jamesthomson

jamesthomson, 4 months ago to random

We can go further.

jamesthomson, 11 months ago to random

Adult life mostly consists of exclaiming “christ, that happened ten years ago!” about a variety of different events until you die.

jamesthomson, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to blackfriday

Introducing the PCalc “More Than 42% Off Super Sale” for #blackfriday!

PCalc iOS: $4.99 down from $9.99
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pcalc/id284666222

PCalc Mac: $4.99 down from $9.99
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pcalc/id403504866

Dice by PCalc iOS: $0.99 down from $1.99
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dice-by-pcalc/id1468680083

Dice by PCalc Mac: $0.99 down from $1.99
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dice-by-pcalc/id1479250666

Everything is roughly 50% off until the end of Monday 27th November. It's extremely rare for PCalc to go on sale like this, so act now!

jamesthomson, 4 months ago to random

The true visionOS experience.

jamesthomson, 1 year ago to random

I tried the Photoshop beta’s new generative AI stuff, and the first two results it returned for "a hand” do not inspire confidence.

A hand with four fingers.

jamesthomson, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

If you get an Apple Vision Pro today, and are looking for a native visionOS calculator, may I suggest my PCalc?

It's a universal purchase with the iOS version, so you might even already own a copy!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pcalc/id284666222?platform=appleVisionPro

#visionpro #calculator

jamesthomson, 6 months ago to random

Your regular reminder not to trust anything that a LLM tells you.

Google has updated Bard to a new “greatly improved” model, and it's still talking utter bullshit half the time when I ask it for facts about myself.

jamesthomson, 7 months ago to random

If you want to confuse an AI image generator, ask it to draw Doctor Who.

Fairly generic woman Doctor, but at least it came up with one eventually.
A slightly different mix of Tennant, Smith, and Capaldi.
Another slightly different mix of Tennant, Smith, and Capaldi, with a touch more Tennant?

jamesthomson, 8 months ago to random

Dice by PCalc 2.7 is out now with full support for iOS 17 and macOS 14, complete with fully interactive standalone dice rolling widgets!

iOS:
https://pcalc.com/store/dice

Mac:
https://pcalc.com/store/dicemac

It also comes with some adorable new baby polar bear dice. The bears definitely do not get dizzy when you roll them. They love it!

A collection of translucent dice, each filled with snow with a baby polar bear standing on it.

jamesthomson, 10 months ago to random

PCalc for iOS is 15 years old today, which does not seem possible. As the Mac version is just over 30 years old, that also means at some point very very soon, the iOS version will have been around for more than half of PCalc's entire existence.

If you bought it on day one, I hope you have appreciated the one and a half decades of free updates, and I shall direct you to the tip jar 😉

The About screen for PCalc 1.0.2, which is a lot less exciting that today’s.
The settings section, which isn’t actually very different, aside from the retro iOS theme.
The vertical layout for PCalc 1.0 for iOS, with a very different button layout.

jamesthomson, 7 months ago to random

Get your kids ready for their inevitable future as gig economy workers!

Some real late stage capitalism vibes from the Aldi UK leaflet this week.

jamesthomson, 3 months ago to random

Going to rejoin Apple, work my way into the Photos team for iOS, add a top level button to rotate a photo, then quit the next day knowing I have improved the lives of billions.

jamesthomson, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

When I hear people refer to the Apple Vision Pro as “AVP”.

jamesthomson, 8 months ago to random

"Pleased to announce that the iPhone 15 is made from 100% recycled Lightning cables."

jamesthomson, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Nearly 16 years of PCalc hitting day one on the App Store:

iPhone - 10th July 2008
iPad - 3rd April 2010
Mac - 6 January 2011
Apple Watch - 24th April 2015
Apple TV - 30th October 2015
Apple Vision Pro - 2nd February 2024

No wonder I feel tired!

jamesthomson, 1 year ago to random

It's a shame that Meta didn't call their LLM “Palm” rather than Google, because then it could be Facepalm.

jamesthomson, 11 months ago to random

World's biggest calculator.

jamesthomson, 6 months ago to random

If you enjoy PCalc or Dice, a repost on the Black Friday deal linked below would be very helpful in getting the word out on the 50% off sale. I absolutely hate doing marketing, and always just feel like saying “buy my stuff, it's okay I guess!”, but this is not exactly conducive to selling copies.

https://mastodon.social/@jamesthomson/111460746988545560

jamesthomson, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Like many people, I had my Apple ID locked last night, and it was a big hassle trying to get it unlocked and working again.

One tip - when you go through all the rigmarole to get it going again, one thing that doesn't switch on by default is receiving iMessages or FaceTime calls via your Apple ID. So, like me, you will probably be missing messages until you reenable those in Settings. Also, if you send somebody a new iMessage it will default to your phone number which may not be what you want.

jamesthomson, 16 days ago to random

About by PCalc for visionOS is now available!

Perhaps the most pointless app on Vision Pro, but still quite fun to play with. This is a complete remake of the original PCalc About screen in VR. It's basically me experimenting with what's possible today with RealityKit, over-engineering things as usual, and then for some inexplicable reason actually shipping it. I hope you enjoy it!

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/about-by-pcalc/id1613982997?platform=vision

Hundreds of objects swirl around a PCalc icon.
A lovely view of the public transport options in the PCalc About screen.
A distant dragon watches over the city.

jamesthomson, 7 months ago to random

Today's age crisis is brought to you by finding out that Christopher Lloyd was only 46 when he filmed Back to the Future.

jamesthomson, 4 months ago to random

As an Apple shareholder, I wish Apple wouldn’t push for services revenue. How much better of a company would they be, if it was mostly about selling cool devices that everybody wanted to use? Would they make less money? Yes. Would they still be insanely profitable? Also yes!

jamesthomson, 3 months ago to random

This is your regular reminder that you cannot be trusted with super glue.

jamesthomson, 4 months ago to random

I sure hope you like big calculators.

jamesthomson, 6 months ago to random

Updating the firmware on my Xmas tree lights, what a world.