NC_2024_09_22
This episode covers travel tech essentials, featuring eSIM with GigSky, SSD backup, the Bemis BioBidet BB-1200, Rock Paper Pencil screen protector, and productivity tools Setapp and NotePlan.
Automatic Shownotes
Chapters
NC_2024_09_22
Appearance on DTNS & New Info on AT&T for International Data
Turn Your Ordinary Toilet into a Bidet with the Smart Bemis bioBidet BB–1200
Rock Paper Pencil by Astropad Makes iPad Feel More Like Paper
Support the Show
Bose Wired Headphones vs. Beats Fit Pro on a Plane
Why I Upgraded to Setapp’s Power User Plan
Long Summary
In this episode, I dive into my recent explorations in travel tech essentials during my adventure to Africa. Drawing from my latest insights shared on the Daily Tech News Show, hosted by Sarah Lane and Rob Dunwood, I discuss innovative ways to streamline connectivity on the go. My primary focus is on eSIM technology, a topic I initially thought I understood well but soon realized there were significant changes in the market. I recount our experience with GigSky, which provided us with essential data at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional carriers like AT&T, debunking myths and clarifying the cost-effectiveness of eSIMs for frequent travelers.
Next, I reflect on a recurring theme in our travels—efficient backing up of data. With the ability to connect an SSD drive directly to an iPhone or Android device via USB-C, I've mastered the art of data management without needing the bulk of a laptop. I break down my backup strategy, emphasizing how this method has transformed my approach to storing precious memories and important documents while traveling. The journey through managing tech on the road has highlighted the importance of testing assumptions about cost and convenience, pushing me to update my advice.
Moving on, I dive into some tech that caught my attention: smart bidets. After a deep dive into my own experience with the Bemis BioBidet BB-1200, I'm excited to share the features that make it a worthy addition to any modern bathroom. This bidet combines comfort with high-tech functionality—from heated seats to app connectivity. My narrative details the installation process, the user-friendly controls, and how it integrates seamlessly into daily routines, making bathroom moments both innovative and indulgent. I explore whether these features justify their price and what they offer in terms of wellness and simplicity.
Continuing with my gadget reviews, I reflect on the decision-making process behind acquiring and using a screen protector intended to mimic the feel of paper for Apple Pencil users. I share my rigorous testing of the Rock Paper Pencil screen protector and discuss my initial hesitations. Through my trials and tribulations with the product, I'm able to clarify the trade-offs between tactile feedback versus visual clarity, helping listeners make informed decisions based on their personal preferences and usage.
Lastly, I summarize a recent shift in how I leverage Setapp for cross-platform app access. This change stems from my recent conversations with a friend who introduced me to NotePlan—an all-in-one task management and journaling tool hosted on Setapp. I explore how the new pricing options allow me to consolidate my app subscriptions, supporting both my own productivity efforts and my partner's needs, all under one roof. As I lay out the benefits of this software service, I reiterate my commitment to supporting developers while also optimizing my workflow.
Ultimately, this episode is a culmination of tech tips and discoveries, carefully curated to enhance the efficiency of everyday tasks while enriching the travel experience, backed by thoughtful analysis and personal anecdotes.
Next, I reflect on a recurring theme in our travels—efficient backing up of data. With the ability to connect an SSD drive directly to an iPhone or Android device via USB-C, I've mastered the art of data management without needing the bulk of a laptop. I break down my backup strategy, emphasizing how this method has transformed my approach to storing precious memories and important documents while traveling. The journey through managing tech on the road has highlighted the importance of testing assumptions about cost and convenience, pushing me to update my advice.
Moving on, I dive into some tech that caught my attention: smart bidets. After a deep dive into my own experience with the Bemis BioBidet BB-1200, I'm excited to share the features that make it a worthy addition to any modern bathroom. This bidet combines comfort with high-tech functionality—from heated seats to app connectivity. My narrative details the installation process, the user-friendly controls, and how it integrates seamlessly into daily routines, making bathroom moments both innovative and indulgent. I explore whether these features justify their price and what they offer in terms of wellness and simplicity.
Continuing with my gadget reviews, I reflect on the decision-making process behind acquiring and using a screen protector intended to mimic the feel of paper for Apple Pencil users. I share my rigorous testing of the Rock Paper Pencil screen protector and discuss my initial hesitations. Through my trials and tribulations with the product, I'm able to clarify the trade-offs between tactile feedback versus visual clarity, helping listeners make informed decisions based on their personal preferences and usage.
Lastly, I summarize a recent shift in how I leverage Setapp for cross-platform app access. This change stems from my recent conversations with a friend who introduced me to NotePlan—an all-in-one task management and journaling tool hosted on Setapp. I explore how the new pricing options allow me to consolidate my app subscriptions, supporting both my own productivity efforts and my partner's needs, all under one roof. As I lay out the benefits of this software service, I reiterate my commitment to supporting developers while also optimizing my workflow.
Ultimately, this episode is a culmination of tech tips and discoveries, carefully curated to enhance the efficiency of everyday tasks while enriching the travel experience, backed by thoughtful analysis and personal anecdotes.
Brief Summary
In this episode, I share my travel tech essentials from Africa, focusing on eSIM technology and my experience with GigSky's affordable data solutions. I discuss efficient data backup using an SSD with mobile devices, revolutionizing my approach to data management on the go.
