You might have noticed that I’m experimenting with YouTube shorts. They are easy to create using the YouTube app but the next ones will be created with Apple’s Clips, if it’s even possible. 🧐
2023-02-04

A few people here probably already know that I’m a big fan and power user of Craft, the document creation app. Over the years, I created and shared many documents online for different purposes. Today, I’m sharing an index of all the published documents. My goal is to showcase many of Craft’s capabilities. If you are curious, you can ask me questions about these. I’ll be more than happy to respond.
2023-02-05

In the “Competition in the Mobile Application Ecosystem” report published by the NTIA recently:

Pre-installed apps, default options, and anticompetitive self-preferencing should be limited, including in search results. Source: Biden Administration Report Recommends Sweeping Changes to Apple’s Ecosystem - MacRumors

Can you imagine unboxing your brand-new iPhone, powering it up, and after completing the initial setup process, you end up on a mostly empty home screen? What should the user do next? Could Apple provide a single icon pointing to their App Store to download “The Full iPhone Experience” package? Would Apple even be allowed to do just that? Reading the recommendation again, I think it would go against it. It there a more effective way at killing a product?
2023-02-05

Benjamin Mayo commenting on laptops with touch screen:

All the time, I see people swipe up and down on their vertical laptop screens to navigate webpages and zoom into photos with a pinch gesture. The ergonomics of this are naturally poor. Stretching your arm out forwards to reach the laptop screen quickly becomes uncomfortable. And yet, people still do it frequently. The touch screen is used as an accessory to primary mouse input. They swipe around a bit, then they go back to the mouse. They read a screenful of content, then they swipe to the next page, and put their arm back down. It’s a surprisingly subconsciously natural thing to do. Source: Apple Working On Touchscreen Mac Laptops — Benjamin Mayo

I wonder if Apple could get away with only supporting minimal gestures on their touchscreen Mac. I’m thinking about things like “pinch to zoom” or “swipe” but nothing else… I could imagine using my left hand for a vertical swipe and the right hand on the trackpad to click on a button or text field. This way, I see only a need for a minimal macOS user interface rework.

Just found out about iA Presenter, from the makers of iA Writer. Looking at the website, this app looks like a superb macOS app! I can see a specific use case here for me: writing queue cards for when I’m recording my YouTube videos. Is anyone on the beta from TestFlight here? Any thoughts?
2023-02-05

Continuing with this usability musing on possible touch-based MacBook, Jack Wellborn writes in response to an article by Federico Viticci:

The Mac was also built for a mouse, and while I would argue macOS is more usable than Windows, there is no getting around the fact that controls optimized for pointers are inherently unfriendly to touch input. It’s foolishly optimistic to think that Microsoft or even Apple can make pointer interfaces as touch friendly as iPadOS without also destroying the very thing that makes them more productive than iPadOS — information density. Smaller controls means these platforms can disclose more information and interactivity to their users at once. That’s why a bunch of windows on even a 11″ MacBook Air feels natural while only four windows on a “large” 13″ iPad feels ungainly.

Conversely, it’s impossible to make iPadOS more information dense without sacrificing the very thing that makes it the best tablet OS — touch friendliness. iPad users want more information on screen because that will help them be more productive, but the only way to present more information in iPadOS without sacrificing touch friendliness is a larger display. Not only is a larger display not portable, iPadOS’s support for larger displays still sucks. There’s nothing Apple can do about large displays not being portable, but better support for larger displays? That’s a problem Apple can solve. Source: Touchability, Productivity, and Portability — Pick Two – Worms and Viruses

I couldn’t put my finger on it (pun intended), but this article brings up an interesting point that might explain something I couldn’t do myself: The size of controls in a user interface largely dictates information density. Many longtime Mac users decry the iPadification of its UI. I’m not one of them but I value information density a lot.
2023-02-06

I really hope we get iPadOS 16.4 beta this week because right now, I never experienced so many weird behaviours on my iPad since iPadOS 16. Stage Manager is one problem, weird keyboard placement is another, rotation bugs, etc.
2023-02-06

Microsoft Authenticator for Apple Watch to be retired:

The Microsoft Authenticator app for Apple Watch joins a long list of third-party watchOS apps that have been discontinued over the last few years, either because of perceived redundancy or lack of user uptake. Other notable Apple Watch apps that have been discontinued include Twitter, Instagram, Target, Trello, Slack, Hulu, and Uber. Source: Microsoft Authenticator Discontinues Apple Watch App - MacRumors

There is a clear trend.
2023-02-06

Matt makes a compelling case for the feasibility of touch-based macOS:

I think Apple should add touch to Macs, and I think that this will allow them to not only make current form factors better, but it will allow them to create Macs that are more flexible, more powerful, and more accessible than any Macs before them.

That said, there are people in the Mac community who disagree with me here, and their number one concern is that macOS has a UI that is simply unusable with touch. It’s the ace-in-the-hole argument, and it’s honestly something I haven’t pushed back on because it feels true.

Yeah, I’m one of them. 🫣

There’s a narrative out there that touch is just so incompatible with macOS and that in order to make it work, the macOS UI would have to get blown up to comical proportions, but I don’t think that’s the case. Changes will be made, but I think macOS is more touch-friendly today than many people give it credit for. Source: macOS Isn’t as Small As You Think

I’m happy to report that I’m convinced that macOS is closer to being touch-friendly than I originally thought. Matt spent the required time to demonstrate that 90% of the job was already done. I’m happy to change my mind on this. Would I jump to use a touchscreen Mac? I hate fingerprints on any screen except on the iPad. 🫳🏻😵‍💫

No more questions, your honour.
2023-02-07

TechCrunch interview with Apple’s exec Millet:

One rationale for shipping M2 is also that Apple wanted to establish the line in a regular cadence. It was important, Millet says, to make sure people didn’t see the M1 as a “one and done.” Source: Apple execs on M2 chips, winning gamers and when to buy a Mac • TechCrunch

The Mac has never been this thriving, thanks to Apple Silicon. Specs bumps and general redesign when needed are moving the Mac forward. Next stop: Macs with touch screen with an Apple twist.
2023-02-07

No. Great mockup design but no, I don’t want to get an Apple Watch Ultra in the form of an iPhone. First, I prefer flat edges over rounded ones. They make the iPhone easier to grab from a table and hold for taking pictures. Second, I want the rumoured rounded glass surface on the screen edges which would make the phone a little bit more organic.

What I would LOVE ❤️ to get though is a dedicated multipurpose button, like on the Ultra. Yet, the probability that Apple add another button is low in my opinion. They would rather prefer to get rid of all physical buttons if they could without compromising usability (which I don’t see how this could be done). A less prominent camera assembly would be welcomed too, even if this means a thicker device (and bigger battery along the way).

2023-02-07

Dear Apple, I’m done. It took me a long time, but I get it. Today, I turned off Stage Manager on my iPad. I tried with all my heart. I tried. But, even at iPadOS 16.3, after betas and final releases, six months later, I tired of fighting. Stage Manager is a mess on the iPad. In fact, Stage Manager breaks the iPad experience. Plain and simple. What is a nice improvement on the Mac, is a disastrous UX on the iPad form factor. Apple, go back to the drawing board, let me know when you’re done. Thanks.
2023-02-08

I digg the updated design of Apple.com. The drop-down menus remind me of the Mac in its early days.

2023-02-08

I thought I was done with the “macOS user interface isn’t touch-friendly” debate but tonight, I’m reading this piece from Jack Wellborn (emphasis is mine):

The Mac was also built for a mouse, and while I would argue macOS is more usable than Windows, there is no getting around the fact that controls optimized for pointers are inherently unfriendly to touch input. It’s foolishly optimistic to think that Microsoft or even Apple can make pointer interfaces as touch friendly as iPadOS without also destroying the very thing that makes them more productive than iPadOS — information density. Smaller controls means these platforms can disclose more information and interactivity to their users at once. That’s why a bunch of windows on even a 11″ MacBook Air feels natural while only four windows on a “large” 13″ iPad feels ungainly. Source: Touchability, Productivity, and Portability — Pick Two – Worms and Viruses

And

Conversely, it’s impossible to make iPadOS more information dense without sacrificing the very thing that makes it the best tablet OS — touch friendliness. iPad users want more information on screen because that will help them be more productive, but the only way to present more information in iPadOS without sacrificing touch friendliness is a larger display. Not only is a larger display not portable, iPadOS’s support for larger displays still sucks. There’s nothing Apple can do about large displays not being portable, but better support for larger displays? That’s a problem Apple can solve.

I don’t agree with the author’s suggestions at the end, but it shows that the debate about macOS being touch-friendly or not is still raging and far from being settled.
2023-02-09

Eternally Unsatisfied With My Reading Apps

I’ve been a News Explorer RSS reader user for a long time. It’s a less-known RSS reader compared to Reeder or anything else. It’s really good, but missing a few things that keep bugging me. There is no web version, no filtering feature, and no text highlighting either.

I started testing Inoreader yesterday and Feedbin. Both seem good RSS readers, but none of them is satisfying. In fact, I’m never satisfied with anything when it comes to RSS readers and reading applications or services in general. It’s been going on forever.

Read-later apps are unsatisfying, too, for me. None of Instapaper, Pocket, Matter, and Readwise’s Reader satisfy my needs. Readwise is too busy and still immature, Matter is nice, but some things like tags handling don’t scale well.

The perfect combination of a read-later function with an RSS reader doesn’t exist. If I were twenty years younger, I would write my own.

2023-02-10

Well, expect a change of mood for the next couple of days. It’s seems that my mother, 89, is at the very end of her road. Not only that was expected but also I’m relieved somehow. 😔
2023-01-28

I’m back. Mostly. It was an enduring experience to see my mom go as she did. It was an unintentional instructional experience too. Life has many lessons in store for us. We just have to open our minds and our heart. Easier said than done.

Writing is part of the healing process, I guess.

2023-02-01

A special message to all the people who expressed their support for the loss of my mother. It really means a lot, even though I don’t know you personally. Thanks.
2023-02-01

Any Little Snitch users here? Thoughts? I’m using NextDNS to block tracking sites, but what would be the added value of using Little Snitch?
2023-02-01

Wow, I spent 10 minutes searching for “how to save an email into a .EML file on the iPad”. It’s not in the action menu. The only way is to do a “drag & drop” of the mail into Files.app (or any app that understands this file format, for that matter). Who knew it could be that hard to discover such a simple thing. It should really be in the action menu too.
2023-02-01

It is so slow to recharge an Apple Magic Mouse. Considering how we need to connect this thing for a recharge, Apple should have made it much quicker to recharge. 😒
2023-02-01

CarPlay in 2023 will see its most significant upgrade since its launch. I don’t know when we’ll actually be able to get this in a real car, but I certainly look forward to it.

