Each year, I write a gift guide here on 512 Pixels for nerds like me.
(Mom, if you’re reading this, any of these items would make a great gift…)
- AirPods case cover that looks like the U2 iPod - $11.99 on Amazon
- Satechi Type-C Aluminum Stand & Hub for Mac mini - $79.99
- Vintage Apple LISA enamel pin - $100 on eBay
- Any of the NASA x Vans shoes, in the correct size - eBay 1
- Gold Apple Watch, for collection purposes - $8,000 on eBay
- Nicely-equipped Mac Pro, whenever they ship, coupled with a Pro Display XDR, complete with stand and that matte finish.
- Rivian R1T electric pickup truck - Preorders open for $1,000
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The windbreaker is also very good. ↩︎
Stuff I Wanted to Link to This Week But Ran Out of Time to Do So, So Here I Am, With a Bunch of Links to Share on a Friday Evening
In no particular order:
- Jacob Kastrenakes at The Verge, writing about Syniverse, which is a company AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint use to route SMS messages to customers. This story is bonkers, and the power this company has is a bit startling, as no one has ever heard of them.
- Guilherme Rambo was locked out of his Apple developer account for months. He went public, and after his post was shared on Daring Fireball and Six Colors, Apple suddenly fixed his account. Casey had the best take.
- Over on Bloomberg, Mark Gurman has reported on big changes Apple is making in the ramp up to iOS 14 and macOS 10.16 next year. If the situation was as chaotic as it sounds in this article, it’s amazing iOS 13 shipped at all, probably.
- Tim Cook looks like he had a bad week, but he didn’t have to have a bad week but it’s 2019 and that’s where things are, I guess.
- David Sparks tried out the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, and he seems to like it. Likewise, I was impressed when I checked it out at the Apple Store, but I’m typing this on the 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro I bought earlier this year.
- Tesla has unveiled its upcoming Cybertruck. I think it is ugly as hell, and the company hasn’t made a great pitch to traditional truck buyers, in my opinion as a pickup owner who very often uses it as an actual truck. I think they’ve mostly designed a pointy status symbol that’s part Pontiac Aztek, part Lamborghini LM002. Don’t @ me, Elon Bros.
- Apple is now selling a Smart Battery Case for the iPhones 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. I picked one up and am glad to have it back in my life for travel days. This MacRumors hands-on post is worth a look.
- Photoshop for iPad should get much better soon.
Upgrading My Truck for CarPlay
Last year, I bought a slightly-used Toyota Tacoma, fulfilling my destiny as a pickup owner in the southern United States. I instantly fell in love with it, but the Toyota-installed radio was garbage, so I started thinking about changing it out with something that would give me CarPlay.
My Tacoma is a 2015, so replacing the head unit wasn’t too bad. On most newer cars, the radio is so integrated into the dash and other controls, it’s just about impossible to swap it out. It, did, however, require quite a bit of wiring on my part:
Myke & I Play Oregon Trail & Super Munchers⇢
Last week, Myke and I streamed a couple of games from my childhood as part of our fundraiser for St. Jude:
It was a really fun way to raise several thousand dollars.
Speaking of that… we are well over our original $75,000 goal, but want to keep pushing. Don’t miss our live video Podcastathon on Friday, from 4-10 PM Eastern.
The Periodic Table⇢
This month’s Bloomberg Businessweek is dedicated — in its entirety — to the periodic table, which turns 150 this year. It’s really something. via Kottke
‘How an Expert Stays Focused’⇢
David Sparks has been featured in the Mac App Store:
In the feature, David shares some of the Mac apps he depends on throughout his busy day.
Pre-Order the General Magic Documentary⇢
Well, that $12.99 jumped out of my pocket pretty quickly.
Samsung Galaxy Fold Screens Are Already Failing⇢
I find it pretty off-putting when Apple fans bash Samsung just for being Samsung, but damn.
MacStories Turns 10⇢
This week, MacStories turns ten years old. Federico and the MacStories crew will be celebrating this week. He had kicked the week off with an excellent post. I don’t want to blockquote any of it; you just need to go read it.
On Time Tracking⇢
I went into 2019 with a lot of plates in the air, and a lot of change, having joined Mac Power Users. My schedule felt chaotic, so I restarted time tracking, something I haven’t done since 2015 when I first went independent with Relay FM.
My app of choice for this has been Toggl, but the tools aren’t the point; knowing how your time is spent is.
My friend Quinn Rose has been going though something similar, as she recently wrote:
iOS 12.2 Beta 2 Brings AT&T 5G E⇢
After rolling out the new label on some Android phones, it looks like the iPhone is next in line. Here’s Juli Clover at MacRumors:
Devices in certain areas are displaying a “5G E” icon instead of LTE, but as the “E” suggests, this is not real 5G. No iPhone that exists right now is capable of connecting to a 5G network, nor is AT&T’s network 5G at this time.
The “E” stands for Evolution, a new brand name AT&T is using for some parts of its LTE network. According to AT&T, 5G Evolution reaches a peak theoretical wireless speed of 400Mb/s, which does not match 5G data transfer speeds and is in fact the same as traditional LTE speeds.