CurrentKey Stats

With CurrentKey Stats v1.6, new power-user features get added, like jumping directly to Rooms with custom hotkeys ⬅️ 🖥 ⌥ ⌨️ ➡️

spencerdailey

One of the most-requested features from CurrentKey Stats’ biggest fans (and earliest beta testers) has been: the ability to use hotkeys to jump to *specific* Rooms on your Mac (which are assigned to Spaces/virtual desktops). While users have been able to do this via the dropdown, with version 1.6, CurrentKey Stats gets a new “Rooms… Continue reading With CurrentKey Stats v1.6, new power-user features get added, like jumping directly to Rooms with custom hotkeys ⬅️ 🖥 ⌥ ⌨️ ➡️

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YouTube should make an “auto-play videos” setting that’s global and persistent, because I keep having to toggle it off

spencerdailey

It’s happened countless times. After watching too many YouTube auto-playing videos, I turn off YouTube’s “AUTOPLAY” toggle in the app or the browser. Soon thereafter I’m finding myself (this time in a different browser) having to toggle the setting off again. Millions of people are very likely having the same experience, because it’s how the… Continue reading YouTube should make an “auto-play videos” setting that’s global and persistent, because I keep having to toggle it off

product rants

YouTube has given creators the ability to alter posted videos, so it should also give users a way of knowing if a video has been edited.

spencerdailey

I swore I’d seen it. It was the day of the Samsung Fold launch, and I had watched a few videos from big-name tech channels on YouTube to quickly get up to speed. One of the videos I watched said the Fold was rated for a certain number of … “folds” …, a particularly low… Continue reading YouTube has given creators the ability to alter posted videos, so it should also give users a way of knowing if a video has been edited.

CurrentKey Stats

With CurrentKey Stats v1.5 Mac Spaces customization is now free (plus easy app-stats sharing) 💥

spencerdailey

Since launching CurrentKey Stats, the strongest reaction to the app has been around its workflow management features. To celebrate that: all Spaces customization features in CurrentKey Stats are now free 🧙‍♂️ (many were previously an in app purchase). (Spaces are what Apple calls Macs’ virtual desktops found in Mission Control). CurrentKey Stats allows you to… Continue reading With CurrentKey Stats v1.5 Mac Spaces customization is now free (plus easy app-stats sharing) 💥

product rants

Apple and Google Maps should let you lock their app’s UI in portrait or landscape mode, apart from the system-wide iOS setting

spencerdailey

You either use Maps in PORTRAIT or LANDSCAPE mode. It’s a very polarizing issue, but one thing is universal: when the phone changes to your non-preferred orientation, it’s frustrating — and frustrating at the worst possible time: when you’re wondering if you should turn left or right, or keep driving straight. If a reading app… Continue reading Apple and Google Maps should let you lock their app’s UI in portrait or landscape mode, apart from the system-wide iOS setting

CurrentKey Stats · maker stories

Building my first Swift app, from a background of web app hacking

spencerdailey

Quick note/disclaimer: This blog post is from a historically introverted solo hacker, who – aside from personal-use command line tools – has exclusively shipped web app projects until this app. A long time ago I took a day in the library with my (still shiny new) mid-2011 Macbook Air and poked around Xcode with the… Continue reading Building my first Swift app, from a background of web app hacking

product rants

Apple, Google, Twitter: your products are broken. Here are 3 simple ways to improve them to handle scams, threats, and disinformation

spencerdailey

Google/YouTube: Make it possible for users on your platform to know if a YouTube video has been edited after it’s been posted. It’s insane that I can clip out chunks of a video and there is no record (as far is the public is concerned) of me having done so. Like, if you edit a… Continue reading Apple, Google, Twitter: your products are broken. Here are 3 simple ways to improve them to handle scams, threats, and disinformation

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Robocalls and spam texts deliver fake news silently, at scale, but won’t stop anytime soon

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… unless carriers like AT&T open up to researchers and improve their networks. While the FCC is applying pressure in this regard, any decent solution is likely years away, and may be hamstrung by net neutrality-esque message discrimination concerns. Nonetheless, fake robocalls and texts are a crisis. Borrowing from my last post: Right now, any… Continue reading Robocalls and spam texts deliver fake news silently, at scale, but won’t stop anytime soon

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In 2019, Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

spencerdailey12 Comments

Right now, any robocall hacker in the world can instantly take over your phone’s screen, knocking you out of your mobile gaming experience, disrupting you as you check out at the store, or breaking your concentration as you try and type out an email. And disrupt they do, at a massive scale. Several billion fake… Continue reading In 2019, Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

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Could you disable your admin password? A stressful opsec story from an Apple Store

spencerdailey3 Comments

Tl;dr: Apparently Apple Geniuses ask customers who are dropping off their Mac for repair (where the device can’t be repaired in-store) to turn off their admin password under some circumstances (even when better options exist). 😲 Be ready, because I wasn’t. Millions of people walk through Apple Stores, and I think Geniuses asking people to… Continue reading Could you disable your admin password? A stressful opsec story from an Apple Store