Published stuff

I got an email from Netflix this week, telling me my plan was going to be 35% cheaper. The twist? Well, you already know it. But I wrote about it anyway for Stuff: Sorry, Netflix: I don’t want your ‘with adverts’ plan – here’s why.

One of my passions is the preservation of old games, and I got to write about that too: Beyond Space Invaders: why preserving forgotten arcade games matters. This digs into the new Quarter Arcades, which are moving beyond the likes of Space Invaders and Pac-Man to preserve more niche fare.

For Stuff, I also did my annual revamp to The best Star Wars Lego sets to celebrate May the 4th and updated Best upcoming Lego sets 2024: this year’s top new Lego releases.

Over at TapSmart, I wrote about allergy tracking apps for iPhone (which, given my own personal collection of allergies, was a great thing to get down), the pros and cons of an iPhone 16 Capture button, and the wonderful Cs Music Pro, which is the latest addition to my classics series.

Other stuff

Screen Time continues to be awful. I needed to disable it temporarily on the youngling’s iPad, to sign out of iCloud. When I signed back in, Screen Time inferred the set-up had been wiped and made me go through it from scratch. Additions were then – Surprise! – merged with the old set-up, but all the block set-ups were gone. Dreadful.

It feels like no-one sufficiently senior at Apple has kids, looks after kids, or cares about how much Screen Time their kids have. I’ve written before about how the system lacks a kill switch. It also doesn’t allow you to zero out an app, game or website but allow permission to be asked later. (The workaround is to allow a single minute, which is ridiculous.) Someone on Mastodon also noted it doesn’t even work on tvOS either. Perhaps WWDC or iOS 18 will bring meaningful updates, but I won’t hold my breath.

On Threads, writer Kurt Andersen drew attention to the fact that half of US vinyl buyers don’t own record players. He called this “some seriously loony late-capitalist activity”. I disagree. 

Just because you don’t have a record player today, that doesn’t mean you won’t ever have one. But if you have a record collection, it’s always there with you. By comparison, the second you stop a streaming subscription, all the music is ripped away from you. 

As long as you don’t get obsessive about it in a manner that derails other aspects of your life, what’s the harm in collecting records? And rather than ridiculing people for buying into physical media and supporting artists, shouldn’t we be encouraging those things?

(I don’t own many records myself – loads of CDs, but little vinyl. But I do have Wire’s three classic EMI albums on my office wall. I don’t feel weird about that in the slightest. Those albums mean a lot to me, and having them always visible makes me happy.)

Dave Mark posted about the Internet Archive’s problems. It really is on shaky ground now, and I find that a huge pity, because it does such fantastic work – and has put everything at risk by going hard on blatant book piracy. Technically, a lot of the other archiving the organisation does is IP infringement too – even Wayback Machine. But that is doing something no-one else is, preserving an ephemeral medium. It is important. I’d also argue some other archival work – digital files; out-of-print magazines – has real value. But the book thing was a massive overstep and showcased a certain ideology over even the slightest notions of realism and pragmatism.

Finally, my RGB30 saga continues. I swapped out the OS and am now running ArkOS. That appears to have solved the battery drain issue, but ArkOS is clunky and ugly compared to Rocknix. Bleh. Not sure which way I’m going to go with this one. I don’t regret buying the device, though. I’m still having a ball with Pico-8 on it.

Published stuff

My Stuff column this week is: Just say no: not every piece of tech needs subscriptions and AI. And last Sunday, I apparently traumatised several people by reminding them of their age as I wrote about the Game Boy turning 35. Still: it could be worse. My first computer was released in 1979…

For TapSmart, I mull over where Apple will be in 2030 and add Tiny Wings to my classics series.

Other stuff

First up, Swipe magazine has hit the milestone of 300(!) issues. This iPhone-first indie mag (essentially the extended app version of TapSmart) is packed with app recommendations, tips and features. There’s a free trial if you’d like to check it out, and then it’s just a couple of bucks per month for two issues and back issue access, to support our work.

I wasn’t there quite from the start – I was brought on board with issue 17. But I’m now wondering if I’ve written for more issues of any other mag. Regardless, it’s been a privilege to be a part of Swipe, and I do hope it’s around for many issues more.

