Geek

One of the reasons I don’t use my MacBook Air full time is because of the built in distractions Apple has introduced to their ecosystem. The latest version of iOS now has iPhone Mirroring built into the experience. With this new feature, you basically have a window with your iPhone appearing on your Mac desktop. Granted, you have to opt in instead of opting out of the feature, but it’s something they touted quite a bit at WWDC earlier this year, so I gave it a whirl.

I have no reason to have my iPhone mirrored to my Mac desktop. Like most folks these days, my smartphone is almost always in reach. This feature seems to be a bit more “let’s do something to warrant an update” instead of bringing something more useful to the Apple experience.

I liken the “iPhone Mirroring” feature to the Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 models: redundant at best.

Now, I know my Apple experience is not the same as everyone else’s Apple experience, so I guess I need to add some disclaimer that this is just my personal point of view. I have officially disclaimed. I feel like there’s a ton of other features and bugs the Apple developers could be addressing, like the sad state of HomeKit, or the fact that the Mail app isn’t super reliable if you venture outside of the iCloud space into your own mail host running IMAP. For those unaware, IMAP is a mail protocol that’s been around a few decades. Apple Mail struggles with IMAP from time to time.

I know Apple has “Focus Modes” built into their ecosystem, and I should be using Focus Mode to not be distracted by things like iPhone Mirroring. It all just feels like layer on top of layer of redundancy to me.

Now, I’d much rather deal with all this redundancy over Microsoft’s onslaught of ads in Windows 11 or constant scraping of data and weird takes on integrating AI into the platform. No company is ever going to take a screenshot of my desktop every five seconds in the name of AI. That’s just not going to happen.

Small wonder I’m using my Linux laptops more and more.

I often can’t decide if I want to focus on “digital minimalism” or “avoiding all capitalism” when it comes to my computing habits.

When I’m in a Digitally Minimalistic mindset, it’s all about the MacBook Air, my iPhone, and occasionally my iPad. I reduce the number of applications I’m using to the bare minimum and I focus on what works without a lot of tinkering. It’s during these moods that I usually step aside from all forms of social media.

But then the pendulum swings the other way and I get all “avoiding all capitalism”, where I decide that even though I believe Apple still provides the best consumer grade computing experience out there, they’re too expensive and they want me to buy too many apps, so then I resurrect an old laptop with the latest flavor of Hip-Linux and focus on that. I get rid of all the apps, move my data somewhere else (again!) and start chatting with folks online about the benefits of using a home grown operating system and the like. Then I apply an update, the computer goes completely sideways, forcing me to punch out an email via telegram and/or Ye Old Scroll, and then I give the pendulum a shove back in the original direction.

Such a quandry.

I look at all sides of a problem or a puzzle or an opportunity and then I look at all sides again. I see all the goods, all the bads, and all the maybes, so then I look at all sides again. Then I start spinning around and try as I might, there’s no bright flash of light with a thunderclap and, to the relief of memory, I do not find myself in star spangled shorts with matching cape.

I think I’ll just stick to the Mac.

These iPhone 16 Pro ads were all over Denver and they’re all over San Francisco. As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I have the new iPhone 16 Pro. The Camera Control has not impressed me at all; I find the UI (User Interface) very confusing. Light press, hard press, press once, slide, press twice, what do I do to take a photo. It’s easier to just use the Volume Up button like I’ve done since the iPhone 3G or so.

I’m surprised that Apple is advertising Apple Intelligence so much since it hasn’t been released. There’s now rumors that the first pieces of Apple Intelligence, but not the complete package, will be available to consumers by the end of October. I refuse to install the beta version of iOS 18.1 on my brand new iPhone because beta software is used for testing, not pre-releasing new features to the public. Traditionally, beta software has meant “it’s not ready for production yet, it’s buggy, and we need some folks to test it so we can continue to move it towards production”. Releasing beta software to millions of users just seems like typical gross (as in ‘yuck’) marketing.

I’m hoping that Apple Intelligence steers this whole “A.I.” trend in a different direction that what we have to do. A.I. is not smart. In fact, all A.I. does is predict the next word that you’ll want to see based on what it’s presented in response to your request. It’s a word salad maker. In fact, it’s like throwing words into a salad spinner and getting the words out in the expected order. That’s it. A.I. does not know fact from fiction, it just knows what the next word in the paragraph should be.

I’ve gotten into the unfortunate habit of disregarding work emails that were obviously written by the company’s in-house A.I. by the way. If you can’t take the time to write an email to me I can’t take the time to respond.

I’m getting off track.

I’m hoping “Apple Intelligence” steers A.I. into a direction akin to what was described as a new approach to operating systems about a decade ago with the “MercuryOS” project. The desktop paradigm that we use on our desktop and laptop computers has become woefully outdated, as it’s based on actual office desktops from the mid 20th century. You shouldn’t have to organize all your stuff into files and folders. You shouldn’t care about file names and the like. Anything touting “Artificial Intelligence” should handle that stuff for you, so you can find your words and images and the like in your personal word salad.

I don’t want “A.I.” to find facts, I want A.I. to find my stuff and perhaps guide me into a natural workflow for responding to emails and scheduling meetings and the like. Sure, it can summarize those meeting notes, just don’t actually write my notes. It’s not that smart.

Just for fun, I had ChatGPT summarize everything you’ve read in this blog entry thus far.

In this blog entry, JP discusses his experience with the iPhone 16 Pro, expressing disappointment with its Camera Control interface, finding it confusing and preferring the old method of using the Volume Up button to take photos. He is surprised that Apple is heavily advertising its upcoming “Apple Intelligence” feature despite it not being released yet, and he avoids beta software, viewing it as an unpolished product for testing.

JP is skeptical about the broader trend of AI, criticizing its limitations as a tool that merely predicts the next word without understanding fact from fiction. He shares his frustration with work emails generated by AI, seeing them as impersonal, and hopes that Apple Intelligence will take AI in a more practical direction, such as helping users manage files and workflows instead of generating content. Ultimately, he advocates for AI to assist in organizing and navigating tasks rather than replacing human thought processes.

See? ChatGPT and the like are great at spinning the word salad.

I’m hopeful that Apple Intelligence is going to spin the words in the right direction and focus on productivity and the like, instead of content creation. We shall see.

Someday.