@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

mcelhearn

@mcelhearn@journa.host

Writer, podcaster, photographer, lazy zennist, cat whisperer.

Ex-New Yorker in Shakespeare's home town.

Chop wood, carry water.

http://mcelhearn.me/

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craiggrannell, (edited ) to Netflix
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

I mean, if ever I needed more persuading that my sub can go away, this is it. (We still have two pre-4K Apple TVs. One is used on my tiny office TV. It works perfectly well with every other service, and so Netflix can go do one.)

Edit: to clarify, HD onwards will work with Netflix. Pre-HD (and pre-tvOS) will not. It’ll be interesting to see how rapidly everyone else does the same. (IIRC, Prime still worked on those old boxes.)

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@DJDarren @craiggrannell Why would you need to jailbreak them? Just install the Plex app on them.

glennf, to random
@glennf@twit.social avatar

I do, however, light bushels of $1 bills aflame every night.
https://mastodon.africa/@GrahamDowns/112513088671994941

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@glennf It would be hard to explain how premium bonds work in the UK, but it is essentially a savings account where each pound is a lottery ticket, each month. So no money burned.

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@glennf It’s currently 4.4%, which is better than regular savings accounts here. And it’s tax-free.

https://www.nsandi.com/products/premium-bonds

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@JonnyT @glennf If you only have a few hundred pounds, you’re very likely to not get anything. The more you put in it, the more likely you are to get around that percentage. A financial advisor I know said that it is a great way to put easily accessible money aside if you have more than £10,000 or so.

mcelhearn, to random
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

iPad Pro M4 Review: Fast Processor, Great Display

The new iPad Pro has Apple's fastest processor and best display; but is it worth the money?

https://kirkville.com/ipad-pro-m4-review-fast-processor-great-display/

craiggrannell, to retrogaming
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Wondering how big a Game Boy can get before things start getting a wee bit silly. #retrogaming

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@craiggrannell @flargh Getting glasses for computer work - ie, in between my reading and distance glasses - is one of the best things I ever did, and helped keep my eyes more stable, because less strain.

davemark, to microsoft
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

"New Windows AI feature records everything you’ve done on your PC"

This is a new AI-powered feature called "Recall", lets you search and retrieve your past activities.

This a huge win? A privacy nightmare?

Once your on screen data gets swallowed by the AI, will there be any way to pry it back out?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/microsofts-new-recall-feature-will-record-everything-you-do-on-your-pc/

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@flargh @davemark I immediately thought of that. Apple needs to roll something like this into Spotlight.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Good review, but: “I don’t think anyone was asking for a lighter iPad Pro”

Really? As a 12.9in iPad Pro user, the one thing I’ve always hoped for was that the tablet could one day be lighter, without any major compromise.

From: @arstechnica
https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/112435818059703356

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@craiggrannell @arstechnica Even as a user of an 11 inch iPad Pro, I wish it could be lighter. I have ordered a new one, and I’ll find out tomorrow. I don’t think the 11 inch is any lighter though.

mergesort, to random
@mergesort@macaw.social avatar

1/5 For the last two years I’ve been working on Plinky, sharing my work publicly while the app has been in beta.

Today it’s finally ready to go live in the App Store, and I’d like to not only share the app with you but share more about why I built it.

https://plinky.app/download

What is Plinky?

image/png
image/png
image/png

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@mergesort @flargh Nice idea. Not worth $40 a year.

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@mergesort @flargh Honestly, I’m not interested in subscription apps. I have to pay so much for apps I need for my work - things like Zoom, Otter, Backblaze, etc - that paying yet another subscription for a simple utility is out of the question. I know the economics of app development, but subscriptions are killing apps. More and more users are getting subscription fatigue, and rightly so.

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@mergesort @flargh I switched calendar apps recently because the one I was using increased the subscription by 50%, justifying it by talking about features that I don’t need.

davemark, to apple
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

The new iPad Pro "Nano-texture glass" is ONLY available in models with 1TB or more of storage (not in the 2 lowest tier models).

Which brings the base price for nano glass up to a min of:

  • $1699 for the 11"
  • $1899 for the 13"

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@davemark The 1 and 2 TB models also have one more CPU core and twice the memory (16GB instead of 8).

davemark, to Eurovision
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

🍿🎤
Eurovision starts today.

For US folks, you can watch live on Peacock, if you subscribe.

