Purple iPhone 12 mini

May 20, 2021
2 min read

When iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max came out, it was very hard to get the latter on the first day (believe me, I jumped through all the hoops possible to get it), while the smallest one was in abundance in every store. I handled it at the store once and loved the size.

So, when recently my mom decided to upgrade her iPhone 7, I recommended the all new 12 mini in purple. She asked for help to set it up, so I had an opportunity to use it for a bit in a non-stressful environment of a masked-up store.

It fits perfectly in the hand, I was a proponent of bigger screens when the Plus size phones came out, but maybe it’s an age thing, or device fatigue, but the mini size feels perfect.

I even seriously considered changing my 12 Pro Max for 12 Mini, but I use my phone for photography a lot and I can’t say I am a great photographer, so whatever help I can get from better technology — I’m up for that.

I actually checked using Smart Folder tip from David Smith and 31% of photos were taken using telephoto lens. And this year I feel like I use it even more, so the absence of this lens would be very noticeable for me.

In a perfect world, where iPhone mini gets a better camera system and iPad mini gets updated with Pro-like design, the combination of M-series 13” laptop, iPad mini and iPhone Mini would be perfect, but now, I still have my gold iPhone 12 Pro Max and massive iPad Pro.

Apple Event — April 2021

April 20, 2021
5 min read

Long time since the last event and finally, we got one in 2021. There were many rumours, so let’s see what came true.

Services

The first and the most boring thing announced — Apple Card Family. You can now share credit as a couple and you can order a card for your 13-year-old. If you are in USA, that is.

Apple also announced Apple Podcast subscriptions. There were no details shared, except that you will be able to subscribe for ad-free listening, early access and more. What’s good — it will be available in 170 regions and countries from the start, which will be next month.

iPhone

Apple
Apple

It was surprising to hear “iPhone” as a part of the spring presentation, but there is just the new purple color for iPhone 12 and 12 Mini. Looks good and I like the precedent of updating colours. They did this with red before, but this is more similar to seasonal Apple Watch band additions.

Find My — AirTags

AirTags are released. Finally. Although not sure if many people are waiting for them. They use Find My network, you can personalise them with text or emoji. There are cases, including $300 — $400 Hermes ones.

If you have iPhone 12 with U1 chip, you can use Precision finding which shows you the precise location of the tag and navigates you to it. They cost $29 for one and $99 for the pack of four. Available April 30.

What’s good is the battery is standard and replaceable, so after more than a year of promised battery life you still will be able to use your AirTags.

Apple TV

Apple TV+

The only TV show trailer was of course for Season 2 of Ted Lasso, which can’t come soon enough. Apple shared the date of the release of the second season — July 23rd.

Apple TV 4K

Update to the same old Apple TV box. Now it will have A12 Bionic, which will enable to play High-frame rate HDR content.

They also added a cool Color Balance feature, which uses camera and sensors on your iPhone to calibrate the picture of Apple TV.

New square-sided remote, with a 5-way navigation click-pad, which is also touch enabled and has a circular gesture for rewinding (like an iPod). There is a power button to control TV and Siri button is on the side now.

It still costs $179 for 32 GB which is too much.

iMac

Apple
Apple

When they showed the new iMacs with M1, the first thought was — why did they leave the chin?! We’ve quickly learned that the whole computer fits into the chin, but I would rather have a thicker device and a display with a smaller bezel than this.

There are seven different colours, muted in the front, joyful in the back. It has an iPad Pro inspired design which makes it very thin, wiith 24” screen size in just a bit bigger body than 21.5” iMac.

1080p camera, together with M1 image-processing potentially will produce a great picture. New 6-speaker system is able to support Spatial audio.

I don’t understand why a desktop computer needs a magnetic connector, which is also attached such that it would be inconvenient to put it against the wall. On the other hand, ethernet port in the power brick is a nice touch.

There are also some new accessories. Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are now white with color accents matching new iMacs. Magic Keyboard on the other hand, got the biggest update. It also matches the color of the iMac, but now it comes in three versions. First, similar to the old one, but with a couple of new buttons (like emoji-picker). Second, with added Touch ID and third with Touch ID and number pad.

There are two main configurations — $1299 which comes in 4 colors and $1499 which comes in 7 colors. But it is not the only difference, the more expensive one has 8-core GPU instead of 7, two additional USB 3 ports (lower-tier has only Two Thunderbolt ports) and it comes with Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

iPad Pro

The most surprising announcement was that iPad Pro has an M1 in it, which makes it 50% faster than previous iPad Pro. It also has a higher tier 8-core GPU and new 2 TB configuration. New Thunderbolt port with USB-4 now supports Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution.

