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Eyeing the Rumoured 15-Inch MacBook Air
Apple’s rumored 15-inch āMacBook Airā is expected to feature the same general design as the 13-inch āMacBook Airā that was released in 2022 with flat edges, a large Force Touch trackpad, a keyboard with function keys, and more. It will also likely include a MagSafe charging port, upgraded speaker system, and a 1080p camera. Source: 15.5-Inch MacBook Air Expected to Launch in Spring 2023 - MacRumors
This year, as an M1 MacBook Air owner, I decided to skip the M2 MacBook Air. The differences aren’t significant enough for me to upgrade, performance and design-wise. But getting a bigger display in a light package without going to the Pro line is a different story. It won’t come cheap, for sure. Count me in the line up.
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Exit Plans are Important ā Learning the Hard Way With Twitter
Exit plans are important. My Twitter exit planning reminds me that we all should have some sort of exit plan for anything we use and depend on online. Every building has an emergency exit plan. Businesses who subscribe to cloud-based services need to plan their exit in case they no longer like their cloud provider. The same should be planned for using services like Twitter. Having a plan is one thing but maintaining it is quite another. Iām learning my lesson the hard way my friends. More to come soon.
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Updated my bio today, adding a mention of being a Qwitter (someone planning to Quit Twitter). When I tell my wife that I’m going to close my Twitter accounts next year, she gives me a dubious look and says: why wait next year? š«£š
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I love the idea of Ooh.directory, blog directory and most supporting RSS feeds. I submitted mine. Will see if they accept it.
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I just realized that to see the list of people I follow on Micro.blog, I need to visit my own profile page, right? Am I missing something @manton? If so, may I suggest having a link somewhere else, like in the Account section or the Discovery section?
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Twitter Is the Uneeded Intermediary and How I'm Planning to Get Rid of It
Whenever I want to go to Twitter, I should remember that Twitter is mostly a big dump of content originating from other places. So, why not consume content at the source instead? In my journey to a Twitter-free world, Iāll need to rebuild my habits of visiting the following places:
* Techmeme: for consuming news;
* RSS Reader: for consuming news and articles;
* Telegram: for consuming news;
* Mailbrew: for consuming content;
* Hackernews: for discovering content;
* Reddit: for consuming content, exploring and discovering new content;
A special mention about Mailbrew is required here: a portion of the content generated in my private newsletters comes from Twitter. Iāll need to revisit this sooner than later. Thankfully, Mailbrew supports RSS feeds as a content source. But then, maybe using my RSS reader will render Mailbrew mostly useless?Ā
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On Rumours of Apple Working on Its App Stores Overhaul
Bloomberg:
Apple to Allow Outside App Stores in Overhaul Spurred by EU Laws.
Boom. If true, itās massive. I can imagine Apple's engineering efforts to make it happen for WWDC 2023. I wrote earlier this year that I Ā changed my mind about sideloading apps on the iPhone. I still stand with my change of heart. I expect the iPhone experience to suffer with increased complexity for ordinary users. Not by much, but somehow, things will have to change to accommodate new workflows. Itās not an easy task to keep things simple. I trust Apple to find a good compromise.Ā
I donāt expect to use apps installed from other sources, except if there is a significant pricing difference or if itās a unique app not available otherwise.Ā
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On Apple's Freeform and Tools Palettes
Freeform, the visual and collaborative application from Apple, is finally out for the iPad, the Mac andā¦ I spent some time with it on the iPad and found it enjoyable and deceptively minimalistic. On the Mac, once updated to Ventura 13.1, Freeform can be used to continue working on the content, albeit with a different set of tools, since there is no Apple Pencil support over there. One question is, why is the tools palette on the iPad different from the one with Apple Notes? I mean, there are pencils or crayons that I prefer on Notes over the available choices in Freemformās palette. Following is a comparison of both. At the top is the Apple Notes tools palette. At the bottom is Appleās Freeform. The latter seems a bit childish, too simplistic. I really wish there were more pencil types.Ā
Other than that, I didnāt test the collaborative work with someone else. I see Freemore as more for individualistic creative work. Iām not sure yet if Iāll ever make good use of it. Certainly not at work, as weāre more of a āMicrosoftā business. Time will tell.Ā
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Starting a Journey to My Twitter-Free Digital Life
After much thinking and due to recent events on Elon Musk’s Twitter, I’m starting to put together a plan for phasing Twitter out of my digital life entirely. The journey will be long, and I made it to be one of my goals for 2023.
