2026-01-28 21:00:53
I am once again happy to announce a new app is available. Yearly Run Goals is available now on the App Store for the iPhone, and it's a simple, visually delightful way to track your running goal for the year.
This was the micro-app that kicked off my micro-app series, and as I said in that post, while I intended to keep using the app for myself, I didn't plan on releasing it to the public.
However, since then I have gotten so many questions from people on whether I could release this app since then, to the point where it seemed wrong not to push it over the line and get it out there. So over the last couple weeks I have been refining the app and getting it to a place where I think it will be quite usable for regular people.
The concept of the app has not changed at all from that initial version. You open the app and can see how you're doing towards your progress that you set for yourself for the year.You also get a nice visualization of the current month and a one to two step flow for adding today's run to your log. The app also has a HealthKit integration so running workouts will automatically be displayed in the app, and you can add them to your official goal progress with a single tap.
There are also some stats in the app showing you your longest streak, your longest gap, and the like.
I've also implemented a nice onboarding flow so you can get into the app, provision the HealthKit permission if you'd like, and set your goal. If distance isn't the measuring stick you are personally using, I've also made it so you can just set a set number of workouts that you want to do over the course of the year.
You will not be surprised to hear there is a premium tier for the app, which you can unlock if you'd like to get more than what was listed above, and there are about 4 unlocks you get with Yearly Goals Plus.
Yearly Goals Plus is a $7.99/year subscription.
I continue to be obsessed with privacy-friendly apps, including being overly open about how data collection works. The main thing to know here is that nothing you put into the app ever leaves your device. This means I never see your workout data or anything personal about you.
There are basic analytics, and I do log two events that happen in the app. The first is a simple log when the app is launched, simply telling me that someone opened the app and what OS version they're on. The second log is when a new subscription is started, which, again, does not have any personal info; it just lets me know that someone subscribed.
If you'd like to read the full privacy policy, here's a link.
2026-01-27 22:00:00
Quick Notes has a major update out now that has my favorite new feature in the app, a whole new design, the long-awaited ability to pause or restart recordings with ease, and oh yeah, iCloud sync.
Quick Notes has always been very good at listening to you speak clearly and with intent, and the clean up feature has been quite useful in cleaning up little slips as you spoke. But sometimes I don’t know what exactly to say, or I’m gathering my thoughts and just need to talk it out. I found myself using Quick Notes for this quite often, where I would just talk into the app for a few minutes and then paste the transcript into an LLM chat app with some instructions on turning that blabbing into something useful.
Brainstorm Mode brings this process natively into the experience.
You can start a brainstorm, and then you can just start talking however you want. Repeat things, go out of order, whatever…just talk until you’ve gotten all of your ideas out of your head, and then this will turn your ramblings into either:
As you can see from the very professionally masked screenshot above, I’m working on adding more output formats (one of which is a task generator, which I’m more than a little annoyed that Todoist beat me to the punch on adding).
So now in addition to Quick Notes being my main long text entry tool of choice, it’s also become my favorite tool for thinking through tough ideas as I try to wrap my head around them. To be honest, sometimes I'll record into this mode for a few minutes, and I just discard the note because talking it through was all I needed to do.
Brainstorm Mode is free to try, but requires a $4.99/month subscription to keep using it after that. Due to the length of the transcripts in use for this feature, as well as the general quality gaps I experienced with Apple’s on-device model, this feature is powered by Google’s Gemini, which has real cost to me, and required a subscription to offset those costs.
Even if you don’t care about Brainstorm Mode, this release will immediately be noticeable by the new UI design. The new card layout for the Home Screen is fun, and more space-efficient than the generic iOS table rows I used before, and the color scheme has been completely redone to use the always-lovely Catpuccin.
I’ve also added a new heading font (Fraunces) and swapped out SF symbols for (free) Streamline icons.
In addition to bumping up the size of the stop recording button on the new note screen, I've also added two new buttons here that I think you're going to really love. The first is a pause button to temporarily pause your recording while you pick up dog poop, talk to someone else, or do whatever you need to do. The second is a restart button that will restart the recording.
Several people have asked me for a pause button, which makes total sense, but no one had asked for a restart button. It's something I found I really wanted for myself, and I think you'll like it as well. I can't tell you how many times I started a note knowing what I wanted to say, slipped over my words, and then had to cancel, start a new note, and then do it again. Now I can just quickly tap one button and I'm instantly recording a new note.
