It's rare that I will binge an entire podcast series, but I couldn't stop listening to ODB: a Son Unique. The podcast covers the career of Ol Dirty Bastard of the Wu Tang Clan.
one of the most colourful characters in the history of Hip Hop. He captivated fans with his unique style, his chaotic persona and unforgettably wild antics... But now, nearly two decades since ODB’s passing, filmmaker and photographer Khalik Allah is on a mission to find the real ODB.
I was vaguely aware of the Wu Tang Clan in the late '90s but I there was no way to avoid ODB after his collaboration with Mariah Carey on the Fantasy remix in the mid-90s. It was a few years later when the band became a little more prominent here in the UK after they performed with Texas at the 1998 Brit Awards. Even that was a year or two before I really discovered hip-hop.
If you are a hip-hop fan, this podcast is worth a listen to hear about the rise and fall of such an interesting artist, the world around him and the legacy he's left.
I know have a playlist full of music videos to go watch and to catch up on.
Read the post from week 362
Double Tap is one of those killer features of the Apple Watch now. One handed operation for getting through notifications as they come in or bringing up just-in-time information via the smart stack. In some apps it provides access to key functions too.
With watchOS 11 though, Apple have prioritised actioning notifications instead of dismissing them. For example, if you get a calendar notification with a location attached, the primary action is to open directions which is rarely what I would want to day-to-day. Not for meetings, maybe on holiday that would be useful, but I haven't found a way to revert back to making the dismiss option the one that is prioritised.
This is true for message notifications too, although maybe replying was always the prominent action, but apart from the first year after getting me Series 2, I very rarely interact with message notifications and defer to my phone for that. My use of WhatsApp has clearly changed a lot in the intervening 10 years as messages were usually 1-2-1 with people and rarely were there multiple texts coming in in quick succession.
I'll give it a chance as it is, but I do feel there should be a choice for how these notifications work. Even if it was configured per app.
Read the post from week 361
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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.
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I had come across Andy Clarke's posts on layouts some time ago and they are a great read for non-designers looking to figure out the basics or just as inspiration. It was a post over on Smashing Magazine titled Inspired Design Decisions: Pressing Matters that really opened my eyes on how to push things a little more.
I had missed it, but recently Andy has started posting on YouTube and his video about Willy Fleckhaus is a fantastic watch.
Web development is where my career took me, but I could have quite easily fallen on the other side and become a web designer instead and it's posts and videos like these from Andy that inspire me to keep dabbling in the more visually creative side of the web.
Read the post from week 360
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While I planned to watch as always, I wasn't expecting much at all across the iPhone and Apple Watch line ups. The Apple Watch Ultra already introduced a new form factor two years ago so it felt unlikely we would see the regular Apple Watches overhauled.
AirPods
Starting with the least interesting, but decent enough update, The 4th generation AirPods now have the option of Active Noise Cancellation and come in a smaller case that boasts better battery life.
The AirPods Max gets USB-C charging (finally) and the AirPods Pro can test your hearing.
Apple Watch Series 10
Nice update that somehow sees the regular Apple Watches get a bigger screen and faster charging than the Apple Watch Ultra 2. I never felt my Series 2 was too thick and my Apple Watch Ultra never looks or feels bulky so not sure how necessary shaving a millimetre off is, that could have been used to meaningfully increase the battery life.
The screen also boasts a wider aperture for each pixel meaning it's easier to see at more angles. The Apple Watch Ultra's flat face already made that pretty easy so for the model's further down the line up, it's a welcome addition. The Series 10 also gets screen updates every second, rather than every minute, but if that's at the expense of a bit of battery life, I'm not interested.
iPhone 16
The iPhone 16 gets a more sensible camera arrangement on the back, and improved sensors too. There are now 3 lens options in the camera app (plus macro options) which make it a pretty complete camera. Apple Inelligence is here, but already announced at WWDC '24.
Overall, a solid update but I'll save thoughts on my favourite feature once we're passed the iPhone 16 Pro...
iPhone 16 Pro
The 5x zoom comes to both Pro models this year and there are a whole load of updates to the Camera app for grading and Photographic Styles, which is a feature I've never used...
While the iPhone 16 jumps two generations to the A18 chip, the Pro models get an A18 Pro. There's better battery life and improved MagSafe too across all iPhone models.
Camera Control
This is not just a button for focusing, which is what the rumours were pointing at, but a multi-function button for really push the Camera app to the max.
The Camera Control 'button' does bring a two-stage shutter to the iPhone but it's more than that. Press, click or swipe through various options and functions. Change the aperture, choose different controls or double click for more settings.
Truly a killer feature for all phone models that has me craving an earlier than normal upgrade.
Read the post from week 359
When Warrior took over as the kit manufacturer for Liverpool, they reintroduced the liver bird and L.F.C. to shirts rather than using the more formal club crest. A move I was fully behind, but outside of kits and training wear, the crest continued across print and digital media, and everywhere else.
This season, Liverpool have changed their approach to how the brand themselves and even the official website now has the liver bird in the header rather than the crest. It's far simpler and more fitting as a symbol of the club that is named after the city.
But I have some thoughts on the execution, which I think hasn't been great in all use cases. It feels like there should have been some variations that could be used for specific use cases.
