Apple in 2021: My Report Card

March 20, 2022
6 min read

For a couple of years now, Jason Snell at Six Colors asks people in tech to rate Apple in different categories. I like this idea to look back and give my opinion. I started last year and decided to keep a tradition (albeit a bit late).

Mac

Grade: B

Don’t get me wrong – M1 Max and M1 Pro are great for someone who needs it, but Apple didn’t do any hardware for me. Those 14” and 16” are too heavy, over-powered, and expensive for what I do. I still love my MacBook Air with M1, it is a great laptop, but we are still waiting for a redesign.

I like how iMac with M1 looks, those colors are great, but it’s small, so I’m still waiting for something bigger. Or for Apple display that doesn’t cost like a used car.

I think B is a good score, but compared with the year when the M1 was first introduced and the improvement the new MacBook Air was, it doesn’t compare favorably.

iPhone

Grade: B

Again, solid year for an iPhone, but I was so much in love with 12 Pro Max the year before that feelings from iPhone 13 Pro are much more neutral, comparatively. It is a great phone, better in some ways, but the telephoto lens is still a hit or miss. With 12 Pro Max, I loved shooting with it, this year, not so much. The rail is all scratched up, although the previous phone looked like a new one after a year of use.

iOS 15 didn’t bring many new features. It works, and the Live Text feature is spectacular, but that is mostly all the progress for the year. And I find myself restarting the phone pretty often, because of some small bugs.

iPad

Grade: B

The first category to improve year after year. Maybe the issue is with me, not with Apple, but I hear a lot of similar sentiment in Apple centred podcasts – I finally use the iPad for what it is, a remarkable consumption device. Before, I’ve set out to replace my laptop with an iPad Pro, and it worked. But was a bit worse in numerous things. Last year iPad mini came out and oh boy it is great. Yeah, the screen is lacking a bit, but otherwise it is a fantastic device. Small, but with the screen large enough to be comfortable, looks great, fast. And it finally allows an iPad to be the best iPad it can and not attempting to be something else.

Watch and Wearables

Wearables – Grade: C

Watch – Grade: B

I’m still waiting for the AirPods Pro update. The ones I have are already dying after just one year (the regular AirPods worked for 2 years). The battery doesn’t hold anymore, and the case glitches all the time, attempting to connect, even though it is closed. The AirPods Max are still too expensive and not comfortable to take with you.

Apple Watch on the other hand (sorry) is a different story. I don’t agree with those saying that this is a small update. I like my Series 7. I love the bigger screen and improved sensors (compared to my previous Series 5). But I have to mention that software is lacking a lot. All the watch faces are bad, each in their own way. There are not many apps. It becomes too passive device for such a price.

Apple TV

Grade: E

I don’t think anything changed much. Yes, the remote got updated, but it is still the same overpriced box, that I can’t recommend to anyone, but Apple fanboys.

Services

Grade: F

This is a bit emotional grade, but where do I start? First, it is a year 2022 and the best tier of Apple One is still not available in Latvia. That means I’m overpaying for the storage because I have to pay for Apple One Family and additional 2 TB of storage, since I have a bit more than 400 GB stored in iCloud. Apple needs to add the Premier tier everywhere or give more options for storage upgrade.

Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+ are still not available in Latvia, as in most of the world. Apple Music apps are a joke. Everyone is enraged with 1Password going Electron, but Apple Music is so much worse.

Activity app on Apple Watch is making things worse, not better. I’ve been wearing Oura ring and after comparing the two, I can’t believe I’ve listened to those prompts. Apple Watch is constantly trying to push you – more, faster, more effort. Regardless of how you feel. I’ve had COVID-19 and Apple Watch expected me to close all the rings every day. While I woke up a bit under the weather with Oura ring, and it noticed and recommended I take things easier, maybe even take some rest days. I think Apple Watch Activity can be harmful.

HomeKit

Grade: D

It’s the app that exists. I love my colorful Hue lamps, but I mostly use them through Hue app. If you want a HomeKit enabled camera, you’ll have to look around for some time.

Hardware Reliability

Grade: A

Although I mentioned problems with AirPods Pro, this is the product from before. I don’t see any major issues with the offered hardware. I don’t even remember any of the new “gates”, which says a lot.

Software Quality

Grade: B

As I said, I’m restarting my phone quite a lot, the software is okay, but can be much better. I think there is a lot to cover and Apple needs some time and resources, and it will get better.

Developer Relations

Grade: E

Whatever you think of the Apple vs Epic conflict, it appeared only because Apple is bad at “relations”. Sony and Microsoft have both even worse deals in their stores, but nobody says a thing because they manage it much better. Apple, on the other hand, thinks only developers have to pray to them. But it is a two-way street, and there is no App Store without developers. The sooner Apple will understand that the better. Otherwise, they will be dragged through all the courts all over the world and the result will be much worse than if they made the changes themselves.

Environmental and Social Issues

Grade: C

Apple still is dependent on China. I don’t think anything changed or can be changed in the nearest future. So, no change in the grade year over year.

Apple Watch Series 7 Review – Bigger is Better

December 31, 2021
5 min read

Since the Apple Watch updates are very iterative, I’m very comfortable in updating every other year. This was such a year. I’ve had Series 5 and by the end of the second year the battery was bad. Taking it of the charger at around 7 AM, it would go to Power Reserve mode at around 10-11 PM. Even without workouts. But I waited for a new one, since Series 6 didn’t add anything major. And although some reviewers would tell you that Series 7 is not much different, I believe this is a substantial update.

Design and Screen

I am a fan of big watches. Not bulky, but with a larger watch dial. So, a bigger display was a welcome change. And considering that it didn’t much change the size of the watch itself, I would say it is a big win.

By the end of year two with my previous watch, I started thinking how big the bezel was around the screen. It feels much more like an all–screen face now, especially if you go for a Contour watch face.

Series 7 is noticeably larger
Series 7 is noticeably larger

The screen is also much brighter in the always–on mode. This was improved in the Series 6, but lucky me – I get two years of improvements instead of one.

On the other hand, colours this year for aluminium model are just bad. Not that blue, green, or red don’t look good. They do. But they are very opinionated. If you are ready to rock the red watch the whole year (or two), more power to you. I just think those watches won’t go with many clothes and watch bands. Recently, I realised that it’s too boring having every technology in black (just look at my car, laptop, or a phone). Moreover, Midnight Aluminium is not black, it is almost very dark blue. So, I was excited to buy a silver aluminium model, but they didn’t make it in this colour this year. Instead, there is Starlight. Which, honestly, looks like … nothing. When I saw it in the store, it is so dull.

That left me with a choice between Titanium and Stainless Steel. I went for the Stainless Steel, as it was a bit shinier. I couldn’t choose between Gold and Silver for a long time (believe me, I got the looks from the Apple Store employee). But in the end settled for the Silver one with the Milanese Loop (finally, had an opportunity to get this band, always wanted one).

I love how it looks. Surprisingly, it goes with every watch band I own, even colourful ones.

It is noticeably heavier. But in an enjoyable way. It feels more substantial. Just a bit closer to a real watch. I already have a couple of scratches after a month of use, and I am careful with my watches. The good news is – you can polish stainless steel, and it will look almost like a new one.

Battery and Charging

As I mentioned before, my Series 5 got terrible battery life by the end of the year two. It actually was never great, barely good enough. Series 7 is much better. I have always–on display turned on at all times and without workout will have around 50% by the end of the day. Not comfortable for a 2–day use, but more than enough for one.

But the main improvement is fast charging. You have to use the new charger for this, but it is spectacular when you need it. Recently, someone messed with my wall charger, I didn’t notice it in the evening. When I woke up, my watch and phone weren’t charged at all. For a phone I have chargers everywhere, so it wasn’t much of a problem, but what do you do with a watch? I’ve got the new cable from the box and in about 30 minutes it was almost full. This is the must–have feature if you track sleep with your watch (I don’t, it’s just too big).

Software Features

There are just two features that are exclusive to the Series 7 Apple Watch – two watch faces and a keyboard.

The faces are Contour one, I already mentioned, which shows how small the bezel is. It has many colours, I like the light grey with the Milanese Loop band and pride with everything else. The second one is Modular Duo, which had so much potential when Apple presented it, but it is bad. It tries to flex the bigger screen, but there is just not enough information. I could try to forgive it, if there was at least a date above the time, like in an old Modular, but alas.

