- Dark Noise ($19.99) Infrequently used but absolute clutch when I need it. I often need to drown out distractions in my office or when traveling. Dark Noise lets me create different colored and ambient noises. When I need to concentrate and background music won’t cut it, I use this.
- Darkroom ($19.99) I got this in July before I went on holiday to Yosemite. Since then I forget that I have it and post photos without processing them. If I keep using it, I’ll renew. But if the next six months is like the last, I’ll likely let it go in July.
- DEVONthink To Go ($19.99) Work tool. Essential for accessing my DEVONthink databases on my iPad.
- Drafts ($19.99) I love this app. And if I had to keep only one non-native app on my iPhone, it would be this even over other very powerful apps like 1Password and OmniFocus.
- Macrofactor ($71.99) Nutrition tracking. It’s very good. I don’t know if I’ll renew it but as of right now, I’m 50/50
- MindNode ($19.99) Mind mapping, likely expiring it.
- Scanner Pro ($19.99) Great little tool. Could be cheaper but it is too valuable not to keep going.
- Timery ($9.99) Presets and stuff or Toggl, and while I don’t use all the features I will keep it up for a bit.
- Hulu & Disney Plus ($48)
- Prime Video ($0.00)
- 1Password ($32.25) This is the end of my discount and next October it goes up to ~$60. But I now manage passwords for my wife and mom (who lives out of state). This is essential.
- The Athletic ($12) It’s worth it at full price, but I snagged the Black Friday sale.
- Fastmail $50
- Apple iCloud (128.40)
- Micro Blog ($60)
- YNAB ($100) Budget and expensive tracking. The least sexy but perhaps most important on this list because it compels me to consider all these (and all the ones I pass on each year).
- MLB Live. I usually wait until mid-summer and then grab a sale. So it isn’t a subscription, strictly speaking.
- Overcast Since I paid for it prior to ::checks notes:: 2015, I’m grandfathered in such that I don’t get ads but don’t have to pay the $9.99/yr. I’ve tried a lot of other podcast apps, but next year it’ll be ten years with this app. It’s not going anywhere.
- Tunnel Bear VPN I don’t remember when I did, but some time ago I paid for several years at once. I’m not sure they’re the best VPN service, but they’re good enough for my needs and I don’t need to think about it until my multi-year service is up.
- Apps that I’ve moved over to work and now have my work paying for them. These include Readwise, Backblaze, Fantastical, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Apps that are subscriptions now, or primarily, but which I just buy outright, like iA Writer and MarsEdit 5 (haven’t bought yet, but will soon). I have no problem with subscriptions (see above). But I like buying apps outright to keep me from subscription creep.
- @maique Subscriptions
- @podique 2022: my subscriptions
- @gabz Subs game
- Fantastical runs as a widget so I can see the days events. I use Busycal on my Mac, like a barbarian. Don’t @ me.
- Tunnelbear is my VPN. I got a discount on a multi-year plan a while ago and so I’m sticking with it until it expires—and then, who knows. I’ll stay or switch depending on what the market looks like when that happens. But if you’re not using a VPN on public wifi, you should really start.
- Authy manages all my 2-factor identification with the exception of my university which uses Duo. Thus far, I have not found a way to get my university’s 2FA to run inside Authy. But I keep looking.
- Vox will play FLAC files on your iPhone. When reviewing my 2021 practices, I was disappointed that I didn’t listen to as much music as I used to. So I unsubscribed from all but three podcasts, moved Overcast to the app library and recommitted. I can talk audiophile gear all day, but suffice it to say, this is overkill for the casual listener.
- Glass is here because once I decided to delete Instagram, I wanted to commit to this before I decided if I want to keep it or not. I’m unsure if this will last for the year.
- Gluon is a wonderful Microblog client and I love it.
- Metatext runs Mastodon. Mastodon is weird, and I think I should quit it. But I’m sticking it out, for now, until I decide if it is worth it.
- Lichess is a free chess club. I’m not very good, but I still love to play. Chess is honestly the only digital gaming I do.
