I HATE APPLE

I hadn't used the Apple Podcasts app in years (I'm a Pocket Casts user) but disc the other day to try out its auto transcript function. Is pretty good - you can search for spoken text (even across podcasts) then jump straight to that part. But haven't made the switch

highly suggest overcast for ios

disc = did

Xpost

I used to use Overcast then I switched to Pocket Casts for its Alexa integration that I never really ended up using but by the time I thought "Right, let's go back to Overcast" I found I'd got so used to Pocket Cast's way of doing things I couldn't get on with Overcast any more. I'm institutionalised!

don't use the built in podcasts app?

another vote for overcast

they all have their pros and cons imo. overcast was a little glitchy after the update but seems mostly fine now. castro was my go-to for years but they flubbed it so badly when they had downtime a while back that I migrated to overcast. apple podcasts is no-frills and just... ok... but might be nice if you pay for some podcasts and don't want to manage them on another platform like patreon

Castro is back to being good again.

good to know

yeah the new proprietor seems v committed to it and is a good listener

I am having problems posting pics from the new phone to various locations. I got errors when I tried to send them as Gmail attachments and Slack choked on a bunch of them when I tried to share them with my family. Anyone else having similar experiences?

Base.
Pro.
https://cdn.worldvectorlogo.com/logos/bass-pro-shops.svg

I've stupidly installed iOS 18.1 beta when I really didn't need any of the features it was offering and now I'm plagued by a bug that several times a day has the spinning wheel and a crash out to the lock screen. And no, autocorrect I don't want to capitalise lock screen even if you think is some cool Apple thing that should be

Heads up, if you use Apple Music a lot, might want to hold off before updating to iOS 18. Having lots of crashes and locking up issues, googling around today I see it's a very widespread problem for a lot of users since the update. Hopefully gets addressed in 18.1.

Waiting for 18.2 to upgrade to iOS 18

so far so good with Overcast, thanks!

iOS 18.0 has been fine. Waiting for the 0.1 release to upgrade macOS though.

Updated to Sequoia 15.0.1 today and Dropbox app is now working again. It had been trapped in a 'trying to connect to the internet' loop.

gonna big up maestral again, a lightweight dropbox client that doesn't count against any of your installs if you're on the free plan

Does maestro allow you to sync Dropbox files to an external drive? That’s what’s killing me. Dropbox recent thing of locking its syncd files to the system drive without using a cumbersome workaround.

maybe: https://maestral.app/docs/locations

Looks like maybe Dropbox walked that back. I have to check.

Hmm wanted to put it in a NAS and that may not be doable anyway.

would syncthing help here? Bit fiddly relative to a paid solution like Dropbox but can be persuaded to do pretty much anything ime.

I have a kind of crazy system where my NAS syncs to Dropbox, so I have Dropbox in my main drive and many of those files are cloud only, I can work with those like normal Dropbox and they sync to Dropbox cloud and to the NAS.…or I can open those files directly from the Dropbox folder on the NAS, which syncs back to the main drive. It’s kind of a crazy way to live.

I tried really hard to understand it but my brain kept hydroplaning

^

Dan has a kind of Kerouac stream of consciousness first thought best thought f syntax kind of writing style

I sort of understood, if not the specifics

Multiple ways to access the things that might have various advantages and subtle differences.

You’d all understand if you spoke fluent synology with Dropbox as a second language.

A frustrating experience today at the Apple Store where I'd booked an appointment with the Genius bar to change a battery for an iPhone 11.

Firstly, they didn't have a back up iPhone 11 in case anything went wrong - which is apparently standard operating procedure. So I had to confirm that I was content to go ahead in these circumstances, otherwise they would have to ring round other stores to see if they had one, or I'd have to come back another time.

Secondly, when they tried to remove my phone from 'find my iphone' (not sure why they needed to do this ), my email sign-in wasn't recognised - so Apple Stolen Device Protection was triggered. This apparently blocks you for an hour or so from signing into anything unless you are at a recognised significant location, such as 'home' or 'work'. So this session was then terminated as there wouldn't be time to actually change the battery.

Impressive security perhaps but hard on clumsy fingered typists like me.

nah the 1-hour lock out is because apple refuses to move off the 6 digit passcode which can be easily shoulder surfed by bad actors

I'm hazy on what exactly Stolen Device Protection does, but it does seem to include being "required to wait an hour before using your iPhone to make changes to critical security settings or your Apple Account" when away from a familiar location.

Phew - the latest iOS 18.1 beta has fixed the springboard crashing. Turning betas off now, quitting while I'm ahead

there's nothing wrong with my iPhone 13 Pro. and the new ones don't have the silent switch? they just have some button so I have to actually look at the screen to see if it's silent? ugh.

I know, looking at screens is horrible. If only someone would build a phone without screens

It worked for years, why not now? :D

The new photos app on iOS 18 is such garbage

iOs 18 completely ruined the Apple Podcasts app. Auto-playing episodes, randomly deleting downloaded episodes, it's total garbge.

try overcast

I wish Apple Intelligence was more obvious. Should I assume that there is a learning curve involved for the LLM? I'm not noticing much of an impact. AT ALL.

What did you expect?
It’s a bunch of hot air

It's even more underwhelming than I thought it would be.

I feel like they didn't even get the low hanging fruit that an LLM easily does.

You can easily create a downloadable iCal file with natural language and you can't get anything close to the same results in Calendar, for example.

I needed to reply to an email message from my local Apple store about a repair.

It’s a noreply, but it has a local number to call the store. FINE, I hate phoning but I psyched myself up to call it.

It goes through to an AI voicemail and after 5 minutes back and forth while it attempts to work out what I want, and finally puts me though to a call-center somewhere.

After describing my situation, they say they need to call my local store…

…15 minutes of hold music…

…phone without warning switches to a calling tone…

Phone goes dead.

Try to look online to send a message. No way to chat online with anyone about it

sounds like the system's working as intended

You may be right there, haha.

macintosh was concieved and designed to be the elegant, simplistic solution to computing - with priority on UX/UI. it's starting to get crummy. my mac seems to be constantly interrupting me now. pointless features are obfuscated within confusing menus. my phone has taken to reading out text messages in a robot voice over my music and this can only be disabled for 24 hours at a time (?!) what a shitshow. i run a 2005 powerbook G4 for some legacy music software, and computing on OS X Tiger is just... it just works. there's no bloat. it just does what you tell it. notifications, captchas, 2FA, subscriptions, emails just to say 'yep that was me who logged in', constantly having to re-connect bluetooth devices... it makes using the computer just feel like hard work. when the app store is filled with paid programs that are designed to make all these headaches easier, that's a real indication that systems are inherently poor. despite being quite minimal in my digital life, and only having a select few programs installed and running, i still find myself stressed to bits with things pinging off and going on the wonk every five minutes. :/

apple hasn't been the "it just works" company for a pretty long time now imo

I started having horrible Magic Mouse lagginess when I changed from my 2012 iMac to my new Mini...turned out to be proximity related. When I moved the mouse closer to the Mini, the problem would go away. Not sure whether the newer antenna is not as good, or the Mini enclosure is a stronger shield, but I had to disassemble all my crap so I could move the Mini closer to the mouse's usual position on my desk.