I’m definitely late to this trend. Whatever.

As of iOS 14’s release last year in 2020, iPhone users are now able to change the app icons on their home screens—sort of.

The reason I say “sort of” is that Apple doesn’t let you do this directly. Instead, using Apple’s Shortcuts app you can add a shortcut bookmark to your home screen that opens a specific app. Then, all you do is change the icon of that bookmark.

If that all sounds too confusing, here’s a detailed guide on exactly how to change the icons of your home screen.

Anyway, I’m…

Currently, Medium has just one app. It’s a fine app—not perfect, but it gets the job done.

However, as the title of this article suggests, I wish there were two apps.

Why?

Why

In one of my first stories on Medium, “Turn Your iPhone into the Light Phone,” I wrote how I dumbed down my smartphone to become more of the tool I want it to be rather than the distraction it was designed to be.

Anyway, I believe that technologies ought to be designed and used as tools for specific purposes (which can include entertainment).

“But Grant,” you might be…

With some exceptions, like “computer” in Star Trek, much of science fiction personifies its digital voice assistants—Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jarvis in Iron Man, Samantha in Her. And there’s a good reason for this. These aren’t just voice assistants—they are characters that conflict, interact, and even fall in love with the protagonists in these films.

For a similar reason, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft have followed these science-fiction A.I. by personifying their voice assistants with human names. In so doing, these products are not just things users command to turn on the lights and play music, but personalities to…

Ads on social media are no fun. Every few swipes down, there’s a curated ad getting in the way of the content you really want to see. But, of course, ads are how social media companies make their money. On most platforms, advertisers bid against each other for prime slots in your feed. So, when you look at a digital ad you are in a sense “paying” for the service on which you see it.

In recent years, however, this ad-based business model has been criticized not just because ads are annoying digital clutter, but as they become more and…

I‘ve been off most social media for a couple years. There’s a number of reasons why I deleted Instagram, Twitter, and the like, but the main reason is I would spend far too much time passively scrolling through my feed and never actively posting any of my own content.

So, I cured this addiction to scrolling by deleting these apps, right?

Well, not exactly.

While I don’t have social media on my phone apart from Pinterest, I often find myself on my laptop scrolling through recommended feeds on YouTube and Netflix for minutes on end, only to give up and…

If you clicked on this article, you’ve probably heard of the “all-in-one-workspace” called Notion. If not, it’s essentially an app that can be utilized to organize the various aspects of one’s life — from note-taking and project management to habit tracking and keeping lists.

I use Notion for a lot of things — like planning and writing my posts for Medium — but my primary use is for college. In this article I’ll run through how I use Notion to keep track of assignments, take notes, and study for exams.

School Homepage

First though, I’ll show my school homepage. Here, I can…

Yes, there’s a problem. No, you don’t need a Light Phone.

How to remain connected yet not always distracted? How to reclaim your time and attention habitually spent scrolling to non-existent ends of social media feeds?

These are the questions that the Light Phone II attempts to answer.

In the wake of The Social Dilemma and increasing awareness of the reality of smartphone addiction, the Light Phone is an appealing option.

That’s because the Light Phone doesn’t have social media. Or access to the internet. Or really much of anything that makes a smartphone “smart.”

And that’s the point. With only an unobtrusive black-and-white E-ink display and few essential features like…

Introduction

Disclaimer: If you’re not much into phones or the Apple v. Google debate, I’d recommend skipping this introduction and picking up in the next section 🙂

In late Spring of this year, Apple and Google were each to release a “budget” smartphone — the iPhone SE (2nd generation) and the Pixel 4a. Both were to be less than $400, relatively affordable in the sea of four-figure flagships.

Despite COVID-19, April saw the release of Apple’s iPhone SE. Google, however, seems to have taken the pandemic harder. …