Following the episode (#097) of Hemispheric Views, it’s my turn, I guess, with a little twist for the post title. 😜 ✉️ Mail Client: HEY mail 📨 Mail Server: HEY mail + iCloud Custom Email Domain 📝 Notes: Craft + Apple Notes ✅ To-Do: Things 3 📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app + Halide.app (for travel) 📚 Photo Management: Photos.app + Adobe Cloud 🗓️ Calendar: Calendar.app (Personal Life) + Fantastical.app (Work Life) 🗄️ Cloud file storage: iCloud 📰 RSS: Reeder connected to Inoreader 📇 Contacts: Contacts 🕸️ Browser: Safari (more and more using Kagi for searching) 💬 Chat: iMessage (WhatsApp when abroad) 🔖 Bookmarks: AnyBox 👓 Read It Later: Omnivore 📜 Word Processing: Ulysses 📊 Spreadsheets: Numbers 🛝 Presentations: Keynote 🛒 Shopping Lists: Reminders 🧑‍🍳 Meal Planning: None 💰 Budgeting & Personal Finance: Numbers 🗞️ News: La Presse (Apple News for English news) 🎶 Music: Apple Music 🎧 Podcasts: PocketCast 🔐 Password Management: iCloud Keychain (also 1Password, I should merge with default) Continue reading →

I recently wrote about software is never really finished1. Here’s an example: Keysmith. I bought this utility in February 2021. I forgot to re-install it on my M2 MacBook Air. I just did. But under macOS Sonoma, it has some glitches which make it useless. The app hasn’t been updated for quite a while, same with the app website. Now what?2 The title should have been “Software Should Never Be Finished”. Continue reading →

I want to augment my creative capabilities1. I’m considering the best way to pay for Augmented Intelligence (AI) services2. I’m currently subscribing to MidJourney for imagery. ChatGPT with GPT-4 is not cheap at 20 $US a month, but I get Dall.E 3. Raycast enables GPT-4 for 8 $US on top of my 8 $US, totalling 16 $US monthly, but I don’t get Dall.E 3. I prefer MidJourney over Dall.E 3 as it seems to allow more diversity in requests. Continue reading →

This short behind-the-scenes look at Apple’s “Scary Fast” event is the highlight of a marketing masterpiece. First, Apple, a highly-respected company for producing top-quality new product announcements, released new iPhones capable of high-quality filming in September. Next, in October, the company made another top-notch production and announced the first M3-based Macs. Not to be missed, and that is the key here, they slip the following at the very last moment of the presentation: Continue reading →

I’m fed up of Google’s search capabilities and business model. Search results quality has gone downhill in recent years. I don’t like the visual design of Google’s online products in general, especially Google Search results formatting. What search engine are you using? Are you willing to pay for using one, if yes, which one? 🤔 Continue reading →

Surprised by this late-October Apple event (“Scary Fast”). Could this be about Mac gaming? Is this for the Apple Silicon M3? The timing is weird, in my opinion. What about the iMac with M2 and a new iMac Pro with M3? The latter wouldn’t make too much sense as Pros prefer more flexibility than an all-in-one Mac. But using the Mac happy face really points to a Mac-only event. And boy, do I like this animation that I’m including here for my own pleasure1. Continue reading →

Glass feels right at home in Capture One. Long adored as one of the best platforms for editing and managing a photography workflow, we’re thrilled to include publishing to Glass in Capture One. The final step in the creative process is sharing the work you’ve made — making that as easy and frictionless as possible is what we’re both all about. Source: Capture One x Glass — Glass I like where Glass is going. Continue reading →

Today, I’m removing my digital garden content. The most valuable parts were moved to my About Page, and the rest has been dropped. Both of these pages are created and maintained in Craft. I like the idea of Digital Gardens, but it’s not practical for me to maintain on top of this blog and my other websites. Again, it’s time to focus. Next up, should I get rid of my Linktr. Continue reading →

I have an issue with Short.io. I want to contact their support to find a solution to something that partially works, but no contact information is available in the /Support section. The /Blog section shows a small “Contact Us” button leading to a page not found error. There is no mail address either. They ask for $ 250 / year for a “Personal” subscription plan. How can I trust them if I cannot contact them for support? Continue reading →

