thoughts on tech • by Marc Wickens
nxTrain 1.7 is now available in the App Store (UK only). It’s an app I built to make commuting by train more pleasant. It will show you your next train, the platform, and time at a glance - on your phone’s lock screen, Home Screen, or Apple Watch face. Or you can just open the app. It knows what time you leave and return home, so it shows the right direction automatically. In short: In 1.7 it…
It’s only a day to go until WWDC 2026, and in a way it’s kind of strange when you stop to think about it. Each year we sit down to watch a marketing video, and over the next couple of hours Apple tells us the direction it has chosen for its platforms, its developers and a surprisingly large preportion of the human race. Apple devices are now used by roughly 1 in 5 humans on the planet. That’s…
Today I am announcing a new app for iPhone and Apple Watch users called nxTrain . It’s designed to fill a gap specifically for people who commute by train in the UK on a regular basis. It allows you to configure your regular commute and then quickly see the next train, either from an Apple Watch complication, an iPhone widget, or by opening the app. That’s all it does. It’s that simple. The…
In the late 90s, the term “RAD” was everywhere in software development. This had nothing to do with being stoner movies or being totally radical however. RAD stood for “Rapid Application Development”. It described an approach centred on speed and accessibility, where tools such as Delphi from Borland and Visual Basic from Microsoft made it possible to build working applications quickly, often with…
The Apple Watch has been out for over a decade now, and yet its health and fitness insights have only improved marginally. GPS brought maps of your running routes, while more accurate accelerometers and gyroscopes enabled more in-depth running analysis. Better heart rate sensors allow for ongoing heart monitoring, and the addition of a thermometer helps with sleep and menstrual cycle tracking.…
Robert Booth UK technology editor at the Guardian : Anthropic, whose advanced chatbots are used by millions of people, discovered its Claude Opus 4 tool was averse to carrying out harmful tasks for its human masters, such as providing sexual content involving minors or information to enable large-scale violence or terrorism. The San Francisco-based firm, recently valued at $170bn, has now given…
Tom Warren writing for The Verge : Microsoft originally encouraged its employees to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. This new flexible working arrangement then became an official “hybrid workplace” policy several months after the pandemic began, allowing managers to approve permanent remote work. Now that the pandemic has settled into endemicity, Microsoft wants employees to…
No joke: the UK Government’s Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has suggested deleting old emails to reduce water consumption. If we assume these emails are stored in the cloud, and not on someone’s laptop (as was more often the case 10–15 years ago), then there might be something in this — but it’s tenuous, to say the least. Yes, water is used to remove heat…
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a number of Amazon sellers using blatantly fake product shots. They’re not even trying to make them look realistic. A reverse image search reveals they’ve simply taken stock photos and pasted what is presumably a real photo of their product into them, with no regard for how the angle, lighting, or shadows appear. This must surely be the best way to tell if a…
The public betas for Apple’s various operating systems are now out now, which will gradually make their way to many of the the 2.35 billion active iPhones, iPads, Macs and other Apple devices reports as active , starting in the Autumn. I haven’t quite dared to try any of them in person yet, but from what I’ve observed this year’s operating system releases are generally positive. The new Liquid…
Ellen Jennings-Trace writing for Tech Radar : New estimates regarding the recently-exploited Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities now evaluate that as many as 400 organizations may have been targeted. The figure is a sharp increase from the original count of around 100, with Microsoft pointing the finger at Chinese threat actors for the hacks, namely Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603.…
Adverts for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are now a regular feature on many podcasts. A common theme I’ve noticed is the attempt to justify using a VPN by claiming that public WiFi networks are inherently unsafe without one. Take this recent example : When you connect to an unencrypted network in cafes, hotels, airports, your online data is not secure. Someone on the same network can gain access…
