Numeric Citizen Blog

Variable aperture lens confirmed!

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:26:06 -0400

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.

United we stand 🇨🇦

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:36:16 -0400

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.

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 07:28:06 -0400

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.
Frank Malinowski https://mastodon.social/users/frankly/statuses/117232832997991808

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

Apple Intelligence+

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 07:24:37 -0400

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.

Naming the foldable iPhone

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:32:07 -0400

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.

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:56:49 -0400

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?

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:13:34 -0400

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.

Maybe I should give it a name? Numeric Citizen Assistant? Or what about my Digital Gofer? Or Numeric Citizen Gofer? ↩︎

Bye Bye Flipboard

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 08:35:38 -0400

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.

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 22:18:46 -0400

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.

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 17:04:04 -0400

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.

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 16:40:50 -0400

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.

From a problem to a solution

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 13:40:19 -0400

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.

Searching the article content base for research purposes is super useful. I can’t remember when I talked about a specific subject. ↩︎

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:39:41 -0400

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.

Really looking forward to Sept 9th next iPhone launch

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:31:37 -0400

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… 🫤

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:43:41 -0400

After watching this YouTube video about the upcoming Apple hardware release, I must say it got me excited for the iPhone Fold or Ultra, or whatever name they decide on. Yet, I’m in for an upgrade to the iPhone 18 Pro Max… I’m a camera guy.

The Best Gift

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 07:24:35 -0400

Today might be one of the few times I visit Facebook¹😔. I’ll do so to acknowledge those who write, “Hi JF, happy birthday, and have a great day.” 🙂 and thank them. Over the years, fewer people bother to run their automated yearly greetings; they know I’m not active on Facebook. However, many, even if they have my phone number, don’t switch to iMessage to send their wishes.😔 True friends acknowledge my stance with Meta and choose to skip Facebook, sending their best wishes the right way. 🫠 Not posting on Facebook to say “hi” is a birthday gift itself. 🎁

I still have a Facebook account but don’t use it; I use it to respond to people who don’t know anything other than Messenger. ↩︎

CleanShot 5.0 is out, Screen Studio is out

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:25:31 -0400

I wasn’t expecting this at all. Last year, I started using Screen Studio for its dynamic zooming effects. I really like those, but one thing I thought was a drawback: ScreenStudio isn’t really a native Mac app and doesn’t have the polish of CleanShot. I bought it. I made a few videos with it, then stopped using it. I used CleanShot for screenshots and a few very short clips for bug reporting. CleanShot is a game changer.

Studio Mode recording is not only a welcome addition to CleanShot but a superb implementation. Everything seems in the right place, at the right time. I see no reason to return to Screen Studio. Not only that, but I expect my ScreenFlow usage to drop quite a bit.

I have included a short clip just for fun, demonstrating a few clicks in another excellent piece of software: Birchfeed.

Birchfeed might be perfect for me...

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 21:57:35 -0400

Well, what a day… both at work and for my digital hobbies. I saw a teaser from @mattbirchler late last week, which made me think that he might be onto something with RSS feeds… Today I found my answer with the official release of birchfeed.app. There is quite a lot to unpack there.

First, from my experience with Birchfeed after a few hours using it (on the free tier), I came out impressed. It is another case of “build the best tool for myself”. Matt is an RSS feed junky just like me. I also built an RSS reader, but the end result is quite different. It’s not a sync service like Birchfeed, but an RSS reader for a blogroll (i.e. a very limited list of RSS sources).

Second, my RSS reader maintains its own data persistence. It’s not connected with my current RSS sync service: Inoreader. I’d like to have a single source of truth. Birchfeed seems to fit the bill, thanks to its APIs, and it would allow that for a fraction of the cost of using Inoreader APIs. After a quick investigation using Claude AI on my codebase, I could make the switch rather easily, and eventually drop Inoreader when my subscription expires next year. So I’m not in a rush, and Birchfeed will keep improving until then.

But, because I’m a nice guy who likes to support cool guys, I’m might subscribe to Birchfeed right before my free trial ends…

Apple at another inflection point?

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 17:46:37 -0400

My interest in Apple’s new leadership, John Ternus in particular, is heating back up. I’m utterly excited to see how Apple under Ternus will be remodelled and transformed. Today’s Bloomberg¹ article leaves no doubt that many challenges await Apple. That said, I don’t expect much change, starting with the impending iPhone launch, the last under Cook as CEO while the iPhone 18 line was under development. We have to look further.

I’m sorry, I won’t link to a Bloomberg paywalled article, but it’s free to read, under a murky article sharing scam. ↩︎

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:54:45 -0400

What is my fuckin problem? One moment… please. 👀 I’m so fuckin impulsive. 😱🤦🏻‍♂️

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 16:24:43 -0400

This photo series is coming to an end, just like summer.

Next up? Fall colors?

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:49:24 -0400

The end of programming

“I think the act of writing code manually and having other humans review it to create useful, working software is headed for extinction.”

Agree?

Aiming to discover and read more the web

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 13:27:58 -0400

Recently, I discovered two digital spaces for exploring the web: bubbles.town and Standard Reader. They are two entirely different but complementary approaches. Standard Reader is very focused on discovering publications. Bubbles.town relies on reader participation by letting users vote for an article, similar to Digg. I have set a goal to visit these two spaces every day over the next few weeks.

Vibe coding and desktop publishing

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 07:31:12 -0400

Since Claude Code exists, I have noticed a surprising phenomenon: more and more new applications are appearing on the App Store or coming to life as web applications accessible only to their creator-promoter. The process is called vibe coding. When I see people creating new applications with the help of artificial intelligence, I can’t help but think back to the era of the introduction of PageMaker, the LaserWriter laser printer, and the Macintosh. These three elements enabled the democratization of what became known as ‘Desktop Publishing.’ Many people who knew nothing about printing, layout, and design started creating posters, newsletters, etc. The results were not always of very high quality. Fast forward to today: artificial intelligence and tools like Claude Code are bringing us back into a similar context of high-velocity creation. It’s fascinating. The more things change…

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:51:29 -0400

MacRumors’s article “Concept Video Imagines Apple’s Foldable iPhone Ultra Reveal”:

A fan-made concept video depicts Apple’s upcoming foldable “iPhone Ultra” with rumored features including a 7.8-inch display, Touch ID, mechanical hinge, and A20 chip.

I hope it produces a satisfying ‘click’ when the phone is folded, just like the AirPods case.