On Blogging

I remember when podcasting first became a thing, and listening to podcasts meant, to some degree, listening to people talk about what podcasts were. In this sense, podcasts were about podcasting, which was kind of weird but also exciting in its way: what is this new medium, and what is it for?

In the intervening years, we’ve seen podcasting hold on to its vestigial name (the “pod” in “podcast” refers to the iPod, which was the dominant audio player in everyone’s mind at the time) while turning into a nearly perfect form of what they could become: hyper-specific radio-like shows that we can find, and listen to, when we want to listen to them and for however long we have to devote our time and attention to them. Podcasts didn’t replace the radio or listening to music or audiobooks, but they compete with them for our time and attention.

But this post isn’t about podcasting… it’s about blogging, and more specifically, the why. Here’s Chris J. Wilson on being an “unprofessional blogger”:

As an unprofessional blogger, I can write about what I want, when I want not write when I don’t want to (and not apologize!) try out something stupid and fail (but have fun) make grammar and spelling mistakes (and thank kind souls who point them out while deliberately annoying pretentious pedants) make a mess of my website as I change the design

Basically, I can have fun.

These kinds of posts–what is a blogger?–have the same solipsistic ring to them, in a sense, but I think it’s a question that comes up because people who write on the internet for no particular reason (ie they’re not trying to make a living from it) wonder about it. I certainly do.

And here’s Greg Morris, responding to Chris’s post, and defining a difference between a “writer” and a “blogger”:

Bloggers do it for themselves, not for the income. Writers, on the other hand, won’t bother if the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Being a blogger means that writing online, even when your posts are scruffy and error-prone, is something you do for the enjoyment of it, and that’s the best place to be.

Stirred and Shaken in the Manual

Shaken vs. stirred: The ultimate cocktail showdown – The Manual

I mentioned in Sunday’s Serial that I prefer a stirred Martini over a shaken one. The Manual does a nice job of explaining why, but rounds out the discussion of when shaking is preferable.

The truth is that most experts would strongly agree that a martini should be stirred, not shaken. Shaking a martini will give you a watery, cloudy, and frankly rather sad drink, while stirring it should result in a crystal clear, elegantly proportioned drink.

Shaken vs. stirred: The ultimate cocktail showdown – The Manual

iPad Pro M4 13”: Surfing the Interstices

I’ve been using an iPad M4 13” for about two weeks now, and thought I’d share my experience thus far.

iPad in the Denim Smart Cover

A storied test for me is the one-handed-reading-in-bed test: make an L with my thumb and index finger, and hold the iPad up while reading in bed. Almost every iPad improved on this test over the years as they lost weight, even when gaining some surface area. The 2018 12.9” was an unsurprising exception, so I often would use and older iPad for reading in bed.

iPad M4 Pro

The M4 Pro passes.

The places in which I use an iPad are the same, save one, as when I might use a laptop:

  • In the office
  • At meetings
  • Observing Staff
  • Working or reading on the sofa
  • Reading in bed

I do not, nor have I ever, read in bed on a laptop.

I like to take an iPad to meetings and observations; I don’t like to carry a bag around with me once I check in at the office. My MacBook Adorable was the only Mac that I ever found light enough to port around this way; I’d pinch the clamshell between my thumb and index finger and carry it from place to place. Its replacement, an M1 MacBook Pro, never felt small enough for this kind of duty. To this end, I like to keep the iPad in an Apple Smart Cover, which Jason Snell rightly describes as “the unsung hero” of the iPad peripherals world, when traveling around. So no keyboard on the go.

iPad Pro M4 Next to a MacBook Air M2

Here’s the thing about meetings: I’m increasingly annoyed by typing at meetings. I fully support digital note-taking in meetings, but I’ve seen (and committed) my fair share of doing email or other work during them. In my more recent zeal for handwriting on screens, I find that writing in Apple Notes during meetings, with the device flat on the surface before me, is a warmer, more receptive way to conduct myself during meetings.

And that brings us to the Apple Pencil Pro. While this iteration of the famously expensive stylus is not revolutionary, it is a welcome evolution of a solid product. The barrel tap of the previous Pencil has been replaced by a squeeze gesture; where the former was inconsistent and vexatious for me (I was never able to reliably toggle between writing and erasing), the squeeze works reliably. It is, in its way, full of delight and whimsy in a way that only Apple is ever capable of: from the radial menu that appears near your pencil point when you squeeze, to the drop shadow on your “paper,” the Pencil is delightful to use.

Recent updates to Notes in iPadOS 18 include Smart Script, which for me changed my digital handwriting from a messy simulacrum of my normal handwriting to a more composed version of my recognizable script. I really enjoy writing in Notes now, and delight in the small details available: summoning the ruler and underlining titles, watching my handwriting straighten out when I lift the Pencil, and switching tools and colors. iPadOS has vastly improved the note-taking experience on iPad.

iPad Pro M4 with Magic Keyboard Case

My intention was to use the iPad in the Smart Cover while moving around, and then dock it at the office using my Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard. I like this setup at the office a lot, and use it exactly that way. On my 11” M1 Pro at my last job, I did have the Magic Keyboard Case, but realized fairly quickly that it made the device not only larger and heavier than I wanted in a portable device, but that I often wanted to snap it out of the case and use it as a proper tablet. So swapping out the keyboard case for the Smart Cover was a frequent move. Still is.

