The One Where I Announce I’m Joining Mac Power Users

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When I first started listening to podcasts, one of the first shows I subscribed to was Mac Power Users. Over the years, I’ve learned a ton from David and Katie. There are many parts of my daily computing workflow that I first heard about on MPU.

In 2015, MPU joined Relay FM. In our announcement, I wrote:

I’ve listened to Apple podcasts for a long time, and with over 250 episodes published, Mac Power Users has been a constant listen of mine for years.

Mac Power Users isn’t just a podcast; it’s an institution. The guest list is impressive, with greats like Rod Roddenberry, Merlin Mann, Aisha Tyler and David Allen making appearances.

On this week’s episode, Katie announced that she is stepping away from the podcast almost ten years after the first episode. I will genuinely miss hearing her back and forth with David, her passion for technology and her uncanny ability to explain complex topics with ease.

Katie is leaving big shoes to fill, and it’s why I was deeply humbled when David asked me to step in as his new cohost. I am beyond thrilled to announce that I will be taking up the mantle on Mac Power Users starting in January.

Before I became a full-time podcaster, I had a lengthy Mac-centered IT career, and I love the platform. I think it has a long, bright future.

That’s not to say I’m not an iOS user as well. While I am not all-in on the iPad like the other guys on Connected, I am enthusiastic about the future of work on iOS.

It’s a great time to be an Apple nerd.1

David and I have been hard at work planning our first episodes. If you are a MPU listener, let me put your mind at ease: we aren’t radically changing what has made the show so good for so long. We will still be diving deep into topics, comparing apps, interviewing guests and getting our nerd on about all sorts of topics.

If you don’t subscribe to Mac Power Users, I’d encourage you to check it out. It’s pretty different from my other shows, and a challenge I look forward to meeting each and every week.

  1. Unless your fingers are crossed for better gaming on tvOS. ↩

Six Minutes of Terror ⇢

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Tomorrow’s a big day for space nerds. NASA will be landing its newest remote robotic outpost on Mars, as William Hardwood writes:

After a six-month voyage from Earth, NASA’s InSight Mars lander, streaking through space at at some 12,300 mph, will slam into the thin martian atmosphere Monday afternoon to begin a nail-biting six-and-a-half-minute descent to the surface, kicking off a billion-dollar mission to probe the red planet’s hidden interior.

If it makes it to the surface safely, InSight will help us understand the internal structure of Mars, giving us new … insight … into how our own world was formed.

Update: InSight is safe and sound on the Martian surface.

Connected #219: Your Best Friend, Base64 ⇢

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This week on Connected:

Stephen formalizes a new show segment, Federico is making magic in Shortcuts and Myke has thoughts about picture frames.

My thanks to our sponsors:

  • Pingdom: Start monitoring your websites and servers today. Use offer code CONNECTED to get 30% off.
  • Hover: Show the world what you’re passionate about with 10% off your first purchase
  • Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code CONNECTED at checkout for 10% off.

The 512 Pixels Holiday Gift Guide for People Like Me

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I’m happy to present the 2018 edition of the 512 Pixels Holiday Gift Guide for People Like Me:

  1. Maybe next year! ↩

On Custom-Ordered ARM Macs ⇢

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Jason Snell, writing at Macworld:

Looking a bit further into the future, if Apple starts building Macs with ARM processors, is it going to want to offer different classes of processors within those models? On iOS, Apple has steadfastly refused to do this. Every model-year of a given model is generally powered by the same processor across the board.

It’s conceivable that Apple might roll out a new ARM processor across several Macs and have each one have a different clock speed or number of cores—but even then, I have a hard time imagining that Apple will let customers configure what processor goes in what Mac when they order them. It seems more likely that Apple will offer what it feels is the right processor configuration for a model—and if you want a more powerful processor, your option will be to buy the next model up.

I 100 percent think it will be the case that ARM Macs will eschew customizable CPU options.

A Bad Take ⇢

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I am technically on vacation this week, but I felt like I had to talk about this:

Since the new iPads were announced a couple of weeks ago, there has been a lot of talk about the device and its place in the world.

As we spoke about on Connected last week, the iPad can be a computer replacement for many, many people. Then, there are those of us who can’t quite do all of our work on one. That should be expected any time we consider a young platform. When the Mac came out, there were some users who could move to it right away, and others who needed to keep an Apple II on their desk for many additional years as the Mac evolved and matured.

Gartenberg’s take is one I’ve seen before, and it would be as if someone in the late 80s decided that Mac OS was a failed expirement, and Apple needed to revert back to its older system software if the Macintosh were to ever take off.

He is right that Apple should work harder to separate the iPad from the iPhone in ways that make sense. I agree the multitasking system Apple first shipped in iOS 9 need work. I find it tedious at times and annoying at others.

However, that is far from a good enough reason to break the bonds between the iPhone and iPad. iOS is — by far — Apple’s most successful operating system. Ever. The iPad benefits from running the same software as the iPhone. The iPad has access to a massive library of third-party software, and Apple gives developers the tools to ensure a single application can run across everything from the iPhone SE up to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Moreover, having the iPad and iPhone run the same OS is beneficial for Apple as well. The company already seems to struggle keeping all its platforms moving forward consistently; adding a new OS for the iPad would only make that worse.

Apple has shown, with iOS 9 and iOS 11 specifically, that it can break the iPad away from the iPhone in meaningful ways when it makes sense. They need to keep at that work, improving the iPad user experience, but saying it needs a different OS than the iPhone is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater.