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My thanks to Fracture for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Long-time readers of this site are familiar with the Sweet Mac Setup interviews I’ve been doing for the past 4.5 years. Going forward, those interviews now have a new home on The Sweet Setup (and they will no longer be Mac-only).

This week’s Sweet Setup Interview is with my pal, Casey Liss, regarding his iPhone Home screen.

Yes. Love this story from Ben Thompson. As well as the point he’s making that Apple’s new website about using the iPad in real life gives examples of people that don’t quite fit the mold for how most people could benefit from an iPad.

I think most of us who are “tech savvy” can relate to the situation of having a non-tech-savvy parent and or grandparent get an iOS device and instantly become more connected and conversational through FaceTime, email, and messages. My folks went from candybar phones to iPhones about 6 months ago and our amount of day-to-day quick communications has increased dramatically. We are always sharing photos and videos with each other over group iMessage conversations, we do quick FaceTime chats so grandma can say hi to her grandsons, and more. It’s a far different — and I think better — experience than the once-a-week phone call check in.

Great piece by Tim Bajarin. I often jokingly refer to my iPhone as “Command Central”. As Tim points out, smartphones are quickly becoming our “central hub” devices because they have become extremely capable thanks to software. I’d add that we’ve gravitated towards them, and allowed them to become so central to our digital lifestyles, by the sheer fact our phones are always right there in our pockets.

Matt Gemmell:

Compromises don’t make for great products, and nor do they make for great experiences.

That’s why you have more than one device. That’s why it’s perfectly reasonable to pack and travel with several of them. And that’s also why a more rational view of a piece of technology is that it’s part of an ecosystem — your own personal one, encompassing your work, leisure, interests and utility needs.

By the way, you should definitely follow @thesweetsetup on Twitter. That’s where we’ll be tweeting most about the site’s new app reviews, articles, and other updates to the site.

Also, here’s the link to The Sweet Setup’s RSS feed.

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My thanks to Voila for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

For the past 3 months I’ve secretly been working on a new website.1 It is now nearly done and is on track to launch next week.

To stay abreast of the launch, and to stay up to date with the site once it goes live, you really should follow The Sweet Setup on Twitter.

Now, long-time readers of shawnblanc.net will be familiar with the awesome series of Sweet Mac Setup interviews I’ve conducted over the past several years. I’ve often thought that it would be cool to chart out all the apps and gadgets listed in those Sweet Mac Setup interviews and have some sort of site that listed what was the most popular.2

That’s not quite how the site has landed, but it was the start.

The purpose of The Sweet Setup is to research, test, compare, and find the very best apps for the iPhone and Mac. And, of course, the setup interviews I’ve been doing here over the years will now continue at the new site.

As readers of shawnblanc.net, you are no doubt familiar with my affinity for fine software — there are just so many fantastic apps out there. That is a huge reason for why I built this site. It’ll be a place that floats evergreen content, recommending the best apps for whatever the task and listing those recommendations and reviews in an easy-to-discover layout rather than a reverse-chronological posting format.

Needless to say, I’m incredibly excited to be launching this new site.

Actually a bit surprised to see how many folks keep their bottom row clear of icons. That’s how I’ve been doing it since forever (and I also prefer just three icons in my iPhone’s dock) because I like the extra breathing space it gives. But I always thought I was the minority. Perhaps more folks do this than I thought. It is, after all, how the original iPhone’s Home screen looked.