Weekly Digest

Life
A bit of sun and warmth…makes watching the World Cup in the house all the more enjoyable 😂

Media
Just over a week into the World Cup and I’ve really enjoyed it. Been the best start to a tournament in years.

Mario Tennis Aces on the Switch is a really nice game. Tough multiplayer!

Also giving Fortnite a proper go. Who knew that the most popular game in the world actually plays well.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Enjoying the World Cup so far. Good games, couple of surprising results and no fan trouble either.

Tragedy at the Glasgow School fo Arts with a second fire in 4 years this one far worse than in 2014. Hopefully the building can be saved and/or restored…it’s too important to lose.

Media
Westworld season 2, episode 8. One of the best so far.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Quiet week enjoying the weather and then an almighty thunderstorm on Saturday cleared the air. Looking forward to seeing what E3 brings us this week.

Media
Pacific Rim Uprising. Crap. Don’t waste your time with this one.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Better week, good weather although could do with being a wee bit cooler. Never liked too much heat. Also enjoying Linode and a wee bit of scripting. Likely move all online accounts to Linode over the coming weeks.

Media
Finally caught up on Kenny, a documentary on Kenny Dalglish. Loved it and well worth catching while still on iPlayer.

Also enjoying the new Chvrches album, really good.

Links

WWDC 2018

Tomorrow is the start of the year for Apple. WWDC 2018 is the first look at the next versions of iOS and macOS…and whatever else Apple wants to show. Last year I had some hopes and wishes which turned out to be pretty good. New iPads were excellent and the improvements in iOS for iPads were beyond what I expected.

12 months on and here’s what I’d like to see Apple announce tomorrow:

  • Siri is really at the heart of so much for Apple but is embarrassingly behind the competition. This isn’t new but I can’t understand how Apple have allowed themselves to get into this position. Google and particularly Amazon have delivered on voice assistants and left Apple for dust. The heart says Apple need to show something tomorrow, the head says this is next year based on recent hires. The Apple ecosystem is crying out for a Siri reset that is much more capable and is open to more developers.
  • The Mac is another part of Apple that feels unloved. The hardware is great (keyboards?!?!) but the software is being left to wither. Where iOS is felt by many the future for Apple and the sales suggest that’s the right strategy that shouldn’t be to the detriment of the Mac. It could do so much more but either strategy or lack of engineering means it isn’t delivering what it once did. Would be great to see Mac get some love tomorrow.
  • Not so much split iTunes, but give us an Apple Music app on the Mac that lets me access and stream music as quickly as I can on iOS.
  • Default apps on iOS. This is another heart over head, but it really holds back the platform in many ways. Why can’t I set Todoist instead of Reminders, Chrome instead of Safari?
  • Custom watch faces. I’m still rocking the original Apple Watch but hope to upgrade to a new version later this year. Would be great to get third party watch faces. Imagine a running app with a totally custom face that could show you competitors, last run times against a route? A Plex watch face that told you when the current film you are watching will finish and let you do some basic playback control.
  • Release more frequently. Yearly updates don’t cut it anymore and it just makes apps like Photo’s seem dated when compared to Googles offering.

In many ways I’m looking forward to tomorrows announcements as so little has leaked. It also feels an important WWDC for Apple. They’ve already said they will focus on maintenance and releasing less and it seems like hardware is later in the year so you wonder what will make the headlines tomorrow…and the details and titbits that will come out throughout the week. Roll on 18:00 tomorrow.