We went for another walking session in Zagreb after the rain finally went on pause in the second half of the afternoon. We visited another portion of the city before ending up near the restaurant where we planned to have dinner, a Sri Lanka restaurant called “Curry Bowl” which again was rated five stars. It was absolutely delicious. But just before going for the dinner we stopped at a little bar because the rain started again. Continue reading →

I’m currently writing this from our room as there are some heavy showers outside. We had a chance to walk a lot since morning in Zagreb and had a great lunch at the restaurant called “Heritage” which is close to our B&B. It’s a very small place where only maybe ten people can have lunch at the same timee (counting those 3 tables outside!). They make absolutely great sandwiches with Croatian ingredients (ham, truffle spread, local cheese, etc. Continue reading →

First full day in Croatia. It is the morning here in Zagreb. Yesterday, we arrived and spent the first few hours wandering in the city center where all the night life is happening. It was the time to spot the places that we were to revisit later (today). We were tired following our two flights by night. There was a soccer match at 9PM and people were quite excited and were looking forward to it. Continue reading →

The CEO of the company I work for (450 employees) called me today over Microsoft Teams because he was seeking for help and explanations for a problem with repeated authentification requests when using Microsoft 365 services on his devices (an iPhone, an iPad). He wasn’t sure why he was getting that many requests. After calling the IT department for support, he was baffled by the responses he got for his problem: reboot your phone, uninstall Apple Mail and re-install, that type of shitty responses. Continue reading →

In a week, I’ll be preparing to fly to Croatia for a three-week vacation with my wife. I’m still considering several aspects of the trip. How much blogging should I do during this time? Should I stay quiet and focus entirely on my vacation and photography? What camera equipment should I bring? Should I bring my MacBook Air in addition to my iPad Pro? I need to decide the right balance between being present in the moment and documenting the journey through my blog. Continue reading →

Apple announced a significant development at this year’s WWDC: the creation of its own cloud infrastructure named “Private Cloud Compute” for securely handling certain Apple Intelligence requests. As an IT professional working in data center technologies, I have a few questions that remain unanswered even after watching John Gruber’s The Talk Show Live: What CPU is used in each server? I wonder if Apple is utilizing high-end versions of its Apple Silicon chips. Continue reading →

Microsoft is recalling “Recall” after all, and this makes them look rather bad. This happens on the same week of Apple revealing Apple Intelligence which received a more positive set of reactions. We are witnessing two different approaches to the challenge of intelligently integrating generative AI prowess to the base operating system. These two events couldn’t be more evocative of how different Apple and Microsoft strategy and culture are. Guess which approach I prefer? Continue reading →

If Apple Intelligence1 requires a new generation of hardware to be fully appreciated, I would be surprised and be a little sad. My expectation would be that last year’s generation of hardware should be, at the minimum, enough. Otherwise, it might send a wrong message that even current Apple Silicon isn’t enough to power generative AI-based experience. How could this be, after all, Apple always brag about its silicon superiority. Tim Cook said that their silicon was their current competitive edge… but was he referring to future chips only? Continue reading →

“Apple will put a major emphasis on AI at its upcoming WWDC, as the company aims to catch up to competitors in this rapidly evolving space. While Apple’s approach has been more measured, the pressure is on to provide a clear growth narrative, which its AI initiatives may struggle to directly deliver. Unlike Microsoft and NVIDIA, Apple does not have an obvious path to monetize AI, instead focusing on using the technology to enhance its existing products and services. Continue reading →

Using templates in office work can sometimes be counterproductive, leading to less original thinking, reduced engagement, and fewer creative problem-solving opportunities. Templates can make it easy to fall into a routine of just filling in blanks, resulting in more generic outputs and a checkbox mentality. This reliance on templates can also make it challenging to adapt and innovate when a task doesn’t fit the template. To keep creativity and innovation alive, it’s helpful to use templates as a starting point while encouraging team members to think critically and adapt as needed. Continue reading →

