All Publications by Numeric Citizen

I don’t care who is managing Apple’s robotic team, but I do have one question: why does Apple need a robotic team in the first place?

People are upset since Synology announced tied control of drives supported in their recently updated NAS devices. As someone who works in IT with enterprise-class storage vendors like NetApp, IBM, and Hitachi, I am accustomed to this level of control. However, home users see it as a money-grab tactic. The truth might be right in-between. 

It’s now possible to change the default username provided by Ghost’s Fediverse support. Currently, it is @index@numericcitizen.me, but I’m unsure what to replace @index with. 👀

I had plenty of time this weekend, but I must admit that I didn’t accomplish much of what I intended to work on. Sigh. 😒

I always liked street art or urban art pieces. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #streetart

👤 Personal

1️⃣ Now that my home improvement project is (mostly) behind me, I’m turning my attention to my creative hobbies. I'd like returning to DJing, just for fun. I’d like to spend more time doing photography. In both cases, I have the required geared, I'm only lacking some motivation.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I discovered this blog, Brilliantcrank, after reading a link post. I couldn’t help but share my feelings. 2️⃣ According to this report from WIRED, large language models are out, and small language models are in, thanks to their many advantages and use cases. They take fewer resources to run, hence their capability to run on a small device like an iPhone, and they help bring more focused responses in niche domains. Part of their training uses synthetic data from large language models. 3️⃣ As this blog post explains, Manuel Moreale is taking over blogroll.org, a giant curated blogroll: "manually curated list of 643 fine personal & independent blogs and sites that are updated regularly.” I didn't know the existence of blogroll.org until I read a post from Manton Reece on my Micro.blog timeline. I feel that human curation is needed more than ever in today's internet. Otherwise, everything would fall behind an algorithm. You can find me as a supporter on the list of blogs.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ From January 2025 to mid-April, I lived in an apartment while my home was undergoing a significant renovation. I took advantage of the occasion to test cutting the cord and relied entirely on Apple TV to watch TV and other video content. I shared my experience in this article. The experience wasn't quite what I expected. 2️⃣ Medium shared how they approach AI for writing content. I find their take reasonable, but I wonder how hard they are applying it because I feel that a lot of content is written with LLM. Maybe it's being delegated to the publication’s owners and surfaced articles by the editorial team. Who knows. Scott Lamb reacted to the article by sharing his usual declaration that goes with the work he shares, which I decided to keep for myself: “I ideate and draft content in a text editor, refine it with the aid of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly and revise it to reflect my intended message.”

"I don’t delete my blog posts… even when it would be easier for me if I did. For longer posts I might add a note at the end to correct something, but most of the time I let it stand, or hope that replies on the post are enough clarification. The blog as a whole is the work." — Manton Reece

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ AI-generated imagery is eating into the photo licensing revenue turf, and rather quickly. Services like Unsplash, which offer a vast amount of free-of-charge photos, also provide a subscription, which could be affected in the long run. I considerably reduced my use of Unsplash stock imagery for my blog posts, preferring to use either my own photos or AI-generated ones. 2️⃣ Pixelfed now supports filters to customize your experience better. I added two filters to filter out birds and macro photography shots. 3️⃣ Going out for a photowalk with your son in London seems like a good plan. That's exactly what Greg Morris did recently; he shared a video about this. They made some really great shots together! 4️⃣ This week's photographer discovery: Carl Greenwood on Glass: essentially monochromatic photos, but many little gems. Then, I discovered Giles Thurston, another great photographer followed by Carl Greenwood. Glass is such a great place for photography lovers.

Carl Greenwood on Glass Photography Community

Carl Greenwood. Monochrome Photographer who is new to this platform and I also have a Vero account. No website, yet.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Is the iPhone 16 Pro immune to tariffs? Nope. Sorry, yes. Thanks to a clever strategy by Apple, iPhones were imported from India in massive numbers before the tariffs went into effect. Then Trump changed his mind. But still, Apple will not increase the price. Oh, and by the time this edition went out, Trump again decided to exempt Apple's devices from import tariffs. For now. 2️⃣ Apple Search Ads is now called Apple Ads. According to M. G. Siegler, this could point to a significant expansion of their ad business into other areas like Apple Maps and Apple TV. I'm not too fond of this predicted trend. Apple is a premium brand, and ads are the opposite of being premium. I don't want to see ads in Apple Maps, Apple TV or, who knows, macOS Settings app. Because of ads, I no longer visit Apple News; they ruin the reading experience. It just looks and feels cheap. 3️⃣ If recent reports are believed, Apple's Siri development seems to suffer from constant chaos. Was it under pressure for cost-cutting from Apple's past CFO? Maybe. The net effect is that Siri and Apple Intelligence are far behind what is currently possible from stand-alone services. 4️⃣ Rumours of iPadOS 19 call for Apple to fix some long-standing issues which prevent the iPad from acting and feeling like a modern computing device. It is not close enough to what we've got on desktop computers like the Mac. Fifth time a charm?

"The iPhone is in many ways the ultimate symbol of the age of globalized supply chains."

"When Apple says ‘this is something only Apple can do’ it often means that they just won't allow third parties to do it." — Gui Rambo on Mastodon

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ Many of my projects are related to managing changes in apps and services because my needs change. I went from HEY Mail to Fastmail. I went from WordPress to Ghost. I when from Blot to Craft and Micro.blog. Like Matt Birchler said: “Everything will change one day."

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Parker Ortolani argues that the Microsoft Edge browser is now good enough to replace the Arc Browser from the Browser Company. I use Microsoft Edge at the office, but I didn't spend much time trying to customize it to my liking. The only extension that I use is the iCloud Keychain. Maybe I should give it a more serious look because the Arc Browser is on the verge of becoming another abandonware. 2️⃣ If you want to tweak the menubar on your Mac and bring visual memories of macOS Maverick, Catalina or Tiger, now you can with this nifty utility: Lickable Menu Bar. I chose the Maverick version because of the nice gradient when in dark mode. 3️⃣ In a recent update, Craft introduced support for syncing Readwise highlights into a Craft collection. I tested the feature to import my Readwise content, and it works as advertised. My collection size is just under a thousand items, and I feel Craft lags while working with such an extensive collection. This Craft addition came when I decided to drop Readwise because of my lack of use cases, preferring to focus on Inoreader for my reading workflow.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Notion Mail is finally out! This video from Notion shows that Microsoft, with Microsoft 365, is sleeping on the job. I'm not a fan of Notion Mail being a client to Gmail, but I applaud the courage they have for trying something in this crowded and mature space. As a recent switcher to Fastmail, should I consider Notion Mail? Nope. I don't see the big thing in Notion Mail for me to switch, nothing compared to what I had when I switched from HEY Mail. 2️⃣ The Steve Jobs Archive is on YouTube. Just found out recently, thanks to a post by Michael Steeber.

Steve Jobs Archive

The Steve Jobs Archive is the authoritative home for Steve’s story and a resource for new generations eager to make their own mark. Our publications, programs, and collections provide people with the inspiration to think different, the tools to make something wonderful, and the confidence to put it out there.

YouTube

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I tried ChatGPT image generation to create a pixel art version of my business profile photo. Not bad. The first iteration was the best; subsequent iterations were not as good. I don't have a great face for a computer-generated image of me. Apple's Image Playground proves it, but ChatGPT too. 2️⃣ Synology makes it harder for clients to decide which drive to put in their Synology NAS. In recently introduced models, Synology will be restricting HDD models that can be used in these units for maximum performance, compatibility and durability, at least so they say. Is this a marketing trick to maximize revenues? Is Synology following Apple's vertical integration models? It certainly looks like it, and people aren't happy at all. I own a DS720+ model and don't plan to upgrade anytime soon, but when I do, this will impact my choices. 3️⃣ Do you close all apps on your iPhone? While LJPUK still do it, I never did that because, first it's a waste of my time, second, by the time you close them all, you are wasting battery power and, third, you fight against the logic of leaving apps active and returning to them in a snap instead of the iPhone having to relaunch the app when you return to it which takes longer. 4️⃣ ChatGPT now keeps past conversations to build a profile or memory of its user and learn from it. It might sound bad but this helps make ChatGPT more personal in its way of interacting with the user. You can prompt ChatGPT to describe yourself. I asked “Describe me based on past conversations". Results are troubling.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Neptune, a TikTok alternative, is on the verge of launching. I'm not really into this digital medium because they are a time waster for me. The fact that Neptune isn't associated with Meta or Google is a win right there. Curious to see where it goes. 2️⃣ Realmac Software continues working on Elements, and they recently gave an early look at a feature that I'm really looking forward to: blogging support! From the video below, you can see the feature in action. It's a bit rough on the edges and convoluted, but the idea of using a native website builder app for blogging is exciting. This could potentially partially replace Craft for some use cases.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻

I finally found the subject and inspiration for my next YouTube video: how people can interact with Micro.blog users. In it, I’ll explain how posts can be cross-posted to other platforms and how people can reply to them, keeping the discussion ongoing even from seemingly different platforms.

While revisiting my writing projects pipeline, I found this unfinished blog post. It’s a bucket list. It was inspired by Manton Reece’s Revisiting 43 Things blog post. Recent comments in italic.

1. Rent a country house for the whole summer, outside Canada — I would have been in the US, but this plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
2. Get my house renovated — Completed!
3. Do another trip with my two sons — TBD.
4. Return to California to see the new Apple headquarters — This plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
5. Visit Chicago — This plan is on hold, because of Trump’s America.
6. See the launch of a rocket from Space X — Fuck Elon Musk.
7. Return to Iceland — Most probable.

Given the current political environment, I must carefully reconsider each item on this list and remove the ones that will not happen.

“👋 I’m a tech veteran by trade, creative by heart. With 30+ years in IT — from data centers to cloud, storage, and security — I help businesses build smarter, more resilient infrastructures. But when the day job ends, my creative side kicks in.

I’m a lifelong Apple fan, blogger, photographer, and content creator who loves blending tech with design. Whether I’m exploring the latest in cybersecurity, testing new apps, or writing about digital privacy, I bring a thoughtful eye and a creative edge.

I believe staying curious — and staying creative — is the best way to thrive in a tech-driven world.”

Not bad.

One thing that I really appreciate about ChatGPT is their native macOS app. It would be too easy for them to do like so many developers these days and offer the “good enough” solution.

Shared something really personal today on my Ko-fi page. Available to my dear supporters (yes, I have a few!)

Yesterday, while waiting for the bus on Sherbrooke Street, downtown Montreal. It’s the first time I notice this street art piece. It is so contemporary.

Yesterday, while waiting for the bus on Sherbrooke Street, downtown Montreal. It’s the first time I notice this street art piece. It is so contemporary.

Apple was blindsided by GenAI and way too busy on Apple Vision Pro. It will take a major shift to regain momentum on AI-related initiatives.

Today I’m getting a brand new 15" M4 MacBook Air at work to replace my aging 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I won’t miss the Intel world, but I’ll somewhat miss the Touch Bar. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Connection isn’t just personal. It’s political.

A healthy democracy requires relationships, trust, physical presence, and shared stakes. If we don’t have anyone in our lives who voted differently than we did, if the only time we talk to our neighbors is when we have something to complain about (if we even bother), if we haven’t been in a room with strangers in months trying to solve a real problem without a mute button or a string of emojis—then we are actively making it easier to divide. Easier to manipulate. Easier to radicalize. Easier to rule.

We collectively dropped the ball. I honestly don’t know what to do and where to start to undo things. I feel alone on my island crying and shouting how wrong and off everything is right now.

I wish Ghost would expand their support for what are called “social accounts.” Given our current situation, I find this approach short-sighted. I wish Mastodon and Bluesky received more attention for this type of configuration.

Still about the iOS 19 mockup, the redesigned Tabbar is so much better. 😍

There is a lot to like about some of the iOS 19 redesign mockups, but the “rounder” app icons is certainly not one of them. 🤢

Gumroad is going open source!? Are they ok is it a last-resort move? They have a detailed roadmap, though.

I’ve been a devoted Apple TV user since it first launched back in 2006. But earlier this year, a major home renovation project forced me to temporarily relocate to an apartment—cutting me off from my cable TV provider since the start of 2025. Now, I’m counting down the days until I can move back home and reconnect to traditional cable. Why? Because after nearly two decades of evolution, Apple TV still isn’t delivering the experience I expected.

So, what’s it really like to rely solely on Apple TV in 2025, leaving cable behind entirely? After three months of going all-in on Apple’s set-top box, I’ve got thoughts—here’s what I’ve learned.

• My YouTube content consumption dramatically increased, not only for watching my preferred channels but also for consuming news-related content. I wasn’t expecting that. Thankfully, I’m a paid subscriber, so I don’t get to see ads.
• Image quality varies significantly between each source. Apple content stands out as the best, while most others offer the bare minimum. When watching highly dynamic content, the image becomes blurry and pixelated, which is not ideal for a 4K TV.
• I mostly never use the “Up Next” feature because not all content providers are supporting it. Did Apple lose its power or attractiveness to bring developers support for even basic features like this? I think so. Continue reading to learn about the consequences.
• Interacting with an Apple TV means a lot of time is spent clicking and sliding through the Apple TV user interface. A simple wrong gesture can be fatal and break the browsing, watching or listening experience. Navigating the tvOS user interface is finicky not only for beginners but for experienced users, too. It is frustrating. Siri doesn’t really help here because of its high failure rate.
• There’s no universal way to watch live TV; each TV channel app offers a unique way to access the current broadcast. Some apps don’t even provide live broadcast access; they only allow you to watch past TV shows. It’s not tvOS’s fault, but Apple’s.
• Very few apps offer an on-screen TV guide. The TV guide is usually hard to find and requires numerous clicks to access. Additionally, no TV provider allows for the recording of scheduled TV shows. I believe this is an opportunity missed by Apple to provide a standardized way for displaying TV schedules.
• Apple’s tvOS doesn’t offer live TV feeds aggregation, which Google does via the live TV grid named “FAST TV”. I understand that this service would mostly fix the TV guide issue mentioned previously and could be a complementary offer to “Up Next”. Is Apple reading this?
• As you might expect, there is no “switching channels action” to view what is currently available on different TV providers. You can probably tell how old I am now. I suppose this is not an issue for younger consumers. I suspect the younger generation no longer watches TV, so they can’t compare.
• Content navigation is a nightmare because not all Apple TV app developers follow the Human Interface Guide from Apple. The YouTube app is probably the worst. You never really know when the “back” button will dismiss some UI elements or bring you back to the home screen.
• My TV provider in Montreal, Videotron, doesn’t fully support the TV Provider feature. Only Helix subscription plans and their most recent offerings are supported. Illico is unavailable through the Apple TV, only on their aging set-top box. I don't want to “upgrade" or switch to Helix because it comes with its WiFi router, which I don't like; I want to keep control of that essential piece of equipment.
• App reviews for TV providers are barely making the 2-star mark. People don’t like them, apparently. Now you better know why.

"This project has always been a puzzle. Yes, Apple builds services to drive iPhone sales, but those services always produce revenue and support themselves as well. Meanwhile, Apple services are either essential for Apple to have (iCloud, Music, Maps), or try to solve problems for users in some uniquely Apple way (Fitness, the credit card). Apple TV does none of this. It doesn’t solve any problem, it does nothing different and Apple adds nothing. All that Apple contributes is money: Eddie Cue flies down to LA and buys LA stuff from LA people. Some of the shows are good, yes, but that has nothing to do with Apple. Worse, it doesn’t even drive device sales - almost no-one watches the shows and you can watch them on competitors’ devices anyway. As I and many others have said - why does this exist?" – Benedict Evans about the Apple TV

My general feeling is that the Apple TV, and tvOS for that matter, doesn’t need a more powerful CPU or a new navigational trick, it might need a more profound rethinking. But even if Apple does it, will TV providers or, more importantly, developers step in? I don’t think so.

Final question: How much of the current fragmented state of the Apple TV content consumption experience is due to the content being spread out and streamed through so many “channel apps”? Is FAST TV a solution to this? It’s undoubtedly a subject up for debate.

Note: right before publishing this article, SixColors published a comparison of TV streamers that goes along the same lines as my thoughts.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I discovered a few weeks ago: Fastmail, a great email service that I switched to from HEY Mail. I shared my experience of switching to Fastmail in this article. If you want to unify all your mailboxes, Fastmail is the best discovery you'll ever make this week! 2️⃣ This article from Informations Architects discusses the gradual shift from traditional, heavily formatted word processing applications like Microsoft Word to simpler, more focused writing tools that utilize Markdown, emphasizing how this change promotes clarity in writing and reduces the distractions of excessive formatting. Speaking of Markdown, check out this online Markdown text editor.

"Why are we sending our kids to a school that looks like a Microsoft ad? To prepare them for the future. Does equipping children with Office tools truly serve this purpose or does it serve the purpose of cementing a life in the products of a software monopolist?" — Informations Architects

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I wrote an article about privacy and data protection for Apple users. It's a different kind of project, and I shared a behind-the-scene look about it here. Then, I wrote another article following an unexpected refusal to submit an article for Medium. Even with generative AI, writing these days is more complicated than ever, not easier. Don't be fooled. 2️⃣ I’d like to write a new version of “The Rotten Side of Tim Cook’s Apple” following Gruber's piece about something rotten at Apple. I just don't know where to start. 3️⃣ Don't miss my monthly summary on Micro.blog.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ This article discusses the importance of creating a hierarchical keyword system in Lightroom to enhance image organization and searchability. Photographers can efficiently manage their growing collections by categorizing keywords into parent-child relationships. The principles exposed in this article can apply to any app or service that supports tags. 2️⃣ Celebrating life is probably the best way to describe Lindsay Lee Giroux's work. I found her on Glass while surfing for photographers that don't fall into the usual photographic style category I like the most. Her visual style is colorful, joyful, and authentic. Those are the words that come to my mind when browsing her profile. She also has a beautiful online portfolio. 3️⃣ This video explores how to recreate the nostalgic look of film photography using just an iPhone, without needing a film camera. Using the Moment app for manual controls and RAW shooting, along with ND filters to mimic slower shutter speeds, they embrace imperfections that give photos a more authentic film feel. They edit using Dehancer, an app that simulates classic film stocks and effects like grain and halation, achieving surprisingly convincing results. While they acknowledge that mobile photography can’t fully replace the experience of shooting film, it’s a fun, accessible, and affordable way to capture a similar aesthetic.

