Today I joined Georgia Dow, Guy English, and Rene Ritchie on this week’s Vector (Overcast link).

This week we talked a lot about Apple TV gaming, improving the App Store, more kvetching about 16 GB iPhones, as well as some of the general goings-on from Apple’s special event last week.

iOS 9 was released a couple days ago, and it has many unsung heroes. My favorite of these is “Wi-Fi Assist”.

Several versions of iOS ago — specifically in a iOS 6 beta, the option for “Wi-Fi Plus Cellular” was briefly trialed. It disappeared by the time iOS 6 came out, and was conspicuously absent from iOS 7 and iOS 8.

In iOS 9, “Wi-Fi Plus Cellular” rose from the ashes, as “Wi-Fi Assist”.

Wi-Fi Assist allows for your phone to more aggressively fall back to using its onboard cellular connection in case the Wi-Fi it is connected to doesn’t respond in a timely fashion. While dangerous for some with small data plans, for those with some breathing room, this is a fantastic addition.

To disable it (it’s on by default), go to Settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Assist. It’s way at the bottom of the Cellular settings screen, almost hiding. Unfortunately, this setting doesn’t appear in the new-for-iOS-9 search within the Settings app.

As someone with a grandfathered unlimited data plan, I find Wi-Fi Assist hugely useful. I noticed its utility the first day I had iOS 9 installed.

Every day, when I leave work, I send my wife a text with my ETA. I do so using the wonderful Workflow app. However, I do so as I’m walking downstairs from my third floor office. During that walk, my phone hasn’t yet realized that it can’t reach my office’s Wi-Fi anymore. In iOS 8, I would have to use Control Center to toggle Wi-Fi off in order for Workflow to get a response from Apple Maps with the driving time to home.

Now, with iOS 9 and Wi-Fi Assist, my phone is able to figure things out all on its own.

A small win, for sure, but a welcome one.

My buddy Marco has released a content blocker extension for iOS 9. It’s called Peace (iTunes link), and it’s $3. Peace does what it says on the tin — it brings peace to your browsing experience.

As has been discussed a lot lately, scummy advertising is overruning the modern web. It is making pages load slower, using our batteries to process scripts we shouldn’t need to process, and costing us money by forcing us to download things we don’t need to.

A couple months ago, I started using Ghostery on my Mac to cut down on all of that cruft. Today, with iOS 9 and Marco’s Peace app, I can do it on my iOS devices as well. I mean that in every way — Peace actually uses Ghostery’s database of things to block.

There are plenty of content blockers out there, and Peace may not be the right one for you. But I’ve been testing it for a couple weeks now, and I quite like it.

If you’d like to read more about the motivations and background of Peace, check out Marco’s post. Or just save yourself the time and go buy it. It won’t take long before you find yourself at peace.

Way back during the Hypercritical days, my ATP co-host John Siracusa got to talking about, of all things, toaster ovens.

The toaster oven discussion started back in 2011 with a brief teaser in Hypercitical #12 (Overcast link). John says:

I need to put that on the topic list — why I hate all toasters.

A few episodes later, in Hypercritical #18, John lamented the state of toaster ovens of the day. This continued through the next two episodes.

John, being silly, dropped an implicit challenge during that episode (Overcast link):

If I come out of this podcast with a better toaster, I will consider it a rousing success.

An Aside

Back in 2011, I was an iPhone 3GS user, and aspiring iOS app developer. I decided to go to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference for the first time. I only knew a couple of people, one was my good friend Marco. One day, Marco wanted to meet up with a friend for lunch and leave the conference, rather than eat in Moscone.

It ended up I knew who his friend was: it was Merlin Mann. Merlin had a tagalong as well; turns out™ this tagalong was also from Richmond, and Eric is now a great friend of mine.

The Purchase

The four of us went to lunch at the food court at the Westfield Mall right around the corner from the Moscone Center. (Protip: listen to Merlin when he suggests food in San Francisco, even in a mall. Buckhorn’s tri-tip was as delicious as he promised it would be.) During the lunch, Marco, Merlin, Eric, and myself discussed our love for John Siracusa. The next thing I knew, the four of us were in Nordstrom. Marco and Merlin found the toaster that John had his eye on, and purchased it.

