Describe Extension

Just finished creating my second Safari Extension using Safari 27’s Describe Extension feature. And it just works on the first try. 1😳 This one will save the selected text of the webpage to my bookmarking web app, including the page title, page URL and author. I wonder how much more complex an extension can be.

  1. My first try was successful, right away, too. ↩︎

Microsoft 365 Needs Better Meeting Preparation Intelligence

At my job, I spend most of my time on Microsoft 365 office products, especially Teams and Outlook. I spend a lot of time preparing meetings, sometimes with 15 or 20 participants. I don’t understand why Microsoft hasn’t invested in tools to help plan these meetings.

For example: I need to prepare a meeting with 15 participants; if the 4 or 5 must-have participants are available, those time slots should be clearly highlighted to make it easier to spot the best time to schedule the meeting. But that’s not what happens. Although some participants are mandatory, they don’t all carry the same weight.

I wish Microsoft would improve this aspect of their products; in fact, I wish they would show more empathy in their functional design. I feel like today’s Outlook is very similar to the one from ten years ago.

Why I'm (Almost) Buying a MacBook Neo Before Paris

What if I don’t plan to use any AI tools? What if I don’t plan to multitask like crazy and focus, instead, for once? What if I don’t need the mightiness of my MacBook Air, yet a trustworthy ally? What if I don’t want to lose my Apple Pencil for a third time during this upcoming vacation? What if I want a small yet powerful Mac while on the plane?

After reading Matt Birchler’s blog post about the MacBook Neo being a great second computer five days before leaving for Paris, I’m considering getting one. It’s so cheap. I have 4 days to decide. My wife wouldn’t understand if I got one. 🤫🫣

Come On

Rewatching WWDC keynote and boy these constantly moving sequences of people talking are very annoying. And, how ironic is it when we know it was filmed with iPhone which comes with sophisticated image stabilization. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

Apple First, Devs Later

Apple’s Private Cloud Compute Is Severely Limited for Third-Party Developers:

The bottom line is that — for the OS 27 cycle at least — PCC is primarily a feature for Apple itself to use in Siri AI. Granting access to PCC to any third-party developers at all is better than nothing, but this 2-million-download cap cuts off many developers who are in the Small Business Program. Apple should reconsider that. And I know there are a lot of developers who exceed the eligibility for the Small Business Program who would love to have access to the PCC APIs, even if access was paid. The lack of paid tiers says to me that Apple is worried enough about meeting demand from Siri AI users alone.

Expect this to change sooner rather than later once Apple introduces API consumption tiers for developers. Currently, Apple appears to be managing demand for its PCC infrastructure.

A Few Random Notes and Observations on Apple's Latest OS Updates

1️⃣ macOS 27 Golden Gate is probably the most enjoyable macOS iteration to use in a long time. While Liquid Glass improvements are making a big difference for me, I feel Liquid Glass on the Mac makes the least sense, but it’s best on the Apple Watch, then the iPhone.

2️⃣ Stability and performance on these first betas are really impressive. This could have been so much worse. All my devices, except my M4 Mac mini and Apple TVs, are on beta 1. I just don’t have the time to upgrade my mini. 😅

3️⃣ I fail to see any issues with my apps. Everything just works. Very speedy betas! 😳

4️⃣ I still need to experiment more with Siri AI. I don’t like the dark theme and the big bubble that appears on the Dynamic Island.

5️⃣ The Image Playground redesign is so much better, but the possible use cases are still a mystery to me.

6️⃣ It will be interesting to see how much of an improvement a faster device will make for Apple Intelligence in general. So far, the execution speed is a bit slow, but how much of this depends on being on a beta cycle, network latency or running on an older device like an M2 MacBook Air?

Introducing Numeric Citizen Trails

I have finished my latest web app: a Path-like site for posting check-ins. It focuses on sharing images with a short accompanying note and does not resolve venue names beyond what an open-source map service can provide. The app organizes check-ins into trails, with each trail supporting multiple view types, including the default timeline, a grid view, a compact calendar, and a map view. It’s rather simple, but I like the end results very much. It’s the first publicly available web app (and will probably be the only one). I’ll have to check bandwidth consumption so that I don’t hit the free-tier limits on Vercel. 😅 Use cases are mainly about travel journaling and photo walks.