November 17, 2020 at 3:00PM •
1 hour 26 minutes
DISCUSSED: lot of projects going on!; praise for Nicki Minaj; some recent TV shows that are important to your hosts; Merlin is a little obsessed with a new Mac productivity app; interrogating problems with deliveries and porch pirates; vehicle theft can be very confusing; and, finally, some insight nobody asked for into Merlin's ambitious new hardware project.
November 10, 2020 at 4:30PM •
1 hour 23 minutes
DISCUSSED: Merlin's additions to Bunch have him stepping on his own dingus; maybe it's time to invert the permissive legacy model for who gets access to us (as well as how and when); there's no amount of technology that can make other people be decent; Oh. Hey. Defaults? Be better; also, please quit stealing my focus; Dan is not buying anything new; your hosts talk about the various (often non-obvious) costs of adding, changing, or removing features; maybe building your whole business on Facebook wasn't such a great idea; passing discussion of Bloom County, Muppet dogs, and a Tilikum bottle; the tale of Underscore's unexpected success, and the costs it brought; talk of affordances; and, finally, Just cough up some dough, Mac!
November 3, 2020 at 2:15PM •
1 hour 10 minutes
DISCUSSED: Merlin has a lot to say about the benefits of making lists; this leads to an old-school stemwinder on "Journal" calendars, functional playlists, shared Notes, the lessons of the cutlery drawer, desire paths, arbitrary grids, "Reference" albums, urban bike hooks, auxiliary paper towel holders, and more; praise for The Boys; the magical combination of Halide and Pixelmator Photo; Dan resurrects a beloved podcast; and, finally, Merlin endorses a really weird British weather report that can help you sleep.
October 27, 2020 at 2:30PM •
1 hour 9 minutes
DISCUSSED: hey, it's an advice episode!; San Francisco has a lot of available office space; a musical unguent for your soul; a cool font that makes accessibility pretty; getting in front of your next wave of depression; the Emotional Police are here to cite you for your numerous infractions; and, finally, Merlin highly recommends a recent podcast episode about why we're all so exhausted and what we might want to do about it.
October 20, 2020 at 1:45PM •
1 hour 27 minutes
DISCUSSED: Sending good vibes to The Dude; Merlin has a couple awesome app recommendations; some Follow-Up on the Apple Event, including what your hosts are ordering and what they're each excited about; which kinds of things your hosts do and do not find useful about the Apple Rumor Industrial Complex; Dan tries on a new iOS camera app; Merlin recommends a clever web cam app; some of our voice friends hear well, others understand well, and some sound good, but none (for now) do it all; finally, Dan finds some productivity insight, courtesy of The Buddha.
October 13, 2020 at 2:30PM •
55 minutes
DISCUSSED: Merlin is reporting live from the show floor; Dan is due for a new phone; nostalgia for buying a carton of cigarettes; praise for Netflix's "Challenger" series; Merlin shares some updates on his big resource-leveling project; gotta find those big rocks, amirite; interruptions are the death of the tech person's day; remember, your work is part of your life—not separate from it.
October 6, 2020 at 1:45PM •
1 hour 19 minutes
DISCUSSED: Merlin craves an easy visit with Floyd; Spirit's lawsuit no longer winds on down the road; Question: what obligation does a company have to support their developer tools? And for how long exactly?; when are new film editions not "the good one?"; despite swearing not to do so, a popular service for monetizing indie content is, as they say, put on blast; lot of talk about business things; waiters shouldn't lie to people who used to be waiters; exciting developments in the Drafts ecosystem; and, finally, Merlin unleashes an old school stem-winder on taking a recent stab at resource-leveling—using technology!
September 29, 2020 at 1:15PM •
1 hour 22 minutes
DISCUSSED: the boys update one another on some very good media they're enjoying; everybody loves a movie with a big world; Merlin pitches Dan on the improbable magic of Ted Lasso; talk turns to some new features of Apple's recent OS updates; at length, Merlin makes a case for exploring the amazing new functionalities of widgets, complications, and especially the apps of Underscore David Smith; Guardian gets an exciting update and a pro plan; there's some talk of the challenge in finding a VPN that actually does what you think it's doing; it seems like the show is over, but then there's twelve minutes of movie talk with a focus on children and boobs; finally, Merlin kinda busts a gut about trying to run a Mr. Rogers on the kids you care about.
September 22, 2020 at 1:00PM •
1 hour 13 minutes
DISCUSSED: Folks, this one is a doozy, and that's all I'm gonna say about that.
September 15, 2020 at 2:30PM •
1 hour 14 minutes
DISCUSSED: Merlin is reporting live from the show floor; remember to photograph your kid's room; some bearded dragon updates; some thoughts on pets; Merlin's grandfather was a reluctant dog obsessive; Dan wants to read you a label; Merlin met a fellow cadet; check out Dan's videos; Merlin is loving iOS 14, especially the smarter Siri suggestions; speculation on how machines learn; your hosts still want Macs to be Macs; Big Sur notifications are basically a Bop It; are we getting diminishing returns from theoretical Mac improvements?; Dan has a really good analogy involving wrist watches; there's a reason normal people don't like their apps to change; Merlin puts review requests on blast; an edit button would still be nice; Merlin finds himself with an unusual opportunity to field test some disused home tech; and, finally, it is hoped that Frasier will leave of his own volition.