I recently spent some travel time in a high-end Mercedes. The Dashboard was very impressive. Still, the future CarPlay version seems a bit pale in comparison.

Why did Apple choose to make this early announcement?

2023-02-01

Some telling excerpt from a recent story in the Globe and Mail about a Canadian helping Ukraine:

“There’s a couple of shots I made that day that will be with me,” he said. One was a Russian in a T-shirt who was carrying a box of ammunition more than 1,800 metres behind the front line – a distance Teflon says was the longest shot he’s ever made. “He saw no threat, he thought he was safe. But it’s my job to ensure that they know that they’re not safe anywhere,” Teflon said. “The role of a sniper is to ultimately push into the minds of the enemy and make them question everything.”

And

“There’s allegations that all these Russians must be drugged. There’s no way. I think it’s just lack of training. Because they still act like human beings. I’ve watched guys cry and I’ve watched guys scream and I’ve watched guys try to pull their friends back when they get killed. They’re humans but they don’t have an ounce of training when it comes to fighting a war.”

And

“Sadly, it’s working. That’s why they’re doing it. We’re defending until we can’t defend that spot any more because they just destroy it with tanks. And they just keep sending another wave. It’s just relentless,” Teflon said. “So, they’ve gained 500 metres of dirt, but they just took over a completely destroyed position and lost hundreds of guys to do so.”

Finally

“The world deserves to hear the truth and after losing Joe and Greg, they need to understand we’re not stopping this work,” he said. “There’s no point me dying without telling my story.”

This a poignant story about a Canadian snipper “working” on the front line in Ukraine.

2023-02-02

If I had enough time on hand, I would build a one-pager website comparing all Mastodon clients. Then, I would update it as new app releases come out. I can see the feature-by-feature comparison table with an overall score at the bottom. I think it could be helpful for new Mastodon users and developers to better understand their app’s position in the client landscape.
2023-02-02

**Highly Troubling—Ops are Taking Over Apple My Friends **

Don’t bother reading too much into the latest Apple financial numbers. They’re not too bad. What you should be paying attention to is this:

Apple is eliminating one of its most high-profile executive positions. According to a new report today, Apple is eliminating the role of “industrial design chief” as part of a broader shake-up. This role was once held by Jony Ive, and most recently held by Evans Hankey.

More specifically:

Under this new structure, the design team will report to Apple’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams. Source: Apple is eliminating its iconic ‘industrial design chief’ position

This comment by one of the 9To5Mac staff members is not reassuring at all:

I think it’s important to keep in mind, however, that Williams has been involved with the design team for several years at this point. Hankey has reported to Williams since 2019. The difference now is that the middle ground between Williams and the rest of the design team is being removed.

Maybe Hankey saw this coming and couldn’t adhere to this direction. Here’s my take: ops are taking over Apple, and design is no longer the top priority. It is utterly troubling to read rumours of Williams possibly replacing Cook which looks like being more of the same if you ask me. Maybe Williams has more design experience, but not as a first-party involvement. Troubling.

2023-02-02

DHH’s concluding words about testing an Android phone:

I’m no fan of Google in general. And I still prefer the fit and finish of iOS over Android, but there’s something deeply appealing about having a phone where at least it’s actually possible to install Forbidden Software, like Fortnite, without wild interventions like jailbreaking. The fidelity gap is real, but the freedom gap is bigger. Source: Another Android

His post is a reminder for me that I never tried or used an Android device for real. Never ever. Should I? Why would I? But then I read this article from Gruber commenting about his perception of the Android app landscape:

Android enthusiasts don’t want to hear it, but from a design perspective, the apps on Android suck. They may not suck from a feature perspective (but they often do), but they’re aesthetically unpolished and poorly designed even from a “design is how it works” perspective.

After all, I might never waste my time testing an Android phone. Life is too short.

2023-02-03

Tim Cook’s introductory comment on Apple’s latest quarter:

“As we all continue to navigate a challenging environment, we are proud to have our best lineup of products and services ever, and as always, we remain focused on the long term and are leading with our values in everything we do,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “During the December quarter, we achieved a major milestone and are excited to report that we now have more than 2 billion active devices as part of our growing installed base.”

How many devices count as being active if a user has an iPhone and two Apple Watch, two HomePod and an Apple TV? Six. That’s a lot of devices but not as many users.
2023-02-03

I took back the iPad Air that my mom was using a few years ago. I would like to repurpose the iPad as a photo frame. It was updated to the latest iPadOS release the iPad can support, but unfortunately, slide options in Apple’s Photos are pretty limited. I wish there were a “Photo frame” mode in Photos. Synology Photos required iPadOS 13.

How would you reconfigure this iPad, so it becomes a photo frame?

2023-02-03

Rumours and articles like this one about Apple’s upcoming headset, supposedly called “RealityPro” is simply getting out of hand. I wish we could put an end to them. I mean, this is ridiculous.

Even if Apple actually comes out with something this year, I’ll consider this as a technological proof of concept, nothing compared to the actually useful and usable iPhone we got back in 2007.

Use cases for a headset are not what the tech pundits would like us to believe. Family reunions with everyone wearing these things on our heads will not happen. Office meetings with people wearing them don’t make sense either. We can barely stand meetings in hybrid modes where some employees are working from home and appearing on the big screen while others are “present” in the meeting room staring at their laptop or tablet screen and doing something else.

The Apple headset could be the next HomePod or the next iPod HiFi. Set your expectations accordingly and better pay attention to what will come out from Hu.ma.ne, instead. Something that looks to be much more natural and less rebarbative.

2023-02-04

Integrating Adobe Enhance Voice Tech Into My Video Production Workflow — In Search of a Solution

I don’t know if anyone knows about this free web tool by Adobe: Enhance Voice (link), but it is really impressive (@MattBirchler knows about it). Here is what I’d like to do: find a way to integrate this tool into my video production workflow.

So, I’m producing YouTube videos with ScreenFlow (my YouTube Channel). So far, I’m ok with the results, but I think my voice, and the sound in general, could be improved (I’m using the Blue Yeti Microphone, but Adobe Enhance Voice is really impressive).

So, how can I:

1. Do my recording sessions as usual
2. Do my video montage as usual
3. Extract the audio track
4. Use Adobe Enhance Voice to re-process the audio track
5. Replace the audio track in my Screenflow document
6. Export the final video

Step 3 and 5 are not possible in the current release of Screenflow. Any suggestion of tools I could use instead?

Here’s what I know or already use:

• Permute allows for easy conversion of audio files, including converting video files into the audio-only version.
• QuickTime Player can export the audio track only out of a video file.
• I know how to use iMovie.
• I’m a happy user of Audio Hijack
• I don’t really want to get rid of Screenflow. LumaFusion, FinalCut Pro, etc., maybe could do the job here, but it would be ok if I could find a simple utility that can replace the audio track easily instead.

This question has been posted to the Screenflow Telestream forum.

Update #1: corrected a few typos but added the solution using iMovie. Here’s the solution.

1. Do my recording sessions as usual
2. Do my video montage as usual and export the video
3. Extract the audio track using Permute in .MP3 format
4. Use Adobe Enhance Voice to re-process the audio track
5. Convert .WAV into .MP3
6. Launch iMovie and create a new Project
7. Import the produced video in step 2
8. Detach the audio track and delete it
9. Add the enhanced version of the audio track
10. Export the final video using iMovie’s share option

Voilà!

Update #2: there is a major issue with this process, the video and audio are not in sync over time, even though both files are of the same duration. This is not something easy to fix. Back to the drawing board. 😒

2023-01-21

I’ve been testing Continuity Camera mode with my iPhone 13 Pro as the video and audio sources for recording with Screenflow. I must say that I was very impressed and positively surprised.

First, the video quality is excellent, and I get Center Stage as a bonus. Screenflow sees this as a standard camera source. Second, using the Voice Isolation option, I no longer hear background noises in the house, which is cool because I’ll stop asking people to be less noisy neighbours. Now, If only I could integrate Adobe Enhance Voice into my workflow… 🙏

Solution found (link)!

I may have a Blue Yeti microphone for sale soon!

2023-01-21

I’ve been watching a few beginner videos about Final Cut Pro just because I’m searching for ways to improve my video production workflow. The new problem now is this: how do I export recording segments out of Screenflow so I can import them in Final Cut Pro? There is currently no easy way to do this automatically. The process is manual but documented in a Telestream forum. I’m not so sure the use of Final Cur Pro would be a boon to my workflow. Back to square one, but I learned a few things about Final Cut Pro and Screenflow export options. It’s a good thing in the end, as I won’t find a reason to upgrade to an M2 Pro Mac mini. 🤣

2023-01-21

Spent most of the day in front of a computer. Thankfully, I learned quite a bit about video production. I saved 400$ by not buying Final Cut Pro. I produced my first video of 2023.
2023-01-21

On the web, I prefer Matter, but on the iPad, I think I prefer the Readwise Reader. In particular, I prefer the customizable home screen of the latter. But I prefer the reading experience of the former. Today that is what it is. Tomorrow? Who knows. 🤷🏻‍♂️

2023-01-22

So, the only way to set a profile image in IFTTT is to use one of the following services?? Not possible to upload a picture. My profile image is now blank because I deleted my connection to Twitter. Weird.

