Boys will be boys. I’m not sure there’s another phrase that infuriates me quite so much. Since my daughter’s attended school, that’s only cemented the phrase’s place in making me fume.

The first specific moment was during a pre-school open day. Parents could attend the grounds. Outside, boys were zooming along on cars and trikes, directing them at girls and scaring the life out of them. A member of staff looked on, smiling. “Boys will be boys”, she said.

In infant (5–7) school, I became aware for the first time of how girls were used to moderate the behaviour of boys. Classes were broadly evenly split by gender. When possible, a boy and a girl would be paired for tasks. My daughter is now in juniors (8–11) and this continues. The argument for this pairing is boys otherwise misbehave. Throughout, my daughter has complained that most (not all) boys muck around while she’s trying to complete a task. She and other girls are regularly told off for trying to tell boys to be quiet.

At her infant school leaving event, the teachers sweetly said something positive about every child. But it was notable how many adjectives along the lines of ‘funny’ and ‘silly’ were used for boys. For girls, ‘sensible’ was far more common.

And through to yesterday. My daughter came home from school quite upset. During lunch, some boys had decided to throw horse chestnuts at a group of girls. My daughter was hit in the leg repeatedly by their spiny cases, to the degree she was bleeding and this morning has marks that look like a horrible rash down one leg from all the puncture wounds. The initial response from a teacher she told: boys will be boys.

Talking to other parents, all the above isn’t ubiquitous but it’s far from uncommon. And while I’m not an advocate of single-gender education, I can see why it has advocates. As it is, the attitude elsewhere that so often pervades is to our wider detriment. Boys are taught that they can get away with things girls can’t, and push the limits. Girls are scolded when they step out of line and for a moment are not ‘sensible’. And any response to physical harm that’s casually dismissed as ‘boys will be boys’ isn’t setting anyone up for a good future. Society needs to do better.

So. Very. Tired.

Published stuff

Presumably reasoning that I’m getting on a bit, an editor at TechRadar asked me to dig into Life before Google: 7 retro services that helped us survive, from Altavista to Hotmail. This went down very well on Mastodon and Facebook, probably saying more about the audiences/my followings there than anything. Nostalgia, eh? That said, I still do have and use some of those ‘retro’ services, and am attempting to wean myself off of Google, because, well, Google.

For Stuff, I wrote about the Raspberry Pi 5, massive Lego kits to make your bank account scream, and playing the phone upgrade lottery, where your new phone resembles the old one, but has things that are temporarily or permanently missing. Tsk.

The latest issue of the print mag is out too. Within, you’ll find words from me on the Atari 2600+, weather alert apps, Android 14, and the very first version of Microsoft Word.

Over at TapSmart, I wrote about essential apps for a new iPhone and a new Apple Watch, along with asking whether the death of the iPhone mini signals the end of small iOS devices.

Finally, for this blog, I wrote Apple, Reduce Motion and the battle for vestibular accessibility. This celebrates ten years since I wrote a piece for The Guardian that spread far and wide and helped more people (and Apple) better understand issues relating to vestibular disorders. Honestly, it’s not often in tech journalism that I feel I’ve written something truly meaningful. This was an exception. That piece mattered. I know it made a difference, potentially to an awful lot of people. That felt really good.

Upcoming stuff

I’m mostly immersed in hardware right now, putting the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Watch Series 9 through their paces. I’ll admit that while I was sceptical about the new zoom on the Pro Max, a trip to our local pond yesterday left me converted, with me capturing some shots I’d otherwise have missed when using Apple hardware.

Other stuff

I’ve mostly been knackered this past week, as some kind of bug swept through our household. As our kid’s class WhatsApp exploded with notifications about covid, we hoped it wasn’t that. Fortunately, it wasn’t, but we’ve still had a rough few days.

Covid itself is back on my mind as well. Last winter was miserable as we mostly avoided going out, not least given that almost everyone in the UK has ditched masks and decided covid no longer exists. I feel quite envious of friends overseas who are getting boosters, since the UK government has decided only folks over 65 can have one this year, unless you’ve an immune disorder or another condition on a very short list. And school policy remains ludicrous, forcing children back after three days, even when still testing positive, unless they have a high fever. It’s all deeply weird.

