This week we’ve got a review of a cool pair of Bluetooth, noise-cancelling headphones by Allister Jenks, I’ll try to answer the question of whether iPad mini can fit into your digital life and then I’ll tell a tale about 1Password and how it all worked out in the end.
Hi, this is Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Apple Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Apple bias. Today is Sunday, April 14, 2019, and this is show number 727.
Chit Chat Across the Pond
We were on travel the better part of last week and I’m working on a new tutorial for ScreenCastsOnline that I’m super excited about and I’m doing a presentation to a local user group and I had to walk the dog…and actually forgot to record a Chit Chat Across the Pond with anyone! I could have just not mentioned it at all, or maybe made up some reason like someone bailed on me but I thought you’d enjoy the real reason more.
Blog Posts
We’ve got the last in our feast of reviews by Allister Jenks coming up. In this review, you’ll hear him say the product is $579 in New Zealand dollars. Just for reference, at today’s exchange rate that would be $390US or 350 Euro. Now let’s hear about Allister’s latest find.
Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones — by Allister Jenks
Support the Show
As you’ve probably noticed by now, this show doesn’t have any ads. It’s supported partially via Patreon. With Patreon, you choose a dollar amount to support the show, either weekly or monthly and that’s it. But there’s one other benefit I’ve never mentioned. You can message me directly through Patreon.
Ian Lessing wrote to me via Patreon and said lovely things about the show, but he also asked for a favor. He said,
My “old person eyes” have a special request… can you post an enlarged view of the wonderful 2019 iPad comparison chart from https://www.podfeet.com/blog/2019/03/2019-ipad-lineup/
Ideally, a high-res PDF could be downloaded when one clicks on the very helpful chart you made.
Now how could I refuse a request like that? Not being able to see something is SO frustrating! I immediately uploaded a high res version and made it a link from the original chart so that Ian could see it.
You know I love all feedback and will continue to answer your emails, but it was especially nice when Ian wrote to me via Patreon. If you want to have another way to contact me, check out Patreon at podfeet.com/patreon and be cool like Ian.
Does the New iPad mini Have a Place in Your Digital Life?
As you know, pretty much everything you hear on the podcast is also available as blog posts. You did know that, right? Guess I should mention it from time to time for new listeners. Anyway, one of the biggest advantages is that people find mistakes or add new information that I can incorporate into the show. After I posted about whether the Mac mini, a lot of people responded in our Slack (podfeet.com/slack). I was fascinated that everyone who replied agreed that the mini did have a place in their digital lives.
David said:
I have two 4th gen minis, one at home and one in my office. I use them exclusively for reading — Books, Instapaper, pdf expert, RSS. I’ve purposely kept everything else off them. No social apps, no email, no messaging. They make a great distraction-free reading device.
I think this method is a great way to give the mini a specific function.
Allister said:
It does for me. My non-retina mini died of “repair issues” and so I replaced it with a 9.7” Pro because I had to try the Apple Pencil. I don’t actually use the Pencil that much, nor the iPad, really. But when the new mini was announced I found myself trying to come up with reasons NOT to get one. The Pro has been wiped for sale (anyone want one?) and the mini is AWESOME! I’ve never had an external keyboard for an iPad (save for brief experimentation with a spare Magic Keyboard) and I’m finding the mini way better for typing because in portrait orientation I can thumb type just like I do on my iPhone 8.
I gave thumb typing another try after reading what Allister wrote, but even though I have pretty large hands for a woman, I just can’t balance the iPad mini comfortably in portrait orientation. I even tried the split keyboard method and it was still awful for me. Again that does help me to avoid being productive.
Frank is a fan of the mini too but learned it the hard way:
I sold my mini to a friend for his son’s use and bought a 10.5”. The 10.5” is great but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I missed the mini.
Jill is in the same camp as me. She wrote:
I have the big Pro and it is great when you have 8 hours of meetings or want some entertainment. Recently I got a Mini for bad sleeping habits. But I have fallen in love with the versatility! It’s easy to deal with on airplanes. It’s great for bird watching surrounded by big binoculars and cameras. I took it to a conference and used it and Pencil for notes and schedules. It is a huge hit in a tiny size for me!
I was intrigued by the idea of taking notes on the mini, so I asked Jill what she used. She said,
I use OneNote for organizing my whole life at work and home. Pencil works great with it. I have been tinkering with Noted which does well too. On an interesting note Inkredible made my handwriting legible. In other news, I loved testing apps 🙂
Jill sure is our people, isn’t she? I downloaded Inkredible and I’m giving it a shot, anything that can make my handwriting any better is a good thing!
If you’ve been looking to clear out your excuses for why not to buy a mini, I hope the five of us have helped you out with that.
How 1Password’s Family Plan Saved the Day
Again with the help from people reading the blog posts — David Teare, the founder of AgileBits, makers of 1Password made a comment. I thought you’d be interested in the extra information he provided:
This was a great story! Thank you for sharing.
Looks like we have some improvements we need to do on the Mac side when resetting accounts. We’ll look into that but just so you know, there is an option on 1Password.com to generate a new Secret Key as well as changing your Master Password. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen again, but if it does, changing your Secret Key and Master Password this way will give you a much smoother experience.
By the way, I’m a huge huge huge fan of Bolivia! It’s very similar to Canasta but has some additional rules that make for a really fun game.
Great to know you don’t have to kill your account to generate a new secret key, but now I have to go learn Bolivia!
That’s going to wind this up for this week. Don’t forget to send in your Dumb Questions, comments and suggestions by emailing me at [email protected], follow me on twitter @podfeet. Remember, everything good starts with podfeet.com/. podfeet.com/patreon, podfeet.com/facebook, podfeet.com/slack, podfeet.com/chat! And if you want to join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com/live on Sunday nights at 5pm Pacific Time and join the friendly and enthusiastic NosillaCastaways. Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed.