Creative Summary for the Week of 2024-34

Windows and balconies.

JF Martin on Glass

The following is my sharing activities summary since the previous newsletter edition.
👨🏻‍💻 20 posts 😃
🏞️ 12 photos shared 😃
🎙️ One podcast episode published 😃
📺 No YouTube video published 😔
This edition covers a two-week period: from 2024-08-18 to 2024-08-31.

👤 Personal

1️⃣ Today, I posted something on Facebook; and honestly, it felt weird. I can’t remember exactly when I last wrote on Facebook. I also had this symptom of missing out on things from my old colleagues and friends just by glancing at my timeline for a few minutes. It felt heavy. My post was about telling my “Facebook friends” about the two sites where I share my photos online: Glass and Pixelfed. I don’t know if people will take time off their busy lives to visit or even bookmark the sites. I shouldn’t care about that. Those who pay attention might even notice a link to my digital hub, where I share all my other sites. Because I’m curious, I’ll return back to Facebook in a few days to see if I got some comments. I’ll report back here in any case. This text also was shared as a narrated post here.

🗺️ Discoveries

1️⃣ It's not exactly a discovery, but my time spent on Medium in the last two weeks is more like a rediscovery. Many things have changed on Medium since October 2022, when I shared my previous article, essentially about how they achieve their goals for writers. 2️⃣ The prolific writer MG Siegler has a newsletter tagged as “from afar" on his Ghost-powered website. Here is one edition example. This newsletter is interesting and familiar, as it is similar to mine. We both share many links and quotes and organize the content in sections. 3️⃣ I discovered this super helpful blog post listing many different resources for bloggers like me. It is so good that it is now on my personal creator dashboard page as shown below.

📖 Reading

1️⃣ I came across this State of Medium article while reading the excellent MG Siegler’s above mentioned piece. I’m delighted with Medium announcements and find their platform principles to resonate with me to the point of making a comeback. 2️⃣ The future of the Internet and trust, according to Craig Hockenberry, is a provocative yet lucid take on what is coming next for the Internet.

“Rich kids being able to do art for a living may be a reflection on their privilege but it seems to me like a reflection on the fact that a human that doesn't have to worry about money will often choose art. everyone is an artist until rent is due. i wish we all had that right.” — Amanda for @TheCoolIssue

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

“Writing is part of lifelong learning that keeps us awake, clear and connected.” — iA blog

1️⃣ My first real article for my Medium comeback is “Considering Becoming a Freelancer.” I made this article part of my publication, which is also available on Medium, “Numeric Citizen Journeys.” If you want to know more about this project, please continue reading. 2️⃣ I closely follow MG Siegler’s Spyglass website, where he writes about tech, Apple, AI, media, etc. In “More or Less,” Siegler announces changes to his writing habits and content sharing. I realize that things are constantly moving and morphing into something else. For example, in this edition, I lament that I should have named this newsletter around the concept of scrapbooks because, overall, it's pretty much what it is. Why not consider renaming this newsletter, then? What is actually preventing me from doing it? Here is a title that I'm currently thinking about: “The Ephemeral Scrapbook Newsletter — Edition 2024-34”. Scrapbooking is about capturing artifacts to build memories and document experiences. This is not what this newsletter is about. I consider its content much more ephemeral, hence the name “Ephemeral Scrapbook.” What do you think?

“Writing helps me clarify and even form my own thoughts on various topics” — MG Siegler

🌄 Photography

1️⃣ The 2024 iPhone photography awards winners were announced. As usual, there were many gorgeous images. The grand prize goes to Erin Brooks from the United States, who used her iPhone 15 Pro Max to shoot the winning photo. A few comments are in order here. Beyond the top winners, many awards go to people from China; I found this notable. Two winning photos were shot using an old iPhone X, and others were taken using an iPhone 6s and the iPhone XS. Those images have a unique visual texture to them. The landscape category is my favourite. 2️⃣ Two people visited the same place at two months intervals and took a photo. This is so cool. 3️⃣ Something scary is happening in photography on Google's Pixel 9 series phones with this Reimagine AI-powered feature. This article from The Verge should be enough to convince you that starting now, you should never trust an image shared online.

In an attempt to inject some normalcy in my feed, here is a photo from a long time ago - re-edited with new tools, new knowledge, and a better underst…

Om Malik on Glass

re-edited with new tools, new knowledge, and a better underst… — Om Malik on Glass Photography Community

🎙️ Podcasting

1️⃣ I ordered a Rode Wireless Me microphone for my audio recordings and wanted to test it out on a narrated post on Micro.blog, which was syndicated on my podcasts channel. I talk about posting on Facebook feeling weird. According to this short video review, it should provide some noticeable improvements to my recordings.

