Starting today I will write weekly post about things I’ve enjoyed over the week. It could be a movie, TV show, book, article, photo, app, experience, absolutely whatever.
This week is mostly about TV shows as I’ve finished a couple.
📺 Westworld – Season 3
I’ve finally finished the latest season and the thought I had throughout it stayed with me by the end – it became a victim of its own success. The story is a bit too much. Almost like a matryoshka, a story, in a story, in a story with “holy shit” and “turns out” moments all the time. A bit too much for my taste, but still the picture is great, actors are amazing. Worth a watch.
📺 Outlander – Season 5
We’ve started watching this TV show a couple of years ago with my wife. In the beginning it was great for both of us. My wife liked the love story and story about old times, I liked battles and violence. In the last two seasons especially there is just too much of a love story. Series became very slow, there are whole hour long episodes with nothing happening at all. Story became too simple and predictable. Although picture in 4K HDR is stellar.
📺 Narcos: Mexico
I’ve watched all two seasons in a couple of weeks. Great show, almost as good as the original Narcos. The one thing that surprises the most – it’s based on the real events. And it scares you all the time. I’ve caught myself watching the show thinking, “very nice imagination those writers have”, just to be surprised by a narrator and historical footage. I can’t even imagine people living the way it is portrayed in the show.
📚 Deadpool: The Adamantium Collection
This is a collection of all the comic books about Deadpool from the very beginning until the year 2016. 25 years of stories about my favorite superhero. After watching the second movie about my favorite superhero, I’ve bought the comiXology version of the collection. I’ve started reading it about a year ago, but somewhere along the line just stopped. Picked it up this week and finished all of it. This is the first comic book I’ve read as an adult and probably the first series I’ve finished.
I’m not sure this is the medium I enjoy a lot, but some issues were fun. Also, reading comic books on the 12.9’’ iPad is amazing.
He is back. My favorite stand up comic, after two years of exile, is back and is better than ever (he even physically looks better). Religion, illnesses, travel, holocaust all the good stuff that are expecting from him. And yes, he faced the whole “thing” there as well, with humor, but not over the top.
Was this the best special? No, but it couldn’t be, considering the circumstances. But it was good as hell. It is the first one. It’s cautious. Can’t wait to see what he does next.
On a more technological note. It’s not often in Latvia you see Apple Pay anywhere, so it was a blast using it. I’ve went to the website, clicked just one button and bought the special. The website thanked me by name and I got all the relevant links to my e-mail, never filling out any forms or registering. Just like that. Magic.
When Apple announced iPhone SE earlier this week there was a lot of enthusiasm about the price, which in US starts at just $399. That is a lot of the phone for the price. Better still, as some pointed out – Apple announced the phone the same week OnePlus decided to go in the top tier price territory.
We live in a world where a brand new iPhone is undercutting every single phone OnePlus has released this year in price
Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD)
But what is even more amazing is the value you get buying 2nd generation iPhone SE. Sure you can choose from a lot of option in this price point in the world of Android. Huawei, LG, Motorola, Samsung will have you covered, but will you get the same amount of phone for the same amount of time?
For $399 you get the same processor as in iPhone 11 Pro, just think about that. This phone will get OS updates for at least 4-5 years and it won’t be slow. The best you can hope for with Android – it has the latest OS when you buy it. It also has a camera a bit better than last years iPhone XR. It has great battery life, wireless charging, it is spec-wise top of the line smartphone.
Before the phone was released, hearing all the rumors, I couldn’t have imagined that it would have A13. I was thinking that at best it would be last years processor, so it doesn’t look as capable as current top tier model, but Apple has outdone itself. I will be recommending this phone to a lot of people. I know a couple who already are waiting for it to be available. Some have 1st generation SE, others 6-8 types of phone.
The Perfect Coronavirus Phone
Final thought, it could be an exaggeration, but it is true. First of all because of the price. As many of us are not sure what the future will bring financially, if you need to buy a new phone, this is the strong contestant. Second – masks. Right now a lot of people wear masks, especially workers in fields that still have contact with people (medical workers, food delivery workers, etc.) and there is talk, that after quarantine is over, masks will be mandatory for going outside for some time. You know what doesn’t work with mask? FaceID. So iPhone SE with TouchID would be perfect for that scenario.
