Weekly posts from the mind of Charanjit Chana
Finally.
This always should have been at the browser level. It also needs to be extremely clear exactly what is being given up if you choose to accept cookies from a vendor in plain language. There's just no point otherwise.
Odd that this is coming about not long after complaints about Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature. Isn't this effectively the same thing?
Not strictly new, but I've not really dived into colour spaces in CSS much at all but have been looking at them recently because I knew they would provide smoother gradients for me.
Can I Use says there's over 90% support for Oklab and Oklch so definitely time to give them a go.
The first thing that stumped me was being able to specify the direction of a gradient and the colour space at the same time. Pretty simple actually because you can just chain them together:
background-image: linear-gradient(to top left in oklch, red, blue);
The above renders a gradient that starts with red in the bottom right and ends towards the top right in blue. The colour space is Oklch which is a lot more pleasing than the regular sRGB one that we're used to.
This post is really a reminder for myself. I've not relied on images for gradients in years but the CSS equivalent hasn't always been the best representation of a gradient but these get us to a really good place.
5 weeks ago I wrote about taking part in Weird Web October and got of to a strong start, but I didn't make it past week 16. That's over half way, but I had ideas for some of the other weeks and I don't know if it counts submitting items after the month has finished!
My biggest failing was time, in early October I found I had plenty but that seemed to evaporate.
I approached the project in a way that means I wrote little JavaScript and kept styling to a minimum. Templating should have made that easier but I messed up tags a few times for submissions and I didn't always nail the approach first time.
16 out of 31 isn't bad. I might revisit a few when I have some time and I intend to look out for the same event in 2026.
Do I sketch on paper of begin designing in Sketch?
What if I prototype and mockup at the same time?
Prototype with code?
Ultimately, I fall back to that last option, which isn't always ideal because it can often mean trying to carry on with a concept that is likely to have evolved rather than one that was clearly defined from the start.
I do sketch on paper sometimes, but bullet-pointing ideas fits my mental models better and helps to start mapping out what direction I should go in.
I do have a number of app ideas loosely defined so this post is a reminder to myself not to jump into code, but to prototype in an app like Sketch first. I think that will provide me with better validation for an idea. Once it's committed to code, it's very hard for me to give up on an idea!
Come on, Germany! You're on the wrong side of this. Apple did abuse it's position with App Tracking Transparency, in the eyes of advertising companies (Meta and Google included) but took this action in an effort to protect their customers.
The fight to have in this space is asking exactly why Apple would need to implement such a feature at all if our privacy wasn't constantly being invaded. Advertising is more lucrative now because you can target with unnerving accuracy. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's ethical.
I was working on a photography app where it would help you pick the right settings to get the right exposure for your lighting conditions. I ended up with an intuitive app but getting results that made sense for the current conditions was much harder than I anticipated.
This video highlights how much variance there is when playing with exposure, aperture and shutter speeds. It's given me lots of information to think about and I'll be revisiting the app to see if it's worth pursuing or not. Even if it's not, I've taken a lot away already for when I'm next using my DSLR.
John Gruber:
They just think they need a “pro” laptop, and underestimate just how incredibly capable MacBook Airs are.
Totally agree with this. In the Apple Silicon era, the MacBook Air's have never been more capable. For my work laptop, I now use a M4 MacBook Air with 24GB of RAM. It surpasses my previous 13" Intel MacBook Pro in every way and even my old personal 15" MacBook Pro was never this capable. I went for the M4 Pro MacBook Pro as my personal laptop because I know I'll be pushing it for development but for the majority of buyers, the MacBook Air is the device they should be considering.
We're looking at lights and sockets that need fitting and I'm in a position where I can improve the WiFi connection in various bits of our property and even into the garden.
I'm implementing two different sockets with WiFi extenders built in to see how they perform. I think they'll actually do the job and improve our coverage.
The backup plan (I'm waiting for Black Friday) is to go for something hard wired.
We're limited to the internet speeds we can get into our property so I'm in two minds about investing in a router right now. I think I'll take the plunge when we have significantly better speeds available to us.
I do remember having issues with my non-Pro MacBook and WiFi extenders in the past, but that was back in the early 2010s. We still a Belkin extender in the summer when we're in the garden more but I think a more permanent solution is worth the small investment now. If it's not working out I may not be able to wait for Black Friday, but if it does, maybe I won't need to do anything more!
While we are a Philips Hue household, I am opting not to go the smart lights route. I've already had to replace a colour bulb but couldn't stomach the cost of a single bulb so opted to by a fixed white one instead. It's fine but it's lost it's magic. I don't need more devices to manage so opting to go for physical switches.
This is probably the most sensible take on the current discourse around Apple's decision to take chargers out of the box in the EU (and the UK).
Sounds like the EU's mandate is for customers to be able to opt out of including a charger, but Apple have taken a consistent stance with their products where you have to opt in.
