Birchtree

By Matt Birchler [bridged from https://birchtree.me/ on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]

15 followers0 following155 stories

Longform Stories

Best-o-Masto comes to the web

I love Best-o-Masto, my iPhone app for browsing the most popular posts in your feed, but I'm not always on my phone. That's why today I'm happy to announce Best-o-Masto is available on the web and you…

1d ago·3 min read·407 words

Welcome to the new Quick Tier List!

For the last few months, I've been running Quick Tier List, which is a very simple but I thought nice to use tier list website. We've used it quite a few times on Cozy Zone, and I've made some improve…

2d ago·4 min read·800 words

The best CleanShot keyboard shortcuts that will change your life or whatever

I wish there was a counter running that told me how many screenshots and screen recordings I've taken over the years, but I'm into the tens of thousands easily. As a passionate Mac screenshotter, here…

2d ago·2 min read·256 words

The tech behind NBA broadcasts

As someone who did most of the jobs Marques talked about here for college basketball (and football and vollyball) years ago, this video really resonated with me. I've been out of the game for about 12…

4d ago·2 min read·210 words

Some Quick Reads text-to-speech updates

One of the key features for a read later service in my mind is a text-to-speech feature, and while that was by far the most difficult thing to implement in Quick Reads, I'm really glad it's there and …

May 30·4 min read·760 words

Metal Gear Solid 2’s source code leaked

Daryl Baxter: Metal Gear Solid 2 source code leak: every surprise so far At first, I thought nothing of it - I figured owner Konami would shut down links to it, and that'd be it. But in the weeks sin…

May 29·2 min read·239 words

The 4 day work week dream

Mike (just Mike): Can we have the day off? If AI is going to 10x our productivity across the board, that means that I should be able to produce the same amount of output by midday on Monday that, in …

May 28·1 min read·123 words

Who's getting wealthier in America?

One concept I'm obsessed with is the general idea of whether things (art, money, anything) are getting worse, or if we're just nostalgic for when we were younger and simply didn't know as much as we d…

May 28·9 min read·1678 words

Overworld is your landing page for video game news

Overworld is a new website by Brendon Bigley and Pablo Marti Cordero that's designed to be a single page to go and see what's going on in the world of video games. As someone who recently dabbled with…

May 28·1 min read·133 words

The Steam Deck starting price is 2x what it was a year ago

The original Steam Deck launched four years ago to massive praise, and I was one of those people who absolutely loved it. It released with a very reasonable entry price of $399, making handheld PC gam…

May 28·4 min read·792 words

9 years since the last Dragon Quest game…they just started over

Verity Townsend writing for IGN: about how Dragon Quest 12 has been completely restarted In a special video to mark Dragon Quest’s 40th anniversary on May 27, Dragon Quest 12 executive producer Yosuk…

May 28·2 min read·270 words

Micro app 17: Next Up

This micro app is properly micro. It's literally just a Mac app that runs in the background that waits for you to hit a keyboard shortcut (Command + Option + Control + N) to see what my next meeting i…

May 26·2 min read·301 words

Google suspended Railway's account, taking down their entire platform for hours

From the Railway blog: Incident Report: May 19, 2026 - GCP Account Suspension At 22:20 UTC on May 19, Google Cloud placed Railway’s production account into a suspended status incorrectly, as part of …

May 20·2 min read·222 words

Quinn Nelson on the MacBook Neo

Here's a quote from Quinn Nelson's latest video about the MacBook Neo: The Neo is dominating in its segment because of price, and surrendering that advantage to protect margin would forfeit this enti…

May 20·3 min read·493 words

I said I'd destroy humanity and take their jobs, and I wonder why they don't like me

Ben Thompson: Data Center Discontent, Understanding the Opposition, Fixing the Problem The point of starting with the misinformation point, however, is not to legislate it: there are plenty of folks …

May 19·4 min read·678 words

The best way to publish to Ghost from Obsidian

Today I'm excited to announce Ghosty Posty, which is the best way to publish your Obsidian notes to your Ghost blog. It is available now on the Obsidian community plugins directory for free. What it…

May 19·4 min read·616 words

Quick Reads is officially in the Obsidian marketplace

I'm happy to say that after a lengthy review process, the Quick Reads plugin is available on the official Obsidian marketplace. It may take a few days/hours for it to show up in the in-app marketplace…

May 18·2 min read·363 words

Chapterize 1.5: Multi-document editing is here!

A new version of Chapterize is out now that includes multi-document editing across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. This is a free update for existing users and you can get it now. There's really not much mor…

May 18·2 min read·363 words

The MacBook Neo shows why the Apple fan obsession with benchmarks for 5+ years has been…weird

Oliver Haslam: MacBook Neo review, two months later: Almost a MacBook Pro beater The MacBook Neo is a marvel. The fact that Apple was able to find a way to sell this thing for less than $600 makes it…

May 17·2 min read·348 words

AI plans are expensive. They’re also wildly unprofitable.

