Notable

Matter sounds great but my biggest wish for any smart home platform is for backwards compatibility. Having my Nest thermostat and Google Home Mini available in the Home app would be great. I've got the Nest into the Home app via Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi before but requiring a bridge for any accessory means there's just another point of failure.

Posted 13th Sep 2021 @ 15:08

the iPhone naming scheme is something I've written about before and reading through John Gruber's arguments in this article I'd concede that I was wrong... I'd prefer a better naming scheme but Gruber is right, chances are that you'd be put off by the '2018 iPhone' if you were buying one today in 2021.

I had to count them in my head to check if this was correct, which of course it was:

If Apple had stuck to a numbering scheme as simple as Apple Watch's, next week's new iPhones would be the iPhones 15

That's 15 generations of iPhone (not including SE & C models). By my count, there have been 32 versions of the iPhone overall and we're going to see versions 33-36 debut next week.

Posted 13th Sep 2021 @ 12:10

Posted 13th Sep 2021 @ 09:33

Nick Heer:Notopoulos reports that Facebook added the LED That Must Not Be Covered on the advice of privacy advocates. Apparently, this was not a thought that had independently occurred to those developing the product. Facebook is not a company that values privacy, and its internal culture reflects that.

Have to say it's disappointing to see a brand like Ray-Ban collaborating on a product like this. The LED is not big enough to be useful. There's a video on the Facebook product page and they show a ridiculous conversation between a woman wearing the glasses and a passer by.

There are lots of references to 'privacy' but it's not clear to me what this means actually means in the world of Facebook. It's the privacy of the people you're capturing in a photo or video that probably matters most with a product like this but the video and documentation gives me the impression that it's your own privacy they're protecting. Whatever that means.

Posted 11th Sep 2021 @ 13:30

Great video from the MKBHD team that pits 2 pure electric cars against the combustion engine. I wouldn't call it a scientific test, but it's interesting to see the results of a gas powered SUV pitted against an electric SUV and an electric saloon/sedan.

The outcome is predictable, even if the electric cars could match (or exceed) the range of a traditional car they still take far longer to charge which feels like a hurdle too far for EVs to overcome any time soon. It's also pretty clear that Tesla's infrastructure is superior in it's integration and availability.

I do think they missed a trick here and should have included the fourth option of a PHEV and/or a mild hybrid.

I'm in the market for a car and as appealing as pure electric is, the cost is prohibitive and even I (a fan of EVs) suffer from range anxiety. I drive a hybrid car at the moment and enjoy the benefits of range and economy (and power). I expect my next car to be a plug-in hybrid; it would give me the option of pure-electric for short journeys, great economy (manufacturers claim 100+ mpg) and of course I would enjoy a performance boost when combining the two.

German manufacturers seemed to have got the PHEV model just right, enough range for most journeys, plenty of power, ~6 hour to charge and combining the two power trains work together effectively and efficiently.

When it comes to pure electric however, the BMW's i4 is the first car to look... normal? Mercedes have gone the other way with their EQ range that isn't as good looking as their gas and hybrid-powered counterparts. In comparison, I really like the look of the PHEV C-Class, E-Class, 3 Series and 5 Series cars.

Posted 10th Sep 2021 @ 09:03

Nailed every single point with Netflix (and streaming services in general) in this sketch.

Posted 10th Sep 2021 @ 07:41

Posted 9th Sep 2021 @ 17:48

I couldn't put my feelings about being vaccinated any better than Wendy has here.

Hi, if you are reading this essay then congratulations, you are still alive. And if you are alive, then you have either gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, or you still have the opportunity to get the vaccine against COVID-19. And holy fuck, if you aren't fucking vaccinated against COVID-19, then you need to get fucking vaccinated right now. I mean, what the fuck? Fuck you. Get vaccinated. Fuck.

Posted 7th Sep 2021 @ 12:49

Posted 24th Aug 2021 @ 08:53

Fully agree with this title. The SaaS model works perfectly for the world of business where your subscription keeps you at the forefront of what the service offers.

As a consumer though, per major version feels.. fairer?

I don't know how else to describe it really, but it doesn't feel fair to subscribe to a tool.

Take Sketch's subscription model, it's a hybrid of the two approaches and works fantastically well. You pay the version that's available today and it's yours forever. If you want the cloud features, then you pay your monthly 'subscription'.

Posted 18th Aug 2021 @ 12:11