brianus

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brianus
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  • Compared: iPad mini 6 versus iPad mini 5

    brianusbrianus
    iPad Arr!! 
    stuartfwilliamlondonMisterKitFileMakerFellerradarthekatwatto_cobra

  • Apple reported to have killed the project to create Mac-connected AR glasses

    brianusbrianus
    twolf2919 said:
    If this really existed - not an assured thing in this rumor driven world - then it's the dumbest idea ever.  Thanks god it was canceled!  I could understand AR glasses tethered than iPhone - at least you could still experience AR's promise of augmenting the world with useful information as you moved through it.  But what's the use of augmenting anything while you're sitting somewhere with your MacBook???  Add a virtual calculator or calendar to your office walls?  Who'd walk around with a laptop in hand?  Makes no sense at all.
    Are you kidding me? As the article rightly notes, Mac Virtual Display is considered by many to be the most compelling feature of the Vision Pro. This would be like that, but with normal glasses that are comfortable and not too weird looking (well, one hopes). The very large number of VIsion Pro customers who use it primarily for Virtual Display would ditch their clunky, heavy goggles in a second if something like this was available. I don't own a VP, but glasses with that feature would be a day one purchase for me.

    To be clear, it's not so you can have a floating calculator. It's so you can extend your Mac's display without needing an external monitor - extremely useful while traveling or in confined spaces, when the tiny laptop display just isn't enough for your workflow. I currently use the XReal Air USB-C glasses for this purpose, and they're... ok. But it's a 1080p display with no spatial awareness (it moves as your head moves). Apple could make something much, much slicker. 

    Anyway, very disappointed to hear they cancelled it. I tend to agree it would require iPhone tethering for mass appeal, so I get that if they couldn't make that work, it wasn't worth it to make something just for Mac users. Still, huge bummer.


    shrave10canukstormwatto_cobratiredskills

  • iPad finally has a Calculator app - Here's everything it can do

    brianusbrianus
    Can anyone with the beta confirm that this supports slideover? Would be pretty lame if we had to run it as a fullscreen app. I was hoping they'd make this a "utility" app invoked from a corner, like Quick Notes

    williamlondonwatto_cobra

  • Apple rumored to release iOS 26 at WWDC, instead of iOS 19

    brianusbrianus
    Good. It has always annoyed me that macOS switched to 11.0 after 10.15.. not only did it seem totally random, it makes it hard to remember which number follows which (I had to look up what the last 10.x release was). If they had switched to 11.0 after 10.10 that would have made much more sense. 10.8 (8th revision of Mac OS X), 10.9 (9th), 10.10 (10th), 11.0 (11th), 12.0 (12th), etc.

    Worse, doing it in 2020, when iOS was hitting version 14, made it seem like macOS was “younger” than iOS, and in any event it’s hard to recall which iOS goes with which macOS based on number alone. 

    This is kinda like how they name cars. “The new 2026 Ford Ginecticazoink…”. Given all their OSes are on a yearly cycle and have been for like a decade or more, this makes a lot of sense.
    macgui

  • Heavily upgraded M3 Ultra Mac Studio is great for AI projects

    brianusbrianus
    tiredskills said:
    Why on earth would I want to run an AI model?  Locally or otherwise?
    I’m sure this was meant to be snarky, but for me it’s a genuine question: what are the envisioned real world use cases? What might a business (even a home one) use a local LLM for?

    The article mentions a hospital in the context of patient privacy, but what would that model actually be *doing*?
    ITGUYINSDneoncatAlex1N9secondkox2davwatto_cobra

  • Apple TV+'s Mythic Quest to end with revised fourth season finale

    brianusbrianus
    ramanpfaff said:
    m4m40 said:
    Good. S3 and S4 were really not enjoyable for me. Quite mean spirited and just not like the first two seasons.
    I totally agree. First two seasons were amazing, and by the fourth I really didn't even want to watch it. 
    I liked the third season but the cracks were definitely showing. Fourth season was just a slog and that last scene... well I'm glad they're revising it, is all I'll say!
    m4m40chasmForumPost

  • macOS Tahoe review -- glossy changes mask genuine improvements

    brianusbrianus
    macgui said:
    sunman42 said:
    Most of the features sound fine, if you need/want them, but making the list font in Finder windows smaller? Nuh-uh, even if the spacing has been slightly expanded. That will not make finding what you want easier, particularly for anyone with presbyopia (that is, almost anyone older than about 45).

    Damn kids, get off my interface.
    It's disappointing that Apple has continually made tweaks with macOS that do not benefit older users. I've noticed contrast in many instances decreasing as OSes have progressed. And making typeface smaller by default is almost agist.
     
