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iPadOS is holding the iPad back (#apple #2021ipadpro #ipados)
Daring Fireball: The 2021 M1 iPad Pros:
The elephant in the room is iPadOS. Itās just not good enough. In the same way that Intelās chips were holding back Macs, iPadOS has been holding back iPad Pros. With Intel chips, the hardware was holding back the Mac platform. With iPads, itās the software holding the platform back. This hardware is indisputably amazing, and iPadOS is fine for casual use. But it still feels like Iām trying to do fine detail work while wearing oven mitts for my day-to-day work.
I like Gruberās introduction in his review of the M1 iPad Pro. But his review echos other reviews. Nearly all M1 iPad Pro reviews that I have read note the same issue: iPadOS lacks maturity to sustain iPad Pro aspirations. Canāt wait for Appleās WWDC in three weeks.
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About These Apple Watch Series 7 Mockups (#apple #applewatch #series7)
According to circulating rumours, the Apple Series 7 will go through a small redesign. The Series 4 introduced a bigger screen but the overall shape stayed the same. This time, a more boxy look is expected. Iām not sure that I like what Iām seeing here on this mock-up. To me, the Apple Watch would loses some of its iconic traits. If this boxy design allows for more internal space, hence probably more sensors or new features, better battery life, so be it.
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About Those Tiny Release Notes (#apple)
I wonder when Apple will fix the issue of tiny release notes, on the iPhone. I canāt remember since when the issue started, but itās been a very long time. Itās all the details, Apple, all the details.
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This is so Clever (#apple #applewatch #watchOS8)
To support users with limited mobility, Apple is introducing a revolutionary new accessibility feature for Apple Watch. AssistiveTouch for watchOS allows users with upper body limb differences to enjoy the benefits of Apple Watch without ever having to touch the display or controls.
Source: Apple previews powerful software updates designed for people with disabilities - Apple
The demo on Appleās Newsroom website is really impressive. Surprisingly, it looks like the feature will work on recent Apple Watch generations (Series 4 and up).
One question: why announce these initiatives now? Weāre 17 days away from WWDC. Looks like WWDC will have more room to announce even more exciting stuff. š
Another question: if you look at the following screenshot taken from todayās announcement, we can see that table cells are narrower than what we have on iOS 14. Is this a first glimpse of what is coming in iOS 15? I certainly hope so because it looks much better, friendlier. It reminds me of the pre-iOS 7 era.
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Iām Closing my Telegram Account ā Here is why
First:
Apple is very efficient at pursuing their business model, which is based on selling overpriced, obsolete hardware to customers locked in their ecosystem," Durov wrote. “Every time I have to use an iPhone to test our iOS app I feel like I’m thrown back into the Middle Ages. The iPhone’s 60Hz displays can’t compete with the 120Hz displays of modern Android phones that support much smoother animations.
And:
Durov added that the worst part about Appleās technology is not āclunkier devices or outdated hardware,ā but that users who have an iPhone are a ādigital slave of Apple.ā
āYou are only allowed to use apps that Apple lets you install via their App Store, and you can only use Appleās iCloud to natively back up your data,ā he said.
āItās no wonder that Appleās totalitarian approach is so appreciated by the Communist Party of China, which ā thanks to Apple ā now has complete control over the apps and data of all of its citizens who rely on iPhones.ā
Source: Telegram founder says iPhone users are digital slaves | AppleInsider.
Mr. Durov can go to hell. Typical talk from an Android guy. Nobody his forcing him to develop for the iPhone. Nobody. He is a digital slave of Apple himself. I canāt stand this attitude and Iām voting with my digital means: closing my Telegram account.
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Keep it Simple, Apple, will ya? (#apple #m1chip)
For the new MacBook Pros, Apple is planning two different chips, codenamed Jade C-Chop and Jade C-Die: both include eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores for a total of 10, but will be offered in either 16 or 32 graphics core variations.
Source: Apple (AAPL) Readies MacBook Pro, MacBook Air Revamps With Faster Chips - Bloomberg(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-18/apple-readies-macbook-pro-macbook-air-revamps-with-faster-chips)
The āone chip SKU to rule them allā wonāt last forever it seems. Apple will take advantage of its ability to decide what goes in its chips to help differentiate each models within the same product line. We already witness this with the 7-core vs 8-core variant of the M1 chip in the 2021 iMac, but this variability will increase over time. My hope is that Apple doesnāt try to hard to be greedy with this strategy and keep the product’s differentiation simple to grasp.