The four of us marched back to Moscone, and Marco insisted John leave the session he was in to meet us in the lobby. There, Merlin and Marco presented John with his new toy. (Merlin, ever the gentleman, took the toaster back to Nordstrom to be shipped to John’s home.)

The Idea

Fast forward four years. John, Marco, and myself are now hosting ATP. When Cards Against Humanity decided to sponsor our show, they decided as usual to eschew a normal ad read. Instead, they had a brilliant idea: CAH would send John a toaster to review.

We’ve been asked more than once to have a compendium of all of these reviews. This is it.

The CAH campaign is going to last through the year; I’ll update this post as the remaining episodes are released.

My thanks to Cards Against Humanity for not only buying the ad spots, but also for coming up with such a clever idea, and letting us run with it.

The Episodes

UPDATED 23 September 2015 4:15 PM: Cards Against Humanity has taken it upon themselves to cut the relevant snippets from all of these episodes. They can be found on the Cards Against Humanity site.

UPDATED 13 November 2015 2:15 PM: As pointed out by Ry Amidon, and brought to my attention by John, the discussion started in Hypercritical 12. The above has been updated to reflect this.

UPDATED 11 May 2020 9:45 AM: Thanks to Fredrik Mellström, I realized I missed John’s rules/criteria for toasters, which is in the ATP #103 after-show. It has been added as a second timestamp link in the table.

UPDATED 29 July 2020 10:15 AM: I was reminded by Ben Higgins that I never added the WWDC 2019 toaster.

UPDATED 1 September 2020 9:30AM: Some slight copy changes.

UPDATED 7 December 2021 10:45AM: Removed the now-missing Cards Against Humanity link.

From this month’s Roundel, the BMW Car Club of America monthly periodical:

I’ve spoken previously about my undying love of manual transmissions. I’ve owned four cars (it’s not about color), and every one of them had a manual transmission.

I know that the manual is not long for this world, but that doesn’t mean I’ve accepted it.

I’m an extremely lucky man. I have a wife I love dearly, and loves me back. I have finally been blessed with a beautiful baby boy, who is adorable even in his worst moments.

I have a good job where I sit in a climate-controlled office and work with exceptionally smart and nice people. I have two podcasts, both of which are co-hosted by dear friends of mine, that are at least slightly successful. Furthermore, they are able to provide a not-inconsequential side income for a family that just lost one.

With the good, however, comes the bad.

A few weeks ago, we received this e-mail via ATP’s then-anonymous feedback form, which I’ve lightly censored:

Listening to Marco and Casey droll on and on about their sh**** defective kids is the worst thing to have happen to you on a long commute where you can’t play with your phone to change the track. Worst 30 minutes of my life.

Nobody cares about your stupid kids. Not even thanks to the fact that Casey has defective reproductive issues and had to bother all of us for years with his sob stories about getting pregnant. No one cares.

Shortly after receiving this e-mail, we removed the feedback form. A week or two ago, we brought back the feedback, this time, simply offering an e-mail address instead. We naïvely thought that would discourage drive-bys.

This morning, I woke up to the following. I should note this was spoofed in such a way that it was sent from “Marco Arment”:

Listening to Casey Liss talk about his sh**** backpack review is the worst thing I’ve ever heard.

Every time I think that Casey has reached the ultimate peak of lameness and stupidity, he tops himself.

I love your show because I laugh my a** off for two hours at how stupid and lame Casey is and how arrogant and smug Siracusa is.

John, Casey and Marco: you can all eat a huge f****** d***!

F*** off d******s.

Unfortunate, and hurtful, but it was not alone. Also this morning, we received this, via an e-mail anonymizer; I’ve left the spelling issues alone:

Casey Liss’s aversion to desktop computers and the need to whine and complain about his first world problems how he doesnt want an expensive iMac cause he doesn’t like “big computers” he only like laptos…

That is reason # 1254 that Casey Liss is a f****** idiot.

Also, the fact that Casey Liss does personal stuff on his work computer is

REASON # 2498 that CASEY LISS IS A F****** IDIOT!

