David Klein's design-focused observations and opinions
How to Watch a Movie and Listen to a Podcast Simultaneously
If you are a particularly nerdy individuals who enjoys watching movies while listening to director and cast commentary, you will love this. There are now podcasts that do the same! They start off with a few minutes of chit chat and you inevitably hear “OK here we go 3…2…1… play.” You click play on the movie at the same time and you’re good to go.
Blank Check: Special Features is one of these podcasts (also on my faves list). For $5 per month you can watch a movie and learn a bunch of random facts while being thoroughly entertained. The problem is I want to watch the movie on my iPad and listen to the podcast on my Mac. This requires software. Don’t worry; I did the research and figured out a setup for you. Three applications made by Rogue Amoeba are required:
Airfoil is an amazing tool for sending and receiving audio between devices. It is not actively used in this setup, but its license unlocks the companion app. Airfoil Satellite allows you to receive audio from another device using AirPlay. SoundSource gives you granular controls over audio output on your Mac.
Airfoil Satellite
Again, I enjoy watching movies on my iPad, and listening to podcasts on my Mac. The goal is to hear both the movie and podcast audio in one set of headphones. First, launch Airfoil Satellite on your Mac. Then hop over to your iPad.
Start playing a movie.
Tap the AirPlay button to launch its menu, and, if Airfoil Satellite is open on your Mac, you will see your Mac in the “Speakers & TVs” list.
Tap on your Mac’s name. Mine is “DKMBP.”
Now the movie’s audio on your iPad should be playing through your Mac.
Neat, right? You can stop here, but the extra bit of control over each source’s volume significantly improves the experience.
Soundsource
Open SoundSource on your Mac. SoundSource appears as an icon in the menu bar that unfortunately looks virtually identical to the macOS Sound menu bar item. Click on the SoundSource icon to open its panel and view a list of applications that are currently producing sound. I use Flotato to create a dedicated Overcast app for playing podcasts. If Overcast and Airfoil Satellite both used the same volume control, it is difficult to clearly hear both the podcast and movie. I need to slightly adjust the volume of one source to ensure I hear everything. Trust me: the commentary is worth it.
Play with the various volumes until you achieve a balance that works for you. Maybe you want to barely hear the movie and focus on the podcast. With SoundSource that is possible.
Let me know if you have any questions. Yes, I really do this.
Tim Pelan makes a delightful connection between this legendary movie and a TV show you may have heard of.
As far back as I can remember, director Martin Scorsese has been synonymous with wiseguys, mooks, goombahs, and spin-on-a-dime funny-how guys delivering a gut punch to the senses, all choreographed to a wowser wall of sound. Young pretenders like Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright certainly learnt how to make up a killer score not, conversely, on the streets, but at the church of St Martin. The rest is bullshit (but that’s another film). We’re here to talk about Goodfellas (1990), surely his most guilty thrill ride until The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the white-collar larcenous flip side to the saga of Henry Hill, an initial outsider like the young, asthmatic Scorsese in Little Italy, who finds an in to the neighbourhood mobster way of life. Scorsese indulges in the seductive surface appeal of these dodgy foot soldiers, gradually peeling away the layers like finely chopped garlic to reveal the lousy, grifting, desperate and moral hollow at the centre. Critic David Thomson in The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies and What They Did to Us says, “Scorsese looks at clothes, decor and male gesture like a cobra scrutinizing a charmer. You feel he is realizing his own desires, or bringing them to life: he hungers for his own imagery as a fantasy made vivid.” The director himself reflected later to Richard Schickel that he saw the film a little differently. “I wanted to seduce everybody into the movie and into the style. And then just take them apart with it. I guess I wanted a kind of angry gesture.” A kind of magic carpet ride rug-pull too, the Seinfeld of gangster films, with “no hugging, no learning.” The only regret is in getting pinched.
This is a must-read on Cinephila & Beyond if you’re curious about how Scorsese filmed specific scenes and his motivations. It’s also fun to reflect on Larry David’s credo for Seinfeld: “No hugging, No learning.” Think about it for a moment. Do characters ever hug on Seinfeld? Do they ever learn from their mistakes?
I have been designing for a number of years (since 2007?!), and, after recently being promoted to Principal Product Designer at Salesforce, an opportunity to transition into management arose. As a result, I began reading to learn about the subject. The first book I read is The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhou. She describes four possible ways one begins managing, and one rang true.
The successor transition is like the apprentice’s but with a twist: because your manager is leaving, you’re taking on supporting the entire team yourself, not just a portion of it. Though most successors have prior management experience, it’s still a significant increase in responsibility and you may feel you have big shoes to fill. While the advantages of this transition are similar to those of the apprentice (you have a sense of what works and what doesn’t, and you’re able to ramp up quickly because you come in with context, as described earlier), the differences are also striking.
