The ElevationLab AirTags Wallet Insert

I’ve never actually lost my wallet. I have misplaced it, though, between couch cushions, under the bed, and in the car. So the idea of attaching an Apple AirTag to my wallet has seemed like a good idea. I’ve been watching the mushrooming market of AirTag holding wallets, but none of them seemed worth to me to replace my beloved Flipside wallet.

Then last month, ElevationLab released a line of AirTag friendly wallet inserts. They are pieces of molded rubber engineered to hold an AirTag and slide into your wallet. So this isn’t an AirTag wallet but instead an upgrade device for your existing wallet. I bought a pair.

They arrived promptly and are just like described on the tin. AirTags fit in them nice and snug, and the rubber can slide into your wallet. ElevationLab makes good stuff. This is no different.

What this rubber device does not do, however, is magically make the AirTag itself any thinner. You still have a pretty thick piece of hardware you are putting in your wallet. The insert worked perfectly with my wife’s wallet. If you have a wallet thick enough to hold an AirTag, this $10 piece of rubber will get the job done.

Sadly, it didn’t fit inside my Flipside wallet. Ultimately, I resorted to something a bit more pedestrian. Here is my wallet with a Gaffer-taped AirTag on the inside. It’s ugly, but it is the lowest possible AirTag profile for my wallet. Even with just the Gaffer tape, the Flipside still bulges a bit.

I’m willing to put up with this wallet bulge for the ability, on those rare occasions, to easily find my wallet. Maybe someday someone will make the perfect AirTag wallet for me, but it hasn’t happened yet.

BBEdit and Shortcuts Adoption on the Mac

BBEdit recently released a nice update (version 14.1) with, among other things, Shortcuts support. You can now create a text document and create a note in BBEdtin from Shortcuts on the Mac. As Mac applications go, BBEdit is one of the standard-bearers. (It was first released in 1992.) I know people that switched to the Mac for the exclusive purpose of using BBEdit.

Seeing apps like BBEdit begin to adopt Shortcuts is a good sign. Granted, the initial Shortcuts actions, relating to file creation only, are not super deep, it’s a beachhead. Talking to Mac app developers, I get the impression that will be the case for many apps. They’ll get some Shortcuts support in and then watch for Apple’s lead before going into deeper waters. I think that is fine. The last attempt at Mac automation for the masses (Automator) never really took off not as a result of any problem with the underlying technology but, in my opinion at least, a lack of enthusiasm from the suits at Apple. That doesn’t seem to be the case this time around and initial signs for Shortcuts and third-party developers are promising.

Focused 145: Focus & Your Environment

On this episode of Focused, Mike and I consider how the environment affects our ability to focus and share the very different ways we set up our workspaces.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

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Mac Power Users 627: Workflows with Adam Lisagor

Video producer, script writer, and loving nerd Adam Lisagor is back on this episode of Mac Power Users after a too-long hiatus to share his workflows related to running his growing advertising/video production business. Also, Adam’s writing a script and has news to share on some new tools and workflows.

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Automators 95: Keyboard Maestro Takes It Up to 10

There’s a new version of Keyboard Maestro with plenty of new automation tools. David and Rose use this episode of Automators to share some great ideas of how to take advantage of the new features.

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The Age of Mass Surveillance

There is a story making the rounds today about a secret CIA program for which very few details exist except for the disclosure that it involves a mass surveillance program on American soil that included at least some data collection of U.S. Citizens. It looks like the Wall Street Journal broke the article but Fortune has a good summary.

What we do on the Internet has been commoditized for years. If you’ve been paying attention, you shouldn’t be surprised. If advertisers are figuring out when you’re pregnant, don’t you think the government is also taking notes?

At this point, governments (and companies looking to monetize you) are punching holes in the Internet much faster than the folks trying to protect your privacy can patch them. When I was a lawyer, and a client would ask me how to make sure sensitive data was safe “in the cloud”, my stock answer was, “Don’t put it there.” Reading the story about the CIA’s data collection plan is not shocking. It would be surprising if they weren’t doing it. (I expect numerous foreign governments are doing the same things, if not worse.)

Just think about email, for instance. You send an email, and it goes through the Internet pipes to get to your recipient. It has to. No pipes, no email. Clever governments and hackers can snoop in those pipes and capture copies of unencrypted email as it is in transit—we just kind of live with that. If we rewound the clock several decades and discovered that the government was intercepting and making copies of all the mail that arrived in our physical mailboxes, there would have been riots in the streets. Now we just sort of shrug.

All we can do now is try to make smart choices.

Try to deal with companies with transparent ownership and express an interest in privacy through their actions.
Don’t rely on companies that you suspect will one day need to monetize your data to stay afloat.
If you want to be even more paranoid, don’t trust small start-ups. You never know who will end up buying them and inheriting your data.
Wherever possible, use end-to-end encryption.
Seriously, consider why you’re sending data somewhere else.

All that said, I’m not sure how you escape it in the modern world. We live in an age of mass surveillance, whether you realize it or not.

Considering the Folding Phone

Ben Lovejoy at 9to5 Mac has an interesting story about Apple experimenting with a folding iPhone and links to a video with some interesting renders from ADR Studio Design. (below) This topic came up on our recent MPU episode with Austin Evans. Austin, who has played with all the folding phones so far, argues that the regular-sized phone folded down to half size is better than the full-sized iPhone that folds up to iPad mini size.

I’ve not used any of the current crop of folding phones, but I can’t help but think I’d prefer that second category. I’d rather have an iPhone that can grow into something like an iPad mini and keep the whole kit in my pocket. The more I think about it, however, the more I’m convinced that if Apple were to ship a folding iPhone, it’d be like one in the video, where it folds down to a smaller phone. That just seems so much more along the lines of Apple’s genetic bent toward smaller and lighter. Regardless, I expect that a product like this from Apple (if it ever ships) will be years from now.

Fantastical 3.6: Openings, Proposals, and Quarterly View Plus Demonstration Videos

Today Flexibits released Fantastical version 3.6 with several big updates:

Openings

This lets you create a link where Fantastical’s web server can see your availability but not your appointments and then let folks schedule appointments with you against that. This is the first time I’ve seen someone pull off a feature like this without requiring you to hand over your account credentials. Nicely done.

Proposals

These have been in Fantastical for a while now, but this latest iteration also lets you create a link so you can have multiple people weigh in on your proposed times. It even reports the results to you directly in Fantastical.

Quarterly View

I’m going to take some credit for this one. I’ve been requesting/begging/harassing the Flexibits team. I like to work in quarters, and there were no calendar apps that would display your calendar in a quarterly view … until now.

I know many folks don’t like the subscription software model, but it is here to stay. I will say, however, that Flexibits is doing it right. All of these features are now just in the app. There is no upgrade fee or requirement for a higher subscription tier.

I made the demonstration videos for Flexibits. You can watch them below.

The Six Colors 2021 Apple Report Card

Today Jason Snell published his annual Apple Report Card. The story this year isn’t particularly surprising. On the big picture level, people are loving the new Mac hardware and frustrated with Apple software in general. I can’t help but think digging out of this perceived software hole is going to be a much longer turnaround for Apple than our collective reversal on Apple Hardware.

Part of the problem is that different people have different reasons for being unhappy with Apple software. The other reason is that software, now more than ever, is complicated. In the days of MacPaint, the team just had to make an app that could paint with the Mac. Modern Apple software needs to work on screens ranging from watch size to iMac size, utilize input methods ranging from fingers to keyboards, and play nicely with the Internet. That’s a tall order and I think most people that think seriously about these things know that. Still, I believe Apple could do better.