Lindsay Lee Giroux on Glass Photography Community

Lindsay Lee Giroux. Monocular Photographer 📷 • Autistic • Mom to 5 • Lightseeker • Storyteller • Timekeeper • Photographing the Authentic, Beauty, & Magic in Every Day ✨

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ A stark warning from an app developer: in “Tim, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” Brian Irace warns that at this rate, it's faster to write an app using generative AI than go through the current App Store approval process. Something is wrong here. I'm getting nervous about Apple these days. 2️⃣ WWDC25 invites are out and look rather uninspiring. I'm not too fond of this glassy look for the “25” portion of the WWDC25. Judge yourself with the artwork below. 3️⃣ Remember Swift Playground? I’ve been wondering how this app could evolve in the context of generative AI. Is it still relevant without any coding assistant based on generative AI? Beyond support for machine learning-related integration, I don't see anything related to generative AI and LLM model integration. Am I missing something? 4️⃣ iOS 19 redesign looks more gorgeous by the leak! 😍 If the project code name is Solarium, it somewhat adds credence to the rumors. The use of the glass material metaphor for the UI also makes sense to me because it goes with the fact that we interact with our devices through the glass surface. 5️⃣ Before we get to iOS 19, we're getting iOS 18.4 (and all other .4 releases) with quite a few new features and tweaks. It's the time of the year when iOS feels the most stable and finished, just two months before the next WWDC. 6️⃣ Apple released iOS 16.7.11 with security fixes for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. Yep, for iPhone 8 and iPhone X. 7️⃣ iOS 18.5 beta is out; nothing worth calling your mom..

Mac

The most powerful Mac laptops and desktops ever. Supercharged by Apple silicon. MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.

Apple

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I recently finished copying my blog posts from the Craft-hosted documents to Micro.blog. The goal was to reduce my dependence on Craft and better align with open platforms like Micro.blog for hosting and sharing my content. The blog posts can be found here. The efforts were probably too high compared to the content value, but I needed to keep my content publicly available. You never know when something might be useful for someone.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Inoreader got a big Q1 quarter full of updates, and they said that Q2 will be even more significant. I'm not holding my breath too much. Still, Inoreader received many meaningful updates, making this service even better and more valuable to me. 2️⃣ I’ve been testing ChatGPT's new image generation capabilities, which are based on the 4o model. Compared to Apple’s Image Playground, it is awe-inspiring. I understand that ChatGPT is much less constrained than Apple's solution, which runs on the device, yet why would people waste their time with Apple's solution? I tested this on two images: one is based on my avatar, the other is from an image of Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone. 3️⃣ Craft announced Chaps, a new application that is somewhat hard to describe. It's like a conversational app between you and apps or services. I would have called it Chapps instead for a better and more obvious reference to chat + apps. I'm not sure how useful this will be in my workflow. The demonstrated use cases aren't very enticing to me. I prefer a chat client with my Craft content where I could ask questions like “Show me a list of recently updated documents” or “What is the XYZ document about?”. Also, Craft is a small team, and I hope their development resources are not diluted too much. As I wrote to someone on Reddit, there are still many unfinished and "work-in-progress" things in Craft that need attention. From their announcement: “Think of Chaps as a place to build smart, AI-powered agents each dedicated to a specific area or workflow of your life, helping you simplify tasks and focus on what genuinely matters.”.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ I’ve been watching "Adolescence" recently, a poignant four-episode Netflix series. One thing that struck me was the filming: all episodes are shot in one continuous sequence. The following YouTube video shows how it was done. Impressive.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ In a recent blog post, Michael Flarup reflects on the decline of creative freedom in design, particularly following Dribbble's new restrictions that limit designers' ability to showcase their work and connect with clients outside the platform. In case you didn't know, Michael Flarup is a Danish designer and entrepreneur who runs Northplay game studio, Pixelresort design studio, and the Apply Pixels resource platform; known for his expertise in app icon design and as an international keynote speaker. 2️⃣ Are Apple and Google headed in the same direction? The article from Om Malik critiques Google's decline from a once-innovative tech leader to a company plagued by corporate indifference and bureaucratic stagnation, highlighting its struggles to adapt to changing user expectations and competition in the AI landscape. 3️⃣ Apple owes France some money over ATT. That’s too bad. I thought the EU, along with GDPR, was siding with users. It's not the case. Gruber's take on this. Is France going to use that money to finance unforeseen military expenses, thanks to MAGA and Trump, who are saying: fuck you, EU? I don't know, but it won't hurt to get some extra money. 4️⃣ Here’s a great April Fools from Basic Apple Guy.

“AI can produce code that works initially but falls apart under pressure, and only a good developer knows how to turn an AI’s output into something that stands the test of time” — Pete Sena on Medium

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ I’ve been busy more than usual in recent weeks, thanks to our home improvement project, which has been ongoing since early January. The dust should start to settle virtually and for real, and I should return to a regular schedule until I leave for a two-week vacation in Europe. 2️⃣ The iPhone 17 Pro mockup is getting more and more detailed. I’ve been a happy owner of the 11 Pro, 13 Pro and now the 15 Pro, but I will skip the 17 Pro for political and economic reasons. Anyway, I'm super happy with my 15 Pro Max; I don't see why I would change.

If you want to see how this newsletter is put together, watch this YouTube video.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻

That’s a useful website for Markdown lovers: Online Markdown.

Read later service for me should have these features and attributes.

1. Be cloud-based to enable access and syncing across different devices and platforms.
2. Support metadata (tags, folders & description).
3. Offer a well-designed share sheet implementation on iOS and iPadOS.
4. Offer a great browser extension.
5. Offer a native mobile application.
6. It should work well with my go-to RSS reader, Inoreader.
7. Be good at data mobility. In other words, it offers a data export option.
8. Support article summarization with generative AI.
9. Should be free if possible.
10. It must support all Apple platforms.

Inoreader check them all.

Intriguing new product coming from the makers of Craft: Chaps. It seems to be a conversational service where users can build their own AI-based agents. Not integrated with Craft in any way, at least for now. The demonstrated UI seems polished as we can expect from them, but sadly we don’t get to see how those agents are built. I think “Ch_apps_” would have been a better name than “Chaps”, though. I hope they don’t get too much distracted from Craft because it still needs a lot of work and long-lasting issues are yet to be addressed.

Each time I select a few emails in Outlook at the office and then move them into a folder I think of Severance’s employees working on their computer to gather numbers and drop them in a bucket. Every. Single. Time. And now you’ll probably do, too. You’re welcome.

Looking at iOS 18.5 and I find that Apple is slow at iterating on AI. Nothing really new in AI. No mention of model improvements. Only a few things like turning off Mail automatic classification. I would have expected a much faster pace.

What do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr, 500px, and Smugmug share in common? They represent my former digital homes. Can you see the trend from this mind map?

When are we going to stop referring to Musk as the richest man in the world. First, we don’t care as much as it sounds. Second, he’s probably the poorest man in the world if anything.

I’m again tempted by an Oura ring. One big showstopper: the mandatory annual subscription. 😒

It’s the time of the year when iOS feels the most stable. I’m liking iOS 18.4.

Over the past few years, Apple has introduced numerous improvements and new features to help their customers enhance their security posture. Apple recognizes that, in today's world, support for data protection and privacy is more than ever a significant differentiating factor. In 2024, I had the idea to write a guide for Apple product users to provide a comprehensive overview of available features and their interconnections. It goes without saying that although Apple's ecosystem enjoys a reputation for being more approachable than other ecosystems, it remains confusing or even difficult for the average person to navigate cybersecurity topics.

Little by little, I began researching existing articles and references. I eventually realized that a guide like the one I envisioned didn't exist in the form I imagined. My research allowed me to gather numerous support articles from Apple and several articles published alongside new versions of iOS. For example, the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature has garnered much interest and even controversy, resulting in many related articles.

However, by the end of 2024, I realized that writing this guide was a more substantial task than I had initially imagined. I knew how the topics would be organized, grouped, and detailed. I knew I had to target the general public, keeping the content high-level to remain understandable to the majority. Thus, I did not want to delve too deeply into the "how-to" specifics. The core idea was to present an overview of all available features while including some best practice advice.

In October 2024, ChatGPT launched its conversational writing feature, ChatGPT Canvas. After watching demo videos and reading articles about this feature, I wondered if using it could help me write this security guide. I first tested the tool with fictional topics to gauge its power and flexibility in supporting writing. I decided to take a chance with a real scenario by using it to create the skeleton of my guide. An easy starting point with ChatGPT in this context was uploading PDFs of the references I had gathered during my research to feed into the subsequent steps.

After several hours of "conversation" with ChatGPT Canvas, I achieved approximately 80% of what I initially envisioned. It was significantly faster and more efficient than if I had written it from scratch, especially given the many research hours I had accumulated. From there, I switched to my preferred writing application to refine the text further. I revised several sentences, removed redundant sections, restructured topic sequences, added elements like basic definitions to clarify concepts for readers, and even created a comprehensive diagram using Apple Freeform to accompany the text and visually connect all the concepts covered. Ultimately, I am quite proud of the final result.

I published the article on this website and a post on my blog explaining the writing context. Within days, it became one of the most-viewed articles (in the top 3), and I received positive feedback.

This weekend, I decided to publish it on Medium by submitting it to the Mac O'Clock publication. The publication's editor politely declined, citing that the text was written with the assistance of AI. He was not wrong. I explained my approach, but he maintained his decision nonetheless. While I can't blame him, this refusal has made me reflect deeply, raising the question: at what point does using AI cause the research and writing process to lose its personal touch, diminishing the value or authenticity of the resulting work?

I continue to believe that my guide addresses a significant gap in existing literature and provides unique value. I am convinced that readers who take the time to read through the guide and implement even a few of the presented tips or services will significantly enhance their security posture. Isn't that a positive outcome?

The arrival of generative artificial intelligence in the creative process significantly disrupts both creation itself and our expectations of those contributing to human knowledge. We haven't finished asking ourselves questions—myself included. Overall, the experience has been positive and helped me evolve as a creator.

This text was initially written in French, my native language, and then translated into English using the ChatGPT 4.5 LLM model. Does it lose its value because of this? You tell me.

I finally completed the replication of content from the Craft-hosted website to Micro.blog-hosted website. I initiated this migration to reduce my dependency on Craft to host such content. Numeric Citizen I/O still points to Craft-hosted website (https://world.numericcitizen.io/meta), but 95% of the content is now available on Micro.blog via meta.numericcitizen.me.

Am I leaving Craft behind, not anytime soon, but I’m certainly continuing to consolidate my online presence under more open platforms.

In the blogging space, “open” can mean different things depending on who you ask. There are open-source tools and services. Opening up yourself while blogging is another example. Giving a behind-the-scenes look at your workflows is another. Furthermore, being an open blogger also means a desire to write about writing and blogging.

Open blogging, a new movement (my creation 😃), also means creating, maintaining and sharing a digital garden. It contains many things like a list of upcoming blog posts, work-in-progress articles, never-published articles and other digital artifacts that you can find just by following links within the digital garden. You can even peek at my website’s analytics, too, thanks to Plausible. It’s all there. Just be curious.

Being an open blogger also means using open-source tools and services as much as possible. Such services include Ghost, GitHub, Plausible, Micro.blog and WordPress. I believe basic and foundational tools and platforms aren’t well served if big corporations own them.

Supporting open-source initiatives like Plausible, Commento and Ghost is an act of support for web openness. I subscribe or did subscribe to all those services because it’s like defending a principle (and because the services are of great value, too!).

On a more personal note, I easily and openly expose my anxieties about the challenges of being a blogger, writer and content creator. Isn’t the website hosting this article, its mission after all? If you’re someone who reads all my content, on all the platforms I use, you can build a pretty good picture of who I am, what’s my values, my interests, my challenges. Each website fills a specific niche but, taken together, forms a web of content reflecting my interests in life.

I like writing about my experiences. Did you know that between 2009 and 2013 I was developing iPhone applications? While doing so, I attempted to maintain a blog about it. I wrote and published articles about my experience my learnings of the iPhone intricacies. Today, I like to write about blogging, to share my experience with applications and services I’m using for that purpose. I like doing this so much that I created this website about it: Numeric Citizen I/O. I maintain a meta-blog that exposes the behind-the-scenes of my workflow. Different context, same objectives. It’s my small contribution to this complicated world.

Thanks for reading.

My Sunday mornings look like this:

• Start a new blog post on Scribble.pages (this post!) about my morning routine for this Sunday.
• Get the weather outlook for the day, and the week. Currently -2°C here in Montreal, Canada, cloudy and freezing rain expected soon.
• Visit YouTube Studio dashboard and look for new subscribers, new comments to respond. One comment on my latest Craft-related poll, and the trend continues: two-third of respondent think that Craft is not confusing to use. I'm surprised by these results.
• Visit my Gumroad dashboard and look for new subscriptions to The Craft Bible. Nothing since March 24th. 😔
• Visit my Ghost dashboard and look for new notifications, and new articles in the feed. The latter was recently added as part of the social web integration initiative. Ghost is now more than a CMS. I'm not used to that just yet. I read and responded to an article from Spyglass about AI summaries from Bloomberg. I wonder if the author will notice as he is probably not used to Ghost's social web, yet.
• Visit my Micro.blog timeline and look for recent mentions. Nothing this morning. I'm probably getting 0-20 mentions a week. Scrolled the last 12 hours and commented on a few posts. 
• Look at my Tinylytics dashboard to see how my recently published article about data and privacy protection for Apple users is faring. According to these numbers, not too bad.
• Visit Craft community on Slack to get recent updates about the latest beta and see if anyone is poking me. A few did mention me as usual, on is from the Craft team about a bug I submitted. I should write more about Craft, but I prefer to stay quiet preferring to keep a low profile.
• Start thinking about how I'm going to spend the rest of the day. I do have the next edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook in the works, but it is not complete and will probably go out next weekend. 

My coffee is so good. Have a nice Sunday! ✌🏻

In October 2024, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Canvas, designed to enhance the writing experience. Before ChatGPT Canvas, one writing approach using ChatGPT involved compiling these references into a ChatGPT project, then starting the writing process by using a first prompt, followed by another, and so forth. With ChatGPT Canvas, the approach promised to be more user-friendly, more interactive, more natural.

I wondered which writing project I could use to test this new conversational experience. For a long time, I’ve wanted to write about the data protection and privacy features offered by Apple’s ecosystem for iPhone and Mac users. I had already started gathering references from Apple’s support website and elsewhere on the internet. It was the perfect use case for this experiment.

ChatGPT Canvas starts off with a prompt, as usual, but now you include the term “canvas” in the request. The rest of the experience unfolds in an interface split into two sections: on the left side is the writing conversation, and on the right is the evolving draft. ChatGPT Canvas lets you interactively edit sections of text by selecting them first before requesting modifications. It’s highly interactive; somewhat like working with an editor in real-time. It’s very stimulating.

With “Protecting Your Digital Life: Privacy and Security Measures for Apple Users”, I had the opportunity to fully test this experience with my previously mentioned article project. ChatGPT was central to this writing project, but I also revised certain parts by removing or adding some content and by adding details that ChatGPT didn’t consider important enough to include. The result isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely better than what I would have written from scratch. I hope you enjoy reading it, and that you find the article informative. PS, the diagram is mine, not ChatGPT’s.

Privacy and security are crucial aspects of our digital lives, and Apple devices offer strong built-in protections that anyone can and should use. Even if you're not technically inclined, there are straightforward ways to safeguard your personal data and privacy. This guide is designed for non-technical users and everyone to read, highlighting essential practices to help you stay safe online by leveraging Apple's powerful yet user-friendly tools.

I wanted to write something easy to understand so that people could easily take advantage of it. Consider looking at the following diagram to get an overview of the building blocks that will increase your security posture. This diagram should help you learn how they relate to your digital ecosystem based on Apple technologies.

What Is a Security Posture?

In the cybersecurity realm, a "security posture" refers to the overall security status of an organization, system, or individual based on its resources, capabilities, and policies. This concept encompasses the readiness and ability to predict, prevent, and respond to various cyber threats. When applied to an individual, a security posture includes all the measures and practices one adopts to protect their personal digital environment, maintain data privacy, and ensure safe interactions online. These practices involve using strong passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, regularly updating devices and software, and being aware of phishing attempts, among other things.

In the context of Apple users, security posture involves using the built-in tools and resources that Apple provides to enhance digital security. Apple devices generally come equipped with user-friendly features designed to protect personal information, such as biometric authentication (like Face ID or Touch ID), encrypted messaging through iMessage, and privacy settings that limit what apps can access personal data. Even individuals who are not technically inclined can reinforce their security posture by taking advantage of these features. For example, they can easily activate two-factor authentication for their Apple Account to add an extra layer of security or manage their privacy settings to control which apps have access to location data or personal contacts.

By understanding and applying these digital security fundamentals, individuals can significantly enhance their security posture. It is about leveraging tools that are readily available and following best practices to protect one's digital presence effectively. This approach safeguards personal information and provides peace of mind while navigating the digital world.

Now, let’s dig into this in more detail.

Regularly Update Your Devices

Keeping your devices up-to-date ensures you benefit from Apple's latest security enhancements and privacy improvements. Regular updates address known vulnerabilities, significantly reducing your risk from cyber threats, malware, and unauthorized access. Updates often include improvements to device performance and stability alongside critical security patches. Apple's automatic software updates make it easy to maintain optimal security without needing to check for new versions manually. Staying updated is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to safeguard your personal data and device integrity.

If you own an old device, Apple often keep releasing security-related updates and you are good to go, but when Apple stop releasing those updates, consider upgrading your device. Also, if you don’t want to update to the newest major release, Apple makes security-related updates available for the previous major releases. For example, while iOS 18 is the current major release, you can select to stay on iOS 17 and apply the latest minor release if you want. That way, you keep your security posture in good shape.

Physical Device Security

Protecting your devices physically is as important as digital security. Avoid leaving your devices unattended in public spaces to minimize theft or unauthorized access. Consider using privacy screen protectors in public areas to prevent others from viewing your screen. Additionally, be cautious when using accessories or chargers from unknown sources to prevent potential security risks.

Using accessories or chargers from unknown sources can pose significant cybersecurity risks to your digital devices. Firstly, counterfeit or uncertified chargers might not adhere to the stringent safety standards set by manufacturers like Apple, potentially leading to device malfunctions or physical damage. Beyond physical risks, these unauthorized accessories can also harbor malicious software or hardware designed to compromise your device. For instance, they could be used to deliver malware, which might allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to your device, steal personal data, or even control your device remotely. These risks underscore the importance of using only trusted and certified accessories. There are documented cases of malicious charger cables that proved to pose serious security risks. It’s not science fiction, it’s real.

“The Forbes article warns Apple users about the risks of using unfamiliar charging cables, highlighting a specific type known as the “O.MG Cable.” This cable resembles standard USB-C or Lightning cables but contains embedded hardware that can remotely access and control connected devices over Wi-Fi. Once plugged in, it can execute commands, potentially compromising personal data and device security.”

Use Strong and Unique Passwords

Protect your devices and accounts by choosing strong, unique passwords and passcodes. Avoid using simple or easily guessable unlock codes like "123456" or birth dates. Instead, enable Touch ID or Face ID whenever available for enhanced security. Apple doesn’t keep your fingerprints; don’t worry about that.

Apple provides tools like iCloud Keychain to help create and securely store complex passwords, making your accounts harder to compromise.Those passwords then sync across all your Apple devices, offering seamless protection. Apple recently created a dedicated password management app called “Passwords” that is very capable and free to use. It's available in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. Consider giving it a look. Other password management apps or services includes 1Password, Bitwarden, Keeper, just to name a few of them. Here’s an article comparing them.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Use two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever possible to add an extra layer of security to your accounts. Apple’s built-in two-factor authentication protects your Apple Account by requiring a second form of verification—typically a code sent to your trusted devices. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access, even if your password is compromised. Apple Passwords app supports enabling two factors authentication for accounts that support it. I highly encourage you to us this because it’s more secure and for many websites, the integration with Apple Safari is seamless. Give it a try. 

“2FA stands for two-factor authentication. It is an extra layer of security used to ensure that only the person who owns an account can access it, even if someone knows the password. Two-factor authentication typically requires a password and a second piece of information, such as a code sent to a phone, to verify the user's identity.”

Use "Sign In With Apple" for Enhanced Privacy

Using "Sign In With Apple" provides significant privacy and security advantages over traditional email and password authentication. This feature allows you to sign in to apps and websites quickly and securely without sharing your personal email or creating multiple passwords. Apple generates unique random email addresses to keep your personal email private, helping reduce spam and enhance your online privacy.

Complementary to this, Apple Passkeys offer a secure, passwordless authentication method that uses biometric verification (Touch ID or Face ID) for accessing apps and websites. While "Sign In With Apple" simplifies registration and keeps your email private, Passkeys completely eliminate the need for passwords, providing an even higher level of security and convenience. Together, these two methods greatly reduce your vulnerability to password-related threats, making your digital experience both safer and easier.

Pay attention from time to time to the Apple device account list, where you’ll see a list of all your devices where you signed in. Do you recognize all the devices in that list? If so, remove them as soon as possible.

Prepare for Account Recovery

It's essential to have measures in place to recover your Apple Account if you forget your password. An Apple Account always have a password, even if you use Passkeys. Apple provides an Account Recovery option that allows you to designate trusted contacts who can assist you in regaining access. Alternatively, you can set up a Recovery Key as an additional layer of security, ensuring you can quickly and securely regain control of your account.

A recovery key serves as an additional security measure for your Apple account, providing you with a backup option to regain access if you ever forget your password or lose access to your trusted devices. The recovery key is a randomly generated 28-character code that you must keep safe and accessible, as Apple does not store a copy of it. The purpose of the recovery key is to ensure that you have a secure and private method to reclaim control of your account. Setting up a recovery key strengthens your account's overall security and protects against unauthorized access. Remember that if you enable a recovery key, you'll be responsible for maintaining access to it, as neither Apple nor anyone else can help you recover your account if both your password and recovery key are unavailable.

To add recovery contacts to your Apple account, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings: Begin by opening the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Your Name: At the top of the Settings menu, you'll see your name or Apple ID. Tap on it to access your Apple ID settings.
3. Select Password & Security: Within your Apple ID settings, tap on "Password & Security" to proceed.
4. Choose Account Recovery: In the Password & Security section, look for "Account Recovery" and select it.
5. Add Recovery Contact: Tap on "Add Recovery Contact." Follow the on-screen instructions to choose a trusted contact from your list of contacts. This person should ideally be someone you trust and can easily reach if you need help recovering your account.
6. Notify Your Contact: Once you've added the contact, they will receive a notification to confirm that they've been added as a recovery contact.

By following these steps, you enhance your security posture by ensuring you have a trusted person who can assist in regaining access to your Apple account if needed.

Set Up Your Digital Legacy

Preparing your digital legacy is important to ensure your family or trusted contacts can access your devices and personal data after you pass away. Apple's Digital Legacy feature allows you to designate specific individuals as legacy contacts. These trusted contacts receive secure access to your devices, photos, notes, messages, and other critical information stored in your Apple Account after your passing. Setting this up helps ensure that your digital memories, documents, and important data remain accessible to those who matter most during challenging times, while also ensuring your privacy and security remain respected.

You can add up to five Legacy Contacts from your Apple devices:

On iPhone or iPad:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap your name at the top to access your Apple ID.
3. Select Password & Security.
4. Tap Legacy Contact and then Add Legacy Contact.
5. Choose a contact from your Contacts list or Family Sharing group, or enter their email/phone number.
6. Share the Access Key with the contact via Messages or print/save it for future use.

Enable Device Tracking and Protection Features

Apple’s "Find My" feature is essential for locating lost or stolen devices. Activating this feature helps protect your data by allowing you to remotely lock or erase your device, minimizing unauthorized access. "Find My" also uses end-to-end encryption, ensuring your location data remains private. Additionally, Activation Lock, part of "Find My," makes stolen devices unusable by unauthorized users. Activation Lock requires your Apple Account credentials to disable "Find My," reactivate, or erase the device, making it significantly harder for thieves to profit from stolen devices. It also provides peace of mind that your personal information won't fall into the wrong hands, even if the device is physically compromised.

Consistently Back Up Your Data

Regularly backing up your data protects against data loss from device theft, accidental deletion, or hardware failure. Apple's iCloud Backup simplifies this process, providing secure, encrypted backups. You can select exactly which data—such as photos, messages, documents, or apps—you wish to include or exclude from backups. This granular control allows you to minimize storage space consumption in your iCloud account while ensuring critical data remains protected.

Additionally, for Mac users, Time Machine offers a reliable backup solution using external physical drives, which should ideally be stored in safe, secure places to prevent theft, damage, or unauthorized access. This approach also provides customizable backup options to fit your specific needs, ensuring you have full control over which data is protected and how frequently backups occur.

Enable Advanced Data Protection

Apple’s Advanced Data Protection provides end-to-end encryption for your iCloud data, ensuring only you can access your sensitive information. This powerful, free feature significantly enhances your privacy by protecting photos, notes, messages, backups, and more from unauthorized access, even in the event of a security breach. While this feature might not be available in all countries or supported on older devices running earlier operating systems, you should seriously consider enabling it wherever possible for the ultimate protection of your data.

You must have a valid Recovery Contact or a Recovery Key set up before enabling Advanced Data Protection.

• Recovery Contact: A trusted person who can help you recover your data if you lose access.
• Recovery Key: A 28-character code you must securely store. If you lose both your devices and recovery key, Apple cannot recover your data.

When you enable Advanced Data Protection, iCloud web access must be disabled for additional security. This means you won't be able to access your iCloud data through a web browser, adding an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access. While this may limit some convenience, the trade-off results in a more secure environment for your personal information. You can learn about this in this Apple support article.

Manage App Permissions Carefully

Be cautious about granting apps unnecessary permissions. Regularly review and limit access to sensitive information such as your location, contacts, photos, camera, and microphone. Apple’s App Privacy Report feature gives you detailed insight into how frequently and when specific apps access sensitive information or device features, such as your location, contacts, camera, microphone, or network connections. By reviewing this report, you can easily identify apps that might be unnecessarily accessing your personal data, enabling you to better manage app permissions and significantly enhance your privacy and security.

Protect Your Browsing Activity

Safari, Apple’s built-in browser, provides robust privacy features like Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which automatically blocks trackers and prevents advertisers and websites from following your online activities across the web. This helps maintain your online anonymity and reduces targeted advertising. Additionally, iCloud+ includes Private Relay, a privacy-focused service that encrypts your internet traffic and hides your IP address. Private Relay routes your internet requests through two separate servers, ensuring neither Apple nor your internet provider can view your browsing activity, greatly enhancing your privacy and protection against network tracking.

Using Safari's Private Browsing mode is another effective way to enhance your privacy online. When enabled, Private Browsing prevents your browser from recording your browsing history, searches, and cookies, ensuring that no trace of your activity remains on your device. While Private Browsing doesn't make you completely anonymous to websites or your internet provider, it provides an additional layer of privacy protection, especially useful when accessing sensitive information or when using shared devices.

Understand App Tracking Transparency

Apple's App Tracking Transparency, often referred to “ATT”, empowers you to control which apps can track your activity across other apps and websites for targeted advertising or data-sharing purposes. It'a different feature than Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari. With App Tracking Transparency, apps must explicitly request your permission before tracking you, allowing you to decide which apps, if any, you wish to grant this access. This feature significantly reduces unwanted tracking, protects your personal information, and enhances your online privacy. I always answer “Ask App Not to Track”.

Secure Your Connection on Public Networks

When using public Wi-Fi, your data could be vulnerable to interception. Although it's an older technology, a trusted VPN provides a highly secure and private experience by encrypting your internet connection and hiding your online activity. Apple’s iCloud+ Private Relay offers additional modern protection by routing your internet traffic through two separate relays, further safeguarding your privacy even on unsecured networks. Using both technologies can significantly enhance your online safety and privacy.

Use iMessage for Secure Communication

Using Apple's iMessage service provides significant security and privacy advantages compared to standard text messaging. iMessage encrypts your messages end-to-end, ensuring only you and your intended recipient can read your conversations. Additionally, Apple has introduced iMessage Contact Key Verification, a feature that enables users—particularly those at higher risk—to verify they are communicating securely with the intended person and not an unauthorized third party. This adds another layer of security, helping you confidently protect your sensitive conversations from potential eavesdropping or interception.

Stay Alert to Phishing and Scams

Awareness of phishing scams—deceptive emails, messages, or links designed to trick you into revealing personal information—is vital. Apple provides built-in protection against known phishing sites through Safari's Fraudulent Website Warning, a feature designed to protect you by identifying and alerting you when you attempt to visit deceptive or malicious websites. This helps prevent phishing scams, malware downloads, and other potential online threats by providing a clear warning, allowing you to navigate away from harmful content safely. Remember, Apple will never ask for your sensitive details via unsolicited messages.

Get to know and control your data

If you want to know what Apple knows about you, you can visit privacy.apple.com website. From there, you’ll be able to download a copy of everything Apple is collecting about you. If you plan of moving some of your data to a third-party service, you’ll probably be able to do so from this website, too (like migrating to Google Photos). Finally, if for any reason you want to disable your Apple account or even delete it, that’s the place to go, too.

Embrace a Privacy-Focused Mindset

Maintaining privacy and security on your Apple devices comes down to staying informed and practicing good digital hygiene. By consistently using Apple's privacy tools—such as iCloud+, App Privacy Reports, Advanced Data Protection, Digital Legacy, Activation Lock, and device encryption—you significantly strengthen your digital security and safeguard your personal privacy.

Many Apple-provided services and features are also available from third-parties. You can have a great security posture by using other solutions for browsing the web, storing your passwords. Some features are unique to Apple and benefit from a tight integration with iOS, macOS and Safari browser. If you want to know more about Apple’s unique privacy-related features, consider visiting this Apple mini website.

I hope you found this article informative. If you enjoy my work and want to support what I do, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-fi or send a little something via PayPal. Every bit helps and is truly appreciated—thank you for your support!

1. I revisited my /nope page with more up-to-date things that I don't like.
2. I updated my About Me page hosted on Craft while working on preparing the migration off Craft to a stand-alone website built using Realmac Software Elements. Here's what it will look like.
3. Last week, I shared an updated diagram of my content creator ecosystem.
4. I got my first referral commission from the Fastmail referral program. The first of this kind. I never got one for Craft after being on their referral program for since its inception. You might like Fastmail too, btw, just like I do.
5. I like to spend some time nurturing these. It's fun. 

   

👤 Personal

1️⃣ This week, I’ve been working on a case study for a job interview. It requires quite a bit of analysis and synthesis. I didn't know which presentation software that I would use. I didn’t want to use my Microsoft 365 license just so that some admin could see the documents I was working on. Apple Keynote could have been used for that, but since they might require a copy of my presentation, Keynote is probably not a good idea either (even if I can export the presentation content quickly). I decided to do my presentation using Google Slides for the first time. It's not as bad as I initially thought. 2️⃣ Someone sent me 15$ over my PayPal account and said, “Thank you.” The problem is that I don't know for what! My PayPal link is all over the place, and I can’t say for sure where this comes from. Anyway, if you are the one who sent me this and read this newsletter, well, thank you, too! 3️⃣ Got an email from a reader telling me he was subscribing to my blog and put it on a list called “pay attention.” It made me smile. 😃

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ Scott Knaster is starting a newsletter. This is my re-discovery this week. He wrote a lot about Mac programming in the mid-eighties and later worked for 4th Dimension, founded by Guy Kawasaki, a database and programming software. I remember having one of his books to program the Mac. He was (and still is) a renowned technical writer; his books were must-haves then. I said hi to him! 2️⃣ Another fantastic and mesmerizing wallpaper collection from BasicAppleGuy: waterways.

Waterways Wallpaper Collection — Basic Apple Guy

Introducing Waterways, a fluid wallpaper collection for your Mac, iPad, and iPhone inspired by water.

Basic Apple GuyBasicAppleGuy

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I shared a long article about my HEY Mail to Fastmail migration project last week. I mainly spent a week executing this project, and writing the article took me a weekend. It's one of my favourite things to do because it involves more technical writing than usual, which I do professionally. I'm not a technical writer per se, but I do love to write about technical stuff. 2️⃣ This article from Manuel Moreale explores the balance between sharing personal experiences and maintaining a curated online presence, raising the question of whether it's important also to reveal struggles and vulnerabilities to foster connection and understanding among readers. I noticed that when I shared more personal stuff on my websites, I often got more feedback than usual. 3️⃣ Om Malik announces the launch of his new "Daily Blog" on his website, which serves as a curated website section for sharing interesting links, graphics, and quotes reminiscent of his previous blogging style while aiming to provide a more organized and frequent way to share content separate from his main articles.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ Found this great photographer from Dubai named "Florian.” Many impressive photos of the Dubai city center and the surroundings. 2️⃣ Another discovery in photography is this superb website from Jon Dayton, acting like a showcase of his best work. Must see. Discovered through this Bluesky starter pack. 3️⃣ I probably wrote in the past that I'm not on Instagram or any Meta platforms, but I find Bluesky to be a great place for photographers. More and more photographers are joining. Bluesky offers a great way to quickly discover new artists by searching for starter packs or custom feeds like this one. 4️⃣ Andy Ferguson on DPRewview shares his thoughts about using the Nikon Zf camera. He likes the camera’s retro feel, which reminds him of film cameras. I own that camera myself, and I must say that it is the best camera I have ever owned and used.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Conversations around Apple's upcoming redesign of all their OSes are heating up. The redesign of iOS 7 is still fresh in my memory because I was traumatized. I’m also questioning the real motivations behind this. What about those Catalyst-based apps like Craft? Will they adapt quickly, or is this a dead end for them? How many more developers will choose to go with webapps instead and don't bother redesigning their apps? 2️⃣ John Gruber, a long-time Apple observer, took a rare path recently, sharing a critical view about Apple's handling of Apple Intelligence. The article critiques Apple's recent announcement to delay the rollout of ambitious "more personalized Siri" features within their Apple Intelligence initiative, highlighting a troubling trend of overpromising and underdelivering that threatens the company's hard-earned credibility. 3️⃣ The Shape of Everything blog has an article that suggests that Apple could enhance its AI initiatives by creating a semantic index that allows developers to access user data through fine-grained permissions, fostering innovation and personalized applications on its platforms. I love this idea, and it's a great way for Apple to delegate some of the burden. 4️⃣ Parker Ortolani argues that Apple should return to live keynotes for WWDC 2025 to rebuild customer trust and demonstrate confidence in its new offerings, emphasizing the importance of human connection over high production values. The pre-recorded format symbolizes Apple's lack of human touch and confidence. 5️⃣ How do you make sure that iOS becomes like Windows? Ask the EU. 🙄

