Category: Tech

Turning a dead iMac G4 into an M1 Mac

Noted gadget repairer Hugh Jeffreys came into three disused (and abused) iMac G4 and went to work to restore one of them by using a display from an Intel MacBook Pro and a newly purchased M1 Mac mini.

Most people would just buy the Mac mini and grab an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse and they’ll end up with a perfectly fine desktop computer but obviously Jeffreys is no ordinary consumer.

He went to work by replacing the dead 17″ screen with one from an old 17″ Intel Core MacBook Pro with an anti glare or matte display (you can tell from the metal or silver bezel around the screen instead of a black one) circa 2009-2012. He then cannibalized the M1 Mac mini and rearranged the components to fit inside the iMac’s dome base.

It took him about 9 hours to complete the Frankensteined iMac which now identifies itself as an M1 Mac mini. Definitely not for the faint hearted and requires expert hands, resources, and patience.

The iPhone is obviously more than a phone

It’s a handheld mobile platform that does so much more than make phone calls after all, so using the phone aspect as the primary designation of the device when it’s probably among the least used function seems like a misnomer.

The moniker was probably the easiest one to go with back in the day. Apple wanted to distinguish the device from the iPod, which was still a strong seller in 2007, and people associated cellular devices with nothing else other than phones, at least back then, so it made sense to call it the iPhone even when it’s “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.”

It’s easy to see why Louie Mantia thinks the iPhone name is not a good fit but after 17 years the name has cemented itself as one of the strongest brands that has ever existed. The iPod seems like a more logical name for a multipurpose device and might have been great had Apple not felt the need to introduce the iPhone brand but I think that ship has sailed. The iPhone name has taken just as strong of a hold and recognition as the iPod in roughly the same amount of time, bland as it may be.

In four years the iPhone will be as old as the iPod was when it was retired in 2022. The iPod as a product category lasted 21 years. It doesn’t seem like Apple is a company that would make such a change after all these years and we don’t even know if the iPhone as a product category will still exist five years from now (probably will).

Might Apple resurrect the iPod name? Who knows, they resurrected the iBook name once (and retired it again in favor of Apple Books) but they no longer follow the i- convention of naming products so chances of that happening is probably pretty slim.

The iPod was a great name and its legacy lives on in podcast and AirPods and if the rumors of a touchscreen AirPods case ever come true, I’ve a feeling they’ll still be called AirPods.

Canva’s templates are taking over the world one flyer at a time

Love the post by Joan Westenberg here addressing a concern that many hold over the widespread use of templates, specifically Canva’s templates.

As design becomes far more accessible than ever, millions of people with little design skills or lacking access to professional designers, guided by their sense of aesthetics, are able to churn pleasing or professional-looking designs for their needs.

At the same time, the reliance on popular templates is beginning to resemble what’s happening to cafes around the world that sport similar aesthetics to attract customers who want to share photos to Instagram, or homes that resemble IKEA showrooms.

She wrote:

But while Canva has unlocked design for the masses, an unintended consequence has been the dulling of creativity into a uniform “Canva aesthetic.” Because the app makes it so easy to create competent designs, much of its 55 million-strong user base simply relies on the platform’s most popular templates and elements. The result is a visual sameness wherever Canva designs show up, as if the world has been blanketed by an army of aspiring graphic designers who all graduated from the same school.

You can’t blame individuals for taking the path of least resistance. Creating a Canva design takes minutes and requires no skill. It’s fast, cheap and gets the job done for cash-strapped small businesses, students, nonprofits and others who can’t afford a professional designer. An original design carefully crafted from scratch is always going to look better. But why go to the effort when Canva lets you churn out something nearly as good that’s based on best practices?

For Canva’s millions of happy users, that’s clearly a worthwhile tradeoff. The question is whether it’s good for design and creativity writ large. Like the McDonald’s-ization of cuisine or the Ikea-fication of home decor, Canva’s templated approach is pushing visual communication towards a more accessible, but ever more generic mean.

