Kanye West and Drake both have released new albums and I can’t help but enjoy them both. I have been listening to Donda since its release only to take a break from it to listen to Certified Lover Boy after its release.

Both albums sound great, but I want to take a moment and talk a little bit about both album covers.

Personally, I hate the all black cover from Donda. I wanted the album cover to be the one shown back in June, which was a cropped version of art piece FEMME (2007) by artist Louise Bourgeois.

Given that Bourgeois used art as a way to cope with emotion, including the loss of her mother, I thought it was fitting for Kanye to use it as the cover for an album named after his late mother. However, it is reported that West used this art at listening sessions without permission, and once the copyright holders did call they were not pleased.

Still, the backup option was to just have an entirely black album cover? It’s too on the nose as a This is Spinal Tap parody if you ask me. To me, that seems like such a bad call. There were much better possibilities with this album cover, and I wish West did better by the artist instead of “treating it like a sample.”

That being said, I am writing about it and thinking about this album cover more than any other album cover Kanye has released, which could be the point as well.

As for Certified Lover Boy, this is an album cover made by Damien Hirst, but it isn’t a piece that is controversial like throwing a dead shark into formaldehyde. In fact, it seems more of an intentional meme than anything, and I’m not the only one feeling this.

For me, at least Certified Lover Boy has something to look at instead of being a single black void.

All this being said, the music these two artists produced are fantastic and I couldn’t be more excited to listen to them more as the Summer turns to Autumn.

Chad Etzel, who recently went independent, released one of the most fun apps for the iPhone this year.

If you like to have stickers in messages but always wanted to make your own you are now able to with a few taps and swipes. You can use your camera, saved photos, or draw your own! This is honestly the first app that had made stickers fun for me since it was released on iOS.

Best part? You can share the stickers you make within the app.

I finally got a custom keycap for my Keychron K6 keyboard, and boy was it worth the wait.

KeebMonekey’s MAC Modular Artisan Keycap makes your escape key and tab key reminiscent of the Apple Macintosh days allowing the LED light from your keyboard to fill the “screen”. Worth every penny.

Patricia Hernandez, the editor-in-chief of Kotaku, talks with Alanah Pearce about the changes in coverage for Kotaku, online publishing in general, and the state of games media/journalism. A very open and enthralling conversation for anyone interested in online publishing and journalism. For extra credit you can read Patricia’s open letter after taking the EIC position.

Matt Birchler ditches his 2018 12.9” iPad Pro for the new iPad Air. His reasoning is great and honestly I am in the same boat as him when it comes to my uses for the iPad.

Today I am happy to present a Craft 101 video with James Eaton where he walks me through how to set up my Craft notes system, what I can do to make it more useful, and how to get the most out of this app.

This was a lot of fun to make and I can’t wait to see how it helps anyone looking to set up a Crafts notes system.

Things included in this video:

• How to organize your notes
• How to make Craft a PKM system
• The difference between notes, pages, cards, and blocks
• How to make a wiki for a person/author
• Many quick tips

I want to thank James for being a part of this and I hope to make a more advanced walkthrough with James in the near future as I get more time with Craft and look to take the next step with it.

As a kid growing up with a GameBoy Color (I had the Gorgeous Green version), Pokemon was one of the most constant games I played. I played Yellow, Red, Gold, and Ruby all to completion. After Pokemon Ruby I had a falling out with the games because it seemed to get more complicated with IV and EV being more prominent as well as competitive play. I just wanted to catch Pokemon and beat the story in each game, not worry about whether the Pokemon I just caught is the strongest it can be. I moved on to other games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at this time as well, which also became a factor in Pokemon drifting away from me as I grew older.

Recently I have wanted to go back and play Pokemon games, but because Nintendo has yet to make them available on the Switch, I had to look elsewhere. Thankfully, MacStories recently shared an app that you can sideload onto you iPhone that allows you to play emulated games. The app is called Delta, and it’s free.

After I installed this on my iPhone with AltStore I knew that I wanted to play Pokemon as I edit my podcasts. If there is one thing that warrants playing video games while you work it is podcast editing. Sadly, Delta seems to be an iPhone only app. When I launched it on the iPad it was in iPhone compatibility mode, which I didn’t think would be an issue for me. I had planned to have this in split-screen with Ferrite running simultaneously, but alas that did not work either. Turns out that you can’t even run an app in iPhone compatibility mode in split screen on the iPad.

For now, Delta remains on my iPhone and I play Pokemon when I have some downtime or just want to relax at home on the couch while watching TV. This didn’t completely fix my problem for the podcast editing issue, but that is where my M1 MacBook Air comes in handy.

I remembered reading an article about how the new M1 Macs were fantastic for emulating games on the GameCube, and I figured that if my Mac can handle Gamecube games without it should be more than able to play GameBoy games.

Thankfully, after a quick google search it turns out there is a fantastic all-in-one option for emulating games on the Mac called OpenEmu. This app is something I wish I knew about earlier, because it is an app I thought I could only dream of. I tried emulating games years ago on a Windows PC and it quickly became a Frankenstein of sorts with different apps, files, BIOS, and other core items you need just for it to work, let alone play at the correct frame rate or aspect ratio. OpenEmu makes emulating games as simple as dragging the ROM into the app and you are ready to go.

Once I found some ROMS online (Google it, there are plenty of sites online) I can open the game within OpenEmu and begin the pure nostalgia.

Controller Support

One of my favorite things about both Delta and OpenEmu is that they support external controllers, and thanks to Apple allowing both Xbox and PlayStation controllers to be paired to your Apple Devices you most likely have a compatible controller.

If you are in need of a controller you can either purchase an Xbox or PlayStation controller, or if you plan to play exclusively Nintendo games you can buy the beautiful 8Bitdo Sn30 Pro+. All are options that work for the iPhone and Mac, and you can always make use of them for their respective consoles in the future if you decide to buy it.

Once I put my Xbox controller into pairing mode, I was able to connect it to my Mac. Once connected, it is just a matter of assigning buttons to the controller in OpenEmu’s settings page.

After about 15 minutes worth of work I am all set to start playing my games while I edit my podcasts. I can’t tell you how adding this to my podcast editing workflow has allowed me to edit for longer stretches without feeling bored or getting cabin fever. I don’t have the sound on the game, and I am able to fully pay attention to the podcast, but I am giving my hands and eyes stimulation while I listen for audio issues, outtakes, and more. When I do find something that needs to be edited, I pause the game (or just leave it running if I am not actively in battle) and make the quick edit and continue listening to the podcast and playing OpenEmu.

Quick Tips with OpenEmu

If you are like me and want to edit podcasts while playing the game, you may want to consider turning on “Always float popout gameplay window on top” enabled and also turn off “Always pause gameplay when in the background” so that when you are editing your podcast you can have the editing app active but still be able to see and play your game.

If you have a Mac or iPhone and want to learn more about emulators you can check out Delta and OpenEmu. From there, you find plenty of websites and walkthroughs on how to use these apps and where to download the ROMS you want to play.

Happy gaming!

I wanted to fulfill my promise of bringing some fun to this issue and share some podcast episodes I listen to fairly often. I have been an avid podcast listener as long as I can remember it being available on iTunes. As someone that drives two hours a day for my day job I fill the time almost exclusively with podcasts. This collection is just the tip of the iceberg for me, and the reason I listen to them multiple times varies. In general, it all boils down to a combination of enjoyment and knowledge. I have left every episode listed below feeling better than I was before I listened. If you want more, I am happy to add to the list in a future issue.

• Automators #28: Keyboard Maestro and the Mac - Keyboard Maestro was Shortcuts for the Mac before Shortcuts can’t to the Mac. It has so much power and this episode gave me a taste of the app and what you can do with it.
• Longform: Jenny Odell - This podcast opened my mind in many ways, mostly in ways I can’t articulate here in this newsletter. If you ever feel like you are on the internet too much, have caught yourself Doomscrolling, this is a podcast that is worth a listen. You can also buy Jenny’s book, How to do Nothing, and gain even more insight.
• Compound Writing: How to Design a Sustainable Daily Writing Workflow for Blogs and Newsletters with Michael Jones - Michael gives a talk about his story in making The Supercreator, what he did to brand and define his newsletter, how he writes daily, and what you can do to stand out. Michael is a genuinely nice person and graciously gave me a half hour of his time to chat with me about Tablet Habit as I got started with it. If I ever feel lost or want to make sure I am doing the right thing with this newsletter I listen to this.
• Media Voices Podcast: Man cannot live by newsletter alone, the realities of going solo as a journalist - An audio documentary showcasing newsletter writers in all stages of their writing careers. This is some fantastic reporting, interviewing, and editing to show the good and bad sides of newsletter writing. It doesn’t just show the wildly successful stories, it also shows when things don’t work out and what those people have learned from it. This is easily one of the best pieces about the creator economy I have consumed in the past year.
• 43 Folders Podcast: John Gruber & Merlin Mann's Blogging Panel At SxSW - Merlin Mann and John Gruber have a talk at SxSW in 2009 where they talk about what makes for good blogging. Really, this talk is about creating things online in general. Online publishing as changed dramatically since 2009, but very little about this talk has seemed to become obsolete after more than a decade since it was given.
• Mac Power Users #583: The Obsidian Deep Dive - David Sparks and Stephen Hackett dive deep into Obsidian and helps newbies to the app understand what it is, what it can do, and how you can make it work for you. There have been a few meaningful updates since this episode went live but it’s still suitable for those getting started.
• Automators #71: Automated Capture - David Sparks and Rosemary Orchard show how to handle capturing ideas, tasks, notes, etc. and what to do to ensure you have a system that works.
• Do By Friday: The Doodler - This isn’t a normal productivity podcast, so be warned about that. That said, this is my favorite podcast to listen to to get back to the basics of Drafts. The hosts have creator of the Drafts app, Greg Pierce, on as a guest and talk about what Drafts is, what it can do, and how you can make it your own. If you want a fantastic text editor that holds a lot of power user options download Drafts and give this a listen. Bonus points if you listen to their later episodes, one revisiting Drafts to do more with it, the other where they write their texts in Drafts.
• Automators #73: Custom Drafts Themes, Syntax, and more with Tim Nahumck - Tim, who is a friend of mine, shares how one of the latest updates to Drafts allows you to use custom themes and custom syntax. This is for the people that already use Drafts. If you aren’t familiar with the app I suggest you listen to the previous episode of Do By Friday.

