I haven’t had enough time to think about all the WWDC 2017 announcements yet — there were so many — so I’ll most likely voice my thoughts and perhaps even come to some conclusions on a future podcast episode, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some of my thoughts and worries.
After looking at a variety of options from Google Fonts — Open Sans, Source Sans Pro, and a few others — I decided to go back to the system font stack for a number of reasons. Performance is definitely my main metric, but the lack of interesting options on Google Fonts is another. I could use TypeKit or Cloud.typography, but Adobe decided not to include the former in their Creative Cloud Photography Plan and the latter is just too much for my needs (in terms of price too).
font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;
I believe I’m targeting every relevant platform. As far as I know, these are the current popular system font stacks in use:
WordPress: font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; Medium: font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; Ghost: font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; Github: font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", /* Emojis*/ "Segoe UI Emoji", /* Emojis*/ "Segoe UI Symbol"; /* Emojis*/
I went with Ghost. Let me know if you find any bugs or anything else out of the ordinary.
With all the changes I made today, I went ahead and added support for Brent Simmons’ and Manton Reece’s JSON Feed. You can find it in the footer of any page on Infinite Diaries or at https://infinitediaries.net/feed/json/. It’s simple enough for WordPress installations — all you need to do is to download the plugin from here and follow the instructions:
Adds a
/feed/jsonURL to your WordPress site. Drop the plugin folder in/wp-content/pluginsand activate under WP Admin → Plugins.
P.S. After seeing how Titillium Web renders a double slash (//), I’m going to need to look for a new font. Not a fan of its italics either.
We just finished watching the fifth season of House of Cards and quite frankly I’m astounded at how stupid Claire is. I apologise for being blunt, but she’s blind and petty over the last two seasons or so. Treasonous and greedy too. The show is great — I give it a big thumbs up — make no mistake, but I don’t understand how she’s so far off Frank’s game.
Cultured Code has finally released Things 3 for iOS and macOS — the next edition, rewritten from the ground up, of one of the most popular GTD systems for iPhone, iPad and Mac. I have been using it for the past day or so, hence I cannot make any solid statements at this point in time, but I was a long-time Things 1.0 user, right up until my tasks overwhelmed me and it was easier to delete the app than to actually complete everything that I had jotted down in it. I’m hoping that this time I’ll make it work — Cultured Code really seems to have the UI down pat and while not perfect, it fits my needs. I do have a few niggles that I will address in the future, but nothing truly major. Having said that, Things 3 is not cheap, but they do have a launch sale going currently — each app is 20% cheaper and there are a few days left to pull the trigger. I can’t say that I’m a fan of their pricing methods (I would prefer a single, universal iOS app, even if it cost more), but if you need a well thought out GTD system for a single user, give Things a try (there’s a trial of the Mac version of the app).
★ Things 3 – iPhone – $7.99 (20% launch sale) →
★ Things 3 – iPad – $15.99 (20% launch sale) →
★ Things 3 – Mac – $39.99 (20% launch sale) →
I backed Manton’s Reece Micro.blog Kickstarted campaign a few months ago. His goal was to get all of us to have more control over the content that we publish. This is especially important in times such as these when you’re never sure when someone will shut down or change their goals.
Wishing you a very Happy Easter, filled with love, peace, and happiness.
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I’m a bit disappointed with Apple’s announcements today, especially about the lack of any new iPads or substantial updates to the existing line-up. I was hoping for a 7.9″ iPad Pro and Display P3 on the 12.9″ model. The new 9.7″ iPad however…
I asked a few of my friends for some book recommendations recently, based on my favourite books. One of them gave me a surprising reply, which got me thinking…
The new AirPods perfectly encapsulate the magical experience that only Apple is capable of creating. Open the case in which they are stored1 — a pop-up appears on your iPhone, asking if you’d like to pair them. Do it again, anytime in the future — you can quickly check your battery status. Play some music on your iPad2 — hear it in your AirPods, despite not having paired them with that device. Mac? Same thing.
Today is the seventh day that I have spent with my MacBook Pro. I set it up as new and have been unable to get more than 6 hours of battery life when using it lightly (Safari, Tweetbot, and Ulysses). When using Photoshop and Lightroom, I cannot seem to pass the two-hour barrier. I do not find this acceptable and it seems that I am not the only one having problems.
