November 6, 2020 9:12am

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Numeric Citizen

The Mac has gone through many transitions in the past and I was there for each of them. From the Motorola CPU, to the PowerPC and the Intel processors, Apple’s execution was almost flawless.

At the upcoming Apple Event, Apple will unveil their highly anticipated Apple Silicon Macs. When thinking about what Apple could do for this pivotal moment for the Mac, there is two possible roads Apple can take in regards to the general design of these machines.

November 5, 2020 12:57pm

Numeric Citizen

In the last few weeks, I repeatedly got a simple question regarding the Apple Watch: does it require an iPhone? One person expected to “pair” the watch with an iPad. The other is an Android user. These questions tell me something interesting. One, the Apple Watch is gaining traction among non-Apple users. Two, the quicker Apple can remove the iPhone requirement to get an Apple Watch, the better it will be for their bottom line. This could be something as important as the iTunes for Windows was back in the days.

November 5, 2020 8:26am

Numeric Citizen

On the eve of another “one more thing” moment, please read this interesting article on Medium. The author spent time to review all previous cases of “one more thing” announcements. They were not all game changers but the following ones were turning points: MacBook Air reveal, Apple Watch. Can’t wait for the next one as I expect it will be another game changer moment for the Mac.

November 4, 2020 9:50pm

Numeric Citizen

Here’s a quick and unrelated question: how old, on average, are people who love the design language of macOS Big Sur? Seriously, my bet goes to a much younger crowd than those who prefer macOS Catalina. Why? People who grew up with the iPhone and iPadOS has a much different design reference frame that those who grew up with macOS. The latter group seems to see Big sur as some sort of iPadification of macOS.

November 4, 2020 2:26pm

Numeric Citizen

As it becomes clearer what Apple won’t announce next week, an update to their Mac Pro, my purchasing plans needs to be updated accordingly. It makes no sense for me to go with an Apple Silicon Mac in the near future as I need Vmware Fusion to run Windows virtual machines in my SDDCbox project. Only an Intel-based Mac Pro can do it for me as we speak. Still, I can’t wait for next week’s announcements.

November 4, 2020 2:11pm

Numeric Citizen

I wish the iPhone Upgrade Program would come to Canada. I’m not holding my breath, though. I think carriers here wouldn’t let it happen because they know they suck at selling their shit, and this would greatly affect their bottom line. In any case, if it does come to Canada, I would upgrade my iPhone every year, for sure.

November 3, 2020 9:09pm

Numeric Citizen

I rarely if ever post political stuff here. As a Canadian, my sincere hope is that the American people make the furst step in order to put an end to this endless nightmare.

On a side note: I’m using  News to follow election night. So far, I like what Apple is doing here. Results are quick to be reflected on the maps, which can be drilled down up to the state level.

November 3, 2020 9:21am

Numeric Citizen

Interesting post from @Gruber about Facebook application design. The lack of support for basic things like dark mode, more than a year after its introduction is a simple example, but very telling about something: Facebook doesn’t give a shit about those things. They don’t give a shit about privacy protection either. They don’t give a shit about democracy. They are are bad at design. They are bad at everything. And their growth is slowly declining which is a bit of fresh air to know.

November 3, 2020 7:52am

Numeric Citizen

Another wonderful and really useful widget is finally available for iOS 14 and iPadOS 14: a precipitation radar. I’m a big fan of MyRadar but the app wasn’t yet updated to support widgets. Widget Radar, which is free by the way, is simple and minimalist yet effective. It is proudly sitting on my homes creen now, on the weather page.

Side note: Weatherline is another useful weather app, but it doesn’t allow the placement of the radar image as a widget, yet.

November 2, 2020 9:27pm

Numeric Citizen

Surprising rumors by Bloomberg about Apple working on a new Mac Pro, about half the size of the current model:

“Apple engineers are currently developing a new Mac Pro that looks like the current design at about half the size. It’s unclear if that Mac will replace the current Mac Pro or if it’s an additional model.”

As someone who is seriously contemplating to buy a Mac Pro, this information makes me pause a bit. My use case is for virtualization software which requires an Intel chip for running Windows versions in virtual machines. Windows on ARM is not on the horizon. I will enjoy an Intel Mac Pro for quite some time.

November 2, 2020 2:35pm

Numeric Citizen

There is a difference between what I expect and what are the things that I would really like to see. Here is a short list for this last Apple Event of 2020.

I hope for an Apple Silicon Mac with a full physical redesign of the Mac it is replacing. The re-introduction of the 12" MacBook with a refreshed design language, something that would be start of something new for all the upcoming MacBook updates in the future. I want Apple to mark the beginning of a new era for the Mac, not something in the form of continuity. I want Apple to turn the page and move beyond the Jony Ive’s era. Let’s start fresh, be forward thinking. Go past Microsoft’s Surface. Oh, this brings me to another wish: Touch support on macOS Big Sur and Apple Silicon Mac. Signs are pointing to this. That would be the real kicker of this year. Please, Apple, make it so. Impress me.