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ Not specifically about a project but I wanted to work on an update to my content creator ecosystem. I’ve been using Apple Keynote for many years to maintain a diagram showing all the pieces that are part of my digital world that I depend on. You can see the diagram below and read this short description here. 2️⃣ A quick update on my journey to migrate all my passwords to Apple Passwords: a few account using two-factor authentication were still sitting in Authy but I finally moved them out to Apple Passwords. The process is simple but tedious: on each account, the 2FA feature must first be disabled, then re-enabled using Apple Passwords. A new set of recovery codes are also generated to go with this and is stored in the note fields inside Apple Passwords. I deleted Authy from all my devices and closed my account using their website. I’m 100% on Apple Passwords now and couldn’t be happier. 3️⃣ Speaking of passwords, I’ve been working on a special article on how to protect your data and privacy in the Apple world. I’m mostly done with this and it should be out this coming week.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Here's an intriguing app: HS People that I discovered recently (but didn't test myself). According to the HS People website, this app, still in beta, will help you keep track of people-related information tidbits like when you met them, what did you discuss, where were you when you met them, etc. I can see app to be valuable for sales people who wants to establish a more personal relationship with their prospects or clients. I wonder if the app can take advantage of Apple Photos’ People albums, where it could gather people-related photos to be referrenced or imported into HS People. 2️⃣ Ghost is now officially available in the fediverse by making their fediverse support available in beta. My fediverse handle over there is: @index@numericcitizen.me if you want to interact with me through Mastodon or other fediverse-compatible platforms. I just find my fediverse handle naming scheme a little bit weird with this “index” prefix.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Bluesky CEO Jay Graber was on the SXSW recent edition for an interview. She talks about many things like Bluesky’s future, foundations, monetization, and ecosystem in this wide-ranging subject interview. If you are intrigued by Bluesky, it’s certainly interesting to watch. 2️⃣ Was there ever a television show in which graphic design or branding played a significant role? If you are a fan of Severance, don't miss this video explaining how the TV show uses typography and how it depends on fundamental design principles. The television show Severance masterfully uses graphic design and typography as tools of control and psychological manipulation, with its dual logos and carefully chosen fonts reinforcing the eerie corporate dystopia and cult-like authority that define its world. 3️⃣ The video explores how Severance uses color to enhance storytelling, with blue representing Lumen’s control and conformity, green reinforcing its branding, red symbolizing rebellion and the outside world, and purple hinting at the blending of innie and outie realities, showcasing the meticulous visual design and color grading that deepen the show’s narrative and themes. I learned quite a few things watching this: not only about Severance but about color theory.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Apple TV+ Severance TV series is hugely popular. We can find many YouTube videos explaining all kinds of things to understand the series better (see above!). I'm watching many of them because the storytelling is quite complex. Maybe I'm too old, but I like the vice in this series. It's so... Apple-like. If you are a big fan of Severance, you can even buy some unofficial merch on Gumroad. 2️⃣ Someone reached out to me this past week about my apparent use of an AI-generated header image for this article on my main website. When I wrote this article, I aimed to include an illustration that depicts the convergence of emails into a focal point, a mailbox. I chose to try ChatGPT DALL-E and got that image. Back to my reader, who mentioned that many could perceive this negatively, I wasn’t sure how to respond to this feedback. I often use my images or those from Unsplash. Which is worse: stock photography or DALL-E? I always try to strike a balance. If one of my images does the job, like for this newsletter edition or this edition, I'm super happy because It's a way to showcase my work as an amateur photographer. Here's an example where I select a stock image from Unsplash. In the end, here is how I responded.

“Can you be deported for what you say?” — CNN Title on their main page recently.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Is generative AI transforming the web search business to the point where Google search is no longer a destination but a feature embedded in something else? According to Om Malik, yes. With services like Perplexity, searching the web is becoming more conversational and personally, I really think that's the future of the web, at least for search use cases. I use this often at work (I'm a fan of Perplexity). 2️⃣ Severance season 2 is complete, and it was quite a ride. It is such a strange show. I should probably rewatch the whole thing from scratch. Thankfully, there is a season 3 coming up... eventually. I can't wait.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻

Some cleanup: Readwise is gone. Supporting services are now grouped at the bottom. Corrected a few typos. I made some visual adjustments to make things a little bit cleaner and easier to visualize, especially for website miniatures. I renamed the diagram to reflect the notion of an ecosystem instead of a workflow.

Many additions: each enhanced service with generative AI features is marked as such with a little brain icon. That’s the case for Inoreader, Craft and Grammarly. All my Micro.blog-hosted websites are now indicated. Since adhering to POSSE principles, I added the Fediverse and Bluesky icons and drew the cross-posting arrow lines to them.

A high-resolution version of this diagram is available here.

What is POSSE

The POSSE principle stands for “Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.” It is a content distribution strategy often recommended for writers, bloggers, and publishers. The primary idea is to first publish your content on a platform you control, such as your personal website or blog, and then syndicate or share that content on other platforms like social media, Medium, or different online communities.

Here are some key points about the POSSE principle:

1. Ownership and Control: By publishing on your own site first, you maintain control over your content and ensure it exists in a space you own. This helps protect your work from the risks of platform changes or shutdowns.
2. Centralized Content: Your website becomes the central hub where all your content is stored and can be accessed by your audience.
3. Traffic and SEO: By driving traffic to your own site, you can improve your website’s SEO, increase your audience, and potentially monetize traffic through ads, affiliate links, or direct sales.
4. Syndication: After publishing on your own site, you can share your content with a wider audience by syndicating it to other platforms. This strategy helps reach readers who might not visit your site directly.
5. Preservation: Content publishing on third-party platforms may be subject to their rules and policies. Publishing first on your own site ensures your content is preserved and remains unchanged regardless of policy changes elsewhere.

The POSSE principle is popular among creators who value long-term control over their work and want to build a sustainable and direct relationship with their audience.

Dreaming... #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #architecture

• I was trying to find a word that reflect my mood these days about the news and "resentful" came out from a prompt to ChatGPT. 
• I feel that way about what is happening in the US. I feel that way about what is happening in Ukraine. I feel that way about leaders who are getting away from their responsibilities. Speaking of which...
• I'm not happy with Apple these days, I'm not happy with Tim Cook. He seems more focused on printing money than building game-changer products. I don't buy their empty slogan anymore. Apple Intelligence could have been such product, but instead it is vaporware. It is unprecedented. When you pile this up with the general attitude of Apple toward their developers, we can see a trend that will tarnish the brand for many years to come. Apple should be looking for a new leader.
• Resentful is the perfect word. 
• Oh, I almost forgot, I feel resentful for the way Trump and his bunch of clowns are treating Canada, my home country. 

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I have always believed that computers and software are powerful tools for empowerment. To me, AI appears to be a layer of less tangible on top of that, but significantly enhancing that power. That's my feeling when I'm ChatGPT or, more recently, Perplexity. 2️⃣ The last few weeks have been awful on the news side, and I got sucked in more than once into the news feed, reducing the free time for writing and doing other more creative stuff.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ In the last two weeks, I discovered Fastmail, an email service provider that is cool, nice, effective and powerful enough to replace HEY Mail, at least for me. Read all the details in this article.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ My monthly blog posts digest for February is out! 2️⃣ We live in challenging times on multiple fronts, and I can sense the collective anxiety in the air. Beyond my own feelings, there’s a tension that seems to linger everywhere. Talking about it helps, and so does writing. Putting concerns, frustrations, and misunderstandings into words is one way I try to make sense of it all. I often share my thoughts—sometimes rants—on figures like Trump, Musk, and Putin, and the impact they have on the world around us. At times, I feel powerless, but writing offers a small measure of relief. It’s like trying to scream without making a sound.

“Posting won’t be enough to get us out of fascism, but it might help some people to get through it. So please, everyone, don’t be discouraged; and don’t stop posting.” - Martin McCallion's personal site.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ Glass made a significant architecture rework of their image processing pipeline: better image compression with an adaptive pipeline, image protection against AI training, better load times with distributed caching, etc. More details in this article, which is well worth reading. 2️⃣ Did Apple know that Adobe Photoshop for iPhone was coming when they bought Pixelmator? 3️⃣ Foto is a new photo-sharing service, à la Glass. That's intriguing, but I see many similarities between them. 4️⃣ Sigma launched a new camera, among other things, called BF. It has a futuristic but strange look. I'm wondering how good it is to handle with such sharp edges. According to this review from Petapixel, no.

BF | CAMERAS | PRODUCTS | Sigma

This page is about Sigma’s BF.

Sigma

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ As reminded by MacRumors, Steve Jobs would have been 70 on Mon, Feb 24. 2️⃣ Apple announced its intention to invest a lot of money in the US, I mean, A LOT! New data centers, improvements to current infrastructures, and new education centers are among the listed investments. Was this a deal between Tim Cook and the orange clown so that Apple is not subject to the 10% import tariffs on the iPhone? Call me a cynic if you want, but the timing is dubious. 3️⃣ Another iPhone 17-related leak. This time, it's the CAD designs. 4️⃣ Twenty-five years of MacRumors! Wow! 5️⃣ As reported by MacRumors, Apple made a breakthrough with the design of the upcoming foldable iPhone so that there is no apparent crease. The next step is reducing the thickness of any upcoming foldable iPhone, and the solution might reside in the upcoming iPhone 17 Air. All addressed challenges to make the iPhone 17 Air as thin as possible; it's a step toward a thinner foldable iPhone. 6️⃣ The next Apple silicon moment is here. That's incredible. I first thought Apple would not offer a suitable wireless modem when rumours floated that they would produce their modem. And Apple is already working on the next-generation modem and their WiFi chip! 7️⃣ Do you like Apple's recent advertising? I'm not sure of the ones about genmojis billboards or short videos on YouTube about the iPhone 16e. I'm probably not the target audience. This is Apple today: targeting so many different audiences where I rarely fit in. 8️⃣ Apple is apparently going forward with AI-generated review summaries. Can we expect something in line with on-device notification summaries? Maybe. Many reviews are badly phrased, to thr point of being hard to decipher. It will be interesting to see how Apple’s strategy fares here.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ After reading this blog post from Lou Plummer about leaving Google Gmail, I decided to take a similar journey but for HEY Mail. I already set the goal of reconsidering my use of HEY Mail, thanks to my values not aligning with 37Signals’ leadership values. The problem is: where should I go? Email is still central to my digital life, and moving things around should be carefully considered. I registered with Fastmail and started the 30-day free trial. The first step will be to replace my native HEY mail address with Fastmail’s, and the second step will redirect all my newsletter subscriptions to Inoreader. I rarely use the HEY Mail newsletter reading experience, so that one is a no-brainer. After a quick search in Apple's Passwords app, I'll need to convert 37 accounts to a different email address, which is manageable. Some of my accounts are no longer required, so I am reducing the list slightly. It's a great time to do some cleanup, too. Next, I will migrate my Gmail account by importing my mailbox. The only problem is that I need to be a paying subscriber to Fastmail to convert my email addresses. Fastmail prohibits, for security reasons, the use of confirmation emails while being on the free trial.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Inoreader's improvement streak continues. As reported on their blog, website tracking was vastly improved this time. 2️⃣ Apple continues to update Photomator and Pixelmator, but release notes are terse. This is the second update since Apple took over and officially marked Photomator as an Apple-branded app. Not much was shared on both releases regarding what was updated or fixed. I hope this is not a trend. 3️⃣ A new newsletter is born: AppAddict. Lou Plummer, a prolific app reviewer, is putting it together! I discovered a few apps because of his work! It's nice to see the next step for him. 4️⃣ I think I will cancel my subscription to Readwise, which is due for renewal on April 1st. I don't actively use this service besides letting it store some text highlights coming from Micro.blog or Inoreader. I’ve been using Readwise for five years. That's a lot of money. You can visit my current active subscription page here. 5️⃣ Here is a good question by 9to5Mac: are my application download decisions influenced by the app privacy label? Short answer: no. I rarely consult them. 6️⃣ Notion keeps improving all the time. I use it every day for the job, and I wish I could use it for more use cases. 7️⃣ Have you wondered which audio transcription tool is better? Look no further than this report from Tidbits. I happen to have both Audio Hijack and MacWhisper. I prefer the latter.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Remember Skype? It's going offline in May because of a decreasing user base. Skype was among my first experiences of connecting to the Internet. I wasn't fond of the app design and rigging bell, but it was unique and enabled the start of something that would eventually become much bigger. 2️⃣ I created a new video about a browser extension with Craft. It's a web clipper missing from Craft after five years of being available. 3️⃣ Digg is coming back soon! Yep! Cue the promo video now!

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Following this report, it’s clear that we should reconsider our admiration for Musk because his current actions are wrong on so many levels. The latest issue concerns Grok. He is doing the same thing the Chinese government is doing with DeepSeek, except the censorship targets are Trump and him. 2️⃣ I started using Perplexity recently because I'm trying to diversify my dependency on generative AI tools. I'm using it at work and I really like what I'm getting from my many searches. It's the next-generation web search engine! 3️⃣ Someone likes my numericcitizen.me website! 🥰. 4️⃣ There is a new version of the Ubiquiti Dream Router! Early in the COVID pandemic, I replaced my aging Apple Airport Extreme for the Dream Router, and I was happy about it. I'm still happy! But this new edition seems like a solid upgrade and it is relatively cheap! This might be my only serious tech upgrade for 2025!

Social media in 2025: why creatives are ditching ‘rented’ spaces for owned platforms

Fed up with Facebook, Instagram, and X? Creatives in 2025 are reclaiming control, ditching social media for owned platforms that foster independence and authenticity. We’ve been talking for some t…

Creative BoomTom May

In 2025, many creatives are leaving social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, opting for "owned" platforms like personal websites, newsletters, and blogs. This shift is driven by concerns over privacy, algorithm changes, and a desire for more control and authenticity. Creatives are tired of giving their content and energy to platforms that benefit large corporations. While transitioning to owned platforms presents challenges like visibility, many adopt hybrid approaches, using SEO, email newsletters, and community building to connect with their audience. This movement signals a potential end to social media's dominance, with a resurgence of independent online spaces where creators have full control. Some creatives even focus on in-person meetups and closed communities. The key message is that the future of creative expression lies in building your own platform rather than being a product of someone else's.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ I'm looking forward to enjoying using Fastmail even more! 2️⃣ I'm also paying attention to the consequences of Apple’s announcement of the new Apple Intelligence Siri delay.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻

Why I decided to leave HEY Mail

I started using HEY Mail in July 2020, right in the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a refreshing albeit controversial take on emails by controversial founders. As I wrote here, my primary motivation for paying for email was to use a converged and unified mailbox for my Google, iCloud and, believe it or not, Yahoo email accounts. HEY Mail had features like Paper Trail and The Feed that made a difference for me. I still love those features, but something else drove me away from HEY Mail: the CEO and founder of 37Signals, the maker of HEY Mail (and Basecamp, another controversial product). As I wrote here, recent articles shared by DHH triggered me to reconsider my HEY Mail usage. This article is not about revisiting past controversies. It is about sharing my experience and details about migrating to a new unified mailbox: Fastmail. My goal with this article is to help others understand that migrating off HEY Mail is not as complicated as it seems by explaining how I did it.

In the coming sections, I explain how I migrated from HEY Mail to Fastmail without losing HEY Mail features: unified inbox, the Feed, the paper trail, and the screened-out mail filtering. I’ll also explain how I overcame a few unexpected challenges and share details about the many benefits of this migration. Let’s dive in, shall we?

The migration strategy

Before migrating, I wanted to buy a new domain name for use with Fastmail. After spending some time with Cloudflare’s domain name search, I finally settled on a simple one. That domain could be used in addition to the one I get by subscribing to Fastmail. I selected fastmail.ca (instead of .com) because it clarifies that I’m a Canadian. Now that I have a brand new domain name for my new email home, it’s time to move to the next step, starting the migration process.

The migration strategy was simple: migrate my less-used email accounts first (Yahoo) to test the entire migration process without affecting my daily email usage. For each migrated email account, email forwarding was disabled both at the source email account and within the HEY Mail configuration. Then, the next email account to migrate was Google’s Gmail. It’s also important to note that the goal was not to close my Google account but to migrate my Gmail account content. Making a difference between an authentication account and the email service that might be tied to it is essential. The “Sign in with Google" and “Sign in with Apple” are still part of my daily digital life. I have always preferred to use “Sign in with Apple” over Google’s offering. However, there are services that I cannot let go of that are tied to my Google account. The other important thing to consider is that I only focus on email migration. I prefer to keep those under Apple’s iCloud umbrella, just like I’m not migrating my notes from Apple Notes to Fastmail’s notes. My calendaring needs are fulfilled with Apple’s Calendar, which is stored in iCloud.

Migrating an email account involves different steps and configuration details. Just like when I migrated to HEY Mail in 2020, the same strategy applies here: I chose not to delete emails from the original mailbox; I’m only forwarding them to the unified mailbox. Also important: being able to send an email under one of my email account is essential too. I rarely used my unified email address when writing emails. Fastmail, just like HEY Mail was, is only used a single place to read and write emails, nothing more, nothing less. You might have another strategy and Fastmail will probably be able to support your use case. For example, you might want to delete the original email and keep everything inside Fastmail. That’s fine too. Fastmail is very flexible.

Importing an email account is relatively simple: you select the service provider, authenticate with the service and then select how to proceed. My migration is based on importing the email, and enabling email composition from the source account (which requires credentials). For iCloud accounts, an app-specific password must be created first. The reason is simple: you don’t need to provide the entire email and password credentials for this to work, only an app-specific password which is a little more secure.

Migrating a custom email domain out of iCloud+

Fastmail offers a simple way to use a custom domain for your email account. Because of this, I decided to migrate my hello@numericcitizen.me email address hosted on iCloud+ to Fastmail. You didn’t you know that you can use iCloud+ with a custom email domain? Yep, that's right, but migrating this email address to Fastmail was a bit challenging because custom email domains with iCloud+ are managed only on the iCloud website. If you happen to use Advanced Data Protection too, this is where it becomes tricky.

Having Apple Advanced Data Protection (ADP) is cool and nice but can make managing iCloud+ Custom domains a pain. As a reminder, to use ADP, you must turn off iCloud web access. As soon as this is turned off, you can no longer manage your iCloud+ custom email domains. To complete my migration to Fastmail, so that I could write and respond from that custom email address from Fastmail, I first had to remove that domain from iCloud+, but it's only possible on the iCloud website. To do that, ADP must be turned off. Once done, I can re-enable iCloud website access, then remove the custom email domain. After some cleaning up of Apple-related DNS records at my DNS registrar, I can re-enable ADP and disable iCloud website. Only then I can go on Fastmail Settings and configure my custom email domain for use within Fastmail.

