Published stuff

My Stuff column this week was ‘They don’t make Olympic video games like they used to – which might be for the best’ – exploring classics from my childhood and comparing them to the horror inflicted on the masses for Paris 2024. I also wrote about the new BurgerTime Quarter Arcade and refreshed the best upcoming Lego sets round-up.

For TapSmart, I explored one of my favourite apps, with a deep dive of Soulver. I also recommended 10 great creativity apps for iPhone and wrote a HomePod buyer’s guide.

And for this blog, I covered my ongoing frustration with Apple’s approach to emulators in ‘Apple isn’t serious about retro game emulation on iPhone – nor level playing fields for developers’.

Other stuff

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?

Published stuff

Two new articles this week. For Stuff, I wrote Remixing old games is the perfect way to play NES and arcade classics. Purists might scream in horror at this take, but I like the notion of trying to freshen up old games by framing them in different ways. And then over at TapSmart, there’s my stargazing toolkit for iPhone.

Upcoming stuff

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.

Published stuff

My deep dive series at TapSmart continued with how to get started with Procreate. I also explored what I want to see from the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. 

Over at Stuff, my daughter’s infatuation with Gold by Spandau Ballet inspired my column, Streaming opened up music’s past like never before – but will artists of the future be able to survive? I also (dun dun) took a look at (dun dun) the new Lego Jaws set (dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun).

Other stuff

The election sucked all of the oxygen out of the room in the UK last week. Astonishingly, I now have a Liberal Democrat MP. I never thought I’d see the day. It was a very weird night.

However, while I was happy to see the Tories get a kicking, I’m not thrilled at how unrepresentative the Commons is. I’ve written about the unrepresentative UKsystem before, but this week’s election takes the biscuit.

A narrative rattling around is that the Lib Dems ‘gamed’ the system in their favour. Yet what really happened is that, for the first time, the party almost got a representative seat share (11% from 12% of the vote). The Greens and Reform weren’t so fortunate. Entertainingly – given that they wrote a love letter to FPTP in their manifesto – the Tories fell short too, winning 18.6% of the seats from 23.7% of the vote.

Labour? 63.4% of the seats, from just 33.7% of the vote. So the party is over-represented almost to the point it has twice as many MPs as it should have. Naturally, some people are OK with this and argue it’s the price we pay to keep out the hard right. But it has historically kept out progressives (the Greens should have about 40 MPs today), and also resulted in fewer progressive governments in the UK, the nadir perhaps being in 1983. Then, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives won 61% of the seats on 42% of the vote. Labour got 32% of the seats on 27.6% of the vote. And the Alliance (which later morphed into the Lib Dems)? 3.5% of the seats on 25.4% of the vote. You do the maths. And watch your brain dribble out of your ears.

The Electoral Reform Society explores what this week’s election might have looked like had we had a form of PR. This piece uses AMS as an example. In the UK, STV is a more likely system, which would drop the numbers for smaller parties somewhat. Regardless, FPTP should be consigned to the past. But I doubt it will ever be, when the Conservatives and Labour both know it’s the only viable route to absolute power (with rare exceptions). And Labour’s leaders are happier winning 100% of the power occasionally rather than leading a coalition more often than not.

Still, perhaps Starmer’s lot will surprise me on this. And given the fragility of his electoral coalition, he probably should. Otherwise in 2019, we could be starting down the barrel of a Tory or even Reform majority, elected on 35% of the vote, while Labour and Libs combined have a share over 50, and Labour blames Lib and Green voters for not backing Labour, despite PR being an option all along.

Published stuff

Over at Stuff this week, I plead with tech companies to stop adding obnoxious eye-searing lights to gadgets. And I totally forgot to include fans, mostly because ours have folded paper taped around them, blocking their own stupid eye-searing bright blue beams, which are the opposite of what you’d want in a bedroom. Or, indeed, any room.

Over at TapSmart, I explore apps that can give you iOS 18 features today – and take things much further than Apple. And I dig into iPhone mirroring – which I reckon looks equal parts fantastic, frustrating and distracting.

Other stuff

I turned on my RGB30 for the first time in a few weeks. It was fine. Clearly, ArkOS FTW, even though the UI is terrible compared to Rocknix. Bah.

I messed around with Beeper for a feature. It simultaneously made me want a unified social inbox all the more – and realise Beeper isn’t it. It’s OK, but too much spam leaks through. I’m hoping Project Tapestry scratches this itch. If not, it’ll be time to add a bunch more Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and YouTube feeds to NetNewsWire – and more newsletters.

This Thursday there’s a general election in the UK. Amusingly, it’s on 4 July, which means Brits have something to celebrate on that day, for once. Although how happy I am on Friday will depend on how much of a kicking the Tories get and whether a small miracle happens where I live, turfing out a terrible Tory MP for a much better alternative. Fingers crossed…

Published stuff

Something a bit different for my Stuff column this week: EV sounds need to alert us, not entertain us. I don’t need every car having its own cinematic score parping out. I also added Kino to my best iPhone apps list.

Over at TapSmart, Apple might have forgotten about AR, but I haven’t, and I dig into the best AR apps for iPhone. And video editor LumaFusion becomes the latest entry in my classic apps series.

Other stuff: or iDOS think Apple hath a problem

Back in April, I wrote:

I want more: a world where iPads and Apple TVs are havens for emulators for everything from classic arcade titles to obscure home micros. But Apple’s rules explicitly talk of ‘retro console games’. What does that mean for DOSBox, FinalBurn Neo, Retroarch, or an Apple II emulator? We’ve no way to know. 

Well, we know now. iDOS 3 was rejected from the App Store, with Apple citing that iDOS is “not a retro game console”. The thing is, nor is the C64. But there are C64 emulators on the App Store. And nor is the ZX81. But Apple approved a ZX81 emulator. And nor is the MSX. Yet there’s an MSX emulator on the App Store. You get the idea.

Yet again, Apple rules are incoherent and inconsistently applied. Yet again, developers have no idea if they decide to work on a really great product in this space (or any space, given Apple’s “we’ll know it when we see it” approach) whether Apple will reject it. No wonder most of the initial slew of emulators have been churnware.

This also makes me increasingly think that the only reason Apple opened this space up on the App Store was the screw with AltStore, which still hasn’t had a single approved third-party app. But there, Delta was the headline act – the thing everyone wanted, as evidenced by it topping the App Store charts for days.

But now people on iPhone have some emulators, perhaps they’re satisfied. So job done for Apple, I suppose. But there are still questions. Not “will we ever get mini vMac or an Apple II emulator for iPhone?” because I think we all know the answer to that. But what about MAME for iOS, which is currently in limbo? MAME is not a “retro game console”. But then again, nor is FBA, and a version of that already exists on the App Store. And will Apple clamp down on RetroArch and demand it remove cores that clash with the rules and approvals it’s haphazardly applied elsewhere?

That said, all this assumes Apple is even remotely aware of what RetroArch actually is or does, what old hardware is or isn’t a games console (good luck anyone working on an iPhone 8-bit Atari emulator), and what each individual emulator emulates. Ultimately, Apple doesn’t really care about any of this stuff, and that’s the real problem.