I wasn’t much of an Apple fan when the first iPad was introduced. The iPhone was still not as popular in Latvia and Mac hardware was well out of my price range as I was just starting college.
I’ve watched the introduction and was interested in the product, but not mesmerized by it. One of my classmates brought one to the university one day, not long after it went on sale. She was kind enough to give it to me for a couple of hours, unattended. I spent this time browsing the web and going on social media. I remember making a joke how this was a perfect Twitter client for $499. Little did I know what will it do in the future.
The first iPad I bought was 1st generation iPad Mini. I loved that device, even though it didn’t have Retina display, I loved the size. I liked reading on it, playing games and surfing the web. I even used it for a long time to take notes at classes – even though typing on a virtual keyboard wasn’t ideal I still liked it. But after a year or two it got really slow, so I passed it to my mom and didn’t buy myself a replacement for a couple of years. I’ve had Kindle for reading books, I was in the Plus sized phone club and had a MacBook Pro, I had everything covered, until Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro in 2018.
This iPad changed everything, just as I was taking photography more seriously, having the image right in my hands and making edits looked amazing. I was torn as to which model to buy and decided to go with the 12.9” and don’t regret making this choice.
It replaced a laptop for me, I still have a Max sized phone, but considering buying the smaller one next time. I read books, write, edit photos, watch TV shows and do everything computer related on it. My MacBook Pro is gathering dust somewhere in the apartment. I like the changes Apple made with the introduction of iPadOS and waiting for more improvements. I know there are a lot of problems still, but it looks more ready than ever to be the main computer for a lot of people.
I’ve recently got a new OLED TV and wanted to see something in 4K, so I started with Netflix and the first thing that popped out was this three part documentary about Bill Gates. It is interesting how it was divided in parts instead of making just one movie, sure there were three different stories, but I don’t think anyone would watch this documentary one by one in a span of couple of weeks. My guess you would either binge it or you would stop whenever.
The visual quality was indeed great, it looked very real on the big screen, although there was some historical footage, which was so blurry you couldn’t recognize faces (but it was very rare).
I’m not a movie critic and I don’t watch a lot of documentaries (unfortunately), but I’ve had a couple of thoughts while watching this I wanted to share.
Western Rich
Although I’m very interested in western culture and I’m much more knowledgeable about it than most of my friends and acquaintances it was still shocking to see two of the richest people in the world talking in the car with one of them driving. I know it is part of the acting, but still, they looked very natural and I don’t see Russian richest people behaving the same way.
The Reason Behind Windows 8
It’s not a secret that Windows 8 was one of the most hated operating systems in recent time, with all those tiles and all-screen interfaces. I didn’t hate it, but it was not loved by me either, but looking at the shots of Gates working I could see how all those decisions got made. Focused management work, you read one article at a time, you write in one document – I bet it worked perfectly for him and a lot of senior management in Microsoft.
Also, as a side note, it was interesting seeing Microsoft ecosystem there, with PCs, Microsoft Outlook, Office etc. As someone who is all-in with Apple, refreshing look.
Books
I was surprised to see Bill reading paper books, I even got a desire to read couple of physical books myself. For the longest time I’m reading either on my iPad or iPhone and lately added audiobooks.
Also the amount of reading is astonishing and those are not thin novels or bullshit leadership books. They are deep and focused on something very niche and to be able to read 14 books in the span of two weeks is just amazing.
Nuclear Power
I actually like the way it was portrayed in this TV show. Because of the two big disasters in the minds of the people of course it has a bad rap in minds, but looking forward it is the most realistic source of energy from what we have available right now.
It looks more like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ad and story about it and all the work it does than a story about Bill’s brain. It’s not a bad thing, they do interesting and important work, but I was hoping for something different considering the name of the documentary.
All this talk about reading and Gates says almost nothing about it during the documentary. You hear other people describing it, but it would be much more interesting to hear the process from Bill Gates himself.
You get a glimpse of how he manages his time (or someone is managing it for him), but a more deep dive would be appreciated.
