One of the nice surprises about this morning’s announcements is the addition of two more USB-C ports to the Mac mini and the addition of a configuration with M2 Pro in a small package like the mini. This narrows the gap between a Mac Studio and a Mac mini. Oh, and up to three monitors are supported!

An M1 Mac mini owner. 🤔

I kind of forgot in my previous post to include the link to my Apple Rumours Hub that I maintain (using Craft). It’s not only about tomorrow’s product releases but everything Apple is working on. Enjoy.

Krugman said that Musk’s behaviour had shown that he’s nothing like Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs – who was famed for his high level of discipline and focus on Apple’s products.

And

“I don’t think even if Musk had been as disciplined as Steve Jobs was, that Tesla was ever going to be a sustained profit machine the way that Apple has been,” he added. “It’s just — it’s not his fault. It’s just not that kind of industry.”

And

“But then, you know, I don’t know anyone who’s done as much to hurt his image of cool in as short a time as Musk has done.” Source: Paul Krugman says Elon Musk’s Tesla can never be a ‘profit machine’ like Apple, because there’s no scope for that in the car industry

Comparing Musk to Jobs is tempting, but Musk a so few traits of Steve. Jobs didn’t hurt Apple’s brand when he was at Pixar. Musk, at Twitter is hurting Twitter… and Tesla. Poor guy.

So, Apple is rumoured to release new products through press releases tomorrow. I don’t expect exciting news (M2 MacBook Pro — specs bump). In fact, besides the iPhone 15 Ultra, I think 2023 could be the most boring year in a long time. Since Apple is known to be working its product lines many years in advance, does this reflect the COVID era, where it was hard for Apple to keep the momentum while everyone was enduring the pandemic from 2020 to 2022? Are we paying the COVID price?

Arstechnica’s Jackqui Cheng:

“One way to look at the MacBook Air is as the largest and most capable iPod in Apple’s line—think of it as an iPod touch Extreme with a built-in keyboard.” “I found the Air’s size and weight to be nothing less than absolutely delightful.” “Despite all of the Air’s (sometimes glaring) flaws, I plan to keep it and use it as my notebook from here on out (maybe with a hard drive upgrade in the near future, and definitely with a battery upgrade when they become available).” Source: MacBook Air: The past, the present, and the future

The M1 MacBook Air is, I think, the culmination of the original Air design with a definitive fix for performance and battery life. I’m grateful for owning one.

There are a lot of rumours surrounding the upcoming Apple headset. I call them noise at best. I’m afraid Apple is losing focus on other areas, which would require much more attention to benefit this project. Maybe I’ll eat my words when this thing finally comes out. Maybe I’ll say “OMG, now I understand what the fuss it was all about”. In the meantime, this conclusion from John Gruber is pretty much in line with my view: what is the point?

This headset project is very much real and, I believe, very much shipping this year. But the fundamental question remains: What’s the point? Think back to Steve Jobs’s presentation announcing the original iPad — the nut of the whole keynote was Jobs explaining where the iPad might fit between an iPhone and MacBook. If it didn’t serve some tasks not just a little but a lot better than either an iPhone or Mac, there was no point to the iPad. The same is true for this headset. And if it costs $3,000 and/or requires a tethered battery strapped around your waist, the “this better be an awesome experience” bar is raised even higher. Source: Daring Fireball: Knee-Jerk Reactions and Thoughts Regarding The Information’s Latest Report on Apple’s Upcoming Headset

Disclaimer: I’ll never buy such a thing. We’re already too much sucked into tech, I won’t accept putting a headset on my face and pretending that this is cool. It is not.

As we can see, while there are definite improvements in Windows 11’s design consistency, they are somewhat superficial (but still more thorough than those that were introduced with Windows 10), and there still is plenty of room for improvement. However, compared to Windows 10, at least most of the “casual” UI is somewhat consistent.

In 2023 Windows 11 will reportedly get 3 of the new “moment” updates, which are supposed to bring in new features and UI fixes. Not only that, but Microsoft is thought to be working on decoupling the UI elements from the rest of the OS even further, so we should probably see more improvements more quickly. Source: State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? – NTDEV

The conclusion of this excellent article about Windows 11 UI design inconsistencies is a bit off compared to the rest of the article. You really have to have a look for yourself. Windows, as it is shipping today, contains a plethora of previous-generation UI design languages, all packed together. When I look at macOS, I fail to find any similar example. Now, my question: why can Apple change everything in the UI (like when they introduced macOS BigSur) and not keep old UI designs? What is Apple doing differently? Is macOS easier to maintain than Windows? Or is it because Microsoft simply doesn’t care enough?

And the Mac and the iPad continue to move closer together… Source: Gurman: Apple working on touchscreen Macs – Six Colors

Jason Snell reacting to an article on Bloomberg about a possible new development for the Mac in 2025: touchscreen. I’m unfazed about this rumour at all. Touching the screen will probably represent 10%-20% of user interaction use cases, while the touchpad or the mouse will grab the rest.

There is one thing that I wonder if it would be possible: can you imagine the macOS UI reacting to the finger coming closer to the screen without actually touching it, something along the lines of the hover gesture with the latest iPad and the Apple Pencil? That could be interesting to watch. Apple will need to increase the size of UI elements, right now, many things are way too small to interact with the fingers. So yeah, the Mac is getting closer to the iPad.

