¶ A Computer for the Rest of Us

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A custom LEGO model of a classic Macintosh computer.

40 years ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, and introduced the world to the Macintosh. Feeling nostalgic today, I watched a video during my lunch break of Jobs introducing the Mac a few days later at the Boston Computer Society (it’s a higher quality video than what is available of the first introduction). There were two phrases that kept getting repeated that caught my attention: that the Macintosh was “a computer for the rest of us,” and that it was set apart by its “radical ease of use.”

Jobs imagined that the Mac would be as prominent on people’s desks as telephones. It would earn that prominence by being radically easy to use. He compared the telegraph and the telephone. While the telegraph was trying to get onto everyone’s desks, the learning curve was too steep due to the reliance on morse code. And in swept the telephone because of its radical ease of use. You simply talked.

The Mac entered my life when my parents bought a Mac Classic in 1990. I was 5, and absolutely enthralled by this box with a glowing rectangle that I could draw on my moving a mouse. As the years went on, my parents bought a Power Mac around 1994 or 95 and, shortly after, we also got the internet. My interest in computers launched into the stratosphere.

I subscribed to magazines like Macworld and MacUser, eagerly shoving the CD into the Mac each and every month to check out the latest applications. It wasn’t long before I started wanting to upgrade our Mac. Back then, it was very user serviceable. First we used 100 MB Zip drives to expand storage. Not long after, my mom and I added a second hard drive to it, taking the storage from 400 MB to an additional 1 GB. I still remember thinking we’d never fill up a gigabyte.

Around 1999, I ordered a G3 processor from Sonnet Technologies(they’re still around!), and did a brain transplant on that Power Mac. My dad thought I was going to destroy the computer. Thankfully, I didn’t, and it felt like we had a whole new Mac.

When it was time for me to head off to college, I saved up money from my summer job and, with the help of my parents kicking in half of the cost, I got an eMac. Not, not an iMac, an eMac. It was a great computer, though a behemoth. I think it was about 50 lbs. It worked well for my first year of college, but it was already clear in 2003-2004 that laptops were the way to go. The next summer my parents graciously bought the other half of the eMac, it became their first new computer in a decade, and I bought an iBook G4 for my sophomore year.

I’ve owned a number of Macs since then. The infamous Black MacBook. A MacBook Pro, and several MacBook Airs, including the M2 MacBook Air I use today.

The Mac was instrumental in my formative years. Its radical ease of use unlocked my imagination and propelled me to pursue a career in tech. But at the end of the day, the Mac isn’t just a computer for getting things done. It provides a place of enjoyment, creativity, and the ability to do anything one can imagine. It really is a computer for the rest of us.

¶ My Dream MacBook Air

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The MacBook Air has a decade long history of being the forerunner of design in Apple’s portable line. The original MacBook Air set the stage for unibody construction, and the 2010 refresh made the MacBook Air the de facto portable computer for the rest of the industry by perfecting the unibody design, lowering costs, and expanding the utility of the device in its power and ports.

As a longtime MacBook Air user, I was so excited when that computer was refreshed in 2018 and brought up to modern standards — chiefly a Retina display. But my excitement was dashed by the inclusion of the butterfly keyboard. I just didn’t trust the keyboard’s longevity after 3 years of maligned reports regarding its reliability. Thus, I continue to use my 2012 MacBook Air, hoping the Magic Keyboard released with last week’s MacBook Pro 16-inch comes to the rest of Apple’s portables soon.

All it would take to get me on board with a new MacBook Air is the new Magic Keyboard. However, I can’t help but consider how the MacBook Air could be the forerunner of Apple’s portable strategy for the next decade.

My dream MacBook Air would largely take cues from the iPad Pro. Touch ID, while lovely, would be replaced by Face ID and a better FaceTime camera. Face ID has proven itself on the iPhone and iPad Pro, and should begin making its way to the Mac. (If not Apple’s portables, then surely the iMac should receive Face ID, as it doesn’t even have Touch ID!)

The next-gen MacBook Air should also adopt Apple’s in-house ARM-based chip designs. I’m not convinced it should be the same A-series chips found in iOS devices, so maybe a different alphanumeric combination, since Apple could probably pack a lot more punch in something the size of a MacBook. Apple used to tout an M-series coprocessor with its A-series chips, but hasn’t done so in years. M would be the perfect moniker for a chip destined for the Mac.

Finally, four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports should be the standard, since we’ll all reside in Dongletown for the foreseeable future. The argument could then be made that the Pro line should have 6 ports, which I don’t think anyone would complain about.

The laptop form factor has generally reached perfection, and did so a long time ago. We already have gorgeous screens and superb industrial design. The next decade of Mac portables should embrace the Magic Keyboard across the entire product line, adopt Face ID as the authentication standard, unleash the power and battery life that Apple’s ARM-based chips have become renowned for, and increase the amount of ports to connect to.

