Apple today released newly-designed MacBook Pros with brand new M1 "Pro" and "Max" chipsets. For creatives, this changes everything.

No longer held down by Intel, Apple has been allowed to "unleash" it's in-house silicon to heights that it we would never have seen when they were waiting on Intel to catch up. With the introduction of the M1 chip earlier this year, Apple was already well ahead of the entire industry when it came to raw processing and graphics power. Now they're just leaving everyone in the dust.

Apple is not one to over-promise and under-deliver. In fact, most times, they do the opposite. These new computers, on average, are 5-7 times faster than the regular M1. Apple has clearly done a lot of optimization with these chips for limited power consumption and to minimize heat issues. The star of the show might have been the new processors, but it was the MacBook Pros that stole the show.

On the new MacBook Pros, they have new screens with an iPhone-like notch at the top to maximize screen real estate. The new screens also have 120Hz ProMotion, as well as take on the XDR moniker now. The new chassis is like something from 2005, and I love it. I couldn't help but look at the new laptops and think about my first Apple notebook - the iBook G4. When you see it, you'll get what I mean. Gone is the Touch Bar, a less-than-revolutionary tiny touch strip above the keyboard that almost no one used. In it's place is a full size black keyboard, surrounded by black on the case as well. Last but not least, Apple claims to have "advanced connectivity" - which really means they brought back some ports. Full-size HDMI, SD Card slot, as well as three Thunderbolt ports now blanket both sides of the computer. Even the prodigal son, Magsafe, has returned!

There wasn't too much to not like about Apple's event today. We got new AirPods, new colors of HomePod mini, and even a new "voice-only" Apple Music plan (we'll have to see more about that later).

Apple is clearly listening. It's good to see. If you would have told me just two years ago we'd have ports added back to the laptop line, I'd have said you were outside your mind.

Just goes to show that you never say never.

I feel like I've had a lot of people message me or seen a lot of people asking about "Christian" podcasts to listen to. While it's relatively easy to find podcasts about anything you want to listen to, it seems difficult to find good Christian podcasts to listen to. I've assembled a short list of what I'm listening to right now. Maybe you'll find something you like.

Holy Ghost Stories - told by Justin Gerhardt, self-described as "telling Bible stories in all their weird, haunting fantastic-ness." This podcast is frankly amazing. It's more than just dramatic readings of Scripture, it's almost Scripture novelized. This is one of those podcasts you should definitely listen to at least one episode of just to hear it. My bet is that you'll be hooked. > holyghoststories.org

Preachers in Training - with 13 seasons of catalog to listen to, The Light Network's Preachers in Training is one of my favorites. And you don't need to be a preacher to listen, but it's especially helpful for ministers out there. Different guests and different topics every week. > thelightnetwork.tv/tag/preachers

Bible Project Podcast - I've loved nearly everything Tim and Jon at the Bible Project have put out, so it's no surprise I'd love their official podcast. It's a very diverse topical show, featuring series' of study as well as interviews. Highly recommended. > bibleproject.com/podcasts/the-bible-project-podcast/

Bible Study Podcast with Wes McAdams - formerly the CrossTalk podcast, Wes McAdams hosts this show about Biblical topics, usually with a guest on every show. Just like his writing at Radically Christian, Wes offers practical discussion and insights on difficult topics in a loving but bold way. > radicallychristian.com/category/podcast

Thinking in Public with Albert Mohler - I've been a fan of Mohler for a long time, and his podcast is wonderful. He talks mostly about sensitive subjects but from a Christian perspective, with great guests and a humble attitude. > albertmohler.com/category/podcast

I haven't been able to use my iPad Pro 11 (2018) nearly as much as I've wanted these past few months, largely because I'm chewing through a ton of videos and graphics every week during this virus. But last week, I was able to dust off the 'ol iPad and get back to writing. It was a refreshing escape from the endless deluge of videos every week. Could I do videos and graphics on my iPad? Sure. But right now where there are deadlines almost every day, the Mac is more familiar for me and I have established workflows there.

But my iPad has become my writing and research machine, my entertainment device, and my everything else device. It's where I go when I want to check out a website or read an article. It's where I go to watch tutorials on YouTube on how to do something complex in Final Cut Pro.

The apps in the dock are used every day, and most of them at the same time in Split Screen, so we'll focus there, as most other apps are self-explanatory.

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iPad Home Screen, May 2020. Click for larger.

Starting from the dock separator and moving left, I have Drafts. I've recently had a Drafts renaissance - I've replaced several other apps with Drafts and I've found a few new ways to use the app.

Ever since Drafts added Taskpaper support, the ability to handle To-Do lists in plain text on the app has been very valuable. That's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and I love Things, but it lets me customize it exactly how I want my task list to look.

Working left, the next app is Ulysses. This app had a big update last week adding mouse support (Magic Trackpad on the iPad is wonderful, by the way) and also something I've needed - external folder support. They've had it for a long time but it didn't work correctly, but now this has changed the game. Being able to store my Library in Markdown text files in Dropbox but also use Ulysses' great writing environment is wonderful.

