Published stuff

For Stuff, I say old games consoles aren’t redundant – I think they’re a must-buy. This in response to commentators griping about the Switch 2’s delay, and one of my Stuff colleagues buying a PS5 recently and fretting he made an error. 

Hey, I bought a Dreamcast in 2002 and had a C64 until the mid-1990s, and I had loads of fun with them. You don’t always need the shiny new thing – consoles and games systems that have proven themselves can often be a better buy.

I also updated my best iPhone/iPad apps list with an interesting app called Presets that lets you stash and reuse edit stacks in Apple Photos.

Over at TapSmart, I throw in my 2p on Apple’s headset with Apple Vision Pro’s limitations may define it – or kill it. I also ask if you can be tempted back to the ‘grid of apps’ on Apple’s little black box in a new piece on the best Apple TV apps. Finally, leapy endless runner Canabalt has been added to my classics series. If you’d like more insight into that game, I wrote a long-read for Stuff about it some time ago that digs into the game’s origins and eventually its induction into the MOMA permanent videogame collection.

Upcoming stuff

I recently filed a piece for Stuff on Atari’s best hardware – at least as I see it. Next up, I’m tackling Sinclair and Commodore. Please do comment if there’s something you feel I should absolutely not omit.

Other stuff

Medium and Substack spam is becoming a big problem. I’m not sure quite what’s going on, but I’m now very regularly getting confirmations of subscriptions to writers I’ve never heard of. 

In better news, we took the 9yo to her first proper gig last weekend – and our first in several years: Slowdive at the Apollo. (Not my video.) Slowdive is one of my absolute favourite bands. Star Roving has for years been my favourite song, and there’s something about Slowdive live that eclipses even the studio versions.

Anyway, I’ve been having a pretty rough year mentally. I’m not sure why. But for a short while at that gig – and especially during that song – everything bad faded away and I felt ridiculously happy. So, thank you, Slowdive. And, I think, more of this kind of thing throughout the year.

Published stuff

A slightly tongue-in-cheek column for Stuff this week: My phone does everything, which is why I want to resurrect my iPod. And I really wish I could find the comic strip I refer to in the intro. It’s been bugging me for years.

I also gave my best free iPhone apps list a bump by adding Arc Browser, which has a really interesting way of presenting search results.

Over at TapSmart, it was all about kit this week, with new iPad and Apple Watch buyer’s guides.

Other stuff

Some random thoughts rattling around my head this week, mostly about Apple.

First, HomeKit is dreadful. I didn’t realise quite how bad it would be and regret dumping our Alexa kit and moving over, despite this household mostly being based around Apple products.

Yet again, an iOS update nuked my set-up. I recovered it, although our Eve plugs decided to not come along for the ride and once again needed resetting. It took a couple of days to figure out how to get my wife (listed as an admin on the system) back into the shared home too. Apple prides itself on “it just works”. But HomeKit just doesn’t. Looking online, I found I’m far from alone in this.

The same goes for macOS sidebar peeking, which has suddenly gained traction online, primarily because people hate it. If you’ve not noticed this in Sonoma, hover the cursor over a closed sidebar (left window edge) and it opens very slightly to remind you of its existence. This in many cases shifts all of the content within the window, which makes it a quite dangerous vestibular trigger. 

I’ve written to Apple’s accessibility team to suggest the behaviour is disabled when Reduce Motion is on. But mostly it’s yet another example of how hidden UI elements are a bad thing. (Weirdly, most macOS apps I use that have sidebars include a sidebar button in the toolbar though. So I’m not sure what Apple’s playing at here.)

Also, while I’m on a GRRR @ APPLE roll, nuking PWAs in the EU is now official, as reported by The Register. So the original ‘sweet solution’ for third party iPhone apps is hobbled. Apple, natch, blames the EU. Developers blame Apple for not getting its shit together. And honestly, I’ve little sympathy for Apple, given that it yet again looks like a company eradicating solutions for anything that might (but often don’t) threaten the money it makes from the App Store.

Finally, I was chatting with folks online this week about imposter syndrome. It’s a curious thing, in that I’ve been a professional writer in some capacity for well over 20 years, and it’s been my primary source of income for well over 15. I’ve written for a wide range of publications, including The Guardian and Wired. My rational brain (and, frequently, my wife) notes that I must be doing somethingright to have done pretty well in this industry for so long. And yet I can never quite shake that feeling: what if I get found out?