Speaking of the display, 12.9” iPad Pro will now have the display similar in performance to the Pro Display XDR. It uses Mini-LED technology and now has both outstanding brightness and contrast ratio.

Of course, it has 5G, so you can have fast internet access whenever you go (in ideal conditions).

Moreover, a big update to the front facing camera, it now has Ultra-Wide sensor. Apple presented the Center Stage feature, which keeps you in the center of the picture and if you move it will crop accordingly. Looks nice in the demo.

It will be available in the second half of May for $799 for 11” and $1099 for 12.9”.

Now that iPad Pro is more powerful than ever, there still is a question of software. Even with M1 in May, it will power iPadOS 14, which won’t be able to use all this power. Some hope for the WWDC in June?

And at the end, I will leave you with two questions which popped to mind when they announced M1 in iPad Pro:

  1. How long until we see macOS on an iPad?
  2. When will Apple add 5G to the laptop?

Facebook: It’s Time

April 12, 2021
4 min read

Everyone and their mother wrote about the recent Facebook user data leak. If you didn’t notice or decided not to care because it’s yet another fuck-up by the blue app, who can blame you? But what is interesting, as Wired reports, is that it’s hard to find where this data actually came from. Facebook just says it’s from 2019 leak and now it just got published. Nothing to see here. But there were a couple that year. Surprise.

In short, the leak available online contains data on roughly 533 million users. E-mails, phone numbers, Facebook IDs and a lot of other information. The leak included information on various politicians and Mark Zuckerberg himself.

You can easily check if you are affected on HaveIBeenPwned website. It’s actually a good resource to keep at hand because it checks all the available leaks. My data wasn’t in this one, but there were a couple of others to worry about.

Regardless of the result I started wandering, what information Facebook has on me. I went to Facebook settings (actually opened Facebook for the first time since November) and requested a download of all the information from my profile. After a couple of hours I got a link for around 500 MB of data.

It starts with the obvious — all your posts, friends, likes, comments, photos and videos. There are also devices, IP addresses and locations you’ve logged into Facebook. If you’ve used voice features, there would be recordings (not for me).

There are also some things that Facebook tries to guess about you, like for example your interests (which were pretty meh for me):

Or life stage description of your friends:

It also keeps every profile you’ve visited and when, what you were searching for and what languages you might speak.

Then there is a list of companies who uploaded your contact information to Facebook to spam you with their offers — almost every popular app or store you’ve registered in.

The most interesting is your activity outside of Facebook. In my case, among others there was a local bank Luminor which reports to Facebook every time I open the app.

I know it’s automatic, but let it just sink in, a bank in Latvia is telling a social networking company in the US about every time I’ve opened their app. Just why?

There is much more activity from another bank — Citadele, but I found it hard to understand what it corresponds to.

You can actually turn off this activity outside Facebook “feature”, but as Facebook itself warns before you do, it’s not actually turning it off.

Although I know it’s hard to actually delete information from the Internet and there are shadow profiles on Facebook, I still think this is the only logical step. As I mentioned, I wasn’t using the social network for six months, so I don’t think I will miss it.

Surprisingly, the process of deleting the account looks fairly straightforward, you just choose Delete:

It even reminds you to download all the information (which I already did):

After that, you have 30 days to reinstate your account, which I did once accidentally.

If you log in to Facebook by mistake in those 30 days, it will just … log you in, without even asking and the “deletion” process will be stopped. So, you have to be careful. I had to go through the deletion procedure for the second time.

There are still Instagram and WhatsApp installed on my phone. I’ll have to decide about those later. Although moving from WhatsApp is impossible now because of work, I already started minimizing the number of chats I have there. Instagram on the other hand I think will have the same trajectory as Facebook, I will use it for some time and at some point I just won’t.

Apple in 2020: My Report Card

March 15, 2021
7 min read

I like an annual look at Apple fromSix Colors, with commentaries from prominent people. Nobody asks me, but I have opinions, so here is my report card. Yes, I know it’s March already, but as there were no events or product releases from Apple I think it’s still relevant. 2020 was a good year for Apple in terms of hardware and not so great in terms of regulations and developer relations.

