PurpleHello98

On this episode of Lizzie Being A Luddite, I wish I had one of those cool purple see-through landlines like they had back in the 90s. Actually, my dream technology setup in my future apartment is a kitchen, where I'll keep the desktop PC on the counter (if I have one---otherwise, that'll be my main laptop's home) with a phone (and answering machine) in the kitchen, and then a phone on an end-table in the living room, one in my office and one next to my bed. Apparently landlines are actually quite expensive these days, but I found out there's a Bluetooth thingie that allows you to connect your cell phone to a landline! That means I could just put my cell phone in a desk drawer or something when I get home and have it go straight to my landline. My flip phone runs on Android---I wonder if that could still work on it? I wonder how it would handle texts---but then again, I prefer calls over texts anyways.

(Although I often seem to find a way to accidentally call people while they're at work!)

Anyways, I'm kind of sick of being reachable 24/7. If my phone didn't track my steps I wouldn't take it everywhere nearly as much as I do now. I think there's a beauty, a relaxing feeling to being off-life. Yes, I could just turn my cell on silent or off entirely, and I do do that, but I kind of resent always being reachable. It feels like my life has been encroached upon, you know?

And so one day, when I have my own place, that's what I think I'm doing! I also wish people would e-mail more, although I've successfully converted Blue and Green, as well as my suitor, into e-mailing me sometimes. I prefer longer-form types of communication, you know? The only exception is I have a real conversation on IM. If it's asynchronous, I don't like it, but if I'm sitting down with someone and we're IMing back and forth, I really like that! That's quite fun.

But yeah, what do y'all think? Landline, cell or both? I don't think I'll ever get rid of my cell entirely but it'd be nice to have a landline to go with it.

Back at ya again! Now I'm sitting in my library. I never normally go to the library on weekends, or in the evening, but I always love it when I do so maybe I should more often! Anyways, even though a few weeks ago I was kind of dreading summer, I don't think I am anymore. I can work to keep myself busy, and at least one of my friends should be in town so I can hang out! And I'm (fingers crossed) FINALLY going to get my license (yes, I still don't have it, and yes, I'm more embarrassed about it than you are shocked) over the summer so I might be able to visit some of my college friends! Also, I put together a summer playlist that I've been jamming to over the past few days! (Actually, I just had to pause midsentence writing that in order to jam out to All Mine by f(x). So I've been having a pretty epic time.)

Also, I've been having such a hectic week! I'll really miss my friends, but I won't miss the work (although I do love my English class) and I won't miss the roommate drama, which I won't even get into here because I'm trying to get over it and let it go, but suffice it to say I've had a dramatic week. And then yesterday I spent all day until like 9:00 PM working on my compsci homework! I had the whole suite of emotions, from "I'm dropping this like it's hot" to "I love this it's so fun!", and I had basically no human interaction all day yesterday either, which made for a treat. But despite not getting enough sleep last night, I've had a pretty chill day today! I even chose on a whim to eat dinner outside since it was really nice out, although I had to come inside the library for the last little bit since the wind got pretty cold all of a sudden.

But yeah, it's been a pretty good day! I'll try to work more on the site tomorrow if I have time. Also, my polycarbonate MacBook has become an object of admiration from other people! Just now a couple clubmates of mine complimented me on it, and this guy in my stats class (who I don't really like but that's a different story) did too. It's so cute and I really need to put it on my computers page! I actually think I'll do that just now. Toodles!

It's WWDC day! I'd kinda like to live-blog this or something, but I don't really know how I could do that, so I guess I'll just go over the big new features and my thoughts on them.

iOS

• For FaceTime, they added a Zoom-like grid view, as well as links and schedules for FaceTime calls that work across Apple and non-Apple forms. The new stuff this year is basically just putting FaceTime on equal feature standing with Zoom, but nonetheless, it's a pretty welcome update. In terms of Messages, there was basically just updates to how non-message things shared with you. There was a lot of hype before the keynote, so I was expecting more, but I guess it's ok. I really wish you could customize your away message though!
• There's a new song feature thingy with different photos to the rhythm of the song, but I wonder if it'll just work with Apple Music or if it will work with music downloaded from the iTunes Store or other sources, as I don't personally have any music subscription services. Safari on iOS now has a redesigned tab bar, and extensions.
• You can now add other types of cards, especially IDs, to the Wallet app. Maybe I'll finally use it! Honestly, this is super helpful so you wouldn't have to shuffle around in a physical wallet anymore, but I wish that they could add more types of cards and bring this to more areas. Maps has lots of new features, such as more specifically accurate maps, helping users find transit, etc. I wonder if people will start using it instead of Google Maps now...

iPadOS

• To start off: basically, they brought all the home screen improvements that iPhones and iPod touches got last year to iPads this year. It's nice to see that they're adding some sort of multiple window thing to iPads. However, I personally think that Mac multitasking is quite a bit better and easier, at least for me personally. For Notes, there are also Quick Notes, which are pretty much what they say on the tin. I also love the Google Docs-like revision history and the mentions on shared notes, which could be super useful. They also finally added tags, which is something I never knew I needed!
• In Translate, there's a feature that detects when you're speaking in different languages and auto-translates, which is super cool! You canalso now build iOS and iPadOS apps on your iPad in Swift and submit them to the App Store there, which is probably gonna be good for developers who don't have computers.

macOS Monterey

• In the new macOS, named macOS Monterey, they've finally added the shortcuts app to the Mac! You can also share your cursor between your Macs and your iPad, and drag and drop files between them. Finally, the Safari toolbar has been reimagined, and the toolbar and tab bar have been combined, making a much more compact experience. The tab bar also changes colour for some reason, and there are tab groups now, which sync between your different devices. There's also some new stuff for developers, which basically just makes everything easier from what I can see.

watchOS

• You can now reflect to stay mindful, and I know some people who would love this! There are also some more Fitness+ workouts, and other ways to stay fit. Finally, there's now a watch face that lets you see portraits of people.

Some other big features that I haven't mentioned

• You can now stop emails and other apps from tracking to you, and see third-party domains that apps are connecting to, which is great to make sure that apps aren't doing bad stuff.
• Siri finally has on-device processing, which (I'm pretty sure) means that after TEN YEARS, Siri can FINALLY do stuff off-line! Woot woot! You can also use Siri on other things around your house, like thermostats and stuff.
• There's some more privacy features for iCloud this year. There's also an option to hide your email and make different email addresses that forward to your main iCloud email but aren't connected to you.

So yeah, all in all, this year is pretty small for macOS and watchOS, but the new iOS and iPadOS seem to be more major. All in all, though some things were kinda disappointing, there were a ton of cool features this year! I've been waiting for this for a bit, so it's pretty exciting to actually see it. But that's all from me for now, so I'll talk to you all later!

I am having a DAY so far. Some of my messages randomly aren't sending and also, I'm at school but I forgot my headphones at home so I can't watch YouTube or listen to music in class. >:( ugh.

Why do I keep forgetting to charge my phone when I go to bed? I always have to charge it up in the morning before I go to school now. >:(