← Home Photos Find me there Surprise me! Archive Subscribe About Me Search Stats Feeds Also on Micro.blog
  • I took back the iPad Air that my mom was using a few years ago. I would like to repurpose the iPad as a photo frame. It was updated to the latest iPadOS release the iPad can support, but unfortunately, slide options in Apple’s Photos are pretty limited. I wish there were a “Photo frame” mode in Photos. Synology Photos required iPadOS 13.

    How would you reconfigure this iPad, so it becomes a photo frame?

    → 6:53 AM, Feb 3
  • Well well well, 15-25cm approaching. Winds should be under 60 KM/h. Some blowing snow is expected, more expected along the river. Very mild but snowy winter so far. I’m a weather enthusiast, as you can tell. The map is from Ventusky.

    → 10:42 AM, Jan 25
  • Adam Mosseri, Instagram boss, spoke about the controversy growing on its platform:

    We definitely have a number of photographers who have been upset. I want to be clear: though we are leaning into video, we still value photos. Photos will always be a part of Instagram. Source: Instagram showed people too many videos last year, admits Adam Mosseri - The Verge

    If you like photography, go elsewhere than Instagram. They focus on user engagement, not photography. There are so many great platforms these days that are built for photography enthusiasts.

    → 7:11 AM, Jan 25
  • For those who don’t know me, I love photography. I’m an amateur photographer myself. Today, I want to share a link about an inspiring photographer named Adrian. If you like the B&W style, consider subscriber to his work (he’s on YouTube too).

    → 7:04 AM, Jan 25
  • Here is something that I always find funny. On any photo-sharing platform, let’s say you like someone’s pictures. The guy will probably get notified and start looking at your photos, generally only the most recent ones. If you’re lucky, he or she will like a few of them and then boom, start following you. It’s like someone who’s clicking with another on the dance floor. 😂

    → 7:37 AM, Jan 20
  • When Matter Made a Major Strategic Error

    Thursday 19 Jan 2023 21 29 43

    Today I spent some time in Matter to read a few articles. I went to the Staff Picks section, noticed those tweets between articles and remembered Matter's decision to leave the social portion in their early days. They preferred to go the Twitter route instead. That was before the Elon Musk fiasco. As you might expect, it was a deception for me, and I preferred Matter to build its own thing instead. I actually like to comment on articles and share my thoughts on them within the Matter sphere. Oh well… 

    How ironic things can sometimes be. I think the Matter team made a significant strategic error by dropping the social portion of their initial offerings, and they should reconsider their decision.

    → 10:02 PM, Jan 19
  • “With the popularity of HomePod mini, we’ve seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We’re thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world.” Source: Apple introduces the new HomePod with breakthrough sound and intelligence - Apple

    What?? Am I dreaming? It really seems to be the same device from the exterior. Still expansive. Still wireless only. Old Bluetooth (5.0).

    → 11:07 AM, Jan 18
  • I’m dropping this here. It’s a matter of time. Mark my words.

    → 7:02 AM, Jan 18
  • One of the nice surprises about this morning’s announcements is the addition of two more USB-C ports to the Mac mini and the addition of a configuration with M2 Pro in a small package like the mini. This narrows the gap between a Mac Studio and a Mac mini. Oh, and up to three monitors are supported!

    An M1 Mac mini owner. 🤔

    → 8:32 PM, Jan 17
  • My latest project… explaining this thing… harder than I originally thought. 😅

    → 7:17 AM, Jan 17
  • Today, for some reason, I decided to delve into the Write.as “ecosystem”. I’ve been subscribing to this writing service for nearly a year, I post from time to time like I did yesterday. I’m not so sure to grasp all of it. To get started, I went into Craft, and through the Craft Assistant, I asked a few questions (since ChatGPT seems overloaded). I got surprisingly good results, enough to get some context around the write.freely project. Then, I started a diagram illustrating all the components of the platform. This will become a blog post for sure. Today, I have a better understanding of this project.

    What I want to emphasize here is the help that a service like ChatGPT (through an app) can bring to kick-start a small project like this. I’m blown away. But I’m staying critical too. More on that eventually.

    This blog post was written by me.

    → 10:04 AM, Jan 15
  • Mast

    While on Twitter, I was a fan of Tweetbot. Now that I'm on Mastodon (I have an account but don't plan to be very active for now), I feel at home with Ivory, their new client, still in beta. I wish they were doing a Micro.blog client. I would pay more to get it than I paid for Tweetbot.

    cc ivory@tapbots.social

    → 9:43 AM, Jan 14
  • Things Logbook 2023 01 14 08 24 56 2x

    Thought of the Saturday morning: I like the principle of logging my digital life activities, especially my actions leading to content publishing. The Logbook in Things 3 and Dayone and IFTTT greatly help here. [Rewind](https://www.rewind.ai) would be fantastic on the Mac, but it is way too expensive. 

    PS. What you are seeing in the screenshot is my actual logbook in Things 3. 

    → 8:28 AM, Jan 14
  • Safari counternotions  counternotions mastodon social  Mastodon 2023 01 12 15 29 35 2x

    Something will have to happen in 2023 in the Mastodon world. I would love to join (even though I said I wouldn’t). Now that I’m starting to get it, to understand all this is about, I fail miserably at finding an instance that I can join and fit my content publishing desires. 

    → 6:49 AM, Jan 13
  • Must watch video about the iPhone photography quality. Are the photos shot on the latest iPhone 14 Pro better than other high-end phones?? Are they the best ones? There is no universal answer for sure, but I find iPhone photos to be overly processed by Apple"s “magic sauce” called: software or, better yet, computational photography.

    → 9:49 PM, Jan 10
  • Has anyone noticed this weird behaviour in Apple’s Photos app when browsing images shot in RAW format? Let’s say you shoot a photo in RAW and then switch to Apple’s Photos app. Tapping on the thumbnail brings up the image, and after a few seconds, the image gets changed to a lower-quality version. Contrast is lost, and exposure is somewhat lowered. The result is a dull image. My possible explanation is that the thumbnail is a JPEG post-processed interpretation of the RAW image that is presented in the UI. When tapping on the thumbnail, the RAW version gets uncompressed and presented, which replaces the full-size JPEG preview version, hence the image quality degradation. 

    Do you have a similar understanding, or do you have another explanation?

    → 8:02 PM, Jan 10
  • I cannot count how often I select an image, thinking it will look nice as wallpaper. Most of the time, it sucks. Would it be cool if Apple added a smart album with selected photos based on their potential to be great as wallpaper? This could be something done using on-device AI, just like face recognition.

    → 7:43 PM, Jan 9
  • Can someone tell me what this iCloud Drive status means? I don’t appear to have any synchronization issue and yet, the icon seems to indicate the opposite. A special thanks to Apple here for the obscurity of their UI. 🫤

    → 11:25 AM, Jan 8
  • During my trip to South America, I decided to shoot every photo in RAW (using iPhone 13 Pro). If the picture isn’t worth editing or publishing, I can easily use my “RAW to JPEG” shortcut to convert the image into JPEG and delete the RAW version. If the photo has real potential, I leave it in RAW for later editing in either Apple Photos, Pixelmator or Lightroom, depending of the editing required. Those photos are added to a dedicated album, for easy retrieval. I no longer use Camera+, Halide or Lightroom Camera module. I want the iCloud Photos library integration.

    → 6:20 PM, Jan 7
  • This one for @maique from Punta Del Este. 😉

    → 10:09 AM, Jan 4
  • Editing the framing of a photo in Apple Photos.app is tricky. Initial framing suggested by Photos.app is always tight compared to the maximum possible. I generally prefer to relax Apple’s assumptions here. This is something important when working with relatively low resolution images at 12 MP, the native resolution of my iPhone 13 Pro.

    → 8:38 AM, Dec 30
  • AirTags can be quite useful and… stressful to track. Here we are in the plane quite ready to depart and yet my main luggage is still in the airport. 😵‍💫🫣

    Technology shouldn’t create anxiety like this.

    → 7:59 AM, Dec 28
  • Which is Best for Photographers: Twitter or Flickr?

    Which platform is best for photographer between Flickr and Twitter if you have about the same number of followers on both? You might think it’s Flickr? According to this experiment, you get 2x more exposure on Twitter, but you get 2x more engagement on Flickr. Things get even better on Flickr if your photo gets selected for Flickr Explore page.

    The “views” count definition is not clear but I would think that Twitter’s definition is a wide one (I don’t trust them for being honest about anything). A tweet could get a view count if it goes through an API without guarantee of human actually seeing the picture.

    Personally, I prefer engagement over views. This is something to expect I guess from a photo-sharing service like Flickr or Glass. Finally, this is an indication of Twitter being an empty promise for photographers.

    → 7:06 AM, Dec 28
  • Remembering Sad Souvenirs With Great Words and Images

    Here’s a great visual recollection of a trip to Italy back in 2011, when Steve Jobs died. Great images. Gentle words. It’s not only about the iPhone as a great camera, but about Italy, a place I visited last summer, and how it felt to be there when Steve death made the news. Must see and read.

    → 9:11 PM, Dec 26
  • Would buy an iPad in a vending machine at the airport? The model was a 64 GB iPad latest model at 599 CAN$. Same price as in Apple Store.

    → 5:34 PM, Dec 26
  • Flighty is such a great iPhone app. Here Flighty is showing in a shiny and clever way that one of my flight is 2h20m late at destination. 😳🤦🏻‍♂️

    → 3:25 PM, Dec 26
  • 30 Years of Platforms Learning

    To celebrate my calculator app PCalc turning 30 today, I've written up all the history I can still remember:

    http://pcalc.com/thirty

    There's also a rare 30%-off sale, which runs until midnight tonight, PST:

    Mac:
    https://pcalc.com/store/pcalcmac

    iOS:
    https://pcalc.com/store/pcalc

    A big thanks to everybody who has used PCalc during the last three decades!

    James Thomson https://mastodon.social/@jamesthomson/109562907458479500

    I never bought PCalc but for as long I’ve been following the Apple story, PCalc always was somewhere to be seen in a magazine, on the web or an App Store. What a great way to learn, explore over the years.

    → 10:29 AM, Dec 26
  • Leaving the Nikon D750 Behind

    Can you believe it? As an amateur photographer, I’m leaving my Nikon D750 home for my upcoming trip to Brasil. This trip certainly classifies itself as a once-in-a-lifetime event, yet I won’t bring my camera with me. There are a few reasons for this. First, I’ll be on a cruise ship for most of my twelve-day trip. Second, I don’t feel it’s secure to bring such gear to some parts of Rio or Sao Polo when we go off-board. Third, it’s tough to beat the convenience of an iPhone 13 Pro in the pocket. The Nikon bag with all my lenses feels quite heavy at times. I’ll see when I return home if I made the right decision.

    → 6:53 PM, Dec 25
  • A Few Observations on Apple's Latest AirPods Pro

    I got a pleasant surprise under the tree for this Christmas🎄: AirPods Pro 2. Some observations: I would say the clicking sound when closing the lid is different, with a bit lower tonality. The setup experience is top-notch, of course. Sound quality is definitively upgraded with more present bass and deeper sound. Noise cancellation is better too. I’ll have to experience it in a noisy place like an airplane tomorrow. For my next trip, I will leave my AirPods Max behind (they are too big for sleeping on the plane) and use the new, much lighter ones and easier to travel with.IMG 4393

    → 11:56 AM, Dec 25
  • Merry Christmas 🎅

    → 1:58 PM, Dec 24
  • As you can see, my plan to exit Twitter is well underway. I think I could turn this shit off by January 1, 2023. It was much faster than I initially thought. This to-do list gives you an idea of how deeply Twitter was embedded in my digital life. Well, no more.

    Things 🛠️ Housekeeping 2022 12 24 10 51 53 2x

    → 10:54 AM, Dec 24
  • The Digital Cleanup Continues

    This morning, I visited IFTTT and Zapier to turn off ten applets which were using Twitter. My About page was updated to remove references to my Twitter accounts. While at it, I removed all references to Medium and GetRevue since they are no longer used.

    I still have to figure out how I will follow people on Twitter who are valuable (there are a few) but refuse to move elsewhere. I might use  News Explorer to follow them, cutting the noise because I refrain from using a Twitter client. It’s not a perfect solution because I would get all their replies which makes things noisy. Speaking of Twitter clients (Twitter & Tweetbot), these were removed from my devices too.News Explorer Matthew Cassinelli  Feed 2022 12 24 08 40 08 2x

    It is one of the most comprehensive digital cleanups I ever did since 2007. For the upcoming year: I’ll focus on the open web services and tools for publishing most of my content. There are a few exceptions: YouTube and WordPress.com.

    I may sound a bit extremist.

    → 8:43 AM, Dec 24
  • That is a hell of a low pressure. Very windy now. Lots of rain earlier. Getting way colder by tomorrow.

    → 5:21 PM, Dec 23
  • Assign to All Desktops - A Must Know macOS Stage Manager Trick

    Updated my last Mac to macOS Ventura and discovered something super useful when using Stage Manager. Craft Post Highlights From my Microblog 2022 12 21 19 56 47 2x If you want to have an application always visible, make sure to select “Assign To: All Desktops” from the application icon in the Dock. This is particularly useful with the Finder so we can easily do drag & drop of a file into the active window; the Finder needs to always be available for this to be possible.

    → 8:01 PM, Dec 21
  • Found a great place for my Tidbyt.

    → 7:08 PM, Dec 21
  • Typefully trending The trend is clear: people are leaving Twitter. This is my follower count since June of 2022. If there was any doubt left about my decision to quit Twitter, no more.
    → 4:49 PM, Dec 21
  • My Experience With Tidbyt LED-Based Display

    IMG 4361

    After six weeks of waiting, I finally got this little LED-based display called “Tidbyt”, a reference, I guess, to the old Lite-Brite game which came out in 1967 (I had one when I was a child).

    Tidbyt is an intelligent wireless LED-based panel that displays content configured from the Tidbyt app available on a smartphone. Physically, the device feels high quality and well-designed and is framed with real wood, reminiscent of mid-century furniture.

    Content is configured using applets that you put together on a canvas. The display content will switch from one applet to another in the order defined on the canvas. Applets can be set to display only on a specific schedule, but the scheduling options are rather limited. It’s very simple to set this up.

    Tuesday 20 Dec 2022 06 37 07

    Once the display is plugged into power via its USB-C cable, it will wait for the configuration to be done from the smartphone, a six-step process. Bluetooth is required to detect the display, and a Wifi network is required for the display to get its data from the Internet. Tuesday 20 Dec 2022 06 49 36

    The applets catalogue is growing but still is relatively limited. Thanks to an SDK and open APIs, developers constantly add new ones. The display is bright and can be adjusted according to a manual setting or time of the day. There is a night mode, too, if you want to put the device in one bedroom.

    The screen resolution seemed low at first, but from a distance, it is surprisingly good, enough to display small images.

    All in all, the Tidbyt makes a great addition to my home office, and people at work have already noticed it during Teams meetings and are asking questions about this little thing sitting on the shelf behind me.

    → 7:02 AM, Dec 20
  • Rewind: Thanks but No Thanks

    After watching a recent video from Matt Birchler about Rewind, a constant screen recording utility for the Mac, I was excited to give my email address and get onboard the waiting list for early access to the app. I got my invite a few days ago. As much as I would like to test this app, here's this deal-breaker for me: 20 US$ per month to get on the early access program, no thank you. Why?

    I understand Rewind is still in beta, but the developer wants me to pay for testing the application. Shouldn’t it be the other way around so I get a rebate when the app goes out of beta? I mean, even with a 30-day “trial” I still can’t get over this. If it’s 20 US$ a month now for the early access, what will be the price of the final product then? Even more expansive?

    HEY Your invitation to the Rewind Early Access Program 2022 12 19 07 26 04 2x

    Rewind makes me think of CleanShot, and I find Rewind’s pricing overly expansive if I think about the scope of both apps. 

    Rewind is a great idea, even if it pauses many security risks, but I’ll pass for now.

    → 7:32 AM, Dec 19
  • Twitter Is Xenophobic Now

    I’m in violation of Twitter’s guidelines because I do promote content coming from other social platforms. I do use Linktree and have my Linktr.ee URL set on @numericcitizen.

    This new "Promotion of alternative social platforms policy" on Twitter deserves memorializing for the pure idiocy of it.

    Jamie Thingelstad https://www.thingelstad.com/2022/12/18/this-new-promotion.html
    "Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended.".
    → 5:40 PM, Dec 18
  • The Stars of the Show for 2022 Are...

    Raycast 2022 12 16 08 19 49 2xIf I look back at my software usage in 2022, three stars stand out:

    1. Raycast
    2. Things 3
    3. Screenflow
    Raycast was a revelation. It is so pervasive in my workflow that I feel lost when returning to my iPad for serious work. I underutilize Raycast for sure. It's free and constantly evolving.

    Things 3 returned after more than a year of trying Apple Reminders and Craft Daily notes. It was a futile exercise. Things 3 is beautifully supporting my content creator workflow. Managing to-dos has never been so enjoyable.

    Screenflow is essential to my YouTube video creation workflow. I don’t use FinalCut Pro, Luma Fusion or anything that sophisticated. I could use Screenshot screen recording too, but Screenflow is really the simplest and most focused video creation app out there that clicks with me.

    I love using great software.

    → 9:15 PM, Dec 16
  • IMG 4058 2 Back in the nineties, I tried drawing a few things, like this Apple's Newton MessagePad. Not bad, hen!?
    → 9:13 AM, Dec 16
  • Raycast 2022 12 16 08 21 18 2x Raycast year in review. Wow. I love this thing so much!
    → 8:24 AM, Dec 16
  • Hands Down to Hand Mirror Plus

    Just got my notice for the Hand Mirror update today. The latest release offers a paid version, for which I gladly paid. Why? Hand Mirror is a great example of useful software with attributes of the work of great craftsmanship. It was an instant buy because of this. The onboarding screen is simply gorgeous. 

    Hand Mirror Settings 2022 12 15 21 24 36 2x

    HazeOver 2022 12 16 09 28 07 2x
    → 9:31 PM, Dec 15
  • On Apple's Freeform and Tools Palettes

    Freeform, the visual and collaborative application from Apple, is finally out for the iPad, the Mac and… I spent some time with it on the iPad and found it enjoyable and deceptively minimalistic. On the Mac, once updated to Ventura 13.1, Freeform can be used to continue working on the content, albeit with a different set of tools, since there is no Apple Pencil support over there. One question is, why is the tools palette on the iPad different from the one with Apple Notes? I mean, there are pencils or crayons that I prefer on Notes over the available choices in Freemform’s palette. Following is a comparison of both. At the top is the Apple Notes tools palette. At the bottom is Apple’s Freeform. The latter seems a bit childish, too simplistic. I really wish there were more pencil types. 

    IMG 8775

    IMG 8776

    Other than that, I didn’t test the collaborative work with someone else. I see Freemore as more for individualistic creative work. I’m not sure yet if I’ll ever make good use of it. Certainly not at work, as we’re more of a “Microsoft” business. Time will tell. 

    → 7:49 PM, Dec 13
  • Isn’t that weird that we need to jump to an external website to enjoy the 2022 Replay? Why not have it within Music.app itself? 🤔

    → 5:27 PM, Dec 10
  • The Most Divisive Mac Pro Is a Thing of Beauty

    This week, a new Mac joined the family. The 2013 Mac Pro. I always dreamed of owning one. It’s probably one of the most singular Macs Apple has ever designed. Yes, it has limited expansion. Yes, it is not the Pro Mac that the pros wanted back in 2013. Yes, you need to unplug everything from the machine to open it up. It’s borderline baffling. But this hardware piece, just like the monolith in the 2001 Space Odyssey movie, seems to come from an alien planet, far from earth. Once plugged in and turned on, you can hear it barely humming, just like in any space station depicted in science fiction movies. 

    I’m starting to use this Mac Pro for a project that requires an Intel processor. You can read about it here if you are curious.

    The 2013 Mac Pro

    → 3:15 PM, Dec 10
  • Glass Is Evolving Nicely

    It’s good to see Glass introduce new methods for discovering photos on its platform. I would love to see percentages relative to each camera and smartphone brand. Searching by lenses tells us that Nikon is way behind Canon regarding diversity and representation. Can’t wait for Glass’s next move. Glass New Discovery Categories

    → 1:29 PM, Dec 8
  • Just released: my first visual story on Exposure.

    Twenty days in Italy / Summer 2022.

    Enjoy.

    → 2:01 PM, Nov 5
  • I’ve been quietly testing Exposure recently, an excellent visual storytelling service. I could probably replace my Smugmug page. That’s the goal of my experiment anyway: testing Exposure service’s ability to replace Smugmug. Stay tuned. This is my first short story.

    → 9:05 AM, Oct 30
  • Adobe, Lightroom and the Camera

    The Adobe Max conference was held this week. With each conference comes a slew of new application update releases. I’m not really into Adobe ecosystem except for using Adobe Lightroom on the Mac and the iPad Pro. This is my main photo processing engine, coupled with the excellent Pixelmator Pro. For About a year, Adobe spent some of its development money to “augment” Lightroom, a photo-processing application, with video-processing features. Why? I don’t get it. I don’t want it.

    As Adobe is adding video-processing features to Lightroom, I fear they are making it less focused and slowly becoming a bloated piece of software, on the outside but also the inside. Adobe Lightroom’s mission was to start over and make a new solid foundation apart from its aging Adobe Lightroom Classic.

    I want Adobe to focus on photography; they already have video-processing apps like Adobe Premiere!

    I’d love Adobe to focus on making the camera feature compete with a dedicated camera app like Apple’s camera app or Halide or Camera+. I cannot remember when the last release of Adobe touched this portion of Lightroom in significant ways. Why is it important? As a subscriber of an Adobe photography plan, I would use the Lightroom camera more, and my images would directly go to the Adobe Cloud, just like the Apple camera app saved photos in iCloud. It would be so much more convenient. I prefer Adobe cloud for my RAW images instead of having to transit my RAW photos through the Apple Photos library. The more Adobe improves the built-in camera module of Lightroom, the more I’ll stay within Lightroom while in a photography moment.

    → 6:00 AM, Oct 19
  • On the Dynamic Island Inception and Possible Future

    A recent Twitter thread about the possible iPhone Dynamic Island inception by Matt Birchler caught my attention a few days ago but couldn’t find the required time to write my take.

    How long could Dynamic Island have been in gestation at Apple? A few weeks, a few months? I think this has been in the works for quite some time. Besides the visual appearance, the API goes with it and needs a design period too. I’m sure Matt understands and knows about that. I would argue that Apple worked on this way before this year’s announcement. Best integration between hardware and software takes time because of how Apple is internally structured. Secrecy plays a significant role in making things longer to achieve too. Apple plan’s for the long run, and I think the pill shape was set in stone last year.

    The second thing that caught my attention is this: How long will Dynamic Island be with us? What if Apple can make the camera disappear under the iPhone’s display? Would this make Dynamic Island pointless? No. My take is that the feature is here for the long run, even though the camera and all other sensors could disappear entirely. Apple is training us to accept Dynamic Island as a fundamental part of the iPhone experience. We may even expect the feature to be the de facto standard of the best iPhone user experience. I don’t think we will revert to the previous design that Dynamic Island is taking care of. The black pill share could be dynamically removed when not required but could then pop up to respond to the current context dictated by the user interaction.

    The Dynamic Island is such a terrible name but the feature in itself is brilliant, so Apple.

    → 5:39 PM, Sep 26
  • AirTags Can Make a Difference

    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.

    → 6:54 AM, Aug 16
  • Building a Photo Diary Using Craft — An Experiment

    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.

    → 6:00 AM, Aug 16
  • Waiting for the Surprises

    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.

    → 7:06 AM, Aug 14
  • My Photo Publishing Flow for Italy

    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.

    → 6:31 AM, Aug 13
  • No, no, no, and no.

    I’m sorry, Dropzone, you’re good but not that useful. I mean, for such a narrow-usage utility, I’m not going to pay that much monthly. I’m the one who buys and rent software but come on. It’s becoming ridiculous. Provide a lifetime contribution, and I’ll make the deal. You’re a feature, not a product. Delete. 😞

    → 6:15 AM, Aug 13
  • Wondering About Photo Journal for My Upcoming Trip to Italy

    I’m two weeks away from a long trip to Italy, and I’m wondering about posting photos while on the trip, but where? Since I’m not active on Facebook or Instagram but have a SmugMug and Glass account, what will I do? My Glass and SmugMug accounts aren’t for photo journaling, after all. I’m very selective with those. Maybe I could create posts in my Photo Legend series on Ghost? Could I try experimenting with Craft and adding photos to a shared page? Unfortunately, Craft isn’t the best app for images. Craft is much more about written words. What about posting here, on Micro.blog, using Sunlit? Decision, decision, decision. 🤔

    But, fundamentally, who cares about my trip to Italy? 😉

    → 6:45 AM, Aug 9
  • About Heavy Camera Gear for Vacations

    In The Weight Of Creativity – On my Om, Om Malik thinks about camera gears weight during trips. I’m on the verge of going to Italy for a three weeks vacation, and I’ll have to decide about the content of my camera backpack. As the iPhone is taking a more prominent role in photography, there are fewer incentives to bring heavy gear with me.

    → 6:13 AM, Aug 9
  • Switching from Instagram to ...

    It is surprising and fascinating that we seem to skip Flickr or 500px as a replacement for Instagram when thinking like this about Instagram possible replacements. Those platforms should take advantage of the Instagram pivot to something other than photos. They don’t and they are missing an occasion to reinvent themselves. I’m a paid user of Glass and Smugmug, and I love them.

    → 7:00 AM, Aug 1
  • I never post this type of thing here but I wanted to share my enthusiasm about eating this! Simple and healthy. 😀

    → 11:13 AM, May 29
  • Today was a special day. So many memories.

    → 8:43 PM, May 10
  • Two Years Ago…

    On March 13th, in 2020, the world flipped, my world flipped. So many things are different now. This short blog post is about reflecting on the last two years and how they became the foundation for what is to come in my life.

    Time flies and making judicious decisions is more important than ever. Working from home is important. I’ll never return full time at the office. Even if I move to another job, working from home is now a requirement. Visiting customers for the sake of shaking hands no longer make sense to me. There has to be more than this. The price is too high to pay: wasted time.

    Traveling is more important than ever too; that’s the only way for me to do more photography. Something that I didn’t do much in the last two years. This visual work posted in April of 2020 was the trigger to write this blog post. I’m sad about this because photography is my most important source of inspiration and my biggest creativity playground after writing. Still on the travel subject, I can envision traveling abroad for more than two weeks now and splitting my time between leisure and remote work. Leaving for a month or more is now possible.

    Speaking of writing, I’ll probably continue to write but probably not as much as in the last two years. A more balanced life is taking place and will take away some of my writing time. It’s ok. It’s also part of making better choices.

    The last two years of COVID-19, the more and more frequent climate disturbances and the recent events in Europe are telling me this: the world is more than ever in a constant state of emergency. I better learn how to cope with this otherwise I’m not finished at being in constant consternation mood while reading the news.

    Thanks for reading this. I know your time is precious too and you made the decision to read this short piece.

    → 9:18 AM, Mar 13
  • Still Mystified by ProRAW

    Even after reading this excellent article by the guy behind Halide, I’m still mystified by Apple’s ProRAW format. The question that keeps popping up in my mind is: if computational photography processing is involved in creating the ProRAW file (in DNG format), how can we still call this a variant of a RAW image?

    Photo credit: Jason Strull on Unsplash

    → 11:20 AM, Feb 20
  • Bye Bye 500px

    It was written on the walls: my subscription to 500px is coming to an end next week, and I won’t renew. It was a nice ride for sure, but Smugmug + Glass took over. Sure, comparing those services isn’t fair. For my needs, 500px doesn’t fit anymore. Another reason is the fact that I’m not taking as many photos as I used to, thanks to the pandemic.

    I’ll keep my 500px account but in “read-only” mode for the year to come.

    → 8:05 AM, Jan 12
  • Working from home since March 2020. Over the months, I made quite a few tweaks to my home office. I’m so much more at ease at home than at the office with a desk, a chair, a lamp, and devices that I chose, instead of being imposed on me.

    → 7:42 PM, Jan 10
  • One More Gripe Against Apple’s Photos Memory Feature

    Jim Novell & Stephen Hackett both have valid points against Apple’s Photos Memory feature. I would another one: memories are created on a very aggressive schedule. There are way too many; I miss most of them. I don’t know if this is related to the fact that my library contains more than 42K images or if other factors come into play here. There should be a way to reduce the frequency.

    → 6:58 PM, Jan 9
  • Those Curves…

    I’m a big fan of curves, but up until now, I didn’t really know how to take advantage of them. 🙃 Enter this short tutorial for Pixelmator Pro. 😂 You’ll learn how to use the curves adjustment to tweak colours and luminance of any photos. I usually prefer to use sliders just because up until now I didn’t really get how to use the curves. Now, thanks to this tutorial, I have a much better idea. Many more tutorials are available on the Pixelmator Pro YouTube channel.

    The production quality of these tutorials is impeccable. I really love Pixelmator in general, and I always thought this photo processing application could have been done by Apple, when they cared enough about making one, back in the days. This isn’t a paid advertisement. I’m just being enthusiastic about great native macOS applications. 😌

    → 8:53 PM, Jan 6
  • He says "Hi!"

    For no apparent reason, I started a photo series of this little guy in all sorts of visual contexts. I’m using an album to store them all. I’m currently at 23 photos of him. He’s so cute, isn’t he? I got my inspiration from someone here on Micro.blog who did the same in recent months. I can’t remember who, though. So who knows where this is headed. It’s the time of the year for frivolous projects. 😂

    → 9:46 AM, Dec 26
  • Completed The Servant Season 2 - At Long Last!

    Finally was able to finish season 2 of The Servant on Apple TV+ yesterday, just in time for the third season. What a weird story. The only occasion I can spend time watching TV series is during the holidays. Using AirPods Max for the listening experience is pure magic; nobody in the living gets distracted by the TV, and the sound quality is impressive. Now, I should finish For All Mankind Season 2.

    → 9:19 AM, Dec 26
  • Glass — Maybe We Need to Be Patient?

    Matt Birchler blog post about his interest for Glass’s fading out:

    I was very high on Glass, a new photo sharing app this summer, but my enthusiasm for it has dropped in perfect sync with the temperature dropping here in the Midwest since then.

    Lee Peterson blog post about his interest is so low that he canceled his Glass subscription:

    I still feel it was a bad slope to start down by adding appreciation and I’ve cancelled my subscription.

    Finally, Andy Nicolaides on Twitter thinking out loud about the introduction of “appreciation” (a term used instead of “likes”):

    I’m not one of the folks that wasn’t a big fit of Glass adding the likes / appreciation function, but I’ll tell you this much, in my small case study of one, it’s completely killed off any comments I used to receive.

    Let’s be honest: Glass has been alive for less than four months. They kept updating the service since the beginning to improve the experience and discoverability. They didn’t fall in the “me too” trap yet. Aren’t we expecting too much too soon from such a small organization? Should we expect them to come out with the right recipe on day one? Could this be much more difficult to be different and yet familiar in the crowded space of on-line photo sharing? I would argue that your feed is as good as the people you follow. Sure, Glass needs to attract great photographers. I suspect they are working on it as I write this. People are busy. Living in a pandemic put a lot of stress on everybody and cancelled so many opportunities for doing photography, but it created others too. It wasn’t the best moment to launch such a service, and yet, they’ve done a great job so far.

    I do have a subscription to Glass (my profile page here) and I’m willing to be patient here. I have a goal of posting at least one picture a week, even though I have another place to do so, on Smugmug (my profile page here).

    → 11:56 AM, Dec 20
  • An idea. The iPad. A Brainstorming Session. Another Article in the Works.

    I love the iPad. Apple’s Notes.app in dark mode is 😍. You’re currently seeing a brainstorm of ideas for an upcoming blog post in early 2022. The subject? Can you tell just by looking at my notes? Hint: It’s a meta blog post. Another hint: https://numericcitizen.io.

    Yes, I know, my handwriting sucks. 🤦🏻‍♂️😔😉

    → 5:53 PM, Dec 19
  • The Enigmatic Snapseed from Google

    Surprising to see Snapseed being updated since it is owned by Google. I use this photo processing application to create the posts in the Perfect Imperfection Series on my Smugmug account. If Google was to kill this app, it would probably put an end to my photo series. I tried to find other apps to replace Snapseed but failed to find something that comes close. Now, why is Google even bother maintaining Snapseed? How does it fit their business model?

    → 2:31 PM, Dec 19
  • Being Unsplashed — Take 2

    If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while, you probably know by now that I’m a big fan of Unsplash (“My Growing Love Affair with Unsplash”). I’ve been using Unsplash constantly to find and use pictures in many of my posts (when I cannot find one of mines that fit the post subject). My contributions slowed a bit in the last year because I spend more time building my online presence on Smugmug (my Smugmug page) and more recently on Glass (my profile on Glass).

    This week, the picture above has been selected to be featured in the architecture category. I’m honoured. You can see my featured photo in the architecture category right now. The last time that I’ve been unsplashed was less than a year ago, I wrote about it on my main blog: OMG — I’ve Been Unsplashed!.

    To see all of my contributions to Unsplash, visit my profile page. The expression of “being Unsplash” is a creation of mine. 😂

    → 8:33 AM, Dec 12
  • On #Glass Appreciation

    Surprise! Today, Glass introduced something I thought would never come: Like! Oops, Appreciation (Announcement on Twitter)! In summary: they are private. They are note at the forefront of the experience. They don’t propels algorithms. They aren’t used to sell targeted ads. They are merely a check box in a database. They are gentle. They are a gift. The team behind Glass is showing sign of lucidity. I like what’s I’m seeing since the start of this special place.

    → 5:38 PM, Dec 9
  • On My Photographic Style

    The photo thumbnails are from a personal trip to Austria in 1998. When I look back at these photos, I have to come to a conclusion that my photographic style didn’t really change in 30 years. It feels a bit depressing. It is basically revolving about architecture, nature. Very rarely about people, these are too hard to capture; I don’t have a good sense of timing, and I’m shy. I’m rarely doing street photography. The only addition to my subjects in recent years is urban exploration. Do we come into this world with a pre-determined photographic style?