I’m both anxious and excited by this opportunity. It feels like a natural transition because of my desire to teach what I have learned from my variety of experiences. Watching teammates improve their craft and presentation skills is incredibly rewarding.
In 2003 I took a course at Cornell University in the Music department named Advanced Digital Music: Film Scoring taught by David Borden. We used a plethora of applications like Digital Performer and Reason to compose music for short film clips. This course was challenging because as a composer you want the audience to not feel overwhelmed by your score. Music should accompany the scene; not dominate it. One must match the tone while allowing subtle noises like a door closing to pierce through.
Also in 2003 a professor in the Computer Science department began an unofficial course in game design. There were five teams building games and five students in the music course. Someone had the brilliant idea of assigning a music student to a game design team.
Dragon breeding is a difficult business. You must breed, nurture, feed, and train your dragons in a growing dragon economy. Keep a good journal, as dragon species popularity changes yearly. (Java project)
Yes, it’s still available to download (if you have Windows). I worked with the game design students to learn the purpose of their game and where music was needed. I then retreated to the studio and began writing.
Before the player clicks “Start” they hear a jovial melody to welcome them.
While the player is traversing the world they hear a majestic tune to encourage exploration.
When the player fights to breed their dragons they hear a battle theme that evokes a showdown.
Next time you’re watching a movie or playing a game, try to focus on the background music for a few bars. Think about the instruments and melodies. You’ll notice how the accompanying music was designed to enhance the moment by evoking certain emotions. You can also search on YouTube for your favorite movie or game plus the word “score.”
Kenya Hara, one of my favorite authors, writes about Japanese hotels in a beautiful newsletter named High Resolution Tour. The latest edition features Tokyo’s Muji Hotel in Ginza.
MUJIHOTELGINZA opened in April, 2019 on the top five floors of a ten-story building on Namiki-dori Street. The new flagship store, on floors B1-five, replaced the former one, near Yurakucho Station. MUJI, founded in the values of anti-gorgeous and anti-cheap, is determined to provide simplicity and concision, pursuing a unique style of coziness and comfort. Visitors and guests at MUJIHOTELGINZA can savor this concept as a context for living.
Sometimes restraint is more comfortable than extravagance. Here one finds a highly precise minimalism that can be implemented here because Japan prides itself on its high quality space design and construction. MUJI’s approach is reflected in every part of the space. Careful selection, refinement and constant improvements have been made to floors, walls, ceilings, their borders and corners, materials, furniture and fixtures. While the rooms are not especially spacious, there is pleasure to be had in staying in a new hotel in the very heart of the Ginza playground.
You can also keep up with Hara’s tours on Instagram. Staying at the Muji hotel would be a difficult sell for my spouse considering she organizes and manages all of our travel plans. Hopefully I can convince her to plan a stay at one of Hara’s featured hotels during our next trip.
If you are unfamiliar with Hara, I strongly urge you to read Designing Design in which he writes extensively about Muji’s purpose and brand. The way Hara illustrates craft, simplicity, and authenticity is inspiring.
By the time a coffee arrives at your doorstep, it has traveled a long distance and has been transformed from an agricultural product into freshly roasted beans ready to be ground and brewed. We recognize the effort, time, and energy that goes into making the decisions about things like growing variables, processing, and roasting that factor into creating an exceptionally high-quality coffee. However, the truth is that none of that means it will be the best coffee you’ve ever had if it isn’t properly brewed. When preparing your coffee at home, you are the last factor in this long, energy-intensive coffee supply chain. You become an active participant in bringing the specialty coffee to life and ultimately influencing the taste, for better or for worse. That is why understanding the brewing process can help to turn that specialty-grade bean into something delicious, every time.
Tyler does a solid job succinctly explaining the science behind brewing coffee on the Mistobox blog. Read through and try to remember one thing from this article, and then apply it the next time you drink a cup of coffee. Was the extraction ideal? Was the ground fine, medium, or coarse? Have you tried using turbulence?
In the Klein household we use a medium grind setting with the Breville Smart Grinder Pro for the Moccamaster KBT. I only use turbulence when I use my Hario V60 for a single cup.
One can argue that the Apple TV remote has a derisive design12. In my opinion it has several major flaws:
If the room is dark it’s difficult to determine which side of the remote should point forward.
It’s difficult to pick up because of its thinness.
It’s easy to lose because of its small size.
If the room is dark it’s difficult to differentiate between buttons.
One way to mitigate some of these issues is to place the remote inside of a case. I did this and it made picking up the remote much easier. However, it made differentiating between a regular trackpad press and fast forward/rewind very difficult. I often pop the remote out of the case before attempting to fast forward or rewind.
