Techtonic

56: Bringing the Power of AppleScript to Mortals

Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 10:41:00 +0000

This week on the podcast, Joe is out sick so Joshua takes over. Our special guest, David Sparks, and Joshua talk about MacSparky Field Guides, highlighting a few updates to OmniFocus but primarily discussing Hazel. Then, the guys dig a little into the Workflow app to contrast automation for iOS and ‘macOS’ as we know them (note this episode was recorded before WWDC16).

About David Sparks:
David on Twitter (@macsparky)
David’s blog, MacSparky.com
Mac Power Users podcast

OmniFocus app related:
OmniFocus by OmniGroup
OmniFocus Field Guide
OmniFocus is Now Automation Ready
David’s Lynda OmniFocus course

Mentioned in passing:
Photos Field Guide
AppleScript: The Language of Automation
Simplicity Versus Complexity
IFTTT (If This Then That)
WWDC16
Apple planning Siri SDK for WWDC

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55: Apple, Save My Marriage

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:26:00 +0000

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe and special guest, Sean Doran, discuss their wish lists for iOS 10 and macOS, expected to be announced at WWDC (just around the corner). Sean’s a smart user experience designer in Columbus, Ohio, who can appreciate the finer details of Apple software platform. We think through the future of Siri, icloud backups—if ever such a thing should exist—and the relentless push to refresh Apple’s products.

Sean Doran related:
Sean on Twitter (@SPJPGRD)
Sean's last episode of Techtonic

Mentioned in passing:
Amazon Echo
Apple WWDC: What to expect at this year's conference

iOS wish list:
Apple Wants to Make Siri Far More Powerful
Apple's VocalIQ takeover could hint at Siri upgrades for WWDC and beyond
How to use Siri with typing instead of your voice on iPhone and iPad
Apple Working on Amazon Echo Competitor, Opening Siri Up to Developers
Google's text messaging strategy: try everything

macOS wish list:
Deep within the rumor mill?: ‘Apple to Sell Personal Cloud Storage Device Starting Next Month’
Apple Time Capsule 2TB ME177LL/A [5th Generation]
Arq Backup: backs up all your computers
Dropbox Project Infinite: A revolutionary new way to access all your files
OS X: Turn your beautiful photos into beautiful keepsakes.

wachOS wish list:
- Faster, like demo models
- Better button actions

Everything is a Remix:
Everything is a Remix (Remastered)
The iPhone Case Study
The series is by Kirby Ferguson

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54: Redesign All the Things

Joseph Darnell — Fri, 20 May 2016 19:33:00 +0000

Joe Darnell and our special guest, Lee Peterson, discuss new design changes afoot in iOS 9. Apple Music is rumored to receive a ‘simpler’ and more friendly interface in iOS 10 (X?). We debate how we feel about the design of Apple Music in iOS 9.3 and where we’d like it to go from here. Also, we talk about Instagram’s redesign; how will it influence communities and change what we think of Instagram’s brand? Listen and find out.

Lee’s interests:

Lee Peterson on Twitter (@ljpuk)
The Guitar Show
The British Tech Network
Lee's LJPUK blog
The App Factor

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53: In this Universe, Joe has an iPad Pro

Joseph Darnell — Sat, 07 May 2016 00:58:00 +0000

Joshua is out of town, so Joe has our special guest, Tim Smith, to discuss RSS reading, standing/sitting desks, healthy habits, Joe’s new iPad Pro (9.7), and podcasts in alternate universes.

RSS Stuff

Feed Wrangler
Feedly
Unread
Reeder

Standing Desk

Tim's Review: Human Solution Uplift Desk
Uplift Stand Up Desk with 1'' Thick Bamboo Top
Bonus material: Tim recommends this chair

iPad Pro

First, TIm’s iPad Mini (she’s a cutie)
Apple’s general iPad Pro page
Compare all 5 currently available iPad devices
Space Gray iPad Pro 9.7 w/Wi-Fi (Amazon)

Accessories

Apple Pencil
Smart Keyboard
Logitech Keys-To-Go Keyboard

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52: Ask Alexa if There’s Cake

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:33:00 +0000

This week on Techtonic, Joshua describes his first days with Amazon’s Echo, ‘The Woman in the Box’. She is far more responsive than Apple’s Siri, which disappoints us for reasons. On a good note, the Echo is showing promise and is useful for many scenarios at home. After Echo talk, Joe reviews his new iPhone SE. Why did he want to down-grade from his 6S, and what does the SE offer people that are ready to embrace a small phone?

Amazon Echo:
Amazon Echo, by Amazon
The Echo is Dan Moren’s favorite device of 2015
The rest of the Echo family that we didn’t get to
Joe’s substitute: AmazonBasics’ Portable Bluetooth Speaker
AmazonBasics’ Large Portable Bluetooth Speaker
AmazonBasics’ Small Portable Bluetooth Speaker

iPhone SE:
Joe’s former phone: iPhone 6S (64 GB, Unlocked, Retail Packaging, Space Gray)
Joe’s new model: iPhone SE (Unlocked, 64 GB, Retail Packaging, Silver)
Apple’s iPhone SE webpage
Joe’s preferred case: Apple’s MF046LL/A iPhone 5S Red Leather Case (Joe only uses cases when traveling)
Joe’s preferred iPhone dock: Twelve South HiRise

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(You will note that we have experimented with longer show notes lately. This week’s is nice a short, but in-depth highlights and takeaways will be back soon for future episodes.)

51: A Very Geeky Household Name

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 20:34:00 +0000

Our special guest this week, Daniel Jalkut, discusses MarsEdit, developing apps for Mac and iOS, and the difficult choices that independent app developers all face over the course of their careers.

Many Apple users know that fortune and failure is made on the app stores. What’s even more uncertain is going it alone: being a developer with an app that’s responsible for your livelihood.

But fortune and sustainability is made every day from the sell of productivity apps. Clever apps, like MarsEdit, were far ahead of their time, which help them find a loyal user base.

This isn’t the story of Brent Simmons, the creator of MarsEdit. This is the story of and lessons learned by Daniel Jalkut, the founder of Red Sweater Software. Daniel started working for Apple at the age of 18, later went to college to study music, then later became the independent developer that took ownership of MarsEdit. This one app has been responsible for his paycheck for the last nine years.

Not a Story You Hear Every Day

Joe first discovered Daniel Jalkut on the CMD+Space show in 2013. For a long time, Joe was aware that MarsEdit was in development and that Daniel’s command center was Red Sweater, but what he didn’t know was that Jalkut is a host of listener’s favorite Core Intuition, “a podcast about indie software development for the Mac, iOS and other Apple technologies.” This past April 1, they released episode #226: A Little Bit in Crisis. (Joe will now stop referring to himself in the third person. Hey, everyone, I’m writing the show notes.)

There’s more to Mr. Jalkut than his podcast and the MarsEdit text editor. At an early age, Daniel participated in the tech community, long before the Internet change everything. Out of high school, Daniel was hired for contract work at Apple. Daniel worked for Apple for many years before mustering up the courage to leave his job security and pursue another passion: music. He went to collage and studied the arts before becoming an independent app developer.

If his journey wasn’t already different from most (first, go to college, then, find a job, eventually create your own projects on the side, if you’re up for it…), he chose to purchase and continue development of the MarsEdit text editor that specializes in desktop blog editing on the Mac.

And while many developers have followed the rush to build cross platform tools, like productivity tools with versions for Mac and iOS, with sporty cloud syncing for file management, Daniel has maintained a steady course. The majority of his focus has remained on MarsEdit for Mac.

Lulling a Baby to Sleep with Noise

In the early day of the iOS App Store, Daniel’s first son was a newborn. Daniel and his wife read ‘The Happiest Baby on the Block’ to learn about the art of rearing a child. From study, he learned that infants do well listening to static noise. The theory goes that static noise is similar to the sound inside a mother’s womb, which infants hear before birth. Many young ones find it soothing.

Daniel developed the simple app he named Swish. With just a few simple features, it presents a static white noise and visual representation, like that of a broadcast television with poor antenna reception.

To this day, Swish is a classic example of an app with a skeuomorphic interface, which we discuss later in the show.

The Urgency of iOS Apps

Like most independent Mac developers, Daniel has been allured to the iOS platform. For many, building iOS products is the obvious thing to do. As a developer, building apps for two platforms sounds more impressive and possibly affords more opportunities than sticking to one.

There is a pervasive awareness of the fame and glory that comes with apps that have millions of downloads on the iOS App Store. In 2008, there was a gold rush to build businesses and products for iOS, and it certainly paid off for early app to market.

As time moved on, Daniel discerned that the need to build apps for multiple platforms wasn’t the right path for Red Sweater. He perceived that there’s an urgency to create iOS apps, but not necessarily a well-defined and important reason all Mac developers should divide their attention with the addition of iOS projects.

Daniel has started more than one app for iOS that he’s chosen not to ship. MarsEdit, Black Ink, Fast Scripts and Clarion are products of Daniel’s dedication to the Mac platform.

If he magically had an iOS version of MarsEdit at the ready with a strategic marketing plan to go with it, he’d jump at the opportunity to grow his business. For now, he’s strategically focusing on the Mac platform.

Other Apps for Sale

Though MarsEdit is his bread and butter, Daniel has a few other apps to offer:

Black Ink

Black Ink makes it easy to download free puzzles from sources on the internet such as the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Reader, and can open "Across Lite" files from various other sources on the web. Unlike books or CD-ROMs that come with a limited selection, Black Ink puts you in charge of downloading the puzzles you love to solve.

Fast Scripts

FastScripts is a powerful script management utility. Instant access to your scripts, by keyboard shortcut or menubar.

Global or application-specific control at the tip of your fingers. You'll spend less time mousing and more time doing.

An upgrade to the Apple Script Menu - a familiar design with many usability improvements and a refined UI.

Clarion

Clarion will fine-tune your musical ear. A customizable quiz partner for interval ear training.

You need a helpful training partner, not a messy interface. Clarion's simple quiz window is a snap to bring up for quick training between other tasks.

Choose the instruments, scales, and octaves that are most important to you. Set up as many configurations as you like and switch between them instantly.

