Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest
Numeric Citizen Blog
Information Architect1 is working on something that could prove to be super useful for me: shareable presentations using iA Presenter. It's currently in testing. Judging by their blog post, it looks slick. I could build online presentations that go with The Craft Bible or The Craft Starter Kit that I'm working on. Can't wait to try it out.
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The maker of iA Writer, iA Presenter. ↩
The iPad revenue share is about 6% of total. Seeing Apple continue to invest in this platform is something that I wonder if other companies would do with such a “loss leader”. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the iPad next week.
2024-05-02 ∞It will be a challenge for me to watch the #AppleEvent today. I guess I’ll hit Apple.com later to read about all the new stuff.
2024-05-07 ∞I find it hard to save time for blogging while traveling. There is always so much to do that I kind of forget about writing. This post is an exception, though. 😂 we’re visiting Nice today. Been there once but it’s always fun to revisit great cities.
2024-05-07 ∞Nano glass option only available on 1TB & 2 TB configs. This is so Apple. 🤔☹️#appleevent
2024-05-07 ∞So, there are no “erasure” mode for the Apple apensil Pro?
2024-05-07 ∞I guess, I’ll have to go with the 11-inch 1TB configuration to get the nano display option and 16 GB of RAM. Oh well. One life to live.
2024-05-07 ∞Coming from a 2018 11-inch iPad Pro it will prove to be a massive update for me.
2024-05-07 ∞The M4 on the new iPad Pro triggers a need-to-upgrade narrative more than any iPadOS-only feature could. Sad but true. A macOS virtual machine could have been this “software-only” story that Apple chose not to be told.
2024-05-07 ∞Were these iPad announcements worth a press release or a keynote? For me, a press release would have been more than enough. I’m happy to see these powerful new iPad but since I’m coming from a 2018 iPad Pro, it’s not indicative of the current general mood.
2024-05-07 ∞After some reading about the new iPads, general sentiment seems to be: great but underutilized hardware. And getting more expensive.
2024-05-08 ∞I hate the way Apple is showing the new iPad Pro with a dark wallpaper we ain’t see the actual device! Is it on purpose so that we can’t compare bezels between old and new Pros?
2024-05-08 ∞If OpenAI upcoming announcement is about launching a search engine, I'll take it in a heart beat. Anything that is challenging Google's dominance is a win for all, even for Google.
2024-05-11 ∞Missed the opportunity to order an iPad Pro with nano texture glass and get it before my summer vacations on Jun 24th. Not great.
2024-05-11 ∞My old camera is up for sale on eBay (link). Just saying. If interested, let's talk hello@numericcitizen.me. Tell me you saw this on Micro.blog (or Mastodon / Bluesky).
2024-05-12 ∞Posted a photo on my Ko-fi page this morning. It's for supporters only. I shared some thoughts about street photography. I decided to use that page to share more personal stories that I don't share elsewhere. It's only the beginning. It will take time to open up more. It's a journey.
2024-05-13 ∞Having to authenticate with Wordpress just to like a blog post is so “tired”.
2024-05-13 ∞To those who reviewed the new iPads and concluded that the hardware is great but iPadOS is the limiting factor: it is becoming tiring. The iPad is not and probably will never be a Mac. If you wanted utter flexibility, it's the Mac. Why is it so hard? Can you just move on to something else? Thanks.
2024-05-13 ∞Mind Blown Again
I really liked the OpenAI short keynote, especially the few jabs at Google. What OpenAI is doing is simply mind-blowing. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this. What isn't clear, though, is as a paying member of ChatGPT, why would I continue to subscribe if I don't use the live translation? One last thing: Siri looks like a prehistoric bot. Apple has to do something about this, and fast.
2024-05-13 ∞There is one thing that I really want to try and master with the new iPad that I couldn't do before: explore and learn Final Cut Pro for iPad. It seems a more approachable version than on the desktop. Am I wrong?
2024-05-13 ∞Finally
Finally got the new iPad Pro: 11-inch, 512GB of storage, which means "only" 8GB of system RAM and no nano-texture display. I made the decision after spending 45 minutes testing the new iPad. The nano-texture display is super nice to the touch, but it does reduce image crispiness. With the Apple Pencil, that texture doesn't really reproduce a paper-like feeling. That, I could add that later with Paperlike for iPad when it becomes available. Plus, I saved a lot of money. There is a limit to what I can and wish to spend on Apple hardware. 🤷🏻♂️ More details, like a mini-review, soon.
2024-05-16 ∞Skipping Nano-Texture Display on iPad — Why?
After spending half an hour in the Apple Store comparing iPads with and without the nano-texture display, I came to the conclusion to skip the nano-texture display and here are the reasons why:
1) The display doesn’t provide a paper-like sensation when using the Apple Pencil.
2) There is a subtle difference in image sharpness.
3) The blacks are less complete blacks, which cancels the OLED screen advantage.
4) The contrast seems to be a little bit lower on the nano-texture display.
The corollary of this decision is:
a) I’m saving some money.
b) Since I’m settling on the 512GB of storage, I’ll get only 8GB of system memory.
c) This iPad is a little bit less future-proof.
So, that’s it for the decision about this display finish!
