2024 is at and end and I thought I would sit and write, stream of consciousness-style, about things that I remember. Some of this is going to be pretty raw emotion and if you’re not up for that, please tap out now.
Overall it’s been a pretty good year. I’ve been at peace on a great many things and struggling with others. Technology-wise I am still rolling with four main devices: An M1 Max MacBook Pro with 32gb of RAM (Devika), an iPhone 16 Pro 1TB (downsized from a 15 Pro Max and don’t miss the size one bit), an Apple Watch S10 (gave my Ultra 1 to my middle daughter who frustratingly doesn’t use it… I should have just traded it in), and an M4 iPad Pro that I absolutely adore and am forcing myself to use more often. I’m trying to understand the decisions and trade offs that were made with iPadOS and lean into them rather than letting my old age muscle memory take over. I find myself asking questions like… “do I really NEED a professional file manager or should I just let the apps take over their space and manage files on the apps themselves?” That seems like the way Apple wanted it. I’m trying to adapt. I very much love the focus afforded by the device and opportunities for creativity.
I was telling my youngest daughter, “When something like this happens, I can’t rest until I figure it out.”
What was that? At some point in iOS 16, our Apple Family setup stopped sending notifications for “Ask to Buy” purchases from our daughters. I don’t know if this started on the first installation of iOS 16 on my devices or on theirs, but it was plain broken. It’s supposed to send a notification to my wife and I whenever our daughters want to install an app or execute an App Store purchase. We’re pretty liberal about what we approve for our daughters, but it was still nice to have that functionality. But now, it was busted.
Apple provides a long list of privacy-focused features to help you maintain your modern-day sanity. It’s not too often that you get to taste the actual benefit of these features and how they give you control over the flow of information.
For instance — privacy features in Safari are cool, but they’re largely transparent and once you turn them on, it’s not really all that clear how the features are benefitting you. That’s by design. You should just experience peace of mind with those features.
I was one of the lucky few to snag an iPhone 14 Pro Max on launch day. Never mind the fact that I wasn’t around to take the delivery — we were on the road to my cousin’s wedding when UPS tried to deliver it. I rerouted the UPS shipment to a UPS store near our house.
Monday about 12:10pm… I received a notification from UPS that they had dropped my phone off at the UPS Store. The planets had aligned, as I had just finished a meeting and was ready to eat lunch. I bounded off to the UPS Store to pick up the phone. I walked in and the lady seemed confused.
It’s time for my version of the WWDC wishlist. WWDC is almost always about the software. Each year they talk about what’s coming in the various *OS plans for the year. They decidedly do not focus on hardware. You can get a prognostication of the hardware they have in the pipe, but it’s fun to see what they have in mind for future iterations of the software.
Last year I was convinced that Apple was going to go full pro with iPadOS after the introduction of the M1 iPad. I think we’ll start to see more “pro” get into iPadOS, but it’ll still be iPadOS. Running macOS on iPad doesn’t make sense. I realize now that I was a little premature. It makes sense, because not every iPad is running on an M1 processor yet. But they have introduced it on the iPad Pro and the iPad Air. There’s very little left for them to do before they introduce more “pro” development and creation features to the iPad. Generally, I think we’ll start to see more of those plans this year.
I must really be out of the loop. I had no idea Microsoft bought SwiftKey. Anyway, they are killing the Windows Phone keyboard for IOS and focusing exclusively on SwiftKey.
When Microsoft does things that makes sense, I’m always surprised. When they do things that do not make sense (like beefing Skype for the iPhone) I am rarely surprised.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone keyboard for the iPhone is dead - The Verge
In iOS 11, you don’t only have to use the dock for single apps. You can drag an app group into the Dock as well. I just found this out by “trying it out.” That makes it much more useful for app switching when you swipe up from the bottom.
I’m really liking iOS 11 a lot. It sold a new iPad to me… an iPad Pro 256gb 12.9”. I just had to have it. I can almost turn it into my work machine, but the Files app let me down. I couldn’t rename a file extension with the Files app. I needed to do that and it hosed me since I couldn’t. I reported that though :)
One thing I wanted to mention in my post about WWDC last night… did anyone feel that the tone of the overall keynote was different? It felt a little more relaxed and fun. It seems like Tim Cook has encouraged his staff to be more relaxed and at ease with what they are doing. There was more humor and more open honesty.
I think Tim is trying to strike a keen balance between old school Apple secrecy and a new humane approach to the work they are doing. I think he’s listening to the consumers about how things should be (iCloud Drive is a likely example of that).
I should be at WWDC 2014 this year, but I’m not. I work for a Microsoft-centric shoppe right now and they just don’t see the value in it. Nevertheless, I put my name in for the lottery and I didn’t win anyway.
I watched most of the keynote from afar and parts of the State of the Union address. All of it is ultra exciting. If they get Continuity, iCloud Drive (FINALLY OMG) and Messages right, this will be a killer OS combo with iPhones, iPads and Macs.