Not even a date
Not even a date
Looks amazing
Looks amazing

Another software feature is a full–size keyboard. Yes, you can type on a watch now. It is surprisingly good. Mostly not to type, but to swipe. As always with Apple, there is a catch. The feature works only with English keyboard. Yes, in the year 2021. And, why, for the love of God, is it not available on older devices? If that’s because of the size – it is available on the smaller size of the current generation, which is smaller than the larger Series 6.

A whole keyboard on a watch
A whole keyboard on a watch

Again, I’m not the one to give the advice whether to upgrade, but don’t let anyone fool you – Series 7 is a very noticeable upgrade even from the previous model. The screen is bigger, and it shows in the day–to–day use. If you wish to skip a year – you also won’t go wrong. Just don’t let anyone dictate what should be your decision.

Stainless Steel looks great. Sorry for tha hairy hand
Stainless Steel looks great. Sorry for tha hairy hand

MacBook Air with M1 – A Love Letter

December 25, 2021
7 min read

It’s hard to write nice things. If I had to write a TLDR version of the review, it would have been – it just works, except for speakers. This laptop is so good, you don’t even notice. It is powerful, it has a great battery life and what’s even more surprising, this machine doesn’t have a fan. I’m not entirely sure this laptop is even legal.

It’s so good I have two of them at home. I finally exchanged my Lenovo Thinkpad at work for a MacBook Air.

What it replaced

The one and only MacBook I owned was my Early 2015 MacBook Pro with Intel Core i3, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD. I bought it 6 years ago as a reward, for finishing my master’s thesis. At the time, the only upgrade was SSD, but that was only because they didn’t have 128 GB available. I also wanted a MacBook Pro instead of Air, because of the Retina screen.

Over the years, this Mac got slow. It got so bad, I tried to reinstall the OS and delete everything because I thought something must have gone horribly wrong for it to be so slow. But it’s just time. Retina display, entry-level processor and 8 GB of RAM are too basic even for a casual browsing now.

That is why for the last two years I considered my iPad Pro 12.9” to be my primary computer. When M1 Macs came out, I was tempted, but wasn’t sure if I ever need another Mac, or will I become iPad only? It sure felt like it. But the more I read and watch about the new Macs, the more I wanted one, maybe even to replace my iPad.

So half a bottle of whiskey later, I order a M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD.

Design

Lately, I have a tendency to choose unusual colours, so the model I bought was Gold. I was intrigued, but not sure about my choice. After getting it out of the packaging, I immediately fell in love. It’s just beautiful. The colour plays nicely in different lightning. It changes from gold, to rose gold, to pink and to just light, almost silver. Now as I type it looks more like a copper. I also like how thin and light it is.

For work, I chose dark grey and … I don’t like it. It is too boring. Too computery. I’m hoping rumours are true and Apple will introduce a colourful MacBook Air.

I would like for a screen bezel to be smaller, which would make a whole device smaller. Not only that, but I also don’t like that there is “MacBook Air” written under the display. I know what I bought and use, and it feels very Samsung-y to stick the name wherever you can. It seems that the early 2015 MacBook Pro was an odd one, as it didn’t have the name written.

Dongletown

For the last 5 years I’ve read, watched and listened to everyone whining about MacBooks having only USB-C and some of them only 1 or 2 ports. I thought everybody is just nuts and tries to find a problem where there is none. That is, of course, until I bought such a laptop myself. MacBook Air has 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Typically, that is more than enough for me. And this is when it got to me – most of the time, that is what everyone is talking about. I need to connect a display through HDMI and Logitech keyboard using their USB type-A dongle. Something I didn’t even think about before, gave me pause.

After some consideration, I bought an Apple dongle for HDMI, USB type-A and USB type-C. It’s a small, light dongle which should be enough for me. I also use microSD cards from my camera, but I transfer photos to the iPad Pro, so I already have a USB-C card reader from Apple.

That’s not the end of the world, but it is added cost and an inconvenience. But I’m more than 100% sure, many MacBook Air buyers won’t have such problem. They’ll use it without anything connected to it and charge with the brick and cable that comes with it.