If it sounds like it’s bad, it depends on your perspective. With so many people sporting similar, identifiable visual design, our world may end up looking aesthetically bland and generic but as with design trends over time, that is not a new thing, not by a country mile.

At one point, buildings resembled the Roman architecture with prominent columns and symmetrical forms. Then there was a gothic period in the 19th century before Art Deco became the rage in the early 20th century. We also had a modernism movement with bold, flat, minimalistic designs with steel and glass for much of the 20th century that in many parts remain in fashion today.

On the digital side, we had to endure the terrible period of PowerPoint templates and bullet points jammed on our faces for a while before Garr Reynolds began advocating for what he calls Presentation Zen and Mac users started to rebel and adopted Apple’s design sensibilities through Keynote. Today, perhaps ironically, corporate decks are beginning to adopt the Apple product summary style thanks to Figma templates.

And I haven’t even talked about the dynamic visual design trends of the 80s and 90s. Or how generic looking homes have always been a thing to the point where you can often tell from what period or decade it came from.

Like Joan said, you can’t blame people for taking the path of least resistance. At least more things look nicer today (from our current aesthetics sense) thanks to Canva templates.

ChatGPT will always give you an answer even if it’s wrong

Between fast and correct ChatGPT will always choose fast because it’s not programmed or trained to say it doesn’t have the answer. ChatGPT is trained to respond confidently and as a result will always provide you with an answer regardless whether the answer is false or factual.

In this example ChatGPT was asked in what episode of The Simpsons did Homer Simpson ask how much is a free gift. ChatGPT confidently answered episode 7 of season 7, King Size Homer.

That episode was indeed titled King Size Homer but it’s not the episode where Homer asked the question. That episode was The Joy of Sect, season 9 episode 13 as confirmed by IMDb.

Given that a chatbot built upon a Large Language Model (LLM) would be beneficial for IMDb to have, maybe it’s just a matter of time before they build one for themselves. After all, search seems to be making way for chatbots or voice queries lately. There is however, a caveat, which I will get to in a second.

If you enter “Homer how much free gift” into YouTube’s search bar, it will give you this video as the first answer. Granted it only says the episode title, number, and season in the video description, which can easily be incorrect or even blank but cross referencing that with IMDb confirmed it’s the correct one.

If you search on Google, it may suggest to you the more accurate quote to search for which should give you the same YouTube video at or near the top of the search results. Google 1, ChatGPT 0.

Google search suggestions for “Homer how much”

ChatGPT may well be the most advanced LLM chatbot today but it’s a language model designed and trained to deliver the most grammatically or syntactically correct response according to the material it has been trained on. It is not trained to provide the correct answer to queries because it’s not meant to be a search engine or database that you submit queries to.

While ChatGPT does not verify or fact check its responses, other models may be trained to find the correct answer and infer the answer from information it comes across online.

If ChatGPT happens to provide the correct answer it’s only because the answer is contained in the training material with the relevant context which it manages to pull out. In other words correct answers are delivered by chance without verification. How many times have you realized it was lying to you and you had to ask why it gave you the wrong answer or to check whether the information it gave you is correct?

Remember last year when everyone was reporting that ChatGPT had passed the bar exam (lawyer’s exam) in the top 10%? It actually didn’t. It was more like in the top 69% to 48% depending on the peers or cohorts. The grading method was flawed.

Again, ChatGPT is not an information database but it does know how to form correct sentences, write in certain styles, translate texts, and help you with your coding. Maybe one day it may become an information database but today, with GPT 3.5, 4.0, and 4o, is not that day.

Use ChatGPT as a writing or coding assistant and you’re probably golden but you still have to play the role of an editor to make sure it gives you the correct output for you needs.

Angry Indonesian Internet Users Create Virtual Roadblocks on Google Maps in Response to Mob Murder

Indonesian internet users have flooded Google Maps with virtual roadblocks on nearly every road and street in the Sukolilo district, Pati, Central Java.

This digital protest comes in the wake of a tragic incident where a mob of local residents set fire to a rental car owner and his vehicle, resulting in his death. The victim was reportedly attempting to retrieve the car from suspected car thieves when the mob attacked. Three other men who accompanied the deceased victim were also assaulted and are in a coma in a hospital.