Every few months, it seems Anthropic does something to restrict how you can use their subscription plans, either their $20, $100, or $200 plans, and it gets people upset. I’m not going to sit here and…

May 15·2 min read·261 words

Is the war on RCS actually an argument that texting Android users *should* suck?

Wesley Hilliard is a cool guy who I often agree with, but his latest for AppleInsider is begging for a response: RCS & encryption haven't fixed the green bubble problem In Messages on iPhone, you can…

May 14·1 min read·101 words

How many MacBook Neo buyers would have bought an Air before?

Tim Culpan: Apple Doubles MacBook Neo Production, Orders Fresh Batch of Chips As a result, it’s now asking suppliers to prepare capacity for 10 million units of the debut version of the Neo, up from …

May 13·1 min read·104 words

The midification of smartphone cameras

This feels like the sort of post that can get some people to go, "well actually…", but screw it, I think there's something here. As Marques points out, in good light, the iPhone 11 and iPhone 17 are v…

May 12·1 min read·93 words

Apple uses WebP images in the App Store

I was checking out the App Store page for the new iRacing Connect App for the Vision Pro on the web, and I noticed that one of their first promo images was a setup screen with blatant display bugs in …

May 12·1 min read·105 words

Encrypted RCS is going wide, starting today

John Voorhees: iOS 26.5 Adds RCS Encryption in Beta Starting Today Apple announced that beginning today, users on iOS 26.5 will be able to send encrypted RCS messages to Google Messages users who are…

May 11·1 min read·96 words

Community mods are giving us the remasters companies can't deliver

A few years ago, a passion project from a few Zelda fans gave us a decompilation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which let it run natively on every platform known to man. Not only that, but i…

May 10·1 min read·101 words

Micro app 17: The Cooldown

One of the cool things about the agentic coding era is how quick it is to iterate on an idea and see if it's worth pursuing further. When I was on a run yesterday, I had an idea for the a website call…

May 10·1 min read·106 words

The Trump admin suddenly wants to regulate AI models

The New York Times had a story a few days ago about the Trump administration prepping an executive order regulating AI models: The administration is discussing an executive order to create an A.I. wo…

May 7·1 min read·85 words

My new screenshots folder

Ever since I was a child, my Mac screenshots have saved to my desktop. This is how macOS works by default, and it's what I kept doing when I finally made the jump to CleanShot back in 2020. It worked,…

May 6·1 min read·102 words

Big spending, big profits

M.G. Siegler: Apple's Binary Bet It's just such a wild break from their peer group. And it keeps getting more wild. It seems like the most binary bet imaginable. Either Apple is right and the rest of…

May 6·1 min read·95 words

The Constitution is more of a suggestion

Here is the exact text of the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or …

May 5·1 min read·100 words

Micro app 16: Quick Reads Backstage

This is a quickie, but I made a simple app called Backstage that lets me view my Quick Reads analytics data from a native app on my phone. All of this lives in the web UI for me as well (something I s…

May 5·1 min read·112 words

The iPhone Air is for enthusiasts

Hartley Charlton: iPhone Air's Poor Sales Spook Rivals Into Ditching Ultra-Thin Phone Plans A Weibo leaker today suggested that Apple's iPhone Air 2 may be the only next-generation ultra-thin flagshi…

May 2·1 min read·89 words

Speeed

The Speeed YouTube channel has been around for about a year, but I discovered them a few months ago when they had a decently viral video that told you how to do things no one teaches you. This is the …

May 2·1 min read·50 words

Micro app 15: Railway Dashboard for iOS

I use Railway to host a few of my projects, and while they have a nice desktop interface in the browser, their mobile UI isn't so hot, and I wanted to make something t help me monitor things like my c…

May 1·1 min read·106 words

It’s cancel Kimmel time again

Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday last week in a skit on his show: And of course, our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at-- so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. You know, Melan…

Apr 27·1 min read·98 words

600% is the new 2 + 2 = 5

PBS News has a quote from the very intelligent RFK Jr.: Fact-checking RFK Jr.'s claim there's more than one way to calculate a percentage decrease Kennedy said, "President Trump has a different way o…

Apr 26·1 min read·92 words

Quick Reads is the future that passkey enthusiasts dream of

I neglected to mention it in the announcement post, but another thing I'm really excited about with Quick Reads is that it's the first app I've made so far that requires users to sign in. I decided if…

Apr 23·1 min read·106 words

Quick Reads: I built the read later app I'd always wanted

I'm happy to finally announce Quick Reads is available to everyone in a sort of early access today. This has been my only read later service since February, and it's genuinely the best product for the…

