The more I look at reviews, watch YouTube videos and visit Apple.com, the more I realize that considering my current hardware setup, there aren’t many reasons to upgrade to the iPhone 14 Pro (currently with 13 Pro), the Apple Series 8 (currently with Series 6) or the AirPods Pro 2 (currently the original Pro version). The Apple Watch Ultra could be a reason, but I’m not the target customer for that one.

Waiting for October releases and going to the Apple Store tomorrow. Just for fun.

So, I’ve been testing iOS 16 since its early beta stage, and I love it so much. One of the best features is the customizable Lock Screen. But it also creates an issue, the same with Apple Watch watch faces: how to decide which widgets to use and place in those limited slots. There are more and more widgets available each day, but the space is so constrained. I cannot find a strategy to create a Lock Screen that I’m fully satisfied with. I end up creating many of them, but switching among them isn’t smooth, except if they are linked to a focus mode. It’s not a first-world problem, but it is annoying. I’m left with a sense of constant dissatisfaction.

Here’s an interesting post by Gruber about Android vs iPhone’s relative popularity in different places around the world. I have some observations to share from my experience.

After spending three weeks in Italy for vacation, from what I could see, there was a lot of iPhone around me independently of the place I visited. Sure I saw many Android phone users too. But a majority were iPhone users. Regarding Android’s relative popularity in Germany and France, I would consider the possibility of an aversion for what Apple represents (an “American icon”) in those countries as a partial explanation. Maybe it’s not cool to support an American company like Apple?

Another interesting fact: WhatsApp is THE messaging service app people seem to use the most. iMessage isn’t popular in Italy, it seems.

Next week, Apple will release a bunch of new iPhone and Apple Watch. I think it’s the first time I feel so detached from this media event. I’ll still be in Italy on vacation. The “Far out” event will happen at 19:00 local time. I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch the keynote live since I’ll probably be having dinner or visiting a village. I don’t want to impose a stay at the apartment for that. I’ll watch the YouTube video when I’m back at the apartment.

I paid a quick visit to the Apple Store yesterday to get a pack of AirTags and give another look at the M2 MacBook Air, especially the Midnight colour version. In principle, this colour is gorgeous, but in practice, I don’t think I would go with this colour if I were to upgrade to the M2 MacBook Air. It’s really a fingerprints magnet. I know my fingers can be “oily” at times, which would be even worse than in this picture. I like the idea of having black keyboard keys on a dark frame (like the MacBook Pro). Too bad. Another reason to postpone any upgrade plans.

I want to chime in here, following the publication of this article from Om Malik about AirTags. I’m leaving for Italy in a few days. Knowing how bad the airport experience can get and reading those stories about airline companies’ inability to keep up and keep losing track of customers’ luggage, AirTags can make a big difference. I’m going to double-down on AirTags. I already own four, and I’ll buy another four before leaving, so I get my base covered. AirTags already saved me a lot of trouble in the past on more than one occasion by reminding me that I left something behind. It’s well worth the money.

I started another experiment: a photo diary of my upcoming trip to Italy. I’ll be using Craft for this. My objective is simple: testing Craft for photography-related work. I explain why and how I will do it in much more detail on the website. Here’s the link.

Interesting fact: I rarely look at pictures of the places I’m going to visit. I could go online and look at many images of Milan, for example, or all the other places I’ll be visiting starting next week, but I don’t. My trips are organized by my wife. She’s the one doing the scouting and spends hours looking at where we’re going. I’m the guy who spends hours post-processing images I’ll be taking during the trip, making our trip live forever.

Telegram’s CEO, M. Pavel Durov, complains that Apple is making his life harder than necessary by having to wait for the review process to complete its job. When Apple finally accepts the update but requires him to remove the Telemoji package, he goes on to say:

… this will motivate Telegram to make Telemoji even more “unique and recognizable.”

He sounds like a whining baby. Thanks to Apple, Mr. Durov now gets the idea and his team will have to return to their drawing board and be more creative.

Following my post earlier this week, I finally found my publishing workflow for my vacation in Italy. From time to time, I’ll write a story on my Photo Legend Series. Glass will be for regular publishing of my best shots of the day. I’ll use Craft to build a photo diary, it’s part of another project. I’ll share the link when I’m ready. Finally, Micro.blog will receive posts from my blog and Glass via the RSS cross-posting feature. What I think will be my best photos of the vacation will go to Unsplash and Smugmug when I return from vacation and after post-processing them in Lightroom. Unsplash will only get a few of them, while the full set will go to my Smugmug page.