Mac

Grade: A

How can you give a different score when there was a release of Apple Silicon? It seems that M1 is just perfect, although I didn’t buy a new laptop yet, I’m very tempted. Last year was a turning point for the Mac and let’s hope it will continue that way.

The problems with keyboard are over, Apple designed processors are remarkable, we are just waiting for new hardware (redesigned iMac among other things, please).

For the last couple of years I didn’t use Mac much, so can’t give a mark regarding software quality, but I don’t mind Big Sur, from whatever use I got from it.

But all the changes Apple made tempt me to return to Mac and I think that tells a lot.

iPhone

Grade: A

This is the great year for an iPhone. First, iPhone SE — perfect budget phone, yes the design is a bit old, but internals are great and for that price it’s unbeatable.

Next, the iPhone 12 lineup is solid. Although, there are reports that Apple overestimated the demand for the Mini (and I believe them, just because when it was hard to find Pro Max every store had iPhone 12 Mini in abundance in every color), I loved holding one. If the camera was on par with the biggest one I would buy the Mini without hesitation.

Every time I buy a new iPhone, I get the one with the best camera and this time was no different. I got iPhone 12 Pro Max in glorious gold color and I love it. Still, after 4 months, sometimes I catch myself looking at it and enjoying it as a physical object.

One could argue there is one thing Apple missed with the iPhone this year — high refresh rate display. I would agree, but the current display is so good, I don’t see the difference even using it simultaneously with the iPad Pro (interestingly, I do see the difference when using Pro and non-Pro iPad).

All things considered — iPhone 12 Pro Max is the favourite thing I bought last year, and I bought many good things.

iOS 14 is also solid, with addition of widgets, the first time in a while I downloaded public beta before a release because I wanted new features like incoming calls as a notification and Picture in Picture.

iPad

Grade C

As an iPad Pro user I didn’t see much change. iPadOS 14 gave nothing, it’s hard to call 2020 iPad Pro new, so there was no need to upgrade. The only new addition this year is The Magic Keyboard, but it is too expensive for what it is. I know Apple products are expensive, and I gladly pay for them, but not this time, especially for 12.9” iPad Pro.

I’m waiting for a new new iPad Pro and probably will go for a smaller one (if everything else remains equal). I hope last year was a year of Mac and this year Apple will give attention to the iPad.

Watch and Wearables

Wearables: Grade: B

Watch: Grade B-

The only new product in wearables are The AirPods Max which I guess is a great product, but too pricey for many. I see myself buying them in the future and I think it is a compelling product for a niche audience.

I finally bought a pair of AirPods Pro, and they are great. Spatial audio is great, but unfortunately, it is not adopted by different services, so there is not much use.

Apple Watch on the other hand (sorry) didn’t compel me in any way. I bought one for my wife, but not because of some new feature, but because she wanted one, so I bought the latest. With Series 5 there was a big selling point — always-on display, they could’ve left everything else untouched I would’ve still bought one the first day, but with Series 6, there is nothing even remotely similar.

Apple Watch SE, although a nice addition, is overpriced for what it is and will probably become more viable after a price drop.

Apple TV

Grade: F

It’s just laughable. I did buy one last year or a year before, but wouldn’t have now. I have everything Apple offers on my LG OLED TV (Fitness+ the only thing missing, but it is missing everywhere in the world and hardware has nothing to do with it). Apple TV box wasn’t updated in years and still costs a lot. You can’t even compare it to other boxes, sure there is a privacy angle, but common, it’s comically expensive and internals are outdated.

Services

Grade: C

I’m starting to get frustrated. I didn’t understand why Apple News+ is not available in my country, but okay, there could’ve been some rights issues or something, it’s not Apple’s content, but Fitness+, really? Apple makes all the videos, so in this case they do own the content, why not make it available everywhere? I hope they know people over the world speak English… And because of that Apple One Premiere is not available in Latvia. So to have more storage, I have to pay extra and the idea of a bundle and one payment is not working.

I did subscribe to the family Apple One bundle plus an additional 200 GB of storage, so Apple is taking my money monthly.

The really great thing about services — Ted Lasso, of course. I’ve watched it three times already, it’s so good.

HomeKit

Grade: C

I only started to use smart home appliances and I don’t see much from Apple. Home app is not great, Apple doesn’t provide accessories themselves, so I’m not even sure what to grade here.