November 2, 2020 1:47pm

Numeric Citizen

Big surprise today, it came early, Apple sent their invites for a November 10th Apple event. Rumours were pointing to November 17th date. Happy the wait will be shorter than anticipated.

I love this tag line; it was used at many occasions by Steve Jobs to show something that could be a game changer or of high significance.

This early invite adds credence to those who think macOS Big Sur 11.0 is already being put on unreleased new Macs. Expect 11.0.1 to follow pretty quickly.

November 2, 2020 8:10am

Numeric Citizen

According to AppleTrack.org, there is a shortage of many different Mac models. Some shipping dates are slipping into December. It the case for the 21.5” iMac and iMac Pro. Troubling.

When Apple announced they were transitioning their Macs to use the new Apple Silicon, they also said they would keep updating current Intel-based models for a while. I don’t know this will translate in reality. If the iMac Pro is being updated this month, it could be for an updated configuration with an Intel CPU, not an Apple Silicon. The case of the 21.5” iMac is more interesting, tough. The 27” iMac was updated recently but not the 21.5. I’m not sure it is the first prime candidate for the Apple Silicon. I’m thinking more about the MacBook or the MacBook Pro which would highly benefit from the Apple Silicon.

November 2, 2020 7:45am

Numeric Citizen

One of my favorite macOS utilities, iStat Menus, just received an update to version 6.5 which adds support for macOS Big Sur. I know, yesterday I wrote that I was done with Big Sur… but it was for testing… I still have time in front of me to convince me this is the best release of macOS Apple has ever done.

iStat Menus will be ready when I’m doing the switch to this Mac Pro for my SDDCbox project. It will play an important role in giving me insights on the CPU and SSD access. For now, there are a lot of tweaks which will make this utility even better. Even their release notes is art!

November 1, 2020 12:11pm

Numeric Citizen

Since the beginning of September I’ve been testing macOS Big Sur. I’m still undecided about how I like or hate this release. I’m unable to get over the way Apple messed up the notifications center with widgets. Clearly, it is a regression. There was no good reasons to merge them on the same space. Widgets should have gone in their own area, taking full advantage of the big screen. I just don’t understand it.

October 31, 2020 8:39am

Numeric Citizen

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of an era. Apple is leaving behind the term “Golden Master” in order to adopt “Release Candidate” to refer to a version of its operating system sent to its developers that will probably be released to the general public. An an IT guy, I’m used to the term “release candidate”, “golden master” was such an Apple-only thing. I’m glad they make this change as it reflects the state of a release.

October 31, 2020 8:24am

Numeric Citizen

I’m an iPhone 11 Pro owner. Photography-centered reviews are interesting to me because they tend to compare this year’s iPhone with last year’s. MacRumors published such a comparison. Judging from it, if I could summarize the iPhone 12 Pro photographic advances, it would be like this. The iPhone 12 Pro improvements are mostly about edge cases because in normal situations, improvements are much more subtle. The addition of Night Mode on the Ultra wide camera is part of features uniformisation across cameras which is welcomed, though.

October 30, 2020 5:22pm

Numeric Citizen

As a blogger and a content-creator, how can I measure my success? Well, it’s not an easy one to answer. Each blogger could have its own way at looking at this. Personally, I could pay attention to my blogs visitors statistics, but there is one thing that I keep an eye on these days. I recently started publishing a free monthly newsletter on Substack. The membership is increasing, but what I'm looking for is easy: following a new issue of my newsletter, how many are unsubscribing? None, so far. To me, it’s some form of success.

October 30, 2020 12:41pm

Numeric Citizen

Sometimes in your life you come across some deals that you cannot refuse. Apple One is one of them. As a Canadian, by subscribing, on top of Apple News+, 2 TB iCloud storage and Apple Music,  I’m getting Fitness+ and Apple Arcade and… to my surprise, now I have 4 TB of iCloud storage. How good is that? Can’t wait to try Fitness+ and maybe help me go through these enduring times this coming winter while getting in a better shape?

October 30, 2020 7:36am

Numeric Citizen

Here is one of the most fascinating part of upcoming Apple Silicon Macs: the implicit support for iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac (as long as the developers care to update their apps, obviously). I wonder how massive this change will be. How will it change the third-party applications landscape on the Mac? How will it influence the pricing of both iOS/iPadOS apps and macOS apps? We tend to take for granted that software on the Mac is always more expensive compared to their iPad counterpart… The next year sure will be interesting to watch for Mac lovers like me.