The iPhone 16 this year is so iterative in nature that many YouTube reviewers separated the review into two rather short parts: the unboxing (generally less than 10 min¹) and the general review (rarely more than 15 min).

Apparently, a bunch of compromised old-school pagers exploded remotely in the middle east… what an horrific event (seriously)… THAT is real programmed obsolescence (less seriously).

Currently curating my Bluesky home feed to my liking. If someone on Bluesky didn’t post since last year, when Bluesky was red-hot, I unfollow. I’m using Bluesky lists to curate my best accounts and build a custom timeline with them. I did something similar back in the day for Twitter as documented here.

As a long-time Apple fan¹², I find it sad to see the downward trends surrounding Apple. It’s no longer anecdotal. Something is really going on. Apple is no longer the same under Tim Cook and since the Steve Jobs death. How could this be otherwise? Well, yeah. That’s life. Anger, ennui, boredom are just a few things that I’m noticing more and more. This super megacorp is printing money, investors are happy, but meanwhile, something is slowly rotting that will eventually trigger Apple to transform itself. Eventually.

More or less random thought: Maybe Apple won’t return to live events until Tim Cook leaves the company. When COVID hit, it may have provided some relief for Apple, as it spared Cook from direct comparisons to Jobs’ performances at live events. We all know that Cook isn’t the showman Steve Jobs was.

The fact that apparently Microsoft is not using an Intel CPU for their Cloud PC instances says a lot about Intel’s future.

If I were in charge of IT infrastructure at Apple, I would be more than happy to have a phased deployment of Apple Intelligence. This staged deployment mode allows for better control over resource allocation, performance tweaking based on demand. It is the right time to establish the baseline metrics that will help further larger-scale deployment later in the deployment schedule. People find that Apple is behind, but I say it is more of a realistic approach that makes a lot of sense from a user experience perspective.

My general sentiment towards iOS 18 is rather vastly positive but improvements come at the cost of complexity. More than ever, we need to « manage » our devices to get them work as we want them to work.

iOS 18, iPadOS 18 are coming out tomorrow. That’s cool. But you know what is even cooler? This GPT that can answer your questions about those releases. Try “What’s new in iMessage?”

You’re welcomed.

This is the second edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook, edition 2024-36. Email version coming out later today.

I’ve been spending more time on Bluesky in recent days, since the Apple Event. I like the feel and of this service. It’s fast, there are no ads, features-wise it’s rich and useful.

I’m torn between the Apple Watch Series 10 in silver and Jet Black. The silver finish enhances the screen’s visibility, while the Jet Black option blends the screen seamlessly into the casing. Waiting for Sept 20 before making my final call, after visiting the Apple Store and hoping for in-store stock.

I’m going to watch the whole debate tonight. Even as a Canadian, I think it’s important to get direct reading values instead of going through social / news networks to help me forge my opinion. If I were an American, I would vote for Harris, without a doubt, but I want to see more of her tonight, to get a better idea of what she really stands for. Hoping for civility and clarity.

I’m feeling a bit odd about having an iPhone that’s no longer available (15 Pro Max). It was a great phone, but it only lasted about a year. Yeah, I know, still a great phone.

Apple might have something else to improve in the next AirPods Max beyond USB-C connectivity and noise cancellation. Just sayin.

It just occurred to me that Apple (and other “gatekeepers”) are getting a bit of their own medicine with the DMA. Developers in the App Store have always had to live with unclear and changing rules, as well as the risk that Apple will effectively shut down your business with an absolute rejection. Suddenly the bully is being bullied, with changing rules and unclear guidelines — and they don't like it.

Well said.

M4 Mac mini: Deep black, please.

Eight years, really? Time flies.

Tomorrow is Apple keynote. I want to be surprised. I want something different. I want to see Apple push harder, differently. I want this “one more thing”. I want to see Apple think outside the box. I want them to show the way, the right way. I want them to not be afraid, and do it … read more