Search results for: “google”
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Photos Takeout
Photos Takeout (no doubt a play on the name of Google’s own Takeout data service): Export photos and videos from Photos on Mac in yearwise, album-wise or moment/date-wise folders. Save them in neat folders on Mac, Google Drive, Dropbox, external drive or any other location. For macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and High Sierra. A…
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Chrome is bad
From Loren Brichter comes Chrome is bad: So it turns out that Google Chrome was making everything on my computer slow even when it wasn’t running, because it installs something called Keystone which is basically malware. I made a website because this shouldn’t happen. I’m currently using Safari every single day. It is lightning fast…
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Apple Maps continues to improve
Justin O’Beirne is still at it, and at more detail than ever: This is the tenth time that Apple has expanded its new map since its public launch twenty-six months ago in September 2018. I appreciate the amount of work O’Beirne puts into these updates. Over the weekend Eliza and I tried Apple Maps to find a…
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What I saw somewhat recently #72: December 3, 2020
I haven’t made one of these lists in a little while, opting instead to publishing far more status updates to my site that include links. I go back and forth in my head all the time which I prefer.
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Duck.com keeps growing. You should use it.
In 2014 I linked to a post that showed DuckDuckGo‘s daily search volume at roughly 5 million searches per day. In 2015 they had grown to 12 million per day. I hadn’t checked in to their stats in a long time until I saw this tweet from them. They are now averaging 67 million searches…
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Untappd hits 10
Untappd, the app that helps me track the beers I’ve had, liked, disliked, etc. is celebrating its 10th anniversary. I signed up to Untappd in 2014 and used it for a little while but then kept forgetting to. But then, a few years ago, I decided to give it another try. The app had improved…
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Why I used Migration Assistant to move to my new Mac
This isn’t a tutorial. If you’re in need of one and you’ve somehow stumbled onto my blog of jumbled thoughts on a variety of topics, sorry. You’ll need to go back to Google and try again (though, really, you should be using Duck.com). I recently upgraded to a 16-inch MacBook Pro (review forthcoming) and had…
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I too miss the old days of blogging but they are never coming back
TTTThis: When you search for blogs now on you see things like ‘Top 100 Blogs.’ ‘How to Make a Successful Blog.’ ‘Most Powerful 50 Blogs.’ But what you really want is 10,000 unsuccessful blogs. Much of the linked piece is likely to be taken as hyperbole but it is mostly true-ish. It is true that…
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I’m reading a lot of praise for Apple’s updated map information but in my experience, even as recently as today, their information is woefully incomplete. It isn’t even close to Google’s offering.
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To someone that may not know the context, “Google Open Sources Cardboard” must be a head-scratching headline.
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.new
Google: With .new, you can help people take action faster. We hope to see .new shortcuts for all the things people frequently do online. For instance, Playlist.new will create a new Spotify playlist for you. Docs.new will create a new Google Doc for you, etc. I don’t think my younger self could have predicted that…
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CaptionBot
Microsoft: CaptionBot.ai is powered by machine learning technology that identifies and captions your photos. When you upload a photo, it is sent to Microsoft for image analysis to return a caption. We won’t store, publish, or let other people use your images. I uploaded a few images. It works pretty well. I’m unsure of this…
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Colin Walker on choosing the best devices
Colin Walker nails how I’m making decisions on what hardware I’m purchasing: I’m largely platform agnostic and have always been able to achieve what I wanted regardless of what device I was using. That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t want to use the best tools for the task at hand. I too am platform…
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Wishes for today’s Apple Event
In my Pixel 4 wish list I may have overstated my current position on my choosing Android or iOS in my next phone. I wrote: As my time to upgrade my phone comes around of course I’m left with a choice to go back to iOS or stick with Android. I’m sticking with Android. I…
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Things about the iPhone 11 Pro that weren’t mentioned in the Keynote
…or, if they were mentioned, they were mentioned only briefly, but I found them to be intriguing. I’ll be pouring over these specs and comparing them to the Google Pixel 4 when it is released before making my final decision. But overall, I’d say this is a very solid update to iPhone.
