Amit Gawande @am1t@mastodon.technology

#Introduction

Hello! I am coder by profession, who loves to read & write to keep myself inspired. I have been a blogger for more than 12 years, but lost touch with writing when Twitter was at it’s peak. May be I lost love for my words.

Anyway recently IndieWeb got my love for the technology and also writing back. So been working on a lot many Indie projects & writing my heart out at my blog since then. My only hope is this place does not kill my drive for reading, writing and coding; rather inspires it.

I was recently held back by a prompt, I couldn’t come up with a satisfying subplot. I asked my 6-year-old daughter to tell me a story about space. This is her short story — she always beats me with her creativity and freedom of thought. #amwriting https://blog.amitgawande.com/the-aging-spaceship

What pisses me off the most with Google's Fitbit acquisition is the fact that Fitbit kept the fitness data always private, on their own servers. No way to even sync it with Apple Health. And now the only way to not share it with Google is to lose it all? That's so wrong.

A quarter in, I had to stop reading Deep Work after another chapter trying to convince me why deep work is necessary. It was getting too repetitive. Sure, I understand the importance of deep work. Can we move on to the ways to be away from the distractions?

I kind of won't mind if flip phones made a comeback. Not that they are the best form factor for a phone (especially a smartphone). But flat slate devices have gotten boring, common. Only natural that we are seeing more and more devices launched with moving parts.

I wonder what has caused a sudden surge of Bluetooth earbuds being made available in the market. I see almost every player - big and small - launching one of its own. Sure, Airpod's a success. But it wasn't the first one. Is it the lack of 3.5mm jack? And so was Apple right?

As part of the process of reclaiming some time from shambles of digital distractions, I have started actively following one more routine - I log out of every social media service once I have used it. Some thoughts. https://blog.amitgawande.com/logging-out-from-social-media

Infinite scrolling sucks. I am at your website to read a particular article — don’t try to entice me with another completely unrelated one. Completely unnecessary. https://blog.amitgawande.com/infinite-scrolling-sucks

It's so ironic that Google names one of the colours on Pixel 4 as "Oh So Orange" and make it not orange at all. They could very well have named it as "Not Orange". Plus what's the recent craze of silly names? The "cute" colour names for the devices do not lead to more sales.

Finished reading Sourcery. I usually enjoy the fantastical narration that Terry Pratchett typically weaves. But with this one, it was a tad bit incoherent. Some characters just weren't fun, enjoyable. And they all combined failed to work well together. Rincewind to go on pause.

I did not watch the Google event yesterday. And almost everyone is saying the actual event was a bit messy, boring. I guess it was good that I did not spend 2 hours then. I think recent events from all the companies have received similar criticisms -- must be a trend.

It was exactly a year ago that I had posted an update on my then-recently undertaken no-news experiment. I am pleasantly surprised that the things begun then have more or less stayed the same. Plus I've begun a no YouTube experiment. #digitalminimalism https://blog.amitgawande.com/digital-detox-oct-2019

No doubt, Pixel 4 looks a lot better than their previous versions - especially from the back. That camera module, especially, is cleaner as compared to the hideous one on iPhone 11. On the front, that top bezel is too big - looks outdated for sure.

With any event from Apple or Google, I made a point to catch it live. Not much for this one, as almost everything - including the buds - was leaked. That's why you control the leaks - they mar the interest. And with that your best chance to market to masses.

So Facebook has launched the next version of the Portal and The Verge has the review. After more than 1700 word review, they end with this - "it’s still a camera connected to Facebook inside your home". I think that is all the review could have read.

> If Apple needs to do things differently in China to comply with Chinese law, they need to explain exactly what they’re doing and why. Otherwise people are going to assume the worst. “Trust us” is not good enough. If they’re embarrassed to explain in detail what they’re doing to comply with Chinese law, then they shouldn’t be doing it.

Current (another!) kerfuffle involving Apple and China best summarized by John Gruber - especially the last line. All the criticism comes down finally to this.

I had to stop reading Thinking Fast and Slow. Not sure if it was the audiobook form or my current frame of mind, but it was monotonous, bland chapter after chapter -- like a textbook. I will pick this up again some time later, may be. But for now, this isn't for me.

I'm glad that Android exists. We need to credit Google for fostering a platform that attracts more and more OEMs. It makes the digital age accessible to a larger section of population. Some thoughts. https://blog.amitgawande.com/thanks-to-android

My experiences with OnePlus 7 - the first OnePlus device that I have owned has been brilliant. I can fathom now the rage that OnePlus brand has caused in the last couple of years. Brilliant designs and terrific performance.

One thing I do wonder though - isn't OxygenOS 10 out for OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro? Why does it say my system is up-to-date when I know it isn't?

Duplex on Chrome? Sorry, not for me. Google wants Chrome to be a platform -- but it already runs on another platform, my OS. And in here, I want it to stay a browser. Chrome OS can go as wild as Google wants. Not the regular browser.
Another reason I stay a Firefox user.

Apple Arcade needs instant play - similar to the instant apps on Android. It is extremely frustrating to wait for huge games to download before you can even try them. With a huge list of games, downloading every one of them is overkill. More so with Apple's stingy storage plans.