VioletPixel

šŸ„ Clarus is Back!

Benjamin Mayo at 9to5 Mac:

Many have complained that Apple design has been sapped of some of its trademark whimsy in recent years. Well, hereā€™s the latest example of how the tides seem to be changing.

Buried in the Settings app on iOS 27, Apple has hidden an easter egg that hails back from classic Mac OS; Clarus the Dogcow. Hereā€™s how to trigger it ā€¦

This also works in macOS 27, and presumably iPadOS 27.

Moof!

šŸ“± iPhone Duo: Initial Thoughts

Even though I keep an eye on Apple rumors, a lot about the iPhone Duo announcement surprised me. It has fewer compromises than I though it would, it's more compelling than expected, and it stands out as a joyful and thoughtfully-crafted product against the dreary backdrop of the tech industry and world in general right now.

Compromises

Compromises are non-negotiable in the world of folding phones, and while iPhone Duo is no exception, it concedes very little. While watching the event I was disappointed, but not surprised, when they didn't mention MagSafe. I figured dropping MagSafe was one of the inevitable compromises, but it turns out MagSafe is alive and well on iPhone Duo. I also thought the displays might suffer in areas like resolution, refresh rate, or color depth, but both the interior and exterior displays seem to be top-notch. They both have 120Hz refresh rates, P3 color, and pixel density at 430 DPI and 460 DPI, respectively.

So what compromises were made?

There's no Face ID, but there is Touch ID and unlock with Apple Watch. That's not a problem for me, and in fact it might be a boon. Face ID requires me to hold my iPhone up high and at a slightly awkward angle when I'm wearing a mask (my partner and I have been masking since the pandemic began), but Touch ID won't have that issue.

Compared to the iPhone Pro lineup the main cameras aren't as good, but I can't complain about the two-lens system on iPhone Duo. If you need to choose just two primary cameras, a 26mm main and 13mm ultra-wide are the ones I'd pick. Not having a telephoto means you have to zoom with your feet, but that's better than not having the ability to take macro and wide-angle shots due to a lack of an ultra-wide camera (which is one of the main reasons I returned my iPhone Air in favor of the iPhone 17 Pro).

The two selfie cameras on iPhone Duo are a mixed bag. The 12MP Center Stage camera on the exterior display is solid. I love that camera on my iPhone 17 Pro, and I'm happy to see the same camera included on iPhone Duo. The camera under the internal display is, on the other hand, not that great. It looks like it will do in a pinch, but the video I've seen from it looks muddy and very webcam-like. Apple hasn't provided a lot of technical details about this under-display camera beyond the ʒ/1.8 aperture and that it will record 1080p video, and I'm guessing the reason why is that those specs just aren't that great.

My biggest concern with the under-display camera isn't the quality of the images it captures, though, but the combination of how visible it will be when not in use and its physical location. In a lot of the hands-on videos it looks pretty visible in a lot of shots, but that doesn't match up with people at the event saying it's almost completely invisible. I'm guessing (hoping) the camera is just more visible in video than it is to the naked eye, but time will tell. If the camera is visible when not in use, I'm worried it will be a constant and awkward annoyance due to its physical location right at the top of, and slightly overlapping(!), the first row of icons on the Home Screen.

The other minor compromise that stands out for me is the lack of a LiDAR sensor. I use my current iPhone 17 Pro to measure the length of things all the time, and without the LiDAR sensor those measurements probably won't be as accurate.

Joy and thoughtfulness

The software for iPhone Duo looks surprisingly polished, and feels more like a mature 2.0 than an initial release for a new form factor. There are so many thoughtful details and nice touches, from the animation when opening and closing the device to the numerous new ways you can use the camera and everything in between. It clearly has more utility than a traditional iPhone, but it also looks like a lot more fun, too.

Camera features like Duo Preview (where you can see what's being captured on the outer display when the device is open) and Duo FaceTime (where people can see multiple camera feeds on a call) are great, but Kid Cue (where Snoopy and friends entertain kids to get their attention) is the one that makes you smile no matter how old you are.

The way Apple implemented split screen with two apps side-by-side feels exactly right. The gestures look intuitive and natural, and it feels right that each app takes up exactly half the display; being able to adjust the split ratio seems too fiddly on a device this size (but take that with a big grain of salt; I have yet to see or handle an iPhone Duo in person).