Looking at the name of the documentary and my expectations I would love a more personal story about himself and not the foundation.
On March 18th Apple surprised everyone with the announcement of new and updated products.
It was rumored long ago that there was an Apple event planned for the end of March, but with the COVID-19 going around the globe everyone understood that it wouldn’t be possible to organize. So they’ve published the press release and it looks like either press only got the devices now or are still under embargo.
Let’s go through the products starting from the least important and moving to the most interesting one.
“Mac mini Also Updated Today”
The only update was the storage, it now starts at 256GB, which is the bare minimum today. As someone with the 256GB on all three of my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad and MacBook) I can’t understand how anyone would survive with less.
MacBook Air
Everyone was waiting for an updated keyboard making it’s way through the whole lineup and not just being in the 16” MacBook Pro, this day has come. With the new keyboard, 256GB storage as a base and a new (old) starting price of $999, this is again the best default computer there is. Except, we can’t be sure what a computer is right now…
iPad
Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro, of course it has a new chip, which is faster and more powerful. As a previous generation iPad Pro owner I can’t see how you would be able to see this, as the tablet is fast as hell still.
It has two cameras now, adding the 10MP Ultra Wide to the back, making it look like an iPhone 11. In a year, I am pretty sure that I didn’t take one photo with my iPad Pro. I know there are people who like to hold huge tablet in front of their face at schools and in touristy places, but I’m not one of them. I love editing photos on my 12.9” iPad Pro, but I would probably miss the shot before reaching for the iPad in my bag.
LiDAR Scanner is the weakest point in todays announcement, not from the technology point of view, but from the delivery. If you read everything Apple has provided, it just makes AR a bit better and promising a lot. Knowing Apple there should be a lot more information, either with the announcement of iOS 14 or more likely iPhone 12. It just made sense to include the hardware right now, but the software story is not yet ready.
Magic Keyboard and Trackpad Support
This is the biggest news, not only for me, but reading tweets for a was majority of potential or current iPad Pro users. Seeing videos, it looks like pointer support in iPadOS got much better. And the most interesting thing – it happened today, not in September with the release of iOS 14, but in March with iOS 13.4 (public release in a week).
The best news is that new keyboard with the trackpad is compatible with the now previous generation iPad. The worst news is the price – $299 for the 11-inch and $349 for the 12.9-inch. That is a lot of money, it is actually more than the price of the standard iPad itself. It looks nice, I’m sure the trackpad will be amazing, as Apple always excelled in making those and they now come in different colors. I’m not sure I would buy one yet, will try out pointer support first.
Pretty strong announcement from Apple, if they won’t surprise us again with the everyday announcements, I’m not sure this would be enough for the whole event, but it is more than enough for the press release.
I’m not in the market for a new iPad, as my previous generation 12.9-inch one is fast enough, screen and design didn’t change much and I don’t use cameras. Thankfully, Apple made the new Magic Keyboard for iPad compatible with the older models. Oh, and regarding the MacBook, I have one MacBook Pro already lying around not being used for months, so who need those, right?
It is nice to look back and see how my homescreen has changed. It shows the most used and important apps at that moment. I would like to start the tradition of going through the apps on my homescreen each year to see what has changed or stayed the same (took the idea from M.G. Siegler).
For a couple of years, my first rule of arranging the homescreen is no folders. Just the most used apps I can open in one tap. I’ve tried to put folders in the first row recently, as it is hardest to reach, but it didn’t work aesthetically for me.
The top row consists of the rarely used apps and Telegram, which I open mostly from the Notification Center. App Store stays here since the days I’ve manually updated all the apps.
The second row is all about photography. Instagram is where I post my photos almost exclusively, Photos app which I love. My two main editing apps – Lightroom, where I edit my real camera photos and VSCO where all the mobile editing is done. I’m not sure why I still keep Lightroom on the homescreen, I almost don’t use it on the phone, but it is one of the top apps on my iPad.
There is another photography app on this screen, although it is a bit lower for easier reach – Halide. I’ve been using it a lot less recently, now I either take photos with the built-in camera app or with my real camera, but sometimes it’s nice to have RAW capture capability (I open the built-in camera app from Lock Screen or Control Center).