I wanted to kick this week off with something light and fun, but if we are being honest here—I like to think this is a safe space—this week has been a lot to handle as an “Apple enthusiast.”

I have been reading so many different news stories, opinion articles, and comments about the recent announcement from Apple regarding the future scanning of iCloud Photos. I don’t want to explain the details about what is happening, you can find more about the announcement explained by The Verge or this more detailed FAQ from TidBits.

I will say here that this isn’t Apple getting unfettered access to your entire iCloud Photo library, they are specifically looking for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that matches a hash in a database of known CSAM. That said, there are several people and organizations sharing concerns regarding loss of privacy to users, possible political exploitation, and overall creepiness that Apple can now have backdoor access your photos in iCloud. There are arguments saying this is a slippery-slope for Apple, others say that it is only a matter of time before it affects other types of content.

I am not here to add to the pile of people looking to share their opinion on this matter. I am not an expert in privacy, CSAM, or the legality of photos in the cloud. There have been great arguments that I will encourage people to read. The first being John Gruber’s take on Daring Fireball, second is an open letter to Apple signed by over 5,000 people including Edward Snowden, and finally Casey Newton’s article from Platformer. All of these have great explanations for their arguments and they fall on different spots of the spectrum as far as their privacy concerns.

The main point I want to make here is that Apple is a big tech company, and the changes they make aren’t always going to be fun or simple to talk about.

The reason I love talking about hardware, software, UI design, and the overall experience in using computers is because I love what people can make with it. I didn’t get into writing about Apple to dive deep into the political ramifications these companies make. That isn’t what revs my engine, in fact it is the kill switch to my enthusiasm. To put it bluntly, the less I have to think about those kinds of things the better. Yet, today, and this past week really, isn’t one of those times.

This isn’t to say that what is happening isn’t important. In fact, I think it is a pivotal moment in the ongoing concerns about privacy. Still, for right now, writing about Apple isn’t fun for me, and I am having a hard time to get past the concerns so many people knowledgeable about the situation have raised. Apple has always been the privacy-focused company but now it seems that things are changing on that front.

I hope to come back Thursday with something fun for my paid readers, but today I couldn’t ignore this elephant in the room.

Instead, I took the time I usually spend writing this newsletter to escape from this ongoing debate. I listened to podcasts like Do By Friday and The Dollop. I played Mass Effect Legendary Edition on my Xbox, and started watching To Obsidian and Beyond, a new course by The Sweet Setup. All of these things have been great distractions for me, and a much-needed mental health break.

Thursday will have something fun for you all. If you have anything you want me to write about or questions you want answered you can leave a comment at the link below or email me jeff@clicked.cool.

In the latest episode of A Slab of Glass I interviewed Casey Newton, creator of Platformer, about his writing process. This is what I learned in the interview.

1. Take Your Shot

This is partly something I learned prior to this interview and partly something Casey validated for me during the interview.

I asked Casey to be on the show, thinking he would fully decline (politely). To me, he seems like such a busy person so why would he “waste” it on someone like me. This is me not giving myself enough value.

I also felt like one of the reasons he was so receptive to me asking him to be on the show was because I had a different angle than others. Instead of just talking about how he went independent, I wanted to talk about his process. He even told me in the interview saying that I am the first person to ask him about how he does his work, which I took as a compliment.

So if you have someone that you want on your show, ask them to be on but have it be mutually beneficial if you can.

2. Have a system, and stick with it

Casey spoke at length about how he uses Notion and Roam in a system, and I noticed that he not only had a place for everything but he also had a well thought out reason for each decision, and he continually stuck with that system to accrue more value from it over time.

People who care deeply about notes are also the ones to jump ship every time something new comes along. While it can be fun to play around with the latest software, if you keep moving from one app to another it isn’t allowing you to have any real value accrue over time.

There will never be a perfect notes app, you just have to pick something that has flaws you’re willing to live with.

3. Be judicious with your tags and labels

One feature that most of the newest notes app have, including Apple Notes, is tags. If you have redundant tags, it can grind your note taking effectiveness to a halt. For example, if you have a tag like iPad and another tab like iPads you now have duplicate tags. So after some time you might be looking for something about the iPad but when you use your tags you now aren’t sure if the correct tag is iPad or iPads.

If you continue to maintain your notes like a garden your yield will be much more prosperous. So when you add tags, look to see if there are potential tags already in your system before making new ones.

4. Brain dump everyday

Casey mentioned about how he just brain dumps with Roam as a pseudo journal of sorts. This reminded me a lot about daily notes, which I am a huge fan of.

One thing that I know has helped me as a writer is to have a place like a daily note or even a scratch-paper app like Tot to quickly jot down something in my mind. Once it leaves my brain and goes into a note or onto a piece of paper my mind lets go of that thought completely. When I do this enough times the only thing left to think about are the big things. Things like my newsletter, my plans for my house projects, my goals for the next 5 years, things that need significant time for my brain to noodle on.

The items I captured earlier are still important, and I do indeed process them. Most of the time those quick thoughts either go into an ongoing note like one I have for house projects, or it goes into my task manager as something I should do.

Another benefit with daily notes is that sometimes a thought you had that seemed small can grow into something much larger. I have had multiple things pop in my head that sparked an interest of mine and caused me to write about it here on Tablet Habit. My piece about Regex, for example, was a simple thought I wrote down one day and after hours of playing around with Regex I decided to write about it.

Allowing my brain to stretch out a bit every day is the mental exercise I need to keep my writing and thought processing limber.

5. Just use a to-do app, they all do the same thing

Casey had a singular hot take about to do apps and it was that most to do apps are just meant to be glorified checklists and they all do pretty much the same thing. So instead of wasting your time fiddling with different apps you should just pick one and live with it. He used to use TickTick, but now uses Todoist. Just find one that is pretty enough for you and functions the way you want it and start using it. Embrace its flaws and make it work for you.

I have been thinking a lot about the iPad Mini lately. I can't pinpoint exactly why, but I have a few links peppered in this that got my gears going. Furthermore, I have many questions about the iPad mini now and the future of the iPad mini.

The iPad mini might not be for everyone, but people who have used it will tell you that it just works for them.

Shortly after he wrote this, Lee shared that due to new circumstances, the iPad mini doesn't quite fit like it once did for what he's doing. Now, he is rocking the M1 MacBook Air as his main device.

What I’ve found this year is that since getting the larger screened iPhone 11 I’m using my iPad Mini less. It’s just always with me and easily accessible. I use the iPad Mini now for about 20% of the time in my week. Maybe to read a magazine or look at my RSS but I’ve found its use has dropped off.

With all this said, José Adorno posted an article on 9to5Mac sharing other use cases for the iPad mini.

The iPad mini has some things going for it, mainly because of its size. The first thing is it’s a great reading device. Whether you are scrolling a book, reading a digital magazine, or skimming a New York Times article, the mini provides a Retina screen that can be held in your palm with ease. That being said, there is the argument that the iPhone can do all of these things too. For me, though, I have found that reading on my phone for longer than a few hundred leaves me wanting a larger device to read things on. I also get fatigued holding my 11-inch iPad Pro, or even the regular iPad when I had one.

All this to say that the mini can be argued that it deserves a spot in the Apple iPad lineup, but I am still not sold on the iPad mini 5. To me, it seems time that the iPad mini fit between the 10.2-inch iPad and the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max.

How Can the iPad Mini Improve?

There are several ways that the next iPad mini can be improved upon to make it more enticing for users, and for people who already have an iPad and iPhone to want the iPad mini.

Price

The current 10.2-inch iPad is selling at the starting price $329, whereas the 7.9-inch iPad mini 5 is being sold at the starting price of $399. Selling the iPad mini $70 more than the iPad is like selling an iPhone 12 for more than a 12 Pro. It just doesn't make much sense. It also isn't like they differ in any meaningful way.

They both are using the same A12 Bionic chip, and both support the Apple Pencil. One of two things needs to happen if Apple wants the mini to thrive going forward. They either need to lower the price to lower or at the very least match the iPad. On the other hand, they could offer an updated version of the iPad mini with a better ship and better features to justify the added cost.

Screen Size

The iPad mini is only 1.2-inches bigger than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which isn't enough to make it appealing to users with larger phones like the 12 Pro Max, or any iPhone Max device in the last few years.

It is rumored that the iPad mini will be getting a larger screen size, one place estimated 8.9-inches for the screen size, all without changing the footprint of the iPad Mini. This means that the bezels are getting thinner and the Home Button is going away in the next version of the iPad mini.

Thankfully, it seems that there are several sources sharing rumors and information indicating that the next iPad mini will indeed be larger.