I also explore the features of the Bemis BioBidet BB-1200, enhancing comfort and convenience in the bathroom. Additionally, I review the Rock Paper Pencil screen protector for Apple Pencil users, weighing tactile feedback against clarity.
Finally, I explain my updated use of Setapp and NotePlan for streamlined productivity, highlighting the benefits of consolidating app subscriptions. This episode delivers practical tech tips to enhance travel and everyday life.
I also explore the features of the Bemis BioBidet BB-1200, enhancing comfort and convenience in the bathroom. Additionally, I review the Rock Paper Pencil screen protector for Apple Pencil users, weighing tactile feedback against clarity.
Finally, I explain my updated use of Setapp and NotePlan for streamlined productivity, highlighting the benefits of consolidating app subscriptions. This episode delivers practical tech tips to enhance travel and everyday life.
Tags
travel tech
eSIM technology
GigSky
affordable data solutions
data backup
SSD
data management
Bemis BioBidet BB-1200
Rock Paper Pencil
Setapp
NotePlan
productivity
app subscriptions
tech tips
Transcript
[0:00]
NC_2024_09_22
[0:00]Music.
[0:06]Podcast with an ever-so-slight Apple bias. Today is Sunday, September 22nd, 2024, and this is show number 1011. Well, everybody else is talking about all the new gadgets and toys, so we're not going to do that here. We're going to do a normal NocillaCast.
[0:23]
Appearance on DTNS & New Info on AT&T for International Data
[0:23]This week, I had the pleasure of being on the Daily Tech News show, which was hosted this time by Sarah Lane and Rob Dunwood. As the guest, I got to pick the topic, so I decided to walk through just a couple of my tech on travel, the Africa edition, things that I told you about. You heard it during the most recent Nocelicast, of course. Well, on the show, I talked about my diagram and Rob called me an engineer, which he thought was an insult, but of course I take as a compliment. Then I told him about Steve's image stabilized binoculars, and I wound up the piece by talking about how I do backups. I explained that you can connect a backup SSD to an iPhone or an Android phone via USB-C and directly back them up without actually carrying a laptop.
[1:06]That was what I was prepared to chat about, but we ended up talking a little bit about eSIMs. It might have been in the after show that they call Good Day Internet, but I mentioned that we each bought eSIMs from GigSky for $48 for 30 days for 10 gigabytes. I might have said $40 during the show, but it was really $48. I said we didn't use our AT&T lines because you can buy a kidney for what they charge. During the show, I said it was $20 per day per phone line. Well, alert listener Jess wrote into DTNS and explained that my information was out of date. AT&T no longer charges $20 per day. It's only $12 per day. And if you have a second person traveling who's on your plan, the second line is only $6 per day. So for two phones, it would be $18 a day, not $40 a day like I said. But even better, the max they charge you for is 10 days within a billing cycle. That is a huge reduction in cost from what they used to charge.
[2:07]Well, I went to the AT&T website to verify the information myself, you know, trust but verify, and I found that Jess was absolutely right. So, then I thought, maybe I need to run a little math. We bought two eSIMs from GigSky for $48 each, like I said. This got us 10 gigabytes for 30 days. As our trip was 23 days long, this worked pretty well. 10 gigabytes was plenty of data for Steve, but I ran out a day or two before the end of our trip. I suspect it was uploading all of my raw photos or the fact that I just realized I forgot to turn off Backblaze before we left. So remember I went out of my way to put all of the raw photos, just every single photo I took, I put them in folders that would not sink, I forgot about back plays.
[2:53]Well, in any case, the GigSky plans let us tether, so I was able to just mooch off of Steve's phone for the last couple of days. So anyway, with GigSky, our total cost was two phones at $48 each or $96 on GigSky. Now, on AT&T, the cost is $12 per day for me, $6 per day for Steve, with a max of 10 days charge per billing cycle. That would be $180 for the two of us for 10 days. Well, that's nearly double the cost of Geek Sky, even with this better deal. But, you know, it might be worth it to have a real phone number and unlimited data like we have at home.
[3:31]However, there's a catch in the AT&T plan. There's always a catch. Remember, Jess explained they only charge $10 for 10 days per billing cycle. Well, I looked up our billing cycle, and it's from the 22nd of the month to the 21st of the next month. We left on August 10th, and we returned on September 2nd. That means we spanned 10 days not into one, but two billing cycles. So our total cost with AT&T would have been 20 days times $12 plus $6, which is $360.
[4:06]$360 for AT&T is 3.75 times as much as we paid for GigSky. After that analysis, I think for this particular trip, it was far better to use GigSky than AT&T. However, if we go on a shorter trip that maybe doesn't span two billing periods, AT&T has an offering that's no longer as heinous. It's annoying that you have to be wary of your billing cycle before making the right financial decision for you, but it's worth doing the math before deciding. Now, one more thing. People have told me that if you have T-Mobile, you can use your phone in other countries without paying extra. I did a little bit of digging on that on the T-Mobile website, and it's not quite as rosy as that sounds. With their higher price plans, like Go 5G Next and Plus, you get up to 5 gigabytes of high-speed data, and they don't define what high-speed means, but then after that it drops down to 256 kilobits per second. On their lower price plans, like their Go 5G plan, the only data you get is 256 kilobits per second. Now they have a third tier of pricing they label other T-Mobile plans. They don't specify the speeds on that one at all. And for that third tier, there's a fee. It's one cent per megabyte. Well, the 10 gigabytes I used on GigSky for $48 would have cost me $100 on T-Mobile other plans.