Several rental car business owners have come forward, revealing that they have long blacklisted rentals to individuals carrying Pati-issued identification cards due to concerns about vehicle theft. They claim that the regency is widely known within the industry as a hub for stolen motor vehicles, with many vehicles in the area lacking license plates.

Sukolilo subdistrict head Andrik Sulaksono rejected the allegations, saying the area is not a fencing hub and that it was all said by angry netizens reacting to the news of the murder.

Until recently, law enforcement authorities have reportedly taken little action in response to suspicions and public reports of vehicle theft in the region. This apparent lack of action has prompted some angry Indonesians to resort to vigilante justice.

The incident has sparked outrage among Indonesian internet users, leading to the virtual roadblock campaign on Google Maps as a form of protest and a call for increased attention to the issue of vehicle theft and the need for improved law enforcement in the area.

Police have apprehended ten suspects with evidence belonging to the victims found at their homes, and seized 27 motorcycles and 6 cars with fake registration papers, from one property.

Composite image of one neighborhood in Sukolilo showing virtual roadblocks on Google Maps on nearly every road.

Adam Mosseri further clarifies position about news on Threads

Instagram and Threads Chief Adam Mosseri posted on Threads to clarify what people perceive to be suppression of news on the platform.

I don’t believe the IG team and especially leadership are sneaky or malicious in any way but it’s difficult to see this statement and take it at face value.

Just to clarify, and this is on me for not being specific enough in my language historically, we’re not trying to avoid being a place for any news. News about sports, music, fashion, culture is something we’re actively pursuing. Political news is the topic where are looking to be more careful. Politics is already very much on threads, and that’s okay, we’re just not looking to amplify it.

He said that the kind of news (and presumably other types of discussions) they want on the platform is around sports, music, fashion, and culture. They prefer those to be driving the conversation instead of hard news or politics which are not actually banned but they want to be “more careful” about those topics, presumably, and it’s my guess, because of how sensitive and delicate they can be, not to mention Meta’s issue and history with the news media in general.

Everything in life is about politics. Sports is a battleground for political ideologies (Colin Kaepernick, anyone?), the fashion scene is a statement of political allegiances (Cate Blanchett, we see you), and music is a hotbed of political discourse (where do I even start?). As for culture, oh boy, if it’s not a political minefield then what is?

These are hot button arenas rife with debates over subjects such as race, social justice, equality, opportunity, and exploitation—topics that Meta appears to prefer to avoid. It seems Meta’s ideal platform is one of superficial harmony and feel-good aesthetics, shunning the gritty realities of societal discourse in favor of saccharine content and elaborate platitudes.

The more fundamental issue

Choosing what topics to focus on isn’t even their main problem. The Threads platform’s algorithmic approach to content curation is fundamentally flawed, prioritizing stale content and undermining the user experience.

The default ‘For You’ feed is plagued by a glaring disconnect between user expectations and delivery, as it frequently surfaces posts that are either already two days old—a virtual eon in the text-based social media space—or irrelevant and unwanted. This not only diminishes the freshness of the feed but also calls into question the platform’s understanding of ‘relevancy,’ which is intrinsically tied to the timeliness of content.

Additionally, the apparently elusive ‘Following’ feed, which offers a chronological timeline, is marred by its clunky activation and its baffling tendency to revert to the ‘For You’ feed at random. This erratic behavior disrupts the user’s control over their own social media experience, forcing them back into a loop of outdated content.

Threads says it wants to be a conversation platform but its default feed still struggles to surface timely and relevant posts. It is certainly a challenge to algorithmically deliver content that matches everyone’s unique sets of interests, and it has to be algorithmically driven if they want to ensure people don’t miss posts that they may be interested.

Clearly it’s not impossible to run a purely chronologically driven feed because Twitter did it before and Mastodon, along with its ActivityPub gang, still do, but unless you’re chronically online, the likelihood of seeing posts that are published while you’re away is small.