Support Apple Pencil 2

This seems like a no-brainer to me. It is time that Apple cut the cord from the Apple Pencil 1 and make the move to generation 2. Not only is it magnetic and can be stuck to the side of some supported devices, the Apple Pencil 2 is much more accessible to purchase compared to the first generation.

Support MagSafe

This is a more edge-cased thing, but in my opinion, Apple should lean in with MagSafe and start implementing it in the iPad lineup. The iPad mini is a perfect place to start. It isn't much larger, the battery size is comparable, and it wouldn't look so silly with the current MagSafe puck.

When I was in high school, I distinctly remember a moment where my social studies teacher was going through a lesson irregularly fast. It got to be so much of an issue that several students, myself included, begged him to slow down on his PowerPoint presentation so that we could write down what was on each slide.

"You know," my teacher began to say, "your generation is great at writing out notes and dictations of what us teachers say, but you rarely take in the information we are giving you." For years this sentiment lived under my skin rent free. I was personally offended by his tone and was adamant that this was just a microaggression towards millennials. I have come to learn that I begrudgingly have to agree with his original statement, at least partially.

Note taking for me was indeed transcribing what my teachers were saying. I would stress over whether or not I wrote everything down. There were multiple occasions in my high school tenure where I had to lean over to a nearby classmate to ask for their notes because I had missed what was shown in a previous slide. I wasn't focused on what the actual teachings were. This eventually extended into college, and even into my career. For years I had a notebook with me frantically writing down everything that was said to me because I was terrified I would forget.

The problem with this was that it wasn't helping me remember things, but rather allowing me to immediately forget what was said to me. So long as I wrote it down, my mind felt that it wasn't worth my brain capacity to remember.

Now, this isn't inherently a problem. So long as I had a trusted system that can take these notes it would have worked, but I didn't have that. So, multiple times a day I would write down something that was said to me, a task I needed to do, or an idea. Those notes in my notebook were captured, but they fell through the cracks because I would often overlook them as I captured more and more in my notebooks throughout the day.

I knew this wasn't a system that was going to help me in the long run because I used my notes as a crutch that and they weren't holding me up properly. So I had to find a different way to take notes.

It all startsed with a book from Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers. Ahrens pulled me in immediately with the introduction.

Writing plays such a central role in learning, studying and research that it is surprising how little we think about it. If writing is discussed, the focus lies almost always on the few exceptional moments where we write a lengthy piece, a book, an article or, as students, the essays and theses we have to hand in. At first glance, that makes sense: these are the tasks that cause the most anxiety and with which we struggle the longest. Consequently, these ‘written pieces’ are also what most self-help books for academics or study guides focus on, but very few give guidance for the everyday note-taking that takes up the biggest chunk of our writing.

[...] What they all have in common, though, is that they start with a blank screen or sheet of paper. But by doing this, they ignore the main part, namely note-taking, failing to understand that improving the organisation of all writing makes a difference. They seem to forget that the process of writing starts much, much earlier than that blank screen and that the actual writing down of the argument is the smallest part of its development.

From there, I stumbled upon a TEDx talk from Hazel Wagner, author of Power Brainstorming: Great Ideas at Lightning Speed, where she spoke on mind mapping.

What particularly resonated with me in her talk was how using mind maps illustrated how we actually think about things.

[N]otice ... you put down single words or short phrases. This isn't whole sentences or paragraphs. Do you think you store in your brain paragraphs? How about sentences? What about those outlines you spent of time in school, Roman 1A, B, C, remember that stuff? Do you think that is what you store in your brain? I don't think so. You store images, you store key ideas, you store the connections between the things you're learning and things you already knew.

Mind mapping isn't the only way to make notes, and it's not my preferred way of taking notes. Still, the premise of reducing your thoughts down to something that is easier to recognize can help you understand things more. In fact, there's a study that shows taking longhanded notes with a pen and paper might be more efficient than using a keyboard and computer.

In an interview with NPR Pam A. Meullar, author of The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking, expanded on their research article. She spoke about note taking on a computer compared to long-handed notes saying that typing up transcriptions is not only ineffective but being more selective is much more rewarding in the learning process.

When people type their notes, they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can ... The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective — because you can't write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them.

Now, I am not here to say writing notes by hand is better. If you are one that enjoys writing out notes and systems with pen and paper, then this might be what you need to make the move to doing something like a Bullet Journal.

For me, this information has led me to the conclusion that we can't simply copy and paste the things we see in front of us. Whether it's a lecture, video, article, or something else you consume, you need to put them in your own words if you want to remember the lessons learned from it.

In my experience, if you don't have a system like this in place my notes are merely being stored and collecting metaphorical dust.

How Casey Newton Helped me with Taking Notes

In an interview with Casey Newton, which will be on the next episode of A Slab of Glass, I was interested to hear about his note taking process.

For those of you who don't know, Casey is a prolific writer for his Substack, Platformer, where he writes 5000-10,000 words an issue, four times a week. Needless to say, he has a ton of information, links, research, and sources that all need a place to be saved and further clarified. One intriguing thing I learned from him was that he has a database in Notion where he saves links to throughout the day. Every link is its own page, and all of those pages live in a database called "Platformer Links".

Let me first explain that you can do something like this with practically any note taking app. From Apple Notes, Evernote, Craft, Notion, Bear, or something else, it is almost a given that you can share a link or document and put it in a notes app.

So, as Casey saves these links he uses them in his link roundup for Platformer, as well as a way to see trends or possible future story ideas. Once saved, he then adds tags to them. For example, he speaks a lot about Facebook and misinformation, and he uses both of those words as tags regarding any links he saves. Once he has his tags set up, he then has different "views". One view will only show links added in the last 24 hours, another has a month's worth of links being shown. These views allows Casey to see connections in his links he might have seen otherwise.

How I am Using These Lessons Learned

For me, I have taken Casey's process a step further. Along with tags, I add comments to these links explaining my thoughts on the content, takeaways I got from them, and any criticism I might have on the premise of the article or video.

Adding my own words to the content I have saved allows me to make connections in my mind that I otherwise wouldn't. This is where I change my notes from simple storage of links to actual notes I have written.

I am also using tags in the links and resources I am saving into Notion. Tags like iPad, iPhone, Apple are used regularly, but I also have tags like video, rumor, and touch bar that is more specific but can be used in more notes down the line. The reason for tags is because I want to use them as means of connecting notes together in new ways. I could use something like a backlink to do the same thing, but with tags you are able to sort them in more ways than the simple two-way connections backlinks offer.

Aside from links, I am also using my notes as a means to capture, organize, and elaborate on ideas I have for Tablet Habit. From article ideas, workflows, etc. I have a database set up that's similar to my links to allow me to see what I can use for future issues of Tablet Habit.

My note taking journey is still going on, and I doubt it will ever  truly"end". That said, I am happy with where I am right now and I hope this feeling continues as I push to improve and innovate my notes.

This week I wanted to utilize the Apple Notes app, and how you can use the synergy with the Mac and your iPad or iPhone to up your note-taking game.

I made a quick video showing how you can use your Mac and iPhone or iPad to capture photos, documents, or sketches like magic. Let me know if you like these videos, if a lot of you do I might make some more down the line.

Have you ever been in a meeting or something and see a document, visual aid, or something else you want to capture in your notes? Well, thanks to the Notes app you can grab a quick photo, scan, or sketch out what you wanted to save. It all starts with a simple icon in the Mac Apple Notes app.

Once you click on this icon in the upper right-hand area of the Notes app, a world of options comes up. Depending on what devices you own, you may see multiple things show up. For me, it shows my iPhone and my iPad. Both of these devices have the same options available, here's what each does.

Take Photo

This is pretty self-explanatory, under the device you wish to use, for me it is my iPhone, click on "Take Photo" and then your device opens up the camera for you to snap a photo. Take a photo, decide if it works for you and once done it will show up in your note on the Mac.

Scan Document

Like the photo option, once selected your device's camera opens up but instead of it being a standard camera, it is now looking for documents to scan and once it finds one it will cover it with a blue UI and automatically scan it for you. You can scan multiple pages and edit the pages you want to keep by tapping the bottom left hand corner. When everything is the way you want it select Done and press Save. Once saved, the documents show up in the note on your Mac.

Sketch

Sketch is the most interesting one for me, as it is using PencilKit to allow you to draw, color, and sketch something on your iPad or iPhone. Just select "Sketch" in the options, draw out what you want on your iPhone or iPad. Once you're all set tap "Done" and it will pop up in the note.

Conclusion

This is one feature I never knew about, but now that I do know about it Apple Notes seems like a killer app for when you want to take notes quick and want to capture reference material as well.

How to Make Apple Notes More Useful

This week I wanted to utilize the Apple Notes app, and how you can use the synergy with the Mac and your iPad or iPhone to up your note-taking game.

I made a quick video showing how you can use your Mac and iPhone or iPad to capture photos, documents, or sketches like magic. Let me know if you like these videos, if a lot of you do I might make some more down the line.

youtu.be/MXo-t8FfB…

Have you ever been in a meeting or something and see a document, visual aid, or something else you want to capture in your notes? Well, thanks to the Notes app you can grab a quick photo, scan, or sketch out what you wanted to save. It all starts with a simple icon in the Mac Apple Notes app.

Once you click on this icon in the upper right-hand area of the Notes app, a world of options comes up. Depending on what devices you own, you may see multiple things show up. For me, it shows my iPhone and my iPad. Both of these devices have the same options available, here's what each does.

