🔗 👏🏻 Arc 👏🏻 was 👏🏻 massively 👏🏻 influential 👏🏻 https://birchtree.me/blog/arc-was-massively-influential/

Okay, Demonschool is exactly my shit. One hour in and it feels like a streamlined Persona game with a clever, delightful battle system and a killer art style. It’s out today on basically everything.

🔗 A new decade begins (omg I'm 40, someone send help!) https://birchtree.me/blog/a-new-decade-begins-omg-im-40-someone-send-help/

Oh my word, I'm 40! birchtree.me/blog/a-new-...

🔗 AI as an accelerant, not a replacement https://birchtree.me/blog/ai-as-an-accelerant-not-a-replacement/

🔗 Mastodon’s leadership change https://birchtree.me/blog/mastodons-leadership-change/

🔗 The F1 game is taking a year off https://birchtree.me/blog/the-f1-game-is-taking-a-year-off/

🔗 + 5k on my birthday ✅ https://birchtree.me/blog/5k-on-my-birthday/

Glad I’m not the only one. In watchOS 26, the Workout app accepts my first tap to start a workout maybe 20% of the time. Usually I have to tap it over and over and over again. www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatc...

🔗 I was so close to saying something nice about Dia https://birchtree.me/blog/i-was-so-close-to-saying-something-nice-about-dia/

🔗 My favorite M5 iPad Pro review https://birchtree.me/blog/my-favorite-m5-ipad-pro-review/

“Anyone who sells their kidney to pay the rent has a revealed preference for one kidney.” 😂 As a critic of the “everything is revealed preference” takes, this made me smile. castro.fm/episode/aFwR5Y

🔗 + Text files are eternal https://birchtree.me/blog/text-files-are-eternal/

🔗 Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads after the hype https://birchtree.me/blog/bluesky-mastodon-and-threads-after-the-hype/

🔗 + 5 GTA games in 12 years, then 13 years to wait for the next one https://birchtree.me/blog/5-gta-games-in-12-years-then-13-years-to-wait-for-the-next-one/

🔗 If the KKK loves what you're saying, you might be the baddies https://birchtree.me/blog/if-the-kkk-loves-what-youre-saying-you-might-be-the-baddies/

🔗 0Password https://birchtree.me/blog/0password/

Day one reviews you should never trust implicitly. - "This new LLM is my new go-to model and leaves everything else in the dust" - "This new VR headset definitely isn't going to get boring after 2 weeks and live in my closet"

🔗 I just won’t buy one https://birchtree.me/blog/i-just-wont-buy-one/

🔗 Leveling up the "spend more to get less" iPhone https://birchtree.me/blog/leveling-up-the-spend-more-to-get-less-iphone/

Why does Canva have the slowest auth system I've ever seen in the new Affinity app? Do this in the background, why do I need to look at this splash screen for 5 seconds every time I open the app 🫠

🔗 + The enshitification cycle keeps going https://birchtree.me/blog/the-enshitification-cycle-keeps-going/

Quick Notes has another update out today! If you’d like to keep and download your notes as audio, now you can. It’s a one-time paid unlock, and you get it for life.

This is not a chill first snow alert of the year.

🔗 Another example of babying your phone for minimal advantage https://birchtree.me/blog/another-example-of-babying-your-phone-for-minimal-advantage/

Millennials haven’t had easy lives but at least we’ll always have this beat drop at 3:07

🔗 How do you review a product that you don’t find useful? https://birchtree.me/blog/how-do-you-review-a-product-that-you-dont-find-useful/

Man, 2022 was the year of Vampire Surviors, 2024 was the year of Balatro, and 2025 is the year of Ball x Pit.

This is such a great video ❤️ youtu.be/vlpKMWHJbFQ

Comfort Zone, Episode 74: Freak'n Toad @chrislawley.me simplifies his backpack, @birchtree.me has complex feelings about the new Affinity Studio, and @nileane.fr's challenge has her questioning the sanity of the American suburbs. 🎧 www.macstories.net/comfort-zone/ ▶️ youtu.be/0qv0A5EMyU4

🔗 LLM memory: either the best or worst thing about chatbots https://birchtree.me/blog/llm-memory-either-the-best-or-worst-thing-about-chatbots/

🔗 Quick Subtitles is FINALLY on the Mac! https://birchtree.me/blog/quick-subtitles-is-finally-on-the-mac/

The blatant racism on the right is pretty shocking. The replies on X are largely agreeing too. Every Muslim is a terrorist, apparently. Meanwhile, not all white peole are little bitches, but Eric Daugherty is. See, that’s how you criticize 🫡

🔗 The App Store is now on the web https://birchtree.me/blog/the-app-store-is-now-on-the-web/

🔗 iOS 26 gets another glass slider https://birchtree.me/blog/ios-26-gets-another-glass-slider/

🔗 An absolute drubbing https://birchtree.me/blog/an-absolute-drubbing/

Quick Notes 1.2 is out now! It's a very nice release (IMO) with a few things I think you'll enjoy. Nearest and dearest to me is the new diff view. When you clean up your transcript, now you can see what the local LLM did to your original transcript.

Here's a quick look at how I'm managing my tasks at work lately. It's still very much in progress, but I'm amazed how effective it's been for me catching up on my work lately. youtu.be/DEyFa4rjhzo

🔗 Apple TV's new sound https://birchtree.me/blog/apple-tvs-new-sound/

🔗 + Browser agent modes are fucking stupid https://birchtree.me/blog/browser-agent-modes-are-fucking-stupid/

My spicy weekend take is that it’s usually silly not to use some cool app today just because it might get enshitified in a few years. As if this isn’t the case for every app out there. Use what you like and move on if it gets bad. Yes, this is about Affinity Studio 🫣

This was a fun Lego build!

🔗 + The only thing of value I can provide https://birchtree.me/blog/the-only-thing-of-value-i-can-provide/

🔗 My iPhone Air secret https://birchtree.me/blog/my-iphon/

🔗 All of Trump sheep's least favorite things happened when Trump was President https://birchtree.me/blog/all-of-trump-sheeps-least-favorite-things-happened-when-trump-was-president/

Comfort Zone is out, and I got to share my real feelings on "agent mode" in browsers. youtu.be/7kfvsYRwcGU

Well, I wasn’t expecting a big new Animal Crossing New Horizons update coming soon. More than anything, this reminded me how incredible the music was in this game ❤️ youtu.be/7nODHyw3lgs

🔗 Basically every PC game works on Linux https://birchtree.me/blog/basically-every-pc-game-works-on-linux/

The Vision Pro, Galaxy XR, and Quest subreddits seem to be mostly people talking about how the haters are all wrong and that their headset is the only good headset 😅

I wonder if anyone in the history of the world has ever replied START.