Why Acquire MarsEdit?

When asked about obtaining and developing MarsEdit, Daniel equates it to a tag team wrestling match:

“It takes a lot of work to come up with an idea, put in all of the original investment of experimenting with the idea…work out the bugs, come of with a user interface, ship the first version, take the feedback, come up with a way to sell it…come up with a strategy for handling customer support… And you do all of that and you get 1.0 out the door, and often there’s not much gas left in the tank.

“And what was kind of cool about this situation with MarsEdit is my friend, Brent Simmons, had developed it and actually spun it off from NetNewsWire, which was and still is a popular Mac desktop news reader. I think that if that had been his focus and passion — to move forward with MarsEdit — he could’ve done a great job with it, but it was a situation where… I think it worked well for me to come into it with fresh energy.
“I often think back, like, how much did my own separate apps, like Fast Scripts and some other apps that I shipped… How much did I just get burned out at one point of shipping fatigue? With MarsEdit, not only did I come into it with fresh energy, but I also came into a scene where it wasn’t like it was making tons of money… But it was an established product and it had passionate users. And that was to Brent’s credit. He had not made it a household name, but like a very geeky household name.”

Acquisitions that Thrive

Something that Daniel has noticed is that many people believe he can’t take credit for MarsEdit’s development because he didn’t create it. It’s true that he didn’t write it from scratch, but his contributions to MarsEdit over the last nine years are significant and shouldn’t be overlooked.

It’s a heartwarming story: ‘App Acquired and Not Abandoned’. Daniel notes, “When it works out, it can really benefit both parties.”

Many a large tech company has acquired smaller businesses to drain them dry of talent, leaving the acquired company’s products to die. Google and Apple have done this several times in the last decade alone. Sure, there are exceptions, like Siri, an app created by a third party that Apple acquired and integrated into iOS. But when we think of startup acquisitions, we usually expect the products they made to fade away.

Daniel has cultivated a sustainable community of MarsEdit users, making it possible to satisfy customers with the app’s betterment and long life.

Where’s MarsEdit for iOS?

Like most developers that love Apple devices, Daniel believes that iOS has shown great potential and value. At times, he’s dabbled in more than one iOS app, but none of them have been officially released.

Daniel didn’t want to spread himself too thin. This is the main reason MarsEdit is a dedicated Mac app. When tools and platforms evolve around your app, it’s not necessary that you update with them. Why change what already works? Since the Mac app hasn’t suffered, and Daniel hasn’t created more work for himself than he has time for, it’s a win-win to stay focused on one version for one platform.

Before you start developing for multiple platforms, you need to ask yourself:

When you’ve been a developer for one platform long enough to find stable success, do you have a real reason that’s pushing you to learn and develop for the additional one?
Is it not good enough to be a developer for the platform you already know?
Is the allure of the newer platform so great that you need to work on it?
Is the money so great in the new platform that you can’t pass it up?
Is the money dwindling for the platform that you already know?

For Daniel, the answer to all of these questions was no. “It’s not stupendously easy to make a living on the Mac with software, but if I had to make a guess, I would say that it is easier than it is on iOS for the average person running their own software company.”

Experiments on iOS

There was this one time that Daniel started an app that he had every intention to release. Daniel had the idea to build an app that let people artistically customize pictures with frames and filters and upload them to blogs. He thought of this app long before photo sharing was especially popular with the rise of Instagram.

Examples of his app’s processed images:

He spent a lot of time and money building and designing the photo editing app for iOS. But in time, he weighed what releasing the app would inadvertently do
to MarsEdit, and chose to re-focus on his first commitment.

Another iOS app that Daniel started was a mobile version of Black Ink. To hear the comical case of unfortunate events that surround it, you’re going to have to listen to the show. (Please note: Be careful what you upload to the App Store.)

All of this and much more was discussed on this week’s episode. Our thanks to Daniel for joining us this week!

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50: The Apple Tree

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 10:49:00 +0000

Joe Darnell, Joshua Peiffer and our special guest, Joe Caiati, discuss a video by James Rath about Apple products’ accessibility features. Afterward, the guys break down what Apple device is best suited for specific contexts, but more specifically, the implications of using different combinations of Apple products — from the iPhone to the iMac to the Apple Watch. For example, life is very different with a Mac and iPhone than an iPad Pro and Apple TV. What’s the ideal combo?

Show Notes:

Joe Caiati (@joecaiati on Twitter)

Coworking office space by WeWork

Windows 7 and Windows 10

Mac Keyboard Shortcuts and Their Windows Equivalents

Watch James Rath’s accessibility video

Tim Cook’s shout out to James Rath

Accessibility features for Mac OS X

Jan Heiermann of Focus App on episode 42 of Techtonic

49: The Man in the White Gloves

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 11:56:00 +0000

Joe, Joshua and special guest, Micah Pogue, discuss the apps on their home screens, how they use their apps for productivity and entertainment, and their app layout organization philosophies.

Show Notes:

Our guest, Micah Pogue (@micah_pogue)

Joe’s home screen

Micah’s home screen

Joshua’s home screen

1Password
Google Maps
Gmail App
Mint - Money Manager
Scannable
Scanner Pro
Interact
Spark
Readdle
OmniFocus
Wunderlist
Listen
Hours
Focus
Our episode with the Focus developer
Hound
Spotify
Apple Music
Podcasts App
Overcast

48: Don Draper’s iPad

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 17:44:00 +0000

This week, our returning guest, John Livingston, discusses more features and experiences with his and Joshua’s iPad Pros. Joshua shares troubleshooting issues for his Retina iMac 27”, and Joe reviews his new MacBook (early 2015), and whether it makes a good 15” Retina MacBook Pro replacement.

Show Notes:

Logitech Create keyboard for iPad Pro
The lackluster iPad 2 (by today’s standards)
Bose bluetooth speakers
The iPhone has always had poor external speakers
Quick ways to enhance iPhone speakers on the countertop
Tip: Make your iPhone speaker louder with that empty pint glass on your desk
The Stump Store
Brydge keyoard for iPad Pro
Surface Book 5
Five reasons not to buy a Surface
Microsoft Continuum
Watch Steve Jobs introduces the original iPad
Apple iMac MK472LL/A 27-Inch Retina 5K Desktop
How to move your Mac’s content with Migration Assistant
Arq Backup
Apple Pencil
MacBook (early 2015 to present model)
FCPX on the 2015 MacBook Retina 12"
Apple Magic Keyboard
Apple Magic Trackpad 2
AmazonBasics 4-Port USB 2.0 Ultra-Mini Hub
Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor
Apple USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter
Hengedocks
Moom app for resizing and positioning windows with hot keys

Find us online:
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Techtonic podcast on iTunes

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Get better acquainted with us on Twitter:
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47: Moses’ Chiseled Tablets Were Better

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 21:10:00 +0000

Joshua and our special returning guest, John Livingston, review the iPad Pro. How is it shaking up engineering for John? Has it replaced Joshua’s MacBook Air in everyday use? What apps do the guys use to manage files and markup documents? All this and more in our iOS/iPad for professionals review.

*Trying out a different audio player on the website. Let us know what you think. -Joe

Apple vs. FBI?

Watch: Apple CEO Tim Cook Says iPhone-Cracking Software ‘Equivalent of Cancer’
ATP discusses in #158: YOU CAN'T OUTLAW MATH
Upgrade discusses in #77: I Don't Know Why You'd Call Them Friends

Who is John Livingston?
John Livingston on Twitter (@nuclear_ee)
John’s site (about engineering)

What is this iPad Pro you speak of?
Apple’s first generation iPad Pro
The iPad Pro’s smart keyboard cover
The Apple Pencil
Apple Pencilgate?
Apple to launch 9.7-inch iPad Pro, not Air 3
Logitech’s Create Smart Keyboard and Case
Apple’s iPad Pro protective case

Hardware we mention?
Samsung Galaxy Note
Stumps available at the Stump Store online

Software we mention?
Microsoft OneNote - notes on all devices
Microsoft Office for iOS (and other mobile platforms)
PDF Expert 5 - Fill forms, annotate PDFs, sign documents
PDF Converter by Readdle for iOS
Google Docs
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft SharePoint
Mircosoft OneDrive
The Sweet Setup’s review of PDF Expert
Evernote for iOS
Paper 53

Other stuff we mention?
Watch: Moses destroy the original Ten Commandments Tablets
Here's what the 'i' in iPhone means

Tell me more about Techtonic!
Techtonic’s site
Techtonic on Twitter (@techtonicfm)
Joe on Twitter (@jcsdarnell)
Joshua on Twitter (@joshuapeiffer)
Send email to at hello@techtonic.fm
Subscribe to the show on iTunes
Subscribe to the show with RSS

46: The Weekend Warrior

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 05:34:00 +0000

Weekend developer projects, Microsoft web development, and more.

Joshua and Joe discuss with our special guest, Jonathan Sampson, behind the scenes of Microsoft Edge, how Jonathan helps developers on the weekends, and cultivating our kids’ experience with technology.

Show Notes & Links

Jonathan Sampson on Twitter (@jonathansampson)

About Jonathan and his other Techtonic appearances

Gizmos & Gadgets!

Hour of Code

The Computer Chronicles

Magnetic-core memory

Watch The Computer Chronicles

First Generation Microsoft Surface

iCloud Family Sharing

iPhone 5

Disney Infinity

Microsoft Edge Browser

Microsoft Remote Desktop app for iOS

Visual Studio Code

The Sorry Legacy of Microsoft Explorer

Windows Continuum

Find us online:
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TechTonic podcast on iTunes

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45: Making Email Apps Sexy Again

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 23:58:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Rohit discuss CloudMagic and their email workflows.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by our special guest, Rohit Nadhani, the founder and C.E.O. of the CloudMagic email app developer company. We discuss our email workflows, the user interface of CloudMagic, and deconstruct several pain points we’ve experienced with email clients.

