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Currently entering vacation area. Enjoy. I’m going to be much more active. Be warned.
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Apple did bring back the loupe for selecting text on iOS. Good. The only thing is that we need to find it, as shown here. I know, it’s beta 1 but come on, I can’t believe this sort of design comes out of Apple. Someone is clearly sleeping here.
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On Intelās market share falling
Intel may see its market share fall to a new low next year, in large part thanks to Apple’s decision to move away from using Intel processors in its Mac computers and instead use Apple silicon. Source: Intel Processor Market Share May Fall to New Low Next Year Due to Apple Silicon - MacRumors
How much Apple business did represent to Intel overall numbers before the Apple Silicon transition started? My feeling is that it wasn’t that big. Ten pourcent, maybe? If Intel share numbers are falling, Apple is not the only culprit in my view. The move to mobile-only devices like smartphones which are not based on Intel’s chip is the culprit.
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Is your iPhone really yours?
But the thread running through everything was that if you buy an Apple device, it’s yours. And it’s you. And if you buy, well, anything else, you’re just a slab of meat holding a slab of glass through which the internet will manipulate and extract data from you any way it wants. So, yeah, the garden’s walls may be high, but Apple says that’s only to keep you safe.
ā David PierceSource: Apple defends the walled garden - Protocol ā The people, power and politics of tech
Many would argue the since you cannot install apps from outside the App Store, your iPhone isn’t really yours. Others would argue that since you don’t have a choice but go to Apple to get “your” iPhone repaired, your iPhone isn’t really yours. what is “your” take on this?
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App Clip can be really cool
Iām a bit late to the party but this use of Appleās App Clip technology is clever: point your iPhone to the Apple Watch band package, an App Clip will pop up on your phone to help you get the matching Watch Face. Cool. Great case of Apple eating its own dog food, and showing a great integration experience.
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Michael Tsai: On macOS Big Sur lingering issues
This blog post from Michael Tsai paints a very terrible picture of macOS Big Sur. Unstable, weird design decisions, lotās of issues in Appleās Mail, etc. Sounds like the worst macOS incarnation of all time. Personnally, I donāt experience many issues with macOS Big Sur, but I do feel itās a weird design overall. The next release, macOS Montery, doesnāt appear to fix bad design choicesā¦ Iām thinking about widgets handling and notifications dismissal.
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Another exciting update coming this fall is Appleās Maps data. This site carefully documents whatās new, whatās updated. Really well done. Day and night difference. Nice updated typography. Some features are available on more capable devices. Is this new?
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macOS Monterey looks more and more exciting each day. Canāt wait for this update from the makers of Pixelmator Pro. I can see two of my Automator scripts that will easily migrate to Shortcuts this fall.
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Focus ā A Game changer feature in experiencing Apple devices?
The more I read and learn about the upcoming āFocusā feature in Appleās upcoming OS updates, the more I think it could be a transformative feature in experiencing Appleās devices. The combinaison of notifications and home page configurations assigned to each focus mode has powerful implications. Even though Iām not on the beta train right now, Iām already at work designing the different focus modes I plan to use on my devices. As you might expect, Iāll be writing a detailed blog post about this in the future.
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A few words to help you get a peek on what I’m working on right now: Toggl. Focused Work.
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Tomorrow I’ll go to an Apple Store to pay a visit to the Genius Bar for a repair. My last visit goes back to more than a year. I may feel disoriented. š³ I’ll have a look at the iMac! And the iPhone 12 Pro! And the Mac Pro! Andā¦.
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FaceTime in iOS 15: too little too late? Maybe. At least, FaceTime is better positioned as a videoconference platform for the next pandemic. Because, you know, one day, there will be another one.