[5:33]I'm really glad that Jess wrote in to tell me that I was behind the times on the latest fees from the bigger carriers. I'm equally glad to know that I didn't needlessly light dollar bills on fire going with the eSIMs we bought. The lesson I learned was that in preparation for travel, I should keep an eye on my local service provider just in case they have a good deal and it works with my particular trip. So anyway, the main point of the story was you should go check out Daily Tech News Show 4858 entitled Travel Flow Charts, where Rob makes fun of me for being an engineer. And you can find that at DailyTechNewsShow.com and of course, in your podcatcher of choice.
[6:10]
Turn Your Ordinary Toilet into a Bidet with the Smart Bemis bioBidet BB–1200
[6:13]Choice. At CES in January, Steve and I interviewed James Ambergy from Bemis about their smart bidets. I'm excited to tell you that they were kind enough to send me one to review. All right, everybody go ahead, make all your potty jokes yourself right now, and then go read the toddler book, Everybody Poops by Taro Gomi. Okay, you got it all out of your system? You sure? You okay? You can listen now? All right, let's get started by defining some terminology. A bidet can either be an entire toilet or just a seat replacement for your existing toilet. The function a bidet performs is to provide warm water for cleaning yourself and optionally other functions like a heated seat or a blow dryer. Bemis sent me the BioBidet BB1200, which is a $399 seat replacement. You can check out the entire Bemis catalog of BioBidet seats at the link in the show notes, and you can find them there ranging anywhere from $99 to $699. So the BioBidet BB-1200 is kind of in the middle range. Now one important note before you consider purchasing certain kinds of bidets like the one I'm going to talk about. Since bidets pump water around and heat the water, there's often a very strict requirement that you have a power source near the toilet. If you don't, you simply can't have this kind of bidet.
[7:32]Now, the first question you might ask yourself before considering the product I'm about to describe should be, do you want your toilet to be smart? Let's keep that question in mind as I go through the features of the BioBidet from Bemis, and maybe we'll be able to answer the question at the end.
[7:48]Installation of the BB1200 was relatively easy compared to pretty much any any other plumbing project.
[7:55]Toilet seats are connected to the toilet by two screws, usually with some kind of cover to cover up the screw heads to make them look nice. The first installation step is to remove the two screws to remove the old seat. The BioBidet comes with replacement screws and replacement rubber gaskets that help hold the screws tightly into the holes. While toilet seat sizes appear to vary by country, at least between the U.S. And Europe, up, I found indications that the mounting screws are the same distance apart. Be sure to check all of the specifications before buying a toilet seat of any kind to ensure it'll fit your existing toilet.
[8:29]Before putting the screws into place for the new BioBidet seat, there's a plastic catch plate designed to help you position the seat forward and aft to get good alignment. You'll now need to turn off the water supply at your toilet, which is something you need to know how to do in case of emergency anyway. Now, a few years ago, we had a plumber change out our shutoff valves from the old ones, you know, the ones where you turn a round handle like 28 times to turn off the water. Our new ones are what they call a quarter-turn shutoff. I'm telling you, it's life-changing when something goes wrong. Well, next, you're advised to flush the toilet. You do that to drain it as you're going to be rerouting the water supply. The BioBidet comes with a T-valve, which allows your single water supply to go through the normal supply line to the toilet, but also to go through the included hose to the bidet for the squirting of the water. I'm not going to go into all of the details of this part of the project, but I did want to mention that all of the attachments of the hoses were done with plastic threaded nuts that were very easy to turn by hand. As easy as turning things by hand could be when, you know, you're lying on the floor with your head under a toilet. The instructions were clear with nice little drawings illustrating every step, so we got it done in, I don't know, something like a half an hour. All right, now for the real fun, learning about how to control this smart bidet.
[9:45]Let's say for the moment that you want the delight of a bidet, but you don't actually want to use any of the smart features. The BB1200 comes with a side control panel that gives you very limited bidet controls. There's a button for rear wash and a power slash stop button. For a lot of people, this might be just enough control. It might be handy for those without sight to have a quick way to get cleaned up. This is also where you'll find the sensor for the remote, and it has a red LED that lights up if you have the seat heater enabled. If you're happy with this level of control, you might be able to consider one of the less expensive bidets from Bemis or other manufacturers, but let's keep going to learn about the more features before you decide. Let's say you want the next level up in controller your bidet. The BB1200 comes with a physical remote control that's 6 inches long by 2.5 inches wide and 3 quarters of an inch thick, so it's pretty big in one hand. The remote has no physical buttons, but rather has regions of the remote that provide haptic feedback when you simply rest your finger on an area. Note that you can only use the remote control while seated with bare thighs on the seat. It seems like a good idea, since otherwise the seat might squirt water all over the room.
[10:57]Well, the grid of four buttons that take up the top half of the remote are for rear wash, turbo wash, which, you know, that sounds fun, front wash, and dry. In the center of these four square areas is a red square, which allows you to instantly stop whatever function the bidet is currently providing. There are five red LEDs that change from one to five, and these LEDs do a lot of work. They're engaged in a lot of the different operations. They apply to four different controls. They indicate the pressure level of the dryer or the washer, depending on which one of those is chosen. They also indicate the water or seat temperature and the nozzle position. Now, you'd think nozzle position was already defined by front versus rear wash, but you can fine-tune it to your liking. Oh, and get this, if you double press the wash level you desire, the nozzle moves forward and aft with a pulsing motion. As you can see, the BioBidet BB1200 has a lot of controls for your comfort. Of the options on this device, the dryer is probably the weakest of them. Think of like, you know, those hand dryers that you see in a public restroom before they started putting in the good ones from Dyson. So they're like super weak. Now cut the air volume of those maybe in half. That's what you're going to get from the BB1200. Now, unless your goal is to get some peace and quiet sitting in the bathroom for as long as possible, you're going to want to just dry yourself off from the water wash you just enjoyed.
