Comfort Zone

With Niléane out on assignment, Matt and Chris are joined by MacStories’ own John Voorhees! Chris and John bring brand new, embargoed products, while Matt brings…checking my notes here…a Thunderbolt dock from years ago (but he swears it’s cool).

• OWC Thunderbolt Dock
• iPhone 16 Pro
• Logitech MX Creative Console

• VIA
• Tailscale
• Longplay
• Things Logbook (opens in Obsidian)
• GoodTask

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Matt needs to praise the iPad, Chris drops some iPadOS knowledge, and Niléane is intrigued by what window management on other tablets looks like.

• M4 iPad Pro
• Chris’s complete iPadOS 18 walkthrough
• The MacStories iOS and iPadOS 18 review
• Video of Android 15’s windowing mode

• Retro Gameboy case not linked due to…well…legal issues. You can find it if you want 😉
• Nick Cage case
• Bang!Case
• Clicks keyboard case

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

It’s all challenge this week as the gang brings (and defends) their phone home screens. Rules were followed by all, but of course there’s a little twist this time as well.

• Niléane’s home screen
• Chris’s home screen
• Matt’s home screen

• Matt explaining his iPhone on Home Screens

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Niléane and Chris have upgraded their desk setups, but Matt didn’t get the memo and brought a hard drive or something. Then we see who can bend the rules the most to survive the challenge.

• Twelve South HiRise Pro
• BESIGN LSX6 Computer Holder Stand
• Synology DiskStation DS923+

• Photo of Niléane’s desk setup
• Photo of Chris’s stand
• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
• Microsoft Start
• Doom (2016)
• SpaceRex is a Synology guru
• MONOKEI keyboards
• lofree Flow84
• Synology BeeStation

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Matt is trying to find the right temperature, Chris is floating on Air(table), and Niléane finds out if she’s feeling lucky about getting 10 blue links.

• Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen)
• Airtable
• Lucky for Safari

• Matt’s wallpaper
• Chris’s wallpaper
• Niléane’s wallpaper (dynamic version)
• Niléane’s variant 1
• Niléane’s variant 2
• Niléane’s variant 3
• Niléane’s variant 4
• Niléane’s variant 5
• Niléane’s variant 6
• Matt’s bonus 1
• Matt’s bonus 2
• Matt’s bonus 3
• Matt’s bonus 4

• Ecobee Thermostats
• Things 3
• Notion
• SwitchBot

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

The gang shares their very sane, and not at all controversial 👀 notification preferences. Then they explore some new and interesting Obsidian plugins you might not have heard of.

(links open directly in Obsidian)

• Projects
• Commander
• Cards View
• Image Captions
• Paste Link
• Home Tab
• Trash Explorer

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Matt has to apologize for the things he said last week, Chris tries to find out if we’re smarter than Apple Intelligence, and Niléane has a quiz nobody could predict.

• Pocket Casts
• Apple Intelligence

• Overcast
• Raycast
• Pixel Pro Golf
• Pile-up-Poker (Puzzmo)
• Star Wordle
• Coffee Golf
• Mini Metro
• Mini Motorways

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Chris is absent for mysterious reasons, Niléane finds clever ways to watch the Olympics, and Matt explores his podcast app feelings.

• Plex
• The Olympics
• Overcast

• HDHomeRun
• Channels app
• Infuse
• VLC
• Marco on the Overcast update
• Accidental Tech Podcast with tech details
• Pocket Casts
• Castro

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Matt is leaving you Unread, Chris is gaming on the go, and Niléane brings an addictive drug you can download from the App Store. Oh yeah, and there are several terrifying reveals.

• Unread 4 on the App Store
• 8BitDo Lite 2 controller
• Disc Brick

• Dark Side of the Moon on Apple Music
• Daft Punk on Apple Music
• Reeder 5
• feeeed
• MacStories feeeed review
• Feedbin
• Inoreader
• The Verge full-text RSS feed
• Delta emulator
• Backbone controller
• 8BitDo Micro
• Gamesir G8
• Analogue Pocket
• Firefox OS TCP
• Firefox tablet photo 1
• Firefox tablet photo 2
• Firefox tablet photo 3
• Firefox tablet photo 4
• Wordle
• Puzzmo
• Grindstone

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon

Niléane reviews the AirPods Max, Matt got a new GPU, and Chris keeps things non-controversial by bringing up The Acolyte. Then we get into using the Vision Pro for something new and Niléane challenges us to bring some old tech back to life.

• AirPods Max
• NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super
• The Acolyte

• Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones
• AirCover for Vision Pro
• SoloTop for Vision Pro

• Chris on YouTube
• Matt on Birchtree
• Niléane on Mastodon
• Comfort Zone on Mastodon