Apr 23·1 min read·105 words

I got the MX Master 4 and I could not be more disappointed

I got an email this morning informing me that my Best Buy credit was about to expire if I didn't use it. So I pulled the trigger on the updated Logitech MX Master 4, the latest and greatest in the qui…

Apr 23·1 min read·110 words

John Ternus will be Apple's next CEO (starting September 1, 2026)

Apple: Tim Cook to become Apple Executive ChairmanJohn Ternus to become Apple CEO Under Cook’s leadership Apple has grown from a market capitalization of approximately $350 billion to $4 trillion, re…

Apr 20·1 min read·92 words

Our computers are just too good

Andy Nicolaides: I’m not a Pro, and that’s okay. I started to realise recently, but was fully reconciled in my mind after using the MacBook Neo for a few days. The realisation is that, when it comes …

Apr 19·1 min read·107 words

What if games could be "pretty successful" and not out the developer out of business?

I really loved this quote from John Linneman on a recent Digital Foundry podcast: There was a time when they could produce games in a moderately sustainable fashion, it seems, and they didn't need to…

Apr 16·1 min read·99 words

No vibe coded visionOS bump

This post on Reddit caught my attention: Been curious about the state of the visionOS ecosystem so I pulled the numbers from Appfigures on every app released specifically for visionOS since the platf…

Apr 16·1 min read·91 words

Will iPadOS 27 bring back split view?

Zac Kew-Denniss: iPadOS 26 multitasking is so bad that I’ve replaced my iPad with an Android tablet The biggest mistake Apple made in iPadOS 26 was making all of these changes in the iPad’s default m…

Apr 16·1 min read·96 words

Where did the MP3s come from?

Nick Vukotic (random person, I don’t vouch for them) on Threads I love the decade where every major electronics manufacturer was selling mp3 players but no one was asking where the mp3s were coming f…

Apr 15·1 min read·92 words

The "heads I win, tails you lose" mentality

Antonio G. Di Benedetto for The Verge: I tested three Windows laptops in the MacBook Neo’s price range — there’s no contest Each has an eight-core processor (versus six on the Neo), 16GB of RAM inste…

Apr 12·1 min read·99 words

Micro app 14: Podcast Transcript Fixer

Today I'm sharing a pretty simple micro-app: a Claude skill that you can use in the desktop app or in Claude Code. It lets you pass in a podcast transcript and helps clean it up for you. The local mo…

Apr 8·1 min read·97 words

Chrome gets side tabs

David Pierce: Vertical browser tabs are better and you should use them The good news here is, you don’t have to take my word for it. Switching browsers is hard, and maybe you don’t want to do it just…

Apr 7·1 min read·98 words

Samsung is discontinuing it's messaging app…helping iPhone users get encrypted RCS

Last month, I wrote about how Apple is working on adding support for encrypted RCS messages between Apple Messages on iOS and Google Messages on Android. At the time, I said I hoped Apple would make t…

Apr 6·1 min read·89 words

Video gaming prices continue to explode

Just 6 months ago, Lenovo launched their Legion Go 2 handheld PC game console. It came in 2 versions, each with a different chip (AMD Ryzen Z2 or Z2 Extreme) powering the device. They came in at the p…

Apr 3·1 min read·96 words

Nintendo's digital games will be cheaper than physical

Nintendo: About Nintendo Switch 2 Game Pricing Beginning in May 2026, and starting with preorders for Yoshi™ and the Mysterious Book, new Nintendo published digital titles exclusive to Nintendo Switc…

Apr 3·1 min read·88 words

That’s jus how media discussions go

jess77x in a Reddit post about Pluribus: The discourse around this show is so weird. It's either a masterpiece or a total slog. And everyone is just talking past each other and calling people illiter…

Apr 2·1 min read·92 words

OpenAI against the world

Ben Thompson: Apple’s 50 Years of Integration It’s also worth noting that OpenAI has, in its relatively short life, managed to frame itself as a competitor to basically everyone in tech, from Google …

Apr 1·1 min read·88 words

Apple at 50: my most memorable product announcements

Apple turns 50 today, so I thought I'd take some time to think back on some of the most memorable Apple product announcements. I'm relying entirely on my own memory, so forgive me if I get some small …

Apr 1·1 min read·99 words

Buy today's budget or yesterday's premium?

