Numeric Citizen Space

Some highlights of my digital contribution activities for 2024.
👨🏻‍💻 A few hundred posts (more than 750 on Micro.blog alone!) 😃
🏞️ Many hundred photos shared 😃
📺 16 YouTube videos published 😃
This is the last edition of 2024. Happy New Year, and see you for the next edition in early 2025. Did you know that you can send me wishes using my blog’s guestbook?
The following graph shows the total page views to numericcitizen.me for 2024 compared to 2023 (light gray line). The trend was positive for most of 2024 but again points downwards near the end of 2024, returning to the 2023 level.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ It's the time of the year when we look back and wonder what has been done and what hasn't. According to my 2024 Flighty Passport, I travelled quite a lot. I love those visual summaries. Raycast is giving one to subscribers, too. See below below. 2️⃣ The following quote could apply to anyone, not just products. 3️⃣ My 2024 year in review is out, just in time! It was a rather busy year.

"To know what a product is means knowing what it is not. It took me years to figure this out." — Manton Reece

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ If Legos are your thing (either now or in your childhood), and user interface and user experience are also your thing, please don't miss this article about control panel design found in different Lego sets. I didn't know you could have such a level of detail in a seemingly mundane Lego block. 2️⃣ Flipboard is on the verge of launching a new service that looks like a Tapestry competitor: a social feed aggregator called Surf. I put my name on the waiting list. As a Bluesky, Mastodon and RSS feed consumer, I'm looking for this type of app with excitement. Om Malik, in his article on Crazy Stupid Tech blog, shares some thoughts and hopes about Surf. It's really looking promising. 3️⃣ Speaking of Tapestry, the application development is nearly complete. As a Kickstarter backer of this project, I received my perks and discovered that my name is on the credits page. I didn’t remember that it was part of the perks. That's nice. I'm still not convinced by the overall visual design of Tapestry. Another challenge is configuring multiple feeds, some much more noisy than others, like in the following example where The Verge is massively taking over my timeline. The lack of a native Mac version of Tapestry is also surprising, but I think it will end in 2025.

Flipboard launches Surf, a new app for browsing the open social web | TechCrunch

Social magazine app maker Flipboard is reinventing itself for the new era of the open social web. While the company’s original app allowed users to

TechCrunchSarah Perez

📖 Reading

1️⃣ The Verge is launching a subscription. At first, it looks like a good idea if you are one of their readers. The consequence is that most stories will be paywalled and RSS feeds truncated. Those paying for the subscription should expect to see ads, but beautiful ones, if such a thing exists. Until I read this in their announcement, I considered subscribing. But not, thanks. Just like Jarrod, I'm very skeptical. Manuel Moreale, too. According to him, the number of ads shown to subscribers should be zero. I love his link post; don't miss it. 2️⃣ After reading two recent blog posts by Manuel Moreale, I published a linkpost about them, which sparked a conversation that didn't go well. If only I knew in advance. I'll continue reading his blog, but these posts reminded me about my subscription, so I decided to pause that. Manuel responded both privately and publicly to my linkpost. Judging by his reaction, I'm not sure he appreciated it, and then I felt terrible about all this. I should have remembered that he likes email conversations… not everything is worth sharing publicly.

“Books are like seeds.They can lie dormant for centuries, but they may also produce flowers in the most unpromising soil. These books are the repositories of the knowledge of our species and of our long evolutionary journey from genes to brains to books." — Carl Sagan

“I still think that using ChatGPT to search information is a waste of time. If I have to come up with an extremely detailed prompt to nudge ChatGPT into a meaningful response AND I still have to verify its response by checking the sources, then I'll just do a traditional web search and collate the info myself. I’ve been doing this for ages and got faster and better over time. I prefer to train myself than the AI.” — Riccardo Mori

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ Writing is about remembering. That's why I wrote this series about every Mac I ever owned. I recently shared the latest addition to the series, remembering the M1 Mac mini. Using this device for four years was a lovely ride. 2️⃣ Just write, he said. Oops, he wrote. 3️⃣ Manuel Moreale created his People & Blogs account on Bluesky. Plus, he made a Bluesky starter pack with P&B guests. You can find me in it. The thing about the Bluesky starter pack is that I would pin them to my profile rather than follow every member. Thankfully, he also created a list you can pin to your home. Bluesky is cool. 4️⃣ I published an update to my content creator workflows and digital tools right before Christmas. It might be worth a look if you are curious about the apps and services I depend on to create and share my stories and articles. 5️⃣ Buttondown, the service for publishing newsletters, posted a valuable resource for creators: a pricing calculator for the service costs based on the monthly subscription price and the number of paid and free subscribers. I'm using Ghost. It's not the cheapest option, but it's not the most expensive either. Creators might select Ghost because of its newsletter feature. I chose Ghost as a web-hosting service, which also comes with a newsletter service that wasn't possible on WordPress. 6️⃣ Writing regularly can be challenging. Lou Plummer shared a blog post about fifty ideas for writing blog posts. I like idea #38. 7️⃣ I shared some thoughts about Medium. Medium readers and writers are covered in this article.

“Started working on a blog post today and had to actually go do some research to make sure I was right. This is a benefit of occasional long-form writing. It’s a way to refine how you feel about something, learning a bunch in the process." — Manton Reece

“Substack has to convince you to start a paid publication. It has to push people towards paywalling as much content as possible because that’s how it makes money.” — Manuel Moreale

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ I got an email notification recently from Unsplash that one of my photos crossed the 10K downloads mark. Cool. 2️⃣ Glass doesn’t get enough credit and exposure, in my view. I’m happy for them to see Petapixel cover their recent additions to the service: photo series. 3️⃣ AOWS (Adrian Vila on Patreon) shared many photos like this one taken during a short trip to the desert in the US Southwest. Watch the video he made documenting his time spent there. 4️⃣ Great wallpaper here discovered on Glass (subscription required). 5️⃣ My Pixelfed usage is constantly decreasing.

Castles in the Sky, a Series by Julian — Glass

A collection of castles and similar old structures

Fav Photos Found in 2024: 50 Photos by 50 Photographers

We went back through every single photography feature from the past 12 months and chose 50 photos by 50 photographers to represent the range of talent we uncovered this year!

BOOOOOOOM!Staff

“Flickr, once a pioneering photo-sharing platform, has seen its prominence wane due to competition from Instagram and Facebook, along with mismanagement during its Yahoo ownership. Now under SmugMug, it offers features like ad-free browsing, high-quality image display, metadata retention, and a desktop-first design that appeal to photographers dissatisfied with modern social media. While its community groups and interaction levels have diminished, Flickr remains a viable platform for archiving, portfolios, and sharing high-quality images. Renewed interest suggests it may yet attract a new generation, though high subscription costs and limited updates pose challenges to a full resurgence.”

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ For Apple history fans, don't miss this documentary about the iPhone 4 prototype leak in 2010. Great story. Unexpected twist. Recommended. 2️⃣ Denny Henke, the author behind Beardy Guy Creative, seems to like Apple Image Playground. He shares his thoughts about it and some great results. I'm not that successful with it so far. I wish he would have shared his prompts with each image. Here is one of my experiments below using keywords such as “computer, fireworks, work, starry night, sci-fi”. 3️⃣ Image Playground is part of Apple Intelligence. Another feature that comes with it is a notifications summary. I have mixed results with it, and it seems that the BBC doesn't like it. They complained to Apple over misleading shooting headlines. Oops. 4️⃣ For the techy guys, the Timac blog published the annual review of programming languages used by Apple to assemble what we call “iOS,” this time covering the iOS 18 release. Swift and SwiftUI are slowly but surely taking over and could become the most used languages by Apple engineers when writing software. As an IT professional who knows a few things about software development, I find it surprising that Swift, a high-level language, can write low-level software around the Secure Enclave—another surprise: UIKit-based binaries are still growing but at a much lower pace than Swift. I would expect UIkit usage to decrease instead. Strange. 5️⃣ Basic Apple Guy published his Apple 2024 year in review, which is well worth a read. 6️⃣ One more thing: the good, the bad and the ugly. Great take on how Apple fared in 2024. 7️⃣ Why Apple doesn’t make a search engine? Eddy Cue explained why, and MacRumors summarized it.

"I really think Apple should get out of the ads business, starting with the App Store. I find it corrupting, ugly, distasteful, and most of all an anti-premium experience." — The Shape of Everything

"All of the marketing and positioning from Apple for this phone revolved about Apple Intelligence, and the few Apple Intelligence features they're released so far are pretty bad: notification summaries are a meme, the image generation is atrocious, the UI for writing tools makes Grammarly look like the most refined software in the world, and Siri got a glow up in animation only, but remains just as useful as she's been for years. Oh, and from what I can tell from surveys and my own personal group of family and friends, none of these features have any real traction" — Matt Birchler in his 2024 iPhone report card. Ouch.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I finally made it to the Ghost ActivityPub beta. So far, it's not working well; It seems broken. I'm looking forward to testing the integration with Micro.blog and Mastodon when the bugs get fixed. 2️⃣ I started redesigning my company's website. The first step is to document the current website content structure using Mindnote Next. I'll use a beta version of RealMac software's Elements for this project. I can't wait to try my hands on this. It will be the first time I'm designing a website from scratch. It will be fun. I'll probably give a try at redesigning Micro.blog website, too.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Dear Apple, what are the apps of the year? See the Apple announcement in the Newsroom. I'm not using any winning apps, except Lumy, but on the iPhone, not the Apple Watch. Surprisingly, Lightroom is among the winners. Who knew. 2️⃣ Ghost, the service where this newsletter is published, keeps improving. They added the ability to set a custom font to the website, which I use to make a change. This website's heading font and body fonts have been tweaked a little. Also, comments received an update with the sorting option and quick replies. Finally, ActivityPub, a protocol at the base of the Fediverse, is now in beta on my website. It's still buggy, but the idea that someone on Mastodon could follow my blog and reply to an article using their Mastodon account is really cool. 3️⃣ iA Presenter 1.4 was released with presentation sharing where users can share their presentations online. It's cool to have this integrated into the app. You can find the announcement here. Speaking of presentations, Information Architect also published a blog post on how to create structured presentations. Of course, it's even better when it is done using iA Presenter! The article barely mentions it, which is good, so it doesn't look like a marketing plug. 4️⃣ Halide 3.0 is coming in 2025 with a few tent pole features like colour grading, new HDR processing and a complete redesign. Their blog post tells it all. I'm not a Halide user, but I admire what this company does in the crowded camera apps category. 5️⃣ Colin Devroe shared an article about how he uses AnyBox, a great bookmark manager, that I use myself. I must admit that his process of managing his collection is clever. Please give it a look.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ To conclude 2024, I produced two videos: Craft 2024 year in review, and the other about Micro. The blog's new features have been introduced in the last few months. I won't have the same recording environment in the coming months as I'm temporarily moving out of my house: A home improvement project starts in early January.

“when a new phone comes out, or there’s an interesting camera I want to take a look at, YouTube is where I head to find video reviews. However, I think most of that is because web searching is so broken that it’s the only place I can reliably find what I am looking for. To me YouTube is transactional. I want to watch a few reviews of a new gadget, and that’s the place to find them all in one place.” — Greg Morris

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ If I could write one thing to remember for the year ahead: own your data, and use open platforms. Instagram is not such a platform. Meta cutting off API access to DayOne reminds me of third-party Twitter clients being cut off by Twitter back in the day.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Well, that is it, folks! We made it to the end of 2024! I'm really looking forward to continuing this newsletter in 2025. I hope you enjoyed the ride so far as much as I did putting this together.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

It is the time of the year for me to look back and highlight some of the year’s moments. All in all, I would say that 2024 was the year of renewed focus by being more intentional with my choices of tools and creative activities. What a busy year it was! Here’s a recap.

A month-by-month replay

• In early January, I completed one of my year objectives: moving out Adobe for my photo processing need. I spent more time than usual reading through Omnivore read-later queues.
• Near the end of January, I created a new landing page to replace Linktr.ee. All the details are here. My Linktr.ee subscription came to an end in December.
• I also updated the design of my blog with a brand new look that I think is cleaner and pleasant to the eyes.

• In mid-February, with the launch of the Scribbles blogging service, I decided to create Numeric Citizen Blips.
• Near the end of February, I started using a new blog on Micro.blog for hosting and sharing a portion of my Craft-based metablog. I wanted to gain RSS feed support POSSE capabilities and be closer to my online community. https://meta.numericcitizen.me.
• Still in February, I decided to move my reading notes out of Craft and use a dedicated notes application for that: Bear 2. Bear 2 tagging system and fast search capabilities are way better than what can be done in Craft. The move was completed in early March.
• I decided to switch to the Arc Browser on the Mac, and I think this could be one of the most game-changing decisions of the year. The browser might be my most-used application after Craft. No wonder why it is an important decision.

