Rant of the day: Why is Microsoft not caring about making the LinkedIn app a better app, a better mobile experience? Aren’t they using designers? UX specialists? Even AI? Aren’t they taking care of their brand and image? I mean, using this app on the iPad is such a displeasure. If someone from Microsoft and / or LinkedIn responsible for this app: have tried it once for real on the iPad? Continue reading →

Finally, I configured my personal iPad Pro with all my office tools. I certainly wish my job would allow me to use a Mac, but no. The iPad is very good in this scenario with all the M365 apps (bleh). Battery life is 20 times better than my HP laptop, without the always-on noisy fans. I understand this device is way more powerful than the MacBook Neo, much more compact, three times more expensive for an inferior software experience. Continue reading →

One of the best iPhone design, the iPhone 5, is now obsolete for Apple, which means is no longer serviceable. It was one of my favorite design of all the iPhone partly because of the tech context it was living. But iOS 6 on this was pure beauty. As a side note, it’s funny to see reviews of the MacBook Neo where none of them mention macOS as being part of the machine. Continue reading →

★ Squashing:

The Alan Dye leaving for Meta thing, that was unexpected, and, to some degree, turbulent. But I have yet to speak to a single person within Apple, nor a single UI designer outside Apple, who thinks it’s anything but good news for Apple that Dye jumped ship for Meta. Not just that Dye is a fraud of a UI designer. Not just that he and his inner circle have vandalized MacOS, the crown jewel of human-computer interaction. Not just that he and his team are given — or have taken — credit for innovative, high-quality work on VisionOS that really belongs to the interaction team Mike Rockwell put together for VisionOS. Not just that Dye left Apple for a rival company, period — something unheard of amongst Apple’s bleed-in-six-colors executive ranks. But that he left for Meta, of all fucking companies? That’s the proof that Dye (and his urban cowboy magazine-designer cohort) never belonged at Apple in the first place.

Ouch.

It’s uncertain whether Apple will keep Liquid Glass unchanged in iOS 27, and it’s premature to conclude. The latest iOS 27 build reportedly doesn’t update Liquid Glass, so no definitive judgment should be made. If iOS 27 is a Snow Leopard release, significant UI changes are unlikely. Gurman should be better than that.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Responds to Retirement Rumors — MacRumors

“I can’t imagine life without Apple.”

But can we imagine Apple without Tim Cook? Probably yes for many.

It’s Your Fault Really:

It fits the broader pattern of what Meta is becoming. AI slop in your feed, fake engagement bots, insecure messaging. The direction of travel is obvious. None of these things are surprises or mistakes. They are deliberate decisions made by a company that has decided the path forward is to extract as much attention and data as possible, and anything that gets in the way of that, including basic privacy protections, gets quietly deprecated because apparently not enough of you were using it.

And Meta is about to deprecate 20% of its workforce because of… too much spending on AI infrastructure that doesn’t move the revenue needle. What a wonderful American corporation.

A few notes about the MacBook Neo:

I’m not thrilled by the lack of backlighting in the keyboard. Maybe it’ll appear in the pricier model in a future iteration. The keys are white/tinted, so maybe the printing is contrasty enough to make the key symbols visible even in poor light. I was willing to put this in the ‘okay’ category, but I can’t help feeling this was an unnecessary corner for Apple to cut.

My wife also has some negative comments about the keyboard. Not only it doesn’t include backlighting, since the keycaps aren’t pure white, the contrast is lower which negatively affect the readability in low light conditions.

Reuters: Meta Is Planning to Wreck the Lives of 20% of Its Staff Because It Is Spending So Much on Data Centres — Pixel Envy

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.

Wow, that’s a lot of people! Is Alan Dye in the bunch? 👀

Just as streaming services helped lower the cost of music, AI is reducing the price of software even more than the subscription model does. The downside is that AI is driving hardware prices up, and it’s uncertain whether we will ever see the return of the always-cheaper hardware trend.

Mark Gurman in No Major Changes to Liquid Glass Expected Across iOS 27 and macOS 27 said:

Apple’s new software design chief, Steve Lemay, was “a driving force” behind Liquid Glass and was “deeply involved in its development.”

I’m not sure we are still so excited for Lemay replacing Alan Dye now. 😳

Since my bookmark manager is almost complete, I plan to record a demo to share here. I like its integration with my other web apps, such as the Micro.blog front-end for posting linkposts and the feature that exports selected links and quotes to a markdown file, which will be included in an upcoming ephemeral scrapbook edition.

‘Software Bonkers’:

Don’t get distracted by the mountains of steaming shit that hacks are using these tools to spew. There are amazing things being built by these tools that never would have, or in some cases could have, been built before.

So far, with the help of Claude Code, I have built: a Micro.blog front end, a Scribbles page front end, a perfect RSS feed reader, a personal dashboard, and a bookmark manager. I’me super happy to have tools that really fit my workflows, my working style and my blogger journey. Without Claude Code, I would need to resort to existing but not-as-satisfying tools. Next, I want to build my own Micro.blog visual theme plugin. Plus, this morning, while Things 3 was open on my MacBook, I realized that I could build my very own personal task manager. The only limit is my imagination.

At the Apple Store for testing the Neo. Two things: I prefer its trackpad over my MacBook Air’s. The speaker grill can easily be bended with a nail. Much faster than I thought. Nice feel in the hands. Great size. Impressed. Bought one for my wife.

It will be interesting to see in the next 2 or 3 quarters the effect of the MacBook Neo on the Mac sales (harder to tell as low priced Mac won’t make a big difference in revenue numbers) and the IPad sales. If both move in opposite directions then we could potentially conclude on the Neo effect.

The more I think about it, the more willing I am to try it: build a Micro.blog theme using Claude AI. As much as I like my current theme, I want something closer to the usual “Numeric Citizen” branding.

The Essence of a Machine

“Neo does not mean more. It means the return to what is essential.”

— On my Om

Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January:

When de With published his essay, it was as an idea for where Apple might go. Now that we’ve seen and been living with Liquid Glass, his essay works even better as a roadmap for the direction Liquid Glass should head.

I really hope De With was hired, not only for his talent, but for the work he did behind his essay: Physicality: the new age of UI.

My personal and web-based bookmark manager was built mainly to support my workflow of creating each edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. And it works great, so far.

The New Apple Finally Begins to Emerge:

The MacBook Neo is a new kind of product for Apple, unveiled in a new way, with new materials, by an array of fresher faces. These new products being unveiled at the same time the faces of the company are beginning to change feels like a turning point. You could argue Neo is one of, if not the first product of this new Apple.

I hope Parker is right. I do too feel something different. Is it only Neo-related or is it more profound?