The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and Tim Cook is eager to show off some new products — and undoubtedly some engaging graphs — ripe for the season remotely from Apple Park. I thought it would be fun to add some of my product predictions to the fertile soil of supply chain rumors, curated event drafts, and previsioni di passione 🤌.

• AirTags are announced. I consider this one low-hanging fruit. This product won’t go the way of AirPower; it will arrive precisely when it means to (especially given indications like the Find My Items tab in iOS 14.5 and the just-added support for third-party tracking devices). I expect they’ll probably come in a 3-pack, and retail for $49.99 (just slightly more than I would like them to be).
• New iPads, both Pro and Mini. Another freebie — updated iPad Pros have been in the rumor pipeline for a while, and the timing lines up with previous updates to the line. I have my doubts that the fancy new miniLED screen technology is ready to ship, but I also struggle to think of other improvements to the iPad Pro hardware worthy of stage time — it’s just so good. Sure, another USB-C port (nay: a USB-4/Thunderbolt port), a landscape-oriented FaceTime camera, and a new processor would all be great...but my 2018 11” iPad Pro still feels delightfully brand-new. The real (if still insufficient) iPad Pro improvements will ultimately arrive at WWDC in June, when iPadOS gets its opportunity to catch up with its hardware. I expect the iPad Mini will also get a refresh — everyone is hoping for an iPad-Pro like design to grace the smaller form factor of the iPad Mini, but my guess is that it looks just about the same with a slightly newer chip (leftover A13s, perhaps).
• The Apple Pencil 3. Of the potential products unveiled at this event, AirTags and a new Apple Pencil are the ones I am most likely to purchase. The 2nd-gen Apple Pencil (much like the 2018 iPad Pro it is attached to) still feels like magic to me, and is hands-down the best stylus I’ve ever used. Ultimately, the only thing I expect Apple to add to its successor is an “input” surface on the eraser-side of the Pencil for, well, erasing things. Microsoft’s Surface Pen has had this feature (and, get this, a button too!) since 2012 — an eraser is the next logical addition to one of Apple’s best accessories, especially given their investment in handwriting on iPad with the addition of Scribble support in iPadOS 14.
• The iMac Redesign. I think this is probably the boldest of my predictions: this event is in essence a vehicle to announce completely redesigned iMacs shipping with Apple Silicon chips. I expect radically smaller bezels (and a chin-ectomy), a re-evaluation of the iMac stand (perhaps taking hints from the oft-mocked Pro Display XDR stand...and maybe the reason behind the event’s “springy” branding?), and a selection of new colors to boot (silver, space gray, rose gold, and perhaps a blue hue). All of this is great news for folks in the market for a desktop Mac with a great screen — I just hope that Apple has the good sense to ship it with a 1080p webcam.
• Wild Card: A New Apple TV and an Accompanying Services Segment. Ok, I lied, I’ve got one even bolder prediction: A brand-new Apple TV is announced, complete with a new Siri Remote. And, to keep projecting my own desires: the new Apple TV will be an Apple TV/HomePod love-child that has cropped up in recent supply chain rumors. This prediction is entirely destined to be wrong, but I want this product so badly that I have to put it out into the world in hopes of it being right. I also think Apple scarcely misses an opportunity for a Services segment, and what better way to segue into an Apple TV+ promo than by announcing new TV hardware?

I think tomorrow’s Apple event will largely go exactly as the rumors and pundits expect it to — which means about half of my predictions are bound to be wrong. Either way, it’s always nice to have an opportunity to wish-cast about something other than vaccine rollouts — a brief reprieve in the form of excitement in a world so thoroughly exhausted. That said, most of this event’s products won’t be “for me” — I might pick up some AirTags, and a new Apple Pencil is intriguing to me, but my 2018 iPad Pro is still more capable (well, hardware-wise) than I need it to be. I’m mostly just along for the ride of collective joy that Apple events engender in the communities I frequent.

Brent Simmons with some tough task manager truth on Inessential.com:

There’s no perfect system for anybody. All of these apps are pretty good, and you may find one fits you better than another, but you’re not ever going to make it the perfect system for you. Even if you started from scratch and wrote your own, you’re not getting the perfect system.