2023-01-22

OK, I’m mind blown. I went to see the latest Avatar movie today. I was blown away. It’s probably the most beautiful, entertaining, touching, impressive and well-balanced movie I have ever seen. I’m just in awe of the ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into this movie. Wow.
2023-01-23

For 2023, Apple is reportedly working on a larger 15-inch MacBook Air to join its Mac lineup. The new MacBook Air will feature the upcoming M3 chip, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The 15-inch MacBook Air is expected to feature the same design as the current 13.6-inch model but with a larger display and longer battery life thanks to the efficiency of the M3 chip and the inclusion of a larger battery. Source: What’s Next for the Mac: M3 iMac, 15-Inch MacBook Air, Mac Pro, and More - MacRumors

The possible 15-inch MacBook Air makes a lot of sense from a product line perspective (non pro machine with high portability but a larger screen). Where I disagree with Gurman is the possibility of the device getting an M3 chip. This is way too early. The rest of the product line is still on the just-released M2. When the Mac Pro finally makes the switch, then the M3 is a higher probability. In other words, I expect to see the 15-inch MacBook Air to get the same M2 chip as the current but smaller ones.
2023-01-23

More details are emerging about the rumoured Apple’s headset… and this is troubling…

Using the headset will “feel familiar to Apple users,” with an interface that is close to identical to the look of an ‌iPhone‌ or an ‌iPad‌. There will be a Home screen with app icons that can be rearranged, as well as customizable widgets. Source: Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset to Feature iOS-Like Interface, Advanced Hand Tracking, and Will Work as Second Display for Mac - MacRumors

Oh boy… I would expect a brand-new metaphor for the brand-new form factor. Otherwise, by using a familiar interface, it’s as if Apple is locked into their own creation.

Likely to be named “Reality Pro,” the headset will be able to switch between augmented reality and virtual reality. Augmented reality will overlay virtual objects on the real world, while virtual reality is an entirely virtual environment that shuts out the wearer’s surroundings. Augmented reality functions will work through a pass-through mode that will use the exterior cameras on the headset, and swapping between AR and VR will be done with a Digital Crown-like control knob.

“Reality Pro”!!!?? Someone must be kidding about that one, right? What an awful name! What about “viewPod”? Or something less “Macintosh Performa 620”-type of thing, please.

For those who wear glasses, Apple will provide custom lenses that are able to sit within the enclosure, and Apple is expecting users to wear AirPods to get an audio experience on par with the visual experience that the headset provides, though it will have built-in speakers.

I do.

As previously rumored, the headset will have an external battery pack to prevent it from overheating on a user’s face due to the high-end Mac chips used for the device. The battery is approximately the size of two iPhone 14 Pro Max models stacked on top of one another, and it will power the headset for around two hours. An external battery will allow users to swap one battery and charge another to use the device for a longer period of time.

No. Just no. It’s a proof of concept sold to consumers.
2023-01-23

My Taxi Ride to The Past

I recently took a taxi ride to leave the airport as Uber taxis were unavailable and plagued with longer than usual delays. We were directed to the traditional taxi lines. I couldn’t use an app on my iPhone to call a taxi instead.

Boy, it was a trip in the past. The taxi driver had no Google or Waze open to know where to go, only his memory and his knowledge of the city. The taxi timer was this old and ugly box installed on his car dash, partially blocking his view.

It was disorienting not to get any feedback about how long the trip would go, what was the best road alternatives along the way, and not having a driver reputation score.

You would think that Uber would kick the butt of taxi companies so they evolve the customer experience and get their shit together to build a competitive experience, but no. They seem to have given up a long time ago.

My message to taxi companies: enjoy the ride while it last.

2023-01-24

Sometimes I’m reminded that I wish I had picked out “Digital Citizen” instead of “Numeric Citizen” as my “nom de plume”. In English, Digital has a better significance than Numeric. Am I correct? 🧐
2023-01-24

I’m seriously warming up to Readwise Reader. I get the feeling that I’ll be able to build a database of references and notes while I’m reading. The close proximity to Readwise is also a plus. It’s really geeky stuff for power readers, which I’m probably not. I’m waiting for the filtered view builder, they are working on a simplified and more visual version. Filtering the feed’s content by removing things like “Deal” or “Special Deal” would help remove some noise. I also keep an eye on the mobile app.
2023-01-25

I’m super happy to see Ivory going out to light and all. I was on the beta, downloaded the official release and played with it a bit. It’s really a great client. For now, I’ll let things settle down and see how Tapbots delivers on its promise. I’m focusing on Micro.blog for now, but I’m curious about Mastodon ecosystem evolution. I don’t want a new Twitter in disguise. Micro.blog in its current form is a very good compromise.

2023-01-25

For those who don’t know me, I love photography. I’m an amateur photographer myself. Today, I want to share a link about an inspiring photographer named Adrian. If you like the B&W style, consider subscriber to his work (he’s on YouTube too).
2023-01-25

Adam Mosseri, Instagram boss, spoke about the controversy growing on its platform:

We definitely have a number of photographers who have been upset. I want to be clear: though we are leaning into video, we still value photos. Photos will always be a part of Instagram. Source: Instagram showed people too many videos last year, admits Adam Mosseri - The Verge

If you like photography, go elsewhere than Instagram. They focus on user engagement, not photography. There are so many great platforms these days that are built for photography enthusiasts.
2023-01-25

9to5Mac reporting about a short Financial Times article on a silent war between Apple and Google:

Former Apple engineers say that Apple still holds a grudge over how Android allegedly copied iOS, and is steadily working to remove Google from the iPhone. Source: Apple is engaged in a ‘silent war’ against Google, claim engineers | AppleInsider

If there is something that I’d like to see Apple do: Apple (oops, Siri) Search for the web. No user tracking, no ads, full integration within Apple’s ecosystem. Imagine the possibilities.
2023-01-25

Well well well, 15-25cm approaching. Winds should be under 60 KM/h. Some blowing snow is expected, more expected along the river. Very mild but snowy winter so far. I’m a weather enthusiast, as you can tell. The map is from Ventusky.

Is there something like Shortcuts on Windows? I’m asking because, with the release of Things 3.17, I made a few tweaks to my blogger workflow, thanks to the addition of many Shortcuts actions. This new Shortcut can run on the iPad, the iPhone and the Mac. That’s so cool.

2023-01-27

Apple every second. Mind blown. Source.

2023-01-27

I’m no longer spreading Twitter content. Today is a cleanup day in my bookmarks collection, acting as a repository for future editions of my monthly newsletter: Numeric Citizen Introspection. Each bookmark is stored in one of the six “buckets” in Craft, as shown in this screenshot. What is noteworthy today is the fact that many of those bookmarks were links to tweets. They were all deleted. Quitting Twitter also means stopping spreading references to the platform’s content.

2023-01-28

I don’t have many subscribers to my Ghost-hosted website. I always find it sad when someone unsubscribes the very same day I send out a new edition of my newsletter. If I had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, I wouldn’t notice.

What did I do wrong? Was the content not worth reading? These are the questions that come to my mind every time.

I shouldn’t pay attention to that. 😔

2023-01-28

There are a lot of rumours surrounding the upcoming Apple headset. I call them noise at best. I’m afraid Apple is losing focus on other areas, which would require much more attention to benefit this project. Maybe I’ll eat my words when this thing finally comes out. Maybe I’ll say “OMG, now I understand what the fuss it was all about”. In the meantime, this conclusion from John Gruber is pretty much in line with my view: what is the point?

This headset project is very much real and, I believe, very much shipping this year. But the fundamental question remains: What’s the point? Think back to Steve Jobs’s presentation announcing the original iPad — the nut of the whole keynote was Jobs explaining where the iPad might fit between an iPhone and MacBook. If it didn’t serve some tasks not just a little but a lot better than either an iPhone or Mac, there was no point to the iPad. The same is true for this headset. And if it costs $3,000 and/or requires a tethered battery strapped around your waist, the “this better be an awesome experience” bar is raised even higher. Source: Daring Fireball: Knee-Jerk Reactions and Thoughts Regarding The Information’s Latest Report on Apple’s Upcoming Headset

Disclaimer: I’ll never buy such a thing. We’re already too much sucked into tech, I won’t accept putting a headset on my face and pretending that this is cool. It is not.
2023-01-14

While on Twitter, I was a fan of Tweetbot. Now that I'm on Mastodon (I have an account but don't plan to be very active for now), I feel at home with Ivory, their new client, still in beta. I wish they were doing a Micro.blog client. I would pay more to get it than I paid for Tweetbot.

cc ivory@tapbots.social

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. When posting content on Micro.blog, sometimes I’ll do it directly from the Micro.blog website, sometimes from the “native” Micro.blog client on the Mac, sometimes using MarsEdit, sometimes using Ulysses. What the hell? Why can't I settle on one way of doing things as simple as posting on Micro.blog? The pattern seems to be that the longer the post is expected, the more sophisticated the tool I select. Sometimes I’ll start on the web, then copy and paste in MarsEdit (rarely on Ulysses).

This blog post was first started on the web, then copy & pasted in MarsEdit. 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

I just updated my Numeric Citizen I/O website to summarize the last few weeks of change to my blogging setup if you are curious to know more.

This post is required because Craft’s shared documents don’t support RSS feeds, sadly. 😔
2023-01-14

Thought of the moment: on any platform, porn is never very far. #mastodon 🫣
2023-01-14

🇺🇦 There is one thing that I’m finding hard to replace from Twitter: all Twitter accounts I was following reporting about the war in Ukraine, from people on the front or close to it. This is critical information that goes beyond what the general media is saying. But things are starting to move in the right direction, as I have found many tweeps who are now on Mastodon. Yeah! 🙂
2023-01-14

I just finished recording my MacBook Air screen with my face using Screenflow & iPhone 13 Pro as the webcam, thanks to macOS Ventura and Continuity. The end results are pretty good. I didn’t expect it to work. For Screenflow, the iPhone is just like a plugged-in standard webcam. No lag whatsoever. Consider me impressed.
2023-01-14

Today, for some reason, I decided to delve into the Write.as “ecosystem”. I’ve been subscribing to this writing service for nearly a year, I post from time to time like I did yesterday. I’m not so sure to grasp all of it. To get started, I went into Craft, and through the Craft Assistant, I asked a few questions (since ChatGPT seems overloaded). I got surprisingly good results, enough to get some context around the write.freely project. Then, I started a diagram illustrating all the components of the platform. This will become a blog post for sure. Today, I have a better understanding of this project.

What I want to emphasize here is the help that a service like ChatGPT (through an app) can bring to kick-start a small project like this. I’m blown away. But I’m staying critical too. More on that eventually.

This blog post was written by me.

This is a fucking blog, and it’s wonderful. It’s perfect. It allows you to share your words, in your own voice, with no corporate fuckery to fuck it up for you.