Take Photo

This is pretty self-explanatory, under the device you wish to use, for me it is my iPhone, click on "Take Photo" and then your device opens up the camera for you to snap a photo. Take a photo, decide if it works for you and once done it will show up in your note on the Mac.

Scan Document

Like the photo option, once selected your device's camera opens up but instead of it being a standard camera, it is now looking for documents to scan and once it finds one it will cover it with a blue UI and automatically scan it for you. You can scan multiple pages and edit the pages you want to keep by tapping the bottom left ahnd corner. When everything is the way you want it select Done and press Save. Once saved, the documents show up in the note on your Mac.

Sketch

Sketch is the most interesting one for me, as it is using PencilKit to allow you to draw, color, and sketch something on your iPad or iPhone. Just select "Sketch" in the options, draw out what you want on your iPhone or iPad. Once you're all set tap "Done" and it will pop up in the note.

Conclusion

This is one feature I never knew about, but now that I do know about it Apple Notes seems like a killer app for when you want to take notes quick and want to capture reference material as well.

Adam Savage, the famed MythBuster, has now been on YouTube for several years making things and sharing things others make. He has a whole collection of Hellboy builds where he makes the Samaritan, the sword from a Hellboy comic book cover, and more. It’s not just comic books though, he also shares how to build  simple things like a box. I find it very enjoyable to watch. In fact, I have it on constantly.

I am not someone that makes things like Adam, but I do run his videos in the background as I write, edit podcasts (the volume from the video is off), or just when I am in need of a break. What Adam taught me though, wasn’t how to build something, it was that you can have variants of the same tool for different purposes.

I was watching a video where he made a “tiny thwacker” while literally using a similar tool to make this hammer. I don’t use hammers though; my “hammers” are note-taking and writing tools.

Throughout the time I have been writing for Tablet Habit, I have been searching for the “perfect notes app." I wanted an all-in-one solution that captures, organizes, and edits perfectly to what my brain wants. I have been using everything you can possibly imagine. I have tried Apple Notes, Craft, Notion, Obsidian, and even Evernote to name a few.

All of these apps and services have their benefits and flaws, and I am yet to find the notes app that works “perfectly” for me. Now, I have come to the realization that this search is not only never-ending but it is also inherently flawed. There is no "perfect notes app", much like there is no perfect anything in this world. You need multiple tools to get the job done, and you might also need multiple apps to store and save your thoughts, ideas, and journal entries.

In the latest episode of A Slab of Glass I interviewed James Eaton, someone I have spoken to online quite a bit over the years. He had some fantastic insight, which I will share on the next Premium issue of Tablet Habit. However, I will share one of the things I learned. It’s that you shouldn't make a tool something it's not. James said it best when he talked about how he started using the note-taking app Craft.

I basically let go of any other structure that I had. Because I am always bringing a structure from an old thing in. ‘I used to it this this way. Well how do I Evernote in Craft? How do I do Notion in Craft?’ I kind of just said ‘How do I do use Craft? What would it look like if I didn’t have all of this?

If you pay attention to the workshop he is working in you will see dozens of saws, pliers, and drill bits. They are all slightly different, but they all have a purpose.

If we think of this for software, you can use Apple Notes for a particular set of work, Notion for another, and Obsidian for something else. However, this isn’t permission to just throw your notes anywhere you feel like, it still needs a system in place otherwise it won’t work.

This tool metaphor goes both ways, because I have seen workshops that have no semblance of order or organization. This doesn’t mean that your workshop (notes app) is helpless, but it definitely needs some TLC. Assess what you have to work with and go from there.

Taking this insight from James Eaton and Adam Savage has helped me put my search for a "perfect notes app" to rest. I don’t know why it took me nearly 30 years on this planet to come to this conclusion, but I'm glad I reached this point at all.

As for what system I am using now, that is still a work-in-progress.

Why I Don’t Use Just One Wrench

Adam Savage, the famed MythBuster, has now been on YouTube for several years making things and sharing things others make. He has a whole collection of Hellboy builds where he makes the Samaritan, the sword from a Hellboy comic book cover, and more. It’s not just comic books though, he also shares how to build  simple things like a box. I find it very enjoyable to watch. In fact, I have it on constantly.

I am not someone that makes things like Adam, but I do run his videos in the background as I write, edit podcasts (the volume from the video is off), or just when I am in need of a break. What Adam taught me though, wasn’t how to build something, it was that you can have variants of the same tool for different purposes.

I was watching a video where he made a “tiny thwacker” while literally using a similar tool to make this hammer. I don’t use hammers though; my “hammers” are note-taking and writing tools.

Throughout the time I have been writing for Tablet Habit, I have been searching for the “perfect notes app." I wanted an all-in-one solution that captures, organizes, and edits perfectly to what my brain wants. I have been using everything you can possibly imagine. I have tried Apple Notes, Craft, Notion, Obsidian, and even Evernote to name a few.

All of these apps and services have their benefits and flaws, and I am yet to find the notes app that works “perfectly” for me. Now, I have come to the realization that this search is not only never-ending but it is also inherently flawed. There is no "perfect notes app", much like there is no perfect anything in this world. You need multiple tools to get the job done, and you might also need multiple apps to store and save your thoughts, ideas, and journal entries.

In the latest episode of A Slab of Glass I interviewed James Eaton, someone I have spoken to online quite a bit over the years. He had some fantastic insight, which I will share on the next Premium issue of Tablet Habit. However, I will share one of the things I learned. It’s that you shouldn't make a tool something it's not. James said it best when he talked about how he started using the note-taking app Craft.

I basically let go of any other structure that I had. Because I am always bringing a structure from an old thing in. ‘I used to it this this way. Well how do I Evernote in Craft? How do I do Notion in Craft?’ I kind of just said ‘How do I do use Craft? What would it look like if I didn’t have all of this?

If you pay attention to the workshop he is working in you will see dozens of saws, pliers, and drill bits. They are all slightly different, but they all have a purpose.

If we think of this for software, you can use Apple Notes for a particular set of work, Notion for another, and Obsidian for something else. However, this isn’t permission to just throw your notes anywhere you feel like, it still needs a system in place otherwise it won’t work.

This tool metaphor goes both ways, because I have seen workshops that have no semblance of order or organization. This doesn’t mean that your workshop (notes app) is helpless, but it definitely needs some TLC. Assess what you have to work with and go from there.

Taking this insight from James Eaton and Adam Savage has helped me put my search for a "perfect notes app" to rest. I don’t know why it took me nearly 30 years on this planet to come to this conclusion, but I'm glad I reached this point at all.

As for what system I am using now, that is still a work-in-progress.

Obsidian, the popular note taking app, came out for iOS and iPadOS recently. I have been playing with the beta for quite a while and Obsidian is becoming my favorite writing tool.

For those of you who don't know what Obsidian is, you can think of it as a note-taking system that used plain text Markdown files. Unlike Craft or Evernote, you don't need to rely on their services to sync and save your data, it is directly saved on your hard drive, and you can do with it as you see fit anytime. In other words, if Obsidian were to go away tomorrow and offer no chance for you to recover your files you would still have access to your notes because they are saved right on your computer. Also, don't worry about Obsidian going away, this app isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I enjoy Obsidian because it is a plain text editor, meaning it is just words on a screen instead of something like Craft or Notion where they are cards, blocks, or pages. It is a straightforward editor that works great on desktop, and is equally satisfying on the iPad and iPhone.

It is completely free to try, and if you do decide to give it a shot, I have a ton of articles and videos on how to get started below.

My Favorite Obsidian Plugins

If you aren't familiar with the plugin system Obsidian has, it's a neat concept. Obsidian is a text editor, but if you enable plugins either made by Obsidian or by other users you can make this text editor into something much more like a Swiss Army Knife instead of a One-Trick Pony.

Here are some plugins that have helped me make Obsidian into something I can use for all of my notes, writing, task management, and research.

Templater

Templater is a fantastic plugin that makes using templates in Obsidian significantly powerful.

Templater is becoming my one-stop shop for various templates I want to implement into my notes. So far I have made one for my Daily Notes, YAML markup, and Newsletter setup.

If you want to learn more Curtis McHale has a great starter video for Templater to show how he uses it and what you can do with it as well.

Kanban

I have been using the Kanban plugin for project management, and it has been very interesting. If you don't know what Kanban is, think of it as cards being moved into different stages while you work on them.

This Kanban plugin allows you to make different cards in a Kanban board, add notes to those cards, and then move them around the board. It is a fantastic place for me to add writing ideas to and keep them all in one trusted system. Once I want to expand on that idea or link a different note to it I just open it up and put in what I want.

Vantage

Vantage is a tool that makes search more powerful and allows you to embed them into notes and templates. I have spoken about Vantage before and how I use it for my Daily Notes, and things haven't changed for me on that front. I still use it to find notes and articles I have tagged #readlater and I also use it to find tasks due today.

That said, I did find Greg Morris' setup and love how he uses the plugin Tasks, which is in a similar vain as Vantage.

Paste URL into Selection

Paste URL into Selection is a plugin that is pretty self explanatory. If you have a link in your clipboard, you can select text in Obsidian and paste it into selected text. It behaves similar to how Ghost, Notion, and Craft behave with links.

It seems small, but it makes things very conveinient when you are dealing with a lot of links at a time. Say for instance you are rounding up links for a newsletter, instead of having to format everything into a Markdown link you can just paste the link into the selected text that is the title of the article you want to save. It makes things easier to deal with than having to make you you format everything into the correct Markdown syntax.

Finally, Obsidian for iOS is Here

Obsidian, the popular note taking app, came out for iOS and iPadOS recently. I have been playing with the beta for quite a while and Obsidian is becoming my favorite writing tool.

