Techuisite Digest

10.27.2023: My lack of need for Apple Pencil, Kindle Review, and finding time to write is hard.

Not many behind-the-scenes updates right now. Substack has been renamed to Techuisite Digest, Medium continues to host Techuisite.com, and I have a new, unfinished, home for my personal blog, Alvalog.org. I plan to write more soon for each of these places, but for now, I am happy where I am with my digital life.

Before we move on to the rest of the newsletter, I do want to mention that I am on Mastodon at @paulalvarez@mastodon.social if you want to follow me. I loved, and miss Twitter, but find myself actually contributing and posting more on Mastodon, so if you are there come follow and say hello. I don’t post as much on Threads, but I am there too: @techuisite.

Techuisite Digest is a reader-supported publication. This Digest is free, but if you want more please sign up for a Paid Subscription to get all of them and more.

The coveted Apple Pencil

I don’t have too much to say in regards to the new Apple Pencil that Apple announced, except that I think it is great that the price is lower. USB-C makes more sense with the trend of USB-C taking over the line-up, but in reality, the Apple Pencil hasn’t really interested me that much.

In the past when I either had an iPad for casual use or went back to using an iPad as my main computer, as I have done recently, an Apple Pencil would be an accessory that I picked up immediately. This time it hasn’t been something I feel I need or, more importantly, want. I have been writing in a standard notebook for journaling and see no need to go digital, and no other projects that I have been working on require one.

For me, the Apple Pencil was always a device that I saw as an aspirational tool. The things that some are able to do with the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro in Procreate are very influential, but I never actually was able to do some of those things myself. Not without a lack of trying, but I also didn’t find the effort worth it. I got bored after a while and used the Pencil elsewhere like for handwriting and editing novels.

I may revisit the Apple Pencil again in the future, and if I don’t want to cough up the money for the premium version that attaches to my iPad Pro, I can consider this new model that is much cheaper. For now, I think I am okay with not having the coveted Apple Pencil in my arsenal of productivity tools.

Kindle Review

I recently published my Kindle 2022 Review and wanted to share some additional thoughts. If you have read my reviews about technology in the past, I tend do them a little different then the usual Tech Reviewers. I definitely don’t shy away from specs, but I only focus on the ones that are important to me, or things that I feel are most beneficially in using the product versus what it is capable of.

Most Kindle reviews don’t go over the internal hardware, so my review will be quite similar to others since reading is really the main focus. I wanted to take my time with this review and have not written much else on here or Medium, because I wanted to read more to provide a more real world experience. I plan to go over this more next, but it worked out great since writing has been a little difficult for me recently.

Some behind the scenes of the Kindle that I didn’t mention in the review are my love of a certain case that I always get for a Kindle when I have one. When I sold my Paperwhite Signature Edition last year, I was Letting Go of the Kindle so I sold the case with it, thinking I wasn’t going to get one anytime soon. Since getting a new Kindle I was desperate in getting it back.

I have been lucky to be able to keep finding some on eBay, and in really good condition I might add, for a reasonable price—usually under $20. I don’t know when these cases were sold, but I love it, and since I don’t like bulky cases on my Kindle it is the perfect sleeve with a zipper to slide it into and keep safe when I am done reading.

Another quick thing I also wanted to add when it comes to the Kindle is that the reason I ended up with going with this model and not getting an older Paperwhite for around the same price or cheaper is literally the bezel size. This Kindle has the same tiny bezels size as the new Paperwhite and it really feels like I am holding more book in my hand then a plastic e-reader.

Writing is hard

Since Medium announced there changes, I promise I wont rehash that again, my cadence on writing often has suffered. I sometimes have the usually slump where I write a ton, then take a couple weeks off feeling burnt out, but lately I have only been publishing posts once or maybe twice every month.

I thought writing for Substack would help, but I find myself either not having the time to sit down to write (with a toddler and another baby on the way I can’t fault myself too much), and when I do it is hard for me to actual write and not get sucked into something else that I need to get done—like keeping up with our budget or other life things.

Lately, I have also been going back and forth on what I want my presence online to be. I was really happy to only be on Medium, but because of there changes, and the lack of views that I get per month it doesn’t feel like my writing is being seen like it used to. It could be that because I am not writing as much is leading to my writing not being seen as much, but either way I am trying to find my groove again.

Alvalog.org has been moved again (yeah, I know.), this time the Blot.im. I think part of my problem is that I have made publishing online too much effort for myself. I want to design my blog a certain way, but having a place that is easy to just write and post is something I think I need, and is why I have gone back to Blot.im after using it years ago.

I have been trying to post on Mastodon more, and I think Threads might be another place that I’d like to be present more, but having a personal blog I think will keep the juices flowing for me to keep writing online. I have some more reviews and posts that I plan to do soon, so keep an eye out.

If you like my writing you can either sign up for a paid subscription here on Substack, or become a member on Medium for my technology posts. I also write a free and paid version of Techuisite Digest that goes out twice a month (hopefully more often in the future).

Thanks for reading!