Blogging and Web Design
This is some spectacularly cool and nerdy stuff. The process of product design can be mind blowing.
Now, there are a lot of mysteries in the Panic Archives (it’s a closet) but by far one of the most mysterious is what you’re seeing for the first time today: an original early iPod prototype.
We don’t know much about where it came from. But we’ve been waiting 20 years to share it with you.
Click through to see the story and more photos.
This is one of the best made shortcuts you’ll ever find for the Shortcuts app on your iPhone. It takes any screen shot from any Apple device and properly places it into the correct frame.
If you have a series of shots, it’ll even lay them all out properly for you (even if they’re different device types.)
Today, I’m pleased to introduce Apple Frames 2.0, an all-new version of my popular shortcut to put screenshots inside physical device frames of Apple products. The new Apple Frames, which you can download at the end of this post or on the MacStories Shortcuts Archive, has been completely rewritten so it’s faster and lighter, comes with support for the latest iPhone 13 lineup and iPad mini, brings support for framing iMac and MacBook Air screenshots, and, at long last, is available internationally in seven different languages.
It’s free, it’s perfect.
If you use Gmail, it has been a long time since there has been a legitimate non-browser based client specifically for the service. Apple Mail and others can get the job done, but none have all of the expected Gmail features integrated.
Mimestream, in open beta, looks to fill that gap. Thanks to Six Colors for surfacing this for me.
As a native app written in Swift, Mimestream leverages the full power of macOS to deliver a lightning-fast and instantly familiar experience. Instead of using the IMAP protocol, Mimestream utilizes the Gmail API to enable an enhanced set of features that let you work with ease.
For my personal email, I’ve moved to iCloud as I’m able to get all of the features I like (2 TB storage, custom domain, privacy) with my Apple One plan. But I still have to use Gmail for work.
With the new iOS and iPadOS 15, Apple has enabled extensions in Safari. These are typically utilities that can do one or two small things that positively affect your web browsing experience. Things like better password management, universal dark mode, and easy coupon finding are some examples.
There are a couple of ways to install Safari extensions for iOS and iPadOS 15. First, you can go to the Settings app, select Safari, and inside the Extensions section, turn on any extensions you’ve installed and give them permission to interact with webpages. Second, you can enable or disable extensions by tapping on the puzzle piece icon in the address bar and then choosing ‘Manage Extensions.’
I think John Voorhees at MacStories did a great job at sorting through and picking some of the best ones currently available.
The two that I like the most so far are Achoo (for web designers/developers) and StopTheMadness.
People have been talking about “freaky” and “invasive” ads for years. Recently, Apple dropped a privacy bomb on the companies like Facebook who have relied on selling these ads.
Apple’s iOS changes may lead to irreparable harm to Facebook’s ad business. This moment has demonstrated to Paul and his fellow performance buyers that relying on one channel (albeit a very effective one) is risky. So they’re looking to diversify their ad spend. Paul said he’s moved his ad budget elsewhere, including “Snapchat and TikTok, but also silent killers like email.” On Twitter, Facebook marketers discussing Apple’s changes almost unanimously agreed they needed to follow suit.
Many people believe that Facebook is the product you use to communicate. However, the fact is YOU are the product Facebook sells go advertisers. Apple tied their hands a bit on that front, and it’s hitting them hard.
Concern over Facebook’s ability to weather Apple’s attack is already translating to quick consequences in the stock market. The company’s stock dropped nearly 4% on Wednesday, and some faithful investors are bailing. “I probably, over the last two days, have sold almost half that position,” said trader Jon Najarian on CNBC Wednesday. Facebook, he added, was once his second-largest holding.
Hopefully even more can be done to limit this type of targeted advertising.
Austin Mann releases the best review of the new iPhone camera every year. It’s always worth reading and this one is no different. It makes me excited to experiment with the new macro ability.
We’ve spent the last week in southern Tanzania, exploring this vast natural habitat and capturing all its beauty with the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera. As I watched Apple’s keynote about this year’s iPhone release, I was most excited about the new macro capability, increased telephoto zoom, and Cinematic mode.