    Here is my Glass page.

    And my SmugMug page.

    Oh and my Unsplash page!

    → 10:40 AM, Dec 4
  • Testing Synology Photos as a digital assets management solution (#synology #beta #dsm7)

    Synology Photos Beta

    I’m currently testing Synology as a storage solution for all my non-personal, non-photographic digital assets that I often use to complement my blog posts. After testing Synology Moments, their previous solution for photo management on DSM 6.2, Synology Photos in DSM 7.x is a step in the right direction, a big improvement. I like what I’m seeing. It’s fast. The ability to use folders as well as albums to organize my collection is a big plus. I’ve yet to find a bug. There is an iPad version of their Synology Photos. It’s not perfect but it works. Lacking is support iPad multitasking, which is a shame but not a deal-breaker.

    In order to test this solution, I’m using my DS720+ running DSM7 beta inside a virtual machine. DSM Virtual Machine Manager allows the execution of a Virtual DSM which is very cool for testing future releases of their software. I’m impressed by the relative speed of this setup running on 6 GB of RAM, 2 x 6 TB SATA drives and a Samsung M2 NVMe 512 GB cache drive.

    Stay tuned for more.

    → 6:01 PM, Dec 3
  • Photo editing while on the beach

    On my iPad Pro, in split-screen view: on the left, Lightroom. On the right, Apple’s Photos. Same photo in DNG format (ProRAW) edited with available features and possibilities of each application. Lightroom wins, obviously. Recent update to Lightroom adds editing masks which makes a big difference in achieving desired results. Picture taken with iPhone 13 Pro. On the beach. While in vacation. Cheers. 😎🍹

    → 10:30 AM, Nov 26
  • Some of my heroes over the years. Do you have any?

    → 2:33 PM, Nov 13
  • From ProRAW to JPEG — When JPEG is Simply Enough

    Here is a situation for which I’m searching for a solution. Let’s say I’m going out with my iPhone 13 Pro to take a few pictures outside. After a while, I notice that all the pictures that I was shooting were in ProRAW format. What if the lighting conditions were great that day and my photos didn’t require post-processing of any kind besides the iPhone’s own processing? How can I convert from ProRAW to their optimized JPEG counterparts and keep them in my iCloud Photo Library? Such process would decrease image size by a factor of ten.

    I cannot find an answer for this seemingly easy question. So far, it all comes down to exporting the photos from Apple’s Photos application and then reimporting them. Such process needs to be followed by the deletion of all the original photos to prevent duplicates. There has to be a better way. Shortcuts, on iOS or macOS doesn’t provide any solutions as far as I can tell. Why is such thing not possible? If you happen to have a solution for this, please let me know.

    → 5:13 PM, Nov 7
  • Here is my Sunday so far… how is yours going?

    → 1:33 PM, Nov 7
  • Comparing Notion and Craft running on an M1 MacBook Air. Notion takes 382 MB of RAM while Craft uses less than half of this. Both are native, but Notion is based on Electron. Well, Craft is based on Catalyst, it’s not pure AppKit. Yet…

    → 8:04 AM, Nov 6
  • Time to relax, it’s Friday after all. Who’s playing?

    → 4:27 PM, Nov 5
  • Glass Profile Page — Finally?

    After a successful initial launch, categories support addition, now here is profile page support. Glass is maturing, one step at a time. The web experience wasn’t part of the initial launch and I think it is fine. This is my profile page. Works great on iPhone, and on iPad which is cool. To join, you need to download the application. Works great on iPhone, not available on iPad. Oops. Next? Like support? I don’t think so. Hoping to meet you there!

    → 6:43 PM, Oct 27
  • Computational Photography Meet Traditional Cameras

    But I wonder, where is photography headed from here? Surely, computational photography will play a big role in the short term. In my opinion, smartphones are not the future of photography, but they are hinting at where standalone, interchangeable lens cameras have to go in the next few years. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next. Source: Where is photography headed? — aows

    What if Canon or Nikon were developing computational photography features in their cameras, just like Apple does for its iPhone? Imagine a “real” lens, a much bigger CCD captor, algorithms coupled with machine learning running on a powerful CPU. I wonder if this is the only way for Canon and Nikon to survive.

    → 7:52 PM, Oct 26
  • Understanding Halide Pro+ Capture Format

    I’m still learning new things about shooting in ProRAW on my iPhone 13 Pro. The latest tidbits that I learned is not directly related to ProRAW usage, but to a setting in Halide related to photo capture modes.

    When using what is called “Pro+” setting, Halide will take two photos for each shot. One is taken in HEIC format, the other is taken in ProRAW. Both photos are tied together and stored in Apple’s Photos library as one image. Here is the thing that I learned: when browsing previously taken photos from within Halide, metadata is shown in two different panels: HEIC and DNG (see above screenshots). Each component is taking a certain amount of space. The former being the smallest one. The latter, being the ProRAW version, is usually ten times bigger. But, when browsing the same photo in Photos, only the HEIC size is shown, as depicted in the following screenshot.

    In summary, for pictures taken with Halide’s Pro+ format, don’t be deceived by Apple’s Photos showing only the HEIC size. The actual space consumed by this image is actually the sum of the HEIC part + ProRAW part (in DNG). That’s big, for only one image. Is it worth it? It depends, as I recently wrote about this.

    → 6:19 AM, Oct 25
  • Is the Cost of ProRAW Worth It? #apple #photography #proraw

    I’m still trying to wrap my mind around Apple’s ProRAW. I know, I’m late to the party. Image size can be as much as 10x the size of a jpeg. I think that for non-edge cases (optimal lighting), ProRAW “cost” isn’t worth it. Also, ProRAW images taken with Halide are much smaller than using Apple’s camera app, for reasons I still don’t understand.

    → 1:45 PM, Oct 23
  • I’ve been playing with my iPhone 13 Pro last weekend. On the following diagram, the picture on the left was shot with the telephoto lens, while the picture on the right was shot in macro mode, in the area shown on the left. Both pictures were processed in Adobe Lightroom CC.

    → 5:57 AM, Oct 15
  • Where Should Glass Go? A Debate About Likes

    One of my picture on Glass

    Matt Bircher on the lack of “Like” on Glass:

    Maybe this is a terrible idea and I’m in the minority here, but I really do think that I would enjoy the app more if I was able to give lower-friction reactions to people’s photos. I still like Glass quite a bit, and I browse it everyday, but I do often feel like I don’t have the energy to comment on all the photos I like, and that’s a shame.

    Lee Peterson’s take on his blog:

    Not having follower counts and likes is a great way to stop the comparison to others and help to reduce the stress of feeling bad about myself for not making engaging content.

    It’s not an easy thing to consider. Matt’s point of view also echos mine. If Glass added likes, does that put them on the path of Instagram, ads, and algorithm-based feed? I don’t think so. Glass is a paid service. That’s the key.

    What if the decision of enabling likes was delegated to the photographer posting photos? I would enable it, Matt probably would too, but not Lee. The same goes for seeing and showing the followers count on the profile page. What if those decisions were put in the hands of the content creator? Let the platform have it builtin and the content creator decide what to do with it. Twitter’s Revue offers such a feature of showing the subscribers count on the Revue profile page. I like it, and it is enabled, even though I only have two subscribers.

    On Micro.blog, the situation is pretty much the same. We don’t get likes to our posts, we don’t get to see how many followers we’ve got. I made requests to the guy behind Micro.blog for the ability to see the followers count on Micro.blog without much success. This data could be made private, and we could enable to show it on our profile page.

    Why is the platform the only one making those decisions? Let the content creators decide. You can find me on Glass under the Numericcitizen moniker, here is one of my shared photo.

    → 5:47 AM, Oct 13
  • 👉🏻 This game was destined for the iPad. I’m in love. 🥰 Bye bye Steam! Currently in beta and pre-orders are open. Works great! Read my comments about this game here: A Simple Review of Townscraper - Numeric Citizen Blog

    → 6:06 AM, Oct 12
  • On the way back home

    I’m on my way back home from a weekend in the Niagara Falls region. I put my iPhone 13 Pro to the test. I’m quite happy with my experience. Most of my photos are in ProRAW format. I’m not sure how I’ll process them: with Pixelmator? Lightroom CC? If the latter, the import process is putting me on the break instead of a more integrated experience with Pixelmator.

    → 11:32 AM, Oct 11
  • The waiting combo. It’s the story of a lonely couple waiting for something to happen. Tomorrow they will come together at last.

    → 6:29 AM, Sep 23
  • Bokeh is not going to happen apparently. It was written on the walls for quite some time. Too bad. I think Glass had a good start and updates are coming on a regular basis. I wish them success. So far, I’m happy with them.

    → 8:56 AM, Sep 18
  • Dear @AppleInsider STOP THIS!

    I don’t know who got the idea at AppleInsider of putting video auto-play right in the middle of every articles, but this doesn’t enable a great reading experience. Even worst, scrolling the page to the bottom while reading will put the video in the bottom right corner on top of the content. It makes me wonder if I should stop reading their content altogether. Ads are bad but this is even worst. It’s not a good reading experience at all. Please, reconsider. Thanks. A long time reader.

    → 8:00 AM, Sep 18
  • The next #AppleEvent is coming!

    Just in time for the upcoming Apple event, my rumours site has been updated to reflect the most recent rumours. New iPhone. New Apple Watch. New AirPods. iOS 15. iPadOS 15. No MacBook Pro updates. That is all.

    → 5:49 PM, Sep 7
  • The (short) story of a scratch

    Here is a picture of my 2020 MacBook Air that I recently bought. I wanted to use it as a banner somewhere, but this visual defect on the Apple logo put an end to my intention. Then, I started to think how bad things go for Apple these days and I came to the conclusion that this scratch perfectly illustrates the current status of Apple as a symbol. What a useless post. 🙂🤦🏻‍♂️

    → 8:27 AM, Sep 5
  • A typical month on Substack

    Five publications each month. Four Friday notes posts, one monthly newsletter. Some new subscribers. No comments. A lot of fun at writing and publishing these posts. I’m writing for myself. I don’t feel the pressure of regular writing schedules. It’s easier than I thought. The more I do it, easier it becomes. Substack is a slowly evolving publishing platform. I wish it was a bit more like Twitter’s Revue. Anyways. https://numericcitizen.substack.com.

    → 6:16 AM, Sep 2
  • And so it begins. What's next?

    According to the Wall Street Journal:

    South Korea today passed a bill that bans Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their own respective in-app purchasing systems, allowing developers to charge users using third-party payment methods

    Now what? How will Apple respond? Will they create a different version of iOS for South Korea? Can they simply appeal this law, if such a thing is possible? How is this going to help other countries and parties to go after Apple’s practices? How much time will Apple be given to change its practices? Three months? A year? South Korea is probably a small market for Apple compared to other places in the world, but this new law seems like a tsunami in the making.

    → 5:37 AM, Aug 31
  • On Apple's M1 MacBook Air energy efficiency

    Funny and fascinating to see that 95% of the time, the four energy-efficient CPU cores are doing all the legwork on my M1 MacBook Air. I rarely see the performance cores doing work for a long time.

    → 7:28 AM, Aug 28
  • Late to the party, but...

    Just got this yesterday. You know what this mean, right? Well, maybe not. Anyway, I’m a bit late to the MacBook Air party, but this thing is probably THE best Mac Apple ever made. It’s not the best Air Apple ever made, though. A tad too big probably, yet so powerful. And this keyboard… a real and trusty keyboard. 🥰

    I’m working on an essay about my new adventure in the MacBook Air land. Stay tuned.

    → 5:40 AM, Aug 26
  • Finally Apple. I love this!

    → 6:06 PM, Aug 17
  • It’s always saddening me a bit when, on the day of a new issue of my newsletter is being published, a few people decide to unscubscribe. I know, I cannot please everyone, people are busy, etc. And yet… 😒 oh well. 🤷🏻‍♂️

    → 11:06 AM, Jul 30
  • I wish I could have used « Digital Citizen » instead of « Numeric Citizen ». Oh well. It’s a branding issue, nothing serious.

    → 8:40 PM, Jul 26
  • Hey, @Medium, what are these updates all about? Are you counting weeks, days? Meanwhile, on my iPad, using splitview… this has been an ongoing bug since forever… If you want to be taken seriously as a reading platform, get your act together and fix your app, once and for all. ❤️

    → 8:35 PM, Jul 26
  • Do you remember when you switched to Apple's ecosystem?

    Matt Birchler writing about Apple ecosystem stickiness:

    “As I buy more and more Apple products, all of those Apple products get better. My iPhone is more valuable because of the HomePod Mini I AirPlay my podcast to while I’m working. My iPad gets more valuable because it has seamless file sync with my Mac. Reminders is better because it works with Siri in a way no other app is allowed. The list goes on. But this is of course also a bit of a trap. I can’t really get an Android phone, even if I think I would enjoy it more than my iPhone, because then my HomePods become worse, my Mac gets worse, my iPad gets worse, and my Apple services get worse. Because each additional Apple product makes all my other Apple products better, likewise removing something from that mix brings down everything else.”

    You cannot use an Apple Watch with an Android smartphone. In Apple’s garden, every product has an extension that takes the form of a service or another physical product from Apple. Did we forget that once upon a time we made a switch from platforms like Windows or OS/2? When a new offering is really making a difference, we tend to switch. Back in the days, a Windows PC was an island, leaving it for the Mac meant that you had to re-buy new software, a few accessories. All things equal, the switch wasn’t necessarily funny. Today’s digital world is quite different, for sure, but pose a similar kind of challenge when switching.

    Photo by Miguel Tomás on Unsplash

    → 6:31 AM, Jul 26
  • On iPadOS 15 Photos improvements

    I’ve been using Photos in iPadOS 15 since beta 2 and I must say that Apple is in fact offering a major update to their photos application. Beyong the updated Stories automatic creation and management improvements, face recognition has become quite impressive. According to a published article by Apple, people faces should be more detectable and recognizable in more extreme conditions. I can confirm this is actually the case. A large number of new photos were surfaced by Photos’ improved algorithms which brings more potential content for new stories creation. Managing tagged faces is easier too and provides a refined experience overvall. Photos enhancements in iPadOS 15 is a big reason to upgrade.

    → 7:34 AM, Jul 25
  • Moving Adobe Lightroom from one machine to another

    I’m finally done moving Adobe Lightroom Classic from my iMac to my M1 Mac mini. A few takeaways: it’s a tricky process involving many folders to copy (presets, settings, photos, catalog, etc.). Lightroom is bad at managing digital assets when things need to be reorganized. The Apple Silicon optimized version is faster but not as much as I thought it would be. My Mac mini never stop to impress me, it’s such a fast device. I’m close to being able to put my 2017 iMac for sale.

    → 6:04 AM, Jul 21
  • When a 2013 MacBook Air is > than a two-years old Chromebook

    I’ll be getting a old 2013 MacBook Air for one of my son to replace an aging Chromebook that I bought about two years ago. Think about it. This eight years old MacBook Air is faster, much better design, much better screen quality, more memory and will be able to run macOS Big Sur and all other apps like iWorks et al. I find this incredible that we can read and hear people saying Apple gear is expansive and that is under Apple’s obsolescence progamming. I call this bullshit.

    → 4:17 PM, Jul 18
  • Weird.

    → 3:22 PM, Jul 17
  • Moving from Castro to Pocket Cast: 100% completed. 👨🏻‍💻⌛️👍🏻😁

    I waited for close to a year for Castro to bring its podcasts app to the iPad. Today, with the announcement of Automattic buying Pocket Cast, it came back on my radar. It didn’t take too long to make the switch. Pocket Cast is a real multi-platform player, feature rich and has an as good design as the other players. After Tumblr, DayOne, now Pocket Cast, I want to give it a try and see how Automattic will build on it. Meanwhile, I’m really enjoying it.

    → 8:50 AM, Jul 17
  • On PC in the cloud

    Microsoft announced their PC in the cloud offerings this week. While it is probably based on their previous offering, Windows Virtual Desktop service, it does look like a milestone to me. I’ve been in IT for more than 25 years. I saw the migration from the mainframe to the client-server applications architecture. After that, it was about virtualization taking over with the popular VMware hypervisor. In the last five years, I saw the cloud taking over the IT world. The latter has a much more profound impact than any trend I witnessed or was part of in my career.

    PC in the cloud is only offered to business customers, for now. I can see Microsoft offering the service to the general public in a not too distant future. I’ll probably subscribe to an instance for my personal needs. Being able to run the PC in a browser means being able to use it on any of my current Apple devices, from the M1 Mac mini to my iPad Pro. This is something Apple will never enable itself, certainly not within Safari. The future looks interesting.

    → 5:43 AM, Jul 15
  • User Interface design dark age era

    We are in the dark age (not dark mode!) of user interface design for sure. We get excited for new animated UI elements (example here), but overall, delight has been lost in translation a long time ago. As Mike Rockwell is a link post say:

    “I can’t really identify anything that I’ll be nostalgic for in ten or twenty years.”

    I wouldn’t go back to pre-iOS 7 days but there has to be some delightful in-between degree of crafted user interface that had some real joyful elements in them. Apple is not the only one at fault here. It looks like it is a design trend spanning many mediums (print, TV, web, etc.).

    Has the industry decided that our devices have reached a level of maturity that warrants making everything minimal, sterile, and utilitarian to help “do work” and “get stuff done”?

    Excellent question, Tyler Hall.

    → 6:06 AM, Jul 14
  • Bye Bye Skylum - I barely knew you

    In preparing to move off my 2017 Intel iMac (and put if for sale), I must make sure to re-install remaining applications on my M1 Mac mini. Photography-related apps were the last to be updated for the M1 chip. Lightroom CC is now fully optimized, but none of the Skylum apps I was (rarely) using: Luminar 4 and Aurora 2019 HDR. After spending some time on their support forums, I found out that none of their apps are optimized for the M1 chip. I had to make the call: bye bye Skylum. I barely knew you.

    If a software vendor like Skylum is unable to update their apps in a timely matter, more than a year after the M1 chip has been announced, I give up. It is sad because these are the kind of applications that would take advantage of the power of the M1 chip. Too bad. My photography workflow will focus on Adobe applications, for good or for worse.

    → 6:16 AM, Jul 12
  • A few thoughts on cleaning up my Twitter accounts following list

    Since last year, I’ve been making a major cleanup of my Twitter account. I came from following more than 2000 people down to less than 300… and my goal is to drop below 100. I’m slowly getting there. Here are a few take outs from this major cleanup of my accounts following list.

    First, there are a lot of stale accounts on Twitter, which tends to artificially increase “followship”. It looks like people stopped tweeting a while ago — they left the building. Second, a bunch of accounts were iPhone developers that I started following during my indie developer era, back in 2009-2013. My interests have since then shifted to writing and blogging. I no longer need to get in touch with the developers community. Third, and this coud be the most troubling take out: Twitter has become less and less useful in my numeric life. Articles readings happens more and more though RSS feeds and Mailbrew. So, what’s left for me from Twitter? Getting reactions from people during specials events, related to Apple’s announcements. That’s pretty much it.

    → 1:00 PM, Jul 10
  • I’ve been experimenting with time tracking. I’ve been doing it as an experiment at first, but now it’s part of my workflow. I’m using Toggl and Timery. Ask me anything.

    → 6:35 AM, Jul 9
  • The power of iPadOS 15: setting up a workspace made of four apps with a simple shortcut from the home screen. So cool. 👨🏻‍💻🤓

    → 7:02 AM, Jul 7
  • The return of the Touch ID?

    A recent poll ran by 9To5Mac gives surprising results about what people would like to see if Touch Id is to return to the iPhone. Touch ID under the screen wins popular favour… personally, I would prefer Touch ID to go on the power button, just like the iPad Air because it is easily accessible while holding the phone.

    → 5:47 AM, Jul 7
  • Every few days, I go on the Apple Store app to configure a 12.9” 2021 iPad Pro with 512 GB just to confirm delivery date estimates. I’m crazy.

    → 4:43 PM, Jul 3
  • Please… stop… using… ellipsis… for gods sake (#apple #ux #design #iosdev)

    In the following screenshot taken this morning on my iPad screen, how many ellipsis signs to you catch? I highlighted them for you to make it easier. To all developers, to all designers, to Apple: please, stop this shit NOW and find a better way, use your imagination, stop being lazy at design. Thank you.

    → 11:11 AM, Jul 2
  • I rarely post my photos here… but here we are, it’s an exception day. This one is from the lake in front of my rented chalet. My photos are available here for those wondering: numericcitizen.photos

    → 1:36 PM, Jun 30
  • Public beta, already? That was fast. (#ios15publicbeta #ios15beta2) If my experience is any indication, I wouldn’t install that on an iPhone, if it’s the only device a user have.

    → 1:24 PM, Jun 30
  • Thought of the day: for me, Apple’s Widgets are more transformative to the iPad experience than they were to the iPhone, by far.

    → 12:58 PM, Jun 28
  • On design trends — sadness

    While reading a recent article from Basic Apple Guy about News+, there is this illustration that shows how far Apple News icon has come since its beginnings. I have included the illustration here. It shows how bad design has become in the last five to ten years. That is really depressing to see. As much as things like AR and LiDAR technology help bring real world and virtual world closer together, UI design seems to go the opposite direction. Why is that? When will that trend stop and maybe revert a bit? Why can’t we get visually joyful icons anymore? Is it a matter of design costs being too high?

    → 8:59 AM, Jun 26
  • Apple and Architecture

    This is one of the many reasons why I love Apple. They put so much money into this building restoration, it is mind blowing. The amounf of efforts that went into renovating this historic site is beyond any public-founded projects could have done. This brings me to this interesting question by Basic Apple Guy:

    (…) should corporations be allowed to get their hands on this historic architecture and turn them into private businesses? Rightly or wrongly, the fact of the matter is that many governments don’t prioritize or have the means to prioritize the extensive work required to take on this scale of restoration.

    I tend to have a polarizing view on anything related to architecture. My father was an architect and so I’m profoundly sensitive on the subject. Yes corporation can take over abandoned historic buildings as long as they do it under the supervision of an urbanism council or something like it. Here, Apple transformed a building into a store but each time Apple chose to do it in a gentle way. I mean, it is barely noticeable from the outside that this is an Apple Store. It’s a very respectful way to do it.

    → 1:22 PM, Jun 23
  • Apple’s Shortcuts and Photo processing

    Now that Darkroom officially supports iOS Shortcuts (and will support Shortcuts on Monterey this fall), I can’t wait to get Pixelmator to do the same, as this is my go-to alternative to Lightroom CC for photos editing on the iPad. I like Darkroom by the way but I do have to make choices. Screenshot from MacStories.

    → 1:08 PM, Jun 23
  • Full iOS 15 Beta Schedule Revealed! (#apple #ios15beta2)

    As we are probably getting iOS 15 beta 2 this week (today?), here is a probable schedule for this summer betas. RED colour is for developer betas, blue is for public betas. We should get 8 betas for developers, first public beta set for July 7th. Let’s see if these guesses are good or not.

    → 9:20 AM, Jun 21
  • Apple did bring back the loupe for selecting text on iOS. Good. The only thing is that we need to find it, as shown here. I know, it’s beta 1 but come on, I can’t believe this sort of design comes out of Apple. Someone is clearly sleeping here.

    → 5:01 PM, Jun 18
  • App Clip can be really cool

    I’m a bit late to the party but this use of Apple’s App Clip technology is clever: point your iPhone to the Apple Watch band package, an App Clip will pop up on your phone to help you get the matching Watch Face. Cool. Great case of Apple eating its own dog food, and showing a great integration experience.

    → 7:03 PM, Jun 15
  • macOS Monterey looks more and more exciting each day. Can’t wait for this update from the makers of Pixelmator Pro. I can see two of my Automator scripts that will easily migrate to Shortcuts this fall.

    → 6:45 PM, Jun 15
  • FaceTime in iOS 15: too little too late? Maybe. At least, FaceTime is better positioned as a videoconference platform for the next pandemic. Because, you know, one day, there will be another one.

    → 6:20 AM, Jun 10
  • Time to move off Apple’s Intel iMac? (#apple #adobe #lightroomclassic #applesilicon)

    With Adobe finally releasing Lightroom Classic for Apple Silicon Macs, This could enable me to move off my 2017 21.5” Intel Mac for once. The prospect of Lightroom catalogs and data migration is not enchanting though. There the issues of plugins migration too. Is it time for me to go all-in cloud with Lightroom CC only? Not sure it is the right time either.

    I have a few incentives for selling my iMac: one being to help me finance a shiny new 2021 12.9” iPad Pro with 1 TB of RAM. This could serve as my iPadOS 15 test bed for the second half of summer. I still have quite some time to think about all this as these devices are back-ordered for at least the second half of July.

    You thoughts?

    → 11:33 AM, Jun 8
  • It’s always fun to re-watch a previous Apple Event. Just did the Spring Loaded one and used CleanShot to capture the best moments creating a library of 260 shots, all stored in Synology Photos, ready to be used, just in case. Tech is fun.

    → 7:48 AM, Jun 6
  • Certainly a massive leak... (#apple #iphone13)

    This CAD view of the iPhone 13 shows a bigger than usual camera assembly on the front of the iPhone. It’s massive. Not sure what to make out of this leak. Good news for photography enthusiasts?

    → 4:31 PM, Jun 2
  • Time to move off Google Photos I guess (#photography #googlephotos)

    Time is running out to those using and depending on Google Photos for their online photo library storage needs. The free tier is now capped at 15GB for new stuff added. That’s small. Why not consider moving to iCloud Photo Library if you are already invested into Apple ecosystem? And, if privacy protection is something you care about, now is the best time to switch.

    → 4:17 PM, May 31
  • Aaaaaah the joy of RAW photo processing.

    → 4:47 PM, May 30
  • A new home for my best photos (#photography #visualarts #creativity)

    I’ve been more silent than usual in recent days. That’s because I was busy building up my new home for posting online my best photos. I’m also writing about my experience while doing so. As you wait for the whys and hows, here is a peek. Hope you enjoy.

    https://numericcitizen.smugmug.com/

    → 7:18 AM, May 27
  • Working on something bigger than I thought. Can’t wait to share.

    → 11:58 AM, May 24
  • One quick question: do you think Apple already has a plan B to enable sideloading of applications, ready to go just in case? After all, they already allow this on macOS so they know how to do it. I don’t see it as a major rework of iOS. #apple #appstore

    → 7:33 AM, May 9
  • Where is Adobe Lightroom Classic for Apple Silicon? (#photography #adobe #lightroom)

    That’s a serious question. I mean, we do have Lightroom CC for M1 Macs… (performance is good but not stellar compared to Intel version. There’s still work to be done by Adobe to take performance further). The absence of the optimized Lightroom Classic version is troubling. What does it mean about Lr or even Adobe? Is Adobe relying too much on cross-platforms libraries or components that are much harder to re-compile for the M1 chip? I find this fascinating that such a big company is falling behind compared to much smaller players… I’m thinking about Pixelmator here.

    I’m waiting for this optimized version to complete my migration from Intel iMac to the M1 Mac mini.

    → 7:25 PM, May 5
  • I love it! Sooo soft. Thanks to @BasicAppleGuy for the design!

    → 9:58 AM, Apr 27
  • As I’m currently writing my thoughts on Apple’s “Spring Loaded” event, I’m wondering what are your thoughts? Anything that stands out? I’m genuinely curious. #appleevent #applevent2021

    → 6:03 AM, Apr 21
  • I rarely post pictures of mine here. But, hey, it’s Friday, why not. The structure.

    → 5:34 PM, Apr 16
  • Upcoming blog post on Numeric Citizen Blog: more than 2800 words 😳 to talk about how I tweaked and made macOS Big Sur a powerful and productivity friendly desktop experience for me with the use of more than 20 third-party utilities. 👨🏻‍💻

    → 8:05 AM, Apr 11
  • Well, if that was the case, this would add fuel to any anti-trust initiative. No?

    iMessage Kept Off Android for iOS Lock-in initialcharge.net/2021/04/i…

    → 8:39 PM, Apr 9
  • Why I Love Taking Photos of Abandoned Places. world.hey.com/jf.m/why-…

    → 7:39 PM, Apr 8
  • I should read this every day. Thanks to @gr36.

    → 6:29 AM, Apr 7
  • > numericcitizen [numericcitizen.io](https://numericcitizen.io/)
    → 4:59 PM, Apr 5
  • The race is on. Can’t wait for the moment Notion’s APIs go live and Craft be updated to support them so it can suck all my data from Notion. #notionhq #craftdocs

    → 6:14 AM, Mar 29
  • This is a test with the most recent update to a little-know utility: Linky. I love it. 👍🏻

    Substack vs Buttondown — Who’s Better? — My Observations - Numeric Citizen Blog numericcitizen.me/2021/03/2…

    → 1:06 PM, Mar 28
  • On iCloud Photo Library migration (#keyword)

    In a surprising move, Apple starting today allows people to export their iCloud Photo Library to Google Photos. Why not provide a download to a local computer, outside the Photos app. I can see many use cases for doing so: backup purposes or simply to dump photos in a structure of directories for archiving purposes.

    → 8:12 PM, Mar 3
  • For those who likes newsletters, I’ve got one too! It’a about Apple, photography, privacy and climate change, in that order! https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/2021-02

    → 8:41 AM, Feb 27
  • Twitter announces paid Super Follows to let you charge for tweets

    More shit like this and I guess Twitter will be my next one to quit.

    Gaby/mL https://gabz.me/2021/02/25/twitter-announces-paid.html
    The beginning of the end for me and Twitter?
    → 6:49 PM, Feb 25
  • Who remember Motorola 68000 Assembly? I do. (#apple #history #macintosh)

    I dug out my ancient Inside Macintosh reference books from storage. Remember when Apple’s developer documentation came as paper books? Volumes I-III on the original Mac APIs, IV on Mac Plus, V on color Macs, and the truly massive volume VI on System 7. 📚

    Inside Macintosh reference books

    Inside Macintosh reference books

    Inside Macintosh reference books

    Inside Macintosh reference books

    Inside Macintosh reference books

    David Sinclair https://dejus.com/2020/12/21/0927/
    I did some 68000 assembly using my 512Ke Mac back in the days. Can't remember what was the development environment, though. And I remember these Inside Apple Macintosh books so well. That was a lot of stuff to learn. Time flies.
    → 8:36 AM, Feb 14
  • What the hell is going on with Flickr? (#Flickr #photography)

    This morning I got the most recent update to the venerable photo sharing service: Flickr. The only addition to this update, support for iOS 14 widgets. Finally! It’s quite a change from the usual “Bug fixes and improvements.”. Even if I’m no longer actively using Flickr, I was happy to see that widgets were finally supported. So, I frantically updated the apps to have a look at the possibilities. What a let down. Sure, all three sizes are supported, but we cannot change any widget settings! How about being able to set the source for pictures or even stats or anything! Nope. I call this pathetic.

    No wonder why I left Flickr and services like Unsplash took over the world. Over the years and during its tumultuous history, Flickr was a series of promises left without real and deep actions to transform the platform. They brag about having two million groups. It takes just a few minutes to see that a vast majority of these groups are ghost towns. And don’t get me started with the general design of the app and the website.

    → 9:24 AM, Jan 30
  • A fix is coming (#apple #M1macmini #bluetooth)

    Clay banks PXaQXThG1FY unsplash

    At long last, relief is in sight. My M1 Mac mini is not able to keep a stable Bluetooth connection with Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse. It’s very frustrating. While waiting for a permanent fix, I’m using a USB PC mouse, and I keep my Magic Keyboard connected via a USB-C to lightning cable connected on my LG Ultra Fine 4K monitor. What a messy experience for such a small performance wonder.

    → 11:36 AM, Jan 12
  • Mac sales booming but the best is yet to come (#apple #m1mac #applesilicon)

    Wesson wang y0 vFxOHayg unsplash

    Thanks to the small wonder, the M1 chip and the Apple silicon transition, Mac sales are booming. According to a recent IDC report, Mac sales are up by nearly 30% compared to the same period, a year ago. Apple’s market share increased globally by 1%, which is quite impressive for Apple.

    My take: I have the feeling that we ain’t see nothing yet. As the work-from-home trend continues, with the rest of the MacBook Pro line still to transition to the M1 chip, a long-awaited redesiged iMac, 2021 could be a monster year for the Mac and Apple. And beyong 2021 and the pandemic? Ask Horace Dediu.

    → 9:58 AM, Jan 12
  • Programming, mathematics and brain activities (#research #computers #computerscience)

    Florian olivo Ek9Znm8lQ1U unsplash

    What does it take to be a hood programmer? Or better yet, what does it take to like programming hence writing or reading algorithms? Math? Language? Arts? A combination? When I started in computer science at the University, my friends thought that I was good at maths. It wasn’t the case. Before deciding which field I would like to study, I was afraid of computer science, thinking myself that we had to be really good with mathematics. My experience shows that it is not the case. I’m average at maths but good at programming and in computer science in general. Is it surprising? According to this article, no. In fact, computer programming isn’t the same thing as doing maths from a brain activity perspective. It is more like something very demanding where a totally different part of the brain is solicited. Fascinating. It may (or may not) explain why you can be good in computer science but not as good in mathematics. Who knows.

    By having a better understanding of what parts of the brain are solicited, we may find common ground with other disciplines. It is really hard to attract people in computer science and knowing what it takes from a brain perspective could help direct efforts of recruiting the right people who will like to read and write algorythms but are not good at maths!

    → 6:47 PM, Jan 11
  • Ten Reasons to love RSS feeds (#rss #openstandard)

    Piotr bene P3w6VgaRaFI unsplash

    Alan Ralph, in a blog post, exposes ten reasons why he loves RSS feeds. I agree on all accounts. When I look closer, it all comes down to: control. Control is something we don’t have these days on social networks and social media. We live in a numeric world full of algorithmically-generated feeds and content. We lose control of our feeds. George Orwell was right.

    RSS feed, a simple and open standard, is the key, within an RSS reader, of a more open and user-centered and mostly ads-free Internet. RSS feeds are important.

