The Retro Tweetbot app icon is the best app icon ever made.
Ready for the easiest tip of all time? Simply tip the Tapbots crew inside the latest Tweetbot app for iPhone and iPad and unlock three extra app icons and a range of different themes for the app.
Though I’d say Reeder was likely the first app to really get me into apps, it was Tweetbot that really put me into Twitter. (For better or worse, of course.) To me, Tweetbot has been the best and most pure form of Twitter available.
The latest iteration of the app looks great, as always. But the original app — with all its machinations, clicks, beeps, and droidian character — is, perhaps, my single favourite app design of all time.
The retro Tweetbot icon may also be the greatest icon ever made for iOS. Ever. I could be persuaded of others taking the crown. But for now, Tweetbot’s retro icon takes the prize.
All you have to do to return to the former Tweetbot glory days is provide a small tip to the Tapbots team. Pretty easy peasy, especially considering it’s been quite awhile since the Tapbots crew released an app you can pay for. After tipping, “Retro”, “Retro Noir”, “Modern”, and “Modern Noir” are unlocked and can be seen above. Retro is, quite simply, the best.
A tip also generates a few additional app themes, though nothing like the former droidian glory days. Here’s a smattering of additional themes in post-tip Tweetbot 5.
There’s nothing earth-shattering to today’s blog post. Just a simple, cheap, and easy way to make your home screen feel both young and old again. To provide a dash of classic iOS. And to remember at least a touch of how Tweetbot made Twitter so much fun to use.
Subscribe to The Newsprint
Enjoy these posts? Subscribe to get more, delivered right to your inbox.
{% include image.html img=”https://static.thenewsprint.co/media/2020/04/Back-to-Keep-It-1.jpeg” title=”Back to Keep It” caption=”I’ve moved back to Keep It for all my Bible study notes. The features the app offers for long-term research are far too great to be ignored. “ %}
Plain and simple: I’ve moved back to Keep It for taking long-form notes on iPad and Mac. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked numerous online formats for church activities, one of which is our men’s Bible study group. Within the very first sitting, I found myself needing to reference a few notes I had taken in the past. And like any physical note-taking adventure, CMD + F didn’t bring up any results.
After a month of keeping long-term notes in Keep It, I had moved to Bear. For a couple reasons:
To eliminate an extra couple subscriptions.
Keep It had become quite buggy, especially around the time where it adopted support for macOS and iOS’s dark modes.
I went through a phase of wanting to consolidate everything and Keep It was a casualty at the time.
Fortunately, my annual subscription was still active.
It’ll be a bit of a job moving all of my previous highlights, underlines, and thoughts to Keep It. But, as I’ve said before, I have lots of time to figure this step out.
Keep It hasn’t changed too much while I’ve been gone. The app still looks great, still takes advantage of the default or generic iOS look (I personally love this app design), and still organizes notes with all types of media unlike any other app on iOS. I love that the app is iOS-first, as well.
This doesn’t mention how much more stable the app has become in the last few months — there seems to be a Keep It update in the Mac App Store and iOS App Store nearly every day. I’m more impressed with how the app runs and performs now than I was when we were testing these apps for The Sweet Setup a while back.
A quibble I have though: I’m not a fan of how dual-column apps treat the smaller 11-inch iPad. These slide-over columns with a single, large note view don’t properly use the iPad’s screen real-estate. I would like the ability to lock or pin the slide-in navigation column.
All in all, it’s always fun to rediscover great apps after going on a hiatus. I’ve fallen away from my Bible studying over the last few months due to a variety of reasons, and there’s no better time than a global pandemic to get into the Good Book and to take some good notes in good software at the same time.
Way back when, I published weekly link roundups here which I coined “The Sunday Edition”. It was fun, but tiresome — there’s simply no way I could have ever kept up the pace with the way life has been over the last few years.
Nothing worthwhile comes easy — The Sunday Edition was always the most read piece on The Newsprint. It was the business avenue I would have taken with The Newsprint if push came to shove.
I think I’ve actively tried to revive The Sunday Edition multiple times since its heyday. I lasted maybe two or three weeks and then peetered off.
Which is to say, I’d be surprised if this became a thing again.
Here are a couple things that have been on my mind this week, which may drum up some conversation around your family coffee table this afternoon and evening.
Toddlers and iPads
We have tons of kids books in the house for our oldest (now two-and-a-half) to churn through, and she indeed churns through them — she’s not reading, of course, but letter recognition and number recognition is growing by the day. It’s the most amazing thing, watching young children learn.
However, if our oldest isn’t looking through books, drawing, or sticking number magnets on the fridge, she’s asking for the iPad. I spend a lot of time in front of a screen — who am I to look at her and tell her she shouldn’t be in front of a screen?
That said, the iPad has so much going for it as a learning device. It’s the best device in the world for high school and university students — I’ve tried to hammer this home as often as possible on The Sweet Setup. And I don’t believe it’s impossible for it to be a revolutionary learning device for toddlers.
But how to manage it?
I’m going to reach out to others with children a few years older to see how they’ve managed it. Mike Schmitz put it bluntly: The goal should be to create, not to consume.
I love this.
Right now, it’s my leading approach.
I’m thinking we’re going to pick up Apple’s cheapest iPad (the 10.2-inch iPad) for her in the coming weeks.
“I’ve Heard Now is a Good Time to Invest.”
That’s been stated at least a dozen times in the last couple days at the office. The answer to which is just as obvious:
“Who knows where it’s going to go.”
I won’t pretend to have a clue what’s going to happen in the stock market, but I will be observant to the way the world has reacted in this time of crisis.
And here in Canada, Western Canadian Select oil is down to $7.200 a barrel. It costs more to ship that barrel of oil than it does to purchase that barrel of oil.
So where’s the world going? How is it going to react? Will the market return to former highs in a relatively quick period?
No clue.
But! I have my eyes on a few super duper cheap stocks right now and my fingertips are getting itchy.
If this article from the Financial Post is to be believed, it’s better to be approximately correct than to sit out and wait for things to come to complete certainty. By that point, you’re too late.
On Philippians 4:13
This verse seems to be written everywhere — tattooed on arms, printed on goalie helmets, and eating up character counts in Twitter bios. It’s pretty inspirational, to be sure:
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
(When I grew up, I always thought that should have been “Him”, not “him”.)
You can! I’ve always believed that, as we should. But I always believed it meant something like this:
It wasn’t until this week that I paid more attention to the two preceding verses, which help give context to Philippians 4:13. They read:
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
I think those two verses from Paul have stuck with me for a few reasons this week. First, because the immature point of view of Philippians 4:13 is represented in the graph above. A more mature point of view, in my opinion, looks something like this:
And second, because we really are in a time of need. We’ve had utter abundance over the last 15 to 20 years. So much extra. So much superfluous stuff. The absolutely sudden shift from having it all to having nothing is terrifying. Yet, we’re called to be as content as before.
Thanks for reading. If anything, I hope there’s a conversation starter in here for your afternoon coffee. We’ve changed our coffee tastes up around here because the grocer we’ve purchased from is 115 kilometres away. Instead, we’re trying more local producers. It’s been a great chance to get to know the local market.
Here’s one of my favourite photos, which hopefully acts as a reminder that the world is a beautiful place and that we’ll be able to get back out there and explore in no time.
