Published stuff

For Stuff, I delved into Apple’s previous year and looked ahead to the coming 12 months: Apple’s 2023 in review: the good, the bad and the bubbly and Apple in 2024: what Stuff wants to see.

Over at TapSmart, my 2023 app awards and game awards were published, along with a piece about using your iPhone to stick to New Year Resolutions.

Other stuff

Despite it being cold and grey outside, this day is often one about personal renewal. As I look back over 2023, I realise I have started to infuse new habits into my schedule – and bin unhealthy ones.

The best shift has been my thinking about streaks, which my Apple Watch shook up by messing up. I’ve decided I don’t care about perfection – instead, I’m keener on meaningful streaks as a way of tracking wellbeing.

As someone with certain OCD tendencies (and I use that in a literal sense – I don’t use the term as a synonym for ‘fussy’) this was a big deal for me, and I’m glad it appears to have worked out. I’ve also taken to more morning walks, to boost mental wellbeing during darker months.

One thing that was lacking during 2023 was giving myself permission to do things for me. I too often fell into the trap of deciding time had to be ‘productive’ either in terms of earning a living or doing family things. No wonder I so often felt exhausted and also ended the year with no progress on some key personal projects.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to turn that fully around in 2024, but I’m going to try. I did at least start writing more for myself again, thanks to this weeknote format. But finishing new music for the first time in years is going to be a much bigger commitment in terms of time and energy. However, while you could cram the number of albums I’ve ever sold into a reasonably small box, music for me was never about money. It’s good for my soul. I need it to be happy. And so I know I’ll be happy if I finally get new music into the wild in 2024, clearing the decks for whatever’s next.

Now I just need to make it happen.

Over at Stuff, my traditional Apple end-of-year review has been published: Apple’s 2023 in review: the good, the bad and the bubbly. From the highs of the iPhone Pro’s greatness… to the lows of the same iPhone Pro overheating!

See you on the other side.

Published stuff

For Stuff, I wrote On the tech days of Christmas, my gadgets gave to me… – an ode to navigating the inevitable holiday storm of festive chaos, packed full of tinsel, misbehaving technology and tears. This took far too long and I was stupidly happy when I got all the tech headlines to line up with the carol. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

I also feature in a piece on the Stuff team’s favourite gadgets from 2023.

Over at TapSmart, I wrote about what RCS means for you and compiled my favourite Apple moments from 2023 as relating to mobile.

Year in review

As 2023 lurks by the emergency exit, I thought it’d be fun to dig into my favourite articles that I wrote over the past 12 months. Hopefully you’ll find something interesting to read while stuffed full of turkey and wrapped in tinsel!

The big two: Space Invaders and fitness streaks

My number-one article from 2023 was for Wired: The Space Invaders Creator Reveals the Game’s Origin Story. I’ve written dozens of pieces for Retro Gamer and others about classic games. But I’d never had the opportunity to quiz the creator of the first game I remember playing about how the game came to be. So this was a special privilege and a real treat. Thanks to Chris Hill for helping make the relevant connections, to Jeremy White for commissioning the piece, and Naoya Raita for her translation work and endless patience.

Also check out two related pieces for Stuff on the Space Invaders Quarter Arcade: a making-of and Why I think Numskull’s Space Invaders Quarter Arcade is the best retro gaming gadget ever.

A close runner-up and my most-shared piece of the year was for Stuff: I lost my Apple Watch streak – here’s why it should have more humanity. I stand by every word of this, and believe Apple and others should think more carefully about how gamifying activities can knock people’s wellbeing rather than lift them up.

Also check out my friendlier streaks apps for iPhone piece for TapSmart.

