I have some way of undoing them. If I move to another blog service and it doesn’t support these I need to know which photos are in those collections. This is gracefully handled by micro.blog when you export your blog. It will replace them all at that time and your good to go.

\n

However, I’m a bit of a “belt and suspenders” person and I’d like more than just that. Also, what if I just wanted to undo a single collection and I’m not exporting my whole blog? I’d like to be able to get at this data easier. Add to that that for very large blogs micro.blog export doesn’t work today due to file size limitations. I wanted another way.

\n

This Shortcut gets a list of all your collections, then iterates through that list building a JSON data object that contains all your Collection names along with an array of the photos in that collection.

\n

It can take a bit to run, and Shortcuts in general isn’t great with loops of loops and building larger data sets. Give it some time and it will finish just fine. It takes about 15 seconds to run for my over 60 collections.

\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Exporter

\n

The output of this Shortcut will give data like this:

\n
{\n    "Collections": {\n        "Coffee": [\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2021/31d369a8f6.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2021/c41923433b.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2021/015df1a057.jpg"\n        ],\n        "Iceland": [\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2022/799a9cb53a.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2022/1822276426.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2024/24df887cc9.png"\n        ],\n        "Italy": [\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2023/020261c875.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2023/269481db10.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2023/43c4de5c52.jpg",\n            "https://www.thingelstad.com/uploads/2024/054ebe3a4d.jpg"\n        ]\n    }\n}\n
", "date_published": "2025-01-12T15:23:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/12/microblog-collection-exporter.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/11/little-snitch-is-a-great.html", "content_html": "

Little Snitch is a great app to protect your privacy. It is also incredible to use your computer for average stuff and see that you are connecting with systems all around the world. I’m even running 1Blocker in my browser which stops some things before they even get to the network layer!

\n\"Little\n", "date_published": "2025-01-11T10:45:53-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/11/little-snitch-is-a-great.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2025/01/11/microblog-collections-shortcuts.html", "title": "Micro.blog Collections Shortcuts", "content_html": "

I’ve gone “all in” on Micro.blog’s photo collection feature. I’ve created 64 collections so far which if I’m reading id numbers right means 17% of all collections on micro.blog are ones I made. 🤓

\n

I needed some tooling in order to migrate to collections and use them the way that I want to. I’m sharing here the three shortcuts that I’ve created to do this: Creator, Copier, and Viewer.

\n

Requirements to be aware of:

\n\n

Collection Creator

\n

I’ve updated my original Collection Creator shortcut through my own use. Most of my collections have been populated with this Shortcut. I’ve found it even more useful than I thought to be able to take a clipboard full of URLs and create a collection out of the linked images. I’ve used it for posts, for pages, and even some cases where I just grabbed a bunch of image links and create a collection.

\n\"macOS\n

Improvements since the first release:

\n\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Creator Shortcut

\n

Collection Copier

\n

I’m not sure how common this will be, but at times I want to include all the photos from one collection into another collection. For example:

\n\n\"macOS\n

In this case these photos are in three collections. The easiest way to populate the aggregated collections would be to copy all photos from individual collections to them. It would be nice to “Add all photos from Collection X to Collection Y”. That is what this Shortcut does.

\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Copier Shortcut

\n

Collection Viewer

\n

The viewer collection I don’t use a ton because it doesn’t do anything different than just looking at the collection on micro.blog. But I do like having the ability to quickly index into a collection and just verify what is in there so I’m keeping it around too. It was also the first Shortcut I wrote for this to figure out how to get into the API and see the responses.

\n

Add Micro.blog Collection Viewer Shortcut

\n
\n
\n
    \n
  1. \n

    The API method to add images to a collection was made much faster but it still takes about a second per image. This gives you a better indicator of where you are in the process. Think of it like a status bar. ↩︎

    \n
    2. \n
  2. \n

    I find it odd that in Shortcuts I cannot seem to retrieve the HTTP status code for an API call. I can access the body of the response, but not the status code. I now have the shortcut check the body of the API call to add the image to a collection and if there is any content there log a warning. I wish I could check for a 200 but it doesn’t seem possible. ↩︎

    \n
    3. \n
\n
\n", "date_published": "2025-01-11T09:57:11-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2025/01/11/microblog-collections-shortcuts.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/12/30/microblog-collection-creator-shortcut.html", "title": "Micro.blog Collection Creator Shortcut", "content_html": "

Recently micro.blog added a powerful new feature to create photo collections. Using this feature you can group photos together and then use a special micro.blog shortcode to reference that collection in a blog post or page.

\n

This is a powerful feature and one of the things I wanted to do with it was create collections for the “gallery” blog posts I have on my site, posts that often have six or more images as a collection. However, there is no way to easily create a collection from a list of uploads that already exist. That is the gap this shortcut solves!

\n

Collection Creator is intended to take the contents of a blog post, find all referenced images on that post, and then add them to an existing collection! The shortcut structure is straightforward:

\n
    \n
  1. Receive the text, expected via a copy/paste.
    2. \n
  2. Find all referenced uploads in the text.
    3. \n
  3. You pick an existing collection.
    4. \n
  4. It adds each image to that collection.
    5. \n
\n

After it is complete you can remove the image references from the blog post and replace with the collection shortcode.

\n

There is a newer version of this Shortcut!

\n

Notes

\n
    \n
  1. This shortcut requires two constants to be set: the base URL of your site and an App Token to authenticate to the Micro.blog API.
    2. \n
  2. This shortcut has a dependency on the very powerful Logger for Shortcuts app. This is particularly useful when adding several uploads to a collection since you can see the progress and it takes several seconds per image. I’ve had this shortcut take over a minute to run and watching Logger is helpful to see progress.
    3. \n
  3. This shortcut will not create a collection for you. You should do that in the Micro.blog Uploads interface before running the shortcut.
    4. \n
  4. If there is an error and you process 10 images but the API fails and only 9 are added to the collection you can simply rerun it again with no issue.
    5. \n
\n", "date_published": "2024-12-30T11:02:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/12/30/microblog-collection-creator-shortcut.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/12/29/i-just-got-the-first.html", "content_html": "

I just got the first version of Micro.blog Collection Creator shortcut working. It allows you to paste in the contents of an existing post, or any text with a list of urls on your site, and it will add all referenced uploads to a collection you choose. Will share after cleaning up!

\n", "date_published": "2024-12-29T09:58:46-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/12/29/i-just-got-the-first.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/12/08/i-was-excited.html", "content_html": "

I was excited to see there is now a watchOS app for Tesla! It can access all car functions and pair as the key to the car. Unfortunately I need to wait for an update to the cars before it will work though. Soon!

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2024-12-08T09:24:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/12/08/i-was-excited.html", "tags": ["Apple","Cars"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/11/18/mujjo-leather-case.html", "title": "Mujjo Leather Case for iPhone", "content_html": "

Every iPhone I have had, since the original iPhone, I’ve had an Apple Leather case for. The iPhone 14 Pro was the last phone I got that I could get that case for. Apple has stopped making the leather cases.

\n

When I got the iPhone 16 Pro I tried not having a case for a couple of weeks and I found it too nerve wracking. The device is noticeably smaller without the case. And the feel is great. But I found it a touch slippery and I was worried about dropping it.

\n

I tried one of Apple’s Silicone cases and I hated it. It doesn’t slide in your pocket easily. When putting it in a suit coat it would “stick” to the pocket. I didn’t like how it felt in my hand at all. I don’t know if I could say a good thing about it. I had previously tried the Clear Cases and didn’t like those either.

\n

Thankfully Mujjo has rescued me. I got the Leather Case for iPhone 16 Pro and it is great. The leather feels like it should. It is good to grip but not sticky. I feel reconnected to how my phone should feel. My only gripe is the Camera Control is just a cut out versus the sapphire crystal that Apple’s cases use.

\n

I’m happy to have found a good leather case again.

\n\"Black\n", "date_published": "2024-11-18T22:07:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/11/18/mujjo-leather-case.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/10/28/upgraded-to-ios.html", "content_html": "

Upgraded to iOS 18.1 and took less than 10 minutes on the “waitlist” to get provisioned with Apple Intelligence. Looking forward to playing with this. 🧠

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2024-10-28T20:29:07-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/10/28/upgraded-to-ios.html", "tags": ["AI","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/10/23/having-this-frustrating.html", "content_html": "

Having this frustrating issue with iOS 18.0.1 on my new iPhone 16 Pro where it refuses to connect to any Bluetooth devices — even my Apple Watch. A reboot of the phone solves it. Particularly annoying when this is the key for my car!

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2024-10-23T17:45:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/10/23/having-this-frustrating.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/10/01/transferring-to-the.html", "content_html": "

Transferring to the new iPhone 16 Pro!

\n\"Two\n", "date_published": "2024-10-01T18:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/10/01/transferring-to-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/09/24/ordered-an-iphone.html", "content_html": "

Ordered an iPhone 16 Pro today. I currently have an iPhone 14 Pro. I typically wait three years between upgrades. The camera improvements and ability to use Apple Intelligence pushed me to upgrade earlier.

\n", "date_published": "2024-09-24T12:28:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/09/24/ordered-an-iphone.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/09/16/apple-updates-tonight.html", "content_html": "

Apple updates tonight:

\n

✅ 4 Macs
\n✅ 3 iPhones
\n✅ 4 Apple TVs
\n✅ 3 HomePods
\n✅ 2 Apple Watches
\n✅ iPad Pro
\n✅ Vision Pro

\n", "date_published": "2024-09-16T22:10:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/09/16/apple-updates-tonight.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/06/29/it-is-fun.html", "content_html": "

It is fun to think back to 17 years ago right now, tweeting on iPhone launch day, when I got my hands on the original iPhone. What a journey! 🚀

\n", "date_published": "2024-06-29T18:06:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/06/29/it-is-fun.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/06/05/i-am-excited.html", "content_html": "

I am excited to see sync improvements to OmniFocus 4.3 for Apple Watch. The new watchOS app is very good but sync is always behind and makes it very difficult to use. Smart to use the iOS app as a sync speed up!

\n
\n\n
\n", "date_published": "2024-06-05T17:54:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/06/05/i-am-excited.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/02/15/i-was-very.html", "content_html": "

I was very excited to read that OmniFocus is now on TestFlight for Vision OS! I enrolled and am now one step closer to having my core productivity tools in Vision OS.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2024-02-15T19:17:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/02/15/i-was-very.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/02/02/first-experience-in.html", "content_html": "

First experience in Spatial Computing. 🤩

\n\"Man\n", "date_published": "2024-02-02T13:31:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/02/02/first-experience-in.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/02/02/at-the-apple.html", "content_html": "

At the Apple Store picking up my Apple Vision Pro!

\n

\"Apple\"Apple\"Apple

\n", "date_published": "2024-02-02T13:07:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/02/02/at-the-apple.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/01/19/exciting-morning-warming.html", "content_html": "

Exciting morning — warming up my fingers to get the Apple Vision Pro ordered!

\n

✅ Pre-order complete with pickup scheduled at Apple Store on Friday, February 2nd. Purchase process with face scanning via the iPhone was simple and easy. Ordered the 512 GB storage option along with the travel case.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2024-01-19T07:41:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/01/19/exciting-morning-warming.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2024/01/08/just-set-calendar.html", "content_html": "

Just set calendar event to pre-order Apple Vision Pro on January 19th! 🎉

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2024-01-08T22:47:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2024/01/08/just-set-calendar.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/11/26/what-is-your.html", "title": "What is your favorite iPhone?", "content_html": "

The other day Alex stopped by my office and asked me “What is your favorite iPhone that you have owned?” My first reaction was that sure is a random question and then it got me thinking. What was it? I gave him a quick answer and then thought that would be a fun blog post. So here we are. I couldn’t just give one, for me there are three that stand out.

\n\n

Also, since we’re on the topic of iPhones, here is a complete list of iPhones I’ve owned. I initially bought each successive generation, and then moved to upgrading every two years. Now probably every three years. The quick jump from the 13 Pro to 14 Pro was to hand our phones down to our kids. Links are all to the Wikipedia page for each one.

\n
    \n
  1. iPhone
    2. \n
  2. iPhone 3GS
    3. \n
  3. iPhone 4
    4. \n
  4. iPhone 4s
    5. \n
  5. iPhone 5
    6. \n
  6. iPhone 7
    7. \n
  7. iPhone XS
    8. \n
  8. iPhone 13 Pro
    9. \n
  9. iPhone 14 Pro
    10. \n
\n", "date_published": "2023-11-26T20:17:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/11/26/what-is-your.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/11/10/remarkable-you-can.html", "content_html": "

reMarkable — you can do better than this? 😬 No, I’m not going to install Rosetta. I guess I’ll try to get along with using the web browser to import PDFs into my reMarkable.

\n\"macOS\n", "date_published": "2023-11-10T17:56:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/11/10/remarkable-you-can.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/10/30/imac-upgrade.html", "title": "iMac Upgrade", "content_html": "

It has been time for us to upgrade our 27" 3.7 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5 (2019) and 27" 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 (2017) both with 2TB Fusion Drives. The later can’t even upgrade to macOS Sonoma.

\n

The iMac is the form factor I wanted, but I wasn’t willing to go with an M1 Chip in 2023! With the “Scary Fast” announcements tonight and the Apple Silicon M3 iMacs I can get the chip I want! Placed orders for two of them, both with 24GB of unified memory and 2TB SSD storage. Decided to get the Blue and Orange combination.

\n\"Two\n", "date_published": "2023-10-30T21:11:39-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/10/30/imac-upgrade.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/10/30/apple-silicon-m.html", "content_html": "

Apple Silicon M3 is here! A MacBook Pro with an M3 Max has an incredible amount of power. Wow! I’ll be ordering two of the iMacs with M3.

\n", "date_published": "2023-10-30T19:06:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/10/30/apple-silicon-m.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/09/30/launch-apps-shortcut.html", "title": "Launch Apps Shortcut", "content_html": "

I’m a big fan of Shortcuts and find it useful for many small automation tasks, creating one off scripts really fast, and even building complex solutions like the Weekly Thing.

\n

“Launch Apps” is a shortcut that I think every Mac user can benefit from. I have a set of applications that I always use. Mail, Calendar, Drafts, etc. Some apps I add contextually based on which computer I’m on, or what network. Launch Apps gives me one shortcut I can put in my Menubar and easily get everything that I want running quickly.

\n

You can grab my Launch Apps Shortcut as a starting point to make your own. It is a very simple shortcut, and a great way to get started with automation.

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-30T08:12:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/09/30/launch-apps-shortcut.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/09/27/i-just-realized.html", "content_html": "

I just realized that one of our iMacs (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) isn’t able to upgrade to macOS Sonoma! I’ve been debating if it is time to update it as well as the other iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019). Seems like it is time to put these Intel iMacs to pasture.

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-27T06:59:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/09/27/i-just-realized.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/07/13/up-late-setting.html", "content_html": "

Up late setting up Tammy’s new Apple Watch Series 8 before we leave for vacation.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2023-07-13T00:32:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/07/13/up-late-setting.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/06/06/apple-vision-pro.html", "title": "Apple Vision Pro Reactions", "content_html": "

We all watched the Apple Vision Pro segment of WWDC tonight. I wanted to watch it again, and I was curious to see what the rest of the family would think.

\n

Tammy: “Looks cool but scared of where it takes us.”
\nMazie: “Exciting, extremely cool, but destructive to humankind.”
\nTyler: “Wow. I want to try it.”
\nJamie: “When can I get one?”

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2023-06-06T22:22:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/06/06/apple-vision-pro.html", "tags": ["Family","Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/06/05/foveated-renderer-oh.html", "content_html": "

Foveated Renderer. Oh yeah, always wanted one of those. 🤣 Apple Vision Pro announcement at WWDC 2023.

\n", "date_published": "2023-06-05T13:56:46-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/06/05/foveated-renderer-oh.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/06/05/apple-vision-pro.html", "content_html": "

Apple Vision Pro is a real thing! Can Apple do for headsets what they did for Phones and Watches? Maybe.

\n

Partnering with Disney to bring their incredible catalog of stories to Vision Pro is super smart. Both companies benefit.

\n

The hardware package behind the Vision Pro is wild.

\n

🤔

\n", "date_published": "2023-06-05T13:25:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/06/05/apple-vision-pro.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/05/21/my-qr-codes.html", "title": "My QR Codes", "content_html": "

At Bitcoin 2023 we were talking with some folks from New York at our table while enjoying some Cuban chicken and rice. At the end of the conversation one of the guys showed everyone his phone with a QR code for his LinkedIn profile so we could connect. Everyone loved it — very easy.

\n

I’d like to be able to do that, and I know Shortcuts makes it very easy to do. So I whipped up My QR Codes. Tap on that and it should allow you to add that to Shortcuts. The shortcut is very simple, and you will want to modify the Dictionary at the very top with your own list of links and names.

\n

After you have customized it, add it to your Home Screen using the share function and you have a super simple way to share your most common links with people.

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2023-05-21T09:07:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/05/21/my-qr-codes.html", "tags": ["Travel","Technology","Apple","Shortcuts","Bitcoin 2023"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/02/27/i-gave-the.html", "content_html": "

I gave the “Always On Display” feature of the iPhone 14 Pro several weeks to get used to, but have finally turned it off. When the display is on it catches my attention every time I see it. It leaves me wondering if there is something I need to check. No good.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2023-02-27T12:47:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/02/27/i-gave-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2023/01/08/iphone-upgrade-waterfall.html", "content_html": "

iPhone Upgrade “Waterfall” today. New iPhone 14 Pro for Tammy and I, and our old phones heading to the kids who will finally be out of the dark ages with their devices. Thankful that migration tools are so much better these days!

\n\"Two\n", "date_published": "2023-01-08T13:13:09-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2023/01/08/iphone-upgrade-waterfall.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/10/29/since-upgrading-to.html", "content_html": "

Since upgrading to macOS Ventura I can no longer launch Safari using LaunchBar. I’m constantly launching the wrong thing. I don’t get why LaunchBar wont index Safari. Works same as always for every other app. 😬

\n", "date_published": "2022-10-29T09:02:38-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/10/29/since-upgrading-to.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/10/28/the-duplicates-and.html", "content_html": "

The Duplicates and Merging feature in the latest version of Photos 8.0 is really nice. I’ve wanted a utility to do this for years and so far it works exactly how I would want it to.

\n", "date_published": "2022-10-28T18:25:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/10/28/the-duplicates-and.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2022/06/06/the-new-window.html", "content_html": "

The new window manager that Apple announced at WWDC today, Stage Manager, looks interesting. I like how the experience works on a variety of display sizes. It makes me chuckle that we’ve had GUIs for 30 years and we are still figuring out window managers. 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2022-06-06T19:03:50-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/06/06/the-new-window.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/12/13/i-updated-all.html", "content_html": "

I updated all of our iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, Macs, and Apple Watches. All went smooth except an old iPad Pro that my son uses. It refused to run the updater. Finally remembered I could plug it into my Mac and have the computer update it. 👍

\n", "date_published": "2021-12-13T23:10:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/12/13/i-updated-all.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/11/28/now-that-apple.html", "content_html": "

Now that Apple has Shortcuts working on all platforms, I would like to renew my wish list item of having my Mail.app signature be a Shortcut so that I can have fun with dynamic signatures. 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2021-11-28T16:26:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/11/28/now-that-apple.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/11/09/the-new-v.html", "content_html": "

The new v2 Grammarly App for iOS is a huge step forward. Finally you can work with documents and not just via a custom keyboard. Now if we can get Shortcuts support to bring Grammarly into other tools! 🤞

\n", "date_published": "2021-11-09T13:34:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/11/09/the-new-v.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/10/25/just-upgraded-my.html", "content_html": "

Just upgraded my first machine to macOS Monterey. Very smooth. Took about an hour. I’m giddy to see Shortcuts on my Mac now! Going to be playing around for a while now.

\n\"About\n", "date_published": "2021-10-25T19:04:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/10/25/just-upgraded-my.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/10/08/the-extent-to.html", "content_html": "

The extent to which Shortcuts on iOS 15 is broken is shocking. Any moderately complex shortcut will randomly fail from one execution to another, with multiple different error conditions. It is unusable in current form.

\n", "date_published": "2021-10-08T21:04:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/10/08/the-extent-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/10/02/transferring-data-to.html", "content_html": "

Transferring data to the iPhone 13 Pro. Upgrading from the iPhone XS. Most excited to try out all the camera innovation over the last three years!

\n\"Two\n", "date_published": "2021-10-02T07:51:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/10/02/transferring-data-to.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/09/25/ordered-iphone-pro.html", "content_html": "

Ordered iPhone 13 Pro for Tammy and I. Both 512 GB. Sierra Blue for her, Silver for me. Trying out the iPhone 13 Pro Clear Case with MagSafe this time.

\n", "date_published": "2021-09-25T15:16:58-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/09/25/ordered-iphone-pro.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/09/20/starting-my-first.html", "content_html": "

Starting my first iOS & iPadOS 15 upgrades! I skip the public betas in large part so I can have the fun of doing big OS upgrades like a present. 🎁

\n\"Three\n", "date_published": "2021-09-20T15:42:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/09/20/starting-my-first.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/08/28/im-a-huge.html", "content_html": "

I’m a huge fan of Cook. Crazy big pay day. $750M. 💰

\n
\n

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, received more than 5m shares in the firm and sold most of them, pocketing over $750m this week. The stock grant—part of a compensation package set in 2011—was contingent on the tech firm meeting various financial targets, which it did. Under Mr Cook’s tenure, Apple’s market capitalisation has risen more than seven-fold. — Economist Espresso, Saturday, August 28.

\n
\n", "date_published": "2021-08-28T13:32:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/08/28/im-a-huge.html", "tags": ["Work","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/06/02/decided-to-take.html", "content_html": "

Decided to take in a gorgeous day and work on our porch today. iPad Pro in Sidecar display is nice to have more desktop.

\n\"MacBook\n", "date_published": "2021-06-02T21:02:38-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/06/02/decided-to-take.html", "tags": ["Work","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/05/24/upgraded-to-ios.html", "content_html": "

Upgraded to iOS 14.6 and after everyone was updated setup Apple Card Family. Worked really well. Very streamlined setup experience. Curious how my daughter will use the card we got her. Financial literacy!

\n", "date_published": "2021-05-24T18:39:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/05/24/upgraded-to-ios.html", "tags": ["Family","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/05/20/my-apple-airtags.html", "content_html": "

My Apple AirTags arrived today! Two are for special keys. Not sure what other two will be for.

\n\"Four\n", "date_published": "2021-05-20T21:22:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/05/20/my-apple-airtags.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/05/10/sat-down-to.html", "content_html": "

Sat down to figure out what was wrong with my 27-inch 2019 Retina 5K iMac. Beach balls. Terrible performance. Random crashes.

\n

Turns out the Fusion Drive had “split” and the machine was completely confused about the disk system.

\n

Complete rebuild and it is fast again!

\n", "date_published": "2021-05-10T20:38:19-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/05/10/sat-down-to.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/02/24/this-years-easter.html", "content_html": "

This “10 years” Easter Egg in the Apple Store app is fun.

\n

\n", "date_published": "2021-02-24T23:05:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/02/24/this-years-easter.html", "tags": ["Videos","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2021/02/11/day-of-the.html", "content_html": "

Day 11 of the February Photoblogging Challenge: Machine.

\n

This new M1 MacBook Pro is an incredible machine.

\n\"Closed\n", "date_published": "2021-02-11T21:29:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2021/02/11/day-of-the.html", "tags": ["Apple","February 2021 Photoblogging Challenge"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/11/16/happy-that-noodlesoft.html", "content_html": "

Happy that Noodlesoft has made Hazel 5 a regular application, and no longer part of System Preferences!

\n", "date_published": "2020-11-16T22:16:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/11/16/happy-that-noodlesoft.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/11/13/i-upgraded-two.html", "content_html": "

I upgraded two iMacs and a MacBook Air to macOS Big Sur. One of the iMacs was not happy after upgrade but booting into rescue mode and reinstalling Big Sur fixed whatever was ailing it. My initial impression is positive. I like the UI changes and the updates to core applications. Performance seems a little slower but gets faster after apps have been used a couple times. Might be some data migrations happening in the background? Bringing Widgets and Control Center to macOS seems like a win. I have a lot fewer menu bar icons.

\n", "date_published": "2020-11-13T23:55:29-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/11/13/i-upgraded-two.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/10/25/i-wonder-how.html", "content_html": "

I wonder how many Neural Engines the iPhone will need before it can properly adjust exposure for snow scenes. 😖

\n", "date_published": "2020-10-25T19:16:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/10/25/i-wonder-how.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/10/13/the-daily-chart.html", "content_html": "

The daily chart from The Economist showing the price ranges of the iPhone since launch puts some perspective on the price of the newest iPhones, as we wait for todays announcement of the next new iPhone.

\n\"Dot\n", "date_published": "2020-10-13T10:51:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/10/13/the-daily-chart.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/09/19/the-hand-washing.html", "content_html": "

The hand washing feature in watchOS 7 seemed a bit silly but I turned it on and I’ve actually liked it. It is good at detecting washing, and it has already resulted in me washing for longer. I even get a graph! I also like the nudge to wash your hands when you get home.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2020-09-19T19:36:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/09/19/the-hand-washing.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/09/19/i-have-wanted.html", "content_html": "

I have wanted folders in Shortcuts since it was called Workflow. It is a huge help to have that in iOS 14. I rediscovered shortcuts I had forgot about because they were lost in the flat library! I also love that I can group project specific shortcuts like the Weekly Thing.

\n\"iOS\n", "date_published": "2020-09-19T19:32:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/09/19/i-have-wanted.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/09/19/ios-is-sharing.html", "content_html": "

iOS 14 is sharing an insight with me that it is using more battery. Neat insight, how about a fix? 😬

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2020-09-19T19:30:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/09/19/ios-is-sharing.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/07/06/i-dropped-my.html", "content_html": "

I dropped my iPhone in the water yesterday and when I went to charge it last night I got this notice. I was able to charge it this morning. However, FaceID is not working right now. I’m hoping that clears up shortly.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2020-07-06T15:52:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/07/06/i-dropped-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/03/24/apple-update-day.html", "content_html": "

Apple update day.

\n\"Three\n", "date_published": "2020-03-24T22:49:52-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/03/24/apple-update-day.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/02/25/wow-pythonista-finally.html", "content_html": "

Wow — Pythonista 3 finally got an upgrade to some of the newest iOS features! And release notes make it clear further Shortcuts support is on the way! 👏

\n", "date_published": "2020-02-25T21:07:28-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/02/25/wow-pythonista-finally.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/02/24/mimi-uploader-may.html", "content_html": "

Mimi Uploader may fundamentally change how I use micro.blog. It makes it much more compelling for longer blog posts.

\n", "date_published": "2020-02-24T20:51:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/02/24/mimi-uploader-may.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/06/getting-my-new.html", "content_html": "

Getting my new 11” iPad Pro setup and I really like this size!

\n", "date_published": "2019-12-06T18:34:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/06/getting-my-new.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/04/it-would-be.html", "content_html": "

It would be a fun trick for Mail on iOS to allow you to specify a Shortcut for your email signature, which could generate a dynamic signature for each new mail message.