One of the things that raised a bit of a stink in my MacBook Neo review was the idea that it might be prudent for people looking to buy a $600-700 MacBook to also consider older devices off mainstream…

Mar 30·1 min read·99 words

Micro app 13: The Comfort Zone Database

Something I find myself doing from time to time is wondering if I've mentioned a piece of tech before, run a specific challenge before, or just trying to remember what episode to reference when direct…

Mar 30·1 min read·98 words

iOS…iPadOS…are you getting it? These are not two different operating systems…

The above screenshot is from the iPad, and it's where you get to choose how you would like apps to display in the OS. Given my recent assertions that iOS and iPadOS are already the same thing, but wit…

Mar 29·1 min read·100 words

Quick Tier List gets Quick Look

This morning, I pushed a small, but important update the Quick Tier List, what I think is the best tier list web app out there. Quick Look You can now select an item from the unranked section and p…

Mar 28·1 min read·97 words

Quick Subtitles 2.2 - UX and UI improvements galore

The latest version of Quick Subtitles is here, and it's packed with some significant UI and UX improvements. Let's dive into the UX enhancements first. Better loading indicators A few versions ago,…

Mar 28·1 min read·90 words

Removing macOS's icon-sized movie player

Back in 2007 Apple released Mac OS X Leopard, which introduced a bunch of cool features including Quick Look. This allowed users to select a file and hit the space bar to preview it in the finder, whi…

Mar 28·1 min read·104 words

Console prices are insane now

All prices in this post are adjusted for inflation. In 2000, Sony launched the PS2 for $561. By 2006, they had a $209 model that was thinner, but had all the power and features of the original model.…

Mar 28·1 min read·95 words

About those "Chrome on Android is faster than Safari on the iPhone" claims

This week, Google posted that Chrome on Android was now notably faster at browsing the web than Safari on iOS. This led to the bold line in the post: Android is now the fastest mobile platform for we…

Mar 27·1 min read·97 words

MacBook Neo, the benchmarks

I wrote in my review that I didn't think benchmarks told the real story of using a Neo, and I specifically called out the Geekbench CPU single-core test as particularly misleading. That said, I do thi…

Mar 26·1 min read·91 words

Yearly Run Goals gets a rustic redesign

I'm starting to think my apps have a trend. I think of a very specific problem that I want to solve. I figure out a nice way to solve it using stock SwiftUI. And then once everything is working, I giv…

Mar 26·1 min read·102 words

ChapterPod is now Chapterize

I'm excited to announce a new era for ChapterPod! Due to a bit of a trademark issue (one I am morally in the right on but will address anyway), the app is now called Chapterize. In addition to the ne…

Mar 26·1 min read·102 words

Sora is dead

OpenAI announced the end of the Sora app on Twitter today. We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made …

Mar 24·1 min read·93 words

Switch 2 sales estimates drop, and why I think console gaming is currently in decline

Jess Weatherbed: Nintendo cuts Switch 2 production amid weakening console sales Nintendo will produce fewer Switch 2 units than it previously projected in response to weakening demand for the console…

Mar 24·1 min read·94 words

Analyst hat comes off, reviewer hat goes on

Jason Snell thought my MacBook Neo review missed the point of the product: But this entire conversation misses the most important thing about the MacBook Neo: It is sold in every Apple Store, on Appl…

Mar 23·1 min read·94 words

Why Americans hate* AI

This week's topics include: * Why Americans are more negative on AI than any other country in the world * Why DLSS 5 had one of the all-time worst reveals ever * Why people are drawn to tech…

Mar 23·1 min read·51 words

MacBook Neo review: I wish this had an M1 inside

The MacBook Neo is a cool little computer that I like, despite the fact that, on paper, it’s a pretty irrational purchase for most people (including myself). When I take a step back from the current h…

Mar 21·1 min read·100 words

The MacBook Neo is worse. We love it.

The MacBook Neo is really something, isn't it? Novelty is a hell of a drug, but I also think there's something to specific products that, despite them clearly not being the best technical option avail…

Mar 17·1 min read·99 words

DLSS 5 looks like ass (and this is coming from a huge DLSS fan)

Cameron Faulkner, Richard Lawler: DLSS 5 looks like a real-time generative AI filter for video games Nvidia announced DLSS 5 on Monday during its GTC conference, and based on early reactions, it’s go…

Mar 17·1 min read·94 words

Apple acquires MotionVFX

From the MotionVFX home page today: We are extremely excited to share that MotionVFX is joining the Apple team to continue to empower creators and editors to do their best work. I love MotionVFX and…

Mar 16·1 min read·97 words

Please review my apps

My apps very rarely prompt you to leave a review on the App Store. Truthfully, it's something that I completely forget to consider when I'm developing an app. I only remember to add it down the road, …

Mar 16·1 min read·100 words

Folding iPhone rumors verses my iPadOS predictions

Mark Gurman had a new report this past week where he suggested that the folding iPhone would allow apps to be displayed side by side on the internal screen, and that iPad apps would not run on the dev…

Mar 15·1 min read·99 words

I'm trying to let the iPad be its best self

I sometimes feel like I'm a minor villain in the iPad enthusiast world. It probably doesn't help that I'm pretty outspoken for wanting a touch screen tablet-style Mac or that I recently titled a post …

Mar 15·1 min read·101 words

The different lessons learned using a Mac

Sam Henri Gold: “This Is Not The Computer For You” Yes, you will hit the limits of this machine. 8GB of RAM and a phone chip will see to that. But the limits you hit on the Neo are resource limits — …