I still have MagSafe 1 and MagSafe 2 chargers at home so when I upgraded to the M4 Pro MacBook Pro I don't know if I'd have stumped up for their power brick. I ended up with a
I have previously commented on my AI scepticism and while I'm not against using it, I do have plenty of reservations on how it is being applied.
I came across a short video series by the BBC and The Open University on the topic AI. I've embedded them below for you to watch and I think they give a balanced status update.
I currently have a
That's something I can easily address by connecting it more often, but it's a suitable solution. Apart from the fact I was previously using a Seagate branded NAS as a Time Machine drive but that was always unreliable and then finally game up about a year ago.
I've always dreamt of having a RAID 1 NAS drive to back up to. One that could do Time Machine backups and offer some redundant storage for whatever I need.
I haven't found that solution, or at leat I haven't committed to one yet.
For now my solution works as a backup and in truth I don't remember needing to retrieve a backup but the safety net is nice to have.
I always have the intention of joining in with a month-long exercise, usually in the art space, but never quite make it happen but I stumbled across Weird Web October this week and decided to give it a go.
I've completed the first 3 challenges over on weird.cchana.dev/2025 and will be working not he 4th and 5th submissions this weekend!
The CSS grid generator I didn't know I needed. Andy Clarke has written some great articles on compound grids which I've really enjoyed reading but having seen this generator I am more interested in actually implementing them now.
Don’t get me wrong, I do want the iPhone 17 Pro in Cosmic Orange. I don’t actually think it’s a great looking device, but their approach to dissipating heat and the fact that they have made an orange iPhone, I do want it. I just don’t need it.
Almost all of the new tech I’ve bought in the past decade has just felt incremental. I’m usually upgrading a device I already own due to its age and the changes never feel revolutionary. Partly that’s because Apple does a fantastic job of keeping devices relevant with OS upgrades and then when you do upgrade you suddenly get access to a subset of features that weren’t there before.
In truth, Team Sheets began life after iOS 26 was already announced so I already knew there would be some visual upheaval so I knew I needed to approach it right from the beginning.
Team Sheets is ultimately a NavigationStack inside a TabView, as you drill down you are just following predefined paths with the ability to jump levels where it makes sense using some common gestures on lists.
The app was built to feel like it was actually made by Apple rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. The opposite of the approach I took with Kop Quiz but thanks to Liquid Glass, I've actually brought that back to use more native components.
In reality, there were few changes that were needed. I still wanted to support iOS 18 so I need to apply modifiers conditionally depending on the version if iOS that you have. This means there are a handful of places where I am applying a subtitle to the view where it makes sense to do so. I'm also marking a toolbar button with the role .confirm when I can which automatically tints it appropriately. I had previously looked at tinting it green but I settled on following Apple's own apps which use the system-wide blue.
Let's look at how the views differ.
The iOS 26 implementation has the new floating tab bar, larger "confirmation" buttons in the header and rounder buttons in general. Would have been possible to rebuild with no code changes but I wanted to add the subtitle so there's a conditional modifier used to implement that in IOS 26. The only other modifier for iOS 26 specifically was for the minimising of the TabView on scroll. It's a flow you need to opt in to and for an app where you will be scrolling I think it makes sense to take advantage of it.
Ideally I'd have had a button above the tab bar on certain views but it appears to only be possible with the new accessory placement but that is full width and app-wide so doesn't quite work for Team Sheets.
Again we're looking at rounder elements here for the search bar, list row and the swipe actions. Zero code changes again but interestingly, I implemented the swipe buttons using the Label view type and on iOS 26 it shows the text label and the icon whereas iOS 18 only shows the icon.
For a long time, iOS has always had a distinct header of some sort. The treatment to buttons has changed from obvious tap targets to borderless but we're back to proper buttons now with Liquid Glass.
For nested views, the padding is far more consistent and thanks to the focus on concentric shapes it means buttons sit nicely within their containers. I'm pleased with this change because I would apply padding vertically and horizontally as I felt I should rather than letting the elements work themselves out. Sometimes things felt very tight as you can see on the left, but then adding default padding would look sparse. I've tried not to specify a number value for padding but it's no longer a concern.
I could have done nothing and Team Sheets would have worked just fine. I haven't strayed from everything SwiftUI has to offer so that's not really a surprise. Views definitely feel roomier which impacts the amount of content you can see but that's not always a bad thing.
The app is already in the App Store, eagerly awaiting the release of iOS 26 later today.
Have you been able to port your app to iOS 26?
Having just watched Apple's September event for 2025, we got to see updates to the AirPods Pro, Apple Watch and iPhone line ups. And let's get this out the way first, battery life is better across the board and I'm here for it.
I didn't win the iPhone naming bingo, but let's dive into the details!
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