For those of you who don't know what Obsidian is, you can think of it as a note-taking system that used plain text Markdown files. Unlike Craft or Evernote, you don't need to rely on their services to sync and save your data, it is directly saved on your hard drive, and you can do with it as you see fit anytime. In other words, if Obsidian were to go away tomorrow and offer no chance for you to recover your files you would still have access to your notes because they are saved right on your computer. Also, don't worry about Obsidian going away, this app isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I enjoy Obsidian because it is a plain text editor, meaning it is just words on a screen instead of something like Craft or Notion where they are cards, blocks, or pages. It is a straightforward editor that works great on desktop, and is equally satisfying on the iPad and iPhone.

It is completely free to try, and if you do decide to give it a shot, I have a ton of articles and videos on how to get started below.

My Favorite Obsidian Plugins

If you aren't familiar with the plugin system Obsidian has, it's a neat concept. Obsidian is a text editor, but if you enable plugins either made by Obsidian or by other users you can make this text editor into something much more like a Swiss Army Knife instead of a One-Trick Pony.

Here are some plugins that have helped me make Obsidian into something I can use for all of my notes, writing, task management, and research.

Templater

Templater is a fantastic plugin that makes using templates in Obsidian significantly powerful.

Templater is becoming my one-stop shop for various templates I want to implement into my notes. So far I have made one for my Daily Notes, YAML markup, and Newsletter setup.

If you want to learn more Curtis McHale has a great starter video for Templater to show how he uses it and what you can do with it as well.

https://youtu.be/ZiG6SPdbApI

Kanban

I have been using the Kanban plugin for project management, and it has been very interesting. If you don't know what Kanban is, think of it as cards being moved into different stages while you work on them.

https://youtu.be/iVaFVa7HYj4

This Kanban plugin allows you to make different cards in a Kanban board, add notes to those cards, and then move them around the board. It is a fantastic place for me to add writing ideas to and keep them all in one trusted system. Once I want to expand on that idea or link a different note to it I just open it up and put in what I want.

Vantage

Vantage is a tool that makes search more powerful and allows you to embed them into notes and templates. I have spoken about Vantage before and how I use it for my Daily Notes, and things haven't changed for me on that front. I still use it to find notes and articles I have tagged #readlater and I also use it to find tasks due today.

That said, I did find Greg Morris' setup and love how he uses the plugin Tasks, which is in a similar vain as Vantage.

Paste URL into Selection

Paste URL into Selection is a plugin that is pretty self explanatory. If you have a link in your clipboard, you can select text in Obsidian and paste it into selected text. It behaves similar to how Ghost, Notion, and Craft behave with links.

It seems small, but it makes things very conveinient when you are dealing with a lot of links at a time. Say for instance you are rounding up links for a newsletter, instead of having to format everything into a Markdown link you can just paste the link into the selected text that is the title of the article you want to save. It makes things easier to deal with than having to make you you format everything into the correct Markdown syntax.

There are some significant changes coming to how we browse the web on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey. If you follow Apple news or other tech writers, I am sure you have seen just how polarizing the new Safari is.

Chaim Gartenberg writing for The Verge:

Over a decade of muscle memory has trained my brain to reach up for the menu bar on smartphones. I get Apple’s motivation in moving it to the bottom, making it easier to reach on the increasingly large phones it makes and putting the actual content of devices front and center at the top of the screen, it’s still a change that’ll require an adjustment period.

JuanSC Writing for Mac O’Clock:

Modifying habits that have been built for ten years is not going to be easy. We have always clicked on the top address bar to move through Safari and reload a page. And the bottom one to share, go back and forth, open tabs and history.

But it is easy to see how reloading the web and sharing are the ones that can bring us the most problems. Because it is not obvious where we are going to find them, despite the fact that when you click on the menu they have a preferred place. And when the user knows where they are, they will see that options that were previously accessible with one tap now require two steps.

Stephen Hackett writing for Six Colors:

Safari 15 brings big changes, and surely not everyone will be a fan. I, for one, think the expanded use of color is distracting, and the tabs-aren’t-just-tabs-anymore design confusing at times. I hope Apple might reconsider some of these more drastic design changes during the beta process this summer.

Clearly, there is much left to be desired from Apple when it comes to the changes to one of the most popular apps on the planet.

The Problems

Let’s dive right into what the issue is for Safari. I want to cover the three biggest issues I encounter. There are other minor things that bother me about Safari, but that is for another time. Today, I want to bring up the more drastic changes that fundamentally change how we browse the web.

The tab bar doesn’t help

Apple has moved the tab bar (or address bar as many call it) from the top of the screen to the bottom. This is obviously meant to make it more usable for bigger phones. As an iPhone 12 Pro Max user, this is a welcome change, but the problem is how this new bar behaves.

The new tab bar is no longer connected to the bottom of the screen, it now floats.

As you can see, the bottom bar now floats and shows some content between the bottom of the bar and the bottom of the screen. Or, as Apple puts it, “Safari gets a new design that makes controls easier to reach with one hand and puts content front and center.”

The problem here is that the tab bar isn’t working well for some websites. A large amount of the websites that aren’t working properly are because of a floating menu or buttons. Nintendo’s website, for instance, is horrible to use in the new Safari.

It is almost impossible to use the bottom buttons on the website when the floating bar is active, making it incredibly frustrating as a user.

What makes this even more of a conundrum is that there are other sites that work perfectly fine with the new Safari. Twitter, for instance, works just fine.

My website, however, has a subscribe button that wasn’t working right with the new Safari.

On the left, you see my website with a Subscribe button floating fine when the tab bar is minimized. However, when it is active, you see that the Subscribe bar isn’t floating above it as it should.

I am sure there is a way to make this work, but I am not a web developer and the number of people that actually click on that button is most likely slim to none. Because of this, I decided to just eliminate it from my website entirely.

Where’s the Share button again?

The new design also entirely ruins all muscle memory we have with Safari. We no longer can go by memory on where the Share button, reload button, or back buttons are. We are back to square one with web browsing on our phones.

To add insult to injury, the functionality of Safari is now hidden away in a junk-drawer styled “…” button. If you want to do anything useful with Safari, you now have to activate the bottom bar, tap the “…” button and select what you want.

If you want to share this via the standard Share Sheet, you have to tap on another button to get access to that. Feel fatigued yet? I say that in jest, but it is obvious that Apple has a problem with quick access in Safari.

Sure, my website gets an added line or two of content, but the cost of bringing things “front and center” isn’t worth the added sentence I can read on an infinitely scrolling feed.

Tabs on the iPad and Mac are worthless

I’ve spoken enough about the woes on the iPhone, but the iPad and Mac aren’t any better. The biggest, most griped about thing with the new Safari is the tabs. No matter what you do, the tabs in Monterey and iPadOS 15 are no longer reliable.

By reliable, I mean that because of the nature of how tabs work, I have to play Where’s Waldo with the tabs on my screen. Gone are the days when tabs were normally in the same vicinity because now instead of the tabs being separate from the address bar, Apple has decided to bring it all into one amorphous blob.

While this may look fine in a screenshot, when you are using it in practice it is almost impossible to find the tab you want once you have more than 5 or 6 tabs open at a time.

What is the most difficult for me, is that I can no longer reliable guess what keyboard shortcut I need to press to get to a specific tab. If you don’t know if you wanted to open the third tab in Safari, you can just press Command-3 and you are there. Back when Safari had a uniform tab length and the address bar was separate from tabs, you could reliably guess what tab was what. Now, the address bar moves to the tab location, which makes things very difficult. Now, I can’t estimate what tab is where anymore. I have an abysmal average of successfully guess what keyboard shortcut I need to reach to Safari tab I was hoping to open.

The Solutions

With these large issues, there are some options Apple can make to improve Safari. I am not an engineer, nor have I spent years researching UX and UI. That said, I have found some interesting solutions and have thought of my own as well.

Better Web Developer support

I did some digging to try to find a solution to make my Subscribe button float above the tab bar on iOS, but I couldn’t find anything in Google or Apple’s developer sessions. I found an article by Samuel Kraft that explains it reasonably, but it is beyond my minimal knowledge in web development.

I would love to have a simple bit of code to add to my header to make things like my Subscribe button and other UI elements to comply with the new Safari design. Furthermore, I know enough about web development that websites are built in a variety of ways; and I know that this kind of ask is huge from Apple, but when it is literally how millions browse the web regularly it needs to allow for things like this.

I am sure there are people reading this that think implementing this is simple to understand. For me, though, it is too much of a hassle for me to bang my head against a wall until I figure it out.

Redesign the Safari app

As far as iOS Safari goes, Matt Birchler had an interesting take, which I shared recently, on how to fix this: use Maps as a starting point.

Matt Birchler:

Apple's own Maps app has a similar UI where they've moved the search field and bookmarks to the bottom of the UI, while letting the content (the map) occupy most of the screen. The search bar is always visible, a small swipe up reveals your favorites, and a full swipe up brings up the full functionality of that app's "start page".

Is this as adventurous as the new Safari UI? Nope, but it sure didn't spark the frustration that Safari has caused either.

Conclusion

While I did harp on the bad things about Safari, I do find some things to be a breath of fresh air. I just hope that those bits of fresh air aren’t smothered with the difficult and frustrating UX that is the current Safari beta.

Let's Talk About Safari

There are some significant changes coming to how we browse the web on iOS 15 and macOS Monterey. If you follow Apple news or other tech writers, I am sure you have seen just how polarizing the new Safari is.