Touch ID

Using biometric authentication in modern computers is genius. All joking aside, I like having Touch ID on a Mac. Unlock with Apple Watch never worked for me on my previous MacBook, so having fingerprint sensor built-in is much faster and easier to use.

It’s just a little convince for logging in, but a massive quality of life improvement for using 1Password.

There is not much more to add, but it’s just so good, to warrant its section.

Keyboard and Trackpad

There is little to say about the trackpad. I thought that the one I had on my MacBook Pro was big, but this one is just massive, and I like it. If there is space – put the biggest one you can. Since it’s not mechanical, and you can press wherever, I don’t see any problem. Moreover, the size doesn’t add the issue of accidentally touching it while typing, so thumbs-up from me.

Keyboard, on the other hand, is a very controversial topic. I was lucky to buy the last laptop with non-butterfly keys and didn’t have any difficulties with it. But I loved how butterfly keyboard felt. The scissor-switch one is a bit wobbly for me. I loved Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro much better. But I enjoy the keyboard on this MacBook Air quite a lot. It feels nice. For my taste it could’ve been a bit clickier, but I could see how many would hate it.

Sound

Speakers are the weakest point of this laptop. There is nothing remarkable about the sound. It is quiet. Even in a smaller room it is not comfortable to watch a TV show with sound turned all the way up, it’s just hard to hear things. I would rather play through iPad Pro or use headphones, not even talking about dedicated speakers.

Speed

This is a quality of life improvement. When you open the lid, and it instantly turns on, and you can place your finger on the fingerprint scanner and in a second you’ll see an unlocked computer. This is something you expect from iOS, not macOS laptop. It seems too good to be true.

Of course my comparison is to the entry-level laptop from 2016, but still, the speed blew my mind.

Battery

I started the part about battery life by writing the time I took it off the charger, how I used it during the day, etc. But I quickly realised how pointless it was. It’s just a full-day battery. Even better than an iPad. The feeling I get with this laptop – sometimes I remember to plug it in. This laptop is meant for charging overnight, working all day and charging after you are done, and it works for me this way.

MacBook Air with M1 re–introduced macOS to me. As soon as 2018 iPad Pro 12.9” came out, I fell in love. My first Apple device was iPhone 4, so iOS was always much closer for me. I like that the main interaction with the device are apps. That they open instantly, and you don’t have to manage them. That it is simple.

My MacBook Pro was underpowered for everything. It was entry-level configuration, so video editing, programming, or playing video games was not a fun experience, but also just using it as I was for writing, browsing, lightly editing photos – iPad was much faster and easier for that. So quickly, after buying an iPad, my MacBook Pro started gathering dust at home.

Now the tables are turned. I’m selling my iPad Pro because this MacBook gives me everything I want and even more. One might say, it is almost a perfect laptop.

🔗 Apple Is the $2.3 Trillion Fortress That Tim Cook Built

November 15, 2021
2 min read

Great article about Apple during Tim Cook era and the CEO himself.

Three people familiar with the company’s supply chain say there was an Apple employee whose job consisted of negotiating the cost of glue.

I reread this quote probably 10 times. Imagine going to work every day and your job is just follow and negotiate the cost of glue. This alone shows the size of Apple. Not only the display, memory or aluminium, all of which are on the surface, but the price of glue will have a considerable enough impact on the bottomline to justify the salary of an employee.

During Trump’s time in office, he and Cook forged an unlikely friendship that upset liberal-leaning Apple veterans, who couldn’t imagine Cook’s infamously temperamental predecessor tolerating any co-option of Apple’s brand name by someone as boorish as Trump.

I know nothing about Cook and Trump relationship (I can guess like both authors did), but I would bet money it is not friendship. Tim Cook is a CEO of the biggest company in the world, which is based in the United States. It would be criminal for him not to have a relationship with Trump. Moreover, I think it is not Cook — Trump or Cook — Biden relationship. It is CEO of Apple and President of the United States. Simple as that.