A month or so ago, I wrote a post in desperation. It was about my iPhone 7 Plus — something was wrong with it, but Apple diagnostics did not unearth and problems, hence Support did not want to provide me with a replacement unit. I tried everything, from spending multiple hours on the phone with Apple Support, to escalating the issue, to calling Apple Support in other countries — all to no avail. I finally wrote a very long email to Tim Cook and Phil Schiller…
I’m finally fed up. My iPhone 7 Plus, because of it’s abysmal battery life, is now officially the worst phone I have ever owned. I’m an iPhone-user since 2008. Since then I’ve had the 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6, 6 Plus, 6S Plus, and now 7 Plus. I recall that I once had issues with battery life on one of the older models, but it wasn’t anything dramatic and a subsequent iOS update fixed the problem. This cannot be said about the 7 Plus. In addition, Apple Support is basically telling me that I’m on my own.
This question seems to of concern to a lot of people each year. The same question was asked when the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus debuted, and again a year later, during the 6S and 6S Plus launch. This year things are a bit different though — the specs of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are much closer to each other in two important regards. So which one should you choose?
While I can understand being inspired by something and putting your own spin on it, I hate blatant copying. It’s hard to judge the new Instagram Stories any other way — they took what Snapchat created and integrated it into Instagram. While it’s true that some things are a bit different, it’s still theft. The surprising part is that I haven’t started hating Instagram, which has always been the preferred way to share my photography with the world. There is one feature that I would like to see added to Instagram Stories (or Snapchat for that matter), which would make it a better storytelling tool than it currently is…
I’ve been thinking about what Apple showed us at this year’s WWDC 2016, and I can’t help but be satisfied with what they presented. iOS and macOS seems to have finally been accepted as mature operating systems, and I haven’t seem much criticism, nor any ‘Apple is doomed’ stories.
My apologies for not posting anything for the past week, but I’ve been completely focused on another project. We recently launched iMag Weekly — a Polish weekly web publication, which we have high hopes for. Its launch was very well received by our readers, which eased our anxiety a bit, but there was still a lot of work to be done.
I should be back to posting regularly on Monday.
I bought my first Kindle in 2011. It was the model with side mounted buttons to flip pages, a non-lit screen, and I loved it1. Not because it was a good device, but because it allowed me to carry so many of my books with me, read them fairly comfortably, and I wasn’t worried about destroying it — it was cheap enough that should anything happen to it, I would just go get a new one. Five years later, the latter has changed quite a bit.
I haven’t been posting much lately for a number of reasons, but the major one is that I now have a drone in my life, which means I’ve been spending a lot of time learning the ropes. And there are a lot of things to learn…
I ordered my Woven Nylon band soon after Apple’s March keynote. I spent a long time trying to decide which colour I should get, especially since I was just going to get one. Since I already have black, orange, and red Sport Bands, I wanted something in a different shade, and colourful — after all, summer’s around the corner.
Paweł Jońca is an amazingly talented illustrator. He creates one comic every month for our iMagazine (it’s in Polish), and usually publishes them online too. This month’s creation is absolutely epic, and he graciously published an English version of it — you can see it above, in the header image.
You can find more of Pawel’s work here or check out his prints on Etsy.
A lot of people are not pleased with the fact that Apple ‘only’ unveiled a new 4” iPhone, another iPad, and a few Apple Watch bands. Personally, I don’t have anything negative to say about the hardware, but what I really miss is the surprise. The leaks in the weeks before any Apple event in recent years are both a blessing and a curse — while I can’t stop myself from following the rumours, they totally spoil the event. It’s as if I’d gone to see ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ on opening night, knowing the whole plot. In 2012, during D10, Tim Cook promised Kara Swisher and Walk Mossberg to ‘double down on secrecy’ — I’m still waiting for him to deliver.
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I personally don’t use Launchpad, which is designed to make it easier to manage your apps iOS-style. Instead, I prefer to use Spotlight or the Dock to launch whatever I may need at the moment, but I know that some people swear by it. The default grid is a 7×5 array of icons, with the options of putting them in folders. This can be changed.
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It’s taken me 120 days to put my iPad Air 2 up for sale, which I used maybe two or three times since I acquired my iPad Pro — the former will find its way to a new family soon, while the latter should remain with me for quite some time.
