In my first adventure returning to music files (*.mp3, *.flac) in 2023, I mentioned an iOS app called Doppi as a great discovery. It was the app I chose to accompany me on my second attempt, which was successful this time.
That’s why I thought it was worth highlighting the app (“the nicest player for your music files”). Not only is it great, but it has also gotten some amazing new features:
If you host a paid newsletter on Substack, pay attention to the platform’s new in-app subscription offering for iOS. The company published a long FAQ about the change.
Apple requires all apps that sell digital content to use its in-app payment system — the one that charges a 15–30% fee. Substack relied on a loophole created by the recent Epic Games ruling in the US to make its iOS app compliant with App Store rules, giving iOS users the (default) option to subscribe via the web and avoid Apple’s fee.
The problem is that this exception applies only to the United States.
My instinctive reaction to the news that Windows 11 Notepad has gotten text formatting support was to reject it outright. What a blasphemy! After reading the article, however, it seemed quite interesting: the formatting is Markdown, you can toggle between formatted and plain text with a click, and most importantly, you can completely disable formatting in the app’s settings.
(This is yet another reason why it’s always good to read beyond the headline. Microsoft’s blog post announcing this feature, for example, doesn’t mention Markdown, which made me expect the worst.)
TextEdit, macOS’s notepad equivalent, offers rich formatting (*.rtf format). It’s horrible. I think I only use it when I open the app for the first time after reinstalling the system or when setting up a new computer. My first move is always to switch the default to plain text in the settings.
That said, I would love for macOS TextEdit to have native Markdown support, even if it were just syntax highlighting — that is, without rendering the formatting.
Back to Windows Notepad, I learned that the version Microsoft has been updating with cool features (Markdown) and questionable ones (Copilot/AI) over the past three years is actually a whole new app. And that the old app — the one that was abandoned by Microsoft for over two decades — remains accessible at C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe. And if the new one is uninstalled, the old one automatically becomes the default. It’s good to have a backup when major changes hit previously reliable software.
(At least that’s what this commenter on Ars Technica says. I don’t have a Windows PC to verify this information.)
Mozilla has announced the shutdown of Pocket, one of the pioneering “read later” services.
Starting July 8th, Pocket will no longer allow saving content, essentially going into read-only mode. Data can be exported until October 8th, 2025. After that date, it will be deleted.
According to the company, “the way people use the web has evolved,” which justifies redirecting resources into “projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs.”
Signal has found a brilliant solution to shield its app from Recall, Microsoft’s official spyware for Windows 11: setting the app as protected by copyright (DRM), just like Netflix’s, which prevents it from appearing in screenshots — including those taken by Recall.
Recall, in case you’ve forgotten, is an “AI” feature that Microsoft announced in May 2024 for Copilot+ computers, which takes screenshots every few seconds and creates a searchable archive. Basically spyware. The launch was delayed due to public backlash, but testing resumed in April and it’s expected to arrive on eligible computers soon.
I understand that tradition and the power of branding carry a lot of weight, which explains the uproar surrounding any change involving the Start menu in Windows.
What I don’t understand is why Microsoft is sidelining a tool that seems so cool, like the Command Palette, the newest addition to PowerToys, a set of (open source!) utilities from Microsoft for Windows. It was released in version 0.90 at the end of March.
The Command Palette is a “launcher,” similar to Spotlight on macOS. Press Win + Alt + Space to invoke it and type what you want. (You can change the keyboard shortcut in the app settings.)
At first glance, it’s not much different from pressing the Win key and typing the name of an app or file. The Command Palette does that too. But it does so much more:
> command).Another cool feature is that it is extensible. The Command Palette itself has an “extension creator” based on a form. Those familiar with coding can create with more precision. Not tech-savvy? You can search for and install extensions.
Here on the other side, in macOS, I never use the closest thing Apple offers to the Start menu, the Launchpad. (Or is it the Dock?) I always use Spotlight instead, and unless when I occasionally forget the name of a rarely used app, it’s the fastest way to open any app.
Is my behavior weird, or uncommon? Do people really open the Start menu (or the Launchpad), find the app icon they want, and click it with the mouse?
Anyway, if you’re using Windows: Command Palette. That’s the way to go. Oh, and the app is free.
Airbnb announced its new app this Tuesday (13th). The app, know for its short-term housing rental service, expanded its scope to include experiences and services. I was struck by the absence of any mention of artificial intelligence in the press release. Is this the beginning of a new trend?
Remember when Dropbox was a small, snap app only used to sync and store files in the cloud? Good times… Today, it’s a heavy monster packed with corporate features. Perhaps it was necessary, for business reasons, to transform it into this… thing, but that doesn’t comfort those who just want to sync files and keep them in the cloud.
Maestral is an alternative client for Dropbox, open-source, written in Python, and that promises to be lightweight. According to the official website, “it provides powerful command line tools, supports gitignore patterns to exclude local files from syncing and allows syncing multiple Dropbox accounts.” Sounds promising!
For those in the know, in addition to the command line, Maestral offers apps with native GUI (Cocoa on macOS, Qt on Linux). This allowed its developers to create an app that is about 90% smaller than the official one and demands, on average, 80% less device memory. (However, this last figure can vary significantly depending on the size of your Dropbox folder.)
Two important warnings for anyone considering giving Maestral a try:
And, of course, keep in mind that it’s an unofficial app.
macOS users can download an app bundle that includes the Maestral graphical user interface (GUI). For Linux, there are two less user-friendly options: via PyPI (GUI optional) and Docker image (command line only). All the information can be found on this page.
Firefox 138, released this Tuesday (29th), introduces the long-awaited profile manager. The official documentation explains that “creating multiple profiles allows you to keep separate browsing data, themes or settings for different purposes, such as work and personal use.”
There are also new contrast options focused on accessibility, and in Windows 11, context menus now have that translucent (“acrylic”) look that is standard in the OS. Release notes and download.
In my first attempt to switch from streaming to move back to listening to *.mp3 files, one of the issues I encountered was organization: how to standardize the metadata of the songs?
The solution I was familiar with at the time — manually editing each song — was impractical. Who has time for that?
In my second (and this time, successful) attempt in 2024, I came across a free app that is almost too good to be true, MusicBrainz Picard (Linux, macOS, Windows).