He is, of course, absolutely right: OmniFocus, Todoist, TickTick, Things, Microsoft To Do, Reminders...name 50 more productivity systems and they will all share in common their infuriating imperfection. Luckily, none of us need perfection — what we ultimately need from our tools is for them to measurably assist in whatever work we are doing with an acceptable assortment of trade-offs. This stretches well-beyond task managers: I certainly don’t have the “perfect” table saw — in fact, I’m sure that such a saw doesn't exist! But the one I do have adequately addresses my needs (as they are now), but constantly requires me to work around its limitations.

That’s life in a nutshell: Imperfect people making imperfect things with many, many imperfect tools. The tools might improve, sure, and you might stumble upon a better one from time to time — but never the magic bullet. So stop chasing the dragon of the “perfect” task manager (or the “perfect” anything, really) and instead take a moment to be content with what’s working for you right now.

Much has been said about the abysmal experience of using the Apple TV’s Siri Remote for anything more than accidentally turning on the TV. I often feel the way Merlin Mann and many others do: that I use the Apple TV and its atrocious remote an order of magnitude more often than the folks at Apple who are responsible for its design. Lately, rumors of a redesigned Siri Remote have been circulating in anticipation of the next-generation Apple TV — including the discovery of a new-but-not-actually-new remote design, complete with actual buttons. There’s no argument that the current Siri Remote is terrible and desperately needs a replacement — but I’m here to remind everyone that the software Apple TV Remote built into all of our iOS devices is also horrendous, perhaps even more so than it’s slippery sofa side-kick.

Is This The “Revolutionary User Interface”?

Apple has long prided itself on both designing remarkably intuitive user interfaces and seamlessly integrating software and hardware — the iOS Apple TV Remote is a failure on both fronts. For starters, when you compare the software remote to the widely-panned hardware Siri Remote you’ll quickly notice that the software remote actually has one fewer button (it gains the Search button but loses both volume buttons). This is in spite of the fact that by its very nature, the software Apple TV Remote could have 10 or 20 or 100 buttons if it wanted to — or if we’re being reasonable, maybe just a few more useful ones? The obvious and painful dedication to replicating the “feel” of the physical Siri Remote in the UI of the digital iOS Apple TV Remote only serves to transport one bad experience to an environment with a higher quality ceiling, making that experience comparatively even worse. There’s a reason why folks like Matthew Cassineli make complicated Siri Shortcuts to entirely replace their Apple TV Remote as best they can.

All the power of the iPhone and its spacious screen real estate, and this is all we get?

And speaking of integrating software and hardware — why on earth can’t the Apple TV be controlled via an entirely mirrored UI on the iPhone? It’s perfectly possible to take advantage of the entire iPhone screen and duplicate tvOS’s interface, allowing users to navigate Netflix and YouTube and Apple TV+ directly with their fingers — the current iOS Apple TV Remote already takes over the entire screen when in use! Why swipe around on a glass diving board (or a digital one) when your iPhone screen can show you your list of tvOS apps and just as easily allow you to tap one? Forget complicated ideas like a dynamic software remote UI that changes based on what tvOS app is open (although I would happily welcome that) — just let me directly tap the icons and menus on my Apple TV through the “revolutionary user interface” in my pocket. Add some volume buttons and the Menu/Home button to one side, and you’ve got yourself an intuitive UI.

I once heard a really great quote about no-good hardware user interfaces and the flexibility of good software UI from this quirky guy named Steve Jobs:

And, what’s wrong with their user interfaces? ...they all have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and are the same for every application. Well, every application wants a slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of buttons, just for it. And what happens if you think of a great idea six months from now? You can’t run around and add a button to these things. They’re already shipped....Well, how do you solve this? Hmm. It turns out, we have solved it! We solved it in computers 20 years ago. We solved it with a bit-mapped screen that could display anything we want. Put any user interface up.

It’s been more like 30 years now since this problem has been solved, Apple, and yet the iOS Apple TV Remote insists upon remaining mystifyingly married to its displeasing hardware cousin. It’s a bad UI citizen completely failing to live up to its potential — and to the promise of the iPhone that Jobs laid out way back in 2007.

Everyone is always looking for a faster way to get something done — whether that be adding Siri Shortcuts to your workflow, third-party automation applications like Keyboard Maestro, or fancy macro pads with complex actions and keyboard shortcuts assigned to each key. Perhaps the most popular entrant in the world of customizable, quick-action macro pads is the Stream Deck from El Gato. As you might guess from its name, the Stream Deck is particularly ubiquitous among Twitch streamers for quickly switching between camera inputs or playing radio-show style soundboard clips; however, its 15 (or six or 32) LCD-backed buttons contain plentiful potential for everyday users as enablers of enhanced efficiency.

