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.

From the GitHub page:

Quickemu is a wrapper for the excellent QEMU that automatically “does the right thing” when creating virtual machines. No requirement for exhaustive configuration options. You decide what operating system you want to run and Quickemu takes care of the rest.

I’m looking for a way to run Things on a Linux machine. Because, despite my best efforts, I’m unable to find anything that comes close to the fit and finish of Things that’s also cross-platform. I figured running it in a virtual machine might be my best bet.

The instructions for installing macOS mentions that the Mac App Store should work, so hopefully this will do the trick for me.

➝ Source: github.com

I’ve settled into Simplenote as my primary note taking app, but truthfully, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I use Ulysses for writing that ends up here on Initial Charge, Day One for journaling, Edit for ephemeral notes, Things for notes associated with specific tasks, Apple Notes for collaborating on notes with my wife, and I use Simplenote for everything else.

There isn’t any one app that does everything I want so I’ve ended up with a handful of apps that all loosely serve the purpose of “note taking”. I can understand why someone would want to find the One App to Rule Them All, but I kind of like having a variety of apps instead. It helps me to focus. And I get to fully configure each of the apps so they’re tailored to what I use them for.

➝ Source: thenewsprint.co

This may seem like a minor change, but it’s a huge deal for me. I already used markdown in plain text when writing in the notes area of tasks. This bit of visual formatting will make glancing at and skimming the specifics of my task much easier.

➝ Source: thesweetsetup.com

From Cultured Code’s Things weblog:

For this update we had one goal: make our iPad app truly desktop-class. To achieve this, we had to substantially improve support for external keyboards – and by that we don’t just mean adding a few more shortcuts. In fact, adding more shortcuts was only possible because of one of the key features in this release: the ability to select items from the keyboard.

The ability to select items, reorder, edit, and perform actions on those items — all from the keyboard — is incredibly powerful. With this update, the folks at Cultured Code have shown that you don’t have to sacrifice power user features to develop for the iPad.

Recently, I’ve become hyper-obsessed with iOS setups. I’ve always been interested in the topic and would regularly reorganize my iOS home screens, but I’ve taken it a step further over the past few months. As some of you may know, I’ve started documenting the changes I make to my iOS setup and Watch faces. But I’ve also started focusing on specific areas of my setup — reevaluating RSS apps, testing all of the power user email clients on the market, thinking deeply about what apps I use on my Watch to optimize my dock, and reassessing my device’s Today View widgets.

I plan on writing about all of those topics at some point, but today I wanted to discuss widgets. I believe iOS’ Today View is one of the most underutilized aspects of the system. There’s so much power in having a dashboard filled with shortcuts and relevant, glanceable information, but I get the impression that most users overlook the feature. In conversations I’ve had with friends and family — many of whom I would think of as “power users” — they usually only had a few widgets enabled and it didn’t sound like they used them all that frequently.

What makes Today View so useful is it’s ubiquity within the system. No matter where you are, you’re no more than two swipes away from your widgets. Whether you’re at the lock screen or knee-deep in a complicated spreadsheet, they’re always there. I do miss the good old days when iOS would remembered your place a bit better — displaying Notification Center or Today View based on what you most recently accessed. But the new normal hasn’t done much to slow my use of widgets.

Apple does place some restrictions on what developers can include in their widgets. But what they can do is more than enough to turn your Today View into an immensely powerful productivity tool. To emphasize that point, I thought I’d share my widget setup with a bit of commentary on what I use each widget for in my daily life.

I’d also love to hear about other iOS users’ widget setups. If you make use of an app’s widget, that I don’t have listed below, or use one of the widgets below in an interesting way, I’d love to hear about it.

Fantastical for iPhone and iPad: This is my calendar app of choice and it features a great Today View widget. In the widget’s expanded view, it shows a full monthly calendar with event indicators and a list of the selected day’s events. I often use this view on my iPad — when I need to glance at a calendar when I’m in another application. But I usually keep Fantastical’s widget collapsed on my iPhone, which displays my next event or appointment.

WaterMinder: In the most recent update to my Home Screens page, I mentioned removing WaterMinder’s complication from my Apple Watch. I’ve added it to my Watch’s dock, but I wanted to increase the number of interaction points to ensure that I would continue tracking my hydration. Not only does WaterMinder’s widget serve as a small reminder to drink enough water during the day, because of how frequently I glance at my iOS device’s Today View, it also gives me an easy way to log my intake.

