David Sparks from MacSparky expresses his disappointment with the usability of Apple Watch faces since the original model was released in 2015. This resonates with me a lot. Using the Series 10 and I use essentially the same watch face, all the time: utility, because it’s the most readable. A possible solution to this conundrum? David Sparks’ suggestion:

Even better would be an Apple Watch Face Store, where classic watch makers and indie designers can sell digital versions of their iconic dials. Apple could take a cut, we’d get endless variety, and everyone would win.

I think this could help move the needle with sales of the Apple Watch while taking a cut, something Apple is well-known for… 😒

I just spent some time trying to find the payment provider for a specific app that charged me the wrong amount (paddle.net, which I won’t name). I realized I used different emails for different apps, so my purchases are scattered across those addresses. It’s a mess and hard to manage. The Apple App Store has many questionable rules, but having one place to manage purchases and subscriptions is invaluable.

Five years ago. COVID was hitting hard after two months of confinement. Distant memories already. Hard to believe. I still wear emotional injuries from that time. It wasn’t easy, and nothing really returned to normal since then. With current geopolitical events, things seems different and somewhat worse to some degree. Difficult times, indeed.

I’m going for a trip in southern Europe at the end of next week for two weeks. I’ll visit Italy and Spain from a cruise ship and the many stops that are planned. I’m still undecided as to what device should I bring: my iPad or my MacBook Air? The former is highly portable and much lighter, but the latter would allow me to spend more time learning Elements during flight time. I may be overestimating how much free time I’ll have to use these things… 🥴🤷🏻‍♂️

Thinking right now: people love to consume content the closest to their platform of choice. People on Substack wants to consume content over there, people on Medium, the same, on Medium. That’s why the idea of manually cross-posting my newsletter to Substack often comes back haunting me. This newsletter is currently only available from Ghost (and RSS + email, of course).

ChatGPT. ChatGPT APIs. Notion AI. Inoreader Intelligence Reports. Raycast AI. Perplexity AI. I may have forgotten a few others¹.

Just spent 10 minutes on Glass, just browsing and glancing at other people’s work, and I was blown away by the quality of photos that you can find there. I discovered many great photographers this morning that will brighten my view of the world. I would argue that Glass is probably THE best and most successful photo-sharing service of all that I experienced in my life.

I finally found the subject and inspiration for my next YouTube video: how people can interact with Micro.blog users. In it, I’ll explain how posts can be cross-posted to other platforms and how people can reply to them, keeping the discussion ongoing even from seemingly different platforms.

While revisiting my writing projects pipeline, I found this unfinished blog post. It’s a bucket list. It was inspired by Manton Reece’s Revisiting 43 Things blog post. Recent comments in italic.

1. Rent a country house for the whole summer, outside Canada — I would have been in the US, but this plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
2. Get my house renovated — Completed!
3. Do another trip with my two sons — TBD.
4. Return to California to see the new Apple headquarters — This plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
5. Visit Chicago — This plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
6. See the launch of a rocket from Space X — Fuck Elon Musk.
7. Return to Iceland — Most probable.

Given the current political environment, I must carefully reconsider each item on this list and remove the ones that will not happen.

“👋 I’m a tech veteran by trade, creative by heart. With 30+ years in IT — from data centers to cloud, storage, and security — I help businesses build smarter, more resilient infrastructures. But when the day job ends, my creative side kicks in.

I’m a lifelong Apple fan, blogger, photographer, and content creator who loves blending tech with design. Whether I’m exploring the latest in cybersecurity, testing new apps, or writing about digital privacy, I bring a thoughtful eye and a creative edge.

I believe staying curious — and staying creative — is the best way to thrive in a tech-driven world.”

Not bad.

Read later service for me should have these features and attributes.

1. Be cloud-based to enable access and syncing across different devices and platforms.
2. Support metadata (tags, folders & description).
3. Offer a well-designed share sheet implementation on iOS and iPadOS.
4. Offer a great browser extension.
5. Offer a native mobile application.
6. It should work well with my go-to RSS reader, Inoreader.
7. Be good at data mobility. In other words, it offers a data export option.
8. Support article summarization with generative AI.
9. Should be free if possible.
10. It must support all Apple platforms.

Inoreader check them all.

Intriguing new product coming from the makers of Craft: Chaps. It seems to be a conversational service where users can build their own AI-based agents. Not integrated with Craft in any way, at least for now. The demonstrated UI seems polished as we can expect from them, but sadly we don’t get to see how those agents are built. I think “Ch_apps_” would have been a better name than “Chaps”, though. I hope they don’t get too much distracted from Craft because it still needs a lot of work and long-lasting issues are yet to be addressed.