Show Notes & Links

Rohit Nadhani (@RohitNadhani on Twitter)

Rohit’s email app:
CloudMagic is the Mac email app I've been waiting for
‘You're Emailing Wrong: The Best Mobile Apps for Managing Your Inbox’ (WSJ subscription required)
CloudMagic’s Team Contacts feature

Other email apps mentioned:
Mailbox app’s developers gave up
Outlook for iOS
Spark mail app for iOS, by Readdle (Mac version coming soon)
Google Inbox
Gmail

Also mentioned on the show:
Webyog, Inc.
MySQL
Evernote
Microsft OneNote
Merlin Mann’s ‘Inbox Zero’ talk

Find us online:
TechTonic.fm

If you dig the show, leave us an iTunes review:
TechTonic podcast on iTunes

We’d love to correspond by way of old-fashioned email:
hello@techtonic.fm

Get better acquainted with us on Twitter:
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@JoshuaPeiffer
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44: Wojcik Finessing

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 03:19:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss pro video, Kickstarter campaigns and headphones with Caleb Wojcik.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by returning special guest, Caleb Wojcik, to discuss video production techniques, hardware and software, workflows for a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the way to shop for professional and consumer level headphones.

Show Notes & Links

Who’s Caleb?
Caleb on Twitter (@CalebWojcik)
Caleb on YouTube
Caleb’s website
Fizzle, Caleb’s former employer

The Freedom Journal Kickstarter campaign:
The Freedom Journal, by The Entrepreneur on Fire
The Kickstarter campaign for John’s book

Caleb’s reviews and such:
Caleb’s review of the C100 Mark II
Where to put Video Lights
Caleb’s review of the best monitor headphones
Sony MDR-7506 monitor headphones review

Tools of the trade (what Caleb’s used):
The Byword app for Caleb’s script writing
Paper 53, used for storyboarding

Miscellany:
Joe’s external Dell monitor
The Revenant, a film with incredible technical complexity
The Wirecutter reviews headphones too
Etymotic Research HF5 Portable In-Ear Earphone

Find us online:
TechTonic.fm

If you dig the show, leave us an iTunes review:
TechTonic podcast on iTunes

We’d love to correspond by way of old-fashioned email:
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Get better acquainted with us on Twitter:
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43: Jamming to Free Previews

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 21:23:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Bryan discuss Apple Music, streaming services, and user experiences.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by returning special guest, Bryan M. Brush, to discuss music streaming services — from the early days of cassettes to Apple Music. We felt that Bryan, with well over 30,000 songs, has an interesting user experience to share. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Joshua’s daughter just purchased her first iPod…

Show Notes & Links

Bryan on Twitter (@BryanMBrush)

Bryan’s last Techtonic guest appearance

Apple Music

The Lord of the Rings: The Followship of the Ring

Film score composer Howard Shore

Last.fm

Discovr - discover a world of new music

Wikipedia: Grooveshark

Where Grooveshark.com takes you now

Pandora Internet Radio

Experimental Folk (also known as Neofolk)

8 bit (also known as chiptune)

Singer-songwriter

Wikipedia: Audiogalaxy

Reddit: ‘Audiogalaxy’ is officially gone

The elephant in the room: iTunes

Apple: iTunes Match

Apple Music versus iTunes Match, What’s the Difference?

Wikipedia: Spotify

Spotify: ‘Music for Everyone’

Comparison of on-demand streaming music services

Amazon Prime Music

Anyone ever hear of Sonza?

Google Music

The Verge: Google buys Sparrow

Rdio is dead. Long live Rdio!

Twelve secret Siri commands for Apple Music

Find us online:
TechTonic.fm

If you dig the show, leave us an iTunes review:
TechTonic podcast on iTunes

We’d love to correspond by way of old-fashioned email:
hello@techtonic.fm

Get better acquainted with us on Twitter:
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@JoshuaPeiffer
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42: A Focused Activity Timer

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 14:50:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss the Focus app with Mac/iOS developer Jan Heiermann.

Joshua and Joe discuss the Focus app with Mac/iOS developer Jan Heiermann: it’s a to-do list, pomodoro timer and activity tracker rolled into one. Designed to cultivate clarity and effectiveness, Joe believes there’s nothing else like it for the Apple platform. Jan talks about its development, how he’s used the pomodoro technique, syncing on Mac, iOS and the Apple Watch, and the struggle for third party developers in the Apple App Store.

Show Notes & Links

Laser Focused:
Jan Heiermann on Twitter (@janheiermann)
Laser Focused website
Focus for Mac
Focus for iOS
Splitfari app
Counter app

The Pomodoro Technique:
A Primer to The Pomodoro Technique
Where the pomodoro technique got started (the kitchen timer)

Development:
About Objective-C
Swift programming language

Find us online:
Techtonic.fm

If you dig the show, leave us an iTunes review:
Techtonic podcast on iTunes

We’d love to correspond by way of old-fashioned email:
hello@techtonic.fm

Get better acquainted with us on Twitter:
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@_JoeDarnell
@JoshuaPeiffer

41: All the Monuments About You

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 01:46:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss Apple Music and SignPilot with Josh Lambert.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by our new guest, Josh Lambert, to discuss a tragedy that’s befallen Joe’s music library, and Josh’s brilliant digital sign software for nursing homes. What? You read that right. Become a problem spotter, people.

Show Notes & Links

Our guest: Josh Lambert (@ZettaGeek)

Music services:
Apple Music
Spotify
The astonishing growth of Apple Music isn’t all that it seems
Sign Pilot: Facility’s activities extremely simple and fast

Web/graphics tools:
GitHub
Bootstrap
FireFox web browser
iTerm 2: terminal editor for Mac OS X that does amazing things
Sublime Text app
Skype Messenger app
Inkscape graphics app
Gimp graphics app

Hardware:
The micro stick Windows 8 PC
Pine PC

Productivity:
TimeKeeper app
RescueTime: Find your ideal work/life balance

Another podcast Josh has enjoyed and learned from:
Smart Passive Income
SPI 046: Building a Lucrative Business with No Ideas, No Expertise & No Money

Find us online:
TechTonic.fm

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40: The Sarcasm Bell

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 21:43:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss new and innovative for 2016 with special guest Cody Coats.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by special guest Cody Coats of the Diagnostics & Usage podcast. They discuss TechTonic’s new music theme, D&U’s cover art redesign, Twitter’s 10,000 character limit, and the future of all things innovative they expect for 2016. They highlight virtual reality, augmented reality, drones for everyone, wiser messaging apps, voice operated devices and wireless chargers.

Show Notes & Links

Diagnostics & Usage podcast cover art

@CodyCoats

Diagnostics and Usage podcast

‘iPod Video’ player, the 5th generation iPod Classic

The ways of video podcasting

Civilization V

@JoeCaiati

Apple Store, West 14th Street, N.Y.

Notes.app: Everyone’s favorite Twitter extender

The mostly abandoned App.net

What 10,000 characters looks like

@DaUShow introduces the new cover art

Announcing the New Cover Art for Diagnostics & Usage

Time-lapse video of Diagnostics and Usage’s cover art redesign

Marco Arment talked about podcasting and blogging on ATP

Article from WSJ: ‘Tech that will change your life in 2016’

CES 2016

Remember the Amazon Kindle?

Sony’s Morpheus headset

The Oculus for Xbox

The Hololens’ augmented reality

Twitch.TV

Facebook Messenger iOS app

“Siri, are you serious?”

Cortana iOS app

Samsung EP-PG920IBUGUS Wireless Charging Pad

Mobee Inductive Charger for Apple Magic Mouse

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39: All the Good Managements

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:09:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss goals and time management tricks with Tim Stringer.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by our special guest, Tim Stringer, to discuss goal, project, task and calendar management with the apps that we use as tools to maintain them. We talk about Tim’s upcoming workflow workshop with Shawn Blanc, what is a goal, what’s Tim’s collaborative project management workflow, the impact OmniFocus has made, what calendaring app do we recommend, and how Tim is making use of the Apple Watch to form good habits.

Show Notes & Links

@TimStringer

Technically Simple

The first time we talked with Tim

Learn OmniFocus online course

OmniFocus Workflows with Shawn Blanc

Shawn Blanc’s site

The Focus Course site

Getting Things Done site

Clear app for iOS and Mac

Day One app

The Sweet Setup: What’s in my Day One?

The Martian, the movie profile on IMDb

Asana, online collaborative project management

Trello. ‘Organize anything with anyone.’

Slack, a messaging app for teams

Wunderlist, Keep your life in sync

Best of 2015: OmniFocus

Article: Why is Everyone So Busy?

Introduction to the Apple Watch

Sleep++ tracking with Apple Watch

Fantastical 2 app for Mac

Fantastical for Apple Watch

David Sparks’ Fantastical 2 for Mac screencasts

Best of 2015: Streaks, the to-do list that helps you form good habits

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38: House of the Future

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 15:15:00 +0000

Home automation is significantly improving ever so slowly. With us is an avid home automator, Katie Floyd, to discuss her sweet setup.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by special guest, Katie Floyd, to discuss her home’s automation. Apple’s HomeKit has enabled developers to get devices and apps unified to perform smart tricks to save energy and improve efficiency, so where do we stand? What are we using, intrigued by, and looking forward to home automation in 2016?

Show Notes & Links

@KatieFloyd

Katie’s website

Mac Power Users Podcast

David Spark’s first appearance on TechTonic, #9: A Better Learning Mechanism

Katie’s podcast app of choice: Overcast

Huffduffer ~ “Like Instapaper for podcasts”

Katie’s first computer

Macworld, the magazine and so much more

Steve Jobs announces switch to Intel & Podcasting - WWDC (2005)

Steve Jobs Demo Picks Podcast that Mocks Apple during Demo

Power Mac G5

Apple: Intro page to HomeKit

MacStories: The First HomeKit Enabled Devices Begin Shipping

iMore: HomeKit details

Apple: Getting started with HomeKit

Apple: HomeKit tools for developers

Katie’s ‘House of the Future’

Nest Thermostat

WeMo smart appliances

Philips’ Hue lights

Smart WiFi Ecobee3 Thermostat

Open Sesame

Kevo bluetooth enabled deadbolt

Kwikset 909 SmartCode Electronic Deadbolt

Mac Power Users #176: Everyday Automation

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37: Playing Golf with Master Yoda

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 00:47:00 +0000

Jelly and Joe review the iPad Pro and Pencil as a professional tool for designers and illustrators.