\n", "date_published": "2019-12-04T09:33:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/04/it-would-be.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/01/iphone-home-screen.html", "content_html": "

iPhone home screen, December 2019. I have a somewhat surprising number of text / writing / notes apps on there.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2019-12-01T23:49:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/01/iphone-home-screen.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/12/01/took-advantage-of.html", "content_html": "

Took advantage of Apple’s annual holiday sale to get some upgrades ordered! 🎁 New iMac and iPad Pro on the way!

\n", "date_published": "2019-12-01T12:46:08-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/12/01/took-advantage-of.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/11/02/i-think-the.html", "content_html": "

I think the noise cancelling in the AirPods Pro makes me nauseous. Wasn’t sure of cause the first two times, but has happened with every use more than a couple minutes. 🥴

\n", "date_published": "2019-11-02T12:15:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/11/02/i-think-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/10/30/initial-impression-of.html", "content_html": "

Initial impression of AirPods Pro:

\n
    \n
  1. Charging case is larger, but still okay in pocket.
    2. \n
  2. They fit in the ear very differently, but feel more comfortable.
    3. \n
  3. Sounds quality is great.
    4. \n
  4. I dig transparent mode!
    5. \n
\n", "date_published": "2019-10-30T23:34:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/10/30/initial-impression-of.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/10/28/my-original-airpods.html", "content_html": "

My original AirPods were badly in need of replacement after going in the pool with me. Just ordered the new AirPods Pro!

\n", "date_published": "2019-10-28T11:34:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/10/28/my-original-airpods.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/09/26/its-great-to.html", "content_html": "

It’s great to see OmniFocus with iOS 13 Features coming soon! I particularly like seeing some new Shortcut options being added right away! 👏

\n", "date_published": "2019-09-26T22:57:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/09/26/its-great-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/09/22/ios-prompts-for.html", "content_html": "

iOS 13 prompts for requesting location data are really good. This feels like you know what is really being shared.

\n\"iOS\n", "date_published": "2019-09-22T15:56:49-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/09/22/ios-prompts-for.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/08/19/the-shortcuts-app.html", "content_html": "

The Shortcuts app on iOS should have a setting that causes shortcuts to error if you reference an unknown or undeclared variable. Would help reduce errors and could default to off for folks that do simpler things.

\n", "date_published": "2019-08-19T20:49:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/08/19/the-shortcuts-app.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/07/15/restoring-my-iphone.html", "content_html": "

Restoring my iPhone XS completely from iTunes and then restoring my backup seems to have fixed my battery issues, and Spotlight searches now work. Check out battery burn rate before and after.

\n

Before

\n\"Battery\n

After

\n\"Battery\n", "date_published": "2019-07-15T22:16:53-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/07/15/restoring-my-iphone.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/07/14/would-like-to.html", "content_html": "

Would like to go to sleep, but my iPhone is my alarm clock. 🤔

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2019-07-14T21:59:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/07/14/would-like-to.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/07/14/doing-complete-os.html", "content_html": "

Doing complete OS recovery and restore on my iPhone XS to hopefully fix whatever is causing it to burn through CPU and battery like crazy. Spotlight search would not work, I suspect it was stuck in a cycle rebuilding a search index. 🤞📱

\n", "date_published": "2019-07-14T21:08:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/07/14/doing-complete-os.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/07/03/something-is-very.html", "content_html": "

Something is very wrong on my iPhone. The battery is draining super fast. I’ve noticed Spotlight isn’t working. Searches don’t return. I’m suspicious the search indexes for Spotlight are messed up and the phone is stuck rebuilding them?

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2019-07-03T21:57:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/07/03/something-is-very.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/04/15/just-ordered-my.html", "content_html": "

Just ordered my MacStories 10th Anniversary T-Shirt! 👕

\n", "date_published": "2019-04-15T22:52:38-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/04/15/just-ordered-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/03/25/ios-update-fest.html", "content_html": "

iOS update fest.

\n\"Multiple\n", "date_published": "2019-03-25T20:42:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/03/25/ios-update-fest.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2019/03/07/my-daughter-lost.html", "content_html": "

My daughter lost her iPhone while skiing today. Quick action with Find my iPhone and Lost Mode got it recovered from a couple feet down in the snow! ⛷❄️👀

\n\"Find\n", "date_published": "2019-03-07T20:22:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2019/03/07/my-daughter-lost.html", "tags": ["Outdoors","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2020/04/21/using-api-credentials.html", "title": "Using API Credentials in Shortcuts", "content_html": "

Shortcuts on iOS can do incredibly powerful things, and with a little bit of extra magic you can connect to most API’s as well. Pulling data from API’s, manipulating it, and extending your shortcuts is really powerful. However, you need to have a good way to manage the authentication tokens and secrets for those APIs.

\n

Most Shortcuts I have seen use a Text variable and put the token in that variable. It’s then used throughout the Shortcut. This works, but it exposes problems if you share that Shortcut. It also has issues if you use the same API in multiple Shortcuts. You are now copying that token in numerous places.

\n

Another approach that I prefer is to create Shortcuts that do nothing but return those tokens. You can then call those Shortcuts from another Shortcut to get the token. I prefix these Shortcuts with the prefix “Secret”.

\n\"Four\n

Then when I need to use an token for an API I call the Shortcut and then reference the magic variable returned from it. You can even hide the execution of that second Shortcut.

\n\"Apple\n

In addition to reuse, you also get other benefits from this approach. Your Secret Shortcut can have some logic. For example, I access Working Copy from Shortcuts and it does so with a local URL call, protected with a random key. That key is specific to each iOS device. So, rather than try to synchronize the keys I have the Secret shortcut return whatever key is right for the device that is running.

\n\"iOS\n

I do a similar thing with MailChimp’s API token that requires some encoding be applied to it.

\n

I find this a better way to manage these secret tokens, get reuse, and make it easier to change them. 👍

\n

This post is part of the Shortcuts Collection.

\n", "date_published": "2019-01-22T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2020/04/21/using-api-credentials.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple","Shortcuts"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/11/22/ive-had-more.html", "content_html": "

I’ve had more spinning beachballs in macOS Mojave than I’ve had in any recent version of macOS.

\n", "date_published": "2018-11-21T21:08:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/11/21/ive-had-more.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/11/17/got-the-new.html", "content_html": "

Got the new MacBook Air today (Space Gray, 16 GB memory, 500 GB storage). Reminds me how much I liked the form factor on the original MacBook Air. TouchID is great to have, and beautiful Retina display!

\n", "date_published": "2018-11-17T17:55:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/11/17/got-the-new.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/11/17/its-surprising-to.html", "content_html": "

It’s surprising to me that this five computer limitation is still around in iTunes. iOS devices don’t count against it, what’s special about Macs?

\n\"iTunes\n", "date_published": "2018-11-17T17:43:11-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/11/17/its-surprising-to.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/11/12/the-new-ipad.html", "content_html": "

The new 12.9" iPad Pro with the attached keyboard is a good size for an airline seat tray. The previous generation 12.9" I found too large for flights and used the smaller one. This one works fine with keyboard.

\n", "date_published": "2018-11-12T18:22:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/11/12/the-new-ipad.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/11/05/ios-has-pythonista.html", "content_html": "

iOS has Pythonista for Python, and Scriptable is awesome for JavaScript, but I wish there was a Lua version of one or both of them. Would be fun to use Lua to automate iOS and create helper scripts. All augmenting Shortcuts capabilities! 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2018-11-04T23:54:09-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/11/04/ios-has-pythonista.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/10/10/just-used-the.html", "content_html": "

Just used the new iOS Shortcuts “Run JavaScript on Web Page” feature to automate a task that had no API endpoint before. It’s a very interesting capability. You can shove stuff in and out of the page and trigger other events while doing it. 🤔

\n", "date_published": "2018-10-09T23:52:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/10/09/just-used-the.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/10/07/subways-and-long.html", "content_html": "

Subways and long exposure capabilities on iPhone XS was a lot of fun today.

\n

\"Blurred\"People\"Five

\n", "date_published": "2018-10-06T21:49:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/10/06/subways-and-long.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","Daddy-Daughter Trip to NYC 2018"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/10/04/my-apple-watch.html", "content_html": "\"Apple\nMy Apple Watch has gotten very confused with 8 duplicates of all calendar events. Can’t figure out how to clear or reset this yet.\n", "date_published": "2018-10-03T20:16:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/10/03/my-apple-watch.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/25/two-of-my.html", "content_html": "

Two of my three Macs are upgraded to macOS Mojave. The last one that is still upgrading is an iMac with Fusion drive and is taking a lot longer than the others. I suspect some APFS twiddling. My ancient MacBook Pro 15" Retina from 2012 upgraded fine.

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-24T21:28:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/24/two-of-my.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/23/fountain-in-the.html", "content_html": "

Fountain in the Lyndale Park Rose Garden. The iPhone XS camera is very impressive.

\n

\"Two-tiered\"Bronze

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-23T15:15:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/23/fountain-in-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/22/072633.html", "content_html": "

Upgrading to the new iPhone XS using iCloud Backup. First time I’ve done this not using iTunes local backup. 🤞🏻 Also letting it magically move my Apple Watch settings.

\n

Only a few minutes into the “post home button” iOS experience and I can already see that the gesture interface is going to significantly increase my use of fast app switching.

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-22T07:26:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/22/072633.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/21/it-seems-that.html", "content_html": "

It seems that the nVidia GPU in my 2012 MacBook Pro 15” Retina is failing fast. Screen goes black, Kernel panic reported from GPU. Somewhat common issue with that laptop. I was planning to upgrade but was hoping to make it to October’s new machines!

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-20T19:25:51-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/20/it-seems-that.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/18/have-all-my.html", "content_html": "

Have all my relevant Apple devices upgraded to iOS 12, watchOS 5 and related device OS versions. 👍🏻

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-17T19:04:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/17/have-all-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/14/time-it-took.html", "content_html": "

Time it took AT&T to fix my iPhone Xs upgrade order today: 97 minutes.

\n

Time it took my barber to cut my hair: 9 minutes.

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-14T17:51:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/14/time-it-took.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/14/iphone-xs-gb.html", "content_html": "

iPhone Xs 256GB Space Grey ordered! 🛒

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-14T03:41:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/14/iphone-xs-gb.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/09/12/the-iphone-xs.html", "content_html": "

The iPhone Xs is going to be a great upgrade from my iPhone 7. 📱 The Apple Watch Series 4 is enough of a jump to make me consider upgrading my Series 3. ⌚️

\n", "date_published": "2018-09-12T13:02:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/09/12/the-iphone-xs.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/07/26/i-made-a.html", "content_html": "

I made a Workflow in iOS that pulls a specific budget amount for me from YNAB’s API, then added it to my Today Widget. Super quick access to data. Will be fun to make this a Siri Shortcut!

\n", "date_published": "2018-07-26T18:45:46-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/07/26/i-made-a.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/07/15/of-the-total.html", "content_html": "

30% of the total space on my MacBook’s SSD is being used by iOS backups of my iPhone and iPad. ☹️

\n", "date_published": "2018-07-15T06:57:31-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/07/15/of-the-total.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/07/15/im-looking-forward.html", "content_html": "

I’m looking forward to attaching a Siri Shortcut of “Hey Siri, Loons Win!” to this Workflow in iOS 12. 😊⚽️📱

\n\"iOS\n", "date_published": "2018-07-14T21:45:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/07/14/im-looking-forward.html", "tags": ["Sports","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/06/23/took-my-canon.html", "content_html": "

Took my Canon 5D Mark II with the 70-200 f/2.8L to Tyler’s baseball game today. Good reminder of how far iPhone photography has to go. 📷

\n", "date_published": "2018-06-23T18:13:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/06/23/took-my-canon.html", "tags": ["Family","Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/06/04/my-productivity-geek.html", "content_html": "

My productivity geek wish for tomorrow’s WWDC event is to learn what Apple had in mind when it bought Workflow. 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2018-06-03T23:25:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/06/03/my-productivity-geek.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/04/its-possible-to.html", "content_html": "

It’s possible to make some pretty crazy stuff with Workflow and Pythonista on iOS. Improving my Weekly Thing automation.

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-03T22:55:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/03/its-possible-to.html", "tags": ["Weekly Thing","Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/05/04/why-does-microsoft.html", "content_html": "

Why does Microsoft OneDrive for iOS still not support the Files app. It should have been one of the first to adopt it. 🤨

\n", "date_published": "2018-05-03T20:33:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/05/03/why-does-microsoft.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/27/im-amazed-at.html", "content_html": "

I’m amazed at the “superpowers” Workflow gives me automating routine things from my phone! 🙌🏻

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-26T23:53:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/26/im-amazed-at.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/24/macos-photos-app.html", "content_html": "

macOS Photos app grinds my laptop to a crawl. Fans blaring, everything sluggish. Very frustrating. Seemingly doing nothing and it’s taking 280% and more of CPU.

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-24T17:20:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/24/macos-photos-app.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/02/19/using-the-get.html", "content_html": "

Using the Get and Set Clipboard actions in Workflow to pass more than just “Workflow input” between different workflows is great (and a total hack). 🤓

\n", "date_published": "2018-02-19T00:48:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/02/18/using-the-get.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2018/01/02/this-was-a.html", "content_html": "

This was a fun surprise on my Apple Watch this morning. Was this only a Siri face feature?

\n\"Apple\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2018-01-01T19:08:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2018/01/01/this-was-a.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/12/29/what-apps-make.html", "title": "What apps make you better?", "content_html": "

I’ve been very intentional about which applications I put on my iPhone and even where I put them. I don’t put any social media applications on my phone, and don’t put news applications on it either. I specifically seek out applications that have addictive patterns baked into them and remove them as well.

\n

A while back I started keeping an entire page of applications that are all there to help me achieve my goals and improve as a person. Novel idea huh? This is what that screen looks like today.

\n

\"Apps

\n

YouAte

\n

Keeping a food journal is a great way to eat better and YouAte does it all with photos. I had used Rise for a while which you typically use with a coach. YouAte can be used with friends for support or you can use it solo.

\n

Day One

\n

Journaling is a great way to reflect on things. This is by far my farvorite journaling application. It supports multiple journals and also has strong encryption.

\n

stickK

\n

When my book club read Nudge it referenced the work and theory behind commitments that has now been built into an offering called stickK. I haven’t used this for a commitment yet but I like the mechanics and think it’s a solid approach.

\n

Happy Scale

\n

This is a great application for logging and analysing your weight data. It applies smoothing to all of your data which I think is a far superior way to look at weight data.

\n

Headspace

\n

Meditation app with a tremendous amount of options.

\n

Streaks

\n

Streaks is a habit tracker. I consider habit trackers to be very different from task management. Habit trackers tend to focus on streaks, and Streak does just that. I’ve also used Productive in the past and like it a lot. The built-in HealthKit hooks in Streak are a nice benefit to me.

\n

Zones

\n

Zones is a fabulous app for tracking the intensity of your workouts and letting you know what heart rate zone you were in for how long. If you have an Apple Watch and collect this data Zones can even tell you info on historical workouts.

\n

SleepTown

\n

Fun app that helps you keep consistent sleep patterns. This app helps me make sure I’m not staring at my phone too late.

\n

Forest

\n

Fun app for forcing yourself to not use your phone during the day. Great for keeping yourself from habitually checking your device.

\n

Health Mate & Omron Wellness

\n

Both of these are here because they support devices I have. The Health Mate app connects my Withings Scale to HealthKit so data flows automatically. The Omron Wellness app connects my blood pressure monitor to HealthKit as well. I like having as much automation as possible from measurements to storage.

\n

What is yours?

\n

What apps are on your mobile device to encourage good things? I’d highly recommend putting them in one place and making it a regular stop on your phone.

\n", "date_published": "2017-12-29T13:16:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/12/29/what-apps-make.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/12/10/earned-the-botanist.html", "content_html": "

Earned the botanist badge in Forest! 🌳🌳🌳

\n\"Forest\n", "date_published": "2017-12-10T13:47:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/12/10/earned-the-botanist.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/12/05/having-fun-trying.html", "content_html": "

Having fun trying Apple Pay over iMessage with some friends. Sending $1 around. This is pretty nice. 👍🏻💸

\n", "date_published": "2017-12-04T20:50:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/12/04/having-fun-trying.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/11/30/i-finally-got.html", "content_html": "

I finally got my first house in SleepTown. Interesting app concept from the makers of Forest. Every house represents my persistence to achieve my sleeping goal!

\n\"Promotional\n", "date_published": "2017-11-29T21:17:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/11/29/i-finally-got.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/11/30/i-wish-blockerhttpsblockercom.html", "content_html": "

I wish 1Blocker had a built in system for sharing and subscribing to custom packages made by other users. Similar to Workflow and TextExpander. I know there would be packages I would want to subscribe and share.

\n", "date_published": "2017-11-29T20:40:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/11/29/i-wish-blockerhttpsblockercom.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/23/my-safari-reading.html", "content_html": "

My Safari Reading List has mysteriously stopped synchronizing between devices. There seems to be no way to debug this. 😣🐜

\n", "date_published": "2017-10-22T20:50:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/22/my-safari-reading.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/17/whats-better-than.html", "content_html": "

What’s better than using AirPods for music? Using a single AirPod to make calls or listen to an audio book.

\n", "date_published": "2017-10-17T12:54:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/17/whats-better-than.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/16/safari-on-ios.html", "content_html": "

Safari on iOS 11 previews an ICS file when you open it? Nice! 👏🏻 Has it always done this?

\n\"iOS\n", "date_published": "2017-10-15T20:42:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/15/safari-on-ios.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/11/battery-life-on.html", "content_html": "

Battery life on Series 3 Apple Watch is impressive - 75% after full day.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2017-10-10T22:20:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/10/battery-life-on.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/10/when-keatingisaiah-told.html", "content_html": "

When Isaiah told me he really liked the flashlight 🔦 in watchOS 4 I thought he was nuts. Used it now a few times and he’s right! 👍🏻

\n", "date_published": "2017-10-09T22:14:52-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/10/09/when-keatingisaiah-told.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/10/01/i-coached-tylers.html", "content_html": "

I coached Tyler’s soccer game today and left my iPhone in the car thanks to my Apple Watch with LTE. 👍🏻😊⚽️

\n", "date_published": "2017-09-30T20:43:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/30/i-coached-tylers.html", "tags": ["Sports","Family","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/30/got-my-series.html", "content_html": "

Got my Series 3 Apple Watch today! Way faster than original. Have LTE setup too! ⌚️

\n", "date_published": "2017-09-29T21:21:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/29/got-my-series.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/30/setup-icloud-family.html", "content_html": "

Setup iCloud Family Sharing for storage. Nice to have that option now!

\n", "date_published": "2017-09-29T20:53:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/29/setup-icloud-family.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/27/goodbye-jpeg-hello.html", "content_html": "

Goodbye JPEG. Hello HEIF!

\n\"iOS\n", "date_published": "2017-09-27T07:28:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/27/goodbye-jpeg-hello.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/19/trying-out-the.html", "content_html": "

Trying out the Siri face in watchOS 4. Curious to see how it adapts and responds.

\n", "date_published": "2017-09-19T18:55:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/19/trying-out-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/19/updated-iphone-and.html", "content_html": "

Updated iPhone and iPad to iOS 11. Now the slow, slow process of watchOS 4 upgrade.

\n", "date_published": "2017-09-19T16:29:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/19/updated-iphone-and.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/09/15/stainless-steel-series.html", "content_html": "

Stainless Steel Series 3 Apple Watch with cellular ordered! Will use stainless steel band from Series 1.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2017-09-15T03:46:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/09/15/stainless-steel-series.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/08/20/would-have-been.html", "content_html": "

Would have been cool if Apple had an Eclipse watchOS watch face.

\n", "date_published": "2017-08-19T21:28:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/08/19/would-have-been.html", "tags": ["Travel","Outdoors","Apple","Solar Eclipse 2017"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/29/celebrating-years-of.html", "content_html": "

Celebrating 10 years of iPhone, my blog post from 10 years ago on getting my first iPhone. 📱

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-29T12:49:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/29/celebrating-years-of.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/27/very-impressed-with.html", "content_html": "

Very impressed with Affinity Photo! Intuitive and very powerful iPad photo editing.

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-27T07:55:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/27/very-impressed-with.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/05/sirikit-supports-tasks.html", "content_html": "

SiriKit supports tasks and OmniFocus 2 is on the slide? Yes please! 😍

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-05T13:05:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/05/sirikit-supports-tasks.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/05/apple-pay-persontoperson.html", "content_html": "

Apple Pay person-to-person is going to be very significant. Opens up a lot of potentials and nice implementation right inside iMessage.

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-05T13:04:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/05/apple-pay-persontoperson.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/06/05/imac-pro-is.html", "content_html": "

iMac Pro is impressive! Amazing specs that I doubt I could tax, but I sure want one… 😍

\n", "date_published": "2017-06-05T12:58:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/06/05/imac-pro-is.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/05/20/typing-on-an.html", "content_html": "

Typing on an Apple Wireless Keyboard after getting fully used to an Apple Magic Keyboard feels really weird. The keys seem to move a massive distance when pressed.

\n", "date_published": "2017-05-19T20:02:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/05/20/typing-on-an.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/05/06/125236.html", "content_html": "

Repair trip to the Genius Bar. iMac has a broken spring on the hinge. One AirPod won’t pair.

\n\n

If you work in tech it’s enlightening to sit at the Apple Genius Bar and just listen to the discussions. Things are still not easy and simple enough.

\n", "date_published": "2017-05-06T12:52:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/05/06/125236.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/05/03/right-airpod-is.html", "content_html": "

Right AirPod is now refusing to pair. 😕 Happened one other time and pairing again fixed. Not working now. Guessing may have a bad pod.

\n\n", "date_published": "2017-05-03T10:09:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/05/03/right-airpod-is.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/02/18/steve-wozniak-at.html", "title": "Steve Wozniak at Augsburg College", "content_html": "

Steve Wozniak, or “Woz”, was a guest at Augsburg College today and it was a pleasure to see him talk about his early days in technology and his first experimentations with microchips which eventually led to the creation of the Apple I and beyond.

\n

Woz is an amazing person. He individually did more to create the personal computer industry than possibly anyone else. He is a creative genius with technology. He so clearly is passionate and understands the design of technology like nobody else. On top of all that, Woz just seems like a nice person. Woz seems like someone that you’d love to have dinner with and just spend time discussing the world. He’s an “engineer’s engineer”. You could give yourself a nearly impossible challenge just by looking at your project and asking “What would Woz do with this?”

\n

\"Steve

\n

Some highlights from the discussion with Woz:

\n\n", "date_published": "2017-02-18T13:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/02/18/steve-wozniak-at.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/02/08/wow-devontech-devonthink.html", "content_html": "

DEVONtechnologies DEVONthink To Go 2.1 now as an iOS document provider is a big deal! Big possibilities opened with that!

\n", "date_published": "2017-02-08T10:37:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/02/08/wow-devontech-devonthink.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2017/01/09/iphone-turns-years.html", "content_html": "

iPhone turns 10 years old today! My tweet from 10 years ago…

\n", "date_published": "2017-01-09T10:59:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2017/01/09/iphone-turns-years.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/12/26/editing-and-pushing.html", "content_html": "

Editing and pushing changes in Git using Working Copy on iPhone and iPad is pretty awesome.

\n", "date_published": "2016-12-26T16:26:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/12/26/editing-and-pushing.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/12/26/i-finally-have.html", "content_html": "

I finally have realized the huge win of Workflow after a long time. Now to see if I can do similar with Launch Center Pro. There is a lot of value in automating routine workflows in iOS. Will keep focusing on this.

\n", "date_published": "2016-12-26T10:57:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/12/26/i-finally-have.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/12/23/finally-bit-and.html", "content_html": "

Finally dove into DEVONthink and am very impressed thus far. New iOS app got me to try it.

\n", "date_published": "2016-12-23T12:40:45-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/12/23/finally-bit-and.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/11/29/created-a-fancier.html", "content_html": "

Created a fancier word count and reading time workflow for Workflow!

\n", "date_published": "2016-11-29T00:20:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/11/28/created-a-fancier.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/11/26/102132.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2016-11-26T11:21:32-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/11/26/102132.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/31/did-macos-sierra.html", "content_html": "

Did macOS Sierra change something with fonts? I’m getting prompts to download custom fonts? Others seeing this?

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-31T13:31:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/31/did-macos-sierra.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/30/feeling-like-i.html", "content_html": "

Feeling like I need to invest in learning and using Little Snitch.

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-29T23:07:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/29/feeling-like-i.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/20/few-days-in.html", "content_html": "

Few days in with iPhone 7 and it’s definitely my favorite iPhone yet. Really like the button-less home button and haptics. Also super fast.

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-20T08:07:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/20/few-days-in.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/16/upgraded-to-iphone.html", "content_html": "

Upgraded to iPhone 7. Decided to stay non-Plus. Tammy went with 7+.

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-15T19:49:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/15/upgraded-to-iphone.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/10/13/living-boldly-with.html", "content_html": "

Living boldly with 1,155 notes in iOS/OS X Notes app. iCloud syncing solid still. Search could be cleaner.

\n", "date_published": "2016-10-12T21:30:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/10/12/living-boldly-with.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/09/29/154407.html", "content_html": "

Really wish iOS could print to a PDF and then send the file via a share sheet.

\n", "date_published": "2016-09-29T10:44:07-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/09/29/154407.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/09/15/just-got-every.html", "content_html": "

Just got every Iconfactory iMessage sticker pack. Just ‘cus it’s fun.

\n", "date_published": "2016-09-14T23:29:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/09/14/just-got-every.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/09/14/siri-can-send.html", "content_html": "

Siri can send a message using LinkedIn (please never do this) but can’t add a task to OmniFocus. Ugh. 👎🏻

\n

Sadly, Siri on iOS 10 doesn't support To Do apps like @OmniFocus yet, just 6 other kinds of apps: https://t.co/wKtomdSnT3

Maybe in iOS 11!

— Ken Case (@kcase) September 14, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-09-14T05:50:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/09/14/siri-can-send.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/09/09/ugh-the-dual.html", "content_html": "

Ugh.. The dual camera in the iPhone 7+ has me stuck in indecision. 😕

\n", "date_published": "2016-09-09T07:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/09/09/ugh-the-dual.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/08/10/hmm-odd-that.html", "content_html": "

Hmm, odd that Notes doesn’t support Automator workflows.

\n", "date_published": "2016-08-09T20:55:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/08/09/hmm-odd-that.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/05/27/im-still-digging.html", "content_html": "

I’m still digging Notes on Mac OS X and iOS but it would be 10x more useful if I could link to a note with a URL from another app.

\n", "date_published": "2016-05-26T20:39:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/05/26/im-still-digging.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/05/25/hope-this-rumor.html", "content_html": "

Hope this rumor of an Echo-like device from Apple that uses Siri is true. I liked the Echo, but without iOS connectivity to my calendar, messages and other apps it had limited use.

\n", "date_published": "2016-05-24T22:15:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/05/24/hope-this-rumor.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/05/22/yeah-finally-got.html", "content_html": "

Yeah! Finally got Siri to get the hard g in my last name!