I’m not sure what we’re going to do about the ATP feedback form. On one side, we do not owe it to anyone to expose ourselves to this kind of vitriol. On the other hand, we (generally) have an amazing group of listeners, who typically provide some of the most thoughtful and helpful feedback I’ve ever encountered. Why let three bad apples ruin it for everyone?

In the end of the day, I suppose this is just the “cost of doing business”.

But why?

It’s old news that people are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. It’s old news that this is how the internet works. It doesn’t have to be that way though. We’re better than this.

A year ago — hell, even a month or two ago — these emails would have really ruined my day, if not my whole week. Today? I’m writing this post, and then moving on with my day, saying extra thanks to all of those wonderful people in my life. That includes you, a reader of my site. At this point, I’ve become numb to these sorts of attacks.

That, if I’m honest, is the truly disappointing realization.

Today I joined Serenity Caldwell, Allison Sheridan, and Jason Snell on this week’s Clockwise. As always, four tech topics, but only 30 minutes.

This week we discussed choosing only one Apple device, AppleCare, travel apps and devices, as well as the possibly-ending One to One program.

The whole episode is great, but I particularly enjoyed the travel-related tips; I’ve added a few new tools to my arsenal.

I made a joke a while back, but as with all jokes, it’s funny because it’s true:

Interestingly, I never have to yell at @erinliss for buying yet another purse, but I (justifiably) get scolded for yet another laptop bag.

— Casey Liss (@caseyliss) July 16, 2015

Unsurprisingly, I just bought a new laptop bag: the Tom Bihn Cadet.

History

I’ve been through several bags over the years. My most recent daily use bag was the InCase Nylon Sling Sleeve. Though I’d classify it as a bag, it’s so slim that InCase called and treated it as a sleeve.

I loved that bag, because it was extremely light, and didn’t carry much. I consider that an advantage, as it forced me to travel light.

Regardless, after two or three years, it was starting to fall apart, and it was time to upgrade to something built better and a little larger.

Casey, Meet Tom

I can’t remember how I stumbled on Tom Bihn bags, but my first was a year or two ago, when I got a Co-Pilot. I love my Co-Pilot, and it’s my go-to murse satchel bag when traveling with only my iPad Mini. I recently took it on a trip to Florida for a week, and it was perfect. Plenty of space for my iPad, Go Pack, and other miscellany.

Speaking of my Go Pack, that pack is itself a Tom Bihn Organizer Pouch.

Last year, for Christmas, Erin gave me a Parental Unit. It has become our go-to diaper bag. Though a touch small for my taste, it’s built exceptionally well, and we really love it. You can read more about it in our baby stuff review.

Enlisting the Cadet

Much like my videos, I prefer my bags in landscape. Thus, I love messenger bags. Messenger bags aren’t for everyone, but outside of WWDC, I never typically carry a bag more than a few minutes at a time. That, and I try to travel as light as possible, so back pain is never an issue. (For WWDC, I rock a super-lightweight Targus backpack.)

When my InCase Sleeve finally gave up the ghost, I knew I was going to get a Tom Bihn bag. I knew I wanted a messenger bag, despite having heard great things about the Ristretto through the grapevine. I considered a Pilot to match my Co-Pilot, but it won’t hold a 15" laptop. After looking at a few other options, I felt like the Cadet would fit my needs the best.

The Cadet has a number of zippered pockets on the exerior; I’ll refer to them as:

• Front mini-pocket
• Front pocket
• Main pocket
• Back pocket

The mini-pocket is, well, mini. It’s not too much bigger than a few USB keys. The front pocket is for cables, a power supply, and other miscellaneous items. The main pocket is for the laptop, and the back pocket is for papers or magazines.

A nice touch, shared with my Co-Pilot, is that the back pocket has a zipper on the very bottom of it. This seems a curious choice, at first, but it allows the bag to be looped over the extended handle of a rollerboard suitcase.

Cachet

If the Cadet has an Achilles’ Heel, it’s the Cache. The premise is solid, but the execution is dubious.

The Cadet doesn’t have a padded, laptop-specific section, like most laptop bags do. Instead, it has a very clever system to make it checkpoint-friendly. At the top of the main pocket of the Cadet are two Gatekeeper Rail clips, which are clips on either side of ~1" straps. This seems… peculiar… at first.

