The other day I quoted Zsolt Benke where he writes about using a big iPhone and a small iPad mini as a writing environment, and believes it's a use case worth exploring. He acknowledges that others have been doing this for years, and they use their iPhone and iPad for content creation, not just consumption. One of those others that he mentions is Patrick Rhone.
Patrick wrote the entire first draft of a book with two index fingers on an iPad screen and, to a lesser extent, his thumbs on his iPhone, which he routinely uses to compose long-form blog posts. Reading Zsolt's post and watching Patrick Rhone's video has had me thinking about the device I use for writing for several days.
Patrick Rhone
The iPad provides a full screen, immersive, distraction free writing environment by default.
Based on Zsolt's suggestion, I'm currently trying out the use of my iPad Air for writing in the coming weeks. One thing I have already noticed is that I can type more efficiently on the 11” iPad Air Magic Keyboard compared to the larger MacBook Air keyboard. This is due to my shorter fingers. Typing on the smaller 11” iPad Air Magic Keyboard greatly improves my typing accuracy and speed.
Here’s why: I think it’s likely that soon all computer users will have the ability to develop small software tools from scratch, and to describe modifications they’d like made to software they’re already using. In other words, LLMs will represent a step change in tool support for end-user programming: the ability of normal people to fully harness the general power of computers without resorting to the complexity of normal programming. Until now, that vision has been bottlenecked on turning fuzzy informal intent into formal, executable code; now that bottleneck is rapidly opening up thanks to LLMs.
If this hypothesis indeed comes true, we might start to see some surprising changes in the way people use software:
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In tech news, Apple has released macOS Ventura 13.3 and iOS 16.4 with new emoji, bug fixes, and other improvements. But watch out for the new MacStealer malware that steals passwords from iCloud Keychain! Meanwhile, Twitter is dealing with a leak of its source code. On a more personal note, blogger Om Malik reflects on two decades of writing. And finally, patients are reporting terrifying details of an eye drop outbreak that has claimed two lives.
After years of treating my books as if they ought to be preserved in a museum, I now believe that you should honor the books by breaking them. Read them all so messily! Fold them, bend them, tear them! Throw them into your backpack or leave them open in Jenga-like towers by the side of your bed. Don’t fret about stains or torn edges or covers left dangling off the spine after years of reading.
That is what a book is. That is what a book is for.
I've never been a big fan of social media platforms. In fact, I've never had a Facebook account. I tried Instagram when it was first introduced but canceled it shortly thereafter since I'm not a photography buff.
I've had a Twitter account off and on since its inception. But honestly, I never found much value in it other than promoting my blog posts. Thanks to the shithead that now owns Twitter, I recently deleted my account again. Against my better judgment I just this week signed up for a new account only to promote my blog posts.
I was reluctant to sign up for a Mastodon account but I finally caved in a little over a month ago. Like Twitter I don't find much value in Mastodon so for now I'm going to keep my account but I won't be active other than to promote my blog posts.
What I find far better than social media are personal blogs. There are several benefits to following personal blogs rather than relying on social media platforms:
Authenticity: Personal blogs are often more authentic than social media posts. Bloggers write longer posts and share more detailed stories about their lives or topics that interest them, allowing me to get a better sense of who they are as individuals.
Community: Many personal blogs have a strong community of readers and followers who engage with the blogger and each other. This creates a sense of belonging and connection that may not be as strong on social media platforms.
Longevity: Blog posts are usually archived and can be accessed at any time, whereas social media posts are often fleeting and get buried in a user's feed within hours or days.
Overall, personal blogs provide me with a personalized, in-depth, and authentic experience that social media doesn't.
So one thing I consider a compelling use case for a big iPhone and a small iPad mini is using them as a mobile writing environment. I could easily publish an essay from my iPhone or iPad mini just by thumb-typing. I want to explore this use case in more detail in the future.
We have had people doing this for years now, watch and read the following stuff from Patrick Rhone or Yuvi Zalkow.
I have a MacBook Pro and iPad Pro to write, so why am I interested in this phenomenon? I like when people think outside the box regarding their device usage.
The iPhone and the iPad mini are considered content consumption devices by almost everyone, which I’m afraid I have to disagree with. I create all kinds of things using these devices. I take photos, write notes and blogposts, sometimes create/edit Shortcuts, and SSH into remote servers to fix issues. Heck, I even edited an entire podcast episode on my iPhone using Ferrite while I was sitting on the train. It was actually quite fun to do. Being an owner of a big phone like the iPhone 14 Pro Max, I’m even expecting myself to use it more to create rather than consume.
Thumb-typing lengthy notes and blog posts on these devices maybe seems to be an ineffective way to write. Still, there is a focused environment to be found here—especially if you set up iOS to send only essential notifications—so even a smartphone can be a device that makes you focused.
I’m not going into details on notifications here, but let me just tell you, it’s not your smartphone that makes you distracted. It’s your laziness to set up notifications properly that makes you distracted.
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Welcome to Web Finds, where I curate a collection of the most interesting and useful web links that I've come across. Today, the first four links are about ChatGPT, so I thought it would be appropriate to have ChatGPT give us the introduction.
“Hey there, I'm ChatGPT, the AI language model that's been making waves lately. But I'm not the only one in the game! Google's just launched their own language model, Google Bard, and it's already turning heads. While some people might be worried that AI like ChatGPT and Google Bard will replace human coders, I'm here to tell you that we're not quite there yet. But make no mistake: the age of AI has begun, and we're only going to get smarter from here. Of course, not all technology is created equal. Recently, a new malicious ChatGPT Chrome extension has been hijacking Facebook accounts, so be careful out there. And if you're a Mac user wondering how to right-click without a mouse or trackpad, don't worry, I've got you covered. But enough about tech—did you hear about the $1.6 billion headache that Fox is facing? Or the Idaho hospital that's stopping labor and delivery services due to the “political climate” and doctor shortages? Or why animal activists are winning in court despite facing prosecution? And don't even get me started on Tiger Woods' legal troubles. It's a wild world out there, and I'm here to help you make sense of it all.”
Fun thing about aging gracefully is that you can develop more and more nuanced opinions about all manner of things, without the burden of caring if anyone agrees with you.
Some days I wonder if I’m reaching that age where the world is moving faster than I am willing to travel. How long before I don’t have the energy to keep up?
Welcome to Web Finds, where I curate a collection of the most interesting and useful web links that I've come across. In this post, I'll be sharing discussions about politics and technology to tips for iPhone users, this collection of articles covers a range of topics that will keep informed. .
Reid Hoffman shares his thoughts on AI and more with Kara Swisher, while Greg Morris discusses the importance of words. Meanwhile, Vox explores the why requiring college degrees for jobs that don’t need them is a mistake and Amazon announces layoffs. You can also learn how to download photos from iCloud, use action mode on your iPhone camera, and discover the best Mastodon apps for iPhone. In addition, The New York Times warns of critical global warming thresholds and TechCrunch reports a backlash against cloud computing. Finally, Krebs on Security explains why you should opt out of sharing data with your mobile provider.