The Cloud Under The Sea

The Verge today released a beautifully written and designed feature on the rarely thought of network of undersea cables that transfer data around the world and the people who are responsible for installing and repairing them.

Here’s a blurb from the article:

The world’s emails, TikToks, classified memos, bank transfers, satellite surveillance, and FaceTime calls travel on cables that are about as thin as a garden hose. There are about 800,000 miles of these skinny tubes crisscrossing the Earth’s oceans, representing nearly 600 different systems, according to the industry tracking organization TeleGeography. The cables are buried near shore, but for the vast majority of their length, they just sit amid the gray ooze and alien creatures of the ocean floor, the hair-thin strands of glass at their center glowing with lasers encoding the world’s data.

In addition to learning about how we are presently managing these systems, there’s also some fascinating insight into the history of submarine communications cables, which were first laid in the 1850s (yes, that’s the middle of the 19th century, not a typo!).

This is a lengthy feature. It’s worth your time, if for no other reason than to gain a slightly better understanding of how incredible it is that we are all connected and can access virtually anything from anywhere in the world with little wait despite living on a planet that’s 71 percent water.

Thoughts on the Apple Studio Display

After having the Apple Studio Display on my desk for about a month and a half, I continue to be delighted with both it's form and function.

I had two large Dell monitors at my most recent corporate job that provided me with enough screen space to have reference material and project management apps open. At the same time, I did the bulk of my active work, mostly management reporting, performance reviews, Zoom or Teams meetings, and email, on the other. While the screen real estate was plentiful, the pixel density and overall image quality were subpar.

Now, my computing options are either an iPad Air or a MacBook Air, so while both have a high quality display, neither has much room to work with.

If, like me, you’ve recently read The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul, where the author shares the science behind why more screen space helps us remember more, you will know how important it is to have more room. I was already in the market for something bigger, but many options available didn't quite hit the mark in terms of build quality or style, so when the Studio Display was announced, I picked one up at my local Apple Store within a week.

The Studio Display offers me an outstanding balance of screen real estate and image quality, with a 5K native resolution display created in Apple's design language. As a result, I can have multiple apps open with plenty of room to breathe, and the image quality and brightness are excellent.

For my needs, I went with the standard glass display as my office doesn't have any glair issues. I'm also using the default stand, and it's working fine for the height of my workspace.

The speakers sound pretty good. I use AirPods for nearly all audio consumption, so i didn't need external speaker level quality.

I have not used the camera with its image quality issues, although I will try it out once the new firmware is out of beta. It's disappointing that a display of this quality and price shipped with an issue like that, and Apple needs to fix it. Apple knows how to do camera hardware and software properly, so I remain hopeful.

The Studio Display came in at the upper end of my budget. However, I'm comfortable with the price because I plan to use this display with either a MacBook in clamshell mode or a Mac Mini for some time to come.

Do you have the Studio Display? Let me know what you’re enjoying and where you think it doesn’t quite meet your expectations. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to work on cable management so my desk is tidy again.

AssistiveTouch on The Apple Watch

As you may have read in this post, I broke my right wrist a few weeks ago. It’s taken some time to process what happened, and I have been spending most of my energy, appropriately, working on sorting out childcare and making sure my family is okay. My wife is incredible, and our extended family and friends are amazing. Those same people who have been enthusiastic about my recovery are also very supportive of my work here and have encouraged me to continue writing and exploring. I am so thankful for them all.

As things started to settle down, I began to understand better how long I would be in a cast (6 to 8 weeks) with significantly limited use of my dominant hand. I started thinking about how I would interface with my everyday tech.

First on the list for consideration is my Apple Watch.

After a few days of not wearing it, my wife put my watch on for me. I always wear it on my left wrist and was quickly reminded that it is a two-handed device. So, I opened the accessibility pane in the Watch app on my iPhone and started looking around.

Accessibility Options

There are quite a few accessibility features on the Apple Watch, including adding VoiceOver, bold text, reducing transparency, and an hourly chime to indicate the time.

I found AssistiveTouch and remembered reading about it when it launched with WatchOS 8. Given my current situation, the ability to use the watch through one-handed gestures was precisely what I needed.

Activating AssistiveTouch

Turning on AssistiveTouch is easy. Open the accessibility menu in the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll down to the motor section, and toggle AssistiveTouch on. You can even try it out before you activate it.

Customizing Inputs and Appearance

Once enabled, AssistiveTouch offers a variety of settings that you can adjust to fit your needs. I’ve been working with the default for hand gestures, and I’m happy with how they function. It’s taken me a few days for them to feel intuitive.

You can also adjust the contrast and color of the outline that appears on the activated area of the screen. I did not adjust the contrast, but I did change the color to orange from the default blue.

The Motion Pointer

The Motion Pointer allows you to move around the screen by adjusting your wrist. I experimented with this feature briefly but found it too cumbersome to use regularly. I discovered that when scrolling is needed, like when reviewing notifications, the auto-scroll option is presented, and I activate that.

How I Use my Watch

I use my Apple Watch a lot, and primarily in two different ways. The first is for quick data checks. I want to see what time it is (obviously), who sent a recent text, or my progress in closing my rings for the day.

The second is more involved and includes interactions that typically require some voice dictation or several taps to complete. Maybe I’m completing a task in Todoist or responding to a message via Siri dictation.

I’m finding that AssistiveTouch handles my needs well. I can review notifications, navigate my dock, and access my complications easily. I do not doubt that I’ll return to using my other hand when it heals. However, I think it’s likely that I’ll continue using AssistiveTouch.

Learning Something New

I’m thankful to have accessibility options like AssistiveTouch, and a silver lining of this injury is that it’s required me to use some of what Apple has created to continue using the Watch effectively.

I’d like to hear how you’re using accessibility features on your technology, perhaps I can learn something from you too?