[12:22]There's a button to clean the nozzle, but the user guide says that it automatically cleans the nozzle before each use. On occasion, I've also witnessed the nozzle coming in and out going through an apparent cleaning cycle for like a good minute long. Perhaps a manual nozzle cleaning is just for that extra feeling of control. The instructions say that manual cleaning will rinse the nozzle 10 times.
[12:45]Now, I mentioned the control for seat temperature earlier. If you engage the heated seat with this control, it will always be heated so you can sit down at any time and have a nice warm tushy. If you live in a cold climate, this might be just what you want. If you're like me living where it's relatively warm most of the year, or you can't stand the idea of energy waste, there's an eco mode that will only heat it when you sit down. Even without eco mode, the user manual says it will decrease temperature settings when not in use. Now let's say you've gotten all the settings just the way you like them. You got the right pressure, the right water temperature, the seat temperature, and even the nozzle position is just where you want it. It would be a big hassle to set this every time you need to use the facilities. Bemis includes a button on the remote to store settings for user 1 and user 2. You change the settings to meet your needs, and then hold the appropriate user button for 3 seconds until it beeps. Now you can get your settings back with the push of a button. Now, there's a couple of what I would categorize as cheat codes as well. You have two ways to start the oscillation feature. You can hit the wash button twice, as I mentioned earlier, or you can simultaneously press the stop and up button to toggle it on and off. I don't really know why they've got a separate cheat code for that, but I found it in the manual. Now, another cheat code is that you can press and hold the rear wash button on the remote to extend the nozzle without spraying for two minutes.
[14:10]This is designed to let you manually clean the nozzle with a soft cloth or toothbrush. You might not want to use your own toothbrush, though.
[14:19]Now, the BioBidet has a built-in nightlight that gives the toilet bowl a nice blue glow in the middle of the night. You'll need another cheat code to control it. Press the stop and turbo wash buttons for three seconds to toggle it on and off. A friend of mine's teenage daughter was visiting and happened to see our BioBidet. She told her mother that she really wanted one of these. When queried why, she said, because of the pretty blue nightlight in the bowl. I thought that was kind of funny.
[14:44]You might be pretty sold on the features of the BioBidet BB1200 with the remote control, but to make it truly smart, let's talk about how you can control it with an app for your phone. The Bemis Living app lets you use predefined presets and to create your own presets. I had to giggle at the built-in presets they've created. My favorites were Chili Recovery, Jane's Toasty Buns, and Krakatoa. They clearly had some fun setting these up. Now, it's pretty easy to create your own presets. You can change the seat, water, and dryer temperature, along with water pressure and nozzle position, and even toggle on oscillation. I like the app very much, but let's start at the beginning and talk about how to set it up before we get too excited about it. After you download and launch the Bemis Living app, you'll see a screen that says Bluetooth and a picture of someone sitting on a toilet. It tells you to sit with bare thighs on the seat and choose Add Device to connect over Bluetooth. After about 10 seconds, it'll ask to connect to your Wi-Fi network and ask for your Wi-Fi password. It explains that you connect to Wi-Fi to enable data monitoring.
[15:51]Uh, data monitoring? What data monitoring? I'm pretty sure I don't want it to monitor what I do in there. Now, another thing it asked for was location access. I said no, but every time I opened the app, it nagged me again to allow location services. I looked in the app store at the Bemis Living app, and I was comforted to see that only your contact info was linked to you and that location, diagnostics, and identifiers were collected, but never linked to you. So that that helps. Now, let's set aside these concerns for a moment. After you connect the bidet to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and have a jolly good time choosing, say, the Krakatoa preset, you're done with your business and you go away. Now, it's a few hours later and you make another visit. In order to get to your presets, you have to sit down and tap to connect to Bluetooth again, and you have to wait for it to find your Wi-Fi network again.
[16:42]You don't have to enter your Wi-Fi password or anything again, but this process takes a full 20 seconds every single time you open the app. I was wondering why it doesn't maintain the Bluetooth connection between visits, and I have an idea of why it doesn't. Have you ever tried to share a Bluetooth speaker between two people? It is a hot mess. I remember when Steve and I both had Bluetooth in our cars and our Acuras, we actually, it was such a hot mess that we never let the other person connect to Bluetooth in their car. So my phone in his car was connected over USB and vice versa because sharing Bluetooth, it was terrible. So maybe the BioBidet disconnects every time so that you and the other people in your home don't end up with Bluetooth collisions like that. All right, let's put all of this together about the Bemis Living app. It nags you for location services. It asks you for Wi-Fi for data monitoring, but but it doesn't say it uses it. It takes 20 seconds to connect every time you use it, but it does have funny preset names, and it does let you create your own presets for different situations.