Microsoft, in its ongoing quest to make Windows 11 feel increasingly clumsy and tone-deaf, has now decided to add a new “AI Tools” menu to Windows Explorer. One can almost picture the product management meeting, where some directive from on high decreed: “We must be seen to be using AI in everything , everywhere and all at once.” While they may have a tendency to over-explain the obvious (as shown…
Jo Kristian Bergum on Twitter : This surge was partly driven by a widespread misconception that embedding-based similarity search was the only viable method for retrieving context for LLMs. The resulting “vector database gold rush” saw massive investment and attention directed toward vector search infrastructure, even though traditional information retrieval techniques remained equally valuable…
Image source: BBC News Graham Fraser reporting for BBC News about Apple’s new notification summarisation feature: A major journalism body has urged Apple to scrap its new generative AI feature after it created a misleading headline about a high-profile killing in the United States. The BBC made a complaint to the US tech giant after Apple Intelligence, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to…
Having become a semi-regular commuter to London, I’ve found that the various well-known apps for checking train times are all terrible. There isn’t an app where you can simply say: h ere is my regular commute; I just need to know the next train, which platform it’s on, and whether it’s delayed. TheTrainLine is arguably focused on planning journeys, and the National Rail app is just plain awful,…
John Gruber writes A swing-and-a-miss from MKBHD . Criticism of the app is on two separate levels, but they’re being conflated. Level 1: the app is not good. Level 2: a paid wallpaper app ? — LOL, wallpapers are free on Reddit . That second form of criticism — that there shouldn’t even exist a paid wallpaper app — is annoying and depressing, and speaks to how many people do not view original art…
Benj Edwards for Ars Technica : On Monday, software developer Michael Sayman launched a new AI-populated social network app called SocialAI that feels like it’s bringing that conspiracy theory to life, allowing users to interact solely with AI chatbots instead of other humans. It’s available on the iPhone app store, but so far, it’s picking up pointed criticism. A social networking app where you…
I was recently trying to compile a .NET project as a self-contained binary for linux-arm to run on my Raspberry Pi. When trying to run the binary, I kept getting the following error: /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libstdc++.so.6: version GLIBCXX_3.4.26' not found (required by ./[executable]) It turned out the issue was caused by using .NET 9. Downgrading the project to .NET 8 resolved it . I’m…
Image credit: Apple ( https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2023/06/introducing-apple-vision-pro/ ) Three and a half months after the release of Apple Vision Pro, and I am finding it difficult to get on board with Apple’s vision for the future of computing. While admittedly I haven’t tried the Vision Pro due to it not being available in the UK, and I’m sure I would be momentarily wowed by the…
Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica has written a nearly 3,000 word article explaining how to remove advertisements and other annoyances from Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge . Microsoft are not alone in degrading the quality of their software in order to sell more services, Apple has been doing this as lot recently too. With Microsoft though it feels increasingly desperate. Its Copilot feature acts…
When Apple introduced Focus Modes and Focus Filters , I hoped it might finally mean the ability to cleanly separate work and personal life within iOS. Unfortunately, the system is flawed. Let’s briefly recap on how it works. Focus Modes are an extension of “Do Not Disturb” which has been with iOS since version 2011 (if my memory is correct) and allow precise control of notifications for different…
Apple have recently introduced a new featured called “Optimized Charge Limit” which aims to lengthen the lifespan of the battery embedded within an Apple Watch: From Apple’s support pages: With watchOS 10, this feature is available on Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6 and later, and Apple Watch Ultra and later. Optimized Charge Limit learns from your daily usage to determine when to charge to…
Wordpress have enabled support for ActivtyPub . So you can now follow this blog on platforms such as Mastodon by searching for imarc.co.uk@imarc.co.uk - let me know if it works by replying to this post.