I've been using the Brave browser almost exclusively for a month now, and I'm happy with the results. I wish that iOS would enable default browsers, email apps, etc. so I could use it more effectively, but alas, it will have to suffice for now. Brave is good at what it needs to do and the interface doesn't get in the way.

My Bible translation of choice for the last 15 years has been the Engish Standard Version, and I've found that the ESV Bible app is very good. It's pretty vanilla but it accomplishes what you want - looking up and reading Bible passages and then copying them into your lesson. It also supports Split Screen.

Fantastical is the best calendar app in the Apple ecosystem, period. It's got a great design, quick sync, and I'm happy to pay a couple of bucks a month to support great devs like those at Flexibits.

Spark is my email app of choice because, well, there's not anything better in my opinion. And that's a low bar. I'm not blown away with Spark, and I guess I shouldn't be. It's a solid app with less bugs that a year or two ago. It's nicer than the stock email app. It has a good dark mode and now allows (with an update last week) for changing fonts and font sizes.

WeatherUp is my favorite weather app, and it's because it's a radar-first weather app. I like seeing the rain coming, and so WeatherUp does that beautifully. They have a great selection of weather icons and app icons too.

Still on Tweetbot. I've tried using the stock Twitter app several times and have wanted to throw my phone in a lake. Tweetbot is just so simple without all the cruft of the stock Twitter app.

1Password - self-explanatory password manager. The best there is. They've also waived their free trial period for the app during Covid-19. Go get it.

Spotify is now my music service of choice. I rage-quit Music after it failed to play half the songs on my playlists for like the tenth time because I didn't have a perfect connection. That's really the only problem I had with it. It was just very unreliable for me on an LTE connection. Your milage may vary, and Spotify seems a lot better at this. Songs seem to play a lot faster. Spotify also seems like music discovery is easier and that it just "knows" me better. Is that weird?

Overcast - also self-explanatory. If you listen to podcasts at all, go get it.

My last two icons on the far left of my dock are shortcuts - Dictate to Drafts and AirPods Connect. One touch and I'm dictating into Drafts, using my voice to transcribe to text. The AirPods Connect shortcut is extremely handy - one tap and it connects my AirPods without having to fumble around with Settings. This is especially nice if you switch between devices frequently as well.

[Note: if you download either of the linked Shortcuts here, you will need to change a few things to make them work on your devices, namely changing the Airpods name in the Airpods Connect Shortcut.]

I won't talk about any of my apps outside my dock other than Reeder - which is a fantastic RSS client, and Apollo - which is a really great Reddit client. Other than that, I tend to use the Fantastical widget on the left side, alone with the Shortcuts widget to quickly do some tasks with one tap.

I really enjoy the iPad. I would like to be able to use it for professional-level video one day, but I don't see that anytime soon. But as far as everything else, the iPad is more than capable and I'm continuing to learn new ways of using it.

I’ve always been a multiple-browser kind of person. I used to prefer the aesthetic of Google Chrome and its angled tabs and great looking favicons in the browser. I used Firefox for website debugging and testing, but most of the time it supported nearly every standard out there.

But I was never able to really stick with Safari. Safari has always been capable, but I just didn’t prefer the design. Until Safari Technology Preview.

Safari Technology Preview is a long name for the beta version of Safari that I’ve been using exclusively on my new MacBook Pro ever since I got it in late July. I’ve always been at the least a two-browser guy, usually switching between Google Chrome and Safari, and 75% of my time would be in Chrome.

Not anymore. Safari (specifically Safari Technology Preview) has been outstanding for me. The most annoying thing for me has been resolved as well - favicons in tabs. That’s now a setting that you can toggle on and off and it also looks great on pinned tabs as well. I know it seems like a small thing to most people, but I even had John Gruber on Twitter respond to me talking about them - this was a very important visual thing in the browser to a lot of people.

Safari is fast. Granted, you can only get it on a Mac, but Safari consistently beats out Chrome, Opera, and Firefox in HTML load speed tests. There are also great privacy features as well - one thing as a Chrome user that you always need to assume is that Google is tracking, logging and even predicting your every keystroke online. Now I don’t visit any sites that I shouldn’t, so I’m not afraid of anyone tracking me - I just don’t want it. I know that Google is tracking me in other ways, but the problem is not that Google is tracking me to make my experience better, but that they’re tracking me to sell my data to the highest bidder. And when you give Google an inch, they’ll take a mile.

If it’s been a while since you took a look at Safari, I’d invite you to go back and try it. It’s already on your Mac, and if you want bleeding-edge versions of it, you can download Safari Technology Preview, now available through software update on macOS Mojave.

That's right, Ministry Bits will be back August 7. We still have the same old feed so you can just search iTunes or your favorite podcatcher and listen or re-listen to some old episodes, some of which have aged incredibly well.

I heard from so many people about how the podcast helped them with technology, so I'm bringing it back. The reason why it left in the first place? Well, in a sense, time. I just didn't have the time to dedicate to it like I wanted. But I miss it, and I want to help as many people as I can make their ministries better with technology.