Mar 14·1 min read·102 words

"This is an Xbox" gets in the bin

Chris Kerr: Microsoft quietly retires 'This is an Xbox' marketing campaign When searching for the blog post that kicked off the marketing beat earlier today, I noticed it has been removed from Xbox W…

Mar 12·1 min read·93 words

Encrypted RCS is coming in iOS 26.4

Juli Clover: iOS 26.4 Beta Adds End-to-End Encryption for iPhone-to-Android RCS Texts iPhone‌ users will need to install the second beta of iOS 26.4 to exchange encrypted messages with Android users,…

Mar 12·1 min read·77 words

I waited on this rumor so long we already know it's wrong

Joe Rossignol: Apple's Upcoming Studio Display 2 Rumored to Have an Unusual Feature The tipster believes that a 90Hz refresh rate would make sense due to bandwidth considerations. Thunderbolt 5 can s…

Mar 11·1 min read·95 words

I'd like the less capable, more expensive computer, please

Steve Troughton-Smith on Mastodon: A $499 MacBook Neo with the brains of a couple-year-old iPhone can run Xcode, Photoshop, Blender, Terminal, and pretty much everything else you can think of, yet yo…

Mar 11·1 min read·92 words

Of course it can use pro apps. It’s a computer

When I started doing YouTube in 2020, I was in the middle of my iPad era, and the only Mac in my life was a 2012 Mac mini. I don't remember its exact specs, but suffice to say it positively sucks by 2…

Mar 11·1 min read·107 words

New wallpaper generator just dropped

ColorFlow is a really cool new wallpaper and animation generator from the folks over at ls.graphics, and it's pretty rad (and it's totally free).

Mar 11·1 min read·29 words

Micro app 12: Benchmark Studio

This micro app is pretty simple; it's just a nice, single-page website for uploading benchmark scores and getting nice-looking charts for them, like the one above. The UI for adding tests and devices…

Mar 10·1 min read·91 words

Terraink makes rad maps on demand

Terraink is a cool new website that lets you create cool maps of whatever location you want to. That's it, and that's pretty rad.

Mar 8·1 min read·30 words

Tom Scott on AI in February 2023

From the video: I've been complaining for years that it feels like nothing has really changed since smartphones came along. And I think that maybe, maybe I should have been careful what I wished for.…

Mar 7·1 min read·99 words

Apple releases the MacBook Mini

Apple's Mac Mini is such an awesome computer. No, it's not the most powerful machine Apple makes, but it is very affordable, which makes it appeal to at least two separate groups. The first group is p…

Mar 4·1 min read·94 words

How to make Midnight City

M83’s Midnight City is one of my favorite songs of all time, and this video recreating it is brilliant.

Mar 4·1 min read·24 words

My super quick process for adding chapters to podcasts

Chapters in podcasts are super important, in my opinion, and I make sure to add them to everything that I create. Here's the process I use to get them into my shows faster than ever before. 0- Have …

Mar 3·1 min read·111 words

When the words on the page don’t match what you’re trying to say (follow up on the Ben Thompson post)

Ben Thompson: Technological Scale and Government Control, Paramount Outbids Netflix for Warner Bros. This is a lot more complicated than the nuclear question, where government control and ownership w…

Mar 3·1 min read·102 words

Apple's new MacBooks: The pinnacle of the generation

Apple announced new MacBook Airs and Pros today, and they’re both boring and mostly excellent. MacBook Air This looks like a very basic spec bump, which I’m not mad about. I would like to see this …

Mar 3·1 min read·104 words

Apple's new Studio Displays

Apple updated both of their monitors today, replacing the Studio Display with a new model that's very similar to the old one, and they've discontinued the Pro Display XDR in favor of the new Studio Di…

Mar 3·1 min read·86 words

"What are you going to do, stop me? I've got the guns," is a wild government argument for tech pundits to support

Over the last couple weeks, Anthropic and the Department of War have been engaged in a war of words over something very exciting: terms of use. Anthropic, as a private company, has created a product a…

Mar 2·1 min read·107 words

Continuity Camera is so freaking cool, I wish it fit better into my work

About a week ago, I switched on my Canon R6 and went to record something on video. I have the camera hooked up to an Elgato 4K capture card, which my Mac sees as a webcam. However, in this instance, t…

Mar 2·1 min read·109 words

The M4 iPad Air: an update so small, the Bluetooth version gets a shout out

In addition to the new iPhone 17e, Apple also announced a new iPad Air, now powered by the M4 processor. I could almost end the post there because we've basically reached the end of the list of differ…

Mar 2·1 min read·110 words

The iPhone 17e

Last year I was among the more positive people about the iPhone 16e. I spent a couple weeks using it as my primary device, and honestly, it was a pretty fine experience. No, it wasn't as good as my 16…