In summary, here are the required steps

1. Disable Advanced Data Protection
2. Re-enable iCloud web access
3. Login to icloud.com and remove the custom email address.
4. Remove any Apple-related DNS records from your custom domain on your domain name provider (it should be about ive entries)
5. Disable iCloud web access
6. Re-enable Advanced Data Protection
7. On Fastmail, add your custom domain and add the DNS records as required by Fastmail
8. Next, on Fastmail custom domain panel, add an alias for the portion before the “@“ sign.
9. Wait about an hour (depending of the DNS zone TTL value which often defaults to one hour)
10. Your custom mail domain is now operational under Fastmail hosting services!

At this point, you can use your custom domain name email with Fastmail. Now, when writing an email in Fastmail, I can select to send it from five different email addresses.

Using Fastmail labels

Fastmail offers two ways to organize emails: by using folders or labels. You can switch between the two at any time. I decided to use labels, which Apple Mail doesn’t provide, but HEY Mail did. Labels are essential to Fastmail, especially when creating email rules and automagically doing stuff with each incoming email. I depend on Fastmail labels to replace HEY Mail Screener and Paper Trail. By using labels in combination with Fastmail Contact Groups, it does the trick of replacing one of the most valuable features of HEY Mail. Here is how I did it.

The first label use case is to assign a label on each email to identify their source account. This way, I can quickly see all the emails coming from my Gmail or iCloud. The other use case is for marking all the imported emails from the HEY Mail account when I imported the mbox file. Now, keep reading to learn about my HEY Mail import experience.

Importing email archives from HEY Mail mbox files

Even if my HEY Mail account contained duplicates of all my source email accounts, I exported my data from HEY Mail to import the data into Fastmail. The process is simple but took a while to complete, both on the HEY Mail and Fastmail sides. I had 2.8 GB worth of emails (close to 20K, to be precise). The idea is to have one place to search all my email archives. I wasn’t sure how my emails would end up in my Fastmail account, but thankfully, the import panel lets you select a label to assign for each imported email. The one downside of this migration is that the Imbox, Feed and Paper Trail containers are lost: all emails are tagged with the same label. The problem is not on the Fastmail side: HEY Mail should have provided a way to export those in separate mbox files. Beyond that issue, all my emails were imported flawlessly in about an hour.

Which email service supports exporting data in mbox files?

Several email services and tools support exporting data in MBOX file format. Here are the most notable ones:

• Gmail: Gmail allows users to export emails in MBOX format via Google Takeout. This is a free and straightforward method to download all or selected emails from your Gmail account.
• Apple Mail: If you use macOS, Apple Mail provides a built-in feature to export mailboxes directly to MBOX format. This is ideal for small inboxes and ensures data security.
• Thunderbird: Thunderbird, an open-source email client, supports exporting emails in MBOX format for any email provider. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, making it a versatile solution.
• Office 365 (via Thunderbird): While Office 365 doesn’t natively support MBOX exports, users can set up their accounts in Thunderbird and save emails as MBOX files. Alternatively, third-party tools are available for this purpose.
• https://www.systoolsgroup.com/how-to/export-gmail-emails-to-mbox-file-stepwise/
• https://www.goodbyemail.com/how_to_export_any_email_inbox_to_mbox
• https://itsupport.umd.edu/itsupport/?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0011940
• https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mail/mlhlp1030/mac
• https://www.migrateemails.com/blog/export-office-365-to-mbox/

Replicating “The Feed” feature

HEY Mail comes with The Feed, where you can read newsletters. The problem with The Feed is that it never improved since the original launch of HEYT Mail. The reading experience is nothing special. You can’t compare The Feed to any read-later service. Instead, I diverted all my newsletter subscriptions to the excellent Inoreader service. Now, I’m reading my newsletter in a genuine feed reader through an RSS feed. Problem solved.

Replicating “The Screener” functionality

For some context, the HEY Mail Screener feature allows for triaging incoming emails. Those I don’t want to keep are rejected now and in the future. Anything else will be accepted. The idea is to mark incoming emails from unknown sources to be screened. I use labels and a contact group to replace the screener functionality in HEY Mail. Let’s say you receive an email from “noreply@apple.com” for the first time. It is labelled as “Screener” using the email rule: assign the Screener label if an email is not part of that contacts group. When reviewing those emails, I add the email source address to a contact group called “Well-known Sources” and remove the “Screener” label.

Replicating the Paper Trail functionality

Replicating the HEY Mail Paper trail feature follows the same principles as the Screener feature. A contact group called “Paper Trail” contains all the email source addresses for which I want to assign a label called “Paper Trail”. A mail rule is then required to process all incoming emails by following this logic: any email from a contact who is a member of the “Paper Trail” contact group is assigned the “Paper Trail” label. This is what the following screenshot shows.

From Bubble Up to Snooze

What appears to be novel features in HEY Mail can easily be replaced by something else in Fastmail. The HEY Mail bubble-up feature might have a fancy name but in fact, it’s the equivalent of Fastmail snooze action. If you want to see an email popup the next day, just hit snooze and select the right configuration options. Simple.

A few things left behind

I didn’t migrate everything during this migration process. As I said earlier, I didn’t migrate my calendar. My HEY Mail Contacts were migrated a bit by accident. They were first exported from HEY Mail into an 18 MB file; when I tried to import them into Fastmail, I was expecting a screen to confirm the process and maybe get a chance to set up a contact group for them, which I didn’t get. As a reminder, that contact list was automatically built by HEY Mail over time using the screener feature each time I accepted or rejected an email source. The nice thing about this import, though, is when I select a contact, I get a list of all the related emails from my imported archive. That’s super handy.

HEY Mail Clips weren’t migrated. Those clips were created while reading newsletters. They are lovely in theory, but they serve little purpose once made. They can’t be exported in Markdown, for example. These information tidbits now live in Inoreader, where I spend most of my reading time. This feature has never been updated since its inception, which I find deplorable. Companies quickly add stuff, but improving on them later is often another matter.

Another thing that is left behind is HEY Mail Collections. These were created to group related emails together. I rarely used that functionality; it won’t be missed, but I liked how they were presented, as shown below.

The last thing left behind is HEY Mail workflows. I experimented with this feature for a while to process subscription notification emails coming off Gumroad. A workflow allows for assigning a state to an email. That state can change to reflect a status. Think of this as a Kanban board, but for emails. Workflows was a good start but lacked some essential capabilities that are really useful for my needs. Leaving this behind won’t cause any significant issues.

Some extra Fastmail goodies

Beyond using Fastmail as a unified mailbox, some other goodies come with the service. File-sharing is one of them. A Fastmail subscription comes with a 10 GB storage quota to start. When sharing photos, I can share them as a simple but cute mini website. I can create mini websites tied to a specific folder in your Fastmail files storage. Try visiting an example I put together here. This could become handy and even replace Dropshare, which uses a different backend storage service. Fastmail even provides visitor logs. This is something to think about.

Unexpected but positive consequences

Just like moving from one password manager to another, moving from one email provider to another is the right time to do some cleanup and revisit some strategies. During this migration process, I closed many unused services. I chose to delete my Yahoo account, too. That one was a special use case. My Yahoo account was used to authenticate to my Flickr account, which I decided to close, too. It didn’t have content anyway. This digital cleanup is very satisfying.

The migration was the occasion to remember that an email account is often closely tied to an authentication account. One such example is my Google account or my iCloud account. Both are tied to an email. Unsurprisingly, if you open an account on a web service that offers to sign in with Google or Apple, the associated email will be used to communicate with you by email. My Google account is an authentication account, but I need to link it to my Fastmail account to receive things like YouTube notifications for my YouTube channel. Because I’m a YouTube subscriber, I cannot close my Google account. But again, this was not the main goal for moving to Fastmail.

Some online services I’m using were configured to use my HEY Mail address, which made my migration a bit more challenging for a few services. Some of those accounts were no longer used, so I decided to close them. However, I replaced my account with Fastmail for services like Synology alerting. Not all services use the same workflow for changing the primary email used for authenticating. Some services even make it especially hard. The worst cases are Slack and Bloomberg, which gave me another reason to hate these services as if I didn’t have enough.

Searching for emails is fast and flexible. It’s so much better than anything HEY Mail ever provided. The web interface is clean, adaptable and quick to interact with.

One last thing: Fastmail doesn’t provide a native Mac client. I’m still considering my options. The web client is so good that I can use it instead of a native Mac app. For now, I’m using the web app, which works great. Time will tell.

Am I going to miss HEY Mail?

The short answer is no. While HEY Mail offers a client for all platforms, they are built on the Electron framework and lack basic OS features support like iOS rich notifications. After five years, HEY Mail developers never bothered adding support for these, which allows a user to hit reply right from the notification, which Fastmail supports. HEY Calendar came out last year, and it never really clicked with me. If you think HEY Mail is opinionated, wait until you use HEY Calendar. Again, my primary use case for HEY Mail was for the unified mailbox, so I prefer to keep my calendaring stuff on iCloud. HEY World was a unique HEY Mail proposition: to be able to blog effortlessly. I did use it for a while but eventually decided to move to something more powerful, as I wrote back in 2021. Finally, the one thing that I will really miss is the widgets on the iPhone: they were useful and well-designed for the iPhone as well as for the iPad and the Mac. Fastmail doesn’t support this iOS feature, which is sad. 😔

Concluding remarks

My journey with HEY Mail lasted nearly five years. My subscription will end this coming October. Until then, I'll monitor my HEY mail account to ensure everything is fine. HEY Mail was great when it first started, but it was becoming too hard for me to support the guys behind the service with my hard-earned money. It's called “voting with your money.” I'm done with them; they probably don’t care, and anyone working at 37Signals will never read this article. That's fine. But if anyone ever reads this, please tell your bosses to f∗ off. Thank you. One last thing: Fastmail is cheaper, faster and much more capable.

Finally, I wasn’t paid by Fastmail for writing and sharing this article, but if you are considering joining Fastmail, please do it using this referral link. I'll earn a few dollars. Thank you. If you find this helpful article, please consider supporting me and show your appreciation via my Ko-fi page!

Some people own a town house and a country house and maybe a third house elsewhere in the world. Good for them. I'm one of those guys, except that my houses are built in the digital space, and I call those homes my blogs. 😌

👤 Personal

1️⃣ In light of the troubling daily news that we endure, I started a new training program, which makes me an aspiring peace supremacist and democracy propagandist. I'm so into this that I decided to update my Micro.blog profile page description and will probably make the change elsewhere (on Bluesky, for example). 2️⃣ I’ve been spending quite some time recently trying to follow the news. There is so much happening, and it goes too fast. It's hard to comprehend what is happening and how the world changes. I would lie, saying that it doesn't affect my morale. It does. 3️⃣ I’m afraid because of this and what comes next, even as a Canadian. But, not all is lost as some people still are lucid enough and willing enough, sorry, not afraid to call out names and stupidity when they see it.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ A new blog discovered this week, Labnotes, thanks to my Micro.blog timeline. The blog is hosted on Ghost and, as such, offers to subscribe. I prefer to read it through RSS. This guy maintains a newsletter reminiscent of mine but a lot more chaotic, which is not a problem, per se.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I'm someone who writes a lot. I wrote for a blog. I write for journaling. I write in my personal life and my professional life. I write reports. I write analysis. I write strategies. I write blog posts. Overall, most of my writings will be short-lived. A year from now, what I wrote this week at the office won't have much value. This newsletter edition won't have much value a year from now, either. But, trying to find a meaning to all this writing, I would argue that each piece I write is a little piece put together to help me become who I am. I'm one of those who think that problem solving must involve a lot of writing. I'm also one who considers that writing helps digest and retain information. Writing might also help me understand what is happening in this troubled world. Writing is essential to my existence. 2️⃣ Speaking of writing, if you are one of those like me who likes to write and would like to start a blog, consider looking at this comprehensive comparison of blogging platforms. It might be the best time investment for you today.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ We had two major snowstorms in the last weeks here in Montreal, dumping 74 cm of snow, and it was a great opportunity for me to go out for a few walks and snap a few pictures. Here are my best ones. 2️⃣ What a great photographer, Mike Schaffner on Glass. When I started scrolling through his photo catalog, I couldn’t get enough and wanted to scroll and scroll so that my enjoyment wouldn’t stop. Such a talented and inspiring guy. 3️⃣ The original Macintosh design is timeless. Great photographer series on Reddit.

“All empires end, but I really can't convince myself that Instagram will stop being the place for photographers anytime soon. There are just too many people there. Momentum is hard to stop. Time will tell, and I will likely be proved wrong. But that day seems like a long way off.” — Andy Adams

Mike Schaffner on Glass Photography Community

Mike Schaffner. Photographer (primarily BNW) & Blogger ( https://mikeschaffnerphotography.com/ ). All photos are mine. No AI.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ I’m not excited for the iPhone SE or 16E or whatever. Am I excited about the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro? Neither. I plan to skip this year’s upgrade cycle for non-technical reasons, also known as political reasons. Meanwhile, enjoy the following mockups. I dig them, but Matt doesn’t. 2️⃣ Gone are product Red at Apple. Gone is the TouchID home button on the iPhone. Gone are the non-OLED screens in the iPhone lineup. Gone is the iPhone SE, and the last iPhone with a lightning port is gone. Welcome to the new no-frills iPhone 16e and new confusion. A new star is born: the Apple C1 chip. For many reasons, introducing the C1 chip is the most interesting thing Apple has done in a while. If they can release a competitive chip in performance while making a difference with battery life, I think Apple has a winner here. Could this mean Apple will introduce cellular capabilities to future MacBook Pro, for example? I would bet yes on this. 3️⃣ Apple will retire Advanced Data Protection from the UK because they don't want to create the requested backdoor for the government. I applaud this move because otherwise, this would go against Apple's privacy protection message. 4️⃣ Is Apple prepping a new accessory category? Hints found in iOS 18.4 beta 1. The HomePad? The iPadPod? The HomePod, the real one, this time? Who knows.

“What Apple managed to assemble is a sandwich of uninterestingness and raise its final price to $599. They discontinued a line of iPhone models that was ‘midrange with personality’, and released something that isn’t distinctive in any way, its price positioning makes it difficult to recommend” — Riccardo Mori

« But Apple is a pretty terrible Google, just as Google is a pretty terrible Apple » — Marco Arment replying to Jeff Johnson

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ After much thinking in recent weeks, I finally found the project that I’ll be doing with Realmac Software’s Elements: I will recreate and rework in its entirety my about.numericcitizen.me mini website. This website is currently done with Craft and published and shared as a single document using Craft’s built in publishing capabilities. It was easy to start but I’m not satisfied at all, even after a small redesign late last year. To ease the transition, I’m going to use another subdomain: whois.numericcitizen.me. The first steps is to setup this subdomain, create a place on GitHub and link my Cloudflare page to it. Elements will publish locally, I’ll then commit the files to my GitHub repository then CloudFlare will pick them up from there. It’s my current understanding of the process, this might change further down the road. Meanwhile, you can have a quick look at the future website structure with the following mind map.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Grok, a new generative AI service from one of the Musk businesses. I’ll pass. I pass anything that might be coming from Musk. 2️⃣ Feeling frustrated not seeing one of my photos posted on Micro.blog not being cross-posted to Pixelfed, I vented my frustration. Someone responded with a suggestion to look at Echofeed. I did reluctantly but found that Pixelfed is not part of the supported services. I’ll stay with Micro.blog even when posting to Pixelfed, but I’ll submit my issues to Manton in due time. 3️⃣ Realmac Software Elements website builder is inching closer to an official release by opening the beta to all. Official website right here.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Impressive new app for the Apple Vision Pro. 2️⃣ Another app for but for MacOS: it's an app launcher. Intriguing. 3️⃣ Eight hours of Severance music. Yep, eight hours of background music from the Apple TV+ show.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I renamed the Gulf of Mexico because I could. You should probably do the same; it's therapeutic. 2️⃣ You're missing the point if you spend more time setting up productivity systems than actually working. It is a good video about Sam Altman’s productivity method. I should repeat this in my head more often. 🤦🏻‍♂️

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Apple released a new round of betas for all their platforms. Of all the additions, I can't find anything noteworthy in iOS 18.4 beta 1 that will make my digital life easier, so I'm now looking at iOS 18.5 when it comes out, probably around May or early June, when the promised reinvented Siri will be introduced.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻

Yesterday we had our second snow storm in less than five days. It was a big one, probably the biggest one in a decade. It was the best time to go out for a walk and snap as many pictures as possible. Here’s one.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I always put my actions in line with my beliefs. After a recent controversial post from the founder of 37Signals, DHH, the company behind HEY Mail, I will vote with my money. This coming October, I'm going to let my subscription expire. Praising Musk for what he has done with his companies is one thing, but praising him to do the same to the government, even if I'm not an American, it's another. You don't run a government like a startup. If the way Musk "processed" Twitter acquisition is any indication, it's time to show some resistance and say, enough. So, I have over six months to switch back to Apple Mail and switch a few accounts to use another email address. It's painful, but resisting is never easy.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ Every day since January 20, 2025, I'm discovering how fucked up we are, and how doomed the world is. I'm not calling any names, but you probably already know what I'm referring to. 2️⃣ Here's a sad discovery (via Gruber) about a software developer who succombed to his cancer: Martin Pilkington. We are not eternal; this is a reminder that we should always think to be ready for this to some degree.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ You can read last month's blog post right here on Micro.blog monthly digest. 2️⃣ As someone of Generation X, I feel privileged and wanted to write about our unique position in recent human history. I shared some of my thoughts. It's unusual for me to write and share this kind of article on my main blog. I might try republishing it on Medium to see if it gets any traction. 3️⃣ Here is an excellent piece about writing. I’m following her on Micro.blog, and she seems like a funny person I’d like to meet in person to see if my mental model of her holds up in reality.

