• Home
  • Podcast
  • Photos
  • Reading
  • About Me
  • Archive
  • The iPad Life Comes For Us All

    Perhaps not all of us, but for many people who are interested in tech, and particularly bloggers, the allure of being able to use a tablet to get things done is a strong one. I’ve been there, realised that I can’t make it do what I want, yet always have one hanging around. Here I am, once again, writing on an iPad Pro—and these words are nothing more than to justify my expenditure!
    Read Post
    Essay
    01 Aug 2024
  • Different Strokes

    Matt Birchler writing about Math Notes in iPadOS 18: …while I can academically understand why they’re so impressive and that some people will get massive use out of them, they aren’t valuable to me, so they don’t move the needle at all in terms of me being able to close up some of the friction points I have with using an iPad for all the things I’d love to do with any iPad.
    Read Post
    Essay
    26 Jul 2024
  • Producing Slop

    For the past few weeks, I’ve been producing slop. Not because I want to. Merely because everyone tells me I must in order to succeed on the internet. Content slop is a strange term, but it describes the mass-produced, often AI-generated, surface-level content that constitutes a large portion of the internet now. It has three characteristics, but I stick to Ryan Broderick’s first outlining feature, which states that “to the user, the viewer, the customer, it feels worthless.
    Read Post
    Essay
    22 Jul 2024
  • Why The RCS Hate?

    John Gruber joining two unconnected things together and predictably developing from it a pro apple stance (via Birchtree):

    But the argument against RCS is strong and simple: it doesn’t support end-to-end encryption. The only new messaging platforms that should gain any traction are those that not only support E2EE, but that require it. Messaging and audio/video calls should only work through E2EE. That’s true for iMessage and FaceTime.

    I try not to read, nor comment on, Daring Fireball things any more because the take from them is so clouded in pro-Apple rhetoric that it’s often difficult to see the wood for the trees. However, after Matts post about the article, I decided to read it for myself and boy what a weird take.

    RCS is merely a step forward for SMS and MMS, it never promised encryption, and I have my doubts that any carrier would support it even if it did. Apple presently sticks to routing RCS through carrier defaults. Google offers encryption over RCS by turning them into Google Messages, meaning “your chat conversations automatically upgrade to end-to-end encryption”. I am sure that Apple could offer something similar, but considering their RCS implementation is essentially an FU to the EU, they chose not to.

    However, we are going off-topic a little. Whilst I agree with John’s opinion that any new implementation of messaging should be e2e encrypted, he completely skirts around the fact that Apple could offer this because it doesn’t fit into his narrative. Instead, he suggests sending all of your messaging through a third-party close system — mentioning WhatsApp specifically. Taking such a positive stance on privacy and then suggesting the use of Meta products is more than a little strange.

    Read Post
    Essay Link
    22 Jul 2024
  • Talking to Apple about Smart Script and Math Notes

    Christopher Lawley got to talk to Jenny Chen and Ty Jordan about iPad note-taking and specifically math notes.

    Whilst it is predictably a very reserved, PR focused chat, Chris always manages to demonstrate his excitement for iPad features and does an excellent job of walking through the features with them. The video is worth watching if you’re interested in the iPad or Apple at all, it almost gets me interested in the iPad again… almost.

    Read Post
    Essay Link
    22 Jul 2024
  • Pay per scroll

    Manuel Moreale ponders what he would pay for if you had to pay per scroll: think about what the web would look like if it was some sort of pay-per-scroll platform. Not a place where virtually everything is free but a place where everything has to be purchased in order to be consumed. This is quite an old post, one that pops up from time to time in my saved quotes.
    Read Post
    Essay
    06 Jul 2024
  • Reach For The Blog

    After my post the other day about struggling with what’s going on in my life, I’ve been thinking a lot more about blogging. My mind is still a long way from framing the world in blog posts again, but I’ve realised how important my blog is to me. When the going gets tough and there are challenges to cope with, I always reach for my blog as a refuge. Writing is a well-known method for coping with life’s difficulties, even if you don’t publish what you write.
    Read Post
    Essay
    04 Jul 2024
  • The Current Struggle

    I don’t mind admitting it, but at the moment I am really struggling. My life is not easy at the best of times, coping with a child that needs extra care, but now my wife has been taken down by gastroenteritis, and I don’t know how single parents cope. Of course, this isn’t the first time this has happened. My wife seems to catch every issue that’s floating around due to working in education, including COVID before any vaccines and treatments were available.
    Read Post
    Essay
    03 Jul 2024
  • Do it how you want to do it

    Jason Kratz replying to my earlier post on Instagram and photography:

    The implication is that somehow it was wrong for them to transition from snapshots of family events, etc. to being more artful in taking photographs to put online. Let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong with this!

    Absolutely, there is nothing wrong with this. Perhaps my point came across wrong.

    I am a street photographer first and foremost and my camera roll is filled with all sorts of random photos. My point was more that people worry to much about getting the right shot than enjoying and capturing the moment. Over posing and worrying about getting the perfect shot to share on Instagram, rather than snapping moments.

    Read Post
    Essay Link
    02 Jul 2024
  • Instagram ruined all your photos

    An interesting post in the Totally Recommend newsletter on the degradation of their camera roll: Ten years ago, my photos weren’t as crisp as they are now, but they did the job of capturing personal stories and connections….these photos are filled with the faces of my friends and family from seemingly unremarkable but unforgettable times together. Over time, my photos begin to transform. The “stupid but sweet” snapshots start to give way to something different.
    Read Post
    Essay
    01 Jul 2024
← Newer Posts Page 12 of 115 Older Posts →
Subscribe | RSS | JSON | Support me
❤️ made with love by me