As great looking and powerful the shinny new iPhone 12 Pro might be, I’ll skip the upgrade this year. Sure, I tend to skip a few generations but there is one unexpected reason not to do so and another one more obvious. First, the problem is because of the current pandemic, I cannot see when I’ll return traveling around the world. Traveling is the best photography opportunity for me. Without travel, working from home all the time, there is no need to get the latest smartphone technology. Second, 5G networks maybe powerful, but the coverage is spotty at best. I prefer to wait a year for this coverage to increase before making the jump on the new iPhone.

Last year I upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 11 Pro and I was delighted.

Yesterday, just like mostly everyday since March 13th of 2020, I went for a long walk with my wife. Both of us had their AirProds Pro with us. I had the idea to try the audio sharing feature of iOS 14 (introduced in iOS 13 if I’m not mistaken). We both put our AirPods in and I selected a playlist. Then, using the media playback UI, I selected the audio sharing option, waited for my wife’s AirPods to show up, after tapping this pair, she then had to accept my invitation and voilà! We both had music in our ears! It’s a great case of “It Just Works”, something that we see less and less often these days, I guess.

The rising popularity of paid newsletters is good news for many reasons. First, it’s a signal that people are willing to pay for great content without ads all around it. Second, some people value the direct relationship feeling with the writer compared to a traditional website. Third, the popularity of independent writing is rising which is giving back control to the writers.

In a recent article by Nick Heer on Pixel Envy, the author writes:

Yet, despite all of these clear advantages, I still find it difficult to think of my email inbox as somewhere I will go to find something enjoyable to read.

I find newsletters a wonderful medium that cut the noise from social networks. The reading experience can further be improved with a great email client like Basecamp’s Hey which provides a specific reading mode for newsletters call The Feed. You can read my review of this email client here.

Read more comments from Mr. Heer in his blog post. I started a newsletter a few weeks ago. For now and the foreseeable future, it will be free. I have to prove myself that I can meet the deadline every month with quality content. I’ll see how it goes.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Please, have a look at this ten seconds GIF to appreciate how bad the web experience is in 2020. This is the “iPhone in Canada” website. I won’t include the hyperlink in this post. There are 30 trackers in this web page according the Apple’s Safari. Thirty. This is just one example of so many more that illustrates what happens when you no longer care about the actual end-users.

I accidentally clicked on a link to this website and then I remembered why I stopped reading it a long time ago.

Here is a super interesting article from David Shayer on Tidbits about why there may never be third-party Apple Watch Faces. According to this software engineer who worked on the first two releases of watchOS, there may be four reasons why Apple probably won’t make a watch face store: battery life, buggy code, Apple’s image, copyright worries. Besides many interesting insights on watchOS development and testing, the reason that caught my attention is about Apple desire to control their image.

What is the killer app of the Apple Watch? The watch face, duh! Apple is an image control freak and I don’t think they want a watch face store full of crappy and bad taste designs to show up on users’ Apple Watch. They lost control of the App Store, they don’t want the same story to happen with the watch. And I agree with this position. But there could be some sort of compromise, though. As pointed out by Matt Birchler in his commentary post to Tidbits article:

“CarPlay is a great example of how Apple could do this right with watch faces: only allow a certain number of companies to make custom watch faces. have them sign additional agreements and have them go through tougher reviews. Maybe there are literally 10 companies who are able to make watch faces. Maybe Apple can reject a watch face simply because they don’t like how it looks.”

My guess is that Apple will look to add more watch faces through collaborative work, just like they did in watchOS 7 with the Artist watch face.

Photo by Daniel Korpai — Unsplasg

Bloomberg, via Mark Gurman, is reporting that Apple will hold another event in November for Apple Silicon Macs. Besides my comments yesterday on the opportunity for Apple to present redesigned Macs, having a separate event is a no brainer to me. This is a major transition for Apple and they certainly wants to get the message loud and clear.

If rumors are sound, Apple still have some time ahead to polish the upcoming macOS Big Sur release. As it is today, it is not ready for prime time. It may be the equivalent of the iOS 13 buggy release of this year. Even if Apple announces Macs in November, they could be ready to ship only in December, who knows, giving Apple even more time. Anyhow, I’m not is a rush to upgrade to Big Sur. Apps will have to follow the new look and feel and I’ll wait for them to be updated first. The list is long.

While many pundits still wonder which Mac Apple will start transitioning the platform to their shiny and speedy silicon, my attention is on something else. I’m wondering if Apple will take this opportunity to introduce redesigned machines. Let’s say they start with the MacBook Pro, could they use this occasion to reimagine the laptop? What about the iMac which is way overdue for a redesign?

There are two avenues for Apple. One in which they opt for continuity. The other is to make a bold statement and turn the page on the Intel-based era. If prefer the latter as I’d like to see what it looks like after the era of Jony Ive. It’s a golden opportinity IMHO. Besides my preference, Tim Cook’s Apple is conservative and they will probably opt for the former approach.

What do you think?

Here are a few quick comments on Deliveries 9.0 that came out recently. Deliveries 9 helped me track my Apple Watch Series 6 (read me review here).

As you know, Junecloud, the maker of Deliveries, switched to a subscription model with this release. I don’t really like this model but what can I do? Their pricing is fair and they give to previously paid users a six months break.

Version 9 brings refined visuals and more details tracking history among other things. The importation workflow has been updated and simplified too. Once delivered, package tracking can be archived forever. iOS 13’s dark mode is now supported but iOS 14 widgets aren’t yet. I think Deliveries is the perfect candidate to support widgets and I can’t wait to see what Junecloud will come up with in that regard.

All in all, as a long time user of Deliveries, I’m ok with this update albeit the switch to the subcription model. If it get’s more frequent feature additions, I’m ok with it, I guess.

At 99$ each, the HomePod mini would find a space on my desk for sure. I care more about size than Siri lacking intelligence with the HomePod. Being able to play music while I work without having to use headphones would be an improvement for me.

www.macrumors.com/2020/10/0…

Will there be anything left for Apple to announce next week at the Hi, Speed event? Thanks to leakers on the internet, probably not much. I can’t thank them enough for spoiling things, again.

There was a time where leaks helped people to adjust their buying decisions, but I feel they no longer fit that purposes. It is more like a search for some kind of fame.