Source: Start a Fucking Blog

I’m still fucking laughing!
2023-01-15

Up until now, the Mastodon ecosystem felt like some sort of black magic to me. Today I spent a few minutes explaining to my wife what Mastodon is. As someone who already knows about Twitter and its subtleties, she got it pretty quickly. I couldn’t have done it a few weeks ago, but now, I could. I always thought that when you can explain something to someone, it is probably because you know enough about the subject. I think my explanation made sense to her, and for me! It was only then that the magic and the profound nature of the social and decentralized network became so clear to me. It was an enlightening moment, for sure. Better late than never. I instantly felt convinced that my awakening to the open web and Mastodon, a form of open web instantiation, would be a game-changer for me.
2023-01-15

There’s no sense in clinging to the personal whims of a clown leading a shit show. Especially when his circus will end up being a $44 billion version of MySpace. Source: The Shit Show • furbo.org

Priceless.
2023-01-16

Arstechnica’s Jackqui Cheng:

“One way to look at the MacBook Air is as the largest and most capable iPod in Apple’s line—think of it as an iPod touch Extreme with a built-in keyboard.”
“I found the Air’s size and weight to be nothing less than absolutely delightful.”
“Despite all of the Air’s (sometimes glaring) flaws, I plan to keep it and use it as my notebook from here on out (maybe with a hard drive upgrade in the near future, and definitely with a battery upgrade when they become available).” Source: MacBook Air: The past, the present, and the future

The M1 MacBook Air is, I think, the culmination of the original Air design with a definitive fix for performance and battery life. I’m grateful for owning one.

Did you know I’m writing a newsletter named “Friday Notes” on Ghost? It’s free and probably more personal than what I’m writing here. Here’s the link. I also publish a monthly newsletter called “Numeric Citizen Introspection”, but that one takes longer to produce, so It’s not exactly on a monthly basis. Here’s the link. Of course, if RSS is your thing, both are available too. Shameless plug /end.
2023-01-16

So, Apple is rumoured to release new products through press releases tomorrow. I don’t expect exciting news (M2 MacBook Pro — specs bump). In fact, besides the iPhone 15 Ultra, I think 2023 could be the most boring year in a long time. Since Apple is known to be working its product lines many years in advance, does this reflect the COVID era, where it was hard for Apple to keep the momentum while everyone was enduring the pandemic from 2020 to 2022? Are we paying the COVID price?

Krugman said that Musk’s behaviour had shown that he’s nothing like Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs – who was famed for his high level of discipline and focus on Apple’s products.

And

“I don’t think even if Musk had been as disciplined as Steve Jobs was, that Tesla was ever going to be a sustained profit machine the way that Apple has been,” he added. “It’s just — it’s not his fault. It’s just not that kind of industry.”

And

“But then, you know, I don’t know anyone who’s done as much to hurt his image of cool in as short a time as Musk has done.”
Source: Paul Krugman says Elon Musk’s Tesla can never be a ‘profit machine’ like Apple, because there’s no scope for that in the car industry

Comparing Musk to Jobs is tempting, but Musk a so few traits of Steve. Jobs didn’t hurt Apple’s brand when he was at Pixar. Musk, at Twitter is hurting Twitter… and Tesla. Poor guy.
2023-01-17

I kind of forgot in my previous post to include the link to my Apple Rumours Hub that I maintain (using Craft). It’s not only about tomorrow’s product releases but everything Apple is working on. Enjoy.

My latest project… explaining this thing… harder than I originally thought. 😅

Gruber is whining about and calling out Twitter. Fine. I did too. I still do. And probably keeping doing it for a little while. But I left. I moved on. My actions followed my words. Will he do the same? 🧐

It’s a matter of credibility somehow.
2023-01-17

One of the nice surprises about this morning’s announcements is the addition of two more USB-C ports to the Mac mini and the addition of a configuration with M2 Pro in a small package like the mini. This narrows the gap between a Mac Studio and a Mac mini. Oh, and up to three monitors are supported!

An M1 Mac mini owner. 🤔

Following recent changes in my digital landscape, I needed to spend some time tonight updating my About page, built using Craft. I hope you pay a visit and learn a few things about me. 🙂
2023-01-18

I’m dropping this here. It’s a matter of time. Mark my words.

The yearly renewal of my WordPress.com business plan is a reminder that I need to go elsewhere. This thing no longer makes sense to me. Hard to justify. Where (and how) to move my data? Ghost?
2023-01-18

“With the popularity of HomePod mini, we’ve seen growing interest in even more powerful acoustics achievable in a larger HomePod. We’re thrilled to bring the next generation of HomePod to customers around the world.” Source: Apple introduces the new HomePod with breakthrough sound and intelligence - Apple

What?? Am I dreaming? It really seems to be the same device from the exterior. Still expansive. Still wireless only. Old Bluetooth (5.0).

On October 13, 2018, I wrote:

This morning I found out about the existence of a blogging platform called Micro.blog. Something very special. Very lean. Very light. Without ads. Leaner than WordPress. Yet capable. Close to Twitter but with less clutter. I’m on a 10 days trial period. Tested the web posting interface. Tested the native macOS (light) client. Tested the iPad version too. Now, testing cross-posting from WordPress via an IFTTT applet. I’m loving it so far. Stay tuned for more discoveries about Micro.blog.Source: The Return of Micro Blogging? - Numeric Citizen Blog

This is the oldest post on my main website. I still love this platform, more than ever.
2023-01-18

I won’t upgrade my original HomePod pair but I thank Apple for bringing new features to a product that I thought was done. I’m happy to learn that release 16.3 will enable dormant sensors of the HomePod mini.
2023-01-19

The new chips are yet another example of Apple’s chip division being so far ahead of the rest of the company. The reason iPad suffers is not that it isn’t good; it is because it is too good, and very few applications take advantage of its hardware to the maximum. Source: Apple launches new (M2) chips – On my Om

As an owner of an M1 Mac mini, I’m pretty much sure that none of the software I depend on would take advantage of the M2 or M2 Pro. Lightroom? Nope. Screenflow? Nope. Teams? Nope. What else? The same goes for my aging 2018 iPad Pro.

Is there such a thing as a local version of ChatGPT?
2023-01-19

The new HomePod, as well as the mini, can measure room temperature and humidity. I don’t want to sound cynical but, what a clever way for Apple to trigger more HomePod sales. I want temperature and humidity readings in all my house!
2023-01-19

Today, from WordPress:

Your favorite Jetpack-powered features from the WordPress app – including Stats, Notifications, and the Reader – have a new home: the Jetpack app! These features will soon be removed from the WordPress app so that its focus will be on essential user and publishing tools. With the Jetpack app, you can expect the same attention to core features like managing and editing content, as well as next-level tools to grow your audience on a trusted platform.

The JetPack app is now officially being pushed out, and WP asks site owners like me to consider transitioning to JetPack for managing the website and viewing stats. I’m not sure why the one-app-fits-all” is considered in need of a rework. I’ve read the blog post and couldn’t find a real reason worth forking these apps into two. Even more strange, when you run both WordPress and JetPack on the same device, the latter suggests removing the former from the device. Anyways…

I’m not sure if I want to spend too much energy trying to understand what’s going on. The reason is that I’m in the early stage of planning my migration off the WordPress.com platform. It will require some serious planning and some tedious work, but I’ll move out, before the end of the present year.
2023-01-19

Listening to Leo Laporte’s voice of Twit.tv in my AirPods Pro 2… wow, what a great voice this man has.
2023-01-19

Interesting (and sadly valid point) from Om Malik:

Regardless of age, the big elephant in the room is that we are certified addicts to attention.

It doesn’t matter whether it is Twitter, Instagram, or Mastodon. Everyone is playing to an audience. The social Internet is a performance theater praying at the altar of attention. Journalists need attention to be relevant, and experts need to signal their expertise. And others want to be influencers. For now, Twitter, Instagram, and their ilk give the biggest bang for the blast. It is why those vocal and active about Mastodon are still posting away on Musk’s Twitter.

If we didn’t care for attention, we wouldn’t be doing anything at all. We wouldn’t broadcast.

We care. I certainly care that you care about my content, my words, and my thoughts.

Instead, we would socialize privately in communication with friends and peers.

Even in this social scenario, we are broadcasting and expecting that people are listening. This is how we are programmed. This is why social networks, and the web in general, are so addictive.

Source: Why internet silos win – On my Om
2023-01-19

I was searching for something in one of my past posts here on Micro.blog, using the built-in search option. Searching is swift. Looking at the search results, It's funny to see all the different writing strategies I used over time. I count four of them that I name like this: the newbie, the teaser, the titled and the balanced.

The newbie strategy was to write and don't pay too much attention. It was in my early days here on Micro.blog. Then came the teaser strategy era. Taking advantage of Micro.blog cross-posting feature, all my posts had to be cross-posted on Twitter and made sure to systematically add hashtags to the post's title to get attention. People on Twitter using hashtags for search could potentially hit my posts. That was total nonsense. Then, the "titled strategy" came in where all my posts would get a title. Readers would then need to expand my post to read the content. Lastly, the current strategy, the best IMO, is to use the title for longer posts only. Otherwise, I leave the title field empty, hoping readers will hit the link to read the rest of the post.

Maybe I should have set the title for this one. 🤔

When Matter Made a Major Strategic Error

Today I spent some time in Matter to read a few articles. I went to the Staff Picks section, noticed those tweets between articles and remembered Matter's decision to leave the social portion in their early days. They preferred to go the Twitter route instead. That was before the Elon Musk fiasco. As you might expect, it was a deception for me, and I preferred Matter to build its own thing instead. I actually like to comment on articles and share my thoughts on them within the Matter sphere. Oh well… 

How ironic things can sometimes be. I think the Matter team made a significant strategic error by dropping the social portion of their initial offerings, and they should reconsider their decision.

Here is something that I always find funny. On any photo-sharing platform, let’s say you like someone’s pictures. The guy will probably get notified and start looking at your photos, generally only the most recent ones. If you’re lucky, he or she will like a few of them and then boom, start following you. It’s like someone who’s clicking with another on the dance floor. 😂

So, I started the cleanup of numericcitizen.me. Each day, on WordPress.com, I look at my past posts and select the ones that won’t make the cut. Most of them are simply deleted. However, some posts get exported in markdown files before being deleted. Those exported posts, in turn, are imported in Craft for archival purposes. It’s a tedious process.

Before moving to Ghost, I want to bring the most valuable content. But, what is valuable content, actually? I realize that I have put a lot of time and effort into writing in the past several years. Some posts are short and very time or context-specific. Today, they no longer sport any value except for giving a glimpse of what was. Then what? Nothing. It’s probably more of a value to me than to my readers. I probably should be writing in a personal journal instead, right?