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Android 10 apps that support Dark Theme
Ben Schoon: The majority of Google apps support this system-wide toggle, but few third-party developers have followed the company’s lead. Here are some non-Google apps that support Android 10’s dark mode toggle. He lists a number of apps that support the OS-level option. Outlook claims to support it, but I have it installed and updated…
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Supporting OS-level Dark Mode preference using only CSS
My blog’s theme is based on Davis by Anders Norén. I’ve been using it for a while, making small tweaks here and there for my images index and other things. It has a dark theme built-in that I can toggle on and off. But it is an either/or type of thing. I can either have…
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My personal data sharing policy
I’ve been online since 1994. I’ve shared a lot of information here on my blog, through various social networks, and to different services like Google Maps, Untappd, and many others. That information has often included location, photos, audio and video. For decades I thought nothing of sharing my current location online. I used check-in services…
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My answers to my askATP question
I’ve recently started listening to ATP. I’m enjoying the three hosts slightly different takes on things. Somehow they each have just enough of a different perspective to make their conversations – and particularly their angst – entertaining. I sent in a question and on their most recent episode they graciously spent a considerable amount of…
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Automattic acquires Tumblr
Matt Mullenweg, on this Tumblog: When the possibility to join forces became concrete, it felt like a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have two beloved platforms work alongside each other to build a better, more open, more inclusive – and, frankly, more fun web. I knew we had to do it. Let’s get a few things out…
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iOS creates a competition hostile environment
Below is a screenshot of the sheet you see on YouTube for iOS when tapping on a link in a video’s description. They invoke this custom sheet because, like Google, Apple has created iOS to be competition hostile to other browser vendors like Mozilla, Opera, Microsoft, etc. Tapping on a link should open your default…
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On a Microsoft Surface Phone
Zac Bowden: It’s fair to say that in 2019, Microsoft is “all-in” on the Android platform thanks to its efforts like the Microsoft Launcher, Edge, and Office, all first-class experiences on Android smartphones around the world. I’m glad Bowden wrote this post. I’ve been wanting to. Longtime readers of my blog will know that I…
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On blog search engines
Brent Simmons has been reminiscing about blog search engines and writing down some ideas for how one could be made today. Something he wrote sparked a memory. Instead of having it crawl blogs, I’d have it download and index RSS feeds. This should be cheaper than crawling pages, and it ensures that it skips indexing…
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Thoughts on Apple’s March 2019 Media Event
I’m writing this for posterity’s sake. For my own recollection. So please feel free to skip the reading of this post. I can’t imagine the amount of money or resources Apple has invested to get to the point where they were able to announce all of those services in a single day.
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How to use DuckDuckGo
Brett Terpstra: The search syntax is very similar to Google’s, so if you’re familiar with that you won’t need to learn much. Obviously you can just search a bunch of words, but there are a few additional syntaxes you can use to refine results. Duck.com (as I like to call it now) is my search…
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Large companies aren’t good homes for beloved services
(I had no idea what to title this post.) Peter Kafka, reporting for Recode earlier this year, re: Verizon shuttering relatively large services they’ve purchased over the years rather than “bothering” to sell them off (like they did with Flickr): So if Verizon thinks a property with 100 million users is better off dead than…
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RSS is not dead. Subscribing is alive.
