Threads? Threads! Threads. That was a chunk of my week, and forms a worrying amount of where I spent my time. Sadly.

Published stuff

My Stuff column this week is How Threads became part a world where your job is to check 500 social media apps a day. I look into the future and see where things will go.

Twitter finally went bankrupt and was bought by a man with a suspicious moustache called Zark Muckerberg.

You heard it here first, etc.

Stuff’s August issue is out, and includes my regulars: a round-up of noise apps, an explainer on how to use your phone to enjoy music more, and a back-page column on the Apple Newton MessagePad that’s one of my all-time favourites for the mag.

Elsewhere, the new issue of Swipe arrived on iPhone and iPad. I write for every issue and in #279 dig into a month of Duolingo and outline my thoughts on Apple Vision Pro.

Other stuff

I had a spat with BlaBlaCar. Someone had apparently signed up with my email and started driving people around. I was getting bombarded with messages. In the end, I password-reset the account and took a bunch of screenshots. Shortly thereafter, it was blocked for “suspicious activity”, and I received a threatening email in Portuguese that told me my information may be sent to the police and tax authorities.

Good job, everyone!

Naturally, BlaBlaCar’s press team hasn’t responded to my questions related to this. Its Twitter team did at least apologise, although wrongly inferred its emails were designed to inform people in my situation about what was happening, and then bizarrely recommended I change the password on my email. Er, no. My account was not breached. BlaBlaCar’s system is inept.

Minus eleven billion out of five, then, for BlaBlaCar. Would not use. Ever.

One might argue a similar rating could be applied to Meta’s Twitter knock-off, Threads. That launched last week and everyone has an opinion about it either being the most amazing thing ever, or Satan made digital flesh as a microblogging social network.

My thoughts mostly align with those of Ian Betteridge. I think Twitter is screwed, Bluesky is in deep trouble, and Mastodon will continue tootling along. But I like Threads a bit less than Ian, and my feed hasn’t got that much better than it was when I first started. (If you’ve not signed up yet, Threads fills your feed full of blue-tick influencers mostly spouting banal rubbish. Fun times.)

It rarely takes that much scrolling before I’m immersed in some kind of influencer/brand hellscape, where DoorDash and Starbucks are chatting each other up, like the most low-rent text-based romantic comedy imaginable.

Still, at least that’s a good indication of when it’s time to step away from the screen and go and stand in the rain, screaming at the sky.

A quick one this week, because I’m very tired.

Published stuff

For Stuff, The Nintendo eShop is a bag of hurt compared to Google Play and the App Store, about my own personal hell when attempting to buy games for my daughter’s new Switch. And an update to my best browser games piece, which brings a different kind of hell, in the form of The Password Game.

Meanwhile, over at TapSmart, I write about a month with Duolingo and induct the wonderful Threes! into my classic apps series.

Other stuff

My family just got back from a trip to Alton Towers, which I’ve not been to since I was a teenager. Some lessons learned there. One was about how it’s a really good idea to bring a nine-year-old up to the faster roller coasters, so they don’t clam up for an entire day. (Oops. Day two was better.) Another is that if you’ve placed a ban on cuddly toys, accidentally winning a gigantic one in a fairground-style game isn’t the smartest parenting move. Sigh.

What I got up to this week…

Published stuff

For my Stuff column this week, I grumbled about the robotic and prescriptive nature of streaks in I lost my Apple Watch streak – here’s why it should have more humanity. Judging by the response on social media, I’m far from alone in this. It’s quite something how systems designed to engage and maintain interest lack the flexibility to avoid making people instantly demoralised – not least since, as I note, games creator Eugene Jarvis solved this problem in 1980 (and the third-party iPhone Streaks app has solved it today). Elsewhere for Stuff, I updated its list of upcoming Lego sets. Banchu the Bunny looks the business.

Over at TapSmart, Soulver is the latest entry in my classic apps series. I also bring my five-minute wonders up to date and ask What is the point of Apple Vision Pro, and who is it really for?

Upcoming stuff

I’m still surrounded by boxes. For Stuff, I’m digging into interesting hardware. One item is an audio controller unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. It resembles a games controller from 1983. And I also have a massive pen display, which mini-G (8) fell in love with and asked if we could buy. Sorry, kid. Have an Apple Pencil and Procreate instead.