In a disappointing move, Microsoft have discontinued Visual Studio for the Mac . This comes not long after they rewrote the user interface to be faster and more fluid using native frameworks. Given the depressing state of Windows these days, the lack of a full-featured IDE does not bode well for the long-term future of .NET and other related technologies. For many years, Windows has seemed stuck…
Another year and another update to the venerable operating system that runs on millions of watches is here. This time though, it’s a mixed bag. It’s easy for us technology enthusiasts become complacent about the fact we get new features released each year for ‘free’. There is though unwritten contract between Apple and its user base that these free updates won’t regress the product that was…
There is so much hyperbole about Large Language Models (LLMs) in the media right now that I’m finding it can be overwhelming, and I am someone who works in the field of AI! From claims that AI will put people out of jobs to claims that it will takeover and enslave the human race, it’s difficult to know where to start. Some say AI should be regulated now, others are happy to let the "free market" 1…
Apple Music has a poor reputation these days. I’m not talking about the music streaming service here, nor the iOS apps that share the same name. I’m talking about the 22 year old application formally known as iTunes. You see it’s the same application really, only with a new name and a fresh coat of paint. Squint a bit, or rather go to the Songs view and turn on Column Browser, and you will see it…
It’s a common refrain in tech circles when discussing Twitter to talk about “The Algorithm”. Take this Lifewire article: “ How to Turn off the Twitter Timeline Algorithm ” , or this one by TechCrunch: “ Twitter makes algorithmic timeline default on iOS ” . In the beginning the Twitter timeline was a simple list of posts by people you follow sorted by date descending. In 2013 Twitter introduced a…
My M1 Mac mini has been sleeping dreadfully recently. Perhaps it’s the thought of one day having macOS Ventura installed on it, or the knowledge that its younger M2 brethren beats it in both performance and power efficiency. Or perhaps, it was something else altogether. I could tell it wasn’t sleeping due to the fact the attached USB storage would endlessly spin up and back down during the day;…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUN5aKdxC3Q
From Business Insider : The vast majority of Worldwide Digital’s losses were tied to Amazon’s Alexa and other devices, a person familiar with the division told Insider. The loss was by far the largest among all of Amazon’s business units and slightly double the losses from its still nascent physical stores and grocery business. I recall back in the summer of 2017 meeting with some senior marketing…
£91 a year for a watch? Update December 2025: It started working 3 years later! I’ve been using an Apple Watch for over 7 years now, and throughout this time I’ve owned the original Series 0, the Series 2, and Series 4. Recently I decided it was time to upgrade to the latest and greatest Series 8. Each time I’ve upgraded I’ve given the previous model to a family member and so my girlfriend has…
Every year we marvel at the latest product releases from tech companies, with Apple often leading the way. What is often not said however is that that shiny new device with even more battery life than the previous model will quite likely be a shadow of its former self in little over 2 - 3 years. This is not a conspiracy, and there is nothing evil going on. Batteries, like brake pads on car, are…
After 21 years, the original macOS System Preferences is being retired. The next version of macOS, “Ventura” will have an all-new iOS style preferences application named “System Settings ”. I decided to go all the way back to 2001 and look at the original System Preferences (or “System Prefs” as it was called in the Menu Bar) in Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheeta” to see which of the original 21 preference…
Recently announced iOS 16 will feature a new look Lock Screen. One of the striking features is how notifications are now far less prominent than they have been ever since their arrival in iPhone OS 3.0 back in 2009. The change is a signal that many users want to control what they see and when, rather than have application developers decide for them. In 2009 it was quiet novel to know instantly…
A keyboard! A mouse! But still so many unfulfilled dreams… As is often the case, Matt Birchler has written something that I agree wholeheartedly with in his post Just Buy a Mac : Even if Apple goes all the way and lets us resize windows and drag them anywhere we want on screen, I don’t think this suddenly turns the iPad into a Mac. After all, macOS, Windows, and Linux all have resizable windows…