“Writing means you have to trust what you say has enough weight on its own to matter to someone who reads it.” — Annie Mueller

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ This week's photographer discovery on Glass is a profile from “jnnman”. As a passionate black-and-white photographer, this profile is simply sublime. I love her work—my favorite one. Speaking of B&W photography, here is another great photo from AOWS.

“Color is descriptive. Black and White is interpretive. My life is already too complicated, so I stick to Black and White. It's enough.” - Elliott Erwitt

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ It's been a few months since Apple acquired Pixelmator. So far, the company is still releasing updates for each app. As Gruber said, Apple tends to do right with acquired apps. Will it age well into 2025? 2️⃣ If you live in the EU, you are now able to get your hands on the first porn app, but you'll have to get it through the AltStore, not the App Store. Users enjoy it, but Apple is not enjoying it while wondering about kids’ safety in this dark world. Meanwhile, in North America, we have Apple Intelligence. Apple is happy about it, but users aren't enjoying it. Oh well. 🤷🏻‍♂️ 3️⃣ In this video from “ThisIsE”, someone visited Apple Park, or what is publicly possible to visit. It's another testament to this place's greatness and is on my bucket list if I ever return to California. I don't see that happening before 2028, thanks to the orange clown administration and politics against Canada. 4️⃣ Leaking information about unreleased products at Apple isn’t a good idea. A leaker had to share that he was sorry. The story fails to explain why Aude leaked information to the press. It would have been interesting to learn. 5️⃣ It's been a year since the Apple Vision Pro was officially available for sale. The following video paints a balanced picture of using the Apple Vision Pro for a year. I would get one if money were no object, but that's untrue. I still think it is a marvelous piece of technology at the wrong time. 6️⃣ I found this unknown (to me at least) interview of Steve Jobs over iChat, the precursor of FaceTime. The interview took place during what appears to be a Comcast business conference in 2008. Worth a watch. 7️⃣ Tell me if you remember iTools, and I'll guess your age. 😝

Aude’s apology, on X:
“I spent nearly eight years as a software engineer at Apple. During that time, I was given access to sensitive internal Apple information, including what were then unreleased products and features. But instead of keeping this information secret, I made the mistake of sharing this information with journalists who covered the company. I did not realize it at the time, but this turned out to be a profound and expensive mistake. Hundreds of professional relationships I had spent years building were ruined. And my otherwise successful career as a software engineer was derailed, and it will likely be very difficult to rebuild it. Leaking was not worth it. I sincerely apologize to my former colleagues who not only worked tirelessly on projects for Apple, but work hard to keep them secret. They deserved better.”

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I don’t have any meaningful projects at the moment. However, I have something in the works about privacy protection using Apple devices and services. I’ve had this project on my to-do list for quite a while. I recently decided to come back to it using the ChatGPT Projects feature. The idea is to upload PDF documents of Apple support articles and other web references around this subject and figure out an angle to write about this. My goal is to help other Apple users learn how to increase their awareness of security features so they can increase their security posture. I want this article to be easy to understand and accessible. I think this subject is not well-covered. 2️⃣ As I'm writing this, an idea came up: converting my digital legacy management template from Craft to Notion and selling it on the Notion store. Stay tuned for more on that one as soon as I hear back from Notion.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Tapestry 1.0 is finally out! I was one of the backers on Kickstarter, and I'm happy that they reached this milestone. I've tried Tapestry during the development phase, but the design is not for me. I prefer something like Reeder (the old and the new version). I might continue trying it to see if the design grows on me. Only time will tell. The reactions are vastly positive for the most part, with a few exceptions. Many are comparing Tapestry to Reeder, and for good reason: they bring a single feed by combining multiple sources. You can find reactions and comments from other people right here. 2️⃣ Is Apple's new “Invites" app a hint at what iOS 19 could look like? Probably for some first-party apps that require a more immersive experience like the Camera app. 3️⃣ Do you know about HyperDeck, an iPad and Mac app for creating presentations? I had it installed on my iPad, but the beta expired. The website is still up, but it was last updated in 2020. I think it’s no longer being developed, which is sad. HyperDeck and iA Presenter try to let the user focus on content, not the presentation formatting. 4️⃣ Micro.blog got a new third-party client for the iPhone: Micro Social. I like what I’m seeing. 5️⃣ I’m still a big fan of Inoreader, but I have a few wishes for it. 6️⃣ Don't be fooled, the ARC Browser is officially making it to the abandonware. Weekly releases mainly focus on updating the Chromium engine without any new features.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ OpenAI is getting a new logo? According to this short video, yes. I like the visuals in this animated clip. It reminds me of a video from Apple a few years ago about “A thousand no’s for every yes". Sadly, the video is no longer available, but you can read about it here. 2️⃣ I recently spent some time cleaning up my YouTube channel subscriptions; I followed way too many YouTube channels, many of which became inactive. I’m trying to be more selective this year on many levels. This is one example. This channels management also clarifies which content I want to see and consume in Reeder, a feed reader that allows multiple sources like RSS or YouTube channels. 3️⃣ I stumbled on a video about another intriguing game called « Foundation ». While the game looks great, it does seem to require quite some reading and managing to get things going. It’s not for me, and I prefer to consider games like Tiny Glade. Civilization VII is in the « not for me » category, thanks to a demanding gameplay.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ According to a report from The Washington Post, the UK government demands that Apple create a global iCloud encryption backdoor (no link to paywalled content). Yep, you read it right. This is an unprecedented demand, and I wish Apple would get out of the UK market instead of giving up on this. 2️⃣ Another great wallpaper set from Basic Apple Guy. Worth downloading them all! 3️⃣ Is OpenAI turning slowly into Apple? Rumors about the development of its first custom-made silicon ship are true, and it might be the case, yes. Why? The idea is that controlling the whole technological stack, just as Apple does, brings many benefits. 4️⃣ There is Intel Inside stickers, and now there are Apple Silicon stickers. Available for purchase from Basic Apple Guy.

“Apple Watch is turning more into a fitness tracker that happens to show the time, and away from serving as a proper watch.” — John Gruber is his Apple 2024 Report Card.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ A troubling possibility, right under the US citizens’ noses, by Dave Winer. 2️⃣ Is this the iPhone 17 Pro? Really? Why? Change for the sake of change?

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 💪🏻

Thinking that JD Vance speech in Munich was remarkable, is a lack of perspective and judgment. If he is not capable to read between the lines, that is sad for him, and I don't need this type of content in my daily flow. Bye bye. 

I’ve been using Inoreader for a few years now and I couldn’t live without it. I made a video about it. I wrote an article about it. I’m using it everyday, sometimes more than once a day. Is it perfect? No. Is it improving? You bet. Inoreader got a major web redesign in the fall of 2024 that improved both the user interface and user experience. It’s was a rare case of redesign that didn’t break everything, like Evernote has gone through in the past. Instead, it was a redesign that improved everything. But I'd like to see some specific additions or improvements to Inoreader for 2025. Here is my most wanted list.

Improved experience on the iPad

I use the iPad for a lot of content consumption and Inoreader is one of the apps that I’m using for that. Since Omnivore has been more or less abandonned by its developer, I came back to Inoreader for my “read later” needs. There is one thing on the iPad that really needs improvement.

Selecting text with the Apple Pencil to create an annotation is finicky. The start of the select gesture often triggers an horizontal scrolling movement instead of text selection. It often requires a few tries before it works as expected. It’s not a big deal but text highlighting is central to reading saved articles. Any improvements in that area would be welcomed.

As a side note: I’m using the Inoreader iPad app only to read my content from the Read Later queue. After I’m done, I usually return to Reeder or simply use the web site. Maybe it’s a sign that the Inoreader iPad app might need more refinements?

Addition of Generative AI support

Readwise recently introduced the ability to prompt text highlights. I see a lot of potential in this and I wish something similar would come to Inoreader. That's one thing.

I also wish for an on-demand article summary based on generative AI. Imagine asking for a summary of an RSS article, and after reading it, a user could decide to read the entire piece but include the summary as a note. Or what if article summaries could be their own an alternative feed for each feed where summaries would be enabled. It would be super handy. Generative AI can be a boon to content consumption and information processing and I hope to see some form of integration with Inoreader sooner than later.

Support for creating linkposts

Imagine this simple workflow: I read an article, select a few text portions for highlighting, annotate the article, and add more notes. How far am I from being able to create a link post? I’m so close. From the screenshot below, you can see actions like “Add note”, “Delete”, and “View in Readwise.io,” where “Create a post” could be added. I want to be able to select one of my text highlights and create a linkpost from there for publishing as a markdown file that I can import easily for publishing with Ulysses.

Consolidated view of text highlights and notes

Speaking of text highlights and notes, how come it isn’t possible to get a consolidated view of all my text highlights and article notes? There is this concept of dashboard in Inoreader that can be customized using widgets, but still, it’s not possible from there to get this overview that would be useful. That would be convenient.

More automation in IFTTT

An IFTTT action when a new text highlight is created or when a new note is added to an article would be handy, too. It’s not possible right now. I’d like something to support the creation of a draft post on Micro.blog using a webhook that would be triggered with an action in IFTTT. This would probably help to put together a workflow for linkposts creation.

More sharing options

While Inoreader offers many sharing options, where is Mastodon? Why Notion or Readwise are missing from this menu?

Even with a near-perfect services like Inoreader, there is room for improvements and I hope someone at Inoreader is paying attention.

I love the complexities and sometimes anarchic flavours of cities.

Thinking about next summer season while waiting a few snowstorms in the next ten days.

We are much smaller than we pretend.

Generation X is the last cohort to have one foot firmly planted in the pre-digital world while seamlessly adapting to the rapid technological changes that followed. We were raised on mixtapes, handwritten letters, and Saturday morning cartoons, yet we were also the first to embrace personal computers, email, and the internet. This unique position grants us a rare perspective—one that values both the patience and craftsmanship of an analog world and the speed and efficiency of the digital revolution. We understand progress because we lived through it, adapting with each new wave of innovation while maintaining the ability to unplug and appreciate the world beyond the screen.

Generation X: Witness of Many Defining Innovations

Ours was the generation that witnessed the birth of cultural and technological milestones that shaped modern entertainment, communication, and lifestyle. We saw the rise of MTV, which revolutionized music and youth culture, the advent of the personal computer, which changed how we work and learn, and the first gaming consoles like Atari and Nintendo, which introduced interactive digital entertainment.

The Sony Walkman allowed us to take our music on the go, while VHS tapes gave us the freedom to watch movies at home on our own schedule. Other significant innovations that shaped our generation include cable television, the rise of home video rentals, the fax machine, and the birth of the first mobile phones. These advancements not only defined our youth but also set the stage for the digital transformations that followed.

A Foot in Both Worlds: The Pre-Internet and Digital Eras

One of the defining advantages of being part of Generation X is having grown up in a world without the internet, personal computers, or smartphones, yet also being young enough to embrace and adapt to these technologies as they emerged. Unlike digital natives who have never known a world without instant connectivity, we understand both the analog and digital realms.

This dual exposure has fostered an exceptional ability to navigate change. Whether it was learning to type on typewriters before shifting to word processors or making phone calls on rotary dial phones before transitioning to mobile devices, we’ve proven to be highly adaptable. This experience allows us to bring a level of thoughtfulness to technology use that is sometimes lacking in younger generations who take digital convenience for granted. It has also helped us develop a sense of patience, problem-solving, and self-sufficiency that isn’t as common in today’s instant-gratification world.

The Many Shifts in Education for Generation X

Education during Generation X's school years looked very different from today. The learning process was shaped by traditional teaching methods, limited access to information, and the gradual introduction of technology into classrooms. Unlike younger generations who have grown up with digital tools at their fingertips, Gen X students relied on handwritten work, physical textbooks, and in-person research.

Classrooms primarily used chalkboards, overhead projectors, and physical card catalogs for research, making learning a more manual and time-intensive process. Standardized testing existed but carried less pressure compared to modern educational environments. Early computers were introduced in the 1980s, but their role was minimal, mostly reserved for basic programming lessons or typing practice. Math classes were completed without calculators at first, reinforcing strong mental arithmetic skills.

Despite these challenges, these conditions shaped Generation X into resourceful, independent learners. They developed strong problem-solving abilities, note-taking skills, and patience in an era where information wasn’t instantly accessible. This experience laid the foundation for their ability to adapt quickly when digital technology revolutionized education and the workplace.

The Transition from Traditional to Digital Workspaces

Generation X was the first to begin their careers in traditional work environments and then transition into the digital age. Many of us started working in offices that relied on fax machines, landline phones, and physical file cabinets before adapting to email, video conferencing, and cloud storage. This shift required a unique ability to balance structured work ethics with the flexibility of modern digital tools.

We have experienced firsthand the evolution of workplace communication, from in-person meetings and memos to instant messaging and remote collaboration. This adaptability has made Gen X professionals highly valuable in today’s workforce, as they understand both the necessity of traditional business practices and the efficiency of digital solutions.

We were also early adopters of remote work, long before it became mainstream, setting the foundation for today’s flexible and hybrid work models. Our ability to embrace both structured office environments and the digital economy has given us an edge in navigating the ever-changing professional landscape.

Long ago, remote work was done via a landline with a modem connected to a modem multiplexer. This method used a text-only user interface and terminal emulation software. It was rudimentary but effective, and it was before the Internet.

Communication Skills: From Handwriting to Digital Messaging

Growing up in an era where handwritten letters, landline phones, and face-to-face interactions were the norm, we developed strong communication skills that have carried over into the digital age. Unlike younger generations who rely heavily on instant messaging and emojis, we understand the nuances of formal and informal communication.

We wrote letters and essays by hand, learned proper phone etiquette, and experienced the early days of email and text messaging. This exposure to various forms of communication has given us an advantage in both professional and personal interactions, allowing us to bridge generational gaps effectively. We can craft a thoughtful email, engage in meaningful conversations, and still adapt to the brevity of modern digital exchanges. We appreciate the convenience of instant messaging, but we also recognize the value of a well-written, structured message that conveys deeper meaning and intent.

Balancing Digital and Analog Tools

In recent years, we've witnessed a resurgence of analog tools like notebooks for note-taking and journaling. While digital tools offer unparalleled convenience, many of us still appreciate the tactile experience of putting pen to paper, while later generations seem to discover a new way of interacting with our physical world. There is something grounding about writing in a notebook—it slows us down, helps with memory retention, and provides a sense of connection to the physical world.

This return to analog tools is a testament to our innate need for balance. As much as we embrace digital efficiency, we also recognize the value of unplugging and engaging in methods that have stood the test of time. Whether it’s journaling thoughts in a leather-bound notebook, sketching ideas on paper, or keeping a physical planner, we naturally strive for an equilibrium between digital and analog tools. The resurgence of vinyl records, film photography, and printed books further reinforces the idea that not everything needs to be digital to be valuable.

Every Generation Faces Unique Challenges and Opportunities

It’s important to acknowledge that there is no such thing as a 'better generation'. Each generation experiences unique challenges, advantages, and cultural shifts that shape their perspectives and skills. While Generation X had the privilege of witnessing the transition from an analog to a digital world, younger generations have adapted to new technologies and innovations that were unimaginable in the past.

Rather than seeing generational differences as a competition, we should view them as opportunities for mutual learning. By understanding each other’s experiences, we can foster greater collaboration and appreciation across all age groups.

Conclusion

Generation X stands as a bridge between the past and the future, embodying a blend of traditional values and technological adaptability. Our unique upbringing—straddling the pre- and post-digital world—has given us a resilience and versatility that is invaluable in today's fast-paced society. From our communication skills to our adaptability, we continue to offer perspectives that enrich workplaces, families, and communities alike. While often overlooked in generational discussions, our contributions and adaptability make us an indispensable force in the modern world.

I feel privileged to be part of the Generation X.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ My "other" personal blog (a French-language blog) is now officially live. Many of my closest friends know about it as I shared the news on my Facebook account (oh, the irony!). I got a few positive feedback. The most important thing to remember is to keep doing what I like: sharing thoughts and observations while experiencing and exploring the physical and digital world. I'll see where it goes. 2️⃣ The dark forest image (from Unsplash) as this edition’s header image, is on purpose as I'm trying to illustrate the current era we are forced to enter in. The United States are entering into a commercial fight with us Canadians, for no valid reason. It will mark a new dark era between the US and Canada. I hope it won’t last beyond 2028.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ Greg Morris, a blogger that I follow on Micro.blog, started developing a client for Micro.blog. I didn't know he was into programming (in addition to photography, blogging and podcasting). I'm curious to see how it evolves and if it ever sees the light of the day. I'm okay with more client choices for services like Bluesky and Micro.blog. 2️⃣ Manuel Moreale shared a table of blogging platforms for those looking for a home for their writings. I know about WordPress, Blot, Ghost, Write.as, Medium, and Micro.blog. 3️⃣ Like many people this week, I discovered the DeepSeek AI app. I tried it once. I'm uncomfortable with the fact that DeepSeek is hosted in China: DeepSeek AI avoids answering 85% of prompts on ‘sensitive topics’ related to China. I'm even more uncomfortable. I'll pass for now. Try it for yourself.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ Here is a good one from Riccardo Mori about an interview with Don Norman, a prominent figure in the human-computer interaction field. The interview took place in 1995, but as Mori emphasizes, many things Don Norman said are still valid today, if not more accurate. I studied many of Don Norman’s papers in the early nineties while studying user interface design for my master’s degree. 2️⃣ In the next edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook, this section will probably be removed and morphed into all the remaining ones. Why? Because each edition of this newsletter is based on my reading, I don't see the need for a dedicated section for my readings. What do you think?

