Notable

I was working on a photography app where it would help you pick the right settings to get the right exposure for your lighting conditions. I ended up with an intuitive app but getting results that made sense for the current conditions was much harder than I anticipated.

This video highlights how much variance there is when playing with exposure, aperture and shutter speeds. It's given me lots of information to think about and I'll be revisiting the app to see if it's worth pursuing or not. Even if it's not, I've taken a lot away already for when I'm next using my DSLR.

Posted 22nd Oct 2025 @ 11:42

Posted 21st Oct 2025 @ 09:00

John Gruber:

They just think they need a “pro” laptop, and underestimate just how incredibly capable MacBook Airs are.

Totally agree with this. In the Apple Silicon era, the MacBook Air's have never been more capable. For my work laptop, I now use a M4 MacBook Air with 24GB of RAM. It surpasses my previous 13" Intel MacBook Pro in every way and even my old personal 15" MacBook Pro was never this capable. I went for the M4 Pro MacBook Pro as my personal laptop because I know I'll be pushing it for development but for the majority of buyers, the MacBook Air is the device they should be considering.

Posted 20th Oct 2025 @ 09:53

This is probably the most sensible take on the current discourse around Apple's decision to take chargers out of the box in the EU (and the UK).

Sounds like the EU's mandate is for customers to be able to opt out of including a charger, but Apple have taken a consistent stance with their products where you have to opt in.

I still have MagSafe 1 and MagSafe 2 chargers at home so when I upgraded to the M4 Pro MacBook Pro I don't know if I'd have stumped up for their power brick. I ended up with a 200W UGREEN hub which powers more than just my MacBook Pro. Apple's 96W and 140W chargers only provide one USB C port anyway.

Posted 17th Oct 2025 @ 13:21

Posted 13th Oct 2025 @ 11:09

Posted 30th Sep 2025 @ 20:00

The CSS grid generator I didn't know I needed. Andy Clarke has written some great articles on compound grids which I've really enjoyed reading but having seen this generator I am more interested in actually implementing them now.

Posted 29th Sep 2025 @ 11:05

Interesting post over on MacRumors. A gated feature, limited to newer phones, I have wondered why features like this don't just trickle down to older devices.

As it turns out, perhaps it's not actually that useful. As I alluded to in this weeks post, the battery in my iPhone 14 Pro is not in a great place, currently showing as 77% max capacity. That's after 3 years. Despite loving the always-on display, I effectively turned the feature off a year ago to only show the date and time. In the past 6 months I actually turned it off completely to help the battery out.

The thermal architecture of the new Pro phones may help with heat issues but I'm of the opinion that MagSafe is not worth it from a thermal point of view. With a case in the way, it's probably worse and also if using a non-MagSafe Qi charger where the camera bump/plateau can cause gaps between the two bits of hardware that make wireless charging work.

Strangely, 3 years of the iPhone 14 Pro has gotten me to roughly the same battery level as 5 years with my iPhone 8 Plus.

Posted 25th Sep 2025 @ 15:26

We're in the cusp of having to deal with smart phones for children in our household. The longer we can hold out, the better. This solution is not only genius but the norm less than a generation ago.

via Kottke

Posted 18th Sep 2025 @ 12:51

I don't know I remember, but when driving on rainy days I always think back to an invention I saw on TV. It was paint applied to the road for road markings but filled with some sort of plastic that meant it was slightly raised and textured. Almost like corrugated card. It made it easier to see on rainy days as it could poke through a thin sheet of water.

This isn't the same, or even the goal of the product, but made me thing it might be an unintended benefits because of the way it's applied.

I wonder what it feels like to drive across?

Update

Not the video I was thinking of, but something similar:

Posted 9th Sep 2025 @ 14:41