@johnwells@mastodon.social
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

johnwells

@johnwells@mastodon.social

Native iOS, macOS, and Android dev with an interest in UI/UX. Chronic dabbler.

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christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Dumb question, but if I bought one of those "MagSafe stickers" on Amazon, that are traditionally used to give an Android phone MagSafe-like-stickiness, could I instead use it in reverse, and stick it to a non-MagSafe accessory so it would stick to my iPhone?

For instance, say I want to stick it to a banana so the banana magnets to my phone

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig A couple of my Android dev test phones have those stickers stuck to the cases they're in so they can stick to my MagSafe desk arm rig (cheap mic arm + screw-on magsafe camera mount == hovering phone to save neck and back that also keeps cables out of the way), and no, they don't stick to my iPhone.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

My ideal iPad is a 15" iPad Pro with an M4 Pro, combined with a Magic Keyboard with 2 Thunderbolt ports (that do both data & power) and a built-in second battery, that can run macOS and all my legacy software/workflows in a virtual machine, and can be operated entirely in clamshell mode from an external monitor. A drafting table when I need it, a pro workstation when I need that.

If such a machine existed, I would never buy a Mac again. That's what I've wanted on my desktop for the past decade

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith This does sound appealing. There's several good options for ~16" screen tablets out there now (the 16" 4k Xencelabs one seems particularly nice), but it's also and iPad and kinda-Mac and comes with Apple fit and finish that sweetens the deal considerably.

The only change I'd make is the Magic Keyboard being just an aluminum "dock" and magnetic iPad flappy bit that snaps onto a regular Mac keyboard. Have never been able to justify iPad MKBs due to their single-device nature.

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Choosing a travel backpack is really hard, and I still haven't found one I love, so mostly for my own reference I wrote a long post with thoughts on pretty much every travel backpack out there https://christianselig.com/2024/04/choosing-a-backpack-is-hard/

If you have other recommendations gimme

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig Keenly watching this thread (and will peruse your blog post), because I've been looking for a new pack of some sort myself.

What I need is something that maximizes the amount of storage within the constraints of airline "personal items” (can fit underneath the seat in front of you) and has a laptop and tablet slot. Been using the Peak Design Everyday Messenger 15" I used to tote back and forth to the office, but it's rather bulky and inefficient for this use case.

maxrudberg, to random
@maxrudberg@mastodon.social avatar

I wish I could use the Apple Pencil Pro with the Mac. They should make a Magic Trackpad Pro in 11” size that’s compatible with the pencil.

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@maxrudberg In a similar vein, I was thinking just yesterday that it’d be cool if Apple added a mode to Sidecar that allowed connected iPads to act as pen tablets. It feels kind of silly to need to buy a Wacom tablet when one already has an iPad that’s about as capable.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

Is any app actually using the animated SF Symbols support added last year? I was excited for more of the UI to do that by default, but I haven’t seen it anywhere

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith I have a couple of yet to be released projects using them.

christianselig, (edited ) to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Randomly curious: what email provider do you use?

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig Most often used “real” address is an iCloud one, but I also have Fastmail hooked up to a custom domain for professional email and an ancient Gmail account for junk.

Also technically have an Outlook account, but only because that’s what the uni I’m taking courses with uses.

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Random question, but does anyone get that bug in Safari on Mac where when navigating the YouTube website, sometimes you'll navigate back a page and the page won't actually change at all despite the URL updating?

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig Yes, but not only YouTube. It’s sites that try to manually manage browser history entries in general that can do it.

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

And podcasters. Basically why I gave up listening to them. They ramble and ramble and often don’t even bother to edit themselves any more. https://mastodon.social/@rands/112185865379425604

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm Not sure what the incentive is for podcasters, but the reason a lot of youtubers ramble on is because of the minimum video length that's considered optimal for monetization purposes, which is about 8 minutes. This incentivizes padding/rambling.

It's annoying either way. The best fix for this I've found is to go for video creators who either don't care about monetization or have other income streams (e.g. merch) so they don't have to rely as much on video ads to make money.

marioguzman, to random
@marioguzman@mastodon.social avatar

Low key I would use Windows XP if it meant I could have this iTunes back.

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@marioguzman It'd be somewhat cursed, but you could probably getting this version of iTunes for Windows running through WINE 😅

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@marioguzman My curiosity got the best of me. Yes, it works. Here's iTunes 4.1 for Windows running through WINE, complete with tray items.

Screenshot of tray items for iTunes and Quicktime for Windows in a macOS menubar

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Right outside the warranty period my beloved mouse started needing you to click really hard for it to function ;_;

Comfy mouse though, will probably rebuy

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig This seems like a common issue with the switches used in Logitech stuff, and has been for a long time.

Around a decade ago when I was using a Logitech Marble Mouse trackball as my main mouse, one or both of the buttons would consistently develop similar issues with time. I think I went through at least three of those things. Haven't had problems since switching to other manufacturers.

jamesthomson, to random
@jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

Remember when we all made tiny Mac laptops out of a Dell mini 9?

The back of a Dell mini 9 with an six colour Apple logo added over the Dell logo.
A Dell mini 9 next to a slightly trashed white plastic MacBook.

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@jamesthomson Back in the first semester of uni, I helped a classmate set his Dell netbook up as a hackintosh. Worked surprisingly well (albeit slowly with that Atom CPU), as far as I know he used it all the way through graduation.

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

I think I'd move to the 15" MacBook Air from my 14" Macbook Pro if only it had a USB-C on the right side too, and its screen resolution was greater than or equal to the 14" Pro. It looks so nice otherwise

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig On computers, outside of games I definitely find higher refresh rates to be a nice-to-have rather than a requirement. 60hz is generally speaking fine.

