@craiggrannell@mastodon.social
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craiggrannell

@craiggrannell@mastodon.social

#Writer for hire. Mostly #tech, #Apple, #games, #retrogaming, design. Smashes out words for #Wired, #Stuff, TapSmart and others. Writes #DailyRetroGame here on Mastodon. He/him. GF/DF. Likes #Lego and Mini #Schnauzers. Email: hello at craiggrannell dot com // https://linktr.ee/craiggrannell

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craiggrannell, to random
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Well, that was weird. I pressed play on a track in Apple Music and it sat on if for a fraction of as second and then went on to the next… and the next… and the next. It did this about 20 times before I quit the app. Restarted and it’s all fine now. But yeesh at the Mac app.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Me: I’d like to share this ZIP archive.

iCloud Drive: yawn stretches Hi.

Me: I’d like to share a file.

iCloud Drive: Nice. Sounds like a great idea.

Me: So… can I?

iCloud Drive: Eventually, for sure. I’m carefully uploading it at 0.5MB per second. For some reason.

Me: But by bandwidth is fine, and—

iCloud Drive: Snrrzzzzzz

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@pete I pitty the foo’ who uses iCloud, etc?

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Editing a snippet on a very early portable computer – the SX-64. You might grumble about how much your laptop weighs. This thing made scales gasp with its 10.5kg (~23 pounds) heft.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

Early iPad Pro Geekbench results (if true) make it out to be basically double the performance of my M1 Mac mini. Double the single core score, double the multicore score, and double the graphics score 👀 It's only been three years!

CPU: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/6013825

GPU: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/compute/2154401

📈

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith Yes, but Apple Silicon has failed to evolve. Someone on YouTube said so! Etc.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

I was trying to research a fairly obscure thing earlier. I found an article, clearly written by AI. And then a few more articles, which were like AI remixes of the first one. All of them were word soup semi-gibberish. All had bylines but either weren’t real people or weren’t people who cared.

A terrifying glimpse of the future.

craiggrannell, (edited ) to random
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No-mow May not the world’s biggest success so far. But nice to see a few of these doddering about.

craiggrannell, to random
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Judging by the ongoing nightmares the iDOS and MAME4iOS devs are currently having with App Store review, it’s a small miracle any emulators made it on to the App Store at all.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Interesting to see how furiously angry people are with the new Apple iPad Pro ad. So many have responded to it as an ad that’s destroying creativity and replacing it with digital. My take is that it’s about how Apple has crammed possibilities into an ‘impossibly thin’ device. But the execution of said ad leaves a lot to be desired.

Here’s hoping Ken Segall has something to say about it. (And I’m sure he must. Whether he’ll share it, mind.)

davemark, to apple
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

Look how amazingly skinny the new iPad Pro is.

Of all the pics I've seen, IMO this one does the best job at conveying that skinniness.

Makes me want one, just for the skinny.

https://twitter.com/greengart/status/1787855238772220150

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@davemark not keen on the big metal pole sticking out the back though. Seems like that could be awkward when you put the thing in a bag.

craiggrannell, to iPad
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Surprise midweek column! Good riddance to the Home button – now Apple’s tablet finally fulfils its original vision • https://www.stuff.tv/features/good-riddance-to-the-ipad-home-button-now-apples-tablet-finally-fulfils-its-original-vision/

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@imalcolm It’ll be interesting to see where the mini goes. The Air didn’t get ProMotion, but the mini kind of needs it to remove the wobble effect. Whether it gets it though…

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@jasonmcfadden I liked the mini a lot when I had one here. Surprisingly versatile and capable. Although I’m sadly now ‘eyes failing’* years old and so am not sure something with smaller text will be the way forward for me!

  • In the sense reading glasses are on the horizon.
craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Meanwhile: Buy a new keyboard when you buy a new iPad Pro.

Leaving out stickers won’t save the world. Although it will increase profits per unit by a penny or two. And it all adds up.

