Mastodon: @jonathanreed@techhub.socialEmail: jonathan@macstories.net
Jonathan is a graphic designer at DesignStudio. As well as being a long-time Apple user he is a huge film and television aficionado and is very interested in the intersection between the two mediums and technology. He lives in London with his wife and daughter and is writing his bio in the third person.
Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord:
jspencer recommended a cool website featuring simulations of classic handheld games. (Link)
Great apps, accessories, gear, and media recommended by the MacStories team.
A couple of weeks ago, blogger, YouTuber, and Comfort Zone host Matt Birchler posted a video about BusyCal, a feature-rich, highly customizable calendar app. It bears a strong resemblance to Apple’s Calendar app, but as I watched Matt’s run-through, it became clear to me that this could be the solution to some specific gripes I’ve had with Apple’s effort.
The app is available through Setapp (in addition to being sold on its own), so I immediately downloaded it. After two weeks of use, I’m impressed, and I’m here to tell you why. I recommend watching Matt’s video to get a good idea of how the app feels, but today, I’m going to discuss some specific features that stand out to me and how the app solves a few issues I was having with the stock Calendar app.
Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord:
Members had thoughts about Apple’s “cancelled” AR glasses. (Link)
More stories for Club members.
This week, I learned about something new: the Hyper key. (I also learned that TIL means “today I learned”, but I digress.) The Hyper key is a modifier key that originates from the Space-Cadet keyboard used on MIT Lisp machines – “the holy grail of keyboards”, according to the Deskauthority Wiki. You don’t find it on keyboards anymore, but it is still as relevant and vital today as ever.
On the Mac, the Hyper key is a combination of Shift + Control + Option + Command. Activating them with a single key is important because pressing all four at the same time gets your fingers in all sorts of tangled knots. The Hyper key exists as a way to issue system-wide keyboard commands without getting mixed up with the Command and Option keys, which are typically assigned to other app commands.
More stories for Club members.
While working on my column for last week, I discovered how bad my muscle memory was for picking up my iPhone during work. I’m certainly a creature of habit, so I knew that curbing this behavior would be far more complicated than just deciding to use my phone less. I needed something more tangible – more forceful, even.
The problem is not so much picking up my phone, but what I do when it’s in my hands. A message from a friend can lead me to check social media or visit websites like The Verge and The Onion. Sometimes, I pick up my phone because I remember some actor I want to look up or an app I’ve been meaning to download. It all came to a head this week when I faced three simultaneous design projects that might need to be juggled during any single day. To truly focus, I would need a literal “blocker”.
Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord:
macOS Spaces have entered the chat… (Link)
Ever since the MacStories Selects Awards late last year, I’ve been on the lookout for a certain kind of Apple Watch app. I had two criteria. The first was inspired by award winner Chronicling and runners-up Peak and Zenitizer, all apps that either worked well with their iOS counterparts or cleverly replicated the experience of the iPhone version on the Apple Watch’s smaller screen. The second was that the apps I was looking for needed to be unique and clever, making them fun to use.
I’ve come up with four great picks, which I’ll share today. Let’s dive in.
Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord:
t3chn3ric kicked off a conversation about day planning apps, including lesser-discussed ones like Motion and Morgen. (Link)
Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.
Among the highlights on the Club MacStories+ Discord:
Democracy is back! (Link)
More stories for Club members.
I’m sure anyone who has gotten married, been to a wedding, or listened to The Spice Girls will be familiar with the concept of “two become one”. By this, I mean a romantic couple who are now so close in their relationship that they are “as one”. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a nice sentiment, but while I love my wife 3,000, share a bank account with her, and have an amazing child with her, we are still very individual. We certainly would not consider ourselves “one”.
But tell that to the digital version of my wife, who recently went on a heist across two platforms, trying to take over my life – or, at the very least, absorb herself into mine. It started a few weeks back when my wife (let’s call her Lucía because, well, that’s her name) asked me to fix some preferences on her YouTube account. She allowed me to sign in on my Mac, and I made the changes. Subsequently, whenever I visited YouTube or used Google Search, the active profile was always Lucía’s. I knew that could be easily fixed, so I signed out of her account, keeping mine active.