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About Appleās Flaky Bluetooth Devices (#apple #imac2021)
The keyboard flaked out on me once. I wanted to spend time testing the Touch ID button, so I moved an application to the Trash, which requires authentication. That worked. Then I tried to move the app back to the Applications folder, and ā¦ Touch ID just didnāt work. After 30 seconds of trying, I realized the whole keyboard just wasnāt working. I turned the keyboard off and on again, and boom, everything has been normal sinceāāāincluding Touch ID recognizing my finger very quickly.
Source: Daring Fireball: The 24-Inch M1 iMac(https://daringfireball.net/2021/05/the_24_inch_m1_imac)
Ah, ah, another moment of Appleās Bluetooth device not working as expected. Since I got my 2017 21.5ā iMac, Iāve experienced unstable Bluetooth connectivity with Appleās mouse and keyboard. I donāt know when it started, if itās related to a certain release of macOS, but it is happening all the time. The worst part is the mouse being jerky while moving on the screen. Bluetooth’s instabilities also impact my AirPods usage with the Mac. My AirPods simply drops from receiving the Mac audio while in Zoom meetings. It is infuriating. Eventually, I need to reboot the Mac to reset the Bluetooth stack.
When I got the M1 Mac mini, I thought Bluetooth connectivity issues would be a thing of the past. I couldnāt be more wrong. It was worst. The mouse and the keyboard are both having instabilities. They need to be turned off and on to temporarily fix the problem, but eventually the Mac needs a full reboot. Again, this is exasperating. It is a well documented issue which macOS 11.1 and 11.2 tried to fix but the problems still happen, albeit a bit less often.
There is something wrong with Appleās Bluetooth implementation in general. Is it the driver, the firmware, the chip, a combination of these that is at fault? I donāt know but the fact that this shiny new iMac with the wireless keyboard with TouchID stops working like Gruber experienced is not a good sign.
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About This White Bezel (#apple #imac2021)
I know a lot of people are concerned that the white bezel surrounding the display will be distracting. In practice, I found that it just disappears. If there can be such a thing as a muted whiteāāāa white that most certainly looks white, not light gray, but yet not white white, this white is that white. I didnāt need time to get used to it
Source: Daring Fireball: The 24-Inch M1 iMac(https://daringfireball.net/2021/05/the_24_inch_m1_imac)
There is a lot of talk regarding the white bezel of the new iMac. I still donāt know what to think about them. They make it look like if there was a white masking tape all around the display. But the thing is, considering the fact that Appleās macOS overall user interface is so āwhite-ishā in general, this should help make the bezel kind of disappear in reality and just be an extension of the user interface.
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Xcode for iPad ā Whoās asking for this? (#apple #iosdev #developers #wwdc2021)
The iPad is a mighty device considering its form-factor. Many people are asking for Apple to make Xcode available for the iPad. I wonder: who are asking for this? Are they serious developers or just hobbyists? I would find it surprising if it was the former because there can be so many tools besides Xcode that is needed I order to build an app, and not all those things are available on the iPad. Serious developers would need to bring in a Mac to complete the development picture. If this is the hobbyists, does it even matter?
Would it be the full version of Xcode or a diminutive version? If it is the latter, what kind of apps would it be able to create, and what are the others it wouldnāt? Would it be Swift-only with SwiftUI? If thatās the case, are we in the ātech proof of conceptā territory or if it is a viable path going forward? What would iPadOS 15 need to make Xcode for iPad a viable solution? Better file management? External monitor support? A link to a Mac for certain tasks and features? Is the 12.9ā iPad Pro the only supported device or is the 11ā version be supported too?
If you are a developer reading this post, would you use Xcode for iPad to build your apps if Apple made it available?
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Can't wait for reviews (#apple (ipadpro2021)
Can’t wait for Apple’s embargo to be lifted this week so we can get a better appreciation of the 12.0" 2021 iPad Pro. Some people got their device, early. I’ll never be able to get an XDR display from Apple, but the one that within an iPad, seems a bargain. The possibility of getting this device just increased a bit.
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On Extending the Home Screen
Parker Ortolani for 9to5Mac:
But what if you could add other kinds of things to your Home Screen too? (…) Apple could add the same āAdd to Home Screenā button to the share sheet in Music, in Podcasts, in News, and in TV. Each content type could have a distinct shape for differentiation. Albums, podcasts and publications could have more squared off icons. Magazines could be more narrow to show off covers. TV Shows and movies could use the same artwork that appears in app.
Frankly, I love this idea. On the iPad, it could be the ultimate playground to play with this feature, thanks to the device size. I can see me adding all kind of stuff like my wife iMessage contact, an RSS feed to my favourite content creators, a shortcut to a podcast or an Apple Music playlist or artist. So much possibilities.
The idea of adding all sort of content on the home screen is not new, yet on iOS and iPadOS, current design feels really restricted. We are ready to go to the next phase in evolution. I want freedom in folder size and placement, I want Apple Watch complication-style widgets. I want freedom. Apple, by any chance, are you listening?
