If true, this is scary. Apparently, “the content of every webpage visited using Google Chrome is sent back to Google”. Even emails. From external email solution providers too. Given that, the recommendation not to use Chrome is not too harsh.
Thoughts
All I‘ve been focused on for last few days has been a small homely function - the preparations, the celebrations are simply endless. However a gathering of family and friends over a night of fun and food is worth all the effort. But boy I’ve missed so much. It’s time to catch up.
MacBook Air (2018) has made the purchase decision for existing Air owners who are waiting for an upgrade a lot more difficult. There is hardly any MacBook that meets their requirement. I know as I’m one of those people. And am left with no option but to consider Windows PCs.
Celebrating the festival of lights by illuminating every dark corner of our surroundings and, primarily, of our minds.
Techies keep dreaming of a day when iOS and Android can be used for serious console-style gaming. I, on the hand, am always in search for the casual games that I can play one handed, in small bursts for mindless fun. I enjoyed Desert Golfing a lot. Tiny Wings was another.
There are some nights that you just can’t go to sleep - you try everything, nothing works. Today’s that kind of night. And it surprising given that I’d been working throughout the day - so I should be bone-tired. I don’t think watching Sherlock is going to help me either.
Romance writers, be forewarned, the child who leaps into her arms or the heroine who leaps into his has almost a five percent chance of ending up elsewhere.
Be wary of Google Books OCR - an amusing, but equally funny account of how the technology fails us.
I’m from a generation that is spoilt by the usability of a mouse. Is it better? Simpler? I won’t comment on that. May be the intuitive interactions with touchscreen interfaces are faster, more sensible for a larger demographic. But I always find them a bit cumbersome, limiting.
I’m always on the look out for some popular, light TV series - comedy, mystery, drama - that I can wind my day down with. I do like intense or intelligent watches, but they are not for those times when you want no exercise for your mind. Watch now and forget. Any recommendations?
I have been using iPad for so long now, and still had no idea that the mode of the keyboard can be changed to “Undock” - basically make it float at the center of the screen. Who uses that?
I had completely forgotten that Flickr was acquired by SmugMug and had been their property - makes so much sense. Of course, I don’t think Yahoo can run anything any longer.
That brand has faced such a horrible downfall - it was a shining example of the power of Web.
The more I think about the account from Andrey Sitnik on how a month without computers helped him, affected him, the more I feel I need to attempt this abstinence from technology, at least at some smaller scale. I’m curious to find for myself my ability to stay digital-free.
Flickr free accounts are changing →
There was a time when I was in love with this service. It was before Yahoo ruined it. I think it is a positive sign that the people running the service now have decided to go back to its roots and focus on Pro consumers.
I finished reading Becoming Steve Jobs today. It told few wonderful stories of Steve - chose to focus on sides which the Issacson book didn’t. It presented Steve - the creator, the leader.
I believe you to need to read both the books to understand this complex man better. (★★★★)
Growing up in India, I got introduced to Halloween as a festival pretty late - wasn’t until I was in my late teens. Sounds so erroneous now as my 5 year old daughter celebrated this curious festival today in her school, dressed as a wicked witch. The world is indeed shrinking 🎃
Every now and then, I come across stories that makes me realize how little I know about things around me — apparently the iPhone we use everyday? Yeah, they are allergic to Helium. A tiny molecule “can turn your phone temporarily into a paperweight”. Fascinating.
I let the product announcements from Apple distill into a list of stuff I want, not I wish I had. Apple delivered what I wanted - a new MacBook Air. My 10 years old MBP is crying for an update. iPad Pro is nice, but not for me. Yet. Mac mini is good, will need eventually.
I think may be Apple now need to announce a USB-C to lightning dongle too - for using iPad with iPhone headphones? Or did they already announce that? This dongle mayhem is crazy! 🤔
I do not like these new fonts that Apple is using on slides to announce specs. They aren’t legible at least on the stream. Not sure what @gruber thinks about these - don’t think they have ever used them before. Reminds me of Comic Sans. Shudder #AppleEvent
Mac mini lives. Or is it that it is reborn? Whatever the case, it makes Apple put a lot of push behind it. And thankfully they didn’t go for something cute. Keep it focused at what it is good at. #AppleEvent 👍🏽
I wish I understood the compression and streaming of audio better to understand why some form of audio (for example, episodes of a podcast) sound choppy over Bluetooth and others don’t. I am sure @marcoarment could go on and on explaining the reasons, but this just baffles me.
I have observed significant reduction in the time for the posts to appear on the Micro.blog timeline. Hope this isn’t an anomaly and @manton has put some fixes around this. If so, looks like they are working 👍🏽
Less than 24-hours away from the Apple event and we still haven’t seen any credible hardware leaks of actual devices. All we have is hearsay mock-ups. Either Apple’s cracked the secret to keep the supply chain silent or it’s going to be bumpy few week full of brickbats for them.
Why haven’t audiobooks gone more mainstream yet? After so many years of existence, Audible remains the only credible global player. Plus the plans/costs have hardly changed. It’s a vicious circle at this point - it’s too costly for larger adoption and so remains a niche market.
You know what the biggest surprise of any Apple event going ahead will be? An updated iPhone SE. The chances of that happening at this event? Close to zero.
But hey, I can continue to dream, right? #BringBackSE