Careful Tech: Recent Episodes
Matt Hauger
An onstage LED backdrop seems to make sense. But it undermines the experiential nature of live theatre.
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
- “You Can’t Stop the Beat” by Hairspray On Tour.
Our unexpected, surreal experience with Phantom of the Opera.
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
- “Pipe Organ_Opera Voice_with Drums” by you noise. Public domain.
A new app, Ivory, makes the Mastodon experience measurably better.
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
Why are instructions and how-tos all posted as video content these days?
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
Since December 4th, there’s been a steady decline in the number of Mastodon’s active users. Why? What does this mean for the future of the platform?
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
Could you build a social media algorithm that doesn’t undermine democracy and users’ wellbeing? #algorithm #facebook #TikTok #Mastodon #socialnetwork
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Facebook Wanted Out of Politics. It Was Messier Than Anyone Expected,” Jeff Horwitz, et. al., Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2023.
- In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain.
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
You may have heard people say, “The Fediverse is bigger than Mastodon!” That’s not quite true.
Find me on Mastodon or TikTok.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
Advertising-driven companies like TikTok subsist on your attention. They’re incentivized to get you “engaged,” regardless of whether it’s good for you.
Find me on Mastodon or TikTok.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
As Anthony DeRosa describes it, Twitter is “monetizing a car crash” — and I’m circling the crash site, hoping for more collisions. But what if we reclaimed the energy we’ve been wasting on Twitter and created something weird and amazing elsewhere?
Find me on Mastodon or TikTok.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
(Note: recording on the ski slopes — apologies for the background noise!)
Could you use AI to “harvest” new followers on social media?
Find me on Mastodon or TikTok.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
Should the US ban Tiktok? Is it “digital fentanyl,” as one lawmaker claimed?
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
Twitter flagged my Mastodon link as “sensitive content.” Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
As machine learning tools improve, do they threaten to make human creativity obsolete?
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
The Broadway adaptation of “Moulin Rouge” inexplicably abandons the film’s satisfying conclusion — in favor of a toxic anticlimax. Recorded outside — on a walk!
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “Lose (Retro video game SFX)” by cabled_mess. Public domain.
- “Printed Circuit Board” illustration by zhengdacool on Vecteezy.
For many small communities, Facebook is the only online source of neighborhood updates. Follow me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- Lose (Retro video game SFX) by cabled_mess. Public domain.
In the wake of joining Mastodon, I’m reconsidering my relationship to ad-driven social media platforms. Here’s a simple automation that (I’m hoping) will wean me off of Instagram.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- Lose (Retro video game SFX) by cabled_mess. Public domain.
Cloud gaming made it easy to rekindle a long-lost passion for video games.
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- Lose (Retro video game SFX) by cabled_mess. Public domain.
There are thousands of Mastodon instances. How do you pick just one?
Find me on Mastodon.
Sources
- “Video Game Coin sound effect” by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- Lose (Retro video game SFX) by cabled_mess. Public domain.
There’s a certain joy in loving something, but not loving it too much. To being satisfied with “good enough” over “the absolute best.” That’s why I typically love the Wirecutter—it balances “great” against “practical.” But the site may have missed the mark in a recent article about making espresso at home.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0. “Making Espresso at Home Is Kind of a Nightmare—But If You Insist, Here’s How to Do It Well” by Brian Lam at the Wirecutter
If you remove the fans from the arena, you might lose the energy that makes the NHL playoffs worth watching. Here are some ideas for addressing this challenge.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
By the time I graduated from college, I had ignored gaming for a solid four years. An entire generation of consoles, including the first Xbox and the Gamecube, had come and gone—and barely registered a blip on my radar.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
I’d love to be able to float widgets above my iPad apps. I’d love to be able to toss a timer into the corner and have it stay there. I want a persistent little sketch pad available for doodling on at any time. I want a ‘Now Playing’ doodad that will always show the current song. I my FaceTime video conversation to follow me around as I hop into and out of other apps.
- iOS 14 concept by Parker Ortolani
- Introducing the iOS Block by Jay Machalani
- Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Some of the longest-tenured and most popular podcasters don’t add chapters to their shows. Why not? Here are some reasons why podcasters eschew chapters (and why they might want to reconsider).
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
I like the AirPods Pro; they’re an impressive extension of the original AirPods’ value case: easy, quick, convenient. But don’t fool yourself; noise cancellation on the AirPods Pro isn’t miraculous—or even really all that impressive!
- Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
- “AirPods Pro observations (that I haven’t seen elsewhere)” on Careful Tech.)