Mar 2·1 min read·102 words

Announcing Weave, a native iOS app for Typefully

I'm happy to announce the release of my new app, Weave. As is often the case with my apps, I built this one for myself and then decided it was worth sharing with the world. Weave is a native iPhone an…

Mar 2·1 min read·101 words

Why killing iPadOS isn't what you think it is

In the second episode of the A Better Computer podcast, I talk more about how I think "killing iPadOS" is actually making everything more like an iPad. We look at why, from a developer's perspective, …

Mar 2·1 min read·94 words

Micro app 11: JXR to JPG converter

Resident Evil Requiem came out this past week, and I was very excited to start playing it. It genuinely might be my most anticipated game of the year, and I truly relish my first time playing through …

Mar 2·1 min read·96 words

Daft Punk & Stevie Wonder & Pharrell & Nile Rogers get lucky

I don't have anything to say other than you're welcome for finding the best 5 minutes of YouTube you'll see today.

Feb 28·1 min read·33 words

Anthropic does the bare minimum, but these days that's impressive

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to “any law…

Feb 27·1 min read·92 words

Blender for the iPad is on hold (it was also keyboard+mouse first, not touch first)

In a GitHub comment back in January, Blender's Dalai Felinto gave this update on the Blender for iPad project: FYI I just updated the task description to mention that this project is on hold. […] we…

Feb 27·1 min read·104 words

Soon, everything will be an iPad

Over the weekend, my Apple will kill iPadOS article caused some feelings, to say the least. The post title was meant to catch eyes, and it did, but I also think that it brought people into the article…

Feb 27·1 min read·101 words

Block is making more profit than ever, so they're firing 40% of their employees

Jack Dorsey on Twitter: we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company. we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to g…

Feb 26·1 min read·99 words

Drive to Survive is coming to Apple TV tonight

Chance Miller: New ‘F1: Drive to Survive’ season is coming to Apple TV Ahead of the first F1 Grand Prix next week, Apple has announced a new partnership with Netflix in the US. Through this deal, App…

Feb 26·1 min read·69 words

The whole draw of the Mac is that it can do whatever you want it to do

Wesley Hilliard has a new post out which is a bit of a retort to my opinion on touch Macs and iPads: Apple could enter its toaster-fridge era with touchscreen MacBooks It's not that I think it's a ba…

Feb 25·1 min read·107 words

In blind test, gamers think DLSS looks better than native rendering

Hassam Nasir: Nearly half of PC gamers prefer DLSS 4.5 over AMD's FSR and even native rendering (emphasis mine) German outlet ComputerBase has conducted a blind test comparing the image quality of si…

Feb 25·1 min read·91 words

Seeing growth on YouTube

I love Rory Alexander's YouYube channel. He streams Gran Turismo for a living and posts a video or two per week that I always enjoy. On my YouTube home feed today I saw this video from 3 years ago: W…

Feb 25·1 min read·100 words

Shocker: Apple will update macOS UI to make touch a good experience 😉

Juli Clover reporting on Mark Gurman’s latest report: Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro Coming in 2026 With Dynamic Island and Redesigned macOS Controls Apple is updating macOS to make it more touch frien…

Feb 24·1 min read·97 words

A Better Computer, the Podcast

Today I'm doing something a bit spontaneous, I'm launching a podcast! It's called A Better Computer (shocker), and it's "available anywhere you get your podcasts", as they say. * Videos will appear …

Feb 24·1 min read·94 words

Quick Notes now records in the background

Quick Notes has a new update out now with a few nice improvements. Background recording Have you ever had your screen turn off during a longer recording? Have you ever wanted to switch to another a…

Feb 24·1 min read·97 words

Why many of us have no patience for liquid glass

Jason Snell: Apple in 2025: The Six Colors report card It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcas…

Feb 24·1 min read·98 words

Financially secure Sony shuts down a great game studio they acquired, seemingly just to ruin

Brendon Bigley: Bluepoint Games Shuttered by PlayStation for Some Unfathomable Reason Are we sincerely supposed to believe that in a world where the entire industry is bending over backward to remake…

Feb 22·1 min read·98 words

Hosting my own analytics

I've used Plausible for my analytics since 2021, and I've been quite happy with it. It just works, it's pretty good from a privacy angle, and it gives me a nice UI for showing essential metrics withou…

Feb 21·1 min read·93 words

Apple will kill iPadOS

Before you get too spicy about this post, read this one next. How's this for a hot take to start the weekend: I think Apple is going to discontinue iPadOS. I know, I know, it's a big swing, but put t…

Feb 21·1 min read·97 words

Another new model coming to Quick Subtitles

There will be a Quick Subtitles update out soon that adds OpenAI's Whisper model to the app as an optional transcription model. Why, you might ask? Well, I think each model has its own advantages. *…

