Reviewsday

In the spirit of #trypod, my reviews this week are all podcasts I started listening to this year.

The goal of #trypod is to help the podcast-unaware by literally taking their phones, installing a podcast app, and subscribing them to something they’ll like.

Here are some good choices:

Science Vs.
Host Wendy Zukerman tackles one topic each week (Acne, Climate Change, Immigration) and sorts the facts from the fiction. It’s delightfully written and produced, and would make a great first podcast for someone transitioning over from NPR-style shows.

Missing Richard Simmons
A great podcast for people who’ve only listened to Serial. Host Dan Tabersky tries to figure out why Richard Simmons has disappeared from public life. Smartly plotted and emotionally generous.

Do By Friday
Each week, hosts Merlin Mann, Alex Cox and Max Temkin face a different challenge, from meditating to watching Les Mis. Episodes wander very far afield from their stated topics, making it much more of a hangout show. That’s either your taste or it’s not.

Pod Save America
A weekly politics podcast hosted by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor. They’re liberal wonks and speechwriters, not journalists, so it’s interesting hearing their unfiltered take on our chaotic democracy.

I’m also leaving these reviews on iTunes. The reason you always hear podcast hosts pleading for reviews is that it affects the popularity algorithms, increasing exposure.

My picks this week are all on the Mac App Store.

Mini Metro

This beautifully-designed game scratches so many itches. Like SimCity, you’re trying to grow and optimize. Like Tetris, you’re trying to simplify complexity. And yet the game is surprisingly chill. Even when passengers are freaking out, it never triggers panic. If anything, it’s made me more sympathetic to the challenges of public transportation. (Also on iOS)

Acorn

I work with designers who are masters of Photoshop. I’m not, and have no plans of becoming one. My work with images is mostly for the web and internal mock-ups. For this, Acorn has everything I need. Its layers are intuitive. Tools and menus are where I’d expect them. And it’s rock-solid. I’ve never had it crash on me.

Plus, it’s a steal at $30. Highly recommended for anyone who needs “something like Photoshop” but not actual Photoshop.

Skitch

I’ve had Skitch set to Shift-Command-5 for years, and find myself using it nearly every day. The crosshairs come up; I grab what I need. Yes, you could use the built-in screenshot abilities to do it, but you end up with a bunch of files littering your desktop. With Skitch, they’re ready to be annotated and dragged out — generallly to Slack, where I’m sharing something with the team. (It also pairs well with Acorn.)

I honestly don’t use Skitch for the Evernote integration, and would happily buy it as a standalone.

On Tuesdays, I try to leave reviews for a few things that I love.

Super Mario Run, $10 for iOS

I nearly deleted this game after the first day. It seemed so simple, so basic. But now it’s been weeks, and I find it’s become one of my go-tos for those empty gaps while waiting around.

The game’s simplicity is misleading. When you go back through earlier stages attempting to collect all of a certain color of coin, you realize how clever the level design is. I found myself having to rewatch the tutorials to figure out the more complicated jumps.

Rally mode, in which you compete against the ghost of a previous competitor, is genius.

Negative reviews for the game because of its price are maddening. It’s more than worth it.

My only negatives: The game shouldn’t require an internet connection, and the error messages are clumsy. But on the whole, the experience is delightful.

Pastebot, $10 for Mac

I’ve been using clipboard managers for years. Shift-Command-V is muscle memory at this point. It’s incredibly useful to be able to hold more than one thing on the clipboard at a time. I can’t imagine using a Mac without this ability.

Last week I switched over to Pastebot, based on the recommendations of other nerdy colleagues.

Pastebot can do a lot of fancy transformations and automations, but at this point I’m still using it mostly for clipboard history. It’s fast and nicely-designed. Plus the Tapbots folks have been around for a long time, so I’m confident they’ll keep the app updated and working great.

Words on the Move: Why English Won’t–and Can’t–Sit Still (Like, Literally) by John McWhorter, $11-18 on Amazon

Another terrific, approachable book by McWhorter looking at how English has evolved and continues to change. Every few pages, I found myself wanting to tell anyone nearby about a fact I’d just learned.

“Did you know that the adverbial -ly comes from like?”

“Those little words we use to smooth the cracks in conversation? They’re mostly there to acknowledge the feelings of the person who just spoke.”

“What’s happening with ‘literally’ already happened to ‘really.’”

Rather than blurting out these ideas, a better choice would be to recommend they read the book. (And if they like it, they should also listen to his podcast on Slate.)