\n

Here's how to retrain Siri's pronunciation yourself https://t.co/ne5DffR14a pic.twitter.com/XIIBXGUvmr

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) May 21, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-05-21T23:30:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/05/21/yeah-finally-got.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/05/15/minute-wait-to.html", "content_html": "

Upgrading my iPad Air to the new 9″ iPad Pro. It’s time.

\n

20-30 minute wait to buy an iPad at the Apple Store MOA. Huh? Please take my money faster. 💸

\n", "date_published": "2016-05-15T15:35:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/05/15/minute-wait-to.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/04/26/014943.html", "content_html": "

The MacSparky Mailing List ← Cool to see MacSparky starting a mailing list. Just signed up!

\n", "date_published": "2016-04-25T20:49:43-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/04/25/014943.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/04/11/234709.html", "content_html": "

Can’t wait to use this with Workflow!

\n

Scripting the @OmniFocus 1.14 TestFlight with Editorial to create an OmniFocus project from a TaskPaper template: pic.twitter.com/pbksOHGvB3

— Ken Case (@kcase) April 11, 2016
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2016-04-11T18:47:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/04/11/234709.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/22/used-siri-dictation.html", "content_html": "

Used Siri dictation to spell my password to Apple TV. Worked great!

\n", "date_published": "2016-03-21T22:18:32-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/21/used-siri-dictation.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/21/mac-os-x.html", "content_html": "

Mac OS X, iOS, tvOS and watchOS updates all going crazy tonight!

\n", "date_published": "2016-03-21T18:19:35-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/21/mac-os-x.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/21/apple-watch-updates.html", "content_html": "

Apple Watch updates redefine slow. Best to just walk away and come back an hour later.

\n", "date_published": "2016-03-21T18:14:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/21/apple-watch-updates.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/03/15/030924.html", "content_html": "

Is there any way to get only some of your iCloud calendars on your Apple Watch? Other family calendars are nice on phone but not watch.

\n", "date_published": "2016-03-14T22:09:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/03/14/030924.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/02/20/spillo-wishlist.html", "title": "Spillo Wishlist", "content_html": "

I’ve been using Spillo for about a week now and am finding it really great. Here is a quick wish list though that I would love to see added.

\n
    \n
  1. \n

    Help with URL redirects. If you click on a bookmark in Spillo it\nshows the web page, great. However, if when Spillo requests the\nwebpage it is sent a 301\nredirect request I would\nlike Spillo to prompt me that the website has permanently moved the\n“old URL” to a “new URL” and ask if I would like to update my\nbookmark. Personally I sort of wish Pinboard did this on the server\nside, but it would be great if Spillo prompted this and let me\nupdate my URL’s as needed, before they become dead.

    \n
    2. \n
  2. \n

    Add “nots” to Collection searches. Currently a URL can “contain”\nbut not “does not contain” a string. A date can be “is in the last”\nperiod of time, but not “not in the last” period of time. Tag\nsearched can be “any” or “all”, but you cannot do “not”.

    \n
    3. \n
  3. \n

    Power search on titles. This may be something Pinboard would\nhave to support, but I’d love to be able to pass regex patterns for\ntext searches. Just to highlight a use case for this, I’d like a\nCollection of Github projects I’ve pinned. That is easy with “URL\ncontains github.com”. But, then I’m also capturing Github blog posts\nwhich I can’t currently exclude from that collection.

    \n
    4. \n
  4. \n

    Create collection from tag browser. You can shift click multiple\ntags in the tag browser, would be nice to then right-click and have\n“Create collection…”.

    \n
    5. \n
  5. \n

    Drag Community links into my links. It’s slick how you can drag\na bookmark onto the tag list to add tags. It would be cool to take a\nbookmark you from Popular and drag it into Public or All to add it\nto your bookmarks. Equally drag to Unread or Private to add it as\nunread or private respectively. Right now you have to repin the\nbookmark. This would be similar to the Pinboard websites “copy to\nmine…” capability. When doing this it would be nice to add the\n“from:popular” attribution.

    \n
    6. \n
  6. \n

    Show whole description. Right now you can only have “None” or 1,\n2 or 3 lines displayed of the description. I’d like an option for\n“All”.

    \n
    7. \n
  7. \n

    Date part searches. Right now the date searches are only date\nsearched. I’d like to search on date parts. Examples would be\n“Bookmarks added on Saturday or Sunday”, “Bookmarks added in 2010”,\n“Bookmarks added after 6pm and before 6am”.

    \n
    8. \n
\n

Tag management in general is an area where I continue to hope for an application like Spillo to help out even more.

\n
    \n
  1. \n

    Spillo already shows the number of times a tag has been used, would\nbe nice to see the date it was last used as well.

    \n
    2. \n
  2. \n

    It would be nice in tag browser to be able to drop one tag onto\nanother to merge them together (into the one that was dropped on).

    \n
    3. \n
  3. \n

    Similar to above, select any number of tags and allow a “Merge…”\ncapability.

    \n
    4. \n
  4. \n

    Allow filtering of tags to only show tags used some number of times\nor less. Similar with show me tags not used in the last number of\nmonths or years.

    \n
    5. \n
\n", "date_published": "2016-02-20T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/02/20/spillo-wishlist.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/02/20/spillo-a-powerful.html", "title": "Spillo, a powerful Mac Pinboard app", "content_html": "\"Pushpin\n

I’ve been using Pinboard to store bookmarks for years and have always been very happy with it. I’ve got over 8,000 bookmarks in Pinboard and routinely send links into it nearly every day.

\n

Pinboard is a super fast website, but I’ve wanted a solid Mac application to use with it as well. I had tried Thumbtack but it just never really worked for me. It is probably great for others. When I was reading Brett Terpstra’s 2015 Top Mac Apps he linked to Spillo as his preferred Pinboard client. Brett knows his stuff so I pinned Spillo and decided to check it out.

\n

\"Spillo

\n

First off Spillo has a very comfortable UI. It reminds me of an RSS reader or email application with a simple 3-column layout. It provides the key Pinboard views of your own bookmarks (all, unread, untagged, starred, etc) and also includes the Community features of Pinboard like Network and Popular. I’m a big fan of Pinboard’s Popular list. That is where I discover most new things.

\n

Spillo also adds Collections which are search based and can include any criteria like tag, unread status even where the link came from. I like this since I have a workflow around videos from conferences that I want to watch. I don’t think of those as normal unread items since they take a lot more time. So I have a “Videos to watch” collection that brings these together real nice.

\n

Overall I really like Spillo and I’m hopeful that the developer behind it is going to continue to extend it. I like that the focus is on a Mac client and there isn’t a plan for Spillo for iOS. I already use Pinner for Pinboard on my iPhone and it works great. Also, if you are not using Pinboard and you routinely like to bookmark things you should give it a look.

\n", "date_published": "2016-02-20T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/02/20/spillo-a-powerful.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/01/21/152806.html", "content_html": "

Anyone else getting disconnected warnings on Apple Watch ⌚️ after upgrading iPhone to iOS 9.2.1? Happening all the time, but still working. I did a hard reboot on my watch and phone and seems to have fixed.

\n", "date_published": "2016-01-21T16:28:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/01/21/152806.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/01/17/dont-judge-gaming.html", "content_html": "

Don’t judge gaming on Apple TV until you try with a good controller like the Nimbus. Pretty impressive gameplay with it.

\n", "date_published": "2016-01-17T10:45:19-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/01/17/dont-judge-gaming.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2016/01/15/finally-a-more.html", "content_html": "

Interact Contacts ← Finally a more powerful contacts tool for iOS.

\n", "date_published": "2016-01-14T22:06:28-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2016/01/14/finally-a-more.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/12/someone-is-working.html", "content_html": "

Someone is working on a fun, well designed Santa Tracker app for Apple TV right?

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-12T11:05:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/12/someone-is-working.html", "tags": ["Holidays","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/09/best-to-let.html", "content_html": "

Best to let watchOS updates happen while you sleep. So sloooow…

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-08T23:55:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/08/best-to-let.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/12/05/duet-display.html", "title": "Duet Display", "content_html": "

I decided to try out Duet Display for the first time this weekend (based on a post from MacSparky). I’m impressed with it. I really like that it uses a Thunderbolt connection so doesn’t require WiFi or something else I wouldn’t trust. With the iPad Pro it gives you a lot of space. When I’m traveling and want to setup for some serious work being able to set the iPad Pro up as a 2nd display will be great.

\n

Definitely work checking out if you have an iPad Pro or even iPad.

\n", "date_published": "2015-12-05T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/12/05/duet-display.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/22/would-be-big.html", "content_html": "

Would be big win if Notes app on iOS and Mac supported a URL schema to open a specific note or a folder.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-22T08:41:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/22/would-be-big.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/20/200703.html", "content_html": "

Really dig Pinner share extension on iOS to get things to Pinboard. Best Pinboard client IMO.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-20T21:07:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/20/200703.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/20/really-happy-to.html", "content_html": "

Really happy to see that Instaviz has come back to life with new releases. Using Instaviz on iPad Pro with Pencil is pretty amazing brainstorming tool.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-20T20:39:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/20/really-happy-to.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/18/first-trip-that.html", "content_html": "

First trip that I’m only traveling with iPad Pro. Will be fun to see how this works as only device.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-18T10:47:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/18/first-trip-that.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/15/sitting-at-table.html", "content_html": "

Sitting at table with iPad Pro + Smart Keyboard. Split screen Mail and Safari. Music playing sounds great through 4 speakers. iPad and iOS platform has come an amazingly long way in a short period of time.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-15T00:16:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/14/sitting-at-table.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/13/234638.html", "content_html": "

Pretty impressed with Smart Keyboard on iPad Pro. Feels better than expected to type on. Pencil backordered.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-13T18:46:38-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/13/234638.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/09/cant-wait-to.html", "content_html": "

Can’t wait to get my hands on the new iPad Pro. Have one on the way.

\n

It just now hit me that the iOS 9 / El Capitan revamp of the Notes app was probably all about the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-09T22:05:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/09/cant-wait-to.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/07/got-pcalc-on.html", "content_html": "

Got PCalc on my Apple TV ‘cause I can. 😀

\n", "date_published": "2015-11-06T19:18:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/11/06/got-pcalc-on.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/11/01/hoping-luminos-from.html", "content_html": "

Hoping Luminos from Wobbleworks comes to Apple TV. Would be super fun.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-31T20:45:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/31/hoping-luminos-from.html", "tags": ["Outdoors","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/31/can-my-heart.html", "content_html": "

Can my heart rate be sent from my Apple Watch to the Apple TV? Maybe via iPhone? Could make for great dynamic cycling workout apps on TV.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-31T17:14:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/31/can-my-heart.html", "tags": ["Cycling","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/31/191536.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2015-10-31T14:15:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/31/191536.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/26/014136.html", "content_html": "

Impressed with Wobbleworks Luminos!

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-25T20:41:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/25/014136.html", "tags": ["Outdoors","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/05/using-safari-share.html", "content_html": "

Using Safari share sheet to send to Notes is very nice. Wish there was a “Share as Web Archive” option as well.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-05T06:43:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/05/using-safari-share.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/04/i-only-truly.html", "content_html": "

I only truly appreciate the Retina display on my iPhone when I have my readers on. Looks amazing.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-03T20:12:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/03/i-only-truly.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/10/03/as-someone-that.html", "content_html": "

As someone that just could never get cozy with Evernote I’m really digging the new Notes app in iOS 9 and El Cap.

\n", "date_published": "2015-10-02T20:35:29-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/10/02/as-someone-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/27/using-thetunnelbear-along.html", "content_html": "

Using Tunnel Bear along with Block Bear is a super easy way to get a very protected web experience on iOS.

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-26T22:22:53-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/26/using-thetunnelbear-along.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/25/nice-to-finally.html", "content_html": "

Thumbtack for Pinboard ← Nice to have a Pinboard menubar app for Mac OS X that is good!

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-24T20:02:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/24/nice-to-finally.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/16/would-be-neat.html", "content_html": "

Would be neat if Apple had some way you could walk into a store and do an OTA iOS update lightning fast in some way. Tried OTA update of iPad over tether with iPhone but projected 5 hours. #patience

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-16T14:43:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/16/would-be-neat.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/16/i-give-there.html", "content_html": "

I give. There is no way to do an iOS 9 upgrade while at Dreamforce.

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-16T14:34:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/16/i-give-there.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/16/192824.html", "content_html": "

This is a big deal for Apple Watch users of OmniFocus.

\n

On watchOS 2, OmniFocus lets you choose which items to see in its Glance and Complications: https://t.co/1ud1TyY1Ur https://t.co/j8UvcqyTZB

— Ken Case (@kcase) September 16, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-16T14:28:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/16/192824.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/11/really-not-a.html", "content_html": "

I am not a fan of the desktop-like menu bar in the new iOS version of iA Writer. Feels very out of context and distracting.

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-10T22:07:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/10/really-not-a.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/10/ipad-pro-smart.html", "content_html": "

iPad Pro + Smart Keyboard + Apple Pencil = 98% of my office needs

\n", "date_published": "2015-09-09T20:40:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/09/ipad-pro-smart.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/09/05/this-is-going.html", "content_html": "

This is going to change how I use my Apple Watch in a meaningful way! Awesome work OmniFocus crew!

\n

@thingles Why, yes, you most certainly can! pic.twitter.com/0k6cfjpSnQ

— Ken Case (@kcase) September 5, 2015
\n\n\n\n", "date_published": "2015-09-04T20:28:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/09/04/this-is-going.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/08/22/221801.html", "content_html": "

Wish there was a setting to force my Mac to be slower, and not so hot on the lap.

\n", "date_published": "2015-08-22T17:18:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/08/22/221801.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/07/28/wish-i-could.html", "content_html": "

Wish I could use a share extension in iOS to send an Apple Pay notification to You Need A Budget.

\n", "date_published": "2015-07-28T17:45:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/07/28/wish-i-could.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/06/28/anyone-have-recommended.html", "content_html": "

Anyone have recommended iPad apps to learn to play a guitar? Can read music but have no clue about chords and guitars.

\n", "date_published": "2015-06-27T20:24:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/06/27/anyone-have-recommended.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/06/13/great-fun-interview.html", "content_html": "

Great, fun interview with John Gruber and Phil Schiller of Apple.

\n\n \n \n \n \n\n", "date_published": "2015-06-12T22:57:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/06/12/great-fun-interview.html", "tags": ["Videos","Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/27/surprising-miss-that.html", "content_html": "

Surprising “miss” that muting notifications for a group MMS on your iPhone does NOT stop notifications on Apple Watch.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-26T20:15:23-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/26/surprising-miss-that.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/26/001820.html", "content_html": "

It’s odd that the Mac App Store doesn’t recommend purchases based on my iOS Apps.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-25T19:18:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/25/001820.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/24/altos-adventure-awesome.html", "content_html": "

Alto’s Adventure. Awesome game. Great recommendation from MacSparky.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-23T23:50:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/23/altos-adventure-awesome.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/23/paid-for-groceries.html", "content_html": "

Paid for groceries with my watch. Neat!

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-23T13:04:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/23/paid-for-groceries.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/20/no-support-for.html", "content_html": "

No support for perspectives makes OmniFocus for Apple Watch useless when you defer v due date tasks. Hope that is added.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-20T06:32:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/20/no-support-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/20/apple-watch-arrived.html", "title": "Apple Watch Arrived", "content_html": "

I ordered my Apple Watch on launch day and opted for the stainless steel with link bracelet. It was back ordered 4-6 weeks and yesterday it arrived. Yes, I was pretty excited to play with it!

\n

The initial impression of it was great. I’ve worn a Rolex GMT Master II for about 15 years. I opted for this Apple Watch because it was the most similar in look, weight and feel to that. The heft and feel of the Apple Watch holds every bit as much respect as the substantially more expensive Rolex. As something that feels good on my wrist and looks great it passes.

\n

The rest of this experience is about software and that will take time to have opinions on. I’m going to note some of my hopes here to compare to in a future post.

\n
    \n
  1. I hope to check my phone less.
    2. \n
  2. I’m very interested in the better health data.
    3. \n
  3. Eager to use OmniFocus on this; I’m a heavy user of this and having it on my wrist has great potential.
    4. \n
  4. Explore new experiences with apps and glances.
    5. \n
\n

Will be fun to explore this new ecosystem.

\n\"Stainless\n", "date_published": "2015-05-20T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/20/apple-watch-arrived.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/20/got-a-task.html", "content_html": "

Got a task into my OmniFocus inbox by talking to my watch. 🙂 Feels like magic! 🪄

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-19T21:37:45-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/19/got-a-task.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/20/love-the-fit.html", "content_html": "

Love the fit and finish on the stainless steel Apple Watch. Weight is good too.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-19T20:36:50-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/19/love-the-fit.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/19/ups-shows-my.html", "content_html": "

UPS shows my Apple Watch should arrive tomorrow! 🤩

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-18T19:53:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/18/ups-shows-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/05/11/the-new-doodletweet.html", "content_html": "

The new Doodle iOS app is light years ahead of where it was before. Nicely done.

\n", "date_published": "2015-05-10T21:57:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/05/10/the-new-doodletweet.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/24/browsing-the-apple.html", "content_html": "

Browsing the Apple Watch apps and wishing I didn’t have 3 more weeks to wait. 1Password and OmniFocus at top of my list to install.

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-23T21:05:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/23/browsing-the-apple.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/18/002221.html", "content_html": "

Photos for Mac initial iCloud sync destroys my internet connection. Very annoying.

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-17T19:22:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/17/002221.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/11/photos-for-mac.html", "content_html": "

Photos for Mac initial iCloud sync is killing my broadband connection. 😕

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-10T20:37:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/10/photos-for-mac.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/10/apple-watch-ordered.html", "title": "Apple Watch Ordered", "content_html": "

After some debate I placed my order at 3:56am CT for the Apple Watch. I’m eagerly looking forward to experiencing a new user experience and brand new category of device. I went with the 42mm Stainless Steel Case\nwith Link Bracelet.

\n\"42mm\n", "date_published": "2015-04-10T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/10/apple-watch-ordered.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/04/06/messages-on-os.html", "content_html": "

Messages on OS X started requiring an App Specific password for Apple ID’s that have 2-Factor Authentication enabled? Others see this too?

\n", "date_published": "2015-04-06T12:24:19-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/04/06/messages-on-os.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/03/16/so-glad-this.html", "content_html": "

Apple Fixes Keyboard iOS 8.3 Beta Searches.Don’t.Look.Like.This ← So glad this is fixed! I do this all the time!

\n", "date_published": "2015-03-15T20:59:04-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/03/15/so-glad-this.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2015/03/10/013402.html", "content_html": "

Excited to see what Rise, Day One, OmniFocus, and You Need A Budget do with Apple Watch.

\n", "date_published": "2015-03-09T20:34:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2015/03/09/013402.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/12/14/024015.html", "content_html": "

If you like IFTTT and Launch Center Pro you should check out Workflow. Having fun with it.

\n", "date_published": "2014-12-13T21:40:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/12/13/024015.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/11/27/really-wish-ios.html", "content_html": "

Really wish iOS could backup to iCloud and my computer.

\n", "date_published": "2014-11-26T20:20:02-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/11/26/really-wish-ios.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/11/18/upgraded-macs-iphones.html", "content_html": "

Upgraded 2 Macs, 2 iPhones and 3 iPads tonight. #freshbits

\n", "date_published": "2014-11-17T23:05:42-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/11/17/upgraded-macs-iphones.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/11/09/224221.html", "content_html": "

Being able to AirDrop from my iPhone to my MacBook is surprisingly useful.

\n", "date_published": "2014-11-09T17:42:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/11/09/224221.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/11/04/passbook-has-gradually.html", "content_html": "

Passbook has gradually moved from an app I put in my “Hidden” folder to one that is now on my first screen.

\n", "date_published": "2014-11-03T22:29:31-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/11/03/passbook-has-gradually.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/11/01/can-i-order.html", "content_html": "

Can I order my Apple Watch yet? Waiting is the hardest part.

\n", "date_published": "2014-10-31T19:52:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/10/31/can-i-order.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/10/24/screen-sharing-through.html", "content_html": "

Screen sharing through Messages in Yosemite is pretty slick.

\n", "date_published": "2014-10-23T20:31:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/10/23/screen-sharing-through.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/10/20/im-really-enjoying.html", "content_html": "

I’m really enjoying the visual refresh of Yosemite. Refreshing. OS feels snappy too.

\n", "date_published": "2014-10-19T20:14:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/10/19/im-really-enjoying.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/10/17/122134.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2014-10-17T12:21:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/10/17/122134.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/20/the-hey-siri.html", "content_html": "

Siri is incredible on the iPhone 6. The “Hey Siri” feature is great when you are driving.

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-20T11:29:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/20/the-hey-siri.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/20/wait-my-appletv.html", "content_html": "

Wait, my AppleTV can’t use this new 7.0 release?! 🙁

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-19T20:48:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/19/wait-my-appletv.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/19/still-about-folks.html", "content_html": "

Still about 50 folks in line at Apple Store in Uptown.

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-19T15:40:32-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/19/still-about-folks.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/16/tim-cook-on.html", "title": "Tim Cook on Charlie Rose", "content_html": "

This is a great two part interview (part 1, part 2) with Apple CEO Tim Cook with Charlie Rose. Wonderful insight into how Apple works and how they explore new products.

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-16T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/16/tim-cook-on.html", "tags": ["Work","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/15/watched-the-watch.html", "content_html": "

Watched the Apple Watch video 3 times now. Should stop now. 😀

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-14T20:28:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/14/watched-the-watch.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/09/12/ordered-tkorocks-an.html", "content_html": "

Ordered Tammy an iPhone 6 via the AT&T website and it worked.

\n", "date_published": "2014-09-12T03:02:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/09/12/ordered-tkorocks-an.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/08/24/140843.html", "content_html": "

Had no idea Raiden was available for iPad! Favorite arcade game ever!

\n", "date_published": "2014-08-24T09:08:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/08/24/140843.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/04/10/creating-entire-presentation.html", "content_html": "

Creating entire presentation on PowerPoint for iPad with Office 365 and pretty impressed with the entire experience.

\n", "date_published": "2014-04-10T06:53:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/04/10/creating-entire-presentation.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2014/01/04/hoping-multiple-vault.html", "content_html": "

Hoping multiple vault support is coming soon for 1Password for iOS. Am eager to use the feature but need it for mobile too.

\n", "date_published": "2014-01-04T18:06:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2014/01/04/hoping-multiple-vault.html", "tags": ["Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/12/29/cant-believe-i.html", "content_html": "

Dash for macOS ← Can’t believe I didn’t know about Dash. Great reference app for developers.

\n", "date_published": "2013-12-29T09:51:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/12/29/cant-believe-i.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/12/24/hoping-to-get.html", "content_html": "

Hoping to get a multiplayer Carcassonne for iOS game “in person” at Christmas Eve.

\n", "date_published": "2013-12-24T10:09:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/12/24/hoping-to-get.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/12/01/the-old-school.html", "content_html": "

The old school Mac Pro looks absolutely ridiculous on display in the Apple store.

\n", "date_published": "2013-12-01T15:32:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/12/01/the-old-school.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/06/latex-continues-to.html", "content_html": "

Texpad for iOS ← LaTeX continues to intrigue me.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-06T07:20:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/06/latex-continues-to.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/06/productivity-apps-for.html", "title": "Productivity Apps for iPad", "content_html": "

A bunch of people at work got new iPad’s recently and I figured some may find it useful to know what productivity apps I’ve been using on my iPad. Over the last couple of months the iPad has really become a critical tool for me.

\n

OmniFocus for iPad

\n

I use OmniFocus all day, constantly on my iPhone, iPad and Mac. Everything I need to do gets put in it. It’s a GTD-style task tool. YMMV, but I find it very useful. OmniFocus sits in my home row on all iOS devices.

\n

OmniOutliner 2

\n

If I’m taking notes in a meeting I’m always keeping them in an outline, and a proper outliner is a huge win for that. I also use OmniOutliner 2 to frame out any presentations I’m giving. One thing I particularly like to do is have an outline document for each recurring meeting, and then have a node in the outline for each week where I put my notes. Makes it super easy to see last meeting items.

\n

HipChat

\n

I’ve been using HipChat for team chat. It’s awesome, and the iPad version lets me stay connected all the time. Great tool.

\n

MindNode

\n

If you are at all into mind mapping this is the best one by a mile for the iPad. Great tool for brainstorming a topic.

\n

1Password

\n

I use 1Password to manage 400+ unique passwords for everything I use. Critical to have it on iOS as well.

\n

Skype

\n

An obvious one.

\n

Keynote

\n

I know most folks are PowerPoint junkies. Personally if I can I prefer Keynote. The iOS version is on par with the desktop one. Enjoyable to work on slides on a plane using this.

\n

PCalc

\n

The calculator built-in is no fun at all. This is a serious, heavy hitter calculator that supports RPN for folks that are into that sort of thing. I don’t know if it does the beloved 12C functions for all the finance folks, but this is my preferred calculator by a mile. Nice bonus is you can email the “tape” if you’ve done a set of calculations.

\n

OmniPlan 2

\n

Like Microsoft Project but for the iPad. If you need to do any standalone project planning this is a great tool.

\n

iA Writer

\n

If you are brave enough to write long form text on your iPad, this is my preferred tool for that. Has great keyboard setup that makes writing longer form things much better.

\n

Dropbox

\n

Pretty much required.

\n

Tweetbot

\n

If your gonna Twitter, ditch the Twitter official client for Tweetbot. It’s about a million times better. At some point a new iOS 7 optimized Tweetbot will come out for the iPad, it’s already out for the iPhone, but until then this current version is the best out there.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/06/productivity-apps-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/04/im-impressed-by.html", "content_html": "

I’m impressed by this new version of Launch Center Pro.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-03T23:59:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/03/im-impressed-by.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/11/02/new-mac-python.html", "content_html": "

Exedore ← New Mac Python tool.

\n", "date_published": "2013-11-02T06:17:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/11/02/new-mac-python.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/29/sure-am-hoping.html", "content_html": "

Sure am hoping Mac OS X 10.9.1 is coming real soon now. 😕

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-29T06:33:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/29/sure-am-hoping.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/24/upgrading-to-os.html", "content_html": "

Upgrading to OS X Mavericks at work. Cisco VPN works so what the heck.

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-24T16:07:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/24/upgrading-to-os.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/23/upgraded-home-machines.html", "content_html": "

✅ Upgraded home machines to Mavericks. All smooth.
\n✅ Upgraded iOS apps to newest. Cable modem on overload.

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-22T21:06:08-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/22/upgraded-home-machines.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/06/just-watched-two.html", "content_html": "

Just watched two people manually force quit all the apps on their iPhones. 🤦‍♂️

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-05T20:49:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/05/just-watched-two.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/05/was-just-thinking.html", "content_html": "

Was just thinking that Apple TV should update automatically. And then noticed there is a new setting to do just that! Nice.