“Every new thing that I add to my website works to regain my internet presence away from companies that do not have my interests at heart. And I will avoid future problems like a company deciding to put login walls or paywalls in front of my content. Or putting Nazi content beside mine. I can avoid all of that by self-publishing.” — Louie Mantia

“The internet is now five websites owned by three people and all of them are awful” — Unknown source

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I wish I had written the following blog post from Manuel Moreale because it closely resonates with my thoughts on having blogs. 2️⃣ This week, I looked at my current writing ideas and made some cleanup. I dropped a few ideas not worth pursuing. I've been trying to focus more in recent years, which is part of the process. Having a clearer view of what is essential for me as a blogger is not only helpful but mandatory. I shared this thought about that on my blog.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ Here's an interesting video from a photographer who quit his job to do just that: photography. If this is something you are thinking of doing, watch this informative video, if not inspiring. 2️⃣ Is Glass, the photo-sharing service, a social network or not? According to one of his founders, the answer is an official "yes.” He came to this conclusion after reading an article about the launch of Mozi, another social networking app. People on Glass are passionate about photography, can show appreciation or comment on other people's work, and connections are made. I guess those are some of the attributes required to become more "social.” 3️⃣ Following MacRumors photo and video tests between the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, I'm happy to report that I still prefer iPhone photos over Samsung's. 4️⃣ Another great discovery on Glass this week. I fell in love with this winter image. And this guy, with a rather spooky style!

Sharing an Image Collection With Friends and Family — A Lesser Known Approach

Exploring practical and secure ways to share photos with friends and family, while balancing convenience, privacy, and user interaction.

Numeric Citizen SpaceJF Martin

“The most important asset for a photographer is time”.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ If all goes according to the (new) plans, Siri might get a fix for real this time. 2️⃣ With iOS 18.3 and macOS 15.3, Apple Intelligence (still in beta mind you) is turned on by default on supported devices and language. Why? It's baffling to see Apple make this move. 3️⃣ If you want to see where the Vision Pro’s future might lead, consider looking back at the history of the MacBook Air, as Om Malik did in a recent article. 4️⃣ Fifteen years of iPad. Time flies — another great blog post by Om Malik for the occasion. For me, the iPad remains a great device in my digital landscape. Surprisingly, I share many similar iPad use cases with Mr. Malik: photography and travel (on the plane or at the hotel for a short trip). 5️⃣ Are you looking forward to the iOS 18.4 beta to see what is coming for Apple Intelligence? Or maybe you don't care because everything else in the generative AI space is much better than what Apple can develop? At the time of publication, we are still waiting for the first beta of iOS 18.4. 6️⃣ Poor Siri. Will she ever grow up? 7️⃣ Apple made a lot of money in the last quarter; here is some proof. Services revenues continue to increase steadily, but iPhone sales are down, Mac is up, iPad is up, and wearables are meh.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ This week, I completed the creation of my French blog. I wrote a few blog posts to test the visual theme and define the proper categories. It's all good. I guess it fits well with Louie Mantia's philosophy that he explains in “Make a damn website” instead of relying on a platform just for sharing thoughts? 2️⃣ My other project of learning to use Elements, a web editor, is going slow, at the pace of watching videos on YouTube according to their release schedule. I should do more. 😔

"It’s worth thinking about not just how little effort it takes to get started with an app, web app, or web service. But how much effort it always takes for you to migrate elsewhere when it turns out to be shittier than they originally advertised." — Louie Mantia

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ I bought SnapMotion to snap the exact frame out of a video. One example is writing articles about Apple's keynote and product announcements, where I want to take snapshots during the streaming but never get the right one. Now it will be possible. Another use case is to look for an animation frame-by-frame that often reveals details we cannot see live or using another tool. SnapMotion, in a way, offers a way to save bookmarks of video sections with the Snaps tab, which is very handy. 2️⃣ Readwise, the web service for reading RSS feeds and saving text highlights, published an article summarizing recent additions and updates to their offerings. It's pretty impressive and, as usual, quite overwhelming. I'm still paying for Readwise but only using the text highlight archive. Their reader is quite powerful and feature-packed compared to Inoreader, but I'm still not fond of the design. That said, like many other services, they added generative AI article summarization, and I think this is something Inoreader should consider adding, too. And the conversation with text highlights is a clever use of AI. 3️⃣ Adam Engst wrote an article about why he still prefers Grammarly over Apple Intelligence. As a paid subscriber myself, I completely agree with his take. Apple Intelligence is not writer-friendly at all. Grammarly is so much better integrated into the writing experience than Apple Intelligence. I find this ironic because Grammarly is a third-party application, and Apple usually offers better integrations since they control the whole software stack. One downside or irritating issue with Grammarly is the iterative nature of its correction suggestions engine. The final version might take four or five corrections to one phrase involving a change to the same portion. I use Writing Tools a few times a week but for very short text, like when posting to Micro.blog. 3️⃣ Craft now supports the DeepSeek R1 local model without an internet connection. I tested it but returned to ChatGPT’s model. 4️⃣ Inoreader now supports Bluesky, so we can add search results or follow users from an RSS reader. How cool is that? 5️⃣ Speaking of Bluesky, Flashes, a photography-only app based on Bluesky, is coming soon. In other words, by using Flashes, Bluesky sort of becomes like what Instagram used to be in its early days. How cool is that?

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ I want to play this game: Tiny Glade. It seems to be relaxing. It reminds me of TownScaper, but it is much more sophisticated. But I know I /will waste too much time on this. 2️⃣ This is a cool video about many of the scenes of The Silo. I like to see all the places without any humans, only with background noises. It leaves a lot of space for imagination. It's a bit spooky. 3️⃣ I'm still fascinated by Nothing, the company, and their actions (A recent video).

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I got my first mechanical keyboard this week, a Keychron, and I love it. I didn't understand all the enthusiasm around mechanical keyboards until this week. I should have known better because we had that kind of keyboard when I started studying computer science. I vividly remember IBM "clicky" keyboards with TN3270 monitors. If you look carefully and are old enough, you'll see that this Keychron keyboard resembles the Commodore 64’s. I didn't notice until I started playing with it. 2️⃣ DeepSeek is kicking asses. As good as most advanced ChatGPT models, DeekSeek uses a model that requires a fraction of what ChatGPT 4o took for its development and training. Plus, running the model requires much less CPU and RAM. On top of all that, everything is open source, free to use and reuse! No wonder why NVIDIA shares plunged 17% on Monday, January 27th. Apple's approach to on-device processing might prove to be a good strategy, after all. 3️⃣ According to Reddit, I’m supposed to celebrate my fifteen years on Reddit. 4️⃣ The Core Intuition podcast is over. Sixteen years of podcast episodes are now up for archives. I wasn't an avid listener because I rarely listen to podcasts. But the shows I listened to were good, and most brought thoughtful moments and discussions. It's sad to see that go. Manton shares that after a period of reflection, he felt that something had to change, including how he manages Micro.blog and his time. Sixteen years is a long streak in today's world.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ As a Canadian, I'm looking forward to seeing and probably experiencing the negative consequences of the unjustified tariffs from the white house clique on Canadian goods. Those tariffs are unwarranted and based on false assumptions from the orange clown at the White House.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦💪🏻

I’d love to be there right now instead of enduring winter.

My friends and family often ask me, "When and where will you share your photos from this summer’s trip to Croatia?" I told them "soon," even though I had no exact plan. I was still exploring different options to find a way to share my photos that would be both convenient and engaging for everyone. I knew Pixelfed wouldn't be the best solution—most people don't want to follow a daily feed and look at photos one at a time. People generally want a frictionless experience when it comes to browsing photos, where they can quickly and easily see the entire collection without any barriers. I also didn't want to use Facebook for sharing my photos, as it felt too public and less personal for this purpose. When friends ask to see your photos, they usually want to see them all at once. So, I had to think of a different approach.

Knowing some of my friends use a Nixplay digital frame, I considered using its built-in feature that allows users to send pictures via email directly to a specific Nixplay frame. This would require creating a dedicated album on my friend's Nixplay account and sharing the corresponding email address. While this could work well for close-knit groups or specific individuals who already have the frame, it’s not the quickest approach or practical for a broader audience. I dismissed this idea because the digital frame is generally far from the viewer, too far to fully appreciate each photo. So, I needed another solution that more people could benefit from.

I then thought about using iCloud public albums, but I was reluctant to import my finished photos into iCloud. More importantly, since Apple Advanced Data Protection (ADP) is enabled on my Apple Account, sharing photos via icloud.com wasn't an option. ADP enhances data security by encrypting iCloud data end-to-end. Still, as a trade-off, it disables iCloud web access to ensure that sensitive data remains accessible only from Apple devices or trusted locations. A critical note about security and privacy: people who subscribe to the shared album can see all subscriber names and email addresses.

Finally, the simplest solution was to create and share an iCloud album, select my best images, and invite my friend via iMessage. As I worked on this, I expanded the invite list to include more friends and family, all Apple ecosystem users. For non-Apple users, however, this method might not work, requiring alternative sharing options like direct email links or third-party platforms such as Google Photos or Dropbox. This way, no one was left out. The "Activity" tab in Apple Photos shows everyone’s comments, allowing participants to engage directly by leaving reactions or starting conversations about specific photos. This interactive element transforms the album into a micro and private social network, fostering a sense of connection and making the photo-sharing experience more dynamic and engaging. It's a pretty cool way to share my summer memories and interact with my digital friends. I wonder why Apple is not advertising this photo-sharing approach more.

The best solution is often right in front of our eyes.

It’s -18C this morning, and I’m dreaming of this. ‎⁨São Paulo⁩, ⁨Greater São Paulo⁩, ⁨Brazil⁩

It’s winter here and getting really cold outside, so let’s go back in time, and travel to Morocco. Circa June 2023.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ First, consider this question (coming from this blog post by Jatan Mehta): “If you were born and brought up in the time of modern social media, where Twitter and Instagram have always existed, would you even blog?" What a great question. I want to share my answer to that one. I'm much older than Manuel Moreale, as he writes in his answer. I was born in 1967. I remember the time before the web, even before computers. I started blogging in 2009, Facebook and Twitter were a thing, just like MySpace. I didn't click at that time that blogging was a thing, until I decided to share my experiences as an indie iPhone apps developer. Back to the question, I'm not sure I would be blogging if the only things I knew were Twitter, Instagram or TikTok. I'm born at the right time where people were using paper for writing, I don't do that these days. Why would I blog on a website that I own if I can write on someone else's platform who take care of everything (including free usage tracking!)? I understand why the following generations (Y and Z) aren't really into blogging, because they are barely into writing and reading. Am I generalizing too much? I'm not sure. My gut feeling is that I'm not.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ Thanks to this YouTube video, I just discovered Tiny Glade, a game (available on Steam) for building things like castles, small villages and cities. It is so cool and reminds me of Townscaper, another great game I played for a while. Tiny Glade’s graphics are at another level, though. It's the LEGO set of the digital era. I'm sold. Now, I have to find some time to play that game. Here's the video.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I priceless open letter to Mark Zuckerburg by Daniel Supernault, one of the main contributors to Pixeled. Emphasis is mine.

"Dear Mark,
I hope this finds you well. I noticed something interesting today - it seems Instagram is blocking links to my little open-source project. You know, the one that lets people share photos without harvesting their personal data or forcing algorithmic feeds on them.
I have to admit, I'm flattered. Who would've thought a small team of volunteers could build something that would catch your attention? We're just trying to give people a choice in how they share their memories online. No VCs, no surveillance capitalism, just code and community.
Remember when Facebook started? It was about connecting people, not maximizing engagement metrics. Our project might be tiny compared to Instagram, but we're staying true to that original spirit of social media - giving people control over their online presence without turning them into products.
You could've ignored us. Instead, by blocking our links, you've given us the best endorsement we could ask for. You've confirmed what we've been saying all along - that big tech is more interested in protecting their walled gardens than fostering genuine innovation.
Every time you block a link to our platform, you remind people why we built it in the first place. Your action tells them there are alternatives worth exploring, ones that respect their privacy and agency. So thank you, Mark. You've turned our little project into a symbol of resistance against digital monopolies.
Perhaps one day you'll remember what it felt like to be the underdog, building something because you believed in its potential to make the internet better. Our doors are always open if you want to remember what that feels like.
Best regards,
Daniel Supernault
P.S. Keep blocking those links. Every error message is just free advertising for the social web."

“we’ve also seen a massive recent uptick in low-quality, AI-generated posts behind the paywall, and coordinated activity like fake accounts created by a single person in order to engage with paywalled posts to generate earnings, and more.” — Scott Lamb from Medium

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I got a little poem from ChatGPT this week that I want to share with you (see below). I get such poems every morning using ChatGPT tasks and reminders. It's pretty cool and inspiring, to be honest. 2️⃣ I'm starting a new blog, this time to give me a chance to write and share in French, and it's about the same interests, to be shared with my friends and those who dare to care. The official launch is approaching.

Whispers of Dawn
The dawn arrives, a tender hue,
A sky brushed soft with morning’s blue.
Each ray of light, a golden thread,
Weaving dreams where hope is fed.

The world awakes in quiet song,
A chorus where we all belong.
The breeze does dance, the leaves take flight,
Nature’s joy in morning’s light.

So take this day, a gift anew,
With endless paths to wander through.
Let courage guide, let love inspire,
And fan the spark of your heart’s fire.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ Pixelfded iOS app is out! Finally. Instagram blocks posts which link to Pixelfed accounts. As I wrote here, Meta increasingly looks like a digital version of Russia. Pixelfed seems to have a moment, according to TechCrunch. 2️⃣ Could Flickr make a comeback in 2025? “Why Photographers Are Ditching Instagram for Flickr” tries to convince readers that it's yes. I don't think so. 3️⃣ On Glass, I have found this great photo of the original iMac by Robert Nelson. Beautiful. 4️⃣ I got many new followers on Pixelfed recently, Karneol is one of them and shares excellent black and white photos. 5️⃣ Mike McCue, the founder of Flipboard, is on Pixelfed, too. He shares many great images, too. 6️⃣ Speaking of photo-sharing service, Glass introduced Featured Series! It's another great addition to this superb photo-sharing platform.

“Despite the challenges, Flickr (or Glass) offers you a chance to have a more intimate photography space, which can help you 3to nourish your creativity.” - Nilofer Khan (Glass in the quote, by me).

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Did Apple do something cool since the iPhone? Facebook’s Zuckerberg thinks no. But, as Gruber wrote, look who's talking. What did Meta do in the last decade beyond buying competitors? What a moron. 2️⃣ Great wallpapers collection by Basic Apple Guy. 3️⃣ I picked up a good video about marketing and Apple. 4️⃣ The Apple //c with the monitor on its stand was a great combo, as shown in this photo from Glass. In this photo, the author states that he restored the computer to a working state to use it for posting messages on a retro BBS. Wow! I remember the clicky keyboard sound. 4️⃣ Could a complete iOS UI redesign be in the cards for this year's iOS 19? According to this video, this might be the case. Or not. In any case, I like what I see in this screenshot. 5️⃣ Apple TV+ Severance is taking over Grand Central, and it's pretty cool. Here's a short video made by Apple.

Lumon Takes Grand Central

What appeared to be an elaborate art installation quickly turned into one of the coolest performances in recent memory

Parker’s POVParker Ortolani

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I recently decided to spend some time learning an app called Elements for building websites. It's been two weeks, and I find it hard to schedule time regularly for this. I can't find the right moment in the early morning, evening, or weekend. I don't have kids at home anymore. It should be simple. I wonder how people returning to school to learn something new can make it. 2️⃣ I looked at Skillshare, a popular learning platform primarily dedicated to creative people. I was wondering if it could be a place to publish my online course about Craft. I couldn’t find any course related to Craft, which is a good thing. I read a few reviews about the platform, too. I do not like the revenue-sharing model and the fact that only highly popular teachers are at the top of the list all the time making it's hard to be discovered for newbies like me. I'll keep looking. I might stick to Gumroad for that.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ My usage of MindNode Next recently picked up. I'm seeing more and more releases that bring some of MindNode’s features back into MindNode Next. 2️⃣ ChatGPT now supports Reminders, provided that you are a paying subscriber and the right model is selected: “Reminders can be created in chat or through the tasks page under the profile menu, though the "4o with scheduled tasks" model needs to be selected.”. See the screenshot below. I wonder if there will be a better way for the users to access ChatGPT features beyond a dropdown with LLM model names. Maybe this will disappear in the future. Meanwhile, I asked for a poem to be written every morning at 7 AM, just for me. 3️⃣ This app, called SnapMotion, helps you capture a single frame from a video, and I think that might be handy for some use cases.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ My first video of 2025 is about using the PARA methodology with Craft. It’s a high-level overview which shows how someone looking for a better way to organize its content inside Craft can apply the PARA method. The video was produced in my new and temporary apartment, so the background is quite different, but I like it. 2️⃣ Miniature making has always fascinated me. This video is about making miniatures for the movie Blade Runner 2049. It is really cool. 3️⃣ I don't want to share an ad for DJI drones, but their latest addition to their lineup, the DJI Flip, is intriguing. Speaking of DJI drones, is it true that the US government is trying to ban them for specific use cases like border surveillance? DJI is a Chinese company, which I didn't know.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ This week, in a blog post by Manton Reece, I was reminded that the top-level domain “.blog” exists. I wondered if I should get one for “numericcitizen.blog” and if the domain is available. It is. The cost is 20 US$. What should I do with it if I could get my hands on it? It could be redirected to “numericcitizen.me" or “blog.numericcitizen.me”. But I think there is something different that I could do with it. First, let me remind you, dear readers, that I don't mix my digital life with my personal or professional life (just like I didn't have colleagues or Facebook friends). It means my colleagues or friends don't know much about “numericcitizen” or anything related. Also, I always write in English; if people around me knew about my digital presence, reading my blog in English would not work well for them as 99% of my friends and colleagues are French Canadian. What if I had a dedicated Internet corner where I could write in my native language, totally isolated from my other stuff, away from Facebook or other silos, but accessible to those who know the link? I decided to go ahead and buy a French domain name and open a Micro.one account for it. My initial “Hello World” post is online. I’m still thinking about what’s coming next, so stay tuned for more details.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Ordered this mechanical keyboard from Keychron, and I can't wait to try it out! I love Apple keyboards, but that one seems really lovely, from the look to the sound of typing on it. I think it will be a good fit for my home office desk. This video briefly mentions it. Not exactly cheap, though. Some people are enjoying it. The thing that I'm really excited about is the sound of the keys, I don’t trust the videos to be good enough to reflect reality.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

This blog post idea was triggered by a similar post on from HeyDingus blog. Consider this a complement to my written interview on People & Blogs.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

It was back in 2009 when I decided to share my journey of learning to develop applications for the iPhone and the App Store. I wanted to write about this because it has been instrumental in aiding me in retaining information and organizing my thoughts in my mind. Moreover, writing has proven to be an effective tool for problem-solving.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

The first blogging platform was iWeb but it was more for sharing personal news with my family members, it was before Facebook and the like. More seriously, it was in Blogger, now part of Google. What a terrible writing platform it was. I eventually migrated my content to WordPress.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Following Blogger, it was Squarespace for a little while then I moved my stuff on WordPress and now on Ghost and Micro.blog. Oh, and I almost forgot Scribble.pages. I know, that’s a lot, but each of them serve its own purpose.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?