Elsewhere, I’ve been continuing to discover the idiosyncrasies of the Powkiddy RBG30. The company has a reputation for cutting corners, but I was seduced by the 1:1 720p display, which I thought would be fantastic for Pico-8. (Pico-8 is a fantasy console, with intentionally limited specs, for which developers have created a slew of amazing old-school games.)

I was dead-on about the display. As a real-world Pico-8, the RGB30 is hard to beat. And that’s even taking into account the iffy D-pad. That screen, though: so good. And ideal for Game Boy, NES and SNES too, along with vertical arcade titles. (Some 4:3 games also work well in 8:7, if you’re prepared to ignore slight distortion.)

Where the RGB30 falls into baffling territory is in how it charges. A hardware issue means it doesn’t recognise USB-C cables. But even when I use USB-A to USB-C, the device needs to be on to successfully charge. And if I shut it down in software, the battery continues to drain in a manner I’ve never seen before. Fortunately, turning off RGB30 by holding the power button down for several seconds reduces that drain significantly – or even eliminates it. I’m not quite sure which, though, because the battery indicator’s quality appears to be on par with the charging system’s.

Published stuff

For Stuff this week, I wrote about the Amstrad CPC’s 40th anniversary. I don’t think anything else I’ve ever posted to LinkedIn has got so much traction. Mastodon and Bluesky users shared the piece a lot too. But not Threads users. Maybe those guys are Oric fans.

My column this week is: Apple, Google and others don’t care about your data and photos – but you should. It’s a tale of woe and data loss – and also how safeguarding all your data is becoming increasingly tricky. 

Just one piece for TapSmart this week, looking into gardening and plant care apps for iPhone. Sneakily, one of them is actually a game.

Upcoming stuff

Summer holidays are on the horizon, and so I’m starting to look into apps for use at airports and when on a plane. I do wonder when ‘download everything for offline use’ will seem as archaic as stuffing a backpack full of books. Or perhaps in-flight Wi-Fi will always remain rubbish and expensive. Who knows?

More retro stuff is on the way too. A couple of interviews looking into lesser-known games. And also some ‘modern retro’, exploring Pico-8.

Other stuff

I broke and bought an RGB30. Because I didn’t already have enough little consoles. And it’s everything I expected: not-great D-pad; cheap feel; finicky charging; but fantastic for Pico-8 because of the unconventional 1:1 aspect 720p display. I’m also enjoying using it for vertical arcade games.

I recently spotted my Duolingo icon looked haggard and old. Turns out this was the icon equivalent of clickbait. It’s been a big win from a business perspective, bringing people back to the app. But I question it in other ways. I cannot override this icon, despite being a paying Duolingo user. And lapsed users returning don’t see the icon change once they start learning again. I’ve also seen folks suggest it could be seen as poor framing from a mental health issue. Personally, my main takeaway is that I hate the idea clickbait has now reached home screens.

Finally, AI sucks, part 431,876. I spotted a dodgy eBay listing, looking to charge a huge sum of money for a Kickstarter the seller isn’t anything to do with and that’s not due for over a year. That annoyed me, because I care very much about the success of this particular kickstarter. So I reported it. eBay’s response: “We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy. This determination was made using automation or artificial intelligence.” Last time I bother doing that, then.

Published stuff

My Stuff column this week is: Google Podcasts is dead – as is my trust in the survival of any Google service. Not that I’ve trusted Google for years at this point. I don’t think anything is truly safe – and, yes, that includes Gmail, YouTube and Docs. (Also, I do hope people enjoy the pictures I made for this one.)

A busy week over at TapSmart, where I explored ways Apple could shake up iPhone home screens, built a social media toolkit, and added excellent podcasting app Ferrite to my classic app series.

Upcoming stuff

Having recently filed a piece on Sinclair, I’m now writing about Commodore. And the CPC’s 40th is on its way too, and so I’ll be writing about that for sure.

Other stuff

Graham Cluley discovered what can happen when Amazon claims it’s delivered an expensive item but hasn’t, decides it has and refuses to do anything about it. Honestly, I find it surprising this doesn’t happen more. Locally, most couriers now abandon packages regardless of provided instructions. But quite how Amazon can avoid refunding someone when a signed-for package was not signed for, I have no idea. I imagine it’s all explained in line 24,467 of the terms and conditions, which state “we can do whatever we please”.

