Tag Archives: Apple

Rant

The iPad Pro is such a neutered device

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I have had a long & complicated history with various devices in the iPad lineup over the years. Don’t get me wrong, the iPad is a fantastic device for what its made for. Is just not made for some of the things I want to do; which is making it work like a real computer.

What it is good at

After using iPads (Mostly Pro versions) over many years, I have realised that the iPad is good at:

  1. Media consumption – Great for watching movies, TV shows on the go, browsing through photos. The mini-LED Display is great with high contrasts and peak brightness.
  2. Reading magazines and newspapers.
  3. Sketching stuff & taking hand-written notes.
  4. Looking at websites.
  5. Photo and Video editi…

I love the sexy slab design and the folio cover. But spending this amount of money just for the above items doesn’t make sense (at least, to me).

What it is bad at

Again, not blaming Apple. The iPad can do exactly what Apple claims it can do. The fault is squarely on me for expecting the iPad Pro to act and behave like a real computer.

Why did I even have these expectations? Because I assumed that surely a device this expensive would be able to do some of the things that a computer can do. Why else would you put an M4 processor or 16GB RAM in a tablet? Also, after Apple bought Stage Manager to the iPad, I hoped they would bring more features. Obviously, I hoped wrong.

Over the last year, my frustrations kept mounting till I felt compelled to write this post.

Virtual Machines

You can read about my tryst with UTM SE here. The powerful CPU/GPU are so severely crippled by iPadOS that a 27 year old OS runs slower on it, than it used to, back then.

Again, this is not what the iPad is built for, so my fault for expecting this.

Mouse/Keyboard

The iPadOS technically does support mice, but the experience is severely crippled (stupid round shaped pointer, jumping from element to element, no pointer acceleration).

My frustrations with the external keyboard experience on the iPad is unrivalled. It would keep capitalising the first alphabet of each new sentence, even for things like URLs etc. You can disable this globally, but then it also gets disabled for the on-screen keyboard.

Correction – I found a way to disable this, just for the hardware keyboard.

Disable Auto Correct for Hardware Keyboard on iPad
Disable Auto Correct for Hardware Keyboard on iPad

Web Browsing

Every time I try to scroll up to the top of my WordPress post compose page too fast, it refreshes the whole page and I lose gobs of data. Strangely, this problem didn’t exist on the Magic Mouse 2.

Many websites are not optimised for Safari on iPad. Eg. WordPress hyperlink popup doesn’t show the save option (Is hidden below the window).

Wordpress hyperlink popup on Safari, iPad
WordPress hyperlink popup on Safari, iPad

Wordress also frequently gets stuck on saving a post with the page unresponsive and the button greyed out.

Wordpress stuck autosaving, Safari iPadOS
WordPress stuck autosaving, Safari iPadOS

Basic Text Editing

I discovered this one when recently trying to make a small change to an HTML file. To open an html file from files, you need a 3rd party option and there are no good free ones. They either all require you to pay or have loads of intrusive ads.

Don’t blame developers for this, they have to go via Apple’s App Store and hence pay fees to Apple, why should they release apps, even basic for free?

Eventually I settled on the excellent Runestone Text Editor.

GitHub

I know, I know, the iPad is not meant for application development. But all I wanted to do was upload my website landing page, some 200 files in different folders.

I was horrified when I found out that there’s no support for uploading multiple files and folders to GitHub from the files app. GitHub’s iPad app is just a glorified mobile app, not the Desktop equivalent.

Working Copy to the rescue, which is paid, but very powerful.

Proper File Management

Recently I transferred 400GB of data from mega to my NAS. Although the Files app does have basic file management, I couldn’t find a way to get all 400GB to my iPad to further transfer to the NAS.

Mega (Like most other file sharing apps) does support the connector in the files app, but the experience is buggy at best and times out after a few GBs and needs to be started from scratch.

Eventually, I had to use my daughter’s notebook to get it done. She laughed at me.

Proper Photos management

The only reason I got the 512GB variant of the iPad was because I wanted to store all my photos offline and in case Apple terminated my account for some reason, I would be able to export everything out. However, the only way to export all the photos from the Photos app is to start selecting photos and hold your finger at the bottom of the app for more than an hour for it to select all the photos.