I’m 99% of the time writing locally and hit publish after a dozen of iterations and some serious proofreading (manual, with Grammarly and ChatGPT).

When do you feel most inspired to write?

In the mornings, my mind feels unusually quiet and peaceful.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

I let things simmer for quite a while for long pieces. Otherwise it’s a rather short-cycle process, mostly for short-form writing.

What’s your favourite post on your blog?

Too hard to tell.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

I’m super happy with my setup as it is now. I have all the things in place and I want to focus on that for 2025. There is always room for some tweaks and enhancements but overall, I’m settled for a while.

It’s been quite a long time since my previous content creator workflow update, more than a year actually, back in November 2023. With 2024 coming to an end, it’s time for a detailed update. First, consider the following overall diagram, then continue reading.

Outlining purposes: Zavala, a free open-source outliner, is nearly perfect for outlining YouTube video production. I don’t do detailed scripting before recording videos, but I like to create the outline. I was using Zavala until the release of Mindnote Next, but this might change. Mindnote is a superbly designed mind-mapping application that also supports the creation of outlines, which are more beautiful than those created in Zavala. One of Zavala’s strengths is that it is free but also easily exports a document into Craft via a simple drag-and-drop. I will see how it goes in 2025.

Presentation purposes: iA Presenter offers a unique approach to presentation creation. I rarely use presentation software outside of my day job, but when I do, it supports me while recording a YouTube video. A recent update to iA Presenter introduced an online presentation sharing feature that works really well and is beautifully implemented. For 2025, I’ll try to take advantage of this. iA Presenter is such a unique take on a very old software category I must keep trying to find a use for it.

Website site analytics: Tinylytics joins Plausible in my toolset. I was happy with Plausible until this year, but the developer of Tinylytics is also the developer of Scribble.pages, a blog hosting service I really like. I decided to subscribe to Tinylytics as a support gesture for all his hard work building simple yet valuable web services.

Web bookmark management: I’m happy to introduce Anybox. Sure, it’s not raindrop.io, but it’s a great native Mac app, also available on the iPad and the iPhone. That’s all I need. My collection has less than four hundred bookmarks, all organized using folders and tags. It’s nothing fancy but practical.

RSS feeds publishing: FeedPress is a simple yet effective way for adding a unified feed in front of all my different websites (Ghost, Micro.blog, Scribbles, Medium). Also, I offer an RSS megafeed that encompasses all my other individual RSS feeds, which can be found here: https://feeds.numericcitizen.me. The added value of using FeedPress is to enable RSS feed analytics, which other publishing platforms like Micro.blog, for example, won’t provide.

Podcasting purposes: Micro.blog is now my podcast hosting service of choice. The feature is built-in and very simple to configure and use. There are two ways for me to share a podcast episode: either use the narrated post feature of Micro.blog or use a traditional workflow, build an audio file using Screenflow, post-process it in Adobe Podcast, and convert it from WAV to MP3 using Permute before uploading the audio file to Micro.blog.

Files-hosting and cloud storage service: Dropshare will upload a file to Backblaze cloud storage, and Short.io will shorten the resulting URL. All my files are shared under the following domain name: https://go.numericcitizen.me, using my custom branding. Here is an example: https://go.numericcitizen.me/PLx2st2Y. This workflow was implemented in 2024 and works well. The only thing is that I don’t use it often enough, and it can compete with CleanShot Cloud, which I use more often when sharing screenshots or short video clips. Those media files are using the following URL: cloud.numericcitizen.me.

Specialized blog hosting: Micro.blog. I created a metablog on Micro.blog using one of the five blogs in my Micro.blog subscription. As you can conclude, I’m increasing my foothold on Micro.blog because it is cheap, effective and unique on the market.

Read-later service: I removed Omnivore because the service is no longer being developed, and I decided to focus on Inoreader instead. It’s not a perfect solution, but it is a cheaper one. I still depend on Readwise to sync text highlights from Inoreader.

Another blog hosting service, Scribbles, was. I’m using it to host short-form posts called Blips or longer ones using the /Now spirit under the following URL: https://blips.numericctizen.me.

One-page website hosting: Numeric Citizen Hub on Micro.blog has replaced my Linktr.ee page. I’m again focusing on Micro.blog for many of my online publishing needs while saving some money along the way. This one-page website is for hosting my visitor card, sort of. Micro.blog offers support for one-page websites, so I’m taking advantage of this.

When saving bookmarks on Miicro.blog, I take advantage of text highlights while reading the article that Micro.blog is keeping from the bookmark. Text highlights are synced to Readwise, too.

Website for my supporters: For prople who wants to show their support for my work, I have built a Ko-fi page that can be reached here: https://ko-fi.com/numericcitizen. It was created for the one dollars a month club initiative from Manuel Moreale. I’m one of his supporter.

Document writing and editing needs: Craft & Ulysses. Both apps are still at the center of my publishing needs. More than ever, I depend on Craft to gather my thoughts and notes, research, and write. Ultimately, content is exported into Ulysses for publishing to either Ghost, Micro.blog or, more recently, Medium.

Behind-the-scenes newcomers: Apple Freeform plays a more prominent role in helping me create diagrams. Freeform is joining Mindnote and Keynote for creating visual content when needed.

These are gone: All my domain name registrations are now entirely moved to Cloudflare, and gone is GoDaddy. Omnivore is being phased out by its developers; it’s gone, too.

Until next time

The continuous evolution of toolsets reflects the dynamic nature of technology and the diverse needs of users. No toolset is flawless, and each comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. This notion is evident in your evolving content creator workflow, where you adapt and integrate new tools, illustrating digital tools’ perpetual state of change. For 2025, I don’t expect too much change in my workflows. Don’t forget to visit my complete content creator toolset if you are curious about the individual tools that I’m using.

This document is also available as a Craft shared document.

I spent some time this morning to visit my documented tool set on my metablog to make some updates.

This morning, I added a guestbook to my blog. Please, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while or if you just came by, take a moment to sign it! 🙏🏻

The updated navigation structure on numericcitizen.me. This blog is hosted on Ghost.org.

For those who didn’t know, I maintain a description of all the apps and services that I use on “My Complete Content Creator Toolset And Some More” page.

Bye bye Hookmark, apparently my current subscription ended. I cannot justify subscribing to this app just to be able to browse hookmark files created when my subscription was active. I’ll need to update some of my Craft templates to remove all my hookmark file references. Tedious.

I spent some time this morning to update my content creator toolset mini website. It was long overdue.

For long-time readers and followers, they know that I own a few websites or publishing places, but a reminder is always welcomed. With so many places to publish to, you might wonder why not use only one big website. Well, I’m glad you asked. You’ll find most of the answers in the following diagram.

As you can see, each place fills a different role. Think of them as publishing channels. I prefer to have many focused places with content directed to a specific crowd over having a single channel full of seemingly unrelated posts. But there is more to it: I love using different tools and services. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and a specific set of features. That’s what drives me the most to use different publishing platforms.

This article is about how I’m using Craft and Things 3, which is behind any short or long article I share online. Here is what happens when I get a new post idea.

1. In Things 3, Create an entry and set priority and desired or expected date of publication if known.
2. In Craft, I create a new document, set the title and then copy the document’s deeplink to the clipboard.
3. Still within Craft, I move the newly created document to the appropriate folder.
4. Still within Craft, I update my private creator dashboard document optionally.
5. Back to Things 3, and I paste the deeplink into the note field. It’s handy to jump from Things 3 to Craft with a single tap.

At this point, I can start my research, writing and editing of my article or blog post in Craft. Now, here is what happens after publishing my article:

1. Mark the to-do item as done in Things 3.
2. I update my private creator dashboard document by converting my deeplink to a new permalink that I put in the Recently Published section.
3. I monitor the appropriate RSS feed for quality control. See this article about subscribing to my own RSS feeds.

There you have it. Craft plays a central role in my blogger workflow¹. This blog post exposes what happens at the beginning and at the end of a new post idea. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something.

This article is about how I’m using Craft and Things 3, which is behind any short or long article I share online. Here is what happens when I get a new post idea.

1. In Things 3, Create an entry and set priority and desired or expected date of publication if known.
2. In Craft, I create a new document, set the title and then copy the document’s deeplink to the clipboard.
3. Still within Craft, I move the newly created document in the appropriate folder.
4. Still within Craft, I optionally update my private creator dashboard document.
5. Back to Things 3 and I paste the deeplink in the note field. It’s handy to jump from Things 3 to Craft with a single tap.

At this point, I can start my research, writing and editing of my article or blog post in Craft. Now, here is what happens after publishing my article:

1. Mark the to-do item as done in Things 3.
2. I update my private creator dashboard document by converting my deeplink to a new a permalink that I put in the Recently Published section.
3. I monitor the appropriate RSS feed for quality control. See this article about subscribing to my own RSS feeds.

There you have it. Craft plays a central role in My Blogger Workflow. This blog post exposes what happens at the beginning and at the end of a new post idea. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something.

❗Short announcement: I made some changes to my megafeed hosted on FeedPress by adding Blips RSS feed and this metablog RSS feed. If you want to get everything I share via a single RSS feed, this is what you need to subscribe to in your favourite browser. All updates to my digital presence are posted on this changelog page. Now, returning to normal programming. 📺

I recently got a few comments and questions from some followers on Micro.blog about my use of Scribbles versus Micro.blog blog hosting services. One guy couldn’t figure out why I was using Scribbles to write very short posts using a one-word title while I was using Micro.blog for longer posts, most of them without a title. I replied with a short answer, but I think I should elaborate for those who have been following me for some time or for those who just got here.

I use three distinct sites for posting written content. My main website (https://numericcitizen.me ), which came first, is currently hosted on Ghost. Next is my Micro.blog site (https://blog.numericcitizen.me), and, more recently, I added another small website hosted on Scribbles https://blips.numericcitizen.me. Let me explain each site’s purposes.

My main website is for posting longer articles like tech reviews (like “Five tools for efficient bloggers”) or for sharing long takes on a specific subject (like: “Five Steps for leaving Twitter”). My publication velocity is about one article per week. This is where my weekly creative summary newsletter gets published, thanks to Ghost’s built-in newsletter capabilities.

My second website is my daily blog, called “my blog,” and is where I post comments and thoughts about Apple, tech, photography, apps and services, and many other things. My blogging site is part of Micro.blog, there is a small community around it, thanks to Micro.blog fediverse support. Somehow, Micro.blog replaced Twitter for me, more than my presence on Mastodon did. I usually post around 10-20 weekly posts on Micro.blog. I like this place a lot for so many reasons.

I recently started using Scribbles, a small blog hosting service I like and want to support. I’m using this service to post short thoughts using a single-word title. These posts are then cross-posted to my Micro.blog timeline with a link going back to my Scribbles site. You can see an example of such a post appearing on my Micro.blog timeline in the following screenshot. Each post sports two emojis to help me spot them in my timeline. One thing I try to do is not to be too clickbait with my single-word title. The chosen word must be evocative or related to the post content.

The post on Scribbles gets cross-posted on my Micro.blog timeline by using one of the coolest features of Micro.blog: cross-posting of content coming from RSS feeds. This is shown in the following screenshot.

Micro.blog picks up posts from the Scribbles website RSS feed and will post content on my timeline, as well as cross-post it to Mastodon and Bluesky. This is POSSE in action. I’m a believer.

When I first thought about writing this article, I wasn’t sure where it would end up being shared. However, as the article grew in length and covered my blogging habits, it became obvious that it would go on my meta website, which is another one of my websites. There you have it.

I recently got a few comments and questions from some followers on Micro.blog about my use of Scribbles versus Micro.blog blog hosting services. One guy couldn’t figure out why I was using Scribbles to write very short posts using a one-word title while I was using Micro.blog for longer posts, most of them without a title. I replied with a short answer, but I think I should elaborate for those who have been following me for some time or for those who just got here.

I use three distinct sites for posting written content. My main website (https://numericcitizen.me ), which came first, is currently hosted on Ghost. Next is my Micro.blog site (https://blog.numericcitizen.me) and, more recently, I added another small website hosted on Scribbles https://blips.numericcitizen.me. Let me explain each site’s purposes.

My main website is for posting longer articles like tech reviews (like “Five tools for efficient bloggers”) or for sharing long takes on a specific subject (like: “Five Steps for leaving Twitter”). My publication velocity is about one article per week. This is where my weekly creative summary newsletter gets published, thanks to Ghost’s builtin newsletter capabilities.

My second website is my daily blog, called “my blog,” and is where I post comments and thoughts about Apple, tech, photography, apps and services, and many other things. My blogging site is part of Micro.blog, there is a small community around it, thanks to Micro.blog fediverse support. Somehow, Micro.blog replaced Twitter for me, more than my presence on Mastodon did. I usually post around 10-20 weekly posts on Micro.blog. I like this place a lot for so many reasons.

I recently started using Scribbles, a small blog hosting service I like and want to support. I’m using this service to post short thoughts using a single-word title. These posts are then cross-posted to my Micro.blog timeline with a link going back to my Scribbles site. You can see an example of such a post appearing on my Micro.blog timeline in the following screenshot. Each post sports two emojis to help me spot them in my timeline. One thing I try to do is not to be too clickbait with my single-word title. The chosen word must be evocative or related to the post content.

The post on Scribbles gets cross-posted on my Micro.blog timeline by using one of the coolest features of Micro.blog: cross-posting of content coming from RSS feeds. This is shown in the following screenshot.

Micro.blog picks up posts from the Scribbles website RSS feed and will post content on my timeline, as well as cross-post it to Mastodon and Bluesky. This is POSSE in action. I’m a believer.

When I first thought about writing this article, I wasn’t sure where it would end up being shared. However, as the article grew in length and covered my blogging habits, it became obvious that it would go on my meta website, which is another one of my websites. There you have it.

Have you ever searched the web for an article where you couldn’t see when it was published? It happens to me quite often. I don’t understand why such important information isn’t communicated to the readers.

In a fast-moving numeric world, the publishing date helps the reader gauge the content’s relevancy. I set the publication date on all my websites because it adds context to the content. When I created Numeric Citizen I/O, I used a post slug format that includes the publication date. The path to the webpage is shown in search results, which makes searching the web a more useful experience. Below are examples of URLs to my websites.

https://numericcitizen.micro.blog/2021/03/07/about-those-webp.html

https://numericcitizen.me/2021/02/27/porting-office-work-a-bad-idea/

Update 2022-11-15: Sadly, since moving to a Craft-based hosting solution, the URL can no longer include the publication date. If you are a business plan subscriber, the workaround is to set the document as a separate website individually.

Update 2024-03-15: I realized that when I moved from WordPress to Ghost, I lost this notion of date in the URL. All previous content is still accessible using the old URL format, but newly published content no longer contains the publication date in the article’s URL. We cannot have it all, I guess.

This article was first published on 2021-03-17.

I decided to disable cross-posting from my Glass feed to Bluesky and Pixelfed. This should fix the photo duplicates on your Micro.blog timeline each time I post a new image on Glass. Sorry for the inconvenience. The problem was simple: Let’s say I share an image on Glass, Micro.blog picks it up and cross post to Bluesky and Pixelfed. Micro.blog then detects a new photo from my Pixelfed feed and cross posts that to my Micro.blog timeline for the second time. Hence the duplicate.

If you want a peak at my current reading notes management workflow, you might find this video interesting (Craft, Bear 2, Omnivore, Readwise).

🔗 Mobivention announces its own iOS App Marketplace

As detailed by the company in a press release, mobivention’s App Marketplace will let developers distribute B2B and B2C apps to their customers outside the iOS App Store. “The mobivention App marketplace is primarily aimed at business customers who are looking for an alternative solution for distributing their apps,” mobivention explains.

Tired: there is an app for that. Wired: There is a marketplace for that. 🤓

Let’s say I stumble on an article I wish to read and process. I’ll follow the following steps, covering the collection and archival stages.

1. Save the article in Omnivore¹,².
2. Set tags in Omnivore.
3. Read the article, highlight text as needed and write comments if required.
4. Summarize the article using Raycast AI. I have a Keyboard Maestro macro for that.
5. Copy and paste the summary into the Omnivore notebook accompanying the article.
6. Archive the article in Omnivore.
7. Export the Readwise highlights (done automatically from Omnivore syncing).
8. Import the created markdown files into Bear.
9. Adjust tags if required.

I realize this workflow is essentially for the Mac. Nothing like this can be done on the iPad without a major tweak or two.

You can find this article on the “My Micro-Workflows Explained” website.

Each week, I use this template in Things 3 to help me out with my planning. Each Sunday, I duplicate the whole project and rename it accordingly. I love Things 3[^1]. [^1] I tried to do this in Apple Reminders but I prefer Things 3 experience.

Today I added a new global changelog¹ page to my metablog. The changelog will cover all the changes applied to my digital publishing space.