The new M4 iPad Pro, with its repositioned FaceID camera, feels like a step backward compared to the 2018 iPad Pro. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but I frequently receive prompts to enter my PIN due to failed FaceID attempts. Swiping up to unlock the device momentarily covers the camera and sensors, disrupting the process. While Apple may have enhanced the FaceTime experience, the unlocking experience has become more frustrating. Continue reading →

This is my second narrated blog post on Micro.blog. It seems to me that writing for sharing as a text-only post triggers different strings for me than writing for a narrated text post. It feels strange because this isn’t a podcast episode. There is no introduction, no conclusion. No background music either. Yet, I find this cool because this is going to be available also to my podcast subscribers. Because of that, I call this an audiocast since the textual transcription (the writing) is done before the audio recording. Continue reading →

Mac computers are fast and have impressive battery life. Mac Studio with the M4 Ultra ship can wait. The iPad is fast too, potentially surpassing the performance of many Mac computers. It is thin also. Really thin. We get it. The iPhone is fast, light, thin and features excellent camera capabilities. Enough of incremental updates. That is why I do not want new Apple hardware at the upcoming WWDC conference, even if it was a home router, a la AirPort. Continue reading →

The upcoming Windows 11 AI ‘Recall’ feature, which is designed to take regular screenshots of a user’s PC content to help them find past information, has been called a security disaster by a security researcher. According to the expert, Kevin Beaumont, the Recall feature is essentially an “infostealer” that can be exploited by hackers to access sensitive data, such as user interactions, text messages, passwords, and websites visited. Despite Microsoft’s attempts to improve the security of Recall, the researcher claims the feature will “set cybersecurity back a decade by empowering cybercriminals” as the underlying database can be accessed through malware-infected PCs. Continue reading →

Hi everyone. I might be late to the party, but I finally sat down for a few minutes to test Micro.blog’s new feature: narrated blog posts. It is strange because this is my first use and I cannot write a full review because as I’m writing this, my audio recording is still not done, and I don’t know how is the audio attachment and processing will actually work. It might be similar to when I post a new podcast episode. Continue reading →

I’m experiencing an rather frustrating issue with my M4 iPad Pro: I’m experimenting with an external displayy (LG 4K UltraFine) with a thunderbolt cable. Everything works fine until the iPad starts acting up and disable the external display. It’s like if the cable was being disconnected and reconnected every few seconds. A restart of the iPad fixes the issue for a little while. Very frustrating to say the least. Probably a bug with iPadOS 17. Continue reading →

After spending half an hour in the Apple Store comparing iPads with and without the nano-texture display, I came to the conclusion to skip the nano-texture display and here are the reasons why: The display doesn’t provide a paper-like sensation when using the Apple Pencil. There is a subtle difference in image sharpness. The blacks are less complete blacks, which cancels the OLED screen advantage. The contrast seems to be a little bit lower on the nano-texture display. Continue reading →

Finally got the new iPad Pro: 11-inch, 512GB of storage, which means “only” 8GB of system RAM and no nano-texture display. I made the decision after spending 45 minutes testing the new iPad. The nano-texture display is super nice to the touch, but it does reduce image crispiness. With the Apple Pencil, that texture doesn’t really reproduce a paper-like feeling. That, I could add that later with Paperlike for iPad when it becomes available. Continue reading →

I really liked the OpenAI short keynote, especially the few jabs at Google. What OpenAI is doing is simply mind-blowing. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all this. What isn’t clear, though, is as a paying member of ChatGPT, why would I continue to subscribe if I don’t use the live translation? One last thing: Siri looks like a prehistoric bot. Apple has to do something about this, and fast. Continue reading →

VMware is no longer synonym of IT innovations. Now, it has because the new Microsoft of the nineties: it is about licensing costs and tricks. Let me elaborate a little bit more. The EU is going after Apple and Google and Meta these days with fierce energy and determination. It’s all good1. But what is currently happening right now in IT world with the Broadcom merger with VMware is absolutely criminal2. Continue reading →