[17:50]The bottom line is that I think the Bemis BioBidet BB1200 is a lovely product that is very reasonably priced for this category. I've seen them far more expensive than this with less functionality. I'm not sure I can justify the possible privacy implications of the app versus the functionality, but the good news is that it comes with a swell remote for doing all of the same things. You can just imagine that the settings you change to are your version of Krakatoa. I have a confession to make. I wrote this article back in May, and only then found out that the BB-1200 was under embargo and not yet released. I was just given permission to release the article now. That's good, though, because I can tell you that a full 4 months later, we're still very happy with the Bemis BioBidet BB-1200 and we would definitely recommend it. We don't use the app because it just takes too long. The fun of the preset names is overcome by the ease and speed of using the remote control, roll, which Steve mounted to the wall right beside the toilet so it's always there for easy access. You can buy the Bemis BioBidet BB1200 from Bemis directly or through Amazon for the same price of $399. Be sure to read the information Bemis provide on which toilets fit which bidets before you buy.
[19:08]
Rock Paper Pencil by Astropad Makes iPad Feel More Like Paper
[19:09]Well, a few years ago, my friend Cheyenne, the elementary school teacher you've heard on the show a few times, told me that she uses a screen protector to make her iPad feel more like paper when she's writing on it with Apple Pencil. Ever since then, I've been tempted to buy one of those screen protectors with a rough surface.
[19:26]I've been procrastinating, though, for a couple of reasons. One of the things I've been worried about is that every screen protector I've ever applied ends up with a bubble under it, and I would lose my ever-loving mind if that happened on my iPad. I've also been worried about how easy it might be to take the screen protector off and reapply it? What if it left a sticky residue or was it even possible to put it back on? What if it didn't simulate paper? It seemed unlikely that this solution would achieve the goal even though Cheyenne assured me that it would. All of these factors gave me pause. My final concern was the beautiful crisp look of photos and videos on my glossy screen iPad would be diminished because of the screen protector. Any screen protector would do this to some extent but something designed to have a rough surface was bound to change the look, possibly significantly. I know some people like matte finish screens, I'm looking at you George from Tulsa, but I never buy them because I don't like that look. I like the crisp blacks and just, I don't know, just don't like that fuzzy look. It also seemed to be a fairly frivolous thing to buy one of these. I clearly didn't need it, but I was still tempted to try one. This conversation's been going on in my head for around three years now.
[20:39]While we were at MacStock in Chicago, while Jeff Gamet was doing a presentation, he happened to mention that he uses a screen protector on his iPad. Jeff draws these delightful little pencil sketches to entertain his online followers and entertain himself, and these little sketches are a fun part of his presentations. The screen protector he uses is called Rock Paper Pencil by the folks at Astropad. He said that this matte iPad screen protector made his iPad feel much more like paper. After he finished his talk on stage, I went up and grilled him with all of my concerns. He told me that this screen cover can be removed and put back on when you need it, which immediately made it more interesting to me. He went on to explain that it comes with ballpoint pen tips that replace the normal tips on Apple Pencil. I wasn't sure how much of a difference that would make, but it sure sounded like fun.
[21:29]Rock Paper Pencil is $40, which is significantly more than the cheap ones you can find in most places. but it had the Jeff Gamet seal of approval so I moved from mild curiosity to real interest in the idea. But you know what? It was still a frivolous purchase. I didn't need it. Well every year my mother and father-in-law give me a gift card to Amazon for my birthday. I never want to just apply the gift card to my account balance because I'd inevitably waste it on something like bug spray or drain cleaner. Instead I keep the gift card on my desk and I wait until something special comes along that I want to buy for myself. My criteria are that it must be something I want, but don't need, and if it's frivolous, all the better. I've been waiting since April for that perfect gift for myself. You can see where this is going, right? In addition to Rock Paper Pencil being available at astropad.com, it's also available at Amazon, so I bought it with my birthday gift card.
[22:25]Rock Paper Pencil is very carefully packaged. The screen protector is in a static sleeve, then that's inside a hard plastic sleeve, and then that is in turn inside a thick cardboard folded piece. Embedded in that cardboard part are the two ballpoint pencil tips that Jeff mentioned. For such elaborate packaging, the instructions are surprisingly sparse. They tell you to clean the screen first, and then Apple says to use 75% ethyl alcohol for cleaning. I didn't use alcohol of any percentage, because I learned a long time ago you can simply use a microfiber cloth that is slightly damp with water to clean your screen. I keep my screen fairly clean anyway, and I'm blessed with super dry, non-greasy fingers, but I made sure there weren't any marks on it before going to the next step.
[23:10]Application of the screen protector is extremely simple. You simply set it down on the surface of the iPad and run your finger around on the edge. They call it nanocling application. It uses static electricity to connect, and they say it's stronger than magnets, not adhesive, and leaves no residue when removed. I took it on and off a few times. They're not lying. You just peel it up to remove and set it back on to reapply. I did have to kind of get my fingernail under the corner up by the notch in the screen protector to pull it off, but it wasn't difficult. Remember, one of my big worries was that the screen protector would end up with bubbles underneath it. That fear was not realized as this screen protector is a stiff piece of plastic and it isn't sticky so there's no bubbles to be had.
[23:57]Apple pencil tips screw on and off easily so I unscrewed my regular tip and screwed on one of the ballpoint tips. Now be sure to tighten that tip firmly. I say that because a few days after I got my rock paper pencil I noticed my pencil wasn't working on my iPad and only then did I I noticed the tip was gone. Luckily, I was able to retrace my steps to earlier in the day and I found the tip. It never happened again, but after that experience, I take special care to ensure I've tightened that tip really well.