🍎 Apple

1️⃣ It might take a while before Apple adds Genmoji and image generation to Apple Intelligence, and this 9to5Mac article explains why. Apple takes a cautious approach when introducing new products and features (but they aren't mindful enough when releasing ads because when they do, they often mess things up). 2️⃣ The Next Apple event has been announced. It will be on September 9th, 2024. I have low expectations for it as I explained here. Get a preview from the following YouTube video showing iPhone 16 mockups. I don’t expect too many surprises from that event, which could be the most boring iPhone release ever. 3️⃣ I asked what's in this picture of Steve Jobs in his home office, and got many answers.

🚧 Special projects

1️⃣ After discussing my professional life with my wife this week, I thought becoming a freelancer might be a great way to spend the next ten years. It would be something that would put me out of my usual comfort zone, but I want to take the time to think about it and what it would entail. In the next few weeks or months, I will start a project and use Craft to support my work on this. I'll consider as many aspects as possible: financials, logistics, upsides, downsides, etc. I need a way to write about this, take notes, and do some calculations, too, and Craft seems perfect for this. 2️⃣ Writing about this new project is mandatory. As mentioned above, I chose to share any future articles on Medium under a new Medium publication I created for the occasion. You can reach the publication by following this URL: https://medium.com/numeric-citizen-journeys.

“Hobbies primarily benefit the creator, while side projects are aimed at serving others.” — Manuel Moreale

📱 Apps & Services

1️⃣ If you are like me, I take many screenshots on my iPhone and iPad for many purposes. Until this week, I relied on the famous Apple Frames shortcut. The shortcut broke with the iOS 18 beta, and I cannot rely on it anymore. It's no longer an issue with Shareshot, an iPhone and iPad app. Shareshot is a native app, which makes the shortcut useless. Shareshot is fast and offers many more customization options. You can select the padding size and background and add a lighting effect. I wish there were a way to save a template format to retrieve export settings quickly. For me, it's an instant buy, an oopsy subscription. Sadly, there are no lifetime licenses or a Mac version (yet). I updated my subscriptions page accordingly. 2️⃣ Glass, the photo-sharing service, increased its subscription price recently, now at 50 CAN, There is a Patreon subscription tier at 180 CAN$, but it asks too much. I keep it. 3️⃣ Procreate developer says NO to integrating AI in their products. Good call, and the messaging timing is spot on. In my previous newsletter, I wrote that I was getting fed up with AI everywhere. I'm not a user of Procreate myself, but I applaud the move. 4️⃣ I discovered Series, an app that combines photos into layouts like diptychs, carousels, etc. It's useful to show two photos side-by-side for comparison purposes, which I like to do occasionally. The app is available for the iPhone and iPad. 5️⃣ I decided to dump Pocket Cast and use the Apple Podcasts app to save money. I don't listen to podcasts often enough to warrant a dedicated third-party app.

Shareshot — Frame Screenshots and Add Backgrounds

A beautiful and fun app for wrapping screenshots with perfect-fitting frames over pretty backgrounds. Comes with powerful Shortcuts Actions for creating Pro workflows.

Shareshot — Frame Screenshots and Add Backgrounds

📺 YouTube

1️⃣ Another great video from Tiego Forte and his wife. It gets so personal. I chose this video because it shows how important striking a balance in life is important. Yes that might be at the close of being the number one, but the equilibrium is more important to me and value those who aim toward that goal. 2️⃣

“The only review that has any value for me is when the person reviewing something bought it with their own money.” — Jane Doe

💎 Miscellaneous

“Everyone alive today has grown up in a world where you can’t believe everything you read. Now we need to adapt to a world where that applies just as equally to photos and videos. Trusting the sources of what we believe is becoming more important than ever.” — John Gruber

1️⃣ I wish I had called this newsletter "The Digital Scrapbook” from the beginning because some editions really look like scrapbooks. No worries, starting with the next edition, the name will become “The Ephemeral Scrabook Newsletter.” 2️⃣ This deepfake on TikTok of Elon Musk is uncanny and troubling. We cannot trust anything we see and hear now; I wonder how bad this is for societies. 3️⃣ Don't miss my Micro.blog posts monthly digest that came out on September 1st!

Creativity is made, not generated. — The developer of Procreate

🔮 Looking forward

1️⃣ I upgraded my iPhone 15 Pro Max to iOS 18.1 beta 3 to test Apple Intelligence on my primary device. I'm looking forward to experimenting with Photos Clean Up and intelligent notifications. 2️⃣ Now that my Medium Publication is live, I look forward to sharing more of my experiences.

I wish you a great week! ✌️👋🏻

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