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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
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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 āiPhone in Canadaā 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.
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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 wonāt make a watch face store: battery life, buggy code, Appleās 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 donāt think they want a watch face store full of crappy and bad taste designs to show up on usersā Apple Watch. They lost control of the App Store, they donāt 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:
āCarPlay 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 donāt like how it looks.ā
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 ā Unsplasg
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Thanks Apple, youāll 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, Iām not is a rush to upgrade to Big Sur. Apps will have to follow the new look and feel and Iāll wait for them to be updated first. The list is long.
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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. Iām wondering if Apple will take this opportunity to introduce redesigned machines. Letās 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 Iād like to see what it looks like after the era of Jony Ive. Itās a golden opportinity IMHO. Besides my preference, Tim Cookās Apple is conservative and they will probably opt for the former approach.
What do you think?
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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 donāt 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 13ās dark mode is now supported but iOS 14 widgets arenāt yet. I think Deliveries is the perfect candidate to support widgets and I canāt wait to see what Junecloud will come up with in that regard.
All in all, as a long time user of Deliveries, Iām ok with this update albeit the switch to the subcription model. If it getās more frequent feature additions, Iām ok with it, I guess.
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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.
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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.
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What am I doing wrong while doing https://numericcitizen.micro.blog from Safari from iPadOS 14? @help
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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.
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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 “siriOSā. There are no signs at all of this… which would be a massive surprise.
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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.
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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, whatās left and where it could be going. It was supposed to be a 5 min reads… now Iām at more than 7 min. Oh well. Should be out in the coming days on my main blog at https://numericcitizen.me
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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!
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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.
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From 2018 11ā iPad Pro to ... ?
I have a 2018 11ā iPad Pro. Today, I asked myself: what upcoming features or improvements could entice me to upgrade my iPad Pro? Iām still scratching my head.
Faster? Nope. š Lighter? Not quite. š¤Ø More system memory? Mmm not really. Maybe. Maybe not. š Better screen? Is it even possible? š¬ Longer battery life? Nope. š Better speakers? Nah. š„± Integrated U1 chip? š¤ A new size? Depends. š¶ Smaller bezels? You like to see first. š Touch ID in power button? On iPhone please. š
Whatās left? You tell me.
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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?
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Iām currently testing the beta of the upcoming reimagined Medium mobile app and I love it š„°. For once, a redesigned experience is not synonymous of going backward. More on this soon.
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One major observation on @mattbirchlerās 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.
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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
