Parker Ortolani hits on something I’ve been thinking about with regard to liquid glass. Every time I come across critiques of the design language I wonder why Apple isn’t adding colour to the glass as a solution to some of the problems. They can even call it stained glass.
I love this idea from Louie Mantia for a new app called Buddies.
In the transition from services like AOL Instant Messenger to services like iMessage, I think we lost the intentionality of chatting with friends. Weirdly, I also feel like I lost a very specific buddy-list shaped window on the left side of my screen.
A few weeks ago I found myself searching for an old favourite of mine, Adium. It was this same line of thought that lead me to look for it. I miss having the casual chat with friends on the side of my screen.
My friend and very talented artist Ellie won an award recently. She’s been interviewed please give it a read.
Smart home hopes
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
It had been a long day. The drive back from the office hadn’t been smooth sailing, traffic was heavy with a sudden downpour only serving to compound the issue. Disconnecting his phone from his car he noticed a new notification from How we feel, taking a moment he found tired and logged the emotion. As he approached the door he heard the familiar click as it unlocked itself, stepping inside the door the sound of the disembodied voice echoed down the hall… “Welcome home Ezra, it looks like you’ve had a long day at the office.
The last few days I’ve seen a few links shared that go to substack, every single time I’ve seen the url and turned away from clicking through. Same with Medium. Each time I say to myself, why don’t they have their own blog I’d much rather visit that.
Figma is so close to working really well on iPadOS 26. If they can make zooming with a trackpad work like it does on the Mac then it’s basically there.
I’m trying out a new way of writing at the moment, trying to set a scene and tell a story. It’s fun, but it feels like I’m turning more and more introspective each time and I’m not sure how much of a good thing that is.
Together but Separate
Saturday, July 5, 2025
It’s raining outside but it’s still a balmy 18 degrees. Whilst the rain is refreshing, and the plants really need a good soak, it makes inside humid, especially in this coffee shop. It’s not my usual morning coffee spot, but the batch brew is nice and the music is creating a nice ambience. The drum beats mix with the clatter from the espresso machine and the hubbub of people chatting.
The sun shines beneath a dark cloud
Monday, June 30, 2025
It’s hot in England at the moment. The country is being hit by another heat wave with temperatures sitting at around 30 degrees. It’s not the hottest but the heat here is different to other places. Looking at my weather app it tells me Cheltenham is going to have the same high as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv today and I find my wishing I was facing the heat there rather than here.
Trying a new thing this week. When I’m at my desk for work, my iPhone is not with me it’s across the other side of the room. Let’s see what impact this has on my mood and concentration levels.
I had somehow missed that when using tiling on the Mac you can drag the gap between two windows to resize them like the old split view on iPadOS.
Decided to give the new Reeder a go for RSS. Seems to be ok after the first day, but we’ll see how well it syncs up.
I might be doing a silly thing, but the iPadOS 26 beta is currently downloading. I need to see the new design on a device to know whether my designers intuition is right or not. I have accessibility concerns, but can’t help feeling excited.
Watching the key note from last night, there’s lot’s of name dropping of ChatGPT, Private Cloud Compute, and On Device models. I don’t think they’ve mentioned Siri once when referring to Apple Intelligence.
One of the best things about being away from the computer and not checking in on RSS or Micro.blog during that time is the deluge of good posts to read over coffee on a Monday morning. This is the internet I like.
Just discovered that ChatGPT is the easiest way of converting images from webp to png.
Guess who did some training this morning on influencing others…
I started using properties in Obsidian and it seems to be causing serious lag issues. Not sure what’s going on with it.
Went to London at the end of last week for the London Coffee Festival. Made a trip to Borough Market for the first time as well. Monday morning arrived and it’s nice to be on my own and not around people.
My work issue headset broke so I started to use my AirPods when on calls. I find myself forgetting that I have them in long after a call has finished and only realising when I go to scratch my ear. Starting to think they are one of Apple’s best products.