Moreover, Flex Ltd., the contract manufacturer that operates the Austin plant, prepped for the event by manicuring the production floor as if it were a stage set. New computers were put on display to “look like we’re selling these things like hotcakes,” recalls one engineer. Many employees were given the day off, and the select few allowed to stay were mostly pretending to work in the background in their blue uniforms, according to another staffer. “It was very much a show,” this person says.

Shocker! Two of the most powerful people in the world are meeting, and the background is staged. I can’t even imagine!

iPhone 12 Pro Max — Exit Interview

November 11, 2021
3 min read

I started writing this after listening to the ATP episode (where I got the idea) which was after Apple announced the iPhone 13 lineup and had a bit of trouble. I could have put it in a tweet — the iPhone 12 Pro Max is good, with some caveats. But after I got my iPhone 13 Pro, transferred all the data, used it for a couple of days and picked up my previous phone — I had a bit of nostalgia. I wasn’t regretting the upgrade, but I’ve had this feeling — it was a superb phone, which helped me get through the year, and I love it.

After a year, I can definitely say — the Pro Max is a different kind of beast. As I mentioned in my review it is big and so for me, it meant I’ve used it a lot — to read, watch videos, play games, even write. Now that I’ve used a smaller phone for a bit, I use it differently. It almost feels like Pro Max phone can be your only computer.

Design

I love it. After a lot of going back and forth between Midnight Blue and Gold, I chose Gold and bought my first non-black iPhone, and I still love the colour. I love the edges, the substantial weight. What I actually don’t love is the size. With those edges and going a bit bigger, Pro Max is finally too big.

Camera

I’ve upgraded to the 12 from iPhone XS Max, which, although I didn’t think at the time of my review, in hindsight had the worst camera comparatively of every other iPhone. The photos were over-sharpened, there were many details lost. While looking through the photo library, I can easily spot photos taken with XS Max (and not in a good way).

So updating to the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera system was marvellous. This was the first time I was genuinely surprised while looking at photos taken with the phone. And as a result, I’m selling my Olympus camera. Don’t get me wrong, the “real” camera still takes better photos, but the hassle of taking it with me, transferring and editing photos is not worth it anymore for me. Photos became truly “good enough” with that revision of the iPhone.

Battery

As is every year with a phone, it starts with an astonishing battery. iPhone 12 Pro Max was not an exception. I would start my day at around 7AM and end it at 11PM, and it still would have 40% battery left with normal use. After a year, it is not the case, unfortunately. With battery health at 95%, I find myself charging the phone in the middle of the day or ending it with less than 10%.

Verdict

All in all, I think iPhone 12 Pro Max is one of the best iPhones to date. The camera is so much better, the design is great. There are not a lot of things lacking. I’ve enjoyed using it a lot and will even miss it.

Some Thoughts On Apple Event – September 2021

September 18, 2021
2 min read

It was yet another Apple event during the pandemic. I’m sure if you’ve watched at least one you will have a feeling about how it went.

iPad

Although updating the “no description iPad” iPad is great – it is an astonishing value for money, what surprised everyone was an updated iPad mini. It got an iPad Pro like design – doesn’t have home button, supports 2nd generation Apple Pencil and is available in a couple of different colors. This is iPad I’ve been waiting for and will definitely be getting one.

Apple Watch

It’s funny how wrong rumor sites were. It’s a nice upgrade with a bigger screen, I actually noticed a couple of months ago how big the bezel around the screen is in the current version and it looks like the Series 7 will solve that.

What I don’t like are the colors. I need to see them in person, but from the photos I only like stainless steel ones and they are either not available in Latvia or are ridiculously expensive.

I think Apple Watch is a perfect device for a two year upgrade. The battery in my Series 5 is sure ready to be replaced. I just need to choose the version.

iPhone

Although it might look like nothing much on the outside, it seems to be totally reworked on the inside. I love the bigger battery and updated cameras. I didn’t care much about Cinematic video, since it looked like the first Portrait mode version (not good).

The blue Pro looks okay, but I will need to see it in person. Pink non-Pro model looks amazing, I would get it if I was buying one.

I will be upgrading to the 13. This time just a regular Pro, since Pro Max doesn’t offer anything better in terms of camera. 

I know a lot of people are somehow disappointed by the event, but I thought it was a strong one. There were no boring demos or store updates, we’ve got some new devices and even a surprise. You can count it as a success in my book. 