Some other thoughtful software touches that stand out to me are the new combined battery, signal strength, and connectivity icon and the expansion of Standby mode (which now finally works even when you're not charging). Standby goes beyond just the software, though, given how it interacts with the hinge of the device, with different modes depending on how far iPhone Duo is open and what orientation it's in.

The hinge and the Pencil

I'm really glad Apple is taking full advantage of the hinge at every angle. Tent mode for Standby is great. The tiny book and laptop modes are delightful and look genuinely useful. The fact that you can place the hinge at any angle to act as a stand, get the right camera angle, or hold it in a way that's most comfortable for you is a welcome treat.

Diving deeper into the hardware, I'm shocked iPhone Duo has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. I'm also surprised to see Apple Pencil compatibility; Apple seems really confident about the durability of this device in all kinds of wet, dusty, and stabing-the-screen-with-a-Pencil conditions.

Regarding Apple Pencil support, I feel like we don't have the full story yet. Currently, Apple says iPhone Duo is compatible with only the USB-C Apple Pencil which has very few features compared to the Apple Pencil Pro. That's out of necessity; without the magnetic connection hardware, there's no way for the Apple Pencil Pro to pair or charge with iPhone Duo.

But why is Apple Pencil support for iPhone Duo coming later this year? And why weren't there any Apple Pencils at the hands-on event? Even if the feature is coming later this year, why not let at least some of the press use an early beta version?

Here's my wild theory: there's a new Apple Pencil coming in October alongside the rumored OLED iPad mini, and that new Apple Pencil will not just work with the iPhone Duo, but will clearly be the one best suited for it. What I'm hoping for is a slightly smaller (shorter, more pocketable) Apple Pencil with pressure sensitivity that works with some kind of inkwell-like USB-C charging/pairing base.

Wishful thinking? Maybe, but the iPhone Duo Apple Pencil vibes are off. This device would be a killer sketchbook with apps like Linea Sketch and Procreate, or even just Apple's Notes app, but it can only really excel with additional Pencil hardware features like pressure sensitivity. The USB-C Apple Pencil only supports tilt, and while that's better than nothing, but my gut tells me there's another shoe that hasn't dropped yet.

Cases

With the exception of the original iPhone and iPhone 3G, I've almost always used a case with my iPhones, but I don't think I would want a case for the iPhone Duo. There might be some interesting and innovative third-party options, but Apple's cases don't look appealing to me.

The iPhone Duo Folio is the most appealingā€”especially the way it expands to cover the hinge when closedā€”but I don't think I want something to cover the outer display. That display has so much utility regardless of the phone being open or closed it seems like a cover would get in the way more often than not. Maybe if your primary use case is tiny laptop mode it makes sense, but it's not for me. I also don't think the kickstand is of much utility given the iPhone Duo can already stand on its own in multiple ways.

The iPhone Duo Case (which could use a better name) looks too bulky, and it doesn't cover or protect the hinge in any way. It sounds like it's made of a lightweight polycarbonate material and will probably be a fine choice for a lot of people, but Ceramic Shield 2 has proven to be pretty amazing, and Apple hasn't exaggerated the durability claims of their devices, so I don't feel a need to add a case for protection.

The main reason I'd want a case on the iPhone Duo is to make it more comfortable to hold, but I don't see a case helping much in that regard. On top of that, the iPhone Duo gives me the strongest "don't put a case on me" vibes I've had since the iPhone 5c.

Unanswered questions

There are, of course, many open questions. How does the display look and feel in person? How will the hinge and display hold up over time? How practical is one-handed use given this slightly-smaller-than-a-passport-when-closed form factor? How long will it take to get used to the volume buttons being on the top?

One big question I had was around battery life, but I'm not too worried after seeing the battery life of the iPhone 18 Pro lineup relative to their battery capacity. It seems like there are significant efficiency gains with the 2nm A20 Pro and C2 modem chips, so I don't think battery life in the iPhone Duo will be anything outside of what Apple claims, and what they claim sounds fine to me. That said, it will be interesting to see how open vs. closed usage impacts battery life, especially when all of those displays are used simultaneously.

Miscellaneous thoughts

I'm really glad they went with the iPhone Duo name and not iPhone Ultra.