Anyhow, it’s time to move on. I know what I want numericcitizen.me to become. But, in its current form and content, it’s off. There is too much noise, I want it to be more focused. Deleted old, insignificant posts will help, but at the cost of time and losing some of my memories.
2023-01-20

I’m on the Ivory beta. Is it me of updates a long in coming or non existant?
2023-01-21

Thanks for Paying Attention

There’s this question that keeps popping up in my mind all the time since I’m being more active on Micro.blog. Why am I getting way more interactions with others on Micro.blog compared to Twitter? What am I doing differently? I write about the same subjects, albeit maybe more frequently. I think I have a few possible explanations.

First, Twitter is full of bots. Twitter is a dumpster. I suspect many people or organizations are simply cross-posting stuff on Twitter without real human beings behind the content. I did exactly that myself via Buffer for a few years. Optimizing exposure by scheduling posts at the “right” time was the idea. A bot worked for me.

Second, and this is probably the most probable reason: algorithmic timeline. The Twitter engine is tuned to generate higher engagement. The more you engage, the higher the probability that your content will appear on people’s timelines. If you’re well-known, again, the higher the likelihood that you will make it to the timeline of others.

I’m not well-known. I didn’t engage that much with others. Both made me a near-nobody on Twitter. So I didn’t get exposure, hence the lack of engagement with my content.

Third, there is just too much noise on Twitter to get noticed. My content competes against the rest of the Twittosphere. My context was noise for others, hence the lack of feedback, comments, and interactions.

Here on Micro.blog? Night and day. I’m not a star, far from it. But I get a sense that some people are paying attention.

Thanks for that anyway. 🤗

2023-01-21

Matter is officially a paid service (if I want to get all the goodies). Well, my queue is full of unread articles. So this should be an excellent indicator to decide whether or not to subscribe.

2023-01-21

Google’s official announcement of incoming layoffs:

I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices. Source: A difficult decision to set us up for the future

And comment from Gruber:

There are numerous reasons the tech industry wound up at this layoffpalooza, but I think the main reason is that the biggest companies got caught up in a game where they tried to hire everyone, whether they needed them or not, to keep talent away from competitors and keep talent away from small upstarts (or from founding their own small upstarts). These big companies were just hiring to hire, and now the jig is up. Source: Daring Fireball

Here’s my view on this. Google is not alone. Microsoft and Meta announced major layoffs too. I’ve been working in IT for over thirty years, and I have never been in such a situation where we have so much difficulty finding or hiring new people. Big companies are competing for great talent not only with each other but also draining talent from smaller companies. It’s very difficult to compete in this context.

I think what is happening is not as catastrophic as it sounds. We will see a redistribution of the workforce in the industry. A lot of talent is being freed in the process from the big ones and is now available for the smaller companies where management is more sound, and financial posture is in good shape.
2023-01-21

During my trip to South America, I decided to shoot every photo in RAW (using iPhone 13 Pro). If the picture isn’t worth editing or publishing, I can easily use my “RAW to JPEG” shortcut to convert the image into JPEG and delete the RAW version. If the photo has real potential, I leave it in RAW for later editing in either Apple Photos, Pixelmator or Lightroom, depending of the editing required. Those photos are added to a dedicated album, for easy retrieval. I no longer use Camera+, Halide or Lightroom Camera module. I want the iCloud Photos library integration.
2023-01-07

This is my current content creator workflow and tools. I recognize that it is more focused on the tools but not the flow between them could be better explained.
2023-01-08

Can someone tell me what this iCloud Drive status means? I don’t appear to have any synchronization issue and yet, the icon seems to indicate the opposite. A special thanks to Apple here for the obscurity of their UI. 🫤

Dear @manton, How can I get the “reply with Micro.blog” on my post details?

Today is the day I turned my Twitter accounts (apple_observer & numericcitizen) into private mode. It’s the last step before disabling them altogether.

I recently wondered if I should put a title to a Microblog post or not (see my post). I finally came up with an easy decision process.

Most of the time, my post won’t include a title. Much longer and feature posts will get a title. I don’t expect many of them here, though.

Can you imagine that at some point in the past, I included #hashtag in the title because MB would cross-post my content to Twitter, hoping to get traction from those on Twitter searching with #hashtag? It was a bad idea in retrospect.

This post had no title. 🤣
2023-01-08

Now, I’m wondering if I should keep a “Replies” page on my microblog website. I don’t think people care to see what and to whom I’m replying. Your thoughts?
2023-01-08

If reports and rumors about Apple’s upcoming products this years are to be believed, 2023 looks to be pretty boring. I’m ok with this only if Apple spend more time fixing things instead of constantly adding up and pilling up unfinished features. What worries me is that Apple’s Reality Pro (what a weird and uninspired name) becomes a resources draining hole within the company for a product that is so niche.

Personally, I’m 99% sure to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Ultra. The next possibility is the 15-inch MacBook Air.
2023-01-08

Physical buttons are increasingly rare in modern cars. Most manufacturers are switching to touchscreens – which perform far worse in a test carried out by Vi Bilägare. The driver in the worst-performing car needs four times longer to perform simple tasks than in the best-performing car.Source: Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, test finds | Vi Bilägare

I’m not surprised by these results. My wife always told me she wouldn’t buy a car with a touchscreen-only dashboard. Not only that is the fact that it is far less secure to use a touch screen simply because we need to look at the screen for a long period of time, diverting our attention to what is happening in front of us.

My gut feeling is that, eventually, we will return to a hybrid model when screens have to cohabit with physical dials and buttons. I’m paying close attention to what Apple will do in that space. The next generation of CarPlay that we got to see last June at the WWDC conference points in the wrong direction. But who am I to judge, you might ask!
2023-01-09

Today, you can choose not to drive a Tesla if you don’t want Elon Musk, Inc. knowing everywhere you go.

Tomorrow, you might have to limit where you live because you won’t live in a Google Home and reconsider having 20/20 vision again in exchange for the artificial lens company seeing everything you see.

Privacy is not something you can “vote with your wallet” on. We either protect it as a human right or we lose it altogether.

#privacy #humanRights #BigTech #peopleFarming #capitalism

👀🤔
2023-01-09

With the introduction of an always-on display in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, many users have wondered how much impact the feature has on battery life. A new video takes a careful look at just how much battery drain there is with the always-on display and whether turning off the wallpaper reduces that drain.

And

it was found that by having the wallpaper enabled for the always-on display, an iPhone 14 Pro will drain around 0.8% per hour, compared to 0.6% an hour for the wallpaper disabled on the always-on display.
Source: Test Shows How Much Battery Drain Your Wallpaper Causes on the iPhone 14 Pro’s Always-On Display - MacRumors

People asked for an always-on display because Android had it for a long time, and they got it. Be careful for what you wish for. This is something that Apple could improve with a more power-efficient A17 this coming fall in the iPhone 15 Pro line.
2023-01-09

I cannot count how often I select an image, thinking it will look nice as wallpaper. Most of the time, it sucks. Would it be cool if Apple added a smart album with selected photos based on their potential to be great as wallpaper? This could be something done using on-device AI, just like face recognition.
2023-01-10

Why is it so slow to read content in Apple News in general? Opening an article in News takes 2 to 3 times longer to render than its equivalent through the RSS feed in News Explorer (my RSS reader). Another case for RSS feeds.
2023-01-10

During my trip to South America, I started to experience RSS feeds sync issues in News Explorer. None of the feeds would update, even after resetting the sync status for all feeds. It lasted a few days. It was very inconvenient. I couldn’t get my news and instead had to visit websites individually, which implied getting content I didn’t care about (ad placements, other promotional stuff, etc.) After a while, the issue fixed itself. It was due to very slow network connectivity.

Long story short, RSS feeds are central to my content reading workflow. Without them, I’m lost. The convenience of having all the feeds converge in one app, without the noise, is unbeatable. Long live RSS!

Dear @manton, please consider adding share sheet support on MB client on iOS so we can easily create link posts. What should be included: source link, options for quoting text and a comment. Thanks. 👋🏻🙏🏻
2023-01-10

Has anyone noticed this weird behaviour in Apple’s Photos app when browsing images shot in RAW format? Let’s say you shoot a photo in RAW and then switch to Apple’s Photos app. Tapping on the thumbnail brings up the image, and after a few seconds, the image gets changed to a lower-quality version. Contrast is lost, and exposure is somewhat lowered. The result is a dull image. My possible explanation is that the thumbnail is a JPEG post-processed interpretation of the RAW image that is presented in the UI. When tapping on the thumbnail, the RAW version gets uncompressed and presented, which replaces the full-size JPEG preview version, hence the image quality degradation. 

Do you have a similar understanding, or do you have another explanation?

Must watch video about the iPhone photography quality. Are the photos shot on the latest iPhone 14 Pro better than other high-end phones?? Are they the best ones? There is no universal answer for sure, but I find iPhone photos to be overly processed by Apple”s “magic sauce” called: software or, better yet, computational photography.
2023-01-11

I just finished expanding the descriptions of the apps and services in my toolset.
2023-01-11

A pivotal year for AR/VR? Hu.ma.ne are set to announce their thing this year. Apple is reportedly set to announce their AR/VR headset this year. Other than that, it is expected to be a quiet year for Apple, helping to set the stage for a focus on the headset. BYW, the updated Mac Pro, a niche product, won’t make much noise in the grand scheme of things. What else will bring noise on the line? The iPhone 15 switching to USB-C? Then what? Nothing that I can think of.
2023-01-11

And the Mac and the iPad continue to move closer together… Source: Gurman: Apple working on touchscreen Macs – Six Colors

Jason Snell reacting to an article on Bloomberg about a possible new development for the Mac in 2025: touchscreen. I’m unfazed about this rumour at all. Touching the screen will probably represent 10%-20% of user interaction use cases, while the touchpad or the mouse will grab the rest.

There is one thing that I wonder if it would be possible: can you imagine the macOS UI reacting to the finger coming closer to the screen without actually touching it, something along the lines of the hover gesture with the latest iPad and the Apple Pencil? That could be interesting to watch. Apple will need to increase the size of UI elements, right now, many things are way too small to interact with the fingers. So yeah, the Mac is getting closer to the iPad.

One last thing: I would have thought that Apple would start with the iMac instead of a MacBook Pro, though. The bigger screen and the lack of a touchpad on the iMac would make the touchscreen a helpful option.
2023-01-12

As we can see, while there are definite improvements in Windows 11’s design consistency, they are somewhat superficial (but still more thorough than those that were introduced with Windows 10), and there still is plenty of room for improvement. However, compared to Windows 10, at least most of the “casual” UI is somewhat consistent.