- Literal is another service that I’m unsure about. I like it’s layout better than Goodreads, but at times I wish it was more like Goodreads. Like Mastodon and Glass, I can’t form a bigger opinion until I give it more time.
- Disney+ – Nope. I don’t have a Netflix.
- Fastmail – I’m a convert. It’s great.
- Hover – best domain name service I’ve used.
- Wall Street Journal – free from my university
- New York Times – also free from my university
FYI you don’t need a separate cross-posting service. Instead, cross-post to Bluesky, Mastodon, etc., using MicroBlog.
Subscriptions, end-of-year 2023
TLDR; $632.57 per annum: could be better, could be a lot worse.
I was waiting until New Year’s, but Pratik, {maique}, and Robb among overs have already posted theirs. I never got around to posting new year lists like this in January, and so the last one I did was January 2022.
Apps
All prices annual. $201.92 total.
Media and services
Ok, this is a weird category. It is the area my wife and I have cut the most, letting Paramount+ and other services go. We have Prime Video because we pay for Prime shipping, and after Disney raised its annual rate by nearly double, we let it go only to get a Black Friday Sale of Hulu for a buck per month, and Disney for $2/mo extra
All prices annual. $430.65 total.
Not listed
Expected additions
I’ve been off Qobuz for over a year. Of all the music streaming services, this is the one I love the most. We might have more streaming services for the kids now that the big two are older and want more than just children’s movies. College Football has a lot of changes next year, including the realignment and 12-team playoff. I fully expect that I might need to opt back into Peacock, Paramount, Fox or something to catch more games. I also need to consider a photo service. I love Flickr, but never went pro. I killed Instragram almost two years go; then I tried Glass but it’s more for pros (I think). Nothing has stuck, yet, and until I have time to really think through my online photo presence, I’m ok with Micro Blog being the one-stop shop for my habits.
It took way too long to reconcile my budget for the end-of-month. The wife and kids will still have food on the table next week. I guess that’s a win.
🗞 Your Attention Didn’t Collapse, It Was Stolen
Brutal. See also, Deep Work
Home screen & subscriptions in 2022
I meant to post this on the first, but then forgot. Thankfully, other microbloggers posted their iterations of this genre.
Here’s my iPhone setup.
I only have one home screen. Merlin Mann convinced me on a podcast years ago to keep at least on row empty. I think he was talking about committments, but he said something to the effect that if we’re always operating at 80 or 90 percent, we won’t have anything left when the opportunity of a lifetime arrives. When Apple made it possible to keep the bottom row empty, I did it immediately. I suppose you could call it minimalism, but I learned the lesson elsewhere, from stoicism. (That’s what I get for double majoring in Ancient Greek and Latin. )
In the dock is Drafts, YNAB, Omifocus, and Scanner Pro, These are the critical and crucial for my day-to-day. Nearly everything I write starts in Drafts. I send links there from Twitter or the web and tag them with what I want to do with them (email, Omnifocus, Microblog); I, er, draft, emails, manuscripts, and reading notes before processing them periodically through the week. YNAB is a budget and expense tracker that my wife and I use; while I’m aware of the kerfluffle over the price increase, I’m not bothered by it because there’s nothing else comparable right now. I’ve been an Omnifocus user for a very long time; you couldn’t pay me to leave them. I’m sure I could find a better app than Scanner Pro, but it’s very useful when I work on a white board while teaching or in my office and need a PDF of it before I erase. I occasionally scan other documents, but most of the tme it’s just this uni-purpose and good enough that I want fast access.
My iPad home screen is a hot mess.
A lot of similar items like Drats and Omnifocus. I have two text editors worth noting, Editorial and iA Writer. Both are good when I need something different than Drafts. iA is great for prose and has more or less replaced Editorial. YMMV. I need to consolidate the various files from both and make space for a dedicated code editor like Textastic so that I can work on R scripts when I’m away from my laptop but still want to get some writing done.
Here, it’s all in the dock and the widgets are helpful. But note that I have two calendar widgets. It’s just an experiment to see which format makes the most sense for my uses. I expect my iPad setup to look a lot different at the end of the year.
What else am I subscribed to?