Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest
Numeric Citizen Blog
In my latest video, this is how I’m using, for now, Craft + ChatGPT via Atlas. My reading workflow is finally taking the right direction. AI haters, I hear you but not everything is bad in AI land.
2025-11-01 ∞Google and Apple - A Convenient Wedding?
Apparently, if rumors are any indication, Apple’s next AI provider for integration into Apple Intelligence is Google’s Gemini, or a derivative of it. It would go along with Apple’s own LLM models running on Private Cloud Compute.
I wonder if Google’s contribution is free for Apple or part of a larger deal, tied to the Google search agreement, where Google is the default search engine on the iPhone.
Imagine that1, Apple probably said: “You know what, I’ll reduce your cost for this search deal, but you accept to build a specific version of Gemini LLM for use on Private Cloud Compute and develop a conduit for Gemini on-device that integrates with Apple Intelligence.”
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Matters are probably more complex than that. ↩
I’m tempted to start a sticker collection and put them on my M2 MacBook Air. I’ve never done such a thing because I always keep in mind that I’ll resell my Mac, and my sticker taste might not match the buyer’s taste. I’ll probably start with the M-Series stickers from Basic Apple Guy.
2025-11-03 ∞
Apparently, you can upload a .shortcut file into ChatGPT for analysis!? 🧐😱🤯 it’s great for learning. Will try it soon.
2025-11-04 ∞After Craft, Ulysses, still in beta, might be the second-best take on Liquid Glass adoption. I love it.
2025-11-06 ∞The iPhone Pocket is, thankfully, a limited edition so not all is lost. 😞
2025-11-11 ∞I learned that Day One offers an MCP server for the Mac. Craft is about to launch its own MCP support. Now, could this mean I could build a bridge for exporting data from Day One to Craft (using a Shortcut for example)?
2025-11-12 ∞In recent days, while on vacation, I spent some time cleaning up my Shortcuts library. It was a mess: unused shortcuts, non-working ones, unnecessary settings for Apple Watch or search availability, wrong tile color, etc. I’m still not done yet.
2025-11-14 ∞With iPadOS 26 multitasking, I found that the best way for me to add another app besides an existing one is to go through the App Library, search for it, then tap and drag into place. Is there a more efficient way?
2025-11-15 ∞Currently testing Craft API capabilities to save this blog post via my blog’s RSS feed via IFTTT. Let’s see what happens. Things never work the first time.
2025-11-16 ∞Like I said, things never work the first time. And rarely the second time, too.
2025-11-16 ∞I’m not particularly skilled at making API calls, apparently. 😔
2025-11-16 ∞I might have made some progress… last try for today. Please, ignore. 🙏🏻
2025-11-16 ∞Bye Bye Zapier, IFTTT, Still a Keeper
I have finally deleted my Zapier account after a few years of inactivity. It’s significantly more complicated than IFTTT and much more expensive. IFTTT is far from perfect. It seems to be stagnant even. But, for my needs, it’s ok. I have two applets: 1) Save all posts on my RSS superfeed into a **Day One **journal, 2) Save a link into a Google sheet of a YouTube video that I like. The latter could probably be eliminated.
2025-11-16 ∞Tweaks to iPadOS 26 b3 multitasking are so very much welcomed! Is Apple finally getting there where they take the best of iPadOS 18 and iPadOS 26? It might be the case. Still experimenting.
2025-11-17 ∞A bug in the Apple Shortcuts editor on the Mac. One of so many. Can you imagine if Apple allowed third-party Shortcut editors to create shortcuts? That would be awesome.
2025-11-18 ∞
Another major Internet outage is ongoing, thanks to CloudFlare this time. I’m experiencing several unusual issues this morning (Inoreader, Micro.blog, Craft-hosted docs, etc.).
2025-11-18 ∞Something must be going on with Apple’s iWork not being updated with Liquid Glass at this time of year. Apple might be working on better integration with Photomator and PixelMator Pro beyond Liquid Glass adoption. What is your take?
2025-11-18 ∞I’ve been creating YouTube videos for several years, mainly focused on Craft, but also covering Micro.blog and a few other topics. Some of my older Craft videos seem outdated since they reference much older versions that are not relevant anymore. Should I set these videos to private now? What are other YouTubers doing in this situation?
2025-11-19 ∞iPadOS 26.2 with External Display: Are We There Yet?
I’m giving the iPad Pro with external display another try (under 26.2 b3). As far as I can see, it’s not all Apple’s fault if there are many paper cuts: third-party apps support with external display is lacking. Make no mistake: iPadOS 26.2 as come a long way… but iPad-only rules still make the iPad a bit too far from the macOS experience. Borderless-windows in dark mode makes it hard to distinguish which app is which.
