Weeknote: 13 October 2025 – Slide Over, Sleep Score, BirdNET and not-so-smart fridges

Slide Over is back. Apple has resurrected its popular ‘stashable’ iPad window – ish. It now only holds one app (albeit one per display) but it can now be resized. I wrote about this for Stuff, noting how it gives me hope Apple will fix other aspects of its revised operating systems. *cough Liquid Glass cough*
Sleep Score worries me. Apple isn’t alone in ‘rating’ your sleep. And I know some people thrive on gamifying every aspect of their lives. But over at TapSmart, I explore the damage such systems can cause.
A new Twitter? Not quite. Rather than connecting with people, I spent some happy hours connecting with our feathered friends by way of BirdNET.
EastEnders vs fridge? In a now sadly deleted Reddit post, I learned the Internet of Shit is alive and well. The poster claimed their Samsung fridge was picking up and playing audio from their neighbours, including EastEnders. They couldn’t find a way to disable Bluetooth. Turning off the speaker effectively made many of the fridge’s smart features redundant. Although, frankly, a non-smart fridge that isn’t connected to the internet seems like a good idea to me, given what else Samsung is experimenting with.
Human-centric AI publishing! That’s apparently the latest wheeze, according to a press release I received earlier. This would combat the tide of AI slop by allowing people to create a non-fiction book. In an hour. Uh-huh.