I don’t need to resort to tropes to tell anyone how hard the last year has been. Since COVID-19 hit the UK like a train (no political discussion please) we’ve been in lockdown longer than I can ever remember. This has been hard on us all, but one for the weird consequences of this has been my contact with other people. I’ve only been able to see the outside world through Social Media — and that sucks!
Despite it being a standard feature in many Android phones it took Apple until the iPhone XS to implement a dual sim of sorts. Even then you need to have one as an eSim and that limits the networks that can support it. Thankfully EE were one of the first, so for the last few years I have been using two sims in my iPhone, one for work and one for personal.
Jeff Perry on needing the iPad software to catch up
I can see reviews coming a mile away claiming that the M1 chip is overkill for the iPad Pro and that it isn’t worth the same price as the MacBook Air, or that users should save money on the iPad Pro and just get the MacBook Air instead. As of right now, I can’t come up with any new arguments on behalf of the iPad than I had before this announcement.
Following Apples move to offer Podcasters subscriptions to help increase revenue for podcasters, and also grab some cash for themselves, the doors will begin to slam shut. Granted we’ve already seen some try and muscle into exclusive podcasts, Spotify tries to tie up some creators and podcast producers buy up applications, but I have a feeling it’s going to get a lot worse.
Instead of offering something built on top of a secure RSS feed, Apple have chosen to close it down entirely.
One thing that constantly surprises me on micro.blog is how nice people are. This has something to do with the barrier to entry being a bit nerdy, but everything to do with the scale of the platform. Although everyone seems to think that abuse and harassment is something unique to the main social networks, it’s actually a problem of scale.
You see I love micro.blog (it took me a while) with my main appreciation being that it’s notwhere everyone is.
I’d like to say this was in my younger years, but until fairly recently I bought loads of stuff because I thought I wanted it. Wasted thousands on tech purchases and waved any dismissive thoughts away with the reasoning that it was my only vice. Upgraded my phone, tablet, computer, and anything I could get my hands on almost constantly in a search for something better. When in fact it wasn’t better it was looking for, it was an answer.
Last year I wrote about my desire to move completely away from smartphones in general and detach myself from the internet as much as I could. With this comes the juxtaposition and the realisation with the fact that I work online, and simply need access to things a smartphone can do most of the time.
Despite flirting with every size iPhone 12 I have stuck with the 12 mini and this has enabled me to go back as far as I can.
Justin Tadlock discussing the relevancy of comments:
Commenting on and discussing ideas in an open forum can change hearts and minds. It can lead to discoveries and create life-long friendships — I still routinely chat with people I met through blogs and their comments from nearly two decades ago. I love comments, but then I don’t really have much of a community outside of friends I’ve met online. Outside a few spambots I have never received anything other than nice feedback or healthy debate.
Matt Birchler on making a mistake:
And finally, it has been a healthy reminder that the internet can push anyone down a rabbit hole towards believing something false. We all try to be rationale people, and we’re all convinced that what we believe is reasonable and other people are crazy, but none of us are above being pushed into weird (and sometimes dangerous) beliefs with just a few clicks. I constantly read that people that believe in conspiracy theories or have outlying views on the world are stupid and should know better.
Anna Wiener in Uncanny Vally
Wherever I traveled on the internet, I saw my own data reflected back at me: if a jade face-roller stalked me from news site to news site, I was reminded of my red skin and passive vanity. If the personalized playlists were full of sad singer-songwriters, I could only blame myself for getting the algorithm depressed.
Living inside an algorithm, like we all do, has no upsides.