The iPad Pro’s large display and ‘digital’ Pencil make it a professional tool for designers. With us today is special guest, Daniel “Jelly” Farrelly, a developer and illustrator that’s reviewed the iPad and Pencil with digital sketching in mind. He shares thoughts on Cintiq, Wacom, third party styluses, and Apple’s newest tools.

Show Notes & Links

About Jelly, on JellyStyle.com

Article: iPad Pro, for Illustrators

The original iPad’s introductory video from Apple

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36: What Would a Pixar Guy Do

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 19:16:00 +0000

User experience design is what exactly? The guys discuss the field with Sean Doran.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe discuss professional user experience design with our new special guest, Sean Doran. We talk about our backgrounds in design, Sketch for Mac, prototyping, web design animation tools, the philosophy behind user experience design, the six branches of the field, and eggnog.

Show Notes & Links

Sean PJPGR Doran on Twitter. (BTW, those extra letters are Sean’s real initials. I know…!)

Joe delves deep into Irish coffee on the Top Brew podcast, ‘It's Got Nothing to Do with Leprechauns’, with craft roaster Eric Rauch.

If you want to see stats on your tweets, mentions and the like, Ads/Twitter website for analytics. You’ll only see them in the Twitter apps or site, though.

When we’re not using the Twitter app, you can find us in Tweetbot, by TapBots. With a cool third party app developer company name like that, who wouldn’t check it out!

Sean took an early interest in the arts, video, and content creation with LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set, where you take still frames and seam them together for stop motion animation.

Sean’s website, with more stuff from Sean.

Cardinal Now

The six branches of user experience:

Interaction design
Information architecture
Content strategy
User research
User usability
Front-end development

LinkedIn is always frustrating. Just try connecting with Joe and endorsing him for something and see what Joshua’s talking about.

The three user experience factors:

Is this actually possible?
Does this make business fiscal sense? Will it bring in cash flow or reduce costs?
Do people want to use this? What does the user say?

There is SaaS and then there is SASS.

Amazon’s FreeTime unlimited service for the Kindle (and Kindle apps) gives unlimited access to children’s books.

Atomic Design by Brad Frost is a school of thought that you start with the simple ‘elements’ of the website/product and combine elements into ‘molecules’ (pieces of the puzzle of a site) and so on and so forth. Every designer should be aware of the principles of atomic design as they are helping advance high quality user experiences.

Watch Brad Frost’s introductory Atomic Design presentation.

Columbus Web Group

Khoi Vinh’s design and website are awesome, and it’s no surprise that he’s original in his site’s design. You might jump the first time you hover over a thumbnail.

Khoi: The Tools Designers Use Today

35: It’s Not Serial’s Fault

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 01:12:00 +0000

Joe and our guest Tim Smith discuss college, web development, podcasting, and radio.

This week on the podcast, Joe is joined by special guest Tim Smith. They discuss Tim’s career in web development, and the guy’s life-long interests in the radio and podcasting mediums.

Show Notes & Links

Podcasts Tim retired from:

The Intellectual Radio Program

Babblenut podcast

The East Wing

Transmission

Tim’s currently podcasting at:

Tower Media

For the Record

Narrative podcasts we enjoy:

Top Brew (honorable mention of Joe’s other podcast)

Serial (the podcast that podcasters like to blame for everything)

Funny headline: Where the Hell is ‘Serial’ Season 2?

Watch: Apple’s Beats 1 video

Details on Apple.com for Beats 1

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34: Electric Blue Saturday

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 21:21:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss restoring Mac OS X, follow-up for Apple TV remotes, Cyber Monday shopping, and more.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe record together in person for the first time! Joshua has follow-up concerning his Apple TV remote and user interface. Joe discovered that he can (and should sometimes) use Time Machine to restore his Mac. The guys debate the merits of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping — for better or worse. And, in conclusion, Joe has recommendations for Bluetooth speakers.

Show Notes & Links

How to backup and restore your Mac with Time Machine

4th Gen. (new) Apple TV

Apple Podcasts app spotted for new Apple TV on demo units at retail stores

How to quickly switch between apps on the Apple TV

Reddit - Apple TV remote scroll direction

Disney Infinity 3.0 Starter Kit for Xbox One, Playstation 4, Wii U, Apple TV…

Sphero BB-8 App-Enabled Droid

Udemy: Online Courses Anytime, Anywhere

Troy Hunt’s pirated online course tweet

AmazonBasics Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Bass Egg VERB Bluetooth Vibration Speaker

#MacStoriesDeals Black Friday 2015

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33: ‘Karl the Fog’ App

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 02:00:00 +0000

Joe Darnell and John Saddington discuss technology in relation to our work ethic, John’s app projects, and creativity.

This week on the podcast, Joshua is out of town, so Joe discusses entrepreneurship with app developer John Saddington. What’s our vision for short and long term career goals? How do we filter ideas that aren’t worth pursuing? And what’s John to do with the three versions of his writing app: DeskPM, DeskNT and DeskMD?

Show Notes & Links

DeskPM app website

Getting Things Done, by David Allen

Desk blog: Testing Medium…!

Ev Williams, CEO of Medium

John’s “Goodies” for bloggers

John on Medium

Macworld’s new review of the three Desk apps

Seth Godin’s Typepad blog

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@8bit

32: Summon the Power of Thor

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 13:57:00 +0000

The new Apple TV is in review, and in general we’re not crazy about it.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe discuss the new and old Apple TVs. Joshua plays Crossy Road for the first time, Joe laments the path Blu-rays have taken, Joshua takes issue with the new remote, Joe debates third party video game controllers, and both of them appreciate the gorgeous cityscape screensavers.

Show Notes & Links

Apple’s standard Lightning cable (pricey!)

AmazonBasics Lightning cable (cheap!)

Crossy Road’s website

Nintendo Wii U

The 3rd generation Apple TV

The 4th generation (the current) Apple TV

Ducktales Remastered for the Wii U

Derek TV show, starring Ricky Gervais

Apple TV Remote app for iOS

SteelSeries Nimbus Wireless Gaming Controller

Rayman Adventures

Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Starter Pack for Apple TV

Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Starter Pack for Wii U and other platforms

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31: That Reality Distortion Field

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 01:34:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe are joined by Micah Pogue and review ‘Steve Jobs’ by Danny Boyle.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by first-time guest Micah Pogue. They discuss Micah’s new job at C Spire Wireless, Joe’s review of the Apple Magic Keyboard, “Fetal Position Desks”, Joshua’s vacation in New York, and review Danny Boyle’s ‘Steve Jobs’ film.

Show Notes & Links

AnandTech: The iPhone 6s battery life

Uber car app for iPhone (iOS)

Micah 2011 Mac Mini (the model on Amazon)

The Mac/Enterprise

The Onion: Fetal Position Desks (Watch!)

C Spire Wireless

Joe’s guest appearance on Micah’s Mac/Enterprise podcast

Apple Q4 2015 financial results: Mac sales are rising

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 edge

Apple Magic Keyboard

From Joe’s site: First impressions of the Magic Keyboard

Stephen Hackett’s good Magic Keyboard review

IMDb Profile of ‘Steve Jobs’ film

Box Office Mojo’s ‘Steve Jobs’ details

Official ‘Steve Jobs’ trailer

Rotten Tomatoes’ profile of ‘Steve Jobs’

Mossberg: The Steve Jobs I Knew Isn't in this Movie

What Joanna Hoffman told Kate Winslet while shooting the 'Steve Jobs' movie

Steve Jobs and Pixar

Diagnostic & Usage, Episode 42: Bob Unemployments

Reel World Theology, Episode 78: Steve Jobs and Losing Control

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30: Batman’s Arch Villain that Turned Good

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 10:27:00 +0000

Joe and Joshua along discuss writing for the web, and so much more, with special guest Brett Terpstra!

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by special guest Brett Terpstra to discuss his work, workflows, tools, projects, and more. How is Brett like one of Batman’s villains? What is the nickname that makes Joe upset? All of this and more in today’s episode of TechTonic.

Show Notes & Links

Brett Terpstra’s website ~ Be sure to check out Brett’s projects for interesting tools that might be of real use to you.

Engadget ~ a technology blog network with daily coverage of technology, gadgets, and consumer electronics in general.

MoodBlast for Mac ~ “MoodBlast is a menubar/dock item (convertible) with a system-wide user-configurable hotkey that allows simultaneous posting of a "mood" to iChat, Skype, Adium, Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr, Pownce and Facebook, or any combination of these services.”

TUAW (retired) ~ The Unofficial Apple Weblog covered tips, reviews, news, analysis, and opinions on everything Apple. Founded in 2004 and one of the most successful blogs from Weblogs, Inc., TUAW was shut down February 3, 2015.

Marked 2 app for Mac ~ “Marked is a previewer for Markdown files. Use it with your favorite text editor and it updates every time you save.”

nvALT for Mac ~ nvALT is a plain text note taking app for Mac. It started as a fork of Notational Velocity with some additional features and interface modifications, including MultiMarkdown functionality.

Notational Velocity ~ The app that started it all, at least for nvALT. Notational Velocity is ”is an attempt to loosen the mental blockages to recording information and to scrape away the tartar of convention that handicaps its retrieval.”

Markdown ~ Write content for the web in an easy to read syntax that’s easily convertible to HTML. John Gruber’s very own contribution to the web community is a power tool for amateurs and professionals. Most pages of TechTonic.fm are written with Markdown.

Mac Power Users, Episode 206: Brett Terpstra *drink* ~ David Sparks and Katie Floyd discuss with Brett his workflows, writing, text file management, Marked 2, automation, and delighting in great projects.

Brett’s Systematic podcast on ESN ~ Brett interviews guests and explores the the ideas around creative work and productivity.

Systematic, Special 1: The Origin of John Roderick ~ Guest John Roderick, in the unedited cut if you will, goes to great lengths to tell the story of how he became a professional musician.

