With iPadOS 15, the more home pages you create on the iPad, the more you’ll wish Apple made a “home page switcher” just like the “app switcher”. Maybe I should file a feedback report. 🧐

What if nobody really knows what is going on? (#google #privacy #surveillance)

What if nobody at Google knows exactly what their data hungry engine is all about? I mean, what if nobody has a global picture, so nobody can say “oh my god, it’s terrible, we must stop it!”. This makes me think of the nazis in second world war: very few had a global picture of what was really going on. It was devised this way so it was easier to “manage” and keep the machine humming.

Another coat of paint to Windows UI mess? (#windows11)

So Windows 11 is a thing. Is it a revolution to Windows? Maybe, maybe not. It depends if you can install it on your PC, which is far from certain. But let’s say you can, how deep goes the UI refresh? Is it like it was for Windows 10 which was supposedly a redesign of Windows 8 which was tweaks to Windows 7 UI that came before it. Here is a simple question: Did Microsoft really clean up the Windows UI mess that it has become over the years? I don’t care too much about windows transparency level, toolbars, icons. Getting rid of UI legacy feels a more useful and laudable endeavour.

On design trends — sadness

While reading a recent article from Basic Apple Guy about News+, there is this illustration that shows how far Apple News icon has come since its beginnings. I have included the illustration here. It shows how bad design has become in the last five to ten years. That is really depressing to see. As much as things like AR and LiDAR technology help bring real world and virtual world closer together, UI design seems to go the opposite direction. Why is that? When will that trend stop and maybe revert a bit? Why can’t we get visually joyful icons anymore? Is it a matter of design costs being too high?

A few observations on my iPadOS 15 beta2 experience so far

So, I took the plunge and installed iPadOS 15 beta2 on my iPad Pro. A few observations. It’s beta and it shows. Home screen and widgets placement is janky. One springboard crash so far. All my apps are working just fine. Battery life is taking a hit. Text recognition in pictures is jaw breaking and open up all sort of new use cases. The QuickNote feature is a nice addition that will complement my blogger workflow. QuickNotes appear as regular notes on iOS 14. The loupe is back, thanks god, but I think refinements are needed: it is hard to distinguish from the surrounding text. I completely redone my home screen arrangment. I didn’t setup Focus modes yet as I’m not done with home screens setup yet, both are tied together. I love the new notifications design. I’m really liking iPadOS 15 so far. I use App Library a lot, much more than on my iPhone. 1x1 Widgets are replacing application icons on my first home screen page and I love it! Reordering of home pages is alone enough to justify upgrading! Didn’t use the new multitasking a lot yet, just played a bit with it and it’s a good improvement. Alt-tab in split-view will switch focus between the apps, welcome in 2021. Unpopular opinion: I kind of like Safari’s new design, not sure if this will hold true on the iPhone, though. I love the new keyboard overlay at the bottom of the screen; it is no longer as wide as the screen. I like the refreshed design of the shortcuts editor and the suggestions. That’s it for now. Back to home pages setup.

When hackers strikes personal NAS-type devices

Pool Western Digital My Book Live NAS owners… many of them woke up to find out that their content was gone from their devices. Apparently, hackers came in by using an unpatched vulnerability on devices where the last update was issued in 2015 by Western Digital. This brings me to ask the following questions: were those devices directly connected on the internet? If yes, that dumb. If this was a known vulnerability, why WD didn’t issue a patch? Companies should be required to publish security-only fixes for far longer than they do right now. I’m sorry but 2015 isn’t that old for such a type of devices. Finally, I personally own a Synology NAS, obviously not directly connected on the Internet, yet, I have to wonder if it is still secure. I’m planning on enabling 2FA to add another layer of protection, though.