I've also added a new "clean up+" option to your transcription settings, which is effectively just a more aggressive cleanup feature. The current cleanup feature that's been there since launch tries very hard to keep your wording exactly as you said it, but to correct punctuation and remove things like ums. Clean up+ has a similar idea but is more aggressive at correcting your wording. When it's firing on all cylinders, it really feels great. I personally have this enabled now on my device.
Oh yeah, and the app now supports iCloud sync! Notes will sync between your devices, and if you uninstall the app, when you reinstall it, your old notes will return from the dead (or the cloud database, whatever).
It's worth saying out loud that, as ever, Quick Notes is maniacally focused on protecting your privacy. As it's been since day one, all transcription happens on device using Apple's on-device foundation model. When it comes to data leaving your device, there are three separate places data is sent.
First is iCloud, which is enabled by default, but you can disable from your iCloud settings in the Settings app. This is the full content of your notes, although being stored on iCloud means it's secured by Apple and only accessible by your devices.
Second is Google Gemini, which can be used for your clean up (although the on-device clean up is plenty good IMO) as well as the new brainstorm feature. In this case, I send the contents of your note, but no identifiable information about you (unless you start a note by saying "I'm Matt Birchler at 123 Fake St…).
Third is analytics, which I roll my own, simple solution, so there are zero third party libraries for this. These analytics collect exactly four events.
2026-01-27 05:00:00
Zack Zwiezen: Beyond Good & Evil 2 'Remains A Priority For Us,' Ubisoft Says
Ubisoft has confirmed with Kotaku that it is still working on the long-in-development sci-fi sequel Beyond Good & Evil 2. This follows previous reporting that the game survived Wednesday’s massive restructuring, which saw seven games canceled, including a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.
Beyond Good & Evil is a 2003 game for the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube, which was a critical darling, but didn't sell super well, and I'd even argue doesn't hold up great compared to other classics of that era.
And yet, in 2008 a sequel was announced, and people got excited. Including me, for what it's worth! The first game was never my favorite, but I liked it enough, and it seemed like the PS3/Xbox 360 generation was going to let them blow out what was possible in this world. Then some time passed…
And then 18 years passed…
So here we are, 23 years after the original game released, and while UbiSoft slashed a bunch of projects, they still insist that this one is still coming out. Definitely. For real.
I'll be as eager as anyone to give this game a shot, but at this point I think it's equally likely that this game comes out or that it is some sort of weird tax thing that is somehow saving the company millions by keeping "in production".
2026-01-27 03:00:55
I think I'm an early adopting into the future of mainstream development.
2026-01-26 02:42:01
McKinley Franklin: White House Holding VIP ‘Melania’ Screening Ahead of Doc Premiere With Mike Tyson, Tim Cook, Andy Jassy and More (Exclusive)
Guests include director Brett Ratner; Queen Rania of Jordan; Zoom CEO Eric Yuan; Apple CEO Tim Cook; New York Stock Exchange CEO Lynn Martin; AMD CEO Linsa Su; Mike Tyson; socialite and Fiat heiress Azzi Agnelli; self-help guru Tony Robbins; and photographer Ellen von Unwerth, who shot the movie poster for the film.
If Donald Trump is the main character of the Epstein files, Tim Cook is the main character of the Trump files. Millions in gifts, a golden trophy, unvarying public support of his policies, and apparently he clears his calendar any time the facist in chief comes calling.
Remember, kids, the onus of standing up to power doesn’t belong with the ultra rich and powerful, it’s on the poor and the weak to carry the load.
2026-01-25 08:08:35
Violet Jira writing for NOTUS: White House Admits to Sharing a Fake Photo of Minnesota Activist After Her Arrest
The White House communications team posted a digitally altered photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota social justice activist, on Thursday that makes it appear that she was weeping during her arrest by federal agents. The image is highly realistic, bearing no watermark or other indicator that the image has been doctored. The change is only apparent when compared to a different version of the same image posted by the Department of Homeland Security earlier in the day.
It's worth recognizing that in addition to this, the administration has also posted AI images of things around taking over Greenland, and full on lied about the killings of 2 US citizens (although human beings of any sort being murdered is…checks morals…bad), even though there is public video disputing everything they said.
This administration can not succeed on the truth, so they are making up their own. They are doing it because they are small, they are petty, and they are weak.