I’m very happy with this particular episode of the podcast:
Neil Jhaveri founded Mimestream, a macOS email app for Gmail users.
Stephen and David talk to Neil about his time at Apple, Mimestream’s roadmap (including an iOS version and supporting non-Google services), and email’s place in today’s world.
This weekend, my Mastodon and Thread timelines exploded with people being locked out of their Apple IDs. While it didn’t happen to me, it did to Michael Tsai:
I had another instance of my Apple ID mysteriously being locked. First, my iPhone wanted me to enter the password again, which I thought was the “normal” thing it has done every few months, almost since I got it. But after doing so it said that my account was locked.
I spent the week with ALSAC — the fundraising organization at St. Jude — with half a dozen Relay folks and a few hundred other content creators who are using their platforms for fundraising.
(Most of the events were at the Peabody Hotel here in Memphis, so there were some ducks hanging around as well.)
Those creators ranged from fitness and health to beauty and fashion to gamers and us podcasters. We spent time hearing from folks at St. Jude about the hospital’s mission and the tools it is developing to enable communities to fundraise in new and existing ways.
When Apple introduced Fusion Drives back in late 2012, they were an attractive option for many iMacs and Mac minis. At a time when SSDs of 1 TB and greater size were expensive, the Fusion Drive seemed to offer the best of both worlds, with a capacious hard disk and a smaller but much faster SSD working in tandem. Since Apple discontinued the iMac 21.5-inch 2019 in April 2021, no Mac has offered a Fusion Drive option, and most significantly they’ve never been available in any model with a T2 or Apple silicon chip. This article considers whether the Fusion Drive was such a good idea, and why they have gone.
I recently noticed a new folder in the root level of my Home directory, named ai_overlay_tmp:
In preparation for a Mac Power Users episode, I’ve been playing with a bunch of AI software, and I assumed something I downloaded generated this folder. I deleted it, just to be frustrated when the folder reappeared on its own.
Adding a new folder to the Home directory is a Cardinal Sin of Mac Programming, so I was on a mission to root out the cause. After some searching online, it seems that this folder was generated by Logi Options+, the software that came with my mouse, the Logitech MX Master 3S. 1
Robert Lea, writing about our far-flung friend:
NASA’s interstellar explorer Voyager 1 is finally communicating with ground control in an understandable way again. On Saturday (April 20), Voyager 1 updated ground control about its health status for the first time in 5 months. While the Voyager 1 spacecraft still isn’t sending valid science data back to Earth, it is now returning usable information about the health and operating status of its onboard engineering systems.
Adam Engst, writing at TidBITS:
This one is way too close to home. News started to spread this morning on the MacAdmins Slack, Rich Trouton’s Der Flounder blog, and Tom Bridge’s site about how our friend and Take Control author Charles Edge died suddenly and unexpectedly on 19 April 2024.
I spoke to Tom and Charles a couple of times over the years about their podcast, and he had a way of explaining technical details that few do. Charles was a giant in the Mac Admin community, and he will be missed.
On this feedback episode, the guys catch up on listener feedback, share some unique uses for Freeform, discuss some good Apple Watch apps, and talk about the Mac’s startup sound.
Hartley Charlton, writing at MacRumors:
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as “Kosutami.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future.
As he points out, Kosutami has published correct leaks on FineWoven for months. I suspect that Apple is going to be changing direction yet again when it comes to its accessories.
Earlier today, David and I shipped version 6.2 of Widgetsmith. This release is for both iOS and visionOS, and packs some cool goodies:
Widgetsmith 6.2 brings a brand-new widget type: Background Sounds!
Beyond the standard White and Brown Noises, this release includes sounds from nature, including various intensities of rain, forest sounds for both daytime and nighttime and waves at the beach. These sounds are high quality and uncompressed, creating seamless loops for a rich soundscape. Create an immersive ambiance right from your home screen with the following sounds. All users have access to White Noise and Stream.
This week’s episode of Connected got weird:
The guys try AltStore and the Delta game emulator live on the show before discussing reviews of the Humane AI Pin and the response to those reviews. Then they judge their picks in the first-ever scoring of the EUies.
