Apple – Memex

iBook

For those of us who are embedded inside the Apple hardware and ecosystem, we are past due for a dedicated e-reader with an Apple logo on it.

Look, I enjoy my Amazon Kindle and think it is a fantastic device, but I detest having an Amazon account and giving them money in order to read and/or purchase a license to read a book.

Apple has the resources to build a competing device and the software chops to make it compelling to read. Apple currently has the “Books” software application which doubles as a reading app and a bookstore all in one. Why are they not taking advantage of a missed opportunity for a new, dedicated hardware device? I’ll come back to this.

Yes, it is true book readers can read a book on their iDevices but it is not a pleasant experience. Yes, you can read a book with their software on an iPhone, an iPad or a MacBook, but these non-dedicated book reading devices are cumbersome. An iPad is heavy, unwieldy and has way too much glare on its screen. A dedicated e-reader using the best e-ink technology is a more enjoyable format. A dedicated reading device with an Apple logo on it must not, can not, have a way of disrupting the reading experience with distracting notifications such as a phone, call, text, or email alerts. The temptation to stop reading a book and switch to a social media site instead is too tempting more most users. No, eliminate the chance for these distractions.

About ten years ago, Apple took a hit against Amazon over price-fixing electronic books and has yet to fully recover, allowing Amazon to be the dominant force in e-books. Even today, yes, you can read a book from Amazon in the Kindle app installed on your iPad but you are not permitted to purchase anything inside that iOS Kindle app. You have to go to the Amazon website, purchase and send the book to the Kindle app. What a time-consuming and frustrating experience!

Currently, Apple has no option to connect with the local library reading app called Libby. Sure, you can use the Libby app on iOS but that library loan is sent to either A Kindle or a Kobo reading device, not Apple. Why? What a missed opportunity to foster reading and books sales!

Let’s be honest, the Apple Books reading experience is horrible. The user interface looks and feels cheap, almost as an afterthought.

Apple can also gain huge market share by allowing easier access for authors to submit their own books and promote these authors into the community. Take it a step further and create a haven for readers to comment, share and promote books in a social book club or commentary system.

As I mentioned previously, there is a missed opportunity for Apple to create a dedicated e-reader device with no distractions, the best hardware/software experience and then partner with Libby and local libraries to foster more reading. Beef up their UI and book store shopping experience for more sales and create a community where book lovers can discuss and share. All of this is a huge opportunity to focus on the book reading experience. Your move, Apple.

The End (?)

Minnie

After a third-party seller fiasco on Amazon, I have finally secured a refurbished 2014 Mac Mini desktop. Of course her new name is simply “Minnie.”

Let’s hope that Apple will support this outdated operating system for a few more years

Minnie will have a renewed purpose in life as a file and media server which includes these functions:

store and serve photo, music and video files to access remotely for friends and family
external hard drive for backups
Time Machine backups
host and support this website as well as the FoxCast audio files
serve as a normal desktop for me and the significant other

With a hard wired ethernet cable to the 5G modem, a static IP address I can call up files even when I am away from home, which is more frequent lately.

After purchasing a new monitor, keyboard, mouse, ethernet and HDMI cables, she now has a head and input devices to interact with.

This will serve as my ultimate backup and storage solution for years to come. I’ve been wanting to do this forever and finally have the opportunity to do it.

Daily Defaults

A recent trend going around the fediverse and blogosphere is showing off what your default software tools are so now it is my turn. In the past, I would try the latest shiny software to see if I could incorporate it into my daily digital workflow. But that got exhausting because there was always a shiny new toy later. Over time, however, I’ve settled on what works and to limit my subscription dollars going out. Therefore, I find that for the most part, Apple’s default software applications are good enough.

What works for you doesn’t always work for me, so don’t come at me with “what about ?” I won’t hear it.

📨 Mail Client: Apple’s Mail on both Mac and iOS.

📮 Mail Server: iCloud.

📝 Notes: I use an home-grown database for everything which I call “FoxOS.” Formerly known as “Grey Matter” and “Pensieve.” Apple’s Notes for collaborating with the missus.

✅ To-Do: Apple’s Reminderd

📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Apple’s Camera app, usually with ProRAW enabled.

🟦 Photo Management: Apple’s Photos app, and editing in Lightroom

📆 Calendar: Apple Calendar

📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive

📖 RSS: Feedbin

🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts: Apple Contacts

🌐 Browser: Safari on iOS and Mac.

💬 Chat: iMessage

💁🏻‍♂️Social: N/A

🔖 Bookmarks: Safari

📑 Read It Later: Feedbin and Matter.

📜 Word Processing: The aforementioned FoxOS

📈 Spreadsheets: Numbers.

📊 Presentations: N/A

🛒 Shopping Lists: Apple Reminders

📰 News: RSS and Apple News

🎵 Music: Apple Music

🎤 Podcasts: Apple Podcasts

🔐 Password Management: Apple KeyChain

The Point Of All This

Apple’s apps are pretty darn good for everything I want to accomplish. I’m also a bit of a purist, so I tend to default to defaults, even if they aren’t quite as robust as other options. There was a time in my life when I was a bit more adventurous, but I largely cannot be arsed.

