Numeric Citizen Blog

A newcomer in the sources of trafic in my analytics: ChatGPT.com. 🤨

Gurman: Jon Prosser’s iOS 19 Mockups ‘Aren’t Representative’ of Redesign - MacRumors

To be honest, Prosser’s video gives a very limited peak at iOS 19 redesign. More than 3 min 30 sec of introduction followed by a sponsor segment then followed by a short discussion about four limited mockups. Not his best work.

From my point of view, with recent security breach from the government members, more signs point to being much closer to a dictatorship than we are willing to admit. Many cabinet members are using Signal on purpose because they don’t want scrutiny, they don’t think they owe anything to the American people.

WWDC25: Still entirely online? No in-person labs or sessions? Only the keynote to be live? Is that it? Oh, and this glassy font, I’m not too fond of that.

So AirPods Max will get new audio features. The fact that only the USB-C model will support this is utterly frustrating, and I wish someone will sue Apple for that. Reason? When Apple launched the USB-C model last year, I don’t recall them saying there were upcoming features that wouldn’t apply to the Lightning port model. It looked like the only difference was the charging port. It appears that’s not the case, or Apple is trying to limit the features artificially to the new model.

Notion Mail is Gmail with a different coat of paint. Prove me wrong.

Today, I’ve been to an Apple Store in Ottawa, Canada. My daughter in law bought a M4 MacBook Air. I even forgot to check the new blue Air! I wasn’t expecting this: I’m no longer excited to go visit an Apple Store. Times are changing.

My content creator ecosystem got updated today. Enjoy and I hope you find some inspiration in my digital tools selection.

I’ve been using Apple Invites app for a family-related event in early May. It’s a rather nice app for a family entrenched into Apple’s wallen garden. But a majority of people don’t understand that they need to visit the invite link then accept or refuse, instead a majority of invitees will reply to the message by saying “I’m going”… which is not enough… something is broken.

If you screenshot a post on Reddit on your iPhone, you get a warning telling you that sharing the post gives better results…. Yeah, of course, but for who are they advocating here? 🤔 spoiler: not the users.

I believe that for the first time in five or six years, not changing my digital presence is a positive thing. This feeling is especially strong since I resolved my email issues with Fastmail. Now, everything fits perfectly and meets most of my digital needs. It feels like time has stopped.

My transition from HEY Mail to Fastmail is likely the best digital move I’ve ever made, and I wish I had done it sooner. It’s truly a blessing. ICYMI: the migration process is available here.

For some time now, I’ve had a question that keeps coming back to my mind because I often use Bluesky to express my distress or frustration against Trump, Musk, and the entire little clique of authoritarians at the head of the United States. If, in the near future, the situation in the U.S. deteriorates to the point where government groups start hunting down activists like me, who openly denounce Trump’s authoritarian policies and his inner circle, should I censor myself to avoid any form of persecution when I decide to return to the United States?

I fear the day when bloggers will be hunted down to silence them—or worse, to have them arrested in the name of disrespecting the American presidency. Is it precisely the presidency’s game to instill fear so they can continue their authoritarian actions by manipulating people like me?

BREAKING NEWS: a foldable iPad prototype was found on a table… at an IKEA store in Canada. The prototype was turned on and was running a special version of macOS Touch™. Tim Cook wants it back, but the guy who found set two conditions: you must resign because of Apple Intelligence fiasco, but before you must ask Trump to remove tariffs against Canada. Canadians can be nasty, too.

I’m starting to get excited about the rumored redesign of iOS 19 because I love visionOS UI. Will current apps adopt the new iOS 19 visual language automatically, or will they need to be recompiled for iOS 19 in order to do so? How long Apple will support the pre-iOS 19 UI changes?

I spotted a great game on Steam a few months ago, Tiny Glade, and I was ready to buy it because of a promotion taking off 20% off the price until I found out that it doesn’t run on Macs! Too bad because that’s exactly the type of games that I like!

Here is an observation about Apple Intelligence (yet another one you might say?): Image Playground was announced at WWDC2024. It finally made its debut with iOS 18.2, in December 2024. Since then, we got iOS 18.3, now iOS 18.4 is in beta. Did Image Playground improved? A new image style was introduced, in 18.3, I think. Does it provide better results? Not really. Is it easier to use? Nope. On this subject, I must confess that I personally find Image Playground not to be the best UX Apple ever created. I find it clunky and not always intuitive to use. After two releases, Image Playground is basically the same. Isn’t it surprising, coming from a company who’s playing catch up in AI space? The same questions could apply to Writing Tools. I didn’t test text proofing with each release of Apple Intelligence, but I would bet that it didn’t really improve. Strange.

I need to find the time to update and finish this photo-sharing services comparison table. Anyone interested in the completed table?

One quick question tonight: those people who worked for a government agency in the US and got laid-off by DOGE or anyone close to them or because of them, what are they doing now? Where will they find their purpose? I’m thinking about the scientists, social workers, phycologists, Are they going to work for the private sector or simply increase the unemployment rate? I mean, there are so many human dramas unfolding right now.

Om Malik on Apple in today’s world:

Apple has become a complex entity that can’t seem to ever have enough resources to provide the real Apple experience. What you get is “good enough.” And most of the time, I think it is enough – because what others have on the market is worse.

Much worse.

Gruber:

“Tim Cook should have already held a meeting like that to address and rectify this Siri and Apple Intelligence debacle.”

We may not know for sure whether such a meeting will occur or has already occurred. I believe it won’t happen for one simple reason: Tim Cook is not focused on products.

Remember when many tech pundits (and ordinary users, too) were saying that Apple wasn’t really good at services? How about this updated version: Apple isn’t really good at AI.

I’ve been an Apple fan since 1983, and everyone I know—my friends, colleagues, and family—understands my enthusiasm for the brand. Recently, they’ve been calling me more than ever to ask about my thoughts on Tim Cook’s support for Trump. “Apple is becoming like the others; what do you think?” they all inquire. I struggle to express my sadness about this situation. Tim’s poor judgment in supporting the Trump presidency is disappointing. I hope he regrets his decision. Until then, I want him to step down. It’s as simple as that.

The latest post from @gruber@mastodon.social about the delay of Apple Intelligence and the ongoing fiasco serves as a reminder that Apple needs to change soon. It’s another big red flag something is rotten at Apple. Should I mention that Tim Cook’s financial support for the Trump presidential inauguration, whether personal or not, was another mistake? Apple could have and should have acted differently than Meta, Amazon, and others. They did not. We had all the warning signs regarding Trump, and now Tim is associated with this nonsense. There is no possible excuse. It was a poor decision on Tim’s part.

I believe it’s time for Tim Cook to take responsibility and step down.

I love my 2024 iPad Pro, but there is a clear regression in hardware+software for palm rest detection. Each time I put my hand on the screen when taking notes using the Apple Pencil in Apple Notes, the content scrolls up, sometimes not by much, but sometimes quite a lot… I always need to lift my hand, reposition the content and try again. This is utterly frustrating; this is something that I never experienced with my 2018 iPad Pro… this is something that Apple used to be good at.