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-05T18:19:51-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/05/was-just-thinking.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/04/223610.html", "content_html": "

My mom has a better iPhone than me. 😕

\n", "date_published": "2013-10-04T17:36:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/10/04/223610.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/10/01/seems-my-none.html", "content_html": "

Anyone else having iMessage issues today? Seems my none of my iMessages on my phone were sent today. Rebooted and then they went out. 😕

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-30T19:47:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/30/seems-my-none.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/27/my-ocd-tendencies.html", "content_html": "

My OCD tendencies still have me checking App Store for updates even though it’s automatic now.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-26T23:05:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/26/my-ocd-tendencies.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/27/040410.html", "content_html": "

Just upgraded to iOS 7.0.2 from my nightstand. Remember when this required iTunes? So nice.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-26T23:04:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/26/040410.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/25/pro-tip-dont.html", "content_html": "

Pro Tip: Don’t tell Mac OS X Finder to Quick Look a 60MB SVG file.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-25T13:20:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/25/pro-tip-dont.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/21/223032.html", "content_html": "

I wonder how much battery it takes to move that second hand in the iOS 7 clock icon.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-21T17:30:32-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/21/223032.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/21/ios-notification-center.html", "content_html": "

iOS 7 notification center should hide the stock display on the weekends. And it’s odd that you can put sports info there.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-21T17:25:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/21/ios-notification-center.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/21/why-does-apple.html", "content_html": "

Why does Apple make it harder and harder to rate songs in iOS?

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-21T17:13:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/21/why-does-apple.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/21/010706.html", "content_html": "

Very happy with OmniFocus 2 → OmniFocus 2 for iPhone: Background Sync and a Bold Redesign

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-20T20:07:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/20/010706.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/19/notification-center-theres.html", "content_html": "

Notification Center: “There’s a lot going on tomorrow.” No kidding. There always is. 😊

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-19T10:07:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/19/notification-center-theres.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/19/updated-iphones-and.html", "content_html": "

Updated 2 iPhones and 2 iPads to iOS 7 tonight. Will be feeling around in the internals the rest of the night.

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-18T20:59:01-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/18/updated-iphones-and.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/09/16/just-discovered-wifes.html", "content_html": "

Just discovered Tammy’s phone is eligible for iPhone 5S upgrade pricing. Uh oh…

\n", "date_published": "2013-09-15T22:54:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/09/15/just-discovered-wifes.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/07/12/minutes-at-the.html", "content_html": "

40 minutes at the Apple Store and $149 later I have a new piece of glass in my iPhone 5. All better now.

\n", "date_published": "2013-07-12T10:40:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/07/12/minutes-at-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/07/11/ugh-just-shattered.html", "content_html": "

Ugh. Just shattered my iPhone screen. 🙁

\n

Time to head to the Apple Store tonight.

\n", "date_published": "2013-07-11T17:54:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/07/11/ugh-just-shattered.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/06/27/pro-tip-apple.html", "content_html": "

Pro tip: Apple TV parental controls is a great way to hide all the dumb “channels” added in the last update.

\n", "date_published": "2013-06-26T20:00:45-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/06/26/pro-tip-apple.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2013/01/27/tylers-favorite-website.html", "content_html": "

Lately Tyler has taken to sitting down at the iMac, logging in on the\nguest account, starting a Safari which takes him to Apple’s website. He\nthen watches video after promotional video.

\n\"Young\n

It’s now totally common to hear Jony Ives saying “aluminium” at random\nintervals.

\n", "date_published": "2013-01-27T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2013/01/27/tylers-favorite-website.html", "tags": ["Family","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/11/09/024915.html", "content_html": "

I wish there was a Mac version of Letterpress where I could have multiple games open at the same time.

\n", "date_published": "2012-11-08T21:49:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/11/08/024915.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/11/04/223426.html", "content_html": "

It would be nice if you could stash words in Letterpress that you want to remember for a future move.

\n

It would be a lot of fun if you could “react” to the word your opponent played in Letterpress. Like the faces in Lost Cities.

\n", "date_published": "2012-11-04T23:34:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/11/04/223426.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/09/24/iphone-shipped-today.html", "content_html": "

iPhone 5 shipped today. Week earlier than order said it would.

\n", "date_published": "2012-09-23T21:05:25-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/09/23/iphone-shipped-today.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/07/25/upgrading-my-macs.html", "content_html": "

Upgrading my Macs at home to Mountain Lion an hour before leaving town for a few days. I lose all sensibility when new bits arrive.

\n", "date_published": "2012-07-25T10:34:39-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/07/25/upgrading-my-macs.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/06/13/my-setup-for.html", "title": "My Setup for WWDC on Monday", "content_html": "

This was my setup for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on Monday. It sure would be nice if they just sent out the video live. 😊 Meanwhile liveblogs are the best option. I tend to rely on Mac Rumors Live.

\n\"MacBook\n", "date_published": "2012-06-13T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/06/13/my-setup-for.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2012/03/07/iphone-and-ipad.html", "content_html": "

iPhone and iPad doing OTA upgrade to iOS 5.1 at the same time. #darksideofmoon

\n", "date_published": "2012-03-07T16:25:28-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2012/03/07/iphone-and-ipad.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/11/14/itunes-match-updates.html", "title": "iTunes Match Updates Ratings and Play Counts", "content_html": "

Apple launched iTunes Match today and having all my music in iTunes, with three different computers, an iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and three Apple TVs I figured I could benefit from using iTunes Match for my music. I enabled it and it is still in the process of doing its first update. I was very curious about how iTunes Match dealt with certain metadata.

\n\"MacBook\n

I’m a big user of Smart Playlists and many of them rely on song ratings, play counts and last played dates. I also often have Smart Playlists that reference other Smart Playlists. Some quick learnings from an hour of playing around.

\n
    \n
  1. \n

    iTunes Match synchronizes ratings within 10-20 seconds between\ndevices. I was playing a matched track on my iPad 2 and adjusted the\nrating. Within 20 seconds iTunes on my MacBook Pro reflected the new\nrating. I changed the rating in iTunes and within another 20 seconds\nit was updated on the iPad 2 without any action being taken.

    \n
    2. \n
  2. \n

    The play count for a track is updated promptly after the track is\nplayed.

    \n
    3. \n
  3. \n

    Unfortunately the last played date is not updated. This is annoying\nfor me since I routinely use last play date to manage Smart\nPlaylists.

    \n
    4. \n
  4. \n

    Smart Playlists that use other Smart Playlists as part of their\ncriteria are not available in iTunes match. Simpler Smart Playlists\nare fine in iTunes Match.

    \n
    5. \n
\n", "date_published": "2011-11-14T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/11/14/itunes-match-updates.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/11/11/upgraded-to-ios.html", "content_html": "

Upgraded to iOS 5.0.1 this morning and have more battery at 5p on iPhone 4S than I’ve ever had. By a big margin.

\n", "date_published": "2011-11-11T18:32:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/11/11/upgraded-to-ios.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/11/09/typing-big-green.html", "title": "Typing Big Green Egg on iPhone", "content_html": "

Have a Big Green Egg? Have an iPhone with iOS 5 on it? Then you\nabsolutely need to go here Settings - General - Keyboard - Shortcuts

\n

Then create this shortcut to save your thumbs significant effort.

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2011-11-09T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/11/09/typing-big-green.html", "tags": ["Cooking","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/10/08/jobs-cake.html", "title": "Jobs Cake", "content_html": "

We have a lot of Apple people at 8thBridge. On Thursday we marked Steve Jobs’ passing with a cake in his memory. The screen dimensions on the frosting iPhone are a bit Android-ish, but a great decorating job nonetheless.

\n\"Memorial\n", "date_published": "2011-10-08T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/10/08/jobs-cake.html", "tags": ["Work","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/10/07/got-my-iphone.html", "content_html": "

Got my iPhone 4S pre-ordered!

\n", "date_published": "2011-10-07T07:48:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/10/07/got-my-iphone.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-theropng.html", "title": "Steve Jobs, t_hero.png", "content_html": "

My friend Kent found this and commented on Facebook about it. I wanted to capture it for posterity. On Apple’s website the tribute to Steve Jobs has an appropriate file name, t_hero.png. (see the highlighted code in the inspector window under the page.)

\n\"Black-and-white\n", "date_published": "2011-10-06T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-theropng.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/09/21/trying-to-update.html", "content_html": "

Trying to update Final Cut X but App Store can’t seem to authenticate me. 🙁

\n", "date_published": "2011-09-20T20:26:58-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/09/20/trying-to-update.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/08/31/document-versioning-in.html", "title": "Document Versioning in Mac OS X Lion", "content_html": "\"OmniGraffle\n

I’ve recently seen updates to some of the applications that I use regularly supporting the new document versioning feature in Lion. Wow. Time Machine is really nice, but you don’t have to use it that often. Being able to go back in documents is something I think a lot of people will find helpful. The trick will be knowing you can do it. The screen shot below is from OmniGraffle.

\n", "date_published": "2011-08-31T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/08/31/document-versioning-in.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/07/21/012000.html", "content_html": "

App I most want full screen support for in Lion that doesn’t have it now? OmniFocus I’m sure it will come soon.

\n

App I least need full screen mode in but has it? Twitterific 😀

\n", "date_published": "2011-07-21T01:20:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/07/21/012000.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/07/20/021715.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2011-07-20T02:17:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/07/20/021715.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/07/20/tomorrow-is-officially.html", "content_html": "

Tomorrow is officially Mac OS X Lion day! Looks like the Internet will be busy sending bits around.

\n", "date_published": "2011-07-19T22:21:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/07/19/tomorrow-is-officially.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/07/14/rumor-was-that.html", "content_html": "

Rumor was that Mac OS X Lion would be released tomorrow. Haven’t heard much in the last day or two. Will upgrade at home right away.

\n", "date_published": "2011-07-13T23:18:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/07/13/rumor-was-that.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/05/04/macbook-air-is.html", "content_html": "

MacBook Air is so light, I think I’ll just bring both of them (work & home) on this trip. 😀

\n", "date_published": "2011-05-03T22:18:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/05/03/macbook-air-is.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/04/20/just-swapped-my.html", "content_html": "

Just swapped my boot drive for an SSD with no more than 3 minutes of downtime for screws and a reboot. Thank you SuperDuper!

\n", "date_published": "2011-04-20T12:47:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/04/20/just-swapped-my.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/04/14/very-bothersome-that.html", "content_html": "

Very bothersome that the Mac Twitter client doesn’t honor Spaces. It forces itself in every space.

\n", "date_published": "2011-04-14T09:33:05-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/04/14/very-bothersome-that.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/03/01/presenting-from-ipad.html", "content_html": "

I gave a talk today at a class at the University of Minnesota. I used it as a trial run for presenting right off of my iPad in Keynote. Worked great! Was liberating to have such a small device to present from.

\n\"iPad\n", "date_published": "2011-03-01T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/03/01/presenting-from-ipad.html", "tags": ["Tech Community","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/02/22/mb-of-ads.html", "title": "368MB of Ads", "content_html": "

It has been a really long time since I used the Wired application on my iPad, but I recently fired it up and bought an issue to peruse. The experience could not have been more frustrating!

\n

First, after I paid for the content, I wasn’t able to download it because my iPad’s storage was full. I use the option in iTunes to fill empty space with music. I had to go delete a movie to make room for a magazine. Somehow a magazine is as big as a movie?

\n\"Wired\n

After deleting, the download starts. 368 MB of data. This takes forever. Even on a good, fast Internet connection. About 15 minutes later I still see the bar filling up.

\n\"Wired\n

Still waiting. Finally it finishes, and I think I can now finally take a look at what I bought. Oh wait, I guess we have to “Install” this too?

\n\"WIRED\n

About 20 minutes after I started I could browse through far too many advertisements. Don’t think I’ll be repeating this process any time soon.

\n", "date_published": "2011-02-22T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/02/22/mb-of-ads.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/02/06/why-no-mail.html", "title": "Why No Mail Encryption on iPad?", "content_html": "

I like to use digital signing in email, and some friends have done the same and we can exchange fully encrypted email. However, it’s a major issue that iOS has no support for this. If you get an encrypted email, this is all you can see.

\n\"Email \n

There is nothing you can do with the email. This is a shame, since it would be really easy to get all this information from my keychain on my Mac.

\n

Hope Apple decides to add support for encrypted email at some point soon.

\n", "date_published": "2011-02-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/02/06/why-no-mail.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Privacy \u0026 Security","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/01/12/macvelope-arrived.html", "content_html": "

I got my Grantwood MacVelope today for my 11" MacBook Air. I like it. It’s fun, small and will protect the Air when I don’t want to carry a larger bag.

\n

Plus, it is cool looking. 😊

\n\"Silver\n", "date_published": "2011-01-12T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/01/12/macvelope-arrived.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/01/11/apps-with-notifications.html", "title": "Apps With Notifications", "content_html": "

I’ve got a lot of applications on my iPhone. They are spread over multiple pages, and some of them are in folders with similar applications. I also get notifications from a lot of applications. I’ve found that it would be really nice if there was a way on my iPhone to see all the applications that had badge notifications for me to see. But where would you put it? I thought about it for a bit and it hit me that it would be really cool if when you swiped left to the Spotlight screen to do a search, it could show the applications that have outstanding notifications. Something like this.

\n\"iPhone\n

If you start to type those icons would go away and the typical search results would show instead. I think that would be pretty slick!

\n", "date_published": "2011-01-11T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/01/11/apps-with-notifications.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2011/01/02/happy-birthday-macbook.html", "title": "Happy Birthday: MacBook Air", "content_html": "\"Apple\n

I’m writing this blog post on my super light, super fast, and super tiny 11" MacBook Air. Thanks to Tammy, my Mom & Kurt, and my sister Alona I got a really nice surprise for my birthday.

\n

I was very impressed with this laptop when I first saw one and I had thought of all the times when an Air would be so nice to have. Notably, you couldn’t have a better bus laptop or blogging and surfing on the couch.

\n

I’ll be installing software for a while now. 🙂

\n", "date_published": "2011-01-02T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2011/01/02/happy-birthday-macbook.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/12/16/got-my-glif.html", "title": "Got my Glif!", "content_html": "

My Glif arrived in the mail today! I was one of the many backers on their Kickstarter campaign. This little widget is to allow you to place your iPhone 4 in all sorts of interesting ways, including putting it on a tripod.

\n\"Glif\n

I already used it to tilt the iPhone up while displaying a recipe on the kitchen counter.

\n", "date_published": "2010-12-16T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/12/16/got-my-glif.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/12/13/remoteapp-and-cover.html", "title": "Remote.app and Cover Art", "content_html": "

I keep a mountain of content in iTunes and I am constantly accessing it one way or another. The iPad Remote application is one of the more common methods. It is a very well done application. Super easy, fast, polished.

\n

Except one thing. I have no idea why, but Remote insists on using a square black mask under cover art. Here is what it looks like.

\n\"iPad\n

Why oh why do this? iTunes itself just puts the images on white and it looks great. This looks like crap. Drives me bonkers. Apple, please change this! I have nearly broke down and changed all non-square cover art to square. However, then it looks weird on Apple TV. Why put any default color under it?

\n

(Before you ask, yes, I own all episodes of M*A*S*H on DVD and ripped them all into iTunes.)

\n", "date_published": "2010-12-13T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/12/13/remoteapp-and-cover.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/12/13/sparklines-used-well.html", "title": "Sparklines Used Well", "content_html": "

I absolutely dig the way the My-Cast weather application for the iPhone uses sparklines. Works just as it should, and conveys information without me even thinking about it. (Just in case, the sparklines are the little word-sized graphs next to each data item.)

\n\"My-Cast\n", "date_published": "2010-12-13T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/12/13/sparklines-used-well.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/11/22/upgrade-bonanza.html", "title": "Upgrade Bonanza!", "content_html": "

Some of you reading this realize how much I like to upgrade things. I really do. I’m not saying it is wise, but I feel a nearly unstoppable urge to upgrade as soon as I can. And my favorite kind of upgrade? Firmware. Upgrading firmware is absolutely delicious.

\n

Tonight was a marvelous feast. Upgrading iOS on an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, two iPad’s and two 2nd generation Apple TV’s. Just great!

\n", "date_published": "2010-11-22T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/11/22/upgrade-bonanza.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/11/16/no-more-beatles.html", "title": "No More Beatles Rumors", "content_html": "

Finally we have The Beatles on iTunes. Now we can be done with all the rumors about The Beatles on iTunes. Thank you!

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2010-11-16T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/11/16/no-more-beatles.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/10/09/hey-launchbar-youre.html", "content_html": "

Hey LaunchBar! You’re great, BUT, could you make your UI a little more fun so I don’t feel all jealous of Alfred.

\n", "date_published": "2010-10-09T18:52:44-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/10/09/hey-launchbar-youre.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/10/03/most-wished-for.html", "content_html": "

Most wished for iPad app? OmniOutliner. OmniFocus is great, and an outliner on iPad would be killer.

\n", "date_published": "2010-10-03T14:29:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/10/03/most-wished-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/09/28/new-tv-has.html", "content_html": "

New Apple TV has shipped, should arrive on Friday!

\n", "date_published": "2010-09-28T10:45:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/09/28/new-tv-has.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/09/13/224510.html", "content_html": "

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to chsh zsh on my Mac. Hello again zsh. It’s been too long old buddy!

\n

I really wish I still had that .zshrc file I spent forever optimizing in college.

\n

If you are thinking “Oh, that is what he did in college! Play with his .zshrc!” That’s fair.

\n", "date_published": "2010-09-13T22:45:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/09/13/224510.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/09/08/215316.html", "title": "Game Center First Impressions", "content_html": "

I’m all setup on game center. Find me as “thingles”.

\n

I’m curious to see what non-game things Game Center enables. What could Reeder do with it? Multiuser mind mapping with MindNode?

\n

Very impressed with Game Center. And I’m not much of a gamer!

\n", "date_published": "2010-09-08T21:53:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/09/08/215316.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/09/02/035415.html", "content_html": "

Not a fan of the new visual elements in iTunes 10. Reminds me of the grayscale of NeXT.

\n", "date_published": "2010-09-01T22:54:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/09/01/035415.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/08/01/just-setup-my.html", "content_html": "

Just setup my Magic Trackpad. Will take some getting used to, but has promise. See if I can replace my 10+ year Kensington Trackball run.

\n", "date_published": "2010-07-31T19:42:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/07/31/just-setup-my.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/07/30/first-blush-of.html", "content_html": "

First blush of OmniFocus for the iPad is: stunning. Love the UI. The Forecast view is great! Hope to see that on the Mac and iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2010-07-30T10:03:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/07/30/first-blush-of.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/07/14/two-iphone-s.html", "content_html": "

Two iPhone 4’s are waiting for me to pick them up at the Apple Store in Uptown tomorrow. Other one is for Tammy.

\n", "date_published": "2010-07-14T00:30:07-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/07/13/two-iphone-s.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/06/21/ios-folders-for.html", "title": "iOS 4 Folders for Context", "content_html": "

I’ve written before about how much work it is to navigate a lot of apps on the iPhone. Today’s launch of iOS 4 brings us folders in Springboard which is a huge boon to the obsessively organized crowd. I can also report through early use that launching apps with search remains a faster way to get at apps, even with folders.

\n

However, I’ve noticed one really interesting and unexpected side benefit of the folders. They work great to set up context. It makes sense to group apps in folders based on function, but try doing some on context. The reason this works well is a very minor design decision in iOS 4. Here is my folder for Reading.

\n\"iPhone\n

What is interesting about this is that when you launch one of these apps and then return to Springboard the folder remains expanded. You have to press home again, or tap outside of the folder, to get back. This expansion allows you to focus on a context almost in a GTD way. You can expand the folder, launch in to one app, leave, launch into a related app, leave, go back. You could even see making contexts in tools like OmniFocus that map to folders of apps in iOS that you get that stuff done with. Nifty!

\n", "date_published": "2010-06-21T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/06/21/ios-folders-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/06/14/anyone-out-there.html", "content_html": "

Anyone out there with personal experience using an eSATA ExpressCard adapter on a MacBook Pro? I’d love to hear what card and if it works?

\n

This OWC eSATA adapter seems to be a winner. No drivers. Bootable. 64-bit happy. Paired with Lacie 4Big should be good.

\n", "date_published": "2010-06-13T23:06:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/06/13/anyone-out-there.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/05/09/find-my-phone.html", "title": "Find My Phone", "content_html": "

Used “Find My iPhone” tonight to, find my iPhone. So nice to not have to search and search. Just listen for the sound.

\n", "date_published": "2010-05-09T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/05/09/find-my-phone.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/03/12/ipad-ordered.html", "title": "iPad Ordered!", "content_html": "

Placed the order this morning for the iPad and am excited to see the future of touch computing in early April. I wasn’t sure what one to get, so I decided to go in the middle with the 32 GB. It is hard to know how much space we will want on these devices.

\n\"Shopping\n", "date_published": "2010-03-12T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/03/12/ipad-ordered.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/02/28/id-really-like.html", "content_html": "

I’d really like a new MacBook Pro to have Core i7 and two eSATA-II ports. I’m planning on going laptop only very soon.

\n", "date_published": "2010-02-28T00:07:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/02/27/id-really-like.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/02/27/macbook-hopes.html", "content_html": "

I’d really like a new MacBook Pro to have Core i7 and two eSATA-II ports. I’m planning on going laptop only very soon.

\n", "date_published": "2010-02-27T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/02/27/macbook-hopes.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/01/27/purchased-yojimbo-im.html", "content_html": "

Purchased Yojimbo, I’m liking it a lot. Feel late to the game. :-)

\n", "date_published": "2010-01-26T22:45:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/01/26/purchased-yojimbo-im.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/01/23/if-you-like.html", "content_html": "

If you like fast word games you really need to play Word Crasher for the iPhone. It’s awesome!

\n", "date_published": "2010-01-23T12:15:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/01/23/if-you-like.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/01/22/word-crasher-is.html", "content_html": "

Word Crasher is a great iPhone word game. Awesome game play!

\n", "date_published": "2010-01-22T00:57:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/01/21/word-crasher-is.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2010/01/08/051010.html", "content_html": "

I really wish that the Mail application on the iPhone used and displayed the IMAP flag status. Would be HUGE help.

\n", "date_published": "2010-01-08T00:10:10-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2010/01/07/051010.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/12/19/081807.html", "content_html": "

Drobo problems: Does not properly sleep/wake with Mac Pro, and under heavy load will randomly reboot itself.

\n", "date_published": "2009-12-19T08:18:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/12/19/081807.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/11/13/running-my-macbook.html", "content_html": "

Running my MacBook Pro in target disk mode to attempt to recover a broken Parallels VM. Very slick!

\n", "date_published": "2009-11-13T16:34:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/11/13/running-my-macbook.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/11/11/064834.html", "content_html": "

Just finished a great home movie in iMovie. I know some people think iMovie blows, but I couldn’t disagree more. So nice, and so easy.

\n", "date_published": "2009-11-11T01:48:34-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/11/11/064834.html", "tags": ["Family","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/11/11/itunes-smart-playlist.html", "title": "iTunes Smart Playlist: Three Plays", "content_html": "

I’ve written before about some of the ways I use Smart Playlists in iTunes to enjoy my music more. I’ve got a large music collection with 1,463 albums containing 19,392 songs. I have a challenge keeping new music highlighted in this big pool of nearly twenty thousand songs. Today I had an idea for a Smart Playlist that I’m finding very useful.

\n

I call the playlist Three Plays and the basic idea is that any new track added to my collection should get three plays before it gets shuffled into the general archive. The playlist works like this:

\n

\"Three

\n

The criteria are pretty straight forward:

\n\n

I’m finding this really useful and a great playlist to just fire up when I sit down at the computer. Give it a whirl and see what you think!

\n", "date_published": "2009-11-11T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/11/11/itunes-smart-playlist.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/11/09/ugly-bug-in.html", "title": "Ugly Bug in Mac OS X Address Book?", "content_html": "

I don’t have an official bug report for this but I’m seeing a very ugly bug in Mac OS X Address Book or some part of the applications that work with its data. In short, it seems that in some situations Address Book can duplicate all the images associated with contacts, multiple times.

\n

I keep really important data in my Address Book and as a result I do a weekly manual backup in addition to Time Machine backups. Look at the size of my weekly backups in this screenshot.

\n\"File\n

In a two-week period the duplication happened multiple times. From October 24 to October 30 it happened twice increasing the size of all images from 17 to 34MB and then again from 34 to 64MB. It happened again doubling from 64M to 120MB! The culprit here are the images associated with contacts and stored in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Images. This behavior is on my Mac Pro which is synchronized with MobileMe to my MacBook Pro and iPhone. However, the error isn’t the same on all synchronized Macs. Looking in the images directory on my Mac Pro there is 130.5MB of data with 8,782 files.

\n\"Mac\n

The same folder on my MacBook Pro is much smaller at 17.9MB with 1,222 items, however even that is too many.

\n\"Mac\n

To put this into context my address book has 979 cards in it and I tend to associate an image with most entries. Sadly when I look at the images directory manually even the one on my MacBook Pro has duplicated once.

\n

It is very hard to figure out what is going on that directory since the file names are all just random GUIDs. The best way I’ve found is to sort by file size which usually puts the duplicate files right next to each other. It seems likely that these extra files are just ignored, but they are taking up a lot of space and I worry will lead to eventual corruption.

\n

If you use MobileMe I’ve found a way to fix this. Do a Reset Sync data and choose to replace your content on your computer with the data from MobileMe. After doing that my images directory is healthy at 11.9MB with 757 items in it.

\n\"Mac\n

Strange and concerning behavior. Does anyone else see this behavior?

\n", "date_published": "2009-11-09T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/11/09/ugly-bug-in.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/10/29/165040.html", "content_html": "

Apple Store finally has Magic Mouse in stock. Time to run an errand.

\n

I’m totally digging the Magic Mouse. A+

\n", "date_published": "2009-10-29T16:50:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/10/29/165040.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/10/29/apple-tv-release.html", "content_html": "

Apple TV 3.0 release. Looks really nice. Looking forward to upgrading the three Apple TV’s at home.

\n", "date_published": "2009-10-29T16:43:39-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/10/29/apple-tv-release.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/09/09/itunes-removes-old.html", "title": "iTunes 9 Removes Old iPhone Restore Images", "content_html": "

Upon upgrading to iTunes 9 today I noticed that some old iPhone restore images had been dumped in my trash. I’m not real sure where they were being kept before, but the trash now had this stuff in it.

\n\"List\n

Nifty. That cleared up 1,793 MB of storage that was never going to be used again. Especially the files for iPhone 1,1 - a device I don’t even own anymore.

\n", "date_published": "2009-09-09T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/09/09/itunes-removes-old.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/09/06/no-content-found.html", "content_html": "

Suggestion: If going to the Renaissance Festival, leave your iPhone at home.

\n", "date_published": "2009-09-06T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/09/06/no-content-found.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/08/28/no-content-found.html", "content_html": "

Apple Store preparing for Snow Leopard release.

\n\"Apple\n", "date_published": "2009-08-28T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/08/28/no-content-found.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/08/24/iphone-pro-tip.html", "title": "iPhone Pro Tip: Launch Apps with Spotlight", "content_html": "

With the 3.0 release of the iPhone software Apple brought the platform level search capabilities of Spotlight to the iPhone. This has been a really nice addition, one that I’ve been using very regularly.

