Kickstarter Update: September 26 ⇢

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Hello! It’s been a busy month around here with Relay FM’s annual fundraiser for St. Jude, but that is winding down this week, and I’m back in calendar land!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve made some significant progress:

  • The stickers have been all packed! Big thanks to Myke and Adina for helping while they were in Memphis a couple of weeks ago.
  • The 4×6 prints are here, and packing of those is underway now.
  • I am receiving the final calendar proof from the printer today and should give them the green light for production in the coming days!

Kickstarter Stickers

As mentioned in a previous update, I am using BackerKit to handle fulfillment and additional orders. Currently, there are 71 of you who have not filled out your survey. You should have a PM from me on Kickstarter with a link. If you haven’t received a link to your survey, please get in touch.

If you missed the Kickstarter or know someone who did, pre-orders can be placed online now!

“Built for the Outdoors” ⇢

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Apple:

The most rugged and capable Apple Watch yet, Apple Watch Ultra can provide the information you need during a hike, run, or dive; make interactions easy with a single press of the Action button; help maintain your night vision when you’re active after hours; and emit a loud pulsing sound if you need help.

I haven’t needed any of the EXTREME features yet, but the Apple Watch Ultra marks the first time in a long time where people have come to ask me “Is that the new one?” while pointing at an Apple product in my possession.

Sponsor: 20 Years of Great Software from Rogue Amoeba ⇢

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Since 2002, Rogue Amoeba has been making amazing audio apps for the Mac. Whether you’re a podcaster, musician, or just someone who listens to audio on their Mac, Rogue Amoeba can make your life better. Whatever your audio needs, it’s a good bet they have a tool to help you. And right now, for a very limited time, you can save 20% off any purchase.

Rogue Amoeba’s product line-up includes:

  • Audio Hijack: Record any audio you hear on your Mac, and so much more.

  • Loopback: Get ridiculously powerful audio routing to pass audio from one application to another, without needing cables or mixers.

  • SoundSource: It’s the sound control that should be built into macOS, with per-app volume and output control, audio effects on any audio, and fast audio device switching.

There’s also Airfoil (home audio streaming), Farrago (the Mac’s best soundboard app), Fission (fast and lossless audio editing), and Piezo (charmingly simple audio recording).

Free fully-featured trials are available for all these products, right from MacAudio.com. Better still, in celebration of 20 years in business, Rogue Amoeba is offering a very rare sale. If you buy before October, you’ll save 20% off every purchase from Rogue Amoeba.

You don’t need any coupon codes or special URLs, but act fast. Visit MacAudio.com before the end of September to save. You’ll be glad you did.

Bonus Kbase Article of the Week: Use the Depth app on Apple Watch Ultra ⇢

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Apple Support, or rather, Apple Legal:

Underwater activities are risky. The Depth app isn’t a dive computer and doesn’t provide decompression stop information, gas analysis, or other recreational scuba diving functionality. If you’re using Apple Watch Ultra where the failure of the device could lead to death, personal injury, or severe environmental damage, always use a secondary depth gauge and timer/watch. Before going on a dive, be sure your Apple Watch Ultra is free of cracks or other damage.

Snark aside, this does seem like a really cool feature. I’m no diver, but I’m looking forward to getting my Apple Watch Ultra tomorrow.

Kbase Article of the Week: Macintosh TV: Television Connection Tips ⇢

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Apple Support:

Basically, anything that can be attached to a regular TV can be attached to Macintosh TV. There are two ports for a video source: coaxial and RCA. Things that have an RCA plug can also be attached to the coaxial port with the proper adapter, and vice-versa. One restriction is that closed caption must come through the coaxial port.

In the TV Setup control panel, click on Channel Setup and select Cable (as opposed to Antenna for broadcast TV) as the source.

The CarPlay Settings Disconnect

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Like many of you, I spent part of my weekend setting up my new iPhone 14 Pro. For the last couple of years, I’ve used the direct transfer method, and it has yet to let me down. It took several hours, but when the transfer was done, my iPhone 14 Pro was identical to my outgoing 13 Pro.

Well, that’s not quite true, because 8 years into the CarPlay era, its settings still do not come over to a new phone during a migration. When I hopped in my truck on Monday, I had to take a few minutes to get everything back the way I want it.

To be fair, CarPlay doesn’t have that many settings. The primary options are what apps you’d like to see in your car, and what order they should be in. Past that, there are a few other settings, like options for the wallpaper and Siri suggestions.

I don’t understand why this has been carved out as an exception when it comes to migrating to a new iPhone. It’s a bit frustrating in the light of how good Apple has gotten at iOS migrations.

While we’re here, I’d also like to officially complain about CarPlay’s insistence in treating each car as their own unique butterfly. In addition to CarPlay in my truck, we have it in my wife’s minivan. iOS treats them as individual connections, each with their own settings. That means if I switch podcast apps or change a setting, and want things to be the same between the two cars I drive, I have to adjust things a second time.1 CarPlay should have an option to let the phone drive the experience, so things can be consistent across vehicles.

Back when CarPlay launched, it was pretty rare to come across it, so I can see why Apple opted to have each car an iPhone interacted with be unique, but today, just about every new car comes with it. It’s time to address some of the shortcomings and really make setting up and using CarPlay as polished as the rest of iOS.2

  1. I just realized that I’ll have to set CarPlay up from scratch on my new phone next time I get in the van. Sigh. ↩
  2. Especially if Apple wants CarPlay to take over the whole interior of a vehicle. Imagine upgrading your iPhone ten years from now, and your car forgetting where the speedometer is supposed to be. ↩

Rogue Amoeba Turns 20 ⇢

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Rogue Amoeba’s work has made the Mac a better platform for all sorts of people for two decades now. Here’s Paul Kafasis:

In 2022, Rogue Amoeba is going stronger than ever. Every day, our audio tools help countless Mac users create podcasts, enhance video calls, and so much more. Of course, most of our time is spent focusing on the future (including support for MacOS 13 (Ventura), coming very soon). But as the date of our twentieth anniversary approaches, it’s nice to celebrate, by taking a few minutes to review the past and reflect.

The screenshots of early versions of Audio Hijack are just glorious.