My Stream Deck lives just above my mouse for easy access to all of my configured actions.

Colorful Shortcuts, Dead-Simple Setup

On the most basic level, the Stream Deck is grid of buttons that can be configured to trigger actions using El Gato's accompanying software; pre-installed actions range from common Twitch streaming tasks (starting a recording, soundboard actions, changing video sources) to actions that talk with your system (multimedia controls, Open-a-File, or just a simple hotkey). For instance, I have my Stream Deck set up to always show me a few multimedia controls: a Play/Pause toggle, Volume Down, Volume Up, and Next Track. Since my keyboard doesn't have built-in multimedia keys, I've added them to my Stream Deck so I can still quickly control Spotify while I'm working. Setting up one of the buttons as any generic keyboard shortcut is super easy: Just drag the Hotkey action to one of the squares in the Stream Deck software, record your desired hotkey, and give it a name. Just like that, you have a dedicated button that can instantly invoke Alt+F4 (Or ⌘Q for you Mac folks) to close the current program. Have a more advanced process that uses two hotkeys to switch between two "modes"? Use the built-in Hotkey Toggle action to record two hotkeys — one for each mode — and the Stream Deck will switch between them each time you press the button, displaying a different icon/image depending on the state of that button.

Speaking of images: The Stream Deck software makes setting a custom image for each of your physical buttons (or one button's toggle states) as easy as, well, finding the right image! El Gato has created a dedicated web tool that allows you to quickly create Stream Deck icons with a wide assortment of available glyphs and colors. Make yourself an aesthetic palette of hotkeys, launcher buttons for frequently-used applications with their logos, or a page of friends' faces where each button starts a Skype or Zoom call. What might seem like a pretty basic feature is actually the most distinguishing aspect of the Stream Deck; customizable images add a crucial layer of information to your hotkeys, and the ability to dynamically change those images based on a toggle state (or even self-updating background processes) turns a simple array of buttons into an interactive information dashboard. For example, I have a key that toggles the system-wide Mute state of my microphone; when the mic is "hot" the background is green, and when the mic is muted the background switches to black and the microphone icon gets crossed out. Though an incredibly simple button, always having a visual cue when my mic is live is an invaluable quality-of-life improvement.

Each Stream Deck action is customizable to an extent, from its icon to its functionality — and Multi-Action setup is very similar to creating a Siri Shortcut.

You can also designate individual keys on your Stream Deck as Folders or Multi-Actions — the former to help organize actions into separate "pages" on your Stream Deck, and the latter to chain multiple separate actions together behind the click of a single button. Both of these features can be super useful if they fit with your mental model for hotkey organization, or if you want single-click triggers for many individual tasks; that said, I don't personally use either in my Stream Deck setup — I much prefer taking advantage of a more automatic organization strategy.

Contextual Quick-Actions

The real magic of the Stream Deck is a bit buried in its settings pane in the form of Profiles. Profiles are basically saved Stream Deck configurations that you can switch between depending on your context. For instance, when you are transitioning from a day of work into a night of Twitch streaming, just swap to your “Streaming” profile and all of the buttons on your Stream Deck will change configurations. But, here’s the real gem: Each profile can be “matched” to a specific application on your computer, and will be automatically switched to when that application is in focus. What this means in practice is that you can configure app-specific Stream Deck configurations that surface your most-used shortcuts in different individual applications right when you need them.

Creating Profiles for your most-used applications allows your Stream Deck to intelligently present actions as you bounce between projects.

I have separate profiles configured for Outlook, Discord, iA Writer, Apex Legends, and Chrome, all presenting a number of useful quick actions I might need when using those application. My strategy is to duplicate the bottom row of Stream Deck keys across all of my profiles for actions I want accessible no matter what I am doing (like my Multimedia controls), and the top row of my Stream Deck is constantly changing depending on what app I am working in. In Outlook, I can quickly Archive messages or open a specific recurring calendar event I revisit often; in iA Writer I have a few esoteric text snippets (α, β, ⌘, and ) mapped to Stream Deck keys so I can stop copy/pasting them off of Google, and in Apex Legends I have a button that saves the last 10 minutes of game play to folder for particularly good clips I might want to share. Every time I change my computing context, my Stream Deck quickly flashes a set of readily-retrievable actions that will always be relevant to that specific context.

