Apps & Services The RSS feed for Apps & Services.

  • Will we ever see some generative AI or AI-based features added to HEY Mail? 🧐

  • Adobe Lightroom for Mac is the best Mac app of the year? In light of Apple buying Pixelmator, I find this a bit surprising.

  • I got an email from Ghost to participate in the ActivityPub beta for my blog. I’m not sure how my blog will be named in the fediverse, but I can imagine being able to get comments from people here on Micro.blog and having those comments appear at the bottom of my blog posts. Will see soon enough.

  • For all Craft users out there looking or already using Craft Collections, I made a video about that this past weekend. It’s a longer-than-usual one, but the subject is dense.

  • I’m reading good comments about the new subscription from The Verge. I’m not a fan of their website design, but I do read their articles from time to time. I’m tempted to give it a try. Yet, “serving better ads” to subscribers is not exactly a turn on. 🤷🏻‍♂️

  • I’ve seen a drastic increase in new followers on my Bluesky account (+50%) in the last 3 weeks while no new followers on Mastodon in the last six months. 🧐🤨

    I’m 90% of the time posting on both (from Micro.blog), like this post.

  • If only Bluesky had an iPad version of their mobile app. Is this in the works? (Posted from Micro.blog but asking the Bluesky community).

  • How does an app get updated on a weekly basis without any new features or apparent bug fixes? Exhibit A: Medium. Is someone trying to game the App Store?

  • Paying to Be a Beta Tester? Really?

    Paying to be a beta tester: is this a new trend? Glass Series was available to patron subscribers only while being in beta testing. RealMac Software offers Elements in beta as a subscription but at a reduced price. Active beta testers are actually paying of their time to use a software still being debugged and refined. Isn’t that enough? I understand that building software is hard and requires resources… but paying to be a beta tester seems to cross a line here. Continue reading →

  • I’ve been playing with Glass Series and I must say that I really like my experience with it so far. Series are like albums, like this example.

  • Bye bye Tot; I’m so in love with Raycast Notes!

  • This year, as I explained in this article, I completed a migration from Adobe to Photomator. I rarely use Pixelmator Pro, but I’m a fan of Photomator. I hope this week’s news won’t make me regret my decision.

  • So, Apple is buying Pixelmator, the maker of my now beloved photo-editing app: Photomator. My fingers are crossed for Apple to not to fuck this up. But, business-wise, if they have FinalCul Pro, it makes sense they do it for photo-edition too. Next up: podcast-editing software?

  • ChatGPT Search is probably the final nail in the coffin for my usage of Google Search (and maybe Kagi Search too). Still testing and exploring the feature.

  • Bye Bye Omnivore, It Was a Short Nice Run

    Omnivore’s future is not looking good, following the announcement received by email yesterday night, by one of the founder himself. Omnivore was the best read-later service after Matter and Pocket, two services I didn’t really like or were too expansive. But now, with Omnivore’s future and slow demise, I’m getting fed up with those one-man-shop open-source projects. Pixelfed is another one that I’m getting tired of1. So, I’m going to refocus on Inoreader for read-later functionality and text highlights. Continue reading →

  • For those using macOS 15.1 and have enabled Apple Intelligence, have you noticed a spike in your Mac CPU usage when requesting Apple Intelligence to proofread text? The longer the text, the more pronounced the spike. The CPU will reach 100% for a moment before slightly decreasing before receiving a response. Interestingly, I couldn’t identify an AI-related process associated with this spike. Instead, the kernel_task process is the one who consumes the CPU cycles. Apparently, Apple Intelligence runs in the kernel space.

  • Bye Bye 1Password, Hello Apple Passwords.

    I’ve finally completed the arduous migration from 1Password and canceled my subscription. I didn’t encounter any issues with 1Password transitioning to an Electron-based application. While it was an excellent and overkill solution for managing my passwords and secrets, I generally prefer integrated solutions for fundamental products or features like password management. Is Apple Passwords the perfect solution? No, but it’s more than adequate for my needs. One positive outcome of this migration is an enhanced security posture, as I had to revisit many credentials and enable two-factor authentication for numerous services. Continue reading →

  • This morning, I’ve been experimenting with Apple Intelligence writing tools using a beta version of Ulysses. Initially, I’m torn between my feelings. The requirement to select specific text to activate the writing tools disrupts my writing flow. On the other hand, I find Grammarly’s continuous monitoring of my writing more preferable. I suspect Apple prefers the intentional nature of this feature over feeling constantly tracked.

  • On Using Notion AI

    Today I decided to give a serious try to Notion AI to support my study of some Microsoft Azure materials. So far, I’m liking it a lot. Basic workflow goes like this: I visit the webpage, save it to Notion using a browser extension, then upon archival of the content, I ask Notion AI for a summary that is inserted at the beginning of the page. I read it then I read the actual original content. Continue reading →

  • I love what Inoreader just released. Massive.