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On Apple's Freeform and Tools Palettes
Freeform, the visual and collaborative application from Apple, is finally out for the iPad, the Mac and⊠I spent some time with it on the iPad and found it enjoyable and deceptively minimalistic. On the Mac, once updated to Ventura 13.1, Freeform can be used to continue working on the content, albeit with a different set of tools, since there is no Apple Pencil support over there. One question is, why is the tools palette on the iPad different from the one with Apple Notes? Continue reading â
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Starting a Journey to My Twitter-Free Digital Life
After much thinking and due to recent events on Elon Musk’s Twitter, I’m starting to put together a plan for phasing Twitter out of my digital life entirely. The journey will be long, and I made it to be one of my goals for 2023. Twitter is well entrenched in my digital life. One example of this is the Mailbrew service that I’m subscribing to: sign in requires my Twitter account. Continue reading â
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Following Mastodon Users From Micro.blog
[@anildash@mastodon.cloud](https://micro.blog/anildash@mastodon.cloud) I've been improving our ActivityPub support in Micro.blog. Just posted a video earlier today that you might find interesting: www.youtube.com/watch Manton Reece https://micro.blog/manton/14888307 Thanks to this video, I understand that I can follow Mastodon users right from Micro.blog. Continue reading â
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When Ukraine Is Home of Great Software Makers
I recently wrote my satisfaction about Readdleâs Documents.app on-boarding experience on the iPad. Now Iâm reading about Sparkâs cleverness take on emails. Without being as opinionated as Hey.com, Spark is a serious professional email client. Readdleâs home is Ukraine đșđŠ too. Iâm considering integrating both software in my toolset. All good reasons to show some support to them. Continue reading â
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Welcome to the TwitterDump
I’m not a Qwitter. I don’t think I’ll ever close my Twitter account. But, there will be a day where I no longer post original content on Twitter, only cross-posting stuff from other sources. That day, I’ll refer to Twitter as the TwitterDumpâą. Continue reading â
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Another Day, Another Rabbit Hole
Well, I almost forgot about it. Today I received my invite to start testing Post.news; another potential exit door from Twitter. From what I’m seeing, there is already quite a few people in there and I like the posting experience so far. It’s way easier to setup than anything Mastodon-related. Yeah, I know, it’s not the “federated” & “open web” et al., but hey, it’s not Elon Musk’s Twitter! Continue reading â
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The Most Divisive Mac Pro Is a Thing of Beauty
This week, a new Mac joined the family. The 2013 Mac Pro. I always dreamed of owning one. Itâs probably one of the most singular Macs Apple has ever designed. Yes, it has limited expansion. Yes, it is not the Pro Mac that the pros wanted back in 2013. Yes, you need to unplug everything from the machine to open it up. Itâs borderline baffling. But this hardware piece, just like the monolith in the 2001 Space Odyssey movie, seems to come from an alien planet, far from earth. Continue reading â
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Glass Is Evolving Nicely
Itâs good to see Glass introduce new methods for discovering photos on its platform. I would love to see percentages relative to each camera and smartphone brand. Searching by lenses tells us that Nikon is way behind Canon regarding diversity and representation. Canât wait for Glassâs next move. Continue reading â
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The Password-Less Future Looks Bright and Secure
For the first in years, I just bought something from eBay. Man, this website design sucks and seems to date back to the early web. Is there anyone who cares about design at eBay? Anyway, they do care about security, though. Upon logging in with my password this morning, there was a popup asking me if I wanted to get rid of my password. I thought it was the eBay website that was about to turn on the Touch ID but instead asked me to confirm the passkey creation. Continue reading â
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Upgraded to MarsEdit 5.0...