Twitter is well entrenched in my digital life. One example of this is the Mailbrew service that I’m subscribing to: sign in requires my Twitter account. Duh. Lots of generated newsletter content is pulled off Twitter. Duh.
I’ll need to be methodical in pursuing a better digital world. I’ll learn a lot about along the way and probably reconsider many aspects of my digital workflows.
From now on, I’ll use the “Qwitter” category for these posts.
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Following Mastodon Users From Micro.blog
Thanks to this video, I understand that I can follow Mastodon users right from Micro.blog.[@anildash@mastodon.cloud](https://micro.blog/anildash@mastodon.cloud) I've been improving our ActivityPub support in Micro.blog. Just posted a video earlier today that you might find interesting: www.youtube.com/watch
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When Ukraine Is Home of Great Software Makers
I recently wrote my satisfaction about Readdleās Documents.app on-boarding experience on the iPad. Now Iām reading about Sparkās cleverness take on emails. Without being as opinionated as Hey.com, Spark is a serious professional email client. Readdleās home is Ukraine šŗš¦ too. Iām considering integrating both software in my toolset. All good reasons to show some support to them.
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Matter to begin offering a subscription early next year. It was bound to happen. Iāll have to take a position and choose sooner than I originally thought. š¤¦š»āāļøš«¤
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Welcome to the TwitterDump
I’m not a Qwitter. I don’t think I’ll ever close my Twitter account. But, there will be a day where I no longer post original content on Twitter, only cross-posting stuff from other sources. That day, I’ll refer to Twitter as the TwitterDumpā¢.
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Another Day, Another Rabbit Hole
Well, I almost forgot about it. Today I received my invite to start testing Post.news; another potential exit door from Twitter.
From what I’m seeing, there is already quite a few people in there and I like the posting experience so far. It’s way easier to setup than anything Mastodon-related. Yeah, I know, it’s not the “federated” & “open web” et al., but hey, it’s not Elon Musk’s Twitter!
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Isnāt that weird that we need to jump to an external website to enjoy the 2022 Replay? Why not have it within Music.app itself? š¤
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Sorry for your timeline flooding about this Mac Pro thing… probably a big in MarsEdit 5.0. Returning to normal programming now.
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The Most Divisive Mac Pro Is a Thing of Beauty
This week, a new Mac joined the family. The 2013 Mac Pro. I always dreamed of owning one. Itās probably one of the most singular Macs Apple has ever designed. Yes, it has limited expansion. Yes, it is not the Pro Mac that the pros wanted back in 2013. Yes, you need to unplug everything from the machine to open it up. Itās borderline baffling. But this hardware piece, just like the monolith in the 2001 Space Odyssey movie, seems to come from an alien planet, far from earth. Once plugged in and turned on, you can hear it barely humming, just like in any space station depicted in science fiction movies.Ā
Iām starting to use this Mac Pro for a project that requires an Intel processor. You can read about it here if you are curious.
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Glass Is Evolving Nicely
Itās good to see Glass introduce new methods for discovering photos on its platform. I would love to see percentages relative to each camera and smartphone brand. Searching by lenses tells us that Nikon is way behind Canon regarding diversity and representation. Canāt wait for Glassās next move.Ā
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The Password-Less Future Looks Bright and Secure
For the first in years, I just bought something from eBay. Man, this website design sucks and seems to date back to the early web. Is there anyone who cares about design at eBay? Anyway, they do care about security, though. Upon logging in with my password this morning, there was a popup asking me if I wanted to get rid of my password. I thought it was the eBay website that was about to turn on the Touch ID but instead asked me to confirm the passkey creation. It took me a confirmation with my finger on the Touch ID sensor on my M1 MacBook, and voilĆ , no more password required! Thatās super cool.
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Upgraded to MarsEdit 5.0...
Because native software is cool. Because indie developers are cool. Because it supports Micro.blog but not Twitter. Because it is cheap. Because itās a small company. Because their new Micropost (markdown) editor is nice, perfect for posting on Micro.blog. It is frictionless. Micropost & micro.blog, any coincidence? Mmmm.
Anywaysā¦ itās a great update that Iām currently testing. Returning to normal programming.
Written from the couch, on my M1 MacBook Air.