    I like the gloss of Glass but wish it were more like what "lickable" was to the current flat look of icons. I do appreciate function as well. But for the longest time (no, not at first) Apple has been the fine crocus cloth to other  OS' #80grit. At least in appearance. So like a great car, I want it to look the part as well as run well.

    And presbyopia starts kicking a lot of vision butt at 40. 

    Replacing Launchpad with Applications disappoints me. I liked the in your face display of icons filling the screen. Even with corrected vision, I found it pleasing.

    So at the top there are a list of suggested apps that the Mac believes you're most likely to want next -- based on at least how often you use them, possibly also on the time of day.

    Replacing it with a window like that which was Settings? Where the apps placement changed with each new OS? That's a poor model. Does this mean that the Applications app/window changes as your use of apps changes? If so — WTF! If it's not the case then I'll stand down. Otherwise it's a case of constantly relearning Where What is. Sometimes I think Apple Software engineers use a Magic 8 Ball, dice, pickup sticks, and snow globes for UI and UX designs.

    And yes, there are kids I have to chase off my lawn.
    1000%. It’s always one step forward, two completely random steps backwards and diagonally with their UI changes.

    Killing LaunchPad now, of all times, is especially unfortunate given their supposed push to “unify” the UX across their platforms. Launchpad being essentially a Home Screen for the Mac meant I could organize my apps into folders the same way I do on my iPhone and iPad, so when I go looking for an app it’s in the same place on every device. It’s muscle memory. Isn’t that a GOOD thing? Why remove it and make the experience of using a Mac now more DISsimilar to their other platforms than before⁇ 

    They’ve already killed off the really elegantly designed tablet multitasking system on iPadOS and replaced it with a half baked mess taken from the Mac’s broken windowing system, and now this… they have truly lost the plot. 
    appleinsiderusermuthuk_vanalingamnumenoreanwilliamlondon

  • visionOS 26 brings better organization, anchored widgets, & more to Apple Vision Pro

    brianusbrianus
    The new widgets look rad as hell.  Very clever giving them depth and anchoring them to the real world (and allowing them to persist and be occluded by real objects).. clearly they saw how early adopters were using them in visionOS 1 and 2.

    Not enough for me to buy a $3500 helmet but still cool. Some day, when these are glasses....

    Still, how lame is it that half their built ins are STILL unmodified iPad apps? You're one of the world's biggest companies, not a startup. You have more than enough resources to be thorough here guys. 
    Alex1N

  • Craig Federighi says macOS would ruin what makes the iPad special

    brianusbrianus
    The irony of this headline is that iPadOS 26 is, in fact, ruining what makes iPadOS special by replacing its innovative touch based multitasking with shitty warmed over ideas from macOS. 

    GONE: slideover, and with it the ability to do anything with a second app when in full screen mode
    GONE: the ability to run multiple 'spaces' of split-viewed apps (with slideover acting as a go-between among them)
    GONE: the ability to quickly swap out a split screened app with drag and drop
    GONE: predefined size classes that ensure buttons, controls and other UI elements are in a predictable place in every Split View configuration

    Remains to be reported on but I would not be surprised if Picture-in-picture and Quick Notes were gone too. Has anyone checked to see if app folders are still supported in the dock? Either way, iPadOS 26 is a disaster for touch-based productivity. I did NOT intend to buy a small Mac, I bought a damned tablet and I want it so work like one.
    williamlondonwatto_cobra

  • Apple is right to ditch folding iPad plans in favor of the iPhone Fold

    brianusbrianus
    I find that large iPads kind of miss the point of tablets (just like the execrable new large-screen-optimized iPadOS 26 UI Apple is forcing on even those of us who use smaller screens where the previous UI's optimizations were perfect). Everything should be easily reachable when the device is held with both hands; interactions should be quick, gesture-based, with a lot of reasonable defaults (such as app size classes, or automatic positioning of floating windows at the screen corners) to reduce the amount of effort and time wasted in altering app configurations. There is no "desktop" and real estate is at a premium so the entire screen should be filled at all times with app UIs. But a large screen makes all of this untenable, and an even larger screen moreso.

    A phone might fold out to near iPad mini size, and something mini size might fold out to something like an 11", but any larger just seems silly, at least for something primarily used as a tablet, without a keyboard.

    That said, I do use sidecar and universal control with my MacBook/iPads as well as bringing a portable USB-C display when I'm on the go. A large screen foldable iPad would be pretty awesome as a Mac companion. Imagine an iPad with a 13" footprint (same as the MacBook, so it fits on top of it in a bag or backpack), but which folds out to something like a 20" external display for the Mac. 
    williamlondon