Why Apple’s Sleep Score Works for Me

• Devon

For my entire life, sleep has been a struggle. My parents tell me that as a baby, I would lie in my crib at bedtime and just… stare. I wouldn’t cry; I wouldn’t close my eyes. I’d just lay there, awake, instead of resting like a normal person.

It hasn’t gotten much better from there. Naptime as a child rarely involved napping, usually ending with me finding some excuse to get out of bed early. Once I got old enough to set my own sleep schedule, I tended towards staying up later despite obligations that had me waking up to an alarm in the mornings. Even now, as an adult and a parent who appreciates the value of a good night’s rest, I’m still not the best at putting things to the side and going to bed – much less turning my brain off and actually resting well once I lay down.

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The Move to the Middle

• Devon

It’s official: I’m an iPhone Air sicko, and I don’t care who knows it. The trepidations in the back of my mind when I hit the ‘Buy’ button – Will the battery last long enough? Will I be able to take the pictures I want to? Will I miss having a bigger screen? – have melted away in light of day-to-day use, and all I’m left with is the glee that comes each time I pick up my ultra-thin, ultra-light phone and think, “How is this thing real?” The Air is definitely the phone for me.

I’d be lying if I said part of my hesitation with choosing the Air didn’t stem from the feeling that I wouldn’t be getting the “most” iPhone anymore. Ever since the iPhone moved beyond a single product to become a product line, I’ve chosen the most premium, feature-packed option available: the iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone X, the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and so on. I didn’t want to miss out on a single feature, whether it be screen size, camera capability, battery life, or anything else.

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Why September Is My Favorite Time of Year

• Devon

Summer is coming to an end, which means it’s nearly time for crisp air, pumpkin spice everything, and much-anticipated fall tech events. As journalists, YouTubers, and bloggers furiously refresh their email inboxes awaiting invitations to Apple’s impending keynote, I’m finding myself getting more and more enthused by the day. I love September.

If the rumors are to be believed, it’s shaping up to be an exciting fall for Apple fans. Between the next generation of iPhones including a razor-thin Air version, a follow-up to the legendary AirPods Pro 2, and updates to the Apple Watch (both Series and Ultra this year), iPad Pro, Vision Pro, and maybe even the Apple TV and HomePod mini, there’s going to be a lot of new and shiny to take in – much of it presumably within the next couple of weeks.

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App Intent Overload

• Devon

If you’ve been following the development of Apple’s operating systems and software features over the past several years, you’re well aware of the foundational role App Intents play in so many parts of the ecosystem. From Shortcuts actions and interactive widgets to system-wide controls and Spotlight’s upcoming quick key feature in macOS Tahoe, App Intents are everywhere. And of course, they’re going to play a key role in the more personalized version of Siri that’s still in the works.

At its most basic level, an App Intent is a way for an app to offer a piece of its functionality to the operating system outside of the app itself. Rather than remaining self-contained, an app can use App Intents to become modular and integrate not only with the operating system, but even with other apps in Shortcuts automations. If you’ve ever added a control from a third-party app to Control Center, you’ve benefited from App Intents. It’s truly incredible what they’re capable of, and their expansion has made Apple’s platforms more customizable and automatable than ever.

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Adding an On This Day Feature to My Collections Databases

• Devon

This time last year, I wrote a couple of stories for the Club about how I was using the Collections app to create databases and fill some gaps in my workflows. I still use the app daily, and over time, I’ve discovered even more scenarios where it comes in handy. I’ve even found myself creating simple, quick collections for short-term projects and tossing them out when I’m finished because they’re just that easy to make.

What really continues to draw me to the app, though, is its flexibility. I can use it to make databases that fit my exact needs, and I can make adjustments over time as those needs change. Recently, I had an idea for a new way I’d like to access my data in Collections: an On This Day view.

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Bringing My Social Media Timelines Into Reeder

• Devon

When Silvio Rizzi released the new Reeder last fall, it was a bit of a controversial update, breaking away from the app’s history as an RSS reader in order to become a holistic timeline app for all your online feeds. I reviewed the app and came away impressed. In fact, it has been my go-to for keeping up with RSS feeds, YouTube channels, subreddits, and more for over a year now, and its feature set has continued to grow.

But as much as I enjoyed it at launch, even I didn’t take Reeder to its furthest possible use case. As I wrote at the time:

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Mac Automation: An Outsider’s Perspective

• Devon

I am not a day-to-day Mac user. The vast majority of my digital life – all of my writing, podcast planning, editing, journaling, task management, web browsing, chatting, and more – happens on either my Vision Pro or iPad.

And yet, there are key parts of my day job that still require me to use a Mac, particularly those pertaining to live event production and livestreaming. As a media director, it’s my responsibility to put together presentations, graphics, sound setups, lighting scenes, and camera cues for multiple events per week and oversee the team that executes all of those elements. Much of that work is done on a Mac because the software for it simply isn’t available on Apple’s other platforms.

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A Life Timeline Check-In

• Devon

In the March 2024 edition of the Monthly Log, I wrote about using Everlog to create a timeline of my life with the help of Apple’s journaling suggestions. Here’s how I wrapped up that story:

How cool is it going to be to see a list of today’s entries, including my core workout, the podcast I listened to on my commute, my latest blog post, and the TV show I watched, in a year’s time? I can’t wait to find out.

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