Creative Summary for the Week of 2024-32

👨🏻‍💻 27 posts 😃
🏞️ 6 photos shared 🙂
🎙️ No podcast episode published 😔
📺 No YouTube video published 😔
Again, this edition covers two weeks!

👤 Personal

1️⃣ I’m starting to get a bit tired of the « AI-everything » overuse and abuse. I’m a big user of ChatGPT and other tools like that but at the same time, I think generative AI is being oversold. We might be in a AI bubble. Does Apple's prudent approach with Apple Intelligence reflects that?
The web, and e-commerce, and the iPhone had to go through a painful process of growing and learning to become useful. — Benedict Evans

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ Storm Tracker by CNN shows impressive animations and maps of Debby. Technology is always improving, which shows in the visual products they can put online to inform us about storm tracking. 2️⃣ Thomas Heatherwick believes architecture has a “nutritional value” to society and that the public deserves better buildings. Boring buildings can lead to psychological deprivation and a fight-or-flight response. Interesting article. 3️⃣ To process the previous article, I have used some Apple Intelligence features on my iPad Pro running iPadOS 18.1 beta 1. Staying in the same application to access generative AI features is convenient. 4️⃣ To better illustrate my point, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app for Mac now allows users to multitask with other apps by opening a mini ChatGPT window alongside the current app using Option + Space. This update improves efficiency by reducing window switching, especially on smaller displays. 5️⃣ Jeroen Sangers’ blog: “Brain tags” is full of nice thoughts and quotes, often about work and productivity. I knew this guy from Micro.blog because I’m following him there but I didn’t know about his blog until this week when he shared a post about reworking his digital garden organization process.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I'm way behind with my readings in the past two weeks. See the next section. 🙄

LLM by itself is not a product - it’s a technology that can enable a tool or a feature, and it needs to be unbundled or rebundled into new framings, UX and tools to be become useful. That takes even more time. — Benedict Evans

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

1️⃣ I didn’t write much this week because I was too busy getting organized. I’m testing a new version of Craft that will support some kind of database feature, prompting me to rethink how I manage my content. 2️⃣ I’ve posted something on Medium, yes, Medium, to test the water again. I wrote a small post about my desire to return to the platform to share some of my writing. My last post On Medium dates back to October 2022. It was about

Hello, Again, Medium.

Pondering the reasons why I might come back to Medium.

MediumNumeric Citizen

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ I thought my photo had a unique feel to it. I submitted my photo to Unsplash, something I do for exceptional images of mine. Then I received an email telling me my photo was a copyright infringement. I replied, telling them I could send them the original RAW image I took while on a boat in Croatia. I never got a reply, but after checking back a few days later, my photo was published. Unsplash is so good that it even showed me all similar images. This is where I understood that my photo wasn't unique at all. Far from it, judging by the "related images” with about a dozen very similar images. The Unsplash algorithm probably made a mistake by flagging my image incorrectly. Far from being done with Unsplash, I uploaded another photo, which I think is unique. 2️⃣ I've been more active at posting photos on Glass and Unsplash. They compete against Pixelfed for my attention and desire to share my work with the world. 3️⃣ On Glass, we can look for photos of a specific camera brand. Some examples come from a Nikon Z f. You can view a view of mine if you pay attention and look closely. 😊 4️⃣ Remours about a new button on the iPhone 16 Pro might be intriguing for photographers. 5️⃣ I didn’t know there was an iPhone photography school on the web. 6️⃣ I got an email from Flickr announcing albums improvements. I’m pleasantly surprised that Flickr is alive and well and that the platform is improving. 7️⃣ The makers of Halide, a third-party manual camera app, released version 2.15, which adds a cool new feature: Process zero mode. In this mode, Halide takes photos and bypasses all software processing to gather the real RAW data from the 12 MP sensor. Images come out different but offer a new set of post-processing capabilities. I might re-enable my yearly subscription to try it out. Meanwhile, you can read the detailed article explaining the Process zero mode. 8️⃣ Three years anniversary of Glass! Time flies, and I’ve been happy to be part of this journey with other photographers who believe in great photography-sharing communities like Glass.

“there will be a new camera control on the right side of the phone (at least on the new Pros). It will operate like a button on a DSLR camera, allowing you to press in slightly to trigger autofocus. A harder press will take the picture. You can also swipe along the button to zoom in and out while shooting photos and videos.” — Mark Gurman on the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro

Houman Katoozi on Glass Photography Community

Houman Katoozi. Photographer specialising in black & white fine art street photography. Prints available through my website. My YouTube channel dedicated to all photo…

Process Zero: The Anti-Intelligent Camera

Introducing a process that uses zero AI and zero computational photography to produce beautiful, film-like natural photos. Meet Halide 2.15, with Process Zero.