\n

I’m a bit of an “app-aholic”. I’ve got more than a handful of applications installed and as a result I often have to flip through pages of apps in Springboard to find the right application. Sometimes I have a hard time finding the icon I’m looking for. I was thinking how I really wished that the iPhone had something like Quicksilver, and then it dawned on me that Quicksilver was really made as an optimization of using Spotlight as a launcher. Well, the iPhone has Spotlight so this should work, right?

\n

With many applications installed I may have to swipe as many as 6 times to get to the application I want to launch.

\n\"iPhone\n

But if I just do a single swipe, or a double-tap of the home button with the right settings, I can be at Spotlight and just start typing the name of the application I want. Say I wanted to launch a Twitter client like this.

\n\"iPhone\n

One action to get to Spotlight, type two letters, and launch. Pretty much as good as using Quicksilver on my Mac. A lot faster than all that swiping, and it saves on thumb fatigue.

\n

Now, it won’t work like this out of the box because by default Spotlight wants to show you email messages, address book contacts, and pretty much anything else before it will show you an app. So, let’s change that.

\n

How to Set This Up

\n

First, launch Settings and tap on General.

\n\"iPhone\n

Now tap on Home.

\n\"iPhone\n

We are now going to change search preferences. While you are on this screen you may also want to specify that double-tap of Home button launches search. With that, you are just two taps away from launching a new app anytime.

\n\"iPhone\n

Okay, now we are just going to reorder the search results and put the Applications at the top of the list.

\n\"iPhone\n

That’s it. Done. You can now simply double-tap the home button and type a letter or two to launch any of the dozens and dozens of apps on your iPhone. Nice!

\n", "date_published": "2009-08-24T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/08/24/iphone-pro-tip.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/06/29/iphone-phone-label.html", "title": "iPhone 3.0 Phone Label", "content_html": "

This is a little change in the iPhone 3.0 release that I hadn’t seen anyone mention. When you change the type of a phone number in Address Book on the iPhone you’ve always been able to set custom labels in addition to the built-in ones. However, there was a new one added in 3.0 for “iPhone” (see 2nd choice).

\n\"iPhone\n

Kind of odd. Not real sure what you would use this for other than vanity. I guess you could sometime specify, particularly with the coming use of MMS, that I only want to send this to iPhones?

\n", "date_published": "2009-06-29T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/06/29/iphone-phone-label.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/20/took-about-minutes.html", "content_html": "

Took about 3 minutes to realize that Tweetie for the Mac is going to be my preferred client. Time to get a registration code. Nice v1.0!

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-20T10:12:58-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/20/took-about-minutes.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/16/just-had-a.html", "content_html": "

Just had a great work session using OmniGraphSketcher. This program has a lot of potential, still in beta. Hope to see it move fast!

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-16T15:34:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/16/just-had-a.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/16/the-gb-memory.html", "content_html": "

The 2GB memory limit in my MacBook Pro is starting to become a real problem. swap - swap - swap…

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-16T10:11:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/16/the-gb-memory.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/15/okay-so-i.html", "content_html": "

Okay. So I just had to try out Birdhouse. It’s actually pretty fun and it is very fast since it’s not pulling in Twitter info, just pushing.

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-14T23:09:56-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/14/okay-so-i.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/06/it-really-surprises.html", "content_html": "

There still is no Vimeo app for the iPhone. C’mon Team Vimeo!

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-05T21:04:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/05/it-really-surprises.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/06/encoding-hd-video.html", "content_html": "

Encoding HD video in iMovie on my MacBook Pro results in a REALLY hot lap. 72 °C right now.

\n", "date_published": "2009-04-05T20:01:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/05/encoding-hd-video.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/04/03/flight-control.html", "content_html": "

Flight Control for the iPhone is still fun. And addictive!

\n\"Flight\n", "date_published": "2009-04-03T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/04/03/flight-control.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/31/flight-control-great.html", "title": "Flight Control - Great iPhone Game", "content_html": "

This last weekend I grabbed a copy of Flight Control for my iPhone. It looked like the kind of game that I can get into. I like puzzle style games and have an affinity to 2D-gaming over 3D-gaming. I was pretty much immediately hooked.

\n

The premise of Flight Control is simple. You have a top-down perspective of a landing field and you have to draw flight paths with your finger for each plane to land. There are different types of planes that fly at different speeds. Over time, the planes come faster and faster.

\n

\"Flight

\n

The game is addictive. I’ve now got a high score of 57 but am stumped how you get much past that.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-31T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/31/flight-control-great.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/26/omnigraphsketcher-looks-really.html", "content_html": "

OmniGraphSketcher looks really cool.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-25T21:45:09-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/25/omnigraphsketcher-looks-really.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/25/024541.html", "content_html": "

Just got a copy of the MacHeist 3 bundle. Looks like a great bundle.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-24T21:45:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/24/024541.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/24/nice-night-at.html", "content_html": "

Nice night at iPhone Pub Night. Thanks to Dan Grigsby for organizing!

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-23T21:45:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/23/nice-night-at.html", "tags": ["Tech Community","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/23/im-already-exhausted.html", "content_html": "

I’m already exhausted and bewildered considering all the iPhone Twitter clients getting push notification. Please make sure it’s optional.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-22T22:47:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/22/im-already-exhausted.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/17/only-apple-can.html", "content_html": "

Only Apple can make us excited to get copy/paste functionality. :-)

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-17T14:26:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/17/only-apple-can.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/11/ipod-shuffle-isnt.html", "title": "iPod Shuffle Isn't First to Talk", "content_html": "\"Silver\n

The new iPod Shuffle released today has made some waves for using voice prompts. It’s a great solution for the Shuffle which lacks a screen. In fact, that lack of interface has been the thing that has made me shy away from a shuffle since it seemed a little too limited to me. The new VoiceOver feature that Apple has rolled out sounds like a great solution to this problem.

\n

However, this interface doesn’t sound at all new to me since I’ve had a PhatBox in my Audi since 2005 that does what the new Shuffle does!

\n

The PhatBox (no link, it’s been discontinued) is a Linux-based hard drive MP3 player that mounds in your car in place of the multi-CD changer. It interfaces with the cars head unit as if it were a CD changer, so you don’t have to replace the head unit. The problem though is there is no display to show what is playing and with 20G of music to navigate you need something. So, PhatBox figured out to generate short audio files using the AT&T; text-to-speech voices just like the new Shuffle does.

\n

How does it work? Really great! Particularly in a car, taking your eye of the road to read something is dangerous and with audio prompts you just listen. I can see that the new Shuffle audio prompts would be equally as nice for jogging. You wouldn’t ever need to take your eye of the trail.

\n

The Shuffle does have a nice affect with VoiceOver by having it play while the song is playing, and the song volume ducks in the background. The PhatBox simply plays the recorded audio for the title and then plays the song. Stylistically improved, but not some completely new concept.

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-11T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/11/ipod-shuffle-isnt.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/03/11/itunes-needs-itunes.html", "title": "iTunes Needs iTunes Syncing", "content_html": "

Apple just released iTunes 8.1 with a bevy of new features, but there is a critical need for iTunes that I think would be a huge help for anyone that regularly uses more than one computer. In addition to being able to sync to dozens of iPods, the iPhones and Apple TV we need the ability to sync to iTunes itself. All of the pieces are in place to do this, it seems like it would be relatively easy to implement. Here is what I would imagine the iTunes sidebar looking like.

\n\"iTunes\n

You’ve got an iPod, three Apple TV’s and then your laptop. The idea is that I should be able to setup iTunes on a laptop or any other computer that is just a sync partner with another computers iTunes library. iTunes can already sync over the network to an AppleTV, so the hooks are all in place and should be easily extended to another iTunes installation.

\n

Right now the only option that iTunes users have to put music on more than one computer is to copy the files over. This is horrible in so many ways. First, you have to do the work of managing the files which is a huge pain. Additionally, the iTunes Library is not sync’d at all. Play counts, ratings and other metadata is completely separate which really messes up some more sophisticated work you can do with Smart Playlists.

\n

If we were just able to sync to additional iTunes installs I could have all of my Mac’s with the same music library, and syncing metadata back and forth. It would make things so much simpler.

\n

Would it help if I said please?

\n

Pretty please?

\n", "date_published": "2009-03-11T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/03/11/itunes-needs-itunes.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/02/19/helped-neighbor-resolve.html", "content_html": "

Helped neighbor resolve MobileMe syncing problem. MobileMe support did a good job.

\n", "date_published": "2009-02-18T23:49:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/02/18/helped-neighbor-resolve.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/02/19/tv-just-restarted.html", "content_html": "

Apple TV just restarted spontaneously on me. Rare, and annoying.

\n", "date_published": "2009-02-18T20:58:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/02/18/tv-just-restarted.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/20/alocola-brings-location.html", "title": "Alocola Brings Location Info to the Web", "content_html": "\"Alocola\n

My buddy Dan Grigsby has just launched his first iPhone application. The application fills an interesting gap, it allows a web site to get the location information from the iPhone. Sure, iPhone applications can do this with the iPhone SDK, but if you are a plain old web site or web application (and yes, there is still a place for them), Alocola will allow you to get that information via the web. Alocola is a helper application that Safari launches and then it just gets the location info and returns it back to the requesting website. Slick! Great idea.

\n

All the cooler, Dan will be making the source code available under GPL2.

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-20T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/20/alocola-brings-location.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/18/fluid-love-for.html", "content_html": "

Fluid Love for Mint ← I’m really enjoying using Mint for stats on thingelstad.com, and I’m a fan of Fluid.

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-18T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/18/fluid-love-for.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/17/no-content-found.html", "content_html": "

Doesn’t it seem ridiculous that my Apple TV’s can sync with iTunes over\nthe network, but my iPhone on the very same network cannot.

\n

It’s just wrong.

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-17T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/17/no-content-found.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/14/mobileme-sync-loves.html", "title": "MobileMe Sync Loves Apple, Inc.", "content_html": "\"List\nI was really hoping that the 10.5.6 Mac OS X update, which promised nice\nimprovements to MobileMe sync, would solve this incredibly annoying\nproblem that I've had for a long time with MobileMe. I'm not exactly\nsure what is going on, but for some reason the Address Book entry for\nApple, Inc. replicates itself. Again. And again. And again.\n

I’ve yet to identify the pattern, or a possible solution. I routinely, at least weekly, will launch address book and select several Apple, Inc. address book entries and then select Merge Selected Cards to consolidate them back to one. Wait a few more days and I’ll have multiple entries again.

\n

This seems to be a special case with this card. It doesn’t happen with any other cards that I have. Anyone else see this behavior? Or better, know how to fix it?

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-14T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/14/mobileme-sync-loves.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/05/mobileme-needs-time.html", "title": "MobileMe Needs Time Machine", "content_html": "

I’m frustrated with MobileMe synchronizing again. I have no idea what happened but around 10:00 am this morning my Address Book has a duplicate everything. All the groups are duplicated, and every contact is duplicated. They are identical, with one exception, the pictures. So now I have 2x the real number of entries and they are all whacky. These are all rolled down to my iPhone already too.

\n

Now, I can get back to healthy pretty easy with Time Machine and I’ve also started doing a weekly archive of my Address Book “just in case”, but I thought syncing for MobileMe was supposed to be improved in 10.5.6?

\n\"MobileMe \n\"Time\n

This made me think, Apple needs to implement Time Machine on MobileMe. I should be able to just login to MobileMe and go back to a few hours and make it all better! MobileMe and Time Machine would be like chocolate and peanut butter. Makes total sense.

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-05T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/05/mobileme-needs-time.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2009/01/01/created-an-tv.html", "content_html": "

Created an Apple TV patchstick. Let’s see how this works out!

\n", "date_published": "2009-01-01T16:26:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2009/01/01/created-an-tv.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/31/thats-a-lot.html", "content_html": "

That’s a lot of AirTunes!

\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2008-12-31T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/31/thats-a-lot.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/31/needed-airfoil-sdk.html", "title": "Needed: AirFoil SDK for iPhone", "content_html": "

This should exist. Background apps are still not an option, but it would be so great if AirFoil was available as an SDK option for the iPhone. It would be awesome to fire up Pandora on the iPhone and send the music to AirTunes speakers!

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-31T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/31/needed-airfoil-sdk.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/30/shocked-there-is.html", "content_html": "

Shocked there is no aquarium management app for the iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-30T13:41:33-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/30/shocked-there-is.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/30/airtunes-music-bliss.html", "content_html": "

Got three AirTunes setups in the house with independent amps and\nspeakers. This is really great. Will do a more thorough blog post on it\nlater.

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-30T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/30/airtunes-music-bliss.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/22/appletv-units-could.html", "content_html": "

AppleTV units could benefit from a /sbin/reboot in the crontab at 4:00 am. Wonder if I could add that via ssh.

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-22T12:24:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/22/appletv-units-could.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/15/macbook-battery-toast.html", "title": "MacBook Battery Toast", "content_html": "

I was just updating our oldest Mac, my original MacBook (black) that is now pretty much Tammy’s laptop. I was upgrading it to 10.5.6 and realized two things.

\n
    \n
  1. \n

    It was way behind in updates. I’m usually so good with this, but 6\nupdates to apply? Yikes!

    \n
    2. \n
  2. \n

    The battery is so wasted that it couldn’t even make it through the\nupdate process. Ouch! I fired up\nCoconutBattery to\nsee how bad it was and promptly ordered a new battery.

    \n
    3. \n
\n\"CoconutBattery\n

184 load cycles and 31 months isn’t horrible though.

\n

New Battery

\n

Took a quick trip to the Apple Store and got a new battery. The old black MacBook is now like new! Actually, better than new looking at the numbers.

\n\"CoconutBattery\n", "date_published": "2008-12-15T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/15/macbook-battery-toast.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/12/creating-some-process.html", "content_html": "

Creating some process flow diagrams using Instaviz on my iPhone before going to sleep. Thanks for the demo earlier Dan Grigsby.

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-12T00:59:57-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/11/creating-some-process.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/08/at-apple-store.html", "content_html": "

At Apple Store to warranty replace a defective AppleTV.

\n

Of course Apple TV unit works great at the store. They are replacing anyway, yeah!

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-08T15:00:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/08/at-apple-store.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/12/04/back-to-my.html", "title": "'Back to My Mac' Needs iTunes Sharing Support", "content_html": "

I’m now working full-time on my Mac’s and I’ve been surprised by how useful the Back to My Mac feature has been. I had never really used it before, but it’s great to be able to be in a coffee shop and grab a file off of my Mac Pro at home, or even control its screen.

\n\"MobileMe\n

There is a feature though that would be so welcome in Back to My Mac. File Sharing and Screen Sharing is wonderful, but please add support for shared iTunes libraries. It would be so nice to be able to access any of the iTunes content from home wherever I am and it would seem pretty simple given what Back to My Mac is already doing.

\n

Please?

\n", "date_published": "2008-12-04T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/12/04/back-to-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/30/213800.html", "content_html": "

Having 200+ DVD’s ripped into iTunes + ubiquitous Apple TV is proving pretty cool. 1TB+ of content + Apple TV = Watching Return of the Jedi in the background just for fun.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-30T22:38:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/30/213800.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/27/idisk-not-having.html", "content_html": "

iDisk not having an iPhone App is just crazy silly.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-27T00:44:15-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/26/idisk-not-having.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/26/improved-updating-of.html", "title": "Improved Updating of Apps in iPhone 2.2", "content_html": "

I didn’t see this covered in any of the reviews of the iPhone 2.2 software but I’m really excited that they really smoothed out the process of updating applications that you’ve installed. The first great thing is that the “Update All” button has reappeared, and with 2.2 it actually works. I’ve updated as many as five applications in one swoop and had zero problems, including some big applications.

\n\"iPhone\n

The other great touch is that you no longer get the new version installing in another window, and then jumping once the old version is out of the way. It now occurs “in place” where the current application is. It’s a small thing, but really makes the updating process feel solid.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-26T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/26/improved-updating-of.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/26/joining-mv-files.html", "title": "Joining M4V Files is Painful", "content_html": "

I’ve been processing my entire DVD library in the background on my Mac Pro using Handbrake, moving all the content into iTunes so that it is accessible from the three Apple TV’s that are connected to each TV in the house. I’ve now hit a some of the videos that are on two discs due to length, and joining M4V files is a bigger pain that it really should be.

\n

One of the easiest ways to do it is with QuickTime Pro, and since I’ve got the Pro version I figured I’d use that. A simple copy/paste of one video to the end of the other followed by an Export to Apple TV creates the combined M4V file. With one big problem.

\n\"Mac\n

Huh? 205 hours and 44 minutes? Did someone forget to hit the “turbo” button in QuickTime Pro? What’s really crazy is the two source files are M4V H264 files already! Recoding is not necessary, but it seems determined to recode anyway. I guess I’ll just see what happens, but I’m worried the joined file will be poor quality due to recoding.

\n

Any better options?

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-26T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/26/joining-mv-files.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/22/frenzic-may-be.html", "content_html": "

Frenzic may be the best iPhone game yet. I liked it on the Mac too, but the touch interface is perfect.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-21T21:02:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/21/frenzic-may-be.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/11/mac-users-you.html", "content_html": "

Mac users: you ever just run Console while your using your machine? Wow there is a lot of trash programs dump to console.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-11T16:50:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/11/mac-users-you.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/11/10/mobileme-sync-is.html", "content_html": "

MobileMe sync is really pathetically bad.

\n", "date_published": "2008-11-10T14:50:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/11/10/mobileme-sync-is.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/29/leopard-seems-much.html", "content_html": "

Leopard seems much faster talking NFS as compared to SMB.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-29T09:55:48-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/29/leopard-seems-much.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/14/weight-loss-tool.html", "title": "Weight Loss Tool: My Diary", "content_html": "

I’m a couple of weeks down the path to losing a bunch of weight. This will be a long road and to help along I have a few tools that I’m using to help me along. The last time when I really focused on losing weight was 2000 and I used a program called Lifeform extensively, several times every day, to track everything. Now in 2008 my iPhone is almost exclusively my tool of choice for this goal.

\n

Background

\n

The first thing I wanted to figure out was a good way to log my food. I firmly believe that tracking your food intake is likely the most important thing you can do for weight loss. In the past I kept a very specific, to the gram and individual calorie, log of everything I ate. This was incredibly powerful, but in retrospect it was not the best long-term solution.

\n

The reality is that you will not weigh your food and track everything you eat for the long term (even though I did it for nearly 2 years). It is too hard, obstructive and quickly becomes a crutch. While you cannot be clueless about the nutritional impact of your food, you can also become far too obsessed about it. For me this was a problem because leaving that gram-precise sterile environment resulted in drift and a lack of discipline.

\n

However, writing everything down is incredibly powerful. I was once on a century ride with two guys that I later found were psychiatrists. I mentioned to them how powerful I thought food logging was and they explained that that power came from being able to “objectify” what you have written down. The simple act of logging allows you to step outside of yourself and review and coach your own behavior. I can see this, and would admit that I have at times changed behavior because I “didn’t want to write it down.”

\n

Last time I kept grams and every detail in Lifeform and now I needed to find a new tool. I wanted something that I could use for logging and it needed to be on my iPhone. I did not want a web application because speed is everything. Databases become big issues with food logging programs, and the means of entering information were important. I did a lot of searching for food logging on the iPhone and I found a bunch of programs and frankly none of them were very good. They seemed clumsy. They were really designed for a mouse interface, not a native touch feel. I was bummed as there seemed no good solution.

\n

My Diary

\n

I then stumbled into some diary programs. This intrigued me since a food log could easily be a food diary. Simple, few word entries. The key features include multiple entries per date, ability to enter things with a time stamp in the past and searching. I found My Diary (iTunes) and it’s great for this need!

\n\"iPhone\n

That screen shows lunch, snack and dinner for Saturday, October 11th. I’ve been using My Diary now for nearly a month to track my food and I’ve found it great.

\n

Logging your food can tip you into an OCD view of eating that ultimately is not healthy. Using a diary format allows you to not be shackled down by numbers and just focus on the healthfulness of what you eat. Additionally, something I really didn’t think about is the ability to put context in your food log. When you read “Awesome turkey burger that Tammy made!” it carries context and value. A food entry saying 112g Turkey, Fried is devoid of all context and meaning. This is very helpful.

\n

I’ve found My Diary to be fast, simple and very convenient. You can change the date and time of entries so if you miss writing it down you can catch up later. And I can’t emphasize how great it is to have this right on your iPhone. I highly recommend using My Diary for food tracking if you are looking to do that.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-14T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/14/weight-loss-tool.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/11/im-surprised-there.html", "content_html": "

I’m surprised there isn’t a Hundred Pushups iPhone app.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-10T23:11:03-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/10/im-surprised-there.html", "tags": ["Fitness","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/10/bee-docs-timeline.html", "title": "Bee Docs' Timeline 3D: Mac Developer Special Touch", "content_html": "

One of the things that makes the Mac so great is the wonderful independent, or “indy”, software developers out there. Mac software is typically not just functional, but beautiful. I recently bought Timeline 3D from Bee Docs’ and got this great postcard from the author.

\n

\"bee-docs-postcard.png\"

\n

Not only beautiful and functional software, but great customer interaction.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-10T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/10/bee-docs-timeline.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/10/iphone-feature-need.html", "title": "iPhone Feature Need: Block WiFi Network", "content_html": "

I really dig my iPhone and it seems to get better and better with every software release. However, I really wish that Apple would add a feature to block certain WiFi networks. Here is a screen that all iPhone owners are very familiar with:

\n\"iPhone\n

Here is the problem with this screen, I see it all the time! I have no idea what the “2WIRE251” network is but I never, ever want to see it since I will never, ever use it. I’m not a customer of the “USI Wireless” network, and would rather not see that. I have no use, ever, for the “Available Now MPLS Wir…” or “City of Minneapolis Publi…” networks.

\n

Please Apple, give us the ability to block networks like these and stop prompting to join networks that I know I will never want to join.

\n

While I’m on this screen, it would also be great to have a checkbox to only join a given network once and not save it for the future. I’m guessing almost all iPhones have a saved preference for “NETGEAR” or “Linksys” networks and I find myself on some broken network named that on a frequent basis.

\n

While I’m dreaming, it would be so nice if a WiFi network could advertise itself as a captive portal. For example, three of those networks in the screenshot claim to be open, but they are not. They are captive portals only useful for customers of the service. We need another type available beyond secured and open.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-10T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/10/iphone-feature-need.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/07/lightroom-bit-printing.html", "title": "Lightroom 2 64-bit Printing", "content_html": "

I was doing some printing in Lightroom recently and was struggling. The prints were coming out really badly, and when looking for the quality controls for the Canon S900 I couldn’t find any of the normal settings. This is what it should look like, with options for the type of printing.

\n\"Canon\n

But instead I was getting this, with a big crossed out option and an incompatibility over “architecture”.

\n\"Mac\n

I was pretty confused why this wasn’t working and figured I needed to reinstall my drivers, but didn’t want to restart at that point so left it. I kept noodling this over and that word “architecture” was bugging me. Then it hit me!

\n

I’ve posted before about how great Lightroom is in 64-bit mode. It dawned on me that I was running a “64-bit architecture” and the printer driver was probably only 32-bit. I checked the box for Lightroom to run in 32-bit mode and launched it again and the printer settings worked great! It sure would be nice if the error message just said “this doesn’t work in 64-bit mode”.

\n

Lesson learned! Run Lightroom in 64-bit, unless you want to print, then restart in 32-bit. If anyone knows what printers have 64-bit driver support it would be great to have a list.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-07T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/07/lightroom-bit-printing.html", "tags": ["Photography","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/03/apple-tv-upgrade.html", "title": "Apple TV 2.2 Upgrade", "content_html": "

Upgrade morning. All three Apple TV’s up to 2.2 and iTunes up to 8.0.1.

\n

Genius on Apple TV is, genius. Will get much more use on TV than in iTunes.

\n

Suspect Apple TV 2.2 has a bug. I keep starting videos and the audio plays but video is black. Hit menu and restart the video and it works. 😕

\n

Anyone know if Apple TV 2.2 “Standby” menu is anything more than what you’ve always been able to do by pressing play for 5 seconds?

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-03T08:04:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/03/apple-tv-upgrade.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/10/01/102113.html", "content_html": "

Using the MPR iPhone application to listen to Barack Obama’s speech. Thanks Damon Allison and Minnesota Public Radio for making this possible.

\n", "date_published": "2008-10-01T10:21:13-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/10/01/102113.html", "tags": ["Apple","Current Events"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/28/macbook-pro-battery.html", "title": "MacBook Pro Battery on the Ropes", "content_html": "\"Cracked\n

I’ve been thinking that my MacBook Pro’s battery has been especially lightweight lately. To be honest, none of Apple’s laptops do great with battery life but it’s been an especially poor contender lately. I fired up CoconutBattery to check out the state of affairs and it was shocking. I’m currently only getting 39% of original battery capacity. The battery is only sucking up a measly 2,187 mAh out of a rated 5,500 mAh.

\n

I’m going to try a series of battery conditioning cycles and see if I can get this thing back. In January I was right around 90% of capacity and the battery has only gone through 237 cycles in its 20 month lifespan.

\n\"CoconutBattery\n\"CoconutBattery\n", "date_published": "2008-09-28T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/28/macbook-pro-battery.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/26/too-much-trash.html", "title": "Too Much Trash", "content_html": "

This is a sign of bad housekeeping on your computer. Exactly what were in those 74,959 files anyway? Hmmm…

\n\"Mac\n", "date_published": "2008-09-26T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/26/too-much-trash.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/26/which-is-it.html", "title": "Which is it?", "content_html": "

This was from a couple of weeks ago when iPhone OS 2.1 came out. It’s so common on the web to research a product and find completely contradictory opinions. One person will say it’s horrible, doesn’t even work. Another says it’s amazing. Rarely do you see those differences right next to each other in Twitter though.

\n\"Two\n", "date_published": "2008-09-26T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/26/which-is-it.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/24/bracing-myself-to.html", "content_html": "

Bracing myself to setup Windows XP and Windows Vista virtual machines on my Mac Pro.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-24T09:52:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/24/bracing-myself-to.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/22/trying-twittelator-on.html", "content_html": "

Trying Twittelator on iPhone. Like the more advanced features.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-21T23:36:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/21/trying-twittelator-on.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/19/note-to-self.html", "content_html": "

Note to self: must put iPhone earbuds in my computer bag to have with at all times.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-19T11:25:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/19/note-to-self.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/18/i-wish-the.html", "content_html": "

I wish the iPhone would have had an IR emitter in it. Would be a great remote setup.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-18T17:18:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/18/i-wish-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/15/four-macs-upgraded.html", "content_html": "

Four Macs upgraded to 10.5.5. No issues at first blush. Taking dogs for walk.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-15T16:02:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/15/four-macs-upgraded.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/14/address-book-just.html", "content_html": "

Address Book just sync’d itself into corruption nightmare. This is not good.