EU / UK folks, this still a big deal? Worth watching?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/voting-schedules-favotires-everything-need-know-eurovision-rcna150616

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@davemark I watch it every year. It is the Olympics of kitsch.

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@davemark By the way, on my music podcast, we interviewed a Eurovision super fan a few years ago. This will give you a better idea what it’s about.

https://www.thenexttrack.com/106

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Finished my day of corporate work. Needed to do something from a mag. Went to grab a drink. Got a great line in my head to kick off an entirely different article. Procrastinated from the thing I was supposed to be doing by writing the frame for the other piece, which I’ve just done a count on and discovered it’s ~50% of what I’m supposed to file, and it all came out in about ten minutes. And it all works.

This is… good? I think?

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@glennf @craiggrannell Socialized medicine, yes, but retirement benefits are not very generous.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Facebook’s current thing of whacking posts from groups I’m not a member of in my feed, in a cunning attempt to have been reply to someone and sign up for them is obnoxious in the extreme. Not a fan. Rating: STOP IT RIGHT NOW out of ten.

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@tantramar @craiggrannell I believe there’s a setting to prevent that. I don’t get added to groups. But, as Craig said, I get tons of groups I’m not in tossed to my feed. Interestingly, I only see that on my iPhone; on my Mac, I get a totally different feed, which is just what I follow.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Apple Event at 7am Pacific Time on 7 May. (So 3pm UK time.) That’s strangely early.

Looks like new iPads are on the way, then, which will come as a shock to precisely no-one. Here’s hoping they’re suitably fab.

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@craiggrannell I wonder about the odd time choice. Could this be for the Chinese market?

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@flargh @craiggrannell I should’ve asked Siri what time it would be there. Central Europe then? It’s certainly is an odd time for them.

davemark, (edited ) to books
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

Of the 58,000+ books published per year:

  • 90% will sell fewer than 2,000 copies
  • 50% will sell FEWER THAN A DOZEN COPIES

Great, very readable piece on book publishing and how it's very much like being a VC...

https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books
#Books #Writing #Publishing

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@davemark (Fewer)

viticci, to random
@viticci@macstories.net avatar

Happy 15th birthday @macstories 🎂☺️

My dream job. Here's to the next 15 years and the big ideas we're working on 💪

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@viticci @macstories Congratulations. In some ways, it doesn’t feel that old. In others, it feels like you’ve always been around.

mcelhearn, to random
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

I find it interesting interesting how many people who have left Twitter for ideological reasons still go back there to tweet when they have something to promote or to sell. I’ve been seeing a lot of that lately.

matt, to random
@matt@isfeeling.social avatar

I love how so many people are like “these reviewers are paid off” and this guy’s like, “nah, it’s malpractice for a reviewer to actually give a bad review.”

A historically bad tech take that should be put in a museum.

https://x.com/dvassallo/status/1779753281960722706

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@jsnell @flargh @matt @dmoren When I was asked to review something for Macworld, if it was really bad, I told my editor I didn’t want to review it. I didn’t feel it was worth reviewing something that sucked. Same when I reviewed classical CDs.

I don’t think the Humane gizmo is important enough that someone like him absolutely had to review it.

mcelhearn, to random
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

I tried playing a CD on my Mac, in the Music app. I tried with two different external CD players, and neither of them worked. The CD displays, I can import it, but I can’t play it. Then I tried on my other Mac; same problem. I queried some people I know, some have the same problem, others can play CDs. I can play a CD with other apps, such as VLC, but not with the Music app.

Has anyone encountered this, and found a solution?

This might be one for @glennf 911.

mcelhearn, to random
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

From the department of “50% of everyone is below average.”

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

If Apple is dumb enough to start leaving markets in which it can't follow the law, it's not gonna have many markets left.

Apple’s one trade (or otherwise) war away from losing access to China. It would be colossally stupid to voluntarily leave a western market for the sake of one man's ego.

Apple's OS build process is overseen by Ireland. It has consumer apps teams in France. The iTunes infrastructure itself is run out of Cork, last I checked

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/03/28/profit-at-apples-irish-subsidiary-rise-in-2023/
https://mastodon.social/@daringfireball/112181945483592226

mcelhearn,
@mcelhearn@journa.host avatar

@craiggrannell @viticci @stroughtonsmith And in Europe, Apple has shown what they can do, with alternate App Store, browsers, and NFC access. So they can no longer complain is difficult. So other countries will jump on the bandwagon.

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