    → 8:09 PM, Jan 10
  • On the original iPhone, back in 2007 (#apple #iPhone #blackberry)

    Steve Jobs with original iPhone

    Thirteen years already. Gosh, time flies. Steve Jobs announces the iPhone. One of his best presentation. I remember it so well. At that time, I was a huge user (and fan) of the Blackberry. After using a RIM two-way pager for a while, I upgraded to Blackberry with a bigger screen with a monochrome display. But, with the iPhone, I knew, deep within me, this would be a real game-changer. My feelings were the same as with the launch of the Macintosh. What I didn’t know, though, was how profound and long-lasting the iPhone-effect would be on the rest of the tech world. We still feel its effect these days. I had to wait until the iPhone 3GS, in 2009, to get my hands on one for my personal use. I was still using a Blackberry for the office. Yep, I had two smartphones with me all the time.

    → 9:01 AM, Jan 10
  • How to turn me off big time (#signin #services #facebooklogin)

    Signin with Facebook

    What’s out for 2021? These “Connect with Facebook” screen. Please, stop doing that. It’s 2021. If a service, in order to create a new account, offers a “Connect with Facebook”, it is a no go for me, no mather if alternatives are provided. Facebook is like cancer. Period.

    → 9:53 PM, Jan 9
  • Unsplash is growing fast — and I like it even more! (@unsplash #photography)

    Cleanshot  Safari app  2021 01 08 at 12 06 48

    Unsplash started the year 2021 with a bang; they are introducing a visual search feature. How cool is that! Use cases for this feature are aplenty. Imagine you come across a great picture on Unsplash and would like to see if there are any more variants of it. Here comes the new visual search feature. Here is another one that could be a game-changer. Suppose you happen to find a picture online that is tied by a very restrictive license. Copy this image URL and paste it in the visual search of Unsplash to see if there are any similar pictures. Voilà! As the Unsplash library doubles every year, the probability of finding an alternative image increases. Lastly, the visual search feature helps you determine if a specific image on the way comes from Unsplash. It is useful to find the creator of the image when no credits are given.

    → 12:08 PM, Jan 8
  • Next week - back to a "normal" day job (#blogging #writing #personalnews)

    Annie spratt DnbWWWTclSM unsplash

    Next week marks the end of a three-week vacation. I’m lucky. Three weeks where I forgot about my work and became a full-time blogger, writer, content creator. Time flies. There is a need for normality, I guess, and this means returning to work.

    Expect a less frequent publishing schedule. Don’t worry; I won’t go very far, thanks to our new confinement and curfew starting this very Saturday. Oh well.

    → 5:21 PM, Jan 7
  • About My Friday Notes on @Medium (#writing #blogging #medium)

    Siora photography kY6HbkiauSc unsplashToday, I decided to remove my Friday Notes stories from Medium paywall. In other words, you can read them without paying a penny to Medium. They can be found here, in my Numeric Citizen Tidbits Newsletter. Please, if you like ‘em, give ‘em some hands claps! Thanks.

    → 12:21 PM, Jan 7
  • Use case for multi-user support on iPad (#apple #ipadOS #iPad)

    Daniel romero C9wxJJIdycg unsplash

    In his predictions for iPad in 2021, iPadInsight puts multi-user support on top of its list for iPadOS 15 without mentionning a real use case beyond the obvious. Let me explain.

    Do we ask multi-user support on iPad because it is something we take for granted on “traditional” computers? Or is because there is a real use case for that feature, beyond the classroom or the conference room? Does the multi-user support solve the problem of your friend borrowing your iPad while keeping him or her from seeing your stuff?

    Enabling multi-user support on the iPad has profound implications. How would the instant-on, instant-use experience be impacted by having multi-user enabled? Is the security enclave capable of holding more than one user FaceID? How iCloud Drive data be handled if users both have their data in icloud, the same way as on macOS? What about apps collections being different from one user to the other, how the iPad homescreen change upon logoff-logon? How fast? What kind of pressure does this feature put on the iPad system memory? Would this feature enabled on the Pro line only?

    For me, the iPad is a personal device, just like the iPhone. Apple likes it this way, for their bottom line. That’s my guess.

    → 10:20 AM, Jan 7
  • Another wild Microsoft rumour about Outlook (#microsoft #rumours #outlook #office365)

    Microsoft converts Outlook website into a progressive web app

    Here is another wild one: Microsoft is reportedly working on making Outlook a progressive web application for all platforms. Progressive web application isn’t new and Microsoft already makes a version of Outlook in this format. What is new is that it would replace all native versions of the Outlook client: no more are native versions of Outlook for Windows or the Mac.

    I’m not sure if this is good or bad news. I’m always wary about cross-platform tech. There is always something lost in translation. The other question that comes to my mind, why is Microsoft moving way from native applications in its ecosystem?

    Yet, not all is lost, a good side effect of this move would be to reduce memory consumption on the client. As use can see in this tweet, the native version of Outlook can use large chunk of your computer memory.

    → 1:54 PM, Jan 6
  • The port-less iPhone is coming (#apple #iPhone #rumours)

    6a0120a5580826970c0263e98616d4200b

    With patents like this, we can see clearly into Apple’s vision for the future of the iPhone. Apple is committed to remove the Lightning port from its iPhone line. I don’t expect them to go through USB-C. This is Apple. By adding more ways to charge without contacts, Apple removes the friction points off the user experience in a world of port-less iPhone.

    → 10:33 AM, Jan 6
  • About this rumoured big Windows visual overhaul (#microsoft #windows)

    Newwindows10startmenu png

    If only Microsoft could finish the job started with Windows 7. Windows 10 user interface is a bunch of previously used visual elements that Microsoft doesn’t care to clean up. For example, consider the computer settings area. On the surface, the iconography speaks the recent visual langague defined by Microsoft. But, as you try to go deeper to change a less frequently used setting, you’re back to a pre-Windows 10 era. I don’t believe Microsoft will do this “major” refresh as recently reported by Windows Central, not in a way they refused to do in the last ten years, anyway.

    As a side note, colour me Apple fanboy if you want, but many pundits will grumble when Apple is actually refreshing the user interface like they did with macOS Big Sur (or iOS 7, remember?). At least, it is either consistently clean or consistently ugly, depending of your aestheticism tastes. You won’t as easily find a macOS Yosemite visual asset in macOS Big Sur or even macOS Catalina. Inconsistencies do exist in macOS but they are usually limited to very specific visual tweaks (like to trafic lights placements).

    → 3:52 PM, Jan 5
  • Wordpress.com: six years already (@wordpress #blogger #bloggerlife)

    Six years anniversary on Wordpress.com WordPress ExactMetrics

    I got this notification in the Wordpress.app this morning. Six years already. Over the years, I became a paying subcriber of their Business plan. Automattic offers great support when you need it. But in the least year or so, I noticed a change in the way they do business with us, paying members. There are a lot of reminders about additional services available to us. which aren’t free, by the way. They keep advertising their ExactMetrics service that I don’t need with tricks that I don’t appreciate as shown in the second screen shot above. Recently, they started to advertise WordPress courses on the main admin page on WordPress.com. I really don’t like the trend. And this story by Alan Ralph doesn’t help either.

    → 1:31 PM, Jan 5
  • Thoughts on Flash and the iPad (#apple #iPad #adobeflash)

    Steve Jobs iPad 2010

    I want to pick from this blog post from Initial Charge. I remember a small story when the iPad came out in 2010. After a few days of playing with it, I went to the office to show it to a few of my coworkers when I got my iPad. After a few minutes of demonstration, I got two remarks. One was about the lack of a USB port. The second was about the lack of support for Flash-enabled websites. On that one complaint, I remember arguing about the simple fact that moving your mouse cursor around would trigger some flash-based animations like making a button bigger or showing up a menu on many websites. There was no such thing as a “mouseover” event on the iPad, so those websites that were dependant on this would break the interaction experience. At this very moment, I thought Adobe Flash was doomed. More than ten years to get rid of this crasp. That was long.

    → 1:11 PM, Jan 5
  • Don't forget about RSS feeds (#blogger #rss)

    RSS Feed

    Paolo Amoroso writes on his blog:

    Back in the early days of blogging, the tech press bashed RSS out of existence as it was supposedly too complex for ordinary users. To the point new bloggers don't even know what RSS is, some recent blogging platforms don't support RSS, and the blogs of new startups sometimes don't provide RSS feeds.

    It’s a shame in a world where open standards are on the way out. RSS feeds are another important part of Podcasts, another open standard where big tech would like to monetize, i.e. make it proprietary.

    Amoroso continues:

    The readers who subscribe to your RSS feed always see all of your posts. No matter what Google, Facebook, or Twitter decide.

    A long time ago I decided my blogs feeds would push the complete content of the articles. As I don’t have ads on my blogs, I don’t really care if the readers consume the content from the RSS feed only. RSS feeds are conduits who escape any algorithm-based feeds. It’s the most direct connexion between a blogger and their readers.

    For the best part, Amaroso nails it:

    They are the readers you want. The superfans who share your work. They may be bloggers themselves and link to your posts from theirs, or enable other opportunities such as guest blogging or podcast interviews. Those few RSS subscribers are much more engaged and valuable than the many who don’t even click links on social media.

    If you know how to use RSS, you’re my best friend, you are more then welcome.

    You can find my main blog feed here. For my micro blog, the feed is here. Hope you enjoy.

    → 2:26 PM, Jan 4
  • A new kind of goal for me - writer engagement (#writing #blogger #bloggerlife)

    Silvan arnet PFqfV5bn91A unsplash

    Writing is an important part of my life. It’s all about feeling creative, thinking, taking a pause of everything else. As a blogger, I like when people stop by and take the time to read my blog articles and then response with a comment. It doesn’t happen as often as I would like. I would say, one percent of my visitors will do it.

    For 2021, I decided to set a new goal for myself: stopping by, taking the time to drop a meaningful comment on a blog post or an article from someone else. I call this goal writer engagement. Some platforms are easier to interact with than others. I like both Medium and Substack for this. Responding to an article or a newsletter is just a few clicks away.

    So, today, I dropped two comments. One comment to a post from MG Siegler about writing more often on medium. The other comment about a way to consider the iPhone 12 Pro Max as a tool for photography, from a too technical point of view.

    So, will you drop a comment today? Feel free to engage too and maybe start a conversation, why not!

    → 12:12 PM, Jan 4
  • Why I didn’t write a personal year in review for 2020 (#blogger #bloggerlife #writing)

    Journaling space for my future year in review for 2021

    The year 2020 came to an end without me posting my personal year in review. You might wonder why. I read many reviews in the last few days. Most of them are delightful to read as they contain gems about personal lessons learned, personal discoveries, etc. To write those reviews, you have to be prepared for that particular intention to write about it later. Without notes, it’s nearly impossible and takes too much time to prepare. It also would be too easy to miss essential tidbits.

    What about 2021? Good news, for 2021, I want to be ready. Now it’s the best time to get organized. All year long, I’ll be using the excellent notes taking application called Craft. I already started to put things down. The picture at the top of this post is a glimpse at my journaling space structure, where personal notes will be confined all year long. I’ll use a monthly section for each domain or theme I want to touch on in this future year in review. I’ll see where it goes.

    → 8:52 AM, Jan 4
  • Pinboard, Pocket, Raindrop, Instapaper, Notion? Which tools is best for you? (#blogger #bloggertools #writers)

    Denise jans J4coHtrn24A unsplash

    Alan Ralph on Why I Use Pinboard As My Reading List

    I’ve mentioned before that I use Pinboard for bookmarking webpages of interest so that I can refer to them later. I realize this might seem like an odd choice, given that there are more obvious candidates such as Pocket or Instapaper, so I’ve decided to summarize my reasoning

    I could add other apps and services like Raindrop (which I tried) or even Notion (which I love) as places to save bookmarks. It’s tempting to use more focused tools to fill a very specific part of a workflow. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of preference or workflow optimization (you can read about my recent workflow update).

    → 8:21 AM, Jan 4
  • I'm afraid your maths are right, @brentsimmons (#covid19 #vaccination #usa)

    COVID-19 Virus Rendering

    Brent Simmons trying to determine where the US should get back to normal. After some maths, he asks:

    “(Is any of my math wrong? There’s no point in being overly-precise here — but please tell me if I’ve made some error that changes things significantly.)”

    I’m afraid his maths are right, even if they aren’t precise. Things could change, though, after Biden is officially in his Office. Even though, change of government takes a lot of time in the US.

    I said it in the past: COVID-19 shows how weak the US is as a country to fight this non military war.

    → 1:36 PM, Jan 3
  • So many questions lefts unanswered (#apple #iCloud #death #legacy)

    Cemetery2

    In What to do about Apple devices and iCloud content when the owner dies from AppleInsider, there are so many unanswered questions. For example, are the requirements from Apple different from one country to another? Something critical when someone dies, having access to his or her smartphone with a PIN. Without it, the challenge is close to impossible to meet. That is one of the many requirements explained in A Guide for Preparing to Leave Your Numeric Legacy.

    → 1:28 PM, Jan 3
  • Bluetooth issues is killing the M1 Mac mini wonder (#apple #applesilicon #m1ship)

    M1 Mac mini

    Two times today, I had to restart my M1 Mac mini because of the bluetooth devices being unresponsive. macOS 11.1 came out late in December without a fix to this issue. My hope is that this can be fixed via a firmware update from Apple. I’m not alone. No fix in sight. Very frustrating. 🤬

    → 9:47 AM, Jan 2
  • Grading Apple's response to COVID-19 (#apple #covid19)

    Harry cunningham cPMRltmUls8 unsplashFrom Basic Apple Guy’s top 5 of 2020:

    “I appreciated the stewardship Apple has taken this year in balancing their product interests while also supporting the fight to respond to COVID-19.”

    Two things. First, Apple’s response to COVID-19 was and continue to be faultless. Some governments should take notes. Second, the closing-reopening-closing dance of their physical stores didn’t impact their bottom line, not in a significant way, apparently. In a way, Apple is not only making and selling products, they are the product, it’s not only how they look, it’s how they work.

    → 9:02 AM, Jan 2
  • Microsoft + ARM: Why it took so long? (#microsoft #arm #surface #intel)

    Bram van oost soFr1hofDfU unsplash

    About Microsoft being Years Late to a Party They Tried to Start on iPadInsight:

    “According to a recent Bloomberg report, Microsoft is finally getting into the custom silicon business. It looks like they are starting down this road primarily to aid their cloud and server business, but it’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have future plans to bring these new ARM-based chips to their Surface Pro X and other future models, replacing Qualcomm’s SQ1 and 2 processors.“

    and

    “The $10,000 question is, why did Microsoft wait this long? Why did they bother messing around with Qualcomm to produce ARM chips for the Surface Pro X only to get mediocre results from a chip that still isn’t fine tuned to both the hardware and Windows 10? Those results were completely and totally predictable. They took the easy way out and the Surface Pro X, while a really slick looking device, isn’t going anywhere because of it. Who wants to pay more and still have to make compromises in both performance and compatibility?”

    Maybe Microsoft didn’t want to piss off Intel?

    → 8:32 AM, Jan 2
  • Documenting our numeric life (#journaling #tools)

    My DayOne Journal for blogs

    Basic Apple Guy on DayOne, a popular journaling app:

    “My current journaling habit is to make one entry per day, typically at night. However, I may add multiple timestamps to the entry throughout the day to capture a specific occurrence or thought. This daily journal is currently on a 2,668-day streak, with 4,325 total entries, and 3,297 photos.”

    A streak of 2,668-day to capture thoughts, events, etc., manually? Consider me impressed. I used to write my thoughts too in DayOne, but eventually I stopped as I couldn’t keep up because of all my writing projects. Yet, I found a way to keep using DayOne, by automatically documenting my numeric life. I wrote a piece about it in 2018 that is still absolutely valid today: “Documenting my Numeric Life”. I’m using IFTTT as the engine to push updates into my many journals, inside DayOne. Works like a charm.

    → 8:26 AM, Jan 2
  • The Substack "clique"? (#substack #writers #newsletters)

    My current newsletter subscribers count

    Is Substack the Media Future We Want?

    “on Substack, the most successful newsletters are almost always written by people who have already cultivated an audience at traditional publications or built up a following elsewhere.”

    and

    Substack is a natural fit for the influencer, the pundit, the personality, and the political contrarian.

    Starting from scratch on Substack is quite a challenge. From the graph shown above, this is the curve of my subscribers count. It plateaued. The new reader feature coupled with the discovery tab didn’t move the needle at all. We have to wonder if Substack is just a clique in disguise.

    You can read my past newsletters by visiting my Substack page. Be sure to subscribe, it’s free!

    → 9:46 AM, Dec 31
  • Not the best way to build brand loyalty, @LGUS (#smarttv #airplay2)

    LG 4K OLED Smart TV

    According to an article from MacRumors, LG is rolling out a software update to its 2018 Smart TVs to enable AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support. I personally own a 2016 model and I don’t expect to receive such update anytime soon. As a software-only solution, I don’t see why they couldn’t make it happen for 2016 models too. When you think about Apple supporting iPhone models dating back to 2015 with iOS 14, we have to wonder who’s playing programmed obsolescence here. As someone who’s looking to upgrade its 2016 LG Smart TV to a 2020 model, which will support HDR, Dolby Atmos, AirPlay 2, HomeKit and have a 120 Hz refresh rate, I don’t appreciate LG approach to brand loyalty building.

    → 8:47 AM, Dec 30
  • I don't care about the Apple Car (#apple #applecar #rumours)

    Robin benzrihem 9uxJt LtqKU unsplash

    According to Goldman Sachs, Apple doesn’t care about the car itself. I don’t care either. I’m fed up of these rumours. M.G. Siegler is fed up too according to a recent Medium article. Period. Enough. A car is the least personal product Apple could ever make. Apple’s products are about exhencing experience, life.

    I can see Apple investing in in-car experience and selling it to cars manufacturers. But wait, there is a big gotcha: cars manufacturers doesn’t care about the user experience. Maybe Tesla, but that’s it. I cannot see them coming in drove to Apple to add the “Apple Experience” as an option anytime soon.

    → 3:44 PM, Dec 29
  • Thinking of closing my Google Analytics account − who knew (#googleanalytics #privacy @mailbrew @plausiblehq)

    Micro.blog stats on Google Analytics

    Mailbrew shared a blog post about the services they use internally for their needs. As a die hard fan of Mailbrew (see my profile here), it’s interesting to see what SaaS they use for their internal use. Especially interesting to me, Plausible, a privacy-friendly analytics. I’m currently using Google Analytics which is free but, you know, it’s Google and it’s too complex for my needs. On the eve of a new year, it would be a nice time to start fresh in that regards. I’m currently testing the service as I write this! I never thought closing my Google analytics account could be a thing. Every new year is the occasion to do things differently, don’t you think?

    → 1:58 PM, Dec 29
  • A visual reference to the iPod in iOS 14.3? (#apple #ipodclassic #applehistory)

    IPod Classix and iOS 14 3 mediaplayer controls

    Someone on Twitter thinks iOS 14.3 mediaplayer control is a nod to the iPod Classic. I think this redesign was introduced in iOS 14.2. Up until now, it didn’t came to my mind the design was similar to the iPod Classic. Nonetheless, it a step up compared to the previous version both in design and features. As Gruber puts it, it’s probably the best way to layout music controls on a small screen.

    → 1:43 PM, Dec 29
  • The original iMac — best of them all? (#apple #iMac #history)

    Original iMac

    When the original iMac came out, in 1998, a first tangible and public sign of Steve Jobs return at Apple, I was perplexed yet intrigued. It was so unique compared to everything else, just like for the original Mac, in 1984. There was a retro look to this machine that was seducing to me, especially when looking at it right in front of it. I never owned the iMac G3 and any of the following designs. I came back to the Mac in 2005 after a 10 years pause. This concludes the long series of “20 Macs for 2020” from SixColors.

    → 12:25 PM, Dec 29
  • Thoughts on my first contact with Disney+ on Apple TV (#appletv #disneyplus #streaming)

    Disney Plus App 2

    Yesterday I had my first real experience with the Disney+ streaming service on my Apple TV 4K. In a word: wow! I wanted to see the latest movie from Pixal: Soul. I decided to try Disney+ for the occasion. It’s the best streaming experience I ever had. From the mandatory signup process to browsing content and watching movies, I’m sold. Rightfully, Apple named the Disney+ Apple TV app the best of 2020. Not only Disney knows how to create great movies, they also know how to create great user experience for the Apple TV. Apple should take some notes here. Google, with its crappy YouTube app should just start over. Now the 9$ a month question: will I keep the Disney+ subscription?

    → 10:50 AM, Dec 28
  • On Apple Fitness+ Launches (#apple #services #fitnetsplus)

    Apple fitnessplus treadmill workout 12142020

    Benjamin Mayo on Apple Fitness+ Launches

    “They did a good job with this. It’s not a deeply technical proposition but sometimes simple ideas and good execution are all you need. Fitness+ is high quality and well produced workout videos overlaid with live metrics readouts from a connected Watch. Straightforward, technologically trivial, but effective.”

    I started to use the service since day one. For now, I’m doing treadmill workouts ranging from 10 min to 30 min. I like the whole thing so far. The next thing I’d like to try is the dance workouts.

    → 9:04 AM, Dec 27
  • Was this lab setup real? (#apple)

    Internal Apple Lab

    In 2020, we started to get a better peek at Apple’s labs, at least, this is what Apple wanted us to believe. My question: was this setup a real lab or was it entirely made up? I tend to think they were real. If that’s the case, in this particular image, can you spot a very old Macintosh?

    → 8:38 AM, Dec 27
  • Best wishes to all my followers and readers

    Best wishes 2020

    Original image from Unsplash, the wishes are from me. LOL. Done with Adobe Spark Post.

    → 3:31 PM, Dec 24
  • I don’t buy commercial Christmas cards. (#adobe #sparkpost #creativity)

    Adobe Spark Post

    Every year, a few days before Christmas, I spend some time to create all my own and original Christmas cards for my beloved ones. It’s a pretty simple process involving two different apps. One is Unsplash and the other is Adobe Spark Post. I usually start by browsing Unsplash for finding the right photo for inspiration. Once I settle on one picture, I download it and launch Adobe Spark to create the initial montage. I make sure to reserve some space for the best wishes text. This year, I’ll do things a bit differently as my cards will be digital-only. I’ll send them via iMessage. Some people would prefer to have a printed version, but 2020 being… well… 2020, I’ll go ahead with a digital version only.

    I’m a big fan of Adobe Spark Post. For some reason, I don’t see a lot of noise around it on the web. I use it for many other things than creating Christmas cards, as the picture above can show. You can read my review of Adobe Spark Post here on my main blog.

    → 11:08 AM, Dec 24
  • Learning by example can be addictive (#photography #adobe #lightroomCC)

    LightroomCC Discover Feature

    After installing Lightroom CC on my M1 Mac mini, I spent some time with the Discovery feature. It’s a place where you can see other photographer’s photo edits. I find it fascinating and very helpful in learning how artists decide to process their photos. There are probably as many ways to edit a photo as there are photographers. The discovery feature has been introduced this year and can be very addictive. Be aware.

    You can one of my many edit session by hitting this link.

    → 3:42 PM, Dec 23
  • ProRaw and the Gradual Gradation of Grays – On my @Om (#photography #iphone12promax #proraw #apple)

    The steel sider Late in the night

    ProRaw and the Gradual Gradation of Grays – On my Om:

    When reviewing these images on a big iMac Pro screen, I was gob-smacked by the details that were visible to the naked eye. I was able to get my shades of black and whiter whites from the files. The gradual gradation of grays is part of my editing process, and I didn’t need to do anything much to achieve that. You can feel the fog dancing among the trees. You can feel the sunshine trying to fight its way through the damp.

    Man, I wish I had an iPhone 12 Pro Max, right now. From this article, my favourite pictures are the ones with trees, proudly standing. And yes, black & white is often my favourite way to look at a scene. The pictures above are mine.

    → 1:05 PM, Dec 22
  • Tempted by Vimeo, again. (#vimeo #YouTube #experiment)

    My Main Vimeo page

    I have too many projects on my plate to complete and experiments that I want to try. Today, I’m thinking about subscribing to Vimeo, again. I used to have an active account where I would publish photo processing session recordings with voice over. These sessions are still available by the way (one example here). I stopped doing those because they were time consuming to create and publish.

    Subscribing to Vimeo’s first paying tier is not cheap. I know what you’re thinking, why not use YouTube which is free!? First, I don’t like YouTube and the business model behind it. I don’t like to depend on Google for my stuff. Vimeo is better in my opinion as a video content platform, for what I want to do. I prefer their embedded video player compared to YouTube’s. I don’t want ads on my feed and on my content. For all these reasons, Vimeo > YouTube.

    My Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/numericcitizen

    Now you know. 😎

    → 9:55 AM, Dec 22
  • My current Applications folder on my M1 Mac, what is yours? (#apple #m1chip #applesilicon)

    My current Applications folder

    I’m mostly done with the re-installation of all my most used and mandatory apps on my Mac mini. To give you an idea of my apps collection, here is a screenshot of my applications folder. Most are universal apps or Apple Silicon only.

    I’m curious, what is yours?

    → 5:32 PM, Dec 21
  • I'm less and less using my Intel-based iMac. And that's ok. (#m1chip #applesilicon #apple)

    Thomas q m2zuB8DqwyM unsplash

    As more and more applications get the universal binary treatment to support M1 Macs, my iMac usage outside of my daytime job has decreased significantly. The list of apps that I cannot use on my M1 Mac mini is shrinking every week. It’s a good sign. Things are moving faster than I initially thought. Yesterday, I decided to let go the weird idea of not installing Intel-only applications on my M1 Mac mini, and everything is really working just fine.

    → 11:35 AM, Dec 21
  • What do you use as a shortcut menu utility on macOS? (#apple #macOS)

    instant bar Mac App Store page

    I’m currently writing a piece about the tools and services I use to help me be more efficient in my blogger workflow. Currently looking at Shortcut Bar - Instant Access on the Mac App Store. I had this utility in my list that I never bought but the features are exactly what I would like to get. Is there any alternatives to this utility? It’s a bit on the expansive side and is not yet updated for M1 Macs and Big Sur look and feel.

    → 10:59 AM, Dec 21
  • My still pristine M1 Mac mini is a thing of the past 😔 (#apple #m1chip #macmini #rosetta2)

    Install Rosetta 2 dialog box

    Can you believe it, up until today, I was still resisting the installation of any non-native applications on my M1-based Mac mini. I refrained myself from letting in any Rosetta-dependant apps to run. I shouldn’t have made a big story about this non-issue, but it’s was more psychological than anything else.

    The list of non-native apps is small, but it started to negatively affect my ability to complete specific tasks. These apps waiting in line were: SafariMarkdownLinker (Safari Extension), Grammarly (Safari Extension), Adobe Creative Cloud installer (required to install the native version of Lightroom CC), 1Password.

    Today, I finally let it go and went ahead with installing these remaining pieces of my application landscape. I feel good, and everything is working just fine, as expected.

    → 3:36 PM, Dec 20
  • A few thoughts on Twitter's Space feature (#twitter #experience #audio)

    Experiencing Twitter Space

    Today, unexpectedly and for the first timr, I had a chance to experience Twitter’s Space. It’s a virtual room of twitter users who can speak to each other. When there is an open space, a small icon appear at the top of your timeline among twitter fleets. Tapping on it allows you to enter the space. By default your mic is disabled. You have to request permission first in order to be able to speak. There is a speaker who controls people’s requests to speak. People who are listener can react using emojis. It’s pretty interesting, much more interesting than audio tweets in fact.

    I spent maybe ten minutes chatting with the space owner about things like COVID-19, confinement in Christmas time and how to use Twitter space. Others in the room were just listeners. It was pretty cool. I can see myself using this instead of doing a podcast for example. It’s easier to setup up, doesn’t require a distribution platform to maintain. I could setup a space to talk about Apple, photography, privacy or climate change. Can’t wait to try it out with my followers, once the feature officially rollout.

    → 2:26 PM, Dec 19
  • Where does our data go when we die? (#digitallife #death #legacy)

    Nikko macaspac 6SNbWyFwuhk unsplash

    What happens with your numeric assets when you die? I mean, think of your online presence: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Where all that stuff ends up a few years after you die? That’s the type of question “Where Does Our Data Go When We Die?” tries to answer. It’s something that I find interesting and a big challenge, something that I wrote about in my piece titled “A Guide for Preparing to Leave Your Numeric Legacy”. Long read yet very important subject.

    → 11:28 AM, Dec 19
  • On Apple's ProRAW: extending the range of possibilities (#apple #proraw #photography)

    Picture in ProRAW format

    From “ProRAW Is Here!" By Austin Mann:

    I suggest turning on ProRAW when you are shooting in extreme conditions of any kinds (extremely low light, extremely high dynamic range with super bright highlights and dark shadows, mixed light temperatures, and so on). Also, use ProRAW if you plan on enlarging the images (on screen or in print).

    ProRAW is about extending the possible scenarios where you can take great looking pictures. Just like in traditional photography gear, adding different lenses allow for more possibilities. It’s incredible how far iPhone photography has come since 2007. I’ll have to wait for fall of 2021 before being able to take advantage of all this as I’m not planning to upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro. If all goes well, I should be able to bring a shinny iPhone 13 (or whatever name they give for next’s year iPhone) with me on my next trip to Europe, on October of 2021.

    → 11:11 AM, Dec 19
  • Time for something. Again. (#me #avatar)

    My 2021 Avatar 1000x1000 72DPI

    Introducing my new avatar for 2021. It was made by hyxcreations, available on Fivrr. I wanted something along the lines of this one. I’m very happy of the end results. It is a blend of the previous avatar and the other one I use for @numericcitizen, my official Twitter account.

    Expect a slow rollout over the next few weeks. ☺️

    → 3:18 PM, Dec 18
  • The shear power of Apple on its install base (#apple #ecosystem #installbase #iPadOS #iOS)

    iOS and iPadOS Usage Chart

    Is this new? I mean the format in which Apple is presenting the current iOS and iPadOS usage? The last time I paid attention to this, Apple was using a pie chart. I prefer this level of details. A few thoughts about these numbers are in order.

    First, iPhone users are quicker to update their devices compared to iPad users. Second, Apple makes a clear distinction between devices recently introduced (in the last four years) from the rest. In both categories, the numbers shows that a vast majority of users adopt the latest release of the operating system. Third, even though people keeps their device longer than before, Apple keep supporting older devices (older than four years). All of this helps keeping the adoption rate at very high levels. Kudos to Apple.

    These numbers also tell another story: Apple’s shear power over its install base is impressive. Apple has the ability to move it in new directions pretty quickly as users are quick to embrace new features, either by buying new devices or by updating their current ones because they are still supported by Apple. Will 2021 bring a different tone to this story with iOS 15? Maybe, maybe not.

    → 1:36 PM, Dec 17
  • I love those App Clip codes. So approachable. Artful. So Apple.

    → 9:28 PM, Dec 16
  • The big problem with Sign in with Apple (#apple #security)

    Sign in with apple jpg

    Here is an issue that I ran into yesterday with “Sign in with Apple”. I suspect I’m not alone in that situation.

    The excellent website building tool, Universe, came out with an update that introduces Sign-in with Apple. After updating the application on my iPad, I launch the app. I’m welcomed with a sign-in screen. The Sign-in with Apple option is prominently displayed. I tap on it. I’m then presented with the typical panel to decide if I expose my real email address and my real name. Now the troubles begin.

    I’m already a user of Universe, which email did I use to create my initial account? I can’t remember. What if I choose the wrong one? I try one of my email address that I decided to reveal. Hit sign-in; after a few seconds of working progress, I’m met with welcome screen for new users. Duh. I’m trying to get back, to no avail.

    This issue reveals a big flaw in Sign in with Apple: when you are already a user of a service, switching to the more secure sign-in option makes it hard to associate this login to your existing account. I ran into the same issue with most of the services where I tried to make the switch. I suspect this is hindering the adoption of an otherwise secure upgrade to traditional authentication service. Too bad.

    → 7:43 AM, Dec 16
  • My first contact with Apple’s Fitness+ 😍 (#apple #fitnessplus #service)

    Fitness+ Workout Summary

    Yesterday Apple launched their latest service offering: Fitness+. I gave it a try, and I fell in love. The first step was to update all my supported devices: the iPhone, my Apple Watch and my Apple TV. After spending a few minutes glancing at the different type of workouts, I elected to do a twenty minutes treadmill workout using my iPhone and my AirPods Pro. For this session, Jamie-Ray was my coach. As you can see, I think I made pretty well. I liked everything about the experience, from onboarding to the actual workout session with on-screen feedbacks and the finale. The music choice was good too! After my session, I gave a look at the Apple TV Fitness application. Upon launching the app, you have to select the Apple Watch associated with the person who will interact with the service. One note, if your Apple Watch name is too long, spacing on the screen won’t allow you to easily see which Apple Watch is which; you’ll have to wait so see the text to scroll, it’s a bit of an annoyance. I checked a few workout previews and sure enough, the video quality is exceptional on the Apple TV 4K.

    All in all, this is a great start for Fitness+. It’s probably the best example of the whole being larger than the sum of its part. The combination of great devices, great content, great user experience, impeccable execution are the ingredients and enablers for the best experience. Bravo Apple.

    Oh, I’ll try to exercise five to six days a week.

    → 5:11 PM, Dec 15
  • Thanks, Apple (#apple #privacy #privacyprotection)

    Application Privacy labels

    Thanks to all the teams at Apple for putting this App privacy feature together. Just like food labels, application labels were long overdue. Apple is far from perfect, I wrote about that a few weeks ago, but at the very least they do move the needle quite a bit. Bravo.

    → 10:46 AM, Dec 15
  • What happens when an M1 Mac starts up? Fascinating. (#apple #m1chip #applesilicon)

    M2 chip logo

    What happens when an M1 Mac starts up? – The Eclectic Light Company:

    You can learn a great deal from the unified log entries of a system startup, and that for an M1 Mac is even more fascinating for the insights it gives into the hardware in the M1 system-on-a-chip (SoC). These were obtained from an M1 MacBook Pro with 8 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores running macOS 11.0.1 fairly clean, and in full Secure Boot.

    I always liked low level stuff in computers. I learned 6502 assembly language (if we can call this a “language”) when I was a teenager. If you’re into these type of things, it is a fascinating short read that opens the door to what is going on in your M1 Mac.

