Jason Snell recently left MacWorld and looks to be flying solo. I’m stoked for Jason and look forward to continuing to see his talents unfold upon the world in new and exciting ways. He’s porting the Clockwise podcast to Relay FM along with starting a new show with Myke Hurley called Upgrade for which episode one dropped today. Today Jason launched Six Colors, his new outlet for writing. Reading the about page of Six Colors I found myself locked in tandem with Jason’s simple explanation for his love of Apple.

I’ve been using Apple’s products since I was in elementary school. And it has defined my professional life, too, since I’ve been writing about it for two decades. Apple will always be a part of me. I am one of those people who bleeds in six colors.

While I’m not a journalist, Apple is a part of me and will be forever. It’s where I met my wife, where I got fired[1] for the first time in my life and it’s the backdrop for why my profession is comprised of circuit boards and pixels instead of sauce pans and filet knives. The excerpt above is just one example of Jason’s immense talents. He’s able to hone in on something so apparent and write about it succinctly with emotional weight that’s not distracting. I’m also thrilled that he’s on his own in bringing those talents to the world without any corporate filter or distractions. I highly encourage you to subscribe to his podcasts and the Six Colors RSS feed, follow Six Colors on Twitter and read Jason’s final byline for MacWorld.

1. Oh, that draft is just begging to be published ↩

Marco Arment’s commentary about the most current animal-poop coffee fad is right on. I get uncomfortable when telling people the time and methods I use to make coffee and why it’s important to me. Marco writes about one of the exact same experiences I have that drives me nuts when I do.

And every time people find out that I’m a coffee nerd, they will ask me if I drink this. Every time. Because that’s what happens with Kopi Luwak. It’s like how app developers are guaranteed to be pitched terrible or impossible app ideas by their parents’ friends.1 I’ll continue to be asked about poop-coffee by everyone for years to come, and I’ll have the same response: No, I haven’t tried it. No, it probably isn’t worth it. No, it probably isn’t that different from just good regular coffee.

The general mockery of my perceived (and forcefully embraced) snobbery by having strong opinions and a heavy interest in coffee is my number one reason for avoiding the discussion when it comes to the topic. Luckily I have a website to share my interests.

Dave Fumberger has written a really interesting piece about what goes into making a promo video for an iOS app. There is a lot more going on in the production than I would’ve expected.

I found Dave’s piece through MacStories Weekly, a newsletter that Federico and the MacStories team started about a month ago. It’s free and provides great content every week . Check out this week’s issue and subscribe.

With all of the hype around Apple’s big event today it’s hard not to wonder if the coalition that comprise Battle for the Net were purposeful in selecting September 10th for their internet slowdown campaign. The Internet Slowdown campaign is designed to raise awareness about net neutrality through a “loading” wheel overlay on participating websites tomorrow. Net neutrality is a demonstrably significant topic that impacts what the landscape of the future will look like. If ISPs are able to get their way, the future of the internet will undoubtedely look like this:

Source: Reddit user quink

If you’ve heard of net neutrality but aren’t really sure what it is or what it means, please visit Battle for the Net’s website and get informed. If you’re running a web property of any kind, consider participating in the Internet Slowdown tomorrow. Setting your site(s) up requires 5 minutes of your time and will help raise awareness for a principal that will impact the future of what you do online. Apple’s big event will drive tons of traffic to many tech centric sites tomorrow. It’s hugely important that we take advantage of that traffic to raise awareness for net neutrality.

Riley had his 6 month checkup today. It’s hard to believe it’s only been six months since he was born. He’s grown so much in such a short time and continues to make us smile with every new development. Going in for Riley’s 6 month checkup I had some friends on my mind. Particularly a piece by my friend Stephen that he wrote back in 2011 about his son, Josiah. Stephen writes about Josiah’s 6 month checkup and how it began his son’s battle with cancer. It’s one of Stephen’s best pieces of writing and is a reminder that I’m not control of Riley’s life. God is.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Stephen has set up a St. Jude fundraiser page that’s running until the end of the month.

I’ve set up a St. Jude fundraising page that I will be linking to instead of RSS sponsors for the month of September. My goal is to raise $1,000 $2,500 $4,000 $6,000 $10,000 for the kids of St. Jude this month It takes $2 million a day to run the hospital and research center, so this is a drop in the bucket. Let’s make it our drop.