\n

Had to revert to an Address Book backup 2 months old. ☹️

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-14T14:43:47-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/14/address-book-just.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/14/installing-x-code.html", "content_html": "

Installing X Code and iPhone SDK because I’m overly optimistic.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-14T14:24:27-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/14/installing-x-code.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/14/something-on-my.html", "content_html": "

Something on my firewire chain just blocked up my machine again. Grr… need to diagnose this.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-14T08:51:40-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/14/something-on-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/13/upgraded-to-itunes.html", "content_html": "

Upgraded to iTunes 8.0 on Mac Pro. Updating iPhone to 2.1 next.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-13T18:51:22-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/13/upgraded-to-itunes.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/10/why-cant-tv.html", "content_html": "

Why can’t Apple TV have these super cool iTunes Visualizers. (I know, probably not enough juice in them. And it might get even hotter!)

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-10T11:47:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/10/why-cant-tv.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/09/iphone-firmware-will.html", "content_html": "

iPhone firmware 2.0.2 will be the first release I will never install. 2.1 will be out by the time I return home, and will be able to upgrade

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-09T17:32:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/09/iphone-firmware-will.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/09/i-still-cant.html", "content_html": "

I still can’t see iTunes 8 in Software Update? What gives? Got Quicktime update, and Front Row update, but nothing else.

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-09T15:42:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/09/i-still-cant.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/09/just-tried-to.html", "content_html": "

Just tried to merge 20 DNG (RAW) photos in Photoshop CS3. 2 GB of RAM = FAIL!

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-09T10:36:59-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/09/just-tried-to.html", "tags": ["Travel","Photography","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/04/143900.html", "content_html": "

Visiting Apple Store in Cambridge!

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-04T09:39:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/04/143900.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/04/seriously-thinking-of.html", "content_html": "

Seriously thinking of getting Mazie (3 years old) her own iPod Touch. She’s really learned our iPhones. Crazy?

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-04T01:53:12-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/04/seriously-thinking-of.html", "tags": ["Family","Travel","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/09/02/at-apple-store.html", "content_html": "

Visiting Apple Store in London (Oxford Circus).

\n", "date_published": "2008-09-02T09:54:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/09/02/at-apple-store.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/22/iphone-app-units.html", "title": "iPhone App - Units", "content_html": "

I had seen this application in the AppStore before we left for London but for whatever reason I didn’t think it would be needed or all that useful. I installed it a couple of days after getting here and have used it a lot.

\n\"Currency\n

If you find yourself needing to convert from one thing to another a lot Units is the application for you. Currencies, lengths, speeds, etc. – it does them all.

\n

That isn’t enough magic to get me really excited about an application. What I like so much is how fast it is to use. It uses a calculator interface to make it super simple to get a conversion done. I had an initial complaint with how long it took to find the right mode, but they fixed this with a user-interface change in the newest release as well as some additional conversions.

\n

Anyway, another great example of a very handy mobile application that adds significant value easily.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-22T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/22/iphone-app-units.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","London 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/19/quordy-awesome-game.html", "title": "Quordy - Awesome Game", "content_html": "

I have been really impressed with the games landing on the iPhone AppStore recently. I’m hopeful that Apple is looking at the top selling applications and taking some notes. It is obvious that gaming is a big opportunity on the iPhone, and I think it should be a bigger one on the Mac desktop as well.

\n\"iPhone\n

Tammy and I have been addicted to this newest game, Quordy (iTunes Link). Quordy is really similar to an existing game that I’m not going to name, but has letters on dice that you shake up and then make words by connecting letters. You figure it out. I like the game a lot, and Quordy is a great implementation on the iPhone. The touch interface is perfect for the game and its fun to shake the phone to start the board.

\n

The best part of Quordy though is challenging your friends. It’s simple and easy to make your online profile in the game and then you can simply browse your address book and pick friends to play. The play is asynchronous which is key. You can check for challenges from friends, or make challenges and they can play when they have free time. There is a running tally of wins for each friend and you can see what words they guessed that you didn’t.

\n

If you grab the game, send me a challenge!

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-19T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/19/quordy-awesome-game.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/17/organizing-iphone-apps.html", "title": "Organizing iPhone Apps", "content_html": "

I’ve loaded my iPhone up with a decent number of applications now and found it difficult to find things quickly. I’ve started organizing the Springboard panels: main, info, media, games, other.

\n

This is working well but it bugs me when you update an app and it loses it’s location and has to be put back manually. I hope Apple is working on something to make this more manageable.

\n\"iPhone\n\"iPhone\n\"iPhone\n\"iPhone\n\"iPhone\n", "date_published": "2008-08-17T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/17/organizing-iphone-apps.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/17/wordpress-iphone-application.html", "title": "WordPress iPhone Application and RSD Link", "content_html": "

I posted before from the WordPress iPhone application when it was released. Its pretty nifty. When they upgraded it to 1.1 though I could no longer get it to work on my blog anymore. I was mighty confused since it worked for every other blog that is hosted on my server, but not mine.

\n

I finally did some digging into the problem and for some reason my blog wasn’t outputting an RSD link which is needed for the application to find the XML-RPC endpoint. A quick grep -R rsd found the issue.

\n

remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');

\n

That was hiding out in my functions.php file. I removed it and I’m cooking along with the iPhone WordPress application again. Beware if your theme does something similar. Found and fixed just before leaving town!

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-17T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/17/wordpress-iphone-application.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/16/whoa-totally-digging.html", "content_html": "

Whoa – totally digging Quordy on AppStore. Would like to see some games coming out with network play.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-15T22:46:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/15/whoa-totally-digging.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/16/best-iphone-file.html", "content_html": "

Best iPhone file utility: DataCase, File Magnet, MobileFinder, Files? DataCase seems best, agree?

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-15T22:11:08-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/15/best-iphone-file.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/14/just-logged-into.html", "content_html": "

Just logged into my Slicehost server via pTerm on iPhone via EDGE. Slow, but works.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-14T17:38:30-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/14/just-logged-into.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/13/is-there-any.html", "content_html": "

Really confused why my Mac Pro hangs on boot if my external firewire drives are plugged in. Unplug and boots right away.

\n

Is there any way to tell OS X to never, ever try to boot off of a drive? I have 6 drives and it takes it forever to scan them all at boot.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-12T20:50:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/12/is-there-any.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/11/iphone-app-sleepover.html", "title": "iPhone App - SleepOver", "content_html": "\"Glowing\n

I haven’t posted anything about the release of iPhone 2.0, but the approximately 20 applications that I’ve installed on my phone show that I’ve been pretty immersed in it. Developers are still figuring the platform out and there is some cool stuff, as well as some really lame stuff, out now. SleepOver is a cool little utility that I think is a great idea for the iPhone. SleepOver is a simple paid application ($2.99) that has one function, waking up other computers. I’ve spent some effort to reduce electricity usage and my computers are big offenders. To help, I’ve set them to go to sleep when they can. This is great for energy saving, but inevitably you will need to access it over the network and find that it is asleep. You may be accessing it from your Apple TV and need to wake up iTunes. SleepOver provides a nice iPhone interface to send the “magic” Wake-on-LAN packet that will bring the other machine out of its slumber.

\n

Just a couple of days ago SleepOver combined with the Remote application allowed me to switch on my Mac Pro, start playing a playlist on it, and tell it to use the Apple TV upstairs as remote speakers – all while standing at the stove. Pretty cool!

\n

This is a great example of a small, purposeful and useful application that makes great sense to have in your pocket all the time.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-11T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/11/iphone-app-sleepover.html", "tags": ["Technology","Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/04/213237.html", "content_html": "

Downloading and applying iPhone 2.0.1 update. Suggest the 2.0.1 release should re-use the title “The Audacity of Hope”.

\n

Whenever iTunes shows ‘Backing up “Jamie’s iPhone”…’ I should just get up, walk away and come back an hour later. It takes forever!

\n

Maybe I need to push the Turbo button in on my iPhone. (Still backing up after 30+ minutes.) Soon I will hopefully upgrade to 2.0.1.

\n

Is there a name for the syndrome where you sit waiting for a task to finish because you are sure the second you walk away it will be done.

\n

Backup completed. iPhone updating.

\n

I hope that Apple plans to take the next 12 months just on stability. Nothing new please. Just make it all work as well as it should.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-04T20:32:37-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/04/213237.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/08/03/224236.html", "content_html": "

Nearly 20 minutes for my iPhone backup to complete. Grrr…

\n

iPhone is now syncing. I started this docking session over 30 minutes ago. Wow.

\n", "date_published": "2008-08-03T21:42:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/08/03/224236.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/31/mac-pro-video.html", "content_html": "

Mac Pro video card/freezing issues have started again. Time to pull out the X1900 and replace it. Fans are already jacked trying to cool it.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-31T15:19:06-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/31/mac-pro-video.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/31/itunes-seems-to.html", "content_html": "

iTunes 7.7.1 seems to see a lot more AppStore updates than 7.7 did 5 minutes ago. Hmm…

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-30T22:01:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/30/itunes-seems-to.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/29/lightroom-in-bit.html", "title": "Lightroom 2 in 64-bit Glory", "content_html": "

Lightroom 2 was just released today and I immediately got the upgrade. After waiting a bit to get the serial number for the new version I installed it and upgraded my catalogs. Everything worked perfectly.

\n

One of the first things I wanted to test was using Lightroom in 64-bit mode. My Mac Pro has 7 gig of RAM so enabling 64-bit would give Lightroom some room to stretch. Here is the 32-bit snapshot of memory usage after some extensive usage.

\n

\"lightroom-2-32bit.png\"

\n

and here we are after unchecking the “32-bit” checkbox on Lightroom 2.app.

\n

\"lightroom-2-64bit.png\"

\n

Note that at launch Lightroom loaded into it’s typical footprint. After I scanned through a few thousand photos though it had allocated itself out into some nice 64-bit space. And as a user, it’s very noticeable. I was able to flip around in my catalog so much faster than in 32-bit mode and I noticed that I seemed to be thrashing the hard disk a lot less.

\n

Lightroom is the first application that I’ll use on a regular basis where 64-bit makes a big difference. Sure server applications benefit from 64-bit, but seeing Lightroom perform so much faster in 64-bit makes me really hope that most of my applications are there soon.

\n

Congrats to the Lightroom team for getting this milestone in!

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-29T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/29/lightroom-in-bit.html", "tags": ["Photography","Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/29/its-odd-that.html", "content_html": "

It’s odd that sometimes Finder initiated restart will hang forever, but /sbin/restart will work from a terminal launched via Quicksilver.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-28T21:33:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/28/its-odd-that.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/24/095121.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2008-07-24T09:51:21-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/24/095121.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/22/wordpress-for-iphone.html", "title": "WordPress for iPhone", "content_html": "

I just installed the WordPress application on my iPhone and am testing it out. It will be fun to be able to post and edit on the road!

\n\"Silver\n", "date_published": "2008-07-22T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/22/wordpress-for-iphone.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/20/mobileme-definitely-has.html", "content_html": "

MobileMe definitely has many issues. I’m having way too many problems just syncing contacts between two Macs and my iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-20T07:35:50-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/20/mobileme-definitely-has.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/18/woohoo-first-updates.html", "content_html": "

Woohoo! First 2 updates came through AppStore. Facebook 1.1 and Tap Tap update.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-17T21:57:07-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/17/woohoo-first-updates.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/18/installing-twinkle-on.html", "content_html": "

Installing Twinkle on my iPhone.

\n

Twinkle sounds? Ugh. OFF.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-17T21:34:41-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/17/installing-twinkle-on.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/18/i-really-wish.html", "content_html": "

I really wish that Quinn would come out for the iPhone. I don’t want to buy one of the lame Tetris apps out now.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-17T20:30:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/17/i-really-wish.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/16/impressed-with-trism.html", "content_html": "

Impressed with Trism. Nice game for iPhone!

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-16T00:21:16-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/impressed-with-trism.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/got-mobileme-push.html", "content_html": "

Got MobileMe push working! Needed some iPhone reboots.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T11:23:55-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/got-mobileme-push.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/now-that-we.html", "content_html": "

Now that we have Remote.app for the iPhone, can we have Remote.app for the desktop too?

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T09:40:19-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/now-that-we.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/getting-mobileme-for.html", "content_html": "

Getting MobileMe for calendars and contacts, but using a 3rd party IMAP for mail is a bit confusing. Think I got it setup right. Push love?

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T01:27:26-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/getting-mobileme-for.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/if-only-mobileme.html", "content_html": "

If only MobileMe allowed you to use your own domain name for email I’d consider going in with both feet.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T01:13:54-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/15/if-only-mobileme.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/setting-up-push.html", "content_html": "

Setting up push syncing via MobileMe for contacts and calendar.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-15T00:54:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/14/setting-up-push.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/07/15/im-surprised-frenzic.html", "content_html": "

I’m surprised Frenzic isn’t out for iPhone 2.0 yet. Would love to play it with a touch interface.

\n", "date_published": "2008-07-14T19:42:35-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/07/14/im-surprised-frenzic.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/28/delicious-library-released.html", "title": "Delicious Library 2 Released", "content_html": "\"App\n

Last night Wil Shipley, and the Delicious Monster team, released Delicious Library 2. Delicious Library is a cataloging application that I’ve put to very real use to manage my CD and DVD archive. Since I’ve moved all of my media onto my network, the physical assets are of no use other than as proof of ownership. I’ve moved them all into Slappa cases and to track where things are I use Delicious Library. Yes, a spreadsheet could do it, but it would suck. Delicious Library is such a nice application for this.

\n

Delicious Library 2 has been anticipated for a long time so it was exciting to get ahold of it. I’m happy to report that with my 1,400+ item library it is much faster. The old Library just stored things in XML, the new one uses CoreData and makes things much faster. Smart Collections are a very welcome addition and remove a needless step from my workflow. I’m also really excited to see additional item types. Software is now trackable and there is a field for serial number so I may move to using this instead of Backpack to keep my software licenses around.

\n

I knew one of the big things coming was web publishing of your library. That’s neat, and I’ve already published my library on the web. You can see it at library.thingelstad.com. Pretty nifty! There is even a special iPhone view. However, even cooler, you can actually load a published library into another users copy of Delicious Library 2. So, if you have Delicious Library 2, add my library in and you can get native access to it. Very nice!

\n

Publishing lists like this is a long standing tradition with me. My very first website had a list of my CD’s, as well as a list of Laserdiscs.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-28T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/28/delicious-library-released.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/19/new-ipod-classic.html", "title": "New iPod Classic 160G", "content_html": "\"Black\n

Before heading out on the Summer of Love, our 6-week family road trip, I suggested to Tammy that we may want to consider getting one of the big iPod Classics. We are going to put a lot of time in the van on this trip, and the van has a full AV input that can take the audio signal as well as video. We picked up the 160G unit before the trip and I was really happy to be able to put every single on of our 15,000 songs on it as well as a dozen movies for Mazie and even had enough room to put 4 rented movies on it for us.

\n

Today was the first day of use and I was really happy we splurged for this extra. It was just great to have all of our music on hand at any whim. It was also nice being able to play movies for Mazie without having to fumble around with the DVDs and then navigate their menus to get them playing.

\n

I love this use case for rentals too. We dumped 4 rentals on the iPod and will just watch them as we wish over the next 4 weeks of the trip.

\n

We also happened to have a set of compact speakers to use with our other flash-memory based iPod. I’m still getting life out of the iPod Mini that I have using it only for kids music. But now we can drop the iPod Classic in it on our stays and enjoy some tunes in between the drives too.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-19T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/19/new-ipod-classic.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple","Summer of Love 2008"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/18/battling-with-itunes.html", "content_html": "

Battling with iTunes and my new iPod Classic 160G to get it to take my DVD rips. Just wont go and everything looks fine.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-17T23:08:14-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/17/battling-with-itunes.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/10/new-gb-ipod.html", "content_html": "

New 130GB iPod has been syncing for two hours and it’s half-way done. Wow.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-10T01:51:36-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/10/new-gb-ipod.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/07/playing-with-bento.html", "content_html": "

Playing with Bento for the first time. This has some real promise. Would be a killer app if it had great iTunes integration.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-06T23:28:20-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/06/playing-with-bento.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/02/previewing-my-handbrake.html", "content_html": "

Previewing my Handbrake rip of Wall Street on my Apple TV. Looks great with full functionality. Nice.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-01T23:16:24-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/01/previewing-my-handbrake.html", "tags": ["Movies","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/05/01/wiping-my-macbook.html", "content_html": "

Wiping my MacBook Pro hard drive clean for the next person.

\n", "date_published": "2008-05-01T13:54:17-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/05/01/wiping-my-macbook.html", "tags": ["Work","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/26/beware-perian-and.html", "content_html": "

Beware, Perian 1.1 and iDVD using H.264 video sources is bad mojo. You have to remove the Perian drivers before transcoding for the DVD.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-25T21:26:19-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/25/beware-perian-and.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/23/t794772003.html", "content_html": "

Just submitted a serious bug in iMovie to Apple.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-22T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/22/t794772003.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/13/t788368744.html", "content_html": "

Mac Pro going into the shop for diagnostics and repair. Apple TV being swapped today.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-12T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/12/t788368744.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/13/t788413031.html", "content_html": "

Funny that using OS X still makes me so much happier than any other OS I use on a regular basis.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-12T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/12/t788413031.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/12/t787771493.html", "content_html": "

Ugh – finally gave up and made an appointment for my Mac Pro. This has to be a hardware issue.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-11T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/11/t787771493.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/12/t787915880.html", "content_html": "

Anyone know if you can change Time Machine in Leopard to run while on battery power? Only running when plugged in is screwing me up.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-11T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/11/t787915880.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/10/t786205886.html", "content_html": "\n", "date_published": "2008-04-09T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/09/t786205886.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/04/10/t786791695.html", "content_html": "

Tammy is doing her first iMovie project and it looks really great. This is why iMovie made the right move. Timeline, schmimeline.

\n", "date_published": "2008-04-09T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/04/09/t786791695.html", "tags": ["Family","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/29/t779340618.html", "content_html": "

Enabling Time Machine via network drive for all Macs.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-28T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/28/t779340618.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/27/t777941397.html", "content_html": "

Wish I had an Xserve running Leopard server at home. Starting to feel the need for something like iCal server.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-26T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/26/t777941397.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/24/t776002223.html", "content_html": "

Watching MacBook Air commercial and experiencing lust.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-23T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/23/t776002223.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/16/my-mac-pro.html", "content_html": "

My Mac Pro just froze on me twice within thirty minutes. Not good. 🙁

\n

panic(cpu 1 caller 0x00192D43): pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: cpu 2 failing to respond to interrupts

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-16T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/16/my-mac-pro.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/11/fluid-and-sitespecific.html", "title": "Fluid and Site-Specific Browsers", "content_html": "\"Globe\nSo, you may be wondering what a site-specific browser is. In a nutshell, it\nis just a web browser that is packaged with some specific functionality\nor extensions to work with a specific website. I think this is going to\nbe an interesting area over the coming years. If you think about how\nboth Quicken and Money mesh the web into their applications, that is a\nvery tiny sliver of a SSB.\n

If you are a Mac user, you can have your very own SSB’s to your hearts content. Fluid is a program for your Mac that creates SSB’s. You launch Fluid and with a couple of commands it creates another application that becomes that SSB. Why do this? Well, there are a number of reasons.

\n

Long Lived Web Applications

\n

If you are a web application user for GMail or Yahoo! Mail you’ve probably had multiple tabs open and had a page on another tab cause the browser to crash. With a poof your mail disappears.

\n

If you are using an SSB the SSB is in another process space and is protected.

\n

Keep Focus

\n

The SSB is locked down to the domain you specify. If anything in that domain links you out to another domain, that will launch out in your default browser.

\n

Integration With Your Desktop

\n

The reasons above are why I created SSB’s for both Basecamp and Backpack. Another benefit? I can now quickly launch them via Quicksilver and they appear in my alt-tab sequence just like they were a real application. There is a good write-up on the 37 Signals blog about how to set this up, with nice graphics to use for icons.

\n\"macOS\n

I find this user experience really changes how you work with these web applications.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-11T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/11/fluid-and-sitespecific.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/11/rails-api-using.html", "title": "Rails API using Fluid SSB", "content_html": "

I’ve been diving big into Ruby on Rails this week with this class I’m taking. One of the things I found right away is you need to have the Rails API documentation very handy. The main site is api.rubyonrails.com, and frankly it’s horrible. Luckily there is a great alternative at RailsBrain that uses AJAX and all sorts of spiffy fun to make the API so much more usable. Today though I was getting frustrated because I had a slow internet connection and things were taking forever. Enter the solution, a site-specific browser.

\n

My friend Kent came up with this idea, so credit to him for it, but I know he’ll never blog about it and I want to share the love. RailsBrain allows you to download the API documentation as a zip file. It is simply a collection of files and can be served without a web server.

\n

Unzip the files to a location of your liking and then launch fluid. Here is the setup window. For extra fun, I took the logo image off of RailsBrain to use as the application icon.

\n\"Fluid\n

After doing this hit create and you’ve got a brand new shiny application that runs local, will work offline, is never going to be slow, and can be launched easily via your launcher of choice.

\n\"Quicksilver\n

Plus, you can now alt-tab to it easily. Wow! Great idea Kent! This is really great, and it is blistering fast!

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-11T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/11/rails-api-using.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/10/caffeine-for-your.html", "title": "Caffeine for your Mac", "content_html": "\"App\n

Here is a little piece of free software that you don’t realize you need for your Mac, particularly your MacBook laptop. Caffeine is a free utility from Lighthead Software that just sits in your menu bar does one thing very well. If you click it’s coffee cup it fills with coffee and your Mac will not go to sleep, the screen saver will not engage and the screen will not even dim to preserve power.

\n

Sure you could click a bunch of things to do this, but Caffeine makes it painfully easy to engage at will. Why do you want this? Anytime you want to watch a video clip, or read a long blog post, I find it great to click and not worry about my screen dimming away on me. Working on a complicated problem that you need to just stare at and analyze? Click the coffee cup.

\n

I use this way more than I ever would have expected.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-10T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/10/caffeine-for-your.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/06/t767681237.html", "content_html": "

Very impressed with the iPhone 2.0 release. Disappointed that I have to wait until June!

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-05T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/05/t767681237.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/03/03/t766262753.html", "content_html": "

Mazie to Dad using iPhone, “Dont do that.”, pointing at the iPhone.

\n

One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.

\n", "date_published": "2008-03-02T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/03/02/t766262753.html", "tags": ["Family","MarketWatch","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/17/t723789342.html", "content_html": "

Totally obsessed about getting my MacBook Pro laser etched. Any suggestions?

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-16T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/16/t723789342.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/13/t705698612.html", "content_html": "

Upgrading third and final Apple TV to 2.0. So far I’m really impressed with the new features. I especially love the Flickr integration!

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-12T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/12/t705698612.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/13/t705714882.html", "content_html": "

Holy crap! Apple TV’s now show up as AirTunes remote speakers. How cool! Just had 3 systems all playing the same music from my desktop.

\n

One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-12T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/12/t705714882.html", "tags": ["MarketWatch","Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/12/apple-tv-take.html", "title": "Apple TV Take 2 Initial Impressions", "content_html": "

Today brought the Apple TV faithful a big win with the release of Apple TV Take 2, or more appropriately the Apple TV 2.0 Software. Being the proud owner of three Apple TV’s I was eager to get this update applied.

\n\"First-generation\n

I was a bit surprised at how quickly it installed. I guess I was expecting a good 30 to 45 minute install but it only took about 10 minutes even with all the reboots. The install was painless and simple with no issues.

\n

On reboot you are greeted to a new introduction movie that has a Leopard feel to it and immediately you are dropped on a screen with a bunch of movies in the background. My reaction is that the new Apple TV does a dramatically better job at highlighting the nature of the unit – watching and listening to media.

\n

The basic result of the upgrade is that Apple TV is now a 1st class citizen on your network. It no longer is just an appendage to your iTunes library, but can now purchase music and other content directly. I’m very happy with the upgrade and expect it will increase Apple TV usage significantly in our household.

\n

I’ll leave an in-depth review to a professional reviewer. Let me just say that I’m particularly happy with the Flickr integration. I’m all of a sudden wishing that more of my friends really used Flickr so I could see their photos in my living room. It’s really great and just makes me wish even more that Flickr was natively on my iPhone. Patience.

\n

The other thing that I was completely surprised by was that the Apple TV now support AirTunes. I didn’t hear anything about this prior to the release today and its pretty cool. I was able to have my computer pipe the same music to three Apple TV’s in the house, totally synchronized. Great party feature or just when you want to listen to music while wandering all over the house. Really happy with this new feature! Might even get me to buy an AirTunes unit or two to extend to the last couple of places in the house.

\n

Now if someone would just make a decent, small set of speakers to go with it!

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-12T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/12/apple-tv-take.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/11/mac-os-x.html", "title": "Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update is Out!", "content_html": "

The long awaited, and huge (341MB), update for Mac OS X 10.5.2 is out now! Get it while it’s hot!

\n\"Mac\n

Don’t forget to do a second Software Update after the 10.5.2 install is done to get the Leopard Graphics Update as well.

\n

Still wondering where that promised Apple TV update is!

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-11T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/11/mac-os-x.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/09/t693276732.html", "content_html": "

Happy to be using my MacBook Pro again.

\n

Missed it after a week on that horrible Dell Latitude.

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-08T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/08/t693276732.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/02/02/delicious-library-interview.html", "title": "Delicious Library 2 Interview", "content_html": "

I love Delicious Library. Why? Delicious Library to me epitomizes the belief that software can always be better. Fundamentally what Delicious Library does could be easily done in a basic spreadsheet, but that would be incredibly boring. Delicious Library 2 is the long anticipated Leopard-only upgrade to this great program.

\n", "date_published": "2008-02-02T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/02/02/delicious-library-interview.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/01/14/revamped-os-x.html", "title": "Revamped OS X Desktop", "content_html": "

Sometimes I get stuck on something, particularly late at night and I get totally obsessed. It’s almost always not very important, but then I obsess about it and the only thing that pushes me away to sleep is the dead battery of my laptop. The other night I got totally obsessed with taking a different tact on my OS X desktop. Clean. Simple.

\n

\"screenshot-big.png\"

\n

This is the look. I’m really liking it. I went with an abstract desktop for focus and really minimized what I had in the dock. Instead, I’m using a lot of the fancy Leopard folder tricks to launch things. Front and center in this is CoverSutra for the tangible side of digital music and WeatherDock to keep me in the loop with the temperature. Quicksilver rounds out the stack to tie it all together. Also, Warp is a must have extension to make Leopard’s Spaces more usable. The Shared Desktop folder on my desktop is synchronized on every computer I use with the application that I can’t seem to kick, FolderShare. Microsoft bought FolderShare forever ago and it’s still a PowerPC binary but it works like magic. I wish there was a better Mac-centric, OS X Intel option. Oh well..

\n

I feel so calm. :-)

\n", "date_published": "2008-01-14T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/01/14/revamped-os-x.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2008/01/11/spreading-the-digital.html", "title": "Spreading the Digital Love", "content_html": "

This will be brief since I’m posting it from my iPhone. I spent the night with my brother-in-law Hector getting his Mac all souped up with Leopard and spiffing out his blog, I Will Tri.