Chaim Gartenberg writing for The Verge:

Over a decade of muscle memory has trained my brain to reach up for the menu bar on smartphones. I get Apple’s motivation in moving it to the bottom, making it easier to reach on the increasingly large phones it makes and putting the actual content of devices front and center at the top of the screen, it’s still a change that’ll require an adjustment period.

JuanSC Writing for Mac O’Clock:

Modifying habits that have been built for ten years is not going to be easy. We have always clicked on the top address bar to move through Safari and reload a page. And the bottom one to share, go back and forth, open tabs and history.

But it is easy to see how reloading the web and sharing are the ones that can bring us the most problems. Because it is not obvious where we are going to find them, despite the fact that when you click on the menu they have a preferred place. And when the user knows where they are, they will see that options that were previously accessible with one tap now require two steps.

Stephen Hackett writing for Six Colors:

Safari 15 brings big changes, and surely not everyone will be a fan. I, for one, think the expanded use of color is distracting, and the tabs-aren’t-just-tabs-anymore design confusing at times. I hope Apple might reconsider some of these more drastic design changes during the beta process this summer.

Clearly, there is much left to be desired from Apple when it comes to the changes to one of the most popular apps on the planet.

The Problems

Let’s dive right into what the issue is for Safari. I want to cover the three biggest issues I encounter. There are other minor things that bother me about Safari, but that is for another time. Today, I want to bring up the more drastic changes that fundamentally change how we browse the web.

The tab bar doesn’t help

Apple has moved the tab bar (or address bar as many call it) from the top of the screen to the bottom. This is obviously meant to make it more usable for bigger phones. As an iPhone 12 Pro Max user, this is a welcome change, but the problem is how this new bar behaves.

The new tab bar is no longer connected to the bottom of the screen, it now floats.

As you can see, the bottom bar now floats and shows some content between the bottom of the bar and the bottom of the screen. Or, as Apple puts it, “Safari gets a new design that makes controls easier to reach with one hand and puts content front and center.”

The problem here is that the tab bar isn’t working well for some websites. A large amount of the websites that aren’t working properly are because of a floating menu or buttons. Nintendo’s website, for instance, is horrible to use in the new Safari.

It is almost impossible to use the bottom buttons on the website when the floating bar is active, making it incredibly frustrating as a user.

What makes this even more of a conundrum is that there are other sites that work perfectly fine with the new Safari. Twitter, for instance, works just fine.

My website, however, has a subscribe button that wasn’t working right with the new Safari.

On the left, you see my website with a Subscribe button floating fine when the tab bar is minimized. However, when it is active, you see that the Subscribe bar isn’t floating above it as it should.

I am sure there is a way to make this work, but I am not a web developer and the number of people that actually click on that button is most likely slim to none. Because of this, I decided to just eliminate it from my website entirely.

Where’s the Share button again?

The new design also entirely ruins all muscle memory we have with Safari. We no longer can go by memory on where the Share button, reload button, or back buttons are. We are back to square one with web browsing on our phones.

To add insult to injury, the functionality of Safari is now hidden away in a junk-drawer styled “…” button. If you want to do anything useful with Safari, you now have to activate the bottom bar, tap the “…” button and select what you want.

If you want to share this via the standard Share Sheet, you have to tap on another button to get access to that. Feel fatigued yet? I say that in jest, but it is obvious that Apple has a problem with quick access in Safari.

Sure, my website gets an added line or two of content, but the cost of bringing things “front and center” isn’t worth the added sentence I can read on an infinitely scrolling feed.

Tabs on the iPad and Mac are worthless

I’ve spoken enough about the woes on the iPhone, but the iPad and Mac aren’t any better. The biggest, most griped about thing with the new Safari is the tabs. No matter what you do, the tabs in Monterey and iPadOS 15 are no longer reliable.

By reliable, I mean that because of the nature of how tabs work, I have to play Where’s Waldo with the tabs on my screen. Gone are the days when tabs were normally in the same vicinity because now instead of the tabs being separate from the address bar, Apple has decided to bring it all into one amorphous blob.

While this may look fine in a screenshot, when you are using it in practice it is almost impossible to find the tab you want once you have more than 5 or 6 tabs open at a time.

What is the most difficult for me, is that I can no longer reliable guess what keyboard shortcut I need to press to get to a specific tab. If you don’t know if you wanted to open the third tab in Safari, you can just press Command-3 and you are there. Back when Safari had a uniform tab length and the address bar was separate from tabs, you could reliably guess what tab was what. Now, the address bar moves to the tab location, which makes things very difficult. Now, I can’t estimate what tab is where anymore. I have an abysmal average of successfully guess what keyboard shortcut I need to reach to Safari tab I was hoping to open.

The Solutions

With these large issues, there are some options Apple can make to improve Safari. I am not an engineer, nor have I spent years researching UX and UI. That said, I have found some interesting solutions and have thought of my own as well.

Better Web Developer support

I did some digging to try to find a solution to make my Subscribe button float above the tab bar on iOS, but I couldn’t find anything in Google or Apple’s developer sessions. I found an article by Samuel Kraft that explains it reasonably, but it is beyond my minimal knowledge in web development.

I would love to have a simple bit of code to add to my header to make things like my Subscribe button and other UI elements to comply with the new Safari design. Furthermore, I know enough about web development that websites are built in a variety of ways; and I know that this kind of ask is huge from Apple, but when it is literally how millions browse the web regularly it needs to allow for things like this.

I am sure there are people reading this that think implementing this is simple to understand. For me, though, it is too much of a hassle for me to bang my head against a wall until I figure it out.

Redesign the Safari app

As far as iOS Safari goes, Matt Birchler had an interesting take, which I shared recently, on how to fix this: use Maps as a starting point.

Matt Birchler:

Apple's own Maps app has a similar UI where they've moved the search field and bookmarks to the bottom of the UI, while letting the content (the map) occupy most of the screen. The search bar is always visible, a small swipe up reveals your favorites, and a full swipe up brings up the full functionality of that app's "start page".

Is this as adventurous as the new Safari UI? Nope, but it sure didn't spark the frustration that Safari has caused either.

Conclusion

While I did harp on the bad things about Safari, I do find some things to be a breath of fresh air. I just hope that those bits of fresh air aren’t smothered with the difficult and frustrating UX that is the current Safari beta.

Now that the Public Beta for iOS 15 is available, I thought I would talk about some of the changes and additions to Shortcuts that has me excited this year.

Split View and Slide Over Actions

The new and improved multitasking features being available on iPadOS 15. With that, Shortcuts now allows users to create actions and shortcuts that opens apps in both Split View and in Slide Over. I made a demo shortcut you can download here.

As you can see, you can choose the two apps that will be in Split View and have a separate action opening a specific app in Slide Over. In just two actions I can have my entire setup change on the iPad.

You are also able to change the Split View ratio from 50/50 to 70/30 if you so choose.

This might not seem like something to write home about, but like most Shortcut posts it is all about how you use these tools and actions.

For me, I integrate this with my Focus areas and have Shortcut Automation perform these actions automatically.

Focus Automation

Speaking of Focus Automation, here is what I have happen when I open my Writing Focus.

In two actions I have Safari and Craft in Split View and I have a new Toggl timer going in Timery. With just a single tap I have moved everything I need to the forefront and allowed everything else fall to the wayside.

This is what I was talking about with the building blocks and how you use the tools Shortcuts provides. Once you begin to understand the small things Shortcuts offers you can then build them into something bigger and more meaningful.

Stop and Output

This is a very specific feature in Shortcuts for people that build larger shortcuts and need to debug them.

Stop and Output is an easy way for you to put in an action to see what the output is at that particular point in the Shortcut. You can even copy it to the Clipboard for further investigation.

I don't normally need this kind of tool when I am making Shortcuts, but when I do need it, I will absolutely be joyous that it is there.

Files Actions

Last, but certainly not least, is the improved Files support. Previously, you would only be allowed access to the Shortcuts folder in iCloud Drive to save, append, or edit files. If you had a file in any other iCloud or local folder on your iPhone or iPad it wasn't accessible.

Thankfully, that has changed. You can most likely thank the Mac version of Shortcuts for this change, but it is here nonetheless. Now, you can choose a folder or file anywhere in your file system. From Dropbox, to iCloud Drive, to local storage (On My iPad/On My iPhone). Simply tap where the destination is on the Files action and "Replace" the folder/file with what ever you want.

As of right now, in the Developer Beta 2 (2nd Beta 2 update), I cannot seem to be able to make changes to the file/folder in Shortcuts. When I select "Replace" it is consistently crashing every time. If it does work for you, here's an image of what it looks like in a Shortcut to "Replace" the File/Folder location.

As far as the crashing problem goes, I have filed a Feedback request to Apple sharing what I can in hopes it is fixed in the next version.

As a disclaimer for Beta season, there may be times where Shortcuts won't work for you properly, like what I just explained above. I will try my best to debug things if something happens, but consider this your warning for testing things in the public Beta.

Conclusion

Shortcuts has a lot more changes and additions up its sleeve, and I can't wait to share more with you this Summer about it as iOS 15 and macOS Monterey show us what Shortcuts has in store for us.

The Changes to Shortcuts that Makes me Excited

Now that the Public Beta for iOS 15 is available, I thought I would talk about some of the changes and additions to Shortcuts that has me excited this year.

Split View and Slide Over Actions

The new and improved multitasking features being available on iPadOS 15. With that, Shortcuts now allows users to create actions and shortcuts that opens apps in both Split View and in Slide Over. I made a demo shortcut you can download here.

