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The Noise-Blocking Edition Sunday, August 10, 2025

Ear Protection Is The New Sunscreen, by Jessica Furseth, Slate

Society is having a reckoning about noise. Hearing is a sense we can’t physically turn off, and until recently, unless we were willing to cosplay as a construction worker by wearing ear defenders, we just had to suck it up. But as active noise-canceling technology goes from good to great, it’s become easier than ever to protect our ears from dangerous sound levels. Noise blocking has gone from yellow foamies to glittering style accessories seen all over this year’s Coachella. We’ve increasingly turned down the volume on the world—and our mental and physical health might depend on it.

Coming This Fall

macOS Tahoe 26 Beta Brings Over A Dozen New Aerial Screen Savers To Your Mac, by Michael Burkhardt, 9to5Mac

With macOS Tahoe, Apple will be adding a bunch of new screen saver options, which you can also set as wallpapers. There are a couple new variants of the previously introduced Tahoe screen saver in beta 5, as well as around a dozen other options introduced in a previous beta that flew under the radar.

tvOS 26 Changes 'HomeKit' References To 'Apple Home' In Settings App, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Does this serve as evidence that Apple is slowly phasing out its HomeKit brand in favor of Apple Home, or did Apple simply realize that Apple Home was the better wording in these instances? It could be the latter, but it would not be surprising if Apple eventually did retire the HomeKit name in favor of the more generic Apple Home for both its smart home app and framework, especially as the company prepares to launch an all-new home hub.

Stuff

I Still Use This Forgotten Mac App Every Day, by Andy Betts, How-To Geek

The simplicity of Stickies is the key to its greatness. The app is less than 2MB in size and has no significant features. It won't sync your notes to your other devices over iCloud, and doesn't even have a Settings option in the menu. If you're looking for more, you're missing the point. But what is here makes it genuinely useful.

Apple Vision Pro Immersive Video Explores Borneo’s Orangutans In Stunning Detail, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

The fourth episode, “Orangutans,” puts the viewer face-to-face with young orangutans at a rehab center in Borneo, a giant, rugged island in Southeast Asia.

Log Your Weight In Apple Health Quickly And Cheaply With This iPhone-compatible Smart Scale, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

It will connect to the scale and your weight will be logged inside eufy Life, which then also sends it to the Apple Health database. You don’t have to press any buttons, just have the app open, so it’s pretty painless.

Is This Seat Taken? Makes Seating Fussy People Fun, by Jay Peters, The Verge

Creating seating arrangements can be pretty stressful; the empath part of me strives to find the perfect seat for every person even if it’s a nearly impossible task. If it’s for a big, meaningful event, I get even more anxious. When you find the right place for everyone, though, it’s even more satisfying than a great jigsaw puzzle. Chasing that feeling is what Is This Seat Taken? is all about — and it does so in a low-stakes and relaxing way.

Notes

OpenAI Will Not Disclose GPT-5’s Energy Use. It Could Be Higher Than Past Models, by Aisha Kehoe Down, The Guardian

“A more complex model like GPT-5 consumes more power both during training and during inference. It’s also targeted at long thinking … I can safely say that it’s going to consume a lot more power than GPT-4,” said Rakesh Kumar, a professor at the University of Illinois, currently working on the energy consumption of computation and AI models.

Bottom of the Page

There is something magical with apps that do just one or two things well. As opposed to 'super' apps that cram everything plus the kitchen sink into tiny tiny screens.

(I have old eyes. Every screen that is smaller than the monitor on my desk is a tiny tiny screen.)

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Thanks for reading.