If I logged into the Echo using my own Spotify account, my recommendations would soon be overrun with Disney songs and obscure 80s pop music.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
The Watch, by being less capable, ironically offers a more fulfilling computing experience, by constantly bouncing us back into the real world and towards more fulfilling experiences.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
There’s still no way to enable split screen mode from an external keyboard, even now, after the release of the Magic Keyboard. Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Where do you look awhen you’re Zooming (or Skyping or FaceTiming)? Either you’re looking at the other person, you’re looking at the thumbnail of yourself, or you’re looking at the camera. Each one of these has intrinsic, fundamental problems.
- Kate Murphy: “Why Zoom is Terrible”
- Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Does it bother you when you find out that others are paying a much cheaper price for the same product? Should it?
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
The iPhone is nearly the iPad mini’s size. Why shouldn’t it get the best iPad features?
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
My Apple Watch has a scratch. But instead of ruminating on my own clutziness every time I see it, I’m borrowing an approach from my meditation practice.
- Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Does the Magic Keyboard case make the iPad worse... at being an iPad?
- ATP episode 375
- Mike Rockwell’s review on Initial Charge
- Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
When I saw the trailer for the new Michael Jordan documentary, it was like I heard a cartoon record scratch sound. I was... unpleasantly surprised.
- The Last Dance trailer on YouTube
- Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Did you know that you can use a Bluetooth mouse with your iPhone? It’s true, and it’s... weird.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
It’s really interesting how many pairs of AirPods show up on patched-together pandemic performances. A few examples:
- "Gaston"
- "We’re All in This Together"
- "Alexander Hamilton"
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
COVID-19 has changed everything, and our parental approach is no exception. Since the coronavirus-imposed lockdown, we’ve grown far more liberal about allowing TV time, at least on the weekend.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Over the weekend, the Magic Keyboard arrived for some customers in Asia. Here are my ‘second-hand’ impressions of their impressions.
Impression videos:
- https://youtu.be/zasIJXYALS0
- https://youtu.be/2vmGgZkFK40
- https://youtu.be/j2ndl1FMQ2A
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Um… (Why I write outlines before each podcast.)
- Short one today, and kind of a “back-of-house” focus.
- I thought it might be worthwhile to share a little bit about how the sausage gets made. My MO for creating this podcast each day.
- So different podcasters have different philosophies on show prep.
- Some completely wing it. They may have a general idea of what they’re going to talk about, but they improvise, playing off of their cohosts to create something spur-of-the-moment
- Others are more like an NPR host, carefully preparing a script and effectively reading it on the air.
- I fall somewhere in between, but if I’m honest, a little bit closer to the latter.. I come into each recording session with a pretty well-fleshed-out outline of what I want to say. There are a bunch of reasons I do this.
- For one, while I may have a topic in mind before I record, I’m often surprised to see just how much that topic can shift, based on what I write down. Occasionally, I end up discarding my original idea and picking a different topic entirely.
- Second reason for outlining my podcast scripts: I make a better show when I plan it out ahead of time. There’s a limit, a legit ceiling, to how clever I can be off the top of my head. When I improvise too much, I feel like I too often just scratch the surface of a topic. Gaps in logic and obvious corollaries go unexplored, just because they didn’t spring to mind in the moment. Whereas when I outline, and especially when I read through that outline a time or two, I end up restructuring my thoughts into something resembling an argument. “Oh, that belongs up there,” or, “Hey, that’s kind of irrelevant, isn’t it!”
- Finally, while outlining my ideas ahead of time requires some time investment on the front end, it saves me a ton of work in postproduction.
- Because I know pretty much what I want to say, I don’t go chasing ideas down rabbit trails that lead nowhere. I don’t stuff every pause with meaningless filler words like “Ummmmmm”, “Errrrrr,” “So…….”. And I’m less likely to stumble over my own tongue trying to get my ideas out of my brain.
- Now, I do still occasionally mess up. And I haven’t yet excised the word “Um” from my vocabulary. But those missteps are relatively minimal, and fairly easy to clean up in the post-podcast edit.
- I edit the podcast on the iPad, mainly because my favorite app is so geared to that specific use case. A quick swipe of the Apple Pencil, and that “Um” is banished to the digital netherworld.
- Of course, there are downsides to scripts and outlines
- First, you lose a little bit of spontaneity and energy when you have a script in hand. It’s just easy to hear to difference between a recitation and an improvised take. I try to keep my delivery loose and relaxed, but I know it’s not quite the same as “doing it live.”
