Apple Intelligence has stopped serving up fake news.Over at TapSmart, I argue it should never have started as part of a column looking into this whole sorry episode.
Journaling can boost mental health. But if you lack the time or don’t fancy digging out a paper journal and a pen, what’s the alternative? For TapSmart, I outline tips, apps and hardware for journaling using an iPhone.
The new series of Severance started recently. Given how much I loved the first one, I found it surprising to watch the ‘previously’ catch-up and realise how little of it I remembered. With more time, I’d have binge-watched the entire series before tackling the new one, but I barely have time to watch more than a few hours of TV a week these days. So new episodes only it is.
January is done. Good. It wasn’t a great month for all sorts of reasons. Hoping that February brings with it a little more cheer as daylight returns.
I’m finding iPhone SE4 rumours more exciting than iPhone Air gossip (Stuff) – and that’s just weird. Mostly, I’m baffled at the Air rumours, which currently point to a hugely expensive flagship phone with no stereo speakers and a so-so camera. Apple’s obsession with thin: resurrected? I hope not.
Ian Dunt wrote about resisting tech overlords. This was a useful, approachable piece, and much of Ian’s thinking aligns with my own. Ultimately, a lot of what we do on devices is habit – and habits can be broken. If you want to ditch a social network, add friction. And more broadly, be more mindful and deliberate about decisions surrounding tech. That might mean as little as moving an app from your Home Screen or using site blockers with cooldowns to wean you off of specific websites. Which might sound infantilising, but it’s not really. It’s about using the technology to help you manage the technology.
Ian’s piece also talks of endings and the finite nature of traditional media. Increasingly, we are sucked into the infinite. An album ends and a streaming service starts playing other things it thinks you’ll like. You watch a video or TV show, and autoplay continues until you or your device conks out. Occasionally, this can be beneficial – I’ve discovered songs and artists through Apple Music continuing on after an album I love. But that’s not always the case if it’s not deliberate. Companies care about engagement, not about you. Hence why I still gravitate towards printed books, and why when I wrote about buying my first CD player in 20 years, the column went bonkers, leading to weeks and weeks of entirely supportive messages. And not one of them told me off for not also recommending ludicrously expensive cable risers.
Tony Yates asked whether people will push back against GenAI. His thinking: people don’t want it, and the market will express that. I’m not so sure. While I don’t think most people get a kick out of GenAI content, the questions for me are 1) will GenAI be ‘good enough’ and 2) will people be told when things are GenAI? With the current flood of GenAI on YouTube and cheap blogs, the answer to Q1 right now is mostly no, and to Q2 is mostly yes. But what if they flip?
Finally, some terribly sad news: Jonathan Nash recently died. He was a games journalist and comedy writer beyond compare, whose influence permeates through an entire generation of writers still smashing out words today. I was only in Nash’s orbit a few times, working on a handful of projects together. Even the man’s emails were works of art – bite-sized nuggets of comedy genius akin to his very best writing in the likes of Amiga Power.
I lost touch with Nash about ten years ago. As I understand from his close friends, it wasn’t unusual for him to vanish without warning and then suddenly show up, years later. I’m gutted the latter will now never happen. Saying someone was ‘one of a kind’ is an overused phrase, but it’s entirely appropriate here. For longer – better – tributes to the man from people who knew him far better than I did, read John Walker’s wonderful piece at Kotaku and Kieron Gillen’s memories in his recent newsletter.
The Nintendo Switch 2 had a reveal so quiet it was barely a whisper. The response has been… divisive. I provide my thoughts for Stuff in Nintendo Switch 2 shows not all video game sequels are a bad thing, during which current Craig gives previous Craig A LOOK for something he wrote last year.
The Mac mini turned 20 last week, and that got the Stuff magazine ‘Random Access Memories’ back-page treatment. And just about made it online on the 11th. I may have used the column to also gripe about how much the new Mac mini’s upgrades cost. Never miss an opportunity, etc.
Beyond Ynth is the latest addition to my iPhone classics series. It’s such a smart game, mixing puzzling and platforming as you guide a bug through horizontally scrolling levels by way of tumbling boxes.
Steph Thirion has returned, in a manner that even John Gruber would allow a “finally”. Thirion’s Faraway is now on Steam, with a planned release in 2025. It was originally announced something like 15 years ago, as a follow-up to the amazing and much-missed Eliss. (If ever there’s a game Apple should resurrect for Apple Arcade, it’s Eliss. Perhaps by 2040.)
I wrote a Halide guide for TapSmart to help newcomers get started with this pro-oriented camera for iPhone and iPad. I’m surprised the default iOS camera hasn’t eaten the lunch of these pro-grade camera apps yet. Perhaps Apple is keen to keep things simple. Or at least relatively so. (Note that Halide isn’t tricky to use, but more features = more features.)
It’s cold in the UK. With daytime highs below freezing, I’m now at the point where two pairs of socks and lined slippers aren’t enough to stop my feet from being in pain, even inside a heated house. Getting older sucks.
Threads is dead to me. That network too often felt like a gaslighting exercise. Threads head Adam Mosseri would patiently explain why the network wouldn’t implement certain features. But when Bluesky gained traction, suddenly Threads lined up many of the things Mosseri previously dismissed. And now Zuckerberg is licking Trump’s boots and obliterating meaningful protections for those that need them, Threads can suddenly push political content, because the network is all about ‘free expression’. Sure. In the sense of throwing the vulnerable under a bus.
It’s also disappointing because Threads promised to federate and this could have been a great step towards decentralised social media. At least Mastodon mods who pre-emptively blocked Threads can now justifiably say, “We told you so”.
I won’t be deleting my social media accounts. I’m not keen on removing information from the internet. There are too many broken links as it is. But I also don’t see any way back for certain networks, and so will focus on the good ones. Right now, that’s Mastodon and Bluesky. If you want to get in touch for some reason, I’m active on both.
I used a Lego minifig scanner and it worked. I like Lego and write about it forStuff. I despise blind buys. But I always want a few minifigs from each collectable line. That’s a problem. But you can now scan QR codes to see what’s inside a box. Which for me meant no wasted money and being able to support my local toy store rather than buying already opened figures on eBay or Bricklink. Win-win.
The snag: I then did my usual thing of making a big list of possible items to buy rather than actually buying anything. But Ruark kindly sent over an R3S for a few weeks, and it’s been great. Since the review, my family used it over the holidays for CDs (including new ones!), radio and Bluetooth. The review unit will be going home shortly, and I’ll without doubt then buy my own to replace it.
