I found Couch to 5K an unbelievably good way to start pushing myself when it comes to exercise. I've used an exercise bike and often gone for long walks, but they're all very comfortable in comparison to running.
The program is really good and I'm now a massive advocate of the whole thing. I did try continuing with the graduation programs but found that the app would crash meaning I lost audio feedback and couldn't log the runs in the C25K app.
Custom workout
I found the custom workout feature for workouts on the Apple Watch to be really useful. I've set one up to start and end with 500m of walking around 4x 1km intervals. This gives me audio feedback and a clear goal to aim for rather than just running for a certain amount of time as the C25K doesn't actually use any of my Apple Watch or GPS data to determine speed and distance. It's all about endurance.
Tracking my progress
I don't have a real goal in mind, only that I want to keep it up and remain consistent. I've started tracking my post-C25K runs plotting them on a chart:
The lower the line, the faster I am (average pace) and at the time of writing I continue to surprise myself as I hit personal bests. The green line shows my 5K time, it continues to tumble and I've knocked about 3 minutes of my time. The whole thing is skewed by the including of 1km of walking, but it's a necessary warm up and knowing I will have a cool down just makes it easier to get through it all so they'll be staying.
Just knocking a few seconds of each time shows progress and as my weight falls slowly, running should just get easier and easier.
If you're reading this soon after publishing, you'll see one of my previous runs was not in keeping with the others due to a long gap between that run and the one before. Consistency seems to be key.
Read the post from week 458
Well worth a read, it made me stop to think for a minute how this looked in my own life. Shameless plug for Waylist, but part of the reason it exists was to be able to share my own experiences in other countries with others.
The Gallery in Waylist started as curated list of locations that I've visited and the locations I sought out to visit while there. I spent a lot of time curating each guide in the Gallery and will continue to do so as it grows, but nothing lands better than the ones built on my own experiences.
I continue to be sceptical about AI, but there's room for a sprinkling of it. What there isn't room for is giving into AI above everything else.
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Waylist has been priced at $1.99 since launch but will be going on sale on the 28th–31st July as part of Indie App Sales. Tixato also joins the sale by going free for the duration of the Indie App Sales promotion.
You'll be able to get Waylist for 99¢ (50% off) during that time and it will return to it's normal price afterwards. Tixato has just become a paid game, but will be on sale and be free to download, returning to it's normal price from August.
Waylist does not require a subscription, it's a one time fee to get your hands on the app. Tixato is also a one time purchase, but you can get it for free during the sale.
If you'd like to know more about Waylist, a fully-featured travel planning app, you can check out some videos on it's website or you can get Waylist in the App Store.
Waylist and Tixato in the App Store
You can visit the Indie App Sales page using the link earlier in this post or head straight to the Waylist and Tixato App Store pages to take advantage of the promotion.
Read the post from week 457
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I had no idea finder could snap to file and folder name lengths!
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A great look at the MacBook Neo and what it might inspire in those that use one.
If I hadn't started with Swift Playgrounds on my iPad mini then there's a good chance I wouldn't have launched 1 app, let alone 3.
Use what you have, try your best, be inspired and push whatever you have to it's limits. You'll be surprised with what you can achieve and what can be achieved.
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What I don't understand about the World Cup final yesterday is the Argentina have, probably, the best player to play the game and their entire approach in the last two games at least has been to bully the opposition.
Against England, they were awful. Against Spain they were even worse.
There was sweet justice in Enzo Fernandes being sent off and the Spain goal arriving of the back of a tiny lapse in concentration from Simeone.
We did not need 120 minutes of their nonsense. 90 minutes was too much. But Spain stuck to their plan, were disciplined and didn't fall for their tricks. They're world champions for a second time and deservedly so.
Read the post from week 456
If you've tried any of my apps that are currently in the App Store, it would be great to get some feedback. You can always send me a message on Bluesky or leave a review with some comments which I'll be able to see and reply too.
If you haven't tried any yet, then please do give them a go and let me know your thoughts. Waylist is a paid app, so if you'd like to get it for free I do have a very small number of promo codes I can share.
Waylist and Team Sheets both currently have 5 star ratings but with limited reviews so I'm looking to learn more about App Store distribution from that angle.
Read the post from week 455
About a year ago I came up with an idea for a game, it was a simple strategy game where you needed to take control of a board. I prototyped it and had it ready in a matter of hours. But the game play was became repetitive and predictably you would just fall into the pattern of either avoiding your appointment or you'd both counteract each other continuously.
Playing noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) with my son, I realised I could re-use the same mechanism to combine the two concepts and create a new strategy game based on tic-tac-toe and so Tixato was born.