    → 8:01 PM, Dec 14
  • The unexpected good side effect of COVID19 on me as a blogger (#writing #blogging #blog)

    Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

    Who knew COVID-19 would have a very positive side effect on me. It started on March 13th of 2020, and it’s still going on nearly uninterrupted. What is it? I have more time than ever to focus on my writing and publishing activities. Why?

    As I’m working from home from mi-March of this year, I no longer have to commute. I save countless hours per week just because of this. On top of that, consider many activities on the weekend that no longer can take place because of the on-and-off restrictions in place.

    I never wrote or published as much stuff in the last nine months as in the last year or so. I have a lot of projects in my head, small and more significant. I did spend quite a lot as I no longer travelling on software, services, work-from-home equipment. I also have more time for reading than before, it makes a difference.

    COVID-19 is transformative at the society level but also a personal level. There are things that I don’t want to return when COVID-19 is no longer among us. Time is a precious resource, once you have it, you don’t want to mess with it.

    → 1:14 PM, Dec 14
  • Remember de Macintosh Quadra 700? (#apple #vintage #Mac #Macintosh)

    Macintosh Quadra

    Working from home at 25MHz: You could do worse than a Quadra 700 (even in 2020) | Ars Technica:

    The '040 was a substantial upgrade over the '030 that had previously been used by Apple. It featured 1.2 million transistors, over four times as many as its predecessor. This processor increased the L1 cache size by a factor of eight to 4096 bytes, and it was the first 68k processor to have an on-board floating-point unit (FPU). While not without its drawbacks, the '040 processor was an obvious candidate for Apple's next line of premium workstations at the time. And this line would become known as “Quadra,” starting with the Quadra 700 and 900 models in late 1991.

    In 1990-1991, I was working for an Apple authorized dealer. I remember the Quadra line, in particular, the 700. It was the most popular machine among desktop publisher. It was fast. I liked its vertical and boxy look. It was different. What is interesting is the description of the Motorola 68040 processor. Compare this to the Apple Silicon, it’s simply unbelievable. The M1 chip comes from an alien world.

    → 8:31 AM, Dec 14
  • Uniformity across diversity (#youtubers #YouTube #design)

    YouTubers Channels

    Recently I spent more time than usual on YouTube for different reasons: to look at AirPods Max first impressions, to learn more about Synology DSM 7.0 beta, etc. After a while, it’s easy to see a trend that bugs me: design uniformity across the board. See the previous image gathers a few popular YouTubers channel content pages. They all look about the same or at least designed by the same designer. On top of that, there seems to be a trend where the weider you look, the better. When did that trend start?

    → 7:37 AM, Dec 14
  • Here is a throwback... (#Apple #iOS6 #iPad)

    iOS 6 on iPad

    During my digital assets cleanup this weekend as I’m preparing a move to Synology, I came across this screenshot of my iPad running iOS 6. Looking carefully to this image, it’s fascinating to see all the things we lost since then. First, many of those apps no longer exist. Second, design.

    Enjoy in all its glory.

    → 9:08 AM, Dec 13
  • A broken Apple timeline (#apple #history #myarchives)

    I use to keep a time of all the news and announcements emanating from Apple, Cupertino. It was fun but time-consuming. I failed to find a good use of it, so I stopped updating it. Maybe I should have continued, as a blogger, it could have been really useful. Apple Timeline

    → 6:00 PM, Dec 12
  • Detailed Apple Maps comes to Canada 🇨🇦🗺! (#apple #applemaps)

    At long last, Apple’s detailed maps is now available for Canada! Not only we get more details in maps and better driving directions, we also get guides and the look around which is, in my opinion, way better designed than Google’s street view. I wasn’t expected them but they are certainly nice bonuses! Detailed maps were first introduced in iOS 13, more than a year ago.

    Now, if only we can get rid of COVID-19, I may start to use Maps more frequently. 😔

    → 10:34 AM, Dec 12
  • The end of the “hackintosh” era? 🥷🏻 (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip)

    Ernie Smith writing on Tedium about the hackintosh necessity in a world with the M1 chip for the Mac:

    ”I hope, now that Apple has a chip architecture that doesn’t get in the way, it ramps up its industrial design … and more importantly, it reads the reviews and iterates more thoughtfully and consistently.”

    That’s exactly what I’m hoping too. The iMac and the MacBook design in general were highly influenced by the thermal pressure the Intel chip was imposing. The next iMac design revision will certainly take advantage of the Apple Silicon low thermal dissipation and put Apple in a more creative mode when it comes to imagining what a desktop computer should be.

    → 9:35 AM, Dec 12
  • Too bad @AppleNews, this could have been fun 😔 (#applenews #blogger #bloggerlife #writer)

    Now it’s official, Apple is no longer accepting blogs on their news platform, Apple News. I got my rejection mail today (read about my original submission). I understand Apple News as being a… news platform, yet I think Apple is missing an opportunity here. Why? One word: Substack. Another word: Medium. Apple could have done to the written space what they did for the audio world with podcasts. Apple could have created a special place on Apple News for individual writers, not only bloggers per se. This would have been a message of inclusion, diversity and openess. Instead, Apple is again sending a message about begin a walled garden, exclusion, elitism. Too bad.

    → 9:12 AM, Dec 12
  • Where are you all? 🤔 👀 (#blogger #bloggerlife)

    Fridays are always slow, it seems. Are people simply taking time off social networks, blogs, etc.? Maybe. In any case, I want to send a “have a nice week-end” to my dear readers and followers. 👈🏻 I do have a lot on my plate for this week-end: writing, writing, writing. And some time off too.

    Photo credit: Jonas Jacobsson / Unsplash.

    → 3:56 PM, Dec 11
  • What came before the diagram (#blogging #tips)

    I use Apple’s Notes app to jot some ideas, all the time. When the concept is clear in my head, I go ahead and select my tool for the next phase. In this case, it was Apple’s Keynote which proves to provide a quite capable environment for diagramming. The subject: how I process information that eventually will enable me to write blog posts. More details here.

    → 9:57 PM, Dec 10
  • Dear Adobe... (#adobe #lightroom #creativecloud)

    Wanted to give a try to Lightroom CC on my new and still pure Mac mini (no Rosetta installed). Guess what? The creative cloud installer needs Rosetta as it is not yet native. I know, it’s no big deal, it will be fine. If that wasn’t enough, Adobe installers put a lot of things on your system that I don’t like. Then, I remembered about “Suspicious Package” utility which inspect an installer and show what it is actually doing. But, again, this software has yet to come in a universal binary. It will be hard to resist longer. AdobeCreativeCloudApp

    → 9:31 PM, Dec 9
  • Remembering Desk Accessories (#apple #macosbigsur #iosapps)

    I’m currently trying a few iOS or iPadOS apps on my M1 Mac mini. I came across the Castro Podcast player for with I pay a subscription. Castro doesn’t support the iPad, yet, which is a bummer. On Big Sur, the application looks like what we used to have on very old versions of MacOS: Desk Accessories. Depending of your age, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I kind of like the use of small apps like this. Castron-on-BigSur.png

    → 4:29 PM, Dec 9
  • A Substack reader, really? (#substack #mailbrew #hey #newsletters)

    From Chris Best, Substack CEO: “Something that we think about a lot is readers tell us, ‘Hey, I’m subscribed to six different Substacks now, and I want to read them all, and it sucks that they’re in my email inbox along with all my other stuff,’" 😳🤦🏻‍♂️

    A reader app from Substack would certainly be a good idea. I’m already on the private beta. I wonder if Mr. Best knows about Mailbrew? Or Hey? While waiting for such a reader app, Mailbrew is certainly capable of doing just that: consolidating newsletters in one place. Read my review of Mailbrew on my blog. https://linktr.ee/numericcitizen

    → 8:26 AM, Dec 9
  • We’ll certainly take speed gains we can possibly get (#adobe #lightroom #photography #m1chip)

    Adobe Lightroom 4.1 is now available with native M1 support. We didn’t see a lot of comments about the speed increase beside Apple’s during their “One More Thing” special event. Adobe’s software on the Mac is not always the best in class in regards to pure performance. So, this release for the M1 chip will hopefully bring a meaningful increase in performance. I didn’t test it yet on my M1 Mac mini as I’m still slowly installing my stuff, one app at a time. I’ll certainly report on that subject later in the month. Stay tuned.

    → 9:44 PM, Dec 8
  • Someone had to do it! 😍 (#apple #airpodsmax)

    There is a maximum of 25 combinaisons available. Someone on MacRumors forums posted an image of them all. To get a different color, you’ll have to lay more money on the table. Anyway, I expect Apple will sell a boat load of these in the coming months. Are you planning of buying the new AirPods Max?

    → 7:28 PM, Dec 8
  • Oh I love their retro look! 😍 (#apple #airpodsmax #design)

    Many were expecting an update to the aging and expansive Apple TV 4K. Instead, we got a brand new retro-looking and expensive AirPods Max. I can see people already calling out how absurd it is, and the lack of charger or any cables, bla bla bla. Put that aside and enjoy their lovely retro look. Oh, and since their ear cushion can be replaced, I guess they don’t have to match the colour of the over-ear “cups”, right?… Lots of possibilities here. Shipping dates are already slipping in 2021… expect to see them everywhere next summer, when covid is behind us (most of it) and people can return to a simili normal life.

    → 12:43 PM, Dec 8
  • How Synology NAS can improve my blogger workflow (#synology #nas #storage #blogger #tools)

    As an IT guy, looking at what Synology has in store for 2021 makes me pretty excited. I wrote about that yesterday but I took a deeper look at what is coming in DSM 7.0, their NAS operating system. I didn’t pay too much attention to their photo management software that comes with a Synology NAS, but that might change. In my blogger workflow, there is something I can optimize is the use of a photo management to store all my screen shots, stock photos, visual assets, etc. Synology Photos could be the tool I was looking for for a long time. I don’t want to use Apple’s Photos application as I don’t really like to see screenshots intermixed with family pictures. If Synology Photos is as solid as it looks, if their mobile application is much improved to their current version, I’ll certainly give it a serious try. On top of that, this photo feature also enable remote access to the photo library. Very interesting.

    I’ve been shopping around for a home NAS for a long time and only made the plunge this year. After much thinking and reading, I settled on Synology because I saw a mature company offering mature products with a solid reputation. Again, DSM 7.0 brings a lot of new features and improvements which makes me feel happy about my choice of going with them. Can’t wait to try what’s new.

    → 7:40 AM, Dec 8
  • 1.0 vs 14.0 - So different, yet similar (#apple #iOS #iPhone)

    Jordan Singer on Twitter posted this picture showing the iPhone with iPhoneOS 1.0 side by side with an iPhone 12 running iOS 14.0. The original iPhone home screen design was durable and endured the test of time. Some people will find it depressing to see so little changes but I do think it is a sign of an initial good design. iOS 14 brought the most significant upgrade, even more profound than the iOS 7 disaster.

    → 8:57 PM, Dec 7
  • Massive update coming to Synology NAS users 😍 (#synology #dsm #update #nas)

    I’ve been using a Synology DS720+ NAS for a few months now and boy do I like it! On my blogger to do list is a review of this device. The breath of features never stop to impress me. I’m a big fan. I use it for archiving, space reclamation on my Mac and much more. It’s fast and reliable as I had a chance to test the repair feature after losing a hard drive (yes, already!). It worked flawlessly.

    This week, Synology will make DSM 7.0 available for beta testers, the braves. Looking at the announcement web page, it looks like a massive update. Refreshed screens, more cloud integration, admin rights delegation and added feature like Active Insight will certainly be exciting additions. One question: I think Synology is about to add a subscription for this, which I’m not sure I’ll pay for, depending of its usefulness in its final form. We’ll see.

    → 12:32 PM, Dec 7
  • Here is a stressful user experience (#apple #iphone #ux #ui #design)

    See that UI of the iPhone when you receive a call while being on another with someone else? Pretty confusing, right? You stress out to understand what to do while hoping you’ll have enough time to not miss the call. it is a stressful user experience. Why is Apple not giving any attention to this very specific UI is beyond me. They made notable change in iOS 14 with the notification-like interface for incoming calls, which was more than welcomed.

    The way I came over this challenge is to concentrate on the icon labels instead of the icon itself. It does help a lot in my case.

    → 12:15 PM, Dec 7
  • Of course they do! Duh (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip #macpro #imacpro)

    An article today by the infamous Bloomberg news site reports that Apple is working on much more powerful Apple Silicon chips for higher end machines like the Mac Pro and the iMac. We all know 2020 was in fact the entry point for next year’s act two of this transition. From what we can read in the article, Apple could make high-end PC obsolete from a RAW power perspective with as many as 32 cores. Does anybody wonder if Intel has good sleep these days?

    → 11:14 AM, Dec 7
  • Apple's Sidecar to the rescue (#apple #macos #sidecar)

    I’m currently using an iMac with a 23.7” LG UltraFine 4K external monitor (read my review here). With the M1 Mac mini coming today, this setup will have to change. The LG screen will transit to the Mac mini and I’ll lose the pleasure of the second screen working environment. Using the macOS virtual desktop feature is nice but not always the best solution when working on many different things at once. This is where Apple’s Sidecar comes into play. Prior to this, I rarely used Sidecar, but not anymore. I’ll use it with the Mac mini or the iMac, depending of the current work session. As a bonus, I get to use a “soft" Touch Bar at the bottom of the display, which is cool because I love the Touch Bar.

    → 8:20 AM, Dec 7
  • The modern business card? (#blogger #writer)

    Over the last two years, I expanded my online presence. Maybe a bit too much; it’s hard to keep up. I came across something interesting recently: Linktr.ee. According to their website, the purpose of the service is to “Connect audiences to all of your content with just one link”. It’s exactly a case of “you don’t know you need it until you see it!”. Building the mini-website is quick and easy. There are enough layout options to make your page look like your own. I opted for the paying tier which enables more design choices and better analytics. Hope you like it and pay a visit to learn the breath of my online presence. I think of it as some form of a modern business card.

    I started to replace my links to the following one which makes things simpler in places like my Twitter profile page. Check it out: https://linktr.ee/numericcitizen

    → 3:05 PM, Dec 6
  • The Unifi Dream Machine gets a major update! (@ubnt #udm #update)

    My home router got an update this week, version 1.8.3. I’ve been running the Unifi Dream Machine since spring without any issues. This update was long in the works and highly expected. Among the changes, a redesigned and simplified controller dashboard with real-time statistics which are really helpful. The device management UI also received a redesign. Some of the previously available information has been removed or moved around. CPU, Memory consumption and internal temperature are higher than before (around +10%-30%), though. Overall, its’a solid update. Oh, and it is running an 4 cores ARM processor.

    Remember, this router replaced an aging Apple AirPort Extreme. If you are still looking for a great home router, please, do yourself a favor and buy this one. This post is not sponsored.

    → 1:08 PM, Dec 5
  • Using Twitter Fleet, why not! (#twitter #creativity)

    As you know, Twitter came out with « Fleets », its clone of Snapshat’s Stories. People don’t really like it. Or do they? My timeline is constantly filled with my followers posting fleets. I guess some do like them. I decided to give it a serious try. I think they add another dimension to Twitter that I happen to find interesting for highlighting purposes. It’s simple to use, just enough design flexibility. There are is one drawback: they only show up on the iPhone (not the iPad or the web), which I find strange and somewhat arbitrary.

    Following are screenshots of my experiment. Let’s see where it goes from here.

    → 12:38 PM, Dec 4
  • Let's meet! Here is a free idea for calendaring app makers (talking to you guys! @macguitar @flexibits)

    Let’s play a game. One of your customer calls you and ask for a meeting (virtual or in person). Before answering this request, you have to look at your calendar to see your free/busy time. It’s a time consuming and error prone process. What if your favorite calendaring app could generate a map of your weekly schedule with all sensible information masked out, like in the following example (made with Fantastical). This could be sent as a PDF file to the customer, would save a lot of time. It’s surprising that, to my knowledge, no calendaring app offer this option. I would pay to get this.

    → 5:14 PM, Dec 3
  • Oh I love that one from @gruber (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip)

    Gruber publishes a piece today about how hard it can be for some people to accept that Apple is yet again did the unthinkable.

    This one is simply priceless: “Intel and AMD have learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make decent PC chips. Apple hasn’t just magically figured this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

    It’s a liberal transposition of a famous quote on how Apple, a PC guy, just can’t walk in and make a great phone. With the M1 chip, yes, Apple just walked in and did it. Again.

    Many pundits were quick to jump the gun on software compatibility issues, the translation layer called Rosetta, the meager 8 GB of RAM, the lack of ports, etc. As proven by the numerous independent reviews, none of these “issues” are affecting the value of what Apple just did.

    It will take a few years before Intel and their friends finally realize what just happened in late 2020 and recover from it. Years.

    → 8:16 AM, Dec 3
  • Dear Microsoft... (#microsoft #privacy #privacyprotection #surveillance #office365)

    Following this statement from Microsoft, here is one question for you, Microsoft: why haven’t they thought, at the very beginning, that this Office 365 feature wasn’t a good idea to begin with? Here is another question: Who do you think you are to devise a “Microsoft Productivity Score”? “a tool that helps organizations measure and manage the adoption of Microsoft 365” — Microsoft

    There is a difference in semantic here: measuring adoption vs measuring productivity score. What is “being productive” anyway? The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.

    → 5:31 PM, Dec 2
  • What is holding back the hardware, again? (#apple #iphone #ios)

    “…until there are some changes with either iOS, the iPhone or both, bigger isn’t really better. It’s just bigger.” — James Rogers writing for iPad Insight about the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Things like picture-in-picture is a step in the right direction on the iPhone. The situation is obviously better on the iPad, yet there are still many low hanging fruits.

    → 10:48 AM, Dec 2
  • I'm already afraid (#apple #m1macmini #applesilicon #intel #imac)

    Just saw that tweet today. It’s too late. I’ll be installing my new M1 Mac mini along the side of my 2017 iMac. Thwy will be both in direct competition. I’m afraid that I’ll find my beloved iMac too slow. I’m not there yet. I’m still waiting for my new thing to get delivered. I’m getting myself mentally ready for the shock. I’ll have to keep my iMac for a while for my daytime job.

    → 9:33 AM, Dec 2
  • About those iOS Apps screenshot on the App Store (#apple #appstore #iosdev)

    I hate those screenshots montage. They lack emphasis on the application itself, the product. They waste precious space. At the very least, why not put a video showing the application in action. People don’t like to read long application description page. Is it Apple’s fault. Probably. Not sure. Apple is not enforcing their own rules on these screenshots.

    This post was triggered by another Matt Birchler post.

    → 9:11 AM, Dec 2
  • Don’t touch this screen (yet!) (#apple #mac #macos)

    Steve Jobs once downplayed flash memory based MP3 players when the iPod was just beginning its ascension. We know what came after the iPod with a small drive. The iPod nano, an MP3 player using flash memory. If you see a stylus, they blew it. The iPad eventually came with support for a stylus… oops, a pencil. What came after that? Support for a mouse with iPadOS 13.4. See the trend? Are you getting it?

    Now, about the Mac. Sure Apple could have used this historic moment to a add touch screen to the M1 MacBook. It didn’t happen. I, myself, was one of them, thinking it was about to happen as exposed in this blog post. My short experience with macOS Big Sur updated design screams out loud that we are far closer to a touch supported Mac than Apple is willing to admit.

    I don’t know when, but it will come, in a perfectly chosen moment by Apple. Apple likes to move forward, one step at a time. The next window of opportunity is next year with a redesigned MacBook body. This year’s was about the internals while keeping familiarities: performance, battery life and transition. Next year is about redefining the way we look at the MacBook and enhance the way we always knew how to interact with it. The Big Sur update this year is just the first step toward a touch friendly operating system. In a typical Apple way, they will have thoroughly thought about all this and we will be amazed about why it wasn’t done this way before. Next year has the potential to be exciting.

    This blog post by Matt Birchler triggered this one you just read. 👀😎

    → 8:10 PM, Dec 1
  • The Mac mini renaissance? (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip #macmini)

    I don’t know if this is because I’m eagerly waiting for mine, I’m in a distortion of reality, but the Mac mini seems on the verge of a major regain of popularity. Sales of the little box are booming in Japan and now AWS is offering an Intel version as an EC2 instance… while waiting for the real deal, a M1-based version. The latter brings renewed interest in a platform a lot of pundits were considering dead a few years ago, thanks to Apple’s apparent lack of interest.

    → 1:40 PM, Dec 1
  • Apple’s Reminders is so underrated (#apple #ios #ipados)

    How many To Do apps are available on the App Store? A lot. They all have a different take on how we should create, manage and check our To Do. The best one maybe just in front of your eyes, on your iPhone and iPad: Apple’s Reminders. Here is why for me it does the job quite well.

    I’ve been using OmniFocus and Things in the past, but after Apple redesigned Reminders in iOS 13, I came back to using it. Besides supporting basic things like URL, images and notes, you can group To Do lists in folders, lists can be shared with others, Shortcuts are supported, it synchronizes seamlessly across my devices.

    Apple’s Reminders is one of the app at the center of my blogger workflow to help me process information and publish content online.

    → 9:02 AM, Dec 1
  • Why getting a Mac Pro can still make sense (#apple #macpro #applesilicon #mac)

    In light of all the raving reviews about the M1-based Macs, you might wonder why someone would still need and buy an Intel-based Mac Pro? For many reasons. First, some high-demanding pro software might not be compatible on M1 Macs. Second, if you run software who takes advantage of multiple cores, the Mac Pro with its Xeon processor is hard to beat. Example of this is VMware Fusion. Other use cases demand the most powerful CPU you can get, and they come in the Mac Pro, for now. Third, the Mac Pro is still the most expandable Mac out there. I’m one of those contemplating the Mac Pro for my SDDCbox project, but I must say that my priorities shifted a bit. I’m a few days away from receiving a M1 Mac mini. It will keep me busy until the beginning of 2021.

    → 7:15 AM, Dec 1
  • Did Apple just killed the Mac resale value? Oh yes. (#apple #applesilicon #intel #mac)

    The M1-based Macs ramifications are far reaching as we are still pondering about their impact on the future. Reading this tweet from Parker Ortilani, we have to wonder if Apple, with its M1 chip introduction, just killed the resale value of any Intel-based Macs. Credits: Tables from the author. Simple answer: YES.

    → 5:43 PM, Nov 30
  • AppleOne - Expired or Tired? (#apple #appleone #subscriptions)

    My AppleOne signup went weird when it was announced by Apple. I was billed for some of the individual services as well as the bundle. I’ve been looking for credits since then, which are still yet to come. I think it will be a mess to fix unless Apple gets their act together before then. Now, it looks like my subscription has ended and I cannot renew it. Something bad is really happening. I’m not alone feeling the pain, according to MacRumors.

    → 12:52 PM, Nov 30
  • Building his ideas and pushing boundaries on the way (#apple #iosdev #developer #designer @jsngr)

    A few weeks ago, I wrote about the TestFlight App Store and how cool it was. The guy behind it, Jordan Singer, is also on Substack. I’m already a big fan of his work.

    As a former indie iOS developer (2009-2013), I find it interesting to see other people’s ideas, work and initiatives. This guy is on a roll and tests some App Store review process boundaries, which is more than needed these days. I wish him success with Airport.

    → 7:04 AM, Nov 30
  • Apple is no longer doomed. Intel is. (#apple #intel #applesilicon)

    Who is winning between Apple’s M1 chip and Intel’s Tiger Lake chip? Well, if benchmarks are to be believed, Apple is winning, by a wide margin. The results are pretty worrisome for Intel which seems incapable to go beyond a 10 nm process. Intel will become the emblematic image of inefficient processors for years to come. Dell, HP et al. should be worried too because they are in the exact same position Apple was just before their M1 announcement. The only thing now favouriting the Wintel world is the need for Windows for a vast majority of users.

    → 5:26 PM, Nov 29
  • Shortcuts to frustration (#apple #shortcuts #ios #ipados)

    Let’s put it straight: Apple’s Shortcuts are the weirdest, most cumbersome and utterly frustrating thing to build, test and eventually use. I cannot count how many hours I spent trying to understand their intricacies and most useful use cases. As much as I want to get empowered by them, it often ends in frustration. Here is why.

    You cannot disable old shortcuts that are no longer used but that you want to keep as a reference. There is no way to export them in a clean and readable PDF format. There is a lack of some form of runtime debugging tools. The editor doesn’t scale beyond a few dozens instructions. There is no way to write shortcuts in a text editor à la AppleScript. Share sheets bad design and organization make shortcuts invocation a trial and error experience. As your shortcuts collection grows, it hard to remember which shortcut does what in what context and what is required to launch it. And the list goes on and on. Documentation within the Shortcuts editor is lacking, very limited. A big part of the story is dependant on the willingness of developers to support them. It’s so frustrating to see an app lacking any form of exposure to the shortcut engine.

    Make no mistake, I like the idea of automation on the iPad or iPhone. I’m happy to see Apple improving on them with each release of their operating systems. But, there is so much left to cover.

    → 3:17 PM, Nov 29
  • On using Lightroom on a Mac (#apple #adobe #applesilicon)

    Let’s set the tone: Adobe software, Lightroom in particular, is not a very efficient piece of software to use on the Mac… even on a higher-end configuration. Recent updates in the last year or so tried to improve things a little bit, but there is still a long way to go. It’s not clear why Lightroom Classic is so bad. Is it because it is a multi-platform software? Probably. If so, we pay the price at every single use.

    Does the M1 chip in a Mac can change the game? Well, yes and no. The following YouTube video compares Lightroom Classic running on an Intel-based MacBook Pro to an M1-based MacBook Pro. With Rosetta 2 translation layer running to support the non-optimized version of Lightroom Classic, we could think the experience would be awful. In fact, not only it isn’t, the M1-based Mac makes the experience a bit better. Who would have thought.

    Now, Adobe is working on a native or universal version of Lightroom for the M1 chip. Note that I’m referring to Lightroom CC here, the cloud version of Lightroom, not the Classic version. Depending of who you are and what is your relation to photo processing, it may be a good or a bad news. Nonetheless, the prospect of a universal of Lightroom CC is certainly exciting. Will Adobe take advantage of the GPU cores or the ML cores of the M1 chip? I highly doubt it. If the iPad version of Lightroom CC is any indication, though, not all is lost. We’ll see.

    → 9:50 AM, Nov 29
  • Selling a piece of my Apply history (#apple #imac #2007 #elcapitan)

    Today I sold my oldest Mac in the house: a 24 inches 2007 iMac running El Capitan. When I look at this computer, I see many similarities with the current iPad Pro design: round bezels, boxy frame. I hope Apple will return to this design, albeit in a refreshing way, for their upcoming M1-based iMac.

    Now, waiting for my M1-based Mac mini. 24 days before adding another piece to my long story with Apple products.

    24" 2007 iMac
    → 2:04 PM, Nov 28
  • A must have utility for Mac: HazeOver. (#apple #mac #utility #minireview)

    Just bought a Mac utility: HazeOver! How come I didn’t know about this one?? What is it? It’s a small utility which helps bring better focus to the active application on your Mac. It does this by dimming the out-of-focus application windows. It works with multiple displays. If you prefer to work in Light mode over Apple’s Dark Mode, it will make things a lot easier on your eyes. Think of it as a visual compromise. Makes Big Sur even better. Highly recommended.

    → 11:53 AM, Nov 28
  • The M1 chip never cease to amaze (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip #tech #amdryzen)

    Another excellent Twitter thread about the M1 chip. This time, it is a comparison with the AMD Ryzen. From a thermal design power, the M1 chip is simply unique and unmatched. On a per-core basis, top of the line AMD Ryzen chip and Apple’s M1 chip are of equal performance. On top of that, the M1 chip is much more than a standard CPU. Oh, and it is only the beginning. Who thought 2020 was such a bad year.

    → 4:45 PM, Nov 27
  • The future of widgets on iOS (#apple #ios #ipados #widgets)

    There is a lot to like from this short video showing vivo’s OrigiOS in action. Expandable widgets, user-adjusted widget size, dynamic content, super clean animations, a few touches of skeuomorphism where it counts, dynamic icons, immediate feedback on touch, all those things which are lacking on iOS home screen could see the light if Apple choose to. Widgets 1.0 were long to come for us, iPhone and iPad users, but here they are. Yet, there is still so much untapped potential.

    What are your thoughts?

    → 4:32 PM, Nov 27
  • The future of the iPad, according to an M1 chip (#apple #ipadpro #applesilicon #mac #m1mac #ipados)

    In a blog post “Your Move, iPad”, by Becky Hansmeyer, the author asks “So if raw power isn’t enough, and new display tech isn’t enough, where does the iPad go from here? Will it be abandoned once more, lagging behind the Mac in terms of innovation, or will Apple continue to debut its latest tech in this form factor?"

    In light of the massively successful M1-powered Macs, what can we infer for the future of the iPad Pro?

    Apple doesn’t need to add touchscreen to their MacBook line if they unleash the iPad with a much more complete iPadOS experience. I think Apple missed the occasion with iPadOS 14 by not adding a more flexible widgets experience, by refusing to improve external display support and by not revisiting the multitasking interaction model. See? It’s not only a matter of adding 5G wireless support or LiDAR or a second USB-C port. These will only be as good as the software will allow them to be useful. The just begun new era for Mac with the M1 chip combined with Apple’s tight software integration should give us answers on why the iPad Pro future lies in the software.

    → 8:14 AM, Nov 27
  • A fascinating Twitter thread about Apple Silicon Wizardry (#apple #applesilicon)

    Here is a super fascinating Twitter thread that I reproduce here. Find the original tweets here. It’s is about Apple Silicon wizardry. For techy people only!

    “In case you were wondering: Apple’s replacement for Intel processors turns out to work really, really well. Some otherwise skeptical techies are calling it “black magic”. It runs Intel code extraordinarily well. The basic reason is that Arm and Intel architectures have converged. Yes, the instruction sets are different, but the underlying architectural issues have become very similar. The biggest hurdle was “memory-ordering”, the order in which two CPUs see modifications in memory by each other. It’s the biggest problem affecting Microsoft’s emulation of x86 on their Arm-based “Surface” laptops. So Apple simply cheated. They added Intel’s memory-ordering to their CPU. When running translated x86 code, they switch the mode of the CPU to conform to Intel’s memory ordering. With underlying architectural issues ironed out, running x86 code simply means translating those instructions to the Arm equivalent. This is very efficient and results in code that often runs at the same speed. Sometimes there isn’t a direct equivalent, so the translation results in slightly slower code, but benchmarks show x86 being consistently at least 70% of the speed. In any case, a surprising number of popular apps already run on it. Apple seeded developer systems a few months back, allowing people to get their code ready. Normally, that wouldn’t have been enough time. When you recompile code for a new architecture, it usually breaks. But as I said above: Arm and Intel architectures have converged enough that code is much less likely to break, making recompiling easier. Apple has made surprising choices. They’ve optimized JavaScript, with special JavaScript-specific instructions, double sized L1 caches, and probably other tricks I don’t know of. Thus, as you browse the web, their new laptop will seem faster and last longer on battery, because JavaScript, even though other benchmarks show it roughly the same speed as Intel/AMD. The older MacBook Air had a dual core CPU that ran at 3.8 GHz, but when in low-power mode, 1.2 GHz. Switching between fast and slow modes is how it conserves power for mobile. But it’s ultimately inefficient. The Intel CPU is designed to run at 5 GHz. Downclocking to 1 GHz saves power – but not as much as if you’d designed the processor to run at 1 GHz to begin with. Apple’s strategy is to use two processors: one designed to run fast above 3 GHz, and the other to run slow below 2 GHz. Apple calls this their “performance” and “efficiency” processors. Each optimized to be their best at their goal. When they need to conserve power, they turn off the “performance” processors and run code on their “efficiency” processors. They have 4x performance processors (twice that of their older Macs) plus 4x efficiency processors. All 8 can be active. When doing something that can use 8 processors, such as compiling code, it goes real REAL fast. 8 processors vs. 2 processors in their old notebooks make a difference. A big part of this story is that Intel is about 3 years behind on Moore’s Law. Apple Silicon uses the latest 5nm tech from TMSC, while Intel uses the older 10nm/7nm generation. Much of Intel’s product line uses the even older 14nm/10nm generation. None of this is actual “black magic”. It’s all pretty understandable. It’s just all the various things have been executed really well, leading to a combined result that is a great leap forward. Another “magic” trick is how their “Swift” programming language uses “reference counting” instead of the “garbage collection” in Android. They did something in their CPU to double the speed of reference counting. …even when translating x86 code, all that reference counting overhead (already more efficient than garbage collection) gets dropped in half. Yet another weird performance enhance to add to all the others."

    → 7:05 AM, Nov 27
  • Overwhelming reactions — When Apple makes history, again (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip #mac)

    After Apple announced their M1-based Macs and people started to get their hands on them, reactions were enthusiatic and unanimous. At one point, I wanted to create an archive page that would have gathered the most interesting reactions, but it was too late and overwelming. Well, someone else did it. Here is a great blog post: “Apple Silicon M1: Black. Magic. Fuckery” gathering reactions to these new machines from Apple. There are many gems in there. Check it out! I really have the feeling that Apple is making history, again.

    → 7:25 AM, Nov 26
  • Apple's worst ad in years? (#apple #applead #advertising #christmas)

    Apple this year is back with a long and… weird (?) Christmas ad. I must say that’s a quite different and ordinary one compared to previous years. It’s no longer about touching hearts but just having fun and selling you something. This doesn’t reasonate as much with me as it used to. Contrary to previous years, Apple is focusing on one product, the HomePod mini. Again, I prefer when they don’t try to sell us something this way. There is plenty of other companies who do just that. Please, Apple, no.

    → 12:43 PM, Nov 25
  • Mac nano (#apple #applesilicon #m1macs #macmini)

    Following my read of this article published by Macworld, the propect of a Mac nano looks more than possible. It is inevitable. Apple’s focus this year was on the internals but I expect them to switch to the outside on the next iterative evolution of the Mac mini. Besides physical compatibility reasons, a much smaller Mac mini, close to the size of an Apple TV for example could be in store. One possible constrain is the number of ports Apple will have to squeeze on the back. If they keep the same number of ports, the newly redesigned Mac mini could be something in-between the current one and the Apple TV. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’ll patiently wait for my own M1-based Mac mini to arrive in 28 days. Its external size won’t matter much to me.

