Physical media – tapes, books, records

Physical media clings on, not least with people who prize owning rather than renting what they buy. For TapSmart, I check out great iPhone/iPad apps to help people track collections.

MultiTimer joins my classic apps series. It’s amazing to think it took until 2023 for Apple’s Clock to support multiple timers. MultiTimer solved this back in 2015 – and remains superior to Apple’s app.

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Apple’s new rings award just gave me the perfect excuse to get moving again. Once more, a shiny badge is all the motivation I need to get started. Don’t @ me…

Apple Arcade is still pretty great. I’ve found it astonishing how much stick this service has got since its inception. And while there have been issues (not least the bizarre rollout and then a shift from ambitious indies to retention), it includes dozens of fantastic titles. My round-up for Stuff explores many of them.

I love em dashes. But are they a sign of AI writing? LinkedIn posters say yes. The linked piece by Watts Martin suggests there are better ways to detect AI-gen text than looking for dashes. Alex von Tunzelmann’s piece for the FT and Bluesky thread also offer a light-hearted exploration of this subject. And made me recall when one editor, years ago, publicly took the piss out of me for filing copy with “dashes as long as your arm”. Tsk.