News+: Stories of Being the Neighborhood Tech Support

In CNET’s latest issue of its magazine, Dan Ackerman shares some stories from his days as the neighborhood tech guy. Warning: This is a PDF magazine, and the story starts on page 42.

It’s a big responsibility being the first responder for domestic technology emergencies, but most of us secretly relish knowing that our friends and neighbors think we’re so smart (especially when we usually just Google the answer, like they should have done in the first place).

This is part of Andrew’s News+ series, where he shares a magazine every Friday to help people discover good content in Apple News+.

These Academic Shortcuts Help You Maximize Your Research

Last night I came across a website called Appademic, which shares academic shortcuts that can help students and researchers. One example is a shortcut that gives you better BibTeX citation keys for Pandoc.

This is the long awaited iOS Shortcut for Zotero to extract Better BibTeX citation keys for Pandoc. I know a fair few people have been waiting on this, apologies it has taken so long to post. If you need more detail, read on, otherwise the shortcut can be downloaded below.

Scriptable Can Make Shortcuts and Siri More Powerful

Scriptable is an automation tool that enables you to write scripts that integrates with native features of iOS such as files, calendars, reminders, documents and much more. An extensive support for Siri Shortcuts enables you to present images, tables and more in Siri as well as making Siri read out loud a text when you run a script from a Siri Shortcut. Your scripts can be run from the Scriptable app, from a Siri Shortcut or from other apps using the share sheet extensive or Scriptable’s URL schemes. Features include writing and running JavaScript; auto complete of variable names, functions, keywords and properties as you type; access lots of native iOS features from your JavaScript code, including managing files, calendars, reminders, contacts, photos, location, pasteboard, web views and more. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)

Maybe PornHub Could Resurrect Dying Tumblr

After banning porn, Tumblr’s users have fled the platform. Now Verizon Media Group is looking to sell it off.

It’s tough to say which media company might be in the market for Tumblr at this point. The once white-hot platform doesn’t hold the same sort of cache it did when it was purchased half a decade ago. Notably, Tumblr also lost its CTO to SeatGeek earlier this week.

I love serendipitous moments in life. For example, last night I read that Verizon wants to sell Tumblr. I immediately thought to myself, “PornHub should definitely buy it.” An hour later, BuzzFeed News wrote that, indeed, PornHub is interested.