More App Store changes are on the way. The latest is a long-time personal bugbear of mine: blocking emulation. As 9to5Mac reports, game emulators will now be permissible. I look forward to certain US commentators now deciding emulation is evil, that the EU forced Apple to allow emulators on to the App Store (it didn’t) and predicting this will destroy the games industry (it won’t). What it will do is fill a hole in the iPhone’s gaming arsenal.

Note: I’m aware emulators have long existed on the App Store in strictly limited fashion. But Apple long ago blocked being able to load anything into them. So every emulator, such as this lovely ZX81 one, has had to bundle the titles you can play on it. Which is a bit like allowing music players – but only if they pre-load every album you can listen to.

Published stuff

My Stuff column this week explores the new Atari 400 Mini from multiple angles – including that of 1970s home decor: The Atari 400 Mini is now my favourite mini-console for scratching my retro-gaming itch.

For this blog, I wrote To Affinity and beyond: what does the Canva buyout means for the future of Serif? Canva has since pledged to not wreck what people love about Affinity. A positive move, and although there’s wiggle room in the language, there’s far less than there was before. Not that any pledge would stop a company later saying it had to make a “difficult choice”, natch.

Over at TapSmart, I explored Messages alternatives for iPhone. Issue 298 of iPhone sister magazine, Swipe is available now too, if you’d like to support our little indie mag with actual cash.

Upcoming stuff

Hilariously, I’m about to dig (pun possibly intended) into gardening apps. A joke because the UK weather has more or less turned our garden into a swamp.

I’ve also signed back up to Amazon Prime for precisely one month, in order to write about it and doubtless grumble about the new, ridiculous ads tier.

Beyond that, I’ve been commissioned to mull over what Apple will look like in 2030. Quite the ask, given that right now various legislators are creating conditions that make it hard to predict what Apple will even look like in 2024.

Other stuff

On Threads, Joan Westernberg said AI is not democratising film making. I largely agree. Some folks countered that gen-AI is “just a tool”. But that’s not how it’s being pitched. Tech bros are arguing that now anyone with half an idea can churn out a film, album, book or essay from a text prompt. But without having expertise in a field, how can you really know whether what you’re creating does the job? (Note, I am not talking about people being paid to be a film-maker, or whatever. I’m talking about anyone who has taken the time and made the effort to gain a skill.)

On Mastodon, Scott Jenson’s post on writing without worrying about traffic really clicked with me. My approach has always been that you have to write for yourself, because when you don’t, you may skew what makes you you. But also: numbers don’t tell the whole story.

I’ve always joked that ‘literally several people’ read this blog. It’s never been – and never will be – a Six Colors or a Daring Fireball. And that’s OK. Because you never know who will be reading. For me, that’s always been way more important than raw numbers.

Over the years, I’ve made a number of contacts through this blog, through interesting folks presumably landing here by chance and sticking around. The most notable example got me my gig at Stuff.

I received an email out of the blue from the publisher, inviting me to the then Stuff HQ. I soon learned the editor was a fan and had recommended me. I’ve been a regular contributor ever since. 

And that links back to the first point. Because I’ll bet if I’d not been writing for me and having fun with my personal blog, it wouldn’t have kept the attention of that editor in the first place.

Finally, I have a lot of time for The Verge, but the publication managed to set my teeth on edge with The fight to save old games. That podcast episode looked into the murky world of game preservation and emulation, and had a lot of good stuff to say.

But. Along with at one point saying ROMs are illegal (without any qualifier or nuance), the podcast hosts banged on for a big chunk of runtime about how they wished a Spotify or Netflix for old games existed, but how that would be impossible – due to rights issues – or simply non-viable. I was stomping along on my morning walking loudly muttering “Antstream”, which I’m sure endeared me to anyone in earshot.

And, yes, Antstream has its issues. The streaming can be glitchy, and its catalogue of 1300 games is a small slice of gaming history. But that slice includes many classic arcade games and a slew of curiosities from the dawn of home gaming. Moreover, it exists. So it isn’t impossible. And given that it’s not dead, it’s viable too. 

It certainly warranted a mention in the podcast – unlike the suggestion that the best bet for most folks wanting to play old games is to buy a knock-off hard drive stuffed full of dodgy ROMs from Amazon. (Don’t do that. There are far better options.)