Hardware reliability

Grade: A

All my Apple hardware worked perfectly last year (maybe because I didn’t buy a laptop with a butterfly keyboard). The only thing I’m afraid of — problems with AirPods Pro, but so far they work, so can’t say anything bad.

Software quality

Grade: B

Although the iOS 14 and watchOS 7 are solid, I still have some inexplicable problems from time to time. Mail stops showing messages until a restart is the latest. Notifications in Big Sur are bad, but luckily, I don’t use macOS a lot.

Developer relations

Grade: C

I think Apple had an awful year with developers. It tried to improve it with the commission cut at the end of the year, but there were still many questions. The whole Epic saga and Hey fiasco gave a lot of bad publicity. Whoever you support in both situations, Apple still doesn’t look good.

Environmental and social issues

Grade: C

It’s hard to give a high score to a company which is so heavily reliant on Chinese labor and precious metals mines. Whatever Apple tells, it remains a badly kept secret that working conditions there are below humane. I know Apple can’t change everything, but they are so vocal about some things, that you start question why they are not about the other.

They tried to do a lot of good regarding Covid-19, but contact tracing went nowhere, I would say fortunately, but that is another topic altogether.

Taking a charger out of the box, while understandable, still doesn’t sound like something totally because of the environment.

Homescreen — 2020

February 10, 2021
5 min read

In 2019 I’ve decided to start a new tradition of posting my homescreen at the end of the year to look back and see what has changed and what didn’t.

Already in my first year I broke the “tradition” and posted my homescreen in September because it felt like iOS 14 would change so much bringing widgets. Turns out, it didn’t.

Well, it did at first, but after a couple of months, when the novelty wore off it returned to a more classic iOS look.

Homescreen when widgets first came out
Homescreen when widgets first came out

At first, I liked that I had just a couple of apps accessible with one tap and the rest in the folders right there on the first screen. But then I realised I use regularly just a few, so I started removing some. And then it occurred that those widgets shouldn’t be there — I can see my activity on the watch and Timery widget was not very informative throughout the evening and at most weekends. So, I moved it to the screen on the left, where it seats with Photo, Battery and Streaks widgets, which makes a nice one-page dashboard, ready with just a swipe.

My current setup
My current setup

Widgets

There are just two widgets in a stack on my homescreen — Fantastical and Carrot Weather. I love both. Fantastical shows a nice heat map for my calendar and upcoming events. Carrot Weather is actually a great widget which changes throughout the day — in the morning and during the day it shows weather for next couple of hours, but in the evening it changes to forecast for next couple of days. They rotate throughout the day and most of the time I see exactly what I want.

Stayed

The most consistent category on my homescreen is communications — Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and Mail are right there in the top row.

Also, Photos and Lightroom are still here. Although as I mentioned I have Photos widget on the screen on the left, I still like to have easy access for my photos.

All of my usual suspects are the same — I still listen to audiobooks while walking, Overcast for podcast listening and Safari as a web browser.

I still use Books instead of Kindle app, mostly for aesthetics and try watching educational YouTube videos (but often am lured by entertainment).

Revolut is still my go to, and I am writing this post in Ulysses, although I am considering removing it from the homescreen as I don’t use it often on an iPhone.

I’ve upgraded to the latest version of Reeder, which is just a beautiful, simple and easy to use app.

I left Tot for the last because I don’t think it will be on my phone much longer as other apps take on its role.

Removed

There are a couple of apps removed from the homescreen and not only because of the limited space with widgets occupying 8 slots.

I’ve created a shortcut which activates by tapping the back of the iPhone to open Halide.

I don’t use the Phone app a lot, so when I need it, I just search for it.

Recently, I decided to cut on the social media, so deleted Twitter from my phone and removed Instagram from the homescreen (I left it for the messages, but will try to remove it in a near future). I also stopped using Morning for news. There are no Formula 1 races until March and I don’t think I will return the app to the homescreen as Siri is actually good when you open the same app at the same time regularly (like F1 on weekends).

I moved to Reeder from Pocket for the read-it-later service because I don’t need anything fancy and the number of ads for the Pocket premium service was too high. I still open Apollo from time to time, but I try to do it less, so I get to it from the App Library.

Right now I’m trying to focus and create some fundamentals, so some hobbies were cut due to priorities, one of them was learning how to code, so I removed Mimo from the homescreen.

Replaced

Spotify — Apple Music

I’m back. It was a nice summer with free Spotify, but my wife didn’t like it and I decided to try out Apple One with Apple Music built in, so far don’t regret the decision.

