Rui Carmo
November 18^th 2018, at late afternoon · 6 min read

Excessive

A few weeks ago, after trying out the iPhone XR in store and realizing I had pretty much no other option, I went out and got an iPhone XS. After a few weeks, if I were to summarize my experience in a word, I would call it… excessive.

An Upgrade?

The XS replaced a long-lived iPhone 6 that had its battery replaced a while back. However, even with a fresh battery the phone was getting too slow and hard to use on a daily basis.

Launching Outlook (or OneNote, or just about anything else non-trivial, even Twitter) would take 3-10s, taking calls would sometimes lead to awkward pauses as the display caught up with what was actually going on, and battery life would be sub-par whenever I listened to podcasts on my commute, since Overcast‘s audio processing could easily wipe out up to 10% battery life in an hour.

iOS 12 massively improved performance, but on the other hand power management became an issue again. Even with nearly every single form of background processing turned off (including Screen Time), the phone would either last me half a day or just barely past dinnertime, with any significant app usage taking its toll.

It also bears mentioning that battery life on Altice Portugal’s absolutely crummy mobile network (which drops calls everywhere, has lousy throughput and does not filter unsolicited inbound traffic to devices¹) is usually terrible, but I mitigated that by setting the phone to 3G mode.

The XS, in comparison, has excellent battery life (for now) and is (occasionally) terrifyingly fast, so on that count it was indeed an upgrade.

Even considering the iPhone 6 ran the latest iOS version, niceties like tap-to-wake and hardware support for the Siri wake word blunted some of the edge off the Samsung S8 I have to carry for work, and I was able to go back to using the apps I needed to on my personal phone.

But there was so much else involved in the transition…

Why Not The XR?

Given that Apple doesn’t do AppleCare+ in Portugal (we still don’t have official Apple stores in 2018…), splurging on such an expensive piece of personal gadgetry is a bit risky.

Being the thrifty kind, I spent a couple of evenings mulling the risks and making a mental list of everything else I could have bought instead, and I’m still not completely at ease…

I was certainly overdue for an upgrade and was originally considering the XR, but my experience handling one was, in a word, lousy. The (caseless) size and weight were a major turn-off, and even though I had zero issues with the display and the (nominally) inferior camera, the form factor completely killed it for me (like I wrote earlier, the 6 was already too big for my taste, and the 5 was the perfect size).

There’s also the old adage about never buying the first revision of an Apple product (and, anectodally, the store attendant said the XR wasn’t selling anywhere as well as the XS/XS Max), but in this case I was more than willing to overlook that–if the thing didn’t look and handle like a Chicco phone.

I suspect I will come to envy the XR’s extended battery life, and if there is one extra I am planning to buy, it is a battery case for travel, which I hope Apple has plans for (I used one with my iPhone 6, and getting an XS-sized one is a no-brainer given the time I spend on the move).

Form Factor

Compared to the iPhone 6 it is replacing, the XS feels slightly larger than the 6 with a leather case (which I prefer, since in my case it weathered well and provided a very nice grip), but add its own leather case and it quickly becomes just a little too wide to use with one hand.

And the crux of the matter here is the size, not just the weight. I would say that the XR (without a case) feels harder to handle, but not noticeably larger–but I would never use a glass-backed iPhone without a case, and in the XR’s case, the use of nominally worse glass was also another factor against it.

I can use the phone single-handedly without qualms while sitting down, but when standing or moving handling the phone that way is hard and feels a tad hazardous.

It annoys me considerably that all of Apple’s modern phones are too big for comfort, and even if the XS falls into the lower end of the spectrum, it is still too big to hold and use comfortably at length given the way the UI has failed to keep up with the new screen sizes.

I have had to enable Reachability to be able to use it at all (even two-handed, it is too big for me to thumb up and tap to use the ridiculously tiny “back” indicator on the top left to return to the previous app or to tap the URL bar²), and with the case on, taking calls on it feels like bringing a leather slipper to my ear (without the olfactory overhead).

Screen

I like the size and resolution, loathe the notch, and find it more tolerable than the Samsung S8’s oversaturated tones until True Tone kicks in.

Then I just hate the color shifts it introduces when looking at photos, although to be fair it’s likely to be a matter of habit, and it does look slightly more natural than other devices when both Night Shift and True Tone are on.

The gesture interface is a no-brainer when you’ve been using the iPad equivalents for a while, but 3D Touch is… annoying enough for its own section.

3D Touch

3D touch isn’t new to me, but I didn’t have it on the 6, and so far it has been more of a hindrance than help for daily tasks since long presses for flagging items, popping up context menus or quick actions like copying text suddenly became inconsistent and hard to discover once I switched over to the XS.

Reeder, Twitter and other apps that use 3D Touch for “diving” into content became a minefield, and the only place where it improved the experience was GarageBand (which I appreciate, but is hardly significant in the greater scheme of things).

I’d much rather long presses were standardized across all iOS devices, really. Deprecating the increasingly archaic long press to delete apps would be a nice start, and be a lot easier for everybody…

In Your Face

Face ID is, in a word, fine.