Included with the Cadet is your choice of Cache; the Cache is a foam laptop (or iPad) sleeve that has two “rails” of nylon webbing on the back of it. By connecting these rails to the 1" straps with a second set of Gatekeepers, you end up with a sleeve that is secured to the inside of the Cadet, but can be pulled completely out of it. Thanks to the Cache being able to pull completely out of the Cadet, the Cadet is considered checkpoint-friendly.

My issue isn’t with the rails. It’s an ingenious system to allow for the cache to quickly and easily be slid in and out of the Cadet. The problem I have is with the Cache.

My brand-new 15" MacBook Pro is a very tight fit in the Cache. At first, that struck me as an advantage, since the fit will keep the laptop from jostling. However, it’s tight enough that it’s somewhat difficult to get the laptop out of the Cache. This is compounded by having no leverage when lifting the computer, since, by design, the Cache wants to slide out of the Cadet.

A minor issue, in the grand scheme of things, but a regular annoyance nevertheless. I’d much prefer it if the cache had another mount point for a Double Gatekeeper at the bottom. Most of the time, I’d keep the Cache mounted to the bottom of the Cadet. When traveling, I’d allow the rails to do their job.

Capacity

I try to travel as lightly as possible, but I also like to be prepared. Thus, I do keep a number of things in my bag.

In the main area of the Cadet, and shown at the top, are my iPad Mini, my MacBook Pro, and the Cache.

Below that, stored in the front pouch, is my Magic Mouse, a small bottle of hand moisturizer, extra batteries for my mouse, my MagSafe 2 Power Adadpter. Additionally, I keep a Tom Bihn Organizer Pouch (not included with the Cadet) holding a HDMI cable, iPhone charger, and Mini-USB charger. Finally, a spare pen, nail file, and my bluetooth headphones.

Finally, in the grey box, are the items that go in the front mini-pocket: some USB keys and breath strips.

In general, I love how much the bag stores, and the pockets that have been provided. It’s also super-useful to have rings at the top of the front pocket that allow me to clip a Key Strap or the organizer pouch to. I have my ID attached to the key strap, but that isn’t pictured.

Though Tom Bihn sells a specialized pouch for the Magic Mouse, one of the pockets within the front pocket is perfect for it.

The pen, batteries, and file go in the pen holders. The lotion goes into one of the larger pockets. My headphones and the power supply hang out in the bottom of the front pocket.

The main pocket is plenty big, and opens wide. The back pocket is large enough to hold a standard 8½" x 11" sheet of paper without it peeking out over the top of the pocket.

I have mixed feelings about the front mini-pocket. On the one side, it’s really shallow, and I don’t see any obvious reason why it couldn’t be deeper. On the other side, I can see a reason why it shouldn’t be deeper: I suspect items may get lost in there. All told, I think I’d like just a smidge more depth.

The front mini-pocket does do a great job for holding USB keys and my beloved breath strips just the way it is.

Having used the Cadet for a couple weeks now, I’ve definitely fallen in love with it. I don’t suspect that I’ll be seeking a new laptop bag anytime soon; in fact, I doubt I’ll even have a wandering eye.

It was a lot of money. Tom Bihn bags do not come cheap. However, you do get what you pay for, and the bags are very well constructed. Furthermore, a lot of thought goes into the way the bags are laid out. Everything in its right place, I never find myself hunting for anything.

In both my old InCase bag, and my Targus backpack, the pockets ended up being wastelands where my belongings went to get lost. Every time I reached in, I half expected to find missing socks in there. In the Tom Bihn, I always know exactly where to reach.

Aside from price, there is one other penalty for this sturdy construction and thoughtful layout: weight. My InCase bag was effectively negligible. The Cadet weighs just over 2 pounds, but that is still very light.

If you do what I did, and spring for the Absolute Shoulder Strap, you’ll be thankful. The portion of the strap that is on your shoulder is made with neoprene. That seems to be another odd choice, but ends up being a brilliant idea, as it’s quite a bit cushier than you’d expect. Additionally, it’s anti-slip, which instills more confidence.

The Tom Bihn Cadet is spendy, but so very worth it.

“I think I’m good for, I dunno, maybe 12 episodes?”