These advancements would position MacBooks — Air and Pro — as the must-have computers for the next decade.

¶ Apple Finally Fixed the MacBook Keyboard

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Back in 2015 Apple released the 12-inch MacBook with a new keyboard mechanism they called the Butterfly Keyboard. One of the advantages of this design was it provided a great deal of stability to the key caps. It also allowed for extremely shallow key travel, which enabled Apple to push its obsession with thinness even further.

But there were disadvantages, too. While this is subjective, the extremely shallow key travel was probably swinging the pendulum too far. While initially excited by the purported awesomeness of the MacBook’s butterfly keyboard, I remember feeling slightly repulsed by the minimal 0.5mm travel when I first tried it out in the Apple Store. I wasn’t confident that I had actually pressed the keys.

And it didn’t take long for reports to start coming out from MacBook owners about reliability issues. It seemed the slightest particulate could wreak havoc on the butterfly mechanism and break it. And, beyond all expectations, Apple went all-in with the flawed design. In 2016 it spread like a cancer to the MacBook Pro line, and then to the beloved MacBook Air line in 2018. All the while, Apple kept revising the butterfly keyboard with new generations to try to mitigate the reliability issues.

In June 2018 Apple began a Keyboard Service Program for any and all notebooks that had the butterfly mechanism, covering repairs for 4 years after the date of purchase. Perhaps most embarrassingly, every new release of a MacBook/Pro/Air was automatically added to the Service Program day and date. This was probably the closest we will ever get to an admission from Apple that the butterfly keyboard was incredibly, deeply flawed.

I have been so cautious about this keyboard that I am still clinging onto my 2012 MacBook Air, hoping it will last until the butterfly keyboard is phased out of a future MacBook Air.

Enough history. I’ve done enough burying of the lede. This morning Apple unveiled the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with all sorts of great specs that I’m sure many pro users will care about, but most importantly they fixed the keyboard!

Apple has returned to traditional scissor switches, and they say they took inspiration from another keyboard that was introduced in 2015 — the Magic Keyboard. I have owned a Magic Keyboard since it was introduced and have used it without issue for years. It feels great to type on and has adequate travel. It’s honestly the best keyboard I have ever used. And I’ve long been a proponent that Apple should just stick that in the MacBook line. I couldn’t be happier at the news.

The new Magic Keyboard adapted for the MacBook Pro has a full 1mm of key travel, increased key stability, backlighting — the works. Apple also eschewed the full-height left and right arrow keys and returned to half-height keys in an inverted-T layout, which should make it easier for many people to quickly orient their fingers for directional navigation. I personally haven’t had an issue with the full-height keys on my external Magic Keyboard or my iPad Smart Keyboard cover, but undoubtedly the inverted-T layout is the better choice for mass appeal.

I enjoyed this particular take from John Gruber’s review over at Daring Fireball:

Calling it the “Magic Keyboard” threads the impossible marketing needle they needed to thread: it concedes everything while confessing nothing. Apple has always had a great keyboard that could fit in a MacBook — it just hasn’t been in a MacBook the last three years.

I have been very grateful for the Apple of 2012 designing the MacBook Air of that era for the long haul. For most of my purposes, my MacBook Air continues to do most of the I need it to, albeit slowly, and despite my eyeballs bleeding on the chunkiness of its non-retina display.

I honestly would have replaced it with the Retina MacBook Air in 2018 if that computer had not come equipped with the butterfly keyboard. I just didn’t (and still don’t) trust that design. The butterfly keyboard tarnished the reputation of the entire MacBook product line.

Marco Arment said it perfectly in his review today:

Following in the footsteps of the fantastic iMac Pro, updated Mac Mini, and upcoming Mac Pro, the release of the 16-inch MacBook Pro ends a painful chapter of neglect and hubristic design of the Mac. Apple has finally turned the ship around.

I fully expect that in 2020 Apple will bring this new Magic Keyboard design to the smaller MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. And I honestly can’t wait.

Twitterrific for macOS: A Phoenix from the Ashes→

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For me, Twitterrific has always been synonymous with using Twitter. I used it first on the Mac in March 2008. I even downloaded the app first, then signed up for Twitter to use it! And Twitterrific was the first app I installed from the App Store on iOS when it launched in July 2008. I tried a couple other clients when they came around, namely Tweetie and Tweetbot, but Twitterrific’s unified timeline always brought me back to the nest.

For the past several years, the Mac version has fallen by the wayside, and I got used to only using Twitterrific on iOS. Then, earlier this year, the Iconfactory set up a Kickstarter to resurrect Twitterrific for Mac as a fresh, modern client. I couldn’t sign up fast enough. The campaign was successful, and all summer I have been enjoying the weekly beta releases as the new Twitterrific took shape.