Molly Holzschlag ~ She might need an introduction… Molly is an outspoken advocate for the Open Web. She’s written and collaborated on more than 35 books on web design and open standards, and been dubbed one of San Francisco Webgirls' Top 25 Most Influential Women on the Web.

Systematic, Episode 137: Renaissance and The Human Element with Molly Holzschlag ~ This is the first installment of a Systematic series about Molly's career and — in the process — the dawn and growth of the World Wide Web.

Christina Warren, co-host of Overtired ~ Senior Tech Analyst at Mashable, co-host of Rocket on Relay, co-host of Overtired on ESN, and lover of film.

Overtired, with Brett and Christina ~ A show about lifestyle, work, pop culture, and bunches of other stuff that keep Brett and Christina awake at night. Think of it at the ‘Afterdark’ to Systematic.

Apple wireless chiclet keyboard ~ This is the last generation of Apple’s keyboards before they added “Magic” to the name of the product.

Apple Magic Keyboard ~ The new Apple wireless keyboard with sturdier scissor mechanisms, larger keys, annoying arrow keys, and a built-in rechargeable battery.

BetterTouchTool app ~ It’s a fantastic utility that lets you add dozens of customized gestures to a Magic Mouse, Trackpad, and other peripherals.

CODE Mechanical Keyboards ~ Joe has one of the ultra-rare Cherry MX Clear mechanical keyboards. These switches are unique in the Cherry line because they combine solid actuation force with quiet, non-click activation, and a nice tactile bump on every keystroke.

Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard ~ This is where Brett’s keyboard obsession started. The diNovo Edge was one of the first rechargeable Bluetooth keyboards, and despite years of competition, nothing else has come close to matching its slim, stylish profile, comfortable typing, and media features.

ErgoDox Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard Kit ~ “Imagine an ergonomic keyboard that’s so great, people would be willing to buy it in bits and pieces and solder it on their own. A mechanical keyboard, fully customizable to your needs.”

Matias Quiet Pro mechanical keyboard ~ Joe’s previous keyboard, the Quiet Pro lives up to its name. Very much a mechanical keyboard, but without a lot of umph behind the keys, they’re easier to press than you might expect and quiet so no one knows you're using an old school device.

Das Keyboards ~ Beautiful keyboards that have a lot to offer, but not our favorites. Known for their “solid” feel, the distinctive clicky sound, and the glossy finishes.

Feel Better: The Benefits of a Keyboard Tray ~ A few thoughts on how trays feel better and offer better posture for extended computer work.

NextDesk Pulse ~ Named the best desk ever. This machine is quickly adjustable for your height, offering the best angle for typing. It’s also a handsome desk, in our nerdy opinions, so check it out.

Brett’s Minority Report Treadmill Desk ~ If you want to see how…well, just click on the link already.

Minority Report setup: video evidence ~ You’ll see the basic desk setup, the treadmill, and the primary LEAP gestures in action.

Leap Motion Controller ~ Seeing this is believing. Virtual reality and hand-waving to control your Mac is a thing. Good pictures here show how it works and what’s possible.

60 Mac Tips, Volume 1 ~ A few years older now but timeless because the system hasn’t changed that much, ‘60 Mac Tips’ is a carefully built list of tips and tricks to make you more efficient on your Mac. Authored by David Sparks and Brett Terpstra, the insights into OS X are golden.

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29: George Lucas' Force 3D Touch

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 22:28:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and TJ discuss YouTube’s Red Subscription, Apple’s new Mac accessories, and review the iPhone 6s and 6s plus.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by our returning guest TJ Draper. The guys discuss YouTube’s new Red Subscription service, Apple’s new magical Mac accessories, and review the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

Show Notes & Links

Joe’s Cluny Blended Scotch

Kids in the Hall, Girl Drink Drunk

Youtube to Video Creators: You’ll Agree to the Red Subscription Deal and You’ll Like It

Apple’s Magic Trackpad 2

Apple’s Magic Keyboard

Joe’s CODE mechanical keyboard

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

Apple’s Magic Mouse 2

The iPhones 6s -- tech specs at Apple.com

The MovieByte Podcast (Joe and TJ’s retired show), Episode 32: Nuclear Fallout

Joe’s iPhone 6S and iPhone 6 Plus Comparison

An iPhone 6s and 6s Plus unboxing video

The Best Bluetooth On- or Over-Ear Headphones -- Joe has a set of the Jabra REVO Wireless headphones.

The Best Wireless Exercise Headphones -- Joshua has these.

The iPhone 6s Silicone case

The Lose It! iOS app

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@TJDraperPro

28: Driven by Bells and Whistles Like Dogs

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 01:40:00 +0000

Joe, Bryan and Joshua discuss Apple’s new “Magical” accessories, their problems upgrading iPhones, and tuning older iOS devices.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by special guest Bryan M. Brush to discuss Relay.fm’s new podcast app, the refresh of iMacs and “Magical” accessories, and the series of unfortunate events that Joe experienced upgrading to an iPhone 6s. For the main topic in discussion after side items, the guys share tried-and-true ways to tune older iOS devices that are slowing you down.

Show Notes & Links

Bryan’s website

Episode 10.4: Silly Kids, Radio Already Exists -- Bryan’s first appearance

Relay FM Launches iOS App To Discover New Podcast Shows

Apple’s refreshed iMacs -- What’s most noteworthy to Joe is the added display color detail.

iMac with 4K Retina display review: A high-resolution desktop Mac for the masses (Jason Snell’s review at Macworld)

New Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2, and Magic Trackpad 2: “Redesigned. Rechargeable. Remarkable.”

20 Minutes with the New Apple Magic Keyboard: First impressions from David Sparks

TouchPad by MartianCraft: Transform your iPhone or iPad into a remote control for your computer

Another (outdated) RC Trackpad: Secure Mouse, Touchpad, Keyboard & Remote

Medium (Backchannel): The Story of Apple’s New iMacs

Men, Don’t Fear the Rose-Gold iPhone (Wall Street Journal)

Joe first impressions: iPhone 6S and iPhone 6 Plus Comparison

Back up your Apple Watch: Learn how your iPhone backs up and stores your Apple Watch data.

iMore: How to clear Safari website data on your iPhone or iPad

MacStories: The Background Data and Battery Usage of Facebook’s iOS App

Paper, Facebook’s beautifully designed app (not speaking to the experience of Facebook itself)

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27: Wise to What’s on the Internet

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 15:44:00 +0000

Joe and returning guest Tim Challies discuss ad blockers and porn blockers.

What price are you willing to pay for something you believe is wrong? This week on the podcast, Joe is joined by special guest Tim Challies to discuss ad blocking and online pornography. Tim once wrote for his site about why he supports sites by living with online ads — not using ad blockers. Tim has also written and given talks around the world concerning online pornography. Joe and Tim debate what families can do to enjoy safer experiences on the Internet.

Show Notes & Links

Tim’s website, Challies.com
Tim’s first appearance on TechTonic, Episode #5: ‘RSS Feeds let You be a Grownup’
Tim’s book, Sexual Detox: A Guide for Guys Who are Sick of Porn
iMore: Ad blockers for Mac OS X
iMore: How to block ads on your iPhone or iPad
Blockers for iOS:
- 1Blocker
- Ad Block Multi
- Adamant
Tim’s original article: A Question About Advertising
An alternative point of view in favor of ad blockers: ‘Negotiations’, an opinion piece by Matt Gemmell
More alternative perspective: Don’t fight them, understand them
The retaliation — Former Googler fights ad blockers with ad-blocker-blockers
The ad blocker Joe used to use in Firefox, Adblock Plus
Hopefuly how advertisers will respond — We want advertisers to be mindful of websites’ user experience, personalization, and better segmentation
Tim’s articles on pornography
Tim’s ‘Porn-free Family plan’
When it comes to porn, Android users come out on top — Cult of Mac
Pornfree Radio — If you would like a podcast and resources to help you more with your addiction, we would recommend you check out Matt Dobschuetz’ website and show.
Video from Google Webmasters: How does Google Safesearch work?
Services for online protection:
- OpenDNS, the easiest way to make your Internet safer, faster and more reliable
- CovenantEyes, find peace of mind with internet accountability software
Tim’s book ‘The Next Story’, which we highly recommend (an interesting educational read)
Forbes: 3 Good reasons not to send nude photos via Snapchat

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26: Beware of the Blue Fog

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 21:17:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe are joined by John Livingston to talk about nuclear electrical engineering.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by John Livingston, a nuclear electrical engineer. We discuss his work, education, time at Apple HQ for an internship in 2005, our day jobs and side hustles, and quality versus quantity versus the pursuit of happiness.

Show Notes & Links

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@nuclear_ee

25: ‘Siri, Give Me Directions to Bed’

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 11:08:00 +0000

iPad Pros are the way of the future! And iOS 9 gets two thumbs up.

TechTonic Listener Mail Form

Eddie Smith (@Eddie_Smith)

Joe Darnell (@_JoeDarnell)

Joshua Peiffer (@JoshuaPeiffer)

Apple’s iPad Pro (coming this November)

Relay’s Cortex #13: Trail of Tears, Mike and Grey discuss the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro

Tim Bajarin’s article at Techpinions about iPad/iOS productivity

The iPad Pro’s Apple Pencil

The iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard

Screenflow for Mac

What’s new in iOS 9

Apple’s Notes app updates (AppleInsider)

The competition: Evernote

Drafts app for iOS

How to Turn iOS 9’s Keyboard Back to All Caps

Dropbox: How do I save space on my computer with Selective Sync?

Eddie’s first appearance on TechTonic podcast

Relay’s Cortex podcast with CGP Grey and Myke Hurle

24: Apple’s Event, and the Most Expensive Clipboard Ever

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:23:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Rob review announcements from Apple’s September 9 event.