• In early March, I added a new changelog section to my metablog to document every change I make to my digital publishing space.
• In March, I still hadn’t shared a new podcast episode, which made me question my podcast creation pace and usefulness. I wish I had made more episodes.
• I worked on a blogroll for my blog, thanks to a new Micro.blog feature where users can build and share blogrolls on the website. This is mine.
• In mid-March, I joined the One-a-Month club using the Ko-fi plateform. Since then, I decided to use Ko-fi to share more personal tidbits about me and my journey as a creator but only for those who are supporting me. I’m curious to see how it goes.
• I officially closed my Smugmug account in the last week of March and wrote about it. So long, Smugmug.
• In mid-March, I started the “Now” post series on Scribbles. I like creating these early in the morning.

• On March 30th, I decided to buy a Nikon Zf camera with a 40mm F2 lens. This purchase and my exit from the Adobe Photography plan subscription prompted me to revisit my photo processing workflow, which is now based on Synology Photos for cataloging and Photomator for image processing.

• After getting this Nikon Zf camera and discovering that the RAW files coming off this device weren’t browsable from my Mac or iPad, I had to find a way to process those images. Converting them to DNG files is mandatory but make the photo processing workflow start on the Mac mandatory. In other words, I cannot bring only my iPad during long travels to process photos, a Mac is also required. This sucks big time. The search for a solution lasted many weeks during April and May.
• I got a new iPad Pro in May. I started experimenting with external display and Final Cut Pro for iPad because I couldn't do this with my 2018 iPad Pro. Both experiences weren't conclusive.

• In early June, I deleted the SDDCbox project. The website, built with Craft, was no longer being updated. I hate to delete content.
• In late June, I launched the Digital Legacy Management Guide on Gumroad. After the initial launch, I sold one copy of it. I should promote it more because I feel it's essential in today's world.

• July was a rather slow month for me as I was on vacation for three weeks and returned to my hobbies slowly.

• In early August, after having crossed many posts on Threads, I started to wonder if I should join myself. After some thought, I decided to resist.
• Last August, I made a timid comeback on Medium and started working on a new series of articles about contemplating the idea of becoming a freelancer in information technology.

• Early September: I decided to rename my newsletter the "Ephemeral Scrapbook Newsletter", which better reflects its content and purpose. This is the third generation of the newsletter. Previous newsletters were the "Monthly Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter" which was followed by the "Weekly Creative Summary Newsletter."

• In October, following the demise of the open-source read-later service Omnivore, I decided to revisit my reading workflow. For now, I will focus on the tools I already pay for: Inoreader and Readwise. I must admit that read-later services are probably not for me after all. I used to save a lot of articles to this kind of service, but the percentage of articles that I read is very low. So, why bother with this? Plus, the Inoreader redesign recently introduced does a great job at improving the reading experience of my RSS feed subscriptions.

• In early November, I learned that Apple had bought Pixelmator, the maker of the popular Photoshop alternative Pixelmator Pro and the Lightroom competitor Photomator. I was initially in disbelief but realized I often wondered why Apple didn’t buy the company. These apps could have been, or should I say, should have been, created by Apple.
• Later in November, I upgraded my M1 Mac mini to an M4 Mac mini with the M4 Pro CPU configuration. It was quite an upgrade, and the M4 Mac mini could be the best Mac I ever owned. Coupled with my Apple Watch Series 10 upgrade, iPad upgrade, and iPhone 15 Pro Max upgrade, all in the last 12 months, I think I’m okay for another year without upgrading anything.

• In December, I focused on completing the most important projects I had in mind when I started the year. Writing this personal write-up is one example. Writing other year-in-review articles about Apple and Craft was another project to complete and publish.
• In mid-December, I spent some time tweaking my offerings on Gumroad to better take advantage of my experience and knowledge of Craft. I’m well-known in the craft users community because I spend quite some time answering questions on Slack and Reddit.
• In late December, I started a small design project around Craft, where I tried to reimagine some aspects of the app to make it more useful for a broader range of use cases and users. This is a fun little project where I try to use my imagination my experience in using software and using apps like Apple Freeform, Keynote and Craft itself. It was rather entertaining. It's getting some attention, too on Reddit and Slack.

Socially speaking

From a social networking perspective, my usage levels remained relatively consistent, but I expanded my presence in a broader range of platforms. While Micro.blog continues to be my primary social platform, Bluesky usage has significantly increased. However, I can still access my Bluesky timeline and interact with people there through Micro.blog, I sometimes prefer to be on the platform itself because I enjoy the native feel of the interface.

From a photography perspective, Pixelfed took the lion’s share of my photo-sharing activities but Glass somehow took over near the end of the year, thanks for the introduction of the photo series. Pixelfed is a member of the fediverse landscape, but its erratic development roadmap makes me rethink my dedication to this platform. The attitude of its main contributor makes me pause and reconsider if my time investment on this platform still makes sense.

Things that didn’t work

Reflecting on 2024, I can’t help but feel that podcasting doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m still trying to figure out why. I’ve only managed to produce four episodes so far. Maybe it’s because I find it difficult to express myself through audio or spoken words. I prefer visual mediums for expression, such as images, videos, and written words. After all, I’m a visual person.

The place of AI in my digital life

Generative AI has played an increasing role over the years. ChatGPT is my AI service of choice as a paying subscriber. In June, I started recording all my prompts to ChatGPT. I wanted to learn what my prompting habits were, what my use cases were, and which tools or clients I was using. I recorded about 150 prompts covering about four months. While focusing on ChatGPT, I use different clients for the service, like Raycast AI or Craft. I stopped using MacGPT at some point because the ChatGPT Mac client kept improving faster and mainly offered the same experience as the web version of ChatGPT. The most common use cases were enhancing my writing, generating ALT text descriptions, and content summarization. I don’t expect this to change much in the next year, and I expect my use of generative AI to increase with the continued deployment of Apple Intelligence.

Looking ahead

For 2025, I want to focus even more. I want to be more intentional. I want to continue developing The Craft Bible with more content. I want to produce more videos for my YouTube channel. I also want to spend more time making the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. This means spending more time reading and gathering interesting information tidbits. Lastly, Micro.blog will continue to be my go-to place for the social web and microblogging, but I expect my Bluesky usage to increase and find an even more prominent place in my digital landscape.

As I near the end of this article and the year draws to a close, I reflect on my accomplishments with pride. While many of my achievements were visible to readers like you, others remained hidden. Throughout the year, I maintained a consistent writing habit, which, while its quality outcomes varied, remained a constant presence in my life in 2024.

After nearly two years of hiatus from Medium, I decided to make a comeback in the fall of 2024. But why? I stumbled upon a sensitive topic that I felt comfortable writing about without revealing my personal details: embarking on a significant career transition and transitioning to freelancing.

Since my return to Medium, I have published quite a few stories, created and designed a Medium publication to gather them under one publishing umbrella, and made the associated newsletter to reach out to people by email. I have rediscovered a writing platform that is exciting for creators but can sometimes be unsettling for readers. If you are wondering about Medium for writing and sharing stories, or if you are contemplating the idea of joining the platform as a paying member, please read the following.

A brief history of Medium

Medium is an online publishing platform launched in August 2012 by Evan Williams, a co-founder of Blogger and Twitter. It was created as a space for people to share ideas and stories in a long-form format, offering an alternative to the character limitations of Twitter or the casual format of blogging platforms like Tumblr. The goal was to create a place where quality writing could flourish, and authors of all levels could connect with readers.

Initially, Medium was an invite-only platform, emphasizing a clean, distraction-free interface and content organized by themes rather than authorship. Over time, it opened to the public and evolved into a hybrid platform, blending social media elements with traditional blogging. Medium’s algorithms and editorial curation helped highlight quality content, encouraging professional writers, journalists, and everyday users to contribute.

In 2017, Medium pivoted to a subscription-based model to prioritize reader-supported journalism and quality writing, moving away from reliance on advertising revenue. The platform introduced a membership option, providing paying users access to premium content and compensating writers based on reader engagement with their stories.

Medium has faced several controversies over its business practices and policies. The platform’s abrupt shift to a subscription-based model 2017 frustrated writers and publishers who relied on ad revenue, while frequent strategic pivots created uncertainty about its long-term vision. Its content moderation practices have been criticized as inconsistent or overly broad, with accusations of censorship. Medium’s algorithm has also been accused of favouring mainstream or clickbait-style content, limiting visibility for niche voices. Additionally, its writer payout system has been deemed opaque and disproportionately beneficial to popular creators. These issues and an exodus of prominent publications have raised questions about Medium’s reliability and commitment to fostering a diverse, writer-friendly platform.

"Liking a story more than once, also called “clapping” is unique to Medium."

The consuming experience

Let’s talk about Medium’s content-consuming experience. While reading an article, a typical reader on Medium can trigger these interactions with the author: clapping the story, text highlighting, and responding to the author’s story. Let’s see how each action forms the basis of the interactions between readers and writers.

Readers can clap at a story to show appreciation, similar to a thumbs up on YouTube, but a single reader can clap many times. The clap count can be pretty high for some stories, with a disproportionally low comment count. For example, this story of mine got 50 claps from a single reader. It's unique to Medium. Clapping is not reserved for the main story but for responses that someone might write to a story, which is also unique to Medium, to my knowledge.

Readers can highlight text portions in a story and post a comment. That’s one of the best features for readers who wish to engage in conversation with the author, but it is also an excellent feedback feature for the writer. Medium will mark the most highlighted text to the author. In other words, It’s a great conversation starter between readers and authors. As a writer on Medium, I find this helpful. Here are some examples of text highlights.

In the following example, someone is writing a response to go with his highlighted text. People can clap to the comment, too, or reply. These interactions are shown on the right portion of the content.

The top highlight label is shown if many readers highlight the same text portion. It gives an idea of where people are paying attention in a story. But what is less clear is how many readers must select the exact portion to get the mark “Top highlight”?

The other way to interact with a writer on Medium is through Medium’s Mastodon instance. The following shows my profile page on that instance. People can react, boost and repost my stories. Strangely enough, as a writer, stories aren’t automatically cross-posted on Medium’s Mastodon instance; it is a manual process for now. Weird.

Each story can be individually shared on X, Facebook or LinkedIn, but not on Mastodon or Bluesky. Many publishing platforms settle for the most popular social networks. Come on, Medium, it’s 2024! How could they skip Mastodon? Medium does offer their instance! How strange this is.

The audio experience feature is pretty handy and works great on the Mac. I didn’t test it on mobile devices, though.

The writing experience

Medium’s writing experience is uniquely designed to prioritize simplicity, elegance, and ease of use. Its minimalist, distraction-free editor lets writers focus on their content while producing beautifully formatted posts with professional typography and layout by default. Rich media integration makes it easy to embed visuals and enhance storytelling, while collaborative editing tools foster a sense of community. Writers also benefit from detailed audience insights, helping them refine their work. By eliminating technical hurdles and providing a polished publishing environment, Medium creates a seamless and rewarding experience for writers of all levels. Let’s highlight a few points of interest.

Writers can add up to five tags (called topics on Medium) for their stories. These tags help the writer manage their content and serve as a discovery mechanism for readers. When selecting tags, a count of stories using them is provided, which helps select the most popular tags for a specific story.

We can create newsletters on Medium. This comes after making a publication where we, as authors, can submit stories. To my knowledge, a story cannot be published in more than one publication, which limits the discoverability of an author who wants to build a publication but also wants to share a story with a more popular publication covering the same audience.

As an author with many published stories, I can gather them under a publication that forms a website (see mine as an example). The overall design is pleasing and easy to create with a surprisingly powerful newsletter editor.

After setting up a publication, you can enable a newsletter tied to it, which, again, I think can be handy for writers like me who want to provide different ways for readers to consume their stories.

Some weird things about Medium

I do see, from time to time, Medium users clapping or highlighting text without writing a response. Those people look more like attention seekers or spammers. It’s a common trick on any content-sharing platform. These readers, who are not readers, will highlight some random phrase in a story and clap a dozen times to trigger the author’s curiosity to visit the spammer’s profile page. I find this irritating. One recent example is when a woman highlighted a portion of one of my stories, published a comment because she believes in cryptos and blockchain and tried to convert me to this nonsense.

Another new weird and recent trend is for readers to write fake and meaningless responses to an article using generative AI. This spammy behaviour pollutes the platform. Thankfully, Medium provides a moderation tool for closing a discussion, hiding individual responses, etc.

Another strange and irritating long-lasting trend on Medium is the proliferation of clickbait story titles. Stories about using THE best note-taking app are popular. This guy seems good at it. Or what about those stories about how to become rich in a month as a writer? Are they a waste of people’s time and attention? I wonder if Medium is attracting more people interested in making some money quickly than writing and willing to share authentic content with their readers.

Some shady stuff too

“The Useful Tech” is a web publication dedicated to Apple enthusiasts, offering expert tips, tricks, and the latest apps and tools to enhance users’ tech experiences and workflows. The author is a top writer on Medium, focusing on Apple, technology, and productivity, with over 63,000 followers and over 2 million views. The content includes tech reviews, tutorials, and Apple-related insights, reflecting its expertise and the trust placed in it by its audience.