In 2023 Windows 11 will reportedly get 3 of the new “moment” updates, which are supposed to bring in new features and UI fixes. Not only that, but Microsoft is thought to be working on decoupling the UI elements from the rest of the OS even further, so we should probably see more improvements more quickly. Source: State of the Windows: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11? – NTDEV

The conclusion of this excellent article about Windows 11 UI design inconsistencies is a bit off compared to the rest of the article. You really have to have a look for yourself. Windows, as it is shipping today, contains a plethora of previous-generation UI design languages, all packed together. When I look at macOS, I fail to find any similar example. Now, my question: why can Apple change everything in the UI (like when they introduced macOS BigSur) and not keep old UI designs? What is Apple doing differently? Is macOS easier to maintain than Windows? Or is it because Microsoft simply doesn’t care enough?
2023-01-12

I really like how Substack is evolving as a platform for content creators, especially for writers. I kept my account open after moving from Substack to Ghost.org. You may disagree with the fact that you don’t really own the content or whatever, but Substack is evolving quite a bit. If I compare the features set when it started and today, it is night and day. They are really killing it. As a member of Substack (free) and Ghost (paid), I would say Substack > Ghost.

I would really like to find a niche use case for Substack. And I thought that 2023 was the year of focusing more.
2023-01-12

I still can’t believe how different the interaction I get here, on Micro.blog, compared to what I used to (not) get on Twitter. It is night and day, literally. I’m blown away 🤯 by the quality of responses I got to some of my posts and the discussion that this sometimes triggers. I do get in touch with people here that I never thought was possible on Twitter, even thought we were following each other over there, thanks to Mastodon and Micro.blog “talking to each other.” I’m so appreciative of this digital community. 😃
2023-01-12

Something will have to happen in 2023 in the Mastodon world. I would love to join (even though I said I wouldn’t). Now that I’m starting to get it, to understand all this is about, I fail miserably at finding an instance that I can join and fit my content publishing desires. 

And now Twitter suspends third-party app? Really? Another good reason to GTF of this platform. I’m so happy to be Twitter free now. Even though I find Tapbots a bit lazy in updating its apps (the macOS app hasn’t been updated for quite a while the last time I checked), they are great ones.
2023-01-13

👉🏻 Getting ready for: numericcitizen.micro.blog 🔜 blog.numericitizen.me
😎
2023-01-13

What’s Really Behind a Subscription Fee?

This video from birchtree@mastodon.social resonated greatly with me today. Here’s why.

First, someone is finally calling out something about software subscriptions that I always wanted to call out myself. Every developer seems entitled to charge a subscription for whatever reason. Matt brilliantly illustrates that some subscriptions are ok, some are borderline ok, but others are not.

For applications like Notion or Craft, developers must pay costs for hosting the backend. For example, Craft’s backend seems to be on the AWS cloud. In that specific case, it’s clear that a subscription makes sense. So we must help the developers pay their bills, right?

Things get more controversial when the developers charge for a subscription, even though no backend services are required. Why would the developers go with a subscription model, then, you might ask? Well, this is where I want to chime in. The developers may not have to pay hosting costs, but what about their development time? It is as if we value infrastructure costs more than craftmanship time. It should not be this way.

I’m willing to pay for software or service using a subscription if the product comes with updates regularly. Matt has shown Tweetbot as an example. Well, this isn’t the best example because Tweetbot rarely gets any updates; it doesn’t fit my criteria for using a subscription. CleanShot X, absolutely yes. I recognize, through my subscription, not only the value of the service but the time it took to put it together and keep it running fine. I’m willing to support the developer for that through a subscription.

We pay 5$ for a drink that takes less than a minute to prepare at Starbucks. Why is it so hard to pay for developers’ time, spending weeks or months writing great software? Also, we must try to consider not only backend bills when deciding that a subscription is ok; craftmanship is something to pay for too.
2023-01-13

blog.numericcitizen.me should point here on Micro.blog hosted website, while numericcitizen.me should point there to my main website on WordPress.com. I hope I didn’t mess up too many things. 🙃

Please, would you check for me? 🙏🏻
2023-01-13

👉🏻 Well, that was fast: @numericcitizen@techhub.social 😎

Reasons why I joined this Mastodon instance. 1) I like the name “techhub.social”. 2) It’s operated by a Canadian. 3) He speaks french and has a Ukrainian flag on his profile.. 4) I’ll be able to see the interaction between Micro.blog and a Mastodon instance.

Micro.blog will stay my home, but I’ll experiment with Mastodon, even though I said and wrote that I would focus this year. Damn.
2023-01-14

Thought of the Saturday morning: I like the principle of logging my digital life activities, especially my actions leading to content publishing. The Logbook in Things 3 and Dayone and IFTTT greatly help here. [Rewind](https://www.rewind.ai) would be fantastic on the Mac, but it is way too expensive. 

PS. What you are seeing in the screenshot is my actual logbook in Things 3. 

As we get closer and closer to 2023, with announcements surrounding Mastodon ecosystem, the latest being the creation of an instance by the creators of Mammoth, a Mastodon client, my challenge will be to not succumb and get my own account. I want to focus in 2023, that’s why it is a challenge. That said, creating an instance to ease the adoption of Mastodon with a simple setup and sign up procedure is clever.
2022-12-31

I wish I had prepared a year in review post. Not this year. Maybe next year.
2022-12-31

This one for @maique from Punta Del Este. 😉

As you can see, my plan to exit Twitter is well underway. I think I could turn this shit off by January 1, 2023. It was much faster than I initially thought. This to-do list gives you an idea of how deeply Twitter was embedded in my digital life. Well, no more.

Merry Christmas 🎅

Just posted on my Twitter account.

"This account is being phased out. I no longer believe in Twitter as a viable and valuable social platform. I don’t share any values with Twitter’s owner. Hence my decision to leave soon. You’ll be able to find me elsewhere as documented here: https://www.craft.do/s/9ILVvNnwHVAmJk"

Comparing Elon Musk at Twitter to Steve Jobs at Pixar

When I read articles like this one from The Washington Post about Elon Musk’s current tenure at Twitter, I think about Steve Jobs's tenure at Pixar. Both are quite different leaders, but I think Steve Jobs had a much more positive impact on Pixar than Musk on Twitter. My comparison comes from the belief that Steve could be seen as a jerk or be very hard on people. Elon is certainly seen and behaves like a real jerk. His leadership image is being tarnished every single day. 

A Few Observations on Apple’s Latest AirPods Pro

I got a pleasant surprise under the tree for this Christmas🎄: AirPods Pro 2. Some observations: I would say the clicking sound when closing the lid is different, with a bit lower tonality. The setup experience is top-notch, of course. Sound quality is definitively upgraded with more present bass and deeper sound. Noise cancellation is better too. I’ll have to experience it in a noisy place like an airplane tomorrow. For my next trip, I will leave my AirPods Max behind (they are too big for sleeping on the plane) and use the new, much lighter ones and easier to travel with.

Any Mastodon experts in the room? One quick question: how do I proceed to “reserve” my content creator name “numericcitizen” in the Mastodon world? I understand that I need to select a Mastondon server first where the account would be created, am I right? Then, what else?
2022-12-25

A Few Takeaways About My Mastodon-Related Questions Today

Thanks to all who replied to my question regarding Mastodon. What a great community over here! Never had this in fifteen years on Twitter. 😊

Here are a few takeaways (many may be obvious, duh!). 

1. Just like for emails, one cannot "reserve" a username in the Mastodon-friendly world. Makes sense.
2. Registering with a specific instance (or server) is mandatory just like opening an account with an email provider. 
3. Using a custom domain that I own is something I should consider doing. 
4. I should probably go ahead with my custom domain name for Micro.blog before doing anything related to Mastodon. 
5. Setting my websites (I do have a few) to display my Mastodon username or profile is a good idea too. 
6. Setting my Mastodon profile to display my website is another good practice.
7. Finding an instance I can relate to is probably the most daunting task if my research is any indication. I didn’t find any so far. 
8. I still don’t understand how a Micro.blog compatible Mastodon name is helping in any of this. 
9. Having a registered account on a Mastodon won’t do much for me. I already get everything I want on Micro.blog. People can follow me from their Mastodon instance, and I can, too, from Micro.blog. 
10. Thinking about all this on Christmas day shows that I don’t have a life! LOL

Anyway, happy holidays to you all! 👋

Leaving the Nikon D750 Behind

Can you believe it? As an amateur photographer, I’m leaving my Nikon D750 home for my upcoming trip to Brasil. This trip certainly classifies itself as a once-in-a-lifetime event, yet I won’t bring my camera with me. There are a few reasons for this. First, I’ll be on a cruise ship for most of my twelve-day trip. Second, I don’t feel it’s secure to bring such gear to some parts of Rio or Sao Polo when we go off-board. Third, it’s tough to beat the convenience of an iPhone 13 Pro in the pocket. The Nikon bag with all my lenses feels quite heavy at times. I’ll see when I return home if I made the right decision.

Thinking About 2023 and My Future Creative Projects or Experimentation

It’s the time of the year where I start to think of my upcoming year from a content creation perspective and as someone who likes to try new things. Here are a few things that I’m going to explore. First, as a subscriber of SoundCloud, I’m finding it hard to find content for my DJ mixing experimentation. More often than not, those publishing content on SoundCloud wants you to buy  what's available on Beatport. Someone told me recently to use Beatport instead. I may switch from SoundCloud to Beatport for 2023. Second, I’ll continue my slow migration from Smugmug to my Exposure page. Smugmug was good but didn’t fit well with what I expected from a modern photo-sharing service. Third, I finally found a use case for recording videos with CleanShot. I’ll use it to add short video clips showing how to use specific features and tricks in Craft. Those clips will be added to The Craft Bible (a website dedicated to Craft, the document writing app) and will come as a complement to my YouTube channel. It’s fun to be full of projects.

30 Years of Platforms Learning

To celebrate my calculator app PCalc turning 30 today, I've written up all the history I can still remember:

http://pcalc.com/thirty

There's also a rare 30%-off sale, which runs until midnight tonight, PST:

Mac:
https://pcalc.com/store/pcalcmac

iOS:
https://pcalc.com/store/pcalc

A big thanks to everybody who has used PCalc during the last three decades!

