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I’m spending way too much time designing the layout of my upcoming weekly creative summary😅. I decided to post it on my Ghost-based and share the document directly from Craft. It will be fun to see how it goes. 👀
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It would be so great and useful to be able to save great conversations directly from Micro.blog, like the one here about the iPad (https://beardystarstuff.net/2023/08/31/the-ipad-discussion.html) @manton
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This morning 🌅, inspired by @maique and @gr36, I decided to create a weekly summary of my creative work and everything that surrounds or supports it. It’s really fun to put together and helps have an introspection about the things I do and use. The first edition is going out this coming Sunday, Sept 3th, directly on Numeric Citizen Space1. Just one day before my birthday! 😃🎂🧁
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I will probably send it by email as a newsletter, too. So, if you prefer, subscribe now! ↩︎
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Some of my Expectations for Apple’s Upcoming “Wonderlust” Event
This is going to be about the iPhone, mostly. The iPhone 15, to be more precise. Of course. Apple will probably talk a lot about the A17 because of its new 3nm manufacturing process, ensuring some battery power savings while bringing faster processing. This will be welcomed for an always-on display device since the iPhone 14 Pro performance in that respect is not as good as it used to be. Will the A17 be Bionic? Something else? I trust Apple’s marketing cracks about this.
The titanium finish on the Pro line, a first for the iPhone, but something the Apple Watch is already sporting, will get some attention too. Maybe more than the A17. I’m looking forward to it because I wouldn’t say I like the current finish on the iPhone 14 Pro1. I hate it, actually. Thanks to my iPhone case, it’s a non-issue. If the Apple invite is any indication of the upcoming titanium colour finish, I’m in love already!
But the star of the iPhone 15 show will be the Ultra with the periscope lens, bringing telephoto photography beyond the 3x optic possibilities for the first time. This is what I’m waiting for. I expect an Apple twist to it.
I expect some updates about the Apple Vision Pro2. Apple will probably talk3 about how excited developers are for the device and remind us about how it will change the world4. Something on the gaming front could be in the cards, too, thanks to the game porting toolkit introduced at the WWDC conference. Are Macs finally good at gaming? Is a software trick enough?
And then what else? The Apple Watch will get updates, but not the redesign we are starting to hear about for 2024. The Ultra 2 is probably not for me. But we will learn about it, for sure.
Macs? Crickets.
This is what I expect for the upcoming “Wonderlust” event.
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Episode 02 — I’m an Iterative Type of Guy
While writing my next edition of the Friday Notes newsletter (#107), I realized that writing has never been a one-stretch thing for me. It takes countless writing iterations before getting things done. In this episode, I share my anxieties 😰 about writing in general ✍🏻. Plus, a few words about my expectations for the upcoming Apple Event “Wonderlust”! 👀
Links
- Jean-Louis Gassée’s “Monday Note” newsletter https://mondaynote.com/.
- Be Inc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Inc.
- Jean-Louis Gassée’s “Monday Note” newsletter https://mondaynote.com/.
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Waiting for the iPhone 15 Ultra
I’m really looking forward to the iPhone 15 Ultra👀. Coming from the iPhone 13 Pro, I skipped the 14 Pro1; I expect the camera improvements to be tangible. The telephoto lens could see the most significant improvements driving sales of the Ultra to new territories2. Using a periscope architecture, telephoto could jump from 3x to 6x or more. This could be the last thing that makes me sell my Nikon D7503. The softer and rounder edges and titanium finish might make this iPhone the best design of all time4. And, finally, USB-C will certainly simplify charging the damn thing! I wonder if I’ll still be able to use my Lightning Lavalier microphone using a Lightning-to-USB-C adaptor.🤔
It will be my first “Max” iPhone. Apparently, I’m on a stretch of going for the bigger screens5.
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I skip a generation to limit my consumerism habits. It’s an environmental issue here. ↩︎
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I depend on a 70-200mm zoom on my Nikon which is very useful on a trip. ↩︎
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I still thing the best design was the matte black iPhone 7. ↩︎
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I recently upgraded from the 13-inch MacBook Air to a 15-inch version. ↩︎
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Finally Settled on Blog Post Visual Attributes
After so many years of blogging, I think I have finally settled on the styling of each blog post. 😅 I like to emphasize key words with bold, making it easier to detect what this post is all about. Next is the use of emojis to make things a bit less serious and more approachable.🙂 Next is the selective use of Micro.blog’s post title for longer and more significant posts.1 😜 More recently, I started using footnotes because they add another dimension to the reading experience and are displayed in a nice popup on the site.2
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I played with Apple’s Maps Places feature, as shown in the following video. It’s nice, but it’s not exactly intuitive. There are many missing features, like setting a path between places and adding photos to a place within the guide, from the Photos.app for example to name a few. Also, it’s not clear if a shared guide gets updated if new places are added, or places are removed.