App-specific Profiles on the Stream Deck allow you to create contextual dashboards that automatically appear right when they are needed.

I consider Profiles to be one of the best ways to use the Stream Deck because they allow you to pre-define what actions you find useful in a given application, and those actions will be automatically surfaced — complete with helpful visual icons and text. Many people swear by memorizing complex, claw-handed keyboard shortcuts to streamline tasks in various contexts, but I've never been able to fully wrap my head around any but the most basic of keyboard shortcuts (like copy & paste). The Stream Deck allows me to find out what shortcuts I am missing out on in a specific program and deliberately create a hotkey to activate that shortcut...without having to memorize each and every modifier key incantation. And when my workflow changes or if I discover a new useful shortcut, incorporating it into my everyday use is as easy as mapping it to an available key for that specific app's Stream Deck Profile. No memorization, no complex finger stretching — just the click of a clearly-labeled LCD button to trigger a simple (or complex) action with no fuss.

Plugins, Integrations, and Endless Possibilities

So far things are fairly straightforward: You can make a button do a thing, toggle between two things, or do many things, and you can have the buttons appear when specific applications are open. Easy enough, right? Well...it is if you stick to the pre-installed plugins that El Gato provides — but if you start to explore the library of third-party plugins in the built-in “store”, things can quickly get out of hand (in the best possible way). The complexity of these third-party plugins ranges from an unassuming stock ticker tracker that updates every minute with the new share price, to plugins written specifically to control certain smart home accessories via the Stream Deck, all the way to plugins like API Ninja that allow you to send HTTP requests to arbitrary web APIs even with complex JSON or XML payloads — you can even point the request to a local file as the source of the payload, and authenticate if need be. If you have the patience, you can create a handful of Stream Deck keys to fully control a service like Toggl using its web API in conjunction with API Ninja — the plugin even allows you to change the appearance of the Stream Deck key based on the API’s response to your request.

If the available third-party plugins don’t cover your needs, another option for more powerful Stream Deck integrations is the “Domino Strategy”: triggering a second piece of automation software with the push of a Stream Deck button. Keyboard Maestro is a good example; it natively supports individual Stream Deck keys as triggers for any of its actions, and it has many actions capable of automating a wide array of tasks on the Mac. Another (extremely advanced) option is Companion from BitFocus — a locally-hosted server that can translate your Stream Deck button-presses into complex interactions with a wide range of hardware and software platforms, other local server-based systems like Home Assistant, as well as generic HTTP requests, all while fostering an open-source development community for tackling other wacky and unique use cases.

Ultimately, a single Stream Deck button's potential is functionally limitless. Even if the most advanced plugins and integrations listed above somehow remain insufficient, you can always write your own plugin using the Stream Deck SDK or simply point a Stream Deck button at an executable Python script on your local machine that could do just about anything you want it to.

Bonus Round: Pro Tips

1. Stabilize your Stream Deck: Order a sheet of adhesive micro-suction padding, and affix some small squares to the bottom of your Stream Deck. I've found that pushing the buttons can scooch the device further and further back on my desk even with its existing rubber feet. Now, with just a bit of micro-suction padding, my Stream Deck isn't going anywhere.
2. Find an Icon Pack: Re-purpose any number of icon packs for iPhone home screens or artist sticker packs from Etsy as your Stream Deck key images. All of my Stream Deck images are from the Macstories Shortcuts Icon Pack, a set designed for Siri Shortcut Home Screen icons — making them a perfect fit for the similar-in-shape-and-purpose Stream Deck keys!
3. Go Mobile: The El Gato Stream Deck iOS app has feature-parity with the hardware Stream Deck — in other words, you can control any and all Stream Deck actions wirelessly from your iPhone. The drawback is the $2.99/month subscription cost of the app, but is a good entry-point for folks unwilling to shell out the $150 for an actual Stream Deck (Personally: the satisfying click-clack of a physical button is what justifies the high price). And, as a bonus: It supports Siri Shortcuts, allowing you to trigger any individual Stream Deck key by summoning the voice assistant with a supported device!

The Stream Deck iOS app can act as a remote control for your desktop Stream Deck, and even supports Siri Shortcuts.