I never bought PCalc but for as long I’ve been following the Apple story, PCalc always was somewhere to be seen in a magazine, on the web or an App Store. What a great way to learn, explore over the years.
2022-12-26

On Making Apple Lovable Again

The DMA holds the promise to return Apple to an earlier age without these gluttonous service and tax aspirations driving seemingly every major decision at the company. The EU just might make Apple lovable again by outlawing their monopolistic excesses. What a twist. Source: Apple’s big monopoly loss comes curtesy of the EU

For once, I agree with David Heinemeier Hansson. Apple’s arrogance is slowly killing all the magic.
2022-12-26

Flighty is such a great iPhone app. Here Flighty is showing in a shiny and clever way that one of my flight is 2h20m late at destination. 😳🤦🏻‍♂️

Would buy an iPad in a vending machine at the airport? The model was a 64 GB iPad latest model at 599 CAN$. Same price as in Apple Store.

Remembering Sad Souvenirs With Great Words and Images

Here’s a great visual recollection of a trip to Italy back in 2011, when Steve Jobs died. Great images. Gentle words. It’s not only about the iPhone as a great camera, but about Italy, a place I visited last summer, and how it felt to be there when Steve death made the news. Must see and read.
2022-12-27

Thought of the day: airports are probably the most user hostile commercial environment that we can think of. Bad UX. Wrong expectations management in general. Badly designed physical areas. The list goes on and on. Convince me of the opposite. 🫤
2022-12-27

**Which is Best for Photographers: Twitter or Flickr? **

Which platform is best for photographer between Flickr and Twitter if you have about the same number of followers on both? You might think it’s Flickr? According to this experiment, you get 2x more exposure on Twitter, but you get 2x more engagement on Flickr. Things get even better on Flickr if your photo gets selected for Flickr Explore page.

The “views” count definition is not clear but I would think that Twitter’s definition is a wide one (I don’t trust them for being honest about anything). A tweet could get a view count if it goes through an API without guarantee of human actually seeing the picture.

Personally, I prefer engagement over views. This is something to expect I guess from a photo-sharing service like Flickr or Glass. Finally, this is an indication of Twitter being an empty promise for photographers.
2022-12-28

AirTags can be quite useful and… stressful to track. Here we are in the plane quite ready to depart and yet my main luggage is still in the airport. 😵‍💫🫣

Technology shouldn’t create anxiety like this.

I would rather buy a Micro.blog client from Tapbots than a Mastodon client. There. I said it.
2022-12-28

It’s funny how I’m rediscovering people on Mastodon (via MB) who I first met on Twitter in 2009, 2010 or 2011. People moved away from one platform to go elsewhere.
2022-12-28

**Should Apple Offer AI-based Services at the OS Level? **

In recent months, we’ve seen the addition of many AI-based features in apps like Notion and Craft, two apps that I know pretty well. Now I’m wondering if it would be a good idea that Apple integrates such features at the operating system level. Just like we can double tap a word in a text and get its definition from the dictionary, wouldn’t be cool if we could select a whole text and ask for a summary or anything involving the selected content? Apple would have to decide which AI sources to use or provide users a choice, just like for search engines. Any apps manipulating text would instantly benefit from this added capabilities. Your thoughts?
2022-12-29

Editing the framing of a photo in Apple Photos.app is tricky. Initial framing suggested by Photos.app is always tight compared to the maximum possible. I generally prefer to relax Apple’s assumptions here. This is something important when working with relatively low resolution images at 12 MP, the native resolution of my iPhone 13 Pro.

I always wonder if I should put a title to my posts. Short post = no title. Longer post = with title? Long post without a title gives a preview of the post content which is good for readers to see what the post is all about? Decision decision decision.
2022-12-30

Twitter Is Xenophobic Now

I’m in violation of Twitter’s guidelines because I do promote content coming from other social platforms. I do use Linktree and have my Linktr.ee URL set on @numericcitizen.

This new "Promotion of alternative social platforms policy" on Twitter deserves memorializing for the pure idiocy of it.

Less Than 1%

The longer you’ve been on Twitter (I joined in 2007), the more likely that most of your followers are inactive accounts. My guesstimate would be that less than 1% of my followers are actually active, and even fewer actually care about what I’m saying or posting. So why on earth, give a damn?

I’ve stopped clicking on Twitter links. Starve the site of attention.

The Cost of Twitter

I could save more than a whopping 400$ annually by shutting down my Twitter accounts. Thanks to the potential removal of a few service subscriptions from my workflow and potentially unjustified without Twitter in my digital life: Buffer, Typefully, Mailbrew. 

It’s incredible how thinking about my Twitter reliance makes me realize so many things on so many levels in my content creation workflow.

Rewind: Thanks but No Thanks

After watching a recent video from Matt Birchler about Rewind, a constant screen recording utility for the Mac, I was excited to give my email address and get onboard the waiting list for early access to the app. I got my invite a few days ago. As much as I would like to test this app, here's this deal-breaker for me: 20 US$ per month to get on the early access program, no thank you. Why?

I understand Rewind is still in beta, but the developer wants me to pay for testing the application. Shouldn’t it be the other way around so I get a rebate when the app goes out of beta? I mean, even with a 30-day “trial” I still can’t get over this. If it’s 20 US$ a month now for the early access, what will be the price of the final product then? Even more expansive?

Rewind makes me think of CleanShot, and I find Rewind’s pricing overly expansive if I think about the scope of both apps. 

Rewind is a great idea, even if it pauses many security risks, but I’ll pass for now.

On Twitter’s Attention Seekers

On Twitter, you can get notified when someone starts following you. Sounds great until it isn’t. You know, many people will start following others to get attention about their existence, hoping to get a follow back. It’s easy to know they are seeking your attention because after a few days they will unfollow you. I always despised this behaviour. For this reason, I prefer Micro.blog’s lack of notifications when someone starts to follow me. I don’t pay attention.
2022-12-19

I get way better interactions here on Micro.blog (more often, better quality) than on any other platforms I ever spent time on. Just a not-so-random thought.
2022-12-19

So what do have here… quick and dirty review coming soon. 🤓🤗

2022-12-20

My Experience With Tidbyt LED-Based Display

After six weeks of waiting, I finally got this little LED-based display called “Tidbyt”, a reference, I guess, to the old Lite-Brite game which came out in 1967 (I had one when I was a child).

Tidbyt is an intelligent wireless LED-based panel that displays content configured from the Tidbyt app available on a smartphone. Physically, the device feels high quality and well-designed and is framed with real wood, reminiscent of mid-century furniture.

Content is configured using applets that you put together on a canvas. The display content will switch from one applet to another in the order defined on the canvas. Applets can be set to display only on a specific schedule, but the scheduling options are rather limited. It’s very simple to set this up.

Once the display is plugged into power via its USB-C cable, it will wait for the configuration to be done from the smartphone, a six-step process. Bluetooth is required to detect the display, and a Wifi network is required for the display to get its data from the Internet.

The applets catalogue is growing but still is relatively limited. Thanks to an SDK and open APIs, developers constantly add new ones. The display is bright and can be adjusted according to a manual setting or time of the day. There is a night mode, too, if you want to put the device in one bedroom.

The screen resolution seemed low at first, but from a distance, it is surprisingly good, enough to display small images.

All in all, the Tidbyt makes a great addition to my home office, and people at work have already noticed it during Teams meetings and are asking questions about this little thing sitting on the shelf behind me.

Installing Windows in 2022

I just spent part of my morning installing Windows 10 version 22H2 on a virtual machine with VMware Fusion 12 on my recently acquired 2013 Mac Pro. God, it’s been a long time since I experienced the Windows installation process. It is so freaking slow (way faster to install a Linux machine, BTW) and with so many reboots. I still prefer Apple’s macOS in that respect.
2022-12-21

Why Close My Twitter Accounts? Here Are My Five Reasons

I think it is essential to elaborate on why I will close my Twitter accounts in 2023. This is not something to do lightly. So, after much thought, here are my five main reasons.

1. I disagree with the values and views as they are expressed by its new owner: Elon Musk. Even if he resigns, it won’t matter much. Elon Musk has broken too many things since he became the owner. Twitter is a broken platform and cannot be trusted.
2. I no longer want to feed the beast (user tracking, advertising networks, algorithm-based timelines). I won’t pay to get rid of 50% of the ads or whatever Musk decides to ask for.
3. I no longer trust Twitter’s sustainability and ability to thrive in the future. Twitter has become a loser in my digital landscape. If anything, Twitter has become the other wake-up call for the toxicity of a centralized web. The time has come for decentralizing the Internet.
4. Twitter doesn’t add significant unique value to my digital life anyway. Most of what I’m getting from Twitter can be found elsewhere.
5. Before I decided to close my accounts, I wanted to focus on one of my two accounts anyway (numericcitizen) instead of apple_observer, but it doesn’t have enough traction to warrant the efforts for the change.

What are your reasons?
2022-12-21

Found a great place for my Tidbyt.

Assign to All Desktops - A Must Know macOS Stage Manager Trick

Updated my last Mac to macOS Ventura and discovered something super useful when using Stage Manager.
If you want to have an application always visible, make sure to select “Assign To: All Desktops” from the application icon in the Dock. This is particularly useful with the Finder so we can easily do drag & drop of a file into the active window; the Finder needs to always be available for this to be possible.
2022-12-22

Write.as: Are You Fediverse Friendly?

Write.as and Fediverse support (or lack of):

Write.as doesn't render the URLs of both the toot and the PeerTube video. The HTML embedding code does work, but the rendered video is not responsive and doesn't blend well with the page on mobile.

What I’ll Lose By Leaving Twitter

As per my current analysis and preparation for leaving Twitter, here’s what I’m going to lose.

• Access to product announcements, most of which I track because they are part of my workflows (Examples: Glass, Unsplash, Substack, Opal, Readwise, and 90 more). This could be hard to replace, not all websites support RSS feeds.
• Access to some public services status messages like special events or some type of alerts.
• Two of my Brews on Mailbrew that are entirely based on Twitter content will need to be deleted.
• Interaction with people following me who won’t leave Twitter to go elsewhere. I rarely get replies, though. Not a big loss.
• According to [my Plausible page](https://plausible.io/numericcitizen.micro.blog), 50% of visitors coming from non-direct sources are coming from Twitter. One way to mitigate this is by enabling RSS feeds and letting people no in advance other ways to get in touch.
• Quite a few of my published articles or blog posts refer to my tweets as links or embed. They won’t show up anymore when I turnoff public access to my tweets. That's not cool.

