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Anker always seemed to be the brand when it came to cables, chargers and power banks on Amazon. Their offerings extend to the Eufy brand and they have an enormous range but they just don't live up to their early promise as a brand.
A few times I've had to return stuff because it has't lived up to the promise or quality I have come to expect from them. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty of Anker branded cables, chargers, plugs, headphones and dongles that all serve us well but only two stick out as premium products in their line up.
First is their USB car charger which is weighty, robust and just works. Second is the PowerWave 2-in-1 MagSafe charger. It's a great device but after 2 and a half years the adjustable mechanism isn't quite as stiff as it once was... I should probably see if I can fix that.
And so on to UGREEN who are now the brand I look for on Amazon when I need something that is low-case but high-quality. So much so that I've shared a couple of UGREEN things on Good Gear Club.
Above all, the Nexode 200W charger has simplified my desk charging setup so much more. It tucks in nicely under my Ikea desk and powers my work MacBook Pro and charges any combination of my iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and personal MacBook Pro at the same time without any fuss.
In my bedroom, the Nexode 65W charger is tiny and charges my Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad with a port to spare.
The design and build quality are excellent on both and the multiple cables I've bought are all braided which makes them more durable.
So this is me, just showing some love to a brand that is building well designed essentials for the modern world that don't break the bank.
Read the post from week 383
Nick Heer:
A law, please, with debilitating penalties for violations.
A thousand times this.
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Over the past few months, I've slowly made a more permanent move over to Bluesky from Twitter.
I really signalled intent with my daily photo dumps, but that's come to an end as I ran out of snaps to share.
I made a conscious effort to diversify my following on Bluesky and have a healthy mix of webdev, design, Swift, tech, news, art and Liverpool FC sprinkled through.
From the point of view of following matches, it's not there yet. I should probably look into some feeds to rectify that but at the same time I'm less focused on the online chatter and more interested in the actual game being played. I also haven't gone back to Twitter for the company. Maybe that's coincided with my son getting into it all a bit more and the fact I'll ride an exercise bike throughout the first half too, but a large part of it is the Nazification of Twitter.
So who would I like to shout at this time on Bluesky? I'll link to a few accounts I don't follow on other socials that I've discovered here.
- David Shields, UK stadium photographer
- Jessica Elena
, digital artist
- Dominique Ramsey, illustrator
- Joss Fong, video journalist for Howtown on YouTube
- Enid, iOS development teacher
Enid in particular has been a great follower with daily SwiftUI tips that have made my think a lot about how I approach interfaces and interactions in my apps.
So if you're looking for people to follow, there are 5 that are definitely worth a look.
Read the post from week 382
As I move onto the development of my second SwiftUI app, I find that prototyping layouts is a dream but battling against errors it can through when plugging in data sources has been a nightmare.
I'm at the point we're I've actually restarted development of my new app twice to take different approaches and now I am sitting on a more harmonious codebase so it was probably worth the effort. Create with Swift had a great article on designing for app states and just half an hour mapping the app on graph paper has given me a far more solid foundation so I highly recommend reading the article if only for the section on designing for different stats.
Maybe I just lack experience, but errors in SwiftUI are only useful half the time for me. It sometimes seems inconsistent too, but I'm getting there and battling through it. When Google's results haven't thrown up a definitive, or well explained, answer, ChatGPT has been a good companion but I am trying to reign in my trust and reliance on it.
Watch this space, I am hopefully not too far away from launching app number 2 the app store and then I'll be moving on to number 3!
Read the post from week 381
Go read the commentary, some kickers for what Meta's principles really are.
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I finally finished a third roll of film, taking my camera out into London to capture some fisheye photos from London Bridge. I wrote about shooting on film last year and this follow up comes of the back of getting those 3 rolls developed.
Turns out the age, or something, meant they were basically all blank. There were a handful that came through on each roll and even fewer worth sharing.
The ones worth uploading are over on Flickr in my Captured on Film album.
I think the way forward is to shoot a roll and get it developed fairly promptly. If that gets the same result then I'll stop but I will try with the Canon AE-1 again. I'm in London every now and then so getting a photo of buildings around London Bridge and the Thames will be an interesting adventure to go on.