Currently free, you'll find Tixato in the App Store. The price will increase come August but I'd love to get people playing and any feedback would be appreciated.
It's a game designed to be played in person, just place your device between two people and you can begin playing. It starts as a simply game of tic-tac-toe, but after the first grid, your next one is influenced by the last. As you move through, you'll find the centre grid might have been influenced by the previous 8 playable grids. First to 5 wins.
You can more details on the game play on the Tixato product page and I will be putting a product demo video together soon to really show of the simplicity and the strategy behind Tixato.
Read the post from week 454
It took me a while to figure out that you could actually do it on your phone, because it wasn't obvious I managed to create one on my watch. Creating custom workouts might actually be a super power.
I'll share more soon, but having graduated the Couch to 5K program, I've found that the graduation programs crash half way through leaving me coachless. The Apple Fitness workouts aren't perfect, but because I'm using set distance goals, it's easy enough to see how much effort or time I have left.
Having disabled split notifications in the fitness app on the Apple Watch... I now need to figure out how to get them back which will stop me checking my watch constantly mid-run. It's a great way to check in and make sure it's all going smoothly.
Read the post from week 453
It doesn't feel like it's been two years, but that's almost how long ago it was when I bought my MacBook Pro.
I ... went up a level with RAM. With Apple Intelligence, which may tax the RAM day-to-day, I thought it was best to get the most I could now as it can't be upgraded.
I made the right decision and with macOS Golden Gate around the corner, Siri AI is going to be RAM hungry I'm sure. Even Xcode on it's own demands a lot of resources and with more agentic features it's only going to want more.
Looking back, I'm sure I was trying to hit 36GB of RAM in my configuration but if I remember rightly, the step up from 24GB was 48GB which is where I settled. A great choice in hindsight.
RAM itself has become an expensive commodity and forced Apple to increases prices outside of an upgrade cycle. Looking at a SSD for myself, one I bought for less than £100 two years ago now costs twice as much but is only available in half the size. That's a 4x price increase per gigabyte.
I also work on a MacBook Air for my day job. It has 24GB of RAM is highly capable. Given I am not writing much code, you could argue it is overpowered. My own MacBook Pro is approaching the point of being appropriately resourced and so I am patting myself on the back for the decision I made in late 2024.
Read the post from week 452
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Now that every team has played their first game at the World Cup, time to announce my favourites.
You can also look back at the 2022 and 2018 editions.
Overall, I'd say Adidas win with their kits and all my favourites are by the German supplier.
Curaçao
They may have been hammered by Germany in their first ever World Cup game, but their away kit is a thing of beauty. Adidas claim it's yellow but I'd say it's a deep beige.
Read the post from week 451
Amazing story via kottke.org.
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Comprehensive for sure. Tahoe's icons look so washed out compared to the crispness of Golden Gate. Fantastic update across the board and I've already updated the icons for Waylist to take advantage of the new settings available in the Icon Composer beta.
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Platform improvements look like they will give older devices in particular, a new lease of life. Improving speed launch times by 30% is no small feat for a device as old as the iPhone 11 (almost 7 years old). In fact there were over 200 improvements announced.
App Icons / Liquid Glass
Jump to 09:21 in the keynote.
In general, Liquid Glass looks more refined. Just trying the iOS 27 build in Xcode offers a clear improvement to the way it all looks on device. Clearer definition of elements and it does feel more polished in appearance.
App Icons specifically look crisper. That has been my biggest issue when creating Liquid Glass icons, they have soft edges that look too big. This evolution brings tighter edges and refractions with higher contrast. Both very welcome.
The move back to a consistent corner radii and fixing the sidebar and toolbars will go a long way to making Liquid Glass feel like the right move forward than it currently might for some. The sidebar in particular was poorly implemented and I look forward to some common sense coming back into the world of Apple's GUI.
Read the post from week 450
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The World Cup is now days away, I had been collating images of the various kits to be worn at the World Cup to continue my tradition of posting my favourites. (See the 2018 and 2022 editions.)
After the tournament kicks off, I will post my favourite kits of 2026, but until then I wanted to pick out some teams I'll be rooting for. There are 48 to pick from and it would be rude to follow just one team so here's who I'll be following most closely.
Read the post from week 449
I've linked to 35:10 in this video where Jony Ive and Flavio Manzoni talk through the design around Ferrari's Luce. The next 4 minutes are a fantastic conversation around the task in hand when building an EV supercar versus a "regular" supercar.
I found it fascinating and feel like I should clip this and watch it often. If nothing else, I didn't realise there was effectively an exoskeleton around the Luce until I saw the animation around these points.
Also, the interior is just beautiful.
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