[24:28]Now, let's talk about how it feels. As soon as I had my new ballpoint tip and screen protector applied, I opened up Notability because that's the app I use the pencil with a lot. I chose a nice slate blue background and lined paper as my template, and I set the pen to white. I don't know why, but writing with light colors on darker backgrounds is really pleasing. It's like the ultimate gel pen. Now, I have to say, the Rock Paper Pencil ballpoint tip on this screen protector feels really nice. It's not quite paper, but it's ever so much closer to it than the normal Apple Pencil tip without the screen protector. I wouldn't say it feels like paper and pencil, but it's really pleasing and you don't feel like your pencil tip is slipping. I tested going back to the normal pencil tip with rock paper pencil and the screen protector, and it felt like I had no screen protector at all. That kind of surprised me. I thought it'd feel maybe halfway in between. My theory is that the ballpoint tip must sort of vibrate on the texture of the screen protector, and that's what makes it feel like paper. I enjoy writing with rock paper pencil on my iPad so much that I hand wrote my thank you note to my in-laws with it, using notability of course. I love writing thank you notes and other letters this way because it feels handwritten to the recipient, which technically it is, but I have the advantage of being able to erase and rewrite when I make mistakes. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of trouble writing by hand these days because my hand is basically out of shape.
[25:57]Now, before I print, I make sure to turn off the horizontal lines. My recipients will never know that if I didn't have the lines as guides, I write more like a psychopath, you know, with my words kind of sliding down the page. The one problem Rock Paper Pencil doesn't solve is, like I said, my hand is completely atrophied for handwriting. I had to take frequent breaks during a two-page thank you note because my hand kept cramping up.
[26:22]Now, let's talk about how it looks. One of my fears of using a textured screen protector was that the screen wouldn't show crisp colors. Well, that fear was 100% justified. Rock Paper Pencil definitely makes blacks look gray because of the reflections on the texture. Looking straight on, when it's got a lot of color and black on it, I don't notice it as much, but from any angle it looks really washed out. In addition, any reflected light kind of spreads out to cover a greater portion of the screen. When I got back from our trip to Africa, where I brought the iPad with me, and I watched a video podcast for the first time in a long time, it looked dreadful. Our trip to Africa was an extremely dusty adventure, and I wondered whether maybe rock paper pencil had embedded dust in it. I washed it off with water and dried it, and while it's still obvious I've got a matte screen, it looked a lot better than it did full of dust. In addition to the blacks being gray, the other thing that surprised me is that a white background gets a lot of color noise. Every bit of white light is hitting the texture and reflecting and refracting off it like through a prism, bringing out all the colors in the light. I mentioned this to Jeff Gamet, and he said he doesn't notice it. He speculated that his astigmatism is bad enough that he doesn't notice things like that. Unfortunately for me in this case, I have I have spectacular vision because of my human-made lenses from cataract surgery, so I see everything.
[27:50]Now, having this textured surface on the iPad reduces fingerprints quite a bit. As I mentioned, my fingers are dry and don't leave much of a mark, but I can still tell that it's much better with rock-paper-pencil installed. It's also much easier to wipe off an errant mark. Now, I have cats, and cat hair seems to love the iPad screen, but with rock, paper, pencil, the cat hair, while it'll land on it, it never sticks. I can blow on my screen and it just flies off, which doesn't happen with the static electricity of the original screen. I think that's what helps the screen protector to kind of repel the cat hair.
[28:27]Now, let's talk bottom line. I had a lot of trouble writing this. I've had this article waiting to finish for a long time because I wasn't sure what my bottom line was on the product. Whether you would like it or not is highly dependent on what you do with your iPad. On the one hand, Rock Paper Pencil with the ballpoint tips is a significant improvement in the way it feels to draw with the Apple Pencil on iPad. I use my pencil quite often, but mostly for things like marking off my progress in cross-stitch patterns. If you use your pencil often, I think this is a great solution. When I'm doing a lot of programming, I do like to write by hand to try to just do kind of pseudocode and it helps me to think writing with pencil. So during those times, I think it is a great solution. But if your primary use is to watch video content or view and edit photos, I don't think you'll like having rock paper pencil on your screen. It washes out the colors too much. If you use your iPad primarily to read content that has a white background and black text, and you have really good vision, the color noise might bother you. If you hate highly reflective screens, like George from Tulsa, then having a matte screen might delight you and not be a downside.
[29:39]If you're flexible enough to be fine with removing and adding rock paper pencil to your iPad depending on your current task, then it's probably a fabulous solution. What I can't say is that I kept it on my iPad for a long time, but I don't have it on currently, so I'm still of two minds of whether rock-paper-pencil is the best solution for me.
[30:00]
Support the Show
[30:00]I often tell you about how you can support the show by going to Patreon and pledging a dollar amount that's right for you. But I don't always mention that you can pledge in whatever currency has meaning to you. This week, our hero is Louis from Canada, who chose to make his pledge in CAD, otherwise known as Canadian dollars. You too can be a hero like Louis by going to podfee.com slash Patreon and pledging your support in your favorite currency. Sorry, Kaylee, I don't think they support Hooniackers just yet.
