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The Folder-Full-of-Files Edition Saturday, October 14, 2023

The Cult Of Obsidian: Why People Are Obsessed With The Note-taking App, by Jared Newman, Fast Company

Obsidian’s grassroots success is all the more remarkable given that the app isn’t especially inviting to nontechnical users. While apps like Notion put all your notes in the cloud so you can instantly access them from anywhere, Obsidian gives users a folder full of files and puts them in charge of managing it. Using Obsidian also requires some familiarity with Markdown—a text-editing language with its own unique syntax—and leans on third-party plug-ins for features that are table stakes in other note-taking tools.

But that nerdiness is also part of its allure: Once Obsidian endears itself, it’s hard to imagine using much else.

Stuff

New Apple Maps Experience Comes To Denmark And Greece, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

The new Apple Maps experience – which include more detail, better navigation, and Look Around – has today launched in two new countries, Denmark and Greece. This brings the total number of countries covered to 35.

Your Old Phone Is Safe For Longer Than You Think, by Shira Ovide, Washington Post

In general, it is quite safe to keep using your phone as long as it’s receiving regular software security updates from the manufacturer.

For example, Apple is still updating the security of software for iPhones that are up to eight years old.

Notes

Mirage At Apple Park, by Arun Venkatesan

This summer, Mirage, an art installation occupying the olive grove north of the visitor center, was unveiled. I decided to visit as a midday break. From the visitor center, the piece appears as a curved wall made of tinted glass. As we approach closer, it becomes clear that the wall is actually four hundred glass cylinders sprouting from the ground with no visible support structure.

The History Of Cover Flow, by Stephen Hackett, 512 Pixels

Over the last decade or so, Apple has been hard at work in simplifying the user interfaces that power its myriad platforms. I’ve welcomed most of that work, but it’s hard to deny that we’ve all lost some things along the way.

Today, we look at a UI element that started life in iTunes, but spread to the iPod, iPhone and Mac over time: Cover Flow.

Bottom of the Page

Cover Flow never did click for me, either. I've grew up with cassettes and CDs, and never really appreciated album art. That may be my bias.

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Thanks for reading.