Success

The clean slate protocol I initiated a few days ago is a success. After creating a new domain name and building a new website, with a new e-mail account and a new Apple ID, I am slowly migrating some of my crucial data from backups.

I have yet to delete the old Apple ID for fear of missing a few crucial pieces of correspondence from companies I do business with but all that should be wrapped up by this coming week. For now, I can breathe a sigh of relief as I start building good organizational and privacy habits to ensure nothing gets out of control again.

Phonetography

Shot on iPhone 13 Pro Max and post-processed in Lightroom CC

My approach to iPhone photography (phonetography) is unabashedly simple, minimal, and practical. Acquiring the best equipment, with little to carry, process everywhere I go, and publish on the go for me is best.

Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad Pro, Smartfolio keyboard for iPad, Apple #2 Pencil

Yes, there are four items here, but the keyboard and pencil magnetically attach to the iPad, effectively making it only two pieces of gear I need to carry and one of them go in my pocket. This is the ideal setup for my mobile studio and photo lab to create the best phonetography images I want.

Apple’s Privacy Initiative

Apple’s focus on privacy in keeping customer’s data safe has increased and I am loving it. I believe that data privacy should be every digital citizen’s right. It’s exhausting that other companies, websites and software apps attempt to get as much of my personal information to line their pockets.

New features are coming to the Apple ecosystem such as Apple Mail, Siri, iCloud and app tracking this year. When we receive an email there is almost always a 1×1 size pixel hidden in the footer that can track IP addresses, when you open to read, location and other identifying info. In Mail, Apple is getting a feature called Mail Privacy Protection. With this I can hide my IP address, block read receipts and more.

ICloud+ , the new VPN-like Private Relay that will encrypt all data. Goodbye cookies and trackers. iCloud+ users will continue to enjoy the Hide My Email feature that generates a random email address to help prevent tracking and companies selling your data. Example: hello@chrisdenbow.com will read as WiUf31DV339FXX@privaterelay.appleid.com. The next website will use a different random address that Apple will generate for me. Neat. Reader mode in Safari means no more ads or annoying pop-ups blocking your reading or viewing.

App tracking ruffled a lot of feathers in the advertising community, especially Facebook. With App tracking, Apple gives us the option to block a telltale device ID that cookies and trackers can grab and identify you and your browsing habits. No thank you, I’ll just activate App tracking and deny them every time. This denies data abusers like Facebook, Google, Amazon most of your browsing habits so they won’t track you.

First image, no ads displayed. Second image in Reader mode.

Signing in to an account with my Apple ID

Mail Privacy Protection, iCloud+, are coming soon to iOS 15 while others like App tracking, Hide My Email, Reader, Sign In with Apple ID are all available now. I downloaded the beta version of iOS 15 on my devices because I wanted those features as soon as possible and I am loving them.

Apple’s privacy initiative is a great benefit to anyone who values their data and browsing history.

Apple One

Another new product was just released that combines all of Apple’s services in one, cost-saving bundle for me. I opted for the $30 a month, everything package which includes the soon-to-be released, Apple Fitness service. Paired with an Apple Watch it will automagically track your workouts and display stats on screen.

All six services work out to $5 each and includes Apple Music, TV, Arcade, News, Fitness and 2 TB of iCloud storage.

Apple Watch Series 6

I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for the past three years starting with the series three and recently upgraded to the series 6.

I’ve been holding off on purchasing a new Apple Watch and making the most of my Series 3 the last couple of years. As this things usually go, the 3 started to run out of storage space quickly and there are new features being released with each iteration. So a week after it was released, I upgraded to the Series 6 Space Grey Aluminum 44mm with cellular capabilities.

I’ve been wearing it for almost a month and there is a lot to like about it.

The first difference is the upgraded dual-core S6 chip on the A13 Bionic processor used in the iPhone 11. So it is absolutely faster than my series 3. With the always-on display, I’m averaging about 16 hours of battery life. Less than the previous watch, sure, but there is a lot more going on under the hood too.
Also new is the always-on altimeter to track elevation changes and compass- great for hiking.

A new sensor in the 6 that can measure blood oxygen levels is pretty neat. It works by shining infrared LEDs onto the blood vessels in your wrist and measuring the amount of light reflected back. The Apple Watch then calculates the color of the blood, which indicates how much oxygen is present (bright red blood is well oxygenated). It does this in the background, and can also be trigged using the new Blood Oxygen app.

New watch faces allows me to customize and personalize. I prefer a classic chronometer as a standard and for special occasions I can switch to something more whimsical.

The Watch is designed specifically for your health and has even saved lives with the built in EKG meter. It will prompt you to breathe, stand up after periods of sitting, and remind you that yes you can walk a specific amount of steps per day. Two new exercises include a sleep tracking app and hand washing apps (timely feature during the pandemic.)

Is the Apple Watch Series 6 Worth the Upgrade?

If you have the Series 3 and lower, then yes, absolutely. If you have the 4 and up, not so much.