Sounds impressive, right? Let’s dig a bit deeper. “The Useful Tech” is a member of a marketing platform called “Passionfroot”. As we can read on the website: “The fastest and easiest way to do influencer marketing at scale. Find the right creators on all platforms, book, collaborate, and pay - all in one place.”

Back to “The Useful Tech” website, according to the description, the author will mention your product in an article after you pay a certain amount of money. Let’s say you develop a Bluesky client and wish the author to write about it. You pay 200$ (the minimum), and the author will write an article around it, often in a round-up type because these are very popular on Medium.

Making money on Medium

My first experience with the Medium Partner Program proved positive, and I could recoup the subscription cost with the revenues generated by readers. Not anymore. Something changed in Medium algorithms because now I barely get a few cents for each story. It would take years before hitting the 50 US$. Or maybe I’m not a good writer attracting enough readers.

Final thoughts

A year from now, I might not write for Medium anymore. My return there in 2024 was triggered by the desire to share my thoughts and experience in trying to go freelance. Think of this as a dedicated project, which I’m putting on pause for a few reasons explained in this article. Beyond that project, I don't see other use cases for Medium. Time will tell.

As 2024 comes to a close, Apple’s year can best be described as one of significant strides in hardware but uneven performance in other areas. For me, this was a year of notable upgrades: my Apple Watch, Mac mini, and iPad Pro all received meaningful updates. Among them, the M4 Mac mini stood out as the star upgrade, followed closely by the M4 iPad Pro and the Apple Watch Series 10. These personal milestones mirror the broader narrative of Apple’s hardware achievements in 2024.

The Mac Shines with M4 Processors

Apple’s Mac lineup had a stellar year, driven by the introduction of the M4 processor series. This leap in processing power enabled the release of more capable and efficient Macs, with the redesigned Mac mini taking center stage. The M4’s performance improvements and energy efficiency in both desktop and laptop devices solidify Apple’s dominance in this space. For Mac enthusiasts, especially Mac mini fans, 2024 will likely be remembered as a landmark year that redefined expectations for computing performance in a small package.

iPhone 16 Camera Control: A Missed Opportunity

The iPhone 16 launched with significant buzz around its new camera control features, positioned as a game changer for photography enthusiasts. However, the reality didn’t meet the hype. The controls were criticized for being finicky and unreliable, leading many users to abandon them altogether. This illustrates the challenge Apple faces in balancing cutting-edge innovation with practical usability—an area where even the most seasoned companies can stumble.

iPad Pro and iPadOS 18: A Mixed Bag

The iPad narrative in 2024 was a story of contrasts. On the hardware side, the M4-equipped iPad Pro received praise for its upgraded display and powerful processor, making it a strong choice for professionals and creatives. On the software side, however, iPadOS 18 offered little in the way of innovation, marking it as a "tock" year. The lack of impactful software updates left some iPad fans feeling underwhelmed, emphasizing the need for a more synchronized hardware-software evolution.

The Series 10

The Apple Watch is now ten years old. Many tech pundits expected a complete redesign, but it didn’t come. The Series Ultra has a new colour: black. On a personal level, my Series 8 had a battery life problem, which rendered my watch useless near the end of the afternoon. I had to do something about it. Beyond a fresh new battery, the Apple Watch Series 10 offers meaningful upgrades, particularly for older models like the Series 6 or 8. It introduces a larger display, smoother design refinements, improved responsiveness, and valuable features like the double-tap gesture and on-device translation. While the backup & restore process is still a hit or miss, I’m happy with the Series 10. Yet, this upgrade might be the least meaningful of all.

Apple Intelligence: A Lukewarm Start

The Apple Silicon story continues to evolve impressively, but 2024 began a new chapter: integrating on-device Apple Intelligence with generative AI services in the cloud. Unfortunately, Apple Intelligence’s debut was underwhelming. While the potential is immense, many users compared it unfavourably to established services like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Apple’s efforts in AI remain in their infancy, and the lukewarm reception highlights the need for further refinement and competitive features to win over users.

The App Store Monopoly?

Apple is slowly moving forward with opening the iPhone, under the constant pressure of the EU. The App Store is at the center of this and Apple is still reluctant to budge. While the EU won't see Apple Intelligence anytime soon, they do get a peak at a more open iPhone with third-party App Stores. Maybe those changes will come to other parts of the world later. Who knows.

Apple Vision Pro: Fading Interest and Untapped Potential

The Apple Vision Pro, initially hailed as a groundbreaking entry into the mixed reality space, faced a significant drop in interest as the year progressed. While its announcement generated excitement, the high price point and limited practical applications dampened enthusiasm. Early adopters praised its technical capabilities, but the platform’s untapped potential was further hindered by a lack of developer interest. Without compelling applications, the Vision Pro felt like a solution in search of a problem. This dual challenge of engaging both consumers and developers highlights the hurdles Apple must overcome to make augmented reality a mainstream success.

Closing Thoughts

On a personal level, 2024 stands out as a remarkable (and expansive) year of Apple upgrades. The upgraded devices in my ecosystem reflect the significance of Apple’s advancements in hardware. At the same time, I’m ready to take a break from upgrades for now, as these investments have revitalized my setup and satisfied my tech needs for the foreseeable future. That said, 2025 might be the year when I consider upgrading my iPhone 15 Pro Max to the iPhone 17 Pro, or whatever name Apple decides to give it. Perhaps by then, Apple will have tweaked the camera control to make it more usable.

For sure, 2024 was an exceptional year for Apple in many ways, particularly in hardware. The M4 processor series and new Macs were high points, while areas like AI and certain iPhone features fell short of expectations. The Vision Pro also highlighted both the company’s ambition and the challenges of pushing into new markets. Looking ahead, Apple’s challenge will be to build on these successes and address the areas where they faltered. Some have also started to question whether a leadership change might be beneficial for Apple’s future. Tim Cook and Phil Schiller, longtime leaders at the helm, have faced increasing scrutiny. A fresh perspective at the top could potentially reinvigorate Apple’s approach and help tackle its current challenges.

One more thing, Basic Apple Guy’s year in review is really worth a read. Header image generated with Apple Image Playground.

My scores for Apple in 2024

HW reliability: Apple hardware is first class. I never had a problem with Apple devices in a long time. 5/5

SW Quality: I think this year's releases are doing just fine with a few cool things. I don't see any horror story to talk about. I’m not referring to Apple Intelligence of course. 4/5

iPhone: The iPhone 16 is an iterative version of last year's iPhone; camera control is a flop. 4.5/5

Mac: It’s the best time to be a Mac user, thanks to Apple Silicon. 5/5

iPad: Hardware is always way ahead of software. Again. 4/5

Wearables: AirPods continue to impress with software updates. 4.5/5

Watch: No new sensor, but a refined design. I’m ok with it. 4/5

Environment/Social: Apple's entry into generative AI might put the carbon-neutral target in 2030 goals at risk. 4/5

Services: Still no Apple Pay Cash in Canada. Still 5GB entry level of storage. Price increased in 2024. There are too many ads for a premium brand. 2/5

Developers relations: Beyond the official discourse, actions speak louder. Not a good year for Apple, but a good one for their lawyers. (2/5)

Apple TV: No new hardware. Boring. Software seems at a standstill. 3.5/5

HomeKit: Matter support doesn't make a difference for me. 3.5/5

The M1 Mac mini holds a special place in my heart, not just as a piece of technology but as a transformative device in my journey with Apple Silicon Macs. It was the first Mac mini I ever owned and served as a reliable workhorse for four memorable years, spanning both my professional endeavours and creative hobbies.

The Start of a New Era

When the M1 Mac mini launched in late 2020, it marked the dawn of Apple’s bold transition from Intel to its own Silicon. Intrigued by its promise of groundbreaking performance and efficiency, I made it my primary computer. Equipped with 16 GB of RAM and a spacious 1 TB SSD, it was a configuration that ensured longevity and flexibility. This machine wasn’t just an upgrade—it was a revelation.

The M1 Mac mini became the heart of my home office. Professionally, it handled everything from complex spreadsheets and virtualization tasks to video conferencing without breaking a sweat. It also supported my creative passions, including photo editing, blogging, and video production.

The Display Experience

For the first two years, I paired the Mac mini with an LG UltraFine 4K display. Its vibrant and crisp image quality beautifully complemented the M1’s capabilities, making it ideal for editing photos and videos. The combination of the M1 chip and a 4K display delivered a stellar visual experience that elevated my creative projects. Two years later, I replaced the display with a gorgeous Apple Studio monitor. It’s still the one I used on my M4 Mac mini, which replaced my aging M1 Mac mini.

The Bluetooth Blues

While the M1 Mac mini delivered on performance and efficiency, its first year was marred by a frustrating issue: persistent Bluetooth disconnections. This wasn’t just an isolated annoyance; it was a widespread problem reported by many early adopters, as documented in articles like Mark Ellis Reviews. From dropped connections with my Magic Keyboard to unreliable pairing with Bluetooth speakers, these hiccups disrupted an otherwise smooth experience.

Thankfully, Apple addressed this issue with the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2. From that point onward, the Mac mini’s connectivity issues became a distant memory.

Four Years of Dependability

Over its four-year tenure, the M1 Mac mini proved its worth. It stood as a testament to the durability and future-proofing of Apple’s first-generation Silicon. Even as newer models with more advanced chips emerged, the M1 performed admirably, handling every task I threw at it.

The M1 Mac mini wasn’t just a computer; it was a companion that adapted to my evolving needs. It kick-started my journey into the world of Apple Silicon, laying the groundwork for the Mac devices I’d use in the years to come. Whether for work or play, it consistently delivered the performance and reliability I needed.

A Fond Farewell

As I move on to newer technology, the M4 Mac mini, I look back on my time with the M1 Mac mini with gratitude. It was more than just a machine; it was a milestone in my computing life, bridging the gap between the Intel era and Apple’s Silicon revolution. For anyone who’s ever wondered whether a compact desktop computer could punch above its weight, the M1 Mac mini proved that the answer is a resounding “Yes.”

Missed this series introduction?

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 9 posts 😃
🏞️ 7 photos shared 🙂
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 Two YouTube videos published 😃
Did you know that I made a 2025 calendar using a Craft template? It’s available here on Gumroad.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ As 2024 is coming to an end, I decided to spend some time updating my About Page to mark some of my goals as completed. It was a great year overall. Now is the right to think about my goals for next year (already). 🤔 2️⃣ In entirely unrelated news, the regime in Syria has fallen. To my knowledge, this regime was heavily supported by the Russian government. With the war in Ukraine, Putin's regime apparently couldn't keep up with Syria’s internal affairs and demands. This is a positive development: Russians can (and should) be kicked out. We shouldn't fear them and seize this opportunity to increase our military support for Kyiv. The sooner, the better. Now, I am returning to regular programming.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ This week, I discovered this guy on YouTube who built a method called “Forever Notes” for organizing notes based on Apple Notes. It is the best use case for Apple Notes so far, and I'm really impressed. First, I'm impressed by the quality of the content this guy put together. Second, it shows how powerful and flexible Apple Notes is. It looks so well done that I wonder if I should move my notes out of Bear and migrate to Apple Notes. Both apps are comparable, but I would save some money by doing so. This is something to consider, and it could become a project for 2025. I encourage you to watch this video if you are a note-taker looking to organize your content better. Don't miss his website, too. 2️⃣ I want the Flexbar! I’m still using a 2017 MacBook Pro with a TouchBar at work, and I like it. This little external USB-C TouchBar is clever and could challenge the well-known Stream Deck in some use cases. The plugin SDK will play a significant role in making this a reality.

Forever ✱ Notes - A free framework for Apple Notes

Discover Forever ✱ Notes, a unique digital note-taking framework designed for Apple Notes users. Organize your thoughts, streamline your workflow, and enhance your productivity with our simple, intuitive system. Explore Hubs, Collections, and Tags today!

Beta

“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction. Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” Andry Grove, ex-CEO of Intel.

“Once a tool is a part of my workflow, any change to that tool generates friction” — Matt Birchler

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ Since 2023, I have published three write-ups: one about my personal life, one about Craft, and one about Apple. For 2024, the former two are doing great, but not with the third. I'll try to write something about Apple because I think 2024 was an important year for both Apple and me regarding adopting and using Apple technologies in my personal and professional life. I invested a lot of my money in Apple products this year, which is something to write about.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ One of my photos has been selected in this month’s highlights on Glass. This is the second or third time one of my photos has received this treatment. That photo was shared under my Decay series, which seems to be highly appreciated within the Glass community more than anything I've experienced back when I was on Flickr, 500px and Smugmug. I'll keep sharing my best urban exploration shots in the coming weeks. 2️⃣ Another great Glass discovery: Linda Alida, a young female photographer who seems to be blogging through her photos (great example here and here). I love this.