CoinKeeper is the app for tracking expenses . I’ve been using it for a long time, there is a new version out, but I’m so used to this one, I’m hesitant to move, lucky for me they keep both of them in the App Store.
I’ve been using TweetBot for years, until the summer of 2019. I wanted to use Twitter less and also have all the features that the service offers, so I moved to the official Twitter client. At first it felt like I was using completely different service, but after some time I actually began to like it.
Almost everything I read on the internet goes through Pocket. I have a couple of IFTTT rules that save all the articles from select blogs, I also go through the Reeder (yes, RSS reeder in the 2019) and save the articles that seem interesting for reading later (that is why I didn’t update to Reeder 4 this year, for what I am using it for, the previous version is enough).
I’ve tried to watch more YouTube videos, but it is hard. Twitter and Instagram allow for a short bursts of usage, with YouTube you have to be in the right place and have a lot of time.
Although most of my reading is done on the iPad before going to bed, Kindle is one of the aspirational app placements – I wanted to read even more, so I’ve put it on the homescreen.
It is impossible to live in Europe without Waze and WhatsApp (in the case of the latter – unfortunately). Most of my work chats have moved to Slack (which I have somewhere in the folder and I have notifications turned off on my iPhone, it’s enough I get them on the computer), I chat in iMessage with my wife and in Telegram with most friends. But there are still couple of groups in WhatsApp (mostly family) which I can’t move anywhere else.
I use Apple Music mostly because of all the integrations. We have a family plan between me and my wife and I like using Siri when trying to play something.
Last two apps are temporary – I use Gemini in the short bursts, almost like using Twitter or Instagram, to go through all of the photos and delete similar ones. Once I go through all of them, I plan to remove it from the homescreen and do the cleaning periodically, probably using a reminder.
ExpressVPN is the app I literally installed on the December 31st. While at the hospital, I’ve had some time to kill, so I wanted to watch a couple of TV shows. Netflix in Latvia, as it turns out is so bad, it’s not even funny. So it is totally worth it to pay for the VPN service in order to get content I want.
Since iOS 13 came out, I’ve moved Reminders to my homescreen and use it as my one and only to do list app. The new design, integrations and simplicity is what keeps me using it. I’ve tried a lot of different apps for tasks, but my needs are very simple, so all those apps mostly drove me away from productivity.
In the dock there are Messages, Notes, Overcast and Safari – those are probably my most used apps. I listen to a lot of podcasts and the sound engine of Overcast is the best in class.
I’ve been using Bear for a year and moved back to Apple Notes. It works for me. I like to use rich text while editing and nothing can beat its price.
Because of syncing, battery life and privacy focused features I use Safari on all my devices.
So here it goes, my homescreen at the end of the year. I know that it’s far from perfect, I know a couple of improvements I want to make already (actually some of them are already made), so it will be fun to take a look at the same screen next year.
Apple recently announced the 16” MacBook Pro. They’ve invited journalists to the private event in New York, gave them review units and when the embargo dropped everyone was ready with the story.
This is the MacBook that saves us all. The keyboard is changed to the old mechanism, there is a physical esc key and arrow buttons are the right shape. It also is a bit bigger, with a bit smaller bezels and in a recent Apple fashion it got heavier, because it has so much more battery. Everyone was happy, especially developers and other professionals.
What also was happening at almost exactly the same time – there was a rumor about Apple AR product. Reportedly Apple has held an internal meeting with a 1000 employees who are working on the AR headset where it was discussed that it is a 2022 initiative at best.
And this is Apple PR at its best. First, you don’t hold a 1000 employee meeting and not think it is going to leak to the press (you are probably hoping it will, at this point). Second, the news was perfectly released during all the hype about the new MacBook. Third, almost the only notable thing that came out of this meeting, was the release date. There are some rumors that Apple was planning to release some kind of AR headset in 2020, so now Apple is managing the expectations – no AR headset next year.
So bloggers and podcasters can talk about the new MacBook, how Apple is finally listening and making compromises in the right places, finally again. How we want the same laptop, but for the 14” model. And mention in passing somewhere rumor about the AR headset and a meeting, but it stays in your mind – don’t wait.
