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Experimenting with reading my Micro.blog timeline in RSS mode with Reeder. It’s surprisingly very effective for catching up on the last 12 hours of posts. It is, in fact, more effective than reading past posts on the website.
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Apple Wonderlust Event — My Initial Impressions
These are my impressions of Apple’s latest product announcements.
The mother nature segment was funny, and I smiled quite often. It was a great way to communicate their progress toward better environmental protection and reduced carbon footprint. Video production quality was top-notch. Aren’t tech press people tired of going to Apple Park to watch a movie?
Many comments during the presentation about the desire by Apple to see people go into their stores to buy and activate the new iPhones1.
We got a short update about the upcoming Apple Vision Pro, which is still on track for early 2024. That was expected but felt a bit short.
Onto the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch Series 9 is a mildly interesting update. The new finger gestures are cool but only for Series 9. Too bad. I’ll probably buy a few new bands later this fall. I’ll skip this year’s updates and wait for next year’s rumoured redesign.
Moving to the star of the show. The iPhone.
The iPhone remains the crown jewel of Apple. Everything else is peripheral. The design of the Pro line is absolutely gorgeous (rounded edges, great pro finishes). The A17 Pro (bye-bye Bionic) is a powerhouse CPU! I’ll go with the 15 Pro Max with 512 GB of storage. I’ll order the “USB-C to Lightning adaptor” to keep using my excellent Cavalier microphone (see my previous blog post about the issue).
The black finish is my choice with a blue FineWoven case2. Best of both worlds. Thanks to this video, which helped me confirm my decision3. Those wallpapers are gorgeous, too! This is the first time in a while that I love them so much. I’m overall happy with this year’s Pro finishes and tones. Very classy.
I’m a bit surprised by the battery life capacity to be the same as last year’s Pro models. I was expecting longer battery life with the A17, but I guess since we get more features… something has to give. I expect next year’s iPad Pro to use a derivative of the A17 Pro announced today.
About cameras. A 5x range for telephoto, not 6x4. I’m surprised it’s not 6x. But 120mm is great for travelling. Shooting with the phone and having the preview immediately available on the Mac, just like pros are expecting. Wow. Do images on the 15 Pro line have less over-processing / sharpening? I certainly hope so. And about those immersive spacial videos to be shot on the 15 Pro but visioned on the Apple Vision Pro, coming later this year. Consider me intrigued5. The camera app has a few tweaks, judging by some video segments, for the 2x mode, where you can select the focal length. Cool.
There is no monstrous price increase, which is good. Some price adjustments on the entry-level iPhone 15 Pro Max. The speed limit of the USB-C on the non-Pro line is ridiculous6. iCloud+ storage tier at 6TB is a surprise, still 5GB7 at the entry-level, though. I like the action button flexibility.
I’ll order my new phone this Friday. That is all for now.
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Apparently, the vast majority of iPhone in the US aren’t bought in an Apple Store. Apple would like to improve that. ↩︎
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I might change my mind, depending of videos from the hands-on area at Apple Park. ↩︎
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My second choice would probably be the blue finish next in third position, the natural titanium color. ↩︎
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25x digital zoom apparently. Not bad. ↩︎
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I’m still not planning to buy an Apple Vision Pro. ↩︎
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480 mb/s. Ouch. ↩︎
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Yes, that is right, a mere 5 gigabytes! ↩︎
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Apple Wonderlust T-15 min. ✅ Focus Mode: ON.
✅ Offline at the office.
✅ Apple.com open
✅ Tv.app open
✅ CleanShot Configured
✅ NAS ready
😎
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And It’s the right time to take a screenshot 📸 of apple.com before it gets revamped and refreshed tomorrow with some new stuff. 👀
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My Excitement About the Upcoming iPhones Explained
Here are some more details about my excitement for the next iPhone1.
Besides the camera upgrades, here is a short list of things I’m looking forward to with the next iPhones.
- I’m going to the Max. It’s the first Max model that I’m getting2.
- I expect better battery life than the iPhone 14 Pro Max3. I want a real all-day battery life for when I travel abroad.
- I never liked the current chrome finish of the Pro line (since the iPhone 12 Pro)4. I like the titanium finish of the Apple Watch. I can’t wait to see the tweaked version for the iPhone5.
- I’m ambivalent about the rumoured action button. I’ll want to configure it for the camera capture, but I want to keep the mute button.
- The always-on display… I’m not sure. My wife has an iPhone 14 Pro, she disabled the always-on display because of the battery drain. I’ll see with the Max.
- I’m curious about the grey version, but I will go either with a deep blue6 or the darkest one7.
- I love the Dynamic Island. My hope is to see wider adoption by developers.