On a more positive note, we’ve been digging into Welcome to Wrexham, which is back on Disney+. I can take or leave football, but thought this show might be mildly amusing. I wasn’t prepared for a show that would have so many powerful stories and so much humanity at its core. The second series continues in this light, getting you right in the feels in the many moments between the manager swearing at his team and goals hitting the back of the net. Top of the table stuff.

In 2012, I fell ill. Abrupt dizziness. I felt like I’d been drinking heavily, and had no idea what was going on.

Being a logical type, I looked at changes in my life around that time. It took a full day before I realised the only major change had been updating my Mac to OS X Lion. The full-screen animations were making me sick. Fortunately, I could avoid the worst of Lion’s effects when I knew they were the problem, and third-party apps subsequently dealt with the issue entirely.

And then iOS 7 happened. In an instant, Apple’s smartphone switched its familiar but largely static interface to a minimalist effort packed full of animations. Parallax wobbled about on the Home Screen. Folders blasted towards your face at incredible speed. Within half an hour, I realised I couldn’t use my iPhone.

I wasn’t alone. In a piece for The Guardian, I spoke to several people who were suffering, along with spokespeople for vestibular disorder societies who confirmed this was a real problem that could potentially impact millions. I received personal messages from many more folks desperate for a solution.

The piece was widely shared. Online, I faced significant scepticism. People noted I wrote about mobile games, and so how could these animations affect me? But by that point I’d rapidly learned with vestibular accessibility – in fact, any accessibility – that everyone is different.

With vestibular conditions, some people are floored by parallax, but it doesn’t affect others. Some can cope with iOS folder animations. For others, it might mean being dizzy for a few minutes – or a few days. Personally, I can enjoy motion-based entertainment where I can anticipate what’s next – roller coasters; driving games – but am knocked back by abrupt animation I cannot prepare for and that takes up a significant portion of my field of view.

The article – and presumably other feedback – must have reached suitably senior people at Apple, because fixes subsequently arrived. They weren’t total, but they also weren’t an end point. Over the years since, I’ve swapped quite a few messages with Apple’s accessibility team. One involved slide transitions for nested menus on iPhone. In my sole live WWDC, I was fortunate to attend an accessibility session where it was revealed the animation could be disabled in the Settings app. Reader, I may have shed a tear.

It’s ten years since that Guardian article was published. Accessibility remains an odd beast. Far too many people consider accessibility to be solely about helping people with vision issues to use technology. But increasingly we do see a wider understanding of accessibility, in that it needs to be for everyone – something I wrote about for the dearly departed MacUser back in 2015. That we now have accessible games controllers is a genuinely exciting development.

However, I’d still like more software developers to bake in accessibility as a default. Start with an accessible foundation, rather than plug gaps later. But I do appreciate companies from the tiniest indie to massive corporations increasingly take this subject seriously, including catering for people with vestibular conditions. And I hope if you have any accessibility concerns yourself, you’ll be met with the kindness I’ve received from Apple’s teams.

Speaking of, that action button screen on the new iPhones is a vestibular trigger. Time to write another quick email…

How many digits do you have to have turn to icicles before it’s acceptable to turn the heating back on? Asking for a friend.

Published stuff

For Stuff, I ask: How will Apple respond to Google’s ten-year Chromebook update pledge? Apple is better than most in mobile, but now lags Google on desktop. And both companies are struggling with a desire to be (or at least appear to be) green while immersed in a marketplace that demands infinite growth. Top tip, everyone: we don’t have infinite resources. My take: devices have to last longer. And I mean that in a meaningful manner.

Over at iMore, I ask: Apple pitched the iPhone 15 Pro as the ultimate gaming handheld – but can Apple really take it to the next level? This is kind of a spiritual successor to my Wired piece last year about whether the M2 MacBook Air is any good for games. TL;DR for both: it’s not about the tech so much as the culture.