$1,999 is an expensive base price, but I thought it would be higher given... waves hands vaguely at everything. If it's as good, fun, and useful as it appearsā€”and if there's more to the Apple Pencil side of thingsā€”I think it's actually a decent value if you'll get real utility from the form factor and the additional functionality if provides.

This isn't specific to the iPhone Duo, but I was sad to find out that several of the new pro camera controls in iOS 27 are exclusive to the iPhone 18 Pro lineup. I was really looking forward to being able to lock white balance on my iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone Duo, but no such luck. I can understand controls that require new hardware being absent, like the new aperture control for the iPhone 18 Pro, but existing devices have the ability to lock white balance as demonstrated by third-party camera apps, so why not give us the option in the built-in Camera app?

Overall I'm far more interested in iPhone Duo than I expected to be. If my theory about the Apple Pencil pans out I'll almost certainly get one. If not, I'll have a lot of thinking to do. In any case, the real decision will be made only after I get one in hand and spend a little time with it. One thing I'll need to keep firmly in mind when that happens: no matter how satisfying the hinge feels, and no matter how satisfying a snap it makes when I close it, it does not make sense to spend two grand on a fidget toy.

But, also, while it's not exactly Penny's computer bookā€”an object I've coveted since I first watched Inspector Gadget decades agoā€”it's not not that, either, if you know what I mean.

Finally, if I do end up getting an iPhone Duo, I hereby reserve the right to use the title "Don't Mind if I Duo" for a future blog post about it.

If you'd like to see and hear more about iPhone Duo I've found these videos to be especially interesting:

šŸ–¼ļø CleanShot 5.0

Version 5.0 of CleanShot, my favorite screen capture tool by a mile, has a new studio mode for capturing and editing screen recordings:

The new Studio Mode is all you need to turn a simple screen recording into a polished, professional video - all with the quality you expect from CleanShot.

There's a short teaser video and a longer seven-minute walkthrough that shows some thoughtful attention to detail.

I'm excited about this release, but I'm even more excited to see how they iterate and improve on this over time.

šŸ”¤ Modern Day Typographer

Elle Cordova is an absolute treasure. Her latest video is exceptionally delightful, even for her high standard.

šŸ“š Books Unbanned

Books Unbanned provides free library cards to teens in the United States so they can access ebooks and other digital resources:

Across the U.S., books are being removed from school and public library shelves at an unprecedented rateā€”especially titles that explore race, gender, history, identity, and lived experience. This censorship limits what teens can learn, question, and explore.

Books Unbanned responds to book censorship by making sure teens can read freely, even when access is restricted locally. The program supports teensā€™ rights to read what they choose, think critically, and engage with peers across the country who care about intellectual freedom.

šŸ“µ How to Turn Off Write with Siri

Short version

Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy > Siri and turn off Writing Assistance.

Rambly version

I've been using the Mac and iOS 27 public betas for a while. They've been quite stable (though your mileage may vary) and there are many welcome improvements and refinements.

I have also, somewhat reluctantly, been using the new version of Siri. Functionally, it's a vast improvement over the previous version I was usingā€”I skipped the version that shipped with the '26 operating systemsā€”but that's not a significant accomplishment given how bad Siri was (and still is on my HomePods).

The big general downside of the new Siri is that it's heavily entangled with generative AI, and I want to keep my use of generative AI as close to zero as possible. Thankfully, I don't use Siri for much, and a lot of what I ask of it doesn't involve generative AI (home automation tasks, setting timers, simple math, etc.).

However, one specific downside of the new Siri is that there are now places on my iPhone and Mac where I see prompts to use aspects of Siri I'm not interested in. The most frequent and most visible of these are the "Write with Siri" prompts hovering around text fields and the onscreen keyboard.

The good news: you can turn off Siri's writing assistance features entirely. The setting probably isn't where you'd expect it to be, and I couldn't easily find it by searching inside Settings, but if you go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy > Siri you'll find a Writing Assistance setting you can turn off. This setting is in the same place on both iOS and macOS, and once it's off, all of those annoying "Write with Siri" prompts and UI elements will never bother you again.

There are some other adjacent settings in there that might also be of interest, such as Broad World Knowledge, Image Creation, and more.

Enjoy!

