Month: October 2022

Sponsor: Unite 4 for macOS ⇢

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Unite 4 for macOS allows you to turn any website into an app on your Mac. Using a lightweight, WebKit powered browser as a backend, you can easily create isolated, customizable apps from any site.

Unite 4 includes dozens of new features, including support for native notifications, new customization options, and much more. Unite apps also serve as a great alternative for resource hogging Electron apps or half-baked Catalyst apps.

Some examples of apps you could create in mere minutes with Unite:

  • A Gmail web client that behaves like a native mail client.
  • A status bar app for Apple Music or Overcast
  • An isolated workspace for apps that may track you like Facebook
  • A Google Meet app that works efficiently without using Chrome
  • A fully featured Instagram app that has a resizable window
  • A Robinhood, Figma, or Roam Research app for your desktop.

The newly launched Unite 4.2 makes the experience even better, with built-in password management, fully-featured status bar apps, and much more.

512 Pixels readers get 20% off this week when you purchase Unite 4 at bzgapps.com/unite512 or when you use the promo code ‘512Pixels’ at checkout.

You can also try Unite for 14 days absolutely free or use it as part of your subscription if you’re a Setapp subscriber!

‘It Felt Like a Funeral’ ⇢

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William Shatner, in his new book, writing about his trip with Blue Origin:

I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna … things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.

Weatherscan Shutting Down ⇢

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Benj Edwards, writing at Ars:

In the early 2000s, Americans who wanted to catch the local weather forecast at any time might turn on their TV and switch over to Weatherscan, a 24-hour computer-controlled weather forecast channel with a relaxing smooth jazz soundtrack. After 23 years, The Weather Channel announced that Weatherscan will be shutting down permanently on or before December 9. But a group of die-hard fans will not let it go quietly into the night.

ThinkPad at 30 ⇢

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Tim Bajarin, writing at Forbes:

In 1988, the father of the ThinkPad, Arimasa Naitoh, a Lenovo Fellow located in Japan, received a call about the need to spearhead a new portable computing venture in IBM’s research center in Yokohama, Japan. At the time, he was based in White Plains, NY but moved back to Japan to develop what has become the iconic ThinkPad line of portable computers.

I got to watch the development of the ThinkPad from the beginning. Mr Naitoh’s leadership, assisted by David Hill, who was instrumental in creating the unique ThinkPad design, made IBM at that time one of the most important portable computer companies in the market.

I may be a Mac guy, but I won’t lie, I’ve always loved ThinkPads.

Kbase Article of the Week: Precursors to the Synthesizer ⇢

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Today, we have a bit of a history lesson via Apple Support:

The earliest seeds of modern electronic synthesizers began in the twilight years of the 19th century. In 1897, an American inventor named Thaddeus Cahill was issued a patent to protect the principle behind an instrument known as the Telharmonium, or Dynamophone. Weighing in at 200 tons, this mammoth electronic instrument was driven by 12 steam-powered electromagnetic generators. It was played in real time using velocity-sensitive keys and, amazingly, was able to generate several different sounds simultaneously. The Telharmonium was presented to the public in a series of “concerts” held in 1906. Christened “Telharmony,” this music was piped into the public telephone network, because no public address systems were available at the time.

It goes on from there, with four more pages of content for on the subject, all clearly written by someone passionate about synthesizers.

$706,397.10

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We just closed Relay FM’s annual St. Jude campaign, raising $706,397.10 for the life-saving work of St. Jude. This is an all-time high for our campaign, topping last year’s total of $701,220.26.

Thank you all. This means the world to me, my family and all of Relay FM.

Sponsor: Backblaze ⇢

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Everyone knows that they should be backing up their computer, and Backblaze is an easy and secure way to back up docs, music, photos, videos, drawings, projects — all of your data. Files can be accessed via the mobile Backblaze app on iOS and Android, as we as Backblaze’s excellent website. If you experience a drive failure, Backblaze lets you download your files, or you can restore via mail, with a hard drive full of your data gets shipped to your door.

They’re good at this; Backblaze has restored 55 billion files for their customers. And they have nearly two exabytes of data storage under management and
counting — that’s almost 2,000,000,000 gigabytes.

You can download a free, fully-featured trial at backblaze.com/512pixels. Unlimited computer backup for Macs and PCs starts at just $7/month. Backblaze is a lot of peace of mind for such a low cost.