I’m discussing what would come to be Analog(ue) with Myke. We haven’t started the show yet, and I’m more than a little skeptical it will have the legs to last longer than a miniseries.

“Casey, I won’t expect more than 12, but let’s just see where this takes us before we put any limits on it.”

This is why Myke is a co-founder and I’m just a host.

This week — this past Sunday — we released episode 53. Clearly, as much as it pains me to admit this, #mykewasright.

For a weekly show which started with episode 1, by getting to episode 53, that means we’ve made it a year.

Today is the one year anniversary of Relay FM, and of Analog(ue).

As we spoke about on this week’s show, a lot has changed for Relay in only a year. There are many more hosts than a year ago as well as more shows than a year ago. Furthermore, there is actually gender and greater topic diversity now, with more diversity improvements coming.

Last year, I was deeply honored to be invited to be part of the launch shows on Relay. This year, I’m deeply honored to be a part of a network that not only airs some of the best spoken word programming on the internet, but also cares so deeply about being more inclusive.

Also different this year is the way Myke and Stephen spend their time. Myke has been 100% dedicated to Relay for months now. Stephen has just left his day job, and is now splitting his time between Relay and other endeavors.

If the network Myke and Stephen created isn’t impressive, the business they created should certainly be.

Not to let a milestone be an excuse to rest on their laurels, Stephen and Myke have some new goodies for us. Yesterday, two new shows were announced:

• Liftoff, with Stephen and Jason Snell, discussing all things space.
• Top Four, with new Relay hosts Marco and Tiff Arment, ranking their top four entries in various categories.

With Marco joining Relay, and the recent debut of the wonderful Reconcilable Differences with John Siracusa, now all three hosts of the Accidental Tech Podcast have a home on Relay. If ATP didn’t pre-date Relay, it’s quite likely ATP would be a Relay show as well.

I’m so proud of Myke, of Stephen, and of us.

I’m excited for year two.

My buddy Jonathan Mann, of Song a Day fame, occasionally releases more reflective and introspective videos. One great one was The Story of GameJew, wherein Jonathan chronicles, well, how he came to be him.

Yesterday Jonathan released another of these videos, entitled Marriage & Feminism. This one hit home for me, and did so quickly. Jonathan’s son, Jupiter, is six months older than Declan is, and in many ways I’ve been quietly paying attention to see if there’s any hints to my future that I can glean from his tweets and songs.

The video is an examination of his relationship with his wife Juliana particularly as it relates to parenting. Too much of this reminded me of myself.

Jonathan says:

[Juliana] was physically attached to Jupiter [early in his life] — nursing him constantly — she didn’t have the luxury of choice about her obligations.

…

As we talked about [how we divide the labor], I vowed to step up and be better. 💪🏻 And while I’ve never done that exact same [egregiously selfish] thing again, variations on this issue have come up somewhat regularly ever since.

This sounds all too familiar.

He continues:

[Juliana] being better at [chores & maintaining the household] does not excuse the uneven contribution. I’m a grown-ass man, and I’m fully capable of taking on way more than I do, improving as I go.

Yikes. Looking in the mirror got a little uncomfortable at this point.

While our situations are not the same — Juliana works outside the home while we are lucky enough to be able to have Erin concentrate on parenting full-time — these struggles are exactly what we’ve faced.

In some ways, they’re compounded by Erin always working in the home: “Oh, you didn’t have time to get that laundry done? Okay.” “Huh, these dishes are still here?”

When I’m smart, these thoughts stay in my head. I remember that in every stage of life, caring for a child is a more-than-full-time job. Lately things have gotten even more complicated, as he’s now crawling through a house that we haven’t yet been able to fully babyproof. I remember that on top of taking care of Declan, Erin is also running errands, cleaning up after us (me), cooking dinner for the family, and doing all the things I can’t do because I’m not at home.

Unfortunately, I’m not always smart enough to keep those thoughts to myself.

Jonathan’s video has coalesced a lot of my very disjointed thoughts about my own behavior into one easy to digest video. As a parent, it was really eye opening to watch. If you’re someone that lives with anyone else, you’ll probably learn something about yourself as well.

After you watch the video, if you want to hear more about Jonathan & Juliana’s journey, you can also check out their podcast miniseries.