Happy Sunday, my friends. This one is coming to you a little late, but perhaps I can squeeze it in before the clock strikes 12.
I’ve learned a few things while being transparent about The Sunday Edition over the last few weeks:
- This little “newsletter” or weekly post is read by more people than I thought. My analytics and direct subscriber count are low, but it’s sent out to RSS, which I have no record of. This is good and bad, in both things I know and don’t know. The fact I’ve received so many emails recently goes to show people are reading, and I’m so, so grateful for the encouragement.
- Far-off readers (readers who may not live in the same locale) seem more interested in technology writing, while local readers appear to be more interested in the financial writing. This is interesting.
- Creativity and whatever part of my brain is used during tax time must be the same muscle; I expected to have ample energy because I’d be using a different part of my brain, but this couldn’t be further from the case.
This week, some thoughts on the Studio Display XDR and some fun links I found during the week.
Two Weeks With Apple’s Studio Display XDR
Yes, an accountant who uses the Studio Display XDR. What a joke! And it probably is a joke, but I truly don’t care. This is likely a 10+ year display and I finally have the best Apple display you can buy. My opinions of it are reflective of it being the most expensive Apple display you can buy — there’s some great stuff packed into this otherwise-recycled design.
120Hz refresh rate is the feature I didn’t know I would love. I suppose I’ve experienced this sort of smooth refresh rate on the iPad Pro, iPhone Pro, and MacBook Pro, but I didn’t think I’d notice it on the large 27-inch display. Instead, to me, this is the most important new feature in the Studio Display XDR. Smooth scrolling, smooth video, smooth cursor movement — everything is buttery smooth across the entire operating system, and it’s such a joy to use.
Conversely, sometimes you’d like to show off a particular feature that makes regular passersby go “Wow!”. 120Hz is not going to bring about any “Wows!”. Non-tech folks are so used to this sort of refresh rate in their iPhones that they somewhat expect the same behaviour from a large Studio Display. It’s difficult to convince anyone that this level of smoothness is worth such an investment.
Also of note: macOS will downgrade refresh rates to the lowest common denominator if you have a second external display hooked up to your Mac. I tried to use the XDR beside a first generation Studio Display and macOS immediately downshifted the XDR’s 120Hz rate to its common 60Hz refresh rate. I wasn’t prepared to spend this kind of money only to use the display in 60Hz mode, so I moved the second Studio Display somewhere else.
I am growing annoyed of Apple’s constant need to recycle parts, designs, and manufacturing processes. Tim Cook’s logistics expertise is at the heart and soul of Apple’s extraterrestrial share price. His ability to lead manufacturing of tens of millions of devices at the highest possible quality and ship all over the world in under a week is what has led to Apple’s economies of scale. That same manufacturing prowess is on full display in something like the Studio Display XDR.
Instead of put the mini-LED and 120Hz refresh rates into a new package, Apple opted to design a Studio Display that looks effectively identical to the prior generation. (The XDR is slightly thicker than the first generation Studio Display; it’s immediately noticeable when side-by-side.) I’m sure the XDR is produced on the same manufacturing line. It appears to use the same packaging to be delivered. It uses the same potato camera and the same speakers as the lower tiered Studio Display. It uses the same smaller 27-inch display size. What an absolute shame this is only 27-inches diagonally.
Everything about the XDR’s physical production appears to be recycled and reused. And no, at this price, this is not an exciting thing to me. I want to arrive at the office, look at my display, and instantly remember that I have the newest toy.
The bright 2,000 nit mini-LED display is beautiful, especially when viewing 8K content. I immediately noticed the difference in the bright whites and the black blacks when comparing the XDR to the first generation Studio Display. The first generation Studio Display was actually poor in this regard — many light leaks and poor contrast provided distraction in certain environments (specifically, for me, when watching Star Wars shows with lots of black space content). The XDR completely fixes this shortcoming, and it’s almost as instantly noticeable as the 120Hz refresh rate.
I also don’t think I understood the impressiveness of HDR content until I viewed some on the XDR for the first time. I simply YouTubed an 8K HDR video to experience the full capabilities of the display, and I let out an audible gasp while watching.
Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and I honestly didn’t know how beautiful 8K HDR content could truly be.
I’ve run into a few software or graphical glitches, and I hope there’s a fix coming. I regularly (by regularly, I mean between 10 and 15 times a day) catch the XDR display glitching out, including a flashing pointer, duplicated pointers, invisible pointers, or skewed pointers. It seems the fix is to either scroll the mouse over to the MacBook Pro’s display, or moving the mouse from one side of the display to the other seems to do the trick.
I’d be curious if there are two channels at play here (one left and one right) and that the sheer amount of data running through the cable gets crossed up or something.