\n

That is neat and all but what is cool is just how fun it is. Jamming with your Mac and getting jiggy with WordPress is just fun! How many technologies can you say that about!

\n", "date_published": "2008-01-11T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2008/01/11/spreading-the-digital.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/21/all-in-on.html", "content_html": "

I thought about naming this post “I have a dream” but I figured the SEO impacts would be all wrong. The idea though would be spot on. I decided to go with this title and its gambling reference because I’m quite positive that I am gambling a little. I just bought my third Apple TV and set it up last week.

\n\"Three\n

Yes, I read a bunch of different blogs and I do not have my head in the sand. You don’t have to go very far to read an article about how the Apple TV has already failed and is doomed to sit next to the Newton on the shelf of shame at Apple HQ. In fact, simply buying an Apple TV doesn’t give you a lot of assurance the product is doing well. The unit I just bought and installed still had the 1.0 software on it. The 1.1 release was made a long time ago so you know this unit was sitting on the shelf for a while.

\n\"Collapsible\n

However, I find the allure of these little boxes to be too strong. The promise is great. Integration with the iTunes ecosystem. Great user experience. By far the best “ten foot” user experience I’ve ever seen. The integration is great. You can watch part of a movie on a plane, come home and sync your iPhone and then sit down on the couch and the Apple TV will offer to resume where you left off. For music, it’s a great device with nearly no issues (please add rating from the Apple TV!). It falls down in video, and that is really where the entire iTunes world falls down.

\n

I’ve decided to continue betting all the way to three of these units for a few reasons. First, as part of the iTunes world it is not easy for Apple to just shove it aside. I don’t expect that there will be a breaking change that will cause them to stop working for a long time, if ever. Additionally, I really like the form factor and it’s complete lack of noise (although it’s hotter than nearly any device I’ve ever owned). If it really got ugly, I also feel comfortable that I can hack the thing wide open and do some of the stuff that Apple should be doing for me already on it.

\n

Now, I’m just hoping these rumors of significant Apple TV enhancements at WWDC in January come true!

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-21T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/21/all-in-on.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/20/new-apple-store.html", "title": "New Apple Store in New York", "content_html": "

I was out in New York last week and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to check out the brand new Apple Store on 14th Street. It’s worth a visit if you are in town. It’s far more spacious than the Fifth Avenue store and the glass spiral staircase is impressive. It has three floors which are nice to segment the store up.

\n\"Apple\n\"Glass\n", "date_published": "2007-12-20T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/20/new-apple-store.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/08/iphone-screen-broken.html", "title": "iPhone Screen Broken", "content_html": "

On Thursday of this week I experienced a disaster. I got a phone call and while taking my iPhone out of my pocket it slipped and I fumbled it ever so oddly, culminating in it hitting the plastic arm of the chair I was sitting in. I flipped it around and to my horror the glass had cracked!

\n\"Cracked\n

The image above is not my phone. I was not able to get a picture of it. The image is from GeckoAndFly.com under the Creative Commons license. See the post where this picture originated.

\n

It was really odd. I had dropped my iPhone before, and in much worse situations, and everything was fine. This was a minor hit, and on a plastic surface no less. I think the issue was that it hit exactly where the cutout for the speaker is, on one of the corners. It would make sense that this would be one of the weaker points in the glass. Same exact hit that is in the picture above.

\n

Distraught at my lack of a perfect iPhone (it worked fine with the broken glass BTW) I headed to the Apple Store. I wasn’t optimistic that it would be replaced gratis. Upon arriving my assumptions were proven out. Apple replaced it with a “replacement only” unit that cost $249. A big $50 savings off of a brand new unit, and you have to immediately hand over your broken unit (hence no picture). The money aside, the replacement was flawless. I came home, docked it, and iTunes quickly restored exactly as my previously broken one was.

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-08T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/08/iphone-screen-broken.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/06/mount-your-iphone.html", "title": "Mount Your iPhone While Flying", "content_html": "

Ever since I’ve gotten my iPhone I now have a new routine before I travel. I make sure to sync the iPhone with iTunes and get all the most recent episodes of podcasts, and maybe a movie and some TV shows while I’m at it. Since the iPhone is my all-in-one device, it’s great to be able to load up so much content on it and head to the airport.

\n

The iPhone is a superb device to watch video on. The screen is bright and large enough to enjoy the show. Unfortunately, all is not perfect. You really cannot expect to hold your iPhone for an hour while you watch a show on a flight.

\n

The first part of this problem is that the iPhone itself is aluminum and thus relatively slippery. I have the incase cover for my phone that is nice and grippy and I found that I could prop my iPhone on my tray by placing something behind it. This worked okay, but resulted in looking down at the seat tray for a long time, and some neck pain to go along with that. So I pondered this for a while and came up with an alternative.

\n\"Red-cased\n

I got all MacGuyver on this one. The ideal scenario is to have the screen right at the headrest of the person in front of you. How to do that? Two rubber bands and two safety pins later and the problem is solved.

\n

If you don’t have the Incase cover you can just make the rubber bands tighter to hold it in place. You’ll want to make sure and get the safety pins fairly level. After mounting, this worked great!

\n

Fire up a movie, recline and enjoy!

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/06/mount-your-iphone.html", "tags": ["Travel","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/03/marsedit.html", "title": "MarsEdit", "content_html": "\"Rocket\n

I’m totally geeking over MarsEdit right now. MarsEdit is the desktop blogging client that I recently started using with my site. I’ve considered moving to a desktop blogging client instead of typing in the text field of a web browser for a while. I never made the jump though since I had a hard time finding a tool that I really liked. MarsEdit seems to fit the bill really well.

\n

The first criteria for me was full support for WordPress, particularly the native tagging feature added in 2.3 and thankfully MarsEdit ticked this box right away. The other major editor I worked with at length was ecto and it sadly didn’t do this yet. Tsk tsk…

\n

So why shell out some good PayPal dollars for a desktop blogging client? Here are my reasons…

\n

Editing

\n

Can we really think that editing even more than a single paragraph in the text field of a browser is passable? Even with great add-ons like TinyMCE it really is only workable for a simple comment at best. Using a desktop blogging client I get a much more powerful and workable editor.

\n

It’s not just doing the editing on the Mac or PC either. MarsEdit is using the editor you like for what you want to do. For example, I’m doing almost all of my blogging in the distraction free, completely uncluttered environment of WriteRoom. (I’ll do a post on WriteRoom soon too.)

\n

Next time your typing a post in a text field, try putting in a tab. :-)

\n

Drafting

\n

I’m a big “drafter”. I have 10 or more blog posts in draft status with different levels of completion at any time. Sometimes it’s a title with a three word reminder. I may have a long post that has been refined a few times waiting. I haven’t found any web-based admin interfaces that make working with multiple drafts really nice.

\n

Live Previewing

\n

One of the great features of MarsEdit is the ability to have the text open and editing, and in another window next to it have a live preview of the rendered HTML. This makes blogging in raw HTML actually work.

\n

Why blog in HTML? I shrugged off this recommendation for a long time. My opinion was that I shouldn’t have to write in HTML anymore than I should have to know the ASCII codes for all the letter I’m typing. However, I’m a convert. The control it affords you, and the ability to avoid the damage that a rich editor would do to embed codes is a big win.

\n

Other Stuff

\n

There are other reasons to use a desktop client that are less about writing to me. You can post to one of several blogs you have in one tool. That’s great, if you have multiple blogs. This means I’ll likely actually put something up at MinneLightroom now and again.

\n

I give MarsEdit two thumbs up. If you are a blogger, and you use a Mac, go download the demo and give it a go. As they say, YMMV.

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-03T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/03/marsedit.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/03/stay-focused-in.html", "title": "Stay Focused in WriteRoom", "content_html": "\"Circular\n

I’m writing this post on a plane. I’m drafting with MarsEdit to post later. There isn’t much interesting about that. What is interesting is checking out people looking at my computer screen. Why? It looks like I’ve time warped back 20 years.

\n

I’ve been doing almost all of my writing for the site using WriteRoom. WriteRoom is a Mac application that defers to a simple, distraction free writing environment. They describe it best as:

\n
\n

For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the\ndigital world. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment. Unlike\nthe cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom is just about\nyou and your text.

\n
\n

Here is what my screen looks like right now.

\n\"Black\n

Pretty whacky huh? That’s WriteRoom. When you launch WriteRoom your entire screen goes black, and you just type. All of those other applications, and even the user interface of the editor itself fades to black. You just write. So simple it took a decade to make.

\n

There is a lot more to WriteRoom. For example, it never has you typing at the bottom of the screen. Your actual typing is always in the middle. Seems like nothing, but is really nice. In short you can customize the heck out of it and make it the experience you want for editing. If pure text mode isn’t your thing, it even has a minimal rich editor.

\n

Ya know the thing I love about WriteRoom? It’s the same thing I love about Quicksilver. As well as dozens of other applications on my Mac that are written by very small independent software developers. It’s different. It’s elegant. There is so much fresh and new thinking going on in the independent developer world of the Mac. It’s a great time to be a Mac user.

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-03T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/03/stay-focused-in.html", "tags": ["Blogging","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/12/01/top-apple-wishes.html", "title": "Top 10 Apple Wishes - iTunes Edition", "content_html": "

It’s the holiday season and along with that comes the time for everyone to make wishes for gifts. Along those lines, I put together my Top 10 Apple Wishes. With Leopard out now and there all kinds of new things to play with. But I want more. As I wrote this it seems that it’s really a list of wishes related to the iTunes, iPod, iPhone and Apple TV world. Perhaps I’ll write again with my Apple wishes in other products.

\n

Front Row for iPhone

\n

This may seem like an odd one, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted this. My iPhone only has 8GB of memory, and my media library is huge. I regularly use my iPhone at home and would love to just launch Front Row on it and connect to my massive library on my Mac Pro. This should be totally simple. Obviously only for WiFi. If it could somehow work outside of your house that would be killer, but I’d be happy with just local access for now.

\n

iTunes In My Car

\n

I already wrote about this, and I think it would be a killer product. C’mon Apple, you could get into a new market with car modders!

\n

Play Internet Radio on Apple TV

\n

Another area where the gap seems so obvious. iTunes has a list of radio stations and I enjoy listening to MPR online in iTunes. Why I can’t do this on an Apple TV makes no sense.

\n

Apple TV without the TV

\n

Apple doesn’t have a product that can compete with network music players like the Roku or Squeezebox. The Apple TV is really nice, but it has no display and thus is a deal breaker for a music only device. It would be great to have an Apple TV that had it’s own display that could be used where a TV is not welcome. Maybe even just use the USB port on the existing Apple TV units to attach a display?

\n

eBooks via iTunes

\n

Looking at a PDF file on an iPhone is really amazing. It just works, exactly like you would hope. I would really love to see Apple add a Book channel to iTunes and deliver eBooks (probably not as a PDF) to a Reader application for the iPod Touch or iPhone. Amazon Kindle beware. If this were available it would be hands down better.

\n

Flickr for iPhone and Apple TV

\n

YouTube gets all the love with a special pre-installed application on the iPhone and AppleTV. But no Flickr? C’mon! People take plain old pictures too!

\n

Multiple Video Formats

\n

I have to think too hard when subscribing to a podcast and wanting to watch it on Apple TV or iPhone or iPod. iTunes needs to just handle the bitrate and playback issues seamlessly. Download three copies of the same thing and then dish out the one needed. iTunes already has the “Convert for iPod” functions but then your left with a video that looks bad on your TV.

\n

Add Star Ratings via Apple TV (and volume)

\n

It seems criminal to me that I cannot rate a song while listening to it on Apple TV. I can do it on an iPod, so you know that iTunes has all the brains to do this. This just needs to happen. And while they are at it, how about adjusting the volume. I realize the whole HDMI thing with the TV may cause some challenges, but this really needs to happen.

\n

iTunes Social Edition

\n

I wrote in some detail about adding P2P functions to iTunes as well as a friend network. I want iTunes to do more heavy lifting for me sharing music with my wife on her account and exchanging home movies with friends and family. Embed the BitTorrent DNA product into iTunes and let it roll!

\n

iPhone SDK

\n

This isn’t really a wish now that Apple has confirmed that we are getting an SDK, likely at MacWorld in February. The wish is really that Apple not get in the way of innovation on this device and hopefully other upcoming touch devices. The touch interface of the iPhone is one of the most groundbreaking, and most intuitive, things I’ve seen come out of a company in a long time and I’m mad that Apple has kept it jailed up. Get out of the way, open it up, and let people make great products!

\n

That’s mine. What’s your wish?

\n", "date_published": "2007-12-01T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/12/01/top-apple-wishes.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/11/22/itunes-ecosystem.html", "title": "iTunes Ecosystem", "content_html": "\"iTunes\n

I mentioned in another post how much I’ve been enjoying iTunes. A few weeks ago I extended my Apple TV coverage to the family room and it just hit me as I was looking at my iTunes window how fully evolved the iTunes ecosystem has become. From one application I have all of my music, podcasts, home videos and soon all my DVD’s available on iPods, iPhones and couches. This convergence has been promised for so long, and it’s great to see it finally delivered.

\n

The ecosystem is not without warts. iTunes needs to get much better at sharing my library with friends and family ala the Social Edition I wrote about earlier. I also think that the entire ecosystem does a very bad job with video. It makes no sense that I would subscribe to an “Apple TV version” of a podcast, and separately to an “iPod version”. C’mon guys! Figure out a way to put multiple bit rates and file sizes in one package. It’s akin to putting Intel and PowerPC, 32-bit and 64-bit applications in one package. Do this for my videos in iTunes and then just put whatever version makes sense for that device on it.

\n

I expect there will soon be a 3rd Apple TV in this world, and hopefully something for my car too. Once movie rentals are added to this and I finish my massive winter DVD ripping project it should be almost entirely complete. Oh, and I need Lightroom to automatically expose collections of photos to iTunes please. :-)

\n", "date_published": "2007-11-22T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/11/22/itunes-ecosystem.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/11/21/apple-please-make.html", "title": "Apple, Please Make This - Apple TV + iPhone = iCar", "content_html": "

The iTunes ecosystem is pretty amazing. It spans my exercise routine (iPod Nano), entertainment on a flight (my iPhone and kicking back on the sofa for a movie (Apple TV). But there is another frontier that remains unserved. A frontier that is a prime media opportunity. The car.

\n

There were some rumors a couple months ago about iCar. Apparently Apple met with Volkswagen to discuss who knows what. Perhaps we’ll see a black and silver VW bug coming out in future years that matches the iPhone aesthetic. (Just kidding, that’s ridiculous.) But the car is a media platform, and there are few good options.

\n

I’ve had a Phatbox in my Audi A6 for a while now. I love it, but it’s a bit quirky. It also lacks two key features that really make it suffer. There is no WiFi so you have to undock it’s hard drive to add music, and no ability to integrate with iTunes. In fact, it doesn’t even have a Mac loader. A huge shout out to Cameron Silver though for creating PhatMac for us Mac users. PhatMac even integrates with iTunes Smart Playlists which is a start.

\n

My proposal is simple. Take the guts of the Apple TV and shove it into a DIN unit for installation into a car. Then, on the front of the panel put a touch interface with coverflow like the iPhone and iPod Touch. Voila! Done. Really, there isn’t much more to it than that. This is what it could look like.

\n

\"icar.jpg\"

\n

The Apple TV has the hard drive brains to sync with iTunes via WiFi. The only thing it lacks in a car is an interface. The touch interface of the iPhone is an ideal solution for the car. Fling, press, listen. Awesome. You can even have the touch interface itself easily snap off to protect from theft and maybe it could have 8G of storage locally to listen to something while your running an errand. How beautiful would this be? Pull into your garage and your car would show up in iTunes and get the latest podcasts and purchases copied to it. iTunes would also get new information to update play counts and last play times. I get excited just typing this stuff.

\n

I know what your thinking, just dock your iPod with your car. That’s a hack. Seriously. When I shut my car off it’s crazy that I should then have to manually stop my music. The car platform is different and needs a couple of specific functions.

\n

Apple has all the ingredients. It seems like a simple weekend project to tie it all together. But the market may not be big enough to care. I’d line up for this product myself.

\n", "date_published": "2007-11-21T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/11/21/apple-please-make.html", "tags": ["Apple","Cars"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/11/06/itunes-social-edition.html", "title": "iTunes Social Edition", "content_html": "

I’ve become a huge fan of iTunes. I’m pretty sure this is the biggest about face that I’ve ever done on a piece of software. For years I eschewed iTunes. I even insisted on using 3rd party applications to load music on my iPod. I resisted because I didn’t like the idea of being locked in with a lot of metadata with one application. For years I insisted on manual management of ID3 tags and stuck to a simple file system based model. This gave me ultimate flexibility, but also minimal capability. I’ve been really amazed with how powerful iTunes really is. It’s the rare type of application that seems really simple, yet as I want to push it there is almost always a way to do what I want to do. Except when it comes to sharing my music with my wife. We need an iTunes Social Edition.

\n

iTunes is great for me, but there is a gaping hole in the application when it comes to sharing with friends. Some of this has been actively discouraged due to sharing of copyrighted music, but that the legitimate use cases need to be handled better. Let’s look at some examples.

\n

Even on a single computer, there is no easy way to share one iTunes library between different accounts. Of course we all have different accounts in our house, and iTunes really only works with one of them. iTunes needs to understand that some metadata has multiple users (song ratings, play statistics) and other metadata is universal (genre, album art). I should then be able to easily share this library across multiple users and still have the capability for different views.

\n

Of course this needs to extend to other computers. It’s totally lame that iTunes can “authorize” up to 5 computers but does absolutely nothing, zilch, to help me put that music on those 5 computers. Ugh!

\n

And then what about my friends? I “publish” my home movies out of iMovie into iTunes and I’d like to share those movies with friends and family. iTunes should allow me to do this as well.

\n

There have been rumblings about a P2P-enabled iTunes (BitTorrent DNA anyone?) that would be used to facilitate HD content. I dream of a day that the same functionality is used to keep libraries in sync and share non-copyrighted materials with friends.

\n", "date_published": "2007-11-06T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/11/06/itunes-social-edition.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/10/26/leopard-has-arrived.html", "title": "Leopard Has Arrived", "content_html": "

\"MacIt’s\nbeen a busy night here. This morning Mac OS\nX 10.5 “Leopard” arrived and I started\ninstalling it on all four Macs right away. The upgrade took about an\nhour on average and the iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro all upgraded\nflawlessly. The MacBook however didn’t fair so well. The upgrade failed\nand in the process it toasted the boot partition. I ended up\nreformatting and reinstalling on it.

\n

Initial impressions of Leopard are “Wow!”. Absolutely loving Spaces! Sharing screens over the network is tremendous. I just got done playing with some of the iChat sharing with a friend and it worked great. I’m pretty pleased so far. To add to it all, I haven’t had any application compatibility issues yet. Pretty impressive.

\n

I’ll put together some more thoughts later. I’m really happy to finally have Leopard though. If your curious about Leopard, check out the guided tour Apple posted.

\n", "date_published": "2007-10-26T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/10/26/leopard-has-arrived.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/10/23/t357124492.html", "content_html": "

After using the iPhone for a few months the Blackberry can feel like you are carving on stone tablets.

\n", "date_published": "2007-10-22T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/10/22/t357124492.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/10/20/t349450032.html", "content_html": "

Just finished a night of Wii gaming and Apple geekery with my friend Chad.

\n", "date_published": "2007-10-19T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/10/19/t349450032.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/10/17/t343573202.html", "content_html": "

Declaring today National iPhone Liberation day.

\n", "date_published": "2007-10-16T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/10/16/t343573202.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/09/27/iphone-software-update.html", "content_html": "

iPhone software update failed, restoring iPhone firmware to attempt again. Biting nails.

\n

iPhone breathing again with 1.1.1. Phew…

\n", "date_published": "2007-09-27T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/09/27/iphone-software-update.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/18/t212200422.html", "content_html": "

jsMath doesn’t work so hot on iPhone. It does try though.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-17T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/17/t212200422.html", "tags": ["Road Sign Math","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/07/imac-in-the.html", "title": "24\" iMac", "content_html": "

5 months ago I said goodbye to my iMac G5 and sent it on to live happily with my sister. After it departed the MacBook took it’s place and started being permanently anchored to the kitchen desk. I’ve been\nholding off on replacing the iMac until Apple released the next model of iMac, which they did\ntoday. A quick trip to the Apple Store this afternoon and I’ve got the brand new 24" iMac setup in the kitchen office.

\n\"Apple\n

The form factor of the new iMac is just great. The aluminum and glass are great. The new keyboard is a “double take” experience – amazingly thin. I just had enough time to set the machine up and get it powered on tonight.

\n

I also picked up iWork ‘08 and iLife ‘08. I’m particularly excited to play with Numbers and the brand new\niMovie.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-07T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/07/imac-in-the.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/07/t192373912.html", "content_html": "

iMovie ‘08 may be the answer to my video problems!

\n

Ridgedale store was a bust. On the way to Southdale.

\n

Apple Store Southdale is expecting a shipment in a couple hours. May have to make a stop.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-06T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/06/t192373912.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/06/t188745202.html", "content_html": "

Wondering why I’m sitting here tapping on my iPhone with a MacBook Pro 12 inches away.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-05T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/05/t188745202.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/04/t185826382.html", "content_html": "

Wishing that del.icio.us was integrated with Safari on my iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-03T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/03/t185826382.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/04/t185839822.html", "content_html": "

While much better with the 1.0.1 software, Safari still crashes way too much on the iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-03T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/03/t185839822.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/03/frenzic-and-quinn.html", "title": "Frenzic and Quinn", "content_html": "

I’m not a big gamer — and I’m really not a FPS (first person shooter) gamer. I’ll pass on Quake and all of its descendants. But, I do like puzzle games a lot. Here are two must have high-brain-function games for the Mac. Go grab these games and make sure you’ve got a bit of time to spare.

\n\"Tetris-style\n

Quinn

\n

I’ve loved Tetris® ever since I first played it in junior high! The game is simplicity at it’s finest, and presents the impossible challenge of infinitely fast tiles dropping down on you. Quinn is a stellar game that is not Tetris, but is a game where tiles drop down. It’s awesome. I find that I enter a near trance-like state while playing Quinn. Quinn is even free, and comes with a standalone server that you can start on your local network and play multi-player games with your friends and family! Or, hop onto some of the public Quinn servers and play people around the world.

\n\"Dark\n

Frenzic

\n

Frenzic is a new game where you place slices of pies together and try to complete them to score points. It’s very similar in game play to Quinn. The game speeds up as you play, and placement can be very difficult. I’m new to this game but am already getting pretty addicted to it. It’s very hard, and has a bit more strategy to it then Tetris. Frenzic isn’t free, but the cost is pretty low and comes with an online ranking system.

\n", "date_published": "2007-08-03T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/08/03/frenzic-and-quinn.html", "tags": ["Games","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/08/01/t179345232.html", "content_html": "

Installing iPhone Software v1.0.1

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-31T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/31/t179345232.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/14/initial-iphone-impression.html", "title": "Initial iPhone Impression", "content_html": "\"First-generation\n

I’ve now had the iPhone for a couple of weeks and it is about time that I share some of my thoughts on the little magical device. I’m not going to try to write some in-depth review. If you want that, Ars Technica and Engadget both did very thorough reviews covering everything you could possibly imagine. Read those for the nitty gritty. I’ll just hit on the things that I particularly dig, or don’t dig.

\n

Let me first start with the question everyone asks me, is this a BlackBerry killer? The simple answer is, right now, not at all. I’ve been a “CrackBerry” addict for a long time now, currently sporting the BlackBerry 8800. The iPhone outshines the BlackBerry in almost every area, but the maturity of the BlackBerry environment and shortcuts really slams the iPhones v. 1 shortcomings. I’ll be keeping both my iPhone and the BlackBerry 8800. For power email users the iPhone currently doesn’t even come close to the BlackBerry. Now, let’s move onto the iPhone.

\n

The Device

\n

The physical form factor of the iPhone is stunning. It’s a great size and fits perfectly in my hand. It feels very rugged. I would love it to be a bit lighter, but it’s okay. The glass screen is a nice change from other handheld devices and gives you a crystal clear view at the stunning display. The display is amazing and even readable in full-daylight.

\n

On the negative side it does get hot after prolonged use (say 30 minutes of web browsing). It doesn’t get super hot. It’s no AppleTV (which I swear could bake a cake!), but it is warm to the hand and ear. This generally doesn’t bother me, but I’m growing more annoyed by all my devices creating so much heat. The other device issues have been written about thoroughly – EDGE-limited and no 802.11n. Insert that for the record.

\n

I think Apple hit it out of the park on the physical form-factor. My overall take is that this is by far the best ultra-mobile little computer ever made. And really, that is what the iPhone is, a very tiny little computer.

\n

The Software

\n

This is where things get ugly. Let me start with the positives. Many of the included applications are pretty cool. The Google Maps application is an absolute joy, and highlights how great things can be. Other applications like Stocks and Weather are functional, but are severely limited in functionality. The iPod “application” is great, and another home run.

\n

Safari on the iPhone is the best web browser on a mobile device ever, even if it is buggy and crashes fairly regularly on me.

\n

But then there is Mail. Mail, and this is sad, really is horrible on the iPhone. If you have a public IMAP server, or use Yahoo mail you may find it okay. If you use GMail you are in for pain and suffering as you have to resort to POP. Really, who should be forced to use POP in 2007? I find it stunning that there is no way on the iPhone to select 10 email messages and delete them at once. This is an instant non-starter for power email users. Very, very sad.

\n

The software keyboard is not worth worrying as much as most have. I’ve found it quiet capable, and after 3 days I fealt very proficient with it. However, it falls short in two areas that BlackBerry has shown the light for. The iPhone badly needs AutoText. I want to type “sked” and have “schedule” appear, or “msp” and get “Minneapolis”. The iPhone also needs the nice touches like a double space producing a period and a space.

\n

I’m not overly bitter about this because, well, it is software. I expect this will be fixed and improved dramatically. The true power of the iPhone goes back to it just being a little computer and a new software update could dramatically make the whole thing much better.

\n

We Need Software

\n

This highlights the biggest problem in the iPhone, the lack of a software development kit. This simply has to be solved, and hopefully will be soon. The bone that Apple threw, building applications in Safari, is a joke. Get real guys. I want native GMail, Google Calendar and many others on my iPhone. I want them on the main screen. And I don’t want Safari in the middle!

\n

If Apple doesn’t get on the ball here, I will be the proud owner of a cool phone that doesn’t do as much as it should. A mere shadow of what it could be. I’m confident that this will get resolved, until then I love my iPhone with a number of notable footnotes.

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-14T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/14/initial-iphone-impression.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/14/maximum-runtime-for.html", "title": "Maximum Runtime for iPhone Battery", "content_html": "

Shortly after getting my iPhone I went to the Winnipeg Folk Festival, a 4-day folk music festival. During the festival I was camping, and had very limited access to electricity (available by making a trip back to the car). The iPhone has been criticized for its battery life. During normal usage, I have no problems with it. I dock it each night and the battery makes it through even the most demanding days of usage. But what if you are in the woods and need as much life as possible? Here are some notes I made to get your iPhone in the lowest power mode I could imagine. These are in no particular order, and I haven’t attempted to quantify how much of an impact each of these has.

