Had a shocker of a sleep on Sunday night meaning I only ended up getting around 5 hours of sleep but on the good side all I had to do was muddle through the day on Monday but then I fell a sleep at around 6pm when I woke up at around 11:30pm, went to the toilet then back to bed for another 10 hours sleep. After 15 hours of sleep I feel I’ve finally caught up on the lost sleep from Sunday night lol.
I work up this morning and Apple has released iOS 14.8 and macOS 11.6 – they were pretty big updates with macOS 11.6 being around 2.46GB which makes me wonder whether a few extra fixes were snuck into the update given Apple’s tendency to not always list all the changes that they’ve made but rather focusing on the most high profile changes they’ve made. I’ve updated my iMac, MacBook Pro and iPhone withe everything working perfectly fine and no adverse reaction from any of the third party applications i run such as Chrome.
Tomorrow is the big day for Apple as they’re hosting an announcement – questions are still circulating around whether this will be the announcement day for the next iPhone or whether they’ll maybe launch an Mac refresh then in a months time launching the iPhone refresh. As iPhone sales slow down the big question is how they’re going to create their services revenue particularly when you consider the recent changes regarding allow developers to collect payments through their own payment processing rather than being forced to use Apple’s own payment system along side allowing developers to link to their own website so the customer can add payment information.
Samsung has released One UI 4.0 beta to the public (link) and here is a video from Sam Mobile that covers the most visible changes that have taken place:
It’s good to see that Android 12 with One UI from Samsung is using the Linux kernel version 5.4.x with the changes being more about refining rather than anything radical but then again this is a very early beta so it could be possible that we may see either features being added or maybe seeing Android 12 with One UI being released before the end of this year and then in 2022 when Samsung releases the next Samsung S device we might see the the One UI 4.1 and possibly have One UI 4.1 also made available on the Samsung S21 series. The presenter in the video noted improved optimisation which does’t surprise me given that Samsung has moved from their custom architecture and instead using off the shelf ARM designs from ARM so I wouldn’t be surprised that as the code base matures that we’ll see improved performance. The biggest improvement to the Samsung S platform will be when the Exynos with AMD GPU is launched next year but even with the leaked information so far it appears that the gap has narrowed between Exynos and Qualcomm so I wouldn’t be surprised that we end up seeing Samsung launch Exynos SoC based phones where they used to ship Qualcomm.
Yesterday the government announced that level 2 outside of Auckland has been extended to 21 September so that’ll mean working from home for another week which I’m happy about – not having to spend money getting to and from work is nice but I wish it were a more permanent option or at least be able to work from home for Wednesday, Thursday and Sun with Friday and Saturday at work in the office (I don’t start until 11:30am those days). With all that being said, the big focus by me is to get rid of the interest free payments for my phone from Spark and focus on saving up for either the Pixel 6 Pro or next year the Samsung S22 Ultra (assuming it adopts the S22 branding). For me, I’m in no rush although I’m quickly realising that I’m more dependent on the Google ecosystem particularly as Safari doesn’t seem to be up to the task as Apple appears to be focusing on everything but getting the core (Webkit) sorted out by addressing the many developer complaints (I’ve linked to a blogpost addressing the many complaints).
New Zealand’s vaccination rate is sitting at 69% for at least one dose and 35% (slightly over half) have have had their second dose (with extra supplies obtained from Spain and Denmark). It appears that the government will be going with Novavax for the booster shot (link). It’ll be interesting to see when the government will start the booster shot deployment or whether the government is keeping their options open as generation 2 COVID vaccines are getting close to regulatory approval. Hopefully once we get everyone vaccinated it’ll be a matter of a COVID vaccine become like getting an MMR vaccine then followed up each year with a booster shot.
Oh, upon reflection, I think the headache I’ve had today was the result of keeping away from sugar and processed foods (prepared meals from the frozen section) – I’m sure after a week of withdrawal symptoms that my body will get used to the ‘new normal’. Tonight I was lazy and ordered a meal from Bowel which had a grilled chicken breast with lots of vegetables etc. which is a lot healthier than what I would have normally have. For me it isn’t about being a ‘health nut’ but more about making those incremental changes that’ll stick for life. I have a tendency of wanting to do a whole lot of changes all at once and within a matter of weeks it becomes all too much (overwhelming) that I end up slipping back into old habits – let’s hope that taking it slower will make the transition seemless and a permanent change. I guess when I was younger I could get away with treating my body like a garbage can – consumption with very little reflection of how it’ll impact my long term heath but now that I’ve hit 40 I think I need to start taking what and how I eat a little bit more seriously.
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