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The change that didnāt came (#apple #wwdc21 #developers)
This take from Gruber āApp Store: The Schiller Cutā has a sour taste following the WWDC keynote and Platforms state of the union. Did Apple announce something this week to appease developers relations? Nope. Will they announce something in the coming weeks in regard to App Store commissions? Who knows. If they do, they will do it in a position of weakness:
If someday down the road we will be changing 70/30, then I think the question moves from āifā to āwhenā and āhowā. Iām not suggesting we do anything differently today, only that whenever we make a change we do it from a position of strength rather than weakness. That we use any such change to our advantage if possible. And thinking about this long in advance can only help to look at an eventual change as an opportunity (with developers, press, customers, etc). ā Phil Schiller in 2011
They missed the opportunity this year. Apple is in a weak position and I donāt see how this could change anytime soon.
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Thatās clever, Apple.
To run an internal version of iOS, each employee must first install a special profile on the device ā just as we do for downloading beta versions. However, each profile sent to employees determines which of these features will be enabled for each person working on new versions of iOS and possibly other Apple operating systems as well.
Source: Apple doubles down on secrecy with a new way to hide iOS 15 features from engineers - 9to5Mac
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Time to move off Appleās Intel iMac? (#apple #adobe #lightroomclassic #applesilicon)
With Adobe finally releasing Lightroom Classic for Apple Silicon Macs, This could enable me to move off my 2017 21.5ā Intel Mac for once. The prospect of Lightroom catalogs and data migration is not enchanting though. There the issues of plugins migration too. Is it time for me to go all-in cloud with Lightroom CC only? Not sure it is the right time either.
I have a few incentives for selling my iMac: one being to help me finance a shiny new 2021 12.9ā iPad Pro with 1 TB of RAM. This could serve as my iPadOS 15 test bed for the second half of summer. I still have quite some time to think about all this as these devices are back-ordered for at least the second half of July.
You thoughts?
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I was over-simplifying quite a bit
After publishing my essay on what I was hoping Apple would do in response to the developers community, Matt Birchler wrote a small response regarding my assertion about payments processing platform being a limited feature in the grand scheme of things. It appears I was wrong. Thanks to Matt blog post, I have a better view of what goes behind the scene here.
That being said, Appleās payment processing service within the App Store serves Apple’s purposes and is the one that is very narrow, very focused. It’s a good thing. I’m not sure Apple has to compete against this industry. Allowing third-party payment processing services would need to focus on the minimum in order to protect privacy or help guarantee that privacy is in good hands. It’s an attainable goal.
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iPadOS 15 to limit certain features to iPad Pro? (#apple #ipados15 #wwdc21)
If Apple ups the game with iPadOS 15 (background tasks, better multitasking, external monitor support, etc.), we could see a situation where iPadOS crawls on lower or mid-range iPad while working like a breeze on the iPad Pro. Could Apple limit certain features to the high end only? Quite possibly. Your thoughts?
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Popup Menus ā Comments About This Relic of iOS 3 ā Could There Be A Better Design? (#apple #wwdc21 #ipadOS15 #ios15)
Consider the previous screenshot showing the popup menu when selecting a word in a document. This menu hasnāt been touched since iOS 3, if I remember correctly. Tomorrow, as we are about to get a peek at iPadOS 15 and iOS 15, Iām wondering if there are better ways to display such a menu. Consider a few design problems and possible improvements.
This menu doesnāt scale well; it isnāt exactly elegant. In some situations, we have to scroll through its options which is not always obvious and is tricky to do with the finger without selecting the option at touch and scroll time. Also, this design involves too much finder travel to my taste; I would prefer a more condensed version. The design is flat and doesnāt allow for hierarchical grouping of options which could help is situations where many options are available. The design is flat and is not as distinctive as it could be. Adding some depth, contour line would help.
Do you have any suggestions on how Apple could improve on this?
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It’s always fun to re-watch a previous Apple Event. Just did the Spring Loaded one and used CleanShot to capture the best moments creating a library of 260 shots, all stored in Synology Photos, ready to be used, just in case. Tech is fun.
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The iMac vs a Simple Monitor
The Thunderbolt display is now a vintage product for Apple. When I look at this beautiful monitor, Iām thinking about the recently introduced redesigned iMac. Many people would have preferred to see the iMac chin disappear. We should know better and see this is a distinctive design attribute of the iMac which make it look different than from a simple monitor. Itās an important visual differentiation factor in my opinion. The iMac is not a simple monitor.
