Yesterday, Jason Snell and I both witnessed the 2017 total solar eclipse. We recorded throughout the weekend and sat down this morning to compare notes. If you’ve never listened to Liftoff, this is a great episode to check out.
CrashPlan Exits Consumer Market »
Code42, the leader in cloud-based endpoint data protection and recovery, announced today that it will focus exclusively on businesses and organizations large and small and will discontinue its offering for personal consumer backup. The small business, education and enterprise markets have proven to be significant growth areas for the company.
Code42 will honor all existing CrashPlan for Home subscriptions, and will wind down support of CrashPlan for Home on Oct. 22, 2018. Its consumer customers will be offered extended subscriptions and special discounts throughout the transition, as well as dedicated support, resources and choices to transition to a new backup solution. To do this, Code42 selected Carbonite as its exclusive referral partner for CrashPlan for Home customers, offering a seamless transition path for those looking for personal backup.
If you’re a CrashPlan customer, check out Backblaze. It’s a million miles better than Carbonite, at least on macOS. I’ve been really happy with them for years after having nothing but problems with the CrashPlan app for Mac.
Upgrade #155: Apple Hardware Draft »
On this week’s episode of Upgrade, I joined Alex Cox and John Siracusa in a draft. It was supposed to be our favorite Apple hardware, but I think it became “Apple hardware we think is important.” Either way, it was a ton of fun, and I really think you will enjoy it.
Zapier Announces Alfred Integration »
I’ve had CMD+Space mapped to Alfred for as long as I can remember. It’s one of those things that makes my computer feel broken if it isn’t running.
Over the last six months, Zapier has become that way too, at least on the web. I have it slinging data into spreadsheets and Todoist on a daily basis.
And now they can talk to each other. I haven’t played a ton with this yet, but the possibilities are exciting. Now using my Mac’s keyboard, I can feed data into a workflow, taking advantage of the 750 apps that Zapier interfaces with. Big thumbs-up from me.
Connected #156: Planet of the Podcasts »
I missed Connected this week, but the episode is a good one:
Myke and Federico discuss Apple’s supposed budget for original content, reviews of the Essential Phone, Apple’s iOS 11 marketing videos, and Federico’s unexpected trip to the Genius Bar.
My thanks to our sponsors:
- TextExpander, from Smile: Communicate smarter with TextExpander
- Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.
- Incapsula: Secure and accelerate your website. Connected listeners get one month free.
RSS Sponsor: Balance for Mac »
Balance is a powerful menubar app for your money built by a team from Apple, Stripe and Ethereum. It was featured in the U.S. Mac App Store when it launched in February.
Securely connect to your accounts
Balance uses Plaid.com, the best API for securely accessing your financial data. It gives the app a read-only token to access your account history.
Quickly check your balances
With one click or keyboard shortcut you can pop open Balance and check all of your accounts. Lock the app with a password or TouchID.
Speedily search through your transactions
As a native app with local data storage, Balance is super fast. Quickly search through all of your downloaded transactions with powerful filters.
Powerful notification engine
Balance is Hazel for money. You can create rules to trigger useful notifications to help you stay on top of your finances.
One subscription, coming to all of Apple’s platforms
The basic plan starts at $4.99 / month. Balance is launching on iOS and watchOS later this year, and is also building a full windowed app for macOS. Early customers will get access to betas for all of these.
Check out Balance on the U.S. Mac App Store today. International support is planned for later this year.
Four Decades of Voyager »
Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society:
Sunday, August 20 marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 2. Tuesday, September 5, will be the 40th anniversary for Voyager 1. Round anniversaries like these have no special significance for spacecraft that have departed Earth’s orbit; the significance is for those of us that the spaceships left behind on a planet that still revolves around the Sun once a year.
The Voyager program is nuts. For a nice recap, check out episode 44 of Liftoff.
iTunes U Moving to Apple Podcasts »
According to Apple’s announcement and support pages, it will automatically convert iTunes U Collections to podcasts in September and eliminate the iTunes U section of iTunes on macOS. That means there will no longer be a way to download iTunes U course materials on a Mac. The change also means that the iTunes U catalog will only include courses and will only be accessible from an iOS device.
Download #17: Privacy and Coupons »
This week on Download, I sat in for Jason Snell to talk with Alex Cox and Mikah Sargent about the pros and cons of live-streaming news as it happens, insurance companies are offering discounts for data and whatever is happening with Facebook Marketplace.
My thanks to our sponsors:
- Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.
- Mack Weldon: Smart underwear for smart guys. Get 20% off with the code DOWNLOAD.
Tim Cook Comments on Charlottesville »
What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country. Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations. History has taught us this time and time again, both in the United States and countries around the world.
We must not witness or permit such hate and bigotry in our country, and we must be unequivocal about it. This is not about the left or the right, conservative or liberal. It is about human decency and morality. I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans.
Regardless of your political views, we must all stand together on this one point — that we are all equal. As a company, through our actions, our products and our voice, we will always work to ensure that everyone is treated equally and with respect.
Well said.
Cook announced the company will be making $1 million donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League. Additionally, Apple will match employee donations to those organizations two-to-one until the end of next month.