With me back east to help with Mom’s health concerns, Earl and Truman posed for a photo that made me smile and tear up a little.
Hospital.
I’m in Syracuse. Mom is not doing well and my family felt it might be a good idea if I make the trip to Tucson. Mom has had two trips to the emergency room by ambulance in the past 10 days. Her latest was due to shortness of breath.
Mom has lost 40 pounds since the beginning of November. She can’t keep food down. She is weak. She is having difficulties breathing. The doctors can’t find much wrong with her, though they are looking at spots on her liver. We’ll find out soon what’s going on there, but they don’t seem overly concerned, this is more of “ruling everything out”.
I’m hopeful she’ll pull through this, but we toured an assisted living facility this afternoon. It’s not what I want, but it’s the safest option.
Respite.
My sister and I went to a my nephew’s hockey game. It turned out to be the last game of the season but at least they made the playoffs.
We haven’t done a selfie in many years.
Snow!
For the first time since moving to Tucson nearly two years ago, we woke up with a dusting of snow on the ground.
Yesterday a truck with nitric acid tipped over about eight miles away on Interstate 10. A HAZMAT alert went out on the Emergency Alert System. Within a mile radius was shelter-in-place. That was expanded to three miles this morning.
We still stayed inside.
Observant.
Truman is in his “I’m not it” hiding spot in the kitchen observing the Valentine’s Day goings on with our family. He seems content. We’re all content.
Storms.
Storms moving through the desert in the first half of February. Because humans are making Mother Nature very angry.
Dear Apple, Part Two.
Dear Apple,
What are you doing with HomeKit? Do you know? Does anyone on your team know? Because Siri doesn’t know. After the latest update (to 16.3?) things will work in the morning but absolutely not in the evening. Or vice versa. Or my HomePods will no longer recognize my voice. Enter password. Enter your password. Enter your password on every HomePod you own. Enter again.
Apple could have knocked it out of the park with HomeKit and the associated HomePod line of hardware. But no, it’s taken a back seat and no one knows why. Promises of things getting better and easier to navigate and more reliable fall by the wayside.
We need more love for HomeKit. Full stop. I want my home automation to live in the better security of iCloud but more importantly I want it to be reliable.
It’s not reliable right now.
Do better.
Caturday.
Truman has always enjoyed building forts in pillows and blankets. He can occasionally be found buried in the blankets of the bed enjoying a nice quiet nap away from the world. I can relate.
This week during lunch he decided to start rearranging the throw pillows on the bench around the kitchen table. When he noticed that we noticed his activity, he decided to start acting innocent and instead join the conversation.
Texture, Part 2.
Well, I finally found a spot in the house with an acceptable background for my passport photo. Earl was kind enough to take the photo for me.
I was happy to see the “your photo is approved!” message from the official website when I uploaded it and attached it to my application. I wanted the ambiance to be as passport-chic as possible. I think I hit the mark with this fairly unflattering photo.
I’m a little surprised one can renew their passport online, but I suppose the U.S. Government knows enough about me to know that it’s actually me. Plus, I have TSA Pre, so I’ve already been through that whole process.
TSA Pre makes me smile because I don’t have to go through as much of the security theater. The smile is not reflected in my passport photo.
Dear Apple, Part One.
Dear Apple,
Six Colors and other Apple aficionados are releasing their 2022 “Report Cards” for where they see Apple as of 2022. These report cards are very interesting and I look forward to reading them everywhere. I don’t use the commentary to sway my opinion, nor reaffirm my opinion, but I do often agree with the assessments presented.
I am typing this blog entry on my M1 iPad Pro. I would like this device to be my main computing device. I want a Star Trek experience where I can take this device anywhere, work with it as a tablet or connected to the Magic Keyboard, or plug it into a keyboard and monitor setup, and be productive on this device. I don’t need it to run MacOS, because that would be continuing the same old paradigm. But I have to admit, I’m really confused as to what you want this device to do.
The M1 (and new M2) processor is the same exact processor in your Mac lineups. My M1 Mac Mini is absolutely amazing. It has been a workhorse since I purchased it in 2020 and easily handled my work at home needs without even getting warm, let alone breaking a sweat. The M1 (and now M2) processors are amazing and you should be commended on this advancement.
So why do you stifle your iPad Pro lineup so much by restricting this beautiful device to iPadOS?
Let’s face it, Stage Manager in iPadOS 16 is a mess. It’s not intuitive, it’s buggy, and it’s too restricted for power users and too complicated for normal users. When I fire up my iPad Pro I don’t want to see a bigger version of my iPhone, I want to Think Different.
The iPad Pro, in the focus of your company with billions and billions and billions of dollars in the bank, should have a completely different experience than both your iPhone and Mac line ups. The iPad Pro deserves to stand on its own and deserves to bring a new paradigm of desktop computing front and center.
For a few years now I’ve mentioned MercuryOS from time to time. A brilliant concept by people smarter than me, MercuryOS is designed for tablets exactly like the iPad Pro. The concept shows a new, intuitive interface for computing, powered by the likes of AI we see today with Siri. MercuryOS is gentle, elegant, and designed to bring users into a state of “flow”. Flow is good. Flow on an iPadPro would be a godsend.
Please, hire the people that built the concept of MercuryOS. I know you have the technology today to make these things happen. We all know that if any company in the world has the capital to pull this off, it’s Apple.
We have spent well over a decade waiting for the next step in computing. We have waited for well over a decade for the next giant leap in the user experience. We have the devices, we have the technology, and the cash to make it happen is there.
Please give us the next big thing.
(I am in no way associated or involved with the folks at MercuryOS. I am just a really big fan).