As you can see, you can choose the two apps that will be in Split View and have a separate action opening a specific app in Slide Over. In just two actions I can have my entire setup change on the iPad.

You are also able to change the Split View ratio from 50/50 to 70/30 if you so choose.

This might not seem like something to write home about, but like most Shortcut posts it is all about how you use these tools and actions.

For me, I integrate this with my Focus areas and have Shortcut Automation perform these actions automatically.

Focus Automation

Speaking of Focus Automation, here is what I have happen when I open my Writing Focus.

In two actions I have Safari and Craft in Split View and I have a new Toggl timer going in Timery. With just a single tap I have moved everything I need to the forefront and allowed everything else fall to the wayside.

This is what I was talking about with the building blocks and how you use the tools Shortcuts provides. Once you begin to understand the small things Shortcuts offers you can then build them into something bigger and more meaningful.

Stop and Output

This is a very specific feature in Shortcuts for people that build larger shortcuts and need to debug them.

Stop and Output is an easy way for you to put in an action to see what the output is at that particular point in the Shortcut. You can even copy it to the Clipboard for further investigation.

I don't normally need this kind of tool when I am making Shortcuts, but when I do need it, I will absolutely be joyous that it is there.

Files Actions

Last, but certainly not least, is the improved Files support. Previously, you would only be allowed access to the Shortcuts folder in iCloud Drive to save, append, or edit files. If you had a file in any other iCloud or local folder on your iPhone or iPad it wasn't accessible.

Thankfully, that has changed. You can most likely thank the Mac version of Shortcuts for this change, but it is here nonetheless. Now, you can choose a folder or file anywhere in your file system. From Dropbox, to iCloud Drive, to local storage (On My iPad/On My iPhone). Simply tap where the destination is on the Files action and "Replace" the folder/file with what ever you want.

As of right now, in the Developer Beta 2 (2nd Beta 2 update), I cannot seem to be able to make changes to the file/folder in Shortcuts. When I select "Replace" it is consistently crashing every time. If it does work for you, here's an image of what it looks like in a Shortcut to "Replace" the File/Folder location.

As far as the crashing problem goes, I have filed a Feedback request to Apple sharing what I can in hopes it is fixed in the next version.

As a disclaimer for Beta season, there may be times where Shortcuts won't work for you properly, like what I just explained above. I will try my best to debug things if something happens, but consider this your warning for testing things in the public Beta.

Conclusion

Shortcuts has a lot more changes and additions up its sleeve, and I can't wait to share more with you this Summer about it as iOS 15 and macOS Monterey show us what Shortcuts has in store for us.

precarious. While I may not have finished this adventure yet, I have learned the value of daily notes.

This week, I want to share with you what they are, how I am using them, and how daily notes can be a benefit to you.

What Are Daily Notes?

Daily notes are pretty self-explanatory for the most part. They are notes you write in daily, with each note being the day's date. It's that simple, at least by definition. What you do with the daily notes can be very complex if you want it to be.

I learned about Daily Notes years back but it never quite "clicked" with me. There were apps like Agenda that were all about having daily notes and there were people using Drafts just for this purpose. Some used it to journal, others used it for task and project management, or a bit of both.

At the time, it seemed interesting but I had no interest in categorizing my notes by date. It stayed that way for me until I started to use Obsidian and enabled the Daily Notes core plugin.

Ever since then, daily notes has been my most frequented place in my notes. I rely on it to keep my tasks in check, capture everything I come across, and even as an agenda for what I have happening today and a log for what I did that day.

Greg Morris had a nice article about daily notes and explained them perfectly saying:

Daily notes is a practice that I preach to almost anyone that will listen, the one thing that remains form my time using Roam Research. In these I record almost everything that happens during my working day, such as telephone calls, things I am thinking, interactions I have had and anything else I think I might need to refer back to later. This allows me to just get things out of my brain at the time they pop up so I can act on them later, or refer back to them if needed.

Once I learned about the power of daily notes, I started to think about how to maximize their value and remove any friction I could have when making these notes. Thankfully, Obsidian has an impressive set of options you can use to make daily notes populate automatically and even have templates set up. There are other options as well that deserve mention, namely Craft and Drafts. If you want to look into those apps you can take some of what I write here with you as well.

I want to share with you my daily notes setup, some tools and resources I recommend, and show why you should consider daily notes for yourself as well.

My Daily Notes Template

My notes template isn't anything special, but I think it is a great starting point for many looking to use Obsidian, or another app, for daily notes.

Here's what my daily note template looks like:

If you want to learn more about templates you can find a bunch of great information from Obsidian help and support documents.

Let's break this down for each section in the template.

Tasks

The first thing I have in my template is tasks. I use this for two instances of task management: the tasks I assign to do today and the tasks I created today.

For the former, I user an embedded search with the plugin Vantage and their search query. It sounds like a lot, but basically this plugin is used to allow users to create custom searches that finds instances in their notes library that fit their search. Once you have one made that you want to use you can embed that search into a template and use it every time you create a new note with said template.

For me, I wanted to find every incomplete task that is due on today's date. I might have a document that has a task in it that I have assigned a due date like [[2021-06-27]]. With this embedded search set up in my template, I create the daily note for June 27th, 2021 and the search query populates looking like this:

```query
(line:(/- \[ \].*{{date:2021-06-27}}.*/))
```

What that shows is this:

There's more you can do with this for tasks, but you can learn more about Vantage and how to use it on their GitHub page.

For the tasks I create that day I just input them as the following:

- [ ] this is a task 

From there, I will process any incomplete tasks and move them to either the next day or assign them to another date. It is also very possible I decide the task I created is no longer worth my time and I just delete it entirely.

It might seem pointless for me to make a task only to delete it later but at the time I put it in I wanted to do that task, but after some time settled and I thought more in the processing phase I deemed it not to be worth my time, effort, or both.

Reading List

One thing I also use Vantage for is a reading list. Instead of using a date to find notes, I use tags.

Tags in Obsidian aren't too different than tags in other apps you have used. For me, I use #readlater for all the articles, videos, and more that I want to capture in Obsidian and read later. There are two ways you can add tags to a note in Obsidian.

You can either use tags inline with text like #readlater or put it in the front matter of the note, which is as simple as having the following at the top of your note:

---
tags: readlater
--- 

Either way, once you have a specific tag set up for your reading list you can use Vantage to create this embedded search.

Once I have it the way I want, I click "Create embedded search" and it will paste it into my note.

```query
(tag:#readlater)
```

It looks very similar to my other embedded search, but you can see that it uses tags rather than dates in the query.

When I change it from editing mode to preview mode (using Command-E ) I see something like this:

Once I add the embedded search to my daily notes template it will populate all notes and text with the tag readlater.

Notes

Finally, Notes is a catchall for everything I find, think of, or want to remember. It is my scratchpad for all links, ideas, events, etc. that I want to make sure I capture before it leave my mind. I also have been dabbling in writing out journal entries from time to time as well.

Once I know it is in this notes system and I have it written down somewhere i can allow my mind to relax and focus on coming up with ideas rather than keeping them.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done once said "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." I often think about this quote and I use it to remind me just how important it is to have a trusted system for you ideas, tasks, and everything else. I am not saying Obsidian is the perfect app for all of those things, but Obsidian has become a bigger part of my trusted system for some time now.

As for what happens to all of my notes, tasks, etc. I process them either at the end of the day or first thing the next morning.

Quick Capture

I really wanted to show Quick Capture in action on iOS 15 but as of right now, I can't seem to get beta 2 to work with Shortcuts reliably. At times it works, but at other times it doesn't. Sadly, for that reason, I can't in goo conscious share anything iOS 15 related

However, if you are on iOS 14 and want a way to make it happen right now, all you have to do is follow this video Curtis McHale streamed a week back and it will help. The catch is you need to use the app Toolbox Pro in order for this to work for you. It uses a neat workaround for you to append files outside of the Shortcuts folder.

How Daily Notes Changed Everything for Me

I have been on a note taking journey for some time, and its been both interesting and precarious. While I may not have finished this adventure yet, I have learned the value of daily notes.

This week, I want to share with you what they are, how I am using them, and how daily notes can be a benefit to you.

What Are Daily Notes?

Daily notes are pretty self-explanatory for the most part. They are notes you write in daily, with each note being the day's date. It's that simple, at least by definition. What you do with the daily notes can be very complex if you want it to be.

I learned about Daily Notes years back but it never quite "clicked" with me. There were apps like Agenda that were all about having daily notes and there were people using Drafts just for this purpose. Some used it to journal, others used it for task and project management, or a bit of both.

At the time, it seemed interesting but I had no interest in categorizing my notes by date. It stayed that way for me until I started to use Obsidian and enabled the Daily Notes core plugin.

Ever since then, daily notes has been my most frequented place in my notes. I rely on it to keep my tasks in check, capture everything I come across, and even as an agenda for what I have happening today and a log for what I did that day.

Greg Morris had a nice article about daily notes and explained them perfectly saying:

Daily notes is a practice that I preach to almost anyone that will listen, the one thing that remains form my time using Roam Research. In these I record almost everything that happens during my working day, such as telephone calls, things I am thinking, interactions I have had and anything else I think I might need to refer back to later. This allows me to just get things out of my brain at the time they pop up so I can act on them later, or refer back to them if needed.

Once I learned about the power of daily notes, I started to think about how to maximize their value and remove any friction I could have when making these notes. Thankfully, Obsidian has an impressive set of options you can use to make daily notes populate automatically and even have templates set up. There are other options as well that deserve mention, namely Craft and Drafts. If you want to look into those apps you can take some of what I write here with you as well.