I finally found the right setup to definitively fix my audio record quality. The problem triggering this endless trial-and-error journey is that the Blue Yeti microphone can be too sensitive and pick up too much background noise1. On paper, the macOS Voice Isolation recording should fix this. However, ScreenFlow 10.0.9 has issues with audio recording from a USB microphone while Voice Isolation is active2. The solution? Use Audio Highjack3 to record from the USB microphone with Voice Isolation active and output to the ScreenFlow audio capture driver. Continue reading →

The timing was right, and the target was well-defined, but the potential traction was far from guaranteed. Would this project be worth all the effort? Someone said: for every yes, there are a thousand no. After many weeks of thought and pondering, I decided against doing a unique project. Link: The Apple Rumors Hub Transcript Continue reading →

Objective: find a replacement for my lightning-based Finch Lavalier microphone1. Did my research for a USB-C microphone. RODE microphones came up quite often. They received good reviews. I ordered the NT-USB model. It was hard to see which type of USB port it came with—I got the microphone2. It comes with USB-A. Shit. It was tested on my Mac mini. Background noises are too easily picked up. Screenflow cannot use voice isolation3. Continue reading →

I’m finally publishing the details surrounding my reading workflow. It’s been long in the making. More than a year. The reason? Because this workflow was full of moving parts. One example: is the read-later service. First, it was Pocket, then came Matter, Readwise, to finally settle on Omnivore. All the details are here on the Numeric Citizen I/O metablog. Feel free to comment or ask questions! 😊 Continue reading →

For those looking to buy a Peak Design case for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, just like I did. I love the case but… here’s the kicker; the action button is really hard to press with this case, the cutout should have a button instead which would press the action button, just like for the other buttons integrated into the case. They plan to fix this. Check out this video to learn more. Continue reading →

I have a folder named “Noto” in my iCloud Drive folder that keeps populating empty folders inside of it, on all my devices. Noto is a note-taking app that I tried in Feb. 2020. Today, I found out that I had more than 30K empty folders sitting there. I deleted the folders from my Mac mini, and it came back. Same with the MacBook Air. It came back. I visited all my devices to see if Noto was still installed. Continue reading →

So far, I have created four web apps on my Dock in Sonoma: Micro.blog1, Pixelfed2, Tinylytics, and Omnivore. I like this a lot3. For Omnivore, the web app provides a better experience than the “native” app, which is probably not really native4. What other apps could I set in my Dock now?🤔 For Micro.blog, it doesn’t make too much sense as there is a native Mac app already. ↩︎ It’s better than having a Safari tab for that. Continue reading →

I had the chance to spend some time with Manton Reece and ask him a few questions about Montreal’s poutine, Apple’s power and the App Store, Twitter1 and the future of Micro.blog. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did doing it.😊 Subscribe Signup to receive monthly digest email on the first day of the month in your inbox. Optionally, you can alsosubscribe via RSS. I refuse to name this otherwise. Continue reading →

It feels great in hand, similar in fact to the weight of my iPhone 13 Pro (not the Max), which is great. The back is darker than my iPhone 11 Pro, and I love it. I’m quite happy with the darker black. It’s a bit darker than I thought. It’s definitively a finger magnet. It’s very soft to the touch. Rounded contours are really making a difference. The device feels more approachable. Continue reading →

In the “Craptacular Is More Like It” article, this is @gruber@mastodon.social at its best. I read the original article earlier this week and concluded that Apple had difficult times ahead with its modem development. This morning, in my usual reading routine, I read the article from Mr. Gruber, and I think it succeeds in demonstrating this: the original article wasn’t any better than any ChatGPT-generated content. Now I feel that I was deceived by the journalist who tried to fill me with unverified and barely possible facts tied together based on thin air. Continue reading →

Inspired by a recent podcast episode where Martin Feld interviewed John Gruber, for this fourth podcast episode, I decided to talk about my early years as a blogger. Links: Really Specific Stories podcast: https://pca.st/pcp6rwjs Interview with John Gruber episode: https://pca.st/i0xdkxfh, his announcement on his blog: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/09/20/really-specific-stories-yours-truly A reply to John Gruber about his interview: https://micro.blog/numericcitizen/23822941 Search for the “BuildingiPhoneApps” keyword on the internet archive for a glimpse of my very first blog, and locate 2010 and beyond on the timeline. Continue reading →