    → 7:30 AM, Nov 25
  • Better recovery options (#apple #applesilicon #m1macs)

    According to an article published by SixColors, M1-based Macs offer a much different and improved boot and recovery options. Looking at the picture below, and I noticed the same while testing Big Sur, the icon for the boot disk is one showing an old mechanical HDD, not an electronic SSD. Was Apple feeling nostalgic when they designed this icon?

    → 6:57 AM, Nov 25
  • How ironic (#apple #ios14 #widgets #android @notionhq)

    Read on Twitter today: “Notion widgets are only for iOS 14 for now. We’ll get there, Android 😓 Our mobile team is heads down on offline mode right now, but we learned a lot during development that we can use for an Android widget down the road. Thanks for your patience in the meantime 🙏” - Notion.

    Widgets came to Android in 2008-2009. What am I missing here? How ironic is this? A lot if you ask me. I’m not calling out Notion, far from it. My observation is all about the fact that, despite Android having widgets for so many years, they were probably not as good, well designed and useful as there are now on iOS 14.

    → 7:18 PM, Nov 24
  • Saving at least 2 Billions a year (#apple #applesilicon #intel #m1chip)

    A lot has been written on Apple switch to their own processors already. But one side of the story is still lacking some insight. Apple is probably saving a lot of money by putting their own Apple silicon in each Mac they sell. According to this Medium article, Apple could save at least $2 billion a year with just three entry level MacBook sporting the M1 chip. We can only try to approximate the amount of money Apple is no longer paying to Intel. We can also start wondering the amount of money Apple has directly invested in developing the M1 chip and how fast they wil recoup their investments. My gut feeling says that it will be fast.

    → 7:06 AM, Nov 24
  • My prediction for next year's MacBook (#apple #macbook #applesilicon #m1chip)

    Here is a simple theory. This year’s MacBook didn’t bring an upgrade to the FaceTime HD camera, and unanimously, people is complaining. But what if this lack of attention to the very specific feature from Apple is part of a bigger plan for next year’s MacBook? Here is my guess.

    Apple is targeting next year for the real deal: the full redesign of the MacBook line to be announced around WWDC 2021. Part of this plan would include much better FaceTime HD camera assembly that would include Face ID, a highly expected feature for M1-based machines. Offered in sizes of 12", 14" and 16" with an impossibly thin screen bezel, Apple wanting to keep the size of these machines the smallest possible as the power sipping CPU can handle smaller batteries yet providing long battery life. I would expect the M1x chip as the more powerful M2 one would go to the iMac, iMac Pro. The new MacBook, to be named MacBook X, will will mark the first year of the Apple silicon transition.

    Until then, keep enjoying your Apple Silicon Mac, version 1.

    → 6:54 AM, Nov 24
  • A fascinating possibility coming to the Mac, next year (#apple #applesilicon #m1macs)

    On Substack, I recently stumble on an interesting article from https://apple.substack.com: when Apple introduces a new round of Macs next year, what if they keep previous generation around but at a lower price point?

    It’s a highly possible scenario considering how Apple under Tim Cook operates. The iPhone models multiplication, same is happening with the watch…. next, the Mac? Probably. Is this a good thing? For their bottom line probably, yes, but for the customers? Yes and no.. yes, it makes the brand more accessible but it makes the buying experience a little bit more complicated than it should be with fewer models available. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

    → 8:02 PM, Nov 23
  • Which is faster, then? (#apple #applesilicon #m1macs)

    Following of new round of benchmarks from MacRumors, my take outs are: 16 GB is (much) better than 8 GB from a speed point of view (well, duh!), the Mac mini is the best most of the time with a few exception (slower than MBP on SSD write speed is one such exemple, hard to explain). Adobe Lightroom Classic doesn’t take advantage of the RAM difference, which is not surprising to me (thanks to multiplatforms Adobe’s software) You can get all the details from MacRumors website: here and here. Graph from MacRumors.

    → 7:07 PM, Nov 23
  • Apple is not what it used to be (#apple #analysis)

    Someone on Twitter shared this YouTube video in which the guy tries to explain why and how Apple is not what it used to be. In a few words: now, they actively compete with others. It’s a massive difference where before they seemed to act alone without caring about the surrounding competitive landscape. Highly recommended.

    → 12:58 PM, Nov 23
  • He should go work for Apple (@michaelsteeber #apple #applestore #appleretail)

    Have you seen this short YouTube video on the Apple Store holiday shopping experience? Take a moment because it is a masterpiece of execution in visual quality, content and execution in general. 9To5Mac published an article about it and I thought they were referring to Apple’s material. It took me quite a while to get it: the author of this clip is Michael Steeber, a well known Apple enthusiast and writer for 9To5Mac. His focus is directed to Apple retail in general but from a design point of view most of the time. I like what this guy is doing, I’m a bit jaleaous of his talent, and he should work for Apple already. Congrats!

    → 10:38 AM, Nov 22
  • Publishing on Apple News, soon? (#apple #applenews #publishing #writing)

    After months of silence, I’m finally getting some response from Apple regarding my submission to publish on Apple News. I can’t remember when I first submitted my Numeric Citizen Blog for publication on the Apple News platform. In a unexpected twist, they got in touch with me and asked to fill a questionnaire, which I promptly did. They are putting a new review process in place. I also updated my selection of articles submitted for review to use more recent ones. We’ll see how fast they respond and if they open the gate!

    → 9:06 AM, Nov 22
  • The list is growing (#apple #macosbigsur #iOS14 #iPadOS14 #M1Chip)

    Surprisingly, the list of iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 apps that are made available or updated to work better on the M1-Based Mac is growing. Here is my current list: Newsify, Ferrite, Luma Fusion, Castro, Buffer, Opener, Apollo Reddit Client, Darkroom, Darknoise. The thing that I should do now and glance my current iPad apps and mark those that I want on the Mac too.

    → 2:58 PM, Nov 21
  • Is It Apple Silicon Ready? (#apple #applesilicon #m1chip #macOSBigSur)

    It took a while but here is the first and most comprehensive list of application compatibility with Apple’s M1 Macs. You can search and sort the list easily and use the category filter too to locate application in the list. Well done. Design or photography applications compatibility level is high but productivity isn’t, which is not surprising. Most of my apps are already universal binaries. https://isapplesiliconready.com

    → 7:44 AM, Nov 21
  • The era of customization comes to the iPhone (#apple #ios14 #widgets)

    Seeing this level of high interest in iPhone homescreen customization holding on since the launch of iOS 14 tells me that people really want to make their device more personal. Is it too far fetched to imagine Apple bringing system level customization a basic feature of iOS? I don’t think so. Maybe in iOS 15. Image from idownloadblog.

    → 7:41 PM, Nov 20
  • For Icons lovers (#macos #ios #apple #design #ui #ux #visualarts)

    I’m a user of Timing for Mac, and recently the app got updated in order to support macOS Big Sur. The update brings a fresh and entirely new app icon to better fit the visual style of Big Sur, and I love it 😍. The icon has been designed by Matthew Skiles. Looking on his Twitter profile, I discovered two interesting web sites: https://www.macosicongallery.com/ and https://www.iosicongallery.com/. These are catalogs of the best icons for macOS and iOS of well known apps. Check them out. These sites made me realize how much we lost in design quality over the years, great icons are hard to come by these days.

    → 6:56 AM, Nov 20
  • It’s overwhelming and unanimous (#apple #applem1 #applesiliconmacs #m1chip)

    Following Apple’s “One More Thing” event, I wanted to gather positives reactions to Apple’s M1-Based machines. It’s simply overwhelming. I just can’t keep up. It’s all over the place. I can only imagine Apple’s marketing department current putting a press release doing just that.

    “I can’t remember the last time reviews for an Apple product were so universally positive, especially considering these are machines that look the same as the previous-gen. Apple simply excelled themselves with the ARM transition.” — Benjamin Mayo

    It’s not only overwhelming but unanimous. What a great time to see history being made.

    → 11:52 AM, Nov 19
  • Is 8 GB of RAM enough? (#apple #macbookair #applesilicon #M1chip ) 🤔

    Many are asking if they should go with a 16 GB RAM configuration for their new M1-based MacBook Air. Some others think Apple should have made a 32 GB of RAM configuration for the 13” MacBook Pro. According to this informal benchmarking video, 8 GB seems enough for most people. During his tests, the user opened many different apps and documents in Excel, tabs in Chrome, Photoshop and the MacBook Air stayed cool and never ever started to fall on its knees. At no time the idle CPU metric went down below 60%. The fan-less computer never got hot. Why? Three letters: SoC.

    The M1 chip gathers many different components close together on the same chip so they don’t have to go through the PCI bus to move data around. I think it plays a big role in Apple Silicon Macs efficiency. We can no longer compare the RAM configuration of an Apple Mac with a Wintel machine, just like we cannot compare a 12 GB of RAM Android phone to a 6 GB of RAM iPhone. It’s just two different worlds.

    Yet, I ordered a 16 GB Mac mini. 😳

    → 7:27 AM, Nov 19
  • The Rosetta 2 tax (#apple #m1chip #applesilicon)

    One of the best take on Apple’s new M1-based Mac is from TechCrunch. What I learned in this review is, thanks to Apple’s Rosetta 2, the cost of running an un-optimized app on these machines: 26% performance hit. The more interesting thing is the fascinating fact that, even with this hit, apps can still run faster than on Intel-based Mac counterparts.

    I can’t remember the last time I didn’t mind paying taxes.

    → 8:45 PM, Nov 18
  • Pixelmator Pro 2.0 — A Small Wonder (@pixelmator #applesilicon #m1chip #universalapp)

    I’ve said it before, Pixelmator Pro is one of the best app in the Apple ecosystem for three reasons. First, the Pixelmator team is always fast to take advantage of Apple’s latest software and hardware technologies. Second, it’s a real native app, designed and built for the Mac. Third, Pixelmator Pro is close to how Apple’s own apps should be designed. Make no mistake, I love Apple’s iWork. Pixelmator feels familiar and Apple-ish, something that I like. They probably read the HIG documentation dozen of times. Congrats to them.

    Oh, and look at this “What’s new" welcome page when you first launch the app after upgrading to version 2.0. Look familiar to you? Can’t wait to install this on my upcoming Mac mini.

    → 12:55 PM, Nov 18
  • Microsoft already feeling the heat (#microsoft #apple #m1chip #applesilicon)

    Carefully look at this add by Microsoft bellow. The phrasing of this ad clearly shows the roots of the company making the product. “Pen supported” is one example. Why not write something like “Touch interface” or “Touch screen”. The word “supported” sounds wrong and makes me feel Microsoft is not fully confident about the real nature of this computing environment. The other thing is the removable SSD option. That’s typical geeky-PC-world-thing. Do we really care in a world of cloud-based storage being an extension of our devices? Really bad ad.

    Clearly, Microsoft is already feeling the heat and is on the defensive. It’s only getting started. Others will follow.

    → 7:33 AM, Nov 18
  • If Rev(Y-1) < 1M$ Then Comm=15% otherwise Comm=30% (#iosdev #apple #developers)

    Big news today by Apple. It’s a step in a (new | right) direction. Some are already applauding the move, others are vehemently calling it a tactical one. Apple will never satisfy everybody, except when launching their new M1-Based Macs. Apple can change when they feel the pressure, just like any big corporations. They’re not different on that front. We tend to forget this.

    → 7:17 AM, Nov 18
  • 11.1. Beta. Already. (#macosbigsur #apple #beta)

    Apple is on a roll with the release to developers of [version 11.1 of macOS Big Sur](11.1. Beta. Already. (#macosbigsur #apple #beta)). My hope for this update is for Apple to tweak the UI a bit and make it faster on Intel MacBook Pro. (Notifications, low contrast, etc.). The other thing, I hope it will be ready by the time I’m getting my Mac mini (mid-December).

    → 1:30 PM, Nov 17
  • About this crappy FaceTime Camera. (#apple #m1chip #macbook #facetimecamera)

    “We really considered giving these machines 10 out of 10 review scores, but this camera is bad enough to keep that from happening, especially on a pro laptop that costs more than the Air.” - The Verge

    “Unfortunately, that similarity extends to the webcam, which is still 720p resolution and still terrible. Apple has tried to borrow some of its real-time image processing from the ‌iPhone‌ to try to spruce up the image — and I do find that it does a better job evenly lighting my face — but mostly what I notice is that it looks bad (only now it’s a more processed version of bad).” - The Verge

    Here is a real comparison. It’s less crappy but it is not good.

    Take that, Apple. It was a near perfect moment.

    → 10:25 AM, Nov 17
  • Dear M1 Macs reviewers… (#M1chip #applesilicon #mac #review).

    Here is what I’m hoping to see from reviewers of the M1-based Macs today. How fast is the machine booting? Is wake from sleep that much better? When you start a non-optimized app, how does Rosetta 2 kicks in? How long does it take? What happens when you start the same app a second time after a while? Was Rosetta kick out and has to relaunch? How is window resizing doing, we know that was never really fast on Intel-based machines. How is scrolling speed in Photos? Can you really feel the difference on an optimized app compared to their Intel counterpart? Does installing 11.0.1 update was faster than on previous macOS release on Intel? Is the Mac mini the fastest among the three? Does GPU intensive tasks are really that much faster? What about SSD speed for reads and writes compared to an Intel Mac? is it much improved? Is macOS Big Sur buggier than on Intel? Is 8 GB of RAM enough or 16 GB is really a must? Have you tried Pixelmator Pro, how fast is it now?

    Hoping for a few answers today.

    → 7:55 AM, Nov 17
  • Podcasting (#podcasting #blogging #writer #blogger)

    My podcast adventure was too short (The Numeric Citizen Podcast). I prefer written words over audio. I prefer photography over video. There is something about moving content that I find difficult to grasp, as a creator. I’m may be too old for podcasts creation or YouTube, I don’t know. I loved creating those episodes (in French), though, using Ferrite.

    → 8:04 PM, Nov 16
  • While waiting for "real" benchmarks... (#m1chip #applesilicon #mac #apple)

    These “behind the scenes" benchmarks of the M1 GPU are again impressive to say the least. Is the Mac bound to become a gaming machine?

    → 9:20 AM, Nov 16
  • My Growing List of Universal Apps (#m1chip #apple #macos #macosbigsur #macmini)

    Here is the list of apps that I use and that are ready for my upcoming M1-based Mac mini. The list is growing almost on a daily basis. I didn’t expect it would go that fast. The prospect of much faster Macs could trigger an even faster adoption by developers. Apple’s bet is paying off.

    U = Universal. U-C = Universal, Catalyst-based port from iPadOS. U-S = Universal SwiftUI based app, C = Non universal but compatible.

    My wish is to install Universal apps only as I don’t want to trigger Rosetta 2.

    • [U] Omnigraffle
    • [U] Pixelmator Pro
    • [U] Affinity Photo
    • [U-C] Universe
    • [U] Transmit
    • [U] Little Snitch
    • [U-S] Aviary
    • [U] Darkroom
    • [U] Apple’s iWork
    • [U] Apple’s iMovie
    • [U] NewsExplorer
    • [U-C] Twitter
    • [U] Screens
    • [U] Ulysses
    • [U] Things
    • [U] Fantastical
    • [U] AirBuddy
    • [U] CleanShot
    • [U] Reeder 5
    • [C] iStats Menu
    • [C] DayOne
    • [C] Carbon Copy Cloner
    • [C] Timing
    → 8:07 AM, Nov 16
  • It will be (much) faster (#apple #macmini #imac #m1chip)

    Comparing the performance of a 2017 iMac to a M1-based Mac mini, based on Geekbench numbers. Sometimes, a picture, oops, a graph is worth a thousand words.

    My current experiment of macOS Big Sur on a 2017 MacBook Pro is not very impressive. I can feel the difference compared to Catalina.

    → 4:59 PM, Nov 15
  • Universe on macOS Big Sur (@onuniverse #macosbigsur #apple #catalyst)

    One of the best “side effect” of macOS Big Sur release is the ability to run iPadOS applications on the Mac. The first to cross the border that I really care about is Universe, a site builder app. I use it to build My Numeric Citizen Visual Space. The following screenshot is the application running on my 2017 MacBook Pro upgraded to Big Sur. The end-result is really good.

    → 2:48 PM, Nov 15
  • Here is why Microsoft should start to worry (#microsoft #surfacego #macbookair #apple #m1chip)

    In light of Apple’s recent products introduction, consider the recently introduced Microsoft Surface Go. A Windows laptop that starts with 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB SSD, 12.4” touch screen using the Intel Core i5 which will get you 13 hours on battery for 550$. If you want a 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, the price goes up to 899$, but you keep the same lame CPU.

    Now, compare this to the new MacBook Air (a much more powerful laptop) for 899$ (education pricing), same amount of RAM and SSD, 5 hours more of battery life, a much better non-touch display.

    How is Microsoft supposed to compete against Apple in this market now?

    They simply can’t, and they should start to worry.

    → 9:09 AM, Nov 15
  • What's wrong with Medium's stats…? (@medium #writing #bloggerlife) 🤔

    What’s wrong with Medium’s “reading time" stat? Here, this story “Thoughts on ‘One More Thing’ - The Ultimate Mac Transition”, got 34 views so far, 12 reads, 2 two responses, 4 fans, 53 claps but the total reading time is 50 seconds? What’s wrong with that? 12 reads x 11 min estimated reading time = 132 minutes. Someone wrote: “very informative talk”! Did this guy really read my story or he is trying to get some attention? 🤨

    → 7:16 AM, Nov 15
  • Exposure Notification and battery life (#apple #covid19)

    Why is exposure notification taking so much battery power? Do you experience the same thing? I’m running on iOS 14.3b1 but it was the same behaviour under previous iOS releases. I’ve been monitoring this for a while. I don’t want to turn that off. Oh, and by the way,amI alone who doesn’t find very intuitive these graphics?

    → 5:46 PM, Nov 14
  • The list is growing... (#apple #universalapps @elemanssoftware)

    My favorite RSS reader News Explorer (read my review here), is already supporting macOS Big Sur, M1-based Macs. The updated News Explorer UI on Big Sur is much cleaner in general. I’m on the list to test the iOS 14 friendly version, adding support for Widgets and I can’t wait to see their implementation.

    → 12:20 PM, Nov 14
  • Big. (#apple #bigsur #macos #macosbigsur #update)

    Big Sur update is certainly big. Full of goodies and the enabler for the next decade of excitement for the Mac.

    → 10:12 AM, Nov 14
  • Massive Big Sur Review (#macos #bigsur #macosbigsur #apple #review)

    Ars Technica put together a massive review of Apple’s macOS Big Sur. It is quite impressive. It’s exactly the kind of review that I’m looking for. Visuals and internal architectural features are exposed, explained but rarely justified, only when it serves a purpose of contextualizing the matter. Kudos for the author: Andrew Cunningham

    Now, I’m so anxious to get this thing running on my upcoming Mac mini. Big Sur is not only a refresh of the user interface but also an important sum of things under the hood that is being upgraded and modernized.

    → 10:08 PM, Nov 13
  • On Big Sur - Maybe I was wrong (#apple #macosbigsur #widgets #design)

    Maybe I’m wrong with my perception of the disaster Apple created with the introduction of widgets in combination with notifications center (read my comment here on micro.blog). After reading the excellent MacStories.net review of Big Sur, I finally saw the combination in action. Notifications are see big improvements and look closer to what we get on iOS.

    Still, Apple lost the opportunity to make widgets available in their own space, something like what we used to have, the Dashboard. It’s ridiculous to confine widgets in such a small space, considering modern screen sizes. Oh, and I hope the interaction feels much more fluid on M1-based machines because the last time checked on a 2017 MacBook Pro, with Big Sur beta 10, it was super laggy

    Picture credits: from MacStories’ review of Big Sur.

    → 12:00 PM, Nov 13
  • It's happening! (#macos #catalyst #universalapp #macosbigsur)

    The movement of iPadOS apps crossing the boundaries to come to the Mac is starting, thanks to macOS Big Sur. A surprise addition to the Mac App Store is @OnUniverse which is now available for the Mac. The app has been rebuilt on iPadOS to better fit the Mac platform. It’s a great example of Apple’s bet starting to payoff. I used to use this app on my iPad to build my Visual Space. It’s only the beginning.

    As I don’t have macOS Big installed yet, I couldn’t play with the app. Can’t wait to try it on my upcoming M1 Mac mini.

    → 6:39 AM, Nov 13
  • One Computer, Three form factors (#apple #macbookair #macbookpro #macmini)

    “The new M1-based MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini are best thought of not as three different computers, but rather three different manifestations of the same computer.”

    Astute observation by @Gruber in his commentary post on “One More Thing" event. People are trying to figure out why there is so few differences between the three Macs Apple announced this week. Sometimes, the answer is simple.

    → 1:26 PM, Nov 12
  • PC Gimmicky features rarely used (#windows #windowslaptop #microsoftsurface)

    PC laptops introduced pencil support, touch screen, screen-based touchpads, et. al. because these are the only things they could do to try to stay on top in a commoditized technology platform. I will take in a heartbeat 3X or 5X performance gain and 6 more hours of battery life over the gimmicky features. This is one of the many reasons I’m so upbeat with the M1-based Macs.

    Photo credit: Alexander Andrews on Unsplash.

    → 9:14 AM, Nov 12
  • When the low-end beats the high-end... (#apple #macbookair #M1processor)

    Twitter is ablaze since yesterday when first benchmarks of the MacBook Air were published. They show the M1-based and fan-less Mac to surpass the top of the line iMac! It’s impressive if not mind-blowing!

    Now here is a simple theory: native apps will certainly perform really well but non-native apps will run under the Rosetta layer, which happens to consume CPU cycles. This performance room being consumed by Rosetta, the actual performance of a non native app will probably fall down to a more reasonable level.

    Impressive nonetheless.

    → 7:12 AM, Nov 12
  • Hourra, Ulysses ! (#macosbigsur #writingtools #blogger @ulyssesapp)

    My go to app for blogging, Ulysses, is now ready for macOS Big Sur. Yeah! I’m doing my part, as I’m going to order this M1-based Mac mini today so I can run Big Sur on its own machine and experience the future now. And that icon is lovely, not too iOS-ified, enough Big Sur-ified to feel at home! Ulysses 21, Pt. 2 - Ulysses Blog

    → 7:00 AM, Nov 12
  • Another experiment: Mac mini (#apple #macmini #m1processor #macosbigsur)

    Recently published benchmarks of the upcoming M1-based Macs are impressive enough for me to take a deep breath and make a decision. A week ago, I didn’t think of this as a possibility. But here we are.

    I’m going to make the plunge into the world of Apple Silicon-based Mac, Big Sur and universal apps. It’s the beginning of a new era, and I want to be part of it, experience it. I’m not waiting for the reviews next week.

    I’ll get a Mac mini equipped with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TD SSD. Expected delivery date is mi-December at the earliest, just in time for Christmas holidays. I never owned a Mac mini, BTW.

    I’ll use my 4K LG display that is currently plugged into my iMac. I’ll be testing universal apps as they come out. Applications like Adobe Lightroom CC, Omnigraffle and Pixelmator Photo will certainly take advantage of the M1 processor.

    → 9:59 PM, Nov 11
  • Tim Cook's Apple: not perfect but utterly impressive (#apple #timcook #2020)

    I recently wrote and published a very critical view of Tim Cook’s Apple. It’s not pretty, but it is my honest take. Now, looking at Apple’s strategy execution for 2020 which is close to an end, I must confess that I’m really impressed. Apple delivered. On all fronts. There are a lot of unknowns, for sure. Yet, I have the felling that Apple set the stage for its next phase of growth for the next decade.

    → 4:01 PM, Nov 11
  • On M1 based Macs Unified Memory Architecture (#apple #mac #m1processor)

    Here is the thing: the new M1-based Macs use the new “unified memory architecture” that is at the center of our iPhones and iPads. If you plan to buy one of these shinny new Mac, my recommendation would be to go with 16 GB of RAM, not 8 GB. Why? Consider this: Rosetta 2 is a new emulation software layer that will consume memory, something that is not present on Intel-based machines. On top of that, memory will be consume for video processing. My guess is: the biggest monitoring, the higher the resolution, the more memory will be consumed. What’s left for the applications? Even if SSD is fast on reads and writes, application launches are fast, nothing equals the speed of RAM. I’m afraid 8 GB of RAM is the new meager 5 GB iCloud storage tier for M1-based Mac. We’ll see with the upcoming reviews and benchmarks.

    → 10:52 AM, Nov 11
  • Intel: shit. (#appleevent #m1processor #apple #intel)

    The graph put together by Anandtech is a wakeup call for Intel and the Wintel world, for that matter. These trajectories are incredible, impressive for Apple, worrisome for Intel. We are on the verge of a major shift in the portable landscape. Apple seems unstoppable.

    → 7:37 AM, Nov 11
  • Lingering Questions… (#appleevent #apple #mac #macbook)

    Why no clock-speed information about the M1 processor? How are iOS-based apps be presented on the Mac App Store? Why so little difference between a MacBook Air configurations, CPU-wise, RAM-rise compared to MacBook Pro? What “virtualization technology support" actually means for normal users and tech enthusiasts? Why not bring back the 12" form-factor, an ideal candidate for power-efficient M1 processor? Will there be updates to Intel-based iMac Pro and Mac Pro? Why no 32 GB RAM configuration option for the MacBook Pro? What kind of performance levels should we expect to reach for non-Metal optimized graphic apps? Why does Apple can’t understand the need for an updated FaceTime camera in 2020?

    → 8:53 PM, Nov 10
  • What's missing? A lot. 😳 (#appleevent #apple #applesilicon #mac #macbook)

    No touch screen. No pencil support. No 5G or 5G wireless option. No high-quality FaceTime camera. No Face ID No redesign, no slim bezels. No 12" MacBook. No clock speed specs. No eGPU support. Fewer ports options. Third-party native software support still to come.

    Am I missing something?

    That’s the new Apple MacBook using Apple’s M1 silicon ship.

    Still excited?

    → 8:19 PM, Nov 10
  • History repeats itself (#appleevent #apple #applesilicon #mac)

    From rewatching Steve Jobs announcing Apple’s transition to Intel processors, here are a few interesting observations, just in time for tomorrow’s #AppleEvent.

    Steve Jobs reminds the crowd of transitions in Mac history: 68K to PowerPC, OS 9 to OS 10 then introduces the third transition: going to Intel. Each time, he uses the expression “to set Apple for the next 10 years". It’s all about the CPU roadmap’s ability to enable the Apple’s vision. Also, even at that time, power consumption was an issue. He also repeatedly mention great updates still coming to the PowerPC-based Macs.

    Can’t wait for tomorrow’s version of the very same playbook.

    → 8:05 PM, Nov 9
  • Honest iPhone 12 Pro review. (#apple #iphone12pro #review @basicappleguy)

    I love those balanced review, even partial, of the iPhone 12 Pro. They feel credible, and I tend give them high credence. We should get more of these these days of highly nuanced upgrades offered by Apple, year after year. Photo by the article author.

    → 3:10 PM, Nov 9
  • When Software Holds Back the Hardware (#apple #iphone12promax #ios14)

    This quote from the Wall Street Journal’s review of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is priceless as ti summarize one of the biggest issue, in my opinion, about Apple’s current state of its software in general:

    “It is crazy to me, however, that Apple hasn’t enabled us to do more on a phone that is practically iPad-size. Why can’t I view my inbox on the top half of the screen and my calendar on the bottom, like Samsung allows with its Multi-Window mode? Why does the tiny iPhone Mini allow the same number of rows of home-page app icons and widgets as the iPhone Giant? Why can’t I use an Apple Pencil to take notes on the notebook-size device?”

    These are all valid questions. Even before the iPhone 12 Pro Max, these questions were valid. Software, like for the iPad, is holding back the iPhone. Is it a ressources issue being spread too thin? Is it something about product differentiation? I hope the answer is the former, not the latter.

    Photo: The Verge.

    → 11:32 AM, Nov 9
  • Deception waiting to happen? (#appleevent #apple #applesilicon #mac)

    I have a feeling that we are in for some deception tomorrow at the “One More Thing” keynote. Is this a natural mental process, some sort of auto-regulation of my own expectations, currently happening so I can be pleasantly surprised, tomorrow?

    Yet, reading my Twitter feed today and people are expecting 15 hours of battery life while beating current Mac equivalent performance. And then what? The Apple Silicon story is more about the unification of software platforms at Apple than enabling endless hardware innovations on the Mac.

    Change my mind.

    → 8:13 AM, Nov 9
  • Another iPhone 12 “Virtual” Experience by @MichaelSteeber (#apple #iphone12 #experienceapple)

    After spending sometime with the virtual experience from Apple, I found out another one by the well known @MichaelSteeber that is built with Adobe’s XD. The experience is quite similar, and I’m still not able to find a fully satisfactory combinaison of the iPhone, the MagSafe case and the wallet. Really, the iPhone 12 is not for me.

    → 8:17 AM, Nov 8
  • My iPhone 12 « Virtual » Experience (#apple #iphone12 #experienceapple)

    Apple launched a webpage to experience the selection and visualization of different MagSafe cases and wallets for the iPhone 12. I played with it for fun from my iPad Pro. It’s an interesting way to try different combinaisons of iPhone, cases and wallet in a world where going to a real store to do the same is challenging.

    This year’s iPhone and cases prove to be hardly satisfactory, though. The colours options are not really in line to my tastes. After spending a while, I found two probable configurations that I would buy if I was on the market for such things. Because of bad reviews of the wallet, I would skip this one as I would fear losing my three most important cards. I hope Apple will fix the issues with next year’s round of the products.

    → 8:05 AM, Nov 8
  • I can breath. (#bidenharis2020) 😀🇨🇦

    Well, I can breath a little bit better now that this clown is on the way out. Good riddance. As a Canadian, I’m so happy to see this clown go. If there was a way to start fixing 2020, it would be it. Yeah, I know, he won’t concede victory, he probably won’t do a concession speech. Who cares.. we knew all that, already. Now, let’s hope Americans start to unite a little bit and fix their shit, because, it’s pretty ugly out there.

    → 12:54 PM, Nov 7
  • The transition iPhone (#apple #iphone12 #iphonepro)

    A recent tweet from @LeaksApplePro made me think about the significance of the iPhone 12 in the grand scheme of things.

    Apple is about to remove the last port on the iPhone, so they are training us with the MagSafe. Next year’s version will fix many of the issue we’re facing today. 5G may not be ready, but next year it will be much better. LiDAR is fascinating, but next year we will depend on it. We tend to forget about the notch, next year it will be Apple who will forget it by putting it to rest.

    We’re still in the middle of the pandemic. We’re not out of the woods. We’ll continue to work from home for a long time. Trips are not really a thing right now. But, in the fall of 2021, can we hope that most of this will be behind us and return to normal life? It would help a lot to enjoy the portless iPhone 13 or whatever stupid name they will name it. Right now, I’m a bit tired of not being able to go out and use the cameras to build my visual memories.

    The iPhone 12 is the transition iPhone that will lead us to a better world, a year from now. I hope.

    → 8:20 AM, Nov 7
  • The screen computer. (#apple #imac #mockup)

    I want this to be the next iMac, running an ARM-based CPU. That’s what a computer should look like: a screen. On a stand. Nothing more. We’re close to this. Consider the iPad. We are already there. I don’t expect such a computer to be revealed next week, though. We will have to wait a bit more.

    Mockup credit and more available here: https://svetapple.sk/english/imac-2021-exclusive-renders-from-svetapple-sk/

    → 5:52 PM, Nov 6
  • On the Mac pivotal moment (#apple #appleevent #applesilicon #mac)

    The Mac has gone through many transitions in the past and I was there for each of them. From the Motorola CPU, to the PowerPC and the Intel processors, Apple’s execution was almost flawless.

    At the upcoming Apple Event, Apple will unveil their highly anticipated Apple Silicon Macs. When thinking about what Apple could do for this pivotal moment for the Mac, there is two possible roads Apple can take in regards to the general design of these machines.

    First, Apple could choose to do the same they did when they switched to Intel processors back in 2005. Apple kept the same designs. There are a few advantages to this approach. By going the conservative way, Apple sends a “don’t worry, this is a Mac, everything will work just fine” message. This would probably helps keep the confidence level about the expected compatibility of these machines with current software. But there is one big drawback from a marketing standpoint: Apple chose to switch to its own CPU in order to enable new things on the Mac that wasn’t possible before. I’m not sure that keeping the same external design of the Mac is the best way to do it; it would be too conservative.

    The second approach, the one that I prefer, would be for Apple to introduce a refreshed and modernized design. This could take the form of new materials, new textures, new tones. Screen bezels could be dramatically reduced in order to bring the machine down in size. On top of that, better FaceTime camera with 4K resolution, always-on Siri could also make their debuts. If battery life can show major improvements, Apple would have a winner here. Such a move by Apple would help mark the turning point for the Mac, a new era, just like they did in 2012 when they introduced the unibody design. The Mac is in need of such refresh and this is the right time to do it.

    If Apple is really aiming to produce 2.5 million Apple Silicon MacBooks by February 2021, there has to be something special besides a powerful and power efficient A14X CPU. Let’s see which strategy Apple decided to chose.

    Side note: it is fascinating to see that the PC never went through these transitions like the Mac did. It is something unique in the technology world. No other company ever did this, that many times. Now, we might wonder if this Apple Silicon transition will spark a similar move in the Wintel world. Why? Because Intel is no longer a synonym of real platform evolution, ARM-based design is.

    → 8:12 AM, Nov 6
  • On Apple Watch “unique” requirement (#applewatch #iphone #apple) ⌚️

    In the last few weeks, I repeatedly got a simple question regarding the Apple Watch: does it require an iPhone? One person expected to “pair” the watch with an iPad. The other is an Android user. These questions tell me something interesting. One, the Apple Watch is gaining traction among non-Apple users. Two, the quicker Apple can remove the iPhone requirement to get an Apple Watch, the better it will be for their bottom line. This could be something as important as the iTunes for Windows was back in the days.

    Photo credit: Brina Blum on Unsplash.

    → 11:57 AM, Nov 5
  • About those "one more things"... (#appleevent #onemorething #history)

    On the eve of another “one more thing” moment, please read this interesting article on Medium. The author spent time to review all previous cases of “one more thing” announcements. They were not all game changers but the following ones were turning points: MacBook Air reveal, Apple Watch. Can’t wait for the next one as I expect it will be another game changer moment for the Mac.