Liver bird variations
On shirts, the liver bird and L.F.C. wordmark combination makes total sense. The liver bird alone would actually be fine but I can accept it sitting above the initials of the club. For comparison, Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club (THFC) do not include the name or initials on their kits or across any of their digital properties. Liverpool have kept the initials everywhere and that's where I think the variations are needed.
The liver bird is iconic enough to be the main part of the club's identity. These are the variations I would have made available:
- liver bird + L.F.C.:
- Football shirts
- Training wear
- Official printed products (eg: match day programmes)
- Digital content (eg: tickets)
- Official website header
- liver bird only:
- Social media profiles
- On screen graphics (live games and highlights)
In a wider context, sometimes the liver bird doesn't fit quite right. UEFA's Champions League graphic has the new logo and the crest would be more in keeping with the rest of the badges here, but I think it's more that the initials throw it off because it minimises the iconic liver bird.
Here I've swapped it out for just the liver bird and it fits so much better.
Potential wider use
Anfield has grown in size massively since my first visit in 2008. It feels at least twice as high as it did back then and continues to have the club crest on the side. In 2008, the Kop had the full colour crest whereas now the stadium is adorned with silver crests which I think look better and more fitting with a club with such a rich history and so much success to celebrate. But what if it was just the liver bird?
LFC's Liver bird in the wild
You can see above, against Brentford, that a white outline was applied but that seems to have been removed since. It looks far better without at least and at this scale, the initials work.
Above shows the actual Fotmob widget for iOS with the next fixture but the red badge on a red background looks silly. The initials look fine, but a larger liver bird would be better which I mocked up in white on the right.
Again I've mocked up at the bottom what the logo could look like if the initials were removed for Live Activities.
Final thoughts
I like it, but its use is complicated. There are so many sizes and use cases in the modern world to worry about. Ultimately I feel like the initials are overkill but understand why they're there.
Read the post from week 358
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.
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Many times I have thought about sharing my love of playing Pokémon Go but never quite got around to it. I've managed to find and catch 833 of the pocket monsters on offer and while I still have a way to go to level 50, I think I'm doing pretty well all these years later.
I began playing the day it was available, the game was a spin-off of a Google April Fool's joke and it's been a great push to get out, to explore and to walk even more than I was walking before.
The video above shows how dedicated, organised and lucky you need to be to catch 'em all.
I still have a way to go, but overall I would say I've caught all I can. Even at 833, the true count of variants, shinys, genders and event based Pokémon is far higher. There are 50 or so event Pikachu's wearing costumes and hats but I've caught 180 event Pokémon easily taking the count to over 1,000.
If you play, let me know via your preferred social media site.
Read the post from week 357
Over the past few months, there's been a small group of videos covering restomods, where cars are not only restored but brought straight into the 21st century.
Just recently, Top Gear's YouTube channel covered the £1.3m Lamborghini Diablo Restomod, not a Porsche 911 but a Porsche 928 restomod, highlighted Singer's 911 Turbo that brings back and improves the whale tail and best of all (to me), the HWA EVO's Mercedes-Benz 190E that I had featured on Good Gear Club earlier in the year.
I'm all for bringing these cars up to date, it remains a dream of mine to not only restore a Mercedes-Benz SEC, but to electrify it too.
Read the post from week 356
For a long time, past the point where I could use Aperture and when I ultimately used my iPhone more for photography more than my DSLR, I found that the 'brilliance' option in the Photos apps was great at bringing photos to life. It seemed to bring some vibrancy and clarity to photos and made it a great starting point to then go on and make more changes.
This continued until I began using Photomator for editing RAW photos in my iPad. I had edited been editing RAW photos in the Photos app and did rely on the 'brilliance' filter. When I moved to Photomator for RAW photos from my DSLR, I found I actually got more control over the style of a photo without that option and it opened me up a little more creatively.
And now I haven’t touched the brilliance option in a long while. Even non-RAW iPhone photos can be made to be vibrant (if they’re not already) but adjusting a bunch a of settings. So now I use the Photos app for regular photos and Photomator for RAW photos. For the latter that means no 'brilliance' option at all which I think is fine and for the former that means I can use it if I want to.
Do you edit photos before sharing them? Do you use the brilliance option?
Read the post from week 355
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!
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Last week I came up with a concept for a CSS conditional layout in my head, slept on it for a couple of days and then went and implemented it within 10 minutes. It was a recipe that would have previously been calculated either server-side as part of building the page structure or by running client-side JavaScript. CSS is really coming into it's own now and can handle some logical problems pretty well if you combine a few concepts and functions.
Which got me thinking about something to work on in the future; a CSS recipes site.
css.recipes is taken ($5,000 asking price!) so I'm thinking of a name for it but may just put it on a subdomain for now. I think it would be useful to provide solutions for some common layout problems that you can lift into your own code. I could build dynamic examples and would look to approach it with the minimum amount of HTML and CSS as possible. No JavaScript or pre-rendering neccassary.
Ok, I've talked myself into making this happen! Watch this space!
Read the post from week 354
This past month I started to try getting up to date with my podcast subscriptions. The one I had neglected most was CSS Podcast by Adam Argyle and Una Kravetz.
I found it a great listen during lockdown but longer podcasts quickly took its place and I ended up having a backlog the spanned all the way back to 2020. I’m no into the 2021 episodes and not only am I understanding aspects of CSS in new ways, I’m learning about so many things about how CSS has evolved and the original intentions behind certain properties and values.
If you’re interested in CSS then I’d highly recommend it.
Read the post from week 353
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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