The fun part? Even when you manage to do that, export fails and it knocks you out of the selection mode to start again from scratch.

What, then?

Switch to a Macbook? Even that doesn’t tick all the boxes.

TaskiPad ProMacBook
Reading Books/MagazinesExcellentPoor
Watching VideosExcellentAverage
Virtual MachinesPoorExcellent
Mouse/KeyboardPoorExcellent
Web BrowsingAverageExcellent
Text EditingAverageExcellent
File ManagementAverageExcellent
Photo ManagementAverageExcellent
DisplayExcellentAverage

I really don’t want to also buy a Macbook to complement or replace the $2000 iPad Pro.

My opinion is that if not for the Pro Motion (120Hz) Display, the iPad Air is perfectly sufficient for most purposes and there’s very little market for the Pro model.

I can just hope that iPadOS matures enough to do some basic computing tasks in the future and makes use of the powerful hardware.

Technology

My List of Mobile Handsets (updated)

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I’ll go back in time now and make a list of all the mobile handsets I have owned till date. You may notice that the list is quite long, with it being especially dense in the first few years.

The iPhone X still holds the record of the longest used mobile handset by me (almost 3 years).

YearPhoneComments
2003Reliance LG RD2030 (CDMA)My first phone, my father had to pull many strings to get me this.
2004Nokia 3530My first colour phone. I miss the paragliding game.
2004Samsung C100Had a hidden temperature sensor and a notification LED supporting customisable colours.
2004Samsung X100Slightly better than the above.
2004Nokia 1100My first phone with a torch.
2005Nokia 2112My last CDMA phone.
2005Nokia N-Gage QDDidn’t have stereo audio for music playback.
2005Nokia 3510iPurchased Second hand.
2005O2 Xphone IIOne of the best phones I had.
2005Motorola C350When the above got stolen. I think I got it for ~₹1000, second hand. Shitty.
2006Nokia 6100Second Hand.
2006Nokia E50One of the best phones I had. It was the sleekest Symbian ever. I still use the Text Tone “Flurry” as my wife’s message tone.
2006Sony Ericsson J100iShitty.
2007Nokia N73 MEIt was thick, but had a good (back then) camera.
2007Nokia E51Back to the thinner E Series.
2007LG KS20One of the worst phones I had. It was unrefined and shitty.
2008Nokia E51Went back to E51.
2009Nokia E52Good phone, died on the flight to Palo Alto. I spent an entire weekend in San Francisco and many days in Gurgaon trying to get it repaired, but failed.
2010iPhone 3GGot this as a temporary phone in Palo Alto, later gifted to mother. Used only a week.
2010Nokia E63Mooched this one off my father.
2011Nokia E7-00First phone I ever pre-booked, and got immediately after returning from Turkey. My first AMOLED phone.
2012Nokia Lumia 900Was obsoleted by Microsoft within a few months of launch. Got it from SGBest.
2013Nokia Lumia 720Got it from MGF Metropolitan Mall
2013Nokia Lumia 925The Lumia 720 didn’t feel premium enough, so.
2014Nokia Lumia 920The Lumia 925 didn’t have wireless charging, so.
2014Nokia Lumia 830Slightly bigger screen, but LCD.
2015Microsoft Lumia 950XLLumia Flagship. Also, a big mistake.
2017Apple iPhone 7 PlusFirst legit iPhone.
2018Apple iPhone XGift from a fiend.
2019Apple iPhone XSGot it for dual SIM during travel, gifted iPhone X to wife.
2020Apple iPhone XSwapped Xs with X with wife, as I switched jobs and didn’t need to travel anymore.
2020Apple iPhone 12 ProFirst phone I bought in a long time with money I already had
2022Apple iPhone 14 ProFirst phone I bought with a 120Hz display
2024Apple iPhone 16 ProCurrent Phone
List of Mobile Handsets

As you can see, my mobile handsets have gone through different eras:

2003-2005 : Feature Phone era. I generally bought any handset I liked.
2005-2011 : Symbian Era. I mostly had Symbian phones with some other platforms sprinkled in between.
2012-2015 : Lumia Era. I purely had Windows Phones.
2017-Present : Apple Era.

