On the impossibly thin iPhone Air, the camera protuberant area acts like a place to help secure the phone in my hand using my finger.
The end of an era.
Doing multitasking on the iPad mini is… really? 🤷🏻♂️ Who is actually doing this?
Tomorrow, I’m planning to visit Apple’s new Ste-Catherine store in downtown Montreal. From the outside, it certainly looks much better than the previous store on the same street, 100 m further west. I don’t plan to buy anything; I just want to look at the architectural details, the crowd, and the mood. Expect some photos and maybe a short video.
Apple Creator Studio - A Few Comments
On today’s announcement by Apple:
- Now we know why it took so long for Apple to update Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Where is iWork? Why no iWork subscription without the pro stuff?
- I don’t understand this bundling of pro apps with consumer-generalistic apps. Is Apple trying to upsell Pro Apps to consumers via a new subscription? They might be. I don’t think pros want to get Numbers or Pages, though.
- Icons are utterly un-Apple, or Apple has become something I no longer relate to software-design-wise. It’s not a good sign.
- Yes, Apple does look like Adobe and … Microsoft. And less, Apple.
- No mention of Photomator. I believe merging Photomator into Photos is not a good idea; combining a photo browsing app with a photo editing app isn’t ideal. Currently, Photos functions more as a photo browser than as a dedicated editing tool, and both aspects risk becoming mediocre. I want a focused, serious photo-editing app that doesn’t try to rival Photoshop. Is that too much to ask? The challenge lies in Apple’s prioritization of profit over user needs, which makes it difficult to develop such an app.
What a strange start to the year.
I’m sorry but Apple no longer knows how to do icons. Serious downgrades. WTF is this? I could do better in a weekend.
/rant on
Can you believe it? I updated my M4 iPad Pro today to beta 2 of iPadOS 26.3, thinking I would see some much-needed fixes, but elas many visual bugs are still unfixed, bugs that were there in 26.1 or even 26.0. I mean, bugs that are very easy to catch and experience. I can’t believe I’m the only one experiencing those. One example: when sliding up an app to return to the home page, the background briefly disappears.
Please, Apple, stop piling up new features and fix your shit.
/rant off
On Scrollbars
After reading a recent Gruber article about the macOS Tahoe window-resizing issue, I found a setting in Appearance that keeps scrollbars always visible. It’s somewhat odd because of the scrollbar’s thickness. I wish Apple would make them thinner and less noticeable. I’m unsure if I’ll get used to this.
Note: On Windows 11, scrollbars are always visible by default but are less obtrusive. 🤷🏻♂️ Apple was once known for leading with excellent design and great visual taste, but this is less obvious nowadays.
On Apple’s Deal with Google
Back in November, Google announced Private AI Compute, positioning themselves to offer something like Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. It might be something that OpenAI wasn’t willing to do or didn’t see a fit in their business mission. By offering Private AI Compute, Google might have secured the business with Apple. Anyway, it’s becoming impressive how Google is taking back the lead in AI. Lastly, maybe we will see Google Gemini being added to this week’s next beta of iOS 26.3 to go side-by-side with ChatGPT?
Inspired by basicappleguy on Mastodon, here’s my rating of each Apple product. Design, usefulness, feature focus, maturity, and usage frequency are the key factors here.
- iPhone
- Mac
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Apple TV
- AirPods
- Vision Pro
- AirTag
- HomePod