Egg Freckles

I have been a regular podcast listener since at least April 17, 2005. Over the last 14 years I have tried a lot of podcast apps. Switching podcatchers has always been easy thanks to the freedom of the open web (RSS) and the transparency of XML (OPML).

For the last couple of years I have been using Apple's Podcasts app exclusively, but that all changed when I learned about the latest sideloading features coming to Castro.

Castro now lets you send audio from your favorite YouTube videos into your podcast queue! Just browse to the video you want to hear and “Sideload to Castro” using the iOS sharesheet. Once the YouTube audio have been downloaded into the app, you can use all of your favorite Castro features like Trim Silence, Voice Boost and variable playback speed to enhance your listening experience.

I listen to a lot of content on YouTube, but I don't always need to watch the video. Sideload to Castro works great with talking head videos, documentaries, or any content I want to listen to later; even without an Internet connection!

The only thing that could make Sideload to Castro better is if Castro could automatically sideload audio from my favorite YouTube channels in the background using RSS.

I did not consider an iPad. The only aspects of an iPad that interest me are its integrated LTE, and a long lasting battery life. As a systems administrator iOS's App Store puts restrictions on the kind of applications I need to get my work done.

If you are looking for a low-cost Apple portable with all of the possibilities of a Macintosh, and none of the compromises of iOS, the MacBook Air is the one to get.

Here are a couple of my thoughts and recommendations if a new MacBook Air is in your future.

$1,299 is too much

Do not pay $1,299.00 for a new 2019 MacBook Air with 256 GB of storage. There are better offers out there. Buy the 2018 model, they are essentially the same computer. If you have to get a MacBook Air from Apple take advantage of Educational pricing or buy refurbished.

128 GB is not enough

Do not purchase a 2019 MacBook Air with only 128 GB of solid state storage. The solid state storage on all of Apple's current portable computers is soldered to the logic board and cannot be upgraded later. You can get by using an external hard drive or saving to the cloud, but you will regret it. Apple should be ashamed for putting a 128 GB SSD in a Macintosh in 2020.

Don't eat over your keyboard

Over the last year I lived in fear. Not that I would lose data or that I would drop my computer in a puddle, but that I would get a crumb under my MacBook Air's keyboard. Reliability issues with Apple's MacBook butterfly keyboards are well documented, and the 2019 MacBook Air is no exception. I learned to accept my MacBook Air's short key travel and new keyboard layout, but I never got over the fact that the next piece of dust could do it in. Try the MacBook Air butterfly keyboard before you buy, but whatever you do don't eat over it.

Dongletown

Buy a USB Type-C to USB adapter and carry it with you at all times. If you are in the habit of presenting get a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter too. You can buy a USB Type-C adapter for every peripheral you own, or upgrade every peripheral you own to USB Type-C like I did. Dongletown is a real place, but you don't have to live there. I only visit when I am working with other people.

Pick your power supply

The MacBook Air was my first laptop with USB Type-C charging, and I am never going back. The beauty of USB Type-C charging is that you can choose your own charger. You are no longer beholden to the white power brick Apple shipped with your MacBook.

If you want a smaller power adapter, get a smaller power adapter. If you want a power adapter with extra USB ports and more power, get that one too. Heck, you can even get a USB Type-C monitor that charges your laptop, displays 1080p video, and provides a USB hub all over one cable. No need for a docking station!

Thunderbolt 3

I never found a need for Thunderbolt 3 on a entry level computer like the MacBook Air. I would gladly take more USB Type-C ports in exchange for Thunderbolt especially if it meant I could have the convenience of charging my computer from either side.

Battery Life

Battery life isn't a problem on the new MacBook Air; mine can go all day without charging. I would welcome the additional performance a quad core processor would introduce, but only if battery life remains the same and my MacBook remains whisper quiet. Did I mention I almost never hear the fan on this computer?