šŸ” Goodbye 1Password

Violet Blue at Threat Model:

Popular password manager 1Password has pledged $300,000 over three years in support of David Heinemeier Hansson's Linux distribution known as Omarchy, and is now a ā€œdistinguished corporate patronā€ of Omacom. What a nice brand partnership. As reported in Tuesday's Threat Model newsletter, DHH has called for the ethnic cleansing of Europe; he is also an antivaxer, a Covid "truther," a proponent of the "lab leak" conspiracy theory, an 'anti woke' weirdo, and is virulently anti-DEI on the grounds of diversity and equity initiatives being discriminatory against, well, you know.

In an internal Slack message leaked to press today 1Passwordā€™s Roustem Karimov defended DHH as being attacked for his views, while 1Password's CEO issued a blanket assurance to staff saying that the company doesn't "endorse hateful, dehumanizing, or exclusionary views, including those shared publicly by DHH.ā€ Ah, okay. That makes it better.

It's a great time to migrate to a new password manager, such as Proton Pass, Bitwarden, Keeper, Nord Pass, or even Apple's Password[s]. It's not an overly technical process so the good news is that you'll be able to move your family members off the service as well šŸ™ƒ

Violet provides links to various migration guides and additional details. Some things to note:

My original plan was to do a methodical export, but I realized there's no real need for that. Here's what I ended up doing:

  1. I checked my 1Password account and saw that it was paid for through June of next year, which seems like plenty of time for me to fall back to 1Password and retrieve any info if needed.
  2. I canceled by 1Password subscription.
  3. I exported a 1PUX file into an encrypted disk image as a just-in-case backup of everything that I don't actually plan to use unless I really need it.
  4. I exported a CSV file into the same encrypted disk image and imported that into Apple's Passwords.
  5. I uninstalled my 1Password browser extensions and removed the app from my dock and phone's home screen, but kept the app installed just in case.

Remember: the 1PUX and CSV exports aren't encrypted, so you'll need to be very careful with them. That's why I created an encrypted disk image for them.

My plan now is to go about my daily life and handle any issues that come up on an ad-hoc basis. Chances are most of what wasn't imported into Apple Passwords can be retrieved or reset via email-based recovery methods. If there is something that only exists in 1Password I can always yank it out using 1Password itself or by importing the 1PUX file into another app that supports what I need.

šŸ¤– Perils of Living In the Future

Stephanie K. Baer at The San Francisco Standard:

Glasses and dishes had been removed from kitchen cabinets and left elsewhere. The dishwasher, refrigerator, and washing machine were scratched. Dishwasher racks were bent and removed. Wooden furniture was scratched and stained. Bathroom tiles were chipped. A shoe rack and several pairs of shoes were missing from a locked bedroom closet.

[...]

In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday, Donovan alleges that employees of the Bot Company rented his home ā€œunder false pretensesā€ to conduct prototype testing on robots theyā€™re training to do household chores.

There are several other Airbnb hosts with similar experiences.

No flying cars, but we've got robots who come inside and ruin your stuff. What a timeline.

šŸ’¾ Backblaze, You Had One Job

Turns out Backblaze no longer backs up cloud filesā€”not even cloud files that are already downloaded and stored locally on your computer. Worse, they quietly shipped this change in a minor point update and hoped no one would notice:

Release Version 9.2.2.877

[...]

  • The Backup Client now excludes popular cloud storage providers from backup, including both mount points and cache directories. This prevents performance issues, excessive data usage, and unintended uploads from services like OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, iDrive, and others. This change aligns with Backblazeā€™s policy to back up only local and directly connected storage.

That "others" includes iCloud Drive, which is where I happen to keep most of my stuff. My important stuff. The stuff I trusted Backblaze to back up.

Backblaze also has a new banner on their old instructions that explain how to back up cloud files before this change, like the one on their instructions for iCloud Drive:

NOTE:
iCloud's most recent update prevents Backblaze from backing up files that iCloud synced.

To back up these files, download them to another local location where Backblaze can read them.

First, that's a baldfaced lie. There's no iCloud update that prevents Backblaze from backing up iCloud files. There's similar wording on their page for Google Drive:

Google Drive's most recent update prevents Backblaze from backing up files that Google Drive synced.

And their page for OneDrive:

OneDrive's most recent update prevents Backblaze from backing up files that OneDrive synced.