Feb 20·1 min read·94 words

That thing "nobody" was asking for

I watch the occasional Kyle Hill video, and his latest about data centers in space being a bad idea got my attention, so I watched it. Early in the video, he says: Obviously something is going to hav…

Feb 20·1 min read·98 words

Why I don't offload my writing to AI

Claudio Nastruzzi: Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation When an author uses AI for "polishing" a draft, they are not seeing improvement; they are witnessing semantic…

Feb 20·1 min read·84 words

ChapterPod and Quick Subtitles now support WebVTT (.vtt)

I live in worlds where .SRT is the g0-to subtitles format, but other people have different needs. There is an alternate format, WebVTT, which actually does some cool stuff. I've implemented a simple v…

Feb 19·1 min read·93 words

Micro app 10: MastoThreads

For years, I have been posting long-running threads on social media for the movies that I watch each year. I start a thread on January 1st with my first movie, and I keep it going through the end of t…

Feb 17·1 min read·103 words

2026 is going to be a very painful year in tech

As of writing, the Steam Deck is completely unavailable to purchase from Valve in the US with this note at the bottom of the page: Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions d…

Feb 17·1 min read·101 words

Freedom is the government asking for the physical location of those critical of that government on social media

Mariella Moon: Homeland Security has reportedly sent out hundreds of subpoenas to identify ICE critics online DHS has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta ove…

Feb 17·1 min read·91 words

Tahoe brings 80% charging caps to the Mac

Juli Clover: Apple Brings iPhone-Style Battery Charge Limits to the Mac in macOS Tahoe 26.4 The macOS Tahoe 26.4 beta that Apple released today includes a Charge Limit feature for the Mac. There is a…

Feb 16·1 min read·102 words

A passionate defense of the M Pro series of chips

On the latest episode of ATP, a show I should mention that I really love, they discussed the possibility of Apple discontinuing the Pro series in their M lineup of Apple silicon chips. One of the main…

Feb 16·1 min read·100 words

The data has changed

Rachel Thomas: Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding It is worth experimenting with AI coding agents to see what they can do, but don’t abandon the development of your current skillset. Part of the appea…

Feb 16·1 min read·93 words

Optimizing for 3 users

Anil Dash: Launch it 3 times I’ve seen so many teams trying to figure out how to optimize the engagement of the three users on their app, or the five people who come to their site, while forgetting a…

Feb 16·1 min read·58 words

Two small tips for Apple devs starting agentic coding

I've noticed increased chatter in my feed lately about Apple-centric developers experimenting with agentic coding, and I have two recommendations for those diving in. First, I strongly suggest trying…

Feb 15·1 min read·86 words

The Vision Pro turns 2

Did you know the Apple Vision Pro celebrated its second birthday a bit over a week ago? I didn’t. I’m sure there were a couple posts on some Apple news sites noting the occasion, but I wouldn’t exactl…

Feb 15·1 min read·96 words

I’m going to say something nice about a Musk product…

From the Southwest newsroom: Southwest Airlines Brings Starlink Ultra-Fast WiFi Onboard Southwest® plans to rapidly integrate Starlink into its fleet. The first Starlink-equipped aircraft enters serv…

Feb 15·1 min read·90 words

Nice things

I know it's not totally rational, but I sometimes like to get really nice random tools I use everyday. I've used shitty scissors my whole life, and I decided to get Craighill's Chroma Scissors, and my…

Feb 14·1 min read·91 words

Thank god we shot down that party balloon

Karoun Demirjian, Eric Schmitt, Kate Kelly, Hamed Aleaziz, and Luke Broadwater (phew!): Border Officials Are Said to Have Caused El Paso Closure by Firing Anti-Drone Laser Top administration official…

Feb 14·1 min read·85 words

ChapterPod 1.3 is out now

A new update to ChapterPod is out now, and it includes a couple of nice little features. The first is the ability to import your own subtitle files, if you've already generated them. If you didn't kn…

Feb 13·1 min read·95 words

Quick Subtitles 2.0 transcribes a one-hour podcast in 30 seconds on an iPhone. This is magic (and it's out now)

I'm thrilled to announce that Quick Subtitles 2.0 is now available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This update focuses on three key improvements, all of which make the app better than ever, and I believe t…

Feb 12·1 min read·101 words

I don't want to answer whether the President partied with young girls

Ted Lieu: Here's a video. Like former Prince Andrew, Donald Trump attended various parties with Jeffrey Epstein. I want to know: were there any underage girls at that party or at any party that Trump …

Feb 12·1 min read·97 words

The Future is an Empty Room

God damn, Jacob Geller is the best of us. He's an astounding essayist, and his work is consistently amazing.