First-Order Action Retrievability

It may seem strange to plug in an array of programmable buttons to a desktop PC with the inherent ability to trigger any action in software, especially considering many of the same actions can be triggered by the keyboard I am typing on now. However, I think the allure of the Stream Deck is the combination of its aesthetic polish (pretty and pleasant buttons are more-often-used buttons) and its removal of friction between the user and an abstract action or series of actions. The Stream Deck takes otherwise-intangible keyboard shortcuts and quick actions and displays them in my face as tempting tactile triggers; always there, eager to be clicked. The Stream Deck is an embodiment of the "first-order retrievability" philosophy — the thing that I want to do or the tool I need should be no more than one step, one click, or one tap away. Whether it saves me a a minute, a second, or no real time at all to use a Stream Deck button over some alternative, it saves me the mental energy of going past that first degree of action abstraction — and that mental energy saved is incalculable in value.

On last week’s episode of Connected, Federico Viticci described the way in which he embeds images as he writes in iA Writer and subsequently uploads those images to the MacStories CMS. You can listen to this section of the latest episode, but in short: Federico uses iA Writer’s Content Block feature to insert images and view them right in the editor’s preview window — and then uses Scriptable to upload all of the images one-by-one and replace the Content Block with the actual image embed. I also use iA Writer for all of the posts on Peer Reviewed, but I have a different (and perhaps more efficient) way of handling images as I put together my posts: in-line HTML.

Marking Up Your Markdown

One of the many benefits of writing in Markdown is that most editors natively parse HTML as well, because Markdown and HTML are intended to work seamlessly with each other — as John Gruber himself explains here:

For any markup that is not covered by Markdown’s syntax, you simply use HTML itself. There’s no need to preface it or delimit it to indicate that you’re switching from Markdown to HTML; you just use the tags.

What this means is that iA Writer can natively parse and preview HTML tags inside my Markdown documents — including the figure and figcaption tags. Whenever I want to embed an image in a blog post, I simply paste in a snippet of HTML that points to the permalink of the image, and includes an image caption and alt text. Here’s what it looks like in both the editor window and the preview window in iA Writer:

iA Writer natively parses the HTML on the left to show the image in the preview window on the right.

This strategy for inserting images makes it very clear where in the editor you have images inserted (because the HTML sticks out so plainly), while also allowing you to preview a post as it would appear on the web right inside iA Writer. An added bonus being that your final draft is already 100% ready for the web, since everything you have written is already either Markdown or HTML.

Generating HTML Snippet with Shortcuts

The other advantage of using in-line HTML instead of iA Writer’s Content Block system is the speed with which the appropriate HTML snippet can be generated — with the help of Shortcuts, of course. As a general rule, images in my blog posts are either screenshots from an Apple device, or a photo I’ve taken of a physical product, like a keyboard or a CPU heatsink. As such, I have two Siri Shortcuts I use to generate the HTML snippets for each of these scenarios — framed device screenshots are generated with a modified version of Federico’s own Apple Frames shortcut, and any other images are uploaded via my own Image Uploader shortcut.

Both of these shortcuts effectively do the same thing (after device frames are added to any screenshots):

1. Upload the image (in my case, to Imgur)
2. Get the permalink of the image
3. Ask for descriptive alt text and a caption
4. Combine the image URL, alt text, and caption in an HTML figure snippet
5. Copy the snippet to the clipboard and kick me back into iA Writer

An all-in-one shortcut for adding a device frame, uploading, captioning, and generating the final HTML for an image really streamlines the process.

It only takes a few moments for the shortcut to finish running, plus or minus the time it takes for me to come up with a punchy caption for the image I’m uploading. Once it’s finished, all I have to do is paste the HTML where I want the image to appear in my post and iA Writer will natively allow me to preview the image as well as its caption just as it would appear on the web (CSS notwithstanding). And if I decide to reword a caption or change the image I want to use, all I have to do is edit the HTML snippet in the iA Writer document itself — the beauty of an all-text system for composing an article.

</blogpost>

This system for quickly uploading and inserting images while still being able to preview them in iA Writer has worked very well for me. The aspect I like most about this method is how little effort is needed to go from a completed post in iA Writer to publishing it on Peer Reviewed — I literally copy and paste the text and it is ready to publish. I think Federico’s system for uploading to the MacStories CMS and publishing articles to his site might necessarily be a bit more complex than mine, but I have a feeling that this method for handling images might be slightly more streamlined than using Content Blocks and custom Scriptable scripts to swap out file paths with HTML while editing.

