When I’m trying to use focus modes on my iPhone I’m often left with the feeling that I’d love for them to two different things. Where Focus modes are about notifications and all of that, and a different setting for different Home Screen setups.

It all would make a lot more sense to me, and be a lot more useful if I could change the available home screens etc also on a second setting that was more current task related than a focus mode.

Where I’d get the notification settings of work, but hide screens because I’m in a meeting etc that I would find useful when I’m at my desk.

• Only syncing user data; but not other settings or state. Like if they have suffered through your terrible onboarding thingy or settings.
• Having export but not import
• The export only cover parts of the state
• Shortcut action only cover adding data, but not delete or edit

It drives me nuts when apps sync your data but don’t sync your settings or state. Like when you have to apply your settings on every single device or even

I saw this Sling while looking for something else, and just had to get it.

It is just a simple strap with a carabiner like hook at the end. Plus a small loop attachment you put inside more or less any iPhone case out through the hole for the charging port.

Really great when you’re in a situation where you either don’t have a pocket and or having a bag isn’t practical. I use it a lot in the gym. The loop for it might not be the most durable, but probably not too hard to hack together a replacement.

I really like the concept of this product though.

They have two kinds of car mounts available. Or they also have a bunch of other mounting stuff that could work. But these are the two that seems like the ones specifically made for being used in a car.

One vent mount and one that you can stick to any surface and adjust the angle etc.

I have tried both; the short version is that I ordered the non vent mount and the one I had in my car broke and I bought the vent mounted one because it was available locally.

The vent mount is fine. Better than other vent mounts I’ve used. But still limited by what you can do with that. But the other one is the best car mount I’ve had. It sticks and stays there. Been through multiple seasons of often a lot of condensation on the inside before I start the car, a windshield replacement where I removed it, waited a few hours and re-attached it. It is really good. Plus that it has much more ability to adjust the angle etc than the previous ones I’ve had could. Both of them have the design of you need to use a Popsocket to use them, and just have this U shaped thingy you slide it into. This is so much easier than all of the grabbing and mounting mechanisms I’ve used in the past.

If this ever breaks I’m getting another one.

I’ve been using Pop sockets for years upon years.

I think it started with the iPhone 8 Plus, because it was way more slippery than the 6 Plus I replaced. Over the years I’ve used multiple versions of it, not the original that you just glued on, but I started with the ones where you could twist off the pop socket itself only leaving a mount, making them more charging pad compatible. For a while I used the thing you attached on the sides that slide up and down, and these days I mostly use the first version of the MagSafe ones.

I think the MagSafe versions is the perfect version of the product, because of how easy it is to take them on and off depending on if you need it or not.

For those who are not aware. Pop sockets is this plastic and rubber knob you attach on the back of your phone that you can pull out or push in. You pull it out to use it and push it back in when you put your phone it your pocket etc. When pulled out you can use it to mount it to a bunch of pop socket compatible accessories (like their car mount, I’ll get to that in a separate post), to to use it as a kickstand (not a great one though) or to give your phone something to grip on to.

The latter is my primary use for them. It makes it a lot easier to hold a large phone, because you can kind of just let it sit between your fingers and you don’t have to strain your hand by gripping as much. When I use them I barely grip my phone at all, I just let it sit there.

I also fight a lot with mine. I think they even made a fidget toy version of it at some point.

Of all the apps I subscribe to there isn’t anything like Wallaroo.

It is an app for iPhone, iPad and macOS made by The Icon Factory that has loads of great wallpapers. Some of them are free, some require a subscription. There are a few different levels of them, one through the App Store, plus a few different levels on Patreon.

I love this app. It doesn’t have an useful or productive function. But it is so much fun.

One thing to note though, is that I had to go in and modify the Shortcut they install to set the wallpapers to let me pick what Wallpaper set they’re adding wallpapers to. Seems like it might be defaulting to the currently active one at install time.

What I love about it, outside of being really fun, is that all the wallpapers work well as wallpapers. Some better for home screens others work better for lock screens. But all of them are great for at least one of them.

The App Library on iOS is great, but at this point I’d love to have the opportunity to organize things myself instead of being tied to the weird ass App Store meta-data categories.

And for fucks sake: the recently added one should be sorted with the most recently added ones first.

With the upcoming feature of macOS being able to display widgets from your iPhone, there are a few kind of related features I’d love to see.

• Being able to display widget from any of your devices on any of them. Like there are apps that for dumb reasons can only be installed on my iPhone, but I would love to display its widgets on my iPad.
• Being to start a shortcut on one device but executing it on another.
• And related: set that a shortcut always should ask or run on a particular device

I love them.

I bought the Apple one May (’22) last year, and a in late April this year (’23) I ordered a third party one from Belkin, called BoostCharge.

These products are probably hard to get for people who either have a more put together life than I have, or don’t have small children and can just put their phone on a charger and charge it.

If you suddenly realize that you need more battery than your phone has or will be able to charge before you leave or have to go to bed. Or you have a three year old that don’t think your phone belong on the charging stand but closer to you. Or are going somewhere and would like to be able to charge it if you need to. They are awesome.

I’ve used the Apple one a lot over the year I have had it, and the Belkin one I have used a few times since I got it. The big difference between the two is that the Apple one is smaller and has a smaller capacity 1469 mAh (I think, it isn’t disclosed anywhere official), while the Belkin one has capacity of 5000 mAh.

The Apple one charges with lightning and the Belkin one with USB C. Plus that the Apple one doesn’t really have much more to it, there is an indicator that indicates battery levels but only when you attach / detach or plug / unplug a cable. While the Belkin one has a button that I had to click to make it charge the first time. But not since. That you also use to see what the battery level is on four different lights.

It also has a kickstand. It kind of works in portrait orientation, and fairly well in landscape.