In some ways, it’s good to have a regular internal check against complacency. I never feel entitled to do what I do, and strive to always give my best, whoever I’m writing for. By the same token, I wish my internal needler would give over sometimes. Two decades in should be enough proof in any profession that you’re qualified to be there.

Published stuff

Living a fair way north, I experience great variance in daylight across the year. And that’s not ideal in winter, when the nights draw in and it’s also dark when I get up. Daylight trackers can help combat SAD symptoms during the early months of the year, by providing a reminder of how daylight is increasing. Solstice by Dan Eden is my favourite, in part because it can automatically turn offnotifications when the days start getting shorter again.

Solstice and several other daylight trackers – including ones that aid photographers and surveyors – are explored in my daylight trackers round-up for TapSmart. I also wrote an explainer on game streaming for iPhone.

Over at Stuff this week, my column is Nintendo Switch digital game prices are bananas – but beat Ubisoft’s dream future for console gaming. Even my nine-year-old has pointed out how ridiculous the pricing situation is, hence why we’re very much a household centred on physical carts – albeit one that’s aware this option might not be around for much longer.

Other stuff

I’m not sure what’s going on with Apple of late. I get that it’s historically acted with ferocity towards what it perceives as injustice towards the company. But its scrap with the EU is set to cause collateral damage, perhaps so the company can point to problems and say to other jurisdictions: “See‽ This is what happens when you force us to do things we said were bad!”

The latest ‘headdesk’ moment: Apple has reportedly killed PWAs in iOS 17.4 – if you’re in the EU. Users are now asked if the app should open a PWA in Safari or cancel. 

Web apps were Apple’s original ‘sweet solution’ for expanding on base iPhone installs before the arrival of the App Store. And although good examples are rare, there have been cases where PWAs have provided functionality effectively banned by Apple from the App Store, such as retro game emulation and cloud gaming. Now, these experiences will be made worse, by virtue of loading within the browser rather than a more app-like full-screen view.

Defenders of Apple (who too often align with being anti-EU and rabidly pro-anything-American) argue this is a case of ‘careful what you wish for’. Apple, they say, has no choice but to nerf PWA functionality, because a PWA is technically a browser and doesn’t let people switch browser engines – or that only Safari having this functionality would be unacceptable regarding level playing field rules. Naturally, there are counterpoint arguments, claiming PWA functionality doesn’t clash with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. (Also, if you take ‘level playing field’ to its extreme, you may as well argue Safari cannot implement any features at all that a competitor doesn’t have.) If you fancy balance, web expert Bruce Lawson offers a reasoned, thoughtful take.

With Apple remaining tight-lipped, it’s impossible to know whether this change was inevitable or temporary while the company explores how to enable all browsers to create PWAs. The problem is that it’s just not a good look. Even if this isn’t malicious compliance, it sure feels like it. It feels petty. And that doesn’t come so much from the EU’s demands as Apple’s responses to them.

Published stuff

My Stuff column this week is Apple realises it has no choice but to allow game streaming on iPhone – before it’s too late, which digs into Apple’s iffy history regarding its demands for cloud gaming services on iPhone and its recent abrupt about-face. I also wrote about the new 25 years of Star Wars Lego sets.

Over at TapSmart, a trio of new articles went up, including home gym apps, ways I’d like Apple to improve AI on iPhone, and Serial Reader becoming part of my classic apps series.

Other stuff

There are two ways to approach reviews. The first is to hedge your bets and review potential. The second is to review what’s in front of you. I’ve always subscribed to the latter. I don’t think it benefits readers to provide recommendations based on promises that might never come to pass.

Which leads me to my Atari 2600+ review. That console is an odd beast anyway, but at the time of review suffered from compatibility issues that knocked its ability to play real carts. Also, one of my gripes was “too few new available cartridges”. Rummaging around eBay for ancient games that might not work isn’t what I consider huge fun.

There’s still not a glut of new carts, but it was interesting this week to discover Atari reissuing Atari 7800 versions of Fatal Run, Food Fight and Ninja Golf. These carts work with the 2600+ (which plays 2600 and 7800 titles) and are compatible with original Atari 7800 hardware too. Annoyingly, they lack manuals (Atari apparently still having not cottoned on to that aspect of authentic retro games), but otherwise they look great.