MagSafe Wallet Review

August 27, 2021
3 min read

I’ve been a fan of minimalistic wallets for a long time. My last wallet before MagSafe was ETRO card holder, where I had 7 cards and a bit of cash at all times.

My previous ETRO card holder

The cards in the wallet were – ID, driver’s license, insurance card, 2 credit cards and one to get into the office, oh and also one loyalty card.

Apple MagSafe Wallet

MagSafe Wallet on the other hand holds only 3 cards without cash. Turns out – it was easy to get rid of the 4 cards. Office card goes to the backpack, since I don’t go there without it. I don’t need a driver’s license, because police can check my ID. I’ve had credit cards just in case, mostly to get cash at the ATM, since everything else accepts Apple Pay, so I just removed one – they are similar in fees (as there are none). The loyalty card turns out was available in the app for a long time.

So after a short management of cards I was ready to rock the new Wallet and I love it. Of course the quality is great and it feels nice. The way I hold it on my iPhone 12 Pro Max actually allows it to function similar to the pop socket.

MagSafe Wallet with Apple Silicone case

The cards are very easy to get out, now I use my ID a lot, because you have to show it together with a vaccination certificate and it is pretty easy even with one hand. It holds very well on the case, but it doesn’t feel too secure with just the naked phone. I think magnets are a bit to far when the phone is naked and glass is too slippery. When you put a case in between – magnet from the case itself is much closer and silicone gives it a much needed grip.

What I love is that it goes very easy on and off, so in the office or at home I just take it off and use my phone without it and when I go out just snap it on.

I use it for almost two months and love it. I’ve never even considered “wallet cases” before, because they are bulky, heavy and a lot of the times look bad, but this is just perfect. If you can manage with just three cards and some cash in the pocket (I finally have a reason to use my fancy leather money clip).

Bonus photo – here is how it looks on the iPhone 12 Mini. It perfectly aligns with the sides and adds a lot of bulk in comparison, but it’s still manageable.

iPhone 12 Mini with a MagSafe Wallet\

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions — Not Good

July 5, 2021
3 min read
IMG_3975.jpeg

I wrote just a paragraph regarding Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in my post about April event as there were not many details. After hearing and reading more about the service, I think that in the current form, it is bad both for podcasters and users.

On the good side, premium podcasts will be available world-wide. Apple Podcasts is the biggest player in the world, so you’ll have a big audience. Apple has probably the best chance of charging users because they’ll always have a current card on file.

On the other hand, this is only limited to Apple Podcasts app, which is not available on Android. On iOS, many people are using 3rd party apps, and they won’t be able to listen to those premium shows. The 30% cut is pretty big, I don’t understand why podcasts with the audience will use the system, since they are the ones bringing all the customers so why pay Apple so much.

As a podcast listener, when I choose to support the creator, I want him to have as much money as possible, as most of the time those prices are quite low. I’m currently paying for a couple of podcasts around $5 each, in this scenario $1.5 from monthly transaction will go to Apple. Why? I learned about those podcasts from different means, they themselves created value for me to pay, I’m happy with a current model, so I don’t get what Apple is providing that is worth 30% apart from credit card processing which costs much less.

What’s more, when you subscribe through Apple, you become their customer, not podcasters. So, the creator doesn’t know a thing about you, he just knows how many people subscribed. He can’t communicate with the listeners, offer additional perks — like community in Discord or a coupon code for merchandise drop. Sure, he can give information in the podcast itself, but how would he check if you are paying?

One of the podcasts I’m paying for is Dithering. It was actually the very first podcast I paid for. I had doubts at first, but still subscribed pretty early on and enjoyed it very much. Once the card I used expired, and I got a short podcast episode in Overcast with Ben informing me about that. It was outstanding, I went to the website, updated the information and the episodes kept coming.

I’m not sure what Apple can provide me as a user. I love Overcast audio processing too much to switch or even to use in parallel another app, so I can’t think of a single thing that would force me to install Podcasts app back.

WWDC 2021 — It Is Not About the OSes

June 12, 2021
5 min read

It’s that time of the year again, when Apple shows all the new things in all the different OSes. This year though, the presentation was a bit light on narrative, but pretty packed with features.