In a time when so many are working from home, finding ways to stay focused on your work in an environment full of distractions is especially critical. I’ve found that my best work is so often facilitated by the active noise-cancellation of my AirPods Pro and the calming sounds of a crackling campfire provided by Dark Noise — the delightful ambient noise app from developer Charlie Chapman. I’ve written about my love of Dark Noise before, and today marks the release of Dark Noise 2 — the biggest update to the app since it launched in August of last year.

Ambient Noise Mixology

Dark Noise 2 brings with it the hotly-requested feature of mixing multiple sounds together to form unique soundscapes that suit the user’s fancy. Is Heavy Rain insufficient precipitative percussion for your nighttime white noise needs? Create a custom mix to play Heavy Rain, Drippy Rain, Rain, Thunderstorm, and Distant Thunder all at once to really flood your senses. Or if, like me, you want to create an immersive beach experience in this summer-sans-travel, combine Beach, Seagulls, and Wind Chimes to evoke an island feel.

When making a custom mix, you can adjust the volume of each individual noise separately to tune things just right.

The volume of each sound you add to the mix can be individually adjusted to quickly put one sound in the “foreground” and another in the “background” of your custom mix. Custom mixes can also be given a custom icon — choose from any of the existing animated noise icons in any color, or upload an image of your own.

The simplicity with which Charlie has implemented this ostensibly complex sound mixing interface is evidence of the great care taken to make Dark Noise the most elegant and intuitive white noise app on the market.

New Sounds, iPadOS Pointer Support, and More

Dark Noise 2 adds eight new sounds to the long list of options already included with the app — Rain on Tent, Wind Chimes, Windy Trees, Seagulls, Lake, Ship Deck, Flag, and Lullaby — bringing the total to 50 sounds in various genres. My personal favorite remains Campfire (for whatever reason, crackling logs really do it for me), but Windy Trees and Lake are both sneaking into my rotation.

Dark Noise 2 adds eight new, relaxing sounds (and custom animations) to the already-extensive list.

Additional improvements to Siri Shortcuts, including the ability to set arbitrary sleep timers directly within a shortcut action, continue to enhance the experience of users who want to integrate Dark Noise into their bedtime routines and productivity workflows. Add the cherry on top of two new custom app icons: a skeuomorphic icon in the style of MacOS Big Sur, and the quintessential “Launched” icon in the design of Charlie’s podcast of the same name. Oh, and full pointer support on iPadOS for those oddballs with the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro — because why not.

Excellent Sounds, and Sound Priorities

Whether for a calming prelude to a restful night’s sleep, relaxing ambiance during moments of mindfulness, or augmented focus during periods of productivity, Dark Noise is the ideal white noise app for iOS users who sweat the details. It’s opinionated design choices, extensive system integrations, whimsical animations, and immersive sounds all come together to form a polished experience that doesn’t just sound good, but looks good and feels good too. I praised Dark Noise extensively when it was first released, and this latest update doubles down on the app’s reputation for a fluid user experience. Dark Noise is available for $5.99 on the app store.

If you’ve ever connected your iPhone to a CarPlay receiver, a Bluetooth head unit, or just a USB cable connected to your dash, you’ve undoubtedly had the experience of the alphabetically-first song in your Apple Music library immediately blaring through your car speakers. This attempt at “smarts” by Apple is really nothing more than an annoyance unless you specifically want to listen to “99 Red Balloons” every time you get into your car. Luckily, this annoying audio automation can be corrected with more automation, thanks to Shortcuts.

Fighting System Integrations With Shortcuts Automations

Apple Music thinks that every time you connect your phone to a car receiver of some kind, you’d like to hear whatever happens to be at the top of your library — despite how obviously wrong that assumption is. I have some good news though: connecting your phone to CarPlay, a specific Bluetooth receiver, or even just a USB port can all serve as Shortcuts Automation triggers — and we can use that to undo Apple Music’s attempted cleverness.

Depending on your car radio, you can use one of these automation triggers to stop Apple Music from auto-playing annoyingly!

First, create a Shortcut that only contains the “Play/Pause” action (set specifically to “Pause” audio). Then, you’ll need to set up a Personal Automation in the Shortcuts app that gets triggered by connecting to CarPlay, your car’s Bluetooth device, or connecting to a power if you use a standard USB connection (It’s worth noting that using “When Connecting to Power” will run this automation whenever you connect your iPhone to a power source, not necessarily just your car USB port). Then simply add the “Run Shortcut” action and select the Shortcut you just created that pauses audio playback.

