I don’t like the update. There are a lot of niceties about the previous version of the app that are no longer available.

• No user-selectable app icons.
• No classic interface mode, which means when you’ve scrolled vertically from the Home screen or an individual library’s Recommended view, you can’t see any content above the current row. You have no idea if you’re at the top of the interface or somewhere in the middle.
• The sidebar doesn’t highlight the icon of the library you’re viewing, so it’s hard to tell where you are in the app.
• Plex’s live TV channels and your own over-the-air channels are no longer intermingled in one interface.
• You can’t hide the “My Lists” sidebar entry.
• The old, legacy video player is no longer an option. I have some videos in my library that buffer every 5–10 seconds with the new player, but played smoothly with the old player. I’m assuming because of a funky audio track. But regardless of the cause, if I want to watch those videos in the new app, I’ll have to re-encode them.
• It now uses its own video player interface instead of Apple’s tvOS player interface. That means it’s more cumbersome to access AirPlay controls, technical details, and more.

I doubt all of my complaints will be fixed, but hopefully at least some of them will be. I could use Infuse or some other third-party Plex client, but I have complaints about all of their implementations, too.

➝ Source: forums.plex.tv

From the overview:

Coax turns your home media server into a linear cable channel guide. It scans your library, then automatically generates a schedule full of channels that you can flip through at your leisure.

Point the app at your Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby server and it generates a channel guide based on genres, playlists, collections, and more. It will even display over-the-air channels if you’ve configured a compatible TV tuner — with Plex DVR, for example.

It’s an excellent app and has earned its spot next to Plex in my Apple TV’s top row.

➝ Source: coaxtheapp.com

I’ve been tinkering around with my Xgimi MoGo Pro projector recently, which runs Android TV. I’ve never been fond of its home screen because it’s filled with “featured content” that I don’t ever want to see. Projectivy Launcher is the solution to that problem.

It’s a fully customizable launcher for Google/Android TV that can replace the system’s home screen after enabling an accessibility service. No ads, no “featured content”, no cruft.

There is an $8 in-app purchase that enables custom wallpapers and some other minor features. But I think it’s worth it, even just to support its development.

➝ Source: play.google.com

I’ve been using Linux almost exclusively since starting my sabbatical at the beginning of July. I’m loving it overall and plan to write more about what I enjoy most about my setup in the future. But for now, I thought I’d focus on the things I miss most about macOS.

Screens — I use VNC to manage our primary home server — a Mac Mini that runs Immich, Plex Media Server, and other services. Screens was my VNC client of choice and it is fast. I still use it on my iPhone regularly, but if I need to do anything more complicated where I’d prefer to have a keyboard and mouse, I’m stuck with sub-par VNC clients. I’ve tried Remmina and Connections neither of which can even come close to the performance of Screens. I wish there was at least one good VNC app available on Linux.

Things — I was never much of a to do list guy until I found Things. It was the first app of its kind that really clicked for me. And I’ve been using it ever since. I’ll occasionally dig for an alternative that’s cross platform — Todoist seems to be the most popular. But none of them have the fit and finish of Things. It strikes the perfect balance for me by surfacing the things I want to see and hiding the things I don’t.

Pixelmator — On macOS and iOS, I’ve been using the older, non-pro version of Pixelmator and it is more than capable of what I need it for. I use GIMP with the PhotoGIMP patch on Linux currently and, although I can fumble my way through most tasks, it’s much more difficult for me. This is likely because I don’t actually use image editing software very often. So, naturally, it will take me longer to get used to something new. But the interface for GIMP is a cluttered mess and many of the tools have confusing labels applied to them, which leads me to making changes that I end up having to undo.

Universal Clipboard — With my current setup, I’m using the GSConnect extension with KDE Connect on my iPhone. But it’s clunky. You have to open the app on your iPhone in order for the two to communicate with one another and then manually send clipboard contents back and forth. I wish Apple would open up their platform a bit more to make things like this more seamless with third-party tools.

Time Machine and SuperDuper! — I’m using Déjà Dup for backups on my Framework and it’s better than nothing, but it pales in comparison to the backup solutions available on macOS. On more than one occasion Déjà Dup has had to restart my backup from scratch in order to “ensure reliability” or whatever — I can’t remember the exact error message. I never really experienced anything like that with Time Machine or SuperDuper! They always just worked for me. And then there’s the restore process. Luckily, I haven’t had to restore from a backup with Déjà Dup, but it sure seems like it’s going to be a nightmare compared to my previous platform. With SuperDuper!, I could just boot from my external backup drive and be right where I was when I backed up last — it’s literally a clone of all my data. With Time Machine, you could restore individual files easily or restore an entire system after installing macOS. With Déjà Dup, I only have it configured to backup my home folder, which I’m told is all I’ll need. But if I had to restore my entire system, I’ll have to reinstall all of my apps again. Obviously, my most important data will be there, but it will still take a ton of manual work in order to get back up and running again to where I was before.

Transmit — Is there a nice FTP client available for Linux? FileZilla seems to be the frontrunner, but the user interface is such a mess. I could, theoretically, just use Gnome’s file manager to connect over FTP, but if I wanted to bookmark connections I’d have to clutter the app’s sidebar with a bunch of connections that I seldomly use. Transmit, on the other hand, is a beautifully designed application that’s fast and reliable. I’d love to see an FTP client like that available on Linux.

Nick Heer:

App icons across Apple’s three most popular operating systems share a similar rounded square mask, and it is a downgrade. Simon B. Støvring correctly calls out the “expressive, varied app icons, a case of character over conformity” as a highlight of past versions of MacOS. I miss detailed and artistic app icons plenty. Indulging in realistic textures and thoughtful rendering was not only a differentiator for the Mac; it also conveyed the sense an app was built with a high degree of care.

Perhaps that is largely a product of nostalgia. Change can be uncomfortable, but it could be for good reasons. Stripping icons of their detail might not be bad, just different. But wrapping everything in a uniform shape? That is, dare I say, an objective degradation.

Since MacOS Big Sur debuted the precursor to this format, I have found it harder to differentiate between applications which, as I understand it, is the very function and purpose of an icon. I know this has been a long-running gripe for those of us of a certain age, but it remains true, and a walk through the history of Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines indicates the company also understands it to be true.

I absolutely hate the enforcement of rounded rectangle shape for icons in macOS. It makes icons less interesting and my dock harder to scan.

I plan to continue using Replacicon to make sure the icons in my dock aren’t constrained by Apple’s foolish guidelines — and I hope that still works as intended after I eventually upgrade.

➝ Source: pxlnv.com

From their homepage:

Computers should belong to you, the people. We develop and fund technology to give them back.

I’ve heard of one of their projects, but wasn’t familiar with the company itself. I absolutely love their mission and hope they’re wildly successful.

Immich seems to be their flagship app at the moment, but there are some real heavy hitters that their funding through their grant program, too. Ladybird, GrapheneOS, and VLC being a few that jumped out at me.

➝ Source: futo.org

From the project page:

This is a list of the best free and open source software alternatives for security and privacy.

A great resource if you’re looking for something different.

➝ Source: github.com

From the App Store description:

StikDebug is an on-device debugger designed specifically for self-installed apps.

I’m not sure how the developer managed to get this approved. But if you’re at all interested in sideloading on iOS and have been annoyed by JIT limitations, you should get this app while you still can.

I’m not familiar with all of the technical details of how it’s accomplished, but the app is open source. The setup process is quite simple — I was able to run through it in just a few minutes and had JIT enabled in DolphiniOS without any issues at all.

➝ Source: apps.apple.com