I’m surprised the only change to the remote’s design since its initial release is a slight bump in the form of a white circle on one of the buttons. This did not fix any of the problems. I often wonder how Apple can continue to ignore this considering many of its own employees must own an Apple TV.
When Salt, a Swiss TV company, announced in 2019 a remote specifically designed to work with the Apple TV, I was intrigued and even considered purchasing one on eBay. Patience, David. Patience.
Lo, Function now sells the remote directly in the United States for $29.95.
Like a typical remote, the Function remote feels good in your hand. It’s large, bulky, and not too heavy. When you set the remote down it does not shake back and forth like TiVo’s more curvy remote.
The dedicated fast forward, rewind, and pause buttons are a dream. You will never accidentally fast forward or rewind when you are trying to pause. However, the up, down, left, and right buttons are definitely a step backward compared to the Apple TV remote. It takes more effort and time to navigate Apple TV’s interface. When you temporarily pick up the Apple TV remote you feel again how easy it is to quickly traverse the screen.
The more traditional layout provide enough space for the button positions to enter your muscle memory. You can easily slide your finger around to find volume up/down and be confident you are pressing what you intend to press. Oh, and a mute button lets you… mute.
One major drawback is the lack of a Siri button. Occasionally I know exactly what movie I want to rent so I speak its name into the Apple TV remote. That is no longer possible. Apple TV offers a screen that shows you what apps allow you to watch a movie for free. Without Siri I’m not sure how to get to that screen.
Another drawback is the lack of a home button. “Wait, David, the Apple TV remote has a home button?” Yes! The TV icon button in the upper right corner instantly jumps to the home screen with the grid of app icons. I have encountered multiple people who never tried pressing that button. They press the menu buttons repeatedly until arriving on the home screen. Can you imagine?! Those naive users will be comfortable with the Function remote. I, however, am instantly frustrated every time I want to return to the home screen.
The last drawback is visual: Function’s ugly logo is prominently displayed at the bottom of the remote. This is similar to LG placing their logo on the UltraFine 5K Display. I don’t need to be constantly reminded of who made your product.
If your household exclusively uses Apple TV for content (YouTube TV, Hulu, Netflix, HBOMAX, Peacock, Acorn, Disney+, Apple TV+, etc.), I recommend purchasing the Function remote. Interacting with your Apple TV should be simple and enjoyable, and that requires a better remote.
As an Apple fan since since 1990 with the arrival of the Macintosh LC in my home, this is an achievement of which I am particularly proud.
Transform how you get things done. The App Store has over 235,000 apps for people at work, and Apple devices are designed with powerful technology that brings out the best in every one. Discover apps for daily tasks, better customer experiences, and efficient operations. Or build custom apps across Apple platforms for infinite possibilities.
John Siracusa, of Hypercritical, Accidental Tech Podcast, Reconcilable Differences, and The Incomporable fame, is an underrated storyteller. Whether it’s cooking, researching cheese graters, reviewing toasters, moving refrigerators, or, as I discovered this week, troubleshooting his new Mac Pro, I’m somehow always enthralled. No detail is too small, and subtle hints live amongst the minutiae.
Casey: So right before we started recording, something appeared in the after show section of the show notes. And it says, “John’s Mac Pro woes.” Oh no. What’s going on…
Marco: “I saw this too and right at that moment I’m like “Oh no… This is not good. Oh John. What’s up?”
John: “Hmm… Well… This is one of those things where… it’s not a slow-moving disaster, but it’s kind of a gradual thing… I’m trying to pinpoint when did this all begin.
Who knew troubleshooting could be so entertaining.
An hour after presenting, Systrom was reminded of Facebook too. His iPhone flashed with his new boss’s name, and he went to a quiet spot to take the call. Good, he thought. Even if Cox and Zuckerberg weren’t attending the event, they were at least acknowledging the accomplishment. He swiped to answer.
“We have a problem,” Cox said. “Mark’s very angry about your icon.”
“Are you serious? What’s wrong?” Systrom asked.
“It looks too much like the icon for Facebook Messenger.” The IGTV logo had a sideways lightning bolt shape inside a TV-shaped box. The Messenger logo had a similar bolt, but inside a cartoon dialogue balloon.
After the drama of the day, there was no praise from on high—only Zuckerberg’s concern that Instagram would step on Facebook’s branding.
This similarity did not occur to me. Take a look for yourself.
Each icon includes a lightning bolt, but they are different enough to not be confusing. However, one wonders if the IGTV design team was winking, nodding, waving, or sneering at the Facebook Messenger team.
This reminds me of when Facebook Places launched in 2010. Facebook partnered with Foursquare and Gowalla on their new product for sharing your location. But, if you look closely at the Places icon, you’ll notice the Places icon includes a “4” inside of a square. Were the Places designers winking or sneering at Foursquare?
