This is the perfect device for an immersive and mindful music experience.
Why can’t companies simply leave perfect tech alone? Okay, we all know why, but well-built things are so special.
Every so often, a piece of equipment reaches a point where I believe new versions should not be released anymore, and it should be sold that way forever. I’m not talking about perfection; there’s no such thing. But there are these rare cases where moving forward would only disrupt a delicate and elegant balance. That’s how I see so many things that came and went, like the iPod in its 5.5 model.
The so-called 5.5 generation, also known as iPod video, which came after the 5, is a terrible device for watching movies. Not so much because of the small screen as because of the even smaller battery. But it was an okay device for keeping family pictures back then, and it was such a great music player.
Even its imperfections were among its best features. I recall being so impressed by the animations and other fancy elements on the more modern iPod Classic interface, but little did I know that all that was a detour. The 5.5 arranges our music collection using a very basic interface, which is all one needs to find the perfect tune, click, and listen.
An almost hidden setting on Mastodon Lists brought joy to my feed again.
Tired of your Mastodon timeline being overrun with noise from big accounts? I’m using a simple trick to reclaim my feed and focus on the conversations that matter most.
When I started using Mastodon, all the conversation going on made me feel like I was going back to the old days on Twitter. I found it so enjoyable that it eventually became my primary social media platform, and it remains so to this day. However, at some point, all those remarkable conversations disappeared.
It took me a while to understand what was happening, but I eventually figured it out. As news and tech groups started joining Mastodon and other ActivityPub platforms, I naturally began following the ones I cared about. But because they post so often, regular people’s thoughts and conversations are constantly drowned out.
I tried so many strategies, for example, unfollowing some news and tech accounts, but that didn’t make the others more prominent. As usual, the solution was right in front of me all the time. Using the Lists feature on its own wouldn’t work, but there is a configuration I missed all this time. There’s a way to hide from the timeline everything that is in a list.
The solution I came up with was creating the News and Tech lists, adding the respective accounts to each one, and setting both to ‘Hide the posts there from home’, aka the main feed. I’m loving this. The conversations are back to my feed, and I can always go to a list to check the sea of posts there.
If you would like to try it, here’s how you do it:
I was jogging as if nothing had happened, and suddenly I saw this big tree blocking the path I usually take.
We’ve been getting “Severe Weather” and “Coastal Event” warnings for a few days, and today we woke up to severe winds. Then, about noon, the weather started to return to the norm, and I could even run at the end of the day. Things were not so normal, though. There were branches and scattered materials everywhere.
Porto went from wildfires to storms and strong winds in the span of a few weeks. It seems to me that Mother Nature is pretty unhappy with us humans.
First, explain what it is, then make it look nice.
Picasso once said, Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. In other words, one must be doing it — putting itself into the zone — to finally find the solution.
This is evident in Picasso’s museum in Málaga, Claude Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, or Van Gogh’s museum in Amsterdam, where you can see these master’s art in a chronological order, starting from the beginning of their careers.
It’s been a while since I’ve published anything on my blog, but this doesn’t mean I’m not writing. On the contrary, I’ve been incessantly working on my book. But that, on the other hand, doesn’t imply that I’ve made a lot of progress. In reality, it was only today, after starting the third draft, that I was finally happy with the book format.
In addition to Picasso’s mantra, what helped me find my way was a strategy I use when I can’t figure out a solution. What frequently helps is to first explain what it is, then make it look nice. Ironically, that doesn’t seem like it applies to understanding art. Anyway, when I restarted the book for the third time, I did it from the middle, explaining what the Containers of Information are. It was then that I gradually began noticing that parts of it connected to many things I had already written in the two previous drafts, which I started repurposing.
Based on the videos I watched, the Orion AR glasses appear to be a huge step in the right direction. However, when I look at the entire kit, I cannot help but think that Apple is still in a much better position.
All the data processing being done by that little brick can probably be handled by an iPhone. As for the wristband, guess what? There’s an Apple Watch that, by the way, already knows a thing or two about gestures. Additionally, I’m pretty sure Apple is gathering a lot of data from its own AR headset users. But, the most important element is the well-known walled garden.
If Apple feels threatened by a future commercial version of Meta’s product, I bet they will release a kit similar to the one I described above.
Strip down Evernote and go back to basics to focus on notes.
Tired of Evernote’s clutter? Too many features overwhelming you? This is how you can strip it down to a pure note-taking app.
Those of you who have already watched the video at the end of this article, know how happy I was when I first tried that new Sidebar Configuration feature. I was both nostalgic and overjoyed to see my decade-old companion working as a note-taking app again.
If that’s also your goal, here are some tips to convert Evernote into a plain, simple note-taking app. But first, make sure you have the correct version. The settings below are only available on version 10.107.3 or later.
Removing Distractions
Click on your name in the top-left corner of the screen, open the Settings menu and go to the Sidebar tab.
Uncheck the Show Task and Event Creation buttons option to remove the big, super-distracting purple and red buttons from below the Note button. However, as a reminder—or tip—they are still accessible by clicking on the three dots.
The Show note counts is an important element in my Timeline System and I kept it checked. As for Show recent notes, I prefer them on the Home page because I can see the thumbnails. As a side note, both of these settings have always existed.
We’ll soon get back to the last option on that list. For now, scroll down to the section below and click to close as many eyes as possible 🤣. Jokes apart, Here’s what I left visible on my sidebar:
- Home
- Shortcuts
- Note
- Notebooks
We are not done yet, but I need to take a moment to share a tip with those of you who love keyboard shortcuts.
Of course, I’m always trying to convince my family and friends. But whenever I work with a company or any organization, I invite them to create a Mastodon or other Fediverse account. I must admit that the conversion rate is fairly low, but I’m happy to be doing my small part in promoting such a great space.