Linda Alida on Glass Photography Community

Linda Alida. Processing Through Art

Monthly Category Favorites — Decay — Glass

Eventually everything falls apart.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Apple is having challenges in making Apple Intelligence available in China. Baidu wants it all, while Apple says, no, you can't have it. Training LLM models is central to the problem: which data do you train on? I would say this: why bother with China, just leave it behind, just like EU. 2️⃣ Microsoft discontinues the Surface Studio Windows PC. I like Microsoft “courage” to try different takes on modern PC. It was an intriguing product. We can read different things with this discontinuation. One way is that Microsoft doesn’t sell enough of these to warrant keeping the product. But how much is “not enough”: a few hundreds units per month or a few thousands? Maybe Microsoft couldn’t bring enough ISV support for this device to keep it around. Apple tolerance to support a low-volume product like the Apple Vision Pro might be higher than Microsoft’s. It will be interesting if Apple keeps it around for a long time.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I'm still considering developing an online course on Craft. I asked the community about their thoughts on paying for such content this week. The initial feedback is not very encouraging. People either lack interest in it or are hesitant to spend much on it. How can I trust this type of poll? Of course, people won't say they want to pay the highest price possible. Nonetheless, this causes me to hesitate. 2️⃣ I finally completed my migration off GoDaddy for my domain names this week. I have a few domains, and I wanted them all on CloudFlare. Now, it's done.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Tapestry seems to be close to a release. I'm still undecided about this app. I want to like it, but I am not fazed by its visual design. 2️⃣ The second phase of Apple Intelligence is here with the release of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, etc. It's a packed release that is not only about Apple Intelligence; the Photos app received some improvements, too: Improvements to Collections views, including swiping right to go back. Recently Viewed and Shared album history can be cleared, among other things.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ I created the second video of a three-part series about Craft 3.0. I’m not very satisfied with it. I was tired when I recorded. I wanted to get it out the door to keep my publishing momentum regarding this significant Craft release. Judging by user reactions, I did a good job. 👀😳☺️ Nonetheless, it’s not a good idea to rush things out to meet an artificial deadline. I should know better. The third one was release on Sunday, right before this newsletter and I must say that I'm rather proud of that one. 2️⃣ What will Apple do with the just acquired Pixelmator and Photomator? The question has no official answers, but Joseph Slinker has a compelling discussion about this subject, on YouTube. 3️⃣ The Browser Company is working on something new, something different. It's not another browser... oh wait, yes, it is: The Dia Browser. They are hiring people to finish the job. I'm curious, but at the same time, I don't want them to drop the Arc Browser because I really like it. The signs are pointing to an abandoned project: the Arc Browser updates are becoming less and less frequent and significant. 4️⃣ As I'm writing this newsletter edition, I produced and published 20 videos this year. I'll push another one before the end of the year, reaching 21 videos, which is much less than last year. It's hard to find a clear explanation for this. I hope to fare better in 2025, but it will be challenging because of many-months home improvement project about to start right at the beginning of January. In any case, I'll see where it goes. Life of a hobbyist creator is full of challenges.

Apple’s planned acquisition of Pixelmator for over $119 million has raised questions about its strategy and impact on users. The move is seen as a potential effort to attract creatives frustrated with Adobe, leveraging Pixelmator and Photomator to boost Mac sales or services revenue. Drawing comparisons to Apple’s acquisition of Dark Sky, concerns arise about integration into Apple’s Photos app, though the video suggests a more likely scenario where these apps remain standalone premium tools, akin to iMovie-to-Final Cut or GarageBand-to-Logic. With Apple’s renewed focus on the creative market, the creator anticipates continued development and relevance for Pixelmator and Photomator, bolstering optimism among users.

Creating a compelling recruiting video is challenging because it requires inspiring people to trust your company with their careers. To achieve this, it’s crucial to articulate a clear and visionary purpose rather than focusing on perks. The browser company is tackling this by introducing Dia, a new AI-driven web browser designed to transform the computing environment. Unlike traditional AI integrations, Dia leverages personalized intelligence to enhance workflows and automate tasks through its innovative architecture, built on a unique foundation called ADK. By reimagining the browser as an integrated, proactive assistant, Dia aims to make computing deeply personal and context-aware, embodying the potential of AI in a way that transcends isolated features. Drawing parallels to transformative historical innovations, the company highlights its commitment to building a future-ready platform and invites passionate individuals to help bring this vision to life.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Anything that helps reduce the search engine monopoly of Google is good news to me. This link post by Gruber gives a hint (I’m not referring to The New York Times article because of their paywall). With the emergence of the fediverse (Mastodon, Bluesky), maybe we can start hoping for a more distributed power on the Internet. 2️⃣ It seems that encryption is the new friend of American authorities (FBI) against potential China intrusions. It's the same FBI that was asking for backdoors in operating systems. What a bunch of clowns. Personnally, I'm using iMessage with other Apple user peers (fully encrypted) and WhatsApp (also fully encrypted).

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ iOS 18.2 is just around the corner, so I'm looking forward to the next iteration, iOS 18.3, which should bring the most interesting and promising part of Apple Intelligence. Siri is about to get a considerable boost if Apple's claims are believed. I can't wait to try it out.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

Once upon a time... before computers...

JF Martin on Glass

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 5 posts 😔
🏞️ 7 photos shared 🙂
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 One YouTube video published 🙂
Did you know that I once created a public daily journal during my trip to Italy in 2022? You can still have a look at it right here.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ This was the thanksgiving week; I find the marketing around thanksgiving a bit tiring. Even as a consumer, I'm not ok with this systematic consumerism promotion. That being said, I'm always trying to be thankful for my life, my friends, my wife, my sons, all year long.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ What is happening these days with the company's logo design? See below. Computer and smartphone screens resolutions have never been so high, printing quality has never been so good, electronic billboards have never been so popular and big, and TVs have never been so good. Yet, companies turn their logo into unappealing designs without personality. Why? 2️⃣ I discovered the Minutes to Midnight blog. The design is super clean. It’s a fascinating personal website. He wrote a personal manifesto, which I find inspiring. Maybe I should write one myself.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I'm slowly getting used to focusing on Inoreader for all my reading needs. A recent blog article on the Inoreader website gives valuable details about the reading capabilities of Inoreader RSS readers.

Read-later services or applications result from facing or having too much content availability and a lack of time to consume that content promptly.

“…so many people use Chrome that many developers don’t always test if their websites work correctly in Safari. That’s absolutely a problem and it’s a frustration for Safari users.” — Matt Birchler

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ This week's writing projects were focused on writing the release highlight to go with the recent release of Craft 3.0. It's a significant milestone in the history of Craft that requires more attention than usual. This article is for The Craft Bible 2.0 subscribers. 2️⃣ The second writing project was an update for Medium members about my freelancing aspirations that were suddenly paused. I explained why on my Medium page. 3️⃣ As we enter the last month of the year, I'm facing the daunting task of finishing three feature articles: a personal year in review, a Craft year in review and finally, an Apple year in review. The latter has not even started, so the former two are in good shape. Yet, I'm unsure if I’ll have enough free time to finish and publish those pieces. I'm willing to drop the Apple year in review to focus on the other two that are more unique and might gain more traction. 4️⃣ Don't miss the monthly digest of my posts on Micro.blog for the month of November.

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ Unsplash Awards, 2024 edition is out! Oh boy there are so many stunning photos! If you must watch sometime this week, it’s that photos showcase. I always been a big fan of Unsplash but I must say that I don’t contribute as much as I would like. Not everything is Unsplash-worthy, though. 2️⃣ Sandra Roberts on Glass shares many great pictures. I discovered her because she saw some of my photos and liked them and gave me some feedback. I was curious and went to visit her website build on Adobe Portfolio. She's is really good photographer. We seems to share a passion for uban photography. 3️⃣ If something bad happens to Photomator since the Apple acquisition, maybe I should consider using Darkroom instead? I saw a thanksgiving promotion on Glass and thought that Darkroom could share directly processed images to the service, but it's not the case. This reminds me of something that I'd like to see in Glass: support for third-party photo-editing apps for easy sharing. 4️⃣ Another photographer discovered on Glass, Wayne MacPhail. I found this image especially telling.

https://sandraroberts.myportfolio.com/projects

Wayne MacPhail on Glass Photography Community

Wayne MacPhail. Enthusiast who shoots with iPhone 16 Pro, Ricoh GRiii X, Sony A6600 in the Hamilton, Ontario.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ John Gruber has an interesting blog post about Apple's acquisition of Pixelmator. He's a bit late, but his perspective required more research and deeper thinking than mine. He suggests that Apple might be more interested in Pixelmator Pro than Photomator. This would be my worst-case scenario, as I depend on Photomator for most of my photo-editing needs. Or maybe it is about competing against Creative Cloud. 2️⃣ Matt Birchler wishes he could find a reason to get the new M4 Mac mini. I did. And I'm glad. It's the best desktop Mac ever owned, if not the best. 3️⃣ According to Apple, Shazam crossed the 100 billion song recognitions. Shazam has a great story with Apple, and it clearly demonstrates that an app acquired by Apple can strive. I hope the same will happen with Pixelmator. 4️⃣ Yes, the Apple TV hardware is just fine. Don't believe people who think that Apple should make a TV set. It's a distraction. 5️⃣ Windows Recall entered in beta (again). Would you like something like this on macOS, made by Apple? As someone who tested Rewind, I would love to see that on the Mac. 6️⃣ It's time to talk about the iPhone 17 rumours, already. Oops.

“They could sell a bundle for, just spitballing here, $20/month or $200/year that would include the Mac and iPad versions of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator, and possibly Photomator. Maybe throw in some extra iCloud storage.” — John Gruber on the possible future of Pixelmator apps under Apple’s umbrella.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I'm well positioned with my efforts to update content in Craft to support Craft Tasks better to be introduced in the upcoming version 3. It's rather tedious, and I'm unsure how to recoup this time investment and how I will use task management in Craft if I ever will. 2️⃣ I'm thinking of doing my first YouTube live stream session. I could set up this session for the Craft users community where I could explore Craft live and answer questions. I need two essential pieces of equipment for this to happen: a pricey Rodecaster Video and a compatible webcam. I created a poll on YouTube for the community, asking if there is an appetite for this. If not, I could do the same, but only for The Craft Bible subscribers. 3️⃣ I want to mention the first anniversary of The Craft Bible 2.0. It's been a long ride. There are many paying subscribers, and I have been able to update the content regularly since the beginning. I wish I could do more, but the lack of time holds it. In a perfect world, it could become a collaborative project, but sadly, not many people are willing to invest the time required to maintain a project like this one. 4️⃣ I'm looking at opportunities to design websites with RealMac Software Elements. So far, I have three candidates. I would do this to build websites with great software, just for fun. It's easier to start from an existing website than starting from scratch. I could redo the website for the company I'm currently working for. I could also redo the one for Micro.blog and do the one for my freelancing company.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ MindNote is now MindNode Classic, but MindNote Next is out with another more expensive subscription. I’ll finish my current subscription with the classic version before switching to the newest edition. I like MindNote but don’t use it often. 2️⃣ Apple names the 2024 Apps of the Year finalists. None of the finalists are part of my apps. 3️⃣ Apple Frames 3.3. is out, but I prefer Shareshot, which is native and runs great. 4️⃣ I bought an app for my iPad called Orion from the makers of Halides that transforms my iPad into a video monitor using a USB-C cable. I tested it connected to my Nikon Zf camera to display the viewfinder content on my iPad. It works great. It also requires the Elgato CamLink 4K HDMI converter. It's cool. That converter also allows me to plug my Nikon into my Mac and use it as a webcam. It works great. The ultimate goal is to have a webcam compatible with the RODECaster Video switcher, which I plan to buy soon. But before that, I'll test my setup with my next video recording session. My initial tests are promising.

1️⃣ I made a video explaining the upcoming styles features in Craft 3.0, which should be out by the time you read this. It's the first video I produced on the new M4 Mac mini. It's a fast machine for sure, but using a two-screen setup for video production is really nice. You can get a summary of my creative toolset right here on my metablog. I was able to beat the Craft team for the Craft Style feature, but they will beat me for the Collections feature. Anyway! I will go deeper and be more critical of their newest release than anyone could or is willing to. Stay tuned. 2️⃣ Would you use the iPad for 200 days as your main computer? Someone did. Occasionally, I go to the downtown office with my iPad only, which I connect to an external display and bring my wireless keyboard and mouse. I use Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Word and PowerPoint. Straightforward stuff. It works ok. I want to love it, but there are so many rough edges. 3️⃣ Recently, I started listening to ambiance music like this. It gives a feeling of being in a science fiction movie like Dune. Instead of listening to white noises, I prefer a richer acoustic experience. Try it for yourself.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Manton Reece writes: “This week Mark Zuckerberg met at Mar-a-Lago with a convicted criminal who is out on bail. I stopped posting to Instagram in 2017, but I keep giving Meta second chances. No more. It’s time to burn this shit to the ground and move forward with the open web. Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.”. Does that means he is going to remove cross-posting to Thread from Micro.blog.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ We're entering December, already. The year 2024 went so fast. I'm looking forward to conclude this year by meeting my objective: focusing on the things I like to do most. 2️⃣ I'm looking forward to see the next iteration of Apple Intelligence with the first beta of iOS 17.3. This is where we should see if Apple will deliver on its promises of a better Siri.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦

Decay, a Series by JF Martin — Glass

A selection of the best decay scenes as seen through my camera lenses. Many of those images were shot when I was an active urban explorer circa 2018-2020.

