Notable

Posted 18th Apr 2024 @ 14:38

John Gruber:

Nest is an obvious exception, but Tony Fadell had a very atypical career at Apple.
...
the Nest did exactly what it promised, very well... Most importantly, Nest's thermostat took aim at replacing existing dumb thermostats, which were terrible. Nest's product really was something like 10× better than what it aimed to disrupt.

We have a Nest thermostat, which we picked over the Hive. It is fantastic and at least 10x better than a dumb thermostat.

My only gripe is the learning aspect of the Nest never hits the sweet spot for us. Either it's on too much or not enough. Not sure it has the concept of 'feels like' rather than relying on the actual temperature. Then there's 'away' functionality which is pointless because I don't want to come home and have the heating turn on. I want it to shut off when noone is home but turn back on before I return.

But the reality is that even those gripes make it so much better than we had it before. I despised our dumb thermostat. Genuinely hated it. The Nest delights 9 times out of 10.

While I'm interested in Humane's AI Pin, I didn't see as a device I'd covet. It's in the same territory as Google Glass for me. Interesting, but not for me.

Posted 18th Apr 2024 @ 08:55

John Gruber:

Why not mandate that Springboard — the Home Screen — be a replaceable component?

When I last used Android, my cheap (~£100) HTC Wildfire came with HTC's own Android skin which brought a lot of bloat with it. You could turn it off, which I did, giving you the stock Android experience which was far snappier.

Then they shipped an OS update that removed the option to disable it. I ended up finding a different tool in the Play Store to manage the OS interface which was better, but I shouldn't have needed to disable or replace the OS interface at all.

On technology, the EU are getting a lot wrong. Cookie banners are pointless when they just ask for permission; tracking individuals should be illegal.

Now the DMA seems to misunderstand the operating system's role in the experience of using a phone. The hardware components specifically (phone, camera/photos, volume/power buttons and authentication modules) should remain tied to the OS which then allows other apps to leverage them.

I actually couldn't tell you what they're trying to achieve right now. Whatever it is, it's not what they think it is and certainly not what users are crying out for.

If tracking was banned and that spelt the end for Meta in Europe, I wouldn't shed a single tear. If the DMA implementation means that Apple pulls back from the EU I'd be pretty upset about that and wouldn't willingly jump to Android (assuming Google decides to stick it out in Apple's absence). Maybe being in the UK will spare me that fate but they really need to get some more informed people involved who know what they're talking about.

Posted 16th Apr 2024 @ 16:02

Posted 25th Mar 2024 @ 14:18

The buttons on the dashboard of my car are close together with little separating them. They're more like toggles so I have to look at them as I would a digital button. The difference is that they consume 3D space so it's not just about tapping the right square, the square takes more space in the Z-index if we're talking about a 3D model and that alone makes it easy to use.

When it comes to something like a radio or AC controls that you might use often and build up muscle memory for then for me the physical world wins over the digital world here. Bring buttons back to cars.

Posted 20th Mar 2024 @ 16:16

I've been a fan of Ludacris' music for years but towards the end of this interview he really cemented his place as an ultimately good force in the world of hip hop. You can watch the whole thing below or skip to 2hrs 45 minutes.

The only other episode I've watched all the way through is Pharrell on Drink Champs which is also worth a watch.

Posted 19th Mar 2024 @ 11:48

via Kottke

Posted 11th Mar 2024 @ 09:53

I'm a day late on this. I only became aware of the ending in 00 & divisible by 400 during the last leap year which is odd to me given that one of the leap years in my life time was for the year 2000! Maybe we were all to pre-occupied with the Y2K bug to worry about leap days.

Posted 1st Mar 2024 @ 08:56

When the next version of CarPlay was originally announced, it left me scratching my head:

If Project Titan (Apple's rumoured car project) is real, then Apple have struck an amazing deal here to be able to integrate with an unbelievable number of cars that will be hitting the road from late-2023 onwards.

Turns out both Aston Martin and Porsche announced right at the end of 2023 that cars with the new CarPlay integration were coming in 2024. I was personally surprised it happened because there seemed to be a bit of resistance to the announcement back in 2022.

This outcome seems best to me, Apple do great software and hardware and are the best at bringing both together. The premium cost for an Apple device are palatable because of their performance and longevity but Apple aren't going to sell a family car for family car money which limits it's reach.

The Apple Vision Pro might be very expensive now, but with time and great adoption, the price will surely come down to make it more accessible. That never happens in the car industry.

Posted 28th Feb 2024 @ 09:55

I'm building my own, Liverpool specific, app at the moment using SwiftUI so the timing is terrible. Apple Sports in almost unbelievably basic when compared to Apple News, but it is content rich once you drill down into games.

My app is for a single club, so a smaller niche. I'll keep building anyway, it's useful for me if no one else.

Posted 22nd Feb 2024 @ 18:20