Apple’s touchscreen MacBook is imminent. I wrote for Stuff about why the MacBook Tappity Tap Pro doesn’t necessarily contradict Steve Jobs once railing against the ergonomic issues of vertical touchscreens.
iPhone Duo badness:iFixit tore one apart and discovered some bad news, in that the screen issues may well be a design flaw. On the plus side, the Duo is apparently the most repairable foldable ever – although iFixit adds “that’s not saying much”. Ouch.
iPhone Duo goodness: apps. Specifically, 43 of them, which I compiled into a bonkers roundup of interesting and bonkers things to install on your new fold-o-phone.
The iPod turned 25. It strikes me Apple could still sell a bunch of these if it had a mind to. But I suppose that these days that the iPod wouldn’t be profitable enough.
The new iMac is the old iMac. Well, apart from the chip. That’s just about enough for me – but barely. That said, while a more radical iMac exists in my dreams, I was very aware of what we’d get in reality. Still, at least Apple didn’t ditch the purple option…
The Ghosts film is very good. If you’re a fan of the (UK) series, go and see it.
Apple and gaming, sitting in a tree. At least, that’s how the company would have it, having made yet another push for gaming last week. I thought this effort was more laudable than most, since it was Apple’s (first? only?) Indie Games Week, highlighting a bunch of new titles. I covered the event for Stuff, including an interview with Hello Games MD Sean Murray, in No Man’s Sky finally prepares to land on iPhone.
AI is making mush of people’s brains. At the very least, there’s a compelling argument that people are starting to lose their critical thinking capabilities. From The Guardian’s Companies rushed in on AI. Now some are pulling back by Taylor Telford:
At Microsoft, which rolled out AI widely internally, executive vice-president Ryan Roslansky recently publicly lamented the prevalence of AI slop in his day-to-day work. After receiving “what was clearly an AI-generated doc” from a co-worker, he used his AI to summarize it and came away with no new thinking about the idea, he said. He warned his followers against falling into this potential “doom loop”, where AI does the reading and writing and leaves behind an “ocean of sameness”.
I had to read that more than once, because it’s such an amazing and staggering paragraph. I love the bit where it says the Microsoft guy used AI to summarise AI slop (thereby creating, what, slopception?) and – shock! – got no new ideas (having not used his own brain) and was terribly angry about the whole thing. His conclusion is about right. His actions were the problem.
I am ‘the enemy’. At least according to King Trump of the USA. Why? Because I refuse to call Artificial Intelligence ‘Super Intelligence’ until it’s actually super. Read my column for Stuff on why.
The iPhone 18 Pro Max is a really great phone. Shocker, eh? Still, it’s been a while since I’ve had Apple’s big-o-phone to review and so it was interesting comparing it to my iPhone 16 Pro.
The Evercade Nexus is imminent. I was sent a sample for review. My take: it’s pretty good, the screen is a lot better than I expected, the dual sticks work very nicely for some games, but the whole thing might be a big chunky if you’re not blessed with big mitts. Read my thoughts over on Stuff.
I interviewed Laura ‘Penfriend’ Kidd. It’s always a slight concern when chatting with people you admire, but I had a delightful time interviewing Laura, who was very open about everything from why she first got into music to thoughts on the music industry and AI.
Another retro home micro is on the way. This time, it’s the Atari 800, being reborn as THE 800XL. Weird name aside, I wrote about why I was always jealous of this system as a kid.
I tried the iPhone’s new AI photo tools. For science! It certainly wasn’t for the good of my health. Because, as my Amateur Photographer piece points out, these tools can give you deeply weird results. That’s not to say they can’t help you be creative and have fun. But they do merrily obliterate authenticity and reality.
I reviewed the GamerCard. TL;DR: don’t buy one. I explain why in my piece for Time Extension, which appears to be an outlier opinion. At least two other writers gave the GamerCard 8/10.
It’s always strange when this happens. You wonder if you missed something. But no. I spent ages with GamerCard, giving it every chance. Other reviewers offer similar conclusions to mine, yet sweep away the negatives. I won’t – can’t – do that.
A games console where the controls and ergonomics make gaming borderline unplayable makes no sense. And while I appreciate the passion Grant Sinclair has – and how he sandwiched a Pi into such a skinny form factor – that doesn’t make up for the poor experience. Not least when there are loads of other handhelds that do a far better job at letting you play Pico-8 – or even turning a Pi Zero into a handheld.
Anyway, on a cheerier note, here’s a ‘meet the family’ pic.
Speaking of retro handhelds, I’ve suddenly seen a surprising number of people griping that 16:9 content looks small on their shiny new Retroid Pocket Nova. Yes, you bought a 4:3 handheld. What did you expect? Do you not know how… shapes work? I’ve been using my Nova a whole lot and still reckon it’s an end-game retro handheld. But if you’re into widescreen games, get something like the Retroid Pocket 6.
Tempest 2000 is fab. You know what’s also fab? Tempest 2000 on Pico-8. I do love firing up splore – the online Pico-8 games directory – and finding new stuff. But I never thought I’d find a version of Jeff Minter’s classic shooter, and especially one that plays just as well as the Jaguar original.
POLITICS KLAXON! Sorry, but here in the UK, something shocking happened last week: we had a Prime Minster give a speech that was… really good. Also: surprisingly brave. Natch, loads of folks have since put the boot in, but the Quiet Riot podcast deftly explained the realities of proposed changes to the UK pensions triple lock, how major reform takes time, and how progressives should learn to say “yes” rather than instinctively pick a fight with other progressives when one checks almost every item off of their wish list.
Download Tapotron. It’s a superb… iPhone game? Music app? Fidget toy? Probably all three. It takes top spot in my ‘fastest conversion from pitch email to me deciding to cover something’ league table, and this weekend joined my top free iPhone games roundup. The app is delightful and spread a grin across my face as I started tapping away. You might disagree; although if you do, you’re dead inside.
I’m still using a six-year-old Apple MacBook Air M1.So I wrote about that for Stuff. This ageing laptop is not perfect. It has the odd wobble and makes its limited storage known. But that I can still run my favourite DAW (Korg Gadget) and do some of my writing on a basically silent Mac that’s never caused any major trouble is quite something. I imagine Apple will ditch support for the M1 chip sooner or later and render all those first-gen Apple Silicon Macs redundant. That will be a sad day.
The latest Stuffis out. Issue 340 (November 2026) has my interview with Laura Kidd/Penfriend and, excitingly, my Stuff column in print for the first time, along with my overview of the best tips for Apple’s latest operating systems.
I’m back in MacFormat too. Actually, I have been for a while. Anyway, MF435 includes a feature by me on repurposing Intel Macs, tutorials on DockDoor and Wakeout, and reviews of Soulver 4 and BBEdit 16. So, er, buy a copy.
Facebook has gone bonkers. I mean, even more than usual. My feed has long been crap, but the site is now desperately demanding I use its GenAI to convert seemingly random images into seemingly random styles. Also, it suggested I create a ‘celebration’ post because something I posted got over 10 reactions. I’m no expert on social media, but I’m thinking reaching double figures for a post isn’t exactly news.
Nutcases have remade OutRun in C64 PETSCII.This is totally and utterly mad. Still, a nice tribute as OutRun hits 40 (more on that here) and Sega seems pretty relaxed about this sort of thing. Want more PETSCII goodness? Check out these C64 games and – arguably even more impressive – these PET homebrew titles.