Our guest: Rob McGinley Myers (@RobMcMyers)

Joe Darnell (@_JoeDarnell)

Joshua Peiffer (@JoshuaPeiffer)

An example of Rob’s app videos: Review of Due 2

Joshua’s wife’s new side hustle

Joe references CGP Grey, the YouTuber

The podcast: Anxious Machine

Watch the Apple Event

Watch the new “Choose Colorfully” Apple Watch commercial

Watch the introduction to the iPad Pro

Watch the introduction to the Apple Pencil

Watch the introduction to the new Apple TV

Watch the introduction to the iPhone 6S & 6S Plus

iPhone and Apple Watch iTranslate

iPhone and Apple Watch AirStrip

Rob uses Readdle’s app called PDF Expert

The iPad Pro (specs on Apple.com)

Ben Thompson’s iPad Pro insights

Joe’s take: Is the iPad Pro Ready for Productivity?

Logic Remote app for iPad -- as close as it gets to pro audio editing

23: ‘Siri, Find Pizza Places Near Me’

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 02:32:00 +0000

Joshua and Joe discuss Apple’s event highlights and dive into SEO with special guest Gary Morris.

Gary Morris (@garymoris) on Twitter

GraftedInDesign.com

Joe Darnell (@_joedarnell) on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer (@joshuapeiffer) on Twitter

Watch the Apple keynote

New colors and wrist bands available for the Apple Watch

The new iPad Pro and altogether larger iPad family

iPhone 6S and 6S Plus

Introducing the New  TV

iWriter.com, content writers

Google Analytics is your friend

22: Maybe We Will Unplug It from Our Brains

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 16:13:00 +0000

The guys discuss the most highly-anticipated September 9 Apple product announcements.

This week, Joshua and Joe are joined by Joe Caiati to talk about his new Apple Watch, fitness tracking, potential chip implants, leaked announcements for Apple’s September 9 event, what’s most attractive about an iPad Pro, and the pros and cons of the next generation Apple TV.

Show Notes & Links

TechTonic listener mail form

TechTonic (@techtonicfm) on Twitter

Joe Darnell (@_joedarnell) on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer (@joshuapeiffer) on Twitter

Joe Caiati (@joecaiati) on Twitter

Joe Caiati introduces Diagnostics & Usage’s move to 5by5

Joe’s Apple Watch and birthday cake (picture)

Video: Apple Apple Watch health and exercise research lab

Apple sends out “Siri, give us a hint” invitations to September 9 event

iPad Pro device specs and plans revealed

Plans for the upcoming Apple TV revealed

21: It All Just Works in Space

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 20:21:00 +0000

Stephen Hackett comes back to discuss working from home, his space podcast, Apple Music’s downfall, and more.

Joshua and Joe discuss multiple technology and space topics with writer and podcaster extraordinaire, Mr. Stephen Hackett. Stephen sheds light on his many work responsibilities: where he likes to podcast, the places he prefers to write, and how he manages his work hours. Additionally, the men review ‘The Martian’ movie trailer, geek out over the 70’s NASA worm logo, and debate the merits of Apple Music, iPods, and where Apple is directing music services in the fall of 2015.

Show Notes & Links

Stephen Hackett on Twitter

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

Stephen’s site: 512 Pixels

Rocket Fuel, where Stephen used to work

TechCrunch: How Relay Proves that Podcasts aren’t an Overnight Success

Hours: Free Time Tracking app for iPhone and Apple Watch

Eternity: Track Your Time on the iPhone and iPad

IMDb Profile: Joe Versus the Volcano

Stephen’s new podcast: Liftoff podcast

Stephen’s review: Three Months with Apple Watch

Joe references: Iconic, The Ultimate Tribute to Apple

‘Martian’ Movie Trailer

Interstellar, by Christopher Nolan

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Wired: NASA’s Logo from the 70s was Ridiculously Cool

MacRumors: Apple to Demote iPod Stock to Accessories Shelves

Steve Jobs Introduces the Apple Store (2001)

20: Alligators Entranced by Magical Apple Computers

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 23:06:00 +0000

Mark, Joshua Joe discuss why they love to think and talk about Apple’s products so much.

This week on the podcast, Mark, Joshua and Joe discuss Apple Computer history: the business that invented the personal computer, what they have observed about Steve Jobs’ company over the years, and what they make of the company now with Tim Cook is at the helm.

Welcome to Macintosh’s site

Mark Bramhill on Twitter

Airplane Mode podcast

Bandwagon Kickstarter

Gimlet Media

Reeder 3 for Mac (beta)

Unread app for iOS

Feed Wrangler

Minimal Reader

Mac Power Users 149 -- Katie and David mention Yahoo Pipes

Yahoo is Shutting Down Maps, Pipes, and Other Services You’ve Probably Never Heard of

Pocket “Save for Later” web, Android, and iOS app

Wikipedia: History of Apple

AppleWorks

GarageBand for Mac

Music video: I Think We’re a Clone Now

Apple Macintosh alligator ad (1985)

Macworld: 30 Pivotal Moments in Apple’s History

Sir Jony Ive

Fast Company: An Oral History of Apple Design

‘Steve Jobs’ movie trailer #1

Who Created the Internet

19: 10.9: We Don’t Want to Fleece the Gold Miners

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 18:46:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Josh (too many J's!) discuss the affairs of podcasters: producing and listening to shows in 2015.

Zencastr aims to give podcasters the tools they can rely on to edit with high definition audio via Skype and Google Hangouts with incredible ease. Developer Josh Nielsen joins us to discuss Zencastr’s service. Is one more piece of the production quality puzzle solved for podcasters? The guys discuss Zencastr and their interest in podcasting, as well as how listening to podcasts fits into their busy lives.

Show Notes & Links

Josh Nielsen on Twitter

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

Zencastr.com

Zencastr on Twitter

Josh’s Personal site

Time Magazine: ‘What are Podcasts?’

Skype -- the blessing and curse

Zencastr support on Reddit

Caleb “The DIY Video Guy” Wojcik’s videos

Caleb’s podcast

The Overcast podcast player

Apple’s Podcasts app for iOS

Stitcher -- ‘Radio shows and podcasts on demand’

Coming soon: Tung, ‘A social podcast player’

Inorganik Produce’s site

Pocket Casts app for Android and iOS

Feedback

If you enjoyed this episode, we’re curious to know what you thought. Every rating helps, especially on release days. Rate Us »

18: 10.8: Your First 1,000 Videos

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 02:11:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Caleb discuss indie video production.

Caleb on Twitter

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

DIYVideoGuy.com

DIY Video Guy on YouTube

Caleb Wojcik Films

Fizzle: Honest Business Training

‘Cubicle Renegade’ podcast (2012–2013)(retired)

VidCon

Ryan Connolly of Film Riot

Film Riot’s YouTube channel

Caleb’s camera: EOS C100 Mark II

Day One journaling app for Mac and iOS

‘Plex: Your media on all of your devices’

17: 10.7: Snazzy New Operating Systems

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:15:03 +0000

Joshua, and Joe discuss their experiences with El Capitan and iOS 9 betas.

Joshua and Joe discuss their first few weeks using versions of iOS 9 and OS X public betas. Bugs are in abundance, some features don’t add up, others are pleasant surprises design updates are interesting… Everything we love about betas can be found in Apple’s latest and greatest, but should you use the public betas or wait?

Show Notes & Links

Watch Plex on jailbroken Apple TV
On your Apple TV, you can browse or search your Plex content with your remote, as you would any other Apple TV function. PlexConnect does its magic by running two small servers on one of your local Macs: a Web server and a Domain Name System (DNS) server.

Details for iOS 9 at iMore
iOS 9, codenamed Monarch, is Apple's next-generation mobile operating system. Many a great article about iOS 9 from the writers at iMore is consolidated here.

Apple’s Preview of iOS 9
If you want to take the Apple tour, here’s the page where you can see new features, design traits, and learn about performance enhancements.

Craig Federighi demos iOS 9
At the WWDC 2015 conference, Craig Federighi took the stage and demo’d features of the upcoming iOS 9. In this demo on stage, you’ll see features in Messages, Music, Photos, and more.

Apple’s preview of OS X El Capitan
This is the “tock” in the release cycle, so you can expect refinements to the interface that was introduced to Yosemite. Additionally, there are a few new app updates that will wow many users. Full Screen mode finally makes sense if you take advantage of Split View…

‘Navigating Mission Control is a Breeze’
A few years ago, Joe produced this screencast, wherein he demoed how he uses Mission Control. The Mac interface is dated, but Joe’s use of M.C. is essentially the same today.

Yoink for Mac
Yoink simplifies drag and drop between windows, apps, spaces and fullscreen apps. Featured by Apple in the Mac App Store categories ‘Invaluable Utilities’, ‘Get Stuff Done’, ‘Staff Favorites’, ‘New and Noteworthy’ and ‘New Year, New You’. Joe uses it every day.

Spotlight’s new features in El Capitan
Spotlight has a greater ability to understand you. The search agent for OS X now pulls in results for weather, sports and stock information, and it can also perform searches for Vimeo and YouTube videos. In addition, it lets you use natural language to find what it is you are looking for.

LaunchBar 6 — “Meet the Future of Productivity”
Start with a single keyboard shortcut to access and control every aspect of your digital life. Access applications, documents, bookmarks and more by typing short abbreviations. Browse the file system, query file metadata. Copy, move or rename files and folders. LaunchBar 6 is a great Spotlight alternative.

The New system font: San Francisco
San Francisco is a typeface made by Apple. It is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface with adaptive spacing and line heights. Apple’s implementing San Francisco on OS X El Capitan, iOS 9, and watchOS.

TechTonic on Twitter
Joe Darnell on Twitter
Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

16: 10.6: In His Playpen with Telescope in One Hand and Palm Pilot in the Other

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 20:17:00 +0000

The affairs of indie web development, browsers, and more.

TJ Draper of Caddis Interactive in Franklin, Tennessee discusses with the guys the small business web development industry, his tricks of the trade, and what he personally uses to get things done. On top of that, TJ is also a podcaster, and he shares his take on the medium and where he’d like to see it go.

Show Notes & Links

TJ on Twitter

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

TJ’s articles at Mac.AppStorm

TJ grew up on what they call a “farm”

The antique operating system Windows 95

Video: Steve Jobs announces podcasts are coming to iTunes (2005)

The iPod Video (5th generation)

The MovieByte podcast on iTunes

TJ’s profile at Caddis.co

Video: How to Build a WordPress site

The Focus Course site

20 tips for using Google search effectively

What is HTTP/2?