Workflow: A staple in every iOS power user’s arsenal and my most used Today View widget. Workflow allows me to convert the contents of my clipboard to title case, open the compose screen in Tweetbot, order food from my favorite restaurants, download YouTube videos, open my feature article template in Ulysses, and much more. It’s one of the most powerful, versatile applications on the platform and the widget gives you access to the workflows you use most.

Activity: I wear my Apple Watch everyday and like to keep a close eye on the activity data it collects. I could probably do more to keep myself physically fit — exercising regularly would be high on that list — but those three rings are great motivators to prevent a sedentary lifestyle. And although I have the Activity rings prominently displayed on most of my Watch faces, the rings are a less precise representation of the data. There’s a lot of scenarios where the rings tell me roughly how close I am to my goal, but it’s nice to see more concrete numbers from time to time. The Activity widget gives me a subtle nudge to remain active whenever I look at my device’s widgets and let’s me plainly see how many more hours I need to stand today or how many more minutes of exercise I need.

Hello Weather: This is my favorite weather widget, by far. It displays the current temperature in big, bold text alongside a clear icon for the current conditions. My only complaint is that I wish it displayed the hourly forecast when the widget is expanded.

Things for iPhone and iPad: My interest in task managers and to do list apps has always been fairly shallow. I used them, but I knew that my usage wasn’t as effective as it could be. Things changed that. I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but the app really clicked with me over the past couple of months. I use Things constantly in my day job to keep track of the tasks I need to accomplish and find it useful when tackling household chores and various Initial Charge-related work. Things’ widget displays up to eight items from the app’s Today list, which let’s me quickly check off items without leaving my current application and gives me the ability to see an overview of my tasks without even unlocking my device.

Lookmark: Whenever I come across a new app recommendation, discover a new album from one of my favorite bands, or hear of a new TV show or movie I might be interested in, I immediately save the item to Lookmark. It’s a wishlist app for iTunes and App Store content and the Today View widget displays your most recently saved items. I can throw the app into a folder and interact with it, almost, exclusively through the app’s action extension and widget. And it works flawlessly.

Deliveries: I order a lot of items online, especially from Amazon, and I use Deliveries to track when they are expected to arrive. The app’s widget let’s me keep track of delivery dates without having to launch the app directly.

Launcher: This is a versatile tool that lets you build shortcuts to just about anything on your device. Right now, I have it setup with shortcuts to albums in Plex that automatically begin playback. I might be writing about this in detail soon, but in short, I built this workflow to generate links to music, movies, TV shows, or playlists in Plex. Use it from the share sheet in Safari when viewing the content in Plex’s web app. You can share the link with a friend or family member that has access to your Plex library or, as I’ve done, drop it into a new shortcut in Launcher.

Automatic: I received an Automatic Pro as a gift last Christmas and it’s a tremendous product. It tracks my driving distance, gas mileage, and offers insights on improving my vehicle’s efficiency. Automatic’s widget displays your car’s current status — which means it usually tells me where my car is parked, since I’m not often looking at it while driving. The widget could be a lot more useful, displaying my vehicle’s gas mileage and recent driving distance or offering a shortcut to log gasoline purchases would be nice. In its current form, though, the widget serves as a shortcut to the app itself and I’m sure knowing where my car is parked is going to be invaluable the next time my wife and I travel to a larger city.

Batteries: I can’t imagine using iOS widgets and not having this one enabled. It displays the current battery percentages of your iOS device, AirPods, Magic Keyboard, and so on. As an additional benefit to using this widget, I can remove the battery percentage indicator from my device’s menu bar and still have quick access to the data when I need it.

I absolutely love my Apple Watch. I’ve worn it every day since I purchased my Series 0 in December 2015, with the only exception being a handful of times when I’ve gone on vacation and didn’t want to hassle with another device to charge every night.

The Apple Watch has become an essential part of my everyday-carry. When I’m not wearing it, I still find myself looking toward my wrist for the time or to glance at the weather. I just feel lost without it.

But the Watch isn’t just an important part of my life because of complications, notifications, or having the time on my wrist. Those are certainly the best parts of the experience, but despite what the naysayers would have you believe, there’s some great third-party software available for the platform and I’d like to share some of my favorites.

Vekt: A gorgeous weight tracking application for Apple Watch. The Watch component is about as simple and minimalist as it gets. When launched, it displays your most recent weigh-in, spinning the crown will adjust the number and display a button for saving the new reading. Once saved, the application will display an appropriate emoji depending on whether you lost or gained weight.

