Duel of the Defaults

Every so often, the internet (as in a community of folks within) surprises you and does something genuinely lovely and wholesome. Combine that with a podcast and blogging, and you have the trifecta of hope. This, of course, sounds significantly over the top, but if you have spent any time online, you likely know just how horrible it can be out there online.

This brings us to October 26, 2023. Martin, Andrew, and I were recording another episode of our fun little podcast, Hemispheric Views. This was episode 097, so we were in the groove regarding how this whole podcasting thing works. At least as far as it relates to what we all like about it and wish to get out of it. The format of this episode was going to be a little different than usual in that it would be a (hopefully) fun game show inspired episode with Martin and Myself going head-to-head competing for the title of "Mr. Default." This meant several rounds of app categories, and both of us were scored based on the application/service we used in that category. The lowest points wins. A real nail-biter, as you can imagine! We finished recording, Andrew edited it, and it was set to release. Business as usual.

What happened next was not standard issue Hemispheric Views. We slowly began to see people in the Hemispheric Views community create blog posts listing their default apps. This first spread slowly, then quickly to people who had never heard of the podcast but wanted to blog about their defaults as a movement (I used that term VERY loosely) to join in on. Once a collection was going, our friend Robb jumped in to create a page to track all the blogs joining in on the fun. This page evolved quickly into a fantastic work of art that followed all the blogs, exposed RSS feeds for said blogs, and even allowed you to one-click subscribe to all the RSS feeds! As of this blog post, it's up to 110! Absolutely unexpected and incredible.

We didn't change blogging, the internet, or the world. But it sure made for an excellent side quest from this thing we call life.

Although my list is, of course, in episode 097, it has changed a little bit, and it's only fitting to blog about it as well, so here we go!

📨 Mail Client: Mail.app
📮 Mail Server: iCloud Plus.app
📝 Notes: Notes.app
✅ To-Do: Reminders.app
📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app
🟦 Photo Management: Photos.app
📆 Calendar Fantastical.app
📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive.app
📖 RSS: Reeder.app
🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts: Contacts.app
🌐 Browser: Safari.app
💬 Chat: Messages.app
🔖 Bookmarks: Raindrop.app
📑 Read It Later: Readwise Reader.app
📜 Word Processing: Pages.app
📈 Spreadsheets: Numbers.app
📊 Presentations: Keynote.app
🛒 Shopping Lists: Anylist.app
🍴 Meal Planning: Fantastical.app
💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Mint.app
📰 News: Apple News Today.app
🎵 Music: Music.app
🎙️ Podcasts: Podcasts.app
🔐 Password Management: 1Password.app