The Ephemeral Scrapbook — 2026.02.22

👤 Personal {#traveling,#hobby}

1️⃣ From January 30th to February 12th, I travelled to the Middle East (Egypt and Jordan), which explains why the second edition of this newsletter is a little bit late. In my luggage: my iPad Pro, my iPhone 15 Pro Max and my Nikon Zf with a 40mm lens. I believe the iPad is the best device for travel. All in all, it was a really enjoyable trip, even with some intestinal unease. I shared many photos on my Glass profile if you are curious to get a glimpse. 2️⃣ My experimentation with AI-related tools is taking up a lot of my hobby time. This has negative effects on my other little projects and initiatives, such as producing YouTube videos or maintaining The Craft Bible. I should aim to a more balanced time investment.

🗺️ Discoveries {#gaming}

1️⃣ I'm not a big gamer on computers or smartphones but once in a while I get hooked on a newly discovered game. The most recent one is a tour-style game called “Kingdom Rush Vengeance” available on Apple Arcade. It's a fun game, not too difficult so I can continue play without feeling overwhelmed or discouraged (see screenshot below).

👨🏻‍💻 Writing {#blogging}

1️⃣ My monthly posts digest for January is available, a little late. You can find a summary here on my digests website. 2️⃣ Writing is thinking — the editorial team at Nature. 3️⃣ Outsourcing our writing to LLM might lead to something like passing the same image over and over through an image compression process. Like many things in life, we should strive to find the right balance.

🌄 Photography {#traveling,#photosharing}

1️⃣ During my trip to the Middle East, I had the chance to take more than a thousand photos, many of which are worth processing and sharing. This newsletter header image is one of them. Visit my Glass profile page to appreciate many more of them. 2️⃣ I left Flickr for other platforms, yet its 22-year milestone reminds me that the old photo commons still has a pulse — and perhaps more momentum than I expected.

🍎 Apple & Tech {#design,#liquidglass, #siri}

0️⃣ Apple's history timeline on the Computer History Museum website is nice. 1️⃣ Apple recently released version 26.3 of their OSes. Apple didn’t tweak any of Liquid Glass. The most important tweaks were done with 26.1. Is Apple stubborn and doesn’t want to address user complaints? Or is it that Apple is being… Apple: They prefer to wait longer and have a better fix than patching. This is the approach they used with the dreaded butterfly keyboard in 2018 and 2019. They waited until they had a brand-new set of MacBook models with Apple Silicon to finally fix the keyboard with an entirely new design. I don’t think Apple will completely replace Liquid Glass, but they will eventually fix it. Halide camera app developer, Sebastiaan De With, might come to the rescue. 2️⃣ For iOS 27, Apple is apparently planning a major code cleanup, which could translate into improved stability and battery performance. I'll take that in a heartbeat because, frankly, Apple’s software quality greatly decreased in recent years. Oh, and we could see the new Siri chatbot. 3️⃣ We will have to wait to see a glimpse of Apple's upcoming Siri rework. Poor Apple, that's not an easy one to fix. 4️⃣ While Google, OpenAI et al. are burning a pile of cash on building datacenters, Apple is ... waiting. From a recent article published by Fortune magazine:

“If foundation models are heading toward commodity status, then the strategic value shifts to whoever controls the integration layer and the user relationship. Apple has 2.4 billion active devices. It has the most valuable distribution channel in technology. And its recent moves suggest a deliberate strategy: rather than building frontier models, source them from whoever is best at any given moment.

This is precisely what Apple has done. It partnered with OpenAI in 2024, then switched to Google’s Gemini to power the next generation of Siri. The company is not building the engine; it is curating the best available engine at any given moment, wrapping it in Apple’s privacy architecture, and integrating it across the ecosystem. Own the experience, outsource the commodity.”

