Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

I'm here. I'm back

After six years of using the standard sized iPhone, it’s really nice to be back to the one with the bigger screen. Not since my iPhone XS Max got unceremoniously taken away by the Feds for reasons totally not of my fault (no sarcasm) have I bought the larger iPhone. This iPhone 16 Pro Max I got last Friday, sitting at a 6.9 inch (nice) diagonal screen, is just about the biggest I would want a smartphone to be. Anything more and it’s a tablet.

The increased screen real estate is instantly better for typing. I’m noticeably making fewer typos tapping away on the larger keyboard. Another plus is reading books on the Kindle app: more space for text, less page flipping. The experience is so good that I can forgo using the iPad for reading. Content from the web and Youtube fills up the larger canvas beautifully. Why did I go so long in between giant iPhones? Oh right, I didn’t want to pay the $100 price premium. Hashtag broke boy.

Obviously, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is not as pocket-able as the non-Max version. Even as a manly man with manly pockets in his never-skinny manly jeans, the Max iPhone is cumbersome to carry. Before doing any motion that involves bending over or squatting down - like tying my shoes - I must take the phone out. Otherwise I risk it slipping out of the pocket, damaging that pristine titanium frame. The best way to carry the iPhone 16 Pro Max is in the hand, but don’t do that on public transportation, because some thug will for sure snatch it out of your hand and exit swiftly at the stop.

Another con with the Max iPhone is the difficultly of one-handed operation. I have to perform this juggle with the phone in order to position my fingers to reach the stuff at the top half of the display. Apple has a solution for this since the iPhone 6, but for some reason I prefer to do the finger juggle than the simple swiping shortcut.

Smartphones with giant screens: I like it a lot. It’s good to be back using one.

The digital driving you

Apple iPhone users in California can now add their driver license onto the wallet app. Supposedly, we can use this mobile license at TSA checkpoints at select airports (including my local SFO). I don’t know about you, but I will for sure still bring my actual driver license. I wouldn’t want to miss a flight on the off chance that TSA refuses to accept the digital version (or the scanner goes down). The same way I still carry at least one physical credit card with me, just in case the digital cards momentarily stop working. Or my iPhone dies a sudden death.

It’s kind of iffy, isn’t it? To put everything important into one singular failure point. A thing that runs on battery is liable to fail at anytime, without rhyme or reason. I can understand those who would never take an electric vehicle on a long road trip. Let’s say my iPhone stops working while I am out driving. But my driver license and insurance information is stored on the device! Does that mean I can’t legally drive - whilst carrying a nonfunctioning phone?

That’s not going to be a problem until a time when law enforcement accepts the digital California driver license. As of right now, we still have to bring the physical card with us out on the road.

Not that anyone should hand over their smartphone to a cop so willingly. I think the idea is to eventually have officers be able to scan our digital licenses? The same way we tap our phones at pay terminals in a store. This would be great a car dealership. No longer can sleazy salespeople hold your license hostage while they browbeat you into buying a car at their price. You want to see my driver license? Here, scan the this. I think that would be brilliant.

Can't outrun the battery

As we are nearing the month of September, I am very excited for the next iteration of the venerable Apple iPhone. I skipped upgrading to last year’s iPhone 15, so my current iPhone 14 Pro is going on two years of use. While the processing power and the cameras are still capable and fantastic, the issue with having that old a phone is the battery.

These days I am down to the 20% threshold at the beginning of evenings. Sooner rather than later, my iPhone 14 Pro will no longer last a full day of use on one overnight charge. A mere inconvenience for sure, rather than anything detrimental. But when I can throw money at the problem - by spending over a thousand dollars for a brand new phone - I shall certainly do that.

That’s the thing with anything that runs on batteries: degradation. Your device is only as good as the battery fitted inside. Once it deteriorates past a certain threshold, you no longer have the same kind of device. A laptop that only lasts two hours on a charge (it was eight hours when new, let’s say) is effectively a desktop. It’s only as mobile as your proximity to a pluggable power source.

Obviously, a solution is to swap out the old battery for a new one. And I just might do that when the battery on this M1 Max MacBook Pro that I am typing on degrades enough to be annoying. The first generation of Apple Silicon is still so powerful that I don’t see the need to get a whole new Mac laptop anytime soon.

You can’t do that with an electric car, can you? I would be super weary of buying a used electric car like a Tesla Model 3 - unless there is a way for customers to see the remaining battery capacity. Mileage is not longer the main determining factor. I would buy a used Model 3 with 50,000 miles with 85% capacity over a similar Model 3 with 30,000 miles, but has 75% capacity left.

Day of updates

First world problem: it’s always a tiresome day when Apple rolls out software updates to all its products. Each one has to download its respective update, prepare it, install, then restart. The whole process takes about 45 minutes, during which I am deprived of functional usage. Thumb twiddling is a great exercise!

Of course, the real problem is I own too many things from Apple - that’s why updating takes so long. Not one, but two laptops (granted, one is from work). There’s my beloved iPhone, and an iPad. Two sets of AirPods (though these update whenever, automatically). An Apple TV 4K and a HomePod mini. Finally, there’s the newly-purchased Apple Watch, which oddly needs to be actively charging in order to run updates. These things all delightfully enrich my life, to which I am sure Tim Cook is very happy about.

But just a humble request to Apple: stagger the software updates to different days, for different device type. It’s such a chore to update all my Apple products at once.

