Keyboards. It’s hard to use a computer without one. Apple have been controversial of late with their keyboards, particularly in laptops. Marco Arment put it best on Twitter:

Marco Arment, 17:11 8/4/19

I hope Apple has learned their lesson that we don’t really need them to revolutionise keyboards.

They unnecessarily revolutionised themselves into a world of pain, making massive regressions in the most important functional areas, all to solve problems we didn’t really have.

I personally find keyboards with lack of travel much harder to type on. I’m not a touch typist, or even a good typist. My error rate has always been relatively high, but my rate of error seems to increase with a decrease in key travel. I know some people prefer the slimmer keyboards, and even prefer the butterfly switch keyboard in the new laptops, despite their issues, but not I.

So I thought I’d buy myself a...

I recently wrote about what my iPad is missing to allow me to use it as a near-full time computer for my work. Luna display is something that is helping me bridge the gap.

Luna display is a tiny dongle (in USB-C or mini display port flavours) that plugs into your Mac and convinces the OS it’s a monitor. Software then beams the screen from the Mac to the iPad over your local network. By launching the Luna Display app on the iPad you essentially have a MacOS app running in iOS. The pencil works as a cursor, touch input works as does the keyboard. The system iOS keyboard shortcuts override as you’re still in iOS, but you can work around that. You can also use Luna Display the other way around as a wireless external display for your Mac, but this is not a use case I currently need.

I learned most if the tricks to getting this working well from Federico Viticci’s fantastic article on Mac...

The new iPad pro is incredible, I want to spend a greater percentage of my working time using it. The thin bezels, face ID, the power, the screen, keyboard and pencil - all amazing.

I’ve always been an iPad lover. I had (and still have, working!) an iPad 2, then an iPad Mini, and a Mini 2. These were my commuter computers for many years. Then I started buying the Plus-sized phones, which were close enough to the Mini for me to take over the role of commuter computer. I skipped the entire Air generation, and then was totally sold on the iPad Pro 12.9". I’m now on my 2nd iPad Pro with this new generation.

My phone (an iPhone X at this point) had continued to be my commuter computer, and the iPad has evolved into my new home computer. It more or less lives in the living room and it’s responsible for the vast majority of my home computing.

With the new 2018 iPads Pro I was convinced...

I recently generated analytics of the past several years of my activity in my year review of workouts and fitness post.

Apple does a fantastic job of allowing you to collect this data, especially with the Apple Watch, but getting it off your phone is harder than you think.

The health and activity apps between them allow to view different slices of workout and health data. But the ways in which you can view and compare this data is very limited. For my year review I wanted a month-by-month breakdown of specific workout types compared over several years. Impossible on device today.

My first thought was to make an Apple GDPR request for my data. It’s backed up to iCloud so I assumed it that this should be accessible. Apple has a dedicated site to make these requests. I spoke with support staff after failing to find what I wanted in these downloads, then through speaking with...

In the rumours leading up to the release of the Apple watch I was a sceptic. I couldn’t understand the use case (based on all prior smart watches released) and was adamant they wouldn’t release one. When Apple presented the story during WWDC 2015 for what they had envisioned I was immediately sold. I bought a 1st gen (series 0) 38mm watch. I’ve worn one everyday since. I bought a 2nd gen, skipped the 3rd, and last year upgraded to a Series 4. I’ve built a nice little collection of straps (mix of 1st & 3rd party) that give me style flexibility for almost any occasion. I love my watch.

So what do I use it for? What makes me want to wear this tiny wrist computer every day? The answer has changed slightly over the years as the device has become more capable, and I’m sure it will again, so this snap shot in early 2019 will enable me to look back in a couple of years to see what’s changed.

I’ve had the iPhone X for 2.5 years now. During this time, excluding driving where a cable is required to connect to my car stereo, I think I’ve used the lightning port on my phone less than 10 times thanks to wireless charging. I wasn’t expecting this to be such a transformational feature, but immediately after buying the phone I bought my first wireless charging accessory that changed my charging habits forever.

I’ve always been a night time charger, so my first port of call was a flat bedside charging pad to replace the nightly plugging in ritual. My requirements were;

• No lights that remain on while charging
• Grippy texture
• No fans (fans in some wireless chargers are a thing believe it or not!)
• Discrete design

I settled on this flat and thin charger from Anker. It made me a wireless charging convert overnight (literally). No more fiddling with cables, just plonk the phone down...

Everyone who knows me, knows I’m a tech enthusiast, and phones are the ultimate personal tech product that drive the majority of our digital interactions today. This is a future I’ve always subscribed to and as such I’ve upgraded my iPhone religiously every year since the 3GS in 2009.

Most people seemed to be on a two year upgrade cycle, as the majority tend to pay the phones off over time with a contract. I’ve never liked those, or the idea of carrier lock-in so always just bought them outright.

The leaps in technology used to be massive so an upgrade was easily justifiable. Around 2013 the speed of the processors being shipped were so impressive they no longer send to get slow after a year or more of software updates. The focus for upgrades moved to cameras and screen sizes. Most of the phones, aesthetically at least, seemed to evolve only incrementally, or on S-years invisibly. But...

I find it hard to do good work if I don’t feel good. It’s hard to wake up and get a workout in every morning, but for me its harder to concentrate all day on my work if I haven’t first concentrated on my body.

Having a desk job I spent too much of my early career and university time sat at a desk. In addition I injured my back working in a warehouse in my late teens which was only aggravated by continued desk work. Getting exercise in has been the best way to keep the issues at bay, along with changing my working setup.

I first joined a gym in 2004 when work offered a discount with a local chain. Getting to the gym had always been a matter of distance for me. If it was easy to get there, I’d do it. I’ve rarely travelled far to work out. For years I only went 1-2 times a week. Once I became a freelancer it became harder as I was often not working within reach of a gym in my chain...

2017 was a difficult year career wise. Every Interaction, the company I started with Neil so many years ago, which had supported us, our families and employees, was on the decline. Market forces meant revenue was reducing and everything we tried only delayed the inevitable.

When we first started 10 years ago, Product Design was something everybody needed and few people had. But times change. Design grew in importance, got a seat at the table, and started to become something companies needed to permanently invest in. What we offered became so important everyone was taking it in-house rather than outsourcing. We had one last boost towards the end of the year before deciding in December 2017 to begin wrapping things up.

After giving up the office in December we ran things remotely in the first few months of 2018. We finished up our existing commitments, ensured our employees has...

I stopped using Facebook in 2017, I stopped using Instagram in 2018, and am much better off for losing both. My mental health is better for it and I get back time I can use for more constructive things. I’ve felt the same about news in general for about 8 years now, I never seek it out, only consume what little I see that gets through my defenses, mostly on Twitter. I still use Twitter most days, but a lot less than before.

Why the move? Platform changes and simply caring less about the content shared. But the biggest reason was the realisation I don’t need the social gratification or involvement in the minutia of friends (and stangers) lives. I’d rather wait until I see them and ask where they’ve been on holiday than already know everywhere they’ve been and have already seen their holiday pictures (picture that are mostly 90% face and 10% location). There’s nothing of real importance I...