I was all set to go on a weeklong trip out of the country just one day after the new iPads became available. It was as if Apple knew I was leaving town and rushed it out on a Wednesday instead of the usual Friday. Now that I’m back, some initial thoughts, in no particular order: I went with the 11-inch model. As I’ve said in the past, this is purely a personal decision. There is no right answer to which iPad size is best. I’ve owned…

Okay: Crazy designer ideas time. Bear with me. This is not a prediction of what may or may not happen at tomorrow’s Apple event. Just a thought that’s been rattling in my brain for the past few months. Have an iPad handy? Great. If not, use your imagination. Pick up the iPad and hold it as you normally would in landscape orientation. Where are your hands? If you’re anything like me, one of your thumbs is roughly on top of the home button, and the other one…

RECaf version 1.1 is making its way to the App Store today. In addition to some minor bug fixes, this version adds some cool new Siri Shortcuts that make it easy to quickly check on your day’s logging. You can customize the phrase to invoke these to anything you like, of course. They will also work on your HomePod if you have one, which is really cool. I've found these extra Shortcuts very handy for checking in on my current intake, and when deciding if I really should…

In case you didn’t see it last week: RECaf is available for download on the App Store. If you are interested in tracking your caffeine intake for health purposes (or just out of curiosity) I encourage you to give it a try. A free 14-day trial is available, which gives you access to every feature of RECaf, so you can see for yourself if it suits your needs. Why track your caffeine intake? Caffeine is a drug. While studies have debunked earlier conclusions regarding heart problems, high blood pressure,…

When I came up with the original concept of RECaf, shortcuts hadn’t been announced yet. I knew the key to any data-logging app is making the act of adding new entries as simple as possible, so I focused all my efforts on reducing log friction. If it takes too much work, you won't get into the habit of logging daily. I put a ton of effort into designing the simplest logging process possible. RECaf only needs three pieces of information to make a log entry: a source, an amount,…