Apps & Services The RSS feed for Apps & Services.

  • There is something so satisfying in closing online accounts and deleting data. It’s really hard to explain. This process only happens when moving things around (like moving from one email provider to another).

  • I think I found a viable way to replace Readwise with Craft1. The fun thing is that I found this while recording my next video. It’s possible because of a recently launched browser extension that saves an article into Craft. More details in my upcoming video. Here’s a sneak peek.


    1. I cancelled my Readwise subscription today. ↩︎

  • I logged into my Substack account today because I’m working on something and I couldn’t believe how different it is from a few years ago. I don’t even recognize it anymore. Are they trying to become another LinkedIn or Facebook? Or maybe they’re chasing TikTok or YouTube? What is going on?

  • Another pricey subscription cancelled: Timing.app. After the initial excitement to learn about how I spend my time on my computer, I think it’s time to conclude: I spend a lot of time on a computer for doing a lot of different things. There is a cheaper alternative called Currentkey, that I plan to test in the near future, though.

  • Bye Bye Readwise?

    Just got a reminder to close my Readwise account, probably because the subscription renewal is coming soon. That’s not a cheap one. Beyond serving as a repo for text highlights from Micro.blog and Inoreader, I don’t really have a meaningful use for it. I don’t use the Readwise Reader either. I export highlights into Bear from time to time as markdown files. I almost never search them. Sometimes I’ll read a few highlights with amusement or nostalgia, but nothing more. Continue reading →

  • Posting to Pixelfed from Micro.blog is cool on paper but can be very frustrating to see that the cross-post action didn’t pan out… no clue as to why, unless doing some digging in the account logs… no easy way to “try again” either. Reconsidering my approach. Again.

  • I don’t care if Reddit offers a paywall option for Subreddits. Unless I’m missing something: I could create and built a community over there and at some point ask for a paid subscription, right? What is the difference then compared with Substack or Ghost?

  • I wrote this about Apple’s Aperture more than five years ago. Now we have something to talk about.

  • I can’t count the number of times I wish I had maintained an archive of all my screenshots over the years, even going back to the earliest days when we could take screenshots of screens. 🤦🏻‍♂️😔

  • Netflix vs Apple: Who's the Dumbest?

    Netflix apologized for a temporary availability on Apple TV, while Apple is expanding its app to more devices, reflecting a complicated relationship between the two companies. Continue reading →

  • Testing Summaries - Part Deux

    This is the second part of my Micro.blog summaries testing. Continue reading →

  • Testing Summaries

    The new blog post summary feature on Micro.blog is currently only accessible during post editing and is still under development. Continue reading →

  • There is something that I wish was different with blogs hosted on WordPress: commenting and liking. I never comment on those blogs because I don’t like Gravatar or I don’t want to create a WordPress.com account just to write a comment. Again this morning, I clicked on “Like” on a blog post and for some reason, my email prefix was displayed, and I don’t remember having a Gravatar account still active. In fact, it didn’t have one, after some checks. I prefer to log in using something like my Mastodon-friendly identity or Sign in with Apple. I want the blog to give me more choices than their own authentication service (and I don’t want to use my Google account, nor Facebook login). In fact, I want an identity provider that doesn’t build a social graph or bases his business model on where I’m headed on the web.

    Am I alone with this thinking?

  • Just finished some subscriptions cleaning on YouTube. I was following way too many channels, many of which are dead. I came to do this this morning because I was looking for low-volume channels to add to Reeder. Low volume streams are the best to add to an app like Reeder. The sum of low volume content channels eventually lead to high-volume content to look at.

  • And the Winner Is...

    Three apps, three different designs. On the left, Tapestry, in the middle Reeder (new), on the right Reeder (old). For me, the winner is the new Reeder which offers a much cleaner design. I’ll keep an eye on Tapestry, but I don’t see how its design could change much. Continue reading →

  • I’ve been experiencing crashes in the Mac App Store and iOS App Store in recent times like never before. Right after an app update finishes, the store quit unexpectedly or just by looking at the list of available updates. Surprising.

  • Quite positive experience with Apple Invites so far. I feel they move the needle and bring a much more enjoyable experience compared to other similar offerings. Nice user interface visual language. It feels new and very Apple. I like it. Is it something that preclude what is coming up with iOS 19?

  • Finally!

    I’m finally enjoying this moment where I can show the title field while writing a blog post on Micro.blog. Continue reading →

  • Where Tapestry and Reeder Fail

    Thought on the morning: I think that apps like Tapestry and Reeder1 are failing at one thing: a single timeline where content converge is enough. It isn’t. I came to realize that the world is complex and requires many angles of content consumption. Another problem is the diversity in feed velocity. If one feed takes over the timeline, it’s crash the whole thing. Until they add multi-timelines and find a way to moderate high-volume feeds, I’ll refrain from adding these apps into my daily routine. Continue reading →

  • Great article from Adam Engst comparing Grammarly to Apple Intelligence Writing tools. It’s ironic that a third-party software brings better integration, less friction to the writing experience than Apple’s first-party offering.