Published stuff

For Stuff, I wrote about how I learned smart tech can’t save dumb appliances. Or: my battle against logic and a Tado heating system. Also on Stuff, the final best upcoming Lego sets update of the year. Which includes a British pub. (Or at least what British people will customise into a British pub, because Lego does not do Lego beer pumps. Tsk.)

Over at TapSmart, I recommend apps for Christmas Day and outline my favourite iPhone apps of the year.

Upcoming stuff

Quite a lot is coming up on Stuff, including my traditional Apple year-in-review and ‘Apple next year’ pieces, a bunch of columns, and some other bits and bobs that I hope people will find interesting. I’ll keep writing weeknotes over the holidays, but otherwise am now on a break from work until 3 January. (After filing my last commercial piece yesterday evening, I felt a bit weird and giddy. Which suggests next year I should take things a little easier, where possible…)

Other stuff

The UK government is aiming to carve out a copyright exemption for AI companies, on the basis that their business models otherwise don’t work. Not sure I’d get away with “my business model relies on me plagiarising the entire history of human creative output”. And in some ways even worse, it is still illegal in the UK to even rip a CD you own to MP3. 

I pointed out the irony and imbalance on Mastodon, but John Walker put it best on Bluesky: “There is no greater evidence of the complicity of consecutive governments to the copyright lobbyists that they accepted every ludicrous expansion of the draconian rules, right up until they inconvenienced the corporations, at which point they become optional to those with the money.”

There is a consultation, which is worth filling in if you’re in the habit of screaming at walls/trying to hold back the ocean. I had a go, and just ended up hoarse and wet. Still, at least I have two weeks to recover.

Anyway, merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it – and happy ‘end of December’ to everyone else!

Published stuff

My column for Stuff this week talks about how dropping down an iPhone size made me ‘think different’ about giant phones. In short, I thought I’d miss the bigger screen – and I don’t. Also, my pinkie finger is much happier now.

For TapSmart, I wrote about my favourite Apple moments from 2024 and added MindNode to my classic apps series.

Other stuff

The central heating in our house was terrible. The wired thermostat was in the warmest room. Whatever we tried, we’d end up with an oven-like space there and freezing rooms elsewhere. We got a Tado smart thermostat and that immediately helped. Then we started adding Tado thermostats to the radiators. Which was great until this morning when one of them failed to turn on. Could be iffy Wi-Fi connectivity, a defective unit, or a message from the universe that I shouldn’t stay in bed on a Saturday. No idea which one yet. Technology!

Monument Valley 3 came out this week. It’s good, if very familiar, and I imagine many millions of people will want to play it. They can – if they pay for Netflix. And also keep their subscription active, because the current version ends with a frustrating ‘more to come at some point’ message. I’m starting to tire of game rentals and siloing, which increasingly resembles the fragmented TV landscape. It won’t be long before Disney gets in on this act – YouTube already has. That said, with the onset of free-to-play and all-you-can-eat, I’m apparently in a minority of folks who’d prefer to own rather than ‘rent’ games.

The Pi 500 has arrived. I really liked its predecessor, which for a long time piped lovely retro games to my TV. I liked how it was an all-in-one with a keyboard, marrying flexibility and compactness. It was subsequently replaced by an old Mac mini, which was more powerful. But I now wonder if it’s time for a Pi to make a living room comeback.

Published stuff

A quick note this time, because I’m buried in end-of-year deadline hell. 

My column for Stuff this week is I want more Nintendo mobile games like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll get them. My guess is that this pay-once take on a previously IAP-infested mobile title is Nintendo simultaneously making fans happy while extracting one final payment from them. But this version of Pocket Camp does also feel like the game it should have been from the start.

Also for Stuff, I wrote about the Sony PlayStation at 30 – and six of the best PS1 games to try. And instantly got a kicking for my games selection. But, hey, it’s my games selection. My aim with these round-ups is to give people a flavour of each system and ideally promote titles still worth playing today. Related: Vib-Ribbon remains underrated and excellent. And, no, I don’t regret including it over Tomb Raider, Wipeout and Resident Evil. Don’t @ me.

Finally, over at TapSmart, I wrote a deep dive for Carrot Weather. Carrot remains a unique app: feature-rich and hugely customisable weather, but also just great fun to mess around with. Hopefully, whether you’re new to the app or a veteran, you’ll discover handy tips within the article.

Published stuff

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Apple Intelligence. For Stuff, I wrote that Apple Intelligence is very Apple but not very intelligent. And for TapSmart, I ask: Are Apple Intelligence writing, notification and photo tools all they’re cracked up to be?

