I played with (And showed the family) the CoPilot Voice natural speech features. You can hear it in action whilst it also looks at photos in this Microsoft Video showing Copilot Voice and Vision.

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It is weird to talk to. The most natural conversations I’ve had with a computer ever. My kids used it and were blown away talking about skateboarding tricks. Cooking. A-Level biology topics. I asked it about photography. It…starts a conversation you can follow up on. Like a person. 😵‍💫

I think it’s cool, but weird, and AI is weird in general. Talking to it makes me feel funny, but also excited… and freaked out about the environmental cost of me asking it for a cookie recipe or some other non-critical garbage.

My wife is much more decisive. She is not a fan and wants to literally throw it in the water like a witch 🤣

The best bit about all my devices being USB-C now and my family still being on lightning iPhones is no one “borrows” my cables!😈

Another week where work and the day to day has got ahead of anything too exciting I’m afraid. Gas leaks are thankfully over, as well as some weekend work I was stressed about. So here’s to a new week!

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• 📱 iPhone Stuff

  • Not had time to properly check out the new camera yet. I’m going to walk this afternoon and see what I can capture. No doubt with some Process Zero shots in the mix (Still really liking the results it gives).

  • I haven’t installed Instagram or Threads on my new phone yet. I….think I might just….not? 🤷‍♂️🤣

  • This electric adhesive on the iPhone 16’s is very snazzy. Metal covered battery for safety as well. Sadly not made it to the Pro models this time around but I’m sure it’ll be in the 17’s.

• 📑 Nearly finished migrating from Obsidian to Apple Notes and the more I use it the more I love it. Folders and tags have been added and I’ve started to consolidate or purge old notes. As I’ve previously alluded to I have thoughts about me, tools and note taking and I should write about them at some point.

• 🔈 Two podcasts I’m really enjoying at the moment

  • Dish Who knew a promotional podcast for a supermarket could be so good and get such great guests! Watch the Video version if you can.

  • Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma’s Chinwag podcast is a great podcast about…”stuff”. Really lovely listen.

• I bought a dbrand skin for my iPad Magic Keyboard case as I hate the slightly sticky rubber texture on these things and how easily they pick up marks that just never go away. I slightly cocked up the application of one of the back pieces. My wife smartly reminded me that perfect is the enemy of good by telling me it looked fine and still does the job. It feels so much better to hold and carry now. Wish I’d maybe gone for a different skin. Maybe next time. Some photos here if you’d like to see the results.

  • 📷 The bit I’m unhappy with

  • 📷 Front

  • 📷 Back

• 🇯🇵 I made the landing page for my Japan Diaries so that bit of amateur photo journaling is 100% done. A small thing all in all but I’m really proud of the effort I put into the writing and the photo editing. I made that exist through my meagre talents and I’m glad I did.

Game Stuff

• I’ve pre-ordered a PS5 Pro. Not the fancy 30th anniversary one that is now apparently going via scalpers for $10,000 😳. Time to box up and trade in the PS5 soon. I don’t want to build a gaming PC. I have enough faff in my life. I’m playing my PlayStation more than my Xbox at the moment and I loath that MS put up the price of GamePass.

• Zelda : Echos of Wisdom is out! My afternoon today is going to be spent playing this.

• Finished Space Marine 2. I thought it was extremely mid by the end.

• 1 more world left on Astro Bot. I’m loving their equivalent of the “Challenge Levels” in Mario games. They’re not quite as psychotically difficult as some Mario challenges can be, and not so long they outstay their welcome. This one took me literally like 100 tries and over about 40 minutes before I got a successful run.

• 🃏 Balatro on iPhone. O.M.G. 😅

🍿 TV/Movie Stuff

• Finished Land Of Women on Apple TV. Loved all of it apart from the ending. It leaves waaaaaay too much open for a Season 2. I hope it gets one. It’s going to be so frustrating if it gets cancelled.

• More Apple TV, we’re watching Wolfs tonight. It’s apparently just “OK”, but I’m sure Clooney and Pitt will be watchable enough. Also Amy Ryan is showing up in everything! at the moment. Great actor and always compelling to watch.

• 🏙️ have to watch Megalopolis in a cinema. What a weird film. I need to put myself through it. I have zero chance of convincing anyone else to go 🤣

• 🔋 I also need to watch The Substance. I heard it described as Posessor1 mixed with The Fly. Sold!

• Also on a horror push, Uzumaki looks terrifying but has captured the art style of Junji Ito perfectly. It’s beautiful and unnerving at the same time.

1. One of my favourite films of all time. ↩

I’ve imported a few of my important notes from Obsidian to Apple Notes. I think it’s gonna stick. I miss Markdown, but once I learn the keyboard shortcuts for Notes I think it’ll be fine.

Will do a longer write up as I progress. I have thoughts! 🤣

Here’s a weird iPad thing I’ve never been able to understand. If you have a trackpad attached to an iPad or a pencil that supports hover and move over the dock, only a random bunch of the apps snap/expand when you mouse over them. No idea why… No rhyme or reason to it. Gotta be a bug I guess? 🤷‍♂️

I’m doing it! I thought this day would never come. After avoiding it for years and after dalliances with Bear, Notion, agenda and others I’m now moving from Obsidian to Apple Notes as my primary note platform. 😮

Updated my Setup page with my new phone and case. Also updated some of my apps as well! Bye Reeder classic and hello Reeder. Bye things3 and hello reminders.app.

I think Obsidian miiiiight get replaced with Apple notes as well I think it might be time. 😬

Reading the VisionOS 2.0 review just makes me even more puzzled about “Spacial computing” in general. If you’ve got the disposable income and want a big ol’ virtual display to watch content on….then cool, but I can’t imagine me ever using such a device daily for my computing tasks. Feels alien.

Huzzah, I got into the Wipr 2.0 Beta from the incredible @kaylee@mas.to

This app has been part of my ad-blocking arsenal since it first came out in 2015 and I wouldn’t be without it. Can’t wait to test out this new version! 😎

The idea of having an iPhone “unboxing” and a story on it just makes me giggle so much. It’s the phone and a cable. That’s it. That’s the unboxing. 😂

It’s like unboxing toilet roll. Oh look. It’s a toilet roll. 😂

A real shame that Touch Arcade is closing down. Think it says a lot about the state of mobile gaming in general. There was a window when iOS/App store was new and mobile gaming was blossoming. I was on Touch Arcade every day looking at what was new or what was coming out. 🎮

The @macstories.net iOS 18 review is out! Getting a beverage and diving in now! 👀

That came quick! Just a wait for the actual phone now. 😆

Love the colour though. Really striking.

Or instead of Apple boxes perhaps you like the classics?

Pre-order went through fine. 16 Pro Max in Natural Titanium.

They had a “Keep this page open” message whilst the store was down. Kept that on my iPad to see what happens. As I suspected, It never reloaded!

Quit / Relaunch Apple Store app is always my tried and tested method!

It’s time to let go of some (empty!) nerd boxes 👨‍💻

📱 Happy iPhone pre-order day to those who celebrate. If you’re upgrading, what are you getting and why?

Now the iPadOS 18 RC image is out it’s time to upgrade that device I think.

People gonna be salty as hell about those updated AirPod Max 😳

Just tuning into the Apple Conference now as I had some errands to run. New watch seems neat, but I like the ruggedness of the Ultra now. Headphone stuff cool. Waiting for the Pro Max unveil now! 📱