Retrospectives

Being an old git, I spend a lot of time donning rose-tinted specs and exploring the past. Here are my favourites from 2023:

• 20 new entries to my classic iPhone apps series (TapSmart)
• Life before Google: 7 retro services that helped us survive, from Altavista to Hotmail (TechRadar)
• Get six classic games running on Mac (iMore – my debut there)
• Look backs at Apple’s App Store, Apple iMac G3, Apple Lisa, Microsoft Word, Nokia N-Gage, Sega Dreamcast, Space Invaders, Tetris, ZX81 (all Stuff)
• As GoldenEye comes to Xbox and Switch, here are 007 more movie tie-ins I wanted back – until I played them (Stuff)
• The greatest gadgets from 300 issues of Stuff (Stuff)
• My attempt to crowdsource the original App Store day-one apps (a spreadsheet!)

Gaming

I write less about games than I used to, but here’s what happens when an editor lobs me a ‘continue’:

• iPhone 15 Pro was pitched as the ultimate gaming handheld – but can Apple really take it to the next level? (iMore)
• Another Super Mario Bros. movie? Put these retro games on the big screen instead (Stuff)
• When iPhone games are retro, will you be able to revisit them like NES and Amiga classics? (Stuff)

Apps

Since the iPhone’s inception, I’ve spent more time than is reasonable buried in apps. These pieces include best-ofs, a deep-dive into Yousician, and explorations of the app ecosystems we really need.

• AltStore interview (TapSmart)
• Upgrade your Home Screen (TapSmart)
• Interactive widgets (TapSmart)
• Do we really need $0.29 apps? (TapSmart)
• 30 days with Yousician (TapSmart)

Apple commentary

Much of my tech commentary is about the big A. Here are my favourites from 2023:

• Air today, obsolete tomorrow? But my ancient iPad still has value (Stuff)
• Dumb things my iPhone does (and that I do) that could be fixed by AI (Stuff)
• Enter the touchscreen Mac multiverse (Stuff)
• I want a new iPod Touch for my kid. The world wants her to have a phone instead (Stuff)
• Why spatial video is more than a gimmick (TapSmart)
• Why we need and won’t get Pencil for iPhone (TapSmart)
• macOS Sonoma features I want on iPad (TapSmart)

Tech commentary

And occasionally, I even write about non-Apple companies and tech events too. These two stood out from my 2023 columns:

• Samsung wants your fridge to be a generative AI art piece. I want mine to keep food cold (Stuff)
• The CES 2024 I want to see – and the one I’ll probably get (Stuff)

Only a few weeks to go now before we find whether that last one comes to pass. In the meantime, I hope everyone reading this has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Published stuff

Things started to get festive over at TapSmart, with my feature on Christmas Day apps. I also added the superb White Noise+ to my classic apps series.

For Stuff, I wrote about another Quarter Arcades unit – the superb Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I managed to hold myself from yelling COWABUNGA! Just. But I did have enough shoutiness left for ‘Dumb things my iPhone does (and that I do) that could be fixed by AI’. Which attentive readers might spot is a cunning way to air a few choice iPhone gripes. Ho ho ho.

Upcoming stuff

On the home straight now, with just a couple of articles left to file before I collapse in a heap for a week and change. So upcoming stuff for me will mostly be not writing anything much, building lots of Lego with my kid, playing with a diminutive TMNT cabinet, and sorting a new vault for my old digital files.

Which to me sounds like bliss after the insanely busy December I’ve had.

Other stuff

Some weird tech things walloped me in the face this week. The first was Pocket. I’ve used this read-later system since it was called Read It Later. I’ve hundreds of articles stashed in it. And now I’m locked out. Not sure why.

Two lessons from this so far. The first is that this is a rare case where I had no backup/data recovery system in place. Clearly, I needed one. The second is Mozilla’s support system is comically awful. The first response I got misunderstood the problem. And then when I tried to reply, anything I sent was bounced as spam. Since then, Mozilla has hassled me with a follow-up request. I’m hoping this resolves well, but won’t hold my breath.

