512 Pixels

On this episode of Flashback, my podcast with Quinn Nelson:

Electric cars may seem like a 21st century phenomenon, but they are far from modern invention. Along the winding path to the present was the GM EV1, the first purpose-designed electric vehicle. It went on sale in 1996, but within a decade, General Motors had recalled and crushed almost all of them.

I mean, just look at this thing! It was the future, until GM got all murdery about things:

You may think that a defunct GM car from the 90s is a weird topic for a podcast mostly about tech, but the EV1 introduced many, many concepts we take for granted in today’s cars.

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• TextExpander, from Smile: Unlock your productivity with TextExpander. Get 20% off with your first year.
• Backblaze: Unlimited cloud backup for Macs and PCs for just $6/month.

This week on the show:

Federico gives a status report about life in Italy, then Stephen tries to cheer people up by talking about the HomePod. After that fails, Myke tells a story and the gang wade through a sea of iOS 14 rumors, including stories on iMessage, PencilKit, iOS wallpaper apps and more.

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• 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.
• Direct Mail: Create and send great looking email newsletters with Direct Mail, an easy-to-use email marketing app designed exclusively for the Mac.
• Indeed: Post your job today and get a free sponsored job upgrade.

In these uncertain days, Emojipedia is showing up and doing the work.

This week on Liftoff:

Mars 2020 has a name, Voyager 2 can’t call home and SpaceX is doing SpaceX things. Then, results from the initial Starliner investigation and a look at VIPER.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code LIFTOFF at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

This time, on the 100th episode of Ungeniused:

Beanie Babies may be cute, floppy toys, but they became one of the Internet’s first fads, creating a mania for collectors and billions in profits for a reclusive business owner.

My thanks to our sponsor:

• 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 UNGENIUSED to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2021.

Apple Support:

Apple products are made with a variety of materials, and each product might have specific cleaning requirements which vary by the part you’re cleaning. To get started, here are some tips that apply to all products:

• Use only a soft, lint-free cloth. Avoid abrasive cloths, towels, paper towels, and similar items that might cause damage.
• Unplug all external power sources, devices, and cables.
• Keep liquids away from the product.
• Don’t get moisture into any openings.
• Don’t use aerosol sprays, solvents, or abrasives.
• Don’t spray cleaners directly onto the item.

Don’t miss the separate article about how to clean your iPhone.

The crews at 9to5Mac and MacRumors have published a wide range of iOS 14 rumors this week. While we still don’t know if WWDC will take place in San Jose as normal, I think we’re getting a pretty good look at some of the things Apple is hoping to announce this summer.

After the return of NetNewsWire to the Mac, Brent Simmons and gang have re-released NetNewsWire for iOS and iPadOS, as he writes on the NNW blog:

Just as the Mac version looks like a Mac app, this is very much an iOS app. It supports Dark Mode, context menus, multiple windows, Siri Shortcuts, and other iOS features.

Other features include searching, starred items, Today and All Unread smart feeds, Reader view, multiple accounts, hiding read articles and feeds, background refreshing, and more.

The app is designed to be stable and fast. (But note that an initial sync might take a while because there’s a lot of data to download.)

Currently, it sync with Feedly and my RSS backend of choice, Feedbin. The app is super clean, supports a wide range of keyboard shortcuts on the iPad, and is free. Be sure to check out John Voorhees’ full review over on MacStories.

Are you a coffee lover? You might already know that every little detail in the process of making a cup of coffee impacts the result. So to create the perfect cup of coffee every time, you need to make sure you got your coffee ritual right.

Freshness is key here. You want to get a fully flavor-filled experience with each sip. So how do you produce the freshest cup of coffee? Well, not surprisingly, the first thing you need to do is get fresh ground coffee beans. But beans are hard, very hard! So you need a coffee grinder that provides you with consistent coffee grinds. Grinding your coffee just before you brew it ensures a rich infusion of flavor and aroma.

Gear.Coffee brings to you high-quality Kinu manual coffee grinders that aid in releasing 100% of the exquisite flavor of specialty coffee. Kinu Grinders represent German engineering at work featuring precision and reliability. Check them out!

This week on Mac Power Users:

It’s feedback time! David celebrates his 5th year of being independent, while Stephen has settled on an application to manage his tech history research. Then, more on Do Not Disturb and a whole bunch of listener questions.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Kensington: The Professionals Choice. Find the right docking solutions for your organization today.
• Setapp, from Macpaw: More than 170 powerful apps for your Mac. Try it free for a week.
• Indeed: Post your job today and get a free sponsored job upgrade.
• 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.

Apple:

Apple has determined that, under certain circumstances, the screen on a limited number of iPad Air (3rd generation) devices may go blank permanently. A brief flicker or flash may appear before the screen goes blank.

Affected devices were manufactured between March 2019 and October 2019. Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will service eligible devices, free of charge.

My thanks to Sundial for sponsoring the site this week. It provides essential sun and moon data, including a one-of-a-kind display of the sun and moon’s rise/set cycles, and be used to create alerts for 24 solar/lunar events including sunset, dusk, moonrise and full moon.