Asana — TickTick

Asana is amazing for work, but it is bad for personal stuff if you mainly use iPhone. TickTick is my to-do app of choice for now, but I’m still looking for something better.

CoinKeeper — MoneyWiz

I had a line in a previous post that I don’t see myself leaving CoinKeeper any time soon and here we are. I finally got to the point where I needed something with more features. To track mortgage, investments etc. After trying out a couple of different apps I went with MoneyWiz. Although it is all about syncing with all the banks, I use it manually.

Notes — Craft

I wanted to move Craft to Added section, but it did replace Notes app for me, but also did so much more. I moved some things from Ulysses, from Notes, I’m thinking of removing Tot because Craft filled this niche for me. It is a beautiful, fast, responsive and easy-to-use app, with the new features constantly added.

Added

I started to watch more Netflix on my phone, so it was promoted to the homescreen. Not sure for how long, but I do enjoy having it there.

The Year of Setup

January 27, 2021
2 min read

For the last couple of years I try to create a theme for the year and most importantly stick to it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always go as planned, especially last year, because of the pandemic. In the middle of the year I had a pretty bad burnout, which made me more mindful about the things I do and inspired for a theme for this year.

I want to rethink everything I do. 2021 will be the year I gather data about myself and build the foundation for the future growth. It is maybe a bit late for a foundation as I turned 30 last year, but I compare it to the moment when a start-up becomes a grown-up company — you make procedures, create culture and become more organised.

At first, it felt more like a half-year theme, but now I think there is not much time even in one year to go over everything.

And I mean everything — how I track financials, what apps I use for to-do’s, notes, writing. What hobbies I have. How I use the Internet. What apps are installed on my phone, iPad. What hardware I use. How I keep track of movies, books, music. How I spend my time.

We are also moving to a new house, so there will be a lot of setup there.

I actually started with one thing last year — time tracking. It is an amazing thing. After less than a month I saw how I actually spend my time at work and I made some changes — automating some tasks and delegating other.

What mindfulness has to do with it? I realised that over the years I start using things just because someone recommends, or they are new. I don’t think about how it is different from what I use now, or how it integrates into my process. I think that is one of the reasons why I don’t stick with to-do apps for more than a week. So, what I want to do is to find a perfect tool for every thing I do. It can be not the most popular or hip at the moment, but it will be a tool I like and enjoy using.

I hope that after a Year of Setup I will be able to branch out next year to some new things.

2020 Year in Review — Books

January 1, 2021
3 min read

This year I’ve made a public commitment of reading 20 books. I finished those in April and made my way through 19 more before the year ended. Mostly those were audiobooks, which were perfect fit for 2-3 hour walks with my daughter while she was sleeping. Here are the best out of 39.

I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart

Didn’t expect much going into this. I tried watching Kevin Hart stand-ups and couldn’t finish even one, although I enjoyed movies and some YouTube videos with him. But this book is so good, I think it should be taught in school. Seriously. It is that good. It’s about life and decisions you have to make along the way. And of course it is funny as hell.

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings

Great read if you want to find out about an unconventional company culture and how it works even in a big company. There is just a bit of Netflix history (for that you will be better off reading another good book — That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph).

This one is mostly about how culture and processes were made. What’s even better — the book was written together with Erin Meyer, who studies company cultures, and she was given full access to the company.

Hitler by Ian Kershaw

At some point I’ve realised that I’m not very good at history. Of course, I know some major points, but dig just a little bit under the surface, and I’m lost. I decided that the best way to learn about World War II was through the lens of the most crucial figure. And as I understand this is THE biography. It covers everything available from the birth to the last breath of Hitler and shows how the decisions were made.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

This book was in my “want to read list” for a long time and finally, I found it on Audible read by the author himself. It is so good, it’s hard to explain. He writes with humour, without hiding anything. It’s as much a biography as a look into some of the best and worst kitchens in the world. And it is one of those times when the author is great at reading his own book, which is rare.

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight

It’s a feel-good memoir by Phil Knight. There is very little controversy in this book, it actually reminds me of Ted Lasso. But I liked it, great story and humour.

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger

Same as the Shoe Dog, this is a very feel-good biography. But it is very interesting to read about the recent history of Disney. How decisions were made, especially regarding buying up all the competition. “Disney own entertainment”.

