This week on Mac Power Users, I got the chance to catch up with one of the folks I’ve known the longest online:
Shawn Blanc left his job back in 2011 to become a full-time writer. Twelve years later, he’s the mastermind behind sites like The Focus Course and The Sweet Setup and more. Stephen and David ask him about that journey and how he’s grown his operation from a solo venture to a team running multiple projects.
The Weather Machine is a new unified API for weather forecast data. If you need to build weather info into your app, this service will save you a ton of time and complexity.
You’ll get a single modern interface for the best data providers on Earth. You can write just one integration with modern REST or GraphQL endpoints, and get highly accurate global forecasts from The Weather Company, AccuWeather, AerisWeather and many other sources.
While Apple still has many kinks to work out with the device —involving hardware, software and services, as well as how it will be marketed and sold — the company is banking on the product as its hot new introduction for this year.
… what’s ready at this point, then?
I quit covering these things years ago, but this report has the potential to be very spicy. Usually, Q1 is Apple’s best, as it covers the holiday season, but recent supply and production issues are expected to take a big bite out of the company’s earnings.
I recently sold my Pro Display XDR and moved to a pair of Studio Displays.
The Studio Display is pretty great, especially with the optional height-adjustable stand. I didn’t use any of the high-end features of the XDR, and after just a few weeks, I’ve fallen in love with this setup, minus some cables that still need tidying:
As the Studio Display comes with a better-than-expected set of internal speakers, this has marked the retirement of the pair of SoundSticks that I’ve been using as my speakers basically forever. As one of them had hot glue holding it together, it felt like it was time.
Last week, I was putting things together for an upcoming episode of Mac Power Users1 and came across a few old posts in which I shared my Apple setups. I thought it would be fun to put them all in one place:
If you want a much more updated accounting of things, check out my Gear & Studio page.
It’s that time again on Connected:
2022 is over, and there are picks to be scored. After grading their predictions for the year, Stephen, Myke and Federico amend some rules and put their flags in the ground for 2023.
If your Mac supports it, you can use Gigabit Ethernet, which requires a special Gigabit Ethernet cable.
If you don’t have a Gigabit Ethernet cable, you can still connect to a Gigabit Ethernet network by adjusting the Ethernet speed of your computer.
Amazingly, the ability to manually set network speed is still present in macOS Ventura.
It’s hard to believe it is January again. The new year means I get to put another bundle of used Field Notes on my shelf:
Long time readers — and viewers — will know that I’ve done this for over a decade, but I carry a notebook with me just about all the time. Their contents range widely and I can’t imagine life without them.
Flipping through my 2022 notebooks, I spotted everything from Podcastathon planning and meeting notes to questions for my therapist and grocery lists. When one gets filled up, I scan it, toss the PDF on Dropbox and put the notebook on the shelf.
It’s a big start to the new year on Mac Power Users:
It’s not every day that Apple releases a new productivity app, but with iOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1, the company launched Freeform, an infinite canvas app for sketching, organizing and sharing information. David and Stephen have been using it extensively and break it all down this week.
We did all of out show prep in Freeform itself:
Dark Sky’s features have been integrated into Apple Weather. Apple Weather offers hyperlocal forecasts for your current location, including next-hour precipitation, hourly forecasts for the next 10 days, high-resolution radar, and notifications.
Apple Weather is available on devices running iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura. If you’re new to Apple Weather, here are some tips to get started.
Joe Rossignol with a reminder about Dark Sky:
Apple says it will be shutting down Dark Sky on January 1, 2023. The popular weather app was already removed from the App Store in September and it will stop functioning for existing users starting tomorrow.
The iOS 16 Weather app has a lot of great features in it, but I’m still Team Carrot all the way.