Let’s see what the future brings.

Technology

Apple iPhone 16 Pro

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I had been using the Apple iPhone 14 Pro for more than 2 years. But I started yearning to upgrade it as soon as iPhone 16 Pro was announced. I did try to convince myself to wait for another year, but last month, I gave up and bought the iPhone 16 Pro.

The iPhone 16 Pro is delightful to hold without a case
The iPhone 16 Pro is a delight to hold without a case

My views on the iPhone 16 Pro

  1. The battery life is much better than the 14 Pro. The phone, now, easily lasts a full day without a top-up. Although I do top-up during the day most days.
  2. Charging is much faster (Including wireless) and the phone emits less heat while charging.
  3. The cameras are a modest improvement. I don’t see a big difference in picture quality most of the times, but for low-light photos, I do see an improvement. Portrait photos are also faster now, with motion frozen. The 5x zoom is useful, but I, personally haven’t found a use-case for it till now. Disappointed that portrait mode photos are still 12MP.
  4. The phone feels much cooler while using. It didn’t overheat once during initial setup, which was more or less guaranteed on the 14 Pro.
  5. It is such a relief to remove the last lightning port personal device from my life and get rid of all remaining lightning cables.
  6. The display is slightly bigger (Although with similar specs) and the bezels slightly smaller, but I don’t notice any of that because I switched from using my phone with a case/screen guard, to using without it, which made a bigger difference.
  7. I can finally fulfil my desire to use my phone without a case. Overall, the phone is extremely pleasurable to hold naked.
    • The Titanium sides are not glossy like the 14 Pro, almost matte. Looks beautiful and elegant. Doesn’t slip when holding.
    • The edges are not as sharp as on the 14 Pro.
    • There’s a pronounced slope when the phone is resting on its back, because of the huge camera island. And since the island is on one side, not in the centre, it is impossible to use the phone when it is lying on a flat surface, as it flops around.
iPhone 16 Pro slope because of camera bump
iPhone 16 Pro slope because of camera bump
iPhone 16 Pro Titanium White
iPhone 16 Pro Titanium White

Lessons learnt when selling the old Phone

  1. Going to great lengths to keep the phone in pristine condition without a single scratch is not worth it. At the end of the day, it hardly earns any extra money while selling it.
  2. Things like cases, screen guards are all dead weight.
  3. Paying to replace the battery is useless because no one pays extra for battery health.
Technology

Apple Watch Series 10

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I have been using the Apple Watch Series 7 for almost 3 years without any complaints, nor had a yearning to upgrade. However, the battery health went down gradually over the years. Eventually, at 79% health, I couldn’t even complete a 10k with it playing music while connected to LTE. Fighting back the urge to get the Series 9 or Ultra 2, I decided to wait for the Apple Watch Series 10 and buy that. Strangely in Thailand, it was launched much later, even after India.

Since I experienced a financial windfall, I decided to move up to the Titanium variant.

Apple Watch Series 10 Natural Titanium with Natural Milanese Loop
Apple Watch Series 10 Natural Titanium with Natural Milanese Loop
Apple Watch Series 10 showing silver colour
Apple Watch Series 10 showing silver colour

My views on the watch

  1. Titanium is absolutely gorgeous. As you can see in the photos above, the watch has a golden hue in warm lighting and silver in cool lighting. At some angles, looks jet black, too.
  2. The titanium chassis is much lighter than the Stainless-Steel variant (Which I had the Series 4 in). I found it hardly any heavier than Aluminium variant.
  3. I had planned to use the Milanese Loop only when going out and my old Braided Solo Loop all other times for comfort. However, I found the Milanese loop much more comfortable than I had assumed, so I almost always wear that.
  4. Wrist temperature monitoring is good to have, but I wasn’t yearning for it.
  5. I can see the difference in screen size, but don’t find it revolutionary. I thought it would look comically big on my wrist, but thankfully, doesn’t. The bigger bezels are also hardly noticeable.
  6. I don’t find the watch any faster or any better in any other way.
  7. I don’t see any changes or improvements to exercise tracking (Except the better battery life, of course).
  8. I can’t remember to use the pinch gestures to decline calls etc.
Apple Watch Series 10 on the dawg's wrist
Apple Watch Series 10 on the dawg’s wrist

Overall, I can say that the upgrade from Aluminium to Titanium is a bigger upgrade, compared to technical improvements (From Series 7 to Series 10) which are nice-to-have but not revolutionary.

