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The future is now
My wife and I went for a walk today. Great weather. After a while, my wife says her Apple Watch asks permission to connect to my phone. I’m surprised. She didn’t bring her iPhone with her. I turned on hotspot on my iPhone. Just a few moments later, she get a phone call on the watch. She answer and start the conversation. How cool is that? I didn’t know the Apple Watch could do this… It has something to do with the fact that she is in the iCloud Family and this was a call using wifi calling from her cell phone provider through my own iPhone. Continue reading →
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Thoughts on Noto - Elegant Note
Interesting newcomer in the note taking apps landscape: Noto - Elegant Note. Really nice design. Not sure about long term viability (remember Evernote?). Not sure about design scalability with a lot of notes. Another subscription to take care of. Not cheap for a young app. MacStories.net has more to say about it for sure. I’ll keep on eye on that one. apps.apple.com/ca/app/no… Continue reading →
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Yes but no
I know this one is fake but if the rumoured iPhone 9, or iPhone SE// or whatever they call it looks like this fake model, I kind of like it… especially the edges that looks like the one on the iPad Pro. Get rid of the bezels and voilà! But it’s not going to happen. #apple #iphone twitter.com/WhatTheBi… Continue reading →
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On Apple Music app feedbacks
One of the things that I don’t like with Apple Music.app is this: the visual feedback that comes with adding or loving a song. Too obstructive, too slow. Reminds me of the volume hud… that Apple finally got rid of with iOS 13. Oh, and by the way, why burry Add and Love in a sub-menu? Agree? #applemusic #apple #ui #ux #design Continue reading →
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Looking to add Google Analytics Widget to my iPad Home Screen - help
Asking my dear network of friends: I’d like to be able to put a widget of Google analytics on my iPad home screen. Do you know of any iOS apps that can do this? I’ll pay for it if the design is up to my taste. Something along the line of this one (which is no longer being maintained). Thanks. 🙏🏻 apps.apple.com/ca/app/ga… Continue reading →
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Is Microsoft surpassing Apple on the design front?
Another prime example of Microsoft great efforts in designing visually appealing UI elements: icons. I love those very much. Can’t get out of my head the simple thought that they are getting better at design than Apple on the desktop OS front? Oh and pay attention to the mail icon design evolution from the very beginning to 2020. link.medium.com/cZ3Azyjnf… Continue reading →
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On social networks as debating tools
You know what? When reading replies on Twitter, I rarely go past 5 replies… this is usually the point where things are getting either ugly, out of control and not related to the original tweet. This is why I think social networks are not good instruments for debate and discussions. Continue reading →
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On Apple Allowing Change of Defaults Browser
I expect Apple to go ahead with this, allowing the users to set a default browser or mail client on iOS. Changing defaults is part of a modern OS and this would be, in my opinion, another step towards the upcoming ARM-based Macs running iPadOS. 9to5mac.com/2020/02/2… Continue reading →
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Cocooning, really?
Are we ready for a new social network? Do we need this? Judging by their website, the nice design of Cocoon certainly looks enticing. But do we need this? It will take a lot of traction to make people leave Facebook or other well established data-ungry players. I certainly hope new players to come in and shake this rotten industry. Judge for yourself. cocoon.com Continue reading →
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Things I look for when evaluating an app for my own use
When evaluating a new app for my own use, the first things I look for are (in no particular order): update frequency, update notes quality, user ratings, multi-platform support (macOS, iOS, iPad support), sync mecanism used, one-time purchase vs subscription based, web service backend. I may elaborate on this subject on a longer blog post in the near future. Currently using this against Raindrop.io apps.apple.com/app/id102… Continue reading →
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On foldable devices...
Nobody asked for these phones… you are trying too hard. To all smartphone companies: fix your software, stop tracking us without our consent, stop selling our data, be transparent with each updates and the “feature” they bring, implement rules against tracking features that comes in most apps these days and end up on your App Stores, etc. . twitter.com/mondoir/s… Continue reading →
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On Medium as a platform for bloggers
For those wonder about using Medium as a publishing platform. Here is a summary for my last four publications. See the difference when a story gets approved? The last three stories were not approved for publication behind their paywall. Not cool. It is a hit or miss and so you don’t want to build too much confidence in the platform to help build any form of sustainable revenue, even small. Continue reading →
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here is a really dopey idea
Apple should introduce another type of subscription: pay-per-use. Pricing would be based on the time spent on-screen, down to a second resolution. Pricing would be based on dime fractions, payable on demand, monthly or yearly. Exemple: five minutes of an app usage @ $ 0.00001 would cost 1.08 yearly. That is an extreme example for sure. But you get the idea, right? Don’t throw rocks at me if Apple ever see and then implement this! Continue reading →
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Where is the date of publication?
Here is something that I notice quite often while browsing the web: the lack of a publish date on articles, blog posts, etc. While living in the age of fast content consumption, where content relevance is depleting fast, it seems important, more than ever, to put a publishing date. I know we can sometimes infer the date from the URL but to me it isn’t the right way to do it. Continue reading →
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it all comes down to compromise
When so many apps are available for a specific task, choosing one can be a nightmare. Recently, my focus was to select a new calendar app following the release of Fantastical update. I finally settled on the one that I use for a few years now: Calendar 5. The same is happening right now with RSS readers. But this time, I’’m switching from the excellent Reeder app to News Explorer. The latter is not perfect but from a functional point of view, it is an improvement. Continue reading →
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On Testing News Explorer - Another RSS Reader
Yesterday I learned about the existence of a different RSS reader named “News Explorer”. As a long time user of Reeder, I wasn’t really interested in trying a different one. But, after playing with the trial version on macOS: I’m mostly converted. Stay tuned for more details. Continue reading →
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When time was on a different scale
I’m still not finished with Apple’s « For all mankind » TV series. I like it for an unexpected reason: having a peak at the way people were living before the personal computers, smartphones, the Internet. It seems like time was slower so people had time to think. Oh, and they had a private life. Continue reading →
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To all content creators: RSS feeds as facilitators, use them!
My goal as a blogger is to get people read my stuff. RSS feeds are a way to help users access my content. Trying to be protective is counterproductive for me. The idea is to remove friction to the users. If they want to read via Reeder for example, why not! On that note, If a website doesn’t provide an RSS feed, which is sad, I’m let interested to stay in touch. Continue reading →
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Imperfection is good!
I love this idea of aiming for the imperfections in photography. In the age of hyper processed and over saturated images where they more or less seems to come from the same photographer, imperfect images will give you personality, a visual distinctive look. In praise of imperfect images — aows Continue reading →
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Yes, @Gruber can be critical to Apple
Who said that @gruber can’t have a critical view of Apple? From his report card; Mac: D. Ouch. He doesn’t like the keyboard and macOS Catalina. iPad: D. Cause: software, again. Apple TV: D. Software. Again. I do agree with Catalina security being too strict and the lack of a more “relaxed mode”. daringfireball.net/2020/02/m… Continue reading →