VirtualBox for Mac

Sublime Text 3 (beta)

Path Finder for Mac (Finder alternative)

Sketch - ‘Professional digital design for Mac’

Google Inbox

OmniFocus for Mac

OmniFocus for iOS

Delightful experiences across desktop and mobile web browsing

15: 10.5: Our 8-year-old’s Online Girlfriends

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 20:11:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Jonathan discuss the next Windows web browser, the new iPod Touch, and more.

Jonathan Sampson and the guys discuss IE web browser support in enterprise, the release of new iPod Touches, and how to parent and educate children with the use of technology.

Show Notes & Links

An “Educational” Video Game Has Taken Over My House

‘Why I don’t worry about my kids’ screen-time’

A Tour of Microsoft’s Gigantic Sprawling Headquarters

Parenting Tips for the Digital Age

Minecraft School: Where learning and gaming collide!

14: 10.4: Silly Kids, Radio Already Exists

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 20:28:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Bryan discuss Apple Music, Beats, and iTunes. Oh my!

Bryan M. Brush on Twitter

Bryan’s website

All of the Above podcast

Joe’s appearance on All of the Above

Apple Music on Apple.com

iOS 8.4 User Adoption Explodes

Spotify, largely considered Apple Music’s top competitor

Rdio, another alternative streaming music service

Sandwich Video’s Rdio commercial

iTunes on Apple.com

Refine your Apple Music suggestions

Beats 1 uses ‘Feature Sponsors’ not radio ads

Apple’s failed Connect like service originally dubbed Ping

How to turn off Connect in Apple Music

Dave Wiskus’ ‘Disconnect’

Accidental Tech Podcast discusses Apple Music

Connected discusses Apple Music

Mac Power Users discusses Apple Music

‘Everything you need to know’ by iMore

How to use Siri for Apple Music commands

Feedback

How did you enjoy this episode? We hope you loved it, but we’re curious to know what you thought. Rate us on iTunes

13: 10.3: Best CIA Spy Submarine App

Joseph Darnell — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 20:54:00 +0000

Joe and Jacob and joined by special guest Shawn Blanc to discuss his workflows and work on The Focus Course.

Shawn Blanc joins the guys to discuss using technology with mindfulness, design philosophy, focus techniques, writing productivity, and Shawn’s newly released Focus Course.

Show Notes & Links

Shawn Blanc on Twitter

Shawn Blanc’s site

The Weekly Briefly podcast

The B&B podcast on the 5by5 network

Shawn’s review of some ‘Clicky Keyboards’

Olympus OM-D E-M10 photo camera review

The Sweet Setup

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

Book Notes: Creativity Inc., by CGP Grey

Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy

Instapaper ‘read later’ app

Kindle Voyage Amazon e-reader

Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Minority Report “throw it up on the wall” UI

Microsoft’s ‘Hololens’ paired with Minecraft for demo

Delight is in the Details, book+ by Shawn

Tools & Toys

‘Grilling’ articles at Tools & Toys

Thoughts about Apple Watch: ‘Just Smart Enough’

Living Without Regret in the Age of Distraction

The Focus Course

The Crossroads of Should and Must, by Elle Luna

Web developer Pat Dryburgh

12: 10.2: Now We’re just Messing with Physics

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 20:48:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe and Heather discuss Evernote, ROCeteer, and other exceptionally geeky stuff!

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe discuss entrepreneurship, online coaching, Evernote, the gamification of education, and more with special guest, Heather Wilde, from ROCeteer.

Show Notes & Links

Heather Wilde on Twitter

ROCeteer - Business Coaching

Heather’s site, Heathriel.com

The Top Cities for Women Owned Businesses

Evernote

Essay: Writing app for iPad

Make Evernote Speak Your Language

Another interview with Heather

Klingon support in Evernote…

Girl Scout Brownie activities

Minecraft

Dinopark Tycoon (1993)

Flight Tycoon game for iOS

App Camp for Girls

The Evernote Triangle Commuter bag

Evernote Clearly

Evernote Scannable app

Introducing Evernote Plus and the new Evernote Premium

Fundamentals of Evernote, by Heather Wilde (iBooks Store)

Fundamentals of Evernote (Amazon Kindle)

Jot Script Evernote Edition Stylus

Take notes in the shower with AquaNotes

Joe references Mithril

Recording and producing TechTonic is a our side hussle in-the-making. If you enjoyed this episode, please show your support by rating and reviewing it on iTunes.

Rate the show on iTunes »

11: 10.1: Using ‘Other’ for Rollerblade Exercise

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 20:43:00 +0000

Joshua, Joe, and Rob overview WWDC and review Apple Watch.

This week on the podcast, Joshua, Joe and Rob take an overview of WWDC keynote announcements, and review their Apple Watches, with special concern for Apple’s Music app and the Watch’s exercise tracking.

Show Notes & Links

At the end of our show, we took screenshots of our watch faces. Here’s what we have:

				<img class="thumb-image" alt="Joe’s and Rob’s Apple Watches" data-image="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/550c96dee4b051bbaff1d15b/t/557b38dfe4b0d40fa1a03709/1434138848540/" data-image-dimensions="466x466" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" data-load="false" data-image-id="557b38dfe4b0d40fa1a03709" data-type="image" src="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/550c96dee4b051bbaff1d15b/t/557b38dfe4b0d40fa1a03709/1434138848540/?format=1000w" />

An Update of Rob’s Anxious Machine, etc.

Rob McGinley Myers on Twitter

Anxious Machine podcast

‘Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling’ (book on Amazon)

Anxious Machine: Season 2, Episode 1 - ‘We Didn’t Want to be Conscious’

The Heard collective of podcasts

The ‘Neighbors’ podcast

The ‘Nocturne’ podcast

Apple’s WWDC Keynote

WWDC 2015 Keynote (video)

Apple Music streaming service preview

El Capitan Preview

iOS 9 Preview

New News app (competitor to Flipboard)

Upgrade #40, Mike Hurley and Jason Snell discuss the WWDC keynote

Moom App: Move and zoom Mac windows

Screencast: How Joe uses Mission Control (circa Mavericks)

Apple Watch Review

Apple Watch (Apple.com details)

Rob’s ‘Economy Darth Vader’ Watch: 42mm Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band

Joe’s ‘Steel’ Apple Watch: 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Bright Blue Leather Loop

The Due app for iOS

OmniFocus App for iOS, Mac, and Watch

Joshua’s go-to Paprika app for groceries, meal planning, and recipes

Shawn Blanc says the Watch is “just smart enough”

10: X: The (PRODUCT)RED Version of 'Welcome to Macintosh'

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 18:05:19 +0000

Mark Bramhill of ‘Welcome to Macintosh’ discusses tech storytelling.

Welcome to Macintosh, hosted by Mark Bramhill, tells stories of Apple culture. It’s the latest, smartest, advanced podcast achieving impeccable quality. Mark joins Joe and Joshua to discuss his craft, the gear he uses to record and edit, and his initial thoughts about his deceptively simple production.

Show Notes & Links

Mark Bramhill on Twitter

‘Welcome to Macintosh’ podcast on iTunes

‘Welcome to Macintosh’ podcast site

Squarespace: “Build it Beautiful.”

Mark is attending Rice University

Transom Story Workshop site

Aaron Mahnke, another storyteller

Joe references Jobs (2013) film starring Ashton Kutcher

Another Silicon Valley film worthy of mention

WtM #3: Trip to alphaSyntauri

WtM #4: Page Turner

Jason Snell on Twitter

Jason’s podcast, Upgrade

Audio Hijack app

Logic Pro X app

Some WtM music is by Breakmaster Cylinder (SoundCloud collection)

Tascam DR-60DmkII 4-Channel Portable Recorder

Shure SM58S Vocal Microphone

Sony MDR-7506 professional headphones

Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter CL-1 (“Arizona pride…”)

Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2x2 USB Recording Interface

99 Percent Invisible podcast, by Roman Mars

Anxious Machine, by Rob McGinley Myers

Episode #1 of TechTonic, with Rob McGinley Myers

The Heard podcast collective

Inquisitive, by Myke Hurley

The retired CMD+Space podcast

Dave Wiskus’ ‘Podcast Intervention’ video at Better Elevation

* TechTonic and Welcome to Macintosh are independent podcasts and have not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by (PRODUCT)RED, a division of ONE.

** Recording and producing TechTonic is a labor of geeky love. If you enjoyed this episode, please show your support by rating and reviewing it on iTunes.

Rate the show on iTunes »

9: A Better Learning Mechanism

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 30 May 2015 01:09:00 +0000

Writing, podcasting, and photo management with David Sparks

Mac users are used to the “digital hub” way of doing photos. In the new era, Macs are adopting features and apps of iOS. The latest such app, Photos, has changed the interface and experience we share with family pictures, screenshots, and professional photography. David Sparks and the guys discuss what’s involved making the best use of our cameras and photo libraries in 2015 with Apple’s end-to-end cloud solution.

Show Notes & Links

David Sparks on Twitter

Macsparky, David’s home on the Internet

Mac Power Users podcast

Sonos: HiFi wireless sound systems

Apple’s HomeKit developer framework

AltConf 2015

‘Photos Video Field Guide’

Field Guide Series

TextExpander videos

Drobo drives

Backblaze online storage

iCloud Photo Sharing

Mac Power Users on Relay.fm

MPU #254: Reviewing GTD with David Allen

Recording and producing TechTonic is a labor of geeky love. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider supporting our show by rating and reviewing us on iTunes. People will hear about us, we’ll become famous, and then you can say you knew us when. »

8: Joshua Calls it ‘Digital Murder’

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 22 May 2015 19:19:00 +0000

Thanks to social networking, Joe Darnell got to know his co-host and this week’s guest. They discuss community, and Apple’s entertainment platforms.