Bullshit. Apple, Google, and Microsoft didn't release updates at the same time across multiple operating systems that stopped Backblaze from backing up their cloud files. Backblaze made the choice to not back these files up. Backblaze made the choice to not tell their users about it outside the third bullet point in a minor point release. Backblaze made the choice to put these banners on their support articles and knew they were lying through their teeth by doing so. Other backup software has the ability to back up iCloud Drive and other cloud files just fine; there's nothing preventing Backblaze from doing the same.

Second, the content of the original instructions remains below these warnings, but none of it applies anymore. It would be easy for someone to skip over one of these warnings, read the instructions below, and think their cloud files are backed up when they're not. That's shameful and irresponsible.

When I learned about all this I checked Backblaze's file restore tool and confirmed all of my iCloud Drive files were no longer available to restore even though I explicitly configured iCloud Drive on my Mac to keep a full local copy of every file.

It's really important to have my iCloud Drive files backed up because sync is not a backup, as Backblaze's own blog explains:

While cloud sync is great for giving you 24/7 access to your files and enabling collaboration, it is not a trustworthy backup solution. Hereā€™s why:

  1. Tiered pricing discourages usage: Typically, these services have tiered pricing, meaning you pay for the amount of data you store with the service, or for tiers of data that you are allowed to use. Odds are, if you are using the free tier of a syncing service, you have a lot of data on your computer thatā€™s not syncing because youā€™re trying to manage your usage to avoid paying more.
  2. Data outside the service is vulnerable: Only the files, folders, or directories you put into the sync service are synced. The rest of the data on the computer is not.
  3. Data within the service can be deleted and lost forever: If there is data loss (letā€™s say you share a file with someone and they simply delete it), it may be lost forever. Sometimes these services have a version history feature, meaning youā€™re able to recover an earlier version of your work (before your friend or coworker deleted it).
  4. Data in sync services is vulnerable to ransomware and malware: If your computer is attacked by a bad actor and your sync service automatically synchronizes after the attack, your synced files are also corrupted. With a backup solution (discussed below) with longer version history, you can simply roll back to an earlier backup before the attack occurred.

We often hear people say, ā€œI donā€™t need backup. I use Dropbox.ā€ But, thatā€™s an assumption to leave in the past. Where sync services ensure that a certain set of data is the same across multiple devices, backup ensures that all or most of the data on one device is backed up elsewhere.

It's a huge problem when the backup service you trust to back up your files stops backing up your files. It's an even bigger problem when they make that change as quietly as possible, without letting you know, and lie about the reason why.

These changesā€”both the decision making process that led to it and the way it was implementedā€”have completely shattered my trust in Backblaze. Beyond their computer backup, we also used their B2 storage service to backup our NAS, but now I wouldn't trust them or any of their products or services with a single byte of my data or anyone else's.

I just finished removing Backblaze from all of our devices and deleting our Backblaze accounts. If you use Backblaze I strongly recommend you seek an alternative.

Our new backup solution

Our household has the following devices that need to be backed up:

The iPhones and iPads use the only practical backup solution for iOS and iPadOS devices: iCloud Backup.

Our five Macs back themselves up to our Synology NAS using Time Machine for local backups. After some extensive research, I decided on Arq backup software for our Macs and rsync.net for offsite backups.

Note that this approach isn't as easy to set up or maintain as Backblaze. If you're looking for a more-or-less drop in Backblaze replacement, I recommend you give the Arq Premium trial a try. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but I used the trial quite a bit during my research and found it to be a solid option when I tested it.

Arq is available in two flavors. You can pay once for the backup software itself and use it with the cloud provider/server of your choice (including a a five-computer family pack license), or you can choose Arq Premium: a subscription service that includes the Arq software and Arq's own cloud backup storage bundled together (at time of writing Arq uses Google Cloud Storage behind the scenes and offers 1TB of storage for up to five computers).

Arq Premium was tempting, but ultimately I wanted a unified and more flexible offsite backup destination than Arq Premium or S3-compatible storage providers could offer (shout out to S3compare.io as a very useful tool during my research, though!). If I went with Arq Premium I wouldn't be able to backup our Synology to it, and would have had to find a separate offsite storage provider for it. That's more complexity and accounts than I want to juggle.

Regarding cloud files (the ones Backblaze says they can't back up), Arq backs them up just fine. On a Mac, cloud files that haven't been downloaded to your computer show up with a cloud icon next to them in the Finder. If you try to open or access a cloud file, the OS automatically downloads the file and, when the download is complete, the cloud icon is removed and the file opens normally.

