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• Powersbeats Pros II

  I have read a lot of thumbs down reviews about the new Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds, so I thought I’d offer my take, based on my first 24 hours. I think a lot of whether or not you think these are “good” depends on what you expect from them.

  Quick background is that I am coming from Beats Fit Pro, after my wife stole was gifted my AirPods Pro 2, which I love, but which would just not stay in my ears. Orange made the Powerbeats Pro 2 an instabuy.

  Sound quality

  Are these as good as APP2? Probably not, but damned if my old ears really tell the difference. I can say with certainty that they are much better than the Fit Pros.

  Active noise cancellation

  I’d say probably about on par with Fit Pros, definitely not as powerful as APP2. That said, I am probably in a weird minority where having headphones that 100% block my surrounding environment feel kind of uncomfortably weird? Anyway. I’m satisfied with the ANR, but not thrilled.

  Heart rate monitoring

  I have zero interest in this and will never use it. Don’t care, so no opinion.

  Comfort

  This is the big deal, friends. These are comfier (to me) than APP2, and they stay in. They stay in. Also, great on-device buttons and they are orange.

  ---

  So yeah, they’re expensive. I get it. And if you’re looking for APP2, get those. These, however, are the only devices of this category that are comfortable and stay in, delivering a pretty exceptional audio experience. Maybe I just have weird ears.

• Clever lamp fix/automation

  My amazing wife got a great lamp that we love for our living room, with three warmth settings.

  The problem: the warmths are cycled through by turning off the power, so they don’t turn on to the warmth we want after turning them off.

  Amazing workaround: a home automation for the smart plug that the lamp is plugged in to.

  Every time the lamp (plug) is turned off, it turns back on, then off, then on, then off.

  Boom, it now always turns on to our preferred warmth.

  For bonus marks, the two quick flashes of it turning on and off feel like a lovely confirmation of “off message confirmed”.

• September 30

  On September 30, 2006, I married my favourite person. Standing before my dad, my hero, who married us, and next to my brother, my best man (still true), we said our vows, exchanged our rings, and started the, so far, eighteen year odyssey of being family.

  On September 30, 2011, on the morning of our fifth wedding anniversary, my dad passed away. Sudden and unexpected, I like to think that he realized how inconvenient this timing was, probably because I’d rather imagine him dying laughing than dying with a singular focus on the massive coronary event he was experiencing.

  On September 30, 2013, Orange Shirt Day was established to increase awareness around the Canadian residential school system, honour those families who were torn apart by it, recognize those children who lost their lives, and support survivors. September 30 was chosen as the day to signify the time of year when Indigenous children were historically taken from their homes to residential schools.

  On September 30, 2021, we commemorated the first national statutory holiday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, after the May 27 discovery of the remains of 215 bodies in an unmarked cemetery on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

  I don’t remember exactly when I came to understand that my brother, who is full blood Cree and adopted as a baby in our dad’s first marriage, was stolen from his family by the Government of Saskatchewan and not, in fact, surrendered by his young mother, who gave him up by choice due to her inability to provide care for him (as our whole family was led to believe). What I do know is that I forever face the paradox of hating that he was scooped while knowing that without that, I don’t have my brother.

  While it meant that he was able to avoid the residential school system, September 30 still managed to take away his dad. And mine. But having these two play such a critical role in the magical marriage I have the privilege to live in every day puts a kind of special joy bound to the other heavinesses of this day.

  Although not a thief, I love my stolen family and live in stolen lands. And although not one to be hung up on extremes, I started my forever with my wife, but lost my dad.

  And so, on September 30, 2024, I walked with my family, each of us in our orange shirts, and reflected.

• Fantasy booking a new iPad

  While I wait for all the xOS updates today, I have been thinking about the role of technology in my life, and I wanted to think about how I can make sure it continues to work for me rather than the other way around.

  My first realization was that I think I am using my phone way more than I need to or even want to. I installed a bunch of work apps on it. Why? Habit, I think. I don’t need Excel on my phone just because I use it at work. I need to consider apps per form factor more than just installing the apps I use on every device I have.

  That said, I started sort of fantasy booking my ideal device. I started envisioning an iPad Mini Pro. Same form factor as today, but an M-series chip (I mean, why not), and that beautiful tandem OLED screen, with support for Apple Pencil Pro (bonus marks for support of all the Pencils). It would be even greater if the screen somehow enabled a paper feel without sacrificing the beautiful display, but I think that a device like this would be incredible. Hyperportable, notebook-like in size and ability, capable, and great for media consumption.

  Maybe October?

• In an effort to reduce distraction, rather thathn go through Notifications, I first wrote down a list of “these are the things I am okay with to be interrupted by”. Then I went to Notifactions and turned all the others off.