Rant, Technology

iPad Debacle : 2023 edition

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I couldn’t end 2023 without another iPad debacle. I already went through how I bought an iPad Pro 12.9 and iPad Pro 11 back in 2022. After the 2022 debacle, I ended up without an iPad, but reasonably satisfied. Then 2023 came around and things went wrong.

As part of my New Years’ resolution, I started reading again. The only problem was, English books are very expensive in Thailand. On top of that, English Indian books are very hard to find. To solve this problem, I bought a Kindle. All was good for a few months, till I felt like I wanted to read comic books & magazines. Of course you cannot do that on a kindle. So what does one do?

iPad debacle
NASA Visualization Explorer (iPad app) by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

iPad Air (5th Gen) 64Gb

One day while walking through the mall, I saw a good deal on an iPad Air (5th Gen) & bought it. Things were OK for a while, I read both books and magazines on it, no problem. However, the poorly storage space (64Gb) and the 60Hz screen started nagging me. Especially when I switched from using my iPhone to the iPad, it felt really bad. I decided that it won’t do. My daughter’s 4 year old iPad was acting up, so I gave her my Air and started looking around.

iPad Pro 11 (4th Gen) 512Gb

The iPad Pro 11 was seemingly perfect. It addressed the storage and display refresh rate limitations of the Air. Weeks went by, with me oblivious to what’s coming next. And then I made a mistake of checking out iPads at the mall. Once I compared the iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 displays, it was game over for this iPad, too.

I hadn’t done my homework before buying this iPad. If I had, I would know that the iPad Pro 11 had a regular LCD screen which goes up to 600 nits. The iPad Pro 12.9 on the other hand, has a Mini LED display and the difference is mind blowing. The contrast and brightness were incomparable. And once I saw this, I couldn’t go back to the iPad Pro 11. It was outside the return window, so I sold it on Facebook Marketplace at a slight loss. I was lucky I got such a good deal.

iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 512Gb

The next logical step was to buy the iPad Pro 12.9. I chose to forget what happened last time and bought one from the Apple Store. The good news was, I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. I even went a long way towards getting used to its huge size and weight. Then I saw a deal on Studio 7 and I returned the iPad to Apple (The process took less than 10 mins).

iPad Pro 12.9 (5th Gen) 512Gb

The deal I saw was for an iPad Pro 12.9 (5th Gen) for less than what I paid for the last one. The kicker is, this was a 2Tb model. I couldn’t ever use the 2Tb, but the 1Tb/2Tb models do come with 16Gb RAM, too and appealed to me no end. I ended up saving money with the last transition, but didn’t lose much because the 5th Gen to 6th Gen upgrade was minor at best. I had second thoughts after buying this one, too and even contacted customer care to return it, but eventually slapped myself hard twice and stopped it. But after the holidays came and went and it didn’t even ship, I cancelled the order.

iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 512Gb

Eventually, I gave up and went back to the Apple Store and bought the same iPad I bought before the last one, but this time in Silver colour.

Analysis

After the dust settled, I tried to think about why this happens to me and why specifically only with iPads. Why did I go through 7 iPads in a span of 10 months? My iPhone is more than a year old and I felt no yearning to upgrade when the iPhone 15 Pro came out. My AirPods Pro lasted 4 years before I had to change them because they died. My Apple Watch is 2 generations old and the last one lasted 4 generations. I have never wanted a Mac or a MacBook. This literally doesn’t happen to me for anything except the iPad.

Eventually, I realised it is because I am looking for a single device to do all of the below

  1. Read books
  2. Read comics, magazines & newspapers
  3. Use as a PC for blogging & budgeting on Buxfer
  4. Making FaceTime calls
  5. Watching TV shows when the TV is occupied or when I am out

The fact is, there’s no one device which fulfils all the above criteria perfectly.

