Apple: Managing Screen Time on iOS12 - what I've learned

ScreenTime is Apple’s set of tools introduced in iOS12 to monitor/manage App usage – it’s usually used by parents to try and manage how their kids use Apple devices.

At best it works poorly – at worst it doesn’t work at all. Here are a few things I’ve learned the hard way.

Work: Nike to stop selling on Amazon

I have been a long-term critic of amazon for a couple of reasons – one is because they don’t contribute enough to cities to cover the actual costs of their business model (a criticism not limited to amazon), and the other because amazon is an increasingly poor customer experience – with more and more counterfeit goods (what percentage of “Apple” products on Amazon are actually genuine apple prodcts? ), an increasingly complicated user/platform interface, and the ‘Prime’ service increasingly isn’t – less and less is available as Prime and ‘Prime’ goods can now take a week plus to be shipped/delivered.

A company spokesperson said the brand was focused on “elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships.”

As long as Amazon can’t control their sellers – and as a reseller it’s not necessarily in Amazon’s interest to actively control sellers who use their platform – this is the reputational risk Amazon faces.

Amazon is an increasingly bad place for brands to be – particularly if they have alternative distribution platforms.

Source: Nike to stop selling on Amazon | Retail Dive

Cadbury’s Orange Twirl

A special edition bar, but there’s nothing special about it. Has a strange taste that’s not obviously orange, strange mouth-feel as well, a bit greasy. Orange after-taste (eventually).

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Tech: Apple TV, Apple TV, Apple TV, and Apple TV+

Apple TV, Apple TV, Apple TV, and Apple TV+

Dustin Curtis has a wee review of just how confusing Apple TV (and associated apps/ecosystem) really is.

(After 8 paragraphs of spot-on analysis of how confusing the AppleTV ecosystem is…) Other than that, though, Apple TV is relatively straightforward.

I find Apple TV (i.e. the hardware) relentlessly confusing post recent updates. I see previews of films and don’t know what app they’re from – Netflix, iTunes? It’s prettier and looks flash but is confusing as hell. To me anyway. We just click away and hope for the best, which is frustrating.

People who say Apple software is easy to use – well, I don’t think they use it very often.

Tech: How to block 'third-party' cookies with Google Chrome

Google is getting very good at hiding some browser settings, and so much of the online advice on managing cookies is out of date. You could search the help in Chrome, but there are no results for ‘third-party’* and if you go to Clear, enable, and manage cookies in Chrome help page you’ll find several mentions of third-party cookies, but no instructions on how to mange them. So.

Go to Chrome’s cookie settings page – paste “chrome://settings/content/cookies” into the address bar in Chrome.

 

 

Click the toggle for ‘Block third-party cookies’.

Done.

*Third-party cookies are those set by advertisers, trackers, and other websites that have a financial interest in tracking your online behaviour.

Work: Recommended: Jocelyn Glei's newsletter on creativity and work that matters

Three years ago I subscribed to Jocelyn Glei’s bimonthly newsletter. It was recommended somewhere (probably by Tina Roth Eisenberg, aka @swissmiss), and it looked interesting. And like many newsletters, I never read it. Any of it. Ever.

And then I recently made the decision to change how I used email, and to split my email life into “work” and “other” email accounts. And I saw this virtual pile of newsletters, piled up in my ‘new’ work email inbox, just like the pile of unread Esquire magazines on my nightstand.

And I took a look – finally. After three years.

Reader, it is an amazing email. Short, high quality, and infrequent enough not to feel overwhelming.

In Jocelyn’s words:

Twice a month, I publish a newsletter that highlights new ideas about how to be more creative and make time for the work that matters. It’s smart, actionable, and useful.

Subscribe here.

Hammond’s Pecan & Caramel Piggy Back


Imagine a giant chocolate turtle and you’ve got Hammond’s Pecan & Caramel Piggy Back. They are huge – half an inch thick, solid, and a real handful. Great taste, great balance of caramel and nuts, great to chew on.

Incredibly hard to find, but worth looking for.

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