Imagine if Nintendo did the same. If instead of a tiny closed NES mini that went out of stock in about eight seconds, there was a tribute console that could play real NES carts. And then Nintendo reissued some of its classics. That’ll never happen, of course – Nintendo’s happier selling you the same games over and over again on digital services.

So while I might have given the Atari 2600+ 3/5 in the review, Atari itself deserves a higher rating for being a company doing retro in a really good way.

Published stuff

It was the Mac’s 40th this week. I wrote about my first Mac experiences on this blog. Over at Stuff, there was The Apple Mac at 40 – and 6 of the best desktop Macs, The best Mac apps 2024 from the App Store and beyond, and the nostalgia-fest of 40 years of the Mac: 40 classic apps that made Apple computers great. (Thanks to Lukas for inspiring that in last week’s comments.)

It wasn’t all about the Mac over the past seven days, though. My new column for Stuff is Why Netflix loves adverts more than it loves you. And for TapSmart, Zen Bound was added to my classics series, while the iPhone buyer’s guide made its debut.

Upcoming stuff

I’m still digging into a trio of classic gadget makers, figuring out how to write about their best bits without driving myself mad securing imagery.

Elsewhere, I’m awaiting delivery of a fun controller that reportedly lets you turn even a massive iPad into a handheld console.

Other stuff

For whatever reason, I’ve found it hard to work efficiently this month. I do struggle in winter, but this year has been particularly tough. I’ve ended up working chunks of evenings and weekends to not fall behind, which should not have been necessary with my current workload. My wife has suggested I stop beating myself up about this, given that I’m not missing deadlines and such. But, well, I hope I can fix this in February.

Because I have FOMO brain, I’m trying very hard to not buy a PowKiddy RGB30. It’s yet another retro console. I have a drawer full of the things. But this one has a 1:1 screen, which looks perfect for Pico-8 and Game Boy. Fortunately, my rational brain has been winning the battle so far, reminding me I barely have time to play games at all these days, so why buy yet another gadget I don’t need?

On tech, changes forced on Apple by the EU’s DMA have eaten into the tech news cycle. The coverage baffled me. So many sites had headlines that inferred Apple was making changes (such as ‘allowing alternative browser engines’) out of the goodness of its heart. Few noted these changes were forced on the company and that Apple is pushing back in every way it can. Quite a few folks from the US also appear to be furiously angry that foreigners have forced ‘their’ company to change how it acts. (A notable exception: the reliably excellent Jason Snell, whose piece about the news is required reading.)

Personally, I’m disappointed by not surprised but how things have shaken out. I’ve long hoped Apple would treat mobile more like the Mac – default to App Store only, but allow (after a billion warnings) users to load notarised IPAs on to an iPhone or iPad. Nope. In the EU alone, alternative app stores will be able to exist, albeit with punitive restrictions relating to per-download charges (effectively eradicating popular free apps) and the stores themselves, which need a letter of credit for a MILLION Euros. Oh, and this is all iPhone only, not iPad. Because Apple’s App Store is in fact a bunch of different App Stores.

There’s also the suggestion Apple won’t allow parents in the EU to block installs, arguing third-party stores aren’t compatible with its blocking mechanisms. Which feels like priming a trap, so later on someone can say “See? We told you this would be terrible!”

Bleh. I’ve seen more than one person suggest chunks of Apple’s response amount to malicious compliance. Either way, I think all this makes Apple come across badly. That the iPhone will have a browser picker nigh-identical to the one Microsoft was once forced to introduce on Windows due to anti-competitive behaviour is not a good look.

A pity Apple didn’t rip off the plaster sooner and open things up a bit, and reduce its commission rates a tad. That alone might have been enough to make everyone happy enough with the status quo.

Still, there was one silver lining: streaming gaming will now exist on the App Store. This isn’t EU-only – it’s everywhere. Which means everything from Xbox Cloud Gaming to Antstream could now become available through the App Store. That it’s not EU only makes me assume Apple finally came to the conclusion its position on streaming gaming was indefensible. It never made any sense that streaming music, TV and movies were all OK, but that game streaming was only permissible if each individual game was submitted as a standalone binary. Apple’s news update said the changes “reflect feedback from Apple’s developer community”. I mean, sure. It’s only been four years and change since a bunch of these services launched. Why hurry?

So it’s been a bit of a blaaahhh week. On the plus side, a new episode of Digitiser Level 2 debuts tomorrow. Moc-moc-a-moc!