The silver lining: Alfread. If you’ve not heard of that app, it gamifies read-later. The interface is like a dating app, where you swipe left/right. And in only ever showing a single article, it forces focus on your to-read pile. But also, I discovered it has a cache. Which means every article I added until I last opened Alfread (on 4 December) might still be accessible. Although there’s no way to export them somewhere else, they at least are not lost.

Still: fume. Mozilla is not in my good books. Also not in my good books: everyone on social media banging on that X is evil and that anyone still posting there is a nazi.

Look, I get it: Musk is awful. Many of the people on X are awful. I myself last posted there on 26 August, after having quit semi-regularly posting during July. But I would have thought one of the lessons the X fiasco would have taught us is to have more empathy and kindness.

There are all kinds of reasons why people continue to post on X, related to friendship circles, keeping alive independent businesses, and so on. But many people elsewhere – and especially on Threads – appear to now be on a moral crusade to damn anyone still on X.

Frankly, given that most people’s reasons for still posting on X are convenience and larger audiences, it’s a bit bloody rich of folk on Threads in particular to scream morals when posting on a Zuckerberg platform rather than Mastodon, not least given that their reasons for not using Mastodon are typically, yep, lack of convenience and lack of larger audiences. (Naturally, I got called a nazi by more than one person for this viewpoint.)

Perhaps everyone just needs a bit of end-of-year downtime. I know I do.

Published stuff

It’s been chilly out. This inspired my latest toolkit for TapSmart, which is all about using your phone to keep safe in winter. I also added the masterful Galcon to my classic apps series. This run is planned to continue into 2024, and I’ve already got a few cracking interviews lined up for the apps side of things.

Incidentally, if you’d like to support our writing, please download the Swipe app for iPhone/iPad. Free trial. Cheap as chips subscription.

Over at Stuff, I wrote an Apple Arcade explainer and with Matt Tate expanded our list of best Apple Arcade games. The best upcoming Lego sets piece got its final update of the year too.

My column this week: I’m thinking of buying Blu-rays again, and it’s all Sony’s fault. If you’ve not heard the news, Sony’s deleting from user libraries a bunch of TV shows people paid for. It’s yet another reminder of the transient nature of digital-only content.

Upcoming stuff

I’m now buried neck deep in end-of-year round-ups. And I’ll get it in the neck if those deadlines whoosh past my ears.

Happier news: I received the new Quarter Arcade today: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I’m planning to shoot another lightning fast YouTube Short tomorrow, since the previous two retro ones did pretty well for the time they took.

If this third one lands similarly, I’m going to explore more regular shorts next year – perhaps a scrappy one-minute review series. YouTube isn’t something I’m ever going to make a living out of, but I originally trained in video at uni and so have an itch to scratch. But I also lack time. However, if I can write, plan, shoot and upload something in maybe half an hour that people will find useful, I figure that’s a workable format.

Other stuff

Mostly, I’m knackered. Too many deadlines. Not enough hours. Such is the way when you hit Christmas crunch, with deadlines being compressed. I’m hoping for a break over the holidays.

Despite working all hours, I have kept up with the tech news. And the big thing that caught my eye this week was Beeper Mini. This app/service claimed it had figured out how to circumvent Apple and get iMessage working on Android. Tech YouTuber Quinn Nelson released a video that said it would be really hard for Apple to respond. Cue: endless breathless articles regurgetating that ‘fact’.

I online urged more caution and caught flak for it. Because, apparently, I didn’t know what I was talking about. Yet just days later, Apple killed Beeper Mini. Even if it figures out a workaround, the result will be a cat-and-mouse game at best, which isn’t any way to run a paid subscription service.

Honestly, this isn’t a case where I’m happy to be proved right. But it is another excellent example of how tech journalists need to be more guarded in what they write – and to not criticise those who are.

Finally, a cheerier piece of news: World of Goo 2 is coming out next year. I adored the original on iPad, and sincerely hope the sequel comes to Apple’s tablet. Regardless, it looks as joyous and imaginative as its predecessor.

---