Long story short: no.
2025-11-19 ∞With just-released support for vertical tabs and Passkeys, ChatGPT Atlas is two more steps closer to replacing the ARC Browser.
2025-11-19 ∞As hard as I wanted to get extensibility in Craft (with APIs, for example), I still fail to see a practical use case for me. The APIs are really simple, but what am I going to do with them? I just don’t know. 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
2025-11-19 ∞Is this a new tactic by Amazon: clicking on reviews count to take a look at reviews to discover that not all reviews apply to the currently selected product? 😳😒
2025-11-20 ∞What the hell is that font, Apple? Is this a new design trend? It reminds me of when we opened a PageMaker document on our Mac back in the day, and some fonts were missing from the System Folder. Maybe they should install a copy of Suitcase? 🤦🏻♂️
What the US “leadership” is doing to Ukraine is beyond cruel. All this bloodshed for that? What if Mexico invaded the US and people were forced to speak Spanish after a three-year war? How about that?
2025-11-21 ∞Watched episode #1 of Pluribus yesterday. I wasn’t expecting this at all. I don’t know what to think. Maybe episode #2 will help me settle on it.
2025-11-22 ∞Working on the next edition of “What’s Up With Micro.blog”. The last one was done a year ago. Not only are there so many new and updated things in Micro.blog, but my workflow for going back and analyzing the changelog is so much different and more efficient. I hope to get it done by the end of this weekend!
2025-11-22 ∞This is an insane video, well worth it if you are an Apple fan! You’ll thank me later.
2025-11-22 ∞Apple Home?
I want this from Apple. Extracted from this surprising video about a fake Apple Event happening next Spring. This would be called Apple Home. I don’t like the name, but I do like the device. It is reminiscent of older Apple designs during the Apple //c and Macintosh era.
Watched: Pluribus S1E2, Pirate Lady 📺
Still not finished it, but man, this is so weird.
The latest edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter is out (Craft-based version). In case you didn’t know: this is a free newsletter available to a mailbox near you (to go out later today). Pas editions can be found here (Both, Craft versions & Web versions).
2025-11-23 ∞This is Micro.blog in 2025; Am I missing something? 🤯 Let’s be honest here: that an incredible value for the money.1
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This is not an ad. I’m just a bit enthusiastic. ↩
Since iOS 26.2, I guess, each time I leave the house, my iPhone prompts me to re-enter my Apple Account password. I can click “Not Now” without any apparent issues, but that’s utterly annoying. Even after entering it, the next time I leave the house (or probably go outside a certain wireless context), I’ll be prompted again to re-enter my password. Anyone seeing this?
2025-11-23 ∞Earlier today, I recorded this update about Micro.blog. At one point, I wanted to show blog post summary in action. Everything was going according to the plan except that, after publishing the blog post, the summary didn’t go through. 😔 I had to cut that from the finished video. 🤷🏻♂️ I don’t know if this was a one-time event of if it’s something I did wrong… who knows.
2025-11-23 ∞Using Micro.blog’s upgraded video features, here’s my latest video round-up highlighting this year’s Micro.blog improvements. Previous videos were posted on my YouTube channel. I hope you find this to be useful.
When blogging from Scribbles.page, this is how the blog post will appear on my timeline (because I use Micro.blog’s RSS feed reading capabilities, which is really cool). The first occurence of the post is the cross-posting result from Micro.blog to my Mastodon account (yes, I subscribe to my own Mastodon account). I see the full post including the shared link. The second occurence is the RSS feed article as grabbed by Micro.blog and reposted on my timeline; if you follow me on Micro.blog, this is what you will see. The post is truncated and the link is missing. I think there is room for improvement here. cc @manton
2025-11-25 ∞ Paperlike 3 take 2
Bought the Paperlike 3 for my M4 iPad Pro except that it was for a 2018 iPad Pro. Ordered the wrong one. 🫤 Asked my wife if I could give it to her and install it on her iPad. Initially, she said no. 😔 She eventually abided to my offer. I ordered a new one for my iPad. Reason: there is a small scratch on the screen that I want to hide. 🤦🏻♂️
I had the first edition of the Paperlike for my previous 2018 iPad Pro and really liked it. The installation process was very different from today’s version. While the new process is more complicated, it allows for a more controlled installation that minimizes dust and bubbles. The surface texture of the film is also much finer. I’ll have to wait for another week before getting mine.
