1/9/2024: A year of great apps
A year of great apps
Plus: The Matter mess, a Facebook privacy tweak
- Blackmagic Camera: A free video capture app for the iPhone with extensive manual controls.
- DOS_deck: Classic shareware games playable in your browser, including controller support.
- Goodnotes: An app for handwritten notes that got some huge feature updates this year. (Most impressive: A spell checker that corrects mistakes in your own handwriting style.)
Check out the full list over at Fast Company. (If you hit a paywall, try this link instead.)
Need to know
Vision Pro ship date: Apple will start shipping its $3,500 Vision Pro headset on February 2, with pre-orders starting on January 19. The company will also demo the headset at Apple Stores through the weekend of February 2 on a first-come, first-served basis.
I have not tried the Vision Pro, and therefore haven’t had the chance to be wowed by it like some fellow members of the tech press. But I’ve been blown away by virtual reality demos before, only to find that the headgear quickly becomes tiresome in everyday use. While the Vision Pro may infuse some much-needed excitement into the VR and AR category, it’s essentially a developer kit for now.
The Matter mess: Here’s a great story by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge’s smart home guru, on how Matter has failed to live up to its promises. Matter is supposed to standardize smart home gear so it works across any platform, including Google Home, Alexa, Apple Home, and others. Tuohy, who’s been living with a slew of Matter gear for months, documents frustrating technical glitches and feature limitations, and she concludes that the standard is a long way from where it needs to be.
I’ve been frustrated with the state of smart homes for years now, largely because things just don’t work the way you’d expect. My advice of late has been to only buy gear that solves a specific problem—like controlling your thermostat or cleaning your floors—and don’t get too wrapped up in the idea of having all your gadgets work in concert. It doesn’t sound like Matter will change that anytime soon.
Beeper changes course: Just to close the loop on the Beeper story from last month, the startup has given up on offering iMessage to Android users in a seamless way, but it’s devised a workaround for users who don’t mind jumping through some extra hoops. The solution involves either a Mac that must be turned on periodically or an old, jailbroken iPhone that must be kept on indefinitely. Only the latter option allows users to receive iMessages via their phone number.
It’s a disappointing outcome for most, though admittedly it’s fine by me. I’ve got Beeper set up on my Mac Mini and had no issues sending or receiving iMessages on my Android phone over the holidays. Meanwhile, Beeper can get back to its original mission of building a universal chat app, and it seems to have succeeded in sending more antitrust scrutiny Apple’s way in the meantime. I’m looking forward to what Beeper does next, with or without iMessage.
Tip of the moment
Another Facebook privacy tweak: While Facebook has always used the links you click on in its mobile app for ad targeting purposes, now you can finally stop it from doing so. Here’s how:
- Tap on any web link in the Facebook mobile app.
- If you see a “Never lose a link again” pop-up, disable the “Allow link history” toggle.
- Otherwise, tap the “…” button at the bottom-right, select “Go to Settings,” then disable “Allow link history.”
- When prompted, tap the blue “Don’t allow” button.
- While you’re here, disable the “Autofill forms” toggle to stop Facebook from tracking everything you type after tapping on links in its app.
Bear in mind that Facebook has many other ways of following you around the web and monitoring your behavior, which is why the idea persists that it’s listening your conversations. (The reality is that it doesn’t even have to.)
I’ve outlined some other privacy-preserving steps you can take—along with some other Facebook settings worth changing—in this guide for paid subscribers on the Advisorator website.
Thanks for reading!
Got tech questions for me? As always, I’m happy to answer them, though bear in mind my responses may be a bit delayed as I’m running around Vegas at the CES tech trade show this week. Just reply to this email to get in touch.
Until next week,
Jared