A collection of notes
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to morge: the process of using generative AI to obfuscate the source of a creative or intellectual work and avoid attribution.
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I just caught myself staring at a Finder window, wondering how Apple thinks I should store my files. I am baffled. This post is me āthinking out loudā.
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I switched to Vivaldi out of frustration with Appleās recent design choices, and because I dislike anything from the US, because of the whiff of fascism all US products have in my mind at this point. I switched back, because despite the deteriorating quality of Appleās UIs, their products still seem to work best for me.
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I suspect, if we just allowed ourselves to be human, and stopped editing our humanity away in fear of alienating readers and customers, or just rubbing them the wrong way, weād find that most people prefer the unpolished creations of artists over the smoothed edges of AI generated content. Write, donāt generate. If nobody disagrees with your text, itās probably no good.
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A contrast of 1.58 to 1 is too low in any context, Apple uses it for buttons that look like disbaled list elements.
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Microsoft Teams is 1.2GB and installs the Auto Updater as a privileged helper that runs in the background.
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I believe, UX needs to be a required hard-skill for all working in tech. All of us building products have to learn to empathize with non-techie-people using our products. And just like with any kind of inclusivity issue: we must include the not-so-savvy people in the process of developing and testing products.
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I love whatās happening! I think itās a good thing people are spending less time interacting with screens. I think its good that YouTube is horrible now. And I think the move towards decentralised platforms is worthy of celebration. The internet isnāt dying, the monopolies are, and Iām here for it!
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Spoiler alert āĀ About the final episode of Foundation season three.
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Besides some significant changes happening in my life right now, I also feel like introducing some changes to my digital presence.
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The new watches are thinner, more durable, and come with new watch faces. All models now support 5G. The AirPods Pro 3's flagship feature is live translation, and theyāre IP57 now.
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What I learned from a source here in Germany: The camera lenses are worse because Apple now relies on AI to correct imperfections in the glass. That means if you use your phone for forensic work, the images are worthless, but nobody is going to know, and that is bad.
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The first time I heard them say a number of hours for how long the battery would last was when they showed off their external battery extension backpack. After giving that number, the presentation immediately went on to discuss something else, and I never heard any number for how long the internal battery would actually last.
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I think calling iPhone Pro a phone is questionable. Apple Watch can make phone calls, and iPhone Pro is clearly a camera/gaming handheld that happens to be able to make phone calls. If Apple were to introduce this form factor today, I think theyād not call it a phone.
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Donāt install iOS 26, itās bad.
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YouTubeās copyright system breaks, when a copyright holder, like a label, uses AI to overwhelm creators with fraudulent copyright claims.
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Yes, but they donāt want it to be called generative AI. They would prefer you call it āimproving video quality.ā
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AI feels like a forest fire. I look forward to the 2030s in that regard because I think the current AI-hype will move a lot of money out of giant bank accounts into the hands of innovative and inventive people.
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Wer aktuell die Nachrichten verfolgt, der wird gehƶrt haben, dass Entlastungen fĆ¼r normale und geringe Einkommen von der Haushaltslage abhƤngig sein sollen. Haushalte, denen die Inflation den Sauerstoff aus der Luft saugt. Gleichzeitig kƤmpft die CDU gegen hƶhere Steuereinnahmen indem sie Unternehmen und Haushalte mit hohem Einkommen steuerlich entlasten will. Das ist pervers, destabilisiert den Staat, hilft den Populisten und hat absolut gar nichts mit dem C im Namen der Partei zu tun.
Die DU, denn christlich ist sie wirklich nicht, sollte sich schƤmen.
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The iOS 26 public beta is better than expected but has significant performance issues, and Liquid Glass needs more than "on light" and "on dark" states.
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The āI am āconcernedā about Xā-bigotry is annoying me. The impact of this hypocrisy camouflaged as empathy affects us all. It starts small, with things like āconcernā about an iPhone feature that will filter SPAM text messages by default. (Just turn the filter off and shut up!) and there are no limits to this phoniness.
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My personal experience setting up my new iPhone in 2025.
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Iām a capitalist, and I think we need higher taxes. OK, now that Iāve offended both the left and right, letās get into it. I am convinced that given the right incentives in the form of taxes and subsidies, capitalism can soften the impact of the climate crisis.
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You might imagine my surprise, finding Zoom in my automatically opening applications, after uninstalling it a few months ago. Here is what I foundā¦
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I think Apple should allow alerts to show up in Mission Control, to make it easier to find them.
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Rumours suggest Apple will likely increase the price of the iPhone Pro models to compensate for Trump tariffs. It's unlikely customers outside the US will get cheaper phones.
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I tested copy-pasting formatted text in Notes, Messages, and a Markdown optimized text editor on iPadOS 26. Here is what I learned.
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It wouldnāt surprise me if Appleās executives wanted to distance themselves from John's opinion a little. In fact, Apple declining his invitation feels like a good development to me. Apple is a global tech giant, and John Gruber is no Kara Swisher.