📱 Apps & Services {#craft/agents, #appledesign}

1️⃣ I experimented with Craft Agents, a new app built on top of Claude Code. I’m not sure about the value proposition compared to using Claude on the Mac. Both support connections to API and MCP endpoints. For now, I think I prefer Claude AI and Claude Code as two separate tools. That might change in the future, though. 2️⃣ Handmirror was recently updated to version 4 and got many small and big tweaks. Since this update, I've started taking selfies early in the morning or late in the evening. It’s fun. Done over the course of a year, this could be interesting. 3️⃣ Apple is phasing out iWork branding to make room for Apple Creator Studio. It's a controversial move as Apple continues to make inroads in the subscription model for apps that used to be free. It's sad to see, because Apple also continues to push ads in its apps and operating systems to entice users to subscribe. Below is a visual history of Apple's popular apps and their respectve icons. Montage made by BasicAppleGuy.

🚧 Special projects {#webdevelopment,#claude, #vibecoding}

1️⃣ I built a few web apps using Claude Code, and one of them is RSS Flow. It’s an app made just for me, so I don’t plan to share the public URL. It’s a lightweight RSS reader, perfect for when you're on the road or travelling abroad. I’ve been tweaking it for many weeks now, and who knows, it might become my main RSS reader. Without Claude Code, I could never have done it myself in a reasonable amount of time. 2️⃣ Should I call myself a developer if I depend on Claude Code to build small and very focused web applications? I don't think so. Just as we are not calling people “artists” when they take hundreds of pictures with their iPhone. Some might be, but most of them probably aren’t. This reminds me of Matt Birchler's post about those who prefer to code manually (real developers) versus those who like to do some vibe coding (like me). Some people also like to shoot and process their photos manually (like me), but the vast majority use their iPhones.

"The best part of building with AI might be before you write a single line." — Alexander Kucera in Still Possible

📺 YouTube {#ai,#vibecoding,#liquidglass}

1️⃣ Interesting video comparing ChatGPT Codex 5.3 to Claude Code Opsue 4.6 for developing a web application for selling shows. If you are curious to know who wins, watch the video! 2️⃣ Jony Ive's recent project includes designing an EV Ferrari dashboard. From what I'm seeing in this video, I think he did a great job. 3️⃣ Liquid Glass continues to divide the design community. Here's a great video explaining what might be really happening as to why Apple chose to implement Liquid Glass.

🔮 Looking forward {#macbook,#appleevent,#design }

1️⃣ Apple is getting ready for a few announcements in early March. A new entry-level iPhone and an entry-level MacBook are expected, among other things. The latter is intriguing, and I'll pay attention to what Apple has in store. I want a small but mighty device, thin but with stellar battery life, with a minimum of 8GB of RAM, but a built-to-order 12GB option. Connecting an external display should be possible, but it might be too much to ask for such an entry-level MacBook. 2️⃣ The retro-futuristic Ferrari EV car designed by Jony Ive and his firm, LoveFrom. Quite reminiscent of Apple's iconic designs (Apple Watch, Apple CarPlay, iPad). I quite like it, but some people don't. Don't miss the official website of Luce.

"The AI community frenzy around open source agent platform OpenClaw, and its accompanying agent interaction network Moltbook – plus ongoing frustration with AI-generated code submissions to open source projects – underscores the consequences of letting agents loose without behavioral rules." — Thomas Clabum

🌟 Miscellaneous {#musing, #techhistory}

1️⃣ Recently, I came across an article listing ten things the article's author hates. This one, for example, does a superb job and hits many of the things I hate myself. One example: “All modern cars look the same, down to colour options.” (except maybe this Ferrari EV car, as shown in the previous section). In the same vein, I do maintain a /nope page. 2️⃣ Do you remember the Computer Chronicle TV show with Stewart Cheifet? I do. It was a great show to learn about the computer industry back in the day. Mr. Cheifet passed away in December. His obituary is very telling about his popularity and the influence he had on many people's decisions to pursue careers in computer science. 3️⃣ Do you remember the space shuttle Challenger disaster? I certainly do, and I'm not alone. Some still-living engineers from back then do remember, and they wear the weight of feeling powerless because they told the management: no go. The management didn't get the message (or didn't want to get the message).

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