Here are a few quick comments on Deliveries 9.0 that came out recently. Deliveries 9 helped me track my Apple Watch Series 6 (read me review here). As you know, Junecloud, the maker of Deliveries, switched to a subscription model with this release. I don’t really like this model but what can I do? Their pricing is fair and they give to previously paid users a six months break. Version 9 brings refined visuals and more details tracking history among other things. Continue reading →

At 99$ each, the HomePod mini would find a space on my desk for sure. I care more about size than Siri lacking intelligence with the HomePod. Being able to play music while I work without having to use headphones would be an improvement for me. www.macrumors.com/2020/10/0… Continue reading →

Will there be anything left for Apple to announce next week at the Hi, Speed event? Thanks to leakers on the internet, probably not much. I can’t thank them enough for spoiling things, again. There was a time where leaks helped people to adjust their buying decisions, but I feel they no longer fit that purposes. It is more like a search for some kind of fame. Continue reading →

What am I doing wrong while doing https://numericcitizen.micro.blog from Safari from iPadOS 14? @help

Is the *.micro.blog certificate expired? @help Issue with RSS and website browsing…

What iOS 14 widgets could have been. Much more interesting interaction model which looks to be more “direct manipulation-oriented”. Will we have to wait for iOS 15 or even iOS 16 before seeing something like this? That is something Apple could have done… Continue reading →

I’m keeping that one mockup to see how well it will age when Apple releases the new iPhone lineup next week. I like the dark blue color. But what is missing from these mockups is the edge of the devices. The iPhone 4 and later the iPhone 5 squarish design were one of the best Apple came up with. We’ll see how they execute around the same idea with the iPhone 12. Continue reading →

Rumors are swirling around upcoming products from Apple. What is becoming more persistent is the possibility of an HomePod mini announcement. I’m not sure if it is already “dead on arrival” or if Apple is about to give the smart speaker market a second try. Will it take more than a smaller footprint, better sound quality and lower price? Yep: an ecosystem of apps built on something like “siriOS”. There are no signs at all of this… which would be a massive surprise. Continue reading →

We should never read too much in Apple’s invite graphics. They rarely have anything to do with the content of the event itself except maybe with the iPad with Retina Display invite a few years ago. Remember the finger on the screen? Besides the obvious, an iPhone 12 line up announcement, what’s in store? AirTags? Updated Apple TV with Apple’s own game controller? HomePod mini? Don’t expect Apple Silicon Macs until November. Continue reading →

Using the latest release of Ulysses for iPadOS 14, it is a joy to write on the iPad. Now, what am I writing, you might ask? More than 1700 words to express my current view of iOS 14 widgets: where are we, what’s left and where it could be going. It was supposed to be a 5 min reads… now I’m at more than 7 min. Oh well. Should be out in the coming days on my main blog at https://numericcitizen. Continue reading →

Undiscoverable, Essential UI birchtree.me

Apple and undiscoverability in their UIs... a never ending issue.

Today is Christmas! Basecamp just released version 1.1 of their email client for HEY which supports WIDGETS among other things! I played with it and I LOVE the way they added the feature. Nicely designed and useful! Congrats to them! Now, I have to get back to work on my article on widgets and remove HEY as an app without widgets support! Continue reading →

I miss him. The world is different. Apple has become something else. He would probably like what it has become without him, probably not all of it but most of it. I don’t care what he would have done differently. It’s no longer relevant as we need to keep looking forward, something he always did. But I still miss him dearly. Continue reading →

I have a 2018 11” iPad Pro. Today, I asked myself: what upcoming features or improvements could entice me to upgrade my iPad Pro? I’m still scratching my head. Faster? Nope. 😐 Lighter? Not quite. 🤨 More system memory? Mmm not really. Maybe. Maybe not. 🙂 Better screen? Is it even possible? 😬 Longer battery life? Nope. 🙄 Better speakers? Nah. 🥱 Integrated U1 chip? 🤔 A new size? Depends. 😶 Smaller bezels? Continue reading →

By curiosity today, I went in the battery health section on my iPhone 11 Pro to find out the current status is 96%. Already. I’m a bit surprised by this as I’m mostly at home and using my computer or my iPad. How could I loose 4% in a year? Continue reading →

I’m currently testing the beta of the upcoming reimagined Medium mobile app and I love it 🥰. For once, a redesigned experience is not synonymous of going backward. More on this soon.

I’m thinking way too much about widgets these days, thanks to iOS 14 most prominent new feature. I’m still reflecting on the possible reasons why the full widgets experience is not available on iPadOS 14. That being said, @mattbirchler this week came out with an interesting and informative video showing how Apple could possibly enable the full widgets experience. This morning, still thinking about this concept, I realized something: Apple doesn’t need to keep the today view support on the iPad in order to enable the full widgets experience. Continue reading →

My Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is out! Check it out, it’s free! Lots of stuff about Apple, photography, privacy and climate change! #newsletter #apple #photography #privacy #climatechange

Here is a free tip to those developers thinking of adding widget support in their apps: widgets are not a great way to display information from high density, high speed info channels like social network feeds (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc). You are welcome. #iosdev #apple

Learned something really cool today. A few weeks ago I published my review of the well known router, the Unify Dream Machine (available here). The context of this review was the fact that this new router was replacing my aging Apple AirPort. One of the reasons why I chose this device was because of its external look and finish as well as its superb management app. One of the founder of Ubiquiti is an ex-Apple employee according to this 9to5Mac article: “an ex-Apple employee went on to found a company that currently sells enterprise networking gear. Continue reading →