I don’t like it because I (still) prefer Touch ID for explicit authentication (the power button double click to confirm purchases in the App Store doesn’t cut it for me), but having notification previews expand when it recognizes me is a nice touch.

I’ve had to train an alternate appearance already for unlocking my phone in the mornings without my glasses on, and it’s failed on me a few times in direct sunlight (even the relatively dim Autumn variety we’ve had recently), so no, it’s not perfect.

The Camera

I have taken an exact total of two portrait mode photos, and find the feature uninspiring and gimmicky because I see every bit of the fudged edges on the fake bokeh (and miss the real thing).

I have Halide as my “go-to” camera (which makes me resent Android‘s ability to set third-party apps for common tasks) and have taken a few excellent photos with it, so I can confirm the dual camera system is indeed a substantial improvement over the iPhone 6’s.

But in the intervening weeks I still took more photos with the Samsung S8 than with my iPhone simply because (again) the XS is still too awkward to handle comfortably.

Let this sink in: Even though both devices are about the same size, I can take my Samsung S8 (which I am not a fan of, on the contrary) out of a jacket pocket, unfold its folio cover, hold it securely and frame a shot single handedly, while in comparison getting the XS out of a pants pocket is, at best, fiddly, and at worst, nearly impossible–such as when sitting in a car.

I have as yet to figure out a way to fit HEIF and HEVC formats into my photo triage and archiving workflow, and expect to overhaul a few of my scripts within a few weeks. In the meantime, I find Live Photos intriguing, but not terribly useful since I haven’t yet taken enough for the advantages to matter.

The Lightning Connector

I’m a bit annoyed at this year’s phones not having switched to USB-C. Not because it’s a pressing need (after all, I still have plenty of Lightning cables and other Apple hardware around the house), but because I would very much like to stop treating my phone like a special snowflake and carry less cables around with me.

For all of Apple‘s “courage”, they show remarkably little of it sometimes.

As to alternatives, the promise of Qi wireless charging is interesting, but I never charged my Samsung wirelessly given that other than airport lounges, public charging spots are thin on the ground.

The IKEA desk lamp I picked up this weekend has a Qi charger, but I expect to get more mileage out of the USB plug on it.

I do, however, expect to get a lot of mileage out of this phone…

I had that feature active when I worked at SAPO a few years back, and battery life was vastly superior. But nothing beats Vodafone Portugal’s network, though… Shame I can’t use it for work. ↩︎
I fully expect all essential iOS navigation to gravitate to the bottom of the screen and match Android’s within a couple of years. ↩︎

Rui Carmo
November 17^th 2018, at breakfast · 1 min read

teenage engineering – OP-1 ※

Even though the OP-1 has been around for a while, I’ve only become aware of it recently, and it is amazing.

It is also pretty expensive and spectacularly hard to get hold of (it used to be on sale on MoMA), which is sad–I’ve been spending a few of my evenings lately watching YouTube videos of what people can do with it (Red Means Recording has some amazing tracks made on it), and would love to get one for Xmas.

Rui Carmo
November 11^th 2018, at late afternoon · 2 min read

Post-Summit

It was a busy week–I ended up spending a lot more time at WebSummit than originally planned for, which took its toll on my feet (as expected), but had a number of positive highlights that ranged from making new acquaintances to meeting old friends again.

Rui Carmo
November 7^th 2018, in the morning

Brad Smith Pays A Visit

Rui Carmo
November 7^th 2018, at breakfast

Microsoft at WebSummit

front view of the Microsoft booth — Our booth, very early in the morning before the crowds surged in.

Rui Carmo
November 6^th 2018, at night · 1 min read

The 2018 Mac Mini ※

The benchmark results are interesting, and the mini would go well with an external GPU. I’m a bit curious as to the display situation, though, since dual 4K would work, but which 4K panels?

Rui Carmo
November 6^th 2018, at breakfast · 1 min read

The fastest iPad is still an iPad ※

Nilay is completely on point here. The lack of a filesystem is always going to be off-putting to Pro users, and having the Files app not do anything with external storage is completely ridiculous at this point.

It’s an easy fix, and yet such a hard mindset to change at Apple.

Rui Carmo
November 5^th 2018, at breakfast · 3 min read

Regarding The iPad Event

I came down with my first cold of the season (likely aggravated by unwisely being too long out in the open in chilling, rainy weather), so I spent a while mulling last week’s Apple event and jotting down some notes over the weekend.

Rui Carmo
November 2^nd 2018, at breakfast · 1 min read

APPLE’S NEW MAP ※

At this rate, we are never going to be able to use Apple Maps in Europe.

Although Apple Maps have improved markedly (and worked OK during my recent trip to Edinburgh) there are still loads of things missing (landmarks, streets, transit info), and have stayed that way for years, whereas Google Maps are sometimes corrected within days.

I wish Google would bring back their Apple Watch app, which has been MIA for a year or so…

Rui Carmo
October 30^th 2018, at dinnertime · 1 min read

The 2018 Mac mini ※

1475 days.

That’s how long it was between updates, and I’m still somewhat annoyed at having had to buy an iMac instead.