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 26 posts 🙂
🏞️ 11 photos shared 😃
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 No YouTube video published 😔
This edition covers week 44, 45 and 46.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ Coming back from a one-week vacation, working on the plane with my iPad Pro. I'm loving it each time. This was a small vacation before starting a long stretch of no-time-for-vacation. Nothing until next spring, until then: work, work, home improvement project, writing, sharing, contributing.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I’m continuing my gradual discovery of Bluesky. My usage follows an up-and-down curve, but I’m learning to like Bluesky. I started this journey in mid-2023. Since then, Bluesky has grown in features, maturity and popularity. The platform is now reaching more than 20 million users. I'm hearing that Bluesky usage has been surging recently, especially since the US election. I’m not sure why. I’m happy to see Micro.blog support for Bluesky continues to grow, too. Micro.blog is still my go-to solution on the web, but I’m adding Bluesky to my daily routine, mainly for reading the news. The only thing to remember: social networks can be toxic and time suckers.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ In the “Small scale is the best scale,” blog post, I was reminded of a thought a friend of mine shared with me recently: the world as we know it now makes everything seemingly close. At any second, we can see and hear what is happening everywhere. It can be a good thing, but some people think it could be harmful to some degree. Are we really made to absorb this always-on proximity with the rest of the world? My friend thinks no. And I'm starting to agree with her. As I get older, I should focus on locality instead of globality—food for thought. 2️⃣ I discovered Read Max, a site on Substack. I read a few things here and there, but this one about people preferring AI-generated art over human-created art caught my attention. Let me say this: we tend to overestimate people's ability to decipher what is great art like what is a great photography. I would argue that it's a minority of people who can recognize what makes a great photo. We also tend to overestimate our value in our creations, be with images or words. That one is not really related to the Read Max website.

Read Max | Max Read | Substack

Explaining the weird new future, one newsletter at a time. Subscribe for a twice weekly delivery of internet culture, mega-platform grotesquerie, crypto conspiracies, deep forum lore, fringe politics, and other artifacts of what’s to come. Click to read Read Max, by Max Read, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

SubstackMax Read

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ The recent news of Apple's acquisition of Pixelmator prompted me to write about this. Since then, nothing new has been announced either by Pixelmator or by Apple. It's too early, I guess. I'm sure future events around Pixelmator apps will trigger more writings. Meanwhile, application updates and videos like this one are still being pushed out! 2️⃣ About once a week or more, I get requests for guest posts on my blog on numericcitizen.me. As shown below, the inquirer doesn't specify why my website seems interesting to him and doesn't specify which subject he would write about. How am I supposed to pull the trigger and ask for more information? 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ I finally had a chance to experience the Glass Series feature, officially available since November 12th. Since then, I managed to create a few photo series (see Darkness, Minimalism, Shadows). Creating a new series is simple and can be done in two ways: uploading many new images or selecting already published ones. The first method will flood the followers’ timeline. I wish photos would be published with some delays until all images in the series are made public. The second method is straightforward; it is not shared with followers once the series is published. As shown below, social network previews are well-designed (a link leading to a specific series posted on Bluesky). With Glass Series, Glass gave a new name to Flickr or another similar service, an album. When browsing the photo timeline, pictures that are part of a series are identified with photo thumbnails overlaid on the photo. Hovering the mouse over produces a nice animation, expanding the thumbnail to show the number of images in the series. The side effect of this design decision is to improve the discoverability of past published images. The Series adds value to Glass and proves that Glass is maturing. I'll use them to organize my photos better. 2️⃣ Thanks to the new Series feature, I discovered this photographer on Glass; Here is the Impressionism series from Nico Photo. 3️⃣ Finally, I shared many of my best urban exploration photos on Glass to go with the new category of the month: decay.

Darkness, a Series by JF Martin — Glass

In this series, I want to show different degrees of darkness expressions.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Apple continues to release the next iteration of its operating systems with more Apple Intelligence features. 2️⃣ iCloud Backups for devices running iOS 8 no longer work, and Apple asks users to upgrade. 3️⃣ Lightning to Headphone Jack adaptors are no longer available from Apple; they were introduced with the iPhone 7. 4️⃣ I switched to the M4 Mac mini, and it went well. I shared a few details here. 5️⃣ Apple makes it even harder for thieves or the police to get access to a stolen iPhone with this little trick. Thanks, Apple. 6️⃣ AppleInsider reports that Apple no longer offers free repair of the infamous butterfly keyboard on MacBook Pro. What a bad streak for Apple.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ I always have one project or two in my mind. For a few weeks, I've been following the development of RealMac Software Elements, a static website editor for the Mac. It's in beta, and the program is expanding its beta tester base. I have received an invite to look at myself. The only issue is a subscription to enter the beta program is mandatory. That's a first for me, and I wondered if this is a frequent practice. Nonetheless, I'm really tempted to give it a try. My first project would be to build a prototype website for a hypothetical freelancing job in IT services. The second project would be to rebuild my current company's website, which needs a complete redesign. Ultimately, I would love to use Elements to replace some of my publishing needs currently addressed by Craft's shared documents, like my About page. I'll give myself more time to think about this as I have a few other things on my plate for the rest of the year.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ News Explorer, a lesser-known RSS reader, entered beta for version 2.0. A few years ago, I happily used News Explorer for a few years as my primary RSS reading solution after spending quite some time with Reeder. The upcoming version 2.0 brings a few notable additions, such as feed filtering with keywords, which I appreciate in Inoreader, the RSS reading solution I'm using now. Am I going to switch back from Inoreader? Nope. Yet, I like to keep track of apps that I used to like. You never know when I might return. 2️⃣ You can use Apple Intelligence to ask ChatGPT to create images, but they come out in a square format. You cannot use a directive like “using a 16:9 aspect ratio”, which is possible in the ChatGPT client. Also, requests aren't saved in ChatGPT conversation history, even with a paid account, which is too bad. 3️⃣ I like using small Mac utilities, and up until now, I was happy using Tot, a small menubar text editor. A recent update to Raycast introduced Raycast Notes, and I'm in love with it. I moved all my notes to Raycast Notes and dropped Tot.

RSS Readers War: From Reeder to News Explorer

I’m a long time user of Reeder, a well known and well designed RSS reader for the Apple ecosystem (see my review of Reeder 4 here). But, recently during a discussion on Telegram (which by the way y…

Numeric Citizen SpaceJF Martin

Tripsy – Trip Planner for iPhone (iOS), iPad & Mac

The Ultimate Travel Companion – Tripsy is a travel planner that helps you plan your entire trip in one place. You can share your itinerary with family and friends, get flight alerts, store documents, and make wish lists of places to visit.

In theory, Tripsy is a great app idea that appears well designed and executed. The problem is that I don’t plan my trips in enough details to warrant buying or subscribing to an app like this. I’m sharing this here just in case you might find this useful.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Realmac Software continues publishing new videos about their upcoming static website editor Elements. 2️⃣ Pixelmator also continues publishing videos about recent updates, too. I like that. 3️⃣ If you want to see Apple Intelligence in action, this time, image playground and genmojis creation are showcased in that video. 4️⃣ Marques Brownlee talks about Apple Intelligence, too. 5️⃣ In Shot with iPhone, Tyler Stalman exposes the current state of iPhone photography and videography with many intricate details. There is a lot to unpack in the video here. Many valuable insights about iPhone photo formats, image processing, and more exist. After watching this, I realized that iPhone photography is becoming quite complicated. 6️⃣ An interesting one from the Notion team. Being 20 years younger, I would probably seek to work for them. 7️⃣ Montreal, the city where I've been living since 2006. At 32:09 in this video, we can see the building close to my downtown office, on the right. Montreal is such a diverse environment with so many great places as well as more troubling or ugly ones, like any big cities in North America. I often compare Montreal to New York.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I’ve been experimenting with Apple Intelligence Image Playground in recent weeks, and I must say that I'm not very impressed. No matter which photo I select, the results are awful. 2️⃣ I tried something with ChatGPT: “Based on what you know about me, draw a picture of what you think my current life looks like.” The results aren't compelling, as seen below. 3️⃣ I put my M1 Mac mini for sale. Many of these are currently being sold, following the redesigned M4 Mac mini. It won't be an easy sale.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ I'd like to put some time aside to create a series of YouTube videos dedicated at Craft 3.0 that is coming very soon. I'm not sure if I'll be able to achieve my objectives here because my next few weekends are rather busy.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻

I recently flew to and from Florida, which reminded me of my love for using an iPad on a plane. Here is a list of reasons, in no particular order, why it’s such a great experience.

• The 11-inch iPad Pro is perfect for today’s cramped planes. I always prefer using the iPad over the airplane’s infotainment system.
• It’s the only time I use Stage Manager to multitask across many different apps (task management, writing, music listening, etc.).
• Listening to music with noise cancellation is the best way to isolate myself from my neighbours and reduce ambient plane noise. The typical ambient noise level on a plane can reach 75 dB. Even if I don’t play music, I keep my AirPods Max on my head to lower the noise level.
• Watching downloaded YouTube videos is a great way to spend flight time. I often download short videos to learn new things instead of sleeping. Apple TV+ is also a great content provider for longer flights.
• It’s the best time to review my iCloud Photos Library and triage and cleanup. Using Photomator to edit RAW images is such an enjoyable experience, too. It’s a reminder of the Pixelmator apps acquired by Apple, which prompts thoughts of an uncertain future.
• It’s the only time when I play games. My current favourite games are Townscaper, Missiles Command: Recharged and Discbricks.
• On my way home, I use the iPad to organize my return to work or everyday life. I usually do this by simply using a list of tasks in Apple Notes.

Of course, this wouldn’t be as seamless without the iPad’s impressive battery life. Despite multitasking with multiple apps, playing games, and watching videos, I’m always impressed by how long the battery lasts. I usually only need a quick top-up once I reach my destination.

In conclusion, the iPad has become an indispensable travel companion. It transforms my flying experience from mundane to enjoyable and productive. Whether I use it for work, entertainment, or simply to organize my thoughts, it enhances every aspect of my journey in a way that no other device can.

Apple bought Pixelmator, which sent a shockwave across the creative world. I’m in shock myself. As the dust settles a bit, it’s time to think about the possible implications of this.

As a reminder for what follows later in this article, Pixelmator has been around as a company since 2007 and makes two apps: a Photoshop competitor called Pixelmator Pro and a Lightroom competitor called Photomator. The former is available only on the Mac, while the latter is available for all Apple platforms (except the Apple Vision Pro). Look for this BasicAppleGuy article for a more detailed description of Pixelmator's history.

As explained in this article, I migrated to Pixelmator apps this year, leaving Adobe behind (I was a subscriber between 2016 and 2024). It took me some effort to achieve it, but it was mandatory because I couldn’t justify the subscription price asked by the Adobe Photography plan. I bought Pixelmator Pro and Photomator, which are probably among the best native Mac apps out there. I mainly use Photomator, but I use Pixelmator occasionally to create simple things like the following artwork for my podcast. It's elementary design, and Pixelmator can create more complex content, as you might already guess. Photomator offers a unique take on photo editing. One could argue that Photomator shares familiarity with Adobe Lightroom. Having used both, I would agree this is why I felt at home when I switched from Lightroom to Photomator. I’m pretty happy with my decision because the alternatives are viable for my photography workflow and needs.

Over the years, especially since switching to Pixelmator apps, I often wondered why Apple wasn’t buying the company. When you look at Pixelmator apps, you think: These apps could have been made by Apple. Some would say that Apple should have made those apps! Just look at the Pixelmator website; it looks like Apple designers are behind it.

Until recently, Apple lagged behind Photomator in photo editing features, but not anymore. Without a thorough comparison, let me say that both photo-editing apps are similar in the primary photo-editing area. I prefer Photomator over Apple’s Photos for basic image editing. Apple Photos’ design uses a more complex user interface to edit a photo but also lacks some flexibility. I like many of Photomator’s tools, while Apple’s Photos offers many tools that I don’t need or find a use case for. The capabilities of Photomator layers are approachable because I can understand how to work with them. It’s a well-thought-out app.

For some reason, I believe that Photomator and Pixelmator maximize Apple’s frameworks and APIs for image processing while presenting a different take from the user experience side. Instead of reinventing the wheel, they reuse many Apple graphic technologies and APIs, such as the iCloud Photos Library. Still, they also offer unique features, too, like Super Resolution, Denoise and Workflows.

I’m not very knowledgeable in Pixelmator Pro, but judging from my limited experience, I know that Apple doesn’t have such an app in their current offerings. I think Pixelmator Pro is much more approachable than Adobe Photoshop, and I think it’s a great addition to Apple’s offerings.

Market consolidation to compete against Adobe?

Someone could ask: Is Apple interested in Pixelmator Pro to compete against Adobe Photoshop with a more approachable take on image editing? Maybe, maybe not. It’s tough to tell from my point of view. Others have written that Apple is looking for new talents. This often happens in technology, but I doubt it is only about talent. It doesn’t serve Apple well to kill such a high-quality Mac app also available on the iPad and the iPhone. These apps are so rare these days.