Consider this added to my WWDC, iOS and iPadOS 15 wish list.
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Iāve completed my first release of my Digital Garden. Entirely made with @Craftdocsapp which makes a great job of building a website with integrated navigation. Itās really cool. The only missing thing is support for custom domains, which will probably be coming in the future.
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Importing HEY World Posts to Substack? @SubstackInc
Nope. Better chance next time. No easy way to ask for help either. Tried different variations of the RSS feed URL. Nope, doesnāt work. There is no option to expert from within HEY either. As you can see, looking for some easy way out of HEY World. šØš»āš»
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HEY World was a fad. Using the dice feature to pop up a random HEY World website shows that the vast majority of users didnāt keep updating their feed. What could explain this lack of durable enthusiasm?
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My Go-To Internet Destination for Reading: Mailbrew Website
I recently noted that Iām spending much more time on Mailbrew website for my newsletters reading rather than in HEY Feed. Why is that? Well, I think there are a few sticky features in Mailbrew that helps me better process information tidbits. First, the reading experience is great. The āReadā button next to a URL will bring a nicely formatted version of an article from a URL. Second, A āsaveā button is handily available for me to use if I want to keep a piece of information for later use. My collection of saved items is growing by the day. Thereās also the Save to Mailbrew bookmarklet that comes handy. The website on the iPad is also a joyful experience.
Mailbrew update schedule is pretty fast and brings many small improvements on a constant flow. Now, if only there was a highlighting feature it would make Mailbrew reading experience a perfect fit for my workflow.
By the way, thanks to Mailbrew, you can get a weekly summary of all my publications here.
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Are we supposed to cry?
“I upended my life for Apple. I sold my WA residence which I built with my own hands, relocated myself, shut down any public media presence and future writing aspirations, and resolved to build my career at Apple for years to come,”
Well, now that he has been fired, he is complaining on Twitter that Apple knew in advance… maybe, maybe not. My gut feeling is that the C-Level knew, but not the upper management. When it came to their attention, they acted in accordance to their well-known values.
Source: Antonio Garcia Martinez says Apple fired him, company was ‘well aware’ of his writing | AppleInsider
Mr. Martinez Twitter thread is here.
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Only 17K Apps for the Apple Watch (#apple #applewatch #appstore #apps)
(…) there are only 17k Watch apps: like Amazonās Alexa, the Apple Watch is a huge success but has largely failed as an app platform. Source: Benedict Evans’ takeaways from the first week of Epic vs. Apple | Philip ElmerāDeWitt
Only 17K apps for the Apple Watch?? Calling this a failure is a bit surprising. The Watch is a narrow platform compared to the iPhone, the iPad or the Mac. I don’t expect as many apps to be available for the Watch. This form-factor isn’t obviously suitable for a lot of applications categories. I think 17K apps is quite a lot actually because I don’t get a sense of it when I browse the App Store from the Apple Watch itself or from my iPhone. This is where Apple is failing: discovery of Watch apps is miserable, just like it is in general on Apple’s App Store.
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This form-factor, this one orā¦ this one?
One of the cooless by-product of the Apple strategy is the unification of the processing unit among its product lines, leaving the form-factor the unique differenciation attribute.
Previously there were many people who wanted a laptop, but ended up buying a desktop because it would be more powerful. Now the only choice the customer has to make is whether they prefer the MacBook or iMac form-factor, because the internal hardware is the same in each. Source: Apple execs praises how M1 enables same performance for different devices in interview - 9to5Mac
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Thought (or frustration) of the day
Apple’s macOS Big Notifications Center is probably the most frustrating, infuriating and un-Apple experience of all. Man this thing is badly designed. Who at Apple think it ok? He or she is a C player! Hoping for major re-work for macOS 12. There, I said it. š¤¬
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Here is Why Appleās Safari Purposely Lags Behind
Browsers look more and more like operating systems. Apple knows this, and they are probably afraid for their App Store business.
This article from Alex Russell of Infrequently Notes is very convincing: Apple purposely delay implementation of new web standards to refrain developers to build web applications. New web standards are enablers for new kinds of web applications with richer features set. Those richer apps could go against Appleās App Store profitable business. No wonder why so many people are using alternative browsers to Safari. But thatās not all. Since Apple, in general is a big player, its influence is unquestionably high, the lack of support from them for so many basic and essential web standards discourage new application opportunities. Thatās too bad and makes me wonder how sites like Mailbrew who offers a web application could improve if all browsers, including Safari would support most web standards. Mailbrew is already good on the iPad, closely mimicking a native application, yet I wonder.
Can we hope for changes at the next WWDC conference?
