I keep seeing signs that using AI is becoming more and more expensive: reduced tokens budget for the same pricing might be a trend now.

As someone who’s pondering whether I can and should buy a Mac to develop native apps on it with Claude Code, this trend makes me pause a little bit. Hardware is now very expensive and if you add more pricing pressure on AI subscription this adds up.

One question that comes to my mind is: what capabilities a 20$ a month subscription of Claude buys me when developing native iPhone apps?

Daydreaming about my first native app for Apple devices, the super app for Micro.blog: why limit myself to support Micro.blog, why not also support, in the same app, Scribbles.page? Having a merged timeline and single post writing experience would be so cool. I wonder if @manton and @vincent are noticing…. .

Looking for an ARC Browser replacement in the next few weeks will be a hassle. In OS 27.3 betas, Safari is getting vertical tabs. Fine. Bookmarks management on Safari is weird. And is Safari’s rendering engine any good in 2026? What do I lose if I go the Google Chrome route? I don’t expect Google to add Siri AI features to Chrome unless the partnership with Apple ask for it. I still don’t see a viable alternative to the ARC Browser that is not buggy or laggy. What a pity in 2026.

I went far to get a chance to play with the iPhone Duo! Hello from Singapour’s airport where I stumbled on the Apple Store. The Duo is certainly a great piece of tech but boy this little buddy Has a learning curve to manipulate. I think the future of the iPhone franchise is bright and I can see many more models of this things. My wife wold love to get a bigger one, matching the iPad mini when unfolded. It will come.

Finishing packing up my bags for Thailand! It’s getting real. This is our last trip of the year after Egypt, Jordan, France and Mexico. We were on a roll to celebrate our twenty years anniversary together!

On a side note: I’m doing some tweaks to my Scribbles Poster mini web app to add image uploads… it will be useful. 🖼️👀

As we are getting ready for our trip, my wife and I has been using Siri AI more than usual for things that, frankly, I wasn’t sure would work. But 90% of the time, Siri AI accomplished the task. Example: fetching the Aeroplan number and flight reservations numbers to fill a flight registration form in Safari. We couldn’t do that before with the older Siri. It’s encouraging.

Finishing packing up my bags for Thailand! It’s getting real. This is our last trip of the year after Egypt, Jordan, France and Mexico. My wife and I were on a roll to celebrate our twentieth anniversary together!

On a side note: I’m doing some tweaks to my Scribbles Poster mini web app to add image uploads… it will be useful. 🖼️👀

I like how Apple introduced touch-screen support on the new MacBook Pro. Sure, the company was under pressure to add it, but its framing is clever and bodes well for future MacBooks. Thanks to the switch to an OLED panel, Apple didn’t have to compromise on the screen or macOS to add touch support. It’s clear that Apple will move its MacBook line to OLED panels over the next few years, which should also bring touch support to the rest of the lineup. The iPad launched in 2010, sixteen years ago; people entering higher education in the next few years can reasonably expect their laptops to support touch.

When buying a new Mac, you can have only one trade-in. I plan to return my M2 MacBook Air which offers a greater trade-in value than my Mac mini. I’ll either try to sell the latter myself or keep it, in last resort, to act as some home server. Keyboard wear is easy to notice by a potential buyer but Apple doesn’t seem to care too much. But Mac minis are a harder sell, so there is that.

Apple has long been known for the best trackpad on its laptops, with great OS-level support, so it didn’t need to add touch support to its screens. The trackpad is a solved problem, and it has been for a long time; what’s left? Add touch support to the screen with a great OS-level touch implementation, because they knew how; they’ve been doing it on the iPad since 2010.