Canva bought Affinity earlier this year. Words on the internet point to Canva's desire to better compete against Adobe. That sounds about right. By buying Pixelmator, is Apple trying to do the same? Probably. The case is compelling. As I said, Pixelmator Pro competes against Adobe Photoshop. Apple doesn’t have an offering in image-editing space and has never entered that space, while Photomator is a bit like Aperture, competing against Lightroom Classic.

From the official announcement on Pixelmator press release, we can read (emphasis is mine):

Pixelmator has signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval. There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time. Stay tuned for exciting updates to come.

What’s next for Pixelmator’s app? What was the motivating factor for this acquisition? Let’s look at each of them.

What could come next for Pixelmator apps?

Pixelmator Pro is an image editor that competes with applications like Adobe Photoshop. Looking carefully at this web page on Apple’s website, we can see that Apple has nothing like that while offering many other pro-level apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, MainStage, etc. Some are available on the Mac and the iPad, like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro. I can see Apple adding Pixelmator Pro to the mix. It's probably the easiest guess to take. As noted by 9to5Mac, Pixelmator Pro isn’t currently available on the iPad. Apple could make it happen and ask for a small subscription fee, like for FinalCut Pro. I guess the focus of the Pixelmator team would be to work on this in the short term. It might not have been economically possible for the team to do it alone, but with Apple backing, it's an entirely different matter. I’m sure Apple is looking to expand their subscription offerings. Like FinalCut Pro for iPad, I can see Apple adding Pixelmator Pro.

Photomator is a photo editor that competes against Lightroom and… to some degree, Apple Photos. That is the crux of the problem. As I said earlier, there are some feature overlaps between the two. It is not obvious what Apple will do with Photomator. One thing that is unique to Photomator is its support for file-based editing. Photomator can work directly with files, which wasn’t possible until this summer. Of course, Apple wants users with bloated iCloud Photo libraries, potentially translating into more iCloud space subscriptions. But it makes more sense to use a file-based workflow for more serious photo editing of RAW images coming off a digital camera. Speaking of RAW images, RAW support is more comprehensive in Photomator. More advanced features like layers are available in Photomator, making it much more versatile for complex photo editing tasks. Workflows that enable the ability to do many different tasks in a single action are also something power users like me appreciate. Super Resolution is another example of something unique to Photomator. Could these more advanced features be folded into Apple Photos? Some people think it might. Other guys, like the developer behind Acorn, another image-editing app for the Mac, in a blog post, are asking similar questions to mine. He doesn't have a clue. Me neither. The overlapping of many features makes me less comfortable to bet on this. Keeping Photomator around would send a confusing message. The jury is still out on this one.

Looking ahead

Is Apple getting their hands on Pixelmator Pro while dropping Photomator the only possible story here? I hope not, but time will tell. For now, I’ll continue to use Photomator for the more demanding photo-processing needs while keeping an eye on what’s happening next. Let’s just say that I’m cautiously optimistic.

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 18 posts 😃
🏞️ 10 photos shared 😃
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 One YouTube video published 😃

Did you know The Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest came out on November 1st? Check it out!

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I got a new supporter on my Ko-fi page this week, and I'm happy about it. It's not only about the money but the feeling that I'm not writing in a void. Some people are not only reading my stories but want to show their support. I'm grateful for that. But money is often not far behind, too. As a creator, I depend on many services and tools that cost money. I never wanted to make money by writing, but I had this wish this week: having enough supporters to cover all my subscription costs. That would be cool. I have a long way to go before reaching this goal.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ This week, I (re)discovered the fragility of software. I left behind 1Password because Apple Passwords offers simplicity without being simplistic. Pixelfed is another example of its development tied to a few developers, with one guy being much more active than others. Pixelfed suffers from its leading developer lacking focus and being spread across many open-source projects. There are things I want to see on Pixelfed but aren't coming, like an iPhone app that has been in beta for maybe a year! I'm considering reducing my activity level on Pixelfed to focus on Glass instead. The third example is Omnivore, which will close because its developers are working on something else. So, I'm focusing on Inoreader instead to support my reading needs. Do you know what is common between Glass and Inoreade? Both are paid services. Next up on the list of fragile software? Continue reading below, and you'll find out.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I should revisit my reading workflow because of the demise of Omnivore. For the time being, I'll be focusing my usage on Inoreader and letting the dust settle before making a decision. The closure of Omnivore is sad because I lost my reading highlights library. There is no easy way to reconstruct this. I did export my data, but it is sitting in many files on my computer. I do have those in Bear, though, as shown below.

“I hate that today if you want a great browsing experience, you need to install all kinds of ad-blockers.” — Riccardo Mori

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I’ve been writing an article this week for the office using an unusual workflow. I wrote down fifteen phrases representing individual thoughts around the automation of IT operations. Then, I went to ChatGPT and asked GPT 4o Canvas to use these fifteen thoughts to write an article. Upon my first read, I asked ChatGPT for many changes and added my personal touch. The result is somewhat positive, considering the time I took to write this. I then imported the article into NotebookLM to create a podcast episode, and the results blew me away. I sent the results to some of my colleagues, who were impressed too. 2️⃣ Apple Intelligence Writing Tools are out for those with capable devices. Information Architect recently published an article about how Apple Intelligence’s approach to text editing might be wrong. This article is echoed by Kirk McElhearn, who thinks the writing tools are not good. I must say that I tend to agree to some degree. When I ask to proofread my text, I need to take the time to compare both to see if my writing was contaminated or not. It takes time, and the user experience might not be optimal. On the other hand, this solution might be good enough for most people. Time will tell, I guess.

Why the M4 Mac mini Will Be My Best Mac Ever!

A plethora of Mac announcements this week pushes the Mac to new performance levels.

Numeric Citizen SpaceJF Martin

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ One of the best creators recently discovered via Glass, Mad Heiress, offers a rich set of images, poems, stories, etc. Some photos are mildly NSFW but very tasteful and respectful. I wish I had a fraction of his talent. Simply put, wow. Another newly discovered photographer on Glass is Yano Kova. She does stunning black-and-white street photography. There are so many great photos like this one. 2️⃣ I’ve been sharing many discoveries recently in photography, most of them made through Glass. I wonder why? I fail to see comparable quality photos on Pixelfed. The latter is more general public, while Glass, a paid service, attracts more accomplished photographers. That's simply a guess, an observation. I don't want to offend anyone who shares photos on Pixelfed. I'm on both platforms. 3️⃣ Speaking of Glass, the photo-sharing service, officially set a date for launching the Series on November 12th. I can't wait to try it out! The Series feature will allow photographers to publish related photos as bundles if you didn't know.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ The rumoured home device that Apple might be working on resembles the iconic iMac G4 but with a more squarish and smaller display. I have always liked this Mac because it wasn't only a utility device but an object of art. I'm not looking to buy this type of device, and I don't see the roles it would play in my household. 2️⃣ This was Mac Week, and it had many meaningful announcements. The iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro received a tech refresh, with the Mac mini having the only notable external redesign. I have a lot more to say in a separate article. 3️⃣ Apple is buying Pixelmator! I repeat: Apple is buying Pixelmator, the maker of Pixelmator Pro, and Photomator, my beloved photo-editing apps that took over Adobe’s! I don’t know if I should be happy or worried about this sudden turn of events! You can read the official announcement right here on Pixelmator Blog.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ After weeks of hard and tedious work inspired by this documented process, I finally completed my migration off 1Password. Not only will I save some money, but my security posture will also improve because of this migration to Apple Passwords. I have been a 1Password user since at least 2014, but with Apple's introduction of a solid password management app, I prefer to use first-party and integrated solutions. The next thing to do is migrate off Authy, the 2-factor authenticator app. That part is not fun because I need to turn off the 2-factor configuration for each service and reconfigure it using Passwords. 2️⃣ Following the news about Omnivore’s slow demise, I'm going to work on using Inoreader as a replacement for reading later articles, exporting my data and building something different for my reading workflow needs. IFTTT, Notion, and Readwise might be involved to some degree.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ The big news of the week on the applications side is undoubtedly this announcement by one of the main contributors of Omnivore, an open-source read-later service. According to the news, the developer accepted a job to work on ElevenLabs’ audio reader instead. I understand the decision; everyone needs to put bread on the table. But I'm not switching to ElevenLabs’ app anytime soon; I don't need an audio reader to read my content out loud. So, what am I going to do from now? I won’t wait for someone else to take over the development of Omnivore. The first option is to maximize what I already have: Inoreader. It's a paid subscription, their business model is clear, and they have been around for quite a while. In the coming days, I will explore Inoreader to store articles for reading later and text highlighting. I already know that Inoreader doesn't work with Readwise. So, I'm done with one-man-shop open-source projects. I decided to export all my Omnivore data and move on with it. 2️⃣ I'm also now questioning my usage of Readwise. I’ve been using Readwise since 2021. I don't use Readwise to browse my past highlights, but I use it for archival purposes. Even for that, I don't refer to my past readings often. Omnivore was configured to save my text highlights into Readwise. From time to time, I export the highlights to Bear. Without Omnivore, Readwise makes no sense; I don't use other means to store data in Readwise. Readwise offers a lower subscription tier for that purpose, and I could consider downgrading to it. I don't use the Readwise Reader because it felt too overwhelming the last time I tried it. 3️⃣ Scribbles.page is out with a few updates like adding a website menu, something that I was hoping to come.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ This week YouTube content is heavily flooded with Apple news and commentary about about Mac-related news. But, to start, I chose a short clip showing Steve Jobs explaining what Apple is going to do for the computer world. I felt it was to the point and relevant to this week's announcements.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ I’m going on a one-week vacation, so the next edition will be published around November 23rd. I'll be mostly offline during that week because I have no internet. It’s a good thing to disconnect, right? 😱

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ Of course, I'm looking forward to two things: reviews of the new M4 Mac mini and, for the long term, how Apple is going to deal with their recently acquired Pixelmator company. I'm holding my breath, and my fingers are crossed.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻

In this article, I want to do things differently. I will write about why the new M4 Mac mini is the most fantastic Mac ever and share my thoughts gathered during a week of Mac announcements. Let’s get down to it.

First thing first: I’m a Mac fan. I’ve been such a fan for quite some time and wrote about it extensively. I tried to use recent Macs in recent years because I spend so much time working with them that I want the best. I’ve been a longtime desktop fan with many iMac models (2005, 2007, 2010, 2017), but in recent years, thanks to the Apple Silicon chip, I made a turn and started adding Mac portables to my digital life. This article was written mainly using an M2 15-inch MacBook Air.

Sunday night, October 27th, 2024.

I’m rather excited for the upcoming week. Is it because I'm in for an updated Mac mini? Coming from a M1 Mac mini, Probably. Following this tease from Greg Joswiak last week, it's official: the week ahead is all about the Mac. The first announcement should arrive on Monday, probably around 9 AM EST. I'm wondering what is going to be announced first. Is Apple going to play the crescendo game with the Mac mini announced last? If so, the iMac could be the first to come out with updated accessories using a USB-C connection. Will Apple show off redesigned accessories, or will they play it safe and leave it as it is now? The maligned Magic Mouse should be tweaked with a more intelligent way of recharging it. I’ve been using the Magic Mouse for many years, and I think it is due for an ergonomic revisit. Anyhow, tomorrow can't come soon enough.

Monday, early morning, October 28th, 2024.

I’m just having my coffee, going through my RSS feeds, and looking for any last-minute news or rumours, but nothing is worth mentioning except this bingo card by the Basic Apple Guy. It's an entertaining read. He thinks Apple will start with the Mac mini announcement, but I disagree with this prediction. He seems to imply that there will be some videos, but I don't think so. I hope we will get more than a press release in the Newsroom. Will we get a $499 Mac mini configuration? Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath. Will we get a space black Mac mini? I doubt it. Apple is so predictable these days. A dedicated Apple Intelligence button on the new Magic Keyboard? We didn't have a Siri button. I don't think we will get a dedicated button for Apple Intelligence. The day is still young, but I’ll learn more very soon.

Monday, 9:10 AM, October 28th, 2024

Refresh the Apple Newsroom webpage in my browser. Refresh the Apple Newsroom webpage in my browser. Refresh the Apple Newsroom webpage in my browser. Nothing shows up yet. Maybe at 10 AM EST?

Monday, 11:30 AM, October 28th, 2024

I was busy at work and missed the announcement timing, which was at 11 AM EST.

The first press releases (with a video announcement, a stripped-down version of a keynote, or a glorified press release?) came out thirty minutes ago, and as expected, the iMac was the first to receive the M4 treatment. Comparisons are made against the M1 iMac, which I find questionable, but they yield great numbers. Compared to the Intel-based iMac, this is even more questionable, but I guess Apple sees that many iMac owners are still using such old iMacs and wish for them to upgrade. This iMac is the best all-in-one design, but it's not for me anymore. I prefer having a separate screen, a bigger one for that matter. I'm using an Apple Studio display, which I really like.

