The just-announced OM System OM-3 #camera is just what I’d hoped for in an upgrade from my OM-5: AI subject detection, new menus, headphone jack, USB-C and metal body – all while staying small and significantly cheaper than the OM-1 ii flagship model. They listened!

Pretty happy with this star trails shot from my back yard. The aircraft lines are a bit of a shame, but I kind of also dig them! #astrophotography #startrails

Just starting to dabble with star trails using the Live Composite feature of my OM-5.

The new Harry Potter LAMY nexx fountain pens are much sexier than the AL-stars that came out last year. It’s just a shame someone decided they should have two Harry Potter logos side by side on the barrel! #fountainpen

Successfully completed open heart surgery on my precious Panasonic GM5 camera (the likes of which the world has not seen since it was discontinued in 2015) to replace a malfunctioning control dial with a spare part bought off eBay. 😅

I’m at the “How hard could it be to learn a whole new programming language and build the app I want from scratch?” stage of my holiday break.

Woof. Tesla is pulling a Twitter/Reddit by saddling its previously-free vehicle telemetry and command API with prohibitive pricing on extremely short notice. Many third party apps are going to lose their business models overnight.

Finally rolled credits on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth after 177 hours!! Definitely want to return to see some of the story branches I haven’t explored and the few collectibles I missed, but I don’t think I can see myself getting the platinum trophy on this one. The hard mode combat challenges are just too much work.

Just discovered a fascinating little story in the CSS world.

There was a last minute change of mind about whether container-type: inline-size (i.e. Container Queries) should create a stacking context or not. As of right now, the CSS spec says yes, but Chrome 129 switched to no. Apparently all browsers (and the spec) will soon be updated to this new behavior, but right now major browsers are not interoperable on this. Article with great demos and CSS-WG issue links.

I freed up a ton of disk space on my Mac by enabling “Optimize Mac Storage” in Photos. But because I’ll never entirely trust a cloud service with such precious data, I’ve set up iCloud Photos Downloader on my Synology NAS to keep a full offline copy of all my photos.

Pixelmator:

There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time. Stay tuned for exciting updates to come.

Also Pixelmator:

The Pixelmator Community has been archived and cannot accept new posts or comments.

I know I’m a grown-up because my recurring stress dream has changed from “I forgot to study for the Chemistry final” to “I forgot to return the rental car”.

I was really excited about Photomator’s ability to process RAW photos from my camera to HDR, leveraging the additional highlights detail. Unfortunately, Photomator saves these images in a format that Apple Photos can’t render consistently. :( (Ping @pixelmator@mastodon.social)

“Nature Clock”

I was entirely unprepared for the ending of Astrobot. Got me right in the feels!

“Do you want us to add AI features to this product?” and “Would you pay 3× the price for this product if it had AI features?” are very different questions, IMO. (Canva says its AI features are worth the 300 percent price increase)

The new Apple Intelligence ads come off as tone-deaf to me (again). Three versions of “be a kinda crappy person and get away with it … thanks to Apple Intelligence.”

Switching from Spark back to Mail.app on Mac, not because I’m excited about Apple Intelligence, but because I caught Spark introducing unwanted, random formatting into my composed emails (e.g. light gray text when composing in dark mode).

I’d really love for Patreon to try leaving the App Store and making a go of it as a progressive web app on iOS. I’d happily use it in that form.

iOS 18 Public Beta 3 feels like the solid one that’s ready for most people to install. Photos no longer crashes for me on launch; widgets stay where you put them on your Home Screens; and battery life feels back to normal. #Apple #iOSbeta

A quick writeup of my Apple Vision Pro demo experience. TL;DR: It’s fun! You should try it!

https://kevinyank.com/posts/apple-vision-pro-demo-review/

I’d buy an Apple Vision Pro if #Apple freed it from the constraints of the App Store. If they want to usher in an age of “spatial computing”, they need to let it be a computer, like a Mac, not an iPad. Only for an open platform could I justify that cost to myself.

Gotta take my iPad Pro M4 to the Apple Store because a vertical stripe about 1cm wide has become unresponsive to touch and Apple Pencil input. 🍋

Seeing opening night of Beat Café before performing in Songs from a Spellbound City at Impro Melbourne tonight.