This week on the podcast, Joe and Joshua are joined by Joe Caiati. They discuss social networks: killing time on them, making a real difference, making new friends, and blocking idiots. They also look at expectations for TV streaming in 2015 — what might we expect from Apple TV, iTunes… and what services do the guys prefer, and why.

Show Notes & Links

Joe Caiati on Twitter

Joe’s site: Dot Info

Joe’s and Cody’s Diagnostics & Usage podcast

The OmniFocus app, by OmniGroup

The Learn OmniFocus online course, by Technically Simple

The ‘Getting Things Done’® method, by David Allen

Productivity, OmniFocus, and more discussed with Tim Stringer on Episode 6 of TechTonic

Apple TV Rumors at MacRumors

Apple TV related articles at iMore

About iTunes “Ping”

Apple TV’s supposed streaming service

Caiati refers to Workflow for iOS

Beamer app for Apple TV

The Verge’s cord cutting cost guide

If you would take five minutes to email us your feedback or rate on iTunes, we would love it! Thanks so much for listening, and let us know if there’s a topic or guest your would like us to have.

7: The Content Medium Omelette

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 15 May 2015 20:51:00 +0000

The guys discuss new media, big data, fitness and health tracking, and the scary future of wearables and “embeddables.”

This week on the podcast, Joe and Joshua are joined by Eddie Smith. Eddie’s unconventional-yet-effective new media approach to educating professional actuaries has loads of potential for all markets and teaching styles. On top of that great discussion, the guys hammer out their concerns for big data, fitness and health tracking, wearables, and “embeddables.”

Show Notes & Links

Eddie Smith on Twitter

Eddie’s site, Practically Efficient

The Infinite Actuary

“Actuary” on Wikipedia

Eddie references “MOOCS”

Joe references the FitStar fitness app

The Sleep Cycle alarm clock app for iOS and Android

The Big Data band

What is big data?

“Will Google Enter the Insurance Business?”

Eddie’s appearance on the Mac Power Users

Comparing the Fitbit One and iPhone 6

The Fitbit One

Health tracking with iPhone and iOS 8

Fitness etc. with Apple Watch

6: Grass-Fed Hormone-Free Productivity

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 09 May 2015 00:51:00 +0000

Mindfulness, focus, and productivity; we all want these values instilled. Tim Stringer describes his journey with the digital world into holistic productivity and the OmniFocus app.

This week on the podcast, Joe and Joshua are joined by Tim Stringer. Tim has a unique background in teaching character traits applied to tech life. Mr. Stringer shares what enables him to get more done and live a simpler, happier, life in the digital age, and introduces OmniFocus, his holistic methodology, and more.

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

Tim Stringer on Twitter

Corel, where Tim used to work

Technically Simple site

Learn OmniFocus site

OmniGroup’s OmniFocus app

The Sweet Setup’s review of OmniFocus

David Allen’s Getting Things Done site

Tim’s episode on Mac Power Users

Tim’s episode on Workflowing

Tim’s episode on Coaching for Leaders

Tim’s blog post concerning his healing journey

Tim among the OmniFocus’ ‘First Customers’ videos

Merlin Mann’s productivity workflow on the Mac Power Users podcast

Simplicity Bliss - more articles and the like about OmniFocus

Todoist, an alternative to OmniFocus

CGP Grey’s ‘State of the Apps 2014’

Shawn Blanc’s post ‘Meaningful Productivity’

5: RSS Feeds let You be a Grownup

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 01 May 2015 17:47:00 +0000

In this week’s episode, Joe, Joshua, and Tim discuss ‘life and faith after the digital explosion.’

This week on the podcast, Joe and Joshua are joined by Tim Challies. As author of The Next Story, Tim has taken a deep and introspective look at the cultural and historical impact of technology. His Christian lifestyle has a strong foundation in God’s Word, the ministry, and family. So where does technology help and hinder? We discussed writing methods, productivity, and our everyday devices.

Show Notes & Links

Tim Challies on Twitter

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

Tim's site, Challies.com

Tim collects notes and article ideas in Evernote

Tim writes in Markdown syntax to format his articles

Tim writes articles in Ulysses Mac writing app

Ulysses app for iPad

Author Neil Postman influenced some of Challies' interest in technology

How and why the printing press was invented

Merlin Mann introduces 'Inbox Zero' at Google Tech Talks 2007

Inventor, engineer, mathematician, entrepreneur, and author, Danny Hillis

About the creation mandate, sometimes called the cultural mandate

Europe 1849-1913: The Age of Liberalism

The Next Story, first edition in hardback

The Next Story, second edition in paperback

The Next Story, second edition for Amazon Kindle

Grace Fellowship Church, Toronto

Crucifrom Press, co-founded by Tim Challies

Info about Tim's book, The Next Story

Tim’s other book, Sexual Detox: A Guide for Guys that are Sick of Porn

4: It All Begins with Star Wars

Joseph Darnell — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 21:54:00 +0000

In this week’s episode, Joe, Jacob, and Jonathan discuss web technologies, ‘Project Spartan,’ and work in the Microsoft corporate culture.

This week on the podcast, Joe is joined by Jacob Lamont and Jonathan Sampson. As a developer at Microsoft, Jonathan is deep within the team assigned to Project Spartan. The guys discuss how from humble beginnings, Jonathan matured as a nerdy gamer into a influential web developer.

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Jacob Lamont on Twitter

Jonathan Sampson on Twitter

Jacob is a developer at Quietyme

Joe was just kidding about Hiram, Georgia

Video Game - Star Wars, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

Stack Overflow: web developer community and resources

Microsoft topics on Reddit

Microsoft officially announces Project Spartan

Internet Explorer: “Touch the Web”

IE’s very old competition, Netscape

More recent competition, FireFox

And, of course, Google Chrome

Edge HTML

Use your voice as a developer for IE

Ask for features for Spartan/IE

Test from your Mac: Remote.modern.ie

@MicrosoftPhotos on Twitter

@AngrySeattle on Twitter

HALO Spartan Strike on iOS App Store

HALO Spartan Assault on iOS App Store

HALO Spartan Bundle on iOS App Store

Brazil JZ Conf 2015

WebVisions Conference

3: It's a Database That Can Explode

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 18:56:00 +0000

Lions, tigers, and dogcows — oh my!

The digital world is largely a byproduct of Apple computers. Along with Stephen Hackett, Joe and Joshua discuss the ways that life changed for everyone over the last 30 years with the Mac. They also review our affair with photos, and the ways at present that we manage our ever-growing photo library concerns.

Show Notes & Links

Stephen Hackett on Twitter

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

The Atlanta Pen Addict live show Kickstarter project

Atlanta Pen Addict show ‘game thread’

Stephen’s spirit animal (dogcow) tattoo, which we didn’t get to talk about

‘Technology is just a tool’ for education and a whole lot more

‘Technology is just a tool’ Bill Gates’ quote

Taking it a step further, ‘Technology is more than just a tool’

The 1984 Macintosh was released 31 years ago

‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ biography

‘The Macintosh turns 30’ (2014) a visual history

A history of strife for Adobe and Apple

Apple and Steve Jobs’ ‘Thoughts on Flash’

Kevin Lynch joins Apple as VP of Technology

Kevin Lynch on Twitter

Joe started using Photoshop with version 5.0

Apple PowerBook history tour

Joshua’s early Mac, the Apple IIc

Super Munchers for Mac circa 1991

Stephen’s 512 Pixels site

Stephen and Myke Hurley’s Relay podcast network

Stephen, Federico, and Myke review the launch of the original iPad for Connected

Instapaper for ‘saved for later’ web reads

Apple’s new 12 inch MacBook

Review of the MacBook’s new ‘butterfly’ keyboard

Joe’s Apple Watch try-on appointment review

iPhoto, may it rest in peace

Joshua used iPhoto Library Manager in prep to move his collection to Photos

The new Photos for Mac app, included with OS X

Looking Back at the Future: The Apple Pop-up Museum

The new MacBook review by Rene Ritchie

iMore review of Photos for Mac

2: Using MacBooks Like Fiends

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 00:46:00 +0000

Joe, Joshua, and John Saddington discuss writing tools for the digital age. John introduces the Desk app, his award-winning desktop publishing client.

After touching upon some items of interest like Apple Watches, the guys discuss the virtues and pitfalls of technology for writing. Our special guest, John Saddington, the professional app developer behind Desk the writing app, explores with the guys where writing can be reinvented and reinvigorated.

Show Notes & Links

Joe Darnell on Twitter

Joshua Peiffer on Twitter

John Saddington on Twitter

Ready Player One, the novel

Ready Player One, the upcoming movie directed by Steven Speilberg

Anxious Machine podcast, by Robert McGinley Myers

Humans Need Not Apply, video by CGP Grey

Becoming Steve Jobs, the biography -- available for the Kindle and in audiobook

John’s blog, John.do

IBM Selectric typewriter

Video games of the past, like Super Mario Bros. 3, with their pipes

Visual Basic software programming

Michael Dell of Dell Inc.

The “#1” in online World of Warcraft dating sites today

The Iron Yard, 12-week course for software development

The Apple Watch

The Verge’s video review of the Apple Watch

Fitbit activity tracker devices

The Apple Watch will not be available April 24th for in-store pick up

The new MacBook that John is interested shopping for

Comes in silver, gold, and space gray

Joshua likes his 2014 11-inch MacBook Air

The Desk app site

The Desk app support forum

About WYSIWYG on Wikipedia

Markdown syntax at Daring Fireball

MarsEdit 3: Another desktop publishing client

Daniel Jalkut, app developer of MarsEdit

Evernote, the notes app that John and Joe aren’t excited about

Byword, another text editor app

1: We All Want Robots but They’re Going to Kill Us

Joseph Darnell and Joshua Peiffer — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 22:15:00 +0000

Joe and Joshua, along with special guest Robert McGinley Myers, introduce themes for the show and discuss everyday experiences and life-altering events we have with technology.

Joshua Peiffer and Joe Darnell discuss people’s unhealthy obsessions for technology, and how we put the habits in check. Along with special guest, Robert McGinley Myers, we take a personal account of how our tools/devices have molded us for the better, and sometimes gives us cause to fear the unknown in a technologically advanced world.

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