Focus in Control Center Back in 2021, Apple introduced a new feature called Focus Modes. Basically, it’s Do Not Disturb on steroids. I know it’s really capable and lets you do all kinds of fancy tailoring of who can disturb you under which modes so you can focus better on the task at hand, but […]
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A Tale of Three Microphones — by Jill from the Northwoods
Hello, this is Jill from the North Woods. When I got started in podcasting, Allison was so great and helped me in so many ways and gave me advice on things I knew nothing about, including microphones. The first microphone I owned came as a recommendation. It was the ATR-2100. This microphone, as she told […]
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Why Might Apple Create a Titanium iPhone?
Marks’ Handbook from My Dad in 1978 It’s the time of year when the wild and unsubstantiated rumors about the new iPhone and Apple Watch are resolving into less wild and more substantiated rumors. In less than two weeks we’ll know what’s coming but the frenzy doesn’t slow down just because we’ll know soon. One […]
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Security Bits — 3 September 2023
Feedback & Followups Listener and community feedback, developments in recently covered stories, and developments in long-running stories we’re tracking over time. An excellent overview of the NightOwl saga we mentioned last time: Did the NightOwl app really join Macs to a botnet army? — www.intego.com/… A fresh campaign has been launched to try pressure Apple […]
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I’m Finally Sold on Yoink Because of Stage Manager
Way back in 2017, in an episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond where Bart walked us through some interesting apps he uses, he explained how valuable the app Yoink from Eternal Storms Software is to him. The elevator speech for Yoink is it’s a little shelf where you can drag things on your Mac, […]
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Balanced Audio by Andy from New Hampshire
Bart’s Audio Dropoff in Last Week’s Show A few weeks ago when Bart and I did our test recording for Security Bits, his audio levels were super slow. He adjusted all of the appropriate software settings and nothing changed. But then he touched his mic and its cable and the problem went away. We thought […]
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Callsheet Finds Actors, Crew, Movies, and TV Without Ads
I distinctly remember the day my brother showed me this really cool new website called the Internet Movie Database at imdb.com. It was amazing. You could look up any movie or TV show or actor and find out everything about it or them. I loved using it for a long time, and while I never […]
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Bicycling with Wahoo Tickr Fit Heart Rate Monitor
The Problem to be Solved In theory, when everything is working well, when you use the Apple Watch to track a workout it will take regular heart rate readings, display them, and use them to calculate your calorie burn accurately. But to balance battery life and accuracy, the frequency of the checks is tuned for […]
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Whisper Transcription for macOS — by Jill from the Northwoods
Hi, this is Jill from the Northwoods. I told you recently how I was using AI to help me make podcasts show notes better. Again, I’m not using it to write my content. I really want to do that myself. But instead, I was using AI to get good show notes and get some good […]
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Create Surveys, Feedback Forms, Organize Events, and More with the Free Google Forms
Back in 2009, Steve and I hosted a party for the NosillaCastaways during Macworld at a local bar. It was a great success, and everyone had a great time. The following year, we did it again but something awful happened. Someone who publishes a list of parties during Macworld included our party and we had […]
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