apple – Alasdair Watson

Bookmarks for April 21, 2026

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity | Open Culture
I've listened to "Cross Road Blues" a number of times over the years. This really is an impressive new digitisation of a very clean and well preserved original.

Tags: music, blues
Tim Cook Is Stepping Down As Apple CEO
And the letter he has written to the community of Apple users seems really very genuine and plausible, and I find myself wondering how many CEOs can really say the same sorts of things about their job. Obviously, being the CEO of Apple is a pretty one-of-a-kind thing, but still: how many of them feel a sense of outright joy that they get to do the job the do? As opposed to some of ghastly, competative grindset mentality or even just a weight-of-responsibility thing?

Tags: apple, business
xkcd: Types of Board Game
Perfect summary. Especially the "Party" one.

Tags: games, funny

Timeline – Time to Play Fair
Despite my fondness for Apple products, I am willing to be critical of Apple when they're being arseholes. They're being massive arseholes, here, to the detriment of their own users. I would very much welcome an option for iOS developers to implement their own payment systems in apps, if they did not wish to give apple a cut, and I hope the EU finds in Spotify's favour.

Tags: apple, iphone

Richard Sapper's dark, alternate universe of tech design – Curbed
Interesting thought experiment: what if Sapper, not Ive, had become the design superstar of the IT industry?

Tags: design, apple, ibm

IBM Says Macs Are Up to $543 Less Expensive Than PCs Over Time – Mac Rumors
Not entirely home-user applicable, but still an interesting bit of information for those trying to convince their company to buy them Apple hardware.

Tags: apple, mac

Michael Tsai – Blog – Mac Terminal Tips
Some of these are going to be absolute lifesavers.

Tags: osx, terminal
Apple to create spectacular new London HQ at Battersea Power Station
I really don't know how I feel about this. I <strong>love</strong> the building, I'm glad it's being restored and will be used for something. I also like Apple products. But this doesn't feel right. It should have been public space.

Tags: apple, battersea

Why the FBI's request to Apple will affect civil rights for a generation | Macworld
If you care about electronic security or privacy, this case is one to watch closely, and with a certain amount of creeping dread. This case isn't about one phone, it's about the precedent.

Tags: apple, privacy, encryption
Apple can comply with the FBI court order – Trail of Bits Blog
Apple can easily comply with the order, without placing (all) their customers at risk, because they literally couldn't comply with the order on their newer phones. But what the order would establish is that the US govt can ask private business to work to circumvent their own security features.

Tags: security, apple, privacy, ios, encryption

ntlk's blog: Why can't you track periods in Apple's Health app?
As this article makes clear: there probably isn't a good reason why not, and there are loads of reasons why it would be useful. I would home this is an oversight that will be rapidly corrected.

Tags: apple, health
15 Lessons from 15 Years of Blogging – Anil Dash
I sort of wish I had kept up the habit of writing "proper" posts on this site, or any other. I'm not even honestly sure that I can point to when I stopped. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever really started – I've never had a topic to explore, never tried to set my blog up as about anything – it's just, y'know, an agglomeration of stuff. Which explains why it has a double digit audience on a good day. But then, it's really not for the audience, so that's fine – it's an aide memoire for me. Anyway – some solid advice here.

Tags: blogging

What if Steve Jobs had been running Apple's Event on Tuesday? – Jiggity's Essays
I don't agree with the article's presupposition that Steve's way would have been better, but I will say that I think that the write has very neatly nailed to difference between Jobs' keynotes, and the modern ones, and he has nailed something very important about Steve's way of explaining these things – the emphasis on the human connection, on what these devices will let us do to enrich our lives, rather that the technical specification and Jony Ive's design-porn angle.

Tags: apple

Gerry Conway: The ComiXology Outrage | Comicbook.com
Legendary comics artist Gerry Conway breaks down the ways that this Comixology business will be bad for independent creators.

Tags: apple, comics, amazon
The ComiXology Outrage
Marco Arment on Gerry Conway on Comixology and Amazon. Specifically, he's making the point while Conway is correct to blame for the changes, the changes are nevertheless simply Amazon doing what it always does, and the Comixology were irresponsible in selling out a behemoth with a proven track record of being bad for publishers and independent creators.

Tags: amazon, comixology