Read the post from week 380
It’s one of the things that I really like about the Jawbone devices. Wear it and forget it, it was always measuring. It was no more advanced than motion but I could add a workout later, or log my sleep if I had forgotten to put it in sleep mode.
I get that the Apple Watch is chock full of sensors and they are used to capture more accurately depending on what you’re up to, but just let me make up for something I forgot to log!
Read the post from week 379
Hard to say, if I'm honest.
I only have Apple Intelligence on my M4 MacBook Pro so my experience is limited and I'm pretty sceptical on AI anyway. It would be more helpful on my iPad mini but it's not compatible.
My very brief thoughts on it's capabilties:
- Image Playgrounds is pretty fun, but the novelty wore of quickly.
- I can't use Image Wand on macOS in the Notes app yet, but I can drag sketches into Image Playground and it does a decent job of interpreting them.
- The ability to compose text is interesting, but having to proof read it every time doesn't save much time if any at all.
- Siri is no better or worse for me, but at this point it's barely worth trying to get Siri to do much at all
- Xcode's autocompletion has been a game changer for me, especially as it's context aware
So of the 4 features outlined above, 1 is actually useful to me. There are more on iOS and iPadOS which may come to macOS in the next update so I'll follow up with how it evolves for my use cases.
Read the post from week 378
Very excited for this, my Apple Wallet is packed full of stuff and the only thing I'd keep in an actual wallet that hasn't made it in yet is a form of ID.
This feature was announced about 4 years ago, so it's taken a bit of time but good to see it is on it's way. 4 years actually feels like quite a long time given how quickly UK banks rolled out Apple Pay compatibility.
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My first Nintendo was the NES, followed by the GameBoy, the Nintendo 3DS and then the Wii.
It's been close to 20 years since my last purchase of a Nintendo console but I've been thinking about a Switch for a bit... With the Switch 2 on the way, maybe this is the year?
The bigger screen is not important to me at all, but the larger Joy-Con controllers looks great and would be more comfortable to hold when playing on the go.
I'd add it all to Good Gear Club but there's no pricing information available just yet.
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I have long been planning an iOS app since I picked up Swift development on my iPad mini. At the end of 2024, I decided to switch tact from my original app idea and onto another, simpler, one that I managed to build out fairly quickly. It took a few more days and weeks of refinement but it got to the point where it was usable and now it's in the App Store.
It's called Kop Quiz and there's a supporting website for it too.
Read the post from week 377
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Generative AI is impressive, and I use ChatGPT every now and then, but I much prefer finding web results where there is more context and discussion. I can't trust the output of an LLM as fact. If I ask a coding question, then I have to try the code to see if it works and ask follow up questions or provide additional context if it doesn't. That context is usually there if I am looking at an article or answer on the web.
For any topic, I will still verify that the AI results are correct. Let's say I ask what the best foods are to eat for a specific condition or desired outcome, I will get an answer, but I'll still pop the answer into Google to find articles to verify. Often the NHS has an article that will verify it, but given AI does not actually have the answer, it's just generating an answer it thinks is right I will continue to do so.
Why I'm an AI sceptic
The environmental impact also looks like it could be enormous.
Someone needs to come up with a sensible, and achievable, rate card for AI that limits how much energy can be used to generate the output. I am not qualified to speculate what that might look like, but if OpenAI is basically asking for unlimited money to continue operating then that doesn't sit well with me.
There has also been an insane amount of theft that has enabled OpenAI to achieve what it has so far. If anything, the money they raise should be used to compensate every author and artist that they have stolen from.
Are search engines any different to AI?
I've been thinking about search engines place in this argument and I think it comes down to the simple fact that a search engine is designed to connect you with the content where as an LLM/generative tool is effectively plagiarising content.
Google's shift to providing snippets so that you don't need to click through was always at odds with the function of a search engine but makes sense in some contexts. Opening hours for example, as a user the experience is great... but for the website it is taken from, how do I know it was useful for that user?
