For Stuff this weekend, I wrote about why I’m buying my first CD player in 20 years. We have a thousand shiny discs and nothing to play them on, which seems daft, not least given how favourite songs and albums randomly vanish from streaming services all the time. This one also appeared to strike a chord – I’ve had a bunch of (very nice) DMs, social media posts and even emails (old-school!) about the column.
Yes, this one’s late. I almost forgot. Still recovering from covid, which is taking time. A day out at London Aquarium wiped me out, although the family had a great time, and I was very happy to squeeze in the trip that should have happened two weeks ago, just before my daughter returns to school.
In tech, Capcom has now decided iPhone versions of its console-grade games like Resident Evil 4 and Village need an internet connection to run. Given that half the point of mobile is being able to play anywhere, I’m not sure ‘anywhere you happen to have a data connection’ is going to go down well. And by extension, this is another point against App Store gaming Apple really doesn’t need right now, not least given Monument Valley 3 is heading to Netflix. Developer ustwo said this is so it doesn’t have to “compromise in order for it to survive in the kind of App Store that exist in the modern day”. Ouch.
iDOS finally got approved, putting an end to this particular slice of App Store idiocy. Note that MAME4iOS remains in limbo, however, being repeatedly rejected for ‘spam’.
Disney’s legal team is using terms and conditions from Disney+ to stop a man suing over a wrongful death at one of its theme parks. Perhaps it’s jealous that Netflix owns Black Mirror.
Covid finally caught me, after four years. My throat felt weird, I did a test, and I got the evil line of doom. Anyone who says this is just like a cold needs their head examined. Only two days in, feeling sick and knackered all the time is getting old.
I’m also kicking myself. I’d long been the last mask standing, and still used it on public transport. But I’d not been using one all the time in stores, nor when we went to Legoland UK this week. Although I’ll never know precisely where I picked this up and if a mask would have helped. Silver lining: my wife and daughter appear to have escaped so far.
I have two guilt piles. The first is my eBay pile, which now takes up the entire space under an office desk. And a huge box in a cupboard that we do not speak of. And half a dozen boxes of comics in the garage. This… is not great. And also an excellent example of what happens when I lose eBay momentum.
The bigger guilt pile is the ‘read pile’. Books. Comics. Magazines. I buy a lot of collectible graphic novels and interesting non-fiction titles in print (rather than digital). Beyond that, I buy print magazines, including Wired, Stuff, Retro Gamer and Blocks. And, it turns out, they increase in number when they’re not read. Who knew?
However, while reading through the latest Blocks, I realised I have ‘magazine completism’. I know I should zip over things that don’t interest me. But I feel duty bound to read the things from cover to cover. I suspect this is a manifestation of whatever flavour of OCD I have, which is mostly geared around “but what if I miss this important thing?” (So: I’ll check the front door more times than is strictly necessary, let’s say, in case I somehow missed that it wasn’t locked, thereby leading to nefarious types cleaning us out. Reader: that door has never not been locked on my returning to check it again. And again. Sigh.)
This isn’t ideal, because the pile grows faster than I can get through it. Just as well I don’t have the symmetry/orderliness aspect of OCD, or I’d be really done for. On the bright side, I’m squeezing every last drop of value out of these magazines, and so that’s something.
Curious rumours this week about Apple TV+ being scaled back. Would that make it just Apple TV? Or Apple TV-? The argument is that Apple has chucked loads of cash at its streaming service, but the numbers no longer justify it.
Right now, this is the only streaming service our household has running. The movies seem very hit and miss, but there are a lot of great shows. Will that still be the case in two years?
Today, Apple TV+ has a solid reputation – almost the HBO of streaming. But Apple Arcade initially had a run of being a ‘premium’ take in its sector. Apple’s since dumbed that down, filling it full of me-too casual fare and giving dozens of old App Store favourites another airing.
Is Apple about to do an ‘Apple Arcade’ with TV+? If so, what would that look like, and how would Apple differentiate the service from its rivals if it’s increasingly packed full of lowest-common denominator telly and bought-in series from elsewhere?
So many new operating systems! I’ll be writing up my usual tips on iPhone, iPad and Mac this autumn. But I’m also interested to see how all this stuff goes, given Apple’s initial steps into AI (with seemingly much reticence) and ongoing major issues with developers.
I also have a few really cracking classic app pieces in the pipe, which I really hope happen. And I’m looking at getting back into more app writing in general.
Other stuff
I’m far from the first to write about this, but tinyPod turns an old Apple Watch into a tiny iPod. Sort of. I really like the idea and absolutely want to buy one, but imagine it will sit in the same “at some point, meaning probably never” space as Playdate. (I love the idea of that console too. But I lack time for those I already own, and Playdate is a bit spendy.)
I re-read Scarlet Traces, by way of its Hachette partworks incarnation. I’ve always loved War of the Worlds, in all its versions, and so Ian Edginton and D’Israeli adaptation clicked on its release way back in the 2000s. I didn’t remember much about the follow-up series that ran in 2000 AD, and so was surprised by how much I enjoyed the second volume. It’s a properly cracking read – highly recommended.
And speaking of comics, Peter Hogan (co-creator of the superb Resident Alien) is running a Kiskstarter that should, frankly, have more than 245 backers. So if you’re into comics, you know what to do.