One last thing: I would have thought that Apple would start with the iMac instead of a MacBook Pro, though. The bigger screen and the lack of a touchpad on the iMac would make the touchscreen a helpful option.

A pivotal year for AR/VR? Hu.ma.ne are set to announce their thing this year. Apple is reportedly set to announce their AR/VR headset this year. Other than that, it is expected to be a quiet year for Apple, helping to set the stage for a focus on the headset. BYW, the updated Mac Pro, a niche product, won’t make much noise in the grand scheme of things. What else will bring noise on the line? The iPhone 15 switching to USB-C? Then what? Nothing that I can think of.

Why is it so slow to read content in Apple News in general? Opening an article in News takes 2 to 3 times longer to render than its equivalent through the RSS feed in News Explorer (my RSS reader). Another case for RSS feeds.

I cannot count how often I select an image, thinking it will look nice as wallpaper. Most of the time, it sucks. Would it be cool if Apple added a smart album with selected photos based on their potential to be great as wallpaper? This could be something done using on-device AI, just like face recognition.

With the introduction of an always-on display in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, many users have wondered how much impact the feature has on battery life. A new video takes a careful look at just how much battery drain there is with the always-on display and whether turning off the wallpaper reduces that drain.

And

it was found that by having the wallpaper enabled for the always-on display, an iPhone 14 Pro will drain around 0.8% per hour, compared to 0.6% an hour for the wallpaper disabled on the always-on display. Source: Test Shows How Much Battery Drain Your Wallpaper Causes on the iPhone 14 Pro’s Always-On Display - MacRumors

People asked for an always-on display because Android had it for a long time, and they got it. Be careful for what you wish for. This is something that Apple could improve with a more power-efficient A17 this coming fall in the iPhone 15 Pro line.

If reports and rumors about Apple’s upcoming products this years are to be believed, 2023 looks to be pretty boring. I’m ok with this only if Apple spend more time fixing things instead of constantly adding up and pilling up unfinished features. What worries me is that Apple’s Reality Pro (what a weird and uninspired name) becomes a resources draining hole within the company for a product that is so niche.

Personally, I’m 99% sure to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Ultra. The next possibility is the 15-inch MacBook Air.

In recent months, we’ve seen the addition of many AI-based features in apps like Notion and Craft, two apps that I know pretty well. Now I’m wondering if it would be a good idea that Apple integrates such features at the operating system level. Just like we can double tap a word in a text and get its definition from the dictionary, wouldn’t be cool if we could select a whole text and ask for a summary or anything involving the selected content? Continue reading →

Here’s a great visual recollection of a trip to Italy back in 2011, when Steve Jobs died. Great images. Gentle words. It’s not only about the iPhone as a great camera, but about Italy, a place I visited last summer, and how it felt to be there when Steve death made the news. Must see and read. Continue reading →

The DMA holds the promise to return Apple to an earlier age without these gluttonous service and tax aspirations driving seemingly every major decision at the company. The EU just might make Apple lovable again by outlawing their monopolistic excesses. What a twist. Source: Apple’s big monopoly loss comes curtesy of the EU For once, I agree with David Heinemeier Hansson. Apple’s arrogance is slowly killing all the magic. Continue reading →

To celebrate my calculator app PCalc turning 30 today, I've written up all the history I can still remember: http://pcalc.com/thirty There's also a rare 30%-off sale, which runs until midnight tonight, PST: Mac: https://pcalc.com/store/pcalcmac iOS: https://pcalc.com/store/pcalc A big thanks to everybody who has used PCalc during the last three decades! James Thomson https://mastodon.social/@jamesthomson/109562907458479500 I never bought PCalc but for as long I’ve been following the Apple story, PCalc always was somewhere to be seen in a magazine, on the web or an App Store. Continue reading →

I got a pleasant surprise under the tree for this Christmas🎄: AirPods Pro 2. Some observations: I would say the clicking sound when closing the lid is different, with a bit lower tonality. The setup experience is top-notch, of course. Sound quality is definitively upgraded with more present bass and deeper sound. Noise cancellation is better too. I’ll have to experience it in a noisy place like an airplane tomorrow. For my next trip, I will leave my AirPods Max behind (they are too big for sleeping on the plane) and use the new, much lighter ones and easier to travel with. Continue reading →

I finally tested a FaceTime call with my iPhone 13 Pro and the Belkin iPhone mount with my M1 MacBook Air running macOS Ventura. The setup was easy. iPhone automatically detected as a possible camera source within FaceTime. The image quality was obviously top-notch. The sound was great too. The tabletop feature required a bit of tweaking but eventually led to good (but not “top-notch”) results. The only problem is the weight of the combined iPhone 13 Pro with a case and the Belkin mount: the screen panel of my MacBook tends to move back during the call. Continue reading →

Updated my last Mac to macOS Ventura and discovered something super useful when using Stage Manager. If you want to have an application always visible, make sure to select “Assign To: All Desktops” from the application icon in the Dock. This is particularly useful with the Finder so we can easily do drag & drop of a file into the active window; the Finder needs to always be available for this to be possible. Continue reading →