- Second, this approach really works best for a solo podcast. If I had a cohost (which I’d love to eventually have!), I’d need to be a little bit more nimble, a little better able to give and take on the fly.
- But for now, it works for me. I like the end result, and I feel like it’s worth the investment.
- So that’s my justification for the podcast outline. Just in case you’re curious, I’m gonna dump this outline into the show notes, so you can see for yourself how closely I hewed to my script for this episode.
- What’s your take on podcast show prep? Do you like to plan every pivot, or do you prefer to show up and see what spills out of your head? I’d love to hear from you…Thanks very much
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
So which is the “One True iPad”? The 11-incher or the 12.9er?
- Josh Ginter: “One Week With the New 2020 iPad: Moving Back to Small”
- Greg Morris: “Moving to the Bigger iPad”
- Matt Birchler: “Big or Small iPad Pros?”
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Give me a more powerful weapon against time-wasting apps—something I can’t override with a four-digit passcode.
Give yourself a reward—a carrot to see you through the low-motivation, low-energy days. And, to reinforce the creative habit, choose a reward that matches the habit—something that will make your creative work easier, more fun, or more interesting.
Now that Apple has added proper mouse cursor support to iPadOS, what’s keeping the iPad from competing more directly with PCs?
This week, Apple Watch fans are buzzing about a new app from David Smith called Watchsmith, which allows you to customize your Watch face complications by time of day. It's an amazing idea, well-implemented, but it got me thinking; what if Watchsmith offered alternative, NON-time-based triggers?
If I had the cellular Apple Watch, I would at least feel safer while out for a run; I could call for help if I needed it. But that's not enough to justify the extra cost.
I have scratched the screen of every Apple Watch I’ve ever owned: Series 1, Series 3, Series 4, and, now, Series 5
I felt silly, wearing my safety goggles and face mask. But I was determined to take COVID-19 seriously.
I feel self-conscious when I’m recording. I don’t want others to hear me. Yes, I’m aware of the irony!
Despite its many negative impacts, the pandemic may offer a good opportunity to revisit our daily habits and trajectory.
The swiping keyboard works with the Apple Pencil—in fact, it works a little bit BETTER with the Pencil than with your finger!
The biggest problem is the movement. When I’m treading, my head bobs—up and down and side to side—in the frame. It looks like I’m grooving to some inaudible, chill music.
Better late than never, right? Text entry via the Apple Pencil will make the iPad a more viable general-purpose computer, with or without a keyboard.
Video Game Coin sound effect by harrietniamh. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Some companies may stand to benefit from the widespread cultural change caused by COVID-19.
Once the public tastes first-run movies at home, will they want to come back to the local multiplex? Might COVID-19 accelerate the decline of the movie theatre and shift more entertainment to the living room?
As COVID-19 unexpectedly forces millions to work from home, I wanted to share some advice, as a long-time-remote worker.
I’d like to see Apple add another setting to the AirPods’ “Double-tap on AirPod” options: “Single.”
As I played with the devices, I realized that the 11-inch iPad Pro makes compromises in all the wrong places.
I’m bummed to miss out on the hotness, but here’s the thing: I can meet these “needs” without dropping $1,200 on an iPad Pro, a Smart Keyboard, and an Apple Pencil. It simply requires some creativity—and some willingness to compromise.
I’m sympathetic to our ISP’s sorry state, and I’m rooting for them to pull out of their apparent death spiral. I’m even willing to pay a bit more to help them survive. I’d just rather see them hike their rates honestly, instead of slipping in a bogus charge and hoping that customers don’t ask questions.
Adopting macOS wasn't quite what I expected—hardly the aesthetic epiphany promised in those old John Hodgman ads.
I’d like to see the iPad Pro support external touchscreen displays—effectively turning a touch monitor into a giant iOS device.
Apple Watch Series 4 battery life • Voicemail intro • We are coming from the same place! • Outro
By the time I've disembarked from the plane, stopped by the restroom, and found my assigned baggage claim area, my bag is often already there.
AirPods have clearly broken through in a huge way—but you wouldn’t know that, walking around my neighborhood.
Yes, I’d love a larger online audience, but would that really make me happier? Would strangers’ appreciation make me feel more loved or less isolated?
Geeks invest too much time and money in these Apple keynotes. But we’re not unique in our love of frivolous distraction from the “real world.”
When I first cobbled together my treadmill desk back in 2014, building the desk itself wasn’t the hard part. The real trouble was my feet.
If we’re honest with ourselves, it’s not the tools that hold us back from creating stuff on the internet. The real obstacles to creative productivity? Low motivation and overcommitment.
