iPad Growing Use List →

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I love when I am out and about (now that it is a little easier) and seeing the iPad’s being expanded in everyday uses. I remember the commercial where a repair technician was using an iPad on top of a wind turbine to check the systems. I thought cool use case but most of us will never do that.

iPads as POS devices have grown tremendously, reducing the costs of renting the traditional and expensive cash register systems. There is a good chance you may have seen similar setups in coffee shops. Recently, I saw a new system at a gift store. I inquired with the owner about how it is working out. She told me that the system not only rings the sale, sends information breakdowns to their accounting software, but also manages their inventory of what is available in stock. She could not have been happier.

A few weeks ago, I went to my dermatologist for an annual skin checkup. They use iPads for the patient intake as well as storing my medical records for the Dr. to review. After the Dr. reviewed my last visit and my checkup, he asked the assistant to take a picture of a mole he wanted to remove. This might be the most novel use of “iPad Photography”. He had a picture of the spot before it was removed for him to review in future visits.

This may seem like a shortlist, but it continues to grow, and that excites me for the iPad platform.

Ongoing Easter Eggs

Today is Earth day. I sat at my computer and opened up TextSoap for some text clean up and basic Regex work. The icon below is what appeared in my dock.

CleanShot 2021 04 22 at 10 30 42 2x

It is such a little thing. But the developer continues to take a little extra time to add these surprises in here, and there is the delight we miss from a lot of Apple software now.

My own stupidity

I use TextSoap for a lot of cleanup actions. I was running it two weeks ago after upgrading to Big Sur and I saw this in my dock and was convinced it was a bug.

CleanShot 2021 04 15 at 21 08 17 2x

I looked in my logs and captured the steps I was doing to reproduce it. I figured the next day I would contact the developer. Then the next day it was gone and I did not think much about it. Today I went back and look at the screenshot I captured to see if there was any other information I could pass on.

Created: April 1, 2021 at 10:55 AM

Good one!

Office to Go →

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I came across this concept from Nissan the other day for a mobile office. At first I thought it was silly but then I realized I have been thinking about the same thing in the form of a camper or Airstream that I do not move anywhere. Just use it as another area to work in. This has the added benefit of being able to relocate your work anytime you want.

It feel very much to me like how boats, RV’s and tiny homes great creative with the use of the space they have.

Via Core77

FINALLY my kitchen will be complete →

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Finally you can have ice cream at home thanks to ice cream pods – The Verge:

Photo: ColdSnap
We’ve had pod coffee, pod juices, pod lipstick, pod weed, pod cocktails, pod cookies, pod tortillas, and so much more thanks to the VC- and Kickstarter-backed rise of pod technologies in recent years. Now, we’re finally getting to the good stuff: pod-based ice cream.

A new device called the ColdSnap, spotted by Gizmodo, can take pods filled with some unknown ingredients and turn them into soft-serve ice cream on demand. While ice cream is the ColdSnap’s main selling point, the company also plans to offer frozen yogurt pods, frozen coffee pods, frozen smoothie pods, frozen “healthy shakes” pods, and slushie pods.

I am honestly thinking about the time and effort that went into this and who actually needs it. File this under NOPE!

via The Verge

Books 2020

Below are the books I read in 2020. Considering COIVD, I had thought the list would be greater. There are also a few work-related books that I did not add to my Goodreads account. I will be better about that this year.

I do all of my reading digitally on Kindle or iPad. The links included are for Kindle versions, but most are available in Apple Books as well.

Blob Opera makes Music →

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This is one of the silliest and most interesting uses of machine learning I have seen recently and I kind of love it.

 

Boeing 747s still get critical updates via floppy disks →

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While it might sound surprising that 3.5-inch floppy disks are still in use on airplanes today, many of Boeing’s 737s have also been using floppy disks to load avionics software for years.

Let that sink in for a few minutes. No, really I will wait.

A Boeing 747-400 in the most common configuration holds 416 passengers.

First question that comes to mind is where are they buying floppy discs today.

via The Verge

Twenty Bits I Learned About Design, Business & Community →

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I just finished reading Dan Cedarholms’ book Twenty Bits I Learned About Design, Business & Community. If you are not familiar with Dan, he was the co-founder of Dribbble. It’s a simple and fast fun read with lots of tidbits of his experience. There are a few chapters that I just found myself laughing out loud as I read them.

“Start with a t-shirt.  

Every good thing starts with a t-shirt. No really, hear me out. Don’t put the book down yet. There’s just something about the venerable t-shirt that evokes happiness.”

I read it digitally but enjoyed it so much I am going to get the hardcover for my collection.