I have been an avid podcast listener since it first emerged in the mid-2000s, in the past few years everyone who is anyone it seems now has a podcast. What was once the domain of nerdy introverts is now decidedly mainstream. The beauty of podcasts is that like the web, they use (mostly) open standards. HTTP, RSS, XML and MP3. Like the web, they also disappear sometimes. In the case of the web,…
Apple blogger John Gruber isn’t happy about recently agreed EU legislation. In a recent post entitled “ E.U. Regulators Gonna Regulate ” he wrote: This is bananas. All third party developers get control over the secure enclave and the software that controls it? Would be good to give them such control over the camera, microphone, and location data, too. The text of the legislation says the…
Riccardo Mori writing in an essay Raw power alone is not enough Without innovation in software, all we’re doing with these new powerful machines is essentially the same we were doing 20 years ago on PowerPC G4 and G5 computers, but faster and more conveniently. Granted, it is progress, especially in those fields involving CPU- and GPU-intensive tasks and greatly benefitting by having lots and lots…
Sami Fathi writing for MacRumours : Yesterday, it was revealed that Meta, more commonly known as Facebook, plans to take a steep 47.5% commission for digital asset purchases made inside the so-called “metaverse.” This reminds me of how in the early 2000s Apple was able to make a deal with the record labels to sell all of their music while taking a healthy cut of their own. Since then they have…
What do BBC News, Instagram, Twitter, Slack, Pokémon GO, eBay and Uber have in common? They all had watchOS apps that have since been discontinued. This week Uber became the latest big name to switch off their Apple Watch app. There are still many useful apps from big and small developers in the watchOS App Store: YouTube Music, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Maps are still…
My original iPod (left), alongside the iPod 5.5 and the Apple Watch, in many ways its successor. It’s been 10 years since I wrote about it being 10 years since the iPod. That means of course that it’s now been 20 years since Steve Jobs first graced our 1024x768 screens announcing the iPod. I won’t rehash what I wrote 10 years ago, instead I thought it would be interesting delve into what the…
Both Microsoft Teams and Apple’s iMessage offer the ability to ‘react’ or ‘tap back’ on a message - for those who don’t know, this allows you to mark a message with a quick emoji response instead of sending a full message back. I’m a heavy user of both apps: Teams while I’m working, and iMessage for keeping in touch with friends and family. Despite Teams being targeted at business - I find the…
The new version of Safari for iPad is a classic case of ‘developer centric design’. That is, designing a product that you as a developer would love to have, but not considering how a less technical user base might approach the app. Take the new sidebar - technically, it’s a marvel: I can access tab groups (a new feature), my bookmarks, the reading list and browsing history all from one convenient…
Like every other Apple-focused technology enthusiast with spare time on their hands, I’ve been trying out Glass , a new app for sharing photos. Its biggest selling point according to the creators, is that they are in fact selling it. Unlike rivals Instagram and Flickr, Glass is not for “selfies, stories, quick snaps, or influencers” and there is no free tier. Instead, Glass costs £4.49 per month…
I’ve noticed that Google’s search results are full of a lot more spam recently. When I scroll past the page of ads that Google itself places at the top of the results page and jump straight to the so called ‘organic’ search results, I find more than more that these links turn out to be nothing more than thinly veiled advertisements themselves. In one example, after finding out my new router…
Apple News can be a nice way to catch up on the day’s events, however it can also be a source of clickbait headlines and celebrity gossip that I couldn’t care less about. I’m sure it’s the inverse for others too, perhaps you want to read celebrity gossip but keep getting exaggerated political controversies. Thankfully, there is an option hidden away in the iOS Settings app called “ Restrict…
Rumours are abundant, and so it must be true that in the coming months Apple will release updated versions its high-end computers. But for the majority of users, even us “professionals”, the current crop of M1 Macs will probably do just fine. I’ve been using an M1 MacBook Pro as my own personal laptop now for 3 and a half months and I have to admit, the hype is real. It’s a beast. Day to day it’s…
Lots and lots of goodies in Apple’s 2021 keynote. Some quick thoughts: FaceTime on the web - I guess just as I was last pondering this May, someone at Apple was also wondering why Zoom took off and not FaceTime . Thankfully they reached the same conclusion. Digital ID - The ability to add ID to our digital wallets will finally end the need for a physical wallet. I wrote about this at the end of…