Without an algorithm that can be tuned to identify your interests and serve you posts that match them you’ll have to rely on other people surfacing them to you either by replying to those posts or have someone repost them and for some people that works just fine but when you run a platform with the intention of keeping as much of people’s time and attention, an algorithm is necessary.

In essence, Threads still has some ways to go to address the critical issue of recency, leaving users drowning in a sea of irrelevance. The platform’s inability to provide a consistently up-to-date and relevant feed not only frustrates users but also undermines the very purpose of social media—to connect people with what matters to them, here and now.

A text based social platform is inherently different to one that’s based on images or videos. Usage on TikTok and Instagram are driven more by entertainment value while text platforms are about what’s happening. If Meta wants Threads to be a place for conversations, let people follow their interests, not just accounts, and tune the algorithm to lean heavier on recency.

Atari acquires Intellivision

This is a headline you might have expected in the 1980s instead of 2024 but today’s Atari and Intellivison aren’t the same two companies that were bitter rivals in what many consider the first video game or console wars. They’re a few incarnations removed from that, not to mention several generations of consoles ago. In any case, this acquisition might result in some interesting interpretation of those old IPs.

This also means that the first console wars finally ended after four decades. Much longer than the Nintendo vs Sega war which lasted less than 20 years.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have those ancient games released again for today’s consoles and see how Gen Zs and Gen As handle them?

Five years of iPadOS: A Promising Start, but More Work Ahead

When Apple announced the separation of iPadOS from iOS in 2019, it felt like a watershed moment for the iPad. As someone who has been using and writing about the iPad since its inception, I was excited to see Apple acknowledging that the device deserved its own distinct operating system. The iPad had long outgrown its roots as a mere “big iPhone,” and it was time for its software to reflect that.

Key innovations and enhancements
Now, nearly five years later, iPadOS has indeed made significant strides. The Scribble feature enhances the handwriting and note taking ability of the Apple Pencil by letting people write directly on text fields which improves the text input experience. The Files app improvements have elevated the iPad’s file management capabilities, albeit not quite to desktop level. With Universal Control you can work on a Mac and an iPad simultaneously using one set of keyboard and mouse or trackpad.

Similarly, enhancements to multitasking in recent versions of iPadOS have made it easier to work with multiple apps simultaneously. Split View and Slide Over changed the way people use the iPad by allowing them to work with multiple apps much more easily. Stage Manager, though still a work in progress, takes this ability even further and shows the bigger potential of iPadOS.

On the hardware side, the debut of the M1-powered iPad made it truly a desktop computing class device allowing many other features to be unlocked or introduced. While the Smart Keyboard Folio allowed the iPad to serve as a laptop replacement for many, the Magic Keyboard which comes with a trackpad drives this even further even if it adds quite a bit of heft. Each new version gained brighter, sharper, and more precise display to deliver greater color accuracy and enhanced visual experience and specifically on the Pro line, thanks to ProMotion, True Tone, Retina XD, and P3 color gamut.

The introduction of the Pencil transformed the iPad into a robust tool for creative individuals across many fields and the new Pencil Pro only enhances that further with gyroscope support, haptic feedback, squeeze, and barrel roll capabilities. The iPad can also work with popular game controllers, by the way.

macOS on iPad is not the answer
Despite these improvements, iPadOS still has a long way to go before it can truly rival the functionality and flexibility of desktop operating systems like macOS. The file management system, for example, still feels clunky and limited compared to what’s available on a Mac. And while the multitasking features have improved, they can still feel confusing and unwieldy at times.

While there are calls for the iPad to run macOS altogether due to its clearly capable hardware systems, that’s ignoring the fact that it would take a mammoth multi-year effort to turn the macOS into not just a touch-capable platform but one that can actually feel at home with a touch interface. The macOS was never designed to be a touch-interaction system while the iPadOS was, so it would take comparably less effort to deliver enhancements to the iPadOS.

Part of the challenge lies in Apple’s own apparent uncertainty about the iPad’s role in its ecosystem. Is it meant to be a laptop replacement or a complementary device? After all, it is entirely possible to use the iPad without having a conventional computer in many use cases and situations but at the same time it still lacks a number of “desktop” system capabilities to convince people that it’s what they need as opposed to a traditional computer. On the other hand, Apple Vision Pro is looking more like the future of personal computing than the iPad now.

