Happy Sunday, dear friends. We are nearly at the halfway mark of the 2026 year, marking what feels to me like the fastest pace ever. Where has the time gone? I am nearing the final days of a 13th completed tax season. I have close friends and colleagues entering their 60s, discussing retirement or selling major assets they worked a long time to build. My children are growing up, asking harder and harder questions, and discovering who they are along the way. It’s sensational — the Experience of Life — but it sure is difficult to stay on top of. William James first discussed the speed of time in his 1890 work The Principles of Psychology, and he put it this way:

“Each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to contentless units, and the years grow hollow and collapse.”

Perhaps this is what I am experiencing right now. Either way, everything feels like chaos.

I’ve probably gone a bit crazy over the last few months — I’ve purchased more than a few things for the summer and fall ahead. The list of things to touch one is growing, and now includes:

All in all, I have thoughts. I can’t touch on all of them today, but I’ll attempt to in the coming weeks.

I’ve also recently been dabbling in an Andy Matuschak’s Working Notes-styled writing project in Obsidian. It’s been a few weeks of now of near-daily evening writing, culminating in some reflections, some prayer, some observations of the world around me, and some questions I have for Future Josh to answer or ponder. It’s been a wonderful little experiment that has provided additional structure to my writing and thinking. Will it ever see the light of day? It depends. The papers are for me and likely shouldn’t be public material. But we’ll see. To write is to teach, so perhaps it’s best for someone to view it at some point.

For today, though, I wanted to discuss my experience adding a new Apple Watch to an iOS 27 beta phone, and why I likely won’t ever download a beta like this again.

I am no longer on the iOS 27 iPhone beta

See above. I traded in my original Apple Watch Ultra for a new Series 11 Apple Watch. Why now, ahead of a pending update in September? A few reasons:

  1. The trade-in value for my Watch Ultra was still reasonable, and this saved me from losing that inevitable slide in trade-in price in September.
  2. Apple conspicuously left the iPhone and Apple Watch off the list of price increases, likely suggesting higher prices are coming in September for both product lines.
  3. I learned what I liked and didn’t like about my Watch Ultra with the Google FitBit Air experiment, which pointed me directly at the current Series 11 feature set.
  4. Rumours are suggesting a minor Apple Watch update in September, so I am taking my chances on being satisfied over the summer rather than waiting for a mediocre update.

I excitedly walked into the Polo Park Apple Store yesterday, tried on the 46 mm Apple Watch, instantly fell in love with the thin and light size, and aptly traded in my Watch Ultra. It was a pretty smooth process all in all, one I would do again.

At least until I tried to fire up the Series 11 Watch and pair it with my iPhone. What a debacle.

I was never going to be able to avoid iOS 27 beta software. Once I came off the Siri AI waitlist, I was genuinely impressed — Siri AI made its way to home screen nearly instantly, and I was using new Siri for questions I had never, ever imagined I’d be able to ask it. What’s coming September (or later? Probably later.) will be genuinely exciting for billions of iPhone and iPad users.

But that beta software seems to have gotten in the way. As soon as I attempted the pairing process with the new Watch, everything ground to a halt. I was stuck on the fire-up screen on the Watch, with no way forward. I walked back to the Apple Store, where the Store staff immediately said it was because of the beta software. Online hadn’t suggested these sorts of problems, so I took their answer to be the “easy way out” and put the onus right back on me. Fair, I suppose. I still wasn’t happy.

All in all, I ended up having to downgrade from iOS 27. I had no idea how difficult it would be to revert to iOS 26. Downloading an IPSW file. Using the Option key to restore through Finder (you know you’re in deep trouble when you’re using the Option key in Finder). The whole nine yards.

I’m probably not going to be downloading beta software like this again. I could see waiting for public betas over the summer, but developer betas are officially off the table for my iPhone.

Mexico 2026

It took me ages, but I finally put together a photo gallery of our first family vacation. The Leica Q2 continues to be one of my favourite tangible treasures — it produces imagery effortlessly.

Quote of the Week

“It’s fun to say the perfect thing at the perfect time. The problem is that then you have to bend over and pick up the microphone. Conversations take more effort but tend to be worth it.”

— Seth Godin

Here were a few things I shared from the past week. If you want to stay on top of the list throughout the week, don’t be afraid to subscribe via RSS.

Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

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