Hot week. We never got above 29 so it was bad but not as bad as South of England and Europe…anyone saying climate change isn’t a thing needs to be muted and ignored forever. Idiots.
Lots of frustration around work and life at the moment, and it’s showing up in the usual health impacts that I’ll need to manage…been a long weekend. Have binged half of the last season of The Bear – will miss spending time in this world, something about it just clicks for me.
Ahhhh….the World Cup. All the usual cliches apply particularly it’s the hope that kill’s you. Steve Clarke and the team did so well to qualify directly, rode their luck and then took the opportunity against the Danish at Hampden last year. Despite saying he and the team had learned lessons from the last two Euro’s, the team fell at the first hurdle yet again. Going into the Brazil game the focus was on sneaking a draw or keeping it to a 1-0 defeat. Ha. Ropey defence coupled with individual howling mistakes in the Moroccan and Brazil games undid us.
This resulted in a three day wait until Scotland were confirmed as failing to make the last 32…and also for Steve Clarke to confirm his resignation. Surprising as he’d just signed a new 4 year deal, but feels like it’s the right decision for all. He’s done so well to take Scotland to three major tournaments and given the team as a whole has fell short at each one it feels the right time to change manager. Not at the moment but given time he’ll be remembered fondly as improving and succeeding with the national team which many have struggled to do. The players have a lot to answer for though, some didn’t show up, some made too many basic errors. Feels a year of rebuilding and bringing in some fresh faces…and finding some defenders.
We knew it was coming but the price rises announced by Apple this week were much larger than I, or probably anyone, was expecting. Seeing them laid out as percentages made it even more stark. A four year old Apple TV, already expensive, is £199 or £249 if you want one with ethernet. Thats extortionate. Desktops also impacted by 25-25%. To buy an equivalent Mac Studio to the one I’ve got will cost around another £1000. iPad’s already were expensive and the price increases catch the breath. Not included so far…iPhones and AirPods. I thought we’d have seen an increase ahead of the new models in September but maybe Apple are waiting to that event. How expensive will the fold/ultra be?
Sad news this week in the tech blogosphere with the news that Om Malik had died at the age of only 59. I’ve followed his journalism and writing for years and he was always on the pulse of tech. In later years its was his personal writing and his photography that I admired more. There’s been so many great posts from people who knew him but it was John Gruber’s heartfelt post, with photo’s no less, that summed up why Malik was so loved. He’ll be missed.
🔗 Links
- Xbox Is Increasing Console Prices For A Third Time – The gaming market is screwed thanks to AI and Ramageddon. This is the third price increase for the XBOX, Sony have had to do the same, and if you want to buy RAM or storage right now its eye wateringly expensive. Many firms also predicting it will increase in 2027 and it could be 2030 before we see any drops in price.
- The Steam Machine – Valve delayed the release of The Steam Machine and it’s priced over $1000 which, again, thanks AI. This isn’t for me but it will be very interesting to see how it sells and performs over the coming months.
- GTA VI was finally available for pre-order this week. £70 and £90 are the options for both digital and physical versions of the game. Just don’t expect any media in the physical edition. Sigh.
- The Case for Physical Media Ownership – timely given the GTA VI news and also the shutdown of more digital services removing content that you’ve paid for.
- Frozen by the challenges of power: how Starmer turned triumph into tragedy – While Steve Clarke was clearly the biggest resignation of the week, Starmer stepping aside lays out a path for Andy ‘king of the north’ Burnham to take over as PM in just a few weeks. All the parties are clamouring for another general election, but the Tories and SNP have form for not doing the same and like Brenda said, we don’t need another one.
- Snap’s AI Specs – WTAF are these. The reviewer skewers them and rightly so.
- Blogging Can Just Be Stating The Obvious – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that
- Free the Icons – come on Apple, reverse the jail you put so many amazing icons into.
- The Nintendo 64 turned 30 this week. Here’s a countdown of the best selling N64 games in Japan. Goldeneye sold much more than I expected!