Feb 12·1 min read·25 words

Better Siri is, yet again, a little farther off

Jay Peters: Apple keeps hitting bumps with its overhauled Siri Nearly a year ago, Apple delayed planned features for Siri that would let it understand your personal context and take action for you ba…

Feb 12·1 min read·94 words

Don't hold your breath for that 4 day work week

Aruna Ranganathan, Xingqi Maggie Ye: AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it. Two quick…

Feb 11·1 min read·94 words

Some are happier writing code by hand

Abhinav Omprakash: I Am Happier Writing Code by Hand Yes, coding is not software engineering, but for me, it is a fun and essential part of it. In order to be effective at software engineering, you m…

Feb 10·1 min read·98 words

Memorizing the dictionary doesn’t make you a great writer

Samantha Cole: Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds Chatbots may be able to pass medical exams, but that doesn’t mean they make good doctors, according to a new, large-scale study of how p…

Feb 10·1 min read·77 words

Just say it, you love when musicians get political

My dear conservative friends, I know you love to talk about how much you hate when musicians and celebrities get political, but we can be honest and agree that actually you freaking love it, right? H…

Feb 9·1 min read·98 words

Celebrating record revenue with layoffs

Maddie Agne: Bandai Namco Hits Record High Net Sales Revenue Bandai Namco has posted record high net sales for the first nine months of the 2026 financial year despite differences in home console tit…

Feb 9·1 min read·94 words

iPhones need MagSafe

Hartley Charlton: Gurman: iPhone 17e Launch 'Imminent' With Four New Features Gurman said that the new lost-cost ‌iPhone‌ will feature the A19 chip first introduced with the iPhone 17 last year. The …

Feb 8·1 min read·85 words

Dragon Quest and vibe coding (stick with me here)

I was listening to the latest episode of The Besties, and they said something about the auto-battle system in the new Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined game that really resonated with me. It is funny, as you…

Feb 7·1 min read·102 words

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show still slaps

I don't know if there's a Super Bowl halftime show I've rewatched more than this one. Obviously it helps that Kendrick has a great library to pull from, but I also really love the production value of …

Feb 7·1 min read·75 words

A year in the life of MKBHD

I think The Studio, the behind-the-scenes channel for MKBHD, is always fun, but this most recent video, a feature-length documentary following the team as they go through all of 2025, is astounding. A…

Feb 7·1 min read·47 words

Renewables continue to thrive

I was looking for one of my old posts about energy, and I stumbled across this one from 2020 where it was expected that all renewable energy sources combined out overtake coal for energy production in…

Feb 6·1 min read·94 words

AirDrop is coming to more Android phones in 2026

Adamya Sharma: Google just confirmed what Android fans have been praying to hear about AirDrop sharing Speaking during a press briefing I attended at Google’s Taipei office during a Pixel Labs tour, …

Feb 6·1 min read·89 words

Nvidia delayed gaming chips, may not deliver next gen ones until 2028

Stevie Bonifield: Nvidia’s RTX 50-series Super refresh is delayed, and the RTX 60-series might miss 2027 The Super refresh to Nvidia’s RTX 50-series GPUs was expected at CES 2026 in January, but it d…

Feb 5·1 min read·94 words

Begun, the tech pricing apocalypse, has

Edmond Tran: Steam Machine Pricing and Release Affected by Memory and Storage Price Hikes, Says Valve Valve has published a blog post providing updates on the lineup of Steam Hardware that it announc…

Feb 5·1 min read·93 words

Complexly becomes a nonprofit

James Pollard: Hank and John Green's studio becomes a nonprofit as they aim to make 'trustworthy content' online “Part of what Complexly’s trying to do is create good information on the internet,” Ha…

Feb 5·1 min read·81 words

Gemini is catching ChatGPT

Lauren Forristal: Google’s Gemini app has surpassed 750M monthly active users In comparison, Meta AI has reported nearly 500 million monthly users. However, while Gemini is gaining traction, it still…

Feb 5·1 min read·89 words

OpenAI swears their ads won't do what every single other ads platform has done

Richard Lawler & Hayden Field: Sam Altman responds to Anthropic’s ‘funny’ Super Bowl ads OpenAI says its ad test will only appear for logged-in users on free or ChatGPT Go accounts, while maintaining…

Feb 5·1 min read·99 words

Trump invited his friends over and you’ll never guess who happily showed up (with movie snacks, I can only assume)

McKinley Franklin: White House Holding VIP ‘Melania’ Screening Ahead of Doc Premiere With Mike Tyson, Tim Cook, Andy Jassy and More (Exclusive) Guests include director Brett Ratner; Queen Rania of Jo…

Jan 25·1 min read·102 words

Micro app #1: Yearly Run Tracker

This is the first in a series of posts about micro-apps I've built this year. I figured I'd start with this one, as it's the app that sparked the whole idea. It's called Yearly Run Tracker (a very cat…

Jan 11·1 min read·103 words