These glitches are annoying at worst. They don’t shut down or inhibit my work in any way. Though, if I were a designer and my mouse pointer was the actual piece doing all the work, I think I’d be more than mildly annoyed.
My ears aren’t trained enough to hear a difference in the XDR’s audio capabilities. I’ve always felt the Studio Display speakers were pretty good, and I most certainly cannot tell a difference between this and the first generation Studio Display. I also can’t tell a difference in microphone quality when recording Loom videos or speaking in a Google Meet meeting.
I have noticed, however, the M4 Pro MacBook Pro suffering a bit with lags when preparing a Loom video. My little talking-head bubble in the corner (which I regularly shoot with the XDR’s built-in camera) is almost always laggy — I can see myself jumping from frame to frame in the video while recording. Now, when actually producing and sending to a client, that video is much smoother. Something seems to be going on when working live.
And lastly, my one particular wish is that there was one more USB-C port on the back of the Studio Display XDR. This is largely a nitpick, but I think it’s real. I plugged my now-old OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock into the second Thunderbolt 5 port in the back of the XDR, leaving only two USB-C ports remaining. I connect a Logitech Bolt receiver into one of those ports for my MX Master 4. It’s not often where I need more than that one USB-C port, but I know for a fact others will want more than one port available in the back of this display.
The reason this irritates me: I am willing to bet Apple is recycling a manufacturing process here, and rather than bore a new USB-C port into the back of the XDR display, they opted to keep the same number of holes in the back of the chassis and only update the internal components to add a second Thunderbolt 5 port. To me, two USB-C ports represent a “good enough” approach. At this price tag, “good enough” is far from good enough.
I can’t imagine 6 months with the Studio Display XDR will produce too many additional thoughts beyond what I’ve outlined above. I’ve contemplated bringing the XDR home for the sake of being able to watch TV shows on it and making better use of that mini-LED glory. But there’s also something about knowing there’s a $5,000 CAD display sitting in my basement used for maybe 2 hours a week. Perhaps a truly lengthy test of those capabilities would yield some new opinions.
Instead, the Studio Display XDR has provided a great experience so far, but falls short on the expectations I thought I would have had if I had ever been able to work on a Pro Display XDR. I’ve always enjoyed using a Studio Display, and that enjoyment certainly isn’t gone. It’s just that I was expecting more for this price.
I am simply an accountant, though. As I’ve been told time and again, no accountant needs this type of display just to view spreadsheets.
(Trust me though, you’d be surprised.)
Brutalist CISO Notes
I had a truly friendly reader reach out after one of my prior discussions on the futility of building a second brain. He provided a link to his self-created “Brutalist CISO Notes” guide, in which he showcases how he takes notes each day. A quote from the site:
The more elaborate the system becomes, the less it gets used. It quietly turns into a digital attic. Things go in. Very little comes back out. You end up managing the system instead of the system serving you.
What actually works at this altitude is not knowledge management. It’s operational memory.
A CISO notes system only has three real jobs. Capture fast. Preserve decisions. Drive action.
Everything else is overhead.
In some ways, this reminds me of the Bullet Journal methodology, or Patrick Rhone’s Dash/Plus system, which I still use in my notes to this day. Perhaps I can adapt the Dash/Plus system with a few pointers from this CISO Notes guide.
The Second Cup
Bleep
This is app one of two this week that reminds me of MyMind. To me, MyMind looks a bit more automated and automatic, while Bleep looks to require a bit more of your customization.
Spatial
And app two of two that reminds me of MyMind. I would suggest Spatial and Bleep are largely targeting the same audience here, though I think Spatial has a tad bit more flair to it. The onboarding experience was really, really well done.
Plain Text Accounting
I’m not sure I’m technical enough to pull this off, and the simplicity of this type of system would likely make my blood boil. Overall though, if you’re looking for something quick, easy, and painless to keep sense of your internal accounting records, and you have a bit of technical know-how in your arsenal, this could be a fun little system.
Steve Kerr’s Handwritten Letter to the Blue Jays’s John Schneider
Greatness, meet greatness. Player-first coaches like Schneider always make me a bit weary — I don’t believe you can lead a clubhouse by pleasing each player. But some guys just have “it”, and it seems Schneider just has “it”. The Jays are off to a great start this year and the clubhouse seems to have picked up right where they left off after that heartbreaking October.
Maurizio Baldassari Basket Weave Virgin Wool Cardigan
Pricey, but beautiful. I love me a good crossover between a sweater and sport jacket. This is right up my alley.
Quote of the Week
“And it’s not always about looking the best: intentionally dressing casually to a formal meeting sends a powerful message about who holds the power.”
Morgan Housel, The Art and Science of Spending Money
Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
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