• New experimental productivity hack: the first day of the week is Saturday.

• I mean, come on. How cute is this? 🧱

  

• Bonkers.

  

• Unemployment day 6:

  Pretty busy day over here.

  • Coffee with friends
  • Home Depot for project gear
  • Pedicure
  • Massage

  It’s a good day for not having a job, I’ll tell you what!

• Unemployment day one

  • Remove all work-related accounts and apps
  • Remove all work-related bookmarks
  • Dump all browser caches and history
  • Take a clear look at remaining stuff
  • Aggressively unsubscribe from mailing lists

  This might sound tedious, but I love it. Clear the decks! Much more easily done with all job-related things removed.

• Hooray for new Mac day! 🎉

  

• I tried the all default life, but I just couldn’t stay there. It’s not them, it’s me. I needed to find myself where I’m most comfortable.

• My valentine understands me.

  

• Ahoy, micro.blog-osphere! Is there a way of having a non-production environment to build in? I’d like to rebuild my site and write a new theme, where I would love to see code changes in real time but start from a fresh palette (then move final code over once done).

  Is there a best practice way of doing this? Thanks in advance for your expertise!

• 

• The 🫠 empji is the most useful one to come around in a while.

• Note to self: problems are not solved with blank pages.

• I spend a near unhealthy amount of time time staring at this. This was easily one of my top 3 builds ever. I loved every moment of it. 🧱

  

• My app defaults

  On the ninety-seventh episode of the Hemispheric Views podcast, which has gathered a storm of infamy and controversy, hosts Jason and Martin squared off in a no holds barred competition over who might be the most default in their app choices, “helped” by Andrew.

  Now, I am very late in participating, I understand this. As they say, the best time to plant a tree was 150 years ago, the second best time is now.

  Let’s be honest, there were no bad choices from either competitors. Thank goodness Andrew wasn’t a competitor. 

  But enough banter! For your consideration, here follows my answers to each of the questions posed.

  📫 Mail server: iCloud+ (with custom domain)

  📥 Mail client: Mail

  📝 Notes: Notes

  ☑️ Todos: Reminders

  📷 Photo taking: Camera (usually Control Center, but maybe the icon on the Lock Screen)

  🎞️ Photo management: Photos

  🗓️ Calendar: Calendar

  ☁️ Cloud file storage: iCloud Drive

  🗞️ RSS: None, intentional trips to sites only.

  📇 Contacts management: Contacts

  🌐 Web browser: Safari

  💬 Chat: This is a bonkers category, because there is no default, so I refuse to play Andrew’s ridiculous game. The only reasonable answer is Messages.

  🔖 Bookmarks: Safari

  📚 Read later: Reminders

  ⌨️ Word processing: Pages

  🔩 Spreadsheets: Numbers

  🩻 Presentations: Keynote

  🛒 Shopping list: Reminders

  🧆 Meal planning: Again, balderdash. This category has no default. But being real, it’s Notes.

  🏦 Budgeting and personal finance: Sigh, there is no real… nevermind, I’ll not chew my spinach thrice. Apps for the banking institutions with which I have accounts and a set of Numbers sheets.

  📰 News: Apple News, do you need to know the feeds, really? Oh wait, is this kind of RSS? Hm.

  🎶 Music: Music

  🔊 Podcasts: Podcasts

  🔐 Password management: Keychain/iCloud Passwords

  Also, my favourite app for shortcuts is Shortcuts. ❤️

  This episode and participations (I love reading them from the amazing directory put together by Robb Knight) are a blast. Love all of this!

• I feel like could legitimately be a remake of Apple’s iconic 1984 ad, except with Apple on the giant screen.

  Who might be the brand throwing the hammer, though?

• Random Acts

  Sometimes I just need a little inspiration to get unstuck.

  This Shortcut adds 1, 3, or 5 random Things tasks to the Today list, for when I can’t decide what’s next.

  It only considers tasks that are set to start Anytime (let’s not mess up my schedule) and, because I don’t want anything tagged Waiting showing up (and because Things searches don’t allow for negative matches - sigh), this sets all tasks tagged Waiting to start Someday before picking the random tasks, then sets them back to Anytime after.

  Download the Random Acts Shortcut →

• Is it just me or is every Shortcuts action to do with markdown bizarrely broken?

• I 100% would love Continuity Camera for iPad. To be able to join a meeting, be on camera, and share my screen that is Freeform while I Pencil mark it up? That would be awesome.

• 1. Don’t do anything that would make John Wick want to kill you.

  2. Don’t try to kill John Wick.

  It’s pretty simple, really.

• Hm, the 17.0.1 security updates are not out in the beta feeds. Set updates to beta off to make sure you update!