The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2025-39

🗺️ Discoveries

ubiquity #tech #blogger #discovery

1️⃣ Ubiquity released a new set of home NAS to compete against Ugreen, Qnap and Synology. As a fan of this brand, I would consider buying one of these to replace my aging Synology NAS 720+. It's a dead-simple device for basic needs. It won't compete against Synology on the operating system features set, of course. But I think many users don't need all those features, so a UNAS 2 would fill all the requirements for storing backups and files. I'll keep an eye on these devices. Who knew that one day you would read 'Ubiquity' and 'Synology' in the same sentence about NAS? 2️⃣ While browsing YouTube, I came across this video about a backpack traveller in Afghanistan. I watched it and was fascinated by his experience and… courage. I discovered this guy had a website, which I visited extensively. First, I'm happy to see younger guys not only having an Instagram and TikTok account but also a traditional website and a blog. It's refreshing to see. He maintains a YouTube channel documenting his numerous experiences during his road trips. I subscribed.

👨🏻‍💻 Writing

generativeai #ai #app/applejournal

1️⃣ Thanks to generative AI, writing is a changing landscape. In full transparency, I wrote a blog post detailing the process that lead to writing this piece about Apple. 2️⃣ I like to write when I'm on vacation. I wanted to test Apple Journal this summer. I did and shared my numerous observations. If you are a Day One user, keep it that way. If you are still curious, go ahead and try Apple Journal.

🌄 Photography

techreview #iphone17 #digg #glass/discovery

1️⃣ Austin Mann reviews the latest iPhone, from a photographer's perspective. As always, you'll find astute comments on iPhone's capabilities for serious photography journeys. As a bonus, you'll get to see some seriously good photos! 2️⃣ I tested photo posting on Digg with this photo. You might not be able to visit this link, though. Digg is still in beta. I’m not even sure Digg is the right place for posting photos, but hey, why not give it a try? I like testing new platforms. 3️⃣ You should never miss the review of the newest iPhone from the maker of Halide, the alternative camera app. 4️⃣ Another iPhone 17 Pro review, this one from Tyler Stalman and this one from Petapixel. I love these photographer-oriented takes. I relate so much more to these types of reviews than any tech pundit-tech-influencerish reviews. 5️⃣ One of the few things that I wish I could use from the recent iPhone (from 2024 up to now): photographic styles as explained and demonstrated in this video. 6️⃣ I still have my Substack page, but I don't really use it. I recently spent more time trying to see what type of content was being published on my timeline, and I stumbled upon this photographer. Wow! I don't think Substack is the best place for sharing photos. Thankfully, the photographer also has a personal website. His name is Damian Ward. I love those trees. 7️⃣ Another discovery on Glass: André. And looking at André's following, I discovered Cam Hunt, a New York-based photographer. He made so many beautiful and well-engineered visual compositions. Must see. 👀