Thinking about it, I probably should have written those in the opposite order above, since one headline answers the other. Anyway, there is some good stuff in Apple Intelligence, and I’m glad Apple is being deliberate and cautious rather than stamping on creators’ faces. But I can’t help but feel all this effort could be put to better use – and that what this entire industry is delivering isn’t coming close to matching user expectations.

Elsewhere on Stuff, I made everyone feel old by celebrating the Nintendo DS’s 20th. I also updated the best upcoming Lego sets piece.

For TapSmart, I wrote about 16 iPhone apps that are even better on iPad and detailed how I’m using Reminders as my go-to to-do app.

Other stuff

On her Young Vulgarian blog, Marie Le Conte wrote an excellent piece on (some) people’s need to post on social media. For me, it’s always been about human connection. As someone who’s worked from home for well over 20 years, social networking has – at its best – been a great way to feel less isolated.

Where I diverge a little from Le Conte’s take is in her thinking on Meta. She argues that Threads is struggling because Meta didn’t take into account the “posting middle classes” and their needs. I just think Meta can’t help but be anything other than itself. So Threads wants to be different, but Meta’s culture forces it to be little more than another Facebook.

It was notable to see Meta’s Adam Mosseri reveal that the algorithm is being shaken up, presumably because people are getting tired of For You being full of engagement bait. But the ‘rebalancing’ he spoke of only served to annoy people who like For You as it is – and those who hate it. The solution is to give people the option in Threads to default to a chronological feed – or an algorithmic feed of their choosing. But Meta has never been about letting you see what you want to see. Meta wants you to see what it wants you to see.

Published stuff

As a writer, it’s great when your instincts turn out to be sound. I’d written a Bluesky piece for the issue of Stuff currently going to print, but then saw the massive wave of new users and so got it online ASAP. And I’m thrilled to report that The best Bluesky tips 2024: replace Twitter and make social media fun again has done really well, because it’s good for the site but, more importantly, helps more people get started with Bluesky. Numbers-wise, it’s even creeping towards my surprise breakout column about why I’m buying my first CD player in 20 years.

Speaking of columns, this week I wrote the following: This games store is saving 100 retro games from oblivion. The rest of the gaming world needs to step up too. Games preservation is close to my heart, and so it’s always good to see commercial entities tackle this problem, rather than leaving it to grey-area emulation. But there are so few of them. The games industry needs to do more and care about its own history.

Finally, over at TapSmart, I wrote about 12 great iPhone Lock Screen widgets and added Edge to my classics series.

Other stuff

The latest Bluesky wave has got people talking. Often in ways that to me make little sense. Over on Threads, people seem genuinely annoyed that Bluesky is the current social media darling. There’s lots of hand-wringing from the people in charge, who don’t seem to realise that Threads cloning the best Bluesky features won’t matter if Meta continues being Meta, making decisions that are user-hostile.

For me, the key thing about Bluesky (like Mastodon) is that it defaults to the content you want to see. Threads adding custom feeds is meaningless if it always shows you inane engagement bait in ‘For You’ every time you open the app. And the company continuing to conflate – or not – Threads and Instagram depending on whether – or not – it’s in Meta’s best interests is getting old. (‘Use a totally different social network for DMs’ is wild from a user-experience standpoint.)

But the big argument about Bluesky comes from people still posting on X. They claim we need to save the town square. We’re told Bluesky will become a left-wing bubble. Just no. X’s algorithm was aggressively pushing right-wing content into my feed when I quit the site in 2023, so I can only imagine how bad it is now. It is no longer a level playing field. And right-wing voices are not blocked from Bluesky – it’s just that people will block them if they start being dicks.

Moreover, X is not and was never a town square. It was more like a pub. And you don’t stay and fight for a pub you like if a new landlord scraps the barred list, starts yelling about how much he hates “the libs”, makes friends with a bunch of far-right nutters, and ensures your entire time there will be spent dealing with arseholes yelling shit your way. What you do is this: you find another pub. In all, I get the impression certain people are mostly fuming because we won’t play their game anymore. Tough.

Speaking of Bluesky (again – last time, I promise), I asked over there the following: Do writers have that thing when they read themselves from 10 or 20 years ago and it’s like reading someone else entirely? Some old columns on this blog and elsewhere still sound like me to some degree, but many feel weirdly alien. It’s odd. And this isn’t about quality. In fact, sometimes I read an old column and think it’s really clever, which helpfully sends me into a spiral of “oh my god, I’m shit” as my deadline roars towards me with all of the subtlety of a rhinoceros wearing a jetpack.

Still, I suppose this is a good thing. I’d rather evolve than always be the same. And I’m heading towards 25 years of being paid to smash out words for various folks, and so I must be doing something right.