Having a quieter and (much) smaller machine with my choice of displays is still my sweet spot, and it will now be a few years before I can justify going back to that kind of setup.

At this rate, that iMac better last me at least 1475 more days. But I suspect my last mini’s eight year record will not be surpassed by any current (or future) Apple hardware.

Rui Carmo
October 28^th 2018, at dinnertime · 1 min read

iPhone XR Review Roundup ※

Apropos John’s roundup, today I went into a store to try out the XR thinking there was a 70% chance of walking out with one, and was shocked at how large, heavy and unwieldy it actually is compared to my iPhone 6, even with its aluminum and glass body.

Pics don’t do it justice, nor does Apple’s comparison page—I can’t hold it comfortably to take a call single-handed, never mind using it for anything more complex, since it is much larger, thicker and heavier than the 6/8 form factor.

I find it telling that most reviewers (except Nilay Patel, who specifically singled out the size) never mention how big the thing is on absolute terms and only compare it to the other X models–they are clearly out of touch with regular folk, who weren’t exposed to the X series over the past year and will be looking at the XR based on price and the opportunity to buy a new phone after over two years of using a much smaller device.

Maybe everyone in the US just has bigger hands (well, not everyone, but I’m not going to go into political jokes here), but I think many of those upgraders are likely to be disappointed by the lack of a “normal” sized iPhone.

Looking back, I still think the 6 was too big to begin with, and that the 5/SE form factor was Apple’s best design ever. So I am now at a crossroads regarding getting an XS (which actually fits my hand but is insanely expensive), taking a bet on the XR (which feels like a Chicco phone decked out with a fragile glass back) or just sticking to the 6 for a while longer and praying for a comeback of the SE.

The most telling thing, though, is that I carry a Samsung S8 for work (with a folio cover), and the XR handled worse. And I can’t even begin to imagine how bulky it would be with a case…

Rui Carmo
October 28^th 2018, at dinnertime · 1 min read

IBM TO ACQUIRE RED HAT ※

Considering the way things are going for IBM in general, my knee-jerk reaction was to hope they won’t drag down Red Hat with them. My second thought was that they have an unusual definition of “hybrid”…

Then again, they are still huge (hence their downfall having been in slow motion, and likely preventable) and Red Hat is the centerpiece for most enterprise Linux deployments (supporting Oracle and SAP workloads, to name a few), so there’s plenty of business there. Also, Ansible and OpenShift are tied up in this…

It’s also worth noting that with SuSE’s recent acquisition by EQT, Canonical (which is an arguably more cloud-friendly disto anyway) is likely to be next–which I’m positive Mark Shuttleworth will have strong words about… Right?

Update: Here’s Mark’s take.

Rui Carmo
October 28^th 2018, in the evening · 9 min read

Another Data Brick In The Wall

In an attempt at compensating for not writing much (if at all) about work, I decided to share some throughts about spending a good portion of my weekend running Azure Databricks, which for those of you who are allergic to branding is a fully managed Spark service on Azure.

Rui Carmo
October 16^th 2018, at teatime

Sir Walter Scott

the memorial against a cloudy sunset — The memorial to Sir Walter Scott, an impressive memento of a short trip to Edinburgh.

Rui Carmo
October 14^th 2018, late night · 3 min read

A Thousand Days at Microsoft

It’s been a thousand days. Well, a little over, in fact (by nearly a hundred) but there is a weight to that number that carries with it a measure of how far down the rabbit hole I’ve gone since last year and how long it feels.

Rui Carmo
October 13^th 2018, in the morning · 1 min read

Sometimes It’s Better to Just Start Over With iCloud Photo Library Syncing ※

This is the kind of voodoo that I really wish wasn’t necessary this far into the “future”. If you think about it, it’s been twelve major iterations (even if iCloud came along in its present form about halfway through) and bits of the system (especially anything related to syncing, in whatever form) still seem to be tacked on to each other with duct tape and designed for optimistic scenarios.

Rui Carmo
October 11^th 2018, in the evening · 1 min read

Apple acquires Dialog Semiconductor ※

The original article title is a bit daft, really, because those goals are not wholly dependent on the Dialog acquisition. Their IP is an enabler, but it was being used before.

But it is notable that they are acquiring UK assets to further their vertical integration strategy, and it seems like a sound play.

Rui Carmo
October 9^th 2018, at dinnertime · 1 min read

New Made By Google hardware ※

I like the slate most of all (it’s where Chromebooks should have been a couple of years back, I think) but keep wondering if Google will ever manage to figure out how to sell hardware worldwide.

Because until it does, Apple is going to keep steamrolling their branded hardware sales, and this generation feels like it might be up to par.

Rui Carmo
October 5^th 2018, at lunchtime

Palace of Mafra

Rui Carmo
October 3^rd 2018, at dawn · 1 min read

Announcements from the Microsoft Surface event ※

I’m not excited by the new look (the Surface Pro 4 I have has a dark grey/black keyboard, and that is much more relevant than case color for me), but I am interested in the upgrades.

Bit sad that USB-C didn’t make it, and that the Studio is still essentially made of unobtainium, since I would very much like to try one out for a few months alongside my iMac.