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The Longevity-and-Quality Edition Thursday, February 11, 2021

Tim Cook Pivots To Fitness, by Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine

“We all know intuitively, and now with research, that physical activity is a key part of longevity and quality of life,” Cook says. His own training time is sacrosanct, the one portion of his day when he’s unreachable. “I’m off-grid for that period,” he says. “And I am religious about doing that regardless of what’s going on at the time.”

No surprise that he pays close attention to the fitness data captured by his Apple Watch. “I want to know what I’m doing, not what I think I’m doing,” he says. “Because I can always convince myself that I’m doing more than I really am. So for me, it’s a motivator.”

How To Check If Your MacBook Is Eligible For A Free Battery Replacement, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Alongside the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 yesterday, Apple also launched a new battery replacement program for 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro users. Apple says the new program is valid for users who have MacBook Pro models that “have experienced an issue with the battery not charging past 1%.”

What The M1 And Apple Silicon Mean For Mac Security, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Apple's M1 chip has a number of significant benefits in terms of efficiency, battery life, and overall performance, but one area that has been overlooked by comparison is how the Apple Silicon switch affects computer security in terms of protection against malware and malicious attacks.

Coming Soon

Apple Redirects Google Safe Browsing Traffic Through Its Own Proxy Servers To Prevent Disclosing Users' IP Addresses To Google In iOS 14.5, by Taha Broach, The 8-Bit

What Apple is doing here is instead of constantly checking Google’s database online, it downloads the database locally. Then, Apple checks links on its own servers cutting Google out of the equation.

Stuff

Create A Digital Commonplace Book, by J. D. Biersdorfer, New York Times

Creating a commonplace book is somewhat like marking your favorite lines in a novel with the Amazon Kindle highlights feature — except your personal one-stop knowledge repository can also include song lyrics, movie dialogue, poems, recipes, podcast transcripts, and any inspiring bits you find in your reading and listening. The commonplace book is not a new concept: Copying down your favorite lines from other people’s works into your own annotated notebook was a standard exercise in Renaissance Europe, and the idea can be traced to the Roman era.

PCalc For Mac Gets Robust Button Layout Editor To Easily Build Your Perfect Calculator, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

The latest version brings a full-on button layout editor to create the exact calculator you want on your Mac – including customization of the menu bar widget. Other new changes include widget layouts available to use in the main app, the ability to resize button layouts, and more.

DEVONthink Updates Mac And iOS Apps With Dark Mode, Multi-window iPad, Improved iCloud Support, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

DEVONthink is out today with updates to its Mac and iOS apps that help you collect, edit, annotate, and organize a wide variety of documents. The latest releases bring improved iCloud syncing, dark mode for iPhone/iPad, multi-window support for iPad, and more.

Hands-On With The Apple Store’s Insta360 ONE X2 Camera Bundle, by John Voorhees, MacStories

The camera is a good choice for anyone looking to create something fun and novel that isn’t possible with a mobile phone. The 360-degree perspective means you can simply turn the ONE X2 on, shoot for a while and then use Insta360’s tools to guide you through creating something unique.

Notes

I Banned My Phone From The Bedroom For A Week. Here's What I Learned., by Tanner Garrity, InsideHook

Earlier this year, I decided I was going to banish my phone from my bedroom. Why? At the end of each week, my phone sends me a screentime report. It isn’t great. I spend an unholy four hours on my phone a day. And big chunks of that, I know, are taking place when I should be asleep. I don’t need a specific endgame to know that I probably don’t need to watch the night’s NBA highlights or starting “11-minute reads” after I crawl into bed.

I’ve done it for years, as has nearly 70% of the American public. I know that kicking the habit feels hopeless. Maybe it feels pointless. But following seven days of phone-free sleep, I’m happy to say that there’s another way. It’s attainable, and it’s well worth the effort. Below, some thoughts on how exactly I did it, plus the unexpected benefits I discovered along the way.

New North Dakota Bill Would Force Apple To Allow Alternative App Stores And Payment Systems, by Nick Statt, The Verge

Apple’s Erik Neuenschwander, its chief privacy engineer, told the committee the bill “threatens to destroy iPhone as you know it” and that it would “undermine the privacy, security, safety, and performance that’s built into iPhone by design,” according to the Bismarck Tribune. “Simply put, we work hard to keep bad apps out of the App Store; (the bill) could require us to let them in.”

Bottom of the Page

I sure hope that Apple, besides building cars and glasses and goggles, is also looking into building something for all of our mental health.

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Tonight, we say goodbye to the year of the rat, and welcome the year of the ox. I am going to try very hard to just live in the moment, and forget about all the not-so-good things surrounding me.

Stay safe, and happy new year.

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Thanks for reading.