iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 18h

She doesn't agree with the change to her feeding schedule.

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Reposted by John Balestrieri

Charlie Chapman @charliemchapman.com · 29/09/2026

This is extremely beta, you've been warned 😄 But definitely give me feedback! testflight.apple.com/join/1yvqnauG

testflight.apple.com

Join the Trimothy beta

Available on iOS

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Nothing projects self-confidence more than giving yourself a haircut.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Touch sparkles are faster now; pure CoreAnimation/CAShapeLayer. Finger touches are circles; Pencil touches are sparkles. Finger or pencil drags show motion. (Selectively—I turned it off for canvas drawing. Double-taps get extra oomf.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

We've inherited mass-quantities of kitten postcards, including stacks of multiples.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you've seen one fractal, you've seen them all.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Much better: Sparkles on Touches Began only.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Oh! Where do the treats come out?

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Sparkle Touch™ animations for screen recordings. Works across the whole app UI. I'm not sure I need the Touch Up animation after dragging. Maybe only after long drags.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Worked on my resize and rotation widget. The center anchor is movable. Tap the rotation widget's handle to switch to a mode that lets you set the anchor point, then tap back and drag/rotate. Snapping is shown in pink.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Look, it's late. We're both a little testy.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

iOS 27 with Accessibility's "Reduce Transparency" Off vs. On.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

They stopped making petards after everyone made fun of people being hoisted by their own petards. They now manufacture and sell chainsaws.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A world of difference between "dialing it in" and "phoning it in." 🤔

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I agreed to a price for cutting some fallen limbs before checking the prices for electric chainsaws. 💸

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

More UI and function changes to collections.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

By the time fall rolls around every year, I've forgotten how to make hot coffee, oatmeal, etc.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Library work mostly done. Albums for grouped work. Stacks for related loose stuff. Hide clutter stuff you don't want to delete. You can still access the iCloud file browser if that's how you choose to work.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Libraries with loose pages, albums, and stacks of pages. I abstracted the Serialbox iCloud sync to its own framework.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Every year, I double up on vaccine shots, forgetting that it will feel like a steamroller has run over me.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New Hell unlocked: The eBay app opened into a full-screen, live-streamed Pokémon auction.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My desk: Cup for lens cloth: white ceramic Coffee cup: also white ceramic

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

No tracing this time. The "expressive" qualities of the line are calculated from key-line drawing points/lengths/angles. The stroke width is the only other user control. In theory, I'll be able to make pencil strokes that convincingly fade and change shape.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It works! Life drawing. It wasn't frustrating at all. Because I can edit the lines, I kept reshaping until it looked right.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Paths can have lines that over/undershoot, and they can curve. Layers can have a paper texture that is independent of the stroke's texture.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Yikes, the first/last time I had the natural media strokes running was in 2021. Let's see if I can get this running again…

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Looks fantastic on a 13" screen. Still working on the UI. The center of the toolbar has view toggles (key-line, background "ghost" mode, etc.), and the pill below the toolbar shows actions for the current selection. You can long-press objects for actions, like inserting points on a path.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I wish I could find a "Smart Cover" for iPad that had two camera openings, so you could rotate the iPad and use the magnetic pencil dock in drawing mode. (As shown) In standard cases, the pencil docks on the other (downward) side.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Got the 13" iPad Pro with trade-in credit from my iPad mini and iPad Pro 11" and Apple financing. The trade-in value for the iPad Pro increased by $5 since the last time I checked, two weeks ago.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I received my first payment from the Google Play Store, and I think it exactly covers the cost of my two Android phones and the annual Google Play distribution fee.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I subscribed to Shareshot for macOS but needed to use it on the iPhone. I was pleased to learn that my subscription carried over!

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Reposted by John Balestrieri

Aniline Applications @anilineapps.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Indigo 1.3.2 is available now! It's got two great new features and a bunch of improvements and bug fixes Magic Hashtags let you pair hashtags across services, just like Magic Mentions Compact Link Previews are… smaller than the big link previews, I think that's self explanatory.

A marketing image for Indigo showing Magic Hashtags in the compose view

A marketing image for Indigo showing a compact link preview in the timeline

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I think my Claude dictation is driving the dog crazy. She moved to the sofa across the room, and every once in a while, she groans.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Joanna Stern says the Duo is about the size of a Pop-Tart, so I've been practicing all week.

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Reposted by John Balestrieri

Jason Heeley @jaseheeley.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I do pine for a world in which beautiful, human-made illustration is once again the commercial equal of photography. Daft of me, I know.

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Reposted by John Balestrieri

Nick Coupland @nickcouplandart.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The joy of Brutalist patterns.

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Reposted by John Balestrieri

Froyo☆Tam @froyotam.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

RCA COSMAC Game Manual II RCA VP-720 (1980) Cover illustration of the second COSMAC VIP game and program manual. Games were typed in through the VIP’s hex keypad, or saved and loaded through cassette tape. Printed August 1980

RCA COSMAC Game Manual II
RCA VP-720 (1980)

Cover illustration. Depicts a collage of games, hand-drawn by an uncredited illustrator.

Printed August 1980

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Stroke styles have UI. There will be three classes of strokes: - Plain (generic postscript) - Expressive (variable width & dynamics) - Natural (texture mapped and more dynamics: pencil, paint, etc.) Only Plain and Expressive strokes are in.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I plan to add the iCloud sync stuff I put into Serialbox, but I've also added versioning because iOS auto-saves documents. Apple's productivity apps save the undo stack on save, so auto-save isn't a big deal for them. It's bad not to have at least one safety net.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Mayday on Apple TV was very good.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I still have a few brain cells that start typing "TWI…" whenever I open a new browser window.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Studio Eight was an 8-bit paint program for the first color Macs. It feels like the professional successor to Paintwork Plus and Paintworks Gold for the Apple ][GS. I don't think it had many users. The packaging and hardcover manual were deluxe.

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I punctured a can of spray paint and then cracked a bottle of Goo Gone trying to open it, BUT my window shade brackets now have 60 coats of white paint.

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