What isn’t a chore is deciding to not upgrade to the refreshed MacBook Pros. The M3/Pro/Max chips in the new refresh may be two generations newer than the M1 Max in my current MacBook Pro, but functionally the delta is mere icing on the cake. The M1 Max chip still chews through everything I can throw at it, a testament to how great the first-generation Apple Silicon chips was and still are. There’s zero enticement to upgrade, not even the new black color. Truly gone are the days when I bought a new MacBook Pro for three straight years…

Not of this reality

It seems what’s popular these days amongst millennials and Gen Z is buying old iPhones to take pictures. I guess these folks don’t want the latest and greatest in imaging technology that Apple has to offer? An iPhone 7 offers a comparatively nostalgic look in its photo processing, yet still has enough megapixels to do prints. (I remember it was around the iPhone 7 era that I was able to use photos taken with the phone in making calendar-sized prints.) I often see on social media people carrying two phones: an older iPhone strictly for photography, and a modern one for everything else.

I can understand why. Honestly, I am not a fan of how the modern iPhone processes its photos. It’s too sharp, too crunchy, too much HDR. Computational photography deserves kudos for what it can do with such a small camera sensor in smartphones, but at some point it gets to be a bit too processed, a bit too perfect. A photograph’s job is to be evocative, to elicit an emotional reaction. A direct technical copy of how a scene is in real life is not a requirement. A black-and-white picture taken from the real world of color is a great example of this notion.

It seems nostalgia and retro-ness always have a place. What was once old becomes new again. Just look at the return of bell-bottoms and baggy pants (that was the fashion of my high school days). We all think a decade ago were better times: we were objectively younger, with less ingrained responsibilities. The photographs from that time have a certain look, which explains why people are buying older phones (and cameras) to replicate that feel.

The instant film - be it Polaroid or FujiFilm Instax - will never go out of style, even though smartphones have surpassed it in technical image quality a long time ago. It’s the look that people want: a feel that isn’t of this reality, because our reality it too burdensome to bear. That’s how instagram came to its immense popularity, isn’t it? Nostalgic filters to make a photo look not of this present. I too have rose-tinted fondness for the early days of instagram.

Somewhat FOMO

It was a weird feeling being at the Apple Store this past Friday. For the first time in eight years, I won’t be getting the latest iPhone. So to be at the Apple Store on iPhone launch day, then, gave me some modicum of FOMO. It was bittersweet to be amongst the eager revelers standing in line for their pickup appointment, minutes away from getting their hands on that new titanium. That could have been me also! Honestly, if money was no objection, I’d be standing right in line with them. But, as the saying goes: “Not in this economy!”

I was there on iPhone launch day because it was also the launch day of this year’s latest Apple Watch. The 9th iteration of the Apple smartwatch proved to be the right amount of waiting for me to get my first ever (smartwatch of any kind, that is). I’m not a watch person at all; it’s been years since I’ve worn a “dumb” watch. I stopped wearing that Hamilton watch soon as the battery died. I was too lazy to take it to a watch repair shop to get it serviced. That’s how unenthusiastic I am about watches.

And that’s also why it took me - a huge fan of all things Apple - so long to get an Apple Watch. I reckon nine years is a decent enough length for the Apple Watch to mature into a well-rounded product. The Series 9 receives a processor and screen upgrade over the Series 8, which is just lovely. A smartwatch can never be too fast, and its screen can never be too bright in battling the outdoor sun. I bought the cheapest model: the aluminum 41mm. Well, count ourselves lucky if we can refer to $399 anything as “cheap”.

More so than telling time (I’ve got an iPhone for that), I bought the Apple Watch for its health tracking capabilities. Already I am learning quite a lot from just the heart-rate monitoring function. The data (so far) says my resting hear-rate is 49 BPM, which is apparently quite good. When I’m walking, the average BPM is 90. I’ve yet to do a run with the Apple Watch (air quality was horrendous this past weekend), so I’m very excited to see what my vitals are during workouts.

And those hourly reminders to get up and stand for one minute is pretty effective. Got to close those activity rings!

No upgrade this year!

On second thought, I am not upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro. First time in seven years I won’t be getting the latest iPhone upon announcement. My current iPhone 14 Pro will solider on for a second year of service.

As a hobbyist photographer, the primary attraction in buying the newest iPhone every year is the improvements to the cameras. This year, the improvements are minuscule to unnecessary (for me). All three sensors sensors carry over from the 14 Pro the 15 Pro unchanged. The larger 15 Pro Max gets a new 120mm equivalent 5X zoom, which is not a focal length I want to use. I’m sure there’s subtle improvements to the imaging software, but I reckon not enough to warrant spending to upgrade.

If it were the new 5X zoom in addition to the 3X zoom, then it would be enticing. Sadly, the 5X replaces the 3X in the 15 Pro Max. I use the 3X zoom (76mm equivalent) so frequently on my 14 Pro that I do not want to give it up.

In previous years, the latest iPhone have had (largely) carry-over camera systems. However, there were always another killer new feature to make me want to upgrade. Like the physically larger screen of the XS Max, or 120-Hz refresh rate of the 13 Pro. The newly announced iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t have any new feature that’s killer enough. Titanium replacing the stainless-steel outer band is nice, but not a must-have. Same with USB-C charging (finally replacing the Lightning port): I’m not in a hurry to toss my Lightning cables just yet.

If the 15 Pro promises better battery life, then it would be enticing. But it doesn’t: same quoted battery life as the 14 Pro. No sale! I am quite happy to use this 14 Pro for another year.