I came across a rather interesting idea (via Intial Charge):

I added a widget to every page here that lets anyone in the world immediately send me a notification. Type a message, hit send, and it’ll pop up on my phone, watch, and computer near instantly.

Is this a good idea? No. But it’s a funny idea, and that’s all that counts these days. Scroll to the bottom of this page if you want to give it a try.

I liked the idea so much, I decided to implement it here on this blog! So at the bottom of a post (while I still think it's a good idea), you'll be able to send a message directly to my phone.

For those interested, it uses ntfy.sh to send the messages.

I forget how key iTunes was to my music listening experience. The whole experience of buying music, whether physical or digital, and then managing your own music library felt great. And then having all the cover art together felt like a little art collection.

Maybe it's the perspective of streaming compared to a curated library of your own music, but I don't get the same feeling with the current Music app.

Looking back at the various iterations of iTunes, I get mixed feelings. Some of the UI components used (even in later versions) would be classed as ugly in modern times, with scroll bars that didn't disappear, repetitive list views, harsh button borders, etc. But I remember it felt great to use.

One of my favourite parts of the iTunes UI over the years was the expanded album view in iTunes 11. You had the artwork on one side, and the colours from it were used to present the tracklist.

Now looking at the current Music app on Mac, it just looks bland in comparison. It doesn't feel like it was made by the same company.

Sam Henri Gold:

There is a certain kind of computer review that is really a permission slip. It tells you what you’re allowed to want. It locates you in a taxonomy — student, creative, professional, power user — and assigns you a product. It is helpful. It is responsible. It has very little interest in what you might become.

The MacBook Neo has attracted a lot of these reviews.

This is one of my favourite pieces of writing I've read for a while.

It reminds me of my own experience, when I was a teenager, saving up to get my first Mac. A base model 13" MacBook from around 2005/06. That limited machine opened me up to the world of Apple, development, blogging, and what essentially led to my career as a software engineer.

Robert Birming:

Not knowing what to write about is probably one of the most common blogging struggles. Believing you have nothing interesting to say.

This is a great post. It serves as a reminder that just because you have become accustomed to something, doesn't mean it's not interesting.

The little number of followers I have on Instagram are probably going to unfollow me soon. I think I'm going to start sharing square-cropped and overfiltered photos again.

Clicks:

A new kind of mobile communicator

Designed for doing, not doomscrolling.

That tagline definitely got my attention.

Based on the design and some of the copy, it made me think it was a more focused phone.

It's noticeably smaller, there's a smaller screen, physical keyboard, single camera, and a headphone jack.

But it's marketed as a companion device?

I don't see why it couldn't be used as a primary phone, but the second-phone idea feels a bit weird to me. Maybe they're just playing it safe? Is it easier to convince people to use this as an additional device than it is to get people to switch away from an iPhone to this "communicator"?

Nevertheless, I'm still interested.

There's a possibility that this idea of a dedicated device will fit into the growing use of other dedicated devices, such as iPods, cameras, etc.

It's obviously still a smartphone, but it's at least targeted as being a dedicated communication device, rather than an all-purpose handheld computer. The question is, will that actually make a difference?

If you print this page, you’ll get a nifty calendar that displays all of the year’s dates on a single page. It will automatically fit on a single sheet of paper of any size. For best results, adjust your print settings to landscape orientation and disable the header and footer.

I just came across this via Hacker News. It seems to scale and adapt well to any size and orientation.

I think I may end up printing this out at work. Could be a good way to visualise the year.

I watched a short documentary about the game Theme Hospital last night, and to be honest, it was pretty fascinating. I don't want to spoil it, but it's fair to say it was much more popular than expected. I remember playing this for hours on end when I was younger.

Brendon Bigly, writing for MacStories:

Apple just wrapped up their September event revealing a bunch of updates to the Apple Watch, AirPods, and iPhone lineups, and I have only one major takeaway as a person who was absolutely, positively going to get the iPhone 16 Pro if it came in gold: I am seriously considering downgrading to the non-Pro iPhone 16 this time around.

A rather interesting take on what Pro means for the iPhone 16. I'm also having similar thoughts about whether I actually need the Pro model or not. My current device is the 15 Pro Max, and while I have my head set on moving back to the normal-sized iPhone, I am torn between 16 or 16 Pro.

I can live without the camera differences. But I don't know if I can live without ProMotion. Primarily because I didn't instantly notice the difference when I first got a device that supported it, so will I notice it when it's gone?

It appears that the polarisation of social media is leaking into Micro.blog.

This tonal shift highlights what remains an issue with Mastodon. Unlike Micro.blog, it largely replicates the interface paradigms of Twitter, software fine-tuned for polarisation and outrage.