Software
Just a reminder…. maybe hold off before installing the latest updates on your iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Mac. Give it a few days.
Thank You and happy update day for those that celebrate. Apple iOS 18
An AI Rose by Any Other Name Is Still An AI Rose?
Been reading a fair amount about software companies adding AI features, specifically the design applications I use on a regular basis. I find it funny how much they are falling over themselves with the Look! Look! Look, and see what AI can do for you! What I find even more interesting is how many of the tools and features ther are that we have been using for quite a while. It’s just they were marketed differently, maybe called machine learning instead of AI. Take Red-Eye Removal tools as an example… it has been in most photo editors for years now, but somehow, give it fancy new AI labeling and it becomes magical all over again. The big worry, and I believe rightly so, is the ability for software to completely alter the photographic reallty of an image so realistically that it becomes a very real legal problem. I have been using design tool, including Photoshop for decades and I understand that making complicated edits to a photo can take hours and requires even more time to master the skills to do what can be done almost instantly. Jess Weatherbed at The Verge wrote up an amazing article explaining why this is a very BAD thing. Take a look and remember, in the ever changing landscape of image technology, you should also keep in mind that the unbelievable image you are looking at could be absolutely made out of thin air.
Icro for Micro.Blog
Been playing around with some different blogging software. Icro by Martin Hartl is really well made and I like the way it works for iPad. There something nice about posting from a beautiful sheet of glass.
A Thought on RSS
Like a few other million (billion?) users of the iPhone, I have come to rely on it for a great many things. One of the things I find I have improved from pre iPhone, is keeping up with news. I have worked for three different newspapers in my life and have subscribed to more than a few different magazines as well. Today however, the digital convenience of being able to read thousands of news sources from the palm of my hand is simply amazing.
I do not however like having to launch an app for this news source, then a another for that source, than another for something else. It’s tedious and takes up way too much hard drive space to have all those apps installed. I currently have one app, I launch and it provides me with news posts and article links from twenty different sources and at any time I can add or take away from that number as I need. The app is NetNewsWire (iOS App Store link) and it’s just one of many iOS apps that take advantage of a fairly old bit of technology called RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. If you are also a podcast listener, RSS is the backbone technology behind that as well.
This web technology has been around since the late 1990’s but didnt really get widespread adoption till aroud 2005. Wikipedia actually has a very well written summary you can check out here RSS. A great feature of a dedicated RSS feed reader, in addition to it’s customization, is the ability to read articles without all of the web fluff of ads, popups and auto playing distractions. The artices are formatted for easy reading and the font can be modified and sized to your liking. The sources can vary widely from blogs like this one, to mainstream news organizations like NPR, or the Associated Press.
A have tried a few other feed reader apps, check these out in addtion to NetNewsWire and see if any might work for you. Pocket, Inoreader, and Reeder.
Happy reading!
It’s The Little Things
It’s The Little Things
As of iOS 17, Apple introduced Animated Cover Art for album art in the Apple Music app. So now when viewing the album art while playing a song from the album, the artwork will animate creatively. Artists can design their own animations and submit them to Apple for use in listeners libraries.
I have only now noticed it since for the most part I will begin a playlist and then put the phone away in my pocket or set it down on the desk.
Here is a snippet of the Album animation for Van Halen’s album 1984. Check the cigarette smoke and the angel wings.
Very Clever.
To Sideload or Not to Sideload
There are a lot of articles and opinions out there right now about the new App Store policies they are implementing due to the new EU ruling going into effect. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a really nice take on a Wall Street Journal report, you can read it here. The Wall Street Journal On Apple’s Plans For iOS Sideloading In The E.U.
As a long time user of both the MacOS on Mac computers and iOS on iPhones and iPads, my opinion is this. Keep the current policy for the MacOS where you can use the App Store to obtain software both free and paid but if the use really needs software that is not available on the App Store, allow the installation but with a warning dialog about the security risk that entails. On iOS I prefer to only use software that has been vetted by the App Store. I really appreciate the iOS sandboxing that apps have to be installed in with iOS that insures that an application has no access to other applications unless explicit permission is granted by me. I can see the argument for “unlocking” the iPhone or iPad and allowing for installations from any source but the vast majority of user of those devices do not need this kind of access.
Will be interesting to see how this all works out.
Workflow Testing
Still working out a work flow for making posts, especially from any device. Would like to be able to make short spur of the moment thoughts as well as longer form ideas.
I am trying out MarsEdit from Red Sweater Software, have always heard good things from bloggers and developers I read and listen to.
Give it a try and see if its something that can work for you.