\n
    \n
  1. Turn Off WiFi! This seems obvious, but is easily forgotten. There are no WiFi access points in the woods so don’t waste battery looking for them.
    2. \n
  2. Change Email Checking to Manual. Your iPhone will always be checking for email in the background. This wastes power. Change the check to manual and be careful about launching Mail, since it automatically starts checking when you launch the application.
    3. \n
  3. Turn off at night. This may sound dumb, but if you aren’t worried about getting calls, turn it off!
    4. \n
  4. Turn BlueTooth Off! You can spare your BlueTooth headset while camping, and turn off the BlueTooth in the iPhone to save some juice.
    5. \n
  5. Turn Brightness Down! This is a big one. That super-brigh, crystal clear screen isn’t free. The iPhone has a strong backlight. Go into settings and turn it all the way down and disable automatic brightness (you must do both!).
    6. \n
  6. Turn Sound Off, and Vibrate Off. If you aren’t worried about getting called, put the iPhone in silent mode and disable vibrate to save a bit more juice.
    7. \n
\n

If you have other suggestions or ideas, feel free to add a comment.

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-14T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/14/maximum-runtime-for.html", "tags": ["Outdoors","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/04/t133327932.html", "content_html": "

Tweeting about my iPhone “just cuz”.

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-03T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/03/t133327932.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/02/iphone-activation.html", "title": "iPhone Activation", "content_html": "

One of the ways in which the iPhone claims to be revolutionary is how you activate it. Rather than sitting in the store and having someone press a few dozen numbers on your phone, you simply take it home and plug it into your computer and follow a few easy screens in iTunes. Sounds great!

\n

And great it is! On Tammy’s phone, it was flawless. I changed her phone on her existing account and it flowed with ease through iTunes. Everything was great. No issues. Bliss.

\n

Then it was my turn. I knew this would be more complicated since I decided that I was going to move my phone to my individual account and no longer submit it through my business. During the weekend I called AT&T and the service representative said I had to call back on Monday, but I could just activate now on my individual plan and they could fix it up on Monday. It turns out that was incorrect. After about 90 minutes of time on the phone with AT&T this is what had to be done.

\n
    \n
  1. Transfer my existing account from the business to a new individual account.
    2. \n
  2. Move my existing individual account to the same “market” as my business number was. (This seems totally odd to me.)
    3. \n
  3. Cancel the activation I did on my iPhone before.
    4. \n
  4. Get a new SIM card for iPhone. (Once you activate a SIM card it’s toast, trip to the store!)
    5. \n
  5. Reactivate iPhone.
    6. \n
\n

I came within millimeters of just giving up and changing numbers. I’m going to be astounded if there are no billing issues the first couple of months.

\n

Note: there was some concern on various sites about replacing your SIM card. I can say with confidence that replacing your SIM card is very painless on the iPhone. Just pop a new one in from AT&T and re-activate in iTunes. All of your existing sync settings will be retained.

\n

The story has a happy ending. After getting a new SIM card, and having the AT&T people get my account all prepared for it, activation was flawless on my phone as well.

\n

There are many people complaining about activation problems. Perhaps Apple didn’t spend enough time on this process. Or, in my opinion, they are just trying to do something that isn’t possible. The complexity required to move my phone would be incredibly hard to code around, and expensive. Solving the problem seamlessly for 80% is great, but the other 20% are probably thinking it’s easier than it really is.

\n", "date_published": "2007-07-02T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/02/iphone-activation.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/01/i-got-my.html", "title": "I got my iPhone", "content_html": "

I stood in line for a few hours on Friday at the Southdale Apple Store to insure a shiny new 8G iPhone would be in my possession for the weekend. My reactions to it coming soon!

\n\"Original\n", "date_published": "2007-06-30T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/01/i-got-my.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/07/14/iphone-day-via.html", "title": "iPhone Day via Twitter", "content_html": "

I didn’t get an “I was there on June 29, 2007” t-shirt or anything, but the iPhone wait via Twitter is entertaining.

\n\n

One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.

\n", "date_published": "2007-06-29T18:26:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/07/14/iphone-day-via.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/06/08/t95294842.html", "content_html": "

Getting even happier with my iTunes-centric music world. I should have caved years ago. 🙂

\n", "date_published": "2007-06-07T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/06/07/t95294842.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/06/08/t95343992.html", "content_html": "

Watching AllThingsD Gates/Jobs interview. Transcript.

\n
\n \n
\n\n", "date_published": "2007-06-07T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/06/07/t95343992.html", "tags": ["Videos","Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/05/30/t83578222.html", "content_html": "

iTunes 7.2 just showed up in Soaftware Update with DRM-free downloads. Guessing I know what Jobs said at AllThingsD.

\n", "date_published": "2007-05-29T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/05/29/t83578222.html", "tags": ["Music","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/05/03/t47972522.html", "content_html": "

Wishing Twitterific could post in the same way Spotlight allows a search to be done. Avoids a big window having to come up.

\n", "date_published": "2007-05-02T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/05/02/t47972522.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/05/01/t45451832.html", "content_html": "

Helping my brother-in-law get Parallels setup on his MacBook.

\n", "date_published": "2007-04-30T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/04/30/t45451832.html", "tags": ["Software Development","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/03/31/the-knob.html", "title": "The Knob", "content_html": "\"Griffin\n

I’ve ogled this ultimate Mac accessory for a long time. I found myself in the Apple Store today and decided that it was time to put this shiny piece of brushed aluminum on my desk.

\n

The Griffin Technology PowerMate has been around for a while. This thing is entirely frivolous. There are a few use cases where it is amazingly useful, mainly video editing. But when you touch it and spin it the feel is just amazing. It has heft, and a superb spin that just makes your spine tingle. You can click it by pressing it down. Want to select a range of video in Final Cut, simple spin, press and hold, spin, release. Done. So much more intuitive, and just fun, than dragging a mouse around.

\n

My Mac Pro now has a knob. Yeah!

\n", "date_published": "2007-03-31T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/03/31/the-knob.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/03/25/bye-bye-imac.html", "title": "Bye Bye iMac G5", "content_html": "\"Apple\n

It’s been just over two years since the Mac invasion of my house began with my first Mac in over a half-decade, the sleek 20" iMac G5. I bought it as a toy really – it went on the desk next to the kitchen. I knew I could run Firefox on it and that I could remote desktop to my “real computer” in the office to do “real things”. So it started.

\n

Now the Mac’s outnumber the PC’s in the house. The Mac Pro has taken over that “real computer” in the office. My laptop of choice is my MacBook, leaving the Sony Vaio to run Quicken mainly.

\n

It was time for it to go. My sister needed a computer and the iMac still has a decent amount of life left in it. Plus it was the only PowerPC machine in the house. Apple announced the switch to Intel just months after I got the iMac G5. I’m going to hold out for a couple of months to get the rumored newly redesigned iMac. It should also come with Leopard. Until then my MacBook is going to be chained to the desk by the kitchen pinch hitting.

\n", "date_published": "2007-03-25T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/03/25/bye-bye-imac.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/03/23/apple-tv-in.html", "title": "Apple TV in the house", "content_html": "

Yesterday I got one of the first shipment of Apple TV units to arrive at the local Apple Store. The simplest way to think of the Apple TV is to think of it like an iPod for your living room. It lives seamlessly in the iTunes universe, has a 40G local hard drive and interfaces painlessly via HDMI with your high definition television.

\n\"First-generation\n

Setting up the Apple TV was simple and straightforward. It’s amazingly quiet. I am confused though why Apple put a relatively short power cable in the box. Seems to only be around 5 feet long, which seems rather short for a device like this.

\n

The interface is simple and elegant. Easy to find and play the media that you want. I’ve been enjoying it for music, and am now starting to play with it a bit more for photos and movies. My first attempt at encoding a DVD for playback on Apple TV was a mess - the audio was out of sync and the picture looked pretty bad. Need to figure out the right magic to make that work.

\n", "date_published": "2007-03-23T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/03/23/apple-tv-in.html", "tags": ["Home","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/02/13/making-tab-work.html", "title": "Making Tab Work \"Right\" in OS X", "content_html": "

I’ve found myself continually frustrated with the behavior of Tab in OS X when filling out forms on web pages. I fill out my name, press tab, fill out something else, and then press tab to select a checkbox but OS X by default won’t let you tab into a checkbox.

\n

I decided I had enough of this and did a little research. I’m happy to report this can be fixed! Go to System Preferences and select your Keyboard & Mouse settings. Switch to the last tab, Keyboard Shortcuts. On the bottom you can switch tab behavior to honor All Controls. Yeah!

\n", "date_published": "2007-02-13T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/02/13/making-tab-work.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/02/11/packrat-taking-backpack.html", "title": "PackRat - Taking Backpack on the Road", "content_html": "

\"BlueI\nmentioned earlier that I’ve become a huge\nfan of\nBackpack. It is my home page in all of my\nbrowsers. I’ve been able to consolidate so many other random things into\nit. The reminder feature is incredibly useful. I’m still learning new\nways to use it (mobile integration is the current item). I just can’t\nsay enough. However, the only issue with Backpack is if you happen to\nnot be online, you are stuck.

\n

Here comes PackRat to the rescue. PackRat is a great Mac OS X application that connects to Backpack and gives you an offline version. You give it your Backpack username and API key, it connects and within seconds downloads all of your content to your laptop. You can then make changes offline and reconnect and magically it’s all back on your Backpack site. It even allows you to manage reminders.

\n

The spiffy thing about PackRat is that since it isn’t running in a browser, there is some stuff that it does nicer than Backpack, like tag navigation. I’m finding myself using PackRat a decent amount even when I am online as it has a nearly identical user experience to Backpack and is a bit faster without the HTTP reloads in the middle.

\n

If you are an avid Backpack user, and a Mac user, this is a great program to add. I just wish there was also a Windows version.

\n", "date_published": "2007-02-11T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/02/11/packrat-taking-backpack.html", "tags": ["Productivity","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/01/09/t2478443.html", "content_html": "

Drooling over just announced iPhone — must have. Imagining twittering on iPhone.

\n", "date_published": "2007-01-08T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/01/08/t2478443.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2007/01/07/t2296463.html", "content_html": "

Just installed the Twidget Twitter Mac OS X Widget so I can Twitter without even launching the browser.

\n", "date_published": "2007-01-06T19:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2007/01/06/t2296463.html", "tags": ["Apple","Social Media"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2006/12/16/chaching.html", "title": "Cha-Ching", "content_html": "

\"OrangeThe\nother night while catching up on my RSS feeds in\nReader I stumbled upon a small software\nproject for the Mac called\nCha-Ching. Cha-Ching is a\nproduct from Midnight Apps that intends to take on the personal finance\nheavyweights like Quicken. It’s not open source, but it reminds me of\nFirefox finally providing real competition for the lagging Internet\nExplorer 6.0 and pushing innovation in the market, and this is a market\nthat needs innovation.

\n

Cha-Ching is far from being able to supplant Quicken, but it’s sleek and well done. It feels enjoyable to use, and at only version 0.4 there is much to hope for. My hopes are with the Midnight Apps crew to build a product that will have elegance and simplicity, with rich and powerful features.

\n", "date_published": "2006-12-16T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2006/12/16/chaching.html", "tags": ["Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2006/12/03/mac-pro-in.html", "title": "Mac Pro in the House", "content_html": "

About 2 months ago my primary workstation died. The machine was behaving very flaky, not posting from time to time and requiring my to jumper the Clear-CMOS on a routine basis. After a couple of times doing that it gave up the ghost and refused to post ever again. I’m fixing it, but it broke my back on home brew machines. I’m just not the kinda guy that wants to open my machines case on a regular basis. Particularly my primary machines that I depend on for a variety of applications and uses. It was time to ditch this thing and move on.

\n

A faithful reader of my website would know that I’ve been on a string of Mac purchases lately. The most recent computers I got were a MacBook and before that an iMac G5. Why break the trend? I decided to get a Mac Pro.

\n

It all started very benign. I just started looking for a new box and scoured Dell and a variety of other sites. I wanted something with serious power, lots of memory, big graphics and growth for the future. Regardless of how you feel about Apple, if you are looking for a great machine at the high-end you need to examine the Mac Pro.

\n

Mac Pro

\n\"Silver\n

I placed the order and got the machine on Halloween. I ordered it with the 2.66Ghz CPUs, the upgraded ATI Radeon X1900 XT video card and the Bluetooth option so I could go wireless on keyboard, mouse and eventually headset for Skype. I got it with 1G of RAM installed (2 512MB FB DIMMs) and ordered another 2G of memory, totaling 3G.

\n

The hardware is very impressive. Taking the side panel off (which is ridiculously easy, yet stable) shows a very well designed machine. The drive bays are elegantly arranged with no cable messes. I dropped 3 additional SATA drives in it to fill it up. The 16 (!!!) memory slots are on a daughter card that easily slides out for adding memory.

\n

I powered the machine on and it is very quiet. The 10,000 RPM boot drive I have in it is the loudest thing in the machine. This is a machine that was completely thought through in all aspects. Two, big thumbs up.

\n

I’m particularly pleased that I’m pretty future proof. I can take memory to 32G if I wanted to and it’s possible to upgrade the dual-core Xeon’s to quad-core and go 8-way with the existing motherboard. Yeah!

\n

Cinema Display

\n\"Apple\nI'd picked out my new machine and I already had the dual Dell 2005FPW\nmonitors from the previous machine. I could have used them, but I had to\nadmit that I wasn't that happy with them. I found the vertical height\n(1050 pixels) to be confining. When using these monitors I always felt\nlike a 6' man standing in a room with 5' 6\" ceilings. If I was going to\nget completely happy with my home workstation a new monitor was in\norder.\n

An Apple Cinema Display was needed, and I decided to go all out with the 30" version (2,560 x 1,600 pixels). The real-estate on this thing is massive. Acreage! This is the largest monitor I’ve worked with and I really like having that much contiguous space. There is something to be said for having multiple monitors, I think it’s a necessity at work where Outlook lives permanently camped on one. At home however the ability to launch Lightroom or Final Cut Express on a huge single display is just amazing. I can view my digital photos at near 1:1 with this display.

\n

Software

\n

When I ordered the machine I was thinking I’d probably just Boot Camp it and run Windows Vista full time. I’m changing my mind. I’ve been enjoying Mac OS X a lot on my MacBook and while I’ve got a lot of software hurdles to get over, I’m going to give it a try full-time. Many applications I have will work in both, but I’ve had to rethink a lot of thins. There are also some applications that are either absent or notably better on Windows (Garmin Mapsource, Quicken) and I’ll either run those in Parallels or Boot Camp. I am going to put Boot Camp on it and Windows Vista just to have it for the occasional times.

\n

I’m immensely happy with everything about this workstation. I recommend everyone, not just casual folks, check out these new workstations from Apple. As I take inventory in the house now, excluding the servers, Macs now outnumber Wintel boxes by 3 to 2. Pretty amazing.

\n", "date_published": "2006-12-03T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2006/12/03/mac-pro-in.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2006/09/21/macbook-parallels-and.html", "title": "MacBook, Parallels and Windows Vista", "content_html": "

Just because I’m on vacation doesn’t mean that “geeking on the ‘puter”\nstops. I’m happy to report that I was able to successfully install\nWindows Vista RC 1 (Build\n5600) on my MacBook using\nParallels (Release\nCandidate, Build 1898). This is the first time I’ve been able to make\nthis work. There was no magic involved, the latest release of Parallels\noffers Vista as an “experimental” option in the drop downs. I mounted\nthe ISO image in the virtual machine, booted and installed.

\n

It works just fine. You don’t get Aero Glass, but you do get Aero. Haven’t played with it much, don’t expect I will until I return from vacation. However, I’m glad this configuration finally works.

\n", "date_published": "2006-09-21T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2006/09/21/macbook-parallels-and.html", "tags": ["Travel","Software Development","Apple","East Coast Adventure 2006"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2006/06/25/macbook.html", "title": "MacBook", "content_html": "\"Black\nAmongst the celebratory gifts I got for father's day this year was a\npretty surprising toy. I had been commenting to Tammy for a while about\nhow cool I thought the new Apple MacBook was. She decided that it was\ninevitable that I was going to get one and surprised me on father's day\nwith a nice box containing a black MacBook.\n

The Path to Here

\n

I was born and raised on the Macintosh platform (after some very early\nyears on TRS-80, TI-99/4A and finally Apple //c). I fondly can remember\nthe release of the first color Mac, multifinder and the advent of System\n7. However, when I came to college I discovered Unix and “real”\noperating systems. I then wandered into the Windows NT world as I moved\ninto the professional or commercial world and never looked back to the\nMac. Until…

\n

About a year-and-a-half ago I got an iMac. The main reason I got the iMac was location. It was going in a very public place in our house and I wanted something that looked good. I was open to getting a Mac because of OS X. Apple had finally given up on the horrendous operating systems they had and moved to a Unix based environment. Stability and tools were greatly improved. I’ve been happy with the iMac, but then Apple got really serious.

\n

The announcement a year ago to switch to the Intel chip was huge. The promise of hackable machines that could run Mac OS X but also run Windows and other environments was a siren song. And it’s become real over the last year. This decision, combined with a good, stable OS and some very nice hardware got me to get back in with the Mac crowd in a bigger way with the MacBook.

\n

Initial Impressions

\n

The MacBook is an extremely well constructed and versatile machine. It isn’t as light as my business laptop (Dell D410), but the construction quality runs laps around my other home laptop (Sony VGN-S360. Everything is solid. The keyboard looks like it may be a “chiclet” keyboard, but it’s feel is great. One of my favorite laptop keyboards thus far.

\n

On the software side I’m enjoying Mac OS X. I’ve been using it on the iMac for a while, but mostly that computer just surfs the web and ’looks pretty’. This machine has been getting more industrial use and I’ve optimized it more for myself. I’ve purchased Parallels as well which allows me to run Windows XP (and really almost any x86 operating system) without rebooting. The product is great for a v1.0 and they will close the gaps in the coming updates. I look forward to having one machine with Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista and whatever else I want on it. Can you say Swiss Army Knife?

\n

Areas of Improvement

\n

There are some things that Apple didn’t get right yet. First, Apple’s insistance on a 1-button mouse is just infuriating. I may give them a break if they didn’t emulate a 2-button mouse themselves by holding down the control key. If your software uses a 2-button mouse concept, put one on the computer!

\n

The MacBook is also extremely hot. Much has been written about this and I’m hopeful that there will be a firmware update to lessen this. I’ve been using CoreDuoTemp to monitor and I’ve seen my CPU hit 90 °C. (Right now just typing it’s at 77 °C.)

\n

It’s a Wrap

\n

I have to take my hat off to Apple. To get me to buy a Mac laptop is a feat. I had all but given up on them and they’ve really risen from the ashes. This is a fun machine.

\n", "date_published": "2006-06-25T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2006/06/25/macbook.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2005/05/01/mac-os-tiger.html", "title": "Mac OS 10.4, Tiger?", "content_html": "

If you have been reading my site for a while you know that I’ve been reconnecting with my Macintosh roots. I’ve had ups and downs with my iMac G5 but all-in-all it’s a very workable, fine computer with exceptional aesthetic and design. I had been reading more marketing than I care to see nearly ever about Tiger, the 10.4 version of the MacOS. A couple of comments on the approach.

\n

Clearly Apple is leading a test to see if people will just pay an annual license for their operating system. The upgrades to MacOS X have been mostly annual, and they have been around $100 for the upgrade. On one hand I like this if it brings faster innovation, on the other hand I don’t like the impact of higher costs. I’m sure Microsoft is watching this carefully and taking notes, it would be a huge revenue driver for them. Additionally, I think this will make it harder to bring big revolutionary changes in the system since those can easily take longer than a year to even create, much less test and roll-out.

\n

Secondly it frustrates me that these incremental releases of the MacOS (10.3 to 10.4) are given such fanfare. Ultimately, it’s not that big of an upgrade! Yet Apple makes all kinds of hay about how this is amazing. Add this to the huge pile of propaganda that Apple shoves out (like they have an open platform, right?) and it’s almost enough to make me chaffe in my Steve Jobs inspired black turtle-neck. Anyway, how about the technology.

\n

In general? Yawn. The upgrade was amazingly easy, put in the DVD, watched a movie and came back to a rebooted already installed and happy iMac with Tiger (10.4). The webclips were the first thing I checked out (hit F12), they are neat, but this is really something you would expect out of a piece of shareware, not some major OS innovation. The search is nice, but not nicer than X1 on Windows. Other than that, you have a hard time even finding the changes. Upgraded versions of all the base software like Mail 2.0 are good, but where is the $100 in value?

\n

I’m sure I’ll upgrade to 10.5 and 10.6 whenever or if they come out because I just have to have the latest bits, but I sure hope that the product innovation catches up with the marketing.

\n", "date_published": "2005-05-01T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2005/05/01/mac-os-tiger.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2005/03/24/dead-imac-g.html", "title": "Dead iMac G5", "content_html": "

On Monday of this week I woke up and as I usually do after getting ready for the day went to sit down at the iMac that is off of our kitchen to check on email, visit some websites for news, etc. When I sat down I noticed that the iMac was off which seemed very strange. We don’t turn our computers off and on top of that I had just two days prior put a UPS on this computer so a power blip shouldn’t have had any affect.

\n

Not sure what was going on I hit the power button and the power indicator would light up for a fraction of a second and then turn off. Tried again, same thing. I wondered if this UPS was a problem so I plugged it straight into the wall, no go. This is not good but luckily it’s still on warranty.

\n

I did some searches and it seems like a failed power supply in a iMac G5 isn’t terribly rare. At least it’s common enough that Apple has posted instructions for diagnosing this on your own. I followed the instructions and verified that I needed to take it to an Apple shop and get fixed.

\n

I dropped it off at FirstTech that afternoon over lunch and they called back that very afternoon to verify the power supply was dead. Here is the classic part. Apple doesn’t have any of these. Oh, and they don’t know when they will get any in. So, I called just yesterday and the status is still the same. My wonderful, fancy and expensive G5 sits on a shelf awaiting a new power supply from Apple. They have no ETA.

\n

Why is it that Apple cannot figure out supply chains? They never have parts or enough of anything it seems. This has been a problem for them for years and years. Oh well, someday I will get my Mac back.

\n", "date_published": "2005-03-24T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2005/03/24/dead-imac-g.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2005/01/09/macmice-not-so.html", "title": "MacMice Not So Great", "content_html": "

I have to withdraw my endorsement of the MacMice 2-button wheel mouse for the Mac. There are two main issues with it. First, it takes it far too long to come out of sleep mode and to wake up the iMac. The Apple mouse does this instantly and the MacMice takes as little as 5 to as long as 20 seconds. Very annoying.

\n

Worse is that occassionally it just operates very poorly. It’s movements become choppy and unpredictable. Too bad, this one button mouse is a drag. I realize I could plug a Microsoft BlueTooth mouse in but it would just be wrong. In the meantime, I’ve got them both on the desk so I can wheel from time to time but use the Apple mouse most of the time.

\n", "date_published": "2005-01-09T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2005/01/09/macmice-not-so.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2004/12/21/mac-mouse-done.html", "title": "Mac Mouse Done Right", "content_html": "

A little piece of heaven was waiting for me in my mailbox tonight. A few weeks ago I purchased an iMac G5 and it’s been a lot of fun. Apple has made an amazing machine, and finally the OS is good enough to stand on the same stage as the hardware. However, Apple’s stubborn attitude with it’s single button mouse is one of the few serious shortcomings of an otherwise great package.Thankfully a 3rd party has provided a solution, MacMice.

\n

My new two button Mac mouse with scroll wheel and blue tooth capability showed up tonight. I whipped some batteries in it, the Mac instantly detected it and I was off to the races. The mouse feels just like the OEM Apple mouse. It has good heft and tracks well. It matches the style of the iMac however not as perfectly as the Apple one but very close. The mechanism is exactly the same under the covers pointing to Apple sending this to a 3rd party for their own mouse. The wheel is wonderful and the right-click works perfectly.

\n

Apple should throw out their mouse and just start shipping with this thing. Go buy one.

\n", "date_published": "2004-12-21T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2004/12/21/mac-mouse-done.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2004/11/26/imac-g.html", "title": "iMac G5", "content_html": "\"White\nThose of you that have had to endure me rambling on and on about\ncomputers at some time probably know that I cut my teeth in the world of\nApple. Actually, my computer lineage is like this:\n
    \n
  1. TI-99/4A
    2. \n
  2. Apple //c
    3. \n
  3. Fat Mac
    4. \n
  4. Macintosh IIc
    5. \n
  5. “the wonderful world of Unix”
    6. \n
  6. Windows NT
    7. \n
  7. on and on…
    8. \n
\n

I was a huge Mac fan (err, zealot?) when that wondrous thing called multi-finder was released. I was eager to see the first color Mac. I really like these machines, but I got so frustrated with the sad excuse for an operating system that I had to bail. Additionally, they just don’t carry any weight in the business world.

\n

I’ve been excited about Mac OS X for a while now and I finally took the plunge. They had a one day sale and I decided it was time to get an iMac. I got the 20" iMac G5. It’s the most visible computer in our house so I appreciate the aesthetics. Plus, it’s just a lot of fun.

\n

I just got it set up tonight. It’ll take a while to stop fumbling around in this thing. I’ll share my re-acquaintance experiences as it goes.

\n", "date_published": "2004-11-26T01:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2004/11/26/imac-g.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] }, { "id": "http://jthingelstad.micro.blog/2004/09/14/ipod-mini.html", "title": "iPod Mini", "content_html": "

I’ve been belaboring the idea of getting an iPod for months. Really, this is probably one of the hardest consumer electronics decisions I’ve tried to make recently. Well, the decision making process was shortcut today when I found myself to be the winner of an iPod Mini! Yeah!

\n

Some know that I got my start on computers on the Apple //c and then the Macintosh. Deep down in this jaded IT professionals heart is a soft spot for all things Apple. I’ve got a similar soft spot for all things Unix as well which makes one wonder why I spend my entire day looking at Microsoft dominated systems. Anyway, that’s another blog entry.

\n

Opening up the iPod Mini was a reminder of how Apple “gets it”. They realize the user experience starts with opening the box. The packaging is even cool! Everything was made to be really simple. In fact, I found that when I was having a hard time I was essentially thinking too much about what I was trying to do.

\n

Anyway, I’m only about an hour into using it but I love the iPod Mini. I’m worried that love may turn to infatuation and I’ll be getting a 40G “big” iPod to go with it. iTunes is a great player package. Unfortunately it is so much more intuitive than any of the Windows players.

\n

More to come as I use it, but the immediate reaction is “sweet!”

\n", "date_published": "2004-09-14T00:00:00-05:00", "url": "https://www.thingelstad.com/2004/09/14/ipod-mini.html", "tags": ["Technology","Apple"] } ] }