Numeric Citizen Blog

Quick update on my writing in public project: I received my first comment/feedback today, which triggered some small changes. I hope to get more feedback like this. As a reminder, this project is an article I’m writing about upgrading to the just-released iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Tomorrow is OS 27 day! I’m excited to catch up on and test any updated apps related to Siri AI and Apple Intelligence. So far, my experience beta testing Craft has been mixed. Siri AI seems to have limited access to Craft content, especially with nested documents (pages inside a main document container). “Play” is a great one where it can summarize YouTube videos using Private Cloud Compute.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to reconnect with my former university colleagues (1987-1993). For many of us, it had been 35 years since we last saw each other. We had a lot to catch up on. We all studied computer science and have all had careers in that field. For many, it’s a time of reflection and retirement. That’s not my case yet. I’ve been fascinated by several of their journeys, and I’ve noticed a shared feeling about artificial intelligence: it’s both impressive and dizzying, moving too fast, and we’re questioning what the next generation will look like.

This is the first year in a long time that I’ll gladly tell people to upgrade ASAP to Apple’s OS 27. Better Liquid Glass design, rock-solid stability, and noticeably faster performance? That’s enough to make me look like a hero. 🤣

Alright, it’s iPhone pre-order day! I’m going for the “boring” silver color, with 512GB of storage, iPhone 18 Pro Max. The last time I had a silver iPhone was the iPhone 6, which was utterly ugly with the apparent lines for wireless connectivity. I think today’s iPhone are better looking in that respect. Also, the rounder edges really improve the look and the in-hand feel if my handling of an iPhone 17 Pro Max is any indication. Can’t wait for next Friday!

I want these multitasking gestures on the iPad!

Live Rewind and Siri Recaps are Apple Watch Series 12-only features and fall under the Audio Intelligence umbrella. We can read people arguing about how creepy or not these features can be. I’m still pondering the question myself. I have a feeling Apple postponed AirPods Pro featuring Visual Intelligence because it wants to educate users and gauge social acceptability with Audio Intelligence. Visual Intelligence will have to wait.

The bezels on the Series 12 Apple Watch are thicker than those on my Series 10. I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it. 🤔

I’m about to start a new, exciting writing project documenting my experience of upgrading from my current iPhone 15 Pro Max to the iPhone 18 Pro Max. This won’t be a traditional old-versus-new comparison. Instead, I want to focus on the leap in features, the subtle improvements, and the new possibilities that open up when you skip a few generations. I’ll be exploring how this upgrade changes my daily routines, my creative work, and my overall relationship with the technology I rely on. One more thing: it is my first write-in-public project, and you can follow the adventure right here¹.

I enjoy writing in my personal life and at work. In the latter case, it’s an important part of my responsibilities. The IT department is currently deploying and assigning Copilot Premium licenses. I’m still waiting for my turn, but from what my colleagues tell me, the experience of using Copilot with access to our documents, emails, conversations and notes is quite positive and almost magical in some situations. I look forward to trying out Copilot, especially since I write much more than most of my colleagues¹ and since writing is their main fuel, I’m up for a few positive surprises. I have a feeling that I will finally benefit from my consistent efforts.

Nobody is talking about the lack of improvements to the iPhone 18 Pro Camera Control button, probably because nobody is really using this. I’m a little bit disappointed.

Apple Shares Mysterious Teaser Video Before ‘iPhone Duo’ Event Today — MacRumors

The main 48-megapixel Fusion camera on the iPhone 18 Pro and/or iPhone 18 Pro Max is rumored to have a variable aperture, which would allow users to control the amount of light that passes through the camera’s lens and reaches the sensor.

Seems obvious that they are confirming this with this teaser! Good news.

Our next step as Canadians is to reconsider our stance on honoring energy export agreements with the United States. I’m supporting Mr. Carney so far, and I would be willing to support him if he asked Canadian provinces to consider it. We need to stand up; it’s about our sovereignty, not only about economics.

Update #1: Or, another idea is to kill the F-35 contract negotiations.