From: @9to5Mac
https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/112403141929437816

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Bleh. I had this “ads on pause” thing (as a joke, mind) in my recent Netflix piece and followed it with “pauses ads when you’re blinking, or goes full retro by removing on-demand entirely”. So at least we know what’s coming next, I suppose.

https://www.stuff.tv/features/sorry-netflix-i-dont-want-your-with-adverts-plan-heres-why/

From: @arstechnica
https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/112402288254696368

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@PictoPirate @arstechnica One the UX gets bad enough, a certain segment of the audience is lost, for sure. But the numbers suggest quite a few people… don’t care.

I think the problem is that streaming is unsuitable in terms of pricing for the streamers but also for the audiences. It’s one thing to have a fiver a month for a couple of services. But now double that or more for a whole bunch of them, something has to give.

(Here, we’re moving to cancel/rotate.)

lapcatsoftware, to random
@lapcatsoftware@mastodon.social avatar

Have you ever seen someone link to a Bluesky post?

Bluesky may have more users than Mastodon, but it seems a lot less relevant. I’ve personally found nothing interesting on there.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@lapcatsoftware I’m on there primarily because it’s where a chunk of comics Twitter went, along with a few other folks I enjoyed conversing with. It has very little wide cultural impact so far though. Mind you, it’s hard to argue any other network does. News outlets are still wedded to X. (Tech publications sometimes link here, but only because so many geeks moved in.)

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@pasquires @lapcatsoftware Same. Lots of friends and interesting folks remain on X and look unlikely to leave. But I can’t stomach that place.

FWIW, I do have one person from Bluesky whose posts ended up in my feed, and so I must have found/used a bridge at some point. Not ideal, but possibly worth investigating if it’s just one or two people you follow.

It’s imperfect, but good enough. Also, Mastodon and Bluesky both support RSS, so that might be another option for you.

viticci, to random
@viticci@macstories.net avatar

A lot of thoughts, questions, and first impressions on the new iPad Pros and today's Apple event at Battersea in London.

Enjoy: https://www.macstories.net/stories/thoughts-and-first-impressions-on-the-new-ipad-pros-from-apples-event-in-london/

image/jpeg

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@viticci The function key row on the 11in will be particularly interesting. I already banged my fingers on the bottom edge of the iPad on the old keyboard. But now there’s another row to deal with. (This might be countered by the new keyboard seemingly sitting differently – the first part of the mechanism appears vertical rather than angled. I don’t know if this impacts on stability though.)

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Looks like the UK weather has finally found the heating dial.

(For US folks, the high range here is approx 68–79 Farbalinoos.)

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@scottjenson I mean, the literal temperatures are the same. But various factors impact on people’s abilities to function, including acclimatisation, humidity, the nature of buildings, and so on. Hence why freezing in the UK (damp) tends to feel colder than in Iceland (dry cold) and relatively mild heat in London (humidity; little residential A/C; buildings created to retain heat) causes more issues than it would in eg Sydney.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@scottjenson I’m pretty happy with temps in the low 20s. The issue in the UK is when we have extended periods in the mid 20s or higher, houses just get warmer and warmer. We’ve ended up with bedrooms around 30 on many occasions and that’s not much fun. (Opening windows doesn’t always help. Some locals are keen on bonfires. Or there’s no wind. Or the lows are too high to bring the temp down.)

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@BenCotterill @ianRobinson World Service getting hacked to bits as well. Really daft. A major hit to the UK’s soft power. But then the Tories don’t understand soft power at all.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl @scottjenson I have a friend from South Africa and they sometimes have the opposite problem. Because houses are build to stay cool and heating is often omitted, a relatively cold snap that would make Northern Europeans blinks makes for very uncomfortable times. But again that’s nothing to do with units – it’s just down to circumstances and acclimatisation.

darylbaxter, to apple
@darylbaxter@mastodon.social avatar

I feel like today's event, and the one in October, have been more led by marketing than any other.

It all feels less human and relatable these days, and more about laying down the keywords of the present moment.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@darylbaxter It all feels like everyone has been to Steve Jobs Presentation School. Where’s the individuality? The character? The sense of mischievousness and fun?

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