    → 7:26 AM, Nov 5
  • How old are they? (#apple #macosbigsur)

    Here’s a quick and unrelated question: how old, on average, are people who love the design language of macOS Big Sur? Seriously, my bet goes to a much younger crowd than those who prefer macOS Catalina. Why? People who grew up with the iPhone and iPadOS has a much different design reference frame that those who grew up with macOS. The latter group seems to see Big sur as some sort of iPadification of macOS.

    You’re thoughts?

    → 8:50 PM, Nov 4
  • Updating my Apple purchase plans (#appleevent #apple #macpro #onemorething)

    As it becomes clearer what Apple won’t announce next week, an update to their Mac Pro, my purchasing plans needs to be updated accordingly. It makes no sense for me to go with an Apple Silicon Mac in the near future as I need Vmware Fusion to run Windows virtual machines in my SDDCbox project. Only an Intel-based Mac Pro can do it for me as we speak. Still, I can’t wait for next week’s announcements.

    → 1:26 PM, Nov 4
  • Please, come to Canada (#apple #iphoneupgradeprogram #iphone)

    I wish the iPhone Upgrade Program would come to Canada. I’m not holding my breath, though. I think carriers here wouldn’t let it happen because they know they suck at selling their shit, and this would greatly affect their bottom line. In any case, if it does come to Canada, I would upgrade my iPhone every year, for sure.

    → 1:11 PM, Nov 4
  • Pray. (#vote2020 #electionnight)

    I rarely if ever post political stuff here. As a Canadian, my sincere hope is that the American people make the furst step in order to put an end to this endless nightmare.

    On a side note: I’m using  News to follow election night. So far, I like what Apple is doing here. Results are quick to be reflected on the maps, which can be drilled down up to the state level.

    → 8:09 PM, Nov 3
  • Facebook is bad at everything. Period. (#facebook #privacyprotection #design #privacy)

    Interesting post from @Gruber about Facebook application design. The lack of support for basic things like dark mode, more than a year after its introduction is a simple example, but very telling about something: Facebook doesn’t give a shit about those things. They don’t give a shit about privacy protection either. They don’t give a shit about democracy. They are are bad at design. They are bad at everything. And their growth is slowly declining which is a bit of fresh air to know.

    → 8:21 AM, Nov 3
  • Widget Radar (#widgets #ios14 #weatherapps @rjonesy)

    Another wonderful and really useful widget is finally available for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14: a precipitation radar. I’m a big fan of MyRadar but the app wasn’t yet updated to support widgets. Widget Radar, which is free by the way, is simple and minimalist yet effective. It is proudly sitting on my homes creen now, on the weather page.

    Side note: Weatherline is another useful weather app, but it doesn’t allow the placement of the radar image as a widget, yet.

    → 6:52 AM, Nov 3
  • Mac Pro mini (#apple #rumours #macpro)

    Surprising rumors by Bloomberg about Apple working on a new Mac Pro, about half the size of the current model:

    “Apple engineers are currently developing a new Mac Pro that looks like the current design at about half the size. It’s unclear if that Mac will replace the current Mac Pro or if it’s an additional model.”

    As someone who is seriously contemplating to buy a Mac Pro, this information makes me pause a bit. My use case is for virtualization software which requires an Intel chip for running Windows versions in virtual machines. Windows on ARM is not on the horizon. I will enjoy an Intel Mac Pro for quite some time.

    → 8:27 PM, Nov 2
  • The "real" One More Thing... (#appleevent #apple #macosbigsur #macbook #onemorething)

    There is a difference between what I expect and what are the things that I would really like to see. Here is a short list for this last Apple Event of 2020.

    I hope for an Apple Silicon Mac with a full physical redesign of the Mac it is replacing. The re-introduction of the 12" MacBook with a refreshed design language, something that would be start of something new for all the upcoming MacBook updates in the future. I want Apple to mark the beginning of a new era for the Mac, not something in the form of continuity. I want Apple to turn the page and move beyond the Jony Ive’s era. Let’s start fresh, be forward thinking. Go past Microsoft’s Surface. Oh, this brings me to another wish: Touch support on macOS Big Sur and Apple Silicon Mac. Signs are pointing to this. That would be the real kicker of this year. Please, Apple, make it so. Impress me.

    → 1:35 PM, Nov 2
  • One More Thing. (#appleevent #mac #applesilicon #macosbigsur)

    Big surprise today, it came early, Apple sent their invites for a November 10th Apple event. Rumours were pointing to November 17th date. Happy the wait will be shorter than anticipated.

    I love this tag line; it was used at many occasions by Steve Jobs to show something that could be a game changer or of high significance.

    This early invite adds credence to those who think macOS Big Sur 11.0 is already being put on unreleased new Macs. Expect 11.0.1 to follow pretty quickly.

    Here is what’s on the menu for this last Apple event of 2020.

    • macOS 11.0 “Big Sur” make its official debuts (100%)
    • Universal apps running simultaneously on iOS, iPadOS and macOS are now supported (100%)
    • First round of Apple Silicon Macs are release: MacBook or MacBook Pro (100%)
    • Side announcements of updated configurations for 21.5” iMac and 27” iMac Pro still on Intel (70%)
    • Apple TV refresh using Apple Silicon and new game controller (40%)

    Can’t wait for next week.

    → 12:47 PM, Nov 2
  • Troubling rumours about the Mac (#apple #mac #imac #applesilicon)

    According to AppleTrack.org, there is a shortage of many different Mac models. Some shipping dates are slipping into December. It the case for the 21.5” iMac and iMac Pro. Troubling.

    When Apple announced they were transitioning their Macs to use the new Apple Silicon, they also said they would keep updating current Intel-based models for a while. I don’t know this will translate in reality. If the iMac Pro is being updated this month, it could be for an updated configuration with an Intel CPU, not an Apple Silicon. The case of the 21.5” iMac is more interesting, tough. The 27” iMac was updated recently but not the 21.5. I’m not sure it is the first prime candidate for the Apple Silicon. I’m thinking more about the MacBook or the MacBook Pro which would highly benefit from the Apple Silicon.

    It’s interesting to note that the Mac Pro is still in stock. This could signal that it won’t get updated this fall. The Mac Pro wasn’t updated since its release in 2019. As I’m looking to get one for my SDDCbox project, I’d would love to see a refreshed configuration in time for me to consider and pickup.

    → 7:10 AM, Nov 2
  • On iStat Menus 6.5 (#macosbigsur @bjango)

    One of my favorite macOS utilities, iStat Menus, just received an update to version 6.5 which adds support for macOS Big Sur. I know, yesterday I wrote that I was done with Big Sur… but it was for testing… I still have time in front of me to convince me this is the best release of macOS Apple has ever done.

    iStat Menus will be ready when I’m doing the switch to this Mac Pro for my SDDCbox project. It will play an important role in giving me insights on the CPU and SSD access. For now, there are a lot of tweaks which will make this utility even better. Even their release notes is art!

    There seems to be less and less high-quality apps and utilities like this these days…

    → 6:45 AM, Nov 2
  • I’m done with macOS Big Sur (#apple #macos #macosbigsur)

    Since the beginning of September I’ve been testing macOS Big Sur. I’m still undecided about how I like or hate this release. I’m unable to get over the way Apple messed up the notifications center with widgets. Clearly, it is a regression. There was no good reasons to merge them on the same space. Widgets should have gone in their own area, taking full advantage of the big screen. I just don’t understand it.

    I’ll reuse this 1 TB SSD USB-C drive for something else: put my SDDCbox project virtual machines on it.

    → 11:11 AM, Nov 1
  • Release Candidate (#iosdev #apple #iOS)

    Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of an era. Apple is leaving behind the term “Golden Master” in order to adopt “Release Candidate” to refer to a version of its operating system sent to its developers that will probably be released to the general public. An an IT guy, I’m used to the term “release candidate”, “golden master” was such an Apple-only thing. I’m glad they make this change as it reflects the state of a release.

    Photo credits: Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

    [twitter.com/_inside/s...](https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1322288679604363264?s=21) Tirza van dijk I8OhOu wLO4 unsplash

    → 7:39 AM, Oct 31
  • Edge cases (#iphone12 #iphone12pro #photography #apple)

    I’m an iPhone 11 Pro owner. Photography-centered reviews are interesting to me because they tend to compare this year’s iPhone with last year’s. MacRumors published such a comparison. Judging from it, if I could summarize the iPhone 12 Pro photographic advances, it would be like this. The iPhone 12 Pro improvements are mostly about edge cases because in normal situations, improvements are much more subtle. The addition of Night Mode on the Ultra wide camera is part of features uniformisation across cameras which is welcomed, though.

    Photo credits: from MacRumors article. Iphone12prowideanglehill

    → 7:24 AM, Oct 31
  • Measuring my success (#blogger #writer #newsletter)

    As a blogger and a content-creator, how can I measure my success? Well, it’s not an easy one to answer. Each blogger could have its own way at looking at this. Personally, I could pay attention to my blogs visitors statistics, but there is one thing that I keep an eye on these days. I recently started publishing a free monthly newsletter on Substack. The membership is increasing, but what I'm looking for is easy: following a new issue of my newsletter, how many are unsubscribing? None, so far. To me, it’s some form of success.Substack newsletter banner

    → 4:22 PM, Oct 30
  • It's a deal! (#apple #appleone #applemusic #fitnessplus)

    Sometimes in your life you come across some deals that you cannot refuse. Apple One is one of them. As a Canadian, by subscribing, on top of Apple News+, 2 TB iCloud storage and Apple Music,  I’m getting Fitness+ and Apple Arcade and… to my surprise, now I have 4 TB of iCloud storage. How good is that? Can’t wait to try Fitness+ and maybe help me go through these enduring times this coming winter while getting in a better shape?

    Now, what comes next Apple One? Apple //? AppleOne

    → 11:41 AM, Oct 30
  • Optimized for Mac (#apple #applesilicon #ios #ipados)

    Here is one of the most fascinating part of upcoming Apple Silicon Macs: the implicit support for iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac (as long as the developers care to update their apps, obviously). I wonder how massive this change will be. How will it change the third-party applications landscape on the Mac? How will it influence the pricing of both iOS/iPadOS apps and macOS apps? We tend to take for granted that software on the Mac is always more expensive compared to their iPad counterpart… The next year sure will be interesting to watch for Mac lovers like me.

    1 on 1 lab

    → 6:36 AM, Oct 30
  • Fascinating times (#apple #microsoft #google #amazon)

    Here is a fascinating chart: brand value calculated by Interbrand. Apple is on top again this year. They have been there since 2012. What I find interesting is the first row is occupied by companies reflecting our new way of life as we depend on smartphones (Apple, Samsung), online shopping (Amazon) and the cloud (Microsoft). What about Google you might ask? Well, first, as we don’t like to pay for online stuff, we prefer to be the product of advertisers. Second, we stopped using bookmarks a long time ago, we prefer the Google search field.

    → 6:19 AM, Oct 30
  • We’re humans — Tim Cook (#apple #timcook)

    “Work can’t solve for all the things we’re missing right now, but a shared sense of purpose goes a long way. A belief that we can do more together than we can alone, that people of good will, driven by creativity and passion and that certain itch of a big idea, can still do things that help other people in our own small way to teach, to learn, to create, or just to relax at a time like this. Even as the things we make require us to operate at the very cutting edge of technology, in materials, products, and ideas that didn’t exist just a few years ago, this year has forced us to face plainly the things that make us human — disease, resilience, and hope.” — Tim Cook

    → 5:57 AM, Oct 30
  • Apple is doom! (#apple #iphone #mac #ipad)

    Poor Apple, iPhone sales are 20% down compared to last year’s quarter. Look, people, it's 2020 and we are in the middle of a pandemic. Stores are closing, opening, then closing again. Yet, Apple is able to pull it off big time. Thanks to the Mac, iPad and services, Apple is able to come out with a great quarter! That’s what is interesting: when one product line is performing poorly, others take the lead. September quarter is going to be a monster one as the iPhone 12 and Apple Silicon Macs sales takes over the stage. 

    Jp valery lVFoIi3SJq8 unsplash

    → 7:17 PM, Oct 29
  • Apple's Clips is Underated (#apple #clips)

    Apple this week updated their strange application, Clips, to version 3.0. Clips looks like a technology demonstration to me. I hear it is popular among the young crowd. Maybe.  I’ve played with the new version a bit and really like the new design which is cleaner and more enjoyable to use. After playing with, boy this app is power hungry; my iPhone 11 Pro get’s very hot! Still an interesting ting to play with. IMG 6680

    → 4:56 PM, Oct 29
  • On Apple Search (#apple #siri #search @parkerortolani)

    Here is an interesting design concept of a possible Apple Search service. What I find interesting is the use of the Siri branding. I don’t know if Apple would use it or simply call the service: Apple Search. I would prefer the latter as Siri is not known to sound like “good” more like “good enough” or “behind the reste of the crowd”. 

    Apple Search Mockup

    → 2:50 PM, Oct 29
  • 11.0.1 beta, really? (#apple #macos #macosbigsur)

    This curve ball wasn’t expected: Apple comes up with beta 1 of macOS Big Sur 11.0.1. Why? Why now? Does this mean 11.0 GM is really around the corner and will ship soon on new Macs, including the first Apple Silicon ones? Why do I keep thinking Big Sur (based on Beta 10) was far from ready? Something is clear to me, I’m not upgrading my iMac anytime soon, but I understand that my upcoming Mac Pro could come pre-installed with it.

    → 6:24 AM, Oct 29
  • Third edition is out! (#newsletter #blogger #writing #apple)

    After much writing and compositing, the third edition of the Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is out! I’m quite happy with the end results. It’s getting better with each release. It’s still free. Can’t wait to build the next edition!

    Please, read, share and like! 👈🏻 🙏🏻

    Comments are welcomed!

    → 6:28 PM, Oct 28
  • That was fast! (#apple #ios14 #ios13)

    I’m always impressed by the turn over speed of major new releases of iOS. iOS 14 adoption rate is already surpassing iOS 13 after less than six weeks of availability. Wow.

    Apple’s iPhone ecosystem is running at blazing speed to adopt new technologies. There is nothing like that in tech. Even if people are keeping their old iPhone longer, by supporting old devices, Apple can set the bar for new privacy features and make them available to a vast portion of the users. This is something we rarely talk about.

    → 6:55 AM, Oct 28
  • Basic Apple Guy but gorgeous! (#apple #blog #discovery @basicappleguy)

    Thanks to an article from John Gruber’s website, Daring Fireball, I discovered a new Apple-centric blog yesterday: Basic Apple Guy. After spending a few minutes on it exploring the content, I kind of fell in love with it and and started to wish it was mine. I’m impressed by the simplicity and the content quality. RSS feed already added to my collection.

    → 10:22 AM, Oct 27
  • It's all about the story, right? (#apple #mac #applesilicon)

    Here is what I’ll be looking for at the Apple Silicon Macs introduction: the story they will tell for their introduction. Remember when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone or the iPod? There was a story to hit so people could understand the “why’s”. Now, in the age of smartphones, what is the relevancy for Apple Silicon Macs? Why now? What pain points do they address? Can’t wait for November. Photo credits.

    → 6:00 AM, Oct 27
  • I kind of like what I’m seeing (#myblog #blogger #bloggerlife)

    This is my Micro.blog.

    Using the popular Newsify RSS feed reader, I used my own feeds to see how it would look through it. I was pleasantly surprised by the end results. It’s been a while since I found the best way for me to post on Micro.blog. All posts have a title, hashtags, a picture and use at least 280 characters so the boundary where a title becomes available. Without it, Micro.blog cross-posts the whole text on Twitter which I don’t want to happen; I prefer a summary titled.

    → 8:43 PM, Oct 26
  • Everyone has their price (#apple #google #privacy #privacyprotection)

    According to the New York Time regarding the antitrust lawsuit in the works, Google is paying between 8 to 12 billions $ a year to be the default search engine on iOS. That is a lot of money, but apparently, that’s the price to pay for Apple to bend over their privacy stance.

    If there is one reason why Apple should get out of this deal and build their own search tech or buy DuckDuckGo altogether: put the walk behind the talk.

    → 6:11 PM, Oct 26
  • The master in action (#stevejobs #ipod #apple #history)

    This short clip showing Steve Jobs introduce the iPod is a pure joy to re-watch. It is 9m 11sec of presentation mastery. The way he set the stage, draw attention to pain points, show the “solution” is perfect. This is how you do it. This clip should go in tech and marketing history books.

    Now, let’s try to imagine how he would do it for the introduction of the first Apple Silicon Mac in a few weeks.

    → 6:34 AM, Oct 26
  • The more I read... (#iPhone12 #iphone12pro #apple)

    The more I read comments on Twitter about the iPhone 12, the more I’m happy to skip this upgrade cycle: wireless network performance (spotty), battery life (highly hit by 5G usage), finger prints magnet (Pro edges), mildly controversial colours (not as unanimous as last year’s colours), weak cameras upgrade (from the 11 Pro), MagSafe design and performance (too weak magnets). I’ll be waiting for the iPhone 13 patiently.

    → 7:07 PM, Oct 25
  • iPhone heritage (#apple #design #iphone #iphone12)

    _“Enduring design doesn’t need constant reinterpretation. It needs tweaking, polishing, and subtle improvement” _— Om Malik

    Great take by Om Malik on the the significance of timeless design in “Why great design is timeless”. As I wrote in my previous post, to me, the iPhone 5 was the best Apple design before the iPhone 12. Om Malik refers to the iPhone 4 as being an example of timeless design that was later only tweaked, refined and polished in following iPhone iterations. I find it a bit surprising as the iPhone 4 metallic edges never really came back after the iPhone 4S.

    Looking back at the iPhone design genealogy, we can infer six major groups of iPhone design language: the original iPhone up to the iPhone 3GS is group #1, the iPhone 4 and 4S is group #2, the iPhone 5, 5S and SE is group #3, the iPhone 6 and 6S is group #4, the group #5 encompasses the iPhone 7 up to the iPhone 11 including the SE 2. Finally, group #6 is the iPhone 12. I expect Apple to iterate within that group for at least another year.

    The iterative polishing, refining process of Apple is in full glory since the iPhone 7. The latter is heavily based on the iPhone 5 heritage. The iPhone 12 is heavily inspired by the iPhone 5 era and the group #5 of designs.

    If Apple plays their card well, next year’s iPhone could surpass this year’s line up by fixing the Pro glossy edges, removing the notch (it won’t happen), thinner bezels and less controversial colours selection, just to name a few attributes.

    → 8:21 AM, Oct 25
  • Apple did it again. (#iphone12 #apple #design)

    In my opinion, this year’s black iPhone 12 is now their best design of all time, surpassing their previously best design, the black iPhone 5. It took them 8 years. I can’t wait to see that in person, for now, this tweet by Brian MacDuff is enough to convince me. Blacks are deep blacks, the edges mat finish is way better than on the Pro models. What could come next to beat this? A notch-less design. Maybe next year or in 8 years. Who knows. Picture from Mr. MacDuff.

    → 7:09 AM, Oct 25
  • Staying home... (#iphone12 #apple #applestore)

    For as far that I can remember, I won’t go to an Apple Store to see the new iPhone this year. Thank’s to… well.. you know, it’s 2020. Twitter threads like this one I’m sure is not doing justice to the look and feel of these new devices.

    → 8:26 AM, Oct 24
  • Exposure notification (#iphone #apple #google #covid19 #pandemic)

    I recently got this notification on my iPhone. I didn’t know the exposure feature would keep the user informed about its “behind-the-scene” work. Interesting.

    I wonder how Apple will remove that from iOS in a post-pandemic world. Will they keep it and make it usable for other types of highly contagious deceases? My feeling is that they will generalize it and keep there.

    → 8:19 AM, Oct 24
  • They're here. (#iphone12 #iphone12pro #apple)

    I don’t remember seeing Apple posting photos of behind-the-scenes workers working at distribution centers to make it all possible and magic for the first day of availability of a new iPhone. It’s an interesting move. We tend to forget how massive the required logistic is needed for these roll outs to happen smoothly, year after year. This year is special, the pandemic is certainly increasing the difficulty level quite a bit for Apple. We’ll see how Apple’s bottom line is affected, later this year.

    → 5:58 AM, Oct 23
  • On 2021 iPad Pro (#ipadpro #apple)

    Is it a question of a few more months before the iPad Pro line distance itself from the 2020 iPad Air. This will put the 2021 iPad Pro in a league of its own. Features like mini-led display, faster A-series processor… but what else? More system memory at 8 GB? Bigger screen? Wifi 6? 5G option? daringfireball.net

    The 2020 iPad Air

    → 7:33 PM, Oct 22
  • Jony Ive working with Airbnb. Who knew. (#jonyive #apple #lovefrom #airbnb #design #UI)

    In a surprising move, Airbnb has a new partnership with Apple’s former designer chief, Jony Ive. As much as I like this guy’s work, something quite surprising struck me: Airbnb doesn’t sell any form of hardware. The last time I check, Jony Ive’s reputation is not about crafting the best user interface designs in the world, far from it. Who remember the switch to iOS 7? I do. Jony Ive was quite instrumental in the design of iOS 7 and it was a disaster. We are still paying the price today. It will be interesting to watch what comes from this partnership. Press release here.

    → 6:03 AM, Oct 22
  • SDDCbox project - update #2 (#macpro #apple #vmware #vmwarefusion)

    My possible future Mac Pro configuration is taking shape. It all started here btw. Reading carefully the spec sheet, the base configuration sets the memory clock speed at 2666 MHz while the 12 cores CPU configuration is at 2933 MHz. Considering my use case, virtualization with VMware Fusion, I’ll take any non-GPU improvements possible. Speaking of GPU, I’m not sure about the performance difference between the base GPU card, a AMD Radeon Pro 580X, and the more powerful AMD Radeon Pro W5500X. I’ll probably keep the entry-level one saving memory for a bigger SSD. Maybe.

    I’m not close yet to make the plunge and I’ll have to wait for November announcements as configuration updates, price changes or something else could greatly affect my buying decision. Stay tuned for update #3.

    → 5:52 AM, Oct 22
  • RIP. Remote.app (#apple #appletv #appstore)

    Great story about the start of the Apple TV remote app that was removed today from the App Store. Reason? Duplicate functionality with iOS Control Center. Time to move on I guess. I love those stories from the inside. Can’t get enough of them.

    Photo credit: @badashproducts on Unsplash.

    twitter.com/accannis/…

    → 5:53 PM, Oct 21
  • Waiting for iPhone 13. (iphone12 #iphone12pro #apple)

    Thanks to iPhone 12, I can’t wait for the iPhone 13. The MagSafe is cool but is not perfect. 5G is nice but comes with a spotty coverage and puts a lot of pressure on battery life. The iPhone 12 Pro is a powerful monster but with fingerprint magnets and fragile glossy edges. Bezels are thinner and thinner but this big notch is still there. I’m skipping this year’s iPhone 12 and anxiously waiting for iPhone 13. Or whatever name they call it. Maybe just: iPhone Pro?

    → 6:13 AM, Oct 21
  • This is a drill (#iphone12 #apple #magsafe)

    With the iPhone 12 and MagSafe, is Apple training us for a port-less iPhone 13? I think so. The removable of the Lightning port and skipping USB-C would be so Apple, an act of courage I guess. If they do remove all the ports from the iPhone, how do we deal with CarPlay? What about developers who use testing and development devices which requires the fastest transfer speed possible? Is there something in the works at Apple that would mitigates these challenges for the users? Another type of adaptor? Or maybe Apple is just waiting for a more drastic iPhone redesign (no notch?) to bend themselves to USB-C?

    → 5:49 AM, Oct 21
  • Stairway to “heaven”? (#apple #iphone12 #iphone12pro)

    Tim Cook once said that all products Apple sell can fit on a table. Well, depending of the table size, maybe. But, you will have to remove products variants from the equation, though. Look at the iPhone product line. Now, think about how it will look next year.

    twitter.com/asymco/st…

    → 7:20 PM, Oct 20
  • These edges... (#iphonex #iphone12 #iphone12pro)

    As much as I like what the iPhone 12 brings to the table in general… edges got my attention. Up until now, I didn’t really like rounded edges since the iPhone 6. I much prefer the square edge on the iPhone 12… but not on the Pro models… they are way too much polished and are probably finger prints magnets.

    I want a Pro iPhone with the matte version of the non-Pro iPhone edges.

    twitter.com/msfslm/st…

    → 8:16 PM, Oct 19
  • Stucked on the phone (#magsafe #iphone12 #apple #design #UX)

    When I first saw the MagSafe snapping into the iPhone, I asked myself: how about taking the iPhone away? Is it hard? Is it gentle? Do we need two hands to separate them? Now listen to the video segment from a guy asking a few troubling questions… should we worry or just wait for the iPhone 12 to ship and see how the whole thing actually works?

    → 6:52 AM, Oct 19
  • A14: from the iPhone to the Mac (#apple #A14 #applesilicon)

    I love those feature highlights. Apple started to use them recently (September of last year?). If you look closely at the A14 feature highlights, I wonder what features aren’t required in a Mac? There is so many things that make sense on an iPhone, like everything related to ML. But, on a Mac? I’m not so sure. And, what features should be added to the A14 that doesn’t make sense on an iPhone? Increase high-performance CPU cores? And then what? What features are Mac specific that aren’t already handled by the T2 chip?

    → 3:54 PM, Oct 18
  • The 5G Enabler (#iPhone12 #apple #5G)

    Last year, the iPhone 11 lacked 5G networks support. Apple was doomed. This year, the iPhone 12 does support 5G networks. Now the operators are doomed because of spotty coverage. There is something bad to look for if you want to get clicks.

    I think 5G is more marketing than anything else at this point. The iPhone 12 will be the enabler of 5G network. People will demand it (even if their use cases don’t require it). This will in turn force operators to accelerate their deployment.

    → 3:24 PM, Oct 18
  • A wild dream (#apple #macpro #vmware #virtualization #lab)

    I’ve been thinking of something really wild recently, for me at least: replacing my 2017 21.5 inches iMac with a Mac Pro. Here is why.

    I work in IT (information technologies) as a data center related technology architect. Server virtualization, storage area networks, networking technologies are at the center of my professional universe. In the coming months, I’ll have to invest in self-training and experimentations a lot around VMware-related products and services. How can I do that efficiently while working from home? Here comes the Mac Pro idea.

    In order to be able to run many virtual machines, a powerful physical computer is required: lots of memory, powerful CPU (more than 6 cores) and fast storage. My current iMac doesn’t meet these basic requirements (it is maxed out at 32 GB of RAM and it has a relatively modest CPU). A Mac Pro with the following specs would easily meet the challenge: at least 128 GB of fast memory, 8 cores CPU, builtin SSD and expandability.

    Virtualization will required VMware Fusion Pro running on top of macOS. Then, the sky is the limit as I can then install ESXi hypervisor which will allow me to branch into more complex setup. This type of environment do require a lot of memory (a typical VM is about 4-16 GB each) and multi-cores CPU. Installing ESXi directly on the Mac Pro is not an option as I will need to have macOS running for all other tasks (I’m not even sure if it is att all possible).

    How do I get there? Well, I’m still thinking about how I’ll buy that machine and get the additional RAM (I won’t go with Apple’s because $$$). Stay tuned.

    Technical datasheet can be found on Apple’s website, right here in PDF format. I don’t want to switch to a Windows machine BTW, I’m too much invested in Apple’s ecosystem for that to happen.

    → 8:48 AM, Oct 18
  • A follow up to @mattbirchler on why opting for Newsletters instead of a blog? (#blogger #blogging #writing #substack)

    In a recent blog post, the well known blogger and content creator, Matt Birchler, wants to understand why so many people are opting for emails (newsletters) over the web. I want to give my perspective on each of his questions.

    What about writing in a newsletter is more enjoyable than writing for a blog?

    My Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is a monthly one. I start writing the next issue at the beginning of each month. I hit “Publish and send” at the very end of each month. It gives me four weeks to nurture its content. When the end of the month approaches, the newsletter content is mostly complete and I like how it evolved from the beginning. It is a satisfying process. Then, I take a pause and look forward to start the next one. I like the regular beat of all this process. I wouldn’t do a weekly newsletter, though, as it requires much more time to do.

    Are newsletter audiences more engaged than blog subscribers?

    I’m not sure about this one in general. For me, it is too early to tell. My gut feeling is that people are more or less engaged the same way as they are with blogs. I’d like to be wrong, though, and have people engage more with newsletters.

    As a reader, do you prefer reading in your email app to an RSS app (or just the web in general)?

    I use Substack to build and send my newsletters. Each of them are also available via an RSS feed. Depending of the client used, the reading experience can be enjoyable on both type of clients. Personally, I do subscribe to Hey and reading newsletters with their client is really nice and provides a nice clipping feature which is very handy.

    Do you not miss things like link posts and “going viral” which are much harder, if impossible to do with emails?

    Link posts can be done in newsletters and they won’t go viral for sure. But, I’m not really looking for this kind of fame to be honest.

    Is it easier to get people to sign up for a paid subscription compared to the web?

    I’m still building this stuff and my newsletter is free for now. I get new subscribers regularly but not as much as I would like. I guess I still have to get the word out and be more “famous”.

    → 2:07 PM, Oct 17
  • A simple wish (@ulyssesapp @microdotblog #writing #blogging #tools)

    You know what I would like that would be really really cool and useful for me and probably for many others? I’d like to see Ulysses add support for Micro.blog as a publishing destination (Ghost, Medium and WordPress are already supported). That would be really nice. 👌🏻I kind of like Micro.blog native app for the iPad but it’s not a writing tool in my opinion. My fingers are crossed. Please, share this post if you think you would benefict from this as a writer and Ulysses user.

    → 1:41 PM, Oct 17
  • Look who’s in town (#rssreader #rss #reading @reederapp)

    The venerable RSS reader app « Reeder » turned to version 5 yesterday. I don’t know how I missed that one. Maybe because I moved from Reeder to News Explorer. I pay a lot of respect to the developer of Reeder. I’ve been using it for a long time. I wanted to have a look at version 5 so I bought it. Here is why.

    Widgets. News Explorer hasn’t been updated to support them yet. Reeder now does. I love them. Read Later. Sending URLs to Reeder Read later is interesting and provides a better experience than in Safari Read Later. Tracking my own RSS feed for quality control. Oh and Shortcuts are also supported, something News Explorer don’t.

    I think I’ll have to update my blogger workflow. 🤔

    → 10:02 AM, Oct 17
  • Is this called “Evolution” or “Modernism"? (#apple #ios7 #UI #design)

    An image is worth a thousand words. We are still paying the price of this shift in design, every single day, for every single interaction we have with our iPhone… who asked for that? Why? Will we return to normalcy? I’ll never forget the “before” it was so shitty. Never.

    → 3:16 PM, Oct 16
  • Software is art (@airbuddyapp, #macOS)

    If you have a Mac, many battery-powered Apple devices, you need AirBuddy. Version has been in the works for a very long time and it is a major update. I’m so anxious to get my AirBuddy updated!

    We don’t get to see this level of craft on computers these days. This reminds me how dire the macOS native application landscape has become over the years. With macOS Big, Catalyst, Apple Silicon Macs and universal binaries, one can hope for a brighter future.

    Am I alone who think the AirBuddy logo is upside down?

    → 5:44 AM, Oct 16
  • Is there a pattern? (#apple #airpower #magsafeduo)

    With the (re)introduction of the MagSafe for iPhone, Apple is trying to redo their AirPower introduction of 2017. On paper and on video, MagSafe looks cool, MagSafe Duo seems even better (more useful, transportability), but no word on availability and pricing, just like with the initial AirPower announcement. Is there something Apple didn’t learn here? Whatever happens, it is on my wishlist even if I’m not going to upgrade to the iPhone 12 this year.

    → 11:58 AM, Oct 15
  • Secured. (@medium, #blogger, #blog)

    A word about my other home: Medium, which I love. Following their latest update, they now offers publishers to secure their own domain name as well as allows better customization of publisher’s profiles. This is mine).

    Im still pondering how I’ll make use of Medium’s new love for bloggers.

    → 6:27 AM, Oct 15
  • I’ve been robbed by... @duggu24 (#bloggerlife #blogger)

    For the first time in my numeric life (at least, from what I’m aware of), one of my article has been robbed by another guy. After discovering it, I asked for immediate removal but without success. So, today, I’m calling him out.

    The robbed article is the one about upgrading from an Apple Watch Series 4 to Series 6 published on my main blog on October 3 of 2020 and on Medium. You can see the stolen article there. This article was then pushed on this fake Twitter account with 1628 followers. This Twitter account is apparently owned or operated by this guy, the thieve who is following four people and has only one follower (poor guy).

    This hosting website seems to enjoy quite a bit of traffic. Good for him. All his articles is stolen stuff without any mention of the source. He must be proud of himself, I wonder if his parents are, though?

    The main take out: I’m must be a good writer after all so people are starting to notice and copy my stuff.

    → 7:19 AM, Oct 14
  • I won't upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro (#iphone12pro #appleevent #apple)

    As great looking and powerful the shinny new iPhone 12 Pro might be, I’ll skip the upgrade this year. Sure, I tend to skip a few generations but there is one unexpected reason not to do so and another one more obvious. First, the problem is because of the current pandemic, I cannot see when I’ll return traveling around the world. Traveling is the best photography opportunity for me. Without travel, working from home all the time, there is no need to get the latest smartphone technology. Second, 5G networks maybe powerful, but the coverage is spotty at best. I prefer to wait a year for this coverage to increase before making the jump on the new iPhone.

    Last year I upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 11 Pro and I was delighted.

    → 5:56 AM, Oct 14
  • It Just Works™

    Yesterday, just like mostly everyday since March 13th of 2020, I went for a long walk with my wife. Both of us had their AirProds Pro with us. I had the idea to try the audio sharing feature of iOS 14 (introduced in iOS 13 if I’m not mistaken). We both put our AirPods in and I selected a playlist. Then, using the media playback UI, I selected the audio sharing option, waited for my wife’s AirPods to show up, after tapping this pair, she then had to accept my invitation and voilà! We both had music in our ears! It’s a great case of “It Just Works”, something that we see less and less often these days, I guess.