[30:35]
Bose Wired Headphones vs. Beats Fit Pro on a Plane
[30:35]When we met up with Kaylee at MacStock this year, I was reminded of how great it is that she figures out how to use technology that others may feel is too out of date to even consider. In fact, I think she has a preference for older tech. She very proudly showed off her mini disc player and explained what a good deal she got on it and how well it works. In that vein, I'm going to tell you about a tech gadget that Steve and I both swear by, and it's not at all new. I'll even admit that Steve was the one who rediscovered this solution to a long-term problem. Steve and I both use the $200 Beats Fit Pro wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation. We use them while exercising and while doing yard or housework. They're great for listening to podcasts and are especially good at canceling out noise on my long walks from passing cars. In case you're wondering, I'm very careful watching for cars and rogue bicyclists who don't make any noise. The battery lasts for a crazy length of time, and the case recharges them. This is all old news, so what's the problem to be solved now? You may have noticed that Steve and I travel a fair bit, and a lot of our travel is on airplanes. The Beats Fit Pro headphones, while great at taking out the normal noise of life, they don't do a very good job of canceling the sound of jet engines. We carry our MacBooks and my iPad on trips so we can watch movies, but with the Beats, it's really hard to hear the movies over the sounds of those engines, even with noise cancellation enabled and the volume cranked all the way up.
[32:03]Well, around a decade ago, Steve and I both bought Bose QuietComfort QC20 wired earbuds. Steve decided to test them on a recent flight, and he discovered that they're still amazing at removing jet engine noise. He convinced me to bring mine for our flights to and within Africa. We had four 11-hour flights, so this was a critical piece of tech. Turned out they were a glorious improvement over the Beats Fit Pros for noise cancellation. As I mentioned, the Bose those QC20s are wired, but they're so old they connect to a headphone jack. We originally used them as is with our headphone jack-bearing iPhones, but when Apple got courage and removed the headphone jack, we bought the headphone jack to lightning adapter. More recently, when Apple got even more courage and switched the iPhones to USB-C, we needed yet another new adapter. I know it's extravagant, but we popped the $9 to buy the Apple USB-C to headphone jack adapter.
[33:03]The QC20 earbuds have very flexible rubber ear tips with a little flange thingy that keeps them locked into your ear. We both find this is a better solution to keep earbuds in your ear than the method the AirPods Pro use where you have to shove the little suction ear tip into your ear canal. Those never worked for Steve at all, and I found I had to fiddle with them quite a bit to get them to stay in, especially when jogging. That's one of the reasons we like the Beats Fit Pro over any AirPod model. On the QC20s, the wires from the earbuds join at a set of controls including a play-pause button and volume up-down buttons. If you continue to follow the wire down to right before it connects to your device, there's a small controller box. It's about the size of a stick of gum. On the controller, there's an on-off switch for the noise cancellation. This gumstick-sized controller box also contains the battery and processor for noise cancellation, and it charges via micro-USB. I have no idea how long the battery lasts because I've never tested it. I can't say I don't even worry about charging it because it must be pretty long. I hadn't charged my Bose headphones in ages before our big trip, and yet they lasted through three of the 11-hour flights on our trip, but they did have to be charged during the fourth one.
[34:19]The QC20s come with a small padded zippered pouch that just fits the earbuds with the attached controller and even has an internal side pocket that can hold a short charging cable. Since the QC20s came out in, what, like 1958? All right, maybe not that old. The included cable is micro USB to USB-A, so that means I have yet another dongle converting that to USB-C.
[34:44]Back when we bought the Bose QC20s a decade ago, they were very expensive at $300. But you know, they've lasted all this time, and they're still the best headphones we have to take out airplane noise and make it possible to hear our movies on the plane. Now, this review would be super mean if you could no longer buy the QC20s, and technically, you can't buy them new. However, right now, you can get them used for $165 US in the Bose store on Amazon. If you look around, people are selling them on eBay, brand new in box, for closer to $120. I have to say, I sure enjoy channeling my inner Kaylee to tell you that new tech is not always better tech.
[35:28]
Why I Upgraded to Setapp’s Power User Plan
[35:29]I've been a Setapp subscriber for many years, and I've found a fair number of apps through the service. But to be honest, I haven't really taken full advantage of it. The main problem was when I started living the 2Mac lifestyle with a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro, that kind of caused a price increase for me. One of the advantages of Setapp is that now they have a way for you to get your apps on your iOS devices as well as macOS. You do have to buy a higher tier subscription from Setapp to get the iOS apps though. I have a strong preference for apps I can use on all of my devices, so if I really liked an app that was cross-platform, instead of just getting it through Setapp, I'd buy it directly from the developer so I could get it on iOS as well. I also have conflicted feelings about using Setapp instead of going to the developers. I like to support developers, and I know they get less money from me if I use Setapp. The smart thing to do would have been to just drop my Setapp subscription and go on my merry way. Instead, I kept paying for Setapp, but only using very few applications through it. Because the applications I liked a lot, I would go buy them separately. So I was kind of paying for everything twice.
[36:39]Now, Setup has affiliate codes, and even though I didn't use the service much myself, I went ahead and got one just in case I mentioned the rare app here and there that you could get through Setup. Even if I paid for it directly, you could get it through Setup. And I thought I could get a little bit of financial lift. Well, after years of this silly method of lighting dollar bills on fire, I was chatting with my good friend David Roth, and he was telling me about this terrific app that's changed his work life called NotePlan from NotePlan.co. I won't go into the details of the app and how he uses it because he did a far better job of explaining it on Mac Power Users number 756, and of course, there's a link in the show notes, and he did a much better job of explaining it than I could ever possibly do. It's an all-in-one app that gives you a digital bullet journal, a task manager, it's a personal knowledge management tool, all in one app. Now, you know I love to try a new app and see if it solves any problems I have, so I took a look at the app. It was a free trial, a seven-day trial, and it runs on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and the web. But the pricing was a bit steep. If paid annually, it's $8.33 a month. I'm not suggesting it's not worth what they're charging. It's just that at this point, I didn't even know if I needed NotePlan. And that's when David told me that it was available through Setapp. Well, that's great. Well, to really get good use out of it, I'd need it on my iPad and iPhone, and my plan with Setapp didn't cover iOS devices.