Arq lets you decide how cloud files should be handled on each computer with a, 'When a dataless ("cloud-only") file is encountered,' setting that has three options:

The first two are self-explanatory. The third, "materialize," tells Arq to trigger a download of any cloud file it comes across so it can then back it up.

I, personally, have two Macs signed in to my iCloud account:

I keep a local copy of everything in iCloud Drive on my MacBook Air by keeping the "Optimize Mac Storage" setting in iCloud Drive's settings turned off. I also keep my entire photo library stored locally by setting the "Download Originals to this Mac" option enabled in Photos. Finally, Arq's "cloud-only" setting is set to "materialize" on my MacBook Air to make sure all of my cloud files are present and available for offsite backups.

On my MacBook Neo I have the opposite setup. That Mac has a smaller internal drive and is often offline, so I have iCloud Drive and Photos set to optimize my Neo's storage, which means things will only be downloaded locally when I need them. Likewise, in Arq, I have the "cloud-only" setting set to "ignore" because I know those cloud files are being backed up via my MacBook Air, so I don't need to worry about them on my Neo.

Beyond Macs, our Synology used to back up to Backblaze B2, but it now uses Hyper Backup to back up to our rsync.net server. One annoying thing about Hyper Backup when using it with an rsync server is that it doesn't support SSH key authentication. I was hoping to turn password authentication off on our rsync.net server for security reasons, but until Hyper Backup gets its act together I'm forced to leave it on (with an absurdly long password).

I chose rsync.net because they have an experts-only plan that works well for our needs. In exchange for cheaper storage, they provide a fully-functional rsync.net server with the following caveats:

That's all fine by me, but anyone who isn't technically inclined will probably consider some or all of that a dealbreaker.

One other important consideration when choosing our cloud backup provider was the physical location of the data. There were a few options that looked promising until I realized the only practical server location was in Seattle. We live in Portland, and if the big one hits I want our data to be a good distance away from the Pacific Northwest. rsync.net's Denver location is an excellent balance between geographical distance/safety and latency.

Another important thing to note about backup solutions in general is how they handle backup history and retention. For example, if a file accidentally gets deleted today, but you don't notice it's missing until three months from now, you want the ability to go back to a backup from three months ago and retrieve the file. That's one of the big reasons sync is not a backup; changes and deletions are synced immediately. Some cloud sync providers offer version history, but it's usually limited or restricted (e.g., only 30 days, costs extra, etc.).

With a normal rsync.net account, the idea is that you get the files you want backed up onto your rsync.net server and backup history is handled by ZFS snapshots. However, with an experts-only account you don't get free ZFS snapshots, which means you either need to configure ZFS snapshots yourself or make sure historical backups and retention are handled in another way.

I chose the latter approach. Both Arq on the Macs and Hyper Backup on our Synology can be configured to keep historical backups and prune old versions as they age. This provides fine-grained client-side control instead of a one-size-fits-all solution on the server, which works best for us. We can, for example, keep more granular history for our Macs but less granular history for our Synology. Thus, I have not configured ZFS snapshots on our rsync.net server and don't plan to in the future.

That backup history distinction is important to keep in mind if you get an experts-only rsync.net account, because most of the tutorials and guides for rsync.net assume you have snapshots enabled. For example, rsync.net provides instructions for backing up Synology devices using Hyper Backup, and tell you to use the "rsync copy (single-version)" option, assuming the ZFS snapshots will handle historical backup needs. Without snapshots you should choose the option that keeps multiple versions and configure retention for those versions in Hyper Backup.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention encryption, especially for offsite backups stored on infrastructure you don't own. Arq and Hyper Backup allow you encrypt your data before it leaves your device, so all of the data on rsync.net's server is fully encrypted and we're the only ones with the keys. We also have our Macs encrypted with FileVault, and our Time Machine backups to the Synology are encrypted as well. Your specific encryption needs may vary, but encrypting your data when possible is generally recommended.

One last thing: keep the 3-2-1 rule in mind:

The idea that a minimal backup solution should involve three copies of the data (one primary copy and two backup copies), where two different media types are involved in storing the copies, and one of the copies is stored offsite in a remote location.

