Got an email this morning from Mailbrew about an issue (resolved since then) of logging into the service. So, there is life, apparently! They said they have a “team” working on the next features… 🤔 I would love to see this service thrive instead of being an abandonware. 🙏🏻
I just realized the upcoming weekend is a long one. I should have enough free time to produce another podcast! And a YouTube video about my Craft super-template for research and writing.
My (Really) Short Experience With a RODE NT-USB Microphone
Objective: find a replacement for my lightning-based Finch Lavalier microphone1. Did my research for a USB-C microphone. RODE microphones came up quite often. They received good reviews. I ordered the NT-USB model. It was hard to see which type of USB port it came with—I got the microphone2. It comes with USB-A. Shit. It was tested on my Mac mini. Background noises are too easily picked up. Screenflow cannot use voice isolation3. It was tested on my iPhone 15 Pro Max with a USB-A to USB-C adaptor and Ferrite. Voice isolation isn’t possible, either. Not good. I tried to use the RODE companion app for Mac so I could adjust the microphone operating parameters. I downloaded and installed it but didn’t recognize the microphone when plugged in. Not good. It’s an expansive microphone, barely better than my Blue Yeti. Not good. After testing Screenflow, my iPhone connected via USB-C to my Mac, and with voice isolation activated once again4, I decided to return the product. It’s way better, close to what I had with my Finch microphone. Problem solved.
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No longer works with my iPhone 15 Pro Max USB-C port. ↩︎
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I couldn’t confirm it from the spec sheet on Amazon nor could I on the RODE website. ↩︎
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I opened a support case with Telestream. It’s a known issue, still being investigated. ↩︎
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This configuration works, but not with a USB-C microphone only. It seems the iPhone with voice isolation one is the only configuration that works with Screenflow. Really strange. ↩︎
It’s Sunday, and it’s time for the new edition of my weekly creative summary, available now directly from Craft, later by email, for those who subscribe. Enjoy the ride.
Wish of the day: I would love to have a canonical URL pointing to my published newsletters hosted on Micro.blog so I could refer to them in other blog posts. cc @manton 🙏🏻
Announcing "My Reading Workflow Explained"
I’m finally publishing the details surrounding my reading workflow. It’s been long in the making. More than a year. The reason? Because this workflow was full of moving parts. One example: is the read-later service. First, it was Pocket, then came Matter, Readwise, to finally settle on Omnivore. All the details are here on the Numeric Citizen I/O metablog. Feel free to comment or ask questions! 😊
Why doesn’t the “Switch To Profile” menu item always appear in Safari 17.0? I can’t understand what triggers this option to show up. Is this a bug?
Peak Design Case Issue With iPhone 15 Pro Action Button
For those looking to buy a Peak Design case for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, just like I did. I love the case but… here’s the kicker; the action button is really hard to press with this case, the cutout should have a button instead which would press the action button, just like for the other buttons integrated into the case. They plan to fix this. Check out this video to learn more.
Update: The way the company is handling this issue is a prime example of how customer satisfaction should be handled. Bravo.
What a Strange iCloud Drive Bug!
I have a folder named “Noto” in my iCloud Drive folder that keeps populating empty folders inside of it, on all my devices. Noto is a note-taking app that I tried in Feb. 2020. Today, I found out that I had more than 30K empty folders sitting there. I deleted the folders from my Mac mini, and it came back. Same with the MacBook Air. It came back. I visited all my devices to see if Noto was still installed. Nope. I reinstalled it on the iPad to see if it would populate something. Nope. I went on Files.app on the iPad to delete the root folder. Still re-appearing. On all my devices, I reinstalled Noto, to disable iCloud sync. I visited the iCloud storage section within Settings on the iPhone. The Noto folder isn’t there. But, on the iPad, it was there. I deleted the item from iCloud storage management. Yet, the folder keeps coming back. What a strange bug. Help.
Update: the issue went away after rebooting my M2 MacBook Air to fix an issue with Screenflow screen recording permission request. I went back to the iCloud Drive folder and sure enough, the Noto folder didn’t come back. I guess the issue is resolved.
Currently testing Safari profiles. I kind of like it so far. Still exploring. Currently devising work from personal life. I will probably create one for my YouTube video recording sessions too. Are you using Safari profiles? Are you using Safari at all, I might ask?
I’ve been working on my reading workflow for many months. I’m very close to publishing an article about it. While waiting for it, along the way, I created a comparison of the following read-later services:
- Matter
- Raindrop.io
- Readwise Reader
- Omnivore
You can download it here: https://go.numericcitizen.me/pFscoL0x. Any comments, suggestions?
When adding widgets on macOS Sonoma, there should be a visual cue telling me which widgets are coming from the iPhone vs from installed apps on my Mac. This screenshot shows two Dayone instances, and Fitness Totals is on my iPhone.☝🏻
What happens when you run Micro.blog.app and the web app side by side? Here is a peek at Activity Monitor on the memory consumption tab. There’s the native app. Fine. But, for each web app, Sonoma seems to spin three other processes (Graphics, Networking, and some root process using the web app URL name). Fascinating. Native apps don’t consume as much memory.
Already at Four Web Apps in My Dock, and You?
I’m weak. 🤦🏻♂️
My iPhone 15 Pro Max is not overheating. But I find those reports, as reported here, a bit worrying. Could Apple fix or mitigate these occurrences with a software update or a new configuration toggle in the Settings.app? Did you experience overheating issues?
💡Thought of the day: I don’t have a thing like a second brain 🧠 using a dedicated app. It’s a popular concept nowadays to build a second brain utilizing an app like Craft, Obsidian or anything else. I don’t believe in the idea of having a second brain. But let’s suppose I believed in this concept; I would argue that my second brain is inside my MacBook Air, spread in different apps, fulfilling a specific task in supporting this idea of the second brain. ☝🏻