Archive

Apr 2022

• Alexa can fart (and may be experiencing severe gastric distress).
  Who needs a dog when you have an Echo?

Nov 2021

• Siri doesn’t know what time it is in Palestine (but it’s fine with Israel).
  The way our sources of info talk about things matter, especially when they don't share their sources.
• Cryptocurrency is now forbidden under Islamic law in Indonesia (and some fair points were made).
  Cryptobros all over were heard crying fatwah-wah-wah.
• Another small reason to dislike Mark Zuckerberg.
  Just in case all the privacy issues and the genocide aren't enough.

Oct 2021

• Wikipedia is as contentious as you’d expect when it comes to China.
  China v Democracy, round 638
• Roblox went down, parents freaked out.
  Society crumbled.

Aug 2021

• OnlyFans drops sexually explicit content after censoring from MasterCard, VISA, and banks.
  OnlyFans creators stripped (of their ability to earn money).
• How the media covers Afghanistan matters (and it’s not great).
  What? The media is focusing on US apologists? No way.
• Does Uber charge you more if your phone battery is low?.
  
• The Taliban has seized US biometric and face recognition tech.
  Does it recognise shocked faces?

Jun 2021

• Apple’s developer relations woes.
  Things aren't looking good for app developers.

May 2021

• “Music Is About to Change Forever”.
  Spoiler – it didn't.

Apr 2021

• Google could do more to prevent men killing women.
  
• No, Bitcoin doesn’t incentivise renewable energy.
  
• Misinformation and the missing piece.
  
• Missing blogs is missing people in the machine.
  
• Languishing in the feed.
  
• What kind of world is Amazon selling?.
  
• Zhush up your computing life with Hannah Montana Linux.
  
• For whom the Mac bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
  
• WWDC ‘21 Wishlist.
  

Mar 2021

• Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, valued at $2.6 billion (or half the New York Knicks).
  
• The “Amazon of South Korea” is worth billions, facing accusations of employees being worked to death.
  

Feb 2021

• Why does the Apple TV still exist?.
  
• Human society is just collateral damage in climate change.
  
• App Store scams and Apple’s priorities.
  
• The changing face of uwu.
  
• The oldest image on the internet (with a link that still works).
  
• I’m Being Censored, and You Can Read, Hear, and See Me Talk About It in the News, on the Radio, and on TV.
  

Jan 2021

• Will people still pay for news without President Trump?.
  
• Neo-Nazis recruiting people to Telegram after Parler shuts down.
  
• Love the world anyway.
  
• You don’t get to be anti-murder but pro-stabbing .
  
• Trump’s “political genius”.
  
• The two Americas.
  

Dec 2020

• A long list of short thoughts about movies I've seen this year (2020).
  

Oct 2020

• The iOS Photos widget makes your home screen feel like home.
  
• Austin Mann’s stunning iPhone 12 Pro review.
  
• The paradox of social violence.
  
• Things that have set off Siri (Part 2).
  
• Ad tech, content, and the next internet bubble.
  
• NYT: The Tangled Web We Weave review.
  
• “You big ugly. You too empty.”.
  
• r/IdiotsFightingThings is proof we’re failing young men.
  
• 1 + 2 = wisdom: Life lessons learned while playing Threes.
  
• The conspiracy theory classification model.
  
• Home.
  
• Coinbase is off base: the joys of politics at work.
  
• Twitter’s telling you who matters.
  
• Surprise: it’s worth taking a break from social media.
  

Sep 2020

• It’s okay to punch Nazis.
  
• “There’s no launch party for decay.”.
  
• Journalism is a team sport.
  
• “Doomer trad wife” and reactionary culture.
  
• The only good answer is “Yes”.
  
• Political leaders are sabotaging renewable energy.
  
• Windows 10 ignores your default browser to launch Edge.
  
• Microsoft’s console names make yet another good feature confusing .
  
• The world could use a little bit of tact right now.
  
• We don’t want everyone to understand us all the time.
  
• “There’s nothing novel about Netflix’s competitive culture of fear”.
  

Aug 2020

• kites can’t jive (August 2020).
  
• Sleep tracking in watchOS 7: simple but thoughtful.
  
• Can Uber delete itself?.
  

Jul 2020

• kites can’t jive (July 2020).
  
• The public helped fund great tech – what should they get in return?.
  
• Why time is weird in lockdown.
  
• China has been playing the long game. The US, not so much.
  
• TikTok, Douyin, and the “dystopian censorship machine”.
  
• Facebook’s civil rights failure.
  
• Tech exec wants to recreate the creepy surveillance tech from The Dark Knight (which was explicitly a bad idea).
  
• Memeing law into existence: San Fran introduces the CAREN Act.
  
• What would it mean if Facebook and Google left Hong Kong?.
  
• Concern over TikTok is “international politics thinly veiled as a data ethics issue”.
  
• “Scream inside your heart”: advice for rollercoasters (and everyday life).
  
• Hong Kong is the next battleground in the tech Cold War between China and the US.
  