I’ve owned AirPods since soon after their release in late 2016. After a year and a half of daily use, I recorded some thoughts.
Many observers scoffed at the billion-dollar price that Facebook paid for Instagram. Who’s laughing now?
After a quarter-century using Windows, I'm finally getting a Macintosh. Did I wait too long?
My sleep-tracking app is surprisingly accurate, and I enjoy peeking at the trend lines every once in a while. But I don’t actually do much with all that data.
Publishing something imperfect, let alone something that's genuinely bad, is difficult for me.
Even if the Portrait mode algorithms improve, I'd like to see some support for touching up problematic depth maps.
I grew up shopping in dingy, cavernous, fluorescent-lit warehouses. But Apple outlets resemble high-end, big-city fashion boutiques, more than they do those Rust Belt K-Marts of my youth.
I want the Watch to show up as a system-wide audio target any time it's connected to the phone—just like standalone Bluetooth speakers and headphones do.
Users shouldn’t blame third-party for the Watch’s podcast unfriendliness. The real issue here? In the two-and-a-half years since the Watch first launched, Apple has dropped the ball on podcast support.
A device as expensive as the iPhone X serves as a negative status symbol in some circles.
When I stop delighting in the work for its own sake, I soon stop working altogether. When I let website analytics or podcast download stats serve as my primary motivation, discouragement festers, and I soon stop writing. It’s happened a half-dozen times before.
On Friday afternoon, UPS dropped off a new toy. My thoughts after a weekend with the iPhone X.
Clicking ‘read later’ isn’t about bookmarking great content. Rather, it’s my way of ignoring how little great content I actually read.
The vlogger probably wasn't aiming to gain YouTube subscribers by sacrificing her father's job. But that's what happened.
Some future iPhone will inevitably ditch all ports and buttons, leaving only the touchscreen accessible to the end user. It will be beautiful, glossy—and permanently sealed.
Anecdotally, buying the X felt no different than previous iPhone preorder nights. In fact, it might have been the easiest preorder purchase I've ever made.
Many action-heavy trailers now begin with a stinger—a 4–5 second preview of the trailer’s most exciting scenes, stitched together with fast cuts and scored with a cacophany of rising sound effects. It’s literally a “trailer for the trailer.”
The “Breathe” animation on the Apple Watch has an annoying little hiccup. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
The move away from shared screens on flights isn't welcome for those who struggle with tech.
Despite the crisis in web publishing, and despite publishers' increasingly desperate pleas, I don't feel guilty enough to turn off my ad blocker.
Yes, accelerating playback may save you time, but it also has nasty side effects better left avoided.
Tech brand loyalty is a malfunction of our tribal programming, and it works against our own best interests.
Tech distraction suppresses our agency, deadens our compassion, dulls our consciousness, and drowns out our sense of purpose. When distracted by our gadgets, we stop pursuing noble causes and instead squirrel away hours, chasing red badges and refreshed timelines.
The election has thrown American society into slow-motion shock. The tech industry continues to convulse, too.
If I buy an iPhone X, I'll justify the $1,000+ price tag by pointing to its killer camera.
Quitting Facebook is hard. But a few simple steps made deleting my account feel anticlimactic.
Although it’s painful for a Twitter “completionist”, Twitter bankruptcy is good for the soul.
When I ignore my desire for affirmation and appreciation and instead simply focus on expressing something genuine, blogging and podcasting are much more fun.
The world’s most dominant technology firm doesn’t need an army of apologists, patrolling the Internet for proof that Apple was right.
Facebook isn’t just “sticky” from a relationship perspective. There are also some practical annoyances that make it difficult to resist the blue behemoth.
We happily steep ourselves in foul waters, then act surprised when monsters emerge from the depths.
The iPhone X’s $1,000 price tag isn’t quite so hard to swallow when you consider the standalone gadgets that the device renders unnecessary.
If our devices can encourage exercise and meditation habits, why shouldn’t they encourage polite social habits, as well?
It’s not difficult to imagine the iPhone being “eaten alive,” its role absorbed by devices at either end of the size spectrum: the iPad on the large side, the Watch on the small.
Last night, Twitter began public testing of a long-rumored, controversial increase to its character limit, doubling the quota from 140 characters to 280. It’s the most significant change to the service since its debut over a decade ago—the difference between a quip and a quote, between a thought and an idea, between an objection and an argument.
What can other House of Cards and the Handmaid’s Tale tell us about Apple’s prospects in streaming video?
The best Apple Watch Series 3 review wasn’t written by a tech journalist but by a watch nerd.