Please donate to St. Jude and help end childhood cancer.

Dropbox Pro has just been updated with more space and better control over shared files and folders.

The biggest upgrade is that Pro accounts now receive 1TB of space as compared to the previous 100GB. That’s 10 times the space that they used to receive. Clearly Dropbox wants to house everything you could possibly use on a day to day basis.

Read more about the sharing permissions on Dropbox’s blog.

My IRL buddy Stephen Hackett and my internet friend Myke Hurley officially announced their new podcast network Relay FM today. Here’s how Myke and Stephen summarize the launch:

It makes sense for us to have a single home for all of our work; starting a network is the right decision for us. At launch, we are featuring four returning shows and one new one. We have lots of plans for the future, and can’t wait to get to work making those dreams a reality.

I’ve been anticipating whatever would come next for these guys since they departed 5by5 in July and can’t wait to see what the future holds for Relay FM. I’m a huge fan of independent creators and am so glad to see the fruit of Stephen and Myke’s labor going public today. It’s hard to believe that it was just June of 2013 when I interviewed Stephen about the transition of The 512 Podcast into The Prompt and now we’ll have Connected in it’s place. It’s been amazing to watch the transformation and growth of my favorite subsection of podcasts and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

You can read more about the launch of Relay FM and it’s newest show Analog, from Stephen, Myke and Casey Liss and should keep your eyes on Relay FM’s site to find out more about the network as it grows.

1.0 Innovations newest creation is a bigger version of their SETA stand which I reviewed last year and still use daily. As has been the case with every product they’ve released thus far, the SETA Tablet Stand is currently being funded for production on Kickstarter.

While there may be customer demand for this product I’m not currently looking for a stand of this sort for my iPad. My personal preference is 1.0 Innovation’s first product, the XFLEX Stand which I’ve still yet to buy for myself but I have friends who have and love it. If you’re looking for a simple stand to house your iPad on I can assume this will do you well.

Chris Gonzales just re-launched his site and wrote a bit about what prompted it. Being that this is timed right as I’m chipping away at planning Course Code’s direction I couldn’t be more in tune with what Chris’s goal is with The Spark Journal (RIP Unretrofied).

What I care about are the people who make things, and I care about helping people who struggle to make their thing. I want to write in a way that inspires others to do awesome stuff rather than drifting through a dreary rat-race life. I want to tell better stories. I want to try new things. As Chase Reeves might put it, I want to do things that are matterful.

I’m excited to see what Chris has yet to share and have a little more wind in my sails as I define what Course Code is exactly. Stay tuned.

Over the last week Courtney and I have made the decision to sell our house in Collierville and move into Memphis. We couldn’t be more excited (whilst also tired) about what the future holds for our family. While we enjoy Collierville’s small town feel and community we’ve found through discussion that we’re in a place where the urban environment of Memphis is something we’ve both been longing for but were unwilling to give up the comfort that came with Collierville. We’ve just listed our home online and are taking the For Sale By Owner route. If you know someone who’s looking to move to Collierville, please shoot them this link with our listing so they can give it a look (don’t be creepy).

Much in alignment with Josh Maze’s recent post about being a proud Memphian and what that can look like, Courtney and I both want to dig in further. Moving into Memphis (and not a suburb) is something we’re both really proud of even in the face of a lot of disappointment and advice against this move. It is frustrating to have to argue with friends and family about leaving a “good” area to raise our son in when Memphis isn’t a bad place to do so. I’m a product of Memphis. I grew up in Hickory Hill and went to Oak Forest Elemetary, Ridgeway Middle School and Ridgeway High School. I came back from another state after college and haven’t regretted it to this day. It isn’t perfect but neither is Portland or San Fransisco or New York. Every city has it’s junk and every native of the town knows it, lives with it and carries their pride for their city through it.

My point is that nothing will change if we flee and only look on with scornful attitudes and angry visions of what’s yet to befall our imperfect city. We have to stand up, be proud, find the good and take hold of what we see that needs to change. We need to make the change and it isn’t going to be easy. Nothing worth having ever is. Dive in. I promise you won’t regret it.