Unfortunately, following the 3-2-1 backup rule is inconvenient for iOS and iPadOS devices. You can do it, it just requires you to plug your iPhone or iPad into a computer and make a local backup which, combined with iCloud Backup, gives you three copies across two media and one offsite. What you end up doing is up to you and how valuable the data on your iOS and iPadOS devices is, but I really wish Apple had a local Time Machine-like solution for iPhones and iPads that allowed wireless backups to a NAS.

For our Macs we're set: three copies (the Macs themselves, Time Machine, and rsync.net) across two media (SSDs in the Macs and magnetic hard drives in the Synology and, I assume, at rsync.net) with one offsite (rsync.net).

For our Synology, we keep less vital data on it, so we only have the one local copy and the copy on rsync.net. That's an intentional choice based on a considered risk analysis.

That's the important thing to keep in mind: the 3-2-1 rule is called a rule, but it's more of a guideline. More than three is better, for example. Sometimes less than three is okay. The real rule is to use the 3-2-1 approach as a starting point and make thoughtful choices about your own situation and your data security needs. Mostly this boils down to asking yourself questions about what data would be lost forever in different scenarios:

Having a good backup strategy means having good answers to those questions that you're comfortable with. The answers and comfort levels are different for everyone, and that's fine. The important part is giving this some thought and putting together an intentional plan to keep your data safe.

In other words, do the opposite of what Backblaze chose to do.

šŸŖ™ Worth on the Web

Manuel Moreale in a post titled "Ad Blockers didnā€™t help kill the open web":

I agree that the web platform failed at figuring out a way to deal with monetisation. Everything ultimately falls back on Ads because itā€™s the only idea that ā€œworksā€. But to me, the issue is that we have an overabundance of content, and most content is not worth paying for. Most content is not worth anything.

This post is worth nothing. Before the web, nobody was going to pay anything to read something like this. At best, I could write it and send it to a newspaper as an opinion piece, and maybe theyā€™d be interested in publishing it. But for some reason, the web has morphed our perception of content to the point where everything needs to generate money because everything is considered valuable.

Sorry, I can't just read, "This post is worth nothing," in a blog post and not refute it.

Yes, the web has morphed our perception, but I disagree that, "everything needs to generate money because everything is considered valuable." The web hasn't made everyone consider everything valuable, it's pushed people to monetize. The pressure isn't to create valuable content, it's to create content that sells. Many things that sell have little or no value. Many things with immense value are things you can't put a price tag on (although some people will try).

Manuel's post has value. I value reading other people's viewpoints. I value people taking the time to articulate and share their thoughts. I value the exchange of ideas and the opportunity to learn something new. And I am not alone.

Yes, most people won't pay for a blog post like the one Manuel wrote, but I'll bet there are a handful of people who would (the main problems there are awareness and payment infrastructure, but those are rabbit holes for another day). People not paying doesn't mean something is worthless. In fact, what makes many blog posts worthwhile is the fact that they're free in almost every sense of the word: free to read, free to share, and (practically) free to write. Manuel acknowledges the near-zero cost to run a blog, but, again, that doesn't make the posts on a given blog worthless.

In the same post, Manuel opens with this:

In the spirit of the open web, Iā€™m writing this post to disagree with something someone else has posted on their own site. Specifically, a post titled ā€œAd Blockers helped kill the open webā€ by Christian Heilmann.

Even now, 37 years after it was created, I'm still in awe of the power of the web. Christian wrote a thing and shared it with the world. Manuel read that, wrote about it, and shared it with the world. I read that, wrote this, and now you're reading it. You're thinking about what they wrote and what I'm writing.

Who knows what might happen next? Maybe you'll write your own post. Maybe you'll share this post or one of the posts linked above with someone. Maybe you'll subscribe to one of our feeds. Maybe you'll learn a new word or a new way to use some punctuation. Maybe you'll view source and learn something new about CSS. Maybe you'll start your own blog.

The possibilities, both in number and in potential value, are endless. The connections between everyone involved are precious. Our ability to learn from each other without ever meeting is sublime. The fact that I have access, via the web, to Manuel and Christian and the thousands of others who's words I've read, voices I've heard, and videos I've watched is a gift so astonishing and profound I don't know that words alone can convey how powerful it is or how deeply I feel about it.

But I do have the words to articulate one important thing very clearly:

Manuel, your post is worth something. A whole lot, in fact. Thank you for writing it and sharing it.