Day One 2 released ⇢

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Day One 2 is now out as a new, paid upgrade to the excellent Mac and iOS journaling app. The new version supports multiple photos per journal entry, multiple journals and a more powerful filter system.

I’ve been using the betas for a while, and have been impressed. Day One has been a constant on my iPhone’s homescreen for years, and I’m happy to pay again for an app that means so much to me.

Here’s a bit from Jake Underwood’s review at MacStories:

Day One 2 has all the possibilities of bringing home as many awards as its successful predecessor. It’s a carefully crafted app that took what made the first iteration so loved while transitioning it to a new piece of software with useful and exciting changes. On any and all platforms, Day One 2 shines at being an example of what premium software feels like.

I couldn’t agree more.

The Mac app is currently $19.99 and the universal iOS app is $4.99. This is half-off for a week, so go download them and get to journaling those important moments.

The 20th Anniversary Mac

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The 20th Anniversary Mac is one of the most unique and unusual computers Apple has ever released.

When it went for sale in 1997 with a $7,500 price tag, it didn’t do amazingly well in the market. While only 11,600 were sold, each one was built to be special. The TAM doesn’t share the same startup chime or paint color as other Macs of its age, and the one-off ADB keyboard featured a leather palm rest and removable trackpad. The mouse was too common for users of this machine. Apple could even send someone to set up the entire system for you. Rumor has it that they would do so in a tuxedo.

The external unit was both a subwoofer and the power supply and attached to the head unit by a thick umbilical cable. The sub was part of the Bose-designed sound system. The cloth-covered speakers completed the system, which could be controlled via the buttons on either side of the vertically-oriented CD drive.

The 20th Anniversary Mac shipped with the ability play television and FM radio, and came with an infrared remote. Apple really pitched this as more than just a computer; it could be a complete entertainment system.

The 20th Anniversary Mac brought with it a vision for the future. Its built-in LCD was ground-breaking for desktop users used to CRTs. It was a computer that made a statement. Apple was saying that it valued design and could build something ready for the 21st century.

The TAM ended up having a short life. After a couple of steep price cuts, it was discontinued in March 1998. Even though it wasn’t a big hit, it was an important computer, and set to define many of the things we’ve come to expect from Apple desktops in the years since.

RSS Sponsorships for sale

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The best way to advertise on 512 Pixels is via RSS sponsorship. Exclusive for one week, sponsored posts come with a whole pile of benefits:

  • A sponsored link post on 512 Pixels that is seen by 12,500 RSS subscribers and 2,500 Twitter followers. These posts are published on Monday.
  • A thank-you tweet later in the week from my personal account, which has over 9,000 followers, as well as the site’s Twitter account.
  • A text link in the sidebar for the entirety of the week of your sponsorship.

Spots are $120 per week; availability is outlined below.

To book a sponsorship or ask any questions, please email me at stephen@hackett.fm.

Thoughts on the Smart Keyboard

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When I bought my iPad Pro, I spent about 15 minutes with the Smart Keyboard in an Apple Store. I wasn’t super impressed, and wrote off the accessory until recently, when I picked one up more or less on a whim.

My first impressions haven’t held up.

While the Smart Keyboard has dome switches under the keys that are similar to those found in the MacBook, the travel here is noticeably better than the notebook’s. I’d peg it somewhere in between the Magic Keyboard and the MacBook.

While the spacing between the keys seems too large at first, in practice, it’s not an issue. The entire keyboard is basically the width of every other Apple keyboard available these days; things aren’t all squished up like they are on many third-party keyboards available for smaller iPads.

All of this adds up to a good experience; I find it comfortable to type on, even in longer sessions. I’m more accurate and faster with it than while using the software keyboard.

That’s not to say everything’s perfect with the Smart Keyboard. It does add bulk to the iPad Pro when it’s folder up in the Smart Cover. Getting everything folded the right way can prove to be awkward; more than once I’ve have the keyboard flop down onto a table harder than I intended.

On the software side, iOS 9 just isn’t ready to be driven by a keyboard like OS X is. John Gruber covered this well:

This lack of keyboard support is prevalent system-wide. In Messages, if you start a new conversation and type the partial name of a contact, you can’t select from the list of matches using arrow keys or auto-complete the name you’ve partially typed using Tab. You’ve got to — you guessed it — reach up and touch the screen. You can use the arrow keys to select from a list of suggestions in the recipients fields in Mail, however, and arrow keys also work for selecting from the list of suggestions in the Safari location field.

I hope that Apple will address this in future versions of iOS. The iOS 9.3 beta seems to fix some issues, which is hopefully just the start.

All that said, if you can get used to reaching up and tapping the screen a good bit, using the Smart Keyboard is a much better experience than I first thought it would be.

RelayCon Atlanta: The Pen Addict Live 2016 ⇢

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Myke and Brad are doing a live show again this year:

The Atlanta Pen Show is scheduled for April 15th – 17th, 2016, and The Pen Addict posse is ready to take over once again! Like last year, we are asking for your help to get this done.

Thanks to your support, we were able to fly in Myke Hurley and Ana Reinert to record live with Brad Dowdy and film it for all to see. We plan on doing the same thing this year, this time with a live studio audience!

While I’m not a big pen guy, it was a blast to work on this last year and meet a lot of great people. I’m looking forward to returning to Atlanta in April to do it again.