    → 6:13 AM, Oct 13
  • On newsletters rising popularity #blogger #blogging #writing #writers

    The rising popularity of paid newsletters is good news for many reasons. First, it’s a signal that people are willing to pay for great content without ads all around it. Second, some people value the direct relationship feeling with the writer compared to a traditional website. Third, the popularity of independent writing is rising which is giving back control to the writers.

    In a recent article by Nick Heer on Pixel Envy, the author writes:

    Yet, despite all of these clear advantages, I still find it difficult to think of my email inbox as somewhere I will go to find something enjoyable to read.

    I find newsletters a wonderful medium that cut the noise from social networks. The reading experience can further be improved with a great email client like Basecamp’s Hey which provides a specific reading mode for newsletters call The Feed. You can read my review of this email client here.

    Read more comments from Mr. Heer in his blog post. I started a newsletter a few weeks ago. For now and the foreseeable future, it will be free. I have to prove myself that I can meet the deadline every month with quality content. I’ll see how it goes.

    Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

    → 3:48 PM, Oct 12
  • The web in 2020.

    Please, have a look at this ten seconds GIF to appreciate how bad the web experience is in 2020. This is the “iPhone in Canada” website. I won’t include the hyperlink in this post. There are 30 trackers in this web page according the Apple’s Safari. Thirty. This is just one example of so many more that illustrates what happens when you no longer care about the actual end-users.

    I accidentally clicked on a link to this website and then I remembered why I stopped reading it a long time ago.

    → 10:18 AM, Oct 12
  • Third-party Apple Watch Faces - Yes but no

    Here is a super interesting article from David Shayer on Tidbits about why there may never be third-party Apple Watch Faces. According to this software engineer who worked on the first two releases of watchOS, there may be four reasons why Apple probably won’t make a watch face store: battery life, buggy code, Apple’s image, copyright worries. Besides many interesting insights on watchOS development and testing, the reason that caught my attention is about Apple desire to control their image.

    What is the killer app of the Apple Watch? The watch face, duh! Apple is an image control freak and I don’t think they want a watch face store full of crappy and bad taste designs to show up on users’ Apple Watch. They lost control of the App Store, they don’t want the same story to happen with the watch. And I agree with this position. But there could be some sort of compromise, though. As pointed out by Matt Birchler in his commentary post to Tidbits article:

    “CarPlay is a great example of how Apple could do this right with watch faces: only allow a certain number of companies to make custom watch faces. have them sign additional agreements and have them go through tougher reviews. Maybe there are literally 10 companies who are able to make watch faces. Maybe Apple can reject a watch face simply because they don’t like how it looks.”

    My guess is that Apple will look to add more watch faces through collaborative work, just like they did in watchOS 7 with the Artist watch face.

    Photo by Daniel Korpai — Unsplasg

    → 9:00 AM, Oct 11
  • Thanks Apple, you’ll make me like November

    Bloomberg, via Mark Gurman, is reporting that Apple will hold another event in November for Apple Silicon Macs. Besides my comments yesterday on the opportunity for Apple to present redesigned Macs, having a separate event is a no brainer to me. This is a major transition for Apple and they certainly wants to get the message loud and clear.

    If rumors are sound, Apple still have some time ahead to polish the upcoming macOS Big Sur release. As it is today, it is not ready for prime time. It may be the equivalent of the iOS 13 buggy release of this year. Even if Apple announces Macs in November, they could be ready to ship only in December, who knows, giving Apple even more time. Anyhow, I’m not is a rush to upgrade to Big Sur. Apps will have to follow the new look and feel and I’ll wait for them to be updated first. The list is long.

    → 7:32 AM, Oct 11
  • On the upcoming Apple Silicon Macs

    While many pundits still wonder which Mac Apple will start transitioning the platform to their shiny and speedy silicon, my attention is on something else. I’m wondering if Apple will take this opportunity to introduce redesigned machines. Let’s say they start with the MacBook Pro, could they use this occasion to reimagine the laptop? What about the iMac which is way overdue for a redesign?

    There are two avenues for Apple. One in which they opt for continuity. The other is to make a bold statement and turn the page on the Intel-based era. If prefer the latter as I’d like to see what it looks like after the era of Jony Ive. It’s a golden opportinity IMHO. Besides my preference, Tim Cook’s Apple is conservative and they will probably opt for the former approach.

    What do you think?

    Two MacBook Pro
    → 2:18 PM, Oct 10
  • Deliveries 9.0 - Does it deliver?

    Here are a few quick comments on Deliveries 9.0 that came out recently. Deliveries 9 helped me track my Apple Watch Series 6 (read me review here).

    As you know, Junecloud, the maker of Deliveries, switched to a subscription model with this release. I don’t really like this model but what can I do? Their pricing is fair and they give to previously paid users a six months break.

    Version 9 brings refined visuals and more details tracking history among other things. The importation workflow has been updated and simplified too. Once delivered, package tracking can be archived forever. iOS 13’s dark mode is now supported but iOS 14 widgets aren’t yet. I think Deliveries is the perfect candidate to support widgets and I can’t wait to see what Junecloud will come up with in that regard.

    All in all, as a long time user of Deliveries, I’m ok with this update albeit the switch to the subcription model. If it get’s more frequent feature additions, I’m ok with it, I guess.

    → 7:30 AM, Oct 10
  • Ready for a 99$ convenience

    At 99$ each, the HomePod mini would find a space on my desk for sure. I care more about size than Siri lacking intelligence with the HomePod. Being able to play music while I work without having to use headphones would be an improvement for me.

    www.macrumors.com/2020/10/0…

    → 4:33 PM, Oct 9
  • Thanks again, leakers!

    Will there be anything left for Apple to announce next week at the Hi, Speed event? Thanks to leakers on the internet, probably not much. I can’t thank them enough for spoiling things, again.

    There was a time where leaks helped people to adjust their buying decisions, but I feel they no longer fit that purposes. It is more like a search for some kind of fame.

    → 6:25 AM, Oct 9
  • What am I doing wrong while doing https://numericcitizen.micro.blog from Safari from iPadOS 14? @help

    → 7:53 PM, Oct 8
  • How well will it age?

    I’m keeping that one mockup to see how well it will age when Apple releases the new iPhone lineup next week. I like the dark blue color. But what is missing from these mockups is the edge of the devices. The iPhone 4 and later the iPhone 5 squarish design were one of the best Apple came up with. We’ll see how they execute around the same idea with the iPhone 12.

    → 6:29 AM, Oct 7
  • MMMM everything comes in mini version?

    Rumors are swirling around upcoming products from Apple. What is becoming more persistent is the possibility of an HomePod mini announcement. I’m not sure if it is already “dead on arrival” or if Apple is about to give the smart speaker market a second try. Will it take more than a smaller footprint, better sound quality and lower price? Yep: an ecosystem of apps built on something like “siriOS”. There are no signs at all of this… which would be a massive surprise.

    → 4:02 PM, Oct 6
  • Is this a sunset or a sunrise? #apple #appleevent

    We should never read too much in Apple’s invite graphics. They rarely have anything to do with the content of the event itself except maybe with the iPad with Retina Display invite a few years ago. Remember the finger on the screen?

    Besides the obvious, an iPhone 12 line up announcement, what’s in store? AirTags? Updated Apple TV with Apple’s own game controller? HomePod mini? Don’t expect Apple Silicon Macs until November. I don’t expect Apple to talk about these next week. Apple Silicon Macs need their own stage time in their own event.

    Funny is the fact that iOS 14.1 is held back by Apple to fit this event. Probably contains a lot of hints of what is coming down the line.

    The year 2020 can be an exciting one after all. I guess.

    → 11:51 AM, Oct 6
  • On Ulysses Latest Release for iPadOS 14

    Using the latest release of Ulysses for iPadOS 14, it is a joy to write on the iPad. Now, what am I writing, you might ask? More than 1700 words to express my current view of iOS 14 widgets: where are we, what’s left and where it could be going. It was supposed to be a 5 min reads… now I’m at more than 7 min. Oh well. Should be out in the coming days on my main blog at https://numericcitizen.me

    → 7:15 AM, Oct 6
  • HEY, here is an important update!

    Today is Christmas! Basecamp just released version 1.1 of their email client for HEY which supports WIDGETS among other things! I played with it and I LOVE the way they added the feature. Nicely designed and useful! Congrats to them!

    Now, I have to get back to work on my article on widgets and remove HEY as an app without widgets support!

    → 4:08 PM, Oct 5
  • Nine years, already.

    I miss him. The world is different. Apple has become something else. He would probably like what it has become without him, probably not all of it but most of it. I don’t care what he would have done differently. It’s no longer relevant as we need to keep looking forward, something he always did. But I still miss him dearly.

    → 8:13 AM, Oct 5
  • From 2018 11” iPad Pro to ... ?

    I have a 2018 11” iPad Pro. Today, I asked myself: what upcoming features or improvements could entice me to upgrade my iPad Pro? I’m still scratching my head.

    Faster? Nope. 😐 Lighter? Not quite. 🤨 More system memory? Mmm not really. Maybe. Maybe not. 🙂 Better screen? Is it even possible? 😬 Longer battery life? Nope. 🙄 Better speakers? Nah. 🥱 Integrated U1 chip? 🤔 A new size? Depends. 😶 Smaller bezels? You like to see first. 😌 Touch ID in power button? On iPhone please. 😉

    What’s left? You tell me.

    → 8:26 PM, Oct 4
  • One year of iPhone 11 Pro...

    By curiosity today, I went in the battery health section on my iPhone 11 Pro to find out the current status is 96%. Already. I’m a bit surprised by this as I’m mostly at home and using my computer or my iPad. How could I loose 4% in a year?

    → 4:07 PM, Oct 3
  • From the Perfect Imperfections Series: The cross.

    I never pray. A cross is a geometric form. It can be a target too. It has no particular meaning by itself. #art #photography

    numericcitizen-visualspace.com/the-perfe…

    → 1:15 PM, Oct 3
  • I’m currently testing the beta of the upcoming reimagined Medium mobile app and I love it 🥰. For once, a redesigned experience is not synonymous of going backward. More on this soon.

    → 8:50 AM, Oct 3
  • One major observation on @mattbirchler’s iPadOS full widgets experience

    I’m thinking way too much about widgets these days, thanks to iOS 14 most prominent new feature. I’m still reflecting on the possible reasons why the full widgets experience is not available on iPadOS 14. That being said, @mattbirchler this week came out with an interesting and informative video showing how Apple could possibly enable the full widgets experience. This morning, still thinking about this concept, I realized something: Apple doesn’t need to keep the today view support on the iPad in order to enable the full widgets experience.

    I would argue that, in fact, Apple should get rid of the today view that came from the iPhone. One of the reason for this is how bad scrolling the today view works when you have a few widgets stacks; if you don’t pay attention on where you put your finger to scroll this view, you actually end up scrolling through the stack itself instead of scrolling the whole view. That’s not a good experience. The other reason is the iPad screen canvas makes it easy to rebuild the side view just by using the right widgets. No need to have scrolling.

    I think Apple will eventually come up with an iPad-specific version of the widgets experience but not with the iPadOS 14 releases streak. And that’s too bad.

    → 7:02 AM, Oct 2
  • My Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is out! Check it out, it’s free! Lots of stuff about Apple, photography, privacy and climate change! #newsletter #apple #photography #privacy #climatechange

    → 6:13 AM, Oct 1
  • From Apple to Ubiquiti

    Learned something really cool today. A few weeks ago I published my review of the well known router, the Unify Dream Machine (available here). The context of this review was the fact that this new router was replacing my aging Apple AirPort. One of the reasons why I chose this device was because of its external look and finish as well as its superb management app.

    One of the founder of Ubiquiti is an ex-Apple employee according to this 9to5Mac article: “an ex-Apple employee went on to found a company that currently sells enterprise networking gear. Robert Pera, the founder of Ubiquiti, Incworked for Apple in the early 2000s as a Wi-Fi engineer.”. Woah. It does explain a few things. This article is well worth your time.

    → 8:30 PM, Sep 30
  • The second edition of my Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter is on the launchpad!

    My upcoming (and free BTW) Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter for September is done. I’m just waiting for September to conclude before hitting the send button. Crafting newsletters like this is so fun. Meanwhile, why not give a look at the first edition?

    → 6:33 AM, Sep 30
  • Waiting... waiting... and waiting.

    It’s coming. Two days. Thanks to the soon to be updated Deliveries app. I can “see” where my order is. Can’t wait for version 9.0 launching tomorrow and see how much improved the app is. Can’t wait for my Apple Watch Series 6, coming this Thursday. Still so far from home, yet it feels so close.

    → 7:45 PM, Sep 29
  • Micro.blog 2.0 - Testing, 1-2-3, Testing...

    I really like what I’m seeing here on macOS. Only request is the default view of a New Post window should show the Title and Categories by default. On the web, the improvements are massive. I’m surprised the Bookmarking feature is available in a new Premium tier only. I want this feature but not the others (podcasting, richer media support). I’ll give it a try while it is free and I’ll see. On iOS and iPadOS, the workflow of selecting a photo from the library is still broken, otherwise, I love the changes. There seems to be speed improvements too. In other words, it is snappier!

    All in all, I like where Micro.blog is going with these updates.

    Testing an embedded bookmark here.

    For the Micro.blog 2.0 launch week, we’ve enabled the new bookmark archiving and highlights feature for everyone to try out. You can upgrade to Micro.blog Premium at any time and also get podcast and video hosting.

    Read: www.manton.org

    Manton Reece https://www.manton.org/2020/09/29/for-the-microblog.html
    → 4:51 PM, Sep 29
  • Deliveries: what’s in for me?

    I’ve been a long time satisfied user of Deliveries. They are now switching to a subscription model which isn’t a surprise. I do think the pricing is just about right for the type of app. But, looking more closely to what’s new in the upcoming release, I see support for darkmode which is fine but please, don’t try to sell us this upgrade because you support basic OS features that are available for more than a year. Those should be a given. You may disagree.

    → 11:51 AM, Sep 29
  • Here is a free idea for iOS 14 widget developers

    Who can remember the Pinball Construction Set? If you do, or you are well documented or you are probably as old as me. Now, consider iOS 14 and the widgets feature: how long before someone comes up with something like a “Widgets Construction Set” for iOS? What I’m seeing now isn’t close enough to my taste.

    → 10:37 AM, Sep 29
  • Lost in a see of content

    There is way more content online than we can humanly consume. There, I said it. I’m myself part of the problem, as a content creator too, albeit in a very small tiny fashion. To make things worse, I consider myself a writer. It’s not helping as less and less people are reading these days.

    → 11:46 AM, Sep 28
  • On iOS 14 Widgets: So much untapped potential

    We have to realize that we are only at the early stage of widgets support for iOS 14. There is a lot of untapped potential and frustrating design choices. Widgetsmith is having a moment right now but looks like a work-in-progress to me. It is a great idea but it can be tricky to configure and is not fully intuitive. There is so many more data sources the developer could add. And tell me how I would pay to get weather data in Widgetsmith while I can get it all for free with other apps. The added value of Widgetsmith lies in its configurability, not the fact that you can add weather as a source.

    → 8:07 AM, Sep 27
  • ok, the widgets experience on the iPad is crippled, so what?

    When iPadOS 14 beta came out, we were all quick to notice how crippled the widgets experience was compared to iOS 14. So we got frustrated. I’m still unable to get over it. Apple is holding back the iPad. Again.

    In the last few days, I tried to understand the possible reasons behind this. To my surprise, it’s not easy and there could be many explanations to why the iPad widgets experience is limited to the Today view. More to come in a blog post this week.

    Meanwhile, you are more than welcome to share your thoughts! I’m curious.

    → 5:00 PM, Sep 26
  • Apple’s Upcoming Products #apple #iphone12 #airtags

    To get a bird’s eye view of the current Apple’s rumours landscape, check out my daily “Apple’s Upcoming Products” newsletter with all the well known leakers in one place. There is still a lot going on for the rest of 2020 and beyond. Subscribe, it’s free and time saving. You’ll thank me later. It’s the best way to spoil any upcoming Apple events. Trust me.

    → 7:20 PM, Sep 24
  • A message to attention seekers

    Here is something for attention seekers: GTFU. I don’t understand. What do you expect from me by liking 10 photos in a row on my 500px profile page. The same goes for this case (see screen shot) of someone clapping for all my stories on my Medium page. Do you have something to sell? Probably, but I don’t care. You are making noise all around the web, just because you seek my attention.

    Software has never been more powerful. The web is a big tracking machine, yet websites can’t figure out a way to recognize such behaviors in order to stop them. Baffling.

    → 5:53 AM, Sep 24
  • Apple’s best general purpose apps...

    I wrote about that a long time ago but here it is again: Apple’s iWork suite is probably the best expression of Apple software these days. This week, the venerable suite got updated to take advantage of iOS 14’s latest features (scribble, new import photo library, etc.). Keynote got an outline mode! 😍

    → 6:58 AM, Sep 23
  • On increasing COVID-19 cases...

    Quick question: when you say “oh my, COVID-19 cases are on the rise!” and you get the following response “well, sure, they do more testing!!”. Is this a valid response? If not, what is the counter argument?

    I have the feeling there is something wrong with this statement but I cannot put the finger on it. Ideas?

    → 11:56 AM, Sep 20
  • The Rotten Side of Tim Cook's Apple.

    Apple, the everlasting success story has been in troubled water in recent years. From faulty or badly designed products to tense relationships with its developers, more than ever Apple is showing its rotten side, attracting regulators' attention. The family picture is not pretty.

    link.medium.com/tcLmxS16V…

    → 7:37 AM, Sep 20
  • I'm never satisfied. Why?

    Are you like me and never satisfied with your Apple Watch face arrangement? Why is it so? Why is it so hard to come up with a watch face configuration that totally fit my needs and my taste? iOS 14 helped me solve part of my problem, but it isn’t enough. watchOS doesn’t help either as it allows for even more flexibility. A third-party application named “Buddywatch” is super cool, yet doesn’t fix the problem.

    Now, thanks to widgets support in iOS 14, I’m even less satisfied with my iPhone home screen arrangement. I think it’s worse than on my Apple Watch. Widgets, when I find one that is perfectly designed and really useful, lack some flexibility. I never had so much different pages on my home screen. What the hell is happening? Technology should remove the burden on us, not the opposite.

    → 11:11 AM, Sep 19
  • Can Apple pundits see the reality as it is?

    I’m working on something that Apple fanboys won’t like at all: a cornerstone piece of more than 4000 words about my personal view of Apple’s less glorious facets. Many Apple pundits will disagree. I don’t care. I worked hard on this one in the last few weeks and my undistorted field perception is finally about to come out. Wait for it. 👨🏻‍💻

    → 7:47 AM, Sep 19
  • No trackers on Apple.com. Really?

    After installing Safari 14 on macOS Catalina, I went on Apple.com to see what trackers would be reported. Unsurprisingly, Apple doesn’t use any trackers. Now, the big question: do you believe Apple doesn’t track its main website usage?

    → 6:39 AM, Sep 19
  • On Developer’s Questionable Choices with iOS 14 Widgets Design

    There is something fundamentally wrong with the way iOS 14 widgets are being implemented by many developers. Here is a simple example. The popular Reddit client, Apollo, introduced widgets support, see the following picture. Now, how can a widget with two posts can be useful if you are following many subreddits with dozens of new posts each day? What is the point in doing that?

    → 8:27 PM, Sep 16
  • Who's in charge of saying "no, this is shit"?

    Look, look closely at this leadership page from Apple. Now, ask yourself, who is directing the product directions part? Who says “no, we won’t do that!” or “come back when it is done!” or “Yes, that’s the direction we will go!”? It used to be Jony Ive and before, Steve Jobs. But, now? How is it possible that someone in charge of “products design” is not on the leadership page? For a company like Apple, it is deeply troubling.

    https://daringfireball.net/2020/09/apple_leadership_bubblegum_cards

    → 7:32 PM, Sep 14
  • I'm falling in love, again.

    I’m falling back in love with Tweetbot 🥰. For a reason that I don’t remember, I was no longer using since a while ago. I think it was related to the fact that the official Twitter client was getting all the new features while Tweetbot couldn’t keep up (thanks to highly guarded APIs by Twitter. I’m kind of frustrated by the non-chronological timeline. It’s exhausting. I want to focus on a clean UI providing me a clear view on my timeline. That is all.

    → 6:56 PM, Sep 14
  • Warning: doom and gloom ahead. #AppleEvent

    On the eve of #AppleEvent tomorrow, I can see a lot of deception on the horizon. The tag line is clear: it’s about time, or the watch. It’s not about the iPhone. It’s not about the Mac. It’s not about the Apple Silicon. It’s about the iPad and the watch. A weird combinaison if you ask me. These updated iPad should be launched with a press release IMHO but Apple needs some stuff to fill the event schedule I guess.

    → 6:57 AM, Sep 14
  • For what reason do we pay Apple for?

    Man I still miss him. Steve Jobs had a way of making his point so damn clear. You could disagree with him, but I least you knew what he was trying to say. No bullshit. Plain and simple. Boom. twitter.com/robcorean…

    → 4:57 PM, Sep 13
  • Thought of the day for bloggers and written content creators

    Competing against Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram et al. In order to grab users attention is impossible, even with great content to a certain degree. Coupled with the general trend towards more visual content instead of written words, It’s hard to build things like newletters or even simple blog with a reasonable readership. I guess this is the numeric world we must accept to live in. Your thoughts?

    numericcitizen.substack.com

    → 11:26 AM, Sep 13
  • From Overcast to Castro — Quick Observations

    Re-discovering Castro podcast player 🎧. Much better than Apple’s Podcast app 👍🏻. Better design than Overcast 👌🏻. Super nice Watch app 😍. Impressive Shortcuts support. 👨🏻‍💻 No iPad version, though 😕. Looking forward for iOS 14 widgets support and maybe a universal version with support for all platforms (is this even in the cards? 🧐). Proudly supporting the developer by being a yearly subscriber now.

    castro.fm

    → 1:12 PM, Sep 12
  • Apple Card, Apple Cash in Canada soon?

    Can’t wait for this to come over here, in Canada 🇨🇦. One question though: would this mean Apple Cash would also come with it? They both look tied together for cash backs. Am I right? I don’t expect this to come out on next week apple event, but eventually in 2020 - 2021 timeframe.

    appleterm.com/2020/09/1…

    → 7:39 PM, Sep 11
  • Stupid 5G Marketing

    Saw that picture of a guy paying an VR game on a Rogers website to promote 5G networks in Canada. How stupid is this marketing!? What are they thinking when they “design' their marketing campaign? You tell me.

    → 7:15 PM, Sep 11
  • After Tim Cook

    Having discussions about what comes next after Tim Cook is only a good thing. There is nothing to worry about this. That being said, I can see someone like Greg Joswiak to take over. I’m a bit tired of people in the ops field to lead Apple.

    appleinsider.com/articles/…

    → 9:17 AM, Sep 11
  • Not too fast, people, not too fast

    Following the #AppleEvent announcement yesterday, I saw many comments about a possible schedule of events this fall. Many of them are putting the release of the Apple Silicon Mac in October.

    There is no way this is going to happen that early. macOS Big Sur is still at Beta 3. Developers are hard at work adding support for widgets and other iOS 14 stuff. I would expect iOS 14 to be released at the end of September. iOS 14.1 will come out in beta at the beginning of October in order to support the new iPhone shipping later in October.

    Now back to the Mac. I expect Big Sur to be released at the very end of October if not November. The actual Apple Silicon Mac will probably be announced at a different moment than the iPhone. Apple doesn’t like to mixed up things in their keynote. The actual shipping date could be at the very end of the year, just in time to catch the ramp up of the A14X production rumored to be starting in Q4.

    In summary: Apple Silicon Mac to be released late in 2020.

    → 6:14 AM, Sep 9
  • Time to record current Apple Watch website before Series 6.

    → 7:50 PM, Sep 7
  • You cannot trust the human race. #covid19

    → 5:13 PM, Sep 7
  • Updated many of my photo albums on my Adobe Portfolio. numericcitizen.myportfolio.com

    → 7:58 AM, Sep 7
  • Just in case you missed it, I started a newsletter touching subjects like Apple, photography, privacy protection and climate change. You could be surprised to see how often these are interrelated. It’s free. #newsletter #blog numericcitizen.substack.com

    → 6:46 AM, Sep 6
  • Have you ever carefully looked at Apple Leadership page? Tell me what’s wrong. Nah, I’m going to tell you: who in charge of Design? Is it a bit weird that, following Jony Ive departure, Apple leadership page is still missing someone for the design side? I think so.

    → 4:56 PM, Sep 5
  • I would pay a lot of money for this kind of table.

    → 3:51 PM, Sep 5
  • There you have it. #newsletter #blog #writing #blogger Hoping for a long series.

    https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/numeric-citizens-introspection-newsletter

    → 7:23 AM, Sep 5
  • This is my Twitter family. I wonder what my Micro.blog family would look like.

    → 3:47 PM, Sep 4
  • And we’re ready for launch, tomorrow! All systems are ready! Weather is a go too! Don’t miss the officiel launch of my newsletter and subscribe NOW! It’s exciting! #newsletter #writing #blogging #blog #apple #photography #privacy #climatechange numericcitizen.substack.com

    → 6:17 AM, Sep 4
  • It came to my mind that preparing and sending my first newsletter is like putting a message in a bottle and dropping it in the sea. #writing #writer #blogging #blog Picture from Javardh from Unsplash. numericcitizen.substack.com

    → 12:04 PM, Sep 3
  • Where is the folder name? Dear @Apple, why is it so hard? #ios14beta6

    → 6:05 PM, Aug 30
  • Why Substack? My answer.

    https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/this-is-an-experiment

    → 10:51 AM, Aug 29
  • I’m still on the fence with Substack. It is free to start. I don’t know if I’ll be duplicating efforts that I already put in WordPress, Micro.blog and Medium. Writers discovery is limited if I understand it well. This is a web-only publishing experience. #blogging #writing

    → 8:34 AM, Aug 29
  • Here is a side-effect of using @HEY. I no longer use (or rarely use) Apple’s Mail. When an email provider forwards an email to HEY, it is not marked as read (a few offers this option which help keep unread count lower).

    → 8:15 AM, Aug 29
  • Forgot to put the evidence for my previous post. Here it is.

    → 6:54 PM, Aug 27
  • My Visual Space got an update today. Dream Flashback - Numeric Citizen Visual Space

    → 6:20 PM, Aug 27
  • A building on ICU? #photography Breathing Building - Numeric Citizen Visual Space

    → 7:45 PM, Aug 26
  • The Siri App suggestions widget in iPadOS 14 beta 6 is not very intelligent. On the following screenshot, suggested apps can be found on the Dock. No added value here, redundant. Filling feedback report now. 👨🏻‍💻 #ipados14beta6

    → 11:12 AM, Aug 26
  • Friendly reminder about my Visual Space existence. #photography Coloured View - Numeric Citizen Visual Space

    → 6:39 AM, Aug 26
  • It’s coming. #fall

    → 9:23 PM, Aug 24
  • I wish we could see more collaborative work among bloggers, just like in the podcasts sphere. Why is it not common or is it? #blogging #blogger #bloggerlife #writing #collaboration

    → 9:38 AM, Aug 24
  • What’s a computer?

    → 10:53 AM, Aug 23
  • BREAKING: Adobe Lightroom CC 5.4 Users - Data Loss

    Major issue affecting Adobe Lightroom CC users at version 5.4: the cloud-based photo procesing software. Users affected by the bug lost portion or all their photo library (I’m not one of those, thanks god!). According to an Adobe statement: We know that some customers have photos and presets that are not recoverable. We sincerely apologize to any customers who have been affected by this issue.

    Ouch. In other words: Adobe says: fuck you. That’s the price of cloud-based storage services (on top of the monthly payment). No service is immute to this. We should be pressuring companies like Adobe, Apple, etc. to stop this non-sense. https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/20/adobe-lightroom-ios-update-photos-deleted

    → 1:33 PM, Aug 20
  • The lack of a per-picture sync status in iOS 14 is baffling. #ios14 #apple

    → 3:43 PM, Aug 17
  • I decided to turn that off under iPadOS 14. It’s the consequence of not having the full widgets experience like on the iPhone.

    → 5:22 PM, Aug 10
  • Here is an app idea: how about an app allowing bloggers to easily create « link posts » which would allow for easy insertion of links and text quotes and the blogger’s own comments. I would pay for that one. I’m currently using Linky but it is very limited (single quote).

    → 12:34 PM, Aug 8
  • If you are not on iOS 14 beta 4, hold off and wait for Beta 5. I do experience the same issues exposed in this Twitter thread. Very buggy release. It reminds me of iOS 13 betas. #ios14beta4 #apple

    twitter.com/marcoarme…

    → 7:55 AM, Aug 8
  • On Apple's latest iMac update

    Great reviews on the latest iMac update. As a serious amateur photographer, the thing that stands out to me is the new nano glass option. At 500$ it is not cheap but reviewers are liking it a lot. Could this option eventually come to the iPad Pro? Or the iPhone? I would pay a premium for this on the iPad Pro.

    Now, why the 21.5” iMac has not been updated is a mystery to me. I currently own a max-out 2017 21.5” iMac. The size of this machine is better for me, but I would prefer a 24”. Could this mean the lower size iMac will be the first desktop to receive the Apple Silicon treatment as well a the long overdue redesign? I think so.

    www.macrumors.com/review/20…

    → 7:43 AM, Aug 7
  • How Long Apple can stand like this?

    On Apple’s stance on its App Store policies.

    Developers are complaining. The tech press is complaining. Governments are complaining. Now Microsoft is complaining. And Facebook too.

    Google? Are users complaining? I don’t see that. Does it make a big difference for Apple?

    How long Apple can stand like this?

    → 7:25 AM, Aug 7
  • On iOS 14 Design Considerations

    Dear iOS developers: be careful when considering widget design and content. Space on my iPhone screen is more constrained than ever with iOS 14. Here is a bad example: showing the three most recent tweets from my twitter timeline is useless as I’m following many hundreds persons. Be more creative than this. IMG 6068

    → 5:28 AM, Aug 6
  • Five gone, one to go. #apple

    → 8:47 PM, Aug 4
  • Apple is really not done with Intel in the Mac. It is clear to me that Apple Silicon will find its way in lower end machines first, certainly portable ones with today’s announcements.

    www.apple.com/newsroom/…

    → 7:51 PM, Aug 4
  • On Phil Schiller (departure) of Apple

    Aside from the iMac updates coming out of Apple today, here is another (more important) news: Phil Schiller is now an Apple Fellow. That was not expected. People come and go. Mr. Schiller as done a lot for Apple. Time to (slowly) move on.

    I don’t like Greg “Joz” Jozwiak. Phil Schiller

    → 6:33 PM, Aug 4
  • Feels like summer. #mbaug That’s the camp fire in the foreground and the (near full) moon up there behind the clouds. #iphone11pro

    → 4:52 PM, Aug 2
  • When I wanted to work for Apple...

    Here is a short story. In 1985, I was working for an authorized Apple dealer in my home town. I was an Apple zealot (surprise?) and I wanted to work for them. So, I created my (short) resume and sent it (by mail) to Apple’s headquarters. A few months later, I got a polite response: Thanks, but no thanks. I was eighteen.

    → 2:26 PM, Jul 31
  • Hoping to help you forget about all the ugly things right now. Enjoy.

    → 12:03 PM, Jul 31
  • I’m getting there. Where? No idea. Entirely random city design and building. That is what playing is all about. #townscraper

    → 1:16 PM, Jul 24
  • A byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic: traveling apps like Flighty won’t get my renewal this year. Sad for the developer. Really nice app. See you next year, maybe.

    → 12:55 PM, Jul 24
  • If anyone had doubts on why Apple is transitioning to its own silicon for the Mac: Intel is (again) delaying it’s 7nm chips to… 2022 or 2023. www.tomshardware.com/news/inte…

    → 6:00 AM, Jul 24
  • After 14 major iOS release... and yet...

    Everybody is talking about Apple Music new icon since Beta 3 but, think about this: after 14 versions of iOS, and here we are: the “More” “button” lingering bad design. How many times I try to hit this and I bring the detail view of the app instead. Frustrating.

    Let me be clear: wrong place, too small, text overlapping, not a real button.

    Come on, Apple!

    My suggestion: add a “Details” button accessible when sliding the table cell to the left (the same gesture that reveals a Delete button).

    → 12:07 PM, Jul 23
  • On Widgets Management Interfaces on iPhone

    Very valid complaint from Dieter Bohn of The Verge on Apple’s implementation of widgets management on iPhone. Two different user interfaces for basically the same objective. I prefer the look of the new design, but I understand the previous one is still there for compability purposes.

    iOS 14 Beta 3 brings back the « Edit » button at the (very inconvenient place) bottom of the list. Hitting the button brings you back unexpectedly to the top of the widgets list. Going back down the list and you’ll find a “Customize” button. Really? Also, tapping and holding on old widgets doesn’t invoke edit mode. Not very consistent. I should probably fill a feedback report and send it to Apple.

    I do think this is a transitional design. Transitions are rarely pleasant.

    twitter.com/backlon/s…

    → 12:00 PM, Jul 23
  • The race for the bottom of everything

    On Apple’s 30% cut. Again.

    We all know where this all goes. Yesterday it was a deal. Today, 30% is way too much. So, let’s fight and try to force Apple to set the cut to 20%. No, 15%. That is way better, right? A few years down the road, a well known developer comes out and complain about 15% being way too much of a cut. Poor guy. Let’s start a fight and bring that down. Apple respond and set it to 10% because they are forced to. And the story continues.

    Let’s face the reality. We don’t like to pay for something. We want it all. We know the price of everything but the value of nothing. How do you think China came to be so powerful? How do you think Amazon or Costco is sucking air from small local businesses in our communities? Why do you think our life is full of shitty ads are everywhere? Why do you think we are the product of Google, Facebook? Because we don’t like to pay for something, anything. We want it all free.

    There is a pattern. There is a race for the bottom of everything. And I don’t agree in Brent’s views on what would happen if Apple lowers their demand from developers. I certainly don’t believe developers would lower the price of their apps.

    Remember what capitalism is all about?

