Projects

Apple’s contact framework doesn’t understand how we actually connect. In my previous post, I wrote about how Apple’s Contacts app treats your relationships like a filing cabinet — a flat list of static cards with no context, no history, and no awareness of how people actually matter to you. That’s a product problem. But it’s also a technical one. Underneath the Contacts app sits a framework called CNContact, introduced at WWDC 2015 as a replacement for the widely despised AddressBook.framework. AddressBook was a C-based API with no Objective-C layer, opaque types like ABRecordRef, and virtually no error handling. When Apple announced its deprecation, the WWDC audience cheered — one of the loudest reactions in the conference’s history. ...

And it was never that good to begin with. When I was a kid, my dad carried a Filofax everywhere. A thick leather binder stuffed with business cards, meticulously organized. It was his most important professional tool — his grail. He could flip to any section and find exactly who he needed, with notes scribbled in the margins about when they’d last spoken and what they’d discussed. I sometimes wonder if he had a better handle on his network than any of us do now with our phones. ...

Not wanting another project, I created another one: Dogs Of Newport. One of my goals for this year is to start retaking photos. Not just take pictures but also make photos. Spend time trying to get something decent out of the box we call a camera. One of my favorite subjects is the dogs in the town. As a dog owner, a chunk of my daily is set aside to care for my four-legged best friend. During this time, I meet other four legged creatures around town. Some fantastic dogs are in town, and even more come to visit over the summer. ...