Steve Abrahamson

@abrahamson
6 Followers
49 Following
275 Posts
UI/UX designer masquerading as a FileMaker Developer for 30 years | Technophile | Neurodivergent | LGBTQIA+ | BLM | He/Him | Chicagoan | macOS/iOS/FileMaker | Since the late 80’s, so there may be some git off my lawn. See, back in my day….
PronounsHe/Him
Dev platformFileMaker (yes, FileMaker)
SpicinessAll The Spicy
Steve AbrahamsonApr 21

@siracusa I think there are more facets to the feature license-unlock issue: there is some ongoing cost to a third party license for Sirius, for example (or the automaker’s bulk deal would be different if it was for everyone vs some).

With the heated seat idea, BMW made the mistake of rubbing our noses in its presence by trying to entice us with it. Conversely, with a chip you can order with 6 or 8 working cores, there are probably some 7s that get gated down to 6, but we never hear about that.

Steve AbrahamsonApr 20
@caseyliss I wholeheartedly agree with you that Apple’s ongoing push for services revenue through product bundle shifts and in-OS advertising is gross; I hate it too. Thinking of how we can encourage that change (#futility ) it occurred to me that sometimes, Apple only changes when competitors force them to; as long as they’re ahead - if the bar is super low - they’ll stay lazy. So, unfortunately, maybe the best hope of Apple improving… is encouraging Android, Chrome OS, and Windows to improve.
Steve AbrahamsonFeb 27
@marcoarment listening to ATP 680, re vibecoded todo app: I’m very interested in an app that does less, well. I was thinking about trying to vibecode one myself, but if you’re doing one, so much the better! If you’re opening up to testers, I’d be delighted to.
Steve AbrahamsonJan 9
@viticci Re your Risky Pick on @connected, the answer, I’m sure you’ll agree, is obvious for the duo feature: you’ll hold it in portrait orientation for the open configuration, and Apple will use the cameras to show *your eyes* on the phone screen, for other people’s… comfort.
Steve AbrahamsonDec 21

@trevorkay Just discovered Screen Sizes and I love it - super useful! A tiny feature idea: a link in Settings *back* to the URL. I had made it standalone on my iPhone, wanted to try it on my Mac… and had completely forgotten the URL - I was stuck. To help folks with portability (and sharing the app!), it might be helpful.

(I did find a path back to Safari and a URL, though it’s super buried: Settings; Toast; Screen Sizes; Get The App; and *then* the iOS “open in Safari” button. Whew! 😉)

Steve AbrahamsonDec 4
I just had the first positive, useful, actually good interaction with an AI help agent. It was the Lyro AI Agent, used on luxproducts.com’s web site, and I asked it to tell me the differences between their smart thermostats… and it *did.* I asked more questions and it was quick to tell me where I could find the detail info I wanted, and quick to *just tell me* when it didn’t know an answer. It was helpful, useful, and knew its limits; I’ve known humans who didn’t meet those criteria.
Steve AbrahamsonNov 13, 2025

I pulled out my phone to listen to some podcasts in @overcastfm (current version as of this morning) and a bunch of already-downloaded episodes have reverted to “waiting to download.” Most or all do not use DAI, fwiw. @rebound was downloaded at home this morning… and I had been in the middle of listening to @clockwise!

I download so that things are resident *on my device*, and once they’re there they shouldn’t change unless I change them. This makes no sense…!

Steve AbrahamsonNov 6, 2025
@charliemchapman Hi - I use @darknoise nightly, using AirPlay through a HomePod mini, and since iOS 26 I’ve encountered a handful of times where the audio cuts out. Sometimes it cuts out and comes back, sometimes it goes out and comes back several times like tuning an old radio. Last night it didn’t come back. Changing playback back to my phone and back to the HomePod didn’t help; I had to force-quit Dark Noise and start it again. Is that AirPlay, Dark Noise, iOS…?
Steve AbrahamsonOct 12, 2025
I really respect the coverage @ChanceHMiller does for @9to5Mac and I’ve been trying to listen to the 9to5MacDaily podcast because I also love podcast feeds of bite-sized daily small updates. I’m having trouble sticking with it though because of his cadence, the strange newsreader “end every sentence on a drawn-out mid-pitch tone”. Just talk like a regular person, Chance - it’s so much more engaging!
Steve AbrahamsonOct 9, 2025

What’s going on with @overcastfm and failing downloads? I see more and more “download failed” “invalid audio file” and downloads completing only to start over.

I was just listening to this week’s episode of @connected. It had downloaded, I was 10-15 min in, I left the house and after a few minutes it cut out. I pulled out my phone and it says “waiting for download”. It had downloaded! The point of downloading is to have the file *on my phone*, not relying on the network!