Longer posts

December 6, 2025 9:18am

Numeric Citizen

Tony Fadell may seem like a nostalgic choice to replace Tim Cook at Apple, but the company’s current state suggests a focus on design, like during Steve Jobs’ era, could be more beneficial. Continue reading →

December 4, 2025 1:49pm

Numeric Citizen

I understand the enthusiasm for AI among certain groups of workers, especially in the field of information technology and more specifically software development. However, I believe that caution is necessary for most other categories of employment. Enthusiasm cannot simply be transferred systematically and literally to every domain, whether technological or not. Contexts differ greatly, professions are highly diverse, and even small variations in requirements can reduce the applicability of AI to nearly zero. Continue reading →

November 30, 2025 9:49pm

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Numeric Citizen

The piece) from Disassociated about being “freed from personal websites” thanks to algorithms and timelines really resonated with me. I’ve long believed that platforms are killing the web; they are not the web. I recently asked my son if he had ever considered having his own personal website—a blog, having a place outside the usual platforms. His immediate response was, “But what about discoverability?” Why I think that everything comes down to that: It’s always about beating the algorithms (hello SEO) so that we are “discovered”. Continue reading →

November 30, 2025 6:14pm

Numeric Citizen

Three years of ChatGPT. Time flies. A few thoughts on that are mandatory it seems. ChatGPT certainly turned things upside down not only for me as a writer but for many creators. The entire software industry also was turned things even more upside down. It’s hard to imagine what would have been software roadmaps or new features pipelines without generative AI. See? We almost forgot about what it was like before ChatGPT. Continue reading →

November 25, 2025 10:01pm

Numeric Citizen

I’ve been a long time user of AnyBox, after leaving Raindrop.io, and Pocket, but I was a light user until recently. I revisited the app thoroughly and now it’s sitting at the center of my newsletter preparation workflow. I love this app so much; it feels native, fully-featured, and offers the right information density. The only missing thing would be to have a cloud-based version… Continue reading →

November 25, 2025 9:50pm

Numeric Citizen

I ordered the wrong Paperlike for my iPad Pro, gave it to my wife, bought the right one, and noticed the new version installs better and feels smoother. Continue reading →

November 22, 2025 6:43pm

Numeric Citizen

I want this from Apple. Extracted from this surprising video about a fake Apple Event happening next Spring. This would be called Apple Home. I don’t like the name, but I do like the device. It is reminiscent of older Apple designs during the Apple //c and Macintosh era. Continue reading →

November 19, 2025 7:44pm

Numeric Citizen

I’m giving the iPad Pro with external display another try (under 26.2 b3). As far as I can see, it’s not all Apple’s fault if there are many paper cuts: third-party apps support with external display is lacking. Make no mistake: iPadOS 26.2 as come a long way… but iPad-only rules still make the iPad a bit too far from the macOS experience. Borderless-windows in dark mode makes it hard to distinguish which app is which. Continue reading →

November 16, 2025 9:23pm

Numeric Citizen

I have finally deleted my Zapier account after a few years of inactivity. It’s significantly more complicated than IFTTT and much more expensive. IFTTT is far from perfect. It seems to be stagnant even. But, for my needs, it’s ok. I have two applets: 1) Save all posts on my RSS superfeed into a **Day One **journal, 2) Save a link into a Google sheet of a YouTube video that I like. Continue reading →

November 2, 2025 12:52pm

Numeric Citizen

Apparently, if rumors are any indication, Apple’s next AI provider for integration into Apple Intelligence is Google’s Gemini, or a derivative of it. It would go along with Apple’s own LLM models running on Private Cloud Compute. I wonder if Google’s contribution is free for Apple or part of a larger deal, tied to the Google search agreement, where Google is the default search engine on the iPhone. Imagine that1, Apple probably said: “You know what, I’ll reduce your cost for this search deal, but you accept to build a specific version of Gemini LLM for use on Private Cloud Compute and develop a conduit for Gemini on-device that integrates with Apple Intelligence. Continue reading →

October 31, 2025 6:08am

Numeric Citizen

I tend to be super loyal. I’ve been an Apple fan forever (read “The Roots of my Passion for Apple”), even though there are things that put me off (too many to list here). The same is slowly happening with OpenAI. I’ve tested alternative services but always come back to OpenAI’s offerings. They’re far from perfect—just like Apple—both from a corporate point of view and in terms of products and services. Continue reading →

October 30, 2025 6:40am

Numeric Citizen

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 →

October 21, 2025 9:09pm

Numeric Citizen

The new ChatGPT web browser integration enhances workflows and simplifies tasks, potentially reducing reliance on the Mac client. Continue reading →

October 21, 2025 7:58pm

Numeric Citizen

The integration of ChatGPT with the new browser offers a promising combination of features that may enhance the browsing experience. Continue reading →

October 12, 2025 6:49pm

Numeric Citizen

Modern software complexity has impacted Apple’s quality, revealing that challenges arise not from negligence, but from the scale and interconnectedness of its diverse platforms. Continue reading →

October 4, 2025 4:05pm

Numeric Citizen

One of the most frustrating and hard-to-understand behaviours in the new iPadOS 26 multitasking is when iPadOS, for some reason, breaks all the running apps and window arrangements. I often find myself in need of relaunching the apps and doing window placement to my liking. Again, iPadOS 26 is exhausting to use. I think this happens if I disconnect the external display. Restoring computing state is a basic principle in UI and UX design. Continue reading →

October 4, 2025 9:54am

Numeric Citizen

Locking the iPad while the iPad is using an external display is brutal. Dragging an app from the built in display to an external display is also brutal, forcing a full app content redraw, nothing compared to the Mac experience. I couldn’t record the experience with screen recording, so I used my iPhone. Continue reading →

October 4, 2025 9:30am

Numeric Citizen

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 →

October 4, 2025 8:55am

Numeric Citizen

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 →

October 4, 2025 8:28am

Numeric Citizen

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 →