iOS

  • March 28, 2023

    Playing with the Apple Classical Music App

    I’ve been listening to a lot more classical music lately. My wife said recently, “The older I get, the less interested I am in lyrics.”

    I wouldn’t go that far, but it is nice to have beautiful, lyric-less music on while you work or read.

    The Apple Classical Music app dropped today and I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I’m impressed with it.

    I like how it breaks the music down by genre (sub-genre I guess), composer, and mood.

    They also have “The Story of Classical,” a 9-part series where you can learn all about the genre. I’m excited to dig into that.

    One strange note1 is that it’s only available on the iPhone right now, with an Android app coming soon.

    Apple Music’s disjointed experiences continue to be a puzzler, especially when you consider how good Spotify’s overall cross-device, cross-app experience is.

    If you want a good first-look review, check out this one on Six Colors.

    1. GET IT!? ?

  • March 19, 2023

    Trying Out Due for Important Reminders

    I’m experimenting with the Due app for iOS. What makes it interesting is the persistent reminders — which will repeat until you mark the task complete.

    I started using it for crucial medications for my kids (usually amoxicillin, the miracle drug that apparently cures most common kid ailments), and decided to expand it to things I want to make sure I do.

    I want to try to use it judiciously. Right now I have 3 task managers:

    1. Things 3 for projects and most business related tasks
    2. Reminders for most home/family relates tasks, shopping lists, and anything my wife and I need to share
    3. And now Due for nagging reminders.

    We’ll see how it goes. If it works well for a limited set of tasks, I can see myself use it for forcing certain habits, like working out, writing, journaling, or anything else I really want to make sure I do.

  • December 27, 2022

    Sticking with Fantastical

    A few weeks ago, I wrote that I was Considering a Different Calendar App. After testing BusyCal, Cron, and Calendar 366, while also looking at several others, nothing comes close to Fantastical.

    BusyCal comes closest but I kind of hate the way you input new events, especially time selection. Cron doesn’t support Apple Calendar, and none of them have an XL widget, which I use on my iPad.

    I will keep testing Cron but the Apple Calendar integration is a must. I have local calendars for bills and kid events that I want to see in my calendar app.

    I think it’s safe to say that the amount of time I’ve put into trying other apps has justified the $60/year cost for Fantastical. It’s still easily the best calendar app for power users.

  • October 4, 2021

    How I’m Using the iPad Mini

    I have a confession: I love new devices. I probably upgrade too often. And I’m constantly looking for the perfect research companion. I thought it could be the Kindle Oasis, but I don’t reach for that as much as I expect1. Turns out the 11″ iPad Pro has been that for me for a long time. It’s nearly the perfect size.

    But when I first heard rumors about a redesigned iPad Mini, I was giddy. I thought a bigger screen, with Apple Pencil 2 support…it would be perfect!

    I instantly ordered it when it went on sale last month. After spending some time with it, I’m super happy with the purchase. It’s the perfect size for a lot of things. Here’s how I’m using it.

  • May 31, 2021

    Using Back Tap on iPhone

    I had the pleasure of participating in the GoWP Niche Agency Owners Happiness Hour recently and we talked all about tools (I didn’t know that going in, but as you can imagine I was pleased). Something I got to demo was how to turn on iPhone Back Tap (a feature in iOS 14 and up). Since many didn’t know about it, I thought it would be a good thing to demo here.

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  • September 1, 2020

    On Buying Jeans and App Subscriptions

    It seems that increasingly, more software companies are moving to a subscription model, where instead of paying once to own the software (or app), you pay monthly, or annually, to keep using it at the latest features. Adobe was perhaps one of the first major companies to do it with Creative Cloud. Now we see it in WordPress plugins, and increasingly, iOS apps. Fantastical did it this year, and this week Deliveries announced they are moving to subscription.

    But before I tell you why this is a good thing, I want to tell you about buying jeans.

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  • August 27, 2020

    My Favorite Way to Capture Ideas: Tot

    One of the main topics I speak about in both my Consistent Content YouTube Video and the upcoming videos for Podcast Liftoff is idea capture. Now there are lots of ways to capture ideas. Your phone probably has a built-in app. Your computer definitely does. Pen and paper are always an option. But once you capture, you need to do something with that info, so using the right tool is important. I’ve found the right tool for me. It’s an app called Tot.

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  • August 10, 2020

    5 Years with an iPhone

    Recently on my podcast, How I Built It, I got to speak to Stephen Hackett. During our chat I was reminded of, and subsequently mentioned, the time Phil Schiller (now an Apple Fellow – congrats Phil!) tweeted a link to my blog with the text, “Joe switched!” It was my most popular blog post up until that point, and remains one of the most popular. In honor of that, I wanted to do a new write up: 5 years with an iPhone.

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  • January 3, 2019

    Using the iPad Pro as my Travel Laptop

    Since going out on my own full time, my tech stack has been a bit of a revolving door. In the quest to find the perfect set up I went from a MacBook Pro to a PC / smaller MacBook for travel. Less than a year later and I’m not too happy with that setup. Nothing against the PC, but living in two-thirds Apple land makes having parity between machines very hard (plus, Camtasia, my main video editor, is a hot mess). So when Apple announced the new iPad Pros, I made a decision to go with that and only that as my travel machine.

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