A few weeks ago, I wrote about the TestFlight App Store and how cool it was. The guy behind it, Jordan Singer, is also on Substack. I’m already a big fan of his work. As a former indie iOS developer (2009-2013), I find it interesting to see other people’s ideas, work and initiatives. This guy is on a roll and tests some App Store review process boundaries, which is more than needed these days. Continue reading →

Who is winning between Apple’s M1 chip and Intel’s Tiger Lake chip? Well, if benchmarks are to be believed, Apple is winning, by a wide margin. The results are pretty worrisome for Intel which seems incapable to go beyond a 10 nm process. Intel will become the emblematic image of inefficient processors for years to come. Dell, HP et al. should be worried too because they are in the exact same position Apple was just before their M1 announcement. Continue reading →

Let’s put it straight: Apple’s Shortcuts are the weirdest, most cumbersome and utterly frustrating thing to build, test and eventually use. I cannot count how many hours I spent trying to understand their intricacies and most useful use cases. As much as I want to get empowered by them, it often ends in frustration. Here is why. You cannot disable old shortcuts that are no longer used but that you want to keep as a reference. Continue reading →

Let’s set the tone: Adobe software, Lightroom in particular, is not a very efficient piece of software to use on the Mac… even on a higher-end configuration. Recent updates in the last year or so tried to improve things a little bit, but there is still a long way to go. It’s not clear why Lightroom Classic is so bad. Is it because it is a multi-platform software? Probably. If so, we pay the price at every single use. Continue reading →

Today I sold my oldest Mac in the house: a 24 inches 2007 iMac running El Capitan. When I look at this computer, I see many similarities with the current iPad Pro design: round bezels, boxy frame. I hope Apple will return to this design, albeit in a refreshing way, for their upcoming M1-based iMac. Now, waiting for my M1-based Mac mini. 24 days before adding another piece to my long story with Apple products. Continue reading →

Just bought a Mac utility: HazeOver! How come I didn’t know about this one?? What is it? It’s a small utility which helps bring better focus to the active application on your Mac. It does this by dimming the out-of-focus application windows. It works with multiple displays. If you prefer to work in Light mode over Apple’s Dark Mode, it will make things a lot easier on your eyes. Think of it as a visual compromise. Continue reading →

Another excellent Twitter thread about the M1 chip. This time, it is a comparison with the AMD Ryzen. From a thermal design power, the M1 chip is simply unique and unmatched. On a per-core basis, top of the line AMD Ryzen chip and Apple’s M1 chip are of equal performance. On top of that, the M1 chip is much more than a standard CPU. Oh, and it is only the beginning. Continue reading →

There is a lot to like from this short video showing vivo’s OrigiOS in action. Expandable widgets, user-adjusted widget size, dynamic content, super clean animations, a few touches of skeuomorphism where it counts, dynamic icons, immediate feedback on touch, all those things which are lacking on iOS home screen could see the light if Apple choose to. Widgets 1.0 were long to come for us, iPhone and iPad users, but here they are. Continue reading →

In a blog post “Your Move, iPad”, by Becky Hansmeyer, the author asks “So if raw power isn’t enough, and new display tech isn’t enough, where does the iPad go from here? Will it be abandoned once more, lagging behind the Mac in terms of innovation, or will Apple continue to debut its latest tech in this form factor?” In light of the massively successful M1-powered Macs, what can we infer for the future of the iPad Pro? Continue reading →

Here is a super fascinating Twitter thread that I reproduce here. Find the original tweets here. It’s is about Apple Silicon wizardry. For techy people only! “In case you were wondering: Apple’s replacement for Intel processors turns out to work really, really well. Some otherwise skeptical techies are calling it “black magic”. It runs Intel code extraordinarily well. The basic reason is that Arm and Intel architectures have converged. Yes, the instruction sets are different, but the underlying architectural issues have become very similar. Continue reading →

After Apple announced their M1-based Macs and people started to get their hands on them, reactions were enthusiatic and unanimous. At one point, I wanted to create an archive page that would have gathered the most interesting reactions, but it was too late and overwelming. Well, someone else did it. Here is a great blog post: “Apple Silicon M1: Black. Magic. Fuckery” gathering reactions to these new machines from Apple. There are many gems in there. Continue reading →

Apple this year is back with a long and… weird (?) Christmas ad. I must say that’s a quite different and ordinary one compared to previous years. It’s no longer about touching hearts but just having fun and selling you something. This doesn’t reasonate as much with me as it used to. Contrary to previous years, Apple is focusing on one product, the HomePod mini. Again, I prefer when they don’t try to sell us something this way. Continue reading →

Following my read of this article published by Macworld, the propect of a Mac nano looks more than possible. It is inevitable. Apple’s focus this year was on the internals but I expect them to switch to the outside on the next iterative evolution of the Mac mini. Besides physical compatibility reasons, a much smaller Mac mini, close to the size of an Apple TV for example could be in store. Continue reading →

According to an article published by SixColors, M1-based Macs offer a much different and improved boot and recovery options. Looking at the picture below, and I noticed the same while testing Big Sur, the icon for the boot disk is one showing an old mechanical HDD, not an electronic SSD. Was Apple feeling nostalgic when they designed this icon? Continue reading →

Read on Twitter today: “Notion widgets are only for iOS 14 for now. We’ll get there, Android 😓 Our mobile team is heads down on offline mode right now, but we learned a lot during development that we can use for an Android widget down the road. Thanks for your patience in the meantime 🙏” - Notion. Widgets came to Android in 2008-2009. What am I missing here? How ironic is this? Continue reading →

A lot has been written on Apple switch to their own processors already. But one side of the story is still lacking some insight. Apple is probably saving a lot of money by putting their own Apple silicon in each Mac they sell. According to this Medium article, Apple could save at least $2 billion a year with just three entry level MacBook sporting the M1 chip. We can only try to approximate the amount of money Apple is no longer paying to Intel. Continue reading →

Here is a simple theory. This year’s MacBook didn’t bring an upgrade to the FaceTime HD camera, and unanimously, people is complaining. But what if this lack of attention to the very specific feature from Apple is part of a bigger plan for next year’s MacBook? Here is my guess. Apple is targeting next year for the real deal: the full redesign of the MacBook line to be announced around WWDC 2021. Continue reading →

On Substack, I recently stumble on an interesting article from https://apple.substack.com: when Apple introduces a new round of Macs next year, what if they keep previous generation around but at a lower price point? It’s a highly possible scenario considering how Apple under Tim Cook operates. The iPhone models multiplication, same is happening with the watch…. next, the Mac? Probably. Is this a good thing? For their bottom line probably, yes, but for the customers? Continue reading →

Following of new round of benchmarks from MacRumors, my take outs are: 16 GB is (much) better than 8 GB from a speed point of view (well, duh!), the Mac mini is the best most of the time with a few exception (slower than MBP on SSD write speed is one such exemple, hard to explain). Adobe Lightroom Classic doesn’t take advantage of the RAM difference, which is not surprising to me (thanks to multiplatforms Adobe’s software) You can get all the details from MacRumors website: here and here. Continue reading →

Someone on Twitter shared this YouTube video in which the guy tries to explain why and how Apple is not what it used to be. In a few words: now, they actively compete with others. It’s a massive difference where before they seemed to act alone without caring about the surrounding competitive landscape. Highly recommended. Continue reading →