Formatting Correctiosn

posts/siri-shortcuts-ios12-review.md

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Our expectations from this ritual are completely alien compared to those we’d
 
 These days, one would need to try very hard to be inconvenienced by iOS updates. My iPhone 8 Plus is two or three times more powerful than my laptop at the moment, and my new friends’ WiFi connection is better than what the State government uses internally, back home. I haven’t needed to physically back it up more than once or twice since I bought it — iCloud stores the lot for $4.99­ a month anyway. I blinked once watching *Riki-Oh* with high school friends some time ago and all of the sudden, a 1.6GB download isn’t really a big deal. Siddown and watch your Instagram stories for twenty minutes, and *hey*! You’re ready to update! Somehow, I have abruptly found myself in a reality in which **I am the obvious bottleneck** and my 100 words per minute on a smartphone keyboard, even, is no longer fast enough: my fucking phone is now **waiting on me** when it updates. The keyholder is the whole goddamned holdup.
 
-So, what possible purpose could there be in pounding out this “Review” of a free software update that’s in no way optional (waiting a month is no longer a rational minimization of risk — it’s just dumb,) not any more difficult to attain than the bills currently waiting in your mailbox, nor allowed by the nature of mobile operating systems to compete with any cross-platform alternatives? For myself, it’s proved [a gratifying tradition of sorts](http://bilge.world/ios-10-review-speed/) and a good use of my apparently-abundant time if only for the record's sake (hello, future web archivists, neohuman and otherwise!,) but this release – assuming I haven’t overlooked something – is the most globe-shucking of all because of one single featureset: **Siri Shortcuts**. However, the v	ast majority of the intra-Apple press' coverage of this release has come across nearly as unconcerned with them as I was originally. Take [*Macworld*'s iOS 12 Review](https://www.macworld.co.uk/review/ios-apps/ios-12-3683670/), for instance: it was the first result in my Google search for "iOS 12 review," yet Siri Shortcuts are only mentioned in the bottom quarter of its first page. When I recorded the "[iOS 12 Review](https://radiopublic.com/end-user-WdbezM/ep/s1!ba096)" episode of my "[podcast](https://anchor.fm/davidblue)," I spoke as if I was somehow the only person on the planet who comprehends the profound implications of this software addition - which was, of course, more of [an absorbent acquisition](https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/22/apple-has-acquired-workflow-a-powerful-automation-tool-for-ipad-and-iphone/) - but I have since discovered one gem, at least, which has continued the conversation in a most superb manner. It's [a technology podcast called *Supercomputer*](https://supercomputer.transistor.fm/about), and it's hosted by [Alex Cox](https://twitter.com/AlexCox) and [Matthew Cassinelli](https://twitter.com/AlexCox) - the latter of whom developed a significant amount of the iOS app [Workflow](https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/16/workflow-hints-at-the-future-of-the-watch-as-a-computing-platform/) (and wrote most or all of its documentation, [apparently](https://anchor.fm/davidblue),) which Apple assimilated as Siri Shortcuts. Both are extremely knowledgeable and competent commentators on - as far as I can hear, at least - virtually **the entire iOS *lifestyle***. (For those on the outside who've never stepped in: laugh if you must, but yes it *is* a lifestyle, still, and it's new thought leader [isn't exactly coming up short](https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/3/18124416/tim-cook-apple-infowars-white-supremacy-podcasts-platform-adl) these days.) iOS is technically *software*, yes, but it leaves an intractable itch for some greater, transcendent term.
+So, what possible purpose could there be in pounding out this “Review” of a free software update that’s in no way optional (waiting a month is no longer a rational minimization of risk — it’s just dumb,) not any more difficult to attain than the bills currently waiting in your mailbox, nor allowed by the nature of mobile operating systems to compete with any cross-platform alternatives? For myself, it’s proved [a gratifying tradition of sorts](http://bilge.world/ios-10-review-speed/) and a good use of my apparently-abundant time if only for the record's sake (hello, future web archivists, neohuman and otherwise!,) but this release – assuming I haven’t overlooked something – is the most globe-shucking of all because of one single featureset: **Siri Shortcuts**. However, the vast majority of the intra-Apple press' coverage of this release has come across nearly as unconcerned with them as I was originally. Take [*Macworld*'s iOS 12 Review](https://www.macworld.co.uk/review/ios-apps/ios-12-3683670/), for instance: it was the first result in my Google search for "iOS 12 review," yet Siri Shortcuts are only mentioned in the bottom quarter of its first page. When I recorded the "[iOS 12 Review](https://radiopublic.com/end-user-WdbezM/ep/s1!ba096)" episode of my "[podcast](https://anchor.fm/davidblue)," I spoke as if I was somehow the only person on the planet who comprehends the profound implications of this software addition - which was, of course, more of [an absorbent acquisition](https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/22/apple-has-acquired-workflow-a-powerful-automation-tool-for-ipad-and-iphone/) - but I have since discovered one gem, at least, which has continued the conversation in a most superb manner. It's [a technology podcast called *Supercomputer*](https://supercomputer.transistor.fm/about), and it's hosted by [Alex Cox](https://twitter.com/AlexCox) and [Matthew Cassinelli](https://twitter.com/AlexCox) - the latter of whom developed a significant amount of the iOS app [Workflow](https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/16/workflow-hints-at-the-future-of-the-watch-as-a-computing-platform/) (and wrote most or all of its documentation, [apparently](https://anchor.fm/davidblue),) which Apple assimilated as Siri Shortcuts. Both are extremely knowledgeable and competent commentators on - as far as I can hear, at least - virtually **the entire iOS *lifestyle***. (For those on the outside who've never stepped in: laugh if you must, but yes it *is* a lifestyle, still, and it's new thought leader [isn't exactly coming up short](https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/3/18124416/tim-cook-apple-infowars-white-supremacy-podcasts-platform-adl) these days.) iOS is technically *software*, yes, but it leaves an intractable itch for some greater, transcendent term.
 
