It’s that time of year again. Time to load up on crap that you’ll barely use and then store it in a bin until you lose that phoney sense of obligation to the inanimate. Happy holidays. Here are some things that I like well enough to recommend. Nintendo Switch | $300 This might be the best thing I purchased this year. I like games but I’m not a gamer. My kid likes games but wants to just have fun.

Phil Schiller earlier this year: “We’re committed to Mac, we’ve got great talent on the Mac, both hardware and software, we’ve got great products planned for the future, and as far as our horizon line can see, Mac is a core component of the things Apple delivers, including to our pro customers.” Apple today: We are working on a software update to address this issue," an Apple spokesperson told iMore.

One of the stand out attributes of the new iPhone X is the deep dark blacks possible on the OLED screen. Unlike previous iPhone models, where blacks are muted by back-lighting, iPhone X black is the near absence of light. Recently, several apps have released theme updates that take advantage if this new darker black on the iPhone X and after seeing them, I want every app on my phone to offer an extra dark black interface option.

There’s a very easy way to export screen shots from the macOS Photos app and resize them as smaller JPEGs along the way. I’ll let this screen shot of the export screen speak for itself.

Another great feature of the iPhone X is that I get to see what apps are still supported. Luckily, many of my favorites are getting updates to support the new screen and FaceID. Some are just getting around to multi-tasking updates. It’s all good. Here’s a few worth mentioning. Blink isn’t just a good app for creating affiliate links for Apple’s AppStore, it’s also just very good at searching the AppStore content.

The iPhone X is very good but it’s still an awkward adjustment to a missing home button. So here are the gestures to internalize: Wake the screen — Just tap on the screen lightly. Access Camera from the Lock Screen — Swipe from right to left anywhere on the lock screen or press camera icon until it clicks Access the Today screen from the lock screen — Swipe from left to right anywhere on the lock screen

When my 10.5" iPad Pro arrived I decided to do a little experiment. You see, I honestly believe that the iPad, iPhone, and other micro super-computers are the future of computing and I want to force myself out of old-man complacency. Five months ago I committed to that experiment and avoided using my Mac unless there was absolutely no way to do something on my iPad or iPhone. Last week I ended my experiment and I have a few opinions (big surprise).

Pretty impressive work coming out of AgileBits. 1Password X isn’t for me, because I like the current arrangement of a desktop application integrating with the browser. I don’t think I’m ready for direct browser to service password management even from one of the companies I trust the most. 1Password X is a radical new way of using 1Password, but it’s not (yet) for everyone. It’s still in its early stages so some features are not yet available.

If you’re not using 1Blocker, I can highly recommend it. I use it on iOS and my Mac. While it only works with Safari, it’s a pretty good shield against website poo. The latest update adds defense against bitcoin mining scripts. I use it for more than just filtering hot garbage ads. Here’s a simple 1Blocker rule to get rid of Secret Rune scripts. That’s used by websites that like to intercept text selection so they can monetize every movement you make, like BoingBoing.

As a longtime fan of DEVONthink on both the Mac and iOS I was skeptical of Apple’s new Files app for iOS. After a few weeks I can say that it’s a good start but has a large gap when compared with the more feature complete DEVONthink To Go. For some the differences may not warrant the extra expense so I’ll attempt to break down the good and the bad for each document syncing option.