Someone reacted to my argument about the iPhone Duo potential naming:

@numericcitizen @daringfireball I had a Duo 230 and loved it. The thing that made it Due was not that it was two complementary pieces of hardware. It was that it served two functions, laptop and desktop computer. This iPhone looks like it is going to serve two functions, phone and tablet. We'll know more when we see it introduced, but I think those two functions align with the Duo name.

I think he’s right, and my argument was flawed.

While it is true that Eddy Cue and John Ternus intend to increase revenue from services and the App Store, a new potential source of income lies in the capabilities of Apple Intelligence, especially those of Siri AI. We’re not there yet because they are just emerging from a long slump and don’t necessarily enjoy good press. But let’s let Apple regain momentum with Apple Intelligence: developers will adopt advanced features, and then, when the time comes, Apple will surely find a way to add a charge somewhere between the developer, the users, and Apple. Apple Intelligence+ will naturally emerge on its own.

I bet the foldable iPhone won’t be called the “iPhone Duo”. Why? As I shared with Gruber, the Duo reminds me of the Macintosh PowerBook Duo system from the early nineties, where you could ‘insert’ the PowerBook into a docking station to form a ‘desktop’ setup. The Duo and the docking station were two separate subsystems that could work together to form something bigger, more useful and convenient. The iPhone Duo doesn’t convey this at all.

I bet it will be called the “iPhone Ultra” because it will be premium hardware; the ultimate tech Apple can bring to the foldable phone space.

I’m running out of space on my Synology NAS. I’m wondering whether deleting the individual recorded segments that make up a full YouTube video is a good idea. I could also delete ScreenFlow projects and keep only the final videos. I’m not sure it’s a good idea. Thoughts?

Doing some digital archaeology this morning with my newly built personal digital assistant¹ that can dig into my past publications. This is so fun and empowering.

Today I deleted my Flipboard account, one of the first iPad apps I used daily. I was using it to cross-post content to a Flipboard magazine, hoping it would attract more readers, but it didn’t gain much popularity. As a user, I also didn’t rely on this service for content consumption, preferring an RSS sync service with my preferred client. I like the concept of flipping cards; it was novel back then, but not anymore.

Just finished watching: Widow’s Bay Season 1 📺 What a weird, unsettling ending. The table is set for season 2, I guess. Very unheaven storytelling.

This is not only cool but also useful. Now, I can query content from both Ghost (numericcitizen.me) and Micro.blog (blog.numericcitizen.me). See meta.numericcitizen.me for implementation details.

Manton Reece amplifying a report from Gurman.

Worrisome indeed. I cannot believe Apple’s management team isn’t aware of developers’ discontent with the App Store. More than ever, it’s easy to write a bunch of simple apps, running as web apps, no store needed. Apple should pay attention.

In today’s world, it is surprisingly easy to go from a problem to a viable solution in just a few hours. The problem: I can’t query my published content hosted on Ghost beyond using the basic search capabilities¹. Now, with the Ghost API endpoint, a Postgres-hosted SaaS, an n8n sync workflow, a Claude Skill, and Claude Desktop, I can.

Now, I wonder if I could reproduce this design for querying Micro.blog content. Let me ask Claude AI. Stay tuned.

I’ve been posting a few things on Moments recently. It’s another experiment, and I’ve liked it so far. It’s very niche, but it’s fun. I like Snapseed, my main app for creating these images. Below is an embed using an iFrame; I’m not sure how it will render, if at all.

I enjoy the weekend before the fall iPhone launch because of the unpredictability of last-minute leaks. It’s especially thrilling when it’s the year you’re planning to upgrade to a new iPhone. Upgrading from the 15 Pro Max to the 18 Pro Max will certainly feel like quite a significant upgrade. Also, I’m really looking forward to John Ternus’s first keynote. Will there be a one more thing? Would it be too easy, too early, during his first keynote to present a one more thing?

The one problem: I won’t be able to watch the live feed, and I might have a family thing at night that day… 🫤