As with my recent iPhone 12 Pro upgrade, this new series 6 Watch is future-proof. There is not too much more that Apple can do to upgrade more than the current device so I will enjoy this one for quite a long time. And did I mention the design is gorgeous?

iPhone 12 Pro

This is the first year I purchased the newest iPhone on launch day since I converted to iPhone over Android six years ago. It was a thrill to open that box and see the premium stainless steel, glass back, the ceramic shield screen and that third camera lens I have been drilling over for the past year ( I skipped the previous first release.) As first impressions go, this was love at first sight.

No, I have not raced out to test the latest HDR video, nor the Dolby Vision but it is clear to anyone that has one in their hand that this is the most premium iPhone ever and it is built to be used. My only cause for frowning is that the edges pick up and enhance my fingerprints. Well that is easily solved with the slim Otterbox shell I encased it with. I don’t want a case on it because it hides the design but concurrently, I want this device to last for more than a few years. It is going to get protected. And yes, for the first time in forever, I am content.. This is what I have waited years for, a device that is gorgeous, and future-proof.

I won’t go into all the technical details and design specifications, I’ll leave that for others to write about, but they are impressive. The processing chip and memory are faster, more than most laptops, including the Mac I am using to type this.

The three camera system in the iPhone 12 Pro deserve their own article here, and I am positive that will happen once I make the time to do a proper photo shoot with them. The 12 Pro has the ultra-wide lens, wide and telephotos lenses for various uses and sometimes, you can shoot with all three. Add on the Lidar scanner to offer true depth for my photographic subjects and compares with your basic DSLR camera and lenses. Truth be told, these cameras make up the number one reason why I have upgraded.

The second reason is the high speed 5G capability and those data speeds. My carrier lit up their network here a few weeks ago in anticipation for this release and I couldn’t be more pleased. Downloads are fast, streaming is uninterrupted and thanks to unlimited tethering to the hotspot, I am second-guessing the need for home internet service. The home service speed is maxed out at 50MBs whereas the iPhone 12’s 5G capabilities here are double, sometimes triple. If I lived in a larger city, make that 10 times the speed.

I can’t wait to discover more of this iPhone as the weeks go by, especially that camera system. More later on that, of course.

Back In Cyberspace

*Screenshot of this website in an RSS feed*

Cyberspace- A long time ago, before we allowed ourselves to bottlenecked into a few social platforms, fed into massive surveillance machines, mined for our attention, and controlled by algorithms, there was an idea about internet freedom. Cyberspace.

We allowed cyberspace to become dominated by a few large companies. It was unregulated, free. We created things and shared ideas and we didn’t need anyone to do it for us. We just did it.

Web 2.0- We became lazy and enticed by centralized/connected web applications. Back in 2005, I became hooked into the Google platform thanks to Gmail. Flickr was new and exciting way to share photos. In 2006, I was one of the first users of TWTTR (now Twitter) and I even had a MySpace account and then Facebook. We then coined the phrase “social media” and it was good. The internet became a cesspool of ads, trolls, marketing and algorithms after that.

Social Media- No Google, no Facebook, no Twitter. Thanks to the massive digital footprints I’ve left behind, you can still find some references to my usage but I am off of social media. The Flickr account I subscribe to is not social. It is an online repository and cloud backup to my photo archives. I have an Outlook account from Microsoft but that is residual and for using their services (which I am weaning off of.) No more. Most of us rely on those corporate platforms that decide what they think you need to know. Facebook news feeds anyone? Google search, anyone? Controlled by algorithms designed to keep you hooked and sedentary inside their apps.

I’ve spent the past year winding the clock backwards and starting over again. I have fully reclaimed my little hub here in Cyberspace. My domains are secured again. The website is self-hosted. Email domains are mine.

Since the early 2000’s most of us have used and since then forgotten two brilliant tools to consume information; E-mail and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds.

With E-mail and RSS we control what we want to focus our attention on. For either information or for pleasure. I’ve slowly re-introduced E-mail subscriptions to informative websites I trust. They use it as communicating ideas, just like we did in cyberspace a long time ago. They won’t sell my information and they won’t spam me. When/if they do I’ll simply unsubscribe.

Since I first discovered RSS back in the early 2000’s, I was hooked. I’ve relied on it almost daily as an information resource. Here’s why: every website or blog has a feed attached to it. Once you set up or subscribe to these feeds in a feed aggregator like Feedly (free), you could read articles from your favorite websites without visiting them all. No ads, no tracking, no algorithms and in one central location.

I am in control of what I see. No one else. Now, that does not mean I won’t visit the web, far from it. I still use it for research purposes like everyone else but those websites are prevented from tracking me thanks to ad and content blockers. I use a secure browser called Firefox Focus which blocks them. I use Duck Duck Go to perform searches on the web. They don’t track or sell you anything. Pretty soon I will purchase a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that masks my internet provider’s information.

There is a lot of cyberspace out there still. The corporate platforms and strict governments haven’t completely taken over it, even if they do fancy themselves as masters of the universal internet.

I do not advertise and will never have advertisements here. I will never spam or sell anyone’s information. Ever. If you’d like to add my website to your feed aggregator it is [http://chrisdenbow.com/rss].