The one use case where that all kind of falls apart is at home, where I do in fact want to use the iPad as a laptop, and the Magic Keyboard is absolutely the best tool for the job. Not only can you use the iPad with a keyboard on your lap, the cantilevered design pushes the screen closer to your face, which makes it better than a MacBook or other laptop for sofa use. It’s a strange middle ground to occupy, but there it is.

iPad Pro M4 13" with Smart Cover

iPad Pro M4 Smart Cover

Happily, Amazon was selling the white version at a more palatable price this week. I would probably not have gotten the white keyboard save for the sale, but I was curious enough about it to consider it. I’m pretty happy with it, and while having a silver keyboard deck is, for me, reminiscent of a bygone era (I prefer the darker metals Apple makes theses days), it’s the first time my iPad keyboard case has been anything other than a shade of gray.

The first Magic Keyboard surfaced quietly during the COVID quarantine; I just checked DayOne and learned that mine arrived on April 22nd from Best Buy. I remember the day, in fact; Rhonda and I were enjoying a walk during the quarantine, as we were wont to do at that time.

On May 13th of the same year, I updated DayOne, calling it “a dream to type on” and also:

If I have one complaint, I’d like to be able to tilt the iPad back a hair more. I feel like I’m always trying to bend it back another few millimeters and it won’t quite stay where I want it to. This is on my lap.

I would say that this has been achieved in the 2024 update to the keyboard. While the Magic Keyboard still keeps the screen closer to your face than a laptop screen, this new keyboard pushes the iPad’s naked robotic core back a smidge. It’s more MacBook-like, but not exactly so.

Back to the iPad: It’s super thin and light. It’s incredibly fast; save for the first generation iPad I purchased back in 2010, where RAM usage caused a lot of apps to quit without warning or notice, though, I’ve never found an iPad to feel slow. The display is bright and crisp, and although I’ve been spoiling myself using ProMotion displays since 2017, the refresh rate is similarly buttery and a joy to use.

Having moved between sizes, with a 12.9” in 2018, and then an 11” from work in 2021, I’d say returning to the larger form factor was the right move. I just love the big iPad. It’s great to use on your desk, in a keyboard, or naked in your hands on the sofa. I could easily live with either size, but it’s good to know the big one is out there.

The M4 iPad Pro 13” is certainly the nicest iPad out there now: fast as fast can be, thin and light, mated to a glorious screen. There’s nothing not to love about the device itself. It’s really a question of whether you need one. And if you already have an Apple Silicon-powered iPad, the answer is probably no.

Due to iPadOS, iPad still occupies a weird liminal space between being a giant iPhone, but with a size and form factor that begs for more Mac-like use cases.

Apple Buys Pixelmator

Much has been written this past week about Apple buying Pixelmator. Pixelmator Pro is a fantastic tool on the Mac, and Pixelmator on the iPad is great, too. The questions are whether Apple will continue to develop the product, subsume its features into the Photos app, or something else.

There are a good number of options available on both the Mac and iPad for munging photos, including Acorn on the Mac, and the Affinity suite on both platforms. But I would sorely miss Pixelmator on iPad.

I do wonder if some indie and smaller developers are nervous about a Sherlocking, though.

Sunday Serial: Belkin iPhone MagSafe Continuity Camera Mount, Endgrain Coffee in Pitman, NJ, and Stirred Martinis

Here’s this week’s list of things to check out:

  1. Belkin Stage iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays: I was lucky to inherit an M1 iMac at my new job, and thought this would be a good time to try out the Continuity Camera feature on macOS during Google Meets and Zooms. The iPhone attaches to the mount via MagSafe (no charging), and you can mount it atop your computer and swap the built-in camera for the much higher-spec rear camera on your iPhone. Works pretty seamlessly in my experience. Bonus: When you’re not video conferencing, the mount makes for a nice Standby setup on your desk.

Belkin Stage iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays

Belkin Stage iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Desktops and Displays

  1. Endgrain Coffee Roasters: This roaster is not far from my office, and I try to stop when I can to get some beans for my office Chemex. I’ve had the Oops! All Naturals East Africa Blend, Columbia Finca la Esperanza, and the Sawmill. The East African has been my favorite thus far.

Endgrain Oops All Naturals East Africa Blend

  1. Stirred Martinis: Rhonda and I have taken to having Manhattans every night; it’s rare to never that I make a martini these days. I nevertheless remember exactly how I prefer to make them, and one central conceit is that I stir them. I will gently agitate the shaker to approximate a stirring motion when lacking a bar spoon, but I will not, as a rule, shake a gin martini (vodka martinis be damned). We have found occasion, however, to order them at our local restaurants when we step out for dinner, and while they have been routinely good, there’s always an alarming amount of attention-seeking shaking that precedes our drinks’ arrival. I would gently ask that my drink be stirred, could I find the temerity and good time to do so, but until then, I can always pontificate here.

Gin Martini at the Greenview Inn