The part of ProMotion I actually value more is its variable refresh capabilities. It saves a lot of power with mostly-static screen content and makes things like 24FPS video look nicer, cutting down on judder and such.

gedeonm, (edited ) to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

Do you listen to music while you work?

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm Yes, sometimes.

When writing code, turning on something familiar/vibey (usually synthwave/retrowave) can aid focus and make hours of work melt away. Occasionally harder music like electronic rock or drum’n'bass can get me amped up which channels directly into my work.

More nuanced/intricate music usually only works alongside creative work like UI mockups, making icons, or drawing and can also have a time-melting effect.

There are some days where only peace and quiet works though.

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

Anyone out there drive an Ioniq 5? I’m looking at it for my next car and need to gather opinions both good and bad. If you have thoughts you wanna share please let me know. Thx!

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm Yeah the updates look good. Between this and the EV industry standardizing on NACS in the US, even though I’ll soon be in the market it seems like a good idea to hold out until at least later this year.

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm I think one of my neighbors may have bought one of these (only seen them driving by, haven't looked closely). Looks nice but also rather large.

Have read that they're working on a shrunken version (EV3 I think?) which might be available in the US later this year or early next year.

johnwells, to random
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

Was curious about what happened to those vertical titlebars I used to see from time to time in earlier versions of OS X and somewhat frequently in classic Mac OS.

Turns out they only ever existed in OS X by way of Carbon, which explains why I hadn't seen them in a while. With Carbon never getting brought along for the 64-bit ride, they disappeared from macOS along with 32-bit support.

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

I wonder why Cocoa never got its own version of vertical titlebars. They're a bit niche I suppose, but work nicely for certain types of palette windows, and I think a vertical combined titlebar+toolbar could be nice looking on modern three-pane apps, with the titlebar also acting as a pane with selectable items.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

Here's a fun Messages bug in macOS 14.3:

If you have selected some text in a received message, and command-tab out then back into Messages, you can start typing to overwrite the message in the message bubble

FB13563308

video/mp4

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith Cell reuse bug? Assuming this view is still UICollectionView-based

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

With Apple's proposal to comply with EU's DMA fast approaching, I should lay down what kind of solution I’d be happy with:

• Apple should be able to charge devs a one-time fee to develop apps outside the App Store ($500–$1500 wouldn't be crazy)
• Apple should maintain control over the signing/entitlement system, keeping iOS secure and allowing malicious apps to be revoked
• Apple should never take a cut of sales outside its Store
• An expensive ($xxM?) ‘alternative app store' permit is fine

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith I would agree that at the very least, some way to pull the plug on malicious apps is an important ability to keep around.

Compared to the Mac, potential for abuse on iOS is dramatically higher by virtue of the iOS users being far both more numerous and on average less technically-inclined.

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Is creating custom SF Symbols still a supported option? Weirdly if I export a symbol from the app and immediately re-import it, it already loses aspects of the symbol (like the minus, in the attached video)

Trying to create a custom SF Symbol by immediately exporting than importing a symbol and the icon changes

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig It's been a while since I created an SF Symbol, but last I did the import process was very fussy about things like sub-curve ordering and operations (union, subtract, etc). It can sometimes take some tinkering to get the right result.

It wouldn't surprise me if what's happening here is that aspects of the importer behavior have changed since that symbol was added.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

If one of the primary use cases, from the outset, for Vision Pro is plugged in at a desk, with mouse and keyboard…

…should the platform have had native Mac/AppKit app compatibility alongside or instead of iPad?

Was basing the OS on iPadOS the wrong choice? Will this give it a permanent impairment that hinders it longterm and relegates it to toy computer status for most people, just like its tablet ancestor?

…does Apple at this scale have capacity to pivot?

This stuff keeps me up at night

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith It’s always possible that they’ll switch base platforms at some point down the line if it turns out macOS/AppKit is a better fit. With Catalyst keeping visionOS 1.x apps running shouldn’t be too much trouble.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented. Apple TV was originally OS X based and HomePods got switched over to tvOS.

marioguzman, to AppleVisionPro
@marioguzman@mastodon.social avatar

I am still unsure what sort of prescription to upload for when ordering ZEISS inserts for Apple Vision Pro. I have my normal prescription but it includes bifocals.

It looks like VR headsets like Quest, for example, are generally designed to use distance vision and I suspect Apple Vision Pro isn't any different in that regard.

I may have to go to my Ophthalmologist and get a prescription without the bifocals? You upload your prescription after ordering Apple Vision Pro.

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@marioguzman It seems unlikely, but I hope the store app has some sort of queue-position-holding mechanism in place for the Vision Pro to help people uploading prescriptions get their order in. It would feel pretty unfair if people without them zoomed through and snatched up the entire first batch.

gedeonm, to StarTrek
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

There’s coffee in that nebula!

johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm Very well done indeed. A lot of even the best fanmade CG on YouTube has little tells that give it away, but none jump out at me with this one.

Brings back memories of working through all the trek series some time around 2018. Wasn’t able to watch Voyager during its original run since family didn’t have cable (unlike TNG, which was on the local OTA ABC channel), but it sure did make for a great “relax after work” trek.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

Now that Apple will soon have its own take on an extended reality headset, what other form factors do you most wish Apple would lend their ecosystem weight to? Drafting table touch computer? Foldable tweener device? Home hub? Paper-like slate? Something else?

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
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johnwells,
@johnwells@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith At the risk of giving a boring answer, a take 2 on the 12” MacBook.

It’d work much better this time around with Apple Silicon, whichever chip they choose to put in it, but I could see them using a pared-down current-gen M SoC or even just an A-series with the M label slapped on so it’s capable of good battery life despite the smaller battery.

Few laptop manufacturers have ultraportables this size, and even fewer have one that’s good.

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