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 was immersed in ancient games this week for Stuff, reviewing the Evercade Alpha and The Spectrum. The common theme? I liked both of these gadgets a lot more than I expected to. Both delivered a neat blast of nostalgia and immediacy, while recognising that people like to load additional games on to gaming devices.

Elsewhere, RIP your wallet, due to my updating the best enormous Lego kits to buy. And Apple announced it will soon set fire to thousands of iCloud backups. So my column for Stuff warns: Don’t rely on cloud backups, because iCloud and Google won’t keep your stuff forever.

I also wrote a quick post about the dismal current state of app review on iOS when it comes to emulation. 

Upcoming stuff

The end of the year is blazing towards us all. Which means… retrospectives. Lots and lots of retrospectives. 2024 was a weird year in lots of ways. It’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out when I review it in terms of Apple and tech.

Apple never wanted emulators on the App Store. I imagine it felt strong-armed into allowing them, due to EU regulators getting antsy, or as a means to attempt to derail third-party app AltStore, which an awful lot of people primarily cared about due to Nintendo emulator Delta. Even with that, Apple first authorised a terrible rip-off over Delta, and everything since has been at best a crapshoot.

PPSSPP Gold is currently in kafkaesque hell, with absurdist responses from app review. Mini vMac was blocked from the App Store, because Apple took umbrage at the idea of an emulator that used its IP. But then Apple went a step further and wouldn’t notarise it for third-party stores, which is outrageous. 

These aren’t the only issues emulator authors have faced. Last I checked, MAME4iOS was in limbo. Several other emulator authors have given up. Meanwhile, Apple merrily approves emulators that barely work and are exploitative crap. A cynic might wonder whether this is intent, to showcase the worst of emulation and put people off. Although given app review’s history, it’s perhaps more realistic to instead go for the old saying that you should never put down to malice what could be explained by incompetence.