https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/12/with-its-new-ipad-pro-apple-is-offering-us-the-thin-end-of-the-wedge

Maybe it’s my age, but the company’s brash new vision of digital minimalism looks like a portal to a sad and lonely world

It was my birthday last week, and being these days a quiet rural dweller with a sweet pea obsession rather than the inner-city Dorothy Parker wannabe of yesteryear, I welcomed my appropriately gentle gifts: flowers, plants, an original exhibition catalogue from decades ago, some scent promising to recreate beach walks. I counted among my blessings a recent eye test that showed no further deterioration, an unbroken Duolingo streak (Irish), a roof repair that seems to be holding – what we might call the joy of things not getting worse, small triumphs that often feel disproportionately large and lucky.