Force Touch Trackpad

The quality of Apple's Force Touch trackpads are legendary, but so are their size. It would be hard to go back to a PC laptop without one, but I don't need to see the Force Touch trackpad get any larger. The size of the Force Touch trackpad on the 13 inch MacBook Pro is ridiculous.

Touch ID

Touch ID is another nice to have. I would miss it if it was gone, but it is not nearly as important on a computer that has a keyboard compared to iPhone or iPad that require you to enter long complex passwords on a touchscreen.

I have three New Years Resolutions for 2020, and three habits from 2019 I am not planning to change. This note is the second of three resolutions.

Watching Stupid

Have you ever visited YouTube in a new browser without logging into Google first? If you have, you probably watched a lot of stupid videos on YouTube.

The problem is the algorithm. YouTube's algorithm works by showing you videos you are likely to watch. The algorithm does this by remembering you, which videos you watch, and which videos you skip. Google makes money each time you watch a YouTube video with an embedded ad. The more videos you watch the more money Google makes.

But what if the algorithm can't remember you or the kind of videos you like to watch? What if you don't have a Google account and don't want one? What will YouTube show you then?

In an effort to keep you watching videos with embedded ads, the algorithm defaults to showing you videos designed to steal your attention. Even if those videos are some of the stupidest content on YouTube. I watched a lot of stupid videos on YouTube in 2019.

For most people watching the occasional stupid video isn't that big of a problem because people tell Google who they are and the algorithm shows them what they want to watch. They do this by letting the Google track their browsers or by logging into Google services. But I browse the web with tracking protection turned on and never log into Google. The algorithm remembers nothing about me, and as a result I am always shown stupid videos.

Watching Less Stupid

In 2020 I am watching less stupid on YouTube by skipping the algorithm. Instead of letting the YouTube decide which videos it wants to show me, I am watching only the videos I want to see by subscribing to my favorite content creators via RSS.

1. First I find a YouTube channel I want to watch.
2. View its source code in my browser
3. Search for "channelid"
4. And append the Channel ID to the end of this URL https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCZzXBTOSdtmOz9_VMYffr4g

YouTube used to make its videos more accessible to visitors by publishing the channel RSS feeds, but ever since the algorithm took over YouTube has obfuscated RSS in an effort to control content delivery and drive advertisement revenue. Don't be a victim to the algorithm in 2020, subscribe to RSS feeds on YouTube and support the Open Web.

I have three New Years Resolutions for 2020, and three habits from 2019 I am not planning to change. This note is the first of three resolutions.

Blogging More Often

I started Egg Freckles back in 2007 as a way to share my experiences with Apple technology. But as Apple gained market share and brought more features from iOS back to the Mac, I lost interest in Apple's desktop operating system and began experimenting with Windows and Fedora Linux. Egg Freckles lost its way.

Over the last few years I made matters worse by deleting old posts, and breaking URLs by switching my CMS half a dozen times. But now that it is 2020 I am back on WordPress, and back on track to post more often from my mobile phone and MarsEdit.

I can't correct all of my mistakes from the last decade, but I promise to write more often about everything that interests me without deleting the old stuff. Wish me luck blogging more often in the new year.

It is a shame that some of the best and brightest technology journalists to ever cover the Apple beat, have been hired away by their favorite fruit company and reduced to farming cultivated stories from within the high walls of a private orchard.

I don’t blame them for following the money, and I certainly don’t blame them for wanting to work behind the curtain of the muse that has fascinated them for so many years. (Given the same opportunity, I too might have surrendered to the mothership.)

But because I remain outside the ring, or because I don’t lean on the App Store to deliver my technology news, I will never read any editorial from these virtuosos ever again.

Technology reporting and the Open Web as a whole has suffered at Apple’s insistence to lock them away.

This post was inspired by this tweet and this link that I can"t open on my Mac. As it turns out it was my fault for running an incompatible two year old version of Apple's Macintosh operating system.