Defaults (2024)
It has been more than a year since Episode 097 of my podcast Hemispheric Views, where we held a Duel of the Defaults! competition.
Others have been updating their lists, one year on.
It seems appropriate that I should do the same.
If there is a change from my list last year, I’ve indicated it with a leading ✨.
| Change? | Category | Default | Comment on Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| ✨ | Mail Client | FMail2 & Apple Mail | Back to FMail2 app & no more MailMate |
| Mail Server | Fastmail & Apple Mail | ||
| ✨ | Notes | Obsidian for Work; Apple Notes for Home | Different apps for different contexts |
| To-Do | OmniFocus | ||
| iPhone Photo Shooting | Camera.app | ||
| Photo Management | Photos.app | ||
| Calendar | BusyCal (plus Calendar.app) | ||
| Cloud file storage | iCloud (plus OneDrive) | ||
| RSS | Reeder with FreshRSS | ||
| Contacts | Contacts.app | ||
| ✨ | Browser | Vivaldi (plus Safari) | Vivaldi is great, and Arc has been deprecated by the developer |
| Chat | Signal | ||
| Bookmarks | GoodLinks | ||
| ✨ | Read It Later | GoodLinks | I hardly read later anymore |
| Word Processing | Pages | ||
| Spreadsheets | Numbers (plus Excel) | ||
| Presentations | Keynote | ||
| Shopping Lists | AnyList | ||
| Meal Planning | AnyList | ||
| ✨ | Budgeting & Personal Finance | Actual Budget on PikaPods | YNAB became overpriced |
| News | Apple News (plus ABC RSS feed) | ||
| Music | Apple Music (plus Spotify) | I have access to a Spotify account for variety, now | |
| ✨ | Podcasts | PocketCasts | I left Overcast after the disastrous rewrite |
Six changes out of 23 categories. 26% of the apps have been changed. Yikes.
I’ve turned on cross-posting from my micro.blog account to my bluesky one. Not sure I’ll keep it, but may as well give it a try.
Notetaking app update: my experiment with Notebooks.app is over and I’m back to DevonThink, and for work, I’ve bought a month’s subscription to Obsidian Sync and will likely get it for a year.
Inside Out 2, 2024 - ★★★½
A good rendering of anxiety, especially towards the end. Overall, though, this movie didn’t do it for me like the first.
Over 15,000 steps recorded by my Apple Watch before 2pm today. Well over my normal pace. That’s what gardening and packing a house ready to move will do for you.
Lonely Planet, 2024 - ★
I watched this 48 hours ago and have already forgotten it. Did not enjoy; it felt like a throwaway Hallmark movie.
🔗
interviews with star athletes saying the same predictable bullshit after being asked how it felt to do whatever heroic thing they just did. All of TV and news is like that, none of it is news, all of it is predictable bullshit.
News is no longer news, it’s just another form of disposable content.
It’s weird to think that globally there are millions of businesses using Teams. This is the best that the giant Microsoft can build? Is all of corporate society playing a game of “The Emperor Has No Clothes”? Teams is shit software and we all deserve better.
I borrowed a book using Libby from my local library. On comparing it with the Kindle sample of another book with the same name, it’s some kind of scammy AI-rewritten scam book. Fascinating. I think I will just buy the legitimate one.
At work I get barraged with email. I want to be able to compose an email without seeing my inbox. It’s an Outlook on PC situation. Let me guess, this is a whacky idea for normies and thus there is no way to achieve it. Am I correct?
As I recover from pneumonia, I cough, then hear my lungs crackle and pop as the airways pop open. It’s weird but kind of enticing. Like having a built-in bowl of rice bubbles.
Finished reading: The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape 📚As a long-term envelope (YNAB/Actual Budget) disciple, I found some of this too non-specific. Although it has some good thoughts on longer-term financial planning.
Finished reading: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 📚 A slow-moving story that kept me engaged, but I’m not sure what I come away with at the end.
I’ve spent this week watching all the Indiana Jones movies in sequence with my 8-year old kid. A nice way to spend evenings. 🍿
Benji solved a Rubik’s cube using an app and showed it to me.
I scrambled it.
“Well, that was a cool few seconds,” he said, as he looked at the messed up toy.
Hemispheric Views E119
Hemispheric Views E119: We kick things off at an odd time for everyone this time. How many Counter Chats™ are allowed in a single episode? Remember Pzizz? How many countries have you listened to the show in? I am Gratitudinal for all the basketballs in the run sheet this week.
At work I’m almost at the point where I couldn’t live without Obsidian. At home I don’t use it because now it’s embedded in my brain as “work software”.
I sold my Toyota Camry SL Hybrid 2021 today. It served me well for 40,000km. A lean manufacturing success story!