 <iframe width="auto" height="auto" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pxtA9n2XwAM?controls=0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ I've found it inevitable when speaking on iOS to avoid discussing the *other* li
 
 There's no denying that the iPhone has had a profound effect on my life mostly thanks to my own choices, which is why it's worth telling the vast majority of you that features like Screen Time will never help you achieve whatever vague conception of *reduced usage* you may have. If you haven't yet quantified the figures you'll find within it in mental estimates, you aren't really concerned at all and if you *have*, Screen Time will only confirm them. Using reminder notifications to optimize your appflow makes no attempt at all to actually escape the mentality of the behavior you seek to lessen from yourself. Another app is still another app; a notification reminding you to stop using an app does nothing but add still more stimuli. If you want to stop using the phone so much, ***stop* using the fucking phone**. If you are truly concerned about how your handset companion has changed your life, turn it off for a week/month/quarter - however long you *possibly* can. By that, I mean no more or less than what you can manage without getting fired/dumped/expelled/etc. If you have *truly* reached this point, anything less is probably worth it. There is simply no other way to get a clear picture of how it's changed you.
 
-Google, Facebook, and the rest of the industry are well aware of this, but know they can't *actually* advocate against the fundamental mechanism that drives their businesses, so they express concern by doing what they know: **building more software**. Apple is in a slightly different situation: they still need you to buy their phones - and even to look at them - but not past the point of hurting yourself emotionally, mentally, or physically because those injuries tend to hurt one *economically*. Screen Time's purpose is to keep us thriving and buying, but the only effective solve for this can only be communicated in garbage cinema language: **you must find it within yourself**. I am *actually* the worst person from which to model your life, except perhaps for my iPhone use: unless there's little else worthy of my attention, my phone is not out. Even if checking my [emails](mailto:[email protected]), [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@DavidBlue), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/neoyokel), etc are my default tasks, there are infinitely many besides that come first. Every once in a while, it's okay to finish an important message while walking down the street or waiting at a stoplight if things are urgent, but I can guarantee you that my attention is better consolidated on traveling in 95% of cases - moving with purpose and then focusing on my composition *after* I've arrived is almost always more efficient. I realize that I'm cowboying it here and sound like your Dad, but I'm better with iOS than he is, yet I've never publicly run into anything while looking down at my smartphone in 10 years of hardcore use. **Find somebody who's company makes you forget about all of this for hours at a time and treasure them**. Also: **stop playing games on your phone**. *What the hell are you doing*? Read a blog! Explore the wonders of the open web! Your peers, your battery, and your elderly future self with thank you for it. (One exception is playing word/trivia games with your partner. That's very cute and good for you.)
+Google, Facebook, and the rest of the industry are well aware of this, but know they can't *actually* advocate against the fundamental mechanism that drives their businesses, so they express concern by doing what they know: **building more software**. Apple is in a slightly different situation: they still need you to buy their phones - and even to look at them - but not past the point of hurting yourself emotionally, mentally, or physically because those injuries tend to hurt one *economically*. Screen Time's purpose is to keep us thriving and buying, but the only effective solve for this can only be communicated in garbage cinema language: **you must find it within yourself**. I am *actually* the worst person from which to model your life, except perhaps for my iPhone use: unless there's little else worthy of my attention, my phone is not out. Even if checking my [emails](mailto:[email protected]), [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@DavidBlue), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/neoyokel), etc. are my default tasks, there are infinitely many besides that come first. Every once in a while, it's okay to finish an important message while walking down the street or waiting at a stoplight if things are urgent, but I can guarantee you that my attention is better consolidated on traveling in 95% of cases - moving with purpose and then focusing on my composition *after* I've arrived is almost always more efficient. I realize that I'm cowboying it here and sound like your Dad, but I'm better with iOS than he is, yet I've never publicly run into anything while looking down at my smartphone in 10 years of hardcore use. **Find somebody who's company makes you forget about all of this for hours at a time and treasure them**. Also: **stop playing games on your phone**. *What the hell are you doing*? Read a blog! Explore the wonders of the open web! Your peers, your battery, and your elderly future self with thank you for it. (One exception is playing word/trivia games with your partner. That's very cute and good for you.)
 
 *I was elated to see that even Apple supports my [age-old cause for Twitter Lists](https://twitter.com/i/moments/996616971880882176). Also, the new function in Apple Music allowing the user to search by lyrics [appears to work very well](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel/status/1042825995546320896)...*