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In a world where we all struggle with how much we use our devices (let’s be real, we mean our phones), I think it’s kinda nice to have some places that just give up and tell us, “my dude, you’ve read it all, go do something else.” Source: Let the internet run out
I relate to this thought so much. Sometimes, enough is just… enough.
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This morning, I updated my online About page1, taking some ideas from Brian Lovin’s website. The page was built entirely with Craft’s shared document and custom domain name2. I wonder if this is something that Micro.blog should expand on and be added to the premium subscription. Cc @manton
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I updated my toolset website today1 with three additions under consideration: Digest2, Lazy3 and Heptabase4. The statuses of my current projects were also updated. Thanks for paying a visit.
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Use the table of content at the top of the site to locate the right section. Convenient, heh? ↩︎
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To replace Mailbrew. ↩︎
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A super-charged “save-for-later” service. Could replace Omnivore or complement it. I put myself on their waiting list. ↩︎
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A hard-to-define service / apps for supporting research. Could complement Craft. Or not. Another subscription. Gush. ↩︎
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One Podcast, Three Looks
I always subscribe to my own content distribution channels for quality control purposes 1. I’m using Overcast, Pocket Cast and Apple Podcast to display my latest podcast episode. In these screenshots, I selected the info button to display the episode details. I’m a paid subscriber of Pocket Cast. I prefer the Pocket Cast display, but it has a caching issue as it doesn’t get the latest podcast artwork, but the other two do2. Bold text is missing on Apple Podcast for some reason. The overcast look is… mildly ugly.
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Episode 01 — This Is Not a Drill!
Bad weather 🌧️ means time to the coffee shop for creative work ☕ 👨🏻💻 on my next YouTube video about Craft YouTube Integration. I paid a visit to the Apple Store to get my iPhone screen replaced 🛠️. I came out without a replacement; learn why in this episode available on Apple’s Podcast. 👀
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Snell, Gruber, Birchler, and I all agree about the iPad’s limits. When we hit one of its limits, it becomes a reason to reconsider. When I started using the MacBook Air, it was when I accepted the simple fact that I would be more productive on the Mac than on the iPad. I love the iPad. This is the device I bring with me on travel, but I do know perfectly that some tasks will need to wait until I return home.
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On Dark Sky and Apple's Weather
A Eulogy for Dark Sky, a Data Visualization Masterpiece
The design of Dark Sky was so wonderful that I could understand the shape of the weather at a glance, even from a zoomed out view of the app.
Great analysis of the now-defunct Dark Sky weather app. I’m a bit late on that one. I don’t remember using Dark Sky because I think it wasn’t working in Canada. I’m not sure about this. Once Apple took over and brought the redesigned weather app with iOS 16, we could visually feel the Dark Sky’s influence on it. But Apple being Apple, they dropped a few things here and there and made a few things their own. I tend to use Carrot Weather more, but recently, I deep-dived into Apple’s Weather, and frankly, they did a good job. Yet, there was something unique in Dark Sky that I don’t feel in Apple’s offerings. Is it too close to the Yahoo Weather look & feel? Maybe.
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We’re truly honoured to be able to announce that we have taken over development of Toolbox Pro, Logger for Shortcuts, and Nautomate. Source: Toolbox Pro, Logger for Shortcuts, and Nautomate | Snailed It Development Ltd
It is good to know that there is a future for this nifty utility. I plan to use it for a project involving Plausible analytics API consumption to display graphs using Chartyon my iPhone.
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I’m a big fan of AnyBox (YouTube video) and in the latest update (v1.27), information density increased a bit. I love it. 😍
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Getting ready for the next podcast edition, episode number uno! Fun or not-fun fact: Apple’s Podcast Connect doesn’t support “Sign in with Apple”. Weird.
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Am I alone who happens to get the iPhone keyboard displayed on the iPad instead of the full-size keyboard? My wife experienced the same thing many times. We don’t know how to make this thing revert to the normal size keyboard. Easy to make it disappear, but when it comes back, it’s still the small version. Very annoying to type on this.