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It's easier for politicians and others to discriminate against those who are invisible and silent than to discriminate against those who are visible and clearly part of society. That is why Iāve decided to add the š³ļøāš pride-flag to my name on Mastodon during Pride Month, in response to the increase in violence against trans-people and the LGBTQ+ community in general. I am gay, and discrimination against any one of us is discrimination against all of us.
Iām in a very privileged position as a white, usually strait-passing, man. I ask you to offer support to trans people especially. Iām not worried about myself, but I am deeply worried, witnessing the harm done to trans persons. What is happening around the globe, and now also in the US, reminds me of Nazi Germany, and how they locked up and murdered those they did not understand.
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After moving away from GitHub, I finally found a new home for my code: Codeberg.org. In this post, I explain how to verify an SSH key stored in 1Password, to sign commits there on Codeberg.
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In November 2024, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. The new chancellor of Germany, Merz, wants to invite him to Germany. This situation is extremely risky and unnecessary.
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This is part two of my series: āThe Great Untanglingā, the series in which I document my journey away from US tech.
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This is part one of my series: āThe Great Untanglingā, the series in which I document my journey away from US tech. This first post answers why I do itāand why I think you should too.
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I think Appleās Apple Intelligence email categorization is outdated even before itās out of beta. And it shows that Appleās design team doesnāt understand AI.
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The US has decided that racist AI is the way to go; the Australian Academy of the Humanities explains why, and I suggest you use European alternatives.
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WhatsApp added Meta AI, you canāt turn it off, and itās forced upon you by breaking established design practices. Also, it makes shit up.
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I will make an active effort to spend less money on US goods and services and donate less of my time to US social media. And when I canāt resist, I will limit myself to calling out the emotional manipulation that most lies aim to be, instead of āowningā the victims of right-wing manipulative lies.
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The case to consider the U.S. a hostile foreign power is strong. We need to shift away from U.S. software and services, and there are great alternatives available now.
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In this note I give an example to illustrate the importance of letting users change the automatically detected language on a multilingual website.
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Here I lay out an idea how I think Apple could fix a lot of bugs, its AI problem, and rebuild the trust it needs to attract customers outside the U.S.āespecially considering the Trump administration.
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I give three examples how iMessage on Mac is chaotic and difficult to use.
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A video by Hank Green sparked me to re-iterate how important it is to use social media that doesnāt own you.
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Today I re-learned a better mindset about money.
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In this semi-rant I explore why I decided not to buy a new Mac Mini M4, and how you can buy one without going crazy or spending too much.
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I remember watching this video after installing Aperture. The app came on a DVD with a license key printed on the back, thats how long ago this was!
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In this post I reflect on my feelings watching the queue of CEOs and politicians congratulating Trump.
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Appleās recent ads for Apple Intelligence make my nails curl and my stomach turn. I think they are actually hurting Appleās brand.
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Who is more likely to care about your voice after the election? A wanna-be-dictator that is serving his last legal term in office, or Kamala, who will want to be re-elected in 2028?
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In this post I reflect on two years of Mastodon, Musk Twitter, and the impact of Threadsā algorithm.
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I was miffed about cookie banners that force visitors to pay for access or accept third-party cookies. While writing this post I had to accept that I had no right to be.
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I found that a UI component of macOS was hidden but functional in Safari.
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An open letter to the team working on Apple Mail @ Apple.
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In this text I explore how the DMA and GDPR are having unintended consequences for the EU market. I explore several concrete examples to illustrate some of the less desirable outcomes.
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In a video, Quinn Nelson demos the virtual shadow of the Apple Pencil Pro.
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Tim Cook believes that the Mac's recent sales slump could improve with the introduction of the M3 chip. I think heās wrong and suspect that declining software quality from Apple is hurting Mac sales.
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The iPhone 15 announcement left me feeling disappointed, so I spent some time to ask myself what would have excited me. Colorful designs, like the iPhone 5C, and a different camera are my main wishes for a new iPhone.
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Podcasts on Apple Podcasts are interrupted by ads in foreign languages. This is annoying, and Apple should just use my language preferences from my Apple ID or device settings.
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Subscribing to Apple TV+ via the macOS TV App unexpectedly resulted in a subscription to AppleOne instead. This confused me until I realized Apple had selected the cheaper option without asking.
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When we use social media, we invest time, mental energy, and idle brain time, but the returns on this investment vary. How can we optimize our time spent for the return we want?
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The rumor mill is running hot about Apple's potential AR/VR headset. The success would hinge on its usefulness and engaging developers to adopt it.
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In anticipation of new EU regulation, Mozilla is working on bringing Firefox to iOS using its own rendering engine. Google's Chromium team is also working on a new iOS browser based on Blink.
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Apple Music introduced "Replay 2022," akin to Spotify Wrapped. I was surprised how well it highlighted music I like, but Apple's oversights in UX testing made it a nightmare to use.