Apps & Services
I love apps and enjoy testing new services to improve my workflows. These posts discuss my experiences with them.
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I hate creating Shortcuts in Apple Shortcuts. There is no easy way to debug this shit. No quick start for anything. It’s not fun at all. There, I said it (again).
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ChatGPT Atlas is for?
I’ve been testing the ChatGPT Atlas browser heavily in recent days. It’s already controversial, but I’m in the camp that likes it. Of course, this is Chromium with a ChatGPT button bolted on. But that’s the point: helping eliminate app switching that I was constantly doing anyway. Of course, it’s not the real web experience, but who said OpenAI was pretending to offer the classic web as we’ve known it over the last 30 years? Continue reading →
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If ChatGPT could read RSS feeds for summarization and other tricks, it would probably be a game-changer for me. Inoreader offers such a thing, but it’s a paid addition on top of an already rather expensive subscription.
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MCP support is coming soon to Craft. They are taking a more cautious approach than Notion’s. Oh, and APIs are also coming, too. I like that. We will see how things go. So far, it’s fun to play with.
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In “Creative neglect: What about the apps in Apple?” Joe Rosensteel from SixColors discusses the lack of attention and updates for Apple’s creative apps. Of particular interest to me: Photomator. It didn’t receive meaningful updates since its acquisition. Don’t get me started with the Apple Intelligence support, it’s a gimmick. At the same time, I’m afraid of the Liquid Glass treatment Photomator will eventually get. It’s a strange vibe, not to be excited about any impending updates.
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Using ChatGPT Atlas for my personal browsing activities offers an unexpected plus: at the end of the day I can ask to summarize my browsing activities and group them by subjects and themes. It’s very cool.😎 But is it secure? 👀
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Hot Take on ChatGPT Atlas - More Thoughts
The new ChatGPT web browser integration enhances workflows and simplifies tasks, potentially reducing reliance on the Mac client. Continue reading →
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Hot Take on ChatGPT Atlas
The integration of ChatGPT with the new browser offers a promising combination of features that may enhance the browsing experience. Continue reading →
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Thinking of subscribing to VSCO pro plan. Just for fun. This would be the third photo-sharing service that I use. But it feels so different than Glass and Pixelfed. It’s all about filters!
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I’ve just noticed that YouTube appears to offer an “Ask” button for each video, as shown in this screenshot. I tried it twice and found the summary quite clear and helpful. The consequence is profound: I didn’t watch the videos. As someone who creates videos, I’m pondering the implications for my and all other video creators.
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As reported by 9to5Mac:
“Apple will be leaning into the vertical stack of Apple TV in Apple TV on Apple TV”
All bets are on the table.
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It’s sad to see Micro Social being abandoned. Are there other ways? Why not make the source code open source? Or sell it? Can someone take over the development?
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As reported by 9to5Mac, AltStore is to support Fediverse with its own Mastodon instance:
AltStore is embracing ActivityPub and the fediverse, with its own Mastodon server, allowing developers and users to have a more direct channel of communication and interaction.
This is, among other things, what we are missing with Apple’s tight control on its App Store.
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For a few reasons, I’m tempted to subscribe to… The Verge. This would be the first such case of subscribing to a news site. I kind of like the site design and content; there is a community vibe if commenters are any indication. However, even as a subscriber, I may still receive ads served to me. 😑 Anyone subscribing to The Verge here? Thoughts?
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OpenAI unveiled some impressive developments today at their developer conference, including apps in ChatGPT and Agent Builder. I’m much more impressed by this than by Sora. 👀
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Weirdly, Apple Music Replay are web-only…. even when using music.apple.com, Replay is located on a separate website.
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Using My M4 iPad Pro (iPadOS 26.1b1) With An External Display - Observation #3
Doing serious work on the iPad now feels… exhausting. The efforts that you have to deploy to avoid the too many paper cuts is exhausting. I don’t know who, at Apple, is working on Files.app but the team should get in touch with those who work (if they are still there) on the Mac Finder. I ended up doing many of the files management tasks on… the Mac. Photomator doesn’t work well with files located on a remote SMB share, apparently. Continue reading →
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Using My M4 iPad Pro (iPadOS 26.1b1) With An External Display - Observation #2
Working with Files.app is still very frustrating and unpredictable. For some reason, I cannot drag & drop a file from my iPad downloads folder to a specific folder (on my Synology). The only way to get around this is to go up in the folder hierarchy, drop it there then later move it inside the intended target folder. Also experienced one crash with numerous “Content Unavailable” conditions like shown on this screenshot. Continue reading →
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Using My M4 iPad Pro (iPadOS 26.1b1) With An External Display - Observation #1
I just started a one-hour work session with my M4 iPad Pro connected to an external display (LG 5K Ultra Fine) running iPad OS 26.1 beta 1. I should probably update this article I wrote more than a year ago: “Using the iPad With an External Display — Space Oddities”. Let’s see how it goes. First issue: I started writing this blog post in Micro.blog client. Sadly, Micro.blog’s iPad app is buggy with an external display: I cannot set the blog post category… the little gear icon is missing and iPadOS 26 menus aren’t supported, yet. Continue reading →