Having the automation run a completely separate Shortcut avoids the “Pause” action running before Apple Music actually begins playing — intentional abstraction!

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Now, whenever you connect to your phone to your car’s head unit, Apple will try to be smart and auto-play your Music library...and then your Automation will run and immediately pause it again. And now that you’ve stopped an annoyance with Shortcuts Automations, think about what improvements you can make to this flow — perhaps you want it to pause Apple Music and then immediately open Spotify? Maybe you’d like to automatically start a route to your next appointment? View a playlist in Overcast? All of these can simply be added to the one-action Shortcut you made at the start to enhance this automation to your heart’s content.

Last week I saw this 9to5mac article from Filipe Espósito describing the new real-time audio level Control Center tile in the iOS 14 developer beta. I immediately went to check out this nifty feature on my own iPhone (also running iOS 14), and discovered an additional feature within this Control Center tile: “Live Listen”. At first I thought I had discovered another new addition in iOS 14 — but as it turns out, this feature has been available since iOS 12.

With a “compatible audio device” (AirPods Pro, in my case), Live Listen uses your iPhone’s speaker to capture the audio in your environment, process it noticeably, and reroute it to your AirPods Pro with the ability to adjust the volume. This feature was able to significantly amplify both the sound of my TV and my wife talking in another room.

Live Listen uses compatible headphones to amplify the world around you.

When the AirPods Pro were released with both noise cancellation and the magic of Transparency Mode, many (myself included) speculated that Apple was just getting started in the “augmented reality” space — and my belated discovery of this years-old augmented audio feature is only more evidence of that fact. According to the AARP, the average price of a single hearing aid is $2,300 (that’s $4,600 for a pair!), but an iPhone SE and a pair of AirPods could be as affordable as $500 for the hard-of-hearing in need of auditory augmentation.

I am neither a knitter nor a crocheter. I would quite easily confuse knitting needles for chopsticks, and a crochet hook for a dental pick. However, I do consider myself a maker — I spend an inordinate amount of my free time in my garage/wood shop working with my hands to turn an idea into a physical good. Although my crafting medium is wood, makers of all stripes are quick to appreciate the tools of other disciplines — and YarnBuddy from developer Becky Hansmeyer deftly demonstrates how digital tools can be as invaluable to hobbyists as the physical tools of their trade.

A Tailor-Made Task Manager

YarnBuddy is what happens when you take a general-purpose task manager like Todoist or Things and tailor it to an extremely specific use-case — specialization that pays dividends for those so-specialized. At its core, YarnBuddy allows you to create a list of knitting and crocheting projects with custom fields geared specifically towards aspects of needlework like “Yarn Selection” or “Needle Size”. The ability to tag a given project with categories or project types allows even the most prolific knitters to quickly organize their many works-in-progress using YarnBuddy. In addition, the ability to upload an instruction sheet for a given project complete with a movable line highlighter is super convenient for both keeping your place and accessible use for those who have more difficulty reading small text.

The project view’s instruction sheet highlighter is one of my favorite features of YarnBuddy.

Custom project due dates, an image uploader for either examples or the finished product itself, and a notes field for helpful hints or useful links all make for an extensive project management system entirely centered around knitting and crocheting.

Built-In Tools of the Trade

Beyond the feature-rich project tracking components of YarnBuddy, a number of useful tools and quality-of-life conveniences are stitched right into the app. Customizable counters — for specific projects or one-off use — allow the user to keep track of rows as they knit a given design. These counters can be configured to automatically repeat a given increment — for instance, if there are a given number stitches in a row — and automatically display notes on a preset interval to help remind you of the pattern at the beginning of each row.

Project counters, quick counters, and advanced counter settings are super handy for tracking rows and loops as you go.

YarnBuddy also includes features that allow users to keep track of their yarn inventory, and utilities for deciding on a yarn to use on a given project. The “Yarn Stash” serves as a repository of what yarn you have on hand, and can quickly import the specifications of that yarn into any project in YarnBuddy. The Yarn Substitution tool allows you to quickly determine what amount of a substitute yarn you need to adequately replace another yarn of perhaps different length/skein or weight/skein. As a woodworker, I am constantly checking my hardwood and scrap wood stash to figure out what exactly I have available to use on a given project — I imagine the Yarn Stash will be the favorite feature for many YarnBuddy users who also want to keep track of what raw materials they have on-hand. Adding a built-in unit conversion tool is the cherry on top of the long list of utilities that make YarnBuddy an invaluable resource for needleworkers of every description.