The keyboard and mouse now have USB-C ports, too, but there is no word on where the USB-C port is located on the Magic Mouse. A nano texture option comes to the iMac, a first and pricey option. There is no significant change of colours. Meh.

Yet, for people like me who use an M1 Mac, the M4 represents a giant leap forward.

Of course, Apple touts Apple Intelligence as the most beneficial workflow for getting M4 processing power. That’s not surprising. They have a dedicated press release for iOS 18.1 et al. that sports the first Apple Intelligence features.

Monday, 5:30 PM, October 28th, 2024

Reactions are favourable for the beefed-up iMac, which includes new capabilities like better support for a two-display setup. Pricing for the now USB-C-only peripheral also increased slightly, at least in Canada, reaching new heights and near-obscene levels.

Still, the iMac is a super-looking computer.

I am turning my attention to tomorrow morning, 11 AM EST.

Monday, 8:04 PM, October 28th, 2024

I’m still digging into today’s news. I found this information tidbits about the low-end iMac configuration encouraging: the 10-code M4 CPU configuration will support two external displays, which could have been possible only for higher-end configurations. This bodes well for the M4 Mac mini.

Tuesday, early morning, October 29th, 2024

What a spoiler this morning when Amazon leaked the next Mac mini on their website! Apparently, the leak occurred yesterday night after I went to bed, but it has been fixed this morning. MacRumors still has the information. A comparison of different Mac models was briefly available, showing the new Mac mini design, which I include here. Oops.

Visually, if images are at scale, the Mac mini is much similar to the Mac Studio and comes with two USB-C ports in the front on the left and something else on the right, but it’s hard to see. It might be a headphone jack because it is a black circle. The only finish available is silver, which is disappointing; a space black version would have been fantastic.

The Mac mini’s spec sheet suggests it is much more powerful than its predecessor. It shows a maximum of 64 GB of RAM, 20 GPU cores, and 8TB of storage. However, we don’t know about the entry-level configuration yet, which is much closer to what I’ll get.

Even with this last-minute leak, I’m more excited about the new Mac mini. I can infer some pricing guesses and see the price going upward in the $2K CAN range for a configuration I will buy. Ouch.

Tuesday, 11 AM, October 29th, 2024

The mighty M4 Mac mini is now officially announced! From what I’m reading, what a machine this is: compact, beautiful, but powerful, with all the right ports at the right place. I’ll be ordering one in mid-November. Reactions are overwhelmingly positive, if not enthusiastic. It's probably the best Mac mini ever to ship.

The video segment for this announcement is slightly more than 12 minutes long. I particularly like the use of the tilt-shift effect during the introduction. The Apple headquarters building seems like a miniature replica. The following shots illustrate the video’s particular visual vibe.

In the following image, we expect the reveal of the new Mac mini, but instead, we are presented with the current one quickly followed by the new Mac mini, which is much smaller. I like this sense of humour. I also think it references the old-style reveal on stage by Steve Jobs back in the day.

This is my desktop Mac for the next five years: M4 Pro Mac mini with 12 CPU cores, 16 GPU cores, 16 Neural Engine cores, 24 GB of RAM and 2TB SSD. Compared to the M1 chip, the M4 is a significant leap forward. According to the Geekbench website, the M1 is rated at 8661, while the M2 Pro is rated at 12726 and the M3 Pro at 14042 in the multicore benchmark. We are close to a 2x increase here. I can’t wait to experience the difference.

Since I’m using a RODE wireless microphone for video and podcast recording, the receiver plugs into a headphone jack on the back of my current Mac mini. It’s not very convenient. Now, being on the front, it is. There is a little controversy about the power button placement. It can’t be worse than the current design, and I would argue it is better. Looking at the videos, I think the power button is not entirely flush with the button case, which will help locate it with the touch of a finger.

Now, the only question is: when should I place my order? I’ll probably wait until mid-November, when I return from my one-week vacation.

Tomorrow, it’s Wednesday, the third and last Mac-related announcement. MacBook Pro is next, but I’m surprised the Mac mini announcement came before. I would have thought that Apple would keep the newly redesigned Mac for last. The sequence seems tied to the Apple Silicon chips, not the Mac model itself. Anyway, there might be an even more significant announcement tomorrow. Who knows?

Wednesday, 7:10 AM, October 30th, 2024

This morning, I tried configuring the M4 Mac mini on the Apple Store app that I will order to see if shipping dates have started to slip. It’s not the case. Apple probably has good inventories. I’ll keep an eye on this over the next few weeks. Also, I’ve been testing buying through the university store for better pricing, and I could save $200 CAN. If I apply a trade-in value for my M1 Mac mini (a $225 CAN value), the final price would be $2,219 CAN. That’s a lot of money.

Wednesday, 11:05 AM, October 30th, 2024

As expected, the MacBook Pro with the M4 chip was announced. The video segment is the longest of the three, at 16m33s. For the first time, the nano-texture display option is available on the MacBook Pro, adding another set of price points.

All Macs now come with 16 GB of base memory, including the MacBook Air, a surprise move. This could also mean an M4-based MacBook Air might come later, like next Spring.

My wife is looking to get a Mac for the first time. She’s looking at the MacBook Pro and will probably settle for the 14-inch, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD version. She plans to use two external displays. She’s a Windows laptop user, and she is in for a shock.

It was an excellent week for the Mac in general. I feel that Apple is excelling on all counts. The Mac lineup is straightforward, with the Air and Pro for laptops and the iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro lines for desktops. A plethora of configurations are available for each line at various price points. The message around Apple Intelligence is loud and clear. I counted 14 references to Apple Intelligence on the MacBook Pro mini website alone, 16 on the iMac mini website, and 16 on the Mac mini website. That’s a lot.

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 9 posts 🙂
🏞️ 13 photos shared 😃
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 No YouTube video published 😔
This newsletter edition covers weeks #41 & #42.

Did you know you can catch a few highlighted stories and photos of mine by visiting this website?

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I’ve been in a writing lull recently, preferring to focus on photography more. I often go from writing to photography and vice versa. My attention span seems shorter than usual, which doesn’t help my writing in general. That’s not entirely true; I’ve been writing, but I’ve been on LinkedIn and Medium in my professional life. I’m trying to be more active on LinkedIn for a few reasons that I won’t share here, but you can read about it on my Ko-fi page. If you want to know what it is all about, subscribe to my Ko-fi page.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I've looked at Canva, a PowerPoint replacement that runs as a SaaS but is also available on devices like the iPad and the Mac. However, Canva is much more than a PowerPoint replacement. I see Canva as a competitor to Adobe Express, which I enjoyed long ago. I cannot share why I'm looking at this right now, but I must say that it feels like a great alternative and a valuable tool for creative people like me. The question is: what does this service bring to the table that I cannot already do using Keynote, Freeform or Mindnote, etc.? I could use it to design a website prototype, that's for sure. One use case could be for website prototyping while I wait for the beta release of Realmac Software Elements. I will make more comments about Canva soon.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ Every once in a while, I stumble on a blog post from other bloggers that shows their appreciation for what I'm doing, like this one. People can show their appreciation in many ways, like supporting me on my Ko-fi page and writing blog posts like that one. 2️⃣ More than ever, I believe in the web curation movement as we enter AI-generated content at a massive scale. That's why this blog post from Manuel Moreale resonated with me. I want to quote a few things from this blog post. 3️⃣ A newly discovered author, Maggie Appleton, touches on fascinating subjects like programming, design and anthropology. Besides touching on exciting subjects, her website is gorgeous by its simplicity and organizational structure. Too bad the site didn’t receive recent updates. Still, it's now part of my RSS feed subscriptions.

“With a web flooded with AI-generated slop and the platforms themselves encouraging it, the role of curators is gonna become more and more important.”

“Anyway, now more than ever, if you find value in curated blogs, newsletters, zines, or any other type of curated material, consider supporting the people who create and maintain them, because the vast majority of the time, they don’t do it for the money, they do it because they think it’s important.” – Manuel Moreale

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I started testing Ulysses, the writing app for the Mac. Version 32 will support Apple Intelligence, particularly for the Writing Tools. If all goes well, it could replace Grammarly when support for Apple Intelligence is added to more apps. My initial testing offers mixed feelings. To invoke Apple Intelligence features, you must select the text, which is not required with Grammarly. Apple Intelligence refuses to work on a paragraph containing a hyperlink. It could be a bug in Ulysses beta, but it could be a limitation, too. Grammarly works better in that respect, but sometimes, the link will be mangled when corrections are made. Nothing is perfect. Stay tuned for more comments on that one.

“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.” — Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ A good post from Matt Birchler: resolution is not everything in digital photography. I agree. 2️⃣ A newly discovered photographer: Anna Shtraus, thanks to Glass Highlights. She takes many photos in places like the Middle East. She calls herself a visual poet, and I like this. Instant subscribe! 3️⃣ Did you know you can watch my latest images from Pixelfed in slideshow mode? Try this link! 4️⃣ Found a great wallpaper collection inspired by Edward Hopper, for your iPhone, available on Gumroad.

Anna Shtraus on Glass Photography Community

Anna Shtraus. Visual poet living in the Middle East. I used to live and breathe landscapes, but recently really enjoying shooting streets. If the light is good, the…

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Rumors about the iPhone 18 😳 are already surfacing, stating advanced densification of the A20 chip with 12 GB of RAM using a 2 nm process. It's too early for me to influence my decision for next year's plan, though. I'm still planning to get the iPhone 17 as I often skip one generation of devices. 2️⃣ According to Mike Gurman, Apple is now turning its attention to home automation products and services. Now that Matter, the protocol that makes home devices talk and work together, is the standard, Apple is looking to build devices like home robots and communication-related gizmos🤦🏻‍♂️. I should wait before judging, but I don’t see that as an exciting journey. 3️⃣ For Apple fans, BasicAppleGuy shared some new wallpapers out of Apple Park photographs—many great ones. 4️⃣ Apple is considered two years behind in generative AI, according to a report by Gurman. Remember the MP3 players before the iPod came out? Apple was thought to be behind, too. Will this scenario repeat itself with generative AI? The leaders like OpenAI keeps getting better all the time. But, If you can't beat them, joining them might apply here. Om Malik is getting nervous about Apple Intelligence being late to the AI game. 5️⃣ ||The subsequent major releases of macOS, iPadOS, iOS, tvOS||, et al. are around the corner. Get ready for Apple Intelligence phase #1 of... many more phases! Phase #2 of Apple Intelligence is already out for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 users, as well as modern iPads and Macs with Apple Silicon Ship. I upgraded my iPad and iPhone to this second major release of iOS 18. I'm currently on the waiting list to test Image Playground, but according to this article, it might take a few weeks to play with this.

Apple Park Wallpapers — Basic Apple Guy

A collection of nine Mac & iPad backgrounds featuring beautiful locations around Apple Park.

Basic Apple GuyBasicAppleGuy

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ Not exactly a special project, but I’ve been spending quite some time testing the next round of betas for Craft Docs. As shown on Craft Docs YouTube channel, three important things are coming to Craft: Collections, Styling and Task management. I have mixed feelings with the new directions for Craft. I don't see use cases for Collections. The new styling feature doesn't go far enough by lacking basic image processing. Task management is also something that I'm not really looking to do within Craft; I'm a happy Things 3 user. The next public release of Craft, probably version 3.0, is still many weeks away.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Photomator 3.4 came out this week, and surprise, you can now flag, reject and start (from 0 to 5 stars) each photo. As suggested by this guy on Micro.blog, when using the Apple Photos library, these actions are saved, and a new set of photo albums is created to easily find those photos, all placed within a folder named “Photomator.” For those like me who often use files outside of Photos, for each photo that gets flagged, rejected or starred, a new .xmp file is created, just like the sidecar file if the photo has been edited. This is an excellent addition for those like me who previously used Adobe Lightroom, where the catalogue is central to the photo-processing workflows. 2️⃣ It seems a new MindNode app is coming soon, called MindNode Next, a free upgrade for those on the MindNode Plus subscription (like me). Collaborative work seems to be the highlight of this new generation of MindNode. Strangely enough, MindNode Next is already available for the Apple Vision Pro, and other platforms are coming later this year. 3️⃣ Inoreader finally launched the redesigned reading experience, which I LOVE. 4️⃣ Notion launched several new features and products presented in this short clip. Notion Layout for building better-looking pages. Most of the new features are available now. I played with Notion Layout a bit, but I will spend more time exploring Notion Forms and the new Marketplace in the coming days. The latter is essentially modelled around an App Store.

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Photomator 3.4 is out and comes with photo tagging and starring. See that in action in the following video. I'm already a fan. 2️⃣ The Starship flight and return to Earth, right on the launchpad, is mind-blowing. We came a long way from the first space shuttle flight in 1981. Very impressive.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ I'm still waiting for this M4 Mac mini announcement, but it is coming. It's widely expected to be in the last week of October. Even more with Apple's tease shared on X.com. 2️⃣ Here's an excellent summary of what's new in the upcoming iOS 18.1 release from MacRumors. Here's an excellent overview of iOS 18.2 from MacRumors, too. 3️⃣ Apple teases new Macs! The M4 Mac mini is really coming next week! Getting ready for hard decisions.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻

JF Martin (@numericcitizen@pixelfed.social)

Like a painting.