Sinclair Target, writing for Motherboard: Today, RSS is not dead. But neither is it anywhere near as popular as it once was. This isn’t the first nor the last article to cover the creation of the RSS standard, its rise to relative popularity with Google Reader, and its subsequent fall from popularity. But the big…
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Frank Meeuwsen on What he doesn’t know
Fellow Dutchman Frank Meeuwsen, replying to my carpenter illustration in my What I don’t know post (translated by Google Translate): I immediately thought of a conversation I had with the electrician a few minutes before. He explained to me how the power from the meter cupboard is distributed throughout the house and how overload and…
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Best of 2018
This year I’m taking a slightly more comprehensive approach to my “best of” list. I’ve taken a look at previous year’s lists: 2008, 2009, 2017 and comprised a slightly more complete set. Again, this is only the things I came across this year and can remember. I don’t keep a list throughout the year but…
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My crypto and indie web goals for 2019
Steven Johnson, in Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble: The true believers behind blockchain platforms like Ethereum argue that a network of distributed trust is one of those advances in software architecture that will prove, in the long run, to have historic significance. I’m very late to the game in reading Johnson’s piece in the NYT. I’ve…
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Microsoft gives up on EdgeHTML
Chris Beard, CEO Mozilla Corporation: Microsoft’s decision gives Google more ability to single-handedly decide what possibilities are available to each one of us. From one point-of-view this move by Microsoft might seem to make total sense. They spin this as “it will be easier for web developers to target one less browser engine”. However, this…
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Gutenberg, the new content editor for WordPress, is very good
I’m writing this post using a new post editor that is coming in the next version of WordPress code-named, and likely named for all-time, Gutenberg. In fact, I’ve written several of my most recent posts, including this photo post of South Iceland, using this new editor. Gutenberg is an editor that allows a WordPress author…
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I need to find a place with gigabit Internet speed for a few days. I have so much data that I need to get down and up. I’m downloading tens-of-gigabytes of application software, uploading hundreds of gigabytes to OneDrive and then again to Google Drive (which is why I hope this is real). Ugh.
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Things about Windows 10 #1: Task Bar Previews
There is so much blogger coverage for Apple’s hardware and software products that I feel there needs to be a few more in the Microsoft and Google world. To that end I’m going to start a few new series here on my personal blog; Things about Windows 10, Things about Android. Generally, I’ll be keeping…
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My clipboard managers: 1Clipboard & Clip Stack
I use two clipboard managers currently. On Windows 10 I use 1Clipboard: A universal clipboard managing app that makes it easy to access your clipboard from anywhere on any device. It says “any device” but I do not believe it has any mobile apps. Since I now use the Microsoft Launcher for Android I may…
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If you share Google Calendars and want them to show up in Windows 10’s calendar app, this is the tip you need.
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Friendly reminder: If you use Gmail, check your Google Drive storage. If you run out, you will not get any email and Google will not notify you. So you have to check yourself. Log into drive.google.com and click Storage.
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New ways to monetize on YouTube
Announcements are beginning to pour out while VidCon is happening. YouTube: The number of creators earning five figures a year is up by 35 percent and the number of creators earning six figures is up by 40 percent. As in previous years, the vast majority of the revenue is coming from our advertising partners. We’ll…
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Early thoughts on IGTV
Instagram launched what some are calling a direct competitor to YouTube, IGTV. First, I’ll start by listing some reasons I think this is the perfect time for Instagram to have launched this product. Second, I’ll list why I don’t think this will kill YouTube – but why it might move some of the content creators…
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Observations on moreFit Slim Fitness Tracker
After switching to Android late last year and subsequently giving Eliza my Apple Watch Series 3 I have been wanting a simple fitness tracker for playing basketball. In most activities in my life I can keep my phone on me but for basketball I always miss out on tracking those steps. I wanted to purchase…
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Observations on Oculus Go
At work we picked up an Oculus Go for research and development purposes. But of course I commandeered the device first to put it through its paces and I think I have a good enough feel for it to write up a few observations. These are, as always, in no particular order. Many of my…
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A new badge for Lackawanna Astronomical Society
This post is in a series I call The Grand Brand Design Challenge where I’m trying to flex my muscles in brand design. The Lackawanna Astronomical Society is a club membership for astronomical enthusiasts in the county that I live in. I frequent one of the observatories that they use for their events. When I…
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Rob Shecter on switching from iPhone to Pixel 2
Robb Shecter: Notifications are far better than what I’m used to. They’re are so good, it’s maybe the killer feature for me This may be more of an observation of Android than of the Pixel 2. But I can say that my experience has been similar to Robb’s. I really, really like my Pixel 2 XL…