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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: āan 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.ā. Woah. It does explain a few things. This article is well worth your time.
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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?
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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.
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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, weāve 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
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Deliveries: whatās in for me?
Iāve been a long time satisfied user of Deliveries. They are now switching to a subscription model which isnāt a surprise. I do think the pricing is just about right for the type of app. But, looking more closely to whatās new in the upcoming release, I see support for darkmode which is fine but please, donāt 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.
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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 āWidgets Construction Setā for iOS? What I’m seeing now isn’t close enough to my taste.
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Lost in a see of content
There is way more content online than we can humanly consume. There, I said it. Iām 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. Itās not helping as less and less people are reading these days.
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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.
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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. Iām 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, itās 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! Iām curious.
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Appleās Upcoming Products #apple #iphone12 #airtags
To get a birdās eye view of the current Appleās rumours landscape, check out my daily “Appleās 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, itās free and time saving. Youāll thank me later. Itās the best way to spoil any upcoming Apple events. Trust me.
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A message to attention seekers
Here is something for attention seekers: GTFU. I donāt 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.
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Appleās best general purpose apps...
I wrote about that a long time ago but here it is again: Appleās iWork suite is probably the best expression of Apple software these days. This week, the venerable suite got updated to take advantage of iOS 14ās latest features (scribble, new import photo library, etc.). Keynote got an outline mode! š
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On increasing COVID-19 cases...
Quick question: when you say āoh my, COVID-19 cases are on the rise!ā and you get the following response āwell, sure, they do more testing!!ā. 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?
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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.
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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 āBuddywatchā 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.
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Can Apple pundits see the reality as it is?
Iām working on something that Apple fanboys wonāt like at all: a cornerstone piece of more than 4000 words about my personal view of Appleās less glorious facets. Many Apple pundits will disagree. I donāt 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. šØš»āš»
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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 doesnāt use any trackers. Now, the big question: do you believe Apple doesn’t track its main website usage?
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On Developerās 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?
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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 āno, we won’t do that!ā or ācome back when it is done!ā or āYes, that’s the direction we will go!ā? It used to be Jony Ive and before, Steve Jobs. But, now? How is it possible that someone in charge of āproducts designā is not on the leadership page? For a company like Apple, it is deeply troubling.
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I'm falling in love, again.
I’m falling back in love with Tweetbot š„°. 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.