Twitterrific_macOS_logo.png

Today, Twitterrific 5.0 for macOS is available for everyone on the Mac App Store. It packs a ton of features into the new app, stays in sync with the iOS versions using iCloud, has fantastic keyboard and accessibility support, delightful sounds, and a few nostalgic Easter eggs from past incarnations.

Beyond any feature, though, is the care that the folks at the Iconfactory put into Twitterrific. It is clearly a labor of love, and the people behind it are genuinely fantastic. I suggest you follow a few of them on Twitter, and say hi. The best part about the Apple community isn’t just the apps we use to change our life and work, it’s the people and friendships made along the way.

In a sea of one-off money-grab apps, there are a precious few with a human story behind them. Twitterrific is one of them. And that’s why it is well worth supporting the team by purchasing Twitterrific for macOS.

Twitterrific for macOS re-hatches with Project Phoenix→

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I’ve been using Twitter for nearly a decade now and Twitterrific for Mac was what first got me hooked on the service. Over 72,000 tweets later and I still use Twitterrific (on iOS) every day. It’s safe to say that this app is my most used app.

I loved Twitterrific on the Mac, and while I understand why it was put in the parking lot of development to focus on iOS, I have always missed it. And I know its creators at The Iconfactory have missed it as well.

That’s why I’m excited to see that they want to bring it back with Project Phoenix on Kickstarter.

If funded, The Iconfactory plans to have a minimal app ready around August 2017 with t he following features:

  • Unified home timeline
  • Multiple account support
  • Composing, replying, and quoting tweets
  • Muffles and mutes
  • Streaming
  • Themes
  • Delete and edit your own tweets
  • Sync timeline position with iOS
  • VoiceOver Accessibility
  • Keyboard control
  • Attaching images to tweets
  • Timeline search (text filter/find)
  • Open links to other tweets, profiles and media in your browser

If they reach the stretch goal, they’ll add these in a major version release:

  • Direct messaging
  • Read, create, delete saved searches
  • Read lists
  • Built-in Twitter search
  • Built-in quick media viewer (images, GIFs, videos)
  • Built-in conversation and threaded tweet viewer
  • Built-in viewer for user profiles
  • Alt-text attachment when tweeting images
  • Searching for and getting suggested users while composing

And finally, if they reach a victory lap goal, they’ll add:

  • Simple list management (create, edit, delete)
  • Manage drafts and sync them with iOS
  • Dock-less mode
  • Built-in profile editor so you can change your bio, avatar and more
  • Trends
  • Video upload
  • Geolocation

That would pretty much bring it to feature parity with the amazing iOS version of the app. I chipped in, and if you love using Twitter and want to support a team that truly cares for the platform, you should too.

Cloak 2.0→

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The Internet can be a scary place. One thing that always makes me a little leery is public Wi-Fi. You never know what anyone else is up to on public Wi-Fi. One of the best things you can do in that situation is to use a VPN.

Unfortunately, VPNs are not something that most folks a) know about, and b) know how to use.

That's where Cloak comes in. Cloak makes using a VPN easy, as it does all the work. It even works on your iOS devices. I've been using Cloak for a year now, and today Cloak 2 was released.

The first Cloak worked fine on the Mac, but on iOS it felt very finnicky. This is where Cloak 2 really shines. Cloak 2 brings a new feature called Trusted Networks. You can tell it which networks you use that you trust, and it will disable the VPN when you are on those. Then when you venture onto an untrusted network, the VPN automagically kicks in and secures your connection.

And you only need to set this all up once, as Cloak will pass your Trusted Network settings on to all of your devices.

Cloak operates off a monthly subscription, and has a couple tiers.

I've found the mini plan to be more than adequate for my occasional afternoon working at a coffee shop, but if you are a heavy VPN user, then the unlimited plan is priced fantastically, too.

As I said, the Internet can be a scary place. Stay safe out there.

¶ My First Mac

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My first Mac was technically not my own. It was my parents', but it belonged to the family. The year was 1990. I was 5 years old. The Macintosh Classic was its name. It sported a 9-inch grayscale screen at 512 x 342 pixels, a 40 MB hard drive, and 1.44 MB diskette drive. It was the first Mac to cost less than $1,000.

Yeah, baby.

I was enamored with it. It seemed light years ahead of the black screen and green text IBMs my school had. I could play Wheel of Fortune on it. By far my favorite thing to do was to open AppleWorks and make a new drawing document and begin using a digital canvas to create a city with that big clunky mouse. Then I'd select this tool that looked like a tornado to send pixels flying!1

That little Mac was the beginning of my love for technology. When my folks upgraded to a Power Macintosh 7100 a few years later, the Internet was also just gaining traction with the public. My folks were always early adopters, and so we of course had the Internet.2 I remember adding USB to the Power Mac, upgrading the processor to a G3 processor from Sonnet, and how lightning fast it felt when we switched out the 14.4k modem for a 28.8k.