Pixelfed

The following is a summary of my contribution activities since the previous newsletter edition
👨🏻‍💻 10 posts 🙂
🏞️ 3 photos shared 😔
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 No YouTube video published 😔
This edition covers the week #39 and #40.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I’ve been busy with personal matters recently, which prevented me from working on my usual creative hobby and releasing this newsletter more regularly. But over the years, I learned that sharing when it’s meaningful and ready is more important than sharing for the sake of sharing. If it means to release this newsletter on a more irregular basis, so be it. Hobbies must be fun, not a burden. 2️⃣ With this newsletter edition, I decided to tweak the content a bit: I'll no longer include the logbook excerpt from Things 3, my preferred tasks manager. This logbook was a list of completed tasks during the week. I don't see the real value of including this anymore as I wasn't always able to keep it up to date and reflect my actual accomplished work. At one point, I even included a list of all the articles that I was reading on Omnivore. Since there is no integration between Omnivore and Things, automation is not possible and trying to build one is not worth it.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ I made some tests with Google's NotebookLM using my main website as the source. It's fast, and after a few minutes, I was already impressed. There is a media buzz about this podcasting feature, which is technically impressive, but ethically, I find this dangerous. 2️⃣ I discovered www.flaticon.com while searching for icons for a Keynote presentation template. I think I knew about that icon collection but forgot about it. I might subscribe to it if I find enough interesting icon sets to build a coherent collection.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ The end of Tabletop newsletter by Michael Steeber. So sad. Michael didn't share much about what's next for him. I hope he is okay. Maybe he was hired by Apple? Maybe there is not much to say about Apple Stores nowadays. The rate of new stores opening is relatively low, and most news is about remodelling and relocation. 2️⃣ Lou Plummer launched a challenge for bloggers and writers: the appreciation challenge. I find the idea rather interesting, so I was probably the first to share my appreciation for his work publicly.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ ChatGPT canvas feature recently announced at their latest developers conference seems handy for writers like me. I tried it out to create an article and was blown away. Ultimately, the best of this will be experienced when embedded into apps like Craft or Ulysses. From the OpenAI website: “We trained GPT-4o to collaborate as a creative partner. The model knows when to open a canvas, make targeted edits, and fully rewrite. It also understands broader context to provide precise feedback and suggestions.” 2️⃣ It occurred to me this week that I often spend more time sharing photos when I'm writing less. I feel less inspired to write in the evening, and I'm also more tired; it takes less effort to share photos. That's the explanation that I came up with. 3️⃣ I finally wrote and shared my Apple Watch Series 10 review. I made a funny title: “A Significant Iterative Refinement.” I'm playing with words here and making fun of Apple’s iterative product releases.

Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest - Numeric Citizen Blog

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ I've spent more time editing photos than usual in the last couple of days, and I'm enjoying it. Next week, I’m going on a short trip to New York to see a show of Sting, and I'll bring my camera with me for sure. 2️⃣ Great video about showing the iPhone 16 Pro video capabilities, entirely shot in Chicago, an excellent place for such video. It could have been an Apple ad. Was it? 3️⃣ A great review from Tyler Stalman of the iPhone 16 from a photographer's perspective. 4️⃣ Another iPhone 16-related review, this time about the controversial Camera Control by Sebastiaan De With.

Ben Lomon on Glass Photography Community

Ben Lomon. Montreal-based photography enthusiast.

A Montreal-based photographer I discovered this week. I like to see my city as seen through the eyes of another street photographer.

Monthly Category Favorites — Windows — Glass

How did you frame them?

Glass’s monthly category for September was “windows. “ In its category highlight, Glass offers a few great images shared by the community. I submitted two photos (image one and image two) in that category but wasn’t selected.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ The Pixel Fold Makes the iPhone look old. Really? This form factor does not convince me, and I’m not alone because I never see someone using a folding device. I prefer discreet devices like a phone and a tablet. And a Mac. I must be getting old. 2️⃣ The Macintosh IIci with an Apple Portrait Display as shown here was a very popular configuration for anyone doing serious desktop publishing in the early nineties. I always liked portrait display orientation and I wonder why we don’t see that more often these days.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ My 1Password to Apple Passwords migration is going well. The fun thing about this migration is that I relived old memories of many defunct web services I used in 2014 when I started using 1Password for storing my passwords. I disabled the 1Password browser extension on all my devices to force myself into migrating passwords. It works.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ Ghost is still working on implementing Fediverse. It's still too early, but Ghost users like me could see their monthly bill increase as the number of fediverse followers increases. I submitted my request to be part of the upcoming beta. Tiny sites with small memberships are preferred; this is precisely what my Ghost site is: small. Ghost's subscription tiers are based on the number of subscribers. With Fediverse, the number of followers will add up to the subscriber count, which could translate into a price increase for me. Since my audience is relatively small, it's not an issue for me. 2️⃣ Inoreader is prepping a significant web application redesign. After switching to the beta version and testing it for a few hours, I must say that this is the most successful redesign of any web service that I have ever seen. The new look offers higher information density while being cleaner and more functional. A new sidebar provides a great way to switch between major Inoreader features like RSS feeds, audio, search, etc. I provided a screenshot of my home view so you can judge yourself. 3️⃣ I finally cancelled my Linktr.ee subscription after three years of use. It was a great ride, but I prefer to focus on fewer platforms now. 4️⃣ If you are a writer using one of the popular writing apps like Ulysses or iA Writer, consider reading this review of an alternative app called Paper (very detailed).

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Again this week, I spent quite some time watching video reviews of the RODECaster Video device and again, more than ever, I think this is something I will get. The question now is when? It's a relatively expensive device, and I'm also waiting for the next Mac mini to be announced in the next few weeks, which will probably cost a lot, too.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Google announced two new Chromebooks and the integration of Gemini AI with a dedicated keyboard key. I would consider getting the Lenovo Chromebook Duet because of its relatively good design. But why am I considering getting this? I'm curious to test the water outside the Apple walled garden. I like vertically integrated solutions, and Google can compete with Apple.

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ I'm still looking forward to the October announcements from Apple, which will focus on the M4 Macs, including the redesigned Mac mini. From there, I'll decide if I upgrade my M1 Mac mini or buy the RODECaster Video device or do both.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻

Apple's September 2024 release of the Apple Watch Series 10 introduces a range of improvements that mark a substantial progression, particularly for users upgrading from earlier versions like the Series 6 or Series 8. Based on my experience with the new device, I want to highlight the key innovations and enhancements that set the Series 10 apart from its predecessors.

Performance and Design Enhancements

The Series 10 is still true to its origin; the new finish and larger display make it look rounder, but I'm not sure there is a significant difference. The larger screen is handy when interacting with apps or reading notifications, making the overall experience more user-friendly while allowing more information to be displayed seamlessly. The edges of the display curve more smoothly into the casing, giving it a refined aesthetic that enhances its appearance and usability. The thinner bezels make better use of the display area, allowing more information to be shown without feeling cluttered. This thoughtful design iteration makes it easier to read messages, type on the on-screen keyboard, navigate apps, and use widgets—all contributing to a superior user experience.

The Series 10 offers a significant boost in performance. Compared to my Series 8—a noticeable upgrade over the Series 6—the Series 10 is considerably more responsive. The user interface of watchOS is smoother, with apps launching faster than before. This speed improvement is especially evident for those upgrading from older models. Skipping a generation of devices is the best way to feel these differences when upgrading. Everything from switching watch faces to opening apps feels instantaneous, and this increase in responsiveness contributes to an enhanced overall user experience.

Notable New Features

The new double-tap (or double-pinch?) gesture has proven incredibly useful, adding a new level of convenience when navigating or interacting with the watch. This feature allows users to quickly control apps and interact with notifications without using the other hand, which is particularly helpful when on the move. The gesture feels intuitive and becomes second nature after just a short period of use, enhancing the overall hands-free experience. It is handy for answering calls, stopping timers, or controlling media playback, reducing the need to tap buttons or use the Digital Crown.

Another notable addition is the on-device translation feature, which has been very handy for quick translations. I downloaded the English and French language packs, and having translation capabilities directly on the watch has been helpful in day-to-day situations. This feature is perfect for travellers or those who frequently interact in different languages, as it provides instant translations without relying on an internet connection. The accuracy of the translations is also impressive, and the speed at which the watch processes these requests is a testament to the improved performance of the Series 10.

Another surprisingly enjoyable feature is listening to podcasts or music through the watch's speakers. While it might seem unconventional, it’s a convenient option for brief listening sessions when headphones aren’t available. Given the small form factor, the speakers are clear enough for spoken word content, and the sound quality is adequate.

Upgrade Process Challenges

Despite the many enhancements, the upgrade process remains an area needing refinement. Apple’s in-store purchasing experience is seamless, but migrating settings and watch faces from an older watch is still cumbersome. The Apple Watch backup and restore feature does not work reliably, which disrupts the upgrade process for many users. The ability to share watch faces via iMessage is clever and saves time, but it doesn’t provide a complete migration solution. A more streamlined approach that allows easy transfer of all settings would significantly improve the upgrade experience. The current process requires too much manual setup. There is also the risk of losing some configurations in the process, which makes upgrading feel less rewarding than it should be.

For those upgrading to the Series 10 while keeping an older watch, here’s a helpful tip: use iMessage to share watch faces from your old device to the new one. This lets you quickly set up your preferred watch faces without starting from scratch. Install your apps first, then send each watch face via iMessage to yourself, enabling easy installation on the new watch. This method saves time and helps ensure that your new watch feels familiar right from the start while still taking advantage of the improvements in performance and design.

For those who decide to set up their watch from scratch, it can be an opportunity to curate watch faces and settings intentionally. I found it refreshing to start anew, choosing only the watch faces I needed rather than transferring everything from my old device. This method allowed me to simplify my watch setup and only retain the features that I found most helpful. However, not every user will find this experience liberating—many would prefer a one-click solution that ensures all settings and configurations are automatically transferred without hassle.

Another area for improvement is the syncing process, particularly for music and photos. Allowing users more control over when and how content syncs would significantly improve user experience. Music and pictures only sync when the watch is charging, which is typically overnight while I wear my Series 8. Since I got my new watch, my favorite photo album still hasn’t synced, and there’s no option to force the sync. This limitation can be inconvenient, especially for users who want certain content readily available. Apple could improve this by allowing users to manually initiate syncing, ensuring that content is updated according to personal preferences rather than the device’s schedule. Simplifying the migration process when upgrading watches would enhance the overall experience, making it as seamless as the initial in-store purchase.

Health Monitoring and Battery Performance

The health-monitoring capabilities on the Series 10 have also seen notable improvements. For instance, The heart rate monitor is more accurate than my previous Series 6. During workouts, such as walking, the Series 10 consistently provided precise heart rate readings without blackout periods, addressing a critical problem of earlier models. This increase in accuracy is particularly beneficial for those who rely on the watch for fitness tracking, as it provides a more reliable assessment of their exercise metrics. Additionally, the Series 10 includes improvements to other health features like blood oxygen monitoring, which initially came with the Series 6, sleep apnea detection, and sleep tracking. Together, these features work more seamlessly, offering richer insights into overall health and well-being and encouraging healthier habits.

Battery performance has also improved, thanks, of course, to the new battery. My Series 8, with 84% battery health, and my Series 6, at 64%, clearly showed their age. The Series 10, with its new battery, delivers much longer usage time, especially when using more demanding features like long workouts or the remote camera app. With moderate use, the watch comfortably lasts more than a day, even with health tracking and other features enabled. Before going to bed, the battery level is now at more than 60%, allowing more than a day of usage on a single charge. The low-power mode also extends battery life, which is helpful during long outdoor activities or when charging is not immediately available. This extended battery performance makes it easier to rely on the watch throughout the day without worrying about finding time to charge it.

About The Second Hand Animation

One minor inconsistency I noticed was with the animation of the second hand across different watch faces. With a 1 Hertz refresh rate, the new Reflections watch face features continuous second-hand animation, while many others do not, without any apparent reason for the discrepancy. While this doesn’t affect functionality, a small detail detracts from an otherwise cohesive experience. Apple could address this inconsistency in future updates to ensure a uniform experience across all watch faces, mainly since attention to detail is one of the hallmarks of their products.

Conclusion

Overall, the Apple Watch Series 10 represents a significant upgrade for those coming from older devices, as well as for more recent ones like the Series 8. With improved performance, a larger and more ergonomic design, enhanced health features, and new interactions, such as the double-tap gesture, it’s a compelling choice for those using older models. While Apple’s attention to detail is evident in many areas, there remains room for improvement in the upgrade and syncing processes. Despite these minor drawbacks, the Series 10 watch pushes the boundaries of what a smartwatch can offer, making it an excellent choice for new users and seasoned Apple Watch owners.