I didn’t think I would type those two words in 2019, but here I am. Motorola (which is not the same as years before, after all the buying and selling) is making a new RAZR and it looks great.
It is foldable phone, but this is the first one, that doesn’t fold out into the tablet from the normal phone size, you fold the normal sized phone in half. Which in my opinion is a great choice.
It costs a fortune and you don’t even get the best specs, but still. Although foldable screen technology in phones is very new, this is the first phone that looks like a finished product. Huawei, Samsung Galaxy Fold and all the others before that looked like a concepts, prototypes, but not the final product.
Of course, Motorola has nostalgia on its side. I’ve never owned an original RAZR, but always wanted one, when I was in school.
It has to be seen if the screen is as good and doesn’t break like other foldable phones, but this is the first time I’ve had a desire to check one out.
Up until recently I was getting the new iPhone every year just as it comes out. Believe me, it is hard to do in Latvia, but I’ve always found a way. Sometimes through persistence, like with the iPhone X, I pulled every string I could, but got one of the firsts. Sometimes through luck – we’ve had tickets booked to Berlin right for the day of iPhone XS going on sale, so the second pre-orders started I was navigating Apple Store in German (which I don’t understand at all) and ordering the iPhone XS Max. This went on since I’ve returned to the iOS with iPhone 6S Plus, so it were a good couple of years. This was probably one of my favorite tweets of all time:
I don’t gamble. I don’t drink. My one vice is buying a new iPhone every summer.
Recently though, I’ve started to think more about upgrading the devices I use and try to ask myself – is it really necessary to do that just because the new comes out or do they improve something I really need?
First the AirPods, when the second generation came out, I didn’t see the need to upgrade, as I don’t use wireless charging, the battery on mine was still fine and the sound wasn’t improved. I could benefit from the faster pairing process and a bit longer battery life while calling, but those were minor changes considering the price. I’ve used the 1st generation AirPods until the battery got abysmal and upgraded.
Then there was an Apple Watch. I loved my Series 3, but when the Series 4 came out, it looked outdated, with the square screen and without the new watch faces. Series 3 was still powerful enough (unlike its predecessors). Series 4 had a couple of new health features, which are still not available in Latvia. The watch I had was still perfectly fine. On the other hand, when Series 5 came out with the always-on display, it was a big change and improvement to get myself an upgrade.
That way we get to the star of the upgrading show – the iPhone. I would love to have the newest and greatest, but do I need it? My year old XS Max works great, the battery is still good and lasts me all day. The camera improved, but I use it for some snapshots day-to-day and it is perfectly fine for that, when I travel I always take my “big” camera as I love to take photos with that. I tried Night Mode on my wife’s iPhone 11 and it is … okay. It looks cool, but I don’t see myself using it often yet.
The struggle is real and one of the biggest problems are social networks. I open my Twitter feed and there are all the tech bloggers getting phones for review or buying on the first day. I open my Instagram Explore tab and it is filled with new iPhones, AirPods and other products. From YouTubers, who got them from Apple, to influencers, to photo aggregator accounts. This creates the biggest FOMO I have probably ever experienced.
But are there any other reasons for not upgrading besides self-restraint? Except for the obvious one – money, there is also emotional – next year or the year after, when you upgrade, it would be a two or three times better leap in technology. Phones today don’t get much upgrade year over year, so in those two or three years there would be enough to surprise and delight you.
When I’ve upgraded to Series 5, as I’ve mentioned before the biggest upgrade was always-on display, but if I had Series 4 before that, it would be the only new feature. It is amazing, but it wouldn’t give you the same feeling for a couple of days, when you want to play with new device (if you don’t also consider the horrendous battery life as a new feature). For me the screen changed, it got bigger, there are a lot of new watch faces to play with. New types of complications. I’ve had this new device feeling, when for a couple of days I wanted to play with my new toy. I’m not sure it would have been the same upgrading from Series 4 to Series 5.
I’m not saying everyone should stop buying new watches or phones every year, I’m not even sure I won’t buy one, still. But I want to be more mindful about those things. Put more thought into the decision and not just run after new and shiny every time Apple presents or announces something.