We got a full decade out of that machine with all the upgrades, and it likely could have gone more.

Then came the eMac I got for college. This was truly my first Mac. I quickly found out that a 50-pound behemoth was not ideal at college in 2003. This was my first experience with OS X. I hopped on the bus with 10.2 Jaguar, and 10.3 Panther was released just a couple months later. Safari was at version 1.0, and I haven't changed my default browser since. I used the eMac my freshman year, then it went to my parents to replace the old Power Mac.

My sophomore year I went with the 14-inch iBook G4. I used this through most of college and wrote many papers on it.

My senior year I treated myself to the black MacBook while I still had an education discount. That thing was lovely. I still kind of miss it, as it just looked fantastic. I would love for Apple to make a black space gray MacBook Air.

A few years later I got the first unibody MacBook Pro, 15-inch. This felt like a dream computer. It had real horsepower and was the fastest & thinnest computer I had used yet.

And, just about a year ago, I went to the MacBook Air. The Air is just plain fantastic. It's fast, it's battery lasts ages, and it is light. When you want to close up and go, you can do just that.

The Mac has been a significant part of my life for the past 23 years. It sparked the curiosity of a young boy and challenged me to learn more throughout the years. And these days it is integral to my way of life, not only in how I accomplish my own goals, but also to how I am able to provide for my family. Right now, I simply could not do what I do without the Mac.

Happy 30th birthday, Mac. Here's to many more.

  1. And they were pretty big pixels when you think about it! ↩

  2. "You’ve got mail!" ↩

1Password 4 for Mac Teaser→

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Dan Moren at Macworld has a little overview of a little something that my colleagues and I have been working on for a while.

I'm really proud of how 1Password 4 for Mac is turning out, and I can't wait until we get it into the hands of the people.

As they say, Fall is Coming.

Addendum: 9to5Mac has more pictures.

Disclosure: I work for AgileBits and 1Password's success pays my bills.

¶ Downcast for Mac | Review

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I'm pretty sure I've been an avid podcast listener since Apple first integrated it into iTunes and the iPod. Many would likely agree Apple kicked podcasts into mainstream use.

After the debut of the iPhone and then the App Store, third party podcast apps started to appear for movie listening, but I stuck with Apple's iTunes and the iPhone's iPod app, since I was syncing all the time anyway, because untethered sync still wasn't around for the iPhone. And I kept on this way until Apple released its Podcasts app partway through iOS 5's life cycle.

And boy did that app suck.

Podcasts was gorgeous at its debut, sure. I loved the reel-to-reel animation, superfluous as it was. But actually using the app was downright awful. So that left me with a decision to make between the two biggest names I had heard about. Instacast and Downcast. Both were iOS only at the time, but I didn't mind because I was doing most of my listening on my iPhone, anyway.

I chose Downcast. It didn't take long using Downcast and seeing how easily it synced over iCloud with my iPad to realize it was the app that Podcasts should have been.

From my review of Downcast for iOS:

Apple’s Podcasts app is slow, buggy, and lacks the typical polish and refinement we’ve all come to expect. This app does not feel like something Apple made. It doesn’t even use iCloud to sync the subscription list between your iPhone and iPad, instead making you go through the subscription process twice.

So here’s what you should do. Buy Downcast. It is every bit the caliber you would expect Apple to make, but Apple didn’t make it.

The only role Downcast didn't fulfill was being able to listen from my Mac. At first this didn't really bother me until I started being in front of my desk more and more. Sure, I've fired up my podcasts on my iPad and kept it playing on my desk, and that's fine and all. But I had been wanting podcast listening on my Mac again.

Today, my want is fulfilled. Downcast for Mac is now available on the Mac App Store. As soon as I installed and launched it, I simply clicked a little cloud icon, and checked four boxes. Immediately, my settings, episode list, podcast subscriptions, & playlists all came in via iCloud.

Aside: Downcast is one of the few apps using iCloud that really seems to just work without hassle. Many others I have don't work entirely well and I use Dropbox instead.

Downcast's interface is plain and simple in a refreshing way. It's very focused. You select your podcast and play. I do think it needs some refreshing over time. For instance, there are three different refresh buttons in the main window. One that refreshes all feeds, one to refresh a specific feed list, and another that seems to refresh everything in iCloud.

Aside from an abundance of things to refresh, Downcast for Mac is a faithful interpretation of what Downcast is in a Mac app. Downcast for Mac is available on the Mac App Store at an introductory price of $9.99.