Undiscoverable, Essential UI birchtree.me

I miss him. The world is different. Apple has become something else. He would probably like what it has become without him, probably not all of it but most of it. I don’t care what he would have done differently. It’s no longer relevant as we need to keep looking forward, something he … read more

I have a 2018 11” iPad Pro. Today, I asked myself: what upcoming features or improvements could entice me to upgrade my iPad Pro? I’m still scratching my head. Faster? Nope. 😐 Lighter? Not quite. 🤨 More system memory? Mmm not really. Maybe. Maybe not. 🙂 Better screen? Is it even possible? 😬 Longer … read more

By curiosity today, I went in the battery health section on my iPhone 11 Pro to find out the current status is 96%. Already. I’m a bit surprised by this as I’m mostly at home and using my computer or my iPad. How could I loose 4% in a year? read more

I’m thinking way too much about widgets these days, thanks to iOS 14 most prominent new feature. I’m still reflecting on the possible reasons why the full widgets experience is not available on iPadOS 14. That being said, @mattbirchler this week came out with an interesting and … read more

Here is a free tip to those developers thinking of adding widget support in their apps: widgets are not a great way to display information from high density, high speed info channels like social network feeds (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc). You are welcome. #iosdev #apple

Learned something really cool today. A few weeks ago I published my review of the well known router, the Unify Dream Machine (available here). The context of this review was the fact that this new router was replacing my aging Apple AirPort. One of the reasons why I chose this device was because of … read more

It’s coming. Two days. Thanks to the soon to be updated Deliveries app. I can “see” where my order is. Can’t wait for version 9.0 launching tomorrow and see how much improved the app is. Can’t wait for my Apple Watch Series 6, coming this Thursday. Still so far from … read more

Who can remember the Pinball Construction Set? If you do, or you are well documented or you are probably as old as me. Now, consider iOS 14 and the widgets feature: how long before someone comes up with something like a “Widgets Construction Set” for iOS? What I’m seeing now isn’t close … read more

We have to realize that we are only at the early stage of widgets support for iOS 14. There is a lot of untapped potential and frustrating design choices. Widgetsmith is having a moment right now but looks like a work-in-progress to me. It is a great idea but it can be tricky to configure and is not … read more

When iPadOS 14 beta came out, we were all quick to notice how crippled the widgets experience was compared to iOS 14. So we got frustrated. I’m still unable to get over it. Apple is holding back the iPad. Again. In the last few days, I tried to understand the possible reasons behind this. To my … read more

To get a bird’s eye view of the current Apple’s rumours landscape, check out my daily “Apple’s Upcoming Products” newsletter with all the well known leakers in one place. There is still a lot going on for the rest of 2020 and beyond. Subscribe, it’s free and time saving. You’ll thank me … read more

I wrote about that a long time ago but here it is again: Apple’s iWork suite is probably the best expression of Apple software these days. This week, the venerable suite got updated to take advantage of iOS 14’s latest features (scribble, new import photo library, etc.). Keynote got an outline mode! … read more

Carefully designed and thought out widgets are still scarce. Many developers show a lack of understanding of a widget’s purposes. Every single day, I’m baffled by the lack of flexibility on iPadOS. It’s a crime or a lack of courage, you tell me 🤦🏻‍♂️. From an end-user perspective, … read more

Are you like me and never satisfied with your Apple Watch face arrangement? Why is it so? Why is it so hard to come up with a watch face configuration that totally fit my needs and my taste? iOS 14 helped me solve part of my problem, but it isn’t enough. watchOS doesn’t help either as it … read more

I’m working on something that Apple fanboys won’t like at all: a cornerstone piece of more than 4000 words about my personal view of Apple’s less glorious facets. Many Apple pundits will disagree. I don’t care. I worked hard on this one in the last few weeks and my undistorted field perception is … read more

After installing Safari 14 on macOS Catalina, I went on Apple.com to see what trackers would be reported. Unsurprisingly, Apple doesn’t use any trackers. Now, the big question: do you believe Apple doesn’t track its main website usage? read more

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way iOS 14 widgets are being implemented by many developers. Here is a simple example. The popular Reddit client, Apollo, introduced widgets support, see the following picture. Now, how can a widget with two posts can be useful if you are following … read more

A message to all official and less official Apple leakers. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for spoiling today’s Apple event. Without you, I don’t know if I could have taken today’s announcements. You made a big difference, you showed to the world how indispensable you are. Apple … read more

On the eve of #AppleEvent tomorrow, I can see a lot of deception on the horizon. The tag line is clear: it’s about time, or the watch. It’s not about the iPhone. It’s not about the Mac. It’s not about the Apple Silicon. It’s about the iPad and the watch. A weird … read more