For some time now, I’ve had a question that keeps coming back to my mind because I often use Bluesky to express my distress or frustration against Trump, Musk, and the entire little clique of authoritarians at the head of the United States. If, in the near future, the situation in the U.S. deteriorates to the point where government groups start hunting down activists like me, who openly denounce Trump’s authoritarian policies and his inner circle, should I censor myself to avoid any form of persecution when I decide to return to the United States?

I fear the day when bloggers will be hunted down to silence them—or worse, to have them arrested in the name of disrespecting the American presidency. Is it precisely the presidency’s game to instill fear so they can continue their authoritarian actions by manipulating people like me?

BREAKING NEWS: a foldable iPad prototype was found on a table… at an IKEA store in Canada. The prototype was turned on and was running a special version of macOS Touch™. Tim Cook wants it back, but the guy who found set two conditions: you must resign because of Apple Intelligence fiasco, but before you must ask Trump to remove tariffs against Canada. Canadians can be nasty, too.

Here is an observation about Apple Intelligence (yet another one you might say?): Image Playground was announced at WWDC2024. It finally made its debut with iOS 18.2, in December 2024. Since then, we got iOS 18.3, now iOS 18.4 is in beta. Did Image Playground improved? A new image style was introduced, in 18.3, I think. Does it provide better results? Not really. Is it easier to use? Nope. On this subject, I must confess that I personally find Image Playground not to be the best UX Apple ever created. I find it clunky and not always intuitive to use. After two releases, Image Playground is basically the same. Isn’t it surprising, coming from a company who’s playing catch up in AI space? The same questions could apply to Writing Tools. I didn’t test text proofing with each release of Apple Intelligence, but I would bet that it didn’t really improve. Strange.

One quick question tonight: those people who worked for a government agency in the US and got laid-off by DOGE or anyone close to them or because of them, what are they doing now? Where will they find their purpose? I’m thinking about the scientists, social workers, phycologists, Are they going to work for the private sector or simply increase the unemployment rate? I mean, there are so many human dramas unfolding right now.

I’ve been an Apple fan since 1983, and everyone I know—my friends, colleagues, and family—understands my enthusiasm for the brand. Recently, they’ve been calling me more than ever to ask about my thoughts on Tim Cook’s support for Trump. “Apple is becoming like the others; what do you think?” they all inquire. I struggle to express my sadness about this situation. Tim’s poor judgment in supporting the Trump presidency is disappointing. I hope he regrets his decision. Until then, I want him to step down. It’s as simple as that.

The latest post from @gruber@mastodon.social about the delay of Apple Intelligence and the ongoing fiasco serves as a reminder that Apple needs to change soon. It’s another big red flag something is rotten at Apple. Should I mention that Tim Cook’s financial support for the Trump presidential inauguration, whether personal or not, was another mistake? Apple could have and should have acted differently than Meta, Amazon, and others. They did not. We had all the warning signs regarding Trump, and now Tim is associated with this nonsense. There is no possible excuse. It was a poor decision on Tim’s part.

I believe it’s time for Tim Cook to take responsibility and step down.

I love my 2024 iPad Pro, but there is a clear regression in hardware+software for palm rest detection. Each time I put my hand on the screen when taking notes using the Apple Pencil in Apple Notes, the content scrolls up, sometimes not by much, but sometimes quite a lot… I always need to lift my hand, reposition the content and try again. This is utterly frustrating; this is something that I never experienced with my 2018 iPad Pro… this is something that Apple used to be good at.

So many things changed since my previous update.

✉️ Mail Client: Fastmail

📨 Mail Server: Fastmail

📝 Notes: Craft + Apple Notes

✅ To-Do: Things 3

📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app

📚 Photo Management: Photos.app + Photomator

🗓️ Calendar: Calendar.app (Personal Life) + Fantastical.app (Work Life)

🗄️ Cloud file storage: iCloud

📰 RSS: Reeder connected to Inoreader

📇 Contacts: Contacts

🕸️ Browser: Mobile Safari + ARC Browser on Mac

🧠 AI: ChatGPT + Perplexity

🔎 Search: Kagi Search

💬 Chat: iMessage (WhatsApp when abroad)

🔖 Bookmarks: AnyBox

👓 Read It Later: Inoreader

📜 Word Processing: Ulysses, Craft

📊 Spreadsheets: Numbers

🛝 Presentations: Keynote

🛒 Shopping Lists: Reminders

🧑‍🍳 Meal Planning: None

💰 Budgeting & Personal Finance: Numbers

🗞️ News: La Presse (Apple News for English news)

🎶 Music: Apple Music

🎧 Podcasts: Apple Podcasts

🔐 Password Management: iCloud Keychain with Apple Passwords