Musing About Writing Needs And This War

Earlier this year, back in May I think, I started a subscription to Write.as. Why? I was curious about this platform for writers and there was a special for a five-year subscription. So, why not! Then I started to write about my reactions to the war in Ukraine. I wrote maybe a dozen of posts on this subject. I had to let go my feelings. Then I stopped. But I still follow the news about this senseless war. I’m still in state of mixed feelings ranging from feeling helpless, frustrated, desperate, raging, etc.

Now, I don’t know what to do. Should I continue writing on Write.as or move my written frustrations elsewhere? Here? I don’t know. Enabling posts import to my timeline from the Write.as RSS feed might be a good solution.

Tell me what you think about dilemma.
2022-12-22

Starting from now: I no longer cross-post my original Micro.blog posts to Twitter. Curious to see how bad it will be for my visitors analytics.
2022-12-22

Sometimes I wish I had started blogging fifteen or twenty years ago. It would be so cool to have this long stretch of writing at my disposal and reflect back at what I wrote. I guess I’ll do just that in ten or fifteen years from now… 🤷🏻‍♂️
2022-12-22

More is Indeed Better on Micro.blog

I receive more user feedback or interactions in a day here on Micro.blog than in an entire month on Twitter. On top of that, the quality is 100x higher too.

Think about that for a second.

Thank you guys!
2022-12-22

An iPhone + a Belkin iPhone Mount + macOS Ventura + FaceTime Call

I finally tested a FaceTime call with my iPhone 13 Pro and the Belkin iPhone mount with my M1 MacBook Air running macOS Ventura. The setup was easy. iPhone automatically detected as a possible camera source within FaceTime. The image quality was obviously top-notch. The sound was great too. The tabletop feature required a bit of tweaking but eventually led to good (but not “top-notch”) results.

The only problem is the weight of the combined iPhone 13 Pro with a case and the Belkin mount: the screen panel of my MacBook tends to move back during the call. Oops. 🤣
2022-12-23

After Closing Twitter, Medium Will Be Next

The next victim of my "digital cleanup" will be my Medium account. Even though I stopped writing original content there a while ago, I currently get a few cents a month of revenue, maybe a few dollars when I’m lucky. It’s tough to expand the readership over there. My revenue used to be enough to pay for my Partner Program annual membership, but not anymore.  All in all, the time has come to move on.

Getting Ready for the Holidays and my Next Trip

Closing out my working session with my office for the holidays. What a year it was. Now is the time to finally get ready for Christmas and everything that comes with it. Next, on December 26th, we’re leaving Canada for Brasil and our first cruise trip in five years! 😅
2022-12-23

That is a hell of a low pressure. Very windy now. Lots of rain earlier. Getting way colder by tomorrow.

Digital cleanup night. Medium Partner Program: Cancelled. Buffer: Cancelled. WP for Buffer Plug-in: Cancelled. Typefully subscription: Cancelled.

Feels much better now.

Twitter: you’re the next.
2022-12-24

If you don’t have a website, a blog or a newsletter and only exist on Twitter, then I give up. You’re not worth it. Thought of the night.
2022-12-24

The Digital Cleanup Continues

This morning, I visited IFTTT and Zapier to turn off ten applets which were using Twitter. My About page was updated to remove references to my Twitter accounts. While at it, I removed all references to Medium and GetRevue since they are no longer used.

I still have to figure out how I will follow people on Twitter who are valuable (there are a few) but refuse to move elsewhere. I might use  News Explorer to follow them, cutting the noise because I refrain from using a Twitter client. It’s not a perfect solution because I would get all their replies which makes things noisy. Speaking of Twitter clients (Twitter & Tweetbot), these were removed from my devices too.

It is one of the most comprehensive digital cleanups I ever did since 2007. For the upcoming year: I’ll focus on the open web services and tools for publishing most of my content. There are a few exceptions: YouTube and WordPress.com.

I may sound a bit extremist.

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. It’s 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. It’s 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. 

I’m starting to use this Mac Pro for a project that requires an Intel processor. You can read about it here if you are curious.

Sorry for your timeline flooding about this Mac Pro thing… probably a big in MarsEdit 5.0. Returning to normal programming now.
2022-12-10

Isn’t that weird that we need to jump to an external website to enjoy the 2022 Replay? Why not have it within Music.app itself? 🤔

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!
2022-12-11

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 TwitterDump™.
2022-12-11

Matter to begin offering a subscription early next year. It was bound to happen. I’ll have to take a position and choose sooner than I originally thought. 🤦🏻‍♂️🫤

When Ukraine Is Home of Great Software Makers

I recently wrote my satisfaction about Readdle’s Documents.app on-boarding experience on the iPad. Now I’m reading about Spark’s cleverness take on emails. Without being as opinionated as Hey.com, Spark is a serious professional email client. Readdle’s home is Ukraine 🇺🇦 too. I’m considering integrating both software in my toolset. All good reasons to show some support to them.
2022-12-13

Following Mastodon Users 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

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.
2022-12-13

On Apple’s Freeform and Tools Palettes

Freeform, the visual and collaborative application from Apple, is finally out for the iPad, the Mac and… 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 Freemform’s palette. Following is a comparison of both. At the top is the Apple Notes tools palette. At the bottom is Apple’s Freeform. The latter seems a bit childish, too simplistic. I really wish there were more pencil types. 

Other than that, I didn’t test the collaborative work with someone else. I see Freemore as more for individualistic creative work. I’m not sure yet if I’ll ever make good use of it. Certainly not at work, as we’re more of a “Microsoft” business. Time will tell. 

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, it’s massive. I can imagine Apple's engineering efforts to make it happen for WWDC 2023. I wrote earlier this year that I  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. It’s not an easy task to keep things simple. I trust Apple to find a good compromise. 

I don’t expect to use apps installed from other sources, except if there is a significant pricing difference or if it’s a unique app not available otherwise. 

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, I’ll 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. I’ll 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? 

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?

I love the idea of Ooh.directory, blog directory and most supporting RSS feeds. I submitted mine. Will see if they accept it.
2022-12-14

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? 🫣😂
2022-12-14

Exit Plans are Important — 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. I’m learning my lesson the hard way my friends. More to come soon.
2022-12-15

Eyeing the Rumoured 15-Inch MacBook Air

Apple’s rumored 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ is expected to feature the same general design as the 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ 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.
2022-12-15

Nobody Cares Apple Missed Their Apple Silicon Timeline birchtree.me

Matt is right, we don’t care. I don’t care. The big enigma, though, is the Mac Pro. What is it going to look like?
2022-12-16

Hands Down to Hand Mirror Plus

Just got my notice for the Hand Mirror update today. The latest release offers a paid version, for which I gladly paid. Why? Hand Mirror is a great example of useful software with attributes of the work of great craftsmanship. It was an instant buy because of this. The onboarding screen is simply gorgeous. 

Twitter — It’s Really Getting Worse

According to media and users on Twitter:

Many Twitter users added a Mastodon profile link into their bios as the Twitter alternative picked up steam. Now, any links to blocked Mastodon servers are disabled and accompanied by the text “Warning: this link may be unsafe.

And

Twitter on Thursday evening suddenly suspended several high-profile journalists who cover the platform and Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world, who acquired the company just a few months ago.

Hours after the suspensions took hold, Musk faced off with one of the journalists he suspended in a Twitter Space audio discussion before an audience of more than 30,000 listeners. The suspended journalist, along with several others, found a backdoor way onto the platform through the website's audio function.

“You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it,” Musk said, explaining his latest policy to the group, before he left minutes after having joined the discussion.

Wow. What a shit show. After suspending targeted individual accounts, now it appears it is getting more systematic. Is there an employee at Twitter capable of saying no to Musk even if it means being fired? Or is Musk at the command and personally disabling those accounts? 

Twitter is turning into USSR with a fake free-speech proponent leader.

The Stars of the Show for 2022 Are…

If I look back at my software usage in 2022, three stars stand out:

1. Raycast
2. Things 3
3. Screenflow

Things 3 returned after more than a year of trying Apple Reminders and Craft Daily notes. It was a futile exercise. Things 3 is beautifully supporting my content creator workflow. Managing to-dos has never been so enjoyable.

Screenflow is essential to my YouTube video creation workflow. I don’t use FinalCut Pro, Luma Fusion or anything that sophisticated. I could use Screenshot screen recording too, but Screenflow is really the simplest and most focused video creation app out there that clicks with me.

I love using great software.
2022-12-17

Found in my Micro.blog bookmarks collection:

Culture is shaped by SEO experts and algorithms. Neither of which have our best interests in mind.

Mailbrew, Typefully and Twitter

I finally found how to reconfigure my Mailbrew account to log in without using Twitter. Good thing. I don’t log in often in Mailbrew, but this morning I learned that I’d need to adjust many things when I close my Twitter account. As an example, this newsletter setup will need to be revisited to remove any references to Twitter as a data source.

Mailbrew is an excellent tool for generating newsletters, but it hasn’t been updated for quite a while (October of 2021, according to the change log). The developers behind Mailbrew are too busy working on their other product: Typefully, a web service for writing Twitter threads. I’m subscribing to both services. Typefully was cool when it launched but being entirely dependent on Twitter puts them in danger IMHO. I don’t use Typefully much, preferring Buffer for scheduling cross-posted content to Twitter, something Typefully doesn’t support. 

It’s sad to see Mailbrew coming to a halt. Typefully will go down the drain with my Twitter account closure next year.

On “Load Bearing Mac Mini”

Is this true?

12 years ago, Twitter’s office used a Mac Mini to tunnel into the servers. One day, an IT guy found it in the closet.

“Anyone know who owns this?”

“Unplug it. Someone will show up.”

Everyone lost access to servers. Huge crisis. It became known as the “Load Bearing Mac Mini.”

Twitter Down, Micro.blog Up

I would love @manton to speak out about how the current Twitter turmoils, people flocking to Mastodon, and the ability to follow people over there right from my Micro.blog feed is increasing Micro.blog engagement, subscriptions and general usage. Personally, I’m much more active than before.

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 it’s 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.

Anyways… it’s a great update that I’m currently testing. Returning to normal programming.

Written from the couch, on my M1 MacBook Air.

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 voilà, no more password required! That’s super cool.

Glass Is Evolving Nicely

It’s 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. Can’t wait for Glass’s next move.