Camiel Schoonens

Product and Technology enthusiast

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Default Apps – 2025

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This is the third year I’ve been doing a Default Apps list. The categories here are based on the app categories discussed in Hemispheric Views 097 – Duel of the Defaults! podcast. I placed a 🆕 icon in every category where I changed the app compared to last year. There is also a /Defaults page available on this domain.

  • 📨 🆕 Mail Client: Apple Mail
  • 📮 Mail Server: Office365
  • 📝 🆕 Notes: Mechanical pencil and Paper (Moleskine)
  • ✅ To-Do: Things
  • 📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera
  • 🟦 Photo Management: Adobe Lightroom Classic for editing and Photos for organization
  • 📆 Calendar: Fantastical Calendar
  • 📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive
  • 📖 🆕 RSS: Unread with a self-hosted FreshRSS backend.
  • 🙍🏻Contacts: Apple Contacts
  • 🌐 Browser: Safari and Edge for work
  • 💬 🆕 Chat: Messages, WhatsApp, and Signal got added to the list this year.
  • 🔖 🆕 Bookmarks: LinkAce
  • 📑 🆕 Read It Later: Things
  • 📜 Word Processing: Word
  • 📈 Spreadsheets: Excel
  • 📊 Presentations: PowerPoint
  • 🛒 Shopping Lists: Things
  • 🍴 Meal Planning: Pen and Paper
  • 💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Banktivity
  • 📰 News: NRC, NOS and Tweakers.net
  • 🎵 Music: Apple Music
  • 🎤 🆕 Podcasts: Castro
  • 🔐 Password Management: 1Password

Additional categories, not mentioned in the original podcast episode:

  • 🔖 Journal: Day One
  • 🚀 Launcher: Alfred
  • 🗺️ Maps: Apple Maps
  • 🔐 🆕 VPN: Self-hosted always-on VPN on my Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber
  • 🌦️ Weather: Carrot Weather

Sedona National Park

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Since I need to stay awake this afternoon after my trip home, I might as well start post-processing some of the photos I took last week in Sedona National Park. I’m pretty happy with how the colors turned out, even though the sky was grey for most of the day.




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These are my iPhone screens as of November 2025. The screen in the middle is the homescreen when the phone is in 'Personal' focus, and the screen to the right is my 'Work' focus setup.

As you can see, I prefer blueish colors. Wallpaper by @BasicAppleGuy.

https://camiel.schoonens.nl/2025/45889/

Run Log 20251013

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It’s been a while since I posted a run log here. It’s not that I haven’t been running, because I have, it’s more that I didn’t find the time to write down anything in my log.

After the charity run last month, I reduced my running distance and effort again to focus on recovery, as I’m dealing with some lower back pain issues. I don’t think they result from my running; they’re probably more due to my profession and the amount of travel I do.

Today’s run was a new and different experience. I ran around the massive pool at the hotel where I’m staying for work this week. I completed the run before 7 in the morning, as I was awake early due to yesterday’s travel.

Race Log 20250920

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Last night, I ran a five-mile race with colleagues. As a charity team, we collected over 4000 euros. The run was fun, and I’m happy with my result, which was under 40 minutes. I built up my race strong, starting the first four kilometers at 5:10 and then slowly increasing my pace every kilometer that followed.

This is one of the official pictures I found of myself running with number 63953.

52 Weeks – Week 52

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I’m collecting 52 songs in 52 weeks. Every Friday afternoon, I add a song to my playlist. The aim is to capture my energy and feelings for that particular Friday with the chosen song.

Week 52/52: Keep Your Head Up – Ben Howard

After 52 weeks, I will have recorded all the seasons, holidays, and high and low weeks of the year (from October 2024 to September 2025) in one self-curated playlist on Apple Music. Don’t use Apple Music? Subscribe to weekly updates via RSS.

Back home from a week Down Under

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I’m back from a week of business travel to Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. I think the Sydney Opera House is one of the most magnificent buildings I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t stop looking at it; it’s so beautiful and well-designed architecturally.

52 Weeks – Week 51

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I’m collecting 52 songs in 52 weeks. Every Friday afternoon, I add a song to my playlist. The aim is to capture my energy and feelings for that particular Friday with the chosen song.

Week 51/52: Dance Monkey – Tones And I

After 52 weeks, I will have recorded all the seasons, holidays, and high and low weeks of the year (from October 2024 to September 2025) in one self-curated playlist on Apple Music. Don’t use Apple Music? Subscribe to weekly updates via RSS.

Run Log 20250910

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It’s days like these that make me super grateful for what I get to do professionally while being able to combine it with the things that give me joy in my personal life.

Today marks a milestone for me. I ran the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge and around the Opera House. The weather was horrible, and I returned to the hotel soaking wet, but I didn’t want to lose this opportunity, as I don’t know if I’ll ever return to this location again.

Planning a Melbourne and Sydney visit from 39,000 feet

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I’m on my way to Melbourne and Sydney for a week of business travel in Australia. I will have Monday afternoon off in Melbourne and Thursday afternoon and Friday morning off in Sydney. Since I’ve never been to Australia, I thought I’d ask ChatGPT for some advice on planning my afternoon visits.

While I’ve heard many people talk about creating itineraries with ChatGPT, I had never tried it myself. I find the experience magical. With a few questions and prompts, ChatGPT generated an afternoon schedule for me based on my hotel location and personal preferences. My final request was to generate an iCal file, including location information, that I could import into my calendar, which it did.

I did all of this while flying at 39,000 feet, with a super-fast, stable internet connection. Wow!

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”