    Change my mind.

    https://inessential.com/2020/07/22/apples_thirty_percent_cut

    → 6:35 AM, Jul 23
  • 13th iPhone Photography Awards winners are out! Some incredible pictures in there. Congrats to the winders. My prefered one is the waterfall in B&W. #photography #ippawards IPPAWARDS - iPhone Photography Awards - Celebrating the creativity of the iPhone users since 2007

    → 7:37 PM, Jul 22
  • The iPad still held back with iPadOS 14

    iPadOS 15 concept imagined by Parker Ortolani certainly looks interesting. I’m not sure about some ideas put forward but it certainly shows how the iPad is still held back with iPadOS 14. The lack of flexibility in widgets placement is, put mildly, baffling. I love those widgets on my iPhone but the lack of space forces us to create tons of pages. And the problem will only get worst this fall after developers start adding widget support in their apps. It will be crazy. #iPadOS14 #apple

    www.behance.net/gallery/1…

    → 5:55 AM, Jul 22
  • If blog post from Readdle’s is any indication, expect a LOT of widgets to be available when iOS 14 launch this fall. In fact, more widgets will be available than any number of home screen pages can accommodate. #ios14 readdle.com/blog/ios1…

    → 5:45 AM, Jul 22
  • Apple is already setting the table for the iPhone 12 lack of charger in the box. You may not like this decision but this is clever marketing. www.apple.com/environme…

    → 8:03 PM, Jul 21
  • I love this game. Spent a few hours building this unknown city. 😍 #townscraper

    → 7:23 PM, Jul 21
  • My first experiment with an ND1000 filter. Quite happy with the results. Classic subject for this. Next up? Cloudy skies.

    → 10:51 AM, Jul 19
  • Dear Apple, please, oh please, allow us to move around our many screens in this view. Thank you.

    A friend. #apple #ipados #ios14 #ios14beta

    → 1:24 PM, Jul 10
  • Welcome to iOS 14 beta 2. 👨🏻‍💻🤷🏻‍♂️ But I love it. Very stable on iPad. 😎 #apple #ipados14

    → 5:55 PM, Jul 9
  • For the next two months. Life is good to me, even in 2020. #bloggerlife #blogger

    → 8:43 AM, Jul 5
  • My first email to Apple’s top lieutenant: Craig Federighi. Yep, I did it, following my recent blog post. Now, waiting for a possible answer.🤞🏻 numericcitizen.me/2020/07/0…

    → 10:58 AM, Jul 1
  • I told you that @mailbrew + HEY was a killer combination. Clips. 👊🏻😎👨🏻‍💻

    → 8:03 PM, Jun 25
  • On macOS Big Fur surprising visual and design attributes #wwdc #wwdc20

    Taken out of one of @gruber recent post. In red: the Cancel button looks like being disabled. Very bad. The menu bar transparency, why? Is Apple trying to make us forget about this distinctive UI element? In yellow: the window title being no longer at the center, to make room for buttons (that look less and less like buttons)…
    In green: a depth effect with surrounding shadow, thumbs up. General look of the refresh popup dialog, very iOS is refreshing on the Mac.

    → 9:43 PM, Jun 23
  • For those wondering… I’m still trying to wrap my head around the start of the WWDC20 week, started by this exceptional opening keynote. So far, the best words for describing my feelings are “a near perfect balancing act”. #apple #wwdc20 #wwdc2020 #wwdc

    Stay tuned for more.

    → 8:29 PM, Jun 23
  • About HEY/Basecamp founders. Found on the Internet.  😳

    → 8:08 AM, Jun 20
  • Woah. So. Nice. twitter.com/andrewapr…

    → 2:29 PM, Jun 18
  • Oh this is so cool… for photography beginners who want to learn how to use Lightroom… new in release 5.3 of Lightroom: sharing your edits to the world! lightroom.app.link

    The following edit from the Lightroom community has been shared with you: Broken Glass and Butterflies

    → 7:31 PM, Jun 15
  • There is a lot to like and love in the latest release of Adobe Lightroom for iPad. Played with is for a while and I like it a lot! #adobe #lightroom

    → 7:23 PM, Jun 15
  • Been playing with this guy for 12 hours now… I’m… ecstatic. Expect a full review soon. @ubnt twitter.com/ubnt/stat…

    → 6:06 AM, Jun 11
  • BREAKING NEWS: iBooks Author is dead.

    Now it’s official, Apple iBooks Author is being retired. Upcoming update to Pages will be able to import Books from iBooks Author. It is a sad day for many content creators, I’m sure, me included.

    → 12:34 PM, Jun 10
  • Today, I read on a website that Polarr is a good alternative to Snapseed. Well, truth to be told: it is far from being the case. Polarr is not free. Very hard to replace special effects like Grunge. #photography #photoapps #applications

    → 12:25 PM, Jun 7
  • By refusing to build an iPad version of their app, Instagram makes a big mistake. I think serious content creators would love to use bigger devices. But Facebook just doesn’t care.

    → 4:49 PM, Jun 6
  • It takes time to build a meaningful presence on Instagram. Https://www.instagram.com/theperfectimperfctions

    → 4:39 PM, Jun 6
  • On smartphones sales numbers declining because of COVID-19: everyone were hit. Apple much less than others. #apple #iphone #sales

    → 6:22 AM, Jun 2
  • This looks like summer to me.

    → 4:51 PM, May 30
  • Ok, guys, iOS 13.5 stability and quality is a downgrade compared to 13.4 for me. For the second time this week, after waking up, my iPhone is hot and and battery charging is capped at 80%. I have to reset my iPhone to fix the issue. Not good. #ios135 #applebugs #apple

    → 12:36 PM, May 30
  • Please, Apple, do something about this in iOS 14. Thank you. #ipados #ios #apple IMG 6995

    → 12:04 PM, May 28
  • While working within Adobe Photoshop for iPad. 😩😳Lost part of my work session. After restarting the app. Had to remove it from iPad and re-install. iPad has more than 170 GB of free space. 🤔

    → 6:31 AM, May 28
  • Trying to learn to use Photoshop for iPad. Even a simplified version of this venerable app is hard to master. 😞

    → 7:13 PM, May 26
  • My gosh: Instagram is such a massive mess in UX/UI. It is a great story on how numeric entropy took over the whole space. The fact that it has such a wide spread user base is baffling.

    → 9:45 AM, May 24
  • My visual space just got updated with Sunset Beach. #photography #sunset #beach #snapseed

    Sunset Beach numericcitizen-visualspace.com/the-perfe…

    → 7:57 AM, May 24
  • I rarely post pictures here. Taking a quick break from bike ride. Great weather; dry, sunchine, windy. Loving every seconds of it. 🚲😷

    → 1:56 PM, May 23
  • Exposure notifications are not yet available here in Canada. Our Prime Minister did mention yesterday the government is looking into recommending specific apps based on this kind of technology. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

    → 10:21 AM, May 23
  • My recently launched visual space got updated today. numericcitizen-visualspace.com

    → 9:20 AM, May 23
  • Each time I’m looking at a video comparison of Lightroom against Capture One, I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to switch… but I do like many of the other apps that comes with the Adobe Photography plan like Spark, Adobe Portfolio. 🤨 #photography #adobe

    → 8:33 AM, May 23
  • Is 500px trying to be more like Viewbug or GuruShots? It surely looks like it. I’m not sure I like it. 🤔🧐🤨 #photography #photographer

    → 5:53 PM, May 20
  • Oh, another nice update. Stay tuned on why.

    → 8:12 PM, May 19
  • Notion is now (mostly) free!

    Oh, one interesting update today on the App Store: Notion now free and a new personal pro tier introduced on which I’ll be upgraded. Cool. Many other new things included in this update, like 2x speed increase for app launch. 👀

    My review of Notion here 👉🏻👉🏻 numericcitizen.me/2020/04/1…

    → 7:00 PM, May 19
  • Pretty old one but I still love it.

    → 5:45 PM, May 16
  • That is all.

    → 9:23 PM, May 15
  • Seeing Facebook buying Giphy in order to integrate it into Instagram says a lot about how downhill Instagram is going. So sad. I'm still in search of the good old days of this platform but on other services.

    → 11:15 AM, May 15
  • Woah, 1Password you are being needy! Always freaky. 1Password request

    → 2:03 PM, May 14
  • Feeling nostalgic today

    Very telling chart of past disruptions in the photography world. I don't want to look too nostalgic but seeing how fast the smartphone is taking over the photography world is a bit sad. Disruptions

    → 6:08 AM, May 12
  • Something is different about Unsplash

    There is something different about my beloved photo sharing service, Unsplash. I'm not sure if it's for the better. It's hard for me to put a finger on it but there is something different. Unsplash home

    → 6:18 PM, May 11
  • Stopping mass surveillance

    I’ve been working from home since March, 13th. My employer is fully supporting remote work by monitoring the output of my work, not the input. Stop mass surveillance by reporting when you disagree with the policy. If no change, just quit.

    Employee-surveillance software is not welcome to integrate with Basecamp m.signalvnoise.com/employee-…

    → 5:43 PM, May 9
  • On the lack of Flash support on the iPhone

    I remember arguing with a guy on supporting flash challenges like transposing « hovering » events with the mouse pointer. How on earth someone could « hover » with their fingers on the screen for content to change accordingly? That wasn’t possible obviously.

    Now, look at the iPad with the just introduced pointer support. It’s exactly that, hovering on buttons make the pointer morph into the button’s shape. Fascinating.

    Vintage 2007 Claim Chowder: Josh Quittner Returned His iPhone daringfireball.net/linked/20…

    → 9:45 AM, May 9
  • A 299$ piece of art.

    → 7:30 PM, May 7
  • When macOS behave like Windows

    I had to reboot my iMac this morning to fix weird issues (no sound in FaceTime calls, iCloud sync not going anywhere, etc.) And now this, after reboot. WTF. iCloud-based services can be scary. How am I supposed to fix this now. Don't tell me I have to turn off iCloud Photo Library and turn it back on. Please. ICloud Photo Library restore

    → 6:52 AM, May 6
  • Really nice visual. WWDC2020 Invite

    → 5:59 AM, May 6
  • So true. Sad. Frustrating.

    Washington Post Poll: ‘Americans Widely Oppose Reopening Most Businesses, Despite Easing of Restrictions in Some States’ daringfireball.net/linked/20…

    → 8:40 PM, May 5
  • My Ghost experiment is to try to find a better solution to replace this. So far, I don't see the plus value of switching, even if Ghost general experience is positive.

    → 6:19 AM, May 5
  • Nothing more to add.

    Apple CEO Tim Cook Delivers Virtual Commencement Address to Ohio State University Graduates www.macrumors.com/2020/05/0…

    → 9:09 PM, May 3
  • Liking this a lot. But, I upgraded to the iPhone 11 Pro last fall. I’ll probably wait next year. 

    Rumored iPhone 12 Lineup

    → 6:37 AM, May 1
  • Still far from fully recovered from Google's search algorithm changes of last November

    Last day of April. Time to look back at this month's stats. It was a great month for  my main blog visitors but still far away of full recovery of the big Google search crash of last November. I wonder if I will every recover from it, despite all my efforts to write fewer but longer and higher quality posts. On a brighter side, I’m faring much much better on Medium. (xpost)April, 2020 Stats

    → 6:10 AM, Apr 30
  • See what happens when you start using the things that you make. #apple #facetime

    Another iOS 13.5 Beta Tweak: An Option to Disable ‘Automatic Prominence’ for the Current Speaker’s Tile in Group FaceTime daringfireball.net/linked/20…

    → 8:16 PM, Apr 29
  • That is my feeling too. #apple #ipadpro #magickeyboard

    Magic Keyboard: Apple’s Laptop Conversion Kit – His Dork Materials hisdorkmaterials.com/magic-key…

    → 6:58 AM, Apr 29
  • The Internet in 2020. Can you see the problem? I don’t know what they think when they “design” these web sites but… and what you don’t see is a giant popup pushed on you taking over the only portion of actual information. GTFO of these sites, fast. 

    The Internet in 2020

    → 6:46 AM, Apr 29
  • Speaking of iPadOS 13.4 with pointer support… my favourite writing app Ulysses just received an update. Using the trackpad to swipe left and right to show or hide panes is brilliant. 🥰

    → 6:38 AM, Apr 28
  • So spot on. This is the beauty of the iPad. #apple #ipadpro #magickeyboard

    Jason Snell Reviews the 12.9-Inch iPad Magic Keyboard daringfireball.net/linked/20…

    → 8:43 PM, Apr 27
  • Question of the day: have you ever wondered why FaceTime settings are not located in iCloud settings? Working on a special blog post related to FaceTime.

    → 8:01 AM, Apr 26
  • This is why I chose “transformative accessory” in my blog post reviewing the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro. Happy to see it is seen that way by others too.

    Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro review: Living the dream sixcolors.com/post/2020…

    → 11:52 AM, Apr 25
  • 👉🏻 Nice exposure and validation for @gruber review of the 2020 iPhone SE. 😉

    Schiller retweets Gruber

    → 8:12 AM, Apr 23
  • This picture of a woman working from home is so fascinating. There is a lot to observe here. Source: CNN. 200421092433 work from home 0401 super 169

    → 6:49 AM, Apr 22
  • My first micro.blog post from… 🤫 I’m delighed. Probably one of the best keyboard ever designed by Apple.

    → 8:17 PM, Apr 21
  • Apple: let’s help us practice and iron out details before the big show… WWDC. Virtual Session from Apple

    → 11:59 AM, Apr 21
  • Big update to Ferrite today. Version 2.5 introduces something that should be made at the operating system level: presentation mode where user interactions are explicitly shown on the screen. With iOS screen recording on, this makes great learning videos.

    → 12:31 PM, Apr 20
  • In the following image, how do you call this graph style and what application can generate them? Very curious about this.

    Unknown graph style
    → 1:53 PM, Apr 18
  • Remember Apple’s Mail Drop? Nice reminder of its existence this morning for sending two large files. Nice. 😁

    → 10:46 AM, Apr 17
  • On iPhone 12 Pro Max Design Leaks - woah #iphone12 #leaks

    Major design mockup of the iPhone 12 Pro Max. All based on CAD files in the wild. These guys 3D printed it so they could get a feeling of the device in their hands. The boxy design seems to be really nice to handle. Looking forward for more details. And the bezels will be much smaller too, making it a real full screen device. youtu.be/ZUXwDpGyl…

    → 6:22 AM, Apr 17
  • This will be a long 14 days.

    → 10:46 AM, Apr 15
  • Some very jaw-dropping pictures here. 👀 Sony World Photography Awards: Year’s best photographs revealed - CNN Style

    → 6:45 AM, Apr 15
  • Part of something very special to be published tomorrow. Stay tuned. #me

    → 8:42 PM, Apr 12
  • These are the reasons that I don’t read CNN while on a traditional computer. Same goes for www.imore.com or www.macworld.com as these are simply tracking monsters.

    The Bullshit Web pxlnv.com/blog/bull…

    → 12:02 PM, Apr 11
  • Another potential iPadOS game changer: introducing the iPad Main Menu.

    I think I just saw the future of iPadOS. Please, if you are an avid iPad user, take a moment to take a look at a potential feature that could be the next big game changer after the mouse support introduced with iPadOS 13.4. The following website perfectly illustrates a potential new system wide feature: iPad Main Menu. Dear Apple, please, oh please, consider this for iPadOS 14. 🙏🏻🥺

    www.ipadmenu.study

    → 6:53 PM, Apr 7
  • If you want to get a glimpse of the rumoured widgets design for iOS 14, look no further than the currently shipping iOS 13’s Control Center. I can see Apple’s desire to present a coherent look with this design. #apple #ipados14 #ios14

    Control Center in iOS
    → 6:01 AM, Apr 7
  • There are so many great photos. This pandemic is a great opportunity to freeze images of our empty cities. I wish I could do the same. iPhone 11 Pro camera meets an empty London - 9to5Mac

    → 5:36 PM, Apr 6
  • Wonderful shot. 😍 twitter.com/thamkhaim…

    → 6:15 PM, Apr 5
  • Great summary of major photo processing software. twitter.com/500px/sta…

    → 4:32 PM, Apr 5
  • Wearing a face mask is now fashionable. #coronaviris #covid19 😔

    → 5:02 PM, Apr 4
  • My thoughts exactly. This crisis is a general repetition of what is really coming ahead of us. 😔

    → 10:14 AM, Apr 1
  • The Magic Trackpad + iPadOS 13.4: the perfect match, while waiting for the real thing to come next May, the Magic Keyboard with trackpad. #ipados134 #trackpad

    → 6:44 PM, Mar 30
  • Made by Apple for iPadOS 13.4. I’m in love with the iPad. Again. 🥰 #apple #ipados134 (Side notes: much better experience than with the magic mouse. Enabled the click on tap option.).

    → 3:03 PM, Mar 30
  • When you have to eat your own dog food

    Now Apple will better understand how their software can be frustrating as hell…

    Apple staffers suffer work-from-home setbacks due to security guidelines, travel bans appleinsider.com/articles/…

    → 12:51 PM, Mar 30
  • Google is being greedy and stupid for putting a simple feature like background play under their paywal. Oh, and, on iOS, does Premium enable another basic feature like 4K video?

    → 10:53 AM, Mar 30
  • Patiently waiting for this to arrive… because, you know… iPadOS 13.4. #ipados134 #apple #trackpadsupport

    → 9:59 AM, Mar 30
  • This is why I’m so angry 🤬

    The root cause of why I’m so angry at the The Clown in Chief 🤡 and the whole political class in the US. They don’t care about humans except themselves.

    Opinion | Who Will Win the Fight for a Post-Coronavirus America? www.nytimes.com/2020/03/2…

    → 7:09 PM, Mar 29
  • I have high hopes on Apple to re-invent the WWDC conference. #iosdev #apple

    Chris Lattner Talks Swift, WWDC and More on This Week’s ATP Podcast www.macrumors.com/2020/03/2…

    → 12:05 PM, Mar 28
  • Hey #iosdev, here is a free idea for an app: Unsplash screensaver for the iPad displaying content from Unsplash as a slideshow. Boom.

    I have an old iPad on a stand where this could be a great picture frame.

    → 10:40 AM, Mar 28
  • One thing that I would like to do is go for a walk downtown Montreal to take pictures of an empty city. But I won’t because of the confinement rules. #coronavirus #covid19

    → 8:56 AM, Mar 28
  • Woah, just wrote something similar… taken from my Twitter feed…

    → 7:42 PM, Mar 24
  • Dear USA, I wish you good luck. #covid19 #coronavirus

    → 4:59 PM, Mar 24
  • Effect of coronavirus on App Store downloads. Fascinating. #coronavirus #covid19 #appstore

    → 4:55 PM, Mar 24
  • Putting the final touches to my take on iPadOS 13.4 mouse support and a few other things surroundings Apple’s announcements this week. More than 2000 words coming up! Stay tuned. #apple #ipados134

    → 9:47 AM, Mar 22
  • Who knows if Apple will re-invent the typical conference like they reinvented the phone in 2007. I would be really surprised if they cancel WWDC altogether. #coronavirus #covid19

    Google Cancels I/O Entirely daringfireball.net/linked/20…

    → 8:46 PM, Mar 21
  • Sadly, I think there is some truth to this. #covid19 😔

    → 7:24 AM, Mar 20
  • I’m sorry to interrupt but the external keyboard was part of the original concept of the iPad. ☝🏻

    Apple finally admits Microsoft was right about tablets www.theverge.com/2020/3/19…

    → 5:26 PM, Mar 19
  • This is the pure beauty of the iPad. #apple #ipad #ipados

    The iPad cursor is here, no wait required sixcolors.com/post/2020…

    → 7:22 AM, Mar 19
  • Show by example. Max ten people. In this press conference, out of SIXTHEEN people, only THREE of them talked to the journalists. Others were standing there like bubble heads figures. WTF! #covid19

    → 8:48 PM, Mar 16
  • Get him off Twitter

    In other words, put the Clown in chief in quarantine.

    ‘Isolate him’: Ex-Trump official calls on president to go into ‘verbal quarantine’ during COVID-19 crisis www.rawstory.com/2020/03/i…

    → 9:55 AM, Mar 16
  • Love these shots… fits current crisis. Photography is about bringing emotion and questions. twitter.com/briscoepa…

    → 12:02 PM, Mar 15
  • On watchOS 7 and shareable watch face - an edge case example (hit link for the details)

    What if a watch face uses a complication from a third-party app that the other user don’t have installed? How would this situation be handled? Highly probable edge case IMHO.

    watchOS 7 to include new ‘International’ Apple Watch face with multiple country flags - 9to5Mac 9to5mac.com/2020/03/1…

    → 11:16 AM, Mar 11
  • Not sure about this one. The wording is to the effect that it will be a separate page with a list view, not a full new mode.

    iOS 14 to include new homescreen list view option with Siri suggestions and more - 9to5Mac 9to5mac.com/2020/03/1…

    → 4:19 PM, Mar 10
  • What? 😳🤔🧐 I’m not sure how I feel about that one. #apple #ios14

    iOS 14: Major accessibility features, Alipay Apple Pay, wallpaper app integration, more - 9to5Mac 9to5mac.com/2020/03/1…

    → 4:15 PM, Mar 10
  • 🙁😔

    Exclusive: The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing www.theatlantic.com/health/ar…

    → 7:54 PM, Mar 7
  • I wish you good luck with that (COVID-19) - (follow link for my take).

    Well, let me guess for you: look no further than of your (insert worst adjective here) President.

    Exclusive: The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing www.theatlantic.com/health/ar…

    → 7:32 PM, Mar 7
  • This is soooo Montreal. By a great Saturday afternoon while taking a walk with my wife. #shotoniphone

    → 5:34 PM, Mar 7
  • One of the best shots of the Burning Man event that I have seen. 😍 Burning Man : Photos by Scott London – Scott London

    → 8:55 AM, Mar 7
  • I’m working on something new. Again. 😎 📷 #photographer #creativity numericcitizen.me/series/th…

    → 7:45 AM, Mar 7
  • Just discovered that within WordPress, with Automattic at least, there is a free library of very high quality, royalty-free stock images available at my fingertips. Very cool. I love Unsplash but these are very good too. I’m an happy camper.

    → 4:09 PM, Mar 6
  • Intel: Houston, we have a problem (follow link for the details)

    I’m not a security expert but this “bug” seems quite serious. Macs not affected. AMD no affected. Trust going downhill. 😳🙁

    5 years of Intel CPUs and chipsets have a concerning flaw that’s unfixable arstechnica.com/informati…

    → 12:38 PM, Mar 6
  • Photography lovers, your opinion count. #photographers #photography See here: numericcitizen.me/2020/03/0… Vote then there: poll.fm/10516091

    → 8:27 AM, Mar 6
  • Oops. Not related in any way to #COVID19. Move on.

    → 11:35 AM, Mar 5
  • Adobe apps running on modern hardware… or another reason to hate Adobe?

    Mac Pro review: power, if you can use it www.theverge.com/2020/3/2/…

    → 7:18 AM, Mar 3
  • Apple, WWDC and COVID19

    Apple usually show the way when it’s time to put humans interests above anything else. Apple cannot be far behind. WWDC2020 will (should) be a virtual event this year.

    Google, Adobe cancel live segments of upcoming conventions due to coronavirus concerns appleinsider.com/articles/…

    → 9:39 PM, Mar 2
  • On Apple and Default Apps

    I have some doubts that Apple will feel the pressure to up their game with the stock apps because they allow third-party apps to act as default ones. Why? What do they lose in case of status quo? Keeping pressure on them with constructive comments as bloggers has more effects. Why? It comes down to public image management.

    On Apple Letting Users Switch Default Apps on iOS chambyte.net/on-apple-…

    → 6:39 PM, Mar 1
  • the man in charge

    With this guy in charge, we have nothing to worry about.

    Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis www.washingtonpost.com/politics/…

    → 5:41 PM, Mar 1
  • The sad state of buying software these days. I did pay for Enlight back then. Deleted. Too bad, it was great while it lasted.

    → 4:05 PM, Mar 1
  • Processed in Pixelmator Photo on the iPad. Winter. The perfect imperfections?

    → 10:50 AM, Feb 29
  • A few very interesting tidbits in this interview of Mrs. Powell Jobs.

    Laurene Powell Jobs Is Putting Her Own Dent in the Universe www.nytimes.com/2020/02/2…

    → 9:18 AM, Feb 29
  • On iOS 13’s Share Sheet Design - Better? Worst?

    The share sheet design in iOS 13: I find it confusing. 🤷🏻‍♂️ It is a step ahead of iOS 12 but yet I’m not satisfied and I don’t know why exactly. The inclusion of Shortcuts is ok but should they have been put in a separate section? Also missing in iOS 13: a way to maximize/minimize popover windows like this one. I understand the need to keep sight of context of invocation. Your take?

    → 8:25 AM, Feb 29
  • Just found out that Unsplash stats page now shows from where the traffic comes from. Cool. @unsplash #photography My profil by the way. https://unsplash.com/[@numericcitizen](https://micro.blog/numericcitizen)

    → 11:41 AM, Feb 28
  • From my blogger’s notebook: What the HomePod should have been. #apple #homepod

    → 8:43 PM, Feb 26
  • A bit hold but still relevant. On the pervasive use by Apple of the ellipsis in iOS.

    Less… Is More? Apple’s Inconsistent Ellipsis Icons Inspire User Confusion - TidBITS tidbits.com/2019/08/3…

    → 8:36 PM, Feb 26
  • I don’t publish pictures often here on Micro.blog but this one, I kind of like it a lot. This is downtown Montreal, close to my offices. Enjoy. #shotoniphone

    → 7:40 AM, Feb 26
  • A by-product of switching to News Explorer, a powerful RSS reader, the deletion of these apps from my iPad. RSS FTW! Review available here: numericcitizen.me/2020/02/2…

    → 11:28 AM, Feb 25
  • Desjardins' modern offices in Montreal's olympic stadium tour

    Desjardins, a major financial institution here in Canada, deserving mostly Quebec province and well known for a major data breach they were victim of recently, occupies modern offices near my home. They rented and rearchitected the internal space available in the olympic stadium’s main tour. Impressive. See the link here to have a look. design-milk.com/montreals…

    → 6:39 AM, Feb 25
  • Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro: the perfect companion for urban exploration #urbex #shotoniphone

    Today’s session of urban exploration was the first since I bought the iPhone 11 Pro last fall. As you might expect, going in with such a phone makes a great difference while shooting quick shots in dark places. This device is simply amazing (you can read my lengthy revew here btw).

    → 1:29 PM, Feb 23
  • Just (re)discovered Camera+ during my urban exploration session today. How come I didn’t spend more time with this wonderful camera app?🤦🏻‍♂️ I should (and I will) write a review of this app as it will probably find a special place in my photo processing workflow. #photography.

    → 1:11 PM, Feb 23
  • First urban exploration session of 2020

    Going to my first urban exploration session of 2020 with two other friends. It’s been a long time. The place is not exactly very exciting but who knows what we will discover. We never really know how a session turns out. Stay tuned for a sample later today. #urbex #urbanexploration #photographer

    → 6:55 AM, Feb 23
  • Thinking about buying ND filters for my camera. 77mm required. Variable density or discreet ones? 6-10 stops. #photography #gear #nikon

    → 10:17 PM, Feb 22
  • Waiting my turn. #shotoniphone

    → 9:58 PM, Feb 21
  • 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

    → 12:10 PM, Feb 21
  • 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.

    → 9:12 AM, Feb 16
  • I’m still amazed by the quality of the iPhone 11 Pro cameras. A concert hall is a great place to experience it! #shotoniphone #apple

    → 7:59 PM, Feb 13
  • Sometimes, just sometimes, I would like to go back in time, way before today. Just to see and feel what it was like before our numeric society. I know that I wouldn’t have to go very far in time but… just before any computers existed. This photo is from Havana, Cuba.

    → 12:31 PM, Feb 12
  • This Lightroom CC update seems a bit uninteresting on the surface but I’ll give it a close look, we never know. You can see by these update notes what type of customers Adobe wants to please and attract. Stay tuned for more comments. #photographer #adobe #lightroom

    → 4:51 PM, Feb 11
  • Another day, another 15cm of snow here downtown in Montreal, Canada. We have a very well known song here that says “My country is not a crounty, it is simply winter”. This is the kind of day. Photo processed with Apple’s Photos.app on iMac. #montreal #canada #winter #snow

    → 7:03 PM, Feb 10
  • Where are designers gone? #eero #ui #ux

    → 8:35 PM, Feb 9
  • I think I need some help understanding these. #1: posting new content on my micro.blog can be cross posted to Twitter (Apple_Observer)? #2: new posts appearing from my main blog (WordPress feed) could be cross posted to ? I’m confused. Any hints? Thanks 🙏🏻

    → 5:57 PM, Feb 8
  • A snow storm makes up for good photography experimentations. 😃

    → 5:43 PM, Feb 7
  • 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

    → 7:44 AM, Feb 7
  • On managing Fonts on iOS. Why is this happening? Lost of my installed fonts because I didn’t pay attention to this. There has to be a better way. #apple #ios13 #adobe

    → 7:40 PM, Feb 6
  • Thought of the day: Photography and passion: two things that belong together more than ever. #photography #photographer aows.co

    Photography is about passion

    → 3:29 PM, Feb 6
  • Eventually I’ll have to make a decision. Feature wise, design wise: one of them provide a satisfactory solution. None. And I’m not even talking about pricing. ☹️

    → 9:44 PM, Feb 5
  • From iOS 13.4 beta 1. Amen. Here is a simple question: who thought it was a good idea to redesign the toolbar of Mail.app in iOS 12? Now Apple changed his mind and reverted the redesign introduced in iOS 13. #apple

    Mail toolbar now back to pre-iOS 13
    → 8:28 PM, Feb 5
  • I like this photo more than its technical or subject merit. Taken in Iceland in 2018.

    → 7:31 AM, Feb 4
  • Trying to find my style, my signature, my colours. Havana, Cuba. Made with Lightroom + Pixelmator. On iPad Pro. #photography #blacknwhite #sepia

    → 7:34 PM, Feb 2
  • Speaking of online photo-sharing services, is Apple entering the space be a good idea? I can see them build an extension to iCloud Photo Library. They are close already with shared albums. A service with no ads, no tracking, great design… man I would love this. #apple

    → 2:51 PM, Feb 2
  • I’m finally done with my upcoming long blog post about my experience with 500px in my post Flickr world. More than 1700 words to express the goods, the bads and what’s my overall take on this. There is hope but caution is mandatory. #photographer #photography #500px #flickr☝🏻

    → 10:41 AM, Feb 2
  • Can you believe it, this is Havana, Cuba.

    → 12:40 PM, Feb 1
  • What a bunch of clowns… As much as I respect what Microsoft is doing on hardware, software and cloud business, Forbes is again playing the headlines game.

    → 8:39 PM, Jan 31
  • Been like this for more than a year. Flickr is artificially maintained on life. #flickr

    → 9:10 PM, Jan 30
  • The iPad is 10 years old. Times fly. I was there (not on the picture). After the iPhone, the iPad is the most transformative piece of tech in my numeric life. #apple #ipad #tenyears

    → 12:43 PM, Jan 27
  • Here. Now. Guess where. Not an hockey fan but still cool. 🤷🏻‍♂️👍🏻😎

    → 8:13 PM, Jan 18
  • Here is the coolest credit card reader I ever seen and used. All white. Touch screen. Apple Pay ready obviously. A bit bulky though. 😍

    → 7:05 PM, Jan 17
  • Stucked in an airport with no place to sleep. How can I use these chairs to sleep? No way. 🤬😡

    → 12:47 AM, Jan 17
  • Spent one day in Havana, Cuba and it was such an unexpected discovery. So many great pictures to process now. Stay tuned for news on this subject in the coming days and weeks. A sample from my iPhone. #shotoniphone #cuba

    → 3:39 PM, Jan 4
  • From Cuba with love. Slow internet speed. Don’t expect too much in the next few days. #photography #shotoniphone

    → 12:43 PM, Dec 29
  • End of the year cleanup: cancelled my Pro Vimeo account. I don’t use that anymore as video editing requires way too much time. Cancelled my Pro Flickr account because I’m pretty sure I’ll stop posting photos there. #photography #flickr #photographer.

    → 10:03 AM, Dec 27
  • My best iPhone pictures of 2019. #shotoniphone

    → 8:57 AM, Dec 24
  • Upgraded to macOS Catalina today on my main Mac. A few issues with Apple’s own apps. Photos is one of them. More to come in an upcoming blog post here: ‪numericcitizen.me‬

    → 5:17 PM, Dec 22
  • It is a question of point of view.

    → 5:57 PM, Dec 20
  • Today, walking downtown Montreal, from my office to meet one of our client. Sometimes, winter can be beautiful.

    → 8:39 PM, Dec 18
  • Trying to see how this ceiling photo will perform on Unsplash.

    → 11:35 AM, Mar 2
  • That was a pretty big one. 😳❄️

    → 7:59 PM, Feb 13
  • <<Numeric Citizen>>

    Aperture. Made by Apple. For Apple users. This was the time when they were serious about photography. They could have made a version for the iPad. But they dropped the ball. Adobe came in with their multi-platform solution, neither optimized for Apple

    → 8:48 AM, Oct 22
  • That is me. New glasses.

    → 2:57 PM, Oct 20
  • I used to be active on @Medium. medium.com/@jfmartin… Stopped publishing there because of what Medium became… trying to monetize us instead of rewarding us. Hope this won’t happen here on Micro.blog.

    → 3:57 PM, Oct 13
  • Going To The (abandoned) Church.

    These were taken while doing urban exploration with friends downtown Montreal, Canada. Many churches are agonizing here… some pictures are from an iPhone 7, others from my Nikon D750 processed with HDR technique.

    → 10:02 AM, Oct 13
  • This is an unedited photo taken with a plain old iPhone 7. Can’t wait to upgrade next year… another test on Micro.blog but this time from the iPad client. Simple yet great experience.

    → 9:53 AM, Oct 13
  • Testing the native Micro.blog macOS client. Very simple. Very clean. Can add a picture. Here is one from me. I don’ really like to show picture of me but hey, this is for testing purposes.

    → 9:36 AM, Oct 13
  • RSS
  • JSON Feed
  • Micro.blog