2024-05-16 ∞This process of having to restore purchases to re-activate in-app purchase for each subscription even after a iPad migration or restore from the Mac is painful. 😣
2024-05-17 ∞When you think about it, not being able to mount an iPad as a USB drive on the Mac to do some files management, in 2024, it's a bit ... frustrating? In that respect, I do join my voice to those who think iPadOS is lacking in many areas, small and bigger.
2024-05-17 ∞Thought of the hour: I don't think I'll ever buy the Magic Keyboard for the iPad, thanks to having a MacBook Air. Yet, I do see that it is really improved compared to previous gen.
2024-05-17 ∞I’ve been baited into writing about touch screen Macs once more
I don’t think these Macs would look like today’s clamshell MacBooks, they would have a new form factor more similar to iPads.
What if a touchscreen Mac only allowed for scrolling content with fingers? If the touchscreen Mac is not convertible, what other use of touch than scrolling would people do with a touchscreen Mac? What are people doing on Windows with a touch screen, really?
2024-05-18 ∞On iPadOS, I wish I could tap outside a window (Stage Manager being active) to dismiss the front app and return to the Home Screen. I’m a Mac user too, so this is something expected. Why not on iPad?
2024-05-18 ∞🚨Hey, it's Sunday! And you know what happens on each Sunday? It's time for the new edition of the weekly creative summary newsletter! Here you go, ladies and gentlemen! Enjoy. Made with care and love. 😌
2024-05-19 ∞I generally prefer high-contrast images when doing black & white photography. What do you think?
Experiencing A Serious Bug With M4 iPad Pro
I’m experiencing an rather frustrating issue with my M4 iPad Pro: I’m experimenting with an external displayy (LG 4K UltraFine) with a thunderbolt cable. Everything works fine until the iPad starts acting up and disable the external display. It’s like if the cable was being disconnected and reconnected every few seconds. A restart of the iPad fixes the issue for a little while. Very frustrating to say the least. Probably a bug with iPadOS 17.5. I was hoping to test the external display but I’ll have to wait a little bit more.
2024-05-19 ∞I wonder if a good way to learn about Final Cut Pro is to start with the iPad version. I’ve started testing it with the sample project. Surprisingly, the iPad had trouble handling my UI interactions. This is a M4 iPd Pro, mind you. 😣😳 Also, FCP for iPad reminds me a lot about iMovie. And I’m not sure this is a good thing.
2024-05-19 ∞Just downloaded three YouTube videos on my Mac, ran MacWhisper1 to generate the transcripts, then uploaded the resulting files into ChatGPT for a summarization and to get a few answers to my numerous questions. I saved about an hour of work. What a wonderful time to be alive!2
2024-05-20 ∞Slowly but surely, I'm refining my use case for my Ko-fi page: more personal stories and content, something that I don't share elsewhere. The very small paywall makes me feel comfortable to share this kind of content. When I get millions of supporters, I might revisit this, but until then, I'm glad of doing what I'm doing there1.
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Of course, if you want to support me and my creative work, you'll make me even happier! ↩
I'm happy to see some countries recognize Palestine as a state. Bravo to Spain, Norway and Ireland. Who's next, Canada? Israel is furious. Who knew.
2024-05-22 ∞It seems that we communicate less and less by words... more and more by images and videos. I find it fascinating that GenAI and ChatGPT forces us (for now) to return to written words in order to communicate and interact with GenAI tools1. Just a thought.
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It will probably transition to mostly voice one day, who knows? ↩
Each week, I try to discover a new photographer on Glass. It's fun and stimulating. I share the discovery on my weekly creative summary newsletter, just for you to know.
2024-05-23 ∞Today was the day when I got rid of this little baby. It was a great looking computer. I gave it to a local tech refurbishing store1. RIP 2007-2017.
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Yes, the hard drive was reformatted before there. ↩
With Omnivore, these are the tags that cover 99% of my tagging needs.
⚠️ It's time for the 2024-20 edition of my weekly creative summary! Not my best week, but good enough to share! 👨🏻💻😅 Index to past editions can be reached here. Newsletter going out by email later today. 📬
2024-05-26 ∞With the new M4 iPad Pro, when using the Apple Folio at the lowest position, if the iPad is in my hands in portrait mode, when putting the iPad on the table, the screen won’t rotate in landscape mode unless I play with the iPad to force a rotation. That’s not exactly a tuned up experience.
2024-05-28 ∞Today I decided to cancel my subscription to Toggl time tracking service and to Timery, a wonderful Toggl client. I used to track my time as a creator but I think it's time to move on and leave those behind. You can see my reports in each weekly creative summary. It's quite a chore to always think to start and stop timers. I feel relieved now.
2024-05-29 ∞The last day of May 2024 is here. It's hard to believe that June is just around the corner and that in 10 days, we'll get a new iteration of Apple's operating system at WWDC. I don't have high expectations for Apple this year, so let the surprises unfold.
2024-05-30 ∞I still have my Medium account and content. I’m not sure what to do with it. I still get trafic to my posts. I updated my profile page this morning to remove a reference to my Linktr.ee page that I’m phasing out later this year.
2024-05-30 ∞Lock him up NOW. Lock him up NOW. Lock him up NOW. Lock him up NOW. 🤡
trump
2024-05-30 ∞I’m getting really tired of the West being afraid of conflict escalation and of Russia. The more we wait to really get our act together, the worse it will get.
2024-05-31 ∞