[38:04]As is often the case, I hadn't paid attention to the pricing model at Setapp as it evolved over the years. The pricing plan I was on was $10 a month for two Macs, and they don't even offer that plan anymore. It's $10 a month for only one Mac. But for only $2.50 more, you can get that one Mac and up to four iOS devices. It's not quite what I need, but it might be perfect for you. Well, the plan David urged me to look at is their Power User plan. It's $15 a month for four Macs and four iOS devices. I know that's 50% more than I was paying, but this plan would let Steve have access to all of the apps in Setup as well. And if I actually use the apps through Setup, I won't keep buying all these apps on the outside and costing myself even more money. Now, talking about Steve, traditionally in our family, I'm the one who's constantly experimenting mending with new software, but if I find something that I think might help Steve, we'll buy it for him. Just off the top of my head, I know we both bought Bartender and CleanShot X, even though they're available through Setapp.
[39:10]Now, when David justifies the cost of Setapp, since no plan would cost him $8 a month all by itself, he's getting all of the other apps he might want from Setapp for only $7 a month. That's an interesting way to look at it. Look at something that's critical to you, subtract that from the cost, because you would have bought that anyway, and see what's left. Now, it seemed that armed with this new information, I should do one of two things. I should stop lighting $10 a month on fire by paying for Setapp at all and not using it, or I should go all in and go for the power user plan. At David's urging, I upped my subscription to four Macs and four iOS devices.
[39:46]Shortly after I did this, Steve got an upgrade notice for CleanShot X, his preferred screenshot and annotation tool. Now, we'd bought him a full license at $29, but that only gets you a year of updates. The other option was to go to a subscription price of $8 per month for CleanShot X. Well, instead of doing that, I deleted his version of CleanShot X, I installed Setapp on his Mac, and I installed CleanShot X from the Setapp interface. The power user version of Setapp was already half paid off because of just this one app. Now, if you haven't used Setapp yourself, there's one tricky bit to finding your apps. In your Applications folder, you'll find the Setapp app itself, but also a folder called Setapp, and that contains all of the apps you've installed via the Setapp interface. It's not hard to understand, but it's a little bit weird. I explained it to Steve and showed it to him, and he grokked it immediately, and the change was made. One of my first curiosities was to understand exactly how Setapp lets you install iOS apps. In the US, there isn't support for third-party app stores, so how can this possibly work?
[40:56]I abandoned Ulysses two years ago in favor of Bear, but I've remained curious about how Ulysses may have evolved to see if it's gotten any better and might be a better choice for me. I downloaded Ulysses to my Mac, and then I went to figure out how to do it on the iPad. When you have an app's page open and set up on the Mac, and there's an iOS app available, you'll see two tabs. One says Install, which will install it on the Mac, and the second tab says get iOS app. This second option pops up a window explaining the two-step process to install on iOS. Step one is to scan a QR code with your iOS device. All this does is open the app store on your iOS device to the app in question where you can download and install it. This step installs the non-paid for version of the app just like if you were doing it without Setapp. Now step two on the pop-up window says unlock full version. That gives you a second QR code to scan. This QR code says open in Ulysses, which then activates the full version of the app. The first time you do it, it can take a few minutes and they send you a notification once it's activated.
[42:04]Overall, the process is unusual and it is a bit of extra work compared to buying through the app store, but it's not actually hard. I wanted to tell you about my decision and why you'll probably hear me say even more available in Setapp when I tell you about an app I think is nifty. Don't worry, though, I'll always link to the original developer's website, of course, because I know this might not be for everyone. Now, while this is definitely not an ad for Setapp, it would not break my heart if you used my affiliate code to setapp.com, link in the show notes, if you think you might want to use the service. If you become a paid subscriber after using that link, you and I both get a free month added to our subscription. I put the link in this article, but it's also always in the show notes of every episode of the Nosilla cast as found in your podcatcher of choice. You know I'll be going out of my way to find cool apps through setup from my Macs, Steve's Macs, and all of our iOS devices from now on.
[43:00]Well, that's going to wind us up for this week. Did you know you can email me at alison at podfeed.com anytime you like? A lot of people do it. We have a lot of fun. If you have a question or a suggestion, send it on over. Remember, everything good starts with podfeed.com. You can follow me on Mastodon. Where? Podfeed.com slash Mastodon. What if you want to listen to the podcast on YouTube, you can go to podfeet.com slash YouTube. If you want to join in the conversation, you can join our Slack community. Where do you think that would be? Podfeet.com slash Slack, where you can talk to me and all of the other lovely Nozilla castaways. You can support the show at podfeet.com slash Patreon, like Lewis did with the currency of your choice, or you can do a one-time donation at podfeet.com slash PayPal. And if you want to To join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com slash live on Sunday nights at 5 p.m. Pacific time and join the friendly and enthusiastic.
[43:51]Music.