Now writing this — what would be even more interesting is to read a book about Disney during the pandemic. How it gets through and is it as loyal to their staff as it was before?

2020 Year in Review — Music

January 1, 2021
2 min read

This year I tried to listen to more music, as for a last couple of years I was listening mostly to podcasts. And 2020 was a good year for that.

Plastic Hearts — Miley Cyrus

She is back and better than ever. Electric pop paired with punk sounds together with her voice, it’s just the recipe for success. If you still think of Miley based on her previous albums (which I actually enjoyed) give her another chance. She really has changed.

Music To Be Murdered By — Eminem

Didn’t like the his last album, so wasn’t expecting much and got blown away after the first listen. It is the same old Eminem I loved, before he mostly became a Trump hater.

He plays with words and sounds in this one like before and that is his talent. Was surprised by the release of the second volume, but didn’t enjoy it that much.

girlfriends — girlfriends

This was a surprising hit, a new band with a first album, and it is everything I could wish for form and alternative album. I added every song to the library and that says a lot.

folklore — Taylor Swift

I was surprised as much as anyone when this came out. But played it on repeat for a long time. Great album, made in isolation during the pandemic. Unfortunately can’t say the same about her second one — evermore.

2020 Year in Review — TV Shows

January 1, 2021
3 min read

With nothing else to do in the spare time because of the pandemic, TV shows became go-to entertainment. The most interesting thing this year is that most of the TV shows I will be recommending were documentaries.

Ted Lasso

This is the best TV show of the year. Apple had some good shows in the beginning, but Ted Lasso is in the league of its own. If you think of the premise — comedy about American becoming a coach of the Premier League team which is actually based on the character from the ad — you’d think creators are mad. But it works on so many levels.

It is delightful, smart and compassionate in the time when we are all fighting and hating each other on Twitter.

I watched it from the begging to the end three times, I can’t think of a better way to recommend it.

The Last Dance

I’m not a basketball fan and this documentary didn’t change that. But I loved watching the story of Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls. I knew about them since the childhood, but mostly about their existence, what I didn’t know was the story itself.

It is as much about motivation, teamwork and leadership, as it is about sports. Highly recommended.

Drive to Survive

After watching The Last Dance, I decided to start another documentary on Netflix. The first season, which actually came out last year was amazing, before it had a success it had and both Mercedes and Ferrari participated in the next season, which was good, but not as good. As this documentary is about current events it gave me a very nice reference point for races themselves.

I watched all the qualifications and races this year and actually enjoyed them. I would recommend everyone who is not a fan of F1 until now if you want to start — Drive to Survive is an amazing starting point. You will get to know teams, drivers, how it very uniquely combines team and individual sport. After that watching races is much easier.

Also, another thing that helped me was a friend who is a fan for a long time with whom I could discuss races and ask for clarifications if needed.

Tiger King

It’s hard to believe that it was this year when Tiger King blew up. It was everywhere. This is the most surprising documentary. When you think it couldn’t get any weirder — here you go, they show you some totally messed up shit.

The Office

Obviously, not something from this year, but we’ve watched an American version of The Office with my wife and enjoyed it a lot. It’s so much fun, if you didn’t watch it until now I would totally recommend you do, you’ll have to stick with the Season 1 because it’s bad, but after that, it gets much better.

2020 Year in Review — Movies

January 1, 2021
2 min read

This was the worst year for movies. The only 2020 movie I watched was Sonic The Hedgehog — we went to the cinema just before the lockdowns started, it was entertaining, but not “the best movie of the year” quality. So, here are a couple of movies I enjoyed watching this year (all of them on Netflix)

The Two Popes

The cliché of “the movie which makes you think” could be easily applied to this one. Amazing story about old and new, with just outstanding actors. I started watching it late evening not suspecting much and had to stay for half a night to finish it because I couldn’t stop. Highly recommended.

Baby Driver

It was well-received when it first came out, but I somehow missed it. And I’m glad I watched it, it is fun, with some great action and amazing music. Everything you would want from a movie.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Like many I liked it more than the old three parts. This one is funny and simple. I don’t enjoy Marvel movies which try to be very serious, this one doesn’t.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Great animation, sometimes hilarious story which in some cases is over the top, but it was probably the best Spider-Man movie ever.

The Big Short

While being an amazing movie based on the true events it describes in the basic words what happened during the mortgage crisis of 2007-2008. I think everyone should watch it because it’s not just documentary it is a movie with great actors, story and style.