These four settings undo most of the damage in the new iOS 26 user experience. Button Shapes show you the area where you can tap, On/Off Labels clearly show which options are on (=1) or off (=0), Reduce Transparency makes Glass effects opaque and Increase Contrast makes text readable.
Heute wurde ich gefragt, ob ein MacBook Air ein guter Kauf ist. Aber hallo! Und am besten das günstigste Modell, das man kriegen kann. Upgrades sind bei Apple teuer und auf deren Website immer alles zum Listenpreis. Und wenn der Speicher wirklich mal für ein Filmprojekt zu eng wird, dann gibt es ein Terabyte in einer sauschnellen externen SSD. Mit den iPhones ab dem 15 Pro kann man auch direkt darauf filmen.
Apple has new iPhones. That was to be expected. The regular one, the normal Pro and the larger Pro. For years, Apple has tried to sell a fourth version. First, for two seasons a smaller one called iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini. Then, for three seasons, a Plus version of iPhone 14, 15 and 16. All of them did not sell well. This time they are trying a thin one, with just one camera, a smaller battery, but razor-thin. Success is not a given. Do people want a thinner iPhone with less power? Time will tell.
All new iPhones are “the best iPhones we ever built”. Of course they are. The Pro models get a new camera hump that moves the flash and the Lidar to the other side. That is a new’ish look, but I can’t say it is prettier than before. What I like is the Aluminium back side with just a small glass – sorry Ceramic Shield – inlay where the charging coil is. The antennas are now in this new camera hump.
Apple does not like to talk about memory but the Pro phones are rumored to go from 6 to 12 GB RAM. On device AI demands more memory which makes anything before the 15 Pro unable to perform, including my own 14 Pro.
The thin iPhone Air is only available without SIM tray, which maximizes internal space for the battery that takes up almost the whole body below the camera hump. I suspect this model also has no space for the speaker at the bottom.
The software gets a new UI which is taxing the processors more. I am still not convinced that Liquid Glass is desirable but I am confident that it will improve much like the development betas have.
In other news, Apple has new AirPods Pro 3. They add heart rate sensing during workouts, live translation with AI running on iPhone, and they should provide even better audio and noise cancellation.
Apple Watch gets refreshed in all three models: Watch SE 3, Watch 11 and Watch Ultra 3. New features include hypertension alert and a sleep score. Both are soft markers. It cannot tell you the actual blood pressure but looks for indications of hypertension. Watch 11 gets more battery life, raising from 18 to 24 hours. Cellular models now support 5G, up from LTE.
An interesting scientific paper about social network defects:
Social media platforms have been widely linked to societal harms, including rising polarization and the erosion of constructive debate. Can these problems be mitigated through prosocial interventions?
We address this question using a novel method – generative social simulation – that embeds Large Language Models within Agent-Based Models to create socially rich synthetic platforms. We create a minimal platform where agents can post, repost, and follow others.
We find that the resulting following-networks reproduce three well-documented dysfunctions: (1) partisan echo chambers; (2) concentrated influence among a small elite; and (3) the amplification of polarized voices – creating a ‘social media prism’ that distorts political discourse.
We test six proposed interventions, from chronological feeds to bridging algorithms, finding only modest improvements – and in some cases, worsened outcomes. These results suggest that core dysfunctions may be rooted in the feedback between reactive engagement and network growth, raising the possibility that meaningful reform will require rethinking the foundational dynamics of platform architecture.
My observation is that people are increasingly dropping off social networks because they are no longer fun. AI is only accelarating the decline.
The list of platforms I no longer use is very long: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are the more prominent ones. I removed TikTok from my phone, deleted my Clubhouse account and removed most features from YouTube.
Today, I have deleted my Clubhouse account. Technically speaking, I have “deactivated” it and it will be deleted 30 days from now. Social networks hate it if you delete your account.
I have had a stellar six months on the platform in 2021. I gained many new friends around the world, I amassed 20k followers and founded a club with 60k members, but eventually people went elsewhere.
Clubhouse made a lot of bad changes to the platform, all the while pretending to listen to their users, which they never really did. I have to assume that they came to the end of their runway because they now have come up with a scheme to make some money. What are they offering? Stalking features.
I had deleted the app on my iPhone quite a while ago and only kept one installation on a rarely used device. Today it was finally time to also remove my account from the platform.
One of the most useful Windows options is used by too few people. Let’s change that. Press and hold the Windows key and type v. You will get this small window popping up. Now enable the feature.
The next time you press Windows-v you will get a history of content you previously copied to the clipboard.
If you hit any of the pushpins behind a clip, it will stay where it is until you unpin it. Just remember to press Windows-v instead of Ctrl-v.
Lenovo haut immer einen ganzen Schwung neuer Produkte auf einmal raus. Bei der IFA waren das vor allem Gaming-Geräte und professionelle Laptops mit Grafik-Power, beides nicht so mein Thema.
Aber zwei Dinge sind mir aufgefallen: Mein Lieblings-Thinkpad X9 in Gletscherweiß. Ein weißer ThinkPad, aber keine Angst, ohne Trackpoint ist das ja sowieso nichts für die Gusseisernen.
Und was wirklich nie enttäuscht, sind die ThinkBook-Designstudien, hier noch nicht als fertiges Produkt. Der Witz an diesem Gerät ist der drehbare Bildschirm, abwechselnd im Hoch- und Querformat. Der Deckel ist dabei doppelt und die Verkabelung des Displays ist spannend. Aber ich liebe solche Ideen, auch wenn sie sich wahrscheinlich nicht durchsetzen.
Keine Ahnung, wie lange das gilt. Das ist der Kindle, mit dem ich lese. 10 Zoll und leicht, das ist mir lieber als die normal kleinen Kindles. Nichts für Leute, die in der Badewanne lesen. Der ist nämlich nicht wasserdicht.
Das neue Modell ist auch reduziert, aber das lohnt sich meiner Ansicht nach nicht. Ich mag den dunklen Rahmen mehr als den hellen.
If Recall suddenly shows up on your PC, this is where you can remove it completely. There is also a Powershell command which does the same:
Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Recall"
What is Recall?
Recall is a feature of Windows 11 that takes a screenshot of a user’s desktop every few seconds and then uses on-device large language models to allow a user to retrieve items and information that had previously been on their screen. It was announced by Microsoft, alongside the integration of GPT-4o into Copilot and an upgraded user interface in Windows 11.
Recall is only available on Copilot+ PCs with an NPU and 45+ TOPS. In order to use it, you first must opt in. Since I have no use for this feature, I have simply removed it from Windows. YMMV.