Iterate Weekly - Issue 208
This week we're looking at WWDC, 750words as a daily planner, carbon footprints of men vs. women, NBA Finals branding, and "Mountainhead"!
Welcome to issue 208 of Iterate Weekly.
Let’s jump into this week’s stories shall we?
Thank you as always for reading!
🖥️ Tech
Highlights of Apple’s WWDC 2025
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) took place this week.
The Verge put together a really nice rundown of the biggest announcements.
Here’s what stood out for me.
-The new OS system names will indeed be indicated by the calendar year. The next round of OS updates will come out in late 2025 but will be numbered as 26. This is as we expected, and will mimic the formula we use for new car model years. It will be weird for a year and then I think it will work really well.
-iPadOS is getting closer and closer to MacOS. There were some subtle updates here to help multi-tasking on an iPad but we’re getting closer to both iPads and Macs running the same software. It should happen in the next few refresh cycles.
-I live the wrist flick action coming to WatchOS. I find myself often flicking my Pixel Watch 3 to wake it up and see a notification. It’s an underutilized gesture for all smart watches.
-Using your AirPod as a camera control is pretty cool. I have always loved all the creative ways to take a picture without actually pressing the shutter button on your screen. Will this result in more people taking photos while wearing Airpods? Will there me more concealed Airpods in people’s pockets acting as remotes during photo shoots?
Overall, there was nothing all that groundbreaking announced at WWDC. But I do appreciate some of the small updates that are on the way. Also glad they’re calling the next version of MacOS “Tahoe” even if it’s also known as MacOS 26.
🎓 Productivity/Work/Software
750Words.com and the narrative to-do list
Here is a little public service announcement about the benefits of daily writing.
I’m approaching a streak of 1,000 (953 days as of this writing) straight days of writing on the fantastic site 750words.com.
I’ve written about the platform before and I do find that there is something magical about that 750 word threshold. On my ideal days I’m able to get the words down in the morning in order to clear my head for the day.
And I’ve become a big believer in the narrative to-do list. What do I mean by that? Well, rather than just scratching down a bulleted list of the things that I need to get done in a day, I’m able to slowly write and process these things in paragraph form.
I’ve had trouble keeping my morning to-do list habit going. For a while, I was having some success with my reMarkable tablet but I’ve found the 750 word method to be more “sticky” for me.
Some days, my morning pages have a more tactical approach where I’m planning out my day. Other times, it’s more of a rambling of what has been on my mind the night before. But regardless of how the final output looks, it’s super beneficial to keeping my brain organized on a daily basis.
♻️ Health/Environment/EVs
Do women really live more carbon-neutral lives than men?
An interesting story out of Clean Technica recently compared the carbon footprints of men and women.
Specifically, this was pointing to a study out of France that broke down the diets and transportation habits of men and women. It found that women consistently contributed fewer carbon emissions than their male counterparts in France.
This makes for a fun “click-baity” debate about which gender treads more lightly on the planet. And it does bring up plenty of stereotypes of men eating read meat and driving gas-guzzling cars and trucks. And women eat salads and take the bus right?
All jokes aside, the study brings up some interesting data. But however you identify yourself or your diet, it is a reminder that we can all make small changes to decrease our carbon footprint.
🛍 Grab Bag
Where has the NBA Finals branding gone?
The NBA Finals are in full swing! And as a huge basketball fan, I did find something striking when I turned on the big game.
There was no special “Finals” branding on the court. The folks over at UniWatch seemed to notice it too. They highlighted the minor backlash that surfaced on social media after the first game took place.
For years, the iconic “Finals” script logo adorned the court for each of the potential seven games in the series. And for a stretch, there was even a larger-than-life Larry O’Brien trophy featured at half court.
The bottom line is that we should have some visual signifier on the playing surface that lets the viewer know that this is a special game! These days, the court is so covered with other ads and logos, there isn’t much space for the traditional iconography of the championship series.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has acknowledged the lack of championship branding on the court and has said that the league “will look into it” for next year. Let’s hope this is the last year to watch a championship take place on a boring court devoid of the pomp and circumstance required of the stage.
💬 Quote of the Week
"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."
-Alan Watts
🎥 Content Review
Mountainhead
I was so excited to watch Mountainhead on Max (soon to be HBO Max again) recently.
It had a great cast headlined by Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman. It came from Jesse Armstrong of “Succession” fame. How could it go wrong?
Well, I feel like something just didn’t work for this movie. It felt like it could have benefitted from a more episodic structure to establish the characters like Armstrong did for Succession.
The premise was a little farfetched but it’s basically four billionaires holed up in a mansion for a weekend. There is plenty of tension between the group with not enough humor for my liking.
The acting was good. The premise had promise. But I feel like the movie fell flat. Sure, it had plenty of tech bro energy that probably should have been distilled with some female characters but ultimately there just wasn’t enough invested for us to care about any of these (mostly horrible) main characters.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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