At the D8 All Things D Conference in 2010 the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs likened PCs to trucks, suggesting that in the post-PC era, only a minority would need the full range of capabilities offered by conventional computers. However, perception may be the iPad’s biggest hurdle.

Is the Mac holding back the iPad?
There’s also the question of whether the recent resurgence of the Mac, driven by the success of Apple Silicon, has shifted Apple’s priorities away from the iPad. The iPad is 13 years old now but the introduction of the M1 chip brought incredible performance and efficiency to the Mac lineup, potentially leading Apple to refocus more resources on its traditional computing platform. However the company’s latest and most powerful and capable chip, the M4, debuted on the latest iPad Pro with Mac deployment of the chip still further down the line.

Regardless of the reasons behind it, iPadOS still feels like a work in progress. This is a shame because the iPad hardware has never been more powerful or capable. The M4 chip in the latest iPad Pro models is a marvel of engineering, and the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard add even more versatility to the device.

Maybe if they let the iPad run macOS there won’t be too many reasons left for people to buy the Macs? Although back in 2010 that was probably where the company was heading, trying to disrupt their own product before someone else does it for them. These days, though, sales of the Mac have been as strong as ever while iPad sales are not as big as they could have been.

iPad’s apps and perception problems
For the iPad to truly live up to its potential, Apple needs to continue pushing iPadOS forward. This means building on recent improvements but also thinking more boldly about what a modern tablet operating system should be capable of because with every release the iPad Pro has been the most cutting edge tablet computer on the market bar none. The hardware is always second to none while the software consistently leaves much room for criticism and improvements. Maybe it’s by design to prevent it from cutting into the Mac sales? A more robust file management system and a more streamlined multitasking interface seem to be what many people are crying for.

Additionally, Apple should strive to attract more developers to create apps optimized for the iPad’s larger screen and unique capabilities. Developers are keen to create best in class apps for the iPhone but on the iPad that enthusiasm doesn’t seem to be as high, perhaps understandably due to the significant difference in device popularity and also in complexity given the different capabilities and interface requirements carried by the iPad, and therefore the effort needed to create them.

There are apps for just about every category on the iPad. After all, the most popular apps on the iPad have been productivity or note taking apps such as Notability, Good Notes, and Microsoft Office, creative apps such as Procreate, Canva, and the Adobe suite, entertainment or streaming apps like Disney+, HBO/Max, Spotify, and Netflix, and education apps like Duolingo and Coursera. Despite this, people are still saying the iPad line doesn’t have the app they want or the apps do less than their desktop versions.

Google’s and Microsoft’s suites are examples of such apps. While their apps are popular on the iPad, people still resort to the desktop versions to be or feel more productive or to work faster and more efficiently thanks to certain missing features or capabilities, or because the workflow is different.

It’ll get there, one day

The good news is that Apple has shown a willingness to iterate and improve iPadOS over time. The past few years have brought meaningful changes to the platform, even if they haven’t always gone as far as some might have hoped. With the iPad’s hardware continuing to evolve rapidly, there’s every reason to believe that iPadOS will eventually catch up.

In the meantime, the iPad remains an incredible device for a wide range of tasks, from drawing and note-taking to video editing and music production. It may not yet be the laptop replacement some are hoping for but it remains an essential part of many people’s computing lives.

The potential is there for iPadOS to become a truly great operating system, one that fully unlocks the power and versatility of the iPad hardware. It may take longer than some of us would like but Apple will get there eventually.

Why Apple debuted the M4 on the iPad Pro instead of the Mac

I’m working on a longer piece about iPads but I just want to put this out first. Fast Company’s Harry McCracken sat down with Apple Senior Vice Presidents Greg Joswiak and John Ternus to talk about the latest iPad models that just came out this week.