• Apple never really gave Apple Arcade a chance (and that’s why it needs to change).
  
• kites can't jive (June 2020).
  

Jun 2020

• Everyone’s joining the ban train.
  
• iOS 14's widgets bring the Windows Phone dream back to life.
  
• Platforms like Mixer, Twitch, and YouTube don’t care about you.
  
• Spaniards can't stop ruining important artworks.
  
• Women share stories of sexual assault in the world of video game streaming.
  
• A long list of short thoughts about things announced at WWDC (2020).
  
• The picture 12 billion years in the making.
  
• Apple's Windows Problem.
  
• The WNBA is back.
  
• Minneapolis lawmakers: ‘Our commitment is to end policing as we know it’.
  
• Mates don’t let mates kill people.
  
• Australia’s relationship with the US started with deception.
  
• Amy McQuire: ‘There cannot be 432 victims and no perpetrators’.
  
• The mine that ate up a town.
  
• Pakistan is managing COVID-19 with mass surveillance .
  
• Cities aren’t ‘facing protests’ – they’re taking part in them.
  
• An actual politician: ‘brumby lives matter’.
  
• ‘They’re not moving. They’re not moving. Oh they got shot.’.
  
• Police Commissioner: the officer who threw a kid to the ground had a bad day.
  
• The man teaching cops to kill.
  
• Lao lao, Laos's very own moonshine.
  
• Gregg Popovich: ‘The System Has to Change’.
  
• kites can't jive (May 2020).
  

May 2020

• “The guy is drunk! But there he goes!”.
  
• LeBron James had no regard for human life twelve years ago.
  
• Only monsters reply all.
  
• Bookwork Adventures is gone and there no words.
  
• Improv comedians are suffering because of COVID-19.
  
• John Gruber on the state of iPhone and Android CPU Performance.
  
• A guy tried to buy nudes with Animal Crossing money (in a Facebook group his fiancé was also in).
  
• Mastering tech as an expression of power.
  

Apr 2020

• 5 nit-picky changes I want to see in iOS 14.
  
• My essential self-isolation apps.
  

Mar 2020

• "Digital Air Jordans" and the future of collectibles.
  
• What will survive when the millennial aesthetic dies?.
  
• Facebook has chosen growth over safety too many times.
  
• "No Solutions: A Personal Examination Of Online Anger".
  

Feb 2020

• Sending confetti is the superior way to text.
  
• The power China has over companies and countries (and how that shapes the world).
  
• Apple News provides a mediocre reading experience.
  

Jan 2020

• Netflix softens their viewership metrics, which doesn't seem insecure at all.
  
• Police are using an invasive tool they don't understand.
  
• Why lie to journalists when you can lie to the people directly?.
  
• Things that have invoked Siri since updating to iOS 13 and watchOS 6.
  
• Nepal introduces jail terms for "offensive" social posts.
  
• Amazon is donating money to victims of the Australian bushfires (while raking in money from oil companies).
  
• The lives lost due to Kashmir's internet blackout.
  
• The environmental destruction of the Australian bushfires.
  
• The Apple Watch is a sassy bitch.
  
• Picking apart Rupert Murdoch's influence on the Australian bushfire debate.
  
• Twitter's changes to replies are a decade too late (and barely address the problem).
  
• Unloveable Apple, endless growth, and the ad hellscape.
  
• The governments turning off the internet.
  
• Let kids vote to save Australia (and the world).
  
• Bird mimics fire engine sirens as Australia burns.
  
• 8tracks shuts down and another music service fades out.
  
• Machine learning and the art of under-paying people to fix your problems.
  

Dec 2019

• 5 great Christmas albums on Apple Music.
  
• The art of dying.
  
• Who goes Nazi?.
  
• A long list of short thoughts about movies I saw this year (2019).
  

Nov 2019

• No-one cares about the cool bands you like.
  
• Muzak for tech bros.
  
• The death of local media and close-to-home accountability.
  
• Kindle hackers and resistance via submission.
  

Aug 2019

• Stratechery on privacy fundamentalism.
  
• The Cook Doctrine comes for your iPhone battery.
  
• Your wearable might be prejudiced.
  

Jul 2019

• Craigslists' founder is committed to helping the newspaper industry.
  
• How a trade dispute in Asia could affect Apple.
  
• Jeremy Renner has an official app (and a song).
  
• The problems facing tech journalism.
  
• Everyone owns your face.
  
• Flight Control was one of the reasons I got an iPhone.
  
• How to regulate the internet.
  
• Microsoft champions progressive values while donating to Republicans.
  
• The App Store's search is a disappointment.
  
• Netflix isn't a storytelling company.
  
• Jony Ive and the Apple Watch compromise.
  

Jun 2019

• 9 million people play Candy Crush for 3+ hours a day, but there are no but there's no 'addiction problem'.
  
• When complaints about censorship are about protecting the status quo.
  
• Media organisations liable for Facebook comments.
  
• The internet's right to partiality.