I want to share with you my daily notes setup, some tools and resources I recommend, and show why you should consider daily notes for yourself as well.

My Daily Notes Template

My notes template isn't anything special, but I think it is a great starting point for many looking to use Obsidian, or another app, for daily notes.

Here's what my daily note template looks like:

If you want to learn more about templates you can find a bunch of great information from Obsidian help and support documents.

Let's break this down for each section in the template.

Tasks

The first thing I have in my template is tasks. I use this for two instances of task management: the tasks I assign to do today and the tasks I created today.

For the former, I user an embedded search with the plugin Vantage and their search query. It sounds like a lot, but basically this plugin is used to allow users to create custom searches that finds instances in their notes library that fit their search. Once you have one made that you want to use you can embed that search into a template and use it every time you create a new note with said template.

For me, I wanted to find every incomplete task that is due on today's date. I might have a document that has a task in it that I have assigned a due date like [[2021-06-27]]. With this embedded search set up in my template, I create the daily note for June 27th, 2021 and the search query populates looking like this:

```query
    (line:(/- \[ \].*{{date:2021-06-27}}.*/))
    ```

What that shows is this:

There's more you can do with this for tasks, but you can learn more about Vantage and how to use it on their GitHub page.

For the tasks I create that day I just input them as the following:

- [ ] this is a task 

From there, I will process any incomplete tasks and move them to either the next day or assign them to another date. It is also very possible I decide the task I created is no longer worth my time and I just delete it entirely.

It might seem pointless for me to make a task only to delete it later but at the time I put it in I wanted to do that task, but after some time settled and I thought more in the processing phase I deemed it not to be worth my time, effort, or both.

Reading List

One thing I also use Vantage for is a reading list. Instead of using a date to find notes, I use tags.

Tags in Obsidian aren't too different than tags in other apps you have used. For me, I use #readlater for all the articles, videos, and more that I want to capture in Obsidian and read later. There are two ways you can add tags to a note in Obsidian.

You can either use tags inline with text like #readlater or put it in the front matter of the note, which is as simple as having the following at the top of your note:

---
    tags: readlater
    --- 

Either way, once you have a specific tag set up for your reading list you can use Vantage to create this embedded search.

Once I have it the way I want, I click "Create embedded search" and it will paste it into my note.

```query
    (tag:#readlater)
    ```

It looks very similar to my other embedded search, but you can see that it uses tags rather than dates in the query.

When I change it from editing mode to preview mode (using Command-E ) I see something like this:

Once I add the embedded search to my daily notes template it will populate all notes and text with the tag readlater.

Notes

Finally, Notes is a catchall for everything I find, think of, or want to remember. It is my scratchpad for all links, ideas, events, etc. that I want to make sure I capture before it leave my mind. I also have been dabbling in writing out journal entries from time to time as well.

Once I know it is in this notes system and I have it written down somewhere i can allow my mind to relax and focus on coming up with ideas rather than keeping them.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done once said "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." I often think about this quote and I use it to remind me just how important it is to have a trusted system for you ideas, tasks, and everything else. I am not saying Obsidian is the perfect app for all of those things, but Obsidian has become a bigger part of my trusted system for some time now.

As for what happens to all of my notes, tasks, etc. I process them either at the end of the day or first thing the next morning.

Quick Capture

I really wanted to show Quick Capture in action on iOS 15 but as of right now, I can't seem to get beta 2 to work with Shortcuts reliably. At times it works, but at other times it doesn't. Sadly, for that reason, I can't in goo conscious share anything iOS 15 related

However, if you are on iOS 14 and want a way to make it happen right now, all you have to do is follow this video Curtis McHale streamed a week back and it will help. The catch is you need to use the app Toolbox Pro in order for this to work for you. It uses a neat workaround for you to append files outside of the Shortcuts folder.

https://youtu.be/gFN1441KNCI

With Curtis' shortcut you can even take it a step further and get things from Safari like the page Name, Author, publication date, etc. and use that in a shortcut to have everything you need all in one spot. The opportunities for growth and tweaking are endless. If you end up making something awesome let me know on Twitter, I would love to see!

There is also a workflow from Mike Schmitz over on The Sweet Setup where he shows how to use Drafts with Obsidian for quick capture.

The nice thing about Obsidian is that it is a notes app built around markdown files. It is just plain text, and because of how simple it is there are lots of different ways to add, edit, and append to the files.

I hope that iOS 15 allows for these workarounds to be obsolete, but until then there are a couple ways for you to add to your Obsidian daily notes.

How Daily Notes Help

So, what is the point of daily notes? Why bother with all of this setup? Here's a few things you can benefit from with them.

Remember it Now

I am a huge fan of Field Notes. They are small notebooks that I keep in my pocket to write down things when my phone isn't going to cut it for me. Their motto has always been a mantra for me, "I'm not writing it down to remember it later, I'm writing it down to remember it now." I have always kept that in my mind over the years because it reminds me that my brain isn't going to remember this later so I need to write it down now.

If you are someone that wants to be more diligent in notes and capturing the things that you want to remember, daily notes is a perfect way to do that. Before I was using daily notes, I was relying on my brain to remember and save all of the things that I would think of in a day. This is a horrible system. I lost count how many times I would forget a thought I just had minutes prior. If I had daily notes, or a notes system I trusted, I could have written it down and saved myself the trouble. Now, with this system I am able to drop links, ideas, and tasks without worrying about forgetting them.

Daily Log

Another benefit with daily notes is that I now have a log of what I have done for the day. Before, I would often go to bed feeling like I hadn't accomplished much for that day. I would feel unfulfilled, wish I had worked harder. Over time I began to feel like I wasn't doing enough, until I started logging what I was doing each day.

What I learned by logging what I was doing was that while I may not have something tangible to show for my work every day, I was indeed making small incremental changes moving the proverbial needle forward to reach my goals. I took nothing for granted, everything I was doing needed to be logged no matter how small it was. After a short time, the feeling of inadequacy and failure washed away all because I was making a conscious effort to write down everything I was doing each day.

Journal

I mentioned journaling earlier, and it is similar to the daily log, but I wanted to harp on this a bit more. Journaling can be beneficial for your mental health. It can help reduce anxiety, reduce stress, and cope with depression.

For me, I never got into journaling until I started to use it in my daily notes. It was a game-changer for me. I really felt that, similar to the daily log, I was able to process my emotions and concerns in a more fully-thought-out way. Instead of having anxiety without knowing what may be causing it, I am able to look at my journal and see why. For instance, between my daily log and my journaling I can see that I had a lot on my plate the last several days and that could be the reason why I have been uneasy every time I sit down to do some work.

I don't write mountains of text in my journal. I simply write how I am feeling, what I did to help with it, and how I felt about the day. It is as simple as a few sentences a day.

Conclusion

Daily notes aren't something new, but they are new to me. After some time with them I have seen the benefits of them already, and I am sure I will see other implementations going forward that will inspire me.

If you are looking to have a notes system you can trust to capture ideas and resources, be a journal for your life, and log the things you did each day give daily notes a chance.

If you are using daily notes please let me know how you are using them by either emailing me jeff@clicked.news or DM me on Twitter.

Jason Snell from Six Colors recently wrote about the new universal keyboard shortcuts on iPadOS 15.

Down in the bottom left corner of Apple’s keyboards is a new key labeled with the picture of a globe. Initially intended for supporting multiple languages, in iPadOS 15 the Globe key has become something much bigger: it’s a symbol for global keyboard shortcuts.

If you hold down the Globe key on iPadOS 15 you will see the following pop up.

As you can see, there are a number of keyboard shortcuts on iPadOS 15 using this Globe key. Some of the more notable ones are things like Show App Library, Quick Note, Siri, Notification Center, and Control Center. These weren’t available via keyboard shortcut on iPadOS until now.

There are also some new multitasking keyboard shortcuts as well. Now, you can use the keyboard to initiate, select, and organize your multitasking. On top of that, you can also switch between apps as well with the Globe key and the arrow keys. So, instead of the 4 finger swipe to get to the previous or next app on your iPad you can leave your hands on the keyboard and use that to get to where you want to.

These additional universal keyboard shortcuts don’t interfere with the previous version of shortcuts on iPadOS either. In fact, all of the keyboard shortcuts that were previously in iPadOS 14 seem to still be baked in on iPadOS 15.

What if I don't have a Globe Key?

If you use a keyboard that doesn’t have the Globe Key Shortcut you can change that in Settings > General > Keyboard > Hardware Keyboard > Modifier Keys.

From there, is you can map something like the Caps Lock key and use that as the Globe key instead. Alternatively, you could make the Caps Lock key a dedicated escape key if you did have a Globe Key.

Future Additions

I am also hopeful, like Snell, that more functions will be added to the Globe key in due time.

It feels like it’s inevitable that Apple will add hardware and media controls to the Globe key. I’m writing this on Apple’s Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, which is a great keyboard—but frustratingly lacks a function row. So when I want to adjust the device’s volume or brightness, pause music, or skip to the next track, I have to use Control Center [or physically use the volume button]. It would make sense for all of those controls to have key equivalents, and assigning them to the Globe means they won’t collide with keyboard shortcuts available in individual apps.

This is still a beta 1, meaning things can change before public release That said, I really want Apple to make this change for good. The added abilities to use the keyboard makes the iPad go from a touch-device that has decent keyboard support to a full-fledged computer that can be used with a keyboard or touch.