512 Pixels

Apple PR, 25 years ago today:

Johns Hopkins Hospital recently completed a 10 month pilot project to assess the utility of the Apple MessagePad in the hands of health care case managers. The hospital developed its own software called the PD Tracker that runs on the Newton platform. Physicians and case managers using the PD Tracker and the Apple MessagePad combination have found it to be an effective replacement for their current paper-based system.

The physicians and case managers who tested the product found that the Apple MessagePad improved the documentation process and assisted in achieving clinical outcomes while using a definable amount of hospital resources. The Johns Hopkins study also found that health care professionals appreciate the device’s many other features including minimal training requirements, size (i.e., fits in a lab jacket pocket), portability, and attractive price performance. Because of such features, the MessagePad was found to be superior over competing automated devices.

Kevin Johnson, M.D., M.S., Robert Bruce, B.S., and Beth Weiczorek, R.N., M.S.N., at Johns Hopkins hospital are enthusiastic about the benefits that the MessagePad offers. Johnson claims that, “The Apple MessagePad is portable and facilitates rapid data collection. We believe these are two essential elements of a successful clinical computing tool.”

The Apple MessagePad is being used with the PD Tracker program to allow case managers to enroll their patients on one or more critical pathways, use infrared technology to transfer patient information between case managers, document variances from their patients’ expected courses, and to document codified and free-text explanations for those variances. Variance information is uploaded onto a personal computer and automatically transferred into a relational database supporting ad hoc querying and report writing, which eliminates much of the paperwork demanding time, space, and other resources.

This week on Connected:

Stephen is bad at designing polls, Federico has some concerns over the latest iOS 14 betas and apparently Myke likes F1.

On Connected Pro, the guys tried talking me out of using Notion for a new project, and burger sauce was explained.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code CONNECTED to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2021, and can be used only once.
• ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.

Today, I’m launching a new podcast on The Incomparable with my friend Quinn Rose. Each month, we’ll be watching and re-capping a Muppet film.

Naturally, we’ll be going in chronological order, so up first is The Muppet Movie:

We’re searching for the Rainbow Connection in our first episode all about the 1979 film that turned a TV phenomena into a decades-long movie franchise: The Muppet Movie. Which jokes are still perfect in 2020, and which ones required a search engine to get? How does Kermit ride a bicycle? Where is the line between a frog on the menu and our good friend Kermit? We are able to answer some of these questions.

We’d love it if you would check this out. It’s going to be a fun one. Here’s how to subscribe:

• Apple Podcasts
• Overcast
• Pocketcasts
• Castro
• RSS

James R. Downing, president and CEO of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, writing at The Daily Memphian:

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, life across the country and around the world transformed nearly overnight. At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, we moved quickly to protect the health and safety of our employees, families, and the most vulnerable members of our community – our patients.

During the past four months, we have created one of the safest harbors against COVID-19 in the nation. Protection measures include a first-of-its-kind COVID-19 testing program for employees, patients and families; campus zoning; reduced personnel and visitor access; and heightened infection-control procedures. We need your help to ensure that this haven remains as secure as possible.

My request is simple: Please wear a mask whenever you are in public. In doing so, you can help save children fighting cancer and other deadly diseases.

You may think that wearing a mask is about keeping yourself, and to a degree it is, but it’s also to protect those you may come into contact with in public.

It’s pathetic that mask wearing became political, but we live in a pretty messed up time here in the United States. If you think putting a mask one is somehow infringing on your personal freedoms, shame on you. Our current circumstances require us all to make sacrifices for the good of everyone, and this is a pretty small ask.

David Sparks has some wisdom for all of us here.

A real blow to owners of the Performa 630, Performa 635, Performa 636, Performa 637, Performa 638, LC 630 and Quadra 630.

Micro.blog offers blog hosting, native macOS and iOS apps, and a welcoming community built around independent microblogs that can be used for short- and long-form writing. Start a microblog with your own domain name, then add photos, full-length posts, or even a shared blog for work or family.

They also think that podcasts and short videos could be valuable tools for teachers who are adapting their lesson plans for online classes. If you’re a teacher, email them for six months of blog and podcasting hosting at no charge.

You can learn more about Micro.blog here.

My favorite white noise app for iOS just got even better. Here’s the developer, Charlie Chapman:

Dark Noise 2 is the next major evolution of the best ambient noise app on iOS. Mixing sounds has been the most requested feature since launch and I’m excited to announce it’s finally here! A lot of work went in to maintaining the simplicity and tight iOS integration Dark Noise is known for and I’m very proud of the results. Along with iCloud syncing, new sounds, new icons, and loads of bug fixes this is the biggest update to date.

The sound mixing is very cool, and allows for tons of customization. During the beta cycle, my go-to has been heavy rain with a bit of brown noise mixed in:

Dark Noise is available on the App Store for $5.99, which is well worth it in my opinion.

This week on MPU:

The Apple Watch has undergone massive changes since its introduction in 2014. This week, Stephen and David review some of that history, then launch into a conversation of the platform’s strengths and weaknesses and how they use their Watches.

Don’t miss the longer-than-expected list of watchOS apps we’re using.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.
• TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Apple Support:

To communicate with a Wi-Fi network, a device must identify itself to the network using a unique network address called a media access control (MAC) address. If the device always uses the same Wi-Fi MAC address, network operators and other network observers can more easily relate that address to the device’s network activity and location over time. This allows a kind of user tracking or profiling, and it applies to all devices on all Wi-Fi networks.

To reduce this privacy risk, iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 include a feature that periodically changes the MAC address your device uses with each Wi-Fi network. This randomized MAC address is your device’s private Wi-Fi address for that network—until the next time it joins with a different address.

It is not super common to find a support document about upcoming software releases, let alone documents that include a link to the public beta website, but the contents of this article are really interesting beyond that.

Device privacy is obviously huge to Apple, but there are a lot of network registration systems that use a device’s MAC address to grant access or to tie a device to an account holder. While not necessarily the best practice, it remains a common enough practice that network and managed device admins will have to deal with this coming this fall.

My thanks to TextExpander for sponsoring 512 Pixels this week.

TextExpander for Teams makes it easy to manage and share snippets across your entire company. Get a free demo today by visiting textexpander.com/512pixels.

I’ve been running the iOS 14 beta for a little while on both my iPad Pro and iPhone 11 Pro, and wanted to highlight some of my favorite features:

• Widgets: I am loving having my calendar, weather and Shortcuts out on my home screen. This will only get better when third-party applications start adding support for them later this year. While they take up spots I used to have apps in, being able to ditch an app’s icon is a nice side effect.
• Folders in Shortcuts: One of the first things I did was organize my shortcuts into several folders. These folders can then be turned into widgets. Organization bliss!
• Changes in Mail: Nah, JK. Apple never adds features to Mail.
• Pinned threads in Messages: I love that this feature works both with individuals and groups, and as a bonus, they sync across devices, including Macs running Big Sur. My only wish is that the layout was a little more dense; I’d like to have four across, not just three.
• Compact UI elements: No phone call can take over the screen now!