Thanks to the Elgato USB Hub for Stream Deck +, all my USB-A ports on my M1 Mac mini are now free, making it a USB-C-only connected device. I can now upgrade to the M4 Mac mini when it shows up this week!

Maybe Apple will announce a new product each day through a press release with a shipping date of Oct 23th, with a culmination point with the redesigned M4 Mac mini? I think it wouldn’t be the first time they did it this way.

I visited the Apple West 14th Street Apple Store this past weekend in New York City. As usual, the store was packed with people. However, one thing caught my attention: there was no one at the Apple Vision Pro tables. Despite being at the peak of their support, those devices felt quite lonely and unappealing. How long will Apple keep those devices for sale?

My Five Minutes Experience With the Camera Control Button

I like the physical design, but it is too flush with the iPhone flat edge for my taste. It is easier to use with my thumb while the iPhone is in portrait mode. The required pressure to take a photo makes me shake1 which is not always good when taking a photo in low light conditions. I kind of “Digg” the UI which feels organic just like for the Dynamic Island but using multi-purposes buttons requires some time to get used to and learn the numerous modes. Apple is still working off the half-pressure mode for taking pictures and I wonder how it will affect the general use… will it make it even harder to use?

  1. Might be age-related issue, I know. ↩︎

**Apple Watch backups** are not working, they never did. This is what I see on my iPhone now, two old backups, once probably worthless because of it ridiculous small size. Another proof: after unpairing my Series 6 this morning before going to the Apple Store to get a credit for it[^1], no sign of new backups in the Watch.app. Big fail Apple. We are at Series 10 / iOS 18 for fuck sake! [^1]: I'm upgrading to Series 10.

I plan to go to the Apple Store tomorrow and see the new stuff since I can’t make it today. Maybe I’ll get the Series 10 if the one I want is available. I’ll unpair and reset my Series 6 as I’ll get $75 credit for it.

I’m rather happy to skip the iPhone 16 this year. Next year, Apple Intelligence will be more broadly available and more mature, the iPhone 17 will gain more hardware to support Apple Intelligence the newest features, too. As a blogger, Apple Intelligence writing tools are very handy and a year from now, most if not all my go-to apps will gain support for these. On the photography side, I expect more meaningful upgrades to the cameras.