Awesome tip from Brett Terpstra. Just yesterday I tried to select some text within QuickLook, and frowned when I couldn’t. It just seems like a no-brainer.
Just slap the following in Terminal, then relaunch the Finder.
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE
via Shawn Blanc.
Shortly before going to bed last night, I saw that *The Verge had featured something from one of their forum posters. Brent Caswell, aka brentcas, had a pretty neat concept of how the iOS multitask tray could be improved. He focuses mainly on the iPhone, and I really like what he came up with.
By adding another row of apps, I think the multitask tray would gain much more utility in easily switching between several apps. I also really like how he keeps the status bar visible and adds Spotlight search.
I love iOS’s Spotlight search, when I remember it is there. I think it would become much more notorious for use in Brent’s mockup.
I’m also loving his idea for dedicated music and settings sections. As far as his settings mockup goes, I applaud his toggles for Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G (or 4G/LTE, depending).
What I don’t like about his settings mockup is the Clear All button for killing every app. I know many of my friends swear their iPhone performs better when they tediously kill off every app int he multitask tray, but I still subscribe to it being unnecessary. Sure, there is the occasional errant app, but that is the exception, not the rule. In my experience, iOS is very good at managing itself.
In the comments to the post, user ThomasEvans makes the suggestion that instead of Clear All the button should be for activating Personal Hotspot. I’m much more on board with that idea.
I’m sure if someone important at Apple saw this mockup and was inspired to add it to iOS, it would be a little late in the game to include it in iOS 6. Maybe for iOS 7. Or maybe Apple has something better up its sleeve.
On episode 87 of The Talk Show, John Gruber jokingly shared the three things necessary for becoming Internet Famous:
Now, I do not have a clicky keyboard, nor do I have the desire to have one. I would gladly accept a Sodastream, as I love carbonated water with a little lime in it. I do, however, make my coffee in an extremely fussy way.
I start off my coffee making process by setting my Cuisinart PerfecTemp kettle to 200°F. While that heats the water for a few minutes, I weigh out 12g of coffee beans from my favorite local roaster.
Here is where the fussiness sets in. I then grind my coffee manually in a Hario MSS-1B Mini Mill Slim grinder. After grinding the beans, I use an AeroPress to brew a single cup of coffee into my awesome coffee mug.
I repeat this process 3-5 times a day.
So why bring all this up, other than to give fellow coffee nerds a peek at my secret public vice?
It's a matter of craft. The built-in OS X dictionary's primary definition of craft is:
an activity involving skill in making things by hand
An alternative definition is:
skill in carrying out one's work
It is often all too easy in this digitally driven world to lose the tangibility of accomplishment. When you labor physically to make something excellent — yes, even a cup of coffee — you benefit greatly from the achievement.
As far as coffee goes, my comparatively laborious method yields a much better tasting cup of coffee than my automatic dripolator can provide. Quality over quantity.
As our society has moved to the intangible, it has become easy to forget what craftsmanship looks like. People scoff when a great app is not free. A dollar is deemed as spendy when it comes to software, for example.
But you know what I noticed? Many of the very best apps — the ones where it is apparent that the developer sweats every detail — cost more than a buck. It's these kinds of apps that are my favorite. And that is because their makers are true craftsmen. And I'd wager that they sweat the details and fuss over other tangible things, as well.
I think what I am really trying to get at is if put a lot of care and detail into something tangible, it will help you to apply that same care and detail into intangible work.
Get fussy.
Dan Miller at Macworld has some great tips for using the keyboard on the iPad. I knew a fair number of these already, like tapping and holding most keys for extra stuff (which also works on the iPhone). I did not know that you could simply swipe up on a key to expose those extras ever faster. That's something I'd like on the iPhone, frankly.
Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac is on a roll today with iOS 6 related news, as he noted that Apple (briefly) had a beta site for iCloud up that showed the Notes and Reminders icons. He also updated with a reader tip that the beta is likely tied to iOS 6, and that there are references to an iCloud developer site.
It’s plain to see that iCloud is one of the biggest things going on at Apple right now. I’d even venture to say that it is and will continue to be bigger than OS X and iOS. And that’s why we’re going to see leaps and bounds of improvements to it, especially if Apple launches a developer program for iCloud.
I suppose it is close enough to WWDC for the rumor mill to start swirling with iOS 6 leaks and rumors. Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac reports that Apple will be dropping Google Maps as their backend for the Maps app in iOS 6, in favor of an in-house backend.
This doesn’t surprise me, and I pointed out a couple months ago that it makes sense for Apple to sever ties with Google regarding the iOS Maps app.
Adobe has released Lightroom 4 on the Mac App Store. Not only is this Adobe's first foray into releasing a truly professional app on the Mac App Store, but it is also their first foray into a non-archaic installation process.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t follow-up with some caveats to buying Lightroom 4 on the Mac App Store. Head over to The Loop, where Jim Dalrymple lays them out.
Speaking of Louie Mantia, I’m reminded of his fantastic S.H.I.E.L.D. wallpaper. If you’ve been to The Avengers, you owe it to yourself to make your device a little more awesome.
Louie Mantia, on PC manufacturer’s futile attempts to make compelling computers:
You can call it a notebook, a netbook, an ultrabook or a sleekbook… but it’s never ever going to be the MacBook that people want.
— Louie Mantia (@mantia) May 10, 2012
Wolfenstein 3D Classic is free for a limited time for iOS, in honor of the game’s 20th anniversary. It has 60-levels, and fits in 19 MB. 19 MB was about half of the hard drive on the Mac Classic my parents owned in 1992.
Get it on the App Store.