- Finally, USB-C. Finally. 95% of the time, I charge my iPhone with MagSafe. It’s too convenient. On rare occasions, it will be handy to grab any normal USB-C cable and plug it in. As for transfer speed, I’m not in any use cases for this8.
I’ll catch you on the other side of the Wonderlust event.
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Just in case someone actually care. 😜 ↩︎
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Screen content displayed is barely more than the Pro, yet, I’ll take all the pixel the iPhone has to offer. ↩︎
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At the very least, much better battery life than my current aging iPhone 13 Pro. ↩︎
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The chrome look on anything always felt like cheap luxury to me. I prefer textures. ↩︎
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I expect Apple to offer a different texture. ↩︎
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I’m curious about anything that is blue. I could wait until iPhones make their way to the Apple Store, but I won’t be able to last that long. I’m looking for videos in the hands-on area at Apple Park for a cue about the colors. ↩︎
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The black matte iPhone 5 was the best of all. ↩︎
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Will this enable iPhone-to-iPhone transfer between an iPhone 15 Pro and an iPhone 17 Pro? 🤔 ↩︎
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Pixelfed Is Working on “Solo”
I’m really curious about this. The idea of having my personal instance of Pixelfed is tempting. I like the idea of having full control and not being at the mercy of some other admin, updating the codebase as I wish while being part of the Pixelfed federation1. It’s expected to be released on October 20th. I should start planning my domain name and username.2
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Why I’m Excited for This Week’s Apple Announcements
I’m super excited about this year’s iPhone announcements. It’s probably because I’m getting one of them1. I try to skip one or two iterations. I went from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 11 Pro, then to the iPhone 13 Pro, and now the iPhone 15 Pro Max. I’m looking forward to these improvements: the cameras2 and battery life3. Sure, the Dynamic Island will be cool. Oh, and USB-C, finally4!
Can’t wait for Sept 12th.
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⁉️This iCloud Upload of 78 items has been going on since I migrated from the 13-inch MBA to the 15-inch MBA with Apple Migration Assistant. Any ideas on how to fix this? 1🤔
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Annoying as hell. ↩︎
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Episode 03 — I'm Excited and Stressed
This week, Apple will release its latest iPhone models. I’m excited. It will be an exercise of balance between news consumption, analysis and writing. It’s the perfect mix for a stressful week. 😟 Learn why in this podcast episode.
Links
- My iPhone 11 Pro review: “From iPhone 7 to iPhone 11 Pro: The Return of Delights”
- My iPhone 13 Pro review: “Upgrading From the iPhone 11 Pro to iPhone 13 Pro — the Love Story Continues”
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Feeling sad this morning 😥 about the consequences of the earthquake in Morroco. I’m trying to get news from our guide to see if he is ok. 🙏🏻
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Early mornings are my favourite creative moments… everyone is asleep, and it is super quiet in the house. 😊👨🏻💻
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I wanted to increase my podcasts listening time. I decided to put Overcast on the first home screen page. It worked. 👌🏻🤓
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While Elon Musk wants the Twitter brand to disappear from the earth’s surface, you can see the Twitter icon and references everywhere on the web. X is not taking over at all. Services or apps that depend on Twitter for logging in, news sites asking people to join them via social networks, apps offering a sharing action or whatever the needs are, most continue to use Twitter’s original branding. In support of those who refuse to let go the little bird, here’s my contribution1.
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Thanks to Midjourney 😜 ↩︎
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On Apps by Apple
What a strange move by Apple. This website made by Apple promotes first-party apps for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc. Why? Why now? I would understand in the context of being forced to allow third-party App Stores. Apple reminding people about their apps while people are getting excited by side-loading and third-party App Stores would make sense. Is Apple up to something here? They usually plan for the long run. This could be the first baby step for a more open ecosystem.1 👀
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Interestingly, you can launch each app with an Open button if you are visiting the website from your beloved iPhone, iPad or the Mac. ↩︎
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Apple is reportedly developing a low-cost MacBook series to compete with Chromebook models in the education sector that could be released as early as the second half of 2024, according to industry sources. Source: Apple mulls low-cost MacBook, say sources
Remember when people and tech pundits pressed Apple to create a Netbook? Apple responded with an 11-inch MacBook (2008) Air and an iPad (2010). I hope they skip trying to make a low-cost MacBook and keep improving on the current iPad story instead. That being said, I understand Chromebooks are giving Apple a hard time in education. 🥵
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Matte black MacBook again makes an appearance in an Apple patent Source: Matte black MacBook again referenced in an Apple patent
I would pay a little extra for a fingerprint-free matte black MacBook Air. 🤗
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Remember Apple’s Freeform?
I’m curious, is anyone using Apple’s Freeform? For what use case? Personally, I was curious about Freeform and experimented with it for a while, but then I stopped using it. I prefer using it on the iPad than on the Mac.
