Notable

Posted 19th Sep 2024 @ 07:36

I enjoyed reading through John Gruber's thoughts on last week's iPhone event:

My dissatisfaction flying home from last week's event is, ultimately, selfish. I miss having my mind blown. I miss being utterly surprised. I miss occasionally being disappointed by a product design that stretched quirky all the way to wacky. I miss being amazed by something entirely unexpected out of left field.

Personally, I was amazed by Camera Control button this year. I put my phone in a case so the overall shape and design don't make a huge difference. The camera, internals and software combine to make a compelling product. Last year, the Action Button didn't excite me. It was interesting, but not exciting. Camera Control is genuinely exciting to me and I can't wait to play with it. Sadly, this is not an upgrade year for me so I won't be getting a new phone but there's something I'll be really excited to get my hands on for photography in the future.

Overhauling the design of an entire product is not a small task so I appreciate these iterations but still believe they should come every other year instead of annually.

Dynamic Island + Action Button + Camera Control would make a pretty great feature set for an update, but rather than all at once they've rolled out over a 3-year period.

Posted 17th Sep 2024 @ 15:25

Posted 9th Sep 2024 @ 10:35

Apple are bringing Live Activities to their Sports app, so I'm eager to see how it matches up to a third party app like FotMob that has been doing this since Live Activities launched. If there's enough to talk, or gripe, about then I'll post up a comparison here as the season progresses.

Right now it doesn't look like there's any live sports going on so I can't test it until later it seems.

Update: I went back to look to see if the Champions League was included and it's not but further down was the following update:

Additional leagues will become available on Apple Sports over time, including Champions League and Europa League, beginning with the league phase in September.

So to me that reads that it becomes available in September for the mentioned leagues with more to follow.

Posted 30th Aug 2024 @ 08:29

Absolutely love this video and the focus on the practical side of a car.

Power is largely meaningless in a car now, practicality an d efficiency is where it's at!

Posted 9th Aug 2024 @ 09:00

Posted 4th Jul 2024 @ 16:06

If we can't laugh at the last 14 years, what can we do? It's really on the Brexit and pandemic years that are covered and with this much content from them it feels like today's election has been a long time coming.

So go out and vote today, vote tactically if you have to. I hope we see the back of the Conservative party but more worryingly, I hope Nigel Farage fails yet again to become a MP. Please, Clacton, don't fall for his bullshit.

Update:

Clacton fucked it. Not only did they vote for Farage, but the second candidate was a Conservative.

Posted 4th Jul 2024 @ 09:00

I always feel like a dinosaur when I talk about progressive enhancement, but the truth is it is how the web should work. As in, everything should just work. Andy Bell's article is worth reading twice.

Posted 3rd Jul 2024 @ 14:45

A few weeks ago I posted about different cities at similar latitudes which held a few surprises for me. This latest project from The Pudding puts it into perspective with the different classifications and the sub-classifications and how they could change over the next 50 years.

London spefically is on course to move from 'no dry season, warm summer' to 'no dry season, hot summer' but the truth is it has felt like we are there for a few years already. Summers feel short here but they are sometimes unbelievably hot causing humans, animals and vegetation to wilt in the heat.

Posted 28th Jun 2024 @ 10:27

I had shared the HWA EVO II on Good Gear Club back in January. It's an amazing restoration project for the chassis of a classic touring car brought up to modern standards and this walk around from Top Gear goes into more details on the technical details of the car.

Posted 20th Jun 2024 @ 09:05