Leveraging COVID Constraints

I can’t help but feel things will be a lot more normal-leaning in the next six months as the COVID vaccines make their way into arms, and we, collectively, finally get the upper hand on this damn virus. Kids will go back to school. People will go back to work. We’ll be more social with one another. At least one can hope.

Assuming that is true, I’ve been taking stock lately of all the changes I’ve made to my life throughout the pandemic due to the constraints it brought. Once life gets back to life as normal, I don’t want to necessarily abandon all of the changes I made during lockdown. Maybe you shouldn’t either.

Several of the changes I’ve made to how I work have turned out to be substantial improvements over how I was getting things done pre-COVID. For example, having my kids and wife back home 24/7 means I had to be very particular about scheduling when I record podcasts, screencasts, and videos. This actually resulted in me getting more consistent recording work done than when I had free reign to do it whenever I wanted. I’m now making a list of the positive changes I’ve made during lockdown and figuring out how to keep those parts when things get more normal.

As far as tech, this is not rocket science. I’m just doing it in a text file. I’ve got the idea to build this list in the back of my mind and, as I go through the days and encounter changes I would like to keep, write them down. Ultimately, I’ll incorporate check-ins for myself to make sure I keep up with the new habits in the future via OmniFocus.

Focused 120: Caveday with Jake Kahana

Jake Kahana from Caveday joins Mike and me on the latest episode of Focused to talk about his journey and how Caveday can help you get your focus mojo back.

This episode of Focused is sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code FOCUSED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
ExpressVPN: High-speed, secure and anonymous VPN service. Get an extra three months free.
Indeed: Get a free $75 credit to upgrade your job post.

Face Mask Unlock in iOS 14.5

We’re getting closer to the release of iOS 14.5, and it’s adding a feature that Apple Watch owners are going to dig. Specifically, if you are wearing a face mask and an Apple Watch, you’ll still be able to unlock your iPhone without using a passcode.

Once you turn the feature on, the iPhone has some new unlock logic:

Is the user wearing a face mask?
No – Go to the usual Face ID unlock.
Yes – Go to step 2.
Does the user have a connected, unlocked Apple Watch very close to the phone?
Yes – Unlock.
No – Go to the passcode unlock.

So, if you are wearing a face mask and you have an unlocked Apple Watch in very close proximity (less than 1 meter) to your phone, you get an unlock. In that event, you also get a prompt on your wrist letting you lock the phone back up. Interestingly, that step 1 looks for any person with a face mask. It doesn’t try to figure out if it is specifically you wearing a face mask. John Gruber did all the research on the beta build and reports in further detail.

I plan on turning this feature on once the update ships. I am so tired of tapping in my passcode when using my phone while masked.

USPS Star Wars Stamps

So it looks like I’ll be buying stamps for the next several years this spring.

Mac Power Users 577: Workflows with Shahid Kamal Ahmad

Shahid Kamal Ahmad drops by Mac Power Users to tell Stephen and me about his ever-growing displays, game development on the Mac, and creating music with a computer.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code MPU to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2022, and can be used only once.

McSweeney’s – The UX on this Small Child is Terrible

Having raised two children, McSweeney’s is spot on:

>
“This Small Child has no clear sense of hierarchy in either the visual or navigational sense. When it comes to troubleshooting, it is nearly impossible to find the information you need quickly. For example, last night the Small Child stood emitting a high-pitched scream in her bedroom. I tried to quickly arrive at a solution in a natural, organic way. Is the Small Child in pain? Is the Small Child hungry? It took more than 20 earsplitting minutes to learn the Small Child was angry that Flappy the Elephant didn’t pick her up from school. I explained that Flappy is seven inches tall and has no central nervous system, but the Small Child was inconsolable. Future child iterations should include a focused effort on problem-free navigation with fewer operational and cognitive costs.”

Comfort Food TV

Apple’s had a lot of success with Ted Lasso. If you have Apple TV+, I’d recommend it. Emily VanDerWerff wrote an excellent piece in VOX about why Ted Lasso works and the general idea of Comfort Food TV. I don’t consume a lot of TV, but I can tell you that my tastes have very much turned toward comfort food TV over the last several years.

There’s enough conflict in the world. To relax, I’m not interested in watching people do knowingly bad things to one another. Instead, I prefer watching generally good characters try their best to muddle through. Ted Lasso scratches that itch. Also, I recently bought the DVDs for the complete run of Northern Exposure and it is giving me the same sorts of feels I got from Ted Lasso.

Automators 70: Matthew Cassinelli and Changing Your Shortcuts Usage

In this episode of Automators, Rosemary and I are joined by Matthew Cassinelli to talk about how his Shortcuts use has evolved with the changes to Shortcuts.

This episode of Automators is sponsored by:

The Intrazone, by Microsoft SharePoint: Your bi-weekly conversation and interview podcast about SharePoint, OneDrive and related tech within Microsoft 365.
ExpressVPN: High-speed, secure and anonymous VPN service. Get an extra three months free.
DEVONthink: Get organized—unleash your creativity. Use this link for 10% off.

Scott Forstall’s Phone Number

I had to grin a little when I saw this post about Apple not handing over Scott Forstall’s phone number in discovery to Epic as part of their lawsuit. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve been in Apple’s shoes on these kinds of requests, and I think their answer is not as silly as it sounds.

When you’re in a lawsuit, the parties ask each other questions (the fancy legal term is “interrogatories”), that the other side is then bound to answer under the penalty of perjury. That means if you give a false answer, you could end up in contempt of court and even possibly in the pokey. When a party asks a company to answer these interrogatories about former employees, it puts the company lawyers in quite the pickle.

They could try and go and find Forestall’s phone number. But that assumes they can easily find such information and confirm (under penalty of perjury) it is correct. Forstall doesn’t seem to have left on the best of terms and it may be they don’t have access to this information. If they do put a phone number in that answer and they are incorrect, they could be subjecting whatever Apple executive signs the perjury declaration to a pile of trouble. The only bit I’d add is that if I were Apple’s counsel and I thought I had a good phone number that I couldn’t confirm, I’d answer something like “The last known phone number was 555-867-5309”. Regardless, it actually makes more sense to say “I don’t know” and let the other guy go figure it out without you having to stick your neck out and perjure yourself. So, the headline sounds crazy, but it really isn’t.