Enhancing products is all well and good, but Google have been prioritising money for years now and it shows. The experience is nowhere near what it was a decade ago and it's no wonder we're starting to see plenty of disruption around how people are 'searching' for answers. A recent episode of The Talk Show has an interview with Vlad Prelovac, found of Kagi, which is well worth a listen on the topic of web search.
Read the post from week 376
I wasn't sure how else to title this, but Howtown has a good video on the truth about Hot Ones sauces. When we watch episodes at home, especially recently, our biggest critique is that no-one seems to suffer much anymore. Hot Ones is at its best when the guest is really struggling!
Pepper X, the key ingredient in The Last Dab, is itself an extremely hot pepper but there's more to the sauce which surely brings the heat down.
I'm pretty sure I've had Da Bomb before, which currently sits at number 8 in the line up. The smallest amount caused plenty of pain and I'd still love to try The Last Dab at some point... but I don't think it will live up to the expectation.
Read the post from week 375
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As ever, we have watched quite a lot of TV over the past year. Below are some of the TV shows and movies that I enjoyed:
TV shows and movies on Netflix
- Mr. McMahon
- The Umbrella Academy
- Tires
- Baby Reindeer
- Trevor Noah: Where Was I
- Inside Man
- Never Have I Ever
- One Day
Mr. McMahon was a real walk down memory lane for me, well worth a watch if you're vaguely aware of any wrestling over the past 30-40 years.
The Umbrella Academy came to an end, fairly satisfyingly. Both Inside Man and Tires have been renewed for a second season.
TV shows and movies on AppleTV+
- Shrinking
- Bad Monkey
- Big Door Prize
- Severance
- Loot
Shrinking and Bad Monkey are both Bill Lawrence shows and both fantastic. Loads of great characters in Shrinking and Vince Vaughan is brilliant in Bad Monkey. More seasons please!
I really liked Big Door Prize, so it's a shame that I discovered it was not getting a third season. Loot is fun, but the first season is better than the second.
TV shows and movies on Prime Video
- The Grand Tour
- The Boys
- Invincible
After a long break from watching Top Gear and The Grand Tour, I decided to catch with the latter and realised I'd missed the chemistry between the three. It's all very obviously scripted but still good fun and it's a shame it's all come to an end.
TV shows and movies on other services (UK)
- Starstruck (BBC)
- Only Child (BBC)
- Ghosts (BBC)
- Ghosts US (BBC)
- Swiped (Channel 4)
- Dinosaur (BBC)
- Late Bloomer (Crave Canada)
Starstruck and Ghosts (UK) are complete, but Ghosts US has been a good watch. Late Bloomer got picked up for a second season which I'm really pleased about as a big fan of the star, Jasmeet Reina.
Other movies I watched this year
- Nope
- Carry-On
- That Christmas
- Moana 2
- Deadpool & Wolverine
I had wanted to see Nope for ages and it was really good. Carry-On was better than I expected, and That Christmas is a new film we can add to our Christmas rotation.
Moana 2 was also better than expected. What looked like it was going to be a Disney+ show eventually made it to the big screen and it's a good story to continue on a few years after the last... and it looks like there will be a third instalment.
Deadpool & Wolverine was really good fun. Maybe even the best of the three movies.
It's been a good year for TV but my list for 2025 is already growing!
Read the post from week 374
I remember doing this, back in the 90s. More likely for TV shows we tapped rather than movies.
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I am on this particular journey with my son at the moment. He's graduated from doing the basics indoor with a club to playing outdoors. I'm less involved than I was with the indoor version where we had 15 minutes each week to tire each other out and it's more about him getting to grips with the elements, proper studded boots and using all of the skills he has.
In his previous club, or class, it was obvious the challenge was no longer there so we tried to create some. That meant me intervening, like Rory did, but now that he's somewhere new it's all up to him and the instructions he gets from the coaches. My interventions were more about bringing his team into it the game with him, and I get the sense that there's an aspect of that in the article. Keeping the ball in play is one thing, but you want it to go to a team mate so it stays alive.
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If Front Row was still a thing, then a Mac Mini as your media hub would actually make a lot of sense.
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