Today might be one of the few times I visit Facebook¹😔. I’ll do so to acknowledge those who write, “Hi JF, happy birthday, and have a great day.” 🙂 and thank them. Over the years, fewer people bother to run their automated yearly greetings; they know I’m not active on Facebook. However, many, even if they have my phone number, don’t switch to iMessage to send their wishes.😔 True friends acknowledge my stance with Meta and choose to skip Facebook, sending their best wishes the right way. 🫠 Not posting on Facebook to say “hi” is a birthday gift itself. 🎁

I wasn’t expecting this at all. Last year, I started using Screen Studio for its dynamic zooming effects. I really like those, but one thing I thought was a drawback: ScreenStudio isn’t really a native Mac app and doesn’t have the polish of CleanShot. I bought it. I made a few videos with it, then stopped using it. I used CleanShot for screenshots and a few very short clips for bug reporting. CleanShot is a game changer.

Studio Mode recording is not only a welcome addition to CleanShot but a superb implementation. Everything seems in the right place, at the right time. I see no reason to return to Screen Studio. Not only that, but I expect my ScreenFlow usage to drop quite a bit.

I have included a short clip just for fun, demonstrating a few clicks in another excellent piece of software: Birchfeed.

Well, what a day… both at work and for my digital hobbies. I saw a teaser from @mattbirchler late last week, which made me think that he might be onto something with RSS feeds… Today I found my answer with the official release of birchfeed.app. There is quite a lot to unpack there.

First, from my experience with Birchfeed after a few hours using it (on the free tier), I came out impressed. It is another case of “build the best tool for myself”. Matt is an RSS feed junky just like me. I also built an RSS reader, but the end result is quite different. It’s not a sync service like Birchfeed, but an RSS reader for a blogroll (i.e. a very limited list of RSS sources).

Second, my RSS reader maintains its own data persistence. It’s not connected with my current RSS sync service: Inoreader. I’d like to have a single source of truth. Birchfeed seems to fit the bill, thanks to its APIs, and it would allow that for a fraction of the cost of using Inoreader APIs. After a quick investigation using Claude AI on my codebase, I could make the switch rather easily, and eventually drop Inoreader when my subscription expires next year. So I’m not in a rush, and Birchfeed will keep improving until then.

But, because I’m a nice guy who likes to support cool guys, I’m might subscribe to Birchfeed right before my free trial ends…

My interest in Apple’s new leadership, John Ternus in particular, is heating back up. I’m utterly excited to see how Apple under Ternus will be remodelled and transformed. Today’s Bloomberg¹ article leaves no doubt that many challenges await Apple. That said, I don’t expect much change, starting with the impending iPhone launch, the last under Cook as CEO while the iPhone 18 line was under development. We have to look further.

Recently, I discovered two digital spaces for exploring the web: bubbles.town and Standard Reader. They are two entirely different but complementary approaches. Standard Reader is very focused on discovering publications. Bubbles.town relies on reader participation by letting users vote for an article, similar to Digg. I have set a goal to visit these two spaces every day over the next few weeks.

Since Claude Code exists, I have noticed a surprising phenomenon: more and more new applications are appearing on the App Store or coming to life as web applications accessible only to their creator-promoter. The process is called vibe coding. When I see people creating new applications with the help of artificial intelligence, I can’t help but think back to the era of the introduction of PageMaker, the LaserWriter laser printer, and the Macintosh. These three elements enabled the democratization of what became known as ‘Desktop Publishing.’ Many people who knew nothing about printing, layout, and design started creating posters, newsletters, etc. The results were not always of very high quality. Fast forward to today: artificial intelligence and tools like Claude Code are bringing us back into a similar context of high-velocity creation. It’s fascinating. The more things change…