🍎 Apple & Tech

ipad #ipados26 #stevejobs

1️⃣ If you are an “iPad-only” user and want to understand better or take advantage of iPadOS 26 multitasking, this video from Snazzy Labs tells it all. It’s a must-watch. And no, it’s not about the old Mac vs iPad debate, don't be deceived by the video thumbnail! 2️⃣ I'm still using my good old iPhone 15 Pro Max, and with this year's iPhone 17 Pro, you have to ask yourself: should I upgrade? The answer lies in this short post by Ryan Crhistoffel: no. 3️⃣ Another great iPadOS 26 video that you should consider watching. The iPadOS 26 release this year really does unleash the iPad. Finally. 4️⃣ If you are curious about the latest iPhone internals, don't miss this video showing the disassembly of the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro. It's really impressive what they can fit inside such small devices. The main logic board is so small! 5️⃣ I wrote a rather lengthy piece on Apple failures (and you can have a behind-the-scenes look at this writing project). 6️⃣ I came to the conclusion that using the iPad with iPadOS 26's multitasking without an external monitor should be done with Stage Manager enabled. With an external monitor, using the new and flexible windowing system might be a better experience. But remember, flexibility always comes at a cost: mandatory window management. For some reason, it's not as fluid on the iPad as on the Mac. Cue the following videos down below for a full picture. 7️⃣ “Your presentation is pedantic and boring.” Steve Jobs, as reported here by Ken Segall, about Apple's latest keynote. I don't know what to say. On one hand, I wish Apple would return to live presentations, but on the other hand, I love the technically perfect presentations they always put together. It's the only infomercial that I can't tolerate from start to end. 8️⃣ Apple likes to control and own the whole technology stack, and the iPhone Air line certainly proves it, as this interview from CBNC explains it: Apple pitched iPhone Air as a hardware design leap and proof of its deeper silicon self-reliance. The A19 Pro with GPU-embedded neural accelerators is positioned as Apple’s real AI play—on-device, private, and developer-friendly—while the N1 and C1X chips mark a near-total takeover of the iPhone’s silicon stack. But Wall Street is still waiting for a more compelling “AI vision,” beyond chip-level plumbing.

🚧 Special projects

app/screenstudio

1️⃣ I decided to subscribe to Screen Studio, a screen recording app. It will join ScreenFlow, another screen recording app that I'm using to create my YouTube videos. Screen Studio offers an easier and more intuitive recording experience for zooming into content in post-production. ScreenFlow supports that too, but the method never really clicked with me and takes way more time to get decent results. Screen Studio lacks basic video editing features, which is why I keep ScreenFlow around. I'll use both of them to create videos. Here's my first video involving Screen Studio 2️⃣ I had issues this week with one of my websites and had to request support from the hosting service, Chillidog Hosting. It's not entirely clear what the problem was, but it was probably related to a bad interaction with CloudFlare. However, in any case, the response I received from the support staff was rapid and stellar.

📱 Apps & Services

#service/news #service/kagi
1️⃣ The enshitification of Google is complete as shown in the “Googling Stuff” image below. That's why I'm not using Google, but Kagi instead. It's not free, but it keeps me from becoming insane. 2️⃣ After adding a News section, Kagi has now released an iPad and iPhone app: Kagi News. It's simple, to the point. Must download.

📺 YouTube

ai #aibubble

1️⃣ In this video, a startup company has a hard time finding talent in the AI-related field, while other companies are laying off software engineers because of productivity gains, thanks to AI. 😳 Additionally, a significant amount of attention appears to be devoted to prompt engineering. 2️⃣ Would you like a touchscreen MacBook? The debate is still raging.

🌟 Miscellaneous

#ads

1️⃣ Ads are everywhere, even on a fridge near you. 😳 I bought a Samsung fridge a few years ago, and there is no chance this will happen again. It was a piece of crap that I sold as soon as I could after my home renovations. It was so noisy, I could barely stand it. Now, I'm the proud owner of an LG fridge, probably the most silent fridge I've ever owned. 2️⃣ Speaking of ads, OpenAI is looking at more revenue streams, and ads are one of them. I'm unsure how these ads would be introduced and experienced from an end-user perspective. However, it certainly marks a possible turning point in OpenAI/ChatGPT enshitification, as I wrote here. Remember: ads always involve some form of user tracking.

🔮 Looking forward

#service/chatgpt

1️⃣ OpenAI just announced ChatGPT Pulse, and I can't wait to try it out. Curated news every day? I'll take it. I hope it's something similar to Kagi News. People like Manton Reece seem to like it. The only issue is that I'm asking so many questions about various topics. I wonder how well ChatGPT Pulse will be able to come up with something coherent. 2️⃣ Ten years from now, Apple might be doing Frosted Glass, replacing Liquid Glass. Seen on Reddit. 3️⃣ The AI bubble will burst sooner than later, harder than everyone seems to think.

I wish you a great week! ✌️ 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇪🇺 💪🏻