Over at TapSmart, Streaks Workout is added to my classic apps hall of fame, and I look at Apple’s balancing act – how a desire for profits impacts features and prices.

And in this here blog, I write about using Spoken Content to have your Mac or iPad read words back to you. I use this feature daily for proofing text. In fact, I’ll shortly use it to proof this text.

Upcoming stuff

I’ve got a shiny new iPhone here for review and so will be putting that through its paces soon. And given that I wrote about every other new Apple operating system, a tips feature will shortly rock up about watchOS 10.

I’m also mulling over how to pitch and write a new piece on accessibility. Speaking of, this coming week it’ll be ten years since I broke Why iOS 7 is making some users sick for The Guardian. So I’ll be writing up something about that too.

Other stuff

Updates to recent Apple kit have resulted in tech writers doing some entertainingly bonkers things. You might have seen that Federico Viticci over at MacStories used a Game Boy camera for FaceTime. And now Dan Seifert at The Verge put Samsung Dev on an iPad screen.

Apple’s probably removing Seifert from all Christmas card lists as I write. Mind you, his terrifying concoction did again make me think that my ideal iPhone would be the one device to rule them all. Now we’ve a USB-C capable phone that can play AAA games and run high-end apps, why not have it optimally output to any display? Apple’s answer: because money. My retort: but what of resources and sustainability?

Double tap is a new flagship feature of the new Apple Watch. But some folks will recognise it as recycled rather than new. That’s because it looks an awful lot like an evolution of existing accessibility feature AssistiveTouch. Which is good – Apple should do more to surface useful accessibility benefits.

As someone who’s spent a decade fighting for better accessibility features, I’m fairly well versed in what’s on offer. What people perhaps aren’t aware of is that you needn’t wait for Apple to bring an accessibility feature to the mainstream for more people to find it useful – loads of great stuff is in there already.

Something I make use of daily, and that always sparks interest when I mention it on social media, is proofing copy using speech features on Mac and iPad. I find that when text is read to me, I pick up more errors than I would from reading it silently myself.

On Mac, open System Settings and head to Accessibility > Spoken Content. Under System voice, you can choose from a number of voices and accents. I find those that present as female offer more clarity, due to being less bassy. Kate is a good option for Brits. But also, consider using accents that align with audiences when writing for people beyond your own country. Anyway, to add more voices, go to Manage Voices…

To preview how your voice sounds, press Play Sample. I find the default speed too slow for proofing and tend to increase it to about 75%.

Next, turn on Speak selection, click the info button, and gnash at how horrible this interface is compared to the System Preferences days. Create a keyboard shortcut to trigger speech selection. Make this memorable, accessible and something that won’t clash with shortcuts used elsewhere. I use Control+§  – § being the ‘section’ sign at the top-left of UK-English keyboards. You probably never use it.

Also set Show controller to Never, or it will appear whenever you use the feature. The remaining settings determine how your Mac visually keeps track of your place in the text as it’s being spoken. Settings here are a matter of taste. I tend to have Spoken Content highlight words and sentences – yellow for words; purple for sentences; background colour for style. 

Once you’re done, position your cursor in a document at the point you’d like the Mac to start reading from and use your shortcut. A second press will stop it speaking. You can also select text and have the Mac read just that selection.

Not all apps and websites behave. I’ve never been able to get Google Docs to work with Spoken Content in Safari, but it works in Chrome when you select text. (A good workaround is to hurl Google Docs into the sun and use something else.)

Note that iPad has Spoken Content as well. In Settings, go to Accessibility > Spoken Content and turn on both Speak Selection and Speak Screen. Adjust Typing Feedback and Voices preferences to suit.

When selecting and tapping a selection, you’ll see a Speak option. Alternatively, two-finger swipe down from the top of the screen (from the bezel) to read the entire document. This doesn’t work as well as the Mac equivalent, but it’s better than nothing. Of course, it doesn’t work with Google Docs. Tsk.

On Windows and/or using Microsoft Word? Search online for ‘read aloud’, which is in broadly the same space.