Other stuff

Mini-G’s birthday is imminent and so we decided to get her a Switch. I’m true to form in this, buying a console as it nears end of life. But I’m sure we’ll love it. What I didn’t love was the process of setting the thing up. I think I’ll write a quick second piece on that though…

The UK’s still an oven. But I’ve heroically managed to avoid melting and managed to smash words into shape over the past seven days…

Published stuff

Apple Vision Pro has unsurprisingly impacted on my work. Not in the sense of first-hand experience (I wasn’t one of the lucky few whisked out to WWDC), but in terms of the device’s wider impact. For TapSmart, I outline ways in which lessons drawn from the Vision Pro interface could make iPhone and iPad feel alive again. And over at Stuff, I head ten years into the future, with ‘How Apple’s Apple Vision vision came to pass after WWDC33’.

For TapSmart, I also explored whether you should install Apple’s 2023 betas and wrote up my pick of the best music players for iPhone. (If you’d like to support our work there, please consider subscribing to our iPhone indie mag, Swipe.) And for Stuff, I celebrated the 45th anniversary of Space Invaders with a touch of snark and a look back at some of the best sequels.

If you like that piece, also check out my article on the upcoming Space Invaders Quarter Arcades (Stuff) and my interview with the game’s creator, Tomohiro Nishikado (Wired).

Upcoming stuff

I currently exist in a world of boxes as I work on pieces for Stuff. Very early next week, my Mac Studio review should go live. The Studio a lovely desktop unit, which 99% of people absolutely don’t need. For the 1%, however, it’s compelling – and my review unit was noticeably quieter than last year’s M1 Max model. That said, it’s odd to me these days when a Mac isn’t silent when idling.

I’m also about to delve into pieces on kit for creativity, specifically illustration/design and music-making. Given that these pieces demanding new (well, newish) hardware, this one’s been challenging. Release schedules for graphics tablets and MIDI keyboards are hardly hectic. And in the music realm, it’s strange how certain companies make it almost impossible to get in touch with them. (Hey, Akai! If you’re reading this, please email me…)

Other stuff

Having been mostly WFH for over 20 years, I place a lot of value in online communities. They can keep you sane when you’re otherwise working alone. But lately, it really does feel like the heart is being torn out of such places by rich white men with the temperament of spoiled toddlers.

Twitter was the first to go, with Musk making good on his promise to relegate to ‘spam’ any input from those who wouldn’t pay. My ‘For You’ feed is now at least 50% AI grifters and Tory MPs. And the number of posts from people I enjoyed hearing from has dropped precipitously. Mastodon, alas, has not filled the void, since only a smallish fraction of folks I know made the jump – but it (for me, at least) has been a largely pleasant experience. I am on BlueSky also, but have no idea what to do with that.

Reddit’s rapid implosion, though, has hit me hard. I ended up spending more time there after Twitter went splat, and crafted a great feed of uplifting and fun content. So of course a rich idiot CEO decided to set fire to everything. A long-time friend and colleague suggested with Twitter I’m finally at the acceptance stage – and I think that’s true. With Reddit, I suspect I’m pinging back and forth between anger and bargaining. Here’s hoping whatever comes next will be decentralised to the degree that one rich white guy can’t bring it all tumbling down on a whim.

Having nearly melted yesterday, I am now hiding from the sun and typing these words.

Published stuff

Over at Stuff, I wrote Dashboard is reborn in macOS Sonoma. Apple: bring back these lost Mac features too. It’s a listicle, but a… not entirely conventional one, as you might expect from me.

TapSmart reprinted my round-up of best calculator apps for iPhone and iPad, along with a piece exploring why sideloading was not announced at WWDC23.

For my blog, I also published a short piece on passport control and the folly of Brexit.

Other stuff

As per the blog post above, I recently spent a week or so in Spain. We were in the south east, which was mostly sunny, fairly warm, and suffering from a plague of what appeared to be a fusion of mosquitos and terrifying flying demons from a B-list horror movie. Still: a nice trip, bar the bites.

Back in the UK, after the relentlessly grey year so far, I wasn’t sure what to expect. So an actual summer came as a surprise, not least when it almost hit 30 degrees yesterday (86°F if there are any Americans reading). At which point we quickly found how ineffective “leaving a window open” is. Oh well. I imagine it’ll be chilly and rainy again soon enough (it’s already very grey today), and so we should enjoy the heat while it’s here.

I’m also mulling over tech, mostly for the child. She turns 9 soon and so we’re thinking of finally getting a Switch. But she’s also a voracious reader and so on holiday ran out of books in about eleven seconds. So we may well soon grab a Kindle for the first time in years. Pretty soon, this entire house will be mostly comprised of mobile rectangular screens…