Creating your own repository of yarn and quickly converting units is painless in YarnBuddy.

Utility, Embroidered With Whimsy

Beyond being an incredibly feature-dense app in terms of project management, YarnBuddy still manages to have an inviting aesthetic, with the developer’s design flourishes shining through brightly. The Quick Tips page serves as both a delightful iMessage conversation between balls of yarn and as a friendly introduction to the basics of using YarnBuddy — frankly, I would suggest this page be shown to every first-time user of the app!

Delightful custom icons and a whimsical helpful hints page are both pleasant additions to this art-centered app.

Custom app icons are becoming table-stakes in the iOS development community, and YarnBuddy’s numerous app icons so clearly evoke the personality of the app itself — a smiling yarn ball symbolizing the many knitters and crocheters who find their joy in a box of yarn.

Closing the Loop

Beyond my jealousy towards a project management app specifically made for a given hobby, nothing beats the experience of using an app made by someone who actually uses it, and has lovingly injected so much of their passion into the app’s design. It’s this sewn-in consideration and care that explains how this app still connects with me, despite my lack of knitting knowledge — it subtly evokes the feeling of joy that crafting inspires in so many. From planning of a project, to carefully selecting the appropriate materials, to documenting the finished product in your Project Archive, YarnBuddy manages to capture both the important details and the powerful emotions that knitters and crocheters undoubtedly feel when working with their hands.

YarnBuddy for iPhone and iPad is available for free in the App Store, and unlimited projects, tags, project reminders, and custom icons can be unlocked with YarnBuddy Pro for $14.99/year or $49.99 as a one-time purchase.

It’s the night before WWDC, and tomorrow Apple nerds the world-over will tune in to the keynote address and see what changes are in store for our iPhones, Macs, and other fruit company devices and services in the year ahead. WWDC 2020 also serves as an unfortunate first for both Apple and its community: a fully-virtual conference amidst the threat of a deadly pandemic, combined with the cultural backdrop of righteous anger in the face of continued racial injustice.

It’s a strange year for WWDC in so many ways, but I have a feeling it might become one of the most impactful (both technologically and emotionally) in the company’s history. I’ve felt unusual as details surrounding the event have been released and as the traditional rumor mills began spinning up; hinting at iMac redesigns, major changes in iOS 14, and the mammoth undertaking of the ARM processor transition on the Mac. I’ve come to realize that my “unusual feeling” is just an emotion that has become a rarity recent months: excitement. I’m excited for WWDC. I’m excited for all the changes slated to be announced for my favorite devices. I’m excited for the meta-conversations with friends and on podcasts about these changes and the way they were announced. And yes, I’m excited for the possibility of shiny new hardware to ogle and then probably not actually buy.

Excitement for the week of WWDC is not new to me — it’s the unusually-joyless six months preceding the conference that have made my excitement feel almost shameful, somewhat stolen. It feels very wrong to become engrossed in subtle home screen changes on my $1,000 iPhone, as so much bad news continues to surround me. But in many ways, not relishing in the joys of life can stifle our ability to endure (and eliminate) the hardships. That’s the way I’m choosing to interpret WWDC week this year: as another bulwark against madness in these especially maddening times.

And I don’t think these feelings are even remotely exclusive to me — in fact, I think Apple has considered not only how they can use one of their biggest stages to address both the coronavirus and racial injustice, but what stops they can pull to spark some extra joy in spite the difficult circumstance. It’s these same circumstances that have many people speculating about to what degree Apple will scale back WWDC due to manufacturing deadlines slipping or simply the consequences of a fully-remote developer workforce for most of the last six months. Others still believe Apple has the strength (and certainly the resources) to execute an event that matches its typical high standards even with the barriers posed by prudent coronavirus restrictions. But I think Apple has an opportunity to blow everyone’s expectations out of the water in a time where being excited about something again is so desperately craved. There are even signs from within Apple that this year’s WWDC is one for the history books. After all, Apple loves to put on a show — and we all desperately need something compelling to watch.