  • The Kindle is good for 1 but not any of the others.
  • The iPad Air and Pro 11 are good for 1 & 4 but not for 2, 3 or 5.
  • The iPad Pro 12.9 is good for 2, 3, 4 & 5, but too big and heavy for 1.
  • A MacBook is good for 3 & 4, but not 1, 2 or 5.

Eventually, I decided to compromise and use a Kindle to read books and an iPad Pro 12.9 to do everything else.

Technology

iPhone 14 Pro first impressions

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So I upgraded from my iPhone 12 Pro to an iPhone 14 Pro. Here’re my takeaways after 1 day:

The camera module is huge. There’s a perceptible slope to the phone when lying flat. The phone looks stupid without a case. Like it has sprouted a tumour.

iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Camera bump without case
Camera bump without case
iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Camera bump with case
Camera bump with case

But the cameras take very nice macro images. Will get creative with this in the days to come.

Orange Macro, iPhone 14 Pro
Orange Macro, iPhone 14 Pro
Fabric Macro, iPhone 14 Pro
Fabric Macro, iPhone 14 Pro

It is and feels heavier than 12 Pro. I am glad I didn’t get the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which I almost did. My little finger is already suffering.

FaceID is noticeably faster.

The dynamic island is cool. Even the parts with the FaceID sensor and the camera are touch sensitive. Hope more apps develop cool features for it.

Dynamic Island, iPhone 14 Pro
Music, Dynamic Island
Dynamic Island, iPhone 14 Pro
Charging, Dynamic Island
Dynamic Island, iPhone 14 Pro
Lock Screen, Dynamic Island

Although, the notch on the older iPhones had become invisible to me, I still can’t un-see the dynamic island. Also, the Dynamic island sits a bit lower on the screen compared to the older notch, so app content starts even lower. This change is just barely perceptible.

Mail app, iPhone 12 ProMail app, iPhone 14 Pro

The always on display is cool. Time will tell how much battery it uses up.

The display is cooler (as in colour temperature). I think my iPhone 12 Pro Display was unnecessarily warm.

The 120Hz display difference is visible, especially during screen animations and when using the 12 Pro.

Will sell the iPhone 12 Pro once my eSIM situation is sorted out, hopefully in March 2023.

Technology

Life Inside Apple’s Walled Garden

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For many years now, I have been a firm believer in having a cohesive, seamless technological experience. I don’t like mixing technologies/products from different ecosystems, as they never work as well. For many years, I had heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem and products. When Windows Mobile croaked, I had to make a decision and I went with Apple. Since then, I have moved almost all of my services to Apple’s ecosystem & am enjoying the comforts of Apple’s Walled Garden.

To lock myself completely in this garden, I also had to move all my family members inside it. Over many years, I was successful in doing so. Below is how life is like, living inside Apple’s Walled Garden:

Apple's Walled Garden
Apple’s Walled Garden, PC: Macstories

What?

FunctionProductComments
Email/
Calendar/
Reminders		iCloud+ Custom domains are supported. Email works very well (on Apple devices). AirDrop is useful for sending larger files.

Calendar supports shared calendars.

Reminders supports shared reminders.
Desktop OSmacOSWorks very well with Apple services. The M1 Macs are very fast and energy efficient.
Mobile/Tablet OSiOS/iPadOS
Photo StorageiCloud+HEIF format used by Apple results in efficient storage of photos and allows lossless editing.
Photo SharingiCloud Shared PhotosWorks very well. I share photos to my family; they can comment/like. Is like a private Social Network.
ProductivityPages/Numbers/Keynotes
Cloud StorageiCloud+I wish they had a tier between 200Gb and 2Tb.
Instant MessagingiMessageVery well refined ; I now use it exclusively & have a lot of fun playing games inside iMessage apps.
Music StreamingApple MusicCurrently unbeatable with the introduction of Spatial & Lossless Audio.
Movies (Buy/Rent)iTunesLarge collection of movies available, especially in 4K HDR.
Maps/NavigationApple MapsNot as good as Google Maps, but at least they don’t track my movements.
Audio/Video CallingFacetimeUnparalleled quality, supports Spatial audio and Memojis.
BrowserSafariVery fast & responsive .
NotesApple NotesFunctional, supports sharing notes with family.
Password ManagementiCloud PasswordsCan detect and alert user to compromised passwords. Also has a TOTP generator.
HealthApple HealthVery intuitive and supports data inputs from a huge range of apps and services.
Home AutomationHomekitLarge number of Homekit devices available on the market. They all work seamlessly without separate apps.
My Walled Garden