LuxBen Sandofsky

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ Each time I’m watching a small clip of Steve Jobs like this one, it’s a reminder of how much I think the world is missing him. I miss him too. 2️⃣ This brings me to question Apple’s aspirations regarding AI integration in their operating systems and I wonder how different things would be if Steve was still around in Cupertino. 3️⃣ Apple is having a bad moments again. First. Apple being greedy to no end is a source of frustration and people calling them out, and for good reasons. The Apple vs Patreon Saga (more reactions here). Second, Apple is making macOS less and less Mac and more and more macOS Vista. I frequently use Mac utilities, and upon rebooting my Mac, I’m faced with an astonishing number of authorizations to acknowledge. This issue is also present on iOS, affecting permissions for things like widgets. Has Apple strayed from its path?

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ This week, following the beta release of Craft with support for object creation, I finally completed the reorganization of my content. It was a tedious task, but the results were worth it. This little project also allowed me to understand the functionality better, positioning me well to produce videos on the subject. 2️⃣ Is my first post on Medium in two years marking something bigger for me there? I don't know. I updated my Medium profile page, just in case.

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ I'm a big fan of Inoreader but less of their RSS reader app. So, I usually depend on Reeder to consume my RSS feeds, but I recently restarted using Unread because it is now available for the Mac, too. 2️⃣ I briefly contemplated the idea of opening a Threads account (which implies opening an Instagram account). But then I checked the App Privacy fact sheet in the App Store. It was a great reminder as to why I must refrain from doing so. Pass. The idea was to expand the cross-posting capabilities of Micro.blog. 3️⃣ Interesting questions and thoughts from Manton Reece about Apple Intelligence and the potential for developers. Apple being prudent with AI forces developers who would like to quickly take advantage of Apple models to stay with third-party solutions. 4️⃣ Christina Warren is expressing her thoughts on Apple's decision about Patreon. It's well worth the read. She's mad. 5️⃣ If you are an Apple Music subscriber with many hand-crafted playlists, why not try Denim, a playlist cover artwork creator? 6️⃣ Apple might be late in the game of AI with Apple Intelligence, compared with Google's latest phones, but I'm rooting for creativity-related functionality here, not tech demos or geeky useless features.

Craft update: First look at Objects

Playlist artwork app ‘Denim’ gets major update with new editor

Denim is a cool iPhone app that helps users create unique art for their playlists. In recent weeks, the app…

9to5MacFilipe Espósito

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ if video recording (for YouTube or elsewhere) is your thing, this video from Zolotech demonstrates the Insta360 Flow Pro. It’s pretty cool and nifty for stabilizing your videos and tracking your subjects without missing a beat, thanks in part to, you guessed it, AI. 🤓 2️⃣ I decided to try an Insta360 Flow Pro for my YouTube video recording. By tweaking the position of my iPhone while recording my interaction with my Mac, the overlay should be more natural, as if I were looking at the window content.

The video discusses the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and avoiding excessive complaining, particularly in the context of photography and creative work. The speaker reflects on a personal experience with a friend and fellow photographer, Radic, who maintained a positive and grateful attitude despite challenges. This led the speaker to realize that his own negative attitude and constant complaining were holding him back. The video emphasizes that while having an ego is natural, an unchecked ego can lead to negative thinking and hinder personal growth. The speaker argues that photographers often complain about their equipment, social media, and the industry, but this negativity can rewire the brain to focus on the negative, ultimately stifling creativity and motivation. Instead, the speaker advocates for gratitude, continuous learning, and making a lot of images as the key to improvement.

💎 Miscellaneous

1️⃣ Influencing people's decision to choose one app over the other… it seems Jarrod Blundy chose to try the Arc Browser again, thanks to an article I published a while ago. 2️⃣ The problem with EU legislation is well underscored in this DHH blog post, you might find it insightful too. 3️⃣ Art history shows a cyclical pattern of adding elaborate decorations to clean styles and then returning to simplicity. This trend is evident in various fields, including architecture, painting, photography, literature, theatre, and fashion, and is also observed in software design. Due to its shorter timeline than other art forms, software design may experience this cycle more rapidly. Great article.

🔮 Looking ahead

1️⃣ Google’s search monopoly ends is in sight. Well, it could take years, apparently. Apple had better take notice and revisit some deals with Google. This judgment is a major blow to Google and will certainly send shockwaves in the tech space. Coupled with SearchGPT around the corner, you can see that Google’s business might be in trouble in the future. 2️⃣ Speaking of SearchGPT, I got an email telling me that all 10K slots are filled and that I'll have to wait for the official release to use it.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻

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