• I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.

This is why iPads frustrate me so much these days. The hardware is more than capable of running a decently powerful OS, but Apple are insistent on crippling them with a big version of iOS. iOS is fine on an iPhone where the limited screen size means I have no particular desire to do anything too complicated, but the same restrictions on an iPad feel like Apple don’t really know how to reconcile what the device can do with not wanting to pull customers away from Macs. I was unexpectedly gifted a 6th gen mini last week which is in front of me as I type and which I’m not entirely sure what to do with.

Yes, they really do. There were a few years of fuckups and questionable decisions, but by and large the devices they make are absolutely solid.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro at home that’s running Monterey via Opencore as well as if it was still supported. Until recently I was using a 2015 MBP that was absolutely faultless. I now have an M2 Air that may have some issues down the line that haven’t come to light yet, but it seems unlikely. I have two Mac minis at work, a 2011 and a 2014 that are still absolutely capable for the level of work I ask of them. I’m typing this on one of them.

In terms of iPhones/iPads; I’ve had 7 iPhones and 5 iPads over the years, and the only hardware problems I’ve experienced with them have been of my own doing (broken screens, water damage, etc…).

So yeah, the 2016-2019 MacBooks had shitty keyboards and questionable I/O decisions, but otherwise the hardware was absolutely top tier.

And with Apple you can’t choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years.

This is kind of a weird argument. You can’t choose which keyboard you get with any laptop.

All of this stuff makes me sad. As a long(ish)-time Apple user, it’s been sad to see them go full throttle into hyper-capital mode. They’re literally the wealthiest company on the planet because they’ve spent the past twenty years figuring out how to nickel and dime their customers. Hell, even when I bought my first MacBook back in '07, the guy in the Apple Store suggested getting the RAM upgrade elsewhere because Apple prices were ridiculous even then. Everyone knows they didn’t go with soldered RAM and storage for the performance gains…

But they make incredible hardware, so I tolerate all that shit, making me complicit in the fuckery.

I won’t feel bad for them. Survival of the fittest, isn’t it? And I, on my new 25k SirVelo am the fittest, as evidenced by all the KOMs I have. (Which is all of them).

Those KOMs will only be broken by me on next week’s 25k SirVelo.

It would seem that none of their dental surgeries are doing very well, so they have to actually work rather than fuck about online.

opting for the hard copy

I’m in the middle, downloading lossless music to put on my iPod.

Any new tech that emerges should be viewed as either “How will they use it to scrape all my data?” or “How will they sell this to the military?”

Or both.

I saw my wife playing this years ago, and always fancied having a go, but never got around to it.

So a few months back we got it going so it could stream to our Apple TV and off I went. Spent a few weeks playing it in the evenings and having a nice time.

Then Ubisoft put out an ‘update’ to it, that broke it completely. A massive update for a ten year old game. Cunts.

So I guess I’ll never finish it, because fuck Ubisoft.

In theory, any MP3 player / DAP that can have music loaded onto it by drag and drop could work with your iPad (assuming you have the means to connect it, of course).

But there are a number of things to consider.

Firstly; storage. Obviously, your iPad doesn’t have expandable storage, so depending on the size of your collection, you might run out of space. Using the same method you’ll need to connect the player to your iPad, you can hook up an external drive of some description. Files should be able to see it (as long as it’s formatted to exFAT or FAT). From there, using Files you can simply drag from one place to another.

However, this doesn’t allow you to change metadata or anything. There are apps you can download that will allow you to do it, but it can be a pain in the ass if you’ve got quite a bit of music.

Finally, there’s where you get the music from.

If you buy from somewhere like Bandcamp, then you can download directly to your iPad, though they don’t make it easy. You can’t buy from iTunes because the app won’t let you open them in Files. Torrents are obviously out, so is CD ripping, as there are no CD drivers for iPad that I’m aware of.

So while it’s entirely possible to run a DAP with just an iPad, it’s kind of a pain in the arse, unless you already have a ready supply of music and it’s either already tagged well, or you don’t really care about that sort of thing. As others have suggested, it might be just as easy for you to pick up a cheap PC. It doesn’t need to have any bells and whistles, just the ability to store music and have some way of managing the library.

But a million people haven’t done that with an iPad, because until now no iPad was able to receive video input. That’s the point of the article.

Can it run Doom?

I inherited my Nan’s Dyson DC25 when she went to live in a care home. Used it a few times and it was fine, but figured I’d strip it down and give it a damn good clean out.

The fucking thing damn near sucked up my carpet.

It’s still going strong now. Had to replace the little nubbin that drives the brush bar a few weeks ago, but other than that it’s still solid. Not bad for a 15 year old vacuum cleaner made to modern standards.

Assistant to the General Manager.

I picked up a 13 Mini back in March, and will ride this bad boy for as long as I can, in the hope that Apple eventually release another Mini model.

So perhaps it’s true that we hold onto our little phones for longer, primarily because we’re waiting for another little phone to come along.

The house I rent for £1100 a month would cost somewhere in the region of £250k to buy, putting it firmly out of my ability, despite the mortgage payments almost certainly being lower than my rent.

Parts of the US struggle to offer an adequate level of rights to its human residents.

I remember listening to a podcast that talked of how in the Philippines (I think it was), Facebook is the internet, because Meta/FB effectively subsidised the carriers into allowing FB access to not use up any data allowance. As a result, if all you do is go on FB, you don’t pay a penny. If WhatsApp is included in this, then yeah, you’re locked in with no real alternative.

That’s where you’re wrong.

Oh, I never used Party Shuffle. How did that work?

I’ve never worked on a 4th gen Nano, but am led to believe they’re something of an arsehole to take apart, particularly if the battery has swollen. You’ll know if it has by a black blob in the middle of the screen. To dismantle them, you have to slide the inner gubbins out of the end, which is basically impossible if the battery is wedging everything tight.

It might be worth picking up a Mini or something. They’re fairly easy to refurbish and flashmod. Mine has 128gb currently.