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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.
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A few thoughts on cleaning up my Twitter accounts following list
Since last year, Iāve been making a major cleanup of my Twitter account. I came from following more than 2000 people down to less than 300ā¦ and my goal is to drop below 100. Iām 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 āfollowshipā. It looks like people stopped tweeting a while ago ā 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, whatās left for me from Twitter? Getting reactions from people during specials events, related to Appleās announcements. Thatās pretty much it.
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Iāve 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.
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The power of iPadOS 15: setting up a workspace made of four apps with a simple shortcut from the home screen. So cool. šØš»āš»š¤
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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.
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Every few days, I go on the Apple Store app to configure a 12.9ā 2021 iPad Pro with 512 GB just to confirm delivery date estimates. Iām crazy.
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Pleaseā¦ stopā¦ usingā¦ ellipsisā¦ 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.
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I rarely post my photos hereā¦ but here we are, itās 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
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Public beta, already? That was fast. (#ios15publicbeta #ios15beta2) If my experience is any indication, I wouldnāt install that on an iPhone, if itās the only device a user have.
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Thought of the day: for me, Appleās Widgets are more transformative to the iPad experience than they were to the iPhone, by far.
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On design trends ā 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 canāt we get visually joyful icons anymore? Is it a matter of design costs being too high?
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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:
(ā¦) 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 Iām 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. Itās a very respectful way to do it.
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Appleās Shortcuts and Photo processing
Now that Darkroom officially supports iOS Shortcuts (and will support Shortcuts on Monterey this fall), I canāt 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.
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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. Letās see if these guesses are good or not.
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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.
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App Clip can be really cool
Iām a bit late to the party but this use of Appleās 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.
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macOS Monterey looks more and more exciting each day. Canāt 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.
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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.
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Time to move off Appleās 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 21.5ā 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 12.9ā 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?
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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.