The iPhone app adds the ability to input a target weight goal and view your most recent readings on a simple graph at the bottom of the screen. There are plenty of other weight tracking applications available for iPhone and Apple Watch, but Vekt is my favorite. It features one of the most beautiful icons on my Watch and offers just the right amount of functionality for my needs.

WaterMinder: Just a few months ago, I started keeping track of my water intake. I’ve spent most of my life without proper hydration and it was time for me to get it under control. WaterMinder makes it easy to keep track of my intake and live a healthier life as a result.

On iPhone you can configure WaterMinder with shortcuts for your most common drink sizes, set a daily goal, and view detailed history and achievements. On the Watch, WaterMinder let’s you quickly input drinks throughout the day and monitor your progress toward your goal.

In the app’s settings, you can also choose from two different Watch layouts and complication designs. I prefer the ring-style design because it let’s me see the icons I’ve chosen for my shortcuts, but the default allows for quickly adding a drink without the need to scroll.

Cardiogram: This heart health app can show your most recent heart rate reading in the app’s complication, display your readings for the day on a graph, and allow you to record a continuous heart rate reading whenever you want. My wife has been having some heart issues recently, occasional rapid heart rates when she’s inactive. Cardiogram gives her an easy way to look back at her readings and monitor any abnormalities that she can discuss with her doctor.

On the iPhone, Cardiogram lets you pull further back on your heart rate data to see larger trends and compare your statistics against the rest of Cardiogram’s users. This application is the perfect companion for anyone concerned about their heart’s health.

Carrot: This is the best weather app for Apple Watch, by far. It features incredible information density while continuing to be readable. And the app’s complication is no slouch — displaying both the temperature and current conditions. If you want the weather forecast on your wrist, Carrot Weather is the best app for the job.

Deliveries: An application that helps you keep track of all your deliveries. Add tracking numbers to the iPhone app and you can quickly glance at their status on Apple Watch. I’ve used Deliveries on my iPhone for years and have had it installed on my Apple Watch since day one — it’s the best delivery tracking app available.

Things: With Things on Apple Watch, you can check off items on your to do list, add new items using dictation, or move tasks to a later date. It’s a surprisingly full-featured application on the Apple Watch — there isn’t much you can’t do on the Watch that you can do on iPhone.

Typically, I would consider it a bad thing for an Apple Watch app to offer so much, but Things pulls it off quite well. The interface is kept so simple with access to the most important things right on the main view — checking off items and adding new ones — that I often forget that I have the ability to add notes and deadlines to a task or move them to a later date. Those options stay out of your way until you need them, which is key on a device with such a small screen.

PCalc: I’ve tried a handful of calculator apps for Apple Watch and it’s not even close, PCalc is the best option available. I use the application almost every week, when my wife and I go grocery shopping, to help us stay within our budget. But it doesn’t just offer the usual addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations, it also features robust unit conversion and tip calculation.

Préshit Deorukhkar:

Today marks the launch of Things 3 — a completely rebuilt suite of apps from the privately funded company based out of Stuttgart, Germany. I’ve been using and testing Things 3 for Mac and Things 3 for iPhone & Apple Watch for over a month now and this is, by far, the most refreshing and polished change I’ve seen an app update launch with.

I’ve used Clear as my primary task manager for a few years now, but it hasn’t been updated since 2015 and their iCloud syncing functionality has been broken for quite a while. Syncing between iOS devices works fine, but as soon as you throw a Mac into the mix, all of you devices refuse to sync.

The only way to fix the issue is to stop using the Mac app entirely and open up a hidden menu in the iOS app that allows you to reset the iCloud sync data. It’s an irritating bug that, because I rarely use macOS, I’ve been lucky enough to mostly avoid. But to me, this bug is representative of a bigger problem, the app is essentially abandoned. It’s been over a year since the last update and I don’t expect to see one anytime soon. It’s time to move on.

The release of Things 3 is the perfect opportunity for me to jump ship on Clear and transition to something that’s under active development. So far, I’m very impressed. The onboarding experience was top notch, the interface is gorgeous, and I love how it organizes all of my tasks in a way that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed.

I’m not thrilled that the iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps all have to be purchased separately, but the folks at Cultured Code are offering each of them at 20% off the regular price until May 25. If you’re at all interested in Things, it’s a good idea to make your purchasing decision before the price goes back up next week.