It does take a decent amount of money to enter this walled garden, but once you’re in, the recurring costs are not high. Most of their services are decently priced (and can be shared with family) and devices last for years and have a decent resale value.

Rant

Of MacBooks & Starbucks

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For years, I have noticed a peculiar relationship between MacBooks and Starbucks cafes. More specifically, people sitting at Starbucks and pretending to work on their MacBooks.

Macbook in Starbucks
Woman multitasking on Macbook and iPad

Basically, a vast majority of people sitting at Starbucks have Apple MacBooks. These people sit at Starbucks for hours with their MacBooks and pretend to work on them. I don’t understand what it is about Starbucks that attracts such people. And this is not limited to a specific country. I have seen this across multiple continents.

Macbook in Starbucks
Guy pretending to work on Macbook

Almost all of these people are just sitting there with their MacBook open in front of them and pretending to work. I have hardly seen any of them doing any actual work; instead they are actually talking/doomscrolling on their phones. They buy a drink and sit there for hours. It is especially infuriating when you can’t find a place to sit and you see such people without any beverages just sitting there.

Macbook in Starbucks
Group of people pretending to work on Macbooks

More peculiarly, I have seen this only at Starbucks, not at other cafes or cafe chains. I wonder what the people with more pedestrian laptops feel and which cafes they go to.

Technology

My Best Purchases-HP 3545 AIO

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Continuing with my series, the next entry in the list is the HP 3545 Printer/Scanner which is one of the best purchases (and the most useful) I ever made.

HP 3545
HP 3545 AIO, PC: HP

I ordered this from Amazon around December 2015 after my last inkjet died. It cost me only ₹5200 which is definitely a bargain for something this useful.

The device comes with WiFi connectivity. Not just WiFi direct between phones and the device, but it can join an actual 802.11 WiFi network & stay connected to the internet. The task of joining the printer to the WiFi network is a bit laborious using the tiny display and limited controls, but is a one time job. Once it is connected to WiFi, it is very easy to access from any device (Windows, Fagdroid or Apple) on the same network. The best part is, this is the first printer I have used that requires no drivers or apps on any device; everything is native.

It prints coloured pages reasonably fast, scans photos and documents up to 1200dpi and borderless coloured photos on glossy paper up to 6×4 inches. If you’re not on the same network, you can even print things remotely using the HP app, as long as this printer has Internet access.

This is probably the most useful thing I have ever bought. From school homework to bureaucratic paperwork; I couldn’t imagine my life without this.

Technology

Ecosystem

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In technology, ecosystem is a big thing. I remember, 10 years ago, while looking for a device/service, one would go for whatever is best in that category. This approach doesn’t work that well anymore. These days it makes sense for a person to stick to an ecosystem and use products/services mostly in that ecosystem, otherwise things get messy. This is because each of the three big companies want the users of their services to use their products exclusively and as a result, don’t support cross-platform compatibility very well.
Here’s an overview of the services/products offered by the Big-three. For those who are curious, I am firmly planted in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Service

Apple

Google

Microsoft
E-Mail ME(iCloud) Gmail Outlook (formerly Hotmail)
Search N/A Google.com Bing
Desktop OS MAC OS None Windows
Mobile/Tablet OS iOS Android Windows
Social Networking N/A Google+ Socl
Photo Sharing N/A Google+ N/A
Productivity Apps Pages/Numbers etc. Google Docs Microsoft Office
Cloud Storage iCloud drive Google Drive Onedrive
Gaming Console N/A N/A XboX
Music/Video Store iTunes Google Play Xbox Music/Video
Maps/Navigation Apple Maps Google Maps Bing/Here Maps
Messaging/Video calling iMessage (proprietary) Hangouts Skype