I’ve been wondering why Apple decided to launch the M4 with the iPad, breaking “tradition” with previous M series chip releases. Apple did mention previously that this generation of iPad Pro wouldn’t have been possible without the M4 and there’s been plenty of dicsussions about the M4’s capabilities and significance, but for some, the M series had unofficially stood for “Mac”. It’s a high performance class chip designed to do deliver the most power but also incredibly long battery life. While it does make sense for it to eventually make it to the iPad, I didn’t expect a brand new version to debut on the iPad. It had debuted on a Mac and new versions had been showcased first on Macs, until now.

According to Joz, Apple’s engineers were able to incorporate in the M4 the capabilities they need to support the technologies they want to include in the latest iPad Pro, which was why they went with it.

That Apple is in a position to incorporate the technologies it needs into the chips it designs doesn’t just explain how it was able to build the thin, powerful iPad Pro. It’s also why the M4 is showing up first in the iPad Pro rather than a Mac: Rather than being a Mac processor repurposed for an iPad, it was conceived from the start to drive the iPad Pro’s new OLED screen.

“Our chip team was able to build that controller into the road map,” explains Joswiak. “And the place they could put it was the M4.”

This to me is a sign that Apple remains faithful to the iPad line despite years of seeming neglect in terms of the direction of the product. At some point the iPad was going to be the future of Apple’s computing, potentially replacing the Mac, at least for the masses, but with the release of Vision Pro and the resurgence of the Mac thanks to the M series chips, that plan isn’t so clear anymore. Maybe now the plan is to offer different devices for different types of consumers. I’ll get into that and more in the upcoming piece.

People are spreading unfounded rumors of Apple cancelling their investment in Indonesia

Apparently people are spreading misinformation that Apple has backed out of its Rp1.6 trillion ($100 million) investment in Indonesia and canceled plans to build a resource plant after Tim Cook’s visit to Indonesia last month, based on a clickbait headline.

First of all, that plant cancellation story was lifted from news coverage from early 2023 when an official from the Maritime Affairs and Investment Ministry claimed that Apple approached the government in 2016 about building a lead processing plant but the company reportedly said that the government must get rid of illegal mining operations and meet the company’s environmental, social, and governance guidelines. The government’s failure to comply with that request meant that plans to build the plant were shelved, the official said. That is old story, nothing about that is new. There was also no investment amount mentioned because it never came to that point.

Secondly, the $100 million investment has been spent gradually since 2018 on establishing and running three Apple Developer Academy sites with another one expected to open in Bali next year. It’s an ongoing investment as part of regulatory compliance to meet the local component requirement necessary continue selling 4G and 5G smartphones in the country. Back in 2016 Apple reportedly committed $44 million on establishing an Apple Developer Academy in the country within three years, the first of which opened in 2018.

This investment is indeed small compared to the amount of money spent by Indonesian consumers on purchasing iPhones in 2023. Figures from the Ministry of Industries revealed that out of the nearly 2.8 million smartphones imported by Indonesia last year, 85% of them had been iPhones because despite domestic manufacturing of 50 million smartphones a year, Apple’s smartphones are fully imported.

Apple supplier Pegatron was once reported to invest $1 billion to open an Apple manufacturing plant in Batam in 2019 but that report was either inaccurate or that the company drastically changed its plans in short order. While Pegatron’s consumer electronics plant did open in Batam, it has yet to manufacture Apple products to date.

Certain government officials and critics have pointed out that the amount invested by Apple in the country is minuscule in comparison, especially when other Apple products are included. Additionally, with Apple’s newly announced $250 million investment in Singapore to expand its original campus in the country and the company’s increased investment in Vietnam, where the company has spent nearly $16 billion since 2019, Apple’s Indonesian investment numbers and plans are incomparable.

It’s for this very reason that President Joko Widodo has assigned his most senior aide, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investments Luhut B. Panjaitan, to ensure that not only will Apple’s investment plans come to fruition but that the country can play a bigger role in Apple’s manufacturing and development operations.

In short, it’s simply not true that Apple already canceled its recently announced $100 million investment. All the commotion came about due to the conflation of a government official’s statement in early 2023 and the recently cited investment figure for Apple’s Developer Academy.