ldstephens

My thoughts, opinions, and things that I think others may find interesting

There is now an official OpenAI ChatGPT app for iPhone. The app is free and available in the US App Store.

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Quoting Denny Henke:

I’ve written here many times about my gradual transition to being a full time iPad user. It was gradual and complete. I learned iPadOS and became comfortable with it. With each new iteration of iPadOS I’ve been more satisfied as new features were added. But throughout that time I’ve generally been satisfied, no, delighted by the iPad. I don’t spend my time longing for the iPad to have Mac features or to have it be a Mac. I wish the same for Mac users, that they can learn to be satisfied with what they have in the Mac and not spend so much time wishing for a different computer.

I'm not currently an iPad-only user, but I aspire to become one. Like Denny, I have been gradually transitioning towards being iPad-first although I may never get there. Here's why: I find managing iPadOS to be simpler compared to macOS.

OS Updates and Upgrades: I have never encountered any issues with iPadOS updates or upgrades. However, I have experienced problems with macOS updates, including a particularly serious one. That's why my MacBook Air is still running Monterey instead of being upgraded to Ventura. Honestly, I'm afraid to perform the fucking upgrade.

Device Backup: One of the advantages of iPadOS is that it automatically backs up to iCloud. On the other hand, macOS requires setting up an external drive with Time Machine for backup purposes.

I'm excited to see what's coming to iPadOS and iOS at WWDC. ​

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Alan Ralph

It is a sad fact of modern life that too many websites are hostile towards visitors in one way or another. Sometimes this may not be immediately obvious, depending on where in the world you are or how you’re accessing the website.

The most obvious signs of hostility are the nagging overlays imploring you to turn off your ad-blocker, to sign up for a newsletter, to create an account, to subscribe to a service.

Only slightly less obnoxious are the requests to allow tracking, not just for the site you’re visiting but also a myriad of others whose code runs on the pages. Depending on the site and the particularly stack of surveillance tech it uses, this may be trivially easy to decline or require multiple clicks to achieve.

But the worst act of hostility, to my mind, is the one that you only see if you’re on a slower connection, a less powerful device or without any ad-blocker or tracker-blocker installed. I refer to the lengthy load time due to the mass of JavaScript code that, for whatever reason, needs to be loaded in order for the web page to even display.

Like many of you, I’ve used ad-blockers for years now, but these are only a partial solution to the ills I’ve described above, and advertising networks are doing their level best to outflank such tools.

​[…]

But I’m firmly of the belief that the only way to truly tame the ad-tech companies is to literally starve them of the data they crave, by whatever means necessary.

Here's how I mitigate this shit:

  1. I read the web in a RSS or read-later app
  2. I run my DNS through Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1
  3. Lastly I use ad and tracker blockers. I use Wipr on Safari and uBlock Origin on Firefox

Even though I've taken the above steps, this still doesn't mitigate the fucking nagging overlays imploring me to turn off my ad-blocker, to sign up for a newsletter, to create an account, or to subscribe to a service.

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Now that Apple has announced that professional apps like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are coming to the iPad, and with rumors of sideloading coming, does that imply that apps such as Alfred, Hazel, and PopClip could potentially be available on the iPad?

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Welcome to Web Finds, your go-to source for the most fascinating, thought-provoking, and entertaining links on the web. Whether you're a curious explorer, a knowledge seeker, or simply looking for a distraction from the daily grind, I've got you covered. Every day, I scour the internet for the best articles, videos, podcasts, and more, and bring them straight to you. So sit back, click away, and discover something new and exciting with Web Finds.

Have something to say? Send me an email.

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© 2022 ldstephens.me

Welcome to Web Finds, your go-to source for the most fascinating, thought-provoking, and entertaining links on the web. Whether you're a curious explorer, a knowledge seeker, or simply looking for a distraction from the daily grind, I've got you covered. Every day, I scour the internet for the best articles, videos, podcasts, and more, and bring them straight to you. So sit back, click away, and discover something new and exciting with Web Finds.

Have something to say? Send me an email.

RSS | Micro.blog | Mastodon
© 2022 ldstephens.me

Welcome to Web Finds, your go-to source for the most fascinating, thought-provoking, and entertaining links on the web. Whether you're a curious explorer, a knowledge seeker, or simply looking for a distraction from the daily grind, I've got you covered. Every day, I scour the internet for the best articles, videos, podcasts, and more, and bring them straight to you. So sit back, click away, and discover something new and exciting with Web Finds.

Have something to say? Send me an email.

RSS | Micro.blog | Mastodon
© 2022 ldstephens.me

Welcome to Web Finds, your go-to source for the most fascinating, thought-provoking, and entertaining links on the web. Whether you're a curious explorer, a knowledge seeker, or simply looking for a distraction from the daily grind, I've got you covered. Every day, I scour the internet for the best articles, videos, podcasts, and more, and bring them straight to you. So sit back, click away, and discover something new and exciting with Web Finds.

Have something to say? Send me an email.

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© 2022 ldstephens.me

Quoting: Nicolas Magand

Let’s start with a fact: most of my posts originate in time spent reading someone else, whether it is a news article, a blog post, or a column. The less I read, the less productive I become, and the less new articles this blog gets. Reading is the fuel to writing and 90 percent of the time the starting point of a new draft.

Nicolas Magand

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