What became obvious pretty fast — it doesn’t make sense to divide this presentation by OS and I think in the future Apple will just talk about services and apps because everything works everywhere.

Since we are not there yet, they still talked about each OS separately, but more often than not it ended with a “feature is available on all other platforms as well”.

FaceTime

Even if all those features were announced last year it still would have been a bit late, not to say — fall of 2021. But better late than never. I was surprised how janky the Voice Isolation demo sounded, but I hope it will be good in the released version.

SharePlay is an interesting feature, but I don’t see myself using it much. We’ll soon have cinemas opened for vaccinated people, and I’m not a big fan of watching TV shows with friends. But there are probably people who want this. I could see myself watching sport events like that, but I don’t think local TV providers will support this feature soon (or at all).

Focus

In 2021 Apple re-invented profiles which you could’ve found on Nokia phones 20 years ago. You can now create Focus modes for work, home etc. It allows you to make different home screens for different modes and allow notifications only from certain apps or people. This also means, that you can put multiple launchers for one app.

There is Summary for notifications, which will show only the most important ones and Do Not Disturb will show a message when someone tries to reach you via iMessage (similar to Slack).

iCloud and Privacy

You can add people you trust for an Account Recovery, so when you forget your password, you will be able to restore it with their help. You can also choose people as legacy contacts, so they can access your Apple account in case of your death.

On a lighter note, Mail now has an option to hide your IP, location and whether you’ve opened a message, basically rendering tracking pixels useless.

Privacy Report which was introduced last year in Safari for websites will now be available for apps. It will show how often an app has accessed Location, Camera, Contacts, Photos in the last 7 days, as well as all the domains the app is contacting.

Siri has on-device speech recognition, which for me is not so much a privacy improvement, but a massive improvement in speed.

Paid iCloud is now iCloud+ with Private Relay — which encrypts Safari traffic (almost like a VPN). It will also let you hide email, by creating random one for forms on websites.

Safari

Safari got a redesign on all platforms. Tabs are now very compact and in line with the address bar. There are also tab groups, which you can name, and they sync across devices. On iPhone, the most significant changes are — address bar is on the bottom, you can now slide across tabs with the same gesture as you do sliding across apps and web extensions will be available on mobile.

QuickNote

On iPad, you can swipe from the corner with the Apple Pencil and a small Notes window will appear where you can make a note. If you do it on a website, it will show you the note next time you visit it. The QuickNotes sync and work across devices.

Universal Control

This was probably the best demo of the keynote. You can use a single mouse and keyboard to control all your devices. Just put your iPad besides the Mac and you will be able to move the cursor from Mac to the iPad without any setup.

My mind was blown, when Craig added the iMac on the left of the MacBook and used the mouse to go all the way from the iMac to the iPad through the MacBook in the middle and dragged the file across three devices just to drop it on the iMac.

iPadOS 15

This actually is a bit of an exception, since there were a couple of iPadOS-specific features. First, as everyone could have guessed they added Widgets, with some bigger options (up to a quarter of the screen). App Library is also available on the iPad now and is accessible with an icon in the dock and by swiping to the last page.

The multitasking is rethought… again. It is more visual, with buttons and hints.

It is possible to develop and submit iOS and iPadOS apps to the App Store from Swift Playgrounds.

Miscellaneous

  • Apple Maps are even more amazing in San Francisco.
  • Government IDs, house and hotel keys and work ID in Apple Wallet
  • Low-power mode on macOS.
  • You can AirPlay to the Mac (both the video and sound).
  • Multiple timers on Apple Watch (but only on Apple Watch).
  • Conversation Boost — focuses AirPods Pro on the person talking to you. You can reduce the amount of ambient noise in the settings.
  • Shared With You — things shared with you in iMessage will appear across multiple apps (Music, News, Podcasts, etc.)
  • Live Text — you can copy and paste text from the photo (seems to work flawlessly in the demo). And it can recognise objects.
  • Shortcuts for Mac, which will replace Automator.
  • Health Sharing — you can see data of your parents or kids. Alerts, like for heart rate or steadiness. Apple doesn’t have access to this information.

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.