Because native software is cool. Because indie developers are cool. Because it supports Micro.blog but not Twitter. Because it is cheap. Because itâs a small company. Because their new Micropost (markdown) editor is nice, perfect for posting on Micro.blog. It is frictionless. Micropost & micro.blog, any coincidence? Mmmm. Anyways⊠itâs a great update that Iâm currently testing. Returning to normal programming. Written from the couch, on my M1 MacBook Air. Continue reading â
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Twitterâs Essentials
I read about so many people flocking to Mastodon, leaving Twitter behind. I actually started to see a definitive decline in my followers number. Something is really going on. I myself started to think about the possibility of leaving the platform too. Just like I did with Facebook, Flickr, and Tumblr, only to leave a place where my content is simply cross-posted from another source without a real and active presence of mine. Continue reading â
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Clear Thoughts on a Confusing iPad Lineup
There we have it, a new iPad, a new iPad Pro, joining a growing and more confusing iPad lineup than ever. I wonât repeat the best comments from MacStories (âApple Announces Strange New iPad and iPad Pro Lineupâ) and Six Colors (âThe iPadâs erratic odyssey continuesâ). How are this weekâs announcements influencing my buying decisions? Iâm currently using a 2018 11-inches iPad Pro. Going to the 2022 M2 iPad Pro would be a significant step, at least from a processing power perspective. Continue reading â
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Adobe, Lightroom and the Camera
The Adobe Max conference was held this week. With each conference comes a slew of new application update releases. Iâm not really into Adobe ecosystem except for using Adobe Lightroom on the Mac and the iPad Pro. This is my main photo processing engine, coupled with the excellent Pixelmator Pro. For About a year, Adobe spent some of its development money to âaugmentâ Lightroom, a photo-processing application, with video-processing features. Continue reading â
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On This AI-Generated Podcast Interview Between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs
What. The. Fuck. This podcast example about a fake interview between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs is a blatant example of where some more thoughts should take place before putting high tech to work. What is the purpose of this? Is this a tech demo or some bad-taste proof-of-concept? It’s not hard to imagine how it could derail in the future when used in politically-heated contexts. Oh, and no, I didnât waste my time listening to this garbage, and I wonât share the link to this podcast, either. Continue reading â
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When the iPad Is No Longer a Novel Device
As I write this, rumours are pointing to an imminent release of some updated iPads today. What is novel this time is not the CPU to be used, the screen attributes, or the long-awaited app called Freeform. What is novel is the fact that there wonât be an Apple event for the announcement but a few well-crafted press releases. Apple judges the updates as not worth tech punditsâ time, flight to Cupertino, or even a secret press briefing. Continue reading â
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The Waiting Game
In case you didnât know, Iâm a big fan of Apple (from the corporation, the products to the companyâs history). Hereâs a little secret: I maintain a document of possible upgrade paths for all my current Apple products. Itâs fun. Yes, Iâm a bit crazy. Each year, during the fall, Apple releases a slew of new products. Each year, I spend some time updating my document to reflect my analysis of possible product upgrades. Continue reading â
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On the Dynamic Island Inception and Possible Future
A recent Twitter thread about the possible iPhone Dynamic Island inception by Matt Birchler caught my attention a few days ago but couldn’t find the required time to write my take. How long could Dynamic Island have been in gestation at Apple? A few weeks, a few months? I think this has been in the works for quite some time. Besides the visual appearance, the API goes with it and needs a design period too. Continue reading â
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Press Releases it will be â Next Round of Apple Products Releases
The way I see it, there is nothing in an updated MacBook Pro line with M2 processors and a tweaked iPad Pro line to warrant a keynote. There has to be something special, really special. iPadOS 16.1, macOS Ventura aren’t enough. The rumoured Mac Pro? Maybe, but no signals on its imminent release either. An updated Apple TV hardware? Nah. A larger MacBook Air (like 15")? Why now? That is why I agree with Gurman’s view and the next product release will go through a set of press releases later in October. Continue reading â
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On Software Subscriptions
Tweetbot hasnât been updated for over 6 months, I thought a subscription was going to mean more frequent updates? Source: Letting my Glass and Tweetbot subscriptions expire â LJPUK: This blog post triggered the following thoughts. The movement to subscriptions in the software landscape is MASSIVE but is far from being a guarantee of more frequent updates from the developers. I’m utterly infuriated when I see a yearly subscription for a small utility with a limited scope when no “lifetime” options are offered with reasonable pricing. Continue reading â
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Let Apple Fix All Bugs, Will Ya?
MacRumors in iPhone 14 Pro Owners Complain of ‘Slow’ Camera App - MacRumors: Affected users are seeing the Camera app take four to five seconds to activate after the Camera app icon is tapped, with the problem occurring after the camera has been opened once already. Coupled with other issues related to the camera and AirDrop, even though I’ll probably upgrade to the 14 Pro Max, I’ll gladly wait a few months before taking the plunge. Continue reading â
