I returned to work from my sabbatical last week and because of some changes to the division I’m a part of, I’m on a new team. I’m still working on Pocket Casts, but instead of the other apps and plugins I was supporting, I’ll also be working on Tumblr support.

But with this new team came new calendars to keep track of.

I like to limit what calendars are synced to my iPhone — I have an Apple shortcut I rely on that becomes too unwieldy if I have too many calendars syncing to my device. But I had a terrible time finding the webpage where you can select what calendars are and aren’t synced.

Luckily, I managed to stumble upon this Stack Exchange thread with the answer. The URL is google.com/calendar/syncselect.

➝ Source: webapps.stackexchange.com

Emanuel Maiberg, reporting for 404 Media:

If you use Bing, DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, Qwant or any other alternative search engine that doesn’t rely on Google’s indexing and search Reddit by using “site:reddit.com,” you will not see any results from the last week. DuckDuckGo is currently turning up seven links when searching Reddit, but provides no data on where the links go or why, instead only saying that “We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us.” Older results will still show up, but these search engines are no longer able to “crawl” Reddit, meaning that Google is the only search engine that will turn up results from Reddit going forward.

The only reason that Reddit is such a great source of information is because, generally, all of the content published to it is written by people that have first-hand experience with the topic they’re discussing. When you see a Reddit link in search results, it probably has the right answer for you.

It’s a shame that Reddit is preventing other search engines from crawling their site, but I’m hopefully that something else will fill that vacuum.

➝ Source: 404media.co

Mozilla:

This dashboard tracks technical issues in major software platforms which disadvantage Firefox relative to the first-party browser. We consider aspects like security, stability, performance, and functionality, and propose changes to create a more level playing field.

There are more issues for Apple platforms than Microsoft and Google combined.

➝ Source: mozilla.github.io

Matt Mullenweg, writing on WordPress.com News:

A domain is your most valuable online asset. A great domain name says something about you—your personality, your work, your creative spark. People understand this intuitively: when coming up with new ideas for a business or website, we don’t start with design or specific content. We start by giving it a name.

But if your domain name is currently with Google Domains, things recently became complicated. You may have heard that your account has been sold to Squarespace. Everything is expected to transfer and close later this year.

Fortunately for you, you’re not locked into that deal. And we think we can do better. For the first million domains that move from Google to WordPress.com, we’ll pay your transfer fee, which also extends your registration for an additional year. 

This is a great deal for anyone that had domains with Google.

➝ Source: wordpress.com

It’s unwise to rely on Google for anything. But that’s especially so for anything outside of their core services.

(Via John Spurlock.)

➝ Source: 9to5google.com

I don’t own any Amazon Echo products, but I do own three HomePods — two full size and one mini. Beyond the initial purchase of the speaker, it hasn’t resulted in any revenue for Apple. I use Pandora as it’s default music service, AirPlay audio to it from Pocket Casts and Prism, and use it for timers in the kitchen.

Amazon, Apple, Google, and other smart speaker makers should be pricing them with the idea in mind that they will never derive another dime of revenue from purchasers. Because, anecdotally, that’s what I see from myself and everyone else I know that owns them.

➝ Source: arstechnica.com

In the little bit that I’ve been looking at game streaming services recently, Stadia never seemed to be high on the recommendations lists.

➝ Source: blog.google

Kev Quirk and ldstephens recently wrote about their collection of Apple devices and I, coincidentally, had already drafted a quick idea in Ulysses to document and share a list of my current computing devices. If only so I can better wrap my head around what hardware I’m using and what I use each device for.

iPhone 13 Pro: My true, primary, general purpose computing device. There’s very little that I can’t do from my iPhone, but it’s often more comfortable to perform the more intensive tasks from devices with larger screens. But it’s always with me, so it’s my main camera and gets used more often than any other device I own.

iPad Pro, 11-inch (3rd generation): Like my iPhone, but with a larger display. And that’s generally how I use it — for the majority of my computing tasks, but a little less mobile. It’s also my go-to device when I want to watch media outside of the living room — at the kitchen table during lunch or to have in the background at my desk during the work day, for example.

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four thunderbolt 3 ports): My work laptop. It’s used for a lot of writing, email, Slack, RSS reading, and app testing. I also have another user account on the machine if I need to do any personal tasks and don’t have another device handy. This is mostly with the intention of leaving my iPad at home when I travel for team/division meetups.

Mac Mini (2018): My main home server. It houses our Plex library, stores local copies of our photo library, runs Channels DVR, is used as a backup server for all of the non-iOS devices in our home, rips CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, archives a few YouTube channels for my son, and acts as a general purpose file server.

Mac Mini (Late 2014): The latest addition to my computing setup. I got it fairly cheap from OWC and it runs Steam on Windows for streaming games to our Apple TVs and Retroid Pocket 2+ using Steam Link. It’s not particularly powerful, so it won’t run the latest games at high settings, but it’ll run run plenty of indie games like Untitled Goose Game, Celeste, and older titles like Half-Life 2.

Mac Mini (Mid 2011): This machine serves a very specific and singular purpose — it runs TunesKit M4V Converter (still available under a different name) to remove DRM from iTunes purchased content. This software only works on older versions of macOS with an outdated version of iTunes. Since I still purchase content from iTunes, but prefer to watch through Plex, this bridges the gap.

Retroid Pocket 2+: Mostly used as a gaming device using Launchbox, RetroArch, Steam Link, and various emulators, but is also occasionally used for media playback — Pocket Casts, Plex, and Channels.

Google Pixel 3: This is a test device for work, which is used for trying out new builds and attempting to recreate user-reported bugs in our Android apps.

It would be great if I could simplify the home server setup a bit. I made an attempt at this with virtual machines, but gaming just wasn’t stable enough — I ran into a few games that simply wouldn’t run — and TunesKit M4V Converter requires that the system be able to playback the video it removes DRM from. Since there’s no way to use HDCP within a virtual machine, I was only able to remove DRM from standard definition iTunes content — running it natively is the only option for high definition content.

There will be some changes to my hardware soon, though. I’m expecting to receive a Retroid Pocket 3 soon to replace the RP2+ — I got my shipment notification yesterday. And I’ll likely be ordering an M2 MacBook Air in the next few months to replace my current MacBook Pro.