2025-11-25 ∞AnyBox
I’ve been a long time user of AnyBox, after leaving Raindrop.io, and Pocket, but I was a light user until recently. I revisited the app thoroughly and now it’s sitting at the center of my newsletter preparation workflow. I love this app so much; it feels native, fully-featured, and offers the right information density. The only missing thing would be to have a cloud-based version…
2025-11-25 ∞As I’m spending 70% of the time on ChatGPT Atlas, I decided to go further with ChatGPT Atlas and set it as the default browser on my MacBook Air. 20% is with ARC Browser, 5% is Safari.
2025-11-27 ∞Feeling a little bit frustrated this morning: discovered a rather significant scratch on my Apple Watch screen. 🤦🏻♂️😒 Now all my portable devices have a scratch on the screen: my iPhone 15 Pro Max and my M4 iPad Pro. It’s the time since I own Apple devices that this happens. Never had a single scratch before! Fuck. 😢😟😩😢
2025-11-27 ∞Blogging in the enterprise is not a thing apparently, even with a headcount of 58K people. I spent some time today in Viva Engage communities to see if some people were there for blogging, even with a corporate mindset, but nothing. It seems that only corporate-related communities are allowed. Too bad.
2025-11-27 ∞From time to time, I consider subscribing to The Verge. This week is one of those moments. The subscription is currently 40% off the regular yearly price, down to 35 dollars. This would be the first time I would pay to get tech news. 🤔
2025-11-27 ∞For the first time since I own an iPhone, I decided to get a screen protector. I went with a matte version from Ambison, and I like not only the feel to the touch but also the way it affects screen content sharpness. It may make the display a little less sharp, but I find that the matte finish actually complements the general look of Liquid Glass, especially for icons. Isn’t that strange?
2025-11-27 ∞AI benchmarks remind me of CD writers back in the day where you could upgrade a 32X CD burner to a 48X one, but the speed difference was minimal in practice.
2025-11-29 ∞The problem is that I have too many ideas, there is too many things that I’d like to work on, there is not enough time.
2025-11-29 ∞I found a video of mine in my archives showing a full edit session with Snapseed on my iPad. The resulting image was part of an old blog posts collection called The Perfect Imperfection series initially on Instagram and later on Exposure. Sadly, this photo collection no longer exists because I closed both my Instagram and Exposure account. You’ll understand why I chose this naming when you see the resulting image. Enjoy the short ride here in the video below.
Video 2025-11-30 ∞As much as I love Tinylytics, I wish there was some basic analytics on Micro.blog, just like Bear’s. I should update my Micro.blog wish list. If @manton don’t want to spend time working on this, maybe he could find a way to integrate a Tinylytics dashboard inside Micro.blog? 🙏🏻
2025-11-30 ∞I happen to spend more and more time on Ghost Network tab to see who’s subscribing to my blog, reply to comments, etc. That’s really cool.
2025-11-30 ∞I made a new video about the latest release of Craft (v3.3.1), which I think it’s a game-changer. Long live to Craft!
2025-11-30 ∞Finally received the right Paperlike version for my iPad. Installed without any bubbles. I get the feeling that it transforms my iPad screen into one with a nano texture, but at a fraction of the cost. 🤓😏
2025-11-30 ∞Three Years Already
Three years of ChatGPT. Time flies. A few thoughts on that are mandatory it seems. ChatGPT certainly turned things upside down not only for me as a writer but for many creators. The entire software industry also was turned things even more upside down. It’s hard to imagine what would have been software roadmaps or new features pipelines without generative AI. See? We almost forgot about what it was like before ChatGPT. Can’t imagine where things are going. Generative AI integration into apps and user experience is the next frontier where things will be interesting to watch.
2025-11-30 ∞Algorithms, Platforms, and the Personal Web Space
The piece) from Disassociated about being “freed from personal websites” thanks to algorithms and timelines really resonated with me. I’ve long believed that platforms are killing the web; they are not the web.
I recently asked my son if he had ever considered having his own personal website—a blog, having a place outside the usual platforms. His immediate response was, “But what about discoverability?” Why I think that everything comes down to that: It’s always about beating the algorithms (hello SEO) so that we are “discovered”. I always believed about my own existence without the need of any algorithm. Same with my wife: she knows about my websites but rarely visit them. She’s always talking about discoverability too, thinking that there is no future if I’m not one those platforms. She couldn’t be more wrong. And yet… Platforms have obscured the open web, plain and simple.
This led me to a question that keeps circling in my mind: if we go back 50 years, how accurately did newspapers reflect reality? And how different is our situation today? Yes, the speed and reach of information are radically different now, but consider people who read only one newspaper—like my father did when I was young. Weren’t they also shaped, if not manipulated, by that publication’s editorial line?
Disclaimer: I feel my feelings are well reflected in those few words… it’s complicated.
2025-11-30 ∞